jubeidok

My biggest issue with zombies other than the current lack of numbers, is that they are still flailing boxers. Zombies, infected or whatever you want to call them should be grabbing, tackling, biting and eating. Melee should be a last resort, not a the go to method for taking out zeds while remaining undetected to other zeds and other players. If if was so easy to melee your way to victory, you think Chernarus would have fell? It is currently just far too easy to sit in the middle of the street, aggro a zed, calmly wait for it to get close, side step it's attack and then crack it in the head with your ax. Far too easy. It was in the mod and it's even easier in the Standalone due to the zeds slow and lengthy attack animations. I'm all for head shots being the only instant takedown method against the zeds, body shots requiring quite a bit more hits and legs shots slowing them down or forcing them into a prone crawl depending on the caliber used. So as an example I'll use the Makarov, shooting at the legs with a Mak would cause the zed to stumble for a few steps, thus slowing it down, but using a 5.56mm round would be able to disable the leg and force the zed into a prone crawl. The zed should walk through Mak shots to the body, but the head shot would still do the trick. 3-4 shots to the body with something like a 5.56mm round could knock the zombie over, but would be able to get back up and continue pursuit unless you broke line of site while it was down. If we end up getting a .50 cal, I'd be OK with those being a 1 shot kill for torso and head, but no limb shots should ever cause a kill on a zed. I'm not on board with one of their main detection methods being sight or they would constantly be aggroed by their own kind. I can't honestly picture a zed being able to tell the difference between a zed or a living human being from 100 yards out. I think sight should be their weakest detection method, limited to maybe 20ft and a 45 degree arc in the direction they are looking. This way you don't force players into proning everywhere they go, which I always thought was unrealistic to begin with as it would actually be the noisiest method of travel. Which brings me to sound, I believe they should be heavily sensitive to sound, listening for more unnatural sounds within the environment; gun shots, doors, engines, voice, the opening of cans and such. Basically anything outside of footsteps as once again they would constantly be aggroing each other. I could get on board with running though, so that a running human could aggro them or a running zed that would most likely be running after a human would also aggro them. The other detection method I think they need is smell. You basically wouldn't want to be anywhere in a 10ft radius of a zed or it will smell you, with the exception of being separated by a wall. They should be highly sensitive to the smell of blood and death. Looting dead bodies would be a lot more of a chore and getting cut and bleeding would mean a lot more to the player as well. This could lead to new survival items as well, such as soaps, deodorants and detergents. The more you stink, the greater chance of aggroing a zed. Also causing players to have to find new clothes or get them washed if they had been blood soaked by yours or someone else's blood. As for the speed of zombies, I could go either way depending on their strength and attack methods. If they remain weak and easy to defeat with melee then I would say make them faster runners. If they are strong and can kill once getting their hands on you, I would say make them as fast as humans. If they go the route of head shots only, then I would say make them the classic walkers that goes along with that classic kill method and you would need massive numbers to keep them fearful.

I don't know what you think you're proving with that statement other than you go to a specific building to find a specific item. Which is in turn, the point being made.

I think random spawns of mil tents/relief centers could also work as the crash sites did. So at server startup they might spawn the tents at Starry or the tents at the soccer field in Berizino or the soccer field up in the northwest. That way there could be some military encampments that are not static, adding a little bit of a surprise factor for every time you make the trip to one of these locations.

Nope, you're not alone. I would also like to see the ability to slam a door shut to make noise on purpose. The devs should take a look at Raven Shield for an example of a great opening/closing door feature.

I like the idea of locked doors as long as it makes sense. I don't want to be locked out of a house that I could simply smash and climb through a window or reach in and unlock the door. You also gotta keep in mind that axes cut through wood. So as long as certain rules are followed, it could work without making the game any more tedious or frustrating.

If they ever do allow to build stuff, it better make a ton of noise and draw a lot of attention.

But what if the military dude with the military backpack died down by the river after fleeing the base?

Perhaps it's because instead of cramming that box into your pockets, you somehow fastened it to your belt line. It's heavy, so even though there is still room in your pockets, you dare not pack them at the risk of losing your pants. Not trying to be a smart ass here, just an attempt to show how things can be potentially explained using a little imagination. What I don't get, is why a standard flashlight takes up 1 slot, but a screw driver that is even smaller takes up 2 vertical slots.

I'm often embarrassed that I share this hobby with so many fucking retards.

