Slowe

Oh but you DO have the manpower, what you don't have is the luxury to coordinate your entire life and others' to revolve around watching a base inside a video game. I like to look at DayZ with a realism pov, and if this were a real situation survivors would not have things like work, school, or other obligations to worry about, therefore allowing them to take turns on watch for a base. What people got to remember is that this is just a video game, players have lives outside of it. People don't log out in real life, disappearing from our world for the night. I believe leaving characters inside the game would be highly realistic, but there would still be no way of protecting yourself or your stuff when you're gone and would probably cause server problems. Having some sort of NPC counterpart to help you keep whats yours' is a much better option. I think the NPCs would add some realism to bases without forcing players to stay in game 24/7 and allowing casual players to have some sort of end game fun. I don't see how they would disrupt the core PvP aspects that you would see in the rest of the world as they wouldn't be roaming around all over the place, they'd be confined to only the bases and only there would be a small handful of them. If you walked up to someones' base that was being guarded by a real player, you would be met with the same interaction as from an NPC....bullets, lots of bullets. For anyone who really wants to get at your stuff, they would be just a small deterant, not some uber force that you have to launch a massive attack against.

I don't get what's the big deal about using NPCs to guard a base. I like the idea, as it would make raiding bases more of a challenge. Realistically (and isn't that what we're all wanting here?) if someone had the resources and manpower to build a base, they would be able to have lookouts on watch at all times. You wouldn't be able to raid the base simply because they're all gone for the night. Now I would go for a system where once you create a certain structure (one requiring quite a bit of resources to build), you are able to recruit a NPC lookout. Larger groups would have an easier time gathering the resources because of their numbers and thus build bigger and better protected bases, whereas small groups would have a harder time gathering resources resulting in some low security/unprotected bases. Also, the NPCs would only be present for say 5/6 hours a day, allowing you to have some sort of protection during the hours you are not logged in. The limit on how many hours they could be present would mean that there is still some room for an unprotected base, unless you stagger their shifts. The skill level of the AI should be fairly okay. They wouldn't be deadeyes but they wouldn't be pushovers neither. This would be more fun and makes it a challenge for any raiders trying to steal your stuff, because I don't see any fun in just trying to dodge boobytraps or break down locks to make it into an empty base. As I see it now, there would be no incentive to build a base or acquire vehicles, only to have someone ransack it when you log off.... thus leading to the same thing that happens now when people have nothing to work towards: mass banditry. Players that would rather not kill every player they see have nothing to do really, and I see bases as being a great way to combat that but only if there is some sufficient security for them.