[Street Lights] Power Grid Maintenance

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

Once we get a toolbox for vehicles (assuming) this tool box could be used to maintain and power up specific power grids to turn on street lights in that specific area for night play.

 

As it stands, DayZ is missing something very big which is playing at night. Street, house, and tower lights in the mod made night play very attractive. It wasn't all that bright either. If you were in the city you had light to loot by. On the road, you could see a light up ahead to light your way. It was very subtle.

 

I realize in the mods case you have to give up a bit of legitimacy as to how could lights ever work under apocalyptic conditions. But it looked great and playing at night is super important for game play in DayZ.

 

A long while back in 3PP (SA) there was like one street light on in every town, I have no idea why they didn't do more. The longer they wait to get people into night play, the harder it will be.

 

To keep a feel of legitimacy, I think it would be great to be able to work on a power grid and power up lights on zones related to that grid.

Edited October 23, 2014 by Weyland Yutani

[scrubbie_mcnoob 136]

Maybe, but I think a portable generator should be required, and with it the need for things like fuel (diesel or petrol).

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

It should be endgame.  The lights that were on in SA were never meant to be on, I'm assuming they recycled some assets and forgot to take a light source out of the code/model, but even these very few examples could be explained away as battery/solar powered.  From the sounds of it vehicles are going to require multiple tools (wrench, pliers, hammer, ect are already in) and not just a generic toolbox like in the mod.  DayZ is set well after humanity's downfall, so any power plants would have shutdown/self destructed/run out of fuel by now.  Even Solar/wind farms would have tripped a breaker, broken piece of equipment or some other malfunction preventing transmission of power.  As far as I can tell the only power plant in the playable region (currently) is in Electro.  You'd have to get that working for starters (and that'd be a bitch and a half for even a large, organized group) and if you got that running there'ed be problems all over the grid you'd have to deal with.

[doomdude1 48]

It should be endgame.  

Just to clarify for newer players just how endgame he means:

 

In order to get Elektro going (somehow), you'd need so much loot and time invested that getting two helicopters would be a cakewalk. If you imagine there would be a hypothetical 1000 organized groups out there when (if) this is implemented, one or two would have this. No more.

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

Just to clarify for newer players just how endgame he means:

 

In order to get Elektro going (somehow), you'd need so much loot and time invested that getting two helicopters would be a cakewalk. If you imagine there would be a hypothetical 1000 organized groups out there when (if) this is implemented, one or two would have this. No more.

By endgame I mean the ENTIRE server (when we have server caps of say 150) of regular players would have to be cooperating at least to a small degree to get it running and keep it running (I mean like the bandits would have to agree not to attack the power plant or grid in exchange for power for their base)

[Tegla (DayZ) 112]

By endgame I mean the ENTIRE server (when we have server caps of say 150) of regular players would have to be cooperating at least to a small degree to get it running and keep it running (I mean like the bandits would have to agree not to attack the power plant or grid in exchange for power for their base)

 

Do you really think this is possible?

Not to be pessimistic or anything here, but i am 100% certain that a random guy or group would have fun killing all those grouped up people just for the hell of it. Shame, really

[boneboys 7988]

GeneratorZ, who said genaratorZ !

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

It should be endgame.  The lights that were on in SA were never meant to be on, I'm assuming they recycled some assets and forgot to take a light source out of the code/model, but even these very few examples could be explained away as battery/solar powered.  From the sounds of it vehicles are going to require multiple tools (wrench, pliers, hammer, ect are already in) and not just a generic toolbox like in the mod.  DayZ is set well after humanity's downfall, so any power plants would have shutdown/self destructed/run out of fuel by now.  Even Solar/wind farms would have tripped a breaker, broken piece of equipment or some other malfunction preventing transmission of power.  As far as I can tell the only power plant in the playable region (currently) is in Electro.  You'd have to get that working for starters (and that'd be a bitch and a half for even a large, organized group) and if you got that running there'ed be problems all over the grid you'd have to deal with.

End game is too late and people won't play nights then. They put full moons way too late in the mod and the same thing happened…very little people played it.

 

Either street lights are in the code or they aren't. If they are in the code, they have a purpose so its hard for me to believe a street light was never meant to be on. The code is all new anyway (I remember them saying how they had to rewrite well over a million lines of code for SA) and the lights weren't on in the mod anyway, you needed a script for that.

 

The point here isn't perfect exaplianable reality, its getting people to play at night time. Certain concessions need to happen and playing in daylight only is half the experience. In RL, Rify would never be upright in that environment. In RL, bloodstains would be black/dark brown and not red. Having lights on would combat Gamma exploits.

 

Maybe not a generic toolbox, but a tool box for items one could find that could help get the grids online. 

 

Not a lot of options to get people playing nights.

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

Do you really think this is possible?

