GodOfGrain

Have just updated it :) Go check it out guys, have spent way too much time on that, so it's at least a nice read I guess [Link]

* November 2013: Updated and shortened, as still relevant * Summary "Progression through equipment" is a core part of DayZ. But in itself it is not sufficient to ensure a player's identification with his character. The low value of life & death is a structural flaw of DayZ and is certainly one reason for the abundance ov PvP. This post will discuss this issue and the introduction of mikro-skills as a part of the solution. This thread is meant as a summary of a long discussion we had in the forum: "Skill System in DayZ?" Special thanks to joe_mcentire, Hoik, m00tley and wep0n for the discussion and critical remarks. "DayZ is your own story". We all agree that every player should be able to decide by himself how to play. Whether you want to make a gun-party in Cherno or cautiously make your way through small towns in the North. Noone can be forced to value their character's life. But on a large scale player behavior is always influenced by the game design. The game design represents a structure which shapes how we experience the game. We don't want arbitrary rules to punish or reward certain playstiles, but besides that a game does obviously set a structure of positive and negative incentives. The blood bag system is a suitable example from DayZ mod: It gives an incentive for social interaction, at least for group play. The blood bag element is not a rule, but a piece of the game structure which guides player behavior. To operate without strict rules is a great opportunity for an open-world / sandbox game like DayZ, but also a challenge. But if DayZ does not go down the route of giving a malus for e.g. player killing, you need to create a game structure where "Kill-on-sight" isn't the best available option. To achieve the desired effects (value of player life, game immersion, reduced PvP) there has to be a multitude of game elements which influence the average player base in the desired way. Progression through equipment Rocket: "We feel pretty strongly (definitely I do) that the levelling you do in DayZ is your gear, perhaps the different thing about DayZ is that.. I think Zero Punctuation put it very well when he said the great equalizer in DayZ is you can suddenly turn around and kill someone and take all their gear if you are lucky or skilled and it's not that you have won because you are a higher level. So I don't think we are ever going to have any type of levelling, we are always going to have this focus on the gear being your levelling and I think that's a really cool direction to go." [DayZGame] ShannonZKiller - Jan 2013 - Interview/Livestream with Rocket [Other statement from Rocket, more "pro-skill-system"] Besides his conclusion I agree with this statement from our spiritual guru. (How couldn't I?) Gear progression as the "great equializer" and as the vocal point of player progression. "Progression through equipment" is an interesting concept and core-part of the DayZ world. But the possibility to recover equipment makes death to a mere sidenote of DayZ. Especially in group play, death does not really matter. You are half an hour away from picking up where you left. Desease mechanics won't help to adress the issue: The player who died knows best whether he had an infection or not, so in 95% he or his buddies can save his loot. Base building will further increase the problem, as it allows easier hoarding of equipment. Item degredation will help; definitley. But only to a certain degree. Player customization will help, but also to a limited extent, especially as you will be able to pick up your clothing items. Even arbitrary mechanics like "preventing to loot own body" won't help, as group members can save the items. How can game design assign higher value to a players life? I think it is relatively simple: If "progression through equipment" is not enough, than there is just one alternative: A progression connected to the character which is lost after death. There are some subtle ways to do this: Such a visual progression would perfectly fit in the DayZ world and provide an incentive not to die. Another addition could be connected to the desease mechanic: Players could get immunities after surviving a certain illness. Subtle, realistic, but - I am afraid - still not enough. Microskills Don't imagine a skill-tree aka Diablo. There are no "level-ups", spendable exp points, no unlocking of skills etc. There wouldn't be any visible information for the player except from what he observes within the game. We have refined this idea quite a bit throughout our discussion. Besides a suggestion for a specific skill system, I think we may found several "structural requirements" for any skill system to work in the DayZ world. In the beginning we thought about a concept of "getting better at what you do". E.g. you gain in medical skills by applying a bandage, get better at gutting animals by doing just that. Wep0n has pointed out why this wouldn't work: Link Basically it would be a problem of "training skills". Such a system would effect a player's perception of the game world, possibly detaching him from his or her experience: Training or grinding of skills should be impossible. Although I am not the type of player who would grind skills, I'd probably hunt down every animal I come accross; not because I need food, but to gain exp in this. That's what Wepon means with his sentence above. Trainable skills require a drawback But there is a valid principle to avoid this: If gaining exp in this area has a very big disadvantage / drawback. Think of the desease + immunity system. To gain an immunity you suffered a potentially lethal illness; so there is no incentive to intentionally getting a desease just to be immune in the future. Significant drawbacks prevent any false incentives! It is not possible to find realistic disadvantages for many potential "skill areas", which limits the extent of this model. But one area where it would work well is medical skills: If every injury you endure in the game has a certain chance to cause an infection / desease, potentially resulting in your death, you will not injure yourself on purpose. So here we can add a progression by training without any grinding effects. Applying bandages could be trained regarding speed and success probability. A blood bag applied by an inexperienced player could result into an infection with 10% probability, while an experienced medic would have a 1% chance. Mechanical skills could be another area, e.g. regarding the speed and success probabilty of repairs. It is more difficult to implement a drawback here, but it seems possible: - Time effort: To finish a repair action takes between 3 minutes (tire) to 6 minutes (engine). Exp only granted if action is completly finished - Risk: During this action a soundfile is played (*repair sounds*) which can be heared by other players over some distance. - Risk #2: (Very small) chance of hurting yourself during a repair. - Weight / size of repair parts prevents people of carrying repair parts with them just for the sake of using them should they find a vehicle. In summary, progression by training can be introduced where a significant drawback is