Standalone Discussion/Critique from an Old DayZ Fan.

[TOPMO3 119]

Hi there.

 

Before I go into my thoughts and feelings on the current build of the game (0.34.115106), I'd like to give a quick introduction to myself, how I've contributed to the DayZ community, why I play DayZ, and why I feel so strongly about this game, and it's current state.

 

My name is TOPMO3, and I've been playing the early Mod of DayZ for Arma 2 since May 2012. Being a 3D artist, and an avid enthusiast of games in general, I lent my skills to create custom textures for the DayZ mod. The Forum topic received over 40K views, and still remains one of the top 5 most viewed topics on the Suggestions Sub-Forum on forums.dayzgame.com. My hope was that the textures would be put into the game by the devs, but they never were. Oh well :)

 

Although it may not matter, I should also mention that I work as an FX Artist in the video game industry for one of the more successful MMO companies, and I have had lots of discussions on DayZ with some of our most senior game designers, who all agree about DayZ's potential.

 

I play DayZ because I think it's one of the most original and exciting games I have played in a long, long time. It's hard for me to be truly excited about games (mostly because everything is a copy of a copy now a days), and DayZ really has a freshness to it that is second to none. At least that's how I felt about the mod, when I started playing it.

 

As with any new game, once the first week or so is over, and you become more and more familiar with the mechanics, some of the "magic" seems to go away. DayZ was no different, but it somehow still kept being interesting through it's persistent game-play, and it's constant level of "threat" that the player would feel. Either from the very scary (back in the early days) Zombies, other players, or just the foreboding environment (remember the really dark nights?)

 

I eventually stopped playing the mod because of the Hackers, and waited patiently for the Standalone to come out, hoping this would be the game I was hoping it could be. After playing the stand-alone with my friends for about a week, I wanted to come here and offer my views on the direction of the new game, and hopefully have a conversation with some of you, to see how everyone else feels about it. 

 

I am currently playing on a full Hardcore server. I feel like Hardcore lends itself better to the tension of the game by removing the 3rd person camera. Yes, I am strongly against the 3rd person camera and it's for a good reason. 1st person prevents cute "cheats" like peeking around corners, or looking into rooms with the floating camera. It completely removes any sense of tension by making you feel like you're a ghost floating around your character.

 

I also chose HC server because I was hoping the "threat" (more on this later) would feel more significant in Hardcore mode.

 

I'll start with my biggest complaint at the moment. 

 

This "Survival" game, doesn't feel very much like a survival game at all. Let me be clear. The only sense of survival you feel currently, is in the first 15-30 minutes of a fresh play through. Either after you're dead, or if you started a new character, etc. When you have no food, no water, and no way of defending yourself, it truly feels pretty interesting in the "Survival" sense. Zombies can be somewhat of a problem, however, after acquiring any semblance of a weapon (hammer, machete, axe), zombies become a complete joke, and are easily disposed of. Even on the hardcore server, the only thing you have to worry about at the moment is another player, finding something sharp to open cans with, and finding water. 

 

I don't feel threatened, and the tension in the current build is almost non-existent, if you disregard PvP, which has always been great in DayZ.

 

At the moment, the average game play feels roughly like this: 30 minutes of initial looting for food/water/weapon. Next 2-3 hours moving "north". Looting all the cool "stuff" you need. Spending a few days running around looking for action/loot. Eventually either dying to another player, or becoming so disinterested in empty towns, and your full backpack of useless stuff, that you move back to the coast, and kill new players. 

 

There is nothing for me to feel scared of outside of town. There is nothing stopping me from sitting in the woods all day, and moving into town only for food/water (when Hunting comes, this will eliminate that all together), and eventually, there will be no reason for me to play at all. Camps will help, so will vehicles, but eventually, those will just be hoarded into the woods by groups of players (as they were in the Mod), and there they will sit. Again, there is nothing "threatening" in the current build of the game, and I am confused why in the alpha (when the features of the game are being implemented), these core game play issues haven't been addressed.

 

I have seen that Dean has mentioned the complete lack of zombies in level, and that they are trying to optimize the zombie to loot spawn ratio, making sure the servers can handle the loads, but what happened to the scary zombies in DayZ mod, that would swarm you, break your legs, and leave you for dead? Am I missing something?

 

Did anyone remember crawling around zombies, as not to startle them, because that meant your immediate death? Right now I run past them with a "lol" and just cut the corner, and that's it. Zombies are currently a joke to me (sorry for the emotional response, but it's sad to see the state of the zombie in this game become what it has after a much more interesting version of them in the mod, which was 2 years ago!)

