Troll_Hunter

Wow what a big post tommekk! Great idea of obscuring the dark(er) parts. However I don't like the rounded blurry blue and red blob like edges. Look at what happens to camera's that are underexposed, with applied high gain (ISO). With the increasing grain in the dark parts of the image (not in the light parts!) the details in the dark are obscured by the grain / noise. With eyes, in low light, the detail is also greatly reduced, but the our eye's grain looks more organic. hehe. The medium and light parts have little to no grain / noise. I like to see BI develop such a shader, making an truely organic looking grain, that is applied according to the games light levels. With this organic grain, players will be on a level playing field AND have a more realistic night-time / cave experience! - Win win!

I think the gamma cannot be 'fixed' by the game. The in game gamma option actually helps novice players to play with equal vision compared to the trolls, who do know how to use 3rd party tools to crank up the gamma. People still like to have equal vision distance, I say use a nice Arma 3 like fog during the night.

"But I'm not sure if I want such a separation in game (the notorious soft-skill-debate...) - If they implement it they would have to make sure progress (e. g. medical skill) can't be made by grinding (injuring a friend, bandaging him, injuring him again...) - I don't know how skill progression without grind could look like. As you said, advancing when finding and reading books (or medical journals!) like in Fallout could be a solution." May I offer an idea: 1) find a medical book, 2) perform at least 3 advanced skills (on others) to learn the book and gain the skill. I'm in doubt about making the book deteriorate fast, limiting the time window of learning the skill. And or to make the book big and heavy in order to make it a burden (hard choice) to carry it around. A big medical book can be like 4-6 loaded magazines big and heavy, and nearly fill up a school girl's backpack. Also the book could be made a rare find. Or a 1 time consumable, so only 1 person can get the skill. I'm relaxed about people hurting friends with advanced injuries, because one can make the advanced skills to be applied only on near fatal injuries. For instance performing CPR to bring a person back from a near fatal state. If the risk of your book equipped friend not succeeding to bring you back is say 50%(because he's learning..), would you let your self be shot so your friend may gain 1/3 of the 'advanced medic' skill? - In short I think there can be a balance. I love the prospect of seeing people with an occasional limp, or recurring infections, searching for a medic in DayZ. Also seeing a medic in a group dragging people to safety, performing CPR (reviving people from shock), applying a tourniquet (saving people from artery bleeding), applying broken leg (re)setting (to remove the occasional limping that is a 10% speed reduction), removing bullets to keep the group mobile and effective would be a valuable contribution and a very rewarding role, especially since this game is permanent death!

Hi Folk, Franky has just released a new video, chock-full of suggestions. I noticed how many gameplay suggestions are featured in this video, form underground terrain, to camouflaged buildings and cars, to poisonous gas, to blood and decapitations, to minigun and armour, to fog, attack dogs, to herds of infected. Franky and Sader made this wonderful video, one of Franky's best to date. Enjoy:

Good to know, hopefully the devs run with them :)

Question to the doctor here. In the light of learned (from books and/or experience) game skills, could you make a 2 level system of injuries and treatments that reflects the medical skill of a normal survivor and that of a medically skilled survivor? I'm thinking about how skilled players could be valuable to groups and hostage takers that may have some serious / special medical issues that require a skilled person to solve. Maybe resetting a leg to get rid of limping? Or maybe taking out a bullet to stop the constant infections? I love the idea of visible trauma, having actually bruises, cuts, holes on the body, with blood squirting out if it's artery bleeding. I also think our characters need to scream their painful injuries "fuck my leg is broken!" followed by sounds of enduring extreme pain, audible feedback, for near friend and foe. Good player feedback is essential for a feeling of fairness of a game. I.v. Catheters, I think this is not something that works well for this type of game, because In real life I think I.V.'s do not allow people to run with backpacks while using guns. Some treatments are not realistic when on the run. However I would like to see treatments that are realistic on the battle field. Such as tourniquets. Pro version (hospital/army/police), and the improvised (rope,wire) In my view the medical system is about connecting character modifiers (abilities) to wounds and illnesses to treatments, using tools and skills. The wounds and illnesses should have very good clear feedback and logic. The tools should be divided in 'pro' and 'improvised', as the treatment skill level. The player's treatment skill may determine how fast and how much a wound (player ability) is restored. For instance: an unskilled player is only able to restore a leg to 90% recovery, making the player limp a step every 10 steps. A medically skilled player can bring it to a 100%. This will make having a medically skilled player a valuable asset to your team. Bandits with injuries may stop shooting on sight and choose holding up people in search of specialists to have their medical (and other) issues/needs taken care of. Player skills make living people more valuable. - think of the role playing opportunities - Deteriorating objects: I think dayz has a lot of tuning to do, because the current levels are often far from realistic, and I don't like farm ville ;) I think the bandages, pills, alcohol, should not deteriorate, only destroyed when shot. It's unrealistic given a survivor may live only for a few days, and bandages, pills are well packaged to last for months. Game-play wise I think players already have enough maintenance to do with keeping their arms in good shape, their vehicles in good condition, their bases up to snuff and their batteries charged. Let alone getting food and water. - getting more of topic by the line - I think the game should centre around 'your story', and for me that revolves around personal encounters and interactions with new and striking individuals, that have skill and other items to give, share, steal or trade. I would like to see drama, plot and depth, and those can only be reached with connection and immersion. The game should feel realistic, deep, logical and fair.

