Introduce slumber...and many other ideas

[Lillo 22]

Hi all, I've created this post to suggest some idea that could increase the already good realism of this excellent mod and its forthcoming standalone version. Some of these have already been written in this forum, so I putted here just to be complete.

1) Introduction of slumber:

- Time of sleep should be from 1 to a maximum of 8 minutes (I know it doesn't simulate a real time sleep, but it is an online mod, so think about the consequences), depending on how it takes to recover the "slumber" bar completely.

- Obviously a smart player would rest in a safe zone in order to avoid ugly surprises with zombies or bandits.

- While sleeping the screen fades to black but you can still hear sounds around you, so that players can awake at any moment if they perceive something wrong (this would add suspence)

- Introduction of sleeping bag

- Introduction of cofee (that replenishes a small quantity of slumber, due to caffeine contained within, as well as coke)

- Consequences of not taking care of sleep: high sway while aiming with weapons, all movements slower than normal (including sprint), probability to faint or falling to the ground, blur and strange shadows at the corners of your vision (the last one was suggested by Daerk)

- Slumber should be implemented in a way that player shouldn't be forced to sleep every 20 minutes (you can if you want), but at least once a day. You can even stay 2 or 3 days without sleeping, but then you have to face its consequences

- The "Slumber idea" could bring to the game more realism, thrill, strategy, preoccupation, awarness of the enviroment: in other words more DEPTH.

- (UPDATE) Introduce a reward mechanic such as regenerating health (1 to 10 points per minute) and stamina (this idea was suggested by Moofactory)

- (UPDATE) Sleep on the ground if you have to, but risk sickness from cold and rain and not regaining as much slumber than sleeping in a bed (this idea was suggested by OW22)

2) Zombies adjustments:

- The fast respawn of unfinished hordes of zombies in the same area should be eliminated

- Slower (a bit) the zombie sprint

- At this point, to balance the whole thing, zombies should be harder to kill...

- ...and should make more damage

- There should be more zombies at night

- This way, the challenge won't decrease and keeps going on high levels and, at the same time the credibility, the sense of fear and desperation increase a lot. These should force players to avoid zombies instead of confronting them: survivors have to think twice when there are zombies nearby

3) Introducing Specialties:

- Don't get me wrong, I don't want a perk system like COD or Fallout

- Only 2 Specialties: Medic, who can heal a little bit more health point than normal and Mechanic, who can repair vehicles and weapons (if one day there will be a weapon consumption feature)

- Specialties should be earned through practice, so that a player experienced in healing squadmates finally should be able to become a Medic and to heal more health points for example (same thing then for mechanics that could repair a vehicle faster or to make weapons more durable)

- In other words, the main aim of Specialties is to difference players slightly, without compromise the balance of gameplay

- (UPDATE) A medic could do a successful blood transfusion without risk of infection, a marathon runner or athlete would be better at running and vaulting, also depending of the weight he's carrying (this idea was suggested by OW22)

- (UPDATE) What about introducing some sort of questionnaire (gender at the beginning, previous occupation, obby, etc.). Depending on which character will be created through this questionnaire, players could have different loadout and spawn location. For example a mechanic may have a jerrycan, engine parts and a crowbar and spawn in house near a factory. A tourist may spawn in a house in a small coastal town or on the beach with a flashlight, beans, pepsi and a coyote backpack. A farmer may spawn in a barn with a hatchet, cooked meat and a couple of 2rnd slugs. Then you could have also have medic, policeman etc. Varying starting skins reflecting this could also be used and no further gameplay alterations are made (this idea was suggested by NobleBrutus)

4) Crafting:

- The number of items a player could create should be slightly increased. Nothing more (this is DayZ after all, not Minecraft).

- A little more fortifications (?)

5) Radio:

- Nothing new to say about this, the forum is already full of posts about radio. Just I hope the developers DO NOT add any new media such as TV, Internet connection (depending on where/when the standalone would take place)

- What about implementing Morse code?

6) Map:

- Possibility to view the map together with your mates (one man or the whole team) if they are close enough, in order to set attack plans, routes, rendez-vouz, ecc

- In this case should be introduced some kind of indicator while viewing the map together, such as a hand with a finger or similar, in order to make your mates understand what to do and where to go

- (UPDATE) Label function with possibility to make notes and mark points on the map. Possibility to draw arrows from one point to another (this idea was suggested by Moofactory)

7) Misc:

- Close combat should be improved (possibly not overpowered)

- No unlimited sprint (also, only athletic players can run more than normal)

- No currency (money), just bartering

- More realistic visual and sound effect for thunderbolts in situation of heavy rain

- Addition of actions like playing guitar around a fireplace or play cards with your mates during dead moments (I know this sounds weird or stupid, not all of you will be agree so let me know what do you think)

