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Ghosting is the accepted DayZ community name for the action; you're doing nothing but confusing new players who will see your "Ghost walking" here and "Ghosting" somewhere else and look like an idiot when they don't understand.

If I put 10 rounds cleanly into someone and they didn't drop, I might log in a panic too. Ghosting sucks. Really ruins the immersion for me. That's my reason for arguing against a global inventory, or minimizing it at the very least. Putting a damper on weapon hoarding = putting a damper on gun hopping/ghosting

Most simple solution to ghosting is, you can leave and reenter your server as often as you want, but if you switch server inbetween, your banned from your last server for a given time (15 minutes). This way you can go take a pipi/poo/food/sexytime break when ever you want, and come back to play with your buddies. But if you switch the server, you cant go back. More detail about my solution can be found under the link in my sig.

I've had 5 situations already where server-hoppers spawned literally 2m away from me. One time 5 guys spawned at the same time in one room near me - plainly ridiculous. I don't think any of those situations was used for ghosting me, just loot hopping I guess. Anyway, this leads to a situation, where all the military bases are almost completely cleaned and the rest of the map has no players at all. I'm afraid that DayZ is going in the same direction as WarZ, where there are a couple of places which respawns military loot where players server-hop constantly, and then they go to "PVP towns" when fully geared (like Cherno now). This completely killed the survival aspect of the game. Call me radical, but I would prefer sending people back to the coast every time they change servers. I don't care if I had to walk through the whole map to get back to my friends, a survival game should not be convenient.

i used the term Ghost walking to broaden it out a bit, theres a lot of new players on this game. Ghosting means something differnt in other games. can you blame a man for trying to make it easier to understand?

Hmm maybe the solution to ghosting in combat is to save positions specific to certain servers, and only allow a newer position to overwrite an older if the old position is more than X hours old. So if you log out of Server A change your position on Server B and go back to Server A you get back into the game at the same position where you left Server A. But if you go back to Server B you log in at the newer position on B and so on. But if the required offtime has passed you log in at the newest position record found on all servers. This shouldn't affect normal server change situations (crashes, friends there), but will effectively prevent situation as described in the OP. As for server hopping for loot: That should solve itself once loot respawn is patched in server side. Remains server hopping for prey: That is a tough one. I see no solutions that would not in any way affect "clean gameplay".

That's called ghosting, not ghost walking... ...anyway, coming in an update sometime (hopefully soon) as well as getting rid of combat logging and server hopping.

Uh fixing ghosting is as simple as understanding SQL. So given that the entire point of DayZ has been that its persistence was based in Rocket hammering Arma 2 into a SQL database....I think the answer should come to him eventually. All the data he needs to actually make it impossible...he already has, so its not exactly "Rocket" science at this point....bahaha, I made a funny.

I met my first combat logger today. He was trying to sneak up on me in some bushes by the Balota airfield. I lit him up. He logged. I'm not even mad. It's nice to know someone was trying to gank me and failed. I beat a retreat though from that area, because while combat logging might be cheesy, ghosting is more of an issue IMO and I didn't feel like waiting around to be unavoidably ghosted.

No proof of ghosting. Hypocritical. Who cares.

I dont see how you can automatically say it was ghosting.... Sitting at Balota airfield sniping is gonna get you killed... Why could someone have not just flanked you? Or even just spawn in near you or happened to be running from that direction? Its Balota.. the way the map is setup people are going to be migrating there from everywhere....

I think people worry too much about ghosting.... No excuses play like a champion.

I hope they implement a solution fast. had such a great pvp experience today. the first one in over 50 hours played without anyone combatlogging or ghosting. wish their would be more of those :)

Hello , I'm sorry to hear about your trouble. I do want to remind you that the rules are NOT currently being enforced. As i've mentioned several times , the project will launch when more server options are released. For now you must treat the server as a casual one , until we launch the project , then stuff like KoS , ghosting , etc will be punished severely. Regards

I was looking for a post on this topic. Ghosting is my pet peeve. Three of us successfully defended a building in an AB inspite of the opposition logging in and out to see where we were in the unrendered (for them) building. They also continually clipped into outside walls and fired randomly hoping to hit us. They then ghosted into the upper floor room. We heard them in there getting ready to rush us and decided rather than playing along to take away thier pleasure by exiting. They exhibited pretty low class gameplay. I have two names that I look for now and I won't play on any server they are on. I know they can change names and perhaps part of the solution is to make names permanent. After awhile the community will identify the cheats and hackers and be able to ostracise them ourselves. Report suspisious relogging to server admins and perhaps they can confirm and take punitive action. Death messages might help further this process. Now I know I will get replies from trolls and those who exist only to compensate for low self esteem by ranting and rude comment. I would really like to hear some ideas on how we, the community can deal with exploiters, cheats and hackers.

