Better Than Wolves Forum

Wanted to create this thread so people have a place to talk about HC of Darkness freely and report any potential issues with it.

I'll outline the basics of how the feature works here:

-Gloom can now extend onto the surface and doesn't just occur in caves.

-At night, the amount of ambient light is determined by moon phase and weather. In the worst of conditions, the surface will descend into Gloom. In the best case (full moon with clear skies), it's actually a bit brighter at night than in vanilla.

-The "reach" of Gloom relative to surface lighting also varies based on the above factors. So, on a full moon, you can have a hidey-hole that extends say 5 blocks into the earth before hitting gloom, whereas on a crescent moon (the smallest before and after a new moon), you might only be able to go two blocks into the earth before hitting it. This was actually the part that I fixed with my patch yesterday, as there was a problem where Gloom's "reach" would always act as if there was very little moon light, and you'd be stuck only being able to dig a couple of blocks in before hitting it at night. The blocks in question would appear to be lit visually, but you'd still get the gloom status effect.

i tough that yesterday you made the gloom appear on the lvl 0 light, before the gloom effect appeared at light level 1. didn't knew about the gloom reach

That is why it was dark as shit outside :P thought my gamma was screwed (was looking from tower). Very awesome to have moon phase relation, such a big element that is largely forgotten. Will report back after next scouting trip.

Taleric wrote:Very awesome to have moon phase relation, such a big element that is largely forgotten.

Yeah, that was a big part of the motivation behind this feature: to make moon phase and weather a more significant gameplay consideration for the player and thus increase the significance of the passage of time. It also helps with some players treating night very casually, as now it will outright kill you if you're not careful, thus I feel it helps increase the overall sense of dread associated with the sun going down, especially if you haven't been paying attention to what phase the moon is in.

It was actually how I always wanted Gloom to work, but I triaged this aspect of it when I first added in the feature as I thought it would take a significant time investment to rip apart MC's lighting code and make it happen. Turns out I was right about that, but from my own play testing, I'm very pleased with the impact it has on the game overall.

Wait wait wait. So you mean there is no gloom monstrosity the needs lots of room to spawn and terrorize me? ;-P

As I was saying earlier this new feature of HCoD has made building a timer based moon phase calendar inside my base a top priority since I don't manage to look out the window before sunrise every night

As I said in the release thread, has made me light up my little path between bases. Must have been a crescent moon the night right after updating. Looked at the trees and they were pitch black, couldn't see beyond my wall more than a few blocks. The unknown is most scary...

Holy shit... I just got to trying the new release out, and this is fucking scary. When you look beyond your base and just see black... that's terrifying. What's most frightening is that now you won't just die to the mobs that spawn because it's night, but the night itself can kill you.

DaveYanakov wrote:As I was saying earlier this new feature of HCoD has made building a timer based moon phase calendar inside my base a top priority since I don't manage to look out the window before sunrise every night

This is absolutely genius. Thank you for the idea of that.

Oh man, first moonless night at my villager base. That is terrifying!

I was just talking about how awesome this feature would be a couple of weeks ago with a mate, great to see it implemented. Gives hardcore darkness a lot more purpose, I never really understood the purpose of gloom when it was so dark anyway that running into an unlit cave was suicidal even without gloom, makes much more sense now.

Looks amazing too, the transition from and to a new moon looks spectacular as well as a storm during a new moon.

Ok, that's way cooler than just making everything darker XD

I was wondering why I could swear it was pitch black at one point, and then when I check a few nights later it seemed normal. I thought my eyes were going crazy XD

Anyway, do these lighting changes only affect the gloom? Places that were lit before aren't going to suddenly start spawning baddies? I wouldn't think, so if torches are the same. But it does seem that all my caves are way darker than before, and I'm having a hard time working out where to put torches, of which I now seem to be placing twice as many. I'm so friggen scared of the dark, and you've made it even better XD

ylogaj wrote: Anyway, do these lighting changes only affect the gloom? Places that were lit before aren't going to suddenly start spawning baddies? I wouldn't think, so if torches are the same. But it does seem that all my caves are way darker than before, and I'm having a hard time working out where to put torches, of which I now seem to be placing twice as many. I'm so friggen scared of the dark, and you've made it even better XD

No, as long as your lighting isn't relying on ambient light at all, your torch placement shouldn't change at all to prevent spawning. That would have been way too build breaking :)

Dark Souls came to mind :l

That certainly adds a terrifying level of realistic darkness right there, as if silent creepers weren't bad enough, now they're nearly invisible as well. Timed perfectly with hallow's eve too.

