Our characters should require periodic sleeping to restore stamina

[Judley 26]

Once an ingame day you can choose to sleep and restore energy. Downsides could be intermittent blurred vision and loss of stamina. 

Edited May 21 by Judley
A new suggestion because a previous submission was duplicated

[dannyboyle 15]

Sleeping in multiplayer games is a very complex task. It's a design I thought it could be done, but I don't know if it's possible in DayZ.

In a single-player game you simply go to sleep and time speeds up and then you wake up, but in a game with more players on the map it's much more complex to do something like that. I mean, it would be great, but there are just things that aren't possible in games because they're games and they're meant to feel satisfying and engage players.

I thought of several things, and I'm sure there are better ideas:

1/ REAL-TIME SLEEP (3–10 MINUTES AFK)
Put the character to sleep and the energy recharges quickly, in 3-10 minutes, you take advantage of it in real life to go stretch your legs and have something to eat or drink, pet your dog, etc... This can be dangerous, because not everyone has a lot of time and maybe those 3-10 minutes, which will be several times, is wasted time. People have to work, study, make dinner, etc... Not everyone has a lot of time. I think this is what you want, but I'm sorry to say this is not possible, only on mod hardcore servers, time is gold, if you are young you will understand some day. 

This could be solved a bit but without sleeping, being in restoration points, being inside houses without enemies would improve stamina and tiredness, when you are well, maybe if you sit on a bed to change the inventory it improves faster, but I don't think it would be satisfactory to sit in a bed for a while waiting for nothing. This way the player would make inventory changes or crafting at energy restoration points, but would not sleep just waiting, in fact the game actually works a bit like that.

-Micro-resting: Doing light tasks (like sitting, reading a map, crafting) slowly restores energy without needing to sleep.
-Stimulants and energy items: Caffeine, drugs, or other items could delay sleep at the cost of side effects like tremors, hallucinations, or crashes.
-Safe-logout sleeping: If you log out inside a locked house or a protected camp, your character “sleeps” and regains energy upon rejoining, depending on how long you were offline.

2/SYNCHRONIZED SLEEP AMONG PLAYERS
The other option is to have all players agree to sleep, which happens at night, and force them to go to sleep. That would break the night; you'd miss out on nightlife. Nightlife isn't my favorite because it's usually poorly designed in games, but if it's designed well, it can be very different and entertaining. What you could do is have everyone try to sync up to sleep at some point, but that would be crazy; people wouldn't agree at the same time.

There could be a sort of poll where if more than one player wants to sleep, they force alll the rest to sleep until the next day. I'm not saying we should conduct a survey, I'm saying we should see who wants to sleep and let the majority decide whether they want to sleep or not. This could be chaotic and frustrating for many players, both those who want to sleep and those who don't.

3/CONTROLLING MULTIPLE CHARACTERS
You manage multiple players, I really like this one, but the DayZ concept doesn't contemplate that, but I do like it, I think Bohemia should contemplate a design like that for DayZ.
You have different characters, you recruit them, you meet them throughout the open world dynamic events and you can switch. Well, there it's simple because while one rests, the other can be doing things and it makes for a great, incredible design with many more aspects. I definitely think it's something worth considering in DayZ, but as I say, that would change the design of the game and it wouldn't feel like you're just surviving. I valued this concept for Red Dead Online if it had been a survival game where characters die and you recruit new ones.

Here you would have a character resting but you could immediately switch to controlling another one. I thought of many designs here, so that those characters could also be controlled by friends, like a group of survivors, but I think that would change a bit what DayZ is, although it would be interesting, you wouldn't be able to swap if you were too far away from the characters and much more.

4/SERVER-HOPPING TO SIMULATE SLEEP
Switching servers, you go to sleep, and there are servers with different time zones, you just spawn on another server where time has passed. I think this is the way that best suits DayZ. I definitely think it's the best current design for the type of game that DayZ is right now. There could be three servers with an 8-hour time difference that completes the 24-hour time zone, and you could jump between those three servers, or two with 12-hour time difference.

I love this design because I thought about it with the idea of the in-game days passing very slowly, almost in real time, since I hate games where day and night go by so quickly that you can't enjoy them. This way, you can choose the time of day you want to play and this lasts for a long time. You can't sleep whenever you want, but when you reach a certain level of tiredness, you can sleep. It's a bit like Kingdom Come Deliverance or RDR2 but you have to jump between servers.

The difference between KCD and this is that you won't be able to go at the exact time you want; you'll be tied to the time difference of each server, but that would be a good simulation and more satisfying than anything.

You could sleep anywhere, but obviously that would affect how much you get sick or how much energy you recover. I definitely think a system like that would be groundbreaking in a game like DayZ.  It wouldn't be like real time, but time could pass more slowly so we could better enjoy the moments we prefer or need.

