DayZ - The way I see it

[Apelo 26]

This is long, I know. For the bored and diehard only. RELEVANT TO DAYZ MOD AND STANDALONE

 

Part 1. The DayZ experience (or possibly just mine)

Part 2. The Dayz Standalone as I see it.

 

>>Part 1

 

I adored this game when I first played the mod.

 

Only dark cuboids were visible amidst the jet black landscape. 

 

My hours were spent in complete darkness, in a single location. A 3x3 metre room. One of those industrial tool sheds on the coast. I clutched my flares hesitantly, terrified to ignite them lest I attract the attention of the zombie that had been patrolling outside for the past half hour. And so I sat there. In complete darkness. Terrified. Actually scared.

 

I would listen intently in the pitch black and take a step out of my hiding place only to squeal in horror as I saw the lingering figure of the zombie I thought had taken its leave.

 

And so after 2 hours spent in this shed that I could barely see, I logged off. I had experienced the most emotional gaming experience of my life. I had seen nothing-a credit to itself-and let my imagination run wild.

 

Then day. The world was my oyster, or so it seemed. With no knowledge of the map I can only describe the next days worth of game play as one of patient crawling and spec ops level shit. The zombie line of sight was a laser death ray that I avoided. If I was somehow spotted I ran full sprint from the town and tried to approach it again, many minutes later, and more cautiously.

 

Every piece of loot I found was precious because I thought it was the only one to be found in either a grand geographical scale, time frame, or uniqueness, (every new item was an adventure, what hundreds of uses could this crowbar have?). I would pause everywhere and lookout for the living and the dead. I could spend an hour in a small village that had no enter-able buildings at the time.

 

---

 

Then you realise that zombies aren't a threat. Food and drink don't matter. You seek that thrill that everyone in DayZ so famously knows and as much as I try to role play, game mechanics mean the survival aspect is shoehorned in to facilitate a life span committed to engagements with other players.

 

I would bump into fresh survivors and ask them if they needed anything. "No." Well fuck me, what is the point is the point of being friendly except for the agenda of not-killing. Teaming up has no benefits other than security from other players. 

 

>>Part 2

 

In the many patches and updates I realise now this game was never about survival. It never gave it the emphasis it deserved.

 

The naive beauty of my first experience was the result of my complete overestimation of zombies.

 

This was a unique game that set new boundaries, "anti-game" was on its way to becoming a genre.

 

Rocket, his passion and ambition to make this game survivalesque is so inspiring that he has my utter most respect. He has set new standards in the world of gaming. Integrity, art and innovation have reached a turning point in terms of the development because of DayZ SA, its popularity and great community. 

 

But, I don't think DayZ SA will live up to what we expect. At least not in this era. From its inception I had followed its blogs and updates closely and I simply don't see it becoming great. Being a survival game.

 

It is good, don't get me wrong, AND I KNOW ITS ALPHA, but with current technology I don't see Dayz ever coming close to my vision, where every zombie is dire threat. A magazine of ammunition might not save you. There are either thousands of them in every city. Hundreds in every town and dozens in every small village. Or they ruthlessly leap, bound and ambush you with undead resilience to get their survivor-sandwich.

 

Rocket has laid the path DayZ SA will be a good game. It will be a great game, and perhaps I have misread the mood of DayZ fans in thinking that people are content with the lack of zombie presence. I say that not in relation to their low number, but to the fact that when you see a zombie, you don't have a moment of terrified panic in your head (and perhaps between team mates). I simply see AI that follows a line towards you and begins to do something to you that I should interpret as threatening. Zombies need presence.

 

Zombies are the absolute soul of this game. One wrong move and you should be mauled to death in seconds. Band with one or two people and you are capable of entering into a building, boarding it up and holding it while you scrounge in every single corner looking for a can of baked beans, a rag to bandage wounds or scissors so you can cut up the material more effectively. 

 

My conclusion is that perhaps they will change, but I don't see that being facilitated in the engine that DayZ standalone has to work with. TIme will give us better technology and games but most importantly we need Rockets. Unfortunately I fooled myself, and so in a sense its my fault. But I get the feeling I'm not alone here, and now I have a gap in my essence that longs for that initial DayZ feel. In my final summary, until we reach a condition where the "anti-game" is not a mere buzzword, but actually brutally harsh. I will never feel comfortable to play DayZ. I hope I have made my opinion clear. According to Rocket himself there just seems to be extreme limits in what this game will be able to achieve.

[sigvatr 154]

aight thanks

[The Mad Titan 29]

There needs to be more ZOMBIES infected!!! I had a post a few weeks talking about how more ZOMBIES infected can fix many issues and make the game more fun in its early stage. Rocket post upcoming features on Dec. 20th and the first thing is "MORE ZOMBIES" (http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/156129-confirmed-upcoming-features-for-dayz/), but unfortunately it is a server issue that they are working out. It seems to be very important to the devs though, so that's a great sign.

 

I do feel that, after playing for a few weeks, survival is easy in this game (at its current state). The only threat in DayZ is players. 

[cywehner1234 582]

IMO you're right about everything.

[Roshi (DayZ) 397]

Yeah OP you touched a nerve there for me. I remember the feeling of terror you described first with zombies and then with bandits. I remember killing my first player and feeling terrible about it. When you figure the systems out that magic does die down quite a lot. I think that the ruthless PvP is good so long as it makes you shit pure adrenaline, but DayZ definitely needs to develop the other two legs of the tripod - interesting and involved survivalism, and terrifying zombies in large numbers.