Escape from Chernarus

[Tolgar 1]

I had a great idea on a victory condition this morning, here's how it would go.

Every 7 days (randomized per server to prevent hopping), there would be an escape event. Fast movers fly overhead from the shore past the north, alerting survivors the plan is in motion, some of those fast movers, bomb the tarmacs of the airfields. Green smoke is fired at a random location on each of the tarmacs, and 30 minutes from there an npc Huey will fly in and land at the location. Now this is going to attract both zombies and people, so survivors are going to have to group up and protect the landing zone, with varying efficiency. 30 minutes should also give enough time for people spread out on the map to make it to the airfields.

So the choppers come in and land, they are only on the ground for 5 minutes, at each location, and it is also first come first serve, you have to protect the chopper from zombies and bandits who are out to kill you and maybe or maybe not get on the chopper themselves. This gives clans something to spend their armaments on, drive up and let loose, (most will park farther away for recovery for the next round). Once 5 minutes is up, the choppers take off and head south, going off map off the shore. But you aren't out of the clear yet, other people can still shoot you or the chopper down while it is on route, (the choppers are far enough apart that you can't shoot down another one once in the air, but someone with another Huey could). Also the NPC pilot should be made invulnerable, just for scripting issues, you can still down the chopper, screwing everyone on it over. Not being able to pilot the chopper will make it so there isn't a huge influx of choppers on the map for people to use every week.

Ok so you made it off shore, either huddled together with random people, your grinning clan mates, or bandits killed everyone and made it off map scott free, now what? This is where more developed character tracking comes in. There would be some kind of new scoreboard/leaderboard, tracking zombies killed, beans eaten, hours actually logged in, miles driven, bones broken, etc. These would be added up somehow, and points would be taken off for players killed (this wouldn't kill bandits score, they still have to do enough of the other things, but it would hurt.)

Now that character is gone, not killed like a suicide, but the same effect, it will respawn you. The people who did not make the chopper, have to survive somehow another weak (this increases your score if you happen to live that long, you could theoretically wait a whole month and then escape for a huge score, but it would track hours logged in more aggressively for points, making sure someone doesn't just log off for a month and then cash in.) So this isn't a server resetting event, the map continues as normal, you don't have to participate, but you are encouraged, you can also just kill everyone that shows up and take their stuff once the choppers leave, but the zombies that are around will necessitate being more 1 or 2 people to make it to the chopper. Even if you just hopped in, they could still destroy it.

TL;DR: helicopter escape scripted event, leaderboards encouraging logged in survival, some penalty for players killed but not huge so bandits can also win, not a server reset, needs more extensive stat/player tracking post Alpha.

[TheProphecy 33]

I can't understand for the life of me why people want a Left 4 Dead style extract, or any sort of "escape Chernarus" scenario in general. And the only incentive of this is to get a high score on a leaderboard? Does anyone actually care about a leaderboard? What happens when you wind up off shore (where you could probably swim to, BTW)? Are you supposed to just respawn and lose all your gear to try and get a higher score?

[Tolgar 1]

Its an incentive to use the goods you've acquired, your last blast of teamwork for that cycle, you wouldn't be able to swim/fly yourself to the point, basically only getting there in the npc chopper qualifies.

You don't have to use it, you can ignore it entirely, you can kill everyone that shows up and take all their stuff, but for people that like this sort of thing, that NEED some kind of purpose to play, here you go. You can even skip the event multiple times, and if you have survived that long, your score is that much higher. Or like I said, ignore it, but it would be there, its a sandbox, do what you want.

[Serrath 0]

Rescue's just a pipe dream. You think they're doing any better out there in the cities? Look at Cherno. There's no law out there. There aren't any governments left to watch over us. We're more dangerous to each other than the zombies are. Nobody's ever coming to help us, we've just gotta take care of ourselves.

[Forsh 2]

Not sure about the escape scenario tbh, but some other "event" could work.. something to draw people in from across the map. Perhaps a big supply drop... a fully loaded humvee or something, perhaps a medical crate.. A chopper could fly across the map at a random direction and position and drop its cargo randomly along the path. Other players would hear/see it and be inclined to follow.

