Electricity in towns

[FinalNinja447 129]

Wouldn't it be cool if you could light up the cities with the power lines that connect them to the generator? I thought it would be cool if you could do that.

This has already been posted on another forum section, but I feel this goes in the suggestions section.

How would it work? Find the generator and fix it (Would require ALOT of scrap metal and stuff, more than vehicles in general. Then once complete, you need a form of energy to keep the current afloat, that's where Jerry Cans come in use. Of course, since it would drain the living **** out of the gas, dozens and dozens and dozens would be required to make the electricity go on for a while. Especially at night, like you can see in the video above, that would be particularly useful. Sure, there will always be a few noobs who will go and grief lights, but that would add to the fun, and who knows, maybe you can fix them with wind shield parts?

I'm just sayin' this guy's idea is potentially really good for the standalone.

Edited October 21, 2012 by FinalNinja447

[FinalNinja447 129]

Damn it video thumbnail ain't showing...

*Fixed*

Edited October 21, 2012 by FinalNinja447

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Check this out also.

[therock1990 0]

Agree with u

[OrLoK 16185]

Hello there

Electricity sub stations are complex things indeed. Surely a slightly more suitable approach would be to enable generators, as many establishments have them (hospitals, some residences etc) and are deliberately fairly simple to operate and refuel.

Rgds

LoK

[FinalNinja447 129]

I just realised that at the main page of dayzmod.com when you see a small slide show of screenshots, you once see a city (Probably Cherno) in the dark, with lights, and over 9000 zombies..... there is light there but not in the mod? Hmmm....

[koze 113]

Wouldn't it be cool if you could light up the cities with the power lines that connect them to the generator? I thought it would be cool if you could do that.

I hounestly don't see the point, not saying theres a bad side to it. Exept the fact it would attract EVERYONE in the server and turn it into a battlefield. But I don't see the need for this in the standalone. What would building a generator and lighting up a city achieve?

[DZR_Mikhail 2424]

Thanks for the inspiration, FinalNinja447.

Imagine this!

You're not having lights from the start. There's not a single bulb or window electrified.

There are tools and materials to repair powerlines, street lamps, power station\generator and wires.

A group of survivors ventures into some place to get these resources. Then get to Chernarus powerstation and repairs the powerplant.

Then they fix the lines and...

Cities are lit up! At least some streetlamps. Imagine some music-box in a bar starts playing some tune. Some advertisments start flashing. Gosh, actually somebody would shit himself when he is crawling in the night in Cherno and suddenly the whole surrounding go lighted.

Then imagine this. You take the tools and materials and go to any house you like, repair it's electricity systems and voila! Your house i now having lights! Electric oven can be used to cook meat and warm yourself. Wall ourlets allow switching on radios and recharge equipment batteries.

Or as an alternative you find a gas-operated power generator and take it to your house. You connect all you need to it and have electricity.

Another idea, you take power generator to woods. Bring up some street lamps or other light sources and create an electrified camp :) Yeah, goo target for bandits...

But all this is useless until DayZ allows players to escape night time by switching servers. This is rediculous. It's an immense waste of gameplay. Night is gorgeous in DayZ and add so much to the survival concept. *sigh*

[NovusRex 0]

Cities and towns should look severly decayed and abandoned, too.

electricity if implemented should be very difficult to set up, like working several hours and days till some town is fully lit...

[DZR_Mikhail 2424]

NovusRex, exactly. It must be very time consuming. And must be very rewarding, so that it worths doing at all.

[Dickhat 99]

I might be really wrong on this but aren't power stations supposed to work on an automatic mode even if no one is around?

So wouldn't it make sense to have lights and electricity in the large capital cities and maybe some smaller ones?

Nobody turned off the big dam electricity power plants so a lot of them should still be running on their automatic mode.

[indominator 95]

i saw this post lots of time already..... and no, no electricity, no civilians, no nothing, and please, whoever post this again, not this anymore

[apfelsator 14]

I might be really wrong on this but aren't power stations supposed to work on an automatic mode even if no one is around?

So wouldn't it make sense to have lights and electricity in the large capital cities and maybe some smaller ones?

Nobody turned off the big dam electricity power plants so a lot of them should still be running on their automatic mode.

Yeah, and nobody is there to maintain the equipment.

Just to say, a normal NPP will stop producing energie after 24 to 40 hours without a human monitoring the work.

I assume a Dam or a solar panel will work a few weeks after something stops working properly.

[FinalNinja447 129]

I hounestly don't see the point, not saying theres a bad side to it. Exept the fact it would attract EVERYONE in the server and turn it into a battlefield. But I don't see the need for this in the standalone. What would building a generator and lighting up a city achieve?

It would be great for people who don't have NVGs (Once duping is fixed, will be as rare as FN FAL again.... now NVGs are just about as easy to find as tin cans if you play with a friend). You could find light bulbs in apartments and stuff and you could fix them to city posts (Producing minimal lighting)... however, if you search industrial places, higher power lights can be found, then fixed to something like a city post (Again), this would make a higher source of light than civilian class ones. Maybe electrical wires could be implemented, but that would require a toolbox (Since you're character appears to have technical knowledge in car mechanics, gunsmith (45. ACP rounds to M1911 bullets, including the casing) Helicopter flight experience, reload hatchets and perfect knowledge of how every guns work).

