The DayZ Infection Cure

[RoastLamb 4]

I'm not a real life doctor so some of my terminology may be way wrong. Anyway...

There is a real life project called fold it http://fold.it/portal/ "solve puzzles for science". Which essentially allows the public to put together different building blocks of er stuff; 'proteins' 'molucules' or whatever (like i said im not a doctor), to help find cures for diseases.

My idea is to have a simplified and obviously fantasy version of this idea in game.

* There is an infection that players can get in game, it is the precursor to full on zombiefecation.

* This early stage can be cured (of course its easy to catch again - lots of people are suggesting methods for the mechanics of how that side of it works)

* The cure is created by solving a puzzle that produces a serum/medicine players can take.

* The puzzle is made up of 3D blocks/shapes that need to be put together in a certain way to block the disease.

* There are a finite collection of shapes to utilise to use for solving the puzzle.

* The shapes (building blocks of the cure) need to be gathered from the environment - extracted from various plants, chemicals found in hospitals, etc - the right tools will be needed.

* Once a cure is discovered it can be shared to other players, of course it takes real life skill to put the blocks together in the right order... or you can obtain vials of serum from people who have already made some, and examine the serum under a microscope to see how its done.

* The kicker is - the disease adapts and changes. So new cures will need to be discovered. (maybe it even gets more and more complicated, so harder to solve)

* Different strains of the disease could end up spreading if the mechanics of how the disease adapts is made quite clever, using its exposure to players using a cure as a trigger for its change.

** These strains will have to be named by the first player who observes it - the cure for that strain will have to be given a name by the first player to discover it.

This falls in line with how rocket wants real life skills to transfer into the game. If youre good at solving these kinds of puzzles, then you are naturally on the team trying to save humanity. - if you so choose.

---

My original thoughts on this was basing the cure on a pattern that one had to try to recreate using various building blocks. Its a bit hard to explain, but look at an application called pure data http://puredata.info/ - basically you have a set of modules that you link together to produce a data stream, usually sound, but it could be anything. Anyway. the disease is some random pattern that you had to try and replicate with the modules in a very simplified version of the pure data, max/msp paradigm. I dont know if anyone of you have seen Countdown in the UK, but there is maths game they play where the contestant has to calculate a number using a specific selection of digits, theyre only allowed to use those digits and any maths methods, - + x / etc, its essentially an abstracted version of that. But then I remembered Foldit which I think is a better idea...

food for thought - discussion

Edited August 9, 2012 by RoastLamb

[magmatrix 38]

Let's see if i get this right:

You are hungry, thirsty, dirty, beaten, shocked, bruised, hunted by zombies, shot at by bandits, in pain, bandaged, and shot up with morphine, ...

With a probable lifespan of a few hours you then take your hatchet and bean can and set up a hi-tech Tetris lab in a shed without electricity or water, and find a cure for a constantly morphing virus which has viped out most of the people on the planet? And you do this by pushing colored blocks around?

Sure, why not?

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

Let's see if i get this right:

You are hungry, thirsty, dirty, beaten, shocked, bruised, hunted by zombies, shot at by bandits, in pain, bandaged, and shot up with morphine, ...

With a probable lifespan of a few hours you then take your hatchet and bean can and set up a hi-tech Tetris lab in a shed without electricity or water, and find a cure for a constantly morphing virus which has viped out most of the people on the planet? And you do this by pushing colored blocks around?

Sure, why not?

ROFLMAO , sorry OP i mean no offense, but it's realy late for me and this post made me laugh so hard !!! ...

While i like your suggestion for it's creativity, i doubt if it would fit in DayZ and appeal to the FPS crowd. It could appeal to the 'i am legend' (i think that movie was called) fans though... It sounds more like a 3rd gen. MMORPG ingame puzzle though, dare i say it, it may well fit in realy well with that other game, for DayZ not so much, but thats just my views ;)

[RoastLamb 4]

I can picture it now. Some clan camp deep in the woods, a make shift lab for extracting the molecules required, examining the latest strain after taking blood samples, and then finding the cure, synthesising serums to give out to your clan mates, or to trade to other survivors, all of which requires gathering the resources to do so. All the while there are infected and bandits trying to get in, so the lab is heavily guarded 24/7.

or maybe you're just a small group so you hurriedly try to come up with a cure using the gear in the old hospital, with the limited resources you and your small team could scrounge. your mates are holding off the hordes and there are bandits waiting outside - but do they leave you alone once they know they could get a cure from you. They kill your whole team for it, only to find out the latest cure is too complicated for them to replicate themselves or that its not for the strain they are all about to die from.

anyway whatever... lots of ideas could stem from it.

[RoastLamb 4]

What makes me laugh is the amount of people who think DayZ is a FPS, when its whole modus operandi is that of a horror survival simulator. Players are meant to be able to have the freedom to do whatever they want - if you dont want to solve the disease and you want pew pew, then you are free to do so... the game is a survival sandbox... not COD.

Edited August 9, 2012 by RoastLamb

[TomCei 2]

ANTIBIOTICS, 'nuff said...

[badbenson (DayZ) 38]

lol. sometimes these forums are like a nursing home. lots of grumpy grandpas hating on anything that implies change.

but i have to agree that the puzzle thing is silly.

i think it would be cool if there was just an antidote which is as hard to find as the antibiotics (or just use the antibiotics). but the general idea of people turning into zombies is a must imo. it works great in other games/mods and would create cool situations especially in groups. also it would make the zombies more dangerous without changing anything. people wouldn't just take small hits because they know they can. they would try to not get hit at all.