Some Ideas for the Future

[TWhelan 2]

Hi all, I've still not managed to play the game yet (!!) but I have been following it for a couple of months and feel like I know quite a bit about the game already without playing.

Here are some ideas which I have thought of for the future versions, most likely the standalone version. I did use the search function before posting but I bet a few of these ideas have been talked about at some point so let me know if they have.

1. Maps. There should be more playable locations than just Chernarus. Obviously as the game develops there will be more new things to do that will keep players interested, but I think the game will need more varied locations in the long term. It would be really cool if you could choose from a few different locations (with different climate, things to find etc) before you start a character. Your character would then be able to move servers as normal, but if you wanted to play a new map you would have to start all over again with no gear. Think tropical paradise, rainforest, suburban USA...

2. Animals. Currently the only danger in rural areas is other players. It would make sense to me to have dangerous wild animals that could attack players, that way players can never feel completely safe even out in the wilderness. The animals would obviously be location specific if there were multiple maps.

3. Swimming. This isn't too much of an issue in Chernarus but the swimming needs to be fixed; in real life you wouldn't lose your gear if you went for a swim. If players chose to go swimming then any electronic items they have in their backpack would stop working for good. Other gear (e.g. ammunition) would stop working temporarily until the player had dried themselves out; this could be done using a fire. There could also be gear in the game to allow people to protect their stuff, such as a waterproof pouch for one or two items like the box of matches or even a waterproof backpack. This would allow players to travel around to harder to reach areas or make a last ditch attempt to save themselves but with a penalty of the loss of some gear.

4. Treasure. It would be awesome if there were treasure maps that if found would direct players to a secret location where there was some rare loot. An example would be a diary which detailed a location in the woods where a dying survivor had hidden his (unique) sniper rifle. The map could be an actual map or just simply coordinates pointing players to the treasure. The treasure locations would need to be random and therefore would change from server to server so that nobody could pinpoint all of the treasure locations and travel between servers to loot them.

5. Radio Station. If players found a radio, they would be able to listen to broadcasts detailing recent activity on the server e.g. warnings of bandits seen in an area up to 30 minutes ago, mass zombie attack at the NW Airfield etc. This would allow players to know areas to avoid. It could also be used for funny easter eggs (think agony aunt or Jeremy Kyle/Jerry Springer 'my best friend stole my last can of beans' type shows!).

6. Foraging. In addition to killing animals for meat, another way to get food in the wilderness would be to forage berries and other plants. These would not restore the food bar to green and would only be a quick solution to hunger. Some berries/plants could also be poisonous; a book could be found detailing the safe and unsafe plants to eat.

7. Survival Guides. Whilst I think some of the appeal of the game is that you are 'dropped in at the deep end' just like you would be in a real apocalypse, I think eventually the gap between experienced players and new ones will become too large and new players will end up dying over and over (which isn't too fun..). Expanding on the foraging book, survival guides could be found that explained concepts of the game, good buildings to look for, basic tips etc. These could also be in the form of advanced tactics if found in military spawns. This would allow players to learn more about the game without the need for so much trial and error. A further idea would be that there could be guides on making equipment, so if you found that guide and had collected all of the necessary parts you could make things such as explosives. This would add a knowledge system to the game where players who survived for longer would not only get better gear but would know how to do things that other players couldn't. Alternatively it could work so that players can only have one skill at a time to make sure there could be no 'overpowered' characters and also to encourage players to work in teams - one player can make explosives, one can heal players faster than normal etc.

8. Aborting. Players can only exit the server if: a.) There is no zombie aggro on them and b.) They have not been shot at (set radius around them where shots have landed) in the past minute. Seems pretty obvious to me but maybe it's hard to code..

9. Locked areas. Expanding on some peoples ideas about having lockable tents, what if certain buildings were locked and could only be opened with the correct equipment and skill trait? Players could use the lockpicking skill book to make lockpicks or wax keys and would then be able to open up previously inaccessable areas which contain high level loot. (Player storage should have combination locks and wouldn't be able to be opened by a lockpick).

