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The single greatest improvement that could be made to the Epoch gameplay is a reputation system which simply makes the bad guys visibly identifiable, such as with a special irremovable colored mask or red nametag. This alone could greatly reduce the kill-on-sight, mindless back-and-forth Call of Duty gameplay because it would bring repercussions for playing a bad guy and cause them to be hunted. If players could visually identify the bad guys then the bad guys would become clear targets which would discourage all but the most skilled bandits (whom may actually welcome the added challenge).

 

A temporary bandit reputation indicator could also be given to any non-bandit player or survivor that harmed a fellow non-bandit player or survivor, which would then allow players to defend themselves against kill-on-sight newbs that still had a reputation above -5000. This temporary reputation would be lost upon death, but would allow anyone to retaliate without loss to their own humanity.

 

Currently the Kill Boards rarely work, probably because players often bleed out at least a little bit after being shot. And, with the ability to change character names in less than a minute there are almost no repercussions or lasting reputations to discourage players from simply killing everyone they see. There's also no way to defend oneself without becoming a bandit inadvertently.

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I choose to play how I think I would actually live in an apocolypse. I usually end up hero but I'm a survivalist and if I have the means to take something from you to ensure my survival I'm not above banditry from time to time. That being said I don't care for red name tags or face masks so you "know" who the bandits are. Some people with low humanity I have played with were much more heroic to new players than some of the uber hero mission runners. Personally I don't do sensless violence, if I use violence it usually is a means to get something I need or to defend myself from attack.

I look at it like a real life apocolypse: you get less than 10 seconds to pick if you are going to befriend, hold up or kill the guy in the blue jeans running up the hill at you with a hunting rifle clutched in his hands. He doesn't have a neon sign over his head, no loudspeakers anouncing if he intends to offer you a can of beans or blow your head off for the coyote backpack you just looted. You make your choice, you live with it. There are no police, no judge, no jury....all that is in your hands. Forcing bandits to be visually identifiable would break the post-apocolyptic gang mentality that I believe would take over, with marauding people shooting and looting innocent survivors. If you enjoy surviving without ducking and dodging and doing only select human interactions, there are several servers which cater to pure PVE.

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In real life people have reputations. But in a game where everyone unrealistically looks the same, log out of the world for varying amounts of time, and names can be changed in a moment, reputations unrealistically don't exist. That is why a reputation system is necessary in a game if you want to "actually live in an apocalypse." Reputations do exist in real life, bandits are eventually identified, and people do hunt them down.

 

Adding reputation would not stop any of the gameplay you mention, it would actually enhance it. Bandits would be more likely to group together rather than killing each other. And you could still kill anyone you wanted, but you would have to be weary of an actual reputation rather than unrealistically killing everyone forever without anyone ever learning who you were. This has everything to do with PVP, and nothing to do with PVE, so I don't why you mentioned it, unless you simply don't understand the issue.

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In real life people have reputations. But in a game where everyone unrealistically looks the same, log out of the world for varying amounts of time, and names can be changed in a moment, reputations unrealistically don't exist. That is why a reputation system is necessary in a game if you want to "actually live in an apocalypse." Reputations do exist in real life, bandits are eventually identified, and people do hunt them down.

 

Adding reputation would not stop any of the gameplay you mention, it would actually enhance it.

Most bandits I have played with are good enough that their reputation proceeds them when they log in, they are proud of their reputation, and people know when you see them online that they are going to be getting hunted. Sometimes people go hunting bandits but they better bring their A game. I think what your looking for is a way to identify griefers, not bandits. Bandits practice a play style somewhat more realistic IMO than a hero, griefers just play to blow stuff up, shoot noobs, and generally disrupt the game play of both heros and bandits. I don't think that can be controlled even if you made them run around with a flashing police light on their head and most of them, judging by the times they accidentally use side chat, are still waiting for their first facial hair. They are pretty much in with the same lot that think its cool to use hacks. A true bandit, in my experience, doesn't hide their identiy, they are proud of the amount of fear their name commands on a server. Pretty much the only way to control griefers is to set server rules and/or have active mature admins who enforce a code of conduct.

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I don't know how many servers you have played on, but bandits that actually play their role realistically are very rare. Most bandits are simply out to kill every player they come across, while hiding behind a game skin which doesn't reveal their reputation, who they really are, or any of their previous interactions with others. In fact, currently it is impossible for a "true bandit," to not have their identify hidden by default because they simply look like a clone of any other player. Unless a bandit goes around announcing himself in direct chat, which would be ridiculous, other players have no idea whether or not the player they are encountering is the same bandit that has been terrorizing an area or even a brand new greared player as there is no visual difference. Imagine putting up a Wanted Poster of a guy in a ghillie suit. Would that make any sense?

 

Which one of these is the bandit you saw murder your family? Careful, two of them are innocent heroes...who would not normally kill you if you only had some type of game reputation.

 

Which one do you shoot?

 

epIFWn7.jpg

 

Further, because there is no identifiable reputation it most often results in everyone becoming a bandit, because if you don't shoot first then you can expect to get shot yourself. It's kill-on-sight out of necessity when there is no visual reputation. And, unless you're playing on a mostly empty server this mentality then degrades into basically another FPS game rather than the more realistic apocalypse sim the game is supposed to be.

