General direction and bitter thoughts

[kacper46 8]

Dear DayZ developers !

Focus on making this game fun to play.

Do not oversimulate everything.

Make this game FPP/TTP shooter before anything else.

Easy controls and easy character management.

I believe that, if my understanding of your version of the game is correct, you are heading towards wrong direction. You are creating a game with deep realism experience which is unnecessary and you do not have much to offer in terms of actual gameplay and fun. Let me explain myself.

First, even though the players might actually tell you otherwise, they don't want an elaborate key combinations and mouse actions within the inventory just to reload the gun. I prefer FUN and EASY. Single button is ok to reload. I would like an auto-run option. I would like comfort updates, auto sort inventory, easy access to everything, so on and so forth. I want to focus on the game and not on how to play it cause everything is slowly becoming oversimulated and overcomplicated. It's not fun. It makes mechanical aspects of playing such as pressing keys, managing your character, adjusting quick bar absorb all of the player attention and the real action is just an addition to it, sadly. It should be the other way around. I want my gun fights to be affected by hunger and thirst bar etc. Right now the idea is reversed: my food intake and cooking is being disrupted by a gunfight.

Second, the ACTION. PvP is what brings the most adrenaline. Yes surviving against harsh environment with zombies is fun, but I didn't loot that sweet AK or M16 just to shoot zombies or to look at it in the inventory or add those fancy attachments to it and spray paint it(or at least make shooting zombies "not a waste of ammo", reward it in some way). So, in somewhat of a simplification I suggest that you focus your developer's attention towards faster paced PvP and then add all of those simulation and survival details that makes it more colourful. Right now you are working on details and touches but they don't have anything to improve, they decorate nothing, cause there is nothing to do in this game.

I played DayZ Mod(the vanilla) for a while, I enjoyed it a lot, but once I got the taste of the action on more fast paced mods like Epoch or Overpoch it really dragged me in and I realised that this should be the way to play this game. It was simply a better experience.

I could elaborate more on so many things but right now I want  it to be relatively(?) short. Consider what will drive this game and what will be just another detail to an empty gameplay. Remember that you are creating a game, not a program to be clicked with no fun in it. To sum it up, it is my personal opinion that you should focus on designing the action in the game(I remember it is an open world, sandbox, but still) and completely discard polishing survival, graphic, models details etc. and direct all your resources towards completion of, what seems to be untouched subject, the gameplay. Otherwise I fear that you will be trapped in an endless loop of going deeper into a list of unnecessary details which will consume all your time, effort, money and the game will never be finished or end up being boring simulation while it can be so much more.

Regards,

Kacper

 

Long live DayZ !

Edited December 10, 2019 by kacper46
minor spelling mistakes corrected

[William Sternritter 441]

No. Go play another game, there's plenty.

[McWendy 675]

1 hour ago, kacper46 said:

Dear DayZ developers !

Focus on making this game fun to play.

Do not oversimulate everything.

Make this game FPP/TTP shooter before anything else.

Easy controls and easy character management.

I believe that, if my understanding of your version of the game is correct, you are heading towards wrong direction. You are creating a game with deep realism experience which is unnecessary and you do not have much to offer in terms of actual gameplay and fun. Let me explain myself.

First, even though the players might actually tell you otherwise, they don't want an elaborate key combinations and mouse actions within the inventory just to reload the gun. I prefer FUN and EASY. Single button is ok to reload. I would like an auto-run option. I would like comfort updates, auto sort inventory, easy access to everything, so on and so forth. I want to focus on the game and not on how to play it cause everything is slowly becoming overstimulated and overcomplicated. It's not fun. It makes mechanical aspects of playing such as pressing keys, managing your character, adjusting quick bar absorb all of the player attention and the real action is just an addition to it, sadly. It should be the other way around. I want my gun fights to be affected by hunger and thirst bar etc. Right now the idea is reversed: my food intake and cooking is being disrupted by a gunfight.

Second, the ACTION. PvP is what brings the most adrenaline. Yes surviving against harsh environment with zombies is fun, but I didn't loot that sweet AK or M16 just to shoot zombies or to look at it in the inventory or add those fancy attachments to it and spray paint it(or at least make shooting zombies "not a waste of ammo", reward it in some way). So, in somewhat of a simplification I suggest that you focus your developer's attention towards faster paced PvP and then add all of those simulation and survival details that makes it more colourful. Right now you are working on details and touches but they don't have anything to improve, they decorate nothing, cause there is nothing to do in this game.

I played DayZ Mod(the vanilla) for a while, I enjoyed it a lot, but once I got the taste of the action on more fast paced mods like Epoch or Overpoch it really dragged me in and I realised that this should be the way to play this game. It was simply a better experience.

