Standalone Discussion/Critique from an Old DayZ Fan.

[lipemr 160]

I love the false self-esteem that video games give certain people.  All you are a bunch of people who have too much time on their hands.

 

You think figuring out how to play DayZ is some proof that you are a genius.  Please.

 

yet you need the game to be easier, or else you get your ass handled to you by it, right?

 

no, i think shit shouldnt be handled over to everybody's hands, the same as in real life you dont get money without working your ass out.

 

It's no self esteem, i'm just against promoting easier games just because people dont get time to play it.

 

If you have no time, just dont play it and go on with your life.

Edited March 19, 2014 by lipemr

[agentneo 337]

Top post Sir well done ,. nailed it.

Please make zombies scary and dangerous

Think like Walking Dead: one Bite, One scratch, is all it takes to become infected. you shouldnt be strolling up to them for the melee hit, should keep distance and head shot. NO THREAT= No Fun. Completely agree with OP

 

BUMP

[DayZ_Friendly 145]

I so love internet tough guys , this guy is the classic dork who gets picked on his entire life, then he finds power at a key board on a game forum way to go champ ylour really showing them now :facepalm:

 

If the value of your contribution to the thread is basicly insults and passive agressive bull shit might as well get stepping son because if your adding 0 then that pretty much somes up your worth over all to the thread..

 

By all means be constructive in your critque of something but your just throwing bombs at people for nothing i here by change your name from dayz friendly to dayz tosser..

 

Hey, I'm not the one that started the insults first.  There are people on here thinking they are "real-deal" gamers and hate "casual" gamers.

 

I'm on here to be constructive, but when I here this false elitism that some people have...it irks me.

 

It's all just video games after all.

[DayZ_Friendly 145]

yet you need the game to be easier, or else you get your ass handled to you by it, right?

 

no, i think shit shouldnt be handled over to everybody's hands, the same as in real life you dont get money without working your ass out.

 

It's no self esteem, i'm just against promoting easier games just because people dont get time to play it.

 

If you have no time, just dont play it and go on with your life.

 

 

I don't need the game easier, I'm fine.  In fact, if you read the rest of my posts, I actually make suggestions on how to make the game harder for yourself.

 

I'm just looking at things from a development point of view (not some pooshy waiting for more zombies to kill while they avoid PvP).

 

Besides we all know harder zombies will be added later.  Right now, it think it has more to do with server performance more than anything else.  It's a big map, with lots of places to spawn zombies.  Plus spawning loot.  All that has to be worked on if they started from a bad place in the code.

 

Imagine if a server took 30 mins to restart because the code isn't optimized.  These are probably the real reason for the small amount of zombies.

[leefriendfield 438]

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

[TOPMO3 119]

Why can't we concentrate the discussion on the content of the game?

 

I agree, the game should be very hard and unforgiving. There are not enough games like that out there nowadays.

It might be harsh for new players, but after reading/watching basic stuff on the internet and dying a few times people should get a basic idea.

 

Yes please. This is exactly what drew me to the mod, the fact that I couldn't get a quick grasp on the game right away, is what makes me keep coming back to it.

 

As for nights, why would we want 8 hour long nights? Why would you be awake during the night? It makes no logical sense at all. Shorter nights however make it that people know they're not agonizingly long and are more likely to stay on the server. There's no reason to have long nights and the server populations prove it. Very few people play on night servers and a 2 hour window gives plenty of time to people who like playing at night but also introduces it to other people that aren't crazy about it. Everyone also gets to experience morning and evenings with a 7 hour cycle. This seems to be the most logical choice I can think of to suit everyone rather than 99% of servers on a 24/7 mid day setting.

 

What do you need the extra night time for?

 

This shouldn't be about logic, or "why are you awake", this is a game, and it should give people chance to experience things on their terms. Right now people don't play at night because nights are broken. I think everyone is in agreement on that. My opinion is that if they are fixed, with the changes I proposed, and we make them not only playable, but also fun, they can do great things for tension and excitement in the game. 

 

What if zombies had a different AI routine at night, not talking about sleep here or anything, but what if because nights are darker, their vision became nerfed. How about hunting at night becomes much easier. Animals which are normally aggressive by day (boars, wolves, bears) become more docile or even dormant at night, allowing you for safer passage through woods at night etc.

