MrAerospace

There's more than one way to create natural barriers to prevent players from accessing the debug zone. It could be a lot more creative than simply "make it an island", I mean, take your pick: rocky outcrops, rivers, glacial valleys, hanging valleys...etc. The aim shouldn't just be to prevent access to the debug zone but also prevent players seeing the zone (at least from the ground) too.

I still think the concept is a good one, and I hope it gets implemented in one form or another. However there's a few things I would improve: 1) Clicking and dragging items. Keeping that simple functionality in the inventory screen is critical. So, instead of this: {-> select "view contents"} it should simply be {[mouseover]}. Obviously, a few other bits of programming such as small (maybe 200ms) time delay to prevent an accidental trigger of the animation would be needed too, but for the player, it's simply a matter of hovering the mouse pointer over a backpack and waiting. 2) Uniformity in game mechanics. If one container functions that way, ALL containers should function the same way. I'd have every container 'minimised'/'closed' to begin with and require a mouseover prompt to be opened. The difference (e.g. between pockets and backpacks) can be created through the length of the animation/delay before maximising/opening each container. 3) Ability to open containers on the move. Same uniformity rules should apply. World containers should only be accessible in a very small radius (effectively the player needs to be standing still), packs at a walking pace, pockets at a jog and nothing while running/sprinting. A locked container could simply appear greyed out.

I was posting about this ages ago, but this is definitely a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. Right now, I just feel like I'm playing tetris, and well, this seems to pop into my head each and every time.

Like the VW Golf MkII as well.

That's a pretty good compromise, Gews. Maybe if there was only a very short/quiet ringing effect that faded out quickly so as not to become annoying, but the reduced hearing persisted longer.

One thing that could cut down 3pp wall peeking is a good dynamic depth of field system based along the same ray casting design.

The thing that I would really like to see in Close Quarter Combat is a good grappling mechanic. It just makes sense to have something more visceral than Benny Hill boxing when players are surviving against infected and other apex predators. Predators aren't interested in playing slapping games, they don't do death by 1000 cuts, they latch on, drag their prey down and finish them off as fast as possible. Survival games should really be trying to emulate that, not just for PvE but for PvP as well. The system should include some form of momentum. You get smacked around by a sledgehammer, an axe, a wolf, a bear, a vehicle, or an infected or another player runs into you and conservation of momentum says you're gonna end up on your ass, or pinned up against a wall. From there, attacking or defending from that position could be a matter of good timing (to avoid being hit) or a well aimed attack, or desperate button mashing as you struggle to prevent predators from tearing out your jugular, or another player sinking in a knife, or choking you out. Add that on top of tactical weapons mechanic with a varied system of attacks, parries & dodges that have degrees of success based on match-ups (a knife will not parry a sledgehammer) and you'd be way ahead of the field for ALL games. Tactical nous and weapon choice could be critical, for example if large heavy weapons (axe, sledgehammer, sports bats) were most effective outdoors but almost useless indoors, where large swings are impossible. Pole-arms (like a pitchfork, shovel or bayonet) could be the counter, being most powerful in confined spaces, while, lighter/smaller weapons could have faster attacks, but are at a range disadvantage to both. They'd become most effective in the hands of skilled players who can safely dodge blows then close the gap and quickly counter attack or grapple, where the full value of their tools to bare. EDIT: Structure of last paragraph

Yes, the game needs to first have player size customisation before clothing sizes. I would really appreciate both as additions to the game, however, if there were to be different player sizes then there needs to be a trade off on statistics otherwise smaller characters will just have too much of an advantage.

Clutter in of itself can serve a purpose, even if some items have no discernible use for survival (e.g. a Rubik's cube). Clutter is the smokescreen for the useful items players want/need, forcing players into searching a bit longer to filter out 'noise' when searching for loot, which is an important element that is missing from the game. And while that is good for game-play purposes, populating the world with clutter also helps create that lived in feeling.

So long as there's a balance to the mechanic it could be an interesting addition. For example, it starts with a cue, a stagger that is obvious enough in 1pp/3pp. If players are quick enough to back off the pace (i.e. stop pushing 'w') then they recover, and can continue on, while if they power through the stagger, then they stumble and fall. In addition, the chances of the stagger occurring should increase the faster the player is running. It should increase with the 'roughness' of terrain, and it should increase with increased carry weight.

