Rewarding players for actually staying alive and surviving.

[Slyguy65 499]

I know this is alpha but i played the mod since its release and it never changed (the way people generally played). With the standalone it looks like they are trying to add more depth which is great but as the game stands and will most likely stay (if only items are added and nothing more) the same. The game is nothing but a camp/walking sim where people just run to balota and play the game like CoD in third person. Even when long term survival comes out. It will be essentially the same except every now and again people will travel north to their camp grab guns and come back down south to camp fresh spawns and kill other killers.

A nice way to give more purpose would be to give more benefits to people playing the game as an actual survival game. Supposedly the longer you live the less frequently you need to eat and drink. If true that is a great first step. Off the top of my head here are some others.

 

All benefits are gained through days survived; simply put the longer you stay alive and or longer you use certain items the more adept you become at using them more efficiently.

- Run longer without getting tired

- Increased blood/energy/health each day alive (caps out of course) - When cooking is availible allows for higher quality food

- Better usage of damaged items (ex: can use crappy medical gear more safely instead of having to find pristine everything)

- Less likely to go unconscious

Those are just a few that pops out, only passive bonuses would work in a game like this so i kept them as passive as possible, agree? disagree?

- Better cooking of food (less chance for infection or bad food; when cooking actually comes out that is)

- Learn to eat less and conserve food/water better

- When crafting items you create a new item, as it stands that new item comes pristine even if you use damaged items to make it. It would be nice if the more you craft the better you get at crafting items with higher quality instead of having instant pristine.

- Added inventory slots to certain things (after carrying tons of stuff for a day or two you are able to take on more or find a way to fit an extra item in somewhere (especially if inventory tetris lets us do what RE4 did this would be very useful)

- If/when temperature works properly, the longer you survive the more resilient you become to the harsh weather (this would be super useful if they make temperature as deadly as I am assuming they are considering the sheer amount of clothing everywhere).

AND OBVIOUSLY ALL PASSIVE "perks" WILL CAP OUT IT WON'T JUST INCREASE FOREVER THE LONGER YOU SURVIVE (i.e stamina caps out if it increases every day alive and so does inventory space that you gain by becoming more organized).

 

To be clear these "perks" or "rewards" would die with your character upon death they DO NOT carry over Perma-death still exists, you start brand new if you die no matter how healthy or buffed your old character was from his/her days of surviving. The fact you lose your "perks" upon dieing is what is supposed to keep it balanced, that and not making the "perks" themselves too powerful: i.e running faster could be an over powered perk. Only perks that help your character survive easier with passive benefits is what im going for not performance boosters, just organic benefits that would make sense in a "realistic" game. If you spend tons of time using med gear you should logically become better at placing IV's which would translate in game to being able to use less quality IV's on players without as much risk as say a fresh spawn trying to use the same lesser quality IV.

 

And of course since these perks are all PASSIVE and gained through repetative action the best way to show the player they are earning or earned a "perk" would be through the contextual messages just as hunger and thrist and everything else is done. (i.e I craft 5 IV kits everyother one I make I might get a message saying "I am becoming pretty good and making saline bags" or to be more general "I am getting pretty handy with medical equipment". That way the person knows "Oh hey I guess I should keep doing that to get better at it".

 

This concept I believe will do 3 things

1. It will give people more reason to not go mindlessly triggerhappy or camp 24/7 (when they fix combat logging of course) due to the fear of dieing.

2. People will not just try and do whatever it takes to YOLO out of a situation when they get held up or captured by other people

3. And lastly it would give the game a nice sense of progression without taking away from the perma death aspect and not feel to "gamey" since they would be simple passive perks and not an active skill tree you get to fill up through "level ups". Just a nice organic progression system in a game that emphasizes elaborate survival aspects.

 

EDIT*

To be clear since i see people poking holes. YOU DO NOT GET PASSIVE PERKS FROM DOING NOTHING.

This idea is meant to reward long term PLAYERS not afkers or campers who sit doing nothing.

If you want higher stamina YOU NEED TO RUN AND MOVE

If you want to craft better YOU HAVE TO CRAFT TO GET BETTER

If you want to train your body to conserve food YOU HAVE TO EAT LESS AND RUN MORE.

