mrducky (DayZ)

I've been a solo survivor, I've been helping new players, and I've been a kill 'em all bandit.. Done all of that. And I really do see the why shoot on sight is so luring. Based on my experiences there are just so many reasons to just shoot the other players instead of trying to communicate with them: 1. A lot of armed players will try to shoot you. At least those players you've encountered at any close range. You may choose not to shoot at them, but that will most likely get you killed. Wanna bet on the less than 30% odds he really is friendly? Shooting him on sight gets you a 100% odd of you surviving. Not shooting gets you maybe a 30% chance of surviving and 70% chance of you dying, and the other guy getting off with your gear with no implications. 2. Players with hatchets are often either really trying to kill you or just acting like idiots. Have a hatcet - run directly at some other player with it - still, expecting not to get shot? Now, having some common sense and not running like a madman with a hatchet might have just saved the guy. 3. Unarmed players will still fuck you up. A lot of them will either shoot you in the back the moment they get a weapon or they will just use TS to help their friends to ambush you. They don't need a weapon to kill you. They only need their comms. So it's better to just kill them. You have no other in-game mechanism to fight the invisible comms they are wearing. 4. Also, do half of the unarmed players really have to try to get right behind you? And why? I'm sure it has nothing to do with your backpack... Once again, it would add the chances of not getting shot by not trying to pickpocket the extra weapon from the backpack. Or to have the common sense to understand that other player that does not really trust you to begin with, might take the "I'll just constantly try to run right behind him" as an attempt to grab stuff from the backpack, even if you really weren't trying to do that. 5. The desync... The Arma 2 engine / DayZ is just so damn buggy... It causes a problem because you cannot even rely on what you see the other guy doing on screen. A player with a hatchet? At a safe distance for a conversation? Hell no! He could be chopping off your legs as you speak. So... you still want to assume he's friendly? You know, when you suddenly hear your bones break, it is already clear he really wasn't really that friendly. Should have used your gun when you had the chance to shoot him from a distance. How about someone with a gun looking somewhere, and you get a jump on him from behind... Instead of shooting, want to use the element of surprise to communicate and tell him that you're aiming at him from behind and not to move? ... Now, you're forgetting about the fact that you're not really behind him. He's already aiming at you. You just think you're behind him. A mistake that gets corrected when you suddenly drop dead from the bullet to the head. Once again, you could have just shot on sight to possibly save yourself from the desync bugginess. 6. Connection breakages, random kicks, server reboots... All of these tend to screw up those few times you might actually temporarily coop with some random encounter. All of those few coop times I've had in this game (ones that did not end in getting backstabbed), ended to some of those. The breakages might not be a problem for any people who are cooping using TS/mumble/etc. as they can re-organize the group to another server when those issues occur, but with some random encounter, it's basically the end of the coop session. 7. Boredom. The game has weapons, weapons and more weapons... Got all the good stuff already? Good, now what. What are you going to use the weapons for. The zeds? You know they will just spawn back within a few minutes of getting killed. You might just as well just keep on dropping all of your ammo on the ground while running around. Shooting the zeds is equally useful. So, might just as well use the weapons for what they were made for - shooting other people. All in all. After the initial survival experience, there is little reason not to kill people on sight - Unless you want to complete the challenge of helping out a random noob without getting killed in the process.

I gotta say, I have no real idea how frustrating the game can be for a new spawn.. Back when I started playing it, everyone got the makarov at spawn, and even some beans, so it was just about finding a better gun... And after you learn the game (at which point it is much more boring), it usually takes about 30 - 60 minutes to gear up quite nicely.. Basically meaning that you'll be carrying an assault rifle, some pistol and an ALICE pack by that time + plus some other random items that you don't really even need. The initial surival part of the game was still the best it had to offer in my opinion (not using the loot maps and such that people always suggest). Back then the game still had some exploration to it, and every new weapon find still felt like an accomplishment. The game is pretty hardcore, so probably not all will like it. And it is by far the buggiest game I've ever played, so constant frustration due to that is guaranteed. Also, you will become frustrated with all the other players, who will shoot you on sight. Even if you are carrying no weapon... So yeah... Waiting for the game to actually get polished may be a sensible thing. The experience might be much better at that time. Then again, you can just embrace the crazy initial difficulty level and try to overcome it. Take it as a challenge. It is possible to overcome.

Well that was a long post, but makes sense. I agree, on general level at least (and no point in nitpicking about a few details). Have some beans.

