Stridsbulten

Yeah, the lack of character customization and / or proper ID support can be dangerous. We have had problems with it as well, usually related to people combat logging into areas we have cleared and assumed safe. Like one time in one of the castles, I was covering the door while my friend moved to the roof checking for loot. Suddenly someone logs in behind him, he sees him as he turns but thinks its me because the guy looks very similar. Takes him a second or two to figure out it isnt me, by then the guy has opened up. Naturally, this is a situation that could never happen in a realistic scenario but that's just the way the game works.

Why should players have better gear because they have more time to play the game?

OK, so if you havent changed position between logout and login, no penalty. If you have a new position, 10 minute cooldown on login?

High power military rifles should be removed or so extremely rare it's comparable to helicopters. Same with rangefinders. Keep regular hunting and sniper rifles, but get rid of the heaviest stuff. As it is now, this is more a sniper simulator than a zombie apocalypse simulator. When was the last time you saw sniper camping, human killing people in 28 days later, Dawn of the dead, the Walking Dead or any other zombie movie? When was the last time you saw sniper camping, human killing people in ANY post-apocalyptic movie or book? It is just not part of the formula.

PvP is a necessary part of this experience. Sniper killing you with .50 cal rifles from 700 meters away is NOT. Server hopping douchebags who pop out of no where in already secured rooms are NOT. I love PvP when it results in an interesting experience. The above arent interesting, they are annoying and frustrating. And they also account for about 80% of my player related deaths at this point.

In a way I agree with the OP. Personally, I don't mind being killed if it happens in an interesting way. Being sniped by a guy I don't even know about 700 meters out for no good reason while I scavenge for beans is never interesting. In any way. Remove the high power sniper rifles, range finders etc. Let bandits have to WORK for their kills. As in actually get into real fire fights. That would be interesting and fun.

Look, the concept of "End game" is in itself flawed. Any game with "End game" content usually leads to a player behaviour where people rush through the game itself to get to the "End game" because that's where it is cool to be. That concept has got to be replaced by just a single "game" concept. Being at the start, middle or top shouldn't matter in a well designed game.

Then what is the point in killing them?

Removal of side / global chat isn't the issue. If it was, we wouldn't have the problem in situations where encounters occur within Direct Comms distance, but we do. The problem is that loot is worth more than human life and a lot of people play the MOD as a regular death match game rather than a coop survival game (and no, I don't mean all players should coop as one group but right now very few coop at all). This happens because there are only mechanics to support open PvP and no mechanics to support long term community / relationship building. Everyone is anonymous, life has no value, there is no long term goal to work towards and the game is far to easy to abuse (hacks, combat DC, server hopping to flank enemies etc).

I don't want to be a prick here, but I don't think you get it. This game can't be "beat". It isn't about getting the best gear. It is about experiencing player created moments. That is the entire appeal of a sandbox game like this. The zombies, the gear, the world just facilitate these experiences. Nothing more.

So, in a few minutes you managed to kill 10+ server hopping snipers in Elektro? That's some crazy skills you got there...

To go back to the start of the OP, what is the point of just sniping new players in Elektro again?

The problem isnt weapons or ammo. The problem is that human life in DayZ has no value, only items do. In a real scenario, you would'nt kill everybody because the next guy you meet could be a doctor, a mechanic, a carpenter or any other range of people you would need to survive. So until player / human life has value in DayZ, this conduct will continue.

Yes, the OP is right, there is no long-term gameplay. Everything is in the "here and now". That appeals to some, but not to all. I don't think the idea ever was to appeal to everyone though. DayZ is indie in many ways and the lovely part with indie productions is that they don't have to, or even try, to appeal to everyone. In the case of major AAA products, the publishers want to maximize return on investment. So they try to produce products that appeal to as many people as possible. That usually results in quite fun, but in many ways bland productions. Besides, ALL games get boring eventually. I have already logged way more hours in DayZ than in "monster" games like Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption or Mass Effect. And I have more stories to tell my gaming friends related to DayZ than ALL those games combined. So the day I tire of DayZ, I will have gotten my moneys worth anyway. And then some. Oh, and by the way, it's still alpha. :) Plenty more to come before its done.

There are several ways to fix it, it all depends on what the code allows. Two suggestions: 1. No spawning in or out within a certain radius of deployable items (tents, barb wire etc). Exception could be made for owner and people on his Friends list (if there was such a thing). 2. No spawning in or out of buildings, period. Only buildings can be fortified to become camps / bases. It still wouldnt solve the issue of people wrecking it all when the owner is asleep, though that might be a good thing. Could encourage people to team up across timezones to defend a camp or whatever.

Yeah, uhm, no. I am not going to spend extra time cleaning up loot piles. I am paranoid enough to the point where I almost don't want to spend the time needed to get what I came for!

Alpha. You know, expect things to be broken from time to time. In fact, for an Alpha, this is usually extremely stable. He will fix it, don't sweat it.

So, you are saying it is positive that it isnt KOS on Norway servers. You are saying you appreciated getting a lift by people. And then you say you returned the favor by killing one of them and stealing his car. Do you have ANY grasp of "cause and effect"?

