The DayZ Standalone Wishlist

[sparta436 46]

DISCLAIMER: This post is HUGE. If you "tldr-ed" it then dont comment on it.

Just a list i came up with of stuff that i think could make the standalone better. Its pretty much just a bunch of ideas and mechanics. Lets jump right into it.

Random Encounters

This is just stuff that has a random chance to occur to the player(s) at any time and place, just as you randomly find crashed helis or cars.

- NPC jets flying at high altitude.

They wont fire on you, they are there purely for amibance and immersion. These aircraft are a reminder that there is still someone out there and that humans are still alive somewhere, untouched by the virus.

- Abandoned camps/roadblocks

These are places where refugees tried to setup camps or defenses but were eventually overrun. The camps have the same chance to spawn as crashed helis and cars. They will spawn completely empty of anyone except dead bodies and maybe zombies. You will be able to find basic supplies and a plethora of meds. The camps will consist of ruined tents, dead bodies, and maybe one operable car. They will vary in size and location and can spawn either in the middle of roads or just in the middle of nowhere (forests, plains, islands, etc.).

-The Zombie Hoard

These will be random groups of zombies that have a chance to spawn far away from survivors and will wander around the countryside looking for survivors to munch on. They should consist of groups of fifty and they ill be by far the scariest thing in the game. They will also have a chance to spawn near player built settlements (once those are in the game) and if they are killed off or they see a player, they will spawn more frequently. These zombies assure that the players are never safe at any given time.

- Prepper maps

You find maps all the time, but every map will have a 2% chance to spawn with markers already on it. These will be the maps that were left behind by people who prepped for a socio-economic disaster that would destroy society. The markers will lead to stashes where you can either find empty tin cans or a treasure trove of supplies/guns/ammo.

Vehicle customization/crafting

A crafting system that will allow you to modify vehicles and craft items.

-Vehicles ( remember the bus from the dawn of the dead remake?)

You will be able to add things such as plating on windows so no one can see into the car and so zombies cant pull you out. You cant cut a hole in the roof of the car where a survivor can stand up and shoot out of. You can fortify your bumper so you can ram things without damaging the engine block, maybe add spikes so you can ram other cars, thus impaling your car into them so they cant move. Perhaps you can also add 360 degree floodlights, you will be a beacon to survivors and zombies, but your situational awareness at night will improve drastically. Basically, cars should not only be tools for transportation but also defence. Your vehicle should be unique to you and losing it should make you ragequit and never want to play DayZ again.

- Simple crafting

I find a knife. I also have an Enfield and a bit of rope. Now my Enfield has a bayonet. I find a flashlight. My M4 has an RIS system. Now my M4 has a flashlight. I have a knife and find a metal pole. Now i have a spear. Just VERY simple stuff like this that will add to the gameplay.

Improved Zombies and mechanics

-Difficulty

Zombies must become more of a threat. Survivors will have to team up or die, and should always be in a constant state of fighting for survival. Zombies should be able to break windows and pull you out of cars if the windows arent boarded up. Their bites should have some sort of lasting effect even hours after you recieved them. You should have to avoid any contact with zombies at all costs. Zombie bites should be locational. They wont just damage your player overall, but they can fracture an arm, break a rib, cause a concussion, all of which will have a different effect on the player.

-Survivors that died from zombies will come back as them.

Imagine your friend gets bitten, you dont have bandages. You load him into your UAZ and try to get the hell out of cherno. Right as your are approaching Nadhezino you notice your fellow survivor had died a few minutes earlier, but hes getting up. Your friend sinks his teeth into your neck, you freak out, crash into a tree, and the car explodes. Once a survivor dies to wounds from zombies his corpse will become controlled by the zombie AI and he will get up and attack what was his "friends" just a few minutes before. This is just a nice touch that could be very easily implemented and would add alot to the game, including a huge sense of irony

For the love of god port some of ArmA 3's amazing new features.

-The movement system

In ArmA 3 there are many different ways to fight besides just pressing "q" and "e" to lean left and right. You can peak over walls while prone, duck lower when your crouched and even go into a last stand mode. This will add a whole new dimension to firefights and make them as great as they can possibly be.

