Make Chernarus an Island??????????

[FlimFlamm 509]

Currently Chernarus (give or take):

 

So there is this large desolate wasteland we call the radiation zone or the de-bug zone that amounts to a vast stretch of unusable terrain (the immediate terrain is also unappealing because it is right up against an inexplicably radioactive wasteland).

My suggestion is essentially to reshape the northern and western extremities of Chernarus such that instead of wasteland there is coast, creating an island.

In order to make the waters and coastline itself playable, the whole land mass of chernarus essentially needs to be pulled south east (or the game-play region delineated by the western and northern borders needs to be move north west).

I have no clue how this stuff is programmed in the DayZ engine, but if it could be pulled off Chernarus + could become even bigger and a fair bit more dynamic.

This is a primitive rendering of what Chernarus COULD look like:

 

This gives 360 degrees of potential for additional islands and seems like it could be at least a 20-30% increase in the size of the chernarus land mass without increasing the size of the existing gameplay boundaries.

Crazy I know, but what do you all think?

Edited July 14, 2016 by FlimFlamm

[Lome 6]

This sounds like a great idea and it would solve the problem of not enough space to hide bases.

[FlimFlamm 509]

2 minutes ago, Lome said:

This sounds like a great idea and it would solve the problem of not enough space to hide bases.

I was also thinking that this new more extreme north would be ideal for all kinds of bases, large and small.

I would also be interested in some sort of unique terrain features which could make traversing and navigating this area extremely difficult, like a shit ton of contaminated areas, extreme mountains with sheer cliffs along parts of the coast, changing temperatures due to altitude, a lack of civilization aside from a few hunting cabins, and maybe train tracks along the coast (and a train tunnel through the parts with cliffs?).

If I was a dev I would be mostly concerned with the extra server load that might be created by needing to add in a shit ton of new buildings each with item spawn locations and zombie spawn locations, etc... But even still any kind of usable terrain at all, even if just barren hilly forest with no zombie or item spawns for miles, would be really very appealing.

[Troll_Hunter 54]

I like the idea of cliffs. I imagine people being thrown of them...

On the other hand, the 'natural' migration that happens now from the coast to the NW airfield may be affected because the starting at the NW coast would allow easy access to the airfield and military base NW.

I think BI should at least try to motivate the west and north border of the map more.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Troll_Hunter

[FlimFlamm 509]

47 minutes ago, Troll_Hunter said:

I like the idea of cliffs. I imagine people being thrown of them...

On the other hand, the 'natural' migration that happens now from the coast to the NW airfield may be affected because the starting at the NW coast would allow easy access to the airfield and military base NW.

I think BI should at least try to motivate the west and north border of the map more.

 

Personally I would be against spawn location on the northern coast (I like the SE -> NW map progression). However, progressing along these new coats could potentially prove more dangerous/hazardous than the freshie coasts currently are. Cliffs at various points would force inland travel, in addition to being fairly well out in the open.

 

[Troll_Hunter 54]

I was thinking of the White Cliffs of Dover ;) - but I don't mind other colours, as long as it's high and vertical, with plenty of seagulls riding the wind:)

[eno 1049]

I agree that encountering a beach would be less immersion killing than encountering a distinctive line into an infinite light brown landscape and that concept would provide with many more opportunities to head out to sea to islands visible on the horizon... Swim or row a boat (with storage). 

But- machine guns first... then helicopters. 

Then maybe a row boat. 

 

[FlimFlamm 509]

8 hours ago, eno said:

I agree that encountering a beach would be less immersion killing than encountering a distinctive line into an infinite light brown landscape and that concept would provide with many more opportunities to head out to sea to islands visible on the horizon... Swim or row a boat (with storage). 

But- machine guns first... then helicopters. 

Then maybe a row boat. 

 

If you think about it, right now boats are more or less worthless except for three and only three functions. Getting you to the prison, getting you to skalitsky, and using it to pick people up or be picked up from the coast (to be brought NE along the coast).

Really this is a severe lack of actual utility for a full blown vehicle entity...

If Chernarus was an island though... Boat travel actually would become useful and safe as you could get from one side of the map to the other and avoid zombies and players

The added possibility for additional islands and more and potentially unique terrain in the north for me would be immeasurably game-changing.

