What I think would solidify day z as a regular go to game....

[Tersidre 168]

By that i mean a game that a great many people log into and play on a daily basis. This game has alot working for it but also alot working against it. From my perspective of having played now for a couple of weeks the biggest enemy this game has is the ARMA 2 engine itself. It is my understanding the lead developer for this game works for the same team that produced arma 2 (or something like that) so it was probably just the easiest thing to get ahold of. The problems with this engine are pretty evident.

1) Animations/hitboxes - this has got to be about the most damn annoying thing about this game. Tracking players and killing them is fine but when i snipe a guy down from 400m out and every zombie turns towards me and starts running If i have the ammo on me I should be able to track and cut down a good number of them before they get to me. I can run this game on max settings in the 60fps+ region 100% of the time im in game. The problem comes because the zombies seem to WARP around quite often especially when they are having to move laterally to get to you. Which they often do, many times a zombie will seem to have a clear path to get to me but will end up taking a 90 degree turn and running for 20 yards and then coming straight at me. And its not some sort of evasion programmed into them its the engine itself having a hard time keeping track of the zombies.

A solution to this in my opinion would be to slow the zombies down by about another 30-40%. Lets face it even if you have 20 zombies chasing you right now in game you can avoid being hit by them quite easily by just running in a straight line until they break off or you find a way to evade them in a building. I say reduce their speed and cut the engine some slack and see if it helps the situation. If it doesnt fine we can always change it back later but I think its something i would like to see.

2) Zombies themselves - granted the zombies are not the biggest threat in this game. The other survivors are. But the way the zombies behave is down right silly and you can apply some silly basic rules to avoid them 100%. I honestly do not see the point of crawling or walking anywhere in this game unless im trying to avoid making alot of noise in an area like elektro. I can haul butt through a town gather up every zombie i can find find a building with 1 entrance and 1 exit and run straight through and wait for the majority of the zombies to get into the building. I can then trot along my merry way looting as i please before the zombies can come out of the building and begin chasing me again. By that time im already on my way out of the town.

A solution to this in my opinion would be to apply the slowed run speed I suggested above but then to make it so the zombies can maintain that speed (perhaps decrease it by another 5% or so) inside of buildings. Yea you could still run from them but they wouldnt be so easily caught inside of a building. While i am talking about zombies I will say i like how the zombies spawn in this game.. the rate needs to be tweaked but having them spawn based on players approaching various areas is a nice touch.

3)A more complex survival system - the way I see things in game right now food/water are just a mild inconvience. If im playing for HOURS at a time then yea I need some food/water but when I just log in for an hour or two long session in electro or some place I dont even need to look at those gauges as a single can of food and can of coke will keep them well into the green the entire play session.

A solution to this in my opinion would be to add some more depth to it. There is a concept in another game i used to play a long time ago they called it "battle fatigue". Basically what happened is the further you traveled.. the more combat you were engaged in or generally the longer you went without giving your character a rest he would gradually become less and less efficent until he wasnt even worth having around until you made the character rest. I think we could play off that concept here. Add a "rest/sleep" meter to the game and reduce the length food/water lasts by about half. Make it so that you only can rest/sleep in a player made camp. We could loosely define this as anywhere a player can make a fire OR set down a tent. Add an option to the fire/tent when you mouse over it to "rest" This would only be available if the player had their gun holstered and not currently engaged in combat.

What this would do is force players to think about the stamina of their characters. Sure you can stay up on that hill for hours at a time sniping but if you dont find a way to give your character a break you wont be hitting anything eventually. This would make players consider tactically how to keep themselves rested enough to be effective. You could also make it that while a character is not being played aka logged off they will slowly regain stamina so if you dont have the time to set up a camp or build a fire and you got other things to do you can simply log off and take care of what you need to take care of and when you come back your character will be ready to go. Also "resting" should slowly regain your health. As it stands blood transfuses and eating are the only ways to regain blood. While this is however literally true one of the best things about the human body is its ability to repair itself while in a resting state. So resting should slowly regain your "blood" so that you do not need to burn through all of your food just to regain it.

4) Customization.. customization.. customization - Sure you can pick a different face and hair style but having the option to set how my character's basic set of clothes look upon respawn would be nice. It doesnt have to be anything major.. just like how you go in and change your name currently.. add the ability to select from maybe 2-3 different hats 2-3 different tops 2-3 different bottoms 2-3 different shoes and then a standard color pallet to give them colors. Who wouldnt want to wander around the beach in a bright yellow banana suit?

5)Communication - global chat needs to be something the PLAYER can choose to turn on and off. I personally would like to have it on.. especially for those sessions where im way out in the woods. Often times even on high population servers if your just not in the major equipment areas you just wont SEE anyone. At least being able to see the chat gives the server a sense of life even if none is in sight. If someone wants more "realism" then they can turn it off. This is after all an online game.. being able to see the players communicating beyond the "FRIENDLY!!" direct communication would be nice.

6) Scripted events - yes there are downed choppers and such but I think adding a bit more life to the game enviroment would be a nice touch. It doesnt need to be swarms of zombies rolling out of the hills or anything like that.. but maybe having an NPC chopper just fly over random spots of the map.. it doesnt have to do anything but just seeing the sound and effect it has on the environment can be a nice thing. Maybe adding a "radio" item to the game that you can turn on and hear random bits of radio chatter that is obviously pre-generated to be stuff such as a "broadcast warning" or random military chatter that has gunfire thrown in to give the sense that the chaos is still going on out there. Maybe even add the option for players who have radios to be able to use the radios as a means of voice comms with each other. Have them strewn about with the rest of the military equipment and make it so you can set it between say 1-3 passive channels.. 1 is random news banter.. 2 is random military banter but 3 is the "open" one where players can use the voice comm system to communicate with anyone else who has a radio over the distance of the entire map. This would add an interesting element to player interaction. Sure you could talk about meeting up but whos to say nobody else is listening in? With this sort of game there can even be an RP element added into some servers that admins can enforce if they so desire.

I know all of these suggested changes are pretty sizable. After all its called ALPHA for a reason but day z is getting alot of attention and "the war z" is looking to be its direct competition and they seem to be pretty far ahead of the time table that day z is on. Doesnt mean the war z is going to be better but still...

I am still really enjoying my time in this game.. more then anything else the problems with the game engine itself are what detract from the experience but overall the devs of this game should be damn proud. This is a genre that isnt really tapped into for the gaming market. True it might never be as big of a thing as say world of warcraft but this sort of gameplay in my opinion makes for the best sort of online gaming experience one can have.