-Weapon and outfit customization

While watching the ArmA 3 E3 presentation, i got a glimpse of the inventory system. There was an individual slot for your headgear and even your vest i think. You should be able to control what your character is wearing on his legs, feet, torso, and head. This ill become a huge part of the game in my opinion, i'll mention why later.

Weapon customization is a very simple matter. I shouldnt have to find a silenced m4 just to have a silenced weapon. Maybe i have an m16 and i like its accuracy and barrel length more than the M4. This can be easily resolved by taking the silencer and putting it on my m16. Next, i find an AKS Kobra. Im really liking that holo sight so i take it and mount it on my m16.

Keep some of that good old ArmAness

-People dont realize what a huge impact ArmA has on DayZ, it determines how weapons handle, how your character moves, the bullet physics, etc. All those things i just mentioned should not change at all in DayZ standalone (except for maybe animations). I still want it to be hard to hit something at 200 meters, i still want to have to zero my gun, and i still want players to die with one well placed shot to the head. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD FIX ATV PHYSICS. Being that DayZ will be built on the same engine all these features should be relatively easy to carry over.

Clothing

-Clothing, armor, and weather system

Clothing should be a very important part of the game and you should have to adapt it based on what you're doing and how the weather is. If its raining, a raincoat will prevent you from getting cold. If its cold, a jacket will prevent you from getting sick BUT it will slow you down, making you more vulnerable. But because the jacket is thick, zombies will have a hard time biting you. If you have a leather vest, you become more resistant to zombie bites and you will seldom bleed from the torso. If youre in a fire fight a kevlar vest could save your life. If youre fighting zombies a right shield could help push them back. A helmet will protect you from shrapnel and ricochets. Steel toed boots will make it possible to kick down doors but will also increase how loud you are. The possibilities are endless! Everything will have a pro and a con.

Overhauled medical system

-This will create an entirely new plethora of problems that survivors have to deal with. Bandages only SLOW bleeding until it stops. Breaking a leg will take time to heal, you'll be slower, but with a splint you'll at least be able to walk and drive. An electric shock will take a person out off unconsciosness but will also take time to execute. All medical actions should have custom animations of course. There should be alot of consequences for all damage taken.

EX: you get shot in the arm but luckily your buddy kills the assailant. You have to pull the led out of your arm with some pliers (farcry 2 anyone?). Afterwards, you have to bandage it to slow the bleeding, which will eventually stop on its own. If you dont have antiseptic, you have a 30% chance of your arm becoming infected. But you dont have any antiseptic. You must search for antibiotics before the infection slowly worsens. You find some but your blood is at 7000 by the time you do. THANKFULLY blood cells multiply and you will slowly regenerate blood over hours of play. Heres the awesome part: You bled from your arm and put a bandage on it. A bloody bandage will now be displayed on your characters arm. Wherever your character gets injured, it should look like he actually got hurt.

GORE :D

Damage should be locational, and will affect the body parts where the damage occurs. If i shoot a survivor with an AS50 i want to see that survivor be obliterated by a .50 caliber round. If i headshot a zombie with an axe, that head should come clean off. If the dude with the AS50 misses and hits your leg, your leg gets obliterated and the wound is fatal. You will be able to crawl around and still shoot in the last 30 seconds before your fatal wound renders you totall useless.

You get shot in the torso and live? Your bloody shirt will be a reminder of what happened both to you and to survivors you meet.

Basebuilding

-Underground bases shouldnt be the only option, but they should be the most safe. Building them will take alot of time and planning but itll be worth it because, well, its underground lol. These should take alot of manpower, time, and supplies to construct. Undeground bases should only be one option.

Additionally, you should also be able to explore like a subway or something, and build a base there.

-Above ground

You can modify already existing structures. Board up thier windows, add lighting, put up a perimeter fence, add sandbags to the roof, put up floodlights. The idea is to erect a fortified position similar to the one in 28 days later, when the soldiers are hiding out.

