Humanity through communication.

[Scerun 227]

Banditry/PKing/Asshole-being/CoD-Bitch-Noobing-Asshole. It has many names. A lot of people think it isn't a problem, and you know, I can agree with them to a vast extent. However, there is definitely a disadvantage to letting a person live.

I'm not talking about the possiblity where they could just shoot you in the back of the head after an hour or two of SUPER-AWESOME companionship. It's the very initial stages of communication. The tension is without a doubt, SUPER-AWESOME, too, and I wouldn't want to see it ever, ever removed (read: EVER).You don't know if they're gonna shoot you, and it's very fun (read: VERY FUN).

However, it can feel unfair at times. You're asked to take a massive leap of faith to trust that the others aren't going to just shoot you the moment they see you (not because they're bandits, but because, unlike you, they don't want to run the risk of approach).

I find that the scenario of kill on sight-ing is down to very bad communication, or more precisely, very bad means to communicate. When communication is bad, you are unable to tell if someone is friendly or unfriendly, understand their intentions. Communication is pretty rudimentary. When communication is as rudimentary as it is, you get this exact scenario, because you just can't trust a damned soul (rightly so).

If it isn't down to KoSing, it's down to lack of trust, and the lack of the means to create a very basic level of trust beyond a piece of written text, where it is incredibly easy to lie, and detach yourself from the other person.

Communication isn't done just by chatting, it's also done by body language, hand signals, you know the kind. Now I unfortunately don't have many solid suggestions for this notion, but I want to encourage everyone else to slot in their ideas that better facilitate more pervasive and accurate communication between players.

Now, beyond the "Q,E,Q" signalling, and saluting, there isn't any other visual signal to do this, and those two are pretty awful, because they leave you vulnerable to being shot for a short period. People often ask that on a bandit, there should be blood, raggedy clothes, pale skin - something to visually distinguish a bad-guy. I feel this is a very bad way to go, because it does indeed punish a particular type of play. What the game needs is to better facilitate, not buddy-buddy happiness, but communication, so those whom are not aggressive can find better ways tp interact with survivors without getting their face blown off.

VERY BASIC TRUST BETWEEN PLAYERS NEEDS TO BE BETTER FACILITATED.

How?

Better, and more visual signalling? Allowing the character to holster his weapon, in which unholstering is obvious, and has a 2/3 second animation. This would give the other guy a good moment to find some cover. Implement this with the ability to do it at jogging-pace, and you'd feel that people who are trying to dupe you have less of a chance to do so.

Allowing the character to make all other gestures whilst moving freely?

Perhaps a player-driven currency would have a side-benefit of encouraging players to be less aggressive? Now, I'm not saying that there should be a currency that serves no other use than to be a currency, for that is stupid. Instead I mean an item like cigarettes, cigars, alcohol, that would serve another small use (maybe no use other than looking a mean son of a bitch - cosmetics are important, ya know!), and as such were common/rare enough to be useful for trading.

What would make you feel that you could benefit from very briefly communicating with a stranger?

Let me leave you with a short anecdote:

The other day I was on the outskirts of Berenzino. I had this character for a couple of days, had an ALICE pack, with an AKS 74 KOBRA, with 6 rounds, had an M16A2 with 5 rounds, had a few blood packs, had all the tools to survive, really. I was pretty invested in this life. I had a bad run, as expected. I forgot to pick up morphine actively in this new patch, usually having spawned with enough to last me a very long while. I had crawled 2km with a broken leg, finding morphine on a dead body in the middle of a field. I fixed up and decided to head into the woods to find some animals to eat, to get my blood from 7k up to 12k, and restart my adventures freshly. Coming across a deer-stand, I thought I could handle the zombies, because whatever I'd find would possibly be worth the trouble. The zombies kept respawning.

I managed to escape with 1.2k blood. The next 20 minutes was of passing out and stumbling through the forest. I needed water, but hadn't much water left. I then came across this teeny lake in the middle of motherfucking nowhere. I passed out one last time, before scuttling to the edge of the water. I noticed two players here, with great gear and an ATV. Ofcourse, I was weighing up the benefits of this scenario.

Me. Two of them. I have lots of stuff they'd want. They have lots of stuff I want. We both wouldn't want a blood bath.

