If the nights were dark, the low-light sights would be useful and at the moment they are not. If a starlight scope was the only way to see, that would also be scary.
I even lowered my brightness in game to get more of that dark feeling and because of that I never get dazzled by the amazing sunshine that appear from time to time…
But now the IR and nightvision add-on feels useful and is needed to see far in the dark.
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I’d prefer that it were done by the game, and in such a way that you could not simply raise the gamma in order to see, but that you needed the starlight scope. Dawn would then come as a great relief, or darkness as a relief if you were waiting to do a difficult raid…
One way to make game scarier, or harder. Designate special robot(s) to hunt player. They would start at random location of map. And every time you have been spotted or engaged combat they would start to move direction of the player.
Maybe time based event, this group could be alive certain amount of play minutes or hours. Or until player kills them.
Only staying hidden or avoiding combat would give breather to player.
Now robots only fight you when they see you or you engage them. After all you are resistance guerrilla fighter, logical would be that robots try to hunt the resistance also.
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Good point, right now NV does not feel very useful and the projected image on screen is quite poor resolution.
(Which is quite fitting for Nightvision back in the 80’s).
The most useful of all vision modes currently to me, is Thermal.
But that is offtopic.
Darker nights >could< be helpful, but I do not see (no pun intended 
), how that would make the game more scary.
Since you can see most machines coming from a good distance away - if not; hear them.
And once the detection indicator on screen pops up from white to yellow, you know the game is on. 
Most machines are pretty visible with their lights everywhere.
Their camo however, in daylight, is quite excellent.
Only Harvesters are not as visible in the dark, because they have very few lights.
So, I conclude that for example Hunters and Tanks, should have less lights in order to up their scare factor.
Or have those lights switch on once they found you. Something like that.
Most machines can see/hear in the dark anyway, so why do they have their lights?
If I would not have Thermal or Nightvision/Low Light Amp, and be running around at night in a forest, to stumble upon a group of Hunters who are not lit up like christmastrees, yeah… I’d be having a proper brown alert moment. If you know what I mean.
#Screamlikeagirl
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That’s a pretty cool idea! They could have lights so bright that when they do turn them on, they would dazzle the player for a while. Machines could also shoot light flares to light up the area where the player is during the night.
However, I guess they really don’t need lights at all, don’t they all “see” with IR tech or something?
Yes please! This idea, or variants thereof, have been talked about before - I like it! 
These should do exactly that and be called “Rivals”. i.e., that’s what Rivals shoud do. There’d be a real decision to make if you were in a house for instance and fighting from it, when you glanced at the map and saw three Rivals closing - do you finish the fight quickly? Do you hide in the lavatory? Do you run away?
The sense of all the Rivals being aware of you and coming after you would make sense, rather than they are just random “Bosses”. It would also be quite intimidating, especially if you have ten or twenty alive on the map, all closing towards you, every time you slot a Runner…
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My thoughts exactly! Then Rivals would suddenly make s lot of sense to me.
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With current means, there is a way to make game harder and scarier as well: just disable the proximity arrow from game settings. 
Without it showing you close-by machines and pointing towards them, you’re only left with visual sight and sound. And depending on where you are, you may not even see or hear the machine until it has aggrod to you and shooting at you.
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Well, they’re a bit like leopards - they cough or bark when they’ve got the scent…
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It’s peoples lack of imagination and too much co-op farming that makes the bots stop being ‘scary’.
After my early day exploits in gold weapon farming, and multiple maxed chars, due to the one shot one kill mechanic that happened when fast traveling back to the ‘war zone’ I lost the respect for the bots.
I simply took to the woods sneaking around and tried to pick up garden gnomes, practically unarmed with my stealth char(s). They turned quite scary again after a while of doing that.
Having to yet again farm for time limited items, experimental weapons (that now have a drop-rate/chance, that is so low that it is almost scary in itself, almost killed off any respect I had for the bots again… even more so when doing it with 2 co-op mates that are CS-GO veterans.
The game can be played in many ways. Forcing others to hopeless drop-rates and 4 hour online(!!!) loot-box timers is not the way to get back the feeling of the atmosphere. (remember the days they counted the adrenaline shots in your inventory and hid them from lootboxes if the game considered you had too many?)
