worst2first

A clan mate walked into the front of a parked car, broke his legs and bled to death before we could save him. His body also disappeared. I guess the car ate him or something. Zombie cars?

Are you M. Night Shyamalan?

I found this stumbling around Youtube. Apparently there's an entire genre known as martial industrial that I wasn't aware of. This track sounds like Day Z to me.

Humans are biologically unprepared to be active at night (thanks God and / or evolution). I do what any survivor would do - find the safest place you can and sleep until dawn.

I HATED that helicopter scene. It pretty much ruined the film for me.

Perhaps it is the Earth's way of self-correcting human overpopulation.

I've done both and it's easier solo (at least for me). It comes down to a simple equation. The larger your group, the higher the percentage there is that someone will do something stupid and jeopardize everyone. Playing in a group also lulls you into a false sense of security. When you are on your own and there is no one to come save your ass if you screw up, you know you had better bring your A game all the time.

I have seen mass graves. Was this an effort to contain the outbreak? (Yes, I know they're part of ARMA II but use your imagination!)

Other than blood bags, there is nothing in Day Z that requires player cooperation. I believe Rocket plans on adding additional game content to expand the opportunities for cooperation but it may be a while before we see any of it.

The wheels on the bus go round and round... Playing with a bus is awesome. Unfortunately the one we found seemed to be glitched and we couldn't store anything in it. I love the idea of a bus service. Good luck!

Game Purchase

YES It's an attempt to mimic human perception. I once knew a guy that NO dogs liked. I too thought he was a little off. He turned out to be a criminal.

YES It's worth trying. Also - increase availability of civilian weapons, ammo and supplies / Dramatically decrease availability of military items.

I think I'm warming up to the idea of increased numbers and difficulty of zeds combined with far fewer scoped and military weapons. If you look at zombie films and novels survivors have to team up to survive. A fellow survivor is not a possible source of gear, they're a possible source of help and help (teamwork) is more valuable than gear. It should be far more difficult for an individual survivor to loot a building or repair a vehicle. Those actions should be almost impossible for a solo player but manageable for a team. (Novels and films are really the only thing we have to consider since nothing even remotely close to a zombie apocalypse has occurred and attempts to extrapolate what humans would do based on history or psychology are mere speculation that represent the author's personal views more than universal truth.) Having class bonuses (not a class system per say) would help but I don't know if this is possible with the current engine. One idea is that when you log in you are randomly assigned one of several backgrounds. Each background has an advantage. Possible backgrounds could be medical (bonus to healing), mechanic (bonus to vehicle repair), engineer / construction (bonus to fortification), pilot (bonus to repair / flight of helos), soldier (bonus to combat). One way to do this would be to give each player a non-removable item that represented the bonus (med kit, tool kit, flight helmet, specific military gear). Want to repair a vehicle? You could speed up the process (and perhaps increase total possible vehicle condition) by finding a mechanic and convincing him to help your group. The idea is to make a human life mean something more than a couple of cans of beans, some ammo and a weapon.

90% or more of the players don't even attempt to link up with other survivors in game any more. That doesn't mean they are killing each other though - a lot of people either flee the area or disconnect when spotted.

I didn't want to quote your entire post Yammazul but I like your ideas. I think it would be interesting if it were randomly assigned when you create a character or everyone would choose "special forces soldier". This would give players a motivation to link up. If a group wanted to get a car running, they could try to do it themselves or find a mechanic and convince him or her to help them and greatly speed up the process.

I would just like to point out that a burst anus is no laughing matter.

I wasn't speaking in terms of game players (I'm sure most ARMA vets can use just about any vehicle), but rather a random survivor of the zombie apocalypse. I don't know how many helo pilots there are in the world but if say 5 guys on a server can fly one that would mean approximately 10% of the population were skilled helo pilots. If realism is the goal, some random schlub should not be able to hop into a helicopter and take off.

I keep saying this but we need to be patient. Rocket seems to understand the problems with PvP and while it's never going away, changes are coming.

I think a legitimate question is "how many survivors would actually have the skills necessary to repair and fly a helo". Even repairing a car would be quite the challenge for the average person. With that in mind, I don't think survivors should be able to use helos.

Keep in mind that this isn't a game, yet. It's an extremely rough alpha. Rocket is aware that the game lacks content and cooperative play is currently only a real option if you team outside of the game. It will get better or it will fade away. (That is not to say that PvP is going away but the humanity system will be meaningful in some way and there will be more opportunities for cooperative play.) Try to be patient and give Rocket and the devs time to finish the game.

The poor state of the alpha and / or the limitations of the engine severely limit cooperative play. You can team up with other players but the only practical way to do this is outside of the game. This isn't a tenable system. The good news is that Rocket knows this and has repeatedly said that it is going to be addressed.

My wife isn't too happy about the amount of time I spend playing Day Z either. I told her, "Look at it this way. I could be out drinking, gambling and womanizing. At least with Day Z you know where I am and what I am up to. There's far worse I could be doing." I'm not sure she really bought my argument though.