I think we can all agree that there is simply too much murder right now. There's no incentive not to kill. We've tried bandit skins, getting rid of global chat...All of these are very gamey solutions. And none of them have worked. Here's what I'm proposing, Rocket and team. Rather than come up with some mechanic to help out one side or the other, or do some kind of balancing act...Do something different. The reason we don't work together is because we can survive alone. The reason we shoot on sight is because we have nothing to gain from teaming up. So let's set the world on fire. Let's watch it burn. Let us feel fear; That same fear we all felt when our boots first landed on the shores of Chernarus. Let's Make DayZ a Living Nightmare. ----------- You already start with next to nothing. Good. That sets the table. Canned Food is scarce. Canteens are as precious as gold.Weapons are a luxury, and ammo doesn't last long. Finding the tools you need to start a fire and cook a meal? Good luck. And if you don't find food or water, both of which are incredibly scarce? Enjoy dehydration, or starvation. You won't just die from some ticking blood bar. Your vision will blur, you'll be tortured by the sounds of your stomach aching for food. You'll barely be able to keep crawling forward. You'll pass out from exhaustion, and die curled up on the ground, without so much as a whimper. The Zeds are more numerous. They prowl the streets of cities in packs, and must be avoided if you hope to survive. The Zombies have begun to migrate to forests, and herds of them roam the countryside. Nowhere is safe from the infected, and their numbers continue to grow. Areas that have been densely populated with infected for a long period of time are now more difficult to breathe in. Death stinks the air, and if you spend too much time there, you might get sick. You'll cough if you don't have a surgical mask, or at least a scarf to wrap around your nose and mouth. And what of your injuries? That scratch could get infected if left untreated. You'll need sterilization materials, such as rubbing alcohol or peroxide. That last bout with the Infected didn't break your leg, but you sure as hell can't run on it. Maybe you got lucky and it hit your arm instead. Can't use your primary with only one good arm. Morphine isn't going to heal those broken bones of yours...Only give you the ability to walk on it for a period of time. And if you keep using Morphine? Well, you'll become addicted. Then you'll need it if you don't want the shakes, hallucinations, and sickness. The environment is unforgiving and harsh. The coast is plagued with deep fogs, and ripping coastal winds that chill you to the bone. If you manage to make it off the coast, beware the sun. Running too long in the sun can cause heat stroke and exhaustion. If you take refuge in the mountains, be prepared for a drop in temperature, and cold wet nights. Further north, expect cloudy skies and torrential rain which chills you if left unchecked. You're only one human being against a world that is designed to kill you. So how do you survive? You MUST cooperate. Maybe that scarce can of beans, or that canteen of water, can satiate 2 people rather than one. Maybe a pair of eyes covering your six increases your chances of survival when scavenging in an infested city. Maybe when you can't walk on your leg, a friend could take you on their shoulder so you can walk again. Maybe someone could set and splint that broken leg of yours. Maybe someone can bring that fever down by tending to you while you're sick and unable to take care of yourself. Maybe being within close proximity to others makes you share body heat when the temperature drops. Maybe that other person has the matches, and you've got the hatchet. Maybe, when the world is a living hell...Other people are your only hope to survive. It's just a thought...But I think it's the only way to keep DayZ from becoming Deathmatch + Zombies. P.S. Might I remind everyone that this is ALPHA, and this is exactly the time when we should be trying insane, crazy stuff like this. You don't get that chance when a game is released, or even in Beta stage. We should be doing this NOW, just to see how it works. Edit: Perfect description as to why bandits should love these changes...Written by a bandit:

Hell yeah I remember it. My friends had just picked up Arma II after I wouldn't stop raving about the mod. We all grouped up and I still didn't know exactly where we were, and I didn't know much of the map at that point. We had thought we were going north, but it turns out we were back near the coast somewhere. We suddenly see this random guy on the road. We were total tactical noobs so we didn't really know who was who at this point. After a bit of discussion and wiggling we figured out it wasn't one of us. So we pop out onto the road and do the old school "friendly" thing. He didn't exactly respond. We kept saying "You friendly man?" as he just stared at us. A few moments later, he thought it'd be a great idea to open fire on one of us. After the man he shot went down, a fucking hail of gunfire rained down upon his body, and he was dead. It was such a fine moment, the sudden realization that he was actually dumb enough to shoot one of us, and then just emptying everything we had on him. It was a good day. You know, apart from the one of us that died. Wasn't too fun for him.