Stuff like that, ACTION is involved. Its called conditioning and adaption. The more you do an action the more proficient you become at it. I understand that wasn't clear but I was trying to be as vague as possible to leave it open ended.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Slyguy65

[anglo (DayZ) 39]

Gets enuff food and water just stay in a bush up north away from everyone ftw

[armadude3331 3]

Someone make this guy a developer!

 

here sir take my beans

[Mutonizer 78]

So basically what you're saying is:

- Survive longer = get benefits.

 

Which means:

- Keep your character logged in and AFK in the middle of nowhere 24/7 when you're not playing =  get benefits

 

Which actually can be translated to:

- Have servers spammed with AFK bots = get benefits

 

 

Which in reality means:

- Great concept = terrible idea

[Bakercompany86 347]

 

Which means:

- Keep your character logged in and AFK in the middle of nowhere 24/7 when you're not playing =  get benefits

 

 

Except they will most likely starve to death while afking. 

 

Could also easily implement a mechanic that only tallies if you're active and moving.  It's not hard to figure it out and program it in.

 

If your character doesn't move at all (rotation or otherwise) for 30 seconds, your increment stops tallying towards the goal.

 

 

If refined, this idea might give players the incentive to keep their characters alive longer.  The "value of life" players have been asking for, but only coming up with half-brained "punish the bandit" ideas.

 

 

I like where this idea is going.  It's easy to implement anti-abuse measures.

 

This also makes bandits more sinister (especially of the KoS variety) and will force players to be much more careful and sneaky.

 

I dig it :)

[Fabik 71]

Gets enuff food and water just stay in a bush up north away from everyone ftw

Isn't it a SURVIVAL game ?

 

prime objective is NOT to KILL OTHERS but to STAY ALIVE.

[Zeet. 101]

Beans for you.

[Bakercompany86 347]

Isn't it a SURVIVAL game ?

 

prime objective is NOT to KILL OTHERS but to STAY ALIVE.

 

Exactly.

 

If you find enough food and bottles/canteens, who cares what they do to stay alive?  That's the entire goal of the game, SURVIVAL.

 

As far as I'm concerned if you are smart enough to stay well fed and hydrated, and keep away from all bandits you are WINNING!

[frosti 2165]

Exactly.

 

If you find enough food and bottles/canteens, who cares what they do to stay alive?  That's the entire goal of the game, SURVIVAL.

 

As far as I'm concerned if you are smart enough to stay well fed and hydrated, and keep away from all bandits you are WINNING!

 

When score boards comes, survived hours/days should be on top of the list and not kill, deaths and K/D.

[autoloon 285]

Your reward is "Healthy" status. 

[as7025@gmail.com 9]

Great idea, just needs refining. Have my beans!

[hrdrok 183]

Your reward is "Healthy" status. 

 

This.

 

Get healthy status. It's nice.

[Gerandar 212]

Isn't it a SURVIVAL game ?

 

prime objective is NOT to KILL OTHERS but to STAY ALIVE.

if staying alive wasn't easier then a childs puzzle game with the 5 blocks then maybe your argument would have a leg to stand on but sadly thats not the case.

[Bakercompany86 347]

When score boards comes, survived hours/days should be on top of the list and not kill, deaths and K/D.

 

Agreed.  Then it would be much more entertaining to watch people try and track/hunt that person down to end their increasing record (for the top slots).

 

As opposed to "how many bambis did I kill today".

[St. Jimmy 1631]

I'd like to see something like this. Small things that can make a difference.

[Ken Bean 175]

In my opinion the overall direction to reward survival time is the way to go.

I also suggested a character enhancement system for the mod some months back but folks didn't like it, since basically it makes surviving easier, aka less challengeing. And now I think they were right, character enhancement is not the golden way to go, aside from several skills.

Now I came up with rewarding survival time bei a progressive environment here and they don't seem to like it either.

Sooo.... let it mix. 3:-)

Edited January 5, 2014 by Ken Bean

[Slyguy65 499]

So basically what you're saying is:

- Survive longer = get benefits.

