Suggestions for Authenticity to DayZ

[DayZoey 110]

So this used to be a compilation of problems that I've talked about with my friend or things I'm seeing here, I renamed it and cut a few things out. If something I or my friend thinks has already come up it wasn't intentional I promise.

What I would like to see

-Female Clothing: This one I'm actually aware is a pretty big gripe already and I've seen threads of it in the past but it is by far my biggest gripe with the game so I'd like to put it under here. My biggest concern is not only am I stuck wearing the same tracksuit and pants which really make me undefinable from the next person playing a woman character (which can get pretty confusing in a firefight if I'm not the only gal running around even in voicechat) but also, again already a gripe, the inability to wear ghillie suits. It may be a bit of an old horse already beaten to death but it seems silly to me especially since with the ghillie suit you can't see any gender defining features, so why not just use the stock ghillie skin when equipping it? It seems to me that it would be the go-to solution that would take maybe minutes to program (admittedly I know nothing about game design so I could be wrong about that). Another thing I've seen and agree with is people should be allowed to make their own with materials at hand and to those who think having a ghillie suit makes you less visible to zombies: stop being silly, zombies vision is based on radical movement as well as plain eyesight, so running around in a ghillie suit in the country side upright or crawling next to a zombie's feet with one on won't change anything. It's not an instant "never see me again" item. Despite this not really being a realism change and word on the grapevine is that this won't be a problem with SA, it's still a really huge gripe for me and I feel it deserves its own spotlight in spite of the title/topic change.

-Pain Change: I appreciate and actually adore the game's simulation of someone's inability to perform when injured or under duress (recently being shot or beaten by a zombie) but the way it is done is... fairly poor in my opinion. If I had a really bad cramp in my shoulder from a few love taps a zombie had given me or my leg having recently been broken from a bullet, looking down the sights of a gun or binoculars or what have you I wouldn't be jerking around like I was having a seizure. I imagine I would have a hard time maintaining steady aim and my object/weapon of choice would sway more dramatically. This is something I feel needs addressing

-Shifts in moonlight: My friend and I were playing a few nights ago and it was night time, both of us were having a relatively difficult time navigating and keeping track of one another in heavily bushed or tree thick areas but we were able to make supply runs to towns when it was safest. Both zombies and human players would have an extraordinarily, if not equal difficult time tracking us as we were having with each other. Then suddenly in the middle of town BAM. Pitch black. It was like someone had typed /delete moon in to the command prompt for the server and was very abrupt. We barely made it out in one piece to start a fire and log out. So changing of moonlight/clouds over the moon is something that should be addressed as well to make night time scavenging more of a challenge and less of a lottery on whether or not you're going to be able to see the next second. It'd be nice to be able to make night runs of towns without absolutely having to have night vision goggles as realistically, how many of those are gonna be lying around?

-Wind: This may seem like a simple change but actually it's not, it probably is a game changer for everything but most of all: sniping. It's great that this game doesn't subscribe to the COD insta-travel bullets but what it should also factor in and something snipers should have to account for is shifts in the wind direction and velocity. I say this as someone who's been a victim of a sniper unrealistic distances away (survivor though, thank goodness) but adding in that next factor would be upping the ante on the realism of the game and I feel that would be for the best.

-Pooping: This is actually a backwards bit, I would like to see this -not- added to the stand alone game. From what I can tell it seems like it's going to happen but I feel it should be known I'm not a supporter of it. While it certainly does add realistic flare to the game it just comes off as... childish and redundant to me. Does fecal matter spread disease? Well yes it does, that's why we started burying it or depositing it in places like out houses. That's what happens when it stays there; spread disease. Realistically though, if someone left a nice biscuit in the street for someone else to step in, what sane person would just leave it on their shoe, or even touch it with a bare hand even? That's the only way it would spread disease to you is if you ingested it somehow after touching it and drinking some water or eating food. So if the poop feature must be added (and I say that very begrudgingly) then there should be a command to scrape it off with a stick or rub your foot on the ground leaving a nice little racing stripe on the concrete/grass you're standing on until it's gone.

