_Anubis_ (DayZ)

Dallas, No need to repeat... As I said I had the _choice_ to shoot first or take the risk to be shot at by conveying a clear signal. So I ended up dead. Why you say it was a bad idea if I factored in the risk to end up dead? If that guy was a trigger happy asshole he would have opened fire regardless of my posture, or even worse, say 'friendly' first (because tactically in a bad corner) and then shot me in the back at the first opportunity. With survival in the first place, KOS is the obvious/safest choice. Anything else increases the risks. You seems to think: I must never die no matter what. Which is fine, I respect that, but is not an universal credo. Being a casual player I play mostly to have fun. I obviously try to stay alive because it is entertaining and challenging, beside being a learning experience but I may also have a lot of fun in zig-zag running as a fresh spawn in Cherno just to see how long will I survive in a +30 server... And it is amazing how sometimes I can get out of the town unscathed and fully geared despite that suicidal behavior: there are many people who could shoot but not so many take a shot (snipers in high spots notwithstanding): Z is the reason why. You are bound to meet other players in a +30 server sooner or later, it is a matter of statistics, even if you lie all day under a tree. And with my friendly policy I will/may die more easily compared to a pure KOS policy. So what? If I were afraid of that, then I would play only when there are 5-10 people online. But as I said, thanks for what you are writing, I understand your standpoint. _Anubis_

Thanks. I mostly move behind cover and pause often to check near and far fields visually and listen for noise before moving again. That's why I saw him first: he was running while I was checking. It was either shoot first (at zero risk) or take the risk to be shot at. There has been a 2 second windows between me seeing him and he seeing me. No time to get any cover or step back: a moving player with a weapon aimed triggers immediate reactions. A standstill player with a weapon lowered should convey a clear and different message. The other guy ignored the message. He had an automatic weapon, so clearly he wasn't a new spawn. Choices. Maybe I'll change my friendly policy to "not KOS" to to "KOS people well geared", even if it means _I_ would be automatically KOS by others thinking in the same way, since you can get pretty much everything from deer stands _Anubis_ p.s. As i wrote in the first post, we were both in the bush

One thing I dislike in dayz is the artificlal difficulty added by the random 'issues': - you get a chance of infection by eating raw meat - you get a chance of infection by drinking not boiled water - you get a chance of infection by being hit by a Z ...and so on That's just a cheap way to make the game appear more difficult and challenging when all you need to defetat those 'issues' is either a box of matches or 2 antibiotics you can pick up in Elektro when you start. I have no problems in having the game more difficult and to die for a good reason (e.g. I was cornered by Zombies), but this 'one of chance' thing does not add anything and it is only annoying. Make better Zombies, or less loot and game (make them run away from you as well) instead - that is a real problem to deal with. _Anubis_

Sure, The game is exceptionally good in creating the adrenaline rush when you meet another player (especially outside a town). What I was pointing out is that it may be worth (YMMV of course) to take the risk to be killed against the reward to have met a friendly player, after all what is lost by dying can be quickly recovered. To be honest I did not use to think in that way at the beginning and the first time I was killed shortly after having found the NVG... Well that was hurtful. And I am pretty convinced that a certain KOS behavior is also triggered simply by fear of losing the gear. _Anubis_ .

Ahh ... clearly I got the attention of who enjoys killing fresh spawns in Elektro to "teach them".... Wonder why, must have been something I wrote but believe me, I wasn't referring to you. _Anubis_ ...

The message is not coming through. Let me try again: Now in dayz you may get an infection (random) according to certain events. The chance is rather low according to what I have seen in the source code. Does this really make the game realistic/brutal/challenging/survival struggle/zombie apocalypse/bla-bla-bla ? Nope. It takes one single trip to Elektro/Cherno or harvesting deer stands (things you do anyway if you have half a brain...) to find 1-2 boxes of antibiotics. Matches to light a fire you must have so I do not even mention them. Problem solved forever. What does the random-infection-risk add now? Nothing at all. Forget about it. What would add a cleverer zombie to the game? What would add animals that run away from you if you make noise (as it happens in real life... Ever been in a REAL forest?) ? A lot. You would have to deal with those issues every day. _Anubis_

Nope. I dislike cheap random problems (e.g. random sickness) which take nothing to be avoided and are just annoying. If there was in dayz the "one in a chance to be hit by a lightning while being outdoor with a thunderstorm (because it could happen as well in RL)" I would consider that stupid as well. As I said, make the SA difficult by having worthy problems to solve and not random events. _Anubis_

Add the possibility for the zombie-player to pick up an hatchet and it would be incredibly funny. _Anubis_

It happened to me once. Here's what I did: 1) go in control panel and un-install battleye, there are 2 components 2) use dayz commander and re-installed the arma2 beta (which forced a re-install of battleye) Done. No need to touch dayz or the rest of arma2. _Anubis_

The paranoia mentalilty is out there. I spawned and visited Elektro (nothing to loose) found a few basic stuff and decided to leave - I had enough to carry on my journey. Before leaving, since I had a L-E with ammo and an M-16A2 without ammo I decided to leave the M-16 near the barn NW of the power station and I typed on the chat a message to everybody explaining where it was so anybody could have collected it. I moved further away and I waited maybe 15 minutes looking at that barn. Nobody arrived. _Anubis_

