Double_Back

Longest was 875 meters on a stationary target with an AS50 near Krasno. One shot. The only reason I even took the shot was because he stayed still (crouched) facing me for so long. He was scouting the town I guess. The most obvious tip is to spend some time in single player to get very familiar with the weapon at those ranges. When I first found an AS50, I immediately hopped on to SP and practiced. I do that whenever I find a new weapon but, especially with the sniper rifles. With sniper rifles, more than any other weapon, you don't want to learn the weapons ballistics and nuances on the job. You'll find most players that like to snipe will rarely give up their trade secrets. I certainly won't, other than to say: don't do the obvious things. Be creative, but always follow the rules of stealth, security, and target/shot selection.

I don't worry too much about someone "robbing" me of a kill by DC-ing after I shoot them or someone DC-ing when they aggro the zombies. It's lame, but it doesn't really detract from my gameplay - unless, of course, they log back into the same server a minute later. HOWEVER, the players that get the drop on someone, then attempt to kill them, fail, and then as soon as the tables turn against them disconnect are the lowest of the low and worthy of everyone's scorn. I think we've all experienced that lowlife piece of sh*t you didn't see until he shoots at you...he misses or only wounds you...and as soon as you drop behind cover/return fire...he disconnects. That behavior is rage worthy. Ultimate cowardly exploiting.

Or maybe, just maybe, he's learned how not to aggro zombies. I would imagine someone with that many kills might have an idea how the game works; including how zeds work. Every zombie kill I have I see as a failure - a failure to properly route into and out of a spot, a failure to sneak past zeds, and/or a failure to elude if I do aggro them. I always get a laugh when people comment about "how few" zombie kills someone as as though that's a mark of never being around zeds or exploiting or even hacking. It's a mark of success! Low zed kills means you're doing something right. Personally, I don't care about the zombies. I care about firing off rounds near a loot spawning point and alerting other players to my location. One of the leading causes of death for players originates from needlessly aggro-ing zeds and sending a beacon out to every player within 500 meters that you're there.

I might agree with the L85. I had it for a while (from a heli crash) until I lost it to a glitch during the 1.7.2.3 patch. The thermal sight does provide a ridiculous, hack-like advantage (day or night) and the common STANAG ammo means one doesn't even need to be carefull with ammo like the AS50. As for the duping being an obvious problem, I agree 100%. I've posted about it before.

Point taken, but my second paragraph addressed "removed" followed by some of my concerns. Anyway, my personal experiences have been that death by AS50 and L85s is relatively rare. Obviously, other players have different experiences, but I've never been killed by either of those weapons (the best I can tell). I have more fear of a player with an AKM 50 meters from me than the same player with an AS50 800 meters from me. Along those lines, I have infinitely more fear of 4 guys in a co-ordinated group with any weapon than one guy with an AS50 and/or L85. I run accross the former more often than the latter.

Making rare items even more rare doesn't punish the dupers; it punishes those that aquire items 'naturally'. The gear gap of high end items between the dupers and non-dupers will increase - not decrease. Anyway, I guarantee you that many, many more players are killed by Winchesters, Enfields, pistols, and AK variants than are killed by AS50s and L85s. Also, removing top-tier items from the game will only redifine what's considered 'top-tier'. Many players (myself included) spend much of the beginning of a new life in long searches to aquire better weapons and items. Players like goals in a game like this. The more lengthy this list of weapons/items to work towards/through, the longer I'm going to be searching and looking for these items as my primary goal. What that means is that my primary goal during this time IS NOT simply looking for other players to kill. If there are no high end weapons or items to look for, a big part of the game is removed. If that's removed, guess what I'm going to fill my time with? You guessed it: hunting other players with an Enfield as soon as I get it, two cans of beans, and a canteen 10 minutes after spawning.

I'm on day 22 today. Personally, I know there's a bit of luck involved in that in regards to hackers. All I can say is that I check the player lists carefully before joining and stay way from the fullest servers. I still pick ones with a decent amount of players for some action, but I don't join the ones with the 50 player cap nearly maxed out. I've had several strange things happen during that time: several buildings explode in a town in seperate explosions at the same time, a giant forest fire than engulfed almost my entire distant FOV, my entire inventory simply vanished (including the rifle equipped at the time) while I was walking in the forest (had been on the server 20 minutes or so when it happened) and a few other things. When I do see things that are not supposed to be in the game or a mass string of players getting killed at the same time, I disconnect as fast as my mouse will move and put that server on my own personal server blacklist. I don't linger to watch, investigate, or report. I get out immediately.