(Update)Unique Weapon Sounds: This is something that I've noticed with the game, there tends to be pretty generalized noises. Most of the handguns make the same noise, most of the ARs make the same noise, most of the snipers make the same noise, etc etc etc. It might sound sliiiiiightly different to the trained ear but to me when I hear a Lee Enfield firing off a shot, it sounds the same as an M24 or a DMR. Which makes no sense at all because all three weapons fire completely different caliber of ammunition. So I think it would be good if they gave each weapon their own unique sound and honestly I'm not sure it'd require more effort than finding different wav. (or whatever format sound effects come in) for each weapon.

(2nd Update)Rain makes grass slippery: So this one is pretty self explanatory but I think it would add to the dangers of hauling ass in the countryside/forest when a torrential downpour is happening outdoors. It might add to the tumble dryer lurchy movement of the game but have you ever ran full boar and then tried to stop during/after it had recently rained? If you were full on running chances are you would slide and fall on your butt. Given your environment, this could be a hazard for breaking things too, slipping and sliding in to a tree or falling on a root could easily break your pelvis if you hit it wrong. While I don't agree with cardboard bones and breaking them should be harder to do than it is right now, enough inertia combined with a solid object could easily break something. I feel this would discourage players from running in the open countryside with a few heat packs to stave off the cold of the rain and would encourage shelter or camp to be set up. It would be even more hazardous because if you aggro a zombie and are being chased through the woods with rain and trip and break something, you're pretty much as good as dead.

(2nd Update)Moaning, groaning and howling: Something I think would add to realism as well is if you're injured, your character would howl or yelp in pain. Or grunt, depending on the severity. Another thing that could factor in to whether or not your person feels pain is adrenaline levels. Getting shot at but being missed or running from zombies would ramp up the adrenaline, temporarily allowing you to ignore pain (this is what adrenaline is for, to allow us as organisms to flee danger without feeling the repercussions of it later) so getting shot in the middle of an adrenaline rush would still cause bleeding but maybe not have them scream in agony. Of course, this could also be a flip side in that when the adrenaline wears off your character could be in a crippling amount of pain due to bullet wounds, zombie love taps and fractured limbs. I'm not sure what sort of affect this would have bit it would be nice to see this sort of realism taken in to account.

(2nd Update)Addiction: While there aren't a whole ton of addictive substances in DayZ Mod as it is, there is Morphine which is used to cure broken limbs. What isn't taken in to account is the fact that Morphine is ridiculously addictive because of the happy-good-feelings it gives you if administered by an untrained individual. Hospitals regulate and taper off morphine as treatment nears its end, allowing you to basically leave the hospital without feeling any withdrawal because you were weened off of it as the pain levels became less and less taxing to your recovery. Having a giant injection of morphine, then another giant injection of morphine again? Bound to get addicted to it. What negative affects there could be I'm not sure, maybe inability to focus, loss of body temperature (cold sweat from withdrawal) or some other stuff like that. Oh also, painkillers are addictive as well if too heavily depended on.

(3rd Update)Flashlight Use: I actually don't mind too much the level of darkness that the game gives us, nights in the open country can get that dark without some sort of assistance. However what I can't stand and find incredibly silly about the game (as well as unauthentic, since Rocket prefers that to "realistic") is the fact that like the Doom 3 marine, our characters seem too stupid to figure out that you can hold a flashlight in one hand and a handgun in the other. Or better yet, duct tape your flashlight to your shotgun. L4D2 has that if you look, the flashlights that don't have an under rail mount are ziptied to the gun (SCAR, AK47, etc etc) and I don't see why we should be forced to choose between the ability to see at night or being able to defend ourselves, the latter made completely useless without the former. Also, make the arm holding the flashlight static when we are running so it is always pointed the direction we are looking (strafing/free looking) so we're not fumbling around in the darkness waving a light around like a runway traffic director.

