Thoughts and suggestions (WOT) ;)

[phoboss 224]

Before I go into detail about the reason for this posting let me say that I love this mod so much. Not only because of the game itself but because it has shown the game industry, especially AAA studios, yes I'm talking to you Dice, that mod tools are still worth it and can sell a game years after its initial release.

My buddy's and I have been playing DayZ since 1.5.x, and during that time have completely forgotten Diablo 3, which we've all been waiting for for many years, even existed. I played battlefield 3 almost every day since it's release, but haven't even bought the new dlc, all because of rockets visionary new game.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let's get started.

I like the general direction the mod is heading in terms of zeds and difficulty.

Spawning without a weapon?!

Genius! At first I thought, now rocket has gone insane, this is madness, but once again he proved all the ney sayers wrong (including me), and that his vision for this mod is unique and working.

But at the same time I'm a little concerned that the gap between well equipped and fresh players cant be closed because there aren't enough places to go for the top tier loot. Take NVG for example. IMHO they should have more spawn locations than just the Barracks. Call it bad luck, but I have NEVER found a pair and like I said, I've been playing almost every day for weeks.

Keep the spawnrate low, but let them spawn in more locations. Like firestations and deerstands for example. That way you would at least have a fighting chance against the group of bandits with NVG and SD weapons.

Dont get me wrong, I dont mind dying from PvP (just yesterday I lost my M4sd with 8 mags, FN FAL ANPV S4 with 5 mags, ghillie, coyote backpack, and everything else you need to survive, except NVG ;)), its the complete powerlessness you have against someone with NVG. There is just nothing you can do against them.

Which brings me to my next point. How about taking away 1 barrack from the NW airfield and put it to the NE or somewhere else on the map? That way you'd have an alternative (other than serverhopping) if the NW airfield is in complete control by some bandit group.

I know this has been discussed a billion times already, but I just have to get this of my chest, the night is to dark. I'm sorry, but its true. There is no place on earth where the night is that dark, that you cant see your hands in front of you. I was sailing on Sardinia last summer and we anchored in a small bay. There was no other boat, no town, nothing in a 10km radius. And I could still see shore 500m away.

Maybe when its completely cloudy and the moon isn't visible at all. But I've been on servers where the sky was clear and you could see all stars and the moon, but I couldn't see if I was in first or third person view.

Don't make it light as day, but make it light enough that you can at least see silhouettes of buildings, forests and a player standing on a field 50m away from you.

Like I said, the changes made to the zeds in the last couple of updates are a welcome one, because in 1.6 the only threat zombies posed was that you HAD to shoot them, thus alerting other players to your location. But if it were up to me, I'd decrease their runspeed just a little bit. Because at the moment its near impossible to shoot a running zed even at close to medium range. (The zigzaging doenst help either ;))

Also I think zed should not know your exact location just from hearing your steps or shots. They should come investigate, but if you moved to a different location by the time they arrived, they shouldn't come running after you immediately. Maybe let them roam around a bit and check nearby locations or something.

Another thing I noticed is the volume of your own steps. Personally I think they're to loud when inside buildings. I can walk almost completely silent on most surfaces when wearing sneakers. So how about an introduction of sneakers into DayZ? The way this could work is, you find them just like a ghillie and can put them on. While walking inside buildings or an a paved road you make almost no sound and much less noise while running. But in exchange you can't run very long in high gras or the woods (if this is possible engine wise otherwise you cant run at all or something like that). Maybe you even have a small probability of breaking your ankle while running up and down hills in the woods.

I thought about the ability to "revive" other players and here's how I think it could work. You can find a new item, a medical handbook of some sort. While you're carrying the handbook, a blood bag, an epi pen, morphine, painkillers and a bandage you have the ability to revive another player for a short period of time (maybe 30s or so) after their death.

Something else I'd like to see to make the endgame more entertaining, is the introduction of "rare" zombies with special loot. Just like helo crashsites they spawn randomly and have the chance to drop top tier loot. Maybe you even need more than one player to kill them (if thats even possible).

Weapon mods would also be a great addition to the game. ACOGs, silencers, red dots, flashlights, foregrips and such. Oh yeah and tracer ammunition.

A lot of this is probably something more suited for a beta but I wanted to post it now before I forget it. And maybe rocket gets one or two inspirations from this. So thanks for reading until now, I know how precious everyones time is, since you all want to get back out there and kill zeds, survivors or bandits :)

Oh yeah one last thing. In a lot of other alpha and beta tests its very common to wipe everyones chars once in a while so that all testers can focus on new features. I think this would be something to consider for DayZ aswell.

Especially during the introduction of the "spawning without a weapon" feature, everyone would've had the same experience, and reactions might've been differently.

Thank you rocket for this truly amazing and unique game! And thanks to everyone else for reading.

[XzB3A57zX 1]

Night/NVGs: Most players just avoid night servers until they are well equipped enough to survive, although nights are very dark.

Footstep Investigation: Makes sense, it would be just like tin cans.

Reviving: You would need a new item for this. No matter what medical knowledge you possess, you can't bring someone back to life with just a bandage or blood. It would also have to be extremely rare.

Rare Zombies: Don't know how this would go, I guess it would be good if implemented correctly

Weapon Mods: Some guns already have this stuff, but I don't see why you couldn't add it on, as long as the engine allow for that.

Wiping Chars:

[phoboss 224]

Night: well kinda my point. In real life you can't avoid the night either. So instead of telling people to play on a day server, why not make the nights playable for everyone.

Reviving: I don't think that's true, most people of have a drivers license know cpr and could (to a very limited degree revive another person after let's say a heart attack. Also nowadays every subway station has a defibrillator with instructions that even the dumbest person would understand. Maybe bring a defi into the game then. Or let players only die from heashots instantly, every other hit would send your body into shock for 30 or so seconds. And during this time other players who have the necessary equipment can revive you.

Wiping: of course people won't like it, but like I said, very common in alpha/beta tests and often considered necessary

[XzB3A57zX 1]

You spawn with a flashlight. Use it.

[phoboss 224]

thats usually the first item i drop once i found chemlights or flares, cause you could just wear a big target sign on your back when you're running around with the flashlight :)