Bal Sofs Tihl

The change I think would be best is giving more silent ways to take out zombies, such as melee weapons, and then spawn zombies according to the noise you make. So, if you run through town shooting your gun, zombies just keep coming, but if you are sneaky and quietly eliminate just the few zombies necessary to get where you want, no more spawn. This way, you can make the cities feel like they were actually populated without killing the servers.

The problem is that they are so weak and so easy to kill. Even now, at super speed, they are mostly harmless. Make them much harder to kill with body shots and make them do much more damage, then slow them down a bit.

Well, I think many people are making the assumption that this game has zombies instead of infected. Understandable, given the name of the game and the fact that everyone keeps using the word zombie. Obviously, a reanimated corpse is going to suffer some significant debilitation. For people who know these are infected, is would say it comes from another assumption, this time on the nature of the infection. The two biggest real-life causes generally piggybacked on for zombie fiction are "human mad cow disease" and rabies. The former causes balance and coordination impairment and altered gait, while the latter causes flu-like symptoms, partial paralysis and, eventually, coma. These would be significant impairments, even for a population that appears to be made up entirely of Olympic level sprinters. Of course, it is a fictional infection; so, you can ignore all these real-life factors I've mentioned if you like fast infected more. Personally, I think slow would be better, gameplay wise, but I think that is a different thread.

The build number comes from installing a beta patch.

How does that give an advantage to people who don't play very often?

"How long will it take my body to replenish my lost blood? The blood volume is typically replaced within 24 hours. Red blood cells take between four to six weeks for complete replacement, which is why the FDA requires an eight-week wait between blood donations. Your body will not be affected adversely by the loss of the pint of blood." From the Massachusetts General Hospital website. Someone who knows more about anatomy than I do would have to evaluate how to realistically implement that effect in the game. Maybe you can only regenerate a percentage of your health lost when regeneration begins. So, if the percentage is 50% and you get chomped down to 6000, you can only regenerate up to 9000. Although, the rate at which people need to eat has been accelerated; so, maybe blood regeneration could be, as well.

If you are wondering why so many threads are locked, this thread is the perfect example: nerds are terrible.

You should read the thread. Those issues have already been discussed.

That is from here and it contains a lot of additional analysis of the effect a bullet can have on the human body. There are also numerous anecdotal accounts of bullet wounds not dropping people. Reading Medal of Honor citations will provide an incredible number of them. That is all people just effected by adrenaline. Add in a virus that makes a zombie not feel pain, not even recognize he has been shot, and gives him added staying power, and well-placed shots are going to be a necessity. This all has not even considered any fictional elements one might want to include in a mythos that already involves a zombie apocalypse...

Quick point: Watch the first minute of this video. Do those zombies seem threatening? Their speed necessitates their weakness, which makes them not very dangerous. Slow them down, make them harder to kill and make them do much, much more damage. Then you'll have dangerous zombies. Zombies right now are too weak.

I definitely see the potential for melee to get hokey (L4D, the first one, is a great example of how this can go wrong). However, I do not think it would be too hard to balance just using attack speed. Basically, I would want melee to be used for quietly killing one isolated zombie, maybe two if you are the Bruce Lee of DayZ. I would not want it to be used to fight a group of zombies, just as an option to use if you are careful enough. It adds more reward for tactics and sneakiness and puts players, again, in closer proximity to the zombies, adding more danger.

The only issue I have with one-hit-kill is that a zombie catching you does not always equal a zombie biting you. They might get a hold of you and you could wrestle away before they bite you. I like somehow incorporating that into the game, but I definitely am not opposed to making whatever simulates the first bite be a death sentence. At least a death from infection, anyway, with a possible option to cure and a zombie spawned upon your death. That would add one more layer to interaction with other players - a layer that is classic to the genre. Also, the addition of melee attacks would be great. I know Arma II does not have them, or something, but would it work to rig it up the same way as the zombies? With melee in the game, ammunition could become even more rare than it is now. A person could start with just one clip and a melee weapon or even no gun at all. Less bullets and an even greater increase in proximity to the zombies would be another element that is both realistic, fun and makes slow zombies more viable.

Is there a list of what servers have what settings somewhere? There should be, because I love this. UK4 just took the top spot when I'm looking for servers.

The biggest problem is that, in real life, most nights would be spent sleeping. There are some nights that would be spent scouting and traveling and looting using the darkness to hide from bandits, but not every night. Not most nights. No one wants to play a sleeping simulator.

