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I really love this mod mostly because it's so harsh and unforgiving. I've had great time playing DayZ after I got attacked by a horde of zombies, and had to survive with about 1k of blood and nearly no supplies. Having that said, I still think it's slightly too easy to survive. There's always plenty of food and drink, and if you're healthy, there's no reason to panic really. So here's my suggestions on how to make this mod even more survival-focused: 1)Food a) Less food lying around. It's so easy to find some canned food, that finding hunting knife and matches is really not a big deal. Unless you're hurt, I'll get back to that later. Maybe cans should fill you up only in 50%, maybe they should be very rare. It's been discussed a lot already, no point in repeating arguments. Bottom line is, that finding food should be difficult, and right now I'm more concerned with finding cool weapon, than with not starving to death. b) Adding "Satiated" status. It makes no sense that, when I'm hurt, I kill a cow, eat 8 steaks at once and I'm healthy again. I shouldn't be able to eat more than 2 steaks. It would require some tweaking, but you get the idea - you can't eat a whole cow at once, you're not Kobayashi. I think the easiest way to make it realistic is to check hunger level every time player wants to eat. If I want to eat beans I have an option in menu only if I'm <= 75% full. Cooked meat appears in the menu if I'm <=50% full. Numbers can be tweaked but you get the idea. Point is - don't let me eat a whole cow when I'm hurt. 2) Bandits I wrote about it somewhere else but let me put it as a whole suggestion. Of course the game shouldn't punish people for killing players, that would be dumb. But we also need to consider the fact, that it's a game, not reality. That's why we need a way of recognizing players. Not bandits, but players in general. If I meet a guy who helps me to kill Zeds, and then gives me some important stuff, I really don't want to kill him next time I meet him. So my suggestion is: add a feature of displaying player's nickname after some time of looking at him/her. People will adjust quickly, I'm sure. 3)Sickness As far as I know it's impossible to keep track of weather globally but I might be wrong. But let's assume it is. Add "Ill" status that's gained after some (longer) time without sitting next to a fire (or in the rain, if it's possible to check). At first it won't do much - some blur from time to time. But later, if player won't do anything about it (making a fireplace, eating cooked meat, maybe eating some medicine, if you add it) it'll get worse - longer periods of blur, coughing and sneezing (that would be really terrible consequence, nobody would take it lightly) and eventually passing out. I think the main issue is to code conditions for getting ill. Let's say that every minute next to the fire gives you an hour of running without getting ill, and for every "tier" of illness you need to spend 5 minutes next to the fire and eat one cooked meat + some medicine if it's pass some point (coughing for example). So that's my suggestions. I realize that it's basically "Make it harder" but that's exactly what I want from this game - I want it to be survival-focused, unforgiving, tough game, even more than it is right now. And now discuss.

humanity points, some sort of illness with big chance of happening and some visual hint for other players. I don't think that eating other people has no effect on your mind, even in extreme situation.

I don't know... This idea isn't bad, and it makes sense in some way - it's a dirty world and we're all doomed, yeah. But look at the leaderboards. 1st in the Longest Survive section is 55h 36m. Which means that even now, without any illnesses or any of the suggestions given by us in this thread and many similar ones we're completely unable to survive for 3 days. We're pretty doomed already, IMO. I suggested illnesses to add 1) a challenge, 2) realism and immersion and 3) new ways of strategic thinking. If you're able to prevent illness how much risk will you take to do it? Will you set up a camp and sit down next to a fire for several minutes? Or maybe you'll go to some town during rain to wait indoor? Or maybe you'll take your chance and when you get ill you'll just look for some meds? But what if you sneeze during scavenging? Do you see what I mean? Give players the risk, a real one but also give them the options so they can actually play the game. I'd love to try it your way as well though. If illness will ever be implemented I'm going to get infected right after respawn to see how it plays.

