Combine (DayZ)

Oh you classy people....

Ah, the expected "I'm in favor of..." and "I'm not in favor of..." result you expect to see when such questions arise. I do think that, no matter what your (you, the guy reading this stuff here) views are, that this "Hide body" feature does not compare or get close to the general atmosphere or realism factor of the game. You have or will have a more complex sickness or health system, somewhat more complex bullet or weapon / firing mechanics, hunger / thirst, more realistic movement patterns, you are somewhat restricted in what you can carry due to set inventory space... ... but you can make bodies vanish (in the ground) like a magician by waving your hand, so to speak. That does not fit in much, does it? I personally would be fine with it if it would play some sort of timed animation. And if it was just that amount of time you'd need to eat a full can of something completely, whereas the eating sound would be replaced by a digging sound or similar. That would be a good compromise. Of course, if the Devs want to take it further with shovels, digging or dragging bodies around, that could also work. If that means more "aftermath scenes" of combat. Thus, corpses would have to stay longer.

If you want player interaction in a more friendly way: Start talking from cover and / or with show of force. Most other cases you're gonna end up dead or shot at because some shithead (no offense, but I usually am on the other side of the barrel) shits his pants (probably literally) and immediately shoots, or because his prec. gear might be in danger. Then again, if you run into each other face to face and armed that's usually how it's gonna happen. You don't have "hero" or "friendly" on your forehead and likewise you don't know if they have a big KOS or BANDIT on theirs. If you're alone, try it from a safe place or avoid contact. Even then if contact is established you have no guarantee you won't get backstabbed. Really, the best way is to be with a (friendly) group that has mostly total control over the situation. Your mentality shouldn't be "Let's hold hands at a campfire!" but more like "We're gonna help the SHIT out of you under armed guard, then we both part ways in the other direction" (unless you happen to fit in somehow). You gotta be a bit of a dick as hero, in my book. Being too trusting just gets you killed easily in this game. You might have luck, but more often you don't. My rough guess is that the 80-20 rule might apply easily. About 80% of people you'll encounter, on average, will probably just shoot at you for no reason or backstab you if the opportunity presents itself. KOSers or Bandits. Then there's the 20% that actually try to stick with some form of hero mentality, and of course there's no telling when individual people get sick of that and start leaning to less friendly playstyles. Then again, you kinda need all playstyles to make this game interesting. So in theory, no playstyle is wrong; it's just that the quantity and quality difference between those can be less than even.

Do I have DayZ in my Nightmares or Nightmares in my DayZ? Huh... I get them mixed up by now.

Best way to contact (or try to) a player - after checking your keybindings are correct and working on your end at least - is both voice and text chat. Text chat can be overlooked or may be borked, voice chat might be located better but is also more open and direct. Text chat does not reveal your position as easily though and utilizes the full comms range. Both together = Hard not to notice.

Wasn't the MP5k horribly weak? I read reports where people fired a whole mag / clip / whatever into someone and they kept going?

You need a healthy balance in those aspects from a technical / restriction POV. So, I say: Private hives = best solution. Anything else: Compromise. You can't have it all :)

My advice in general? Don't assume because of your personal experience; many things depend on many individual situations and encounters. Who, when, where, why, how. You can only really rely on some statistics or what would happen on average. Theories, scenarios. Enough blah, a abit more precise: In general the worst thing that can happen is two strangers or more running into each other face to face. Armed. Every time I was shot right away. Once I even tried to yell out to someone but I was just shot. They don't know I'm generally not KOSing / semi-friendly, I don't know if they were KOSers or just scared. I mean if you loot barracks, run out and see someone crouched to the right with an AK up and yelling "HEY!", you'd be scared I guess. Or at least tensed. You want friendly encounters? Come with a (friendly / neutral) group and speak to someone. If you can bring a group or not: If you want to contact them (you could also just avoid them altogether, best way imho as loner) do it out of cover, with people backing you up if possible. If you have a group, make it clear to the person so he does not get funny second thoughts. He may not know there's a group and assume you're alone or just 2-3 people instead of X more. Also, group or not, give clear warnings or set clear limits. Especially if you're some kind of "hero player". If someone does not lower his weapon and even aims at your direction, kill them after failed clear comms attempts. They had their chance. I too had too many stupid situations even with squadplay. Makes you really think what the fuck people were thinking when they had a small army in front of them, supposedly friendly, and yet they fired. And obviously got turned into swiss cheese. In short: As loner: Avoid people. Otherwise, communication matters. If you can observe the target but the target cannot then that's a plus because you can just pull out any time. In theory. See how someone reacts, or rather does NOT react and make up your mind and judgement. Also, being "friendly" does not f'in mean you have to run into each others arms and jump around while singing nice songs. It can simply mean not to KOS right away without due cause or threats. Say you encounter a stranger: If you don't offer supplies, tell him to keep distance or go the other way -> agree to avoid each other or certain places, to avoid certain actions, etc. When in doubt, that is. Apart from that there's always the risk you might get shot when meeting strangers. On the other hand you could become best buddies for that "round" or even beyond the next server crash or death.

