Camouflage

[DonTonino 4]

Yesterday, while trying to avoid some sniper fire, I had an idea: what if it would be possible to camouflage yourself when laying in the grass or woods?

 

As I could imagine it, it could work like this:

 

• You have to lay down somewhere with grass or bushes or trees. It wouldn't be possible to camouflage while in the open, or anywhere like buildings or roads, and it won't work if you crouch or stand.
• Once you are laying in an appropriate area, you are given an option to "Camouflage yourself". This will start an animation of the character "collecting" branches from the surrounding, lasting like 20-30 seconds. While camouflaging the character will actually be more visible than if just laying down, as it will move around and make noise
• After the animation is ended, you are camouflaged. This won't show your character to other players, except for any active tool or weapon you could be holding in your hands (see lower for more about this). A twist to even up things: there could be a success percentage to the action of camouflaging, like 50% or 60%, and you have no way to know for sure if you have correctly camouflaged yourself, except by asking someone else to look at you. Thus, after going through the action of camouflaging you could actually be as visible as when laying normally, but you would have no idea of that; it could be adjusted so that if you are holding anything in your hands, the success percentage is lower, thus making it easier to hide if you decide not to hold a weapon or object (up to 100% success maybe)
• Camouflage is lost if: character is moved (only movement allowed would be the aiming deadzone), any weapon is shouldered or extracted or put in the backpack, any other object is used. So if you want to use it for sniping, you better be very careful in choosing your aiming direction, and cherish your ammo (if you reload, your camouflage is gone). If you want to hunt, the same applies. If you want to hide, just remember to keep still (as anybody hiding would do)

 

As much as this could be useful for snipers, I could imagine this being useful for hunting or for hiding from other players, for example when being hunted down. Could actually be fun for some group tactics (player leading some unsuspecting victim towards a group of hidden players, etc.).

 

What you think of that?

 

 

 

[LaughingJack (DayZ) 767]

I think its in the wrong Sub, it belongs into "Suggestions".

 

Apart from that: Nice idea, but "This won't show your character to other players"? No...just no. An "improvised ghillie suit" (as in: I'm lying on the ground an have put grass obver my body) - yes, but really going invisible? Hell no.

 

And even if I see the reason for taking time etc. (and you are right, it shoudl take tiem), it's only really useful for snipers or people who try to ambush someone, not for somebody that is hunted down otr shot at (i never have 30 calm seconds when shit hits the fan ;))

[captain_finnish 134]

Meh. More campy elektro qvikscooope 360 sniper bandits. But lets be real, that is not very realistic to "fully" camouflage yourself in 20-30 secs and it promotes camping/banditing so much that your suggestion makes me sick :( Good suggestion, just doesnt work in this game

[BiGoDeViN (DayZ) 423]

Not to down OP or anything, but this idea has "Fucked" written all over it.

No one in their right minds would "camouflage" while under fire from a Sniper. So, if this idea was put in action, the only people using it would be KOS groups who will be "camouflaging" near by to roads and the coast, shooting people who walk by and laughing at them for not knowing where it's coming from. I'd rather see Bohemia go ahead and fix the current core mechanics of the game.

 

Just my 2 cents.

Edited March 19, 2014 by BiGoDeViN

[DonTonino 4]

My apologies for having posted in the wrong Sub and thanks everybody for the feedback, I'll think it over :)

[Katana67 2907]

I like the idea of an improvised ghillie suit, and there's been some discussion on it.

 

However, rather than have it be an "action" that you just sort of throw leaves over yourself, I think it should be an item.

 

You'd have to loot/craft some sort of netting to attach foliage (or burlap). Then, the player could select appropriate foliage based on the intended location.

 

As an aside, the hatred of sniping/camping/banditry is absolutely laughable. Nothing wrong with any of them, whatever you personally consider them to be.

[liquidsnake 275]

It should be hard to get, fairly effective (but obviously not too effective) and when unequipping it you shouldn't be able to move for like 10 seconds to give it a huge disadvantage as well. It should also take 10 secs to set up.

[makomachine 263]

No, no, and no...  I'm fine with improvised ghillie suits and things like that, but anything that you can do at any location to effectively become invisible is a game breaker.  Especially given the propensity of Mosin/LRS/snipers we already have in game.

[mgc 92]

We could turn the improvised ghillie into an art form if we could bind stuff to our items in a non cookie cutter way. I think i'd turn my backpack into a bush for starters.

[kihz 83]

Yesterday, while trying to avoid some sniper fire, I had an idea: what if it would be possible to camouflage yourself when laying in the grass or woods?

