Time Alive

[Triggerhippy 5]

There have been some topics with similar titles maybe, I searched and found a few but they were also mixing this idea with other statistic keeping.

 

First the problem:

 

There is nothing to do in dayZ, you all know it's true, once you get good enough you can gear enough that you are not going to die to environment/zombies in no time. Then while poorly geared you hunt round a bit, dare an airfield rush or what ever and get guns/ammo, and then you hit the, what next wall? The answer in most cases is to goto some high population town and look for trouble, basically I'm geared now lets use it and hopefully I'll get a great PvP fight before I die.

 

This works even better if you are grouped, it's so much better looking for that trouble if there are 3 of you :)

 

In my eyes this leads to two problems, firstly the pointlessness of survival, it's supposed to be a survival game, but in reality it's a run round for 1-2 hours gear up and then hope to have a good PvP game. Secondly the 'lone wolf' is not a good play style, combat in dayz tends to reward the group over the solo, (I'm sure you can all post some youtube vid of an imba guy taking down 3 people single handed, but it's the exception rather than the norm.)

 

I think the solution is easy, record time alive on a character, allow the player to see his time alive, even give each account a table showing their best ten time alive.

 

But here's the kicker, have the top 100 currently time alive, or even better the top 100 currently time alive and online available for all to see in a list at the start. Double even better show what server they are on if you go down the route of time alive and currently online.

 

What will this do? Well firstly if (lets call them trolls, but those that like to mess up other peoples game experience) know which servers these long survivors are on, they will probably go hunt them, to end their streak. This is good, it's gets these people roaming the map more looking in all the corners trying to find this survivor. It gives people something else to do rather than just PvP in Elektro and also spreads people out over the map. The people trying for records (again maybe keep a top 50 of all time list as well as the current list) will find it a lot more scary trying to stay alive. Imagine you sit in the woods until you 've eaten all your food and now you HAVE to go into that nearest town, but because you are number 3 on the current survivors list and everyone knows which server you're on it's going to be dangerous.

 

I think something like this would break up the current gear --> PvP --> die --> gear again gameplay and provide a different direction that would spread the population of servers out more, and also it doesn't take anything away form the PvPers who just want Elektro combat, that route is still open. Also people would become famous, you wait till some guy hits some massive amount of hours alive, (you know there are people out there who will do it), then the glory to the person that finally finds and kills him will also be the greater.

 

It will add some depth and a point to the game other than just gearing and PvPing.

[Kirby12352 67]

I think you might have forgotten that the game is in Alpha phase. Which means there is not much to the game yet.

[Conrad_The_Comrade 577]

There have been some topics with similar titles maybe, I searched and found a few but they were also mixing this idea with other statistic keeping.

 

First the problem:

 

There is nothing to do in dayZ, you all know it's true, once you get good enough you can gear enough that you are not going to die to environment/zombies in no time. Then while poorly geared you hunt round a bit, dare an airfield rush or what ever and get guns/ammo, and then you hit the, what next wall? The answer in most cases is to goto some high population town and look for trouble, basically I'm geared now lets use it and hopefully I'll get a great PvP fight before I die.

 

This works even better if you are grouped, it's so much better looking for that trouble if there are 3 of you :)

 

In my eyes this leads to two problems, firstly the pointlessness of survival, it's supposed to be a survival game, but in reality it's a run round for 1-2 hours gear up and then hope to have a good PvP game. Secondly the 'lone wolf' is not a good play style, combat in dayz tends to reward the group over the solo, (I'm sure you can all post some youtube vid of an imba guy taking down 3 people single handed, but it's the exception rather than the norm.)

 

I think the solution is easy, record time alive on a character, allow the player to see his time alive, even give each account a table showing their best ten time alive.

 

But here's the kicker, have the top 100 currently time alive, or even better the top 100 currently time alive and online available for all to see in a list at the start. Double even better show what server they are on if you go down the route of time alive and currently online.

