TOPMO3

Not sure if troll or... :) I think the sort of feedback I'm offering is most crucial at this stage in the development of DayZ. It's not going to be any easier to implement later, even in 2 years. I'm talking about the core mechanic of how this game is going to play and feel. While most of this stuff is sync issues, and pretty cosmetic, I do think it would improve the quality of play. I however, am more concerned about the core game design. No one has yet to explain to me why zombies are acting they way they do now, instead of how they acted in the mod 2 years ago. Why was their behavior changed at all? When, and why was the decision made to have less zombies, who are now a non-threat. Before zombies can be seen chasing players through the streets, or eating a corpse. Now I don't see any, and if I do, I can walk right up to one, and one-shot them with an axe. I haven't been actively chased by more than 3 zombies, even if I try to attract more, the existing ones can't keep up with the pathing. This is exactly my problem right now. If I wanted to play DayZ as a Bandit, you could leave the game pretty much as is, maybe make the zombies harder. But if I wanted to play the game as say... a zombie killer, I would call this game broken. There are not enough zombies, and they pose no threat. If I wanted to play this game as a naturalist/woodsman, there is again no challenge in doing this. When hunting comes, this could be different. If I wanted to play this game as a hero/protector of noobs, this is broken still because there is nothing to protect them from. A noob can head to any small town, load up, and just head north without any danger from zombies/animals. Great idea about toughening up zombies, I would agree with all of that! About the night, I don't know... "Just too dark" for what exactly? If the full moon is out, it should illuminate normally, if there are clouds, it should get pretty dark. I don't understand why people are so afraid of the dark :)

This is game breaking. What's worse is the Thermal-scopes on some of the guns that came out later in the mod. Here's how it worked. While looking through the scope, everything had a deep red tint, except anything that moved, which had a bright milky-yellow tint. There you go. Once you had this weapon, you were no longer scared of PvP, the one and only scary thing in DayZ, was now a joke. How are you supposed to continue playing after finding a weapon like that? What was even the point of that weapon? It completely destroys game balance. I understand the need for "uber loot" but NVG and Thermal is ridiculous. /rant off

I have done some work in VFX and what Arma III is doing is actually more like contrast adjustment. The brights get brighter, but the darks get darker (or stay the same). What Arma 2 is currently doing is allowing you to "milk out" the blacks, actually swinging them up into higher values, then when you crank the contrast, you get more definition in that range. I.E. Cheating :) but hey I used to do it too. It's again, why I am all for removing gamma correction, and NVGs, and just have the player navigate by traditional illumination means. Flashlights (head torches, weapon flashlights), Flares, Campfires, stoves, glow sticks. I'm even ok with generators, lanterns, lamps. Something that everyone has equal opportunity of seeing. Currently there is no "counter" to NVGs, which makes them game breaking. If for example a player who was using NVGs happen to accidentally look at a bright source of light, ie, flash light or camp fire, and they went BLIND for 30-seconds, I would be ok with that.

Amen brother.

Interesting. I remember before the gamma patch, when players could crank gamma, and night-time just became gray shades. The game was still fun, but completely stupid because it didn't feel like night. It felt like some cheesy post-processing effect. Then I remember they patched the night, and it went pitch black. Everyone hated it, and servers were empty unless they were day-time. I on the other hand swallowed my pride, put on the lowest radium glow-stick, and moved through the woods foot by foot, until I made it to Rog. I heard zombies all around, shuffling, making sounds, but I couldn't see a single one of them. It was the most intense play sessions I think I ever had, and it was amazing. I think if everyone did this, it would create great experiences while playing at night. Image seeing a flashlight in a store window, or activating a flashlight, and dropping it on the ground. How about leaving a trail of chem lights to spring a trap. Night time can be awesome, if players wrap their heads around the fact that it's not meant to be played like daytime. Tension should be higher at night, but I agree, there should be more incentive to play during those hours. Maybe animals become more docile, so hunting becomes easier. Maybe less players are on, in general, so spawns happen more frequently. It can be figured out.

I don't understand why you would be against black nights, with flares, glow sticks, and flash lights? You can set traps, and illuminate terrain as you see fit using those things. If you're struggling with the fact that "In the day I can see across the map, but at night I can't" well... doesn't that just add to the tension of playing at night?

