Adding Psychosis, Co-operative Buffs and Character Experience

[Yarrick68 (DayZ) 26]

Skip down for the TL; DR

I found this mod last week and have to say this is fantastic. I loved not starting with a weapon as it forced me to learn how to play and think this was a brilliant move since I hear you used to start with a weapon. If you think you need to start with a weapon then you need to learn the game better. I bought Arma2 when it first came out and can’t believe how much more of the map I am enjoying since my focus now is on the terrain and buildings rather than just killing enemy. But as I have been reading the forums and learning the game I have thought of a few things that might be easy to implement and add real emotional impact to the game.

First Idea is Psychosis. A major complaint is the shear amount of player killing. Why is this going on? ,because there is no drawback to it. In real life if you started killing fellow human beings for sport then you would be developing a mental disorder, it is not how normal humans function. Look at soldiers that come back from war, they spend their whole life dealing with mental issues from killing enemy soldiers; imagine killing your fellow countrymen. If someone in game makes a conscience decision to hunt other players then his character should over time develop quirks that would affect his game play. I would say after about 3 player kills this should occur (should allow some for self defense). Some ideas would be that your aim gets worse. That would hurt the biggest issue, snipers at range that are server hopping. (I also would like to see a 2 min timer before you could reconnect to another server after disconnecting but that’s a different topic). Then after x number of kills maybe the bandit could develop noises like but different than the zombies make, like he is talking to himself or something. Anyway I am sure people could come up with other suggestions. Raving mad player killers sounds awesome…lol

Second would be Buffs that you get for helping other players. As most people know when you help other people in real life it feels good and life seems to go easier. I am suggesting when you help someone in game, like a transfusion, that you get a non-stackable buff. For instance someone one needs a transfusion, I help him out, I get a buff that slows down my need for food and drink for an hour or two in game, ect. or something like that. Something that encourages people to work together, after all it’s the end of the world as we know it and all we got is our fellow survivors.

Third is Character experience. I am not suggesting skills or exp or anything like this, but right now all that matters is your gear, your life does not. I killed myself because I had a broken bone, and I didn’t care. I laid my equipment in a bush, respawned and came back and got my gear, no negatives. What I suggest is that we get a bonus for living so many hours. This should not be a leveling system so I am thinking about 3 timed events per character. This would also represent the characters getting used to living in the aftermath and getting smarter about it. My thoughts are at 1st hour of game play, 12th hours of game play and 24th hour of game play you would get a permanent buff or augmentation. I was thinking along the lines that a new character has less inventory space, and then at the 1st hour they would have normal inventory space available. Not sure what to do at 12 and 24th hour as I am not sure what can be done in the code, extra inventory is an idea, reduced food and or water consumption, moving quieter, ect. But something to make throwing away your character not a great option.

I think the above suggestions add emotional impact to the game, which is why most of us play this Mod. We can always go play Battlefield 3 if we just want to shoot people.

TL; DR

1. Add psychosis, where Bandits get mental quirks over time.

2. Add Non-stacking temporary buffs to players that help other players in game.

3. Add Character permanent buffs for living so long in the game.

[Zeromentor 169]

No.

No.

No.

Reduced survival, easier gameplay, buffs, that is what you are asking for? Go back to WoW.

[Kulyss 0]

Your psychosis idea was kind of bad. Actually, everything was kind of bad...