Making (all) the Tanks almost defenseless on mid-range, as they are now, is in my opinion no real problem in either way, as they don’t often come alone, and when they do, and you get the jump on them, you at least get one quite easy kill.
Scariness is all in ones mind. With the wrong mindset this game is just a mediocre shooter at best, no matter how one goes about it…with nice Swedish fictional locations.
With the right mindset you’re back in Sweden in 1989, wondering why you’re sober on such a nice day… and why the evil stomping metal thingies are disturbing your little stroll in the woods… and where did the rest of yesterdays party-goers go… and why the heck are you even in the woods when the pubs are unattended.
Set your own rules, play with people that play it your way. (2 maxed chars running full speed doing only farming, are a bit overkill most of the time now I have to admit, 3 are like throwing metal puppies in a blender)
Don’t force any nerfs or buffs or huge invasions onto others that play the game as they like.
Play-styles are different. I don’t want to restrict the CS-GO crowds ‘Chaaaarge’ mentality.
And if their loud complains restrict my ‘strolling in the woods and get scared by a squirrel’ play-style further I’ll get a bit disappointed.
The damn missions where you have to kill hundreds of ticks… and current drop-rate of experimental stuff are just an invitations to gather an overpowered party to get it over with, even as I don’t even want the clothing or titles they give.
Give it different difficulty settings, with no further reward from using it! And everyone can play it as they want? Use mods to remove every HUD info?
Or get into the right mindset.
At the age of 47 I still can’t watch the 1979 movie ‘Alien’… no other movie have scared the heck out of me as that one (Aliens 2 is… fun), as I now lack the right mindset for movies.
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Exactly, and was something i was hoping from rivals. Not just mini boss randomly wondering around the map.
There was a game Firewall, long gone now. There was this enemy Chosen hunter or something like that. It would target 1 player from the game server (instance). And start to heading that player. And it was seriously hard to kill, and oh boy it was fun. And it dropped loot and gave rewards everyone who participated.
Idea was that everyone would run to help this one poor soul who got targeted, but instead it turned into river of tears in forums. So they made it like little kitten. 
Knowing that there are relaxed players and hardcore in this game, making something like this might turn out same way.
It’s peoples lack of imagination and too much co-op farming that makes the bots stop being ‘scary’.
After my early day exploits in gold weapon farming, and multiple maxed chars, due to the one shot one kill mechanic that happened when fast traveling back to the ‘war zone’ I lost the respect for the bots.
Just leave all tier 6 experimental weapons in your Plundra and the game is more scary/fun to play.
The 6* .50-cal, AG5, Shotgun and even Klauke 17 is all overpowered and let you take a fight everywhere without any reflections. And if you got any of the Skills that improve damage and soo on it get’s ridiculously with the 6* weapons.
Only 6* weapon I use, when I got enough ammo, is the 6* RGR because the RGR is made too weak as it is. It’s the potato gun in GZ, it’s bulky and takes time to recharge and does little damage. Even Gas- or the medium Fuel- canister does a lot more damage/inventory slot than RGR grenades.
Did forget the K-pist, also overpowerd at tier 6 but at least it cost you ammo using that
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The thing I would say is that when that 5* .50 cal was left in the boot of that car, I got it and used it with one of my lower characters, and to my surprise it was very nearly as powereful as the 6*. I’d never seen a 5* .50 before in the game - a 4* was the best I could get. Likewise I am not really convinced that the 6* Ag4 is much better than my 5*.
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alot could be done to make it more scary , sound effects , flash light goes out unexpectedly and you have to smack it, mad panic music when you high tail it with a hunter chasing you , distorted vision as you lose health , blood splatter marks on the screen when you get stabbed by a hunter, all of a sudden all the lights go out when you are in a bunker and its pitch black and can only hear your breath and machines moving.
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I think damage per bullet might be the same (more or less) but with an added DoT component due to the fire damage.
