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dorn956

Lootable Pre-Generated NPC Corpses

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My Idea:

I propose that pre-generated and interactable corpses be placed in ambient locations around the map with random loot generation based off of location of bodies.

E.G. - If you're walking by a small townhouse and you go inside, you find common household items. Well, how about a common household person who happens to be dead & not turned, or dead & turned? In said house you will find an average person with average clothing. Chances are they won't have a weapon on them, except maybe the occasional handgun or knife.

If you enter a military base to come across the same deal, this time they might be armored or have an assault weapon on them if any at all.

 

Why this would be beneficial: 

It would help to balance out the economy by placing less scattered (higher tier) loot, and placing more ambient corpses to loot in order to reward the characters for their scavenging.

What it would do for the game:

  1. Help to balance the economy
  2. Create a more in-depth atmosphere for gameplay (it will feel more like an apocalypse when there are more dead bodies that aren't just new spawns jumping off of ladders).
  3. Reward players for traveling to higher-population areas so people don't have to be forced to server-hop in order to find good loot in the same location over and over
  4. Tells a story if placed properly (for example, if you go into a small house and find a male and female side by side with revolvers in their hands and headshot exit-holes you can tell they most likely were not able to handle the stress of the apocalypse and ended up taking the high road - for developers that are not great with the English language, I am referring to suicide).

Key notes:

  • Bodies can be placed singularly or in mass groups
  • Bodies can be ragdolled and thrown wherever OR bodies can have a preset stance (sitting against a wall, laying on their stomachs, sprawled out as if trying to crawl away)
  • [COSMETIC ONLY] Bodies can have corresponding decals nearby based on position or type of body (human or Z) such as if it was a human sitting against a wall who was stabbed in the stomach, there might be a pool of blood underneath him that has dried due to time passing. Another example: if the npc was shot in the head laying down there might be a splat on the floor. However, this is strictly cosmetics and doesn't actually affect gameplay. Least priority stuff that can just go with it.

The biggest part about this is its economic value. I am not certain how your development engines work at Bohemia interactive, but from my intermediate knowledge of game design it would work something like this:

  • Body type is chosen (stance/position of corpse or if human/Z)
    • Choice: Human; Sitting - We'll refer to it as Corpse Type A
  • Location is chosen (townhouse in small village)
    • Choice: small home
  • Trigger box is set in places that can yield corpse loot
    • Trigger box type is selected based on location (Trigger Type A for small home)
  • Trigger Type A responds to Corpse Type A and uses an algorithm to determine what type of loot to place on corpse based on percentage of chance to have item (for example a handgun would be more likely to spawn than an rifle of any sort)
  • Once the loot has been majority removed from the body (to avoid leaving the shoes on or something similar to prevent this effect) the corpse will despawn in that location, and a new once will be placed in a new location (so people don't happen to know where to find corpses - that's just unrealistic).

*Please note - despawning and respawning as a cause-and-effect will allow the economy to continue to flow. Without the despawning attribute, the unlooted corpse will remain bare until server reset and no new loot will spawn. Having the corpse respawn in the same location will be unrealistic, because a player shouldn't walk into a house an expect to see the same dead guy they named Frank laying on his bed every day they go into that same house in that same town. You lose the realism at that point.

A preset number of pregenerated corpses can be set based on city size. I would try to narrow it down to Size A, B, C, and D based on hypothetical square footage (or however works best for the dev team).

 

Other things to take into consideration:

  • Q. What happens in players don't touch the corpses at all? 
    • A. I think it would be best to still have the bodies respawn after X amount of time regardless to have a constant flow. Not all at once, because the first issue devs may run into is all corpses refreshing at the same time, which could cause major lag issues. Also, maybe corpses should only be able to despawn if players are not within x kilometers of it? Just food for thought.
  • Q. What if players place junk on the corpses?
    • A. That's exactly why they should constantly respawn regardless of having loot on them. To avoid rupturing the economy by stacking junk on them or using corpses as piggy banks.
  • Q. Will Z's react to the corpses?
    • A. Maybe if the corpses are not turned due to whatever reason (be it a headshot or a possibility for a cure in the sense of lore) then the Z's will be attracted to the smell of blood (in theory) and will eat the corpse before attacking a player - unless provoked otherwise by a loud noise or damage).
  • Q. Can you damage the items on the corpse like on a real player?
    • A. I think that would be realistic but also dangerous to the economy. Maybe this time it would be better not to so players can beat the heck out of corpses just for the purpose of destroying loot.
  • Q. Corpse have collision? 
    • A. Maybe only for players, Z's, and loot. Vehicles or otherwise unexpected collisions may cause issues.
  • Q. Corpse deterioration?
    • This could definitely be included as well! If a corpse spawns with fresh food, near the end of its lifespan the food may rot. Or, food can already be rotted from the start to allow players to know the body has been dead for a long time. This could also be organized as Loot Spawn Types.

Thank you for listening to my suggestion - I hadn't found duplicate information so I am hoping this will be beneficial to the game. I feel like this could be a huge asset to the game and really allow for a more enhanced control of the loot economy in DayZ.

Edited by dorn956
Grammar error again
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I think it is a good idea, but i remember Hicks talking that they did not want more dynamic events. They were looking that the only interaction with "humans" will be players (refering to NPCs).

Instead I think that it would be a great idea to test corpse degradation, feature that the dev team talked some SRs before. It could be like zombie loot but with higher number of items and quality stuff.

I would like to know how these dynamic events will affect performance, maybe it is not viable for some reason... :P

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5 minutes ago, EdStaffordZombie said:

I think it is a good idea, but i remember Hicks talking that they did not want more dynamic events. They were looking that the only interaction with "humans" will be players (refering to NPCs).

Instead I think that it would be a great idea to test corpse degradation, feature that the dev team talked some SRs before. It could be like zombie loot but with higher number of items and quality stuff.

I would like to know how these dynamic events will affect performance, maybe it is not viable for some reason... :P

For sure man. I also considered how these dynamic events could affect perforamce. Thats why if they are not (what devs may refer to as) Actors, rather intractable props (like pretty much a cabinet you can open but in the shape of a humanoid), it should allow for smooth performance I do hope.

Also limitations on amounts per city based on size like I mentioned should also help with performance balance. 

Alpha testing is a good place to find out just how many they can or should cram into one small town without disturbing performance. Maybe that number is 4, maybe that number is 40. Haha

Edited by dorn956
Grammar error
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13 minutes ago, dorn956 said:

Alpha testing is a good place to find out just how many they can or should cram into one small town without disturbing performance. Maybe that number is 4, maybe that number is 40. Haha

Totally agree with that statement. It is the time for sure to test new features.

But i think that these type of thinks will come after the foundation mechanics (player controller) will be in, if not, we will have it for sure with modding! ;D

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Just now, EdStaffordZombie said:

Totally agree with that statement. It is the time for sure to test new features.

But i think that these type of thinks will come after the foundation mechanics (player controller) will be in, if not, we will have it for sure with modding! ;D

I like the way you think haha

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2 hours ago, dorn956 said:

I propose that pre-generated and interactable corpses be placed in ambient locations around the map with random loot generation based off of location of bodies.

You know, this is a suggestion I do not recalling hearing before... and I like it!

It may well be something for the more ambitious back end features but this could add more intrigue and variation to the set and setting of DayZ.

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Thanks for the positive comments, all. I just want DayZ to be done as bad as the next guy :)

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