Jamz

Melee should be the primary form of self defence so yes, I hope a lot of time is spent on it too. If I hit a zombie with a shovel, I want it to look like I've hit something solid, I want it to take a couple of hits before its head is off and most importantly I want there to be blood everywhere so other people can tell something died here. I doubt I'll be able to wear its head as a hat but hey ho.

DayZ is nothing like a zombie apocalypse, and be glad for that. If it was, nobody would want to play it.

Loot cycling? I've seen the evidence sometimes on private servers - piles of crap outside barrack's doors for instance. Maybe it could be argued that it's an exploit but I imagine it is dangerous to do and essentially players are just speeding up time as there is no rule about revisiting the same loot pile. As items continue to spawn even after being cycled I don't really see a problem, if there were only a certain number of specific items spawned between server resets I would think differently, but as far as I know it's all random.

For me, although I don't consider using TS to be cheating, I wouldn't use it myself. I see it as an advantage much like reducing detail levels in game, or using 3rd person which anyone can use (I personally use 3rd person but detail on full). Ideally I think it's fine for people to use but I'd prefer it if whatever was said over TS was also audible on proximity. Having said that, the above mentioned things are only an advantage in game during actual pvp combat really and I think as there is more to lose upon death in DayZ then I can understand why it's a sticking point.

I miss the dayz when I was new, all I really remember about it now is running and panic! Lots of running.

That's what I would like to see. It should still be as easy as it is now to find a firearm but with very limited rounds, likely a pistol or shotgun until reaching a military base inland and then ammo should be very rare. If faced with a group of survivors with AK's for instance, evasion should be used rather than engagement if the odds are not favorable. The beauty of having such large maps is that there are many ways to tackle problems and sometimes bad luck means you will find yourself in an unwinnable situation. Melee weapons would be a back up but mostly used for zombies. I'm only interested in the removal of the 50cal rifles and that's for the sake of plausibility, I wouldn't think any balancing would be required to address that as so many other similar weapons are also in game.

Another good reason for the removal of the higher end weapons. Players would still just as easily be able to kill each other with the more common (and more likely to be available) standard military arms. The SA will still cater for PvP, in fact as stated, it will potentially be more common. Bring it on. Only you'll have to see the whites of your opponents eyes when you pull the trigger...

A spring loaded bolt launcher, quiet and able to fire anything of a certain size ie, bolts, screwdrivers, knives etc. Not accurate, but meant for close range.

Stalker had a very good weight system, I think something like that would work well and force players to make choices under pressure while scavenging. I'd like to have to choose between taking extra food or ammo and have to sneak or taking less and being able to outrun zombies.

Where as that is correct, some weapons and items are not standard issue. Lets say then that these weapons were included on the strength that it was 'possible'. With the mod the way it is, no matter how rare you make an item people will get it if they want it hence the popularity of the high end sniper weapons, so including non standard issue weapons and making them very rare doesn't limit their numbers. The best way to simulate their rareness is not to have them at all,this would not be detrimental to the SA in any way so why not?

And looking at the size of the bases present on the maps we play on, none are larger than an observation base. Regardless as to whether the bases were there already or not, There is nothing to suggest such specialized weaponry as the AS50 would be kept there, or shipped there for any reason. I don't have a problem with those weapons per se, but their inclusion is at odds with the situation that DayZ is providing. IMO, of course.

Absolutely, as yours is only your opinion too. Armed groups of people - why would the military need AS50's to stop them, assault rifles would be plenty good enough for that job. Still no reason to include anti material rifles. Try looking at the situation as more of a civil war than an actual war. There would be an emphasis on keeping order as well as defending civilians. There wouldn't be much call for assasinations.

If you think the high end sniper weapons like the AS50/M107 should be found in the SA, you are thinking about this all wrong. Remember, its not a coventional war being fought here, the enemy doesnt have vehicles or even weapons so why would anti material weapons need to be at FOB's? The military bases would have been set up to deal with casualties and refugees and while there would of course be weapons, there would be nothing which wasn't anti-infantry. Sniper rifles would be there, but special forces gear wouldn't. I get why people like to use the AS50/M107 for fun (mostly to show off I suspect) but these thing don't fit, particularly when in the hands of an untrained survivor.

I've found lots of helicopters... and instantly crashed every single one of them. I think hovering is not my strong point...

I quite like that. But maybe to reflect how a person might toughen up when forced to live of the land, intervals needed between drinking and eating could lengthen over the days survived so that scavenging becomes required less frequently. Essentially resistance to the elements could increase slightly over time. It's something that's not really necessary or overpowering to players in PvP but introduces a reason to survive, and only very small time increases for the intervals.

PvP will never be removed or limited, I think thats a given so bandits need not worry about that. I think the idea is that zombies become more of a priority in the world, making survival more of a core mechanic in DayZ -imo Players should be trying to survive first and foremost, and PvP should occur around that. If for arguments sake a bandit group attacked a survivor group with guns for instance, there should be virtually a 100% chance of zombies getting invoved and being as much as a threat as the players. I'd like to see teaming up with randoms (either bandits or survivors) being a more viable way of proceeding in the game and a harder baseline survival difficulty would encourage this.

I find night time play to be.. dull.. now, there is no fear left in the game after you have played it for some time. I find deserted towns much more eerie in the daylight, with more associated risk.

'Desolate'

Since the patch I've noticed however that they do seem to have shorter attention spans than before, for instance if they follow me into a building I crouch still and out of sight and mostly they will just lose interest and wander out again. Also quite often I have actually sprinted past zombies (mostly at NWAF when I'm running up and down the hangars) with their backs to me and they have not seen me. I mean ran past at full sprint within almost a metre of them. Then other times they spot me through an entire building as I'm crawling lol, but there are certain areas on Cherno at least where I know what will happen depending on how I act as the zombies always do the same things there. ie crouch half in the end room doorway in a barracks building and they will usually wander off, do the same in the end bedroom in the pub and they will come right up to you.

I wonder if the corpse dissappearance times have changed recently? When I ran myself over with my UAZ (sigh) by Berezino, I spawned at Electro and ran back directly but when I got there, both UAZ and my corpse had vanished. Must have taken about 20mins. I don't mind losing my stuff, but I wasted 20mins running when I could have taken some time gearing up instead.

1) Its not a game so can't be compared to a game, its an unfinished mod - it is never going to be perfect. 2) Its never been done before as far as I know. Brand new things are always hard to grasp and understand at first so you can't expect people to just accept it the way it is. Best just to ignore the complaints and get back to Cherno, there are bikes to be found.

Actually the term Zombie technically didn't originally refer to the undead. Its origins are from Haiti where a powdered drug was used by Voodoo priests to give the illusion of death to villagers who were buried, then exhumed some time later and kept drugged to work in the poppy fields. Sometimes family members would recognise these drugged villagers in the fields but in their comatose state, coupled with the evidence of the recently emptied grave, they were believed to be undead.

Why don't any of these cans of fizzy drinks I find all over the floor explode in my face when I try and drink them? The whole infected idea falls down because of starvation when you consider how long some players have survived. There shouldn't be any infected left after a couple of weeks, its best we don't ask questions...

I'd hang on for the SA.

I'd say the supermarket and the firestation are the highest value targets, then the med tents. If I'm quickly going through from fresh spawn I hit both the Supermarket and firestation twice, first and last, things like pubs and church only once each on the way through. Takes about 20 mins and then off to Balota.