Baardvark & SniperHF: Well done!
Working with day/night cycles does sound like a crutch, however, with all those workarounds. For a little more than cosmetic and useful cycle, at least from a player's POV, I guess we'd just need the following:
- - A timer to use that works independently of triggers
- - GUI elements for info about time: A clock, a calendar. Just a little image showing the current position of the sun/moon.
- - GUI elements for interaction with time: Wait for xx minutes; rest until morning or for 8 hours
Looking at your transition videos, by the way, I feel that night should generally be a lot darker. Not all the time and everywhere, e.g. during full moon nights and in towns there might be some minimum level of brightness, but I'd prefer having to use torches and other light sources outside towns or in dark alleys for better atmosphere.
The unfortunately discontinued
Diablo mod had some great night time vistas.
From an RP perspective I preferred to have my PC questing during daylight and catching up with some much-needed sleep at night; and where nights were concerned I added a mod that made them typically dark enough (dependent on weather and the location of the moons) where I couldn't see my hand in front of me, and decided I'd be better off in a comfortable bed (or even a straw mattress with fleas!) than using a torch and various spells to combat the darkness.
Aye, that sounds immersive to me. And since AGoT we know that nights are dark and full of terrors.