I would like to see the gas motivated, because in real life it blows away and dissipates. However in a closed off building it would linger a long time. It would be a cool way to smoke people out of buildings. The gas cloud makes me think about the piles of dead disease ridden bodies. Maybe it would be cool to make being near them dangerous? Yielding an invisible 'cloud'/ radious of disease, that would make players ill if they stay in it for a certain amount of time. People on low health, low energy, with open wounds would catch a disease almost immediately. Using a surgeon or improvised face mask would extend the infection time, provided there are no open wounds. Using a gas mask would make the player immune, if they have no open wounds. Piles of corpses also are permanent, and could be used to make certain loot rich area's (like bunkers) dangerous for people without protection.

I like it! Perhaps extent it to clothes too? On the other hand, has this a high priority?

It would be nice if they would offer a game calibration menu, with day and night scenes to adjust the brightness, gamma, filter and other setting in game. Maybe they could change the gamma curve not to affect the lowest of darks range 1-16. So the gamma setting affects the 16-232 range, instead of the 0-255 range. A Possible solution: - a view distance reducing fog. It is only natural in a competitive game for people to squeeze every advantage to gain a better chance to survive, hunt and kill. In real life there is no brightness level adjustment, but here in simulation world there is. A game designer may find a way around this simulation limitation. For instance I think it would make sense to use a sort of a fog to limit the view distance when it is dark. This way the advantage of bright settings is reduced. Night vision goggles could be made to partially thin this fog for the viewer, to offer a genuine advantage of a longer view distance. I'm thinking about A3's hight dependent fog, that raises and thickens in the evening and night. Being on high hills would yield a possible advantage, adding another tactical data consideration as to where to go when night falls.

I think there are still a lot of technical improvements to be done, a features to be developed. For instance the up and coming new player controller. This will hopefully make the animations and hand to hand combat smooth, enhancing the interaction experience. When the environment becomes a bigger thread, bears, wolves, bores etc, people will find that working together increases their opportunities to visit more dangerous spots. With the addition of base building and complex vehicles creative types will have a better outlet of their creativity. Weight carry limitations will make working together, sharing the load, more beneficial. You see there are a lot of variables that need to be tested and tuned to get an interesting player mix, that yields interesting interactions and stories.

Maybe the 'mountains' do not need to be as big and high as the Rocky mountains? I like the idea to have a bit more elevated and steep terrain, with some cool rock formations, a gorge, waterfalls, mountain lake, cabins, mountain goats, curvy roads, hiking trails, ski station. Maybe, in later stage, the game may have seasons, with changing vegetation, snow, ice etc. Forcing players to adapt. It would make sense that people head for the hills in times of crises.

The current player speed is high, because there are too few vehicles. In general you're right off cause. There is no game that is as brutal as reality. I think in order for a game to work it needs good player feedback, as well as fighting chance to avoid and escape a danger. I would like to see a realistic arrow damage. You see arrows, especially with bladed heads, do a lot of damage when moving after been hit. (see bow hunting).

Great suggestions! I would also to hear other people scream in agony when they get shot and seriously hurt. Also better and a bit more blood please. Maybe loose a limp too when hit by a high calibre rifle, - and then bleeding out and dying in pain in say 10-15 seconds. Walking infected that get a limb shot off and bleed out in agony would be very atmospheric and dramatic too. De-limping a corps to harvest meat would be cool too. Dayz 'it's your story' can use more drama invoking sounds and graphics.

I like the idea of making sound a much better part of the game. Players, animals, infected all should produce all sorts of sounds by all sorts of contact. Walking, bumping into things, rubbing, breaking twigs, eating, talk, pain sounds(!!!), engines, echoes, wind, leaves, flying and rolling trash etc. Opening doors, breaking open, kicking in doors, should all have different sounds and sound ranges and should be a real consideration.

There are RPG's with extensive ways to tune faces in game using sliders. I'm in favour of that because it avoids the 'dick-face' but does allow unique faces. So we can refer to others by looks, and we can make the face resemble our selves or our alter egos.

