Playing With (and honoring) the Dead

[PracticalTactical 164]

So, don't know if this has been suggested before (probably has but whatever) so I am going to make a NEW topic about it. In my personal opinion, being able to manipulate dead bodies of survivors, bandits, heros and maybe even zombies would be a good idea and add to the realism and immersion of Dayz if it were implimented. Some of the ideas here would work well once ragdoll physics is introduced.

Dayz is enjoyable for me, but it has its shortfalls like any mod or game. Something that I always thought was interesting about Dayz in particular is that when someone gets whacked (be that by zombie or otherwise) the body of the person stays in the spot where he died, emmiting a sound of buzzing flies to simulate a dead, rotting body. I like this mechanic allot, because it adds allot more to the environment and the realism.

Get rid of "Hide Body": In order to properly hide a body you must physically move it to a more concealed location or dig a grave and place the dead body in it.

Dragging: The option to drag body could be used to pull the dead in off the street into a building for a safer area to be examined and pilfered, or be used to hide your victims in bushes or ditches so the next unsuspecting bambi will walk right by thinking its safe! (dragging can already be done in ARMA if the player is unconcious so why not dead bodies)

Dig a Grave: If you wanted to hide the body entirely, you would have to dig a grave. Being able to put a dead body in the ground and then cover it up could also serve as a means of sanitation, because everyone knows that having dead people laying in the streets without burial will attract unwanted scavengers but will also become a breeding ground for bacteria and disease! (I recall rocket wanting to add more onto the whole sickness and infection aspect). And for the players who care (heroes and such) it could be used to give a propper resting place for a friend who didn't make it, or a bambi who got sniped on the beach.

Dig Up Grave: For those scavenging types, digging up a grave could offer the reward of finding loot on a corpse, but a shovel would be needed and a certain amount of time would be needed to properly dig up the gravesite.

Grave Marker: Using a piece of firewood and a hunting knife you could carve the name of the person in the grave, allong with a short message.

Trophy: Keep heads, fingers, ears, eyes, noses or other bodyparts as a trophy! Gruesome? Hell yeah! But hey, its the apocalypse! Maybe have the ability to attach trophies to your clothing or put them on your vehicle.

Decomposition: Bodies of players that have been left out go through the five stages of decomposition (fresh, bloat, active decay, advanced decay, dry/skeletal). Heavily decomposed bodies would be a cesspool of disease and infection (would work well with the disease system in standalone). People would be able to judge how long ago someone died by how decomposed the body was. Have an option for bodies not to despawn on server restarts, but to despawn naturally through time.

A few issues that I think would come up with the above suggestions

- how the five stages of decomposition will transition from one stage to another and how that would effect server load. Maybe just three stages: fresh body, decomposed body, skeleton (and of course body despawn after that).

- Humanity bonus when putting a body into a grave as opposed to leaving the body on the ground? Maybe only a bonus for those you have been around for more than a certain amount of time?

- How would the grave marker system work? Maybe a few different types of markers such as crosses, wooden slab, wooden slab with picture, wooden pole etc.

Any other ideas/ constructive criticism? Please comment!

Edited February 11, 2013 by PracticalTactical

[Candylol 82]

good ideas ;)

[PracticalTactical 164]

диета после обструктивного бронхита диеты для эластичности кожи

It was spam - deleted - try not to repost spammy links as we have to manually hunt it down - Rgds OrLoK

What is this I dont even...

Edited February 11, 2013 by orlok

[hoik 415]

Interesting idea - heres a comment I made on a simular subject (here: http://dayzmod.com/f...tches-and-ears/ ), I think it applies equally.

I was concidering a simular idea to this, but with a more practical purpose (IMO).

While there is a large part of the dayZ community that is geared towards the deathmatching aspects of PvP, I also hear alot of people complaining that they don't want to kill but are inevitably forced to in self defence (or paranoia). So I think that players should be able to take 'trophies' from players they kill, but they should also have the option of 'paying respect' to the person they just killed - closing their eyes or putting the dead players jacket/shirt over their face (or anything else you can think of).

