dengwms

This often works for me: Crawl as far into / toward the nearest you can get to a door or stairwell, and hold down 'W' and 'V' at the same time, and while holding them down, exit the game. Then, do the same thing while re-joining that (or another) server, holding those keys until you are in. You will often spawn outside the door or in the stairwell. Sometimes it takes a couple of times, often just once. You will still have the broken leg, but someone might help you, or at least kill you. Good luck.

I was not in any way taking away from your assessment, in fact - as in TWD - the Zeds are merely the McGuffin of the game. PvP is the essence of the game. I can't see DayZ as a single player game. And, I suppose, if everybody who played was willing to say, "Hey, friend, let's team up and rebuild this world, create a collective and gather food and supplies and feed the hungry and thirsty Bambies as they spawn in, and make each server a perfect world, the game would pretty much suck as much as it the world did before Day Z. Then you would never have the pleasure of exerting your own sense of justice on the sniping murderer with the clown mask, or having the chance of being that clown mask wearing murderer. This game, is thus, quite ingenious.

My evolution has been: 1. Don't kill Bambies, try to make friendly contact and help those less fortunate than you, and survive. 2. Don't kill Bambies, try to make friendly contact if possible, armed people get one chance, help short of arming them, and survive. 3. Don't kill Bambies unless they won't talk to you or act aggressive, try to communicate with single armed players and don't shoot them unless they act flaky, won't talk to you, or you can't get away if things go south, and survive. 4. Avoid contact with Bambies if they seem like they are heading back somewhere fast to get their gear, watch if they're looting to avoid cornering them, anyone with a helmet, back pack or meelee weapon is NOT a Bambi, assume anyone trying to contact you is a hostile until I'm convinced otherwise, survive, try to make friendly contact from a position of strength. 5. Survive, avoid contact with other people, especially anyone other than Bambies, never shoot a gun unless you have to, if a Zed sees you, likely anyone nearby soon will also, most players are a-holes, but if I'm a Bambi, I'll give them a chance, as I've got little to lose, contact only from a position of strength, or nothing to lose. I've met up with some great guys, both because I've helped them, and because they gave me a chance. Those 'diamonds in the rough' have been the most rewarding aspects of this game. Plus, don't sweat gear. Zeds, glitches and a-holes can take it away in an instant, it makes you a walking Santa Claus, and it pushes me higher on the evolutionary scale above. There are some great guys out there, they just take a lot of risk, luck and hard work to find! I will continue to look for that 1-in-100 person, because I play with about 6 of them now all the time.

I suspect keeping people to their promises, and keeping the game fair for the far larger group who purchased the game is in their better interests. Likely after the game is released, private servers on private networks won't be an issue. As an example, a friend and I were on a server one day, and there were only three of us on the server. Suddenly, the server started resetting about every 15 min or so. We headed to the NE airfield for some fresh loot, but found the third person there. We watched as he moved from one end of the base to the other, and when he reached the end... Server restart. After a few more of these cycles, we decided we were going to try and take him out, but just as we set the trap, he left the airfield. Apparently he got what he was looking for. When we got to the hangar, we saw all the loot he dumped to finish up a sniping kit. You could say he paid for the server, he has a right to do that. But what would take 99% of the rest of the players weeks to gather, risking Zombies, Bandits and glitches, this guy did in an hour or so. So, the take-away, for me, is Bohemia doesn't want their public servers to be used as purchased 'hacks'.

