Suggestion: Adding a bit of minor story

[kevindbrum@yahoo.com 0]

Alright so I'd just like to start off by saying DayZ is a really awesome mod I came across a few days ago. Now I've played DayZ and there is one thing that I think is kinda missing, a story. Now before you start thinking I want to turn this into some RP mod don't worry that is not my suggestion at all. I mean a bit of background story. What happened to Chernarus? How did this start? Where is the military? what's going on in the rest of the world? Is there a cure? things like that.

Now I realize as a DayZ player that you can't really sit down and read something ingame for a long time. I was thinking maybe there could be small newspaper clips maybe 5-6 sentances long, basically a paragraph on some random piece of the background story. I have some great ideas for a background story and I'm sure the developers do as well. So an example would be like

"

The Chernarus Tribune

Dr. Stenen searches for cure

Dr. Stenen, a specialist in infectious disease, is heading the worlds scientists racing to find a cure for what has been called the second Black Plague. It started in Moscow only a few short weeks ago and quickly spread to places as far east and Chernarus. Dr. Stenen says that the disease posses a large threat to human kind. The disease is reportedly very infectous and resiliant to the point where doctors all over the world are struggling to find a cure, as of yet to no avail. The disease carries such symtoms as tiredness, nausia, vommitting, fever, and a sever unquencable hunger or thirst. Severe paleness of the skin and yellow or red eyes have also been reported."

I think that it would be nice to find this amongst seemingly worthless empty tin can piles and whatnot.

[kevindbrum@yahoo.com 0]

So what do people think of this idea?

[worldwar2freak 0]

Personally, I prefer writing my own story, but it is an interesting idea.

[hoik 415]

User driven story telling is my view - this can be a desire to fix a powerplant, a map on a dead player with locations where he/she has hidden some loot, user made journals etc.

Want to fix the power plant so the town can be lit at night = a story

Find a Treasure Map = a story

Find a journal detailing another players journey = a story

I understand that you want to know why this apocolypse has come about, but I dont think that that is actually where the real intrest lies :).

[logan23 118]

User driven story telling is my view - this can be a desire to fix a powerplant' date=' a map on a dead player with locations where he/she has hidden some loot, user made journals etc.

Want to fix the power plant so the town can be lit at night = a story

Find a Treasure Map = a story

Find a journal detailing another players journey = a story

I understand that you want to know why this apocolypse has come about, but I dont think that that is actually where the real intrest lies :).

[/quote']

I agree that the main story is the player story.

Power station, treasure map, etc

What the original poster Idea could be used as a ground tool like the rules of the virus can be set by Rocket- the author .

But only small details or hint are dropped around the map.

These clues are open ended where they are not meant to answer all the questions you might have about the out break or what happen but they cause player imaginations to wonder so the can fill in the blanks. But the player's conclusion could be wrong or right- it doesn't matter all that matters is the players emotion, curiosity and imagination are stimulated.

Hints can be shown by torn documents that only have small details

Hints could be a radio giving out an old emergency message which makes the player imagine how this fall out happen

Hints can be shown visually as we already see near the south coast military medical tents - there are bodies and medical tents showing they tried to study, treate and contain it even with force.

There are many ways to drop hints to a player where they work for it as they-explore.

But the main goal should always make the player think and imagine from their own views how this might have all happened.

[hoik 415]

These clues are open ended where they are not meant to answer all the questions you might have about the out break or what happen but they cause player imaginations to wonder so the can fill in the blanks. But the player's conclusion could be wrong or right- it doesn't matter all that matters is the players emotion' date=' curiosity and imagination are stimulated.

[/quote']

Yeah I agree with this - especially the last part. Subtly is the key (IMO)

[vran113 0]

leave stories to hollywood

[Savage_MF 0]

I ain't got time to be reading no newspaper! I'm in a world that has gone to shit and my only concern is survival. Things aren't going to be the same again. We're a thousand mile from nowhere man and it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better.

No story needed...hints/snippets of information that are open ended to work the imagination yeah but let us decide how this plays out...if it ever does.

We could remain in this virus-ridden apocalyptic nightmare forever...the only cure is a bullet...there's a suggestion, an animation of sticking your makarov in your mouth and pulling the trigger when it's your last round and the zombies have you cornered :)

[hoik 415]

leave stories to hollywood

Really...Hollywood...this is your measure of good story telling...

hahaha

Why don't you take Savage_MF's advice and put a makarov in your mouth haha (kidding, settle down :) )

[vran113 0]

Really...Hollywood...this is your measure of good story telling...

this is a game, not a book or a movie. it should create stories, not follow the script

[tentacle 0]

Maybe we can calm the varulfurs by separating two concepts: atmosphere and story.

Bits of newspapers, news, and isolated background stories, these add atmosphere, but still leave the "story" to your imagination.

An actual linear sequence of game events, that's a story.

The most important thing is, atmosphere can be randomized. Stories can't (well, they can, but they suck).

Example:

Now: deer stand - two zombies - a little bit of random loot. Uninteresting, doesn't spark the imagination.