I agree, as a player that it is top priority. But for dev of an alpha game this is left to be a finishing touch. As you see for Rocket the priority is to add a revolver and work on server interface, hacker and combat loging/ghosting will probably wait till late 2014.

Ghosts are the lowest form of life in DayZ with the possible exception of combat loggers. Its always been a problem with the single hive architecture though. When you can just hop through a dimensional portal and end up in the same place, there is very little point to actually utilizing the entiriety of the map to search for gear all you need to do is get to one place that has a good cross section of everything you'll need, like...Zelenogorosk in the SA, which has military, residential and industrial spawns all within about 100m of each other and you're all set. Hop through low pop servers to gear up and...well overall you're pretty much done with the game at least in the current state of the SA. Now that kinda sucks but the real problem with ghosting isn't the people cheaping it up by grubbing up all the good gear from server to server, eventually the real problem with ghosting means there is no actual place of semi-security that you can fall back to or use as a base that cannot be infiltrated and invaded by someone who will simply see that you're stacked up in say....the big industrial at Berezino, with a few friends covering the outside approach..and all they have to do is get close enough to see that, get an idea of where people are keeping watch, then they just hop to another server, enter the big industrial where there are no defenders whatsoever, hide under the staircase or something or in a good position on one of the floors where the defenders were last know to be, log in to the original server and immediately have the tactical advantage of surprise because no one was immediately expecting a threat from inside the building. Its the cheapest and easiest way to win a fight in a central hive experience when it comes to a building you know is defended. The only fix I've ever really considered for this problem is to timestamp a player record on connection and disconnection, and disallow fast reconnections to multiple servers. This removes a bit of freedom from the player but its the only way to keep people from just avoiding having to play the game as intended by simply abusing the "Long Earth" nature of Chernarus in a main hive multi-server environment. Effectively the only way to stop it is simply to disallow it by limiting server switching based by login/logout timestamping, and serverID checks. If someone is exceeding a certain amount of server swaps in a proscribed time frame. Then if a player is falling under the predefined login checks in regards to timestamp and serverID history on their record, a progressively longer login delay or logout timer should be applied to their character. In simple terms, if I log on to say, US 1, and spend less than 600 seconds on that server, log out, then I login to US 2 and again I spend less than 600 seconds on that server, these things should be recorded to the Hive (and they are, given the amount of data you are pulling from the hive already) and its a simple case to simply block server access right at the loading screen with a delay timer that displays right over the character that says you have to wait X amount of minutes to join another game. Since mostly everyone will only have one character, this cuts down heavily on people taking the easy and cheesy method of gearing up and/or outflanking known enemy defenders because all it takes is a few simple checks when the client queries player data from the hive, on launch, to determine the key data needed to know if the player is a server hopper or a legitimate player. The hive most definitely knows the last serverID you played on when you start the DayZ client, so effectively all you have to do is force everyone back to the menu screen after server logout, and run a hive data check every time. If the Timestamp data for login/logout/serverID/PlayerPosition over the last X minutes of play doesn't match up...then simply enforce a login delay on the character which deactivates both the Play and Server browser buttons. This all by itself curb checks peoples capability to constantly ghost through the network and avoid playing the game...cause its really what they're doing, they're avoiding playing the game at all but still "winning" as it were and they'll always have a direct advantage against people playing the game as intended because they gear faster and they're a constant threat to anyone playing the game as intended because they can appear at any time that someone playing the game legitimately is trying to get access to high value loot and simply overpower them based on their constant and direct access to key military hardware that the non-ghosting player cannot get their hands on because of the hoppers in the first place.

