Name of the game: Survival.

[Teemo (DayZ) 68]

Greetings and salutations, survivors, griefers, bandits and bambies.

A strange thought occurred to me just now after watching a video in which a couple of bandits force some bambies to fight to the death with axes.
 

 

It dawned on me, that this kind of interaction was only made possible, because the players with the axes, cared about survival.
Had this group encountered a solo bambi, he would have rushed them, in the hopes of a kill, thinking he was probably dead anyway.

So I thought... All the best stories from this game, are only really possible, because people care about surviving. Well... How might one put emphasis on that?

And I thought... What if, when the alpha and what not are more stable, they implimented an "average" alive time?

So your average alive time would be showed, together with your longest survival time. Not in game, but in the main menu where you see your player.

I honestly think that being reminded that you're about to beat your own record for staying alive, might give people an incentive to keep staying alive.
It might even minimize wanton suicides, as that would affect the average timer in a very negative way.

People can ignore it, and are free too, but like achievements in other games, studies show that we want these little goals. We gravitate toward achievements on a subconscious level, so I'm thinking it might just take the brunt of the blind charge we see so often...

And yet, it's not forcing anyone to do anything. You can suicide all you want, if you don't care about it. It might just affect people enough though, to make them do what ever it takes to stay alive, which in turn might add a bit more tension to the game.

Just a thought.

[Greaves 131]

This might actually be a pretty good idea.

[Teemo (DayZ) 68]

I just think it might make more people try to survive, instead of playing it Call of Duty style.
It wont affect everyone, but it might just make that little difference, which can have a big overall impact.

The reason I say make it very visible is that, if it's in some hidden stat window, people will forget about it, or not care.
But if you log on every time, and see:

Current survival: 10 hours.
Average survival: 2.4 hours.

Longest survival: 16.7 hours.

 

I really think this person is going to do what ever they can, to beat their own record.
Suiciding suddenly becomes a VERY unappealing tactic, as does rushing into camps for loot, if you're 2 hours off your own record.

 

Positive reinforcements and reminders are VERY powerful habitual modifiers.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Teemo

[Element47 2480]

you make incredible amounts of sense for someone named after an obnoxious yordle. may the beans be with you.

[Monkfish (DayZ) 339]

Beans for you!

[arveko 26]

Great idea! Also, it would be reasonable, if the game could differentiate bandits from heroes - in that case it would be possible to make statistics for best bandits/heroes.

[Teemo (DayZ) 68]

I thought about including things like "top survivor" and such, but I tend to stay clear of tags like "bandits" and "heroes".
 

Reason being, I don't consider myself a bandit. I don't kill unless I have to, but having to is a grey area. Someone comes to close to me with a weapon, or fists out, they get as much warning as I can give them, while still giving me enough time to take them down, should they ignore it.

 

Having said that, I have squared off with people over loot, locations and just bumping into them. I don't go for the kill, but I am armed, and I bear no illusion that people will shoot me, if they see what I'm carrying, especially up north. No reason for them to trust me.

If I encounter someone, I try to stay hidden, but if they spot me, I have to at least consider taking them out. Sometimes I deem I can get away if I don't, sometimes I obviously can't. In those time, I'm not going to wait for them to try and get me first.

 

But I still don't consider myself a bandit.

So I don't think you can hardcode some rule where you deem people bandits. Just like in the early days of the mod, where people would get the bandit skin, purely for defending themselves.

 

I'd much rather just look at top survivor, all inclusive, if we have to get competitive about it.

 

Having said that, I honestly think it'll work fine as a private, personal motivator. I suspect people will upload pictures of their survivor to brag, and streamers gain a new lvl, by showing how long they've been alive for. Suddenly you can do Ironman runs, as people can see whether you died or not between streams.

 

I reckon it'll work nicely without adding all sorts on top of it.

[Skev 1]

Great idea.

 

I do think that it works better as a private thing, as providing a public list could likely encourage needless murdering. Maybe a friends list would work nicely though.

[Sooden 301]

 I like the idea but not so happy about an average time right now. Sometimes I will die faster than I should have, as I am testing things. People may avoid things that may kill them (Bug test) to keep their average up.

[doublebrain 255]

People suggested adding a kill count to DayZ, but this is what I want to see. ;) Survival, not Shooter! :)  :beans:

[Teemo (DayZ) 68]

I like the idea but not so happy about an average time right now. Sometimes I will die faster than I should have, as I am testing things. People may avoid things that may kill them (Bug test) to keep their average up.

 

Well frankly, that sort of proves why it should be there.

 

The value of an average timer is purely percieved. It holds no real value, yet we care. We distinctly dislike being told that we could be performing better than we are.

 

Without the average timer, the suiciding is still there, if you get a bad start.

Now I'm not saying you can't suicide. By all means, go ahead, but if everyone cared about not dying, this would be a VERY different game, tension wise.