So for those of you who don't know, MineZ is a mod for Minecraft that's trying to emulate DayZ. It's not trying to BE DayZ, it's simply taking the open-world, persistent survival apocalypse and translating it over to Minecraft. The mod is in "Beta", but it's very clearly still in technical Alpha. For those interested, head over to /r/MineZ Who cares, though? DayZ already exists. What could we possibly learn from some cheap imitator? Well, turns out MineZ is doing a lot of things that DayZ could learn from, and I think could work really well towards improving player relations in the future. --------------------------------------- MineZ has a very clear "Friendly" stance that is easy to see and duplicate without compromising offensive ability. In MineZ, simply "blocking" with right click is usually a sign of a friendly. This happens instantly and doesn't take 1-3 seconds for an animation. If they're barreling towards you with no intention of stopping, it's not a friendly. This makes it pretty damn easy to read someone's intentions. You get a few tricksters, but overall, it's much easier to read than in DayZ. DayZ has a few of these, but almost all of them require the player to "disarm", or at least drop their ability to aim/shoot for the moment. Waggling with Q and E is currently the best option, but even that can really risky at times. DayZ also struggles with visibility. Half the time, you aren't even going to see the other person unless they're right in front of you, and if they're right in front of you, someone is almost always going to shoot first. It's sad, but true. Maybe with something quicker, and immediately recognizable with a simple press of a button, DayZ survivors wouldn't always have to shoot on sight in these scenarios. I'm thinking "Wave". Grouping up has great benefits, while solo play isn't punished. This is something DayZ struggles with, but MineZ gets a lot of it right on it's first try. In MineZ, zombies are a big threat. If you're taking on a group of 3-4 solo, you're in for a battle, and your little wooden sword will probably be gone by the end of it. I learned early on that grouping up with even one more person increases your chances of survival by a considerable amount. Other people know this too, so grouping up with other kindly survivors is pretty easy to accomplish. Banditry is also rampant in MineZ, so having a buddy along with you really helps increase survival chances. I remember we were rolling with a big group, and I got attacked. I ran back to the group, they noticed I was getting attacked, and they zerg'd the bandit. It was hilarious to watch, and he ran away as fast as he could. It was great. The only problem MineZ runs into with groups is finding enough food. In DayZ, this isn't really a problem, so I think that if DayZ had a more identifiable "friendly" stance and harder zombies, we might see a little more player cooperation. MineZ's weapons are naturally less threatening, promoting group play and easily identifying bandit intentions. A lot of threads are popping up both around Reddit and on the DayZ forums promoting one idea: There's simply too many high-powered guns in the game. Right now, everyone and their mother has an assault rifle or sniper rifle, and if you don't, you probably have a high-powered sidearm. This makes relations with other players very uneasy, because if another player wants to kill you, they'll probably do it in one shot, without you seeing them. This isn't the case in MineZ. The weapon with the most range is a bow and arrow, and you can clearly see if someone has one and is about to use it. Otherwise, bandits have to get up close and personal to dispense with you. You almost always have a chance to fight back, and bandits have to work for their kills. DayZ has a lot to learn from MineZ in this respect. The rate of high-powered sniper rifles in DayZ is simply too damn high. In a zombie apocalypse, maybe ONE crazy individual is going to be perched somewhere with a DMR, picking off survivors. What you're NOT going to see is entire teams of ghillie-suited folks sitting on hills doing this. The resources wouldn't be that readily available in the real world, but in DayZ they are. DayZ needs to tone down its high-powered military equipment, especially the long-range stuff. You can survive just as well with a Winchester and Makarov against Zeds as you would with a silenced M4 and G17. The military grade stuff seems to be there just to buff bandits, especially the sniper rifles. In MineZ, you'll be lucky to run across an Iron sword (The equivalent of an assault rifle), and it actually HELPS you against Zeds, not just players. DayZ could learn from MineZ by severely increasing the rarity of military sniper rifles (CZ 550s and Lee Enfields becoming the norm for snipers), and decreasing the overall number of assault weapons. To help with the monotony, DayZ could add a few more low-tier weapons to its ranks, such as more melee and more "common household" firearms. I think this would help considerably to getting DayZ back to its roots, and feel more grounded without everyone running around with M4s and DMRs. Bandits are easily identifiable by unique player skins and easy-to-read nametags. I had a very fun time last night forming a rivalry with another player on MineZ. His name was Loborabo or something similar, and whenever we saw each other, it was time for battle. We formed this rivalry because we could instantly recognize each other, identify the other as hostile, and engage in combat. In MineZ, identifying a bandit after they've killed you is very easy. It does this in a number of ways. First, player skins are very identifiable from a distance, and almost everyone is unique. Unlike the samey kind of look that everyone has in Arma II, this gives the player the immediate ability to say "Oh! That's that guy! KILL HIM!". This also gives that bandit a reputation. MineZ also has the classic " Player X MURDERED Player Y!", but only at close range. These are not global broadcasts, only within a certain radius, where in real life you might notice the dying screams or gunshots of a murder in progress. If you round a corner and all of a sudden see Player X, then you can be extra cautious (In case it was self defense). Also, MineZ does have player tags, but it's damn near impossible to see these player tags at range. This makes it so you don't have the DayZ problem of "Oh I just saw a player tag 1000m that way, let's have a look-see through my sniper. Oop! There he is! *bang...* These systems in MineZ made keeping track of known bandits very easy, and avoiding them even easier. With nametags only visible at short range, unique player skins that easily identify who someone is, and very clear "X Killed Y" messages around you, banditry is a much more challenging art in MineZ than it is in DayZ. It also doesn't hurt that MineZ doesn't have sniper rifles. Just sayin'. --------------------------------------- From my time with MineZ, it's a much more friendly and cooperative experience than DayZ. Yeah, you'll get some of those dicks that kill you for no reason, but more often than not, after exchanging a few crouches and wags of the sword, you'll get a buddy to help you through the apocalypse. I think DayZ could really use to have a little more of that. EDIT: Finally got it all formatted correctly.

