melancholymastermind

Something like a million copies have been sold. Of course there are going to be repeat after repeat after repeat of discussions. You better get used to it and over it, and stop being such a negative influence

I would love scary, FAST zombies. I would love it if Zombies were as dangerous as players. So much so that a firefight between two groups may see a temporary ceasefire to deal with a horde that caught ear of the shoot out. That level of a threat. More speed = less intelligence required to make them dangerous. Just make sure the sound/visibility system is robust too so that bugged aggro's are kept to a minimum.

I understand what you mean completely. In todays age their are new AI methods that are just not seen in games at the moment. DayZ is one of those rare games where its sort of by an AAA company but at the same time its by an Indie guy. With such a long development cycle no doubt they will attempt some aspects of the game in multiple ways before its done to see what's best. Regardless of Civilian or buddy's being in the game or not, I hope they try something more engaging considering the world size even with Zombie AI (see my adaptive AI thread for example) When I say Civ's I'm talking about the residents of Woodbury in The Walking Dead that were just extras. How many people lived there again? I cant remember. (I haven't seen the latest season so if they turned out to be psycho's or something sorry) The Civ's I see in a game like this would only run and hide in a firefight and maybe fight 1 zombie. Quickly finding a local safe spot to be not seen by players (unless "friended") The ability to accurate and quickly find local positions that are clear of player view cones would be key to any form of success. They would need to be good and reliable and getting out of the way. Its not like the map is small. They could hide in a building 2 blocks away or lie down on the other side of hill. The idea is that if you choose to allow one (or more) to accompany you, the risk of them revealing you or aggro'ing zombies is the balance of the reward of having them assist with healing or giving you food/water when you are desperate. Plus whatever end-game goals are cooked up Giving an order to a Civ to search a building while you search another would speed up looting but increase the risk of them agrro'ing zombies or alerting players. They could assist with carrying gear say if you give them a backpack. A guy/girl with military gear and/or a rifle would of course always be a player. Civ's would never get loot like that as then you might feel like relying on them :P Of course if anything like this became a part of DayZ which I don't see happening it should be server side controlled with the option to add a set number if desired. Maybe Modding will be robust enough for me to make such a thing later?

Now don't go all Kill Bill on me right away! This is more of a musing than a suggestion, I am certainly not saying this SHOULD be in the game :p One of the things that I feel is really missing from DayZ when you compare it to zombie apocalypse shows and movies is "useless" survivors. There are always a few of them. They don't really bring anything to the team, they cant shoot worth a damn, run from melee combat and are honestly a burden on the wily hero's. For the less honourable folk they are both cannon fodder for a bit of amusement and bait for luring in would be heroes. But the question is how could you get this into the game obviously no player is going to want to play some useless survivor so AI is the only answer. AI being my thing I came up with this idea (we are talking much later in development, when zombie ai is more complete, and path finding and all that is more robust) : Sacrifice say 10-20% of the maximum zombie count for civilians or some modifiable server value Civ's have a small chance to spawn somewhere on the map that is without players Civ's don't die/interact unless a player is near enough (it would be too process intensive). movement all the time would be good though. Especially grouping A Civ looks just like any other player from a distance (perhaps up close you could tell) A Player can "befriend" a Civ or take one hostage A Player can give a "befriended" Civ simple orders like wait/follow and perhaps hold fire Civ's start with just clothes Civ's will run from gunfire/zombies Civ's hide inside buildings If you "befriend" a Civ he/she will follow you around. kind of like a pet. If they see another player they run and tell you, same with zombies/loot. The longer a Civ stays alive as your friend the better gear they get. Although they do not actually take loot from the game world. Never anything higher than say a pistol, and they would suck with it. Taking a Civ to some location or end-game type mission would give you some benefit (cant think of what other than loot at this stage) They are a burden and would be more likely to alert zombies, or cause another player to see your group. The price of having them along. Im not talking about having hundreds of Civ's running around, perhaps based on player count. Their presence would change a lot about the way you approach (apparent) players. 1 player with 3 Civ's in toe from the distance may seem like a full player group for example, and a group with many Civ's would be intimidating (or too good to resist)! An additional benefit from having them around is that from time to time they give you something, like a bandage or water or food. If you get hurt they will try and heal you with what you have in your pack, this could happen at a slower rate and be easily interrupted. After keeping a Civ alive for a long period of time (along with yourself) they could upgrade themselves to the point where they actually have a pistol. They will cover you and shoot (terribly and slowly) at anyone shooting at them. If you kill a Civ they die just like a player and can be looted. They would have clothes and 1 weapon and perhaps a few throwaways. With older Civ's having more (but not substantial by any means) stuff. They could even upgrade over time without a player around, so that some Civ far out north might get upgraded enough to have a pistol. You could find him fighting zombies, or hold up in a house. If done right they could not only be helpful, but also add a lot into end-game and interaction. The apparent number of survivors would go up and the chances of coming across another survivor across the map would increase. Additional suspense would be added with increased encounters (especially if a Civ looks identical to a player unless your right in their face). You could have players defending a Civ camp (constructed by players) that you can bring Civ's to for a reward. One of the Civ's in such a camp could become a trader for between players if the camp got big enough. Bandits could kill everyone in the camp including the trader so others would need to protect it. A boat could come to the south coast and take Civ's away. All manner of ideas come to mind. So yeah, I know its not really DayZ but it was an idea and I thought I would share :) Most of you will probably not like the idea, and that's fine. just keep calm when you tell me.

