[Suggestion] Streams and waterfalls

[Rigor Mortis (DayZ) 141]

I have noticed one major thing missing from the plans for survival in DayZ -- clean water sources.  I have seen suggestions for better ways to clean the existing water sources, but no one is addressing the fact that there _are_ clean water sources out there in the real world, and there should be clean sources in DayZ.  I hope that a few ideas here will be implemented.  Right now I see the future of hydration in this game being pretty dismal -- can't find matches or purification tablets?  Oh well, you get to die from dissentary b/c clean water doesn't exist anywhere in the world any more.

 

1. Moving water (streams, waterfalls)

 

I know this one is a big request from a development standpoint, but if you're going to take on the challenge of making the first realistic survival game, you should find a way to overcome the technical challenges to add at least some type of moving water.  One of the first things you learn in survival training is that if you come across stagnant water, don't drink it without some serious purification (tablets, bioling etc), but if you come across a moving stream or waterfall, you can jump in and drink all you like.  Obviously there are exceptions - pollution and contamination do happen... but I'm talking about small streams in the wild, not the Buriganga River.

 

You could even make some places in a stream where it gets wide and pools up stagnant and other places where the water is flowing quickly perfectly fine to drink. I think the hardest part of this would be the graphics... water just isn't easy to work with in most game engines!

 

2. Springs

 

I'm sure some people might call me crazy for suggesting it, but water really does well up out of the ground in some places and it's perfectly clean and drinkable.  They call these spots 'springs' and they would be fairly easy to make in the game even with the current game engine.  There would probably need to be some kind of indicator for springs vs stagnant pools though -- maybe color?

 

There could also be places where someone could dig just a little bit and find clean water - especially in densely wooded areas. Another idea would be to have water come out of a hill, just making a small wet area of rocks on a steep slope.  This one would be easy to put into the existing game world by just adding a shiny texture to the ground.

 

3. Wells

 

Some city kids might be scared of well water, but generally speaking it's perfectly clean and fine.  The trick is that if the well hasn't been used in a while, you need to pump until you get clear water - the water sitting in the 60+ft long pipe underground would be considered 'stagnant' and could make you sick.

 

 

4. Solar still

 

Google 'solar still' if you don't know what they are.  I think people should be able to construct one the same way you construct a fireplace.  Rocks + some type of water container + plastic sheet + maybe a shovel = solar still construction items.

 

5. Machete + vines = water

 

I assume not everyone knows this, but plants require water to survive, and some plants can be cut to provide drinkable water.  The most common of these is vines, but I know there are others as well -- and the water that comes out of them is perfectly clean, having been filtered by the plant.

[SFRGaming 718]

This has been suggested and discussed MANY times before.

[Rigor Mortis (DayZ) 141]

This has been suggested and discussed MANY times before.

That's odd b/c I searched and found nothing - and it's not mentioned in the sticky.  Thanks though.

[Pvt_Larry (DayZ) 98]

Streams are indeed better than stagnant water, but I caution heavily against drinking from one unless you have a very good idea of the source, streams that flow through, say, a cow pasture have a tendency to pick up various parasites and microbes that can be just as dangerous. Just a thought.

[terminal_boy 860]

Rendering engine might need some work first...

[w1lg5r 70]

This has been suggested and discussed MANY times before.

Only reason people discard it is because of engine limitations, and (almost) every time bohemia says theirs a limitation, a modder does it themselves Besides no one has suggested some of these ideas (e.g.springs) and there's no need to discard it.

 

I would like an inland river personally but this would add to wilderness survival as well.

[SFRGaming 718]

Only reason people discard it is because of engine limitations, and (almost) every time bohemia says theirs a limitation, a modder does it themselves Besides no one has suggested some of these ideas (e.g.springs) and there's no need to discard it.

 

I would like an inland river personally but this would add to wilderness survival as well.

If you checked the dev's twitter pages, you'd see that many people have talked to them about this. In short Dean said "Currently? It's impossible, but something we will look at after the game is updated with DX11 and more."

[blackberrygoo 1416]

If you checked the dev's twitter pages, you'd see that many people have talked to them about this. In short Dean said "Currently? It's impossible, but something we will look at after the game is updated with DX11 and more."

To be fair , this was never suggested in such depth in the suggestions section and I really like the vines idea , waterfalls would be great to see as a visual too .. And 64 bit servers are internal testing now so I can see dx11 being up and running "soon" ...

[Rigor Mortis (DayZ) 141]

Thanks for the info guys - I'm glad to hear that some of these have not been brought up before and I hope that we get to see them in game one day :)