How much should the world of EQ Next change based on time of day?

The next round-table question was posted by SoE:

How much should the world of EQ Next change based on time of day?

Skip to actual points, rather than blabbing by scrolling to the green text.

Random Thoughts:

I started talking about the importance of day and night, but I quickly realized I don't have to justify day and night, because the nature of the question implies that there is a day and night.  The real question is, what happens over time?

Entrance to High Keep in EverQuest.  It has a date!

To convey a sense of realism in any game, day and night (ie: time) cycles are important, and correlate heavily with the atmosphere that players feel.  Night is dark, brings a sense of danger, and is associated with a heightened sense of "What was that?!"  Day time on the other hand is carefree, sense of exploration is heightened, and we tend to be more open to exploring our world.

The best analogy I can give to a conveyance of the importance of day and night comes from... Minecraft!  My god, they do an excellent job.  You spend your daylight hours hunting, finding resources, and generally exploring the world.  Your only fear is falling off a cliff or down a hole.  Come night, every non-elite player heads indoors, or into a well lit cave.  They lock the door, hunker down, and wait for the sun to come up.

You do this because the environment is changing, DRASTICALLY. The zombies bang on your door, the spiders skitter about outside, and you KNOW that if you go outside you WILL BE ATTACKED! Minecraft takes it to an extreme, but because it fits so well with the style of the game it's awesome.  I think EverQuest Next could learn from EverQuest and Minecraft, apply those learnings in a new way, to create a new SENSE OF ADVENTURE that grabs a hold and doesn't let go!

Let's explore that further down the rabbit hole...

In EverQuest, EQN Forum folks have touched on the fact that Werewolves would spawn at night, Kithicor would turn evil, light wisps would come out, ambient noise would change, and visibility would decrease.  EverQuest was, in the broadest sense, able to change with time by alternating between day and night.  Cycles completed every 72 minutes, with night quickly following day for those waiting for a particular night or day time spawn.

Indeed, the night was dark and full of terrors, and the day was full of adventure.  While it wasn't to the extremes of Minecraft with zombies coming out of the woodwork, it did instill a sense of fear in particular zones.  The sense and feeling of fear is important, for travel and adventure without risk should not be rewarded.

That being said, I believe night fits in well with some of the points I had previously mentioned on the blog during my discussion of fast travel.  Those points where:

Travel must:

1. Have an inherit risk that makes you think, "Is it worth it?" 
2. Require effort.
3. Be restricted.
4. Require knowledge or exploration.
5. Have a safe place.

To achieve those points, I believe the world of EverQuest Next should change over time.  Travel at night should be notably more dangerous than travel during the day.  Exploring (and travel) should require effort, be restricted, and have the potential to be safe.  By exploring during the day, sticking to trails, and avoiding scary places you have the ability to likely travel significant distances without being harassed.  By night, the same journey will likely see you dead or attacked, or the very least, AFRAID!

Duskwood screams, "Dangerous at night!"

So now that I've blabbed for way to long about random thoughts, here are my suggestions

AI interaction as a function of time of day

Suns up!  Time to hide in bushes and stab people!

EverQuest Next has the ability to implement an incredible AI system.  That system should take advantage of time.  NPCs should be able to:

• Go home at night
• Go to sleep
• Go find food for a meal
• Complete "questionable" activities in the dark
• Find travelers by the torches or campfires they carry in the dark
• Avoid travelers by avoiding the light (torches/campfires) they carry in the dark
• Move/attack under cover of darkness
• Set traps in the dark
• Avoid sunlight or moonlight, depending on NPC characteristics (Owl vs. Sea-Gull)

Let's play make-believe and pretend what I type is what actually occurs in EverQuest Next.

My friends and I had just completed a portion of a rally-call, we'd cut down some trees surrounding the new town of Qeynos so the goblins would have a rough time attacking without first being spotted.  The risk of them damaging the city is no longer relevant, and the chances of a siege are unlikely.

