Just some ideas from a guy who loves this game

[kugelmeister 2]

So I have been watching the Dean "Rocket" Hall interviews with SideStrafe/FPSGuru/CODAnonymous and I was brainstorming some ideas and thought i should puke them out onto the forums to get bashed or praised...either way I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents since i have been playing this game for over a month and loving every minute of it. Before i write a novel on my crazy ideas, I have to give a shout out to Rocket for everything, and this thread is going to be nothing but sugestios for future additions and will have ZERO bashing of the game.

Idea: Northern/Arctic Region

Ok, so I know Rocket wants to, one way or another, create a larger world or "universe" for DayZ. I think that is awesome, and a northern winter environment would be cool (i've got a soft spot for winter biomes and im fairly sure its not because im a canuck). Imagine a place with like glacial mountains and stuff, and it had some more military bases and some towns and more of the usual, but your temperature dropped EXTREMELY fast unless you found a winter coat or something before venturing there, and while there you could find like, winter camo coats. Maybe you could find winter camo guns as well? (Winter Camo SVD giggity). Food might be more scarce, you could only get water by harvesting snow and melting it or maybe finding one of the rare glacial flow streams. This would add a ton of content that would be "end game"-esque because yu would have to get coats and stock up on food before you even attempt to brave the barren northern wasteland. What might be totally epic would be a frozen over submarine harbour with like submarines you could go in and get some sweet loot in and some more barracks? also you would need to find another map for that region as well. (I think this would be great especially people who are familiar with the current map and would seriously enjoy some new terrain)

Idea: "Class" System.

Don't hold me to the word "Class", i use it only for a lack of a better word. the idea more being when you spawn, you pick a character type, dare i call them classes. Sort of like in Chernarus Apocalypse (from what i have seen i haven't tried it yet) were you could be an engineer, a medic, a soldier, etc...basically, you get exp for killing zombies, and on top of that each class has an extra way of getting more exp. The soldier might get extra exp from killing zombies, the engineer might get some exp when he repairs cars, the medic could get more extra exp from giving bandages/blood bags and such. Anyway, as each class levels up, you get little perks, nothing that would give you any advantage in PvP, or Slaying Zeds, but things geared more towards "we are nearing 'end game' and now we want some perks to help us flourish and prosper". The engineer might be able to upgrade engines and make them more fuel efficient, the medic might be able to stack bandages and blood bags in his/her inventory so he could carry more around, and really be able to provide medical support to the other players, allowing the other players to maybe carry around more weapons and ammo or car parts and scrap metal withought worrying about inventory space for medical supplies. the soldier would maybe have green clothing on, not a guillie suit or anything but just something to ake him look military, and not stand out as much, plus maybe you would become able to customize guns so you could find an M4A3, and make it an M4A3 CCO SD if he found the right gun parts. One other that i thought of was a Scavenger/Survivor class. sort of like your average, well rounded default character, it would be geared more towards lone wolf style gameplay or playing in less structured groups. you could have perks like meat heals you for more, (since ou cant get blood transfusions if your playing solo), maybe you could stack ammo in groups of 3 since you will need to carry every supply you might need, and room for ammo might be tight. this character would get exp from killing animals and cooking their meat, or other survival type stuff you would need to do in a world were its you against the odds. as each class gains exp, they level up, or even just unlock new skills,it wouldn't even need a skill point system, just you pick your character and that sets you down a path towards certain perks. I know rocket talked about an increased penalty for death, and in a battle losing your medic would really hurt your team because he would have to respawn, meet back up with you and then re-aquire all his skills again. I think this would really encourage team play, and give an alternative to just spawning, trusting no one and hunting everything, and would make engagements against other groups more dynamic and a more prominent focus of experienced players. (Seriously give me feedback on this and suggest other character types you think would be good!)