 

What will this do? Well firstly if (lets call them trolls, but those that like to mess up other peoples game experience) know which servers these long survivors are on, they will probably go hunt them, to end their streak. This is good, it's gets these people roaming the map more looking in all the corners trying to find this survivor. It gives people something else to do rather than just PvP in Elektro and also spreads people out over the map. The people trying for records (again maybe keep a top 50 of all time list as well as the current list) will find it a lot more scary trying to stay alive. Imagine you sit in the woods until you 've eaten all your food and now you HAVE to go into that nearest town, but because you are number 3 on the current survivors list and everyone knows which server you're on it's going to be dangerous.

 

I think something like this would break up the current gear --> PvP --> die --> gear again gameplay and provide a different direction that would spread the population of servers out more, and also it doesn't take anything away form the PvPers who just want Elektro combat, that route is still open. Also people would become famous, you wait till some guy hits some massive amount of hours alive, (you know there are people out there who will do it), then the glory to the person that finally finds and kills him will also be the greater.

 

It will add some depth and a point to the game other than just gearing and PvPing.

Sounds great for once the game is in Beta/Completed. Since right now isn't focused on actual entertainment, it's focused on testing, I don't see this being necessary until at least Beta. Instead of looking at DayZ:SA as a game, look at it like the frame of a game, the foundation, because in all reality that's what it is right now. It's like a house, you can go inside the framework if you need to, but you don't actually live in it.

[Triggerhippy 5]

_{It might be in alpha, but the current direction is about adding new gear, adding transport, adding better zombies etc. And while I agree that these things are good the fact remains that it is a game, and as such people need a reason to play it. At the moment there is no real reason to play, no achievements, no reward, nothing to detract from the gear up and fight people mode of playing. Part of the process of getting from an alpha to a full game is also to round the gameplay element as well as the content element, and therefore I think that something like this is a perfectly valid option to explore. It's as important to a complete game to be a game as it is to have content, often people will forgive lack of content if the gameplay is great.}

Edited November 5, 2014 by Triggerhippy

[Kirby12352 67]

_{It might be in alpha, but the current direction is about adding new gear, adding transport, adding better zombies etc. And while I agree that these things are good the fact remains that it is a game, and as such people need a reason to play it. At the moment there is no real reason to play, no achievements, no reward, nothing to detract from the gear up and fight people mode of playing. Part of the process of getting from an alpha to a full game is also to round the gameplay element as well as the content element, and therefore I think that something like this is a perfectly valid option to explore. It's as important to a complete game to be a game as it is to have content, often people will forgive lack of content if the gameplay is great.}

 

 

Might not be a bad idea to get the DayZ mod if you're looking for a complete game.

[dedoolb 157]

Hell yeah. I would love to see player stats similar to the mod, i.e., heroes/bandits/zeds killed. But that Time Alive stat would be awesome, and knowing that people hunt me down solely because of my survival time...I would enjoy that challenge.

 

Granted, it isn't much to go on just knowing your quarry's current server. And there's no guarantee the hunted won't leave the game once the hunters close in for the kill. :/

If a Time Alive stat is added, however, the hunted could join a TS chat with the hunters to taunt them, give clues about their location, etc.

 

I'd leave notes in obvious places after killing one hunter with an arrow:

The Gingerbread Man was here...while you three two were cooking by that fire for 10 minutes across the road. Good luck catchin' me.

[LegitOldSchool 261]

_{It might be in alpha, but the current direction is about adding new gear, adding transport, adding better zombies etc. And while I agree that these things are good the fact remains that it is a game, and as such people need a reason to play it. At the moment there is no real reason to play, no achievements, no reward, nothing to detract from the gear up and fight people mode of playing. Part of the process of getting from an alpha to a full game is also to round the gameplay element as well as the content element, and therefore I think that something like this is a perfectly valid option to explore. It's as important to a complete game to be a game as it is to have content, often people will forgive lack of content if the gameplay is great.}

 

No. That's like saying "let's take the car for a ride" when all you have is an engine and four wheel on the floor. When the game is in alpha, we are not playing it, we are testing it. Gameplay elements come in the beta. Right now the game is being fleshed out, what you don't seem to understand is that those things that are being put into the game like guns and items are not being prioritized over other elements. They are being put in because the developer has multiple departments that deal with different aspects of the game. The people that are qualified for working in the design and modeling department probably aren't familiar with what's needed for coding or testing other parts of the game. Each department deals with what their job qualifications are. Some things take more time, while things like 3D modeling is less time consuming. Take a break and come back in the beta, then you might have a point.

