Suggestions for the DayZ standalone - thinking outside of the limitations of an Arma 2 mod.

[indominator 95]

chemical weapons, radiation, used to kill others players or just totally wipe out cherno, with the noobs inside, mwahahahahaha

[CrazyJim 0]

I hate to be the guy to shut it down and critisise but the medical system here will complicate things to much and make the game too hard for unskilled starting players. The game would need a significantly important rewards system in order to actually balance this out and make the game appealing to new players. I'm all for realism but it can go over the top.

...

And yes. I`m after that. The game should be as complex as possible (gives player many possibilities to act, many opportunities to take his time) and less complicated as possible (simple solutions). Let it be no Theme Hospital or Transport Tycoon, but rather DayZ a survival game.

[A.Williams 17]

Archery/long bows. Hunting knife that can be used as secondary weapon

Air guns for hunting and .22 caliber guns in the game eg .22 long and short revolver and single shot and bolt/semi-auto .22LR would be good because the amo is small ammo and items should have inventory in litres like rucksacks should because a hatchet is bigger than a can of pop

[Bruin (DayZ) 5]

Only a small suggestion but one I think could add a bit more realism to the game, different footwear... So instead of clumping around everywhere in big military style boots you spawn with maybe you could loot a store and get a pair of trainers which would also be quieter when moving around.

[Bombolz (DayZ) 23]

Sorry if this was mentioned, and it is a small suggestion, but I think it would be great if your character could just drink straight from the pond, and also be able to collect water when its raining.

[Nickò90 1]

There's just something I thought of lately.. I read it over and the only thing it said about "bases" were advanced/underground or ontop. I just see a massive potential on this area, and here's why.

Imagine how difficult it is to actually survive on your own, nearly impossible. Food should be made more rare to come by, more impossible? why? Cause if it is one thing I've realized with day z is that realism with severe consequences "starting from scratch upon death" etc really makes the game so much more interesting and rewarding.

Thing is, the more realism the better. I think players should have a bigger map, and we should be able to build houses for ourselves, build farms, build fences, basically we should be able to build towns of the size we ourself decide on. each town would have to decide on how they would survive, are they gonna farm their own food, make their own resources, a safe heaven for "good" survivors to come join or will they persue the raiders philosophy and attack other people and towns for their resources and supplies. Maybe the raider towns will send spies in first to check how a towns defenses are "imagine the chatter on skype, the priority to make this a secret from the whole community" etc

I also think there should be difference in diffuculty like you've said already. Small towns are easier and less dangerous to loot then cities .. cities are fairly easy to loot still. What I have in mind is an actual giant city with tons of supplies for everyone, but damn near impossible to get without dying. A city where those who go in either gotta be a small group with light feet and silenced firearms and a variety of different routes they can take that goes through rooftops and backalleys where there are less zombies "which route has less zombies would obviously have to be pretty random, your halfway through the route on the way to you destination when you suddenly realize what thought to be safe backalley is now filled with zombies and the way back has been shut off by zombies aswell. How will you and your group get out?

I have tons of ideas that I can keep going on about all day, I'll prob calm down and try and write a more organized lists including what and why.. how you'll have to answer yourself cause I'm no programmer unfortunately.

One last thing.. I think the consequences of dying/getting killed should be more severe. Like a 3hour cooldown or something before you can play again:) maybe even 24hours. People would get to be the true assholes they'd like to be by killing of people, the fellas who grew up on comics will get to act as the hero's they looked up to by risking their characters valuable life for saving someone.

The realistic virtual world every zombielover has been craving for is in your hands, recognize it! :D

[Grayswandir 4]

Thing is, the more realism the better.

Some people think that this game would be boring and annoying if more realism and complexity is implemented.

But I agree with you because this isn't a classical mmo game. You don't have missions, you don't "Level Up" (thus making permadeath a very appealing concept), there are no instances, levels, you don't fight bosses for big rewards... the game certainly isn't eye candy like most modern games... but it is extremely immersive and complex (ArmA 2 in general) and building on that basis is a pretty good idea as far as I'm concerned...

One last thing.. I think the consequences of dying/getting killed should be more severe. Like a 3hour cooldown or something before you can play again:) maybe even 24hours.

Just when I thought you've got my beans... i disagree with this.

Maybe a 5-10 minute cooldown, but anything more than that is to extreme... Would you really pay for a game that doesn't let you play for hours once you die? Some people have airtight schedules and may not have more than an hour or two of playtime per day :unsure:

[indominator 95]

from some other threads, being able so set up a radio station, not a big one, but a small pirate one, so i could play jazz and ebm all day, lol gabor bolla rulles!!!!!

[ben.jordan1@ntlworld.com 0]

Controls/Interface

Please! For the sake of my middle finger, give us an auto-run button.

More configurable buttons specifically for multi-button mice would be great.

Better grenade throwing indicator. A power bar or something to indicate how far you are throwing an object. I seem to either throw cans, bottles etc 5’ or 200’ never a happy medium.

Different Zeds

NVZ or the night vision zeds. A rare or very rare strain of zed whose eyes glow green at night and who can see in the dark just as well as normal zeds can in the day. Shouldn’t be so common as to completely negate the benefit of players using the night to raid areas/move around. Can be identified by his luminous green eyes.

