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You can go have fun testing and killing people on the DayZ mod. The Standalone Alpha is not where we're testing the actual mechanics of the game we're not trying to test the gameplay fairness as much as we're trying to get things such as proper display and positioning of items, people, spawn timers of the loot, building locations and interaction... and unless you've participated in these before, the concept of alpha testing may be a bit frustrating for you. What we are testing is the translation of the current mechanics of the game being ported over to it's own, fully fledged stand alone game engine. Adding a feature that doesn't exist in the DayZ mod when vehicles haven't even been introduced is probably not the 'numero uno' problems the current devs are focused on fixing. The developers of this game have said on numerous occasions and on multiple forums and sources that they want some kind of a combat logging feature. The first issue is that your definition of what 'in-combat' means will differ from a lot of people. The second issue is translating the definition into code that has checks and balances to keep it fair, is not simple. The reason you don't understand why it's not implemented is because it's not a simple solution. Nor is it a solution we should be focusing on solving when our bodies currently aren't syncing with the server properly (rubberbanding). Or, instadeath, or items falling through floors, or mysteriously disappearing.

Aww, but they're so nice! On topic: Go for it. I'd like to see vehicles take a large part, so having an anti-material rifle to take out vehicles would be great. Plus they'd be rare, and the ammo rarer, which is good for business :)

It's not a bad system, really. The only problem with the mod was that the radius for activating zombie spawns was too small, so you were able to tell where people where if there were zombies spawning. What you do is have each player have one radius (red), where zombies spawn and are actively updating on the server. These zombies get aggro'd, attack you, walk around, and do other normal zombie things. Players also have a second radius (blue) in which zombies are not actively spawned, but the ones that are there are not despawned either. Anything in that area is "asleep" and doesn't update. Once a zombie leaves the "asleep" zone, they have a countdown until they finally despawn or can be despawned immediately. So, if you're in Cherno and someone is in Elektro, zombies are active up and down the coast between the two cities, but not in Kamenka because there's no one anywhere near there. If a zombie enters the active zone it wakes up and continues on as if it had never gone to sleep in the first place. If a player spawns, during that load time the server can populate the zombies in that immediate area before the player is finished loading. You could tie this in with a heatmap in 10-100 meter chunks. The map tracks zombie deaths in the area, and can be "depleted" of zombies (hot = depleted, cold = abundant(?)). This heatmap gradually cools, allowing more zombies to be spawned in an area. You could also do other fun things with the heatmap, like having an active vehicle cools the cell it's in faster and thus zombies spawn more around active vehicles. You could even tie loud noises to the heatmap, so being loud cools it faster and makes zombies spawn more, or have a dead player rapidly cool an area. Edit: Forgot to mention, this also somewhat disconnects the zombies from fixed locations like buildings. You'd probably want a higher rate around the buildings and so on but you could still just spawn a zombie anywhere in the red and be good to go. Edit 2: This is basically what Warframe does, with a heatmap and inactive AI areas around the player. They gave a nice presentation (Jump to Tac Area Map) at the AI summit at GDC last year on the subject.

Sooo, KSVK in standalone :P There will be all sorts o weapons im sure, we will be able to armor and arm vehicles.. this stuff was being talked about a long time ago! So expect to see m2's etc... a lot o this what the SA is going to be has come from a lil group confirming their own views as what its going to be in here, these forums, it has nothing to do with anything official... there are already british survival vests, hummer wreaks, etc.

This. A huge aspect of survival in DayZ is that you have to travel to destinations yourself. No warping or anything like that. It makes vehicles incredibly valuable.

Things will change in time. At the moment Chernarus is simply a gladiatorial arena with a few zombies chucked in for testing purposes. As the game continues to be patched and developed it will also be fleshed out and there will be more to it. As it is now, survival is simply way too easy but this will change and people will have to concentrate a bit more on just living in the environment, they will have less time to hunt players. When vehicles are implemented I suspect coastal survival on high pop servers to improve.

