Some feature ideas requesting feedback

[Karmond 0]

Don't you think it's a fair tradeoff?

Player who dont want to be ghosted can avoid this by placing such objects - im sure the ghoster could find out where the player is long before hand.

On the other hand, players who do login will be given a warning.

Can people within the perimeter get an alert indicating that someone spawned in? That way, the person logging in still has the choice, and both parties get notification if they choose to spawn in. Edited July 11, 2012 by Karmond

[omniblue 0]

I really like the campfire idea. Once suggestion, increase the visibility of the smoke the campfire trails. If the range is 300m, I would like to see the smoke above the trees canopy, even if faint.

[ChiefMasterKush 321]

I some how don't think changing someones spawn in point is a good idea. You log out under a pine tree and log in, in the middle of the road or by zombies.

I would much rather just have a log out timer. This seems like the easiest most effective way to handle all the problems in one. (30 or 60 second timer should be sufficient)

[Cdrive 60]

I am really shaky on this whole idea but if its range is to far, say 1km+, there will be some serious issues with logging in. I can see a team setting up a 5km radius of these things around the airfield with a small hole right in the middle where anybody who tried to log in would be shuffled right into the middle. At the rate of people who probably log in near the airfield, I can see this happening easily. This would be manageable with 8 people or so . For the first little while everyone sets up 3 of the 24 or so radio towers necessary that they have looted and stockpiled. Then two people watch the inner area where people will be funneled into, four people run around to the generators filling them up, and two more people take vehicles constantly refilling jerry cans. Everybody who logs into nearly an eighth of the map, a fairly populated area of the map, gets destroyed.

I think you're making it out to be way worse then it is. If his idea suggests a camp fire keeps away enemies by 100 meters, there is no way something .. ANYTHING in the game would keep something away by 10 times that much. I'd say expect 400-500m squared at max power at most, which is reasonable since that is only 1/430th of the entire map.

I some how don't think changing someones spawn in point is a good idea. You log out under a pine tree and log in, in the middle of the road or by zombies.

I would much rather just have a log out timer. This seems like the easiest most effective way to handle all the problems in one. (30 or 60 second timer should be sufficient)

a log out timer fixes people alt-f4ing. It doesn't fix people hiding, waiting for the log out timer to pass, join a new server, run the 1 minute it would take to get behind your target and log back in after another minute. This suggested implementation has nothing to do with log outs at all.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Cdrive

[Ag3nt Richt3r 19]

So basically, this is a system that gives players the option to create a no spawn zone.

But I think your mechanic is too elaborate. It's a problem everybody has. The problem doesn't only exist for clans with camps. It's an exploit and it needs more general solutions, instead of a solution that you have to find and create in the world.

What about giving players a standard no spawn zone of a 100/200 meters. It's just a standard with the same function. Groups can fortify a perimeter by spreading out. You'll never have any problems again. Every player knows what to do when there is an accidental log out. etc.

When a players attempts to spawn on another player he is either given the option to abort or to wait. And have a timer set for like 2 minutes before a player gets the option to log in outside of that zone. Or earlier when the other player leaves. (not likely in 2 minutes, but possible).

Edit:

Things you can do is for example warning players when this happens (a spawn outside your perimeter) with things you find and create in the world. Like a radio that crackles or beeps, whatever.

And you can expand on it with radiotowers as if they are a static player.

You can go all directions. But I don't want to be 'succesful' in the world before I get shielded from exploits.

^What he said!

Get rid of the 'static' logout location = login location. Make things more dynamic. Campfire (please start calling it a campfire, instead of a 'fireplace') + Tent = static logout = login point. No campfire = You fell asleep in the woods, town, etc, and you don't know where the H E double hockey sticks you are when you wake back up. Add a more dynamic radius for calculating where to spawn a character when they log back in.

This will benefit EVERYONE, not just those who have the time/resources to do so. It will also discourage the rampant DCing that is so prevelant today.

IMHO, the whole reason the PvP system in DayZ is so exciting is this,... one bullet levels the playing field. Casual gamers (aka gamers with jobs/families) are, for the most part, on the same playing field as the more hardcore gamers (aka gamers without jobs/families). This is the one aspect of DayZ that I hope NEVER changes. It adds tension, creates chaos, and keeps things interesting.

[ChiefMasterKush 321]

a log out timer fixes people alt-f4ing. It doesn't fix people hiding, waiting for the log out timer to pass, join a new server, run the 1 minute it would take to get behind your target and log back in after another minute. This suggested implementation has nothing to do with log outs at all.