A few notes for OP: First of all, the 4. issue - that is, lack of trust causing the KoS... You do realize that the trust issue is mainly a consequence of the other KoS issues? People don't start playing this game always assuming the worst. I did not start out shooting everyone on sight. And the noobs I've met in the game - they usually have been the most trusting / friendly players out there. People start shooting on sight after they have gotten shot too many times and they lose the trust to the other players. Naturally, once the trust has been lost, it starts spiraling the KoS even further. But it wasn't the seed for all of it. Although, I guess nowadays with a lot of talk about the KoS, etc. etc. - even many new players probably know that they will probably be shot on sight, and thus even the noobs might start out with a heavy mistrust toward others. So, you cannot solve the trust issue alone. As long as there will be excess killing for the other reasons (1. - 3.) as well, there will be little trust. Also, I guess it might even make sense to add a fifth reasons for the KoS / banditry. Which is the player's "feelings" in general towards the rest of the playerbase (this is quite closely related to the trust, but from a slightly different angle)... By this, I mean the frustration / anger towards constantly getting killed on sight by other players regardless of being friendly. When those experiences are far greater in number than any positive experiences, the player's view is skewed toward seeing the other encountered players mostly as dumbasses. And this shift of view enforces the idea that "It is ok to shoot the other player, because he's probably one of those f*cking dumbasses that would shoot me on sight". Basically, because the player cannot identify the other players (no more bandit skins), he just has to generalize all of the players in that "dumbass" group. And we all know it is totally okay to shoot at those dumbasses. So, we're not talking about only trust here... We're talking about the general perception and attitude towards the game's playerbase. Players having negative feelings towards the other players will certainly add to the KoS attitude. And as far as the actual side chat goes... Yeah, without it, the communication is pretty much crap. I understand the reason for getting rid of it, but until there are those radios/walkie-talkies or something else to patch up the gap, there will be little sensible communication occurring in the game between "random" people. So, I guess I would prefer having side chat over the current situation, but I don't really care at the moment... as now I'm back to hunting all the players along the coast I can find - and I don't really need any chat for that. The less chatter, the better - At least they cannot tell the other players the location where I'm on a murderous rampage.

I am pretty sure the bandit skins were not removed because of "accidents" happening in the first place. So this suggestion clearly would change nothing.

Truth be told. It is highly unlikely that you would meet any long term friendlies in the game. If you happen to find a new player, on one of his first plays, then he might actually not shoot you in the back. (Well some probably will, but at least its less likely.) All the other poorly geared players you might meet are mostly bandits that have just died and respawned, so they have every intention of shooting you in the back eventually, if not on sight. If you dare to temporarily team up with such a guy, you might want to plan a sudden escape without any prior warning to the other guy. (Assuming you don't just go bandit youself and shoot the other guy in the back). Frankly: - Most groups of players you meet in the game are hostile towards all other players (some might be neutral toward the unarmed ones, as in, not shooting you on sight if you keep proper distance, but not wanting you to join their group) - Some players and groups of players are just outright hostile toward anyone, they'll kill you even if you're unarmed There will always be exceptions, but those are unlikely. Either find a group of people here on the forums, or from friends IRL. And then play with them, or just assume a role of the solo player, which means: a ) You are a survivor by essentially avoiding all other players b ) You are a bandit by seeking out and just killing all the other players you find And indeed, you are doing the right thing by throwing away any trust to other players in this game. If you want to stay alive. Most players in the game are not trustworthy.

The hospital windows are bugged. Break at random amount of hits / may desync for different clients. The tin cans won't break then any more surely than bullets, etc. Hatchet is the sure bet to eventually get them broken, because it won't run out of ammo. Also, grenades seem to have worked for me every time :P

Depends... Currently I'm considering uninstalling the game.. Having clocked way too many hours of playing it already and starting to get bored. I probably will wait to see the exact standalone features / quality and most of all - how the game mechanics have evolved (in other words, is it going to be just another deathmatch), and then decide.

