Make DayZ Scary Again.

[lockie1976 39]

Simple...

1. Remove all sniper and scoped weapons.

1a. Means view distance can be increased without even more fresh spawn killers.

2. Remove all thermal weapons (and piss off all these US/western weapons, eastern block weapons are SOOO much more fitting, logic really)

3. Remove NVG... this leaves rangefinders as the ONLY source of NV.

Thats just a start...

edit:

I'll explain what an amazing effect this would have if ppl can't work it out for themselves...

Edited September 19, 2012 by i76

[Paddy0610 278]

Think it will be done:

One Line Rocket answere Thread

34. Q: Do you feel that the presence of very high level weapons and equipment, like L85 with thermal optics, M107, nightvision, and so on, are in adequation with the authenticity of a Survival, Post-apocalyptic game?

A: Nope, they are not. but there was not many other options as ArmA2 is a military simulator. For the standalone, we are working on others but these won't be required to be finished for the standalone to be release, in other words the new weapons (more like what you would find at home) will be available as they get done, some of which may be when Alpha is released, rest of them will be next year as they get made. I think successfully raiding and finding military caches will be important, and will give you advanced items - but (i know from personal experience) maintaining this equipment is not easy. Durability, batteries, etc... will even these problems out I think.

[Exenima 45]

I don't mind sniper rifles, i just want it to be realistic, like using range finders to mark the approximate range of the target, dialing it in to the rifle and taking the target out, for long distances of course, but this will reduce fresh spawns being sniped 700 metres away dramatically

[lockie1976 39]

Think it will be done:

One Line Rocket answere Thread

Ohh... that sounds promising.... I guess by that time I'll be playing ArmA 3 and will have forgotten about dayz lol

[Cronic (DayZ) 35]

I like it, i truley do however; the vast majority of people on this forum, me included, think from only one perspective. I wonder how many copies of ARMA2 have sold off the back off DayZ? A few i'd imagine.

My point is that the DayZ standalone is a product. Looking from the devs perspective, this product needs to sell to as many people as they can. I think the key people are in place to give us a truely great standalone, but the priority is getting a return on an investment.

Taking away things like sniper rifles alienates people who would of otherwise bought it. I don't think taking away is necessarily adding to the experence. There's loads of ways that you could make it scary again.

e.g Adding newer, more formidable foes would be a great. More diverse weaponary, zombies running in buildings. as you said in your OP 'That's just a start'

But i do love the realisim that your suggesting. I only hope the standalone will be as open to the moddding community as ARMA2. Never forget your roots :)

[Cronic (DayZ) 35]

Ohh... that sounds promising.... I guess by that time I'll be playing ArmA 3 and will have forgotten about dayz lol

LOL! That's a very, very good point. The standalone better be good :) Oh love the HG Wells quote. Beans for you.

[liquidcactus 719]

Simple...

1. Remove all sniper and scoped weapons.

1a. Means view distance can be increased without even more fresh spawn killers.

2. Remove all thermal weapons (and piss off all these US/western weapons, eastern block weapons are SOOO much more fitting, logic really)

3. Remove NVG... this leaves rangefinders as the ONLY source of NV.

Thats just a start...

edit:

I'll explain what an amazing effect this would have if ppl can't work it out for themselves...

looks like someones been having a rough time :(

haha i agree at limiting the military weapons but night vision is so fucking rare anyway you must be having a bad time !

most of what you state i think is ok for the moment, my only game breaking concern is these damn shit cunt hackers.. fuckers are everywhere.. when i first started playing about 4 months ago there was know where near as many as today !

i cant go a few days without being killed by one.

[Sneakers O'Toole 57]

I wouldn't play this game without there being high-grade military gear, and that goes for a sizeable % of others, so this being a business venture, they should not get too medieval.

I guess I can see the attraction at having only basic weapons and no night vision, so that torches are the only source of illumination. I dunno, maybe have different servers allowing military gear, and some servers being only low-grade luddite gear.

[Tersidre 168]

the problem is how rampant duping and such has gotten in this mod version.

I personally feel that if they could make it so the extremely high grade weapons like the AS50 and such would be extremely low and rare spawns maybe once a week on any particular server and make the ammo for them just as rare it would bring alot of the "scary" into the game and really make people THINK before pulling out that as50.

