Essential for survival: Sleep

[wisper 61]

Sleep is essential. Try to stay awake for more then 48 hours, video your ensuing antics and u will be able to entertain friends forever :p

My suggestion to implement it in dayz has to do with realism, but can also be a great game parameter.

It relies on the day/night cycle, some new equipment and the way we logg off:

1. 24 hours dayz time should be equivalent to 2.5 hours real time, with 1/4 of an hour dawn, 1.5 hour day, 1/4 of an hour dusk and 1/2 an hour night. This way, your average player can experience everything in one sitting. If u don't feel the need to take a break from playing after 2.5 hours (... your gp says u should!) your avatar starts to suffer ill effects, simular to poisoning, starting mild, becoming serious after 5 hours of playing, to severe beyong that. The solution: logg off, even if it means u relogg back in. This will represent time u slept, but what about rested?

2. In order to actually rest u need to sleep comfortably, aka using a sleeping bag (the best), a blanket (ooookay), in your clothes(what?!). In all cases u will reach minimum quota, but only quality sleep will energize u, simular to food consumption. Thus we will be able to have all our space in our bags taken over by sleeping bags... just lke in real life :)

3. And the logg off will be the resting period. I don't think anybody wants to spend time listening to the avatar snoring, so this would be a good alternative. U dig your hide out in the woods (best) and logg off in safety, sleep in a room (oookay) with the risk to wake up in company, or logg off in the open (!), like in the middle of the street (!!), or on the airfield runway (!!!). Your choice.

That's that as my idea to incorporate resting and the equipment involved in dayz. All for realism!... or the second best.

[BeefBacon 1185]

Another sleep suggestion. Nice.

 

If sleep provides a small buff for a short period of time, say, a small stamina boost or something relative to the time you sleep, then I'd support sleep.

 

Otherwise, sleep is a terrible idea, especially if it's something that is necessary to survive.

[wisper 61]

The biggest problem u would be facing the way I suggest sleep is inventory space... but I find this realistic. Logg off would be the actual resting time, not in game sleeping whatsoever :)

[liquidsnake 275]

I remember there was a sleeping option at tents in the mod, which lasted about 20-30 secs. That or it was manually stoppable at any time, don't remember. I wouldn't mind to have that in SA, with a slight boost to health. There could be a sleep bar next to the hunger/thirst bar, which increases sway when you don't sleep for an entire day (maybe like 6 hours of gameplay, logging off doesn't count).

[applejaxc 2500]

Logging out and logging back in? The only way that's a possible punishment for not "sleeping" enough is that you have to wait half an hour to log out, and sometimes it's really hard to find a good place to log out/"sleep" (the first of which makes it stupid, the latter of which makes it worthwhile)

 

I like Dangerous Ray's sleep system. If you don't have an alarm or watch, you can't control how long you sleep.

[blazed 71]

Any game that forces you to log off imo is a shit game, you decide how much you want to play, not the game no matter how unhealthy it may be. You might have this one whole day off in a week where just play DayZ all day.

Also relogging to overcome this problem is a rubbish idea with the amount of time it takes to get back into a game, queue times, server hopping times, yeah just no thanks, I want this game to be like most mmo's where once you log into a server you don't need to log back / no restarts every few hours etc. (Loot respawning soon).

Also having your character idle for even 5 mins in a world where other players can come and kill you while you're not even in a game is Absolutely a No. Game is frustrating enough, we don't need zombies / animals / and players killing us off screen or camping our bodies.

If sleep becomes essential than I suggest a nap mechanic, your player lays on the floor for 30 secs and naps, then you get whatever benefits that may come with that.

Overall I vote: No Thanks.

[wisper 61]

Point taken, a napping option seems less restrictive to logging off... both possibilities could also be implemented too, that would be even less restrictive.

[nexventor 429]

Nope, my character sleeps when I sleep IRL.

[jasonb 10]

I like the mod idea.

IN SA Currently you regen health when you have full food/water right. How long approx does it take to regen health if your on the brink of death? 5 Maybe 10 minutes?

 

What about a sleep option, where you can sleep anywhere and regain health by resting over a 30-60 second period or longer perhaps at least until your at full health? You could only do this if you have full food and water and your character is capable of healing. The more hurt you are the longer the period. The downside is you wouldn't be able to wake up maybe unless you took damage so you would have to choose a nice spot. 

Edited May 8, 2014 by JasonB

[dallas 5195]

I'm treating this as a mental exercise.

 

I do find it to be a very interesting subject, but I don't think you can implement sleep or resting mechanics without either major gameplay changes or quite a few new features. In general any kind of game mechanic that forces you to stop playing the game, will never be popular by neither the developer or the player.

 

My all time zombie survival game is probably the browser game Urban Dead, where you'd earn an action point every 15-30 minutes. When you logged in, you'd have earned enough action points to scavenge nearby buildings or travel far to other neighborhoods, but you always needed to reserve a few action points, so you could hide or barricade inside a building, before you logged off. If you came across a player in the street, it would usually be an offline player, either a zombie or another survivor. To level up you had to kill zombies, but if you were unlucky and missed your dice rolls, you might find yourself stranded in the middle of the street without any action points. You then either log off and hope for the best or keep an eye on the clock and wait for a new action point, so you could move into a building or kill the zombie. Players would often group up, barricade buildings and defend them against hordes.

 

I don't even know if you can add such an aspect to DayZ, but if I were to go about it, I would add another bar to your overall health bars. I'd add a stamina health bar, which you had to replenish or maintain, just like food and water. In order to rest, you'd occupy and barricade a building. Barricaded buildings would then attract waves of zombie hordes, just like the movies. These zombie hordes shouldn't obviously be very big, but the more survivor inside the barricade house, the easier defending it would be and maybe the less time, you'd have to rest. Other players could then either spot a barricaded house and offer their help or they could attack the house, knowing that the residents are fatigued and forced to stay put for 15-20 minutes. This mechanic wouldn't force you to log off to rest, but rather remain stationary and defend to rest.

