jfn3000

To take this conversation away from people talking past each other: I'm genuinely curious: when survival becomes more demanding and less forgiving, and zombies become more of a threat, potentially responding greatly to the sound of gunfire, will your playstyle change much? Will those elements become simply a distraction from manhunting random people, or shift the balance of what you spend your time doing? I could care less what you do, personally. Some days I could be a bandit/KoS hunter, other days I could leave people locked in rooms with their ankles broken Misery style, with the halls filled with zombies. I really hope you can cuff/coral zombies in the future... Am I normal in real life? Close enough.. but if I get to RP crazy, then I can respawn!

Aiming intelligently over varied height obstacles is pretty natural and doesn't require much special training. But if you get into the nitty gritty of it, there is a lot of extra sauce the military puts into it. They put a lot of work into finding out the subtle ways to position your body so that your weapon is supported by your skeletal structure in all those stances instead of muscles. Bones don't get tired and shake. Turning your body into a random height steady tripod does take a fair bit of training. Staying rock solid after half an hour at the ready sure as hell takes training, but getting off a couple good shoots from a half-crouch is certainly doable with a little practice. I'm calling it a tie.

I agree that 'z' is a toughie. 100-200 ms isn't too bad sounds, so I could see it be implemented well. But you have to remember server lag/desync, and the desire to really do two things in the 200 ms, may make it not as smooth a move as it sounds. I'm fine dying to my own stupidity, but when game mechanics get me hung up and killed I get all pissy. If I can automatically step up a foot tall step to climb a staircase, then why the fuck do I get stuck trying to walk over 6 inch tall rocks?

I think scoped hunting rifles and maybe a military rifle are probably all that's needed. They were trying to defend against the zombie apocalypse after all, not rebuild the Soviet Union. Now, ghillie suits on the other hand... you don't have to be a sniping spawn camper to appreciate those. If you decide to live in the wilderness, a homemade ghillie suit would be good gear to have when going on town runs, sneaking from the treeline into town from bush to bush.. that sounds like fun. Homemade for sure, since the military probably wouldn't have been stocked up on the, in this scenario. Even more, I think it would be cool to duct tape branches and stuff to guns in addition to or instead of ghillie suits. Make em look more like tree branches for better camouflage.

To be honest, even 8 minutes is too long to be holding one single key. 'W' is an important key, and I don't want DayZ to be the one that kills it. Here is why auto run is not as bad as it sounds, and is a fairly good addition to the game. The assumption is that it's implemented as described, of course. It's realistic to sort of "auto-walk" while you pay attention to your torso and hands to do something or have a conversation while moving.Auto works on walk, run and sprint, and when sprinting drains your stamina you drop to a run and it doesn't start sprinting for you again. Optionally again to a walk depending on the stamina mechanics.Auto running in a forest or field have (probably different) chances of tripping you, and then you're just prone until you do something about it for not paying attention while running through a forest.If you wanna run in the street, I say go for it.So the addition of auto run won't let people go AFK unpunished by not allowing them to stop paying attention to the game without dying. This is how almost every other part of DayZ works.

I get frustrated when I get killed on sight. No one likes to die and it makes me feel stupid. Doesn't matter what game. At least in DayZ I don't spawn in the middle of firefights. I will probably KoS at least one person. Probably not someone in my sights running through town unless he deserves it, but don't surprise me! In a real zombie apocalypse, if you turn around and find someone's been behind you watching you and they aren't a traumatized child, you should probably shoot them.

I'll say it again: sticky!!

I love compressed cycles so I can actually watch the sun come up or down. I respawned once near dusk, and it was trippy to watch the light slowly fade to black on me while I snuck through the woods. Then the server kicked me and reset and it was high noon when I logged back in standing on someone's doorstep like a Mormon! As far as brightness goes, I love that lack of light really translates to pitch black. IRL, dark is freaking dark. But as many point out, night isn't always that dark. A full moon night is pretty damn bright, and it's really those new moons or being enshrouded in forest or a dark building that black out your vision. I think a compressed day/night cycle with correspondingly compressed moon phases and associated brightness changes is perfect. It opens up different gameplay elements to people, while retaining the feel of "this is the way the world works, survival = deal with it."

