mattressi

I, for one, haven't played in a long time, other than to come back and see whether the mod has been fixed. The reason I left is that the once tense, exhilarating and reward mod, where anyone could be an enemy or an ally, turned into one big deathmatch - where most people would shoot you on sight and the one's who didn't won't hang around you for fear that you'll shoot them in the back. Then I came back for the current patch and found that every town that has dead bodies now makes my screen filled with artifacts when I look that way. Even if I wanted to play this deathmatch-with-a-10-minute-respawn (it essentially is, since it'll take you 10 min of crawling to get a weapon once you spawn), I couldn't because of these horrible graphical glitches.

You might want to hold off or play on unpopulated servers. Right now, the game is great for people who want to kill on sight and is terrible for people who want more than that. I would hate to see someone who wants to play a friendly trying to learn how to play now - they'll just get frustrated and leave the game for good. Learning to play is difficult enough. I don't play any more, despite having played Arma for a long time and Day Z since it was in major gaming news - knowing how to play doesn't make it any less difficult for me to survive as a friendly survivor. I refuse to KoS, but right now you can either KoS or you can run around in the woods hiding. I could do that IRL, so I choose not to play, for now.

Yep, I get this in military bases and in Cherno. I'm guessing it's the bodies, as others have said. None of the fixes worked for me. In the end I had everything on low, had flushed every time I changed a setting, had gone in and out of windowed mode and still it didn't go away. I have a GeForce GTX 560 with the latest drivers.

This would be true in real life, where people don't respawn. Bandits would be involved in the more conflicts than survivors and would eventually die whether because they were outskilled, unlucky or hunted (or, of course, attacked by other bandits). In game, however, there are so many bandits relative to the number of survivors, that survivors are likely to be in only slightly less conflicts than bandits (unless the survivor spends their time hiding), but the conflicts that they are in will always be someone else shooting at them first, which will usually result in them dying. PVE is a load of crap - survivors don't just turn off PVP mode; they are just as likely to get murdered if they choose to PVE instead of PVP (hell, I'd say they're even more likely to be murdered). On top of that, as you said, it takes less time to get gear as a bandit. As a survivor, you need to SLOWLY crawl your way through populated areas, avoid other people (because most will KOS you), get your basic gear and then flee to the wild. This takes much longer than for a bandit who simply goes and gets the first gun he can find, then promptly shoots anyone he sees. If he dies, it doesn't take all that long to get another gun and he starts again. When a survivor dies with gear, they die having spent at the very least 30 minutes (usually much more, depending on time of day and server population) crawling around to get it. It's slow and it's boring and then you get either get shot by some knob on a hill with a sniper rifle because he's bored or you get shot by someone who you see in front of you, ask if they're friendly, only to have them turn, see you and kill you while you're typing/talking. Currently I have no incentive to play this game. I don't like KOSing (previously, KOSing wasn't the point of the game) and I don't like spending ages crawling everywhere to get basic gear, only to be killed by someone for no reason (they never even take my gear). I can't see why anyone who doesn't want to play as a KOS/DM bandit would play this - for all that people say bandit identifiers would ruin the game and take away the choice, right now the choice is either KOS, live alone in the woods or die within an hour, after spending that hour crawling. There's no real choice at all. If you think playing as a survivor is easier, go try it. Try NOT shooting everyone you see on sight and only shooting if you have actual reason to believe they aren't friendly (eg, they don't respond to you in direct). See if you last longer and get better gear by doing the "safe" (ROFL) option of "PVE" (as if you can isolate it from people PVPing you). I'll bet that you get much better gear and live much longer by hiding somewhere and shooting people on sight, then taking their stuff.

Damn, I was hoping the heartbeat thing would have a much longer range. At 20 m, if they haven't already seen you, they will have by the time you're aiming intently at them trying to hear a faint heartbeat :( At least direct chat has a decent range if 80 m is correct. I guess that means that most people that I called to could hear me and just weren't friendly. I think I'll stop playing for a bit again. I was really hoping it would once again be viable to play as a friendly survivor, but right now the only way I can see doing that is to stalk people to within 80 m and then ask if they're friendly, then shoot if they don't respond in a few seconds. I mean, this could work ok, I guess, but it's hardly ideal and seems like it would still mean I'd get shot a lot at close range (when it's too close to type before they shoot) and long range (where direct doesn't work), even if I don't get shot as much at short-mid range. I actually miss the days when someone would tell you in global that they're friendly, then stab you in the back. At least it gave a little variety - now I'm just shot in the face on sight. I spent a heap of time before I stopped playing, living in the woods, avoiding everyone and eating animals - but it gets boring without any zombies, let alone good and bad people.

