DayZoey

"The Three biggest problems in Stand Alone are X, Y and Z!!!" Er... you're aware this has been a prevalent problem since the mod and the devs are working on it right? Have been ever since they began to crop up?

I don't KoS for loot, I never have. I KoS if the person I've discovered has either seen me or appears to be pursuing me because I don't know how many other people are on the other end of a Skype call, getting rid of the primary evidence (the witness) of my presence is the best way to go I find.

So I'm going to say right off the bat I did two things when I first started playing DayZ SA. First, I bought it on steam. Second, I pirated a copy and figured out how to host a LAN server on my computer so I could play by myself. I bought it on steam because I feel this game, even when it was just a modling suckling off the teat of Arma 2's game engine it still consumed enough of my time and still made me have a large enough amount of fun that the developers have earned every penny I gave them. I pirated a secondary copy for two reasons though, the first being that I wanted to get back in to playing the game again without getting shot every other time I spawned and the second; I wanted to see how buggy the game actually was before I started getting shot every other time I spawned. With that in mind and the fact that I've already given the devs my money (I feel I have to emphasize that because some shart-for-brains will read that I pirated it and immediately run to the forum mods to get me banned or something) I wanted to give my thoughts on the game as it is and what I feel needs to change as well as what has been done very right. Keep in mind this is completely subjective and is my opinion, don't get all vagina-stipated because I disagree with what you think DayZ should be. How DayZ is DayZ in a really good way (doing it right) These are just some of the highlights of things that I really appreciated playing the game and think the devs did a great job and should keep doing a great job on. -The Graphics: This is actually something that I'm very happy with, it's not so massively overdone that I have to play on lowest settings to get a decent frame-rate but it's still nice that it doesn't look like I'm playing Arma 2 anymore. I was a bit skeptical when I saw the screenshots in that I thought only insanely boss computers would be able to play it, while I am working on building a boss tower I don't have a boss tower right now so... it's nice to see that Dean'n'Devs aren't just catering to the people who have already dumped four to five figures on their machine. -The Houses: Lovely detours! I adore how so many of the houses are now able to be searched and scavenged, with so little loot but plenty of variation thereof makes rooting through peoples' former homes feel like lots of fun and not a chore as scavenging used to be as there was always a checklist of places to check in every town before moving on. Every time I enter one home and pick up everything I can find and then find out there's still tons of places to go. Not to mention cover and places to hide from bandits, getting caught in the open by gunfire was pretty much a death sentence before all these homes to bob and weave out of. The devs promised expanded content and did they ever deliver, they're not even done either so I can't wait! -The Night: Dear goodness gracious thank you people on the DayZ development team for fixing the day to night transitions and the sustained night. I have yet to spawn at night or be playing at night to have the screen suddenly go pitch black on me out of nowhere (when I'm getting mauled by a zombie was the worst timing ever). It's nice and dark in appropriate places but very bright (for night time) out in fields and open ground which offers me a wonderful choice of being able to see where I'm going or having the cover of canopy. -The Zeds: While the strafing zombies did add challenge to hitting them, it was annoying as balls to spend an entire mag and then some just to nail one of them. They go down easily enough (one or two bullets at the most in my experience thus far center mass) so it's not really a challenge to bring them down en masse when you have a gun. -Magazines: I'm not sure if this was a promised feature but I love the ability to load magazines with ammunition, I do wish there was an animation for it (for cosmetic sakes) but I'm fine enough without it personally. Finding new magazines isn't a pain anymore and keeping ammunition fresh isn't as challenging. Got two mags already I can just empty the ammunition to save space in my inventory and load them up later. I love the reusable nature of the magazines as well. -Clothing: Again, content the devs promised and darn well delivered. They've made a believer out of a long time skeptic, I honestly had quite a few doubts when the game was delayed time and time again (especially last year when it was supposed to be out before 2013) and this is one of the cases where leaving the bun in the oven for a little longer has made it better across the board. Another thing is variety of clothes and the makeshift bandaging you can do with them. How DayZ is... still DayZ (Bugs and Glitches) I'm well aware this is Alpha and there's a lot to be worked on and so forth, these are just things that I noticed that could use a fixing up. -The Zeds: Obviously a priority, it seems odd to me that the game would be released when the selling point of your game is essentially broken. That'd basically be like selling a fighting game where the women weren't wearing outfits that look like they were designed by 12 year old boys with scissors for hands. Or selling a Call of Duty Game that actually wasn't a load of complete copy/paste tripe (uMad COD fanboys? Yeah you are). What's more is they're even worse than the mod which... blows me away actually. Granted I don't know much about coding so I won't presume to tell the devs their job or how to do it, it just seems odd is all. They ignore physics like nobody's business and phase in and out of buildings on a whim to chase after you, they