Shit Really Gets Real...

[semipr0 402]

So reality, we want this to be a world wide zombie apocalypse.....heres some ideas on how to do it.

License the Google Maps/Google Earth API.

Cherry pick a 225 sKM area of every state in the United States and every country in Europe and Russia

Procedurally generate topographically accurate BSP terrain. Procedurally generate semi-accurate populate centers, roads, highways for that specifically chosen area.

Then all servers in a certain locale, say, all servers in Atlanta, are offering a localized map version that is somewhat geographically accurate for the servers actual location.

Think about it.

You reduce the amount of server hopping because not all servers will have loot spawns in the same places.

You create an interesting reason for people to change their server environment sometimes, just to see how surviving say....in the Denver area of the Rocky Mountains would be like.

With some forward thinking for the final product, you could effectively set up server zoning to the north/south/east/west of the server location. I could say...walk all the way north on a Texas server, cross a border and get transferred to the southern part of a map of an Oklahoma server, and so on and so forth, this would apply much the same to European and Russian servers as well.

So, with some time and thought, a player could literally "walk" across the face of an entire country, from one state location to the next, experiencing a world wide zombie apocalypse, rather than one that seems to be an apocalypse in a teacup.

Just a thought, the technology is there for it, and the GMaps/GEarth API can be wickedly useful for semi-accurate area reproduction.

Not only would DayZ be doing something fun....DayZ would be doing something no game has ever done. Represent the real world as accurately as possible within the confines of its server structure.

Edited July 16, 2012 by semipr0

[Ywain 16]

How American-centric.

Every state has its own map with its different layabouts while the whole of Russia is just one localized map?

Edited July 16, 2012 by Ywain

[Deviant (DayZ) 43]

You can buy VBS2 which has this in the game for a few thousand dollars.

Got a few thousand dollars for every person wanting to play dayz?

Also, most of the world isn't populated. This would also take a shit ton of time to do, and finding a way to do it would be costly.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Deviant

[chefwillis 33]

How American-centric.

Every state has its own map with its different layabouts while the whole of Russia is just one localized map?

This is hardly relevant. How European-centric of you to think of it as American-centric. All he said was states, and you jump on the opportunity to troll.

As for OP, the process of doing that is extremely difficult as far as I know and I very, very unlikely probability, though it would be great to see, it probably isn't possible.

[DemonGroover 8836]

There wouldnt be much to do in the centre of Australia. 50 Mad Max's killing each other for some sand and the odd kanagroo

[Ywain 16]

This is hardly relevant. How European-centric of you to think of it as American-centric. All he said was states, and you jump on the opportunity to troll.

As for OP, the process of doing that is extremely difficult as far as I know and I very, very unlikely probability, though it would be great to see, it probably isn't possible.

Yes it is.

Russia is bigger than the US.

Why is Russia one localized map while every American state has a localized map? It's silly. Not going to happen. Rocket isn't a conceited American.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Ywain

[semipr0 402]

I think you mistook my language. What I mean is the localized map for each server is topographically accurate to the region its in. I am well aware that "Russia" is not one BIG region, there are multiple states there, so there would be multiple maps.

And far as it being difficult, its not as difficult as it would have been five years ago. Procedurally accurate generation from accurate parameters can be a fairly automatic process, as DayZ is working with a static set of buildings (currently) and all loot types are tied to those buildings, even automating mesh placement along population centers is not that hard, then simply adjusting your civ/ind/mil percentages is also something that could be automatically done within a design suite.

Then the human work of going in and making adjustments to the population centers to ensure for clear play flow and no mesh collisions takes far less time.

Trees get painted onto a map in Arma, not planted one tree at a time. And if you have a suite which allows you to build a map by hand, anyone with enough time on their hands can design an advanced script extension for the design suite that auto populates a map with the appropriate static meshes for civilized areas simply by adding another "brush" to the map suite where you can paint in zoning types around the roads and have the buildings automatically place themselves.

Stuff like this would have been impossible five years ago, its not impossible now.

[semipr0 402]

Yes it is.

Russia is bigger than the US.

Why is Russia one localized map while every American state has a localized map? It's silly. Not going to happen. Rocket isn't a conceited American.

Please pay attention:

I think you mistook my language. What I mean is the localized map for each server is topographically accurate to the region its in. I am well aware that "Russia" is not one BIG region, there are multiple states there, so there would be multiple maps.

[Ywain 16]

Actually, Russia is made up of different republics, provinces, districts, and territories. There are no such things as states, and it's pretty silly of you to want to impose the idea of states onto Russian servers.

[Adrian4814 3]

You're suggesting something that is currently way out of the dayz developers hands. This is something that they just couldn't achieve with the current engine and server-system.

[semipr0 402]

Actually, Russia is made up of different republics, provinces, districts, and territories. There are no such things as states, and it's pretty silly of you to want to impose the idea of states onto Russian servers.