 

Otherwise, I reckon people will only start caring, once they get close to their record, but with an average, there are two timers to consider.

 

Also, by the time this would be relevant, the game would be in beta or even final release. By then, the kinks should be sorted, flow should be optimised and what you can and cannot do should be freely available and documented.

 

And like I said. You're free to ignore it. But I kinda like the idea that if you're calous with your life... It'll be there to remind you, that you could be better.

I think it's an important motivator.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Teemo

[mike miller 14]

i think this would very well go with the lore of the game survival!

 

i even put a notch of rpg to it. have several survival ranks according to your survival time.

 

e.g.

30min. greenhorn

2h avarage survivor

5h hardend survivor

10h survival specialist

etc.

 

this would make it even more dramatic!

[doublebrain 255]

Well the count could get a reset after Beta/Final release so you can keep searching for bugs without being doomed with your buggy alpha survival times. ;)

[McBonkhead 83]

Agreed. Time IS the reward for staying alive.  :thumbsup:

[Sooden 301]

Well the count could get a reset after Beta/Final release so you can keep searching for bugs without being doomed with your buggy alpha survival times. ;)

that would be cool :)

[Monkfish (DayZ) 339]

e.g.

30min. greenhorn

2h avarage survivor

5h hardend survivor

10h survival specialist

24hrs: Bear Grylls

Edited January 8, 2014 by Monkfish

[McBonkhead 83]

24hrs: Bear Grylls

42hrs: Czar of Mother Russia.

[Beardedbob 1]

I would back this idea

[mike miller 14]

i think this would very well go with the lore of the game survival!

 

i even put a notch of rpg to it. have several survival ranks according to your survival time.

 

e.g.

30min. greenhorn

2h avarage survivor

5h hardend survivor

10h survival specialist

etc.

 

this would make it even more dramatic!

 

this forum already provides some nice title ideas:

• On the Coaster
• Scavenger
• Woodland Warrior
• Master of Random
• 10th Level Bean Wizard
• Bean King

etc.

 

im shure the devs. or maybe even the community, could come up with some extra creative, funny, selfsarkasm (Rotten Kiwi Collector) and immersive titles and then you can even add some adjectives like seasoned, hardend, rookie, fresh if even needed to have more title variation lvl's. the interval of time for title change could be shorter at beginning and longer towards insane survival time so its not becoming spamy...

 

then have the survival time title displays in the game screentext. "you just have become a Woodland Warrior". the time and title i'd also like to see in the inventory close to the character.

 

on top of showing survival time and a according title it would be a nice to have feature to scan another players title. this could work automatically like that: if you stay close (10m) to a player longer than 1 minute a screen text would say: "after taking a closer look at this stranger/hiker you realise its a Bean King etc." if there are more players around you it could say "you find yourself surrounded by a Scavenger, a Woodland Warrior and a Bean King etc." could add some more drama and immersion.

 

So please Dev's and all mighty Rocket consider:

• Survival time (Current, Average, Longest)
• Survival title according to time survived
• Title scan on other players (within range and time regulation), nice to have

i hope this would give even more motivation to survive, a small form of rpg achievment and the effects described by Teemo above and hopefully other positive survival effects!

Edited January 9, 2014 by Spearsbeers

[Roshi (DayZ) 397]

America's Next Top Survivor: Chernarus?

[pixels3d 3]

This is an awesome idea! I love it and you can have my beans!

[maddcheese (DayZ) 0]

So simple yet a great motivator you have mah beans sir

[Teemo (DayZ) 68]

*snip* if there are more players around you it could say "you find yourself surrounded by a Scavenger, a Woodland Warrior and a Bean King etc." *snip*

 

While I find this an interesting idea, I don't think it should prompt itself. I might be interesting though, if you could inspect people somehow...

 

Or even just show it in the player log, when you press P, and see which players are on your server.

 

Also... Now I want to be a Bean King =(

[Monkfish (DayZ) 339]

While I find this an interesting idea, I don't think it should prompt itself. I might be interesting though, if you could inspect people somehow...

Inspect a dead body. "This person appears to have once been <insert survival status>, but now they're dead". Might make for imagining some interesting scenarios if you encounter a couple of dead bodies and one of them is "Survival Expert" and the other is something lowly like "Beach Bum" or whatever. I'd certainly be wondering what the shit went down at that location and also wondering if their killer is still nearby, watching...

Edited January 13, 2014 by Monkfish

[Capo 323]

some kind of survival based stats would be great, but - they MUST not include any information about kills, we don't need to encourage people with a K/D ratio.

 

could include things like

survival time - current life

average survival time - personal

average survival time - global

amount of zombies killed in a life - current life/global

 

 

and of course they could take it further, but yeah, i like it, great idea. So long as pvp stats are avoided entirely.