You can also build an above ground base from scratch if you want, but it will take more manpower, more supplies, and some cars. When imagining these bases, think about the favelas made up of tin houses in poorer regions of the world. These should look like they were built out of desperation, and they can be gradually be improved up by adding more fortification and stuff.

Capturing Areas

-many people have already suggested this. Basically, if a group of survivors can take and hold a certain section of a city or a town, Zombies will stop respawing as long as people remain there, or some sort of fortifications are built.

New Areas to loot

Subways and military bunkers, that is all. Both locations will always be dark and require nightvision or flashlights.

Also:

-Government buildings (think about fortifying the white house or a prime ministers home) these give a glimpse of the political infastructure that once existed.

-Police stations will function as "firestations" function now.

Loot Spawning

- loot should spawn in a matter of different ways. On shelves, in drawers, in lockers, in refrigerators, in safes. Think of the way you loot buildings in skyrim.

Guns and combat

-Variety

All weapons should make sense. That means, that i should have a very slim chance of finding an m4 in a former soviet republic. I'm talking about being able to find like 8 different ak variants, mosin nagants, eastern european weapons.

-More low tier weapons

Pistols should play a much bigger role in the game and be much more common. Having a rifle should be a luxury and having a military rifle should be even more so. Military weapons should be exclusive to military instalations like police stations, airfields, road blocks, etc. Everywhere else, you will find mostly pistols with some scattered hunting rifles and a wide variety of shotguns. Also, melee weapons should be literally EVERYWHERE, as pretty much anything can function as a blugeon. Crafting will also affect weapons as well.

Well thats basically it. This is the result of playing 400hrs of DayZ and me wanting the standalone to be the best game it could possibly be. Cheers.

EDIT: Almost forgot, make the game modable. Allow things like texture packs and graphical mods.

Edited August 14, 2012 by sparta436

[icomrade 201]

Zombies.

[Kniekehlenheinrich 7]

Dont forget our dogs :) check out this thread: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/66330-dogs-as-detectors-of-humanity/

Really like the idea of spears and bayonetts.

In good ol' russia there should be world war 2 weapons like the K98k, PPSh41, Mosin Nagant, MP40 maybe an mg 42 for building your fortress not to carry it with you of course :D they should be very common but weapons like the K98 are even for todays standarts very good weapons and you should be forced to repair them first. Maybe the K98k should be something like an CQB-As50 :D i mean finding a german WW2 weapon is more realistic than finding a lee enfield or a m107..

Just ideas. Maybe you like them!

[samirocks321 10]

Agree 100%, not a single thing i hate! +1

[sparta436 46]

Dont forget our dogs :) check out this thread: http://dayzmod.com/f...rs-of-humanity/

Really like the idea of spears and bayonetts.

In good ol' russia there should be world war 2 weapons like the K98k, PPSh41, Mosin Nagant, MP40 maybe an mg 42 for building your fortress not to carry it with you of course :D they should be very common but weapons like the K98 are even for todays standarts very good weapons and you should be forced to repair them first. Maybe the K98k should be something like an CQB-As50 :D i mean finding a german WW2 weapon is more realistic than finding a lee enfield or a m107..

Just ideas. Maybe you like them!

I was thinking of more modern weaponry like ak variants all the way from 47 to 74 to 101 all the way to the AS VAL.

A mosin nagant and a PPSh41 dont sound like bad ideas at all though.

[McClusterfuk 1]

definatly make the system more optimized than arma

[Kniekehlenheinrich 7]

Ak variants are very important but it would be sort of boring to always play with those "stereotype weapons" if you know what i mean.

We need as you said more pistols. But we need even more guerilla weapons.

More traps

More improvised weapons like molotov cocktails or nailpistols

More things to craft

More scrap that you really need

[wtfosaurus 30]

Really like all of the ideas you mentioned here, some of which were even already hinted at by rocket!

[sparta436 46]

Ak variants are very important but it would be sort of boring to always play with those "stereotype weapons" if you know what i mean.

We need as you said more pistols. But we need even more guerilla weapons.

