The War Z

[Hawkzombie]

Man, tonight was both my most successful and worst night out.

First off, I decided to pick a low pop server (found one with only 6 people on it) and try and get a bunch of supplies and stockpile, etc. I start off by heading towards to safe zone towards the north of the map (I spawned near there, but went to the other far north spawn zone to see if the bat was there. It was not, but a hammer was)

Anyway, get there, and there are already 2 people there, and we start chatting etc. One of us decides we're killing ourselves slowly, and it was time to go exploring. Another guy was there, but he quickly diapeared as I set off with the other. I was the only one with a weapon at present, and took point.

We headed into the smaller city just north of the big one, and started scavenging. Sure we were alone, we weren't sneaking more than we had to, and even going around in broad daylight. Then I spot someone far off in the distance. We were talking in Proximity at the moment, and started talking about them.

Person 1: Just got a glimpse of him. He's off in the houses.
Me: Yeah, should we keep our distance?
Other Guy: Fuck off
Person 1: I don't think they like us.
Me: We're not here to kill you, just looking for supplies.
Other guy: That's what the other guy said!!

We stay away from where we last saw him, and continue to explore, but now we're far more cautious. We stumble upon not one, but TWO major finds...a store FULL of hats...it would seem someone died there. and among the hats?

A Skull Mask. Score.

I pop that bad boy on, and my partner grabs a gas mask that was on the floor. We grab food and water laying about and continue. We find bandages and painkillers in another house, and in the post office? The holy grail:

A fucking 9mm. And a full Magazine as well. He takes it because I'm a nice guy, and we set out. 15 seconds later we're both dead.

As we left the post office we crossed the street, and are under gunfire almost immediately after crossing. My partner takes out one of the gunmen as we use a nearby car as cover. A bullet passes through the windows and hits me in the shoulder. I try and stay down, but it's no use. The second gunman comes around the car, and he has range. I wonder where my partner is, and as I hit the ground I see their prone form just behind me. They went down first. It was so awesome I wasn't even close to being upset. I was pumped.

Take two. I wanted that mask, and since the survivor didn't take it, I headed back to the town. I got around the hour wait by deleting my original character (Right now there's no reason not to) and made another. I luckily spawn near the city and head in. Again it's broad daylight, and I make my way cautiously past some zombies. I manage to find an abandoned military vehicle and a NEW Skull Mask. Happy, I grab it, and decide to duck into a Grocery store just next to it to see if there is anything wirth grabbing. Some water, and my first note.

I took a screen grab, and after the NDA time period has passed I will post it for you guys to see. It was so awesome I lost track of myself for a little bit as I read it, and was started back to reality by gunfire.

Even though it was still a low pop server (it never topped more than 9 or 10 people) the survivor from before must have still been in the area. I ducked into a corner of the store and waited. More gunfire, and it was getting closer. I prayed I could wait it out, that I could wait for nightfall and make a break for the safe zone, not a mile or so away...but my prayers fell onto deaf ears. I picked the wrong corner of the store to hide in, because he came in and went right for that side. There was a hesitation as he saw me, and I ran for my life.

A shot, he misses, and I'm almost to the door, almost to freedom. A second and it hits me, but I can still make it. I can still...!

And the world explodes into darkness.


Fuck I love this game.

[Reverant]

I found a post on the War Z forums that seemed like it was written by me in another dimension, so I went ahead and wrote my whole take on the matter in a small essay.

The matter at hand is that War Z (and Day Z) claim to be survival games. Both I and the OP are of the opinion that a true survival scenario would look absolutely nothing like the blood bath that these games are (though War Z will be fixing this as it approaches release). The solution is to come up with a system that somehow emulates the incentives and punishments of killing someone in real life. His post is pretty good, but I like mine because it's mine.

http://forums.thewarz.com/showthread...l=1#post610414

[Hawkzombie]

Yeah, right now there aren't any sort of real consequences for being a sociopathic murderer in the game. And the suggestions as to what might encourage others to not shoot on sight don't seem to be that great either.

Also, the fact stuff you buy in the store, using GC, can be lost forever when you are killed isn't all that great either. I bought that stuff to aid/enhance MY character, not someone else's. And if you're walking around with anything other than the stock backpack you might as well flash a huge beacon 'kill me now'

I like the game, but the only real way to play is to group with others. I fully plan to get a group of 2 or 3 guys along with myself to go and explore and defend ourselves. Find a place to call home, and defend it from bandits.

EDIT: I love the TLDR replies to your post...it took me all of a minute to read your post and get the jist of it. People are r-tards.

[bstiff]

The more I hear about this game and pking, the more I think The Divide wasn't that far off the mark.

[Reverant]

Originally Posted by bstiff

The more I hear about this game and pking, the more I think The Divide wasn't that far off the mark.

The PK rate is a bit of an anomaly right now, given that only a fraction of the map is playable and everyone is spawning in the same areas. There's not much to do other than kill other players, and the "bandit" systems aren't in yet.

I have no idea what The Divide is... a Grand Canyon radio station?

[SilentScreams]

The PKing is what's keeping me away at the moment. I don't regret my purchase yet because there's a lot to come that could/should improve the situation, but I won't be using my early access much for now.

[bstiff]

Originally Posted by Reverant

The PK rate is a bit of an anomaly right now, given that only a fraction of the map is playable and everyone is spawning in the same areas. There's not much to do other than kill other players, and the "bandit" systems aren't in yet.

I have no idea what The Divide is... a Grand Canyon radio station?

[Reverant]

Makes sense. This is also why when tornadoes strike towns across the South and the Midwest, those that survive descend on the wreckage to scavenge for supplies and then fight to the death over them.

