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This is what I'm anticipating to happen in SA as we'll due to lack of end game objectives. Maybe I'll be proved wrong by clever players who come up with great ideas inside the sandbox system. I'd just like the devs to implement something that supports other things than deathmatch for end game activities and not rely solely on players to come up with such goals. We'll see I guess :)

I have to respectfully disagree with this reducing KoS. In theory sure, less bullets less killing, but in reality it would mean that while many players will have less ammo, due to items staying in inventory (and later in tents etc.) some will always have a lot of it. People like to hoard stuff, especially if it's both rare AND useful. And I don't even want to start with server hopping. People will find it and use it ( = kill people), especially if they know other people are likely not able to protect themselves (bambis and even geared players). This would also benefit players who play in groups. They would have easier access to ammo (more people to search for it and share as they see fit). Groups could hoard ammo, distribute it, and go on their man hunting runs. KoS-bandit groups are already a problem and I'm afraid this would only make it even worse. Now if ammo is relatively plentiful as it is right now (I do think it'll be reduced some 30-50%, same with guns), people will kind of quickly find means to protect themselves. Of course they can KoS too, but at least they are not on the mercy of organized KoS groups, experienced snipers etc. Makes the game more fun and negates the need for server hopping, too. So basically, with this idea implemented the game would become harder for new and solo players, and easier for server hopping, group playing KoSers. Can't say I'd look forward to it.

There are quite a few threads on this topic, but in summary, people seem to view end game in DayZ as "make up your own fun" as in they are not anticipating the devs to come up with specific end game content. Base building and hunting maybe, but that's about it. I personally think that there would be a lot of potential in some type of NPC action (related to zombies of course!) and some kind of quests players could take on. More direction and goals in the game is what I'm voting for. But it seems many people don't want this type of stuff and instead want to keep the game very open ended and non-directed, which I can completely understand. I just feel that without at least some grand objectives the game becomes boring, and eventually results in KOS.

Feels out of place. I mean, when bullets are scarce (or at least they should be given the theme), who'd be so careless to dual wield pistols? Of course it could be implemented, along with the severe accuracy penalties, point is that it would be kind of useless so might as well just not implement it at all.

First off, couldn't find a thread about this though it must have crossed someone's mind, or maybe it's even planned already (don't really read them dev blogs). Admins feel free to combine if there's a thread about this already. So zombies with loot, why and why not? I'd like to see zombies carrying clothing (poor quality and ruined, sometimes better quality) because they have clothing on them. Pretty simple. They could also have various items, mostly junk but sometimes useful things like can openers, a bit of ammo, food, rags etc. Maybe even a revolver on very rare occasion! Also, zombies with backpacks etc. visible items would be just fun to take down / loot, especially in early game. I'd like this because it would diversify the looting mechanic, right now you either loot houses or kill players to get stuff (or get it from a friendly player, if you can find one of the two who play the game). It would also shift zombies into something else than mere annoyance / threat. Can't really think of a reason why not to have them carry some loot actually. Any thoughts on this?

That would be great - didn't know BP already has it. Ugh, please no zombie stripping.. good call from the devs.

Good point, I guess it depends on the kind of zombies they want to have in the game. They could be slow, dumb and dangerous only in huge hordes (the classic old-school zombie) or fast, vicious zombies that are always a huge threat (the modern zombie we've come to see in L4D, 28 days later etc). I think the mod had pretty predatorous zombies so that's what they are probably going for in SA as well. Still, I think zombies with loot (and on rare occasions also with very useful loot) would bring variety to the game play, for instance if you'd want to play a sole survivor who is committed to cleansing the infestation, you would have a bit more incentive to do so. It's a balancing issue, with too much / too good loot the Zs become prey, and I wouldn't like that either :)

Thanks for clarifying, that indeed sounds like it could be a lot of trouble. I guess the backpack zombie is out of question then, unfortunately! For some other clothes it could still work though (pants, shirts) as in you couldn't see the clothing item on the Z so it wouldn't have an impact on the performance that much (like soda cans etc). It's a shame though, would really like to see some special item carrying zombies!

Play like a man and die with honor if it comes to that. Or hide in the bushes and quit when you got bored. Your choice. It's supposed to feel like something, that's when you are doing it right. Also what they other guys said about not worrying about your loot, is very true. Welcome to DayZ!

Here's a quick tip for you.. if the door of a house is open, it's very likely looted. Look for open doors and if you see many of them in a town/city, move on to the next one (players often loot entire towns/cities). You'll be finding a lot of stuff in no time. Now, how to find the good stuff.. that's another topic and I won't spoil it for you ;) Welcome to the party!

Hmm, I wonder why spawning clothes is any different than spawning soda cans, ammo etc. Link to thread / dev blog maybe?

Nice action you guys got at the airfield, a solid video for that.

Zombies are fictional, so devs can make them what they like;) If zombies have only crappy loot, people will not loot them. If there's a chance they are carrying something more useful / rare, people would be tempted to check their loot. So I'd say go with mostly crappy loot with a small chance of better stuff too (maybe that's what you implied with your comment also).

They could prevent any negative effects by boosting the Zs (headshot only kills etc.) or making them spawn more frequently in areas that are lacking them. So I think it wouldn't hurt the overall game experience, at least when balanced right.

I like this.. never understood the one rifle limitation anyway (or two rifles with one in hand). Just make the weight of guns (and their parts) have a realistic impact on the player and let them choose how to roll.

