aposky

You can use a watch as a compass.

I'm not against the PvP, but players should have a valid reason to pull a trigger. I guess in RL you would be extremely happy if you find alive person or help other survivors, like in "28 Days Later". Currently most people play DayZ as DM/CoD type of game because there is no threat from zombies, virus/disease or dying from starvation/hypothermia. Player can find weapons and stuff in first 10-20 minutes anyway. I think DayZ need more things to do after you find some food and medicine for teams or random groups of people. More ambitions goals than repairing a car. I'd like to see towns or bases that can be cleaned from zombies, so players (not bandits) can find a safe place to live and work on end game goals.

Since ArmA 2 has freelook you don't need 3rd person to look around.

Why? Finding a weapon makes game more exciting and teaches you basics of survival. Beside empty tin cans are more useful to sneak around zombies than a weapon. You don't even need a weapon to survive in DayZ. DayZ is not just another zombie shooter.

@OP 1st of all do NOT aggro zombies. There is absolutely no reason to attack zombies. Plan before you go into village/town. Watch zeds, plot routes - be sneaky and smart! Tin cans are more useful then weapon. During night zombies are almost blind. You can easily sneak around them or throw a flare to distract them. Read tutorials, hints and watch let's plays how other people survive.

One thing is interesting: when you started killing other players you had 0 zombies killed, 0 players/bandits killed, but both fully equipped, carrying M107. Quite lucky to get such top equipment and don't kill a single zed.

DayZ is survival game and suppose to be different. If you add handicap and arcadish elements from other games it turns into another Dead Island = not fun. DayZ is not just another shooter with zombies, it's unique game and suppose to stay that way. There are dozens, hundreds of casual zombie shooters made for wide audience where player doesn't need to bother with challenge, surviving or realism. I'm general gamer, I like all king of games if those are original and bring something fresh into PC gaming. I'm glad that DayZ isn't another KillingFloor/Left4Dead/zombie shooter, but first real survival game and that's what is best and fun about it. If DayZ is too big challenge, you have two options: - learn the game, try harder and if you fail try again, think about surviving, not running and gunning - choose something that fits your taste from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_video_games

Now we are talking about surviving! Great to see it in game, I'm gonna test those changes and share my opinion. At the moment it looks like DayZ is another step good direction. To all whiners: DayZ is survival game, not FPP/TPP shooter. If you want to shoot some zombies try one of those games: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_video_games

Before DayZ became so popular outside ArmA 2 community I usually met a friendly survivors and never died to bandits. I had couple situation where I trade with some random guys or give them blood transfusion. Today I play with friends from my ArmA 2 military unit. We never shoot on sight or with no reason, but people are stupid these days. Situation: Me and clan mates are observing north from Stary Sobor in All Round Defense. We see a guy running in middle of open field towards military tents. We had no intention to kill or do anything about him, but he could start firing at us. We formed up extended line facing him and in direct chat asked him to stop and ask question what are his intentions. He didn't respond, but started looking at us. I said: "Do not shoot or we open fire. We don't want to kill you". Friend added: "We have advantage over you and we don't want troubles, it's you call dude". He opened fire first and dropped on a ground dead in less than a second. We had many situations like that where people think that DayZ is deathmatch game with zombies and collectable loot, not a survival game. Sometime we meet a stranger that actually answers and then have a chat or help him - but it's unique to find a such survivor that wants to talk, not shoot/loot only.

@OP You have dozens of mainstream/casual zombie games. DayZ is different - it's challenging, interesting, original game and it is survival sim, not a shooter only. That is what is best in DayZ. If you don't like it and want to play some unrealistic fun zombie game, go ahead and pick something for yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_video_games

It doesn't fit to DayZ gameplay. Use landmarks, navigation and survival skills to meet with your friends and don't die. You have so many zombie games with spawn with friends function (L4D, Killing Floor, Dead Island, etc), why DayZ should be like them? Or maybe DayZ is not game for you?

Not really. from http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=10353

Recently I've been with friends outside town and we had a bbq. When everything was over and we put out fire we couldn't see ourselves because it was damn dark. 2:00 AM, no moon, but stars and we were far away from city lights. Terrain was surrounded by trees. It reminded me a lot a DayZ after ArmA 2 beta patch. We had to use our cellphones lights to find our way out back to cars. So dear survivors, when you spawn at night with flares - use them - problem solved. No more cheating with gamma glitch.

My 3 cents on spawning with no weapon: DayZ is a zombie apocalypse **survival** game. Currently when player respawns he is fully equipped, with decent supplies of medicines, food, water and also has enough firepower to start a small war with zombies or other players. New player in this situation doesn't need to worrying about survival element of the game - he has everything to live. With removal of weapon on respawn (and I hope supplies will be reduced too), player will be encouraged to start thinking about getting food, water and other basic equipment to **survive**. His first thoughts will change from "I have a gun, lets shoot somebody!" to "I need stuff to survive", "I need to find some food or I starve to death", etc. That's what survival is about, shooting suppose to be last resort to think about during zombie apocalypse. This solution is exciting, makes game more interesting and realistic. It makes DayZ even more different and original than tons of casual/mainstream zombie shooters like Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, Dead Island, Nation Red etc - those game are about killing zombies, and DayZ is about surviving. ps. I'm not against PvP or killing zombies/players. Player should have a valid reason to pull a trigger.

Hello survivors, I have small and easy to implement (I guess) suggestion, where default chat channel would be set to direct chat. It's very irritating and immersion breaking when I see "who is shooting in Cherno?" or dialogue between two guys that are 5 meters from each other on other side of map in my bottom left corner all the time. Currently people use side channel (and broadcast to entire server) mostly because: - they are not aware of different channel - they don't know how to change a channel - are to lazy to do 5 min research and find out about it I believe with direct chat set as default it would resolve those problems so players could learn how to use them properly. Also small information in game what direct chat is, would be very useful for new to ArmA 2 game users. Yes, I am aware of direct chat only servers, but that's not a point of suggestion.

YES Currently when I respawn I don't feel as survivor, but well equipped policeman ready to start a small war. Please remove completely gun from spawn and reduce quantity of supplies, so freshly spawned players will focus on surviving, not on killing or looting for better gun.