Agiantstick

The hero skin you get is cool and all, but why can't they get rewarded for being good? But I'm not talking on the lines of damage percentage increases or speed increases. I'm talking about access to special actions that can allow self transfusions, makeshift repairing using junk you find, instant bandaging, not affected by cold weather (Because you're a very warm person TEEEHEEEHEEEE), or even an automatic shout of "friendly!" when you see someone (although, bandits and would be bandits can make use of that) Maybe having high humanity (6000+) gives cues for bandits in the area (a unique sound effect maybe?) As for farming humanity, the most effective way to get humanity is killing bandits and helping survivors. However, there are diminishing returns for helping the same survivor multiple times, which helps combat grinders that let zombies hit them and let their teammates heal them for humanity. And it would encourage others to help and trust other survivors that may have been shot by bandits or hit by zombies. As for losing humanity, shooting and hitting or killing someone that is not a bandit is a humanity loss, Stealing from a tent that is not yours is a humanity loss and looting dead bodies that are not bandits is a humanity loss. Destroying other non bandit's tents, cars, fortified structures is a humanity loss. High negative and High postitive humanity does not reset, it only decreases. However low humanity and low negative humanity will reset. As for people that don't want to be carebears, I suggest a survivor path, which bandits, neutrals, and heroes can all benefit from. The survivor path can allow for actions such as starting fires without matches, better hearing when players are around, less supplies needed when repairing or crafting, special clothing that nullifies temp or muffles sound, or mounting flashlights on your shoulder. The survivor path is not a class or based on humanity, it is based on looting, killing zombies, repairing things, healing yourself, eating, drinking, and the days you have stayed alive. When you die, you lose all of your survival skills. (More of a reason to use teamwork)

Survivalism would still be there, and honestly it would be more realistic than what DayZ is now, which is a survivor waking up on the beach, running to the nearest military, finding a gun, then running into a high traffic area to kill other people. An apocalypse turns some people into savages, but not all of them. I'm not calling for punishing bandits. I'm asking for benefits that will make the hero playstyle seem a bit more viable. Bandits will not be nerfed, Heroes will still be harder to play, but more rewarding in the long term. Bandits will still have their freedom to shoot on sight, steal, and grief. All the things that make the bandit playstyle better in the first place. This is more of a request to encourage more playstyles than it is to balance the game.

I also think we need to agree on the level of realism in this game. Should there be skins? Should loot be constantly supplied? Should tents and their items disappear on death? Should destroyed vehicles respawn?' The argument of realism is subjective, why can't things not be 100% realistic but help the game?

Well this game is probably going to have a mature rating, so age specific servers would be redundant.

I don't think letting people play the game differently will ruin DayZ. In fact, I think it will improve it, adding more dynamic gameplay than this static and binary way people deal with others in DayZ (Mostly Chernarus. Side chat on the other maps has helped alleviate some of the paranoia between survivors) Pigeonholing others into this playstyle seems destructive. It's not like everyone is going to jump ship to be a hero, anyway. It's more about long term gain. People that like bandity will stay bandits probably because they like not worrying about others and the short term gain of killing others, but people that were forced into banditry may now have a choice. And as for good guys being rewarded, that is true, but a slight runspeed increase is negligible compared to what the total shit gets: freedom without consequence.

Well don't you think some people are forced into a bandit playstyle? I want to encourage other playstyles. I can't think of another fix besides a reward for playing differently.

Not necessarily, the reward in the bandit playstyle is the playstyle itself of not being guided by morals, take anything, kill anyone, give a fuck later. Which is great considering there are so many people playing it right now. Hero playstyle will be weak from the start, as it requires you to play smarter than the bandit as you'll be doing riskier things if you want to keep your humanity. Helping a survivor might cost you your life from a bandit attack, another paranoid survivor, or even the survivor you're helping. Find camping tents with loads of helpful gear in them might tempt you to steal or not to steal and weigh the risks humanity loss. Even though a DMR would be really helpful, would that help you gain back the humanity loss from stealing it. I just want to give the hero a payoff much like the bandit's so more people are apt to play differently, which might break the flow of the monotonous Elektro deathmatches.

It was a side suggestion, really. I want the hero to be discussed mroe.

I think a suicide option would be a great idea (would require a gun, though) I think all these other people are just thinking that you can just abuse suicide to respawn. Although hacking is supposedly going to be less rampant in the standalone, it's still not a bad idea.

Body physics/Gore would add a bit more visceral punch to the game. I like it.

I really don't think tents should disappear, really. I think there should be a degrading mechanic for whatever is in the tent (food expiring, weapons degrading, parts/tools rusting, etc.). Tents should be stealable, as well. But very rare in residentials/military.

I don't want stats. I want skills, skills that you develop over time or can learn from in books. Skills that don't equate to percentage boosts. Unique skills like making fires without matches, learning how to treat a broken leg without morphine, how to use scrap and trash to make makeshift jury rigged repairs on cars, skinning animals to make clothing, hell even how to make escape ladders and rapples. But these survival skills won't be permanent, you lose all of them when you die (Ala Diablo's Hardcore Mode) this makes you value your life more without feeling like an RPG. After all, you do learn how to survive better over time and maybe through reading, and of course you lose all knowledge of anything when you're a fresh off the coast survivor.

