I hope the new engine changes these things:

[Demonskunk 2]

A friend bought Day Z for me the other day, and I decided that I'd give it a try with them. I had an overwhelmingly negative experience.

I understand that this game is in Alpha, and I'm not judging the final product based on the current version of the game, but I have some suggestions - I hope the devs read this.

 

First, I'll give a recap of my experience.

I loaded the game up, looked around, went to try to jump and pulled my fists up instead - I then started changing settings around and yelling at the people who I was on mics with about how awful they were. After about 20 minutes, I wasn't happy with how much I had to compromise, and how many things I'm used to being relegated to one key were spaced out over the entire left side of my keyboard.

 

I jogged around, having completely submitted myself to the fact that if anything or anyone saw me, I was going to die, and thereby having filled myself with a sort of reckless abandon that is unheard of in DayZ. I wandered around in an area I didn't understand for about 30 minutes, and found absolutely nothing over the span of several houses, a couple of small warehouses, and a long stretch of country road.

 

After reaching the point of nearly starving to death, and nearly having hypothermia, I found a tall building and promptly leapt to my death. I was surprised at the... dullness of death. The rush of falling suddenly ending in a black screen simply reading "You died." I waited for about 5 minutes until realizing I had to hit ESC and click "respawn", and that the game wouldn't give me that simple convenience.

 

I spawned near to where I died. I once again wandered around - this time I put a battery in my flash light and started looking through farm houses. I found a hand saw and promptly put it on one of my ears as a decorative ornament that would also serve to intimidate any possible bandits and zombies - nothing with a functioning brain would attack something that so recklessly put a saw so close to it's face. After wandering around for about 5 minutes, I decided to have a look around and saw that I was close to the coast, so I ran for the coast, and then took a sharp left, walking along the rocky shore until I encountered a light house. I cautiously entered.

 

Finding items inside, my first thought was that it was someone's hidden stash, and that I was in danger, so I grabbed the burlap sack behind the ladder and promptly put it on my head. I stumbled around in pitch blackness for 10 minutes, trying feverishly to pull it off of my head, pulling it out of my inventory, putting it on the ground, climbing up and down the ladder, putting it back on and pulling it back off - nothing helped until I logged out and back into the game.

 

After that I was instructed to stay put while one of my friends who knew the game better came looking for me, but I had other plans. I climbed up the tower and looked at the items laying around. I lamented my limited storage before playing some menu tetris, trying to decide what would be most useful, and I ended up deciding on a portable stove and a flash light. I wandered around on top of the light house for a few minutes before climbing down, figuring I was sort of an obvious target. I saw in the light house for about 5 minutes before figuring I was also a vulnerable target in such a tight room, so I climbed up the ladder, and decided to sit on the wall opposite the ladder, so that I'd be able to see anyone and ambush them with my hideously inaccurate fists.

 

After backing myself up against the wall, my particles destabilized and I phased through it. I shrugged and stood up, walking over to the railing to have a look at the scenery - it was surprisingly beautiful in a sort of grey, sort of bland way. I then tried to jump, and climbed over the railing to my death.

 

I went to the bathroom after that, left my computer and the game running since I had nothing of value on my person. I have a wireless headset - all I heard was the sound of a zombie beating me to death while I stood there and took it, but I really needed to piss, so I didn't care. I came back to find myself unconscious. I waited, came to for a moment, and was beat into unconsciousness immediately again by the same zombie. I hit ESC and respawned.

 

On my final life, I spawned near some kind of apartment complex with a walled courtyard. I tried to punch a zombie to knock it over, but I kept missing because apparently my hand-eye coordination is awful, and the provided cursor is actually no way to aim in melee. I then hastily pulled the pitchfork off of my back (I picked one of those up), and tried to hit it with the pitchfork, but my wild swinging of what was clearly a took designed for stabbing was useless. I eventually ran into the complex and wandered around the building getting frustrated that I couldn't fit my meaty outstretched fists through certain doors sideways, and feeling like a massive giant because i'd turned my FOV up slightly. At this point, I was so upset at the game that every action I performed was done with enough malice to kill just about anything in close proximity. I eventually turned off the game out of sheer anger and decided that I wouldn't be bakc any time soon, while trying to argue with one of my on-mic friends about how the controls are genuinely bad, and that "you'll get used to them" isn't a good argument in any situation.

