User:Veron/Day-Night Cycle Research/Draft

Day and night refer to two environment states which affect certain gameplay mechanics, the appearances of certain weapons, and Sylvari glow. All zones at a given instant are in one of the two states. In most zones, these two states alternate according to the day–night cycle (see below section). Any zone that does not follow the cycle is either permanently in the day state or the night state. The appearance changes of the day–night mechanic is intended as an element of realism in the game. For example, the day–night cycle mimics the passage of real time, and the night state of many underground dungeon zones reflects the darker feeling of those locations.

Day–night cycle

The day–night cycle has a two-hour period and four stages. These stages affect the appearance of the sky and are conceptually distinct from but each correspond to the functional day and night states.

• Two primary stages—day and night—which correspond with their respective functional states
• Two brief transitional stages—dawn and dusk—between them which are both functionally day

During the day and night stages, the sky appears fairly static—in day, the sky is bright, and the sun is visible; in night, the sky is dark, and stars and the moon are visible. During dusk and dawn, the sky rapidly changes to smoothly transition between the day and night appearances (and vice versa).

The following table summarizes the relationships between the functional states and the cycle stages and also gives the length of each stage.

Functional state	Cycle stage	Length
Day	Dawn	5 minutes
	Day	70 minutes
	Dusk	5 minutes
Night	Night	40 minutes

Schedule

Day–night cycle – Time that each stage begins – UTC (Local)
Functional Day	Dawn	00:25	02:25	04:25	06:25	08:25	10:25	12:25	14:25	16:25	18:25	20:25	22:25
	Day	00:30	02:30	04:30	06:30	08:30	10:30	12:30	14:30	16:30	18:30	20:30	22:30
	Dusk	01:40	03:40	05:40	07:40	09:40	11:40	13:40	15:40	17:40	19:40	21:40	23:40
Functional Night	Night	23:45	01:45	03:45	05:45	07:45	09:45	11:45	13:45	15:45	17:45	19:45	21:45

List of zones obeying day-night cycle

• All explorable zones in Tyria
• Primary World versus World zones – Eternal Battlegrounds, Borderlands, Obsidian Sanctum
• Chantry of Secrets
• Claw Island

List of zones not on cycle

• All dungeons:
  • Ascalonian Catacombs – night
  • Caudecus's Manor – day
  • Twilight Arbor – night
  • Sorrow's Embrace – night
  • Citadel of Flame – night
  • Honor of the Waves – day
  • Crucible of Eternity
    • Story mode – day
    • Explorable mode – night
  • The Ruined City of Arah – day
• All Fractals of the Mists
  • Mistlock Observatory – day
  • Aquatic Ruins Fractal – day
  • Swampland Fractal – night
  • Uncategorized Fractal – day
  • Urban Battlegrounds Fractal – day
  • Molten Furnace Fractal – day
  • Snowblind Fractal – night
  • Cliffside Fractal – day
  • Underground Facility Fractal – night
  • Aetherblade Fractal – day
  • Thaumanova Reactor Fractal – day
  • Volcanic Fractal – night
  • Captain Mai Trin Boss Fractal – day
  • Molten Boss Fractal – day
  • Solid Ocean Fractal – night
• Durmand Priory Basement – day
• Special Collections – day
• Edge of the Mists – day
• Heart of the Mists – night

Game elements affected by day-night state

Dynamic events, NPCs, and enemies

Certain locations will have different dynamic events, non-player characters, and enemies available depending on day or night. For example, Shaemoor Cemetery will have a Priest of Grenth investigating a restless spirit in the day, who turns out to be Lady in White in Defeat the Lady in White (3) at night. Bats are also found in the cemetery only at night.

Sigil of the Night

Primary article: Sigil of the Night

Sigils of the Night are weapon sigils that increase outgoing damage during the night state.

Sigil of the Night	Rarity	Level	Bonus
Minor Sigil of the Night	DMasterwork	20	Outgoing damage is increased by 1% with an additional 3% at night.
Major Sigil of the Night	ERare	40	Outgoing damage is increased by 2% with an additional 5% at night.
Superior Sigil of the Night	FExotic	60	Outgoing damage is increased by 3% with an additional 7% at night.

Food

Primary article: Food

The following foods confer different bonuses depending on whether it is the day or night state.

Level	Duration	Item	Effect
10	30m	Chili Pepper Popper	Day: 8% Chance to gain might on crit
20	30m	Stuffed Pepper	Day: 16% Chance to gain might on crit
30	30m	Stuffed Zucchini	Day: 24% Chance to gain might on crit Night: 24% Chance to cause chill on crit
50	30m	Bowl of Hummus	Day: 28% Chance to gain might on crit Night: 28% Chance to cause chill on crit
65	30m	Roasted Artichoke	Day: 36% Chance to gain might on crit Night: 36% Chance to cause chill on crit
80	30m	Ghost Pepper Popper	Day: 40% Chance to gain might on crit Night: 40% Chance to cause chill on crit

Weapon appearances

The following weapons have different appearances between day and night states.

• Eternity
• Meteorlogicus
• Kraitkin
• Royal Ascalonian weapons

Bugs:

• Eternity will incorrectly display the Twilight model during the dawn stage of the day-night cycle. The daytime aura will correctly appear.
• In some zones, the weapon appearances will not automatically change state when day changes to night or vice versa. Reentering the zone will cause the weapon to display the correct state.

Sylvari glow

Primary article: Physical appearance/Sylvari

All Sylvari characters will glow when in the night state. For playable characters, the color and intensity of the glow is set during character creation.

Notes

• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will feature a new Outpost meta event system which involves building up defenses during the initial "day" phase to prepare to survive enemy attacks in the following "night" phase. It is currently unknown whether the Outpost system will use the existing day-night cycle, will use a separate cycle, or will result in the existing cycle being modified.