warpoet

You have something great going with this game, but I think that with some tweaking, it could be even better. Solo play, right now, isn't really worth it. It's tense, it's visceral and occasionally awesome, but it's very frustrating. It's easy to avoid other players - just head inland and steer clear of major cities. I haven't seen one other player away from the coast on any of my four characters. Aside from that, however, life really sucks. The main problem is not that it's hard to find supplies. That's to be expected - you're in the Chernarussian countryside, after all. Lone wolf play SHOULD be hard. The cities should be where the good supplies are, and they should be the places swarming with zeds to the point that it really requires teamwork to survive. As it stands, though, you aren't likely to fare much better in the countryside. Pretty much every single time you approach any building without sneaking, you will get swarmed by multiple runners. I'm not exaggerating. Yesterday, for instance, I approached an abandoned gas station. We're talking a booth and a shed. I kill a shuffler by the door, and then four runners appear from nowhere and zig-zag their way over to me and my crappy Makarov. WTF? I will grant that sometimes it makes sense. Right before that, I found a hunter's post/guard tower with two zombie soldiers walking around it. Cool. 90% of the time, though, it's just silly. Once I found an isolated house out in the wilderness. Maybe one other building nearby (a shed or something). 7 zeds guarding it. Again: WTF? Half of these crappy places were abandoned BEFORE the apocalypse - now they have the population density of Baghdad? The most perplexing/aggravating thing about this is that is seems to be worse in the countryside. When I was in Cherno, the overall ratio per building was lower. I found buildings near the coast with no zeds on them - but hardly ever when I venture inland. What gives? The respawn issue is the other part of this, and the most frustrating thing about solo play. It seems like there is an endless swarm of runners. One time, I spent less than ten minutes in some crappy village (maybe a dozen buildings tops). I had to kill 40 zeds just to use the water pump. I would walk from one building to another, and when I got back, 3-4 more zeds. Yes, stealth helps a lot, and luring zeds off does when you have to fight, etc. But it gets old quick and feels pretty silly. If I decide to clean out an area and secure it, that should be doable without absurd amounts of zigzagging, insta-respawning zeds. Let the city folk deal with that. A challenge is fine, but it has to be reasonable. Yes, I know that zombies are not "reasonable," yada yada, so let's not waste time on that. I'm just saying that when crappy villages where nobody lives to begin with have endless waves of zombies like a major city, something's not right and lone wolf play is kind of pointless. I'm after a zombie survival simulator here. There is a good framework for that now, but at the moment it feels more like zombie arcade to me. I think some tweaking could change that. My $.02.

So I took the advice in here to heart and went pure stealth (NO unnecessary risks, crawling whenever in doubt, etc etc. Before, I was playing cautiously but not SUPER cautiously. Yes, it helps a lot and isn't as tiresome as I expected. I think that right now, the zed count for, say, average-sized towns (20 or so buildings) is more or less on point. The risk level seems fair enough. Donno about big cities. The respawn rate is still too high though, IMO (others have commented on this as well). However, I stand by my point about the numbers for isolated buildings, farms etc. A farm I searched today had seven zeds guarding it (some of them standing on top of the loot). Yeah, I snuck around them easily enough, but I still think that's way too much. It only takes one mistake, and you're finished. Especially if you're low on blood or supplies or ammo. I think players in this situation should be able to search low-risk, low-reward buildings and what have you without worrying about attracting an insane number of runners on their tail.

Massive support. Boiled down, this is more or less the biggest fundamental change I think is necessary. Only thing I'd add is that overall zed numbers near low pop areas and buildings are WAY too high in general.

I have. However, sometimes you have to fight. The countryside is littered with sheds/shacks where supplies drop and zeds stand right on top of them. Even in other situations, the numbers should still be more manageable.