First Impressions and Hopes

[GiantofBabil 7]

Okay so I bought DayZ yesterday and I've been playing a very short time. This post is to give others and devs an idea of what the game looks like to someone just stepping in. I understand this is an alpha but this post is about the current state of the game in alpha and what I think of it right now.

 

Character creation, if it can be called that. This is the first thing a player sees, and it's disappointing. I hope it's planned to add many, many features to this like hair, faces, facial hair, height, weight, etc.

 

First thing I noticed on starting to play was that the graphics looked really good, I am playing on a high-end PC and was worried because some of the screenshots looked pretty bad. I can safely say that the screenshots of this game, and gameplay videos I saw before purchasing, do not do it justice. Don't get me wrong it's no Crysis 3/BF4 but it's up to par for this generation, I believe.

 

Bleeding was something I experienced very early on. I like that this is in the game and that it has a visual indicator(screen gray).

 

Hunger and thirst are nice touches, but it would be good if we had bars or something indicating our level of hunger/thirst. You might say this is unrealistic, but it's not. In real life I could easily assign how hungry I am to a number between 1 and 10(or 100), people know how hungry they are, and thirsty. I was pretty surprised that after ~6 months of buy-in alpha status the HUD had no simple display of hunger and thirst. Also I know people will say it's not their priority ATM, but this is really easy programming, it's two variables.

 

My first weapon I found was a fire extinguisher and I was happy to find out this could be used to kill a zombie quick enough that I wasn't bleeding out, also found an axe later on a different respawn and that was pretty good too. The combat is basic right now and I'm hoping they will add things like zombies grabbing you and biting, and dismemberment from you attacking them, these are decomposing walking corpses after all.

 

Biggest problem I ran into were zombies clipping through walls, which I first discovered after trying to close a door on one to hide in a house. This is fine since it's alpha, and obviously they will focus on fixing a problem like this, since it's gamebreaking. This makes for a lot of snatch and run tactics which were tough for me at first because of the controls.

 

The controls! They are bad. The basic setup of them is lacking logic. I would think, like most games, holding shift would sprint but no thats double tap forward which is clunky and sometimes doesn't work so I end up tapping 3 or 4 times to run. Then crouching and going prone. When I found the crouch button I thought for sure hitting it again would cause me to stand back up, but no that does nothing. Instead you must hit "C" to stand up. Should be Z to prone and stand all the way up from prone, X to crouch or go to crouch from prone or to stand up from crouch. Easy and simple. Also pulling out a weapon is very unresponsive, it takes so long to happen and sometimes doesn't. Often I end up hitting the button again thinking it didn't work then my character puts their weapon back, meanwhile I'm getting eaten alive by a zombie.

 

The scavenging was good. On the server I was playing on supplies were sparse and I found something in MAYBE 1 of 5 houses I searched. I liked this. My never ending search  for a can opener continues even now lol. I'm just starting to try my hand at venturing into coastal areas rather than darting through the countryside so hopefully I'll find one there! I really liked that items have quality and you can't, for instance, refill a plastic bottle if it's at 0%. Though an indication on screen or in the text window would have been nice, like "You can't fill the bottle, it's too damaged" but I figured it out after a minute.

 

That pretty much covers my experience over my first 4-5 hours of gameplay or so. I know that's not much but again that's the point of this post. Many people quit playing games after less than a couple hours because they've already decided they don't like it. First impressions are VERY important. All in all I like the game and it's in an acceptable state for an alpha. :)

[Irish. 4886]

^ Did not play the mod...  therefore I feel your thoughts are rather invalid currently. 

 

Please play more and then let us know what your thoughts are :) ..or post this in the new players section

Edited March 17, 2014 by lrish

[GiantofBabil 7]

^ Did not play the mod...  therefore I feel your thoughts are rather invalid currently. 

 

Please play more and then let us know what your thoughts are :) ..or post this in the new players section

 

I mentioned that this was from a new player perspective, is there a way to move it to the new players section or should I just repost?

[leefriendfield 438]

I mentioned that this was from a new player perspective, is there a way to move it to the new players section or should I just repost?

The problem is a new players perspective can be incredibly damaging if the devs take you to heart. Many newer players like when I bring friends in for their first session complain about the pace of this game. This game is like an MMO you need to sink time into it or else your opinions are not very useful.

[GiantofBabil 7]

The problem is a new players perspective can be incredibly damaging if the devs take you to heart. Many newer players like when I bring friends in for their first session complain about the pace of this game. This game is like an MMO you need to sink time into it or else your opinions are not very useful.

 

Like I said, if you read my full post, many players quit games after the first couple hours if they don't like them. Including MMOs. I have played MANY MMOs and I have quit MANY before finishing the tutorial because it was so bad. The "new player experience" is one of the most important parts of any online multiplayer game.