completely run through obstacles or things I jumped over to get some distance between them and I and they make me bleed 2 out of 3 attacks they land on me. The goal is authenticity right? Just so you're aware, zeds are basically infected humans. Humans are not the sharpest, most clawed or even most fanged of the animal kingdom. We survived because of our wit, our ability to craft and use tools that did all the stuff evolution had given animals like lions, tigers and bears (oh my). To say that one Zed giving me a smack would make me bleed profusely enough to require bandaging otherwise I will bleed to death is... a ridiculous proposition at best, downright silly at worst. In order to get that sort of bleeding, they'd have to not only have very sharp (and durable) fingernails but also hit a very vital area (like the neck or eyes, someplace soft that bleeds basically). I could buy that they're biting and then pulling flesh off if there was an appropriate animation for it but as it is, it looks like they're ambiguously dual slapping me and I'm bleeding like a hemophiliac. Profuse bleeding should come from being shot, being stabbed, being bitten or otherwise having a significant amount of flesh being seperated/torn/penetrated. Not from silly smacking. Yes I'm aware it's Alpha and that Zeds are still being fixed. Still worth complaining about though. Given the way they are, it's probably best that there are so few of them (maybe a dozen to an entire city like Elektro as a whole) otherwise it would just be a bad day everywhere. I will commend the devs on making it so they don't break bones as often as they used to, that crap was annoying because of it's frequency. -Consuming but... Not?: There have been a bunch of times where I'll try to eat/use something, my character will pause as if doing it but nothing will happen. No animation continuing, no item used up and my status unchanged. This is very problematic when say... I'm trying to bandage after being smacked by a zombie bleeding all over the place. Mostly though it just happens with eating food or consuming drink, I have to move forward, try to use it again and the game will give me a prompt "You are already using something" before it lets me actually use the item. The weirdest thing happens though, I get an item with 0%, with cans, fruit, bandages (not rag bandages, real ones) and the like. -Some Spawns... Not spawning: Yes I'm aware it's an early Alpha, this is just a bug that I've noticed in military areas wandering around by myself without having to worry about getting shot at and being able to formulate patterns in my head. It appears that the military tents with two entrances very consistently spawn two items, never one, never three. It's always two items, though they vary here and there it's always two. The tents with single entry ways, the cylinder barracks (without the shower) and the first aid tents have never had anything in them. Similarly with barn houses as well (the tall white ones with hay bales on the second floors separated by a gap) where nothing at all has ever spawned for me. It seems like they should have items and with the before mentioned military tents, variety in spawn number and frequency. -You Are Unconcious: This is more of a personal gripe of mine and I'm not sure if it's a bug but I have yet to get a "You are dead" screen. Granted I'm playing by myself so if I ever go unconcious near zombies it's just about a guarantee that I'm dead and need to start over, it just seems odd that there would be no threshold where the game actually tells a player that they are dead and need to move on to their next play through. Maybe it's just me. -Backpack-Inception: I've not done this yet but I've heard of it happening and when I try to swap my backpack it gives me the option to add my new pack to my old one. I think a way to fix this would be to make the backpack occupy more slots than any backpack could ever hold (just as a quick fix, since the largest backpack so far is 35 slots, make every backpack occupy 40 slots and up. This won't work for the implementation of vehicles but it'd be a quick fix right now to stop exploitation). -Gun Durability: So far the only guns I've come across are the M4 and the FNX 45 (which is kind of silly but that's another section) and neither of them tell me the condition of the weapon itself. The M4 tells me that the stock, sight and grip are all in varying conditions of arse when I find the weapon but the pistol I have no way of knowing it will actually fire when I pick it up. The only way to find out is to find ammunition, a magazine and squeeze off a round. If the M4 is capable of being broken in the same way (or any of the other guns for that matter) then it might be worth looking at in my opinion. -Backwards Gun Spawns: One thing I remember incredibly clearly about what Dean Hall said numerous times across multiple show-cases is that military hardware would be less focused on and civilian grade equipment would be more emphasized. It's hard to take those words seriously when I'm coming across M4A1 Carbines left right and center. Pistols seem as frequent across different kinds of spawns (from Civilian, industrial and military) which is okay, pistols are indeed a pretty low grade weapon in the grand scheme of things. An M4A1 Carbine though? They're blood everywhere and so is the ammunition and magazines, which is just... mind blowing really. I actually found one in an office building in Chernogorsk which I think is... pretty ridiculous (unless it was a post office, in which case comment retracted). I have yet to come across a single Mosin Nagant or even a shotgun (if there even is one). I've come across plenty of ammunition though so if I ever did come across a Mosin Nagant I'd be pretty darn set but considering all the magazines, bullets and parts for the M4A1 that I'm finding I don't know why I'd bother. I am playing by myself so I suppose I'm not burning ammunition fighting off bandits but it does seem odd that I was at one point carrying two ammo boxes which were filled mostly with 5.56mm