Emerging social gameplay from harder zombies, or infected.

[PointAndClick 6]

The more I play, the less of a problem I think the zombies actually are. The biggest threat are the players.... because they are.

What would happen if zombies got a lot more dangerous and required a lot more work to kill and avoid. What would happen if zombies became a real threat, a threat you can hardly cope with on your own?

Take a minute to think about shifting the biggest threat in the game from the players to the zombies.

I heard a lot of talk and ideas around making this game more 'social'. And a lot of things have been brought in, bandit skins and humanity systems. But as long as players don't actually feel like they are under a common threat. A common threat out to kill all of you. With a force that requires either staying out of the way and 'survive in the woods' or group up and make your home in a more urban environment.

Instead, zombies are now made less of a threat, by making it so that they don't break your bones as easily in 1.7.2(.0).

Is it really authentic to have me being able to run across town, check every lootspot, aggro a few zombies crouch running like a maniac, (I really don't care about them too much), find loot, kill zombies, run away, kill a few more, and I'm free. It's so easy, everybody can do it.

I feel that the idea of this game translates so much better into having impossible zombies that need teamwork to overcome.

Now, as a disclaimer, I really do enjoy the PvP direction the game is going in. But I keep seeing that people want a more socially realistic game. A common threat and a common antagonist is in my mind the most ideal candidate for this goal.

The game will be drastically different when your fellow player turns from a threat into a possibility to overcome a threat you are both under. Especially when you a freshly spawned and have practically no gear.

So translated into a game model for DayZ, this is how I would do it (And this might be a kind of a big step to implement in one go):

- Players

* spawn with matches, hatchet, hunting knife.

(You are a survivor and you have surviving capabilities already at hand, this would only make sense.)

- Zombies

* They hit you, you actually die without help. (This classic is here for a reason, let's stick to it?) No more self help morphine, just let them die Rocket, I know you want to.

* Make them almost deaf, but have visibility. (In essence switch the system around. As it would make them so much more 'playable'. sneaking behind their back with the possibility that they might turn. Much more tense and much more intuitive.) Like seriously, they should be able to see you crouched from about 50 meters and run towards you. Of course ghillie suits and shit helps, but we only have stuff for lower visibility not for lower audibility.

* I really like the way the zombies now are all amassing to where gunshots are coming from. This should definitely be kept. I would like give zombies a terrible scream, which would put all zombies around into 'lemmings of a cliff' player kill mode. But that's just my idea of it. The zombies should try to overrun you en masse, that's the point.

* Preferably a way to have them 'guard' more valuable loot with greater numbers. (Or what I'm trying to do is reward social interaction, more zombies = more chance to get overrun.)

* And if it could be made that zombies migrate towards the smell of players, or what I'm trying to say is that you should not be able to stay in the same spot for too long without attracting zombies. (Regardless of where you are on the map.)

Sniper on the rooftop? No problem, eventually some zombie should climb that ladder. Alert his zombie friends. That sniper is going to have a lot more things to watch out for than just players.

So those are just some ideas to show that it can be done and it can be done without adding any features or giving people special powers. Just move the threat and you'll move social interactions.

And the current core experience will more or less stay in tact ( I hope, I think, I expect, and more disclaimers). As nobody loses the ability to infiltrate, kill or hurt players. It's just that it's highly unlikely that a guy with a big gun got that gun because he 'got lucky' and that he actually had to work together, at some point, with some people, to get it.

I hope you'll give it some thoughts, thanks for reading and feel free to expand or subtract. As I also wouldn't really mind this game staying this PvP-y, it's just that I read so much about having more social interaction but nobody connected the dots. (edit: *kough* only because I missed this thread: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=23578 discuss there.)

Tl;dr:

Hats! we need Hats!!!

[moisan4 26]

Zombies only scare new players unfamiliar with game mechanics and/or controls. Once you're familliar with the game, I think most would agree that Z's more often than not become a source of amusement, not terror. It sure would encourage the probability of team work. Though, it could also just encourage team PvP, and even with tougher Z's they would still become relatively harmless to larger groups. Still team PvP is still more social than lone snipers. I guess it depends on what the developers want their game to be, small or larger scale PvP. Though I wouldn't complain with tougher Z's. I played Ultima Online at beta, so I love high risk, high reward PvP.

