Jamz

I'd like to see first or third person fixed by server for all players on that server, so there is the choice but everyone has the same view on each particular server. I use both views but mostly 3rd, if it was first person only I would still play though. The main disadvantage for me playing only first person would be not being able to tell if I've fully hidden/camouflaged myself.

Interesting article, especially the part about the 'selfish gene'. I wonder if this would be the case if players had just the one life in DayZ, so had to be more careful in game... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23529849

I've played DayZ for almost a year now and I still remember the very first time I set foot on the beach in Chernarus, back in July last year. When I play DayZ now I use imagination to enhance my experience, for me the mod is all about immersion. I love the way that there are no explanations for what is happening or a backstory for the character, so each one of my lives is different... And the first one, although short, was something like this... Survivor No.1: Jamz The shrill cries of the gulls overhead cut through the wind as the figure on the beach began to move. It was a man, sprawled half in the surf and fully clothed, a small and vulnerable object on the stark grey background of sand and mud. Slowly, He began to crawl and drag himself from the surf and up the sandbank towards a clump of bushes, the effort seeming to be almost too much for him to bear. The figure paused and rolled onto his back, let out a low groan and passed out. awareness crept back to Jamz in the form of the whistling wind and rythmic washing of the ocean. There was no pain but every breath he took was laboured, as if he had run a marathon. His mind swirled as he tried to think, to remember what had happened. He sat up slowly, aware of a weight on his back. He remembered the chopper, The frantic radio chatter, some kind of problem at their end. He had been on his way to investigate the outbreak of a new epidemic, a form of Flu, in the post-Soviet state of Chernarus. Not the first outbreak - the same syptoms had been reported in several other countries, but his team were closest to this one at the time. It was nasty virus, affecting the victims neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes in such a way that the infected exhibited an almost feral madness, which drove them to acts of savage violence. Jamz had been identified as being immune to the virus and, together with a team of immune scientists, soldiers and government observers, he had been sent by Chinook to a ship off the coast of Chernarus which was to be used as a staging area and makeshift laboratory. Only they never made it. The chopper had been hit by something, something fired from the land as they had followed the coastline. Jamz remembered grabbing a survival pack and sprinting for the opening cargo doors as the chopper vibrated and shook. The damage to one engine too much for the other to cope with, the pilot had opened the doors and ordered everyone to bail out as he tried to ditch off the coast.

As he reached the doorway, he saw that the door was open slightly but there were no signs of forced entry. He slipped through and pulled the door to behind him as his eyes adjusted to the low light in the hallway. He moved forward keeping low, the debris on the hallway floor suggested a struggle, or perhaps a hasty exit. The lights were off in the house and wind had blown leaves in, but Jamz thought he could see something on the floor of the kitchen ahead. He moved closer, his heart beating through his chest and saw it was clothing, military fatigues by the looks of it. The kitchen seemed empty so he shuffled towards the clothes, a quick scan confirming his guess. He scooped up the clothes, they seemed like they would be warmer than his current civilian gear. As he picked up the clothing, he discovered an old double barrelled shotgun underneath them. There were only two shells for it that he could see so he quickly packed the clothing away, collected them up and loaded it, he wasn't really sure it would be a good idea to find out if it worked as it seemed almost antique. Suddenly he heard something. He snapped the breech shut and froze for what seemed like hours, hearing the only the wind outside. Then, a low grunt! It originated from outside but from where he had entered the house. He turned slowly, the darkness of night now enveloping the house, but he could make out movement in the doorway. It looked like a man, but there was something inhuman about him. He was bent to one side, crooked as if he had an injury but he didn't seem to be in pain. Suddenly the man seemed to notice Jamz for the first time and roared, a sound more akin to a wild animal. Jamz moved, as if jolted into action and sprinted toward the figure, fear giving him strength. He barged past the man and out of the house, as he barged past the man he noticed his features were twisted into a mask of anger. His eyes prinpricks of white in the blackened sockets and his skin cracked and stretched across his skull like a demon of some sort. The man made a grab for Jamz but he twisted and let rip with both barrels from the 12 guage. The force of the blast lifted the figure off his feet and almost tore him in half. The mangled corpse ended its jouney by the kitchen doorway, a pulpy mess. Jamz ran, he didn't know what he was going to do now but he had to get out of this place. The infection was here and he was in danger, he could hear the cries of other infected beginning to pursue him as he ran. He had to get to the forest, maybe he could lose them amongst the trees but he didn't know where he was, panic began rising and he could hear himself panting loudly as he ran. He took a right turn into what seemed to be an alley way, and straight into the path of an infected. He couldn't alter his course in time and collided with it, both of them collapsing to the ground. Jamz desperatley struggled with the thing but heard more of them closing in. As they pummled and bit at him, his last thought was that his world was over, it would be like this everywhere. The Human Race didn't have a chance.