[leefriendfield 438]

Like I said, if you read my full post, many players quit games after the first couple hours if they don't like them. Including MMOs. I have played MANY MMOs and I have quit MANY before finishing the tutorial because it was so bad. The "new player experience" is one of the most important parts of any online multiplayer game.

DayZ is currently in alpha it is constantly changing and needs to be pushed in the correct direction. People like myself and Irish who have played the mod and plenty others have more value to their opinions because this game is a work in progress it needs to be steered in the right dirction by experienced people in the community. I understand your point that yes new players need to be in consideration, but at the current point in time at wich the game is not finished I disagree with you. Welcome aboard the DayZ train!

Edited March 17, 2014 by LeeFriendField

[GiantofBabil 7]

Reposted in New Player Discussion if a mod could please delete this thread I couldn't find a way to do it.

[leefriendfield 438]

Reposted in New Player Discussion if a mod could please delete this thread I couldn't find a way to do it.

They can just merge this thread into your new one.

[pacific_coast 632]

i give him beans.

new players give us a fresh perspective on common flaws and perks we take for granted.

enjoy the dayz, new guy

[kroms001 99]

People like myself and Irish who have played the mod and plenty others have more value to their opinions because this game is a work in progress it needs to be steered in the right dirction by experienced people in the community.

Totally disagree.  Your worth, and Irish's worth are the exact same as someone who just purchased the game because guess what?  We all invested in it.  So, yes - we are investors in a round about way.  Anyone who purchased this game spent their money because they wanted to help push this game forward.  I don't care who played the mod and who didn't, the mod was free and didn't help with the financial development of this game to push it to retail.  GiantofBabil bought the game, I bought the game, you bought the game, and we are all entitled to tell the developers how we feel.  Your words are worth the same amount as Giant's because, guess what? You spent the same amount of cash as all of us did.  You are not elite, you are not higher up, but you are actually on all the fellow purchasers level.  The experience that you speak of, the community that you speak of = the people who invested money in this game.  Welcome aboard.

 

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

 

Totally disagree.  Your worth, and Irish's worth are the exact same as someone who just purchased the game because guess what?  We all invested in it.  So, yes - we are investors in a round about way.  Anyone who purchased this game spent their money because they wanted to help push this game forward.  I don't care who played the mod and who didn't, the mod was free and didn't help with the financial development of this game to push it to retail.  GiantofBabil bought the game, I bought the game, you bought the game, and we are all entitled to tell the developers how we feel.  Your words are worth the same amount as Giant's because, guess what? You spent the same amount of cash as all of us did.  You are not elite, you are not higher up, but you are actually on all the fellow purchasers level.  The experience that you speak of, the community that you speak of = the people who invested money in this game.  Welcome aboard.

 

 

Not entirely tho.  People use the term "bought" as their excuse to just play the game skipping past/ignoring all the warnings and then come to the forums to bitch and moan.  New players are totally welcome if they are ready to help with the advancement of the game.  That does include constructive criticism and not rage posts about an unfinished product.  

 

With that said, welcome aboard GiantofBabil

[novogeek 253]

@OP: Thank you for your insight ... I for one gave you beans because you took the time to make a meaningful post and explain things ... not just a random: "Oh Noes this Alpha Suxorz".

 

I must apologise for some of the other posters sense of self entitlement and delusions of grandeur ... just continue playing the game and providing more of your outlook on the game ... some people are just Negative Nellies and always think their way is the only way.

 

Good Luck with DayZ.

[DropBearChick 1216]

Nice post, if you need help check the link in my sig, also you mentioned every one in five houses having stuff in them, thats because the loot spawns are broken and only certain houses spawn loot in them also i agree about controls but you can change them.

[Zarniwoop 1193]

On the subject of the controls: I found really early on in playing ArmA2 (which has similar controls) that changing them is a bad idea. There are simply too many buttons, and they cannot be assigned to the typical FPS control setup. Example: Say you change the shift key to make you sprint while holding it. What then will you use for the slow tactical walk?

I'd say one of the easiest things is adjusting to the different controls, so I'd suggest you get used to them. Sure enough after a few weeks you'll get used to them. ;)

 

On the hunger/thirst bars: The Devs are not keen on on-screen HUD appart from the hotbar. So we'll probably see the inventory notifications worked on more, although I dare say we'll never see "arcadey" things like: 56,4% hunger.

 

And yes zombies are easy atm, but I wouldn't get used to it. ;) Zombie fixing is a top priority and an ongoing procedure which will take a while. Rome wasn't built in a day.

