Classes and player built towns

[Darkwater (DayZ) 63]

After having played this mod for around half a year, tried many a ways of playing ranging from psycopath wielding every weapon that the loot table has to a goodie twoshoes blood transfusing hero / bandit hunter, it has still left me a great deal to be desired. Now, I know that the majority of players seem to cringe at the thought of making DayZ a RPG-ish game, containing levels and skills, I feel that really that's the only way for this game/mod to make progress.

For me, DayZ will loose every bit of edge if all it means is to survive. Suvive the horde of zombies, survive the assholes, survive the paranoid survivors, survive the hackers. I am a player/person that would seek to actually DO something in such a world. I refuse to constantly run away. I refuse to be part of the problem. I refuse to be cannon fodder for assholes that camp big cities. I am a person that seeks order where there is none. Law where none is to be had. Justice where it is lacking. Basically, I would seek to rebuild.

And there is two ways to go about that, two ways to make people even bother trying;

Building towns

Sorry, but tents just don't cut it. I am not a happy camper. Tents are a temporary solution and cannot be used if you want to build a town/hub. Think Fallout. Scrap metal could be used, palisades could be erected, fences built, guards placed to keep order. It wouldn't be a refugee camp, it would be a town, a "safe" zone. Safety enforced by weapons and law rather than game mechanics. Towns on same servers could become rivals, trade partners, warring factions because, let's face it, resources are scarce. This would make it possible to actually make something of yourself and be a solution.

Sure, people could join the server and go rampant, but against a guarded town with laws of its own regarding weaponry and who to let in, it would be a simple matter of trust and earning trust again rather than just going "Friendly". Also, towns that are functioning could set out to actually take out any bandit groups that decide to go on a spree, either by bounties or act as the police force of the server, stretching out their hand to aid and enforce law.

These towns would need to be maintained, to be resupplied, to be repaired after attacks by both living and undead, also to be manned by personell. That is where the next point comes in.

Classes

In a game like DayZ it would be like swearing in church to mention levels and skills. But do not get me wrong here, I am not suggesting to implement levels of -that- kind, the kind where you level up and increase in health, runspeed, accuracy or stamina, but rather a induvidual skill level where your skills increase as you use them. It doesn't need to be a whole lot of them, but atleast enough that you can feel usefull to a group beyond JUST blasting your boomstick. The classes I have in mind righ now could be Doctor, Mechanic, Electrician and "Carpenter", and of course I'm sure there's more that could be beyond that.

Doctor;

Basically, everyone starts off with a basic skillset and ability to do something, enough for them to survive on their own, but to actually be a doctor/medic takes time and effort. If a player chooses Doktor as a starting class, he or she would be able to trancend their medical skills beyond that of any other. Administering morphine or making a splint, giving painkillers or epi-pens are basic knowledge, but blood transfusal is not. Done wrong, a blood transfusal could end catastrophical and do more harm than good. A Doctor based player would be able to have blood transfusal as a starting skill, and throughout SURVIVING rather than just continuesly giving blood or medicine, maybe by finding books, they can learn to do more. One of the high-end skills would then be Surgery. Players that are now getting the status "Dead" would instead be "Dying", with the exception of massive wounds and headshots obviously, and with the help of a on-site and highly trained/long survived Doctor, they could still survive but needs to be brought back to base for immediate care. In addition, broken bones, infected wounds, lodged projectiles need treatment. Otherwise the player could be dependant on morphine and painkillers until healed.

Mechanic;

Pretty straight forward, isn't it? Again it's basically works the same way as a Doctor. Over time, the Mechanic gets better and better at what he or she is doing. Cars or vehicles deemed beyond repair could still be fixed by a master craftsman. However, a fresh Mechanic would and should NOT be able to fix anything to tip top shape. Their level of commitment to the craft is how good they are and will be. Anyone can refuel, fix the tires, but not everyone can replace engine blocks and/or fuel tank. The level of skill they have will reflect on how well the repair is. A completely fresh Mechanic would be able to fix the entire car, but it would break down far sooner than what a master would achieve with the same parts. Of course, there would be the quality of the gear you have to work with, but as long as it's structually fine, a good Mechanic could juryrig it. Also, Helicopters would NEVER be touched or even attempted to be touched by a novice Mechanic. Only a master of the trade could even begin thinking of fixing or maininting this vessel.

