Status Report and Walkie Talkies

[Influence_X 51]

Quote

Personally, I'm a firm supporter of radios being starting gear so that every player can opt-in to server wide communication should they choose it - but I'm still working on converting Peter to this mindset. One of the limiting factors I've noticed the community discussing is the rate at which radios consume batteries, and the hunt for batteries themselves being both unrewarding and difficult. - Brian Hicks, 05-16-17 Status report

I totally agree with Brian Hicks that radios should be starting gear, at least in alpha/beta phase of dayZ as a form of alternative, opt in, side chat. I always carry one, but I tend to play on a chosen, local, public server and I've never once had any radio contact aside from friends I knew were on the server already, and I could of joined in teamspeak.

I personally believe that a global side chat does not belong in dayZ, and the kill count definately does not belong. But that's just IMO.

[JBURNS489 165]

I wonder if you will be able to grab two radios, put them on the same frequency, and be able to drop one in the bushes that will broadcast your voice to anyone nearby when you speak into the other one?

Also, will radio stations and walkie talkies ever work in tandem? 

Edited May 16, 2017 by JBURNS489

[schwaBAM 200]

35 minutes ago, JBURNS489 said:

I wonder if you will be able to grab two radios, put them on the same frequency, and be able to drop one in the bushes that will broadcast your voice to anyone nearby when you speak into the other one?

Also, will radio stations and walkie talkies ever work in tandem? 

You can do this already.  Awhile back I logged on to our server and saw my buddy near our camp.  I ran up to him and started talking but realized he was AFK.  I found two radios, put them on the same frequency and placed one near a tree (next to the truck he left) and I hid in a pine tree nearby.  When he came back and started moving around I yelled through the radio in a deep voice commanding him to put his hands up.  He got in the truck and took off, lol.

[Chatham 8]

I agree that we should have the walkie and a battery as starting items. It would encourage more off-the-coast interaction.

[Influence_X 51]

1 hour ago, JBURNS489 said:

I wonder if you will be able to grab two radios, put them on the same frequency, and be able to drop one in the bushes that will broadcast your voice to anyone nearby when you speak into the other one?

Also, will radio stations and walkie talkies ever work in tandem? 

I did this myself once, I spread walkie talkies with batteries around electro on a highly populated server then used a soundboard to project Half-Life 2 combine radio chatter. I got some good reactions from that. 

[JBURNS489 165]

I have been missing out lol I had no clue you could already do this! Radios just became much more valuable in my book. Thanks for the responses

[DemonGroover 8836]

I like the idea

[Influence_X 51]

Walkie talkies will allow an optional side chat, which also allows players to communicate about server specific issues ("hey, is this server lagging bad for anyone else? Did the admin just abuse banning privileges?")

[exwoll 255]

The issue is real with server chat, but I believe this could be done in a separate "feedback window" where there could be little chat, and instead of that a couple of feedback options like:

Are you experimenting troubles? Communicate to the administration:

• I have lag bubbles
• I have desync issues
• Ping to server went crazy
• Hacker spotted (provide some details maybe)
• Found bug or map issue
• etc

This would allow the info to be easily compiled and presented to the server admins to take notice when a given number of people is experiencing the same problem.

But overall I believe that radios as spawn items it will negatively impact the post-apocalyptic atmosphere:

One of the most immersive and remembering moments in the DayZ experience is the initial sense of the unknown you feel upon spawning in the middle of nowhere, you have no idea where you are, you see no one around, you move, a lot, and then see someone in the horizon, you run towards him and find out that he attacks you, he's an infected.

You loot around, feel somehow lonely as you would IRL in a similar situation, and then you find a radio! Yay, a way to communicate with another human being, You loot a little bit more, and find a battery, you plug it in, and there you are connected with someone else.

Spawning with a radio will totally ruin all that magic that a player experience when he spawns, specially the new players.

Imagine how immersion breaking gonna be to spawn, turn the radio ON and hear/read all the 60 ppl that are playing the server at the same time? It will be the same side-chat or kill count that we had before: People will do random trolling, communicate their killers locations, brag about their kills, etc, etc. 

