Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

[jayman9696 14]

There seems to be a few new topics on ideas to discourage players from killing other players. I know this is supposed to be a Sandbox shooter where you can do whatever you would like, but I personally think it is too easy to be a bandit. You have no reason to not be a bandit after you get halfway decent gear. I would like to add Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the game. In real life it doesn't take that much to mess with your mind and cause you to start hallucinating and hearing sounds that are not there. This is obviously seen the most in the military because soldiers have to deal with shooting people and people shooting back. If it can effect trained soldiers why wouldn't it effect John Doe with a baseball cap who just found himself on the coast one day. The characters are average civilians not trained assassins. The should get PTSD from killing people, almost being killed, or a helicopter crash. In a perfect world this may cause your player to hallucinate and hear footsteps or something. This would take effect ten or so minutes after the traumatic event.

Before you hardcore bandits say that this is stupid hear me out. In real life (which this game is supposed to be) would you be able to shoot your neighbors in cold blood, for their beans, or even if they happen to have a gun on them. I wouldn't be able to. This game is full of civilians not trained killers.

Edited January 16, 2013 by jayman9696

[jaytmuk (DayZ) 621]

Scenario : Zombie apocalypse.

You and your family are holed up in your house, Another family across the street are too, and they have plenty food.

You have looted all available buildings for food and the town is dry.

Your family has run out of food and is starving so you ask the other family for some of their food.

They say no.

Do you-

A. Just let your family die?

or

B. Go over there and kill them and take their food so your family survives?

[Bludy 324]

then you should pass over that syndrome with more killing, because your character looses his sensibility towards deaths and kills. and they could implement antiphycotics with all the other meds(this would be cool!!)

[kingochaos 131]

Ahhh, some people get PTSD, more people get like a combat anxiety? i dont think they are the same thing. Most soldiers arnt F'd in the head, despite what Hollywood may have you believe... but things can trigger their fight or flight response a lot easier than other people is all. (car back firing, catching quick movement out the corner o yah eye etc.. gets their hearts racing and reaching for a rifle that isnt there, gets it going faster) This isnt a disadvantage, it just means their natural reactions are more highly tuned to deal with violent confrontations.. so i think making it so its a disadvantage, is unrealistic.

Our urbanized and sanitized societies, are pretty sheltered from the harsh realities, o what really can, and does go on in the wider world, everyday. The people involved in this stuff still function, their reactions are tuned to deal with their reality.. its generally only adjusting back to safe quite sanitized civilization, that it can be seen as an issue.

[jayman9696 14]

Scenario : Zombie apocalypse.

You and your family are holed up in your house, Another family across the street are too, and they have plenty food.

You have looted all available buildings for food and the town is dry.

Your family has run out of food and is starving so you ask the other family for some of their food.

They say no.

Do you-

A. Just let your family die?

or

B. Go over there and kill them and take their food so your family survives?

When you say family you mean women and children too. Personally no. I would not be able to murder them. I would look somewhere else for Food. Before you say the town is dry trust be there has to be food somewhere.

On the other note this would work perfectly with PTSD you were reduced to killing your neighbors to survive. You now would have regrets, flashbacks, hallucinations, nightmares etc

[jayman9696 14]

Ahhh, some people get PTSD, more people get like a combat anxiety? i dont think they are the same thing. Most soldiers arnt F'd in the head, despite what Hollywood may have you believe... but things can trigger their fight or flight response a lot easier than other people is all. (car back firing, catching quick movement out the corner o yah eye etc.. gets their hearts racing and reaching for a rifle that isnt there, gets it going faster) This isnt a disadvantage, it just means their natural reactions are more highly tuned to deal with violent confrontations.. so i think making it so its a disadvantage, is unrealistic.

the "jumpyness" could be a symptom. Maybe your peripheral dots could move around to make you look but nothing is there. That would be catching something in the corner of your eye and triggering the fight or flight response

You'd end up shooting bunnies though :P

Edited January 16, 2013 by jayman9696

[HKilf 15]

Ideally, I would like these psychological effects to affect the player (as in the person in front of the screen) instead of the in-game character. It should feel bad shooting random people, but if you're a psycho IRL you shouldn't be forced into having to play in a certain way. Why not just make it a lot more difficult to survive by yourself (realistic) and work towards better immersion? I like the idea of having infected children in-game because, if done correctly, it could bring forth strong emotions when having to kill them.

edit: I was sick in bed with the flu a couple of weeks ago and thought about surviving in the DayZ universe in my condition. I then realized how dependent of other people (my family) I am which could be the carrot for forming groups/societies in DayZ SA.

Edited January 16, 2013 by HKilf

[jayman9696 14]

Ideally, I would like these psychological effects to affect the player (as in the person in front of the screen) instead of the in-game character. It should feel bad shooting random people, but if you're a psycho IRL you shouldn't be forced into having to play in a certain way. Why not just make it a lot more difficult to survive by yourself (realistic) and work towards better immersion? I like the idea of having infected children in-game because, if done correctly, it could bring forth strong emotions when having to kill them.

