Bribase's control suggestions- Poll

[Bribase 251]

Day-Z's controls take a great deal of getting used to for the average FPS gamer. They're clunky, slow and a little complicated. But with the complexity I see a far greater scope for playstyles and mechanics than the average run and gun.

To that end I wanted to make a list of my own ideas and add a multiple choice poll to see what everyone else thinks.

Basic additions

These are intended to broaden existing mechanics. To streamline gameplay and provide a greater range of interaction.

Holster

A simple button that holsters your equipped weapon and puts your hands by your sides. No more worrying about muzzle discipline when in a group. Make it toggleable with a 1-2 second animation so players have a chance to react if someone decides to pull out their weapon unannounced.

Open Pack

A button that saves you from scrolling down to the bottom of your inventory to fish something out of your bag. In inventory it switches to the view of the contents of your pack, out of inventory it opens the inventory screen and switches to the pack contents. A lifesaver for switching primaries on the fly but not enough to make it instantaneous.

Drop/throw

A drop button that works in the inventory and out. In the inventory it drops the highlighted item on the floor from your pack or pockets. Simple and functional.

Out of the inventory it drops the selected weapon, from primary and secondary to flares and grenades. It allows you to leave a smoke grenade behind you to distract Zeds and conceal your movement and leaves a line of flares on the floor to mark your route.

Ideally, I would bind the throw mechanic to the same button. A single tap would perform a drop and a held button would perform a throw as usual. No more being stuck in a throw animation while a zombie attacks you because you forgot to switch back to your weapon.

Proper Surrender

We have a broken surrender animation allready so this is more of a simple request to broaden and fix it. The surrender button should drop your selected weapon in front of you and make you assume the surrender stance. Being robbed should not force you to drop your weapon from the inventory, it should happen in a single button press.

Wave

This should be an action that replaces the salute. We're survivors, not soldiers and saluting someone is dorky. Wave should be a relatively big animation that can be seen from a distance. It performs everything from showing a willingness to break cover and greet someone, signalling for assistance and flagging down a vehicle.

Complex Additions

These ideas are slightly more esoteric. While I think they are in keeping with the game's ethos they are a bit more of a departure.

Dive/Roll

While the game is intentionally a little less rapid than most FPSs, I feel that a slighly greater range of movement is missing. I would like to see an evasive manouvre added to the game.

The dive is performed from a standing stance, the roll from the crouched position but both quickly move you to the side no more than 2m from where you were. This allows you to duck back into cover or simply become a harder target to hit for a moment. It's useless against zombies however, because there is a moment of recovery time before you can move normally, similar to the moment of immobility when you drop off of the edge of a platform. This should be bound to a double tap of A or D and should not be repeatable for a few seconds after. You're rolling with a rifle in your hands and a pack on your back but you can still leap out of danger if it means your life.

Butt Attack

It seems intuitive that instead of fumbling for the next magazine you would quickly use your rifle as a hand to hand weapon. The effect on a Zed should simply make them stumble back a metre or two, enough space to clear a doorway or buy you a few seconds to reload, it is entirely non-lethal to Zeds. On fellow survivors an attack to the front should cause a minor injury, to the back it should have a chance of knocking the player out with a similar probability to being hit by a zed with under 9000 blood.

Quick Secondary

The time it takes to switch from primary to secondary makes perfect sense. The time it takes is spent securing your rifle to your pack or removing it again. But surely you should be able to hold your rifle in one hand while firing with your secondary. I'm not talking about dual wielding, simply pulling your pistol from your pocket to fire with one hand while holding your inactive rifle in the other.

I propose that there should be an assignable button that allows you draw and expend the magazine of your pistol without taking time to put your rifle away. This should hamper your movement to walking speed (holding both weapons and running would slow you down) and since your other hand is occupied you can't reload either weapon until one weapon is stored by untoggling quick secondary or selecting a weapon in the scroll menu.

There you go. What do you guys think?

Edited July 23, 2012 by Bribase

[sparta436 46]

Day-Z's controls take a great deal of getting used to for the average FPS gamer. They're clunky, slow and a little complicated. But with the complexity I see a far greater scope for playstyles and mechanics than the average run and gun.