Story: deer stand - contains a newspaper that explains what happened at the nearby town and some doctor there doing something, you go there, you can find the doctor's body, the story unravels, etc. Can be cool, but this isn't what Day Z is about, most importantly cause it's boring after you've done it once, and doesn't allow room for emergent gameplay.

Atmosphere: deer stand - a few zombies, a number of dead zombies, a dead guy with an empty gun, a box of an unknown medicine, a photo of a little girl, a dead woman 500 meters away. What happened? Who was the guy? Was he taking medicine to the girl? Is she alive somewhere? Or was she killed, or did she escape? Is the woman related to this? We don't know, we aren't told, we have no idea - our imagination fills in all the horrible details, we fear the worst, hope for the best. But most importantly, this can all be just randomized, it leaves everything to your imagination, it never repeats (= breaks the immersion). Imagine two days later you find a dead girl across the island (just randomly generated body, not scripted). You remember the photo. Was it her? ....

I'm all for this kind of atmospheric details that make the world feel like it has a background, a story, and that "thing have happened here". Without resorting to any scripting, without spelling anything out.

Chern is currently pretty "dead" (get it? see what I did there?), but it doesn't have to be.

[vran113 0]

Example:

Now: deer stand - two zombies - a little bit of random loot. Uninteresting' date=' doesn't spark the imagination.

Story: deer stand - contains a newspaper that explains what happened at the nearby town and some doctor there doing something, you go there, you can find the doctor's body, the story unravels, etc. Can be cool, but this isn't what Day Z is about, most importantly cause it's boring after you've done it once, and doesn't allow room for emergent gameplay.

Atmosphere: deer stand - a few zombies, a number of dead zombies, a dead guy with an empty gun, a box of an unknown medicine, a photo of a little girl, a dead woman 500 meters away. What happened? Who was the guy? Was he taking medicine to the girl? Is she alive somewhere? Or was she killed, or did she escape? Is the woman related to this? We don't know, we aren't told, we have no idea - our imagination fills in all the horrible details, we fear the worst, hope for the best. But most importantly, this can all be just randomized, it leaves everything to your imagination, it never repeats (= breaks the immersion). Imagine two days later you find a dead girl across the island (just randomly generated body, not scripted). You remember the photo. Was it her? ....

[/quote']

even if you create a huge number of "scenarios" and variables - it would still be repeated all the time. this doesn't add to atmosphere, this subtracts. because the real world turns into decorations.

[hoik 415]

Tentacle & Varulfur - both of your post are really good!

On the one hand i think random atmospheric encounters would bring the world alive, but coming across them again and again would definatly kill it...Ahh.

But overall I think I would have to agree with varulfur - I think players could create intresting dynamic encounter/scenarios themselves simply by playing the game, just give them the tools.

[dale0404 16]

There is a back story, rocket has already mentioned this in another thread. It will get released when rocket says so and the time is right.

[TTThatguy90 0]

why not have radios?

[tentacle 0]

On the one hand i think random atmospheric encounters would bring the world alive' date=' but coming across them again and again would definatly kill it...Ahh.[/quote']

This is exactly what I did not mean.

Now, deer stands are empty except for 2-3 random zombies and a small pile of random loot. That is all. Not much for your imagination to work with.

What I'm saying is add more things to this random generation. Random dead bodies of different kinds, random items, random things that are uselss decoration. The kinds of things you might really run into in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Not scripted "encounters", with scripted layout, not at all. That's precisely what I was saying not to do (that would be what I called "story").

Most of the time, it just means there's some useless items at that deer stand of my example. But sometimes, just because of randomness, it will be a combination of items, positions, or whatever, that it evokes your imagination. A cluster of 4 dead people and 1 zombie near a bus, just by coincidence. Or five dead people and a weapon on the ground. A backpack in the middle of nowhere and contents strewn about next to a pool of blood. Totally randomly-generated combinations of things that will never repeat. We are imaginative, pattern-seeking, narrative-centric creatures. We see stuff in front of us and we try to make sense of them. Use this tendency to your advantage by just throwing stuff out there to feed it.

Right now I can run across the map and not run into anything unexpected. Just zombies and loot (and other players of course, which is the fun part). But toss in a little more variety into the things we can find, and you awaken a whole other part of the imagination. Without anything scripted.

[robosheriff 13]

Not main story as i think thats everything you do in the game is your mission/story. But a side story explaining how things went to shit and who were the responsibles for that would be fine.

Apparently they are already working on that as someone that was messing up with the mod files discovered objectives or something like that.

[tentacle 0]

even if you create a huge number of "scenarios" and variables - it would still be repeated all the time. this doesn't add to atmosphere' date=' this subtracts. because the real world turns into decorations.

[/quote']

I don't follow. The loot repeats. The three different kinds of zombies repeat. Empty tin cans, busted cars, etc repeat. That's already there, and gets boring fast. I'm suggesting making this less repetitive and more random with more variety. Not by "scenarios" at all. Just good algorithms to generate the contents of the game world with a little more unpredictability and cleverness to let out imaginations take over.