 

So, after that recap, There's one thing that frustrated me more than anything else - and it's the controls. DayZ standalone has some of the worst controls I've ever encountered in a game, and I've never played ARMA, but from what my friends tell me, it has a control scheme that is very similar, and just as awful (IMHO)

 

Since I know they're transitioning engines, I'm hoping that the controls are altered to offer at least the OPTION of mapping certain controls to be more like their more arcady FPS counterparts - things like Crouching, going Prone and Standing all being mapped to the same key via context, instead of using 3 keys separately. The ability to jump would be nice - the same button that jumps can also be used to vault based on context. Picking items up off of the ground is extremely finnicky - I had to position my cursor at a weird angle, and be dragging over it slowly in a specific direction to grab the saw I found, for instance.

 

Melee combat is extremely unpleasant, especially since the cursor point is actually not anywhere close to where your attack will hit - at least form what my friends tell me - meaning that fighting in melee is more of a guessing game than actual gameplay, which is bad when you're trying to knock down a zombie, because they chase you quickly and tirelessly - and their attacks seem to hit me approximately 2 seconds after they swing, and no matter where I am in relation to their swinging claws.

 

In addition, the movement felt really... jarring. starting movement was really jerky, and a lot of the time I wouldn't be able to move very freely through spaces, I'd often get caught on geometry that shouldn't be in the way, or get stuck while trying to move around an object because the room was too small and my model was too big (I was also apparently about eactly as tall as the door frames, so I don't know if my model was really big, or that's how it was designed - but the houses and rooms all felt too small.

 

So, that's my piece. I never even got to experience the survival bit - though I'll say that food was so scarce that I literally found NONE before my character informed me that he was starving to death, and there was barely anything to pick up in any of the houses that I could possibly use as a weapon to hunt for some. So there's that.

 

All in all, I had an overwhelmingly negative experience, and I probably won't be coming back to this game until the engine change happens.

I hope my feedback is helpful, at least.

[Cap'n (DayZ) 1827]

This isn't the game for you.

 

The array of controls is necessitated by the large amount of actions needed to be performed, and it was pretty much the same in ArmA. The devs are working on more streamlined approaches to using items and other things, and apparently a new melee system is being internally tested. A lot of your complaints stem from the gameplay itself, and from what I've gathered, this simply isn't the kind of experience you'd want. Even with streamlined controls, I doubt you'd enjoy it that much more. You haven't really experienced the core aspect of the game either (aka the rush of pvp/meeting people), but from your tone I don't think you quite understood the core concept behind.

 

All I can say, is try something different. Maybe this isn't the game for you.

[Conkykillz 791]

Sorry did not read, but i did lick my monitor for the taste of your Tears

 

YOU did not BUY it so you Have LOST NOTHING!

 

If i was the "Friend" that bought you the game i would be on my way to your place right now and Bitch Slap you

Edited October 23, 2014 by Conkykillz

[Demonskunk 2]

This isn't the game for you.

 

The array of controls is necessitated by the large amount of actions needed to be performed, and it was pretty much the same in ArmA. The devs are working on more streamlined approaches to using items and other things, and apparently a new melee system is being internally tested. A lot of your complaints stem from the gameplay itself, and from what I've gathered, this simply isn't the kind of experience you'd want. Even with streamlined controls, I doubt you'd enjoy it that much more. You haven't really experienced the core aspect of the game either (aka the rush of pvp/meeting people), but from your tone I don't think you quite understood the core concept behind.

 

All I can say, is try something different. Maybe this isn't the game for you.

