Restructured Loot Tables (Pretty long post)

[KnT47r 51]

TL;DR - Add a shitload of weapons and adjust the loot tables to prevent oversaturation

For the readers;

I'm sure by now most of you have seen this;

http://picacid.com/arma2/loot_en.html

If not, go look. It's pretty valuable

Many people have suggestions on what weapons they do/do not want in the game and now that it's been confirmed that DayZ is going standalone on the RV4 engine the possibilities of having weapon attachments means that the number of different weapon combinations could be huge.

For starters, my stance on weapons is this - No modern weapon that exists IRL should be excluded from the game. But many people, myself included, don't want to see the oversaturation of military grade weapons that we do now. This issue is pretty easily fixed through adjusting the loot tables.

I'll try to break it down into smallish chunks of info so people don't get an anurism trying to read it...

1) Distinquish between Melee, Military weapons and Civilian/Police weapons

The current weapons and examples of added weapons, the tables would look like this;

Melee - Most commonly found weapon - Bats, hammers, knives, shovels, pitchforks, axes, crowbars etc

Civilian/Police Sidearm - Somewhat common weapons - Makarov, M1911, Revolver, .38 Special, Glock17 and Glock variants etc

Civilian/Police Smallarms - Somewhat uncommon weapons - Crossbow, MR43, other sporting/hunting shotguns and low calibre hunting/sporting rifles etc

Civilian/Police Longarms - Uncommon weapons - CZ550, Lee Enfield, Winchester, police marksman rifles, high calibre hunting/sporting rifles etc

Military Sidearm - Rare weapons - M9, PDW, HK P2000, FN FiveSeven, IMI Desert Eagle (<- Lulz flamebait) etc

Military Smallarm - Very rare weapons - MP5, M1014, Remington 870, UMP45, P90, MP7 etc

Military Longarms - Extremely rare weapons - AK variants, M4/M16 variants, M249, Mk 48, AS50, M107, M24, SVD, DMR, G36 family, MG3, AUG family etc

Within each table, each weapon should have it's own percentage drop value.

What this does: It will allow literally hundreds of weapons to be added to the game without oversaturating the world with high end weaponry

2) Redo ammo/magazine system

Ammo should be found in stacks of "x No 9x19mm", "x No 5.56x45mm" where x is a random integer decided via diceroll when the loot spawns.

Magazines should work similar to water bottles, meaning you'd have to reload the ammo you find into a magazine you've found in order to use it in your weapon. No more magically converting a revolver mag into an M1911 mag

Weapons should be found with a single magazine and more loot tables introduced for "Ammunition" and "Weapon accessories". More on this later

What this does: Makes ammo and magazines a commodity. In a real apocalypse, you're going to die/run out of ammo LONG before your weapon stops working

3) Assign different loot to appropriate zombie types

Military and police zombies should have a LOW chance of carrying ammo, weapon accessories or a sidearm on them

Doctor type zombies could have a LOW chance of carrying morphine/epi-pens on them

Hunter type zombies should have a LOW chance of carrying a steel bolt or hunting knife

Heaps of people wear watches. Looking around my office currently I can count 2 out of 10 that don't. So give all the zombies a LOW chance to drop a watch

What this does: Nothing really, increases the immersion that little bit more :)

4) Reassign/Create new loot tables

Trash - Empty bottles and cans, more 'trash items', partial maps, notes, postcards, shopping lists etc

Civilian Misc. - All civilian items such as binoculars, matches, batteries for items that need them, clothing of all sorts, compasses, different types of bags (http://dayzmod.com/f...nventory-space/) etc

Melee Weapon - As discussed in Part 1

Civilian Weapon - x% Civilian/Police Sidearm, x% Civilian/Police Smallarm, x% Civilian/Police Longarm (should add to 100% - like 66%, 33%, 1% for example)

Food - Canned food, raw meat, soda and full/empty canteens in here, different food items (based upon calories), different beverages based upon 'hydratation'

Medical - Bandages, Heat Packs and Painkillers - Low end medical gear.

Hospital - Antibiotics, Bloodbags, Morphine and Epi-pens - High end medical gear.

