Military Relief Drops

[AsHawkins 96]

-Military Relief Drops-

 

Scavengers, Heroes, Bandits, and Survivors scour Chernarus for food, water, and supplies to survive DayZ. Though facilities, bases, and homes have food, ammo, water, and necessities - What about the actual Military, and what is left of it?

 

I've watched a few apocalypse films lately just to get an idea of what I would expect in Planet Earths darkest days, and Military Relief is one of those things.

 

Without Military personnel risking their lives to extract survivors to no where, they would do what they could to help out. Why? Because with healthy survivors, there's hope for humanity.

 

These Relief drops wouldn't be common, they would be scattered, maybe 17 on the whole map. At the most.

 

Survivors to come across would be very lucky, especially for what could be inside.

 

Here's what we could expect to find inside a Military Relief Drop - 

 

[some images for reference below]

 

   

 

• Food
• Water
• First Aid (Bandages - Vitamins - I.V. - Blood Transfusion Kit - Etc.)
• Warm Clothing - Protective Clothing
• Small Firearms
• Ammunition
• Small Blades
• Hatchets 
• Small Tools (Screwdrivers - Can Openers - Hammers - Nails)
• Wooden Boards
• And whatever you feel should be found in a Relief Drop

Now like I said, These would not be common, but they would be jackpots.

 

I feel that just because a Zombie Outbreak occurred - doesn't mean the Military doesn't exist. And maybe a cargo plane flying above could be a hint as to where you would find a drop.

 

Please discuss how you would feel about these drops.  

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

Errr, not to much of a fan for relief drops, I would only except them if they were dropped once every server restart and only contained items like MRE's and Canteens.

[AsHawkins 96]

That's a good idea. That they are only available once in a server life. It's a believable concept isn't it?

[Human Hunter 6]

cool idea

 

kinda like helicopter crashes, just as realistic but more valuable

[djporternz 644]

If we have an organisational structure capable of organising an air drop as you have proposed, where, pray tell, are the ground troops to push back the Zs? And why are we pissing around in Chernarus and not heading to their bastion of civilisation?

 

Sorry, this just doesn't make too much sense!

[AsHawkins 96]

 

Without Military personnel risking their lives to extract survivors to no where, they would do what they could to help out. Why? Because with healthy survivors, there's hope for humanity.

 

 

[Human Hunter 6]

its not unrealistic to have scattered clumps of armed forces. not to mention there is little info about the dayz universe. 

 

hell, could be that the airdrops are old and just sitting out in the fields, surrounded by zeds. they dont have to be fresh.

[AsHawkins 96]

They dont have to be fresh.

 

That's brilliant.

[enforcer1975 1111]

Yes tons of western machine guns and sniper rifles ftw...probably also a 1:1 M1 Abrams TUSK Kit??

 

 

...NOT

 

Weapons would be the last thing that would be dropped, a country or the salvation army wouldn't want weapons to land in the wrong hands and in the world of DayZ there are a lot of wrong hands and you already get weapons easy enough. They would get their asses ripped apart by the governments of their country if they brought up that idea anyway and why drop weapons for free? What do they gain? They would have to clear the weapons from those groups in case they contain the outbreak in the future and we all know what happens when you lend weapons to individuals or groups and want them back...

[AsHawkins 96]

Yes tons of western machine guns and sniper rifles ftw...probably also a 1:1 M1 Abrams TUSK Kit??

 

Why would intentionally blow this out of proportion. For food, water, and self defense against Zeds, It makes sense to me, I did not say rifles. I said SMALL FIREARMS.

Edited February 2, 2014 by AsHawkins

[unicornsmustdie 32]

not a fan but mostly because i don´t think it makes sense, unless they bring a real backstory to the game because it implies the world has not ended and help is beyond the northern woods.

 

having said that, a great dynamic would be imo to have a C130 fly over the map at an unnanounced moment (at the most once per server restart, but in future without the restarts at the most once a day) visible from the ground from afar and very audible. It would drop some cannisters with parachute, again visible from afar. This will draw players in (think hunger games) but also nearby zombies (wide circle). Let the plane climb out of visual range quickly after, so that when you see the plane, you know the drop is still coming (and not have you ignore it).

 

That I could see work, but again, not a fan of the framing of these kind of outside interfering actions.

