DISCLAIMER (Please read): - English is not my mother language so please forgive me the grammatical mistakes. - Some of these suggestions may do not fit into the game, are not possible to implement or are too in-depth to be fun. But you should get the overall idea in which direction I think the game should be developed. If the community disagrees with my vision of the game, so be it! It will still be a good game but I think it’s missing out on great potential. - Some of these suggestions may be (heavily) inspired from others, but are necessary to explain my vision of how DayZ Standalone should be. - Some of these suggestions should only be applied to hardcore servers, because it could be impossible for new players to get into the game. - The duration of some actions are only suggestions and need to be balanced properly. - I’ll try to keep it as short as possible to avoid a wall of text. That’s why I’m writing in note form. So please have a CIVIL and OPEN-MINDED discussion about this topic! (Please ask if something is not explained properly and you don’t understand it. I will try my best and go more in depth.) AIM: Turning this game from a “gearing up as fast as possible, then enter combat” military simulator, into a “trying to survive as long as possible” realistic hardcore survival simulator. Game mechanics: Making everything more in depth, difficult and skillful: What: 1. Difficulty: more zombies, more diseases, less loot (all the basic stuff), ADDING realistic drawbacks for almost EVERYTHING (making decisions a lot harder) 2. Depth and skill: 3 ways to achieve making the game more rewarding for skilled players. Player skill, player knowledge, character progression Some examples to explain it better: Medic: Player skill: - I would only suggest a minigame when it has a quality like this one http://imgur.com/a/Ybc3e#0 (e.g. for transferring blood, not for really easy actions like bandaging) Player knowledge: - Knowing which plants can be a replacement for medication. - Knowing that you have to sedate your patient before surgery. - Knowing how to cure the different injuries and diseases. - Etc. Character progression: - Giving another player a blood bag restores more blood the more you perform this action (you take 1l blood from one player and give 800ml to another because you spill some of it, 810ml the next time). Marksman: Player skill: - The overall aiming with a weapon. Player knowledge: - Knowing the bullet drop of each weapon. - Knowing how to maintain/repair your weapon. - Etc. Character progression: - Slightly but noticeable less weapon sway. - Slightly but noticeable less recoil from weapons. - Slightly but noticeable faster reload. - Etc. Vehicle specialist: Player skill: - Driving a car with manual transmission. - Flying a helicopter. - Maybe a minigame for repairing (see medic). Player knowledge: - Knowing how to repair a damaged car (judging by the look of the car, the sounds it makes, how it reacts to certain actions). - Knowing what tools you need for a repair. - Etc. Character progression: - Tools get less damage from usage. - Etc. There are a lot more areas where this could be applied, but I think you get the idea. Why: - Making the game much more difficult but rewarding for skilled players. - Almost impossible to be an expert in every part of the game (encouraging group specialization). Character progression: What: - Very slow progression of getting better at something you do very often (e.g. blood bag, reduced weapon sway, crafted items are in a better condition, better stamina etc.). - If some actions are repeated too often in a short period of time the progression of the skill decreases or even stops. Why: - Adding value to the character if you lose your gear. - Encourage specialization in groups (e.g. someone does all the blood transferring as medic). - Prevent grinding of skills. Shelter system: What: - Finding shelter should be a huge part of the game for various reasons: 1. Being secure from bad weather. 2. Being secure from zombies. 3. Storage for the items you need, but you can’t carry them with you all the time. (Different clothes for different weather conditions, tools and repair parts, etc.). 4. A place to rest. - Customizable environment: locking your door, barricade your doors/windows with wood laths, putting fence or barricades around your home, spray paint on walls, etc. - Zombies can’t spawn in enclosed areas or locked houses. - Zombies and players can damage/destroy these player made structures, but they can be repaired again. - Spray paint fades then disappears after 1 day if you don’t renew it. - Damaged player structures despawn after 3 days without interaction (no player is in a 100m radius). - Pristine player structures despawn after a week without player interaction (no player is in a 100m radius). - Large player structures (communities) attract zombies (hordes) and there is a higher chance to get a disease if you’re in an area with many people in it. Why: - Possibility to claim a house and alter it instead of building a base from ground up. - Introducing a system that is important in a real world apocalypse but not present in DayZ. - Player made structures disappear after some time that the world is not cluttered with structures and paint. - It’s still difficult if you build up a large base with your clan, because you constantly have to repair your structures, you have to fend off more zombies and you have to deal with more diseases. - If a zombie is inside your base, you know that you have a leak and it didn’t just spawn in there. Respawn timer: (should