Target Practice (DayZ)

Ehh, I disagree - whilst I disagree rather strongly with the way dgeesio argues his corner on the forums (as seen in this thread), I would suggest that part of the freedom of DayZ is the choice to do exactly what he does - stay in a static position and kill other players. He'd be the very first to argue that it's certainly not impossible that people really would act in this manner in such a situation, and he's not doing anything wrong. DayZ is a survival simulator, and part of survival is ensuring you don't get your head blown off by a sniper. If you or another player is careless enough to run into or around a major city without checking out potential sniper nests, then they deserve what's coming to them. It's not for you, me or anyone else to decide what is the 'proper' way of playing DayZ, and as long as exploits/glitches/hacks aren't being used, more or less anything is fair game as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I do believe KoS behaviour is an issue in the game at the moment, but only due to imbalances in the loot table/lack of activity for the end-game player, and they can be easily addressed in-game without unfairly penalising players who choose to play that way. If you don't like that element of the game, then maybe DayZ isn't for you.

Yeah, my first assumption was that whatever you're using as your server (possibly a toaster, by the sounds of things) isn't powerful enough, and that's what's causing the problem.

Welcome to DayZ - you're going to die a lot, so just make sure you learn from each and every death - every time you die it's because you made a mistake somewhere, so try and figure out what it was and where you can do better next time - soon you'll be surviving just as well as the rest of us! I won't inundate you with tips and pointers, because discovering them for yourself is half the joy of DayZ, but I'll leave you with my 'three B's - Be careful, be suspicious and be prepared. Good luck out there! :)

No. No, no, no, no a thousand times no. I would rather see nothing at all done than have pvp and non-pvp areas. Doing that adds a level of artificiality that has no place in DayZ - it removes one of the most basic pillars of the game, which is the freedom to do whatever it takes to survive. I'm not a hostile player, but if I'm starving and have a gun, and that guy over there has a hatchet and a tin of beans but won't share, I want the option of threatening to shoot him in order to survive. If you can't deal with the fact that there will always be a potential threat from other players, uninstall DayZ - you have no business playing it. Under no circumstances should anyone be telling players how to go about their business, as long as it's within sensible boundaries (eg hacking, combat logging etc etc etc) - if a certain element of the game or the way it's being played is causing a problem, then we should look at the reasons for it and consider changing the game to resolve it rather than just glossing over a broken/imbalanced mechanic and telling players 'you can't do that any more'.

Sorry feller, you're using TWD as an example of 'what things would really be like' because a lot of ideas are similar? I dunno if you noticed, but there's a whole shit-ton of zombie media out there at the moment - we're knee deep in the stuff, but apparently you singled out TWD is 'what things would really be like' because... why exactly? Because it's the only other zombie-related media out there? Because you like the idea of the Daryl Dixon-esque badass who isn't above killing to survive, and you figured that therefore you'd be just freaking like him if you run round on a game shooting people you've never met for reasons you can't adequately explain? The best part about this whole argument is that you're using The Walking Dead to support your argument that people's natural instinct is to kill each other to survive, but other than some occasional inter-group hostility, as far as I can tell, the show is more about the relationships between the group, who -strangely enough- didn't shoot each other in the face the first time they saw each other, despite having plenty of reasons to. Yet apparently I'm the one talking out of my ass. Congratulations buddy, you just became the inaugural member of my ignore list. You refuse to listen to any arguments other than your own, the arguments you do make are incoherent and at absolute best bear only a passing resemblance to fact or common sense, and you absolutely, positively cannot stand to think just for a second that maybe you've grasped the wrong end of the stick and that there are people looking for the middle ground rather than seeking to commit some unspeakable evil upon you by nerfing your preferred playstyle. Thanks for the conversation.

Right, Dgeesio, I'll respond to you once and only once in this thread, as every time I've done it before, you've not listened and gone on and spouted the same stuff every time, and I don't want this thread to dissolve into that. NO ONE SENSIBLE IS GENUINELY SUGGESTING THAT THERE SHOULD BE ANY WAY OF "FORCING" PEOPLE NOT TO KoS. NO-ONE. The vast, vast majority of sensible DayZ players acknowledge that KoS is a perfectly valid way of playing the game and don't mind it in moderation. The problem a lot of people have with it at the moment is that it's too easy for people to just grab a gun and run round Elektro shooting anything that moves, and people would like to see a few things changed to make it a less 'dominant' playstyle - it's difficult to argue that it's currently a very 'easy' way to play DayZ. You spawn, you find a weapon, you shoot lots of people, you die. Rinse and repeat. As I said above, reducing the (rather abundant) amount of ammo could (not would, note!) perhaps achieve this - if a player still wants to KoS but only has 5 Lee Enfield rounds left, he's going to be a little bit more careful with those bullets, as once they're gone it might take him quite a while to find some more. Also, in unrelated news, using The Walking Dead as an example of 'what really happens' is... yeah. You do know it's a TV show, right?