1. This is the internet. It brings level of retardation up to an all time high. Expect people to try and ruin your experience in the game and on this forum. 2. It is extra appealing to screw people over here because you know it hurts. It doesnt matter in other games, like CoD, because you respawn so quickly and you lose nothing when you die. 3. PvP is an integral part to this experience - it HAS to be here. That said, the problem is that there are no social functions that we take for granted in real life to form bonds with people. Human life in DayZ has no value, you don't need other people. So you might as well just kill them because they are a bigger potential risk than aid. Further more, communication is highly limited. In reality, there are many ways to avoid conflict through natural communication - body language, talking, posture, attitude etc. And, more importantly, most people value their own and other peoples lives. This means the distance to the trigger is somewhat bigger in reality, you aren't so inclined to just shoot anyone and everyone you see. There are many ways to fix this, but it won't fix itself. Not with your standard internet community anyway.

There should be a chance of a warning popping up for the owner of the backpack. Especially if either party is moving. But no permission feature.

What part of that area not being part of the playfield don't you understand? It would be like saying it is OK to go with the ball outside the field in a football game, but you can't score from there. Off limits is off limits.

Add a timer for disconnect. If neither zombie or player is nearby, 5 seconds disconnect. If zombies are within a certain range, 10 seconds disconnect. If players are within a certain range, 20 seconds disconnect. If you move during the countdown, disconnect is cancelled. If you do a hard shutdown, your character still remains in the game, vulnerable, for the timer duration. If you log back on to another server directly after leaving another, your log off time is trippled during the coming 20 minutes or so. That should deter DCing and hopping to a certain extent, without messing too much with the rest of us.

The old movie quote of "If all your friends jumped off the MTV building, would you do it too?" applies. Just because a lot of people are ***hats doesnt mean you have to be too. In fact, it means the opposite. Another nice and fairly more epic quote: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing". And, of course, there is the fact that human interaction in Dayz have given me far more enjoyment and pleasure than straight up PvP. To share a few examples. ---------------------------------------- I was heading to the military camp at Stary Sobor, coming in from the north and running down the hill. I had recently respawned so I didn't have much to lose except an Enfield and some basic supplies. As I am going down the hill, I spot a guy laying behind a tree in front of me covering the camp. I dive for it and end up just a few meters behind him. He hasnt seen me. I could easily drop him. I zero in and prepare to fire. With my finger on the trigger I active direct communication. "I am friendly if you are. I just need some supplies. I won't shoot". I can literally see the character jerk as the guys hand twitches. He starts spinning around and I tell him "I'm cool, I won't shoot". He responds "OK, I won't either". At this stage, that means squat. Situation can go either way. I tell him I am heading down into the camp. He says "OK, cool, I have two friends coming out the same way. Please don't shoot them". I say fine, no worries. I start crawling down and on my way in I pass his buddies. We say hello over direct comms. Before we leave direct range, I say "Thanks. I havent had a single friendly encounter that resultet in dialogue instead of shooting in about two weeks". They respond in the same sentiment with a chuckle and obvious relief in their voice. This was much more interesting than just shooting the guy on the hill. Another time I was going through the Factory area on the east coast looking for car parts when I collided with another survivor. He had the drop on me but hesitated to shoot, I turned and ran. I headed into the treeline, went prown and crawled to an over watch position. In my ghuillie I was fairly sure he had lost track of me. I covered the building he was in for a while and saw him move about through the windows. Not knowing if he was friendly or not I sent a message to him over direct comms. "I got you in my sights, but I am not shooting. I am going in for car parts. I hope you return the favor!". I flanked and moved in from another direction, having lost track of the guy. I was pretty nervous and edgy, because I suspected he was around but I really wanted to check those buildings. I searched a few of them and then decided to leave, having pushed my luck. As I walked out the building I heard someone say "Have a good day!" over the comms. I turned around and saw the guy kneeling some distance away with his gun aimed at the ground. We could have shot it out the first time we saw each other but I doubt that would have stayed with me as such a memorable experience if we had.

Of course it is cheating. No doubt about it. Login / logout should be disabled in buildings. In towns, period.

So, I have been playing DayZ for quite a while now and enjoyed everything from being killed to killing other players. I don't mind the fact that the biggest threat out there are other players. I don't mind that there are bandits. I don't mind that some people are scared and rather shoot first, direct comm later. What I DO mind is that there are no incentives to NOT shoot a random player. In fact, there are more incentives to kill him than to not. This means the game basically turns into an elaborate deathmatch setting rather than a survival game. I am not sure that is what was intended... When I started playing a long time ago, I think most encounters with random players had a friendly outcome. You didn't even need to use direct voice to cooperate, you just did. Since a few weeks ago, I would say it is the complete opposite. It has become extremely rare to find scenarios where either party doesn't open up straight away. And I have lost count of the number of times I have been shot without ever seeing the shooter (either sniped or shot from behind). I would love it if Rocket came up with a reason to make us think twice before shooting other people (and no, the fact that blood bags need to be administered by someone else is not incetive enough). At the very least, let us create persistent communities within the game that allow us to recognize other members of that group (customization now is to limited to create a visual identity and there is no way to create a group identity by use of logo, armband or other visual marker).