Player movement sounds and scent.

[Puhnupetteri 6]

Hello there everyone

 

I have 2000 hours in dayZ atm and i have constructive suggestion to make it feel realism. I alredy checked already asked suggestions and didin't find it there already

I have some military background in reallife mostly slogging in thick forests.

The main thing i feel when playing dayZ is when people move in forests or rough terrain the sounds are not quite matching the importance as in real life.

If a person is running trought forest in real life. You can possible hear a person from 100 m. Also accually you can SMELL them very far away and according to scent you can sometimes tell who is coming if it's familiar person. Atleast as a person who spents a lot time in forest can smell fresh washed / perfume carrying bodies easier.

This could be indicated with a text in left bottom corner from the scent side. Also one would figure you can smell rotten zombie quite far away as wind can carry scents long way.

I feel like im blind as bat while moving in woods in dayZ because you only trust your vision as you can hear only people like 5 m

Anyway i would like to thank for awesome game. I hope this suggestion is seen as constructive critism not anything negative.

-Puhnu

[pilgrim* 3513]

44 minutes ago, Puhnupetteri said:

..//..

a long while back it was suggested that some bird sounds need to be be used to signal player presence... In a forest anyone approaching will usually 90% sure) startle a blackbird or some other bird will cry/fly suddenly (eg wood-pigeon) - this is standard and nearly impossible to avoid IRL.. just one bird alarm cry if another player moved into a radius would be great - and realistic.. plus every so often, maybe once or twice out of 5  there would be  a random warning cry when the re is NOT a player, just to keep you on your toes. 

A big problem for folk who notice this stuff, who are used to country woodland, is that DayZ bird sounds are random, so they are always the same under any circumstances across any par of the map, even in the middle of firefights.. this is totally unnatural..  because they are really randomly repeated the bird sounds are ALWAYS the same wherever you are. It gives a strong sense of hallucinating dreamlike ABNORMALITY - Any woodsman will tell you how totally unnatural this is. If you are used to woodland, hedges & hunting (and combat has to be the same) the current bird sounds repeat in a  VERY spooky and unnatural way.

The server (to operate the basic gameplay) already has to detect when two players move into the interaction radius, and when that happens, a variable chance of a warning sound - like a bird taking fright or a sudden stick breaking underfoot -  would be a BIG plus for game realism.  Have you noticed how the birds go n singing happily when you send a few shotgun shells through the woods..  Wow - that's NOT normal !!

Sounds with MEANING - based on the existing server calculations needed for the game - would be very easy to implement compared to other  signs, like smell; etc...  

This was talked about quite a lot a while back, but then faded out, and it is impossible to search back through the forum to find the references. Several current discussions have already been talked through and argued out in the past, but now the discussions have vanished and the same talking points come up again, as if they were never mentioned before (not your fault you cant find them, I cant find them either.. and I was involved a lot in those discussion.)

Meaningful warning sounds (not always, but sometimes) are EASY to implement..  as standards of software difficulty go.. and DO NOT take up the processing power the devs are trying to hoard up by stripping out and simplifying unique DayZ stuff ( like the width of field view-change) ..

This was proposed and fought over 2 years ago, around the time the forest started thinning out and more and more villages started popping up all looking the same.. and the terrain all across the map became standard, same-same everywhere... It was discussed hotly, and dropped. Nothing happened.

Pity, because it would be EASY to do AND augment gameplay and NOT slow down the game. But  DayZ is being simplified down into another DOOM "everything-as-expected".  Originality is being sacrificed for "sameness" because that's what the bulk players want (I guess.. they complain if a zombie hits them too hard.. they don't like "danger" and surprises" maybe ?.  They like a safe no-skill game?

NON-Originality is the flavor of the month. 

YES, dude - GREAT idea.. I support your thoughts on that  sound-awareness 100%..

So EASY to implement. And in towns, a creak of hinge, a tin can being knocked over, a cat yowl..  the things that stand up the hairs on your neck in real life, so you KNOW there is contact coming..  The immediate alert that grabs you when you hear THAT sound. We all know this is true and VITAL in life -   but in the game it is not happening. 

So you get my vote. 

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by pilgrim*

[DannyDog 532]

@pilgrim* Remember when you had random fence or sticks snapping sounds play randomly and it would freak you out? That was good times...

Anyway if something like this isn't implemented by 1.0 then it can easily be modded in.

Edited October 3, 2017 by DannyDog

[pilgrim* 3513]

8 hours ago, DannyDog said:

@pilgrim* Remember when you had random fence or sticks snapping sounds play randomly and it would freak you out? That was good times...

Anyway if something like this isn't implemented by 1.0 then it can easily be modded in.

Yes right,  but Danny  keep in mind that BI are making a GAME that works.   They are NOT building a DIY KIT BOX for modders.   Anything GOOD they can put in the game themselves, NOT just say, "we won't do anything and someone will build it from our Zero-Feature DayZ Mod Kit".   

SA means "Stand Alone".. it doesn't mean a box of bits that a modder can use to build a game that works (or not). SA means a complete fully-featured game, otherwise it never reaches 1.0 - DayZ is not  "  Wal-Mart Modder Kit v1.0"  Have fun modding it (later) but remember BI must construct a full working set of FEATURES first, for DayZ SA even to exist.  

Saying "if you want you can change that in the mod" is Not an answer to every suggestion about DAyZ SA.

Are BI taking out variable width of field? What are bases like? Are they changing Zombie aggression? Is loot distribution being altered?  Are animal or forest warning sounds a good idea? What game features make DayZ exciting?

- "Who cares, you can put it in your mod if you want to " - That is NOT a DayZ SA answer to anything.

[DannyDog 532]

@pilgrim* That's a good point but at this point nobody can know for sure. I mean the devs have stated themselves that certain things WONT be in until AFTER 1.0. Not sure what specifically but I know they've said that for a few features.

And given that modding tools will be released before 1.0 i'm sure people are going to add things in before hand.

But sure your point can be made that you shouldn't depend on modding to be a "be all end all" situation. (I actually don't know if that's the proper phrase lol)