bfisher

I think these are all fine ideas. You should be able to cobble together protective gear that one would reasonibly expect to find in the rural suburbs surrounding a cluster of military bases in a post-soviet republic. Anything from sporting equipment, motorcycle helments up to Class IV military body armor. But it should come at a cost in terms of mobility. In fact, mobility is never a factor in the game. You can sprint just as fast and as far carrying twin SAW machinguns and an ALICE pack full of ammo and gear as you can unequiped.

Yeah, I logged in this morning and spawned on some empty stretch of land with a bunch of other players and no weapons. I dropped and joined a different server but instead of being up by the NW airfield I was outside of Cherno. I had all my stuff so that actually worked out for me. Hours later, I found I could see every player on the map. Also someone made the words "Fuck You Motherfucker" appear on my (everyone's) screen. Plus shit like making fires or refilling canteens seemed to be delayed for a minute or so.

It's still a pretty interesting concept. But unfortunately there really isn't much to do besides PvP. I'm not going to build a camp in the woods and just spend days staring at my character sitting around eating and drinking. And there really is no incentive to work with strangers instead of just killing them for their stuff.

If I had a sniper rifle, I wouldn't need to trade. I'd just straight up murder people and take their shit!

I think random zombies in the woods and actually fixing the temperature thing so you have to build fires or go inside to keep from freezing to death would go a long way.

I have plenty of food and medicine. Most of the gear I'd ever need. I'm armed with an M16A1/M203, an M14 and a PDW with plenty of ammo for all. So what do people typically do for days on end once they are all equipped? I mean other than go back down to the shore and kill noobs for fun?

Because even a "friendly" pickup might take you up to their gladiator camp and make you fight each other for beans:

So some jerk nukes the server I'm on, killing everyone. Especially annoying because I'm still loaded up with NV goggles, rangefinder binocs, an M4 (which I can never find), silenced pistol (which I had just used to assassinate a pig with a double tap to the head) and a do it yourself meat kit (ax, knife, matches). Fine. So at first I think I'll just respawn and go find my body and collect my shit. Except I had no idea where I was when I died other than some massive field a few klicks from Stary Sobor. And of course I respawn in K-town, the furthest possible point away. Whatever. I'll stock up in Balota and Cherno and head up that way anyway since what else do I have to do? In my carelessless, I get killed by zombies in some random shithole north of Cherno. Because I just HAVE to have that can of beans. Mmmm...soo freakin good. At least now I'm in Elektro and was able to get back and recover my cache of exotic weapons - an assortment of mismatched AKs and ammo since Mr. Kalishkanov can't decide on a single freakin caliber. I finally make it to Stary, having long given up my dream finding my old body with the NV goggles (and I think I changed servers too). I'm about to light up these zombie jerks at the army base in hopes of finding new toys when in horror I start doing the "throw road flare" animation. Dead. This time I straight up sprint from the coast all the way to Stary, right down the middle of the road. Come and get me snipers! Zombies! Anyone with a weapon! Enjoy a hardy breakfast at the supermarket. Spend 15 minutes running around the aisles trapped by a zombie who warped through the door. Finally I give him some face time with sweet lady hatchet, but not before he fucks my shit up. I collect my shit at the army base and head for the hills. I did find a castle on the way, which was sort of cool. At some point I find a camp north of Stary. No sense letting all that cooked meat and M1911 ammo go to waste. I also kill a rabit. Finally I get some time to relax and cook myself a nice meal of rabbit and get my health back. No sooner do I put the fire out do I see some clown sneaking around behind me. "Friendly!" I shout, as I fire a burst from one of my AKs. Spend the next minutes running around but no sign of the interloper and no more shots fired. I guess that's about it. I did see some guy racing around on a motorcycle but he was like a mile away. And I used half my ammo trying to investigate a heliicopter crash that had jack shit in it.