Recording the players' stats is a good idea anyway, and they should also record the number of disconnects from the players per day too. Maybe even include the average time before reconnect...If this number is sufficiently low, and the number of disconnects high enough, then this player is an exploiter. Remove their beans.

[TheProphecy 33]

Its an incentive to use the goods you've acquired' date=' your last blast of teamwork for that cycle, you wouldn't be able to swim/fly yourself to the point, basically only getting there in the npc chopper qualifies.

You don't have to use it, you can ignore it entirely, you can kill everyone that shows up and take all their stuff, but for people that like this sort of thing, that NEED some kind of purpose to play, here you go. You can even skip the event multiple times, and if you have survived that long, your score is that much higher. Or like I said, ignore it, but it would be there, its a sandbox, do what you want.

[/quote']

You still haven't answered the questions, though. Are people doing this strictly for leaderboard points, or will there be an in-game incentive such as a weapon or item that can't be found anywhere else? And again, let's say I get extracted, I'm now on the island with a bunch of random people. What do I do? Do I kill these people I just escaped with and wait to run out of food/water? Do I somehow respawn with all my current gear? Do I respawn and start off with just the flashlight?

I disagree with this idea entirely, but you are hitting on a subject that I feel needs to be addressed, which is what happens when you have fully geared players who have no more interest in finding loot? At present, these players either throw down tents and just run back and forth between raiding Stary/NWA and the tent, find vehicles and just cruise around for awhile, bringing them back to their camp so they can do it all again later or just head to Cherno/Elektro, find a nice perch and just start sniping players. I think we should be trying to find ways to keep players interested in staying inside the map, rather than leaving.

[Tolgar 1]

@Serrath

Could be, we don't know how it'll develop. But just think, the ultimate player kill would be dashing the hopes of the would be escapees. Just about to take off huh? Oh look at this rocket launcher I found. Or a satchel charge you plant acting like someone who wants to escape. It is going to bring a lot of people into the area and they have to live long enough to get out, easy pickings if they aren't well prepared.

Depends on how Rocket is gonna go with the lore, if the entire planet has gone to shit, then obviously this is moot, but if its just concentrated areas... up to him.

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@TheProphecy

I don't think you should get anything from doing it, that was the end of your game, that person is off map, you respawn as someone else, just with the same name. Also once the chopper is offmap you, everyone in it, and the chopper is just faded out, removed from the game, like the end of an ARMA mission.

It certainly isn't the only way to go for end game, building up the cities, restoring power, restoring order, having those hopes dashed by huge waves of zombies later that destroy your progress, that's also another way to go, but that also doesn't end your story. Even if you restored the major cities, had huge fences keeping the zombies out, armed guards, running water/power, etc, you are STILL THERE. And the zombies will win eventually, they almost always do, you are just delaying the inevitable. Staying in one place in any zombie fiction is almost always a bad idea, my idea was a way to get out, it certainly isn't the only way.

[TheProphecy 33]

Another problem with "escaping" is that it's already possible. There are boats and helicopters in the mod already, so players could technically leave if they wanted to, they would just end up in a debug zone.

I mean, I'm trying to find something appealing about this idea, but I can't. If I have good gear that's fairly hard to come by, I don't want to trade it in for points on a leaderboard.

[Tolgar 1]

It would be setup such that only being on the npc chopper and despawning in it off of the map would trigger the win. Getting there yourself could be a possibility, perhaps, but for way, way less points.

And like I said, its a sandbox, you can ignore the event, or run around the airfields trying to find the good vehicles everyone arrived in, or kill them all and take their stuff, etc.

[TheProphecy 33]

IDK, I just don't see anyone willing to give up their gear, let alone a vehicle just for points on a leaderboard.

[SystemiK 366]

Interesting idea. I'll give you props for coming up with it....but the dev has described this mod as an "anti-game' (and I'll be honest here and say I'm not even sure what the hell that means) but I would imagine that an anti-game would have absolutely nothing to do with gaining points on a leaderboard and winning.

[RaviN (DayZ) 9]

IDK' date=' I just don't see anyone willing to give up their gear, let alone a vehicle just for points on a leaderboard.[/quote']

+1

[prometheus111 1]

http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=19215