 

For me the controls would get in the way of that. I understand what the core experience of DayZ is supposed to be, and for me, the controls are too complicated and unresponsive/glitchy for me to even want to get into the rush. It's possible to facilitate a large variety of actions through a relatively small number of controls through intelligent use of context. For people that see a 100% need to have all those keys for all of those functions, the option should still be there, but from what I experienced, there is in no way a need for that many buttons for that many actions.

I'm probably going to take some flak for this, but I played and enjoyed Nether, and from what I can tell, it's at least semi-similar.

 

Sorry did not read, but i did lick my monitor for the taste of your Tears

 

YOU did not BUY it so you Have LOST NOTHING!

 

If i was the "Friend" that bought you the game i would be on my way to your place right now and Bitch Slap you

 

It's really more like hatevomit, but if you like the taste of acrid barf, more power to you.

And in my defense, I told him not to buy it for me, and that "I will hit you if you buy me DayZ" so it's his fault for doing it :0

 

Also buying me DayZ is enough punishment, I don't think he needs to bitch slap me.

 

[OrLoK 16188]

Hello there

 

Yes, op may have assigned hilarious things like a sack on the head to a negative experience, but lets look past that to his main issue and lets try to be a little more welcoming.

 

His main bugbear is Controls.

 

Now, if you are an arma player then this confuses me a little as you sould be pretty comfy with the controls as they have changed little from OFP on the whole.

 

Some aspects of keybinding ARE broken. But most are known and are being addressed in the bug tracker.

 

I too, think many aspects of Avatar control are currently below par, I dont know if we will ever see a quantum leap from the way they are now though. And not everyone will agree with me on that thought.

 

Nonetheless, the devs are aware and if they can improve avatar control and keybinding, they will. Remember this is still an early stage of production.

 

As to Nether, well do some research on its history, I wont bother addressing it here.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

[hammy55 81]

For me the controls would get in the way of that. I understand what the core experience of DayZ is supposed to be, and for me, the controls are too complicated and unresponsive/glitchy for me to even want to get into the rush

 

I love this game and I totally agree that the control scheme right out of the gate is a complete turnoff, but like Cap'N said, once you realize the full scope of actions and inventory management, it all starts to seem completely necessary. The UI isn't really that bad: you have inventory slots 1-10 down below that act like quick keys. Once an item is in your hand, the use key allows you to interact with the world in a logical and straight forward way. Once a weapon is in your hand, spacebar lowers/raises it. Another key activates the ironsights/scope. Its all really straight forward but totally clunky when compared to any other high-paced FPS. 

[Mor (DayZ) 57]

So, after that recap, There's one thing that frustrated me more than anything else - and it's the controls. DayZ standalone has some of the worst controls I've ever encountered in a game, and I've never played ARMA, but from what my friends tell me, it has a control scheme that is very similar, and just as awful (IMHO)

It takes a bit to get used to, since it has some extra actions that aren't commonly used in many mainstream games, however, overall it is pretty standard and easy. Here this might help http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Commands

 

The array of controls is necessitated by the large amount of actions needed to be performed, and it was pretty much the same in ArmA.

Makes you wonder, how are they planing to adapt it to the PS4.. *scratch head* Edited October 24, 2014 by Mor

[OrLoK 16188]

It takes a bit to get used to, since it has some extra actions that aren't commonly used in many mainstream games, however, overall it is pretty standard and easy. Here this might help http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Commands

 

Makes you wonder, how would are they planing to adapt it to the PS4.. *scratch head*

Hello there

 

They did it for OFP when they converted it to the xbox, PS4 shouldnt be too hard.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

 

*ps title edited*

[Geckofrog7 1168]

Although OFP on Xbox was an aiming nightmare if I remember correctly. I dunno, I'm curious to see how they'll handle it, but precise aiming at long range combat seems like it'd be hard to accomplish.

[escobert 112]

too many controls? I'm guessing you've never player many mmos...

