One Survivor's Suggestion Compilation

[Urshilikai 1]

More than anything I like the idea of DayZ. An item-hunt for survival from both other players and from zombies that mimics a real post-apocalyptic situation. And I'm still glad my money went to support the development of what hopefully will be a good game.

 

Unfortunately I feel like almost all of the bad elements that were present in Arma have been carried over to varying degrees. Let's go through them.

 

1. Head bobbing. Myself and a large percentage of the gaming community gets headaches/motion sickness from this. If you don't turn it off by default or give us an option to, it's unplayable for us. Even the minor head movement while standing still got on my nerves because I was trying to watch which direction the moon was going (rising or setting) but couldn't track the pixels because of the breathing animation when standing still (through a scope I could believe it, but just standing around really?). Please at least add an option to remove all head bobb animations and breathing movements outside of a scope.

 

2. Movement mechanics. I have to say this is probably the worst element brought over from Arma. The controls feel "sticky". My character doesn't move responsively to my input commands: he has a very long acceleration time, a forced maximum rotation speed. This is a tax on time, literally. It drives a wedge between my real time interaction with a mouse/keyboard and what my character is able to do in the game. The single best thing you could do after removing head bobbing is to make the game as responsive as something like L4D, or CS, or any number of other fast paced FPS games where my inputs actually register reproducibly and responsively. It does not mimic realism, it does not increase difficulty, it does not improve the game. It is simply a tax on time.

 

3. Inventory mechanics. While this has been significantly improved upon from the inventory system of Arma (christ was that a frustrating system), it still has a long way to go to be fluid. First and foremost, switching weapons needs to be more fluid (think half life); having a lag time for pulling it from your backpack is fine, the controls for doing so just need to be more responsive. Little things like having to drag items you want to drop to the 1-9 bar first, then drop them should be priority. The item loot system is still just as laggy as in Arma. I want to see the inventory as soon as I activate an item or corpse, not after a lengthy crouching animation (since when can human beings not pick up something off the ground mid stride? maybe for a corpse I could believe having to search it.) Also please make the the activate toggle button something other than middle mouse button...

 

4. Complexity vs Streamlined. This is something the devs obviously need to work out on their own for what kind of game they can reasonably finish on the time-scales they have. What I'm talking about here is does the flashlight really "need" a battery? Is that an unecessarily complex mechanic that is frustrating, increases development time and adds little to the game? I would argue yes, and several other mechanics of the game leave me scratching my head about why they are so unecessarily complex when there is no real function behind it.

 

I'm not saying this game should be modeled after Nether, but there are a few things that Nether did right... or at least better than what DayZ currently offers.

[Skat3rat 1633]

More than anything I like the idea of DayZ. An item-hunt for survival from both other players and from zombies that mimics a real post-apocalyptic situation. And I'm still glad my money went to support the development of what hopefully will be a good game.

 

Unfortunately I feel like almost all of the bad elements that were present in Arma have been carried over to varying degrees. Let's go through them.

 

1. Head bobbing. Myself and a large percentage of the gaming community gets headaches/motion sickness from this. If you don't turn it off by default or give us an option to, it's unplayable for us. Even the minor head movement while standing still got on my nerves because I was trying to watch which direction the moon was going (rising or setting) but couldn't track the pixels because of the breathing animation when standing still (through a scope I could believe it, but just standing around really?). Please at least add an option to remove all head bobb animations and breathing movements outside of a scope.

 

2. Movement mechanics. I have to say this is probably the worst element brought over from Arma. The controls feel "sticky". My character doesn't move responsively to my input commands: he has a very long acceleration time, a forced maximum rotation speed. This is a tax on time, literally. It drives a wedge between my real time interaction with a mouse/keyboard and what my character is able to do in the game. The single best thing you could do after removing head bobbing is to make the game as responsive as something like L4D, or CS, or any number of other fast paced FPS games where my inputs actually register reproducibly and responsively. It does not mimic realism, it does not increase difficulty, it does not improve the game. It is simply a tax on time.

 

3. Inventory mechanics. While this has been significantly improved upon from the inventory system of Arma (christ was that a frustrating system), it still has a long way to go to be fluid. First and foremost, switching weapons needs to be more fluid (think half life); having a lag time for pulling it from your backpack is fine, the controls for doing so just need to be more responsive. Little things like having to drag items you want to drop to the 1-9 bar first, then drop them should be priority. The item loot system is still just as laggy as in Arma. I want to see the inventory as soon as I activate an item or corpse, not after a lengthy crouching animation (since when can human beings not pick up something off the ground mid stride? maybe for a corpse I could believe having to search it.) Also please make the the activate toggle button something other than middle mouse button...

 

4. Complexity vs Streamlined. This is something the devs obviously need to work out on their own for what kind of game they can reasonably finish on the time-scales they have. What I'm talking about here is does the flashlight really "need" a battery? Is that an unecessarily complex mechanic that is frustrating, increases development time and adds little to the game? I would argue yes, and several other mechanics of the game leave me scratching my head about why they are so unecessarily complex when there is no real function behind it.

 

I'm not saying this game should be modeled after Nether, but there are a few things that Nether did right... or at least better than what DayZ currently offers.

 

1.  You can turn off head bob in the game options.

 

2.  I think otherwise.  The movements feels fairly fluid for me.

 

3.  It needs to be worked on a little but it is fine for the most part imo.

 

4.  I disagree.  These little thing makes the game that much more difficult.

[Korsbaek 1778]

Am I the only one around here who actually liked the old inventory system more?

[Urshilikai 1]

Am I the only one around here who actually liked the old inventory system more?

 

I would say the only major improvement has been with not managing those goddam backpacks lol. Having to take it off to access it and everything...

[ival 0]

1. I turned off my head bob

2. As a CS player I agree that motion is NOT fluid. People who think it is fluid should play Quake/CS/UT. 

3. I'm fine with it. It can be improved but no big deal. I really like how different clothes give you extra space. Way more streamlined than before.

4. I think there should be MORE of these "little" things. I love all the added complexity of the game and the more the better (at least on the level we currently are).

 

 

My biggest concern with the game:

5. There is too much loot on pristine loot spawns. This means that if I go to an empty server I can get ridiculous gear within an hour and not have to worry about hunger/thirst/sickness ever again.

6. There is no respawning of loot so on a busy server a freshspawn can easily die of hunger (as have I). Some of this could be alleviated simply by making can openers easier to find or allowing people to bang the can on other things to "open" (even if at loss of some of the food inside).

7. Zombies. I know they are a work in progress, but I hope there would be way more of them.

8. Running penalties. Once you are out of thirst/hunger cycle, you can run nonstop all you want. I am currently in a 7 hour character and I more or less run all the time and I never "feel tired" or whatever because I hydrate/eat whenever an indicator pops up (same with my 2 team mates). I shouldn't be able to constantly double tap w (turbo) and not have any negative effects.

Edited December 18, 2013 by ival

[mavicman 0]

I think this post conducts interesting additions that should not be left out by the game devs. 

As for the staggering movements that the game physics brings us... the devs at Bohemia Interactive would have to generate a whole new engine to produce a non-glitchy movement. And we all know this game is a port from Arma II and they are not willing to pay the devs a few hundreds of thousands of dollars to remake a whole new engine. so sit tight and wait a few years until DayZ 2 comes out with a new engine.. if ever.

 

Am I the only one around here who actually liked the old inventory system more?

 

 

I also prefered the old inventory style... the new one is overwhelming. You actually needed to be smart to figure out the old system. Which kinda pwned the noobs for us right off the bat.

Edited December 18, 2013 by m2o