Feedback of an ArmA Veteran and DayZ N00b

[derdoe (DayZ) 16]

Hello everyone, hello Dean and team!

 

I'd like to take a few moments to give some feedback!

 

Overall experience:

Much better than anticipated, i am having a load of fun. I cant stop playing DayZ and i have yet come to encounter a single second of boredom.

 

Landscape/Map:

The landscape is very challenging, i love walking through the woods and forrests, at some points the mid-range textures need to be improved from my point of view.

 

Gameplay:

I really like that it is hard to find loot, for the future i hope spawning loot in randomly will effectively combat server hopping. Changing from items on the Quickbar sometimes really confuses me, especially when i have a zombie rushing me and i press my button for melee, i am never sure if it is indeed changing to Melee weapon or not. With the lack of 3rd persons in the future, i would appreciate some type of UI confirmation that the item change will be done. (e.g. old item in hand will be orange and new item will be green until change action is performed).

 

Performance:

I am very happy with the performance so far, i am able to get half-way decent FPS everywhere i was on the map (also high-rise buildings near Cherno). For me the NetCode seems to have improved quite a lot, the gameplay itself feels much more fluid.

 

Hacking/Cheating:

From what i experienced until now, i can only say that so far i have not been affected by any hackers (or at least i didnt notice it) which is very positive in my eyes. I hope that the dev team will be able to maintain this high standard.

 

Player vs Player interaction:

The obvious shoot on sight mentality is still a problem in my eyes, especially around the Points of Interest (e.g. Military bases, Airports)

However i noticed that many people are attempting to force players into cooperation. To prevent even more the shoot on sight mentality, i could imagine to have a system that prevents you form logging out for a set period of time (e.g. 5 minutes) after you have injured someone heavily or killed another player. That will force players to plan ahead and they cant just disconnect when they think they are safe. Also maybe the more kills you have, the longer it will take for you to log out. E.g. you kill 3 people within 5 minutes, so your original log-off countdown would be maybe increased with every more kill about 90 seconds more. I dont know if this method would proof succesfull in lowering the shoot on sight mentality, i guess it would be worth a try.

 

Sounds:

Many of the sounds are really well done, i like that i am able to hear if someone in the building next to me opens his can of soda so i am aware i am not alone. Wrapping Rags around your shoes could temporarily silence your steps so you are not being heard. (only for a short distance, maybe for a distance of 150 meters or so).

 

Suggestions:

 - following blood trails of injured players: I have shot twice people that were bleeding but definitively not dead, they managed to get away from me and i tried to find them again. Blood trails would be very helpful with that.

 - Increase complexity of medical tasks: E.g. giving a saline IV bag should maybe consist of 3 stages: insert IV needle, connect IV bag and start transfusion, remove needle when done. If needle is not removed after the transfusion is done, an infection should occur after a set amount of time (e.g. 10 minutes). The whole process should take 2 Minutes to give the transfusion, normally it takes quite some time to give infusions, if it is done too fast, shock is likely to occur. Optionally implement a way to control how much fluid flows into the player receiving IV bag and if the fluid flow is too high, shock could occur.

 - Remove bullets after being hit: New item Surgical Pliers to remove bullets if you got hit. Not removing bullet leads to infection.

 - Open/Close House doors: Randomise if house doors are open or closed, at the moment people join servers: "Oh doors are open, loot is gone" and disconnect. Ideally there is no obvious indicator if a town or area has been scavenged already.

 - disable drinking / eating while wearing masks

 - to be able to play with friends, maybe implement some group feature that people playing together spawn in the same general area of the map (e.g. randomly within a distance of 3 kilometers or so)

 - megaphone: Can be used to transmit voice chat over a greater distance (e.g. 300 meters). Can be used to improve player vs player interaction, especially if you can tell people to holster their gun or to put their hands up so you can approach them more safely. Maybe a nice addition would be some siren sound loop for the megaphone. :)

 

Conclusion:

I am very happy with the current state of the game, i am sure obvious abuses like server hopping or combat logging will be addressed. My friends and i enjoy playing DayZ SA a lot, we are hoping for better ways to interact with other players but what has been done already is very good.

 

Addition 12/31/2013:

 

for the bullet removal you should be able to use any 1 handed sharp object kitchen knife / hunting knife / screwdriver / pen and have it so if you use them instead of the proper surgical tool you would have to also apply a 2nd bandage or increase the bleeding rate while the animation plays so you could actually kill yourself by accident if you don't use the right tool and you're close to death; also large calibre bullets should penetrate through the player so no need to remove

 

 - Rope and Duct tape to handcuff someone, can be removed with knife or freeing yourself

 - candles: need matchboxes to lighten up, heavy wind will extinguish the candle

 - tea: can be made from tree leaves, very good if player is ill or cold

 - Books: Books with medical, hunting, cooking, crafting or survival tips

 - Sewing kits to repair damaged clothing into "Worn" state, not applicable for ruined clothes

 - water tight bag: content will not get damp if it gets in contact with water (useful for e.g. electronic devices, clothing, books, ammunition)

 - signal fires: Fires release huge black smoke clouds (usefull as signal fire) e.g. if rubber, plastic, wet tree leaves are thrown into the fire.

