1.7.* Infection WIP Update

[Vicco 123]

Well, after another 3 hours of play, me and my partner are getting a bit frustrated. Mind you, we play on my server with no PvP to contend with. Just zeds. And we have a car we use to run over zeds. The car is really our "fort." So we can't comment on running to lose agro, because we just run to the car and drive away.

We aren't "too" resistant to crawling for long distances if that's what it takes to avoid infection, and do our share of it. But that's very tedious, and would be a game-killer if this stays as it is.

As it is, we go to loot a store, house, farmstead, etc., in the car. Just killing the spawned zeds with the car is tedious. Leave the car, go immediately prone, enter the loot location, find nothing of value (we just want anti-biotics) and nearly always more zeds will locate us for some unknown reason. Run back to the car and cruise for more loot locations in "out-of-the way" areas.

We spawn with an M9SD and 4 mags. Basically useless except for non-agroed zeds with a head shot. If agroed and on us, you'll use a full mag for one zed in the panic of not letting them close to infect you. So the axe is by far the best weapon. We leave our Winchesters behind.

We very much enjoy the survival aspect of Dayz. But what is our solution to infection? Suicide and respawn.

Because infection removes all hope when anti-biotics aren't to be found. And that's the biggest problem aside form the agro issue. I really think agro should be addressed first. Back to where it was, except increased for gunshot sounds.

As to the infection, perhaps less infected zeds, and remove the death sentence for infection. We tried to beat infection with massive food intake, but saw no end to it. You just can't spend all your game time chomping on food and/or looking for rare anti-biotics. We can't, anyway. Then there's the coughing, which is fine if there's hope for cure, but not if you think the coughing never ends. Like color - you know there's a fighting chance to get your color back.

Somebody mentioned a "blood count" cure, and that could work. Maybe 24000 blood, either food or blood bags.

I'm expecting all of this will be addressed, because as is the game can only appeal to much smaller numbers than before, and we need a good balanced base of survivor/PvP.

As for my partner and me, we had planned using my server for training before entering PvP servers, and we are as about good as we'll get at PvE, and that doesn't look very good at all with the current environment.

Our next session will be going north for military weapons and ammo. We'll try "brute-forcing" the zeds to find anti-biotics. I suspect we'll run out of ammo quickly. And that suicide is our future until infection is balanced, or we just give it up.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Vicco

[need matches 84]

Good news.

However, I shouldn't walk into an empty brick, two door two room house unseen, and once I'm in there 5 zombies waltz in. From both entrances.

Used to be up to five hatchets in a farm buildings. Now maybe one in every four? If lucky. With all the changes, melee weapons should not be so hard to find.

Getting rid of agro without buildings, when zombies seem to be able to see through them now, e.g. coming around a house and sensing where you are hiding, is imo unrealistic.

If I can find a melee weapon, the game seems somewhat playable, but immersion breaks when so many decks are stacked against us now and seem contrived, such as zombies spawning in areas that were clear seconds before. (Small village zombie spawn points = congo lines from two directions all entering log house = unlootable).

Zombies seemingly appearing out of the ground once you start a campfire. Unrealistic.

And I can find two mk48 mags and two akm mags WAY before even finding an axe? Would be great if I had a pack to put them in.

I'll leave the rest for other threads.

Edited June 16, 2013 by need matches

[BruskarDK 1]

Sounds awesome!

[boatie 34]

I didint complained about this you must be mistaken me with another player bro.

Use the church for your test. They can hit through walls. Stand next to the church wall and unload a clip.

[boatie 34]

Well, after another 3 hours of play, me and my partner are getting a bit frustrated. Mind you, we play on my server with no PvP to contend with. Just zeds. And we have a car we use to run over zeds. The car is really our "fort." So we can't comment on running to lose agro, because we just run to the car and drive away.

We aren't "too" resistant to crawling for long distances if that's what it takes to avoid infection, and do our share of it. But that's very tedious, and would be a game-killer if this stays as it is.

