The new tent I bought for camping has a mosquito net, so I don't really worry about bugs.

I miss the very early days where everyone would group up, form convoys, and there would be tense group moments. And two bands coming face to face was actually tense and not just a firefight. It was like a survival drama with zombies. Everyday was a new adventure, and I loved every minute of it. That's what DayZ has started to lose. (But, damn it, I still get into a badass Christmas Convoy chugging towards Cherno in hopes of plunder and zombie-slaying.) This is such a damn good game that people get into these raging debates about economics and psychology. That happens in few to no other games. This is such a great community. :)

Maybe, fewer zombies that are harder to kill? Same speed, larger sound aggro radius. I think it would make zombies a bit more of a danger/gank deterrent. Maybe add some military npc fortresses? They take your guns while you're inside or something? Sort of a faux-safe-zone? Dangerous wildlife? (Wolves, bears, ocelots, rabid lemmings, etc.) Working camoflage? Tree climbing? Digging? Destructible buildings? Or, sort of a Frostbite-esque partial damage system? (I just want a peek-a-boo hole to shoot out of.) Team-forming and seizable resources/bases? Parachuting, squad vehicles/aircraft, and specializations. Different types of food and location-based loot spawns? (Hardware in hardware stores and cakes/bread in bakeries.)

Alright. It's nice to see someone care about the game so much. Good on you, mate. :)

No, it's not challenging at all. You have to crawl around. Mob of zed behind you? Hop into or corner or run on a dock. Bim bam boom. Success is measured by gathering supplies and not dying. Success comes through bugs. Standing your ground and fighting zombies is either A. Tedious and dull (Oh look, another one is running at me BANG) or B. Will result in an unsatisfying death. And yes, dying in games can be satisfying. Epic standoffs that end in blazes of glory are always a plus. EDIT: Oh! You can also just run into a building where zombies are forced to walk. (A widely recommended 'strategy'.) How is that fun? Sure, pile o' dead zombies, but no real fun.

Ugh, alright. Yes, you're very cute. Yes, you are very good at being an ass on the internet. This realm13 kid, yes is kind of a bitch, but he raises a valid point. Snipers are used for one thing only, murdering people from a long distance. They are not for collecting supplies, they are not for defense. They are antii-realism in that nothing constructive from their use. They have expensive ammunition that wouldn't be used so willy nilly in a real zombie apocalypse. Realm13 argues that snipers ruin the experience because when you get one, the game ends and it becomes a shooting gallery. This point is valid. Early game and the death of players is necessary. It evolves the player pool with the weaker, bitchier players abandoning this game. But, no, the sarcasm is helpful and constructive. Also, the fuck do you mean by "'zombies' as you put it"? He means zombies. This is a zombie game. Sure, the zombies are speedy meth heads, but they're zombies nonetheless. It's called Day Zombie for flying fuck's sake.

Where it is right now, it's not a hard game. It has bugged mechanics that you're required to abuse to succeed. It's actually qutie an easy game if you decide you don't like fun. You can crawl and crawl to your heart's content and get all the survival tools and weapons you need, but you probably won't have a lot of fun doing it. Yah, it's alpha, so no one can complain, and yah, it's alpha so things will inevitably change for the better. Best we can do now is to keep playing, keep kvetching in the forums, and wait for the game to grow. It's in alpha and we're all testers. You're doing more harm by stopping or saying it shouldn't change than the game's flaws are doing to you.

The build they were in during his videos was the best.

Why not make zombies alert other zombies? Like, when they see you, they moan, and other zombies come to investigate. Prolonged conflict would drain valuable ammo, careless stealth calls a horde, teamwork and spotting/communication becomes essential. Shooting a gun in a city to kill another survivor would turn into you getting swarmed. Using sound and light as weapons becomes a possibility. Distractions on one side of a town allows group members to grab supplies on the other side. This may not be a "zombie" game, but it could be a damn good one if it wanted.

Slow zombies, head shots. It's a different type of scary. It's a survival scary, not a "OH SHIT" scary. It's a never being able to feel safe scary. A relentless, innumerable fear of inevitability. Maybe make zombies able to alert one another. This would draw a huge amount of them, shambling, jaws gaping, moans echoing, towards any disturbance and most likely, your tasty flesh. Fast zombies are a target to shoot at, slow, numerous zombies are a game mechanic, an ever-ticking timer of mortality, and exactly what this game deserves.

While yes, it is easy to use mechanics, but you are, for lack of a better term, abusing a bug. The fucked part of that is that you HAVE to abuse that bug to be effective. I agree with what the OP has to say. There is no real risk/reward anymore. There is just risk. I can crawl through twenty buildings and come out with a hatchet and some pepsi. I CAN survive, it's just no longer enjoyable. I CAN find other players, but they'll put me down if I approach them, or I'll have to band together with a team of un-armed, hopeless others. A group doesn't get to function as such anymore, they're more or less a group of individuals who happen to move together. A makarov in a city won't do much good, but 4 of them and some decent group work do. Running from super-speed, hyper-alert zeds will eventually get your ass out of dodge, but it sacrifices enjoyment. Slower zed (and more of them) that aggroed to gunshots from further away would discourage random shootings. Knowing that everyone has a gun (which, let's be fair, would happen if they'd survived at all) would create a more tense situation for bandits looking for a quick kill. I can't speak for everyone, but I do believe the formula is a bit off right now. Sacrificing enjoyment for the sake of quelling pk'ing isn't right. Being pk'd isn't fun either, but it might be a necessary byproduct. Thank god this thing is in Alpha, because it still has a long time to grow and get polished. 500,000 testers and active forums make a successful game that people will play.

Mine says I have 1.6.1 and the server requires 1.6.1 but they're not compatible...

Ladders* Well, I believe they're just infected, but I agree.

Put this in a bad thread. I whole-heartedly agree with what you said! The Walking Dead/Romero zombies are the best, most logical choice.

Ok, travel faster than the speed of light. Not everything is possible and not NEARLY everything is PLAUSIBLE. A virus that readily mutates its hosts into superhuman creatures or changes/enhances the behaviors/senses to anything above normal human activity at the current time (or near future). Brain capacity is lessened. Of everything that science has observed, there is no readily available evidence of anything NEARLY like that, so its sudden development would be highly improbable. The most likely outcome would be slow, movement impaired animals. There is a possibility that muscular fitness and age would have something to do with it, but there are not going to be super-powered hulks or acid-spitting mutants. And this doesn't even take into account the Russian demographics. Russia is currently in its worst population decline ever (http://www.telegraph...on-decline.html) and that means that soon, the majority of their population will be elderly. Their bones frail and most not over-fed as Russia is also in a semi-repression/depression. This puts a lot of slow, saggy, shambling corpses roaming around Russia. They will not mutate more powerful muscles, nor will they develop sentry or pack-hunting skills. The most logical route for zombies is for there to be (relatively) a lot (Just enough to average the population of their spawn area, be it industrial/rural/urban etc.) of slow, shambling, not-coordinated, and averagely built zombies.