8 Suggestions to improve Day Z.

[sharkua 1]

Here is a few suggestions I thought of that I personally thought would improve the game-play of DayZ.

1st: Hand to hand combat.

I know some may not like this idea however I thought it'd be rather good to be able to fight off Zombie using your bare hands, naturally this style of game play would not be as effective as using a gun to destroy Zombies but it'll add an interesting element to the game.

- To expand on my point I thought about ways the developers could execute this:

CQC style of combat, if you're stealthy enough you should be able to choke the zombies and snap their necks, this would also work the same way with encounter survivors.

You would also be able to push Zombies away from you. With this method I believe there should be some delay so players can't spam the push away command, call it a 5 second cool-down before being able to push a Zombie away from you again.

- You should also be able to disarm players if you're close enough to them.

2nd: Paranoia/Schizophrenia

If your character has been alive for a long period of time, he/she would begin to become paranoid, this includes hearing Zombie aggro voices where non are present, hearing gun shots and your character begins to shake uncontrollably and he'll/she'll begin to breath louder.

- To expand on my point I thought that the only way to cure your Paranoia is to take anti-psychotics, this will stop the effects of Paranoia that your character has been experiencing.

3rd: Friends.

Before entering DayZ you'll be able to set a person as a friend, once set as a friend the player would be able to locate their friend(s) via GPS, this way it'll make it much easier for players to meet up in-game.

- At the start menu their'll be a Friends option, here you enter the player's username (not profile name) into the writable area then hit add. Once the person is add it'll show if the person is online or offline, if the person is online it'll show the friend's server and there will be a button to their join game.

- Once the user is in the same server as the friend they'll have to find a GPS, once they find a GPS they'll be able to see their friend's location and hopefully leading to a meetup.

4th: Paint and Zombie walk mimic.

The user will be able to paint themselves in order to reduce their visibility from zombies.

- The user locates a paint pallet, they are then brought to a character customization mini-screen where they can paint on their faces, uniform etc. The paint lowers the visibility of the user from Zombies.

- The Zombie walk mimic is the act of copying a typical Zombie Walk, the user must have paint for this to become an effective tactic in order to evade Zombies.

The user hits a command, stands up (if crouched or prone) then begins to walk like a Zombie. Of course there is still a chance of the user gaining the Zombie's attention however if a distant the Zombie would not see him as lunch.

5th: Weight

The user starts off with a weight of 140 pounds (Male), the weight will decrease or increase due to the players diet, being at a certain weight can be dangerous of beneficial to the character.

10 Stone (98 pounds) or under: The user begins to feel weak, tired, sleepy, unable to fire a weapon.

10 Stone (140 pounds) or over: The user is at ideal weight and can execute tasks with complete control.

14 Stone (196 pounds) or over: The user has less dexterity in their movement and it becomes harder to execute tasks.

16 Stone (252 pounds) or over: It's incredibly hard for the user to execute even the most basic of tasks.

6th: Gun expertise

When the player begins the game he/she begins with a Gun efficiency = 01, is the most basic level of efficiency and provides the user with the basic accuracy.

As the player progresses through the game the Gun efficiency will increases through the player's kill count (Zombies provide 1 point and Humans provide 2 points). As the player uses the gun most often then gun efficiency increases a level and with that comes an increases of accuracy. There will be a total of 5 levels and the gun efficiency is reset upon death.

There will be no skill table in-game. Gun efficiency will be shown on the top of the inventory.

Level 01: The basic level of accuracy.

Level 02: (Requires a score of 50) The user's accuracy is increased = increases the total damage of the guns by 100 blood.

Level 03: (Requires a score of 120) Increases the total damage of guns by 500 blood.

Level 04: (Requires a score of 230) Increases the total damage of guns by 1000 blood.

Level 05: (Requires a score of 350) Increases the total damage of guns by 2150 blood.

7th: Engineering.

Engineering will allow the player the option to create and customize equipment.

- The player will have to find an Engineering tool box in order to create/customize equipment.

- Once players have located a tool box they'll be able to choose from create and customize menu.