I'm not going to argue that there's still too much KoS behaviour in DayZ - I believe pretty strongly that something needs to change in the way the game is played in order to provide a 'downside' to the murderer playstyle that's becoming increasingly prevalent. I've discussed this at length in other threads, so I don't really want to repeat it all here, but before Dgeesio jumps in and starts spouting his usual stuff, I'd like to clarify that I don't want to see the KoS playstyle punished - it's a valid way of playing the game, and it's thematically appropriate. I'd simply like to see changes made that would make it less easy to do as effectively as it is now. Anyway, that's not actually the reason for the post - the main point I wanted to make is thus: 95 times out of 100, if you die in DayZ, it's because you weren't careful enough and/or you made a mistake. Maybe you moved too suddenly and a zombie spotted you and broke your legs, or maybe you didn't check out the area around the supermarket before heading in and got sniped, or maybe you just made a snap judgement on a player's intentions and made the wrong call. All of those deaths lay at the feet of the player in control. Let's be honest - we're all now very aware that DayZ is becoming a very hostile environment, yet every day you see a story where someone trusted a player they'd never ever met before enough to turn their back on him while he's armed... I don't care what kind of playstyle you adopt, in a game like DayZ with someone you don't know, that is a spectacularly dumb move. So it's a kind of non-committal answer from me - on one hand, I do want to see something done to make KoS a little more difficult to do effectively (the obvious first thing to try would be reducing the amount of ammo available), but on the same note, I still want DayZ to be tough enough to punish people for making stupid mistakes - it's the only way we learn, after all!

I marked today down in my diary as the first time I ever agreed with you. (I lied, I don't actually have a diary)

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/151095-brothers-in-arms-epoch-server-self-bloodbag-auto-refuel-towing-missions-sarge-ai-take-clothing/#entry1521016 Nice, not only does this server already have a thread, it would seem your tactic of encouraging users to sign up JUST to bump it hasn't worked. Also, GJ with the attitude and the 'not getting jokes' thing too - you're really making me feel like this server is a place I want to spend time in. (I should probably clarify: that last part was a joke, as you don't seem too hot on spotting those)

Can you verify this? It seems to be a persistent rumour that people are stating as fact, but nowhere have I seen Rocket or anyone associated with the dev team saying that.

I've never heard it referred to as 'DayZ Bandit', that one's new to me, but I won't argue that there are far too many people that use the word 'bandit' incorrectly to describe the type of play the OP is describing. It's one of my pet peeves. Nothing worse than seeing someone ask why they were killed for no reason in side chat and seeing the reply 'lol cuz I am a bandit'. My desk is starting to get a head-shaped imprint in it. :p

Where did you get that from? That doesn't sound even close to right. Are you thinking of mods/attachments perhaps?

Despite not being a bandit, I (and many 'true' bandits) would disagree rather strongly with that. A bandit is someone who will hold you up/kill you because they want your stuff. Killing other players without reason or provocation is KoS/murderer behaviour. Not that I'm suggesting there's anything wrong with the KoS/murderer playstyle (because I really don't want to start yet another KoS discussion), but it's definitely distinct from bandit behaviour.

A couple of your issues can/will be addressed in the SA. Firstly, I think the last of our worries when the SA hits is going to be empty servers. I'm actually more concerned about the other end of the spectrum - there may not be enough for the huge swell in demand the Alpha release will cause. With so many packed servers, finding a quiet one to gear up on will be an achievement in itself. Secondly, as I understand it, the plan is that loot tables will be centrally controlled across the whole hive. Rocket's said before, there will be certain unique items that there will potentially be only one of in the entire game. That means that you can't just jump on X server and go loot the NWAF barracks to get a DMR, then jump servers to go get another one etc etc etc, as there will likely only be a fixed number of DMRs across the whole hive.

Wut? I'm terrible at DayZ, and damn near every character I play stays alive for hours and hours. If you measure the lifespan of your player in hours, you're doing DayZ wrong.

Whilst I've never watched Frankie's stuff, presumably he's not going to show the stuff where he dies - just edit it out or selectively show the games where you have a good run. Doesn't mean he never dies, just that he never shows it publicly.

