The Effect of Loot Hotspots in DayZ Standalone
0.57 Update has arrived on Stable servers and with it has come the much hyped loot hotspots or explosions or hordes or well... all kinds of craziness.
Two key locations have been shifted into sharp focus, although there is a lot more loot in this patch generally. One is the guard house/post at the entrance to industrial districts and the other being deer stands that are littered across the map. Both give up bounties that make DayZ players simply drool at the mouth.
But what is the effect of this on gameplay? Because this influx of wondrous loot in a looting game will surely change how we play this infamous sandbox game?
There is no doubt, and I have seen comments and chatted to players about this, that people are a lot happier with this new system. Getting hold of guns is now much easier and, with a similar distribution of ammo as in the last patch which was and is plenty, gun fights are now more common place, the excitement of conflict far more accessible. This I have personally found to be fantastic, yes in some people's eyes a needlessly extravagant word, but the truth as street fights in Berezino eat up hours of my down time.
Another obvious change will be an increase in map knowledge. These locations may well have been over looked by some players and now they will have to learn their locations. An increase of map awareness may lead to great appreciation and pull the fight to different districts where new stories and memories will be forged.
But as much as these Loot Hotspots are 'Fantastic' I fear the end of them will be a necessity if DayZ Standalone strives to live up to its billing as a survival game. In reality, well as far as a zombie apocalypse is real, there would not be stacks of military loot in these aforementioned locations. No, it would be harder to come across these items, more of a run, more of a hassle.
Also with all this loot now prime for the picking, and this includes a good supply of food on most servers, the survival mechanics the Devs have been working so hard on have also become in some ways obsolete. Find an un-looted town and there will be food and no need to hunt, trap of skin your fellow player. This is another reason why this high level of loot will probably be only brief.
There are also two other effects these hotspots have and they could be damaging.
The first thing is; what if the developers take out all the loot now we are used to them? It would be taking a drug from an addict and virtually the whole player base would go into shock or Loot Cold Turkey! I can only imagine the response would be negative, apart from a handful of survivalists.
The second is that now the life of the player is more expendable, the awareness of easily available loot giving less value to it and decreased need to protect your preciously sought scope or AK74. Combat tactics will be more intense and potentially full on. There will be more conflict, more snipers and nutters, dressed in bright blue, screaming YOLO as they grip the quickly found and loaded pump action shotgun!
What this all highlights for me is that judging loot distribution is a very difficult thing. We may run around, like headless chickens sometimes, swiping up the loot but it's where, when and if the stuff is placed that really guides us on our journey through this amazing DayZ world. It effects our mood, our enjoyment, keeps us playing or pushes us away as the screen becomes white and we course the DayZ Gods.
The new loot can be seen in my Looting Guide to 0.57 video, the link for which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEjr2yhTrgw