[Feedback Request] Day & Night Cycle w/ Constellations Shown in November Livestream

As a Bard, I'm relieved that you have decided to keep players visible and identifiable at night.

While most classes can function from the moment they are attacked, Bards need time to buff (and choose buffs correctly based on the opponent) in order to function effectively at all. Darkness that obscures the identity of approaching opponents is a meaningful class-specific nerf that would have been a major red flag for me.

From that perspective, more powerful darkness isn't a problem, but it has to be limited to areas that are clearly intended as group-only content. If most other classes can hang out in an area on their own (even if not grinding there), a Bard should be able to as well. Anything less quickly becomes an economic nerf, if nothing else.

That said, while I am grateful for your stated intent, I am still slightly concerned that darker outfits (like the nearly black one shown on stream today) will be problematic (and therefore meta) if nameplates don't make up the difference at any range where you could reasonably notice and identify a white-armored player.

Overall, however, the type of night that you've shown on stream today is exactly what I'd have hoped for. It gives a very clear and immersive feeling of night without seeming to harm gameplay. (And it looks fabulous.) Good job.

How do you feel about the day & night cycle?
Positive, adds depth and I like it in all games I play.
Visuals are great, no notes. My feedback is change NOTHING. 'tis excellent.

What aspects of the day & night cycle w/ constellations are important to you?
Ensuring that the times rotate so that even if I login at the same time every day, I don't experience the same time of day in game as a result. My sweet spot is either 2.5 hours (split into approximately 5 periods) or 5 hours (split the same) because this causes the optimal rotation for my personal enjoyment. If the game has a lot of night/day reliant LONG content, the latter, otherwise the former.

Roleplay and quest targets just feel better when you are able to think about 'sun will set soon/rise soon' or 'being out all night'. The difference in immersion levels is pretty drastic for me.

Are there examples of day & night cycles in other games that you feel are done well? If so, in what ways?
FFXI's are okay but too short. The immersion feeling is good there because once you're in a dungeon you don't notice it, and the travel speed and world size mean that in the overworld, you 'feel the passage of time correctly'. (Theirs is 30m day and 30m night). For Ashes travel and worldsize, I feel it would not work at this pace. The effects on Mob strength, types, spawns, and 'aggro methods' are all good and assist immersion there. The Skybox doesn't rotate though, and the moon is always in the same position at the same time every night (so at midnight it is overhead always) despite changing phase. Awkward.

BDO's is fine but too long. There's no immersion because it feels like the time just 'stays that way' for a while when you're doing something unless it's very close to sunset or sunrise. The in-world changes are minimalistic, but the lighting effects are nice.

I won't go into things like Onigiri or Neverwinter because those are limited to game positions/instances more often. Fairyland's was good but that game is not really well known nor still up, it was mostly cosmetic but it was nicely timed.

Non-MMOs: Monster Hunter World's is 'too long', it moreso feels like 'this is just the time you happen to hunt'. which has good immersive effects for your longer term 'feeling of grounding in the world' but does not actually feel like a Day/Night CYCLE, though it does have effects on the world and lighting which matter to gameplay in small ways, which is nice. It works for what the game is, it's just not trying to be the same KIND of day/night cycle.

I'll leave it to another team member to talk about the Elden Ring one.

The Division - Absolutely perfect. The lighting changes work more easily because it's in a modern urban city, but it definitely changes the entire feeling of areas even without much changes to encounters or gameplay, and it changes often enough that you can and do make plans around it. This is my 'gold standard' for this experience, it's so seamlessly integrated that I don't think about it, it just directly adds to the immersive feelings.

Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the day & night cycle w/ constellations?
Hoping for constellations to have some minor 'buff' effects on players with certain religious perspectives, especially if they are also 'seasonal'. ('minor' stuff like Mana Regen, Max Mana, fishing skill 'patience', etc). A slower day/night cycle also helps in the ability to use them for navigation without any specific buffs required.

The sky looks great, and the constellations give players a good reason to just randomly 'look up sometimes' depending on how they are balanced assuming they have any effects. I don't want to see many 'astrology' quests or simplistic 'look up and find this thing to increase your knowledge' outside of social organizations of the type, since overall this is a relatively static thing, but that's moreso personal, if they're out of my way it won't bother me. I like being able to complete that style of quest 'randomly on a whim' if it exists, rather than it being part of a questline of any kind.

Overall this is a subtle effect that I don't exactly 'notice' is wrong or missing, but there's a huge boost to the comfort/nostalgia level, the 'draw' to just 'randomly play a game' when my mind has memories connected to day/night, so I hope to see it used to its full potential in Ashes.