True Sandbox Experience

[JBURNS489 165]

I was reading some other suggestions, and it struck me as strange that literally the ONLY place to get good military gear is NWAF and Myskyno(sp?)  tents. I have read some posts from the Devs explaining that the loot distribution is intentional because they are trying to create a "flow" of players and a sense of character progression. My question is, why does a sandbox mmo where you create your own story, even need a flow?

My suggestion is to make the game a true sandbox experience, where players aren't lead to certain areas of the map. Let us develop our own characters. If I run all the way up to NEAF, I should expect similar gear to drop at NWAF. Not just the air bases, but smaller military installations as well. Currently, you would most likely get better gear from a small unnamed village compared to NEAF, or any military installation for that matter on the eastern side of the map. There is literally no military gear on the eastern side, besides player's camps, random heli crashes and maybe a police station. Why do the developers want us to migrate to the northwest? Why not make similar gear spawn in similar locations all across Chenarus? Is it about concentrating player population so it forces more interaction? Or is it just purely for the flow? 

I have ~300 hours logged of in game time, and I hardly know the Eastern side of the map (besides the coast) at all. There is no point to explore over there, at least for me, because the gear is so bad compared to the Western side. 

 

Edited August 11, 2016 by JBURNS489

[Aim-iliO 7]

So your suggestion is to make the map smaler. Like only the coast and 1000 meter inwards. Because it sounds that thats what you use of the map. Right?

[Hairy_eyeball 82]

it makes me wonder if when zombies start to drop loot this issue might be relieved a bit. 

[JBURNS489 165]

2 hours ago, Aim-iliO said:

So your suggestion is to make the map smaler. Like only the coast and 1000 meter inwards. Because it sounds that thats what you use of the map. Right?

No...my proposal is to distribute military gear (in the appropriate places) across the entire map, instead of it all being amassed in a couple spots. 

It's true that is about all of the map I currently use though, plus north west air field and everything on the way. Everyone is entitled to their own playstyle, and mine is a tactical military approach. Not my problem if you have an issue with my playstyle, but if you have something constructive to add feel free :)

Edited August 10, 2016 by JBURNS489

[thunter 13]

16 hours ago, JBURNS489 said:

 

I have ~300 hours logged of in game time, and I hardly know the Eastern side of the map (besides the coast) at all. There is no point to explore over there, at least for me, because the gear is so bad compared to the Western side. 

 

Hear me out, but in the big picture, it sounds like you are actually pretty new to the game. Please don't get me wrong, 300+ hours is nothing to scoff at, but depending on when that time was played during the games development you may have missed a huge chunk of time where the eastern side of the map was the best. I've played SA religiously from the day it launched to now, mostly due to my already established love of the Arma 2 mod, and there was an entire 9-10 month period in 2014-2015 where EVERYBODY was on the east coast. 

Berezino was an absolutely massive magnet for pvpers and freshspawns who were looking to clean up after the carnage of the battles that could be found constantly on pretty much every single server.  I know what you're thinking, 'Berezino IS on the coast, I know it well.' But what we had back then was a daily routine where players would hit up the NEAF and all of the surrounding cities within 3~4km radius and they would flock back to the city in hopes of bringing havoc to the coast. All players who played back then will surely agree that we all got to know the other parts of the map if we ever wanted any player interaction. 

My theory: DayZ's developers have a cycle which they follow, and they will often times change it as they see fit. In early 2015 we saw many people abandoning the East due to the popularity of the prison island, and admittedly I stopped playing around that time, but from my understanding all of the action took place on the southern coast from that point on. Now we're seeing everyone head to the western hills because that's where the action is. I believe it falls on us to change this if we believe it is necessary. The best thing that each and every one of us could do is dedicate more time to parts of the map that aren't popular at the moment. And that is the only way we can make full use of this gigantic map. 

[JBURNS489 165]

11 hours ago, thunter said:

Hear me out, but in the big picture, it sounds like you are actually pretty new to the game. Please don't get me wrong, 300+ hours is nothing to scoff at, but depending on when that time was played during the games development you may have missed a huge chunk of time where the eastern side of the map was the best. I've played SA religiously from the day it launched to now, mostly due to my already established love of the Arma 2 mod, and there was an entire 9-10 month period in 2014-2015 where EVERYBODY was on the east coast. 

I have been playing DayZ for 5-6 months, so yes I am new compared to some of you guys for sure. I never played the mod, and only spent 15-20 hours with Arma2. Assuming the game takes off when it does a public 1.0 release, there will be a lot more new players.  A "fresher" perspective may be what the game needs. I started playing DayZ because I saw Frankie's videos and thought this game looked awesome, and it is! I am very curious, though, if the east will ever have similar loot to the west. If a barracks spawns military weapons and clothing in the west, a barracks in the east should spawn similar items. Thats how it should be in my opinion anyway. 

I can't speak for the way it used to be, but my guess is that people no longer really PvP on the eastern side of the map because there isn't much gear compared to the western side.  If people used to run to the NEAF and nearby cities, it was probably because there was actually something there. Since I have been playing, NEAF has been empty of loot.

 

Edited August 11, 2016 by JBURNS489

[thunter 13]

You're right about most of what you stated. One thing that I should further clarify is why PVP was so big in the east, and I think it'll make a lot more sense. 

First thing that I should say is that military loot used to be very very uncommon. The game used to be about forty people running the coast with shotguns, mosins, sks, and pistols-all of which could be found on the coast in the backs of trucks or in homes. You were more than welcome to run to NWAF, but the likelihood of even seeing an AKM was not guaranteed, and an AK 101 was worth losing your shit over. 

Now everyone has an M4, a gun that used to only drop from helis for a very big portion of SA's history. So in order to compete, you have have to run to the NW portion of the map. The game is definitely more accommodating now-much easier than it's ever been. I would almost guarantee that we will see fewer military loot drops and more guns appearing in residential areas near the coast-just like it used to be.