A few thoughts to mull over: incentives/skills/kos

[gcriseightysix 32]

Over the past 6 months, I've grown to LOVE this game to a fault. I've logged 450+ hours and absolutely love following the development.  I think where we stand at .51 stable is a good place and I like where the dev team is headed with the final product.  Normally I don't make suggestions, but I have a few ideas I think could really help the dynamic of the game, while not drifting far from the open ended survival game that Dean Hall had originally envisioned. I also realize the game is still in early development. I'm posting this in general discussion because I'm more curious to see what other players think, so please leave me feedback!

 

Incentives- One thing I've noticed in the game is that other than losing your kit when you die, there is really no real incentive to make a player live as long and as prosperous a life as possible. I think it would be really cool to bring on physical development of a character over time. I would love to see my character grow facial hair, and get dirty from crawling in the rain, and even show cuts/scars on a players body as they live longer. I feel strongly that players would be less likely to KOS if they not only lost their kit, but lost the physical appearance of their character that could only be achieved by staying alive for a long time.

 

Skills- Another type of incentive would be that a player gets "better" at surviving as time passes.  The more fires you start, the better they will warm you/cook your food. The more time you craft an item, the better the condition of the item when its created. The more you use a specific weapon, the more accurate/powerful you become with it. The same could go for fishing, hunting and horticulture. This may also prevent the KOS problem to a degree. Why respawn as a freshie and lose your kit, your appearance and your skills in survival? Much higher consequence for dying, I'd say. Also, lets make the improvised bow a beginner weapon and not such a rarity. In all my time playing, last night was the first time I came across an ashwood stick with which to craft a bow. I was really into the bow it was really cool to see the animations while running/creeping with it.

 

I want to state that I enjoy PVP in this game, but the amount of people marching up and down the streets with m4's popping freshies is a little out of control. Its actually the reason  stay out of a lot of cities (berezino,elektro) because people play the game like they're playing Battlefield. I'm not saying I haven't KOSed before, but I feel I've had my reasons. Well, let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

-snip-

 

Moved to suggestions, this has been discussed in great length on here.

[fg45rr1 16]

I agree with everything but the part where you said you'd become more accurate and powerful with a weapon. I agree with the accuracy, it makes sense but I don't know why a gun would become more powerful with someone who uses it a lot. If you get shot in the chest with a magnum it's going to do the same amount of damage no matter who pulled the trigger

[Conrad_The_Comrade 577]

Even though this has been discussed a lot, I still support it to some degree. I love the physical appearance idea, like love it to death xD

 

But "skills" must be handled very carefully and make sure this feature couldnt be abused (By say someone just shooting randomly or someone lighting random fires over and over.) As long as it's done right, and nothing like a skill tree is added, them I'm all for it.

[Evil Minion 943]

I like the first part about your characters appearance. More and more customization as time progresses (beard, hair, tatoos, scars) make the charcater unique and might cause less players to go full "yolo pvp" and actually care for their character instead for their gear.

 

Now skills are a tricky thing because of a little thing called grinding - players won't simply play along and get skills but actively use the mechanics to farm their those skills as quickly as possible to get an advantage. Especially when it is about combat mechanics so its probably better not to include ingame skills here and rather use the player skill by adding authentic mechanics and multiple choices. For other tasks this could be done by making them similar to a minigame (fishing, lockpicking etc.).

 

However, in other not combat related areas skills might work to allow players to specialize in certain things. A dedicated medic might be much more effective when threating wounds, fractures etc. Others might get an increased yield when gathering or skinning animals. A survivor that stays both healthy and active for a prolonged period of time might enjoy faster movement and more stamina. When catching and surviving diseases your immune system might get more robust.

