40 Suggestions to Improve Realism and Immersion

[jaws4096 77]

[Edited again to pare the text down to a more reasonable level.]

Shooting Mechanics

Seemingly random death from afar is an important part of Dayz, and I don’t want to change that. If someone puts the work into obtaining a decent rifle and learning to shoot it accurately, and I fail to spot him before he spots me, I deserve to die.

However, the current long range combat system is completely unrealistic. Sniping is a point-and-click affair that doesn’t reflect any of the real-world difficulty involved in shooting something really, really far away. Several of my suggestions below attempt to address this problem.

1. Significantly increase the “random aiming drift” effect for all weapons, particularly while standing and after running any significant distance.

In general, it should be much more difficult to hit people with gunfire. Even if we assume that the survivor you control is ex-military or law-enforcement, the current accuracy of all weapons is extremely unrealistic and makes the game less fun than it could be.

In real-life pistol marksmanship, a torso-sized target can reliably be hit out to about 30 meters, and a head-sized target out to around 15 meters. This assumes a stationary target, a calm and stationary marksman, and a weapon that is familiar to the shooter and in good condition.

In most Dayz close combat situations, none of these apply. The shooter and the target are often running around under great duress. They are using unfamiliar weapons that are likely to be badly maintained. In this situation, you’d be unlikely to hit someone more than 10 feet from you. I’m not suggesting we take things this far, but the current system is in serious need of adjustment.

Long-guns, like rifles and shotguns, are easier to point accurately than pistols, but are still far less accurate in real life than their portrayals in-game. Holding a highly-accurate, sighted-in rifle freehand, for example, it is fairly difficult to consistently hit a stationary torso-sized target 100 meters away. Shooting from a stable platform, skilled hunters using high-quality weapons still commonly miss stationary targets 300 meters away. To hit anything beyond 500 meters requires a rock-solid gun rest, a highly-accurate weapon that has been properly sighted-in, and a great deal of skill.

In Dayz, players are consistently head-shooting targets 600 yards away or more, from a standing position. This is completely unrealistic. Making the sights “drift” significantly more than they currently do would alleviate this problem. Crouching players would see less drift, and prone players would see very little. If a player is exhausted or seriously injured, shots beyond about 400 meters should be pretty much impossible due to sight drift, even while prone.

2.

Make breathing and fatigue a more important aspect of aiming.

Even with a solid gun rest, to hit a target over 300 meters away requires careful breathing control.

3.

Implement gun rests.

No hunter or solider would ever take a ranged shot freehand if they had the option to fire while prone, or from another supported position, like resting their weapon on a tree branch. Since the game already detects when body parts or weapons collide with objects, all that would be needed is a context menu or hotkey to “use rest” which, while selected, would anchor the gun to a game object. I envision this working sort of the way Battlefield 3 treats bipods.

4.

Implement variable wind.

Wind is a crucial variable in any ranged gunfight. It is completely unrealistic (to the point of being game-breaking, some would argue) to allow players to make 700 meter shots without having to consider anything other than bullet drop and target movement.

Wind is the most obvious and significant of the ignored long-range shooting factors, and needs to be modeled. If possible, it would be excellent to see grass blades and tree leaves moving different directions, to different degrees, based on wind.

The tricky thing is that this would be unique to each small area of the map, and probably a server resource hog. Making the wind the same across the whole map, and having it change similarly to the current dynamic weather system, would be less realistic, but also far less demanding and better than nothing. Another option would be have wind follow a predictable script for each area, on a 24-hour cycle, so that the related processing can be moved from the server to the client.

5.

Separate weapon accuracy from aiming accuracy.

In reality, the accuracy of a rifle is dependent on three things:

1. The shooter’s ability to point the barrel where he intends to shoot. This is primarily a matter of whether or not the shooter has a stable support to rest his gun on, and his skill. It can also be influenced by the type of weapon he’s using, and any attached accessories.

2. The inherent accuracy of the weapon and its ammunition. That is, how close the bullet travels relative to the way the barrel is pointed. No matter how skilled a hunter is, he can’t change the fact that the bullet will travel in a random, slightly-different path from where the gun is pointing. A typical hunting rifle might have accuracy of around 2 minutes of angle.

3. Influences on the bullet as it travels toward the target, such as wind.

One way to accurately determine bullet flight paths would be to first set the amount of weapon drift (the wavering of the gun barrel in the player’s hands) which would be based on the following:

· The type, size, and weight of the weapon (e.g. a pistol would waver far more than a rifle)

· Weapon attachments like fore grips or bipods

· Player stance

· Use of a gun rest

· Player heart / breathing rate (i.e. has he been running around a lot?)

· Player condition (serious wounds, especially to the arms, could make steady aim very difficult)

Once the player fires, we have to reflect the fact that no gun puts the bullet exactly where the shooter is aiming. This is the “weapon accuracy” part of the shooting equation. The actual bullet trajectory would be some small, random angle from “true” to the way the barrel is pointed, based on:

· Weapon type and quality

· Weapon condition, perhaps including heat (i.e. barrel warp) from repeated firing

· Ammo type and quality

Finally, exterior effects would push the bullet in-flight. These could include:

· Wind

· Thermals and other temperature-related air effects

· Spin drift

6.

Implement adjustable sights, which can be knocked out of alignment.

Most guns have adjustable sights. The odds of an average gun you pick up already being accurately sighted-in are somewhat low, especially if you’re collecting that gun from someone that met a violent end, like falling off of a building, being crushed in a helicopter crash, or being torn apart by a zombie.

Guns should have adjustable sights than can drift out of alignment if banged around. The only way to know if a gun is sighted-in is to practice shooting at something.

7.

Implement gun condition, and gun repair / cleaning.

In the real world, gunfighters are constantly worried about the condition and cleanliness of their weapons. A dirty gun is more likely to jam, and can also suffer from adverse accuracy effects. A simple system for measuring the current level of cleanliness of a gun would be great. Crawling through mud with the gun drawn, or submerging it in water, would accelerate the level of dirt. Some of the more delicate weapons would be more likely to jam with just a little “uncleanliness” while more robust, less accuracy-dependent weapons like pump-action shotguns would be serviceable even if extremely dirty.

