Evil Minion

It's not a cheat but metagaming and you cannot stop people from doing so. In fact it's not that much different from a gameplay guide. It gives you an advantage but not an unfair one (a similar argument applies to voice communication). The effects of the map could be reduced by introducing a higher randomness factor both in terms of quality - like minor changes in map layout (dynamic events, per server randomization of certain objects) - and quantity - a greater item pool and increased rarity to make it harder to find specific loot. But knowledge will still translate into advantages most of the time.

Server hopping renders everything pointless that is even remotely tied to game dynamics and economy. That's why an eventual fix is basically mandatory. You do not need to go full berserk and make every server private (in fact this would even hurt as those small isolated worlds could only support very small and limited economies where trading might not be much of a factor) but reducing the connectivity between servers to a point where switching does not give you any advantage in terms of finding items (risk, speed etc.) certainly helps. In DayZ any kind of currency should: be of short term use (DayZ life is short)be easy to carry around in higher quantitybe rare enough to stay valuablebe abundant enough to allow trading it awaynot spoil or get destroyed quicklybe able to get stacked and splitbe valuable to a high number of players (if nobody wants your stuff its worthless)Currently there is no such item so any trade is likely to be a direct one. Or none at all as items nowadays are more likely to be very common (you can easily get them by just looting and almost nobody wants to give you sth. for them) or very rare (almost nobody wants to trade them away). Bullets, you say? They are quite abundant and have the awful property of increasing ones threat level as their primary use is killing other players. And they are highly likely to be used as such because firearms are also abundant. So using bullets as "money" would just boost the overall threat level even further - which in turn makes the very act of trading less attractive.

Stumble across them right after spawning (wooden cabins). Honestly its way too easy to find a gun with matching ammunition - especially on servers with persistence off. I really think firearms, ammo and military equipment should be a lot harder to find as right now the overall threat level is extremely high which hurts most player interactions other than shooting on sight. However, as long as diverse teleport abuses (server hopping, freshspawn suicide etc.) stay unfixed any attempt at balancing rarity or game dynamics will be in vain.

Many clothes might not be waterproof but they still offer some resistance (e.g. 90% in case of the bomber jacket). If you utilize cover thats usually enough to avoid any negative consequences but it takes a little more effort. According to the DayZ Wiki Gorka Jackets aren't waterproof (I did not validate this) but offer 95% resistance instead.

I think a lighter would be a good thing. Many of the other options (like gasoline) are actually fuel and should not be able to start fires but might make it easier to get it going similar to rags. Now another option that was used historically is storing or transporting the embers instead of starting a new fire every time. I think this would also be a great addition to DayZ. In a similar manner torches, oil lamps and candles could work as temporary fire sources to create more fires from an existing one.

A little update. I guess the lack of voters shows that people do not care about additional headwear - because of this I will probably reduce the number of helmets on the list as they are often quite similar.

Spawn immunity is a bad feature and usually only used as a crutch to work around bad spawn designs. It usually ends up with spawnkills simply working the other way around which makes gameplay even more frustrating - especially in a game like DayZ where freshspawns have nothing to lose but other players have. I would rather like the spawn system to be refined: Instead of a few discrete spawn points there should be a greater area you can spawn in. (We got this in spades.) Lower probability to spawn in areas with high player/structure* density. You won't spawn in a certain radius around other players or structures*. Higher probability of spawning in a place far away from your corpse. As a freshspawn** getting killed should give you a lower respawn time. As a freshspawn** getting killed by another player (does not include pressing respawn after getting knocked out unless below 500 blood) does not trigger 4. but rather keep your old place of death (basically a reroll on your initial respawn). Freshspawns should start at a lower power level: Clothes damaged/badly damaged. Chemlight instead of Flashlight+Battery. Maybe lower tier bottomwear (0-2 item slots). Remove the Vybor spawn. Move all spawns at the coast (and probably the far North Eastern areas that seem a little cut off right now).And in the end - if you end up killed right after spawning you did not actually lose anything. So its not really that much of an issue. *Structures means player-interacted objects like filled world containers, tents, bases, vehicles not in their original starting postion etc. Those should interact with all players in the same way (no dedicated owner) - avoids quick regearing or lucky scavenger spawns. **There might be a time after spawning (like 10 minutes) where you are considered "freshspawn" by the game. Certain events might make people lose their freshspawn status.