Sprinter Zeds. A rare breed of Zed that can run faster than a player with an attack animation that doesn’t stop them moving. It doesn’t do as much damage as a normal zombie hit but should be enough to force a player to deal with the threat as opposed to just legging it. These can be identified by their Adidas/Nike/Puma/whatever tracksuits.

The survivor zed. A very rare breed of zombie created when a survivor doesn’t quite… survive. They have slightly more loot than normal zeds and a chance of having military gear. They also have the ability to shoot their guns but their accuracy is terrible, however, the side effect is that the shots alert nearby zeds who come running over. Survivor zeds also have some latent memories and can often be seen crouching near bushes and walls or crawling along the ground. To the distant observer they could be mistaken for a live survivor.

Zed Spawning

Someone else has mentioned it earlier but at the moment zombie spawns indicate players are present in an area. There should be times when no zombies spawn as players approach/explore a location. Zombies may spawn after a random period of time if players are still in the location but that would depend on loot quality - higher the quality of loot the greater the chance and higher the number of zombies spawning. This will add a) an element of uncertainty as seeing no zombies in a town is now not confirmation there aren’t any players there B) an element of tension as you might only have a short amount of time before a sh*t load of zombies turn up.

Animations

Don’t have a stationary animation for weapon switching. I should be able to shoulder a rifle and draw a pistol, or vice versa, and run at the same time. It might slow you down somewhat but you shouldn’t stand still. Of course, dipping into your backpack makes you stationary and crouched.

Military loot & loot spawns in general

Military gear in general should be less common at the camps/bases but to compensate there should be chances to find gear elsewhere such as in wrecked jeeps, on dead soldiers etc.

The best military gear shouldn’t spawn in the same place all the time. This encourages server hopping and, what is arguably, the lowest form of PvP – the griefer sniper who camps these places with the sole aim of killing people for no material gain i.e. not to rob them but just to feck up their day.

The best gear should be rare as rocking horse sh*t but there should be a chance to find it anywhere there is/was a military presence.

Wearing a ghillie suit restricts the amount of gear that can be carried e.g. you have to stow your backpack somewhere. Alternatively, make the backpack visible while wearing a ghillie.

Give NVGs a battery life to balance their night time awesomeness.

Additional loot items

Different camouflage suit patterns e.g. urban, desert etc dependent on setting environment.

Camo face paint

Camo netting for vehicles

Radios

Spray paint to camo up your bright red Skoda in a variety of camo paint schemes e.g. desert, artic etc.

More pockets for loot/ammo from additional vests/webbing

Small flashlight that can be taped to any long barrelled gun

Electrical tape for the small flashlight

Deployable claymores and mines

Petrol bombs and other IEDs made from other loot items e.g. fertilizer in farms

Batteries (for NVGs and flashlights)

More junk items, clothing, coal, gas bottles, baby food, bedding etc that might be useful for civilian survivors i.e. those people who aren’t prowling the woods with AK-74s (see "End game" later).

Shocked!

The longer you’ve survived the more resistant you become to getting "shocked" by zombie attacks.

When in shock your stealth indicators fluctuate to represent making a mistake while panicked e.g. stepping on a twig, not checking those corners sufficiently etc.

Random encounters/events

As others have mentioned already some random events to break up the routine.

A wandering NPC survivor needs help looking for his family so you escort him a specific coordinates. Or just shoot him in the face if that’s your bag.

Your radio picks up a signal from X, Y or Z giving a grid reference to a crashed heli, camp swamped by zeds or whatever so starting a treasure hunt. Message is broadcast to all players within a certain range so you might not be the only survivor heading there.

A dying NPC asks for you to kill him (humanity loss) before he turns Zed but asks you to carry his body back to his home where he left his family (humanity gain).

A small outpost of NPC survivors or bandits who will barter gear. If approached by someone of the opposite persuasion e.g. a bandit approaches a survivor camp they will be warned off or shot at.

Tents and vehicles

Limit them to one per person per server to stop the mass camp sites, loot hoarding, garage forecourts going on. Increase tent storage capacity slightly to compensate, or have bigger tents available. Other tents can be picked up and used but the contents will not be saved.

To change your vehicle you "release" it and then select another and save it to your character.

Customisable vehicles so players can add armour plating, spikes/blades, guns e.g. pick-up trucks with .50 cals on the back, bullet proof tyres/glass etc.

Group mechanics - Squads/Platoons/Groups/Coalitions

Squad are for 2-5 players including one who is designated leader. Platoon is made up of 2-3 squads with one overall leader. Squads and platoons are temporary and usually last for a session of play.

Everyone in a squad or platoon can see the WP set by the leader, plus markers set by everyone else in the squad/platoon on their maps.

Members of a squad or platoon, if made up of people from different groups, can wear a coloured armband to make identifying each other easier. Or you can just frantically lean left and right while someone in your squad screams "Is that you Derrick? Kneeling by that bush? IS THAT YOU?!?!?" <Rat-a-tat-tat!!>.

A Group is a permanent organisation much like guilds or clans in other games. Being part of these grants access to some group related benefits (see "End Game" below). Each group picks a unique military style arm patch which all members sport on their player model’s arm.

A Coalition is a number of Groups formed to enable closer cooperation. It doesn’t confer any protection from friendly fire from others within the group/coalition. Members of a Coalition have coloured patches on their backpacks to help identify them. Ghillie’d players take their chances of FF you ninja bastards you.

Friendly fire is still possible in all situations and may even be intentional if a spy has infiltrated a Group to facilitate access to a claimed area (see "End game" below).

