Premium loot -- A balanced proposal to "gearing up"

[carcinovich 156]

There's a serious problem with DayZ, and you know of what I speak: the pilgrimage to the airport. You go there, get "geared up," and -- TADA! --- you're at the end-game. Oh no, Airfield already looted? Time to server hop onto a mostly-empty server. Once you get your M4, then it's only a matter of pimping out your gun with shiny attachments.

At this point, the game begins to lose its charm. Out of boredom, and on the top of the food chain, it's only natural that many people will either stop playing -- or go around and KOS anybody they find. Once you have a bag of beans and an M4, the game ceases to be a challenge, and tends to devolve into straight-up PvP.

We need to slow down gearing up so that it's not solved by a single trip to the airport-mecca. Reducing the spawn-rates of weapons/ammo only, while it sounds good in theory, only rewards the most persistent server hoppers. So what gives?

So here's the idea:

• All "premium" loot is now gated.
• By gated, I mean that very high-end loot is only introduced through a predictable, random rate that cannot be exploited by server-hopping shenanigans. 

How could content be gated?

• Locked caches.
• The really high-end weapon, supply and ammo caches can only be found behind secured armory doors at military locations, lock-boxes in hospitals, stowed away in gun-safes across the countryside, etc.

So how is gated content released into the wild?

• In order to break into locked caches, you need a lockpick. Basically, a key to gated content that is consumed after use.
• Lockpicks, bless them, are randomly scattered across the countryside, and can only be found in non-predictable locations. You cannot farm them!
• This mechanism allows for the unlocking of gated content in a fair, realistic and consistent manner by those who actually play the game over an extended period of time (!!) NOT by server-hopping around loot-rich areas!

You can find lockpicks by looting random buildings (or killing zombies), and by doing so, you're one stop closer to being awesome. Armed with a lockpick, you now have a chance to break into that secured location to grab some of that sweet, sweet loot. Yes please!
 

Remember that you can still get very high-end gear through trade, altruism, banditry and -- yes -- even murder. This just affects the original source of high-end loot. It also goes to say that many lockpicks may be destroyed on the way to their final destination through neglect, PVE, or PVP.

 
Benefits of gated content through consumable keys:

• Deters server-hopping -- to get premium loot at premium locations, you actually have to, you know, explore places and play the game for a bit. You can't just go to one place that spawns the *best* stuff and hop around on nearly-empty servers after restart. You have to actually spend some time playing the game, and -- with a little bit of luck and looting -- find some random drops, then collect your reward.
   
• Gives the game developers the ability to easily manipulate the rate at which high-end content is introduced.
   
• Maintains the realism (and fun!) of obtaining specialized gear from specialized locations. You *could* just have completely randomized spawns, and gate the content that way, but that ends up being very unrealistic (military-grade weapons spawning on kitchen tables doesn't quite appeal to me).
   
• Slows down the "gearing up" process considerably.
   
• Still maintains a degree of luck.
   
• Rewards the killing of zombies.
   
• Rewards going into places that typically spawn "meh" loot. You never know which place may have a lockpick! Find one and it's payday! Gives you a reason to actually go into those cabins that never spawn loot (Rocket, if you're reading this, cabins don't spawn loot. It feels to me like you're not aware of this at all).
   
• Gives people a reason to visit certain locations in the game. Want boss medical supplies? Locked cabinet in the hospital. Want fantastic police-themed gear? Locked room in the police station. Military weapons more your style? Armory at the military locations. Prefer premium hunting gear? Locked gun-safes in certain buildings. And so on and so forth.
   

BONUS! You can also have a percentage-based chance to succeed, based on the condition of the lockpicks. Tying the condition of lockpicks to the chance of success may entice banditry over KOS, as murder could ruin the lockpicks. Read this and weep:

• Ruined: 0% chance to succeed
• Badly damaged: 25% chance to succeed
• Damaged: 50% chance to succeed
• Worn:  75% chance to succeed
• Pristine: 100% chance to succeed

Comments and criticism all welcome, your reward being a can of beans. TAKE IT.
 

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Edit: Lockpicks should, obviously, be destroyed with use. Thank you Zhrike for pointing this out.

Edit: Instead of having locked rooms, there should be safes in unlocked rooms. This would prevent people from exploiting the system by server-hopping into a locked room. Thank you Dekartz for pointing this out.
 

Edit: Yes, these are randomly scattered -- no particular place spawns them. They could potentially be spread out by making them random zombie drops, or if it's feasible, random across every potential spawning point.