I've just started playing again after a few months break. I've noticed that it takes me quite a lot longer to get started, because it seems that zombies can both see and hear you a lot easier now, meaning I tend to crawl everywhere. A few times I've managed to get (from coastal towns/cities) the gear necessary for me to head off into the wilderness, but each time I've been leaving the town I've seen someone (or a group) maybe 100 to 150 m away. I've tried putting my crosshair over each of them for a while and listened carefully for the heartbeat noise, but heard nothing. I then tried walking closer and closer, each time asking them in direct chat (typing it) if they're friendly. I've only had one person respond and that was when I was really close to him. A lot of them eventually spot me and just shoot me. In fact, I've only had one non-violent encounter so far, despite me trying my best to show I'm friendly (direct chat, friendly dance, saluting). So, has the game completely devolved into a deathmatch now (last time when I played, at least some people didn't try to kill me) or do direct chat and the heartbeat thingy only work really close, so when people see me they figure it's best to just shoot without taking chances? What range does direct chat work to? What range does the heartbeat sensor thing work to? Is this game now just a giant DM or have I been unlucky so far? I used to enjoy playing even when I got killed with good gear. Now, it just seems like my only option to prevent being killed with basic or even no gear, is to kill them first. Any advice for playing a friendly survivor? Is it still possible? As I said, I haven't played in a few months now and haven't followed the updates.

I don't think the point is to be fun (I'm pretty sure rocket said that sometime). However, for an increase in balance between shooting everyone and not, spawning without a weapon is a good idea. Certainly, looting sucks right now - sneaking is impossible without a primary weapon (as I said), zombies spawn in buildings, see through walls, attack through walls, knock you unconcious in one hit through a wall (seriously, if you want zombies to knock everyone out, it just means they'll bleed out and die - please just make zombies a one-shot kill; it's faster and I don't have to wait ages to be able to respawn), see and hear everything in a huge radius, and respawn very quickly. Once these issues are fixed, I think looting will be fine again and starting with no weapon shouldn't be an issue. As for the guy who called everyone that wants no-weapon spawning a carebear; you're a moron. I've noticed that it's only the "I want to run around and murder everyone from spawn" people that seem to call everyone a carebear (and are also the ones who always bitch and moan at the slightest mention of making the game less OVERWHELMINGLY FAVOUR SHOOTING EVERYONE ON SIGHT). Starting with a gun makes the game harder (yes; making it better to cooperate can actually make it HARDER - shooting people is NOT in any way, shape or form remotely difficult in this game). Really, anything which helps the game not massively favour the "shoot-everyone-on-sight" playstyle, would be great.

I disagree. If the stealth mechanic was made easier than now (as I've said in another post, currently only slow crawling is silent, which means you need a primary weapon to move silently - this should be fixed) and more like it was before, stealth would be perfectly viable. I used to never need a weapon when sneaking. Still, I'd certainly rather people start with melee weapons than we revert back to everyone starting with a gun.

I've seen quite a few threads where people have complained about not starting with a weapon when they spawn. I thought I'd create a counter thread, for those who disagree, here (though, perhaps there's another one that I missed?). Since the patch that removed guns from spawn, all of the servers that I frequent (Aus and NZ) have become SIGNIFICANTLY more friendly and cooperative. Certainly, there are still many shoot-on-sight douches (by this, I mean the wankers that shoot to kill because they've got nothing to lose; though the people that shoot other people because they're bored should also fall into this category), but their numbers have been noticeably reduced. It now feels like a small accomplishment to find a weapon. This means that there aren't people running from spawn, shooting everyone they see in the hopes of killing someone with good gear, then running off. This, in turn means that those people wouldn't then later be killed in the same manner, then respawn and start again. I think spawn killing has been reduced quite significantly (at least, in my experience). People now help each other when they spawn and often will continue helping each other even after finding weapons. I was sceptical that a solution could be found that would lower the number of shoot-to-kill douches and I certainly never thought that removing guns from spawn items would fix it, but it definitely has improved the situation on the servers I'm on. Please ignore the whiners and keep it how it is.

I completely agree. The only way to not make noise is to slow prone crawl (on concrete/pavement, that is; you can also silently fast crawl on grass). This is only possible when you've got your primary weapon out - meaning players who've just spawned and others without primary weapons aren't able to move silently. This is kind of ridiculous, because it means that you need to run around and try to find a primary weapon before you can even hope to not aggro zombies. Which also means that, when you spawn, you've both got no way to defend against zombies, but also no way to avoid them. It really is a silly mechanic. I'd like to suggest that slow crouching makes you move silently. Try crawling around your house, the grass and on concrete, then try slowly walking everywhere; tell me, which is quieter? Crawling should be to help you not be seen (usually by players; stopping yourself from skylining/silhouetting too badly), while crouching should be to move around silently. At the very least, there needs to be some way of moving silently for players without primary weapons. I agree that running (crouched or upright) should make quite a bit of noise, but as it is, I attract more zombies running than shooting a Makarov (go running, then shoot a Makarov a few times without ear protection, IRL, and tell me which one made you almost deafened temporarily: that one is the loudest). Running volume should be toned down (or gun volume toned up, to be more realistic, if that is desired) and either fast crawling of slow crouching should be made silent on all surfaces.