10. Clan Badges. Players could choose to display a badge on their clothing with their clan tag; this would give groups a better sense of identity. Clan badges could be collected from dead bodies (only by the player that earned the murder) to add to group rivalry and to give players more 'bragging rights'.

[Jenga22 22]

hmmm, love everything you said, Animals will be added such as wolves, bears, swimming now in real life you wouldnt lose your gear but you wouldnt be able to swim due to wait you would sink, clan badges will be added in the future, Locked areas or secret areas will be added, treasure is the loot. the only thing i dont agree with is maps 1 map is enough if they changed the weather in certain areas of the map for example like skyrims map then that would be cool :D Heres some beans

[DZR_Mikhail 2424]

Hi all, I've still not managed to play the game yet (!!) but I have been following it for a couple of months and feel like I know quite a bit about the game already without playing.

Here are some ideas which I have thought of for the future versions, most likely the standalone version. I did use the search function before posting but I bet a few of these ideas have been talked about at some point so let me know if they have.

1. Maps. There should be more playable locations than just Chernarus. Obviously as the game develops there will be more new things to do that will keep players interested, but I think the game will need more varied locations in the long term. It would be really cool if you could choose from a few different locations (with different climate, things to find etc) before you start a character. Your character would then be able to move servers as normal, but if you wanted to play a new map you would have to start all over again with no gear. Think tropical paradise, rainforest, suburban USA...

2. Animals. Currently the only danger in rural areas is other players. It would make sense to me to have dangerous wild animals that could attack players, that way players can never feel completely safe even out in the wilderness. The animals would obviously be location specific if there were multiple maps.

3. Swimming. This isn't too much of an issue in Chernarus but the swimming needs to be fixed; in real life you wouldn't lose your gear if you went for a swim. If players chose to go swimming then any electronic items they have in their backpack would stop working for good. Other gear (e.g. ammunition) would stop working temporarily until the player had dried themselves out; this could be done using a fire. There could also be gear in the game to allow people to protect their stuff, such as a waterproof pouch for one or two items like the box of matches or even a waterproof backpack. This would allow players to travel around to harder to reach areas or make a last ditch attempt to save themselves but with a penalty of the loss of some gear.

4. Treasure. It would be awesome if there were treasure maps that if found would direct players to a secret location where there was some rare loot. An example would be a diary which detailed a location in the woods where a dying survivor had hidden his (unique) sniper rifle. The map could be an actual map or just simply coordinates pointing players to the treasure. The treasure locations would need to be random and therefore would change from server to server so that nobody could pinpoint all of the treasure locations and travel between servers to loot them.

5. Radio Station. If players found a radio, they would be able to listen to broadcasts detailing recent activity on the server e.g. warnings of bandits seen in an area up to 30 minutes ago, mass zombie attack at the NW Airfield etc. This would allow players to know areas to avoid. It could also be used for funny easter eggs (think agony aunt or Jeremy Kyle/Jerry Springer 'my best friend stole my last can of beans' type shows!).

6. Foraging. In addition to killing animals for meat, another way to get food in the wilderness would be to forage berries and other plants. These would not restore the food bar to green and would only be a quick solution to hunger. Some berries/plants could also be poisonous; a book could be found detailing the safe and unsafe plants to eat.

7. Survival Guides. Whilst I think some of the appeal of the game is that you are 'dropped in at the deep end' just like you would be in a real apocalypse, I think eventually the gap between experienced players and new ones will become too large and new players will end up dying over and over (which isn't too fun..). Expanding on the foraging book, survival guides could be found that explained concepts of the game, good buildings to look for, basic tips etc. These could also be in the form of advanced tactics if found in military spawns. This would allow players to learn more about the game without the need for so much trial and error. A further idea would be that there could be guides on making equipment, so if you found that guide and had collected all of the necessary parts you could make things such as explosives. This would add a knowledge system to the game where players who survived for longer would not only get better gear but would know how to do things that other players couldn't. Alternatively it could work so that players can only have one skill at a time to make sure there could be no 'overpowered' characters and also to encourage players to work in teams - one player can make explosives, one can heal players faster than normal etc.

