The days of panic - when it all started

[Leferath 6]

Hello there fellow survivors! 

 

I spent nearly all of my hours off when i wasn't working to explore the SA map, check out the new places and greet the old ones.

 

I was a bit sad i haven't seen too much of the military camps around, not because of the loot, but i wanted to see traces of panic and chaos. I mean it couldn't happen in two seconds, they weren't sitting in their rooms and died the same time, so why is there no trace of their actions around? Where did everyone go from one second to another?

 

I came up with a few ideas, throwing them out here for you guys to discuss which i think would make the game even better.

 

Now DayZ mod didn't have any backstory to it but i think SA would need one.

I'm not talking about a long-long entry video with Freeman telling us how the world went to shit and the dead started to rise up to eat the living, just things to come across in the world about the outbreak. I will break them down into chapters now:

 

Timeline:

 

Z-30 days: Several cases of a new disease been reported around the globe causing fewer, nausea

Z-20 days: Patients diagnosed with the disease start dieing rapidly

Z-10 days: Numerous reports tell about the dead coming back to life

Z-5 days: Numerous reports tell about cannibalism, military forces are now helping police to maintain order

DayZ: Marital law been declared, military forces are now evacuating civilians, everybody diagnosed with the disease get executed, they start burning the corpses

Z+2: Military positions in Cherno got overrun, city evacuation stops, people are fleeing the area

Z+4: Airforce starts bombing highly infested areas

Z+10: Radio communications and news stop last informations are about global infestation

Z+20: No sign of coordinated military actions any more, people are fleeing the area both civilians and service personal

Z+30: Our journey begins

 

Civilian world

Signs of the outbreak like posters on the wall telling civilians to be cautious about a new disease spreading, pointing them towards trauma centers, warning everybody about the military actions being taken. Hospitals show signs of being crowded carpark full in front of it, waiting area trashed and bloodied up, body-bags at the back, maybe burned corpses showing they tried to stop the spreading. Small objects in the world like last notes, notes to loved ones "went to the xy safepoint, meet you there love mom&dad", "survivors inside" painted on the roof (in cyrill alphabet obv) barricaded buildings and improvised safezones like village churches and bars that the civilians were trying to fortify as a stronghold but got overrun/ran out of food etc. 

 

Military Action

In the event of an outbreak like this I guess the military actions would be the following:

 - forty their base (ensure they will have supplies to take up the fight)

 - help guarding safe assembly points for civilians

 - evacuate highly populated areas

So what I would like to see are military trucks parked on the street that were supposed to help evac civilians but got overrun, strongpoints outside bigger cities where the army tried to line up and take the walkers out until they ran out of ammunation or got overran, EVAC points for rescueing civilians, and ofc: destroyed buildings and maybe villages. If something like this would happen the military would sure as hell ask the (ch)airforce to bomb the everliving shit out of the highly infested area, so they got to bomb at least a few places before the airfield fall or the pilots decided to take the plane and try find a safezone.

 

 

So many ideas are buzzing in my head about this, from crashed plains and trains to long stuffed lines of cars trying to get out of the big cities. I would like this world to be populated with memories, signs, monuments of a kind to remember us players that we are in a post apocalyptic world were all that once was has gone, and now its a wolfs world out there where zombies and bandits are after you and a can of beans can make you the happiest man on earth!

 

I want a bleeding, sad world around me haunted by memories of the life before and the days of the panic.

 

I know that the game is in early alpha stage, and you do a GREAT job there guys keep it up, i'm sure the landscape isn't final yet, and when the time comes please consider these, would make the game atmosphere a lot better!

 

 - once i got home i will sit down and update this post with more details sicne i have a lot of ideas written up there - 

Edited December 24, 2013 by Leferath

[Thaurus 38]

Great idea!!

 

I wondered the same thing ( i have not played the mod tbh).

 

The only thing I can see is the blood in the houses and a crashed bus somewhere at the coast with some dead people in a shallow grave....

[Leferath 6]

Yeah i came across that bus as well, haven't seen any of the graves tho, wondered around the bigger cities but its only a few carwrecks and thats all at the moment.

[Knightmare (DayZ) 109]

Yeah I agree completely. I'd love to see more evidence of the complete and total collapse. Just random blood spatter in some of the houses isn't that thrilling. The few crashed cars or other evidence is still pretty bare. It would be great to see more places that looked like overrun safe zones, etc etc.

[Leferath 6]

Added a  small timeline idea as well, will need to update these once i got home tho

[Twixxer 159]

Yes.

[mercules 1290]

The Zeds are not dead, they are infected. We are immune to the virus that has turned them into raging homicidal monsters. Think more, "28 Days Later" where Great Brittian was literally destroyed by the infection in less than 28 days. Halve your timeline and you are probably closer to what was happening if Rocket and crew are going with something similar to the Rage Virus. If it was airborn and not blood/saliva transmitted it could have hopped across Chernarus in days leaving no one uninfected but those survivors immune to the "zombification" of the virus. 