Maybe, just as more 'violent' players (as suggested by Liquidcactus & Vindicatior) can take more grotesque trophies, the more humane a player gets the more elaboratly they can pay their respects (eg. burial with wooden cross).

The key is - Both taking a 'trophy' and 'paying respects' should appear as part of the description of a body you examine (if it isn't represented visually in the game).

The reason I think this would add to the game is that both these actions can now help players guage the nature of the players in their area - It has the potential to turn the (mostly selfish) impulses of players into a interesting naritives (and/or tool) for other players.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Hoik

[picky (DayZ) 25]

The Length at which this goes to to appeal to the psychotic tendencies of the human race intrigues me yet at the same time, kind of scares me as well. certain things are extremely inhumane, and this game would be going "too far" if it were to come down to certain aspects of this.

-burials:yes (Like the idea of being able to bury friends)

-dragging:yes (Has value for in-game purposes)

-dig up grave:no (This Idea doesn't prove worth anything as dead people are usually looted after they die anyway)

-grave marker:no (Not a crucial thing)

-Pin body/Attach body:no (Don't understand how this would make any real difference in-game other than visual appeal)

-decapitate:no (It's very hard to think of developers spending any time at all making a feature which has such small in-game significance)

Thanks for posting.

[PracticalTactical 164]

The Length at which this goes to to appeal to the psychotic tendencies of the human race intrigues me yet at the same time, kind of scares me as well. certain things are extremely inhumane, and this game would be going "too far" if it were to come down to certain aspects of this.

Isn't shooting someone without hesitation a psychotic tendency? Yet people in Dayz often KOS. Killing someone without even batting an eye is inhumane and it happens all the time in Dayz. I can understand where you come from when you talk about pinning a body/decapitation, because that is a bit much. I was thinking at the time about a mod called The Hidden that I played a long, long time ago where the "hidden" could take the bodies of dead and "pin" them to the wall as a means of disturbing the other players who were hunting the hidden. It worked well in that mod and can be done without being gruesome (aka decapitation, guts hanging out). After all, the big fright in Dayz is the human element, the fear that someone is watching you and trying to take you out. Having this ability could help that feeling of fear come back again, imagine walking into a town and seeing a survivor haning from the roof of a house! That would scare me alright!

Thanks for the imput btw.

Edited November 18, 2012 by PracticalTactical

[Faceman Peck 93]

So, don't know if this has been suggested before (probably has but whatever) so I am going to make a NEW topic about it. In my personal opinion, being able to manipulate dead bodies of survivors, bandits, heros and maybe even zombies would be a good idea and add to the realism and immersion of Dayz if it were implimented. Some of the ideas here would probably work well once ragdoll physics is introduced into the standalone (please, please, please be implimented!) and might even work well in the current Dayz mod, who knows? As for those who say it is too violent/gruesome, what you must remember is that this is the zombie apocalypse and for many rules and morals have changed or been completely thrown out! I hope people like my suggestions, feel free to add to it in the comments!

Dayz is enjoyable for me, but it has its shorfalls like any mod or game. Something that I always thought was interesting about Dayz in particular is that when someone gets whacked (be that by zombie or otherwise) the body of the person stays in the spot where he died, emmiting a sound of buzzing flies to simulate a dead, rotting body. I like this mechanic allot, because it adds allot more to the environment and the realism. You come across some dead fellow and wonder: How did this fella die? Was he shot by a bandit? Did he fall? Did he get swarmed by zombies? Did he kill himself with a grenade? Then you pilfer through his backpack and inventory, looking for anything that might be worth keeping. After you have pilfered and defiled the body in various ways you may see the option to "hide body". You press it, and the body sinks into the ground and disappears (even if its on the pavement, in a building or in the water). Realistically, dead people sinking through the pavement never to be seen again is sort of unrealistic. I have a few things in mind that I think might make hiding the dead a little more realistic and interesting!

