Sandboxiness, Guard Zones and the Deathmatch thing

[ZekkCC (DayZ) 51]

Firstly, I am not advocating for lots of guarded zones to be added to the game. I was originally an Ultima Online player from beta through final and onto most of the MMORPGS from then until now. Sandbox games, theme parks... all of em. I'm not a carebear and I'm probably not a hardcore pvper anymore either. I really don't care that much if you disagree with this so meh.

I do, however, think there is merit to having a city on the map where players are not capable of killing other players freely and is zed-free and resource-free. The reasons for this are numerous and let me just list a few:

Most players don't know the names/personalities/etc of other players because the servers are so numerous and the pros to interacting with other players are few. This was one of the most amazing parts of early MMORPG PVP. You knew your enemies and that would add tension to any pvp interactions and make victories sweeter. This change would make it so players started getting to know each other more. Enemies would be able to converse without the danger of being shot at that exact moment but when they leave the safety of the area, they're fair game again.

The guarded city being in a specific place would allow for another central area that players congregate which allows for interesting avenues of meta-game. Setting up ambushes on main routes seems like something that would be quite interesting. Reinforcements would come in from town just like they did back in Ultima Online.

I don't feel like it ruins the atmosphere either because situations like that could occur in a real zombie apocalypse as well. Some people claim this game is like a 'deathmatch' game, which I don't quite agree with. I do, however, think this type of dynamic would help mitigate the issues that people attribute to the 'deathmatch' aspects of the game.

There would be no real advantage to being in the 'city' itself outside of being able to trade with other players without fear of murder. No resources would spawn in the city and there still would be no such thing as item vendors or anything like that.

[Failstar 4]

"I'd like to create a central point where snipers can camp and pick off new and veteran players coming to trade as they're leaving." or "Meet up in, leave with, and get murdered by someone faking friendly."

I like the idea, but see what it boils down to?

[Patient Zero 2]

As far as I can tell. Rocket doesn't want this to be a pvp game. he doesn't want it to be a carebear game. He doesn't want to involve himself in any of this at all.

I think (may be wrong) He created a world and wanted to see what we did with it. With no policing or restrictions.

At the moment it's a bit all over the place but it's early days.

Any kind of interference makes the past few months a complete waste. With any experiment it must be seen through till the end. Only then can the results be judged.

Some good ideas. Just I don't think they are right for this mod at this time.

That's my opinion anyway.

[Dr. Toros 8]

Honestly, server-side location and gear would fix two of the main issues with the game: server hopping for loot, and using other servers to effectively teleport to a more advantageous position.

We don't need a city with no zeds as much as we need zeds to not continuously respawn. If I clear a city, zeds shouldn't spawn for a while.

What would be really cool, would be if there were generators in buildings known to be valuable, that require fuel to operate. When you put fuel in them, quality loot begins to spawn in, but zombies also continuously spawn in (think left for dead finales). This would be too difficult

Suddenly, people have a reason to actually kill zombies en masse, and a reason to not just server hop for loot. Make some new items that only spawn through this method, or simply remove high-end items that currently spawn normally, or both. People will have a reason to do something that would require a moderately armed group to invest time, or a heavily armed group to allow efficient resource collection.

If you could get great gear only by grouping up (or by killing people who had) more people would do it.

The ability to clear a city by killing 30-50 zeds would be a reasonable goal for fresh spawns if they worked together in groups of 2-6, and would give time to really comb through the loot effectively.

Initiating finales by powering a generator would give well-equipped groups the ability to get large amounts or high quality gear, but be too difficult for people solo.

Suddenly, two different tiers of people have a reason to work together.

This game needs more goals that require a group effort, especially for fresher spawns. Zombies also need to be less of an irritation (and their ability to break legs makes them extremely irritating) and more of an actual challenge (as currently you can simply run away with no risk).

Not having server-side positions and loot is also a problem, and would make people server hop less, which allows players to get to know each other. Trust could actually be built.

As far as I can tell. Rocket doesn't want this to be a pvp game. he doesn't want it to be a carebear game. He doesn't want to involve himself in any of this at all.

I think (may be wrong) He created a world and wanted to see what we did with it. With no policing or restrictions.

At the moment it's a bit all over the place but it's early days.

Any kind of interference makes the past few months a complete waste. With any experiment it must be seen through till the end. Only then can the results be judged.

Some good ideas. Just I don't think they are right for this mod at this time.

That's my opinion anyway.

You throw a lot of pretty phrases around, but most of this post is either short-sighted or meaningless.

This game needs to be improved relentlessly, which is what rocket is doing. It absolutely nails the harshness, the chaos, and the destruction that occurs in an apocalypse. What it is currently lacking is the ability to create anything. You can't create trust because there is no static community. You can't tell friend from foe because there is little to no character customization. You can repair vehicles, but you can't build a base or anything worth defending. Yet.

I believe rocket is working hard on fixing things and making this game deeper. We have the tools to break and maim, and can fix some things, but many people want to do the far harder task of creating.

[vaginaboob 0]

At the moment it's a bit all over the place but it's early days.

At the moment it's a big deathmatch with zombies sprinkled in. FTFY