implemented. This makes training a skill on purpose not a suitable option. The areas of medical and mechanical skills are suited in this regard and would also be a nice addition to the gameplay; we could have an experienced medic or mechanic in our team. A potential addition: Progression over time A system where the character progresses by actually "doing things" is limited to areas where a significant drawback can be implemented. As we do not want any arbitrary / artifical drawbacks, "progression by doing things" is limited to certain areas. Which would be fine, having a system of progression in medic or mechanical tasks is already an improvement. But we could make a further step by introducing "progression over time-played". This is a very simple system: Your character progresses over time-played. The major advantage is that the incentive is very clear: Staying alive. There is nothing to think about, no unintended incentives which would cause e.g. grinding. It would not affect player behavior and perception of the game world in any way because it is so simple. The differences between a freshspawn and an experienced player are substantial, but not huge and do never effect combat. The only information a player gains about his character is by observing him in the game world. "Fitness" and "Abilities" So besides medical and mechanical skills, there could be two further categories: "Fitness", which represent the character's general condition, and "abilities", which includes specific things such a lighting a fire. Fitness "Stamina" in the context of an enhanced stamina concept "Strength" in the context of an item system which includes the weight of objects "Dexterity" as a general skill which influences the success in other abilities like "gutting animals" "Abilities" Lighting a fire, gutting animals, chopping wood, ... fishing ... Example: "Lighting a fire" This would now take 30 seconds with a certain success probability. You'd possibly need several attempts (matches - scarce) to light a fire. If you character has gained experience over time, success probability will increase, duration will decrease. These "abilities" will simply improve over time. For instance, after your character survived for lets say 100 hours, your success probability for making a fire increased from 70% to 90%; so it is a significant, but subtle difference. All abilities are influenced by the genereal conditon of the character, e.g. dexterity. "Fitness" is a bit different. These values also raise over time, but they can also be temporarily reduced or influenced by e.g. hunger, thirst, illness etcetera or permanently reduced by e.g. a gunshot wound. An example how it could work: There could be a range for skills from 0 - 100 points, fresh spawn starts with 50. [Again, points are displayed nowhere, and improvements are only incremental, so nearly unnoticable] Now imagine a fresh spawn running around for 20 hours. All skills (fitness and abilities) have raised to 60. The player goes to Cherno for some n1 PvP, gets a round to the chest and retreats. All "abilities" are still at 60. But the characters fitness level has dropped permenantly. Depending on where the character was hit, stamina might have dropped to 40, dexterity to 55, strength to 50. He will have less endurance, can carry less or for less time, and his lower dexterity reduces his efficiency in all "other abilities" like lighting a fire. [You could also choose to implement an effect on weapon handling if dexterity drops below 50. That means: Wounded characters have worse weapon handling, while all characters at 50 or above (starting value) would have the same weapon handling skills, ergo level playing field.] Now his points will raise again over time. For gameplay reasons, points below the starting value of 50 could increase at a faster rate, perhaps twice as fast. The system is so flexible... Imagine, you could also have a very strong effect of a gunshot wound, e.g. reducing fitness values to e.g. 30 in this example; but part of it will recover after medical treatment and only the rest will be a permenant reduction. Incentive to "hide your character"? There is a significant drawback in hiding your character to gain exp. Beside the fact that survival should be difficult, ergo the game should not allow players to sit around endlessly... It is fucking boring. Who should feel compromised to adopt to a very defensive style just for this slow gain of exp. Remember, we are talking mikro skills here, which have a distinct effect, but are in no way game deciding. And they take a loooong time to build up. The positive thing is: Even if there is this school kid with way too much time at hands, who has his other school friends bring him food and water to his little hut in the woods... it would not affect you! Hell, he will be able to light a fire during rain in no-time and everyone around him cheers for him, yes man, you got it! But you still can pop his head with a 9mm round. :D Summary: What do we gain? I'd always prefer to have "real skill" at work; not the character is learning ingame but the person behind the monitor. But we have to be realistic, DayZ will never be the mother of all simulations. Perhaps things from TOH will be introduced, regarding heli mechanics. But you cannot simmulate everything, from gutting animals over fishings to medical stuff. Minigames are not a solution. The introduction of item degredation and player customization (clothes) in the SA are certainly going in the right direction. But will it be enough to create a strong identification to your character and give enough incentive not to risk your life in PvP? DayZ developers should probably not wait too long to see what will happen in the SA. Once we are back at a PvP fiest, it manifests itself. In my opinion, the introduction of a system of micro skills should be contemplated early in SA alpha development and - if seen as a suitable addition - added rather sooner than later. A system of micro skills will be a real incentive to stay alive. This will have a distinct impact regarding the abundance of PvP. The system I described above has no problem regarding wrong incentives, as "progression by doing things" has a significant drawback or it is simple progression over time-played. Further, mikro skills can add additional depth to the gameplay. They are a great tool to combine with other mechanics, e.g. to simulate effects of deseases, wounds, thirst etc. This system is not gamey. There are numbers working in the background, but that's it. You won't see anything from this system besides what you can observe from your character ingame. Imagine your character was alive for 200 hours, perhaps being the dedicated medic of your group. Now you die. You may start a fresh life on the coast, you may be more angry than in DayZ mod (that's what we want). You may also think: "Damn, these nice abilities my previous character had". But what can you do now? There is nothing you can do to get your skills back faster. No false incentives. So you keep on going and will forget that the skill system even exists. Everything what makes DayZ great today will remain in the game. No + in "gutting animals" will make tactical awareness anything less important, nor communication, navigation, decision making etc.

