DayZ standalone - adding more immersion and depth.

[Guest]

This took a very long time to make and I appreciate if you read it. tl;dr - suggestion for new things a player can do such as destroy water systems, and also add an in depth humanity system

I like how Rocket want's to introduce infection and disease to cities or towns to add more depth and things to do, and although that sounds promising I believe that DayZ has the potential to have so much more.

Basically, I want more things that you can do. I'll start off with the idea that a city or towns water pumps can be cutoff by sabotaging the main water pump (or whatever, I don't know how it would work), and likewise can be repaired. Destroying the pumps is easy for a large humanity deduction, yet yields a high humanity increase when they are repaired. Roads and buildings can be destroyed and if you destroy vital buildings needed for survival such as a hospital or marketplace you are given an insane reduce in humanity. Roads can also be manually blockaded or blocked which leads to a loss in humanity. Dropping items on the ground will be considered polluting and a small amount of humanity will be taken/ received when dropping or picking up items. There will be trash cans and large dumpsters everywhere and if you're lucky enough to find and use a recycling bin you get bonus humanity when using them. Also, if you're stuck inside and want to pass time, why not close the doors, pull out some chairs sit down and play checkers or chess. Staying for awhile? Turn the stove on and bake some beans for your group and light up the fireplace.

I believe that humanity should become more in depth so that you know about a survivors intentions when you meet them which can help you decide whether or not they are trustworthy.

Humanity levels:

-5500 - Evil incarnate

-4000 - Vandal, receieved if the player has lost 2000 or more humanity through destroying things

-3375 - Polluter, received if the player has lost 1000 or more humanity through pollution

-2750 - Sadist, received if the player has lost 2000 or more humanity through hurting others

-1500 - Raider

0 - Bandit

2500 - Neutral, starting humanity

4000 - Survivor

5250 - Medic, received if the player has gained 2000 or more humanity through treating others

5875 - Purificator, recieved if the player has gained 1000 or more humanity through recycling etc

6500 - Engineer, received if the player has gained 2000 or more humanity through repairing

8000 - Hero

More in depth analysis for humanity in "spoiler":

Hero skin cannot be obtained if you've killed anyone that you could have let live. You have two strikes before getting a 24hr cool down disabling you from reaching past 7000 humanity. In order for this to work there needs to be a more advanced detection system. How it currently is; the player has be shot or damaged by another player for that player to be able to kill them without losing humanity. This is flawed because the player needs to allow the other person to shoot them first in order for them to kill them, which can be useless for sniper rifles and powerful rifles. I propose that the game will detect when another player shoots or uses a weapon within a 50m~ range of you, and after that, then you are allowed to kill them.

Each of these different humanity levels gives you a different skin addition. For survivor, you look sort of like you're going camping, with a small vest with pouches and such. For Medic, you get a bandaid on your cheek and for Engineer you get a black oil smudge on your shirt. As for Purificator, you get a small recycling symbol on the upper right hand side of your sleeve.

The Bandit skin will be changed to simply a bandanna, and Raider will be the current bandit skin. At this point the player has a chance to change his ways, and once you reach Raider your humanity will slowly naturally going down by 2 per minute. If a player obtains Sadist (etc) they are unable to obtain Medic (etc) for 7 days if they do decide to change their ways at some point.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Guest

[DemonGroover 8836]

Are you suggesting that a player automatically gets these skins, or is there a choice in the matter? I would prefer choice to be honest, after all why would a player who is evil broadcast this to the world?

A bandit shouldnt have to look like a bandit in my opinion - in fact a bandit is more likely to disguise himself as a survivor i would think. Unless he is a bad ass and wants the world to know.

As for the water pumps - i assumed they were well pumps not water pipes. Though i suppose there could be an option to poision the well.

[Kyzahh 127]

I like some of your ideas and I may have a suggestion to go with.

In one of the videos I saw with Rocket talking about the standalone, he mentioned how clothes would play a large role. (eg. it's raining outside and you have a rain jacket but it's bright orange. Do you put it on and venture out in warmth with the obvious negative being you'll stick out everywhere, or do you leave it off to camouflage better with your surroundings and risk getting sick.