Not to be pessimistic or anything here, but i am 100% certain that a random guy or group would have fun killing all those grouped up people just for the hell of it. Shame, really

 

Probably not, but it's pretty realisitic when you compare it with real world power grids.  A meth head can shut down power to an entire side of an island with just a length of chain and a suspicion that that power substation has copper pipes he can sell for a couple of hits.  I'm greatly exaggerating here (about repairing the grid) but it should be a large group effort requireing more than a small clan or group of buddies.

 

End game is too late and people won't play nights then. They put full moons way too late in the mod and the same thing happened…very little people played it.

 

Either street lights are in the code or they aren't. If they are in the code, they have a purpose so its hard for me to believe a street light was never meant to be on. The code is all new anyway (I remember them saying how they had to rewrite well over a million lines of code for SA) and the lights weren't on in the mod anyway, you needed a script for that.

 

The point here isn't perfect exaplianable reality, its getting people to play at night time. Certain concessions need to happen and playing in daylight only is half the experience. In RL, Rify would never be upright in that environment. In RL, bloodstains would be black/dark brown and not red. Having lights on would combat Gamma exploits.

 

Maybe not a generic toolbox, but a tool box for items one could find that could help get the grids online. 

 

Not a lot of options to get people playing nights.

Thats my opinion about getting the main streetlights or the main power grid up and going again.  It's not like you can get some jumper cables and a honda generator, find a street light, hook it up and have all the street lights operateing.

 

The lights were on a couple of times in the mod (no addons) and they said that was not the intent and took them out.  The few 'street lights' that were on were attached to buildings, not just stand alone street lights.

 

We just have to accept the fact that a lot of people will not play at night, no mater they do.  Even if we had street lights, night vision goggles, and every other idea you could think of to make night more attractive, some people are gonna log on, see it's dark and say, 'fuck this' and change server.  Right now we have flashlights, headlamps, weapon lights, flares, glow sticks, and lanterns (not sure if they still light up the area around you when turned on in inventory), and honestly that should be enough for the people that want to play at night.  It is realistic.  I mean fuck if there really was a zombie apoc I would only be active at night if it was absolutely necessary.  Otherwise I'd be hold up in a barricaded shed or where ever I thought was safe enough to last till morning with a shotgun in my hands and trying to get some sleep.  Game wise, I know the PVPers aren't going to be actively hunting on night server.  When they add stealth mechanics that will make it slightly more attractive to the people who don't mind night time (like myself) as we can walk around without attracting zombies from a mile away and use the old tricks such as tossing a road flare into an empty street, taking a silenced weapon, and taking out the 'moths' to make the area a little safer for a while.

[Tegla (DayZ) 112]

Probably not, but it's pretty realisitic when you compare it with real world power grids.  A meth head can shut down power to an entire side of an island with just a length of chain and a suspicion that that power substation has copper pipes he can sell for a couple of hits.  I'm greatly exaggerating here (about repairing the grid) but it should be a large group effort requireing more than a small clan or group of buddies.

 

Sure, but in real life we wouldn't see guys shooting people that are trying to fix the grid just for shits and giggles. Highly unlikely at least.

 

 

Your other points still stand, of course

Edited October 23, 2014 by Tegla

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

The lights were on a couple of times in the mod (no addons) and they said that was not the intent and took them out.  The few 'street lights' that were on were attached to buildings, not just stand alone street lights.

 

We just have to accept the fact that a lot of people will not play at night, no mater they do.  

Possible to provide a source for your first sentence? I know it was a while ago but I would very much like to read them thanks

 

I'll never accept that. Night play is massive and servers should ultimately be time locked. People will like it if its done right, I know it can be done. Torchia just put up something in todays Status Report about lighting for nights. Not street, but sky from Skybox.

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

Sure, but in real life we wouldn't see guys shooting people that are trying to fix the grid just for shits and giggles. Highly unlikely at least.

 

 

Your other points still stand, of course

 

You have great faith in humanity, one I do not share.

Possible to provide a source for your first sentence? I know it was a while ago but I would very much like to read them thanks

 

I'll never accept that. Night play is massive and servers should ultimately be time locked. People will like it if its done right, I know it can be done. Torchia just put up something in todays Status Report about lighting for nights. Not street, but sky from Skybox.

Personal experience, it was a bit ago and I remember reading them in patch notes for the mod, mostly saying that lights were never intended to be on so they were removed, sadly I cannot remember how far back the notes were.  There were mods/scripts people would add on later to add in street lights, but at first they were in vanilla.

 

Also (not that important) I meant to say that the 'streetlights' in standalone were usually attached to buildings and not standalone street lamps.

 

It was something about the moon and stars (being able to see the spiral arm of the milky way or some such, which would be very possible with all the lights off on a clear night).  People like US (you and me and the few who enjoy night) will enjoy it.  Others will server jump to a day server because they can't be bothered to find a light source they threw out as soon as they spawned in or wait for their eyes to adjust to the moonlight like we do now and in the mod.

 

Yes, I want them to add in things to make night more fun.  But I still believe no mater what they do, true night players like us will be in the minority (and I don't mean Gamma cheaters, which is another reason why people won't play night time)