Well, beyond redesigning trees to be more forest friendly, you could also suppress the undergrowth, similar to this:

Can't see the forest for the trees? Creating a forest isn't just about adding a bunch of trees together in a dense group. First of all, trees compete for sunlight. In a forest, they grow straighter, taller, and only tend to produce branches and leaves near the canopy. If you design a number of trees with that in mind, (including some with bent / tilted trunks) you can drastically reduce the poly count for those trees. Secondly, understand what the edge effect is. At the edges of forests, trees (and undergrowth) can compete for sunlight along that outside edge, so these trees tend to branch out more, and have a lot more leaves lower down, effectively enclosing the forested area from prying eyes. It is also at the edge where the undergrowth is thickest, but that quickly tapers off, as the canopy cuts out the light.

Legitimate question: If infected spawn numbers are tied to the number of players in a zone, won't that lead to the exact same meta gaming problem that existed in the mod, except instead of aggro zombies, it's just overall numbers that indicate other players present?

No, it's certainly not feasible, but that sort of thing is exactly within the realms of procedurally generated design...here's to hoping the dev's get to that level one day.

The whole copy-paste feeling of Chernarus is what really throws me out of the experience. Even a little bit of variety - such as re-skinning certain vehicles/buildings and/or interior decorations would go a long way to breaking up that monotony. This need for variety applies even more so to unique buildings like the fire and police stations. Re-skinning these buildings won't be enough. Considering their strategic value (for people to obtain weapons and vehicles) They'd make good candidates for "destructive passes"...and/or the large empty garage is a great place to spawn fire-trucks.

You mean we should have emergency vehicles like these?:

Not a bad idea. However, as the Dev's have already demonstrated a new 'timer' mechanic for actions such as eating, I suspect/hope that the timed action will be expanded further, into things such as foraging and crafting. Rather than having a success or fail binary for doing things...player's wouldn't fail, but continue the action until success is achieved. If that were the case...then the umbles could just be added as a time multiplier.

Growing food from a seed in less than a day.

Nope, Totally agree with you. But for the sake of argument, let's say they zed's now shelter in buildings...if a player is stealthy and careful, they can enter the building without setting them off, and can ambush the zed. However, if they rush through as always, making a shit ton of noise and generally not even checking their surroundings...then zombie is alerted and is ready to ambush the player instead.

Ok, so the zombies lying down and re-animating as players walk past is beyond the lore of the game, but the whole 'indoor zed' is still a valid argument. Let's say they are living creatures. Wouldn't it be reasonable for them to take shelter? And, they are predators too, so wouldn't it be even more reasonable for them to lay in ambush, waiting for their unsuspecting prey to wander by in the darkness?

If the infected are too dumb to live, what the hell does that imply for humanity, seeming as though we somehow managed to be even less intelligent than that?

I think a lot of people would appreciate this being explained in very plain English in a status report. It's not always fully understood why loot and weapons are often displayed in the reports and are quick to be injected into patches because the architecture is already implemented for that, while things such as new medical treatment mechanics, animations and map updates, etc. are not always visibly aesthetic (a picture of a gun is much more presentable than thousands of lines of code) and these sorts of changes to gameplay are going to take longer to release for various reasons. Rather than just stating what the current workload is, perhaps explaining some of the concepts and ideas behind these things that the team is working towards might allay a lot of fears too. Just stating that the team is working on 'medical systems' doesn't really provide anything tangible for players. If instead, we had a basic outline of the overall concept (such as new ways of treating wounds and infections or different treatment regimes for different types of wounds, checking and re-dressing older wounds, longer healing times) then you'd generate a lot more understanding in the player base, and I think that extra information would lead to more players contributing ideas and suggestion or asking more directed questions, rather than broadcasting their fears of the game's future.

I don't know if you can actually remove the inventory system...players need to access their stuff...it's the vicinity bar that's the problem, but finding a reasonable replacement to the current system is still eluding us.

What would be awesome is if the level of destruction in the 'destructive pass' of the Chernarus+ map happened to coincide with the heat map of where players die the most. So the larger PvP areas are almost ruined and just visually foreboding to new players.

All the airports need aircraft, helicopters, fuel tanks, tools, equipment and just more signs of life...then they need to get the ever living crap bombed out of them. Destroy the vehicles, hangars, the fuel stations and the runways, because the first reasonable military response to a zombie outbreak would be to prevent the disease from jumping containment lines via some idiotic attempt to escape, putting the rest of the world at risk. The same should apply to the harbour, ships and even most of the small fishing boats, and I wouldn't disagree to seeing convoys at the edge of the map experiencing the same problems, perhaps some attempt to flee when checkpoints turn out to be killing fields instead of protection zones.