Survival immersion and new gameplay mechanics

[dirray 0]

Me (my name in game is jarnoid) and my friend r3i started playing the game recently and came up with these suggestions to increase the immersion of the game and to encourage player interaction instead of people just going around killing everyone in their sights.

Hidden stashes

Players should be able to make hidden stashes to store their items in. It would require a shovel, which takes either secondary weapon slot (an entrenching tool) or primary weapon slot (a large shovel.) A small mound of dirt could be the indicator of a stash. Stashes could be made out of backpacks, this would make it less possible to scatter your stuff in million different places (thus reduce server load). The stash would remain in the same place on the server they were last in, stored on to the central server, and stay there until logged in again. Other players would be able to loot the stash even when you're not logged in as long as they are in the same server you've last been in, making exploring much more rewarding. There would be people stalking others, following them to where their stuff are, and getting higher rewards than from just immediately killing them on sight and taking what little they have in their pockets. If the player logs into another server, the stash would "follow" the player to that server. Shovels could be found in farms and entrenching tools from military areas.

Addictive substances and murder shock

Instead of giving the player a bandit skin or other visual indicators that they have killed other people, and making the consequences of killing another player more drastic, whenever a player kills another, he'd go into shock state for a short time (few minutes.) This would also justify self defence without permanent penalty. You could go on a killing spree, but it would have some kind of, at least temporary impact on you.

The shock effect could be negated or temporarily postponed with substances, ie. adrenaline instantly relieves shock, and, for example, tobacco would make you impervious to such effects for a short time. Substances like tobacco should have addiction and withdrawal effects. If you smoke too many cigarettes in a short time, you'd get withdrawal symptoms after a certain amount of time. Say, a cigarette makes your aim steady regardless of shock for few minutes, but if you smoke more too many in too short amount of time, you'd get addicted, and after some time, your sights would start shaking notably, until the addiction wears out after a long period of time, or you smoke another cigarette, which resets the timer.

There could also be other substances, such as tranquillizers, which give few minutes immunity to shock, and have similar addiction properties. This being implemented, you could have a supply of tobacco and tranquillizers and go kill people without consequences but you'll eventually run out of supply and then be in trouble with the addiction. Coffee could be made near fireplaces and reduce your thirst and warm you up/prevent temperature dropping for some amount of time and give you a stamina boost if it's implemented. Substances would also play a great role in player interactions in form of trading.

Infection and poisoning, medicine

Being near deceased or being attacked by a zombie has a small chance make you infected. The player would not get any indicator whether they are infected or not. Eventually you'd start getting blurred or desaturated vision and passing out. After a random amount of time, unless the infection is cured, you'll start losing blood VERY rapidly. If a player has died while being infected and was carrying food or drink items, they also have a small chance of being contaminated. This would make it a little more difficult to decide whether to kill a player for his can of beans unless you know he's certainly not infected. Food and water could be "purified" by using a fireplace (when near a fire, right clicking a consumable gives options "cook and eat" and "cook and drink.")

There also would be a very slight chance (about 5% - 10%) of getting food poisoning from uncooked food. If foraging is implemented, this would also apply to mushrooms with significantly greater chance, and some mushrooms having 100% chance to give poisoning. Food poisoning would have long lasting but not a lethal effect. It would make you momentarily pass out or vomit and give blurred vision until taking medicine or the poisoning wears off.

There would be a medicine which cures food poisoning instantly, and an antidote which cures infection. Adrenaline would make the poisoning/infection side effects subside for a while until you get the right medication. Without an indicator whether you're poisoned, infected or just having a common cold, you'd have to use your own sense to diagnose yourself. If the vomiting does not end after taking food poisoning medicine, you probably are infected. Have you eaten uncooked food lately, have you looted the corpses of dead players or zombies? What is going to cure this condition?

Fireplaces and utilities

As has been suggested numerous other times, a fireplace should be allowed to make anywhere in forest areas if you have matches. In places other than forests, you'd need firewood. A matchbox would have limited amount of uses, and if you'd have to use fire more often eg. to cook your food lest you get poisoning, this would make a lot of sense. There could also be an option to use a flint and tinder (which can be found in military areas and forest huts) in the forest if you also have a knife with you, and there's no limit on how many times you can use them. With limited amount of uses on a matchbox you would need to consider when and where to make the fireplace. A fire in the middle of the forest means there is probably someone with food in there. You could either go there and take their food, or if you don't have means to make a fireplace yourself, you could ask the other player if he doesn't mind you joining him in the camp to cook your own.

Zed attraction and behaviour

The zed would occassionally wander around areas other than towns within a certain range, if there's something interesting nearby. A fire near them would make them slowly shamble towards it, not instantly aggroing them, but rather getting them interested and attract them. With this, they should be a little more aware of their surroundings, and not allow you to crawl behind a meter behind their back. You could also use it as a distraction. Same would apply if a player spends too much time in an area near zombies. There could be a timed trigger, that if player is within short range for few minutes, they'd get the smell of you and come investigate. Not directly towards you but rather the place they believe you're in, where they got the scent. This would make it possible for players to work together, one luring the zombies out of town while other getting the loot in there, or even soloing by getting them to look for you and then circling around them.

I'd like to see lone zeds wandering in forests so you can't just go running around screaming and flailing your arms in the forest just because you know there's no threat. There shouldn't be any more than AT MOST 1 zed per sq.km. Imagine a zed crawling behind a bush, you run past it without noticing, and suddenly you have a screaming beast after your tail. No more a walk in the park is a walk in the park. Predatory animals, if possible, could also be scattered very sparingly in larger forest areas.

[r3i 0]

approved.

[dirray 0]

No replies?

I feel I need to explain the "murder shock" more clearly. Think of it as being terrified of what you have done. Of course, this is completely artificial and arbitrary, as players should really have a real in-game conscience rather than to force them to suffer certain penalties game mechanics-wise. It's just my temporary solution to the shoot on sight type bandits and would not label self defence killers as bad guys for life.

In my idea, your hands would start temporarily shaking a little after killing a man for whatever reason, not a completely impairing effect, but a way to make you think what you have done might be wrong. I don't believe most people could take another person's life without feeling at least a little terrified, for the first (few) times anyway.