Zeds_Undead_baby

Firstly DayZ needs PvP. PvP is what has given the players that unique emotional connection with the game and their character that other games do not deliver. The game could be solely focused on PvP but it also has the potential to also have elements of survival and crafting that could make it about PvP combined with other features. I've read with interest many useful (and some not so useful) discussions on PvP particularly relating to the amount of KoS current in this version of the alpha. I thought it would be interesting to see the results of a poll with three different approaches to PvP within the game. I haven't seen a poll like this for a while (certainly not since the release of the SA) so hopefully I'm not repeating what has already been done, just collating more concisely the many discussions on the topic. Feel free to add comments to better explain your opinion.

It's weird that you think the poll comes across as biased towards option 1 as my own personal opinion is actually option 3. If you take a look at the results you can see my vote. :-) I tried not to bias it towards my own personal opinion so maybe I pushed it towards option 1 (against my own view) too much in an attempt to give the poll balance. I think there are some different views on what PvP is. For me there are many types; KoS due to fear, KoS for griefing, and genuine banditry. I agree that several of these playstyles take no effort but there is a PvP play style that does take effort and thought that is listed in my previous sentence. Out of interest my play-style is usually as a lone wolf avoiding contact with others. If I do come across people who see me first I try to communicate and if they are aggressive I shoot to kill. If they are friendly then I leave them alone or help them. If I see them first I usually try to avoid them. I have on a few rare occasions killed another player when I had the drop on him and he had better gear than me. It is rare that I do this however and always feel bad afterwards. I agree any game with permadeath is going to give you this emotional connection to the character / gear. If there is no fear of death in the game (due either PvP or PvE) then that connection goes away. At the moment the fear of PvE is almost non-existent and so PvP is required (IMHO). If Zeds were more deadly then maybe PvP would be less important. As I've said in a previous post I'd like the emotional connection to be less about the gear and more about the character (maybe adding learned knowledge, skills would be a way to achieve this). As I've said on a few previous posts DayZ for me is about the consequences of your actions. At the moment the consequences for griefing and KoS due to fear are not significant enough and the balance of PvP hasn't quite been struck yet....

Needs to be an authentic consequence of the action though rather than a punishment from god....IMHO. :-)

Not punished but there should be consequences for everything you do in the game. Spawn killing is not authentic and there should be certain consequences that deter it... Killing for gear, food, self-defense, being a bandit etc should all have different consequences to the cold-blooded murder of someone who has no weapons and is not a threat. There should be a positive and negative side of every action you take in the game.

I think for me balancing PvP isn't about reducing the amount of PvP it is about altering the type of PvP to make the game more immersive. PvP is what gives DayZ it's intensity and paranoia. For me balancing PvP is about reducing the amount of player killing of fresh spawns for fun and increasing the about of interaction between established players. Whether that interaction ends in a gunfight or a new friendship is less important to me. What if acquiring gear wasn't the only thing you could pick up on your Chernarus travels. What if you could also acquire knowledge about the complexities of surviving in a zombie apocalypse (e.g. vehicle repair, medicine, hunting, crafting etc). What if this knowledge and skill was then a trade-able commodity (i.e. you could teach people). This way whilst killing people allowed you access to their gear (maybe in a damaged state) their knowledge would disappear at death. Maybe knowledge could be learned by finding certain books but also with practice at doing whatever task it is. In addition to knowledge being a trade-able commodity it would also mean that players value their life more and would be less likely to risk it killing fresh spawns. These sets of knowledge and skill could mean you are more efficient, faster or more accurate on doing certain things in the game. You could even be held up for someone to 'steal' your car repair skills. :-) For me DayZ is a sandbox and whilst certain play-styles should not be purposefully prevented every action in the game should have consequences. Do I take the beans or the ammo? Do I shot the guy or hide in a bush?

Think that this is kinda the point of having forums to discuss an alpha stage of the game isn't it?

I hope this isn't what it sounded like the poll was suggesting. IMHO DayZ should be a tough brutal game where getting player killed is very likely. It is this very fact that causes the tension in the game that sets it apart from others. I just feel that player killing should be for a authentic reason such as for resources, 'he is in my way' or 'I am concerned he will harm me'. I don't think it is authentic that the majority of people would murder people for a laugh. Some people would of course but this would be a small minority. From this point of view I agree that adding more, or more dangerous, Zeds will not likely reduce PvP and turn everyone into the Care-Bear appreciation society. But this isn't what the game needs anyway. It's my view that additional features that provide more to do will reduce the 'player killing for a laugh' mentality. It sounds like this is the approach the devs are taking so it will be interesting to see how to alters the game play. I think the psychology and sociology behind the way people play this game is really interesting. :-)

I've been up and down the west side of the map in the past few days and not seen anyone from Zelenogorsk up to the NWAF. Like you said the barrack doors were closed... I think the additional military spawns at Balota are keeping all the PvP down there.

I've also had not too bad an experience so far. Got attacked by a dude with a bat whilst looting a house on the coast. He struck first by stealth but my axe ended up in his head! :-) After that I headed north and met a couple of people on the way one of which even helped me out with a blood bag to correct the damage caused by the guy with the bat. Playing on a pretty full server but not really seeing anyone from the middle of the map and up.

I kinda agree with your point with respect to adding more zombies. Personally I think adding more to do other than player killing on the beach will help in changing attitudes though.

I agree I think the devs should have a go at balancing by adding other features first. Just adding stuff to stop or reduce a certain play style probably won't work in the way they expect. More to do and more danger from the environment/zombies will help balance PvP IMHO. PvP should be in the game but it should be geared up groups against other geared up groups or individuals fighting over resources rather than 'for fun'.

I tried searching for what I have been experiencing but without success so I thought I'd see if anyone else had observed this. After playing DayZ SA for a while (maybe an hour or so) I get what sounds like american radio adverts over DayZ audio. If I exit the server it continues until I exit the game. Pretty certain I've had this happen on several servers (all based in the UK). Anyone else had this or have any ideas of what might be causing it? Other than this, I'm enjoying the SA so far. The inventory system is much better and the number of enterable buildings makes a huge positive difference for me over the mod. Looking forward to new features being added through the year!

Ahh could have been. I did have a website open via the overlay but I didn't think it had any adverts on. Will try testing again with nothing in the overlay... Thanks for the feedback!

I like it, it's different and goes very well with the music. Too many boring, dull, running thro' a forest vids with the footsteps and clinking noise. Think I might look up Maduk on iTunes ;-)

I am still seeing this at Starey mil tents, seems worse than before (I didn't get close enough to them to see exactly what was causing it). A flush cleared it though. I definitely updated all files. Also vehicles are not saving properly, they change into other types or disappear completely on server restarts.

Ah right, some guy called Arcane shot at me in the dark and then AltF4'd when I shot back.

Is your ID the same in-game? Were you playing on UK 167 last night?

Given the fact that it's still in the alpha stage I find it pretty amazing that it works as well as it does to be honest. Also when the updates do cause issues they are normally fixed pretty quickly. An alpha test with over half a million players that works most of the time.....pretty good IMHO. I think people miss the point that its hear to be tested and not to be "played".