ammunition. Also... why on earth would we be starting with the M4 as a weapon in a Russian state/proxy nation? In at least one of the video showcases Rocket did of the game he was using a functioning AK-family weapon. The devs went as far as to replace the Lee Enfield with the Mosin Nagant, why would they make the M4 and 5.56mm ammunition so commonplace? Don't get me wrong I do love the aesthetic of the M16 family weaponry, the fixed bayonet on the end while not useful for anything but cosmetics is pretty boss. I can certainly imagine american weapons have found themselves in whatever part of Russia controlled territory Chernarus is supposed to be based in, it's just... odd that they're so frequent and they're the automatic military weapon we're being given to start with. DayZ is... still DayZ (The Bad Things) Again this is all very subjective, I'm just hoping someone from the development team reads this and it actually means more than just a fart in the windstorm. I doubt it but it never hurts to try... -...It's still Quake DM: I'm not even playing against or with other people and I can already tell that a large majority of the population of the game will be hunting other players just because they think it's fun to ruin someone else's day. Want to know how I know? My first thought when I spawned in to the game, despite being all by my lonesome was: "Gotta find a gun. Where do I find a gun? Balota, Cherno, Elektro, Berezino, NE or NW Airfield." Not even spending five minutes on the forum too (Not even in the bandit discussion section either) only confirms my suspicions that many people are just rushing to the gun-spawn hotspots to get a military grade rifle to either hunt other players on the beach (bambi hunting) or to make themselves less of a helpless victim for said hunting. Even playing by myself as soon as I had my basic needs covered (food/water) my next instinct despite playing what is supposed to be a new game, was to find a weapon to start killing people who even come within seeing distance of me. I would let this point slide off a bit were it not for my earlier point of backwards gun spawns (did I mention that I'm aware it's Alpha and they're working on it?) where it's ridiculously easy to find military weapons and a bit ridiculously hard to get a hold of more civilian level firearms. I wasn't playing against people so I'm not really aware of the effectiveness of melee combat in this game, though what I can tell you is that the melee against zombies is incredibly lackluster. The only useful weapon I've found for downing zombies that has a 50-50 chance of me not leaking like a sieve is the hatchet or fireaxe, everything else I might as well just be fighting the zombies barehanded (thanks Devs for giving us fists btw). So with automatic weaponry being so easy to attain, ammunition being one lucky industrial spawn or one unusually unguarded military spawn away; the first thing after covering basic needs people will be doing is securing their spray and pray weapon as quickly as possible to gun down other players for their stuff or because they just KoS because they're tired of bandit crap. Even then without guns I'm pretty sure people are hatcheting and fireaxing each other to death the second they see one another because they can't tell if the person means well or not so why trust them? -Playing Nice Isn't: There still isn't enough incentive to play with other people or to take chances that they could be friendly. Sure you can blood-bag/saline one another back to full health but aside from that there's really no other reason to work together with total strangers. I won't purport to know what could be done about this but it seems that co-operation is really not that rewarding so most people elect not to. I can't even begin to name the number of YouTube videos where someone is very clearly charging or shooting at the person doing the recording and then the second they realize their plan is going tits up, they begin barking "FRIENDLY FRIENDLY FRIENDLY" in to their microphone. I guess they're more forgiving than I am because if someone ran straight at me with a hatchet or fired off a couple shots at me and then started calling friendly when I started shooting/swinging back, I'd call bullshart and keep going until they were dead and then take their stuff. It seems to me people only play nice when it's a severe disadvantage and/or risk to them losing all their gear if they don't. Playing nice and cooperating shouldn't be a last ditch resort for a desperate person about to die, it should be... playing a darn game and having fun with other people surviving. I don't get particularly attached to my gear anymore (I used to really badly in the mod because good stuff was so hard to find) but I would still cut a pretty loud "F*** an actual duck!" when I die to a bandit who shot me for no reason other than for sport on the beach when I spawned. -Playing Solo... Kinda sucks: This does contradict my previous complaint but it's just as true. With hunting animals no longer available thus no way to restore significant amounts of lost health over a short time, with zeds being the way they are and bandits being as numerous as they are conniving jerks playing by yourself is pretty much a non-option unless you're incredibly patient and are willing to wait for that blood to restore itself. What I do have though is a suggestion for this part, we already have antibiotics, charcoal tabs, vial jars (no idea what these do) and all sorts of stuff... why not erythropoeitin supplements? Our health is how much blood we've got right? Erythropoeitin is a hormone secreted by our kidneys that stimulates and accelerates blood cell growth based on the body's needs at the time. While I'm not suggesting this method should be as fast as a transfusion or saline infusion, I think it should accelerate health restoration up to a certain percentage or time (in which time frame, eating and drinking would accelerate it faster/in greater quantity). And that's it, those are my thoughts on the game so far. Do you agree, do you disagree and why?