My reply is not really an answer, per se, but I wanted to relate some similar experiences. So we can laugh together! What some of my friends have found, and I have seen, is your stuff and body do go away after awhile. What you can do that seems to work is have your friend(s) take their stuff off and put yours on. They can then take it back off and put their old stuff back on, and your stuff will hang around for a while, hopefully until you get back. It's like it disassociates it from you. If you're lucky, it will all still be there. ;) As to your other point, one of my friends told me a zed was about to attack me. I didn't see it, but he did, so I started running like crazy, and suddenly it appeared. Another time, a mate and I were covering a third friend while he was drinking from a well. Suddenly, two zeds spawned meters away, and before he could run or we could get to him, they had him bleeding. Another instance, I was in a grocery store, and I tried to pick up a banana. I could not get it in my pack for nothing. I was getting ready to remove my pack and put it back on (a known fix for this type of issue), when all of a sudden I started flashing like you do when a zed hits you. I yelled whoa! My buddy says, "what?" I get hit again, and a third time... Then, "You are dead". Never saw the zeds. My buddy could not even find my body or any of my stuff. Two days work getting kitted out, gone in three flashes! So, now for your answer, as banal as it sounds is - Alpha. And sadly, of all the things that can happen to you in this game - killed in a zed attack, shot by bandits, falling and dying, or even starving to death or bleeding out, the worst way to go is by 'Alpha'. It's pure Tragedy. Nothing to be learned from it, nothing you could have done differently, no way to get back all that hard work! Alpha is the ever-present, unseen demon that stalks your every playing moment, ready to strike you down when you least expect it. Oh, and the Red Chain, his nightmarish sidekick. I live in terror of taking out my ammo box or med kit to remove something from it. Cause sometimes it ain't there when you rejoin the server.

I would like to suggest a function to allow players to create a dump file of the server they are on to assist Devs, server admins and players alike. This file would contain the necessary info to identify the server, player names and their map locations, along with other information that would provide forensic data. This file would be a necessary component for any reports of cheating, hacking, server abuse or other ToS violations. If someone is cheating and server hops, they would eventually appear on multiple cheat reports, for instance. This file would be a great tool for server admins, as it would eliminate specious complaints from disgruntled or spiteful players. It would also benefit players who spot suspected cheaters, who get kicked or restricted on servers, or to even help identify issues they themselves have, like transporting and glitching in/through walls. And it would also help the developers when a possible game issue is uncovered. I would think this file would not be extremely large nor it's generation very CPU intensive.

I totally sympathize with you guys. As a player who depends on your kindness - and I thank ALL the server hosts - I agree there should be some way for admins and players to gather evidence for a fair review. I am seeing more and more server hosts violating the ToS; some, no doubt, for the reasons you mention. Perhaps something like a location/player dump file that can be reviewed. For instance, I'm assuming if you believe someone is cheating, you must be in proximinity to them in game to see the suspious activity. With the dump file, you'd have something to support your claim, as you'd have your location and any players around you. I, too, have experienced a person who took three clips point blank and was finally axed to death (from me and two of my mates). A friend and I were also kicked from a server (3 times) and there was only 1 other person on that server. I have to believe they were the admin who was kicking us. In another situation, yesterday two friends and I were running through the forrest, and I would suddenly freeze for over 30 seconds, then I would 'teleport' a hundred meters away, and we would get separated. An admin might think that fishy, eh? I froze like this several times, and once I unfroze just before a zombie nailed me. So, glitching might not all be malicious. A dump file, with the server info, player names and locations, time, and a few other bits of info should be an easy programming feat. It would help both server admins and players with evidence of misdeeds or false accusations. It might take a little time to identify cheaters, but even if they moved to other servers, and they were caught there, their names would start to build a rap sheet. And, it would help protect you guys, as a complaint to the server company would have to be accompanied by the dump file. And, as a player, if I was kicked for no reason, I could do a dump file to show server abuse. And invincible players would not last long if they were reported several times by multiple people. I really hate to see an adversarial relationship develop between server hosts and pubbies because of a few bad apples. A dump file would be in all our best interests.

Except for one little minor point you conviently overlook-if it's just you and your buddies looting the server, you don't have to worry about encountering unfriendlies and dying trying to get gear, which is a vital element of the game. If it's not about that, why keep others off your server? Have you considered why they have rules and why they want the violators taken down? Like resorting to ad hominum insults like "butthurt"? It's that the depth of what you have to offer to this discussion by members who are asking legitimate questions and voicing concerns that the developers have asked for? If you check the ToS of this forum, trolling and insulting other members is a violation. You have a right to your opinion, but not a right to defame, ridicule and insult other members.

The ToS is there to prevent creating unfair advantages, (private loot farms?). Bohemia created an avenue to report these abuses. Paying $60 - $100 does not purchase an exemption from the ToS.