Death By Crowbar

It was approaching lunch time, I was hungry. It was the best analogy I could find using food.

Anonymity makes the internet a cesspool. The fact that you can't link a player name back to a steam name is problematic, DayZ SA essentially allows for completely anonymous play so anyone can do anything without risk. That's problematic. People (especially in the USA) confuse freedom of speech/expression and internet freedom with meaning they can say/write anything with impunity. That is, and always will be false. I mean, look at what happened to Donald Sterling. You're free from the government, but not from the populous identifying you as a douchebag and reacting accordingly. The same goes for online player names - there is absolutely no reason to accept certain things, one of them being racism or language that really has no place anywhere. There is no argument that anyone can possibly make that can justify use of racist in game names as being "ok" or acceptable, period. ... unless you're a douchebag trying to get a rise out of people, in which place you deserve to get kicked and ultimately banned when/if that's enabled.

I had been on a high pop server dying constantly - bandits got me on the road using an unarmed guy as bait, I was taken hostage shortly after and killed, then two fresh spawns boxed me down to death (I was a fresh spawn too). I spawned and found a fire extinguisher, and while in a house heard a dude upstairs eating. I waited and he came down and didn't see me and was looking on a shelf - and I bashed him on the back of the head, he fell and was like, "Oh man, really??? Come on..." As I continued to bash him until I was sure he was dead I felt kinda bad, he might have been a survivor or hero type and not a bandit, but I'd had a really rough evening and was just assuming it was a kill or be killed type of night. At least I got an SKS from his corpse!

You may want to run around on a low pop server and explore for a bit, get to know where Elektro is, where Berezino is, visit at least the SW and NE airfields, and try to identify the types of buildings that commonly have gear that will be useful. The square 2 story building with a circle thingy and a door on top commonly has guns and useful stuff and there's one in at least 1/2 the towns - finding those as a place to start really really helps. Also never assume you're alone on a server, always hit "P" and check who's on. Even if you're on a low pop server exploring never assume you're alone unless you see you're the only person on the server. I thought I was fine on a server where it was me and one other guy yesterday and wouldn't you know it I ran into him - but I lived to tell the tale luckily. He was not so lucky.

If you had been running around for a while I'd put money on a zed got you. I've encountered some pretty weird things with zeds - I've seen some keep aggro for what seemed to be an eternity, I swear one once followed me nearly from Berezino almost all the way to Elektro before I finally stopped and killed it. This can happen easier if you're carrying a shotgun in hands or something and not running as fast but it can still happen. If I've got to rest I always do it elevated, either lying atop a ladder somewhere or on a 2nd or higher story of a building, but if I'm away for more than 30 seconds I log.

There is no honor in banditry... and there is a lot of banditry. However, a lot of people play this game as if it were a pure FPS, which it is not. It's not Quake, COD, Battlefield, etc. It's survival - and some think the only way to survive is to shoot first and ask questions later. Those folks are missing a good portion of the game that makes it different and fun.

Anyone else seen a trend in hostage taking and robbing going down? When I first started playing, I got taken hostage and cuffed a lot (and robbed a lot). However, I would most often come out of the situation alive. For the past month or so I've not been taken hostage once (nor have I seen anyone take hostages, I do a lot of scouting with binoculars). Is it just me or does it seem the status quo is now KOS only? Perhaps a big difference is now I'm more familiar with where spawns are and am more likely to have a gun, perhaps people are more likely to shoot someone packing heat? One exception was maybe 3 weeks ago 4 dudes surrounded me, and cuffed me in the middle of the road and then split up to pop off anyone who came by to look at me, then they let a wandering zombie kill me. But other than that it's been pretty much KOS. The poor handcuffs are getting lonely people, use them! Isn't it better to have good loot than risk ruined items?

And that's a community management problem in itself. Why would you post everything on Reddit rather than on your official forums, especially when, as far as I can tell - you've got maybe 50% more community visiting the forums than you do Reddit? Yes, no wonder, it should make you wonder.

People are expecting a yummy, polished Cookie Monster snack! But instead because it's alpha they're finding a derpy muttled state with some obvious issues that need to be worked out. Either way, it's still yummy and can make you fat, which makes it worth it...

In that situation, especially if I have no weapon with ammo, I usually just lay down. It's a 50/50 chance I'll get shot, but if I stay standing I find it's closer to 100% chance I'll get blown away. I've had something sorta similar happen, I forget what the outcome was, but the "groups" that are less seasoned and jittery are kinda funny to come across.

