Player-created, Player-managed Factions.

[muzza 0]

Day Z has become a deathmatch. The fragile trust that once existed between survivors that created so much suspense in our stories has been replaced with a thoughtless shoot-on-sight reflex. As much as the arbitrary bandit skin may have addressed this issue, it was nonetheless unrealistic.

This is my suggestion to allow groups of like-minded players to share a factional identity, giving players who encounter them the opportunity to evaluate the reputation of their faction before deciding how to proceed.

Consider a group of bandit hunters who mean no harm to ordinary survivors, calling themselves the Chernorussian Opposition to Piracy and Slaughter (C.O.P.S.). This group would establish itself as a closed community and petition the game developers to be given their own unique faction skin, what happens next to the C.O.P.S. would be entirely organic.

Established as a reputable force within Day Z, members of the C.O.P.S. would then be free to consider applications from survivors, team up in mutual trust, and have less chance of being murdered out of sheer paranoia by virtue of their trusted uniform. To prevent having their uniforms stolen and allowing bandits to masquerade as peacekeepers, there should be an option to burn bodies of fallen comrades using matches, destroying the uniforms.

This implementation would also allow:

-Clan members to easily identify each other, and have less confusing wars with each other.

-Ideological conflict similar to that in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games

-'Bandits with honor' to join a community with access to the current bandit skin.

If you like the idea and think it is worth implementing please say so! Thanks for reading.

(This suggestion was pitched previously and appeared to be well received, but was unfortunately lost with the rest of the forums last week)

[Deadnaut 0]

To prevent having their uniforms stolen.

I was interested in custom clan skins until you wanted to stop me from having the ability to kill a clan member and infiltrate the group.

Sounds like making special rules so you can have the game the way you want it.

If there is no level of trust you should trust no one. If you want trust you should find a way to make it happen. E.g. play with people you know, set up some kind of forum or website that establishes a players trust. All this can be managed offline from the game prior to jumping on a server. It doesn't need the game to enforce it.

[muzza 0]

I was interested in custom clan skins until you wanted to stop me from having the ability to kill a clan member and infiltrate the group.

Sounds like making special rules so you can have the game the way you want it.

I believe there has been an misunderstanding' date=' the ability to steal faction uniforms is an integral part of the idea! If possible stolen uniforms will stay 'bloody' such that players can notice an imposter at close range, when it may already be too late!

Factions will of course develop their own trust procedures, such that members of a large faction who have not met before will quickly be able to identify each other as comrades, perhaps along the lines of "thunder" - "flash" by direct communication.

To prevent the sense of trust and purpose of a faction being damaged by imposters, faction members would have to take extreme measures to prevent uniforms from falling into the wrong hands; and that means safety in numbers.

What I had mentioned by way of burning bodies was a safety feature so patrols of faction members could make uniforms unlootable before moving on after a firefight. This could be done by using matches (very time consuming, inadvisable when trying to retreat under fire!) or by using some petrol (quick but expensive).

If there is no level of trust you should trust no one. If you want trust you should find a way to make it happen. E.g. play with people you know, set up some kind of forum or website that establishes a players trust. All this can be managed offline from the game prior to jumping on a server. It doesn't need the game to enforce it.

This is not a recipe for 100% trust, the ability to loot faction uniforms ensures that. It is however:

-an easy way to differentiate between your clan members and everyone else.

-a means for players to join greater communities than their own social circles that are importantly able to check the stats of players before allowing them in.

-a way for honorable players to identify themselves, and be treated with the trust they have earned through not playing the game the easy way.

-an overall objective for new players, to get out of the neutral camp and gain acceptance by a brotherhood of like-minded players.

-another way to encourage player-created content, the stories that have made this game so unique!

[Gaidoon 19]

I like the idea of player created factions.

[ImaffoI 22]

I am all in for this, custom skins and more intrigue and intrusion into those!

[Gaidoon 19]

Could use more support I know this is a good idea i hate when they get passed over because people spam useless crap like putting in campfire songs.

[staticofhf@gmail.com 1]

This is a pretty awesome suggestion, I support it completely. It'd be cool to join a faction like the one you described, knowing who's with you and who isn't. It'd give people something else to do.

[Gaidoon 19]

It could go along well with this thread to let you make a small Player made building.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=11494

[jesquik 75]

Day Z has become a deathmatch. The fragile trust that once existed between survivors that created so much suspense in our stories has been replaced with a thoughtless shoot-on-sight reflex. As much as the arbitrary bandit skin may have addressed this issue' date=' it was nonetheless unrealistic.

This is my suggestion to allow groups of like-minded players to share a factional identity, giving players who encounter them the opportunity to evaluate the reputation of their faction before deciding how to proceed.

Consider a group of bandit hunters who mean no harm to ordinary survivors, calling themselves the Chernorussian Opposition to Piracy and Slaughter (C.O.P.S.). This group would establish itself as a closed community and petition the game developers to be given their own unique faction skin, what happens next to the C.O.P.S. would be entirely organic.

Established as a reputable force within Day Z, members of the C.O.P.S. would then be free to consider applications from survivors, team up in mutual trust, and have less chance of being murdered out of sheer paranoia by virtue of their trusted uniform. To prevent having their uniforms stolen and allowing bandits to masquerade as peacekeepers, there should be an option to burn bodies of fallen comrades using matches, destroying the uniforms.

This implementation would also allow:

-Clan members to easily identify each other, and have less confusing wars with each other.

-Ideological conflict similar to that in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games

-'Bandits with honor' to join a community with access to the current bandit skin.