Map

Map markers and WPs should not be visible to other players unless in the same group/platoon.

Can we drag a border around a section of the map which is then "folded" so it can be on the same screen as the first/third person view in a similar way to GPS, watches, compasses etc.

People in the same squad/platoon/group equipped with GPS can see each others’ positions on the map.

Better lighting or more ambient light – I’ve read that darkness isn’t as crippling in Arma3 so this might be a moot point

Allow military flashlights to be attached to the body so they don’t need to be held in hand or in the secondary weapon slot. They light up in the direction the body is pointing.

Towns and villages have generators that require fuel to power lights in the area. This provides a faint ambient light out to a larger area and the glow can be seen from a distance.

Some guns already have an inbuilt flashlight but there should be the possibility of taping a small flashlight to a suitable gun.

Food/Drink (more detailed/convoluted food system)

Change the way food and drink work. Call it calories and fluids. You start at 100% and each element slowly empties over the course of 24 hours. When it reaches 0% you begin to starve. Each food/drink item restores a percentage of the pool and potentially the amount restored could vary e.g. beans restore 10%, cooked meat 20%, soda 10%, canteen of water 20%.

A side effect of reduced calories/fluids is not being able to run as fast, increased chance of passing out from low blood, catching colds, being knocked out. Say for each 10% lost from fluids or calories you lose 1% speed and increased negative effects probability by 1%. Therefore, if you’re nearly starving/dehydrated (10% left in both) you’ll be 18% slower and more prone to negative effects.

When actually starving you don’t bleed but vision gets blurred, sprinting is impossible and you get intermittent shaking, If after another 24 hours and no food/drink has been consumed then bleeding starts until dead.

Grass cover while prone

Grass cover is meaningless at medium to long range distances because it isn’t rendered. Wearing a ghillie confers no benefit beyond short range as there’s no grass cover to blend in with. Either make survivors harder to spot at longer distances when prone (make them opaque perhaps?) or hard set the grass rendering to about 2km. No idea if that’s going to make graphics card around the world cry out in pain though.

[ben.jordan1@ntlworld.com 0]

End game – Claiming Areas (or how to make looting mean something once you’ve got all the shit you need)

Base building has been mooted but why not instead have a mechanic whereby towns/villages already in game are utilised and "claimed" and converted? Please note that I originally wrote this in a very chaotic way and have tried to neaten it up.

I have tried to think of a coherent system that fits in the context of the game that provides an ongoing objective for the majority of players. It does marginalise lone wolf players but there should be enough freedom and loot spawns outside of claimable towns to make that play style still viable. Smaller groups of players won’t be able to take over large area unless they join forces with other groups to achieve a common goal but then that is realistic.

While I wrote this as an end to end system individual elements can be taken from it and used e.g. the exchange of "junk" loot for cash to exchange for gear you do want.

Feel free to be critical of this idea, highlight any potential exploits I’ve not considered, but be objective about it and provide some alternative suggestions if you want.

Overview

• Each town has a central building – church, town hall etc where Group leader(s) can claim or release control over the town.
  
• This central building also acts as a bank to convert looted items into, for want of a better term, "cash". This cash isn’t physical money but represents the total gathered resources of food/water, clothing, weapons, tools, parts and is essentially an abstracted barter system which, in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, is what society would be reduced to.
  
• This cash is used to convert buildings to specific purposes and pay for NPC guards (more details below) while a portion goes to contributing players.
  
• Members of the claiming Group are all automatically given access to the town and its converted buildings.
  
• Alternatively, towns can be declared as Survivor, Bandit or Independent towns.
  
• If NPC guards are present players without permission to access the town will be warned and/or shot at. Stealth can be used to infiltrate a town.
  
• Assaults, both stealthy and not-so-stealthy are possible. The objective could be to deny a rival Group access to a converted building via sabotage, to take over the town or steal loot.
  
• Cities can be taken over but they are split into zones to break up the task of taking these large areas into more manageable chunks (see below for more info).
  
• Loot related missions can be picked up from towns or issued by radio to players out in the field.
  

Claiming/Relinquishing a claimed area (for ease of reference all claimed areas are described as towns)

• The first step to claiming a town is to clear it of zeds. To do this the Group leader goes to the central point and rings the bell, activates a loud speaker or whatever. This attracts a wave of zombies from all over the area to the building where they can be killed. Depending on the size and value of the area being claimed the number of zeds that respond, and the number of waves they come in, can vary.
  
• To prevent exploitation and griefing e.g. players activating the bell without any intention to place a claim, the player activating the bell is frozen in place for several seconds to simulate them physically having to ring the bell. A delay in the character logging out would stop Alt+F4 gimps too.
  
• The bell might need to be rung more than once until no more zombies respond. A sweep of the town must then be done to kill any remaining zeds. A message is displayed to notify players once the town is clear. This starts a short grace period to allow a Group to begin claiming the town. If no claim is made by the time this grace period is up then zeds spawn normally and the whole process must begin again.
  
• Once a town is cleared of zeds then it can be "claimed" by a Group leader by again ringing the bell or activating the loud speaker one final time. Once claimed zombies will not spawn again while at least two survivors are within 50 meters of the central building or while NPC guards are spawned (see below).
  
• Groups can claim more than one town, however, the cost to maintain a NPC guard presence in each will eventually become too restrictive.
  
