iflod101

I'm am not writing this to get unbanned. I want to make that clear. But rather I would like to explain how I play and why I think this server (as great as it is in theory), is going to eventually fail. I am not angry with the admins or the players, and don't plan on bashing you or anyone. I am an avid DayZ player who has been playing since DayZ Standalone first launched in December 2013. Since then, I have played hundreds of hours and gone through many different stages and playstyles to arrive where I am today. I started out a hero, turned into a bandit and have arrived at what I would call a solo survivor playstyle. I have been playing on your server for a few days since I reserved my public character for when I play with friends. The only reason I played on your server is because it was the only private server with a consistently high player count. I saw all the warnings about not killing on sight and whatnot, and I wasn't sure if my playstyle would be compatible but I tried anyways. I have a few rules for how I conduct myself within this playstyle. I don't kill players unless I am directly threatened by them. This includes if a player is attacking me, threatening me vocally, appears to have intent on killing me (i.e. charging at me with weapon raised), is attacking other players, and if I am at a military location. As an avid DayZ player, I have discovered that players at military locations will shoot on sight 99% of the time even on your server. After being killed on sight or witnessing kill on sight on your server a few times, I came to the conclusion that your rules were not adequately enforced. Still, I tried to obey the rules within reason. Within my last life (the life I was banned in), I had communicated with and remained friendly to at least 5 players, and killed 3. One was in Elektro, he was fully geared and wasn't talking when I tried to talk to him. Within 5 minutes he was shooting fresh spawns without communicating with them first. I killed him. The other 2 that I killed were at a military base. I was scanning the treeline when I encountered 2 players. I quickly hid, but realized I was in a really bad situation. As a solo player, I lack the numbers to take on 2 armed players myself unless I have a significant advantage. Communicating with these players means that I no longer have that advantage. If I had tried to communicate with these players, I had reason to believe that I would be killed like I had witnessed previously. I thought about running away but I was within 50 meters and the players would have spotted and most likely killed me. After helping multiple armed players out and avoiding KOS for the hours that I played on the server, I ran into the first situation where I needed to do it. Heck, I had the perfect chance to kill a player with an M4 but I didn't so I could uphold your rules. The truth is, the rules of this server discourage solo play, since solo players will occasionally need to KOS in order to effectively roleplay. We can't rely on communication since we are inherently weaker than coordinated groups. If I had my friend with me, we would have communicated with the players that I killed. But once again, as a solo player I can't rely on communication to get me out of situations, and I'm sorry but I'm not going to run away from every military base while everyone else gets loot that I desperately need. On top of this, I feel that the rules of this server deny a crucial part of the DayZ experience, and that is tension. DayZ isn't fun without the idea that at any moment you can be killed or robbed; without the fundamental principle of valuing your in game life. If this is not under threat, than the game becomes "walk for 5 hours having conversations," which isn't entertaining. Players need a bit of PvP to mix things up. Military locations are the only areas where a lot of players allow themselves to KOS, and for good reason. On your server right now, encountering players in a military zone leaves people with 2 options. You either kill them on sight and disobey the rules of the server, or risk yourself by communicating hoping that the players you are talking to are actually going to abide by the rules. When I was presented with those choices, I chose the first. To be honest, I don't even understand why people should look for weapons on your server. Why pick up a gun if you are going to get banned for using them? It doesn't make sense, and in that regard I think that this server with it's current rules, is inherently broken. So why am I writing this if I'm not trying to get unbanned? I love this server for the most part. I had some great interactions and got the opportunity to help some players out. It's an aspect of DayZ you don't see as much on other servers. I am simply trying to help this server excel. My recommendation would be to change the rules so that KOS is permitted at military locations only. You still get all the interactions in non-military areas, but allows the state of tension to still exist within the game. It also gives solo players some breathing room in regards to how they approach military locations, and will give the PvP oriented players a place where they can just play the game the way they want, without compromising the interaction based gameplay of non-military zones. What you need to realize is that a lot of servers have rules saying that KOS isn't permitted, but it isn't enforced. So players aren't going to obey your's because they don't take them seriously, and by the time they realize that you do take them seriously they are already banned. As I stated previously, I have witnessed players break the rules and not be punished for it on your server. It comes down to luck whether you are reported or not. Did I break the rules of the server? Yes I did, and for that reason I have no issues with the ban. However, I feel that I conducted my actions on your server with the established concept of an interaction based DayZ experience. And for that, I feel as though the problem does not exist with me, but rather with the rules. Regardless of your opinions on me and how I play, I hope you take what I have written seriously. I only want this server to succeed. I think you guys have done a great job with the server so far, but it needs a few tweaks. But how you operate your server is your choice, and if you ignore my advice I understand why. Thanks for reading.

Thanks, I'll try these out!

Thanks for replying. I don't know too much about computers in all honesty, hence why I'm posting on a forum. When I play DayZ I disable my Norton anti-virus (since it's a system hog) and I set my DayZ priority to realtime in the task manager. I never have any other programs running except skype so I can talk to friends and communicate with my squad. Other then that I'm not sure what to do. What type of programs would be accessing my internet that I wouldn't know about? I also have no idea how to defrag my computer. I'll try cleaning out my cooling fans since I have noticed that my computer gets really hot from running the game.

This problem is kinda hard to explain. My DayZ gets fairly decent frame rate in most places but I get this weird freeze screen problem. None of my friends get it and I haven't heard of it on the forums. My game will freeze really bad; my screen just stops moving but I can still hear background audio. Then the game will "catch up" sometimes teleporting my character back or forwards. When I come out of the freeze, my audio is very loud for a few seconds and the server says I'm losing connection. I don't have a bad ping or desync. I get these freezes every few minutes. When I first got this freeze screen issue it happened maybe once every 10 minutes and didn't last too long. Now it happens every few minutes and for longer, and sometimes it even kicks me off the server. When I first downloaded DayZ back in December 2013 I could run it at medium settings at around 40fps. Over time it's gotten worse and worse. Now I run at 30fps on low settings with my resolution at 83% and I have this screen freezing.