Oh something else that I've noticed too, just a minor nitpick but the women make man sounds (breathing, pain, etc etc)

I will admit that it does seem like a good entendre of ideas to implement (admittedly I only skimmed, cruising the forums before bed) but I can't purport to reading the title of the thread without a chuckle. It seems everyone has the one perfect solution to fix the game FOREVAR and end all the troubles it has ever and will ever have. DayZ is an imperfect game, therefore in my opinion there will never be a perfect solution; only close concessions and middle grounds.

I'm not sure if anyone else follows this line of thinking but when I come across a rifle that I'm not using (like an M4 for instance) I actually disseminate the parts to it and basically make it useless to anyone who could pick it up with the intention of using it on me. More commonly, I'll take the buttstock and the sight (since so far I haven't been able to grab the grip) and then on my way out of the town I'll just drop them on the ground in the grass where no one would ever think to look (and anyone who does think to look after reading this, I wish you the best of luck). As for pistols, since you can't take them apart if I have the inventory room I'll pick them up and do the same; just drop it somewhere random in the wilderness to spite anyone who might use it on me or others.

Eh an easy out around that would be to have Skype on your smart phone while having your microphone active. You could just mute your mic and talk in to your smart phone to relay information. Honestly there's no way around it, douches are gonna be douches.

This is the unfortunate nature of having a game where people do whatever the crap they want. Like EVE Online before it, you have people who actually try to do good stuff and eek out a living in the online game world and like EVE Online you will have the people who choose to be complete arse-wipes about it. Reading the previous thread (about baiting someone with friendly only to maneuver them in to an easy kill) it really does put in to perspective why I got shot so many times when my intentions were indeed pure and why in retrospect why I shoot anyone who could possibly know about my presence, lest they have their buddies set up an ambush for me later on. It's also why when someone barks friendly in to their microphone that I leave them alone but if they follow me or otherwise continue to associate with me in any way other than bugging off and leaving me be, I kill them. I really would like to play the role of the paragon in this game, I like helping people and I'm a kind spirit at heart but being taken advantage of and killed so many times has made me bitter towards the notion in this game. So... yes, choose to be a bandit and take advantage of people's trust. I choose my own play-style and that is: If I don't know you and we meet, one of us will die.

Read my sig. If I don't know you then I can't tell if you'd screw me over for a laugh, one of us will die when we meet.

There is nothing childish about having bought a product and then not getting something I paid for and wanting the money back, keep your age/maturity arguments to yourself.

I will never be thankful for the devs forcing your game play style on to me. I can assure you personally that if it is forced across the entire game, I will be calling/e-mailing to ask for my money back. Hell I'd probably even make a twitter account just to tweet Dean after long enough of not getting an answer and my money back.

See I had something like that in the mod but I wasn't shooting at players, I was sniping zombies for my friends as they were raiding NWAF with an M24. Just doing my thing, minding my own business bam bam bam bam. We had cleared out the zombies under the tower I was sniping from so I wasn't too worried. Then after a little while I heard what sounded like a quadruple layer zombie scream and ladder climbing and stopped what I was doing to look down and see shart tons of zombies climbing the ladder. I think it ended up being around ten zombies and four glock 17 mags later (couldn't aim because by the time I got my shart together they were laying a beating on me so I was just mag dumping). That doesn't happen in this game as it is I feel, which is weird because it was supposed to get better than this rather than worse. Like I mentioned in the OP, it seems backwards to release a product when the selling point of that product is severely broken.

Such is the risk versus reward of entering a town to look for supplies. Such is the risk of approaching said corner. How about when you accept that people don't want to play in first person, I'll start advocating for first person being removed. (hint: it's impossible since one requires us to switch positions on this argument)

Well that's more or less an old horse that has been long beaten to death, these are just my impressions of the game thus far.

Google it my friend, I've already given you all the information you need to make an educated search.