 - oxygen bottle + mask: regenerate health, similar to saline bag, blood bag, can be used for reanimation if player is unconscious

 - to prevent combat logging: player wants to leave the game, his character waves with hand 2-3 times, then rolls out a sleeping back and lays to rest, will give players trying to rob, arrest or whatever else evil they want to do with other players a clear signal that the other player wants to disconnect

Edited December 30, 2013 by derdoe

[Gdaddy22 299]

I really like that it is hard to find loot

 

 

Are you kidding me ? It's retardly easy to find best gear in the game in 30 minutes, we need to fix that

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

Great post derdoe, I will come back with some beans for you :beans:

[Konna 149]

Everything else is valid, but i picked onto the logout timer. Imagine if you have a wedding to attend for example, and you decide to play for a bit before. You kill a couple of players, then you have to leave. What happens? You have to remain online.

[Gdaddy22 299]

Everything else is valid, but i picked onto the logout timer. Imagine if you have a wedding to attend for example, and you decide to play for a bit before. You kill a couple of players, then you have to leave. What happens? You have to remain online.

 

That's the feature of most MMO games, if you know you have to go somewhere you don't okay because you don't know what's gonna happen. Happened to me alot, I had to go but I still had to finish boss with my party, I didn't to with my gf to the movie theater xD

[derdoe (DayZ) 16]

I really like that it is hard to find loot

 

 

Are you kidding me ? It's retardly easy to find best gear in the game in 30 minutes, we need to fix that

 

Well right now it is easy, because the servers reset and the servers are filled then.

 

As soon as loot spawns in randomly, it will be much harder and loot will be rare.

 

Everything else is valid, but i picked onto the logout timer. Imagine if you have a wedding to attend for example, and you decide to play for a bit before. You kill a couple of players, then you have to leave. What happens? You have to remain online.

 

Well, the main idea is to reduce the shoot on sight mentality some people have, my idea is definitively not ideal, i had some other ideas, e.g. if you kill too many players, you get some kind of mental illness which makes your hands shaky and you need to find certain very very rare medication to reduce those effects. It was a basic idea, it wasnt a very good one. Especially in cases of self-defense, its a stupid idea, i agree.

[Timmymachine109 (DayZ) 235]

Most of these suggestions are really good and you get beans for them :) Not a fan of the logout timer increasing for killing people though. Killing people shouldn't be punished at all, it's part of the game!

[IcyBlade 48]

 

 - Remove bullets after being hit: New item Surgical Pliers to remove bullets if you got hit. Not removing bullet leads to infection.

 

Some good ideas but I especially like this one, this would add a use for the already existent pliers and perhaps there condition could also effect the outcome i.e. need to disinfect, or if they are damaged you could slip further injuring yourself slightly.

[derdoe (DayZ) 16]

Most of these suggestions are really good and you get beans for them :) Not a fan of the logout timer increasing for killing people though. Killing people shouldn't be punished at all, it's part of the game!

 

I just noticed that i didnt describe my idea properly: You should still be able to logout, what i actually meant was that if you decide to disconnect while you are still on the "killing cooldown", you receive a message: You are logging out now, your character will stay ingame for another XXX seconds. So you will be able to logout however your character stays ingame for a certain amount of time and after that logs out. If someone finds you during that period, you are up to that player's mercy. But in general i agree, the idea is not a very good one.

[Shadow Man 142]

Everything else is valid, but i picked onto the logout timer. Imagine if you have a wedding to attend for example, and you decide to play for a bit before. You kill a couple of players, then you have to leave. What happens? You have to remain online.

 

I don't think I would be playing Dayz just minutes before having to go to a wedding. I'd probably miss it.

 

I never really play Dayz unless I know I have a couple of hours when I'm unlikely to have to stop. If I know I have to stop in 10 minutes I play differently, I mostly avoid player interaction.

[IcyBlade 48]

I just noticed that i didnt describe my idea properly: You should still be able to logout, what i actually meant was that if you decide to disconnect while you are still on the "killing cooldown", you receive a message: You are logging out now, your character will stay ingame for another XXX seconds. So you will be able to logout however your character stays ingame for a certain amount of time and after that logs out. If someone finds you during that period, you are up to that player's mercy. But in general i agree, the idea is not a very good one.

 

I think this is an intended feature already, except that everyone stays in for x amount of time regardless of what you have done recently.

This would mimic the need to find somewhere safe to hunker down for a few hours to rest.

[derdoe (DayZ) 16]

I think this is an intended feature already, except that everyone stays in for x amount of time regardless of what you have done recently.

This would mimic the need to find somewhere safe to hunker down for a few hours to rest.

 

I really hope that is the case :)

[ruStanSc 9]

 

I really like that it is hard to find loot, for the future i hope spawning loot in randomly will effectively combat server hopping. Changing from items on the Quickbar sometimes really confuses me, especially when i have a zombie rushing me and i press my button for melee, i am never sure if it is indeed changing to Melee weapon or not.

Lower ur weapon with space then u can switch ur weapons while running.

[twingunz 308]

Really good post lots of good ideas, beans for you!

for the bullet removal you should be able to use any 1 handed sharp object kitchen knife / hunting knife / screwdriver / pen and have it so if you use them instead of the proper surgical tool you would have to also apply a 2nd bandage or increase the bleeding rate while the animation plays so you could actually kill yourself by accident if you don't use the right tool and you're close to death; also large calibre bullets should penetrate through the player so no need to remove.

[derdoe (DayZ) 16]

Very good idea twingunz :)

 

I hope you accept my beans :)

[derdoe (DayZ) 16]

Edited first post, added more suggestions!