I could elaborate more on so many things but right now I want to it relatively(?) short. Consider what will drive this game and what will be just another detail to an empty gameplay. Remember that you are creating a game, not a program to be clicked with no fun in it. To sum it up, it is my personal opinion that you should focus on designing the action in the game(I remember it is an open world, sandbox, but still) and completely discard polishing survival, graphic, models details etc. and direct all your resources towards completion of, what seems to be untouched subject, the gameplay. Otherwise I fear that you will be trapped in an endless loop of going deeper into a list of unnecessary details which will consume all your time, effort, money and the game will never be finished or end up being boring simulation while it can be so much more.

Regards,

Kacper

 

Long live DayZ !

Wrong game you are playing.. .

Stop making this a dumb down version of pubg 

Id say we even need MORE realism

[Just Caused 423]

https://store.steampowered.com/

Take a pick pal, you're playing the wrong game.

[DoctorScandalous 49]

8 hours ago, kacper46 said:

once I got the taste of the action on more fast paced mods like Epoch or Overpoch it really dragged me in and I realised that this should be the way to play this game. It was simply a better experience.

But that's just like... your opinion, man.

[Lexman61 78]

Dear kacper46,

let me state right away that I partially sympathize with some your considerations.

In the past, I have argued in this forum with many of the "respectable old guard" players and "professors" who often expressed very dogmatic and at times, completely uncompromising attitudes about what kind of path DayZ should take (game play wise), and even on how THEY think DayZ should be played (as if it should follow the same fixed rules as a game of chess).

The so called  game "realism", which some players never seem to get enough of, and cling to like a gospel, is a double-edged sword. Turning DayZ into the equivalent of a flight simulator might satisfy the most fetish realism aficionados  but, make the game play extremely boring and frustrating for many others.

Any video game, DayZ included, must always strive to find a balance between realistic features and the actual gaming experience. Otherwise, as mentioned before, it's no longer a game but a simulator of sorts.

Obviously DayZ was and is a niche game, but how exactly the "survival" aspect must be interpreted and developed should always be open for debate.

Regards

Edited December 10, 2019 by Lexman61

[Skofield_Kid 41]

I tend to agree with the statements above and with Lex's double-edged sword analogy. Perhaps one option for you might to just be patient and stick with the game long enough to see perhaps (as a console player I am unsure what is out there) what private server admins controls over game mechanics are available to customize a server for the play style that you are more looking for. PC modded servers may help as well. 

Edited December 10, 2019 by Skofield_Kid

[William Sternritter 441]

7 hours ago, Lexman61 said:

Any video game, DayZ included, must always strive to find a balance between realistic features and the actual gaming experience. Otherwise, as mentioned before, it's no longer a game but a simulator of sorts.

And DayZ indeed makes a lot of compromises for the sake of playability. Practically everything that is not shooting and character movement is a huge downscale from reality.

Wish to grow some veggies? It takes you minutes. Need to carry stuff? Sure pack three large cans in your shirt. Killed an animal? Here are your steaks perfectly cut in 10 seconds, and so on and so forth.

Yet people come here regularly and cry that the game is too difficult, too demanding! It needs to be more action, more shooting! Oh please, the game is intended as a simulator and just because it gives you guns it does not mean that all you should do is have a deathmatch. 

The other edge of this sword is annual crying that the newest CoD or Battlefield is not realistic and historically accurate 🙄 

Don't go see a Scorsese movie expecting Bay and vice versa.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

3 hours ago, William Sternritter said:

The other edge of this sword is annual crying that the newest CoD or Battlefield is not realistic and historically accurate 🙄 

Don't go see a Scorsese movie expecting Bay and vice versa. 

This, and time ten. I disagree 100% with almost each sentence of the OP and I just don't understand the nerve you have. They have already dumbed down Dayz for folks exactly like you (let's call you 'a guy with simpler expectations' for the sake of a polite argument). If they give you auto sort inventory, you (or someone like you) would come and demand manual transmission. And then the hunger meter to be removed. This race to the bottom must stop somewhere.

As everywhere else said, but I feel I need to add to that: you're just confused and playing the wrong game all along. There are so many titles created especially for you, many of them AAA.

[drgullen 593]

On 12/10/2019 at 1:06 AM, kacper46 said:

Make this game FPP/TTP shooter before anything else.

Dear DayZ Developers,

I believe this is a typo...he meant to say, make this game FPP/TTP shooter AFTER anything else.

Cause yeah, it's DayZ, it's primarily a PvE game, it's not meant to be a PvP game.

As Lumbergh would say, "M'kaaaaaaaaay? Thaaaaaaaanks."

[emuthreat 2837]

I think we'll have a better feeling for how all these mechanics work out when the bugs get fixed.  Most of my issue with the inventory come from not being able to successfully do things on the first try, mouse latency, drag and drop interruptions, misplaced item icon with respect to cursor, etc.  All of these things make a somewhat involved inventory interface seem overly cumbersome and double, if not more, the amount of time it takes to perform a simple task; which is not too welcome at certain time-sensitive moments.

