ambiguousFoo

Yes, I think it is clear after some of the feedback that the incremental growth portion of the OP would be difficult if not impossible to implement without adding unwanted elements to the game. That being said, I updated the OP saying as much. Great feedback... lets keep this going... I think adding value to player interactions can only be a good thing. The value involved in player interactions in Star Wars Galaxies for example were really cool - you could learn languages and skills (and for mastery skills you could only learn them from another master) from other players.

This can be seen in hordes. Consider as the zombie apocalypse drags on, individual zombie encounters will become less prevalent, while zombies that migrate into hordes will be 'more successful'.

Its a bit more complicated than that, and generally player behaviors are guided by incentive rather than penalty. That being said, Dayz is a sandbox game. The organization/mobilization of play against a player (for whatever reason, greifing/pk being most common) should be something that is handled by players with existing resources (the game should not provide additional bounty rewards or artificially impact play). The real question is if players have ample means of communication in game (which is another topic completely).

Can you elaborate on how learned/shared skills detracts from what is unique about this game, or what you consider unique about this game? As for pushing the game in direction of other games, Dayz will inherently possess a large base of common properties with other games within the genre it shares (FPS, Sandbox, Survival). To self answer my question above, I think that what makes Dayz unique (imo) is it's unique mix of 'simulation/realism' (from ye old Arma engine) and 'game'. An improper implementation of skills could push it more towards 'game' (which I would consider detracting from uniqueness, others may disagree) or push Dayz more towards 'simulation/realism' (not being able to apply IVs without medical knowledge) which imo would enhance it's uniqueness.

First, for those of you who haven't seen it, check out this vid (the inspiration for this post) For those who don't click above, some Russian guy shows us how to open a can of beans with his bare hands. Thankfully, now that I know his method, I will not die due to lack of can opener in the upcoming zombie apocalypse. So why then, would I have to meet this demise in Dayz? What if my character could learn cool tricks? Now just to be clear, I am NOT suggesting classes or traits/abilities (character stat modifications). I AM suggesting that characters can LEARN and SHARE knowledge that can increase their utility/survival chances. This does a couple of things... - it empowers players with intrinsic value which can increase the complexity of character interactions. When encountering a new player, consider the choice between shooting them for loot or opening dialogue to see if they can provide a skill. - it adds tactical complexity to the game. Consider in this implementation then that a proper knowledge of medicine may be required to efficiently bandage or apply IVs. - it can add value to books or similar items that may assist with or partially provide knowledge, creating a additional value vector that increases tactical depth (consider existing vectors as weapons and food/medical) With the above in mind consider then that: - with proper implementation, this doesn't need to collide with the extant paradigm of "Player Skill vs. Avatar Skill". Rather, such learned abilities would instead impact item interaction menus, or modify the efficacy of existing item actions. - learned skills might be incremental (applying bandages enough times, handling enough firearms, ATTEMPTING to repair vehicles enough times through trial and error) EDIT: feedback in this thread indicates this would likely be a bad idea (players gaming the system to 'level up' skills would be stupid) - EDIT: There should be no skill trees, this approach would be more recipe/guide singleton based. - EDIT: items that provide skill knowledge would need to be consumed if advantage #1 above (adding to player's intrinsic value) were to be leveraged. (otherwise skills just become something else you can loot off of a player (if they have a guide/book/recipe)) - new players should begin with NO learned skills (for the same reasons new players start with no gear - organized players would then be able to easily game the system with respawns). - the existing first person dialogue indicator could be used to indicate unfamiliarity with an acquired or held item. For example, while holding a defibrillator in hands my completely noob of a character may emote "I have no idea what this contraption is for" and my only action menu item might be "Press button" ( which could easily kill or possibly help the person I am trying to defibrillate). P.S. I swar I DID DO A SEARCH on the terms skills/traits/abilities and came up with surprisingly few results for what I expected to be a relatively 'spammed' topic. For those incoming trolls coming in to shoot down the ideas posed above please consider that as far as I have researched, the above implementation/approach has not been discussed, and that a high volume of discussion around a particular topic (as indicated by # of posts) indicates a high demand for a given feature and, as proper dayz fanboys, we should all do our best to help the devs by brainstorming and fleshing out these kinds of ideas. Thanks! TDLR: Add the ability for players to LEARN and SHARE item related skills (like opening a can of beans without a can opener)

Great comment Bearington, however, I have to disagree (or perhaps my perception of the OPs implementation is different) with the following line of your comment: My perception of the OPs implementation is that hallucinations exist to alter gameplay experience... they do not implicitly evoke an avatar reaction. Just like hunger/illness/pain can alter our gameplay experience with greying vision, shaking crosshairs, hallucination similarly adds depth of experience (increases point of view immersion). The way that new depth is interpreted by the player is still free game.

This should be in for no other reason than providing tactical choice.

I am actually surprised this is not a feature! Please this needs to be added.

The TLDR I pulled out from the OP was: - Don't implement a mental health system that penalizes players for PKs/Banditry/solo play - DO implement a mental health system that incentivizes peaceful interactions with other players. Any incoming trolls, please chew on this a moment. This may be the 1millionth thread on sanity, but that in itself tells us that there is an incredible demand by the community to talk about a mechanic that incentivizes player behavior beyond simply "me hungry, me take your food!". Dayz is both a game AND a simulation (these are not synonymous). In a "real" zombie apocalypse, there would also be incentives for peaceful interaction with other humans (albeit tense and nerve wracking) such as: - acquiring information (bandits in the area, safe communities nearby, geographical infromation, location of resources........) - the "human" need for social interaction - working together to build structures/agriculture - trading Since this is a "game" though, non-tangible factors such as info gathering need to be replicated by systems that incentivize players (like the OP). There have been a few great comments in this thread, particularly those that astutely picked up on how the game mechanics shape play experience (the person who got sick over his first kill is a great example). The reason that player got sick over his first kill was because a kill MATTERS.... its important. Its a serious deal because the game mechanics dictate this (its not just the player). A sanity system then extends these game mechanics, it can help refine what is important. In this case, finding other players becomes more important for more reasons than just farming gear, which adds complexity, depth, and fun. P.S. The Star Wars Galaxies reference WAS SPOT ON AMAZING. Chilling out at player camps and other skills/activities that incentivized social behaviors was a gem.