Day Z, the post apocolyptic zombie survival game

[weemadando]

Yeah, but a real death penalty is counter to the idiot devs intents. :v

It's been suggested to me that better inventory would encourage less hoarding and more item cycling; if you had to ditch your pack like in JA2 for mobility and/or could drop items when knocked down, attacked, etc, individual items should become less important and items would naturally be found where people leave them before they die or where they barely escaped.

I doubt this would have much currency with players who simply lap the map search for alice backpacks. :v

PS holy cow what a moron. Its EXACTLY like he's never played any games!

I always bring up Hidden and Dangerous 2 for inventory stuff. Probably the best for it in a "realism" sense. Variety of size slots across your paper doll, each of which have different weight thresholds as well as different access speeds. Backpacks can be carried, but you have to stop and go through them to pull anything out. You can also dump them at any time to move faster/quieter and they can be shot off (and items lost IIRC).

So backpacks seem like a shit thing to have, but you had to carry ALL your equipment for the entire campaign you were on, which might be 2-6 missions long. So you'd carry your backpack full of ammo and other required equipment for later missions, but dump it in a safe place each mission and go on with your belt kit, then come back and recover it.

It was a nice touch and definitely something that others could aim for.

[Stark]

Christ Ando, grow up. The suggestion about making it easier to lose items (and people to find items left by others for whatever reason) does not need a reference to a shit game and goddamn paper dolls. Fucking Jagged Alliance 2 does ditching backpacks!

What's bizarre is that the idea of 'endgame content' seems to have no place onthe game, least of all crafted missions. When he says 'open hands off' does he just have no idea what he's talking about? People describe the zombies as 'weather', an impersonal inconvenience, and running with that they dot even really NEED path finding. They just need to be the pressure that keeps people low profile and moving.

[weemadando]

The reason I raised H&D2 is because it had the destructible inventory. Which would be an interesting dynamic and could prevent some murders in Day Z. See someone with sweet kit? You risk destroying it if you shoot them. Why not try it?

[Stark]

The distinction between stored and ready items would make losing things more possible; wearing binos around your neck and falling down a hill or being chomped on means you might have to pick it back up. Anything to get away from the idea that Alice backpacks just appear on tables in empty houses day after day.

Actually, even turning in items for some consumable might allow people to feel 'progress' from loot grinding without having to hide nine rifles in a hole. :v

[Alyeska]

We found a M136 tonight. And so Zed decided to fire it at the ATC control tower and see what happened. It was entertaining. And he agroed twenty zombies for the trouble.

[tim31]

Hot damn!

[Tolya]

Got a good haul out of the NWAF airfield Since I wasn't carrying anything too valuable (AK-74 being the most) I decided to check it out on my own.

Started out with the north barracks. Doors were all closed, which was kinda suspicious, but what the hell. I checked almost all the rooms... and as I was opening the second last, the last door also opened and a AKM toting guy came out. I ditched all communication attempts and just squeezed the trigger, suppressing him and (I think) hitting him a few times, forcing him to take cover in the room. Then I had two options. Either trying to make good and try to convince him it was a misunderstanding, or... toss a hand grenade after him. The latter seemed like a better (and more funny) idea, so off it went. Too bad the bastard disconnected before it blew up, it would have been a funny resolution.

After that I raided the remainder of the barracks, the eastern hangars and some buildings on the way, as well as the ATC tower. Exfil'd the airfield with:

- 1 Jerry can (you know you like it Al;)
- 1 M4 CCO SD + 3 mags
- 2 M107 mags
- 1 DMR mag
- Entrenching tool
- Mp5 mag
- M9SD mag
- M240 cammo box.

[Alyeska]

Trade you that M4 SD for the DMR.

[PeZook]

The distinction between stored and ready items would make losing things more possible; wearing binos around your neck and falling down a hill or being chomped on means you might have to pick it back up. Anything to get away from the idea that Alice backpacks just appear on tables in empty houses day after day.

Actually, even turning in items for some consumable might allow people to feel 'progress' from loot grinding without having to hide nine rifles in a hole. :v

The simplest fix to the problems of spawn camping would be simply to tie spawns to player activity (if you want to keep the server running forever, that is) - ie, the more a loot spawn is cleared out, the less/worse items it gets. And/or make spawns move around on their own when cleared.