 

Maybe this could become relevant once base building or barricading is implemented and when you can secure and lock certain areas to avoid server hopping inside barricades.

 

 

What about a sleep option, where you can sleep anywhere and regain health by resting over a 30-60 second period or longer perhaps at least until your at full health?

 

This reminds me too much of traditional fps shooter health regeneration.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Dallas

[liquidcactus 719]

I dont see sleep as something beneficial to the game.. lets just use our imagination and agree that our chars already sleep when we log off and wake up when we log back in thats enough for me ^_^

[wisper 61]

The fact that we r out in the woods with so many trivials but no sleeping bag or even a blanket is by itself wrong though. A mechanic that accounts for stamina is going to be introduced eventually, probably when vehicles appear. Sleeping could very well be tied up there.

NexVentor I know your snoring bothers my character :p

Edited May 9, 2014 by Wisper

[toasted duckie 156]

Thinking out loud here:

I like the idea of having some system that has to do with your energy level. Sleeping and having a shelter, protecting you from the environment is one of most important aspects of surviving out there. I'm not sure about how to implement this system... Perhaps you gain energy when you log off (sleeping), but you get an extra buff when you have something like a sleeping bag in your inventory? Perhaps taking naps is possible? Maybe a mini-game while taking a nap, to not get bored? We'll refer to those as dreams  :D

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

I like the idea that your guy might end up dozing off randomly if he is tired, like... some guy on sniper duty just nod off as his friends are looting the village nearby, and no one is with him to wake him up :p

 

It could be an interesting system if when in a tired state, the danger is that your character might doze off during low intensity situations. But i cannot find a sleep mechanic that i feel is satisfying, even if logged off time counting as sleep seems more than fair to me. After all, this is not a subscription based game, devs have nothing to gain by encouraging you to play more.

 

I used to play a game called "a tale in the desert" and you could select "offline actions". It allowed you to automatically collect common resources that are dull to harvest (grass, wood, sand) while being offline. It was less efficient than doing it by hand but it ment that if you needed a little bit of wood and where at the end of your session, you could get the wood auto collected when logged off (you DID need the right tools and right logoff location!)

[irishroy 1347]

too much realism => ruins the fun, sorry

 

 

sleep in-game, if it's a "must"? NOPE

sleep, if it gives a small buff, but not forced? YES

[minime1000 78]

My char sleeps when I sleep irl so I'm going with no.

[JKS-Alex 79]

Same here, every time i logout (and i always chose a safe and realistic place) my character goes sleep so i think he sleep too much, indeed will be good if when you login after lot of hours away you will find your character hungry and thirsty to simulate better the sleep time ;)

Edited May 9, 2014 by JKS-Alex

[wisper 61]

Not everybody can play every day. 1 min or 10 days off line should hold the same effect to the avatar, (perhaps mild hunger/thirst). The more I think about this napping system, the more I like it. Both together (napping and log off sleeping) could work fine in representing the rest that is required.

Lady Kyrah, dozing off? FANTASTIC!

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

Not everybody can play every day. 1 min or 10 days off line should hold the same effect to the avatar, (perhaps mild hunger/thirst). The more I think about this napping system, the more I like it. Both together (napping and log off sleeping) could work fine in representing the rest that is required.

Lady Kyrah, dozing off? FANTASTIC!

Ah hey i'm expecting those who will scream bloody murder against this :)

[Gdaddy22 299]

Sleep is a very good idea

You wouldn't die from lack of sleep because that would be too much, but if you lack sleep you'd bleed more often from getting hit, you become tired faster, you are weaker so it's harder for you to carry all your stuff etc

Edited May 9, 2014 by Gdaddy22

[minime1000 78]

What about people that have a lot of spare time and like to play DayZ A LOT. Do they have to stop playing and put their gaming on pause because of "sleep" or be forced to play with penalties?

[wisper 61]

U mean campers, right? Yeah, we like those too. If u follow the thread u will discover that we are now catering for a system that uses 10 to 30 secs naps and considers that the avatar sleeps during logout time. If u stay 24/7 online, spending 30 secs every couple of hours is not such a drag is it? U spend as much to eat and drink :)

What about people that have a lot of spare time and like to play DayZ A LOT. Do they have to stop playing and put their gaming on pause because of "sleep" or be forced to play with penalties?

[Otis.Driftwood 204]

The biggest problem u would be facing the way I suggest sleep is inventory space... but I find this realistic. Logg off would be the actual resting time, not in game sleeping whatsoever :)

 

 

When they add option to barricade yourself and camps they should reconsider the sleep-log off mode. It's more realistic. You stay on the map and sleep. You can do that in barricaded houses, camps and deep in the forest. Of course that they will be a chance that you die when you log in next time because someone killed you but that would be more realistic.

 

How is that doable and if, i don't know. 

[minime1000 78]

U mean campers, right? Yeah, we like those too. If u follow the thread u will discover that we are now catering for a system that uses 10 to 30 secs naps and considers that the avatar sleeps during logout time. If u stay 24/7 online, spending 30 secs every couple of hours is not such a drag is it? U spend as much to eat and drink :)

Today I learned that people who play a lot are campers.

[wisper 61]

Today I learned that people who play a lot are campers.

Denial eh? Ur in the first stage :p

Seriously though, I may be wrong but I don't see someone playing 10 hours streight at this point of the development... there isn't so much to do appart from sniping.

In any case, whatever your play style, the initial suggestion, with the napping option added, sounds right.. right?