Semi-permanent Residence, (un)-safe housing

[Fireworks 24]

I apologize if a similar idea has already been posted. I searched a bit, but could not find this exact suggestion yet and wanted to share it as I think it would be an amazing addition to the game.

First of all, this is not a small change, and thus would likely be something for the upcoming standalone as opposed to the current modded version.

The suggestion: Allow groups of friends to "claim" small shelters/houses/etc. as a place to store items (to an extent) and fortify.

The details: There are a few different options for where these shelters can be claimed. One option is to have designated areas on the map (not necessarily this map that is currently used) to claim rundown buildings. Another option is to introduce the aspect of construction and allow construction to take place in various areas. Either way, the act of claiming or building a house/shelter would be a time-intensive process and require a lot of materials to build/maintain/fortify.

What this allows:

• Satisfaction of "owning" territory
  
• Centralized place for friends to meet/converse
  
• Potential for "towns" or various groups of friends banding together (like clans)
  
• New aspect of building fortification (e.g. repairing walls to prevent zombie break-ins)
  
• New aspect of raiding on other's houses for the goods stored there
  
• Increases game longevity by a lot without sacrificing the survival aspect of the game (see "Why this does not ruin the game" below)
  

Balancing: A couple of the things above would obviously need to be balanced and configured in a such a way that it does not ruin the current gameplay model. Below are just a few things that I think would make the suggestion viable.

• Only allow a very limited storage of items (or perhaps require a large amount of materials to build more storage units, but still overall be very limited)
  
• Houses should not be a respawn point
  
• If a house is properly fortified, it should not be able to be raided instantly. Instead, the raiding player should have to use tools to break-in, and it would take longer the more fortified the house is (though nothing is 100% raid-proof).
  
• Zombies should also be able to enter the house, potentially making their own entry if needed, though if properly fortified it would be difficult
  
• If a house is not maintained, it will fall into ruin. The area then becomes reclaimable.
  

Why this does not ruin the game: I am assuming that some people will claim that something like this does not fit with the theme of the game (according to some posts I have read about similar suggestions). To those people, you should keep in mind that currently the game has no longevity. Yes, it is a very fun mod for Arma, but if this game is to ever become more than what it is, it needs more longevity and more aspects to it. In addition to that critical fact, this housing aspect does not even contradict the realism of zombie survival. It would make sense to have a way for people to "live" somewhere and fortify the location (at least until overrun with zombies!). Overall, the game has to advance far beyond it's current state if it is to ever be a standalone game. This suggestion is fairly drastic, but there will need to be plenty of drastic changes on the path to success for DayZ!

I will post/add/modify what I have written here as I or you develop the suggestion further. Happy debating.

[Poopty Pants 0]

I actually like this idea better than the ability to build things. What would also be great is if zombies didnt just spawn next to houses so you would have to occasionally protect your claimed house from hoards of zombies.

[Deathcall 101]

I'll give you beans just because you presented the topic so tidely.

Overall, it's a great idea, but yeah, it'll have to wait for the standalone. The current engine will make it hell for the devs to apply this.

[-E-Claymore 22]

The biggest problem with this idea, which I think has merit, is that once you start to repair/fortify/maintain said residence, you WILL draw attention from other players, and therefore, you'll get camped. A lot. The only way I see this being viable is if server populations were locked. That is, a character being restricted to the server it was created on.

Since server hopping is common, and with no stable population on a server, you'd have a never ending stream of people either wanting to loot your place or kill you for fun. If they want to join you, there's a good chance it's only to loot your place and eventually kill you anyways so they can take it over.

If DayZ were a co-op game instead of the multi-player game that it is, this would be a great idea, but don't think it'd work in the current environment.

[Deathcall 101]

Remember that factions are coming Claymore, it might help with the problem you mention.

[thedog88 180]

i always liked the idea of building my own place within a town of other player owned homes so just for that you have my beans. it can be done, even right now, to a certain extent but would require some new objects/models for the buildings. it would be pretty cool going into the forest and chopping wood then stacking it up for a small building.

imagine a house needing something between 50-100 wood piles + scrap metal for the door maybe and some nails (should be able to nail down stuff using the backside of the hatchet, so no need for a hammer)? once you have a house you could add chests (storage units) and add up to 2 or 3 to 1 house. each chest should be able to hold as much as 1 or 3/4 of a tent making them worth while. obviously as stated, it shouldnt be 100% safe, just safer. the house could shelter from cold weather, wild animals and zeds (but zeds eventually break it). seeing how tents are already in the game this would actually not kill the balance of the game that much because it would be nothing but a bigger tent with some added safety features.

people should be able to light it on fire though (jerry can + matches) and burn everything inside. why? nothing should be permanent! lol

and yes it should deteriorate after a few days. maintenance is a must and should take a while. a player should be able to look at the house and scroll to "maintain house" and then a animation should start lasting 10 minutes or so. EVERYTHING about a house should be hard, annoying and at the same time rewarding. i.e. collecting sooooo much wood would piss me off, but having a house, worth it. somebody burns it to the ground... rebuild.

great idea, great potential, hope to see it sometime.

[Fireworks 24]

If DayZ were a co-op game instead of the multi-player game that it is, this would be a great idea, but don't think it'd work in the current environment.

I agree it would not work in the current setup. It's something that would have to wait for the standalone. I have not read much about how the standalone will work in terms of the servers, but it likely will be much different/better than how it is now.

[Fireworks 24]

I just realized that the dev has plans for base-building in the standalone, so perhaps this post is calling for something that is already planned. I suppose we'll see? Nevertheless, it would still be nice to come up with some suggestions for how exactly the "base-building" is going to implemented:

“In order for people to not feel ripped off we need to have a load of new content; so, things like base-building, tidying and cleaning up animations and add ragdoll physics as the like.”

Source: http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/24/dayz-could-be-standalone-before-christmas-base-building-and-more-on-cards/

[Fireworks 24]

For anyone interested, a "base" concept was more or less confirmed in a recent interview:

See 14 mins in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BlHvh0JVuk

Edited July 26, 2012 by Fireworks

[Fireworks 24]

Any other suggestions/critique? Let's get conversation flowing to help get this idea developed.