City and Town Lighting

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

So I was playing at night, completely pitch black. Just me, my chem light, and some flares. While I was walking around I saw a small town, and along the roads, I see street lights, but they are off. Then I started thinking, what if there was a way to turn them on? So I remember that there are some small generators or factories near most towns. My thoughts from that lead me to think, maybe one day, there could be a way to use, I don't know, lets say, scrap metal and other materials, to repair these generators and factories to give its nearest by city or town light. Then I was like, this could easily determine whether a town is filled with survivors, or bandits. A town with lights off would either inhabited or most likely filled with bandits considering most don't want to be seen and probably have acquired night vision goggles to see you anyway. Then if you see a city or town with lights on, you could maybe be like, "Hey, lights are on, maybe this town isn't to dangerous to go through and maybe I could group up with other survivors. But it's not permanent. Lets say Elektro's lights are off, and Cherno's lights are on. A bandit could go to the factory or generator and destroy it, turning the lights of the town or city back off.

This is just an idea I had running through my mind for a bit while I was traveling at night. What do you guys think?

[Cinc 3]

i like it, but i think there was already a post about this

[Sol (DayZ) 132]

Where I live, the street lights are solar charged and powered by the battery at night. I'm not even sure how long the DayZ "outbreak" has been around for... but since the zombies are "infected" and not "undead" I'd say a fairly short amount of time. Maybe some lights would still work on thier own as well?

I definately like the idea of lights and generators... it's something I've always considered myself. Running a generator though is loud, and should attract more zombies. It would also run on fuel like a car does, and require refuelling as well as guarding. The constant stream of spawning zombies would be tiresome... but still... I like the core thought here.

~Sol

[Jehangir 52]

So I was playing at night, completely pitch black. Just me, my chem light, and some flares. While I was walking around I saw a small town, and along the roads, I see street lights, but they are off. Then I started thinking, what if there was a way to turn them on? So I remember that there are some small generators or factories near most towns. My thoughts from that lead me to think, maybe one day, there could be a way to use, I don't know, lets say, scrap metal and other materials, to repair these generators and factories to give its nearest by city or town light. Then I was like, this could easily determine whether a town is filled with survivors, or bandits. A town with lights off would either inhabited or most likely filled with bandits considering most don't want to be seen and probably have acquired night vision goggles to see you anyway. Then if you see a city or town with lights on, you could maybe be like, "Hey, lights are on, maybe this town isn't to dangerous to go through and maybe I could group up with other survivors. But it's not permanent. Lets say Elektro's lights are off, and Cherno's lights are on. A bandit could go to the factory or generator and destroy it, turning the lights of the town or city back off.

This is just an idea I had running through my mind for a bit while I was traveling at night. What do you guys think?

I like this idea. Limited electricity if you put in like 4 Jerry Cans into the generator. Light up a part of town like a Christmas tree (radius around the generator).

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

Where I live, the street lights are solar charged and powered by the battery at night. I'm not even sure how long the DayZ "outbreak" has been around for... but since the zombies are "infected" and not "undead" I'd say a fairly short amount of time. Maybe some lights would still work on thier own as well?

I'm not sure if the light's are solar powered in Chernarus.

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

Anyone have other ideas of how to make this suggestion better?

[thatcommiekid 57]

City and town lighting: SMART

[chhopsky 25]

I actually don't mind this, because the noise and light itself is a huge beacon of HEY PLEASE KILL ME. For the most part people who are not very good would want this so it's giving people another tool with which to give away their locations and trade off safety for visibility. I like it.

(i'm not being sarcastic, all decisions are trade-offs in this game)

Edited July 23, 2012 by chhopsky

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

I actually don't mind this, because the noise and light itself is a huge beacon of HEY PLEASE KILL ME. For the most part people who are not very good would want this so it's giving people another tool with which to give away their locations and trade off safety for visibility. I like it.

(i'm not being sarcastic, all decisions are trade-offs in this game)

Wasn't thinking of it that way but you make a good point and I agree.

[CHOSENMARINE 43]

I can easily see generators being in Dayz in the future. It would be really cool to have generators powering lights and who knows what. But powering street lights? That seems a little strange to me, you probably couldn't do that in real life, the're probably powered underground from somewhere. And it's not like they have light switch or something lol. Generators powering small lights, or maybe even lamps that would stay lit for long periods of time would be great for camps.

[vision1776 42]

I like the idea ofcourse. The more things you can do the better.

