Double_Back

Private hives 'saved' this game for me and I imagine for many others as well. I was pretty much done with the game at one point because of rampant hackers/cheaters/scripters, but I've been playing on the same private hive for a while now and havn't died once to a scripter nor have I seen any. I'm sure some are, but the admins are active and do a great job and at least the teleporting, laser beams shooting from their eyeballs, mass kill a**holes aren't running rampant. At the VERY least, what cheaters may be there have to be somewhat discreet.

The DMR is awesome as long as you don't fall into the trap I notice a lot of players using it do: at 500+ meters, the high rate of fire and large ammo capacity will not make up for poor marksmanship and poor shot selection. I've encountered DMR "snipers" several times and every one of them missed the first very poorly aimed shot while I was running and, sure enough, each first miss was followed by that distinctive DMR boom in rapid succession. Like any other sniper rifle, you have to actually aim. There's something about the DMR that makes some players forget everything about basic sniping. While not a one hit kill to the body like the .50 cals, I rarely see a player not get knocked down by the first shot - at least when I've used it. After that, it's easy to finish them off. Like someone mentioned previously, the M14 + DMR combo is DayZ nirvana for me, too.

Depends on my mood and where I'm at in the gearing up process. But, my #1 dictum always applies: I never trust anyone. That doesn't mean I KOS, but I don't team up, I'm not giving you medical help, and I'm not turning my back on you. I'm a loner and I keep it that way. When I'm a relatively fresh spawn, I'm agressive. I'm entirely focused on getting my basic supplies; taking chances I won't later on. I'm not going out of my way to PvP, but if I see an easy opportunity to aquire better gear by shooting someone in the back, I'll take it. Once I gear up with basics, I'm move north to hit military spawns and stop by my tent if I have one. As a loner, I'm usually an opportunist PvP-er; generally avoiding a fight if there's much risk to me. As long as the other player isn't doing anything too stupid (having his back to me 25 meters away or closing on my position), I generally just avoid the other player. All this changes if I get my hands on a sniper rifle. At that point, I'm looking to hunt. I never, ever camp for coast spawns. I camp places in the north decently geared players will most likely visit and not normally the obvious places like NWAF and Stary. I want high end gear. Popping new spawns (aside from being lame) isn't worth the risk. I pick my camping spots carefully. I know the rifle I'm using. I know the various ranges from my hidey hole. It won't be an obvious spot like "the highest spot in sight". I will have cover. I will be in a spot that doesn't spawn zeds to tip players off. I constantly check around me so I see someone getting too close and always have an escape route. I will always have an assault rifle or LMG as a secondary in case someone does get too close. I check to see if a player has a buddy before I shoot. I will not shoot unless I'm confident of a first shot hit. If I don't have the shot, I don't shoot. Wait for the next one or move on. I will watch the corpse for a while after a kill and wait; making sure the coast is clear before approaching cautiously and looting. Hit or miss, I'm moving on to another location after I fire in case the victim comes back for revenge or tips his buddies off. Yeah, I "camp". But, snipers in real life are "campers". I'm not looking to have a shootout with other players. A shootout means I screwed up. A man could get killed doing that. I'm looking to kill them and take their stuff and that's somewhat more difficult with them shooting back at me. I'll wait, hide, evade, etc. just to get that one good shot. I really enjoy it. It's a lot like hunting in real life. Sniping has taught me a lot about the game and player behaviour. More than anything else, it's taught me how NOT to killed by snipers. There's some really basic SOP, that if players will always follow, that will keep 95% of the snipers out there from getting you. Funnily enough, when I get bored of this, I think I'm going to play as a medic for a while.

Exactly the same thing happened to me today.

Until duping and scripting are removed from the equation, it's pointless to discuss how rare/common certain weapons are. We still don't know how ".15% drop chance" actually translates in game because cheating/exploiting/duping have skewed the game-wide inventory way, way beyond what the real numbers would actually produce. So, we're just banging our heads against the wall raging about what weapons should or should not be removed. Once duping and scripting are gone, I think we'll see a lot fewer players risking their legitly aquired, super high-end gear picking off fresh spawns in Cherno.

I've never, ever received a blood transfusion. I've always relied on those four legged ones you see in woods and fields. Nature's blood bags! No second person needed and I've never been shot by a cow - not that I don't keep a close eye on them.

