What if Day Z had a story?

[Drsausage 0]

Now im not talking about a campaign or single player mode but what about a back story for Day z?

Maybe the devs could put in notes easter eggs, radio messages or something like a barricaded house with some dead survivors in to show a story on how the zombies originated and what happened in the aftermath.

Namalsk was a little like this with "object A2" and "A1" however the map was built for a stalker mod (i think)

I know that the default map wasn't made for day z so the options there are limited but this could work for future/unofficial maps.

Anyway, just a thought. :)

What do you think?

Edited January 20, 2013 by Drsausage

[Testwd3r235 2810]

NO!

[Drsausage 0]

NO!

Why not?

[Testwd3r235 2810]

Why not?

CoD zombies started doing this and I just gave up, it didn't need a story and it ruined it all. Don't want the same to happen to DayZ.

[Max Planck 7174]

A backstory is planned and being worked on, don't listen to that noisy fellow.

[beastoverlord 574]

DayZ... It's your story.

[Drsausage 0]

CoD zombies started doing this and I just gave up, it didn't need a story and it ruined it all. Don't want the same to happen to DayZ.

I see what you're getting at, loads didnt like the COD zombies story, however i would like to see a Day Z map that looks more "zombiefied" not like a normal czech town that happens to have zombies in it.

[Drsausage 0]

A backstory is planned and being worked on, don't listen to that noisy fellow.

Really?! thats awesome! im guessing that would be on the standalones map?

[Wep0n 532]

it shoud not be specific about what happened. we already see destroyed military places and piles of corpses, so i think we will be able to guess what might have happened, but never with certainty.

i want to keep the mystery alive. i want to go to a place and be like: "maby this and this happend." but i will never know, and that is good.

[Drsausage 0]

DayZ... It's your story.

That should be the tagline :)

[Max Planck 7174]

...however i would like to see a Day Z map that looks more "zombiefied" not like a normal czech town that happens to have zombies in it.

This is also planned for the standalone, you're in luck.

[Drsausage 0]

it shoud not be specific about what happened. we already see destroyed military places and piles of corpses, so i think we will be able to guess what might have happened, but never with certainty.

i want to keep the mystery alive. i want to go to a place and be like: "maby this and this happend." but i will never know, and that is good.

Yeah, just pieces of info like a brief note or a house that was a failed attempt at a last stand.

[Drsausage 0]

This is also planned for the standalone, you're in luck.

Thats some good news! The one thing i didnt really like about day z was the feel of the map, still love it though!

[Testwd3r235 2810]

A backstory is planned and being worked on, don't listen to that noisy fellow.

http://images.wikia.com/castleminerz/images/5/58/Disgusted_Oh_God_Why.png

[barrett_killz 229]

DayZ... It's your story.

Nicely said.

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

NO!

A somewhat proper (even if vague) story would help keeping DayZ on tracks, though. And there's nothing wrong with a story for things like the infection. Rocket already has had his brother(A virologist, was it?) write a rather lengthy document on what the infection could be that causes the zombies to act the way they do.

That in itself is considered as lore/story for DayZ Standalone, and we've been embracing it full-on by correcting people who make the argument of zombies decaying and/or being undead. (Even you have done this on multiple occasions. Therefor you are a hypocrite.)

Edited January 20, 2013 by Dancing.Russian.Man

[Qu1n 140]

DayZ... It's your story.

That should be the tagline :)

http://dayzmod.com/

Says it right there, in bright red on the front page...

also it says;

You are one of the few who have survived and now you must search this new wasteland in order to fight for your life against what is left of the indigenous population, now infected with the disease.

Isn't that backstory enough for a zombie game? :)

*edit* Okay so it actually reads "This is DayZ. This is your story" but it's close enough!

Edited January 20, 2013 by Qu1n

[Wep0n 532]

You are one of the few who have survived and now you must search this new wasteland in order to fight for your life against what is left of the indigenous population, now infected with the disease.

Isn't that backstory enough for a zombie game? :)

indeed. we should be able to see the effects of the apocalypse all over the place, and permanently wonder what might have happened...

i do not want to see the exact process of what happened. because it is the players who make the story.

i do not want to see a whole wikipage telling a generic stupid zombie story what happened exactly...

i want to be thrown into that city, in constant wonder what could have happened by looking at destroyed buildings, vehicles, corpses...

even if i find a note in a building which says something like: "we are surrounded by zombies and try to survive in this room aslong as possible" goes too far for my taste. it is artificial and spoils the fantasies.

i dont want to see a building and say: "oh thats the building where that family was and tried to survive, because it was on a note"

rather i want to see a rusty children's bed, a ruined kitchen, clothing on the floor, and only guess the gruesome fate the people had.

That building is alot more mysterious if there is nothing specific to tell about, only filled with signs of destruction so that one can only guess what happened.

One's own imagination is alot more frightening if the exact cause of evil is never revealed. less information means more mystery.

there are so many movies/games which are doing it right: not showing the exact cause of things. giving input to one's own imagination which is alot more frightening than a stupid story.

Leaving vital information out will cause the world you are in to become alot more immersive and exciting when you fill it with your own imagination.

why is sauron in lord of the rings not just a dude with a mace running around killing guys? why is he just represented with such a "lame" ghostly tower thingy?

because the evil which remains in the shadows is a shitload more scary than the evil we know about. i do not want to know any details on the zombies, except the fact that it is presented believable.

you find so many good examples in games and movies, which create these brilliant worlds full of mysteries by NOT spoiling you like a baby.