I won't beat a dead horse too badly, but my group just got into a massive, extended firefight against against a group of 5 (7?) Server hopping, ghosting KoS bandits at Balota Airfield. We were in three groups. 3 of us at NEA, one in Komarovo, and one at Balota. Our man in Balota observed a group of bandits killing bambis in the area, and to confirm our suspicions, he approached unarmed and called out friendly. He was killed immediately. The group at NEA ran at a dead sprint across the map to the hills north of the Airfield where we met and left a sniper on over watch. The other 3 with M4s approached the airstrip and closed on the Large building. With the sniper initiating contact with a clean head shot to a player in wait to the south, the assault team began rapid fire engagement of 4 other bandits. One was shot upwards of 5 times in the open before combat logging. Another went down inside the closest hangar. The remaining combat logged, and flanked to the trees north of the airstrip. I pushed into and cleared the large building with support watching the door. Once gaining lodgment in the top floor, a player appeared in the top hall. We killed each other inside. No player entered behind me, and there was a reloading sound shortly before I died. Upon re spawning at the Airfield, we located three more players who had logged into the treeline north of the green hangars. Our sniper engaged and killed one before the other two combat logged. I recovered the enemy weapon and took up a firing position. Two poorly aimed shots landed around me forcing me to fall back to the east. The same two combat loggers engaged me from the east, hitting me twice but could not kill me. While under ineffective fire from those two, I retreated to the hill in front of the houses. Hitting one player with mosin fire, both immediately combat logged before the remaining M4 team member could close on them. I have never experienced combat logging on quite this ridiculous scale before. I'm not QQing, but one of the side effects of the fast loading speed of a player into a server has led to an increased ability to jump around during a fight. StatiK should have video of this event, which ai will link to when available.

Rocket launchee from quake! No but seriously, i would like to see more endgame goals, like base building if ghosting is solved. Like in the wasteland mod maybe, but with more base models. And maybe the ones that dont break the legs of everyone around you. And barbed wire that actually hurts you

Pretty similar to what I have been suggesting, so I am just going to add what I think. Step 1 Essentially, the biggest thing required is to carefully consider how to determine if a player is "in combat", having players nearby should not be considered in combat, as friends wouldn't be able to log out near each other, and can be exploited as mentioned. There is many ways of determining in combat status however: - If you're currently bleeding (you must bandage or you're considered in combat) - If there was someone "Attacking" within a certain radius of you (Melee/guns, pretty much any "hostile" action could count for this, that includes if you yourself did that action) - If you were dealt damage (or dealt damage, whether to a player or a zombie, or by a player or a zombie) - If a zombie is nearby (This is a big one, once zombie respawns are in, will basically count as being in combat unless you wipe out all the zombies nearby, usually would involve having to leave a town) - If shots were hitting nearby within the radius (So if a player is outside the "hostile action" radius, yet shooting at you, it will count as being in combat) That is about all I can think of right now, there might be other ways to determine if a player should be considered in combat or not, but for now that should hopefully give some ideas. Step 2 The next step is to determine how to handle combat logging, which is usually the focus of peoples discussions, so there's already plenty of ideas out there. The biggest issue is legit disconnections/crashes versus alt+f4ing/pulling your network cable out/etc. And also the fact the for some people, there are times where they simply must leave, this is not an excuse for combat logging, and impossible to determine if just combat logging or leaving because they have to. Because of that, I don't think there should be a required log out timer, if people really have to go, they should be able to, but suffer from the punishment for combat logging. So I believe there should be a set timer of say, 30 seconds if someone is considered in combat, when you hit the menu key, you can see the timer, if they click log out it will be considered combat logging, if however they wait for the timer to reach 0, they can log out just fine and are not considered combat logging. I can't imagine a better system for determining when someone determined as "in combat" from the first step, moves into the "combat logged" stage of the second step, remember though that "30 seconds" can be changed if needed. Step 3 Now for step three, the punishment. If you combat log, what is the punishment? At first I was going for a "your character dies" punishment, based on logging out while unconscious or handcuffed changes, this could still work, but the reason its needed for handcuffing is because the person who handcuffed them wont know if the player decided to log off if we try to go with some kind of "character remains logged in for X seconds/minutes", that is also why I didn't put handcuffing or unconsciousness in the list of ways to determine if in combat. Where as if you're still alive, you can still be killed, you're still vulnerable. So I think if "combat logged", the character should remain logged in for 2 minutes(again, amount can be adjusted). Step 4 Now here comes the final step, the character is in "Combat logged" mode, stuck on the server, but what could happen?: - Character gets handcuffed I know this is unlikely, but if someone handcuffs a combat logged character, when the timer expires, the character will get all the "log off" rules applied as if they just logged off, so the character dies, which leads to... - Character gets knocked unconscious More likely to happen, same deal as handcuffed, character dies - Player tries to join another server Should be locked out from joining any other server, this can help prevent ghosting and the like, but the real purpose is to prevent inconsistencies with the Hive, and loot duplication - Player tries to join the same server I really only seeing this happen if someone lost connection briefly, or the game crashed, they log back in to whatever the character state the "dummy" was in. So if they were handcuffed, they would be handcuffed when they log back in, if unconscious, they will log back in unconscious, if they then log off again, their character will die as per the other log off rules. That's my suggestions and thoughts on the topic anyway.

