The topic is how best to "deal" with the issue of a person disconnecting from the video game, when they are in a situation they do not wish to be in (either having to play fair like everyone else by not dieing from Zombies, or by being killed by another character). Even though it would seem like Captain Obvious is here, I am restating this to make a point, which is this: It is my understanding from his post that he wishes this game mod to be truly player driven and as realistic as it can be. It seems that the developers idea is to above all else not roam into linear gameplay mechanics simply to achieve the goal of fairness. Right now it seems to be as real as it can be. I have seen others and found myself in situations I never thought I would in a video game, and that is why I love DayZ. I shot a guy out of fear for my own character, and have never done that before. There is a post about a guy who was kept hostage by a group and he tweeted everything. In real life I imagine that people slip in and out of combat ALL THE TIME. Fairness/right/wrong is all relative. Life is relative. You might be a good guy, and I might be the bad guy, but guess what, I might get away. Now, the only argument seems to be over the use of a timer and how it can help but also hurt at the same time. I have an idea, and will try to list it to make it easier to digest. I am trying to put this in the frame of mind that it is real life. Noone is Rambo, except Rambo. If we were shot our hearts would be beating harder then ever, our minds would be distracted making it hard for us to concentrate (reload/strategize), and getting away would be more difficult since we are physically (bleeding/broken) and physchologically hurt (scared). If there is a way to design the game to have a timer that is not too short, then it would allow people who are being chased by Zombies/being shot at, to have to deal with it and not exploit the situation they are in. At the same time, not being too long it would allow legit players to reconnect to a server or change servers when there is a problem with the client/server itself. Too short: Zombies (even very far away) take about 10-15 seconds to reach you and begin hitting you, im my experience. This may be a bit longer for someone who is kiting Zombies far far away through some wooded areas, but definitly no longer then 20 seconds from what I have seen, except when they run up a hillside/through a building. In a recent patch I believe the design was changed so you could lose them by running inside a building/ around trees for line of sight, which (according to my extensive knowledge of real life zombies, haha) would be realistic. Some movies even portray them as dumbed down, but because the movie director or writer believed that zombies were simply animated and walking around functioning meerly out of instinct (chase "food," hit food, eat brains, like in The Omega Man). More recently they have been portrayed as smarter, able to communicate with eachother (I Am Legend), but they still have some degree or realm of weakness (usually the sun, fire, or they eventually die off). *I am making this point because if a timer is created and how long it runs for can end up dictating availability of choices later on when/if the zombies are developed more. If the timer is only 15 seconds, then the developer may be limited to keeping the zombies running at a certain speed or "fast" upon detection (although he could make some that always crawl slow even if they see you or whatever), but something to think about. Everything design decision can change every other one. We may tend to play the lone-wolf, the sniper/PVPer, or the group guide, but we do not want to ever limit choices due to our own personal play style! It seems to make sense that simply adding a 15 or so second timer upon no longer being detected by any zombie takes care of this... Players: If you are "detected" by another player then there is always the chance of them getting away from you/you getting away from them. The idea is that we can help him design a way of the game to know if one player sees another, and having the ability for the other to get a shot in. I think we should make some points here: 1. There simply is no way for the game to read our minds in real life. Period. 2. If there was a way for the game to know that the other guy "spotted" us by either shooting us (and same goes for a Zombie hitting us), then our timer would begin at say 1 minute from whenever we bandage ourselves, which would reflect the extra time we would need to bandage and crawl out of a situation/evade. 3. So, it seems that enough time should be given for the shooter to run in and finish the kill and since our minds are not right we would take longer to escape, BUT also so they have to think before they shoot. If they decide to shoot from the other side of the map and then want to crawl in (taking 6 minutes) avoiding every zombie, then the game would be giving snipers an unfair advantage of holding other players hostage. I do not think it should be so short that they have to expose themselves to open field running and any/all incoming fire because a bandaged victim only has to wait 15 seconds to logoff, but at the same time shouldn't that be the choice the sniper has to make if and when they decide to shoot? (I am also mentioning the most extreme example of sniping since close quarters/range battles seem to be alot shorter). Non-combat: If the player is just going to finish for the night or go eat dinner and wants to logoff, they are not forced to sit and stare at the screen for 7 minutes... So the server has time to save a character, and they would just have to sit still letting the server know they are logging off out of combat. --------- Too long: Zombies: This seems simply a matter of timing on the developers part. Figure the max range for a zombie to "hear" a shotgun blast, shoot the shotgun, and time how long it takes a zombie