The "I know that guy" visual system

[Mutonizer 78]

Goal:

Have a system in game that allows for almost instant recognition of people you encountered before and know, by in-game visual indicators.

Current limitation:

- Recruit level servers will show the name of everyone once you can get your aim on it, even at insane distance and when hiding.

- Veteran level servers show no names whatsoever, even people you've played 2 hours with the day before.

- Skins are generic, it's nearly impossible to recognize people. Even with the skin system coming in, they will remain generic.

- Direct chat isn't stable (patch coming in), has limited range and reveals people's position. It's useful for voice recognition of people you know, but not visual one.

Proposal:

- Force names off on all server types.

- Have a new interaction when close to someone: "remember him" via interface menu.

- Once in the "remember him" list, putting your aim on that player will show his name even at a distance, to simulate the fact that you already encountered him at close range and can recognize his face and the like.

- Have this handled 100% client side of course.

Comments welcomed.

[Tysta 2]

- Have this handled 100% client side of course.

I can see this providing problems. But overall, I like the idea!

[-AoXo- 24]

I think simply having a more clear name tag when you mouse over someone would be helpful - however make the range at which you can mouse over someone fairly close, like 100m or something which is roughly the length of a soccer field. Then to remember that person perhaps have a option to remember, or mark as bandit which could have the name go from blue, to green or red.

*Shrugs*

[Mutonizer 78]

I can see this providing problems. But overall, I like the idea!

Well, performance wise it shouldn't be a big deal.

As for people "hacking it", I thought about it and realized it wasn't that big a deal with people moving server to server and whatnot. If someone would somehow be crazy enough to list 90k names in there, others could still simply use it as a way to recognize friends and people they've met before, from a distance and without making noise via voicechat. The "damage" it could do is very small compared to the "benefit", in my book.

I think simply having a more clear name tag when you mouse over someone would be helpful - however make the range at which you can mouse over someone fairly close, like 100m or something which is roughly the length of a soccer field. Then to remember that person perhaps have a option to remember, or mark as bandit which could have the name go from blue, to green or red.

The idea here is not to flag people as bandits or friendlies or categorize players in any way, but rather simply show that you've met them before and therefore should be able to recognize from a distance, which is currently lacking I believe.

I always play on veteran level servers so maybe that suggestion could only affect these types, if people on recruit level must keep their visual nametags for some reason.

[[iogc] b.a. 22]

Excellent idea, names should definately be forced off, it's too easy to spot people you can't see. This method would then allow you to specifically remember friendlies and would help alot with pvp interaction, in my opinion.

[prometheus111 1]

Great idea... but it should wear off after a while. You shouldn't be able to remember someone after a long time. And if that person changes their skin, they should be removed from all of those lists. Thus skins become a gameplay element for disguise.

[dremux 0]

This is a great idea, I certainly hope something like this, if not this specifically, gets implemented. =D

[prospekt 8]

I like this. We could never recognise someone from his skin, Whereas in reality we could.

[Maedis 18]

I think this is a great idea. It's dumb that you can just scan the horizon on recruit servers to see a flash of a name so you can scope in and kill them.

At the same time, it sucks when I play a veteran server with my friends and every time we split up around a corner we start shouting at each other to confirm we didn't run into someone we didn't know.

[Razumen 0]

More skin and character customization is what the game needs so we can recognize friends and enemies alike - visual cues are always more efficient than ones that rely on reading words on a screen.

[scoffield77@gmail.com 192]

Direct channel works how it's suppose to, through there are bugs with it. It's suppose to resemble two people talking off comms, and irl if i say something to you, you should beable to dictate my general direction. also if i'm speaking off comms i can't yell so loud you can hear me 5 klicks out, so limited range is also good.

[rocket 16567]

This is quite interesting. A lot of design issues pop up to mind, but there could be something here. The biggest problem is representing it. UI etc... breaks the immersion. So its very hard to model this mechanic.

[blackaciddevil 0]

If the person is lets say, within 20-25m. You'll have his name shown (maybe where the chatlog is now) when you aim/look at him. But first you need to mark him with "remember him". Even if you know someone, you could have problems recognise that person from a far distance. But if you know that the guy you know has the skin with the red jacket and green pants. It could be him running around up ahead or someone else with that skin. But when his will come closer you can see "his face" and recognise him...

[worbat 13]

Surely the upcoming "Skinz" updated will help//Posisble faction update?

[Tartantyco 1]

Is there any way you could use the zombie aggro system as a way of deciding at what range a player could be identified? 3 bars=100m, 2 bars=50m, 1 bar=25m, 0 bars=Nothing(Visual bars).

[Felix (DayZ) 21]

One way to introduce a mechanic for consensual name checks is add a new command tied to a key binding.

Currently the salute is used by many without voice to try to indicate friendly intentions.

A new feature could consist of an animation + UI trigger.

What would happen is a visual indicator of the player model raising a hand or somesuch. In addition to the model's animation a flag could be set for a few seconds that allows anybody within a +/- 15 degree cone around that person's model to see the name popup like you do in the low difficulty servers.

Limited time for UI name to be shown and short animation sequence make this useful for somebody verifying a name. It can also be useful for people asking identities, if you're unsure if that guy in side chat is talking about you with his crosshair pointed at you.

Relatively unobtrusive, and it doesn't give out free information to people you may not want to have it.

The benefits of this system is that you don't have data to track, you don't need friend systems, just accessing features already available and doing a quick animation and key binding.

[oktyabr 53]

I don't see the need to complicate things with that much extra coding to even make it an option.