True. If you define difficulty as how difficult it will be to stay alive when encountering another player. Then it pretty much goes like you listed. - Alt+F4 guys rarely die. See someone threatening? Just hit the buttons and disappear. - Bandits have it quite easy, just aim for the head and pull the trigger. All done. You are alive, the other guy isn't. You even got some phat lewt without having to scavenge. - Survivors are in quite deep shit. Can't just shoot the guy for no reason. And when he gives the reason, you might already be dead or at least bleeding badly. - The guys trying to help others.. Just good luck with that. Make a misjudgement and help the wrong guy, end up with a mag worth of bullets at the back of your head. Even if you judged the guy correctly, and he's a truly friendly noob... The noob will slow you down, dumb your actions down, affect your concentration to environment, and outright do stupid stuff that reveals your position to every bandit around. So yeah, it is a difficulty selection for the encounters. If you speak about difficulty in terms of total survival time, then things might be different.. In that case, doing banditry at coastal cities/NWA can be challenging compared to just living at some small town and getting bored there.

Not to poke holes in that but... "solve the random killing" and "Alot of bandits will go back to robbing." is kinda contradictory... You see... the bandits are the ones causing the random killing. So it should be: Get a lot of bandits to go back to robbing, instead of killing. Solved the random killing. :lol:

The zeds are probably pretty bad for the noobs, but nothing more than a nuicance for the experienced... And a misfeature for easily detecting people in towns/cities. You cannot really use stealth while exploring the towns, every damn player around knows that you are there, which is ridiculous. It should be possible to stay hidden inside a town. This current misfeature just adds even more to players scoping around at the treelines near towns. The zeds should be harder, but ONLY at north or military loot locations to make the game have more dynamic map area based difficulty, thus allowing the game to be playable for both noobs and pros. Basically: - For noobs: Stay at south coast / small towns where zeds are like they are at the moment. Learn the basics there. Don't just run off to the NWA/Stary/Crash sites/etc., there are both bandits and much more deadly zeds there - For pros: Feel free to go to the military targets, but be prepared for massively more difficult (and numerous?) zeds. The suggestion about zeds that could hit you while running might do the trick. No more take a few steps back and shoot the hitting zed with ease tactic. You would actually have to shoot at them while they are charging at you from the distance. And making the mil zeds take several shots to the body due to armor, thus making headshots to them would be even more important. For extreme difficulty, those zeds might even start causing the leg breaks at the extra high probability they did have at the rather broken 1.7.1.something. Or something like that. If these more difficult zeds would be only at specific locations, it would be totally up to the players to choose if the want to risk it with them. There would be no reason for anyone to complain that "They are too difficult!" - Just don't f***ing go the deadly zed zones if you can't handle them.

It is damn difficult not to murder in the game. Or well, its is not really difficult... It is easy not to shoot. It is just mainly stupid if you want to survive or you want to have any long lasting fun in the game. There really often is no other sensible way to survive (other than hiding in forests and loot the small towns shooting zombies - and I can tell you it can get boring real fast. The zeds are just an annoyance, not a threat). Even the unarmed players... As unfortunate as it is, they are more often actually hostile than friendly. Unless the guy is a real noob, he's probably a respawned bandit of some group of players and will be constantly reporting your position and weaponry to his friends over TS/mumble/skype/whatever. He may not be able to directly attack you without a weapon, but he's still indirectly working to kill you. So the unarmed players are your enemy just as likely as the armed ones. Their means of hostility are just different. All in all, if you want to survive - you should be ready to murder and shoot even the unarmed. If you want to stick to a principle of not shooting others unless shot at, etc. - then fine, but expect to have a game experience where your life is shorter and you will be the one doing the dying. Alternatively you can live a longer but boring life by completely avoiding all other players and surving that way. It's your call. Whatever you do, always expect all other players to be hostile, particularly any groups. Because apart from the noobs, players in this game are mostly hostile. During the last month or so, I don't remember encountering another high end geared player, that would have actually been friendly. The only friendlies I have encountered were ones that were unarmed or had only a hatchet. But even from those guys, I'd say around 25% were clearly hostile. (And that's quite a lot, considering that those guys were pretty much being forced by the game NOT to be openly hostile.)... Yet, 2 hatchet guys just had to try to take a swing at me, failing at it, 2 unarmed guys just had to try to run behind me to grab stuff from my backpack despite numerous attempts to move away, 1 started to shoot at other unarmed guys the moment he found a gun, and 1 instructed his friends over external comms to ambush me, and thus actually managed to kill me. How hostile the rest of the maybe 75% unarmed/hatchet encounters would have really been, had they actually found a gun, while I was still there... I'll never know... I can only assume that probably half of them would have used the first chance they got to shoot me in the back. And none of this hostility from the unarmed/hatchet guys was due to them thinking that I'm hostile. Obviously, if I had been hostile with my gun, then they had been dead. I would not have bothered to try to communicate with them (to which, several opted never to respond). So, I guess most unarmed guys are just bandits respawned. Probably would make most sense to just shoot them on sight.