We have started a new Epoch Server. We wanted to balance the vanilla Dayz feel and consequence of death with some features that support both solo play and group building projects. Sooo, starting package is a bandage and flares, but there are extra tents with starting gear sprinkled along the coast. There are other lootable locations added in the interior full of building supplies and occasionally gold. Random vehicles don't lock, but vehicles purchased from vendors do. We embrace PVP and stealing, but also help players design safe, theft-free places to stash their stuff. We support and help younger players who agree to be patient and help themselves when we are busy. Wandering AI will fight back and drops nice stuff, not too hard. AI missions are difficult and have large groups of very aggressive AI and have to be done with groups, but have huge payoff in loot - sometimes weaps,sometimes medical, sometimes mass quantities of building supplies - they show up in chat and on map. A few Soldier AI choppers are patrolling at all times, they are only hostile to those who shoot at them, bandits in vehicles, and bandit AI and they mainly patrol the coast and airfields - keeping those places safer for lone survivors, and adding to the target list for groups of bandits who have aquired heavy firepower. They also make flying around in your own chopper attract less attention. Super Stable dedicated server in LA, with Mountain Time Zone admins. Extra admin support available for a migrating group! Empty most of the time right now, come help us grow a presence. !LARRYLAND! 74.222.5.250:4020

The most important hing is not only to make it rare and hard to handle,but giving it a real purpose beside killing players,which is destroying vehicles.If they are hard to use,rare and only useful for clans to fight other clans that have armored vehicles add them in,yes. It would make for some awesome clan fights and would make the member who actually has an anti-material rifle a valuable asset.

You shouldn't have bought the game in Alpha state then. Everyone knew there were no vehicles at release, yet I keep seeing these posts by people who obviously can't read and who obviously don't understand that once they paid their money, they gave up the right to complain about what ISN'T implemented yet because there were warnings everywhere. That is what's ridiculous. Your fault, pipe down. Be patient / play mod.

YES! My favorite .50... Add one onto a Pickup! OP All I heard in your post was "I want A barret because I'm entiled to it because I don't like PSO scopes" Its not about what one, single person likes, its about what the majority wants. Those are the only two that make any sense, but even then shouldn't be ingame because of these reasons: Weight. They both weigh almost 30lbs. the rounds weigh about 50gs each are over 5in long. try carring that around. Size. the KSVK is 1420mm long, and the OSV is 1700mm. The AKM is 800MM. Noise. .50s are extremely loud, and one shot would attract every zombie within 1000M. Use. They are not made for sniping. they're made for taking out vehicles from miles away, usually in deserts, which is impossible in Chernarus due to sight line limits. I would NEVER even touch one IRL, but some Idiots would and would end up having their faces eaten off. IF one is added, it needs these Realistic nerfs Cannot be fired unless prone Slows character down by %50 One 5-rnd magazine takes 4 Inventory. rounds cannot be stacked. Extremly loud Extreme Recoil Ammo only found in wrecked BMPS, T-72s and UAZs, extremely rarely. only 2000 guns can exist at any time.

Firstly, the current night-time and torches needs to be fixed, it's too dark for 99% of activity, using a torch is suicide and using the gamma trick makes it inappropriately easy. I don't think it should be an equatorial day/night cycle of 50:50... I'd go for a near Arctic summertime, with 90% of the gametime during daylight hours and extended dawn/dusks so it's only truly 'noon' bright for a short period with long drawn out periods of diminishing light levels either side, possibly never reaching full darkness but only ever deepening to white night (twilight) or a midnight sun (although a midnight sun will confuse the hell out of people trying to use it for navigation). I think really there should be a short period of complete darkness though, I just wanted to point out those possibilities. I think a few map based lightsources should be added to aid navigation - maybe a couple of buildings could have generators running, some vehicles with their headlights still on...that kinda thing. Once that's done to a degree where nighttime isn't the mess it is at the moment and is tolerable by everyone, I'm gonna be hardcore and suggest that the public hive has all servers synced on the same day/night cycle. Otherwise people can just avoid the zombies at night experience...which I think is sad. As for the cycle itself, 4/6/8/12/24 hour cycles aren't a great idea because then players would have the exact same conditions every day if they log in at the same time (and if it's locked to the public hive then someone round the world will never see anything different). Something like a 10 or 20 hour cycle would mean that players would experience different start times on consecutive days or even consecutive weekends. It's also long enough that the change in light levels shouldn't be overly perceptible to the players and diminish from the realism. Of that, something with maybe only 30-60 mins of actual complete darkness would be good...nothing too bad to make people say 'I can't play at all today cuz it's night-time on the servers'

