oebus

Day Z is (basically) a sandbox mod. In a sandbox, you normally have a whole set of tools at your disposal--a shovel, a bucket, a plastic sand rake thing, your hands, feet, water... and anything else you can remember from when you were two years old. This variety allows you to create an almost infinite number of activities. You can build a castle, you can wreck someone else's castle, you can eat sand, throw it in someone else's eyes, etc. In Day Z, we really only have one tool: guns. When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. That's why the current endgame basically boils down to finding things to shoot, and finding fun and creative ways to shoot them (from a helicopter, from a bus, from a bicycle, while doing the hokey-pokey, and so on). Don't get me wrong: it's fun, but it's a sandbox with such a narrow scope that the list of possible activities is fairly well-defined. Once these have been experienced, the replay value takes a hit. Now, that's not a new or novel concept. Once end-game content has been experienced, player involvement declines. The fun is mostly in the journey, so there should be two goals: 1. Lengthen the journey while making it a more varied experience so as to avoid tedium. 2. Expand the scope of end-game content. To that end, there are a number of things that I would suggest. I understand that there are barriers to implementation with some of these things currently, which is why I'm not suggesting that these enhancements go live tomorrow. 1. Tougher Zombies, But Not Everywhere. New players who spawn with no means of self-defense (for god's sake give us hatchets at least) can't take on hordes of damn-near-omniscient, super fast zombies. Established players with automatic weapons, loads of ammo and medical supplies, and attack helicopters can still basically ignore uncle zed. Solution: scale zombie difficulty to a greater degree with loot value, and have areas of the map that are more tailored to phases of the game. This is not a new concept for an online game, and it's one that has proven its worth time and time again. You wouldn't even have to tweak the zombie AI any if you simply adjusted for numbers. Example, Billy Bojangle's farm near the coast only has 2 zombies that spawn, while the NW airfield has anywhere from 200-300 zombies crawling around it (I understand that current server limitations might be a hurdle that has to be overcome in order to do this). If groups of players had to seriously evaluate their tactics and ammo supply before engaging a horde, it would add a layer of difficulty to the end-game. Alternatively, you could tweak the AI difficulty in different areas or create new types of zombies that are more difficult and only appear in certain regions. 2. Safe Zones, Firefall Style I know that this topic has already been hotly contested, so I want to be clear about how I approach this. Think Firefall. If anyone else has played in the Firefall Beta, they will know what I'm talking about. This is a big, game-changing concept. In Firefall, entire regions of the game world are restricted by an evil fog-like mist thing that envelops most of the world and is deadly to players. Through the combined efforts of players, entire sections of the map can be freed of the mist and become playable. Change mist to zombies, and you understand the gist of what I'm getting at. This would provide a timeline to the game, where each server's timeline is separate from the others and it has a definite beginning, middle, and end. The Beginning At the start, the map would basically be as it is now, but hopefully with graded areas of difficulty. Players get basic supplies, find squad-mates to roll with, and make a green zone somewhere in the low-difficulty area of the map. Establishing a green zone would be a difficult process, the end result of which would be a zone where zombie spawning is inhibited. Feel free to speculate on exactly how this is done. Maybe there's a craftable item that you place in an area which spawns a giant horde that you have to fight off while it activates. Maybe a certain concentration of sandbag emplacements, tank traps, player tents, and other defenses triggers a condition that stops zombie spawns in a given area. Loot spawns would also be significantly reduced in green zones. However it's done, there has to be a way to undo it, either through player sabotage or through periodic zombie raids that are allowed to happen at random intervals despite the regular spawning restrictions. The Middle Players form raiding parties and make regular trips out of the green zones in order to scavenge and get resources. These resources are used to fight off bandits and expand the green zone into the more hostile portions of the map. Groups of players will either band together to expand the green zones or eliminate opposing player groups and tear down their green zones (possibly despawning all vehicles/tents within them) during this phase. The End Eventually, with enough player cooperation, the green zone is expanded to cover the map and civilization has reclaimed Postapocalyptia. Victory is declared and players are ranked, with the stats recorded and displayed on the server in a "Hall of Fame"-styled system. Upon next server restart, the map is reverted and players start over from the beginning. 3. Crafting System I really don't think I should have to explain why a decent crafting system would add depth and value to the game, so I won't. I'm sure there are plenty of other posts that have already addressed that. A player-driven economy with trade hubs would be the natural consequence of having a rich crafting system, player cooperation, and green zones. "But player cooperation would ruin the game!" Player cooperation is really the only way to reach end-game content anyways, and ultimately it's the most realistic model. The Walking Dead scenario is a lot more common than I Am Legend. Lone wolves don't fare too well against the innumerable undead horde. Groups survive. Reestablishing civilization and society is going to be the ultimate goal among the majority of survivors. Will there be bandits, dissidents, even groups of bandits? Absolutely, but ultimately we all want to be able to wake up in our zombie-free home and enjoy our FranksN'Beans without fear of being eaten alive and consigned to a soulless roaming existence with an insatiable hunger for grey matter. The return of organised society is the eventual conclusion to any scenario that does not result in the complete eradication of human life. "But PvP will die!" Maybe. On some servers groups of cooperative players may unite and expand the green zone very quickly. On others, you may see a more fractured player base that engages very heavily in PvP to try and tear down opposing green zones. You might also see groups of hardcore bandits who establish themselves in more difficult areas with nothing more than a makeshift tent camp and actively try to prevent all green zones from being established. "But then it's not a sandbox!" This is the truest of all criticisms; however, I would argue that the game as it is now is not really a true sandbox. The scope of end-game activities is currently so narrow that you can write a list and check off those things as you've done them (yes, I understand that it is in alpha, but you cannot use that as a blanket argument against all criticism--especially when this phase exists specifically to encourage creative input and criticism). These changes would prolong the gameplay and provide more things to do without truly removing any of the content that is currently present. tl;dr: this is a zombie game, so let's focus more on the zombies as we move into end-game content. If the end-game is all PvP, you've basically made a CoD game where a third-party (zombies) helps to keep the established players on top by holding down the little guys.

I think Ylilordi hit it right on the head. It doesn't bother me that it's dark. It bothers me that it's so dark that it doesn't even attempt to emulate reality. In the middle of the night, miles away from any man-made light sources, your eyes adjust and you can see well enough to make out shapes and objects. Yeah, our eyes are OP like that. The moon and stars provide a lot of light naturally. Previously, turning up your gamma and HDR was enough to provide that. No more. I would like to play during the night, but there's no way I would do so if I were actually living in the current world of Day Z. Knowing that zombies and bandits are attracted to light, I would sleep through the nights and scavenge during the day. Popping a flare or using a chemlight would be equivalent to suicide. The moon and stars should give enough light for me to be able to navigate and sneak around zombies. Then if I have to carefully and judiciously use my flashlight inside buildings to loot things, I would do so. One of the problems I see with this is that there's really no upside to new players that would encourage playing at night right now. The zombies hear just as well and their eyesight has always been crappy. There aren't any less zombies, they aren't any less active, and they can't be shaken off your trail any easier. Right now the only incentive to play at night is given to established players with NVGs and tents full of backup gear, who are able to loot the high-value areas with less player competition. I would like to play at night, but I'll be sticking to daylight servers until this hopefully gets some patch lovin'.