Day/Night cycle discussion

[C4dn3]

Hello everyone, I'm a new poster on this forum but I lurked the place since JWE was announced.

I'm a big fan of Operation Genesis and I would like to discuss the day/night cycle topic since the game was announced to have a fixed day phase for each islands. I would like to open a discussion on the potential gameplay improvement a day/night cycle could provide Jurassic World: Evolution. So far I came up with these anecdotes that could provide more depth to the game if a day/night cycle was to be implemented on all the islands:

Dinosaur could have different sleep patterns that would influence their behaviors in the park, for example social herbivorous species would gather in group and sleep through the night whereas other could be nightly scavengers.

Some Carnivorous species could be more active during night time, increasing their hunting detection range and their aggressiveness. Night time could be a critical part of the day for a park manager hosting nocturnal carnivorous species as they could potentially damage perimeter fences.

A day/night cycle would add an extra layer of complexity when the visitor leave the park and you are left managing the night life of some of your dinos, night could also be a good break time for players looking to plan ahead their daily activities.

Thanks for reading this post, I'm looking forward to your contribution by suggesting more mechanics related to a day/night cycle that would benefit the game.

Edited OP

Thank you very much for participating in this thread, by contributing to the discussion you are raising awareness to the developer regarding this subject.
Please try to keep the thread focused on the day/night cycle topic.

By contributing to this thread's topic you are letting the developers know that you are interested in this mechanic.
Hopefully they will notice the demand and reconsider the game design regarding this aspect.

Thank you again for participating and please try to stay courteous and on-topic!

 

[PCMR4Life]

Honestly I can see why there is no sleeping Dinosaurs or why they made that choice since we don't have a day and night cycle. Unless people want to see their Dinosaurs sleeping during the day and not doing Dinosaur stuff. I would rather seem them running around and doing stuff than taking naps. Of course you can sleep whenever you want, just cause it's dark outside it doesn't mean you have to go to sleep. But what kind of sleep patterns did Dinosaurs have? We don't know. All you can do is look at modern day animals and project that onto Dinosaurs. Birds roost at night and wake up as soon as the sun starts to shine. It's why you can throw a dark colored sheet over a pet birds cage and they will fall asleep. Since it is said that bird and Dinosaurs are related maybe they did the same thing? But a lot of large mammal predators hunt at night as well.


even in JPOG if the Dinosaurs did sleep it was only for a minute or so that was supposed to be simulated sleep for a longer time.

 

[WR3ND]

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure if the carnivorous flightless birds sleep at night either. Would be interesting to look into that.

Cheers.

 

[C4dn3]

Honestly I can see why there is no sleeping Dinosaurs or why they made that choice since we don't have a day and night cycle. Unless people want to see their Dinosaurs sleeping during the day and not doing Dinosaur stuff. I would rather seem them running around and doing stuff than taking naps. Of course you can sleep whenever you want, just cause it's dark outside it doesn't mean you have to go to sleep. But what kind of sleep patterns did Dinosaurs have? We don't know. All you can do is look at modern day animals and project that onto Dinosaurs. Birds roost at night and wake up as soon as the sun starts to shine. It's why you can throw a dark colored sheet over a pet birds cage and they will fall asleep. Since it is said that bird and Dinosaurs are related maybe they did the same thing? But a lot of large mammal predators hunt at night as well.


even in JPOG if the Dinosaurs did sleep it was only for a minute or so that was supposed to be simulated sleep for a longer time.

Thank you for your response but as you and I know the game isn't exactly about realism. The point I'm trying to make is that adding sleeping patterns and night/day life variation would add more flavor and complexity to the game from a management perspective. It could provide more unpredictable events and diversity in the play style depending of your park composition.

 

[PCMR4Life]

Thank you for your response but as you and I know the game isn't exactly about realism. The point I'm trying to make is that adding sleeping patterns and night/day life variation would add more flavor and complexity to the game from a management perspective. It could provide more unpredictable events and diversity in the play style depending of your park composition.

Well there is no day and night cycle in the game. You can change the lighting on Nublar and that's it. It is a design choice by Frontier to make the islands feel different. Since it was a design choice I don't see them changing it.

 

[C4dn3]

Well there is no day and night cycle in the game. You can change the lighting on Nublar and that's it. It is a design choice by Frontier to make the islands feel different. Since it was a design choice I don't see them changing it.

Because it is their design choice doesn't make it a flawless design. I believe they're missing on something that would benefit the game without any downside.

 

[Andrew2018]

Hello everyone, I'm a new poster on this forum but I lurked the place since JWE was announced.

I'm a big fan of Operation Genesis and I would like to discuss the day/night cycle topic since the game was announced to have fixed day cycles for each islands.
I would like to open a discussion on the potential game play improvement a day/night cycle could provide to Jurassic World: Evolution.
So far I came up with these anecdotes that could provide more depth to the game if a day/night cycle was to be implemented on all the islands:

Dinosaur could have different sleep patterns that would influence there behavior in the park, for example social herbivorous species would gather in group and sleep through the night whereas other could be nightly scavengers.

Some Carnivorous species could be more active during night time, increase their hunting detection range and increase their aggressivity. Night time could be a sensitive part of the day for a park manager hosting nocturnal carnivorous species as they could potentially damage perimeter fences.

