Droidlife

Remember that this is a mod so far, and one mans vision. Due to the massive demand for this type of realism focused game play it has exploded beyond ALL expectations. Put it aside for a few months and come back when Rocket and the rest of the team has had time to work this embryo into a proper game. Then, if you like zombies and survival you might consider giving them your money for the stand alone and from there is where things would really kick off imo. Instead of being frustrated at this Arma II modification look at what it can bring to the gaming industry as a whole. As Dean have said, Dayz has sent a clear message to the industry that people really want something with more depth than the average dumbed down shooters that we are used to.

This is really all there is to it. Now, the team needs to polish up 1st person and have it go through a good amount of testing so there are no flaws with it compared to other titles on the market where all the kids play 1st without whining and crying about not having the option to meta game around corners or over cover. Alternatively, you could make it so that there is a special head slot skin for people in 3rd person, like a big paper cone with "DUNCE" on it. Then they could have their 3rd person perspective in but real men would be able to see them from behind cover, plotting and scheeming to "pwn" you using meta game information. So...are we done here?

How about if you force server admins to have the tag "WIMP MODE" or "CARTOON MODE" in their server name whenever 3rd person is activated?

Walking should totally be LMB/RMB repeatedly. Shooting and zoom can go to a weapon menu. But seriously, if there are realism enhancing systems in the game that add to the richness of the world and opens up many more threats / options that's a good thing. Where people go to far is when various ideas require to much micro management from the player for the sake of realism. But having 150 different food items with different caloric values is not a bad thing, with calories effecting your stamina pool or whatever. Raising resilience to disease for example. Diversify threats, and meet that with a multitude of ways to deal with these threats is always a good thing.

- Oh, the humanity! *lays down on beach in fetal position and let's the good lord end it all....20 times*

One thing I personally do not like when it comes to let's plays is a lot of swearing, negativiety or yapping on about stuff that isnt game related. But I guess there is a place for everything. Younger audiences tend to enjoy more immature behavior I guess. Then there are personalities that stick out and are pleasant to listen to no matter what goes on, like Simon and Lewis on the Yogscast. You cant mimic that.

Dude! You should totally be able to do that thing with lighting gunpowder on fire in your wound as well. Straight up bad assery! Like you say, the possibilities here are great indeed. Thing is though that you need to dress these things on top of a solid system of game mechanics tied into gear progression or skill progression, and the system needs to be a limiting factor to some degree, but presented in a pleasant manner. If you have that in place you can go nuts with all the little aspects of zombie survival.

Dude. Stop peaking around corners, alright?

For this game, players should be anchored down and tied into the body of their toon, FPS style, (all "claustrofobic and restricted" whaa whaa) and that's pretty much the end of it. All donkey kong country style whiners ("wouldnt be Dayz any more!", wtf?) should just be crushed and squashed under the weight of the mighty 1st person perspective boot. Sure, Rocket and the team might miss out on some revenue but things would be put right. It's a critical decision. Do we want tense, immersive, realistic style zombie survival or do we want some gamey run of the mill bullshit that's a dime a dozen in the market place? Weeee I wanna jack cars and kill hookers! Piew piew I can seeee you, tihi! Pwnd!

Awesome! :D

I think there could be a considerable amount of "artsy fartsy" injected into this project without going the silent hill route or whatever. But I DO hear you, and I think that great care has to be taken here. The chilly "just a normal day" ambiance accompanied by the steel hammers of doom ringing across the landscape was just BANG ON GENIUS. I think Rocket knows not to take it to far in any other direction. The key thing here is "desolate but normal world". I fully agree. Zombies should be running towards you all wailing and screaming as the sunlight beams down on a perfectly clear and frosty autumn day.

I am aware that there is a fine line to tread here, but if the longer down times in this type of system steadily become shorter as you gear up, along with having "tools" affecting the success rate of certain actions, i think that would be a solid type of "character progression", and finding loot that affects your performance in different ways would become more fun. Anyway. A can of beans without a knife or a can opener is just a hassle to deal with. If you had soup, maybe you could punch a hole in it with a screw driver or some other sharp, metallic object and pour it into your mouth, or suck it up with a straw! :D Just kidding. Or am i?