As it is, we go to loot a store, house, farmstead, etc., in the car. Just killing the spawned zeds with the car is tedious. Leave the car, go immediately prone, enter the loot location, find nothing of value (we just want anti-biotics) and nearly always more zeds will locate us for some unknown reason. Run back to the car and cruise for more loot locations in "out-of-the way" areas.

We spawn with an M9SD and 4 mags. Basically useless except for non-agroed zeds with a head shot. If agroed and on us, you'll use a full mag for one zed in the panic of not letting them close to infect you. So the axe is by far the best weapon. We leave our Winchesters behind.

We very much enjoy the survival aspect of Dayz. But what is our solution to infection? Suicide and respawn.

Because infection removes all hope when anti-biotics aren't to be found. And that's the biggest problem aside form the agro issue. I really think agro should be addressed first. Back to where it was, except increased for gunshot sounds.

As to the infection, perhaps less infected zeds, and remove the death sentence for infection. We tried to beat infection with massive food intake, but saw no end to it. You just can't spend all your game time chomping on food and/or looking for rare anti-biotics. We can't, anyway. Then there's the coughing, which is fine if there's hope for cure, but not if you think the coughing never ends. Like color - you know there's a fighting chance to get your color back.

Somebody mentioned a "blood count" cure, and that could work. Maybe 24000 blood, either food or blood bags.

I'm expecting all of this will be addressed, because as is the game can only appeal to much smaller numbers than before, and we need a good balanced base of survivor/PvP.

As for my partner and me, we had planned using my server for training before entering PvP servers, and we are as about good as we'll get at PvE, and that doesn't look very good at all with the current environment.

Our next session will be going north for military weapons and ammo. We'll try "brute-forcing" the zeds to find anti-biotics. I suspect we'll run out of ammo quickly. And that suicide is our future until infection is balanced, or we just give it up.

Actually, other than the knockdown being too high of a chance, the zombies seems easier than last patch -- because there seems to be less of them and they don't seem attracted to gunfight. They get attracted on LOS but not gunfire.

[Whylex 2]

I would love to be able to find fire crackers like these (but smaller) http://bp1.blogger.com/_-sGrGGpUZag/RdFb0ivAC9I/AAAAAAAAAcw/rU38b4iohQE/s320/PICT0006.jpg

Of course they would be found in houses, and maybe backroom of pubs, and you need box of matches to light 'em.

They work pretty much as a flare, but explodes with one or several loud bangs, which attracts way more zombies to that spot than a normal flare.

It would also work as a "deafening" device against intruders who tries to spot you in close combat.

If they try to listen for your footsteps, you could just light one of those up and wait for it to start exploding, and then get away from there.

[HazZarD87 166]

Good news.

However, I shouldn't walk into an empty brick, two door two room house unseen, and once I'm in there 5 zombies waltz in. From both entrances.

Used to be up to five hatchets in a farm buildings. Now maybe one in every four? If lucky. With all the changes, melee weapons should not be so hard to find.

Getting rid of agro without buildings, when zombies seem to be able to see through them now, e.g. coming around a house and sensing where you are hiding, is imo unrealistic.

If I can find a melee weapon, the game seems somewhat playable, but immersion breaks when so many decks are stacked against us now and seem contrived, such as zombies spawning in areas that were clear seconds before. (Small village zombie spawn points = congo lines from two directions all entering log house = unlootable).

Zombies seemingly appearing out of the ground once you start a campfire. Unrealistic.

And I can find two mk48 mags and two akm mags WAY before even finding an axe? Would be great if I had a pack to put them in.

I'll leave the rest for other threads.

^This!

Another thing I've noticed is ppl thinking that it means less K.O.S. now that loot has become much harder to find and the infection risk being as it is. I perceive it to be quite the opposite. Killing a player for his gear which saves me a lot of trouble and risk to attain otherwise has become so much more appealing now.

[phionamercy 8]

We know we hope to have it fixed by tomorrow. All where asking is try for 3 dayz and give us real feedback on everything not the one line hates we seem to be getting.

- When I throw a can from outside a zombie's line of sight... the zombie makes a B-line around the building to me, instead of the can.