OH YES, PLEASE! This, along with fixing direct channel would make grouping so much easier. I'd love to find a pepper spray and do some SWAT 4 action:)

Well, your idea makes sense but is incredibly difficult to code/balance. Mostly because you don't know, while coding if person you tagged isn't hiding from you. If he/she is, then tagging might be a terrible disadvantage. Anyway, I've seen system similar to the one I gave working in Project Reality and it really works. It feels like you're looking at the guy and trying to figure out who he is. Now let's say that you heard rumours about some famous bandit who's incredibly pro and shows no mercy. IRL you'd be given his description but it won't happen in game. So instead you're given his name. And after some time you see a guy who didn't notice you. You look at him for a moment and you see his name. Now, if you remembered the name of this bandit you realise it's him and you can hide/engage depending on what you want to do. It will also help with creating bonds between players. Another example. You're in trouble. Maybe because of zombies, maybe bandits, never mind. You're in the open and you're pretty sure you won't make it, you start to plan what to do after respawn. And then someone appears, you think he's gonna kill you but you don't really care. But the guy says he's friendly, takes care of your wound, gives you some cooked meat and maybe even some ammo. You're in the open, so it would be stupid to stand around and add each other to friends list. This blokes goes his way before you had a chance to thank him and you're still too weak to go after him. Now with my system you've seen his name just by looking at him, with your system you might never know who the hell was that and that's really shame, don't you think? Sure, you can ask him on the chat but it still doesn't require your system. EDIT: About recognizing your mates instantly, I missed that. In most situations you will see people from distance. It's ArmA, if you see the guy 50 meters away you're either dead or he's friendly. Which means that neither my nor your system would work on short distances, definitely not for simulating differences in people's appearance. And when you look at someone from 100+ meters away you have to spend some (even if very short) time to recognize him, even if it's your brother just to rule out possibility of making a mistake.

Well' date=' if I play with some buddies or run into some other survivors, the thing that generally happens is: Say you're friendly in direct communication or chat Ask if they want to travel together Discuss what the plan is/where to go Head on out In a real situation like this, it would only be natural to tell them your name. Now i said a button, it could just a well be an action menu option when others players are in your vicinity (similar to opening someone elses backpack), but I wouldn't go to every survivor in a group of say, 4 people, and tell them my name seperately. If it is an action menu entry, the radius has to be pretty smal so as not to be exploited. As a survivor, you're already announcing your position when you use direct chat, so I don't see any reason why this wouldn't be used at your first meeting (direct chat is used, when it's not broken). Once I tell them my name, they'd be able to recognize my name when looking at me in the future, when they're close enough to see my face. But that's probably too hard to implement, that's why I say you should be able to recognize the names of people who have introduced themselves to you in the past when they're within a certain range and hover your crosshair over them. I find this way more natural than just having the name of someone magically appear after looking at them for a while, and it would serve the same purpose. You'd only see them name when hovering your crosshair over someone who's introduced themselves to you on the past and who's in your vicinity. I don't see a problem with this if the "introduction radius" isn't too big. [/quote'] There is no problem besides the fact that it's useless. If you're using direct channel you can just say your name using it. If you use the chat people already see your name. Your idea is basically a friend list, nothing more. It still won't give players the chance of recognizing people by looking at them, the ability everyone with working eyes has. And this is what this suggestion is for - to simulate, as well as possible, visible differences between people. I think that friend's list is completely useless in this mod. But that's only my opinion. Um, thank you... I think? I do hope that this is a direction this mod will head, regardless if any of the suggestions will be used. I just want this game to be more difficult and survival oriented. Mostly because I hate zombies as a theme in general but I think that it would serve the game well to go down this road. Well, now I'm blushing.

I'm not sure if I understand it correctly. I press the button, and everyone in some given radius can see my nickname floating over my head. Why would I do that? If I'm a bandit I'll never press the button because a) I don't want to be seen and b) I don't want to give my identity away in case someone wants to take revenge on me. If I'm survivor I'll never press this button because I don't want to give away my position. Even if I'm standing and casually talking with some other bloke and we just want to share our names we don't know who's around, it could give away our position.