Oh it would certainly. You are right, I also would not think a second if I might need him later, because right now I need the shiny gun on his shoulder. But: If you engange, you might die. PvP leads to death, no matter how good you are.

* November 2013: Updated and shortened, as still relevant * (It is still a long post though :D)

On game design, "progression through equipment", and a system of micro-skills

wow dude perfect want want want As a fuckin rare collectors item

Yea, due to gameplay considerations, average running speed should remain more or less the same than currently, to cover large distances in a reasonable time. But it would be a shame not to have item weight as a relevant factor. I'd suggest: Keep current running speedZombies run a little faster than survivors, so normally they catch up and hit you (+5%)You can use "sprint" for a 15% boost,which allows you to get some distance to themSprinting now depends on staminaStamina is influenced by health & weight carried. A fresh & healthy surivor may outrun a zombie for about 5 minutes, the team's MG gunner who likes to carry 800 rounds for good measure will be out of breath after 30 seconds. Speed difference of a sprinting player to a zombie is just enough to get a little bit of distance between you. Outrunning them shouldn't be the go-to action. Zombie should still be like 30 meters behind ya ... and then you get slower...After a sprint, you will run slower than before while stamina regains. This is necessary, otherwise people use sprint for travelling. So speed decrease should at least equal speed gain.

I admit it, I was bored. I have noticed that the German translation of the "Welcome to Chernarus" text on the homepage of dayzmod.com contained a couple of minor mistakes (spelling, punctuation). I went on improving the translation a bit.. although it was already quite good in the beginning, don't get me wrong. So, fellow German DayZ players, please check if I haven't made any new mistakes and kindly give your feedback for the "new" translation, then someone can exchange the text on the website. Suggestion for new translation - German: * Updated * Orginal text - German: Ein 225 km² großer, frei begehbarer, post sovietischer Staat, welcher durch einen bislang unbekannten Virus getroffen wurde, der den Großteil der Menschheit ausgelöscht hatte. Du bist einer der wenigen Überlebenden der nun dieses neue Ödland durchsuchen muss während er gegen die verbleibenden Infizierten kämpft. Kämpfe allein, im Team oder mach was auch immer du willst in dieser brutalen Welt. Benutze egal welche Mittel um zu überleben. Original text - English: A 225 km2 open world post-soviet state and one of the areas hit by a new and presently unknown infection which has wiped out most of the world's population. You are one of the few who have survived and now you must search this new wasteland in order to fight for your life against what is left of the indigenous population, now infected with the disease. Go Solo, team up with friends or take on the world as you choose your path in this brutal and chilling landscape using whatever means you stumble upon to survive.

