How to make DayZ great again (by LIRIK and Shortyyguy)

[scriptfactory 620]

11 minutes ago, sneakydude said:

I like base building but not sky tower builds. Some of us enjoy some pve building. I would rather us have a build like a compound. Then again all the work and it gets wiped :(

Well, a compound is what I was thinking of as "camps". Sorry for the misleading wording.

And, yeah. Offline raiding kills any kind of actual base building in most "survival" games so the landscape ends up littered with empty structures.

[shane_ 2]

Dear DayZ Developers,

This graphic is giving you bad advice.  It is advising you to make DayZ a PUBG clone.  PUBG is way ahead of you and has all the excitement.  Your efforts to clone it will be in vain.

I advise that you focus on what makes DayZ a great game and double down on it.  The realism, the survival, the Post-Apocalyptic World setting, and the Zombies.

IMHO, you have the realism, survival, and PAW down well enough to make DayZ the best game in those categories.  Keep up the good work.  Stay on track and keep improving them.  The biggest area for improvement are the Zombies.

How did these Zombies wipe out the Chernarus military??  Presently, the Zs are a joke.  You run up to them, kill them easily, then run on your way.  No threat at all. 

Some suggestions:

• Make Zs dangerous. 
  • In Mele with unarmed survivor, a Z should win 60-70% of the time.  Maybe they have a chance to pin you to the ground?
  • In Mele with armed survivor, a Z should win 20-40% of the time (as long as it is not a 1-shot kill weapon).  Maybe they have a chance to grab your weapon and disarm you?  Maybe you can ace them with a Fire Axe as long as you don't miss that first attempt to head-shot them, but if you miss they have a good chance to grab the axe and disarm you?
  • Multiple Zs should make survivor odds drop like a rock.  Game play would shift to sneaking around Zs until well equipped and with other survivor support.  Firing a non-suppressed gun in town would be suicidal.
• Make Zs that surprise you.
  • Maybe they spawn in buildings ready to lunge at the first player that opens a door?
  • Maybe they lie on the ground looking like re-killed Zs, but jump at you when you try to loot them?
• Make a Zombie Swarm that is a problem for even well equipped survivors, a kind of late-game objective
  • low detail Zs that travel in large packs and roam randomly across the map.  Make survivors look at them and realize that they do not have enough bullets.
  • Maybe you do not have to render all the Zs at the same time.  If you can only render 100 at a time, due to server lag issues, then only show 100, but the swarm has a count of 2,000.  If one is re-killed, you reduce the count and if count > 0 you spawn a new one to replace it right there.
  • Maybe they can form a Z moat around a house with a survivor inside?  If you have no help/distract, they just wait there for you to either come outside or die of thirst.
  • Destroying the swarm would become an objective on long persistence servers.
  • Maybe if the server is reset and the Swarm was destroyed, you auto increase the count by 100?
  • Maybe have a PvE server setting that resets the server once the Swarm is destroyed?  "Congratulations, Chernarus secured!!"  And you have a leader board for Most Zs killed, Largest Swarm Destroyed, etc.

A few other thoughts:

I do not believe we care about how detailed the zombies look.  I prefer more Zs over fewer and am willing to give on high resolution details to get it.

Try not to get too crazy about Zombie path finding.  Zs need to be able to move through a simple building, but they should not be able to complete a maze.  I'm sure there is an obtainable median point here.

Item spawn rates should be how a server determines its difficulty.  Players will naturally gravitate to servers with spawn rates that suit them.  Servers will appear with spawn rates that fit player demand.  Newbs will hop onto Easy servers with High spawn rates.  Experienced players looking for a challenge will look for lower rate servers.   One less thing for you to try and balance.  Leader boards for Time Survived, Zs Killed, Players Killed, etc. for each difficulty level will encourage some diversity in server difficulty.

 

Sincerely,

Shane_

[Caatalyst 46]

damn i hate all of those...

Base building definitely needs to come! It will bring end-game fun. It just needs to be balanced well and really steer players away from always going for sky dong designs. Exile Mod for Arma 3 have got a really descent balance for raiding. 

[Arcarsenal__ 2]

7 minutes ago, Caatalyst said:

damn i hate all of those...

Base building definitely needs to come! It will bring end-game fun. It just needs to be balanced well and really steer players away from always going for sky dong designs. Exile Mod for Arma 3 have got a really descent balance for raiding. 

Totally, it's all about balance. DayZ will always have it's core fan base that stays true to it's original hardcore vision. Although, having this as the only option will also cut out a large potential player base... A lot of these guys claim they want DayZ, but in reality they want something close, but a little more diluted and accessible. I feel that's where modders can step in and satisfy this need.

I think DayZ should implement the base building mechanics, finish sorting the animations, then just straight into beta. Iron out those kinks, then release as is.  People get the vanilla DayZ experience that start all this, then modders can cater for the rest!

Foot note... I started with DayZ, then moved to Exile for more end game content. I still hold out hope that DayZ Will prove what we've all been searching for