So what I purpose is obvious visual cues that you are what you are but not something that determines what you have to wear like the current hero skin.

I'll put some examples on the levels you indicated earlier.

-5500 - Evil incarnate: Needs to be the clearest of all the negative humanities, could be a certain kind of beloclava or something.

-4000 - Vandal: Sash with grenades etc. on it.

-3375 - Polluter: The biohazard symbol on backpack and chest.

-2750 - Sadist: Arm band with a skull on it.

-1500 - Raider: Current bandit skin with maybe a different colouring.

0 - Bandit: Current bandit skin.

2500 - Neutral: Default.

4000 - Survivor: Not sure.

5250 - Medic: A white cross on your backpack and your chest.

5875 - Purificator: Arm band with the recycling logo on it. (Like you suggested)

6500 - Engineer: A tool belt.

8000 - Hero: Needs to be the clearest of all the positive humanities, could be a certain kind of hat or something.

Of course these are just some examples off the top of my head.

[dallas 5195]

I think humanity work well at the moment.

Chernarus is a reasonable limited geographical area, where killers and heroes quickly would get themselves a reputation. However since a player is free to jump around between several servers, you'd never be able to earn a reputation, because the player your meet and yourself can simply disconnect and join a new server and your reputation vanishes instantly. It makes sense that bandits cover up their faces to avoid being connected to their crimes too. I think we'll need continued bandit/hero indicators in the Standalone, but like the mod, where you can disguise your bandit skin with Ghillies and cammies, there's probably be a lot more clothing options to disguise yourself in the standalone.

Without any humanity indicators, humanity is useless and without humanity, DayZ loses it's unique psychological aspect and social interactions decrease, while paranoia and hostility goes up. There was a reason why humanity was created and reintroduced, because when there were no consequences of KOS, never players learned that KOS was the only way to play. Without bandit skins, everyone is a bandit.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Dallas

[Guest]

Are you suggesting that a player automatically gets these skins, or is there a choice in the matter? I would prefer choice to be honest, after all why would a player who is evil broadcast this to the world?

A bandit shouldnt have to look like a bandit in my opinion - in fact a bandit is more likely to disguise himself as a survivor i would think. Unless he is a bad ass and wants the world to know.

As for the water pumps - i assumed they were well pumps not water pipes. Though i suppose there could be an option to poision the well.

I think it's best if they are automatically shown, because otherwise there would literally be no reprocutions to killing others or causing trouble. In real life, when you commit immoral or terrible acts or kill someone, you have to live with the guilt and regret, and get various problems such as post traumatic stress. However, this is a video game, and people will not feel the slightest of that, so the consequence then is a physical skin proving that you've done wrong. It's the only reasonable and balanced way to it. The Italicized skins are optional I guess, although if you've worked hard to get them I don't see why you wouldn't want them. The bandit skins however would not be optional. All the italicized skins "stack" except for Survivor / Hero etc that will replace one another.

Yes I guess they are wells however I think there should be water pumps in the big cities that allow you to take water from taps and stuff, they're in like a sewer or something that you can destroy or repair.

I like some of your ideas and I may have a suggestion to go with.

In one of the videos I saw with Rocket talking about the standalone, he mentioned how clothes would play a large role. (eg. it's raining outside and you have a rain jacket but it's bright orange. Do you put it on and venture out in warmth with the obvious negative being you'll stick out everywhere, or do you leave it off to camouflage better with your surroundings and risk getting sick.

So what I purpose is obvious visual cues that you are what you are but not something that determines what you have to wear like the current hero skin.

I'll put some examples on the levels you indicated earlier.

-5500 - Evil incarnate: Needs to be the clearest of all the negative humanities, could be a certain kind of beloclava or something.

-4000 - Vandal: Sash with grenades etc. on it.

-3375 - Polluter: The biohazard symbol on backpack and chest.

-2750 - Sadist: Arm band with a skull on it.

-1500 - Raider: Current bandit skin with maybe a different colouring.

0 - Bandit: Current bandit skin.

2500 - Neutral: Default.

4000 - Survivor: Not sure.