To that end I wanted to make a list of my own ideas and add a multiple choice poll to see what everyone else thinks.

Basic additions

These are intended to broaden existing mechanics. To streamline gameplay and provide a greater range of interaction.

Holster

A simple button that holsters your equipped weapon and puts your hands by your sides. No more worrying about muzzle discipline when in a group. Make it toggleable with a 1-2 second animation so players have a chance to react if someone decides to pull out their weapon unannounced.

Open Pack

A button that saves you from scrolling down to the bottom of your inventory to fish something out of your bag. In inventory it switches to the view of the contents of your pack, out of inventory it opens the inventory screen and switches to the pack contents. A lifesaver for switching primaries on the fly but not enough to make it instantaneous.

Drop/throw

A drop button that works in the inventory and out. In the inventory it drops the highlighted item on the floor from your pack or pockets. Simple and functional.

Out of the inventory it drops the selected weapon, from primary and secondary to flares and grenades. It allows you to leave a smoke grenade behind you to distract Zeds and conceal your movement and leaves a line of flares on the floor to mark your route.

Ideally, I would bind the throw mechanic to the same button. A single tap would perform a drop and a held button would perform a throw as usual. No more being stuck in a throw animation while a zombie attacks you because you forgot to switch back to your weapon.

Proper Surrender

We have a broken surrender animation allready so this is more of a simple request to broaden and fix it. The surrender button should drop your selected weapon in front of you and make you assume the surrender stance. Being robbed should not force you to drop your weapon from the inventory, it should happen in a single button press.

Wave

This should be an action that replaces the salute. We're survivors, not soldiers and saluting someone is dorky. Wave should be a relatively big animation that can be seen from a distance. It performs everything from showing a willingness to break cover and greet someone, signalling for assistance and flagging down a vehicle.

Complex Additions

These ideas are slightly more esoteric. While I think they are in keeping with the game's ethos they are a bit more of a departure.

Dive/Roll

While the game is intentionally a little less rapid than most FPSs, I feel that a slighly greater range of movement is missing. I would like to see an evasive manouvre added to the game.

The dive is performed from a standing stance, the roll from the crouched position but both quickly move you to the side no more than 2m from where you were. This allows you to duck back into cover or simply become a harder target to hit for a moment. It's useless against zombies however, because there is a moment of recovery time before you can move normally, similar to the moment of immobility when you drop off of the edge of a platform. This should be bound to a double tap of A or D and should not be repeatable for a few seconds after. You're rolling with a rifle in your hands and a pack on your back but you can still leap out of danger if it means your life.

Butt Attack

It seems intuitive that instead of fumbling for the next magazine you would quickly use your rifle as a hand to hand weapon. The effect on a Zed should simply make them stumble back a metre or two, enough space to clear a doorway or buy you a few seconds to reload, it is entirely non-lethal to Zeds. On fellow survivors an attack to the front should cause a minor injury, to the back it should have a chance of knocking the player out with a similar probability to being hit by a zed with under 9000 blood.

Quick Secondary

The time it takes to switch from primary to secondary makes perfect sense. The time it takes is spent securing your rifle to your pack or removing it again. But surely you should be able to hold your rifle in one hand while firing with your secondary. I'm not talking about dual wielding, simply pulling your pistol from your pocket to fire with one hand while holding your inactive rifle in the other.

I propose that there should be an assignable button that allows you draw and expend the magazine of your pistol without taking time to put your rifle away. This should hamper your movement to walking speed (holding both weapons and running would slow you down) and since your other hand is occupied you can't reload either weapon until one weapon is stored by untoggling quick secondary or selecting a weapon in the scroll menu.

There you go. What do you guys think?

I dont think 3/4s of these would even be feasible until DayZ is standalone

[Bribase 251]

I dont think 3/4s of these would even be feasible until DayZ is standalone

Umm.. which ones?

[razzi 25]

Butt attack... Took me few seconds to figure out what you meant by it....

Edited July 23, 2012 by RaZzi

[Beanus 61]

How to roll: Z + Q/E

Butt attack: How about shove?

Edited July 23, 2012 by Beanus