As much as I dislike WarZ at least the douchebag devs behind that abomination of a game put in a kind of basic "progress indicator" for certain actions, like when picking up loot. I dont know if they have this in for other types of actions but it's like a bare bones representation of a "time" implementation. Now imagine this as a slick, small progress indicator that isn't shoved in your face right at the cross hairs position all "gamey" and ghastly. While this indicator counted down you could have your toon go through certain activity related motions, either represented in FPS view showing the actual hand movements and items involved, or represented graphically in some other way. This would be accompanied by appropriate sound effects and just generally integrated in the whole feel of the interface. Slinging your back pack or "gear sling" down on the floor and seeing the actual model for the pack you are wearing would be super cool. Throwing wood on the ground and crouching down to light it on fire by various means of igniting would be cozy. Think of the gutting animals animation and sound package from Far Cry 3, but more time involved. Think, a piece of wood, a stick, actually represented in FPS view as you saw an animation of you putting cloth around it to make a torch. That type of thing could be how actions are represented. There would have to be found a sweet spot here as I said, and the implementation of such as system should be accompanied by some form of interesting and immersive graphics and sound effects. Whilst this is going on, the player behind the screen lights a fag or adjusts his chair or takes a zip from his beer or whatever. It shouldn't be something that occurs in the general flow of the game and slows it down or gets in the way, but it would be something that feels natural and represents moments of "down time". Fairly short moments, but still substantial. I'm thinking in the range of 10-30 seconds tops.(well, personally I'm open for longer but this has to be tested and would be affected by many things). The time frame would be the game representation of a person running into a house, feeling a bit safer for a few short moments and taking the time to go through his pack, dig out a certain item and doing a certain operation, be it eating, medical care, weapon modifications or similar actions. The key thing here is that being "locked down" and exposed like that would BRING something to the game I think. It would affect player behavior in many ways. Mainly, it would make people act more cautiously. Now as you gear up you become better at these activites. This would have a big impact on field dressing and similar activities where people could actually start feeling like a "wasteland medic" in a true sense because they have found this rare piece of medical loot that makes their actions much quicker and more effective. You could take this further if Rocket and the rest of the boys ever decide to go in the direction of skill progression. Mabey a slow but steady progression along the lines of how Bethesda does it in their Elder scrolls games. I.e, you learn by doing. Or find related material (books, pamflets?) and gear that makes your job easier. I mean there is a HUGE difference between having your clips at the bottom of your backpack or easily accessible in a new flashy tac gear vest that you just found. Or in your pockets! In my mind there is a vastness of options here if you have the basic mechanic in place that you start out unskilled, weak on gear and weak on experience with surviving zombie apocalypses and many actions take a considerable amount of time to execute. But then you gear up and become more skilled, and your beard grows long and strong, and nublets look to you for support and guidance and your extensive can opening expertise. :D

Ok but let's put this aside for now. I'm pretty certain that you can't dress a wound by stabbing a Fällkniven at it. That is one bad ass knife though, I agree. :) I mean this example we are talking about now only further supports my main argument. Finding a good quality knife like that would make opening a can much easier than slamming it repeatedly with a rock or whatever, but it could be accomplished that way, you know. But that would take much longer and the contents would risk being lost to a degree. Findign aknife then would be "gearing up" and the time involved in the whole opening cans of beans milark would be cut down, so you would be more mobile and just more effective in general. As it stands now there are many many areas in the mod where there is room for this type of mechanic. Good quality knife, awkward type of knife, can opener, mechanical can opener, shitty can opener, jab a screwdriver into the can, slam the can on a rock. There is room for very diverse gear progression here if there is 1. a time aspect to the various actions, and 2. an effect on the outcome as to quality and yield. A good hunting knife would make processing animals much easier then if you just came off the beach, found a bread knife in a house along the way and tried to cut open a goat.

There was a tweet up on reddit about a friday dev blog update, and that is today, so, hurray!

I have had extensive testing with this in real life my friend since I currently do not own a can opener, and it is my strong position that knifing open a can of beans takes longer than opening it with a can opener. Not to mention the risk of cuts on jagged edges when you hammer it open with a knife. :) But perhaps you are like the master of knifing cans open. (Hell, make "knifing cans" a seperate skill tree. :D) But it's besides the point im trying to make here. I'm saying "keep it realistic, and let gear affect your performance".

Yes, but also these ideas would affect game play in a very direct and natural manner. If having a blood transfusion done, or getting a leg splintered, or just bandaging a wound are major operations that are represented in game as accurately as possible, while not going over the top with it in the time aspect (so it doesnt become an annoyance) it would have a real impact on player behavior. Ofc you would have to find a sweet spot here. I'm not saying players should have to sit through half an hour of dressing a wound. You would have to plan your city loot runs. You would be much more cautious. An extra pair of hands from a friend or a team of survivors would make life much easier in many aspects besides having more firepower, more eyes on the situation and a buddy with a blood pack. If taking care of your basic needs, and your critical needs become a more time consuming / skill requiring operation the "when and where" that I'm talking about becomes much more pronounced in several of the game mechanics, and this affects player behavior. It would really, really incentivise teaming up with other players, that's for sure. I mean WITHDRAWING from a firefight, straight up fleeing, would become a much more logical reaction if you get wounded. You couldnt just go througgh your gear and perform complex actions in amatter of seconds while you hunker down, and then pop out fit as a fiddle to continue the engagement. I think that you could bump up the time aspect quite a bit without pissing off the player because actions such as eating or taking care of a wound are not things that you do frequently during game play. These actions represent critical moments where you should be vulnerable and exposed. If you package such a time consuming action in apalatable way, with slick graphical and sound effects along with it, and perhaps a little timer or something along that line I think it would add very much to immersion. Then make it so that gear progression affects how well you can perform. Let various gear items affect time and outcome/success rate and I think you can build a pretty solid system with strong incentives to gear up.

Good points. But what about rethinking development all together? Get the commjunity involved and let that content pass through a quality check. Mabey put a system in place where the developers can communicate their design goals for the community to follow. Mabey some form of compensation? Let people who work on pieces personalize them to an extent? Let them put their "mark" on them. Their own names or the names of the group or whatever? It could be in small items placed in buildings like notes or on black boards or mabey in a company name or whatever. Just trying to think outside the box here.