My suggestion: Make name tags showing up hard-coded into the mod but only at short range, perhaps 25m in daylight, 5m in darkness. Leave it up to the player to remember what they will about previous encounters.

[blackaciddevil 0]

I think the feature need a mark person or "push to show name" thing. If someone hides behind a bush or something like that, and you happen to look at him an a name tag pops up.

[bobbyweenus 17]

I like this idea and it interfaces quite a bit with my witness murder / social system suggestion in my sig!

[Felix (DayZ) 21]

I don't see the need to complicate things with that much extra coding to even make it an option.

My suggestion: Make name tags showing up hard-coded into the mod but only at short range' date=' perhaps 25m in daylight, 5m in darkness. Leave it up to the player to remember what they will about previous encounters.

[/quote']

I personally dislike people getting my name for free. That's one reason I went with the key binding to allow others to see it.

[Razumen 0]

Stuff like this will never get implemented I'm afraid, it's far too "gamey" for Day Z, and from what I understand Rocket is against adding that kind of stuff.

Players should be able to distinguish from one another *visually*, not through tacked on name icons. For this to work we need more unique and customizable character models.

Thus I have come to the conclusion that Day Z needs hats, lots and lots of hats. :P

[oktyabr 53]

I personally dislike people getting my name for free. That's one reason I went with the key binding to allow others to see it.

I can respect your opinion on this even if I can't imagine the reason. In my opinion there are many things already "bound" to keys/actions in this mod and if there is one thing you *should* be able to do, automatically without touching a single key, is looking at someone long enough to recognize them as someone you have met before or not.

In a perfect world DayZ characters would be so varied that you would never see the same skin/avatar combination twice. If it were that perfect world you certainly wouldn't expect someone to use a button to recognize you, would you? Instead we have a handful of similar skins and name tags. Seeing a name tag isn't perfect but in my opinion it's better than nothing. So what can be done to improve upon it's use? Here is my suggestion in detail:

The current state of "name tags" (plates, whatever) is that easy servers have them enabled and hardcore servers have them disabled. On an easy server that means that sometimes you can spot players 100+m away, in the dark, in the woods, even in buildings. Not a good thing. On a hardcore server you have absolutely no way of telling one player from another with what is provided to you in the game beyond maybe a complex com session "Hey, if that's you spin around in circle a couple of times or something...", etc.

So, in effect, the current name tag system is pretty much useless in DayZ. Disable it in the DayZ code, hard-coded, so it's removed on all servers for everyone.

Next, substitute something that works better. rocket says that the UI considerations seem to be considerable but not *impossible* and I would think surely easier to implement than Wii-style character customizations.

First, remove the name tags as part of the UI overlay. Make the replacement a level of transparency based on light - range so in utter darkness they need to be standing close to you and in the light of a flare, chemlight, whatever to appear. In daylight you see them at a greater distance but not the current neon-green... something more subtle.

Second is more range specific. Some games won't show you a name tag until you have looked at a player for X amount of seconds and some go further to make this time based on distance, which would work in this case. Too far out you don't get to tell who it is at all.

Range specific option: Make name tags appear in the 3D sense rather than as a part of the 2D UI, scaled to the distance. Someone at maximum "recognizable" distance would have their name tag appear very tiny and hard to read. The closer they are the larger the font and the easier it is to read. This makes binoculars (or a rifle scope) usable for recognition as well and might be the most "realistic" solution even though no one likes names floating around.

Also removing nametags from the 2D UI and implementing a solution in the 3D space should help in doing away with spotting characters hidden in brush or inside buildings as well. Player is moving through brush and you can't see all of them you can't see all of the name tag either.

Lastly, and more complex, only show the name tags when viewed directly head on. No name tags at all in the periphery of your vision.

[Olemars 1]

I do sort of agree with Felix about names. You should have to introduce yourself to someone once for them to recognize you by name later. But then you'd still need a way to "recognize" those you've met but haven't told you their name as well, and that's where any solution will get gamey.

[Mortek 0]

I love this idea!

[sephirotic (DayZ) 1]

Goal:

Have a system in game that allows for almost instant recognition of people you encountered before and know' date=' by in-game visual indicators.

[b']Current limitation:

- Recruit level servers will show the name of everyone once you can get your aim on it, even at insane distance and when hiding.

- Veteran level servers show no names whatsoever, even people you've played 2 hours with the day before.

- Skins are generic, it's nearly impossible to recognize people. Even with the skin system coming in, they will remain generic.

- Direct chat isn't stable (patch coming in), has limited range and reveals people's position. It's useful for voice recognition of people you know, but not visual one.

Proposal:

Despite of that, allowing, even in veteran servers, the nick of player close to you to POP in your crosshair would be important feature to identify eventual bandits ingame once the skins are removed.

- Force names off on all server types.

- Have a new interaction when close to someone: "remember him" via interface menu.

- Once in the "remember him" list, putting your aim on that player will show his name even at a distance, to simulate the fact that you already encountered him at close range and can recognize his face and the like.

- Have this handled 100% client side of course.

Comments welcomed.

Damn i was going to reply to this thread and i created a new topic by accident. Can´t delete it tough.

Here is my suggestion:

More specifically i purposse adding the "radio" item or simple adding the extra functionaly to the gps item.

Basically if all your frinds have a radio or the gps, you can reassign a squad and have the full benefits already impemented of the ARMA II to your friends:

-A visible marker of your friend location with the nick bellow it.

-Visibility on map of you and your friends location

-Exclusive squad chat in game.

Most of it is already natively in the arma II engine, so i believe it would be very easy to script.

This features of course, limited in veterans servers, while fully activated in regular servers.