[Enhanced Senses] Darkness, Night Vision, and flickering

[Strabo]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

However, from your diagram, I'd say that the +10 to spot a light source is for just the light source itself, not everything within its illuminated radius. All those objects already have a light level that gives the penalty to spot them. It's easy to spot the torch, even a long way away. That doesn't make it equally easy to see everything around the torch; that's what illumination levels are for.

That makes sense to me, even if it contradicts the rule (which says "lighted area").

Originally Posted by whswhs

The -7 is for the case where you've looked at a flashlight, or a campfire, or a torch, and your eyes have adapted to that light level, and now you turn and look into the darkness and you can't see anything, because your eyes haven't adjusted.

Thank you, that answers one of the most confusing questions of mine.

Now, the only major question is the G-H situation on the diagram. It seems that G would be unable to see H despite being adjacent, and the different between the light levels being merely -1, while H would be able to see and attack G at -4.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by whswhs

My experience is that it takes minutes, not seconds.

Originally Posted by Anthony

It says in the box '2 minutes per -1'.

So it does. That's a reasonable time for cone response. I had in mind the pupillary response, with perhaps the first point or so of the cone adaptation, two or maybe three levels of penalty. I don't have to wait for four minutes to be able to see after crossing from street lights to a normally lit residential room, or when stepping from a dim-to-normal room into a hall with no lights before becoming able to make out the stairs well enough that it's not dangerous to go down them.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

So it does. That's a reasonable time for cone response. I had in mind the pupillary response, with perhaps the first point or so of the cone adaptation, two or maybe three levels of penalty. I don't have to wait for four minutes to be able to see after crossing from street lights to a normally lit residential room, or when stepping from a dim-to-normal room into a hall with no lights before becoming able to make out the stairs well enough that it's not dangerous to go down them.

Pupillary response is limited to the equivalent of about 1 level, and mostly doesn't apply in situations where GURPS would assign darkness penalties in the first place because your pupils are fully distended even at the brighter level of illumination. The examples I can see of for rapid adaptation are mostly either "to bright to have darkness modifiers in the first place", such as sunlight to indoors, or "simple enough that it doesn't actually matter that your vision isn't entirely adapted".