Nalestom

I think nametags should be removed, but I think that some way of enabling them for friends should be added. I'm not going to argue against the removal of nametags. It's largely third-person and crosshairs that I'm arguing against, because there's simply no reason to remove them. They are not "advantages" over other players because 1) you have the same advantages, and 2) there are ways to counter them. Changing your playstyle and adapting your tactics using prior experience is not at all unrealistic, nor does it break immersion. By that logic, if my playstyle is to run balls-deep into Elektro with an M249, shooting every zombie in my path while screaming into my mic through Direct Communication, the mod should be adjusted so that my playstyle is viable. Look, we were all noobs once. We all blindly ran into Elektro and were either eaten by zombies, or shot up by other survivors who knew that running down the street was a terrible idea. The key part is learning from each death - analyzing what you did wrong, absorbing that knowledge, then adapting how you play accordingly. That's not unrealistic at all. That's called "intelligence." And finally, I'm not discussing the ability to see exactly where you are on the map. Yes, that's unfair, and new players shouldn't have to rely on a crutch such as that to navigate around Chernarus. The same goes for being able to see the distance between you and a point that you're looking at.

Tents, campsites, and hoarding items/vehicles isn't the problem. Anybody with a bicycle can stealthily patrol the forests and accidentally stumble upon your camp, marking it down on the map and taking everything he can hold. That's a mechanic of the game; by pitching a tent and settling down in an area, you run the risk of your campsite being found and losing all of the items you have stored. The issue here is the duplication of the items in said camps. At the moment, a player who duplicates items can simply reduplicate the items he or she has lost to random patrols. There's no personal value attached to these duped items - they're simply lines of code in a script. THAT is the problem. Campsites are fine. Campsites that hoard duplicated items (and house those who duplicate) aren't.

The zombies in general need to be fixed. That, I agree with. I think zombies should be a considerable threat, considering they're what caused this whole post-apocalyptic scene that the mod is set in. At the moment, they're a minor annoyance that can be disposed of as soon as you find either a building or a nice, quiet forest. But PVP is still an equal playing field, regardless of whether or not you have a sniper rifle. Once you've spent quite a bit of time as a sniper, you know how to look for their camouflage and cover. There are tons of places (especially near Elektro - my god, the hills by the power station are a sniper haven and easy prey for counter-snipers like me) that become normal sniper spots. Sure, to the sniper lurking over his unsuspecting victim in the city below the hill, it's a relatively easy shot - but instead of getting rid of nametags, third-person, crosshairs, and so on, why wouldn't the victim just change his or her playstyle? Stay behind cover, never stay still unless you're in completely enclosed cover, always watch for zombies and try not to aggro them (which shouldn't be difficult, considering it's a Regular server, but sometimes even the best of us mess up a little.)

1 - Enter a church 2 - Use your own magical third eye to check your corners as you reach the main door, as well as the inner corners. 3 - See somebody camping the corner. 4 - Kill him 5 - ??? 6 - Enjoy the free murder. As for people sitting on top of buildings...that's a matter of you not using proper survival instincts. I've only had the game for a few days, but I've already learned that if I want to enter a main coastal city, I'm going to need either binoculars or a scoped weapon. Once I have either of those, I use the terrain to my advantage to find any snipers, particularly the ones on rooftops. This tactic works in every major city. If you consider that "too much work" simply to get inside the city, then you obviously don't need those medical supplies or weapons very badly. The one thing that this community needs to learn is that, as opposed to complaining about things that seem "unfair" or "overpowered," they need to instead adapt to other people's playstyles and the changes in the game. We, as gamers, have grown whiny and belligerent towards changing how we play. We choose to insist that the game is wrong and needs to be changed. Rocket has said multiple times, and I quote, And he's right. He's completely right.

In which case you would be going up against people who have the same advantages (or disadvantages, depending on how you look at it) as you do. You still have to actually find and acquire the weapons and resources in order to transfer them over. If anything, acquiring said weapons is even more difficult on a Regular server than it is in a Veteran server. Let's say Player A wants to find a decent sniper rifle so that he can then transfer over to a Veteran server. So, he heads to Elektro on a Regular server, thinking that the use of crosshairs, third-person, and nametags will make his quest easier. Unfortunately for Player A, Player B, who is fully equipped with a DMR and a ghillie suit, is sitting up on a hill and sees Player A carefully waltz into one of Elektro's fire stations. Because Player B can easily see the distance of the shot, it only takes one shot to execute Player A. Player A no longer has an advantage. Let's say Player A decides that he wants a nice M4A3 CCO SD instead. So, he heads to the Northwest Airfield to do a bit of item cycling. As Player A is investigating a hanger, Player C, who has the CCO SD that Player A so desperately covets, uses third-person to his advantage to peek inside of the hangar and takes Player A out. You see what I mean? It's not like Regular servers are these gigantic loot farms where everything is easier. Sure, perhaps it's easier to find and kill a target because of the various perks Regular servers have - but it's just as easy for other players to find you.