Holy crap... This thread is still kinda active. I'll be damned that's a lot of beans given...

I really think Rocket should consider HIVE support for a few more maps once he gets a very stable release going. People obviously love Lingor and adding even more variety could only be good.

I had to re-install Arma II recently, and in attempting to get DayZ back up and running, the normal method I've been using for months didn't work anymore. It kept giving me errors like "DayZ addon requires suchandsuch" files during startup, and then in the game server browser, it would tell me "You cannot play on this server, it requires content that has been deleted.chernarus". I've had this before, when my DayZ Expansion wasn't enabled. But I checked many times, and repeated the steps at least 2-3 times with fresh downloads and everything. I did everything short of re-installing the games. But, when I use the Six Updater and Launcher, DayZ works just fine. It's the strangest thing, as I can't see what Six is doing that I wasn't doing. Can someone help me? Exact errors I'm getting: "Addon 'dayz_anim' requires addon 'CA_dubbing_counterattack'"...Before the game launches. And "No entry: bin\config.bin/cfgvehicles/Citizen1.scope" once I get in the game. Then it gives me the deleted content error when I try to join a server. None of this happens when I use the Six tools.

Well, Arma II and DayZ have worked just fine in the past with no changes, except the re-install of Steam of course. I am the admin, so no issues there. I'll try verifying the integrity, thank you. Didn't seem to change things. I did think of something as a fix for my situation: I ran Six Launcher through Steam, and it gave me the Steam overlay in DayZ, which was my end goal. I'd like to get it working without the Six Updater still, as I like to do things manually, but for right now it's working within acceptable parameters.

Bump because I'm still having this problem and have not found a solution.

I'm having a similar issue. Try uninstalling all DayZ and Beta content, then using the Six Updater/Launcher. It's not a perfect solution, but it will get you in the game.

Servers are getting bogged down like they were pre 1.7.1.5 (If memory serves). I was on a server last night that was literally about 5fps. Then I joined another that was a full 60, but it was pretty new (US 600 something). So, I'm guessing something is messed up with cleanup again.

US89 and 90 (Both owned by Steamgamers.com) are up and running since the DDoS attack on the HIVE, but it looks like US91 isn't on the server list. Any other US91 players can confirm this?

