The game DayZ is striving to be...

[xXAC1DBURNXx 1]

First off let me just say there is way too many 1st & 3rd person shooters in the market, they are a dime a dozen and quite frankly after 28 years of playing games they get stale, quick! DayZ on the other hand has something great going for it, it has the potential to become one of the best "zombie survival" games out there. But like a diamond in the rough, it needs some work before it reaches it's full potential. This game should feel more about survival and less about killing one another. Judging by the amount of KoS I've seen in this game it seems most people view this as another deathmatch game with zombies in it. So in order to get this game on track to it's grass roots as a "zombie survival game" a few changes needs to be put in place to ensure people treat it as such. I'll list my ideas and reasoning behind them, remember this represents the final product not the game as it's in it's current state and while one or a few may have similar suggestions on here they all need to be explained in greater detail here so you can see the justification behind all of these ideas as they coincide with one another.

 

1. Ten times as many zombies! I want this game so hard that you wouldn't be able to survive on your own for long unless you were in say the top 10% of players who play this game. This type of pro player would represent a highly skilled survivalist or someone in a military special forces unit therefore their chance of survival alone would be possible but still a struggle. Let's face it most people are incompetent and even more so would be absolutely scared outta their minds in a situation like this and the game should mirror this effect. By making more zombies KoS would be down dramatically as the game will require most people to buddy up due to it's new difficulty level and sneaking around would be harder. When to use a crossbow / melee weapon versus a gun would depend on your situation/location and amount of bullets you have, so choose wisely.

 

2. Bandits and Heroes - For those who have played the old Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games should be familiar with the light and dark side of the force system they had in place that recorded your actions and it would determine if you were good or bad based on your decisions. This system would allow people to play to their liking and with the other ideas I have will give the game more dynamic range and come with certain risk/rewards based on your actions. For example helping random people (not people on your friends list because everyone helps friends) either by reviving them or trading them food or supplies for nothing in return or helping NPC's randomly placed in trouble (I'll explain that later in greater detail) you would net hero points. But by doing bad things like killing heroes, tricking or killing NPC's would net you Bandit points, which by the way doesn't reset when you die. In order to change from a Bandit to Hero or vice-versa you would have to start acting accordingly and slowly build up the points til you became one or the other.

 

3. Safe Zone - This would be a military base located somewhere on the map that would have local military or UN soldiers stationed where you can safely trade with other survivors as long as you had a neutral or hero status, but bandits would be shot on sight by the NPC's stationed there. This would be a great way to trade with other people in the community with no worries of being killed (weapons could be unequippable in this safe zone). Maybe you have a rare car part a group of people need and are willing to part for it for a nice M4.

 

4.NPC's - Also know as non playable characters can be people in distress throughout Chernarus. They could be running down the street being chased by a zombie and if you help kill it they will give you something in return netting you hero points on top of the reward or kill both of them and see what the NPC had on him and net bandit points. Maybe they are calling for help from a window or you bumped into them when you went to loot their home and their child or partner needs medicine and will trade you a empty handgun clip if you bring it back to them and earn hero points or kill them and take their food and supplies earning you bandit points. Different types of quests could be more challenging, just imagine someone lost their younger brother/sister and they tell you the city they were last in and you have to escort this person back safely to their family member, the possibilities are endless. This would also break up the whole looting and shooting aspect of the game which is going to be 75% of what your doing making the lifespan and replay value of the game longer and therefor a more successful franchise people will keep coming back to.

 

5. Trade system - Final Fantasy 11 had a great trade system where you both went to trade and when both parties had the correct items in the trade box they wanted they would hit accept and the trade would commence, so no one could cheat one another (there was 8 items you could each trade at once and was one of the best trading systems I've seen in a MMO). 

 

6. Hordes - A bunch of zombies (5-6) that would act in a group and if alerted look out, as they will all be on you as if they were one unit. Big cities should have at least 2-3 of these groups that act independently from the other zombies roaming but if you shoot a gun you'll have a horde as well as a few individual ones which should be very exciting/horrifying.

[alsmir 255]

2,3,4 won't happen

Welcome to the forums.

[Zboub le météor 250]

2,3,4 won't happen

Welcome to the forums.

i'm so glad it won't !

[klesh 2423]

I would like a zombie "horde" to be something that you under no circumstances want to engage.  20 zombos with an AI tweak to keep them in the same 10 meter radius, moving as one liquid entity through the streets.

[Richard III in Leicester 200]

None of these are new ideas I'm afraid. An' I have to agree with above that 2, 3 and 4 won't happen - except through human players doing that if they so wish to and can get it organised in some way on their server.

