Loot spawns should be overhauled.

[Ransurian 23]

I didn't see this in the thread of acknowledged and existing suggestions, so here's my two cents.

 

Food and drinks should be substantially more uncommon. Pots, frying pans, knives, matches, rocks, rope, and similar items should be more common. Berry bushes and apple trees should be capable of being depleted, and should spawn randomly throughout the map to discourage player hopping. Guns and ammunition should be significantly more uncommon. Ideally, this would facilitate more overall use of the game's survival features along the lines of crafting and cooking, which in turn should encourage players to explore more of the game's features while promoting a greater concern for survival over mindless player killing. At the moment, there's literally no point at all in carrying the items listed above, since canned food alone is more than enough to sustain players. Ideally, canned food would be a rare commodity intended to supplement a player while hunting, fishing, and gathering serve as primary methods of sustenance.

 

I believe one of the game's most fundamental problems, aside from rampant player killing, is the prevalence of food. Until that changes, many of the awesome survival mechanics that have been -- and continue to be -- implemented are going to remain useless or impractical, which is essentially tantamount to giving the middle finger to developers that work to design and implement these features and the players that explore these features at their own expense.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Ransurian

[11tw 106]

This all sounds reasonable, however right now the system is set up for testing purposes. If items are too rare, then players don't aquire them. This means that people aren't testing them as the game progresses, so bugs aren't removed as quickly as they could be.

 

 

When the game is finished, I am sure that the loot situation will be altered drastically.

[Ransurian 23]

This all sounds reasonable, however right now the system is set up for testing purposes. If items are too rare, then players don't aquire them. This means that people aren't testing them as the game progresses, so bugs aren't removed as quickly as they could be.

 

 

When the game is finished, I am sure that the loot situation will be altered drastically.

Items won't be "too rare." Beyond that, there's no need to test canned food. It works. You open the can with X tool, eat either a portion of the can or all of it, and gain Y amount of energy. If anything does need to be tested, it's the game's more complex -- and ideally more rewarding -- survival mechanics, including cooking and crafting.

 

...Which, conveniently, ties in with my original post. :)

Edited July 20, 2014 by Ransurian

[Zedertone 378]

This is where the fun line comes into play. If it was that realistic, a lot of people would whine they were dying of hunger and just quit the game. I would love to see a game where it's purely hardcore survival like the things you listed above, but the realism and fun line have to hit heads here.

[Ransurian 23]

This is where the fun line comes into play. If it was that realistic, a lot of people would whine they were dying of hunger and just quit the game. I would love to see a game where it's purely hardcore survival like the things you listed above, but the realism and fun line have to hit heads here.

It doesn't have to be utterly hardcore. It should be much more difficult to survive than it is at present, but that doesn't have to imply that it'll suddenly become a purely survival-oriented experience in which food is an omnipresent, relentless concern. I'm simply suggesting that food should be enough of a concern to warrant the player's attention, which at the moment just isn't the case at all.

 

I could literally throw away every bit of food and drink in my backpack and not bat an eye, because I'd be able to find more cans of food well before starvation began to set in. That's the kind of nonsense that ruins the entire game's survival-oriented premise utterly and completely.

 

As for the vocal minority that might cry about loot spawns, I sincerely doubt most of the game's playerbase would object to anything I've listed. People signed on for a difficult survival-oriented game under the premise of a zombie apocalypse. That's what DayZ is supposed to be. That is all.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Ransurian

[Zedertone 378]

It doesn't have to be utterly hardcore. It should be much more difficult to survive than it is at present, but that doesn't have to imply that it'll suddenly become a purely survival-oriented experience in which food is an omnipresent, relentless concern. I'm simply suggesting that food should be enough of a concern to warrant the player's attention, which at the moment just isn't the case at all.

 

I could literally throw away every bit of food and drink in my backpack and not bat an eye, because I'd be able to find more cans of food well before starvation began to set in. That's the kind of nonsense that ruins the entire game's survival-oriented premise utterly and completely.

 

As for the vocal minority that might cry about loot spawns, I sincerely doubt most of the game's playerbase would object to anything I've listed. People signed on for a difficult survival-oriented game under the premise of a zombie apocalypse. That's what DayZ is supposed to be. That is all.

You'd be surprised. :)

And I say what i say because there have been threads like this before, where people are suggesting loot to be harder, etc. etc. and always there is someone complaining that it'd be too realistic and not much fun. this isn't first ever thread on loot suggesting to be harder to find. haha

Edited July 20, 2014 by Zedertone

[Ransurian 23]

You'd be surprised. :)

And I say what i say because there have been threads like this before, where people are suggesting loot to be harder, etc. etc. and always there is someone complaining that it'd be too realistic and not much fun. this isn't first ever thread on loot suggesting to be harder to find. haha

I don't think loot in general should be hard to find, although a healthy dose of scarcity is always good. It's just that the way loot is distributed in the spawn tables should be changed. Food and most guns should be more scarce, and survival-related equipment should be more common.

[Zedertone 378]

I don't think loot in general should be hard to find, although a healthy dose of scarcity is always good. It's just that the way loot is distributed in the spawn tables should be changed. Food and most guns should be more scarce, and survival-related equipment should be more common.

Yes I totally agree with you.