Lotta locksmiths in the land of Chernarus? It's just far more simple to make it so that any loot can spawn anywhere. That alone is enough to force people into really exploring the map and getting people out of their loot-run patterns. Because that's the real issue, you know exactly what you can or can't find in a certain area after only playing the game for a short time. When you run into the piano building, if you don't see ammo or a gun on the shelf by the stairs, you instantly know there is no point in searching the rest of the building cause you wont find it anywhere else. I just feel that we the players, are late to the game. Chernarus lost. People died here and there and everywhere, turned, got up and left their goody bags behind. On the flip side, I'm all for locked doors and containers that require you to find a way in, but you shouldn't already know what is waiting for you inside.

I don't get why people are so attached to base building? It's so impractical. Rick and the gang didn't build the prison, they occupied and fortified it. Hopefully that's really what people mean and not actually building a new structure from scratch. I support non-respawning loot, but I don't think it's a realistic target because people can take loot off the server and bring it to another server. Plus, why should a player have to lose out on looting opportunities because you have real world responsibilities? I think container searching would a be a big plus. It could potentially help performance, you wouldn't have to make these items a 3D object in the world unless a player places it back into the world. Container loot would also make looting a little more involved.

Give the players that are already there a fighting chance. Let's face it, even if a player isn't server hopping or ghosting he or she can still end up with an unfair advantage when logging in for the day/night. People can pop in out of nowhere at any time and it doesn't matter if it's right next door to you or 200m away, they weren't there 5 mins ago, but they are there now. What can be done about it? You have to let people login whenever they want and at the same spot they logged off. So what I suggest is to have a bit of an environmental alarm in the form of a loud, unique zombie growl play any time a player logs in within 100-200 meters of your location. That way it's something that still fits within the environment while being a loud enough sound to be heard a fair distance away. This zombie growl would not indicate the direction or distance the player is from you, but just as a heads up that there is a new threat to worry about somewhere in the surrounding area. The growl should sound pretty far way, echoing from over the hills, so that an area that is cleared of zombies doesn't have some unrealistic invisible zombie yapping away. I think this would also be a great way of instilling fear among players, like in the case of a lone survivor looting away when suddenly hearing 3 consecutive blood curdling howls. Oh shit! And yes, the players logging in would also hear the screams, so they too know they are not alone.

Not quite. The reloading sound is direct, it's giving away position, is only about a 10ft radius and is in my opinion a bug. It isn't serving as a warning for the guy searching in building C, that has just been through building A & B that all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye there is now a threat in building A. Now, if some dude comes running down the hill, out from the trees and makes it into building A unseen, we have the same situation do we not? Not, because at least there was an opportunity for the chump in building C to spot the player making his way to building A. And that's really the issue I think needs solving, players popping into existence in areas that have been previously searched by players still in the vicinity. It's just not really fair and do you really want to get a kill that way? I think this zombie howl method to give players a lil heads up of the unnatural materialization of a new threat without being too cheesy or unfair to the incoming player while still remaining a believable part of the environment would be a cool feature.

Imagine...players that aren't pussies.

Wouldn't it be nice though, if people just weren't such pussies. I'm finding this trend in online gaming, across all games, not just DayZ and that is that there are more people playing a game to try and piss off the other people playing the game than there are players playing the game because they like and enjoy it. Why that ended up in this thread? I don't know, just throwing it out there. Now something a little more on topic. Let's face it, even if a player isn't server hopping or ghosting he or she can still end up with an unfair advantage when logging in for the day/night. People can pop in out of nowhere at any time and it doesn't matter if it's right next door to you or 200m away, they weren't there 5 mins ago, but they are there now. What can be done about it? You have to let people login whenever they want and at the same spot they logged off. So what I suggest is to have a bit of an environmental alarm in the form of a loud, unique zombie growl play any time a player logs in within 100-200 meters of your location. That way it's something that still fits within the environment while being a loud enough sound to be heard a fair distance away. This zombie growl would not indicate the direction or distance the player is from you, but just as a heads up that there is a new threat to worry about somewhere in the surrounding area. The growl should sound pretty far way, echoing from over the hills, so that an area that is cleared of zombies doesn't have some unrealistic invisible zombie yapping away. I thin this would also be a great way of instilling fear among players, like in the case of a lone survivor looting a way when suddenly hearing 3 consecutive blood curdling howls. Oh shit! And yes, the players logging in would also hear the screams, so they too know they are not alone.