 

Please allow me now to be much more constructive with my thread. What I think would greatly help make this game a truly unique experience and incredibly challenging, fun, and original?

 

Please reconsider the "Threat" mechanic in the game. I don't mean the LoS for zombies, or aggro here. I mean the feeling a player has of impending "threat" to his life/safety/survival. Currently, this only happens during PvP, and outside of cities, there is ZERO threat from anything else.

 

Here are some suggestions I have for this

 

1) Bring back scary zombies. They have to be fast, they have to be plenty, they have to 2-3 hit break your legs, and 5-6 hit kill you. Make them hear you again (seems like only LoS agro right now), and make them chase you and keep track of you for longer. The player has to feel like there is a constant "threat" of zombies in the world. This is absolutely crucial. The zombies must be the mechanic in this game that is constant, and terrifying. With the right implementation, I honestly feel like it's this mechanic that can actually get players to work more together, instead of KOS each other. If the zombies are such a threat, that players have a hard time surviving solo encounters with several of them. Group survival should be more successful. I am honestly hoping this is the end goal for the devs, I just really rather see more talk in the Dev blogs about this, than cooking. Because cooking is a neat "feature" that I can live without. Having zombies that don't work, or are a lol-factor, is game-breaking for me, in a zombie apocalypse simulator.

 

2) Threat in the wild. Dean has mentioned wandering zombie packs in the woods, and I think this is %100 must happen. Currently there is no threat at all in the woods, and that takes away from the overall tension the player feels. If you have a gun, food/water/meds, you can live in the woods indefinitely and see zero action. Zero action gives way to only one direction, heading into town and killing other players. There is nothign else to really "survive" against. You live long enough to become the villain. Which is why I think with the addition of Hunting, wild aggressive animals are a MUST. How would you feel about being ambushed in the night by a charging boar (it's eyes glinting from your flashlight), or a pack of wolves, or a bear? Even a harmless skunk or badger might scare the crap out of you. The feeling of "threat" in the woods would be significantly higher. Right now woods = safety. This should NOT be the case. Again, while seeing the devs work on cool new features, I think the sense of tension is much more important to the shelf-life of this game, than say, a physics system that lets you throw your beans at zombies.

 

3) No Night Vision Goggles, or Thermal Optics. Not now, not ever, please remove these mechanics from the game. As someone who has owned every item in the mod, I have to tell you that these items break the game, and break it badly. Players stop playing at night because they are terrified of someone on this server who has these items (even if anyone actually does or not). Full servers become empty, and the player with the NVG is forced to hop servers. Bring back the flares, bring back the glow sticks, and keep the flashlights. Those things create tension and fun. NVGs create irrational fear, and take the challenge out of the game. Remember when you first started playing, and you'd see those red flare glows in a town? Or active glow sticks on the ground in your area, that created tons of tension. Getting 1-shotted at night by a NVG sniper doesn't create any tension, just poor gameplay.

 

I have lots of other complaints at the moment but I think everyone does, and they are getting sorted out by the Devs. Speaking of which, huge respect to the whole team, and the people working on making this game great. It can be a one-of-a-kind game, I truly feel that way. I am hoping that the core mechanics that really make this game new and interesting are what get the most attention from the community and the devs. I will continue to play this game, and hope for the great changes, but I feel that unless the game addresses the issues I brought up, it will still suffer from the same problems the Mod suffered from. As my friend put it "I just looted the airfield, what do I do now?" syndrome.

 

This game is best when you're threatened, and you have to survive. Please bring back the threat that made me fall in love with this game.

 

Thank you for reading the wall of text. Feel free to discuss/comment/flame.

 

TOPMO3

[Irish. 4886]

Spot on analogy.. it is essentially a giant scavenger hunt right now. No real threats outside of pvp, and that is very thinned down vs. the mod. 

 

As far as what you can do, try experimental. The zeds are more of a threat as they spawn in, rather than 1-3 that you kill and then the place is silent. 

 

Also most of the other stuff has been confirmed as coming or not planned to be implemented. 

Edited March 17, 2014 by lrish

[Demoth 366]

Basically what Irish said.

Still, the rate they are adding content is making a lot of people inpatient, which makes me wonder why they bought into the Alpha.

