Balancing DayZ SA series Part 3: loot mechanics

[alanford 13]

Part 3 of the Balancing DayZ standalone discussion series. I encourage to post your opinions and ideas here. The more posts the more chances any of the devs hear us.

In part 3 of the series we will talk about changes to the looting system and mechanics. I am basing the OP around the data we know about dayZ standalone. Which includes a bigger map and bigger cities and changes to the looting system. I'll point out some of things I thought off and add other good ideas provided by people in this topic. Many of the changes are small balance changes which could also be included in dayz mod. But some are big changes, which would require actualy developing time.

---

Basic survival gear

The first thing that I'd like to talk about is the basic survival loot. And with that I mean the loot that you need to survive on your own without having to loot markets for lets say food.

Currently the items that are needed are: axe, hunting knife, box of matches, a watter bottle. With these items you can survive on without any other looting.

-I think this gear should be found in places like the chain car crashes I have talked about in the part 2 of the series. And in other places which do not include the bigger cities.

-I would also suggest adding alternatives, for example a fire striker and maybe a lighter, adding bidons instead of water bottles, and instead of cans of soda add plastic bottles, which when drunk from get emtpy and work as water bottles. It just adds to the immersion. Small changes that would help making the world feel more organic.

Loot containers

Another thing I'd like to talk about are loot containers. Right now gear is just lying on the floor. Now we know that devs are working on making the loot spawn on more realistic places, like shelves and behind beds. So I would suggest adding cintainers, like drawers and cabinets which would function like car trunks and tents in which you would check when inside houses. They wouldn't be hard to add and would increase the immersion immensly.

Another side effect of this, and ITS A BIG SIDE EFFECT would the that now, tents wouldn't be the only places where you could stash stuff.

With the new map where there are a bunch of enterable buildings, you could just hide your gear in a drawer in some house. Who would ever find that? Better than tents.

Chain car crashes

I have talked about this in the traversing dayz part of the series but I am so excited over this that I just can't stop. This bring so many opportunities and new directions. It also falls together perfectly with the new loot in trunks of cars the devs have implemented. Add MAYOR loot spawn points in refugee car crashes. Make them over 200m long and put loads of stuff inside refugee cars. Tents, foods, weapons, gps, maps- Everything refugees take. Looting car crashes would probably in real life yield better loot than looting stores, because these were the first to be looted anyway.

Looting and zombies

We will talk about this more in the zombies part of the series, but the devs have implemented a new zombie handling system, which means zombies can be completely killed in an area.

Make the loot behave in a similar fashion. Best gear gets spawned first than increasingly worse gear.

So add a lot of zombies at good loot spawns and good loot. The first that comes and cleans the zombies out of an area gets the best loot. Than the others who come and dont need to kill zombies only get worse gear. It's an excelent risk vs reward system.

That is all I can think of for now. But I will add other stuff later.

---

Part 1 of the series:

shifting from PVP to survival.

Part 2 of the series:

traversing the DayZ world

Part 3 of the series:

-you are here-

Part 4 of the series:

balancing the zombies

Part 5 of the series:

endgame

Part 6 of the series:

random stuff

Edited March 22, 2013 by izver

[OTehNoes 21]

I think you need to watch the Standalone Dev Diaries dude. Don't get me wrong you're making some good points! It's just many of them have already been shown in the dev diaries and are already implemented as far as I'm aware. For example you actually have to look for loot now, it won't just be in neat piles on the floor, it can be in cupboards, fridges, ovens, behind them, under beds etc. Its also in cars both on seats and in the boot.

[alanford 13]

I think you need to watch the Standalone Dev Diaries dude. Don't get me wrong you're making some good points! It's just many of them have already been shown in the dev diaries and are already implemented as far as I'm aware. For example you actually have to look for loot now, it won't just be in neat piles on the floor, it can be in cupboards, fridges, ovens, behind them, under beds etc. Its also in cars both on seats and in the boot.

Yeah I do look at the diaries, and I am aware of the new looting system, I'm just posting general suggestions on how to build on the new system. Like if you read my idea on a reworked repairing system which would make use of the new loot handling.