I would like to post my honest feedback about the latest hotfix for the patch 1.7.7 The zombie behaviour, in my opinion, was my biggest concern when the patch first came out. The changes with the distribution/rarity of the loot, the introduction of the infection feature as well all the other details added to the mod helped, all in all, to create a better sense of imersion and challenge, but all means little to nothing if the zombie movement, detection and density isn't properly adjusted; and I may say adjusted within the limits of what the arma II engine can provide to the modders. Of course, some people will say "But the real threat is the players!" and let me explain my point of view: the zombie is the means of an end. It is one of the obstacles between you and the loot, directly and indirectly, by indicating your presence to aware players which would love to ambush you, after all your hard work taking the risks to get all that good stuff. So, this lead us for what I may call the real sense of accomplishing a mission, when it comes by looting a city and get away from there safetly. This often brings some kind of planning, even in a rudimentar way: looking out for a reseonable route, making use of distracting itens for managing the zombies's positions and, finally, when in need of escape, an efficient way to disorient the zombies. So, the zombie behaviour is crucial in this point, its a tricky and gentle balance between having the zombies too sensitive or too distracted which leads, respectively, to a frustated or bored player. Easier said than done, that's for sure, but I may say that on this last hotfix the mod team went a little bit closer to the sweet point. Actually I think that, after the mod team solve the performance issues with the zombies spawning in the wild (putting back that lovely feature), the game will move even more towards that sweet point; this kind of unpredictability, with the zombie behaviour as well with the players decisions/movements as a whole, is absolutely one of the things that I most aprecciate in this game; so many combinations of factors that can lead to some really awesome situations. At last, but not the least, the infection situation. Well, having accomplished a better behaviour by the zombies, being infected became much more a cause by the negligence of the player than by the design choices of the game. Also, by using a combination of factors to obtain a prevention or cure for the disease is a great idea! It's encourage more exploration, mostly towards the equipment necessary for everything to work out, which by extent helps to spread out the players on Chernarus. All in all, I would like to say that I really aproved the work done so far, especially to the considerations in the latest hotfix. I had a real blast playing in that one bmrf expert server, in which I felt that my plannings (and I try to not be too prolix on those, but reseonable on the choices) really accomplished satisfying results while my fails were mostly because some careless haste from my part. If there's room for more progress, you may ask? Of course there is! There's always room for more progress, and I'm happy to see that the mod team is aimming to the right direction. Finally, I would like to appologise beforehand if my point wasn't too clear. English isnt my native language, but I really wanted to share with you some of my thoughts and experiences. Thank you, and I see you on the glorious Chernarus!

I completly agree about the complain with the 1.7.1.4 zombie behaviour. From my playing experience during this afternoon, I could say it's a lot harder to sneak throught towns, even the small ones, like Mysta (or something like that) where I had been today. It makes the necessity of been using the throwing function a lot more, to draw the zeds away with sound. (One nice thing now, though, is that they slipt up more earlier when they met). But even that it's not sufficient, since the detection radius became bit overpowered in my opinion. I can easily say that I had a lot of fun (and deserved rewarding) planning my actions towards the infected , in terms of movement, with the last patch 1.7.1.2. I mean, some little epic situations, in which I could pass without alerting any of them (and believe me, I like to be cautious, there's the real fun!) but in other times I would alert some, making me worry about a place to lure them, or use the terrain... but thinking smarty could potencially leave you out of a bad situation (like, it was possible before to run from the zombies, turn behind a building and right stop in a crouch instance, advancing slowly. It was an applicable way to flee from some of them in a city without alerting a lot more during your flee.) -Anyway, I guess a little more sound awareness from the zombies of 1.7.1.2 wouldn't be bad, so the ones whom aren't looking you could be some threat if you move noisy near them... but I think the LOS awareness of them was pretty balanced. * This is the humble feedback from a player whom began to play in the late 1.5.8.4 build.

That's true, especially with the sickness idea. Be sick should make you do more noises, making more difficult to sneak throught cities with zombies. Also, this kind of feature should impact on player detection as well (you could be able to hear a distinct cought from a human player, if it's sick and in direct communication range).

+1 for your suggestion! That would be sweet. Also, what about make possible to put permanent marks on your map? In that way, you could always remember where you putted your beloved gear, as well create some "pirate treasury hunting" in the game, for when you got killed and the bandit stole your map.

Hello Dayz community. Long time lurker, first time as a poster around here. First of all, I would like to thanks the Devs, BI and the Community for this wonderfull game. I neved had so many tense moments on any game before this mod. About the suggestion, I guess it could be implemented a system in which bandits would have to think twice before killing someone, but without underpowering the bandit gameplay. - How about this: A bandit or even a coop player killed someone - I mean anyone, and with whatever reason (like for looting, on bandit case; or self defence on humanitarian player situation). Then, if the body is looted (by anyone, not only the one which killed the player), this would put a "blood mark" on that player. This would mean that, when that death player returns as a zombie npc (after some pre-determinated time), it would follow through the map, in a slow pace, the player which looted it's corpse. To make things more challenging, this zombie could have some sort of limited attraction area, in which others zombies inside this area would follow it in the same slow pace, towards the player (Because, let's face it: the zombies are only a real threat when they come in group). And of course, this zombie mob could be attracted by others players as well, and stop following that first player (unless they kill the survivor(s) for which they were attracted, so then they could continue their "revenge's march"). However, there could be a way to avoid this. After killing and looting the dead player, the bandit/coop player could burn it's body, so it wouldn't return form the dead. (Of course, the fire would attract others players, as could attrack other zombies from the smell of burning flesh). Also, if the player disconects, the next time he reconects the zombie will respawn at the same distance from the player when he disconected. - So... I really don't know if this suggestion could be implemented on the state of the mod, or even in the arma II engine, but I think this would create one more threat to the game (I know, it's unrealistic!!!, but are zombies realistic, in the first place?) in a way that the players (bandit and humanitarian players) could solve it (it's "just" a bunch more of zombies following you around). So, what do you think guys? Let's share our opinions towards the greatness of this game!