Fix this before removing anything. Once the duping glitch is fixed, we'll find out that many of these items that are supposed to be "super rare" are, in actuality, super rare. Some of these arsenals of high end gear claimed and/or actually possessed by various players in mass quantities seem to defy the laws of statistics. I know how much time I've played, the ridiculous number of loot spots I've checked, and how often I've found/never found some these items through "natural" play. Anecdotal experience does not equal data, but there's certainly something mathematically suspicious with some of these claims/sightings.

The lesson here is that these guys MIGHT have very well been friendly. By running up on them like that, they weren't given the chance. Looked like self defense.

No kidding. If you came up behind me like that, I would have shot you immediately; whether you said "friendly" or not. No hesitation at all. We've all seen plenty of guys call "friendly" and then shoot the other player in the face. One of the most basic rules of DayZ: You do not close on another player unless they give you the go ahead first; especially close quarters as shown in the video. Period. To do otherwise screams "I'm hostile". You violated the other players comfort zone without their permission. Your video is a great demonstration to new players on how NOT to approach an encounter with other players. You MUST assume another player doesn't want you to approach unless they give you the OK. In that situation, (if you choose not to kill them or simply sneak away) if you want to contact them, you call out from a distance (behind some cover) and state your intentions and wait for their response and take it from there.

Same here. Now I know to quit looking! Found several ghillies as natural spawns prior to 1.7.2.3. Haven't found any since.

I had a fun experience tonight against a new spawn killer... After having a nightmare of a time clearing up the battleeye error today, I finally manage to log on. Apparently, there was an issue and when I spawned in I was no longer in the far north of the map where I had logged out last. I had re-spawned near Elektro. As soon as I realize what happened, I gave a quick look around and figured I'd better get off the coast quickly and head inland. So I did and crossed the road off the shore towards the treeline. Sure enough, some clown must have seen me spawn in and starts shooting at me with a winchester from what must have been 150-200 meters. Obviously, he knew I was probably a new spawn from my location and direction of travel and saw an easy kill. What he didn't know was that a bug had teleported me back to the coast and I still had all my original equipment: AS50 + M16A2 + 1911. After the suprise wore off, I continued running to the treeline and uphill a bit and stopped behind a tree. I switched from my 1911 to my M16 and waited a few seconds. Right on time, he tried to angle up the hill after me and I lit him up. Might have been my most satisfying kill ever since I know what he was thinking when he first saw me. Funnily enough, that was the shortest time after spawning that I've ever been shot at. Normally have zero problems getting off the coast initially.

Frag grenades are great for rooting people out of buildings. Best way to clear the barracks. Used one the last time I was there and killed one guy inside and half a dozen zeds. You dont have to be very precise in those cases.

Having used the AS50 for a little while now, I can say it's amazing. The ranges I consider a "reach" (600-800 meters) when I use other sniper rifles, I now consider "medium range" with the AS50. When setting up on a spot, I usually try to put my main target area around 600-700 meters. At that distance, against a stationary target, it almost feels like point blank range with the AS50. At those ranges and greater, the noise, lack of camo, and size of the gun matter very little (relative to the target area) as long as you pick your perch carefully, of course. That said, if you plan on making most of your shots at less than 500 meters, I'd recommend against the AS50. BTW, that massive cannon-like boom you sometimes hear from huge distances is actually the M107; not the AS50. Also, no need to bother with headshots with the AS50. Center mass hit and it's over.

My issue seemed to have resolved on it's own. Was getting errors for a couple of hours, but can connect now. I made no changes. Just waited. I know mine wasn't patch related as I hadn't made any patch changes whatsoever in several days and had no issues prior to this morning.

Same problem. Have played dayz for two months through various patches without a problem. I've made no patch changes (dayz or beta patch) in the past several days and have had no problems playing the game. Log on today and can't stay connected to any server because of Battleye "failed to update" and "failed to connect" errors.

This. If someone sees me and is close enough to have a high percentage shot at me, whether they actually shoot at me or not, I consider it a major screw up on my part. Excepting spawners/server hoppers, of course.

