[email protected]

The discussion has run its course. The general consensus appears to be that lockout-timers and artificial means to prevent looting your corpse are unpopular suggestions. You can't dictate "solutions" to a problem if you haven't yet witnessed it in its natural habitat (DayZ SA). Anyhoo, dry your tears, you're supposed to be a badass, remember? FYI - statistically, the most played game on PCs is Solitaire. So the majority of the PC playerbase isn't exactly edgy-hardcore.

Making the mistaken assumption that console gamers are somehow automatically less hardcore than PC gamers, then calling somebody else "stone-headed"? You're either a hypocrite or an idiot. Pick one. @Ken Bean: What discussion are you having? This topic isn't about team play, it's about the consequences of death in a survival game. I don't care how much dick Ziliphade sucks. That's his private business and I'll leave him to it. I don't judge him just because he's a massive cock-gobbler. EDIT: I think this might be getting a little off-topic. :D

Don't use that as an insult. It just makes you look like an ignorant bigot.I'm also a console gamer. Is that really relevant to the situation? If you've got a better suggestion, share it with the class.

Take into consideration why people value gold in the first place. It's rare and it's non-renewable. Still, if nobody else wants it, it's effectively worthless. Without banks and governments a promisary note is not backed, but that's not relevant. All trade depends on the perception of value. An item which effectively has no value cannot be devalued. There is no stock-market in the apocalypse. Currency is simply a unit to measure by, no matter what it represented before the zeds ate everyone. EDIT: Why do you think money was invented in the first place? If you have bullets, and need to trade for some beans, what happens if nobody wants to make that exact trade? You starve. With a mutually valued unit it's much easier.

Literally the first line of the first post states any lockout would be from the server you died in. Not the whole game.I just had to point it out because it's the very first sentence in the entire topic. And you missed it. Honestly, I don't necessarily support the "lockout" idea, just like I don't really support most unnatural restrictions. The fact is, death must have harsher consequences. EDIT: An hour in DayZ is NOTHING. If you can still change back to your home-server after the time has passed, it really isn't that big a deal. I'd still prefer to not do it the way suggested in the OP, but I'm weighing the pros and cons.

The number of potential loot spawns in SA will be MASSIVE.Due to the number of enterable buildings, and the new loot system (hiding stuff in cupboards under beds etc.) it's easy to see how scavenging is going to require more effort. Of course finding cool gear is still going to be complete luck. But that's the way it should be. This of course has NO effect on death/respawn if folks can still just loot their own dead bodies. Again, any body-lockout, corpse-despawn or server-countdown will only punish folks who play alone. Teams will be able to bypass most restrictions that can be placed on individuals. I think we're looking at this the wrong way. There won't be one cure-all solution. The combination of all the little features to make survival more challenging will automatically have the effect of making getting to your death-point in the first place WAY more difficult. Limits to how much can be carried by one person will make it more difficult to grab a fallen pal's gear. Damage to items will mean that nothing will be infinitely reusable. Risk of infection will make regearing from a dead body unsafe. All in all, it makes more sense to wait and see how SA plays out than to assume that it's going to be exactly the same as the mod.

That theory only applies in a balanced, measurable economy.Notes and coins may be of absolutely no use in an apocalypse, but it only takes ONE person willing to trade for money, and it instantly has value. Any economy is going to be bsed on the wants and neeeds of the people. No object is worth anything unless somebody wants it. If a currency were to exist in-game simply as items, without any mechanics enforcing "value" or "economy", that's fine. There's no reason to deny the option. (unless you believe zeds ate all the money in the country) When trade posts or groups spring up, they might use "old-money" as currency. There's really no reason not to. They would still be using a barter system, they've simply chosen an easily recognised unit to measure trades against. Objects are worth the value placed on them. No more, no less.