Useless you say? I've reached the end point of DayZ where you have basically all of the gear and weapons in the game and a camp site full of everything. At that moment, you're stalled until you die or something as such. Maintaining and repairing electricity would help to do something and also be useful for other players. Plus night servers would become more popular.... oh and maybe I'm just insane.. but what if you could bring the power to the hospital and have a functioning defribilators and maybe bring someone out of death? Speculations....

[St. Jimmy 1631]

This is really a thing that needs to be done in some point if not in the standalone on the first place then make it come in patch, DLC or at least in DayZ2. This could make some nice scenarios in power plants.

[wormholes556 34]

massive bump! great idea

[SnR 16]

Those with Night vision will need to work at keeping the power off. Those without, will need to work together to get the power back on. A battle of minds.

[birdman 108]

Unless you throw in wind power plants how can you explain this? Fuel-oil power plants require train shipments of fuel each day to keep running. Coal-fire plants require train shipments of coal each day to keep running. Nuclear requires constant supervision to control temperature. Basically wind power plants would last the longest without people to run them. But, the first time the wind picks up past a certain mph with no humans there to put the brakes on they would spin out of control and disintegrate.

Prime power generators require 30 litres of fuel per hour. Where does that come from? Without infrastructure there is no power.

Only the smallest 10kw to 30kw generators make sense, and they can power individual buildings only.

[Lights Out 141]

Thanks for the inspiration, FinalNinja447.

Imagine this!

You're not having lights from the start. There's not a single bulb or window electrified.

There are tools and materials to repair powerlines, street lamps, power station\generator and wires.

A group of survivors ventures into some place to get these resources. Then get to Chernarus powerstation and repairs the powerplant.

Then they fix the lines and...

Cities are lit up! At least some streetlamps. Imagine some music-box in a bar starts playing some tune. Some advertisments start flashing. Gosh, actually somebody would shit himself when he is crawling in the night in Cherno and suddenly the whole surrounding go lighted.

Then imagine this. You take the tools and materials and go to any house you like, repair it's electricity systems and voila! Your house i now having lights! Electric oven can be used to cook meat and warm yourself. Wall ourlets allow switching on radios and recharge equipment batteries.

Or as an alternative you find a gas-operated power generator and take it to your house. You connect all you need to it and have electricity.

Another idea, you take power generator to woods. Bring up some street lamps or other light sources and create an electrified camp :) Yeah, goo target for bandits...

But all this is useless until DayZ allows players to escape night time by switching servers. This is rediculous. It's an immense waste of gameplay. Night is gorgeous in DayZ and add so much to the survival concept. *sigh*

With base building planned in the future, they should allow us to reinforce preexisting structures for our own use as well. You could have the ability to decide who gets the electricity from your generator.

Unless you throw in wind power plants how can you explain this? Fuel-oil power plants require train shipments of fuel each day to keep running. Coal-fire plants require train shipments of coal each day to keep running. Nuclear requires constant supervision to control temperature. Basically wind power plants would last the longest without people to run them. But, the first time the wind picks up past a certain mph with no humans there to put the brakes on they would spin out of control and disintegrate.

Prime power generators require 30 litres of fuel per hour. Where does that come from? Without infrastructure there is no power.

Only the smallest 10kw to 30kw generators make sense, and they can power individual buildings only.

There has to be solar panels somewhere in Cherno.

Edited October 23, 2012 by Lights Out

[chernaro 1]

Im surprised car batteries arnt in the game. you could use them to fix vehicles and generate electricity (well enough to light a house?)

[Lights Out 141]

Im surprised car batteries arnt in the game. you could use them to fix vehicles and generate electricity (well enough to light a house?)

Might still take a few batteries but they would still be easier to find, at least at first. You'd have to build a basic battery bank to better sustain the electricity. This would put an idea I read on another post to good use about having a lot of deserted cars in cherno (Kind of makes sense that there should be a lot of civilian vehicles in such a big place).

[DZR_Mikhail 2424]

1) Unless you throw in wind power plants how can you explain this? Fuel-oil power plants require train shipments of fuel each day to keep running. Coal-fire plants require train shipments of coal each day to keep running. Nuclear requires constant supervision to control temperature.

2) Prime power generators require 30 litres of fuel per hour. Where does that come from? Without infrastructure there is no power. Only the smallest 10kw to 30kw generators make sense, and they can power individual buildings only.

1) Fair observation. Renders our fantasies about powerplants useless.

2) Here we came to the crucial point of the main philosophical question. Egg or Chicken? Or, according to our DayZ setting, Realism or Gameplay. You will have to always sacrifice realism to make game playable. Otherwise you will meet a dead end where you will have to simulate chemical laboratories where fuel formulas are produced, then formulas used in processing factories which make fuel from oil, which is taken out from drilling site, and some mechanics for oil to be realistically present in that type of underground soil layer... gosh...