Dragging: The option to drag body could be used to pull the dead in off the street into a building for a safer area to be examined and pilfered, or be used to hide your victims in bushes or ditches so the next unsuspecting bambi will walk right by thinking its safe! (dragging can already be done in ARMA if the player is unconcious so why not dead bodies)

Dig a Grave: If you wanted to hide the body entirely, you would have to dig a grave. Being able to put a dead body in the ground and then cover it up could also serve as a means of sanitation, because everyone knows that having dead people laying in the streets without burial will attract unwanted scavengers but will also become a breeding ground for bacteria and disease! (I recall rocket wanting to add more onto the whole sickness and infection aspect). And for the players who care (heroes and such) it could be used to give a propper resting place for a friend who didn't make it, or a bambi who got sniped on the beach. Digging a grave would require a shovel (which could use more uses), even ground, solid ground (proper dirt, not in concrete or loose sand) aswell as a set time to dig (1 min-30 seconds or something, because digging takes time). This might grant survivors and heros humanity, or just simply serve as a way of getting rid of dead bodies.

Dig Up Grave: For those scavenging types, digging up a grave could offer the reward of finding loot on a corpse, but a shovel would be needed and a certain amount of time would be needed to properly dig up the gravesite. Perhaps after the grave is dug up, the decaying body could be dragged around (?) for some extra fun!

Grave Marker: Using a piece of firewood and a hunting knife you could carve the name of the person in the grave, allong with a short message. Grave markers could be knocked down by vehicles, much like a powerpole or fence.

Pin Body/Attach Body: Attaching a body with rope or nails to buildings, trees, poles or cars could serve as a warning to other players, or perhaps as a way of creating art! Much like the grave marker, you could take firewood and use a hunting knife to carve out a message in the wood such as: "Bandits, turn back" or something allong those lines. It would add to the environment quite a bit and could be used to mark player or clan territory.

Decapitate(?): Ability to decapitate zombies and/or survivors/bandits and keep heads or other bodyparts as a trophy! Gruesome? Hell yeah! But hey, its the apocalypse! Maybe have the ability to attach heads to sharpened poles and stick poles into the ground for an extra scare! much like how pinning a body would work.

Any other ideas/ constructive criticism? Please comment!

why would I want to do any of these things?

[PracticalTactical 164]

A very shameless bump. I added a few things in, those might be interesting to some. All in all I think that more can be done with the dead and more options should be made available in the standalone eventually (after all the core work has been done).

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

I hadn't noticed this topic before. I like the thinking behind it.

Everything in DayZ seems to be about giving players options, and though a few of the options you suggest are ever so slightly morbid, it doesn't hurt to have the choice.

Graves and such add to immersion, but it does seem a little redundant when you remember that everyone just respawns. :P

[Clumzy (DayZ) 377]

Well done. I too dislike the easiness of hiding a body.

[radivmoe 47]

i think that the humanity system is gone in the SA (correct me if i'm wrong).

[Sakka 28]

Good post. I like all of the ideas and they fit into the context of the game for sure. Even if they do not implement graves they really need to add the ability to drag the dead bodies. I was amazed the first time someone started dragging me while I was injured. I bought they were a hacker at first lol :)

[PracticalTactical 164]

Good post. I like all of the ideas and they fit into the context of the game for sure. Even if they do not implement graves they really need to add the ability to drag the dead bodies. I was amazed the first time someone started dragging me while I was injured. I bought they were a hacker at first lol :)

I agree. If anything the ability to drag a dead body needs to be in the game above all.

[Garblax 4]

I think the dragging and gravemarkers are good ideas actually.

You could perhaps lure people to the sound of flies in a bush before ambushing them, or maybe drsgging to hide a body so you can come back with more space to loot it later.

Gravemarkers could also be a sort of mood setter, showing that some dangerous people have passed by (in the off chance bandits actually bury the body, maybe so that others won't be able to loot the body? This is assuming you won't be able to dig it up), or that some nice people have come by to show some respect.

Maybe to bury bodies, you'd need the use of an entrenching tool or something? That way there's an actual use for them.

[ShaneGT 41]

Id like to see grave markers , when someone dies, a cross with so and so died here that is saved in database. That would be epic.

Edited February 17, 2013 by ShaneGT