About the bandits... Do you really think there are many bandits around that shoot you truly for your gear only, rather than mostly for the fun and excitement of it? You think they don't already have a bunch of DMRs, NVGs, and whatnot stored in their tent cities? Need a few more maybe? Really? Or could they be hungry? Maybe they need beans? Right, sure... They can acquire the high end military loot with no problem, but aren't able to acquire cans of food, so they kill to get that? Sure thing. What sets them apart from the "scumbags"? The fact that they probably have tents and are part of a bandit group, so they don't really have to start from zero when they die, unlike the so called solo scumbags. And thus, they also generally have better gear, and unless they have just recently died, this means they are more careful with their life and precious loot. Watch one of those so called bandits die, and right after he respawns, you would not notice the difference between the bandit, and the scumbag. They both grab the lee enfield they come across, they both use it to shoot every player they come across indiscriminately and take whatever there is worth taking on them (if they bother to take the risk to actually loot the body). I don't believe there are many true bandits around anymore, ones that would only kill for the loot and to survive... If there even ever were such. And if there are, the differences between being a bandit and being a scumbag are just some shades of gray.

Obviously locking servers if its done to loot is just plain cheating... Yet... Unless it's for hoarding vehicles, I don't really see why bother with the server locking. Considering that, for example, right now with a new arma beta version being out again - and apparently backwards incompatible - there are dozens of unlocked public servers that have maybe one player playing on them. It's not like the clan could not just join on one of those to loot in relative safeness. They would probably scare the lone looter off the server just by joining in. Of course, then they would have to run around on foot to loot that server, rather than use their vehicles, so I guess that's why they don't bother. I dunno. Just seems stupid why anyone would bother with such a cheat when basically empty servers are available for totally legit care-free looting. But maybe people are just really that lazy.

One thing that wonders me about being friendly... Is that is the direct comm just randomly broken, or don't half of the people know how to use it. I've used the direct text chat on numerous occasions to try to communicate to a person, at quite close range too. And nearly half of the time people just don't answer at all. So I've shot a few who had guns because of that (because I assume they are hostile). If I clearly say out who I'm talking to... Like "hey you on the roof". And then ask him if he is friendly... And nothing... Even when I say that "I consider having no answer meaning not friendly.". Nothing. At that point I generally proceed to try to shoot the guy before he gets the chance to surprise me, because at that point, I consider him a bandit who just does not want to reveal his name or just does not want to have lie that he is a friendly. Now, it it possible that the direct chat is just broken. Or the guy is totally not paying attention to the text on the screen. (but seriously, there is not that much spam on the screen anymore, so he should be able to see it). Or he does not know how to use the chat. But all of those are issues that I cannot affect. I'll have to go with the assumption that the chat works as intended, as it seems to work most of the time. And if he does not understand english, then shouldn't he just say something in his own language to indicate that he hears me, but speaks only in a different language. Or maybe the guys just got spooked and thought it was better to run off to safety than try communicate back, perhaps thinking I'm hostile. But now... Why? If someone asks if you are friendly, and indicates that he knows your position (thus making sure it is not a trick to make you reveal your position), why would you decide not to answer. The only thing you can lose is your anonymity. And the only reason to protect that is if you are hostile. And a player that does not wish to communicate back, cannot really claim that he is playing the game for the human interaction and the PvP is ruining that, since he is actively choosing to avoid communication. Thus, I'm not ruining his game experience by shooting him. So, in addition to getting shot on sight before the possibility of communication, even when there is communication, it seems to be difficult. This is why I now just try to deal with unarmed/hatchet wielding guys. Avoid the ones with any gun. (Because it's either that, or just shooting them on sight.)