I think it's hilarious the primary complaints are "I used it in combat". I hope all of you making this argument realize that nobody outside of tank crews and naval officers/crews use cardinal degrees to navigate or identify targets. While I won't pretend to have been in the military (because I wasn't) I can safely say with confidence that nobody in the middle of a firefight is going to whip out their compass and point out a cardinal degree to their buddies for targets. In fact I'm sure most conversations in combat about where targets are go something along the lines of... "ENEMY SNIPER THIRD FLOOR OF THIS BUILDING *gesture with hand to building*" "WHICH WINDOW?" "SECOND WINDOW FROM THE LEFT" RATTTATATTATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT For the people complaining about using a compass to actually navigate... Uh yeah, that's how compasses work. You hold them as flat on the horizontal axis of the earth (given that the compass itself is a flat wheel with an arrow pointing upward with magnets that make the arrow or wheel move accordingly) and given that the compasses we've got in game are old timey ones rather than the new fangled military bullshart ones we had in the Mod... Yeah it pretty much just amounts to "quit your QQing and deal with it".

My only beef with the M4 is that it's way too common, more common than the shotgun and mosin nagant for me. I have yet to come across a single one of either of those weapons but the game is practically hosing me with M4s and appropriate ammunition all over the place. As I said in my other First Impressions thread, I came across an M4 in a bloody office building. Which... unless it was a post office, that's just ridiculous.

See I disagree, our fingernails aren't even that rooted to our fingers. Sure we could rip some flesh but to cause the profuse bleeding that the Zeds do in a single shot most times? That's just silly, you need to tear way past epidermal tissue to get that sort of bleeding, like a good quarter inch or so. If the nails were too long, they'd catch on something and rip out, if they were too jagged they'd catch on something and break apart, if they're too short they wouldn't tear at all. I could by their attacks doing arterial spray amounts of bleeding if say... the victim had no clothes (equipment) on and the zombie was grabbing what amounts to as handfuls of flesh. If you could get a grip on fatty tissue and keep it, yeah it would tear pretty easily we're fragile creatures. We also however did not survive millenia of evolution by being something predators could easily latch on to, our entire body is build cylindrical and smooth for a reason: claws and other hooking attacks glance off and/or fail to grab anything meaningful on the first attack. Most creatures, even predators are designed with this natural deflection mechanism because everything that didn't naturally deflect to some degree got eaten. Now if they made the zombies -actually- pounce and knock you over to lay a beating, rather than this Shoryuken leap they do in the air before giving you a regular smack they do now... even without bleeding that crap would be terrifying to have happen.

Er... Wow, 43 pages? People really rage about this. Well alright, I might as well be trying to hold back a Tsunami with a handful of pebbles but I'm a fool if nothing else for trying. How about... I like seeing my character move, I like seeing my character holding their weapon while running around and being able to glance at them as I go? Or holding down Alt to look over my shoulder and casting my glance at my person. I personally can say that I spend more time looking at my person while they're on the move (not just standing holding their gun on the inventory screen which also blots my vision and leaves me completely helpless because I can only move on four axis of direction. Is it exploitable? Well yes it is, I do my best not to exploit it when I can but I can't say I'm 100% honest. Oh, here's another one. Maybe I'm just sick and tired of shooters (zombie shooters especially) that have the weird perspective of my gun arm coming out of my right cheek and my left arm coming out of the respective cheek to cradle my weapon. Perhaps I prefer firing from the hip in third person because it makes me feel less like a tard for missing all over the place whereas firing from the hip in first person tricks me because I've been playing FPSs since GoldenEye and firing from the hip has traditionally been counted as "looking down the sights" without having to ram a grey brick up my nostrils. Uhmmmmmmmm... what else... Oh I think it's cool and more immersive for me to watch my person move around and I don't actually depend on it -that- much, I just like it and don't want it to go anywhere because of reasons. This entire thread of constant rage just screams of people being butt-hurt because they lost all their gear to a bandit who came around a corner and shot them, or sniped them from a roof. For a community loaded with people that go "Har har, part of the game loser crai more kkthxbai" a lot of people seem pretty worked up over... what is part of the game (which is to say dying, one way or another). Realistically... how much does anybody actually think that person who was on the roof or behind a corner not being able to see over that lip/around that corner would have saved them? How diligent are people actually about watching rooftops and checking their corners? I bet not even nine-tenths of the people here in this very thread look at rooftops as they enter a town or city like Novy or Cherno respectively and they're just looking for an easy out to blame their lack of due diligence on someone else's "cheating". For those of you who set ambushes from around corners and on rooftops and were lying in wait for easy prey but ended up getting shot because of third person corner/rooftop peaking... part of the game, QQ more.

