My contribution to the night debate.

[SD67]

Long I know, but I think it's worth the look.
I did a little offline night flying tonight to see just what it's like. I have quite a few screenshots.
The map is the Africa map currently in AvA I picked this map because it gives a good idea of just how far out land visibility starts.
The video settings are 1024 and the Hi-Res pack is installed. Visibility and detail sliders are maxed out, standard gamma settings are applied.
First I left icons on and headed out over the water.
The Horizon over the water is not as easy to see (but you already know that)

The water as viewed from 10K.

The next two are just shots of the moon and cloud.


The next illustrate the aforementioned distances of ground visibility at night.
First 25 miles from shore at 10K.

Next 10 miles, you can just pick out the coastline.

Lastly 8 miles offshore.

Here I'm about to go feet dry at 10K and I'm getting first icon on the cons.

Here I'm getting a closer look at the base from 10K.

I decided to get a look with no icons so I augered and reupped with icons off.
More to come.

[SD67]

So this is looking up at the cons circling the runway as I roll. As you can see the aircraft is clearly visible in front of the ack.

Next is forward during the rollout.

And back at the T34 beside the runway. It's at this point I'm thinking it would be good to try this again later on a darker map.

Even so, the ground is clearly visible. If you need to turn your gamma up to miss this you need help.

This next shot is supposed to be of the first two cons I see. It's hard to see here though but the cons were pretty easily to see.

Another shot of the aircraft, but also difficult to see on the SS, but I had no troubles seeing them at all.

[Max]

Back in those days when the darkness of night was a regular part of the solar cycle, many players simply pushed their gamma settings up. Rumor has it that the griefers cried a river of tears all the way to Grapevine.

[SD67]

I chose this type of approach because I wanted to see how they appeared without friendly ack pointing at them.
Next we have some shots looking down at the base as I close in on the first con I was looking at.
It's all pretty clear but I'll do this again tomorrow with a darker map.
You can see the con pretty clearly now

The ack has no trouble seeing me that's for sure

No trouble hitting them at night either, but then again they aren't shooting back either

Again hard to see, but this is checking out the next con in line.

But that ack has got to go

As you can see there is no trouble seeing the targets on this map, I'll post a darker one tomorrow.

Now I'm not getting shot at, back to the issue of seeing the aircraft.

Pretty clearly a P51D

Close escort?

A P38 on the other side of the ring.

Closer. Still no troubles picking it out.

And there they are.

If this was the MA he'd be very surprised at the sudden disappearance of his lead

Going home.

There it is!

Approach.

Trimmed up hands free in landing configuration.

And it's back on the deck.

All up I really do not see the same issues with night we used to have. I say bring it on!

[Noir]

I fail to see whats the gameplay improvement with the night, it just hinders the fight. It just show how crappy is the lightning in AH, and its not realistic either (the night furballing).

[Max]

It just show how crappy is the lightning in AH, and its not realistic either.

Of course it's not realistic....it's a VIDEO GAME 

[Noir]

edited

[crockett]

I fail to see whats the gameplay improvement with the night, it just hinders the fight. It just show how crappy is the lightning in AH, and its not realistic either (the night furballing).

What he said... x 2

Now to the original topic poster...

I think it was Christmas night that HTC came in with his Santa Clause sleigh and turned the lights out. It was cool at first but after about 10 mins it's got old very fast. It sucked to fight in the dark and you have to remember not everyone has the latest and greatest video cards. So there were quite a few that claimed they couldn't even see icons.

It was next to impossible to see a con dropping in from above until it was almost too late. The other thing is your terrain in bright desert. the MA's have a darker ground so it's harder to see. The other thing was it was very hard to set up the other con, because it was very hard to see which direction & angle the con might be turning.

[BaldEagl]

Under the old night settings all I could see were stars unless I turned up my gamma.  I couldn't even tell if I was flying upright or inverted without looking at the instrument panal.  So I got in the habit of turning up the gamma.  Then I was a night terror as most couldn't see me but I could see them clearly.

I wouldn't mind seeing night come back but I don't see what will be different about it this time around.  Some will have their gamma turned so low they won't be able to see a thing and log off every time night falls, others will turn gamma up to see clearly and accusations of gaming the game will run rampant on the BBs.

[Gixer]

Night debate? I thought that was dead and buried long ago. Novelty for a few minutes but it soon turns into long threads of whines to turn it off. Hence it was left out years ago and hopefully never return to the MA.


<S>...-Gixer

[shreck]

I fail to see whats the gameplay improvement with the night, it just hinders the fight. It just show how crappy is the lightning in AH, and its not realistic either (the night furballing).

I like the night! ofcourse you'd have to remove enemy icons or it's completely useless! Actually--> please remove enemy icons anyway!

[Noir]

I like the night! ofcourse you'd have to remove enemy icons or it's completely useless! Actually--> please remove enemy icons anyway!

Yeah put icons off, and keep killshooter on !!! That is promising.

[Nwbie]

I liked night settings when they were on
The problem was 1. - as mentioned lots players set gamma up to unrealistic settings - so those who didnt were at a clear disadvantage
2. People logged off in droves
3. - All you had left were the 25k milk running buffers

The one time I had a ball in a night setting was a semi organized - i believe in the old combat tour arena - event

Someone organized a 15 or so players bomber run -they took either lancs or 17's so it could be fun for the buffers too - - with about 10 escorts-109's and 190's
And the other side was all ponies - targets were known by all - they were to come in at 20 to 25k - and the ponies were to stop them - was a blast in the dark - hard but fun - supposedly no one was to mess with the gamma settings - im sure some did - but never the less - all had a good time

NwBie

[SD67]

I did some more on the mesa map and I did notice some differences, I have pics with icons off and on.
The GV's from the air with icons off are a little harder to see, especially the T34.
The aerial cons are much the same and you can still get clear icon right out to 6k. Admittedly it's hard to pick the cons from the stars out of icon range but the movement still gives them away.
I'll post the pics up tomorrow since it's 01:30 now and I'm tired
The ground and the bases are still pretty clear, no more needing to max out your Gamma to avoid CFIT.

[shreck]

Yeah put icons off, and keep killshooter on !!! That is promising.

Just enemy icons! The resolution is pretty good these days so identifying at least type of aircraft is pretty easy!