KField86

Ok fellas, I've tossed this idea around in my head since I first started playing DayZ this week. The one glaring issue I've had was the difficulty in finding other people to team-up with. Unless you're in a clan, most people who download DayZ and play are doing so solo, although that's not to say there's not a ton of people out there who aren't playing in large groups. The problem with that is, those groups can pretty much monopolize the important areas of the map, like the NW airfield/stary sobor where military weapons/DMRs, and NV goggles can be found. A person playing solo attempting to get into those places at any time other than pitch black(And then by the time you turn on a chemlight, you have a .308 round mid-flight coming straight to your center mass, and you can pretty much forget the hour long run it took you to run from Kamenka to the north to get to the strip, so this was the idea I had running through my head. For people who have played the battlefield series, when you first load up a map, you are given the choice to play rogue, or to join a squad, or make your own. Now depending on how many people are in the server, that would determine how many squads are available. I think it's safe to say this game is a lot more fun when you're playing with people at your side. People to give you blood transfusions, to drag you out of a fire fight and bandage you up, to drop a spare weapon when you run dry on ammunition. What if, when we spawned into Chernarus, we had the ability to join a squad. And then we could use the group channel to voice chat with our squad no matter where we are on the map, even if one person is in elektro and the other is in NW airfield, etc. Another thing, I think it could be cool if we could see our squad mates on the map. Keep in mind, until you actually obtain the map, you would still see a black screen, except for the circles and player names of your squad mates. You still wouldn't be able to get a compass reading, or direction they were pointing, but at this point we all use dayzmap.info for that anyway, so I can see that working in conjunction with this quite well. There would have to be a way to do this without completely trivializing the need for a compass and map. As they are undoubtedly the most important items in the game in terms of navigation. My reason for this is simple. For a new comer to the game, it's very hard to play solo against people who are all the best equipment due to being in clans and having complete control over the areas that hold the best firearms available. Another reason I think this would be a good idea is that this could establish new clans, new friendships, and in the long run, I can see it increasing the longevity of the mod. Now, one thing I want to say is, I am not "Hating" on the people who busted there ass and won firefight after firefight at places like stary/airfield/hospital. They put in the work, they deserve the rewards. The main purpose of this proposal is to give all players a chance to experience the game the way it was meant to be played, with a group of survivors. Joining a squad would NOT be mandatory. A simple "OPT OUT" option could be clicked, and you could be on your way, but if you decide you'd like to join a squad, you'd have to hit escape, and have an "open squad interface" tab available to bring up a new interface where you can select a squad. If all the squads are full, you could either be put in queue, or form your own squad, and others like yourself who opted out could join up with you. If this has already been posted, please feel free to move this thread to the proper place. My main goal is to increase the longevity of this game, and continue to see it grow and prosper. More clans. More servers. More groups. More memories. More memories shared amongst the gaming community = More DayZ downloads and a larger playerbase. I just think the option of being able to join a squad of 5 at the start of your game could be an awesome thing, and also, I forgot to mention...each squad will have a squad leader, and they and they alone have the ability to lock the squad, even if it's less than 5 players if for example they have 3 or 4 people in their squad that they know and trust, and would rather not have anyone else taking up the fight with them. I think this would create some extremely intense and EPIC battles at the prime locations in Chernarus and help starter players learn the aspects of patience, commitment, and most of all, TEAMWORK. Any feedback, both negative and positive is appreciated. But if you're going to post negative feedback towards my idea, at least make it constructive and point out flaws instead of smashing your face into the keyboard with random internet memes you picked up on /b/. Thanks everyone. KFieLD / Kevin / OneMilAway

