Player decisions: Unlocking new Content

[joe_mcentire 2074]

of course i also share the idea, like in reality you need many people, e.g. for running and maintaining a power plant. Obviously it will be another aspect for team/social players. But you can do something equivalent, on a smaller scale, also for the lonesome survivors.

What comes into my mind... special clothing as a reward for example...or unique items, like a bag full of ruble. What you do with it, it doesnt matter, maybe leave a note on a table and create a quest by yourself... i think this has some potential.

It is something the devs can throw out into the game, but it is up to us, what we do with it.

edit: following text is now in initial post:

another example - the well of fortune

How about a well in the village XYZ. You approach the well and get anykind of hint, that you can possibly interact with it. In the nearby town you'll find leaflets for tourist information. Some cyrillic crazy sh*t's going on on the cover with a picture of that very well. The only thing you can clearly identify is also "104m" on that leaflet. (let us imagine, there is something like Pickup-trucks with a cable whinch attached to it in the game; or maybe it is even brought into game for such special purposes ;))

Now you are curious...after some time you really get that truck and try to go back to that well. Well that works perfectly out. Then....(some magic happens)...and you have the most unbelievable (insert here awesome or maybe even unique stuff) in front of you. WOW!

I know there could be some problems like:

• What about respawning of that loot, should it ever?
  
• Will it get a major point of interest, after some time when word has spread, so it is no fun any more (respawning provided)?
  
• Will it attract griefers?
  

These are some issues i have to admit, but i think they can be sorted out quite conveniently.

Edited February 23, 2013 by joe_mcentire

[Cinnabuns 45]

I was thinking more along the lines of nothing that uses NPC's but uses "notes" in the game left by the previously alive residents after day Zero.

I don't know if the current underlying data base structure could support this but its just an idea.

Here's an example:

Mechanically, in-game, all it would require are 2 "notes" or pieces of memo paper with a scribbled obscure/not obscure sentence.

One is a quest "begin" and the other is a quest "accept".

Here's how it works. Upon entering a town a single player or a group of players starts searching houses. When the server starts part of the loot added to houses is a group of different seed notes. One per house max, maybe 1 per town or small area, maybe 10 building small area gets maybe one seed note.

The note can say many things, these will have to be developed over the course of time and they can be added any time.

Lets say for the example the note says, "Meet the person at Kamarovo outskirts building to pick up supplies Tuesday@10pm, need to bring antibiotics for trade"

The writer of the note is obviously dead now but maybe it was written today? What day is it?? Maybe that's tonight? Maybe its 6 days from now?

So why not go see if the person(s) may have supplies.

When a player picks up the seed note AND leaves the building with it, the secondary note is dynamically generated and placed "In the world" AND "In a currently player occupied building" and not placed in a cabinet/oven. On the floor/table, under a chair, etc. If the player leaves the seed note in the house, the secondary note is not generated.

Could possibly be a bit emmersion breaking on the rare occasion that a player sees this magical secondary note appear out of nowhere but more times than not they could be looting and then turn around and see the note and think, "didn't I just look there?" "I missed something..."

So the secondary note is the compliment to its seed note and it directs the 2nd player/group of players to do what the seed notes says the opposite party will be doing.

So in this example the secondary note would say something like, "We have to get supplies, food, water, to Kamarovo out building (see map for X) by late evening for pickup by un-named party bringing antibiotics."

So now you have two parties that may or may not be bringing something someplace, and others may be in that area already or at the time of the meeting.

The time is vague on the receivers end so they should come early and hang around waiting, keep an eye out from a distance to watch for survivors coming in to the area.

Radio comms could facilitate these meetings with proper exchange items.

After all, the guy on one end has no idea if the guy on the other end is dead or not, they could have survived and vise versa.

If no one finds the secondary note, the seed note holder can think they're early but they need to keep an eye on the place. The could set up camp in nearby woods, occupy one of the neighboring houses, etc.