Not a thread for discussion; just a place to compile my idea and suggestion posts so I can put a link in my signature. Thread: Player Identification and Classification System Summary: A system allowing players to remember, recognize and categorize other survivors. Why: Unlike the bandit skin, this system puts the power and responsibility in the hands of players instead of the game engine. Players must make their own visual identifications, and can make their own judgments about player behaviors. Thread: Squad Identification Summary: Give players more options for uniquely identifying visual accessories: armbands, headbands, facepaint, masks, etc. Why: Quick visual identification of allies and friendlies in high-pressure situations. Thread: Rivers, Canals, Bridges: Survival Resource, Transport Medium, Natural Chokepoints Summary: Suggestion for addition of rivers, canals or waterways to Chernarus+ map for Standalone. Why: Bridges create natural focal points for player encounters and interaction; variety of vehicles and transport options go way up; fishing could eventually be added to the game. Thread: Fog, Weather and Building States: Visual Variety & Disorientation Summary: Suggestion for enhanced weather effects, seasonal changes and building decay. Why: Dramatically increase visual variety in the game; make it more difficult for veteran players to get and keep their bearings when exploring the wilderness and towns of Chernarus. Thread: Enhancing Fall Damage: Leg Injuries & Treatments Summary: Enhanced fall damage system with scaling injuries based on height of fall and a variety of healing requirements. Why: Fall damage in the game at the moment is simplistic and uninteresting. Thread: Loot: Mysterious and Unpredictable Summary: Suggestions for loot spawn and re-spawn mechanics in order to keep players guessing about loot and reduce the repetitive feeling of "loot farming." Also, ideas about random loot events such as helicopter crash sites. Why: Loot acquisition should feel more mysterious and unpredictable, as well as requiring more travel and exploration. Thread: Survivor Stories: Authentic Leader Boards Summary: A huge variety of leader boards upon which players may be ranked after dying. Why: Primarily as a motivation to survive longer. Also to build memories of past lives and share experiences and accomplishments with other survivors. Thread: End Spawn Suicide Summary: Players must survive for at least three hours in order to be assigned a new spawn point. Otherwise, they spawn in the same location. Why: Suicide should be a last resort, not something people do to "choose" their spawn location. My old ideas & suggestions from the mod days.

More food for thought on the issue of aircraft making it easier to find bases. Even in the worst case scenario, where bases are unsecurable and easy to spot from the air, let's remember that if aircraft are rare and difficult to make airworthy, then this problem will be reduced significantly. Also, I remember that in the mod, squads were constantly using their man power to hoard vehicles and resources. Having two or three aircraft per server could potentially even the playing field, especially for lone wolf players.

so i guess helicopters dont belong either? so why dont we just not recommend ANYTHING that was around with the original mod? why take away things instead of add them back in? day z was perfect before and to say anything otherwise is insane. if you complain that it one hit kills then maybe you should go back to playing battlefield 4 or call of duty, seriously, before the damage patch in arma2dayz everything was perfect. the colt 1911 felt like it did the damage it was supposed to and now everything is cut in half, now people are saying they dont want things in the game because they simply die from it? get a grip and go play something else, this is DayZ... not your customized game for your benefit of the doubt cause it interferes with your gameplay. btw those one hit snipers were there for a reason, then once vehicles are in you will just be complaining you dont have anything to take out engines, or rotors on helicopters the next time you happen to play and cant do anything about heavy vehicular battle.

[HuntersCove] 1.0.3.1 Epoch Chernaraus www.GoodCompanyGaming.co.uk Server IP: 94.23.200.92:2342 TS3 IP: GCGN.info Our Dayz Community are looking for new players. we used to run our server with 55/55 players, however, today we're running at 6/55 or less. So i thought i'd come along the forums to advertise our server and community! To attract new player, we'll be giving out "Full Briefcases, along with various "Items/Equipment" ranging from weapons to building supplies. This is simply to get people going, and enjoy a good start, to further advance into the world of DayZ. Please join our Teamspeak, and look for [GCG] Lag and briefly let him know you're from the DayZ forums and he'll provide the things you'll need to get started on the server! Active Admins, which whom are all mature, fair and treat all players with the respect they deserve! if you're looking for a place to enjoy DayZ without having to deal with immature players. where rules are enforced by the admins to ensure the best experience out there. you've found your place to be! Scripts currently installed Custom Admin Trader "Admins as vendors" AI / Missions and supply drops Deploy Bikes, Heli's and motobikes Craft weapons / Items Added airfields Added military camps around the map Added barracks Customized NEAF and Balota airfields Custom loot spawns Day and Night (full moon) Spawn selection / class selection Auto Refuel and Repair (At gas stations and fuel tanks) Self BloodBag Call in Air Drops (Find a laptop and use to to call Airdrops) Russian Roulette Suicide Drink Water (Directly from Ponds / Wells) =BTC= Fast Rope (Fast Rope From Helicopters) Lift and Tow all Vehicles Halo Jump (Control the direction of your character whilst jumping from a plane / Helicopter) Customized Map 400+ Vehicles and 20+ Helicopters / Planes Thank you and i hope to see you soon!

