Why do most on-foot missions and CZs take place at night?
- Thread starter bugbait42
- Start date
Most are waaay out in the back end of a system where there just isn't much light (particularly in the Empire where the stars are dull) plus shadows there the settlement is at the bottom of a cliff/ behind a mountain, if there's a green atmosphere it'll be dark at midday.
Planets can be eclipsed. Not everywhere is like Earth ... which I thought was kinda one of the points of the game 
I agree that some bodies are far from their parent stars and consequently darker. Also some settlements or whatever are in permanent darkness due to being situated in the shadow of a crater/mountain or whatever, but I wouldn't say most.
I've done lots of on foot missions and CZs over the last year or so and plenty of times approached a planet or moon on which one side is in bright sunlight, but the site I'm targetting has a dotted circle around it, meaning it's on the far side and in darkness, which is often pitch black. I use night vision when doing missions in my Maverick suit, but would much prefer it to be clear daylight, which most of the time it is not.
True they can be, but 90% of the time on most of them?
To me it does feel like most times you go to an Odyssey settlement it is on the night side, but I have been to a massive amount of these settlements over the last two years and I don't think that is really the case.
Since you want daylight you notice the dark more and that makes it seem like more are in the dark.
If I pay attention it is not as bad as it seems. It also seems like to me that you can experience a higher amount of night at times and then a higher amount of day at times.
I think that if I spent the time to keep a record of night and day settlements I go to it would be close to 50/50 with maybe a higher percentage at night, but not by a great amount.
Since you want daylight you notice the dark more and that makes it seem like more are in the dark.
If I pay attention it is not as bad as it seems. It also seems like to me that you can experience a higher amount of night at times and then a higher amount of day at times.
I think that if I spent the time to keep a record of night and day settlements I go to it would be close to 50/50 with maybe a higher percentage at night, but not by a great amount.
You can't say that. You need to visit, let's say 500 settlements in-war very fast, let's say during 1 hour. Then calculate %%.
And next thing is rotating. Final stage of it is tidal lock, i.e. no day-night change. Earth is in progress too, at the beginning day was 2 hours long. So once you can select among roughly 160000 ( 40000 buble stars * 4) planets and most of them belong to M stars which are elder then Sun chances you will find tidal locked or close to it are growing great.
A common feature of interstellar bodies is tidal locking: the body orbits another with a fixed rotation, always keeping the same face to the other (like our moon). If a planet is tidal locked to the star, one side will always be dark, no exceptions. Depending on the age of that system (interstellar age), most of the planets may be tidal locked, since it tends to set over time (aeons) because it's a more stable orbit. It's all more complicated than that, but the fact that it can be common to find systems with lots of tidal locked planets (and moons) stays.
If you've been doing missions on the same place, you're bound to either run into settlements that have varied day/night cycles, or settlements that seem locked into one state or another. There is also the duration of day/night cycles, which can go from a few hours to a few days.
Most of this information (tidal locking, day/night cycle) is available on the planet information screen on the System Map. Could pay to check the planet's info to see if you're either being lucky/unlucky with the day/night cycle or if it's always like that.
If you've been doing missions on the same place, you're bound to either run into settlements that have varied day/night cycles, or settlements that seem locked into one state or another. There is also the duration of day/night cycles, which can go from a few hours to a few days.
Most of this information (tidal locking, day/night cycle) is available on the planet information screen on the System Map. Could pay to check the planet's info to see if you're either being lucky/unlucky with the day/night cycle or if it's always like that.
For me - and I've said this before as this has come up again - my perception is that perhaps 75% of ground stuff is in the dark.
Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. Yes because I'd prefer a more 50/50 mix and no because space is dark.
Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. Yes because I'd prefer a more 50/50 mix
and no because space is dark.
I'm not sure about that, it seems to me that the NPCs see you just as well in the dark and completely ignore if you have the torch on..
I'm aware of tidal locking, which can mean that half of a planet is in always in darkness, but by the same token should mean that the other half is always in daylight. Our own planet Mercury is of course, just such a planet in real life. But on those bodies it seems that FDevs have chosen to place most settlements on the dark side.
I've no objection to doing stuff in the dark - it's just when it seems to be the vast majority of it being dark that I'm not a fan of, especially when the point of playing this game is to have fun and for me, doing most stuff in pitch darkness and having to use night vision is nothing like as much fun as it should be, especially when the daylight graphics when they do appear are wonderful (imo.)
I spent several months exploring the galaxy away from the Bubble and scanning plants for Exobiology purposes. Where possible, (which was most of the time,) I would always choose to land on the daylight side of a body and there were plenty where the daylight was nice and bright, so I don't see why the bodies in the Bubble should be any different.
I've no objection to doing stuff in the dark - it's just when it seems to be the vast majority of it being dark that I'm not a fan of, especially when the point of playing this game is to have fun and for me, doing most stuff in pitch darkness and having to use night vision is nothing like as much fun as it should be, especially when the daylight graphics when they do appear are wonderful (imo.)
I spent several months exploring the galaxy away from the Bubble and scanning plants for Exobiology purposes. Where possible, (which was most of the time,) I would always choose to land on the daylight side of a body and there were plenty where the daylight was nice and bright, so I don't see why the bodies in the Bubble should be any different.
There are many reasons for that. For example on Earth we want to build telescope & base on other side of the Moon to cover it from mobiles' noise.
So I see nothing wrong people in the future pick always dark sides.
I understand the telescope part of it, but if I were a colonist on a body in another system somewhere, I would prefer it if there was at least SOME daylight, as we get here on Earth. Not permanent darkness. Professional use telescopes are usually constructed away from cities anyway, so they are not affected by light pollution.
Hi bb42I would have thought the ratio of day and night would be about 50/50, but no - seems more like 90% night and 10% day...
Do you have any actual statistical data? IE: counted light vs dark at settlements you land at.
As you say it, "...seems more like..." sounds to me like subjective perception rather than data.
This discussion could be more meaningful if it was about data...
For the ED Forums as a whole: has anyone done any studies of this?
Actually no it isn’t, it used to be in very old science fiction but not since the 60s/70s.
Not all tidal locks are one to one.
I'm afraid I don't have any actual data, no. It's just my perception.Hi bb42
Do you have any actual statistical data? IE: counted light vs dark at settlements you land at.
As you say it, "...seems more like..." sounds to me like subjective perception rather than data.
This discussion could be more meaningful if it was about data...
For the ED Forums as a whole: has anyone done any studies of this?
Applies to both missions and CZs but maybe data should just be recorded for missions because (in my case anyway) with the CZs I tend to keep gong back to the same one while it lasts, as I only do highs and they seem to be nothing like as common as the lows and to a lesser extent, the mediums (just my perception as well...
)And yes, I'd like to see any study of the day/night ratio done by others if any exists.
Yes you're right.. I'm out of date on that one aren't I?