A trade "could" happen and you could get robbed, killed, etc. Is it worth it? Do you need supplies/antibiotics?

If you don't have the supplies/antibiotics, then you need to find them for the trade to even take place. This induces more interaction, scavenging, exploration.

This is just an idea but it only involves the player base and no NPCs (lame) so everything would be eerie and very vague which is how the situation would be in real life. "We're suppose to meet who? where? forget that.", No problem, "looks like the other guys were a no-show", RL actions dictate the outcome.

"Lets get the stuff and meet up, see how it goes, we have firepower so we're safe, lets do it."

"Screw that!", leave the note laying around for someone else that's interested. Or... read it and then leave it for someone else, follow them around and eavesdrop on the meeting and eliminate both parties or take hostages or even just wait in the woods and see how it plays out. Wait till your chosen party leaves and take them out after to get particular supplies, etc.

I think theres a lot that could be done with this 1-? player party note system and it uses players for its pawns but they can act any way they want which in RL would be the actual way things went down.

Edited February 19, 2013 by Cinnabuns

[q1p0 7]

building your weapon reminds me how you can find/buy a scheme of a weapon and somehow build it in Fallout3.. if this is to be implemented, should not be so easy and it should require a couple of player to build only one gun

So have it partially for schematics and such or fully burried for equipment and account the burial on heavy rains. Could also require metal detectors to search for the metal parts and potentially the whole map be searched.

Or put the parts or papers to be carried on random zombies, since now not many players check the zombies killed for loot. Can even place it randomly on the infected in the horde.

[Hellfire1014 12]

Alright forget the tank. Aside from a tank it's a really great idea. You want something? Well you have to at least team up to get it. What was that? TEAM UP. It's a great way to get players to WANT to team up.

Maybe each player could find different keycards. Only one player can carry one keycard. However you need other players with other keycards to acess a military installation with some weapons, food, whatever. The keycards don't have to be different either just keycards that requires 3, or 4 players to unlock a door. You can't pick up other players keycards, so their's no reason to kill people.

Another suggestion an unreachable ladder. You need at least one other player to boost up onto the ladder. To get some loot. Make a new animation of the player boosting the other player up with his hands. Teamwork.

Lots of things that could be implemented to require teamwork. It's a great idea. Teamwork.

[joe_mcentire 2074]

One big issue, although not shared by everyone, that drives me into this topic is things like explained in this thread: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/124272-is-dayz-100-pvp-on-the-long-term/

a more friendly PVP and more PVE experience respectively.

[Ohly 26]

and when talking about unlocking content...think about electrically sealed doors. The power of "that" power plant would unseal that door eventually. So it fits perfectly to the OP. B) Your move!

you gave me a super idea, with the electricity you would be able to start the water pump of a bunker on namalsk and then acces to the lower stage of the bunker, and even find some ''gold'' item ( not really gold but super special things)

also if you find some amo from down there, dont be too happy because they'll probably wont shoot anything because of the water that had got inside

[Cinnabuns 45]

Alright forget the tank. Aside from a tank it's a really great idea. You want something? Well you have to at least team up to get it. What was that? TEAM UP. It's a great way to get players to WANT to team up.

Maybe each player could find different keycards. Only one player can carry one keycard. However you need other players with other keycards to acess a military installation with some weapons, food, whatever. The keycards don't have to be different either just keycards that requires 3, or 4 players to unlock a door. You can't pick up other players keycards, so their's no reason to kill people.

Another suggestion an unreachable ladder. You need at least one other player to boost up onto the ladder. To get some loot. Make a new animation of the player boosting the other player up with his hands. Teamwork.

Lots of things that could be implemented to require teamwork. It's a great idea. Teamwork.