The problem is that isn't possible. You can never get that emotion you would feel from seeing their face as you took away their life forever. The thing is nobody is so psycho in game to murder like they do. To be so psycho you feel no remorse after killing innocent victims you would have to be so insane you'd forget to eat or just basic functions. Basically you wouldn't be able to turn off murdering rampage man and become smart survival car builder

[dallas 5195]

I'm not an expert on PTSD, but it seems more like something that becomes a problem when you're no longer in imminent danger.

When you're in a war theater or a zombie apocalypse, paranoia and throwing yourself at the ground, whenever you hear a loud bang seems perfectly rational. So does hyper awareness, sleeping very lightly, waking at the smallest noise.

I think all the psychological elements are already in the game. Some players are completely desensitized towards violence in DayZ, because to them it's a game mode just like capture the flag. There's no team, no humanity, there's just your kill/death ratio. Others hate having to take another player's life, even if it's justified. Everyone is in an excited state playing DayZ, some for the hunt, others for survival.

I wouldn't mind more advanced fauna though, some hallucination inducing mushrooms would be cool.

[spinager 152]

Untrained civilians? Idk about your character, but mine can run a marathon nonstop, he can fly a helicopter perfectly, even one of those AC-130 planes on Panthera. He can use a sniper rifle, any gun he finds, and even knows how to plant a satchel bomb. I think my guy is not an ordinary civilian. Seems to me he has some military back ground.

[jayman9696 14]

Untrained civilians? Idk about your character, but mine can run a marathon nonstop, he can fly a helicopter perfectly, even one of those AC-130 planes on Panthera. He can use a sniper rifle, any gun he finds, and even knows how to plant a satchel bomb. I think my guy is not an ordinary civilian. Seems to me he has some military back ground.

I gave you my beans for that witty comment. That is very true. we have no idea what kind of backround our characters have. It would be impossible to do everything they do, but that is a different argument.

[ant1cultur3 10]

How about hallucinating that player you shot, come up on you with a gun before he disappears with you shitting yourself. My Vietnam vet rotc teacher used to jungle crawl down the hallway to get away from the VC.

[Steam_Power 42]

How about hallucinating that player you shot, come up on you with a gun before he disappears with you shitting yourself. My Vietnam vet rotc teacher used to jungle crawl down the hallway to get away from the VC.

Cool, yeah maybe for a Single player game, here, it would take too much to run that and maintain I do believe. You still get my beans though, seems as if I cannot run out of these darn things!!

[RobbL (DayZ) 26]

Scenario : Zombie apocalypse.

You and your family are holed up in your house, Another family across the street are too, and they have plenty food.

You have looted all available buildings for food and the town is dry.

Your family has run out of food and is starving so you ask the other family for some of their food.

They say no.

Do you-

A. Just let your family die?

or

B. Go over there and kill them and take their food so your family survives?

Realistically, if they really did have the last supply of food then right after killing them and taking their it you'd soon starve anyway

I'd rather die of starvation knowing I hadn't killed a whole family for no reason but to prolong my miserable existence

Probably i'd be diplomatic about it and trade them stuff for food or offer to help us look for more food together if they'd share what they already got

[janus0104 212]

Scenario : Zombie apocalypse.

You and your family are holed up in your house, Another family across the street are too, and they have plenty food.

You have looted all available buildings for food and the town is dry.

Your family has run out of food and is starving so you ask the other family for some of their food.

They say no.

Do you-

A. Just let your family die?

or

B. Go over there and kill them and take their food so your family survives?

C: Do one of the other 265 things you could do in that situation. Life isn't black & white, suicide or murder.

And there already is an effect on the player if he is receptive for it. E.g. on Namalsk I found a russian LMG in a crashed heli. I wanted to try that thing out, so I lay prone on a hill and scouted the area.

A little while later I read someone in the side chat writing about how he doesn't have stuff yet, he just started playing and what-not, and he was hoping he could get at least some food without getting mowed down.

A minute or so later, I spot someone crawling down the opposite hill. I see he doesn't have a weapon (or just a hatchet or something like that), I hesitate... But I want to see how well this new gun works... And I fire a burst.

Next thing I know, I hear him screaming and pleading for his life over voiceover, and I felt shitty about having shot at him... but it was already too late, I didn't have a bloodbag to heal him either and he didn't seem to have anything worthwhile found yet, so... I fired another burst to put him out of his misery.

Around 5 minutes later I was held at gunpoint by a different person from behind, I tried running away, he shot my legs, then bandaged and blood bag'd me and we went on together. However, we had to make a fireplace and sit down for 15 minutes or so to calm down, both of our hearts were pumping....

You can't artificially add emotions into a game as a mechanic. Either you experience them anyways or you don't, anything else is just a gimmicky copy of why you carry painkillers with you.

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

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