Adding new edges to DayZ experience with least efforts.

[Zak_Prestor 15]

Hello, DayZ community!

I have searched this forum for a while and hadn't found the exact idea I was thinking about for a few last weeks.

As a relatively experienced player I have noted a few interesting things:

1. The most populated areas in DayZ are South Coast with major cities and Central Western Plains. Choke points are Cherno\Electro, Stary Sobor and North-West Airfields with all the space between them.
   
   
2. North-Eastern and Central Eastern territories are almost uninhabited and way too boring to explore, except Berezino's hospital and two supermarkets. Fifty and more people on the server create an unhealthy situation, when you can get a bullet from almost any barn or nearby treeline. That really kills the survival atmosphere, converting it into an ultrahardcore deathmatch. As for post-Soviet republic the amount of NATO weapons is suspiciously overwhelming, while there are really almost no high-end Russian weapons.
   

http://imageshack.us...grationmap.jpg/

DayZ map overview.

Preferred spawn ponits:

• Most popular are Balota, Komarovo, Electro, Cherno and their suburbs spawn points. There survivors can get medium-quality military gear, clean up storehouse and head their way to Stary Sobor and NWAF or heli crashes.
  
• Medium-popular are Kamenka and Kamyshovo: lesser preferred, but also have their advantages. From Kamenka or Balota Airfield (after getting some firearms) it is a smart choice to go to Zelenogorsk: barns can provide some good civil weapons and supermarket can fill up your tool belt.
  
• The least optimal are Solnechniy and its suburbs for anyone: too far away from any supermarket with maps, compasses, matches and Alice Packs, no military mid-grade weapons, too far from Stary Sobor and NWAF and a big chance to meet an armed to teeth sniper and/or his teammates.
  

After a continuous and detailed analysis of current DayZ geographical and demographic situation I have generated a following opinion over current situation:

• Further increase of server-side performance can cause significant increase of average server's capacity, which means more slaughter near high-end item spawns and even on your way to them. That would kill the whole spirit of survival of this game.
  
• A relatively limited range of choice for guns and familiarization with most of South shore, East-Central and North-Western parts of the map kills interest of exploration greatly, while there is no point in exploration of Eastern part of the map because of almost no high-end loot up there.
  
• Another aspect of the game that could add new edges to gameplay are vessels: Currently there is little to no point in owning a boat if you haven't established a base near Guba (+/-2km). Two types of boats are too slow and too vulnerable to snipers if they are near the coast, and too rare. Adding new points of interest to the Eastern coast will increase the value of any boat tremendously.
  

My suggestions in short are:

• Add more mid-tier weapon spawns to the game at the Eastern part of the map and one top-tier loot point at the North-East.
  
• Add more mid- and some top-tier Russian weapons to the game.
  

Look, only two suggestions, that have already been proposed countless times before! But the tricky thing is proper implementation:

Adding more mid-tier weapons like AKM/74/Kobra/etc and M16xx/M4xx/DMR/M24 at the Eastern part of the map will greatly increase the player traffic in that region, which will offload Western parts of the map if the server has more then 75 players online.

Adding more Russian types of weapons which are already in original ARMA2 files (like AK107 and AK-74 with various scopes and grenade launchers plus non-camo SVD, some AK-based machine gun as a mid-tier and KVSK, VSS Vintorez plus said AK-XX with silencers/NVG/scopes) that spawn in the northern top-tier territory will create new choke points and a new PvP-areas. And it will offload NWAF.with Stary Sobor.

Possible loot spawns for Russian\Soviet weapons:

Krasnostav: Add more military zombie spawn to the city, some more barbwire, sandbags and towers at the perimeter, two barracks with possible-top-tier Russian weapons spawn (silenced\scoped AK-107\74, KVSK, Vintorez) near the center. This will add new experience for close quarter combat, will encourage squads for orginized raids with scouts, assault troopers and snipers. Also it will make Berezino a much more desirable place to visit (more injured, more n00bs for basic tools)

Gorka\Polana\Dubrovka: A military camp between those three boring villages like camp in Stary Sobor, so that respawned on the Eastern coast had a mid-tier weapons spawn place to visit within a 3-5km reach. The drop can be the same as in Stary Sobor, but with KVSK instead of M107 and AK-107-PSO1-GP/AK-107-SD-GP instead of M4a1 Camo SD or even common SVD (non-camo).

Rog Castle: the main tower and courtyard may have 4 or 5 loot spawns of Soviet/Russian weapons just to add more tense to the South-Eastern coast and give a motivation for newly spawned players in Electro/Cherno to go to the Eastern part of the map. Also there can be added military barricades and more military zombie spawns.

Skalysty Island: solutions may vary, as it could be some kind of small camp or a few military objects with mid-tier military spawn. The purpose of this zone is to give players reason to search for boats and use them more intensely =)

Green Mountain: A very interesting military object but now has almost no interesting loot. Adding 4 or 5 Soviet/Russian military loot spawns will greatly improve North-Western player traffic, making it as viable as Central (from Cherno/Electro to Stary Sobor and NWAF). Also Berezino and Zelenogorsk are sub-par to Cherno or Electro due to small amount of points of interest ATM.

