The edge of the world...

[Roshi (DayZ) 397]

Disclaimer: I realise that a few threads have suggested ideas for the edge of the map, but I think none have really worked out. With vehicles (and aircraft) becoming an increasingly important part of the game, and the tendency for people to park them off map when they log out, then this is probably a good time to renew the discussion. I really want to trawl the community for ideas that the devs can draw from to fix the edge of the map. I'm sure they have already thought (and perhaps argued) about this issue.

 

I think that multiple forms of 'barrier' should be used to preserve the sense of being in a fairly realistic piece of country and prevent jarring encounters with the edge of the world. Previous suggestions that have been posted include - making Chernarus an island, having a range of tall mountains and an invisible barrier around the map.

 

My suggestions (not claiming originality on all of these):

- make the edge of the map jagged rather than clean, straight lines.

- use a mix of 'barriers' to keep it interesting.

 

- hills, rock-formations, cliffs and sure, even mountains in some areas.

- roads leading off-map - blocked by a combination of road blocks, barriers, mines (perhaps with warning signs), rock-falls, etc.

- use of radiation (say that in their desperation to stop spread of the virus, governments used nukes or some such) or biological toxicity (as the devs have discussed for the new military area in the north).

- for aircraft - this is trickier - perhaps SAM missiles (the lore could be automated SAM launchers essentially left to their own devices) - maybe an audio cue of a missile lock warning might do the trick, followed by a missile strike if people push too far. I imagine that a fringe of low-detail wilderness around the edge of the map would be useful so that people in aircraft don't see an endless sea of surface.

- increasingly stormy seas, or sea mines for those trying to leave the map by sea. 

 

I'd hope for a boundary that feels like you are both trapped in the play area for the duration, but also are part of a larger world that you just can't access. This would stop metagaming by parking vehicles off map as well as getting rid of the jarring experience of suddenly coming to boundless emptiness.

 

Cheers.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Roshi

[-Gews- 7443]

Personally I've always liked the fact I can just walk off the map. I don't care if they visually and physically obscure the edge of the world as long as they don't fully prevent the determined from making their suicidal expeditions. SAMs, mines, invisible barriers, "return to map" scripts, poison gas or other impassible obstacles... meh, no thanks. The best way to stop debug camps and hoarding is to either move objects and vehicles placed that are placed outside the map (but not players) back within the boundaries upon restart... or just delete them. This world boundary was really not a problem in the mod... but now there are major cities, military bases and other points of interest right next to, even within sight of the world edge, so... 

[Zurvivalist 300]

Simple fix. 
Delete items in dubug land upon restart like in the mod days .
Set fog levels around the map to max so you cant see endless openess , Make fog toxic as they plan to do this anyways with in the new Tisi military base so if you explore too much into that area you die . 
This fits into immersion aspects as well , because it explains why all us survivors dont just band together and pack our bags, get out of this murderous zombie infested country . 

 

From what I understand , Debug land is actually randomly generated land terrain . So if that be the case, I would personally really love to just see the code changed a bit so it created a endless thick forest . Leave it as is, Where we can park cars and place tents out on it . But just endless overgrown wilderness. A place for us camp builders to go and find security .  With no maps and no land marks , we would have to rely on more creative navigation methods to re locate our camps. (ie: 10 min run North by North west from this dead end road ) 
My primary reason for always hating the cherno map has been mainly due to its total lack of thick forests for setting camps .

[BeefBacon 1185]

Roadblocks, hills, cliffs, all suggested before.

 

However, I really like the SAM site idea. It's an elegant way to stop aircraft rather than "radioactive... bio... fog?" It wouldn't stop people from bailing out, though. Maybe the off limits part of the map could prevent players from leaving vehicles? Seems like a simple but effective solution to that problem. Pilots should have fair warning before they're shot down. It'd suck to put one toe over the map boundary and just explode.