Hi DAYZ team. To help you out debugging and reproducing errors and bugs, I suggest assigning a key to a 'debug screenshot', which should be uploaded to a server automatically. It should contain debug info, of the last say 5 minutes of gameplay, and offer the player to quickly type in a comment on what the bug may be. But maybe you already got enough information to do fast debugging and error repair? Looking forward to 0.60 stable.

I think dismemberment would be cool to see and encounter. A FN FAL bullet could rip off an hand arm or a head, a visibly fatal wound. Shooting a head arm or leg off does give the shooter a very strong sense of power and influence. On the other hand it may spur on risk taking, bandit play and sadism. Also severed heads could be put up as a warning, a trap, a mark, a trophy etc. There could be a posse or gang going for an head-hunt. "bring me the head* of Brian!". Rolling heads would also indicate a loss of morale that usually comes when there is nothing to loose. Finding your old bearded friends head on a stick, or in trunk would have a cool emotional and motivating effect. Head design: - I hope Dayz SA will offer user head design like other RPG's have done, so people can have unique heads that can be recognised. Maybe an in game polaroid camera, or sketch paper and pen can create a decal from a in game photo, so people can show other in game the person they are looking for, or hang up a wanted / lost poster on a sign in town to let people know.

Hi reader, Watching DayZ graphics progression with the new more realistic looking renderer, controller, interface, it got me thinking about it's zombies. In essence: zombies do not fit the game any more. In the beginning Dayz looked more like a drawing, now with the improved (and still improving) graphics, the game's appearance is shifting towards realism. Zombies are a fantasy, and have some unreal characteristics that distract and break the realistic feel of the Dayz world. They are becoming a dissonance in relation to Dayz's realism. Turn the zombies into: ill, short sighted, low stamina, a moral cannibals, that work in gangs. The story could be an viral illness has spread in the cities, only a few gangs survive, eating their neighbours, or any stranger. Because of the crisis situation and their illness they have a heightened aggression and sprint speed, but limited view distance and stamina. They also cling on their neighbourhood, accept for when there is no more bodies to eat, then they'll go hungry and start to roam along the road to the next town in search of the next fresh body. They use blunt and stabbing weapons, and some gang leaders even guns, but their illness and lack of training makes their automatic fire inaccurate. They do set up ambushes and traps. They talk and order each other and when on a hunt they shout maniacally battle cries and taunts, and are loud in their movements. I also like to see cannibal infighting when they believe they hit each other. They can beg for mercy, flee, take and use cover, sneak around and prefer to attack when the player is facing the other way. They should be a serious thread, and cities should have big gang/s of 20 - 40 members that patrol and guard their neighbourhood (and hidden loot pile/s), making it necessary for players to be very stealthy, smart, and or bring a team and enough guns to gain access. I know this is a lot of work to do, certainly with this much detail. But I think that the today's zombies are starting to feel more and more out of place in the realistic setting Dayz is creating.

Roaming groups, that patrol neighbourhoods and sometimes the connecting town roads would be an excellent reason to be terrified of going alone, and motivate people find a buddy and build a team. The lone wolf type of player can try to go the stealth way, using bows, knifes, traps, camouflage, distractions, timing to enter and loot the villages. I think it would be cool if cities would demand a higher level of group organisation to enter and loot. - With more unique and valuable rewards obviously. On infected group size. In general I favour smart realistic AI over having many unrealistically dumb AI. I think the infected and disabled should be in a worse, more deteriorated physical and mental condition. Their leader should be the most able, maybe able to lead up to 10 underlings. For a city, I think the gang criminal types may have a two level organisation: Commander, lieutenant and underlings. Reflecting this higher level of organisation, patrols and group coordination, making entering and looting a city / factory a big serious challenge demanding high player skills, good tools, coordination, scouting and planning. - This reminds me of Hannibal: I love it when a plan comes together.

Yes, now this is a bit of an eye catching, thought provoking, bold statement. But later, with the 0.60 and subsequent graphics boosts towards realism, the dissonance will become (more) clear. This will increase the contrast between the cartoon like zombie appearance and behaviour and realistic looking renderer and setting. Zombies may start feeling like a weak part of the game, underdeveloped, not a positive contributor to the setting and gameplay. I bring this subject to this suggestions forum section maybe (a bit) early, but I do this to give the BI Dayz team some time to consider and some time to make changes towards realism. Total Biscuit explains about the dissonance of gameplay and realism in "The Division" :

Thank you all for the civil and constructive responses, a joy to read! I hope the BI team likes it too. And I wish them to pick up the gauntlet and make their 'zombies' more appealing and fitting in the realistic and authentic setting Dayz has. Since zombies in games are often an 'cheap' part, because people expect them to be dumb, I think it would be most refreshing to see more depth to them. This added depth would help a lot to set Dayz apart from the other zombie games. Thank you, Kars

In real live a can opener would make a difference, they are lighter weight, and much more available in an urban (kitchen setting). However like you, and most others I think a hunter knife is by far a more versatile tool. Maybe a Swiss army knive is a nice lightweight option for cutting meet, opening cans, and it may have a compass too.