Edited February 2, 2014 by unicornsmustdie

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

Assuming there's a military or even a government still around after the event (my theory is an airborne form of rabies, minus the 72 hour time limit, forget the exact numbers but something like 99% of the world are infected).  Why would they spend precious resources to drop supplies to some backwater former Soviet country where the survivors are more than likely hostile anyway?  Most organizations will bunker down, collect their resources and horde them till they can form some kind of resistance or plan.  The Chenarusian government does not strike me as the type to have a bunker on standby to hunker down in and control a resistance.  Russia is the closest possibility and they're not exactly known for their humanitarianism.

 

Okay, let me put it this way, would you waste your limited resources to drop more of your limited resources in random fields on the off chance that some survivors will come and pick them up?  I could see this happening if say the Chernarusian government was still around and say Cherno had walled itself off to fight off the infected, but even then the airdrops would only come to Cherno to help reinforce them.  This isn't like dropping a bunch of guns and explosives to the French in the hopes they'll kill Nazis for you.  If there was a military unit holding one of the airfields from the infected who had contact with a government entity that was still around there's a SLIM chance they would get resupplies.

 

TL;DR Rocket said no Dynamic events or Non-Zombie NPCs.

[Draco122 412]

I don't think ANY firearms should exist at all in these Relief Drops, if anything these Drops should provide Food, Medicine and Utility Items instead.

• For Food it should concerntrate on using Military Rations (all of which have long service lives) and Water Canteens
• Medical Supplies should focus on First Aid Kits, Blood Transfusion kits, Saline Kits and Military Issue Field Dressings
• Utility Items should focus primarily on various tools and equipment (these Small Weapons for example that the OP suggested) could be just tools like Crowbars, Shovels, Pipe Wrenches and other "Improvised" melee weapons.

In addition, I believe some of these Airdropped Supply Caches should be locked, unlocked and damaged.

• Locked Variants have what ever is inside them at a good or pristine condition but require a crowbar to break open
• Unlocked Variants have what ever is inside of them at a worn or badly damaged condition with a rare chance for an item in good condition or pristine.
• Damaged Variants should have what ever is inside them at a Badly damaged or Ruined State, sometimes even have loot spawn around the site of the Damaged container

[crazywolf5150 17]

What apocalypse movies have military supply drops? I've seen quite a few apocalyptic movies and I've never seen any with military supply drops. Usually the military and other governments are too busy to fight off the apocalypse (zombies) than to bother trying to help other countries. Supply drops are for war zones or are for people stuck in 3rd world oppressive countries, like when East Germany existed. I like the suggestion that there might be old supply drops, but to see new ones being dropped just seems a little far fetched, especially if they contain any guns.

[- Karma - 75]

tldr: Air Relief Supply Drops provided by a government type entity probably don't make sense, but for when loot respawning gets put in the game why not have those spawns by more centralized towards the larger cities where not all the loot would have been picked over.  Furthermore, possibly put in "respawn only" loot caches in certain buildings where survivors would have banned together but now disappeared.  An alternative suggestion.

 

Here's the thing - for now I'm going to say no.  BUT.  It's a very interesting idea.  My only problem is this:  we don't currently have any kind of idea of timeline, scope or story for Day Z.  Is the apocalypse wide spread or isolated?  These kinds of things have a way escalating rapidly I would assume - no joke, it's been reported that the US government with the help of the Centers for Disease Control used a fictitious scenario of "a highly contagious virus spread by unknown vector resulting in high body counts and mass hysteria" as part of planning project to determine just how fast society would break down.  They joking claimed that "zombie apocalypse" was loosely used as a term because it or something like it really was worst case scenario.  Sorry for the history lesson, but my point is a small localized outbreak generally led to society collapsing within days (the five to ten day range I believe).

 

So that said, my point is I'm not sure who would still by left as a functioning entity whom would have the will and/or resources to provide these air drops of supplies.  IF any of the details get ironed out resulting in indications that either a) this event is isolated here or b ) the timeline is still early then I think your idea would have serious merit

 

As an aside:  your general idea really does have serious merit, in the sense of finding a large cache of supplies.  I would imagine within the first few days of apocalypse everyone would grab whatever they could and make for either refugee camps or perceived safe environs (ie survivalist types heading for their cabins or dachas in the woods).  Many more would die.  Then would be the second wave of looting after initial supplies ran out.  I would hazard a guess that the small towns would be picked practically clean while people would fear the larger cities.  So your idea could still be used in the form of loot respawning:  have script put in to make loot in rural areas and small towns respawn at a very low rate, yet have loot respawn in the cities at a very high yet not quite "fresh server" rate.  Perhaps even have certain marked buildings (ones like the Hotel that already have loot spawns designated things like "Survivor Last Stand Point") where larger than normal caches have a chance of appearing.