5250 - Medic: A white cross on your backpack and your chest.

5875 - Purificator: Arm band with the recycling logo on it. (Like you suggested)

6500 - Engineer: A tool belt.

8000 - Hero: Needs to be the clearest of all the positive humanities, could be a certain kind of hat or something.

Of course these are just some examples off the top of my head.

Getting sick from cold is an old wives tale, so I really hope he doesn't implement that pseudo science nonsense, although you can get pneumonia or hypothermia but that is very situation specific and isn't caused by rain.

I didn't finish the ideas for the bandit ones because I was running short on time. I like your ideas, especially the biohazard symbol being on the skin for polluters. As for evil incarnate, I was thinking "dark" tattoos all over the body, and for the female character a "skat tat" and dark makeup.

Also I think there should be a way to tell someones skin when they have camo or other clothing on, maybe even on a ghillie. I was thinking for a ghillie, a small armband that is white for neutral, black for bandit, and green for hero. It get's blacker / greener the more evil or good you are.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Guest

[DemonGroover 8836]

I've always liked the idea of one player / one username. That way you will get a reputation if you are a bandit, medic, hero.

The problem at the moment is players can just change their name and any repercussions of previous actions are gone.

[NukeInbound (DayZ) 5]

There is a problem though...destruction.I mean this isn't BF3 or anything like that you can't just blow up a building...

They could make scripted destruction for the most important buildings but this is a feature that would most likely be released after the Alpha

[Kyzahh 127]

this isn't BF3 or anything like that you can't just blow up a building...

You've clearly never played arma, You can blow up pretty much every single building in this game.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Kyzahh

[Dylanco1 10]

You've clearly never played arma, You can blow up pretty much every single building in this game.

And those you cant well who am I kidding even the ones you cant enter you can blow up its only stuff like Object all in Namalsk and places that are not classed as buildings and instead map structures you cant blow up

[Guest]

Also when I said

I propose that the game will detect when another player shoots or uses a weapon within a 50m~ range of you, and after that, then you are allowed to kill them.

What I meant was that the game will also detect any bullets that land or pass your character within a 50m~ radius of your person and will detect the player that shot that bullet, allowing you to kill them without losing humanity. This would be useful in a hero sniper vs sniper situation, the sniper shoots near the hero sniper and now the hero sniper can kill him without losing humanity.

[radrussian1 (DayZ) 23]

Also when I said

What I meant was that the game will also detect any bullets that land or pass your character within a 50m~ radius of your person and will detect the player that shot that bullet, allowing you to kill them without losing humanity. This would be useful in a hero sniper vs sniper situation, the sniper shoots near the hero sniper and now the hero sniper can kill him without losing humanity.

ok so what about a hero that wants to knock out a bandit or possibly break his leg so he can interrogate him?

[Guest]

ok so what about a hero that wants to knock out a bandit or possibly break his leg so he can interrogate him?

Well you already don't lose humanity for killing or hurting bandits, but as for survivors, I don't see how that would be fair unless the survivor shot at your or similar first.

[AfterShave 140]

Trash thread, nobody wants this crap

[MarcDaKind 37]

What an useless suggestion, it will be a custom clothing system in the standalone making this pointless...

Edited December 30, 2012 by MarcDaKind

[radrussian1 (DayZ) 23]

i think this should be done away with completely. im for it tho, i really like the hero skin and what it can bring to the table, a buletproof vest wearing knight in shining armor. but noone really likes this idea. i think the whole humanity system needs to just run in the background acting like something very simple. such as having good humanity you find better loot or you are less prone to disease. dayz is create your own story. having two seperate facitons to aim for (bandit or hero) kind of locks you into playing that way all the time. you will never see a bandit all of the sudden change their ways and start bloodpacking everyone.

[TheSushi 28]

I think one possibility is if you kill a lot of dudes and get bad humanity every single game, you get a bandit skin and a negative karma when you start another game.

This isn't permanent, but you'd have to make your average humanity game-to-game normal, or work hard to build that humanity back up when you enter a new server.

So it's not a long-staying mark of you being a evil person, but an inclination to be on the less humane side if you are that sort of player.