I'm with you though, HELICOPTERS FIRST!!!!! :D

 

[eno 1049]

Nah- was talking more about a boat in the event they turned it into an island. And my comment about first machine guns, then helicopters... was meant as mostly sarcasm given that neither one of those things contributes anything to what the game was described as when most bought into the concept for more than cheesy pvp. 

 

[FlimFlamm 509]

4 hours ago, eno said:

Nah- was talking more about a boat in the event they turned it into an island. And my comment about first machine guns, then helicopters... was meant as mostly sarcasm given that neither one of those things contributes anything to what the game was described as when most bought into the concept for more than cheesy pvp. 

 

Until base-building and larger permanent groups cheezy, pvp is pretty much the end game (regrettably).

But regarding the boats, they have already been mentioned on roadmaps and what not. They might get dropped from the drawing board but as far as we know we're getting vanilla boats as it is.

Edited July 16, 2016 by FlimFlamm

[Whyherro123 2283]

Ugh, no thanks.

A large part of the lore of Day Z, which is admittedly very little, is that it shares a border with Russia, has (er, had) a sizable ethnically-Russian population, and this ethnic population caused a lot of problems, up to and including the Civil War, which canonically happened in the Day Z timeline. This is why there are stockpiles of weapons, clothing, ammunition, etc: militas were fighting brushfire wars all across Northern Chernarus, which South Zagoria, the region of Chernarus we play in, is located in.

Besides, nothing takes me out of a game faster than coming to the end of the game world only to find an island. GTA did it, and I hated it.

[FlimFlamm 509]

2 hours ago, Whyherro123 said:

Ugh, no thanks.

A large part of the lore of Day Z, which is admittedly very little, is that it shares a border with Russia, has (er, had) a sizable ethnically-Russian population, and this ethnic population caused a lot of problems, up to and including the Civil War, which canonically happened in the Day Z timeline. This is why there are stockpiles of weapons, clothing, ammunition, etc: militas were fighting brushfire wars all across Northern Chernarus, which South Zagoria, the region of Chernarus we play in, is located in.

Besides, nothing takes me out of a game faster than coming to the end of the game world only to find an island. GTA did it, and I hated it.

O.O

Are you talking about the conflicts in and over Ukraine? Or a source for DayZ lore which proposes a fictional civil war? I admit that I've never encountered such a story, not that Ive encountered much DayZ lore whatsoever though. (as you say it's severely lacking).

To be honest I really don't like the idea of pitting Czechs vs Russians against one another in the lore unless we absolutely must; it's too political. In a civil war we would indeed expect to come across large stockpiles of food, weapons, and clothes, but there are no large stockpiles in DayZ aside from player accumulated ones; survivors scavenge bits and bobs from hundreds of buildings in order to get the gear they want; resources are sparse and scattered. I think it would be a much better conceptualization of why there are scattered guns and supplies laying around on the ground in barracks and shit to simply envision what would have taken place in an actual global zombie apocalypse. Outbreaks would spread from one region and expand, pushing survivors, including military not willing to waste ammunition on the walking dead, away from the major population centers and towards countrysides, like Chernarus. The prevalence of both Russian and NATO weapons can be explained by Russian and NATO forces deciding to work-together and hold out at the military bases of Chernarus (hence they brought with them their guns, clothes, gear, ammo, and whichever appropriate vehicles), before finally succumbing to the airborne infection once it reached them.

-------------

Lore aside, Right now when you come to the edge of the game world, you see a wholly unnatural line which is perfectly straight and delineates life and no-life. It's incredibly immersion breaking and there's no point in ever going out into the debug zone other than foolish or morbid curiosity.

If the suggestion of this thread were implemented, instead of coming to the existing straight unnatural boundary of life and death, you would simply keep going as there would be about 20% more actual land mass (the world would be bigger) and instead of coming to an unnatural and hellish sight you would come to a beach. Not so immersion killing when it's put this way... You like larger worlds by the sound of it, so why not?

This would also enable a possibility for 360 degrees of islands, large or small, being placed off the coast, which further enhances the playable world size. There would be no one "end game island" (save for maybe a defacto largest and most resource plentiful northern island), they would all be a part of the same open and freely explorable world with no unnatural boundaries.