[ollox 38]

I can easily see generators being in Dayz in the future. It would be really cool to have generators powering lights and who knows what. But powering street lights? That seems a little strange to me, you probably couldn't do that in real life, the're probably powered underground from somewhere. And it's not like they have light switch or something lol. Generators powering small lights, or maybe even lamps that would stay lit for long periods of time would be great for camps.

You could easily wire a generator into a lamppost via the service hatch. Not a very efficient way to produce electricity though. Is there a power station in Chernarus? That would be a pretty major project. Then you could sell electricity to different cities.

[thedog88 180]

in the mean time on chernarus.

"breaking news, the power system in chernarus is completly broken. once upon of time it worked but appeared to produce a weird ugly cone looking light underneath the streetlights making it look weird. the arma 2 dev team then decided to take the lights out of chernarus to work on it some later time. as of right now only 1 light survived, a small coke machine in the international hotel in chernagorsk is still lit. will it stay this way?"

had to, anyways, you get my point. the dev team took the lights out a while back (for you non arma players) because, from what i was reading, it looked too weird. eventually it was suppose to get fixed but... im sure they had better things to worry about. this being said, yes great idea, only issue there is no power on chernarus period. every light source would have to be created through a script, which is do-able, but i believe it would eat the server like my last can of beans. might be wrong on the last part but its possible to throw a few lights in. not possible to power the whole map unless they re-enable it. there are a few scripts that actually put 1 light in every enterable house at little to no server resources, its pretty awesome because it has different color lights and different styles. for example it might create a solid white light, or a flickering orange light. it looks pretty good though, would be nice to have.

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

for example it might create a solid white light, or a flickering orange light.

A flickering light in areas will give the game a really cool feel to it.

[chhopsky 25]

in the mean time on chernarus.

"breaking news, the power system in chernarus is completly broken."

Yeah, I would probably hack in a dirty workaround, by having the generator spawn in a number of white flares which cant' be interacted with, then despawn them when it runs out of fuel.

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

Yeah, I would probably hack in a dirty workaround, by having the generator spawn in a number of white flares which cant' be interacted with, then despawn them when it runs out of fuel.

Smart.

[Technaugure 0]

And why don't simply add projectors in industrial areas ? Make it buildable just as barb wire and tank traps. I think the " Hey, I'm here ! Shoot me ! " implied sign would be enough to counterbalance the benefits of light ...

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

And why don't simply add projectors in industrial areas ? Make it buildable just as barb wire and tank traps. I think the " Hey, I'm here ! Shoot me ! " implied sign would be enough to counterbalance the benefits of light ...

Good idea. Light at night needs pros and cons.

[bassist05 69]

Good idea. Light at night needs pros and cons.

Why does it need pros and cons? This game isn't about being balanced at all. Lights should be... well lights.

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

Why does it need pros and cons? This game isn't about being balanced at all. Lights should be... well lights.

Well if they are just lights they already have pros and cons.

Pro: You have light

Con: Obviously you are going to be seen easily by zombies and players.

[Shotgun Master 1]

The idea is awesome, and I think it would probably increase the popularity of playing on servers at night.

Also, I'm not sure how the game works exactly, but is there a way to make another entity (like a car) to be the generator, and then when it is on, it turns on lights (which could just be modified flares) that are placed in the lampposts. That way the map wouldn't need to be modified, just small objects placed on it.

If fuel is needed to get the generator working, it should last a while, since lights don't need much power to run, and the generator should become a spawn point for lots of zombies, which would make sense, and also provide the generator with protection from bandits.

One last thing, since the city is lit up and the countryside is dark, it should attract more zombies (spawn them outside the city, then have them walk in) to make it more dangerous (it IS still night time after all).

[drseptapus 49]

I saw this in another thread. It is awesome.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?99326-CEG-Chernarus-Electrical-Grid-(Script-Pack-and-Addon)

[xTLRxPrototype (DayZ) 15]

The idea is awesome, and I think it would probably increase the popularity of playing on servers at night.

Also, I'm not sure how the game works exactly, but is there a way to make another entity (like a car) to be the generator, and then when it is on, it turns on lights (which could just be modified flares) that are placed in the lampposts. That way the map wouldn't need to be modified, just small objects placed on it.

If fuel is needed to get the generator working, it should last a while, since lights don't need much power to run, and the generator should become a spawn point for lots of zombies, which would make sense, and also provide the generator with protection from bandits.

One last thing, since the city is lit up and the countryside is dark, it should attract more zombies (spawn them outside the city, then have them walk in) to make it more dangerous (it IS still night time after all).

That's a really good idea.