The current heartbeat system is really bad, it needs to be removed totally. You need to be in a very close range, and most of the time if someone aims at me, they are about to shoot. I can see Rocket is trying to indirectly promote team-play in other ways, but all its doing is promoting players to team-up outside of game. I miss hunting bandits, I miss the intensity of seeing another survivor and not knowing if you can trust them (you'd be stupid to trust anyone in the current version, unless you're totally desperate). I loved not killing on sight, but now I kill anyone I see looking at me from a distance (or if they just pop out of nowhere at me). The old bandit skins made survivors feel good for killing bandits and dealing justice; while punishing bandits just the right amount. Its been said a thousand times, but either give benefits to the good, or make life more difficult for the bad. The bandit system was one of the defining features of the mod when it exploded in popularity.

Advice? Dont give two fucks if you die. Keep roaming the coast until you learn how to play well. Also dont sneak/prone EVERYWHERE. I see so many new players thinking they need to be sneaky 100% of the time; this often leads to their demise.

Probably doesn't fit with the theme but that gun is an extremely rare spawn. Having each player run around with a rusty AK would be more fitting but that would be boring. You didn't even offer a suggestion for a more authentic rare gun.

I agree with you on a lot of points, but most people (including myself) are too busy enjoying the mod for what it is, even if some things don't make complete sense. I would imagine being killed by a door is more immersion breaking than finding an empty whiskey (not vodka) bottle. The game concept is authentic enough for it to be set on any map and be this popular. I think you'd be better off playing STALKER (not to sound like a dick but it offers a more consistent world, if that's what you're looking for).

You only need to avoid Elektro and Cherno if you're carrying something of value. When you spawn on the coast I would strongly suggest sneaking around a big city until you have a gun, backpack, knife and matches.

I really want to leave 1.7.0 behind but I don't want to ;_; Hopefully next hotfix will convince me

I honestly think 7 days is way too long. Should be closer to 3.

Tap: Aim Hold: Zoom View

I've actually heard reports that using Arma 2 Free gives a better frame rate. I use Arma2Free myself and have had no problems so far.

When getting a new pack, I strongly suggest dropping your current one out in the open.

Sorry but I don't think you'll be able to. If you heavily optimize your game for running on a laptop then you might get around 10-20 fps

Next patch (1.7.1) you can hide from them :)

Well the bandit skin removal was on the basis of "oh we'll try it out and if it sucks, we'll revert it". It didn't work and it wasn't reverted. However, this is actually a fun suggestion so I wouldn't mind it staying in.

YES but... -Make the Makarov a common spawn -Give people less incentive to kill freshly spawned players

Suggesiton: When joining a new server, you can't loot anything other than food/water for 15 minutes. This would stop people from server jumping I suppose.

http://picacid.com/arma2/loot_en.html Says barracks and helicopter crashes only. Enjoy!

This is a bad suggestion and you should feel bad for making it. In fairness though, finding a meal is pretty easy already.

As long as the humanity system isn't abandoned completely. I'd really want to see it used for something else in a future patch. Let some people choose to be good, let others choose to be bad; and allow our experiences to be crafted around that. Don't just give everyone reason to shoot-on-site whenever they encounter anyone, just because it has no consequence.

If you see something on the floor which you want, NEVER use the rearm/equip option. If you see a nice new gun, I suggest dropping your current one out in the open, then looting the new gun. Also, if you have something large (like a primary weapon) in your backpack, which you want to drop; it is better to find a loot pile, open your bag, and discard the weapon into the loot pile. This way you don't run the risk of accidentally deleting a weapon when it gets swapped into your bag which might, or might not have enough space.

The humanity/skin system seems to work just fine. I treat all bandits as KOS and all survivors as threats. If you became a bandit at -10k then that would be stupid; no way of knowing who's out death-matching. If another survivor shoots at me from range, I'm more likely to just run away and not take the humanity loss. Players use the term "self defense" a lot of the time when they actually just want an excuse to kill someone and loot their makarov mags. You know some players don't just shoot everyone in sight.