[Demonskunk 2]

Hello there

 

Yes, op may have assigned hilarious things like a sack on the head to a negative experience, but lets look past that to his main issue and lets try to be a little more welcoming.

 

His main bugbear is Controls.

 

Now, if you are an arma player then this confuses me a little as you sould be pretty comfy with the controls as they have changed little from OFP on the whole.

 

Some aspects of keybinding ARE broken. But most are known and are being addressed in the bug tracker.

 

I too, think many aspects of Avatar control are currently below par, I dont know if we will ever see a quantum leap from the way they are now though. And not everyone will agree with me on that thought.

 

Nonetheless, the devs are aware and if they can improve avatar control and keybinding, they will. Remember this is still an early stage of production.

 

As to Nether, well do some research on its history, I wont bother addressing it here.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

 

I think you may have misunderstood me slightly, I've never played ARMA, OFP or any 'simulation style' shooters before. My realm tends to be in the more action/arcade oriented shooters.

 

I understand that the game is still in an early stage, which I mentioned, and I'm hoping that the experience becomes closer to something I can enjoy.

 

I love this game and I totally agree that the control scheme right out of the gate is a complete turnoff, but like Cap'N said, once you realize the full scope of actions and inventory management, it all starts to seem completely necessary. The UI isn't really that bad: you have inventory slots 1-10 down below that act like quick keys. Once an item is in your hand, the use key allows you to interact with the world in a logical and straight forward way. Once a weapon is in your hand, spacebar lowers/raises it. Another key activates the ironsights/scope. Its all really straight forward but totally clunky when compared to any other high-paced FPS. 

 

I understand that the game has some unusual functions that need to be taken into account, but I've played other games with similar complexity that give many of your actions context-sensitive cues - for instance, the V for Vault key is almost entirely useless unless you're in front of a low wall.

 

The other main issue I have is that the key bindings are bizarre compared to more 'industry standard' 'AAA' games (Space to raise a weapon? space is usually jump/vault/interact with cover) and that initially is a big turnoff because I'm immediately not only in what I understand to be a hostile environment (Say what you like, but as far as I understand it, any other player is there to kill me, whether for sport or for equipment, and zombies don't discriminate), and dealing with uncomfortable, hostile controls. I understand Day Z is in alpha, but as I understand it, Day Z is a game that won't have any sort of interactive tutorial, or way to acclimate yourself to the way the game works, so the only way to get into it seems to be a trial by fire (or to somehow meet up with your friends who already know the game, and have them tell you), since much of learning a new control scheme is performing actions to make it into muscle memory (for me, at least).

 

At least one of my deaths was due to my muscle memory telling me to do something that the game decided is a button for something else, which goes against standard conventions.

 

too many controls? I'm guessing you've never player many mmos...

 

I actually don't, because I dislike hotbar-based combat. But in most MMOs the core controls don't use more than a handfull of keys - it's mostly your hotbar and switching between hotbars that uses a lot, and that only becomes relevent once you get deeper into the game, and have to worry about managing tons of skills.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Demonskunk

[Conkykillz 791]

Ok we get it, DayZ was my first foray into the PC medium mind you i started in the Mod, but the first thing i did was watch tutorial vids on Youtube then proceed through Boot Camp in Arma. To come from a Console to a Keyboard was a Shock to the system but it did not deter me in the Least, and i perservered and have Never looked back. This Game has given me So Many High's and Adrenalin rushes that no other game has ever come close to, and for you to play for a bit then come on here and criticize a Early Access Game with out giving it a chance or just purely to Troll absolutely infuriate's me......

 

Flame Off

[Demonskunk 2]

Ok we get it, DayZ was my first foray into the PC medium mind you i started in the Mod, but the first thing i did was watch tutorial vids on Youtube then proceed through Boot Camp in Arma. To come from a Console to a Keyboard was a Shock to the system but it did not deter me in the Least, and i perservered and have Never looked back. This Game has given me So Many High's and Adrenalin rushes that no other game has ever come close to, and for you to play for a bit then come on here and criticize a Early Access Game with out giving it a chance or just purely to Troll absolutely infuriate's me......