Since my first days in DayZ I hated Server hopping and ghosting, be it for looting reasons or even worse to get in someones back while PVPing so my normal approach is to KoS them as soon as I spot one logging in. Gladly DayZ SA offers now a second option... And there my story starts. Since I spawned a few days back I got myself fully equiped apart from an ACOC for my M4 so was hopeing to get one earlier today in the new tents at NWAF, I approached them carefully from the northeast corner with several breaks to see if anyone is already there, all was quiet, 22 people on the server. I started checking the 1st sandbagbunker outside the wall, nothing of use, 2nd bunker inside the wall the same as just when I was about to leave the bunker I hear the reload sound behind me, turn around and a Server Hopper loggs in, right in the corner of that bunker. Now I hope my plan goes well and I shot him in the leg, it brakes, goooood :D . I immidiatly yell over direct comms: "Sorry, sorry you just scared me to death, I will help you and heal, you just give me a second." I waited 5 to 10 seconds then Mr Hopper anwsers: "Ok, no problem, I´m just glad you didnt killed me." I got him and he didnt logged out, hurray. Then he told me that he was unconcious and I jumped up and down on my computer chair :D :D I asked him how long and he told me "looks like it will be for ages" and we agreed that I go and look for a saline bag ( which was already in my Backpack ) to get him back on the feet but 1st I bandaged him to secure his trust in me. While I searched the surrounding tents ( atleast thats what he thought I was doing ) we had some small talk over direct chat and he told me that this was his 4th server today he was jumping to. I came back to check the area from that bunker I told him and we talked some more while I started phase 2 of my cunning plan, put all his stuff out of his backpack in one that was laying beside him and got that away on my next run for the 2nd tent row on my search for saline :D So there he was, with his face in the grass, no gear left, no meds, no food, probably half dead and a still broken leg, poor him :( Time to confront him with with the reality! While I got my saline out that I "just found" I told him that I will handcuff him for my own security, he accepted after a short arguement and the offer by me to end him right now if he will not obey. The saline goes into his venes and there he is, awake and back on his knees, telling me that all is still greyish and that he is shakeing. So time to start phase 3 of my plan. Without any further notice I started forcefeeding him 3 pieces of rotten fruits I found earlier in his backpack. I guess he didnt know that you shouldnt eat them as he was not moaning and I coudnt hold on myself an started laughing over comms like a maniac and told him what an dumpass he is for server hopping and getting himself in such a situation. I wished him a slow painful death from the rotten fruits and went away with lots of name calling comming from him over comms that got lower and lower... Have a nice day fellow Server Hopper, I hope we meet again...

24h cycles actually break the immersion for me. It is possible to die of starvation/dehydration several times within one day/night cycle of a 24h server. Dont get me wrong, I dont want total "realism" where i could go without food for 3 weeks or without water for 3 days, that would entirely defeat the purpose of the survival mechanics (looting, cooking, resting) already in place providing a meaningful experience to the gameplay and we all have to face one fact: As much as rocket calls DayZ some kind of anti-game it is and always will be a game. I still think that the overall baseline time to starve/dehydration should at least somewhat be reflected in the actual passing of time. I also dont like that I am kind of "forced" to do one or the other. Playing at day or playing at night. I would actually like to experience both..and not by logging from a daylight server to a nighttime server but instead by the time actually passing in a somewhat simulated way that makes it possible to have that dynamic change of scenery gradually happen in a gameplay session. Especially for people with something similar to a 9-to-5-job this can get quite annoying, logging through servers until you can actually "do" something. I think nighttime play and especially the lighting engine need a rework. Right now Flashlights come in two flavors and both kind of taste like shit. Flavor one is the handheld flashlight..which is the single most useless object in dayz. Even more so than toiletpaper in the mod. Your flashlight barely helps you see anything and it gets worse (you see even less) the closer an object is to you. Trying to look for food in a rural home? Get fucked! Handling is clunky and weird, light doesnt work like that IRL and every enemy (currently: every player not on your steam friends list) in a 2km radius can see you lighting up the house like its an asian paper lamp. Oh yeah..and it gives away your location. You are an "idiot" if you dont try to exploit gamma like every bushcamping wannabe-bandit or selfrighteous wannabe hero already does. Another thing to note is that you are utterly defenseless thanks to the flashlights apparent weight of 20 pounds which forces your Survivor to wield it with both hands, unable to equip even a knife or pistol. Best usage for a flashlight at night while having a buddy around? Stay outside of the location you want to loot. Flick the switch and point the torch at the approximate location of the desired room, have your friend go inside and enjoy a house that is lit up like amsterdams redlight district. Because apparently houses in Chernarus are made of indestructable paper. The other one, the headtorch does at least shine where you want it to. Kind of. But dont you dare switch to a weapon and aim down sights. Btw same thing to do when skulking about the nights with a buddy, let him enter, hide in a bush flick the switch and just look at the house - easy loot for the bros. Something just has to be done, not "right naow" of course, because its alpha, but somewhere down the line some hard calls have to be made design-decision-wise, regarding what nighttime-gameplay should be like, same with the third/first person debate, combatlogging (and yes, if I tell you to drop your weapon, get on your knees and you just log out - that is combat logging), serverhopping, ghosting and so on.

