Player Journals

[rossmum 7]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to read the kinds of things people somehow made it through until they met me.

[caynug 0]

Journals would probably turn some of the bad guys to good guys after killing a few people which had awesome nice journals written.

I definitly would put effort in my journal.

[ezdaroth 1]

Totally supporting this, would add extra layer of depth to the game. Might lead to some kids writing offensive messages, but it would still be worth it.

I'm usually against everything unrealistic, but I vote the diary shouldn't take up an inventory slot. It wouldn't ruin any of the immersion and it would only encourage people to create immersion and empathy for others by documenting their story.

The first implementation could be just a chat command / key binding to bring up your journal, which would be a simple text input with a save button. When you die, if your journal wasn't empty, the server creates "'s journal" item to the corpse and clears your journal data.

Carrying 50 looted journals in your backpack would be just silly, so when looting a journal it could simply be saved as a text file to your HDD as O'Malley suggested and then have the item removed. Ideally where would also be a way to list and open the files in some in-game overlay.

Not a high priority, since there's more important changes to be made, but when it's time for new features, this should certainly be included.

[menford 1]

A player journal may be the single best addition I could imagine.

since the zombie count went up I constantly find lone dead players around the outskirts of towns who obviously attempted to escape to no avail. I find people dead in the woods on the way to towns some loaded with gear and who obviously survived for a while. I always wonder what their stories were

Considering this game is more of an experience and less of a "game" and these dead characters were inhabited by real people, I would LOVE to be able to read the notes they've taken and I think that the ability to leave a "legacy" would be an attractive prospect to most. Sure there would be some nonsense/spam type entries but Since so many are taking this mod so seriously I am sure that a great many would be filled with their encounters, where they were heading, what they hoped to find there, rumors, tales of dead friends left behind. last knowns of bandits, friendlys or loot they passed on.

I imagine if it was possible to implement at least a text journal it would be very well received.

[dawnclover 0]

I love this idea so much... It'd be great to find a corpse and find a journal in it while looting. Then I'd run to cover and read it. I bet there'd be some disturbing stuff in there! Make this happen!

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

I'm not a fan of the mechanical log as it completely drains all the fun out of the ideas posed in the last two pages. I think you're in the minority here for calling it an 'emo-diary'.

Totally supporting this' date=' would add extra layer of depth to the game. Might lead to some kids writing offensive messages, but it would still be worth it.

I'm usually against everything unrealistic, but I vote the diary shouldn't take up an inventory slot. It wouldn't ruin any of the immersion and it would only encourage people to create immersion and empathy for others by documenting their story.

The first implementation could be just a chat command / key binding to bring up your journal, which would be a simple text input with a save button. When you die, if your journal wasn't empty, the server creates "'s journal" item to the corpse and clears your journal data.

Carrying 50 looted journals in your backpack would be just silly, so when looting a journal it could simply be saved as a text file to your HDD as O'Malley suggested and then have the item removed. Ideally where would also be a way to list and open the files in some in-game overlay.

Not a high priority, since there's more important changes to be made, but when it's time for new features, this should certainly be included.

[/quote']

Yeah we would have to think about how it would be implemented, maybe a single item that would contain every journals you can find? And make it so that when you die, journals you have gathered from other players disapear from your inventory and only your own unique journal can be looted. I don't think storing anything on your hdd would be a good idea, this game is not about collecting stuff, it's about survival. I would rather have death erasing every journal I have found.

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

I believe the journal should be something you can read on a corpse but not take. But your own journal is always saved permanently so you can publish it elsewhere yourself if you want.

[vanrosemont 26]

bump for justice. Not sure if this is even possible, and it might spawn journal hunters. No idea how to properly implement it. But IF it's done right, this could be one phenomenal.

[ezdaroth 1]

I'm hoping they end up with a solution where you can loot a journal from a corpse, it's saved as a text file and then the dead player spawns with empty journal again.

If everybody just have a public journal on a website it wouldn't be even nearly as special as finding a journal in-game and reading the story of the dead guy.

[dremux 0]

YES! This! So much this! I'd love to write a journal for my character! The thing I love most about DayZ is the level immersion that it has without even trying all that hard to have it. It seems to just emanate from the game, this would only make immersion that much more intense. I really hope this gets implemented!

[OneRainyNight 0]

This is a great idea :)

[Reliqua 10]

Great idea! I would definitely write about things as I'm sitting next to a campfire, warming myself up, 870 on my back, 1911 in my holster.

[arreally 4]

wow, everyone is so optimistic about this, journal feature.

there are some drawbacks to this though.

1) no one is ever going to stop and read what is in anybody's journal, they only want to take your beans.

2)people will focus more on trying to survive/loot than take the actual time to write in such a journal

3) though people may try to use it, the fact that they will die, over and over again will make the novelty wear off.

4)i'm concerned this may be too "forgiving"? for lack or a better word, i believe no one should ever have any connection to their past lives. death should mean utter oblivian.

5) that's what forums are for right? shouldn't you just write down your experiences there? achieves the same end result.

it will just ultimately be a useless feature that no one would ever use, when focus on development could be else where.

[mastrovara 0]

Its already implemented.

During the game stop in a safe zone and start writing on a piece of paper in real life.

Then when you want just make a thread on the forums called "How i walked for 84 hours around Chernarus to be killed while writing this shit!".

it will just ultimately be a useless feature that no one would ever use' date=' when focus on development could be else where.

[/quote']

damn right

[Strategos (DayZ) 190]

there are some drawbacks to this though.

1) no one is ever going to stop and read what is in anybody's journal, they only want to take your beans.

I would read them.

2)people will focus more on trying to survive/loot than take the actual time to write in such a journal

3) though people may try to use it, the fact that they will die, over and over again will make the novelty wear off.

I would write them.

4)i'm concerned this may be too "forgiving"? for lack or a better word, i believe no one should ever have any connection to their past lives. death should mean utter oblivian.

I don't think there should be a connection. the journal is on your corpse for people to read. A local copy saved for you to publish on forums etc.

5) that's what forums are for right? shouldn't you just write down your experiences there? achieves the same end result.

see above.

[Eric0965 0]

I'd totally write my own journal, that'd be awesome :D

+1 to this idea!

[Hobson (DayZ) 1]

Loving the enthusiasm for this idea (minor dissent notwithstanding), really speaks to what's so compelling about the mod; personal immersion. There's no rush, people are telling their stories online already, but finding them in game would eventually be extremely cool.

Game/web integration would be great, like voidsheep already linked to:

[wildleaf 3]

I'd really like to see this in game, but I don't think they should take up an inventory slot.

[_Profile_Shame 37]

would work awesomely with customized player skins, coming across someone that matched a murderer's description would be tense

[Cab.Bob 0]

Great Idea!

[cutzero 5]

Where is rockets post about this getting implemented? :(

[serastheslayer 1]

I'd love this to death. I won't play Minecraft multiplayer anymore evaluate I get a book mod and so I jot down character experiences in it. For Day Z? Amazing. I can imagine sitting by a campfire jotting down the day's experiences before day time.

Or even a player being killed mid sentence, which would be eerie.

[TsukasaKun 0]

I would start killing people just for their journals. xD

[blitzcloud 1]

Totally seeing the journals that would be like:

"You are a male genitalia for killing me"

[Mars (DayZ) 6]

I really dig this idea, is it even possible with the ArmA II engine?

It would be awesome!

"Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

If you found me dead,

they may kill you too."