Player run towns?

[iashford 73]

I searched for this, but I couldn't find any suggestions regarding it. Now in a realistic situation, there would be abandoned towns (I'm assuming) that a group of people would try to take over and either make into a survivor haven, or a place for bandits to get together, which would then introduce turf wars seamlessly. Honestly, I don't know how this suggestion would truely end up working, but it can go many ways.

I'm thinking once all the zombies in the area have been eradicated with a group of people, the town can then have an option to be turned into a 'safe zone', where zombies are then only spawned in the surrounding area of the town. These safe zones can be bandit owned or survivor owned, of course.

Once a town has been turned into a safe zone, the electricity starts working, and certain perks become available. I'm not sure what, but perhaps things like a house can then be used to store private supplies for if you ever die or whatever. I'm also tossing up the idea of being able to build fences around the town to help keep the zombies out, and help defend the area, if another group ever tries to take over the town. Obviously these towns are used for groups, which can then promote different agenda's such as helping other survivors with medicine, supplies, etc. or simply be used as a group haven who shoot other people on sight who aren't part of the group. Eitherway, given the advantages of having a safe haven, it promotes people to work together in larger groups, rather then against. Not to mention, its a dynamic way to have an ever changing world, depending on which server you join. Perhaps even sometimes towns can become under siege by zombies alone, so they can retake the area, forcing that town to once again become abandoned.

I'm not sure how the towns can be taken away from players again though, maybe abandoned for a long enough time for zombies to swarm back in again or something? I'm not sure, just suggesting here. Thinking of new ways for there to be objectives within the game, and promote co-op between people to even form large groups. There obviously can be betrayel from someone within the town, who's actually working for another, and such.

[Rakkasan 23]

+1 I like this idea.

[rukqoa 4]

I don't like having a superficial system.

Wouldn't it be better if a town stops spawning zombies on the inside if:

+ You repair the lights/fences/barricades..etc around town

+ You kill all the zombies in town

+ A certain number of people are in the vicinity of the town

Instead, zeds spawn outside and some of them wander into town from time to time. Once enough zombies come in, they start spawning inside again (continuously, not all at once because that would be just annoying)

[iashford 73]

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. As I said, this was just a basic suggestion and I'm more then happy to hear people build upon it.

[Luieburger 15]

Try to keep the game free form, but yes. Permit people to fix up buildings or build structures. I expect that will come into the game at some point.

[jason.jblackman@gmail.com 3]

People can already place wire fencing kits and sandbags.

[combatcomm1 234]

I love this idea.

Certain criteria met == zombies spawn outside of city and slowly and sometimes quickly and en mass, come back into town. Allows for a player made objective. Rocket just needs to provide us with the mechanic. Which is more realistic than the current implementation of zombies magically spawning back in town.

This also helps promote my suggestion here, http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6986 about information exchange. Players can exchange information about which towns are bandit held, survivor held, which have trading posts etc.

[scoffield77@gmail.com 192]

I really like this idea.

The concept of establishing a government(s) is quite interesting and is a real world factor. people will unite in real life to bring stability. why not in Dayz too. you also said something about bringing power to town once it's be captured. I think this is where my idea and your idea can go hand and hand.

(i.e. http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6791 )

Then if people who owned another town wanted to assault your town, in a "turf war" they could seize the power plant to cut power to your town. also giving the people who own towns the concern about who owns power plants and who they are allied with.

Also zombies could spawn out side of a re-populated town ever 30-60 mins to try to retake it

[combatcomm1 234]

The retake time should be completely random to keep with dynamics and realism. But I like the power plant dynamic. Maybe the random time is lessened (more frequent) if the lights are off. So the lights are what help keep the zombies away? I dunno that goes to rocket to decide what his zombies are attracted and not attracted to.

[iashford 73]

I think there should be some form of security system for people who have laid supplies in a safe house in the town. Once the town gets taken over, the supplies become lootable by anyone of course. Maybe there's a warehouse with lockers in every town And you have to put in a lock combination to access and lock the locker with.

[UnlimitedVictory 0]

I like the idea of being able to fix up a town to prevent zeds from spwaning, although there is also the problem of when most players are not connected to the server and the town population goes to zero. Will zombies start spawning again if no players are in the town at night (IRL)? if not it would be hard to make it so that a town has to be maintained to keep zeds spawning while still allowing the town to exist when players have to log out.

[scoffield77@gmail.com 192]

I like the idea of being able to fix up a town to prevent zeds from spwaning' date=' although there is also the problem of when most players are not connected to the server and the town population goes to zero. Will zombies start spawning again if no players are in the town at night (IRL)? if not it would be hard to make it so that a town has to be maintained to keep zeds spawning while still allowing the town to exist when players have to log out.

