There's a serious problem with DayZ, and you know of what I speak: the pilgrimage to the airport. You go there, get "geared up," and -- TADA! --- you're at the end-game. Oh no, Airfield already looted? Time to server hop onto a mostly-empty server. Once you get your M4, then it's only a matter of pimping out your gun with shiny attachments. At this point, the game begins to lose its charm. Out of boredom, and on the top of the food chain, it's only natural that many people will either stop playing -- or go around and KOS anybody they find. Once you have a bag of beans and an M4, the game ceases to be a challenge, and tends to devolve into straight-up PvP. We need to slow down gearing up so that it's not solved by a single trip to the airport-mecca. Reducing the spawn-rates of weapons/ammo only, while it sounds good in theory, only rewards the most persistent server hoppers. So what gives? So here's the idea: All "premium" loot is now gated.By gated, I mean that very high-end loot is only introduced through a predictable, random rate that cannot be exploited by server-hopping shenanigans. How could content be gated? Locked caches.The really high-end weapon, supply and ammo caches can only be found behind secured armory doors at military locations, lock-boxes in hospitals, stowed away in gun-safes across the countryside, etc.So how is gated content released into the wild? In order to break into locked caches, you need a lockpick. Basically, a key to gated content that is consumed after use.Lockpicks, bless them, are randomly scattered across the countryside, and can only be found in non-predictable locations. You cannot farm them!This mechanism allows for the unlocking of gated content in a fair, realistic and consistent manner by those who actually play the game over an extended period of time (!!) NOT by server-hopping around loot-rich areas!You can find lockpicks by looting random buildings (or killing zombies), and by doing so, you're one stop closer to being awesome. Armed with a lockpick, you now have a chance to break into that secured location to grab some of that sweet, sweet loot. Yes please! Remember that you can still get very high-end gear through trade, altruism, banditry and -- yes -- even murder. This just affects the original source of high-end loot. It also goes to say that many lockpicks may be destroyed on the way to their final destination through neglect, PVE, or PVP. Benefits of gated content through consumable keys: Deters server-hopping -- to get premium loot at premium locations, you actually have to, you know, explore places and play the game for a bit. You can't just go to one place that spawns the *best* stuff and hop around on nearly-empty servers after restart. You have to actually spend some time playing the game, and -- with a little bit of luck and looting -- find some random drops, then collect your reward. Gives the game developers the ability to easily manipulate the rate at which high-end content is introduced. Maintains the realism (and fun!) of obtaining specialized gear from specialized locations. You *could* just have completely randomized spawns, and gate the content that way, but that ends up being very unrealistic (military-grade weapons spawning on kitchen tables doesn't quite appeal to me). Slows down the "gearing up" process considerably. Still maintains a degree of luck. Rewards the killing of zombies. Rewards going into places that typically spawn "meh" loot. You never know which place may have a lockpick! Find one and it's payday! Gives you a reason to actually go into those cabins that never spawn loot (Rocket, if you're reading this, cabins don't spawn loot. It feels to me like you're not aware of this at all). Gives people a reason to visit certain locations in the game. Want boss medical supplies? Locked cabinet in the hospital. Want fantastic police-themed gear? Locked room in the police station. Military weapons more your style? Armory at the military locations. Prefer premium hunting gear? Locked gun-safes in certain buildings. And so on and so forth. BONUS! You can also have a percentage-based chance to succeed, based on the condition of the lockpicks. Tying the condition of lockpicks to the chance of success may entice banditry over KOS, as murder could ruin the lockpicks. Read this and weep: Ruined: 0% chance to succeedBadly damaged: 25% chance to succeedDamaged: 50% chance to succeedWorn: 75% chance to succeedPristine: 100% chance to succeedComments and criticism all welcome, your reward being a can of beans. TAKE IT. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit: Lockpicks should, obviously, be destroyed with use. Thank you Zhrike for pointing this out. Edit: Instead of having locked rooms, there should be safes in unlocked rooms. This would prevent people from exploiting the system by server-hopping into a locked room. Thank you Dekartz for pointing this out. Edit: Yes, these are randomly scattered -- no particular place spawns them. They could potentially be spread out by making them random zombie drops, or if it's feasible, random across every potential spawning point.

This may be the nerd coming out in me, but this is not quite true. Sugary liquids inhibit aerobic (oxygen-synthesizing) bacterial growth. Aerobic bacteria are typically the type of microorganisms that make people sick. High concentrations of sugar only allows for anaerobic (non oxygen-synthesizing) microorganism growth, which -- interestingly enough -- can create alcohol as a by-product through a process called fermentation. Anaerobic microorganisms are pretty much harmless (eg: yeast). This is typically how alcoholic beverages are made. Sugar is the main ingredient, yeast is added, which is ultimately converted to alcohol through anaerobic pathways. Jams, jellies and preserves also rely on high concentrations of sugar to inhibit bacterial growth.

Seriously, is this a thing now? The one line "No" response? Let's try to be a bit more constructive.

If you're going to criticize, trying being constructive.

I see your perspective on this point, but you gotta think, you'd have people taping aiming dots to their screen. No matter of cheat detection will stop that. It's better to have everybody on the same playing field.

Penises. Penises everywhere. I'm totally down with text-based diaries. But actual drawings? I cannot think of one example where that would be desirable, other than the lawls. And that would get old quick after the 100th crude drawing of a penis. Screenshots as Polaroid inserts, however, I could get behind.

I don't think it should be used for identifying bandits, because looting bodies is something non-bandits will obviously do. But it could lead to some interesting conversations -- "why do you have blood on your hands?" "I found a body, I swear!" Anything to make the game more dynamic and interesting gets my vote.

Seconded. At the very least, in the meantime, the image outside the scope could be blurred.

Traditional plastic soda bottles hold 20oz of liquid. Traditional aluminum cans hold 12oz of liquid. Heck, even 1 liter bottles are roughly ~34 ounces. I don't understand how you can suggest cramming 48 ounces of liquid into a 20 ounce bottle.

Clever idea. I like it. Why not.

Cool discussion about this on reddit, started by the OP, which adds to the discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1xu8se/severe_weather_requiring_shelter/

This has been discussed at length on reddit, with a response by rocket as to why it's not feasible: http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1x5nw5/suggestion_the_ability_to_riselower_the_hood_on/

This really adds to the discussion /s You know, it's not your opinion that matters. It's your justification for your opinion that matters.

I just want to add my two cents that this is a survival horror simulator, not a barbie dress-up simulator. Adding more clothing is always a huge plus. I just think that the selection should have at least some semblance of being survival related.

Jolly good idea, chap On a side note, I read your entire post in a british accent

If loot respawned at a faster rate, on higher-pop servers, that would make sense.

IMO... Easy mode should be PVE-only hive -- with still "if you die, you die"

If you don't want to be perceived as a threat, perhaps you could be frisked. Look -- I know temperature is coming, and I'm well away that many people find it hilarious to literally act retarded, but... everyone running around without pants was only funny oh, maybe the first hundred times I saw it. The joke is getting very, very old now. It takes away from the immersion of the game. This is survival horror, not slapstick comedy. So here's my suggestion. Run around without pants for too long, and you simply freeze to death. No mercy. Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a monster. Cue the hate.

Yup, burlap should be the ingredient for crafting anything ghillie-related. +wan

I'm going to run, and never stop running, if I ever see a chainsaw-wielding man in a hockey-mask. +1

Yep, that was me B)

Seconded.

Megaphones are HUGE. Walkie Talkies are already in game. Why.

Summertime. Where you can see your breath. Okay.

In a world where there are zombies, always double-tap.