(4th Update)Military Grade Weapons: Okay this one is a bit backwards as well. Rocket says that he wants to make military weapons less accessible and more rare which in turn makes household weapons and such more accessible. This is something I think shouldn't be done. Sure make household weapons available and civilian grade weapons more frequent but limiting the military hardware is just plain silly in my opinion. If you look at the economy of every country, one of the biggest expenditures will always be their military, maybe not on top but certainly up there. A good portion of the money goes to training soldiers, paying soldiers for their livelihood and so on but a massive chunk of that money goes to paying for the hardware that G.I. Joe brings to combat. Guns are mass produced by the millions, at the end of the Cold War the former USSR nations had craptons of guns. tanks and choppers just... sitting around because the nation was gearing up for a war that never happened. Every country has a massive stockpile of guns/munitions/arms that would have been distributed in time of crisis and plenty of bullets to spare. Heck in the United States there are more gun shops than McDonald's and you can certainly buy military grade firearms from there with ammo to spare. Granted, gunshops and abandoned military camps would be the first things to get raided in a zombie apocalypse but I don't think that should make them more rare, I think that should pretty much make them more common. It's unlikely when the Turner family was running for their lives that little Billy had the presence of mind to grab his dad's M16 from the locked gun cabinet. Just my thoughts on the matter of guns and such.

Things my friend wants to see

-Broken Bones: From what can be seen there's going to be alternate means of fixing broken bones and that's great, we all look forward to that I'm sure. What my friend (and I actually) would like to see is breaking bones more difficult to accomplish. Professional fighters on average generate 190-300 psi and they don't break bones very often, as far as we're aware these zombies are not all martial artists or UFC fighters. Of course, hitting something on a decent angle or falling from more than six feet (also kind of silly, falling less than a foot and breaking your legs) could break bones, if not fracture them. So what he and I would like to see is our characters being a touch more resilient to what's going on around them, human beings after all are known for their vermin-like ability to survive against all odds.

Edited November 25, 2012 by DayZoey

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

The problem with "compilations is that it's hard to discuss so many ideas in one thread. I always prefer it when one idea can be picked apart. Most of your ideas are being dealt with already as the issues you've raised are a side effect of this being a mod. Nice effort though, better than anything I've ever come up with.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Fraggle

[DayZoey 110]

Well the intention isn't really to create a discussion, the intention is to kinda give one of many spots that the dev/forum teams can refer to when at coffee break they're going "Hmmm... what else can we do to fix the game?"

I'll edit and bump it as I add more suggestions, people can create separate threads for individual ideas they wish to discuss if they like. This is just multiple suggestions I have/have seen and my take on them personally.

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

In that case nice one and good luck.

[DayZoey 110]

Bump for an update

[DayZoey 110]

Update for another set of suggestions for realism to the game

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

(2nd Update)Rain makes grass slippery: So this one is pretty self explanatory but I think it would add to the dangers of hauling ass in the countryside/forest when a torrential downpour is happening outdoors. It might add to the tumble dryer lurchy movement of the game but have you ever ran full boar and then tried to stop during/after it had recently rained? If you were full on running chances are you would slide and fall on your butt. Given your environment, this could be a hazard for breaking things too, slipping and sliding in to a tree or falling on a root could easily break your pelvis if you hit it wrong. While I don't agree with cardboard bones and breaking them should be harder to do than it is right now, enough inertia combined with a solid object could easily break something. I feel this would discourage players from running in the open countryside with a few heat packs to stave off the cold of the rain and would encourage shelter or camp to be set up. It would be even more hazardous because if you aggro a zombie and are being chased through the woods with rain and trip and break something, you're pretty much as good as dead.

I like it, I would also like to see fractures specific to the area you were hit/shot. Just cause you were shot shouldn't mean your leg gets broken.

I highlighted one area of your post to go over something. This goes with equipment degradation and the need to find better equipment/repair/etc. Travelling over rough terrain should really wear out your otherwise normal shoes, and as the degrade your footing in things like adverse weather is affected. Though if say you found a pair of combat boots in good shape, they are designed to wear at slower rates and offer you much better traction.

[Angryofficer 89]

On the unique weapon sounds

Most weapons don't sound the same really. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between an enfield and dmr. The only things that sound the same that I can think of right now are the m16-m4, dmr-m24, and I think the m240-mk48, and they're quite similar. Also I'm not sure exactly what the lee enfield fires in millimeters but I'm pretty sure .303 is close to 7.62.

[DayZoey 110]

I like it, I would also like to see fractures specific to the area you were hit/shot. Just cause you were shot shouldn't mean your leg gets broken.

I highlighted one area of your post to go over something. This goes with equipment degradation and the need to find better equipment/repair/etc. Travelling over rough terrain should really wear out your otherwise normal shoes, and as the degrade your footing in things like adverse weather is affected. Though if say you found a pair of combat boots in good shape, they are designed to wear at slower rates and offer you much better traction.