I propose to add a stranded ship on the coast of Chernarus. This is not about just adding something, but introduce more depth and alternative/teamwork gameplay in dayz: 1. The ship should be rather big (several floors) and offer some basic shelter 2. The ship should have loot (e.g. 12 points, like a barn but also some medical and NO weapons) 3. The ship should be the center of the spawn area: meaning new spawns should always start within viewing distance of the ship 4. The ship would maybe explain why we are in Chernarus: we were passengers of that ship? Why? Because then everybody will have an initial reference point, a place where to meet and team up and maybe start a dayz journey with other players. Heroes and other friendly players could be there to help and guide and living team-mates could meet there their dead (now respawned) comrades. The only negative aspect is that such a spot would be a magnet for lowlifes who enjoy killing unarmed new spawns. _Anubis_

I found it interesting to have several 'lives' in parallel on different private servers. My avatars are at different stages and when I am bored with one, I switch to the next. Also interesting to try different tactics, locations, paths and meet/talk with more players. Like Garblax, I find the initial collector phase the most interesting one. _Anubis_

I know :) - don't worry about my rant, _Anubis_

Actually something like that happened to me: fresh spawned in Cherno I run to the hospital hoping to get some medical stuff. I had nothing, not even a tin can to throw against the glasses. Here comes a moron with a L-E, see me and freeze like he had seen Alien. "Uh oh" this is not going to end well, I run away and I am promptly shot IN THE BACK by that guy. I fall and die, but I have the pleasure to see him swamped by tens of zombies. What a total, clueless idiot. No wonder a KOS mentality is so ingrained in people. _Anubis_

That seems to nail it, at least the mod. Interesting, so the KOS/COD mentality is either coming from boredom (too easy to hunt cows, let's hunt players) or fear (especially players who have just started). Once you conquer fear (and it does not take much) you haven't a lot of motivation left (personally I would add exploring as a possibility, maybe the far north). _Anubis_

That's weird, I think Kamenka is one of the best... Cherno is pure suicide unless the server is almost empty. From Kamenka, you can go NE and hit 6 Deer Stands and a Barn, so you have pretty good chances to get a nice weapon, medical stuff and maybe a good backpack plus hatchet and food/beverages. From there, as other players said, you have a nice supermarket in Zeleno where you can complete your setup, all in a couple of hours (maybe less) from spawning. From Zeleno, if you are lucky, you have enough to move to NWAF directly. _Anubis_

Today I logged to a public server to start a new parallel life (I play private), played for a couple of hours, managed to reach Zelenogorsk with full tools to survive and a basic but trusty L-E. Had to log-out for a break. Coming back, I can see something is wrong: there is the Arma2 radio chatter, I am wearing the uniform of a soldier and I can see over the horizon the diamonds showing other players. It does not last long, we are all teleported to Skalisty Island where the hacker has also conveniently arranged piles of ammo and weapons. I run like hell to escape the firefight killing half of the players but I am teleported to the Debug Plains, looking at a lot of dead bodies. Teleported for the 3rd time back to the island this time with nothing at all, I grab a L85A2 AWS, ammo and leave by swimming. Reach Elektro, manage to get geared again (I had nothing but the rifle), leave Elektro fully geared. log-out and log-in again... Zap: dropped dead in the water surrounding Skalisty. Oh well, at least I tried the L85A2, never had one before :) _Anubis_

There is hardly need of the game map if you use, as already pointed out, the dayzDB map. It is far better and detailed. However, IMHO the player marker is fine on regular servers: players need to learn. As time goes by you will know Chernarus, but that takes some time and experience. By night in a forest, without a compass, it still takes 2 seconds to loose your orientation unless you have visible landmarks. _Anubis_

In RL a blood transfusions may need hours, not 5 seconds of rummaging. In RL sniper rifles need to be zero'ed and adapted to your eye relief. In RL a single shot from a M1911 or a revolver is enough to bring you down. In RL weapons should be maintained. In RL morphine does not fix broken bones. ... There are tons of things which have been adapted (sometimes well,sometimes not so well) and are unrealistic. The game is full of compromises and you must drawn a line somewhere. _Anubis_

By browsing dayz code it seems to me that NVG glasses can now only be found at helicopter crash sites, making them extremely rare. Has anyone found NVG in military objects (tents/hangars/deer stands) ? _Anubis_

... in the Elektro supermarket. Not knowing what to do, I decided to drink it as an offer to the dayz spirits to grant me a long life. Should have I done something else (I was also thinking to a peregrination to green mountain and leave it there) ? _Anubis_

Any server with a good ping, private and a low population (5-10 players), easy to begin with. _Anubis_

On the positive side, if you manage to kill one of those (with grenades maybe) you could invite the entire server's population to a feast. The amount of meat slabs on those beasts should be in the order of hundreds. Just imagine all the players happily sitting around fireplaces and cooking meat on a big, open field with the giant carcass against the rising moon... _Anubis_

Yep - dayz life... Coming back from NWAF loaded with M-16 and STAMAG/STAMAG SD magazines, fresh Czech backpack, happy as an hopping bunny. Stop briefly at a cow stable to get some coke cans and hack a few Z to pieces, when an unseen zombie glitches through the right wall and hit me: one-of-a-chance random instant knockout, go down, zombie feeding. Regain conscience, kill the zombie, try to bandage but fail because random "panic mode" blocks everything and eventually run out of blood and die with a backpack full of every possible goodies on earth. _Anubis_

It is not so black and white. Most of the times the situation is grey and you must decide whether to shoot [first] or most likely get killed. _Anubis_ p.s. also you do not remain bandit forever if you kill another player