Simple. An escape from New York style setting. Maybe not New York as such, but a geologically walled in (River?) City or similar. The map dictates what kind of gameplay we can get from it. The Arma 2 map is what it is. Old. It's very individual when it comes to design, very realistic. But the gameplay is just run around, walk around, run around a bit more, venture in to a kind of built up (sort of) area. Couple rows of buildings, loot them, then open fields. It's appeal can wane pretty quickly. Beautiful though it is. Here's my input. A map, right, that adapts and moves with the players. I'll explain. The first wave of the infection, or natural disaster, hits the entire globe. Blackouts, panic, death. Wipe out. A month goes by. Pockets of survivors come out of the woodwork in a major City. We are those survivors. Having to (If you choose to) stick together in large numbers if possible. But no lumbering Romero zombies. Players are savage and brutal enough, scary too, why do we need scripted half wit zombies. Nothing more spine chilling than hearing someone or a group advancing on your position inside a building, while keeping silent on the comms, and you know THEY know your in there. Your life hangs in the balance and how you react is crucial. Believe it or not, it doesn't always have to end up as a gunfight like it 99% of the time does in DayZ. We could team up and take over areas of this City, the sewers, the shopping malls, the parks. Control who comes in and who goes out. The strongest keep on going, trying to carve out a path with strangers or alone. Real time survival. Night time (Yes! Night time) would play a major part in this. Movement in the dark, mass exodus to different parts of the city in search of a weapon to protect yourself, a drink, something to eat. Food should be far more numerous to start with. What I mean is the variety, not the amount. The 'Loot' of this food supply 'Spawns' once. Once only. A cupboard stocked with tinned goods, a bit of bacon half cooked in a frying pan, out of date eggs in the top draw of the fridge, might keep you from starving to death. Your fate depends on what you find, where you were when the catastrophe happened. One life. Yes ONE life. You die and...Yep, it's over. Let me explain. Official servers are set at 250-500 players, yes, possibly 500 players. Arma 3 life has 250 player servers and it runs a treat. Why not with DayZ? Say, 100 servers, or maybe more, as many as people who buy the game. A one way ticket as soon as you purchase DayZ or already have it. These servers record your progress. If you die you cannot join an official server again, as it will be locked to you. Other, non-official servers will be available after you die, offering death match and game modes similar to current DayZ settings, run around, walk around, run around again, loot a few buildings, meet up with friends and go to NW airbase, type of game modes. If you like doing this then join these servers. Boring! On the 'official' servers map there is a time frame. A reason to stay alive. Say a set amount of game time linked to the amount of days survived in-game; 48hrs real game time, 2 days survival in-game. Your progress tied to one server. If you only casually play the game, then you will be left behind (where you can join a non-serious death match server as mentioned above if you die), most of the food and water taken and all that is left is partly empty, ruined streets. If you choose to stay, then death will be dependent on your intelligence, or power among those that stayed put. These players could include the groups who have taken over places, like stadiums, shopping malls, sewers. Cannibalistic in nature, as the supplies have run out. No more animals or stray pets to hunt down here, as the supply would more or less have vanished once the player numbers have come through and gone. Remember, one 'spawn' of items on each server. That's it. Cue the events; Radiation zones or a sunami or earthquake, say, wipe out or advance further into the City, tearing down buildings and killing all players left behind in those areas. Game over for them. Totally random, to a certain degree. Then the map changes. Incorporating parts of the 'old region' of the map, the 'new region' will open up, bigger, more dense, like going from the east end of London, or Yonkers in New York -- to Canary Wharf or Manhattan. A constantly evolving map. Doesn't have to be huge to start off with as it will open up and get more spread out, eventually leading to rural areas or a vast mountain range. This could be the 'End game'. Survival of the fittest, like in Ark Survival, but with much more purpose and scope. The weapons on offer are already enough. Just add a few more pistols, few more rifles and call it a day on the firearms. We don't even need to go to the toilet in DayZ yet! But we can take our blood sample or feed someone a rotten banana under duress! Priorities please. I agree it's more of a community Mod type thing, but seeing the state of DayZ, I think the community should come together and make something for everyone, not just the odd weapon add-on pack or uniform pack that you can use on only 3 servers. No more lists of 10+ mods that you need to have to join certain servers either. Lets get creative here. Lets make an evolving world of horror and survival. Not just a bloody map! It will be same old thing, shoot on sight. Boring! This is a bit rambling and all over the place, I know, but I'll update when I get a better picture of what I'm trying to get across. But for the time being, think escape from New York and the atmosphere when they are scaling the World trade centre to get to the glider. I thank you.
