032125 (DayZ)

Not only do you not get my beans; I demand that you give up your man card. I suspect you were never issued one.

I can't find this in any previous comments, but what about SAM Splints? They're military issue (at least, they were when I was around) they weight almost nothing, and are about the size of a can of beans. They should be readily available in military bases, medical tents and FOBs.

By NPCs I assume the OP meant bots, not interactable quest giving types. I'd be down for that. The AI aim can seem ridiculous, but I don't recall ever getting hit on the first shot outside of 300 meters in ARMA. It might add quite a lot to the game if you couldn't just take that UAZ, but had to secure it from a gang of AI scavengers. I'd be pretty amped if I was scavenging in a remote town and saw a truckload of crazies pull up guns blazing and start battling zulus while I peeked out the grocery store window. That would also ameliorate some of that "nothing ever happens outside of Electro/Cherno/North Airbase" phenomenon that some people complain about. Just because there were four people on your server, you could not assume you were alone with Zed and his 40 cousins. I like it.

There is the small matter of select fire. That's not what I would call exact. Further, there are myriad options for AR-15s that most military units would not/ could not budget fior, or might actively disallow if they make the CO nervous (like a match trigger, upgraded charging handle, muzzle brake, etc). Officers are twitchy fuckers. I'm not saying that the devs should spend man hours to add near infinite rifle bling; only that there are enough restrictions on both sides of the line to make a functionally very different system. But I probably know nothing about it either, right? ;)

I like your style. I would only add that a strop is better than a wetstone (IMDO) and all you need is a leather belt, a bit of soil, and some spit to keep your knife skinning sharp. With a grind stone (maybe you meant wetstone) you remove too much steel and it's too easy to ruin your edge geometry. I'm being a nitpicky know-it-all, aren't I? I'll shut up now. Remember; sharpen once, hone forever.

Oh I don't expect the devs to do anything but stabilize the existing game right now; this is only my hope for long term development (i.e. by next Christmas). The schedule is pretty packed as it stands, and it wouldn't be remotely possible without the aforementioned and much maligned (IMDO) Steam assistance.

I was agreeing with you (and the guy you were agreeing with), though I take a much less dim view of humanity than you are expressing here. Being a student of Austrian economics, I agree that people can always be counted on to act in thier own (percieved) self interests, but I extrapolate from that premise the notion that if mechanics allow people to cooperate, the generally will. The viciousness of DayZ heretofore may have been a consequence of the lack of those social mechanics, and perhaps even moreso the lack of a division of labor. In a setting where social contact is all risk (he might shoot me) and little reward (he can't do anything I can't, but he has beans), there isn't any advantage to cooperation, empathy, restraint, etc. and you get what we've seen thus far, but that's a totally artificial environment.

The explicit/implicit philosophy is one of immergent, organic problemsolving rather than arbitrary, forced mechanics (which classes, perks, and skills all lead to, for better or worse). Balance? It's already there; everyone is brittle and hungry. Instant balance. Add arbitrary classes and the devs will be forever nerfing the classes that shine brightest. Personally, I'd have an actual image of a real GSW pop up when I examine an injured player, and then have to use real-life skills to assess and triage, instead of selecting a preset number of medical "sklll points" to be able to auto-treat the wound. This is an engine where you can navigate by the stars on a clear night, if you have the know-how. Why not extend that to mechanics, pilots, medics, and so on? If there are some of us who happen to carry around all of that knowledge, we will fare better in the long run than the bored COD transfers with inhuman twitch speeds and amazing aim, who quickly get bored and take up banditry. "Are you sure you want to shoot that guy, billy? He might be the only mechanic in the server right now, and our UAZ has broken down again..." I look at this as a simulator (or "anti-game" as it has been labelled) rather than a big blockbuster meant to appeal to the popcorn eating crowd. The more of those tropes the devs put in, the more the simulation loses its niche, its appeal, its uniqueness. It becomes just a zombie game, in a world flooded with zombie games.

I don't think there is (or should be) "character progression" in this anti-game. Progression comes internally, in the form of learning. When I started it took me hours and multiple attempts to get food and hydration because I was fixated on grabbing a gun. Nowadays I pretty much ignore guns until all of my other needs are met and I'm well inland. That's progression. My point earlier wasn't so much that arbitrary body decay or foot travel limits should be part of the game; only that excercize makes one fit only if certain conditions are met A. The individual doesn't get injured, or has recovery support when injuries occur B. Caloric intake accounts for caloric output Neither of these criteria are likely in this setting, but once undeground bunkers/colonies become available, that seems much more viable. Actually I think it would be interesting to have some random genetic differences at start that affect load capacity, endurance, foot speed, resistance to disease, how well you see in th dark, etc. Not huge differences, but we all play with the hand we are dealt at birth. Wouldn't it be interesting to spawn on the beach as a ruck beast with good footspeed but bad aim one time, and then as a weakling with perfect aim in the next life? Maybe your ruck beast can carry 80 extra lbs, but is always getting sick... or your weakling only eats once a day.

Old ex-army here. I see what you're saying, and under ideal conditions you are correct that excersize made us stronger, though at a huge caloric cost. Isn't the caloric intake in basic something like 4000 calories a day? And yet I lost 35 lbs in three months .... Also note that most of the soldiers that I knew got out with permanent mechanical injuries; bad backs, ruined knees, fucked up feet, compressed vertibrae, etc. At least two lost fingers, but not from excersize. All of those permanent injuries in spite of ongoing, free medical support. The contrast between the "excersize" of a well funded and supported athelete (or soldier) and the work and strain of a survivor (refugee, etc) is massive. No bunk to sleep on, no sick call, no profiles. No mess hall. No doctors. Even minor mechanical injuries can take a lone survivor down that death helix, and with very little chance of R&R you'd never quite get the chance to recover from injuries. Just my dumb opinion.

In real life dogs can smell disease; this is not the same thing as decay. People can smell decay, but would be everywhere in Chernarus and wouldn't be very helpful (+1 for dogs, btw). We cannot smell disease. It's always preferable to let the story express itself through game mechanics; it's more immersive anyhow. The first time my travelling companioned coughed, it was an oh-shit moment. We were at the northwest airbase and we thought there was another player close by. That cough sent our minds racing because we weren't sure what it meant or if the infected would hear us, and that was glorious. Now consider the following scenario. You and some friends are travelling north to the airbase, and you have to stop to go to the bathroom. Again. Everybody else does this once every two hours and it takes 10 seconds, but you've done it four times from Electro to Novy Sobor, it's taking you a full 60 seconds, and every time you do it your fliuds dip significantly. Do you ignore this, or turn around and head back to Electro hospital? You have a doctor with you and he examines your stool, and finds blood. There's no potty humor here; deficating sends some pretty important signals. Maybe if you don't deficate your hands shake, but you don't bleed. Ignore it long enough and your movement speed slows. If you want to be silly that's fine too; I don't see why DayZ should be devoid of humor, as long as it ads new challenges too (not just humor for humor's sake. Maybe eating nothing but baked beans gives you gas, which you can let out but it attracts zombies, or keep in, but your hands shake. If you hold it in long enough you HAVE to fart, it's louder, and it draws crawling zombies. You can't compare this to shaving or getting a manicure; these are NEEDs, man.