This is also a good idea though the , "You can't pick up other players keycards, so their's no reason to kill people." needs to go. It should be up to the player as it is in RL whether they decide to take a keycard or cooperate. Also, keycard unrelated killing may end in a body search that reveals a keycard leading a new group of people in to the fray. Let's not forget, picking up a keycard or note off an infected player can lead to self-infection.

This is a good idea similar to mine in that it doesn't involve NPC's (YAY!) and it motivates the player base to create stories of their own. Good line of thinking.

[Cinnabuns 45]

So i had this formidable idea. There is widely mixed opinions on "End Game", "Events", or "quests" or whatsoever.

How about implementing all of this in the game, from the very beginning?! Imagine several objects somehow embedded into the game's landscape, useless or just "ornaments" at first glance but what if i say, in some way you can interact with them?!

A very particular example:

A player finds somehow hidden in a swamp under some shrubs a metallic something. He points with his cursor at it and it says "metallic something", huhh? What does that mean? He gets completely fascinated by it and the idea to somehow get this thing out of the mud, but somehow he can't move sh*t. So he thinks further, what if we were more ppl to interact (idea: tie a rope to it and some guys pull at it), but somehow it doesn't work neither.

What if i have something with more HP?...

Long story short: It turns out, that you can get this thing out with 3! vehicles pulling with ropes. The thing is a super duper special tank* you know. Have fun with it!

Quintessence (of example):

• In advance implemented "quests", unlockable due to player interaction
  
• (can)* provide huge social interaction (you need several guys)
  
• (can)* provide "End Game" (you need the proper equipment and amount of it; gets a fixable super duper special tank*)
  
• NO NPCs needed
  
• can increase long term motivation
  
• more awareness for environement, as everything could be a potential "quest - bringer/giver"
  

edit: well yeah i am aware there are tanks already in the game - just for illustrating purposes

*edited to avoid, "well we have already tanks" answers...

*edited

I guess this should have been my first post in this thread but anyway. Super duper tank or other game breaking over-powered items, IMO, don't have a place in the game, however as I read your post I see that you mean the "super duper tank" as only an example of something one can find. Other less OP items but equally as useful items could be uncovered in the manner you're describing.

When was the last time you saw a tank on The Walking Dead? Yes there was one in the first season but it didn't move and didn't fire and the know-how to get it up and running is beyond rudimentary player intellect. Can you fix a broken down tank? I certainly can't and I'm an engineer of sorts. Something like this would take months of work and parts that would be hard if not impossible to come by or craft.

[joe_mcentire 2074]

yeah i realize that it was maybe a bad example, as only a few tend to see what my real focus was here. So i try to edit the initial post..

[Cinnabuns 45]

hogs, on 19 February 2013 - 05:12 PM, said:

At the least, maybe one day they could implement a job system. I post a job or an item I want, and the reward I offer is immediately taken out of my inventory. Whoever completes this trade or job has the thing I want removed and both things are placed into secret caches that only the recipient has the coords for. That way we have more interaction between players, and the stories that are told are ours alone to write and to keep. No offense to anyone making this game, but some of the things I've been a part of in the last few weeks could never be written into a game. They happened because people are only human and our actions dictated the outcomes, not some algorithm.

Hogs posted this in the 14th Devblog thread and its another good idea for mission setup that doesn't involve NPCs.

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

A lot of information here to process, but I like where your going. Group efforts (or a highly determined lone wolf) would be pretty awesome for large tasks.

as an example:

Say they add in a partly sunken ship (aircraft carrier, destroyer, freighter, whatever, but for the example I will be using the aircraft carrier). The carrier is listing at a angle (45 degrees or greater, even maybe 90 degrees and on its side), run aground on a sandbar/shallows/reef and immobile. Any entry points on the flightdeck/side would be so small that it'd be impossible to land/insert with a helicopter/parachute without falling off into the water or dying. Only entry points would be at water level so you'd have to go in with a boat or swim. Once the players are inside they'll have to use a tool (toolbox or some yet to be added item, blowtorch or some such) to open up a hatch, fight off the zombies inside (not sure if itd be possible to have them not respawn with SA's system, but make it so they don't respawn on the ship when killed until a restart) and clear bulkhead to bulkhead, with the occasional zombie dropping down from above. There would be many 'dead ends' and side passages, with some areas to loot (low quality stuff). The main 'high loot' areas would be flooded/otherwise inaccessible without teamwork or a lot of bootwork.

