Idea for an optional system. I have never played this game, btw, so I don't know how feasible this would be or even if it is done already. A friend who plays DayZ and I were talking about how players tend to kill on sight. To curb this, but also to maybe make the game more fun, buddy players up on spawn, random players.Very important that I think this should be optional, little box you can tick to enable or disable it during gameplay. Anyway, reasons why buddying up strangers could work: If it is 1x1, if you kill there is no retaliation, victory is safe. It is easier to get the jump on just one person than it is to get the jump on a group of people. When it is a group x group, even if you land the first attack you could still get killed. A group fight is more uncertain. It is harder to organize a group of people to surprise someone and it is harder for a group of people to be caught by surprise. People alone don't have to prove their worth to anybody else. Kill on sight works because it guarantees a reward from a player interaction, a certain and easy reward compared to the risk of bonding with a stranger who could take your stuff. People in a group of strangers may think twice before showing their murderous side. In a group, you have less to gain from your kills (sharing spoils) and more to gain from building trust, cooperation. Basically you can gain credit in the group. What's more important is that you'll have started building group trust from your spawn, from before you had things to lose. People alone probably die faster than people in groups. Probably, I dunno. If people live longer, they'll have more goods and they'll have built a group cohesion. They'll want to preserve those things so they'll tend to be conservative. Bandit status would mean you run the risk of spawning with a group that distrusts you from the start. Playing with people, even if strangers, can be more fun for some players than going solo. Plus, a group of strangers is bound to create interesting situations. A group of strangers versus zombies is the set up for every classic zombie movie. How many good DayZ stories involve no player interaction?