 

Which means:

- Keep your character logged in and AFK in the middle of nowhere 24/7 when you're not playing =  get benefits

 

Which actually can be translated to:

- Have servers spammed with AFK bots = get benefits

 

 

Which in reality means:

- Great concept = terrible idea

No, read, "And of course since these perks are all PASSIVE and gained through repetative action"

 

Sitting doing nothing wouldn't help much you would need to at least be running and moving x amount of steps or so to get better stamina or do whatever x action to get y perk you get me?

 

Try comprehending the positive before slamming down with negative.

[MystoganXIX 78]

I fully support this. Though I think they need to add a detection mechanic that isn't dependent on something stupid like "Is player moving? If not for x amount of time, stop counting survival timer." It needs to detect complete afking. (Snipers may be prone for hours scoped in and not moving)

 

Remember that people can put a couple dimes then a stack of quarters on top of one of their movement keys and stay moving into an object to avoid the afk detection.

 

AFK bots and anything of the sort need not be accounted for since they are something that VAC and anticheat systems are responsible for.

Edited January 3, 2014 by MystoganXIX

[frosti 2165]

I fully support this. Though I think they need to add a detection mechanic that isn't dependent on something stupid like "Is player moving? If not for x amount of time, stop counting survival timer." It needs to detect complete afking. (Snipers may be prone for hours scoped in and not moving)

 

Remember that people can put a couple dimes then a stack of quarters on top of one of their movement keys and stay moving into an object to avoid the afk detection.

 

AFK detection will be me looking to eliminate competition for top of survived days.

 

And not forget, they will have to move to find food and water.

[Slyguy65 499]

When score boards comes, survived hours/days should be on top of the list and not kill, deaths and K/D.

This guy made the most valid point of all, the scoreboards are for LONGEST SURVIVED and AVERAGE ALIVE and how is DEAD. Not K/D I think that fact alone fights any arguement agaisnt more survival mechanics instead of more guns.

[Slyguy65 499]

I fully support this. Though I think they need to add a detection mechanic that isn't dependent on something stupid like "Is player moving? If not for x amount of time, stop counting survival timer." It needs to detect complete afking. (Snipers may be prone for hours scoped in and not moving)

 

Remember that people can put a couple dimes then a stack of quarters on top of one of their movement keys and stay moving into an object to avoid the afk detection.

 

AFK bots and anything of the sort need not be accounted for since they are something that VAC and anticheat systems are responsible for.

Ya, the gist is that you need to DO to improve, now im not trying to fully advocate sniper punishment, they could easily condition their character to not need to eat which would help their sniping playstyle BUT their stamina would suck and say a person who does have good stamina chases them, well they go bye bye.

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

If you stay alive for 3 days you get to call in a uav, 

11 days you get an ac130 

[Gdaddy22 299]

So basically what you're saying is:

- Survive longer = get benefits.

 

Which means:

- Keep your character logged in and AFK in the middle of nowhere 24/7 when you're not playing =  get benefits

 

Which actually can be translated to:

- Have servers spammed with AFK bots = get benefits

 

 

Which in reality means:

- Great concept = terrible idea

 

It's very easy to put a script that detects is someone is afk or has the game minimalized .

 

I like the idea of benefits for surviving, but not like getting more blood and things like that because it would be unrealistic, w freshspawn can die from one bullet but a guy who survived for 7 days will die from 2 bullets because he has more health ? No.. but benefits of surviving like higher stamina for running etc why not

 

Also the scoreboard is a good idea, rankings of players with the longest time survived etc

Edited January 4, 2014 by Gdaddy22

[SageZ 13]

Good idea, this way you actually care about your char. More days you survive and more things you do, gives you more survival experience. They gotta fix all the glitches first so i dont get slingshotted from latter and lose all my skills/experience.

[sharolin 0]

Great idea mate, totally support it, and about campers they could put some negative effect like after being in same place for longer period of time and camping all the time ur starting to move slower or something. maybe starting feeling sick and have little bit smudgy view from your scope getting more intensive, the more you actually camp. Dunno honestly but main idea is really good.