aj_ (DayZ)

New player here. After an exhausting but completely uneventful few hours just to get to the airfield for the first time, mosin rifle in hand, I circled very carefully around the place to find a route in where I would be least exposed. Came upon some tents and, confident that I was alone there, started collecting m4 parts without a care in the world. Suddenly, I thought I spotted something moving behind one of the tents. As I had yet to encounter a single player in the few hours I had been playing the game, I was a bit skeptical so, in typical rookie fashion, I just stay put for the second or so I knew it would take someone to come into sight. Sure enough, it was a player (that was the first shock), so I immediately sprinted inside the nearest tent and, as I turned around to face the door, he suddenly ran in, m4 in hand. He apparently had not noticed me because he wasn't looking down his sights. As he crouched, I scoped in and shot him in the chest. He went down hard like a sack of potatoes. I wasn't sure if he was dead or just unconscious so, out of fear and ignorance of the game's mechanics, I shot him in the head as he lay on the floor. It was at this point that I felt like throwing up. Now, I've been playing shooters for many, many years, and racked up countless ekills, so this really surprised me. I thought a while about it and concluded that my reaction was due to the following points: 1. the game has perma-death. 2. it was at very close range (~4 meters), in a game with realistic graphics and mechanics. The way he dropped to the floor, with a single shot, was horrifying. 3. the guy was well geared, and I looked like a hobo with a bolt action. I immediately started to wonder if his crouching (odd at such close range) was a sign that he didn't want to kill me. That also would explain why he hadn't entered the tent looking down his sights, as it would be unlikely for him to not have spotted me. 4. the lack of game chat keeps the mood heavy. Nothing like a chat filled with meme-spewing buffoons to remind you that you're playing a game. Now, I've played another game with perma-death, Rust, where I have no trouble killing players in melee with a large rock, because the game looks and plays so silly. But DayZ is a whole 'nother ballgame, and several hours after the fact I'm still feeling horrible about it. It was a truly strange experience and it made me wonder what games will feel like when graphics are truly photorealistic and gameplay is more realistic than DayZ's. I've since gone back to the game and had no qualms about starting some fights, but I do wonder if, should I find myself in a similar close-quarters situation again, I'll hesitate to shoot. Probably not, once I have felt the sting of starting over at the coast :P.

Agreed. It will be Massively bad.

You need to lay down the skooma, son.

Handcuffed Bambis everywhere shivered when they read the OP.

This thread delivers. Seriously, I'm laughing so hard, muscles I never even knew I had are beginning to ache.

There is a small percentage of the population that has central, or middle vision (no eye is dominant), which indeed allows them to aim with both eyes. Of course, that is not owl-vision like the OP suggested.

Offer 20 keys. Without handcuffs.

In other words, you have no counter-argument and I should just take your word that I'm wrong. Also, by your rationale, combat logging is working as intended. And you have no proof for your last statement. Don't be angry that you can't counter my argument. I have no problem with strangers treating me poorly (ie. a traitor). I have a problem with strangers taking advantage of unrealistic game mechanics specifically for the purpose of treating me poorly (spawn camping). The former is interesting and unique gameplay, the latter is dull and exists in most other games.

edit: sorry, double post.

No, it absolutely is griefing, due to the very simple fact that these players are taking advantage of unrealistic game mechanics (ie. limited spawn areas; fresh spawns are always unarmed) in order to force players into submission and annoy them. It's certainly not PvP when your intent is clearly just to rile people up and waste their time. If this group were acting inland, an argument could be made that they are just roleplaying as a band of sociopaths, and I could totally condone such a thing. But to do it on the coast tells me that their chief primary interest is in ruining players' experience.

There is a difference between fooling someone to gain an advantage, and herding fresh spawns to kill them with axes. The former is PvP, the latter is just pure griefing which is present in some form in all online games.

You are too easily amused.

What a strange thread. Tell me OP, did you kill pets as a child?

Even if it were an attempt to mimic realistic turning (which it is not), most games do this by making the ironsights not lined up, so that if you do a quick 180 you'll have to wait a fraction of a second for the character to line up the sights again.

I love reading stories like this. I'm guessing it reads completely different from a bandit's tale: "Killed stranger on the beach. Then went east and killed some douche that looked at me funny. Looted some stuff. Killed some dude who was looting some stuff. Shot a guy but he escaped. Looted some stuff. Bumped again into guy I had shot. Killed him. Had an amazing social interaction: some guy with an m4 approached me from behind as I was looting some stuff and asked for directions. I gave him the directions, he thanked me, then as he turned around I killed him. Disconnected." Sadly, I suspect that if you write another story a week from today, it'll be very, very different in tone :P.

There is a difference between reporting bugs and shouting "herp derp just change the accuracy value in m4.h" in all-caps.

When I started out: scavenging is so much fun! After starting over at the coast a few times: scavenging is so repetitive and dull! I soon learned that the game in its current state is CoD with a huge PvE block before you can start actually having fun (unless you're fortunate enough to spawn near Balota). Actually, it feels more like an extremely repetitive PvE game with rare and difficult bosses (players). I wish the devs would let us know more about their long term goals for the game beyond their "more zeds" statement.

Aaah, armchair programmers... Did you even stop to think that the M4's base accuracy (if there is even such a thing) is set correctly, but it's an accumulation of other errors (maybe even entrenched engine defects) that are causing your perceived inaccuracy? For example, when using the mosin, I get better accuracy shooting from a squatting position than prone with the bipod. Patience, young grasshopper. The game is currently buggier than a week old survivor's corpse; they don't call it alpha for nothing.

What is there to do other than PvP? You can only loot the same generic houses so many times before it becomes a chore.

And then you spot some dude running towards your buddy, axe raised, and shoot him. Oops, KoS.

I don't see a problem with punishing a style which is far, far more profitable (bandit). However, the issue is that it is not possible to create a system which can accurately and consistently ascertain who is the aggressor and who is acting in self-defense. If someone were to lunge at me with an axe, without provocation, and I shot him, should I suffer the same penalty as someone who kills a fresh spawn for no reason whatsoever? If you say "well, if he swung his axe before you shot him, he's obviously the aggressor", then that would give axe murderers the freedom to run right up to your face and cleave you in two or force you to shoot in self-defense and get penalized (because you attacked first so the game thinks you're the aggressor).

That situation is preventable (don't trust anyone). It's far, far worse when several hours in you die instantly to someone you never even saw. That really tests my patience, because no matter how careful you are, it will happen often. Maybe I should stop lone wolfing.

I don't think more and nastier zombies equates to less banditry. In fact, I think just the opposite. It will just cause lone bandits to join bandit clans, making them larger and more powerful, and because ammo will be more valuable due to actually having to use it on zeds, killing players for ammo will be highly desirable.

No, it would not. It is well documented that in war, soldiers have an extremely powerful innate aversion to killing other human beings, even if their life is in danger (go read up on it; it's fascinating). This only applies when you can actually see the person you're supposed to kill (does not apply to, say, bombing from high altitude). In other words, human beings (normal humans beings) are by nature "carebears", and you are likely one of them Mallow, no matter what your video game activities might lead you to think. The only reason you don't hear much about this is due to the fact that these days, war is very impersonal due to all the available technology, and also because the military has gotten very good at desensitization. I suspect that this aversion would be exacerbated in the presence of a more serious and alien threat, such as zombies.

I think the #1 fix should be the hideous mouse input (that's the first defect every player experiences). As for the ghost zombies, I don't think that's a glitch. They likely disabled collisions for performance reasons, so they don't have to enable expensive pathfinding algorithms which could further bog down the servers.