This change would make gun oil and gun cleaning kits a necessary and valuable item in the game. It would also be an incentive to keep guns holstered or otherwise protected until sure that they are going to be used – just like real life.

8.

Increase the amount of recoil, and don’t return the gun exactly back on-target after a shot.

Even a relatively underpowered pistol, like a 9mm Glock, recoils quite a bit. It is difficult to shoot more than a round per second and maintain a high level of accuracy. Larger pistols like the .44 magnum are pretty much impossible to fire rapidly.

Rifles and shotguns are easier to hold steady, but also fire much more powerful rounds and thus also have significant recoil. Generally speaking, the 5.56mm NATO round is one of the lightest rifle rounds in-use, and is thus relatively easy to hold on target over several shots (but still has more recoil than in-game). Larger long-guns such as 7.62mm NATO sniper rifles and 12-gauge shotguns recoil quite a lot, and if you’re shooting a distant target it would take a good deal of time and effort to get the reticle back on-target after a shot.

Anti-material rounds like the .338 Lapua or .50 BMG sniper have enormous kick, and have a large muzzle blast visible even in daylight. Shooting targets at long range with these weapons, it is virtually a necessity to have a spotter reporting where shots are landing, and where the target has moved since the last shot.

9.

Implement debris / dust kick-up and shooting blankets.

When a gun is fired from a prone position, leaves, dust, and other debris will be kicked up into the air. The more powerful the gun, the larger these effects will be. This not only gives away a shooter’s position, but also obscures his vision for a short time. Laying down a blanket under the shooter can mitigate some of these effects, and would be a neat in-game feature for snipers.

10.

The longer and heavier the gun, the longer it should take to steady after large movements.

Holding a 12 pound sniper rifle, if you spin 180 degrees with the gun raised, two things will happen: First, you will spin more slowly than you otherwise could. Second, it will take a second or two to stop the gun’s movement and regain complete control over it.

Other Combat Mechanics

11. Fix long-range player visibility.

Right now, it is far easier to spot a stationary, prone person hiding in thick grass on a hillside 1,000 meters away than it is to spot them in thick grass 30 feet in front of you. This is because of the way grass rendering works, and it needs to be addressed.

One solution that would not significantly impact the system resources used would be to always render grass viewed through binoculars or telescopes, regardless of range. If too much grass is visible for the player’s system to handle, reduce its density and complexity as needed.

Even when not using binoculars, there should also always be at least a little grass rendered at a distance, so that player shapes aren’t quite so easy to pick out.

Another solution that would cost zero system resources would be to have prone players in high grass not render for other players beyond 200 meters or so. Wearing camouflage could decrease this distance. The player would still render if viewed through a scope or binoculars. If the hidden player fires his weapon, he becomes visible at all ranges for a minute or so.

12. Location-specific damage.

If a player is shot in the leg, he will limp. If shot by a powerful weapon, he may break a bone and be unable to stand. If shot in the arm, he will be less accurate while shooting. A grazing head-shot might cause a concussion, with blurred vision, vomiting, and eventual unconsciousness. Up the level of realism for wounds.

13. Realistic wound portrayal.

If someone is headshot by a high-powered rifle or shotgun, they will not have much head left, and the wound will look pretty grisly. Likewise, at the moment of impact, the display of flying viscera would be pretty disturbing. This is a dark, violent game. Give us dark, violent wounds. It would be wonderful to see this implemented with enough accuracy that a skilled player could tell what sort of weapon killed a player, at what range, and roughly how long ago.

14. After firing a gun, there should be ringing in the ears and reduced ability to hear for several minutes. Multiple shots, or shots by large weapons, should increase the severity and duration of this effect.

Just about any weapon larger than a .22 rifle will cause short-term ringing in the ears if fired without hearing protection. Even a .22 pistol is loud enough to cause slight ringing. Firing a combat pistol or large-bore rifle will cause severe ringing and reduced sensitivity to sound for several minutes. Unloading a clip of 7.62mm NATO should result in near deafness for a long time. This highly realistic mechanic might make earplugs or other hearing protection a valuable item.

15. Hits to the backpack (or rounds that penetrate people and enter the backpack) should have a chance of damaging or destroying equipment there.

This would encourage people to be careful about their shooting, and especially careful about using high explosives.

16. “Weightier” more accurate melee combat.

Melee combat should feel fair and accurate. Right now, a player swings a hatchet in the general direction of a zombie, and the zombie hopefully keels over as a result. Seeing more accurate melee combat would be a great touch. Especially since in the real world, it’s damned hard to find a gun, particularly if the area you’re in has been picked over by survivors. The game would be considerably more realistic if people had a larger variety of melee weapons and had to depend on them for longer periods when starting out – but this only works if melee combat is solid and accurate.

Weapon Modifications and Ammunition

17. Provide a variety of ammo types for each caliber, with different ballistic properties.

In the real world, there are a number of different loads for each caliber of ammunition. A 5.56 NATO round, for example, comes in a wide array of bullet shapes, bullet weights, and degrees of powder charge. Each of these variations would have different ballistic properties, and for long range shooting, would require separate sighting-in.

At ranges over about 500 meters, regular factory ammo is generally going to be too inconsistent in its performance to be effective. Match grade ammo will be required, which is quite rare in the real world.

Thanks to Kolten for pointing out the absence of this feature in the original post, and for providing some suggestions.

18. Implement weapon attachments.

Many people have suggested a weapon attachment system similar to the popular mods for Jagged Alliance 2, which would wonderful. At the very least, players should be able to swap out scopes, if they have the proper tools.

19. Implement ammunition and clip management.

The Stalker mod Redux 2.0 is currently in development and has a demo up for how they will handle ammunition management. This system isn’t supported by the Arma engine, so it will take some tweaking, but I think a system like this is necessary for a survival game like Dayz. Non-clip-fed weapons like double-barreled shotguns also need realistic ammunition management and loading animations.

Loot Balancing

20. Limit the availability of weapons based upon the server population of players, and the weapons currently in-use by those players.

