Player classes...or professions

[Al Bobo 53]

Since KoS is so common, I thought that it would be nice if there were several professions like doctor, mechanic, hunter etc. that would be an incentive for grouping. Doc could see and improve your physical condition by using more common items, mechanic could make make-shift parts by using more common objects, hunter could track animals and gain more food than others with every animal kill (could be useful, if cities are swarming with zombies). Use your imagination and you can lengthen this list.

  At the moment, the only value of people is their gear. Shoot them in the head. Take their gear. Move on. If people knew, that other players are useful for other tasks, too, it might reduce KoS. I don't have anything against KoS. If people look suspicious I shoot. If I have good gear, I become more and more triggerhappy. I just hope that the players would be more than walking, talking, bleeding, dying lootbags.

 Other thing that might bring people together is the amount of zombies and their A.I. I bet lone killers might appreciate groups more if they had to go against a group of 20 zombies alone on regular basis. Like in a zombie apocalypse.

[Skat3rat 1633]

This was suggested many times before SA came out.  I think Rocket has discussed stuff like this but I don't think he is going to do it.  DayZ shouldn't be a mmo style skill tree thing.  People should have to use real world skills and knowledge to be able to survive.  

[Jonny45 3]

But what happens after people get in a group? They will just go around in that group KOSing all of the lone wolf players. I don't think there is anything to stop people from KOSing. But still making characters have different professions is a good idea.

[Al Bobo 53]

I do not want any skill trees. Just set skills from start and that's it. Like, imagine that you have been a doctor for 10 years and then there's zombies. Deal with it.

 

@Jonny45: I do not wish to make KoS vanish. The purpose would be make grouping up to look more appealing than now.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Al Bobo

[kevsta545 451]

This was suggested many times before SA came out.  I think Rocket has discussed stuff like this but I don't think he is going to do it.  DayZ shouldn't be a mmo style skill tree thing.  People should have to use real world skills and knowledge to be able to survive.

This.

This isn't WoW or LoL, but a hardcore realistic survival game, I'm not into the whole "class" thing.

[Dgenerate 7]

Screw you guys, I'm a Shaman.

[iAwesome 128]

But what happens after people get in a group? They will just go around in that group KOSing all of the lone wolf players. I don't think there is anything to stop people from KOSing. But still making characters have different professions is a good idea.

I don't get that pissed when someone KOSing me and loot me as I do when someone KOSing me and don't even bother checking my gear. 

Give player killing some kind of penalty. Like bandit skins they had in the mod. And hero skins for people who helps out other players. There are plenty of ideas out there to lower the KOSing rate. 

[Plan_B 82]

That would be bad for realism.

 

Imagine a russian town with 15 doctors running around in the zombie apocalypse.

 

I want classes to be like : Janitor, Insurance salesman, dogwalker.... etc.

 

You know, something just for some slight RPG, not skills.

[Plan_B 82]

I don't get that pissed when someone KOSing me and loot me as I do when someone KOSing me and don't even bother checking my gear. 

Give player killing some kind of penalty. Like bandit skins they had in the mod. And hero skins for people who helps out other players. There are plenty of ideas out there to lower the KOSing rate. 

 Like huge horde of zombies being attracted by the noise of gunfire? 

People will think about shooting if the sound of a gun can attract 30 zombies after them.

[Statik (DayZ) 2695]

No.

 

unless there is battlemage monk combos. Then I'm down.

[Nalestom 116]

I do not want any skill trees. Just set skills from start and that's it. Like, imagine that you have been a doctor for 10 years and then there's zombies. Deal with it.

 

@Jonny45: I do not wish to make KoS vanish. The purpose would be make grouping up to look more appealing than now.

 

This is a very interesting idea, and I think that it would definitely give more incentive for players to group up.

 

My three concerns with a class or skill system is 1) making specific tasks exclusive to a single class, 2) making all classes relatively balanced, and 3) giving all players a specific class.

 

1) If I'm a doctor, that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to skin a rabbit or gather meat from a cow. I should not be any less proficient at survival skills than a regular survivor; I should be more proficient at specific tasks. For example, a doctor can give a blood transfusion with less risk of disease, or a hunter will get more/better quality meat from an animal after skinning it.

 

2) All classes should be useful. The last thing we want is for people to spawn as an "underpowered" class and kill themselves, hoping for a better class the next time they respawn. Spawning as a specific class should be a bonus for that life, not a detriment.

 

3) You shouldn't spawn as a specific class every single time you respawn. There should be a default survivor class that is similar to the one we currently have, and there should be a small chance that you spawn as a different class. This ties into my second concern, as we don't want people committing suicide constantly in the hopes of getting a specific class.

[eclipse0414 25]

I think it would be more interesting having the zombies with the (former) professions and having loot that corresponds to them. Including soldiers, teachers, doctors, etc.