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I think making a humanoid (or android if you will) machine would be great. Having a human shaped “thing” stalking you at night or through bunkers would be creepy as heck! Being your size, it could follow you into buildings (having the ability to open doors? 
). I don’t want this to become a zombie game, but I think this machine could help amp-up the fear. Plus it was a mentioned option in the survey.
I like this idea. Right now the robots difficulty is silly but that’s probably on purpose to keep advanced players coming back for something to do.
That’s the wrong approach in my opinion.
Making it eerier is a much better idea. Until a new dlc comes with more content I believe a few tweaks to the nighttime, sound effects and such is a great idea. I would come back to the game for that…if the hyper aggressive laser missiles that shoot through hills from a billion miles away with pinpoint accuracy would go away, along with all the other newly tweaked robot behavior.
Im in a mixed state her as im lving a char.
is way more fun on adventure and feels rewarding as well as the AI still beats you silly if your not careful.
Skirmish can be more fun on max lvl in an MP game then any thing ells.
For testing my builds and skill i do some gerilla as well but atm its just to hard for me as i dont like to cheese the crap out of houses for cover and so on, and the amount of bullets needed is insane to take down any thing.
Harvester lvl 4 that spams hunters is not a fun rewarding thing its just plain bug for me and tanks lvl 4 that is just whit the harvester they bout use artillery whit pinpoint accuracy that fire off faster then you can even shoot your guns. Its not an fun hard mechanic its just plain op bugg that needs to be be fixed.
If the AI was smart or used the terrain or there arsenal in a smart way i wold be more happy whit it. For now they just stand at distance and rofl-stomp you whit ther bugged behavior . All of them know to avoide mines they know wher they are as you place them.
Did a test and placed an line and made sure i was out side of there range on there guns and use my PVG 90 they stoped out side of the dmg range of the mines an just stod there for me to pick them of whit pvg 90 so im not sure if its a scary ai at all.
Hate to say it but its flawed code whit buffed up accuracy and low cool-downs and an dmg buff och bullet spungy setting.
There behavior is the same on all settings.
But for now i think i stick to Adventure or skirmish in MP setting as i will be waiting for the fix and when it comes i want to have resources to play whit and enjoy the game.
I still play it and enjoy it but i stick to the 2 first settings.
And atm the hunters are more of an challenge as they have longer range on there gas/ snipers or any shoulder mounted guns they are whit out limit.
After i gave up on a fight and re-spawned one safe-huse further away they even tracked combat betven 2 safe houses and im sure its close to 1km away.
Still the concussion rounds where landing at me and if that is intended i might quit playing cose that is just bug for me. This was on an lvl 12 char on adventure mode stuck in combat for ever.
I agree with OP, but the implementations might be a little to small to make a change or right on the money, but vague to find an actual solution. I propose adding a incredibly quick machine that imitates a human in twisted ways. It’s fast, agile and makes sound that is like (for extra edgy points) the screams of people it has murdered. Something maybe off of siren head? But the scary part is not in it’s size, but rather that it is hard to spot and hard to engage. Laying traps beforehand is the most meaningful method of dealing damage as shooting it requires quick reaction. I’d just like it to appear and disappear every once in a while. I would not really like it to be killed, more that it can easily hurt you and if hurt it runs away at a quicker pace. It’s this thing that haunts you, but only seems to be one of on one of the smaller islands… a new DLC island.
Having this being on a DLC island will give a couple of bonuses - This new island can be a DLC endgame - only accessible at the final levels of your character or after you finished the main story. This avoids new people running in to this thing and the thing wrecking them in an instant. It avoids having to scale it’s level somehow. It sure as hell scares the solo out of the woods at night and puts a co-op group in an uneasy feeling. Who knows, maybe they can reveal that this humanoid has been developed a couple of times later for the Co-op group to even feeling hopeless.
The imitation of human screams wouldn’t be something forced upon either. The real eerie feeling comes from it just being a thing that performs it’s one task. The biggest type of fear is the unknown. The worst type of realization is from the unknown being so close to you the whole time or within your area…
What I want to capture with this is - Fear, hopelessness, a bit of surprise and that the player should most likely NOT engage in that area if it hears the ‘being’.
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