only be applied to hardcore servers because new players could get into a doom loop) What: 1. If you die in less than 1h -> worse condition if you respawn 2. If you survive long enough (2h) -> better condition if you respawn Why: - Prevent suiciding (if you don’t like your spawn point) - Prevent going Rambo as fresh spawn because you have nothing to lose (no gear, no advanced skills) Player (de)spawn system: What: - The location of a player is saved on only 1 server, if you join another server you spawn on the coast like a fresh spawn but with your full gear. - If a player logs out he makes a sound and stays in a stance similar to prone on the server (1 min). - If you get shot/swung at you enter combat mode and if you leave the server you die (warning included). Why: - Prevent server hopping, ghosting and combat logging - When there are vehicle and base building implemented you want to stay on the same server anyway. If this server is full or down, you can still join another server with your character but without the same location. Loot decrease: What: - Overall drastic loot decrease (especially weapons, ammo), slowing down the pace of achieving the “end game”. - Loot spawns decrease to a minimum the more they get looted. If the loot the player has looted despawns again the loot spawns increase again. - Same goes for animals. If one area is frequently cleared out from animals, there are less animals spawning back in. If the hunting decreases or stops the animal spawn rate increases again. - Similar system for fuel. - The minimum spawn rate is enough for fresh spawns to survive. e.g. - A player loots the fire station which has 3 loot spawns. He loots them all and the next time the loot spawns only on 2 instead of the 3 loot spawns. If the player dies and the loot is not retrieved from his corpse, all 3 loot spawns can spawn loot again. Why: - makes hoarding harder, still difficult to survive in the “end game” - obtain stuff in a different way than looting (grow plants for food and medical stuff, making bows/arrows out of wood). - making repairing a big part of the game instead of throwing the damaged stuff away - Force players to look in different areas to loot or hunt, which may are farther away, more difficult to reach. Stamina system: What: - Your character exhaust after a short time of running or fighting (short term stamina). - Your character needs a break if you run/fight/jog a long period of time (long term stamina). - Similar to Fifa stamina system (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9hYMXtGlEo#t=10). - Weight system: faster stamina drain with much weight, slower movement. - More stamina drain if you have a (gas)mask, motorcycle helmet or too much clothes on (you can’t breath as good), also getting thirsty quicker due to sweating. - The short term stamina can be restored by stop doing the stamina draining actions. - The long term stamina can be restored by sitting 1 min (good) and/or lying in a bed 1 min (better) and by eating and drinking something, you can browse your inventory or read a book at the same time you’re resting. Why: - Prevents AFK running over a long time. - Prevents just running back to your corpse, if it is far away. - You need to find a vehicle to travel longer distances, it takes longer to get to big loot spawns (slowing down the pace of achieving the “end game”). - You need to first find shelter where you are. - You don't take everything with you for short runs. - Not always wearing a mask -> only for bandit actions, where you don’t want to be recognised etc. - Not always wearing a motorcycle helmet -> only if you expect heavy combat - Not always wear five layers of clothes -> only if it's cold (needs a temperature system) Melee system: What: - Adding two more strikes to your basic one: 1. A strike which doesn’t hurt your friends when beating a zombie together. A overhead strike (axe, baseball bat, …) or a stab for (knife, screwdriver, …). 2. A strike which allows people to hit a target with blunt force, when they have a firearm or an axe/knife/… (pistol whip, hitting with your shaft,...). - Only able to block if you time your block right (not just pressing the block button for a long time) - Stamina system for hitting and blocking. - Overall learn from the Chivalry Medieval Warfare melee system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfpsoBX3EDk. Why: - More skillful and in-depth melee system. - Being able to knock someone out with a firearm or an axe, when you don’t have the intention to kill them. Night time: What: - Making it a bit brighter (maybe more colorful). - Zombies do not get alerted quickly by flashlights. - Zombies get sluggish (less alerted by Sound, slower). - Maybe shorter the duration of night time. - Forcing players to set their brightness 1 time, when they install the game, then do not make it changeable again. Why: - Making the night time enjoyable to play. - Give night time a purpose of going on dangerous loot runs which are too risky on daytime. - Prevents players to change their brightness at night time and turning it back down at day time but still let's players adjust their brightness to their own Monitor. First Person optimization: (On hardcore servers there should be no third person because it’s too easy in PvP and PvE situations. Instead focus on improving the situational awareness in 1st person view). What: - No HUD, it only displays if you press a specific key (similar to Red Orchestra 2). - Your HUD-view should contain icons (hungry, bleeding, stance icon, restrained/surrendered icon etc.), a stamina bar, a