1. Ghillie has one disadvantage. It makes very clear that you're a sniper who likes to lurk around in the bushes. Essentially, that marks that you are most likely a sniping bandit, at least in my mind. It is only useful is you truly are prone somewhere, sniping - not when scavenging the cities, etc. Thus, I try to shoot every ghillie suited guy I see (Its a marker of a likely hostile player, like the old bandit skins). Whereas for the civilian clothed people, I might actually sometimes assume they are friendly and don't shoot on sight. I'm not sure as to how many other players really treat the clothing as any kind of cue of the person, but I might assume that many associate a player in a ghillie as less likely to be friendly than one wearing civilian clothes. So ghillie ain't your elektro market shopping clothing or for making friends. That does not mean that it should not give a clear advantage over other clothing when used in the correct environment. As it should. It would make sense to have a little bit of downsides too, like more heat buildup on a sunny day causing you to get thirsty / get exhausted faster, etc. But for any kind of realism, these differences should probably be so miniscule that their effect on ghillie usage would be irrelevant. Snipers would still use them. 2. Never had one myself. Can't comment. 3. Yes, excess of these totally change the balance at night time servers. It is currently quite suicidal to play on a pitch black night time server if you don't have one, which is a pity because the night time play can be really atmospheric. (Full moon night time is a different thing, because it does not require the use of any light sources, just maxing out the gamma. So it's not really fully "night time" gameplay-wise.) If it weren't a suicide to turn on the flashlight at night due to NVGs people might actually start playing on those servers again. (I mean other players than those using night to loot the NWA or snipe the few flashlight noobs at coast) 4. Like with all the other high end gear... I don't really believe the issue is that these weapons exist in the game world and that they are highly powered compared to other weapons... The problem is that the amount of this stuff probably keeps building up in the game. And they might be coming more of a standard issue rather than the really rare weaponry they should be. (Still, yes, it would be sensible/realistic that these weapons slow down movement / take more space.) And I have no idea as to how to really make the rare items stay rare without some artificial mechanics. If more of them keep on spawning, and people hoarding them to tents and vehicles, then... How can you prevent them from becoming more and more common? Either by ensuring that the playerbase grows fast enough to offset the loot buildup (non-viable option in long term) - or by ensuring that the loot somehow starts to end up destroyed once a certain amount has been reached in the game world. You know, there is a reason why most of the MMOs have an exponential level-up pricing logic, and certain mechanisms that work as spawns and sinks for the collected stuff. That is how you build up a working economy of things, so that it reaches a certain desired stable state. Not by just just changing the spawn rates alone, that just speeds up or slows down the eventual build-up. And please don't reply that "go back to WoW", I don't play that game. I'm just stating that the other game devs are not putting those features in, just because they would be stupid or randomly ending up doing so - It's because there are reasons of general economics behind them.

Yeah, are a few kind of interactions (other than shooting) to be found in the game: A ) Join a clan for some fun looting and pillaging in a group. - Note, that most are essentially bandit clans, even if the might not really consider themselves as such. Because most of them do shoot people if they are a "threat" to their group - which essentially means everyone having a gun or even a sharp stick. You won't really be playing friendly towards any random encouters in this mode. B ) Especially right after spawn / if you are new to the game... Try to find another poorly equipped solo player, possibly one with also no gun or just a hatchet. Assume most groups of players hostile, unless they are clearly new players. - There is a risk that you'll just get killed on sight, or that the guy betrays you after a while when you find some good loot, but at least there is a chance of a temporary co-operation, and it may even end up so that both of you stay alive. Usually you should not assume that these temporary coop sessions with random people to last for long. C ) Just keep playing solo, and once you got enough experience to know the game in and out. Go to the coast, and instead of sniping the unarmed players there, keep observing them from a distance. (Note, this will be extremely boring and requires patience. You can't just go to cherno/elektro where you'll surely find people - you know how that ends up). - This monitoring tactic will probably give you a clue if the guy is a new player or a pro. Consider new players to be more likely to be friendly than the pro players. The pro players are likely to be just bandits who got just killed and respawned. If you see the unarmed/poorly armed guy have some encouter with another player, pay attention to what happens. If it turns into a shootout between the players, be prepared to take out the bad guy. Now you've just learned which one of the guys was the more friendly one. If he lived through the ordeal, your help will probably be appreaciated and that guy you saved knows he can probably trust you not to kill him.This won't guarantee that you can trust him, but it's a start. It helps when at least one of you isn't thinking if he should shoot the other asap. Obviously if you opt for the C ) choice, you'll essentially be playing the game "through" as solo. And then after that you'll just be mostly helping out the new guys. You won't really gain anything yourself in the game anymore at that point. The new players are not really of any help to you - you would survive better alone - they just add your risks of getting exposed and shot by a bandit. You are doing it for the fun, not to survive. Assuming the game mechanics don't change radically, once all of the new guys (who flocked in by the hype) eventually get experience in the game or just leave it, I doubt there will be much more left in the game than some established clans/groups fighting for the dominance of the loot spots. You can forget about any friendly random encounters at that point.

