Suggestion:20071007 Colored Flares

	Dupe
	This suggestion has been found to be a dupe of few suggestions. Dupes are easily found by searching for them in the main and suggestion namespaces.

20071007 Colored Flares

O'Sheehy 17:19, 7 October 2007 (BST)

Suggestion type
New/changed item

Suggestion scope
Survivors

Suggestion description

Mechanics

Flare guns would work essentially the same, except now they would come in four different colors; red, blue, yellow, and white. The name of the item would appear as "red flare", or as such. When fired into the air, the color would be noted in the text of both those who shoot it and those who see it (i.e. "A red flare was fired into the air six blocks to the north and three blocks to the east".) Also, (not as important), the text 'red flare' would appear in red or the respective color. This color-flavor text would also appear in regards to flare combat "You were shot with a red flare for 15 damage". The search percentage of finding a flare in general would not be altered, but I suppose the search percentage for each different color flare would be lower to accommodate this. For example you would still have a 5% chance of firing a flare in a fire station, but your chance of finding a blue flare is only 1.25% (the original 5% divided by 4 colors).

Uses

Although flares are not exactly 'useless', it is generally hard to understand what exactly they mean all of the time. Lets say you see a flare fired a few blocks to the north. Well, what is that supposed to tell you? You know there is at least a survivor there. Does he need help? Are there zombies around? Is he wasting AP? The only way you can be sure what a flare means is if someone tells you they're going outside and will shoot a flare within a certain time frame to mark their location, but even this can get confusing if someone else shoots a flare in the same area around the same time. Various colors would allow survivor groups to create their own color coordination system to effectively use flares as a communication outside. Maybe for one group, red flares mean 50+ zombies at that location. Or maybe one group maintains an outpost in a dangerous area, and every 12 hours they shoot a white flare in the air to communicate that its still up and running, but a yellow flare means that they are being over run and are abandoning the outpost. I'm sure people will find plenty of uses for this. Also, can be clearly used for RP purposes of celebrations like fireworks, either at the victorious end of a long battle or on an occasion like the fourth of July.

Balancing

I don't think this suggestion is in anyway unbalanced, being that although survivors get a new way to communicate, it can still be messed with 'false flares' going up (similar to how Griefers broadcast false information), and since the chances of finding a specific color flare are not as high as finding a flare in general, if you want to make use of the system you have to look for the color you need. Also, I don't think this in anyway takes away from the game, because if die hard monotone flare supporters don't want a new colored system, they don't have to use it and can shoot flares regardless of color.

Alterations

The one thing I'm not 100% sure about is the number of varied flare colors. I think 4 is a good amount, but I'm sure people will argue this point to infinitum. Please don't vote kill because you think there should be a different amount of colors (or different colors for that matter), but rather on the concept. I think any less than 3 colors is stupid, and more than 8 is excessive, but in the end if this suggestion is implemented Kevan will decide.

Voting Section

Voting Rules

Votes must be numbered, justified, signed, and timestamped. # justification ~~~~ Votes that do not conform to the above may be struck by any user.

The only valid votes are Keep, Kill, Spam or Dupe. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.

Keep Votes

1. Keep On the fourth of July I want to show my patriotism by shooting red, white, and blue flares in succession and then kill anyone who shoots a yellow flare. --O'Sheehy 17:20, 7 October 2007 (BST)
2. Keep *clap* *clap* Keepish vote for a good idea.--  Savant  Chit-Chat  17:24, 7 October 2007 (BST)

Kill Votes

Spam/Dupe Votes

1. Dupe – Take your pick. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 17:26, 7 October 2007 (BST)
2. Dupe --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 17:32, 7 October 2007 (BST)
3. Dupe -- It's a good idea, well though out, but it's a Dupe. BoboTalkClown 17:36, 7 October 2007 (BST)
4. Dupe -- Seems Revenant covered it. Flare suggestions seem to occilate between overwhelming keep votes, or overwhelming kill votes. --MrCoolantSpray 17:38, 7 October 2007 (BST)

   Re -- I don't think my suggestion is a dupe. Granted it's tackling the same issue, but it's doing so in a much different way. The other suggestion wants coding rather than coloring, which allows for ridiculous amounts of possibilities, not just four. Also he wanted to make the coded flares unreadable by zombies. My system allows zombies to see the colors, so they can see what's going on too. And as for the other flare suggestions, they were just terribly done and not thought out. I hope I can convince you guys to take away your dupe votes or keep others from voting dupe, but in all likelyhood I probably can't.--O'Sheehy 17:51, 7 October 2007 (BST)

   Re -- Nevermind. I like the factory coloring one better than mine, and that one was peer reviewed. I guess someone can just delete this suggestion.--O'Sheehy 17:57, 7 October 2007 (BST)

5. Dupe - and serving --~~~~ [talk] 18:10, 7 October 2007 (BST)

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