Hoping for a little feedback from your experiences in the 'real world' of Dayz. After a dissappointing quick run through the barracks at the NW Airfield in search of a scoped rifle (desperately looking for a M24 or DMR, I exited out into the adjacent fields and found a downed heli not 300 meters in front of me. While I very much expected to be gunned down like a dog crawling 300 meters accross an open field to a downed heli right next to the NW Airfield, I gave it a shot (no risk, no reward) and found TWO AS50s and an FN there. Heart pounding and surrounded by zeds, I decided not get greedy spending a bunch of time re-arranging my backpack to take two weapons and increase my chances of getting a new hole in my head. So, I grabbed one AS50 and all the mags from both of them and ran like a girl out of there; happy with my good fortune. Got to the opposite treeline and dispatched the two zeds that followed and melted into the forest. On to my questions... I'll preface by saying: I play as a 100% loner. I know the AS50 is the Hand of God when it comes to sniping. It is an awesome weapon. I know how and under what circumstances to use it. I know most of you would cling to this weapon like grim death. I do have quite a bit of time in this game and this experience also causes me to have a few concerns. I know, within a team, this weapon is Death. I know this sounds almost silly, but: How practical is this weapon to a loner with no team, no spotters/backup, and someone that actually wants to survive? By "survive", I mean I'm not server hopping into sniping spots near Cherno to shoot new spawns until I run out of ammo or someone kills me. Don't get me wrong, I was looking for a sniper rifle for a reason... However, as I mentioned, I play as a loner and I will occasionally be forced to actually visit a town. What concerns me is this weapon is freaking HUGE and I feel like I have a giant "kill me" sign on my back (more than normal). With the weapon's size and no ghillie, I feel like I stand out like a neon sign. Additionally, I don't carry a second rifle and my only CQC weapon would be my .45. What are some of your (the loners, that is) experiences with this weapon and long-term survival? In practical terms, would I better served by a DMR that will still reach out and touch someone from a distance, but has some close range utility? Thanks in advance...

Thanks for the replies. I had a lucky encounter with an unlooted tent in the woods and picked up an M4A1 with a couple of mags for a back up. I can tell now there's really no getting around needing a secondary rifle with the AS50/M107.

Ha! Of, course. On my last life I found a ghillie (in an outhouse) before I found my first weapon, can of beans, or soda. Now I can't find one anywhere. Had a pair of NVGs, too. The problem is, now I don't want to risk my rifle to find either. But, I'd take a rangefinder over either at the moment.

I love beeing up in the north, it gives me the chills everytime i hear a shot go off up there. Indeed. When I hear a shot up North, I automatically assume there's a good chance it's someone who: A: Has a decent weapon. B: Knows what to do with it. C: Probably isn't stupid. D: Probably isn't alone. Of course, I've been very wrong about one or all of those many times.

I've killed someone in self-defense (they fired first) and was given a 'murder'. I got a 'murder' because their aim sucked and mine didn't. I've coldly shot someone in the back from 100 meters, they died, and I did not receive a 'murder'. Just saying.

Actually, method, I appreciated your input.

Not only that, a fresh spawn has nothing to lose; even if he isn't the one you just killed and just heard the shot. If he's picked up so much as an axe, he's far more likely to think "what the hell" and go looking for the sniper. Not much to lose. Guys up north are going to be a hell of a lot more cautious about risking their life going after a sniper if they don't know pretty much exactly where he is and have a covered route to get there and a buddy or two to cover them.

Thanks Tam and Seth. Thats what I was looking for. I've been trying to avoid carrying a second primary, but it might be unavoidable. I've been hesitant not just for the pack space (have an Alice), but also because of my tendancy to lose one of them while switching primaries. But, there's just too much of a utility gap between the AS50 and a sidearm. I'll probably just need to trim some fat out of my gear. Being used to loning it, I tend to be a bit of a pack rat and generally carry way more mags than I really need. I'm not too concerned about ammo since, obviously, this isn't a spray and pray weapon. Fortunately, I was able to grab four mags at the crash site for it. I've been keeping an eye out for the M107 mags, but in the past, I've found those to be relatively rare and deerstands are about the safest place to grab them. Even then, I've only seen a few singles out of probably hundreds of loot checks in the past. Of course, the DMR mags seem to grow on trees. I know the AS50 is quieter to other players than the M107, but it's still just as loud (from what I've read) as the M107 to zombies. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on that. I've generally sniped in 400-500 yard range in the past with other weapons and I'll probably just need to push that out a bit more now and be mindfull of zombie spawn points.