Make Darkness Less Dark

[Filthy Steve]

This may be the wrong subforum for this, but I feel like darkness is too dark right now. I mean I do have pretty bad eyesight IRL and maybe it's suddenly gotten a lot worse, but I've never had problems with seeing things in SS13 before by and large, but now darkness is like completely pitch. Maint is really hard to see anything in now without a flashlight, and I accidentally got sent to the Void earlier today and literally couldn't see anything at when I tried to escape and also there are no flashlights there that I can recall, and since I got sent by a light grenade, my only option was suicide.
It's definitely cool and atmospheric, but I feel like maybe have an option to brighten it up a bit and/or put more flashlights around the station and/or make flashlights and PDA lights brighter.

The rest of the station is fine and not too dark or anything. It's just dark areas that I feel are *too* dark.

[Enfaeutchie]

I have to agree with this. I'd find it a lot more tolerable if the tiles adjacent to you were at least more visible - that way you wouldn't have to compromise on the scariness and stealth-potential people wanted with darker dark without people having to squint quite so much. It's legitimately uncomfortable to be in the dark even if I have a flashlight!

[pali6]

I personally like absolute darkness being pitch black. But maybe we could make the overlay that lets you see the small area around you a bit larger and/or brighter? And buff some light sources a bit? Some adventure zones like the void cold have some ambient lighting.

The way I see it if you make absolute darkness not pitch black it becomes impossible to use darkness to your advantage as people will just turn up brightness to see everything and effectively bypass the darkness completely.

[Enfaeutchie]

But maybe we could make the overlay that lets you see the small area around you a bit larger and/or brighter? And buff some light sources a bit? Some adventure zones like the void cold have some ambient lighting.

Suits me down to the ground

[Frank_Stein]

But maybe we could make the overlay that lets you see the small area around you a bit larger and/or brighter? And buff some light sources a bit? Some adventure zones like the void cold have some ambient lighting.

Suits me down to the ground

Personally that's my favorite option. It's a good simulation of situational awareness if say, the tiles around you were treated as being somewhat lit.

I think we could even open the door to more stealth mechanics with visibility and lighting levels, with tiles further out being the pitch black kind and closer o es lighting up more

[Wisecrack34]

What they said

[Dickles]

I personally like the dark. It sucks to see in, but that's a good thing imo. I think the PDA basic light might be bugged as it doesn't seem to do anything unless you hold your PDA in your hand? Maybe that's on purpose, and I'm actually fine with how it works right now, but I don't think most people know that. It's not a great light while held, but it helps a lot.

EDIT: I was wrong about PDA flashlight not working while on ID slot. I usually activate my PDA light at roundstart then slide my ID in/put both into ID slot, and it seems that the light stops working while worn like that until you toggle it. If you have your PDA light on, put it in your hand, then put it back, it won't work while worn until you toggle the light again.

If you buy/find a high powered flashlight module for your PDA it's pretty great for finding stuff around you. I think it would be good if flashlights had the high-powered flashlight module light as well.  The spotlight effect is cool and good in hallways but it doesn't help if you're trying to stumble around in your work place. I have to find a wall and stare at it point blank to get a good view around me with the flashlight which isn't great.

I really liked the darkness change as it made stuff like night vision really valuable. NVG used to be completely pointless as it only barely increased visibility and made you very vulnerable to flash. Now I bring one every time as a nuke op and sometimes raid the armoury just for it if it's pitch black.

[KikiMofo]

Yeah I also have trouble seeing in the dark in SS13 even with a flashlight and trying to play SS13 during the day with the sunlight coming in through the windows? Man I can't see shit in the tunnels.
This is why the first thing I do every SS13 round is buy a high powered flashlight module for my PDA and plop on a hard hat for more light. I dont want to but I kinda have to if I want to see where Im going.

[Drago156]

Hi, I'm someone who always runs the cats eyes trait and has their PDA light on, and it's still stupid ridiculous to try and see in even the maint tunnels without a flashlight, NVGs, or the night vision gene, and as of recently caused me to literally walk face first into a singularity because I couldn't see it at all.

I do like the dark being darker, because before I could see everything absolutely clear, but maybe the new dark is too dark, so maybe toning down the overall darkness just a tad bit would work. I am also very much in favor of buffing the PDA light, because it used to be quite noticeable in dark areas but now it's laughably non-existent for lighting purposes.

[Katzen]

Cat eyes could be the default. It lets you see what next to you but that's about it.

[Superlagg]

I like using the dark to sneak around, and I always steal the mesons, which work great as discount nightvision. So long as I can still do that, I'm good and happy!

[TheMaskedMan2]

I love using cat eyes and the dark to sneak around. I hate how on some servers people can turn up their gamma to see in pitch blackness. If you ask me it should be even DARKER.

[Nebulacrity]

I'm with Masked Man on this one.

However, I believe glowsticks should be buffed in terms of brightness. They're pretty much useless currently.