Though even then, I'm almost certain there will not ever ever be a 'safe zone' of any kind. That entirely defies the point of survival in DayZ.

 

Trading can already happen, obviously, but it needs to keep its current level of risk. Double crossing can always happen and that's part of it isn't it?

I don't think DayZ will ever have any kind of UI or locked in trade system where the game holds your hand until the trade is done and dusted.

 

More zombs and wandering hoards are already on the DayZ roadmap.

 

I'm not trying intentionally to piss on your ideas... The game is heading down the path where survival is a lot more difficult and so will push the gameplay hopefully into less of the team-deathmatch; but killing on sight will always be a part of the game, as it should be. We've all done it, some kills I'm proud of some not lol.

 

Part of what makes DayZ intense is that you are never safe and could always be in the centre of someone's crosshair..

Gotta keep yourself hid ;)

[byrgesen 1340]

You would be much better off, finding the threads about your ideas and post in them :)

Making a topic like this, does nothing, and its very difficult to discuss, because its basicly just a bunch of ideas, thrown into a thread. Its much more effecient to have a thread for each idea, seperatly.
Like other have mentioned, nothing you said is new and most of it, has been talked about for the last year, pretty much.

 

The search function is your friend, in this case mate hehe.

[anotherdeadhero 71]

There is no need for a trading system, the game is trying to simulate real life as much as is possible, a box popping up where you both put items in a separate screen and pressing buttons like accept or cancel is immersion breaking for me.

 

There is nothing wrong with just dropping stuff on the floor or eventually i would not mind a system where you can go into someones backpack if they let you but the current trading system where you just give someone something and they give you something seems fine to me, no need to change it.

[xXAC1DBURNXx 1]

The safe zone I imagined isn't big just there to allow trading to people who aren't bandits and to get quests from the military personal, the world is huge it's not going to break the game. The idea behind the trading system is to earn points towards being a hero (by helping random people through trading to earn hero points) you can still drop items on the ground like normal if you want to.

[Kirby12352 67]

This is just me, but I would way rather have trades be risky rather than have the game hold my hand. If I happen to get shot in the face when I'm in the middle of a trade, hey, that's DayZ for you. It doesn't always go your way.

 

 

I also am not a big fan of the NPC idea. Sure, that's in a lot of other games, but I'd rather help a real person, not some NPC. The fact that there are only real players is part of what makes DayZ the game that it is. NPC's only do what they were programmed to do. Humans could do anything. You could help a guy, turn your back on him, and end up with two bullets in your legs and the guy robbing you of all your gear and leaving you to die. Or he could tag along and maybe save your life later on. But an NPC wouldn't do those things. You'd just end up with a few points and no sense of accomplishment. It's all part of the end of the world scenario. Anything could happen, but that would not happen with an NPC.

[Beck (DayZ) 1768]

get quests from the military personal

 

earn points towards being a hero (by helping random people through trading to earn hero points) you can still drop items on the ground like normal if you want to.

I don't think you understand what DayZ is supposed to be...

Edit: "striving"

Edited October 27, 2014 by Beck

[Evil Minion 943]

Those artificially enforced gameplay elements (2, 3, 4 and 5 in spades) would be extremely unhealthy for the game by virtue of enforcing an arbitrary ruleset that does not originate from the players and thus restricts gameplay in a completely unauthentic and static way. Nothing we want to have in this fashion.

Player-created similar elements on the other side are what should be emphasized and any artificial system would completely screw over those attempts.

1. Sure - bring on more zombies. Not sure if ten times would be the right thing or less would be more appropiate but once the main issues (hitbox/navigation glitches, hyper awareness etc.) are fixed there should be more zombies to worry about.
2. Instead of a biased morality system that would definitely fail at morality and cause people to go full "rules lawyer" instead there should be an unbiased identification system that allows players to recognise certain players or characters. A wide array of faces, more body shapes, tatoos and a fixed name for each character would allow for forming communities with their very own morality enforced by natural means.
3. If you want an area save you should secure it. One possibility is to assign sentries and security staff to keep the area free of troublemakers. Another is barricading - here it shouldn't matter who build things but rather whether your are inside or outside (to avoid breaking in via ghosting). The key here: True cooperation is required and the zones are not static but rather dynamic areas that are created and destroyed within the game.
4. You won't get any authentic human AI and even if you could it would only reduce the options ingame as NPCs would enforce a certain playstyle and probably operate differently from real players. So instead of having 20 NPCs all running a costly AI it is indeed better to increase server capacity by 20 and have more "real humans" that can participate in creating (or destroying) a community.
5. Linked to the things above - trading should be player-driven. items should have a certain value because other players would like to have them or because a certain community ingame agreed on using them as trading goods. There should not be an enforced value on items other than their practical use. The exact mechanics may be up to debate but simply putting things on the ground would work as well - given items don't randomly disappear or pop up far from your location when you drop them. I would also like to see a "giving" feature.
6.  Thats an AI thing - but I would really like to see such a thing for animals. Deer forming herds, groups of wild boar and packs of wolves that are more than just single animals put together. Zombies might get something like this as well but I could also live with dumb hordes charging you while basically ignoring each other.