Uhm... This isn't actually very true. Granted if an arrow strikes a critical organ like the heart/lungs or punctures the intestines then yes, it's insanely dangerous. Most people who died from their wounds during the medieval era when bows/crossbows were popular was due to infection after the battle that was caused by the dirty arrow tip (archers often left their arrows stuck in the dirt for quicker-than-quiver-drawing or generally just poor hygienic conditions of medical care at the time. This is because awesomely enough, our muscles are basically our "natural" form of armor and they're very specifically designed to stop objects from penetrating in to the more critical parts of our body like the major organs. I do heartily agree with the fact that bleeding out should be the primary concern but again, it wouldn't kill you -that- quickly. It would certainly hurt like an insane motherf**ker that's for sure until you removed it though. It would all depend where it hit though.

To the first schmuck and/or asshole that killed me, I bequeath all the possessions on my cold dead body.

I love how so many people are perplexed at the ways someone could -possibly- explain tranq darts/tranq dipped arrow heads... When every Veterinarian has -plenty- of animal tranquilizers that would easily knock a human being on their ass at the right dosage. Just sayin!

So here's a crazy thought, why can't the humanity meter be the same for sanity? Think about it while I explain my line of thought on this. We human beings are violent by nature but our psyche isn't. How many people go to war come back in anything but an emotional wreck due to PTSD? Well imagine a world where there were no more therapists and no more counsellors to talk us through our problems. We would continue to stew in them. How many people would we kill before we started to become desensitized to it and begin to develop psychopathic tendencies? How many times could a character execute someone begging for help before it started to haunt them? How many days and hours could a character spend alone before their mind began to play tricks on them in order to cope with being alone? Just a few ideas... Being around other humans would give you a positive boost to humanity based on how their humanity was. If you're hanging around people that have been alone forever and talk and giggle to themselves randomly, you wouldn't lose humanity but you wouldn't gain it either. However the giggly crazy person would slowly regain their humanity and become more sane. The more "sane" people you have in a group, the better your humanity restores. Humanity lost by killing players is irredeemable, your character will bear that guilt until they die. Killing people (as it is) puts a massive drain on humanity but even if they're bandits it should still drain humanity some. Taking a life is still taking a life, at the end of the day we need to cope with it and if we have no one to share our guilt and worries with, we begin to become self destructive. Not drinking when needed would drain humanity (as our kidnies shut down from having no fluid, they allow hallucinogenic poisons to course through our brains) Lone wolfing would gradually drain humanity. We human beings are social creatures, only a rare few can life completely without social interaction and they tend to be fairly odd despite that anyways. Without others to interact with, we seek out interaction sometimes with inanimate objects or ourselves until our brain begins to play tricks on us and convince us that these inanimate objects are capable of talking back or we start having entire conversations and debates with ourselves simply because we need some form of interaction. The problem with this is when we are introduced after awhile of social deprivation, to another human being, it's difficult to recover from because we don't actually believe that person is there after a certain point. After a certain point, real from imaginary becomes indiscernible. Benefits to sanity: It would encourage players to work together and pick up new members of the group. The more people around, the more of a boost to humanity you will get. People are less likely to kill each other on sight because it would drain their humanity and bring consequences of insanity upon them. Negative effects of becoming insane... -Your character will hallucinate. Seeing zombies that aren't actually there (it would be hilarious to see someone running around being attacked by imaginary animals/zombies. Nobody else can see it but the player can see it) -Your character will talk to and argue with themselves (increased noise generation for when trying to sneak by zombies, essentially making stealth impossible because the character can'ts top bickering with themself) -Your character will be guilty (somewhat falls under hallucination but maybe names/faces of characters they've killed will jitter on their screen occasionally, becoming more and more frequent the more and more guilty they become. May also involuntarily break in to crying fits in which they can't move and are completely vulnerable in) -Your character will act unpredictably (The voices in their head said that they wanted to run through the streets shooting their gun, the voice in their head takes priority over your fingers on the keyboard. You run in to the city streets screaming like a crazy person because you are and shooting your gun like an equally crazy person. May turn on fellow survivors if humanity is at its lowest) -Crazy characters will be shunned (For the above reason, nobody wants to chance being shot in the back because the voices in that character's head said you deserved it)