Because of a nearby population of werewolves, it's been unsafe to travel outside the walls at night. We'd need a much larger group of people to clear out those werewolves. The werewolves hunt in packs and pack a very mean punch.  Add to that that we didn't have any magical weapons in our group of three, we could barely hurt them!

We received news from our guild that suggested they'd uncovered a cave system that contained a unique beast.  We knew from some other guilds that these beasts leave quickly once they've been discovered.  Our group, being as rash as we are awesome, decided to travel to the cave system for fear of missing out on some uber loot. Prior to making our way outside the town we did what any prudent night time traveler would do, we casted invisibility on our entire group.

Everything was going well until Franz (ah.. that silly gnome) shot off a Blue_Firework while mis-clicking his Potion_of_Invisibility.  We heard the howls immediately, and knew there would be a group of werewolves on our location at any second!  They would be coming from everywhere, that firework was very visible!

With our cover blown, (we all know invisibility just helps you avoid detection, it doesn't actually make you invisible), our group dropped out of invisibility in favour of Jify's Selo's!  We high tailed it to the nearest guard shack, with the werewolves following closely behind.  Our hope was that the light from the guard shack would be enough to deter their attack, not so.  We had attracted so many werewolves that they had made the decision (as a group of werewolves) that they could overwhelm this guard shack and take us all on!  We ran inside, the guards could fend for themselves!

BANG BANG BANG on the walls/door as the werewolves quickly dispatched the nearby guards and tried to break their way into the shack.  With one more trick up our sleeves, Gify, our beloved Druid, began to succor (teleport) us to the nearby Druid grove.  The door gave way and in rushed 4 of the meanest werewolves I ever saw (thankfully the guards had dispatched three before hand)!  Franz (warrior) ran in and quickly intercepted them and Jify tried his best to keep the werewolves slowed with some soothing music.  With no more than a few seconds to spare Gify's port zapped us out of the guard shack and into the Druid grove (were we all know that we wouldn't be attacked by anything unless we attacked first).  

The unfortunate part... we were now 10 minutes in the wrong direction!  Serves us right for trying to travel at night, through a dangerous area, without a full group.

Long winded way for me to make a point that the AI system, from the information available, seems able to determine if it can kill something and respond to actions (ie: fire works).  I don't believe it would be a large stretch of the imagination for the AI to respond differently at night, making previously safe woods incredibly dangerous to unprepared or unskilled group at night.  You take a risk by traveling at night, and your group should know what they are doing.

This would bring another level of realism and depth to the game.

Don't make it silly

Don't do minecraft.  I don't want to see zombines insta-pop in the dark when it gets dark out.  I don't want to have to hide in my little house with 5 torches because any dark area of the game is a threat.  I do think that some monsters should come out in the night, and go back to hiding during the day.  I just think whatever you do has to make sense with the lore and the environment.

Are the werewolves inhabiting the woods only by night?  Where do they sleep/live during the day?  Maybe there is a suspicious logging camp, a hole in the side of a mountain, a secret cave under a river, a covered underground lair that they "dig" out of during the night.  Those werewolves better not be popping out of thin air at this stage in the evolution of video games.

Changes in difficulty should result in changes in reward.

Check out the article on Game Design and Risk vs. Reward

As I mention time and time again, risk deserves reward.  If I'm willing to brave the night in search of loot it should be risky and rewarding.  I shouldn't be able to find a mountain of treasure, but my guild should be able to uncover the lair of a sleeping beast at night, or see the fire-light of a ritualistic sacrifice on the side of the ocean.  My ability to find loot should increase, but my chance of dying (ie: risk) should also be increased.


Fear of dying

Why run?  It's not scary, I just don't want to die!

Lastly, but very importantly, night should instill some fear into the player.  If they are afraid to travel out into the night it's not because they are "scared" of spiders and zombies, it's because they do not want to die!  This isn't real life, people don't avoid things because they are scary, they avoid things (or are careful) because there is a consequence.  It just so happens that the consequence 99% of the time is death.

Jify out.