- Zombies come from other parts of the map to wander into the building automatically. They don't run or growl -- they just walk (even outside!) directly to inside and to me like they're psychic and often walk right through the walls and doors while they're closed without hearing me.

- I have seen no whiskey for disinfectant; only empty whiskey bottles. I have seen no antibiotics.

- The machete's still aren't working even when I open and close my gear. The game is virtually unplayable on LocalGamers.net

- Also, my friend (Col. Sanders) just had a corpse of his body show up when he logged in? Shortly there-after admin banned from the server by Battle-eye.

Recommendation/Opinion: (and hey; just my opinion!)

- Go back to old zombie agro.

- Go back to old infection rate.

- Leave zombie knockdown in. (Love it! buggy or not! I got tangled by ZEDs in the East-coast factory on the stairs/ladders.. it was great!)

- Leave reduced medical spawns in. (Good! No more fake heros emptying medical boxes just to get more blood-bags -- and keeps Infection worrysome.)

- Infection from a zombie should not be air-born on players! ... this thing is way to infectious.

Undecided on:

- Infection mortality ... feels obscenely high. Sickness feels to deadly.. like it would take days to kill you, not an hour. Likewise? With reduced medical supplies, it'll still be something to worry about even if the infection rate was reduced!!

BUG NOTE:

- Couldn't swing my machete -- it wouldn't reload and it had no ammo.

NON-BUG NOTE:

I got sick off of water after escaping town with almost a full kit.. but no hatchet. Logged out with a tent, my matches, my food, my knife, my map and then found out: I couldn't put my tent in my old spots.. no more underwater or wood-shed tents to hide them from Heliocopter glitch-players. (They fly high up in the sky with the heliocopter so that trees and foliage derezzes, so they can see our tents. So people started putting them in woodsheds and underwater near dams to hide them... can't be done anymore. No tent is secure against this bug no matter where you put it now.

Obviously intentional patching to prevent unusual placement of tents.. but-- I feel it's a bit unwarrented given how much helocopters are abused for purposes of looting people's camps~ Helocopters should have an altitude max applied to prevent this abuse before you stop them from protecting their stuff.

Making an air-tight storage and hiding it in a pond of dirty water is totally, legitimately viable~ as is storing your stuff in an old shed.

Edited June 17, 2013 by phionamercy

[r4z0r49 4761]

for Melee weapons just open and close your gear menu this will refresh the ammo.

[r4z0r49 4761]

We wont be able to get this into the release for tomorrow sorry guys we will still push to get this into the next build it just wont make it tomorrow.

[Vicco 123]

Actually, other than the knockdown being too high of a chance, the zombies seems easier than last patch -- because there seems to be less of them and they don't seem attracted to gunfight. They get attracted on LOS but not gunfire.

Strange. We find more zeds than ever, and easily agroed. We were near the coast with a hill making us out of LOS from a small village. Popped a lone wandering zed with the Winchester. The whole village of zeds stormed over the hill after us. Infection and suicide. Haven't fired a non-silenced round since.

Wait, I can't really swear to that. We may have been crouched near the hill top and in zed LOS, but not agroing them until we fired. Not sure. But it's a good test, and I'll try it next time in. Make sure no LOS and fire the gun.

[Lenney (DayZ) 4]

We wont be able to get this into the release for tomorrow sorry guys we will still push to get this into the next build it just wont make it tomorrow.

Thanks for listening to the feedback R4ZOR. I think everyone is pretty much in agreement for once. lol

[Skrotes 0]

I don't have much of a problem with the new mechanics, I think they make the game more challenging and suspenseful. However I think a good countermeasure to the new restrictions imposed by the update would be to keep the medical drop rates the way they were, mainly in hospitals. It should be fair to assume that a hospital will have a box of medical supplies. The tension as a result comes from having to enter one of the main cities to get it. It keeps the game realistic and challenging without making it nearly impossible to stay alive without dying of an infection.

[battlemeat 6]

Randomize the spawn locations for Antibiotics... increasing the spawn rate at any one location is just asking to be camped.