I believe it does help though. If you have a 60 log out timer, the ghoster would have to log out twice and load up twice. That gives the other person at least 2 minutes to get out/reposition and probably closer to 5mins with the load times these days. I agree though it is more for the alt-f4'ers, but those are the only people I seem to run into. Then again I don't like to stay in the same area for long so maybe I just miss the ghosters, I imagine it takes at least a few minutes right now to switch servers twice, I know it takes me at least a minute to load up on the best of servers.

[osiris 44]

i like your idea. but i think your overenginnering the solution.

if this is only to stop ghosting/server hopping. then the system just needs to check for other players in the area you are about to log in to and then tell the player logging in to either wait and try again in a minute or log in now x number of metres away from the player already in game.

this could be troublesome for groups logging in, so maybe a friend list with permissions could be introduced.

basically add a friends battleye code to an allowed list.

as for things like camo hides. radio towers (for clan/friends coms) these are all good :)

but i would also like to see items from civi street. baseball bats melee knives. civi skins police skins police armour (extra protection/move slower)

[homeslice1986 9]

Its a fine idea, however I think it needs to serve more than just the one purpose. The ability for long range coms with handheld radios, or perhaps having a radio back-pack (that replaces your normal backpack, someone mentioned it before) that can use the signal from the stationary tower to have a portable version, with reduced range.

Also giving the radio towers the ability to track active radios in their range.

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

Seems like a great idea, if implemented right.

[cruc1al 0]

I support this fully. I will be your campaign manager for the Radio Tower beacon. I've been killed twice in the NW Airfield (Southern Barracks) by a server hopper as I was leaving, after clearing the rooms. Or your shooting at someone, they log out. Only to reappear behind you and kill you, even if your on a roof with 1 access point (ladder). I'm sure Rocket had no intention of this sort of ass-hattery by players, and the logging out and despawning the Zombies just because you can. Really takes away from the game. There should be a logout timer of 5-10secs. That amount of time isn't unreasonable in a good situation, in a combat situation that gives enough time for the coward to die by my bullets. Food for thought and discussion.

Keep up the updates and the good work.

[jovial 17]

I like the idea, and if it can be implemented easily at this point, might as well try it out, it is alpha after all. What this game needs is more base building / clain oriented content, anything along those lines until we can get the more advanced base building I've seen Rocket post about would be a godsend.

[jetao2008@hotmail.com 175]

I'm sorry if this was mentioned before, but IMHO it would also be cool if the direct comm range could be increased properly according to the range of the radio tower.

[Angus60 0]

Wouldn't it be simpler just add entropy to the position in the DB. On logout, add a random 100-300m in a random 360deg direction to current position. Check to make sure it is on ground level, not in a building, and not clipping any statics. No ghosting and you still log in in the same general area you left.

For camps add exception where if you are within 10m of your tent at logout, your position snaps to standing in front of your tent upon login.

[Arnie (DayZ) 21]

Ok, if this is possible then how about my idea.

The radiotower jams you if you want to log in - OK

Problem with this is friends not being able to log in at "their" base.

Solution Give the radiostation a 3 didgit code, if you know the code, you can log in there.

Another implementation I can think of is the following. Put a number of "distress beacons" along the coastline

Make them work like this.

Spawning players still spawn random along the coast.

Moving along the coast they find and activate one of the distress beacons and enter a 2 or 3 didgit code for it

The beacon stays active for a limited amount of time lets say 5 minutes

Players who create a new character/spawn will be informed there is a distress beacon active and if they want to spawn at that location

If they chose to do so they have to enter the code, if it maches they spawn near that distress beacon instead of randomly along the coast.

This would eliminate one of the most frustrating aspects of the game without sacrificing too much of the gameplay. The ability to start off at the coast with a friend instead of having to find them.

[fleacircus 3]

I certainly agree that something needs to be done about ghosting and abort-on-contact exploits but this solution doesn't strike me as simple nor elegant.

• Players will need 3+ significant items (radio tower, generator, one of more jerry cans) to combat an exploit that ideally wouldn't exist in the first place. These items will take time to gather and eat inventory space. This means you're actually punishing the victims ​of this behaviour, not the offenders.
  

• This will only solve the problem in very specific circumstances. Any players who are travelling from A to B can still be ghosted. Any players who decide against making their camp even more painfully obvious can have it ghosted. Any players who have not yet found and deployed the items can still be ghosted. Anyone with a weapon range greater than the tower range can still ghost to a new vantage point.
  