So obviously, there are going to be some major updates and implements, such as vehicles, more guns/gear, zombie glitch fixes, etc. But does anyone know what the next major update is going to be and when its going to happen. I hope in order it will be zombie wall/floor glitch fix, vehicles( maybe motorcycle and bikes first) and then weapons. Running to NWAF from Balota AF isn't really good on time.

I know we will get vehicles, I'm talking about in the mod there are cars everywhere, you can't interact with them in anyway, they are just decoration and bring the game down.

I'm not sure *how* they're going to implement them. But vehicles are definitely planned. Not all vehicles are repairable mind you. Some will be too far gone to ever operate again (like the frame being bent into the wheelwell). However we should still be able to salvage parts off these vehicles. But make no mistake, we will have vehicles at some point. Most will probably be procured in the manner you mentioned (finding a derelict vehicle and repairing it).

Stamina system would be nice, but only if we get vehicles first.

- Zombies should not be player-controlled, no. I want Zombies to number in the thousands, I want them to instill fear and dread in me anytime I see them. I want them to smash doors, windows and other obstacles. I want to see a swarm of zombies stalk a panicked player and pounce on them! I want players who get nommed to death turn into a zombie themselves, loot and all! I have faith that the Zeds will be more fearsome come beta and release, that's for sure. - Mutant zombies, or super-zombies, sound like a cool idea. - From what Rocket was saying it seems there is a fixed limit to the amount of dynamic elements in the game engine (which is only 10,000) and when they fix that issue we will see more loot, more players and more zombies. A lower polygon count on Zeds cannot fix this. This will probably require a lot of work. - Stamina? Yeah okay I'm good with that. - Not sure what your car comment is about, but I reckon the current vehicles are still being developed. Patience.

Ok then, whilst I'm not one to rant or get into confrontations with people over the internet, I think its fairly justified that some of the viewpoints of a portion of the community which I cannot grasp to name on this forum are at least partially accurate in which I will be discussing (inb4 accusations of admin abuse or CoD kiddies, this is not what this post is about) So to begin I purchased the Standalone 2 weeks ago and have been thoroughly enjoying the experience as most of you have until you reach that stagnant point of the game. Although having been killed several times due to KoS etc.. (which is not what this post will revolve around!) I find it extremely easy to loot and get kitted up again fully with ammo supplies to resume my journey into the world Day Z has to offer at this stage. However that's just the thing... the word "journey"/"adventure"/"objective" remains obsolete whilst the point stands that the only option to take after being geared up is to head back down south and I back this point made by people on the forums. I am aware of the "Pre-Alpha" stage of the game and so am not expecting wonders (hell the dev team have only just incorporated BattleEye - meh) and to be perfectly honest this post is not in regards to the effectiveness of the dev team as I think they are doing the best they can do at the moment with the game they have in front of them. Instead what this topic is about is rather some of the ideas that many of you have been expressing over the past week and their reactions/attitudes to them in response to the "KoS mentality" and PVE aspects of the game. Whilst I am not a clear denier of the PvP aspects of the game and enjoy them thoroughly whilst teaming with my friends, I still think its important to have a host of PVE options to explore aside of the PvP to fully "immerse" players in the experience that is Day Z. Granted it will take considerable months before many heavy game changes are implemented or changed by the dev team, however what constantly seems to rattle my cage on this forum is when I see the poor attitude from some of the community in regards to ideas submitted by people that we can or can not bring to the game (This is in regard to some of the more controversial topics yes such as the implementation of high grade military loot, ghillie suits and the rarity of weapons and objects) In some sense I feel SOME of the community not ALL are taking for granted just how integrated they are into the development of this game. You have a universal forum which has its own Pre-Alpha Game in which you can fully experience and give feedback straight to the dev team to see if your ideas can be implemented or are possible and yet it almost seems as if some people are adamant to rubbish others instead of deliver bread to the table. Sure if you don't like the idea of some sort of skill tree, new weapon or ideas for vehicles or game systems being implemented then you have the right to "disagree" but saying in regards to an idea that it is "dumb" are completely illogical and just rude if I'm honest. I am aware of the split in the community to those who have played the mod and those who haven't due to the influx of new players but in no way does this put anyone in a higher position of authority e.g. "THIS IZ NOT HAOW DA MOD WORKED! G3T OUT NEWB!" Other players will have played different games and been influenced by different systems they may or may not like to see in Day Z. Instead of rubbishing these ideas, seek to share out your own knowledge and come to a position where you either disagree with the idea and give valid reasons for it e.g. effecting players/detracting from the survival feel of the game or discuss with the OP of the topic and see if you cant offer an alternative to gear their idea more to what you want. I'm aware not all ideas are going to be implemented and most of the work is up to the dev team and what Rocket has visualised and I hope I haven't rustled anyone's feathers in posting this topic but what I am saying is that at this early stage we should be doing everything to promote and get our ideas to the dev team instead of muddying the waters with mixed opinions and the same garbage of KoS mentality which is always going to be a factor of a survival game. If you are complaining about the existing or non-existing model of the game at this time, stop and start thinking up your own ideas or developing someone else's to come to a solution to your problems, rubbishing someone's own will not help to the development of the game but rather a split in the community. Thanks for reading ;)