For example, Maintenance hanger, this large room would be in a submerged part of the ship, to access it you'd have to find the hull breach, block it off (scrap metal and welding equipment), find a backup generator and fuel it up, bring some bilge pumps to hanger, and wait/hold off zombies attracted to the noise of the pumps and generators as the pumps do their work and/or break down occasionally needing to be reactivated on another deck. (This would take maybe an hour for the water to drain) when the water drains (or mostly drains) the players have access to the maintenance hanger which WILL (100% chance of spawning) have say 5 Main Rotors, 20 Engine Parts, 40 Tires, ect ect, along with some rare clothing (pilot/mechanic jumpsuits, ect).

In this theme the 'High Value' rooms Id have would be Galley (High Quantity of food) Sickbay (Lots and lots of meds) Maintenance (Parts) Armory (Military grade weapons and ammo, ((ones that make sense to be on a ship, SMGs, Assault Rifles, pistols, machine guns. NO sniper rifles)). This would really only be worth doing though if boats had a cargo capacity, but this is an example of something that could be done.

Another room would be a Hanger just bellow the flight deck with one intact (but needing repairs) heavy helicopter (Chinook/Seahawk something along thouse lines) at such an angle that it can fly out (with a skilled pilot without crashing). But in order to fly it out you not only have to gain access to the maintainace hanger, but have to restore power to the sub-flightdeck so you can lower the Aircraft elevator and fly the helicopter out of the newly opened hole with all the gear you and your group just aquired.

Whew. perhaps thats a bit to epic of a task for DayZ since I need to turn off my brain now.

[joe_mcentire 2074]

As i posted in a different thread i like the idea of Fallout where you get useless junk and somehow suddenly they would be usefull in a quest. I think this could be easily implemented in the SA as well.

Just take my well example. Imagine for example a steel cable to be found in a factory. This could be used on a winch. This can be used on that well etc....

So easily can you link the idea of unique loot and useless junk with this idea

Edited February 23, 2013 by joe_mcentire

[joe_mcentire 2074]

what also came to my mind:

why not clear/tidy up/rebuild an area to get then the possibility to build a base.

example - the train wreck:

a wreck of cargo train could be used - first use a car to tear open the massive train door - get rid of trashed cargo - build up base

[BSB Jimmy 360]

would be exploited, after a quick google search you will be able to get all the items

[joe_mcentire 2074]

would be exploited, after a quick google search you will be able to get all the items

well everything is to a degree exploitable... but i don't know what you are referring to especially

[Cinnabuns 45]

Would be exploited... har.

You mean like every game, ever made, to date? Would be exploited by people like you, you mean, Jimmy.

All game mechanics can usually be abused in some way or another. It is because of Google that this is now prevalent in every game now.

So yeah, I guess if you want to figure stuff out on your own then all these things work in the game but if you are a "I'm gonna get there first" and "I don't care about the fact that I'm using someone elses knowledge to progress, because I win." kinda guy then all I have to say is, you ruined your own life on your own.

There will always be those that want to shortcut everything, view the whole map in a browser, read how to do everything so they don't have to learn for themselves, but that removes all the things that were put in to the game to make you think, learn, immerse, enjoy.

There will always be those dudes that want to shortcut everything just so they can grief others with their own understanding that, "well, everyone else is doing it (that they know) so why shouldn't I???" which makes it all fine in their mind.

