Opinions required!
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:22 am
Hey there, DayZ players!
As part of sorting out our new server, I'd like to get some opinions on the following matters (all of which are based on bringing in pubbers from the community and creating our own little slice of zombie-infested heaven).
Map - We are currently on Taviana, as that's what several Villuns were playing elsewhere before this server was brought up. It is a custom map. Proposal to change map to Chernarus. The benefit is that Chernarus is the official map of the game, and is what the stand-alone will be based around. Everybody who players DayZ has Chernarus, and the vast majority are looking to play it. Taviana requires additional downloading, so many players don't bother. Chernarus doesn't have so many seperated resources on it as Taviana does (cities with hospitals are only on the coast, big military airfield is only in the northwest). This could be a negative or a positive, depending how you look at it - you're forced in to conflict with players more often, but that means you're interacting with those players more often. Also, also the wiki information and such is based on Chernarus. Here's the map.
Vehicle Count - Players also like vehicles. I can increase the vehicle count massively. Default is 25, which means that in many days of playing, you are lucky to even see a vehicle, much less one that works. Currently it is set at 200, which means you can find vehicles around. A popular number appears to be 400, which means vehicles are readily accessible. Chernarus is a large area with a lot of running required. Vehicles will definitely make big difference in the ability to travel where needed.
Chopper Wrecks - I've done some hunting, and found a script that allows a significant increase in the number of valuable chopper wrecks, as well as the area over which they can be found. This will help offset the concentrated resources of Chernarus by spreading some military firepower and medical equipment out in random drops around a large area. Also, players appear to be drawn by the promise of big guns.
Starting Loadout - While I love the feeling of being lost and weak when spawned, a lot of people don't. As Betteh said to me yesterday, "people want to be able to shoot." Also, as Keyes said to me, "Not everybody can read Cyrillic." The upshot of this is, should we start people out with a G17 pistol and a map, instead of a revolver and nothing? The G17 is a nice option, because it has a large magazine that helps if you're carefully headshotting zombies, but it's a smaller caliber, so not so prone to rapdily killing players.
Care packages, extra buildings, etc - I haven't yet located an easy way to add these things, but it is possible. I'm no coder, but I can look in to tutorials and such to see if there's one out there that works for our type of server. If I could find a way to add these (functionally adding more high-end equipment and ammo to the game), should I pursue it? It significantly cuts down on the survival aspect of the game, and increases the power level of player vs player interactions.
Let me know your thoughts on these points, and any others that may occur.
As part of sorting out our new server, I'd like to get some opinions on the following matters (all of which are based on bringing in pubbers from the community and creating our own little slice of zombie-infested heaven).
Map - We are currently on Taviana, as that's what several Villuns were playing elsewhere before this server was brought up. It is a custom map. Proposal to change map to Chernarus. The benefit is that Chernarus is the official map of the game, and is what the stand-alone will be based around. Everybody who players DayZ has Chernarus, and the vast majority are looking to play it. Taviana requires additional downloading, so many players don't bother. Chernarus doesn't have so many seperated resources on it as Taviana does (cities with hospitals are only on the coast, big military airfield is only in the northwest). This could be a negative or a positive, depending how you look at it - you're forced in to conflict with players more often, but that means you're interacting with those players more often. Also, also the wiki information and such is based on Chernarus. Here's the map.
Vehicle Count - Players also like vehicles. I can increase the vehicle count massively. Default is 25, which means that in many days of playing, you are lucky to even see a vehicle, much less one that works. Currently it is set at 200, which means you can find vehicles around. A popular number appears to be 400, which means vehicles are readily accessible. Chernarus is a large area with a lot of running required. Vehicles will definitely make big difference in the ability to travel where needed.
Chopper Wrecks - I've done some hunting, and found a script that allows a significant increase in the number of valuable chopper wrecks, as well as the area over which they can be found. This will help offset the concentrated resources of Chernarus by spreading some military firepower and medical equipment out in random drops around a large area. Also, players appear to be drawn by the promise of big guns.
Starting Loadout - While I love the feeling of being lost and weak when spawned, a lot of people don't. As Betteh said to me yesterday, "people want to be able to shoot." Also, as Keyes said to me, "Not everybody can read Cyrillic." The upshot of this is, should we start people out with a G17 pistol and a map, instead of a revolver and nothing? The G17 is a nice option, because it has a large magazine that helps if you're carefully headshotting zombies, but it's a smaller caliber, so not so prone to rapdily killing players.
Care packages, extra buildings, etc - I haven't yet located an easy way to add these things, but it is possible. I'm no coder, but I can look in to tutorials and such to see if there's one out there that works for our type of server. If I could find a way to add these (functionally adding more high-end equipment and ammo to the game), should I pursue it? It significantly cuts down on the survival aspect of the game, and increases the power level of player vs player interactions.
Let me know your thoughts on these points, and any others that may occur.
