Balance of Power: How to Make a Bandits v Comrades Suggestion

[ollox 38]

We all know that Day Z is currently heavily geared towards PvP. While I am in favour of banditry this game has potential far beyond senseless killing, and something must be done to level the playing field. However, our method must not be to punish banditry but to encourage camaraderie.

Consider these tenets when making a suggestion, I hope they speak the ethos of Day Z:

Fear is valuing one's life.

Remorse is valuing the lives of others.

Grief is losing what can't be recovered.

Camaraderie is being stronger together.

There is no divine retribution in Day Z, if we are to punish bandits it must be at our own hands. Think about what you would do to combat the situation if this were real life.

What would be different about a real-life post-apocalypse that would make banditry less desirable?

What makes people band together in times of trouble?

Why is it wrong to kill?

How can order be restored?

That last question is perhaps the most interesting one, and a subject Rocket has touched on in several interviews. We need society to enter the game and for that people have to become useful: there have to be actions that can only be completed by working together, whether that be something as simple as helping carry objects that can't be lifted alone or combining specialised skills to gain advantage over the lone-wolf.

The development of Day Z is itself a post-apocalyptic tale we are all living through. We are rebuilding a civilisation as it is being created for the first time.

[Blakorr 77]

i agree with some of this, but it sounds like you're forcing cooperation not just on bandits, but on people who want to play on their own as well.

[wolfstriked 143]

The mod is just unfair to people that do not wanna fire on to other players since they could be good.Just watched a 4vs5 battle and it hit me that Dayz needs people to make a choice.When you spawn you should be able to choose either a good or evil player.Good get normal survivor skin style and evil get this style below(with both having multiple skins).This not knowing the intentions of the person you just confronted head to head is getting old and ends usually where I just die.But I LOVE PVP and when I sneak up on someone and they look like below I would love to take them down.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1471-better-bandit-skin/

[ollox 38]

i agree with some of this, but it sounds like you're forcing cooperation not just on bandits, but on people who want to play on their own as well.

I'm not forcing anything, I'm only asking people to think of the real advantages of teamwork. I'm actively trying to avoid more suggestions that impose sanctions on players who don't want to cooperate.

The mod is just unfair to people that do not wanna fire on to other players... When you spawn you should be able to choose either a good or evil player.Good get normal survivor skin style and evil get [bandit clothes]... But I LOVE PVP and when I sneak up on someone and they look like [bandits] I would love to take them down.

Did you not read my post? That goes against everything I've been trying to get across. It's completely illogical to force players to wear particular clothes based on their playing style, that's why Rocket took out the bandit skins. There could be gear that is particularly useful for bandits like that balaclava but it shouldn't be enforced. If I came across someone wearing that I would be pretty darn suspicious, I'd wonder if he was a bandit and observe for more clues. I don't want to be able to look at someone and immediately recognize them as a bandit, that takes the tension out of it. Conversely a bandit could dress up as a friendly comrade and march into a settlement undetected and then start murdering and pillaging (and possibly raping if rocket wants to add that!) this all adds elements to the game that would be lost if we had a set wardrobe. In real life your enemies wont always look like bad guys, in fact the one's that do are the least dangerous.

[PhilB 230]

I like where your post is going. I'm interested in ideas that address the replayability issue.

You said you are in favor of banditry but believe the game has larger potential.

I treat that thought as two separate assertions that I think are valid.

First, survivors love banditry as much as bandits do. Lets be honest, no one plays the game solely to kill zombies and pickup food cans. That's boredom. The game compels you by the constant threat of death while killing zombies and picking up food cans. To think of it this way, this is the best survivor game ever made because the enemy, usually AI, is in this case other human players, and effing sharpshooters the whole lot of 'em it seems, damn bandits. I don't fire on other players, but I wouldn't enjoy the game if other players weren't firing on me.

My prediction about this mod, organized survivor resistance leading to massive factional warfare, is an outcome for the mod that I'd find satisfying, seeing how it is just an experiment anyway. I think that outcome is the sort of 'camaraderie' that is naturally taking shape and of which you desire. We're seeing as many anti-bandit clan recruitment as bandit recruitment now. War is coming (or was before the hackers ruined it all).