- Improved phisics (further versions should fix this)

- More player characters (same as above)

- Remove flying vehicles: in a post-apocalyptic world, a player would logically escape from the island as soon as possible. This doesn't have sense if someone wants to play this game

- Possibility to block windows and doors using wooden beams or other objects like a wardrobe, couch or armchair

- Possibility to hide objects by putting them into a box and dig it underground

- Introduce weapon consumption or some other alternative: for example, the player have to clean his weapon once in a while to keep it efficient, especially after he shooted a lot. (thanks ChazSchmidt)

- Introduce seasons

- (UPDATE) What about lockpicking? (this idea was suggested by OW22)

- (UPDATE) Stamina is weakened by lack of sleep, water, food, or appropriate clothing (temperature/environmental conditions causing reduced physical capabilities). Being wounded would also temporarily reduce the maximum level of stamina for a period of time, even if you were just shot and then fixed up by Doc Wasteland's crew, you're not immediately "back to 100%". Instead, you must "take it easy" for a few days. You tire easier, and cannot run as fast, etc. Very slowly, your stamina maximum level regenerates to normal (this idea was suggested by Daerk)

That's all for now. Let me know what you think about. I will keep editing this page.

PS: I apologise for my English.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Lillo

[gr33nth1ng 6]

- Consequences of not taking care of sleep: high sway while aiming with weapons, all movements slower than normal (including sprint), probability to faint or falling to the ground

Hearing things in the bushes to create a parinoid state.. lol sounds funny but I think it'd work really well and it'd be easy to implement.

[Lillo 22]

- Consequences of not taking care of sleep: high sway while aiming with weapons, all movements slower than normal (including sprint), probability to faint or falling to the ground

Hearing things in the bushes to create a parinoid state.. lol sounds funny but I think it'd work really well and it'd be easy to implement.

Maybe or double vision of some object...things like this but not exaggerated.

[Lillo 22]

EDIT

I've changed the main title of this post.

[Lillo 22]

EDIT

Points 4, 5, 7 updated

[fish911503 136]

EDIT

I've changed the main title of this post.

How did you do that?

[Lillo 22]

Click on EDIT at right-bottom and then click on Use Full Editor.

Then you will change/correct what you want.

[moofactory 62]

I understand sleeping, in most games is to regain health. Or some other benefit.

I think if you are going to introduce something like sleep as a way of inducing a penalty to the player if they don't do it... like water... then there should also be a reward mechanic to balance this.

Such as either regenerating blood (1-10 per minute in or out of game), restoring stamina or reducing infection etc.

Map:

I'd like to see the label function rebuilt.

You should be able to make notes and mark points on the map... but they should only unique to you... not everyone and unique to each server.

The only time they should be shared and seen by others is in a group mechanic.

These should be colour coded according to the player that marked it.

Maps should be able to be used as tactical tools as well as navigation... with the ability to draw arrows from one point to another like a football play. Group leader would be able to indicate an assigned player colour when marking the map.

Only those with a Gps should be able to see one another as dots on the map.

Back to solo players:

They can also choose colours when marking a map. The purpose of this would be to better indicate different types of targets.

[Lillo 22]

I really appreciated your suggestions, Moofactory.

Updating the post.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Lillo

[bazbake 456]

Players already sleep. It's called logging off.

[Lillo 22]

Players already sleep. It's called logging off.

Eheheh, I know and I understand this. But the idea is to introduce the slumber factor in a real-time way, in order to improve realism, thrilling and the sense of costant preoccupation. Also, sleeping could slowly regenerate health and stamina.

I am aware that this idea is not easy to introduce in an online mod, but if it will be introduced, it would add more depth in the game.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Lillo

[-+BoSS+-Eran Mintor 5]

- Consequences of not taking care of sleep: high sway while aiming with weapons, all movements slower than normal (including sprint), probability to faint or falling to the ground

Hearing things in the bushes to create a parinoid state.. lol sounds funny but I think it'd work really well and it'd be easy to implement.

After having stayed up many nights with no sleep I can say that visual and audible hallucinations are a very real thing when sleep deprived. Hearing or seeing "ghosts" would be pretty cool after not sleeping for a long time. Would add to the tension, though the "ghosts" would have to only appear very briefly so it's just enough to throw you off...ghosts could look like other players on the server or animals, or even zombies I guess....monsters would be cool but not a priority :)

I like the idea of having to sleep in-game for a couple minutes every couple hours or so, would keep campers from sitting around for hours watching movies on a second monitor without any problems, and would also push more people to the woods....and in my opinion, more people in the woods = more firefights in the woods = more scary moments....cuz the woods are scary, n' stuff.

