tammy@papergoblin.co.uk

I second this. Maybe things could be added like an item that is a 'white flag' (the character holds it visibly). So that a player who is unknown can approach. It's still left up to the players how they deal with someone walking towards them with a white flag, or if a player chooses to use the white flag in the first place. It could be created as a 'weapon' item, so that if they are holding that up, they can't therefore have a weapon ready to shoot?

This.. Have to admit, soo true.

Aye ofc, but that's the same risk you take with any shot you make, even if you're shooting animals for meat, or zeds. That's not specific to being a bandit and killing someone who has not killed anyone themselves. Edit: Yeah naturally if there are other bandits in the area then you've given yourself away to them too, so that is a risk I agree, but it's still just an 'general' risk. Not everyone plays bandits and it's just as likely that other players in the area will drop to the ground or run the other way. (Like I often do if I've got crap weapons lol) I've not been killed by bandits much myself, but the couple of times I have been, the first I knew about it was a 'You are Dead' screen. If I had of survived I don't think the random shotgun or pistol I had would have really been much of a threat to my killer anyway (I was shot at range both occasions - just my experience though of course). Yup. I never said they didn't. Totally agree. It's part of what makes the game what it is, that 'not knowing' if you are being watched. and I still agree here too. Someone who is playing the bandit role is providing that 'risk' factor, that's how it works. That's not in question. I don't know what the solution is, but it's obviously a problem if (as someone else said) there's been 10,000 posts about it with suggestions. Perhaps the answer is headgear or something like that, so that you can't get killed by a single shot? I honestly have no issue with the whole bandit/not bandit thing, I just figured that adding another level of challenge (like 'morality' that needs a drug to calm your nerves after a couple of murders) for those who wanted to play bandits would appease those who don't and add some extra fun to the game for those who do (and ultimately would only effect those hardcore players who rarely die and commit loads of murders). Edit: wouldn't even have to have any effect at all if you killed someone who wasn't 'an innocent'

Prob is that there's no coming back from this. Say you are not a bandit and attacked by one but you get lucky shoot back and kill them instead, then you're skinned as a bandit, like it or not. If it's going to be a skin thing there needs to be some way 'back' from it too. It's not that fair on people who play bandits either really. It's like wearing a 'shoot me on sight' badge. The whole 'are they, or are they not' is taken out of the game.

I totally agree, and as it should be. Like when you murder someone, you can be rewarded with anything useful they might be carrying but of course the risk of doing this is.... umm.. wait, what was the risk again? Currently there isn't one other than possibly getting shot back if you miss, if they have a weapon, if that weapon has range to reach your position, and if they can even see where you are. So as I said in my earlier post, maybe presenting 'murder' with more of a challenge for the experienced player who chooses to play the bandit role is the solution. That's not a nerf, its not a QQ suggestion, it's giving another level of gameplay for experienced DayZ players who might welcome taking on another challenge.

Ahh well, stats can be made to show anything you want depending on how they are presented. You could also say that as there's 283,420 bandit's deaths and 1,732,707 murders, it shows the complete opposite. I wouldn't worry too much about the stats. However, given that Vipeax is on the Dev team I'm sure he's done the math, so if he says they die more often, I'll take his word for it.

If you mean me, no idea what you mean by this.

Well Rocket did mention he wanted to put underground locations into the game, and also further fortifications. So further down the development road, perhaps these would be used as 'safehouses' that clans can take over. 'Grimlands' (another survival game in development) has a similar system in the works, where players who belong to a group or faction can take over any town on the map and the only thing that makes it a safe spot and stops it being taken over by other players, is the players themselves. Something like that could work in the scope of Day Z.

Oh I absolutely agree, but there are still occasions where zeds are aggroed (with the new patch) where I find it hard to believe that it's an intentional part of the game. Not everyone appears to have had the same experience though (new players and experienced alike) so I'm guessing there is a glitch in there somewhere, but it's early days for 7.2, these things will get sorted.

People who tend to be bandits are generally the 'more advanced' players (obviously some long term players may choose not to be bandits of course) but it's the impression I get anyway. Perhaps rather than 'nerfing' bandits, as they are advanced players, give them another level of challenge? (So the better you get at the game, the harder the challenge becomes for you?) Something like perhaps, when you commit a murder, morality starts to set in and you get the shakes when you aim (not a huge amount at first, but the more you kill the worse it gets). To 'cope' with that, the bandit would requiring something to keep their nerves intact (some sort of drug maybe). Once the drug is taken it resets everything back to normal. It wouldn't nerf anyone, but would set another challenge. I'd also say that if a bandit killed another bandit, it could be classed as being 'in self defence' and so perhaps then it wouldn't have any effect on an 'morality' scale. It would just be like another stat icon (like food and water) for advanced players. As bandits die more often than most, this would then only effect the really REALLY hardcore players who would have committed numerous murders, who might like the extra challenge if they found they had reached a point where the game had become too easy for them? Bandits don't bother me personally, it's part of the game and the 'trust no one' feel it has (which is great), but it might solve a few common complaints about bandits and be kinda fun for those who play the bandit role themselves.

Seems to be 2 completely different viewpoints here. So is this down to new/experienced, or geared up/not geared, some server/client issue, or just a random glitch? I've been playing for about a week or so, learning more each time I play. Started off like everyone, couldn't find weapons and kit, died a lot, but you get used to it and learn how and where to find weapons and how to sneak about the zombies. Yesterday, that all changed. I learned pretty quickly the zeds were easier to aggro, so I moved even slower, and spent a lot more time shuffling about on ground (where previously i may have only crouched) than ever before. I took notice of the new 'visibility' stat in the debug box too. That all seems fine to me, but there are occasions where it felt like it wasn't working correctly. Some things I noticed were that your visibility would change from about 12 to 55 from moving an inch (in some locations) where there really shouldn't have been any difference. I also noted that on one occasion I was spotted by a zed that was about 60 meters away, who ran past two other zeds to get to me. At the time I was laying on the ground, not moving, and the visibility in the debug box showed 1.5. So while I agree, that the AI tweaks for the zeds 'brings up the level' of the gameplay so that you have to be more cautious and careful (be far more aware of whats going on around you than before), I would also say that there is still problem with it in some situations, and it probably still needs tweaking to get it 100%. I don't know what could be causing it (I have no knowledge of these things) but I'm sure Rocket knows all this though, and it'll be tweaked with hotfixes as time goes on. It's how he's worked in the past and he'll do it again. He puts it out there pretty raw, then tweaks to get it right. It's what alpha is all about.