People keep saying that if the zombies slowed down, much more would have to be spawned. Playing the game, I can see that just is not true. Here is my idea for how the zombies could be improved: Speed: I would say faster than walking, but slower than running. The idea here is that if you are being chased or in a straight up fight, you run away, then turn and shoot, then run away, then turn and shoot. The zombies need to be slow enough for you to put distance between you and them, but fast enough that your shots have to be made under pressure. If you take too long, they will catch up to you. Durability: They only die to head shots. Period. Body shots will make them fall down, the way sometimes do now, but they will always get back up until their brain is gone. This makes those shots under pressure even more difficult. You can't just turn and spray, you have to aim carefully and panicking will just waste your ammo and still not kill the zombies. Danger: The first hit from a zombie hurts you: it takes away blood. The second hit wounds you: you start bleeding and you will die without first aid. The third hit kills you, regardless of your remaining blood. After 5 seconds, your number of hits reset, but you keep bleeding, obviously, and any blood lost from the first hit remains lost - blood regeneration mechanics do not change - and I would also suggest making one hit take more blood - I'm thinking three hits til death, five at the absolute most. That first hit is like the zombie getting a hold of you, but you shake him off and end him before he really sinks his teeth in. The second hit in 5 seconds is you getting a bite or a big scratch. You still have a chance to smash his head and survive, but you are hurt and bleeding - first aid is required to survive. If you take three hits in five seconds, you've failed to escape and are mortally wounded. Perhaps it could put you on the ground with the hourglass, but certainly you will die without the help of another person. Now, zombies are dangerous! It is imperative that you land your headshots. Numbers: This is the factor that people seem most concerned about, but the truth is that the total number of zombies is not that important. All that is important is the number of zombies compared to the available ammunition. I think, with the added danger mentioned above, slow zombies at the numbers present in the previous patch would be plenty of a threat. Another bonus is that slow zombies allow for a mechanic where loud noises spawn zombies a little ways off and causes them to head towards you or starts a timer before zombies spawn near your location. So, say you want to search a building. You kill the few zombies outside, but you know the sound means zombies will be there again in a short amount of time. Now, you have to search the house and be thorough enough to make it worth while, but be fast enough that you can be gone before the zombies get there. The last thing you want to do is walk outside and find the house surrounded, making your search cost double the ammunition. Additionally: I would also suggest renaming the "blood" stat to "stamina". Even in the current game, I feel like it would be more accurate. Not a big deal, really, but it also bothers me when game use "energy" or "power" in cases where stamina would do fine. Yes, I am silly. Another change I would suggest is that zombies cannot climb ladders or open doors (can they open doors? I haven't seen it yet, if they can...) but instead they wait at the bottom/outside and they never leave. My reasoning is that it adds an opportunity for increased teamwork. If you are out of ammo or in trouble, you can run up or inside. Then you are stuck there until you either run out of food and/or water or you convince someone that saving you is worth their trouble. You have to offer enough to make them want to save you, but you still need some supplies left over in order to survive. You also have to convince them you are not holding back, or they are likely to just kill you, as well, and take whatever you got. Also, I found this thread wherein rocket made a post that contained this:

I've got the same problem with the pressing "play" on the updater with the retail version. You change the launch parameters by creating a shortcut to the game, then right click>properties and add the listed text to the end of the "target" field, outside of the quotations marks.

In the grimdark world of DayZ, the virus has rendered most wood inflammable.

That is Simon Pegg writing. You can read the rest of it here. For slow zombies, you might observe a town or walk into a room and see that there are simply more zombies than you have bullets. Now, you have to figure out how to get through the room or get the supplies from the town without killing them. You might have to make them chase you, loop around and try to grab what you can before they get back. You might have to pick which ones really need to get killed and which ones you can work around. They also offer a situation where you have to accomplish tasks in very close proximity to death and danger and with time counting down until you are eaten. They can be 20 feet away and you still have time, but you have to hurry. Even if you want to kill them, you have to get a headshot. Body shots from far away do nothing but waste ammo and attract more. You have to get their attention and then stand there...waiting...as they come after you...checking behind you...listening to them moan and cry out...until they get close enough for reliable headshots. Also, slow zombies are the steadily approaching, inevitable horde. Like a cancer growing in your body: sure, you can avoid it and get on with your life, but for how long? Eventually, it will catch up you. One moment of carelessness, one lapse in vigilance and you are in trouble. Slow zombies are also sad. You see a human with a face, pathetically lumbering after you. They look dejected, desperate. It creates an image of humanity in its most basic form, doing only what it takes to survive. Then, they force you into a similar situation - doing whatever it takes to survive - so you can empathize with them. Here comes all the "we were the walking dead THE WHOLE TIME" and "who are the REAL monsters?" psychological mind freak. Fast zombies don't have these things. In a town full of fast zombies, you either fight them or you avoid them, because as soon as they see you, you or them has to die. There is no steady approach of death and there is no close proximity to danger, either. They are either too far away to be a threat or they are right on you. There is safety and there is danger with a big fat line drawn between. There is also no sympathy. Fast zombies are angry and violent. They don't reflect humanity's base urges, they reflect insanity: serial killers and mass murderers. You also cannot require headshots for fast zombies. They move so quickly that it just is not possible. There is no wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...tension. It is "BOO! ZOMBIES, MOTHERFUCKER!" and bangbangbangbangbang. Fast zombies lose significant elements of both gameplay and horror to the point where you'd get the exact same experience from a million other types of enemies. Dinosaurs, beastly aliens, lions, tigers, bears, etc. They are all the same. You might as well not even use zombies. Now, slow and shambling doesn't have to mean they move at a snail's pace. As people have discussed, those zombies require numbers prohibited by our technological limitations. However, zombies should still be slightly slower than we are. Slow enough to present the interesting challenges and horror that comes from having to do accomplish tasks in close proximity within a time frame (I have to grab everything I can before those zombies cross the town square), but fast enough that they don't need unfeasible numbers to be a threat.