As for the overall ethos of survival simulation, I agree that the game is taking the right steps towards this unique niche.  There is nothing else quite like DayZ out there, and I feel it should stay true to this.  I play DayZ because it is hard, complicated, and unforgiving, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now, quality of life tweaks are certainly welcome.

I'd love to be able to remove a magazine from a weapon in hands, and not have to make three extra steps before dragging the ammunition to it for reloading.  Right click the magazine attachment icon and select "remove to hands", and the weapon is holstered/shouldered/put in inventory.
Things like this seem intuitive, and welcome.  Nobody reloads a magazine by removing it, putting it in their backpack, putting the weapon away, retrieving the magazine, and then adding bullets; it's not a breakdown of simulation to just assume that the rifle goes to the shoulder after removal of the magazine.

There's lots of things to iron out.  But that doesn't mean the entire ethos of the game should be scrapped.

[Buakaw 274]

Starting to think this is jut a (successful) bait to trigger all the hardcore survival vets of the forum

[aaronlands 55]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:37 PM, Buakaw said:

Starting to think this is jut a (successful) bait to trigger all the hardcore survival vets of the forum

Yes this has to be the DayZ equivalent of "A Modest Proposal" (A satirical essay from the 1700s where the author suggests that poor people sell their young as food).

[kacper46 8]

My post is not a joke.

I am quite disappointed and depressed by your feedback.

Not too many meritoric counter arguments mentioned above though. As I said, and as if it was not evidently clear, everything I say is only my opinion and my vision of the game, DayZ could be a very different and fun to play shooter with elements of gameplay nowhere else to be found.

For some reason developers try to push this game into a niche where it is destined to die of boredom. I do not mean to make many sacrifices in terms of game features, however the course of development should be steered towards gunfights (be it Elektrozavodsk or Chernogorsk skirmishes, heli crashes hunting as an examples) more than other elements. This is merely my suggestion.

For those who argue that everything is going in the right direction I have one question:

What do you do in this game? Describe it to me, please.

Now a more elaborate part of my post will begin with random thoughts. One more thing I would like to point out is that I do not mean to preach truths about how it should be done, even though I may sound like it and be bossy at times. Just take it with grain of salt.

The epoch and other highly militarized mods were very fun to play but it was too much and overdone. On the opposite side was the Dayz Mod for Arma II and it was too easy (right now the survival in standalone is getting harder which I love and would like to see the bar even higher) and too boring but contained more survival elements and atmosphere. I think there are lessons to be learned from both of these extremes, but to be honest I do not know where the golden center between these two would be. I will however point out that Vanilla servers were much less populated than military mods' servers(for those who will argue that vanila dayz mod was THE mod to be played).

Missions were nice and they brought players to fight from different parts of this big map but I am not sure if it would fit Dayz Standalone.

Crafting and base building is a great feature but it lead to creation of absurd camping towers scattered on the map, it doesn't look like it's going to be an issue here.

Also traders...would that be a good idea? Tough to say. I did like to fight with weapon of my choice, but perhaps not in vanilla.

Maybe you can split the game into survival and PvP mode (little bit like in L4D where you have Co-op and Versus mode).

I think humanity should be a big thing again. It is not worth the risk to leave someone alive. I remember that you could get humanity points for feeding or healing other survivors (and killing bandits) that might lead to some nice interactions.

I heard from some people that complicated config and controls is what discouraged them from playing. It doesn't have to be simple WSAD game but it must be noted that making it more complicated does not bring more players.

I love a bit raw, not too colorful graphics of this game. Sometimes I just connect the server to roam around some fields and forests. The sounds are also nice and relaxing.

Those are my thoughts for today. I hope that someone from the dev team will somehow at least read and consider what I wrote.

Cheers.

Edited December 22, 2019 by kacper46

[Survivor514 3]

DayZ devs... Please do not listen to OP. I will not have a game to play... I love this game, please do not turn it into "yet another pew pew shooter". Thanks.

[McWendy 675]

On 12/22/2019 at 9:58 PM, kacper46 said:

:

What do you do in this game? Describe it to me, please.

 

 

Quote

 

I love a bit raw, not too colorful graphics of this game. Sometimes I just connect the server to roam around some fields and forests. The sounds are also nice and relaxing.

 

You answered your own question.

As for the steering in the shooter direction...... No Just no.....

I understand that with the plethora of games you find it hard to pick one and git gud. That's why you want to turn this pearl in the making into another generic crapshooter.

You had a really good Idea; deviding the playerbase even more with different game modes. Pubg didn't survive that. Latency Will not survive that. *Sigh*....

 

I have to ask since you asked alot of questions and suggestions. Do you even Read what you type or Just spew? 