• A Group’s claim on a town can be voluntarily relinquished by visiting the central building and releasing control. This must be done by the Group leader and at least one other subordinate. Once control has been released any surplus cash is lost, any converted buildings revert back to normal, any defences will be removed and, after 1 hour, any spawned NPC guards will de-spawn. After that time zombies will begin to spawn as normal.
  
• Claimed areas are identifiable by visual indicators e.g. flags with the claiming Group’s emblem or a red cross banner on a roof for example.
  
• Survivor and bandit towns require the respective humanity level to enter freely while independent towns will allow anyone in.
  

Cash

• The central building acts as the hub for the town and also the bank. In a claimed town, looted items are brought by members of the controlling Group to the bank and exchanged for cash. A tax is paid on this cash with a variable percentage being given to the communal pool, the rest goes to the member. This isn’t physical cash and isn’t carried around so can’t be looted. As mentioned above, this cash is a representation of goodwill or a bartering system, your efforts in providing resources are appreciated and that goodwill is represented as this cash figure.
  
• Cash value for looted items could be variable depending on supply/demand e.g. bring in a lot of ammo and weapons and their value will go down while food/drink goes up and also on rarity e.g. AS50 is worth more than a Lee Enfield. However, in a post-apocalyptic world it should not be inconceivable for a tin of beans to be worth more than a gun if the situation is dire enough.
  
• Players should not be able to artificially inflate the price they receive for an item too much by purposefully hording one type of item e.g. players shouldn’t benefit significantly by holding back exchanging food in order to "starve" the population to pay more for their beans. Instead, the price should rise to a certain point then stop after which point the price paid for other items not deemed priority will fall until next to worthless.
  
• With the addition of "junk" items e.g. clothing, bedding, coal, gas bottles etc these could also be exchanged.
  
• The "cash" carried by a player who is killed resets to zero even though the player themselves will still be part of the Group and therefore have access again to the town. There is nothing stopping another group member from gearing the newly spawned player up if they’ve got the cash to spend.
  

Converting buildings

• The communal cash pool can be spent on converting buildings in the town to a specific function.
  
• Some converted buildings act like shops and, for the right price, almost anything can be bought while others provide other benefits. Possible buildings include:
  
  • First aid station – sells medical supplies.
    
  • Garage – sells vehicle spare parts.
    
  • Armoury – sells weapons and ammo including, for the right price, military hardware.
    
  • Canteen – sells food, sodas and water bottles.
    
  • Workshop – sells deployable defences like barbed wire, tank traps, sandbags etc. These items are also available from the central building using communal cash as they are generally bought to protect the community as a whole.
    
  • General goods – sells tool belt items, binoculars and batteries etc.
    
  • School/Prison – raises/lowers humanity gradually for those in the town.
    
  • Strong point – a building with sandbags, wire perimeter and MG positions.
    
  • Generator – a petrol generator that supplies energy for lighting in the town enabling easier spotting at night.
    
  • Tailor – sells various camo outfits (urban/forest/desert etc), ghillie suits, backpacks, webbing/combat vests etc.
    
  • Store room – a place for surplus gear to be kept and shared by Group members or stolen by people infiltrating the town.
    
  • Radio room – enables communication between Group members equipped with radios and the town (to enable orders to be issued to guards, quests to be received etc). Radios could use a specific frequency which can be eavesdropped on by rival groups.
    

  [*]Some of these buildings could require prerequisite loot to be found e.g. the radio room might require radio equipment to be looted from a military base for example.

  [*]Not every building in a town can be converted to a special role as in reality some would need to be kept for everyday civilian use.

  [*]Group members can spend their portion of cash in the buildings/shops. Again the rarity of the items will influence the price.

  [*]All spawn locations within a claimed area stop spawning and instead add cash automatically to the communal pool. The quality of the original spawns will determine the amount of cash generated e.g. a general store in the town will generate X cash per spawn cycle while a fire house will generate Y cash per spawn cycle.

Guards

• Once the central bank has some cash in it, it is possible to "pay" for NPC guards to spawn.
  
• The Group leader determines how many guards will spawn.
  
• Each guard will cost cash per hour. Cash is taken from the communal pool. This represents their drain on the pool in terms of water, food, ammo etc.
  
• There are several different load out options for the guards starting off with basic gear e.g. Winchester/Makarov plus flares all the way up to high end military gear with NVGs. However, the better the gear the greater the cost to maintain.
  
• Guards, if equipped with radios, will call out locations of visible unknown players (i.e. those not allowed access) when spotted. This will be heard by any Group members who also carry radios. This could be a mechanic for alerting online players to an attack on their town.
  
• Should the cash in a communal pool run out then guards immediately start to despawn. This can lead to the town reverting back to an unclaimed state and for zombies to begin spawning again unless players are present to prevent this (see above).
  
• NPC guard accuracy and damage should be inline with the single player game i.e. a guard armed with a Lee Enfield shouldn’t be able one shot kill a player otherwise death would become too common and so trivialise it.
  
• NPC guards also wear the Group’s emblem patch on their arm.
  
• By default they will guard roads into the town but rudimentary orders can be given such as guard a specific location or patrol X, Y or Z area. Also, alert level can be issued which, if there’s enough cash available, can increase temporarily the number of guards on duty. Useful if you suspect attack by another group.
  
• The Group leader or subordinates can issue orders via radio if guards are equipped with them.
  

Cities

• Due to their large size, cities are broken down into zones.
  