Fucking hell this is awesome. This makes me rethink how I travel and what I bring. Loving it.

This is going to change my priorities a lot after dying if I spawn in a new area, especially if it's new moon and raining: light will have to come before food.

Hehe...glad you guys are enjoying it. I knew it would be a bit of a slow burn with this one as it would take time for people to run into the changes and realize the implications :)

Just snagged this and with the way my second base is lit up to conserve torches.....FC has driven the point home its not the darkness we are afraid of....its whats in it that terrifies us.....now to figure out where i spawned lol

This was freaking terrifying. Trekking back home after rustling up some fresh meat, and the sun starts dipping down. I think to myself "no big deal, base is just over that hill". And then the gloom sets in. Immediate panic. I managed to build a quick crafting table and get it down, but by the time my furnace was made(no torches on me, won't happen again) I couldn't see anything. Mad scramble for the ground. Plunk the furnace down. Victory! but wait, where did it go? Click madly trying to open the furnace again and I finally get a log inside just in time to see the spider who apparently had really good night vision.

Luckily I managed to dispatch him and get a quick 2*1*2 shelter up, but I will now be making sure I have torches on me even for my hunting parties.

Flowerchild plunges the world into darkness.
and all I do is build this astronomy tower for a better view.
Theres just something about sitting on the roof watching the sunset.
The way gloom just ebbs and flows is beautiful.

EtherealWrath wrote: The way gloom just ebbs and flows is beautiful.

Awww....shucks man, thanks.

I spent a fair amount of time just focusing on trying to smooth out the transitions and still wasn't 100% certain I was entirely happy with it, so that actually means a lot to me :)

When HC Darkness was originally added I thought it would be great if it was added to the surface too, and now that it is... it really is awesome. I got to experience it first hand when I joined a server for the first time and night came. I was completely unprepared. This puts a whole new value on proper lighting and road building for me. I'll think twice before I take a moonlit walk :P

The best part about the darkness in play is anything could be there beyond the gloom. Add the hats into your scope along with Steve's relative frailty to mobs and BTW has an almost horror feel :)

With the feudal setting I always picture a morwen just out of sight as if mobs and hungry wolves were not enough. http://youtu.be/GBha7RU40Ao

I find myself afraid to even look into the darkness too much, for fear of suddenly seeing multiple sets of enderman eyes staring back at me.
"And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
Love it!

I have just started playing this mod. I have played it before most of the hardcore features came into play. I just had a little miny panic attack due to hardcore of darkness. I was running a tad low on wood just before night set in so decideded to go and chop down a couple trees before the mobs spawned. Little did I know, it was a moonless night. Just as I left my base, the whole world became pitch black and I couldn't see my base cave, even though it was ten blocks away. Luckily, I had just been caving and had some coal so I hasatily made some toches and ran insode. Never again will I go grab a couple trees without checking the moon first. Awesome change, I am now scared of everything from the sandstone-sand roof of my base (Yay silent creepers), the water, and even the night, without mobs. Awesome update!

Ok. This is actually less brutal than I thought at first. I finally convinced my wife to start Minecraft and play on a server with me. She ended up dieing (as one does) but clicked "Respawn" without waiting for the dawn. She spawned in late afternoon. Grabbed a few wood blocks and didn't even have a crafting table when the sun set. "No problem, honey. Dig 2 down and wait and hope nothing drops on your head." After a few minutes she says, "What's gloom?", to which I thought, "Nothing you should be experiencing in a 2x1 hole". It must have been a sliver moon and with the extra view distortions in Gloom it was very disorienting. She wasn't even able to dig a step back up and jump out (or maybe she did but the ground itself was in Gloom).

Long story short I thought FC had decided to "fix" 2x1 holes :) To hear that you can pay attention to the moon is a relief. Gonna make dieing at the wrong time a bit of a pain but if it was easy then anyone could play! Oh... wait...