Troll_Hunter

To me all animations are like slow motion, maybe with the exception of gun recoil, and this does not match the survival and stressful setting where someone wants to do things quickly! Simply revving the animation up by say 50 to 100% would make it less immersion breaking slow and less nerve wrecking slow.

People, can we just assume someone's good intention and not engage in name calling?

Clunkiness, I think people need to become more clear in their wording, and I'm glad people are putting efforts to be more precise. Clunkiness implies to me delayed movements and jerky movements that lead to unpredictable and inaccurate movements and many corrections. Example. If you imagine an character response delay of say 1 second, your navigation on an obstacle course will be very difficult with tons of bumping and inaccurate turning. This to me is clunky. Instant response is needed, but with speed limitations depending on factors of weight, speed, stance, weapon weight and length. How would I prevent twitch shooting/moving? Well have a dynamic rotation speed limit. The dynamic is in the players speed, weight, stance, weapon weight and length. If the player runs, his maximum turn speed is slower. The player will see his body instantly starting to turn, maybe with a very small ramp until maximum turning speed is limited by aforementioned variables. A standing player turns faster then a walking and running one. Raising a long heavy weapon reduces the maximum turning speed too. So a Steyer AUG will be turning noticeable faster then a Mosin, and the players view leads the guns mussel more. Another source of clunkiness are in my view the slow animations. They are done in a slow way, instead of in a way that a stressed and hurried person would do the same task. The laid back speed does not match the extremely stressful situation of surviving and fighting. Simply speeding the reloading animations, bandaging and consuming food and drink animations up by say 50-100% would greatly help getting the feeling of being fast and proficient in handling the tools of the game. If you want people's characters move more natural when facing a surprise thread, the dynamic maximum rotation speed will prevent jogging players from twitching around. Their raised HR will prevent easy quick scopes, still possible with good trigger timing. When walking,one is going slow and therefore turning is much faster. When standing without additional weight and gun it's the fastest, good for boxing. Wielding an axe will be slower. To add some more realism, gun rotation can also be variable. The first 30 degrees of a turn could be fast, turning beyond should be noticeably slower, simulating the feet repositioning (needs animation too!). I agree that more realistic turning, and gun operating speeds the game will become more slower paced, encouraging a more strategic approach. However players should have instant feedback to their inputs, (no delays!) so movements become predictable, fluid and playable.

On the realism thing, I think it would be a fun experiment to have a realism mode, where extinction and extermination can happen. To make it playable the administrator can speed up the time to say 1 game hour is 1 day. To be true to realism, if you have eaten nothing, you'll find that speed, balance, concentration, recovery, memory, mind are greatly affected. Thinking, running, aiming are much harder. The food is important to keep warm, so you can aim steady. I think that difficulty thinking can be simulated by a subtle motion blur, less contrast, more vignetting, less view distance, lesser hearing. Those things impair the players observations and will retard and slow their decisions, just like a lack of food would. Actually I think it may be a good idea to have two modes, the casual and the realism mode, where in casual you have 3rd person view, and a bit less weapon vulnerability and some other things that make the game accessible and a good learning the ropes mode for people new to the woods of Chernarus. Casual is for those that want a quick game, perhaps with a restricted map, so it works for 15 - 30 player counts, enjoying 1 to 4 hour session, an evening playing after returning from work. Maybe it could be a bug out scenario, where a player can have a self chosen backpack with gear (weight considerations!) and see if he can survive for x amount of days (game hours), and compare his ranking to the other server players. In the realism mode players have only 1st person view, and maybe some other realism adjustments. However they aim to have a long sustained life and become the longest surviving player on the global, public ranking. To make this more challenging this ranking number and name should be seen in game, when a player is very close to another. A binocular or scope could be used to identify players from longer distances, perhaps 100-200m. This identification makes being a long time survivor fun, honourable and increasingly more challenging. Bandits should have a red ranking number, for they've chosen the 'dark side' ;) With a scope, range finder or binoculars and close up identification, people can more easily judge and decide to evade, meet, cooperate, attack players based on their global survival / bandit ranking. While this is not entirely realistic, a visible in game name and ranking will add a long play motivation and challenge that is so lacking at this moment. - What is more challenging, being the worst bandit, or being the best survivalist? Scenarios / events. An administrator selected and timed events would add a lot of variation, just like in sim city. Maybe a scenario like this: day 1 zombie hordes, on day 2 a military invasion (Zeus tech), and on day 3 a nuclear attack, to just to name A scenario. The administrator should be able to chose, configure and combine his own game scenarios, so players never are sure what disasters will land on the shores of Chernarus. This added variation would greatly help the game Just like scenarios helps the Shack tac community to enjoy and grow. I'm sure you can think of a list of fun and challenging scenarios to spice up Chernarus. Sorry for the long post, I felt inspired :)

