Thoughts and Ideas

[LastShenanigan 8]

Let me start by saying DayZ has become one of my favorite things to play and it looks more promising by the minute. I of course am 100% aware this is an Alpha. However, a few things have caught my attention and in my own opinion I feel they could be improved in the mods future.

Food - Food is just far too common right now. I've never come remotely close to starving. Clearing a small town will typically provide you with 5-8 cans of something to eat. To me, it seems like too much. I hardly think anyone in game actually shoots another player for his beans. The bandit that just sniped you "for your beans" is sitting on top of a convenience store full of food. Actually killing another player because you are desperate for food would compliment the game. It may even open the doorway for slightly increased matchbox spawning, to encourage people to hunt their own food.

Knives - This may already be planned but a way to almost silently kill another survivor would be great. It would also compliment the removal of auto switching to bandit skin. Rather that take pot shots at you from the trees a bandit may try to smooth you over and then stab you once you're inside a house. Simply put, the sound of taking out a knife would need to be very unique. Turning around to find the fellow you teamed up with 2 miles back is coming towards you with his knife drawn would add a great deal of tension. Do you ask him why his knife is out, or just blow his head off? The struggle could even take time and make enough noise to alert nearby players and zombies, possibly interrupting it.

Airfields - I'm not terribly sure having military grade weapons, ammo and food all frequently spawning in one very cozy area "works". Groups of survivors tend to set up shop in these areas because of the lucrative spawns and lack of zombies. You could argue that the better weapons are useless because ammo for them is so rare. However, it ceases to be rare if you spend enough time on the spawns and continue to stockpile the ammo. Eventually, it won't seem so rare anymore. After amassing as much food and ammo they'd ever need they appear to simply get bored. To say the least, bored players do things they otherwise wouldn't. It feels like people are escaping the apocalypse and not so much surviving it. I don't have a possible solution, this is just my assessment. It might be as simple as making the spawned food much harder to find up north.

Again, I love this mods and theses are only my thoughts on what I've seen so far. I'd like to point out that despite some of my suggestions I'm NOT a bandit. I've got zero murders on me, though I have shot at people to ward them off. I don't mind getting killed by bandits if they actually have a reason to do so. Right now there is too much "for the lulz" killing, which really breaks the immersion.