Howdy gang and Haleks,
Fired up the mod for the first time yesterday and wound up playing it all day long. Was a nice harkening back to DayZ. Honestly, it's pretty much exactly what we've been looking for: It's dark, creepy, ominous, and very difficult. Haleks, you *need* to make this into a multiplayer, dedicated-server mod. I guarantee you it would get traction.
While I enjoyed the game play quite a bit, and while it satisfied that desire I think all of us have to have that hardcore survival thing, I've got some suggestions for you on things you can do, in my opinion, to re-balance the mod out:
1) HandleDamage with projectile damage from bandits as well as inflicting said damage on bandits -- The damage done is way, way too high, in both directions. I would suggest you bring it back close to stock Arma levels. You spend an hour accumulating supplies and then die in one shot from a raider which is not cool. The fight needs to be a little bit more prolonged where things like head shots can matter over body shots, especially if a player is wearing an armoured vest or carrier rig.
2) The food drops are extremely low. They can be low, which forces the player to have to scavenge, but they're dreadfully low. In the entire time I played yesterday, I found only one can of baked beans. I would suggest either adding the random critter in (chicken, sheep, whatever) or add canned goods back in.
3) Empty can loot is too high.
4) Remove the player/enemy/raider/vehicle icons off of the map. This isn't militaristic Arma; it's a survival mod, so seeing stuff on the map is too advantageous to players. In doing so, I think this requires a change of overall difficulty in the scenario.
5) Augment the attack animation on zombies by taking the latter portion of the grenade animation. They're doing the entire animation cycle which is actually three animations buttoned together. The last one would work just fine. If in fact you do this change, then I suggest dropping down the number of running zombies slightly to balance it.
6) The Hellcat needs initial damage points.
7) Empty or dramatically reduce the fuel tank capacity of the Tempest Fuel truck. (setFuelCargo; similar that I believe is done on the offroad repair -- setRepairCargo)
8) A 4x to 6x time multiplier wouldn't hurt, if it doesn't already exist, so a player is forced to deal with night time and use the flashlights/chem lights found out in the field.
9) Changing of or addition of CUP (Community Upgrade Project) weaponry to go back to some of the Arma 2, DayZ-style weaponry (Lee Enfield, M1014 shotgun, etc).
10) I have a gas mask breathing sound in CO18 Resistance Plus I nabbed off the Internet, for use with the SDV, that you can use to replace the gas mask sound you've got. There's no bubbling water sound mixed in.
11) EDIT: I Forgot something - The new stamina system. Since there's so much running in this, I would recommend modifying the stamina system to enable the player to run greater distances before getting winded and having to rest. It might also help to add an Epi pen in, that a player can double-click on in inventory, that temporarily disables the stamina system for a few minutes (with a pulsing heartbeat sound), that terminates in a crash of all stamina, forcing the player to have to stop. Also, the player's aim coefficient -- modify it, I suggest setting it down to between 0.20 and 0.35.
12) Trash piles, bags, etc that can be looted, Epoch-style. I wrote code several months ago to make this work in the fashion that Epoch mod does it, where a player can check the "inventory" of a pile of trash bags, etc. to see if there's anything in them. This could be implemented fairly easily where loot spawn, randomly, can be produced at the same spot. Suggestions could be empty cans, canned food, dirty water bottles, that sort of thing, or nothing at all, and would be a way to implement more in the way of loot drops into the mod without having to load the client down doing spawn routines, as long as it doesn't imbalance the mod.
13) Possible loot drops on zombies, DayZ style, without having to make them units vs agents. Something that triggers on their death (Killed EH) that could possibly drop an item at zed's location.
Other than that, I think the weaponry and ammo drops are perfect. You really have to work at it to get armed! And the use of container objects for loot is very good and helps relieve a lot of lag.
Haleks, I need to get some time with you. I can help you convert this into multiplayer running on a dedicated server. I have the scripting knowledge and experience to show you how to set this up for headless clients, monitor and keep track of players, vehicles in the field, etc. I also have code I wrote to relieve A LOT of server and client FPS. This mod is so damn good, and so challenging, and so hardcore, that it could easily be the spiritual successor to DayZ for Arma 3. Come get in touch with me, give me an hour of your time, and let me show you the mission (of the code I sent you) to give you some ideas. It is possible! And it would be one of the best survival mods for Arma 3.
B