Edited February 2, 2014 by - Karma -

[Combine (DayZ) 247]

First off: It can be explained and make sense.

 

DayZ has little backstory (which is kinda good, in cases like those) other than it might be losely based on the Arma universe / timeline. Which means even WESTERN WEAPONS or UN Berets can be encountered in a place like Chernarus due to the previous A2 story. The Chernarus military themselves served as UN peacekeepers in that other fictional middle east country.

 

WHO could drop them? Doesn't matter much. They might as well be old / new from the local military, another bordering military or a global relief organization. Any of them can still exist (somewhere) simply because there's no set backstory. DayZ - It's your story.

 

--- --- ---

 

What could be inside?

 

Enough examples were given. I'd take out any strong military weapons or even rifles, but ammo might be among it for any weapon. Other than that, especially food, tools, survival items, etc. Small firearms at best, I guess. Pistols, or so.

[k120 42]

I voted yes but i'm thinking it should be rare and totally random.

 

No fixed locations,not after every restart. So that nobody can anticipate when and where to look these before you find one.

Edited February 2, 2014 by K120

[akafugitive 244]

Food, water, dry/warm clothing, first aid and No weapons would be my vote. I like having stuff that changes the environment a little each time you play, keeps the map fresh.

I'd like to see civilian/military camp sites, lootable bodies and wrecks that have random location spawns also

*Edit* to keep random location special spawns from being farmed the should have them not respawn gear, one its gone it stays empty till reset removes and repopulates the map

Edited February 3, 2014 by akafugitive

[AsHawkins 96]

Food, water, dry/warm clothing, first aid and No weapons would be my vote. I like having stuff that changes the environment a little each time you play, keeps the map fresh.

I'd like to see civilian/military camp sites, lootable bodies and wrecks that have random location spawns also

 

This is exactly the feedback I was waiting for.

[unicornsmustdie 32]

First off: It can be explained and make sense.

 

DayZ has little backstory (which is kinda good, in cases like those) other than it might be losely based on the Arma universe / timeline. Which means even WESTERN WEAPONS or UN Berets can be encountered in a place like Chernarus due to the previous A2 story. The Chernarus military themselves served as UN peacekeepers in that other fictional middle east

 .

What UN berets? Russian paratroopers use the same color blue. With the abundance of Russian references and milspec stuff I'd say that makes a lot more sense.

[- Karma - 75]

What UN berets? Russian paratroopers use the same color blue. With the abundance of Russian references and milspec stuff I'd say that makes a lot more sense.

 

UN Berets are in the game, as well as one for a New Zealand Regular's unit.  Then there is also the UK Assault Vest, and the American M4A1 (I believe civilian versions would be the Armalite version).  So he has a point.

[Anomal 13]

No, we cant!

[AsHawkins 96]

No, we cant!

 

We can't... What?

[Rudette 435]

In Rust relief drops have this way of drawing players towards them, competition for the loot ensues. Some players run straight for it ready for a brawl, others run for it out of desperation---and then there are players who track people going too and from the drop site, hunting them.

It creates a very competitive urgency to collect that loot, lots of neat dynamics there--especially in that it would give another thing to do, another goal to achieve with several angles to accomplish it.

Though the idea of old relief drops that had never been scavenged, or weren't scavenged thoroughly is great too!

[AsHawkins 96]

Relief drops have this way of drawing players towards them, competition for the loot ensues. Some players run straight for it ready for a brawl, others run for it out of desperation---and then there are players who track people going too and from the drop site, hunting them.

It creates a very competitive urgency to collect that loot, lots of neat dynamics there--especially in that it would give another thing to do, another goal to achieve with several angles to accomplish it.

 

 

This is exactly the chemistry I was picturing in my mind when I was writing down key components of a Military Relief Drop. There could be a group of 3 specifically hunting for these drops, Or a couple bandits watching the same drop, without realizing it, waiting for prey to think they've found salvation in a world of terror.

 

To have different quality drops would make them even more special, like mentioned earlier in the topic. Pristine to Destroyed drops, old or new. Just because the military has no where to place survivors, doesn't mean that won't try to send relief.