FlimFlamm

I say make them buildable and modular from the ground up, or vehicle frames of various sizes. More difficult, more interesting, more dynamic and versatile, more rewarding.

The mod was not Arma with zombies either, it was simply more thrival oriented than restrictive to survival. People have fun at first learning to survive, but once they have mastered their playstyle they want something to show for their efforts; something to work towards; something fun. Aircraft are still in the timeline, and so far as i know planes and helicopters are going to be the incarnation that they appear in. The map isn't too small for aircraft. I've put thousands of hours into the DayZ mod and I can tell you that the map is too large without aircraft or highly accessible (and very fast) ground transport. You might feel like you are protected from the rest of the population if people simply cannot get to you, but I feel like I am isolated from everyone because linking up with teammates and traveling from place to place is an extreme hassle which aircraft alleviates. If the appropriate amount of time and effort are put into creating an aircraft, then players would deserve the convenience it affords. I don't want it to be Arma with zombies either, but I want there to be more than just build a hideout and sit around or go walking on foot looking for gunfights. Having helicopters and planes available doesn't make it Arma, and nor does it make the map too small. Given the difficulty that there should be to acquire an aircraft of anykind it simply extends the endgame to something which is quite reasonable.

You guys don;t seem to realize that helicopters are going to be available. This means that people are going to be able to travel across the map in 5-10 minutes regardless of anything, and worse helicopters will enable people to land anywhere. At least with planes reconaissance is only reconaissance, and not straight up arial piracy like base hunting with a helicopter is. Secondly, helicopters are going to have people hanging out of the open doors, and these people will have guns. These people will shoot you with these guns, do you understand? You will get shot at by helicopters regardless of how much it intrudes into your zen founded survival goals. So given this unavoidable truth, planes with guns attatched to them becomes a saving grace against these helicopters, because while the planes cannot safely or reliably engage ground targets, they can enagage the helicopters which will one day shoot at you. In this way, armed planes become self protecting arial transport and recon tools, with the capacity, as helicopters will also have, to combat and extort enemy aircraft. Keep in mind, actually building an d arming a plane or a helicopter is going to be extremely difficult, so if your group is affluent enough to do so then air transport, airspace control and air combat is a natural extension of the end game. Naive survivors on their way inland from the coast look up in awe at the goings on of the skies and aside from being intrigued and motivated, are otherwise unaffected. TL;DR Helicopters will exist no matter what, and people will be able to shoot out of them, no matter what. Armed planes will pose a major threat only to other aircraft which will help deal with out of control armed helicopters. Armed planes are less versatile than armed helicopters, which will certainly exist (armed helicopters being helicopters people shooting assault rifles/MG's out of them) and are harder to fly and can land in fewer places. They balance helicopter shenanigans.

The game already has ground assault tactics, it will certainly have vehicle warfare tactics. It has snipers. Bases. It will have things like MG nests and entrenched positions. It has boobie traps, it will have planes and helicopters. So why not 'dogfighting' Dogfighting is the thing that occurs when two aircraft (traditionally two planes) fight one another in the sky. But it can be helicopter on helicopter too, it just so happens that heli on heli action is quite boring compared to when planes are thrown into the mix.

Finding a campsite from the air is not very simple. Landing and looting it is less simple. Coordinating an attack on a base is even less simple. On the original DayZ mod, player built bases were massive constructions. They had helipads and garages, MG nests and were strategically placed in order to dominate and control the surrounding terrain. Groups large and successful enough to build such bases were inviting attack. Being spotted from the air is something large bases had to dealw ith along with the ensuing clan warfare. The fact that the bases could be spotted from the air meant that they were large and successful or agressively placed. Attacking and looting such bases is a natural aspect of gameplay in DayZ. It is the dynamic endgame that everyone wants to play and wants to see; clan/inter base warfare. Bases in Dayz standalone can be well hidden and well trapped. The type of plane I am advocating (CAMEL) can be shot down or disabled by a weapon of almost any caliber. Having a well maintained plane and willing to expend precious ammo on anything other than an enemy air vehicle which can threaten you is something only the mega rich could strategically afford to do. If you spent all the time required to build, arm, and maintain such a plane youa re going to be flying at around 1km height in order to avoid any possible ground artillery (why risk it) and potentially even higher in order to counter any potential enemy aircraft. The CAMEL plane is an air dominance fighter. It is a dinky of the skies that would compete at a fair level against a little bird sized helicopter with door gunners. Do not confuse a helicopter with door gunners for a black hawk military helicopter. Littlebird sized helicopters WILL be in the game, rest assured, and people hanging out the sides of them with assault rifles and hand held MG's WILL be able to shoot out of them. You are going to need to come to terms with the fact that V3S's loaded with people shooting assault rifles out the back are going to have fights with helicopters with people shooting assault rifles out of the sides. It's only fair that whatever planes are available will have the ability to shoot guns of a similar caliber in order to make them fun and relevant. I am completely against militarized vehicles. They are too hard to maintain and parts and equipment is too costly. What I do support however is ghetto/guerilla style armed vehicles. A plane with a gun strapped to it in order to defend against helicopters fits the bill for me.