Point 4 seems interesting but also presents problems. In vanilla, it can work with official servers, but if you have a 50 players community server, that would greatly divide that community due to fewer players, you would be dividing a small community into two or three servers. But in reality, a good modified server would benefit a lot from something like this because it would have a larger volume of players and would distribute them.

Server overload could be avoided by prohibiting sleep, although it would be a bit artificial.

Another problem is that, for example, if you want the game to evolve with online story and narrative, as I proposed with the seasonal design, it would be more difficult to manage the content events that occurs in the game, but in DayZ's current design, which has no content but only gameplay, it is simpler. I say it would be complex because there aren't any issues with players. The problem is if you have an NPC on one server, they won't be there for other players on another, which is crazy in that aspect of the design. If there's an event triggered by a woman in the middle of a forest waiting for you to jump to another server, that same woman would have to be there, in that case things would get way too complicated.

5/REAL IN-GAME SLEEP (PERSISTENT CHARACTER ON SERVER)
This is a design I thought of, it's very experimental, time passes very slowly and if you put the character to sleep, he sleeps for 8 real hours in-game, real hours of the game, not of life. Meanwhile, you can play with another character on another server, while that sleeping character stays asleep for 8 hours in-game server and other players can find you and kill you. The character is controlled by AI, and can defend himself in some way. Once those 8 hours have passed in-game, the character disappears from the server until you log in again and have already slept. This concept is a little crazy.

 

Another solution is to have players see time differently than you do, but that would limit the design of night and day, you wouldn't be able to make certain animals only come out at night and stuff like that, or that at night the detection systems are less effective due to the lack of visibility.

 

As you can see, it's not easy to do something like this. I definitely prefer point 4, changing the server to another time. It's much more realistic; in fact, this way you can control jetlag, either that or the restore points part.

Edited May 22 by dannyboyle

[Sid Debian 152]

No need to make the Rust from DayZ.

Sleep - yeah I think that's nice idea but not the same way like it's implemented in Rust (character is always on the map not matters are you online or offline). I understand that's player unit is on the drugs, weed and energy drinks (instead it's blood), but it's really dummy.

I think that's the game required complete rewriting of stamina, including the stamina persistent regression (less regeneration of health and blood levels, less ability to carry heavy weights and so on). And resetting of that state shall be passed only through the sleep. Like fall asleep for 30 minutes (but not less then 10 minutes) everything became to normal (ability for health, stamina, carrying heavy weight and so on). You can eat the drugs and stimulators for staying awake and I suggest the devs to sit on that stuff for 1 week and don't sleep at all. I bet, at the end of the week they will be mad the way worse then the mad bull.

Also it will improve the idea with tents and intending for implementation of sleeping bags...

[lakevu 108]

i really dont think this is a good idea and is one of those reality "omissions" to make the game a game. nothing is more annoying than when a character. which is supposed to be me. makes me do something i dont actually feel. i myself. in real life. exit the game when i am tired. to make me do this in game serves as disconnect between ME and my character which is SUPPOSED to be me. but not only that imagine you are "tired" and you are attacked. imagine how infuriating that would be never mind the secondary effects about how people engage with the game and their behavior. making people more recluse and not wanting to "risk" getting into the funest part of the game which is the engagements.

to much "micromanagement" like these do not add but detract from a multiplayer game. i think singleplayer there is respects for it. like greenhell for example. but you have to always keep in mind the main PURPOSE of dayz. 

[dannyboyle 15]

On 5/22/2025 at 11:12 PM, lakevu said:

to much "micromanagement" like these do not add but detract from a multiplayer game. i think singleplayer there is respects for it. like greenhell for example. but you have to always keep in mind the main PURPOSE of dayz.  

I'm not a fan of micromanagement, maybe sometimes, but we're not going to deny that DayZ is an extremely complex game based on micromanagement with survival gameplay, its core is micromanagement and doing everything manually.

I think micromanagement isn't the problem because that's what DayZ is all about. I also don't see anything wrong with forcing players to do things, DayZ forces you to eat and do many things in your daily life, that's the core of the game. Now, while you micromanage, you don't wait; you combine things, take advantage of the opportunity to improve others, prepare others. It's not the same as going to bed, stretching out, and waiting a few minutes; that's literally wasting time. Imagine if you have four hours to play, and of those four hours, you spend 20-35 minutes doing that. Well, that's dangerous.

 

If in 4 hours you can make that process only take 3 minutes, I don't see it as a problem, or if you can camouflage it with other processes.

I think it's possible to achieve something organic with server hopping, and if you don't hop, there are consequences, such as not recovering enough energy for the next server. And by energy, I don't mean sleep—sleep should be another indicator—I mean energy, the ability to run, lift weights, carry weight in a backpack, etc

I think the best option is two servers that simulate 24 hours, 12 each. If you don't jump to the next one, you'll have to do it out of fatigue, no matter what; the character will get tired at some point. Let's say each server lasts 4 or 3 hours, well, after 3, you should be tired; a player would never make it to the full 4 hours.

