The Problem of Public Hive

[soVirtual 1]

I’ve played DayZ Mod for a long time.  In that beautiful, yet bug-ridden wasteland I’ve had ample time to experience tons of exploits.  Both game breaking and minor.  But with the advent of DayZ SA going public, we need to have public discussion about these before they get released into a final product.

In this post I am discussing the problem of the public hive.  One of the most inherent game-breaking mechanics I’m worried about.  Below is a comprehensive list of my concerns (or tips on how to get ahead the sleazy way).  

 

Server cycling (looting) - Imagine you just made it to a northern airfield (or any other military grade loot spawn) and you decide it's time to get geared up.  Loot the barracks. Log out. Find a new server. Rinse and repeat until obscenely geared.  This is the easiest and most time-effective way to get the gear that all players desire and the public hive system encourages a gameplay consisting of pillaging one server after another.  When disconnecting and reconnecting from servers becomes part of the standard gameplay routine, you have a problem. 

 

Another potential issue is that once this practice catches on, certain areas become hot login/logout spots.  It will feel like players are just teleporting in and out to check for loot.  High valued loot spawns will only see players port in and out via server transfer, and will lose the back and forth player foot traffic that exists in the rest of the game.  Areas like this will break immersion and players might end up monitoring the player list to spot new logins for protection. 

 

Teleporting - You're in a gunfight.  A standoff.  Your position against theirs.  After an initial exchange of gunfire, you both took cover and are now watching each other's last position.  You play the patience game and try to wait the other player out... but what is this?  He's behind you now.  And you're dead.  Because while you were playing the game in this server, that other player was logging into another server to get a better position on you.  Then, he transferred back and killed you because he was willing to change servers and you didn't consider monitoring the player list like a hawk to watch for this.  

 

I've seen this happen dozens of times in small communities that had 2-3 servers set up as a public hive.  Yea, it's really great when a player helicopters to a rooftop on one server and then just appears silently on that same roof in another server. 

 

Hiding caches on low pop servers - Admittedly, this is much less of an issue, but I've seen it done before.  Hiding your tents and other forms of storage on low pop servers.  You can log in to them safely, grab a full load out that you farmed up on this safe low population server and then log into a high pop server with an arsenal from a different world.  Arguably less of a concern, but still it incorporates frequent server switching as a viable tactic. 

 

Prevents tight-knit server community - I can take my gear with me wherever I go!  All the servers are essentially the same. How convenient!  Yes, that's a plus, but what we miss out on is what makes certain games massive hits.  Humans crave community.  Fame as well as infamy.  When your load out is tethered to one server, you tend to play on that one more often. You end up getting familiar with the other regulars that play in the server.  Lasting friendships and bitter rivalries form.  THIS is what kept counter-strike communities strong for decades and as well as what made World of Warcraft such a great game in its younger years.  I believe it's what DayZ needs if it wants to be prevalent into the long term.  If you are just hopping from one server to another to scrounge for the same loot you've already picked up a hundred times, you are missing out on one of the things that made DayZ mod so popular and you'll likely stop playing and miss out.  Just picking up things to put in your backpack is not enough.

 

To conclude this bloated post: Public hive promotes frequent server switching in order to game the system.  This breaks immersion and can cause gameplay that can almost feel like you're playing against a hacker.  This will be much more of a problem in DayZ SA because of the drastically improved load times.  In DayZ Mod, this was much more of a hassle because some servers could take up to 5 minutes to load you in.  Now, it's so quick that switching servers is hardly a burden at all.  I'm concerned that this will promote the above exploits to an extreme degree. 

 

If that wasn't enough, I'm wondering why there is even public hive at all.  The concept of keeping your inventory/gear flies in the face of other server static objects like tents and buildings (which will be necessary to keep players engaged in this game for the long term). 

This game is about loss.  You WILL die.  You will lose EVERYTHING.  You will learn that, in DayZ, everything is temporary and nothing is permanent.  And it makes every second before your eventual demise that much more exciting and horrifying at the same time.  So when we're all losing our gear so often, why such a focus on keeping it from one server to another?

 

[Lady Kyrah 1109]

At the same time without a private hive there is no real way to dictate to server ops what they are allowed to do. I think that's important for the dayZ team to remain in creative control of their project and that we do not assist to a balkanisation of the servers.

[DemonGroover 8836]

The main problem with Private Hives was the ability to change loot, number of vehicles, custom loadouts etc.  It destroyed the game for many. Not to mention donator perks.

 

Hopefully SA can resolve server hopping/ghosting somewhat by logging players logout/login history and making login timers when hopping occurs (i have heard Rocket mention exponential waiting times when you logout/login repeatedly)