Suggestion to improve gameplay experience: spawning sickness

[Daricles 22]

Hello all,

 

I've just recently returned to Dayz to check out the game's progress after a long hiatus.  I see that there have been many improvements to the game engine and inventory system.  I think you guys have the survival part of the survivor-horror genre nailed down pretty darn well.  I can't think of any other game that does it better.

However, one of the things that initially disappointed me about the game and eventually caused me to lose interest still remains:  Being killed by someone spawning behind me into a location that I have recently cleared.  

Just the other night I searched a barracks house in a campsite and visually cleared all of the rooms.  The barracks only has one entrance and I was watching the doorway -- no one came through it.  Suddenly I hear a noise behind me and turn around to see a guy standing in the hallway -- he shoots me and I die.  This is incredibly frustrating to me as a player in an otherwise immersive and fairly realistic survival game.  It cheapens the experience and makes me wonder why I bother with all of the realistic gameplay tactics I employ such as visually observing an area before I approach and clearing buildings before I pick up items and manage inventory.

I understand that persistence and drop-out and come back later to resume the game where I left off Is a central mechanic of Dayz.  I'm not suggesting that be altered.  However, it would greatly alleviate my frustration if there were some sort of warning that a player is about to spawn into the game nearby -- potentially into a place I have determined should be cleared of enemies.  

Therefore, I propose that, when a player who is not a recently killed player is about to spawn, a lit flare be dropped at the spawn location about 30 seconds before the player spawns and the character immediately vomits as if they were sick when they enter the game.  This will give a brief visual and auditory warning that another player has magically appeared nearby.  If necessary, you could also grant the spawning a character a brief period of invulnerability to prevent them from being ambushed and killed by nearby players immediately after spawning.

I think some version of the above proposal would be an effective compromise to balance the advantages and disadvantages between players logging back into server and players who happen to be nearby when geared up players spawn back into the game.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Daricles
Correction

[WOLFGEIST 122]

This is called "ghosting", some people abuse this mechanic on public servers by going to an empty server and logging out in a high traffic area and then logging into a more full server. This is an issue that I don't see a clear way around, unless the game had an algorithm that placed players just spawning in 50 meters or so away from any nearby players. This might be challenging to implement though, as it might accidentally put them somewhere dangerous. 

Actually, I just had an idea. Give every building a "safe spawn zone". When a player logs in, they will spawn in the nearest "safe spawn zone" that is not within a specified proximity of another player. But even this could be an issue, if you log in and realize you should be in another house, you'll know that another player is within that house. Or, perhaps randomize the algorithm so that when you log into a town you will be randomly placed within a "safe spawn zone" within 200m so you never know which house you'll log into. 

The main issue I have with your idea is that it really puts the player logging in at a disadvantage, as people will see a flare pop up and then they can just camp that area. They could follow the person until their sickness resided and kill them quite easily, especially if they're playing in 3rd person where they could hide behind a building/wall and watch them in complete safety.

Edited July 31, 2017 by WOLFGEIST

[Destiny Riggins 3]

I can see why OP's solution is quite aggressive against the spawned player, given the experience he had. While it's important to prevent players from abusing the spawn mechanic, I think it's also important to protect regular players from other spawn-camping players. Like what WOLFGEIST mentioned, there really isn't a clear solution to the problem.

 

Here's my idea of a spawn mechanic "fix". For players logging in, they will be put into a countdown screen, and if other players exist within a certain radius (does not mention the actual distance or number of players though) from the supposed spawn, they will be notified of potential "danger", and have a choice to spawn elsewhere (or quit) within the countdown period. For the players already logged in, if another player is attempting to spawn within a certain radius (actual distance also hidden), they will receive an alert message telling them someone is attempting to spawn. But the existing player will not be notified if the attempting player actually spawns. This way, warnings are provided to both parties, while protecting their interests. The existing players can be notified of potential danger (like OP's case), while players logging in have the choice to spawn at a safe distance.

[Atom Quark 437]

The problem is from being able to log out in buildings.  I think if you are in a building logging out should be disabled.  It solves the problem of the player clearing it, the issue with players in PVP going inside and logging out, and using it to loose infected and wolf agro.   

Any audio or visual cue for a login is unacceptable.

Edited July 31, 2017 by atomquark

[Daricles 22]

So, guys, I get what you are saying about not wanting to make it easy for players in game to camp a player spawning in for an easy kill.  However, the way things stand now, the player spawning in has a huge advantage over players already in game by appearing out of thin air ready to fight with no warning.

A simple visual and audio cue, it doesn't have to be exactly what I suggested, would solve the problem and create a more balanced situation for both players.  The suggestions I made use assets already in game and just seemed easy to implement I'm not looking to nerf the player coming in.  The flare might drop 5 seconds before spawn or whatever works best.

You could drop a different color flare depending on the proximity of other players.  Say red if another player is near the spawn point or green if not.  This would give the player spawning in the same kind of warning the player already in game is getting and should put both players on fairly even ground.  The goal is that a player already in game would see or hear the warning cue and have just enough time to hide, get out of the immediate area, or get to cover.  If the player coming into the game has a brief period of invulnerability and the same kind of warning they would have enough time to recover from the spawn sickness and get out of the immediate area, get to cover or engage a nearby camper with the advantage of invulnerability.

There has to be some way to address this problem.  If not, I can see myself quickly losing interest in the game again and not coming back despite the things the game does well.  I don't mind playing a game where I die frequently if I can look at the situation and see that I made a mistake or could have done something better or the other guy was better than me.  However, when I feel there was nothing I could have done differently to prevent my death, I don't really feel like playing that game any more.