Electrician/Electronitian (tech);

Admittedly, this one isn't well though out because there really isn't a whole lof of electronic components in the game. But it would still open for many things and, to drag in real life here, anyone with skills of this trade would be highly sought after for both towns and groups. Follows exacly the same rules as Mechanic, skills increase as they are used. Failures can happen and the item in question could be destroyed beyond repair. Also, to install powergenerators for a town would require skills of this trade. They don't exactly make the sockets inside the house, but for simplicity just fix and maintain vital components. And to make use outside of base they can be used to temporarily restore power to infected towns, open/hack computers that are stationed around for information, take out alarmsystems of rivaling towns without using guns, you name it. If it requires juice, this is what that class is here for. Books and uses of the skill over time makes him or her better and more able to do harder and harder tasks.

"Carpenter"

Basically the creators, builders and maintainers. I wouldn't really want this skill as a primary skill, but rather a basic skill anyone has. To be able to build a house, this skill has to be used for simpler things first, like palisades and fences. Everyone could increase this skill, regardless of starter class. It's all about dedication afterwards, and if you even care to be a builder.

Beyond these four, rather dumbed down trades, I'm sure there's more that could be added and more classes to give, like some kind of weapon maintainer for instance. It's all about making yourself usefull to a group. And in addition, these skills would be lost upon death. A fresh character is exactly that, fresh. It would make you want to survive. It would make you try your best to live and avoid pointless and potential deadly encounters. Boredom could be erased by desire to survive and thrive.

Any opinions as to why this wouldn't work, or how it could work even better?

Edited January 30, 2013 by Darkwater

[CreepySalad 108]

classes pls go

I do think the player built towns would be nice.

As long as they fit in.

Like, you build pieces individually, and organize them for defense. A giant town doesn't pop up.

If we're adding hordes, that'd be kinda cool to do.

[Rekli 995]

No.

that is all

[gloopsgf 35]

No, just no

[Zionist Wabbit 154]

Classes? Hmhh..

Who let the WoW Player's out? I thought we agreed to leave the Cellar Door locked.

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

No classes needed.

Lifespans are limited as it is, A noob with an Axe could chop your class player up and take all his stuff, no skill involved. If your building your character up in skillsets to improve over the course of It's life, your gonna lose everything. Most characters dont live long so why introduce lines of code for specialities like being able to fix up an engine to a high degree It would be easier to just have players need more tools for a trade in order to be able to carry out activities to a high degree. eg, a medic with morphine can stem the pain, But he cannot replace blood as he has none, One with a wide range of items can do a lot more, so therefore he is better at his "Class"

Your dude or dudette should learn everything by doing them and repeating it as and when required, no need to improve on. Let's say i was doctor, I could be killed by anyone at anytime, In fact I'd say certain bandits look for high value targets like docs' If your part of a clan how would this benefit other players? Your team would specialise in one of the many classes and be self reliant. I would like equal footing for lone wolfs and team players.

On the other hand...

I would love to see a large forest / Jungle map where players could build bases (Similar to that mod which lets you build them. Nice and flattish so you could just go off into the wilderness and find a suitable location. Build your dream base and then the server lets loose everyone onto it (Bar hacking activity) this would be worth playing on, good bases will stand up to attack whereas bad ones will be plowed away like driftwood. Building a base is a long way away for the SA (As stated in Q&A) We can all dream................

Edited January 30, 2013 by Michaelvoodoo25

[Darkwater (DayZ) 63]

Classes? Hmhh..

Who let the WoW Player's out? I thought we agreed to leave the Cellar Door locked.

Oh yeah, because classes are exclusive for WoW, no other game has classes at all, and especially not games dating before WoW.

Instead of just going "No" and not actually reasoning behind it, why not actually say WHY it wouldn't be desirable? Are you afraid something will happen to the game? Doesn't it fit with your game style? And if so, why should your opinion matter more than, for instance, mine? The term Class is a general one, and really what I would call it is Job. Set in such a world, you would always bring skills of one kind, usefull or not, and the only currency worth a damn is your talents and skills.