This is a "back-end" suggestion to achieve a few ends. Everyone suggests more loot and different places to find it. Everyone also wants bases. With small (in scope) tweaks to the spawning mechanics, both could be well supported and customizable on a per server to support many players' different ideas equally well. The Mechanics: Loot resets are cell- or region-based. Server configuration can determine the reset window on different regions independently. Resetting a "dirty" cell wipes all loot and spawns fresh items in an untouched state. Resets may wait for all players to be absent for a set period of time before occurring once triggered. Example Implementation: Server configuration can specify the reset timer for three different "zones," large cities/military bases, smaller cities, and towns/wilderness. Effects: Zones with short reset timers become loot spawning areas with transient occupancy. Trash can noise traps (http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/176194-interactable-clutter-objects/) disappear when new bean cans and machetes repop, so players are not likely to set up permanent camps here.Zones with long reset timers become loot sinks. Players can bring their goods to these areas to set up item caches and bases/forts to the extent allowed by the game. This works well with most of the container or base-building suggestions. The tradeoff is that new items don't spawn in here during that time, so you must rob other players or go on loot runs.Server-based configuration results in multiple playstyles. A server with uniformly shorter reset timers inhibits base-building and keeps players on the move (assuming resets only happen when cells are empty.) Loot stays at low levels, only spawned + actively carried. The game functions much like it does currently. Another server can have a weeklong reset timer in big cities and hours-long timer in the countryside. This allows a player-base to repopulate cities, building forts, a rudimentary economy, etc. but forces them to acquire items from elsewhere. People flow through smaller towns for items/zombie killing, but flock to cities for human interaction. Loot grows due to semi-permanent player caches, but it is not all in free circulation.Reset windows drive post-apocalyptic "flavor." The extent to which civilization is able to rebuild is directly determined by these reset windows. Short windows create items, long windows create homes. The upper limit is what you can achieve before the reset. A week-long window allows a lot of creativity in establishing a town, but keeps it fresh and new and allows players an equal opportunity to settle the city to their own liking after the reset. A months-long window supports an established community and status-quo. These different time frames, and all others, set the stage for anywhere from immediately after the fall to months and years afterwards.Danger still lurks. When the reset happens, your cache is lost. Like now, only items on you have any safety. They could also be looted by other players before a reset, because there is no real "ownership." If you die, do you risk Elektro empty-handed to get your fail-safe stash? Or do you head for your corpse in the wilderness because it has all the survival basics? Even the option of what granularity to expose to server admins plays into the customization. Taking this idea or some permutation and fixing the parameters in the source code defines DayZ more strongly than allowing servers to configure them independently, allowing Rocket and co. flexibility in deciding how strongly to assert their artistic vision on the gameplay.

That does pose an issue, but in my mind, it's on a much longer timer. The main reason for allowing these campsites and buildings to be reset without a server restart is so that people have a chance to experience DayZ from the start. The longer you let people build up, the closer you get to the recurrence of civilization, which starts to oppose the basic foundation of the game. It would be neat to see the dynamic between two philosophically opposed cities in such a brutal game, but there's more longevity if people still commonly have a chance to play a role in the founding of those cities. So there's a balance between growth and starting from scratch, since both are big parts of what the game has to offer. It would really suck if the best parts of DayZ are memories of what it was like in Alpha/Beta because now everything is established.

From this awesome post: http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/175596-summary-of-dev-qas-from-streams/ I trimmed out a huge amount of it so that it was only thread-relevant stuff for context, so I definitely encourage everyone to read it (and bump it for stickying!) It sounds like there is probably a good plan in the works right now, so this might stay a relevant suggestion in case they can't get the balance they want by pulling on the existing strings.

This is awesome, +10 points :thumbsup: ! Can we sticky this in the Suggestions Forum? I think it would be fun enough for people to read that they actually would, and maybe trim some of the zombie clipping threads, etc.

The game's controls aren't all that bad, I'd give them a B/B+ overall. I think the bigger reason people that like them say "learn them" and people who don't say "WTF is this?" is because they're not common. A de facto standard has arisen amongst FPS and most first person games in general, and this scheme is doesn't conform that much. Since other FPS's are so prevalent, ArmA 2 and DayZ are like the wall charger that mounts upside down, or covers up just like 1.25 of the next spot in a surge protector. The bigger issue is one of animation seamlessness. The Assassin's Creed series and GTA IV/V (V better than IV) both do this very well. If it didn't look like the character model was stopping like a doof before doing something, people would probably be raving about it's ridiculous accuracy. That said, the mouse acceleration is definitely backwards. If it's for weapon/equipment weight, it's bugged, and if it's on purpose for ease of peering around a room, then it needs to be smoothed better, which is a polish issue and probably not an Alpha priority (but it does need to get done!). It honestly feels a little like within a certain range it's using a weight based reference on just the head, like you would expect for free look. If so, good thinking(!) and it just needs to flow better. I can elaborate elsewhere, but I'm not sure if that's a Suggestion or a Bug :p

