Weapon spawning revamp.

[Loubido 4]

Hi there guys, after playing Dayz for several months now I have had my fair share of gameplay experience and I think we can all agree that the availability of military grade weapons is far from perfect. I would like to offer up my meager suggestions on how to change this and to hear your feedback on my ideas.

Firstly, I would like to begin by stating the changes I would make to the current weapon spawn system. Currently, a player who know's what he is doing can obtain military grade weapons ( Im talking Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, MP5's, Military grade shotguns, Silenced Weapons, etc... ) in a matter of minutes. In my opinion, strong military weapons should be a rarity and not something one should be able to obtain after only a small amount of game time. To put it into context of a zombie apocalypse, what are the chances of waking up on the coast, walking into the nearest town and come out armed to the teeth ? I can tell you very little, the military dont tend to leave their weapons lying around in fire stations. Instead, i would reserve a lower tier of weapons to towns. Possibly having police stations in the major cities with pistols, weak shotguns, weak sniper rifles and some unreliable AR's (unreliability being, gun jamming or gun sights slightly off similar to the system in Far Cry 2, another interesting concept that could be developed). Additionally, in terms of the higher tier of weapons, currently we have 3 locations/ ways of obtaining them and they are : The military tents in Stary Sobor, the NW airfield and crashed helicopters. Nothing is stopping players from logging on to empty servers and looting the places free of repercussions ( because let's face it zombies barely qualify as an annoyance once you know how they work ).

Instead of fixed locations where finding military gear is a certainty I think a "convoy/helicopter system" would be more appropriate, more enriching and more exiting. Convoy attack is a concept i first discovered many years back in Arma 2's predecessor, Operation Flashpoint, and in my opinion it worked really well. Players would spawn with a radio and at random moments during the game they would receive messages concerning a convoy or a helicopter, for example : " This is convoy Bravo, we are under heavy attack attack from Zeds and in danger of being overrun please sent all available reinforcements to Vybor, I say again all..... ARGHHH *radio cuts out* ". Within these convoys that spawn randomly every 90 minutes ( for example ), would be the high end military gear that all players crave. Increasing or decreasing the spawn time of these convoys depending on the number of players on the sever would be an interesting way to encourage people to play on high population servers and thus end the habit of people playing on low population servers. I believe the player interaction involved in the looting of these convoys would be extremely interesting and a brilliant element to add to the game. These interactions could range from a huge gunfight to different squads of people teaming up and then splitting the loot between them and the backstabbing the other team etc... In other words it would cut to the core of what Dayz is all about, survival, player interaction and knowing who to trust and who not to trust.

To conclude, I would like to briefly mention another issue that I believe is a threat to the game. With all these guns spawning in and changing hands, inevitably the number of guns possessed by the community is going to inevitably rise leading to once again, everyone being armed to the teeth. I believe it is imperative to create a reliable system to remove guns from the game in an effort to combat the militarisation of the community. You could for example, decrease the time bodies remain in game so that if the loot is not immediately claimed the dead body with all it's gear would disappear, or have the guns on the dead body's found damaged by the thing that killed the player and thus useless. I haven't given this much thought so would really appreciate suggestions by other members of the community.

Cheers guys, waiting for your feedback !

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

I like the convoy idea, but you should have to find radios same as every other tool.

Even then there should be a range limit of maybe 3Km radius from the spawn point where you can hear the message on the radio, and you should have to be on the emergency channel. (if you play as a squad only one person would need to hear it to tell everyone)

Make everything more random and rarer. No point rockin' a crossbow or double barrel shotgun on a 10 player server if the other 9 guys have AS50s.

[Riem 164]

An idea I've been rolling around my head and haven't seen on the threads thus far: Limit the number of spawns a set weapon could have on the server.

This should only be for the most powerful and useful weapons there are, like the AS50 and other uber guns. After there are a set amount in the server, no more would spawn until they're destroyed.

There should be some kind of limitation on this, as well. For instance if someone gathers them all up somehow, and hoards them, new ones should spawn if the weapons aren't fired for a set amount of time.

[Loubido 4]

Not gonna lie, if it where up to me i'd completely remove AS50 all together. No matter what people say it's best sniper rifle in the game by a mile and once you have it there is absolutely no reason to change. Toning down the M107 ( make it even louder, dramatic damage decrease over distance, very large recoil ), would make for an interesting dilemma for players between the M24 the DMR and the M107 which i think is better.

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/94979-what-if-the-50-cals-were-taken-out-of-dayz/

AS50 and M107 shouldn't be used to shoot people, They are anti materiel rifles. They're currently being abused because of an abundance of ammo, and the fact that everybody (or their little brother if you believe that shit) is script spawning or duping them. I think there should be a cap of 1 bullet per vehicle on the map for 12.7 ammo. that would stop everyone wasting them on noobs. They can K.O. a truck in 1 shot, that's what they are for.