At small server populations, say 5 players and under, no high-end weapons, ammunition, or equipment should spawn. This would prevent players from “raiding” secure servers and building up a risk-free horde of weapons.

As server population increases, the number of high-end items that spawn would also increase, but would be balanced to account for the weapons equipped by players, or stored in their tents and vehicles. For example, if there is already one or more AS50 sniper rifles in-use on the server, the odds of a new one spawning would be dramatically reduced. More common weapons like the AKM might start to have reduced spawning only after 10 or more were in-use.

Thanks to Mr. Two for pointing out the absence of this feature in my original post.

21. Allow admins to limit the frequency of high-end item “imports” to a server.

Many players have a cache of high-end items on an empty server, which they visit before hopping onto a highly-populated server and wreaking havoc. Aside from the “home grown” solution (see “Server Mechanics” below) one way to limit the abuse of this strategy would be to limit item imports into a server.

For example, if a player brings a set of high-end gear onto a server, he has to leave with that gear when he logs off. If he instead stashes the gear on the new server, or he dies, he has to wait 24 hours before he can join that server again carrying any high-end items. This would help ensure that he’s earning his high-end gear, rather than just farming it from a cache on another server.

22. Include a wider and more realistic array of non-military guns.

Having grown up in a semi-rural area, and having spent lots of time hunting on my grandparents’ farm in the extremely-rural Texas Hill Country, I have some experience with the typical weapons owned by a family living outside of the city (in America, at least, which I’m sure varies dramatically from Eastern Europe). In my opinion, the balance of guns in the game should tilt much more towards civilian weapons. To give an example, I’ll describe weapons typically found in my area of Texas:

· Nearly every rural household owns a .22 rifle for killing snakes, rabbits, and other varmints. The typical .22 rifle would be an open-sight bolt action. In my case, and my family is certainly not what I’d call “gun nuts”, there was a single-shot open sight .22 (from 1918!), a pump action open-sight .22, and a scoped semi-automatic .22 for plinking cans and such. After the apocalypse, there’s no doubt that .22 rifles would be the most abundant long gun around. While they are extremely underpowered for self-defense, Israeli special forces actually carry .22 pistols and use them to good effect. Since they are relatively quiet, lightweight, and ammunition is cheap and plentiful, .22 rifles make excellent survivalist guns.

· Many households own a more powerful varmint rifle for killing groundhogs, rabbits, and even stray dogs at ranges up to and over 100 meters. In my case, this was a bolt-action scoped .222, which falls between a .22 magnum and a .223 (a .223 is roughly equivalent to a 5.56mm NATO). I shot my first deer with this gun, but it is really underpowered for that size of game. Some enthusiasts own even more potent varmint guns, such as the .22-06 (a 30-06 cartridge, roughly equivalent to a 7.62mm NATO, necked down to accept a .22 bullet). These “wildcat” rounds have tremendous energy at close ranges, with muzzle velocities in excess of 4,000 FPS.

· In areas where deer are prevalent, most households will own at least one rifle specifically for hunting deer, and many people will own several. In our case, we were almost always hunting whitetail deer, which are relatively small-framed animals. We had quite a selection of rifles. The gun I shot my second deer with was an 1894 lever-action 30-30, which is another relatively underpowered gun for deer. We also owned a .223, a .243, a .270, a 7mm-08, a 30-06, and a .300 Winchester Magnum, all with decent scopes. The .300 winmag is overpowered for whitetail and was kept around mainly for out-of-state hunting trips for elk, mule deer, and other larger game.

· Most households will own a small shotgun, used mostly for varmints. We owned a single-shot, hammer-fired 4-10 shotgun and a 20 gauge pump-action shotgun for this purpose. Loaded with the proper ammunition, both of these guns are quite lethal at close range.

· If the residents are bird-hunters, there will likely be a number of other shotguns in the house. We owned an over-under 4-10, two over-under 20 gauges, a semi-automatic 20 gauge, two over-under 12-gauges, a semi-automatic 12-gauge, a Remington 870 pump-action 12-gauge, and a double-barrel 10 gauge. Again, we weren’t gun nuts, and I feel that our selection of shotguns was typical of a large hunting family.

· Most rural families would have some type of revolver or other handgun, for carrying out in the field, to deal with unexpected tasks like killing poisonous snakes or to scare away mongrel dogs. On my grandparent’s farm, there was a .38 special and a colt .45 revolver.

· My grandparents did not own any other handguns, but in my own childhood home, we had several. There was a Ruger .22 bull-barreled pistol for plinking, a .22 revolver, a Sig 238 sub-compact pistol in .380, and a Sig 226 in 9mm for self-defense.

· My family also had a Mossberg 930 semi-automatic 12 gauge shotgun, with a flashlight attached, for self-defense. Owning a shotgun solely for self-defense is fairly uncommon.

If the family in question is made up of “gun nuts”, survivalists, or other people who tend to own lots of guns, the selection of rifles and pistols would be greatly expanded. At the very least, there would almost certainly be one or more AR-15 equivalent semi-automatic rifles chambered in 5.56mm NATO.

Survival Elements

23. Implement fishing / trapping game for food.

This should probably include a greater abundance of small game like rabbits and squirrels, which are likely to make up the bulk of a wilderness survivalist's protein intake.

24. Raw / cooked meat should only be edible for a couple of days.

If rotten or raw meat is eaten, it allays hunger but could lead to vomiting and other illness.

25. Berries, mushrooms, and vegetables from gardens should be harvestable.

In the case of berries and mushrooms, some varieties should be poisonous, just as in the real world. Models should be detailed enough for players to use a real foraging book or other guide to determine what’s safe.

(Thanks to Mr. Two for this suggestion -

http://dayzmod.com/f...d-and-foraging/

).

Other Equipment

26. Introduce cammo netting, which can be thrown over any item to help conceal it.

27. Allow players to hang soda cans, scatter broken glass, or create other makeshift alarm systems.

28. Allow players to build spike pits and other rudimentary traps.

Other trap ideas (many stolen from the forums):

• Tripwire hooked to a gun to shoot anyone coming thru a door. Claymore mines. Landmines. Caltrops to slow people down or puncture tires. Oil slicks to make people slip and fall or make cars lose control... grenades/flares/chemlights rigged to tripwires. – JamesR
  
• Booby trapped vehicles that explode when started / moved.
  