Yea, good changes. Have included them above Btw, I actually like the English original a lot. Difficult to get there in German without rewriting it completly. Perhaps English is just very well suited to write about a zombie-apocalyptic setting.

After two failed wars we shifted our ambitions towards establishing a dominance of German language.

Well, it is already translated, but does contain mistakes. The first page a viewer sees should not necessarily contain mistakes ;)

Skill System in DayZ? After a long discussion in this thread I would made significant changes to the suggestion below. It wouldn't make sense to make these changes in this post, as all answers form other people would make no sense. I have opened another thread to combine this system with all the input from our discussion. On game design, "progression through equipment", and a system of micro-skills QQQ I am convinced that the mechanic down below is worth your consideration. I play DayZ since May '12. Hardcore DayZ player, have read all of Rocket's statements and believe to have a good feeling where designers and the majority of the community wants the game to go. That's make me also understand why people hesitate when they hear "skill system". "Skill system" means "game", means D3, means "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED". DayZ should not feel like a game, that's for sure. What this system is not: - No levels - no spendable exp points - no direct / visible interference with the game experience - no unlocking of skills etc. - no interference with combat, it remains a level playing field Summary: - A set of about 20 general (e.g. stamina) and special traits (laying blood transfusion) - These values are displayed modestly in one single sheet - This system is not interactive, just numbers working in a background. - Values go from 0 to 100. Players start at 50 for all. - You can perform all actions as a fresh start, but some things like repairs or laying a blood transfusion have quite a high chance to fail. - Combat is not subject to the system - You loose all progress upon death - Differences between a freshspawn and a player on "max" is not huge and does never effect combat. Why? The Problem: Progression through equipment There is a set of core issues which have become aparent during this alpha test: - Low value of a player's (own) life - Abundance of PvP - Lack of longterm-motivation I am not talking in terms of long term motivation here. That's not the prime issue. It is an issue today, but it can be dealt with in alternative ways than a skill system. The problem is: Low value of a player's (own) life. The current game design does not assign any significant value to a players life (at least in DayZ terms), as especially for groups equipment is easily recoverable. This is one important factor for the abundance of PvP. It's the difference between reallife and a game; you can just press respawn. And with DayZ's approach of char. progression = items, you are back in action within minutes when playing in a team. If you PvP - you will die, sooner or later. If your character gains something which is bound to this character, the character will be more worthfull to you (and more unique), and the player will think twice: Do I start this fight? 20% I bite the dust... Have a look at this post of mine later in the discussion on the importance of a skill system in the context of game design in an open-world/ sandbox environment: http://dayzmod.com/f...40#entry1134783 The Skill System Perhaps you have played the round-based strategy game Jagged Alliance 2? That's roughly what I have in mind. It is really complex and I haven't understood its mechanics after hundrets of hours playing. For example suddenly your character gained a point dexterity after opening a door. What? That means that the JA2 system was collecting data for every and such action... and always a very small amount. In DayZ this would mean practically... you keep running... every minute you get a little bit of exp in stamina and in strength... you vault over a fence ... you get little bit of strength and dexterity... you light a fire ... you get points in "lighting a fire" and dexterity you apply a bandage... you get a bit better in bandaging, dexterity and other medical traits Skills are interdepended in two ways: a ) How you get exp for them: (e.g.: scrap metall attached -> 2 exp technical skills, 1.2 exp dexterity, 1 exp strength, 0.02 stamina, 0.04 chopping wood, 0,03 blood transfusion, etc.) So you get exp for "laying blood transfusion" while reparing a car. b ) when performing an action, several factors are relevant for its success / speed: e.g.: performing "chopping wood" is influenced by: strength, stamina, skill "chopping wood" Skills divided in two categories: Fitness & Memory Fitness: Stamina: (Running speed, effects of nedured running, max. weight) Strength: (max. weight, melee attacks) Dexterity: (overall skill every other task, especially important for performing complex tasks like repairs, operations etc.) etc. Memory: Medical: - e.g. Beginner: 60% success probability when applying a bandage; 90% for full-skilled - e.g. Blood transfusion: Beginner: 15% chance your patient gets an infection - (those actions would also be influenced by the variable dexterity) Mechanical: - e.g. Attaching scrap metall to car: Untrained: 30% that you're unsuccessfull & material is lost - with a small probability that you further damage the car. Chopping wood: - Takes 3 complete minutes for a beginner to get a pile of wood, 1.5 minutes for a very experienced player Others: Cleaning guns, gut animals, light a fire, light a fire at rain... Combination with other game mechanics possible! Points in "Memory skills" are permenant, those in "fitness" are not. Imagine the possibilites: A) You have a flue, or cholera or what not. --> Stamina, Strength, Dexterity are reduced by a certain rate. You will run slower, can carry less. Since Dexterity influences other skills, all actions will be less efficient, simulating the effects of the illness. --> The reduction in this case may be temporary, and get back up to previous level once healthy again. B ) Gunshot to the leg. --> Permenant reduction in stamina It would take 10, 20 hours gaining new exp until you are back to previous level C) Gunshot to the arm --> permenant reduction in dexterity D) Gunshot to the head --> Profit :D E) You are very hungry / thirsty --> All fitness rates reduced accordingly until you found something to eat As I said before, the positive effects of going from 50 to 100 are rather limited. But we could introduce drastic negative effects for a value of e.g. 25 in stamina: --> slowing running speed by 40% compared to normal, simulating a recent shot in the leg. All design questions now, but the system would be in place. Conclusion You loose all your skills once you die. That's a great fit with DayZ, as it is cruel and unforgiving ;) This skill system does not provide an "end game" of any sort, although it would add an important layer of long term motivation. I would feel proud about my character of 30 days, because now he is indeed something different to a fresh spawn. Perhaps your old character will be even weaker then a fresh spawn. Experienced in things like lighting a fire in heavy rain, but slow as an old men, from all those gunshot wounds over time. I would still try to keep him alive, that's for sure :) If you dont want your character to die, you will think twice and again if you start shooting on everything that moves. No play-style is punished. You just get a realistic reward for staying alive. PvP groups will have three options with this... - run around with low exp characters, fresh from the coast. - PvP less - or be that smart in their role that they still surive their hostile trade What I also find very promising is the opportunity to combine this idea with other game mechanics, such as negative effects through wounds or infections. If you say "numbers don't fit to DayZ", there is always the option of hiding the experience information altogether from the player. You'd only get visual information from your interactions ingame, e.g. you notice that some actions are more quicker / efficient / higher success probability. What are your thoughts?