• Each zone acts like a single town and so has a central building where loot is exchanged and buildings that can be converted.
  
• Other zones can be claimed by the same group only if they are adjacent to the first zone. When two adjacent zones are claimed by the same group they create a chain.
  
• Opposing groups can break a chain of zones. If this means that some zones are no longer attached to the original one then they immediately start to be relinquished (see above).
  
• The cost of NPC guards in a city zone is increased to reflect the constant ammo usage used to ward off wandering zombies from unclaimed parts of the city.
  

Special Events

• The town may from time to time require specific tasks to be completed. These could include
  
  • Finding specific loot items e.g. petrol, water, bedding, baby food etc.
    
  • Tracking down a lost NPC survivor/civilian and escort them back.
    
  • Find and repair a vehicle and return it.
    
  • Defending the town from an approaching zombie herd.
    

  [*]Some events could have time limits attached to crank up the pressure.

  [*]Failing an important quest could result in loss of goodwill and therefore cash both communal and personal. This could have interesting ramifications if the loss of cash resulted in being unable to afford to pay the guards to prevent zeds from spawning.

  [*]Rewards could be items or cash.

  [*]Quests can be communicated to players via radios.

What does it add?

• Assuming changes to military loot spawns are made (less concentrated spawns locations and lower frequency) then this should be an equally viable alternative way for people to get access to that high end gear without forcing people to go to a specific place where the campers wait.
  
• The loot mechanic gives an ongoing objective to players with a claimed town and makes every piece of loot a valuable commodity. That AK-74 might take up 10 spaces in a backpack but are 10 cans of beans worth more to my town?
  
• It also encourages exploration as any building could be home to a particularly valued item.
  
• The drive to loot will inevitably force Groups, particularly those with larger towns to look after, towards areas with a high number of loot spawns. If there are several such areas then there is greater unpredictability to the chances of PvP than there are now where groups head to Stary and NWAF because they know these are high traffic areas for players.
  
• With the addition of radios and messages, events or quests sent via them, these provide a means to inject a change of pace or direction. One minute your group could be sneaking into a town the next a message comes through that the town urgently need some first aid supplies in the next 20 minutes and so a mad rush ensues as you search frantically for the supplies and run back to town. Such situations can raise interesting moral dilemmas – do I let my town down by ignoring their pleas and potentially lose the town or go out of my way to help it?
  

Considerations

• Obviously, a claimed town will be server specific and not persistent just like vehicles and tents. This then raises questions about how players manage and defend their towns if a group can’t get on to the server because it is very popular and consistently full. The NPC guard idea attempts to at least provide some degree of offline protection. Similarly, how would someone who logs out in an unclaimed town then hops to another server where the town is claimed be addressed?
  

Edited September 23, 2012 by Body Count

[ruarz 739]

All the code in the original post seems to have died, can someone kindly explain how this happened and how to fix it?

Okay and we're all good again :)

Edited September 23, 2012 by ruarz

[rknrll@hotmail.com 0]

First post, played only for a bit, but I do have some suggestions.

Equipment:

There should be more ways to start a fire, aside from a box of matches. Lighters, Flint & Steel, even using materials such as rubbing two sticks should be availible. Of course, the matches, and lighters (both disposable Bic and Zippo style would be a consumable resource. Flint & Steel would be a coveted item, that lasts a long time, Zippos should have some lighter fluid, and using two sticks to rub on each other should have a high fail % rate.

In Chernaus, there is a lot of water, but no fishing rods. The fail % system could depend on what your using as bait. Nothing - higher % rate. Lure - medium % rate, Live Bait - Lower Fail % rate.

Lures (perhaps tin cans because fish are attracted to shiny objects, or finding rubber worms in stores, tackle boxes, etc.)

Live bait can be used in the form of raw meat that you've shot. It would be another way to collect food without relying on beans all the time. Include smaller snacks such as candy bars, and crackers. MRE's would be a coveted item that would restore your food rate to full health at any level.

Unless drinking out of a water bottle, soda can or purified water source, there should be water purification tablets to put in your canteens to clean unpurified water (you can also boil water over a fire if you have a pot of some kind to get the same effect, but takes longer) Perhaps the penalty for drinking unpurified water would be a restoration of your thirst meter, but loss of blood.

I would like to see more civillian weapons in game. .22 Caliber Rifle & Pistol (low damage, short range, but high capacity, and one shots Zombies in the head), with suppression capability. Maybe that should be an easier rifle to find in Perhaps a plain 3x .308 bolt action hunting rifle, like a remington 700 . Maybe a semi-auto AR-15/AK WASR-10 civillian rifle whose ammo compatible with an M16/M4 - AK47 if you find one someday. A Lee Enfield was a nice touch, but a Mosin Nagant takes the kind of ammo a SVD, PKM, SV98 does (7.62X54R). Would be a nice addition.

More shotguns would be better, maybe a single shot shotgun, double barrel, 870 Remington, Saiga 12, and perhaps an automatic shotgun as a rare find.

You should also be able to remove equipment such as suppressors and scopes, depending on the situation you are in. Instead of finding a suppressor already attached to a rifle, you have to find them seperately, and they should be extremely rare.

Improvised shelters would be a nice addition, instead of having just tents.

For medical purposes, spints would be a good idea if you break your leg, arm, etc. Medics should have a choice of CPR (low success rate), or administer Atropine (higher succes rate) on a person that just died. Say for example, someone has just killed you. You can choose to respawn, or if you have a buddy trying to rescue you, you have a three minute time limit to see if someone will attempt to revive you.

