A discussion on player mobility

[Dagwood 680]

Thought I would share some observations I've made and maybe get a little discussion going.

Currently I would break player activity into two broad groups: looting and killing/interacting. During the first hours of an average survivor's life, they run from town to town or base to base and gather gear. Survivors will cover vast ground, and their incentive to travel is based upon loot scarcity. If desirable loot is in the area, traveling stops. If desirable loot is elsewhere, players travel. Currently the killing/interacting activity is concentrated around a few areas for various reasons.

What I want to talk about is the looting phase of a survivor's life. So far, gearing up quickly has been achieved by visiting as many loot spawns as possible to maximize your potential for finding what you want (like cranking a slot machine as many times as you can in an hour). Our ability to survive and improve our situation is almost completely based upon a little diligence and a lot of luck. Now, with the gradual implementation of various means to "acquire" the things you need to survive (butchering, cooking, leather working, fishing, etc), it seems that (eventually) survival will be more focused on working for your gear rather than only scavenging.

What's important to note here is that most of these looting alternatives are relatively tool-intensive. This means that surviving by these methods will make traversing the map like we do now quite difficult.

When loot tables are leaned out and surviving by scavenging alone becomes insufficient, I believe that players will begin to travel less, and tapping an area for all of its potential resources will become the more efficient approach. Players will be more likely to board up a house and use it as a temporary base of operations.

I believe that this change in player mobility during the gearing process will also change how pvp and "endgame" plays. Does anyone agree? Is the game doomed to play how it does now; as a looting/running simulator? Or will these new features slow players down and provide opportunities for more immersive gameplay? More diverse player interaction?

TLDR; we can't carry enough shit on our backs to have all of the tools for survival AND our shiny tactical gear. This will slow our roll. Discuss.

[ToySmokes 116]

I think that this will defiantly slow down the whole process of gearing up and surviving. Especially when barricading is in place. Then people will want to build there bases. And for most that will be there main objective. People will be much more careful since if they die, they can't access there base. Unless they loot there old body of corse. A random spawn for cars will also help with this. With random I mean literally random. They should pretty much be able spawn anywhere in my opinion.

I'm pretty exited for this since that is how I try to play it now. Not with the barricading part, but in a slow past kinda way. Walking from town to town, looking for supplies. Maybe I stop inside a house to take cover from the rain. These kinda things is what DayZ should be about. Surviving and to be as healthy as possible. Not to go on a killing spree in Electro or Cherno

[Jesus Christ The Goblin 71]

The main reason I scavenge rather than hunt for food is the fact that it takes so long to cook food and if I don't watch it constantly it only takes like 30seconds to ruin what I was cooking.

With the introduction of the leather vest I will kill animals to craft it or kill them simply for fun but I still wont cook the animal because I get bored as hell waiting for the meat to change colour while the smoke can attract people to my location, Although decoy fires help it's still a pain in the ass and a huge risk compared to running around and finding cans.

[Dagwood 680]

The main reason I scavenge rather than hunt for food is the fact that it takes so long to cook food and if I don't watch it constantly it only takes like 30seconds to ruin what I was cooking.

With the introduction of the leather vest I will kill animals to craft it or kill them simply for fun but I still wont cook the animal because I get bored as hell waiting for the meat to change colour while the smoke can attract people to my location, Although decoy fires help it's still a pain in the ass and a huge risk compared to running around and finding cans.

But can you see the long term implications? Canned goods won't always be as accessible as they are now. So cooking your food won't be something you can choose to forego because it's too time consuming. You won't have another option.

[Jesus Christ The Goblin 71]

But can you see the long term implications? Canned goods won't always be as accessible as they are now. So cooking your food won't be something you can choose to forego because it's too time consuming. You won't have another option.

I will still do everything in my power to avoid watching a campfire for 10 minutes, It wouldn't be so bad if food didn't burn so quickly.

If I have to take a hostage and force them to cook food for me then that's what I'll do but I will avoid having to stare at food cooking as much as possible.

I don't mind gardening since I can start new gardens while the old ones grow but staring at a campfire for fear of my food burning in 30 seconds? Hell no.

[Quat 19]

But can you see the long term implications? Canned goods won't always be as accessible as they are now. So cooking your food won't be something you can choose to forego because it's too time consuming. You won't have another option.

Quick question - I notice a lot of people making statements like this one. Where are you getting this information? Was there a dev post outlining a planned reduction in spawned foods?

[Calvin Candie 189]

Not even God knows what the final product will look like.

I still believe it will be something fantastic and that Devs are hidding most information for now.

If it stays like this with little more items and ironed out bugs, I will be dissapointed.

[Munson_fry (DayZ) 312]

as soon as stamina is added, those lootmarathons will be a lot harder. also bigger groups of zeds will make traveling over land a lot more dangerous ,so that u have to team up to survive OR have a car/truck or a bicycle ( my favorite ) to travel long distances.

those days will be golden......

[CJFlint 357]

I figured out what works well for me, and I pretty much do the same thing every time now. 1st thing I do is put together a basic kit. Knife, matches, compass (broken), stone knife, 1st aid, food, canteens, fire arm + ammo and axe. This take me about 20 min to an hour. By having these items, I can survive for a long time. Having a fire arm, axe, matches, gives me the abilty to hunt and cook the meat. Which means I dont really have to worry about going into towns or worry if theres no food spawning. Also there are apple trees and berrys. Farming, fishing and even digging for worms. So that basic kit, is important. The reason I say this is becuase even if they lowered, having a good basic kit, there you would still be able to survive just fine.

 

After I get the basic kit, then I go for higher end loot, military items or rare items. I norm have a idea of what I want to do and go after it. I am not a helicopter hunter, I already played with the M4 and got board with it back when they a common. This process takes a couple days, give or take. Once I hit a certain point I stop looting. I am not greedy, I get what I need I do not hoard. The reason is endless looting gets me killed. So I just get enough to have a good kit.

 

Its pvp and surviving after that.

 

But low loot counts do not worry me, there plenty of natural resources in game to survive. You just have to work to get it thats all. I will still travel the map, maybe even more so if loot counts were loots. Maybe my reasons for it would be different.  

Edited February 9, 2015 by CJFlint

[Dagwood 680]

Quick question - I notice a lot of people making statements like this one. Where are you getting this information? Was there a dev post outlining a planned reduction in spawned foods?

It's pretty common sense. Why would anyone bother to use any of those features if a quicker alternative is lying all over the place? The devs know this too.