Just wanted to say again, thanks for all the feedback, both in agreement and disagreement. I'm still hoping rocket reads this posts and considers putting it into his book of ideas. I know he reads the boards regularly so here's hoping. I just think it would be a ton of fun. And I think a lot of you guys who disagreed would enjoy it if you got to try out squad based DayZ if you got to try it out just once. It would just need to be carefully worked out as to not make it overboard. Remember, my whole point here was thinking of the new players who haven't gotten the chance to play with a group and experience what it's like to coordinate raids, and to take part in the bigger picture. I encourage every solo player in the mean time to try and find a clan or teamspeak group to play with. Like I said, I'm having trouble finding one myself. I think I'm a bit jaded though. Throughout my gaming "career", if you can even justify calling it that, I was blessed with meeting some AWESOME people, way back from when I first played Metal of Honor Allied Assault in 2002. People I would hang out with in real life if they ever picked up the phone and told me they were down the road at a bar. I've played with a few groups so far and I just haven't gotten that vibe and I'm desperately looking for it, and I think that's a big reason why I wanted to see squads put into action, because it puts me in direct contact with a lot more players than I currently am now since when I join a server alone, I can't even say hello in voice com to a player without taking a round in the forehead. I figure if I meet more people, I'll meet the same kinda guys with the same values and humor that I met all throughout my gaming days. But here I am ranting again. Rocket, I hope you read this bud. Just knowing you read it without even replying would get a huge thank you from me. You're doing an excellent job. Please continue doing what you're doing. Listen to your PLAYERS. They are going to make the game what it is, they are going to lead you home while you steer the ship. Don't give into the big companies. And for goodness sake, when and if this game goes stand-alone, if EA Games ever knocks on your door, leave a bag of shit on the door-step. Survival style.

Happens all the time. I hope Rocket has something up his sleeve for it because it's killed me more times than I can count. I'll sneak into a little shack looking for drinks/food, etc. I'll shoot the doors behind me, go prone and make as little as noise as possible, only to have a zombie walk through the door, aggro me, and then proceed to call in 4 or 5 of his buddies, and block me from getting out the only exit, and I hate having to do it and I'm sure I'll be flamed for it but I've had to death dodge on a couple occasions because I refuse to die to a bug like that. Yes, I know it's alpha but it's still very annoying, and so is the run pathing. I can only hope that once the game hits the OFFICIAL beta, the zombies path and run normally so you can line up shots on them without waiting for them to stop for a brief second of waste a round of precious ammo(most of the time) and at the same time, aggro more from the gun-shot going off. Those are my two biggest complaints. The third would have to be the overall randomness of zombie detection. I used to be able to crouch "jog" as long as I maintained a distance of at least 30-40 feet. Not anymore. Immediate aggro, and you can forget about sprinting. You'll have all of chernarus on you in 2 seconds flat. You pretty much have to keep crouch running away, get some distance, hope you have a hatchet, and lay into em, and then you'll have to bandage by that point since you lost between 2 and 3k blood by the time the bandage finally sets into place. If I prone, I can avoid aggro all day no problem, but when you're trying to meet up with friendlies watching a few clicks away, they start getting ancy