Amazing addition, you sir have my beans.

On the unique weapon sounds

Most weapons don't sound the same really. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between an enfield and dmr. The only things that sound the same that I can think of right now are the m16-m4, dmr-m24, and I think the m240-mk48, and they're quite similar. Also I'm not sure exactly what the lee enfield fires in millimeters but I'm pretty sure .303 is close to 7.62.

I have to disagree with you, I've had a DMR and a Lee Enfield, both firing and been fired at with them. They sound almost exactly the same to me and I'm pretty good at picking out variations in pitch and volume with guns, it's really the only way you can tell what is being shot at you.

[Angryofficer 89]

Amazing addition, you sir have my beans.

I have to disagree with you, I've had a DMR and a Lee Enfield, both firing and been fired at with them. They sound almost exactly the same to me and I'm pretty good at picking out variations in pitch and volume with guns, it's really the only way you can tell what is being shot at you.

:15

1:55

And they sound pretty much like that when you're not the one shooting.

[DayZoey 110]

Like I said, almost exactly the same but not quite. I don't expect the sound variations to be as distinct as say... Call of Duty (that really seems to be the measuring point for any shooter in terms of guns for me... Maybe Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a better example) but a touch more variation would be nice :)

[Angryofficer 89]

They sound far different to me. The enfield is much deeper in pitch, and the dmr seems to echo more.

[DayZoey 110]

Then perhaps it's best we agree to disagree because I hear very little variation in those noises, not enough that you could discern them under duress as a mildly experienced but still fairly new player like myself.

[Derpy_Hooves (DayZ) 4521]

Ok so the last thread died pretty quickly before i could get my reply in so here it is.... again...

In response to Spawns.

I can't agree with set spawn points to be honest, the feel of being lost when you first spawn adds the the feel of the mod, it's like being helpless in a situation above your control.

It also adds more of a task, almost forcing the player to learn of his/her surroundings, to find out where they need to head and what then their objectives of survival would be.

As for the friends element well a proper team will always work together to recover their fallen member again adding more fear about it, nothing worse than knowing you need to pass Elektro and Cherno to reach your buddy who spawned in Kamorovo. Nothing beats that feeling of being always on your toes and knowing that person needs you to reach them.

Once in those scenarios the mod aswell as your imagination take over engulfing you in what the mod is meant to be, a realistic on edge survival simulator.

[DayZoey 110]

... Actually I removed the spawns gripe because I felt it didn't really pertain to the "realism" aspect of the game.

Derpyhooves is derpy? :P

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

Ok so the last thread died pretty quickly before i could get my reply in so here it is.... again...

In response to Spawns.

I can't agree with set spawn points to be honest, the feel of being lost when you first spawn adds the the feel of the mod, it's like being helpless in a situation above your control.

It also adds more of a task, almost forcing the player to learn of his/her surroundings, to find out where they need to head and what then their objectives of survival would be.

If you've played the game enough you probably have a good idea where you are to begin with, you won't ever be able to replicate that lost feeling once you're more familiar with things. So is it really a big deal?

[Derpy_Hooves (DayZ) 4521]

... Actually I removed the spawns gripe because I felt it didn't really pertain to the "realism" aspect of the game.

Derpyhooves is derpy? :P

Oh right haha, yes i do have my Derpy moments from time to time.

If you've played the game enough you probably have a good idea where you are to begin with, you won't ever be able to replicate that lost feeling once you're more familiar with things. So is it really a big deal?

Well i do play the newer maps so at times i do get that sensation of when i first played, and it's a good thing. It basically keeps me in touch with the down to earth surviving, Chernaus on the other hand yeah i know exactly where im going without a map or compass but just by knowing the map too well.

This makes it a bit of a bore, spawning in, looking left then right and off i go knowing exactly where to go.

Lingor however i hardly know and when i spawn it's that familiar old feeling of being lost and a little helpless, scavenging through every doorway until you finally get your bearings and find the good areas.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

Oh right haha, yes i do have my Derpy moments from time to time.

Well i do play the newer maps so at times i do get that sensation of when i first played, and it's a good thing. It basically keeps me in touch with the down to earth surviving, Chernaus on the other hand yeah i know exactly where im going without a map or compass but just by knowing the map too well.