Now, I wanted to approach them, because they could give me a transfusion with the blood I had, and maybe i could give them the AKS 74 Kobra I had in my pack, or its ammo, or something! I just ended up opening fire and killing one of them straight off the bat from 120m with my M16, the other hid, not knowing where I was.

What I'm getting at here, is that I felt there were absolutely no means available between us here that could have prevented me from just feeling my ONLY (and I mean ONLY) option was to shoot them. I felt bad for doing it, but like I said - only option.

For those interested. I was circling the lake to get a shot on the last guy, when my character broke his leg on flat ground and then died (low blood and all).

I really didn't get anything from this situation, infact, I got worse than nothing. Furthermore, I killed a guy who had probably invested a lot of time in his life and I felt rotten that there was no other way.

TLDR: If we all spawned with unicorns, everyone would be happy, and humanity would be restored.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Scerun

[hoik 415]

Communication is a problem, and there have been many threads on how to solve it - arm bands could work as a means to help identify who has/hasn't murdered (See Sui's suggestion here: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=10885&page=9 ) if it is implemented in a smart way, but I agree it is a cheap solution and there are much better ways - holstering or putting your arms up are the most obvious (and probably the best) ways to indicate your intent but requires an eyeball on you and makes you very vulnrable - but without risk where would be the fun, right?

In your scenario a simple item like this: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9891 could've let you signal your presence AND intent from cover, guage the other players reations and then react accordingly.

@Scerun

"People often ask that on a bandit, there should be blood, raggedy clothes, pale skin - something to visually distinguish a bad-guy. I feel this is a very bad way to go, because it does indeed punish a particular type of play."

I agree that such black/white solutions are uneccecary - not because they punish a play-style (Bandits/kill-looters punish other play-styles all the time and yet are the biggest whingers when they percived they are having their "freedom" encroached appon) but because it is a lazy solution based on a lifetime of being told what to do by video games. Unfortunatly there is a general push towards them.

In the end I dont think you have to worry if better communication will be implemented - it will, just hope that the developers choose one that is inovative and asumes the player has a whole brain and not half a one :) .

[hrlambing@gmail.com 4]

I'm surprised this thread isn't more popular. Agree with OP 100%.

One suggestion I have for increased communication is a complete weapon holster option. I know there is double-tap ctrl to lower your primary, but I'm thinking of something more than that. A way to appear completely unarmed, and render yourself vulnerable (would take +/- 3 seconds to get your gun out for shooting), but appear friendly to any player.

Of course, bandits/dickheads would shoot if they saw you were an easy target & had your weapon holstered, but I think it would be a step in the right direction for facilitating more face-to-face player interaction. As it is now, other survivors appear too dangerous.

[Zeromentor 169]

People all too commonly see someone who fires first as a 'dickhead, little kid, COD player', when in fact many people fire first to protect themselves and for good reason. Many of my player kills are to protect myself or others, or to take vengeance on someone whom has killed a friendly. But self-defense means nothing when you still gain another MURDER.

But back on topic. The ability to holster your weapon is something, I think, that has been discussed before, and people found the engine was lacking. Although, the devs could cheat and instead of making you holster, they could rework the animation for lowering your weapon and just increase the time it takes to finish the 'unholstering' animation. But it can't take forever (3+ seconds as one player said), I can unholster a revolver far faster than that in real life, and I'm by no means a firearms expert.

[Scerun 227]

A shame that the hosltering could be defunct due to the engine D:

Certainly, though, I agree that a great many of my player kills are simply due to self preservation, and indeed, rightly so. Once I feel that I can trust that this guy won't shoot me, even for a moment - I'm happy.

It's the unfair feeling of it all that gets people kind of frustrated

---

And whilst I agree that even a guy like me could unholster my gun in less than three seconds, I figure you need good time for the player to react.

I guess the best way I can justify my standpoint is in film. It's a method of, where in high-action scenes where a lot is going on, the footage will be slowed ever so slightly, so that you can comprehend all the significant movements on the screen. For those interested, it's usually slowed down just enough so that the human brain plays it back in real time, yet picks up on all these little details.

I figure the same would apply in game, when making actions that are otherwise pretty swift, a little bit more comprehensible, and easier to react to.

[hoik 415]

Bump this - and bean it!