Hi Whyhero, Well I fully agree with your assessments. I've climbed mountains such as the Mont-Blanc, and I know that avoiding injury is high if not the highest priority. We all know this, and surely we'll act accordingly when we got the time, or even if we need to sacrifice (part of) the night. "Bang!" Now a sound of shot rattles your cage, and zombies rush in! Would you still carefully walk, or would you sprint to get out harms way? Then 8 zombies block your path closing in, and you have to fire your mosin. You nervous hands kills 6, but your gun saying click - click -click! two are still coming. You (carefully or frantically?) reach in your pocket (pick the right quick slot!) to grab a few extra rounds to (put or JAM) in your mosin? I think normal people would be as nervous and as hell. And for sure their movements are less coordinated and more frantic. Speedy big animations fit fighting moments. My point is that the current animations look like performed for accuracy, slow and deliberate, but not for speed. I like to see more the speed to reflect the dire urgency of killing or being killed. Maybe the simple thing to do is to simply play the animation faster. If you still want to have the same reloading time, you can just add a sound of a hand fishing bullets out of a pocket followed by the speed up loading animation. Surely opening of the can can be done in the same time, but having faster and more arm movements would present a character that is working harder to survive, not like a person that is slowly opening a beer can laying in the sun at the beach enjoying his vacation. ;)

I agree, there is a lot to do and improve with the animations. Many animations are simply not there yet, and waiting for a graphic bar to fill up is a not satisfying and breaks immersion. But the latest news on the new controller development is encouraging and the new controller will go a long way in blending and making for complex animations, as well as better character control. (Re)loading and chambering. I like the new taking bullets and load them into your gun before shooting mechanic. Having a Mosin clip will load 10 bullets with 1 button press. An obvious advantage to having loaded stripper clips and magazines over loading single bullets or shells. Chambering happens with the R key, and needs to be done for all weapons accept the ones with last shot hold open; those are instantly ready to shoot upon changing the magazine. These mechanics will emphasise the differences of guns and make them more divers. For sure people will need to adapt their strategy, and weapon choices will change. A Mosin will be much slower in close combat in comparison to a magazine fed gun; just as in real life. Backpack animation. I think it makes sense to have items in the backpack NOT EASILY reached. So you have to make sure you put the rounds, cartridges, clips or magazines, but also bandages, maps, compass, etc in you clothes' or vest, now using a vest with many pockets makes sense! Pockets are the quick access slots. I would love to see a fast in a hurry*(!) kneel and taking off and on backpack animation, after which you can click on the dropped backpack for opening the backpack and see the inventory screen. No more running/moving and grabbing some bullets from your backpack. Your close buddy, or thief, can access your backpack instantly; and putting the backpack's items in either your or his pockets, or on the ground. Of cause a thief could only fill up his own hands and quick pockets, so taking the full contents in 1 grab is not an possibility. In my view Dayz is more a survival strategy - planning and thinking, instead of a twitch shooter; in a way true to the ARMA and BI game design philosophy. Animation speed: * in a hurry, I love to see the animations of DAYZ speed up to reflect the player being in a real hurry. This would match the panic and fear of survival situation. The current slow movement animation style are dissonant to the hurry panic situation(s), and break immersion! To get an idea what in a hurry means, watch some 'run and gun' videos on youtube. - maybe the animation clock is to slow? ps. One big animation omission, is the getting on top of a ladder animation; I simply hate the hands holding air when my character reaches the top of a ladder, it really breaks immersion. pps. the drinking and eating animation also looks unpolished; my mouth is underneath my field of vision ;) and again I want to hear and see people eat and drink as fast as they can, to reflect the desperate survival situation.

I'm in favour of having lights rendered more realistic in game. People should learn how to make a Dacota firepit, such fires are partially or fully underground, only emitting a little light above, and burning much hotter and efficiently - little smoke! I use it on my hikes in the most crouwded Netherlands, where camping and having fires in the wild is illegal. I certainly do not want to be caught by the forest police. Yes it's like Dayz real life, and often me and my hiking buddy make jokes about DayZ saying 'friendly- friendly!' to strangers :D - just outside of the strangers hearing range off cause ;)