I would rather have a hidden/optional sidechat instead of ruining the radio communication experience in the game if it comes to that.

However I'm 100% for the revamp of the batteries system:

• Spawning in broken radios (walkie talkies or just the radios that are in houses)
• Spawning batteries in gas stations, supermarkets, in apartments (they should be quite common) but apply their state
• Spawning batteries in shiny orange packages (as you would find them in real life)
• Creating radio stations in big cities with some old equipment that could be used for communication
• Making one able to pick the radios that spawn in houses and be able to catch some communications
• Fixing the batteries so that pristine ones work longer and the rest for a much shorter amount of time and adjust their rarity based on the state.

 

NOTE: Since we´re in Alpha this can be tested to see how it would work in a real life scenario. Maybe with beta when people numbers gonna go up. 

Also I was mostly referring to hardcore servers. Public easy ones can have that without any issues since people plays there casually and it doesnt matter if you want to have a chat with 60ppl while you're looting alone.

Edited May 17, 2017 by exwoll

[Espa 711]

I'm with the idea, for sure!

One thing that I'm a little worried about is the value of the Walkie-Talkie, where even starting with one won't warrant a player to just throw it out of his/her inventory right away - However, I do think there are steps in order to make them much more appealing and nice to have! 

• Long lasting batteries (No brainer and more convenient for players)
• Lower-end radios to start with every player, with higher-end radios to scavenge in the wilds that have perhaps a GPS system for locating oneself on a digital map of Chernarus.
• New inventory spot reserved for radios! 

I thoroughly believe that if Walkie-Talkies were given their own 'place' in your inventory isle to rest, like attaching them to your belt rather than anywhere else as to never have to sacrifice the inventory space for it.

With the .62 update, I'd really like to see this in action, even for testing purposes.

[Conrad_The_Comrade 577]

I'm not sure how I feel about them as starting gear, as I enjoyed it when they did that awhile back, but feel as though it took away the spark from interacting with others. I am however completely against the range they're set to. I don't like having communication available across the map, and feel as though a limited range is more immersive, provides a challenge, and can get the nerves going when you actually get someone on the receiving end. If the walkie talkies go global then any interactions you have can become meaningless banter instead of an actual interaction.

[kopo79 426]

Absolute no to this...if you wanna walkie talkie...find it....if you are lonely and want talk to someone,find it...its mission inside the game.people always whine about that there is nothing to do in game...go and find radio and try to contact someone....it would be better just fix notes persistence and give all players pen and paper to write their story.first i thought that radios would be good thing at start but if i think again....no.60 players with radios?NO!?

[scriptfactory 620]

Everyone wants to control how to play this game but not one wants to try shit out. Why the hell are we in alpha? I'm sick of playing this game alone since all my friends quit. I want to meet randoms. I want to get drawn into situations with bandits promising loot.

This game might as well be solo.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Just like couple other have said, a small radio needs own slot in the inventory. In my opinion same goes for a pen and a paper. That way people would actually pick those things up and use them more. They are just so small things that having own slots wouldn't really kill any immersion.

Visually radio could go on the belt if you wear any pants, jeans etc.

Pen and paper don't need to be shown visually and you could have them in their slot even without clothes.

 

That way radios don't need to be added as a starting gear but I'm not really against that.

[Sqeezorz 839]

What if you have a spawn from the coast a battery.
This battery is the start for communication.

You have then various options open to use this (speak only of communication):
-Walki Talki find and use (range limited 1km?)
-In a building find a radio (you can only hear not speak, limited range 1.5 km)
- at a lighthouse with stationary radio (talking / listening range 3 km is indeed large area but since these are on the coast is much range on the sea.
- for a radio antenna (talk / listen, range variable depending on antenna size -> small 2km green mountain 8km)
- at AirControlTowers (speaking / listening only from ACT to ACT!)
- altar speak / send; Range 5km

The ranges are only examples

[Seitan 161]

Yes Radios!

- Good compromise between global/side -channel and no global VOIP/chat at all.

- Bring back the meaningles chatter

[Five_Seven_Clown 88]

It's a really difficult call to make. At first I was against starting radios, but I slept on it and now I think on balance it's a good idea.