I also like the idea of more clothing in the game, that wears out eventually. The lower pct % of your clothing health, the more susceptible you are to temperature drop. Maybe you can skin deer to wear deer skin, *shrugs*

All I can think of for now.

[roops 2]

First of all: thank you, ruarz for this thread! :]

Secondly, I've noticed that you're contructing a new section, "weapon wishlist" and I really want to add, in case that you didn't already thought of it yourself, the VSS Vintorez to the sniperrifles-list because it fits perfectly into the scheme of weapons you mentioned, plus (this is just my view on it) it is really cool looking and it is a short to mid range sniperrifle that has a silencer attached to it! If rocket and his team will implement the VSS into the standalone I'd try, from day one onward, to find it! xD

€: Just thought of another "feature": Loot, like magazines, matches, jerry cans, pretty much everything that yields some quantity of another object should spawn with a random number of said objects in it and those objects might also lie on a shelf or something else just by themselves, without the covering magazine for example in very few numbers. It would be a simple feature, yet it would make it alot more realistic plus if you were to find a full magazine, you would value that find way more! This applies mostly to random loot-spots, it should be more likely to find full magazines in military structures, a full box of matches in a supermarket or a hardware-store etc.. :]

Cheers, Beck

Edited September 23, 2012 by Beckmonster

[Raptorattack 3]

They should include dangerous animals in the forest. I feel the forest is too safe. Include Wolves, Bears, Tigers, and have boars be actually dangerous. There should be a pack of wolves that roams the map and is more active at night. There should also be a few individual wolves that won't attack you if you are in a group. There should maybe be about 10 bears for the entire map that mind their own business unless you surprise it or attack it at this point It then charges and attacks you. There should be a 1 tiger that will follow groups and pick them off one by one. The wolves should do the same thing at night. The dangerous animals should be sparse. So as not to make the forest too dangerous and making it more realistic.

They should also include more non dangerous animals like deer. Where you actually have to hunt them and they travel in herds. If you are too loud they run off.

[darkfire4 2]

Weapon fixes/adjustments

M107/AS50 Adjustment

as much as every one loves using these two guns they are extreemly OP (thats why everyone loves to use them) i thought that since they are both one shot kills they should be nerfed, however that would take the only two anti-vehicle rifles out of the game. then i thought of this, get rid of hold right mouse button for extra zoom on all sniper rifles exept on the 107 and AS50, however rid the 107 and AS50 of the zeroing feature so the shooter has to more accuratly calculate the shot since all he has to do is hit the target, instead of aim for the head.

Sniping General

another way to prevent the stand alone from becoming sniper infested like the maps of Lingor and (from what I've heard) Takastan would be add into the equation wind and weather, a little flag in the corner of the screen to tell which way the wind is and the speed could really make sniping alot more challeging and in my mind more fun.

Sights and Scopes

in my opinion the thermal sight is OP, is it needed i would say yes in order to kill a sniper in a ghille, however i do believe the range may be a little to far and i believe that the temerature of the surroundings should have an effect.

M240 on UH-1H

this is a problem that i have found annoying, runout of ammo and have 240 rounds in the choppers cargo hold? to bad you cant rearm these guns that needs fixed.

Skill tree anyone?

and i dont mean you have abilities and a hotbar. if anyone has played MAG for PS3 im thinking sort of like that, say have small skill trees that stay with your character on respawn, but give very small bonuses like a tree that at the end of it gives you a 5% speed increace when sprinting, or makes you slightly more stealthy to zombies, or a tree that makes you slightly more stable when aiming down sights of a gun with a scope. just small things that dont do a whole lot but just might be the difference in getting the kill, or not being detected by zombie (or player), or getting out of a bad situation.

again these are jut ideas im throwing out there im sure others have already said the samethings but these are changes i would like to see i personally dont care about building a huge fortified base or having over customisible characters, i just want improved gameplay, the game needs some of the limits taken off that arma2 has in place, but the game isnt broken, if it was we wouldnt be playing. and as my parents always said "if it ain't broke, dont fix it."

[hawc 63]

Changes to character visual appearance

Having certain gear should change character visual appearance. For example if you have an axe, you would put it on the side of the backpack or on the side like a gun. Putting a gun in the backpack would make the barrel stick out of it. That way you can tell from a distance if someone is packing. The same could be done with a knife, water bottle, binocs/rangefinder,...

Disassembling guns

The ability to disassemble rifles like taking off barrel, to make it shorter. That would make it take up slightly less space but would have to be assembled which takes a minute. Also finding disassembled rifles packed in suitcases and such as loot. Or it could also be used with the weapon condition mechanic. You first disassemble the gun then clean it.

Gun strap

Gun strap for main weapon. Having it would mean you can change to sidearm quicker since you just drop it. You know, kinda like IRL.

[Oddball97 0]

This info is really great, i hope something like what you have described here is implemented, i would especially appreciate a system where zombies dont respawn for some time, at least untill you have cleared the area. It is always a pain to kill a group of zombies, while cornered in a small town, knowing that there not going to stop coming unless you run for it.

[FallingSkies 12]

I think it should be open alpha testing to exploit most bugs and glitches.

