Thatshaneboy

If any formal cover system were to be introduced I would ask that it be like the Last of Us cover system. You character will automatically lean up against cover if you are next to some. Allows for very free flowing movement because it does not require you to lock onto cover and it is more realistic.

Lol is that command and conquer generals in that picture? I can feel nostalgia. But regarding the post, Yea there really needs to be more military checkpoints and camps outside the big cities or in the countryside. Most of em should only contain some damaged weapons or uniforms but some basic survival gear should be found in em. It would make sense that the defense forces probably fought till the last bit of ammo or retreated leaving behind only a few things.

Currently we know that the infected in DayZ will be updated and made more dangerous. By this I believe they will be making them faster and deal more damage which will be great. I feel that though the infected are in smaller hordes they should make you have that "Oh s***" response if you are spotted. (Think of 28 Days later or Left 4 Dead infected) However because infected that kill you in just a few hits would be rage inducing (and because having infected tackle you and rip you apart would be difficult to implement) my suggestion is: that in exchange for very high damage, every hit the infected get on you should have a slight chance to pseudo-infect you ,when diseases are implemented, to help balance making infected just do insane direct damage. By pseudo-infect I mean there will be a chance you will get the infection that has caused the apocalypse and infected HOWEVER, because the survivors in DayZ are immune to becoming an infected this suggestion will only make your player very sick when infected. What I am suggesting is to make the player only partly immune to the infection meaning that they can get infected but the infection will only make the player very sick and unless treated would cause the player to succumb to a nasty fever and die after several hours. This of course will be curable as long as you can get anti-biotics. The infected need to be a threat to both bambis and decked out players. This suggestion would make any direct contact (melee contact) with the infected more dangerous. If infected see you, you better be ready to gun them down quickly or get out of there because fighting an infected horde with melee should be a very high risk (and in reality you wouldn't be able to take on a group of hyped up infected alone in melee and get away completely unscathed).

Well as far as I have leaned, wolves actually do not attack people very often. Though we like to think of them as dangerous killing machines, actually making man eating wolf packs might detract from the realism that DayZ is trying to portray. I do like the wild dog idea though.

Ehh I kinda feel that player built weapons/parts shouldn't be better than their original counterparts. I actually think they should be slightly worse. The benefit simply being the new parts would be in pristine condition but they would have a little less accuracy, more recoil, etc... This kind of reminds me of the improvised weapons from the Metro Series where makeshift guns were produced to fill the gap with the dwindling "Real" guns. They were inferior to the better attributes of their original counterparts but they got the job done. Besides, not every survivor in an apocalypse would realistically be a master gun smith.

I agree that there needs to be aesthetic dead bodies especially in the cities. It would be more immersive to see stacks of bodies in body bags in the cities or bodies scattered around car wrecks or building hallways. The ChernoRussian defense forces had to of killed some of the infected right?

"I'm really not comfortable with being set challenges to make you better. I feel that as almost every other mechanic in the game is passive and invisible, so skills should be to. No quests, no objectives, no maps, no meters. As for the hypothetical example: At no point should any skill brought into this game give you an advantage over another player once trained. Being able to repair something, or identify something as useful for a recipe you are aware of would be good examples of how this could work. As soon as you deploy skills that make you "better", they become mandatory for anyone who wants to take the game seriously. See every single RPG style game ever made for reasons why this is a bad idea: Particularly eve online, where the skill system - the one I'm suggesting here - actually creates a huge barrier for new players as to get involved they have to learn a lot of prerequisite skills. At least a month's worth of training before you are not a "noob". Nothing about that facet is desirable, and so the solution is to ensure that skills add only flavour rather than strength. That means no weapon skills and no physical enhancements. Probably more too, but you get the idea I'm sure. In my opinion the only things that can work and retain authenticity are things that don't matter, but make the game world better: Examples could be: Tailoring: Anyone can sew, but most of us are pretty ham fisted and at best can repair our clothes up to "Damaged". A week of training in tailoring and this could be up to "Worn" and after a month, maybe any clothes could be repaired to "Pristine". Further, rarer books could allow for further knowledge of other materials and the ability to repair different types of gear - assuming you can find the materials to do it. Cooking: Anyone can make an edible rabbit stew, but there's a real art in making a tasty one. A slight numerical improvement (or better yet, a reduction of the drawbacks - rabbit stew is a good example here as you can't live on rabbit alone as it lacks some key nutrients.) from learning out of recipe books would seem quite apt, and certainly wouldn't harm any game balance. Gunmaker: Anyone can saw the stock and barrel from a shotgun, but it's takes a skilled hand and eye to rifle a barrel. A month or so of training and a skilled Gunmaker could counter bore your damaged Mosin, returning it to near it's former glory. Just some thoughts. The key is small additions - nothing that would fundamentally change the nature of the game. Evolution, not Revolution." I understand your point here. I stated the example idea as purely hypothetical because I am also against skills that give you an edge over other players, especially in pvp situations. I would like to say though that the challenges idea of mine is meant to be purely anti-afk. Let me rephrase and say lets forget the "speed up your learning" part. How about while learning your learning progress will pause at random intervals no more than 3 times. To un-pause your learning you would have to go out and complete a very simple challenge. One that is simple enough depending on the skill to get you up and moving just for a little bit so you are not just sitting in a house hidden for 4 hours. Sometimes you may even have the stuff needed for the challenge already on you so you wont have to get up (Lucky you then). This idea can be realistically backed up because you learn better when your book learning is supplemented with some hands on practice.

What if while you were learning a skill you would have to complete a few challenges assigned randomly while learning? Like things that you would have to practice to help with your learning. Lets say that you were learning a hypothetical shooting skill book that improved your accuracy (Purely hypothetical book idea), you may be assigned a challenge to go out and get 3 headshot kills to progress or speed up your learning. This would make those who just camp out and go afk actually have to get off their butt and risk their life out in the open world.

I think cities and towns need to be more cluttered or wrecked definitely . You would think that panic would ensue in the big cities causing car pile ups, old aesthetic corpses/body bag piles, abandoned military checkpoints. It would be sweet to see some roads just filled with broken down wrecked cars and evacuation route signs scattered around. It looks like everybody just vanished rather than a horrible war against the infected took place.

I could just imagine the horror of walking up to a field just strewn with corpse decoys set up by some murderous bandits. I like this idea..

Adding some lootable abandoned wrecked cars and abandoned Little camps along some of the more barren roads would be a great way to spruce up some of the more boring/empty regions. It would make sense right that the original chernorussian people wouldve evacuated the cities and headed into the countryside.

Just imagine bumping into a road filled with abandoned cars leading into a deserted quarantine camp. Places like this would be great candidates for finding any type of loot