Gravelsack

Hi! First off I want to say thanks to Rocket for making this game. I have been waiting for something like this forever. I love the unforgiving nature, and look forward to what it may become in the future. My suggestion is to morph the "humanity" mechanic into something like the "sanity" mechanic in Amnesia: Dark Descent (another great survival horror game). In Amnesia, spending time in the dark, seeing monsters, or just standing still for too long cause you to slowly go insane. Your vision swims, you hallucinate, hear things, etc. Perhaps in DayZ you would have trouble aiming, have trouble running straight, etc. If you included player killing in the list of things that cause you to lose "sanity" or "humanity" or whatever, it would go a long way to providing a punishment for overaggressive behavior without resorting to something artificial like a skin change. Just my .02 -Gravelsack

Candid and to the point, as usual. Thanks for all the hard work!

How exactly does it punish or reward anyone unfairly?

I assumed that this was dead and buried, and by all rights it should be, but here goes: There is already a panic mechanic in game, this merely seeks to add to it. It seems some people want to imagine that they are stone cold killers, whose minds are impervious to the strain of being in a zombie apocalypse, and THEN finding themselves washed up on a beach in godfuckknowswhere Russia, running through the woods at night being shot at by their fellow survivors. You may not be afraid of the dark when you're sitting at your darkened computer area, but I can guarantee that would change if you were actually in the middle of a zombie infested town. That darkness would be pretty scary. I, for one, would find a situation like this quite harrowing, even if I had survived previous zombie attacks. I guess I'm honest enough with myself to know that even though I like 'hardcore' video games, I am not a steely eyed killer, and my fragile psyche would break instantly upon seeing a zombie. The effects I have in mind are similar to what already exists in game. For example, when you are low on blood you lose the ability to see color. When you are in pain, your hands shake. My idea is that when sanity gets low, your vision distorts. This could be represented in game by applying a fish-eye lens effect, or causing your vision to swim (which already occurs when looking at distant trees, at least on my rig). The sound of your heart beating could become amplified, making it difficult to hear your surroundings. Really, there's a lot of effects that could be used, you just have to be creative. I understand that to some this is "telling them how to feel", but that is really not the intent. It is intended to make the experience of looting the zombie infested towns more difficult, and to feel as scary to the player as it would to a real person in that situation. That's all I got. Fire away.

The other kids wouldn't play with him, so he kicked over their sandcastle, and then ran home to cry lonely tears.

I really like your gui, and I like the idea of having to go to the bathroom too...I mean, all we eat is beans, sardines, and chef boyardee, and we wash it down with caffeinated cola. We should all have the squirts by now.

Date/Time: May 26 2012 What happened: I logged into server EU10 and found there were no zombies or loot spawning. Where you were: At spawn point and very close to that What you were doing: Starting over again after dying. *Current installed version: 1.5.8 *Server(s) you were on: EU10 *Your system specs: AMD Athlon II x2, 3gb ram, Geforce 9500gs *Timeline of events before/after error: I loaded the game up in steam started normally, picked server EU10 and loaded in as I usually do.

If I just blew away 10 people with a sniper rifle, I'd be laughing maniacally, and feeling bloodlust, and probably shaking a bit. I'd like my character to represent in game the feelings I would be experiencing emotionally in real life.

Don't get me wrong, by the way. I don't think player killing should be punished too much. It's part of the game, after all. How about this: We all start out poised on the precipice of insanity from the horrors we've endured. Killing another player pushes you over that edge and you feel a bloodlust that clouds your senses a small amount for a short period of time. This effect would stack so that the more players you kill in a row the more severe it is, and the longer it lasts. Perhaps at it's peak your character would break out into maniacal laughter. Also, I find it pretty easy to sneak around the zombies as it is right now. If being around them for an extended period of time would affect your ability to sneak quietly (for example) it would necessitate taking breaks inside of buildings during scavenging trips, and makes you more vulnerable to attack from other players, thus increasing the risk factor and (for me) the fun level.