2 Suggestions for loot system

[Sakka 28]

I want to start off by saying I completely enjoy DayZ in so many ways and can not wait for the standalone but I also have some major issues with the game which in my opinion may have a huge negative impact on the community if they are not solved by standalone. I have been playing DayZ for around 4 months now and like all of you I have had my ups and my downs. There are simple game mechanics that run so smooth and really draw you into the game while others really detract from it. There are quite a few topics that I could talk about but most, including this one have been discussed thoroughly within the forums. The one I choose was the loot system because I feel there are a couple of of easy fixes to vastly improved it and its a would be way too long for anymore.

1. Loot should spawn randomly throughout all buildings in the map. Meaning that I could find a high-end weapon in a barn or industrial building as well as military loot drops. Basically all loot (everything from ammo to guns to tool box items) could spawn at ANY loot spawn location. The buildings could still be marked the same (res. ind. mil) but that would only represent the percent chance. No limiting of what could spawn though. This would give survivors more of an incentive to check more buildings more often when near cities. It would also hopefully keep more players moving around the map instead of keeping to just a couple of slightly varying loot routes that most use. I also believe it would increase more player run-ins that are spontaneous and keep more players following the road system instead of skipping the 5 towns around you to get the loot drop that you want/need. Medical supplies staying only in hospitals because I believe they should be the reward of entering a major city. In a real life apocalypse people would not just find certain types of weapons in certain types of places. Yes they would be more likely in some locations but not impossible anywhere else. I assume like some others never go into a barn unless I need a hatchet or jerry can. I would love that feeling like when I first played DayZ. I had no idea what buildings I could enter, I had never looked at a loot map or anything, so I just went into whatever cities that I came across that I felt like I would make it out but I knew I had to go in and try to look for and loot as many buildings as I could before I either got a few things that could keep me going for then or until some shit was going down.

2. As suggested before the loot needs to spawn in a more sophisticated way. Little piles of ammo and bandages does not quite cut it. I definitely agree that it should spawn somewhere in the building that makes sense for it to be at or maybe once they upgrade the inside of buildings with more furniture and more visual character scattered loot drops wouldn't seem so simple. What I think they should implement for sure would be loot spawns on dead npcs. These npcs could look like other survivors but only spawn 1 item. It always adds to the intensity when you think/know a player has been killed. In real life you could come across a dead person in the woods that died from hypothermia or a couple that was attacked and killed by zombies in their house. They could potentially have any of the loot on them. Since they could have died at any time they could have been unarmed with nothing but a watch on or they might have gone out in blaze of glory fighting off zombies until their AKM ran out of ammo. You never know. In my opinion I think military npcs should have the highest percent chance to drop military grade weapon/gear in this loot system design because honestly what soldier dies without his gun in hand while zombies are chilling outside.

The devs probably already have a reworked loot system or have improved vastly on the current one but I believe this would be pretty easy to handle and would help out in a lot of ways including rewarding (at times) those who do frequent smaller and less traveled cities, would add to immersion and realism of what I feel this game is about, and it would really add to concept that everything you ever dreamed of as a survivor is somewhere out there in this huge map not just at the NWAF and the NWAF only. It also could maybe help change the PvP aspect going on right now. I'm not saying I'm against murderers and bandits but I would enjoy a game (this excludes hacking which we all know is a real game changer for the worse) where there was more player tracking, gun fights, team fights, and kind of sad to say but betrayals.

What makes DayZ really a diamond in the rough for me personally is the player interactions. Doesn't matter if its killing, blasting zeds, getting a vehicle, being killed, helping a friend, befriending a stranger, or just coming around a corner with a gun fully loaded and running face first into another survivor with a gun pointed at you. You make eye contact, don't shoot, don't talk, just haul ass your own separate ways. Anyways sorry if the post was too long but many thanks to Rocket & Friends for a great mod. Looking forward to the standalone. Thanks for reading and if anyone ever needs a medic or need a gaming friend for a night just let me know.

[CerebralZombie (DayZ) 151]

1. I agree, it's just like Border Lands! A lower chance to spawn the items that shouldn't spawn there, but you should be able to find anything, anywhere. It would for sure make player make sure to check every building. (Not that I pretty much don't, but I wouldn't miss one at all.)

2. I would love if they worked their asses off making certain loot spawn in certain areas, in certain ways. Say a larger rifle or shot gun leaning against any wall, maybe beside the couch. So shells or mags on the drawer/desk or in a drawer/cabinet. Maybe even with the ability to move furniture, having a larger gun or even a hand gun under the couch or drawer. It would add a lot of survival and searching for loot. (Because if you play DayZ in a legit manor, you know gathering new loot is half the fun. Why not add to the idea of gathering loot then?)

When a player makes their own map, they would have to have a set entity that has sort of outline of the biggest object that may be in that spawn. It would take a bit of work on the DayZ team, so it'd be more up to the Arma II creators. I guess Rocket has a bigger team to actually add things/change things to the engine itself for the standalone, so this would be a cool add.

Tried to make things shot, so thanks for your time.

Not bad ideas, which just need some elaborating on, and others to support it.

CZ~

[Mos1ey 6301]

The entire loot system is being reworked for the standalone, mate. I'm not sure about the randomised spawning but I'm pretty sure loot piles will bea thing of the past. I'm looking forward to it. :)

[tommes 331]

I'm pretty sure loot piles will bea thing of the past.

I wouldn't be so confident here.

[CerebralZombie (DayZ) 151]

I wouldn't be so confident here.

I can fully agree on that, but we can always hope!

[Riem 164]

It would be nice to see the loot we can grab actually looking like it belonged in the place it was, instead of looking like some prepubescent kid swept all his stuff into a corner because mommy told him to clean his room.

Likely though, that's a technical limitation, though I'm not sure how easy or hard it would be to implement. For instance, do the bodies you find disappear when the loot resets, or do they stay as permanent pieces of scenery in the room?

Also, I am against any kind of method that increases the availability of military grade weaponry, as that just turns it into a shootout. So the availability of everything everywhere should be very rigorously balanced. I agree on hospitals only having the high grade medical supplies, and obviously military installations and places are going to have the highest concentration of military goods.

Say these are implemented, I'd like to see a system that calculates, say, for weaponry, if a civilian grade weapon is set to spawn, and if it is, cancels out the chance of a military item spawning, making it more rare and harder to find.

[DemonGroover 8836]

I like the idea of loot spawning in places rather than on floors - tables, cupboards, bodies etc

I am not too sure about the any loot having a chance to spawn anywhere idea, but if there were a valid reason ie: a dead soldier's body found in a residential home then why not?