• Remove slide pins/hammer pins, and plug barrels from weapons and leave them places so if sumone shot them they would explode/malfunction in their hands. – Mr Two
  
• Poisoned food.
  

Server Mechanics

29. Allow server admins to set their server to “home-grown” meaning that only players and items created on that server can play there, and they cannot play elsewhere.

http://dayzmod.com/f.....<br /><br />[

EDIT] This is basically a private hive, which already exists.

30. Increase the maximum number of players per server.

At the current map size, player interactions are too infrequent, except in a few key areas. A cap of 200 players per server would allow a more entertaining level of interaction, without ruining the desolate, isolated feeling of more “rural” areas.

This change would require significant optimization of the game engine and server programming, as 50 player servers are already quite prone to times of extreme lag.

Inventory and Gear Management

31. Weight should more realistically affect running speed and fatigue.

Maximum carrying weight in the real world is not a fixed number. A person can run at his maximum speed, with no impact on fatigue, only if he’s carrying less than around 10 pounds or so – assuming he has a backpack or other efficient way of stowing his gear. After that point, maximum speed and fatigue increase proportionally to the weight carried.

A player should be able to fill an adequately sized backpack with some large amount of gear, say 100 pounds or more, but as a result he should run at about a third of his maximum speed, and tire extremely quickly… especially if going uphill.

Dayz should model this real-world behavior. Players will have to choose between a light load (which enables them to outrun zombies) or a heavy one (which allows them to have lots of stuff). One way to realistically balance these goals would be to allow players to remove their large backpack before raiding a populated area, and retrieve it once their raid is done.

32. Gear should have both weight and size, and players should have variable capacity for both weight and size, depending on the shape and efficiency of their carrying gear, like backpacks.

33. Carrying gear should include slings, holsters, bandoliers, backpacks, fanny packs, jacket pockets, etc.

34. Include clothing that is waterproof, heavily insulated to keep players warmer, or has other benefits.

35. Allow players to carry and wield a melee weapon in addition to their main ranged weapon.

I actually find myself stashing my main weapon and equipping the hatchet when I go into towns. It’s much more sensible to take out that single agro zombie silently and risk a little damage, than to take on the entire hoard and abandon my supply mission. Give players a tricky, high-risk, silent way to kill the occasional lone zombie when it’s required, without making them do all sorts of inventory gymnastics.

Healing and Dying

36. Broken bones should be healable with splints.

Minor breaks should allow the player to slowly limp around, assuming their pain is managed. Serious breaks should immobilize a player (like the current bone break system) until the injury is splinted. Splints can be ready-made medical items, and can also be constructed from anything straight and rigid (firewood, large knife, hatchet handle, crowbar, crossbow bolt, etc) combined with a bandage.

If a player takes morphine for a minor bone break, they can run for a while, but after a few hours the pain returns if they haven’t splinted the bone and they can once again only hobble around. Serious breaks should not be correctable with morphine, though they may take the player out of shock.

37. Morphine should cause blurred vision, reduced accuracy, or other penalties to combat.

38. Non-injected painkillers should take a minute or two to have an effect.

Oral medication doesn’t kick in right away.

39. Allow infections of open wounds.

40. Include defibrillators, but limit the circumstances under which they can be used.

EDIT MykeMichael was one of several people to suggest this. Several people pointed out that if you're dying from blood loss, a defib is pretty useless. It's a great point, and a good reason to nix them altogether.

Dayz Suggestions (1.2).pdf

Edited February 14, 2013 by Jaws4096

[Disapproving Elmo 18]

Holy shit! Nice! this must have taken you a long time to write! I agree with it all and i think these would be get additions for the standalone game :D Rocket should hire you :P

[OrLoK 16182]

Hello there

Most of these have been boght up before, but it's nice to have them all in one well organised list. You have my beans.

Weapon resting has been implemented very very well in the i44 mod and also in the A.C.E. mod.

Vanilla arma needs that as a default IMHO and is my particular pet peeve.

If the game had all the above and no zeds at all I'd be a happy camper (excuse the pun).

rgds

LoK

[apache25 133]

yeah he should hire you i like the idea of berries and shrooms but booby trapping cars not good because hackers would booby trap every car in the server i dont like the north american setting as much because too many games have been set in america it just gets annoying with america america america the russian setting is a nice change the landscape is similar to the republic of ireland or scotland i think alaska would be a good setting for dayz

[jaws4096 77]

Hi guys, thanks for the positive comments. I can't take credit for mushrooms / berries... that was MrTwo.

Sorry about the formatting. I typed this up in Word, and even using the Word transposer included with the forum, the formatting didn't work well. I attached the original file for anyone interested.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Jaws4096

[Kolten 0]

5. Separate weapon accuracy from aiming accuracy.

In reality, the accuracy of a rifle is dependent on three things:

While I agree with you, you're are missing the fourth and really the most important rifle accuracy item. And, In my eyes it should be semi-easy for the devs to work with. Ammunition.

In reality, you take your average scoped .308 rifle. Buy a box of 168gn (grain) rounds. You have to zero your rifle with that ammunition to whatever distance you want to shoot. If you pickup another 168gn round from another manufacturer, the rifle in most cases will not be zero'ed correctly. Even if you have rounds where the bullet itself (in our case 168gn) are identical but from different manufacturers they shoot differently. Lest we forget the actual projectile itself, you have many different types (hollowpoints, flat nose, spitzer, full metal jacket, total metal jacket, lead flat nose, etc,etc) each shoot differently; and would have a different point of impact if the rifle is not re-zeroed after a brand or type change.

For such a system, my guess is that the devs could simply brand the ammunition you pickup, to whatever their liking and with each brand, have each with different velocity/drop values. Lower weighted / slower projectiles are more affected by wind and would have a higher bullet drop, where higher weight / high velocity are less affected.