i mean in a few hours in a day i ran from kamyshovo to electro, electro to cherno, cherno to berezino, berezino to NEAF via the shipwreck, and in this time i did a lot of looting, met up with friends, got into a 6 person gun fight. honestly vehicles arent of my concern, i think we only need vehicles when basebuilding becomes a thing, and that will only become a thing if we get private hives

Additions like highly modifiable vehicles and bases should fix the no-endgame problem, and somewhat reduce KOS. Of course there will still be a lot of KOS, but that's fine with me. I don't agree with supply drops for multiple reasons. 1) It's AI 2) It makes no sense some mysterious faction, or even a government would randomly drop valuable and limited supplies to a bunch of random survivors. I don't mind the random heli-crashes, though. Actually, I love them. I agree on the islands, though I do not agree with the Left for Dead-ish thing that zombies should spawn like it's Dead Island on steroids. Yes, it would be challenging, and maybe fun, if it wasn't DayZ. Too arcade-ish. I made a small post on Reddit about islands a long time ago. I'll link it here. Also, at the time I wrote that, Utes was actually part of the map. If you check out the leaked 03/2013 alpha, you can check it out.

Zombies that can climb through windows. And player ability to climb in out them too. Big mutant zombies that will stalk you, like in resident evil 3. All vehicles intractable/ salvageable/usable, no static "decoration" cars. Lower the graphics on zombies, so we can have more on screen. Stamina feature, sprinting from zombies no longer an easy way out. Zombie play mode, I imagine playing as a zombie and having the ability to call other zombies to a survivors location. I've tried to keep out idea that I've seen posted constantly.