Edited February 8, 2014 by carcinovich

[blackberrygoo 1416]

I like this idea a lot , it puts one more layer of productivity onto the game. Instead of just looting and finding your favorite outfit / weapon then just causing chaos , you'd have to literally travel around with whatever crap melee you find until you locate a lets say locked military apc with high military loot / armor (maybe requiring a blow torch or some type of explosive to get the doors off), or a chest inside a house with a padlock on it , requiring a lock pick or just maybe some bolt cutters to get the treasure inside .

This idea would definitely make it more immersive, even if it was supposed to be years after the apocalypse cuz I'm sure people would be stock piling firearms , especially if they already have plenty of shelter , food and water. It's just human instinct to feel as safe as possible I feel haha ;)

Edited February 6, 2014 by Grapefruit kush

[jffr363 33]

I see one problem with this, and that's camping the locked containers. Lets say you find a lockpick and get one gun, but you want more, so you just sit around waiting for the first guy without a gun to come along, and hes screwed and you can just kill him and take his lockpick.

[ASDF991 8]

All you would be doing is adding a second layer to server hopping, first you server hop an area where multiple lockpicks spawn then you server hop the different airfields for gear.

Edited February 6, 2014 by ASDF991

[helcol 174]

good idea,

 

However, handguns/residential guns should still appear in residential areas. This should only affect military grade guns.

[Khad (DayZ) 293]

Lockpicking a heavy armored door can't be even harder than fixing a helicopter. Especially with a simple lockpick. 

 

Well... no... I do want to save the realism. And I'm looking forward to these DayZ, in which there is a realistic amount of weapons. 

[Hethwill_Khan 233]

2 words. Private Hive.

 

Public will always reflect the Developers vision. Private will have all sorts of player's wishes.

 

I'd rather have way less loot everywhere in every server and way more zombies than going to the extent of just giving away the loot in a silver plate.

 

BUT...

 

... it can become an interesting idea.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Hethwill_Khan

[blackberrygoo 1416]

If possible id say that the chests at least should randomly spawn every reset at different locations (within reason of course ) .

So people could camp the big locations like armories inside military camps cuz they will know it's location after one visit , but the chests inside residential/police would spawn at Random police stations / residential houses every reset , not necessarily the same ones so people couldn't map out all these "premium locations ".

[carcinovich 156]

I see one problem with this, and that's camping the locked containers. Lets say you find a lockpick and get one gun, but you want more, so you just sit around waiting for the first guy without a gun to come along, and hes screwed and you can just kill him and take his lockpick.

If he kills the person with the lockpick, chances are he'll find that the lockpick is "ruined." Airports are dangerous, and if someone wants to camp one all day long, it has its own set of risks.

Edited February 6, 2014 by carcinovich

[carcinovich 156]

If possible id say that the chests at least should randomly spawn every reset at different locations (within reason of course ) .

So people could camp the big locations like armories inside military camps cuz they will know it's location after one visit , but the chests inside residential/police would spawn at Random police stations / residential houses every reset , not necessarily the same ones so people couldn't map out all these "premium locations ".

I like it.

[elLoCo 154]

I like the idea of breaking into stuff by using lockpicks, crowbars, or bolt cutters for various kinds of locks.

 

I see one problem with this, and that's camping the locked containers. Lets say you find a lockpick and get one gun, but you want more, so you just sit around waiting for the first guy without a gun to come along, and hes screwed and you can just kill him and take his lockpick.

This is indeed a valid point, but you won't prevent serverhopping for good, no matter what!

 

 

If possible id say that the chests at least should randomly spawn every reset at different locations (within reason of course ) .

So people could camp the big locations like armories inside military camps cuz they will know it's location after one visit , but the chests inside residential/police would spawn at Random police stations / residential houses every reset , not necessarily the same ones so people couldn't map out all these "premium locations ".

That would be indeed great!

 

Could be combined with this?

Searchable objects

Edited February 6, 2014 by elLoCo

[carcinovich 156]

All you would be doing is adding a second layer to server hopping, first you server hop an area where multiple lockpicks spawn then you server hop the different airfields for gear.

No. Lockpicks spawn randomly around the entire map. The point is that there is no specific place where lockpicks spawn. you have to actually play the game to find a lockpick. This makes your argument moot.

Edited February 6, 2014 by carcinovich

[elLoCo 154]

No. Lockpicks spawn randomly around the entire map. The point is that there is no specific place where lockpicks spawn. you have to actually play the game to find a lockpick. This makes your argument moot.