[Ordoo 3]

The more I play' date=' the less of a problem I think the zombies actually are. The biggest threat are the players.... because they are.

What would happen if zombies got a lot more dangerous and required a lot more work to kill and avoid. What would happen if zombies became a real threat, a threat you can hardly cope with on your own?

Take a minute to think about shifting the biggest threat in the game from the players to the zombies.

I heard a lot of talk and ideas around making this game more 'social'. And a lot of things have been brought in, bandit skins and humanity systems. But as long as players don't actually feel like they are under a common threat. A common threat out to kill all of you. With a force that requires either staying out of the way and 'survive in the woods' or group up and make your home in a more urban environment.

Instead, zombies are now made less of a threat, by making it so that they don't break your bones as easily in 1.7.2(.0).

Is it really authentic to have me being able to run across town, check every lootspot, aggro a few zombies crouch running like a maniac, (I really don't care about them too much), find loot, kill zombies, run away, kill a few more, and I'm free. It's so easy, everybody can do it.

I feel that the idea of this game translates so much better into having impossible zombies that need teamwork to overcome.

Now, as a disclaimer, I really do enjoy the PvP direction the game is going in. But I keep seeing that people want a more socially realistic game. A common threat and a common antagonist is in my mind the most ideal candidate for this goal.

The game will be drastically different when your fellow player turns from a threat into a possibility to overcome a threat you are both under. Especially when you a freshly spawned and have practically no gear.

So translated into a game model for DayZ, this is how I would do it (And this might be a kind of a big step to implement in one go):

- Players

* spawn with matches, hatchet, hunting knife.

(You are a survivor and you have surviving capabilities already at hand, this would only make sense.)

- Zombies

* They hit you, you actually die without help. (This classic is here for a reason, let's stick to it?) No more self help morphine, just let them die Rocket, I know you want to.

* Make them almost deaf, but have visibility. (In essence switch the system around. As it would make them so much more 'playable'. sneaking behind their back with the possibility that they might turn. Much more tense and much more intuitive.) Like seriously, they should be able to see you crouched from about 50 meters and run towards you. Of course ghillie suits and shit helps, but we only have stuff for lower visibility not for lower audibility.

* I really like the way the zombies now are all amassing to where gunshots are coming from. This should definitely be kept. I would like give zombies a terrible scream, which would put all zombies around into 'lemmings of a cliff' player kill mode. But that's just my idea of it. The zombies should try to overrun you en masse, that's the point.

* Preferably a way to have them 'guard' more valuable loot with greater numbers. (Or what I'm trying to do is reward social interaction, more zombies = more chance to get overrun.)

* And if it could be made that zombies migrate towards the smell of players, or what I'm trying to say is that you should not be able to stay in the same spot for too long without attracting zombies. (Regardless of where you are on the map.)

Sniper on the rooftop? No problem, eventually some zombie should climb that ladder. Alert his zombie friends. That sniper is going to have a lot more things to watch out for than just players.

So those are just some ideas to show that it can be done and it can be done without adding any features or giving people special powers. Just move the threat and you'll move social interactions.

And the current core experience will more or less stay in tact ( I hope, I think, I expect, and more disclaimers). As nobody loses the ability to infiltrate, kill or hurt players. It's just that it's highly unlikely that a guy with a big gun got that gun because he 'got lucky' and that he actually had to work together, at some point, with some people, to get it.

I hope you'll give it some thoughts, thanks for reading and feel free to expand or subtract. As I also wouldn't really mind this game staying this PvP-y, it's just that I read so much about having more social interaction but nobody connected the dots. (edit: *kough* only because I missed this thread: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=23578 discuss there.)

Tl;dr:

Hats! we need Hats!!!

[/quote']

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=23578

That thread in a nutshell