Long term depth of dayz

[Milos Vujkovic 0]

Hello everyone, dayz freshmen here. After a long break from gaming altogether, I finally found myself at a point in life where I could throw some quality gaming time in there again. I reconnected with the old crew and they introduced me to dayz, game they consider themselves veterans of. I fancied the idea long before I tried it, just by listening to them speak about it and retell their stories. So I joined few weeks back, and I wanted to share with you some comments, all in a hope it might contribute to making dayz something truly special. An outsider's point of view might shed some light on things otherwise not bothering the current narrow demographics playing the game.

 

Instead of listing a number of issue-specific observations that will get fixed as game approaches its final stage, I will explain one major overarching problem I have and try to elaborate. It's something that would prevent me from spending more time with dayz, or made me stick for ages if it were there.

 

The survival itself can be challenging at the start, sure, but as soon as you get a hold of it and understand the mechanics, it's something you start doing automatically by rince-and-repeat. Find an axe, get more rags, backpack, apples, ideally a compass and a bottle to fill water (for me at least). Go along until you find the same with more camo and storage space, a raincoat, and some weapon with a scope. Good and interesting enough.

 

However, once you master the survival part, other than PvP there is little else. I'm following my veteran friends in their raids, and all there seems to be to it is - kill people and get better gear. Better weapons, better scope, better backpacks, better pants. Best way to get it - kill other dudes. So I find myself following suit from heli crash to heli crash, camping spawns, then doing the same with military bases, tents, prisons, etc. My question is - if you get the best gear imaginable, what would you do then? Just killing anyone I see doesn't really appeal to me.

 

I enjoy the social aspect of the game, but the reality is, I have to train myself to change the attitude once I pass the imaginary geographical line. Helping people kill zombies and sharing food is nice in Berezino, but once I pass west from Gorka, it's every man (or group) for himself. Not to say I'm a social butterfly in a zombie-infested world, just that my first instinct in a zombie-infested world would not be to pull a gun on another human. Unfortunately, that seems to be the norm.

 

So what I've been thinking is that if overall PvE component is rethought, maybe it would change the human-to-human interactions as well. For example, if there were a small number of natural resources required for everyone's survival, that would transform these current raiding groups to organizing them around group survival instead of mindlessly looting barracks. For example, few clean water supplies. Everyone without access to it has to risk drinking contaminated water and slowly die of infection. And this opens so many other possibilities... defenders don't have to shoot on sights, maybe they want to trade, maybe they need something difficult to get outside the walls... 

 

Or instead of clear water, make some shit happen during night-time. Zombies go wild, or whatever that would motivate survivors to value environmental advantages (such as caves, or fenced facilities) more than killing each other. Rare working diesel generators on one side of the map, fuel on another. Make food scarcer or weather harsher, so hunting game and lodging become valuable skills that can be done only in well organized groups. Anything that would shift the paradigm from individual survival to collective survival of the society. 

 

Combined with the planned character development through experience and soft skills, I believe some great depth can be added to an already special game.

 

Anyway, just my 2 cents :) Feel free to comment, feedback welcome.

 

[OliverPlotTwist 458]

I like how you think. I agree that the survival part of this survival game isn't really challenging. 

However I think we should wait for 0.63 before we start to suggest new ideas. With the new systems falling into place we will get a quote unquote "DayZ 2.0". We don't know how different this new DayZ will be and that makes it quite hard for us to suggest changes to the current DayZ.

Edited March 5, 2017 by OliverPlotTwist

[SacrificeDayz 13]

As Oliver stated best to wait. The extra content will arrive at some point either when 0.63 comes out or shortly after and hopefully it will add a lot more dynamics to surviving in Chernarus :)

[Sqeezorz 839]

With 0.63.... omg.

Maybe we would be glad if you could weapons and ammunition eat to survive, and the infected together with the stamina system run the cold sweat over the back when we hear it.