MillionGunman

I beg to differ. It makes no sense for players to communicate with each other from across the map. That being said, the fact that no means of communication has been implemented to fill the void created by the removal of global chat is lamentable. Here are some methods players could use to communicate with each other in-game: 1. Walkie-talkies This has already been suggested a number of times, so I won't go into much detail, but suffice it to say that the range should be limited and there should be different frequencies from which to choose. Walkie-talkies would need batteries to work. 2. Radio transmitters Transmitters would be found in radio stations, military camps, police stations, etc. The signals could be picked up by portable radio receivers, vehicles equipped with radios and communications equipment in buildings such as those mentioned above. Transmitters would need a working generator to function. 3. Letters Players could write letters and give them to someone willing to act as a courier. Of course, this would require players to have a permanent user name and/or address within the game, but some day it may become possible to use vacant houses as homes. 4. Telephones If players were able to restore phone service within the game, we would have another important form of communication, if you can find working generators to keep the cell phone towers and landline services running. 5. Pole-mounted speakers These could be found scattered around cities and towns, some in need of repair, with players able to broadcast live or pre-recorded messages to anyone within earshot. 6. Megaphones This would give you the ability to call out to other players over large distances and reduce the risk of giving away your exact position. 7. Yelling Similar to megaphones, but less effective, this would make your voice carry over greater distances and make it harder for players to pinpoint your location. 8. Car-mounted megaphones Players could drive around Chernarus broadcasting live or pre-recorded messages to players who have no means to receive communications. 9. News board Here would go news and statistics (as reported by players), such as reports of murders, deaths, raids and other important developments. 10. Bulletin board For everything else, there would be the bulletin board. Wanted notices, requests for help, missed connections, announcements, etc.

A good compromise might be to add a greater variety of melee weapons (golf clubs, meat cleavers, baseball bats, fireplace pokers, etc.) and make them spawn in more places. Some weapons could even double as tools (using the poker to keep fires going, for example). EDIT: And if a random loadout system was implemented, you would have the chance to spawn with a weapon.

I'm fairly sure I understood your proposal, I'm just wondering why players should be allowed to respawn with a new loadout after one hour. Why not make it so that they can only get a new loadout if they die (and by this I mean any death that is not caused by clicking the respawn button)? That would effectively make it impossible to abuse a random loadout feature, unless you purposefully aggro zombies or goad a player into killing you. EDIT: If all else fails, you could remove the respawn option, but I don't suppose people would enjoy getting stuck in a glitch or spawning in debug plains without the ability to respawn.

Also a good idea, and you wouldn't be able to respawn after an hour has passed if you needed a weapon to do so, although I have to wonder why you suggested a time limit. Why not make it impossible to respawn with a different loadout, no matter how much time has passed (unless you're dead, of course)?

I too think that players should try to team up in-game rather than on the forum or in chat rooms. Admittedly, I've only managed to team up with three or four survivors since I started playing DayZ, and none of those partnerships lasted very long, due to zombies and hostile players, but I think this is something that will become easier over time, especially if rocket makes more buildings accessible and allows us to use them as bases and trading posts.

Change it in the Keyboard settings? For me its on K. Do you have to double tap K to lower your weapon as well? I understand that it would be too easy to accidentally lower your weapon if you were only required to tap once, but I find double tapping to be a poor alternative, hence my suggestion to hold a key rather than double tap it to lower your weapon. Another problem with the ability to raise and lower your weapon at will is that whenever I'm in the kneeling position and my weapon is lowered, double tapping Ctrl causes my character to stand up and then raise his weapon, thus exposing me to nearby players and zeds. I don't know if this is a problem with ArmA II or DayZ, but it's something that should be looked at.

I think it would be better to randomize the loadout for every player, since not everybody would be prepared in the event of a zombie apocalypse. You could start with absolutely nothing, not even a backpack, or, if you're lucky, a firearm, ammo, some food and a water bottle or two. To prevent abuse, you would need to be in possession of a weapon and some ammunition, if applicable, to respawn (commit suicide).

I support this idea. Some zombies should be found wandering in the wild, actively looking for their next meal, while others should remain in and around formerly populated areas, waiting for people to pass through, as in The Walking Dead. Additionally, there should be zombies who can be found lying on the ground or leaning against walls, lacking the will or capacity to go after players (or waiting until they get close enough to attack). Having different behaviour patterns for zombies would also make them less predictable, making the experience much more realistic and terrifying.