Military Misc. - Everything military that isn't a weapon (smoke genades, camo, ghillie suit, ETs, tank traps, wire traps etc)

Military Weapon - x% Military Sidearm, x% Military Smallarm, x% Military Longarm (should add to 100% - like 66%, 33%, 1% for example)

Ammunition - Random drop chance of a type of ammo as discussed in Part 2

Weapon Accessory - Magazines (somewhat uncommon), Optics attachments (scopes, red dot/holo sights etc) (Mega-rare), Barrell attachments (suppressors) (Mega-rare), Side/Under rail attachments (bayonettes, laser sights, NADs, flashlights, grenade launchers) (Mega-rare)

Industrial - Pretty much as is now, more types of tools, more types of base building items,

What this does: Makes Part 5 so much easier

5) Assign loot tables to building types

Default - N/A

Residential - Civ Misc, Melee Weapon, Civ Weapon, Food, Medical, Trash

Office - Civ Misc, Food, Medical, Trash

Industrial - Melee Weapon, Medical, Ammo, Industrial, Trash

Farm - Melee Weapon, Civ Misc, Civ Weapon, Food, Medical, Ammo, Industrial, Trash

Supermarket - Melee Weapon, Civ Misc, Civ Weap, Food, Medical Ammo, Trash

HeliCrash - Hospital, Mil Weap, Weap Acc

Hospital - Medical Hospital Trash

Military - Medical, Weap Acc, Mil Misc, Mil Weap, Ammo, Trash

Barracks - Medical, Hospital, Mil Misc, Mil Weap, Ammo, Weap Acc, Trash

Disaster Relief Building (currently referred to as "Church") - Melee Weapon, Weap Acc, Civ Misc, Civ Weap, Food, Medical, Ammo, Trash

What this does: Ties it all together

Edited August 30, 2012 by KnT47r

[KnT47r 51]

Holy thread update bump Batman!

Yes I feel dirty doing it

[Zeromentor 169]

This is actually well thought out.

I just think that ammunition should be a little more rare, and magazines should be a little more common. During a zombie outbreak, it would make sense to find empty magazines (people leaving them when they run out of that kind of ammo, or dropping them in the middle of a firefight, or zombie attack). Ammunition would be more rare.

Also, it seems that the military (which ever one it was) came to the area to deal with the zombie invasion. That means you would find discarded military weapons all over the place, usually near dead soldiers' bodies. In reality, if a military left quickly, they'd leave behind piles of firearms. Now at the same time, they might not leave a lot of ammunition boxes, or filled logistics trucks or even working vehicles.

What I'm trying to say is, more weapons, more magazines, less ammo. People left behind would be running through easy-to-find ammo (like civilian grade) quickly, and they might not stop to check the dead. So, you'd easily find guns, but military grade ammo would be rare.

EDIT: Also next time, don't wait so long to bump your old suggestions.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Zeromentor

[KnT47r 51]

But bumping is evil >.<

Yeah that was what I was kinda going for, not only ammo being rarer than weaponry but finding the right type of ammo being rare as fuck

The idea that I was playing on for military weapons to be rarer is that yes, there'd be piles of weapons left behind after the military bailed, but there'd also be piles of people (more of a backstory thing than real players) that will come through and take said weapons - scattering them pretty thin across the area

Added Weap Acc to more places for more common magazines, the attachments would need to get a drop rate nerf if that happened though

Note that "somewhat uncommon" is like current tent spawn rate in my eyes

Edited August 10, 2012 by KnT47r

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

While I agree the loottables should be re-evaluated based upon experiences and data, there is one thing that is missing from this whole post...

ADD MORE ITEMS TO SPAWN!!!

Adding more items will automatically put 'pressure' on loot-drop-chances, only a couple of items can spawn each time and the chances of the items that can drop that time are always 100% when combined together. So shifting % around only makes one items spawn more often than another. But add more items to the loot tables and other items just spawn less, because this new item needs a % of chance to drop too! ... also, once more buildings are enterable there are going to be a lot more places where loot can spawn, and thus there need to be more items!

Possible items:

- Clothing of all sorts, tons of it

- More different food items, based upon calories instead of just 'filled'

- More different beverages, based upon 'hydratation' instead of just 'filled', esp. sugary or alcoholic beverages would also provide calories.

- More different types of melee weapons

- More 'trash items', partial maps, notes, postcards, shopping lists, w/e

- Now that upgrades and guns can spawn seperately, do so

- More different types of bags, also broken ones (http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/30663-cut-down-inventory-space/ )

- More types of tools

- More types of base building items

- (rechargeable) bateries, batery boxes for vehicles, generators, light bulbs, electrical cord, soldering iron, solder, fuses, resistors etc... electrical items using bateries...