 

Please don't truncate night time to 2 hours, that's one step short of removing the night cycle completely. Those who used to play the mod, before the gamma glitch, will tell you that it's very very possible to have a 40-man server full at night time. Night has it's own varying levels of intrigue, and possibility for fun game play, you just have to be creative with the game design around it.

 

 

 

 

TOPMO3, on 18 Mar 2014 - 8:06 PM, said:

 

Were you talking about the game here or the mod.  Derp.

 

Also, it's reading comprehension, not read comprehension.  Just sayin'.

 

It's also "strong suit", not a hotel "suite."

 

 

I'm disregarding all future posts by you man. You make very little sense, and your posts are %80 troll posts. I was hoping you'd contribute something to the discussion, but you seem to be having some elitist issues. Good day sir.

 

They'll just have to allow for all night servers then I guess. Trouble is, most people don't want to play at night and you're timings means that every day I get home from work, the same server will be the same time of day, everyday. Servers that have elongated nights don't get populated.

 

The mod allowed server owners to offset server time, independently of their local time, which would solve the "same time of day, everday" issue. Hopefully the SA has the same feature.

 

Also, saying things like "most people don't want to play at night" is a completely generalization, and I don't agree with it. All of my friends enjoy playing at night, because of the level of tension it provides. I find that my FPS is better at night too. Things need to be fixed before night time is fun (gamma glitch) but it's doable.

 

At the same time though the Zeds should be way stronger and harder to shake off. That would force players to be more careful, and you'd have to think very carefully before shooting in a town, since it would alarm the horde.

 

The zeds vision seems pretty borked at the moment, but i guess it's a major case of WIP.

 

Here's the thing. The mod, in my opinion, had near perfect zombies. There were lots of them, and firing a rifle in town would alert all of them to your location, you would get rushed by 20-30 zeds. They were brutally hard. One or two hits would break your legs, you would bleed out, and if you were surrounded, you were dead, no way around it. It made them a threat.

 

They weren't without their down-side though. I think the engine prevented them from running indoors, so pretty soon people figured out that you can train a horde of zombies into a building, and then just pick them apart with melee or pistols as they slowly shuffled towards you. People also figured out that in the wild, you can hug a tree, and that would immediately break their line of sight on you, and they would lose agro. 

 

If both of those things were fixed, along with the collision issues, and teleporting zombies, I think they could be left exactly as they were in the mod. WIP sure, but I feel like the zombies were pretty much "there" already, in the mod!

Edited March 19, 2014 by TOPMO3

[Nesuma (DayZ) 108]

 

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.

I'm definitely for NVG's, they were the best thing that can happen to you and it just added a real "I'm geared" feeling. They were extremely rare back then in the mod (until you found your first one, then there were mass of them). Now, without heli-crashsites (I miss them :/ ) they would be even more rare. If you need mass of batteries to use them and they can also get damaged by shots etc., they will reduce themselves in a proper way and not stack like in the mod. Also I guess that 70% of the NVGs were cloned back then [:D]

[Jex 1104]

When it comes to zombies, I think they should be "dumb". In other words, as long as you sneak/crawl and keep some distance you should be safe of beeing detected.

They can only sense you when you are very close or moving fast.

 

At the same time though the Zeds should be way stronger and harder to shake off. That would force players to be more careful, and you'd have to think very carefully before shooting in a town, since it would alarm the horde.

 

The zeds vision seems pretty borked at the moment, but i guess it's a major case of WIP.

 

I'm hoping they make it so you can creep by them if you're careful by using any stance. There was a time in the mod where you literally had to crawl to avoid zombies and it was boring. It wasn't a challenge because it worked all the time and it was boring because crawling 300m is BS.

 

I want to be able to move from cover to cover and I don't want a zed seeing my heel or my ear and going all aggro. They should need a see a significant portion or you make a noise and they come investigating or something.

