Regarding the Subject of Building and Construction in Dayz.

[Spart248 80]

Regarding Sandbags&Barbed Wire

As an avid Dayz fan, I have played and enjoyed it very much for the past month and a half. Along with playing, I have also watched many interviews with Rocket and have seen him talk about building and construction in any of them. When regarding Barbed Wire and Sandbags, he seemed fairly put down by how the community used them. In case you are not aware of how these items are currently used, try going into the Firehouse in Cherno on a server with 30+ people. They are used as barricades and nuisances to other players. One way to describe there use is that of "grief" rather than creativity and contructivity. However, it seems that Rocket has expected these items to be used in a constructive manner and is now judging the idea of Base Building on this response by the community.

I would like to say, specifically to him and others who share his seeming judgement, that it would be unfair to judge the idea of Base Building and how players would react when given Base Building tools by the reaction to Sandbags and Barbed Wire. The reason being that Barbed Wire and Sandbags are not nearly enough to get a creative response by the community in regards to building bases / playing more group-friendly. Of course, I may also be wrong, in which case I hope you correct me, because I only draw conclusions from interviews and other indirect sources.

It is not quite easy to explain why, but the best analogy I can think of right now is: If you put 2 people in a box, each with a 2x4 wooden plank, what do you think they will do? Well, because it is not real life, they will likely kill eachother with the planks. Why? Well, because there is, quite simply, nothing else to do. They can't do anything else with a couple of planks besides use them as a weapon of grief. However, what happens when you give them more? Say nails, carpets, window panes, roofing, etc. Then, rather than killing eachother, they will build. They will build a home, a base, a fort, whatever they will. The fact is that they will not bother killing eachother because that is quite simply not as fun (for the majority of people) as socialising with another while constructing to their liking (you get the idea).

The point I am trying to get across is that Sandbags and Barbed Wire are like those wooden 2x4's. They are simply not enough to provoke a creative response by players because there is simply not enough to do with them in the way of creativity compared to grief-ability. Therefore, you should not judge the ability and willingness of players to be creative and cooperative when given the correct tools by the response you have gotten from Sandbags and Barbed Wire. Now of course I don't actually want carpeting, roofing, etc. added to the game, simply because that is unrealistic. They extra tools given for Base Construction should be along the line of ratty fencing, thin aluminum sheeting (like that on the sheds), etc. (ratty, scavenged themed tools). Therefore, rather than running straight away to ideas like Home Instances where players can build privately with no risk of being griefed or griefing others with tools, you should try implementing more, useful construction tools and see the response of the community. Also, ask people what they would like to see in the way of building and what not, rather than try and come up with construction material ideas on your own because I think it is a concept that has a small "functioning zone" where you need to get the idea real close to perfect for it not to go all damn haywire.

Regarding "Underground Building"

Another interesting thing I hear often in interviews with Rocket is hints to a concept he refers to as "Underground Building" or something along those lines. Now I am not sure if I am just super-misunderstanding this statement, but it quite literally seems that you want to make people "build" under the ground. Unless I am just misunderstanding, this seems quite ridicuous. I'd imagine this idea goes along with the idea of it being a Home Instance. Now although I can eaily understand why you would want to do this, as it solves many complications from Base Building such as flooding of the map, griefed buildings everywhere, etc. However, I think you should think more about this concept, rather than hastily rush into just doing this "underground building" (and yes, I know that is not what you are doing, but just as a warning). Now unless you have some mastermind plan about how to blend this concept in among the authentism and realism of the game, it will completely make a joke of the authentism that you have worked so hard for. Imagine that: You just had a harrowing journey through Cherno where you met friends, nearly died by bandits, had friends killed by bandits, and had all of these raw emotons flowing through you evoked by the authentic gameplay, all to walk out a mile into the wilderness and press a key to enter your UNDERGROUND house.

Now I know it will not be quite as simple as that, but that is the bluntness of the change of feeling that will happen when you proceed to enter your Undergound Home Instance after playing regular Dayz for an hour or so. If you do still plan on following through with this idea, I hope and plead that you elaborate to the community on just how it will work before implementing it because it is a big feature and can make or break the feeling of the game to a fair degree.

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What do you guys think? would you like to see these features implemented? If so, how would you to prevent the problems that arise form the?

Edited August 12, 2012 by Spart248

[Spart248 80]

Bump

Edited August 12, 2012 by Spart248

[atombrain 9]

Base building actually makes less sense to me. Any current large building in the game is already a better base than creating a small shack and you would have the advantage of loot spawning in it. Anything you build you would have to be defended from looters all the time and how do you do that when you are logged out, unless it was instanced. A better system would be if you were able to build a hidden weapons cache. All you would need is a shovel. If the cache is persistent through death or not, doesn't matter it's already pretty easy to get geared by joining a low pop server.

As it is now, there's nothing to do but kill players and maybe drive around in a vehicle until that draws a firefight. If they were able to add weapon durability, food spoiling... just in general make the game harder for someone to be able to sit in one place for too long. I don't think base building will stop players from camping out cities and high value loot spots.

[Jurkey 7]

I think what he means with "underground building" would be like, metro stations and such.

[Spart248 80]

I think what he means with "underground building" would be like, metro stations and such.

Well thanks for clearing that up.

But if that is the case, that would mean that unless Rocket plans on switching the map halfway through the beta/alpha phasees, then that means that he must make a good, effective map for the new standalone release. Of course, that would be fantastic, but if he were to try and make a new map, I think he should ask opinions of the community on what they would like to see in it and how because it is a big change and a huge deal.