Day/night Cycle

[Tramis]

Will the day/night cycle be displayed by a moving "wave" of light like in OP2, or will it be just the standard, the entire map gets darker or lighter depending on the time of day.

Also, suppose the units lights were automatically turned off during the day, and at the command center there would be a dropdown list for lights:
Automatic: all lights in the colony, units and structures, turn on during hte night and off during the day automatically.  This would be the default.
Off: Turns off all lights in the colony until you switch it, whether it is night or day.
On: Same as off, but it turns them on until you switch it.

In addition, each unit/structure would have its own lightswitch, like in OP2, and in addition, the vehicles have a display that tells you the level of caution they use while driving.  This would be Low caution during the day, Medium at night when lights are on nearby, and High at night when their lights are off.  The higher level of caution, the slower they go.

Also, will Light Towers still be available? If so, they could have three modes - off, Beacon, and Searchlight.  Beacon would just display light, but Searchlight would have the lights turn on in a tight beam to spotlight enemy vehicles, increasing accuracy against those vehicles.

[Stormy]

Will the day/night cycle be displayed by a moving "wave" of light like in OP2, or will it be just the standard, the entire map gets darker or lighter depending on the time of day.

Also, suppose the units lights were automatically turned off during the day, and at the command center there would be a dropdown list for lights:
Automatic: all lights in the colony, units and structures, turn on during hte night and off during the day automatically.  This would be the default.
Off: Turns off all lights in the colony until you switch it, whether it is night or day.
On: Same as off, but it turns them on until you switch it.

In addition, each unit/structure would have its own lightswitch, like in OP2, and in addition, the vehicles have a display that tells you the level of caution they use while driving.  This would be Low caution during the day, Medium at night when lights are on nearby, and High at night when their lights are off.  The higher level of caution, the slower they go.

Also, will Light Towers still be available? If so, they could have three modes - off, Beacon, and Searchlight.  Beacon would just display light, but Searchlight would have the lights turn on in a tight beam to spotlight enemy vehicles, increasing accuracy against those vehicles.

I like this idea.  The lighting will be more like dimming the global lights, and possibly changing the sky texture.

Also, for your level of caution idea, what about have a "force high" mode, such as for sneaking a starflare or supernova at the last minute trying to save your rear. This would make it more likely to hit something and cause damage, as in, it may accidentally crash into buildings, but isn't that what it's supposed to do?

stormy

[croxis]

Other than vehicle speed, did lights do anything else for op2?  I think structures and vehicles should be more hard to detect with their lights off.  It would be amazing all the battles and building that would happen at night if this was the case.  ^.^

[Stormy]

Other than vehicle speed, did lights do anything else for op2?  I think structures and vehicles should be more hard to detect with their lights off.  It would be amazing all the battles and building that would happen at night if this was the case.  ^.^

Yeah, it would be great to have nighttime battles.

[CK9]

In OP2, when a vehicle had it's lights off in a night area, no enemy could see that unit on the mini map.  I think in multi, you can't see the units period, but it's been a while since I tested that, so I don't remember.

[croxis]

Ahh!  Ok, so it is the same basic idea.

[Mcshay]

In OP2, when a vehicle had it's lights off in a night area, no enemy could see that unit on the mini map.  I think in multi, you can't see the units period, but it's been a while since I tested that, so I don't remember.

In op2, units are always visible regardless of their light status. I can easily see enemy units at night with their lights off in multi and single player (look for movement and or irregular shapes). However if a unit has its lights off and is within a certain level of darkness, it isn't on the minimap. But if the unit is in an half-light-half-dark area the unit is on the minimap. Buildings are always on the minimap regardless of their lights (idled/active).

[CK9]

vehicles are just too small for the veiw satelite with lights off at night =p

[Leviathan]

all sounds like good ideas.

one thing i which was anoying in op2 was wen units hav there lights off they move faster. this aint because there engins can no longer drive them faster but of chorse because they want to drive with caution. you should be able to turn there lights off and drive at max speed for speedy night attacks

every map should have the option for day/night cycle like in op2 where it goes across the map and also you should be able to play in night or day where the map is allways light or allways dark.

and i think there should still be light towers in genesis, and maybe an advanced one with longer range/searchlight mode.

and auto light turning off/on is good idea.

[Freeza-CII]

LOL when the lights are off the AI on board the vecs or humans, if there dumb enough to be in one, would make the path finding for the vecs harder there for they would have to slow down.  It would really have nothing to do with the drive system like you said it might have to do more with the software in the vecs.

[dm-horus]

this seems like a pointless use of menu space. nobody would use this since you either send units as fast as you can or you dont. why would you want them to go slower? your enemy can see them coming whether they use caution or not. i dont see the point of this.

[croxis]

You are right, the only way it would be useful is if turning them off brought a significant benefit of some kind.

[Leviathan]

it does bring benefit. you cant see the units on the minimap when there lights are off and they are in night.

what i was saying was they need to be able to travel at full speed in night unlike in op2.

[Tramis]

I still say the way to avoid this is to make their lights on and off, and the vec chooses its own speed depending on the lighting, to reduce micromanagement and like Horus said, why would anyone make them slower?

Unless perhaps there would be a chance of them getting stuck and/or damaged from hitting a rock or something at night with the lights off...