DayZ DIAF - A custom DayZ Mod I'm working on. Input appreciated!

[venthos 605]

This first post is now OUT OF DATE. Please see this thread for more details and another video!

So, today I started a project. That project being modifying DayZ to include bug fixes for the current DayZ version as well as custom mechanics/features that I think could be interesting.

Since my current DayZ server's hostname is "dayz.dieinafire.com", I'm lovingly calling this mod "DayZ DIAF" to indicate its origins.

There's a lot to do still before I would consider it workable to start having people play on it. But, with the massive volume of DayZ servers out there I'm not even sure if people

care about something like this. So I want to see what interest (if any) is out there. Should there be interest, this would be a whitelist only server when it's put online.

Thanks goes to ayan4m1, as I'm utilizing his Private-DayZ dayz_server.pbo code and Hive system as a base for the server-side stuff.

The end goal is to hopefully create a near hack-free, absolutely dupe-free and douche-free server environment with some various tweaks to mechanics. I by no means am presenting this as "this is how DayZ should be. I'm right, Rocket is wrong!". I'm just damn curious how things in DayZ's gameplay changes if I spin some dials and pull on some levers. This mod will be a living entity and core mechanics will likely change based on in-game testing and feedback. But, I need people interested in this to even possibly have the chance at some fun.

If you have ideas or want to play on the box once I have an initial baseline up and running, let me know. I'd love to have this thing capped out and running a full community at some point. But, this thread could also slip into the ether because everyone thinks I'm an idiot for doing this. Let's find out, shall we?

Video of Current Changes:

Current Changes:

[ Bug Fixes ]

* Fixes of original DayZ bugs *

- It is no longer possible to drink without consuming the drink item

- It is no longer possible to eat without consuming the food item

- It is no longer possible to pitch a tent without consuming the tent item

- It is no longer possible to switch clothes (ghillie/camo) without consuming the clothing

- It is no longer possible to build hedgehogs/sandbags/catwire without consuming the item

- It is no longer possible to use medical items without consuming the item

- It is no longer possible to generate infinite full water bottles at water sources

- Switching skins no longer repairs pain shakes and broken legs

- Switching skins no longer resets your backpack to an old pack

- Switching skins no longer potentially dupes your backpack

- Switching skins no longer refills ammo

- Switching skins now properly remembers your currently wielded weapon vs. swapping to the one you had earliest obtained.

[ Anti-Douche Bag Changes ]

+ Introduced the base mechanic of stopping ALT-F4 / combat logging. The "Combat" system. If you fire at somebody or have someone firing bullets near you (they don't have to hit you) then both such players go into "Combat". For testing, this duration is 30 seconds and has an indicator. The "Abort" option is blocked while in combat. If you disconnect for ANY reason while in combat (such as ALT-F4) I can have the server retaliate. Potential plans is to insta-kill the player and spawn a corpse with their loot in their place. This should eliminate combat logging entirely.

[ Vehicle Changes ]

+ MH-6J (Littlebird) added as a pure transport helicopter (Can't wait for these to be buzzing around!).

[ Backpack Changes ]

- Backpacks are no longer capable of holding any weapons. This attempts to force

squads to form and individuals to take on speicalized roles with their weapon

choice vs. carrying weapons for all situations on every person.

[ Starter Items ]

- No longer start with any backpack. Not only does this force you to stay near towns a

bit longer, but it makes that little 4 slot vest pouch actually something people might

pick up and use!

[ Item Removals ]

- "Flashlight" removed (Everyone spawns with one... so why have it use up a loot spawn chance?)

- Satchel charges removed (The cool factor is hampered by the douche bag factor)

- One battle rifle removed

* FN FAL AN/PVS-4

- All silenced weaponry removed

* M9 SD

* MP5 SD

* M4A1 CCO SD

* Bizon SD

- All sniper rifles removed

* CZ 550

* M24

* DMR

* M14 AIM

* SVD Camo

* M107

* AS50

- All ammo exclusive to the removed weaponry has been removed

* M9 SD Ammo

* MP5 SD Ammo

* STANAG SD Ammo

* CZ 550 Ammo

* M24 Ammo

* DMR Ammo

* M107 Ammo

* SVD Dragunov Mag

( AS50/SVD/Bizon Ammo doesn't naturally spawn anyway outside of with its weapon)

[ Helicopter Crash Loot ]

Revamped loot table. The only Helicopter Crash "exclusive" loot is now the FN FAL and L85A2 AWS.