DayZ mod for Arma 2 was the first time I played any Arma game ever. The difficulty and challenge and the "I have no idea what's going on" aspect of the first week of play was what made the game so great to me. Based on your reply, I'm inclined to think that they are making the game more casual for new players, and that is the correct course of action for Bohemia and the DayZ team. If that's the case, I couldn't disagree more. I have done pretty much everything that there is to do in DayZ mod, short of loading up hacks and porting items into a map, or nuking entire servers. I have flown choppers, fixed cars, had massive tent cities with an army of friends. Camped Electro/Cherno, ran ops in the Airfield. All the good stuff, and it's fantastic. My problem is, if there is no building in site, there is no action. It should simply not be this way. There should be things going on outside of the cities. Zombies needs to be out and about, animals too. I think you also missed where I said I played on a 40-man Hardcore server, so I know all about the "Action" you speak of, and it basically boils down to loot as much stuff as you can, and go die to someone with it. Eventually the end game is Banditry, if you live long enough. There is no cooperation in players (if there is, it's rare) and that's because it's not fun to work together, because it servers no purpose. If the zombies were harder, you'd need to work together to both get food/water/guns in that city swarming with zeds. I think this game can be more than just running around shooting each other. It should be about Surviving, and that should mean constant concern for some aspect of your well-being. At any given time when I log in, my thoughts should immediately go to "which one of the 5 crucial things that are currently plaguing me, should I address first?" You should have to worry about food, injury, zombies, wildlife, pvp. Right now, you only have to worry about PvP. Food and water are BARELY a nuisance, if we're being honest. The game is fun when you have an injured friend, or your buddy is surrounded by a horde and you have to help him, or you're starving and you have to make a desperate incursion into a dangerous town or else you'll die. It's these moments of life/death decision making that creates the tension in the game. The tension is the reason DayZ is such a huge success to begin with.

Holy crap this should be sticked. Great info!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FINAL UPDATE: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATE #1: Policeman Texture UPDATE #2: Priest Texture UPDATE #3: Hunter Texture UPDATE #4: Citizen Texture UPDATE #5: Soldier & Heavy Soldier Textures ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello, I would like to share with you some work I have been doing with the zombie clothing. Ever since Genesiscrys made his awesome zombie skin, I've been inspired to make some custom skins myself! As of right now, the zombies have a really nice skin texture, but their clothing looks pristine. As if they never got a drop of blood on themselves. They also don't seem to reflect their wearers. For example the mechanic overalls are very clean, the hunters have no dirt on them, and the doctors don't have any pee on them. NO PEE!!! Here is a video demonstrating these textures on moving zombies, and to explain an interesting dilemma with some of the zombie models and their skins... For more images, please look at the following Imgur linkfor the changes I have made to their skins. Below is an example image, so you can get an idea of what I'm trying to do with these new textures. As you can see, there is now more blood, dirt, and overall griminess to the zombies, which I feel adds a great deal of immersion to the game. I welcome any and all feedback in regards to this little project! If the community approves of this, I will continue working on these textures, and improving them. I am also open to any suggestions, or direction. EDIT: Keep in mind, these textures are NOT meant to change the way the game is played. They are merely meant to enhance the look of the models. Any suggestions to "create a new type of skin", while really awesome, might go against what Rocket has in mind. If eventually there comes a time for that, I would be very happy to oblige! Also, these textures cannot be installed by anyone, until either Rocket, or the community demands they be added to the game, at which time I will happily turn them over. I personally would LOVE to see these added to the game! Thank you for your time, and stay safe out there! TOPMO3

Yeah this could be cool, and I think it's doable. Either way thanks for your support guys. Visual tweaks are pretty far down on the to-do list for the DayZ team I imagine, so I wouldn't hold your breath for this any time soon.

Thanks Hishnik! Yeah this is great news :) There's a couple of issues with the way Arma is currently handling textures, and hopefully we can iron that out but it's great to see Rocket talk about my work.

It's much easier, and better for everyone in this forum if, in the future, you link us directly to the video, or at the very least point us to the correct one by name, and explain at what time he says/does this. There are about 4 different videos in the news section, and if you're talking about the FPS interview, it's broken up into 4 sections making it even more confusing.

Sorry, I don't quite understand... What do you mean?

Does anyone know how? I can't seem to edit the thread title.