Layering would be a nice thing. In many cases you could just not show the model of the underlayer but still apply effects like temperature or wetness.

I would like to keep the "weapon in fire position but not aiming down the sights" we got right now. However, shooting from a relaxed stance might cause your character to use hipfire instead of entering the former stance being less accurate but also not slowing down movement as much. The "aimed" stance should have the lowered head described in the OP. In terms of mechanics I think one of gibonez former suggestions could work fine here: forced free-aim. In general you should got the least amount when aiming down the sights and the most when firing from your hip. Hipfire might also have increased sway and recoil while also ignoring any effects of buttstock attachments.

Where are the donkeys?

Nobody forces you to loot every single room. Feel free to regard buildings as non-enterable for this. Sure it makes looting Now if you look at a microscopic scale being able to enter most buildings makes for a much more interesting map layout as you got more than what is basically a maze with square obstacles in between. Different windows, floors and entrances give you several possibilities. Also it does actually add the impression of being in an authentic urban environment. On a macroscopic scale it does make the map much bigger. Now consider the developers also scaling down movement speed to a reasonable level and you got a pretty huge map. Now one obvious advantage is a lot of space to explore and a lot of room for different map features (loot spawns, animals, dynamic events, etc.) - you can add a lot of diversity without "overcrowding" the map. I do not think that it is a good thing if you are able to move to the other end of the map quickly especially when also looking for gear and supplies. Now the current issue is "running simulator" - people having nothing else to do than running for a quite long period of time. How to change that? There are multiple options: Increase PvE difficulty. More zombies, more dangerous zombies, envirnomental hazards, animals etc. Basically expanding the survival part to a level where it is actually challenging and keep players occupied. This basically fills empty parts with singleplayer/coop gameplay.Make the travel an actual travel. its long, it requires effort and you cannot do it at once. So players who wish to travel across the map will most likely travel in stages while doing something else in between. To do so there should be more options around the map so players can slowly travel from town to town (example) and enjoy the game before getting to the military bases. This basically fills empty parts with sandboy gameplay.Increase server population.With more players on the server interactions should be more frequent and encounter chance is increased This basically just reduces the amount of empty parts. Howeever, the impact of player count is - like most of the games dynamics - masked by abusive features (next point). As long as those are still present we will not see anything close to satisfying dynamics and in case they get dealt with the current player count might turn out to be quite okay.Get rid of both server hopping and freshspawn suiciding and make low population servers spawn significantly less loot. This way players cannot just teleport to the most popular places but actually have to use ingame routes thus increasing travel and the chance of contact along travel routes. Also this might increase the chances of meeting a player that is neither a freshspawn nor highly geared. There are plenty of ideas around to limit those sufficiently. Making all servers private being the only solution is simply wrong. No matter how much it gets repeated.

Lets bump this.

Something about this guys gear makes me think he also got this stuff from a dead body.

Five ugly girls - which you won't even notice because you just happen to avoid the pretty ones.* You probably found civilian lot because your fellow server hoppers were faster than you. *The game is much more fun if you do not server hop or loot empty servers.

Lies. An authentic melee implementation would result in an authentic experience and not in "Soul Calibur in DayZ". And authenticity should be a major goal. Nobody here wants any "magic" features nor are "magic" features required for a better melee experience.

No - it's about a melee system that has better flow requires more than mindless button mashing. I think survivors should wield weapons more like an ordinary person and not like a martial artist. So lots of telegraphing and overstriking - as seen in Chivalry - might actually be a good thing. The core idea is a more thoughtful and skill dependent melee combat system that incorporates things like defense and initiative. Whether someone is a (comparatively) skilled brawler or not should depend on the player.