[/quote']

That's a very good question. I think you could fix this by.. uh.. put a tent in the town, and then log off. The tent will be a avatar for you? aye?

[TiiX (DayZ) 0]

I like the idea of being able to fix up a town to prevent zeds from spwaning' date=' although there is also the problem of when most players are not connected to the server and the town population goes to zero. Will zombies start spawning again if no players are in the town at night (IRL)? if not it would be hard to make it so that a town has to be maintained to keep zeds spawning while still allowing the town to exist when players have to log out.

[/quote']

As the guy before me just said it could be fixed by putting a tent in the town but that leaves it out in the clear for people to loot it. There could be the possibility to "buy" or somehow own a house or shed in the town. Maybe even break into them for other players loot. it would work as the rest of the "mousescroll-interface" things and that would kind of work as a virtual "me"

[iashford 73]

Good question. It should depend on how well people build up the security of the town I suppose. If the towns contain perks such as supply management, I'm sure there would always be a few people in town at time, not to mention if a few people in town are using the place to help the wounded.

But yeah, it's still a problem. Perhaps the power grid needs to be refuelled once or twice a day to keep active. If the grid starts failing, then things like the lights, perhaps even electrical fences start failing, leaving the town exposed

[jason.jblackman@gmail.com 3]

Wait, so we're going from fortified towns to buying real estate?

[scoffield77@gmail.com 192]

Wait' date=' so we're going from fortified towns to buying real estate?

[/quote']

LOL ^ that's funny

---

As the guy before me just said it could be fixed by putting a tent in the town but that leaves it out in the clear for people to loot it.

No risk = No reward ;)

[Sanctusorium 0]

Okie, I signed up for this forum just for this thread. I've actually thought a lot on this topic and was gonna suggest it too, eventually.

I think that player controlled towns could be a very powerful element to this game and allow for mass scale cooperation. My ideas are very similar to yours: Go into a town, clear it out, set up base. I'd also argue for the ability to set up camp towns in the forests and etc that wont be able to expand to accommodate large numbers, but still house a good group. This is exactly what people would do in real life.

I'd argue for zeds to stop spawning with a certain amount of them dead AND with a certain number of players there. Once you have the place secure, you'll have to start repairing and restoring the town using tools and items that are spawned in the world. This will give players in towns incentives to form scouting teams. Others could stay behind to guard and maintain.

I also argue, and this gets into a different and potentially more controversial topic, for NPCs to spawn. Because whats the point other than a safe space? Right now we can find that in the woods. With NPCs spawning, I could see them selling or bartering minor wares. Selling would demand for a currency system, which I fully support. (IMO, it gives me an incentive to go out and kill zeds instead of playing Day Z like its Metal Gear: Apocalypse. Maybe some zeds had a few coins on them when they turned!) Of course I wouldn't want NPCs to sell AKs or any thing like that - I would want players to go out and scavenge for that stuff and trade it among established communities.

In my eyes, larger towns should be near impossible to control with out a huge huge team or a medium sized team slowly taking over. It would be exciting to join a team trying to take over Cherno, having a portion of the city controlled and constantly having to defend its front lines until the whole thing is taken. In short, the taking over shouldn't be easy at all and control should be given in small chunks. Lets hope you don't get raided by bandits while taking it over!

Of course, these little establishments must be able to, metaphorically, burn. There should be incentive for rivalries (and cooperation) between towns too close to each other. There should be the occasional zed hoard that decides to descend upon these little towns. If you can't defend it, all your work can be ruined by one swarm.

So, there are my ideas regarding towns. I think that if this were to be implemented, it'd allow for a much more rich, complex experience and can lead to new ways to survive. But, thats just me. Am I dreaming too big?

[TiiX (DayZ) 0]

Wait' date=' so we're going from fortified towns to buying real estate?

[/quote']

Not like buying real estate but if you read the first post in the thread:

"perhaps things like a house can then be used to store private supplies for if you ever die or whatever."

you'll know what i mean.

[iashford 73]

I restated that a warehouse with lockers in them or a similar system with a combination lock could be used to store items. I mean, having a whole house to yourself is pretty pointless when you could use it as a medical centre, or something.

I'm not top concerned with npc's, I pretty much like the idea of having it completely player controlled. As someone said, it's a risk reward system. I like the idea of having to refuel the power grid once or twice a day, to keep the zombies away. As far as other player groups taking over your town, you just have to make sure you have a tight knit group, otherwise what's the point in having towns? I'm assuming servers would split into three main groups. Survivors, bandits and lone wolves. That's enough players to keep support in each town.