Not saying you are part of that group, OP, but some people want a finished game RIGHT NOW. Any assurance that good things are coming are dismissed out of hand and flame wars break out.

[Zarniwoop 1193]

Very nice post. Cannot agree more with the harder zombies point.

 

On the matter of NVG's etc. I would have to agree with you that they should not be in the game at all if the global lool spawning mechanism was not in place. Now they can spawn an exact amount of said items across all spawn points, across all servers. This could mean there are 10 sets of NVG's across 150 servers. This has awesome potential.

 

Moving on down the line I'd expect we'll see a focus on survival, as in the sense of not finding much of anything anywhere, with respawning loot reducing the amount of server hopping.

[kihz 83]

[Katana67 2907]

I definitely sympathize, and won't blindly raise the "ALPHA BROSEPH" non-critique of your points... but it would be fair to say that most of the flaws which you highlight (which I would certainly also highlight as well) will be/are being addressed.

 

With regard to your suggestions...

 

1 - Yes! Couldn't agree more! Zombies need to be more powerful (in terms of damage inflicted), faster (some of them can be shamblers, but I prefer sprinters), and more numerous. The latter is being addressed. However, I will caveat this with several things. One, zombies need not be omniscient as they are now. I crawl like a snail and make little noise, yet they still aggro me from a mile off. There's no tension raised through stealth with regard to zombies. That, and they have 100% ACCURATE ACCESS TO YOUR EXACT POSITION. Ideally, I'd like to have it be like the police in GTA, whereby they're triggered to a stimulus and would venture to a specific area, look around, and if they don't detect you, they go back to loitering. So it's a combination of making them more powerful, AND less of a guided missile.

 

2 - This is a really big issue, and I agree totally. I am a lone-wolf player, I like being in the woods. I can count on my hand (since April of 2012) how many times I've been into Cherno/Elektro. But, it's a pretty boring life. There's nothing to do and no real threats (aside from the occasional camp of players, which cannot occur in SA until persistent storage is implemented). Offensive animals, roaming hordes of zombies, coupled with player storage would go a long way methinks. Likewise, I'd love to be able to do more in a non-combat role such as foraging, hunting, farming, fishing, camping, building, etc. I would love to be able to plant a persistent garden (with a little fence) in the woods and have to tend to it for food.

 

3 - While I agree that NVGs and Thermal Optics shouldn't necessarily be in the game, two things. One, night needs to be made playable. I'm not saying I should be able to see across a field with perfect sight at night, but sometimes I have trouble even telling if my screen is on or off when playing DayZ because it's unplayably dark. They just need to rework the lighting so that nighttime is both playable and tense. Two, I wouldn't necessarily be against NVGs if they were suitably rare, difficult to maintain, and required suitably rare batteries to power. It was silly in the mod because you just got NVGs, period. The only way for them to stop being available after that is if you died.

[Hethwill_Khan 233]

Yes.

 

Pretty much the sum of common thoughts.

 

Had to ... migrate to other shores for the time being waiting for a ... more spiced up SA.

 

Still promising but deserving a break.

[DayZ_Friendly 145]

MORE ZOMBIES!!!!  HARDER ZOMBIES!!!!!

 

I think you are forgetting that they are new players and mostly a lot of people still learning how to play.

 

Can you imagine buying a game (alpha), trying to figure out what's going on (because you didn't play ARMA 2 or the mod), and getting instantly killed by one zombie because you are a fresh spawn and have nothing?

 

Forget about being able to run from zombies on an empty server so you can finally get to a town that hasn't already been picked clean.  Nobody is going to help anybody...fresh spawns would be dying by the 9000s to zombies and KOSers.

 

The attrition from those people will far outnumber the people leaving because they are bored.  I've been playing a lot, I was bored for a little bit, but I still play.  If you are bored, you should try hunting bandits and murderers.  Seek out action...don't diddle with yourself in the woods and complain there's no threat.

 

Jump on a full 40 player server and look for other players.  The friendly and hostile confrontations are what this game is about and that's where the risk versus reward is.

[DayZ_Friendly 145]

BTW, I've been on the experimental servers and yeah the zombie re-spawn has made the game more interesting.

 

I do think they need to implement loot respawn and really get rid of the need to server jump.

[Valadain 270]

I generally agree with everything except night and NVG. Gamma breaks night and I don't see a way around it. Right now people are not playing night because you can't. If you want to play right, you can't see. If you crank up your gamma, you might as well have NVG.