The loot spawning system needs to be refined. We are still in alpha version right? Be prepared for times when the game is broken because it is being altered. These are necessary growing pains and I'm sure a lot more work is going on than we can ever realize. No loot on coasts forces players inland, where interactions are much different. Less food means you need to sprint less and actually resort to things like hunting, fishing or farming. People will soon discover the need to craft an improvised knife off the bat, and to then get rain gear, rope, and hooks from boats, and to then craft an improvised bow and/or a fishing rod.

The main issue with the improvised bow is that the pathetic range of it makes it only suitable for close quarters combat. A bow such as this should have a range of at least 50 m. This will make it more real and more useful, but realistically what we need is a harder to make, higher tier bow. A long bow Long Bows can have effective ranges of 100m, and can fire arrows at least 200m away. Currently the improvised bow can barely hit a target at 30m. TL;DR: NEED QUIVER, NEED MORE RANGE, NEED BETTER VERSION OF BOW CALLED IMPROVISED LONGBOW.

People keep saying that the map is too small but they never explain why, they just keep restating that the map is too small. On the original DayZ mod I had no problem whatsoever flying the An-22 cargo plane and landing it absolutely anywhere where there wasnt a tree or a building. Getting to the other side of the map in a cessna or an an-22 cargo takes 5-10 minutes depending on speed only slightly faster than some (and slower than some other) helicopters. Just out of curiosity, did you play the original DayZ mod? they had black hawks, chinooks, c130's and more. While I'm not advocating for this level of militarization, the map was not too small for there to be any crowding issues. Why exactly is chernarus too small for a simple helicopter or plane?

It's really not unplausible that a WW1 style plane plane could be built by survivors. Simple bi-planes can use painted canvas if need be... I'm not suggesting that bf109's and spitfires become available, nor am i suggesting jets, military attack helis, or the like. WW1 planes are dinky little things that fly slow and take damage easily. They would be fun to fly, not overly overpowered, and are reasonable projects for survivors. As for the complexity fo an interruptor, they are incredibly simple. As seen here:

While I think the constant and pressing need for food and hydration is a little too pressing in DayZ, it needs to be a relevant game mechanic. Perhaps as the OP suggests make death take longer to happen but make negative effects like lack of energy and eventually deleriousness occur when death would presently occurr. This way the game is more playable, more realistic, and the absolute necessity for constant feeding is lessened while retaining the value of it because of negative effects.

Regarding realism and feasibility: Constructing vehicles is not something that the average person knows how to do, but if you spend a few years in a post apocalyptic zombie world it seems reasonable that you would acquire a fair bit of mechanical know-how. What groups of survivors cannot figure out from experience they would be able to figure out at most libraries. Information on engines, vehicle mechanics, aircraft mechnics, etc, would be valuable knowledge we can only assume would survive an apocalypse in various ways. Regarding the feasibility of actually pulling off some of these construction projects, I see no reason why there should not be an abundance of materials in a post apocalyptic world (old cars, metal, fuel, engines. Relatively small vehicles are managableand realistic for the standalone, it's the bigger vehicles that if constructable might be too much. If I had it my way however, I would make constructable some pretty ghetto but doable projects, like old motorbikes, tractors (whose engines are god-like), and even ww1 style planes, namely the CAMEL plane which I have previous experience with from the overpoch dayz mod. I would really like to hear some shit from the devs regarding the direction they plan to take with vehicles.