[soullessnut 4]

hopefully this hasn't already been suggested (searched and didnt find anything about it), but i feel like melee weapons should serve a secondary utility purpose kind of like the current hatchet does in the mod. this would be a good feature because most people won't notice any significant difference between hitting a zombie with a lead pipe and hitting a zombie with a tire iron, meaning there would be no reason to have them both scripted into the game.

but you could do things like Tire Irons are needed to repair a vehicles tire, crowbars can pry open locked doors, or gardening spades allow you to plant crops, or whatever. you get what i'm saying.

[Bombolz (DayZ) 23]

hopefully this hasn't already been suggested (searched and didnt find anything about it), but i feel like melee weapons should serve a secondary utility purpose kind of like the current hatchet does in the mod. this would be a good feature because most people won't notice any significant difference between hitting a zombie with a lead pipe and hitting a zombie with a tire iron, meaning there would be no reason to have them both scripted into the game.

but you could do things like Tire Irons are needed to repair a vehicles tire, crowbars can pry open locked doors, or gardening spades allow you to plant crops, or whatever. you get what i'm saying.

Yes that is an important factor, but melee weapons may have different combat abilities, e.g. knife may have faster attack speed, less range and less damage, whereas a axe is slow, longer ranged and much more damage, a critical system may even be applied, but I agree with you, melee weapons should have a secondary use, though I'm not saying that all weapons would. Another player suggested, wall climbing machetes, which could be a second use for machete.

[slonlo 43]

Another player suggested, wall climbing machetes, which could be a second use for machete.

Lol, awesome. Good ol' apache25.

Disassembling guns

There aren't very many rifles that you can remove the barrel from by hand. I'm all about having a takedown .22 (10/22 TD or Henry AR-7) but you aren't going to be removing the barrel from a Remington 700 in the field. With a barrel wrench and a gun vise you could remove the barrel from an AR variant, but it's not gonna be quick or convenient. So having certain take down rifles would be great, but not any rifle. Maybe a better solution is to have certain rifles with folding stocks.

Edited September 25, 2012 by slonlo

[indominator 95]

you forgot adrenaline, the injection in the heart one

Also, weapon parts can be assembled by expert mechanic to make a nice little gun.

rudimentarily made fireguns handcrafted in the game by players

Edited September 25, 2012 by indominator

[Nasakenai 34]

Here's some ideas that I've had over the month or so I've been playing DayZ:

Bodies – when I come across a body I want to be able to study the body and find out exactly how that person died. “There are small gunshot wounds in his torso”, “He appears to have been hit in the head by some sort of large caliber rifle”, “blunt force trauma”, “he appears to have been shredded and partially eaten (in the case of zombies)”, “there are no external causes of death visible”, etc. I’d also like to know how long the body has been dead with something like “the body is still warm/cold/etc.” These things will give the perceptive and patient player an edge helping to know which towns to avoid, if there are snipers in the area, etc. All of these things could possibly be done visually as well – perhaps showing the wounds depending on how the person was killed, perhaps a pool of blood that slowly dries/evaporates as time goes on so you can see if the person just died recently and stuff like that. I also think the same could apply to fires – you could see if they were still warm or doused by checking on them, etc.

Trash – When you use a bandage, blood bag, drop an empty magazine, etc. I’d like to see the remains of these items remain persistently on the ground – at least for a time. They could be picked up and/or moved by players but if not could leave a “trail of events” for the next experienced survivor that comes by. For example you walk in to a town, and upon exploring a barn you see an expended magazine, several dead zombies that died of gunshot wounds, and an empty blood bag outside on the ground – you now know that there was recently a cooperating group in the area with at least one military grade weapon. Had they been more careful in hiding their tracks they may have forever been unnoticed. This would add a huge element of excitement for the surveil and survive style of player - the careless would leave a trail.

Sniping – in my opinion sniping needs to be re-worked simply because it’s so damn effective. First thing to change needs to be grass and underbrush disappearing after 100 meters or so which makes it virtually impossible not to be spotted (this would also help with tents being more easily hidable). After that, extremely long range guns such as the AS 50 should not be able to be fired farther than a few hundred meters unless prone on the ground, and certainly not from standing. I think that the AS 50 in particular should have to be set down on the ground and then utilized as an emplaced weapon to make longer range shots, so that the player can’t just switch to “run and gun” mode the second he sees somebody closely attacking him. He should have to rely on other players helping him for closer range support, or a backup gun. Anybody who’s ever held a .50 caliber rifle knows that the gun would be completely ineffective from a standing position.

Birds – I’d like to see smaller birds take off in startled flight and and/or animals run when loud shots are suddenly fired. If you’re in a city and you hear a sniper shot you can look to the treeline and try to see if there are any startled birds flying in to the sky to get a fix on roughly which direction the guy is in, etc.

Vehicle Repair – In a real life situation you can “reserve” your vehicle for you just by taking out the spark plugs. I’d like to see something similar in Dayz since vehicles remain when you get off the server and are a lot harder to hide. Maybe not spark plugs but I’d like to see players at least able to take off a wheel or two and hide it in a remote tent (the same way you put on a wheel) before they log off so that somebody who finds your vehicle hideout at least has to work a little bit for it.

Rare encounters – possibility of roving military patrols that will go from one area of a map to another with orders to “clear the quarantine area” meaning KOS. It would take a coordinated ambush and a lot of risk to take them down but would be well worth it in gear/ammo if you could do it. They could travel at walking speed through the map on roads maybe with a truck or two driving slowly so that once spotted you could have time to run ahead/set up an ambush with some fellow survivors if you knew which way they were going.