What I would like to see removed is not the murder count, but the audible beep sound you hear when your bullet strikes an enemy target. And also the removal of the "Such and such has been killed on the chat dialog. I don't mind the murder counter the way it is...but god damn like I said get rid of that stupid beep! We're using live ammunition, not that military laser tag system(I forget the proper name of it). I'm all for walking up to confirm my kill, but I cannot tell you how many times where I should of gotten the kill(3 round burst with an M4 into the upper torso on a target), walked up to the target with pistol drawn, and before I can react, the target will usually lag and just spray me with whatever weapon I was holding. Guess whose dead, and guess whose alive and bandaging. Yeah, I'm not the one bandaging. Does it take away from the realism? Yes, but I think they need to think of another way to confirm a kill first before they take away the murder counter on the debug monitor because I am tired of being killed after I put 3 5.56 or hell even 7.62 rounds into a target only to walk up and get taken out once he wakes up by a pistol. I normally try not to curse, but that's bullshit. I think there needs to be better bullet impacy dynamics. Like a visual indicator that it was a killshot. If it's a head shot, the head snaps back violently. If it's a chest shot, they go down clutching their chest. If it's a neck hit, there's an increased amount of blood pouring out of the neck. Give me some kind of visual indicator of death and THEN I will check the corpse, and get rid of that stupid beep noise. I know how to aim, I know how to lead, and I know when my rounds are connecting. I don't need the sound of a stop watch telling me I'm doing so. Thats my 2 cents. If they could pull those kind of dynamics out of their heat, they can take away all of the kill indicators and I'll feel a lot safer approaching a target that I'm unsure where my shot placement was when I hit him, especially range. I also feel some of the bullet energys need to be tweaked. I've landed quite a few real world kill shots only to have the target keep running off full speed. If I hit you in the knee, you should be limping. If I hit you in the stomach, you should be hunched over holding your gut, things like that but I imagine they'd need to do some more motion capture for things like that and seeing as how this is an independent project, I don't know what there funds are. I know bohemia is backing them, but to what degree I don't know, especially when they are hard at work at Arma III, but I do know one thing, they need to keep making this game the best it can be because it took a 2 year old game, made it rank 1 on steam, and I guarantee the day Arma III comes out it's going to sit at #1 just because of the anticipation of DayZ "II".

Well what would if we used a group chat based on a number system( say there's 5 squads, group chat #1 is for squad 1communication, and used direct comm within 50-100 meters for voice chat amongst squad mates. I get your point, the voice comm over the entire map would be a bit much. I may have overlooked that a bit. I'm also on my ADD medication so I'm on a typing spree :) Like I said, my main goal with the squad thing is to give new players more confidence that they are going to be able to build trust in people, and it may help the "shoot first ask questions later" mentality a tad. It will also create some very, very intense fire-fights. And I don't know about you Ravenger, you must of gotten really lucky. Anytime I goto Stary Sobor, or the NW Airfield, you have a complete cross fire of DMRs going off, not to mention M4s and AKMs. I get into a firefight 1 out of 3 times I visit, and it's usually due to a "Squad" of people on TS being there. It shouldn't be mandatory to join a clan to get that experience, which is why I think a built in squad system would help a lot. The only issue that really makes this is a bit tricky is having to find your squad in a hurry, which is why I suggested the map thing. Maybe we could add a GPS item in the game for squad leaders that would set off a ping on the map(even if you didn't have a map yet) that would allow squad members to rally up quickly if need be. But that is really a fine-line to walk without it being too much. I mean, I know in battlefield series you have the option of spawning on top of your squad leader, but I think that's going a bit too far. Either way, my main focus is for new players to be able to take part in group survival instead of being forced to find a clan that plays at their hours, on the nights they can play, because it's not the easiest thing in the world to do that, and I've already talked to several people who have gotten discouraged of the game because playing solo just doesn't offer a fun experience for them. They love the survival aspect. They are patient players and have been waiting for a game like this, but it's about sharing those tense moments with other players. That's where this game shines. Thanks for contributing to the thread. Regardless if you took the time to read it. I'm well aware of the forum. My idea has nothing to do with that forum. My idea has everything to do with implementing a new feature to the game that would eliminate the need to for that all together. Being able to form up squads in game on the fly could be a great thing for this game. Yes, you could do it via finding other people via that forum but I didn't come up wit any worthwhile results. I just feel like being able to set up squads on the fly would help with a number of issues being complained about right now. One: Players new to the game would immediately make friends, and possibly long standing relationships. Two: It would help stop the discouragement of new team-mates being shot by the first person they come across, and if they did, they'd at least have back up. Again, I'm not arguing..I just think the process of finding other people to play with would be MUCH easier and open a lot more doors for future gameplay mechanic updates than being forced to look through countless posts. Again, I sent 6 different thread starters pms asking for information about clans, and teamspeak servers, and haven't gotten a single response yet) and then you have to worry about finding people who have hours of play that sync up with yours. Especially people in different time-zones. With in-game squad game-play, it's all laid out right in front of you as soon as you log on, and it isn't detrimental to the foundation of the game in anyway. That's the main reason I suggested it. Granted, I listened to your post, and I'm not arguing. I don't argue, I just debate. Not stepping on toes. I can take negative feedback just fine, just expect rebuttals :) Ask yourself: What harm would it do. I'm willing to bet money it would bring MORE players to this amazing mod. People LOVE squad based game-play. It was battlefield's biggest selling point, or one of them. It puts teamwork at the forefront, and without teamwork, don't expect to win any battles. I will admit, I do play with a select group of individuals, but to be honest, they're not the right group for me, and I will continue looking for other groups, I just am a firm believer a squad based system would do great things for this game. For veterans and new comers a like. Veterans included, but a lot of cases you have a bunch of people in the same clan playing on the same server, and they like to split off to accomplish multiple tasks at once, so then they could fill two squads.Yes, I know they could just do that by joining a different channel on teamspeak but you get my point, hopefully. :) If I thought a squad-based setup would cause more harm than good, I would of never suggested it.