Indeed it is - you know that and I know that, but sadly 95% of the playerbase don't. And they're the ones that will kick up the huge stink about something like this, meaning it'd never get a fair crack of the whip anyway. Within hours, this place and Reddit would be packed to the brim with 'It's different so it sucks now' and 'DayZ = RUINED 4 EVAR!!!!!11!' posts. Sadly these days many gamers don't understand exactly what an Alpha is and what that means. I can't bring myself to even think about what this place is going to be like when the standalone is released in an alpha state. *sigh*

I like the ideas introduced - they're actually pretty nicely thought out and you've fleshed them out (no pun intended) well, but I'm not 100% sure if it fits in with the type of zombies in DayZ. I've always seen them as the '28 days later' kind that are just incredibly violent and kill just because that's what they're primally wired to do rather than kill for food. If that's not the case then I'd be all for this.

Oh, I agree with you to a point (although I would point out that there are many things I'd like to change about DayZ, just not this particular part of it), and of course the natural response would be that obviously DayZ isn't quite there for you right now, and you'd be looking to make those changes in order to make it your own winning formula. As it happens, we've probably stumbled across the biggest issue here - no matter what changes you make to DayZ, you're probably going to end up altering the playstyle of a lot of players, and as a result get an awful lot of Q_Qing from those who don't respond well to change. It's a gamer thing - we (as a culture) don't really like change at the best of times, and when it's a change that forces us to change, we abso-fucking-lutely hate it. :P I do agree with you when you say that if you're not trying to move forwards then you're moving backwards, and the developers should always be looking for ways to improve the game - I'm just not convinced that the changes suggested here would definitely improve the game for a sufficient number of people to avoid causing a major community backlash. Let's not forget that this is a community that absolutely lost it's shit because the mod had a few shoutouts to forum moderators/reddit mods in the form of 'branded' food cans. That shit raged on for weeks, and it made not a jot of difference to the way the game's played. The DayZ community is pretty prone to hissy fits.

This is what happens when you let Steak pick the magazine covers.

I'm not sure if this was ironic, rhetorical or sarcastic (or a combination thereof), but actually, yes - that's being planned for the SA at some point as part of the infection/hygiene/health system. :p

As already stated in my posts above, I'm not suggesting it's a realistic thing to be able to do, I'm suggesting that it's an acceptable break from reality because otherwise you run the risk of making the player spend long periods of time doing nothing other than holding W. That ain't fun gameplay.

Yeah, I'm not sure whether this is actually true or whether it's one of those things that someone has pulled out of their ass and others have caught on and it's been regarded as 'fact'. Might be worth asking Rocket for confirmation/clarification on it. Either way, that particular system does seem very susceptible to abuse/griefing. Obviously helicopters won't be in the initial release, but once they are, they'll simply be used to pick the server clean in the first hour after restart. There's already (rightly or wrongly - it's another discussion for another time) a major advantage to being in an organised group with access to transport, and this will only skew that balance even further - servers will be utterly dominated by groups of 4-5 players who happened to get their hands on a vehicle nice and early and have more loot than they could possibly ever use, and the other X number of players will be effectively fighting it out for double-barrelled shotguns and road flares. Whilst it's a wonderful caricature of capitalism at its finest, it doesn't make for a particularly fun gameplay experience for the 95% who don't have access to transport/don't join the server 2 minutes after restart.

Yeah, there are three options here: Either you've downloaded something that's stolen your key and someone else has then used it and got banned OR You bought your key from a less than reputable source that reuses keys and/or buys/sells stolen keys and someone else with the same key has gotten themselves banned OR You're not telling the truth, you tried to hack 'just once, just to see what it was like/if it worked' and you got banned for it. Not accusing you of anything, just saying that this isn't the first time someone's joined here claiming they did nothing wrong. ;) Whichever option it is, there's nothing we can do to help you here. You need to contact Battleye themselves - all the details are in the sticky at the top of this section.

DayZ is a multiplayer game, and sadly that means dealing with other gamers. Equally sadly, there are an awful lot of gamers out there who have been raised on 'if it moves, click on it until it stops moving' games, and simply don't know how to do anything else. However, that's not to say that all gamers are like that. The trick is to find a server/community that mostly plays the way you want to. Believe me, they're out there. However, I'd also argue the merits of 'everything in moderation' - whilst I won't disagree that there's a little too much KoS in DayZ at the moment, I'd also suggest that if it went away completely, DayZ would be a weaker experience for it. There's a certain rush when you spot another player in close proximity and they're heading in your direction - are they friendly? are they hostile? can you find somewhere to hide before they see you? If you completely remove KoS from the game, that rush of uncertainty disappears, and I for one would miss it tremendously.