 

Flame Off

 

I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't trolling. You were determined to get into it, I had a cursory interest. My negative experience with the game doesn't have to invalidate your positive one, but you must understand that not everyone can tolerate the same level of inconvenience to have a positive, enjoyable experience with the same thing you have.

[Conkykillz 791]

Sorry

 

I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't trolling. You were determined to get into it, I had a cursory interest. My negative experience with the game doesn't have to invalidate your positive one, but you must understand that not everyone can tolerate the same level of inconvenience to have a positive, enjoyable experience with the same thing you have.

Sorry just have never come across anyone to just throw up their arms and say Fuck It the buttons are too hard. But meh each to thier own i suppose, well you have it on Steam now maybe come back when it is finished and have another try or not

[Demonskunk 2]

Sorry

 

Sorry just have never come across anyone to just throw up their arms and say Fuck It the buttons are too hard. But meh each to thier own i suppose, well you have it on Steam now maybe come back when it is finished and have another try or not

 

In today's day and age, when I have literally over 100 games on steam, and at least a hundred sitting on my shelf, I'm not eager to force myself to play something I don't immediately gain some enjoyment out of. I'm hoping that some of this will get smoothed out, because I can see DayZ being an experience - a memorable one if not a fun one - but right now the fundamentals are just a little too rough for me.

[Jfiles 439]

Sorry did not read, but i did lick my monitor for the taste of your Tears

 

YOU did not BUY it so you Have LOST NOTHING!

 

If i was the "Friend" that bought you the game i would be on my way to your place right now and Bitch Slap you

Bubbles strikes again! Just started rewatching all the seasons XD

[CANUCKinNZ 108]

2...much.....words! Will read tomorrow when not do drunk! Happy Friday before a long weekend New Zealand!

[Valdenburg 200]

2...much.....words! Will read tomorrow when not do drunk! Happy Friday before a long weekend New Zealand!

Indeed. Someone actually did read this wall of text ? :D

[lrp1984 199]

You have a well written post, and I agree with some of your points, however others are a little tenuous in terms of something to complain about. I think this really depends on what games you have played before. The idea of pressing the same key for different actions depending on the context seems bizarre to me, but then I am not really a console gamer. I think if you play any game, expecting it to be the same as another game, which is a different genre, and made by a different developer, you're always going to be disappointed. 

 

The game has poor controls and UI, terrible optimisation, average graphics, a bucket load of bugs and non-working features, and little to no actual content. However with all those problems, it is somehow a really fun and additive game to play. If a game can be this fun with so little, then it has huge potential to be a really great game. 

 

I've spent 50 bucks on fully released games that have been far less enjoyable. I don't want to mention other games, but I have a whole box full of games that are supposed to be great that I've only ever played once for less than two hours. DayZ however has so many hours invested in it, that I hope my girlfriend never see's my steam account as I'd certainly get a lecture about what I'm doing with my life :P

 

For me, I really hope they work on getting the backend stuff fixed rather than more content. I know vehicles and more guns would be great, but optimising the game to run smoothly, and allowing bigger player counts on the servers would be better. I guess however there is a different skill set between those creating the in-game artwork and features and those that are able to work on the optimisation of the game.

[Jex 1104]

Hello there

 

Yes, op may have assigned hilarious things like a sack on the head to a negative experience, but lets look past that to his main issue and lets try to be a little more welcoming.

 

His main bugbear is Controls.

 

Now, if you are an arma player then this confuses me a little as you sould be pretty comfy with the controls as they have changed little from OFP on the whole.

 

Some aspects of keybinding ARE broken. But most are known and are being addressed in the bug tracker.

 

I too, think many aspects of Avatar control are currently below par, I dont know if we will ever see a quantum leap from the way they are now though. And not everyone will agree with me on that thought.