This is a very good idea! Especially with public hive systems, just binding your account to a server for a few minutes would solve it quite elegantly: If you want to switch servers, you'll need to wait 5 minutes, while your character remains visible (and killable) on the last server you played on. Additionally you get a reasonable discouragement of ghosting and hopping.

Hello everyone! I'll start off by saying that regardless of the game's very, very early alpha status, it's amazing. The implemented mechanics and amount of potential it has are just overwhelming. Keep that up and you'll have the most amazing, immersing title in a decade. My... appeal for the community as a whole. People who come here and complain about the mod having this and that mechanic or just compare the "visible" exterior mechanics simply don't have a clue and i'm sad for them. Just give it time. This engine already has an impressive set of means for making an unique and wonderful gameplay. Ofcourse there's a ton of flaws and limitations and things i'd like to change myself but it would be pointless to bicker about those at this stage of development and most of those already have had a debate going on for a year atleast so... The antihack, combat timer etc. will be there i'm sure, as well as something to prevent ghosting, exploiting etc. So no need to endlessly scream about it, is there? I believe we as a community would do well to try keep these forums as constructive as possible if we really want our voices to be heard. No dev is gonna waste three days going through hundreds of pages of endless rants and flames about the obvious in hopes to catch that single constructive post with a great idea in it! There are indeed many here, lost among the pointless bickering. People posting about "how serious disappointment this is" are systematically either too ignorant, clueless or just simply unable to properly understand just what are they evaluating in the first place. Take a deep breath and consider if you actually have any relevant feedback or realistic solutions for those issues. If you don't, just don't post. If you aren't even trying to solve the problem, you are part of it. As stated a few times: Pre-Alpha(er). You got what you paid for. Regarding the weapon accuracy... There's really a huge debate about weapons. I'm all for realistic approach myself and having an excessive firearms training, having served in army as a platoon commander/drill instructor i certainly have my own view about how guns should work and what people should be able to accomplish with and without proper training/knowledge/excersize. My suggestion for the middleground is this: Introduce condition to the weapon itself. Make it play a big role: Bad condition gun/mags results in bad, unpredictable behaviour (bad accuracy, weapon jams, unintentional firing, feeding issues, etc.) Pristine weapon is accurate and reliable. Make weapons/materiel degrade over time/conditions and maintainable. No gun, especially western made complicated assault rifle, is able to fuction properly while running around, engaging enemies, crawling in forests etc. without proper maintenance. It should be an effort to keep ones weapon in good condition/prevent degrading. A normal soldier spends almost as much time/effort maintaining combat equipment as maintaining oneself in those conditions. Make bad quality equipment the stardard. Make ways to maintain or even slightly improve the materiel condition. A reliable, accurate rifle of any kind should be a really rare, prized possession be it mosin or whatever else. Hell, make it so that most weapons you find are pretty much useless until proper measures have been taken to restore functionality, much like vehicles in the mod. When you (after firing lots of rounds) leave the gun laying in the autumn woods, it sure as shit isn't going to work properly after a few weeks, let alone longer time. Other than the weapon condition, performance should be purely about skill/knowledge instead of some random dice roll. This would be completely doable with the excisting mechanics already implemented in the game. =) Oh... Such a huge post. I guess i got carried away a bit... None the less... Do not just complain people! Suggest, give ideas and solutions if you have issues! That way you can sill rant all you want but might actually contribute something while doing so! See you out there.

When can I expect private servers with no server ghosting/jumping option? For now none take gameplay seriously beacause you can get best gear in 30 minutes jumping from server to server. You will say "ok, then don't jump and play legit way!". Ok! I'll play for hours and finally get my fire axe to then get killed by freshspawn with silenced m4 with ACOG. DayZ official servers were never playable, just saying. So again when will private servers start?