Once they've chosen their desired equipment they'll have to find the required materials needed to build it.

For example: To create 1x hatchet the player will need the following:

1x chunk of wood.

1x Sharp Blade

Engineering will allow the player to customize/create an entire new weapon.

8th: Alpha Zombie.

Once you've geared up on DayZ it begins to lose it's scary feel, let's add that scary feel back by introducing a new type of zombie.

This Zombie will be stronger/faster/intelligent, generally greater in all ways than the average zombie. This zombie will not take only 1 hit, this zombie will need an entire team to take it down. It'll also move faster than players so running is not an option, not only this but it'll be able to 1 hit players. This zombie will only spawn once every 10 hours and it will not spawn if there is already one in the server. The size will also be larger than the average zombie, it'll be the height of three zombies (if you stacked them on each other's heads). This Zombie will chase players until it's dead or they're dead, it can not be fooled. Upon death Alpha Zombie can drop rare equipment.

New suggestion

9th: Impact on environment + Tracking

The aim here is to make DayZ as realistic as possible so I thought, "what if every action we execute makes a permanent impact on Cherno".

- Crawling over grass.

Crawling over glass should make the grass/flowers that the person crawls over stay permanently crushed.

- Footsteps

Walking on dirty land comes with a price, it'll leave dirt footprints on surfaces such as building floor and roads.

- Fireplace ash

Every time you light a fireplace you leave a small print of ash on the ground.

- Dead zombie/human bodies

Dead Zombies/Human bodies will be left on the ground and won't de-spawn, it'll give the game a creepier feel and it'll also indicate the player if there was any survivors here.

- Trees that have been chopped down for wood fall down.

- Smell

There'll be another indicator just below the hearing icon on the HUD, it'll indicate how likely you are to be smelt.

- If you haven't washed for 1 hour you leave a smell of 1.

- If you haven't washed for 3 hours you leave a smell of 2.

- If you haven't washed for 7 hours you leave a smell of 3.

- If you haven't washed for 10 hours you leave a smell of 4 and flies begin to follow you.

Now I'll explain tracking.

Tracking works with your impact on the environment, skilled players will be able to track survivors via footprints, old ashes and crushed flowers/grass on the floor.

Another new suggestion

10#: highlight map.

You'll also be able to highlight places on your Map that you're planning to raid solo or with a group. There is no limit to how many highlighted areas your can have on your map, you'll be also able to place a marker on the highlighted area, for example you can place a number 1 on one of the highlighted areas and place a number 2 on another area, this would be useful for planning areas to raid.

To highlight places of the map you'll need 1x Marker Pen which is found in supermarkets and houses, it's common loot so it shouldn't be hard to locate one.

11#: Marker Pen.

With the marker pen you'll be able to right small notes and highlight places on your map.

- Small notes, these sticky notes can be places almost anywhere and every player will be able to see them.

Thanks for reading.

Edited September 21, 2012 by sharkua

[Rusty10463 0]

Gun expertise kinda sounds like call of duty. I think everything is fine except that because there trying to make it as realistic as possible.

[sharkua 1]

Ah, I'm not a Call of Duty player so I wouldn't know of their Gun Expertise, sorry. To me it does sound realistic however, because as you become experienced with guns you are able to use it more efficiently than an ill-experienced user would.

[Lewf 27]

I really like the apranoia, but its been talked about a bunch already...

[birdman 108]

#5 is silly. If you appreciate Zombieland at all your will see that all the fat folk do not abide by rule #1.

If you add a mechanic for your gear weighing you down, maybe. I would rather not have my character become a fat ass as he runs 15k a day.

[sharkua 1]

It's not really silly if you think of it another way: Your weight is linked to your inventory, so the more items you have in your inventory the more you'll weigh. Also in terms of actually character body fat % I was thinking less about characters becoming obese but rather characters becoming underweight. Food is hard to find and your character will be running from town to town covering large distances so the likelihood of becoming underweight is actually a problem if you're a starting player.

[sharkua 1]

I've edited my first post and it contains a few more suggestions.