 

Night is a great idea, but it just doesn't work and probably won't in this game. My suggestion would be to play around with the dynamics, make gamma change only prior to logging in and rather than going full night, focus on putting in some dark buildings, basements, and caves or underground facilities. If you add in some "no spawn" zones, you could make it a royal pain to screw with your gamma having the contrast between light and dark and not being able to log-out, change the setting, and log back in right in the dark. (basically, bright day outside, dark as heck inside of particular windowless or subterranean buildings)

Edited March 17, 2014 by Valadain

[TOPMO3 119]

I think you are forgetting that they are new players and mostly a lot of people still learning how to play.

 

DayZ mod for Arma 2 was the first time I played any Arma game ever. The difficulty and challenge and the "I have no idea what's going on" aspect of the first week of play was what made the game so great to me. Based on your reply, I'm inclined to think that they are making the game more casual for new players, and that is the correct course of action for Bohemia and the DayZ team. If that's the case, I couldn't disagree more.

 

 

Seek out action...don't diddle with yourself in the woods and complain there's no threat.

 

Jump on a full 40 player server and look for other players.  The friendly and hostile confrontations are what this game is about and that's where the risk versus reward is.

 

I have done pretty much everything that there is to do in DayZ mod, short of loading up hacks and porting items into a map, or nuking entire servers. I have flown choppers, fixed cars, had massive tent cities with an army of friends. Camped Electro/Cherno, ran ops in the Airfield. All the good stuff, and it's fantastic. My problem is, if there is no building in site, there is no action. It should simply not be this way. There should be things going on outside of the cities. Zombies needs to be out and about, animals too. 

 

I think you also missed where I said I played on a 40-man Hardcore server, so I know all about the "Action" you speak of, and it basically boils down to loot as much stuff as you can, and go die to someone with it. Eventually the end game is Banditry, if you live long enough. There is no cooperation in players (if there is, it's rare) and that's because it's not fun to work together, because it servers no purpose. If the zombies were harder, you'd need to work together to both get food/water/guns in that city swarming with zeds. 

 

I think this game can be more than just running around shooting each other. It should be about Surviving, and that should mean constant concern for some aspect of your well-being.

 

At any given time when I log in, my thoughts should immediately go to "which one of the 5 crucial things that are currently plaguing me, should I address first?"  You should have to worry about food, injury, zombies, wildlife, pvp. Right now, you only have to worry about PvP. Food and water are BARELY a nuisance, if we're being honest. The game is fun when you have an injured friend, or your buddy is surrounded by a horde and you have to help him, or you're starving and you have to make a desperate incursion into a dangerous town or else you'll die. It's these moments of life/death decision making that creates the tension in the game.

 

The tension is the reason DayZ is such a huge success to begin with.

[TOPMO3 119]

I generally agree with everything except night and NVG. Gamma breaks night and I don't see a way around it. Right now people are not playing night because you can't. If you want to play right, you can't see. If you crank up your gamma, you might as well have NVG.

 

Night is a great idea, but it just doesn't work and probably won't in this game. My suggestion would be to play around with the dynamics, make gamma change only prior to logging in and rather than going full night, focus on putting in some dark buildings, basements, and caves or underground facilities. If you add in some "no spawn" zones, you could make it a royal pain to screw with your gamma having the contrast between light and dark and not being able to log-out, change the setting, and log back in right in the dark. (basically, bright day outside, dark as heck inside of particular windowless or subterranean buildings)

 

I don't understand why you would be against black nights, with flares, glow sticks, and flash lights? You can set traps, and illuminate terrain as you see fit using those things. If you're struggling with the fact that "In the day I can see across the map, but at night I can't" well... doesn't that just add to the tension of playing at night?

[Valadain 270]

I don't understand why you would be against black nights, with flares, glow sticks, and flash lights? You can set traps, and illuminate terrain as you see fit using those things. If you're struggling with the fact that "In the day I can see across the map, but at night I can't" well... doesn't that just add to the tension of playing at night?

 

I'm not against it, but it can't be done. People will crank their gamma, putting players who don't at a severe disadvantage.

[TX_ 22]

Completely agreed, especially with regard to zombies. In my opinion the zombie/environment aspects of the game should form the biggest threat to a player, and hopefully with that the PvP madness would ease a bit. Right now the game simply lacks any real objective beyond the initial survival/looting up, so it only makes sense for people to start killing each other after a couple of hours being bored.