Jamz checked the survival kit strapped to his back, it was half opened and most of its contents had been lost to the ocean he guessed, but a waterproof torch remained. Also a military issue bandage. His clothes were soaking wet and the wind was picking up, he knew he had to get off the beach soon or risk hyperthermia. He stood up and for the first time, looked inland. It seemed deserted, a highway ran parallel to the beach and hills and mountains rose up into the distance. He guessed he must be near to the town of Chernarus and decided that the first thing to do was to find a telephone and contact his superiors, he would need a pickup. He scanned the road before him, to the right he caught a glimpse of what looked like a house. It was beginning to get dark but there were no lights that he could make out. Suddenly, he felt panic rising... what if the infection was here? he was immune but he had seen footage of what the infected could do. 'Calm down' he told himself, it's entirely possible that the place was deserted. He began to walk along the road towards the house. As he approached the house, he could see it was actually part of a small village. He noticed an object in the road ahead, what looked like a pile of furniture, wood, metal sheets, it spanned the road like a makeshift barricade. He saw that part of a fence had been pushed down to his right and ducked into a crouch run as he saw a dark red patch on the wood, maybe he wasn't alone here. Moving quietly, he ducked into the bushes at the foot of the path leading to the nearest house. The wind was relentless now, whipping at him and roaring in his ears as he moved slowly down the path to the house.

This poll is a good idea, see how people really feel about the SA's progress. I voted no.

There needs to be some danger to the bandit for taking the bandit path. Whether it's a humanity system or something else, there needs to be some comeback to mindless slaughter because it's so easy in the mod. In ancient times murderers were caught and killed or banished by townspeople working together to save themselves. If the townspeople and the murderers were all identical it would be impossible to stop the murderer and all non murderers would die or become murderers. In the mod you would then have an identipvp shooter, like all the rest and it would become very dull, with no risk. It's simple really, I don't see why people can't understand this. FYI I don't think skins are really the way forward, or even a humanity system, but there should be something.

In the SA everyone should look slightly different with the clothing system so players could gain reps on servers amoungst players. I think this would be effective and better than having skins, it would also force bandits to change clothing regularly so not to be identified. I envisaged a map like Chernarus where the numbers and difficulty of the zombies increases the further inland you went and with the military targets furthest inland, players would only be able to get to them in groups. A river would bisect the map with the bridges being roadblocked to stop players from using vehicles to get to the inland parts too. Not sure how viable this would be in the mod but maybe something similar in the SA?

As said, don't rely on tree's to vex them anymore. If you can't lose them it's better to lure them into an open area, backwards jog and shoot them from the hip as they follow... even better if you can use the axe. when they stop to attack, just step back out of range and hit them. It's quite reliable when you get the timing right.

I'm glad it's back, I like it here. A little suprised that the first new topic wasn't 'where's the standalone' though :huh:

Personally I'd only be interested in base building if it required a very large number of players (20+) working together to complete and maintain each one. Otherwise I'll continue to lone wolf and sleep rough in the SA.

It doesn't matter if it is or not. It's a free mod, it'll continue regardless of popularity.

There can be only one...

This too is part of the problem, players need to be able to blend in and disguise themselves but be fundamentally identifiable somehow. It would probably be better then to keep findable skins in, so if players like you wanted to disguise yourself you could wear the skin, but other players could still potentially be cautious. Of course if you removed the skin you would be identifiable so wearing for instance, a ghillie suit, would be similar to choosing to wear a forced neutral skin, like the present survivor skin.

I agree with some of what you have said (my opinions on morals and whether DayZ reflects reality can be found on other threads), however The removal of bandit/Hero skins should have to be replaced by a better system - like also removing all other obtainable skins and having each survivor account spawn with a set of unique clothing which cannot be changed. Players can then be recognised up close and can gain in game reputations, it would simulate that no two people look the same in reality. I don't understand why some people think that players with morals will not kill either.