Edited November 12, 2014 by EchoZeero

[Mr_Joe 38]

I like your idea of top 50 players, indeed it would make survivors try to get to the tops, and then those top survivors would obviously have a harder time surviving because of "Bandits/trolls" hunting them down just to get their place in the scoreboard for other players to see.

But I bet in the full game, there's going to be a lot more satistics and mechanics to survival.

I can't wait for the full game, It's going to be amazing.

Good suggestion though! seems you put thought into it.

[Troll_Hunter 54]

Excellent suggestion!

 

High scores has kept those old-school arcade games interesting for years.

 

Maybe award those top 10 hero's / survivors honoured with some in game spray painted decals?

 

Top-10 bandits could be served by having reward posters in the game.

[Act III 50]

Everything about this post is amazing. I would love to see this/some sort of ladder system come v1.0.

[Karmaterror 982]

Im not all that fussed about rankings or online leaderboards, but I really really want a mod type days alive counter in the bottom of the screen on login. Although I can see how they would make a lot of people pay differently with the hopes of being on them.

 

The one thing they need to do is make it only log in game time. I once logged into a mod private hive server....spawned in zelengorsk with "day 127" or something like that. I was like wth!?!?! Turned out id played there before then not been back in ages, but the game had (probably) just gone off  the date lol

[AnarchyBrownies 1383]

Im not all that fussed about rankings or online leaderboards, but I really really want a mod type days alive counter in the bottom of the screen on login. Although I can see how they would make a lot of people pay differently with the hopes of being on them.

 

The one thing they need to do is make it only log in game time. I once logged into a mod private hive server....spawned in zelengorsk with "day 127" or something like that. I was like wth!?!?! Turned out id played there before then not been back in ages, but the game had (probably) just gone off  the date lol

 

I agree with this whole topic. I don't mind the idea of leaderboards at all, and I definitely think it should tell you how much in-game time you have when you log in. Like Karmaterror pointed out, don't show the time you've spent off the game as well.

 

I think this element could change the game completely. The harder the game gets and the higher that number, the more rewarding it is each time you stay alive longer and each time the game gets harder. The trick to leaderboards would be how much to show. Showing the average survival times of EVERY player could create a race to the bottom as much as it could create a race to the top. Do a top 5000 or something and it would at least give people benchmarks, even if they felt they couldn't reach the more ridiculous times.

 

I'm not sure why the conversation on this died out. It came up a few times when the SA came out and then it basically disappeared... I don't know, maybe I've just been spending too little time here.

[BleedoutBill 1636]

There have been some topics with similar titles maybe, I searched and found a few but they were also mixing this idea with other statistic keeping.

 

First the problem:

 

There is nothing to do in dayZ, you all know it's true, once you get good enough you can gear enough that you are not going to die to environment/zombies in no time. Then while poorly geared you hunt round a bit, dare an airfield rush or what ever and get guns/ammo, and then you hit the, what next wall? The answer in most cases is to goto some high population town and look for trouble, basically I'm geared now lets use it and hopefully I'll get a great PvP fight before I die.

 

This works even better if you are grouped, it's so much better looking for that trouble if there are 3 of you :)

 

In my eyes this leads to two problems, firstly the pointlessness of survival, it's supposed to be a survival game, but in reality it's a run round for 1-2 hours gear up and then hope to have a good PvP game. Secondly the 'lone wolf' is not a good play style, combat in dayz tends to reward the group over the solo, (I'm sure you can all post some youtube vid of an imba guy taking down 3 people single handed, but it's the exception rather than the norm.)

 

I think the solution is easy, record time alive on a character, allow the player to see his time alive, even give each account a table showing their best ten time alive.

 

But here's the kicker, have the top 100 currently time alive, or even better the top 100 currently time alive and online available for all to see in a list at the start. Double even better show what server they are on if you go down the route of time alive and currently online.