I was speaking about the general way parrying is implemented - here I think the M&B solution might be better. Basically instead of having a huge square box you move around by turning the parry box would correspond with your weapon and by choosing a direction you choose how to hold it in order to prevent getting hit. This would make feinting more natural as you would not have those "strike">"feint">"same strike again" attacks but rather "strike from one side">"feint">"strike from the other side". Holdable parry with a parry box as in Chivalry would be a bad idea indeed. Delayed attacks are useless in real life and I do not want to see delayed melee attacks in DayZ. The only way they might work is by using the additional time to redirect them around your opponents weapon. Now I am not exactly sure how many attack buttons we are getting in DayZ but two seem to make sense to make firearms usable as melee weapons as well. This leaves a dedicated parry option for melee weapons (speak: hold your weapon between you and an incoming strike). By giving held objects a physical presence in the world you could also deflect attacks by clashing or even getting lucky just holding them. Things I would really like but that will probably not make it (they did not even make it into dedicated melee games) are using parry stances as setup for attacks from a different angle and hooking or grappling. I tried Zeno Clash but is seems a little too arcade-y to me and would not really fit DayZ either.

Somehow I came to believe that you think every players should have to use its inventory to the fullest. Thats not true - if you do not want to get into inventory tetris just don't fill your backpack with all this crap. Stick to the things you really need and you don't have have to deal with such nerdy things like: rearranging items (which is done only to get some additional space for bigger items)shifting items to different containers (to avoid potential damage to them)sorting items (for faster access and a better overview)stacking/splitting items (there should be an autostacking option when picking up items though)And if you really hate the twodimensional grid so much there could be a dumbed down version with the following parameters: weight capacityvolume capacitymaximum item lengthminimum container width (so packing 1.2m sticks does not mean you can also pack a 1.2m x 1.2m window)mi... okay lets stick with two dimensionsAdd autostacking but manual sorting (list up/down) and got a system that is almost as mighty (minus the rearragement) but much easier. Now it's a matter of design whether you want to give all benefits to all players by default or whether you want to include a (somewhat optional) minigame for players who want to unlock the full potential. The real issue is that right now everything you do requires you to go through inventory management. You should be able to interact with the environment (crafting, hand-environment interaction, using items etc.) without using your inventory at all. So if you find a chemlight you can light it and drop it without being forced to first put it in your pockets. Those pockets should only be used if you explicitly want to use them.

Chivalry is a good example for melee mechanics even though there are some small issues especially if you want it to be authentic (Chivalry doesn't): Attacks are usually overly telegraphed and swung. In Chivalry it has the consequence of lots of players hitting lots of things they actually do not want to hit. It also results in some pretty unauthentic combat situations. Though at least telegraphing is usually needed in a computer game because otherwise you had no chance of parrying in the first place (especially with ping).* Your weapon is not really present as a solid object until mid-swing. Before and after it can neither hit an object nor be parried or blocked. Also your attacks pass both allies and enemies without slowing down or even stopping. Parries work as a generic box that gets activated by pressing the parry button. They are not directional and cannot be held in position and every weapon got the same hitbox (that is about as big as a tower shield - blocking drains stamina based on the weapon used though). Also attacks cannot be used to deflect your enemies blows - weapons just pass right through each other resulting in a hit trade.Still it offers good combat flow and control and at least the first point would in fact be less of an issue in DayZ as random survivors are probably not trained melee fighters. M&B is good as well but feels a little stiff in comparison (and while I like the holdable parry I do not like holdable attacks). Strafing on the other side is actually realistic, although many melee fights in reality would often end in tackling and grappling - something that is probably a pain in the a*s(*) to implement in a satisfying way (quicktime events are not). *That's why in Chivalry the most basic attack is actually an overhead strike where you look at your opponents feet to speed up your attack. You can see this in the video as well.