It's a shame, I really wanted to get an M9 when I first started playing (mostly due to John McClane) but it was a bit disappointing when I finally did.. It doesn't sound right to me when it's fired. Now if they are redone for the SA, and you can remove your shoes and wear a white vest, then it'll be yippee Ki-yay motherfucking zombies

As I only use a sidearm for zombies and primary vs players, I would pick PDW due to ammo availability. I don't find the sights to be a problem vs zombies.

As above, the goal of the virus is to spread, I'd imagine it would be pointless for the virus to drive its 'host' to attack a target it couldn't spread to. Having said that, if it knew we were immune then the infected should leave us alone - using that logic... I guess they can't tell.

Recognising where you are when you start, knowing where the best things can be found for lowest risk etc. If you are on a low pop server then you can chance Cherno or Elecktro (if not, head north via deerstands and barns), where you can follow a circuit ie firestation/pub/church/supermarket etc. If you can get far enough away (head to industrial areas for hatchet/toolkit) then back and hit firestations/supermarkets again for bigger packs, matches and hunting knives... I leave hospitals until last as they are tricky - you have to ditch zeds by line of sight rather than passing through buildings. Always crouch run until spotted then sprint through a building with two exits if need be. Crawl only if absolutely necessary, it takes too long to get up if you need to run. Lastly, give zeds plenty of space, never pass close to them and head in the opposite direction to tight groups of them. Hope this helps.

I want this to be the toughest online game out there. I want to have to keep trying, and keep failing, to survive. I want the point of DayZ to be being dropped into the most harsh environment in videogaming with nothing and to survive, to get a handle on the situation... even if it takes months to get to that stage. The initial part of this mod is golden and when you manage to get everything you need and want, the experience dulls somewhat. It's not there yet, but still an awesome experience and part of me misses the frustration I often had last summer of desperately needing matches, but only finding Mountain Dew :(

Just to expand on what you have touched on there, The main reason for so much indiscriminate (or indeed discriminate) killing in DayZ as I understand it is because that's the most 'fun' thing to do for most people in game. In a computer game. In life of course there are a multitude of different things to do, you can interact with everything and you're certainly not likely to want to kill the way the game encourages you to. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a computer game/simulation to reflect the reality of a certain situation because it lacks reality itself - this is the question being asked and while people would kill people for sure, wouldn't happen as it does in game. DayZ is more of a Battle Royale situation at the moment and cases of KOS are far greater then they would be in the situation DayZ portrays because of this. If it happened for real then of course people would kill people, criminals amongst us who are kept in check by society could run free, but as a percentage of the population they would be a very small number. I believe the majority of deaths would be accidental through panic induced by the high stress of the situation, more manslaughter than murder. This is a situation never before encountered so no similar historic events can be used as comparison... people being attacked by infected loved ones and authority figures would be confused and scared, maybe even kill to defend themselves but it's unlikely they would kill regularly. The way things are portrayed in game, food would not be scarce at all, but getting to it may be difficult so groups would form quickly and in some cases fight each other, but I suspect the most successful groups would be the ones who established order and saw the potential value of each surviving human being. If DayZ followed this course, there would be groups forming on every server and occupying areas to survive.

Remember, the term 'Kill On Sight' indicates a premeditated and deliberate execution with no prior contact/dialogue.

Do I think that DayZ's player killing simulates real life authenticity? No. Whereas there would be plenty of killing in such a situation, particularly in the initial stages, I don't think it would be quite how it is in the game and I don't think KOS would be as 'popular'. I think the misstrust people would have with strangers would be overridden to a degree by the threat of the infection, people who realise its threat would look to join with others but the misstrust would still be there. Human beings can be savage but not for no reason, only the mentally damaged would kill if there was nothing in it for them and they would not survive for long..

It looks like expressive dance. I'd like to see a group of 20 of them doing it in time to music, personally.

I have to say, it was also a fictional world and situation - there is really no reason to think this is how all post apocalyptical scenario's should always pan out. Whilst I agree that when pushed to desperation human beings will put their own survival above everything else, history shows that one way (the most successful way) they do this is by working together. There is no real reason to do this in the mod at present, especially if you simply want to KOS, so no advantage to approaching strangers passively. I love pvp in DayZ but only with the tension you get from uneasy situations, first contact breaking down or a mistake making someone panic and everything goes to shit for instance. I also like the preparation part of finding items because it's what sets the mod apart from other shooters... There is something to lose even though you respawn, even if you can get it back, it's still being risked which adds to the experience. I don't think the pvp will diminish in the SA with more limited weapons either, maybe it will be more close range which is a good thing I think.