• A somewhat more subtle result of this scheme is that you're essentially condoning ghosting in any circumstances where an exploiter is able to do it. There will be many circumstances where deploying this anti-spawn measure will be impractical or impossible for a group. When this group is killed by a ghoster, the ghoster will simply claim "They should have had a tower up".
  

• This idea seems like a cumbersome attempt to fix game problems via the game world. I think these two things should be kept entirely separate. Yes, players vanishing and reappearing is unrealistic - but it's also obviously required. It's okay to use something unrealistic but required to fix problems with it. You don't need some plausible game world solution like this. It will always feel cumbersome if you do.
  

I'm not entirely sure why you wish to use the game world to address this problem. Preventing ghosters will never be fun and using out-of-world systems to prevent the problem will be much more effective. Along these lines there are probably vastly more elegant solutions to the problem. So, to try and be constructive in my criticism, here is my proposal:

• Log players "last played server" to the hive when they disconnect.
  
• Have the server maintain a list of players who have disconnected within the last 15 minutes.
  
• When a player connects to a server, check if they're in the disconnected list. If a player exists in the disconnected list and that server not the last server they played on, do not allow the connection.
  

This would allow players freedom to change servers but not for ghosting. If players are on server A but it's lagging or bugged, they can rejoin server B. They can freely rejoin A in 20 minutes when the problems have passed. If a players internet goes down and they are disconnected from server A, they can immediately rejoin as server A is still their last played server and thus they haven't been able to alter their position in any way.

A final touch would be to broadcast join/part messages over direct comms. This means if you see a join message, you know someone has just spawned in within X metres. Yes, this advantages the players already in the server but that is a fair penalty for them not logging off somewhere safer. It would also help to name and shame players who abort on contact. It could be used by bandits watching a camp to learn when the camp is clear and safe to raid but this is unlikely and losing all your tents is a just punishment for failing to notice a bandit in direct comms range of your camp.

tl;dr: No. This scheme adds nothing fun, punishes the wrong people and will only work occasionally.

[Ampoliros 43]

Another option to make radio towers useful would be Coding the radio towers and making them spawn points (i think this is adding several ideas already stated here together).

When you log on a server, you are default set to random spawn coastline. Then for every active radio tower, you can choose to spawn there, IF you know the code for it. Codes would be set when the tower was placed.

While I hate removing the more realistic spawning where you logged out, forcing specific location spawns would cut down on server hopping for both farming and make it virtually impossible to 'ghost'.

Throw in destructable towers (Or even reprogrammable!) and only the best geared/highest pop clans would be able to maintain a tower near a loot source.

I second the idea of having towers that block zed spawning as well, so that we might begin to retake Chernarus. Of course this would also have to limit the amount of loot spawns in the area.

[Washington Irving 5]

Don't you think it's a fair tradeoff?

Player who dont want to be ghosted can avoid this by placing such objects - im sure the ghoster could find out where the player is long before hand.

On the other hand, players who do login will be given a warning.

With a spawning distance of 100-200m, a player given the option of spawning in on the edge of the range of the tower knows there is someone very, very close. This distance is easily within range of about every primary weapon in the game. Unless the tower operators are given some sort of cue about incoming players, then no, the incoming player is at a very high advantage over the camped survivors.

How about instead of all out preventing spawning around the radius of broadcast, it would instead give an auditory warning that someone spawned in within range. That way the person coming in isn't made aware of the location unless they are looking for it visually. The camp remains covert, and the broadcast tower still serves an viable purpose.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Washington Irving

[Arnie (DayZ) 21]

Another option to make radio towers useful would be Coding the radio towers and making them spawn points (i think this is adding several ideas already stated here together).

When you log on a server, you are default set to random spawn coastline. Then for every active radio tower, you can choose to spawn there, IF you know the code for it. Codes would be set when the tower was placed.

While I hate removing the more realistic spawning where you logged out, forcing specific location spawns would cut down on server hopping for both farming and make it virtually impossible to 'ghost'.

Throw in destructable towers (Or even reprogrammable!) and only the best geared/highest pop clans would be able to maintain a tower near a loot source.

I second the idea of having towers that block zed spawning as well, so that we might begin to retake Chernarus. Of course this would also have to limit the amount of loot spawns in the area.