DO NOT USE THE ARGUMENT KoS IS FINE. IT IS FINE. THESE ARE OPTIONS TO INITIATE OTHER FORMS OF PLAY, OTHER THAN KoS. I ENJOY IT BEING IN THE GAME. HOWEVER, IT SHOULD NOT BE THE ONLY WAY TO PLAY THE GAME. People who DO NOT read the OP are either too lazy or too stupid to participate in the conversation. Posts that say, "omg kill on sight is fine, you're a pussy, cry-baby, whiner" or the like are not constructive to the conversation because the topic is not on the removal of kill on sight. In addition, you probably have not done your research as thoroughly on the game and thus you are missing the key point: Rocket himself has said that the inventory degradation is designed to deter kill on sight banditry and he is actively looking for outlets to further deter banditry as it stands in the game currently. If you ignore this fact, then you yourself are an ignoramus and a fool, not I. Oh, here you go, I did your research for you. Fast forward to 12:30 to hear Rocket himself say that he wants to change the way Kill of Sight works by giving players something to think about. INTERESTING: ------------------------------------------------ TL;DR This forum topic is best viewed in it's entirety and should not be judged by the hasty and horribly dumbed down TL;DR summary. In short, my proposal is that Kill on Sight is roughly the only way to play the game and while I'm not lobbying for it's removal (because it is a HUGE part of the game), I want more options to encourage team work for those who want different avenues of play other than a "mil-sim version of Battlefield." Currently, KoS is the ONLY way to play (more-or-less). This would work in conjunction by solving the horrible end game content (or lack thereof). Adding the equivalent of helicopter crash sites (albeit with different twists on them) in the form of random abandoned military bases and different wrecks and the inclusion of a reason to deviate from the standard "gather supplies in the south then head north until dead" gameplay. This would include a military harbor island in the South with the rarest form of military loot and the highest quality base-building materials, complete with a monumental challenge: tons and tons of slightly more difficult zombies (hundreds of zombies, respawning to create illusion of several thousand), a ton of area/buildings to explore and loot, and the ultimate goal being the aircraft carrier docked at the far end of the island. You could attack it in different ways, utilizing as many or as few people as you wanted, and mastering it means you'd be able to create efficient ways of utilizing your creations as you build them (i.e. helicopters and armored cars) to tackle the challenge in different ways or become more efficient. Could create interesting PvP, Cooperative and PvE play. Read entire post for more details as this TL;DR doesn't do it justice. In short, don't judge the ideas based on this alone! ------------------------------------------------- Full Post: This is a snippet from a post that I made on a wonderfully put together Suggestions forum by MR DELICIOUS here: http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/162663-how-to-make-the-map-more-engaging/, but decided that the content I'm posting here could also be served as a both a suggestion and a discussion. This is meant to discuss the possibility of these ideas solving the aforementioned issues. Any other map suggestions should go to the link posted above. {Edited 13:49 1/7/2014 for those who aren't going to read the posts garnered in this forum before replying. Arguments are already inserted for cohesiveness.] A little background: I am a DayZ purist, meaning I'm against the inclusion of anything gimmicky and totally not in line with what Rocket has in mind for the future of this game. I believe that the suggestions I am about to make are not perfect, but would still provide a good skeleton or framework for some interesting ideas in the future development of the game. I do not support acquired in-game skills that give you an edge based on time played or leveling, I don't support NPC's that patrol safe zones and the like, nor interfaces for which to interact with non living entities. DayZ is about players doing what players do, to create stories. The avatar that you create should never know more than what you know in real life. You shoot better because the person behind the keyboard has got actual practice with the firearm, etc. Anyone who wants the framework of this game to go towards something gimmicky, arcade-like or MMO-esk, should stop playing this game. That being said, here we go: The world of DayZ is incredibly static and not a whole lot goes on after you've been geared and travel North. Yes, it's in Alpha, but this was kind of a running problem in the mod, too. These ideas are meant to spark/kickstart the community into doing more than be bland bandits. This will open up new opportunities for bigger betrayals, but also bigger cooperation. Especially with the third idea, which I'm most proud of. Stick around for that one, if nothing else. -Aircraft: I'd like to see the inclusion of mysterious aircraft, on random spawn timers, unaffected by server restarts. These aircraft can fly overhead and drop supplies, crash, or possibly land. The AI controlling these vehicles will instantly despawn if they land (or perhaps just die in the cockpit due to injuries sustained). Crashes and landed aircraft will be home to zombies roaming. This could get people to follow aircraft in the hopes of stealing supplies or even the vehicle itself. This could also make for interesting PvP or friendly player encounters. The origin of these aircraft is unknown, but players can RP that the military is sending supplies, reconing the area for potential incursion or research. -Randomly spawned bases: Now this can be a bit of a problem as bases are more static and immovable. For vehicles, they would either be destroyed by the flames or stolen for people to use, thus creating a convenient way for these objects to disappear from the map after a set amount of time. Bases, however, can be tricky to remove from the map, or even add. It can be immersion breaking if done incorrectly. My current idea is that these bases would spawn in a similar manner to Wasteland (in areas that are unoccupied by survivors and are out of line of sight), the materials can be used for building bases of your own, or be entirely taken over if one wishes. This would be a great way to attract other players for the possibility of loot, building supplies, vehicles and zombie killing. There would be NO NPCs, only zombies.These would be heavily fortified bases. It's defenses could be turned on other survivors. To add a twist as well as functionality: the bases