New targets point logic to cater bandits to and the survivors as well (+ radios)

[mrducky (DayZ) 33]

The thing is, that currently some people just want to shoot others (having nothing else to do?) and others are still desperately trying to coop and are getting frustrated on always getting shot on sight...

How to make it all better for everyone? Without limiting their freedom of choice. Here's my take on the matter:

Suggestion 1, "a.k.a. the bandit clan military escort express for noobs":

How about giving all the respawned players, even the noobs some kind of "target spot". It could be for example a weapons cache, that only that guy has knowledge about. Maybe just some map coordinate or such (or a map marker if that would be possible). That location could be in some random house or even in the woods or where-ever. Some small pile of trash, which only triggers and spawns the actual "hidden weapon" (or other high-end-gear) when the guy who has knowledge about it gets next to it. The target should usually be far away from the initial player spawn so that just running there quickly would not be an option. Or maybe it should require something like finding a newly spawned map item first. (So everyone would not just start running toward the location at spawn, they would have to risk a bit of exploration first.)

Why such a thing? Well, because this would give even the bandits a totally new target to achieve. Instead of just shooting the noob, now they might want to think that hey, I'll just lure that noob into thinking that I'm a good guy, coop with him for a while, get him to lead me to his weapons cache, and then... :P

Now, the bandits would have something else to do than to just shoot the poor sob on sight. (Because the guy has something - info - they can't have just by shooting him on the field).

Maybe those bandits clans that have vehicles, etc., would actually even consider giving the noobs and other solo guys some safe rides on their vehicles. You know, a bit of a military escort to the target site type of service. In exchange of, well, for example, getting to take the weapon in the cache, if its something good enough that they really want - And giving some of their not quite so good a weapon in exchange (or alternatively just betraying and shooting the poor bastard.)

Or maybe if the loot spawn tends to often have like 2 primary weapons or such, then it makes sense to group up to go there. Because one person will probably only need one of those, the other would generally be a leftover for the other guys.

Both would be taking a risk, but both might gain on it. A safe vehicle ride to the cache to gain even a bit crappier left-over assault rifle from a bandit would still be a win for the noob, even if the bandits would take the silenced-ultra-weapon found from the cache. Considering the alternative is to probably never even getting to the cache alive.

This certainly would give the bandit clans some new goals. Instead of shooting the noob - and gain some beans and makarov, or just lulz, they might have much more to gain by escorting him safely to some location across the map. (Obviously, to balance things out, the high end gear should have an even lower chance of spawn at NW airfield, etc., so just camping around there would not continue to be the easiest way to get all that stuff.)

Sometimes it might go well for all involved. Sometimes it might not. At least now everyone would have a little more motivation to consider getting somewhere together and alive. And, oh boy... the possible drama at the end of it all... :P

Oh... And maybe there there should be a 20% chance that the weapon's cache would instead trigger a massive zed horde spawn somewhere nearby that would immediately go aggro. Just to make things more interesting for all parties. (And to promote the "better have other people with you, don't just run here alone with your makarov") :D

So basically, its like an ultra-light-version of the actual real complex scripted side missions - but incidentally randomly bound to the newly spawned players. Thus, to acquire these "side missions", it would kinda automatically mean having to somehow deal with that specific player.

The good: :)

+ Promotes, but won't force, interaction beyond the shoot on sight with the random people you meet. Even for the bandits.

+ Promotes journeys beyond Cherno/Elektro/NWA/Stary even for the old timers that might not otherwise bother.

+ Should be semi-easy to implement since its just a specific player triggered spawn (and a position indication for that player).

+ Not really a scripted side mission, but hopefully a player interaction filled journey to the loot spot target. (Not the same pre-made story every time)

+ Does not force any player to play these, does not really aim to punish the bandit style. They can keep on PvP'ing everything that moves if they want to.

+ Or they can just stalk people that appear to be heading somewhere... maybe the loot spot? Wait for them to get it, then shoot. No need to go talking with them if you don't want to.

+ Does not have major issues with realism. It is totally conceivable that a person X could have gained knowledge, that others don't have, of some well hidden weapon stash under the floorboards of house Y in town Z (Maybe he hid the stuff there before all hell broke loose).

+ Most importantly: Offers something interesting / possibly beneficial things to do, other than just killing everyone.

On the negative side: :(

- This requires the communication in-game to work somehow. Otherwise it won't promote any teamplay with strangers. People will just keep trying to run solo / in their TS group to the target. Thus, this would not work atm.

