Locks and Keys (instance specific)

[oompah 58]

I've been having this debate with a few fellow survivors and it's been spirited.

What are the general thoughts of having locks and keys in the game (or something similiar locks-combinations, whatever)

these items would have to be instance specific, like tents and cars.

The idea would be to allow these items to be found in pairs, spawned in randomly and rarely, and work exclusively together.

This is how the mechanic would work.

Locks could be used to lock buildings or rooms inside of buildings. The door then could only be opened with the key (silently) or by breaking the lock. Possibly an axe or a crowbar could be used to break the lock. The process of breaking the lock would destroy or have a chance to destroy the axe or crowbar and would be very loud and take a little time to do, attracting both zeds and players. Since buildings are typically in open areas this high profile action would put the player at risk and would even probably encourage trying a break in at night. Imagine cresting a hill and hearing a banging sound coming from a small group of houses in the distance - would be the similiar thrill to hearing gun shots.

Since axes serve many purposes like chopping wood and melee fighting, if they became a bit more rare and could be destroyed while breaking a lock it would put a little more empahsis on the decision to try to break a lock.

Players then could use buildings as outposts / camps - possibly even coordinated clans would patrol their area. The ability to store large amounts of supplies would entice rogue players to try to break into buildings that are visibly locked (and that would have to have high readability - seeing a lock on a door). Is there a refrigerator full of cooked meat and water inside? Logisitcs items inside - maps, compasses, radios? is there a cache of guns and ammo? Plyers storing notes and sharing raid schedules? Would the building 'owner' be smart enough to store items out of view of the windows?

What if you found a key on a body? Could you use the new fingerprinting system to try to track the players movements to locate a possible base camp? Would word spead that the [akm] clan players have a base in vybor? Would they be stalked for their keys? Would players use the new radio system to ask for any info about the player whose body had the key saying they would split the bounty if some assisted on a building location?

It would work best if the game would randomly spawn in locked building too that were more or less red herrings - keep it rare and unusual - maybe along the lines of crash site occurences. I would add that the owner of a lock and key combo could deploy the lock and also remove it and put it back in their inventory to use it an a different door if so desired.

Would this add immersion and a new aspect of dicovery and exploration? Would this be better than tents? Would more players take more chances by using buildings more? Would that add to player interaction (which to me the game is all about)? Would rumors spread on the server about a locked building up north, giving players more quests? Would seldom explored areas suddenly become more important?

thoughts?

Most people I have talked to don't like the idea. I guess I was a bit surprised. I know there would be some server ID issues but I think think the idea wouldn't be terribly hard to implement and as long as breaking the lock was possible (if not a bit risky) any issue with the key being lost wouldn't be a deal breaker for the idea. Might be best to have they matching key be destoryed also when a lock is broken to avoid a flood of keys.

Edited June 21, 2013 by oompah

[boxman80 964]

Works really well on Epoch already.

[oompah 58]

lol I guess I should have asked "has this been thought of before?" - it's no revolutionary idea and I suppose it's probably already been suggested. But I had a good strong cup of coffe this AM and felt the urge to post it.

I did a quick google on Epoch, i see it's a mod for the the dayz mod also - they do locks and keys there? How does it work? Can you break them?

Edited June 21, 2013 by oompah

[SoulHunter (DayZ) 233]

Very simple items and easy to implement! I wish to see these to be implemented into the game, along with the ability for "barricading" door/windows of the buildings in the game!

[OhDan 39]

Very simple items and easy to implement! I wish to see these to be implemented into the game, along with the ability for "barricading" door/windows of the buildings in the game!

Rocket addressed the issue with barricading windows/doors, it seems at the moment the Arts side of things it just deems to much of a task (to time consuming) so I wouldn't expect that until atleast a few months after the Actual release, but they may grow the team, taking the work load of such a select few people.

Edited June 21, 2013 by OhDan

[oompah 58]

in the SA are there plans to have general buildings be able to be entered through a broken window?

Would be interesting, should the lock and key idea ever be pursued to think about adding garages next to buildings and allowing a player to hide a car away and lock the garage.

Again there would have to be a certain amount of false locked doors/garages (possibly spawned in by the game) to ensure a locked area isn't a guarantee to finding anything valuable, and the process of breaking a lock would have to be a bit risky, loud and time consuming, almost to the point where you'd nearly need two people to pull it off (one to cover the locksmith while he hacks away at it) - and at the cost of the item you are using (axe or crowbar) - so you couldn't just use one axe to break 10 locks, the axe would have a hgih probably of breaking itself during or after the process.

[OhDan 39]

in the SA are there plans to have general buildings be able to be entered through a broken window?

Again the art side of things don't give them time to create the detail with creating broken windows unless they're there by default, but I suppose if you could climb through it with it causing some kind of chance of cutting yourself, then yeah, that'd be quite cool.

[oompah 58]

in the mod there are many places windows can be shot out, the hospital allows you to enter via a broken window. i think you cna vault through other broken windows, however that might not be by design

[liquidcactus 719]

Ive suggested this idea before... the key could even have a number and alll houses could be numbered or something like that also

[oompah 58]

you'd probably have to have a limited amount of keys + locks per server say maybe 50 total, each with a matching ID (1 through 50) and when a lock would get destroyed, or lost, or a key lost (possibly it was in a car's gear when it exploded) all keys/locsk with that ID would have to be destroyed - just to keep down confusion and make sure finding a kwy would be meaningful.

I still think overall the addition would add immersion, add to tension and create new sub quests in the end adding a new layer to "your story"

[Mos1ey 6301]

I don't think it's a bad idea but it would only really work if you could break and enter through windows (which could be barricaded to prevent this) too. Also, I don't think there would be a high probability of breaking the axe, most of the doors in Chernarus look wooden to me, it's literally what they're designed for.

[oompah 58]

thing is you can't base game mechanics on complete realism, as if having a toolbox would allow you to fix a helicopter rotor assembly or a car engine. What about a lift to get the engine block out? So I just hate the "realism argument" They key/lock thing would only work if windows couldn't be entered and I hate to add too many barricade mechanics and if breaking them with an axe ran a high risk of breaking the axe. These ideas should be simple and pack some fun. The key/lock idea would be simple, not necessary (so those who don't like it can ignore it) and pack some good fun into the story telling part of the game, which imo is the best part of Dayz.

Edited June 23, 2013 by oompah