CBlazer

It sounds really carebear, but I liked knowing how many zombies I killed. That was just plain fun and cool. But whatever. Improve the temperature HUD indicator, and I'm okay with this.

Right now the only "difficulty" posed by the zombies is an artificial, unrealistic, unauthentic, immersion-breaking "difficulty" that arises from their terrible animation and glitchiness. They need to be completely reanimated to movement that makes sense, before finalizing their AI. Once we get zombies that move, attack, and die properly, then we will be in a position to meaningfully tweak their threat factor (AI, speed, hp, damage, etc). I can only hope there's a team at BI, right now, doing ragdoll physics and all-new motion capture for Day Z standalone.

If you're quick, you can sometimes log out before you hit the ground, then log back in at a lower altitude and sometimes survive. Until this gets fixed.

You're lucky. My bones are made of raindrops and marshmallows.

Graphics glitches make barracks unapproachable for me. Airfield hanger loot and Stary tent loot is the same as deer stand loot. Crashed helo loot is better anyway. Those factors come together to make me roam the fields and forests, looking for crashed helos and tent camps, rather than risk getting sniped in hotzones. Thus, I'm "up north," but I rarely see other players, and they rarely see me. Once the graphics glitches are fixed, I will probably start visiting the barracks again.

I agree. The MH-6 "Little Bird" is a lot of fun to fly in Arma2. It is a small, unarmed heli that would be believable in the Day Z world. (relatively low complexity; both to repair and to fly) Selfishly, I wish it was in Day Z, just because it's so much fun.

Great discussion. Regarding "isolation"... I strongly prefer to find my real-life friends in-game and play with them. For me, that is most of the fun. If you made a game (any game) and told me, "Here's this amazing multiplayer game, but you have to play it with strangers, and it is exceptionally difficult or unlikely to find your real-life friends in the game." I would say, "No thanks." Even if that's the reality of a sudden apocalypse scenario, it's not the game I want to play. My wife also would never touch a game where it was difficult or unlikely, by design, to play it with me. Some in this thread have suggested that it is antisocial to play with real-life friends, because it tends to shut out potential random socialization. I disagree, because playing with friends is another form of socialization. One is not better or worse than the other. What's really happening in Day Z, in my opinion, is that once you have a group of a certain size, the "safety in numbers" survival need is satisfied, and the risk of adding strangers starts to outweigh the reward. If you want survivors to interact more, I don't think isolation from out-of-game friendships is the right answer. Rather, you should look carefully at the risk/reward of "safety in numbers." I've often wondered... what if the zombies were a real, serious threat? How would that change the social dynamic? ("I could kill/ignore this newly spawned player, but I might be overwhelmed by zombies. I can't take them alone.") You can also provide players with a wide spectrum of tools and activities suited to different levels of socialization. Forced isolation, though, does not sound good to me.