Oh and it gets worse! I make it to the NW Airfield and it's a bonanza of weapons (and zombies of course). Except I'm low on blood and starving! I'm getting more and more desperate and just start running around the base like a madman trying to find a can of beans or something to eat! I CAN'T EAT AK ROUNDS AND BANDAGES! The whole base goes agro and I'm like FUCK YOU BITCHES!! GIVE ME SOME FOOD!! I'm killing zombies because I'm made of ammo at this point. Then all of a sudden I come across an M16 with the 203 attachment. Fuck this! If I'm going out, at least I'm going out Tony Montana style! SEY ELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND! A zombie hits me and I light his ass up. But now I can barely see, the food icon is flashing and there isn't jack shit in this base that can be ate. So to hell with it! I make a run north for the nearest town. I can't see shit. I can't even read the compass. All of a sudden I see a shape moving in the distance. A cow! COWS MEAN MEAT! I start sprinting at this cow, just pausing long enough to fire full auto bursts at it! Mooo motherfucker! POP POP POP! Moooooo!! HAHAHAHAHA!! POP POP!! MWUHAHAHA!! I'm almost dead so I start dropping everything. Painkillers. Smoke grenades. Whatever. Just to make room for all the meat and wood I'll need. I can't believe I ate the whole thing in one sitting!

I agree about the making the zombies more dangerous thing. But here's my thoughts (I had posted in another thread as well), many of which are actually being implemented in the standalone: To make the zombies more dangerous (forgive me if I repeat what has already been said): -Either make them fast enough to eventually catch you or, make players have a finite endourance that will cause them to slow to a jog or walk after sprinting a certain distance. Because I sometimes feel like they should have set this game in the Serengetti with a bunch of Zulus the way you can full on sprint forever. -Random spawns outside of the towns and cities. The deep woods are too much of a safe haven. -Gunshots ALWAYS have the potential to spawn a zombie. That will help keep snipers from setting up shop forever. To make the outdoors more dangerous in general: -Once the temperature feature is fixed, forcedto build fires more frequently to avoid hypothermia (maybe also add cold weather geer as loot as well). And if the outside is more dangerous, players will need to be forced inside. So: -More enterable buildings. -Fix the bugs that allow zombies to glide through doors -Ability to baracade / fortify buildings (somethng better than barbed wire and Normandy Beach tank traps) Basically what I have in mind is the typical Night/Day/Dawn/Land/Diary of the Living Dead / 28 Days Later / basically every zombie film ever dynamic. That is to say, it's so dangerous outside with zombies and bandits, most people will be forced to hole up in a structure for safety. But they can't stay there forever because eventually they will run out of supplies, zombies will find and overrun their sanctuary or bandits will try to take what they have.

Babou!! Serpentine!! Guys...it's post apocalypse. Of course there will be armies of well-armed bandits. You have to avoid them. I say anything goes so long as it's not hacking or Alt-F4ing whenever you get into trouble. Assume everyone is out to kill you for your beans! I find sprinting like a maniac and keeping to the trees or other cover is the best way to avoid snipers. I've only been killed 2x by long range sniper fire. And one of those times, it took him like 5 shots.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but it suddenly occured to me what DayZ is really missing. What happens in every zombie film / show - Romaro films, Resident Evil, Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, so on and so forth? A bunch of jerks caught out in the open during a zombie outbreak are forced to hole up together in some structure (a farmhouse, mall, bunker, old mansion, appartment building, whatever) to protect themselves from the zombies (and other roving bands of jerks). It provides some degree of safety for awhile, but eventually either supplies run low, a civil war erupts between the people trapped in the house and/or the zombies eventually break in. The survivors are forced to scatter and flee and dodge zombies out on the road again until they find another refuge. That is what is missing! What I am talking about is that feeling in zombie films (also the game Minecraft at night), that even if you are well-armed, it is so dangerous to be out in the open that you are forced to find any sort of shelter you can with whoever you are stuck finding it with. And yet it's a double edged sword because that shelter will become a magnet for zombies and bandits. I feel like DayZ is the opposite. You can roam around the woods as carefree as you like, only going into town to grab supplies and weapons. At best the zombies are a minor nuisance. My suggestions: Random chance of zombies spawing ANYWHERE. Maybe not as frequently far from the towns. But you shouldn't be able to sit there for hours (ie "sniping") like you are on a Boy Scout nature hike. Zombies more dangerous - Maybe make them able to eventually catch you. I don't know Zombies can't teleport through doors. That strikes me as more of a bug fix. Ability to secure buildings (other than tank traps and barb wired). Use the hatchet to board up doors and windows. Of course ability to breach those defenses as well.