I think the main reason I don't like the idea, is that re-spawning with one could break the perma-death mechanic. Either when someone at the NWAF taunts you after killing you or you being pissed, call out that there is someone at the NWAF who killed you. However with radios, unlike sidechat there is no guarantee that anyone is listening which I like. I feel like it organically cuts down on the trolling crap that we found in global sidechat. 

I like that using a basic radio has the disadvantage of giving your position away to anyone nearby when you VOIP into it and chatter coming in can also be heard. Maybe we could find ear pieces and throat mics as upgrades...

At the moment, battery life in radios are the main reason for not wanting to turn them on to listen. For me at least, I only turn the radio on  (if I have one) once I'm healthy armed and sitting in a bush in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. The chance that someone else is doing the same thing at the same time is slim. Now if batteries lasted a long, long time for receive and only ran down while transmitting, I could spend much longer listening during my normal DayZ gameplay. Batteries are a useful resource, so deciding where and how to use them is yet another "survival" decision the player needs to make.

We have to acknowledge that having to use your voice is a disadvantage that radios have over text chat. Not everyone has a mic, if they do they may be shy to use it, it gives away a lot of personal information about the player (gender, age, background noise, accent, first language etc). Although that can be a obstacle to transmitting, if people are at least listening, over time, that obstacle will diminish.

Would fresh spawning with a radio but respawning upon death without one, be helpful?

If you didn't have a radio, it was stolen or you sacrificed it for space, could fixed radio posts in fire and police stations, that little coastal hut and the bronze statue in the woods have a role in the early gameplay?

Radios becoming a clothing item that you wear makes some sense but almost makes it too easy. Maybe the basic clip-on radio could be nerfed in some way?

Do we need/already have a mute player option that works with radios and would that break the "not knowing how many players are on a server"  mechanic?

Edit: Also consider the use of channels, two players could decide to switch frequencies to converse, someone else could also be eavesdropping on them but they can only be listening to one channel at a time. Could a channel scanning radio upgrade be a thing?

Edited May 17, 2017 by Five_Seven_Clown

[Nebulae3 422]

I don`t mind it - should not be game breaking and easier to coordinate with new friends in-game. :)

[Influence_X 51]

I feel like I should mention that I only advocate that radios be starting gear for ALPHA and BETA phase of the game. 

[Sqeezorz 839]

10 minutes ago, Influence_X said:

I feel like I should mention that I only advocate that radios be starting gear for ALPHA and BETA phase of the game. 

No problem, Alpha/Beta is for testing.

[Five_Seven_Clown 88]

I've got it!, police and fireman zombies always carry a radio! If Dean Hall infected can always have a kiwi, then it should be trivial to implement. If anyone wants a radio, its a little work but not too much to get one.

[exwoll 255]

26 minutes ago, Five_Seven_Clown said:

I've got it!, police and fireman zombies always carry a radio! If Dean Hall infected can always have a kiwi, then it should be trivial to implement. If anyone wants a radio, its a little work but not too much to get one.

This is what I call a good solution! :D 

Maybe making the spawn rate of radios in the police/medic/firefighter infected higher will fix this. 

[kopo79 426]

1 hour ago, Five_Seven_Clown said:

I've got it!, police and fireman zombies always carry a radio! If Dean Hall infected can always have a kiwi, then it should be trivial to implement. If anyone wants a radio, its a little work but not too much to get one.

please....no...the kiwi in in dean zombie is just stupid.
people....if you want radios,loot the houses.
come on...im the only one who wanna hardcore survival sim?...
im crying....nooooooooo....
watch this video please.

 

Edited May 17, 2017 by kopo79

[Five_Seven_Clown 88]

10 minutes ago, kopo79 said:

please....no...the kiwi in in dean zombie is just stupid.
people....if you want radios,loot the houses.

The DH Kiwi is just an Easter egg. I would expect to find a walkie-talkie on an infected first responder before I found one in an old wooden house!

[calabacin2 11]

No to 60 players with walkie talkies! maybe a battery ;)