[TOPMO3 119]

I'm definitely for NVG's, they were the best thing that can happen to you and it just added a real "I'm geared" feeling. They were extremely rare back then in the mod (until you found your first one, then there were mass of them). Now, without heli-crashsites (I miss them :/ ) they would be even more rare. If you need mass of batteries to use them and they can also get damaged by shots etc., they will reduce themselves in a proper way and not stack like in the mod. Also I guess that 70% of the NVGs were cloned back then [ :D]

 

I am completely against Thermal, but if I have to accept NVGs, I would say YES. Have them take 6 batteries, unusable in the rain, over-heat after 30 seconds, and make their visibility range like 50m. I should not be able to sit on Sniper Hill outside ELECTRO and clearly make out guys running around by the church. That's BS.

 

NVGs give you incredible advantage at night. They should have hard counters built IN to using them. Or as I mentioned earlier, looking at a bright light source should blind your character with a huge glare in the middle of your FOV for a few seconds. That way, if a noob sneaks up on a NVG sniper with a flash light, instant counter :)

[Jex 1104]

This shouldn't be about logic, or "why are you awake", this is a game, and it should give people chance to experience things on their terms. Right now people don't play at night because nights are broken. I think everyone is in agreement on that. My opinion is that if they are fixed, with the changes I proposed, and we make them not only playable, but also fun, they can do great things for tension and excitement in the game. 

 

What if zombies had a different AI routine at night, not talking about sleep here or anything, but what if because nights are darker, their vision became nerfed. How about hunting at night becomes much easier. Animals which are normally aggressive by day (boars, wolves, bears) become more docile or even dormant at night, allowing you for safer passage through woods at night etc.

 

Please don't truncate night time to 2 hours, that's one step short of removing the night cycle completely. Those who used to play the mod, before the gamma glitch, will tell you that it's very very possible to have a 40-man server full at night time. Night has it's own varying levels of intrigue, and possibility for fun game play, you just have to be creative with the game design around it.

 

Aah but I'm telling you what I think should work, so who's right? lol

 

All I know is that from playing the mod, night servers were generally avoided. I was adding a logical reason as to why you wouldn't be out at night. The actual reason is most people won't play at night which is why I like the 2 hour night thing. I'd rather experience 2 hours night than 24 hours daylight but I don't want 8 hours of night or even 4. 2 hours also seem long enough to satisfy casual gamers too who can only play for a few hours.

[Jex 1104]

I am completely against Thermal, but if I have to accept NVGs, I would say YES. Have them take 6 batteries, unusable in the rain, over-heat after 30 seconds, and make their visibility range like 50m. I should not be able to sit on Sniper Hill outside ELECTRO and clearly make out guys running around by the church. That's BS.

 

NVGs give you incredible advantage at night. They should have hard counters built IN to using them. Or as I mentioned earlier, looking at a bright light source should blind your character with a huge glare in the middle of your FOV for a few seconds. That way, if a noob sneaks up on a NVG sniper with a flash light, instant counter :)

 

NVG's take the available light and increase it by tens of thousands. They aren't particularly limited in range and they work in the rain but a torch/flashlight in the face will fuck em up.

 

They are extremely OP if you have them (why do you think they were developed?) so I'm leaning towards a no. Something about battling by torch light seems like it would be a lot of fun and as someone said in another thread (maybe it was you), if people know NVG's are in the loot table, they'll stay away from night servers because that's where people with NVG's will go.

[TOPMO3 119]

Aah but I'm telling you what I think should work, so who's right? lol

 

All I know is that from playing the mod, night servers were generally avoided. I was adding a logical reason as to why you wouldn't be out at night. The actual reason is most people won't play at night which is why I like the 2 hour night thing. I'd rather experience 2 hours night than 24 hours daylight but I don't want 8 hours of night or even 4. 2 hours also seem long enough to satisfy casual gamers too who can only play for a few hours.

 

I remember when I started playing the mod, people didn't care about night time. Eventually they stopped playing because people were discovered using the gamma glitch to get advantage over those who weren't using it. Basically when the balance of the night-time experience was broken, the night-time game play broke with it.

 

I am interested in getting to the heart of your argument. "Most people won't play at night." Can you give me a specific set of reasons why you think this is the case? What about night time in this game that makes players avoid it? 

[Jex 1104]

 

I remember when I started playing the mod, people didn't care about night time. Eventually they stopped playing because people were discovered using the gamma glitch to get advantage over those who weren't using it. Basically when the balance of the night-time experience was broken, the night-time game play broke with it.