Idea is really great, and I'd love to see more crafting in this game. There's only one word that makes me think twice about it: griefing. Think about those people who will set such traps in towns for the lulz. There has to be way of recognizing and disarming this trap.

It seems that I need to fix my sarcasm detector, my apologies. Anyway, I don't think that adding urine and stool would be really beneficial to the gameplay. Firstly, it's way too much coding, secondly it won't change too much for the reason I already explained - nobody's going to do any of this stuff anywhere close to the zombies, so it'd be only an annoyance. This game is supposed to be difficult and realistic, not annoying. This is exactly why I like it so much. It's not so much that I'm mousing over their character to get a name but just mousing over to focus on their face/general characteristics that I can recognise. Great suggestions! Thanks. I'd love to know if any of these features are planned to be implemented (in any form) in the game.

I know that seeing the name seems like it's too much but in fact it's pretty much the same as seeing the face. It's up to you to remember it, there's nothing in game to write it down for you (you could write it down on a piece of paper but that's not horrible or game breaking). If delay is set right (I'd go with 1,5 second for a start and see how is this working in game) it would be really good for gameplay, and with direct channel fixed it would make socializing SO much easier and realistic. And I really think people would adjust quickly. Of course, at first there will be casualties from people not being able to wait for so long but I believe that after some time we'd create some sort of an etiquette. And it won't really help bandits, if you think about it, because if a bandit spots you first, he's gonna kill you anyway, so there's no option to recognize him for you. And if you spot him first you still have an upper hand. Third scenario is that you find each other at the same time. Assuming there's no bandit model (if there is this part of a discussion is meaningless) you'll die because the bandit will have the first shot. But as the health system works right now, you'll live long enough to learn his name. So you can have your revenge.

Still not constructive. Using straw man is not going to help this discussion. Illness is not the same as pissing. The latter makes little to no difference to your chance of surviving the day while former is one of the first things you'd think about when faced with similar situation (even without zombies). You could argue that smell of urine could attract zombies but that's too much hassle for no gain. Nobody's dumb enough to go for a wee close to any zeds. So yeah, if you think that illness is a bad idea give a reason, mocking is pointless, which makes your post as valuable as spam.

You don't like this idea because... Can we agree to be constructive here?

Haha, good one. But really the idea of illness sounds really great to me - firstly it makes sense, as stated by some people in my thread, and secondly it adds a lot of tension and lots of new worries and survival options. I just don't think that too many illnesses should be added at this point. I really think that, for now, we'd be fine with common cold getting worse and more serious stuff should be left for later. This is alpha, and there's lots of things to be added and tweaked and making everything complicated from the start will make it unplayable. One step at a time.

You (should) drink way more often than 3 times a day. Your activity should be a factor as well. If you run a lot (90+% of cases in DayZ) you should eat and drink more. I think it's fine as it is for now - we have to eat and drink slightly more often than IRL but we're also very active. It would be nice to see some actual simulation in this regard in future.

*cough*First!*cough*

I like the idea. I can imagine making my own LARP in the game. So meta.

Yes, inventory system is bugged but it's ArmA's fault, not mod's. It's been a problem for ages that if you put into a container of any sort something that doesn't fit said container this item disappears. Even in dayz we lost one sniper rifle and one AK to this bug. @WaxMan Er, two main weapons? And how do you plan to carry them? One on each shoulder? It's already possible to do this if you have bigger backpack, like ALICE pack. But besides that situation it would be really dumb. It's already ridiculous (try to put a rifle into a backpack, I wish you good luck)

