Why do most on-foot missions and CZs take place at night?

[Rat Catcher]

I've played surface CZs (if concentrating on one settlement) where natural rotation brings sunrise / sunset / day / night
I think it just depends on luck, good or bad, as to the state of any particular settlement at the time one visits it.

 

[Fixitman]

I prefer to do on-foot missions in the dark, CZ's during the day. From my point of view, most on-foot missions take place on the light side. CZ's always seem to happen on the dark side.

Our preferences have a big impact on our perception.

 

[MVBanks]

I would have thought the ratio of day and night would be about 50/50, but no - seems more like 90% night and 10% day...

You noticed that well, and unfortunately this applies not only to the day/night ratio, but also to almost all trips.

When you enter a star system and move towards something, be it a space station, planetary port, POI, signal source - in 90 - 95% of cases it will be behind your back, on the invisible side of the sky. On the planet, your destination will almost always be on the opposite side.
Not always - that would be naive - but in 90 to 95% of cases.
When I finish the fight after the interdiction, and my ship changes orientation 100 times during the fight, the station I just traveled to will be behind me. And so on.

In the real universe, when dealing with large numbers, that ratio would inevitably tend towards 50 - 50. But not in the ED universe. It always remains 90-10. That's how and how much ED is a simulation and how much FDev respects the player's time.

Someone could tell me that it is an insignificant time, you turn the ship in 10 seconds, you go around the planet in one minute - but I will repeat - when it comes to big numbers, it is no longer an insignificant time. And when it's applied to hundreds and thousands of players, it really is an unprecedented waste of time.

 

[Jack Winter]

Of course there might be some sense to place settlements on the dark side, depending on purpose and surface temperature.

 

[bugbait42]

I've played surface CZs (if concentrating on one settlement) where natural rotation brings sunrise / sunset / day / night...

Yes I've had a few of those as well. I might go to a CZ and it's dark, then go back to the same one a few hours later and it's light. I'd say those CZs are the exception rather than the rule but as I mentioned earlier I don't have any actual data - it's just my perception.

 

[Florenus]

Before Odyssey I used to notice how almost every Guardian or other POI in form of crashed ship or abandoned settlement I visited seemed to be in the dark.
It was pretty obvious that they were not always in the dark, but it felt like there was almost always night when I got there at first.
After Odyssey landed and after many visits to lots of different settlements during missions and sometimes fighting in CZs, with time I lost that impression that the game is trolling me.

 

[MVBanks]

Before Odyssey I used to notice how almost every Guardian or other POI in form of crashed ship or abandoned settlement I visited seemed to be in the dark.
It was pretty obvious that they were not always in the dark, but it felt like there was almost always night when I got there at first.
After Odyssey landed and after many visits to lots of different settlements during missions and sometimes fighting in CZs, with time I lost that impression that the game is trolling me.

This is also part of the problem - of course the game is trolling us - but over time we get so used to it that we don't even notice it anymore.

 

[HansAcker]

As any KSP player can tell you, important things always happen on the dark side, especially docking or landing. It's probably some law of nature.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

You can check in the nav panel whether particular settlements are on the day or night side, apparently the map has them swapped so if you want a day mission choose those that appear to be on the dark side.

 

[GroG79]

It would be really nice if the system map day/night situation would correspond to the lighting when arriving on site

 

[metatheurgist]

It would be really nice if the system map day/night situation would correspond to the lighting when arriving on site

That'd be too obvious.

 

[Schmack]

I have noticed a lot of missions go to dark sides, but since I attack bases of opportunity and the mats are often much better than just mission mats, I tend to stick to the light side. Darkness doesn't deter me though. My SRV looks cooler at night.

 

[Jack Winter]

FWIW, sometime I've also had the impression that I always fight in the dark, but I think it's just RNG.. The other day I did 16 different CZs in a system, 11 in daylight, 1 in the early morning / late evening, and 4 in the dark.

 

[Factabulous]

True they can be, but 90% of the time on most of them?

 

[insanephoton]

Plenty of places in the daylight I have found.

Sometimes night is a useful cloak ......

Steve

It can be really useful in hunting scavs. The headlights are very handy for finding out where they are patrolling, especially on widely spaced settlements.