I think what I, and a lot of people like about DayZ is the level of immersion you can feel that's inherent to the nature of the game itself. These are the elements of the game that I'd like to see preserved: 1. Permanent death / item loss. 2. Combat that often has serious consequences even if you survive, and is therefore often best avoided. 3. A heavy emphasis on travel/navigation. 4. Having to attend to basic survival needs beyond avoiding/treating injuries. 5. Having good reason to distrust (and a strong incentive to kill) other survivors. 6. (Relative) safety in numbers, provided your your companions are trustworthy and somewhat competent. 7. Gameplay that creates stories organically through the game mechanics themselves, with little emphasis on scripted content. IF the SA were going to be rpg style levelling there'd need to be scaling. Assume all characters start out directly from being white collar lazy and slightly overweight. 1. Improving accuracy with handguns unless at <7 ft which improves over time (worst level is only at most 25% worse than best level). 2. Terrible recoil spray from full auto weapons until the character gets used to it (worst level is only at most 25% worse than best level).. 3. Falling from low heights no longer breaks your legs, and you can level up shock absorption (like parkour training). 4. You gain the ability to jump higher as you increase your strength. 5. As your hunger meter rises, your ability to focus/do stuff decreases, but the hunger meter slows down its use the more you play/get in shape in game. However, it speeds up dramatically with prolonged sprinting/strenuous activity. This would encourage energy saving behavior which would be what "survivors" would be doing in a true post apocalyptic scenario. These things being said, you also need negative repercussions to just training for hours . . increased needs for consumables (obviously), but they need to incorporate soreness for pretty much ALL skill training. However, characters still need to be permadeath, and "bullet resistance" should not be something you can train. You might be able to train hand to hand combat against zombies though. Make the difference big enough that you can feel it, but not so big that an experienced character can easily overpower a new character if they're comparably equipped and go heads-up. Player skill would remain the dominant factor. Though I think the skill differences between trained and untrained could be a bit more stark when it comes to utility skills, like repairing vehicles and electronics, building/dismantling fortifications, first aid/medicine, locksmithing, explosives/demolition and skinning/butchering. These are skills may be helpful in surviving your first few days, but probably aren't essential ... but eventually become near-essential for doing some of the more advanced stuff in the game, like scavenging high-value (or widely distanced) sites effectively and efficiently, establishing your own semi-permanent base, or raiding other players' bases.