In short: The game should provide a framework and provide the right tools while leaving all of the purely cultural aspects to the player.

[BeefBacon 1185]

A trading system would be nice. Dropping items on the ground for somebody else to pick up isn't really ideal. Would be nice if you could give an item directly to another player, which the other player can either accept or ignore.

[massacrorBKK 64]

Quite agree about the 100% player driven interaction. No more AI than the dumb zombies (dumb doesn't means buggy...).

 

Anyway, it seems that it is devs line of thinking since the start. They said it several times and I don't think they will ever change this fundamental design choice even if a major part of the community was asking for it.

 

We can already see many player's interactions (good or bad) on the videos on youtube. There are some people trying to settle some base or safe zone as well, like the famous Green mountain camp, and this is already happening when we don't even have private shards, password or white listing.

 

Please, no game-play enforcement of any kind. Let the players make the game. As Hicks said, the devs will provided us a blank canvas made of game mechanics... then it is up to us to paint whatever we want on it.

Edited October 27, 2014 by massacrorBKK

[Wolfe(^..^) 9]

Instead of a biased morality system that would definitely fail at morality and cause people to go full "rules lawyer" instead there should be an unbiased identification system that allows players to recognise certain players or characters. A wide array of faces, more body shapes, tatoos and a fixed name for each character would allow for forming communities with their very own morality enforced by natural means.

It would be cool to have this.  It would definitely open up more in-character play styles by allowing characters to look the part. Although I think that a player's name should remain difficult to identify.

[Elle 562]

I will never understand all these "lets make this game like every other game out there" threads. just say NO to everything but moar zeds n large hordes.

[xXAC1DBURNXx 1]

The only way the player based driven dynamics will work is if 90% can't survive on their own and they are forced to team up in some way forming four different communities good and bad, solo and team players. Otherwise your going to have way too many Rambo one man armies just killing everything you see making this more about deathmatch and less about survival which isn't realistic as majority of people couldn't survive in a situation like this on their own, unless they were the skilled survivalist or special forces type player which is represented by the pro player base.

 

Now I can understand not wanting NPC's but that's like GTA V without cool missions yeah great you got all the weapons you got all your nice cars and cool clothes but what good is that stuff if there is nothing to do beyond just killing one another I'd give it 6 months tops before it was boring the shit outta you I mean how long can you just run around collect, kill, die, repeat that would get old quick.

 

Wouldn't is be fun to kill that one person or a group of people escorting the little brother/sister back to his older sibling. Imagine being forced to walk or drive in areas you don't normally wanna go because you like to play it safe all the time. Well now you not only have to worry about zombies but potential bad guys wanting to take out you or your group. So if you were in a group you would have to enter the city back to the other siblings tactically and watch each other's back as you do adding more elements to the game then just collect, kill, die, repeat, yawn.

[Elle 562]

The only way the player based driven dynamics will work is if 90% can't survive on their own and they are forced to team up in some way forming four different communities good and bad, solo and team players. Otherwise your going to have way too many Rambo one man armies just killing everything you see making this more about deathmatch and less about survival which isn't realistic as majority of people couldn't survive in a situation like this on their own, unless they were the skilled survivalist or special forces type player which is represented by the pro player base.

 

Now I can understand not wanting NPC's but that's like GTA V without cool missions yeah great you got all the weapons you got all your nice cars and cool clothes but what good is that stuff if there is nothing to do beyond just killing one another I'd give it 6 months tops before it was boring the shit outta you I mean how long can you just run around collect, kill, die, repeat that would get old quick.

 

Wouldn't is be fun to kill that one person or a group of people escorting the little brother/sister back to his older sibling. Imagine being forced to walk or drive in areas you don't normally wanna go because you like to play it safe all the time. Well now you not only have to worry about zombies but potential bad guys wanting to take out you or your group. So if you were in a group you would have to enter the city back to the other siblings tactically and watch each other's back as you do adding more elements to the game then just collect, kill, die, repeat, yawn.

hrm apparently you don't really want to play DayZ but something else that might have some zombies in it.

