Don't drop gear when swimming

[razzmatazz 2]

The latest ARMA 2 patch seems to make it relatively easy to turn off the feature where players drop their gear when swimming. I know it's been mentioned elsewhere in the forum, but will this be something we can look forward to?

[Haplo (DayZ) 44]

if you can swim fully clothed with a 60+ litre backpack and not drown, kudos to you...

[ZomboWTF 527]

dito, you dont need to swim anywhere anyways, except you startled a horde at the beach, theres nothing on drakon, only a few spawns at the big island with houses, but you can drop your backpack before swimming there, and pick it up when you return

[Zeromentor 169]

Attempt to swim with a backpack and gear? Drown like a boy.

Attempt to swim, and drop gear that weighs you down? Survive like a man.

Come back later and reclaim lost gear; Intelligent decision.

Snipe guy on beach as he drags himself from the waves- Priceless.

[razzmatazz 2]

Ah, so it's all about realism. Then I have a suggestion to make it more realistic. I don't think anybody who finds himself weighted down with too much equipment while attempting to swim instantaneously sheds every shred of excess equipment. How about when you have a pack and try to go swimming, you just sink to the bottom of the lake/ocean? If you don't want to drop your gear, you can swim/walk back to shore. If you want to go for a swim, drop your gear. Otherwise you drown.

It just seems like a very harsh penalty to make someone immediately drop all of the gear and supplies they spent hours collecting simply because they stepped ever so slightly too far into the water. That isn't realistic either.

I would agree that it's basically a non-issue if it's impossible to swim anywhere other than the ocean. I'm always wary of wading too far into a pond for fear of losing my gear.

[Zeromentor 169]

I'm fine with the way it is, forcing people to go into thier inventory to drop things manually so they don't drown is something I think we should avoid.

[razzmatazz 2]

I'm fine with the way it is' date=' forcing people to go into thier inventory to drop things manually so they don't drown is something I think we should avoid.

[/quote']

Well, of course they shouldn't instantly drown. Giving players even a full minute would be plenty of time for them to open the inventory and drop their gear or simply walk back towards land. That would also be well within the realm of reality in terms of a person's ability to hold their breath.

Forcing people to drop all their equipment immediately so they can swim (whether they intend to or not) is something I think we should avoid.

[Zeromentor 169]

I'm fine with the way it is' date=' forcing people to go into thier inventory to drop things manually so they don't drown is something I think we should avoid.

[/quote']

Well, of course they shouldn't instantly drown. Giving players even a full minute would be plenty of time for them to open the inventory and drop their gear or simply walk back towards land. That would also be well within the realm of reality in terms of a person's ability to hold their breath.

Forcing people to drop all their equipment immediately so they can swim (whether they intend to or not) is something I think we should avoid.

If you intend to swim, the game drops your gear so you don't drown.

If you don't want to swim, don't go into the water.

If you find yourself in the water and have gear, the game sometimes drops it. Do the math, keep your gear and drown? Or don't go into the water.

Why remove something ingame as the auto-geardrop, when it is already there for the reasons it needs to be? It's like going back a step, not forward.

[razzmatazz 2]

...

If you don't want to swim' date=' don't go into the water.

...

[/quote']

This is exactly the problem that I'm suggesting be fixed. Why should players be afraid of wading into the water? They shouldn't. There's no reason players should artificially avoid the water simply for fear of losing their equipment. It's not realistic.

...

If you find yourself in the water and have gear' date=' the game sometimes drops it. Do the math, keep your gear and drown? Or don't go into the water.

Why remove something ingame as the auto-geardrop, when it is already there for the reasons it needs to be? It's like going back a step, not forward.

[/quote']

You ignore the third option: walk back towards land and neither drown nor lose your gear.

I think we're coming at this from two different angles. You assume that anytime somebody enters the water, they intend to swim, and thus intend to drop their gear. I believe that somebody may enter the water for any number of reasons and may not intend to drop their gear.

Here's the essential problem: auto gear drop is an unrealistic solution to a realistic problem. The realistic problem is that nobody can swim while carrying a large amount of gear. The unrealistic solution is to have them instantaneously drop all that gear as soon as they inch a single toe too far into the water. Surely, there must be a more nuanced solution.

Remind me again why it would be the end of the world to just let people swim with the gear? Realism isn't really sufficient justification since auto gear drop isn't realistic either. Would it break some kind of game dynamic?

[enablerbr 0]

Just thought I'd menation that I spawned yesterday on an island off shore. Had no choice but to swim to shore. So my new char lost backpack.

So though the current penalty sounds fine in normal play. It is rather punishing when the game mechanics doesn't give you the option to avoid it.