 

I am interested in getting to the heart of your argument. "Most people won't play at night." Can you give me a specific set of reasons why you think this is the case? What about night time in this game that makes players avoid it? 

 

 

Now you're asking me to rely on my memory of forum posts from years back. I think one of the main issues with people playing at night was how dark it got, where you literally couldn't see anything no matter the gamma setting. There's also a lot of fumbling around as well compared to day and we know how easy players like it. I think hours of fumbling and not seeing much is a turn off for a lot of people. I think they'll put up with some of it, but not hours.

 

Personally I like playing in the day. I like the different states of light you get from morning to evening and seeing the vista's the landscape has to offer. I like starlit nights too, I don't hate nights like some people but gamma exploits put me off too. If I have to turn my gamma up to compete and make my game look shit (I like the night effect, not gamma induced crapness), then that puts me off too. I also think there's a certain feeling that when it's dark you kind of settle down instinctively - humans do things in the day light, generally they don't do a lot during the nights (especially with infected on the loose).  I'll put up with a couple of hours of night, I might even play a few occasions where it's night for a lot longer so my whole play is in dark as a "one off" but generally I prefer daylight play.

 

Gotta go, be back tomorrow :)

[Katana67 2907]

I do think that a lot of people simply don't like playing at night, in any game. Night maps on BF, night time in DayZ. People just like the clarity of the daytime methinks.

 

I love playing in both the day and nighttime.

 

The crux of the issue isn't necessarily the gamma tweaks, although that is an issue. It's that, like I've said before, the majority of nights in DayZ are unplayable. Even the cloudless, moonlit, starry nights are entirely too dark. It's not that it's too dark in the traditional sense, it's that it's ONLY BLACK. It would be different if there were shades of grey, but my screen is just matte black at night in DayZ.

 

If I didn't NEED to turn up my gamma to play at night, then I wouldn't do it. Even with a flashlight, I cannot navigate through a building because it's so unbelievably dark.

 

I think they need to try and find a balance between the nights we've got now and a playable nighttime environment. I want the tension of nighttime to be there, but I also want it to be playable.

 

That and I think it might be worthwhile to implement something requiring players to sleep (or just gain shelter) before logging off, which may explain/appease some folks who don't like to play at night.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Katana67

[Buffaloe 87]

I'd actually like to play at night, but i would not like to do so for several hours. With the current system that means I'd have to switch servers to get my "filling" of nighttime.

This is a very unsatisfactory solution, especially when persistent items will come in.

 

I do think many other players think that way. They might enjoy a bit of night, but they wouldn't want to play at night for 3+ hours.

 

And that's why (imo) a shorter day/night cycle would come in handy.

[TOPMO3 119]

Now you're asking me to rely on my memory of forum posts from years back. I think one of the main issues with people playing at night was how dark it got, where you literally couldn't see anything no matter the gamma setting. There's also a lot of fumbling around as well compared to day and we know how easy players like it. I think hours of fumbling and not seeing much is a turn off for a lot of people. I think they'll put up with some of it, but not hours.

 

Played for an hour or two last night, the sky was dark, I could see pretty far, but mostly dark silhouettes. It was pretty fun believe it or not, to stumble around houses with a flash light, and fight off zombies that I couldn't see coming. Maybe that's just me though. Very high tension.

 

I would be fine if the following were true. When using the flashlight, everything that's NOT illuminated by your beam becomes black (to give the sense of contrast. Your eyes can't see both extreme bright and extreme dark at the same time), but if you turn off the flashlight, over time (10-20 seconds for the tonemap to adjust) your eyes readjust to the dark, and you can make out shapes again. Maybe you wouldn't be able to see items on the ground etc, but you can make out buildings, shapes, zombies (barely).

 

Now all they need to do is bring back that creepy atmospheric DayZ night music.

 

The crux of the issue isn't necessarily the gamma tweaks, although that is an issue. It's that, like I've said before, the majority of nights in DayZ are unplayable. Even the cloudless, moonlit, starry nights are entirely too dark. It's not that it's too dark in the traditional sense, it's that it's ONLY BLACK. It would be different if there were shades of grey, but my screen is just matte black at night in DayZ.