There is a point that different cultures have different opinions on things. Europeans are usually cooler with nudity, and if I recall correctly Middle Eastern/Arab/Persian what have you cultures actually have much bigger issues with feces than Americans, so there is a balance. But, there are good reasons to have "waste removal" and mitigating factors that make it less easy to abuse: You can't poop or urinate on command. There is a window where you "can" go, but don't "have to" yet, but any griefer is only going to get one dump a day. The ability/necessity to poop doesn't automatically mean that feces becomes an in-game item. Even if it does become one, for reasons below, that doesn't mean you're allowed to force-feed it to people.Bodily functions are distracting, but necessary. As someone else mentioned, you can't do much else during this time. You're exposed and in danger. You also don't get a choice. You don't "have" to stop an engagement and chow down on some beans or antibiotics, but try doing anything while you have to whiz! This mechanic means that if you eat enough to be healthy, you have to risk going to the bathroom. You can't just chug lake water to get hydrated if you don't want to be making potty stops all the way to Cherno.Bodily functions are also part of an in-depth medical system. Not pooping is a good way to get sick and die. Getting diarrhea is a good way to dehydrated and die. Rotten food can essentially shut you down without killing you. You get diarrhea and now have to stop what you're doing to go, and drink tons of fluids to stay alive. If you just go in your pants, you invite disease and hypothermia. (Fresh, healthy) urine is also a disinfectant or water source when you are out of other options.Scat is an essential component of tracking. How do you find deer to eat when you're not sure any are around? There are a couple ways, but I guarantee animal poop is easier to implement than the subtleties of bent twigs. Poop is an important part of animal/human presence, especially when they don't want to be found. Small town look vacant with all the doors closed? The steaming pile you just found in one of the houses says otherwise. And it's still warm... In short, I agree that there are wrong ways to do it, and that people are going to take it to as disgusting extremes as they can. But more important than my ability to live with being offended, waste management is one of the fundamental components of survival. I don't think it should be simply dismissed out of hand for the offense factor, and stating that it has no value is simply false.

I do like this idea. For this particular game, I don't think invulnerable until moving would work, because you could literally not touch anything and just spy. Information is too powerful in this game for that. But if it was a fixed spawn timer, like 5-10 s, that could work. The biggest issue is what you're allowed to do while invincible and in control of your character. Even if only move and look, you could still game the system. But it is also an issue that you can fully log in to those around you before your client reflects that. Getting killed when you still have the black loading screen isn't any fun.

I like the integration of using the skill being a part of the process! Not the challenge-based scheme version, but requiring use to train and/or "use it or lose it" both fit with the realism aspect. In Everquest, I think, crafting wasn't a guaranteed success, which was incredibly frustrating because precious materials were still lost in the process. But in this case, that could be useful. It might be a little too painful to consume mats on failure, but if your bandaging only works 75% of the time because you don't actually know how to do it right you have incentive, but not a need, to get it up to 90-95%. Two possible ideas that came to mind (assuming use increases skill regardless of having a book): Skills increase faster with the book in inventory, or maybe requiring you to have the book out while you do it if it's a one handed task.Training by use could raise success rate, but only training with the addition of the book would allow better recipes (e.g. advanced splint). There could be a period where you can craft the recipe only with the book before you learn it permanently and can ditch it.Keeping with tradition, this would all have to be more or less silent to the player still. And, I support the absence of skill trees. They are tons of fun, but this is a game that should have a near-complete lack of character sheet. I really enjoy being naked old me in the woods, so to speak.

>< oops! Yes, you're right :p

This one sounded like you're shooing people out, and seems easily misinterpreted to me: This one is a good point: Everyone following the discussion will get it, but any devs browsing by topic titles will probably miss it if this one didn't seem useful. Back on topic: I liked the idea of holding C and using the mousewheel to fine tune stances over cycling by button click. It's easy to get caught up in the action, hold the key for just not long enough and cycle in the wrong direction. Plus with the scroll up/down, you don't have that waiting period where the game is literally just waiting to make sure you wanted to go to prone instead of crouch. Maybe more of an issue with faster-paced games like BF or CoD, but perma-death does amp up the adrenaline on "minor" encounters. This was a side point, but if there's another stance switching mechanic added, I do think keeping the straight to stance buttons is essential. Sometimes you know exactly what you want, and I don't want "ease into prone" when I mean "hit the deck!"

