Important game concept - risk/reward

[Shag 90]

This mechanic is already one of the pillars of DayZ. Not really through any imposed developed mechanic, but by natural consequence. The high risk areas of the map are those that have high loot reward. The NW airfield for example, there bandits lie in ambush for those who need better equipment. There are also moves afoot to add more risk/reward mechanics, like the introduction of disease. It will become riskier and riskier to enter highly populated areas of the map.

Are the devs missing a trick in other areas of gameplay? Where else can hard choices be forced onto the player?

1. Lighting a fire gives heat and the ability to cook food. You can see the fire from 100 meters, but really the smoke should be visible from much further. With higher visibility, you need to think, can I light a fire here? I'm freezing/hungry but I saw a squad 5 mins ago.... The flip side, lighting a fire as a lure for bandits? Do I investigate that smoke or is it just a trap?

2. Storage should disappear when you die. You should not be able to die, then go back and re-arm at a tent, it destroys perma death, especially when you don't have any built up skills/levels to lose. My happiest time playing dayz was before I started using a camp, where dieing caused real pain. This is tricky when you have groups who share storage, perhaps when the clan mechanic is working you can have tents linked to clans. When the clan goes down the tent disappears. Either way, the game absolutely has to bring back perma death for it to become a challenge again. There has to be a risk to taking risks, if you get my meaning, otherwise no emotional attachment to gameplay anymore.

3. Zeds. What a joke. There is no risk to aggroing them, so everybody just runs past them. They pose no risk at all anymore.

I'm sure there are plenty more... but every feature the devs should ask, what risks can I add to this to force some kind of trade off. Nothing should be a win win no brainer.

Edited January 12, 2013 by Shag

[Rage VG 4033]

This mechanic is already one of the pillars of DayZ. Not really through any imposed developed mechanic, but by natural consequence. The high risk areas of the map are those that have high loot reward. The NW airfield for example, there bandits lie in ambush for those who need better equipment. There are also moves afoot to add more risk/reward mechanics, like the introduction of disease. It will become riskier and riskier to enter highly populated areas of the map.

Are the devs missing a trick in other areas of gameplay? Where else can hard choices be forced onto the player?

1. Lighting a fire gives heat and the ability to cook food. You can see the fire from 100 meters, but really the smoke should be visible from much further. With higher visibility, you need to think, can I light a fire here? I'm freezing/hungry but I saw a squad 5 mins ago.... The flip side, lighting a fire as a lure for bandits? Do I investigate that smoke or is it just a trap?

2. Storage should disappear when you die. You should not be able to die, then go back and re-arm at a tent, it destroys perma death, especially when you don't have any built up skills/levels to lose. My happiest time playing dayz was before I started using a camp, where dieing caused real pain. This is tricky when you have groups who share storage, perhaps when the clan mechanic is working you can have tents linked to clans. When the clan goes down the tent disappears. Either way, the game absolutely has to bring back perma death for it to become a challenge again. There has to be a risk to taking risks, if you get my meaning, otherwise no emotional attachment to gameplay anymore.

3. Zeds. What a joke. There is no risk to aggroing them, so everybody just runs past them. They pose no risk at all anymore.

I'm sure there are plenty more...

1. I agree entirely,

2. I disagree entirely. What happens when you kill someone for their loot? It just vanishes into the air? The fact you are leaving your stuff on the floor is a big enough risk for the reward of having a place to rearm at. And making it easier makes it riskier; The closer your tent is to spawn, the faster you get armed up, but the more likely it is to be found and looted.

3. I both agree and disagree. Whilst they honestly are a joke and pose no immediate threat, the reason nobody kills them is because there's too much risk, for very little reward. You kill a zombie at the risk of every other zombie coming after you, at the risk of not getting bak anything to compensate for the loss of ammo, at the risk of another hostile player finding you, for the reward of the zombie maybe carrying a can of pepsi.

[IcyZ 295]

1.I kinda agree.fire in daytime is not that visible in a forest,while smoke is,so smoke should be more visible.but fire should be visible from a longer distance since in nightime it stands out,giving away your(or your traps) position.