Double tapping the Ctrl button doesn't work with every firearm, and even if that were not the case, it still wouldn't be an ideal solution. Just the other day, I accidentally shot a tree with a Makarov (which can't be lowered) while trying to put some distance between myself and a barn I had just looted. Fortunately, the sound didn't attract nearby zombies, but others may not have been so lucky. Allowing pistols to be lowered would make this less of an issue, but there are times when I want to keep my gun at the ready without being able to fire, which you can't do with your gun at your side. P.S. I also think lowering your weapon should be achieved by holding F rather than double tapping Ctrl.

Your safety is not your finger, nor should it have to be. Placing your finger on the left mouse button is like placing your finger on the trigger. It's something you instinctively do when using a mouse. You can train yourself to avoid doing that, but it wouldn't hurt to have an added precaution, especially in DayZ.

If newly-spawned players were terrible shots, the average life span would likely become longer, since fewer survivors would dare to shoot at players who might have a better mastery of firearms than they do.

Having spent a little over 70 hours playing DayZ, according to my ArmA II statistics, I feel the need to make some suggestions that, in my opinion, would make this mod much, much better. I plan to put forth all sorts of suggestions regarding the different aspects of DayZ in the near future, but for now I will focus on ways to improve the spawning system. 1. My first suggestion is to make it so that players can spawn almost anywhere on the map. It's very unrealistic for every single person to wake up on the coast at the start of the zombie apocalypse, but it also makes a significant difference gameplay-wise. With every player spawning on the coast, there appears to be a much greater concentration of people in the coastal cities and villages than in the areas to the north. I typically run into a least two or three players per session while exploring the coast, but during my first trip to the north, which took several hours and multiple play sessions, I only saw two other survivors, and the server was filled to the brim with players. If spawn points were set up all over the map, it would also become more difficult for bandits to predict where newly-spawned players will appear, thus discouraging some of them from camping spawns and picking off survivors on arrival. There should still be some restrictions regarding spawn locations, however. It would make more sense to have players spawn in places such as barns, deer stands and empty buildings, some distance away from nearby zombies and players. Places one would seek in the event of a zombie apocalypse, or where someone would be if they had no idea that the world had come to an end. Castles, barns, deer stands, churches, military installations, hospitals, etc. Perhaps there could even be basements and underground shelters for players to spawn in. Imagine spawning in such a place, opening the door and seeing what's become of the world. It could be as chilling and awe-inspiring as seeing the devastation caused by the nuclear holocaust upon exiting the vault in Fallout 3. 2. My second suggestion is in regards to players' initial loadout and appearance. Your starting gear, abilities, clothing and physical appearance should vary to some degree depending on where you spawn. For example, if you spawn in a deer stand, your character could have a hunter's outfit, a backpack, a hunting rifle, binoculars and other things that one would bring on a hunting trip, with your gear randomized to some degree so that hunters don't spawn with the exact same loadout every time. Still others could spawn with nothing (no backpack, bandages, flashlight or painkillers), having to scrounge for food, water and weapons much like we do now. Some characters could spawn with torn and/or bloody clothing, suggesting that they've been through Hell and back before you took over. I would also like to see skin tones and voices being chosen randomly for you when you spawn, instead of letting the player make such choices. You should be assigned certain strengths and weaknesses based on your starting location and character, such as the ability to give blood transfusions (something that should only be available to army or civilian doctors), proficiency (or lack thereof) with specific firearms (less barrel wander, ability to reload quickly), the ability to survive without food and water for longer periods of time, etc. You should also be able to train others in your area of expertise, with some characters being unable to learn certain things, lest Chernarus be overrun by doctors and marksmen. This would go some way towards alleviating the KOS problem, since it would make players less eager to kill survivors whose knowledge and skills could be valuable to them. Well, this is all I could come up with at the moment. I may update this post if I get any other ideas. Thoughts?

I agree with your suggestion to make abilities available to every player, given proper instruction and practice, but in some situations, it might become necessary to teach another player how to do something relatively complex in a hurry. For example, you've been gravely wounded and you're losing blood at an alarming rate. There's a fellow survivor at your side. This player has no idea what to do. You have the knowledge and skills required to perform a blood transfusion, but not on yourself. Being that you're a doctor, you could walk the aforementioned player through the procedure, making his chances of success slightly higher than if he had performed the task on a player with no medical background. If the player is not used to seeing blood, he could run the risk of fainting during the procedure, not unlike the scene in which Hurley faints during an operation on a dying patient in the TV show Lost.

I find some of the suggestions you posted to be perfectly reasonable, even desirable. They might ruin the game for you, but I would be glad to see some of these features added to DayZ.

If you were required to be in possession of a weapon (gun + ammo or melee weapon) to respawn, then people who spawn with no weapon would not be able to kill themselves for a better loadout.