Before you keep reading, I want to state clearly that this isn't just another "I want driving and shooting in Stand Alone!" because I've seen this quite a few times and I believe Rocket actually confirmed some sort of way to make vehicle chases more interesting in one of his seminar/interview/expose/whatevers awhile back before he promised Stand Alone for the beginning of 2013. Some ways I think that would make it more authentic (people keep using the word realistic but to be fair, we're playing a video game and Rocket himself has used the word "Authentic", eschewing the word "realistic" in light of that very fact) would be in the following ways... Bumps: Yeah this one sounds pretty standard but I don't think aim should be shaky (like you're in pain) but it should be dependent on the kind of surface you're driving on. Though of course because programming individual bumps and heaves in to the terrain specifically would be... well not practical. Instead a random generator whilst aiming from a vehicle to determine how often the aim is needed to be re-calibrated, how much the aim is thrown off and depending on the weapon; whether or not the user is thrown from the vehicle (More on this later). Maybe the following table could be used (or something similar since I don't know jack about programming)... Smooth paved road: 10-15% chance of hitting a bump, 5-10% that bump will be severe Frayed or poorly maintained paved road: 15-20% chance of hitting a bump, 5-15% chance it will be severe. Gravel road: 20-25% chance of hitting a bump, 10-15% chance it will be severe Heavily driven game trails: 20-30% chance of hitting a bump, 10-20% chance it will be severe Lightly driven game trails: 25-35% chance of hitting a bump, 10-25% chance it will be severe Off road, open country: 35-45% chance of hitting a bump, 20-30% chance it will be severe Off road, lightly forested country: 45-50% chance of hitting a bump, 20-45% chance it will be severe Off road, heavily forested country: 50-75% chance of hitting a bump, 45-60% chance it will be severe Consequences of a severe bump would depend on the position of the firing party. There are a lot of variables to account for but just to cover the basics. First the consequences of a severe bump to aim would be if you're looking down your weapon's sights, you would lower your weapon (to "from the hip" firing) and it would throw your up or down a bit once per severe bump, maybe a little bit to the side. This could be different for rifles or weapons with a buttstock because your body would act as a form of suspension, so you wouldn't be forced to lower the weapon to "from the hip" but your aim would be thrown a bit. Light bumps even with pistols and/or weapons without a stock would just have your aim thrown a bit up and down per bump you hit. The consequences of a severe bump would also have a chance (depending on your position in the vehicle) to throw you from it, forcing your companions to either leave you to the wolves or turn back and get your crumpled, broken body. So maybe the following table would apply... Inside vehicle in a seated position, firing one handed capable weapon: 0% chance of being thrown. Sticking head out the window to aim down one handed capable weapon's sights: 2-5% On the back of a motorcycle, seated and holding on to driver: 0-3% On the back of a motorcycle, firing a one handed capable weapon: 5-10% In the bed of a truck, firing a one handed capable weapon: 10-15% In the bed of a truck, firing a two handed weapon: 10-20% In the passenger seat of a car, sitting on window frame and firing a two handed weapon: 20-50% Of course, something else that would change these variables would be the speed the vehicle is going. Between 0 and 10 kph: 0% increase Between 10 and 20 kph: 5% increase Between 20 and 30 kph: 5-10% increase Between 30 and 40 kph: 5-15% increase Between 40 and 50 kph: 10-20% increase Between 50 and 60 kph: 20-25% increase Between 60 and 70 kph: 25-40% increase Between 70 and 80 kph: 30-50% increase Between 80 and 90 kph: 40-60% increase Between 90 and 100 kph: 60-80% increase Between 100 and 110+ kph: 80-85% increase If you -really- want to get in depth, then the degree of turn could also dictate how much the person's aim would be thrown a bit to the side or that they would be thrown from the vehicle if they are on the outside edge of the turn if they are wielding a two handed weapon whilst sitting on the window. Outside edge basically meaning if the vehicle is turning left, you are on the right side. If the vehicle is turning right, you are on the left side. You are on the side of the vehicle that it isn't turning in. 10-30 degree turn: 10-30% chance of aim being thrown to the side, 0% chance of being thrown from vehicle. 30-60 degree turn: 30-60% chance of aim being thrown, 33-66% chance of being thrown from vehicle. 60-90 degree turn: 60-90% chance of aim being thrown, 66-90% chance of being thrown from vehicle. 