A Final Solution to the Bandit Problem

[EggMcSexy 2]

Everyone knows bandits are extremely common in Day Z, and the reasons are very simple.

1. The reward is high. Killing players can give you rare loot quickly.
   
2. There's not much else to do. Once you get some nice equipment to work with, most players want to hunt something a little more interesting than zombies, so many of them opt to hunt "the most dangerous game".
   

There are other reasons, but those are 2 of the major ones. So, how do you fix it?

Well, I had thought of something that could work. It's not a silver bullet, but it'd give white-hat players something to do, reward teamwork, and raise the risk of hunting friendlies.

Add a trait called "infamy". It'd be a lot like the old "humanity" trait; anyone who kills players habitually would become "infamous", and killing an "infamous" player would not add infamy. But don't just stop there. We all know "humanity" didn't really stop bandits.

So here's what you also do. Anyone who's played a lot of single player Arma 2 should know about the conversation options feature, wherein you can ask friendlies about the weather, the time of day, and information about enemy troop movement.

So, what am I getting at? Add a conversation option to Day Z that informs players about the whereabouts of infamous players/bandits currently on the server. Because at least two people have to get together to start a conversation and get whereabouts of infamous players, gaining the information about bandit whereabouts requires at least some level of cooperation. It also potentially rewards that cooperation; since most bandits usually have valuable loot, players who kill them would likely be well rewarded. It also raises the risk of being a bandit, as any group of two or more players can easily find out your whereabouts and hunt you down. Not only that, it gives white-hat players something to do: hunt down bandits.

So what do you think? Is this a feature worth implementing? Do you think it would actually reduce the bandit problem?

[nuclearaddict 15]

No. What is this? The wild west?

[Sol (DayZ) 132]

No. What is this? The wild west?

Would it matter if it was?

Humans still work the same way, whether it's the Wild West or Outer Space...

Why do you insist on making stupid relationship connections between crap that doesn't matter and isn't related, to more crap that doesn't matter?

I hope you're happy with yourself.

~Sol

[StrengthAndHonor 27]

The title of this thread gave me the impression you were going to suggest we roundi all the bandits up and....

[ivanpjs 0]

No. What is this? The wild west?

YES. thi is the wild west !

[Graz (DayZ) 146]

This would encourage bandit behavior more than anything.

Bandits are essential to the immersion and tense feeling of this game

[nuclearaddict 15]

Would it matter if it was?

Humans still work the same way, whether it's the Wild West or Outer Space...

Why do you insist on making stupid relationship connections between crap that doesn't matter and isn't related, to more crap that doesn't matter?

I hope you're happy with yourself.

~Sol

I didn't know I would hurt you this much. My bad.

[nuclearaddict 15]

YES. thi is the wild west !

Again no. Not because of what I think of this idea, but because that dude Rocket said he would NEVER punish banditry in any way shape or form. Also, this is a stupid idea. If I go up to someone and use this 'conversation' action, we can both instantly know where every person who has ever killed anyone, whether in self-defense or not, is located on the server? Isn't that what we call hacks?

Edited August 1, 2012 by nuclearaddict

[Yoshi667 8]

It wont stop the kill on sight issues which effectively makes your suggestion obsolete. I'm not going to walk up to a player and talk to him to find out where the bandits are. What if HE is the bandit? What if it's a survivor that sees my gear and wants it?

There's so many holes in this suggestion that it just doesn't seem a viable solution.

[EggMcSexy 2]

It wont stop the kill on sight issues which effectively makes your suggestion obsolete. I'm not going to walk up to a player and talk to him to find out where the bandits are. What if HE is the bandit? What if it's a survivor that sees my gear and wants it?

There's so many holes in this suggestion that it just doesn't seem a viable solution.

Even in that case, friends who regularly log on together and play the game logically could get this information, and since they already know and trust eachother, the risk wouldn't be nearly as high.

[nuclearaddict 15]

Even in that case, friends who regularly log on together and play the game logically could get this information, and since they already know and trust eachother, the risk wouldn't be nearly as high.

I don't think you thought this one through. Better luck next time.

[EggMcSexy 2]

This would encourage bandit behavior more than anything.

Bandits are essential to the immersion and tense feeling of this game

I agree that bandits are essential to the immersion of the game, which is why I'm not suggesting trying to remove PvP.

However, I fail to see how making a bandit's whereabouts known to any cooperating players encourages bandit behavior. Could you please elaborate?

[nuclearaddict 15]

I agree that bandits are essential to the immersion of the game, which is why I'm not suggesting trying to remove PvP.

However, I fail to see how making a bandit's whereabouts known to any cooperating players encourages bandit behavior. Could you please elaborate?

Because it's cheating?

[EggMcSexy 2]

Again no. Not because of what I think of this idea, but because that dude Rocket said he would NEVER punish banditry in any way shape or form. Also, this is a stupid idea. If I go up to someone and use this 'conversation' action, we can both instantly know where every person who has ever killed anyone, whether in self-defense or not, is located on the server? Isn't that what we call hacks?