Next I think you overlook the quality of the weapon issue some. If you are talking about a firearm built in any recent amount of time, you will find that the accuracy (real life) is fairly outstanding (for this statement I am removing the shooter himself from the equation). Modern machining of barrels especially is very, very good. So unless this is your grandfathers old original Lee Enfield, the quality would be great. And a side note, and single body shot from a Lee Enfield should be an instant death; it’s a very large round.. .303 basically the same round as a .308, that a lot of snipers use in real life.

I am not trying to criticize you; I am trying to offer other suggestions to help out. It would probably be easier for the devs to change the ammo than to add wind drift, etc to the game. As if they change the ballistics for CheapO DMR vs Milsurplus DMR they would shoot very much differently.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Kolten

[jaws4096 77]

Kolten, those are excellent points. I agree with everything you've said and would love to see different types ammunition. The idea that someone could load their M24 with any old round and headshoot someone at 500 meters is nuts, and this is an area I didn't really explore in my suggestions above. Ballistics and bullet construction will have other important game effects aside from trajectory, as well - especially if body armor is implemented.

Please criticize all you want! Thanks for contributing positively to the discussion.

[jaws4096 77]

One thing I meant to include but didn't - ammunition and clip management. The Stalker Redux 2.0 magazine system is pretty much perfect. Check out a video here:

. Arma 2 can't do this by default, so it will take some tinkering. But this would be great.

[xximrtwoixx 104]

Nice post, I'd give my beans but I'm on mobile...

You didnt address the loot economy at all though, IMO this is one of the biggest issues that needs to be adressed.

[jaws4096 77]

Hi everyone. I updated the post to fix the screwy formatting, made a bunch of edits, and added some new content. There is also a PDF file attached for easier reading offline.

[00dlez 22]

My responses below. I tried to go point by point but the text box was not cooperating, so I've summarized instead.

Shooting Mechanics:

I'm in agreement with you on most of your points, but some of them simply go too far. Increasing the realism and skill invovled with long range shots is a good addition, but including things such as cross winds and thermals? ... No. Too far. This is a zombie survival game, not a sniper simulator. Once the point/click fast scoping FPS feel is removed, I think the point will have been made and the process does not need to be over complicated.

Gun cleaning serves no in-game purpose without a special in game mechanic. If all a player must do is click the "clean gun" button and watch a 10 second animation, it contributes nothing to the game. If there is a special gun cleaning item that the player must find in order to reliably use his weapon over a long period of time, then I can see a bit more purpose, but overall I think it's a good example of how realism doesn't always translate into fun game play.

The same can be said for gun sight alignment. If all a player has to do is click the "re-align sights button" it contributes nothing to gameplay.

Other Issues:

Long range sighting - Obviously I'm in favor of more realistic camo, sighting distances, rendering, etc... but not having a game design background its hard to comment in realistic terms.

Realistic Wounds/Location Hits: I'm fine with this for the most part, but if things like broken bones are being implemented more commonly, then I would want to be able to still move in realistic fashion as well. EX: Players should be able to "hobble" on a broken leg for short bursts (possibly making the wound worse) rather being forced to prone.

Backpack Damage: Eh... Maybe. I'd hate to lose my NVG because of a lucky zombie strike. Losing gear after a frag grenade or sachel is perfectly fine, but having an axe rendered useless because of a 9mm round is a step in the wrong direction.

Melee: I think a lot of this has to do with the lack of melee in Arma and engine support as a result. I expect it to be much improved in the standalone, but bears pointing out anyway. I agree it should be more common and pervasive.

Weapon Attachements/Ammo Types:

As far as adding sights, extended mags, and other attachments being found seperately from weapons, I'm all for that. Being able to mix and match to player needs is realistic and desireable.

As with my comments on shooting mechanics, however, I think ammo types would be going too far. Slugs vs. pellets is one thing, but having to do advanced calculus when reloading is detracting from the game. Again, this is not a shooting simulator and there is a point of diminishing returns for these more complex additions. Most players cannot relate to these types of changes and I would discourage their inclusion.

Loot Balancing:

This is something I'm in favor of, but implementation can be tricky.

An organized clan with 20+ players could still hop on an emtpy server and raid high quality gear. This punishes the lone wolf style players who would have to take on much greater risk by going to populated servers to get the same competitive gear. If that's the way the developers want to take it, so be it, but I'm not sold that there isn't a better way.

If everything is connected to the Hive, perhaps limiting weapon spawns based on total # of weapons in existance is better. Weapons would never have a 0% spawn rate, so they are always findable but become more and more rare. If accounts aren't logged in for 1 week, their weapon only counts for half of the total, 1 month it is no longer counted toward the total.

As I elluded to above, I think the current guns and melee weapons are a result of the Arma engine's limits. Once melee weapons become more common and useable, I think that guns overall should become more rare, especially military grade weapons. Eliminating deer stand WEAPON drops (not ammo) would go a long way in this regard.

Survival aspects:

The addition of more survival opportunities would be a benefit to the game. However, I don't think that food should just suddenly become more common with the addition of all the new sources. I think adding a counter that decreases over time would properly reinforce these new sources, making the struggle for food a constant concern. Right now, 1 trip to a supermarket can last a character for days, food and water haven't been a concern for me since I first started playing and I'd like to see that change.

Adding more opportunities to harvest food and drink but increasing their need to the character would be a good balance.

Other Equipment:

I think a better heading might be "Enviornment Interaction". Giving the player the opportunity to build crude traps, tools, and creatively interact with the environment would be a huge benefit to the game. Ranging from the starting player digging a small pit to store food in to advanced groups building forts and buildings with industrial tools; possibilities are nearly endless.

I've mentioned something similar in other posts I've made, refering to this as making the game more "Minecraft-y". Given a certain recipie and the right raw materials, any number of things can be created by the player.

Server Stuff:

Home-grown is interesting and has some merit. As I play alone and don't really server hop it wouldn't affect my game play one way or the other, so I don't have a specific comment.