 

Speaking of griefers, I don't even mind if someone wants to spend their entire time griefing others, that's their choice, I simply think they deserve to have their reputation known rather than artificially hidden. A griefer cannot grief for long if everyone can identify him.

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This is something I've been thinking about for some time.  I'm planning on removing certain skins from the loot table and only making them accessible at hero/bandit vendors.  They'd still be able to pull clothes off dead bodies, but at least they'd have to work for it. =P  That was one thing I liked about Origins, being able to tell if someone is a hero or bandit by their skin, even though it gave you a random skin.

 

 

I don't know how many servers you have played on, but bandits that actually play their role realistically are very rare. Most bandits are simply out to kill every player they come across, while hiding behind a game skin which doesn't reveal their reputation, who they really are, or any of their previous interactions with others. In fact, currently it is impossible for a "true bandit," to not have their identify hidden by default because they simply look like a clone of any other player. Unless a bandit goes around announcing himself in direct chat, which would be ridiculous, other players have no idea whether or not the player they are encountering is the same bandit that has been terrorizing an area or even a brand new greared player as there is no visual difference. Imagine putting up a Wanted Poster of a guy in a ghillie suit. Would that make any sense?

 

Someone port some Elder Scrolls into dis b*tch.  I'll be running around as a dark elf with an ebony claymore. =P

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This is something I've been thinking about for some time.  I'm planning on removing certain skins from the loot table and only making them accessible at hero/bandit vendors.  They'd still be able to pull clothes off dead bodies, but at least they'd have to work for it. =P  That was one thing I liked about Origins, being able to tell if someone is a hero or bandit by their skin, even though it gave you a random skin.

 

 
 

 

Someone port some Elder Scrolls into dis b*tch.  I'll be running around as a dark elf with an ebony claymore. =P

 

The only way this would work is if the person with the low humanity was re-spawned after death in a bandit skin, and there was a script restriction that only allowed bandits to wear bandit skins and heros to wear hero skins. Otherwise as a bandit I'm going to respawn and find a change of clothes or if the server has take clothes, shoot somone and take their clothes...then voila...I can go around looking like a genaric survivor capping unsuspecting people again.

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This is something i had started on some time ago.. Got stuck on a few conceptual problems back then, rethinking exploiting and such..

Got motivated again today, threw out a bunch of shit i did not like and working on new functions and features to it.. This could make a difference in the entire gameplay of Dayz, even offer new aspects of gameplay if i succeed and make it exploit-free....

If I get happy enough with it, I will probably release it, pls give me your thoughts and ideas in addition to mine :)

http://youtu.be/56jbhKFSa3s

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This is something i had started on some time ago.. Got stuck on a few conceptual problems back then, rethinking exploiting and such..

Got motivated again today, threw out a bunch of shit i did not like and working on new functions and features to it.. This could make a difference in the entire gameplay of Dayz, even offer new aspects of gameplay if i succeed and make it exploit-free....

If I get happy enough with it, I will probably release it, pls give me your thoughts and ideas in addition to mine :)

 

Now this is interesting, and looks fun too. I have a few questions:

 

Is there a game mechanic you added to discourage a player from collecting their own bounty with a friend? The only thing I can think of is some sort of punishment or penalty for the wanted if he is killed, which wouldn't be worth collecting the money.

 

I'm guessing the bounty attaches to the UID rather than the name right?

 

If the time limit expires is the money lost, or do you just need to go back and select the same bounty to try again?

 

Can more than one player add to a bounty over time so that the bounty builds up until awarded?

 

How does a bounty hunter identify the wanted player from any other player?

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Yes the bounty adds up, so people can push the bounty higher and higher on a certain player, yes it is tied to UID, the bounty hunter will have different "levels" depending on his skills.. the more bounties he collects the higher his skills get, and based on that he will get more or less precise map markers of the last known position of the searched player.

 

And yes there will be systems in place to prevent grinding with the skills and/or collecting the bounty of a friend

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I like self-regulating in game solutions like that bounty system instead of the admins getting harassed to solve in game problems. I would love this if it was automatic though, I thought of a bounty system but i'm no coder. Here goes... use any ideas you want.

when a player kills a player the killer increase their bounty payout. At traders or some designated area players could check the bounty map to get a *last know location (for free) of all players with bounties above a certain amount.

At the bounty map spot players can pay their bounty before becoming visible on the bounty map.

Players with a bounty do not appear on the bounty map when they are within the perimeter of their own plot pole or any "friendly" plot poles (by tagging).

*Players last known location automatically updates when a player with a bounty is spotted by another player with a radio (excludes bandits).

____________________

These are just ideas on scrunched up paper so use them as is or adapt them all you want.

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This is something i had started on some time ago.. Got stuck on a few conceptual problems back then, rethinking exploiting and such..

Got motivated again today, threw out a bunch of shit i did not like and working on new functions and features to it.. This could make a difference in the entire gameplay of Dayz, even offer new aspects of gameplay if i succeed and make it exploit-free....

If I get happy enough with it, I will probably release it, pls give me your thoughts and ideas in addition to mine :)

http://youtu.be/56jbhKFSa3s

Hmm... your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter! haha definitely looks interesting and I could easily see my buddies and I wanting to implement this on the server we run!

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