Shotguns,, small side arms (g17 is an excellent choice to have as a common weapon especially if the game were to take place in any major city in the us as the glock in general is widely.. WIDELY used amongst law enforcement here)... and maybe even to an extent something like a ar-13 or AK47 could be considered average weapons... a low grade bolt action hunting rifle could be considered common as well depending where you are in the world.

keep things like thermal vision.. ghillie suits..high powered rifles and explosives rare(though honestly im for the g-suits being common but things like camo and such should be waaaay more common then they are).

[malau (DayZ) 36]

I like it, i truley do however; the vast majority of people on this forum, me included, think from only one perspective. I wonder how many copies of ARMA2 have sold off the back off DayZ? A few i'd imagine.

My point is that the DayZ standalone is a product. Looking from the devs perspective, this product needs to sell to as many people as they can. I think the key people are in place to give us a truely great standalone, but the priority is getting a return on an investment.

Taking away things like sniper rifles alienates people who would of otherwise bought it. I don't think taking away is necessarily adding to the experence. There's loads of ways that you could make it scary again...........

You're right, business is king, but DRH is a unique guy, he's more Orson Welles than Michael Bay, and he obsessively sticks to his 'vision' of the game and refuses to compromise regardless of however many more copies it might sell.

People said he would kill the game when he took the pistol away from new spawners, but he stuck to his 'vision' regardless.

For better or worse, he seems to view DayZ as a social experiment as much as a game - he gives you x resources and sits back and watches as we abuse and fuck each other over.

DRH has the full backing of BIS Management to do whatever he wants in accomplishing his 'vision' for Dayz, if that includes removing super advanced sniper rifles from the game then that's what he'll do.

[The_Dude (DayZ) 27]

Think it will be done:

One Line Rocket answere Thread

OMG... it mentions the use of batteries for electronic items! Thank goodness.

[Katana67 2907]

How does the inclusion of scoped weapons translate to a less scary game? Personally, the idea of a sniper in every hedgerow is pretty damn scary to me... as well as counter-sniping. Oh, and being an underequipped survivor with the prospect of being in someone's scope 24/7 in high-risk areas is pretty effing scary.

People hate the military weapons so much for some reason. I don't understand why. I get that they should be rare, but I don't want my only reasonable option to be idiotic tongue and cheek zombie cliche's like a double-barrelled shotgun, a hatchet, and a fucking bolt-action. Suprise people, civilians in a lot of countries can own military-grade weapons. I know several people within a five mile radius of myself that own semi-automatic assault rifles, including myself. Granted, this is "Amurrrica" and there is of course... a whole 'nother world out there... but still, weapons proliferation is pervasive globally and it is plausible to find assault rifles in a variety of locations.

I'm not saying we should be able to find an AR or AK in every house, but it should be a -rare- possibility. Military installations are pretty obvious, they should have the dope shit... end of story. Perhaps a better solution would be, to have assault rifles without optics... like the bone-stock AK74/AKM and M4A1/M16A2 be available in Deer-Stands and SELDOMLY in a rare house spawn. All weapons with optics should spawn at helicopter crashes and military bases. This is already semi-in-place, but there is some significant overlap. Deer-Stands need to have their own loot category, not just be lumped into General Military. Or, Deer Stands need to be changed to FOB's or OP's or something more military-oriented to justify it.

Or, just have optics be a separate item to loot and attach, boom.

Some scoped weapons, like the DMR, are far too easy to find. They did a good job with the CZ 550, in that it used to spawn in every house... and now I've only found one in my last 2 months of play... much less any ammo for it. However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be in the mod... nor should it mean that they're somehow a detriment to Day Z.

I also don't see the problem with NVG's and NV weapons. It took me three months of play to find one on a dead player, and another month to find one at a helicopter spawn. Not using that as hard evidence, but in my own experience, they're rare enough. Now, do I think they should be compatible with scoped weapons? Maybe. Doesn't bother me, but I could live without it. NV weapons however, I wouldn't mind having them gone, simply because they're far too useless to me to justify anything.

EDIT - And also, with what Rocket said about batteries and whatnot, that is a great way of making high-end weapons more realistic and balanced [i guess, I personally think they're just fine]. Hell, a weapon maintenance mechanic would be more than welcome... and I assume it'll be in the standalone.

