How important are Day and Night cycles? (poll)

Pretty straight forward. How important are they and what do you hate or love about them?

 

Damn, I tried to go back and edit the question for the poll and now I can't delete the thread or post a poll.

Sorry, =/

 

Only important if gameplay is affected and it's part of the story.

 

It really is just aesthetics, unless it adds to the story line, it's not that important. I just like the Day/Night Cycle because of how it can make the game sort of more "realistic".

 

They add immersion and are great for games that rely on immersion(e.g, open-world RPGs.)

 

In RPG or FPS games that are aiming towards realism, for me personally this is very nice addon. It certainly has additional depth to game from graphic and gameplay side if it is anyhow affected by gameplay.

 

Well that's not necessarily true. Even as far back as Castlevania 2 the night cycle was a core mechanic in the game that altered the enemies. This is still a common theme in games with cycles.

@echtolion and janpec: Yeah, but how realistic is it when the cycle is every couple of hours? I think it adds some dimension, certainly, but I wouldn't say realism. Especially when it's a game where you're casting fireballs at demon wizards on unicorns. Or something...

 

I wouldn't say it adds realism to a game set in fantasy land, but it definitely adds immersion if you build upon it. Such as things that only come out at night, or events that only happen at night.

 

Well it is important for my game as it is a racing game where endurance like 24hr races are a large focus.

 

It completely depends on the game.

 

Is there continuity of time? If not, then why the need for transition?

Still, even in a completely instanced scenario - you can provide variety without transition. X Scenario at Night. X Scenario during the Day. They could add replay value.

Picture a multiplayer FPS map - same map, but sometimes it's daylight while being played - sometimes it's night. Hell, you can even muck about with dusk and dawn...

But as for the transition between the two...it's a continuity thing - if there's no continuity, they might give the impression there is when there is not which could work out for the worse....

 

It absolutely, 100% depends on the game. Day/night cycles are pretty much useless in a first person shooter, for instance, because missions in an FPS typically a set period of time defined by the programmers. But in an RPG, or even an open world game, then day/night cycles may be more important.

 

I plan on having day and night in my game, but it won't be real time as that causes too many complications with when the player goes to sleep and what time it should be when he wakes up. Instead he will have an energy bar that slowly goes down throughout the day and when it's depleted he can't perform many of the main task in the game, leaving nothing to do but go to sleep. Then the player wakes up and it's day again, so all night is skipped by sleeping. There will be a way to go around at night and sleep in the day also that works the same way but in reverse.