_Anubis_ (DayZ)

IMHO the coast gives an immediate reference to fresh people and allow them to wander left and right alongside the coast without fear of getting lost and with 100% chance to find a town/city sooner or later. When you get more experienced you can spawn anywhere and find your bearing/develop a strategy but that takes some game-time. _Anubis_

People, crossbows are already quite unrealistic now... 1. A crossbow shoots bolts (shorter, sturdier) and not arrows 2. Bolts are made of steel/carbon alloys, never wood (they would splinter when fired...) 3. Bolts rarely break but if you fire one into woods at 10 meters you will NOT be able to pull it out 4. A crossbow should not be a one shot/one kill, only an headshot could and even modern crossbows would have problems to penetrate the skull _Anubis_ In RL I shoot Compound Bows

What about morphine fixing broken bones then ? It is a game... _Anubis_

OP, Nice ideas. Forget the Losers here spitting and insulting, must have a poor sexual life to be so upset just by reading a post. What you describe is not dayz and not SA. Both are sandbox-oriented games without NPCs, quests, routines or scripted motion patterns. They have been designed to be like that. Instead, you can find something rather similar to what you described in the STALKER franchise (just google it): it misses Z but has everything else. Or, you could try to mod (most likely a TC) moddable games such as the Elders Scroll group, even if you are very far away from the concept. The last option would be to have a day server at home (possible, I have one as well) and build upon that. _Anubis_

Deep forest is still safe, the edge not anymore. _Anubis_

I believe they spawn in the same 'preferred' locations where also animals spawn. Typically open fields and they wander around, sometimes entering in forests. I mostly see them at the edge of the forest or in the open, but never in deep forest. Those 'preferred' locations are chosen according to the player proximity. _Anubis_

People against PvE only can simply create PvP only counter-parties where everyone spawns with NVG, rangefinder and GPS, AS-50, L-85 with thermic visor and G-17, with modified loot tables to get ammo crates instead of tincans, so they can shoot each other into oblivion... Seriously, if someone is happy to play on a PvE server, where's the issue? _Anubis_

It is a balance of risk versus reward choice. The 12-spots house will most likely give you at least one weapon and some ammo, all in a small space shielded from outside (snipers and Z), with a quick-in/quick-out sequence. A single hangar is a 4-spots place, it is fully open and visible (both to Z and snipers), especially the 2 loot points at the end. Z do not slow down in hangars, get 3-4 of them and they will converge on you from each side. You can only enter an hangar from the runaway side. Agree you can move from behind and get some coverage, but it is risky. Last but not least: you need to visit 3 hangars to have similar loot chances (3x4=12) compared to the single house. So you need more time and that is critical at least for a lone-wolf like me: I have no team providing Z protection and over-watch for counter-sniping. BTW those are basic considerations IMHO ...No need to be secretive. _Anubis_

1 approach NWAF from N corner: basically come from Bashnya (trees). If you approach from open fields it is suicide 2. from N corner stay between the wall and the forest (so outside) until you are close to the 12 loot spots house 3. Enter the airport and go directly to the house, you'll be shielded from three sides and with patience you can avoid to aggro zombies 4. once there: loot-and-scoot. Loot that place only and leave from the same route 5. DO NOT loot the hangars. Try the fire-station but carefully _Anubis_

Visit one city, once at the beginning when you have nothing to loose and focus on medical supplies first, don't be greedy for an elusive AKM. Then leave and focus on barns, deer stands, small towns to get geared, travel from forest to forest. _Anubis_

Beans to the OP for knowing the difference between PAPI and VASI systems. _Anubis_

Too bourgeois. Do that with a friend and have him whispering that from behind and left, watch the sniper turning and scanning frantically and kill him from the right... _Anubis_

Lone Wolf, usually wandering around Chernarus to visit places here and there, avid supermarket consumer just for the fun of it, unlucky owner of disappearing tents, occasionally close to Cherno and Elektro to see what's going on be ready to support players being chased by Z or wounded and in need of a blood bag. Mostly travelling from forest to forest and scanning the treeline with binos before moving. Killed only once by a sniper in the forest around Green Mountain while stalking a deer stand (where the sniper was? I suspect top of the radio tower). Armed with military weapons, but almost never shoot, countless Z killed with the hatchet or tricked on steep slopes (e.g. the ones near the farm N of Elektro). _Anubis_

And if there are two groups with widely different opinions, the SA will be tuned to target the larger one to maximize ROI. SA is payware, dayz is a freeware mod. _Anubis_

M-16 or M-4 variants (mostly due to the choice between STANAG/STANAG SD) or AK-47 variants due to the extra punch hatchet (by far the weapon I use mostly) any sidearm except the makarov - G17 if I am lucky, 17mag clips and more room for bandages/etc _Anubis_

it should be doable but you would need 4 sets of textures/models (FSX does that for example) and it couldn't be real-time but most likely require a server restart. Cool anyway. _Anubis_

... quote removed by myself .. Maybe you have to log out and come back to see the new hero skin, but isn't cheating what you did? _Anubis_

KoS is part of the game. You have simply to accept what you can't change. I would like all the bambis-killers-with-as50-and-teabagging-on-their-dead-bodies to be confined to private servers called "dayz deathmatch arena" where they spawn fully geared, COD style, but nobody has the right to enforce a playstyle (everybody has the right to have an opinion however, to me those are mostly frustrated kids..). The answer to counter KoS is easy: just play friendly, offer support and, most of all, get good at re-equip yourself if you die (you WILL die more easily acting friendly, but some KoS-oriented people lack the brain to figure it out, anything beyond mashing LBM on sight is too complex) and enjoy the game. It is a lot of fun and the risk factor of not-so-friendly players contributes to it. Were we ALL friendly, it would be boring (the PvE/PvZ side is simply too weak). _Anubis_

