Had an idea to introduce Zones into the game. Fairly straight-forward idea actually. GREEN ZONES Green Zones are small villages which have been fortified and are guarded by NPCs with guns. These places are zombie free and will allow survivors to trade supplies with other survivors or trade them with an NPC merchant. The NPC merchants, however, should be quite bastardish and their trade values for items should be rediculous to prevent people from just farming garbage and trading all of it to them for food or ammo. These Green Zones are also where players can Group Up (there needs to be some kind of "Party" system in the game to be honest). Green Zones aren't very big, and often only occupy maybe a few buildings in a village (if not just one big building). Anyone who tries to kill another player inside a Green Zone will immediately and forever be identified as a bandit (at least until they die) and NPCs will shoot them on sight (if and when they detect the player). Also, players who commit too many murders will be marked as Bandits by NPCs, meaning if they are detected by NPCs they will be shot on sight. This gives survivors a safe haven from bandits while making at least some downside to being a bandit (you chose a dangerous lifestyle in the apocalypse, you should continue to live it, no wussing out halfway through). YELLOW ZONES Yellow Zones are areas around Green Zones that stretch for about a kilometer in every direction. The good part about yellow zones is lower zombies numbers and sparse NPC patrols which help protect against bandits. The downside? Item spawns are much more rare. You can still find weapons and ammo, but they'll usually be bottom-of-the-barrel weapons and ammo will be scarce. So long as bandits keep an eye out for patrols they should be able to act within a Yellow Zone fine. If they kill a non-bandit player, however, they will have 10 seconds to loot and book it before NPCs spawn nearby to come and investigate the disturbance. This gives bandits enough time to swoop in, scavenge a kill, then swoop out before help arrives. Bad bandits who take too long will probably get owned by the arriving NPCs. RED ZONES Red Zones take up the vast majority of the map and are where all the good stuff spawns. Food and drink spawn more frequently than in yellow zones, weapons and ammo spawn more regularly (though are not common by any stretch), and so on and so forth. The downside? Zombies, lots of zombies. Also there's no NPC security force out in the Red Zone, so it's a bandit's paradise out there. You get killed out in a Red Zone by a bandit or group of bandits? Too bad, should have been more careful. HOW THIS EFFECTS SURVIVORS This will give Survivors a safe haven to catch their breath, trade, group up with other survivors, and not have to worry about bandits. If a Party system of some variety is introduced, the only way to join a party should be if you are a Survivor and only grouping up inside of a Green Zone. Players who group up into a Party will have friendly fire turned off (but only to those inside the group) and players will not be able to leave the group until they go back to a Green Zone or log off (this is to prevent abuse and trolling). HOW THIS EFFECTS BANDITS Bandits remain pretty much unphased by the concept of Zones apart from the additional threat of being blown away by NPCs in Yellow or Green zones. Their attire doesn't change, so they can still try to decieve people. They don't have tags so they can't be pointed out from a distance. Business as usual for Bandits. The downside is that Bandits won't be able to benefit from the Party system. Why? You're a bandit, other bandits shouldn't fully trust you and you shouldn't fully trust them. Any alliances or groupings between bandits should be described as Alliances of Conveniance at best, alliances which should be able to crumble at the drop of a hat. As a bandit, your friends are expendible, especially if they have stuff you need. Only the Hardcore need apply.