A side but important effect would be to encourage trade: because if a group performed a succesful raid against a warehouse and got away with piles of canned beans, then other groups couldn't find piles of food easily, and would have to fight or trade for the beans. Moving the spawns around means noobs can stumble upon valuable stuff not staked out by others, too, and thus get things to trade with.

Then you just need to implement a communication system, like radios and in-game bulletin boards so that players can coordinate, post warnings about murderers and thieves and oh yeah do trade, giving them some incentive to actually talk to each other when they meet. The game would really need a real death penalty to increase combat risk, though...otherwise people will just continue to shoot up others instead of seriously weighing risk and reward (ah who cares if I get shot by that noob, I can transfuse some blood and be good as new!)

The fact bandits could monitor radio channels and set up ambushes etc. might make for an interesting dynamic, too. And let people officially define their factions and wear uniforms, plus objectives that can only be accomplished by organized factions, and some others fit for lone wolf types.

Huh. Yeah, in other words, everything MMOs did for ages now

[Tolya]

Trade you that M4 SD for the DMR.

Sold! And i'll throw on all the other stuff too

[Stark]

Communication as Pezook describes would make it easy to give players emergent quests, too. Hunting grifters could actually be supported by mechanics and the rewards already exist.

It's almost like this is basic stuff anyone who'd played a multiplayer game before should already know.

[Tolya]

I do hope stuff like that gets implemented as soon as they are done with the "making it work at all" part of the alpha.

[PeZook]

I do hope stuff like that gets implemented as soon as they are done with the "making it work at all" part of the alpha.

What do you think about letting people build permanent camps? Do you feel it would change the dynamics into a positive direction?

I suppose one consequence would be that people would fortify loot spawns, screwing noobs much more, so making the spawns move when looted is probably a must first.

[Tolya]

What do you think about letting people build permanent camps? Do you feel it would change the dynamics into a positive direction?

I suppose one consequence would be that people would fortify loot spawns, screwing noobs much more, so making the spawns move when looted is probably a must first.

Depends on the form. People already fortify loot spawns - putting wirefences and tanks traps to lock out entry to certain buildings. It is notorious in the case of barracks which house superior military loot.

I can already visualize a big faction on a server making a permanent camp around military barracks - even if not on it's grounds (zed spawns), but within a firing range so that anyone who tries to raid them on their own will take fire from said camp. No, I don't think letting people build permanent camps, as a gaming mechanic, is a good idea. Also, it would make hoarding loot easier. On the other hand, it would mean that there are more weapons available on a server - and it would encourage people to organize and join groups, since it would mean access to superior weaponry.

That said, there already are permanent camps in the game. You can pitch a tent and store stuff in it. Thing is, what one person puts in, another can take out - if they find your camp. So you either hide them, or guard them. On some servers the groups are already so big that there are clan members present in the game at any present time - and they just guard their stuff.

The biggest problem is, ironically, that the map is really not that big once you get around it. It seems huge in the beginning, but after a while it is rather difficult to find a spot for your camp that won't be randomly found by someone - and pretty fast. A bigger map (like in Arma3) could also mean that the vehicles could be made more common, since owning a car wouldn't mean insta-teleport to any place on the map.

Another problem is that the weapons do not really matter that much. The gun I use the most is M1911 - found easily almost everywhere. I carry a main gun (AK74 for most of the time) but I rarely fired it and could probably do without it. If you are not a bandit that hunts people you do not need anything more than a good handgun for protection against zeds. It is nice to have an assault rifle with a termal scope, but you are more afraid to lose it than to use it, since it is a rare item.

[Skgoa]

What do you mean waepons don't count? I need at least an hour after respawn to be fully equiped!
e/ That's the reason why I don't play anymore. Permadeath just doesn't matter, since almost nothing you can do or obtain will give you a significant advantage. When you get a better item, you can't do more, you now just have less things to look forward to.

[Tolya]

What do you mean waepons don't count? I need at least an hour after respawn to be fully equiped!
e/ That's the reason why I don't play anymore. Permadeath just doesn't matter, since almost nothing you can do or obtain will give you a significant advantage. When you get a better item, you can't do more, you now just have less things to look forward to.