are on self-destruction timers. A survivor has a set amount of time to find a base after it spawns or the self destruct protocol kicks in. It is possible to delay it via a computer terminal or by adding more fuel to the generator, but do you take the risk going in if it could explode at any moment? It makes sense that the military would have such a feature, in case the base was overrun or unguarded after a certain amount of time. The explosion would destroy the base and clear it from the map, cutting back on server resource allocation. Could also be home to zombies that are more durable; body armor and helmets make them more difficult to take down. Think of the riot gear zombie from Walking Dead. -Island Raids: Now before you bash me and say that this is not World of Warcraft and such, hear me out. This has the MOST potential out of anything. Currently there is little reason to head to the islands other than to make bases or camps that are more difficult for other survivors to take over. I for one would like to see them utilized for something really epic and in layman's terms, end game content. In one of the versions of the DayZ mod there was an aircraft carrier outside of Chernogorsk. What if one of islands was home to a giant military base/harbor, much like Pearl Harbor. This base could have an aircraft carrier docked, but eerily abandoned. Why? This was the place they ferried thousands of survivors in the final hours of the outbreak in the hopes to sail somewhere unaffected by the plague. However, things went horribly wrong and obviously some of the infected made it over. A massacre ensued, leaving the entire Island infested by zombies. The real twist here is that currently the objective of the game is to travel North after gathering supplies in the South. After that, the game stagnates and becomes about killing other players so they don't kill you for your gear. This game mechanic would force people to gather supplies for the trek North, build a base, fix a car and then ultimately head back South, brave the gauntlet of new players (Bambies) looking for highly geared players to kill and then go to this military Island. You could acquire a speed boat for this trek, you could eventually get a ferry complete with spots for vehicles, or you could spend time swimming. This island is home to a myriad of zombie types (based on the zombie life cycle), just like Dean Hall has envisioned for his game. In addition to regular zombies of the life cycle, Alpha zombies, a faster and deadlier version of what's on the main land. To enforce the notion that thousands of people were trying to evacuate this area, there will be a pool of as many zombies as they can comfortably spawn in this location. But they will respawn if killed. This will present a highly significant challenge as wave after wave of zombies will throw themselves at you, but really only if you make too much noise. Going it alone is doable, but you must be highly skilled and bring a lot of ammo, but you will probably die 99% of the time. This also presents an opportunity: cooperation! Being so difficult, you would most likely need to find a group of people to take over in order to survive. You could attack at day. Or you could attack at night with night vision! You could take a group of four, equipped with suppressed weapons and stealth your way across the island, looting as you go. You could take a group of 10, going a hybrid of stealth and loud. You could place snipers on the roofs of several buildings, giving cover to the rest of the group. Or you could go with 20-30 people, create a massive assault on the base where you clear the base moving as if you were a wildfire. Friendly fire could ensue. People could be picked off by zombies and you could watch your numbers slowly dwindle until you find yourself alone or scattered, being swarmed. You could finally finish sweeping the entire base (this would be an hours long task, with mid to high end military loot) with your group, finally ending at the air craft carrier at the far end (Ultra high quality military loot and the jackpot of all loot spawns), only to turn on each other. Or you could agree to meet up for another run at a later date, keeping a cooperative spirit that would last. Do you kill on sight now? You could be killing the same guy you raided with earlier. Now he's devoid of gear and won't show up to the next raid. You're shit out of luck, because he was the one with the keys to the Ferry you used to get your armored Humvee to that island. You need to find another group now, Champ. Do you kill Bambies, or do you go to the South to help them survive, nurture them and groom them to become a part of your team to raid this island? This would help enforce communities and even servers where people will tend to logon to most often in the hopes of finding people they played with once. I must also point out that, by design, server hopping would be entirely impossible on this island due to the massive amount of zombies respawning. If you were to spawn anywhere on this island, you would be overrun and mauled within seconds. Zombies would even spawn in buildings. It would probably be best, too, if stashes were implemented before this, as people would want to hoard as much weapons and supplies as they can, just in case they die. Also, if going to do this island raid, you will most likely want to stash everything but medical supplies and magazines for your weapons. Explosives may be necessary. Include an option to pull the pin on the grenade and blow yourself up, just in case you get trapped. Like C.J. from Dawn of the Dead (2004) with his propane tank in the van. Martyrdom at its finest. ------------------------------------------------------- EDITS, REVISIONS & FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS: My idea with the islands is a tricky thing.. It's not meant to be Dead Island on steroids or Left for Dead. It's not supposed to have different "types" of zombies (where there's a bloated zombie that bursts everywhere or a zombie that screams and stuns you), just slightly faster, slightly more agile, slightly more damaging, etc. Something that's based on Dean's idea of the zombie life cycle and his idea for the Alpha zombies. The idea that zombies respawn comes from the fact that this Island is supposed to be rather large (Elektro or Cherno in size, with a docked carrier at the far end). It's not technically feasible, at least to my knowledge, to have a thousand zombie spawn in that one location. Even if the network bubble or server could sustain that many zombies, it's unlikely that a mid-ranged computer could process that many zombies at once. To maintain the illusion that the entire island is infested, zombies would respawn but not