[Al Bobo 53]

15 doctors running in a city is not realistic. It's not realistic to have 40 strangely fit clones running in a city either. It's also not realistic to eat every 5 minutes or not to be able to put a blood transfusion needle on your arm. I mean, even a meth addict could probably do it. In games, there needs to be a balance between fun and realism. I don't think that a profession would steal any "realism" from this game. If anything, it would add it...

 

@Nalestom, you are right in all points except the last. You should be able to choose your profession when you spawn or people would get frustrated. Or choose to choose not to choose any profession if that rocks your boat :P

Edited December 19, 2013 by Al Bobo

[mercules 1290]

This.

This isn't WoW or LoL, but a hardcore realistic survival game, I'm not into the whole "class" thing.

 

Oddly enough in real life there are sorta classes, or at least skills sets. ;) For example having grown up with a mother who was an RN and had more medical training than some doctors as well as being a First Responder myself I do have a "Healing" skill set. I know what poisons to induce vomiting for and which not. I know how to treat most basic wounds and such. 

At the same time I would hesitate to have a class system. 

Rocket has stated he would like to have a system where people might get better at something the more they do it which would give characters themselves value. Imagine you had been doing the bandaging and other medical things for a group of people and now you can bandage in 1/4 of the time it takes others to do it and there is no chance of infection from a blood bag or you get more blood from a Saline drip or something like that. Are you going to want to risk your death to shoot some newspawn who has a flashlight and nothing else?

Personally I would love it if we could pick a few "quirks" for our character and then using skills under those would actually gain more utility like Rocket's idea. Example. I get to pick 2 backgrounds out of say 15 possible. I avoid the mechanical ones and focus on cooking and medical ones so that I can get more out of food and do medical actions better. My friend grabs auto repair and gun maintenance so he can maintain the vehicles and guns we pick up, unjam(assuming they ever do) weapons easier and such. 

This would benefit group play but not to the point where it would disadvantage the lone wolf players. They would probably stick with gun maintenance and medical or something like that and just not have the tiny bonus from the rest. 

 

[mercules 1290]

15 doctors running in a city is not realistic. It's not realistic to have 40 strangely fit clones running in a city either. It's also not realistic to eat every 5 minutes or not to be able to put a blood transfusion needle on your arm. I mean, even a meth addict could probably do it. In games, there needs to be a balance between fun and realism. I don't think that a profession would steal any "realism" from this game. If anything, it would add it...

 

Yes, and maybe not 15 Medical Doctors but 15 people with medical training is feasible. I do Tech Support for a living but am a First Responder.

[Al Bobo 53]

Mercules, you're right that the skills don't necessarily have to be tied into jobs. There don't have to be doctors, but people who know med stuff or people who's hobby is hunting. Personally, I don't like the idea of getting better at anything you do slowly. I want to have that group incentive up and running from the start. Life expectancy is often quite short in DayZ and it would feel unrealistic to level up from regular John Doe to Doctor Frankenstein after 3 hours of continuous bandaging.

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

There should be skills

 

They are learned through theory and practice. Each level of increase provides benefits be it big or small. Hoever its not like banadage 10x to gain level.

 

Rather its like:

 

Skill: Medicine

 

Level1 

To unlock:

-inspect 2 dead human players

-bandage someone or yourself once (35% chance of fail)

-Inspect 5 different medical items 

 

Benefits:

-bandaging is 10% faster

-25% less failure rate

 

Level 2

- Discover 2 different antibiotics

-Read: Medicine and you (a book only found in hospitals)

-Inspect 1 more dead player 

-Exam 2 different water sources

 

Benefits:

You learn what antibiotics are for what

You have a 40% of determining how safe a water source is by examining it 

 

and so on and so on 

[mercules 1290]

Mercules, you're right that the skills don't necessarily have to be tied into jobs. There don't have to be doctors, but people who know med stuff or people who's hobby is hunting. Personally, I don't like the idea of getting better at anything you do slowly. I want to have that group incentive up and running from the start. Life expectancy is often quite short in DayZ and it would feel unrealistic to level up from regular John Doe to Doctor Frankenstein after 3 hours of continuous bandaging.

 

Well, this is why I think we should be able to pick a couple areas. 

So I could pick cooking and medical and my friend auto mechanic and gun maintenance. When cars are introduced and say you didn't fix things 100% with something like parts. Well, he could  get an extra 1% just for taking the background. More practice will make it take less time and/or will restore just a bit more when he repairs something. You still need to find and loot the parts but he might need a few less to get it to a running state just from that small percentage. 

In another thread I mentioned someone with cooking having something like their cooked food taking longer to spoil. Not a huge advantage but still useful. 

[Al Bobo 53]

Frost-Wolf, I don't like that idea because it doesn't feel realistic that you learn medical skills by clicking a medical book and looking medical instruments and dead bodies. I like to think that all these people running in the gameworld were something BEFORE they woke up on the coast, carrying their skills with them. You won't learn hunting in 12 hours in real life, but with the mechanic you propose, you would be pretty damn good at it by then in DayZ.