Agreed, but I'm not sure where that lore is either, so I can't really judge. Even if you are immune to the zombie infection (which explains why you "survived") I think rotten-fleshed zombies probably harbor some nasty regular bacteria under their fingernails. Zombie hits having a chance to make you require antibiotics or the wound goes gangrenous isn't all that out there.

Existing in other games is a form of object sometimes referred to as clutter. You can't put it in your inventory, and it responds to the physics of the game. In some games, lootable items act as clutter while on the ground as well. Battlefield has such trash strewn about, and Bethesda games are known for populating the world with these (Elder Scrolls, Fallout: NV.) Further, the Bethesda games allow the player to "pick up" the items using a button and then sort of carry them through mid-air using the physics engine. I think DayZ would greatly benefit from this addition. These clutter objects make noise and are easily jostled around with player bodies. Sneaking through Elektro, you could knock over a trash can and make noise, alerting players and zombies in the area. With the ability to move these items at will, you could easily create noise traps around your position. Loose empty tin cans and forks, etc. can be collected on the ground in an area, rattling and clinking when a player walks over it. This would add a lot of stealth-play to an already sneaky game. Small trash can walls could funnel people down certain alleys for robberies. Not because they couldn't trample them, but because they wouldn't want to. Snipers can lay noise traps behind them so they don't get blindsided. People could stake off areas for themselves as a form of nonverbal communication. Pile a garbage wall in front of a door, and it sort of screams "occupied." It also doesn't prevent you from storming it with an M4 if you want. A sniper could set up a few of these barricades and watch over a town, and when someone climbs over the trash to loot the house they give themselves away as being riskier and less respectful, and more likely to be a bandit. The noise trap becomes even more useful if additions like http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/176172-experience-the-ccp-way/ are inserted, requiring longer periods of immobility and more protection.

Haha, that'd probably be disconcerting to run across! All that little stuff really does add to the ambience, though. The little relics of a fleeing populace are what make the houses look lived in and abandoned, instead of like a barren unibomber shack with a mailbox. And bonus to being able to use them to your own needs, however benign or dark they happen to be.

Some quotes from Rocket on Reddit: As a programmer, I understand how important the context of a bug is, as well as how important it is to actually mention it! If it doesn't delay actual game development too much, I would suggest adding in a bug reporting tool into the game. It could directly output to the feedback tool, or it could produce an intermediate result to be manually added by the user or parsed by the team. The tool could accept a title and description of the issue, automagically collect hardware and dxdiag information, and contain a dump of user game settings and other meta-data such as location, player status, etc. With or without another step by a human, it would result in a Feedback Tracker entry with platform information and the required information to reproduce it right there. Is a building shadow in a red house in Dolina jaggy when it rains? Don't waste time recreating the conditions, let the player upload them! Game settings, player location, viewpoint, status, etc. could be programmatically uploaded from a bug dump, saving time. Naturally, this wouldn't work for crashes, because the game is already dead by that point. But I think it would greatly increase the quantity of feedback by letting players report it when it happens, and the usefulness of the feedback by including many of the things that people forget to add into bug reports.

Manpower is definitely short, but I don't think it would require too much from the server. I'm thinking the entirety of the data dump would probably fit inside a UDP packet, and it doesn't necessarily have to travel through the server. The data could be sent directly from the client to the web server hosting the feedback site. Or it could go via an internal route if there's many variables and stuff they don't want exposed like that.

One thing to keep in mind is that zombies aren't at their end state yet. With the addition of more zombies and better AI, going AFK in a house could be suicide.

I think this is why icons have to exist at least a little. In real life, I know if I'm full or hungry by directing my attention to my stomach. My stomach would grumble when empty, but it doesn't do anything when I'm full (maybe bow outward a little.) When I come across food, I do mentally check if I'm hungry or not, but it's entirely internal. This is where an icon you have to actively check makes sense. Coarse information, actively queried, until it becomes a pressing issue. Then it become always obvious, like starving. The flip side of this is that icons can reflect ambiguity that exists in real life. When you go to stand up, your ankle shoots pain up your leg and you collapse, your body doesn't tell you you're ankle's broke, it just says "No." It could also just be sprained. When it comes to discomfort and pain, the body is pretty vague, usually only expressing where and how bad. Stomach cramps: diarrhea, food poisoning, hunger, or running too long? You only know from context, and when it's more than one you aren't even sure which anymore.