Years ago when I was working on the Ultimate AI mod for Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising (lets NOT get into a talk about this game please) and I was faced with this issue as well. In the original game, getting shot, even on "hardcore" was not very realistic. You could take more bullets than any man could and keep fighting. I spent MONTHS tweaking and testing, and the end result system was mostly accepted by the players of my mod. Basically, if you got hit by a bullet graze in a limb, it was a fair effect on your ability to handle your weapon, or run long distances. A solid hit on any limb would all but put the limb out of action. An arm would see innacurate weapon fire and large sway. Leg damage would cause even slight jogging to use all your energy (basically meaning you cant run) A solid body hit on any non limb (that passed/missed your armor) was almost always a death shot. Should you not die instantly, you would be bleeding and fast. Generally you had only around 5-10 seconds to bandage yourself before the bleeding killed you. It also gave the added side effect that often you would get hit by a heavy grenade or mortar blast, but survive, only just long enough to see yourself bleed out in a second or so. It was an effect people really liked as it felt reaslistic. you were not instantly killed by the blast, but you are not going to survive it

I was actually thinking about this last night. What I would like to see, would be a system in place that has a zombies energy or speed directly related to a few situational things like : a ) The Number of nearby zombies b )The number of living things nearby c ) The amount of dead bodies nearby As any/all of these statistics for a zombie increases, so does that zombie's energy level (kinda like getting all riled up by the smell of blood/flesh) which in turn allows them to react faster and move faster. So for example, you are being chased by a single zombie, he's stumbling along not really keeping up with you, but as you travel through a town, some other zombies see you and join the chase. Now you have 4 behind you and this time they are sortof jogging, looking all excited. You run and more zombies join in. next thing you know a small horde is sprinting after you with blood in their eyes

Hey all, What do you think about this idea? If you get hit by a blunt melee weapon (or really any heavy melee weapon) you have a change of being knocked over from the force of the hit. Or if a zombie jump attacks you, it could knock you over Also, if you sprint and look backwards you have a chance of stumbling, bringing you to a stop and putting you in crouch position (like you've just recovered from the stumble) Also, things like jumping over a fence and similar should have a chance of you stumbling if you are not in good shape.

I would like to see more realistic damage from weapons. Get shot in the arm? Cant hold your M4 well. Get shot in the leg? Cant jog/walk Stuff like that

Check in cars, sedans mainly. There are sooo many. very few people check the cars so I often find them even in completely cleaned out towns. And to whoever said above, yes they spawn WAY to much

I ran into a guy in a room, he told me to freeze, I put my hands up. I only had some bandages and a can of food so he let me go. he said "you seem cool just leave the building ok?" So I got up, ran past him, out the door and got several blocks away. As I was running I could hear the guy going "hey man, come on, just leave OK" Next thing I know, Im snapped all the way back into the room, still kneeling down in the submit position. Also, if you run, crouch and immediately bring up the escape menu and just happen to do this during a rubber-band your character will keep moving through the world indefinitely. Often in huge leaps

I was soo disappointed that this was removed. I begun writing a diary and leaving pages in houses across the south coast. Then it stopped working :( So sad

Not entirely true in general, although this may be the case for ARMA. Translation of one skeleton animation to another of similar design is quite possible, and is something I do regularly when converting animation files from one model to the next.

apparently you have either never worn a baseball cap, or at least never worn one the right way. When you have one on, the brim of the cap is ALWAYS visible in your view. And not surprisingly if the sun above about 30 degrees in the sky, that brim blocks the sun so you cant see it. You don't have to look up or anything....... Picture a scene. You are facing one guy down a street. It is about 4pm in the afternoon and the sun is low in the sky and sitting above your enemy. in all the ARMA engine glory because the sun is on the screen HDR kicks in and everything gets dark, glare washes everything out and seeing your enemy is quite difficult. If you were wearing a baseball cap in this situation, the brim would block the sun from your eyes making things much easier to see. HDR wouldn't kick into overdrive because the sun is hidden behind the cap

Looting a town (cant remember which) when this guy comes running out of a building, obviously new spawn yelling out for help as a zombie came charging out after him. I pulled out my firemans axe and layed the zombie down. The guy had nothing so I dropped him some water, bandages and a compass. He said he was new to DayZ and he was waiting for his friend, so I kept an eye out until his also new spawn friend showed up. Gave him some bandages food and another compass, and for being a good bunch, I gave the first guy my spare firemans axe and the second guy a knife (hey its better than nothing right). Then I went on with my day It was my first char in DayZ on a lowish population server. I was wondering around the north area for hours and hours and hours without seeing a single soul. I had sooo much gear. Eventually I wondered (not entirely intentionally) back to the south coast and ran into these two chaps.

That last one rocks. Just spent 20 minutes setting up the curves to what I like and Im looking around freely now. SOO much better and more natural. Only issue I have now is that using TrackIR makes you slow to a walk if you look left or right too far, but this doesn't happen if I hold ALT down.