A day/night cycle would add an extra layer of complexity that would creature a new management aspect when the visitor leave the park and you are left managing some agitated creatures.

Thanks for reading this post and I looking forward to your contribution in this thread by suggesting more mechanics related to a day/night cycle that could benefit to the game.

They explained that they have no desire to day/night cycles because they want each island to look and feel different. There most likely will never be one as they don't seem to want to implement it.

 

[impcaeaug]

That is a weird answer, the islands would still look different with a day and night cycle. Hopefully
they can add a day and night cycle in a future update.

 

[Andrew2018]

That is a weird answer, the islands would still look different with a day and night cycle. Hopefully
they can add a day and night cycle in a future update.

That was their official answer by I think Bo or another Dev when people started to complain about it.

 

[impcaeaug]

I know but I was just saying it is a strange answer.

 

[Andrew2018]

I prefer it. I honestly hate night time in games so this at least allows the minimal amount of it.

 

[DarkAnubis]

I think, that as they want to make a game inspired by lore, they did not put sleep on the dinosaurs because we never saw dinosaurs sleeping in the movies (Only sedated).

Just kidding.

 

[Dino droppings? Droppings?]

I would like a day/night cycle on nublar. I understand why they have set times on the other 5 islands. No proper day/night cycle on Nublar is a weird choice and it seems like they're missing something there.

 

[Flash525]

Honestly I can see why there is no sleeping Dinosaurs or why they made that choice since we don't have a day and night cycle. Unless people want to see their Dinosaurs sleeping during the day and not doing Dinosaur stuff. I would rather seem them running around and doing stuff than taking naps. Of course you can sleep whenever you want, just cause it's dark outside it doesn't mean you have to go to sleep. But what kind of sleep patterns did Dinosaurs have? We don't know. All you can do is look at modern day animals and project that onto Dinosaurs. Birds roost at night and wake up as soon as the sun starts to shine. It's why you can throw a dark colored sheet over a pet birds cage and they will fall asleep. Since it is said that bird and Dinosaurs are related maybe they did the same thing? But a lot of large mammal predators hunt at night as well.

Modern-day animals, and People funnily enough occasionally do nap in the day, just a I expect Dinosaurs would have done. The feature will hopefully come in a future update, maybe with an opinion that enables you to keep them awake if you'd rather see them continually moving around. Some of us, as irrelevant as it may seem, would like them to nap/sleep from time to time.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

... Because all the islands would look exactly the same without it?

 

[DazzElle]

Without a day/night cycle how does some of the park management work, like daily revenue vs expenditure , park opening and closing times or isn't any of that type of stuff in the game.
I have only seen gameplay of dinosaurs walking around and very little of what the park management will involve.

 

[Dino droppings? Droppings?]

... Because all the islands would look exactly the same without it?

He didn't specify that he wanted it on the five islands. Edit: oops, yes he did. And therefore I agree with you.

Why couldn't we have the option for a day/night cycle on Nublar?

 

[xyphic]

Without a day/night cycle how does some of the park management work, like daily revenue vs expenditure , park opening and closing times or isn't any of that type of stuff in the game.
I have only seen gameplay of dinosaurs walking around and very little of what the park management will involve.

There's been plenty of footage of what park management will involve:

• Maintaining and upgrading enclosures;
• Managing power;
• Researching dinosaurs and their genetics;
• Ensuring dinosaurs are happy and healthy;
• Keeping guests entertained - e.g. if they can't see dinos they'll be unhappy - to encourage them to keep spending and to make your park popular to get more guests;
• Managing natural disaster responses;
• Containing breakouts;
• etc.

There are no real opening / closing times for the reason that the game doesn't play out in real-time. While your park is closed, you would expect that your guests would leave, which takes time (it would be immersion breaking for them to simply vanish at night). It would take time for your park to fill back up again. This means that a day-night cycle would necessarily be quite long in actual game time. Planet Coaster has a day-night cycle and park opening times, and as soon as it reaches park closing time, it magically changes back to morning. It doesn't add anything to the game IMO, which is probably why they decided to leave it out here.

There are always arguments along the lines of "the game would be better if they added x, y or z". In some cases that would be true, and in others it might detract. Frontier appear to be keen on keeping the game loop relatively simple and concentrating on what they think would be fun to play. I think that in the case of time of day, it wouldn't add much to the gameplay but it *does* add to the aesthetic, so I'm happy with being able to choose the time of day in the sandbox and not have a continual cycle. I understand that not everyone agrees.

 

[Flash525]

I can more than live without a day/night cycle, as stated above, it doesn't really add to the game at all, however I think it would be a neat little feature if there was a system in place that allowed for a 360-degree of light direction, so that to the player, it can be perceived as though the sun is moving around the island, but doesn't actually set. It obviously wouldn't be a real-time thing, much more likely a complete rotation per hour or something?

 

[gingeyphillips]

I would like a day/night cycle on nublar. I understand why they have set times on the other 5 islands. No proper day/night cycle on Nublar is a weird choice and it seems like they're missing something there.

I could see Frontier adding this in the future in addition to the locked times of day (other games have done this in the past). It would be the best option were they to decide to add one as they've already got the 3 stages of the day on that island and it doesn't take anything away from the other islands were they to include it. Either way though I'm not particularly bothered about it overall.