Having babies

[Eight Ball 26]

As a mother I can not fathom why anyone would want pregnancy and babies in this sort of game.  Pregnancy lasts around 9 months with nausea and vomiting the first 3rd followed by mobility becoming increasingly limited.  Even if you shortened the pregnancy down to say 5-6 hours who wants to be stuck being sick and vomiting for 2 hours followed by 4 hours of not being able to run.  If you ended up not eating and drinking enough or accidentally getting hit by a zombie you would miscarry or even die.  Not to mention the huge problem of infection after giving birth.  Then on top of that newborns and small children are a huge drain on energy and resources.  In real life you have several years before children can contribute much to their own care.  Even if you shortened this down to another 5-6 hours thats another 5-6 hours where your character cant do much.  First you are going to have 1 or 2 hours where you are stuck nursing the baby every 5 minutes because where else do you get milk for it in a post apocalyptic world.  So that is going to make you completely useless for doing anything at all.  You would just have to sit there while someone else fetched you food.  And then you are going to spend another several hours feeding it beans.  You even wont be able to leave it alone to go find those beans because it will wander off and get lost.  You would get all the negatives of having a baby without any of the positives.   And if you shortened the time a pregnancy takes more than that it starts to become completely unrealistic in a way that wouldnt fit into the setting at all.  The reality is that in this sort of world getting pregnant would be a death sentence.  And it wouldnt make for a rewarding gaming experience.

 

Nothing in DayZ is simulated to that extend, don't see why pregnancy should be.

 

Just like everything else it could be simplified so it remains fun to play :

 

1. you enter a tent with a character of the opposite sex

2. Both of you press the "make baby" option

3. You leave the tent, the woman is pregnant. It doesn't need to show all the different steps of pregnancy, she just need more food, more water and can't sprint. That's it, everything else she still able to do it.

No vomiting,no sickness no bitching all the time, just like she use to be exept the little belly.

4. After some time she has the option to give birth. Again no need to turn it into a "Giving birth in a third world country in the middle of a zombie apocalypse without proper medical care" simulator.

She enters a tent, press the option "give birth", leaves the tent and voila. The baby item is in it. It's an item, it doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't have any animations. It just requires food and water.

5. If you take good care of your baby you have the possibility to create a teenager slot on the server.

 

Now why the hell would someone become a child in DayZ ? It doesn't make much sense. Except if it's associated with an aging system for your character.

Seeing the way DayZ goes (the recent interview by Mr Hall in PC gamer) and how some stuff will be extremely hard to get, it might become interresting to start "earlier".

A teenager wouldn't be able to wear and carry everything an adult could but he wouldn't be helpless either.

 

Of course implementing such a feature right now would be absurd.

But in the future it could find its place among other features.

 

Anyway, this seems way too controversial so lets get back to "add moar guns!!!" and "hairstyle plzzz" suggestions.

Those greatly broaden the scope or role playing in Dayz.

[TIC 1050]

Sounds like another mouth to feed in a harsh location, I'll pass.

 

I'm still waiting on dogs.. Now that's something I really want than a baby.

[Mrs. Zealous 12]

Sooke, it sounds like you agree with me that the reality of pregnancy wouldnt be even remotely fun to play.  So instead of something resembling reality you are suggesting the pregnant person is going to spend a unspecified amount of time needing to eat extra and not being able to sprint.  Then they are going to gain an inventory item that requires extra food for an additional period of time and does -literally- nothing.  And the end result of all of this is that a teenager slot opens up for someone on the server.  In that case what is the point of pregnancy at all?  If you want teenager slots why not just add teenager slots without the bother of pregnancy?  Why would someone want to spend the time to find and consume/feed all that extra food for the "benefit" of a teenager slot opening on the server?  This seems like a really poorly conceived idea.

[boneboys 7988]

Just run along and play the game.