There are no benefits to your "stats", 12 000 blood is always 12 000 blood. Your accuracy is always the same. I'm not talking about making people level up to become super soldiers. I'm not talking about experience in the sense of RPG's. It's basically life experience, lost upon death. Something to cling onto, something to make you wish to survive. If your playstyle is to wave your gun around and play like a moron just for short term kicks, die, rinse-repeat, then of course you wouldn't like a game that encourages other people to do something different. But that doesn't mean you couldn't play as you are right now, it simply adds more depth to it.

[Darkwater (DayZ) 63]

No classes needed.

Lifespans are limited as it is, A noob with an Axe could chop your class player up and take all his stuff, no skill involved. If your building your character up in skillsets to improve over the course of It's life, your gonna lose everything. Most characters dont live long so why introduce lines of code for specialities like being able to fix up an engine to a high degree It would be easier to just have players need more tools for a trade in order to be able to carry out activities to a high degree. eg, a medic with morphine can stem the pain, But he cannot replace blood as he has none, One with a wide range of items can do a lot more, so therefore he is better at his "Class"

Your dude or dudette should learn everything by doing them and repeating it as and when required, no need to improve on. Let's say i was doctor, I could be killed by anyone at anytime, In fact I'd say certain bandits look for high value targets like docs' If your part of a clan how would this benefit other players? Your team would specialise in one of the many classes and be self reliant. I would like equal footing for lone wolfs and team players.

I agree with you to some degree there. But why would it matter if a player with hatchet chopped you down? I'm not talking about spawning with extra goods here. It's all in the characters head, and unless he lops that off and has access to some alien technology, it's safe in there forever.

As for life span, that's one of the ideas behind it. Highly trained medic/doctors could stabilize a dying character, bring him/her back to base and perform surgery, something only a highly trained Doctor classed character could do. In addition to projectile removal and whatnot. Also, with an important skilled character of a group, why would you even go alone to a high risk area? Your life span would increase dramatically if you were afraid of losing your character. The way I see it, people would plan more, or be increasingly bold because they know others will actually be afraid of dying. It would give for far more interesting conflicts than now, maybe even dialogue rather than shooting on sight.

The classes wouldn't look any different from the rest. Unless you wore a doctors coat, something anyone could do, no one would even be able to guess you were a part of the medical personell.

My intent behind the proposal of classes is not to lessen the solo play, you can't even do the blood transfusal on yourself as it is now, but to rather encourage more desire to survive and thrive. Be a solution rather than the problem. There's always bandits, bandit groups.. even they would benefit from it. But they are sadly also the group with the less desire to make DayZ into something more than PvP and shun the very thought of making it more complicated. But with that said, that's not always the case as I'm sure there might be some that agree with me, even if not to the extent I'm talking of right here.

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

Are you suggesting that players learn the class system through their lives to be carried over to the next?

A. Not realistic, You die, you lose all things learned. Players will have to start again each life (Why waste time classing up?) or,

B. You learn as it is by carrying out certain actions, class would play no part if all players are going to be able to do it anyway. why introduce a system where everyone can do it? (I'm thinking coding and resources best used elsewhere)

With regards to in game Co-operation, In game communication is flawed, No methods of communication unless you have ts / other chat stuff (Radio's will be a while and I highly doubt side chat will make it in SA) this will limit any interaction until communication is added.

It seems to me easier for players to be what ever class (ie bandit, medic, driver etc etc) they choose to be, but having a system and structure would be pointless

IMO of course.

Edited January 30, 2013 by Michaelvoodoo25

[Zionist Wabbit 154]

@Whomever replied to me;

Don't get too annoyed, child. I know there's another games with Classes, t'was a metaphor. Although I doubt you're able to understand what a metaphor is considering you cannot see a blatantly obvious one, I may as well explain why I said such. If you send me over a PM, I'll give you link's to Early Development Learning websites. They're very handy.

[joe_mcentire 2073]

@ darkwater. there are several threads about skills/classes and i assume about 30-40% would like to see some "soft" and subtle rpg-touches to the game for several reasons. as everyone pro this idea went on declaring and arguing manifoldly, the great majority of giving cons literally said basically "no" and "this is not WOW", meaning they have a stereotypical idea of skills and therefore they don't want them.

Edited January 30, 2013 by joe_mcentire