[bfisher 561]

On 7/16/2016 at 4:23 PM, FlimFlamm said:

O.O

Are you talking about the conflicts in and over Ukraine? Or a source for DayZ lore which proposes a fictional civil war? I admit that I've never encountered such a story, not that Ive encountered much DayZ lore whatsoever though. (as you say it's severely lacking).

To be honest I really don't like the idea of pitting Czechs vs Russians against one another in the lore unless we absolutely must; it's too political. In a civil war we would indeed expect to come across large stockpiles of food, weapons, and clothes, but there are no large stockpiles in DayZ aside from player accumulated ones; survivors scavenge bits and bobs from hundreds of buildings in order to get the gear they want; resources are sparse and scattered. I think it would be a much better conceptualization of why there are scattered guns and supplies laying around on the ground in barracks and shit to simply envision what would have taken place in an actual global zombie apocalypse. Outbreaks would spread from one region and expand, pushing survivors, including military not willing to waste ammunition on the walking dead, away from the major population centers and towards countrysides, like Chernarus. The prevalence of both Russian and NATO weapons can be explained by Russian and NATO forces deciding to work-together and hold out at the military bases of Chernarus (hence they brought with them their guns, clothes, gear, ammo, and whichever appropriate vehicles), before finally succumbing to the airborne infection once it reached them. 

I didn't think there was any specific lore or history beyond Chernarus being some sort of post-Soviet Balkan state with some vague sense of NATO and/or Russia possibly involved in some sort of low-intensity peacekeeping missing (possibly ultimately related to the zombie outbreak somehow).

[bfisher 561]

I agree with "no" for an island.  But how about making an impassible mountain range?

[thefriendlydutchman 160]

If they do this, than we definetly need diving and half-sunken ships that can be explored with diving gear, and maybe some oil platforms

[Parazight 1599]

I'd rather see something built from the ground up, with the grand design in mind from day 1. 

 

Taking a design and then using a hacksaw to mutilate it is gross and unprofessional.   I would seriously question any team of artists that wouldn't stick to the plan this far into production. 

[FlimFlamm 509]

2 hours ago, bfisher said:

I didn't think there was any specific lore or history beyond Chernarus being some sort of post-Soviet Balkan state with some vague sense of NATO and/or Russia possibly involved in some sort of low-intensity peacekeeping missing (possibly ultimately related to the zombie outbreak somehow).

An airborne virus has turned everyone into ravenous idiots. 5% percent of the global population is immune and you are one of them. You wash up/turn-up on shore (somehow) in Chernarus, a region in the Czech Republic. It's Day Zero of your survival; how long can you last?

Basically that's all the definitive lore we have so far, and even that is subject to change. Everyone agrees though that it is not day zero of the actual outbreak because of all the damage across Chernarus, but instead that it is day zero of your own survival.; death in DayZ puts you back to day zero.

When it comes to zombie lore, according to Rocket's brother (IIRC), the infected are not actually dead; they have a virus that makes them stupid enough to forget they're human, but smart enough to wander around eating things (but not each other cause pharamones or whatever) and to not instantly get themselves killed by walking off cliffs. Because of this, it cannot be years after the outbreak otherwise most of the infected in places like Chernarus would be completely wiped out. The way I have heard it put before is that Chernarus is stuck repeating the same day over and over, about one month after the outbreak. The army tried to contain it, failed, and here we are.

When 1.0 comes out I'm sure they'll craft some official cannon lore. But do you know what is bad for lore business in the first place? Giant wasteland debug zones attached directly to the game world...

[FlimFlamm 509]

3 hours ago, bfisher said:

I agree with "no" for an island.  But how about making an impassible mountain range?

I love this idea! If only it were physically possible.

In order to do this we would need a giant invisible barrier that planes and helo's would just crash into on the regular. making for a hilarious but ultimately displeasing game experience.

You get the point though; do away with the geographical eyesore that is debug zone!

Edited July 18, 2016 by FlimFlamm

[FlimFlamm 509]

2 hours ago, thefriendlydutchman said:

If they do this, than we definetly need diving and half-sunken ships that can be explored with diving gear, and maybe some oil platforms

I bet modders will be all over underwater game-play if the devs don't get to it. They probably won't put it in for 1.0, but after then they plan to continue adding features.

In a particular way making Chernarus an Island seems like it would be limiting it and making it smaller, but in so many more ways it would be making it larger and opening up years worth of possible offshore map additions.