EDIT 2 - I reitterate, I do -NOT- want my only weapon choices to be cliche'd zombie weapons... like a chainsaw, or a double-barrelled shotgun, or a bolt-action, or a hatchet/crowbar. Regardless of what Max Brooks might have shoved up the asses of every idiot, AR-15's kill people just fine... they'll kill zombies just fine too. Every round that's not .30-06 isn't trash.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Katana67

[Thunfisch (DayZ) 9]

Sniper Rifles are ok as long as they are something like hunting rifles and not hi-tec military rifles like the m107

[Lewf 27]

This topic is very interesting. I agree on maintaining hig-grade weapons (maybe not as high as an l85). However, that's where duping and hacking come in place.... It almsot seems like every topic comes down to that.

[The_Dude (DayZ) 27]

The average joe probably wouldnt even know how to maintain a high end military rifle, much less use it efficiently. Sure.. a hunting rifle or two is fine with average optics... but a thermal scoped M107?? ridiculous. I also think that night vision should be extremely rare and add to that a limited battery life.

[Katana67 2907]

The average joe probably wouldnt even know how to maintain a high end military rifle, much less use it efficiently. Sure.. a hunting rifle or two is fine with average optics... but a thermal scoped M107?? ridiculous. I also think that night vision should be extremely rare and add to that a limited battery life.

Well, I don't think the average joe would know how to operate an assault rifle... or even start a fire in the wild. So I think we can assume our character has some knowledge of what he/she is doing, and is more an embodiment of us than anything.

However, perhaps "Maintenance Handbooks" should be included? Sounds a little to RPG-y to me. And where are these thermal scoped M107's? There's nothing high-tech about an M107, in fact, it's really a simple design... which is why it's a solid platform. It's no more complicated internally than an AK47, just on a larger scale.

NVG's are already rare enough in my experience, having found -two- since starting play in April. I do agree that battery life should be a concern.

As to the concerns about duping and hacking, I feel that is a separate issue which may play into people's senses of how rare/common a weapon really is. However, it must be addressed separately from the discussion of whether or not high-end weapons should be included at all.

[John Spectre 32]

If your curious about how an arms race has destroyed a potentially great Sandbox type game, Play Eve online.

I wouldn't play this game without there being high-grade military gear, and that goes for a sizeable % of others, so this being a business venture, they should not get too medieval.

I guess I can see the attraction at having only basic weapons and no night vision, so that torches are the only source of illumination. I dunno, maybe have different servers allowing military gear, and some servers being only low-grade luddite gear.

No offence to you, but this is a very common comment and if it actually influences Devs, it starts a never ending arms race for bigger better faster more deadly etc... Focus must always be on creating the survival experience, not on selling games to who ever complains. I understand the business model, I understand that consumers are paying for a product however, consider this game as much art as science. If the objective is to evoke emotion from the player (other than excitement) then certain limitations must be placed on the experience. Just my 2 cents.

[bazbake 456]

"I wouldn't play this game unless it was Arma II with zombies."

...

Noted.

Interestingly enough, people keep doing polls on the forums and they keep showing two things. 1. 70% of players own a .50 caliber sniper rifle. 2. More than 80% of players would be fine if we threw out vehicle storage and tents and everyone started over from scratch when they died. So it's interesting to see what habits players end up falling into that they wouldn't otherwise engage in based on how a small segment of players have skewed the game. Namely, the high-level use of military weapons seems to be driven by this arms race for domination which is supported by persistent storage. But most players (on the forums at least) don't really want to play the game this way but they have to because of players like Hyp3r.

[terrvik 2409]

Hopefully people will stop thinking about DayZ as a military simulator with zombies once it goes standalone.

Give me less ammo, more ways to die (from the environment) and crappier weapons and it'll get scary (again... I was terrified when I first played this game six months ago).

[Clydfrog 44]

I do agree with some of this. NVG's make this game very boring at night. It is just a bunch of people with nightvision (and yes I have them too and have had many through my characters). But using Flares and chemlights, as well as tactical lights on rifles brings so much more to the gameplay at night. It is actually scary to think someone could see you, as well as hunting other players who use them. NVGs just give a rediculous and boring advantage. Same with thermal, I agree the game should not have this. It is just boring for the same reason NVGS are boring. However, snipers should remain in the game completely (except the as50 which also have currently and have used extensively). An anti material rifle just doesn't belong in this game, and something that just one shots players in the toe. Again, a boring weapon that just waters down the gameplay. These things just make the game boring, but all other snipers should remain in this game.