 

As I could imagine it, it could work like this:

 

• You have to lay down somewhere with grass or bushes or trees. It wouldn't be possible to camouflage while in the open, or anywhere like buildings or roads, and it won't work if you crouch or stand.
• Once you are laying in an appropriate area, you are given an option to "Camouflage yourself". This will start an animation of the character "collecting" branches from the surrounding, lasting like 20-30 seconds. While camouflaging the character will actually be more visible than if just laying down, as it will move around and make noise
• After the animation is ended, you are camouflaged. This won't show your character to other players, except for any active tool or weapon you could be holding in your hands (see lower for more about this). A twist to even up things: there could be a success percentage to the action of camouflaging, like 50% or 60%, and you have no way to know for sure if you have correctly camouflaged yourself, except by asking someone else to look at you. Thus, after going through the action of camouflaging you could actually be as visible as when laying normally, but you would have no idea of that; it could be adjusted so that if you are holding anything in your hands, the success percentage is lower, thus making it easier to hide if you decide not to hold a weapon or object (up to 100% success maybe)
• Camouflage is lost if: character is moved (only movement allowed would be the aiming deadzone), any weapon is shouldered or extracted or put in the backpack, any other object is used. So if you want to use it for sniping, you better be very careful in choosing your aiming direction, and cherish your ammo (if you reload, your camouflage is gone). If you want to hunt, the same applies. If you want to hide, just remember to keep still (as anybody hiding would do)

 

As much as this could be useful for snipers, I could imagine this being useful for hunting or for hiding from other players, for example when being hunted down. Could actually be fun for some group tactics (player leading some unsuspecting victim towards a group of hidden players, etc.).

 

What you think of that?

 

[Irish. 4886]

I read this as: I want an easy mode for sniping.

 

But, please correct me if I am wrong in my assumptions.  :)

[hannibaldaplaya 1095]

Holy shit what a terrible idea to finish my night with

[Mullraugh 1151]

I think it's a sweet idea. So long as you're not allowed to use ANY weapons while camouflaged.

 

[DonTonino 4]

Again, thanks everybody for the feedback :) I'll try to explain what points I think may have been overlooked, I have no interest in giving snipers much of advantage (I've never played as a sniper so far, I like the exploring / scavenging /survival approach much more than the PvP; I'm a lousy shot anyway <_< ):

• camouflaging would be possible only when in a grassy or woody area, so no possibility at all to be used on rocks / roofs / inside buildings
• camouflaging with any item in your hands (be it a tool or a weapon) carries a penalty on the success, without the player having any idea if he has successfully camouflaged. Also, whatever you are holding in your hand is visible - so if you are sniping, the rifle will still show and stick out, pretty much like if you were to lay in a bush letting the rifle stick out of it
• reloading the weapon, changing stance or item, or moving will immediately break the camouflage. Only movement allowed would be the aiming deadzone, which can go only so far in tracking a moving target or changing aim

 

I think that the advantage to snipers would be would be quite limited, as the sniper would have to be in a grassy area (severely limiting the hiding spots), would have to lay still (so no turning around to cover another approach or building or eating/drinking/moving around while waiting for a target) and once the magazine is empty, he has to break the camouflage to reload. Judging by what I've seen and read so far, the average sniper usually hides inside buildings and seeks a fast paced gameplay, so I think most of snipers would actually have no use for this kind of camouflage.

 

On the other side, I think it could be a realistic approach to hunting, as you'd have to choose your spot well, and be ready to wait for the prey to show up without doing anything else.

 

It would also work well for ambushes, but again, you'd have to choose the spot well and wait for someone to show up (or you could have a team mate lead some unsuspecting victim in the woods :rolleyes: )

 

This wouldn't be the same as ghillie suits: the suits would allow you full mobility and no penalty at all to actions / combat / inventory system, while not affording you a near perfect hiding. So if you prefer mobility over hiding, the ghillie suit will do; my proposal would let the player achieve a much better hiding at the cost of severe penalties on movement and action. Different balance, different gameplay, different way to have fun in the game :)

[shiennar 0]

In all honesty I feel players that are laying/sitting still are hard enough to notice, to make them even harder to notice would just attract more camping of known loot-spawns, even more so than it is already.

[Munson_fry (DayZ) 312]

with full tsko gear on ur allready are close to invisible as long as u dont move. no need for fancy bushwookie costumes

[mgc 92]

"camouflaging would be possible only when in a grassy or woody area"

To restrictive.

 

A solution to all your problems would be to allow things from the environment to be bound to items by players.

[Demoth 366]

They need to fix the rendering of terrain at distances. That way you have realistic camouflaged as opposed to the game either making you invisible, or the current case of making you look like a twat in an open field with no grass around you.

[Forrelist 236]

I do think that any camoflage should be homemade - sticks, branches, leaves and mud.