Please, if you make a back story make it good. it should bring up more questions than answers.

if you have to make one, make it like STALKER for example.

you see all that destruction and people in the zone, and a shitload of mysterious things, but you never know exactly what the heck was going on. you find alot of mysterious projects in underground labs where you can only guess what they tried to achieve, but the full truth never gets revealed.

or play trough half life with the editor's notes. i promise that this is going to explain you how to create a scary ennemy like the combine.

you only get hints what happened, but you never learn the exact motive or plan of the combine, no "center of evil" to focus on, because you do not see the clear structure of "evil".

and still, the half life universe seems alot more wide and interesting than the WOW universe, eventhough WOW has like hundred times more backstory an lore than HL2 does.

stuff remains in the shadows, and that is a good thing.

Edit: here the

as a reference. a dayZ backstory similar to that, maby even more reduced would be appropriate. keeping the the story parts and individuals away, just tell the events... catastrophy, evacuation... military made an operation... no one came back... exact causes remain unknown.... mysterious stuff is going on, noone can tell what is causing it, and it is never going to be fully revealed... (and even that might be too much... i still prefer no backstory at all, but if it must be, it has to be as vague as possible) Edited January 20, 2013 by Wep0n

[gamerman001 182]

After putting some pieces together I came up with my own little theory on how the infection went down.

In the first arma there is an addon called "royal flush" in this addon the primary objective is to prevent biological warfare. I think that somehow the biological agent from sahrani made its way to chernarus through civilian travel. If you notice the billboards all over chernarus they are always either about flowers or sahrani. Also if you notice there are still US vehicles (crashes, humvees) and US soldier bodies all over the place. My guess is, the USMC kept a base in operation after the war for peace keeping reasons. However, the USMC presence in the country was too little to do anything about the infection. So they did the best they could and attempted to close the borders and set up rescue and evac areas.

Just a theory.

[dragonkatol 135]

Dean's brother who "made" the DayZ virus has a 21 page document all about it. Hope they release it in-game!

[victusmortuus 1074]

I don't see why having some sort of story is so out of the ordinary. Perhaps not a set in stone version but different things based on peoples opinions in Chernarus. Perhaps some think the KGB have set loose a virus.Some may think Americans or China are responsible for the Zombies banging ob their front doors.

Religious views would be good to, just because people ask for a story doesn't mean it has to be a typical hold your hand linear script, these things mentioned above would be found in houses (peoples letters), hospitals (patient reports), Shops (News papers) or written in blood on the person you just looted's wall.

If this game is indeed in the Zombie genre then it does indeed need 'some sort' of back story even if it's very vague like how the actual movie genre is (Satellite from space).

[beastoverlord 574]

Dean's brother who "made" the DayZ virus has a 21 page document all about it. Hope they release it in-game!

I thought it was 12... but maybe I'm just dyslexic. :rolleyes:

[tombom 28]

I am someone who loves to know every bit of info about what happened origins the works. However, there is such a satisfaction from storylines that are obscure and make you fill in the info a lot like Left 4 Dead with the posters and survivor graffitti. I guess because when it comes down to it, its like real life where we always have to fill in missing pieces and might never know the truth of something. So when it come to SA i hope the story is always mysterious

[m00tley 50]

What i think the story should be like:

You are walking around Elektro and go inside a house and see a note on the top of a table saying "I don't think we will be able to stay here much longer. I heard the military is setting up a base at the airfield and trying to evacuate as many people as they can. I'm sorry son, all i can do right now is hope that you are ok,". On your way out of the house you notice a picture of a man, a woman a teenager and a baby. At this point, i can guarantee you the most people will be curious and will want to know what the fuck happened to the family that used to live on that house and if the person is curious enough, this person will start to make his/her way to the NW Airfield. Now, imagine if on the way, this person came across a car crash, and noticed that the driver (Still inside the car) was wearing the same shirt the man on the picture was wearing? I guess this would make the person even more curious. When the person finally gets to the airfield, all that this person can find is destruction, dead bodies and something written in blood at the wall of the firestation "That is our last stand".

Well, there is a story (A very cliche one that i used to explain my point of view) that never even mention Zeds, it only gives you an idea of what happened to that particular family. Now imagine that most people in chernarus would have a story to "tell". You could have the story of a virologist trying to find out what is happening while trying to keep his family alive, a story about a Hill Billy that managed to escape using a bot, a teacher trying to save the students. I think the most interesting thing about that is that you would have different stories showing different points of view of what really happened on chernarus, or at least, what happened on elektro.

I like the idea of having objects telling a story (Like four shoes at the entrance of a house), but i think that it doesn't help the game at all, 95% of the people will just past by the pairs of shoes at the door and will never even notice that, the other 5% will say "Well, that is sad" and that's about it. If you have different people actually telling their stories, i can guarantee that this forum will need a "Story Speculation" section, cause people will want to talk about the "Elektro Family" and compare what they saw to what other people have seen. This would make the story a huge puzzle without an answer, you could only guess what really happened.

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

Edit: here the

as a reference. a dayZ backstory similar to that, maby even more reduced would be appropriate. keeping the the story parts and individuals away, just tell the events... catastrophy, evacuation... military made an operation... no one came back... exact causes remain unknown.... mysterious stuff is going on, noone can tell what is causing it, and it is never going to be fully revealed... (and even that might be too much... i still prefer no backstory at all, but if it must be, it has to be as vague as possible)

Stalker mentioned, insta-beans for you.