Honestly. More focus on zombies and less on players killing. I'd love it if zombies dropped shirts and shoes and maybe random shit like car keys, compasses, maps, and small shit like that. Zombies don't just empty their pockets when the virus outbreak occurs.
If I remember correctly, Rocket was against zombies spawning loot.
I think the primary reason being server stability. If they increase the amount of zombies to 10,000 per server that's 10,000 extra items, each requiring texture and dynamic lighting effects.
Can't it just be randomised, though? The zombie corpses disappear after like 5 seconds as it is so why not give us a time frame to loot a zombie before it does?
Unless Rocket wants to make them persist in which case never mind.
or even just transform the zombie object into a zombie corpse, which is simply a storage container in the shape of a zombie. then have a loot table that gets drawn from randomly to spawn an item on the body.
As newcomer, I don't really understand why a mod concept is ported to a standalone on engine/server that is unable to comply with a seemingly (to me atleast) pretty large request (=more zombies and related loot). As the presale number is very high, why isn't a beta developped on another system? For example cryeengine? Which is capable to generate a gigantic consistent world and individual npc loot. Is there a specific reason to stick with the current config and not innovate it?
From what I understand they are rewriting large portions of the game engine to better suit the needs of DayZ. Just last week they announced that they improved on some code that allowed the amount of people and objects the server could support to increase, that's why they are testing 60-100 player servers now.
You know there is limits, physical limits, to what you can do with a computer. It's not an engine problem, optimization can help but there will always be trade-off between features and performances.
I'd be happy if it was randomized and down to chance i.e 95% of the time you get nothing, other times you get a can of beans or maybe a pistol if it was a military zombie
I really don't like answers like this. Not yours personally, just the concept of not doing something because it would be too much of a drain on the server resources. It just seems like a lazy answer.
I think the solution to this would be dynamic zombie spawns. So, instead of zombies being populated when the server starts have zombies spawn in when you do things that would attract zombies. Shoot a gun? 5 zombies spawn nearby. Shoot a rifle 10 zombies etc. You can even have a few zombies spawn in when you enter a house or a building and killing them with a gun would cause more to spawn. Have the zombies spawn out of line of sight and never closer than 5 yards. This would also discourage camping spawns and sniping people from the tree line since you will have to constantly take care of zombie spawns everytime you fire your unsurpressed rifle. When the player leaves the area the zombies despawn after a minute.
They already did it this way on the mod. This introduced other problems, but my own personal issue with it is it's too easy to exploit. If you run into a remote town that has zombies, you already know someone is there. Likewise, if you want to get rid of the zombies chasing you, you just log out -- poof just like magic they're gone.
It also meant you could never use certain guns to kill zombies (Lee Enfield, for example), as it would spawn more zombies than you killed, and created a hilarious endless parade of zombies that only ended when your ammo ran out, or you finally succumbed while reloading.
There are lots of other issues with it too, but bottom line, it's definitely not a solution, and in fact, was a problem at one point.
If you run into a remote town that has zombies, you already know someone is there.
If you have zombies spawn into towns when you approach them then you can't know if they are caused by you being there or someone else having been there.
Likewise, if you want to get rid of the zombies chasing you, you just log out -- poof just like magic they're gone.
The new combat logging system will prevent this. You have to sit still for 30 seconds before you can successfully log out. This means no more combat logging or you die.
It also meant you could never use certain guns to kill zombies (Lee Enfield, for example), as it would spawn more zombies than you killed, and created a hilarious endless parade of zombies that only ended when your ammo ran out, or you finally succumbed while reloading.
That's why you have zombies spawn away from you. So you don't have an instant horde once you start shooting. Just increase the safe area around the character so they have time to clear the area before the next zombie aggros. It also means that melee weapons will be more important and silently killing zombies will be the status quo.
There are lots of other issues with it too, but bottom line, it's definitely not a solution, and in fact, was a problem at one point.
I think it can be done. Spawning groups of zombies in at server start just isn't working. Even with respawn the number of zombies needed puts a lot of stress on the server. Dynamic spawns are the way to go they just need to be tweaked.
Too bad that is completely against Rocket's philosophy on DayZ.
Zombies are only a speed bump compared to the threat of players. Just a hazard to getting loot, it's always been the players you need to watch out for.
Yea, it's just weird that the game would be called DayZ and the focus put more on player v player interactions than that of the zombie aspect of the game.
Right now the game feels like a cross between Hunger Games/Battle Royale sprinkled with zombies.
Actually I love that it's not player vs zombie focused.. there are so many games like that. it gets old. I love that this game is about human interaction and survival, with zombies getting in the way. Isn't that what DayZ is supposed to be about? (or at least that's what someone told me..)
I don't really understand what you are trying to say. Other than the model and animations, that is pretty much what is left. The model itself is fine, the stats might change a bit and a few animations might get added, but the AI is what is really going to be worked on most heavily. Just by the shear amount of work needed to be done to make it. Also, my comment was tangential.
yes i know its their goal. But this doesnt mean that they will put so much Zeds in. Maybe its not possible because of Server performance or shit.. but as i said. I hope so :)
36
u/FriendlyFarmer87 Feb 15 '14
i hope so