 

If I didn't NEED to turn up my gamma to play at night, then I wouldn't do it. Even with a flashlight, I cannot navigate through a building because it's so unbelievably dark.

 

I think they need to try and find a balance between the nights we've got now and a playable nighttime environment. I want the tension of nighttime to be there, but I also want it to be playable.

 

I agree that the only black is pretty bad. Even in very VERY dark conditions (pretty rare) eventually your eyes can dilate and allow you to make out something. I would be ok with them creating a radius around your character, like a mini light fall-off that's local to your player only. A local light that allows you to barely see what's around like 10-15m radius around your character. Beyond that.... darkness  :ph34r:

 

I'd actually like to play at night, but i would not like to do so for several hours. With the current system that means I'd have to switch servers to get my "filling" of nighttime.

This is a very unsatisfactory solution, especially when persistent items will come in.

 

I do think many other players think that way. They might enjoy a bit of night, but they wouldn't want to play at night for 3+ hours.

 

And that's why (imo) a shorter day/night cycle would come in handy.

 

Again, I think this goes back to the idea of WHY people prefer day to night. Because in the current build of the game, visibility, and the ability to make out shapes in the distance is paramount in dayZ. Taking that away (current night time visibility), means almost a direct correlation to removing the desire to play at night. 

 

If they can figure out a way to change the game mechanics at night, to make players less anxious, I think people would enjoy night time. For example. Make night time the same across the board for everyone. How can this be done? Completely remove all gamma tricks, but fix the night visibility. DO NOT MAKE NIGHT TIME just like day time except with darker tones. Make everyone's see black silhouettes, unless they are within a 10-15m radius of you, then you can make out details. This will help when looting stuff, when trying to avoid zombies, but it will still keep things tense because outside that radius, you're just as f****d as you are now.

 

Add some other interesting mechanics in, and I think people will really enjoy it. For example, if woods are more dangerous during the day (animals are awake), make woods safer at night (animals are dormant), they can still be dangerous due to wandering zombies though. Or how about you set the respawn of items to be more at night time, this would encourage people to do night raids on structures.

 

It was nice to see that Rocket agrees that nights are a game play issue right now, and they are being wasted. 

 

"We need to decide how to manage it's implementation but the short answer is that I concede your basic premise, people don't play at night and we want to make night more part of everyones gaming session so they enjoy the challenge it brings."

 

Hopefully this means ideas are being implemented on how to make this more fun.

Edited March 20, 2014 by TOPMO3

[Jex 1104]

I used to go pot holing (or caving if you like) a few times and one thing you did before you ventured further was to switch off your head lamps and sit in the pitch black for 15 minutes. Pitch black IS black - you cannot see a thing and you'll never see a thing. After 15 minutes though, you turn on your lights and the room (lol room? cave...) was lit up twice as bright as before.

 

In other words, letting your eyes adjust to total darkness and making them more sensitive and then turning on your lamps made a huge difference in what you could see and how much light there was to how little light there was before. Everything is too dark and it's a bit like playing looking through a toilet roll at night. If I go into a building, I'm not going to see a circle of light and that's it. The light source is going to illuminate the entire room i'm in, focusing the most light in the torch beam but in dayz, the light particles literally freeze at the point they hit.

[TOPMO3 119]

The light source is going to illuminate the entire room i'm in, focusing the most light in the torch beam but in dayz, the light particles literally freeze at the point they hit.

 

I know what you mean. There is no bounce from the illuminated part of the room, to the other parts of the room. Although, if it's really dark, most of that light would get absorbed and diffused very quickly. I think what you're talking about is your eyes dilating to a great degree while sitting in pitch-black, so when you fill the area with light again (same amount as before) your dilated pupils allow in twice as much light, making things appear twice as bright. 

 

There's REALLY poor fall-off from the flashlight cone of light too now that you mention it...

[Jex 1104]

I know what you mean. There is no bounce from the illuminated part of the room, to the other parts of the room. Although, if it's really dark, most of that light would get absorbed and diffused very quickly. I think what you're talking about is your eyes dilating to a great degree while sitting in pitch-black, so when you fill the area with light again (same amount as before) your dilated pupils allow in twice as much light, making things appear twice as bright. 

