Improved noise system, zombie warning, improved map, regional loot, more tent/clothing varieties, satchel charges/ammo bandolier and more....

[Trixxta 1]

Ok so this will be a fairly long post so I'll break my suggestions down. Apologies if any of these ideas have been mentioned before :)

1. Improved noise system

2. Zombie "warning" sounds or animation

3. Improved map

4. Regional loot

5. More tent varieties

6. More clothing varieties

7. Satchel charges

8. Ammo bandolier

9. Improved night visual mechanics

10. Environmental noises

11. Loot UI warning prompts

12. Buildings, forests can be set on fire

13. Draw distance/anti aliasing settings

14. Rivers/Stream

15. Character "graveyard" record

1. Improved noise system

One of the most jarring things I have found creeping around in towns is that the noise I make (what i actually hear on my speakers) does not correlate with how much noise that I am making in terms of zombies detecting me (how many bars appear next to the ear icon on the HUD) - i.e. I could be crawling through some grass at 1 noise level and then move over a road at 4 noise level but the volume in my PC speakers does not noticeably change. If these values were consistent I feel it would increase immersion considerably and almost do away with the need for the noise icon at all - if you could rely on the sound in your speakers as an accurate level of whether a zombie would be able to detect you - you wouldn't need the icon.

2. Zombie "warning" sounds or animation

If you are very close to aggroing a zombie it could provide some kind of indication that you are close to aggroing it via either a sound (it starts a louder moan, faster breathing etc) or visually (starts moving its head around trying to see the player). Zombies could stop walking/moving for say 30 secs when they are in this "heightened awaredness" mode. This would mean that players who monitor the behavior of the zombies around them would be more likely to survive and reward a more careful approach to raiding. Note I do not want to make it easier to get around zombies - I think there should be still a "random" element to aggroing a zombie so you are never 100% safe and if this system made it easier to avoid aggro then you could turn the aggro likelihood up a bit to compensate. The point is that you would increase the chances of your survival by taking more care in monitoring the behavior of the zombies around you.

3. Improved map

a. Create a map that has responsive smooth zooming and panning like here http://dayzdb.com/map - its frustating using the ingame map as usability is not good - zooming and panning is very slow and sluggish.

b. As someone else has already said perhaps when you pick up a map you get a rough outline of the whole map but you need to actually visit a town before you see the detail of that town - this could include detailing what buildings have loot and their low/med/high chance of loot. You want to attempt to make the ingame map more useful that out of game maps like dayz db. This would in essence reward players for travelling around which I think is a mechanic that we want to encourage.

c. Another thing we could add to the map is actually having an optional overlay on the map that displays a line of where the player has actually travelled. Shouldn't be too hard to do codewise and useful for tracking where you have been and adding to that sense of exploration accomplishment.

d. The two above points would encourage player exploration and a sense of progression without feeling too much like a gimicky achievement system.

e. Map should be editable as per dayzdb so you can list tents/vehicles etc you have acquired or locations of interest - possibly you can share this with fellow players if you want to.

4. Regional loot

At the moment pretty much all loot can be found everywhere but with differing drop percentage - to encourage more travel make some loot only able to be found in certain regions of the map - for instance you could have a special mountaineering 24 slot backpack that is only dropped on hill tops or a type of winter jacket that protects you from getting cold only found in the far north west of the map or a coastal specific loot type (like a tshirt or sunglasses). Also perhaps consumer specific loot like twinkies or breakfast cereal, chocolate bars or beer would only ever be found in town loot positions. Also beer could make your vision a bit blurry occasionally for the next 20 mins or so :)

5. More tent varieties

Rather than have 1 tent varity have small (pup), medium (2 man) and large varieties (4-8 man) that hold differing amounts of equipment. Make pup tents slightly easier to get but large varieties hard to find (very low percentage military spawn etc). Also you could have different colours of tent in order to differentiate desirability. You could have a bright red pup tent and a dark green one which would obviously make the dark green one more desirable as it would be harder to see.