Thanks for all the support and kind words guys. I'm happy to see the community as enthusiastic about the project as I am. As of today, I haven't heard anything from the developers or Rocket regarding this project. I have attempted to tweet @dayzdevteam and haven't had any responses, which tells me there are gameplay changes right now which must take precedence over any graphical changes. No way to tell for sure however, so I'm just letting things go or now. Thanks for your feedback, contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

I like the idea. I think the heatpack basically made the campfire heat recovery mechanic completely useless. Either make the heatpack restore your heat over time like the blanket idea, or make it so you have to be immobile while you're using it. Imagine the bandage animation but continuous until the body reaches 42C. If you move or cancel out before hand, pack is lost, and temperature gain is halted. It remains as high as it got to before you cancelled it.

Hey guys. So I finished the textures, all but the Pilot model, because the current editing tools don't allow the unpacking of .pbo files from the BAF expansion, which the pilot model is a part of sadly! I made custom specular and normal maps for each of the new textures I've made, which adds an even greater level of detail to the models! Here is my final video where you can see all of the changes. Once again, if you enjoy this, let it be heard, and we can get these textures into the game, otherwise, they will just sit on my hard-drive! :) Thanks again for your encouragement, and kind words. Hopefully we can all contribute something cool to this game!

Thanks all. I'm pretty much done with the textures. Unfortunately for now, the Pilot cannot be edited, as his texture pack cannot be unlocked with the current editing tools available. He comes with the BAF expansion, and those PBO files cannot be unpacked. Oh well, maybe someday. Right now I am making tweaks to existing specular, shadown, and normal maps of each of the models, so they better match the detail I've put into the color maps. Once this is done, I'll make another video showing off everything, and hopefully we'll move forward from there. There is no way to edit the physical models, those files are locked by Bohemia Interactive. I can only add color/textures. As far as adding different zombies, that's a question you'll have to pose for Rocket. I'm merely making the game look nicer. This is in no way meant to change anything outside the aesthetic scope. Stay tuned!

Thanks, but I don't know where everyone gets that DayZ will be coming for Arma 3. Rocket has said time and time again that he will most likely have the game be a stand-alone, and a small price point. I'm hoping to get these textures into the current build of DayZ, since it's what's being played now.

New Update! Here's my take on the two soldier textures; the Soldier and the Heavy Soldier. I did some nice grease stains on the camo, put in a couple of nice oil stains. Drew up some dust effects on the boots and camo, and topped it off with loads and loads of dried and fresh blood! These two models actually consist of a combination of 3 different texture maps believe it or not! The Helicopter Pilot is coming up next, which will finish off all of the zombie models currently in use in DayZ. I think I will go back and revisit some of the earlier versions I have done in order to bring them in line with these latest ones. I rushed through some of those, and I'd like to give them some love. ENJOY!

Great work, keep it up!

Pointless post. Please make useful suggestions in this already cluttered, and congested forum.

Please do a search in the forum to see if someone else has suggested this same idea, and maybe expand on their post. Thank you.

Latest update! Here's the citizen texture I created. I decided to experiment a bit with this texture in a couple of ways. I decided to extend a bit of his sweater down past his belt, and ripped another bit of it off, around his bellybutton. It's hard to see because I have not yet created the normal map for it, which would really help separate each one of those elements. I have also put a rip in his left knee, and some nice cracked-leather texture on the back and front of his jacket. Again, once I finish all of the textures for the current zombie models included in DayZ, I'll go back and add the normal map details to each of the models, so they help create that sense of depth in the model.

Hey dude' date=' Currently you can't play DayZ with these textures because my textures don't match with what's currently the latest version of DayZ. If one day these textures make it into the game (if Rocket requests them from me, and puts them in the client download), then you will be able to run them. Right now I play with the same default Arma textures just like everybody else. It's the reason I'm doing this project, to make something nicer than what we currently have. I hope that with enough enthusiasm from the community, we can convince Rocket to put these in, and then everybody can enjoy them! The way I'm able to show you these textures right now, is I'm essentially running a duplicated DayZ mod along side my official DayZ mod. On my duplicated one, I replaced the textures with my new ones. I can't play it in multiplayer, but I can use the editor, which is how I got them all to line up for the video. Hope that all makes sense! I really appreciate that man. While I think making the game more fun for everyone, and re-evaluating game content is crucial at this stage in the alpha, I'm more of a visuals guy (do 3D for a living), and I figured I'd do my part!