Well, not too much is happening in the General Discussion Forum. I find it difficult to believe, but this DayZ Community has talked about nearly every point which is in any way related to this game; including cultural implications, history of the Czech Republic, player psychology, endless suggestions, stories, ... :D As everything has been talked about, we can also talk about some far-fetched things: DayZ meets SpaceStation13 Actually they have already met. Rocket mentioned this game to be one of his sources of inspiration and is known to play the game quite frequently. Someone who has played Space Station 13 (SS13) may have noticed some similarities with latest videos of the DayZ-Standalone development . Those little text messages, stating e.g. "you are feeling slightly thirsty" or "you are feeling hot" are used in SS13. SS13 has this brilliant approach of using plain text rather than graphics to transport information. The disadvantage: It doesnt look good: Gameplay picture [Link] The advantage: It enables a very high degree of complexity. You could access an item description from your inventory, which could contain an actual description of the item: "Mosin-Nagant, or russian: Винтовка Мосина, a bolt-action, internal magazine-fed military rifle, developed by the Imperial Russian Army in 1882-1891, and used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations. Despite the fact that the production date "1917" is ingraved into its wodden stock, the weapon looks robust and well-maintained." You could find the above description in the game Jagged Alliance 2; some useful background information combined with some funny remarks. Besides offering "fun facts", the description box could be used to deliver more relevant information, e.g. a weapons estimated weight, some detailed information on its condition... These could be things which you could easily see / estimate / understand in real life, but you cant in game due to ... well, the fact that its a game. Describing things in written form where a graphical representation would just take much work is a great thing. It is just so much easier to have e.g. a complex medical & health system if most of it is text based. And if its easier to do, there can be more of it. Just imagine, someday they give modders access to the new DayZ, and by chance a modding group establishes which is dedicated to bring a high level of complexity to crafting, reparing, weapons, etc. by using a text-based approach. Such stuff can only be done by modders, as e.g. SS13 and Jagged Alliance 2 (v.1.13), high-complex games regarding their game mechanics, had huge development times. Could happen for DayZ as well. To sum it up: - Much text in-game. No everyone would like it, but enough people for a mod community (*) - A 3-D shooter with the item complexity of SS13 and JA2? Yea :D (* mod of the standalone)

