A More Robust Construction System

[SalamanderAnder (DayZ) 1747]

Maybe someone has already suggested this. Searching for such complex concepts in such a huge sea of suggestions, however, is nearly impossible at this point so I'm just going to speak my mind. We need more tools and more motivation to pursue construction in this game. It may very well be the only thing that can rescue us from the cycle of violence that is being perpetuated so fiercely among the player base. Think of it - the only readily available abilities we have as players in the world of DayZ are destructive ones.

1: Tents must be overhauled. They should have some storage, but much less than they do now. (I also hold the same opinion for vehicles.) They should also act as mobile spawns, a-la minecraft beds. The caveat to this, however, would be that tents would be removable by any player who finds one. I also think spawning in a tent should cause some kind of delay, so as not to provide too much of an advantage. I imagine this could be easily handled; basically IF a player spawns in a tent, rather than on the coast, they would spawn in a state of shock that would detain them for, say, five minutes. This, combined with the significantly lowered storage space, and the ability of other players to remove them, should prevent them from being used as instruments in griefing.

Tents should also have an option to "Save as my spawnpoint," so as to avoid any issues with owning multiple tents. This could not be done by a player unless they placed the tent. This is to make it a little more challenging to steal a tent than simply saving it as your own. Also, I predict there could be issues with more than one person saving it as a spawn, so it would probably be cleaner to preserve this option for the current owner of the tent.

2: More structures. Quite simply, we need more at our disposal. I'm thinking larger tents, camo netting, larger sandbag walls, ramps, ect. Naturally these would have to take up significant inventory space. Furthermore, some larger or more advantageous constructions (like fortifications) should require multiple components, and could ONLY be constructed through the concerted efforts of multiple players. For example: wooden beams, planks, tarps, metal siding, ect. would be individual items.

So if you have a set of wooden beams, and another player has a tarp, you could build a large tent. However, you could ONLY do so if you both look at each other and choose a "Build Large Tent" option. Or perhaps one player could initiate a request and it would present the other player with a prompt that would say "Would you like to build a (Large Tent) with this player?" Something along those lines.

3: Removal of large constructions. All constructs should be removable. (As they now are) However, any construct that requires more than one person to assemble should require the same number of persons to disassemble. Not only will this prevent nefarious individuals from griefing groups by removing their constructs single-handedly, but it will also allow for the items that produced the construction to be retrieved effectively. It would also encourage teamwork on both sides of the process. In this fashion, people would have the choice to group together for the purposes of construction, or destruction. The choice is still theirs, but cooperation in these ventures would not be optional.

As you can see the main goal of adding these tools is to gently encourage more positive player interaction. I fancy this solution quite elegant in that it preserves player freedom, while also giving players the option to work together, rather than to just battle royale. Naturally if you want to play as a rogue, you can. All the things that function in the game for individuals should still work for individuals. All styles of play have their own benefits and their own shortcomings, but at this stage, playing cooperatively is simply not accessible enough.

I'm sure I'll think of more to add to this but it's late and I'm very tired. Anyway, discuss.

[Tyber (DayZ) 13]

This is the Arma engine man. Alot of these things are not possible. if they are i approve of all your suggestions but you might have to wait for the standalone

[Kniekehlenheinrich 7]

Beans!

We will have to wait for the standalone but something like this should really be implemented.

[Fector 29]

I am sorry, that I am too lazy to provide a link, but Rocket said that he currently envisions the construction of sophisticated underground bases as endgame content.

So in a way, your suggestion is already part of the plan (if I may say, in an improved way - fully fledged bases>bigger tents imo).

Don't know about the spawn point saving, though. On the one hand, I'd like to see every life start anew, in a desperate situation, on the other hand, I see me going through several cycles of excitement and content with the game and might at one point very well be fed up of rushing through low tier again to meet and play with my friends, so this is really dependent on how the content tiers will feel like and how one will be able to progress and meet up.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Fector

[SalamanderAnder (DayZ) 1747]

This is the Arma engine man. Alot of these things are not possible. if they are i approve of all your suggestions but you might have to wait for the standalone

Yeah most of this is intended for the standalone. However, I'm fairly certain that the tent suggestion is entirely possible, and it is one of the key factors in shifting the gameplay. If they had that functionality, people might be more inclined to pull resources and build settlements.