Ideas -Survivor defense -possible Humanity tie to Zombie Virus- Bandits Feel Fear

[logan23 118]

Here are some ideas to toss around concerning people who PKing solo or in PKing Teams...as well as a use for Humanity...But all done in a way to keep the Player's Fear active and giving no one any advantage over another- plus bring the theme back to Survival and away from the possible Deathmatch (or frustrate these Deathmatch players)

The Survivor as well as the Bandit should both have a level of Fear for taking the path they decide to take.

Let me know what you think...

The first is people kill each other for their loot- better guns/backpack/ supplies-

Solution: (lets add some fear to the people who do this..)

Allow Players to booby trap their backpack so if someone loots their dead body they will set off a ammo/flare trap that makes noise and injures the looter (none of these are kill traps). This will alert zombies in the area and the looter has to waste some bandage/morphine/painkillers for these items. Also some of the dead player's gear is destroyed/or only items in bag are destroyed due to the trap. The player who places one of these booby traps in their backpack will need items to build this trap plus it takes a bit of room in the back pack. This captures the same fear you find when you meet another survivor.....are they friendly?...but now the person who right off plans to kill you is wondering...does he have a trap in his bag that could waste my last bandage/painkillers just for some gun or ammo? This keeps the Fear state in the players mind.

Solution:

Allow players to hide gear/supplies like a squirrel hides acorns, allow there to be hidden at certain points on the map by using a tool/ under a stone. (Now when player kills you they might not get all your goodies and you can go back with the respawn.

The other issue is a player just killing the players for fun- with no real goal but to ruin another player's fun and increase a body count.

Solution:

This could be tied to Humanity and possibly turning to a zombie. Since we know that the Zombies in DayZ are based on a virus then we could use the idea of the bite transferring the Virus but the Virus will only make you a carrier since it need key triggers to activate and speed it up as well as to slow it down- or you will die and become a Zombie. Connecting Humanity or the lack of it could be a trigger to activate the Virus in the body due to the chemicals released from killing other people which is a more mentally heavy state then killing a zombie- meaning it's harder for a person to mentally rationalize killing another living person then a zombie/monster.

With a low Humanity- due to killing humans- will cause a counter where you can end up turning to a zombie, and the more you kill humans and lower this humanity- speeds up this process. There will be ways to slow it down and even hold it in stasis- Like with losing Blood where bandage will stop you from bleeding.

These two ideas could help in keeping players from doing PKing for fun verse Pking because of defense or simply lack of trust in the other player.

Team focus goals would also stop some of these but these two i mention above will slow playerkiller teams from hunting others.

This is food for thought.

[demidos123@hotmail.com 0]

The idea of trapping your backpack sounds awsome, and I think it would really add some more depth into the game. Same when you can hide your gear elsewhere than in tents. As I've been burned on that several times allready. Where I make a camp I think is hidden, I fill it up with goodies I collect. Only to have it raided when I return. It's really hard to hide a tent since I could only pitch it on very, very flat terrain that is very in the open. So to have proper hidding places would be awsome.

[dharion@drahl.com 5]

Traps:

Yes, would be a nice addition.

Hiding spots:

Yes, maybe have a shovel to make them, ability to hide your dug hole under leaves, maybe even give the option to make a dirt trap for defenses?

Infection:

No, not based on humanity.

For everyone that gets attacked by zombies, sure, the people in the world of DayZ shouldn't be immune to whatever caused the infection.

As long as the zombie 'you' is an AI zombie and just wanders about with your gear so you will have to kill 'yourself' to get your stuff back.

[eAt LeAd250 0]

I think it's an interesting idea but a rather heavy handed way of telling you to quit killing people. I feel that it is more like placing a quota though on you on what you can kill. Like a grief system I guess. It IS punishing you and that is something I think the Dev. do not desire.

[logan23 118]

A Shovel could be a tool for placing the hidden stash - but also you could only do one Stash Location and it will be smaller than a tent.

The idea is that the Hidden Spot is for the item which you need the most/ or has the most value- wither its Beans or a Gun

The Zombie Virus -connected to Humanity is Brutal but no more then other features in this game/mod- it's goal is to keep players from building 30 human kills. Let me just be clear that you would need to be attacked by a zombie to become a carrier of the Virus. This would be shown by an Icon like we see for Blood or Temp. If a player wants to kill players for fun they will lose Humanity and the Virus will become active. This would be like the Temperature number where it will start to go up or down towards the number value that would kill you/ turn you into a zombie. Ideally it would keep a spawn Zombie of you in the game with some gear from you but not all (depends on the game and coding).

The player can find ways of getting Humanity back but I'm unsure how this would be done since I have no idea what Rocket has in mind for Humanity and other features/mechanics. But the main theme would be there would be triggers that activate the Virus (not just the killing of people) and triggers that would stop it/ place it in Stasis. You can never be cured.

eAt LeAd250, I know you mention that you felt it was Punishing to the player but DayZ is brutal and already does this for being a Survivor who will trust someone. The Survivor Feels Fear and so should the Bandits/ Bandit behavior.

The Booby trap backpacks will keep Bandits Fearful just as Trusting /working with another player creates Fear for a survivor.

The Humanity-Zombie Virus activator (if already a carrier) would keep players from killing 30 noobs for fun or have teams of Deathmatch teams going out and killing random players for fun without a for of Fear that they just might set off their Virus Timer and get closer to being a Zombie/dead. (Again how the timer speed and how further deaths would speed or jump the number closer to the value of changing would all need to be tested and balanced just as the Temp is being done now/ and could see further tweaks.)

Every action in DayZ can help you but in the same way also leave you open to being killed. (got to town get beans or you will starve- possible be killed by Zombie or Player) (You run out in the rain or go swimming at night you will lose Temp and could develop a cold and the shakes)

[eAt LeAd250 0]

Hmm, perhaps.... but this in a way takes away from Dayz's game play mechanic in a sense. The freedom to shoot and kill someone for their stuff, the very definition of being a bandit, without a disastrous consequence. Those that just kill without looting are socio-paths and deserves a different label than as a bandit. Like a zombie. haha

[logan23 118]

eAt LeAd250, I agree...

That's why I see it as 3 categories :

Survivor

Bandit

Player Killers ( or as you called socio-paths)

As for the fear of this affecting Bandits, you would need a good kill count to activate this. Bandits are about getting loot and making sure they themselves survive so Bandits pick and choose their targets based on Loot and Threat.....but by them going to the corpse to loot they open themselves for others to kill them.

To me Bandits and Survivors are basically the same but one might behave more in one direction then the other based on the situation. This falls into the Wild West Shoot outs in the Cities. A player who would normally be more bandit like but when another player saves them they will see a reason or a humanity to work with them or allow each to go their own way. Survivor and Bandit both have Fear in their actions...but a Player Killerscalls/socio-paths are all about not living the experience of the game but to jump in and simply see how many kills they can get for their character. So Let's give them something to Fear now,..just as us Survivors/Bandits have as we play.