Katana67

I'm not sure on the specifics, but I'd agree that that's how it should work. Well, perhaps with a small chance of them spawning in the vicinity of players (to simulate say, a zombie locked in a closet or something breaking out). I'm not sure if the roaming bit has been fully implemented. I'd love for their to be different spawn "zones" whereby zombies can spawn on the outskirts of a town and gradually work their way inward. That way, the system doesn't have to track zombies roaming from afar and you still have to maintain your stuff. This is all contingent, of course, on construction as well. I don't think you could properly settle a town without it.

I'm sure they're working on it in the sense that they're making it better. I assume that they'll be balancing it out so that zombies don't spawn too fast and that so a cleared area doesn't stay cleared forever. But yeah, zombies will respawn in some capacity if I understand what they're saying. I haven't managed to see the entire stream yet since I have been finishing a paper, stuffing my face with spicy lamb curry, and falling asleep during the times that I'd usually be devoting myself to being a forum nazi.

As others have said, it's a combination of both. Zombies will respawn eventually. I too want to see settled areas clear of zombies. But even in those areas, zombies should always be a threat. It shouldn't just be a case of clearing a town and done. It should be a case of making sure that zombies stay out of the town. It should be a constant thing to attend to.

That and f*** empty servers. Have people clambering.

Much appreciated!

Can anyone spare me the effort of finding the stream? I went out for Indian and I sort of just lost the thread.

In other news, Rocket and Hicks didn't murder a survivor in cold blood!

They need to work on some the vanilla textures sometime... that runway was atrocious compared to the quality of the character.

Revamp the zombies Rocket... revamp... I'll keep the throngs of irate people under control! Hold off release! Revamp!

Something tells me they won't release on a... Friday.

Fixed.

My proficiency in reloading is FAR more dependent on muscle memory, situational awareness, and how well I've practiced with my weapon AND magazine location. Only one of those is present in DayZ, and only two can be accurately replicated in-game. It's never dependent on your equipment, it's dependent on how well you know your equipment. I fail to see the point in your second statement. Nobody's "learning" anything dependent on "intelligence". Your character is gaining proficiency through repetition. Period. This is therefore represented in the game via an improvement in reload time or <insert relevant benefit here>. To your third point, it's not impossible to implement. See the Gears of War reload, or any game's healing mechanic that requires more than one step. That's all it takes, some input from the player. For example, an easier and more organic way of doing it is requiring the player to press a button on the keyboard after a reload is performed to send the bolt home. This creates some sort of player input into the cycle of reloading, and could actually create for some tense situations if this action were to make a lot of noise.

I'm talking about a skill system to expand my concept of it by including competing arguments. I'm not really concerned with character value as much as I am concerned with a good game experience. And again, mini-games can be organic and fluid. They are not by definition, artificial and cumbersome.

Must... resist... urge... to advocate for... server-fixed characters...

But you can't. It's impossible for me to apply my own proficiency in reloading into the game. So how do we simulate it? I'm not sure if I'd agree that repetition doesn't lead to improvement. In fact, no, I'm sure I don't agree with that. Mere repetition doesn't, meaning repetition without context. But in repeating something, there is a cognitive process whereby you as a person figure out the best ways to do things for you, via a process of trial and error. You cannot simulate that cognitive process in a video game, as it occurs mentally. Things like muscle memory prove this point just as well as the cognitive process that I've mentioned above. I'm not opposed to grinding either, especially if it's buttressed by naturally playing the game. It's much more distinct than typical "MMORPG-esque" grinding, in that this can be accomplished just by using fundamental mechanics of the game. Point being, you still have to actively survive whilst grinding. Whereas with traditional grinding, there is a level of removal in actually playing the game in a fluid sense. I'm assuming that the (specifically) aesthetic aspect might factor in to KOSing. Not that it would decrease it at all. Adding more data points to the process of threat analysis is only a good thing. I'm starting to think, though, that the mini-game approach might be better than just an ambient gradual improvement. Either way, you can't dismiss it as "not in the spirit of DayZ" because the things we're talking about (i.e. bandaging, reloading, bloodbagging, etc.) do not apply our own understandings (or even our own reflexive reactions) in accomplishing these tasks in the first place. You just click a button and your character automatically goes about accomplishing these tasks without any other input from the player. If anything THAT is not in the spirit of DayZ.

And reloading too ties in to the "aesthetics" category that I mentioned with any possible Improvement System. If I see somebody fumbling with magazines versus someone performing super tactical Chris Costa flippin' magazines reloads (even if it takes the same amount of time), I'd be much more likely to consider them as less of a threat.

I haven't ever really considered DayZ/ARMA to be a game which grants an advantage in negotiating reloads, so I guess that's why I included it. I personally wouldn't mind it being implemented as such, but if they're willing to implement a "Gears of War" style type reload mini-game then I'd be okay with that as well. Reloading, though, is one of those things in real-life that you improve through repetition and practice. So it makes the most sense to me at least. But I understand where you're coming from.

I'll have to mention it in my write-up on construction that I'll be able to finish when I turn in this 20 pager today for class...

This. Or lockpicking in Oblivion (which was lovely and frustrating as it should be).

See Gears of War reloading as a potential example. It doesn't have to be a cumbersome mini-game, nobody said that. Mini-games aren't by definition difficult to navigate. Again, reading retrospective precedent into hypothetical implementation as a detriment, isn't helpful.

These are things that are outside of the player's control too! It's not like you can get worse at these things, everyone starts from the same baseline. It could just shorten the time it takes to complete the animation. Or, if you want to go a bit further, it could increase the chance of success in completing certain actions. Either way, you'd still be able to kill folks just as well. Adding significance to getting killed is just as significant as discouraging pervasive KOS. There should be a consequence for everything you do, in every category. Either you make these processes (i.e. bandaging, reloading, bloodbagging, etc.) more involved in terms of input so that one player can be better than another at bandaging, which usually results in a sort of mini-game (which could work). Or you implement a gradual improvement system through repetition, which resets (just like everything else) upon death.

People need to stop dealing with their preconceptions of a "skill system" (i.e. "Oh, it'll be like Skyrim!"). It's the same silly retrospect that causes people to flip out when someone even mentions (the very vague) acronym of "MMO". Everyone screams "I don't want microtransactions! I don't want to have to raid! I don't want it to be like Warcraft! No! No! No!" Christ, it's a freaking concept. How it's executed is a whole different ball-game, so stop comparing a hypothetical concept in DayZ to unrelated precedent. Let's call it an Improvement System. Does that help? One improves certain tasks, which are not directly influenced by player action (i.e. bandaging, blood bagging, reloading, repairing, etc.) because they're procedural animations which take up X amount of time. These actions, other than their mere initiation require no input from the player. Thus, any potential improvement in these systems must be provided for by a kind of "skill system" whereby one improves certain tasks through repetition. It's shouldn't be a "You've reached level 56! Allocate 5 skill points to whatever you wish!" type of system at all, and I don't think anyone here has advocated for something as such.

Or a working, maintained, charged Rangefinder :D

Which is why I am referring to the things "that the skill system contains" as procedural actions, as everything up there (as per the mod, and seemingly the SA paradigm of an action menu coupled with a fixed animation) falls into that category.