 

What will this do? Well firstly if (lets call them trolls, but those that like to mess up other peoples game experience) know which servers these long survivors are on, they will probably go hunt them, to end their streak. This is good, it's gets these people roaming the map more looking in all the corners trying to find this survivor. It gives people something else to do rather than just PvP in Elektro and also spreads people out over the map. The people trying for records (again maybe keep a top 50 of all time list as well as the current list) will find it a lot more scary trying to stay alive. Imagine you sit in the woods until you 've eaten all your food and now you HAVE to go into that nearest town, but because you are number 3 on the current survivors list and everyone knows which server you're on it's going to be dangerous.

 

I think something like this would break up the current gear --> PvP --> die --> gear again gameplay and provide a different direction that would spread the population of servers out more, and also it doesn't take anything away form the PvPers who just want Elektro combat, that route is still open. Also people would become famous, you wait till some guy hits some massive amount of hours alive, (you know there are people out there who will do it), then the glory to the person that finally finds and kills him will also be the greater.

 

It will add some depth and a point to the game other than just gearing and PvPing.

First, there is nothing to do in DayZ, because the game was designed to be that way. It is an open sandbox that allows you do do virtually anything that you want. I wouldn't expect this to change significantly between now and the final release, because it is a key key pillar of the "vision."

 

The "Spawn/Gear-up/PVP Endgame cycle is a choice that you make. If you are bored with it (which does not surprise me), that would suggest a lack of imagination on your part.

 

I don't appreciate you telling me that the "Lone Wolf" style is not a good, or a valid one. I have no trouble, whatsoever, keeping myself entertained for hours on end, with this play style. I enjoy exploring and competing against the elements. Besides, with my frame rate in Cherno, I wouldn't be much of a challenge to you anyway, so where is the fun in mowing down the helpless? It would be nothing but a waste of good ammunition.

 

Personally, nothing would make me happier, than if the devs would stop spawning military gear at the NWAF and turn the spawn back on at the Balota airstrip. This would make it more convenient for those who are only interested in "The Endgame" and it would also make it less likely that I will inadvertently run into a marauding group of paramilitary lunatics, whose only interest is in adding more notches to their firearm.

 

Now, not content with PVPing with willing participants, you want the devs to tell you who has been alive the longest and presumably has the most to loose. Not only that, but you also want the devs to make it easy for you to find these people.

 

Here is my suggestion for you. Meet in Cherno, Electro and Berezino. Choose up sides. Wear your arm bands to signify your alliance and continue to blow each others brains out. And, in your periodic travels to NWAF and it's environs, please consider those of us who are not wearing arm bands to be civilian non-combatants and leave us out of your boring, unimaginative, but totally OK play style.

Edited January 29, 2015 by BleedoutBill

[toasted duckie 156]

Your post has a lot  of ignorance / lies in it... "you all know it's true" for example.... You're projection your opinion as the absolute truth here.... 

But I do see your point, you want to see stats, to make the player more aware of what he/she has achieved in his/her lifetime. I'd like to see stuff like "time alive" too, and I think this has actually been announced as a feature a long time ago. I think it was in one of the dev blogs where someone said that stats will be implemented. 

What I strongly oppose to, however, is making these stats (partially) public, let alone share server-information of my character. I am playing the game, and no-one knows anything about me, until they see, hear, or talk to me. And even then they still know very little, it's one of the things that makes Dayz Dayz in my opinion.

[AnarchyBrownies 1383]

I think you guys are losing the larger picture of the thread.

 

I don't see anything wrong with something keeping track of how long you've been alive and letting you know on log in, or having that stat accessible at any time. I also don't see anything wrong with leaderboards for this stat alone. If it's a survival game, make one stat regarding how long you've been alive. That alone could curb some of the death match we typically see. I used to be on the board with "you choose how you play," argument but really all the vast majority of players want to do is shoot everything they see. If they die in a gunfight they're not too concerned about it because they can get everything they need to kill again quite quickly upon respawn.

 

A Time Alive counter is a little mechanic that doesn't infringe much on the sandbox and immersive elements, but suggests a little more diversity with how you approach the DayZ world.

