Play styles we could accomodate for in gameplay

[bobotype3334 160]

The kewl realistic and free-choice nature of DayZ really gets me going. Here's what I reckon we could make room for in the far future with gameplay for different players- not establishing "classes" or anything, just giving these playstyles a little room.

• Regular nomadic survivor: Moves around, looks for loot where they can, stays alive by whatever means necessary. So for this player, make DayZ Survived the most important game mechanic, with a most-days-surived player counter which is like a player's individual "score". This could be displayed on the player's main menu screen and on a 10-slot scoreboard on the server.
• GTA-esque player: All the cool vehicles, cosmetics, and fun stuff which allows a player to pretend the world is their oyster. Northeast coastal locations could be set aside for this with barely any weapon spawns, sparse zombie spawns, but more cosmetics and vehicles available.
• Role player: Inevitable. With enough costumes and varied locations we could allow people to re-enact zombie apocalypse scenarios within Chernarus itself, like Zombielands [defunct Soviet amusement park and rich peoples' homes]?, Day of the Dead [make a large supermarket], World War Z, 28 Days Later, etcetera.
• Innawoods man: For the SHTF lovers, having the ability to hide in the north from players and just run yourself a player-versus-environment game and see how long you last. Everything can be made from scratch tediously by a player who thinks they're up to the challenge; pick up sticks on the ground and rocks and berries to make makeshift shelters and very, very basic tools and snares. Hunt for food, get water from rivers [when implemented] without getting sick somehow, and eventually fell trees to build bigger constructions. Zombies and players may wander by chance in to your particular woods occasionally, so you'd have to be careful, and there could even be rare bear encounters. A small number of your constructions stay persistent in the game world, but fall apart when you die, and they can all be destroyed.
• Asshole bandit: Don't let it be too easy- add an unseen sanity meter which can randomly fluctuate upon killing players and not having social interaction, so you could suddenly flip out after murdering your 18th bambi and lose control of your character entirely, needing to find therapy for yourself via rest or drugs or alcohol or other coping mechanisms. But the random nature would mean it's possible to stay a cold blooded killer. Insane players will start to look bedraggled in physical appearance and have bloodstains on their character model to mark their insanity. Add a most-players-killed scoreboard on the server, but make doing these things infinitely more difficult by randomly unhinging the player's character when they get too good at killing others.
• Town re-coloniser: With chainsaws and axes and hammers and crowbars, players can collect timber or scrap into their inventory from forests or factories, then use it to fortify towns by building barricades, shoring up house doors, and erecting sentry towers, and placing rainwater collection pits and fruit trees/livestock enclosures. Whack a town sign down and bam, you've made a colony, where other players can join you and place down their constructions also. If the user is away for more than 24 hours, constructions despawn.
• Zombie slayer: The person who is only here to kill zombies and kill beans, while at the same time being all out of beans. Add a zombies killed-on-the-server-high-score counter. Add one Ivan-theTerrible era broadsword in one of the castles for stylish zombie slaying. Make some food drop when zombies die so players looking to slay, slay, slay can spend less time searching for loot and more time searching for victims.

Edited February 4, 2014 by bobotype3334

[kingrex 85]

Air America pilot, http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/170683-bambi-care-package-drops-player-driven/

[skyline-gtr 130]

I like your ideas to add more variety to the game, but some of the incentives could use a little work.

For the nomad, bandit and zombie slayer, you have suggested achievement type things, I think this could easily detract from the whole point of the game and end up with certain people just using the game as a tool to gain achievements.

Again the bandit, the sanity meter thing has been discussed at length and widely disregarded as unrealistic. I think it would be very hard to implement anyways because how does a computer program know your reason for killing someone? how does a computer program determine if a death is for a good cause or a bad cause etc..

[bobotype3334 160]

I like your ideas to add more variety to the game, but some of the incentives could use a little work.

For the nomad, bandit and zombie slayer, you have suggested achievement type things, I think this could easily detract from the whole point of the game and end up with certain people just using the game as a tool to gain achievements.

Again the bandit, the sanity meter thing has been discussed at length and widely disregarded as unrealistic. I think it would be very hard to implement anyways because how does a computer program know your reason for killing someone? how does a computer program determine if a death is for a good cause or a bad cause etc..