I do like most of the other ideas too, including no unlimited sprint. The one idea I'm not sure I agree with is more zombies at night because I feel like for newer players it will increase the difficulty too much as they will not have any NVG's for awhile.

[bazbake 456]

Technically, when you log in you are vulnerable for about half a minute and people can walk by and kill you "in your sleep."

[Lillo 22]

After having stayed up many nights with no sleep I can say that visual and audible hallucinations are a very real thing when sleep deprived. Hearing or seeing "ghosts" would be pretty cool after not sleeping for a long time. Would add to the tension, though the "ghosts" would have to only appear very briefly so it's just enough to throw you off...ghosts could look like other players on the server or animals, or even zombies I guess....monsters would be cool but not a priority :)

I like the idea of having to sleep in-game for a couple minutes every couple hours or so, would keep campers from sitting around for hours watching movies on a second monitor without any problems, and would also push more people to the woods....and in my opinion, more people in the woods = more firefights in the woods = more scary moments....cuz the woods are scary, n' stuff.

I do like most of the other ideas too, including no unlimited sprint. The one idea I'm not sure I agree with is more zombies at night because I feel like for newer players it will increase the difficulty too much as they will not have any NVG's for awhile.

You catched the main aim of the "slumber idea". But personally I am not sure about "ghosts" yet, because it would kill the realism.

[Lillo 22]

Technically, when you log in you are vulnerable for about half a minute and people can walk by and kill you "in your sleep."

Yes, but it should be a coincidence or a case of misfortune. It is not the same thing.

By introducing "sleeping", survivors have to be more aware of the enviroment. Only this feature alone can bring more paranoia, more thrill, more strategy that suit very well with a post-apocalyptic world.

Logging on/off must be just a function to enter/exit in/from the game (because we are playing a game afterall)

[-+BoSS+-Eran Mintor 5]

Maybe "ghosts" wasn't the right word but basically when you hallucinate after not sleeping for a long time you will hear things. It could be anything, from the benign to the downright frightening, and as far as visual hallucinations they are about the same. Sometimes you might see butterflies, other times you might see demons, but they tend to only linger for a few seconds and then your mind makes up for the mistake.

[Lillo 22]

Maybe "ghosts" wasn't the right word but basically when you hallucinate after not sleeping for a long time you will hear things. It could be anything, from the benign to the downright frightening, and as far as visual hallucinations they are about the same. Sometimes you might see butterflies, other times you might see demons, but they tend to only linger for a few seconds and then your mind makes up for the mistake.

Yeah it could be interesting.

[disorder 344]

no no, you should go to sleep in the world when you log off. You body is then physically still in the world and can be killed. Would stop server hoppers and stuff.

[-+BoSS+-Eran Mintor 5]

It wouldn't stop server hoppers cuz they'd log into a different server and their sleeping body would move...

But no, I'm pretty sure sleeping while being logged off and unable to respond for hours/days would be pretty lame. I'd go to work for a week and find that some retard killed me while I was hibernating like I'm some grizzly bear.

[Lillo 22]

no no, you should go to sleep in the world when you log off. You body is then physically still in the world and can be killed. Would stop server hoppers and stuff.

What if you can't play for a week?

I personally think that this would make the game more frustrating and less realistic.

[disorder 344]

Ok then... it could stay there for a few minutes like logging out from an online game. maybe 10mins tops.

Edited August 8, 2012 by disorder

[Lillo 22]

Ok then... it could stay there for a few minutes like logging out from an online game. maybe 10mins tops.

Real-time sleeping could give you the possibility to wake up if you perceive something wrong.

[indominator 95]

have you played on veteran? zombies are all tough

[Photolysis 25]

The problem with this idea is that it's extremely boring. You're asking for the game to force players to stop periodically and spend their time staring at a blank screen, likely in a risk free area.

The option to take a nap somewhere to increase health/stamina regeneration or something is more interesting, but forcing players to sleep is a poor suggestion, and ignores the fact that players should be sleeping when they're offline.

[Lillo 22]

The problem with this idea is that it's extremely boring. You're asking for the game to force players to stop periodically and spend their time staring at a blank screen, likely in a risk free area.

The option to take a nap somewhere to increase health/stamina regeneration or something is more interesting, but forcing players to sleep is a poor suggestion, and ignores the fact that players should be sleeping when they're offline.

I understand.

Well I think that players are already forced in the game by doing many things like eating and drinking. So for me, adding a new necessity, doesn't make the game more difficult, frustrating or boring. Also it would takes just few minutes to fullfill the slumber bar, not hours.

Of course players have to sleep at least once in a day for few minutes (so nothing particularly painful), with the possibility of sleeping more than once in a day (or drinking coffee) if they prefer, in order to stay always on top.

I believe that the game would be more exciting.

This is my personal opinion.