Player limits are just fine the way they are, maybe increasing to the 60-80 range, but more than that and I think you will lose the rural/urban feel to map populations. Right now, a populated server is almost assured of having interaction around hotspots (Cherno/Elektro/Airfields) but outside of those there is still a good chance of encountering other players. 200 is insane. Hotspots are already dangerous and I don't think they would be much more popualted than they currently are. I think the additional players would be driven away and the rural areas would be overpopulated as a result.

Inventory and Gear Management:

I'm sure a more streamlined and user friendly inventory system is at the top of everyone's wish list, so I won't harp on all the well known flaws.

Waterproof/warm clothing is a fine inclusion, but like I've pointed out with some of the other suggestions, it just seems pointless given the current game structure. I've not had an issue with body heat yet, certainly not to the point where special clothing is needed. Unless more is done with environmental effects on a character, I see no point to including items like these.

Having to balance both space and wieght is a great suggestion. I couldn't carry 50 pillows due to space much in the way that I couldn't carry 8 AS50's and move very quickly due to weight. I am blanking on the name of the game, but it was another zombie mod where the more a player carried, the slower they moved, but there was a "Panic Button" which dropped everything a player was carrying and bossted their speed to greater than that of a zombie - something like that could work very well I think.

Healing/Dying:

Same as my comments before, the more realism the better, but so long as serious injuries have ways to work around them, even if it is a short term solution. If a broken bone really stops me from moving around at anything but a crawl, I should still be able to hobble inside a building for a last stand attempt rather than be limited to only prone crawling. This is where realism might kill enjoyability, I don't want to have to crawl from NWAF to Cherno just to get a special splint item for my broken leg from the hospital. Special care should be taken so that probability of an injury type has a similar "cure" spawn rate.

On reviving fallen players, I'm okay with it, especially if there is a way to include/exclude certain injuries and overwhelming traumas.

Hope these responses help you in your thinking.

[Karon 3]

I really really really like your Ideas and the way you arranged them. Even though I am a pretty new player (just bought ArmA X Anniversay Edition just for DayZ) I allready got many things on my mind that would drasticly improove the intensity of the game. Most of them would come into the topic: Survival Elements, as I never really encountered other survivors (even though I play on 30+ servers usually) and when I did I usually made a turn around them because I play my charackter as I would do in RL, which means no interaction with others unless needed. Explaining why would take me off my intended topic so I will just let it be.

Survival Elements

Weather Impact:

Weather doesnt really has an impact on the players health or his survivalbility. Its good for visionadvantage when sneaking towards citys or loot positions but thats it. I've read that staying outside to long in the rain can make you ill, but the first time I played the game I spawned in the deepest night in the middle of a heavy rain storm, I ran literraly 30 minutes through the woods and hills and didn even catch a cold. I think you should at least get slowed down by such heavy weather situations and in a perfect state you should get ill just by the fact that your body isnt made to resist against such heavy weather circumstances.

Also on the other hand if you are in the open and its clearsky + noon sun your waterlevel should shrink faster as you dehydrate faster in rl too - this will also let the player think before he moves and not just let him rush from town to town to scavenge and move on.

Another point which I like to add would be the fact that DAYZ runs in realtime (as far as I am concerned) therefore having seasons would add so much more depth to the game, I dont know how much this would affect server capacitys but it would give a huge boost to the realism (having effects on the condition of the player as well, e.g. winter high risk of undercooling etc., also foot prints in the snow etc. )

Next Point, Night. It feels like the night is like a bit to dark. I often sit outside in the night (and there are not realy man lightscource nearby) and I still have a pretty good vision as my eyes adapt to the few lightsources in my surrounding (aka the moon) and some distant streetlights. In DAYZ I sometimes have nights that are pitch black. I mean I couldnt even see the horizon or skyline of the trees or anything, it was just deepest darkness. I guess this varies from server to server because the last few days I could see quite well in the night (got a nvg thought but barely use it as I dont move much in the night). ANd yes I know night isnt classified as weather, but I think you get the point.

Thats the weathersystem so far.

Food

I really like the points you've written down about fishing etc. but I've got more to contribute towards the foodmanagement in dayz.

I think food is way to easy obtain right now. It should be way more rare, like the animals. I barely come across animals but I usually find around 4-7 cans of food in the supermarkets and around 1-2 cans in smaller villages. I think the amount is okay but the respawn timer for such should be way lower. Like once or twice a day because right now I carry 7 cans of food with me and usually only eat one when I find a new one, and I've never came to get a deep orange food indicator which shows me its to easy to get food.

With the decrease of food availibilty I come to another point of mine which would make the game WAY more intense.

Cannibalism

Yes it sounds horrible, but having the abbility to eat the bodys of killed survivors or harvest their meat adds a new aspect of horror to the game, thus would mean: no animals, no cans, no vegetables, no fishes - well there are still humans I could eat.

I probably would shoot one of my fellow survivors if I had to do so in order to survive.

Of course this needs to have side effects on the body as well as the mind of the players charackter.

Thats so far what came up to my mind and you did not allreay mentioned (just from playing the game for 4 days) concerning the survival elements.

Other then that I got some points regarding the landscape and general gameplay.

Landscape

Special Places

So far the game lacks, in my opinion, some places of extremly high risk - not by players but by the nature/landscape/history of the place itself. I was thinking about something like a fallout area or a deep dark mine with traps in it or falling rocks or what ever (your mind is the only limitation), which would reward the brave players with super rare loot, e.g. rad. ammo (which ofc would only spawn once a week or so and only 1 mag or even just a half, something thats worth taking the risk of getting radioactive pulluted or smashed by falling rocks.

Neutral Places

I am not sure how far this is a good idea, but I think there should be like one or two small camps that are neutral (everyone is welcome, you can also kill inside but this will get you banned from the camp, npcs removing the charackter to a distant point and shooting him on sight when he comes to close, shooting into the zone from outside the camp as well as the other way around isnt possible thus preventing snipers camping such camps).

With having these neutral camps up there would also be an economy system inside the game without really adding one as people have the abbility to trade items, set bountys on other peoples head etc.

Trading is within the human nature so this should also be in the game to intensify the experience.