Dude will you just fucking relax? I was in the Navy for 20 years I am well aware the "World" isn't "America". Russia is made up of several republics, districts and territories, when I used the term "state" I simply ment it as a descriptive term to describe the fact that there are lots of places in Russia and its not just one big wild commie empire. Christ, lighten up for fucks sake.

And Adrian it may be out of Rocket's hands ALONE but I don't think a concept like this will stay in a small design team's hands for long. There will be the technology available, there will be the people available to make it work. Its only a matter of time.

[Ywain 16]

Dude will you just fucking relax? I was in the Navy for 20 years I am well aware the "World" isn't "America". Russia is made up of several republics, districts and territories, when I used the term "state" I simply ment it as a descriptive term to describe the fact that there are lots of places in Russia and its not just one big wild commie empire. Christ, lighten up for fucks sake.

Well, first off, your country is the United States of America. It's pretty arrogant of yourself to assume that your one country encompasses all of America, when there are two different continents with multiple countries on each. Secondly, you're showing off your oppressive tendancies by trying to push your religious beliefs on me. I do not believe in your Christ. Please stop trying to convert me.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Ywain

[East Clintwood 30]

Rocket isn't a conceited American.

Racial stereotype much?

[semipr0 402]

Well, first off, your country is the United States of America. It's pretty arrogant of yourself to assume that your one country encompasses all of America, when there are two different continents with multiple countries on each. Secondly, you're showing off your oppressive tendancies by trying to push your religious beliefs on me. I do not believe in your Christ. Please stop trying to convert me.

Ahh okay, you're a troll, not an insulted Russian. Never mind.

[NeonSaber 0]

Well, first off, your country is the United States of America. It's pretty arrogant of yourself to assume that your one country encompasses all of America, when there are two different continents with multiple countries on each. Secondly, you're showing off your oppressive tendancies by trying to push your religious beliefs on me. I do not believe in your Christ. Please stop trying to convert me.

Obvious Troll is obvious.

On-topic, I think each server having a map for the area the server is based in is a cool idea, although I have no idea how complex/difficult that would be to do, it still sounds interesting.

[Quaby 93]

Yes it is.

Russia is bigger than the US.

Why is Russia one localized map while every American state has a localized map? It's silly. Not going to happen. Rocket isn't a conceited American.

Because the majority of Russia's area is a frozen hellhole, and the rest is just basically taiga. Diversity.

[Stoop_Kid 2]

First: Let's all just ignore the trolls.

Secondly: While this is incredibly interesting, the undertaking of this would be god-damn IMMENSE. My first suggestion is: completely scrap the idea of "walking" all the way across the country; maybe "way-points" on the map (similar to the Fallout series DLC travel points) so you could potentially move between areas. But definitely cut out all the boring/useless countryside in between population densities. Now, with that in mind, making the maps region-specific would add a layer of immersion to the game, but the only possible implementation I see is to have volunteer teams in the community create these maps. Then, once they're done and declared close-enough to the real-world map, turn the terrains over to the dev team to get spawn points (removes any map-creator advantages). The issue then becomes how you'd manage to store and run these varied maps. Each player would have to be responsible for the upkeep of their library of maps in order to use these terrains.

tl;dr - it's a decent fantasy, but, even with the modern methods of map-creating, would take years to complete and an additional large sum of money to implement.

[thorgold 91]

I agree with Stoop_Kid. It's an incredibly interesting idea, and possibly an undertaking that could be made when DayZ is in full release, but a project of this size would be beyond the scale of even an alpha. This suggestion would basically be the addition of no less than 100 new maps to DayZ. While your estimates on the ease of procedurally generating these maps are correct given our current tech, you underestimate the time it would take to fine-tune the maps.

What 225km area are we snapshotting for, say, New York? Will it be the rural Appalachians, the suburbs, or Greater Manhattan? How do we balance a California server with an Alaskan server, given the difference in population/zombies and buildings/loot? How do we make sure that players living in Australia don't only have desert, empty maps under 250ms ping? While the servers would be different in their appearance and possibly playstyle, there would have to be hundreds of hours spent assuring that no one region of the playerbase had an advantage or disadvantage due to their server's map having different conditions.

Map making is more than rendering a landscape and loot spawns. Player dynamics must be called into play - where will players congregate? Will the entire map be used or will everyone stay in one corner? As well as limitations with the game itself; could a server support a Los Angeles server, with all its buildings and zombies? Can we make a playable map out of an Australian desert?

Stoop put it perfectly: It's a decent fantasy, and very much within technological capability, but making a usable product would take years and hundreds of man hours to complete.

[Maplemayhem 5]

Well, first off, your country is the United States of America. It's pretty arrogant of yourself to assume that your one country encompasses all of America, when there are two different continents with multiple countries on each. Secondly, you're showing off your oppressive tendancies by trying to push your religious beliefs on me. I do not believe in your Christ. Please stop trying to convert me.

Troll.

I like the idea, OP. Would be pretty cool to do such a thing.