Unfortunately, in such an artificial situation (respawning after death) the simplest and most effective means to hinder re-gearing will themselves be artificial. Considering the alternatives, item degradation will prevent infinitely rearming from your own corpse, but to stay authentic which items are damaged and to what degree would largely depend on the death you suffered. Being eaten by zombies is unlikely to damage a rifle, for example. But your clothing, backpack and soft items would be at risk. This would negate some of the problem, not all of it. I agree, infection would discourage squadmates from gathering your gear, but to risk disease from a fresh corpse doesn't sit right with me. Unless of course the person had died from an infectious disease. It could be explained away if close proximity to zeds were to guarantee some form of dangerous infection. This would depend on the (as of yet unrevealed) lore and still wouldn't necessarily prevent a determinator from looting their own body.

I agree with OP. On the most basic level. If we're going for authenticity, the ammo/weapon link shouldn't be a feature. It may be useful, but DayZ should be about absolute control over what goes on. Even if it takes slightly longer to pick stuff up, or a little fuckup means you have no ammo. EDIT: I mean if you make a mistake, it's YOUR mistake. The game shouldn't correct you or do things for you. /EDIT. In SA I hope there's some requirement for identifying rounds and using the correct ammo for your mags and guns. Any "useful" or "convenient" functions (eg. "Rearm at tent") don't really feel like they fit with a survival game IMO. We'll have to wait and see, but hopefully the drag and drop interface, and the need to pack gear properly and sensibly will mean auto-grabbing ammo will be a thing of the past.

And again, teams could bypass that restriction by just playing pass-the-parcel with your gear.This perma-death thing is a tough nut to crack in a multiplayer game. Roguelikes used to be "when you're dead, you're dead". Now we've got other people making an arse of it.

Half of everything is luck.

Well, I'm of the opinion that folks should wait to see some results before passing judgement on the methods. Yes, going to PAX is about marketing, but as well as develping DayZ, representing Bohemia and their future product is among Rocket's responsibilities. These conventions are about games, but they're also about the people behind the games. I don't imagine the team are literally slaving away 24/7 on SA, but it's sure to be taking up a lot of the day. Expos and Devblogs are an afterthought. And PAX just happens to be scheduled strictly enough that something had to give. It really doesn't shock me that Rocket isn't reporting every detail every minute of every day.

I'm pretty damn sure there's going to have to be a LOT of fuck-ups before you get to declare "it's too late".I'm afraid it just ain't your call to make. Word of mouth, and everything up to this point has earned the DayZ devs their own panel at PAX. Their priorities are - Do their job first, and bow to your whim second. Wind your neck in.

These aren't new suggestions, but since this is a new discussion on the topic, I thought I'd share a new idea. :lol: It's just a skeleton of a thought, but since this topic inspired it, I suppose it's worth a mention. Say, for instance, in conjunction with a 30 minute lockout, a mechanic for burning, burying and otherwise disposing of bodies is implemented. (sorry, I can't post links, but there are a few threads about this out there) If a lone-wolf is killed, then a death-timer for that 1 particular server would come into effect. No big deal, just wait it out, or join another server. Yeah, it sucks, but you're dead. It's supposed to suck. For a team player, the same timer could be bypassed if their squad give them a funeral (bury or burn their corpse) as a "buy-in". This would allow for team play to be beneficial to this scenario whilst not allowing players to simply regain all their gear from having a team simply camp their body. Of course, bodies would have to be un-dig-upable and burning bodies should destroy their gear. There are still some issues I can't really think of a solution to. Gear could be taken from a body and dropped on the floor, for example. I only thought of that after typing all this out. Fuck. As I said, it's just the bare bones of a suggestion in the "death is costly" area. Everybody want something done about it, but nobody has any idea what.