 

Now there are some key aspects:

1. Any development should require a lot of dedicated effort. No "grind for two hours and enjoy the benefits forever" but rather a very slow progress that requires a specialized playstyle with major emphasis on the particular skill.
2. It should not be possible to grind your character to become a omniskilled mastermind. For this unused skills might slowly revert to normal so you cannot play as medic and then switch to bandit while still enjoying the full benefits. The higher your skill the faster it drops. This would also mean that players eventually get stuck at a level that roughly matches their playstyle.
3. You should not need to specialize in anything. Survivors should still work perfectly fine without dedication towards a certain task. It should be perfectly viable not to skill but rather use your time to do something else instead.
4. No combat skills - those should rather be a direct representation of player skill. This might also work for other tasks (see above).
5. No skill tree - your skills should develop according to your playstyle without discrete powerspikes or levelups.
6. No artificial indication. If a character is specialized or not should not be intrinsically visible if it does not make sense (like a red cross appearing on a specialized medics clothing). So if you want to make sure whether or not a particular survivor is specialized you would have to ask or observe him/her at work.

In short: I can see skills working as an optional choice for players who wish to specialize in a certain task but not as a steady power creep in long term survivors.

[gcriseightysix 32]

By "powerful" I meant strength with melee weapons. Is would be cool I think if you had to work up to a one hit kill on a zed with a the firefighter axe

[scriptfactory 620]

I like the Project Zomboid system. In fact, all I want is Project Zomboid as a DayZ mod. I would play it forever.

[TheHermit (DayZ) 22]

If you can develop a contrary disadvantage if would be cool

 

Ex. you gain weapon accuracy, you lose melee accuracy.

 

Start a lot of fires, become more susceptible to catching a cold without fire.

 

Become an experienced hunter. Become the hunted. Either by Zombies, or (hopefully in future) by animals.

 

There should always be a trade off to keep any one player from becoming 'overpowered', and also provide a deliberated sacrifice or compromise for the player.

[General Zod 1118]

If you can develop a contrary disadvantage if would be cool

 

Ex. you gain weapon accuracy, you lose melee accuracy.

 

Start a lot of fires, become more susceptible to catching a cold without fire.

 

Become an experienced hunter. Become the hunted. Either by Zombies, or (hopefully in future) by animals.

 

There should always be a trade off to keep any one player from becoming 'overpowered', and also provide a deliberated sacrifice or compromise for the player.

........

Just no this idea is beyond stupid. 

 

Whey can't you people use your small smooth brains to comprehend one simple fucking thing ? 

THIS IS NOT A FINISHED GAME

There is no incentive to live because it's a testing environment. Almost no survival elements are on place. We are here just to test for bugs and imbalances. 

Edited December 15, 2014 by General Zod

[TheHermit (DayZ) 22]

........

Just no this idea is beyond stupid. 

 

Whey can't you people use your small smooth brains to comprehend one simple fucking thing ? 

THIS IS NOT A FINISHED GAME

There is no incentive to live because it's a testing environment. Almost no survival elements are on place. We are here just to test for bugs and imbalances. 

Relax buddy, this is the suggestions area. Suggestions for the future.

 

Calling ideas stupid? Tone it down. And please watch the insults on my intelligence as well as the F bomb.

Edited December 16, 2014 by TheHermit

[gcriseightysix 32]

........

Just no this idea is beyond stupid. 

 

Whey can't you people use your small smooth brains to comprehend one simple fucking thing ? 

THIS IS NOT A FINISHED GAME

There is no incentive to live because it's a testing environment. Almost no survival elements are on place. We are here just to test for bugs and imbalances. 

You must be joking. Perhaps, if you used your "small smooth brain" you would understand that people are making suggestions BECAUSE its an unfinished game. Note that this isn't a complaint page. smh

[foolee 43]

Its already been discussed that they won't do growing beards. They do want to do some way to show that your character is a survivor. I'm against in game skills. When you acquire better skills at the keyboard, your reward is not dieing as often.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Foolee

[rybec 339]

I've always enjoyed the idea of learning more complex actions through books found ingame or someone "teaching" you through the action menu. Would encourage people who want to learn something to try talking to someone ingame rather than just blap them.

The biggest change would make people care about the character above any gear. Wasn't a goal for the developers to make people interested in their character moreso than equipment?

You die now and you go "Oh well, time to spend a couple minutes running to the airfield and I'm geared up already." Give yourself a reason to want to live ingame.

 

That or I can play it like Arma except I'm killing people who aren't equally armed as I am.

[Mullraugh 1151]

Mull?

[gcriseightysix 32]

Mull?

mull over

VERB

to consider something thoroughly

synonyms: think over · consider · dwell on · think about · reflect · ponder