Skins are all fine and dandy, but heroes will still be playing handicapped, which will probably make people still stray away from being a hero.

To be honest, it has more to do with giving an incentive to try another playstyle rather than it is to get rid some of the evil bastards in this game. I still want bandits, but I want more of and opposing force to bandits. Yes, survivors are all fine and dandy to combat banditry, but survivors are prone to killing each other too. And like I said, I think some more interesting moments will come from DayZ with a larger pool of heroes playing the game. Also, I never once said I wanted bandits to be punished.

Exactly what he said. My point in this is not to punish bandits. Bandits already have a, for lack of a better word, overpowered playstyle. The heroes are handicapped due to the nature of bandits and survivors of the like not trusting anyone and shooting whatever comes in their path. Surely you all agree that there is a disproportionate amount of bandits to heroes? And though that would probably be true in a real life scenario, this isn't real life. I point out that there's magically respawning loot in every building. But everyone here will suspend their disbelief when it comes to that, why can you not suspend your disbelief when there is a system that rewards people for being good? Shouldn't there be more of a reward when you're basically playing the game with a gimped playstyle? I also don't want to punish bandits, I never said that. I want to reward the ones that don't play the cut and dry way of shooting first and asking questions later and want to play the game a bit more interestingly. And yes, these ideas are not end all be all solutions. Rewarding players with some benefits of playing heroes which may not be inherently beneficial at first but over time it becomes more and more rewarding could just be another playstyle over the short term instant gratification of being a bandit.

I'd also like to make myself clear. I want all benefits to be able to be lost humanity and survivor skills. I'm not asking for permanent benefits from styles of play.

Another guy told me already.

I just want to have a playstyle encouraged that might lead to a more complex experience rather than "everyone shoot on sight" realism of the apocalypse. The heroes are few and far in between because of their rules of engagement that usually lead them to being shot first. I understand that realism doesn't necessarily reward people for being good, and that's perfectly logical. There are no guaranteed rewards in real life just because you're a nice guy. But could there be another layer of depth behind this? People shooting each other is fun, but why not have someone that is willing to help others in need. A very brief moment from all the paranoia, firefights, and alt-looking where you're with a stranger and you don't feel on edge, but relaxed? I'm not saying this is imperative for DayZ, I'm just saying that this might add some more character to the game. Oh, and for the hero not being able to be buried would still leave to maybe the killer taking all the stuff off the body and dumping it in the middle of the forest.

Well the thing is grinding for survival score/humanity can be done. But it requires alot of work and resources. Also, grinding would lead to sitting in towns, which would lead to player encounters both friendly and non friendly, which leads to you possibly losing you life, losing all your survivor progress and some of your humanity (all of it if you're below the threshold).

Well that's where Rocket decides if he's going to make this as realistic as possible or make this game slightly unrealistic, which is odd because there's no reason for adding a humanity meter in the first place if this is a simulator. I'm just thinking a hardcore experience where consequences are dire and choices matter, as there are no real set morals in an apocalypse, consequences are based only on people or zombies around you, there are no skins to show if you're a good or bad person, and the only way another person will know you're a bandit is if you shoot first. Which would be an interesting experiment if he got rid of all visual cues.

If people are up for audio cues than visual. You would hear someone scream "Friendly" then hear the crackle of a gunshot followed by the sound of a bullet hitting the ground. I think skins need to stay if humanity stays, or it would turn into someone hearing friendly then looking around to find who said that then shoot him. Or there could be a recognition system where you hear someone scream friendly, you do not respond. After a certain amount of times not responding, you will be designated as a foe.

Yeah, I just see bandits as more of the person that kills and steals, heroes can only loot bandit corpses without losing humanity. And as for stat tracking, I never have debug on, so I don't care. I find reward in the rare items I find and the vehicles I have (Call me materialistic) having a "tangible" useful reward suits my tastes better. A global leaderboard would give people like me more of a reason to stat tracking.

Well every non bandit you shoot is losing humanity and every non bandit you kill is losing even more humanity, The benefits only work if you're above the threshold. As soon as you leave it, you lose your benefits.

I want to reward all styles of play, but there's nothing to give bandits that they already can take by force or learn in the survivor path. (Maybe bandit traps?) Yes dying is a huge punishment, as losing all your survivor score/skills is steep already. But you can always run back to your corpse and take whatever. That is if the bandits didn't already take it.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Which is what the survivor score/path is. Everyone gets one regardless of humanity and it can be bettered by doing what everyone does in this game, surviving. And if you die, you lose all that. But if your humanity is low enough or high enough, you keep a benefit Yeah, and there would always be a bandit v bandit, never a hero v hero. I think there should be less heroes than bandits. As a bandit group will probably kill the other bandit group going for their loot. Heroes would probably always band together even if they don't know each other.