6. More clothing varities

Have more clothing types - mainly for cosmetic reasons but this would encourage you to feel closer to your character if you can customise the shirt, jacket, shoes, sunglasses and hats according to the loot that they pick up. Some clothing types (such as a winter jacket or military helmet) may have a gameplay impact (not suffer from temperature effects, improved protection etc) but that would not apply to most of the clothing. Camo facepaint could also be looted/applied.

7. Satchel charges

I don't think these are in the game yet - (at least the versions I have played) but an extremely rare spawn could be a satchel charge or dynamite you could use to booby trap or destroy buildings. Currently buildings can be destroyed but it seems to be fairly rare and driven by zombies unless I'm mistaken?? It could be quite fun to plant a satchel in a loot point, wait for someone else to go in and then bring the roof down on them in a giant explosion :) obviously this is not something you would want to happen too often so the drop percentage could be rare and perhaps only a timed satchel (say explode 5 mins from setting it) would be better to stop too much griefing.

8. Ammo bandolier

A bandolier that allows you to carry more ammunition (say 12 magazines instead of 8 etc). (Mentioned before I think by others)

9. Improved night visual mechanics

I know this has been touched on a lot but personally I find playing at night pretty crap purely for the reason that you can't see anything unless you have NV goggles. Despite what others on this board say most players don't like it either and the result is practically empty servers at night time. Even if you do have NV goggles (which I do on one server) you basically are playing on the server on your own (looting everything very easily with no sense of danger) which I think takes away from what Dayz should be about. I really like that there are different mechanics at night (easier to avoid zombies) and that there is loot specific for it (chemlights etc) however the essential thing is that playing at night is not as much fun as during the day time.This needs to be rectified somehow and the main way i think is that it basically needs to be easier to see at night. Rather than have moonless nights most nights should behave as if there is a moon up. NV goggles and chemlights could make it easier to see but they shouldn't be an absolute requirement to play at night (which they currently are).

Also the flashlight mechanics should be improved so that ambient light is thrown - not just a specific "cone of light" - this would means that if you are shining your torch on a wall inside a house you don't merely see a small circle of light - the whole room should be lit up with enough ambient light for you to see (in a similar way to how chemlights work). I realise there is coding complexity to this but it would improve night time play extensively. Playing at night should be fun and a different type of experience but not a chore

10. Environmental noises

I think this has been touched on before but noise should correspond to the environment around you more - cows should moo, sheep should bleat, when in towns perhaps hear open doors or windows banging on their hinges (could sound quite scary), in factories perhaps hear some chains moving in the wind, on plains hear the wind, in forests hear the wind moving through the trees, trees creaking in the wind, in bushes the bushes moving with the wind would sound different to trees moving etc.

11. Loot UI warning prompts

I am 99% sure this is being worked on somehow but the loot UI needs to have warning prompts if you are about to destroy/drop valuable items. "Are you sure you want to drop Sniper rifle 3000+ of awesomeness?" etc - perhaps have granular control so you don't get warned for dropping basic items like canned food etc if you dont want to.

12. Buildings, forests can be set on fire

This would be quite hard from a coding and performance perspective but it would be pretty cool to be able to set buildings and or forests on fire with the right kind of flammable weapons such as molotov cocktails/incendiary grenades/napalm or perhaps helicopter crashes. Buildings could burn down over time and possibly burn some loot and zombies within them (zombies could catch on fire and slowly cook to death) . Fire could also spread within a town slowly (perhaps according to how windy it is). In the forest you could try to smoke a sniper out of a hiding spot by setting the treeline he is hiding in on fire. Just imagine if you were on the hill over Elekto at night and half the town was on fire :) - it would look pretty spectacular. Towns or treelines would become "unburnt" after a period of time to stop loot being denied to players for too long and to minimise griefing. A large pall of smoke could be seen over a fire from a distance. If a wind mechanic was introduced then fire would follow the wind direction.