The nomad, zombie slayer and bandit having a top 10 score would repeatedly drive a behaviour pattern of survival [self preservation], or slaughter for the mentally unhinged or hardened zombie slayers and bandit serial killers, which would make players get into a mentality just like in real life their character would, always fighting hard for your life to chase that score, or hunt down those kills in a bloodthirsty manner. High scores are distinctly different to achievements because achievements only make players want to do the thing in question once, while high score counters make the player consistently falling into the mindset, therefore creating players in the game who have even more drive to survive or kill because their score depends on it, and even if they achieve a top score someone can always be there to take it from them.

 

I can also find an explanation for the sanity thing-- if it's an unseen meter and loss of sanity is semi-random then it makes more sense. Even accidentally shooting a stranger could easily cause anyone a loss of sanity, even killing in self defense could make you feel bad that you hacked them to death with rotten fruit. There doesn't need to be too much context on sanity-related killings, because after enough human kills even on bandits or mass murderers people could go a little crazy. I suppose there could be only minor sanity loss for killing bandits? And random minor to major sanity loss and instant bandit status when the person you've killed was unarmed/surrendering/if you loot their corpse afterward? That would cover most situations. Unarmed seems to be the most catch-all one to me.

[skyline-gtr 130]

high scores are not distinctly different from achievements because a high score is an achievement.

also some achievements require a certain thing to be done multiple times.

[bobotype3334 160]

high scores are not distinctly different from achievements because a high score is an achievement.

also some achievements require a certain thing to be done multiple times.

If you're talking video game jargon, an achievement is something which you get the required actions for and then get a mini trophy type thing permanently. High scores can always be improved upon, and you can lose your high score. So it would keep players in the survival-is-score mantra rather than being cowadoody run and gunners.

I'm all for stopping achievements entering the game and people getting meaningless trophies left and right for being hit by zombies or collecting 200 clown masks, taking some of the originality out of the game and causing players to run around like retards hunting for stupid shit. I suppose you're against that scenario too. But high scores, on the other hand, would only make players more motivated to do the things they generally already do, and so would increase the realism of the game and of player-to-player interaction.

[skyline-gtr 130]

If you're talking video game jargon, an achievement is something which you get the required actions for and then get a mini trophy type thing permanently. High scores can always be improved upon, and you can lose your high score. So it would keep players in the survival-is-score mantra rather than being cowadoody run and gunners.

I'm all for stopping achievements entering the game and people getting meaningless trophies left and right for being hit by zombies or collecting 200 clown masks, taking some of the originality out of the game and causing players to run around like retards hunting for stupid shit. I suppose you're against that scenario too. But high scores, on the other hand, would only make players more motivated to do the things they generally already do, and so would increase the realism of the game and of player-to-player interaction.

 

 

I dont agree with this at all.

People do what they do in game for a reason.

Enabling a high score system takes away that reason and replaces it with another.

[bobotype3334 160]

I dont agree with this at all.

People do what they do in game for a reason.

Enabling a high score system takes away that reason and replaces it with another.

Because reasons, right?

[skyline-gtr 130]

Because reasons, right?

 

because the 2nd and 3rd line.

[bobotype3334 160]

because the 2nd and 3rd line.

That is exactly what I mean. "people do what they do in a game for a reason". A high score doesn't take what players normally do away, because it doesn't bind all players to try and get it.

[skyline-gtr 130]

That is exactly what I mean. "people do what they do in a game for a reason". A high score doesn't take what players normally do away, because it doesn't bind all players to try and get it.

 

Putting a high score system in game would change some peoples behaviour as they might aspire to gain a high score.

[bobotype3334 160]

High score would be based on getting kills or surviving, things players already do. Why exactly do you think this is a bad thing? The point of high scores is people wanting them.

[dekartz 315]

Because a "Sandbox" game and "High Scores" don't really go hand-in-hand.

Also, out of all of your listed playstyles the "Asshole Bandit" seems to be punished for his play-style while others are given something that add to theirs.

Punishing one playstyle in favor of another is generally a bad idea in a sandbox game.

[skyline-gtr 130]

High score would be based on getting kills or surviving, things players already do. Why exactly do you think this is a bad thing? The point of high scores is people wanting them.