- Careful selection of the target spots is necessary. They should promote team play, not be some instant to run here after spawn.

(Gotta be far enough from the coast, gotta be usually at cities/towns, not in the middle of some safe forest, must not be re-selectable by constantly respawning until a good place is found)

- And additionally, it needs to have some cap - like allowing that kind of target spot trigger only once a day (or even week) per player. So that, for example, a single clan member cannot just keep killing himself over and over again, telling his teammates to pick him up with a car and thus keep farming the weapons to their tents by constant respawning.

As far as the communication requirement goes, there certainly has been several posts about possibility of walkie-talkies and that kind of stuff.

And the above suggestion would definitely need something like that (or just bluntly the sidechat, but I doubt that's coming back). Hence, the other related suggestion:

Suggestion 2, "everyone wants the radios, right?":

Obviously, the often suggested radios and such, that would allow chatter between limited set of random people even before they meet each other (without having to discuss everything globally on the side and annoying others while doing so), would be great. Now, when the random encounter with a totally nameless guy happens, its too late to go for the direct chat and start chatting with the other guy. Its just an anonymous guy, you know nothing about, you feel nothing towards, and its so easy to just shoot him.

Consider the same situation, had you chatted with that guy on the radio (walkie-talkie) you found and hour ago or so. And if it was a limited group of people, possibly just you and the other guy on that specific radio channel (fixed channels per radio perhaps, and range limited by a span of few towns?)... Now, after running hours in the woods and looting towns, with only that one guy on the other end of the radio to chat with... You would have a totally different emotional bond to a possible encounter with him.

Maybe it would just be a bandit who has been luring you into an ambush or trying to fish out your location. Or maybe its another fellow survivor that's just as bored to running in the woods alone as you are. Maybe when that guy says he got his bones broken by zeds on his last visit to a town and is on low health, you might actually believe it for a moment... Unlike all of those side chat yells of "I'm at elektro power station, I'm hurt. I need help, can anyone bring me morphine, I'll give you my AKM for it". (Right, sure thing, I'll be right there. Not.)

And who knows, if there happens to be a bandit near enough with a radio for that channel, it might not just be you who's up for the encounter.

The current "direct chat only" policy might theoretically bring some atmosphere to encounters, but what it really does at the moment, is that unless you play in some clan / teamspeak, the game is essentially a singleplayer experience, until that random encounter... And then, at the encounter, the only form of communication are the bullets. You can play for hours, without having a single human contact, and it is quite possible that even in the end, you'll die without even seeing the one who shot you. This certainly has its tension of the constant fear of getting sniped, but it has no psychological human-to-human interaction tension.

It would at least be interesting to chat with someone until you die. And then, when the radio goes silent, to wonder if the other guy had been careless and had got shot. (Or if you hear/read some other guy taking contact through the radio on the same channel, you'd know that you're previous contact is probably dead on his feet.)

The good: :)

+ Direct chat, specifically the text, is just way too little, way too late. One of the players is already dead at the typing of the first few words. This would alleviate that by a certain amount.

+ A possibility to finally get to know some player a little bit before possibly encountering him. Makes the choice of pulling the trigger a totally different psychological ordeal than with some anonymous avatar that has no name and you know nothing about.

+ Won't take away the possibility to mass-murder anonymously, with no feelings attached - for those who'd rather play that way.

+ Won't spam everyone globally, won't clutter their screen if they want to immerse themselves into the world and not feel like being in a chat room.

The bad: :(

- I dunno about the Arma 2 engine, but implementation might be tricky. At least it would need support added on the engine side, probably not moddable on this level as-is.

So, what do you guys think? TL;DR probably for the most... But anyone who actually read the whole thing, did it make sense to you?

There would still be the same atmosphere of thick mistrust to go around. But at least there would be a chance that the so called bandits might sometimes be willing to risk meeting up on a stranger, rather than just shooting him from afar.

As long as there is nothing for the bandits to gain by not just shooting the anonymous person on sight, of course they are going to keep shooting. Ask yourself: why wouldn't they? The suggestions above attempt to give (those players specifically) some new alternative interesting things to do... And by doing that, it would also cater the needs of the so called survivors (and noobs) who would like to co-operate, but keep getting killed by the said bandits on sight. So, everyone wins. (Or in grim reality: Nothing really changes) :P

(My apologies for the shiiitt long post.)