If there are snipers around you'll most likely die regardless of your weapon. I usually try the gauntlet on a low-pop server and coming from North: you get a lot of coverage (trees from one side and wall from the other) moving around the perimeter until you enter: then you can go straight to the 12 loot spots house, rush inside and get cover: with enough luck find what you need and get the hell out of there ASAP. If you are greedy however... _Anubis_

Deer stands look poorer than before. I used to visit them as newspawn to get a military weapon and ammo, but now you get far less. Also almost no soldiers around them. Bottom line it narrows down choices: either cherno/elektro/airfields/stary to get automatic weapons: it is good in general terms because you really need a military weapon only for PvP purposes (even if I am the first who wants to have a nice weapon anyway) but it gives an unfair advantage to whoever is already well equipped. Same situation for top military weapons and/or NVGs: heli crash site only (this since 1.7.5.1 IIRC). _Anubis_ p.s. yes it is more realistic... But I miss the opportunity to find an m4a3 cco in a Deer Stand like before!

Go back to the game, take a screenshot of a roadsign you can see and post it. Also it can help to check whether the town you see has a church or not. _Anubis_

OP, I agree with your remarks in principle but I believe you are mixing two categories together: 1. The 'spirit' or 'purity' of dayz aspects, for example the day&night argument 2. The technical consequences of the game architecture and the associated exploits, for example server-hopping or combat logging Let's tackle the first group: you want to play day and night and enforce a mechanism to have day and night. I say no because I believe everyone has the right to play dayz (or the SA) in any way he/she likes. If I want to play day only (or night only) that has to be possible. If YOU want to play on a 24 hours base (and have the time!) then by all means do that, but don't ask everybody else to conform to your personal interpretation of the game: "it is your story" after all. Please, leave the freedom to each one of us to play as we like and as we can (RL constraints). For the second group, you are right, but up to a point. There is sometimes a very thin line between exploiting the game architecture (wrong) and taking advantage of the situation (right or not-so-wrong). Let's make an example: Player X (public hive) spawns un-armed at server 1 and finds it full of people. He de-spawns and go to server 2 that is empty. So he runs like hell to NWAF, gets fully geared, de-spawns and come back to server 1 where he can kill at leisure with his super-duper sniper rifle. Exploiting? Yes. Player Y (private hive) spawns un-armed at his usual server, by sheer luck finds it empty and does the same (going to NWAF), ending up fully geared. Exploiting? No. Maybe unfair to others? A little bit, even if it is not his fault if nobody was there. Maybe he was just lucky because while he run to NWAF others spawned elsewhere. The end result is the same however. Even if you had a system to take out those exploits (unlikely), would you be able to eliminate the other, let's say, "unfair" behavior? And where to draw the line? Hacking? Yes of course and you can fight it. Combat logging? Also, something could be done. Server hopping? Nope (unless you take out the public hive concept): people will switch servers for good AND bad reasons. How to tell the difference? Farming? Hmm, is that a real exploit or just adapting to the environment? We could debate here, the definition of farming is blurred. So, yes to take out hacking, exploits (e.g. the system to apply blood bags to yourself), combat-logging but thread carefully on the difference between adapting to the situation (collecting items according to timing and acting according to the amount of players on the server) and taking unfair advantages: you are really in muddy waters there. _Anubis_

I am slowly reaching that conclusion after weeks of playing. So what makes it really different from CoD at the end? A bigger-than-usual deathmatch arena? The 'survival' stage lasts 2-3 hours (if you know what to do), the time to get a couple of water bottles, hatchet, knife and matches. Then you can survive forever, going occasionally to the nearest barn to integrate your diet with canned food and beverages. You do not really need a weapon beside the hatchet, since all the animals can be easily hunted (except for the rabbit). Other than that, it is pure, total PvP. I consider myself kind of average/lousy but I have not died due to Zombies (other than they glitching through walls) since ages. I only die due to other players KOS mentality, even freshly spawned... What's the point of killing an harmless player? Must be some kind of sick fun. I really like the sandbox concept, but after a steep learning curve you reach quickly a plateau where you could stay forever: no Zombie can catch you while raiding a town.You may be wounded in a building fight with them but it requires a few meat to recover if you bandage yourself quickly. The loot respawning mechanism guarantees that after enough attemps you will find what you need. You will have all you can have, even a military weapon and ammo if you have the perseverance to visit enough Deer Stands, no need to go to fabled NWAF or Stary Sobor. Even if for the occasional PvP (if you play lone wolf) a crappy L-E is enough: 99.9% who sees first kills first. End of story. It is almost like the entire concept is driving you toward the endgame: kill or be killed by (because it will statistically happen sooner or later) another player. Nothing more. So paradoxically, you get "more" from dayz the "less" you know. Map, compass and gps make navigation a breeze and to be honest, you do not even need those tools after a while. As I said I am lousy but the landscape of dayz is excellent and after a while you can navigate by using visual landmarks only. The unknown environment challenges you, but only at the beginning. What I am trying to say is that I am surprised in seeing the zombie-apocalypse-fight for survival side fading so quickly after having understood the basic survival rules: it means that part is only a facade, a scenario where the 'real' fight (the PvP part) takes place. I wonder whether this could be counter balanced somehow, or I am simply wrong in assuming dayz is solidly different from a typical multiplayer/deathmatch stuff: the only thing that comes to my mind is the "medic" idea. _Anubis_

Confirm, saw it yesterday evening. _Anubis_

This. _Anubis_