to run at you and begin hitting you. You canont logoff to escape (*cough cough* exploit) since the zombie is hitting you, so you must deal with it, then go hide. If (and I am guessing here) it takes a zombie 43 seconds to run at you and begin hitting you after you shoot the loudest weapon in DayZ (shotgun??), then make the timer 45 seconds. The chances of being at the exact max distance, shooting the loudest weapon and not bing hit in perfect timing is so minimal that it is probbaly OK to change the timer for an approx. lenght here. Also, eventually we may want to logoff inside a city building and since Zombies are wanderingaround, making it like 2 minutes is far too lnog since you might often see a zombie walk by and "detect you." I would hate to be a legit player, waiting 2 minutes, but every time it gets close another zombie just HAPPENS to se me because the timer is "soo looonnng." lol Players: It seems that if in real life another person was shooting at you, you would sit there perhaps for hours and hours, or even days before you would move unless you were able to come up with a strategy. This idea has been portrayed before in American western movies where indians were the "bad guys" and they would attack the cowbows, cripple them, then wait until nightfall to go in and "finish them off". This advantage is either chosen by the server the person is playing on (day/night) or by the person choosing to play night time with flares/NVGs/glow sticks. I believe that we should be given a choice to either sit pray (hoping they do too), thikning up a strategy like throwing a smoke grenade at the sniper to attract zombies to them) or prepare for an incoming assault on our position. I do not think it should be so long that they can slowly crawl in (avoiding every zombie), or so long that our game is being held hostage by another player. Remember, the shooter makes the first choice, and if he decided to shoot as soon as he sees the other player, then he is giving up his ability to be patient and wait for a better shot, gain a better position or wait for us to run into the open after looting a building. Alot of the streamers I watch shoot the second they see another player in a building and do not wait for a better shot. If there was a timer and people could no longer logoff as soon as they were shot, then I believe snipers would react in a more realistic way (no longer hesitating out of fear for loosing from insta-logoff), and we may see far more realistic/quality shots taken/kills. Think about it. If this was real life and you knew the other guy could not use magic to escape, would you shoot the second you saw him, or would you probably wait for what you felt was "the right moment"? Wouldn't you also wait until they perhaps walked into the open, or at least until they were in a spot that you were not afraid of approaching? Remember when Doc-J and 8-Ball were shot? The sniper waiting until they were in a certain spot to shoot, and then Animal Mother wanted to just run in because he could not find the position? All of those mechanics were there because the victims could not insta-logoff. So the sniper had to wait so they had the best position and they were forced to become mentally challenged about what to do in the situation. They could save their buddies lives if they could either find the sniper and take em out, or get to the downed soldiers. With a timer, when two or more people are involved in this situation it can go any way for any number of reasons. One guy might light up a tree while another guy runs over to administer an epi pen because they can no save their buddy, or since the sniper knows he has "some extent of time" on his side then he might pin them in the open and use it to their advantage. I know I would not shoot them unsure if I got a kill, because then I would have to go in and they might still be alive, or worse off bandaged/reloaded/returning fire. haha I do not see adding a timer in any way taking away from the game being player driven, sandbox, or realistic as long as a length is relative to the situation and realism. XD Summary: Today I watched a streamer walk into a camp with a hatchet. He found two other players there with rifles. They were saying into voice chat "put the hatchet down" and the streamer I was watching said "no, that is stupid you guys have guns, I am no threat." Then he was shot a few times in the face. Since we are playing in a sandbox peoples true selves come out. Remember both parties might be good guys who never murder, or they both might be bad guy who do nothing but camp and try to kill newly spawned players (the same people who say that there is nothing else to do because the group they run with has everything, but seem to refrain from openly challenging other groups of people *cough cough*). Keeping this frame of mind helps us to design the use of a timer and length, without trying to villianize one party over another (be biased). If there is a way for the game to "detect" that we are shot, or "know" that we are detected by a zombie, then a timer should begin. As soon as we are no longer detected by a zombie then our X second logoff timer would start and we would just have to stand still (which also gives the server time to save our characters or do other tasks it may need to do). Same goes with being shot, except it would be longer, since in real life escaping/evading an opponent would take longer as well (we would not simply run into a tree and *poof*. This simple mechanics feels like it would keep the game in a more realistic direction, and at the same time keep the game open sandbox/non-linear (player driven). The timer lengths could be figured out by the designers and what they feel length of time is fair for what situations (being shot/detected by a zombie), and all the other situations like going into shock/flashing food or water could be included at the developers discretion since they are all relative. XD
