How to Avoid Night Missions

[quip]

Yes, I know this is pretty weenie.  But I have a terrible time doing those night missions - its so dark!

So, instead of clicking on the mission and then choosing an aircraft, I just:

1) Start my aircraft.
2)  Fly it near the mission.
3)  Wait for daylight
4) Do the mission.

For other newbies, this will help you avoid them.  But at some point, I guess you should try to play the night missions too.

[Micky]

Yes, I know this is pretty weenie.  But I have a terrible time doing those night missions - its so dark!
[...]

... it may be easier to "turn-on" the lights:
Options > Video > Move "Gamma" slider 

[Dogbarian]

New guy here (just read some news about a Mac version being posted).

Related to the night missions here, do the IR goggles work yet?  If so, what effect should I get?  Pressing the button to use them from the main tactical interface seems to do nothing.  Or should I log this as a bug?

[Sarkus]

New guy here (just read some news about a Mac version being posted).

Related to the night missions here, do the IR goggles work yet?  If so, what effect should I get?  Pressing the button to use them from the main tactical interface seems to do nothing.  Or should I log this as a bug?

IR goggles don't work.

I haven't really had an issue with the night missions.  I just turn up the gamma so I can see well enough.  I assume the game is factoring darkness into my soldier's ability to see and hit aliens, but some things I've read suggest that isn't the case and the darkness is just for appearance right now.

[vvb]

About a half year ago I've wrote following:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=1569.0
I think THIS will be good.

[shevegen]

Maybe there could be more light-effects in general?
I dont know ... spaceship could give more light... battle suits... maybe some weapons...
maybe exploding grenades could give a little bit light for a few rounds... etc

[Silveressa]

I'd like to see a couple things, done to make night More interesting:

#1: At night a light attachment on the ends of guns to give a cone of brighter light as you move (provided the game engine can handle this) and if using IR goggles and a plasma blast passes within 3-4 squares near you it blinds you for a round like a flash gren would (plasma is supposed to be as hot as the sun and probably just as bright)

#2 a skill for the soldiers called "night fighting," with the higher the skill the lower the penalties to fight in the dark (and even a bonus at higher levels). This would make it more advantageous to fight at night as opposed to the day time in some situations.

[swanwarrior]

The last suggestion is cool... reminds me of Jagged Alliance 2, where mercenaries had the ability to fight better at night than others, and it came really handy.

I like the cone of light too, good visual effect mostly.

And using IR goggles near an explosion of plasma, well.... that would surely overload them for a while, and make them useless for a round or two.

[Judge]

Another method to avoiding night missions, is just clicking cancel when the mission arrives. The ship will stay at the mission, wait until it's sunny, then double click the mission, and select to send the aircraft that's allready right on the mission.

[ponkan]

#2 a skill for the soldiers called "night fighting," with the higher the skill the lower the penalties to fight in the dark (and even a bonus at higher levels). This would make it more advantageous to fight at night as opposed to the day time in some situations.

A human soldier should never fight better at night than during the daytime, at least on an absolute scale. They could have a significantly higher night fighting skill (if implemented) than their enemies, which would make them fight better at night in a relative sense. In other words, they'd fight worse anytime it's night, but might have better chances to survive/win the encounter at night because they have the better night fighting skills.

Personally, I think night missions are part of the game, and I play them when they come up. It would be nice to be able to see something though, using either a personal circle of light ala X-Com, or flashlight as has been suggested, but since lighting in maps is pre-rendered, I won't be holding my breath on this.

[Silveressa]

Good point on the penalty ratio, although the aliens should have a significant penalty as well when fighting at night too, since otherwise there's really no tactical advantage to fighting at night.

[Captain Bipto]

Man I hate night missions, they are too scary for me.  Eww the Mine map at night is terrible,  let the civvies die, my men need sunlight!

[Nevasith]

hate night missions. My men are trained and armed well enough to deal with the night mission, but my eyes are not. Gamma looks terrible, so the only reasonable solution is to wait until the morning.
VVB:
You like the night missions- start them as you ship arrives. Personally i dislike them, not because there are some penalties for accuracy(if there are any), but its a real pain to look at the dark screen and think what is that thing in the shadow, or which shadow is actually an open door.
If anyone ever comes to an idea of forcing night missions a way to disable them is a must as long, as there is no way to improve the vision.
As a player my task is to think about tactic, not to strain my eyes.

[Captain Bipto]

I think it was in 2.2 (maybe 2.3, happened many beers ago) not sure but one time during a night mission I killed a civvie cos he showed up on my alien seen counter...sneaky devs.

[DanielOR]

Cpt. Bipto - no way!  you sure it was not a miss that hit a friendly that was standing next to an alien (dead man then, anyway)?  If the devs messed with target descrimination - mad props!