Over the last two weeks I worked excessively on improving the player's night time experience. Players now have to build and maintain protection pillars, that prevent shadows from infiltrating the hideout. The more lights are lit inside a hideout, the slower the shadows' advances will be. Shadows attacking protection pillars can be chased away by bringing a light source to their vicinity. Getting seen by tree spirits or sirens during the day increases their attack frequency at night and makes all shadows way more aggressive. The more often a player is seen by the siren during the day, the more aggressive she will patrol the player's location and follow him wherever he goes (until morning, if the player is still .... capable of movement at this point ....).
The new formula took tons of testing, but proved to be incredibly effective. An external difficulty factor is also part of it, which gives me the ability to scale and manipulate difficulty based on future in-game events or encounters with other creatures.
Player experience and death count are also part of the equation. A player that moves through the game quickly, will face more attacks and more serious night time confrontations.
Before releasing 0.5.3 I want to implement a new instance of shadow detection during daytime:
Hunting stands.
Yes, hunters will have a rifle.