Plants/Gardens – ability to plant plants that would persist on the server and grow and provide food after a few days that you could plant in a forest or field depending on the seed. Would make more fun things to do “at the camp”.

Hunting – add deer/elk/bears. They will get spooked and run if you don’t kill them with one shot or get too close (no more hunting with a Makarov or hatchet). Make hunting things other than livestock (which are near towns and thus a little bit dangerous to hunt) a little more challenging and require use of a larger caliber bullet and risk of noise.

Burying bodies/loot/trash – should take longer and the ground be slightly changed afterwards so a curious player could dig up the grave and see what’s there. If players want to bury bodies (or loot) they should have to drag or bring it to an obscure spot if they want to ensure nobody finds it.

Character classes – mind you, not your typical “engineer, support, recon” or any of that. Choose between a few character types with slight differences and maybe give one additional starting item depending on which you chose – here’s a few ideas:

Soldier: Maybe start with an M9 or camo clothing. Slightly faster runner and more physically in shape so he can have slightly more health and a better chance to survive short falls. (more likely to spawn at airstrip or military blockade?)

Civilian townsman – Start with toolbox or local map. (More likely to spawn in small town?) Good at gardening to get more produce than average (see above plants entry), cars take slightly less damage while he is driving them due to being “used to driving in the area”.

Local Hunter: Could start with a hatchet/hunting knife. Ability to get more meat from animals, better ability to creep silently and an run faster up/down hills due to hiking boots. (More likely to spawn in wilderness or outside of a town?)

Businessman/medical professional – Could start with a few extra medical supplies. Could make a splint using harvested wood (acts as morphene), and revive unconscious players by using CPR (acts as epi pen). (More likely to spawn in big city near hospital or near military hospital area)

Survivalist/Alex Jones fan – Could start with a compass and/or personal map indicating a stash of “preperedness gear” somewhere on the map that would have some supplies and possibly a rile and some ammo if he found it. Slightly better at shooting assault rifles and pistols accurately due to preperedness practice. Maybe able to assemble a tent/firearm with other items due to survivalist knowledge (Likely to spawn in towns, cities, or outskirts of town).-

[indominator 95]

have you watched the pilot episode of revolution? thats a nice place to look into visual

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

Here's some ideas that I've had over the month or so I've been playing DayZ:

Bodies – when I come across a body I want to be able to study the body and find out exactly how that person died. “There are small gunshot wounds in his torso”, “He appears to have been hit in the head by some sort of large caliber rifle”, “blunt force trauma”, “he appears to have been shredded and partially eaten (in the case of zombies)”, “there are no external causes of death visible”, etc. I’d also like to know how long the body has been dead with something like “the body is still warm/cold/etc.” These things will give the perceptive and patient player an edge helping to know which towns to avoid, if there are snipers in the area, etc. All of these things could possibly be done visually as well – perhaps showing the wounds depending on how the person was killed, perhaps a pool of blood that slowly dries/evaporates as time goes on so you can see if the person just died recently and stuff like that. I also think the same could apply to fires – you could see if they were still warm or doused by checking on them, etc.

Trash – When you use a bandage, blood bag, drop an empty magazine, etc. I’d like to see the remains of these items remain persistently on the ground – at least for a time. They could be picked up and/or moved by players but if not could leave a “trail of events” for the next experienced survivor that comes by. For example you walk in to a town, and upon exploring a barn you see an expended magazine, several dead zombies that died of gunshot wounds, and an empty blood bag outside on the ground – you now know that there was recently a cooperating group in the area with at least one military grade weapon. Had they been more careful in hiding their tracks they may have forever been unnoticed. This would add a huge element of excitement for the surveil and survive style of player - the careless would leave a trail.

Sniping – in my opinion sniping needs to be re-worked simply because it’s so damn effective. First thing to change needs to be grass and underbrush disappearing after 100 meters or so which makes it virtually impossible not to be spotted (this would also help with tents being more easily hidable). After that, extremely long range guns such as the AS 50 should not be able to be fired farther than a few hundred meters unless prone on the ground, and certainly not from standing. I think that the AS 50 in particular should have to be set down on the ground and then utilized as an emplaced weapon to make longer range shots, so that the player can’t just switch to “run and gun” mode the second he sees somebody closely attacking him. He should have to rely on other players helping him for closer range support, or a backup gun. Anybody who’s ever held a .50 caliber rifle knows that the gun would be completely ineffective from a standing position.

Birds – I’d like to see smaller birds take off in startled flight and and/or animals run when loud shots are suddenly fired. If you’re in a city and you hear a sniper shot you can look to the treeline and try to see if there are any startled birds flying in to the sky to get a fix on roughly which direction the guy is in, etc.

Vehicle Repair – In a real life situation you can “reserve” your vehicle for you just by taking out the spark plugs. I’d like to see something similar in Dayz since vehicles remain when you get off the server and are a lot harder to hide. Maybe not spark plugs but I’d like to see players at least able to take off a wheel or two and hide it in a remote tent (the same way you put on a wheel) before they log off so that somebody who finds your vehicle hideout at least has to work a little bit for it.

I've played since the early times of dayz, and I aprove these ideas. It should really make it to standalone. I suggest you put them on reddit so rocket can be aware of it. (You got me at birds, would be an awesome atmospheric feature. More wildlife is needed, maybe less cows given they would probably not survive zombie apocalypse anyway :) )