Ok, so maybe we wouldn't have any way of seeing squad mates, that I can understand, but I still feel that being able to join up with a squad of 5 would open a lot more doors for new players to make friends, and keep them playing longer. I've heard of a lot of people quitting due to just not having fun solo. In a zombir apocalypse, groups of survivors find each other and team up. All this does is make that a little easier to do. The only reason I suggested the idea of being able to see your squad members on the map is because due to the 225 square km map, it's very hard to find another player you're in TS with(even if you're not entirely new to the game) if you don't know the area like the back of your hand. Regardless, I feel like it would be worth a shot during beta, and if popular vote says it's not worth it, than away it goes. I just think it would do a lot more good for the game than bad. Like I said. New players coming in solo get discouraged very quickly(not all, I know) because most of the people they encounter shoot them on sight. At least, if they were in a squad, this would be eliminated but not entirely. Sure other squads would shoot opposing squad members, but the fact is... this would open the door for new players to create friends, and those new players would continue spreading the word of DayZ which equals more players, and more players equals longevity although longevity isn't an immediate concern since the game being only in alpha has a larger playerbase than A LOT of mainstream FPS games. I honestly believe this is the greatest game developed in the last 10 years, and it's a mod. That says a lot. I just see the pros outweighing the cons, but I appreciate your opinion. I like to debate. I'm not arguing, I just want you to know that,.

steam: kevin51501 add me: I'm in NY

I honestly have to agree. What bothers me the most is zombies walking through walls of buildings. I know this is the fault of the code, but it really needs to be rectified. Another thing. I know how to sneak. I know when I have to prone, but if I'm sprinting down a highway into town, about 1/2 a mile out, there is absolutely no way in hell I should aggro the entire town. Let's say Kamenka for example. It's just not feasible. I know they have a heightened sense of smell, that's fine. But I honestly doubt, dead or living, that you're going to smell me or hear my footsteps from over 1/2 mile out and we all know the zombies vision is pretty fubar at this point. I can understand if you're running within maybe 150 feet, but it's too much right now. There will be times where I'm proning and moving slowly on the outskirts of town, and I'll set off a chain reaction and have the whole swarm on me. That's not fun gameplay. That's almost an immediate respawn click. Please lower the threat radius by at least 1/4 I'd say would suffice. The seeing through walls thing has absolutely got to go. I know this is a hard project, but you guys have something incredible here. Something millions of fans will power hard earned dollars for. Alpha or not... instead of focusing on new features, I think your best business move would be to take the model as it is, fix the glaring bugs, and THEN start implementing cool new features. I mean, at some points it truly feels like there's no way to hide. And another thing. Add a moon. Please. I love the pitch black, but a flashlight/flare/glowstick is a dead give away to enemy players. At least if we had the moons light, we could make out house and zombie silouttes and therefore guide ourselves in the direction we'd like to be going. I try to avoid night servers based on this alone unless I'm in a group of 4+ packing at least rifles. And another thing I think would be good for moral, and would keep new players interested longer. At the very start, give them a makarov with one clip. No backup clip, just whatever it is in the gun. And maybe a compass. No map, definitely not. But a compass for sure because it's very hard to meet up with fellow companions when you spawn in, and that would do away with the constant respawning to get to a better spawn point. I also think it would be neat if there was a chat interface where you could scroll through the list of available players, and send a "tell" to one asking if they wanna group up/meet up. Not the side channel. We don't need that. The worst they can say is no, or they could say "Ok man, let's meet up. I'm over at such and such but I'm pinned down at the moment. Sort of like the world of warcraft private message system. Could it really be that hard to bring up a drop down menu of all the players currently in the server to ask if people would like to join up? At this point, I've been making forum posts hoping someone would be on and willing to group up. I've got a lot of responses, and I found a group which is based solely around snipinng key pvp areas(fun :)) but I think that feature would go a long long way.