8. Aborting. Players can only exit the server if: a.) There is no zombie aggro on them and b.) They have not been shot at (set radius around them where shots have landed) in the past minute. Seems pretty obvious to me but maybe it's hard to code..

9. Locked areas. Expanding on some peoples ideas about having lockable tents, what if certain buildings were locked and could only be opened with the correct equipment and skill trait? Players could use the lockpicking skill book to make lockpicks or wax keys and would then be able to open up previously inaccessable areas which contain high level loot. (Player storage should have combination locks and wouldn't be able to be opened by a lockpick).

10. Clan Badges. Players could choose to display a badge on their clothing with their clan tag; this would give groups a better sense of identity. Clan badges could be collected from dead bodies (only by the player that earned the murder) to add to group rivalry and to give players more 'bragging rights'.

my overquoting is delibereate to ease the navigation

1. Rocket haven't confirmed that, but he expressed some ideas that different maps will be possible when they will make the standalone game stable enough to address such things as new locations. He told that he can also improve Chernarus one day. He told that he wants to get use of powergrids and bring up electricity in the game. He thinks it's possible to recompile Chernarus and make all buildings enterable, as in Takistan and Aram3 now.
   
   
2. At Rezzed conference he answered exactly the same question. He told that now it's abit difficult and development team has much more important stuff to to. If you gonna make a wild bear in the woods, you must create model, create animations, tune configs, texture it… It's really a massive amount of work as for now. When, again, game is quite stable and pretty well done, they will address the additional content.
   
   
3. Loosing gear is fixed in recent beta patches. You just need to add a paramter to your server and your gear is safe. Sorry, beta patch log section is broken, can't find the exact parameter.
   
   
4. Nice, very interesting. It's like a crashsite but in two steps. Imagine going 20km using the treasure map and finding just another map of the next route to the real tresure? :)
   
   
5. "Rocket told" ™ That after taking out global chat he is gonna definitely add something to compensate this feature. He told the they have a version of DayZ where you can send real emails right from the game. He also told he likes the idea of radios or cell phones and will sure invent something to this concept. Let's wait for standalone stable DayZ ;)
   
   
6. Very interesting! I saw mushrooms many times too. Good idea, mate.
   
   
7. This is not needed ingame. You don't need the separate ingame mechanics to learn experience of other players. You need DayZmod.com/forum/ and Google. Enormous knowledge base is at your disposal. P.s. DayZ wiki is a good resource!
   
   
8. Currently game engine is not designed to handle this. You character, you player ingame is the actual representation of you connected client fact. Once game is killed\shut down or your connection is lost - your player disappears. So there's no native way to prevent a player from disconnecting. But in reverse, doing something after next login is pretty easy. Rocket is developing something very cool on that. Let's wait.
   
   
9. I guarantee there won't be any other skills\perks\traits in DayZ than the mechanics of the current game. Everyone will remain phusically and technically equal. But locked areas are planned. There will be underground instances in the standalone game. Players will be able to construct kilometers of underground tunnels and structures. Everyone who enters such instance will not be able to serverhop, because instances are one separate server. There will be also instruments and means to protect your underground vault with some security systems. No details on this all so far. Waiting the standalone game.
   
   
10. Group mechanics and clan stuff will be added, but again, no details on how it all be lloking in the visual aspect. I pray to make something to be able to differentiate one player from another. Now it's total twin show. Enemies ran inside your formation and noone can ever guess who is the enemy at this moment. Very ridiculous. In real life you have hundreds of minor detail on a man's outfit, gear, skin, haircut, face etc. even walking and weght to identify a member of your group or a friend from reasonable distance without mistake. But in DayZ, exactly vice versa.
    

Edited July 19, 2012 by -=PA=-Mikhail

[TWhelan 2]

Thanks for the replies, interesting to know some of these ideas have already been talked about by the developers. If I think of any more ideas I'll be sure to post them in the forums as I know they will get some good feedback.

[DZR_Mikhail 2424]

Sorry, beta patch log section is broken, can't find the exact parameter.

"enableItemsDropping = 0;"

Prevents gear to be lost when swimming.