*Facepalms at current generations of thinkers.....*  

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by McWendy
Spelling

[EzyStriderPS4 191]

On 12/22/2019 at 3:58 PM, kacper46 said:

My post is not a joke.

I am quite disappointed and depressed by your feedback.

My only comment is that, in my opinion, you are far too hyper-focused on firearms.  Remember, guns aren't just meant to "PvP," they are also to be used for self-defense against aggressors.  If you wish to be the aggressor, or a covert sniper, or any type of sociopath, then this game gives you that freedom: Go grab some military camo'd fatigues or other gear and have at it!  But, please, do not push your personal vision onto everyone else. This is an infringement of player choice and in-game freedom.

I personally enjoy all of the other elements of this game.  I have fought off attackers, and killed in the name of self-preservation without provocation, but that's not all this game has to offer!

[McWendy 675]

I Just want to fish and Hunt. All the while eating everyone who tries to shoot me on my fishing trip.

😁

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

On 12/22/2019 at 9:58 PM, kacper46 said:

My post is not a joke.

(...) the course of development should be steered towards gunfights (...)

Precisely as we speak in another section of the forum there's a troll which tries to get under our skin with literally the same arguments. If you're truly not joking, your timing couldn't be worse.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

On 12/24/2019 at 4:14 PM, McWendy said:

I Just want to fish and Hunt. All the while eating everyone who tries to shoot me on my fishing trip.

😁

My maxim for Chernarus is "no matter how often you play and how much you roam, there must be a location where you haven't been in a year. Go check it out."

[sneakydude 480]

Game got a new map? Fuck no... Fix the first one.

LMAO

[MrGriffyO 17]

OP,  you are 100% correct with everything you said. These "hardcore" idiot fans have no idea why DayZ is even a thing and how it got popular. These simulation dorks ruined the game and have bullied the devs into making SA a running simulator that - before mods - only a few thousand but loyal people played. DayZ was meant to be played exactly how you described and if these dorks above me will take a trip down memory lane and think about the mod, the MASSIVE player base, and how the public viewed it, they'd understand that's what the game should have been. It was the number 1 streamed game for a long time. When they released SA, the game was literally nothing like the mod, which is what made DayZ even popular in the first place. People got on and saw that you had to get f****** blood test kit to see what type of blood you had before you could even use a transfusion and realized that the developers didn't even know the fan base which is what made DayZ DayZ.

[William Sternritter 441]

4 hours ago, MrGriffyO said:

OP,  you are 100% correct with everything you said. These "hardcore" idiot fans have no idea why DayZ is even a thing and how it got popular. These simulation dorks ruined the game and have bullied the devs into making SA a running simulator that - before mods - only a few thousand but loyal people played. DayZ was meant to be played exactly how you described and if these dorks above me will take a trip down memory lane and think about the mod, the MASSIVE player base, and how the public viewed it, they'd understand that's what the game should have been. It was the number 1 streamed game for a long time. When they released SA, the game was literally nothing like the mod, which is what made DayZ even popular in the first place. People got on and saw that you had to get f****** blood test kit to see what type of blood you had before you could even use a transfusion and realized that the developers didn't even know the fan base which is what made DayZ DayZ.

Someone died of thirst again while jerking to power fantasies 😄

Edited January 4, 2020 by William Sternritter

[MrGriffyO 17]

Oh look, a simulation dork who helped propagate this game into a running simulator. The sad reality, is that these “simmers” who advocate for DayZ to be so close to reality that half the time you’re watching a mechanic that barely works, didn’t even play the game when it was originally made. Sad sad sad, a game with a limitless potential ruined by a few small but vocal “fans” who just don’t even remember the real history behind DayZ and why it was popular. 

Edited January 5, 2020 by MrGriffyO

[scriptfactory 620]

This game and forum is amazing. Still juxtaposing "fun" and "simulation" because the simulation aspect of the game is so janky it isn't fun.

1 hour ago, MrGriffyO said:

Sad sad sad, a game with a limitless potential ruined by a few small but vocal “fans” who just don’t even remember the real history behind DayZ and why it was popular. 

From my recollection this is exactly what happened by design. I was going insane when Rocket started throwing away features/mechanics trying to make his apocalypse simulation game and it just messed up gameplay. I felt like we were promised a hacker-free version of Mod and he was trying to strip away all the game mechanics! Oh, how young and silly I was.

Rather than going back and revisiting his original idea Rocket went deeper into the simulation because he thought this would bring about the most authentic experience. Brian took over after Rocket left and went even harder in this direction.

So I ask myself, were they successful in their attempt? Depends on your definition of "simulation". It is some kind of abstraction of surviving in an apocalypse. It isn't that fun (to me). Still janky as hell. Missing all of the things that I enjoyed in Mod.