I don't like the idea of being able to spawn anywhere but at the coastline. Putting spawnpoints anywhere would just be too exploitable not to mention it would defeat alot of the games intentions. Thats why i suggested the distress beacons all along the shoreline that can be activated and used as spawnpoints if you know the code.

eg: My friends and I die. I spawn. Run along the shoreline, Find a beacon. Activate it with my code 666. Tell them over TS the beacon code is 666. They spawn at the coastline near my beacon. Alas, we can head inland together instead of having to run around for an hour to find eachother. The beacon stays active for 5 more minutes then deactivates and can be used again by other survivors.

[xaphoo 1]

This makes no sense within the gameworld and breaks one of Rocket's first principles: a focus on immersion.

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

i think it is a worthy effort to fight server hopping, but its just too sci-fi imo.

it actually acknowledges that other people in my dimension can warp to another dimension, ghost around me and warp back into my dimension.

(edit: and serverhopping to revolve around other players would become sort-of legit, because then you can fight it with ingame measurements)

it takes away from the authenticity we need so badly for this mod.

imo, logging out of a server should be like sleeping. if you dc or log out, your character is flagged as sleeping, and to wake up after reconnect it takes 30 seconds.

exactly what we already have, but it needs to happen upon every login, just not as long.

half a minute waiting time is not really that much, and it would force people to think about WHERE they are logging out.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Azrail

[Zeromentor 169]

"- Prevents "logins" inside a radius of the broadcast range of this radiotower.

- Broadcast range of jamming signal affects the length power draw.

* Players attempting to login within the broadcast radius will be told that there is currently an active radiotower broadcasting a jamming signal.

* Players is given choice to spawn to spawn at edge of the jamming signal."

-Quoted from OP

Yeah, there are a lot of problems here that I can see already.

1. Moving spawns, which could be buggy. I wouldn't like to spawn on a server and be thrown 100 meters away into a tree or a wall or in a floor or unenterable building.

2. The warning gives away the position of players or their camps. I could easily triangulate their location based on the max size of the jammer and just logging in and out about 3 times.

3. What happens if someone blocks off entire cities with barbed wire and traps, then plants these down? The city would only need a small crew to protect it and replace barbed wire as it is removed. Entire towns taken over by clans, where they can set up these in order to make players spawn in open plains or at the bottom of hills, giving them prime targets for the killing.

I like the idea behind the idea, such as working generators and radio towers, just don't like the spawn-jamming aspect of it.

+1 for everything BUT spawn-jamming. I hate server hopping and ghosting as much as the next guy, even lost friends to these people, but this has too many problems that could come from this.

[rlr149 0]

like this idea, i'd suggest there be static generators/masts at both military camps, NWAF and NEAF as well.

agree the spawn move could be buggy, but it's alpha anyway.......... give it a try, what could go wrong!! :D

[FaxMonkey 10]

Seems like a bad idea to me. Adding game mechanics to counter game exploits is not the right way to go about it.

What about fresh spawns? They have no chance of beating ghosters unless they've been lucky enough to find the gear required to stop this type of exploiting.

There is probably a much simpler way to stop ghosting. Say, if you completely disconnect from a server you can't rejoin the same server for another 20 mins.

Stop the exploit from being possible, don't try to counter it with gimmicks.

Portable radio towers would be better served as a game communication mechanic.

[Method (DayZ) 5]

Portable radiotower (quite tall so it's visible and can be deactivated by other people)

Characteristics:

- Prevents "logins" inside a radius of the broadcast range of this radiotower.

What if a player loses connection and is forced to rejoin the server? Now he can't get back in because of his own radio tower.

* Players attempting to login within the broadcast radius will be told that there is currently an active radiotower broadcasting a jamming signal.

* Players is given choice to spawn to spawn at edge of the jamming signal.

Bad idea. Letting a player know that there is another player or group of players nearby is a terrible thought and breaks immersion. Also allows bandits to find players to kill easier.

Burning fireplaces works as before but with added function:

- Prevents login within 100 to 200m (radius to be balanced)

I love this idea. In my opinion its much better than the radio tower. 100-200m is a bit far. Maybe 50m when near a lootable building or tent?

- Displays similar message to player attempting to login, player is given choice to spawn at edge of radius.

Read above.

[Ander (DayZ) 530]

The use of these items is a risk vs reward. If you want to protect yourself against ghosting, then us it.

If you dont want to reveal your position dont use it.

It's basicly to protect when your position is already known and you want to hold ground.

If player who activated it loses connection it gets disabled.

If a friend of him loses connection he could deactivate it manually.