Idea: Pain

So i guess i lied saying i wasnt going to bash/complain about anything in the game. I just think pain shouldn't be indefinite, which it isnt in real life, but just like if you are in a firefight with another player and you get shot, you are going to be in pain, but you bandage your wounds, you get your blood back up, eventually the pain should go away. if pain lasted 30 minutes, it would still affect you the same in a battle with players or if you are fighting a horde of Zeds, but sometimes we dont have any painkillers, we go to camp and log out, then the next day im still in pain and unable to shoot with any precision, and its not untill hours later it seems when we arrive in cherno's hospital im able to get rid of the pain that has stricken me for multiple days of gameplay. i know my luck on finding painkillers is poor and im trying not to be biased, but in my humble opinion i just don't think that the violent shacking of your screen shouldbe a permanent effect if you run out of painkillers.

Idea:Parties

Enough ranting, lets get back to some ideas! Im sure Rocket has thought about this 1000x more than i have, but i do think there should be a sort of "party" or "friendly" system were you can add players into a group, and when in that group you cannot kill other members of the group. there could be a global chat for just members of your group,maybe you could gain certain bonuses for being in a group, like if the class system were to exist, say as a lone wolf you get 10 exp per zombie kill, in a group, each member gains a portion of that exp, so each member would level up slower, but overall you are getting more exp. this would help balance lone wolf/coop gameplay styles and give further reason to group up with people. To be honest in not sure how the diplomacy would work, like how to get people in your group, and obviously you would have to use extreme causion when asked to join a group because they might just be coaxing you out of hiding, but that part of the game really cannot be removed. the other thing would be how to leave a group, such as if you decide you want to betray the group and kill them you shouldnt be able to just un-party them and kill them instantly, but at the same time you shouldnt be stuck in the group when you want to leave due to preventative measures for people leaving and betraying the party. im not sure how most of that would work, it would be a long and delicate process to get it right im sure, but i have faith in Rocket, and on top of that he probaby wont ever end up reading this so it doesnt matter that much ,and even if he does that by no means he could even consider this as a feasable goal.

Final Suggestions:

Some Closing thoughts: In my opinion weapon spawns should be greatly reduced. i think if it took a great deal of searching just to get an assualt riffle, then working as a group would be much smarter if you have 6 g an everpresent uys and 1 assault rifle, with ammo being scarce, you would have to work together to fight off the zombies rather than have a group of guys, each capable of being a one mn army that coul take on cherno in a blaze of gunfire all by themselves. if you actually had the threat of running out of ammo or not having enough guns to go around be an everpresent worry on your mind at all times would take the realism to a whole new level. i knw this hurts the solo players, but in a real apocalypse being alone and not working with others DOES hurt your chances of survival, so players who chose this route should be experience and capable on handling the drawbacks of solitude. I just think it should be a much greater accomplishment to have automatic weapons and such. I think there should be a way to secure equipment in camps/underground bases, so that it is alot harder for people to loot it, and the nly defence against this being to stash your tents as far from anything as possible. me and a friend had a fair cache of gear saved up after finding a half dozen helos, looting starry, cherno, electro, and the NW Air Field countless timesover the course of almost a month. we worked hard, we searched the land from top to bottom checking every dear stand in between. we risked life and death on many occasions in some of the most hostile regions of chernarus, and then one day we lost everything we had because someone logged into our server, walked through the north woods and stumbled uppon our tents. we assume he took everything he could, anything he could fit in the car and anything his teamates (if any) could grab and then flattened our tents leaving us with zilch. I have no probleme with this, thats how the game is, and starting fresh having to fight for your life with a makarov in cherno trying to scrounge enough gear to move out of that hell hole was a blast and i really enjoyed it. i just think if you work hard and get good items, you should have some way of protecting it better.