[RandoM51]

You're kidding yourself if you think larger maps will change it.

Chernarus is pretty big, doesn't matter because most of that real estate doesn't contain anything of value. Most of the population stays around the resource centers, if you want resources you're going to have to risk getting killed by other players.

As far as attempting to replicate the penalties for killing people in real life, what penalties would there actually be in an apocalyptic scenario like this? I don't see any. All they can really do is add incentives for working together. Which just means you'll group with friends made outside of the game/in other games instead of trusting new people in this one. Strangers will still be kill-on-sight.

If you're very lucky they'll add PvE-only servers for the people who just want to kill zombies for the nth time.

[Hawkzombie]

Well, the word on high is that high powered weaponry (IE: Sniper Rifles) are going to have their spawn times greatly reduced. And people who exploited or server hopped to get a stockpile will have their entire collections wiped if they have more than 1 or 2.

Looks like one too many sniper killed the creator On the official forums he basically said he hates sniper rifles killing from afar as it is now, and wants to make them a rarity because of it. There will be no PvE servers at all (currently) but if you want a true PvE experience then you're welcome to rent a server for the 5 bucks a month (or whatever it is) and password protect it to keep riff raff out.

I don't mind the PKs. It's the sniper kills and the spawn campers that get me. Already they've removed the fact you start with basic supplies because of spawn campers to try and discourage it.

Still, it's a fun game and I also don't regret the purchase. We should see about getting a clan started, or joining a larger one to group with others.

IMO, however, they should spawn you in a safe zone right off the bat, or give you the option to spawn in one.

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

If you're very lucky they'll add PvE-only servers for the people who just want to kill zombies for the nth time.

That's the only way I'd be interested in a game like this.

There are plenty of games with zombies, but actually very few focused on survival sandbox play. They're usually more like Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising.

Dead Island was a step in that direction, but I am eagerly anticipating zombie games with more survival aspects, like base-building, resource gathering, etc. But I have zero interest in dealing with griefers. NPC raiders? Sure. Not people killing for fun with no realistic consequences.

[Reverant]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Dead Island was a step in that direction, but I am eagerly anticipating zombie games with more survival aspects, like base-building, resource gathering, etc. But I have zero interest in dealing with griefers. NPC raiders? Sure. Not people killing for fun with no realistic consequences.

That reminds me that I wanted to start a thread about building your perfect zombie game. I came up with one that was sort of like a user-friendly version of Dwarf Fortress with modern graphics and gameplay that's enjoyable by a normal human being. The order of the day is to find survivors, rebuild society, and sweep the countryside of zeds. It could be either a shooter or a strategy/sim game. Both are feasible.

I also thought up a mechanic for encouraging teamwork and discouraging anti-social behavior in Day Z/War Z: I call it the Paranoia resource. For every X amount of time you spend alone, your Paranoia increases by Y. Initially, this has the affect of draining your hunger and thirst bars quicker (and in Day Z's case, making you sicker easier). Gradually, you have less stamina and your aim becomes shakier. At the severe end, you begin to hallucinate- you hear footsteps, zombie groans, player breathing, and gunshots that never actually occurred. You also begin to see zombies that aren't there, as well as see other players as zombies. Basically, being super paranoid would be really freaky and really hard to play.

Your Paranoia bar goes down when you spend time with non-bandit players. All you have to do is be within a certain range of them. Exchanging goods with them, healing them, being healed by them, etc also decrease the Paranoia bar. Being near bandit players increases it. Being a bandit increases it. Killing players increases it. Looting player corpses increases it.

If you're remotely social and sometimes move about with players that aren't murderers, controlling paranoia won't be a huge deal. It would only be a burden for those that deliberately flaunt social norms.

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by Reverant

That reminds me that I wanted to start a thread about building your perfect zombie game. I came up with one that was sort of like a user-friendly version of Dwarf Fortress with modern graphics and gameplay that's enjoyable by a normal human being. The order of the day is to find survivors, rebuild society, and sweep the countryside of zeds. It could be either a shooter or a strategy/sim game. Both are feasible.

I kind of made a thread for that a while ago.

[Reverant]

Yikes. If I want to get any work done this week, I'll have to steer clear of that thread. I already spent enough time this past week coming up with theoretical zombie gameplay systems...

[Krispy]

Giving people who want to play alone stat debuffs is not cool.

[Hawkzombie]

Originally Posted by Krispy

Giving people who want to play alone stat debuffs is not cool.

I agree. I think the paranoia should happen with multiple PKs under their belt, and wear off after a while.

But small buffs to play with one another? Makes sense.

[digitalErich]

Are they really following through with the respawn throttling?

[Hawkzombie]

Originally Posted by digitalErich

Are they really following through with the respawn throttling?

The 24hr thing? No idea. But if there are spawn campers, it would make the game somewhat unplayable.

[digitalErich]

Yeah, I was asking about the 24 hour thing, because if that's real wholly hell that would be the most unplayed a game would ever be for me.

[Reverant]

Originally Posted by Krispy

Giving people who want to play alone stat debuffs is not cool.

At least in War Z, I would make it so that it doesn't have to be more often what naturally occurs. So far, you actually run into other people a lot. Just being in the same hundred feet or so as a friendly (ie, non-murderer) drops it. Paranoia would increase very slowly just for being alone. It's the other things that really ramp it up. The point is to have a system that incentivizes positive social interaction while punishing negative interaction.

Also, there is no way you could spend weeks in the woods alone after a zombie apocalypse and NOT start to hear and see shit . That happens to me the first night that I get the house to myself.

Edit: Also, War Z will have friendly NPCs at settlements. Those would also count. "Then bandits could just camp on top of those guys!" We're told bandits aren't allowed in those places.