Loving the mist/fog on the coast. It's natural and appropriate and allows fresh spawns a little bit of security. The driving rain is fantastic! I'm really excited to see the new run animations and the changes coming in the terrain and villages. The work that was done in Cherno is perfect. Much more terrain for confrontation. The loot system, save for the duping, works well and seems to drive people inland.
My personal hopes for the game.
1. Dangerous zombies. What I mean by that is when you see a zombie it should literally get your adrenaline flowing. Two or more should be able to easily take you down. The running speed would be nice if it were randomized so you never would know if you could outrun a zombie or not. Love the changes in the zombie attire. More than once I've found myself wondering if it was a player or not. Why not some children?
2. Surviving is now getting more and more difficult. Which it should be. Some players whine that there isn't food but I beg to differ. Growing, harvesting and scavenging are all parts of the survival gameplay. Would be nice to see this expanded on. Needing fertilizer to grow food just seems to be overkill. Garden plots need to despawn, meat needs to spoil, vegetables need to rot with time unless they are prepared for long term storage. Body temp is interesting and love that you have to make emergency stops to build fires or cool off. The clothing should have more of an impact on the player temperature. I live in the mountains in Colorado and know all too well the threat of exposure.
3. Base building scares me. A group of friends and I were discussing various ways to work around the possibility that people would be building ridiculous bases. Burying containers or constructed boxes would be a great way to stash gear. Being able to build netting to cover barrels or cars would work as well. I also liked the persistent backpacks from a few iterations ago. Tents make no sense because the are so easily seen. Anyone in their right mind that is trying to survive would do everything possible to conceal their stashes. I'm hoping that base building is limited to boarding off existing structures at the most. I just can't seem to wrap my head around 30-40 huge bases on the map, creating so much lag.
4. More predators. Wolves are looking good and I'm hoping mountain lions, packs of wild dogs and bears make it in as well. I can't wait to have the necessity of a solid weapon and traveling with partners to survive in the field. It's just so easy now and it doesn't push the need for cooperation. I understand the lone wolf mentality but in reality lone wolves would never make it. The best gameplay in DayZ involves interaction, good or bad and anything that encourages it should be used. I've met some great friends and some fantastic enemies in the game!
5. Sounds. NO ONE eats that loudly or drinks that loudly. You should be able to creep along very quietly at a very slow pace. Imagine being able to sneak up but having the risk of snapping a twig or two. Also, spooking animals. The birds taking flight sound now should coincide with player movement near you. Your own breathing shouldn't be that loud. Your mind has a way of compensating for it. Keep it loud for other players. The female characters are the worst. Wind along ridges could be really loud. Tree leaves make a lot of noise as well.
I'm really excited to see what the modding phase of the game will bring.
I still play .60 a lot but many of my friends are giving up on DayZ. I hope they come back for .61. LOVE THE GAME. Would love to be involved in testing. Have well over 5,000 hours in game.