Edited July 18, 2016 by FlimFlamm

[FlimFlamm 509]

1 hour ago, Parazight said:

I'd rather see something built from the ground up, with the grand design in mind from day 1. 

 

Taking a design and then using a hacksaw to mutilate it is gross and unprofessional.   I would seriously question any team of artists that wouldn't stick to the plan this far into production. 

The only thing being mutilated is my immersion when I accidentally wander too close to the debug zone. This unnaturally straight line is not to be passed, or even approached or looked at; it is not a playable region. I hate having to constantly consider this when I look at the map or navigate near the debug zone.

Arguably Chernarus +  is more and more evolving into it's own thing and away from the stock Arma 2 map that it once was. Cutting away the debug zone and replacing it with more terrain and a playable coast is not a mutilation, nor is it a hack job. The current debug zone is a literal hacksaw approach that was used in a game where full blown geographical realism was not an issue because the game was mission based. If you ask me, cutting away the debug zone would be quite symbolic of the devs and artists "making Chernarus their own"; professional and of the highest taste...

You can say that a face lift is a mutilation, but sometimes what already exists can already be considered a mutilation.

Well, the debug zone is the most notable "unrealistic" aspect of the DayZ world. The DayZ SA devs did not design Chernarus from the ground up, but if they did, I'm sure they would have not chosen such an unsightly geographical feature. This does not mean that they cannot decide to keep making improvements on it though. They have not had the time to do a lot of things they wanted to given the unending litany of programming dilemmas that DayZ SA is heir to. But why not continue to strive for greatness? The future holds infinite time for programming!

Edited July 18, 2016 by FlimFlamm

[Parazight 1599]

Immersion breaking is a weak argument, in this case, in my opinion. It IS a video game and no one is forcing you to go to the edge of an already enormous map. There are plenty of opportunities for awesome player interaction and conflict all over the place. 

Additionally, the map has already been carefully detailed to promote progression around the already existing design.  Coast to NW. 

If the future has unlimited potential for growth, why would they want to add another (year) to production schedule?  The best thing is to offer another map after official dayz has been released. 

[eno 1049]

2 hours ago, Parazight said:

Immersion breaking is a weak argument, in this case, in my opinion. It IS a video game and no one is forcing you to go to the edge of an already enormous map. There are plenty of opportunities for awesome player interaction and conflict all over the place. 

Additionally, the map has already been carefully detailed to promote progression around the already existing design.  Coast to NW. 

If the future has unlimited potential for growth, why would they want to add another (year) to production schedule?  The best thing is to offer another map after official dayz has been released. 

 

What? This is a video game? But... But... 

Immersion- or suspension of disbelief as others want to call it- is what locks people in imagination land and drives investment (and tolerance) into video games of this nature. And that whole "nobody forces you to go to the edge of the map" is just pure, unadulterated ignorance. There are plenty of people who get lost and end up at the edge of existence by accident. They end up running into the debug and the whole concept of being lost is, well, lost. You know the map- many don't .

 

You may sit in front of your computer logically thinking through every keystroke knowing full well that you're just sitting there running some 2D dude (or chick) through some 0s and 1s but other people want to get into it. They NEED to get into it. 

 

You saying that immersion is a weak argument is- well- a weak counter argument .

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by eno

[Wili 156]

2 hours ago, Parazight said:

Additionally, the map has already been carefully detailed to promote progression around the already existing design.  Coast to NW. 

Making Chernarus an island doesn't imply that players would spawn all over the coast, players can continue spawning SE as always.

 

[eno 1049]

2 hours ago, Wili said:

Making Chernarus an island doesn't imply that players would spawn all over the coast, players can continue spawning SE as always.

 

Not only that but it allows them to develop alternate worlds without having to freeze development of the existing one. Of course we already know it'll never happen- but having access to an always expanding world would be a definite bonus. 

[bfisher 561]

15 hours ago, FlimFlamm said:

I love this idea! If only it were physically possible.

In order to do this we would need a giant invisible barrier that planes and helo's would just crash into on the regular. making for a hilarious but ultimately displeasing game experience.

You get the point though; do away with the geographical eyesore that is debug zone!

Or perhaps a giant "visible" barrier in the shape of a mountain?  The ceiling on the helicopters and aircraft doesn't need to be that high.