necessarily throw themselves at you. They would respond to stimuli gathered around their particular spawn point (preferably out of vision of survivors) and that would affect if they would attack or not. So theoretically, if you were quiet enough with taking down all the zombies that you aggroed, no more would attack you. However, the number of zombies you killed would respawn somewhere on that island in idle mode. But if you go in guns blazing, they will likely keep swarming from their set spawn location due to the amount of noise you make, probably from several hundred meters away. It could be possible for you to "clear" the zombies, as there could be a set number of times each zombie could respawn before they are "dead for good." This way the illusion is kept and it's still "realistic" in that you killed every zombie on that island. Trust me, when I suggest this idea, I mean it in the least possible way for it to be arcade-like. I remember trying to extract one of my friends who was new to the game from Berezino and we were just shooting every zombie because we were cornered. We ended up on a scaffolding before we were finally overrun. But it was fun like that. That's the kind of experience I want for this island, except more intense. Stealth is almost paramount in it. The game, as it is right now, does not simulate a true experience for losing your humanity. I don't want the game to decide whether I'm a bad person, or if I'm going insane or if I feel bad for killing someone. In the past, Dean has used a meager score to judge if you were a bad person or not. The use of skins were utilized to give a player the sense of dwindling personality, and also give other players a visual representation of what a persons intent was. Sure, what I'm suggesting is not a perfect fix, but the game is a psychopath simulator. It's either kill or be killed with no realistic repercussions to yourself. Sure, you can mount an attack on the "Sniper in Cherno" who's griefing the new spawns, but there's no common ground for which to meet someone outside the forums. That's immersion breaking for me. The common ground mechanic that I'm proposing is simply providing new ways to cooperate that require multiple people to tackle. You can choose to ignore them if you wish and just resort to banditry, but you will lose out on some great mechanics that are fresh and fun. The issue with that particular mentality (and Dean needs suggestions on how to balance it), is that currently there is nothing stopping people from killing on sight. The whole idea of item degradation from bullet damage is to make people think before shooting and instead taking alternate routes to attain a person's gear. Either get a clean shot on their head, take them hostage, bind them or team up was supposed to be the outcome of the encounter, as Dean had intended. While it has certainly helped, there's still no real repercussions to killing on sight. People have wanted stupid ideas like your character becoming more insane and shake. That takes the player out of the game and makes things artificial. What Dean wants is something that makes people really think on whether or not they should kill a person or not. He wants the risk vs reward of being friendly or a bandit to be more evenly balanced. KoS is, and always should be, a part of the game. There should just be more thought behind the taking of life. What better way than to give highly geared people a productive outlet to channel their boredom and gear? Banditry is still an option, but it's not the only option this way. KoS, as of right now, is seen as the only option rather than one option of several. You have much more to gain by killing (life, gear and safety of your friends) than letting them live. Yes, you may get a temporary ally, but 99.9% of the time when you turn your back, you'll be dead. Having a higher end goal that requires multiple people to complete could possibly give the player more to ponder before pulling the trigger. I know that when I'm with my two friends, we'll pull the trigger almost every time on anyone we see, simply because it took us 45-60 minutes to meet up and we don't want to wait another 45 to link up with someone if they are shot while trying to be nice. However, if we had a common goal late game, we might think twice and recruit this person to come along to that island, if only for a meat shield. Sometimes we're given a lot of options, but those options are rendered useless because the climate doesn't effectively utilize them. Just trying to think of a way to balance the pros and cons of all strategies and mentalities. Again, the kill on sight mentality is not meant to be removed from the game. No, it's not broken. It's imbalanced. This is not an opinion that I'm expressing, but rather one that Dean Hall himself has addressed as being an issue that he would like to see resolved. So read the posts before saying that I'm trying to bring CareBears into DayZ. In real life, you'd feel bad if you killed someone out of cold blood having had no provocation. After awhile you might not feel so bad, killing people for fun or for no reason. How do you simulate going insane without taking control from the player? Answer: Giving them a lofty goal, unattainable without the aid of others, and killing a person that could help you get there. There's nothing wrong with the little things in place now, but higher risk = higher reward. The ideas in this post are future goals for the game after the implementation of everything Dean wants as a baseline. We can ALWAYS craft our own experiences, but randomly spawned aircraft or bases are exactly like helicopter crash sites. The infested military island is just like the proposed zombie horde, that could be wandering through the NWAF. It just happens to be on an island, where there's no where for the zombies to go. These mechanics have always been or have always been wanted in the game by Dean! They're just given some focus, some variety and some relative life to an otherwise cookie cutter, uninteresting world. Sure, there are signs of zombie outbreaks and desolation, but the military presence there seems as if it never made an effort to do anything to halt the advance of the infected or save the citizens. That's all. ------------------------------------------------ CONCLUSION: So, there's my list. I'll come back to it if I come up with more ideas, but as it stands, these are the most interesting (in my opinion) ideas to keep the game fresh and interesting, especially after you've done all you can in the game as it is right now. Feel free to amend, add to or even use my ideas as a template for further endeavors. I'll follow this post. I hope it gets attention from both the community and the dev team.