SA: Quarantine mode or 'Early DayZ'

[Xianyu 820]

So there've been a bunch of suggestions for adding NPC 'quarantine squads' to the standalone. That's just silly, because not everyone agrees with the idea. But what I'm thinking is, for the private hives, when they're introduced to the standalone, we can have an optional 'Early DayZ' version of the game set during the 'early days' of the outbreak, when the military was full-force fighting against the infection.

It could have armed civilians and military personnel, the armed civilians being the group that your characters neatly slot into. You start as a civilian, no weapons or training, you've heard about the outbreak getting close over the radio or something, and decide that it's time to get the fuck out of dodge.

It would also add interesting dynamics in the sense of NPC civilians and military personnel. You might be wandering along, and stumble into the middle of a firefight between civvies and military. Maybe you hear the gunfire and wait a while, before crawling out of a hidey hole to go pick the remains over before the infected move in to eat the dead.

Maybe you'll creep along behind an NPC death squad to avoid the infected, seeing as they'll be actively combating the infected threat? Maybe team up with another player to try and take down a death squad.

Maybe you'll hunt your fellow civilians? That is, until they figure out you've been killing off fellow civilians and start shooting you on sight.

There's a lot of very different, very interesting gameplay options that open up when you add NPC's, and adding two very different sets of NPC's on opposite sides of a war, with the infected thrown in for flavour, that's just double the fun.

And if it's an optional 'gametype' to the SA, you won't even have to look at it unless you choose to.

It'd also add a lot more 'end game' content. Even once you're fully geared, a death squad would be a scary prospect. Especially if you're looting a building and suddenly hear the telltale automatic fire of a military rifle nearby. Anyone who's actually played a mission in Arma knows how deadly and utterly scary NPC enemies can be.

This way, you've got the whole playerbase covered. The guys who want to play against/with other players, and the guys who like the open world nature of the zombie apocalypse but don't necessarily want the entirety of the 'endgame' or the major content of it in general, to be based around other players/pvp.

Even in 'Early DayZ', PvP would be a constant threat, but it wouldn't be the be-all, end-all of the gametype. And it wouldn't affect 'vanilla' DayZ at all.

[Tumoa 359]

this could be great and fun mode

[declan223@gmail.com 271]

I wouldn't mind a brief story driven single player mode about the start of the out break to act like a prequel/tutorial

[Xianyu 820]

I wouldn't mind a brief story driven single player mode about the start of the out break to act like a prequel/tutorial

The suggestion is more for multiplayer than anything. Single player DayZ will still be like an arma 2 mission with zombies. It's always the other players that makes it exciting.

[Vilez 9]

Are they letting people mod the standalone?

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

Are they letting people mod the standalone?

You guys have to choose, either we keep the hackers, or we lose the modding. The modding ability of dayZ is what made it so hacker prone, it's not the case of all games, but it's the case for this one.

[Xianyu 820]

Are they letting people mod the standalone?

For the forseeable future? No.

Hence why I'm making a suggestion for this new 'game type'. No one will be able to add this through mods to the standalone. Not for a long time.

[Mos1ey 6301]

Rocket will never add NPCs to any official form of DayZ. He wants it to be 100% player driven.

[Beef Wellington 0]

My Idea is that the game should start out in a "Quarantine mode". when a server starts/resets the players try to fight off massive hordes of zombies playing as the military or armed civilians, no AI. It would be impossible or just so hard that it would take total cooperation to fight off a horde, but multiple hordes would exist. The time period between hordes arriving in response to the gunfire would be 5-10 mins.The humans would still need to eat/drink and they could loot quickly during the breaks.The humans could become overrun as their supplies dwindle as they scatter/die off. I'm not sure how being a bandit type player would fit in this game mode.(military deserters, rebels?) This may provide a perfect intro to set the mood for a new game the first time you log in.

Edited April 13, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[byrgesen 1341]

Are they letting people mod the standalone?

At PAX Rocket said he wants to add it, but its gonna be very different then now and its far out in the future.

Might not happen, kinda depends on the whole hacker situation and how it develops.

[Private Evans 1303]

It is the modding why people play (and still buy) games like Arma 2, Stalker or Bethasoft games (TES,Fallout) for such a long time. It simply has to be added at some point....

Edited April 13, 2013 by Private Evans

[benny1994 3]

I'm really supporting this Idea. It would really help out. +1

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

It is the modding why people play (and still buy) games like Arma 2, Stalker or Bethasoft games (TES,Fallout) for such a long time. It simply has to be added at some point....

I thought people came to dayZ to play the zombie apocalyps.

The super moddable game is arma3.

[Private Evans 1303]

I thought people came to dayZ to play the zombie apocalyps.

The super moddable game is arma3.

Yap but would be great to see new clothes, weapons,maps, books, sounds, music, hairstyles, rubber dolls etc etc etc added by the community at some point to keep the game interesting...not talking about adding more horrible clones but contributing to the original game instead...

Edited April 21, 2013 by Private Evans

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

There is only so much you can cram in a game before your rendering budget becomes a problem.

[Death_Dealer 3155]

Rocket will never add NPCs to any official form of DayZ. He wants it to be 100% player driven.

Lame.