Conclusion:

Wow looking over what just wrote, im sorry for putting this novel on the forums =D i never meant it to be so long but once i got started my creativity was flowing..sort of. I just want to say i LOVE DayZ and think this is one of the best games i have ever played. on top of that, all of us right now have the opprotunity to not just play it, but be a part of it. we are supporting Rocket every day by playig the game and getting friends into it. I would love nothing more than to see this become a stand alone tittle, and allow Rocket to create the game of his, and our dreams, and possible down the road give him the opprotunity again to make something else amzing. Rocket has got to be one of the most down to earth, straight forward, involved game creators of all time. the only reason i posted this is because i know he peeks at the forums every once in a while to see what people are talking about,and I think thats awesome and if he ever sees this that would just confirm the reason i think Rocket rocks. I want people to post comments, criticism, expand on my ideas, share sone ideas of your own, i would love to hear all of it. tell my why you think my suggestions would ruin the game, or why you think they would make the game better in you experiences! i know most of my suggestions are geared towards team play, but i think that inherintly deminishes the need / want for people to just hunt players 24/7 just to kill them, it adds options for people beyond a great big game of team slayer. and yes, i am a group/coop style player, it makes it more fun, and a little less harsh since you have somebody to lean on when your in trouble, so im sorry for the biased oppinions, but hopefully im not too blind for the needs of the Lone Wolves out there in your one man wolf packs.

Edited July 27, 2012 by kugelmeister

[ODoyleRulez 195]

1: Yea I would like a bigger area with a different biome. Maybe in the future after major things are added or fixed.

2: That was rocket's idea. a "class type system". It is to help give more reason to not just shoot on sight.

3. Some pain is indefinite. But there could be degrees of it maybe that could wear off.. not a big priority right now.

4: Already being worked on. (but friendly fire will be on as it should be)

5: More team play and a harder game will be tweaked in time. I don't think reducing weapons is going to help much.

Edited July 27, 2012 by ODoyleRulez

[Baelethal 102]

I think more map would be lovely.

I'm not going to lie, you lost me at "xp". Personally, I don't want to "level up." I've been there. I've done that. I don't want this in DayZ. My character gets better because I get better. As a player, I improve. That's all the level-up that I need.

Classes I'm not sold on either. I've played that other zombie mod, and choosing, I think it was Pilot, for the geo-cache option is truly the only way to go, and I'd hate to see this lovely experiment pigeon-holed like that.

As for pain I'm not entirely sold on this idea either. I've never been in a position of needing a medical supply and not having one, simply because I pay attention to what I have in stock. I have a basic load out that I carry at all times. If I use something from my active inventory, I switch the extra from my pack into my active inventory and actively search to replace what I just used. I never run out of stuff, so I guess I just don't understand the need to make pain not last forever.

I'd like to see some sort of party type system implemented, but friendly fire needs to remain on. It's a little bit hard to group with strangers now-a-days, but with some work, and the right tools (here's looking to test walkie talkies?) I think this community can accomplish great things.

[kugelmeister 2]

With the Classes idea, each character no matter what would be able to hunt zombies the same, hunt player the same, and have the same odds of survival. it would just solidify your role more in a squad and make team playing a more dynamic experience. and the EXP system wouldnt be a large part of your character, and would even have to be exp, just some way of tracking your characters growth as the game progresses and alow you to do certain things more easily accomplish some of the simple, "early game" tasks more easily so you can focus on the later game stuff like fighting other groups of players in the airfield or raiding large clan camps. most of these ideas or just some input of my own providing an empty husk of what could be a feature at some point, either during the alpha or eventually when a stand alone version is on the horizon. im just looking the put out some ideas that i think might be cool, but i know full well that doesnt necessarily mean they are do-able, practical, or fit in with Rocket's vision. im just looking to spark some conversation and get some feedback from people, or suggestions that expand on some of my ideas to start to create something that people might want to see =D

[Jello Jaw 11]

I agree with the artic region suggestion but the rest i just believe in scavenging for supplies.

[Railoth 1]

Text are so white thought i was gonna get a seizure just from reading it. BTW good ideas.

[vision1776 42]

The arctic suggestions is fantastic. I would also like to see a party system implemented but friendly fire always on.

[Nighthawk2702 0]

4. maybe a feature where only the leader can invite so i think if your the leader and invite your friends in this group where you can spawn together that they wont shoot you in the back ^^

[vision1776 42]

I think as far as the party goes that your friendlies should be marked by something when you look at them and have a clear line of sight on them inorder to distinguish them as friendly. In real life you can tell who your friends are but in this game everyone is an exact replica of each other so there is no way of knowing who is who.