PvP and PvE servers (with a twist)

[Hutch (DayZ) 116]

Suggestion.

I know that without PvP, this game would get boring quickly.

But, new players just learning how to play and many others just want to PvE without *&^%*&^ sniping us right after we've spawned.

My suggestion is to have some servers with PvP (friendly fire) disabled.

But with a catch that may or may not be possible.

Obviously players would exploit this by gearing up on PvE servers and switching to PvP later.

So I suggest that charaters created on PvE servers would be unable to connect to PvP servers and vise-versa.

So your character would be flaged as a PvP character at creation and cannot be changed until death/respawn. (just like your sex)

Characters flagged as PvP would only be able to connect to PvP servers and players without the PvP flag would only be able to connect to servers with friendly fire disabled.

Of course this may not be possible but I think it probably is. Dayz has it's own authenticaion servers so it should be possible to allow or deny access to particular servers based on the hive character data.

Of course PvE only servers wouldn't be nearly as immersive and realistic and probably not as much fun in the long run.

But people want to play the way they want to play. Who knows, maybe a different kind of emergent gameplay will develop on PvE servers where users cooperate instead of killing each other.

[Skithe 13]

I will admit the greif PvP can get out of control rather quickly as there is nothing to curb a greifer. That being said I think it is what keeps this game interesting. You always have the sense of looking over your shoulder to make sure no one is coming. Used to feel the same way in Vanilla WoW when i would go into contested zones. Its that uncertanty that drives paranoia. Take that element away and complacentcy sits in quick. Being a survival based game adapt or die.

[SP45M 240]

Grats for being the second carebare to suggest this today.

[ollox 38]

The solution to camping is more spawn points.

[Morotstomten 34]

personally i think you should get to choose if you want to be a survivor or bandit right at the start, survivors cant hurt other survivors(except maybeon expert difficulty with some kind of warning then penalty), on lower difficulty survivors can only see the names of other survivors,, and bandits can shoot and be shot by everyone including other bandits, they could have a unique skin, a black trenchcoat to add a little cliché(until they find ghillie suit that is), they dont see the names of anyone, they start with a makarov and 2 clips but no bandage, painkillers or flashlight.

survivors with gps could see other survivors with gps and add map markers with a message to alert people of bandits or inform them of awesome loot and a timestamp so you know how old it is, you get a beep when someone adds a marker and there should be a cooldown between adding markers to prevent spam.

also bandits should have a little more blood than survivors(25% maybe) and last longer until starvation/dehydration.

but survivors shouldnt be allowed to fiddle with other survivors backpacks like they can now since you cant kill them to protect your stash.

obviously if such a faction option was implemented you would need to some kind of server protection that prevents survivors from teaming up with bandits and luring out other survivors to get killed by them.

also, while i did suggest bandits get a gun right at the start and have more blood and lasts longer without food and water i would be playing survivor mostly

Edited July 27, 2012 by Morotstomten

[jay.pis 32]

The solution to camping is more spawn points.

Pretty much this.

It's like everyone washed up from some wrecked ship or something.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

I will admit the greif PvP can get out of control rather quickly as there is nothing to curb a greifer.

Really? Guns seem to work fine for me. I curb the living shit out of them.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

The solution to camping is more spawn points.

Except people don't camp spawn points. They camp Cherno and Elektro downtown. There are no spawn points there, only idiots who haven't realized yet not to go into Cherno and Elektro and run around in broad daylight standing on rooftops.

[jay.pis 32]

personally i think you should get to choose if you want to be a survivor or bandit right at the start

What about having it so that players start off as survivors or lets say Blue players which are neutral. Blue players kill blue players a couple times and now they turn bandit or lets say Red players. Then let players have the ability to "target" these players, for example hitting the tab key while aiming at them will show a color icon on screen, blue or red. Of course the ability to target depends on the range, you can't if they're too far away, maybe players can only target about 50 meters maybe?

Something to that extent anyway.

[jay.pis 32]

Except people don't camp spawn points. They camp Cherno and Elektro downtown. There are no spawn points there, only idiots who haven't realized yet not to go into Cherno and Elektro and run around in broad daylight standing on rooftops.

This is true but as a new player they probably won't know this. At least spreading out spawn points around Chernarus lessen town camping [or at least thins it out] and give a greater chance for new players to survive.

Edited July 27, 2012 by jay.pis

[paul101 (DayZ) 16]

I've been thinking the same - In the same way that some servers have the Third Person Camera disabled, Friendly fire should also be optional.

"Oooh, it's not realistic." Neither is running indefinitely, reloading a hatchet, half the people you meet mute (they don't have mics), respawning after you die and picking up your stuff from your dead body, loot spawns replenishing, server hopping etc. Hate to break it to you guys, but Dayz isn't realistic. Disabling friendly fire won't impact the realism of the game as much as you think - especially if you ramp up the number of zombies on said servers.

The fact is, a lot of people like this game for the survival aspect, not the PvP aspect. It would be a much better mod if friendly fire were optional.

[Mike133 2]

Grats for being the second carebare to suggest this today.

If you are going to contribute nothing and toss around some UrbanDictionary.com insult term, at least learn to spell correctly.

Spell-Check has rotted all you geeks' minds...

[Partywaffle 24]

I do not support PVE servers.

The game is build around PVP.

If new players don't want to get killed they should go to a low populated server, and learn to play there. That's what I did, and I don't regret not dieing from snipers camping spawn points.

