"Spawning in.." and „Please Wait“ Blackscreens

[MarchmelloMan 16]

I honestly think that the current in- and decreasements of the blackscreen-timers of the “Spawning in…” and “Please wait” screens is not really the way to go. I know it is for punishing server hoppers, but I don’t think that they are stopped it, it just rather lowers the general fun factor of starting/playing the game.

 

Thing is, if there is no alternative for what server hoppers do, they will keep doing it. And, to be honest, it is not their fault at all for doing what they do. Because you can’t blame a player for playing a game the way he or she likes the most.

And since a lot of players want to gather good equipment, a very common way to go is server hopping – as bad and detrimental it may be.

Plus, increasing spawn timers and letting players hang in “please wait” screens also lowers the fun for all other players that don’t server hop. For example when they have to switch servers to play with a friend. Or get kicked and then have to wait 3-4 minutes in a blackscreen. Or having any issue that causes him to switch servers, rather than an emptied airfield.

 

But how can this be achieved if not by blackscreens?

 

In general I think it is more contributional if players are motivated in a positive rather than a negative way to not switch servers. That doesn’t affect players who have a good reason to join another server and it doesn’t lower the general fun factor.

So it should be more rewarding the longer you stay on one server.

 

Some ideas that come spontaneously up my mind, but I hope other community members have better ideas:

Every 10 minutes you stay, you could get a health-regen bonus. After one hour or something you could get a minor speed boost. Also the respawn timer for items could decrease while the zombies could be made stronger at airfields/military locations.

Another motivation for players to loot more than just the famous hotspots like airfields, piano buildings, office buildings etc could be the more intelligent distribution of stuff. For example to remove all drinks and cans off piano buildings and airfields and spread it over the other civilian buildings. Concretely it should not be possible to cover all your needs AND get good equipment at one spot, plus lowering the general concentration of goods at one spot. So that you actually have to loot a whole city and perhaps go hunting to survive and gather all the stuff. If stuff respawns more regularly and is more spread, players would be motivated to not just loot one place but also players who just joined the server don't have to look immediatly for another one if their "hotspot" / airfield / piano building is already looted. He or she can just keep looting on the whole city cause loot is spread and respawns.

 

Some more ideas perhaps, or criticism?

Edited May 26, 2014 by MarchmelloMan