Thesis and discussion regarding the "value" of your life.

[nordstage 2]

First time poster reporting in! I played this game when the mod was in early-mid development and decided to come back in time for the standalone. Enjoying it so far and despite lack of features and a placeholder loot system I must say the eerie Chernarus feeling has found its way back to me. Great work with the world modifications as well.

 

Enough introduction, and on to my point.

 

As it stands now your character is, if you rule out personal role-playing aspects, worth only what it is carrying (disregarding potential stashes once the tent feature is in). Facing death basically means losing your gear and your current position on the map.

 

Now, this in it self is not an issue but the mechanic, in my opinion, is working against solving the "kill on sight" mentality which seem to dominate most of this, and the Steam forum.

 

For example, say you are being robbed by another character. Logic here says that there is no reason not to just dumb-rush the guy with whatever you might be carrying in terms of weaponry. I mean - you are about to lose everything that your character is: your loot. Imagine a situation where you value something besides your items. In real-life terms - your life.

 

The robber in this example, on the other hand, will also think twice before engaging in any hostilities if the player values his characters life. Any such situation comes with the danger of a fight.

 

 

Now, my thesis in all of this is that this game should have some form of mechanic that makes you value more than your gear. I'll provide some examples of the top of my head:

 

- A global leaderboard stating time alive. Maybe some reward for the, let's say top 10 guys? Some unique piece of clothing perhaps?

 

- Character model morphing. For males it could be like a magnificent beard growing (and to make it worth something, disable beards for male starter characters). For female characters I can't think of anything. Perhaps this will make you tie bonds with your digital avatar.

 

- Some sort of perk system that is based on time spent on the character (after 10 hours you get slightly faster at chopping wood, or items degrade at a slower rate or anything else that makes "chores" less frequent but at the same times make interaction with other characters fair. After 15 hours you get something else).

 

- A "grind" based system where you develop aspects of your character that you are using. Running gives you more stamina (not the "stat from RPGs, but the actual term stamina. Google it.). Chopping wood makes you do that faster. Cooking food makes you cook it better and more nutritious. With this aspect we have to be careful to keep balance when facing others; e.g. no combat bonuses in terms of damage etc.

 

If I'm not mistaken then giving your actual character value will decrease the amount of irrational actions that in my view happen quite often in DayZ, one of these being the dreaded "KOS"-mentality. It will promote teamwork since surviving with others is vastly easier than alone, and since time = rewards in my thesis people will feel inclined to team up. It will deter "deathmatchers" since even they (GASP!!) want to have a good character, and since long life = good character they also will be "forced" into surviving the cautious and "real-like" way.

 

What it doesn't deter is seasoned players doing organized violence like murder and robbery since they have developed characters and are now using them for their ill deeds. Nothing wrong with this since this game still is about mankind at its most primitive.

 

Finally: the current system where shooting someone can destroy items helps to some degree, but still doesn't take away the "I have nothing to lose"- mentality that arises with you losing your gear and hence making you act irrationally and thus making any form of real-life situation, or "role-play" as we might call it, possible.

 

Thank you for your time and sorry for wall of text.

 

Feel free to come with your own suggestions or debunk my general idea if you dislike it.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Nordstage

[Guest]

Great read, I will further my points later,

 

but with regard to the 10 longest alive, that would just turn into a camping simulator, maybe for humanity instead, to promote good will

[Bodexius 18]

If you read/listen to early interviews Rocket wanted to introduce things such as 'experience' with people being good medics etc as well as mechanics when fixing cars. You can't just fix up a helicopter, you need to 'train' on fixing other stuff first. That will be quite late in the development though I should think...

[nordstage 2]

Great read, I will further my points later,

 

but with regard to the 10 longest alive, that would just turn into a camping simulator, maybe for humanity instead, to promote good will

 

But staying alive means you need to eat and drink, right? That still means actively playing the game. And to be honest, even if you could just sit on your ass all day, who plays this game to do just that? I mean the game is about surviving. Be that in the woods hunting, or being a nomad on the road, or a dude protecting his giant camp. 

[nordstage 2]

If you read/listen to early interviews Rocket wanted to introduce things such as 'experience' with people being good medics etc as well as mechanics when fixing cars. You can't just fix up a helicopter, you need to 'train' on fixing other stuff first. That will be quite late in the development though I should think...

 

That sounds pretty sweet!

[Statik (DayZ) 2695]

Placeholders? Bugs?

 

What are you talking about?

 

Standalone is 100% out man.

[nordstage 2]

Placeholders? Bugs?

 

What are you talking about?

 

Standalone is 100% out man.

 

Mate keep your faith up man and stay of the bitterness. Game will be great down the road! Also, please stay on topic.

[Noctiluxx 48]

I personally dread the idea of any XP or leveling system.  Maybe I'm tired of it from other games and the eventual grind it becomes.  That and leaderboards.

 

I would argue that with the eventual increase in lootable items, that crafting, and you're real life knowledge of putting things together should be the experience gained.  Find stuff, combine it, and make it work for YOUR survival situation.  That to me is more rewarding then 'heal 10 friends' could ever be.

[nordstage 2]

I personally dread the idea of any XP or leveling system.  Maybe I'm tired of it from other games and the eventual grind it becomes.  That and leaderboards.

 

I would argue that with the eventual increase in lootable items, that crafting, and you're real life knowledge of putting things together should be the experience gained.  Find stuff, combine it, and make it work for YOUR survival situation.  That to me is more rewarding then 'heal 10 friends' could ever be.

 

The issue is see here is that every new character you spawn in already know the combined knowledge of your playing time in DayZ. The due you are playing is not you, but a representation of you in a game, hence it should play by the games rules. In the case of having skills/perks/etc that would mean forcing your avatar to "forget" what real-life you knows.

 

And as I said, it doesn't have to be skills. It just needs to add a bond between you and that particular avatar.

[nordstage 2]

I saw the other thread that takes up basically exactly the same stuff that I independently came up with. Extremely scary  :P.