- Removed Bizon SD

- Removed M14 AIM

- Removed FN FAL AN/PVS-4

- Removed M107

- Removed AS50

- Removed DMR

+ Added Rangefinders

+ Added GPS

+ Added M4A1 HOLO

+ Added M16A4 ACOG

Planned Changes:

[ Anti-Hack ]

* Anti-teleport logic

* Anti-godmode

* Disabling of all non-legit guns from even functioning

* Disabling of all non-legit vehicles from even functioning

[ Anti-Douche Bag ]

* Prevent players/vehicles/tents/etc. from going into debug plains. Stay in the map!

[ Changes from stock Private Hive code ]

* Have vehicles spawn with proper base loot in their gear like standard DayZ does

* Have the option at least to have consistently damaged vehicles like standard DayZ does

* Provide caps per-vehicle vs. overall vehicle cap

[ Changes from stock DayZ code ]

* Permit forcing certain vehicle types to be force respawned after X time regardless of use (anti-hoard, keeps new vehicles coming!)

[ Bug Fixes ]

* Need to clean up the current anti-tent/vehicle gear dupe. I don't like the current method from stock Private-DayZ.

* Either stop the gun from trying to go into a bag or make sure it drops to the ground otherwise. Will need testing.

[ Up in the air considerations ]

* It sounds hilariously cruel to spawn a blackhawk (either with or without weapons.. not sure) as a single spawn point right in the middle of NWAF's runway. Wouldn't that be a bitch to repair successfully and take? I'd also force its respawn at some interval regardless of its use so the "Blackhawk at NWAF" is always a looming reward.

* Thinking of adding some sort of "Crashed Heli" equivalent for newbies on the coast. Either crashed vans or something like that exclusively along the south coast which contains a high chance of low quality gear (ALICE packs, tools, other low-end stuff)

(I'll update the list as I remember more... it's late)

Edited October 3, 2012 by Venthos

[itsjonny 2]

I'd love to play this.

Only thing is, don't expect me to host a server! SHITTY CONNECTION FTW!

[Atom Quark 437]

Looks good. I am ready to play it.

[Colonel Sanders 4]

As the man said above me, I am ready to play this as well.

Colonel Sanders approves of this message.

[3vil_Nin3 10]

count me in sir

[Alucardi 14]

I don't understand how you consider a MA14 aim to be a sniper with a red dot sight on but NOT the M16 acog which has a 4x optical zoom ;) M14 aim is basicly impossible to hit with at 400m cause of the red dot.

But putting that to the side it sounds awesome!

Edited September 23, 2012 by Alucardi

[venthos 605]

I don't understand how you consider a MA14 aim to be a sniper with a red dot sight on but NOT the M16 acog which has a 4x optical zoom ;) M14 aim is basicly impossible to hit with at 400m cause of the red dot.

But putting that to the side it sounds awesome!

Simply because of the ammo (which determines the damage). M14 AIM uses DMR ammo, 2-shot kill. M16A4 ACOG uses STANAG ammo, which is much less damage. But you're right, the ACOG will be one of the most sought after weapons for sniper-ish scope in the mod's current state. If/when I add some snipers back it would most likely start with the CZ550 and M14 AIM. I'd probably move the CZ550 from farm spawns to be part of the deer stand loot, though and the M14 AIM would solely be a helicrash item.

[Siberian (DayZ) 527]

like the sounds of most changes.

but what about those who get DC'd for whateva reason, isnt insta-death on reconnect a bit harsh ???

im no combat logger but i do sometimes get desynced from server (red chain), and in most cases will just DC to desktop and re-ping the server.

but if it means any DC is a insta-death im not sure i'd be game to play on such a server.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Siberian

[SystemiK 366]

This is excellent news! If it was anyone but you Venthos, I'd likely roll my eyes and move along but I've been following your posts pretty much since you joined the forum and I reckon you have the chops to see this through.

Some very interesting ideas here (though I'll say right up front that I would miss the HELL out of my trusty M14). I've always wondered how the game would play with some of the higher tiered gear removed, and in what ways this would influence the current behavior and strategies of players.

Now that the mod is being opened up to the community for private hive development and testing, I really think we are going to see a lot of people (such as yourself) coming up with interesting solutions to many of the problems that have been ongoing. I've always had my suspicions that the duping was more of a database issue than an engine limitation, from watching your video it seems to confirm this. If you have solved this in a day, then you are a god. Simple as that. I'm sure similar fixes will be easy in standalone, but I've been very worried that no one would be able to address them in the mod and that they would continue to be the status quo from here on out.