The other point here is this: Despite how much I love the hardcore nature of this game, the whole kill or be killed does get tiring after a while and I do have this other desire to do some questing, some inconsequential play time. The game already does a great job with questing. You quest to find and fix up a car. You quest to set up a base camp with tents and barb wire and whatever else you bandits put in your 'camps'.

Maybe that's the point. The game currently offers some bandit questing, but not much in the way of survivor questing.

[Blakorr 77]

The mod is just unfair to people that do not wanna fire on to other players since they could be good.Just watched a 4vs5 battle and it hit me that Dayz needs people to make a choice.When you spawn you should be able to choose either a good or evil player.Good get normal survivor skin style and evil get this style below(with both having multiple skins).This not knowing the intentions of the person you just confronted head to head is getting old and ends usually where I just die.But I LOVE PVP and when I sneak up on someone and they look like below I would love to take them down.

http://dayzmod.com/f...er-bandit-skin/

you're a retard. this accomplishes nothing because everyone will just choose the good player skin.

and not knowing how other players are going to behave is what makes dayz work

[3rdparty 229]

been posting on a couple o topics aout this today XD

i think that the group incentives should be set in real modifications they can make to their environment, but also using the old facilities left over. ITll provide incentives for taking over areas, fortifying them, establishing trade or rivalries with other groups controlling various other objectives or industries and provide incentives to enlist or "win over" new spawns in order to maintain control of an area consistently.

[ollox 38]

I think the main thing holding construction back is multiple servers: if we were all on the same server you couldn't get past barricades by server hopping.

The game is very bandit oriented, as PhilB says, there really isn't anything for survivors to do other than avoid bandits.

I'd like to see objects being manipulated in the real world. Carrying a helicopter rotary assembly in your rucksack is stupid: you should have to find a pick-up truck, repair it, drive it to where the assembly is, use the crane to lift the assembly onto the truck and drive it to the helicopter, then you'd have to find a way to winch the assembly into position. None of this has to be pixel perfect, I wouldn't care if there was all kinds of clipping or the assembly seemed to hover not even touching the crane.

You could also require two or more people to lift heavy or large things like sheets of corrugated iron, maybe these could be used to build fortifications or shelters.

[wolfstriked 143]

Did you not read my post? That goes against everything I've been trying to get across. It's completely illogical to force players to wear particular clothes based on their playing style, that's why Rocket took out the bandit skins. There could be gear that is particularly useful for bandits like that balaclava but it shouldn't be enforced. If I came across someone wearing that I would be pretty darn suspicious, I'd wonder if he was a bandit and observe for more clues. I don't want to be able to look at someone and immediately recognize them as a bandit, that takes the tension out of it. Conversely a bandit could dress up as a friendly comrade and march into a settlement undetected and then start murdering and pillaging (and possibly raping if rocket wants to add that!) this all adds elements to the game that would be lost if we had a set wardrobe. In real life your enemies wont always look like bad guys, in fact the one's that do are the least dangerous.

And that was my response to the OP.See people will want to make squads in future dayz that will fight for underground territory.If Rocket gets his way then people will be fighting underground but no one will know who is the enemy.Some people ask for arm bands to distinguish who is on your side but this is so one sided.....it just allows this one squad to play open target on survivors.I am a survivor type player but love to PVP.If Dayz gives us skins to differentiate good from bad then many players can now fight back.If not then dayz will either force deathmatch mentality on survivors or they will leave.

[wolfstriked 143]

you're a retard. this accomplishes nothing because everyone will just choose the good player skin.

and not knowing how other players are going to behave is what makes dayz work

^^ :rolleyes: here are some beans baby :beans:

With the logging that will take place,Rocket could then start giving warnings and then bans for players who kill their own teammates.You wanna be banned?? :P You better be careful where your bullets go when your shooting at the enemy standing right next to your friend.