non-night vision alternative (light up the town)

[commanderbash 102]

let me start by saying the bane of this suggestion forum is that every good idea gets beat down by people who seem to want the game to stay in its current state. but for every good idea that gets shot down, an alternative emerges. everyone wants to question whether night vision should even be in the game and if it was, what level of clarity it would provide and what its balance would be to those without night vision and even amongst those that do have night vision.

 

now the reason I wanted night vision is to see further and with a wider field of view, and without making myself an enormous target by holding the equivalent of a spotlight, while I loot a town at night.

 

there's a few ways this could be remedied.

they could implement a much larger lightsource, though that'd make you an even more visible target

they could implement piles of disposable lightsources (think flares), you wouldn't have to hold them, but then the amount you'd need to toss around would be almost unrealistic to keep on your person(dozens)

they could implement a hunters moon all the time giving a decent light sources at all hours,,, I don't have  a problem with this but i'm sure other would.

 

finally,,, we could turn the lights on... that's the one that hit me

 

all equipment has been ditched were it stood during the outbreak, that much is visibly clear. what if we could reactive the power station for a city for say a half hour at a time, all lights from all buildings, light it up like downtown at 8pm, an overall medium-low but very visible amount of light spread across the town.

 

it'd give a clear message that someone is in the town, which onlookers could either take to stay away or enter at everyones risk.

it could require some sort of fetch quest of finding fuel or parts, or some other thing to get it started

towns without power stations near could do the same thing with a mobile power station, which is a large diesel generator that fills a semi trailer.

its not an implausible solution and means that no one has the constant nvg advantage across the map

 

I like this option because it lets people know your in the area (common nvg complaint) but doesn't really say specifically where you are (except when the lights turn on since,,, well your at the control area to do so) and it requires a little effort but just enough to make it worth while, and when the lights are on, friend and enemy have the exact  same advantages.

 

this answers all the criteria that I hear people complain about: difficulty, balance, visibility, and player stealth.

 

discuss and support! :)

Edited January 27, 2014 by commanderbash

[Humansteak29 6]

Good idea, adds something to do and player interaction, this could create so many DayZ-esque situations we all love :thumbsup: though I'd like it to be feasible with at least 3-4 players for cities and 2 for remote houses to encourage teamwork.
Also, once the nights are more dangerous, and forests are populated with zombies, hanging out in cities or power up a small house in the middle of nowhere would make night time very interesting!
Also, free beans.

[TomJeff 12]

If they implement road flares and glowsticks then I am all for keeping night as dark as it is right now. The only reason people are complaining is that they don't have that yet.

 

Also getting the power running is a great endgame goal. Equivalent to fixing a car in both difficulty and usefulness. Beans to you.

 

Edit: also needs fuel because this should only be doable by gas(or diesel) generators.

 

Also gas and diesel need to be distinct fuel types just because.

Edited January 27, 2014 by TomJeff

[TedZ 424]

Power Source = Beans

[thedogfoodyayho 295]

if they do this, it shouldn't be for a single town. Elektro's powerplant probably covers all the towns up to solnichiy and up to Zub Castle. But powerlines could be knocked down with axes (If you don't mind be electrocuted) so you could cut off power to a town

 

this scenario would be pretty fun.

 

a group has fortified a small town and a nearby powerplant. their numbers are superior to yours, but you have a NV Scope

(Like and NSPU) so you cut the power and attack.

 

NSPU Scope

 

Overall though, I don't think it would be worth the trouble. its probably harder than you think to run a powerstation.

[commanderbash 102]

if it was implemented I think the KISS strategy would be best. vary it later to peoples response. this doesn't have to be super realistic, but as I said earlier it's plausible and covers all issues players have with NVG implementation.

 

to reiterate I think the best way to employ this would be if each town has a power generation station of some sort. (power plants for the few major cities, mobile power station for the medium ones, and a simple commercial gas power generator for the 10 house towns) and to be clear the reason each town has one is so you have somewhere to go to get the power on so it doesn't have to be super realistic; a bank of semi trailers hooked together with wires would be a believable enough power station for the one or two large cities without power plants and be a quick copy paste job for the developer . a simple fetch quest to get it working. like  find the McGuffin from a small area nearby to get it working, something that can only be carried in hand so people don't stock up on them and leave.

then bring it to the power station and you'll light up the town for 30 or so minutes. what ever the fetch quest is, it should outweigh risk/reward, for example to get the airstrip running temporarily you might have to walk some tech from one side of the runway to the other. take a couple minutes, nothing too hard. but makes you an easy target for someone while you're doing it so friendly cover on full servers would be advisable.

 

it needs some minute amount of difficulty, if it was literally press a button and to turn a towns lights on I feel some people would almost troll it, turning the lights on everywhere they go even if they're not going to go through the town, but it only has to have a little bother to limit that.

 

one of the very best things about it is its ease of scale, they could try this out on one of the many smaller towns and have it be: bring a gas can from one of the garages to the generator.

Edited January 27, 2014 by commanderbash

[Survivor_Sabre 23]

How about flare-guns for a short term light over an area? Could also double as a weopon, or a signal of course.

[commanderbash 102]

possible, but flare guns only light up the sky for a hand full of seconds and point you out as they travel directly away from you, also most loot in towns is inside so it'll provide very little light where you need it most.

[Survivor_Sabre 23]

Ah, my bad. I thought they lasted longer. I had an image in my head of a canister slowly floating down on a little parachute but now I researched it I see how unlikely that is. Also, turns out they don't really make very good weapons either.  ><

Is it just me or is my mind corrupted by stupid Hollywood movies?  ^^

[TEST_SUBJECT_83 465]

It would be cool if you somehow needed 4 to 6 people to get the plant running again, forcing players to work together.