Perhaps you might be more comfortible playing Fallout 3?

I'd be happy just being able to rotate through my weapons to get to my ax. Instead of putting down my rifle and then watching it disappear.

I sometimes feel every industrial building in Chernarus is a hatchet factory. It seems like these days, most people would just light you up with their .50 cal sniper rifle, then jog the half mile to take your hatchet so they can build a fire.

Better as in less buggy with improved collision detection or better as in something like a Battlefield 3 destructable environment? The latter would be cool and all, but hardly necessary unless they want to throw tanks and mortars into the mix. Really, I'd be happy if when you shut a door or gate behind you, the zombies don't just wander through it like it didn't exist. I also think if there were more things to do or build or ways to force people to cooperate that would be a plus. Right now there is no incentive to cooperate because you don't need anything from other players that you can't just kill them for. Like if you could repair generators or waterpumps or watever the same way you fix vehicles. They would be stationary, but because they produce "loot" they would be worth defending and holding. You would also get into a lot of Mad Max Road Warrior standoffs.

Alt-F4 to escape a firefight is lame. Although truth be told, I've done it a couple of times when I trapped myself in a building with a ton of zombies. I figure they won't complain! The only time I managed to "kill" another player so far was some even NOOBier player running down the middle of the road by the coast with a couple of zombies chasing him. I happened to have an Enfield so I blasted him a couple times. He didn't go down though. He just ran around spraying blood everywhere like an extra from Kill Bill until he disconnected. I mean come on. You really need a do-over when you just have a flashlight and presumably no more bandages?

I was pretty excited today. Found a bunch of dead players in the ATC tower at Balota with NV goggles, an M4A1 rifle and a bunch of other goodies. I don't know what went down, but it was over by the time I got there. Finders keepers and all that. Fast forward to later in the evening. I decide to be all slick and approach Cherno from the NW in the darkness with my new toys. Maybe I'll stock up on some food. Find some chump feeling his way around in the dark and crack him in the head with an ax. Whatever. All of a sudden I hear the *ZING!!* *ZING!!* *ZING!!* of automatic fire landing around me! I can't see the shooter, even using NV, so I dive to the ground and blast off a couple of rounds in the general direction I think it's coming from. You know, just to let this guy know that I'm playing with more than a hatchet and an old Enfield. But then I quickly realize I'm laying in the grass with no idea where this goon is while he may have seen my muzzle flash! So F this! I serpentine sprint my way the hell out of there! Fortunately I escaped with just a scratch. I waited until I was good and clear for several minutes before bandaging up and shutting down for the night, just so as not to be a total wuss. But man that was freakin intense for a videogame! (sorry if I sound like a total pansy, but I'm still pretty new at this).

I've only just started playing, so I don't have anything to compare against. But it seems like there are plenty of servers with plenty of people on them. I can see why there are so many low population servers though. Who wants to be dropped into a meatgrinder with nothing but a flashlight while everyone else has sniper rifles and AKs already or some hacker will just make you vanish from the world? I can see what you mean about persistant tasks. Without something to "do" other than collect guns and kill each other, that's what people will do.

This might be a stupid question, but I'm new so please bear with me. So I'm cautiously making my way through the hills a couple of clicks north of Cherno. Keeping to the trees. Keeping to a defilade position behind the hills. Basically just trying to avoid being seen by anyone. All of a sudden I hear a couple of pops of gunfire in the distance. It's so far away, in fact, I can't even be sure I hear it. Then I hear a couple more. Louder, but still pretty far away. Keep in mind, I'm prone behind an evergreen tree in the middle of the woods. So I'm thinking, just stay here under cover while I try to decide my next move. Next thing I know, I just keel over dead! So my question is basically should I have expected to hear a *crack* of incoming near misses? Because I couldn't even tell that fire was directed at me.

Yeah, I figured since I was in the middle of the forest and the shots sounded so far away it was safer to stay put.until I could figure out what's what.

We've all been forced to do terrible things we never thought we would have to do.