Well, getting a winnie or an AKM is easy, but consider this: you have spent the last week trying to find the one gun you want, the beloved Dragunov orsomeshit. After you got it, you discover that in five days of carrying it you have only fired it 10 times. The same shots could have been made using a handgun.

And once you get NVG's, GPS, DMR's, ghillies, you become an expensive mantlepiece that stays out of harm's way afraid to lose his equipment. I wouldn't dare go near the NWAF carrying that stuff, but yesterday I raided the entire eastern side of NWAF because I didn't care if I lost my AK-74. Also, you don't actually need to go anywhere since with a survival kit you can hunt in the forests and drink in ponds. So you become a mid-forest hermit. Yay.

So, high level stuff is more of a nuisance than an actual gain. And all the stuff you really need you can easily get within the hour of spawning.

The game is still fun in a group: making organized raids, fixing vehicles etc. But I wonder what happens when everyone in a group has their wondergear and a car.

[Skgoa]

Add to that the problem that there is absolutely no motivation other than "beating" the game by surviving. After sneaking into the NW Airfield and clearing out the Stary military camp once too often, it's just pointless. I would literally log in to find food and ammo... in order to be able to find more food and ammo. Once you have seen and done everything, it's just a daily grind for the sake of it. I don't want any buildable structure or stuff like that but kind of purpose to logging in would be nice. I.e. like in most online games, the endgame simply sucks by being more or less non-existant.

[PREDATOR490]

Scrap Dayz and get Domination instead.
Turn the AI enemies in Domination into huge amounts of zombies and maybe a few enemy AI rebel AI roaming around.
Turn the player base into a fortress guarded by friendly AI for friendly gank-free spawning.
The original Arma 2 AI will already have allied AI kill players that have been TKing their own side so going near the player base will be fatal unless you raid it. Something of an endgame deal if you supply this base with the American Military equipment like M1 tanks etc.
Insert the flagpole / HALO option.
Players can literally be paradroped wherever they want on the map for a one-time transport.

Thus, people can spawn relatively freely, not be ganked and get a one-shot paradrop to anywhere on the map.
Attached the cooldown timer on the HALO jump so that players cant just die / respawn / HALO to get places quickly.
Ideally: Make the spawn point an Aircraft carrier stuck out in the sea and disable the weapons of people in the area around the carrier
Thus, the only way to get to it will be with Aircraft or boats - Both of which are going to be in extremely low supply and you cant even shoot there anyway
You could attach some boats or maybe aircraft on the Carrier just to allow people to get to the island other than HALO.

Use the Domination style objectives and side mission system to generate things for players to do which will reward them with vehicles and equipment.
Once enough objectives have been completed the game will reset or when a specific 'win condition'

The main problem I see with DayZ or any of the mods - Is abuse from hackers or admins. In a game where the goal is to survive... it only takes one hacker to come in and start spawning cluster bombs or the admins to abuse their power for the server to break it. Already seen Admins spawning gear / vehicles for themselves while in other servers some dick decided to nuke the map + use a command that spawns shit messages on the player screen so they cant select or do anything but leave.

[Lord Baal]

I'm actually tempted to buy the game just for this mod. Would there be anyway that if I buy it and install the mod work with some people here? Or is too big and random to be able to.

[Alyeska]

I'm actually tempted to buy the game just for this mod. Would there be anyway that if I buy it and install the mod work with some people here? Or is too big and random to be able to.

There are about a dozen of us between SB.com and SD.net playing together.

[Lord Baal]

Hopefully soon it will be a about a dozen +1 then.

[Alyeska]

Tolya, most of the crew on TS should be able to direct you to camp. If you can find the ATV, it has the DMR. I don't think we have any ammo for it though, room got kinda scarce. There is even a M107 if you felt like testing out the .50cal sniper.

[Tolya]

Hopefully I will have some time today. Im at the location of the old camp, I guess new location isn't far away?

I got 1 DMR mag, perhaps before I start actually using it I will make some no-gear runs to the NWAF to find ammo.

[Alyeska]

Hopefully I will have some time today. Im at the location of the old camp, I guess new location isn't far away?

I got 1 DMR mag, perhaps before I start actually using it I will make some no-gear runs to the NWAF to find ammo.

New camp is not near the old camp.

[Alyeska]

Priority call for assistance. We found another ATV and the URAL civilian. We need help ASAP.