Currency System & Safe Zones

[IAmMarshicus 1]

Hello Dragons, today I am pitching to you... Oh wait, this isn't Dragons Den. Right so no doubt a currency system has been suggested, but I would like to give my views on how I would go about adding one into the game for people to sell loot and buy goods. I originally started to think on this after the countless times I would have my AKM (which i have a strange fetish for :|) and then come across an M16. It is the better rifle (game-wise) because there are versions that come with scopes, whereas the AKM doesn't come with any. Because of this I get into a battle over which gun I should take... It would be good if I could take both rifles and then sell one off for a big wod of dough. I can then spend the money on items such as ammo, cans of beans, an M1911, anything. That said, I'm not sure on how money could be implemented, so I will skip that.

Where would I go to sell these items though? Well I thought that possibly pillboxes (not the ones your nan uses for her diabetes) could be placed could be placed all over Chernarus as a kind of trader. You might be wondering how all these supplies fit into the pillbox if it isn't a tardis. Well I guess you could just say that they have tunnels connected to eachother which leads to Dr Evil's secret lair/warehouse. Due to the size of a pillbox though I don't know whether it would be good to have an NPC which you trade through, or to just talk to a brick wall. I think the former would be better as to not be killed by camping bandits whilst you make loadsamoney. You could also add to the Dr Evil lore and have the NPC be

offering you goods. Rocket, you better add cigarettes and pancakes to the mod now!

Anyway, because of the bandit threat you could possibly entrench the area so the player's group could protect him whilst he trades. Although that could prove to be rather ugly as you cannot actually change the terrain in ArmA. Or seeing as many people like to play solo (who will be defenceless), you could add another form of trader. I can only think of how the game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R (RIP) has "safe zones" where the Stalkers (survivors/bandits) would go to trade and hangout. Or meet up after spawning in DayZ's case. I would say that these places could be buildings within certain cities/towns, but that could kill the atmosphere when around civilisation. And I don't believe NPC sentries would be a good idea to counter the zombies constantly attacking the little bastions of defence... despite the players being INVINCIBLE (sorry, that's the last one) whilst in the safe zone. So perhaps there could be a small amount enterable fortified huts, barns, farmhouses placed around Chernarus's countryside which will act as safe zones and have NPC traders without interfering with the aspect of looting a city filled with zeds.

There is still the threat of bandits shooting down players before they get into the safe zone just 100metres away though. So perhaps then the safe zone could be pushed out 100m, but I think that may be going over the limit. And no, I don't think a safe zone should be placed around the pillboxes. I have visions of players going there to trade, only to be stuck because bandits are sitting around them waiting for them to leave the safe zone. We have to remember though that the more we stop bandits from being bandits, the game will get boring very quickly. Saying that however, bandits could wait within the safe zone for players to leave and then shoot them in the back for their loot. I'm not sure if it is possible to make weapons stop firing/useless with a script, but that is the only way I can think of countering it for a mod.

That is all I can think of for now. Please send me your feedback (or vote in the poll), well done for making it through all those terrible jokes and possibly bad grammar. Sorry if that is the case, english isn't my first language, Nah just joking *sarcastic laugh*.

[stingzer 10]

I don't agree with either however if rocket gave more tools to the community then players could create there own, e.g having money in the game that has no real value unless players on a server decide to, or giving players the ability to secure areas from zombie spawning and allow players to barricade areas in a more efficient way than the current barbed wire system.

[Tiercel 63]

No.

World of Warcrap is that-a-way.

[IAmMarshicus 1]

I don't agree with either however if rocket gave more tools to the community then players could create there own, e.g having money in the game that has no real value unless players on a server decide to, or giving players the ability to secure areas from zombie spawning and allow players to barricade areas in a more efficient way than the current barbed wire system.

Yes, I like that idea more than mine. Allowing players to create their own fortifications would add to the survival aspect of the mod more than having a safe zone which everybody knows about.

No.

World of Warcrap is that-a-way.

You're comparing this to World of Warcraft? Come on. I didn't ask for little power-ups and a rank system.

[dutch_miller 159]

No for money, because having money like that ruins the challenge of survival because you could just buy whatever you needed instead of having to loot for it. And if you have to loot an extensive amount to buy anything, there is no point to it because then it's just redundant - you already looted to buy stuff that you could have looted. As well as that, there is no reason players need money - they can barter items anyway, if you are lucky enough to find someone that doesn't immediately kill you. NPC have no place in DayZ, it just doesn't fit with the game. DayZ is you, the survivors/bandits, and the zombies. That's it and that's how it's intended to be. If Rocket decides to add NPC's, well it's his alpha, although I highly doubt he would do that.

Secondly, the authenticity is a big deal and I know that every suggestion in this forum gets an abundance of people who bitch about "realism" but it is important. Honestly, in a zombie apocalypse, nobody would give two shits about money if they couldn't eat it.

Safe Zones - at first I thought you meant designated, permanent safe zones - which I was immediately against and so is Rocket (from his interview). However, when you mentioned building your own fortifications, I'm all for that. You might have heard of Undead Labs - if not, they are making a zombie MMO where you can find a suitable empty building and fortify it to your liking, aswell as having NPC's, because that fits in an MMO. That's awesome. I would definitely support that. However, DayZ should always feel like you could die at any moment, so players should not be invincible and there should be nothing special about the zone that says bandits can't kill. They should be able to enter and kill as freely as you can. The structures should be designed to stop zombies and certainly the fortifications alone would help the survivors should a firefight break out, but that's about it. They should be more like pseudo-safe zones.