If you like the idea and think it is worth implementing please say so! Thanks for reading.

(This suggestion was pitched previously and appeared to be well received, but was unfortunately lost with the rest of the forums last week)

[/quote']

I quite like this idea. I do think that in order for the uniform stealing to work well, communication in the side channel needs to be minimized. Otherwise what is the point if you can just respawn and let your other teammates know you were murdered.

Then again, I also think that Direct Comm should be the only way you can communicate..

[Deadnaut 0]

Aah yep muzza cheers for the clarification

[muzza 0]

I am appreciative of the positive response thus far. I have a few questions for the community:

-Would the existence of a trustworthy peacekeeping faction prompt you as a player to behave more honorably in order to be considered for recruitment?

-Does anyone think that any attempt to make a trustworthy peacekeeping faction will be entirely outweighed by the attempts of griefers to destroy it?

For example would a griefer reset his stats and rack up the 15+ bandit kills and other honorable behavior needed to gain access to a peacekeeping faction, just to see how long it takes for them to realize that he had become a sociopathic wolf-in-sheep's-clothing afterwards?

-What uniform would you suggest for your faction? Any of the Operation Arrowhead models can be re-skinned relatively easily. Badass Russian urban camo for me!

-Are ideologically driven factions really a good idea? Or is this something the developers refuse to endorse with faction status. As much as the Freedom (anarchist) - Duty (fascist) aspect of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games intrigued me, I can foresee the amount of hatred from real life spilling into the game being unbearable.

[muzza 0]

I am appreciative of the positive response thus far. I have a few questions for the community:

-Would the existence of a trustworthy peacekeeping faction prompt you as a player to behave more honorably in order to be considered for recruitment?

-Are ideologically driven factions really a good idea? Or is this something the developers should refuse to endorse with faction status. As much as the Freedom (anarchist) - Duty (fascist) aspect of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games intrigued me, I can foresee the amount of hatred from real life spilling into the game being unbearable.

-What uniform would you suggest for your faction? Any of the Operation Arrowhead models can be re-skinned relatively easily. Badass Russian urban camo for me!

- Finally does anyone think that any attempt to make a trustworthy peacekeeping faction will be entirely outweighed by the attempts of griefers to destroy it? For example would a griefer reset his stats and rack up the 15+ bandit kills needed to gain access to a peacekeeping faction just to see how long it takes for them to realize that he had become a sociopathic wolf-in-sheep's-clothing afterwards?

Let me know what you think.

[Ejaculacid 19]

I like the idea of player created factions.

This.

[Gaidoon 19]

Back to the top with you!

[logan23 118]

I was thinking...

(forgive the grammar - writing on IPhone :-/ )

What if players cone across the remains of factions/groups that were wiped out due to the Zeds.

Players can then decide to takeup this factions banners, (arm bands)

Once you sign up at one then there will be info on your character - stats that others from yout group can see.

Other factions can also see if they are allowed at the location where it's kept.

There will a wide range of factions which are based on what kind of groups would evolve out if this zombie apocalypse.

When you discover one of these former faction hold outs... You can go throug the notes and info left from the original members who either left or dead. Your are the next generation of society.

Theses notes could be journal entry of a mother singing her child to sleep as she says in her next line how she wonders is this will be last night to sing this song. Everyday can be your last. Notes can also be info on how they were looking at getting power to some towns.

There would also be information tell the player there other groups out there and even though at times there was conflicts, it made trading and surviving better.

Once there is a group of 3 that are part of this faction then the book/symbol of the base and idenity/ can be moved to what ever location you wish. Radios will have a channel for their faction (if you gave a radio) that will give info on the last known location of the base.

Ideally there would be about 5 factions and players don't need to join them. You can do lone wolf. If a faction player sees the other player with ni armband then they know they are a lobe wolf or a new player.

This idea is actually for the future of DayZ since you would need a larger map and more players on the server. This will also encourage to find a home server basically but faction stats and membership is cross server but like tents, what you build or layout will only stay on that one server.

This is aimed at being social, while grounding it within what happen during this zombie apocalypse. Players will still kill each other and there will be faction tension but also there can be trade as well as backstabing.

Players who leave a faction or backstab the one they are a member of will be flagged. Meaning at the faction's core book with player stats- you will also see names that left or did the faction wrong.

To keep faction from hording vehicles... They will have a life span after you fix them. So sooner or later the engine will just die. This means factions can only hold vehicles for a period of time, allowing them to respan and others can get a chance.

I have more but I need to do some research before saying more.

The core is to allow players to be social, connect with the DayZ world, but also still allow players freedom at the say time bring players to bond.

This would of course be after tasks and side missions are brought into the mod, if that happens.

This also eliminates the survivor /bandit mentality .

Let me know what you think?

[muzza 0]

Those are some interesting suggestions on in-game factions logan, however we may disagree on the implementation. In the OP I suggest factions that are created by player communities and then given a unique identity within the game by the developers, as opposed to pre-made faction apparatus that is randomly found and adopted by players.

The reason I suggest player created factions is because each faction will represent a particular playstyle, with access to these factions being dependent on the choices you have made within the game represented by certain statistics (e.g. 'c.o.p.s.' from the OP).

So if I have had to resist the temptation of killing survivors and have had to have killed x number of bandits in order to obtain my faction uniform; and I meet another player who wears the same uniform, then after a few 'handshakes' I will know that we are clearly on the same team and that this is a player I could trust to trade with or team up with.

However if I had found my faction uniform as a site as described and met another player in the same colours, how could I know he isnt going to kill me at the first opportunity like most other players out there?