Fonebook

There aren't any options for track them and see what they do. Your poll assumes I have decided how to handle players independent of the particular situation. It seems that you are trying to find logic in irrational behavior. People kill others for emotional reasons mostly, not because it makes any sense.

I believe that many players lack the creativity to keep finding new experiences in DayZ. Most kids get tired of the same Tonka truck in the same sandbox after a while; however, the creative ones never stop thinking of new games to play, even with old toys. It is no surprise that the average gamer moved on to something else after a year. Often I find multiplayer games get better with age because the not-so-serious players move on and leave behind only those who really love it. Let them go.

Had to stop and jump in here. Have to agree, private hives are bad as it is inevitable that the admins who pay will feel they deserve a better shot, because they paid. It's like if someone put up a basketball goal on their street and then claimed they could foul all day cause they bought the goal. Who wants to play ball with that guy? Server operators should rent the servers to provide a fair playing field or just not rent at all. There were lots of complaints in the beginning from admins who felt they didn't have enough power. I even heard these complaints from admins who would reset the server to get vehicles to spawn. What gives? I for one don't feel that private hives saved the mod. If anything they drew in more players who had no clue what this game was about. They kept the mod growing at a time when it was big enough already. Private hives may have had some benefit for the community, but in the long run it is far outweighed by the ultimate cost. I got hacked as much as the rest of you, but I kept coming back. And I would have continued to come back. I think there have always been more than enough people enamored with DayZ to ride out the wave of hackers. Instead the hackers were legitimized by private hives. Even if murder were legal, it would still be wrong to anyone with a moral compass. Private hives are a blight on DayZ and should be treated as such. Apologies to the minority of good private hives out there (been on a few), but you must understand you have been outnumbered by those proving the irresponsibility of the masses.

I still meet a bunch of friendly players in vanilla servers. Good 'ol DayZ is still there if you have the patience. Sure most players you meet are psychos... but take a walk in the real world and tell me who you meet. One of the coolest things about DayZ is it really is what you make it. If you get upset about being killed then in the long run it will weigh heavy on you what the state of the game is. If you just say oh well and keep looking for friendlies, you will find them. The trouble is figuring out what to do once you group up. Enjoying this game takes a large amount of creativity and patience. If you find that you are no longer enjoying it, ask yourself if you are patient and/or creative enough, and how you could improve in both areas. Meeting up with friendlies wouldn't be exciting if it was easy. I have come to like it how it is.

I also think death messages don't belong. However in my experience with this game the amount of players calling for a hardcore, realistic, survival simulator are far outnumbered by the people who want an arcade murder fest. Despite the obvious flaw that death messages represent, contemporary game players have been groomed to play for statistics to gain bragging rights. As a result many servers even show who killed who. Take one look at the types of servers being run for this game and you will see that the people who want DayZ to stick to it's original vision are outnumbered by those who want a cool game to murder people. :(

This feature is great. Played my first run of 1.8 on US 3480 and chose to spawn in Elektro. This choice was based on my desire to get the hero skin and knowledge that many people in that city need help. Maybe it was a fluke, but the first 7 people I encountered were survivors, and the 4 of them that were armed did NOT shoot me. The new difficulty of zeds in this patch seemed to make the survivors I encountered eager to team, or at least not bloodthirsty to kill me. Eventually I was gunned down by a bandit, but I was able to bloodbag one needy player before this and was happy. Next I went for Cherno, met another friendly guy, but was killed by some zeds. Then I went back to Elektro. Met a hero hunting bandits for the humanity, and we shared bloodbags. Not everyone who chooses the cities does so just to kill and murder. They are also a good place to meet people, if you aren't scared to die. Sure people run back to get their bodies, but you can hide them no? Choosing the spawn location is a big plus, and people will suicide less. Less bodies means less work for the hive, the server, and all of our clients. The KoS crowd will never change, learn to deal with them.

This sums up my frustration with the way DayZ has gone, in terms of server population. So many of the modifications to DayZ just take it closer to ArmA2. I wonder what percentage of DayZ players have never even tried ArmA2. I understand, it took a few months of DayZ myself before I tried. At least for me, the idea of having a game installed and never even playing it is kind of crazy.

The idea proposed in my original post was merely one idea. More than any specific way to address the issue, I was more hoping to see a discussion of how tents/bases kind of circumvent permadeath and what the implications of this are. It is important to me that when someone identifies a problem they are willing to offer some sort of solution. I didn't mean this was the best or only way to go, it was merely one idea I had been throwing around. I most definitely agree that it would be very unfortunate to stalk a player to his tent, shoot him once he bends over to look in it, only to have your spoils go "poof." I am just interested in how the rest of the community views the issue of permadeath vs. stockpiling and the resulting implications. Thanks to everyone who responded.

I would not be opposed to a moderate skill system, as long as it is reset upon death. I prefer the game to be about the skill you bring to the controls, not in game buffs. I miss the old days of Battlefield 1942 when every player was essentially the same soldier and your performance on the battlefield was more based on skill (and familiarity with the game and maps, truthfully) than any sort of artificial buff to your character. However in DayZ some sort of "I have lived for a long time" buff would actually be a good way to make players concerned about staying alive. So as much as I hate the idea of skill systems, if it makes players want to avoid death in a more realistic way I could put my qualms aside. They can make the game more difficult, they can implement gear damage, but unless they find a way to make players REALLY not want to die DayZ will continue to be a spruced up deathmatch. I need to make it clear that I support banditry and killing for pleasure, not necessarily my style but as it is now the game leans more towards encouraging banditry when in theory it should be more neutral. At least in my opinion. But what do I know?