Yea, we have talked about this before...so I dont have to write much but can paste the link :) http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/120173-on-game-design-progression-through-equipment-and-a-system-of-micro-skills/

My current game folder: - Arma 2 - Broodwar - Death Space 2 - Deus Ex - Deus Ex 3 - Diablo 3 - Dishonored - Hard Reset - Hitman Absolution . Hitman Bloodmoney - Hitman Contracts - Jagged Alliance 2 Gold - Jagged Aliiance 2 Gold - Clear copy - Jagged Alliance 2 Gold v1.13 - Left 4 Dead 2 - May Payne - Quake 3 - Sacrifice - SC - SC3 - Starcraft 2 - Unreal Tournament - Xcom

stalker: haven't played it thief-series: fan system shock: stupid

ACE has a small arrow indicating the wind direction / speed when you need it - along with the Kestrell device to measure it accurately. "No Hud" is fine, but I prefer to have wind influencing long range shots... A handkerchief to indicate wind direction / speed could be the solution... By the way, is the word "handkerchief" used these days? BE / AE? It sounds so ancient ;) Thanks

yea guys, come over to bmrf.me: whitelist, expert, no third person 74.91.123.48:2303 Really struggling as well to find servers like this... "Back in the days" there have been at least 50-100 servers with 3th person off...

The worst thing you can do is explaining someone how to play DayZ.

We had one of these medics as a customer of our shuttle service. As we always invited our guests to TS we became aquinted and flew several missions for them later on.

Well what have we done so far... - Established a helicopter shuttle service - Provided transport and security for Dr. Wasteland medics - Had a gay party on the rooftops of Cherno with thousands of chem lights & flares (dance command!) - Captured a freshspawn near Solnichy and made him to choose: Jump down the cliff (20m) or run away and die - Tried to make our NWA strategy perfect - Trying to improve on our tactial play as a group (ongoing process :D ) - Searched for interesting sniping spots at all major areas - Meeting new people - Playing alone from time to time - Playing on some custom maps, mainly Namalsk for some "action-DayZ" or DayZ+ - Making a break from DayZ from time to time ah and for the future: - Now that parachuting works properly I could imagine a nice helicopter-based killing spree

My concept evolves around the idea of interpreting the action of "logging" out from the game as "going to rest / sleep" within the DayZ world. This could address some top priority issues like serverhopping. Think about it, if you would lay down for rest, would you do this on the open field? It is dangerous and you would probably catch a cold. To sleep in an unsafe place should have a negative effect. Every accessable building should be suitable. In most cases it should take a maximum of 10 minutes to find a suitable place. If you are lost somewhere in the mountains, this is part of your problem. You will have to find back to ruins of civilisation first. Of course, reallife is calling, and sometimes you have to just loggout quickly. So logging out in the open should not kill your character. But instead you have a high probability that you get ill, using the current illness system. In addition there are zones which are unsafe to loggout, e.g. the airfields or stary sobor. If a player wants to logout here, a message appears: "I dont know if this is a good idea. It feels unsafe. Perhaps I should look for a better place to rest." [Logout / Look for a safer place] If you devide to logout here anyway, you have a ~15% chance to be dead when you loggin again - reflecting the danger of taking a nap in a hanger of a highly frequented military base. Effects: - Server hopping to get good loot would be prevented - The unrealistic danger at e.g. airports that someone spawns behind you would be eliminated. Limited effects on: - PvP disconnects. It would not be prevented, as catching a cold is better than being shot, but at least this behavior is punished. [A 30 second delay for disconnect or similar concepts would be more adequate for this problem] -Serverhopping to get in a favourable position to attack a group of other players. / Would be punished outside of cities - This system works within the logic of the game world, so it is no artifical way of rewarding / punishing something. - From the viewpoint of game immersion it would provide a psychological start and end point of each session. I think this would feel realistic and challenging. - Still you can loggout quickly if you want to / have to. What are your thoughts on this?

Herbert the Pervert plays DayZ loughed my ass off

Exactly On game design, progression through equipment and a system of micro skills

From other games I know that it can be very useful. Most of the times you learn nothing ("take cover to avoid enemy fire") but every once in a while you have this ah-cool-that's-possible moment. So in my pov that's a good way to teach new players the basics. Although I'd like to have the option to disable these hints and have a pretty loading-screen.