body of your character which shows your physical condition (maybe even everything merged into one). - The icons of your HUD view pop up for a short time in your non-HUD view, if they change (hunger icon pops up if you are hungry, stance icon if you change your stance, handcuffed icon if you’re restrained, etc.). - Mouse movement should be at 100% speed (no negative mouse acceleration), fast mouse movements decrease your accuracy. - Your character should immediately react to your commands (I have the feeling of having a smart delay between pressing W and my character moving forward). - Implement all the stuff Arma 3 has (stance adjustment, tactical view, …) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8vrbzNYEwM&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLQEd6zRLOafX53dmxxugEoVNaJyC307fi also this seems so much smoother and less clunky than Arma 2 first person. - Maybe a control to peak over walls, which are slightly higher than the player. - Keep the dot crosshair, but make it less reliable for shooting. Why: - 1st person more enjoyable to play, less clunky. - Giving more situational awareness in 1st person. - Aiming on sight is much more precise than hip-shooting. Mental health: What: - Positive emotions (happiness, feeling secure, relaxation, joy …) have a positive effect on your mental health. - Negative emotions (panic, stress, guilt …) have a negative effect on your mental health. - If you are repeating the same positive actions too often, the positive effect gets less or you don’t get any positive effect anymore. - A bad mental health will have a SLIGHT bad effect on your physical health, need for food and drink more, more vulnerable to disease, it takes longer to heal an injury, etc. - A positive mental health will have a positive effect on your physical health. - There is a limit for positive and negative mental health. - You can take antidepressants to neutralize your bad mental state for a short period of time. Positive Influences: - Sharing (decreases if applied to the same persons over and over). - Medical assistance (decreases if applied to the same persons over and over). - Finding shelter. - Being healthy. - Doing luxury stuff (eating a hot meal, taking a hot bath). - Maybe even stuff like playing a guitar. - Etc. Negative Influences: - Killing (less stress if the player is armed, shoots at you or you are in a desperate situation) - Cannibalism - Robbing (if you steal from a surrendered or handcuffed person). - Combat (If you get overrun by zombies and can’t them down quickly). - Getting injured or sick often. - Being close of dying to starvation, thirst often. - Etc. Why: - Prevent grinding for a positive mental health. - You’re not an instant kill, if you run around at night with a flash light. - Adding another difficulty to the game which you have to keep track of. e.g. You can’t just run into a horde of zombies with your fists up and when you bleed you just bandage yourself and maybe take a blood bag and everything is fine. e.g. You can’t just ignore the “hungry icon” until your starving and then eat five cans of beans. - Reward realistic behavior which players would never do if there would no reward. e.g. In real-life you would get sick of a cold can of beans, if you’re eating it the whole time. So there has to be a reward if a player is “wasting” electricity or wasting time to make a fireplace to make a hot meal. - Adding realistic drawbacks for almost everything (making decisions a lot harder) e.g. If you’re very hungry and you see a player it’s the easy way out to shoot him from a safe distance and get his food (low risk, most stress). But you could also decide to rob him (more risk, less stress) or just talk to him and ask for food (most risk, no stress). - Balance KoS and banditry to a realistic level. (Note: I’m a KoSer myself and I don’t want the removal of it but I want more survival in the game and less deathmatching) e.g. You kill a player and take all his gear and then you decide to eat him (Cannibalism is confirmed) because you’re hungry (easy). Otherwise you would have to search for your own gear and food in a zombie infested town (hard). In real-life the first option would be the last resort, but in DayZ it’s the easiest and most common option. You’re forcing me to another playstyle: - No, I’m trying to balance the different playstyles to a realistic level. I’m not suggesting that you would shake uncontrollable, see or hear things. That would ruin this playstyle for me. You only have to deal with minor drawbacks in your physical health, but you still have the advantage of getting easy access to gear. In real-life there are people who can kill others without having to deal with mental instabilities: - Yes I know but you’re playing an average person in DayZ and these people are a minority. There a people in the real-life who can run 42km, hold their breath for 10 minutes. If we let every player decide what they want to play, everyone role-plays a super soldier, who kills without remorse, is a pro in sports and so on. That’s why I’m suggesting that everyone is an average person in the beginning. The game gets much easier without that much KoS: - No because other players are the only difficulty right now. If it is way harder to survive with zombies, diseases, food scarcity, etc. the game won’t be easier. In an apocalypse it’s realistic that everyone kills without remorse: - You can’t say this and be 100% certain. Of course it will be more common to kill someone to survive, but it still would be your last resort and you would probably avoid it.