I like the effort, but I think that it eventually boils down to play styles and preferences of the players. If people would enjoy virtual camping in virtual forests, we'd see more of it happening in the game already. Problem is, people don't seem to enjoy it as much as they like the action / player interaction provided by the coastal hotspots, military bases, airfields etc. Kinda makes sense tho, isn't that to some degree the reason we play multiplayer games - to interact with other players? Of course it has to do with the way the game is set up currently, it offering mainly the PvP aspect for end game activity (it's alpha so yeah). I'm with you on making the game more diversified, as in bringing more action outside the coast - the game could allow for various play styles as there are different players out there. I'm not sure if the suggested ideas promote this however, introducing more loot to wilderness for instance would in my opinion not change things much. Maybe if sleeping was necessary for survival, then people would find real use for woods and camping. Say your character would always be on the map when you log off as if sleeping, or for 2 hours at least, so that logging off becomes a tactical thing. I'm all for hearing more ideas that promote wilderness use, maybe we'll get more of them in this thread or others. I also haven't played the mod, so maybe a few vets could chip in on how it used to be in the good old DayZ ;)

Likely a fluke as almost everything about the Zs is currently badly messed up. For example, I was sniping today and after shooting a couple of rounds, a Z runs at me out of nowhere, and after killing it soon another one comes at me, and this would keep going on for quite a while. Same goes with shooting in general, they'll just keep spawning & coming at you all the time after you fire a round. Judging from the many threads I've read about the current Z behavior, I'm betting we'll see a lot of changes / updates to them in the next builds.

It's a nice idea but I can't really see how this would decrease KoS. I mean, people don't KoS for gear, they do it cuz they are bored, like the rush, want to get into a firefight etc. Fist-swinging bambis who KoS are maybe an exception but they can't really KoS effectively anyway, and arguably would still try to do it whether we had safes or not. Anyway, I do think tents / safes and other permanent storage units would be a great addition to the game, but I'd like players to be able to loot them, if they just could find them first. There has been quite a lot of talk about this already so won't go into too much detail here :)

I think the fundamental question here is about realism. Nobody would enjoy a game where you need to take a tedious (realistically slow) hike just to get from one town to the next. At the same time it would be silly to have super-charged characters who can run fast and endlessly with full combat gear, food, supplies etc. Also, if traveling distances on the map would be too short or too long, it would hurt the immersion and make the world appear either too busy or too empty, even if the character movement speeds were perfectly optimized and realistic. So to start off, I think that the current distances between towns and other points of interest on the map are pretty much spot on. You can find crowded areas with lots of action and little space to hide from it (Elektro for instance) and places with lots of space around them (almost everything 1 km north of the coast, really). The map gives a nice sense of being in a large area with a natural variety of cities, towns, plains, woodlands etc. in it. So IMO we can just focus on the character speed / fatigue mechanics. I do agree that some type of fatigue system needs to be there, and that it should influence your energy and especially hydration levels. I think it will always work best if the player has quite a lot more stamina and strength than any real person under the same circumstances, carrying the same gear etc. Otherwise it would be tedious and annoying to play the game, since there is quite a lot of traveling required to play it right (i. e. you shouldn't be able to get everything you need from a 500 m radius). The current system is not bad for long distance traveling. People don't seem to get bored to make runs for loot, travel to different cities / airfields for action etc. What I think is missing tho is something like a 10-60 sec timer for very fast sprinting, with the stuff you are carrying having an impact on the max time for sprinting. You could pull off 60 seconds with no gear, but only 10-20 sec with full gear. And I'm talking about Usain Bolt type of sprinting here, the absolute max you can get from your body for a short period of time. For jogging a similar timer could be implemented, however it should be a lot more forgiving in order to not make long distance travel too tedious. Maybe something like 3-10 minutes depending on gear, after which you'd take a ~30 sec break, drink some water and so on. What I'd most like about a system like this is that it would force people to think twice about the stuff they carry around. It would also give a small boost to bambis, making the initial looting a bit easier and more fun (you have nothing on you but at least you can run like crazy)! Maybe zombie movement speeds could be synced so that bambis can outrun them while geared players need to take them down, but that's for another thread. So in short, I'd say introduce timers for sprinting and jogging and have gear amount / weight influence those timers.

Why not. Just make shooting while climbing a ladder a bit more inaccurate than normal.

I like the idea very much. Like other specific things, it's probably not easy to implement from the game development point of view, it could maybe put a lot of strain on servers etc. But regardless, I like it because it would add variety to both zombies and looting, as these "PZs" would carry the loot of their human counterparts, making them interesting targets both visually and looting-wise. It would also add depth to the gameplay / story by adding custom (player generated) content, making you for example wonder why there is a sniper zombie roaming on top of a building in Chapaevsk. For me, it would be fun to run into these special, rare zombies if you will, as opposed to only the generic Zs we currently have. This feature could also be effective in countering the silly "die and run back to your corpse to get your gear back" gameplay, given that the zombies would turn in a matter of minutes and start roaming to some random direction afterwards. So beans to you and the guys who may have suggested this before you.

Not silly at all, that's how it works in real life too. Anyone who has loaded magazines with bullets should agree that it takes a bit of time to load some 30 bullets into a mag and more importantly, that you really don't want to be doing it in the midst of combat. So beans to the idea!

Speaking from a purely visual point of view, I kinda like the desaturation effect better for this purpose than the suggested vignette. It's annoying enough but doesn't really harm your ability to see when hurt a bit. Vignette could work when you are about to lose consciousness, as if the world is going black on you. My $0.02.

More visual variety would always be good for immersion, as opposed to repetition that hurts it. (Realistically) tall zombies, fat zombies, you name it. Now zombie kids on the other hand.. that would cause a stir!

Here's a tip for you.. try scouting a city / airfield / military base from afar, just sit there zooming with your built-in binoculars until you see someone running around. Figure out what they are doing / where they are going and get yourself in position to interact with them. Takes a bit of patience but works like a charm!