This makes it a bit of a bore, spawning in, looking left then right and off i go knowing exactly where to go.

Lingor however i hardly know and when i spawn it's that familiar old feeling of being lost and a little helpless, scavenging through every doorway until you finally get your bearings and find the good areas.

Well all I was trying to point out is that in time you will get to know any map, so where you spawn is pretty irrelevant. What I dislike about maps like Namalsk, is it will sometimes spawn you right next to a barracks. Wow, now I have a gps, an m4, etc. I'm ready to rock! Might as well have spawned me in with that equipment.

[Derpy_Hooves (DayZ) 4521]

Well all I was trying to point out is that in time you will get to know any map, so where you spawn is pretty irrelevant. What I dislike about maps like Namalsk, is it will sometimes spawn you right next to a barracks. Wow, now I have a gps, an m4, etc. I'm ready to rock! Might as well have spawned me in with that equipment.

that is true i have to admit, and maps like namalsk are a pain like that and i would prefer more map layouts like Chernaus. I suppose i do have to give in on the spawn option though, you got me at that but what if they implemented a system where after playing a certain amount of hours on a map you unlock places to spawn, more hours you play the more towns and cities you unlock.

[Hetstaine 10852]

that is true i have to admit, and maps like namalsk are a pain like that and i would prefer more map layouts like Chernaus. I suppose i do have to give in on the spawn option though, you got me at that but what if they implemented a system where after playing a certain amount of hours on a map you unlock places to spawn, more hours you play the more towns and cities you unlock.

Noooooo silly, just have bigger maps. :) I don't want the feel that i have to play longer to 'unlock' stuff.

[Derpy_Hooves (DayZ) 4521]

Noooooo silly, just have bigger maps. :) I don't want the feel that i have to play longer to 'unlock' stuff.

Yup better idea! Ok Hestaine i am leaving the thinking up to you from now on....... ahhhh DERP!!!

[DayZoey 110]

I do actually kinda have to agree. Why make new maps when the dev team could just add even more to the existing map and make it even larger?

I don't really know much about how/why maps are the way they are, maybe the bigger they are the harder they are on the servers. But rather than having Chernarus being the size of a small county, why not make it the size of a very large county? One that has more than say... two major cities in it? This would actually bring sense to the spawn selection thing (not really a realism thing) in that you simply choose the region you spawn in and it plops you somewhere along the coast in that region. Like say we had 4 regions as big as Chernarus in one map, you choose region 1, region 2, region 3 or region 4. Some tweaking and changing would need to be made in order to balance it so people aren't just choosing one area to spawn in because that region has the most military spawns (but even if they did, they'd have to fight everyone else who did the same for the same reason) or some such.

So... bigger maps to explore would add to the realism too. You wouldn't even have to increase the player limit on the server to increase tension because eventually people would get lazy or careless and just wander in to an area and if that area happens to have bandits in it, they lose everything they've been working for. The chances are much more slender but it'd add to the tension of both being found and the loss when one got careless and didn't stake the town out first.

[ghostvoice 2]

Some guys wants to make Dayz became THE ZIMZ... really... poop? Cmon guys... there's no need for this... a food on ground has bacterias... c mon... This will only make the game more burocractic(rigid and without considerable benefit).

We must look for realism in other aspects... for eg.

Batteries in all electronic devices (since it has the duration for more days. maybe 10, 15, 20.. and don't use a slot.. u put directly on the device... not fair to use a slot for batt), the water bottle being able to be used more times (3 or 4) before get empty,

The broken leg stuff is really horrible... should be harder broke them.

The vision at night i don't care... i think it has to be hard to see... harder the better. Try to stand in a forest in the dark without moon for you guys see if you can spot anything...

And one more thing that you guys should do is to when in battle move remove the GUN BULLET COUNT. Since in real life when you are in action you don't know exactly (unless you try to count) how many bullets do you still have, forcing you to reload to another clip to guarantee you have more ammo. After the combat period you back to be able to see how many bullets left..

[DayZoey 110]

Bump for a third update everybody. Also changed the title to reflect Rocket's preference in terminology.

Edited November 25, 2012 by DayZoey

[DayZoey 110]

Bump for a 4th update