 

There's REALLY poor fall-off from the flashlight cone of light too now that you mention it...

 

If I turn the lights off in my room and switch on a torch, I can see the whole room lit up albeit not very well but a damn sight more than dayz. Using a torch in dayz inside a building is nauseating and why doesn't the head torch follow where I look? It's like I can look over my shoulder in 1st pp but if you look at ur av, his head stops well before where you can look does.

[ld-airgrafix 403]

Make zombies 1hit and you die, watch these forums fill up with angry threads. How many of you are feeling server lag, not much but its there, now imagine getting hit just because server lagged at the wrong time, and you lost all your gear because of it. Online games will always have server lag, anyone here played infestation/warz?

[CrniVarg 18]

Yes the infected need to be more dangerous. This video actually made me buy the game in the first place. The action starts 13-14 minutes into the video. As soon as they fire their guns the whole town swarms them instantly, they run at the same speed and they don't stop. No gear or ammo in the world would save you there. This is what we need in the game and there would be less shooting around or near towns...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54pbaLNLTlA&t=13m30s

Edited March 21, 2014 by CrniVarg

[AryanBoogeyman 185]

Excellent OP.

 

Great thread overall.

 

I too played the mod extensively and share your disdain for NVGs and the crippling effect they have on night play.  Flares, glow-sticks, flashlights, all good.

 

A hard cap on gamma adjustment in game would help. Is this doable from a programming POV?

 

 

I still have hope that Rocket will not take the easy way out and cater to the COD ADD fools. There are so many vanilla FPS copies of copies on the market already that we really don't need one with zombies for flavour.

 

The latest patch and the copious tears in the forum is encouraging. 

 

:D

[Sinphaltimus 262]

Wonderful post. I've played some of the mod (slightly less 100 total pre and post Steam) but stopped add soon as I heard about a stand alone in the works. It's my hope the stand alone reaches the epicness I feel it can become. Even in early stage buggy alpha, there is no game I have ever touched that gets my heart racing and adrenaline rushing life this one. 

 

More threats, consistent and more threatening indeed. Other players should be the secondary threat after environment. Being a lone wolf should be damn near impossible for anyone without near perfect aim and control (proficiency with kb/mouse and weapons). 

 

Grouping up "strength in numbers" should be encouraged by the dangers all around. 

 

You can't force anyone to play a particular style but with a truly horrific unforgiving world, it might just help you to survive longer. 

 

I don't often play alone but when I do play alone I try to live by a few rules (especially when geared up). Join high pop server, never camp a spot for more than 5 minutes (keep moving), don't bypass towns or cities, investigate all gun fire (not necessarily engage) and check my 6. It's my scariest invented gameplay rules.

 

Which is another thing I love about this game, anyone can play any way they want and it's not right or wrong (excluding hacks).

Edited March 21, 2014 by Sinphaltimus

[TOPMO3 119]

Yes the infected need to be more dangerous. This video actually made me buy the game in the first place. The action starts 13-14 minutes into the video. As soon as they fire their guns the whole town swarms them instantly, they run at the same speed and they don't stop. No gear or ammo in the world would save you there. This is what we need in the game and there would be less shooting around or near towns...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54pbaLNLTlA&t=13m30s

 

Wow man. Thanks for the flashback! I remember this was one of the first videos I watched, and I was hooked! Remember when you'd just get rushed by a zombie, shoot back, and then you'd be running for your life? Good times...

 

 

I still have hope that Rocket will not take the easy way out and cater to the COD ADD fools. There are so many vanilla FPS copies of copies on the market already that we really don't need one with zombies for flavour.

 

The latest patch and the copious tears in the forum is encouraging. 

 

:D

 

Amen sir.

 

More threats, consistent and more threatening indeed. Other players should be the secondary threat after environment. Being a lone wolf should be damn near impossible for anyone without near perfect aim and control (proficiency with kb/mouse and weapons). 

 

Grouping up "strength in numbers" should be encouraged by the dangers all around. 

 

You can't force anyone to play a particular style but with a truly horrific unforgiving world, it might just help you to survive longer.

 

That's the idea, make the player feel like he needs to survive every minute of DayZ. Not just the moments he has to go into town, or loot the airfield, or cross open terrain.