 

Doubt they'd ever introduce anything telling you where players are. And @BleedoutBill I don't think he was knocking lone wolf as a general form of gameplay. I think he was saying lone wolves can't engage people, even in a friendly way, because they are at too much of a disadvantage against groups that are going to be hostile 99% of the time. There's a difference between being a lone wolf and being a hermit. 

[sneakydudes 278]

Its all good, if stats are what makes people play without going to play many other games then by all means bring it in.

I do believe we have some sort of stats coming shortly or was suggested by server ops. Cant quite remember which is which.

 

I agree stats are ok, player kills, zombie kills, days alive, beans eaten :) The top scores get beans beside their name.

I would even go as far as having clan, group stats. You register your players, and then the website will average out the teams stats.

 

I would want also this... along with stats.

 

Character profiler, 1-4 toons you have on public that you can select. and view.

then you can also switch to the private lists, and view your character, and server. could list your items, view your characters image, and stats.

 

EDIT: What about adding another profile name beside your stats? Character 1 - Medic, Character 2 - Outlaw, bandit, Character 3 - Ambusher, Sniper, and Character 4 (which is me) annoying LMAO

 

What you think?

Edited January 29, 2015 by FIRMSneakydude

[byrgesen 1340]

_{It might be in alpha, but the current direction is about adding new gear, adding transport, adding better zombies etc. And while I agree that these things are good the fact remains that it is a game, and as such people need a reason to play it. At the moment there is no real reason to play, no achievements, no reward, nothing to detract from the gear up and fight people mode of playing. Part of the process of getting from an alpha to a full game is also to round the gameplay element as well as the content element, and therefore I think that something like this is a perfectly valid option to explore. It's as important to a complete game to be a game as it is to have content, often people will forgive lack of content if the gameplay is great.}

 

People need a reason to play, yes.

Does the developers have to provide said reason? no, not really.

 

Back in the day, this game was refered to as an "anti game" because it has never had a final goal or objective. DayZ is not about gear, its not about survival, its not about zombies, its not about other players. Its all about doing exactly what you want to do, in the game, without having a fixed objective or goal and then dealing with the consequenses of your choices.

The entire essence of DayZ is "this is your story", meaning Bohemia provides sandbox tools and we build the gameplay, like we want.

 

I dont mind statistics, in general, but i do have a problem with statistics that encourage specific gameplay styles, like global leaderboards you mention.

Give us statistics, but make it local, only visible to the player, unless he wants to share it with anyone else.

Give us the choices and tools to build the gameplay we want, dont force anything down our throat.

[AnarchyBrownies 1383]

People need a reason to play, yes.

Does the developers have to provide said reason? no, not really.

 

Back in the day, this game was refered to as an "anti game" because it has never had a final goal or objective. DayZ is not about gear, its not about survival, its not about zombies, its not about other players. Its all about doing exactly what you want to do, in the game, without having a fixed objective or goal and then dealing with the consequenses of your choices.

The entire essence of DayZ is "this is your story", meaning Bohemia provides sandbox tools and we build the gameplay, like we want.

 

I dont mind statistics, in general, but i do have a problem with statistics that encourage specific gameplay styles, like global leaderboards you mention.

Give us statistics, but make it local, only visible to the player, unless he wants to share it with anyone else.

Give us the choices and tools to build the gameplay we want, dont force anything down our throat.

 

This only makes sense if we live in a utopia where there is significant variety in how the game is played. There isn't, even if a few people choose to play in different ways. Leaderboards only change how people play in that maybe they value their lives more so you have more people trying to stay alive and not putting themselves in hostile situations constantly. It doesn't stop you from choosing to be anything. It is a very light suggestion to the community to enjoy different aspects of what the game offers.

 

It's a sandbox game, but very much a survival game. The game is completely about survival in a zombie apocalypse. The only thing the sandbox element does is allow you to opt out of the general theme that has been provided. Nothing about leaderboards or statistics stops you from opting out of that. It is a possible way to make the world more immersive by pushing people in the direction of survival without doing anything to force them into a certain style. Passive skills are the same thing. You could choose to keep dying but there are rewards for staying alive. There is no "losing" or some lack of "completion" for dying, but the rewards staying alive suggest that longevity matters.