Russian Heli crashes:

I'm pretty sure Russian helicopters could crash almost the same way as NATO did. As most internet sources say, there are 4-6 heli crashes at each server. IMHO, if Rocket added 2 crashed Russian Mi-8 to the game with possible top-tier weapon spawn, it would also be great. Similar no NATO FN_FALs with NVG scopes or LA-85 with heatsensor and NV-scope some AK and SVD versions with analogical scopes could fit. Those crashes can be situated mostly in North-Eastern part of Chernarus, while leaving the rest of NATO heli crashes as they are.

Now I'd like to talk about proper RP-reasons:

While NATO bases were situated in the western part of the map, Russians had their bases established on the Eastern coast and their command center had been in Krasnostav Airfield. As there was no war conflict and they were allies, there's no reason not to add NATO weapons to any possible Russian bases, but with less chance to spawn.

Map legend:

Square: spawn point

Line: approximate player traffic route

Green: most popular

Cyan: average popularity

Blue: unpopular

Circle: popular choke points and PvP areas

magenta: popular

Purple: average popularity

Dark-red rectangle: suggested new military objects with medium//high-grade loot spawns.

Red rectangle: Suggested new military objects with top-tier military spawns.

Conclusion:

Adding more spawn points of mid-grade equipment and one more top-tier location for weapons at the Eastern side of the map may cause huge changes to overall player traffic on high-populated servers, increasing potential map capacity without any discomfort.

Russian//Soviet weapons can add a new edge to gameplay: some of our weapons have no alternates in Western armies and the variety of firearms arsenal would make players collect weapons that fit to their playstyle.

All proposed changes require the least of map designer changes, minimum balancing efforts and will have a huge impact on DayZ gameplay and respective community.

P.S. Moders, please, don't move this thread to Suggestions subforum, I think that my ideas should be discussed more intensively. I've put considerable amount of time to generate idea and post this thread =)

P.P.S. English is not my native language, so please, don't blame for mistakes and improper synthax. =)

P.P.P.S. My precious text formatting has been partially broken, I'll restore it as soon as I can.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Zak_Prestor

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

I quite like the spread of players as it is. I don't want an equal distribution of people accross the map.

[Jorden 63]

I quite like the spread of players as it is. I don't want an equal distribution of people accross the map.

This. I agree with balance but this is one of the most "pants on head retarded" fashion of doing so.

[Zak_Prestor 15]

I do like the current player distribution on 30-50 ppl servers too, but let's be realists: when the average server cap reaches 80-100 ppl, you would feel much less comfortable.

My implementation of new weapon spawns and firearms will increase the map capacity dramatically without any serious efforts from developers. Simple and effective sulutuin, like AK-47 or even SVD =)

Edited July 16, 2012 by Zak_Prestor

[frantix (DayZ) 14]

This is definatly a point that must be taken into consideration. The western part of the map drops more stuff than the eastern part (more supermarkets, more deer stands, Stary Sobor / NWA). I just don't know if it is good or bad when people can chose to pile up. Who wants to go allone can go in the east, who wants pvp goes to Stary/NWA.

[Zak_Prestor 15]

This is definatly a point that must be taken into consideration. The western part of the map drops more stuff than the eastern part (more supermarkets, more deer stands, Stary Sobor / NWA). I just don't know if it is good or bad when people can chose to pile up. Who wants to go allone can go in the east, who wants pvp goes to Stary/NWA.

Anyone who lives in Eastern part of the map is a newcomer:

1. It's very hard to place a tent in a secluded area because of a huge amount of roads, which means most players walk in treeline.

2. There are no interesting places except Polana supermarket and some barns. Berezino and Krasnostav are constantly populated with 1 or two snipers, which makes any visit there a perilous risk.

3. There is no PvE in this game, because any1 skilled enough can sneak past any zombie spawns. PvP is what makes this game so refreshing.

And don't forget, that there is a Far-Northern part of the map beyond Petrovka and Pobeda Dam, where lots of wild animals wait for their hunters =)

Edited July 16, 2012 by Zak_Prestor

[boneboys 7988]

Suggestion, who said suggestion, oopla, off we go to the suggestion forum.

A lot of people use the alternative forum style. Light grey text on a white background does not read well.

Thanks.

[Carbonated Trading 0]

Solnichniy is far from things waah, oh wait, loads of barns, a few houses and then you get to Berezino, which has more loot than Cherno and is generally safer

that's when I realised that OP's formatting is a lie: he ignant

Edited July 16, 2012 by Carbonated Trading

[Zak_Prestor 15]

Solnichniy is far from things waah, oh wait, loads of barns, a few houses and then you get to Berezino, which has more loot than Cherno and is generally safer

that's when I realised that OP's formatting is a lie: he ignant

While I would prefer Winchester or CZ550 over AKM/AK-74 or basic M16/M4a1, I'd say that Solnechniy bandits are mostly fresh-spawned players that got fine civil weapon and camp for uncautious noobs =)

Berezino has no military loot spawn except 4 military tents on a very well observed place and hordes of zombies up there.

[Zak_Prestor 15]

up...

[Zak_Prestor 15]

up =(

[Zak_Prestor 15]

Unfortunately, WarZ claims to have twice or even trice the territory DayZ already has and player limit at 250 ppl sounds sweet.

As I told before, DayZ really needs some more points of interest and a bit more loot spawn (but perhaps with less high-grade military weapons.

[Zak_Prestor 15]

bump...