It's 3:00EST. Tuesday. Looking for people to play with. Add me on steam if you wanna play. Kevin51501.

Wanting to play. If you've got Voice comms, hit me up on steam: Kevin 51501. I don't got work so I'm up pretty much all night. Doesn't matter if it's just 2 of us, or 10 of us. Lookin to have some fun, and make zombies and players lives hell ;) just lost all my gear, and I don't feel like grinding it all again alone. Plus it makes the time go by so much faster. Shoot me a message!

Hit me up on steam: Kevin51501 Just want to have fun and laugh a lot. Looking for people between 18-28 to just basically survive. Shoot first ask questions later unless rescue is imperative. Tired of playing solo. If you're interested in this, feel free to let me know. No holds barred. All I need is a teamspeak or vent. A public one will suffice. No mandatory code of "honor". Just playing a video game, and getting what you want out of it. Simple as that. Sound like something you're interested in? PM ME or STEAM me: Kevin51501

Send me a PM here. Or steam: Kevin51501. My in-game name is KField! or KField86!

I'm in. PM ME. Steam me: Kevin51501 My newly acquired DMR should do the job. :)

Let's bust some heads. Dead or alive. Add me: Kevin51501(STEAM) Just got me a DMR :) Teamspeak preferred. I gotta say I'm scared to venture off with a DMR solo. I need a wingman, or several ;)

Msg me via steam: Kevin51501 I'm up for a while, and looking for start fresh with someone. Someone MATURE. And someone who doesn't mind pulling the trigger when fired upon and someone who thinks with their head. MSG ME: Steam: Kevin51501

Hey guys. Lost my group, and I want to continue playing. If there's anyone on still, message me via steam: kevin51501 -- Preferably looking to start from scratch as I just got whacked. I work nights so I'm available to play. Anyway, Must speak english and be coordinated. Like to laugh. Have fun. I don't have anyone with a vent or teamspeak 3, so if you'd like to get together play, survive, kill some bandits, feel free to PM me!! KField

Read the title :) 26 years old Likes the have fun. If you scream friendly I probably won't kill you. If I give you a warning and no reply, well...it's fair game at that point. I just want to bust my ass laughing at this game and it;s so much more fun with other people. I live on the east coast. It'd be even better to be apart of a bigger group!

Hey guys. New to arma II and DayZ(Only had it a couple days), but I pick up on shooters quick, and I've already gotten the hang of it pretty much. Anyway, pretty straight forward here -- looking for a cool group of people around my age to hang out with in-game, whether you're all about surviving, or if you're all about pvp it doesn't really matter to me, I'd just rather not play the game solo if I can help it. I'm 26, I don't have time for little children honestly, I'm on the east coast, have a mic and I play at all kinds of hours. Mostly evening into the early AM. Really depends. Vent, or Teamspeak. Doesn't really matter to me. I'm a mature dude, but I like to laugh my ass off and have a good time. Shoot me a PM if you got an extra spot for someone like myself. :) -KField