I think, if anything, I'd prefer to have a "control tutorial / video settings test" kept entirely separate from the main game. Similar to the Armory section in ArmA, but without any weapons/items/vehicles. Simply a pure client-side demonstration of DayZ. Just a section of map to run around alone in, offline. No zeds, no gear, just a guy in his skimps vaulting fences and rolling around, learning the buttons. A few times (while trying to scrape a few extra FPS) I loaded up ArmA 2 OA just to tweak settings and check results without getting killed. I think a "demo area" could fill this role, and would be more useful to fresh n00bs than any diagrams. EDIT: We really don't want to give sneak-peeks of gameplay features to new players. It would spoil the experience.

EDIT: Scratch that. I'd like to remain a fictional character. :|

You want me to suggest a suggestion you can make? HA! Trying to enhance a sandbox zombie survival scenario by adding KoS deathmatch elements is a VERY stupid idea, considering that's what happens anyway. As has already been pointed out, a player-unique journal has been mentioned (confirmed?) which fills ALL the functions you mention, and much more. Suggesting claimable, kill-confirming dogtags then trying to call ANY other suggestion "shallow" is fucking ridiculous. You don't have a leg to stand on. You should move out of that glass house before you start throwing stones.

It doesn't matter whether or not it's a toggle-option in the menu. The simple fact is, proper n00bs won't be able to understand the diagram. There's a LOT to take in. They'd end up (guess what, that's right) going to the control options to check which buttons perform which actions.

The first few times the VAST MAJORITY of players start the game, they will already be VERY familiar with DayZ.Any absolutely brand new players will struggle to understand the diagrams you suggest, rendering their inclusion pointless. It takes SECONDS to look up the controls, and that's the first thing you should be doing anyway, for ANY game. Don't start complaining just because I disagree with your suggestion. EDIT: Maybe if you got to the point folk would be less inclined to skim over your OP.

IMO It's totally unnecessary. It takes seconds to look the controls up for yourself. It would just clutter the loading screens with diagrams which serve no purpose to seasoned players. (who will be in the VAST majority)

Maybe an optional "first time encounter" tutorial pop-up would help n00bs, but the controls are not going to be easily understood by a complete novice, even if you do provide a diagram in the loading screen. If I was brand new to the game, the loading screen idea would put me off entirely. There are a LOT of functions in ArmA, and though DayZ will be streamlined from this, I'd bet it's still going to be pretty complicated. Besides that, I'd rather have nice-looking loading screens to show off the art and scenery. For PC games, I always recommend custom mapping of controls where possible. To get yourself comfortable. I understand the sentiment, and we were all n00bs at some point, but making the game easier for newcomers than it was for everyone else? Thumbs down. The disorientation of not knowing what to do is part of the DayZ experience. Players find help in-game or figure stuff out for themselves.

This assumes that all players are part of some sort of military. Which shouldn't be the case. The info on printed dog-tags can't change, so it couldn't have your "age in days" on it. That part really doesn't make sense. Your suggestion is geared towards encouraging player-killing so it's basically pointless since players are going to kill eachother anyway. You should be trying to think of something to do besides that. This idea has nothing to do with "end game" features. What you've just described is a scoreboard that only you can see. Competetive events and deathmatch servers are so far removed from the point of DayZ, I'm not even sure you're in the right place. Go play BF3. It sounds like that's the "End game" you're looking for.

Would they all be animated, or are we talking about something else now? :lol:

An entire world where nobody shuffles their feet, yawns, stretches or scartches their arse?! :oI thought we were going for authenticity? It's next to impossible to stay perfectly still for any sustained length of time in reality. We're talking "idle-animations" not juggling or cartwheels. Adding life to an otherwise statue-like idle player shouldn't be a game-breaker. EDIT: From what I remember (or half-remember), your character's needs will be expressed with auditory and visual cues, since there's no HUD in SA. I'd guess that means more animations to express certain conditions at the very least.

Ideally every action would be suitably animated. That's a lot of work, but it would be AWESOME. Everything from changing shoes to refilling a magazine to checking the time on your watch. Maybe that sounds excessive, and maybe it is, but I think it would really bring characters to life.