 

as to how long can I play the game the way it is (bugs n all)? 1430 hours long. and I run solo 98% of the time and work my ass off to avoid other players (that's a whole game in and of itself).

 

if you lack the creativity to find things to do in the game besides look for conflict in the player base perhaps this isn't the game for you.

 

is this your first sandbox?

[AlphaDogMeat . 493]

 just say NO to everything but moar zeds n large hordes.

 

LARGE hordes...

 

[alexeistukov 272]

Not this again...

[Mor (DayZ) 57]

The only way the player based driven dynamics will work is if 90% can't survive on their own and they are forced to team up in some way forming four different communities good and bad, solo and team players. Otherwise your going to have way too many Rambo one man armies just killing everything you see making this more about deathmatch and less about survival which isn't realistic as majority of people couldn't survive in a situation like this on their own, unless they were the skilled survivalist or special forces type player which is represented by the pro player base.

 

Now I can understand not wanting NPC's but that's like GTA V without cool missions yeah great you got all the weapons you got all your nice cars and cool clothes but what good is that stuff if there is nothing to do beyond just killing one another I'd give it 6 months tops before it was boring the shit outta you I mean how long can you just run around collect, kill, die, repeat that would get old quick.

 

Wouldn't is be fun to kill that one person or a group of people escorting the little brother/sister back to his older sibling. Imagine being forced to walk or drive in areas you don't normally wanna go because you like to play it safe all the time. Well now you not only have to worry about zombies but potential bad guys wanting to take out you or your group. So if you were in a group you would have to enter the city back to the other siblings tactically and watch each other's back as you do adding more elements to the game then just collect, kill, die, repeat, yawn.

I don't necessarily agree with all your suggestions\solutions, but those are valid points.

 

as to how long can I play the game the way it is (bugs n all)? 1430 hours long. and I run solo 98% of the time and work my ass off to avoid other players (that's a whole game in and of itself).

 

if you lack the creativity to find things to do in the game besides look for conflict in the player base perhaps this isn't the game for you.

Assuming that you don't do anything except sleep, eat and play, you spent 3 full month of your life playing the game, mostly solo. you must be very uhm creative, but I am not sure how this relates to the topic except describing your personal and extreme taste. Edited October 28, 2014 by Mor

[Elle 562]

 Assuming that you don't do anything except sleep, eat and play, you spent 3 full month of your life playing the game, mostly solo. you must be very uhm creative, but I am not sure how this relates to the topic except describing your personal and extreme taste.

 ikr - good thing it wasn't all non-stop playing but it did make for some long dayz since last January, at least I am creative enough to find things to do in the game so I don't whine for NPCs and hand-holding game mechanics. is it extreme? probably but I have friends that have logged over 2k hours in the game sooo maybe we just love the game.

[Mor (DayZ) 57]

I am happy for you, but this the suggestion thread, so unless you want to address the suggestion in this thread i.e. pro\con, then we are both off topic.

[Elle 562]

I am happy for you, but this the suggestion thread, so unless you want to address the suggestion in this thread i.e. pro\con, then we are both off topic.

I have already but since you apparently haven't been able to comprehend it I will state it once again just for you... Yes to hordes and more zeds. No to everything else. OP stated a lack of things to do, I submit there are plenty of things to do. Did that help you understand my position better?

[klesh 2423]

... 20 zombos with an AI tweak to keep them in the same 10 meter radius, moving as one liquid entity through the streets.

 

 

 

 

 

This captures the liquidity perfectly!

[Karmaterror 982]

We don't need a hero/bandit system, for a few reasons...

 

1, It would be exploitable.  Clans could travel to the safe zones, trade with eachother, earn hero status....then go out and act like bandit scum lol Look to the mod for president.

 

2, You can build a reputation on a private server as a trader, medic, hunter....whatever you want. If you always log back in with same name people will get to know and trust you. That's more realistic and immersive for me than earning a hero status that makes me easily identifiable as a good guy.

 

Safe zones just goes against everything dayz....IMO. From the moment you log in till the moment you log out you should feel tension. Besides I could see a lot  of happy campers around these safe zones.

 

Trading is one of those great moment for tension, will they try to backstab? will someone see us and try something, and new for the SA....was someone listening to the frequency we arranged this meet on? Making a safe method of trading would take all that away.

 

More Zombies....HELL YES. Devs have said that they want and plan for that. Im guessing we wont see much movement on that until they decide they have all the core features in. Then as they optimise and refine we should see those numbers start to rise.

 

If you search around there are a lot of threads discussing many of these ideas. Some I think even got dev responses explaining the thinking behind leaving certain stuff out :)
 

Edited October 29, 2014 by Karmaterror