One word: Oversimplification Is this bad? Yes. Why? It removes depth and messes up authenticity. Weight works differently than shape and an unhandy shape should be unhandy. It also removes any benefit for thoughful inventory management while improving giving more advantages to players who do not care. One of the good elements in DayZ is that logistics do matter and a generic capacity value would hurt this. Why not add the ability to rotate items? How is this a good thing? Also you got less tradeoffs in backpack balance but only generic upgrades. You cannot have multiple "best choices" with only one value. Why not just stick with the added depth and authenticity while working on this issues (like minimum size and lack of rotation). Last part is b*l*s*h*t - a single generic value does not make things more realistic. However, where your idea is horrible for bigger items it does indeed work for smaller ones. Now you could just fix the size of certain items but if this would result in too small icons it might also work to add a "generic bag" for very small items only. Why not just fix the layering bug then? Why would you give the full benefits of inventory managemant to someone who does not invest effort into inventory management? I do not think it is the spirit of the game to have your character organize everything perfectly in no time. Trivializing inventory management only buffs lazy people (not saying you should not be allowed to pay lazy but it should come with downsides). I guess it also adds depth and allows to reward thoughtfulness and effort over being lazy and careless. Again it should be possible to play lazy and careless - but it should nver net you the full advantage. Definitely an issue that should be addressed in some way. But "Lets remove depth from the game so I can get to the 13375N1P1N6 faster without having any drawbacks!" I do not think playes should be forced into lots of inventory management but to get the full benefits for their capacity and overview the should put in some effort. Otherwise its okay if the can carry a little less or take a little longer to equip a particular item.

I am getting really tired of this crap "argument". People suggest more depth in some areas and other just say no because of... reasons I guess? Why not have a complex melee system? It's not like adding more depth in area X does reduce gameplay to area X and not adding depth to area X "because it's only a small part" is the road to a far poorer and less enjoyable game that is reduced to other more developed areas. Even with a very complex and good melee system (which I would support) the game does not become "DayZ Knights" as survival and actually finding the equipment would play a much greater role. And even if you manage to do this there will be people with vehicles and guns laughing at your little outdated sword. If it was possible within the resources I would like a complex and authentic melee combat system as it would greatly increase the experience when fighting zombies or during the first part of the game.

I do not like to be limited to my steam name and would rather like customizable names. Also I think you should name your characters instead: If you first spawn with a character the name you set will stick until she dies. This allows for multiple customizable names per player while still making is possible to use the name for identification. I think this would allow for better recognition (along with your face and maybe body shape) and also gives players the chance to alterate between playstyles as character death can be used as absolution without having the sins of your old character still sticking to you. Maybe add a option for private shards to limit players to a single ingame name as well.

It is not. What is the point of having a large map if you also tone up the runing speed to make it small again? Sprinting speed needs to be reduced and stamina needs to be implemented to stop non-stop sprinting. Running speed might even be okay - but everyone is sprinting all the time so it does not matter. However, I think the idea that overly high running speed is related to the absence of vehicles is a misconception. Its more the lack of PvE content and the low player density in certain areas (due to game dynamics issues) - the world is relatively empty and so people are down to mindless running. Which is sped up until the world becomes more developed and players have more things they can do. Then reducing running speed will scale up the world unlocking the potential of the large map. Other advantages of lower running speed are better combat and an effective increase in loot rarity (more average time between "found something" events).

I took the liberty to change the OPs suggestions to a more manageable format before answering:

The benefit is eliminating a potential threat and rival for good loot as well as getting some additional items. As it is currently very easy to survive on your own and there are few identification features this outweights the potential benefit for cooperating with a stranger. KoS directly relates to the game dynamics. For example:death has comparatively low impact - you basically just lose your gear and reappear at the coast mere 30 seconds laterit is easy to gear up especially when (ab)using "teleport features" like fast server switch times and low death impactit is easy to survive in the environment and NPCs do not pose much of a threat - fighting players is the only real challenge...Basically KoS gives you quite good payoffs at moderate or even low risk (depending on the area).