I support this!

[commanderbash 102]

I'd be happy with having one or two people being able to at least get it running temporarily, but when base building and persistence becomes a thing, having the ability to more permanently get it running with 3-4 people would be awesome too

[blackberrygoo 1416]

This would be awesome , all we need are Jerry cans again , and a fuel tank and generators , the generators would need parts to upkeep and LOTS of gas .for it to power a whole town for lets say a real life day , it would take five or so Jerry cans per generator and for a city Cherno sized you'd need like five generators maybe ten . Eventually the generators could be used to lower other things like excavation lights that can be moved around or some shit like power equipment when building comes into play :9

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Oh and also , night vision should definitely be added , only the goggles would be very rare and the night vision attachments for guns would be close to almost impossible to find , seeing as it takes a lot of technology to put one together .

[swedax94 5]

This is a good idea.

 

Maybe you and your friend can repair the power plant. And all lights go on. Like a Quest.

The only thing is, you need many items to repair. 

[Mos1ey 6301]

Flares and chemlights were in the mod, I expect they'll be back at some point. They're a much better option than the torch because they don't give away your exact positon in the same way. Looking forward to their return...

 

I think getting the power-grid back up and running is incredibly unrealistic though TBH.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Mos1ey

[AP_Norris 1018]

I think diesel/ petrol generators would be cool, flood lights and stuff you could plug in it.

[vanguard73 0]

hello guys this is my first post in this forum (first of any forum) so if i made any mistake please forgive me.

 

Image is very large.

 

Purpose of this map.

Base idea of PowerStation and its functions in Chernarus.

We divide this map in different zone. Each zone has its power station to provide power supply to it.

Each circle with same color as its near power station shows the power station effect on that area.

So if you want to light that area you need to have that power station running.

Station A is a main power station in this area (reason there are 2 our going connection for 3 major cities).

In order to get power supply in entire map we must have Station A functional. Dependency  of power station with Station A. as second image.

Edited March 13, 2014 by suraj.vala

[MartinD (DayZ) 86]

Small diesel and petrol generators would be a solution to lighting small areas, I wouldn't want to see power stations or anything similar to that as it just seems a bit far fetched. Small generators should come with big disadvantages though, I'd say make them loud which would attract loads of zombies + players, difficult to move around, very hard to find and make the fuel even rarer. 

[valtsuh 68]

good idea i just tought that too yesterday and if it will be hard to put on lights could be like 2 nights on and then turn off.

[darksteeljorge 96]

You know, barricading is coming, bases too, so what if there was a gas power plant ? Yeah, those little ones you might have or maybe your dad, you just use gasoline and makes electricity.

 

Of course for a little time and for a number of objects. 

 

e.g. Lasts 4 hours filled with gas, and you can light up 15 light bulbs

[kOepi (DayZ) 35]

well your suggestions is more realistic than finding the remote control of a sattelite which enlightes the earth, but
considering that you would need the knowledge of a man to get the power plant running, security codes, electricity, 
you will need the knowledge and logistics to get the recourses that it is running on.
you need the knowledge of how to use the streetlight control system
and you might need to do the maintenance/repair on those streetlights that have been running until the plant ran out of
their resources or it has been shut down.

and still then, I would take out every single streetlight in the city to maintain my night vision superiority.

;)

[valtsuh 68]

i can see how it could work 
bandits want to be dark sso they can snipe people easily cuz they can see them but they cant see him
other people wants to be light so they can loot stuff
when you put this feature in game bandits tries to turn off lights and heroes wants put them on and thats make them to go war 
+1

[AnyoneInCherno? 187]

You know, barricading is coming, bases too, so what if there was a gas power plant ? Yeah, those little ones you might have or maybe your dad, you just use gasoline and makes electricity.

 

Of course for a little time and for a number of objects. 

 

e.g. Lasts 4 hours filled with gas, and you can light up 15 light bulbs

Generator. The word you are thinking of is a gas generator.

[kOepi (DayZ) 35]

i can see how it could work 

bandits want to be dark sso they can snipe people easily cuz they can see them but they cant see him

other people wants to be light so they can loot stuff

when you put this feature in game bandits tries to turn off lights and heroes wants put them on and thats make them to go war 

+1

well the one who shoots off the lights first, wins anyways.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

I feel that the first thing for a group of survivors to do after collecting food water and shelter woul be to bring electricity back , seeing as how we are creatures of technology .

As soon as we are safe we will start to think of "what next?" And naturally what's next is usually to bring back technology ( or at least electric light) as it makes us feel at home (most of us) .

So although I've posted here before ill say again this is a good idea. electrical power plants won't be able to be used again seeing as it does take a lot of manpower to run , so I would love to see personal generators , strong enough to run a spotlight at least , so that way survivors can treat generators as if they were gold, always repairing and aquiring gas for it so you and your friends can have some light to do whatever (hunt for people, light up a construction area when building comes in , etc .).

And for areas like jails (like the ones on airstrip or the new-ish police station ) or other large "themed" buildings , there would be larger scale , non-movable gas generators that do nothing but provide power to the building. So if you don't wanna build a house you can easily take over a large building and start the generator after collecting gas and repairing it so the building is lit up .

Obviously this would make people stick out like a sore thumb but it's their choice to choose comfortable light over protective darkness , so there would be no "overpowered" traits to it and yet still won't be useless , seeing as larger groups of survivors could easily hold people off while in a lit up building whereas lone wolves would most likely hide in darkness so as not to be seen and taken by force /numbers.