If you need any help in testing gameplay count me in. I imagine you will have plenty of detractors who are unwilling to experiment with changes, but I really think you are onto something here.

Edited September 23, 2012 by SystemiK

[Alucardi 14]

Maby its not possible but storing a pistol in EL in a backpack aint impossible or to big ;) And yeah insta kill on DC and reconect wont work. I for one will never be able to play on this mod.

[SmashT 10907]

A better way to handle disconnects is to simply keep the player in-game for a set time if they disconnect, if they are in combat the other player can kill them.

[brzator47@gmail.com 524]

Yeah, if that's possible it's definitely better than insta-killing the player.

I'm not really sure about removing all sniper rifles but aside from that, it sounds really good.

[venthos 605]

A better way to handle disconnects is to simply keep the player in-game for a set time if they disconnect, if they are in combat the other player can kill them.

There's a big logistical problem with attempting to do that. I haven't looked into it enough to guarantee it's impossible, but it's what Rocket was trying to do and then he stopped stating that the engine won't support it. hehe. That would be ideal, though.

[venthos 605]

Any sort of ideas that people have that might be useful for me to include here? Whether it's a bug fix, idea for a new/changed mechanic, or a new weapon/vehicle/loot. Let me know. My approach as far as 'something new' is "more is less". I'm not going to do something crazy like add tanks, more amazing military weapons, or whatever. At that point you should just be playing ARMA2's base game. Anything I add I want to try and balance with risk.

What I'm most focused on are changes that force people to "play the game" instead of abusing bugs/duping/etc. I don't want to deviate from the spirit of original DayZ much. It's a monday morning, so it's tough to think, but are there any other "douche tactics" you can think of that people do aside from combat logging which would be nice to prevent?

As far as combat logging, I finally got the full mechanic working last night in terms of what sets you in combat. Been having to self-teach myself ARMA2 scripting this weekend. I have established its initial criteria.

You will go into "combat" if...

-you personally fire any weapon

-anyone fires a weapon within 70m of you (aims to put entire squads into combat if even one person in that squad fires)

-a bullet impacts within 50m of you (aims to put the "victim" of the shot in combat)

Any beefs with that criteria or other situations that should be considered?

[madnessx9@gmail.com 6]

thats some fantastic work

[Magotchi 74]

Sounds pretty awesome to me. Great work.

[dethica 85]

a guy on the private hive development forums (tunngle) has managed to get the anti alt-f4 in the game by replacing the disconnecting player with a "bot."

[venthos 605]

a guy on the private hive development forums (tunngle) has managed to get the anti alt-f4 in the game by replacing the disconnecting player with a "bot."

I saw that yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It could potentially be very buggy. I know people have reported several instances already of the bot being unkillable or not taking damage properly. Although, he's replacing everyone with bots 100% of the time when they abort/disconnect for any reason. If I were to implement it, the bots would only generate on when someone logged out "in combat". It's still possible to ALT-F4 successfully with that both method, though. As long as you find a place that they can't get to you for a shot in X seconds (if someone took a shot from a hill, you could just run into a house) and your ALT-F4 is successful. With the insta-kill method there's zero chance that ALT-F4 people will be successful. It comes at the risk of people who unwillingly get disconnected mid-fight being instant killed. Perhaps I'll test both ways. I'll toy around with it. I would rather inadvertently cause negative effects to legit connection issues than make ALT-F4ing's consequences something that people are still willing to deal with. Guaranteed instant-death is definitely a consequence no one would willingly tolerate.

I'd likely add in a logging system to the hive to show the statistics surrounding the combat log (players near, zombies near, blood count, bleeding or not, etc) so that I can manually restore someone's gear after the fact if I believe their story enough that they didn't combat log on purpose. All combat loggings would be displayed on my server's website for people to see as well.

In either case, this only means anything if the mod is enticing enough for people to want to play on my server when I get it working. I'm kind of surprised no one has put forth any ideas for stuff they'd want to see modded for the server.

[myskaal 50]

Looks interesting and I like a lot of the ideas you're working on/with. I'll keep my eyes on it.

The major turn off for me: "attempt to force" - into specific roles.

I'm guessing it's the military sim/shooter aspect of ArmA II that puts people in that military squad is required mind set with DayZ.

I totally agree that within a survival scenario, survivors and groups of survivors that band together would indeed need to take on a "be ready to kill/defend at any second" mindset and even take on certain roles given a specific moment. But if I'm leaving my camp/base with a big enough bag - damn right I'm going to carry as many different weapon types as I'm able to shove in there - because situations change - not because I decided I'm going to be "the sniper" or "the spotter" only.