 

CORE CONCEPT: ENERGY/FATIGUE-BASED SERVER HOPPING
Two servers: Server A (Day), Server B (Night) - third needed to
Each simulates 12 hours of real life in-game time,  2 real hours per server, 2h DAY 2h NIGHT. TOTAL = 4 hours per day
It could be SERVER A DAY 8 am to 8 pm / SERVER B NIGHT 8 pm to 8 am

If real life is
Awake time in game = 16 (66.67%) hours in real life
Sleep time in game =  8 (33.33%) hours in real life

In 4 Hours game system per day:
Awake time in game =2.6668 - 3 game hours (Possible hours of real-time gameplay)
Sleep time in game =  1.3332 game hours (The player would not experience that in real time, it would simply be simulated in the server change that is advanced in time, as if 8 hours had passed.)

Obviously, the 12 hours would last 2 real life hours, but you could stay on the server for longer than those 12 hours/ 2 hours, and so could the other players, but at some point tiredness would force you to jump to the other server that is 8 hours ahead. Every 3 hours in game you need to go to sleep, you can last 3 hours into the server but no more, if you don't jump the server will force you to do so by making you fall unconscious, no matter where you are.

You'd see sunrises and sunsets if you stretched the hours, the servers stretch out over time but will always force the player to tire out so that he sleeps and jumps to the next one.

If a player stays in the same server too long (beyond the “natural” cycle), their character fatigues in ways that directly affect gameplay: speed, stamina, carry capacity, etc. at the "next day". By the third hour or earlier the player would need to go to sleep or pass out and there would be a change of server, the fourth hour would never arrive, as the player would pass out before then and end up on the other server. If the player does not sleep at the agreed time, 2.6 hours, this will affect his energy for the next day, so the best thing would be to sleep every 2.6 hours or a little bit earlier, extending it to 3 hour would mean that there would not be a complete recovery, and falling unconscious would be even worse, it could even cause health problems.

Such a design is interesting because the player should be able to better manage what they do before going to sleep, if they are being chased by a horde, if they are at an event, etc.

Players who recently join the server could be given a tiredness adjustment so they can jump to the next server, helping them blend in with the rest of the players. It makes no sense for a player to join a server that runs from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. at 8 a.m. and be able to last a long time alone on the server; they will be given more tiredness so they jump like the rest of the players.

 

For 8 Hours game system per day:
Awake time in game =5,3336 - 6 game hours (Possible hours of real-time gameplay)
Sleep time in game =  2,6664 game hours (The player would not experience that in real time, it would simply be simulated in the server change that is advanced in time, as if 8 hours had passed.)

 

 

 

Edited May 23 by dannyboyle

[Riddick_2K 193]

There are already some mods that add the need to sleep...
In a PvE, I consider it necessary, otherwise the "realism" (at least the "verisimilitude") is not there.
In a PvP, I don't know... I don't appreciate the genre and I see it difficult to implement this system.
On my server, the mod I used, was not completely selectable. The recovery time was fixed (I would have liked to increase the time needed for complete recovery).
On the server where I play now (just found one PvE on takistan, with bots that kills), I don't know how manageable it is, I'm just a player... but it's a good thing... you also have to manage the recovery times, make yourself safe and foresee everything.
In my opinion, the "having to sleep" system is a good thing, which improves immersion and increases the possibility of gameplay... it all depends on how "settable" the mod is. If you can set it well in many aspects it is a good thing, if you can NOT set it in many aspects it is NOT a good thing.
For me, that's the whole point.
Given how B.I. manages the game ...maybe... on the official vanilla servers it's better that it's not there.
IF you also like having to sleep (I'm one of those), find (or build yourself) a modded server. There are mods for all tastes, and even more...

[dayzplayer1234 36]

On 5/21/2025 at 11:36 PM, Judley said:

Once an ingame day you can choose to sleep and restore energy. Downsides could be intermittent blurred vision and loss of stamina. 

There are mods that do exactly that. Try moving away from "vanilla" DayZ and try community servers not all of them are 100+ cars full gear spawn. Search for hardcore types , those usually have good mods and are optimized to provide the real dayz experience. 

Once you try a good community servers you will realize how trash and underdeveloped vanilla DayZ is.

Edit: also for your information these types of suggestions have already been suggested literal years prior to yours :) if u dig the forums ul find them.

Edited May 29 by dayzplayer1234

[Judley 26]

22 hours ago, dayzplayer1234 said:

There are mods that do exactly that. Try moving away from "vanilla" DayZ and try community servers not all of them are 100+ cars full gear spawn. Search for hardcore types , those usually have good mods and are optimized to provide the real dayz experience. 

Once you try a good community servers you will realize how trash and underdeveloped vanilla DayZ is.

Edit: also for your information these types of suggestions have already been suggested literal years prior to yours 🙂 if u dig the forums ul find them.

Im a console player so sadly dont have access to all of these cool features.