I never said "anyone who has ever killed anyone". I said players who habitually killed other players.

Actually read the post, please. Rocket has punished banditry in the past, with the "humanity" system, which was aimed at making bandits obvious to other players with a "bandit" skin.

[oifriendlyfire 46]

Is there a bandit problem?

[nuclearaddict 15]

I never said "anyone who has ever killed anyone". I said players who habitually killed other players.

Actually read the post, please. Rocket has punished banditry in the past, with the "humanity" system, which was aimed at making bandits obvious to other players with a "bandit" skin.

I know. I was playing the game back then. It sucked and was stupid. Which is why he took it out. A lot of people got it, because of self-defense.

If this was added how would you like it if players who habitually killed other players had this exact same feature. Converse with other bandits which would then show you every single non-bandit on the server? Just saying.

This suggestion would just ensure an endless cycle of player killing, because everybody would know where everybody was making people go after them to kill them. How does that stop player killing in any way? Your suggestion would just be a perpetual cycle of murder.

Edited August 1, 2012 by nuclearaddict

[Graz (DayZ) 146]

I agree that bandits are essential to the immersion of the game, which is why I'm not suggesting trying to remove PvP.

However, I fail to see how making a bandit's whereabouts known to any cooperating players encourages bandit behavior. Could you please elaborate?

The infamy system is an epeen incentive. This is why the skin was removed (among other reasons)

The tools to communicate are already in the game, it's not that they aren't useful, it's that people don't want to use them.

The whole idea feels too specific and it goes against the sandbox feel that I like.

[Zombiestubble 4]

Perhaps a realistic bandit solution, or at least a way to cut down on the banditry is to limit the amount of stuff players can pick up on bodies. By severely restricting it, to something around 4 slots. However, killing bandits that are DESIGNATED BY THE BANDIT SKINS BEING BROUGHT BACK (they actually freakin' worked you know, well, for the most part. People would actually make "bandit hunting squads") would yield you more slots than 4, somewhere around 5-6.

Although it's probably never going to happen, because 10% of what's suggested on here makes it past 3 pages of posts, and 1% of that is ever actually considered. So it's really more like 0.1%.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Zombiestubble

[EggMcSexy 2]

I know. I was playing the game back then. It sucked and was stupid. Which is why he took it out. A lot of people got it, because of self-defense.

If this was added how would you like it if players who habitually killed other players had this exact same feature. Converse with other bandits which would then show you every single non-bandit on the server? Just saying.

Firstly I was thinking you could make the information not 100% specific. Things like "Last seen in Chernogorsck", not "located at grid 094073". Secondly, if you read the suggestion, I was saying that only players who are bandits would have their whereabouts made known by conversation options.

[nuclearaddict 15]

Firstly I was thinking you could make the information not 100% specific. Things like "Last seen in Chernogorsck", not "located at grid 094073". Secondly, if you read the suggestion, I was saying that only players who are bandits would have their whereabouts made known by conversation options.

I know what you meant by only bandits having this affect them which is why I asked you how you would like it.

[nuclearaddict 15]

Perhaps a realistic bandit solution, or at least a way to cut down on the banditry is to limit the amount of stuff players can pick up on bodies. By severely restricting it, to something around 4 slots. However, killing bandits that are DESIGNATED BY THE BANDIT SKINS BEING BROUGHT BACK (they actually freakin' worked you know, well, for the most part. People would actually make "bandit hunting squads") would yield you more slots than 4, somewhere around 5-6.

Although it's probably never going to happen, because 10% of what's suggested on here makes it past 3 pages of posts, and 1% of that is ever actually considered. So it's really more like 0.1%.

You think someone in real life with the capacity to carry as much stuff as we're capable of in DayZ would be like "nah man, I killed this person. I should really limit myself to just taking 4 items off them". Quite silly.

[EggMcSexy 2]

I know what you meant by only bandits having this affect them which is why I asked you how you would like it.

I'm not sure. It's not like I try to play Day Z as a white-hat. I myself am guilty of being a bandit on many occasions.

I personally think any "solution" for banditry should be fun for both the bandit and the bandit-hunter, which is what I liked about this idea I had. I personally think it would be fun to have more coordinated groups to go up against.

Meanwhile if I were a whitehat, I think this would give me an objective to entertain myself with.

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

A "Final solution" ?

Oh god this is bad :D

[nuclearaddict 15]

Firstly I was thinking you could make the information not 100% specific. Things like "Last seen in Chernogorsck", not "located at grid 094073". Secondly, if you read the suggestion, I was saying that only players who are bandits would have their whereabouts made known by conversation options.

What's stopping you from doing this over direct communication? :|

Are people really this lazy now that they can't even be bothered to type/speak over a chat in-game that they need a feature that does it for them?

Edited August 1, 2012 by nuclearaddict

[danredda 10]

I don't know what bandit "problem" you're talking about? If you play smart and use terrain well, then you don't get shot. Quit trying to make us look like the bad guys if you run straight through an open field in broad daylight heading towards cherno etc. with your gear on.