- etc. and so on...

After all these things get added, THEN the loot tables can have a good evaluation, and it's fairly likely several items will spawn way less just because there are now more items that can spawn in it's place...

[KnT47r 51]

Can't believe I didn't see your post before Login, I'll incorporate it to the OP when I get a second

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

AH nice you did a rework based upon feedback, i like it when OP's maintiain their proposals as the community contributes to them :) ... it looks realy complete now (without to much details on the exact items) ... more than worthy of some beans ^^

[IncognitoNico 71]

you know... there are civilian grade AKs and M16, ofc they should be the rarest of the civilian

[KnT47r 51]

you know... there are civilian grade AKs and M16, ofc they should be the rarest of the civilian

True, but everything I put in there was just trying to paint the picture better. Point is that there's no reason not to add heaps of weapons in and provide more choice for players

[xximrtwoixx 104]

The reason not to add them is because its a waste of dev time, as you have to set up ballistics, skins, etc. for a weapon that already has one or two items filling that slot. Or they are just shitty reskins,of the same code and thats also a waste Imo.

Also you dont really pressure loot with more items, yea you see fewer tin cans but junk is junk.

[KnT47r 51]

I wouldn't go as far as "a waste of dev time". There's a reason every game that has come out in the last decade lets you change the way your avatar looks, people like to have choices even if they add absolutely nothing to the gameplay

Next time you're on, have a look at the amount of people that play with a custom face. Why do you think they choose to change it even though it serves no purpose except to look different?

[Hetstaine 10852]

Exactly :) Variety is the spice of life.

I , and probably a lot of us have been thinking along the lines of your post. I would actually like weapons to be even less of a chance than you have suggested. The churches for instance should not spawn any guns or ammo.Food , drink, trash and medical but no weaponry. Standard shops can maybe spawn an under the counter handgun but no ther weapons or ammo unless it is a sporting goods type store.

Definitely more melee type items, i mean you should be able to pick up a brick and throw it at a zed if that is all that is around :) but it is not something you would want to cart around with you.

Houses need a lot more items to spawn. The standard house with a garage/shed will have nearly everything you need from the get go in rl. Thing is we dont want everything in one spot and its a huge score making the game easy, but they need a lot more variety for sure.

[KnT47r 51]

I did think about the churches pretty long and hard tbh. There's a few reasons I put Civ Weap in there;

1 - They spawn weapons currently

2 - I'm currently studying engineering and in one of my tutorials we covered disaster relief buildings (churches, stadiums, schools, halls, police stations, fire stations etc). Places where people flock to when bad things happen (fire, flood, earthquake, war, zombie apocolypses etc) and thought that eventually there would be more than just churches in the "church" building type (will edit the OP for this actually). It makes sense that gear will be left behind when a large mass of people clear out of one of these disaster relief buildings in a hurry when the zombies come a knocking

[xximrtwoixx 104]

I play with a custom face, mainly because it allows our group to identify each other easily, those stupid goggles are good for this....

I am for more weapons, but I would rather have a lower quantity of additions that are done well than a massive amount of re-skins. IMO there is no point in having a reskin of another weapon because that "slot" as far as what the weapon does, is already filled. They are tools, some are better than others at certain things, I would rather be able to have a wrench and a breaker bar than a million wrenches. This also goes effects each weapon in that the more you do the less quality each one will be, I'd rather have great audio for the ones in the game than a million with bad audio, and IMO the audio is already bad.

Also if the system from arma 3 is used you will be able to customize weapons much more, though I don't see how this can/would apply to civilian weapons that don't have rails.

I also agree that there should be more civilian weapons, not melee really, but more civilian guns like .22LR Pistol/Rifle, 22-250 Rifle, .45LC Pistol/Rifle, .30-06 hunting rifle, a super rare .223 WSM hunting

The point being that all of these serve other purposes, you have light to heavy and fast to slow. Different tools for different jobs.

I'm also for other gear but there has to be a point, like a flint/steel that is hard to start a fire with but never runs out and a windproof lighter that makes it really easy but runs out of fuel. The advantage/disadvantage should be there for different things.