Now I don't mind me some good PvP action, it's just that the game could be a lot more than that. Especially fun are those tense encounters with people that may escalate badly or be beneficial/fun for both parties. While killing should always remain an option, there should be other equally beneficial (or even necessary) options you could go for when meeting people. I find this kind of collaboration to be multiplayer gaming in its finest form; the psychological depth it delivers is something not many games out there can offer. It's all about the game mechanics and I feel DayZ has always been very close to something great there.

While some people want to keep the game a open-ended sandbox, where people generate their own fun etc., I feel that the mechanics could suggest and support different play styles with regard to survival. You should be able to go lone wolf all the way and survive, but it should be harder in some aspects compared to team survival (things like getting great loot, ensuring steady supply of food etc). It would support teamwork and collaboration through non-forced means, while also maybe reducing the dreaded KoS mentality that currently looms in the game.

[Katana67 2907]

MORE ZOMBIES!!!!  HARDER ZOMBIES!!!!!

 

I think you are forgetting that they are new players and mostly a lot of people still learning how to play.

 

Can you imagine buying a game (alpha), trying to figure out what's going on (because you didn't play ARMA 2 or the mod), and getting instantly killed by one zombie because you are a fresh spawn and have nothing?

 

Forget about being able to run from zombies on an empty server so you can finally get to a town that hasn't already been picked clean.  Nobody is going to help anybody...fresh spawns would be dying by the 9000s to zombies and KOSers.

 

The attrition from those people will far outnumber the people leaving because they are bored.  I've been playing a lot, I was bored for a little bit, but I still play.  If you are bored, you should try hunting bandits and murderers.  Seek out action...don't diddle with yourself in the woods and complain there's no threat.

 

Jump on a full 40 player server and look for other players.  The friendly and hostile confrontations are what this game is about and that's where the risk versus reward is.

 

New players should NEVER be catered to. DayZ has always been unforgiving.

 

And he's concerned with the LACK OF OPTIONS in the wilderness. He (and I) want more threats, not deathmatching. Willfully seeking out action is simple. Always being under threat, no matter where you are, isn't. That is the point, tension, no matter where you are.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Katana67

[TOPMO3 119]

I'm not against it, but it can't be done. People will crank their gamma, putting players who don't at a severe disadvantage.

 

Interesting. I remember before the gamma patch, when players could crank gamma, and night-time just became gray shades. The game was still fun, but completely stupid because it didn't feel like night. It felt like some cheesy post-processing effect. Then I remember they patched the night, and it went pitch black. Everyone hated it, and servers were empty unless they were day-time.

 

I on the other hand swallowed my pride, put on the lowest radium glow-stick, and moved through the woods foot by foot, until I made it to Rog. I heard zombies all around, shuffling, making sounds, but I couldn't see a single one of them. It was the most intense play sessions I think I ever had, and it was amazing. I think if everyone did this, it would create great experiences while playing at night. 

 

Image seeing a flashlight in a store window, or activating a flashlight, and dropping it on the ground. How about leaving a trail of chem lights to spring a trap. Night time can be awesome, if players wrap their heads around the fact that it's not meant to be played like daytime.

 

Tension should be higher at night, but I agree, there should be more incentive to play during those hours. Maybe animals become more docile, so hunting becomes easier. Maybe less players are on, in general, so spawns happen more frequently. It can be figured out.

[TOPMO3 119]

New players should NEVER be catered to. DayZ has always been unforgiving.

 

Amen brother.

[Katana67 2907]

I generally agree with everything except night and NVG. Gamma breaks night and I don't see a way around it. Right now people are not playing night because you can't. If you want to play right, you can't see. If you crank up your gamma, you might as well have NVG.

 

Night is a great idea, but it just doesn't work and probably won't in this game. My suggestion would be to play around with the dynamics, make gamma change only prior to logging in and rather than going full night, focus on putting in some dark buildings, basements, and caves or underground facilities. If you add in some "no spawn" zones, you could make it a royal pain to screw with your gamma having the contrast between light and dark and not being able to log-out, change the setting, and log back in right in the dark. (basically, bright day outside, dark as heck inside of particular windowless or subterranean buildings)

 

ARMA III has a wonderful method of making gamma adjustments not translate into pseudo-NVGs. The same method could be applied to DayZ.

 

I have no idea what constitutes that method, as I'm not as tech-savvy as some. But there were some screens floating around demonstrating what could be done.