Edited June 17, 2013 by BattleMeat

[r4z0r49 4761]

I don't have much of a problem with the new mechanics, I think they make the game more challenging and suspenseful. However I think a good countermeasure to the new restrictions imposed by the update would be to keep the medical drop rates the way they were, mainly in hospitals. It should be fair to assume that a hospital will have a box of medical supplies. The tension as a result comes from having to enter one of the main cities to get it. It keeps the game realistic and challenging without making it nearly impossible to stay alive without dying of an infection.

Loot is not the same in .7 medical items can spawn any place. Its just more focused in medical buildings.

[johnnyrocket162 0]

great job, love the new idea! At first i loved the patch with the infection then after gathering a bunch of stuff and dieing because one zombie hit me, my mind changed. When will this be added into the mod? hopefully it it is very soon.

[r4z0r49 4761]

Thanks for listening to the feedback R4ZOR. I think everyone is pretty much in agreement for once. lol

We are trying.

[EndEffeKt 87]

I really love this idea and the direction the new patches go. Everything just needs some tweaking. The new loot locations and spawnrates are fine in my opinion. Infection needs some tweaking and the losing of zeds is a bit ridiculous in some situation when you got no weapon at all. I personally would like to see them losing aggro a tad easier than now.

[r4z0r49 4761]

great job, love the new idea! At first i loved the patch with the infection then after gathering a bunch of stuff and dieing because one zombie hit me, my mind changed. When will this be added into the mod? hopefully it it is very soon.

As soon as we can.

[junkets 0]

// This comment is mainly directed at R4Z0R49, but am also interested in the community's response. I have also posted this on /r/dayz.

I like this, even as someone who hasn't complained about the current infection mechanic.

However, the 1 hour time limit bothers me, and I foresee some problems with the idea. Hear me out.

As I understand it, this new mechanic takes into consideration the immune systems ability to fight off the infection. It's a great idea and also like the ideas of sterilisation, hydration, warmth etc to help delay, or eliminate the infection.

With regard to the 1 hour time limit, I have two questions:

• Say a zed has successfully transmitted the infection to you (i.e. the 1 hour counter has activated), how would one know this has occurred? (i.e. is there some indication?)

• What if you get hit again by an infected super zed during this hour, does the counter reset?

If there is no indication, one could naively run off into the woods where suddenly the infection icon appears and blood loss is instigated, seemingly out of nowhere.

If there is some indication, I guess one could call it an "infection risk" indicator.

In this case, I can see this actually making the new infection mechanic worse in the eyes of those who are currently complaining. For example, if you have said high risk of infection, during that hour you will be attempting to procure items to help remove the infection. During that hour you'll likely be hit again and thereby reset the counter. In this fashion, you are constantly 'at risk' of infection unless you make no physical contact with zeds for a full hour (after which you still might get infected).

Personally, I kinda like the idea of being constantly 'at risk' of infection, but I don't believe the majority of the community would agree.

If my understanding of the new mechanic is correct, and you are going ahead with the idea, may I suggest breaking this hour into shorter intervals. For example, four 15 min intervals at which the immune system attempts to reject the infection. After four failures (1 hour has passed) one then becomes infected and begins to lose blood.

I hope my understanding of the new mechanic is not over simplified. If so, could you perhaps provide further insight, thanks.

Edit: formatting.

Edited June 17, 2013 by junkets

[Schmeddy 9]

So is alcohol already added? Or will it be a part of this new hot fix?

[fluxley 2228]

So is alcohol already added? Or will it be a part of this new hot fix?

No, none of this will make it to the hotfix, this is just what they are working on for the next full patch.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Fluxley

[BioHazard050 49]

This will about the next patch perfect, good job RAZOR

Edited June 17, 2013 by BioHazard050

[hung_alchemist@yahoo.com.hk 22]

I hate 1.7.7, the inflection is too strong, the food and medical supply are rare,so I keep focus on 1.7.6.1

[todge2k (DayZ) 3]

is the disconnect from server when using blood bag fixed with this build?