So, the gameplay sacrifice known from DayZ:

1) Loot spawns from nowhere. How the hell beans and soda can appear out of nowhere without infrastructure, supplying delivery transports etc.

2) Same for the fuel.

3) AMMO! This is even more infrastructure dependent resource. You can simply craft an AK47 or STANAG bullet and casing! Ok, you can use old casing, and smel another bullet... but.. well. .. it not easy at all.

The only thing which is logically left to survivors without restoring the economy and infrastructure is - NATURAL RESOURCES: Wood, water, metal, simple chemistry from plants and soil.

This would limit survival instruments to literally sticks and stones.

"I know not with what weapons WW3 will be fought, but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein

So, Rocket said he will try to bring the scenario of DayZ as close to modern life as possible. And for the sake of this, we MUST pretend there is something infinite in this game world. We must accpet some compromises.

But I have good news for you!

Authenticity allows this! Autheniticty requires you must think about many things, take into acount many aspects. This builds extended and deep experience. Example: "I need a car. I must find parts. I must combine them. I must refuel my car. I must protect it. I need metal plates. I must hide it. I need a camo net or bushes." OR "I need food. I can kill boar. I need weapon. I craft bow. I need string for bow. I craft string. I have bow. I craft arrows."

The depth of realism in this case is not the point! It is not vital that you have fantastic animations of you character sitting and cutting arrows out of a willow branch, with all the shreds springing from under the blade, and the arrow changing texture when skinned, and then complex animations of you placing an arrowhead on it...

NO.

In DayZ it would be:

1. Gather wood and scrap metal.
   
2. Acquire knife.
   
3. Click menu.
   
4. Character sits down for some 1-3 minutes.
   
5. Wood and metal removed.
   
6. Arrow added.
   

You can expand it a bit, or simplify more. The main thing is the balance, so that it is both interesting and makes great DayZ experience.

SOOO...

Let's pretend authentically, that we have enough fuel to run a generator. Enough RESERVES at the powerplant to supply power if generators are reapired and somebody is pressing "GENERATE POWER" button at the powerplant controll room... and is not killed by bandits :)

Skip reality a bit, and the game can shine like a star with most interesting ideas... Authentic, a bit simplified, but working and bringing happiness to this forsaken wasteland of Chernarus.

P.s. Sorry for the poetry :)

Edited October 23, 2012 by -=PA=-Mikhail

[FinalNinja447 129]

Unless you throw in wind power plants how can you explain this? Fuel-oil power plants require train shipments of fuel each day to keep running. Coal-fire plants require train shipments of coal each day to keep running. Nuclear requires constant supervision to control temperature. Basically wind power plants would last the longest without people to run them. But, the first time the wind picks up past a certain mph with no humans there to put the brakes on they would spin out of control and disintegrate.

Prime power generators require 30 litres of fuel per hour. Where does that come from? Without infrastructure there is no power.

Only the smallest 10kw to 30kw generators make sense, and they can power individual buildings only.

DayZ logic, don't ask me.

[Kaczor 15]

I think introducting electricity to DayZ would be a great idea. I really like idea of not repairing but destroying repaired generator and than hunting for others who are in town atm ( I'm bad bandit) ; ).

I think that some people are a little bit too crazy about beeing realistic. The game can't be 100 % realistic because it WONT be fun at all! Just think for a while about "realism" in DayZ. It isn't realistic that EVERYONE can pilot a helicopter, is it? It isn't realistic that you run for 15km with 50kg on your back without a rest. Most of people wouldn't be able to repair car with instruction, and in dayz it is possible even without! So you see that if game would be 100% realistic it wont be fun! The most important thing is about finding compromise between playable and realism.

Making game 100% realistic looks good only on paper. For 99% of players it would become really, REALLY boring after couple hours/dayz of playing. If you want such realism go outside ; ).

Edited October 23, 2012 by Kaczor

[birdman 108]

I think introducting electricity to DayZ would be a great idea. I really like idea of not repairing but destroying repaired generator and than hunting for others who are in town atm ( I'm bad bandit) ; ).

I think that some people are a little bit too crazy about beeing realistic. The game can't be 100 % realistic because it WONT be fun at all! Just think for a while about "realism" in DayZ. It isn't realistic that EVERYONE can pilot a helicopter, is it? It isn't realistic that you run for 15km with 50kg on your back without a rest. Most of people wouldn't be able to repair car with instruction, and in dayz it is possible even without! So you see that if game would be 100% realistic it wont be fun! The most important thing is about finding compromise between playable and realism.

Making game 100% realistic looks good only on paper. For 99% of players it would become really, REALLY boring after couple hours/dayz of playing. If you want such realism go outside ; ).

Don't even try to rationalize the aircraft situation. The idea of apocalyptic survivors flying hueys around when you can barely scrounge fuel is rediculous. I get the running without rest, I get the fixing automobiles, but I do not get getting chaingunned from the sky by former arma players just because they are familiar with the controls.

I understand the game cannot be 100% real, but without infrastructure (drilling for oil, pumping oil, refining oil to make fuel, shipping fuel, etc) how do you justify entire cities with power? Small generators you get from the hardware store that run on little fuel, ok.