Just trying to make a possible wrong right. I spawned in today and there weren't many people on whatever server I was on. I think at one point there was just 2 of us on, the other dudes name showed as "James". I has been running from deep inland, I had just checked out a castle in the mid-west. I knew Balota airstrip must be somewhere south so I headed that way. I got there, and there was noone around (server was jumping between 2 and 5 players during my run). So I loot the first building, check both hangers, then check the control tower. While just getting to the 2nd floor of the control tower I thought I heard movement, assuming it was a zed after me I headed back down to dispatch it - only to see a dude with a wide hat, a mosin, and an orange child's backpack. Like nearly at the door! I yell "friendly, friendly!" over direct chat, and duck behind the door. I hear nothing in return nor see any chat, so I retreat to the 2nd floor. I'm frantically looking up and down, assuming since he said nothing he's hostile - will he Fox me out from below or will he take the ladder up and come at me from above? Then I hear a zed - it's clear the zed is after him, so I take my chance, I run downstairs, SKS hot and ready, and see him tangling with a zed. I blow them both away. But then it hits me - I'm 90% sure he was sitting on the front steps facing out watching the airstrip when I shot him, as though submitting as friendly and keeping a look out. I'm pretty sure in my desire to survive and not die on a low pop server of all places I blew away one of the good guys who was merely being attacked by a zombie. I'm sorry sir! :( God damn KOS infection and double crossers have everyone making poor decisions these days. I apologize!

It is the residual image of your digital self. Follow the rabbit...

But it seems to only happen when a player with it equipped gets close enough, like within binocular sight distance... that's my concern.

I started out running inland, far far away from the coast. I found things like the radio tower, a castle, etc - but I didn't see many people. It took me a while to figure out why and how even though I was way on edge out there there's typically noone out there and it's rather safe. Then I learned a bit about the coast, figured out how to get my bearings and use the sun to navigate.

Until the item duplication exploit is fixed people should be able to run like rockstars because that's the only way to compensate for snipers with essentially endless ammo. Once the item duplication exploit is fixed and snipers have realistic ammo foraged (20-40 rounds) I don't think you'll see as much sniping and you certainly won't see a sniper holding down an area for very long like they can do now.

Do you honestly think wielding sniping capable guns is a simple/easy as it is in DayZ? If using the M4 do you think you can just hit F and get a new mag out of your ammo box automatically? IRL that would take quite a lot more time and fishing and you wouldn't be able to do it while keeping an eye on your target the whole time. My point is that the lack of realism in player movement is balanced with the lack of realism in the capabilities and options available to snipers.

It's not called "traps", it's called "bait banditry", or "fishing". People have been doing it for a long time. Noone stops to look at random gear on the road, if they do, they're either new to the game, don't visit the forums, or had a lapse in judgement. Due to this you'll also see people intentionally leave random stuff (flashlights, etc) in the road merely to make people "think" someone is around when they're long gone or have since logged. You get both kinds.

Autorun work around. I know I've seen pics of this before, but I never thought to try it. So simple and actually works! I feel like this is a whole new game now!

Yeah, well - IRL people don't have the reflexes of a cat and can't toss around a sniper rifle as they can in game. You'd have to rebalance the guns, animations, etc if you want to rebalance the player movement. All you want is to make sniping easier, and all the people who move like they have OCD and are on LSD want is to avoid snipers like you. It's already balanced, and thus anytime people run through Berezino or Elektro they're going to do the Harlem Shake the whole way through.

When I see someone in a FULL set of military gear I get concerned. Either: They spend a lot of time on low pop servers and avoid contact, they might be ok hero or loner types. They're in a clan/group and spend a lot of time camping the airfields and such. PVP comes naturally to them and I'm suspicious. They're gear dupers/glitchers with whatever gear they want and endless ammo. There's so much abuse of this that anyone I see fully decked out, alone, I almost assume this is what I'm dealing with and that I'm going to die.

Yeah, well, I was running somewhere and had to get up to do something, so with a whimsical thought I stuck it in and it worked like magic. Yeah, it was sorta spur of the moment, I always thought it was a dumb or unnecessary idea in the past, but not so much anymore.

It's so early alpha that by the time the game is done the current source will probably be irrelevant.

I actually hate the gear dupers more than I hate the people who teleport and shoot through walls. There's some walking armories out there and 99% of the time they didn't get that way legitimately. It unbalances the game significantly.

HAHAHAHAHA... that's the funniest thing I've seen all day, LOL.

I will say that with the new spawn points there's far less people running on the roads, and also far less bandits on the main coastal road. I'm tossed on whether I like that or not.