 

Take a look at this

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/139346-remove-gamma-and-brightness-settings/

Edited March 17, 2014 by Katana67

[TOPMO3 119]

ARMA III has a wonderful method of making gamma adjustments not translate into pseudo-NVGs. The same method could be applied to DayZ.

 

I have no idea what constitutes that method, as I'm not as tech-savvy as some. But there were some screens floating around demonstrating what could be done.

 

Take a look at this

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/139346-remove-gamma-and-brightness-settings/

 

I have done some work in VFX and what Arma III is doing is actually more like contrast adjustment. The brights get brighter, but the darks get darker (or stay the same). What Arma 2 is currently doing is allowing you to "milk out" the blacks, actually swinging them up into higher values, then when you crank the contrast, you get more definition in that range. I.E. Cheating :) but hey I used to do it too. 

 

It's again, why I am all for removing gamma correction, and NVGs, and just have the player navigate by traditional illumination means. Flashlights (head torches, weapon flashlights), Flares, Campfires, stoves, glow sticks. I'm even ok with generators, lanterns, lamps. Something that everyone has equal opportunity of seeing. 

 

Currently there is no "counter" to NVGs, which makes them game breaking. If for example a player who was using NVGs happen to accidentally look at a bright source of light, ie, flash light or camp fire, and they went BLIND for 30-seconds, I would be ok with that. 

Edited March 17, 2014 by TOPMO3

[Window Licker 504]

Good read, for me when you got to the numbered points about zombies and forests while I understand your concern and agree with you these are things that I have confidence will be addressed (Dean even mention predator animals e.g bears, wolves or what ever else) Having never played the mod I was for NVG provided it required suitable difficulty to acquire and maintain, the idea of a NV Scope on a sniper rifle is way too OP and I will personally think about flipping a table if they get in the game.

 

Thanks for the post!

[TOPMO3 119]

 the idea of a NV Scope on a sniper rifle is way too OP and I will personally think about flipping a table if they get in the game.

 

This is game breaking. What's worse is the Thermal-scopes on some of the guns that came out later in the mod.

 

Here's how it worked.

 

While looking through the scope, everything had a deep red tint, except anything that moved, which had a bright milky-yellow tint.

 

There you go. Once you had this weapon, you were no longer scared of PvP, the one and only scary thing in DayZ, was now a joke.

 

How are you supposed to continue playing after finding a weapon like that? What was even the point of that weapon? It completely destroys game balance. I understand the need for "uber loot" but NVG and Thermal is ridiculous. 

 

/rant off

[So Sexy 259]

Your "critique" is welcome when the game is released, cya in a year or 2.

[Katana67 2907]

Another issue with the zombies, that I've tried many a time to explain, is HOW they deal damage.

 

Right now, and in the mod, zombies just sort of lunge at you vaguely and damage is inflicted. It's possibly one of the most consistent criticisms of DayZ that I have, how vaguely two items interact with one another. Often times, especially when moving about, zombies are just lunging (and making no actual visible contact with your character) yet they inflict "damage".

 

The animation sync needs to be better, coupled with zombie hits feeling more visceral. I think, eventually, they need to implement knockdowns again (if they haven't already, I don't experience them in SA, but remember them being a thing in earlier videos) but they need to have the zombie actually latch onto the player to some degree.

 

Not to mention the clipping through walls deal, which I gather is being sorted out actively. Interested to see what Dean and the developers will call "final" for zombies.

[Disgraced 1123]

This is a great analysis of the game as it is now. I hope it changes significantly.

 

I hope the devs are working to figure out how to make the game work better at it's core and how to make it more brutal and difficult to survive.

 

I remember, too, the posts where we would joke about people's tears because the game was hard. It needs to be that. Something that is intensely difficult and stress-inducing... but also with a polished engine that looks a good and runs authentically.

 

Tough to do, though.Right now, as you analyzed, it's more of an elaborate tech demo, imho.

[Buffaloe 87]

While I haven't played the mod, I do agree completely with the OP.

 

While some people may say "You can't criticise an alpha" , actually the opposite is true. In this phase constructive criticism and suggestions like this can help to steer the game in the right direction.

 

Oh, and i definately agree on the necessity of making survival a hard, and central point of the game. I witnessed first hand how one transforms from a survivor to a "bandit" through sheer boredom, which is okay in the current state since it is an alpha, but should definately change in the future.

I started my character with the goal of survival and trying to be friendly, but ended up shooting a bambi for sports , since i was fully geared and had nothing to do.