[Leferath 6]

I don't think it's actually a virus, if Rocket would think on the side like a 28 days later pattern i would think there were more HAZMAT type of things in the mod too, along with military facilities like that as well, i saw no sign in the mod that quarantine zones or bases would be up. So i just assume we are going in a more George A Romero type old school zombie idea (which i prefer more anyway), not talking about the actual dead to rise again from the graves but that those who been in contact with the infected got the disease by blood/saliva (like a rabbis type of disease) that kills/reanimates the body. If they are 28 Days later type of infected only, the same would happen as it happens in the movie : they would die of starvation or dehydration since their bodies would still require these yet their base insticts wouldnt be working, while zombies would survive since their bodies are slowly rotting, they dont require food drink or sleep. Tho thats just my oppinion :) if it would be a fast virus outbreak than yeah, the timeline would be a lot shorter :)

[mercules 1290]

I don't think it's actually a virus, if Rocket would think on the side like a 28 days later pattern i would think there were more HAZMAT type of things in the mod too, along with military facilities like that as well, i saw no sign in the mod that quarantine zones or bases would be up. So i just assume we are going in a more George A Romero type old school zombie idea (which i prefer more anyway), not talking about the actual dead to rise again from the graves but that those who been in contact with the infected got the disease by blood/saliva (like a rabbis type of disease) that kills/reanimates the body. If they are 28 Days later type of infected only, the same would happen as it happens in the movie : they would die of starvation or dehydration since their bodies would still require these yet their base insticts wouldnt be working, while zombies would survive since their bodies are slowly rotting, they dont require food drink or sleep. Tho thats just my oppinion :) if it would be a fast virus outbreak than yeah, the timeline would be a lot shorter :)

 

You would be wrong. I am attempting to find a direct quote from Rocket but the zombies are viral living zombies not Romero style "The Walking Dead" zombies. This is why you can kill a zombie by shooting it in the foot enough times and don't have to headshot everything. Supposedly someone in Rocket's family is in medicine and gave him a pretty good run down of what viral zombism would be like and the 28 Days Later Rage with maybe a more realistic incubation period would be a real world thing. 

I did a bunch of looking into it and Rabies and Ebola can create agitation in people that leads to violent behavior. A mutated strain(possibly weaponized by someone) would fit very well with the Zeds we deal with in DayZ. 

[Leferath 6]

You would be wrong. I am attempting to find a direct quote from Rocket but the zombies are viral living zombies not Romero style "The Walking Dead" zombies. This is why you can kill a zombie by shooting it in the foot enough times and don't have to headshot everything. Supposedly someone in Rocket's family is in medicine and gave him a pretty good run down of what viral zombism would be like and the 28 Days Later Rage with maybe a more realistic incubation period would be a real world thing. 

I did a bunch of looking into it and Rabies and Ebola can create agitation in people that leads to violent behavior. A mutated strain(possibly weaponized by someone) would fit very well with the Zeds we deal with in DayZ. 

In that case I'm still looking for some extra "dark memories" in the game, also an explanation why won't our infested just die of starvation and attack each other as well?

[mercules 1290]

In that case I'm still looking for some extra "dark memories" in the game, also an explanation why won't our infested just die of starvation and attack each other as well?

There is some evidence that things such as Toxoplasmosis can cause behavioural changes in mice and people despite it not being fatal in people. People with Rabies end up with Hydrophobia and will react to water with agitation and violence if you attempt to push it on them. It's entirely possible that the infected are agitated by by the presence of non-infected due to the virus' influence and that the virus makes them smell/look/sound a certain way which clues each of them in on the fact that they are not "prey". 

While the premise in 28 Days Later is that the infected don't eat and so die off 4 weeks or so later, that doesn't have to be true of our Zed virus. They will eat the uninfected, for example, which could extend their life. Maybe they drink while "Off camera" from us. 

Edited December 24, 2013 by Mercules

[Leferath 6]

I wouldn't mind seeing the infected eating the ones they kill, would look awesome to enter a village and see a chewed up corpse. Anyway we got a bit off from the main topic of adding more "memories" and scars to the landscape :)

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

When alpha is finished rocket should put a  note/book/evidence of the story but making it really hard to find like super rare loot. Once its found  and the person posts that he has found it on the forums the entire forum must collaborate to decode or understand this piece of evidence and the person that found it get put in a mini hall of fame. 

 

Every patch some new evidence gets added.

 

Through this the story is told. 

[Slugfoot1 16]

It's probably been suggested, but I thought it might be cool to have evidence of unsuccessful attempts to flee or evacuate. For example, a moored ferry (food+water) or hospital ship (medical supplies?)that had been overrun before it could leave and various cars etc. at the coast that had been abandoned (giving the posibility of fixing, syphoning fuel or swapping batteries, or whatever).

It also occurs that it might be cool if new spawns spawned together (possibly in pairs or small groups - why always singly?). This might encourage co-op a bit, particularly if some kind of skills system ever gets implemented.

 

Just a thought... :)