More traps

More improvised weapons like molotov cocktails or nailpistols

More things to craft

More scrap that you really need

I want to make it as authentic as possible, but still fun. Nailguns is a no for me personally. As for everything else, sure i wouldnt mind improvised explosives and molotovs. You do know that molotovs would be useless against zombies irl right? it would take forever for fire to actually consume the brain.

[sparta436 46]

Really like all of the ideas you mentioned here, some of which were even already hinted at by rocket!

Understand that this is notreallly a thread that brings new ideas to the table. it is merely a list of reccemendations that i think could vastly improve dayz and make it more fun/challenging.

[Kniekehlenheinrich 7]

The nailgun isnt that bad i think. Spawn in chernogorsk search in the factory and you have a pretty bad weapon but you have something to defend yourself. Improvised.

Of course the molotov would be not as effective against zombies as against players. But why should it reach the brain to kill the zombie? We dont have those invincible undead zombies. We have infected human that wouldnt love to burn too..

[Kniekehlenheinrich 7]

Or do we have such? :D

[sparta436 46]

Or do we have such? :D

The kind of "zombie" we have is the infected 28 days later kind. I think a zombie would still be able to run and stuff even if it was on fire. I say the brain because tis the most effective way to kill anything and removing the head or destroying the brain is always the most effective method of killing in zombie movies

[Kniekehlenheinrich 7]

Of coure its most effective on a single subject but if you have a weapon affecting a bigger area with a medium damage it will make very much damage divided in a multiple number of zombies. It wont kill them all but it will weaken so you can kill them faster if you dont hit the head always. Just a suggestion as i said :)

[sparta436 46]

Zombies.

great idea

[CarloNord 29]

I agree with it all, however, one thing won't work. Your friend will not reanimate, once again, the very limited lore that Rocket has stated says that the zombies are INFECTED and not actually dead, and since you seem to be immune to the infection, you cannot turn, and nothing comes back from death.

[sparta436 46]

I agree with it all, however, one thing won't work. Your friend will not reanimate, once again, the very limited lore that Rocket has stated says that the zombies are INFECTED and not actually dead, and since you seem to be immune to the infection, you cannot turn, and nothing comes back from death.

Ahhh youre completely right. My bad lol

[hazzathealmighty 51]

Brilliant ideas!

[Suckaah 0]

I like it.

[jovial 17]

Lots of good ideas in there.

Mostly the stuff pertaining to base building, but I also enjoyed the harder zombies, zombie hordes, prepper maps and GORE especially. :)

[a_ruttle 199]

Excellent suggestions, I had been thinking of the ambient jets for a while now it's nice to see someone who has thought similarly to me. With regards to your customisation suggestion; I saw something about character customisation in ArmA 3 suggesting that your characters inventory could be effected by your clothing/gear I.e. If one was to wear a T-shirt and Jeans with a small bandolier or something such he could carry far less than say someone with a military load bearing vest. Making players start with a "low tiered" "carrying device" for want of a better word and a small backpack would open up a new category of loot with better things such as bandoliers and load bearing vests being obtainable as loot.

[sparta436 46]

Excellent suggestions, I had been thinking of the ambient jets for a while now it's nice to see someone who has thought similarly to me. With regards to your customisation suggestion; I saw something about character customisation in ArmA 3 suggesting that your characters inventory could be effected by your clothing/gear I.e. If one was to wear a T-shirt and Jeans with a small bandolier or something such he could carry far less than say someone with a military load bearing vest. Making players start with a "low tiered" "carrying device" for want of a better word and a small backpack would open up a new category of loot with better things such as bandoliers and load bearing vests being obtainable as loot.

Totally agree. We need to expand loot and add many more low tier items. We also need just much more items in general so that it takes longer to attain those top tier items like NVGs and M4 SDs. The devs have to find a way to make those low/mid tier items valuable as well though.

[FluxPanda 0]

I love these ideas! I also would like in the standalone version, there will be better support for lower end computers!

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Seasons.

[Izreal Delain 4]

GAH! I love them all, but I'm always partial to improvised weapons. Nothing quite like a pipe bomb mine, or a home made rifle. They should degrade quickly, but if you can some how increase skills or something similar, it should increase the life time of your crafted fire arms/melee weapons.