First off let me just say there is way too many 1st & 3rd person shooters in the market, they are a dime a dozen and quite frankly after 28 years of playing games they get stale, quick! DayZ on the other hand has something great going for it, it has the potential to become one of the best "zombie survival" games out there. But like a diamond in the rough, it needs some work before it reaches it's full potential. This game should feel more about survival and less about killing one another. Judging by the amount of KoS I've seen in this game it seems most people view this as another deathmatch game with zombies in it. So in order to get this game on track to it's grass roots as a "zombie survival game" a few changes needs to be put in place to ensure people treat it as such. I'll list my ideas and reasoning behind them, remember this represents the final product not the game as it's in it's current state and while one or a few may have similar suggestions on here they all need to be explained in greater detail here so you can see the justification behind all of these ideas as they coincide with one another. 1. Ten times as many zombies! I want this game so hard that you wouldn't be able to survive on your own for long unless you were in say the top 10% of players who play this game. This type of pro player would represent a highly skilled survivalist or someone in a military special forces unit therefore their chance of survival alone would be possible but still a struggle. Let's face it most people are incompetent and even more so would be absolutely scared outta their minds in a situation like this and the game should mirror this effect. By making more zombies KoS would be down dramatically as the game will require most people to buddy up due to it's new difficulty level and sneaking around would be harder. When to use a crossbow / melee weapon versus a gun would depend on your situation/location and amount of bullets you have, so choose wisely. 2. Bandits and Heroes - For those who have played the old Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games should be familiar with the light and dark side of the force system they had in place that recorded your actions and it would determine if you were good or bad based on your decisions. This system would allow people to play to their liking and with the other ideas I have will give the game more dynamic range and come with certain risk/rewards based on your actions. For example helping random people (not people on your friends list because everyone helps friends) either by reviving them or trading them food or supplies for nothing in return or helping NPC's randomly placed in trouble (I'll explain that later in greater detail) you would net hero points. But by doing bad things like killing heroes, tricking or killing NPC's would net you Bandit points, which by the way doesn't reset when you die. In order to change from a Bandit to Hero or vice-versa you would have to start acting accordingly and slowly build up the points til you became one or the other. 3. Safe Zone - This would be a military base located somewhere on the map that would have local military or UN soldiers stationed where you can safely trade with other survivors as long as you had a neutral or hero status, but bandits would be shot on sight by the NPC's stationed there. This would be a great way to trade with other people in the community with no worries of being killed (weapons could be unequippable in this safe zone). Maybe you have a rare car part a group of people need and are willing to part for it for a nice M4. 4.NPC's - Also know as non playable characters can be people in distress throughout Chernarus. They could be running down the street being chased by a zombie and if you help kill it they will give you something in return netting you hero points on top of the reward or kill both of them and see what the NPC had on him and net bandit points. Maybe they are calling for help from a window or you bumped into them when you went to loot their home and their child or partner needs medicine and will trade you a empty handgun clip if you bring it back to them and earn hero points or kill them and take their food and supplies earning you bandit points. Different types of quests could be more challenging, just imagine someone lost their younger brother/sister and they tell you the city they were last in and you have to escort this person back safely to their family member, the possibilities are endless. This would also break up the whole looting and shooting aspect of the game which is going to be 75% of what your doing making the lifespan and replay value of the game longer and therefor a more successful franchise people will keep coming back to. 5. Trade system - Final Fantasy 11 had a great trade system where you both went to trade and when both parties had the correct items in the trade box they wanted they would hit accept and the trade would commence, so no one could cheat one another (there was 8 items you could each trade at once and was one of the best trading systems I've seen in a MMO). 6. Hordes - A bunch of zombies (5-6) that would act in a group and if alerted look out, as they will all be on you as if they were one unit. Big cities should have at least 2-3 of these groups that act independently from the other zombies roaming but if you shoot a gun you'll have a horde as well as a few individual ones which should be very exciting/horrifying.