Certainly not anytime soon but at some point right? I think the time is now to start suggesting these kinds of things so the devs will have time to consider all their options.

If aircraft are modular then a synchronizer for mounted guns to shoot through the prop isn't far fetched at all. It's a very straightforward mechanism. A Cessna is not quite maneuverable enough for dog fighting, but small bi planes and other small fixed wing prop planes can be very maneuverable with a good engine.] Finding a random spawned cessna might be something useful, but I would much rather have the ability to construct my own planes from the ground up (obviously it would not be simple). What I meant by arms and armor on modular aircraft is about how heavy you make the fuselage and how high caliber you make the mounted gun.

A plane with an MG strapped to it is not a mig. A helicopter with a mounted MG is not a black hawk. I'm not envisioning full militarized vehicles, I'm envisioning prop planes with guns strapped to them, and helicopters with people shooting out the doors potentially with MG's strapped to the sides. I never said anything about jets. It's not too big for small aircraft. And it is too big for ground only transport... Nobody is saying getting aircraft should be cheap or easy, but surely it should be available..

I just realized something that is totally relevant in the argument for planes. If the weight system is fleshed out then different helicopters are going to have specific weight capacities. If aircraft are modular than the more lightly armed and armored it is the more it can lift. Helicopters have a hard time with big loads but planes carry heavy loads like bosses. Weight issues could affect the ascension rate of helicopters and also the minimum airspeed and therefore climbing rate of planes. If a clan wants to transport a great deal of heavy and valuable loot across the map safely, a plane is the best way to do it.

In the real world you put green pine needles of some kind, coniferous tree limbs and bows, onto a fire and it makes lots of smoke which helps with pests but also is suitable for making signals. You could collect them at pine trees with a knife the same way you collect ashwood sticks.

How about planes and helicopters?. Can we get some examples of planes and helicopters that are concievable buildable by a horde of dedicated and murderous survivors? For example it's not that difficult to build a bi-plane out of wood canvas and an appropriate engine.

I like the idea, personally I would never need it escept for some obscure northern areas, but this will make the world much more accessible for new players. It's a good idea.

When bases are buildable and you have your own room, you are going to want to decorate it will all these sorts of knick knacks. You will feel the nesting instinct and you will truely feel safe and at home when you are snuggled up in your bed for comfort and warmth when you are sick. That way when you get invaded, murdered, and your base blown up or destroyed, you will feel that genuine sense of anguish and loss that DayZ delivers so well, which of course then turns to anger, and then to hatred, and then another incorigible bandit will have been born. This is the DayZ circle of life.

I want to see specialization in DayZ. And I want to speacialize as a hunter/gatherer in my downtime and a combat/transport pilot in my uptime and when I am working in groups. I want things to be difficult, cumbersome and complex. Manuals for construction maintenance and flight sound interesting, although the DayZ wiki would compete with them when it comes to actually being used. When I played DayZ overpoch I was known for piloting planes, and I would always land in places that nobody else could or thought was possible (I actually built a bat cave out of cement and metal that I would fly into with 3 meters clearance horizontally and 2 meters clearance vertically at one point). Whenever someone would steal my plane (from stary or hero safe zones for example), it felt really good knowing that because they had no clue what they were doing, they always crashed and died on take off. In this way because I specialized in planes I had a skill which was a real asset. I was able to build a real reputation as a hero who would force any aircraft I could find to identify themselves and agree to not agress upon other aircraft. If they failed to identify they would get warned and then attacked (usually shot down with much publicity). If any group was attacking bambis on the coast I would defend them, and so it was that i policied the skies and the coast on a reputation of being feared. All with the Camel plane... There is a very high skill ceiling for planes where there is a very low one for helicopters. If the devs are trying to create an economy and community like environment then having specific fields which rewards dedication is how they ought to do it, and building, maintaining and flying planes is a very enjoyable and interesting field of study. Farmers, hunters, supply runners, lone bandits, gang bangers, builders, drivers, fighters of various kinds, pilots, all these things are functions that different kinds of players naturally want to fill, and they can pose as an asset or a threat to the end game group base type operations that we are all one day expecting to experience. If more profession like fields are available then the game becomes more diverse and interesting, which is likely to attract more and more players, and in the end simply be more fun.