[Grey Warden 90]

The idea is sound to me. For those who like PvE play on dedicated servers. For those who like PvP play on dedicated servers. It'll stop people bitching that "oh i got spawn sniped" or "why did i get shot for having an axe from 200meters away?" etc etc etc.

I cannot see the problem at all with this. Want the realism of not trusting anyone? Play PvP servers. Want to be able to trust someone and play purely RPG based? Play PvE servers. What is there to hate? The game wont change for those who like the PvP aspect as there will still be plenty of servers for it. It just gives those who don't want it a chance to get more enjoyment from the game as some of us (believe it or not) want to be able to play the game a different way.

Its a game at the end of the day and its an Alpha too so why not test it out at least?

[Mos1ey 6301]

Because PvP is part of the game.

Why don't we make a version with no zombies too, and we can organise a 50 man circle jerk at the NW airfield.

[Grey Warden 90]

Because PvP is part of the game.

Why don't we make a version with no zombies too, and we can organise a 50 man circle jerk at the NW airfield.

It is part of the game but all the OP suggests is to make some servers have no PvP to allow those that don't want it able to play without it. OP is not saying to take it out just saying that people should have the choice to play it that way.

Thats why i say we should at least test it as no one is sure if it would actually be a good thing.

As to the second part of your post about jerking off well this wouldn't happen as they would just shoot each other in PvP or be shooting hordes of Zeds in PvE (alot more than usual to compensate for the increased teamwork). Also some people would want to sit around with 50 others a jerk off, its the benefit of any game to have FUN.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Grey Warden

[Mos1ey 6301]

I prefer to play as a survivor, not a bandit. I don't fire unless I'm fired upon. If you make PvE servers then the few friendly players left disappear from the game and I'm left with only bandits and griefers.

And you can't add more zombies, it would cause too much server lag. In the ARMA 3/standalone versions there will probably be more zombies.

[Rokochan 26]

Used to feel the same way in Vanilla WoW when i would go into contested zones. Its that uncertanty that drives paranoia. Take that element away and complacentcy sits in quick. Being a survival based game adapt or die.

or the player on a fast flying mount that drops out of the sky and blows you up and flies back out

[Grey Warden 90]

You make a good point about PvP only servers being only full of Bandits. Losing the immersion of trust and distrust.

Maybe then instead of dedicated servers it instead tells you how many Bandits are in game at the start (or when you look at the player list by pressing P ingame). This way you can calculate the chance of meeting Bandits as say 12/50 players are labelled Bandits (not next to their name you only know that there are 12 in the server not who). So if you meet a Survivor theres a 12/50 chance his a Bandit allowing people to trust alittle more easily.

People also get to choose if they want to 'count as' a Bandit (sort of declaring your intentions to give a more accurate number) like the Male/Female choice.

This can be done by anyone with 2 or more murders as are counted as Bandit for the 12/50 number. Anyone with 5 or more are actually labelled as Bandit on the list so you know they are more dangerous too.

At the moment everyone i see i count as a possible Bandit and to avoid. Though if i knew that only 12/50 are Bandits then i could actually take a more calculated risk...or not.

[kulin 10]

I think a better solution would be to add in a softcore-pvp-mode and a hardcore-pvp-mode.

Softcore PvP means:

1. Bandits are flagged clearly as bandits.

2. L85 AWS has no thermal vision anymore since this weapon is only good to kill other players.

3. Night Vision Drops of any kind are more common, to give no over equipped player-killer any advantage.

4. Kill Messages with position(XXX killed YYY in Chernogorsk). Bandits may even like this. They want pvp, they get pvp since everyone who wants to hunt them is comming after them. :D

Hardcore PvP:

Everything stays as it is.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Knightowl

[Mos1ey 6301]

Bandits shouldn't be flagged or anything like that. Not knowing who to trust is a BIG part of this game. That moment where I'm in cover watching a guy, trying to figure out his intentions, whether to make contact, let him pass (or do I have to kill him?!), is awesome and no other game can provide that. Messing with stuff like this would ruin it.

I'd like some kind of humanity system to tone down the deathmatch that the game has become, but nothing too extreme.

TBH, I think even something small like getting rid of he 'murders' statistic would make a big difference in the amount of pointless PvPing and griefing going on.

Edited August 1, 2012 by mZLY

[Grey Warden 90]

I didn't suggest making it so all Bandits can easily be reconised (who plays with nametags on? (not me). What i suggested was a simple number of how many Bandits are in your current server so if its 12/50 aare Bandits then you know its a 38/50 chance they are a Survivor and can then take a more calculated risk as to whether you want to approach that person or not. As it is i avoid everyone thus making me a lone wolf and thats kinda boring. I know i can post here and put together a team etc or play with RL friends but thats not really the interactions i was going for in this mod. As it stands most treat others as being hostile so they either avoid or shoot. This is making the mod boring.

[kulin 10]

@mZLY:

If you don't like bandit-flagging play on a PvP Server. Very easy.

[Mos1ey 6301]

@Owl - Then we're back to the no friendlies in PvP servers problem... Pay attention.

@Warden - I think you'd get a lot of 'Oh, too many bandits in here. Let's go somewhere else...' going on. Part of the game is not knowing this stuff. I think the game would benefit greatly from something to discourage pointless murders and griefing, but real banditry (killing for loot/map control/etc.) shouldn't be hindered in any way, in any server. :)

[smudge^ 0]

To people who say that everyone should be aloud to play this mod how they want, well they can but only within the rules the game provides. This game doesnt have PvE rules and is not a PvE orientated game. So you cant. Stop moaning about wanting to play PvE this is a PvP game. Thats all there is to it.