Private hive is definitely the way to go. The one I play on the most appears hacker free at this point. I've played on it for almost a month and it's been great. I haven't died once to a hacker, nor have I seen one (have seen banned players attempt to joinand I know hackers have been found and later banned) and that's with the server being well populated most of the time. Due to server-wide mass kill grief hacking, I'd almost given up on the game. I played several private hives and narrowed it down to two I liked that fit my style. I play mainly on one with the other as my 'backup'. There's a lot of variety on the private hives. Just search and experiment till you find the one that suits you. It's nice to finally be able to play on a well populated server and only be worried about honest players with honest weapons. Now I actually bother to make a camp and repair a vehicle; knowing that it may actually last if well hidden. What's also fun about a private hive is that you see a lot of the same regulars. So, you begin to learn who is who and what type of player they are.

The funny part about private hive servers is that a lot of skiddies seem to think that means "No Battle Eye" server. So, they join them and start hacking away. Maybe they think it's "safe" and they can't get global bans in a private hive. I first started playing on my current home server (private hive) just a day or two after it went up and the scripters were getting banned by the truckload the first week or so; mostly by BE and some I think were banned by vigilant admins. Fast forward a few weeks and the server seems practically hacker free (at least the most obvious ones).

Think a good portion is due to private hives. I've played exclusively on a private hive the last two weeks or so. It's been awesome. Loads so much faster. No deaths to hackers so far. Tents save and don't dupe weapons. No ghosting or server hopping and I haven't seen a single player combat log yet.

Before it was nerfed a few patches back, I preferred the 1911 over any other side arm. It really was a no-brainer. Plentiful ammo and there was no need to bother head-shotting zeds. Now, I prefer the G17 because it holds more considerably more ammo and is way more accurate. Prefer the sights, too. But, that's after my initial gear up and I've found plenty of mags. But, very early game when I'm doing much more scavenging and zed killing, I prefer any of the pistols for which ammo is plentiful (Macaroni, 1911, revolver). Usually, I'm only using my sidearm on zeds and going for head shots. The only thing that matters to me at that point is ammo.

Some of the "obvious" tents are probably placed by newer players - or new to that side of the map. I remember when I first started playing months ago and put some tents in places that I now know are laughbly bad spots. I remembered thinking at the time "This is a great spot! It's right between two trees. No one will ever find it!" I think my first "awesome" spot was raided in less than 24 hours. The best way to learn how best to place a tent is to spend time looking for tents. Great for learning what NOT to do. I definitely learned not keep all my eggs in one basket.

Unless he has played every minute of the game on your computer while you stood over his shoulder watching him the entire time, you don't "know with 100% certainty". Also, you don't know he was specifically banned for the AS50-TWS. Your "friend" could have just been globally banned for something else around the time he aquired the weapon. There can be quite a time lag between the detected cheating and the when BE actually issues the ban. I love how so many of the incidents were "a friend".

All things being equal, I vote a big YES. At this point, a database enema would do some good. BTW, I currently have every single piece of gear I want - all aquired 100% legit. There is not a single item I don't have that I want: DMR, M14, coyote, NVGs, rangefinders, GPS, ghillie, etc. Would hate to lose all that work, but I'd happily sacrifice it for a DB wipe. But, if it it will interfere with the dev's development/evalutations, and keeping the current DB is all part of their plan, then no. Right now, I'm looking forward to the stand alone and support whatever is necessary to help it's development.

I love spawning in Kamenka. Unless you like running the Cherno/Elektro shooting gauntlet and then heading north into the loot-desert forests just north of there, what's not to like? You can get off the coast quickly while practically never seeing another player and the ones you do see there will almost always be fresh spawns. There's a good industrial spawn and decent residential loot in Kamenka. The big upside to that spawn is that there's FIVE deer stands within just a couple hundred meters from the road that leads directly north to Zeleno - EIGHT if you take the short detour to Bor. There's a relatively quiet supermarket (easy to scout before you head in, too) in Zeleno, several nearby barns, lots of residential spawns, and two water sources for canteens. You can easily hit most of those spots before you need your first can of beans. From there head north to Pushto (church + supermarket) and then Vybor (supermarket + office building) and check the crapload of deer stands scattered around that side of the map. Once I run my route of the "Western Three" of Zeleno, Pushto, and Vybor, I rarely ever lack any of the basic survival gear, an Alice pack, and decent weapons. From Vybor, head east and you're well positioned for prime crashed heli-hunting and/or a detour to NWAF or Stary. Or head west and look for player tents scattered on the western edge. The only downside is there not being a hospital in any of those towns to grab some morphine; though I'll often get lucky hitting all those deer stands,

I've been playing on a private hive the last couple of weeks and I love it. Tents save properly (every time) and gear doesn't dupe (yeah!). The only glitch I'm still seeing is the tent dupe glitch. That sucks since I placed my tent carefully and had to adjust it once before being happy with the placement. Now the first tent keeps popping back up and I can't get rid of it, making my spot easier to see. I don't know ebough about the server mechanics to know why, but the server I'm playing on seems to havedone something right.