Maybe we should also consider how much time may have passed (only rough, not very precise): By default (unless there's a unique story for a group or on a server and where people hold specific areas free of zeds - manually) all of Chernarus is overrun; any urban center and little village or other place is abandoned. The place is a total loss or close to it, depending on how you spin it. On the other hand, there are other implications not on how much but rather how little time has passed, in context. Implied by loot, amount or existence of infected and how things look. That roughly means: It is almost impossible that a long long long time passed since the outbreak there, such as many years. Chernarus simply does not look like it, including what can still be looted. Any "zombie population" would've perished, as we're talking about 'living' people, not your magic undead zombies. Then again it's not like a day or just a few days passed, as there would be more remnants and safe places left. Probably even if the Virus was as fast spreading as in the "28 XX later" universe. We can therefore theorize that some time passed. Not a bit, not too much. That leaves the question: What about the infected? I imagine they'd starve to death or succumb to this virus eventually. Or any other logical result of their condition or behavior. In short: No matter what kind of condition it is exactly, the problem will sort itself out over time.

It told me that games like that are fun, with both bad and good times. Besides, in general or "beyond" the virtual world? I dunno. At times I tend to imagine, even if just briefly, that my navigation / map reading skills increased a bit. Couldn't really put those to the test though.

#bringthehate

I suppose some people tend to "hype" some things and predict the end of the (game) world. From a realistic standpoint, anyone with the knowledge / will / tools can make some makeshift ghillie suit in no time. If you balance it out a bit so it won't be piss easy ingame (and therefore result in a wrong balance) then all is more or less well. As for the whole "Milsim" and panicking people: DayZ is still changing, and will change a lot. No one knows in what direction it will go precisely and we'll surely see some "nerfs" and tweaks but you HAVE to be honest here: This is not 321412 years after the collapse of civilization. It's, perhaps, within few years of the collapse of modern society with plenty of loot and objects from said society left mostly intact. That includes previously used military gear. In some aspects, DayZ is already a milsim. Again, as long as THE main focus is not on the mil and on the sim, it's more or less okay.

My advice or how I would do it: If I have the space and / or a mosin, a sidearm is mandatory. Since my focus lies on group play you can quickly arm a fellow soldier or some "non-suspicious" citizen / survivor / ally. If paired with a Mosin -> should explain itself. Other than that you never know when you might need one, even if the cases above don't seem to be "close" any time soon. It depends on many circumstances. For example you could just run out of ammo with your primary rifle. That armed sidearm you kept with 1-3 mags (or the amount of ammo equal to those) could be your last and vital backup. If you tend to be a loner / non-friendly you could technically ignore firarms and use the space you saved for more ammo for you primary, if you're talking about assault rifles. Then again, you can also always ditch your firearm later on until or as soon as you have enough ammo for the primary. In short: When in doubt, keep / get one.

There are surely pros and cons to this idea. But it's really simple in the end: If the Devs don't add it, do it yourself. If you cannot do it on your own, get some or the necessary manpower to do it. Or play a mod that has this as a game mechanic.

Moo! To victory!

2spooky4me There will be no escape.

More of a sidenote / a bit offtopic: God dammit, how can you establish a certain set of clothing if people even abuse that :D Still in favor that groups with friendly aspects or rather hero groups and so on favor UN gear in the game. The best "card" is still a name. If people know groups and can identify them (or they do it on their own) then that's a bigger or the biggest plus than any clothing or so on. Unless groups start picking uniforms.

It may sound stupid but it'd say: As soon as you join any server with any time setting that has even just one other player besides yourself, consider yourself the unlucky SOB to come close to the other(s). You could loot a big airfield on a 40 man server w/o problems during the day and be shot in the middle of nowhere (or at some rarer mil spawn) in the night with just 1-2 others on the server. Or maybe not be shot but at least encounter them somehow. Both cases, even if a bit extreme, based on personal experience and hearsay. I wouldn't necessarily say "looting" is easier during the night. Anything in the game is only easy if you're the only guy on the server, or if anyone else is allied / friendly. I do would say "moving around" is easier at night, however.

I guess I see it more relaxed than some others, to the point I don't really care. There's few, at best, points that bug me. My game experience is good enough so far and I know there's more to come. Free for me because I paid once in an early stage, so it can only get better - mostly. Things don't always just get added but also tweaked, the experience can change. I can say that the game is fun. I just started playing again after a break of a few months and it's rather refreshing. Don't like how it is right now? Take a break, play something else and come back later.

Ah yes, this reminds me of old December to Februrary (or even ongoing) rabbles n' semi-public conflicts with CQF and other groups or people. And a certain cocky behavior coming from those people. They usually lost in the long run, perhaps due to that. Shoutout to Becks and all "targeted" or other friendly groups being in engagements. I'm certain you can count on your allies if you need them, BP.

You mean...

Nice one :D

I'm glad for any known national or international Youtuber or Let's Player that inspires (or teaches) people another, less "simple" approach to this Game. But then again, I'm not so much for overglorification. It's not like he or any YTer "invented" being friendly or not, that just came with the game and the players naturally. Then again, I also don't really like endless "bashing". Yeah, well, he may have hacked (or not) but I'm guessing the days are long gone. And what he does off-camera is his thing. Considering that: Love it or leave it, I guess. As for being friendly in general: Consider the approach and how other people do it. Even as loner you can increase your survival chance in many encounters. But then again, the probably safest way to do that is in a group. You have an advantage then, and people are more inclined to NOT shoot randomly when facing a group where shooting at them would mean no chance of survival. There's several (big or even kinda giant) groups out there that encourage a friendly or neutral approach to the game.

G.R.E.E.N M.O.U.N.T.A.I.N B.L.A.C.K F.O.R.E.S.T Thank me later guys :D

Bug or Feature? :D Guize, this is for the new smuggler profession. Shhh!