[scoffield77@gmail.com 192]

knocking it up to the top

[dunkhan 8]

I have experimented with actually doing this in game and the following points are relevant in my opinion:

It is not about zombie spawning. Unless zombies become a much larger threat in the future having to fight them off in a player guarded settlement is not a big deal. Some concept of them spawning on the outskirts would be nice but the whole zombie spawning thing is not all that important.

Infrastructure building would enable this in a nice sandboxy way, as suggested above. Being able to repair and transport generators and attache lights to them for example. Fences are already in but the don't stop z's. Tents and vehicles already fullfill many of the storage and transport requirements so not a lot of major changes needed. Any suggestion that involves extensive scripting, specific locations, npcs or similar is misguided.

There are major obstacles to cooperation that must be overcome first. I have listed them elsewhere but basically the main ones are server stability, character recognition and communication. Fixes are in the works for some of these and I believe the devs are aware that these are issues.

This should be kept small so it doesn't dominate gameplay. We don't want a situation where every town is owned by some group and the whole game is about politics and alliances. That would also be a great game but it is rebuilding society after an apocalypse not apocalypse survival. A system like this could work but it would have to require huge amounts of time, effort and manpower to get going, and it would have to be able to fall apart very easily. Such settlements should be very rare.

[n7snk 13]

yeah, great idea and i support it. (i suggested it aswell, but seems like your explanation is a bit more clear for people.)

[scoffield77@gmail.com 192]

This should be kept small so it doesn't dominate gameplay. We don't want a situation where every town is owned by some group and the whole game is about politics and alliances. That would also be a great game but it is rebuilding society after an apocalypse not apocalypse survival. A system like this could work but it would have to require huge amounts of time' date=' effort and manpower to get going, and it would have to be able to fall apart very easily. Such settlements should be very rare.

[/quote']

Little research says there is 50 towns and villages inside the map, average server has that many players, I don't think it could ever get to be so big that every town has players in it since repopulating a town requires X amount of players, even with the servers that carry 100 players I think it would be impossible.

Also i think rebuilding society is part of surviving.

minus this section I agree with most your post.

[Eiskrem-Kaiser 54]

I'd love the idea of capturing towns.

However, I DO NOT WANT to see NPCs added. Where would they come from? They would have to be rather static and all immersion would be gone.

Besides that, this thread has some really good ideas in it. Hope to see it being added some day in the distant future :D

[Bakst 98]

I have experimented with actually doing this in game and the following points are relevant in my opinion:

It is not about zombie spawning. Unless zombies become a much larger threat in the future having to fight them off in a player guarded settlement is not a big deal. Some concept of them spawning on the outskirts would be nice but the whole zombie spawning thing is not all that important.

Infrastructure building would enable this in a nice sandboxy way, as suggested above. Being able to repair and transport generators and attache lights to them for example. Fences are already in but the don't stop z's. Tents and vehicles already fullfill many of the storage and transport requirements so not a lot of major changes needed. Any suggestion that involves extensive scripting, specific locations, npcs or similar is misguided.

There are major obstacles to cooperation that must be overcome first. I have listed them elsewhere but basically the main ones are server stability, character recognition and communication. Fixes are in the works for some of these and I believe the devs are aware that these are issues.

This should be kept small so it doesn't dominate gameplay. We don't want a situation where every town is owned by some group and the whole game is about politics and alliances. That would also be a great game but it is rebuilding society after an apocalypse not apocalypse survival. A system like this could work but it would have to require huge amounts of time, effort and manpower to get going, and it would have to be able to fall apart very easily. Such settlements should be very rare.

I think you're really on to something there.

Imo the ability to dominate an entire town should be ruled out completely. The towns represent the remnants of civilized life and have been lost forever to the zeds. If a team of bandits wants to camp out in Elektro for 12 hours and call it their own, they can, but they will eventually leave, die, or get bored and log off =)

Instead, it'd be amazing if players could set up small camps in the wild (the woods are ideal for this) with groups of say 4-8 people. Imagine being able to set up a rudimentary fence, basic fortifications like a lookout tower or MG bunker, and a shared supply stash. Then add in a few booby traps to kill or maime any fool unlucky enough to stumble near the camp while it's unoccupied (group members offline or exploring).

I think that strikes a good balance in the gameplay, giving players a limited ability to alter the environment to their advantage without disrupting immersion or the overall game concept. I don't think it would clutter the map too badly, either. It also encourages cooperation among players, and strengthens the whole human element of trust vs betrayal, which is the part I personally find the most fun and fascinating of all. Much cooler to earn someone's trust (and not get killed in the process!) than camping out somewhere with a scoped rifle! =P

Edit: I want to expand on this camp idea a bit more, if I may ^^ I made a separate post on the topic: http://dayzmod.com/f...-the-wild-idea/

Edited July 30, 2012 by abxt