Clothing Durability

[Beizs 186]

So, I'm posting this here as I've absolutely no clue whether this is a bug, which, if it was, I'd report it to the bug tracker, or whether it is what is intended...

 

But over the last two days, I've had my jackets ruined three times. Each time, all it took was a single hit from a zombie.

 

The first was a Gorka military jacket, yesterday. I think it was spring camo. This was in worn status. Luckily, all of the ammo in there remained undamaged - and the bag of rice, which was badly damaged, didn't change either.

 

The second was a Riders Jacket today. Again, a single hit from a zombie brought it from worn to ruined. The sawnoff shotgun I had in there went from pristine to ruined too. Ammo inside that survived.

 

The last was my new Gorka military jacket, which, by some miracle, I found pristine in one of the tin sheds about 40 seconds after ruining my jacket. I then found another shotgun, which I decided to keep on my back. Even once I've sawn it off, I think it'll stay in my backpack or on my back from now on. My rice is now ruined too and some of the other stuff in there took damage also.

 

But the issue is that, assuming this isn't a bug, it's incredibly unrealistic - and can't really be justified by 'improving gameplay' either. First, the stuff inside of the jacket, generally, shouldn't be reduced to ruined. The point of the jacket is to protect that stuff. I get something like a bag of rice, which is made of paper, being torn. However, ammunition and shotguns should absolutely be able to take hits from an unarmed human (or zombie, which still has the strength of a human), especially if inside protective clothing.

 

I'll take issue with the Riders Jacket first, which appears to be made of leather. I live in the UK and am sixteen, which forces me to choose between either a moped or nothing. As such, I ride a moped. I have a cheap biker jacket which is made of some synthetic material. This is considered inferior to leather for protective purposes. About a month after I got my moped, so around 8 months ago, I came off of it. I was going in to a roundabout and there was some weird sludge on the road presumably dropped by one of the many industrial or farm trucks that drive down this road. I slid along the road with my moped on top of me for about ten meters. It hurt. My cheap jacket got a little frayed down its side, but it still works perfectly. My iPhone in the pocket that was against the floor was even completely untouched. If my poor quality motorcycle jacket can hold up to that and still be completely usable, a leather one should be able to take a fair few hits before being even cosmetically damaged, frankly. My jacket still looks fine after cutting off the frayed strings poking out.

 

Now, I can't speak for the military jacket. I've never had any experience with one. However, I'd assume that they're designed to be incredibly durable and should have similar, if not better, durability to a leather motorcycle jacket. The items inside especially should be well protected.

 

So, if this is an actual bug, I'm fine with it. I'll happily wait to get it fixed and not complain in the meantime. But if this is something that is simply to do with settings, I really, really feel that it needs to be changed quite a lot. I'm not complaining about my gear getting ruined; I'm used to losing it all together. But it's frustrating when you have to run for half an hour to a military base, hoping that nobody else is there, to possibly be able to replace gear that shouldn't be damaged at all, then, assuming you survive, run back to where you usually stay.

 

I know that this is an alpha and I can't expect it to be perfectly balanced, but I know that it's not a difficult thing to fix (I'm doing computer sciences in college which includes coding for web, games and software as well as having been playing with various languages and game engines since around the age of eight or nine after I did a two-day course for fun at a secondary school's weekend openings). It's generally just changing an items configuration. Again though, if it is a bug, that's fine.

 

So, has anybody else had something like this happen to them and does anybody know if this is config related or bug related. Finally, could anybody speak to the durability of military jackets irl? I don't really know how strong those should be and am just making presumptions as far as they go.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Beizs

[wasnu (DayZ) 392]

Pro tip here for you, dont let zombies hit you  B)

Problem solved

[Beizs 186]

Pro tip here for you, dont let zombies hit you  B)

Problem solved

 

Generally don't have an issue with that, but I ruined my fireaxe cutting trees while I was trying to set up a stash. At the moment I'm using a splitter and I'm out of practice with headshots/kiting with melee because fireaxes are 1-hit kills & I've not been without one for a while.

 

Either way, it's still an issue that (hopefully) can be easily fixed.

[Dagwood 680]

When development is further along, item degradation will be balanced, and zombies/bullets/axes won't ruin our clothing so effectively. For the time being, be thankful that clothing is so prolific and we can easily replace ruined items. Also, be careful about what you put where. Keep important items in the bottom of your backpack, keep stacks of rags or bandages in different containers, and place bags of rice or stacks of less important ammunition at the top of containers, as these items seem to absorb damage quite effectively. I've had bags of rice in my trousers save me from broken legs quite a few times.

[Beizs 186]

When development is further along, item degradation will be balanced, and zombies/bullets/axes won't ruin our clothing so effectively. For the time being, be thankful that clothing is so prolific and we can easily replace ruined items. Also, be careful about what you put where. Keep important items in the bottom of your backpack, keep stacks of rags or bandages in different containers, and place bags of rice or stacks of less important ammunition at the top of containers, as these items seem to absorb damage quite effectively. I've had bags of rice in my trousers save me from broken legs quite a few times.

 

Yeah, I've started doing that.

 

I play on a private, mid-high pop, persistence enabled server though, so it's not easy to replace military grade gear or even just uncommon items. It took almost two days just to find the first shotgun, searching Toplo, Sinistok, Vavilovo, Lopatino, Vybor and most of the barns in between. Hope that I just got super unlucky if my shotgun gets ruined again. It's terrible, but I love it. :P I like to stick to the north west as I have my loot stash there & running to places I've not looted for everything useful can be a real bitch. Loot's still not respawning particularly well.

 

I just think that it'd make more sense to set the durability high than incredibly low until it can be perfectly balanced. Especially considering the fact that I was wearing an assault vest the entire time which has never changed from worn. Maybe that's something that I should add as a suggestion, though I'm sure they're probably already planning on doing it, but vests should block damage to jackets. The only place you could actually reach are the sleeves, which make little sense to 'ruin' it.

 

Was not aware that items could absorb damage though... Very cool information.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Beizs

[igor-vk 909]

This is another undefined thing in this game. I have opposite situation, I get multiple hits from zeds but my clothes stays pristine or worn. Usually it gets ruined when zeds hit me due to desync or low FPS. Yesterday zed ruined my gorka jacket while hiting me trough wall of baracs. After that I killed around 50 zeds and got hit multiple times but vest got to worn and jacket to damaged few times.

[The-MCV- 149]

Generally don't have an issue with that, but I ruined my fireaxe cutting trees while I was trying to set up a stash.

 

 

Ruined axes still work as melee.

Edited January 2, 2015 by DontGoToBalotaAlone

[Beizs 186]

Ruined axes still work as melee.

 

Oh. I guess I shouldn't assume things in DayZ.

 

This is another undefined thing in this game. I have opposite situation, I get multiple hits from zeds but my clothes stays pristine or worn. Usually it gets ruined when zeds hit me due to desync or low FPS. Yesterday zed ruined my gorka jacket while hiting me trough wall of baracs. After that I killed around 50 zeds and got hit multiple times but vest got to worn and jacket to damaged few times.

 

Interesting. I never really have low fps as I tend to stick to small towns and the woods - and I very rarely have any notable desync either, so it's not that for me at least. My vest has always stayed pristine, just the jacket gets ruined instantly.

 

Guess it's a bug then?

[igor-vk 909]

We will get new zombies soon and then we'll see how it all works. Can't wait for that. What I assume is that with new zombie system there will be less walking trogh walls.