Depending on calibre armaments they give to helis and planes, they would need to counter balance them with ground based mounted MG's for artillery. It would be good if armed ground vehicles and armed aircraft could balance wise work in tandem in order to overcome opponents who have only air or only ground support. Example, when the ground artillery shoots at the aircraft, that gives away position and a chance for enemy ground troops to take out the artillery, and vice versa when an attacking force is taking fire on the ground from mounted MG's, a helicopter or a plane could do a flyby/ strafing run on the entrenched positions. Stingers are not a good idea and it is unrealistic that survivors could ever get their hands on one.

actually it's not that hard to land a plane if you know what you are doing. 95% of people have no idea what they are doing so don't trust them or your own experience. You get as low as possible angled at your landing zone and then reduce to the minimum airspeed for your aircrfaft and put your flaps to full/open position (flaps create more drag but also give you more lift, which slows you down and allows you to not fall out of the sky at slower speeds). Once you touch down on the ground you cut the engine and that is usually it. (in arma 2 you usually want to nose down in order to actually brake, making you able to come to a halt in 20 meters or so). There is also the strategic use of hills. If you land on a a hill facing upward then gravity will slow your plane for you. Simply turn around before you lose all your speed (to avoid getting stuck) and then when you take off you fly down the hill, and gravity brings you to take off speed much quicker than normal. Every hill is a potential perch for a plane and a competent pilot.

Nobody wants to play forever as a lone survivor. We want super indepth survival mechanics like injuries, bleeding, diseases, etc... But we don't want the end game to be barricading yourself into a building with a few friends and sitting around forever. In order to be exciting the end game needs aircraft and warfare between well established clans/bases. And my point with this thread is that arial warfare can become incredibly enjoyable with a simple, singular armed plane. But besides, what goes on in the skies between rich factions who own bases who knows where usually doesn't affect the lone survivor on the ground. You do all your survival shit as normal, and maybe once in awhile you look up or hear the laboring engine of a plane and wonder what it is like up there; the sky is a separate world from the ground. The only time an armed plane will affect you on the ground is if you are in a base it is strafing, have shot at it and given away your location and displayed agression (in which case retialatory strafes are possible but difficult if there is any cover), or see one come in for a landing. Anyone who played the mod the most exciting thing that can possibly happen is an aircraft lands near you and you have a gun. Stealing an aircraft is the literal height of DayZ accomplishments as a lone survivor.

It took me a long time of practice and research to get good at flying planes on simulators. Arma originally being a flight sim can cater very well to realistic flight mechanics, so why not take full advantage of that? When there is only one helicopter on a map it gets horded by the single most powerful clan. When there are a few helicopters kicking around the map you might get your hands on one owing to sheer luck, but you will seldom be able to hang onto it for more than a day. If you could build helicopters (and planes) through painstaking collection of parts and resources then groups of sufficient size would be able to field their own aircraft with effort and skill rather than dumb luck of the spawn. Planes can get shot down out of the air you know... Especially if they are doing strafing attack runs on ground targets, which are extremely hard to actually negotiate and execute. As such planes would pose a main threat other aircraft rather than gound targets. If a radio system with an airfract channel weas implemented then fighter planes could fly around policing or extorting other aircraft, just like I used to do on the dayz mod. I wasn't able to be highly effective with the armed Camel plane because it was over powered, in fact it was a flimsy ww1 plane that could not even keep up with a little bird. I was successful because of my knowledge of arial tactics and my dedication to refining my flight skills. I would go 2000 meters up, engine off, and silently glide around in circles, listening and looking for enemy aircraft. (a ww2 tactic the luft waffe used) When I would find a target I would use my extreme height advantage to gain incredible (dangerous amounts) of speed and to get ontop of and overtake my targets. DayZ is a survival game but it also a thrival game, and a combat simulator. Flying planes once you get comfortable with it is so much more fun and conducive to tactics, skill, and strategy that I simply cannot imagine not having one in the final version of DayZ.

Helicopters are end game things that you get when you have groups and bases. And you use them to wage war against enemy bases and to secure various missions and loot stuffs. Having flown planes extensively on chernarus I can comfortably say that it is large enough for planes of decent sizes to take of and land everywhere, and there is more than enough airspace for everyone. If all 50 players on a server and their grandmothers were flying around then th ings might get crowded, but that will never happen. The map is like 10 square kilometers... More than ehough space.