Yeah, that bug seemed to start happening the same time the zeds started to get frozen when people died/disconnected near them. I'm guessing it might be somehow related. Anyway, sometimes it just seems to be outright broken... but a lot of times, it still does work even though it intially does not seem to. You just may have to wait for a minute or so... Also, I've noticed a few times that when I change between my primary weapon and the side arm, it may suddenly start showing the meat in the animal. I'm not sure if that is just luck with the timing or if the weapon you're equipping actually is relevant.

I did try to do a good deed two days ago... It didn't quite go as planned... I saw an unarmed guy running out of kamyshovo, bleeding and, having some 10 zeds on his tail. Since I was there on the hillside, decided to help the man out by shooting some zeds when he was running past me. I take the first shot at a zed... And umm... The guy apparently got spooked by the shot, because immediately he turns 180 - and straight into the horde of zeds. The zeds drop him unconscious almost instantly. ...Damn. That wasn't the plan. At that point I already knew there was no way I could shoot all of the approximately 10 zeds in time before he would be finished. I couldn't just spam there or I'd just end up finishing him off accidentally and just waste ammo (even though it might have been more merciful)... So I take aim and shoot one zed.. shoot another... And when I shoot the third, I see the message say the guy is killed. He's gone, but just to have some decency for the dead, I shoot 2 more zeds that are crouched over the body. The rest just stay idling around him. I really just tried to help. I didn't mean to spook the guy to go and get killed by the zeds. Sometimes trying to help someone can be just damn difficult. :D Well, to make up, today I managed to save some 2 guys equipped with nothing but flashlights from a bandit that started shooting at them. The bandit had not noticed that I was standing there in the darkness less than 50 meters right behind him - he was apparently so lured in by the other guys' flashlights. After giving the bandit a few well earned shots to the back, I lurked around for a while, later to see one of the flashlight guys getting chewed by a zed while the other could do nothing but stand by and point the flashlight at the scene of horror. Popped a few rounds to the zed to save the guy. Then went and gave him a blood transfusion because he apparently had a few hundred health left and kept going unconscious. After that, I went back to lurking around in the darkness and had some fun shooting the zeds from around them as they moved on. It was fun while it lasted, but unfortunately ended by the server doing some sudden mystery kick for several players. Much more fun helping around - or at least trying and sometimes causing just the opposite - than it is to just collect beans and get bored at the small villages. I'll just try to keep my helping limited to the unarmed ones.. The guys with the guns, I don't trust them enough to help them - I know how that would end.

If you are desperate for food or drinks, just start killing the zeds. Some of them occasionally carry cans of food. And sodas. At least if you happen to have a makarov, its excellent for that. Its quiet enough. Just go for the headshots. Pick the zeds so that there aren't too many close by for you to aggro. Then check the dead zed bodies. One makarov clip gets you 8 zeds at best, there is a good chance of finding some food on one of them. Thus, you can exchange some of your bullets to food and drinks. (Go for the farmer looking zeds, not the suit guys when trying to find food) Some words of caution to this food gathering approach: - You obviously need gun and enough bullets to do this. (Or else you need to risk it with the hatchet, which usually costs you blood) - Its not usually a sensible approach to get blood. You probably lose more blood than you regain from the food gained, as any zed that manages to hit you basically is a bigger setback than the (unlikely) gain of a can of food. - Bandits might hear you shooting. Or... You could try to risk it by trying to meet up with some experienced player to help you out..The problem with that is obviously that they'll probably just shoot you instead. :D

Yup. Any fresh respawn is best started by going to cherno/elektro or balota. Whichever happens to be closest. - Nothing to lose. So if someone just shoots ya, big deal. - And usually, once you know what you are doing, you're not even gonna get shot, but rather just get stocked up on the gear fast. - And the cities actually are the safest places from sniper fire - lots of buildings to give you cover unlike in the small towns, etc. (As long as you understand to stay behind said cover!) All of this PvP/deathmatch doesn't really bother me so much anymore... I mean, yeah, it would be nice to have some other kind of coop experiences, interesting encouters and all that in the game, but I've played the game enough already. Just hanging around until I get bored. I couldn't care much less if someone shoots me in the game. A fresh respawn just means something to do again, having something to loot. ...The only thing I think is unfortunate in all of this, are the new players that stumble in the game expecting something else and then get stuck in the middle of the PvP deathmatch going on. They'll be missing a lot of the game's potential and atmosphere. (Like the night time play, using flares and all that which used to be kinda fun, but nowadays, I think playing at night time servers without NVGs is going to be mostly suicidal.) But I guess my view on this might not really be correct - I can't really place myself in the position of a new player anymore.