I play on US 355...Sure am glad I googled it. I thought the server might have gone away! This is just temporary downtime right?

Employ Reddit Rescue Force. They've got a good rep for fixing people up.

No, unless you have a group and are planning to farm for NVGs. Most of the time, when you raid, all you'll find is mediocre military loot spawns. Maybe you'll get lucky at the barracks, but even they have a chance of spawning trash or generic loot. People go to the NWAF to either A. Kill experienced players, or B. Get with their group, guard a Barracks, and farm it. Farming loot REALLY needs to get fixed X/ If you want NVGs, wait until you get lucky with a downed chopper.

Oh please make this happen. We are in serious need of a decrease in military loot. In other news, give us some more "household" firearms for variety's sake!

On the note of giving us cosmetics for our camps, if there's a way, I'd love to have "tree branches" or "brush" to help hide tents and vehicles.

Something important to mention: The fireplace MUST have a much smaller radius than the tower, due to the relative ease of finding wood as opposed to fuel for keeping generators running. Radio towers would also have to be worth it, effectively blocking out a decent-sized radius. Other than that...I fucking love this idea.

YES

I honestly wish all characters, items, and vehicles got wiped with every major update that added/removed features. That way everyone has to work their way back up when, say, loot spawns change or an exploit is fixed. Also help re-enforce that we are here to TEST.

The thing is, MineZ is terrible. The only reason I played it was because they have a free server up atm. I hated most of my time with it. Constant spawn killing, hardly any food, non-populated map forcing everyone into cities...It was terrible! But it had lots of good ideas that I think could really help DayZ out and counter some of the problems it's having. I don't care what the hell the loud minority says, the constant deathmatching/unseen sniping/kill on sight is a PROBLEM and it needs FIXING.

And every single friendly community has been subject to either constant failure or constant dickery. Hackers attacked Freeside. People bait and wait for the medical group. The other trading post I saw didn't even make it past the starting block. Taxi services are done in a matter of minutes. The fact is this: Being a friendly group is impossible when you have a world of bandits with sniper rifles. It's just not going to work. As long as distance sniping is the best tactic, there is no room for any other tactics, and that's all the game will ever be. Because my other suggestions aren't even nerfs. They're features. They don't need defending because they hardly affect anyone or anything. They're there to provide some clarity. They're self explanatory and don't need defending or explanation. Snipers don't draw aggro. I don't know where you got that, but snipers don't draw SHIT to them. If you're in a good spot, no zeds will spawn around you.

I give up. You all are so insistent on protecting griefing tactics (that is EXACTLY what they are) in the name of "preserving what makes the game great". For gods sake, I'm not even proposing that big of a nerf. I wouldn't even call it a nerf. It's a reduction of high-tier loot, mainly for realism's sake. It's ridiculous... I hope you all have a very fun time playing a game where you'll never see your killer, never get a chance to fight back, and will consistently and ALWAYS be punished for attempting to be friendly. Because if things keep going the way they are, that's exactly what it will be. EVERYONE will be sniping, because in a few months time everyone will realize that it's the best tactic. EVERYONE will shoot on sight from 500m away, because there is no downside. And NOBODY will be friendly, because there will be no reason to.

Really? When was the last time you EVER saw a sniper die? I've watched countless streams where they just SIT up there, ALL the time, and NOTHING happens to them. I watched that interview. He also said that we currently do not have the tools to do something like that. And we need those tools so that asshole bandits don't keep dominating the game. He also mentioned something along the lines of "We are the architects of the world, and the players run that world." What I'm saying is that the architecture is currently flawed, which is why I'm suggesting the rebalancing of the loot tables to make military weapons more rare. It WILL help with the sniping problem, that's for sure. But, those who are dedicated enough will surely find a way to keep doing what they're doing.

Yeah. Americans are dicks who shoot on sight. Everyone I've teamed up with over chat has been Australian or Russian. Americans are the ones shooting everyone and camping on hills. Pretty effective point if you ask me. (I'm American)

Other than you're forgetting one very important thing: Being an asshole bandit HAS NO DOWNSIDES. That sniper up on the hill? No downside whatsoever to doing what he's doing. Me looting the town, trying to survive without resorting to PKing? Major downside.