[IAmMarshicus 1]

If Rocket is aiming for 100% realism (well as far as realism can go in a game) then the currency system will no doubt be ignored. And when I mentioned NPCs, I was only talking on the "trader" being an NPC. The sentries I was just putting out there so people knew I had already thought of them. But yes, Stingzer's idea for making your own forts I like alot. I like the idea of defending from a bandit raid even more though.

However, I can see people spending time creating their fort and storing their loot only to lose it in some server glitch. Possibly a clan (hey, a clan system) could save their fort and crate of loot so they can spawn it (where it was originally) if such a glitch happened. I guess this feature would also help if they were to go onto another server or their original server had shut down. But if they try to spawn their base on a new server but a fort is already in that area they would have to capture it and destroy it for them to spawn their old fort again. Or they could just keep the fort that is there... Hmm. I know that spawning an already made fort into the game isn't realistic, but making people recreate an entire fort again due to a server not saving it is a bit poor.

[Who cares? 13]

I don't have a problem with what the OP wants, but currency might be just better handled though the trade of lootable items.

Still that said in order to get anywhere near this there is probabily going to have to be alot more content / loot and other mechanics added before it could be fully used and thus useful. Maybe bullets gets you a item from this vendor, but other vendors might want food, water or pop, or even military gear for their wares. Or maybe players could just put up extra crap they have for sale in exchange for some lootable?

As far as 'safe zones'? Reguardless anyone's feelings on the matter players are still going to have to find ways to 'enter' and 'exit' the area and I think bandits would probabily just be hovering about the boarders.

Also I don't have any issues with players building a sort of shanty town or fort out of junk they loot. Or even one crappy wreck of a vehicle.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Who cares?

[andrew111150 13]

Sorry but You got this idea from Warz

[zq7 67]

I think Rocket said that he does not plan on adding either, but if the players want to see something like this it's up to them make it happen. e.g. 10 cans of beans = ak47 - this is already happening, people are trading gear for gear.

If there is in game currency that almost leads to gold farmers, you'll be seeing players that farm weapons and vehicles for real money and lazy people with credit cards buying them.

Safe zones are against everything what this mod/game stands for.

[Ampoliros 43]

Two things need to be done first:

Fix Battleeye or find another way to nix the hackers. The struggle for gear is meaningless when a random nob can hack in full gear and an Apache or just nuke the server. I don't like duping, but just from moving my tent from one server to another I duped several nice weapons I had no need of. If I had wanted to I could have armed the server ( I didn't want to.) No I won't post coords, and anyway, someone already beat you to them.

Then implement more ways for Survivors to reclaim civilization. I think this is the most important feature currently missing from the game as it will reverse the domination of "banditry" over "survivalists". ( I also recognize that it is probably one of the hardest things to add as well.)

The hardest part of this would be the fact that players are NOT in the game 24/7 and others would still have the upper hand by being able to server hop. i.e. whats the point of setting up a shop in a reclaimed village to trade when 10 mins after you log out server hoppers arrive and clean out your tents. When server populations get bigger this will be less of a problem, but won't disappear completely.

You'd also have to contend with the asshattery of players who just enjoy wrecking what others have built: the sandcastle stompers in the sandbox who even if AS50 NATO rounds were rarer than a cured zombie would use them to kill fresh spawns on the beach. The kind of people who aren't here to survive, just kill.

As for currency, barter system is the way to go, since everyone's needs will be fluid. Fresh Spawns will value a compass and map more than a few rounds of CZ 550 ammo (Or vice versa if they are a bandit). Someone else might have just raided an ammo crate* but only has a macaroni. Gear that might have been useless for you will now have value, since you have a safe® place to trade it. I mean if another player ran up to me and offered me $500 for my ALICE pack, I'd give him a few rounds, loot his corpse and probably leave the $500. If he offered me a M9-SD and several clips, I'd consider it.

(*I'll again mention I want these removed as they make maintaining a military level of weaponry actually easier than the lower-grade weapons)

[IAmMarshicus 1]

Sorry but You got this idea from Warz

Yes, you are right. I stole their ideas so I could write out a paragraph to pass them off as my own. No. I don't even fully understand what Warz is other than it being a zombie game with a name that could very easily gain the approach of people like you. The funny thing is though, from reading the feedback I'm slowly turning against what I originally said. They would be great in a single-player experience, but because of how random actual people are it is very difficult to know if features will be used how they were supposed to or come out how they were supposed to in an online one.

@Ampoliros

Being able to create "stashes" in the wilderness would be a nice feature. Atleast then I wouldn't have to choose whether I take my AKM or the M16 as I could just leave it in a stash as backup if I were to ever run out of ammo or lose my rifle. But of course people should be able to find it and steal from it, or even take the stash itself. And I guess the stash could just be a box that you find among loot, as to stop people spamming them everywhere.

[hardcoreymp 16]

I think Rocket said that he does not plan on adding either, but if the players want to see something like this it's up to them make it happen. e.g. 10 cans of beans = ak47 - this is already happening, people are trading gear for gear.

If there is in game currency that almost leads to gold farmers, you'll be seeing players that farm weapons and vehicles for real money and lazy people with credit cards buying them.

Safe zones are against everything what this mod/game stands for.

Rocket will not be putting in a currency system from what he was saying in a recent conference. He is promoting the idea of players doing trades etc but does not want to put currency in the game.