Map Ideas

[JoEddy77 0]

So I've been getting pretty annoyed with the fact that when ever I try a new map with Dayz I have absolutely no idea where I am, or what direction I am going. I understand that we are in a zombie apocalypse but personally if I know enough to take a backpack, a bandage, and a flashlight as well as whatever else the Dev's deem worthy of us having when we start a character, I think my player would be smart enough to grab at least a basic map. Or that he would have a general idea where major cities are.

My idea is this, Why doesn't every character start out with a basic map showing major cities, or maybe just a hand drawn map that shows general direction of where those cities should be and maybe a major highway. Then any maps that we find in-game during our scavenging sessions would be either a more detailed map showing smaller towns as well, or possibly just coordinates that show where a new stash of goods, or maybe all the gas stations in the area are.

The other idea I had was to have more options for telling direction in game. Obviously once you know where the cities are and which are which you can tell direction from that, but we have a day/night cycle, so why not allow the sun to actually run from east to west based on the time of day, or to actually have some sort of moss grow on the north side of certain trees. Something that with a little bit of knowledge a typical person in real life would be able to use to judge direction, without the absolute need for a compass. Obviously a compass would be much easier to use and much more reliable than any other method.

These are just idea's that I had to make the game more realistic, because if you don't know where the nearest large town is in comparison to your home, or how to tell direction based off of the sun, you're either a child, or pretty dumb, either way I don't think you would be wandering alone through the wilderness during a zombie apocalypse.

Edited October 28, 2012 by JoEddy77

[fuenke 10]

I like the possibility of getting lost. If you make it possible to tell the cardinal direction for example by looking at the sun and you take a map from the internet (you can't stop someone doing this as long as it gives an advantage) you can't get lost. So noone gets lost ever.

If you give all players a map at the start, as you suggest, and it has full information, then you give the players nothing they couldn't have had before. But you extinguish the advantage that a player who uses internet maps has over a player who thinks its freaking gay to cheat like this in a game he plays for his own amusement. So I think they should do it. But to still keep the option of getting lost a compass should be the only way to tell cardinal direction.

[geogeorgegeo@hotmail.co.uk 50]

I disagree. A lot.

What I loved about experiencing a new map was the fact that I had never seen the above map, and very few screenshots. Running, trying to find your way in a completely new place is what I enjoyed on my first playthrough of Panthera. The different trees and buildings and landscape was wonderful. Why you would want to spoil that is beyond me. Why don't you just watch youtube videos of people playing? The whole point is that you are new to the place, and must work from nothing to the top. You must learn the map from scratch - if you are not a child and are not pretty dumb. The fact that you get annoyed at it being hard for you is confusing; why are you playing dayz, it is not meant to be easy - and you certainly shouldn't be get annoyed by a basic aspect of it.

There ARE ways to work out your direction from the environment.

I do not know why this is making me annoyed. Please explain why it would make it more realistic again, your last paragraph seems to make no sense to me.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Noface

[sheepdawg 278]

Start with a compass...not a map.

As stated above I like being lost. Cherno is ruined for me because I (and mostly everyone else) know exactly what to do and where to go. It's extremely lame. Playing on Namalsk I plan on only using the in-game map(when I find one) and not some super awesome high detailed map with loot spawns on it.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Sheepdawg

[OrLoK 16188]

Hello there

If I were *dumped* in an are of the UK that I didnt know, I would be terribly lost too until I found major road signs. even then that info would only give me an indication of where I was/wher I could go to. I'd still be utterly unfamiliar with the locale.

Remember the moss growing *only* on one side is a bit of a often repeated myth.

I'd like to see more orientation skills implemented, like discerning direction using the sun and an analogue watch, Compass use and different quality maps for example.

Vanilla Arma/dayz is navagable by stars but being able to find ingame guides on how to do it might be fun (if not very realistic).

rgds

LoK

[terrvik 2409]

I'd like to see more orientation skills implemented, like discerning direction using the sun and an analogue watch, Compass use and different quality maps for example.

But... this is already in the game? :) I always navigate with the sun.

I would not want every player to start with a map since being lost is one of the fun aspects of the game. So what if you walk in the wrong direction for thirty minutes, that's an experience as well! I never look at online cheat maps and such since it ruins the experience and turns DayZ into more of a "game" anyway!

[JoEddy77 0]

Well I have already learned something new about the game then because I didn't realize that the sun and stars were accurate for direction.

As for everyone saying that being lost is one of the most enjoyable parts of this game I disagree, and I would wager that a lot of other new players would as well. For an experienced player it is fun because it adds to the difficulty of the game, you don't know exactly where you are so you can't just run to the first major city right away and load up on gear. As a new player though the first 2-3 times I died, it was from dehydration because I started running in the wrong direction and never found anything..... no buildings, no zombies, nothing. Obviously I was a complete idiot for that happening but it just shows that it can happen. My next few deaths came because while I found smaller buildings, I never found items to protect myself so I died again, very slowly, to a few zombies who nibbled away at me while I lay there Unconcious. And when I tried to run on my next life, I was swamped by even more zombies and again died.

I get that this is a zombie survival game, but with the learning curve that is found in this game because it's not like every other shooter out there, it drives away new players. If it weren't for the fact that I had friends playing this game and explaining what I was doing wrong I probably wouldn't still be playing.

While many people would see this as a good thing, the people that can't figure it out not playing for long I again disagree. You want this game to thrive and have as many people as possible, because that is what keeps the developers working toward making the game better. With the Standalone game coming soon, you're going to have more people than ever just picking up this game and trying to play it. You'll have some people that will go on Youtube or spend their free time learning how to play the game without actually playing it, but there are far more people that don't do that.

The thing about that lost feeling you experienced players enjoy is that you can get that with or without there being an ingame map, you just don't hit "M". That doesn't mean that you can't make the game better for new players by adding the simple feature. Not to mention all of the extra content you could add to the game by having different details on different maps and needing to pick and choose, do I want a detailed roadmap or a map that is going to tell me where the nearest farm was, or the nearest inland watersource. I just see a much more interesting map system that could be implemented. And heck you could use that even without giving every player a basic map to begin with, but I just think that it would make Dayz a little more popular