 

Like every place where loot spawns there is a 0.01% chance of spawning lockpicks. This is 1:10000 isn't it?

 

Other items that allow you entrance should also be tweaked!

[PackerFan_68 1]

I like this idea as I think it would promote playing the entire map.  I game with a pretty large group of clanmates and once they respawn at the coast everyone immediately talks about heading directly to the airfields for military-grade weapons and gear.

[ImageCtrl 719]

First... it is alpha.  :P But it is interesting to discuss how it could work.

I guess you will see some rare items only at youtube. I guess you will always know something better is out there and maybe never get it.

I guess you must kill many Zombies with your shotgun before you get access to the airfield loot. I guess you need some days to get the ammo for a airfield raid.

 

Maybe the ultra rare items are only visibel for you when...

-you traveld x miles

-you are alive x days

etc

[carcinovich 156]

Like every place where loot spawns there is a 0.01% chance of spawning lockpicks. This is 1:10000 isn't it?

 

Other items that allow you entrance should also be tweaked!

Lockpicks should be extremely rare, and scaled according to how fast the devs want characters to gear up. It would be a very simple number to modify the entire process.

[dvsilverwing 241]

Considering what lockpicks are generally used for, I feel like they'd be more prevalent in cities than in the countryside. See: Urban and Rural crime rate comparisons.

 

I disagree completely, though.

[carcinovich 156]

First... it is alpha.  :P But it is interesting to discuss how it could work.

I guess you will see some rare items only at youtube. I guess you will always know something better is out there and maybe never get it.

I guess you must kill many Zombies with your shotgun before you get access to the airfield loot. I guess you need some days to get the ammo for a airfield raid.

 

Maybe the ultra rare items are only visibel for you when...

-you traveld x miles

-you are alive x days

etc

Idea. Zombies have a rare chance of dropping lockpicks.

[carcinovich 156]

I disagree completely, though.

Alrighty then. Care to elaborate as to why?

Edited February 6, 2014 by carcinovich

[fundan@gmx.de 82]

...make lockpicks (keys) work only on the server they have spawned. No more serverhopping.

[carcinovich 156]

...make lockpicks (keys) work only on the server they have spawned. No more serverhopping.

I don't see a reason for this... The lockpicks are practically their own reward, picking the lock is pretty much like cashing in.

Edited February 6, 2014 by carcinovich

[Chaingunfighter 917]

I dunno. I like the idea of having some locked containers around, but having all of the "premium" loot spawning inside seems a little dumb, not to mention unrealistic. Maybe having locked armories with a higher chance of spawning better weapons/gear I could support, but it would still increase camping ten-fold and wouldn't really make it that much harder to get better stuff.

 

 

[carcinovich 156]

I dunno. I like the idea of having some locked containers around, but having all of the "premium" loot spawning inside seems a little dumb, not to mention unrealistic. Maybe having locked armories with a higher chance of spawning better weapons/gear I could support, but it would still increase camping ten-fold and wouldn't really make it that much harder to get better stuff.

It would make it that much harder to get better stuff, because you need the lockpicks in order to get to the premium loot. That's kindof the point :)

And I do think it is fairly realistic to have the most valuable items behind lock-and-key.

Edited February 6, 2014 by carcinovich

[zhrike 264]

I don't see a reason for this... The lockpicks are practically their own reward, picking the lock is pretty much like cashing in.

If the lockpicks are NOT degraded or destroyed with use, then you'll see increased server hopping once someone has found some. In fact, once loot respawns the motivation for hoppers is going to mostly disappear. This would add it back, IMO, again, IF they aren't degraded with use (maybe 2 uses?) or consumable with one use. Squads, especially, will hop from one server to the next, picking the locks and hoarding weapons. I like the idea, but think it would work best if the lockpicks were consumable.

[carcinovich 156]

If the lockpicks are NOT degraded or destroyed with use, then you'll see increased server hopping once someone has found some. In fact, once loot respawns the motivation for hoppers is going to mostly disappear. This would add it back, IMO, again, IF they aren't degraded with use (maybe 2 uses?) or consumable with one use. Squads, especially, will hop from one server to the next, picking the locks and hoarding weapons. I like the idea, but think it would work best if the lockpicks were consumable.

Sorry. It was my intent to communicate that lockpicks were destroyed with use. I'll edit the original post to reflect this.

Edited February 6, 2014 by carcinovich