Game Design Analysis, Ep.2: 'Fixing' the Bandit/Survivor Dynamic

[Tartantyco 1]

As I'm sure most are aware of on the forums, there are a lot of arguments about the apparent advantages of playing as a bandit, as well as counter-arguments. Now, a feature of most of these threads is direct mechanics attempting to nerf apparent flaws in implementation. However, the issue with this is that the actual behaviors people complain about are emergent behaviors created by a wide variety of underlying game mechanics. Tacking on some additional mechanic with the aim of trying to correct an error will simply exacerbate the problem and distort the gameplay even more, and should always be avoided. Instead, what is needed is an adjustment of the underlying game mechanics.

The purpose of this is not to eliminate PKers, but to make behaviors more rational.

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Currently, one issue is simply that of having spare time. Due to the abundance of resources available you just have way too much time to spend shooting at people for fun. There is no shortage of weapons, ammo, food, or drink, so time can easily be spent considering external activities(Things not directly related to your own survival). As such:

ALL loot needs to be MUCH less common.

Food, drink, and ammunition needs to be especially lower.

The drink focus should perhaps focus more to water, making sodas rare and requiring survivors to locate and utilize water sources more often.

This, accompanied with other relevant adjustments(Hunger rate, for instance), will make your own survival more of a focus than hunting other people. Killing people for their resources is still, if not more of, a valid strategy, but the potential returns may be lesser and, together with other adjustments, may be a much greater threat potential.

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Another issue is that of a lack of dependence. Very few situations require assistance from other players. You can easily sneak into the most zombie-infested areas, current respawn rates make clearing out an area something of a pain at times, you can heal yourself from all but the gravest of injuries, all of it instantly, and you usually have enough firepower to deal with zombie threats. All of this means an individual player is frequently as strong as the group, if not stronger due to the extremely low chance of an individual backstabbing himself. Remedies here are:

Make more of the medical aspects of the game assistance-dependent. No more fixing your broken leg with a jab of a morphine syringe.

Resource scarcity and increased threat potential from zombies due to medical assistance dependence makes cooperation more important if you want to loot safely.

Resource scarcity creates increased instances of equipment incompatibility, meaning you have to trade more equipment to keep yourself stocked with the proper ammo, with navigation tools, etc., making groups stronger and trust more powerful.

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Another issue brought up is griefing and exploits, mainly DCing to get away and going on a spree with a new character. I am certain that rocket has solutions for this, but I'll add this nonetheless:

A short timeframe with a new character in which he cannot be injured or injure others. This stops any immediate sprees and makes spawn camping impossible.

Firing a weapons starts a timer(Reset for every shot) of 5 or so minutes in which DCing does not remove your character from the world until the timer runs out. DCing during this timeframe makes your character light up like a flare at night(Even during the day), making you easily located.

[Suicide Mouse 50]

All of this have been suggested many times already.

[oktyabr 53]

This could almost be a suggestion thread but the title would sooner or later get it into trouble... (and still might).

That said this idea intrigues me:

"Make more of the medical aspects of the game assistance-dependent. No more fixing your broken leg with a jab of a morphine syringe.'

I actually like this idea. It would certainly have a HUGE impact on player interaction and I am curious how it would end up. Maybe replace the solo "morphine broken leg fix" with a "splint other players broken leg" option. And realistically limit long distance cross country running after that point as well.

[Tartantyco 1]

Feel free to move it into suggestions. I posted it here because it's kind of a half and half, discussing the reasons behind bandit behavior and putting forth examples of things that would fix it. And I already have a thread in the 'series' in this forum.

[deadbolt (DayZ) 10]

wouldnt mind seeing this implemented, at least to test it out, not sure it will decrease the number of bandits though, and we are likely to get a lot of complaining about the difficulty (remember all the zombies)

[SilverWeed 0]

The last time I tried to get someone to help me when I had a broken leg they shot me. If there are going to be situations where I am dependent on other players to recover from major injuries, then an option to blow my brains out should also be added. I will always choose the latter.

[miqueloz 33]

I still think that just making the zombies more of a threat would fix a lot. When you can attract 50 zombies if you screw up, you really want to have a buddy with you.

Nothing should be fully dependent on other players though, because they can always choose to not help you. Rather make it like the bloodbag thing - you need a buddy to give you a blood transfusion BUT you can also regain health alone by eating food, it's just much more difficult and a lot slower.

[lev 39]

With regards to the broken bones and morphine idea, one implementation that might work out well is the following:

Morphine auto injectors allows players to walk after having their bones broken for about ~15min. For more permanent fixing and regaining the ability to run, the player needs to get a splint from another player.