That and one of the most appealing things about DayZ is a Sandbox to me is I'm not forced into a specific "role" - and I am not even forced to be a squad member. I can lone wolf it. Maybe hook up with another survivor for a short time, or join another group long enough to get into a town and grab some supplies and get out and then go back to lone wolfing it again.

Just my 2c/feedback :)

[venthos 605]

The major turn off for me: "attempt to force" - into specific roles.

I definitely see where you're coming from. I'll think more on alternate ways to tackle the problem to see if I can come up with one that attains my goal without being too "forced into mold" thing.

The primary goal with the "no guns in backpack" is not to prevent lone wolf play. It's to prevent a squad of people from all going in with a specialized weapon (sniper, machine gun) and general purpose assault rifle. Depending on pack space, sometimes they'll have all 3 in there. If you form a squad, I want each person to have to fill a role and not be able to be an unrealistic one-man ballistics carnival with a few hundred pounds of ammo, gear, and rifles on his back.

With that in mind, what type of gear load outs are you rolling with that this would hamper you as a lone wolf? (I am not saying it can't/doesn't. Looking for honest feedback). To me it doesn't make sense to be able to magically cram a big rifle into a bag. At least, all but the smaller ones. But there's no way you're tucking away a sniper or M249/M240/MK48 machine gun in the packs in DayZ *and* shoulder a rifle. Let alone are you going to be able to move around with that weight on you. I know not everything in game should or can be "realistic", but that's my rationale for it *other* than the side effect I hope it has on specializations.

Like I could see allowing a side arm in the bags, but I'm not sure why people would carry more than one unless for ammo variety (noting that I have the M9 SD removed currently). I could also see something like the MP5 being able to be bagged and other smaller rifles. Would that alleviate any issues? Basically setting some guns to be baggable and others not able to be?

[S_poon 69]

I have to question the removal of the Snipers, I understand the removal of the AS50 and M107 and other military ones, but the CZ 550 is a hunting rifle. It makes perfect sense. Also if you are removing the sniper rifles and the ability to put weapons in backpacks you are effectively almost counteracting the the whole decision to carry one weapon vs. multiple weapons for all situations.

The only reason most people I know carry two weaps is either to have one SD and one not, or one Close Quarters and one Sniper. Both reason have been removed so why bother with the backpack change?

[venthos 605]

Because it makes it harder to amass a cache of weapons to store in tents/etc. Makes you vulnerable while moving things around. Also, I am not dead set of removing snipers forever. I love sniping. I just want to see how it plays out without them. The CZ550 will likely find its way back in -- maybe before I even open up the server for test play. If/when I do, the CZ550 will be moved to deer stands though and not on the farm loot table. Even more weapons could make they way back in, silenced included, if it turns out their spawn rates are appropriate restrictive. It's just so hard to tell right now with the rampant duping/etc.

[Lockmar 5]

As soon as you said removed silenced weapons and removed snipers I quit reading. Those are both a visceral part of the Zombie apocalypse in general.

[venthos 605]

That's fine. As I state very earlier on, I am in no way saying that the way I'm developing this is the way DayZ should be and that snipers/silenced weaponry is "wrong" or "unbalanced". I'm just curious how the game plays without them. We'll see how it goes. The way I'm creating this mod won't be for everyone. I do appreciate the feedback, though.

[SkrooLoose (DayZ) 143]

The primary goal with the "no guns in backpack" is not to prevent lone wolf play. It's to prevent a squad of people from all going in with a specialized weapon (sniper, machine gun) and general purpose assault rifle. Depending on pack space, sometimes they'll have all 3 in there. If you form a squad, I want each person to have to fill a role and not be able to be an unrealistic one-man ballistics carnival with a few hundred pounds of ammo, gear, and rifles on his back.

I don't carry a second longarm; I don't need it.

But... what I do like to do is put my gun in my backpack so I can use my hatchet on the zeds. It's quick, quiet, saves on ammo, and most importantly, it's fun (imo). And I'd be willing to bet that I'm not alone.

So, what about instead of making the pack no longer able to stow a gun, making it so your entire inventory can no longer house more than one gun (not including a handgun, naturally).

As soon as you said removed silenced weapons and removed snipers I quit reading. Those are both a visceral part of the Zombie apocalypse in general.

That sounds pretty narrow minded. So you're saying that if DayZ never had either to start with, you would have never bothered playing?