90-120 degree turn (a drift or "E-brake" turn): 100% chance of aim being thrown, 90-99% chance of being thrown from vehicle. And finally, I don't know if any of you have stuck your head out of a moving car but I think honestly if you are trying to aim a weapon precisely from the outside of a moving vehicle (sticking your head out the window to aim down sights or aiming down the sight of a rifle while sitting on the window frame) I would think that your character would lower their weapon to "From the hip" stance as they blink repeatedly, rub their eyes and are otherwise put in a situation where precision aiming isn't possible. This would only apply to aiming toward the forward axis of the vehicle, aiming to the side of or behind the vehicle wouldn't have this principle apply. This would make chasing someone actually very dangerous if you intended to gun them from your vehicle or had no weapons to speak of and the other car does have people with guns to shoot back at you. Thus it would create a more authentic feel to the game (I feel) and make the decision to chase down a vehicle you just saw a much more carefully thought out one. Risk versus reward sort of deal. Also this could apply to helicopters and firing from them. The following table is basically copied from earlier with a few changes. Between 0 and 10 kph: 0% chance of aim being lowered Between 10 and 20 kph: 5% chance of aim being lowered Between 20 and 30 kph: 5-10% chance of aim being lowered Between 30 and 40 kph: 5-15% chance of aim being lowered Between 40 and 50 kph: 10-20% chance of aim being lowered Between 50 and 60 kph: 20-25% chance of aim being lowered Between 60 and 70 kph: 25-40% chance of aim being lowered Between 70 and 80 kph: 30-50% chance of aim being lowered Between 80 and 90 kph: 40-60% chance of aim being lowered Between 90 and 100 kph: 60-80% chance of aim being lowered Between 100 and 110+ kph: 80-85% chance of aim being lowered Firing weapons from helicopters that aren't one handed should also have an inherent risk should the chopper dip and/or turn too sharply. One handed weapons wouldn't be an issue (even though they'd really be no use aboard an airborne vehicle, their effective range is well below what the engagement range for most combat helicopters is) nor would firing a mounted weapon. (The weapon is attached to the chopper, you are holding on to the chopper). Firing a rifle from an open sided helicopter would require two hands and have an inherent risk. Firing from a seated position like the Littlebird, let's just assume your person isn't stupid and they strap themselves in appropriately. Someone however leaning against the door frame of a Huey or standing on the back ramp to a Mii firing their weapon would be at risk. Also specific seat slots could be alotted to these positions (Since five or six people can't all shoot out the same door of a Huey, one maybe two maximum) that are only able to be taken by people in the chopper. They would sort of be a phantom seat, the player's spot in the chopper still being occupied so someone else can't just take their seat. This would prevent people from loading up a Huey with 3 or 4 more extra people (to be frank if you have that many people in a party, it shouldn't be that hard to find another chopper or vehicle to load them up in anyways.) So the following table is based on two things, the first being how severe the dip or change of the axis is and the second being that it only applies to the direction a person is capable of falling out of the chopper. For instance, if someone is in the door firing position with their rifle from a Huey, if the chopper suddenly dips its nose upward, their aim would just be thrown a bit. However from the back of a Mii (the Russian troop carrier chopper) if it suddenly dipped its nose in the same fashion they would have a chance (corresponding to the angle and suddenness) of being thrown from the chopper entirely. This is again if the chopper tilts -suddenly-, not gradually. Meaning the chopper would abruptly and rapidly change its axis, giving the player's character less than a few precious seconds to respond as human beings require at least one second but often two or three to recognize that something is a threat and to respond to it accordingly. 10-30 degree change in axis: 5-10% chance of being thrown from the chopper 30-50 degree change in axis: 10-20% chance of being thrown from the chopper 50-80 degree change in axis: 20-60% chance of being thrown from the chopper 80-120 degree change in axis: 60-80% chance of being thrown from the chopper 120-180 degree change in axis: 80-95% chance of being thrown from the chopper. I didn't include anything from 180 degrees and up because I seriously doubt even the most skilled chopper pilot is capable of getting a helicopter to change it's axis past 180 degrees in less than three or four seconds. If I'm wrong and any -actual- helicopter pilots are out there, please feel free to correct me. I also welcome any sort of footage showing such a stunt captured, pictures being worth 1000 words, moving pictures being worth a million. And to wrap it all up, depending on the firing position, the player should be limited to a certain firing arc. Just to clarify, the front of the vehicle is our zero degrees going upward in a clockwise direction here. So someone firing from a front passenger seated position could not fire at a 225 degree angle without deafening the driver (front passenger being on the right like in North America in this example) and of course, sticking a gun in their face. So just a few examples... Front passenger seated position: 45 degree firing arc Back of a pick-up truck bed: 45 to 225 degree firing arc Sitting on window frame firing assault rifle or pistol: 180 to 360 degree firing arc Front Passenger sticking head out the window with a pistol: 90 and 90 to 180 degree firing arc. (The reason they are seperate is because the player would have to reorient themselves from aiming forward to aiming backwards, a few precious seconds to twist their upper bodies in to doing so.) So... hope this is something at least new on the subject. It started as a reply to another thread but the reply became so big I felt it deserved its own thread.

That's actually not bad, yeah. The chance of dropping your gun would have people very cautious. Though in all fairness, I'm not sure it fits. When I went to a firing range to fire a handgun I was told to hold it very tightly and lean in to it just a touch. Anyone given the same advise wouldn't be likely to drop it if they were holding it properly.