2.i disagree,cause death is pretty much the reason for tents.i mean,you make a camp so you will have stuff to get after you die or run out of ammo.plus,if you raid an enemy base,and you kill em,you lose their tents,so there is no point in risking your stuff.

3.i agree with Rage VG.we avoid them because shooting them will attract players in a distance and agrro more zombies,while losing 2-3 of them in a building keeps you hidden and clear.plus,everytime i get hit by a zombie i'll pass out or start bleeding.

about what you said about the nwaf situation,the whole camping system has to change.game is supposed to be realistic,right?just think,what happens in real life when you stand still in the same pose for a long time..some limbs are numb,you get that prickly sensation.they should add this in the game.since your character cant catch his breath when he stopes after running full speed,they should add the exact opossite,cant move properly after standing still for a loooong time.so,campers will think twice before going prone next to the fence,waiting for a random guy to go loot the hangars

[Charb 298]

1. Lighting a fire gives heat and the ability to cook food. You can see the fire from 100 meters, but really the smoke should be visible from much further. With higher visibility, you need to think, can I light a fire here? I'm freezing/hungry but I saw a squad 5 mins ago.... The flip side, lighting a fire as a lure for bandits? Do I investigate that smoke or is it just a trap?

You apparently have never been camping in your life...

1. (Smoke) What causes it? Green wood vs Dry Wood. Wet wood when burned creates a terrible smoke, whereas dry wood, really does not. Sure it DOES produce smoke but not a dark black tar smoke. Smoke from a chimney stack is most commonly heat interacting with the weather and NOT actually smoke. How far do you think smoke from a dry wood fire is visible from in terms of real life?

Having a fire at night creating a source of light is understandable, HELL, it is VERY visible already ingame. I forget the exact measurement, but i'm fairly confident I could see (from testing purposes) a fire from our base at night 500-800 meters away.

Your 2nd and 3rd points require no comment because of the sheer lunacy involved with them.

[Dayz Steve 26]

All good Ideas.

[hoik 415]

just think,what happens in real life when you stand still in the same pose for a long time..some limbs are numb,you get that prickly sensation.they should add this in the game.since your character cant catch his breath when he stopes after running full speed,they should add the exact opossite,cant move properly after standing still for a loooong time.

Introducing cramping or limbs falling asleep could be interesting... would make camping require a bit more thought and risk (Say all you had to do was go from prone to crouched for a minute, every ten minutes or so, in order to prevent negative effects) - though to what degree this would influence campers is (as always) debatable. Anyway, it would be a nice addition to test out IMO.

The OP:

1. As Charb said, it is the type of fuel you add to the fire that determins the smoke - IMO this delves into the realm of realism Vs gameplay. So either introduce a bunch of different fuels that can be used to make fire, or simply have it set to a defult one that makes smoke more visible during the day, I could have it either way.

2. A simple solution for hording items, is to make tents destuctable - deny the enemy, set them on fire! I think this is a feature on DayZ Redux servers.

3. Make the reward for shooting zombies, living longer. (so yeah, make them more of a threat :) )

Edited January 13, 2013 by Hoik

[Shag 90]

Agreed on the fuel causing smoke, but lets not forget this is eastern europe, it rains almost every day from what i can make out, and you don't have a load of covered firewood. I would guess a lot of the wood you burn will be damp to some degree.

Tents are already destructible with explosives or vehicles, and many already destroy them on sight.

And yes, the reward for killing zeds should be survival people, come on!

As for tents/vehicles despawing, I firmly believe that perma death is utterly necessary to bring back the emotional connection with death, you've all got it too easy.

I preferred it back when tents didn't work (was almost impossible to errect one) and when you died you knew about it. Had much more fun back then.

[guisho 258]

The third one is going to be slightly modified with the revamping of the zeds mechanics, I don't know if they're going to have a better loot but at least if you need to kill some walkers it's going to be with a good reason like having your body complete and without diseases.