server hopping, humanity, dark souls

[amaterarerasu 15]

There is this interesting phenomenon of many parallel worlds represented by each server, and the exploits that are possible to do by jumping from one to the next. I think that, while this may seem like something which should be fought, I also feel that it is kind of something important to Dayz. I will mention this other game again when I say something about Humanity, buy this many worlds thing kind of reminds me of last years best game(IMHO) Dark Souls. Its online aspect is very interesting, non PS3 owners should check it out, its coming to pc soon.

In its multiplayer youre constantly seeing the ghosts of other players who're online and running the same map you are, and they can invade you and thus gain the ability to attack you, or enter your world to give you a hand. Rings a bell? I think theres a connection here, and thats why I think not completely dissallowing server-jumping might create new, interesting gameplay possibilities, if done right.

Frankly I kind of like the glitchyness… in my mind it is explained by the apocalyptic setting, as if the transformation of men into Z'd was accompanied or even explained by some sort of breakdown within the laws of physics(teleportation, levitating corpses, weapon-eating backpacks, etc etc). I know glitchiness is something that will be ironed out, but I cant stop mentioning how I feel that it somehow is a part of the spirit of Dayz. many many of the best youtube videos about dayz feature some sort of glitch.

Humanity: Thinking on how the concept of humanity should be handled in dayz, I immediately thought, again, of Dark Souls. In this game there also is a type of "score" called humanity, which is really hard to fill up, and which allows you at some point to lose your "Hollow" status, which, surprise, is an extra-decrepit form of undead. So the connection is really there.

My suggestion is this: I think humanity should be handled as a very obscure concept, very ambiguos, but it should be connected to the reason why there is a zombie apocalypse in the first place. Maybe if you hit -1,000,000 humanity your character turns into a zombie for a while? becomes slower? you gain the ability to cannibalize other players for sustenance?

What I'm thinking is that this humanity thing is the axis on which the "realistic milsim VS fantasy setting" is balanced. I actually think its the key to the game as it now stands.

Maybe humanity could also relate to how well you take care of yourself and how prone you are towards violence. A good mechanic to this is found in the videogame Lone Survivor(an indy game, fantastic) in which how vicious you are, and how well you treat your character(take pains to eat proper food and water, keep him in good health, adopt a cat) affects how sane or psycho your character ends up.

I hope any of this helps!

[00dlez 22]

No to the abberations/ghost idea, it's completely unfounded in the setting and would be very distracting. This is supposed to be based in reality (as much as zombies can be) and abberations mucking about soundly breaks that.

The hummanity topic is already heavily debated. The two sides are (simply) advantanges/abilities based on humanity score (in both directions) or completely ignoring it.

[Ipurgepeople 106]

Bandits turning into zombies would be awesome. Love that idea.

[amaterarerasu 15]

I agree it has to be very realistic, especially with emphasis on simulation of survival, medical issues of the character, and of course ballistics etc. however, I think that it is interesting that the game retains some mystery about it, some ambiguity in regards to what is really going on etc. if the game starts feeling like it is reaching out to some cliched, default Z-Apocalypse stereotype, I think it'll lose something.

In not talking of any big fantasy thing, just to keep stuff mysterious. that way it fosters the players making up their own stories. just as the totally nameless, "avatar-body" character is very realistic but otherwise undefined.