Realism & Gameplay

[[email protected] 16]

With the current patch and the hotfix out in really short order, let me say a few words about realism and gameplay since these two experiences highlighted a few things.

First of all, starting without a weapon is perfectly fine - as long as there's no people roaming the coast looking to get their killcount up on defensles prey.

I would want to point out than from a realism perspective, it might be good to at least give players one set of beans and soda to start with.

Secondly, the LOS zombies were outstanding as they added unknown difficulty to stalking and sneaking - read: challenge. However with their current speed, they quickly become ridiculous to come by when unarmed. An easy solution to this is bringing back stamina for zombies (and players!) and realistic speeds for zombies. After all these are supposed to be infected, alive humans (malnutritioned if I may add apparently) and not Usain Bolt from hell. So a player should be able to get away given he is rested and not particularly hungry and thirsty. If you are: bad luck, you should have taken care of that earlier.

This should make the whole apparence of the game more realistic - as far as possible given the zombie apocalypse setting. Also, realistic speed on zombies would allow for bringing back true LOS zombies. After all, once again given that these are supposed to be infected humans, we do have an outstanding FOV but are limited in our capabilities as predators by our physical condition (or the range of our weapon :D )

In addition there's zombie animations and this one is coupled with the issue pointed out above. The new animations would look outstanding, however they are currently looking terribly awkward given the speed of the animation. Sometimes I get the feeling I am facing jabs that would make the Klitschko brothers hide in shame - these should be slowed down for the look of it.

Last but not least, there's zombie spawn issues, and I am not talking about the number of them - this can be controled by the player after all. I am talking about zombies spawning in stacks, i.e. in Barns (up to 4 or 5 in exactly the same spot) or in places that make them glitch-attack through walls i.e. barracks. These issues could be circumvented by giving them proper spawnpoints in buildings, i.e. hallways in barracks.

For the TL;DR numbnuts, these are suggestions meant to fix bugs not carebear issues. You can now move on.

[Scerun 227]

I verily much agree

[decoman 45]

I want to add something that find interesting with regard to game design, in which game design decisions pertains to realistic "things" inside a game.

I would argue there are mainly two things to strive for:

1) That things make good sense for the player whenever possible

2) The establishing of a fantasy to put it short. Hearing a different sound effect when walking on grass as opposed to concrete probably goes to show how simple, yet crucial it is to get some things right.

Point 1 can be elaborated upon and is a problem of sorts that can be solved in different ways. So just because some feature or suggestion seem implausible or detrimental to the game design, there are perhaps ways to twist and bend an idea to fit into existing concepts that the game rely on. A consequence analysis of sorts seem like a good idea and exporing the exploit potential seem wise, since trendy behavious might be detrimental to basic motivations or the basic functionings in a game.

Point 1 and 2 are sort of smiliar to each other, but the first pertains mostly to player sentiments, while the other pertains to the design of the game.

In the end, I guess everything depends on everything else. I wouldn't call it "balance" because that would be too stupid of me, a metaphor of some kind of equilibrium that is often pointless and meaningless other than some conceptual metaphor for fitting two things together.

At some point while playing DayZ, it occurred to me that I was so into the game that it never occurred to me to question the impossibility of drinking water off the wells without a cantine, when it is all too obvious that the wells found in game offer a pump that should realistically. At the very least, the wells offer one sensible function to the game, with the one filling up canteen bootles. :)

A third point could perhaps be about the repetiveness in any game. Some things surely can be laborious and tedious, while other things might seem only natural, like jumping through the stargates in eve online. So it would imo make sense to try control or at least be aware of repetetive tasks, and try to make or keep them meaningful.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Treehugger