 

People already kill and survive but they do so for a certain reason. Adding a high score system would possibly make some people aim for a high score, altering the reasons.

[bobotype3334 160]

So what? It's not going to be gamebreaking. And other reasons people kill and survive for will still be around too. I don't see your problem with this?

[skyline-gtr 130]

The problem I have with it is, When I join a server everyone is there for the purposes of playing the game.

When you add high scores or achievments, then some people there may just be using it as a tool to gain those scores or achievements.

[bobotype3334 160]

The problem I have with it is, When I join a server everyone is there for the purposes of playing the game.

When you add high scores or achievments, then some people there may just be using it as a tool to gain those scores or achievements.

Read my post dude, I literally spelt out why achievements and high scores are different. And using the game as a tool to get a high score is completely fine. One of the main objectives is staying alive as many dayz as possible in the game, and the high score would just basically track that for players and encourage them to do better. What exactly is wrong with "some people using it as a tool to gain those scores"? And getting high scores for surviving longer or getting more kills IS PLAYING THE GAME. IT CHANGES NOTHING IN THE GAME EXCEPT ADDING A REWARDING NUMBER WHEN YOU DIE.

 

Because a "Sandbox" game and "High Scores" don't really go hand-in-hand.

Also, out of all of your listed playstyles the "Asshole Bandit" seems to be punished for his play-style while others are given something that add to theirs.

Punishing one playstyle in favor of another is generally a bad idea in a sandbox game.

I don't think I ever mentioned "Sandbox" at all, if you were using quotations to say it was me. But still, yeah DayZ is a sandbox, but one of the main sandbox games at the moment- GTA 5- offers a high score system for its main gameplay aspect, collecting money.

As for punishing banditry, the dev team is always trying to do that while not outright preventing it, such as increased heartbeat while around bandits. Insanity would be more of an anchor to players to make murderous bambi-killing rampages less easy, as they might need downtime between murders for their characters to collect their sanity. Back to the GTA comparison, they punish a particular playstyle in that game: Kill too many pleople, get hunted down by the cops. But it isn't designed to stop that kind of gameplay, just make it more challenging.

 

 

[skyline-gtr 130]

It does change the game because a players behaviour is altered in a way that enables them to gain a high score or achievement.

[dekartz 315]

Read my post dude, I literally spelt out why achievements and high scores are different. And using the game as a tool to get a high score is completely fine. One of the main objectives is staying alive as many dayz as possible in the game, and the high score would just basically track that for players and encourage them to do better. What exactly is wrong with "some people using it as a tool to gain those scores"? And getting high scores for surviving longer or getting more kills IS PLAYING THE GAME. IT CHANGES NOTHING IN THE GAME EXCEPT ADDING A REWARDING NUMBER WHEN YOU DIE.

 

I don't think I ever mentioned "Sandbox" at all, if you were using quotations to say it was me. But still, yeah DayZ is a sandbox, but one of the main sandbox games at the moment- GTA 5- offers a high score system for its main gameplay aspect, collecting money.

As for punishing banditry, the dev team is always trying to do that while not outright preventing it, such as increased heartbeat while around bandits. Insanity would be more of an anchor to players to make murderous bambi-killing rampages less easy, as they might need downtime between murders for their characters to collect their sanity. Back to the GTA comparison, they punish a particular playstyle in that game: Kill too many pleople, get hunted down by the cops. But it isn't designed to stop that kind of gameplay, just make it more challenging.

 

No I was quoting sandbox because it's a vague term.

 

Also the heartbeat/insanity/etc have already been decried by the devs.

 

Not to mention that in GTA, police responding to your actions has a logical basis within the game. It's not really a punishment so much as more to do.

[bobotype3334 160]

No I was quoting sandbox because it's a vague term.

 

Also the heartbeat/insanity/etc have already been decried by the devs.

 

Not to mention that in GTA, police responding to your actions has a logical basis within the game. It's not really a punishment so much as more to do.

Getting just a little bit mentally unhinged because you've killed a bunch of people seems like logical basis?

Also, sandbox isn't a vague term, specifically it refers to a game with an open world and plenty of non-linear-quest related gameplay as opposed to a linear game.