YES But please add a subtle visual cue for those who are hearing impaired or don't play with high sound volume.

An increased number of bandits/murderers may not always be simply due to everyone suddenly becoming a douche now that bandit skins are gone. For example, I've now become a murderer without even meaning to. Previously, I would shoot at most bandits (unless they actually were friendly) and would avoid shooting survivors at all costs, unless I had to shoot them to save myself. I would often shoot bandits who were attacking others, but I would rarely do the same to survivors for fear of becoming a bandit. This ensured that I remained a survivor. Now, I've become a bandit because I've defended others from, what seems to be, bandits. They attack people right in front of my eyes, often for no reason (though, sometimes they might actually loot the body of the person they shot), so I shoot them. I have no way of knowing if the game classes them as a murderer/bandit, so it's only after they've died that I'm told whether I'm apparently a horrible person or a hero. This is a stupid mechanic. Either remove bandit skins and remove humanity or keep humanity and keep bandit skins. Right now, humanity is solely based on whether you shoot people or not. If I play a pacifist, I'll have normal humanity, if I defend people, I will have negative humanity. "Murdering" (if shooting someone who attacked someone for no reason can be called that) someone reduces your humanity significantly more than killing bandits, so even if every 3 out of 4 people I see attack someone are bandits (rather than a newbie who goes on a killing spree), I still become a murderer overall for defending people.

The way I fixed the aiming: - Turn of smoothing - Turn off aiming dead zone (this makes aiming much more like conventional FPSs) - Adjust the sensitivity of the X and Y axis so that the Y axis has a higher sensitivity. One thing that some don't realise is if you set X and Y to have the same sensitivity, the Y axis will actually have much less sensitivity than the X axis. This makes aiming, especially in close quarters, really weird. Now the aiming is the same as every other FPS (except for the crappy console ports that don't let you turn off their horrible smoothing). I much prefer Arma's aiming system; I like that I can zoom down the sights and can very easily swivel my head to look around. I wish all games had these features.

One thing I'd like to know; when you or your friends are killed, OP, do you just have your decked-out friends come pick you up in the chopper and give you good gear again? It's one thing to form a group of people who have decent skill and tactics and another to gloat about how much better you are than the people who don't have a huge group of people to support them when they die. I've often wiped out most members of a typical hide-in-one-spot-and-shoot-anyone-that-comes-by group of bandits, only to finally be killed by bandit #4 or 5 (depending on how well I've got the drop on them and how well positioned they are). It sucks, because all I've really done is marginally inconvenience them. I've outsmarted a big group of bullies (who think that their capacity to sit in one location for hours, waiting for a newbie to kill, without dying of boredom or, you know, having to live their real lives, amounts to "skill") and died, which means that I now need to put in a lot of effort to get decent gear again, while douchebag #1-4 only need to hike back to their friends who've stashed their dead friends' gear. I'm not sure whether you do this, but I haven't yet seen a bandit clan (is there any other type of clan in this game?) where one member will happily play without their decked-out wolf pack after they've died, until they get good gear again. Instead, they'll run back, rejoin the pack and side chat about how their large group of people is far superior in skill to the lone survivors.

I was thinking exactly the opposite. I think parachuting is a bad idea. First, it doesn't really seem to fit with the game - having a whole bunch of new characters parachuting from the sky constantly seems out of place, and I'm not sure what plane they're meant to be falling from. Second, it's completely counter to what the OP said he wanted - to stop spawn killing. Now everyone will be able to see new players slowly descending from the sky and will be easily able to locate them quickly. Hell, some will probably just hsoot them out of the sky. As well as this, it means that new players will be able to see where people are around them, which also means that any bandits spawning will have a birds eye view of everyone around them and can pick their targets. To me, it just seems like an all-round bad idea and would create far more problems than it solves (and would be a massive advantage to bandits and a massive disadvantage to survivors who just want to not get PKed). As for equipment selection, I think it could be fun. There could be a 'default' loadout that can be selected or you can customise to get things more suited to your style. Nothing high level, but if someone wanted to go into the wilderness they could start with some matches, wood, hunting knife and a Makarov, for example. It would add flavour to the game, I think. Then again, it could make new characters a bigger target since they might have a compass, etc.