Night/Day cycle?

[AstuteClass]

I just came up with this idea when thinking about whether they're going to reintroduce that awesome globe view in Civilization IV and have it in Civilization V too.

What if, for the first time in Civ, they create a Night/Day cycle in the game (optional) and in the day, everything looks normal no matter what age you're in, but in the night, it turns dark but you can still see because in the early days, fires are lit in the towns and units carry around torches, etc. and in the modern times, light from tanks, flash lights from units and street lamps in your cities keep everything visible?

Think of panning out to the globe view in modern times and seeing this during the night cycle;

CLICK!

I also feel this would make "We love..." celebration years look much better with fireworks going off into the night sky.

[mcl.denis]

I think it'd be odd to do considering each turn is (at best) one year.

Similar idea though: seasons. At least two seasons in the temperate zones (winter / summer). In the winter it affects troop movements (a la Napoleon -- Russia), summer can provide better harvests(?). In tropical areas a wet/dry seasonal rotation with similar affects.

EDIT: Perhaps "difficult" is the more apt word instead of "odd"?

[OldBillJVB]

Maybe some extra bonuses like spy attack and infiltration bonuses during night, too

[AstuteClass]

Oh sorry to you two above, I wasn't clear enough. I meant this would be a graphical real-time trait only and wouldn't change with turns. In other words, if you left your turn sit still and just watched the screen, then it would slowly dim and go to night time and vice versa.

It's for aesthetic reasons only.

[mcl.denis]

Makes more sense now. I still like the idea of seasons too

[Bob Ilyani]

As long as it's optional, so that it dosen't tax low-end PC's, im sure people will be cool with that.

[paradigmx]

For asthetic purposes only, I would like a day/night cycle, provided it can be turned off in the options so lower spec computers could still run it. I don't know about seasons though, it would be harder to implement i think.

[Edmundrw]

If it's just aesthetic then that would be pretty sweet actually. Not workable as a gameplay feature

[AstuteClass]

Glad you all agree, and yeah this would definitely be great as something "optional".

[President Kyle]

I could see seasons but noy day and night in a turn base game like civ a day would be a year on there and wouldn't be logical

[AstuteClass]

I could see seasons but noy day and night in a turn base game like civ a day would be a year on there and wouldn't be logical

If you read, I said the night/day cycle would be purely aesthetic and happen in real time and wouldn't correlate to ending your turn.

[mcl.denis]

I'd really like to see weather patterns too though.

[Dieuwertje]

I like the idea. Kind of like a screen saver, right? It makes sense too. Human activity usually takes place during the day. So it makes sense the world enters night when you aren't doing anything (or just thinking).

[AstuteClass]

I like the idea. Kind of like a screen saver, right? It makes sense too. Human activity usually takes place during the day. So it makes sense the world enters night when you aren't doing anything (or just thinking).

Haha exactly. But that perspective would be up to the player. What is universal is that you'd have a continuous loop of day dimming to night, then night brightening to day, and it's a real time dynamic that occurs whether you sit still or are waging a full-scale war on another country.

As I said, during the night-cycle, gun fire and artillery explosions would light up the night sky. Or during the ancient times, torches and lit haystacks would light up the environment during night.

[MrmAngeluS]

It would be nice, to see day and night changing, but there is a problem with that.
Even tho it would be for aesthethic reasons while waiting some time, it would collide with a historical fact - battles were -never- fought during the night, even tho people had torches. When the sun set, battle stopped, and continued with the sunrise. That was all up to around medieval times.
Let's say, we're in classical era, game speed - epic. It will take long till you are in medieval age, and you wish to wage war. You wait for some time thinking, micromanaging or simply moving some troops. Night falls and you're prepared to battle. You would have to end turn or wait till sunrise to be able to fight again.
That's how it would be from a real historical view.
Of course, they could make it possible, but that would defy some really strategicaly important historical facts.
On the other hand, they could make it as it is supposed to be, so you would have to act fast to battle during the day (still talking about pre-medieval battles), and during the night you should move your troups around, camp, etc.

[mcl.denis]

It would be nice, to see day and night changing, but there is a problem with that.
Even tho it would be for aesthethic reasons while waiting some time, it would collide with a historical fact - battles were -never- fought during the night, even tho people had torches. When the sun set, battle stopped, and continued with the sunrise. That was all up to around medieval times.
Let's say, we're in classical era, game speed - epic. It will take long till you are in medieval age, and you wish to wage war. You wait for some time thinking, micromanaging or simply moving some troops. Night falls and you're prepared to battle. You would have to end turn or wait till sunrise to be able to fight again.
That's how it would be from a real historical view.
Of course, they could make it possible, but that would defy some really strategicaly important historical facts.
On the other hand, they could make it as it is supposed to be, so you would have to act fast to battle during the day (still talking about pre-medieval battles), and during the night you should move your troups around, camp, etc.

I think the original intent was that it would come up as more of a screensaver (say you leave your computer for a while midturn). It wouldn't be a transitional screen or anything like that.

[CivCrackHead]

Bah ! Do you really want a game that is so centered on graphics. If they really have the time to do such "inutile" stuff, I would rather they add civilizations than create all the units 2 times for the day and night.

Plus, this would be a drain on the cpu and would add lag, except if they would put it optionnal, but I don't know if that's what they would do ...