I'm all in favour of a weight system. As a hiker and mountain climber myself I love the challenge of choosing between ability versus mobility. About play styles, and twitch shooters, I favour strategic approaches for this game, though it should not be forced by clumsy and lagging controls. The game should promote creativity and experimentation. Repetitiveness becomes boring quickly. I think part of the 'no twitch shooter' argument revolves around the type of audience the game attracts. I would like the advantage to go to the thinking creative players, rather then the dummies who can have only influence by destroying, which even babies can do. I trust Dean Hall to make it interesting, deep and original, though he needs a sidekick to avoid going overboard with details that do not add strategic depth to the game, helping Dean with the priorities.

I like the idea of a deep gun handling mechanics. However - as with many suggestions - I fear that some details may take up too much valuable coding time. I like the pistols inside the waistband idea. Magazines, stripper clips, and single rounds can be fished out of jacket, pants, tactical vests, with "R". - not from the backpack! Entering one's backpack should be done crouching / standing with an animation, just like in real life. I'm also greatly in favour of having weight playing a big role in the game, affecting speed, sprinting distance, food, water etc. , you know, just like in real life ;) You see carrying a heavy weapon with a big scope, magazines, ammo takes a lot of effort. People with less weight are more agile and can run much faster for a longer time. Wind compensation would make long distance sniping much more challenging, but people should also be able to judge wind direction and speed in game, swaying vegetation, waves, smoke, rain, flags, birds, mirages, clouds. Perspective. I get the impression that in the current build the weapons are too far from the camera. If they want to add more realism, add DOF, so that when holding the breath for focusing, the focus shifts from far to the the front post with a narrowing of field of view (=zoom) to simulate concentration.

I believe I like the idea of oiling and cleaning guns, (laying down and rolling over makes the gun dirty faster) and having solvable gun jams, like in Farcry 2. But then again we need to consider the economy of development time.. I think cool game mechanics are windows to more varied fun, then say a huge arsenal of guns which cover nearly the same function. Guns are important, but unlike other games, not the only thing to play with.

I've been sleeping in the woods, and it's different many times as animals make weird sounds all around, and when you shine you light around nobody appears to be there :) One thing though, it's not advisable to sneak through bushes, because you will get branches poking your eyes out. Under the trees it's very dark, in the open you can see relatively well, unless there is a thick fog. Yes sounds are very vitally important. Night time could be the time to roam cities for loot, as there is a lower visibility. It also could be zombie spawning and roaming time :)

I agree with melee combat is a problem in Dayz. It is unrealistic, ambiance breaking unrealistic, and has a big luck factor, low framerates, very poor feedback. The quick time animation sequence would camouflage the limitations of the game-engine, and turn the player choice in a 100% gamble. I do not know about other players, but I like games where there is no such gambling. I prefer chess over dicey games ;) I do not know how or if they can improve the melee combat system at a reasonable cost. I like to ask for a better feedback system. Ragdoll animation of impacts on characters, both with melee and projectile combat. So when hit from an angle the limb and body reacts in a believable way. This means a running player hit in the leg would fall over, and would need a short moment to recover (if he can) and limp to safety. I'm not sure the engine, servers and netcode can do all this, since it already struggles with having decent update rates for all the other things it has to do now. Remember that zombie games are there because they need much less complicated code (cheaper). Maybe gamers want to see some more believable 'zombies'? Maybe something like a bunch of desperate,aggressive hungry short sighted homeless people, or wild roaming refugees inside their own country, or a gangs lead by a crazed psychopaths. I don't know, but just the word zombie is too shallow for me, I like to see more humanity and depth to these characters.

Thank you Stryker for your comment. I'm not in favour of roll of the dice randomness, I rather enjoy chess, then play a game based on a large luck component. But who doesn't say careless people have to face a sprung ankle, and limp, because they went sideways of a big ledge? - just like in real life. These accidents must be avoidable and logical, so it matches expectations. High boots prevent a sprung ankle off cause, and you can apply a bandage and with time and rest it heals. Maybe this is all too much detail, but I think it would be visually enjoyable to see and hear limping and suffering players, it would add to the raw gritty survival feeling.