Yeah, the hospital glasses are bugged from time to time. There is no point in wasting bullets to them, as you can never know if they break on first shot or require all of your ammo and still wont break. And throwing the tin cans really is pretty much as unreliable as the bullets. Use the hatchet, it may take some 50 swings to break, but it usually breaks eventually. May want to try at different locations of the glass if it does not break at once. And the grenades always have done the trick for me. :P And sometimes the glasses do desync. So another player can just walk in through the broken glass while it is still seems intact for the other.

I'm getting kicked from every server today because "Battleye client is not responding". I have made no changes/updates in a few days, so it seems to have broken by itself. Manual download and update of the battleye client dll changed nothing for me. So I guess I'll just wait and try again in a day or two.

Yeah, I have no idea about how to configure Arma 2 to use a controller, but honestly, just considering the number of keyboard keys it essentially requires and how akward the gear menu is even when using the keyboard + mouse... I would really recommend first just trying the keyboard+mouse controls. After that seriously considering if its seems viable to even try to map those to a gamepad or such. If it still seems like a good idea, then look into xpadder (or some other keyboard+mouse emulation software) as already suggested.

The new starts with fresh respawns are always the most interesting ones. :) Yesterday, I died when a nasty rock decided to bite my legs off. So, there went the NVG, GPS, FN FAL with NV, and all that other useless high end crap. For a moment I though I would just hit the respawn button until I spawned near my gear and then re-retrieve them, but then I thought the game is much more fun with less stuff anyway, because you can go meet new people without having to worry about losing your high end gear. So I didn't press the respawn. And that was a good call because it ended up being one of the most hilarious encounters at cherno... I head for the apartment buildings to stock up when I see a guy who comes running at me and constantly keeps yelling friendly in the voice... I'm not really convinced that he is all that friendly, so I just run off up the stairs of the building.. I hear the guy following. Keeps on yelling friendly over and over in the voice. At the top floor of the building I turn to wait in one of the rooms. The guy comes up with his winny aimed at me and just keeps on repeating friendly. I don't want to start a shooting (had found a PDW at balota before running to cherno) so I just keep dodging left and right while waiting for his move. All of the sudden the guy pauses repeating friendly for a while and I can hear him say "I can't get an aim"... As if he intended to say that to his friend over some other comm but screwed it up. :D I take off and run a circle across the apartment building rooms, running down the stairs from behind him. I hear him following. Outside, immediately I aggro a few zeds.. I run around the apartment building a few times, and then away. The guy seems to have lost me in all of this running around circus. From further away I see him go back into the building. I think "if he really was that friendly, then there should be no problem if I still go check out the apartment building closest to me". So I run and go in. Quickly check the place and find a winny. As I intend to go down, I hear someone at the stairs... And sure enough, the same "friendly" guy is crouching up the stairs. But this time he isn't saying anything. I figure he saw me come in the building and was now trying to sneak in to finish the job he failed at earlier, so I just pop one shot at him with my new shiny winny. He goes down. And I don't leave anyone suffering so I move to finish him with a another shot. Just as I shoot him I can hear him say in a sad voice something like "Oh dude ..." and trying to say something more but I can't make it out as the voice fades off as he dies. Did I feel bad for the guy? No. I think he was a bandit just trying to troll people by repeating friendly and then shooting them at close range. Or maybe he truly was that desperate for a friend. (In that case, sorry about the shot.) ...But even so, I don't really feel bad. If someone really wants to make a friend, then he should have enough common sense not to have a gun pulled out and run after someone who is trying to run away... That ain't the way you make friends, dude! And even more importantly... not to screw up with his comms and tell his target that he's failing to get an aim at him. lol. :P And as a happy ending for me.. After this and even after quickly dashing through elektro and having another brief tense but friendly encounter there, I got back to my body and it was still there with all of my previous gear. You just don't experience these kinda encounters while sneaking around the woods with your high end gear. Fresh respawns at the coast are always the best. :) I guess I should find another bug to kill me, so I could go have a bit more fun again.