Somebody made a suggestion about adding PSD (Post Stress Disorder) and we came to conclusion that drinking alcohol would be a good way of coping with it. It also connects nicely with my idea of illness. Firstly, obvious stuff - drinking alcohol makes you dizzy and if you drink too much you can even pass out. Secondly, also kind of obvious - addiction. After drinking for song (long) time you get addicted and you start to feel worse and worse until you drink again. There could be an option of detox but let's not make it too complicated right now. Lastly - Alcohol makes you less resistant to diseases of all sorts - the more you drink, the bigger is the chance of getting ill. As you can see, it changes into slippery slope, and it would be incredibly difficult to stay healthy, sane, not addicted and also not starving to death. Yes, it's hard and extremely unfair but if you think about it, it makes sense - in case of apocalypse of any sort the main enemy would be our fragile bodies, that's the first thing to take care of - shelter, medicines, food and fresh water, not shotguns and sniper rifles.

This "non visual item" idea came from concern about engine capabilities. Rocket wants to scrap bandit skins, I don't think he'd be too happy to add ponchos:) Anyway, we're discussing details here. I'd like to know what community thinks of general idea of illness and other stuff as well.

Well, I'm adjusting gamma. I'm also not a bandit, so you don't have to worry that I'll use it against you. If I was to be forced to play in pitch black night I simply wouldn't be playing at night. And since I'm interested only in killing zombies and gathering loot, you wouldn't see the difference.

1 - Good idea, I would extend this point into request for crafting in general. 2 - If a player is on his own, you don't really need to be silent, if he's with other people he's using TS anyway, so there's no point. Melee would be good against zombies, as a last resort. Think about it - you fight off a horde but you're empty and there's only one Z left. What do you do? Die? Run? No, you take your knife, or a rock and you fight with all you've got. 3 - I don't know if it's even possible in ArmA but idea is quite neat. Although I can't shake off the feeling that something's off in thi suggestion. I can't put my finger on it, maybe I'll get it later, and add my opinion. 4 - a) The idea of PSD is good, I think, it's they way of fighting with it seems wrong. First - where would you find antidepressants in zombie-infestated Chernarus? And how popular would it be? You fight all the time in this game. You're constantly stressed, you would be taking those pills by kilograms. I would use alcohol instead. It does pretty much the same, but makes more sense and fits the lore. And it could have more effects than simply curing PSD. b) No, that makes no sense. You'd rather get PSD after being shot at, that's way more stressful, and this would be too cruel for non bandits, I think.

I really don't want to go into too much detail, it's just too early for that. Food could speed up the blood regeneration, it could do hundreds of things, it doesn't matter - balance is for later. What I want to see is the effect, which is that eating 8 steaks should not be a way of regenerating big & of health like it is right now. With this, and with illness, the survival part of game will be nearly flawless. There's one issue I thought of regarding rain. People will be disconnecting every time it's raining, which means empty servers, which means no fun. Think about it - there's nothing beneficial in rain right now. Add illness and you'd be stupid to continue playing of you don't have medicines with you. My mate made another suggestion - clothes that protect you from rain. You could put them in your accessories slot without changing appearance. That would (at least partially) fix the "mass disconnect" issue but would it be enough? I don't know.

I certainly hope that blood regeneration over time will never be implemented, and if it is it will be small, insignificant amounts. 100 units/hour for example. Regenerating blood by eating is absolutely fine, as long as we're not able to eat whole butchery shop in 1 minute. If you're forced to wait with eating a steak until you get hungry again, you won't think that steaks are "overpowered", they will be just fine. About a shelter and rain... I'd love to see something like this in game but I doubt it's possible. I'm not sure if ArmA can properly recognize that you're indoors (it most probably can but I'm not sure if it's working well enough to be used like this) and if weather is handled locally it will be impossible to use for health changes. But if it is possible, I'd love to see it as realistic, as it takes.

There should be grouping option, I agree. But not only for survivors but for everyone. Why would bandits be prevented? I can't think of any reason for this to happen. In fact, survivors would find it easier to group than bandits, because the latter group can't trust anyone by default. Of course, this will change as well, since bandits are most probably to be scrapped, but it doesn't change anything. All of the game mechanics should be exactly the same for everyone. PS. I am not a bandit in game, just to be clear.