 

Nonetheless, the devs are aware and if they can improve avatar control and keybinding, they will. Remember this is still an early stage of production.

 

As to Nether, well do some research on its history, I wont bother addressing it here.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

 

Ever since I played OFP the one thing everyone bitches about is the shitty controls in Arma. I've been using them for over 10 years so to me, I don't have an issue with them but I remember when I first played OFP and how infuriating they can be.

 

Here's on suggestion,

 

Tap CTRL to toggle stand/crouch

Hold CTRL to go prone, tap to go to crouch from prone - that saves 2 keys doesn't it?

[Zboub le météor 250]

In today's day and age, when I have literally over 100 games on steam, and at least a hundred sitting on my shelf, I'm not eager to force myself to play something I don't immediately gain some enjoyment out of. I'm hoping that some of this will get smoothed out, because I can see DayZ being an experience - a memorable one if not a fun one - but right now the fundamentals are just a little too rough for me.

you sum up the biggest disease of our society : I want everything immediatly !

 

learning to play an instrument takes hundreds, thousand hours, same goes for sports... but in the end, it's totally worth it.

 

if you want to play dayZ, you have to accept that you will suck at this game for 100 hours or more, because this game is very demanding. it's not just a new FPS, it's a totally unique game. hitting a headshot in dayZ as mutch more meaning in this game than in CS or BF. you protect the gear you accumulated for sometimes 20+ hours and you take away everything this guy gathered in his plathrough, and i'm not even speaking of the adrenalin rush this game gives.

 

most of the key controls are needed and i agree that they are not responsive at all. after more than 300h in dayz i still shout full of rage "putains de contrôles de merde" every hours when it takes 3 click to equip my weapon. desyncr are big issue too, melee hit detection is bullshit... but this game, with all these problems, is still one of the greates games i ever played.

 

try this game for 10 hours, develop your plan to survive, discover new towns, buldings... get over exited the first time you find a fireaxe or a shotgun, panic during your first encourters, get lost in the woods... well, try the dayZ experience without being only focus on the controls.

 

if this game is too demanding for you, then follow closely H1Z1, a more acrade approch of the zombie survival theme.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Zboub le météor

[Jex 1104]

Ok we get it, DayZ was my first foray into the PC medium mind you i started in the Mod, but the first thing i did was watch tutorial vids on Youtube then proceed through Boot Camp in Arma. To come from a Console to a Keyboard was a Shock to the system but it did not deter me in the Least, and i perservered and have Never looked back. This Game has given me So Many High's and Adrenalin rushes that no other game has ever come close to, and for you to play for a bit then come on here and criticize a Early Access Game with out giving it a chance or just purely to Troll absolutely infuriate's me......

 

Flame Off

 

Judging by the fact the OP has given a reasonable argument and spent time to make his post and reply to others, you sir, are the troll here.

 

Go away.

[Conkykillz 791]

Judging by the fact the OP has given a reasonable argument and spent time to make his post and reply to others, you sir, are the troll here.

 

Go away.

Please refrain from ever quoting me as your grasp on this conversation is invalid nor do you lack the mental capacity of what was said

Good day to you Sir

[OrLoK 16188]

Hello there

 

Let us decide whos trolling, please. If in doubt "report".

 

Just for clairty I did have to edit the title of the thread which had the term along the lines of "I hate this game" in it, so some early visitors may think OP is/was trolling.

 

Regardless. The comment that one has 100s of games waiing to be played does not mean that DAYZ has to vie for ones attention. In fact at this stage Id recommend the casual player not to bother playing. Youll only be frustrated. Indeed, even when the game is fully released Its appeal will not be universal.

 

I think many players are imparting on the game an ideal of what they want and imagine and that wont suit most folk.

 

Its not a gmae to jump into fer teh lulz, but on the flip side is easily useable for just such fun.

 

Think of the game not as a Zeombie shooter, rather as a surival Sim with some Zeds thrown in (at the moment)

 

Rgds

 

LoK