Mr. Bean king, thanks for your response. 1) I think you're wrong about carrying weight/ volume. The current DAYZ has already a limit. I propose to simply have a speed, endurance, food and water penalty for the amount you carry, just like in real life. How fast and how long can you sprint with a 40 pound backpack and a 10 pound scoped rifle? - Please add some nuance to your arguments, because taking a proposal to extremes and say that would not work is a fallacy. 2) I like your idea of reading and actually learning and applying a skill, like a splint, or some engine wiring - it could actually become an educational game :D . I'm not sure it's easy enough to implement in the game-engine. 3) Maybe top killers in DayZ will be not trusted, even hated? and I love to see manhunts, rewards, posse's come into existence to end these people's killing streak. Maybe the situation will be a bit like the German U-boots in WW2, first they were the hunters, then they became the hunted. Because people started to team up... Being an ageing lone wolf killer, in a highly risky environment, you'll be very vulnerable, because you cannot receive advanced medicine, unless you act nice to a medic. It all depends on many factors. At the moment lone survival is too easy, so lone wolf killers have an easy time. But then again, offering a choice to become the worst or best is a valuable choice none-the-less. 4) I agree with your statistics refinements. 5) Do I need to spell out things like wrinkles, grey hair, paling pupils, etc? Actually I may like to add that age affects your abilities, hence, when a player becomes old, he looses some strength, stamina, vision? So you character has an actual limited life. The ageing will be speed up by malnutrition, healing others extends your life. Philosophical question: Infinite life, or limited life what will yield the most meaning? Now I know most gamers do not like 'handicaps', but you may think of this mechanic this way: first you're a well fed young person, and your strength and stamina makes up for your lack of knowledge. Then, after a period (say 12 hours playtime) you've learned the ropes and survival becomes easier. But then you look in the mirror and see your character ageing, knowing your abilities will gradually reduce, so you need to change your play style, you need to find a friend to share the load, a friend to pick you up when you get injured, a friend to help to fend off those young fast bastards. You need to use your brain more to become to oldest Dayz survivor. The more connections you make with others, the more colour, depth and meaning, the dayz experience gains. I think the DayZ designers need to pay attention to the kind of players they attract to their game. A bunch of retards will not see and find more then a free for all death-match - even babies can destroy. The Arma series does appeal more to the strategy player, a person who likes to think and plan ahead. As long as Dayz game play favours thinking and planning, it will hold a more interesting and varied player-base.

There are more ways to make people's lives more valuable, to others as well. For instance: 1) carry capacity, affecting mobility and range. If individual carry capacity is reduced and weight affects mobility, playing as a team becomes valuable. Sharing the load increases mobility, range and survivability by having more goods(=options!) and less weight per member. The trade off is that faster players and groups are more visible. A single player that carries 40 pounds of equipment, food, shelter, guns, ammo, amour, tools, is much slower then a unequipped fresh spawn. (as an in real life hiker and mountain climber the weight versus ability and mobility challenge is a very fun aspect to play with, and going solo versus team adds an interesting social challenge.) 2) acquired skills. Recall those 'useless' random books? These could be medium-rare doorways to skills, that enables people to do advanced medicine, mechanics, trapping, etc. A skilled player becomes a more valued and sometimes vital team-member, because he can do certain things much faster, and can do certain advanced things unskilled players cannot. Learning a 'skill' should involve finding the proper book, and executing each of the advanced skills listed once, before the skill is fully acquired. Characters could acquire all in game skills and become a highly valued asset to himself and his team, but also to the bandit, who did not bother to learn skills, but did incur a serious debilitating medical condition, or a broken down vehicle. 3) high score ranking. I love the suggestion of a current and published high score, so people strife to be the oldest survivor in DayZ, and bandits can target those and aim to become the most hated (hunted) bandit (killing high score list). The best and the worst become the hunted. For sake of recognisability each created character has a fixed skin and dog tags. So their killer can explore the body and find out who they have killed. 4) detailed score upon death. Including - but not limited to - : days lived, people revived, people killed, food consumed, goods shared, amount of injuries endured, miles walked, reputation gathered, and a listing on the global Dayz score board. 5) Age of character visualised. People should be able to guess the characters' age in game. Young to old skins, beard, hair colour.

Love the idea. However for the sake of easier implementation, I suggest that the client's loudness (running, cutting, shooting) in the woods or in the fields have a certain chance of generating a flock of of panicking birds to take of nearby. It's a brilliant mechanic idea scaring players, giving their location away, alerting others nearby, having the game focus more on sound and stealth.

They could implement the seasons with adding a 'season shader' to the grass and trees: colouring (changing hue) them from spring green, to dark green, to brows and yellows. For winter they would need to replace the tree and bush textures for leafless ones, and adding snow to pine trees, rocks, roofs, roads, land. During winter grass is off. Rivers and ponds freeze over. Winter forest sounds (mostly quiet) And people and animals leave long tracks...

Excellent suggestion! High scores has kept those old-school arcade games interesting for years. Maybe award those top 10 hero's / survivors honoured with some in game spray painted decals? Top-10 bandits could be served by having reward posters in the game.