13. Draw distance/anti aliasing settings

Currently it can be easier to see objects like players, tents or vehicles from 500m away than 200m away because certain elements of terrain are not rendered at 500m (like grass tufts) and therefore objects stand out more. Also even though I have a high end system I do not turn anti aliasing on even though it makes terrain look better because it essentially adds more detail to trees making it harder to see if there is a player crouched beneath a tree. I understand that this behavior is due to performance reasons but in this game being able hide yourself and your tent/vehicle is so important so if terrain has to be non displayed at distance then perhaps objects (players/tents etc) should have some kind of filter applied at distance as well so they don't stand out as much? Also improving your display settings should not put you at a disadvantage.

14. Rivers/Stream

There are no rivers or streams on the map currently - just dams and ponds - add a few rivers perhaps with boats (not too many so that it is really easy to get water though)

15. Character "graveyard" record

When you die and respawn you could be given the opportunity to name your character differently to what you were previously. When your new character dies stats are recorded where you can see listed character name and appearance, days/time survived, weapons/loot held when killed, exploration history (see point 3c above), location of death and reason for death (killed by zombies/hunger or specific player etc).

Cheers all!

[Chris529 380]

Good suggestions but I'd say some if not most of those are planned for standalone anyway

[Clumzy (DayZ) 377]

Good suggestions but I'd say some if not most of those are planned for standalone anyway

And satchel charges are in the game.

[psstloaf 17]

i dont agree with the map idea. i think you should just get pen and paper.

[Trixxta 1]

And satchel charges are in the game.

ag ok i didnt realise that satchels were in already - can they destroy buildings currently? If so do they work off a timer? or do they set off immediately?

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

ag ok i didnt realise that satchels were in already - can they destroy buildings currently? If so do they work off a timer? or do they set off immediately?

Yes to all timer or no timer is up to the handler

[shadowleaper 22]

1. Yes, yes yes. Love this idea would make sounds more dynamic and interesting.

2. This is as far as I've seen, already being implemented into the Stand Alone. I've seen recordings of zombie alert states in their motion capture pipeline.

3. I was one of the map reveal supporters and I like your ideas. I'd like to have the option of taking another player's map when you find it on their corpse, this would likely update your current map but with slightly less personal information (since you haven't actually been to some places for example).

4. I like this one too. It does seem to be more likely that if you're crafting you'd go to the areas you need to find the 'ingredients' for instance.

5. Good idea, but I don't see players taking tents that are too big that they stand out.

6. This has been confirmed in the Stand Alone. "Once released, expect new content every week. We are planning hundreds and hundreds of clothing varieties."

7. Apparently they are in the game, but they are crazy rare, I've never seen them. I like the idea of explosives, they should remain rare or only found in extremely dangerous/overridden places.

8. Could be interesting, but I think it should replace the packpack or something to balance it's use. That way you could encourage the use of the 'ammo guy' in your team.

9. I agree that night time should be fun. I think the Dev team are probably very aware of this imbalance and are working hard to rectify it. Personally I like the pitch black nights, but as you said, we need a better way to navigate it. Torches and chemlights should be improved. I'd also love to see some glowing eyes on the zombies, but maybe you only see them when you're closer. Zombies should behave and react closer to sounds like you mentioned too.

10. Couldn't agree more. I'm always in favour of more thematic immersion, maybe even elements that set your teeth on edge like whispers and things that occasionally sound like bullets but aren't etc. >:D

11. I'm sure that with the new UI overhaul there won't be an issue about this. You will clearly see what you're about to drop before you do.

12. Like you said, complex, but something I'd love to see in far future development. We can always wishlist! :D

13. This has been an issue, and I believe it will still be difficult to solve in the Stand Alone. Now with the addition of new clothing and personalisation, I believe seeing players might be both easier or more difficult. I remain optimistic.

14. I like this one too. Swimming in general needs an overhaul, let's cross our fingers.

15. I'm a big fan of automatic tracking systems and I've been really hoping that the dev team saw my post on Journals. If you haven't check it out: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/122446-sa-journallogbook/#entry1169308