Should there be a start advantage for "Good guy Greg"?

[Normad 0]

Hello to all and welcome to my first suggestion post in DayZ forums.

My general impression of the game (skip if you are in hurry):

I have been playing DayZ for few weeks now and in general I have been enjoying game very much

because it offers greater tension combined to a bit of realism & survivalism than I have ever seen in

any another game. There were so many things I actually could do in game it was plain suprising

and I'm still learning new things every now and then which is great and gives good feeling when

you made right decision in time of need or managed to do something you though would be impossible

in video game. In this game your actions really matter and you can actually play the game in the way you

want or feel like would be closest to your actions in actual life should something like this really happen.

Realism and pvp:

In generally speaking feeling of realism is quite stunning (outside bugs) but the only thing I feel like is a bit lacking

is pvp acting you will encounter in game. Before you think "great just one more whine post" please read rest of the

topic to understand what I'm trying to say. I'm not saying killing someone should be penalized in ways that effect to

your current character and gameplay too heavily but currently I feel like playstyle of many players seems to be

shooting everyhing on sight which feels a bit strange because in real life I think many of us would hardly take

another's life without feeling any guilty at all or commit mass murders as natural course of action

Morality vs pure pking:

Personally I tend and try to play "fair" which in my morality means that I won't be shooting unarmed players, those who won't be too close to cause me any problems or those who don't try to attack me (or my friends) first in a way or an another, Sometimes my decision means I can skip fight because player(/s) don't notice me at all or they are actually friendly enough not to shoot me at second they spot me which feels always great and rewarding when it happens but very often I find myself laying on ground and looking bloody hand or hourglass which makes me sometimes wonder if shooting others right away without "real reason" is only way to play atm unless ofcourse you are travelling with friends/group and possess superior firepower to stay alive or get your gear back without losing anything after you tried to act fair to some random player.

My actual suggestion and reasoning behind it:

After thinking a while and reading some other suggestions including topics like bandits, pvp and so on I saw few different ideas how being bandit and shooting players should be penalized but I felt like it was an aspect of game and should not have too big (debuff, easy to detect skins etc.) or unnatural penalty (new sheriff npc hunting bandits even though it's freaking Armageddon out there) so I started to think should players with good past karma be rewarded instead when they make new character? Lets say you haven't killed or shooted any players that didn't attack you first or who didn't have earlier murders in their list for past <insert suitable time here, for exsample 4 hours> of actual game time meaning time only spent while in game and playing and not being offline no matter if you die during this time or not. Should this time pass without breaking the rules your new character would start with improved gear maybe including makarov (maybe even Colt 1911?) with 2 mags, crowbar/axe, extra bandage & painkiller to ensure you have a bit of a head start to those who's purpose is to run nearest city, find some weapon and look for good camping roof for pking. This wouldn't also really break "endgame" either by giving unfair advantage to "good guys".

Extra rules to stop players abusing this:

Of course there could and should be certain rules (like suicide reseting timer) that would ensure this wouldn't be abused too heavily like having afk account you only use to spam respawn to ensure your main account and/or friends have unlimited stash of starting weapons from dead bodies (maybe even stop another players from looting pistol & ammo from body after death).

TL;DR:

You really should read this through before commenting too heavily but purpose of the thread was to give an idea of better starting gear for players who haven't recently commited any murders with their character(/s) no matter if they have died during this time or not.

Closing comments:

Well this certainly became much longer post than I was planing at begining but I felt like I wanted explain my idea as well as I could to ensure players didn't misundertand what I was trying to say and have some idea of my reasoning behind the suggestion. At this point I have to thank anyone who actually went and read through whole text and want to give you a chance to comment how you feel about his suggestion, take part in poll or comment if you better idea for starting gear (just keep mind not to start flame war because you know different players might or might not agree with your ideas or points ;) ).

P.S: Sorry for wall of text.

Thank you all!

Survivor Normad, Friendly

Edited July 23, 2012 by Normad