Hands down, the most valuable loot I ever found was a Hunting Knife in a house by Novy Sobor. I had spent the previous five hours by myself, running from town to town without a vehicle, surviving off a mere 3,500 blood. Once I got the knife, I was able to find a nice cow and cook some meat, which promptly brought me back up to a reasonable amount of blood. Never before has something so small and common felt so valuable to me. After that, I'd say that the M4A3 CCO SD that I found in the barracks of the NWAF as well as the SVD Camo we found while raiding a nearby bandit camp were the most valuable finds as of late.

You're implying that the mod is comfy and easy simply because certain players have crosshairs and the ability to use third-person. It's not. Especially when you consider that other people have the same advantage as you do, thus nullifying any perks you had over them.

As opposed to re-enabling the ability to respawn, why not just make it so we can choose where we want to spawn? This is within reason, of course. Survivors shouldn't all be spawning within 100 meters of each other along the coastline of Elektro, but I should be able to choose whether I want to spawn near Solnichniy or Kamenkha.

Third-person was designed specifically with the use of checking corners and providing overwatch without placing yourself in harm. In almost any third-person shooter, this is the case - I cite APB: Reloaded as an example. In APB, third-person is part of the metagame. You use third-person to your advantage, as does the person you're fighting. As opposed to getting rid of the concept entirely, why not embrace it and adapt to it? Crosshairs were designed specifically to assist the player in aiming when the player is not using or is not able to use their iron sights. The only possible "exploit" in using them is that they're as accurate as using the iron sights. However, that's actually extremely realistic - the accuracy of your gun and the direction of your bullets doesn't change simply because your eyes aren't aiming down your weapon's iron sights. Nametags are the only thing I can see that are truly "exploitable." I'd be okay with removing them, because it's not realistic in any sense to be able to scan the horizon and magically find out a person's name and distance from you. In any case, why would a person who regularly plays on Server B hop over to Server A for the sole purpose of grabbing gear? For one, everybody in Server A is on a level playing field when it comes to what crutches they have at their disposable. Secondly, the only thing that could possibly affect Server B from Player A's adventures in Server A is the number of rare items in Server B - which, due to the mechanics of the Hive, is skewed anyway.

You're arguing that using 3rd person, using crosshairs, and having the ability to see nametags is something that can be "exploited." They are not exploits. If they were exploits, then Rocket would simply blacklist all of the servers that utilize them. Let's go back to your scenario. Player A, who plays on Server A, which allows 3rd person, crosshairs, and nametags, will become used to those crutches (because in the end, that's what they are - crutches that allow players to hobble along and progress further in the game without improving their various survival skills.) Therefore, when Player A moves to Server B, which does NOT have said crutches, he will not be used to actually having to peek over roofs to see his targets, nor will he know how to actually use that scope on his AS50 in close-quarters combat. Therefore, the awesome gear that Player A acquired on Regular servers will fall into the hands of Veteran players such as you and I, simply because Player A is incompetent and relies on crutches that were no longer at his disposal. I don't see the problem here! Will Rocket eventually force all servers to align themselves to a particular ruleset? Yes, most likely. However, I do not understand why players who are used to the Veteran ruleset are complaining about the Regular servers. It's illogical to me, and I need somebody to explain it to me in further detail.

Personally, I am not greatly attached to any of my weapons, ammunition, or vehicles. If there was a wipe (or I died due to a hacker, or died due to a glitch, whatever the case may be,) I would be slightly disappointed that I have lost everything, as at the moment, I am on my longest life to date, but I would not quit playing DayZ because I lost it all. After all, death is a part of the game, and learning to accept death is an important lesson. However, just because I don't have a lot of attachment to my character, doesn't mean that I think a wipe is necessary. At this point in the game, there is simply no need for a wipe. If you really want to think about it, there's already going to be a wipe. It'll take place sometime during September, when DayZ is released as a standalone game using the ArmA 3 engine. I think it would be interesting if we actually saw the total percentage of all items on the Hive servers - for example, whether DMRs make up .03% of all items in-game or something. That would answer your question as to whether or not we need a wipe.

You can check out the official thread for this issue here.

If you don't like the options that Regular servers provide, then don't play on them. After all, it's more targets for us Veteran players when all servers are aligned to a single ruleset upon DayZ's release. There's no need to complain about easier prey, is there?

In all honesty, since the mod is in alpha (Yes, I'm actually using that excuse) and since Rocket and the DayZ development team are working on the standalone release of the game, there's no need for a wipe. When I play DayZ, I view it as training for the "real game" - that is, the standalone release. While attachment to your items and to your characters is an important aspect of the survival theme of the game, it's very hard to maintain that attachment when, in the back of your mind, you know it's all going to disappear eventually, whether by your own stupidity, a bandit raid, or Rocket's almighty Delete key. That being said, the only thing that we're going to be able to take with us when DayZ is released is the experience and knowledge of how the game works. Everything from basic survival concepts (how to eat food, where to find weapons, not to scream loudly into your microphone while you run through Cherno) to more advanced concepts of the game (the art of hiding your vehicles and tents, finding a nice sniping position, how to move quickly and quietly through a city.) That knowledge is worth a lot more than your AS50 and NVGs. After all, if I ran up to a complete noob on the coast and gave him a DMR, he'd probably lose it in five minutes because he wouldn't know how to calculate bullet drop, where to find ammo for it, and how to properly conceal yourself when you're sniping. This mod is a giant psychological learning experience. Wait until release before you become attached to your guns.