There is no reason a player could not continue to hoard. I understand a tent limit might be "gamey." But is being able to remember where your stuff is after reincarnation not "gamey?" This is not an argument against a playstyle, I understand it would impact a playstyle. This is more an argument for players being concerned about dying.

StrangeOrange, I enjoy and respect your opinion. I like setting up tents and keeping stuff in them as well. My only fear is that it will expand into bases, which Rocket and other aficionados have mentioned. I can handle whatever decisions they lay on us, I just had to stop and make the point that having tents, bases, and as you pointed out even cars survive your death, runs counter to the idea of permadeath. I am NOT against the hoarding playstyle, I am worried about the incongruency of these things being passed from life to life and giving players a good reason to not fear their death. Hoarding should be limited to the length of your life, in my opinion. I have never been a fan of MMOs because they stack the deck towards the players who have the most time, not necessarily the most skill. Permadeath undoes this somewhat, though I feel having a stash of gear you can run back to takes DayZ a little closer to those other MMOs which I cannot stand. I think the key to having this game create the intense situations that makes it different than others is having players value their lives. The cheap price of death currently has lead the mod to all sorts of dark places, in my opinion.

Thanks for all the responses. I have had long discussions with a few of my fellow players about this, and it does seem it would be harsh to have someone's tent disappear the moment after death. I am honestly not sure what the best way to handle it is. In the current state of the mod, however, it seems there is a large emphasis on stockpiling gear, at least after you overcome the initial shock of learning to survive. Then again my experience has been that the moment you get a giant stash it is found. The tents are a small beef, but the idea of expanded base building capabilities really troubles me. I think the concept of permadeath, or at least severe in-game consequences for death, is one of the best things this mod has going for it. What would you think about having a tent limit?

The way I see it tents, bases, stashes, and any other gear hoarding device which persists through death makes permadeath worthless. If players have a place to stash away gear, then the game becomes about collecting and hoarding gear. It reduces the risk loss from death. I am all for having these types of things, but having them persist through death goes against the entire idea behind permadeath. DayZ is about player interactions, intense situations, and the emotions that go with them. When you have a hidey-hole to put things in it softens the blow of death and encourages players not to have concern for their lives. If said hidey-hole was deleted upon death it would likely lead to people having a more realistic concern for their lives. Sure if the guys gear is damaged you might not want to shoot for the loot. The simple fact is that most people don't shoot for the loot, they do it for the thrill. If chasing that thrill put your entire pile of gear at risk, people might think twice. Or at least get their more cautious friends to hold onto things for them. What do you think?

I also still have high hope for the standalone. I will be disappointed if there are a lot of compromises to make the game "more accessible." The hardcore game I thought this was shooting to be is something I have been dreaming of for years. I am going to buy and play it regardless, the mod so far has been an amazing experience. It deserves a try. The push by the general population for base building scares me though, as well as the dev teams support of it in some form or another. Bases and even tents circumvent the punishment of permadeath. I have always been against MMOs because your character never really dies, you keep all your levels and lots of items etc. Excess vehicles, what the inception mods have done to the game... I find it all scary because I know the general population would rather have a shoot-em up than a survival sim where death means something. Despite my current fear and confusion I am excited to see where it all goes, one way or the other.

Have seen a lot of discussions over the last year tossing this back and forth. The recent 3rd person view/1st person view discussion got me thinking about it again. The outcry about infection and zombie difficulty increases also made me ponder this. As well as all the heavily bastardized servers out there. When I came on board with DayZ a year ago I feel like it was billed as a hardcore survival simulator. Did I misunderstand what was presented to me? All the talk of realism had me intrigued, being built on top of a milsim was a huge draw for me. The bleeding, the breaking bones, the fear of other people. Though I have noticed that every major change that increases the difficulty of the game is met with outcry from the player base, even removal of the debug monitor which was obviously never intended to be in the game was contentious. Perhaps it has been me all along who had a false impression of this game, maybe I deluded myself into thinking it was something it was not? I remember there has always been this realism vs. fun compromise. After playing DayZ though I found the best part about it is the intense emotions it brings forth in me, both positive and negative. You have to ride the highs of the game carefully so not to become overconfident, you have to take the defeats with grace so you can pick yourself back up for the next encounter. In a nutshell it is a great experience for learning to deal with conflict outside of the game. Learning how to have successful encounters with random, nervous players has been a valuable life lesson in having respect for others, even strangers that may want to kill you. It has been a hell of a ride. For me as a player, it is the intense "realism" which has made this mod so much fun. Hopefully you can see where I stand from this posting, I feel it should be a hardcore survival simulator. Maybe it isn't though, and perhaps I have hope in a pipe dream. Maybe it is and the best is yet to come. I am currently confused as to what the ultimate direction of this game is. So my question for everyone is simple, and please elaborate if need be. Is DayZ mod a hardcore survival simulator? Will SA be a hardcore survival simulator?