Also beeing a bantid would be an autoban from these places which would make it an even harder decision to either be a good or a bad person. But you dont get the bandit status just for killing people, there need to be whitnisses. Like people in 1000 meters range around the killed person are counted as whitnisses (just an example).

Have pretty complex I deas behind this but I am trying to hold this as simple as possible, also because my english isnt that good and I kinda lack the woords to explain everything in detail without looking up half of the words.

My last point is more face towards the game mechanics.

Game Mechanic

Player Perspective

Right now most of the servers have 3P Vision enabled, for the fact stated by rocket I think, that the human in reallity has a nearly 180° fov while you only have around 100° in first person ingame. BUT the big cons to having the extra fov with 3P is that you can easily exploit it to watch around corners without even peeking with your head out AND it takes a big part of the intensivity of the game.

I played the game on a 3P:OFF Server for around 15 hours, and these 15 hours were way more intense then the other 12 I spent with my charackter on a 3P:ON server, just because the effects of the wounds etc. are way more present. Having your whole fov blurred out by having not enough blood is way more intense in FP then in 3P (I tried to help a friend of mine to get up and I literraly couldnt see him until I stood infron of him because I thaught we was a pile of junk because my sceen was shaking so hard and everything was blurred out and b/w), tehrefore I would suggest even though we lose a lttile of our fov, FP only.

I am sorry for my broken english - have a nice day.

-edit-

nice to see that some of my ideas have been thought by other peoples to and maybe make it into the standalone :).

Edited September 10, 2012 by Karon

[jaws4096 77]

Karon and OOdlez,

Thanks for the thoughtful posts! Some great points there.

[Exenima 45]

You adressed a lot of issues, well done for that. I don't know if you mentioned it, but when firing a sniper you have to account for the drop. There is no way a sniper round will continue at the same volocity from when it's shot to when it hits the target, unless it is at a reasonable distance. Sniper's at long distance aim above the target, accounting for the drop of the bullet and the distance of the target. there is no way in real life you could aim at a body from 700m away and expect the target to get hit just like that. I agree with your weapon mechanism post, there has to be some sort of skill that goes into killing a target from a distance with a sniper.

[00dlez 22]

Another point which I like to add would be the fact that DAYZ runs in realtime (as far as I am concerned) therefore having seasons would add so much more depth to the game, I dont know how much this would affect server capacitys but it would give a huge boost to the realism (having effects on the condition of the player as well, e.g. winter high risk of undercooling etc., also foot prints in the snow etc. )

Neat, maybe, but no different than now, folks would just avoid the winter servers to play on summer servers or what have you. If it was some how forced (all servers have the same seasonal effect, enforced via "seasonal patches") then maybe, but I don't think it's worth the hassle.

Cannibalism

Yes it sounds horrible, but having the abbility to eat the bodys of killed survivors or harvest their meat adds a new aspect of horror to the game, thus would mean: no animals, no cans, no vegetables, no fishes - well there are still humans I could eat.

This has been brought up before. To me, it seems like horror for horror's sake and not very good horror at that. Just the way a person can play violent video games and kill other players for hours on end, it's just a game and they can go on with thier lives without any psychological effects. Just clicking the "Gut Survivor" button instead of "Gut animal" button to feed the character wouldn't make much difference to 95% of players, myself included.

Neutral Places

I am not sure how far this is a good idea, but I think there should be like one or two small camps that are neutral (everyone is welcome, you can also kill inside but this will get you banned from the camp, npcs removing the charackter to a distant point and shooting him on sight when he comes to close, shooting into the zone from outside the camp as well as the other way around isnt possible thus preventing snipers camping such camps).

I am against this. 1) Trading in such an environment should be risky, no different than any other player interaction.

2) What is to stop snipers from waiting until players leave the camp to fire? Eliminating deaths in the camp won't stop the end result.

Player Perspective

Right now most of the servers have 3P Vision enabled, for the fact stated by rocket I think, that the human in reallity has a nearly 180° fov while you only have around 100° in first person ingame. BUT the big cons to having the extra fov with 3P is that you can easily exploit it to watch around corners without even peeking with your head out AND it takes a big part of the intensivity of the game.

Fix the first person perspective and I'll be fine with no 3rd person. Not being able to see beyond the grass tuft in front of you without either crouching or using 3rd person might be intense but it's hardly practical. There's a peek left/right button... except not while prone. A "peek up" button would be useful and make not using 3rd person more practical.

You adressed a lot of issues, well done for that. I don't know if you mentioned it, but when firing a sniper you have to account for the drop. There is no way a sniper round will continue at the same volocity from when it's shot to when it hits the target, unless it is at a reasonable distance. Sniper's at long distance aim above the target, accounting for the drop of the bullet and the distance of the target. there is no way in real life you could aim at a body from 700m away and expect the target to get hit just like that. I agree with your weapon mechanism post, there has to be some sort of skill that goes into killing a target from a distance with a sniper.

This is already a part of the game. Rifles, specifically those with scopes, need to have their ranges dialed in to fire accurately beyond a few hundred meters. It's up to the player to set the range which is why it's good to have a range finder if you intend to do a lot of sniping.

[jaws4096 77]

Several friends reading this post have privately commented that increased aim drift would be adequate for solving the "point and click" sniping issue, and that the other modifiers, like wind, are superfluous. I believe that sniping is far too easy and game-breakingly overpowered, which is why I advocate modeling most of the real-world complexity of long-range shooting, wherever possible. Players who want to shoot people at ranges of 100-200m could ignore these complexities. However, just as in real life, those who wish to take out targets beyond 400-500 meters will need to have quite a lot of knowledge and experience to be effective.

Another way of putting this is that in a real-life survival situation, I wouldn't constantly be worried about someone 600 meters or more away head-shooting me as I moved around a small town looking for beans. It simply wouldn't happen with the frequency it does in Dayz, and there are good reasons for that - reasons that can be accurately modeled in the Arma II engine.

[Heiduk 265]

40. Include defibrillators, but limit the circumstances under which they can be used.

This doesn't seem to fit with your stated goal of increasing realism. Defibrillators are not a treatment for any of the ways you can die in DayZ; trauma, starvation, or dehydration. Unless players start randomly dropping dead from sudden cardiac arrest I don't see much place for them.