Thanks for stating the obvious, though. Unless you had other intentions that you didn't describe in your one-line thoughtless post.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Cinnabuns

[Cinnabuns 45]

Good idea on the carrier/boat/etc. I think it would obviously have to be developed more though it is definitely a great idea.

I was also thinking along the lines of the train.

Because there is water, train tracks, air, on the map, any type of boat/train/air vehicle, can meander by and crash or be caused to crash (placing a car on the tracks), (shooting down a plane), etc. there by creating an instance or dynamic loot spawn, battle contention point, or opportunity for some event.

However because of the size of the world these things couldn't happen frequently or the map would soon be littered with misc. stuff. And then abusers would be exploiting by restarting their servers, etc.

They'd have to be randomly generated and randomly located in order to not draw ire from respectable players.

[DMC14 46]

i like the idea of a generator (not the power station). a generator requires fuel and there is fuel in the game. maybe a gery can could last 12 hrs or as long as a night is.

no tanks.

Edited February 28, 2013 by DMC14

[Ohly 26]

i like the idea of a generator (not the power station). a generator requires fuel and there is fuel in the game. maybe a gery can could last 12 hrs or as long as a night is.

depend on the power of your generator, jerry can are in average 20L, and if you take an industrial generator, to light a city, i expect that one jerry can would last 1-2 hours only !

[joe_mcentire 2074]

Would be exploited... har.

You mean like every game, ever made, to date? Would be exploited by people like you, you mean, Jimmy.

All game mechanics can usually be abused in some way or another. It is because of Google that this is now prevalent in every game now.

So yeah, I guess if you want to figure stuff out on your own then all these things work in the game but if you are a "I'm gonna get there first" and "I don't care about the fact that I'm using someone elses knowledge to progress, because I win." kinda guy then all I have to say is, you ruined your own life on your own.

There will always be those that want to shortcut everything, view the whole map in a browser, read how to do everything so they don't have to learn for themselves, but that removes all the things that were put in to the game to make you think, learn, immerse, enjoy.

There will always be those dudes that want to shortcut everything just so they can grief others with their own understanding that, "well, everyone else is doing it (that they know) so why shouldn't I???" which makes it all fine in their mind.

Thanks for stating the obvious, though. Unless you had other intentions that you didn't describe in your one-line thoughtless post.

he i'm sorry! i wanted to write somekind of placeholder back then...and..forgot to give you a proper respond! but you will get your answer ;)! ..or were you even talking to me?!

Edited February 28, 2013 by joe_mcentire

[joe_mcentire 2074]

hmmm also imagine a completely overgrown settlement. You really would have to establish your own little logging company. You could reveal little secrets/treasures or could raise a base afterwards.

Edited March 11, 2013 by joe_mcentire

[joe_mcentire 2074]

as they maybe implement huge fully accessible apartement complexes into the SA; what about hollow/weak walls? use sledge hammer or something to break through...there you go with a new discovered (hidden) area/room...

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

It'd be cool to have those options, but secrets can't stay secret nowadays.

Wiki-wonderland ensures anything, no matter what, only stays hidden until one person finds it.

That's not to say it wouldn't be worth including, just that it won't be a secret.

[joe_mcentire 2074]

It'd be cool to have those options, but secrets can't stay secret nowadays.

Wiki-wonderland ensures anything, no matter what, only stays hidden until one person finds it.

That's not to say it wouldn't be worth including, just that it won't be a secret.

but you know what? there are still many that do not know there is actually an inbuilt "surrender" key. well some would know by the time, but at least i am going to try not to use wiki for once.... ;) but you are right about that one

Edited March 12, 2013 by joe_mcentire

[liquidcactus 719]

Indeed this is a good idea, its kind of the same as the post I made about super structures/mini campaigns where areas cant be cleared with anything less than a team of players.. heavily infested office block areas and factories etc with a rare item to be obtained at the end. I love these ideas.. something in the way of end game to look forward 2..give a bit more depth to the game with mini puzzles etc would be AWESOMES