Less Smoking

[Eranderil Nix Grey]

So, I have noticed that the breath affect fluctuates. I play voyager. If I recall correctly higher difficulties actually have lower temps, meaning less temp fluctuation. That might lead to more breath clouding. Though to be fair, I do think the breath affect should be more dynamic. I will say though, at -25 degrees on a still day, standing still, breathing pretty much looks just like the effect. And yes, it will blot out everything in front of your face. It also hurts to breath.

[SteveP]

On 10/28/2017 at 9:59 AM, Fuarian said:

The breath cloud is like that irl. Just not AS bright. Also, if you have a fire going it won't show up. Or anything warm for that matter. 

My problem with it is that it moves with you. It's not dynamic.

If you make it dynamic, it would have to become an object within the game space. It would have to interact with wind and not be connected to your movement. It would have to have a limited persistence. It's a lot of complexity for little added atmosphere. The current implementation is straight forward as a visual effect and, I find, good enough. Clouds and puffs of smoke; why don't we add optical illusions like wraiths and wendigo!?

[JAFO]

43 minutes ago, SteveP said:

why don't we add optical illusions like wraiths and wendigo!?

I'd settle for just toning the damn thing down, back to the way it used to be.

[Fuarian]

11 hours ago, SteveP said:

If you make it dynamic, it would have to become an object within the game space. It would have to interact with wind and not be connected to your movement. It would have to have a limited persistence. It's a lot of complexity for little added atmosphere. The current implementation is straight forward as a visual effect and, I find, good enough. Clouds and puffs of smoke; why don't we add optical illusions like wraiths and wendigo!?

I know that. And I'm okay with the way it is now. I'm just suggesting an alternative.

[Troxism]

I have a feeling many (obviously not all however) of the people who are fine with it don't really spend much time outside at night (or at least don't actually travel at night/play outdoor only challenges) on Interloper mode. During the day it doesn't matter (it's actually hard to even see the breath effect during the day, further making the argument of 'well it's a UI element' a massive head scratcher for me), but at night it's absurd beyond any reasonable belief (and using 'realism' to justify it is ridiculous, both because this game has 100+ other things that are massively unrealistic, and because it wouldn't be as bright as it is in a low light environment IRL). 

I don't really think anyone is asking for it to be removed, which is where I think a lot of the confusion stems from. Just making it not literally cover 2/3 of the whole screen in a blinding white sheet for about 50% of the time during the night (ie tone it down SIGNIFICANTLY at night only, at least by making it much more transparent/faded then). This effect has existed for years (and nobody has ever complained about the old version of it that I can remember), it's only recently it was turned up to literally 11 and become so overwhelming it turned from 'immersive' to 'the only thing I can actually see at night'.

And if the issue is graphical settings then tbh, it's pretty silly to make a UI feature that only functions properly on certain graphical settings (and is massively irritating to vision and not optional). Imagine if the indicators for thirst and hunger were blown up to 10 times their current size, moved to the centre of your screen, made slightly transparent (so you could in theory see through them, just really poorly), flashed on and off constantly for maximum annoyance, and then were always on and couldn't be turned off. That is literally what this is currently at night. It's not that bad if you just go out for a few minutes, but try walking around all night (esp if you are actually trying to path somewhere and have to pay attention to the terrain, not just walking down a road), esp in not 100% clear weather (ie fog or snow), it actually starts to strain your eyes trying to see past this obnoxious effect.

[JaySovereign]

I've had it cold where I live before, but not to a point where my breath is so foggy/smoky that I have to turn and look the other way just to see. Especially at night. In game, it's a cute effect during the day, but that's about it.

[JAFO]

10 hours ago, Troxism said:

This effect has existed for years (and nobody has ever complained about the old version of it that I can remember), it's only recently it was turned up to literally 11 and become so overwhelming it turned from 'immersive' to 'the only thing I can actually see at night'.
...
 It's not that bad if you just go out for a few minutes, but try walking around all night (esp if you are actually trying to path somewhere and have to pay attention to the terrain, not just walking down a road), esp in not 100% clear weather (ie fog or snow), it actually starts to strain your eyes trying to see past this obnoxious effect.

Exactly! I don't want it gone.. I just want it back the way it used to be. But until Hinterland choose to see reason, I'll continue to just disable the damn thing.

[cekivi]

1 hour ago, JAFO said:

Exactly! I don't want it gone.. I just want it back the way it used to be. But until Hinterland choose to see reason, I'll continue to just disable the damn thing.

Which is kinda the textbook example of bad design

 

[MarrowStone]

Im still on board for making it dynamic in 3d space or at least rotate away from your face when turning. 

As for its transparency, it seems to be illuminated by an unseen light, maybe make it more grey at night so your eyes dont get white light constantly flashing and disrupting your night vision? Or does the moon provide that much light?

Im also a little weirded out about how bright the crests of hills and snowy objects are at night, they seem to be getting brighter with every update, in fact, nights in general have been getting brighter.

[Reahs]

I would really like if hinterland fixed the frozen breath because it really blocks my vision and that never happens irl....