 

Welcome to the forums, if you need anything please do not hesitate to pop me a PM.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Zarniwoop

[MetapoliC 263]

It was interesting to read, thanks for the thread. You are right, the very first impressions are very important. I also agree that these zombies simply can´t be taken seriously. The most dangerous thing about them is that they can walk through the walls. Would love to have the zombies as fast as in Left 4 Dead 2. They are also easy to kill but they can beat you up to death pretty fast and they run even a bit faster than you. THIS gives you a sort of adrenaline rush and makes you think twice. In DayZ I don´t even bother killing them when i´m looting the buildings. I just know exactly when they hit, how they hit and it is way too easy to avoid it.

[GiantofBabil 7]

Thanks for the welcomes, and thanks to everyone who backed me up on new player's opinions being important. I totally agree with kroms, everyone's opinion is valued since we all purchased the game. As long as it's constructive criticism and not flaming/trolling of course as mentioned above. 

 

Also I've been playing more and I'm pretty impressed with the amount of content with them saying alpha will be going to the end of this year. That means a lot of changes and hopefully a very polished end product in 2015.

[pillock 850]

There is a word to describe the following posts:

 

^ Did not play the mod...  therefore I feel your thoughts are rather invalid currently. 

 

DayZ is currently in alpha it is constantly changing and needs to be pushed in the correct direction. People like myself and Irish who have played the mod and plenty others have more value to their opinions because this game is a work in progress it needs to be steered in the right dirction by experienced people in the community.

 

It is this: Bollocks.

[hannibaldaplaya 1095]

^ Did not play the mod... therefore I feel your thoughts are rather invalid currently.

Please play more and then let us know what your thoughts are :) ..or post this in the new players section

Calling someone's thoughts 'invalid' is invalid.

Noone's thoughts are invalid. There is no such thing as an invalid opinion.

[Window Licker 504]

I have a few other questions about the time you spent in game,

where did you go?

what did you do?

did you meet anyone or talk to them?

where you robbed, shot or anything like that?

did you use a site to navigate or did you man it out and refuse to ask for directions?

did you play on stable or experimental?

was it daytime night time or a bit of both?

did you play the mod or a different game with a similar theme or was this your first shot at this kind of game?

Edited March 17, 2014 by Window Licker

[Ayakito 3]

i also started last week in dayz and didnt play the mod, allthough i followed its development closely. I noticed most of the features you explain and i have to agree with most of them. I alredy switched sprint to shift to avoid overlapping,which happens quite a lot. Also the thing about 3 buttons to crouch prone and get up its just stupid,but u get used to it. loved the part about looking with your head instead of moving your whole body, if you havent tried its really a fresh feature for those who like me come from other fps. UI needs some tweaks but it does its work for now

[OrLoK 16185]

 

Merged threads.

Edited March 17, 2014 by orlok

[cywehner1234 582]

 

DayZ is currently in alpha it is constantly changing and needs to be pushed in the correct direction. People like myself and Irish who have played the mod and plenty others have more value to their opinions because this game is a work in progress it needs to be steered in the right dirction by experienced people in the community. I understand your point that yes new players need to be in consideration, but at the current point in time at wich the game is not finished I disagree with you. Welcome aboard the DayZ train!

Wtf? Who are you to devalue someone opinion. Sure i've played the mod and sure he doesn't quite understand how much progress has been made, but this is the start. New players have no less value to their opinion than you do. Sure I've played for quite some time but that doesn't mean that noobies are completely wrong, and in fact, I think they provide very good feedback when put in this way. 

[Window Licker 504]

 

Totally disagree.  Your worth, and Irish's worth are the exact same as someone who just purchased the game because guess what?  We all invested in it.  So, yes - we are investors in a round about way.  Anyone who purchased this game spent their money because they wanted to help push this game forward.  I don't care who played the mod and who didn't, the mod was free and didn't help with the financial development of this game to push it to retail.  GiantofBabil bought the game, I bought the game, you bought the game, and we are all entitled to tell the developers how we feel.  Your words are worth the same amount as Giant's because, guess what? You spent the same amount of cash as all of us did.  You are not elite, you are not higher up, but you are actually on all the fellow purchasers level.  The experience that you speak of, the community that you speak of = the people who invested money in this game.  Welcome aboard.

 

 

I believe the phrase your looking for is a

 

silent partner (plural silent partners)

1. A partner who is not actively involved in the running of a business.

aka they put money in but let the people who know what they are doing do their thing.

[BadAsh (DayZ) 1513]

This thread provides an excellent example of the fact that players completely new to the franchise, can often make more well thought out and intelligent posts and provide more valuable input, than players who played the mod.

[xenology 61]

In all honesty he has some great points. I'm new as well I don't complain much with the game as it's only in Alpha state atm. but every one has a valid opinion.