Can you say; "anal retentive"

As it was in the mod, I find loot spawning to be too formulaic. With it being this way, it will basically cause players to settle into a pattern or already has. Bringing us way back to the Quake days where you run your perfect line to get all the pick-ups you want and then battle it out in the intersections. I could of swore that they were claiming way back in last years E3 demo that any loot can spawn anywhere. What happened to that and why didn't that make it's way into the SA release? It's great that there are so many building types that can be entered now, but what is the point if you already know what you will or wont find in them? I currently find myself only hitting up a handful of buildings; red brick mess hall, construction site, office building, piano building, stores and the obvious, military buildings. It didn't take long for me to settle into this pattern either. You just get tired of running in and out of all these building types with no surprises ever being thrown your way. Now mind you, I do get that part of this issue is due to the limited amount of items there are to find at the moment, but it doesn't change the fact that you know you'll never find a handgun hidden under a bed in the bedroom of that yellow house. I'd also like to see loot spawns that reward explorers, enticing people to get out and explore the map. How many times have you been running through a section of forest and see one of those chicken coop type structures(anyone know what they actually are?) and you eagerly run up into hoping for a big surprise? I did, at least in the first few days of SA, but now I just sprint right on by as I do with deer stands and many other structures in the world. How cool would it be to be heading over a hill, come across one of those camp sites or rest areas with the benches and spot a rifle leaning up against the bench or running up to a pond to take a drink and spotting something valuable just beneath the surface? Would be a pretty big score and leave a good impression on the player I would think. Anyways, those are my thoughts on the current loot spawning situation. Let's hope we'll start to see greater variety in where loot is spawning throughout development.

Allow me to add a small tweak to the general consensus that military loot should have a higher percentage chance of spawning at the bases and such... Instead of just at the base, can we expand that expectation to the surrounding area? So with NEAF as an example, you have just as good a chance of finding something military grade at the barn just north of the runway or in the big warehouse south of the hangers as you would at the AF itself. I think this would make sense and also make it harder to camp said areas.

My theory on that issue is that the loot is spawning under the floor. If you go to a castle, no loot, but go to the top and look at the underside of the top platform and you will see the loot. So if it's happening in he castles, I imagine it can be happening with other buildings as well.

Precisely. Logic could be used to control the chances of a particular item without it being the end all, be all. The way I see it, the players are late to the party. The outbreak has already occurred and we are in the aftermath. So, to me, this means that some poor sap could have been anywhere on the map trying to flee with his goodie bag, over taken by zeds and thus, leaving a goodie bag behind when he gets up and walks away after turning. Which now leads me into another thought with how things are spawning. Why is that the inhabitants of Chernarus always made their way around with empty backpacks, pockets, cases. I'd like to once in a while come across a blood stained backpack that has a few items already in it or pants with something in the pockets already, even if it's something useless like a handful of change. And on the flip side, how about finding a med-kit that is empty. We just gotta wait it out and hope these things start to turn around. In the mean time, I guess the best we can do is keep sharing our ideas and hope they make it into the meetings these guys must have when discussing this sort of thing.

Ha, ya. The whole realism argument for this game is quite funny when you consider such things as that. Also, I can't help but wonder where all the motorbikes went?

I would imagine that has to be a bug or was left in for testing purposes(help testers get around faster).

I wonder if they added berry picking to go along with all the coastal cherry picking.

Agreed. This had been a major issue for me for a long time and was always hoping that sound design would get a lot more attention in SA. I agree with with all that has been suggested in this thread. Audio needs to be a major factor in determining if your are alone or not. I would also like see ways of creating sound on purpose, like the option to close a door silently or slam it shut. Raven Shield had a great little mechanic for opening and closing doors with the mouse wheel, could be cool if something like that was implemented and the speed of your scroll being tied to how much sound you make. Some other audio improvements I'd like to see are little things, like moving prone should make far more sound than walking. Moving quickly should generate more sound and trigger more accidental sounds than when walking. This one is prob quite a bit trickier, but would be cool if they player had to be more spatially aware, audio for when material is rubbing up against objects in the world. Have all players start with cords instead of jeans, having to upgrade to less noisy clothing. =) I could go on, but in short, have the players able to purposely and accidentally create far more sound for others to hear.

Try to train yourself to call them what they are, cheaters. Hackers actually have a certain level of skills, knowledge and intelligence to do what they do. These people are simply piggy backing off someone else's work.