[colekern 1364]

I don't like #29. I have to switch servers occasionally due to ping.

[omgwtfbbq (DayZ) 1069]

I like it. Things to be added under medical:

ABILITY TO OVERHEAT:

• Not drinking enough water/long periods of running would cause this
  
• Can be countered by staying in the shade and indoors
  
• Player passes out if overheated, can be revived with the aforementioned Defibrillator, but only if player has heart attack, rather than just passing out
  
• Revival from overheating takes a while to cool down, as well as a few bottles of water/cans of soda
  
• Easy to implement, just make the thermometer icon go red, and when flashing red, player passes out
  
• As soon as thermometer starts to flash, player passes out. Would encourage players to drink water to prevent that. Because let's be honest, if you're having a heatstroke, you don't go "Oh no, I'm blinking. Better drink some water so I don't pass out!" No, you would just pass out
  
• Dehydration + Overheating would lead to blood loss, eventually leading to death
  
• When thermometer meter starts to get redder, player running speed decreases exponentially, as well as panting, which would lead to wheezing, which can be heard by players and zombies
  
• Once meter is returned to the green zone, player is returned to normal
  

I'm surprised that this isn't already in the game, because it's already possible to get cold. Why can't I get hot when it's daytime and I'm running endlessly and not drinking water unless I'm dying of dehydration?

[jaws4096 77]

This doesn't seem to fit with your stated goal of increasing realism. Defibrillators are not a treatment for any of the ways you can die in DayZ; trauma, starvation, or dehydration. Unless players start randomly dropping dead from sudden cardiac arrest I don't see much place for them.

Good point!

[jaws4096 77]

I don't like #29. I have to switch servers occasionally due to ping.

I recently learned that this is already an option for admins. A "private hive". Actions on these servers don't affect your master hive character at all, and some people seem to really enjoy playing on these servers. Hacking seems to be much less frequent, apparently.

[rollo23 57]

I like it. Things to be added under medical:

ABILITY TO OVERHEAT:

• Not drinking enough water/long periods of running would cause this
  
• Can be countered by staying in the shade and indoors
  
• Player passes out if overheated, can be revived with the aforementioned Defibrillator, but only if player has heart attack, rather than just passing out
  
• Revival from overheating takes a while to cool down, as well as a few bottles of water/cans of soda
  
• Easy to implement, just make the thermometer icon go red, and when flashing red, player passes out
  
• As soon as thermometer starts to flash, player passes out. Would encourage players to drink water to prevent that. Because let's be honest, if you're having a heatstroke, you don't go "Oh no, I'm blinking. Better drink some water so I don't pass out!" No, you would just pass out
  
• Dehydration + Overheating would lead to blood loss, eventually leading to death
  
• When thermometer meter starts to get redder, player running speed decreases exponentially, as well as panting, which would lead to wheezing, which can be heard by players and zombies
  
• Once meter is returned to the green zone, player is returned to normal
  

I'm surprised that this isn't already in the game, because it's already possible to get cold. Why can't I get hot when it's daytime and I'm running endlessly and not drinking water unless I'm dying of dehydration?

hmmm i doubt overheating would be much of an issue when the game is based in Russia, maybe if the standalone is set in australia/africa/mexico i can see this being a usefull game mechanic.

[00dlez 22]

I like it. Things to be added under medical:

ABILITY TO OVERHEAT:

• Not drinking enough water/long periods of running would cause this
  
• Can be countered by staying in the shade and indoors
  
• Player passes out if overheated, can be revived with the aforementioned Defibrillator, but only if player has heart attack, rather than just passing out
  
• Revival from overheating takes a while to cool down, as well as a few bottles of water/cans of soda
  
• Easy to implement, just make the thermometer icon go red, and when flashing red, player passes out
  
• As soon as thermometer starts to flash, player passes out. Would encourage players to drink water to prevent that. Because let's be honest, if you're having a heatstroke, you don't go "Oh no, I'm blinking. Better drink some water so I don't pass out!" No, you would just pass out
  
• Dehydration + Overheating would lead to blood loss, eventually leading to death
  
• When thermometer meter starts to get redder, player running speed decreases exponentially, as well as panting, which would lead to wheezing, which can be heard by players and zombies
  
• Once meter is returned to the green zone, player is returned to normal
  

I'm surprised that this isn't already in the game, because it's already possible to get cold. Why can't I get hot when it's daytime and I'm running endlessly and not drinking water unless I'm dying of dehydration?

hmmm i doubt overheating would be much of an issue when the game is based in Russia, maybe if the standalone is set in australia/africa/mexico i can see this being a usefull game mechanic.

I agree with luke, but to elaborate even more, a lot of the symptoms begin to overlap with other conditions experienced by the character and makes remedying them difficult to do accurately. Granted, this is a realistic fear (I might take painkillers/headache medicine when I am actaully dehydrated, for example) but as far as gameplay/fun goes i don't think it would add a useful element,,, especially when the HUD is removed and you will already be guessing a little as to what is wrong and how to fix it.

[Zeppa 562]

Take some BEANS brotha!

[Spekter 3]

I agree with a lot of this but it's far too much to be specific. I will say that giving server admins more control than they have is a bad idea. I can think of at least ten servers that will restart over and over when certain people are online so they can farm heli crashes. Giving them control over loot spawning will end badly.

While making sniping and shooting in general more realistic would be great; it leaves a wide gap in player survival against zombies. It also would turn most players away because they do not want to learn how mil dots work or how to determine range without a range finder. You're asking everyone to learn what marine snipers spend months training for in a few hours. Windage should be out. However, a sniper should have to compensate for a 1000m shot. After reading your post, I perched myself on a hill about a 1000 meters from a target of sorts in an open plain. I put the crosshairs of my as50 on the target and let loose a round. It hit at least 20 meters in front of the target. So I think some skill requirements are in place already. It is not all too easy to snipe a player from a 1000 meters. I suppose if you just fired all 20 rounds from a DMR at them it is easy but then everyone also knows where you are.