A few suggestions, mostly about time-flow.

[Crazy Cajun 0]

I just wanted to throw a few suggestions out there and see what you guys think. Let me know what you disagree with and why.

In no particular order and not formatted perfectly.

* I think there should be some sort of friend system that allows players to get into "groups" and spawn near one another(within a certian amount of km of one another) when both starting a new life. I find that it is irritatingly hard to find one another. When deciding to play with friends, your first hour is trying to find one another instead of actually playing the game; which is sad because playing with friends is where this game excels.

* You shouldn't be able to talk or read global chat unless you find a radio. This would make it a tad more realistic, as I find it odd that we can all communicate with one another without being anywhere near each other. This would make it even more realistic when you use global and a zombie hears you(he's essentially hearing you and the radio).

* I feel as though hunger and thirst should be more of a concern for players. I never feel as though I NEED to rush and find water or rush and find food. This game is suppose to be about survival, but it doesn't translate that well into the game-world. The only time you really have to worry about "surviving" is when you INTENTIONALLY go into a dangerous situation to find a "cool weapon" or "cool items"(that aren't NECESSARY to survive; weapons a bit more so) because let's face it, you don't often need to scavenge for food or water. If you aren't scavenging for "cool itemz" you're pretty much just existing and don't need to do much to survive, because you don't have to eat or drink that often. It feels like a very minor part of the game rather than an important aspect. I guess what this boils down to is that I think the game should be more focused on ACTUALLY staying alive rather than surviving the dangerous situations you intentionally put yourself into. For example, if I have a decent weapon such as the Winchester and a couple rounds of ammo, I really don't have to do anything until I'm hungry or thirsty; which takes forever to occur. So if I'm not intentionally putting myself in danger(or being a bandit) there is nothing to do. The game feels like it's more focused on finding the cool weapons and gear and trying not to die and lose it all rather than actually surviving. The only way I can think of fixing this is to make hunger and thirst occur more rapidly, and possibly add more danger zones to places that aren't towns.

* Another thing I would like to touch on is day and night cycles. I feel as though they should occur much faster than they do now for multiple reasons. Not only does this complement my above idea by making it more realistic, it also makes players more obligated to play during the night time rather than server hop until they find a day time server. As it currently stands there is no requirement to play through the night phase which makes the game far less dynamic. If day/night would occur faster, the game would be far more dynamic and players would almost be required to play at night and experience this aspect of the game rather than server hop. This would also GREATLY increase the value of flashlights, glow sticks and flares. If day/night occurs fast enough so that server hopping that often an annoyance, more players will be forced to play, experience and adapt to night time play.

* With the above two points you see that I don't agree with how time flows in the game. It moves far too slowly. It may seem more realistic this way, but it doesn't translate well into the game world. We don't spend every hour of the day in front of our computer playing this game(most of us, heh) so it's my view that things should occur more rapidly when we ARE in the game. This would, to me, make it a far better experience. The game would feel more hectic(closer to how it would feel in real life if a zombie apocalypse occurred) and realistic.

* I think the bleeding out system should either be replaced or only be one aspect of "life" or "health". I find it ridiculous how a zombie can run up to me and give me a little scratch and I end up bleeding to death unless I bandage myself, and then my character never heals from it unless I get a blood transfusion. I think we should be able to sustain other types of damage and be capable of RECOVERING from it rather than needing a bandage or blood transfusion every time.

* Additional thought: Not sure if this is possible, but it would be cool if you could make it so more buildings are accessible and allow players to be able to board themselves up inside. Perhaps adding generators and the need to find fuel to keep said generator running as well. This adds to the list of things a player would want to scavenge for. This would also allow players to take up residents in buildings and try to protect and/or steal someone else's house or "camp".

[macscottie 70]

I agree with some of your points and I disagree with some of your points, but the one I'm going to address here is day/night cycles.

What I think needs to happen with night time is it needs to be set to default to a bright night every time. No more pitch black nights. While I love the idea of not being able to see anything at night in the darkness, all someone has to do is crank their gamma/brightness/HDR to max and they can see, even in the darkest of conditions. What this does is it puts legitimate players at a massive and unfair disadvantage as they're fumbling around blind while others can see as if it were daytime. Making it so everyone can see at least moderately at nighttime would curb this issue a lot.

Also, it doesn't have to take away from the atmosphere. A nighttime fog system could easily be implemented to cap view distance at night to, say, 500m(on another note, I love how 500m is the MINIMUM view distance in ArmA and it would a maximum distance in most other games)? I personally think that a bright moonlight night with fog rolling in would be as atmospheric as a pitch black night, and it wouldn't put me at a huge disadvantage to cheaters.