New death messages for who killed you and what weapon, good or bad (poll)

[thelonewarrior 886]

What are your thoughts?

Now death messages appear like this, on most private hives:(example)

Bob was killed by Bandit 1 with AS50 TWS

What are your thoughts?

I saw a hacker get owned by this.

His name came up he was killing people, it got to 3 people he had killed with a TWS AS50 and he claimed his innocence even though all 3 were at different points in the map according to side chat.

Is this good or bad? Its catching hackers out fast, so I vote its a good thing even though it means you now know who betrayed or shot you :)

Heres a pic:

Death message

Edited October 26, 2012 by Regulator Lone Warrior

[mibz0r 141]

If this is an update I need this on my server NOW ;)

[enforcer1975 1111]

Haven't checked it yet but if it's true...FINALLY!!!!!!!

But i wonder why they needed a patch for it...you can do it with a script in game even with death messages turned off ( maybe they did exactly that ).

Edited October 26, 2012 by Enforcer

[Leadon77 94]

Well this makes placing bounties much much easier....yay

[Erizid 56]

Halleluja! Praise the lord jeebus and the holy spearmint.

Been waiting for this for a long time.

[thelonewarrior 886]

Not sure, all i know is since the last arma update, every server ive been on (except chenarus map) has had these death messages appear, but only on servers that are fully up to date with all updates and mods

Edited October 26, 2012 by Regulator Lone Warrior

[SmashT 10907]

Isn't this just a private hive thing some servers have implemented?

[nik21 287]

Isn't this just a private hive thing some servers have implemented?

This.

The death messages have nothing to do with the latest update/ beta patch.

[thelonewarrior 886]

Well fair enough its probably that, it just started after I updated my arma 2 from the last update, but it seems everyone has it right now, and if they dont they should get it.

At the very least it saves a lot of games ruined from hackers

[Erizid 56]

Standalone should include this, it is an absolute necessity. The only drawback I can see is it removes the question marks that come when you wound someone. Are they dead or just unconscious? It is more authentic if you can't tell just by looking if they are dead.

However, in this case I believe the Pros outweigh the Cons.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Erizid

[enforcer1975 1111]

This.

The death messages have nothing to do with the latest update/ beta patch.

Then i must say the devteam is very narrowminded if they don't copy that for the next DayZ update...

[Askar 177]

I'd say it depends on the situation and 'goals' of the server. Sometimes (quite often), the uncertainty of events surrounding an individual's death is much more immersive and enticing than a simple "Bob was killed by Joe with Mk48" message can ever hope to encompass. On the other side of that coin, messages like this are great for catching hackers and other ne'er do wells. For instance, it was integral on a non-pvp server I tried out yesterday in that these messages let the admin know who to ban (provided the incident wasn't self defense or property defense). But in a regular server, I don't want messages like this appearing. They remove the mystery and untold layers of depth from the game.

For instance, while working with a group of medics a few months ago, we waited desperately for a firefight to break out near us, so we could kill the asshole who had been under our care and stealing from us without him knowing we were at fault. When the sniper fire finally came, I got the go-ahead to plant my LMG against the back of his head and squeeze the trigger. We killed the thief, atv-flipper, and general asshole without any potential backlash to the organisation (the killing was 500% justified, trust me. The guy even had all the things he said he hadn't taken on his corpse.), all because the individual in question thought the sniper had killed him. This is only an example that I've personally experienced, there are countless better ones out there. The point is, none of this is possible with kill messages. Perhaps allow them to be reviewed by the admin in log form (if they can't already do that) so that they can retroactively ban and report hackers, but there are very few situations where I would approve of them being visible to the general public.

And I don't know about you all, but one of my favorite things about firefights in this game is the uncertainty involved. Did I hit him? Is he dead, or dying? Is he perfectly healthy, waiting on me to approach his seemingly dead body? That's immersive, fun, and engaging. I've seen it happen countless times both in ARMA II and in DayZ where a group will clear out another group, and without checking bodies, attempt to progress onwards. Then, sometimes one of those seemingly dead men wakes up. Stuff like that is integral to the experience in my opinion. I'd gladly die to a hacker once a week (or once every three days, as is the norm for me) to keep that intact. What if you're the downed guy? They don't know (with no kill messages, at least) that you're still alive, and they assume you're dead. Suddenly, it's possible for you to fight back and/or escape, because no messages have told them if you're dead or not, so they have to manually approach your body to find out. It opens up even more possibilities.

That's my 'other' vote, at least.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Askar

[Erizid 56]

Yeah, I can see how this gameplay element is lost when death messages are present.

Without death messages, Zombieland rule number 2 must be followed in all cases.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Erizid

[hawc 63]

Yes if it's optional like other options (3rd person,...).

[enforcer1975 1111]

...

If we had a proper legal weapons list you could execute the "This player killed the other player with xxx" message only if the weapon used is not in the list.

[Siberian (DayZ) 527]

i like it, it gives some feedback to the players on a server, as to whos doing the killing and with what..

its good info to have

[osiris 44]

this should definately be in the stand alone game

finally some consequences for bandits and hackers.

[tpike1caesar 7]

I agree with erizid it would be more authentic without it but, if it only showed the person who died and and admin of the server it would be great!!

[Goggalor 191]

I voted no. It ruins the immersion and suspense. I am all for an easy to read kill log available to admins, so they can be aware of any suspicious activity, but I don't want to know who killed me.

[Swineflew 480]

The pros outweigh the cons.

I've written on this and side chat multiple times, so I won't get into it too much.

Building a community > immersion.

Anonymous killing anonymous watched by anonymous, looting anonymous , while anonymous raids anonymous' tent. That leaves absolutely no room for any type of meaningful long term gameplay or drives gameplay in any way whatsoever.

[DrunkPunk 159]

Not a fan, if there are no witnesses, then the killer should maintain anonymity. Kind of goes against the spirit of the game. This just seems like step one into a more warz like experience. Might as well just enable name tags and get it over with.

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

This would take pretty much all of the suspense out of a ranged fight.

When you're unsure of a kill, or when your buddy dies from a shot out of nowhere. These moments build tension, and increase immersion.

Death messages would turn the DayZ anti-game into just another online deathmatch.

You can't strive for authenticity, then turn around and have everybody know who killed who instantly, like all players have become psychic.

If you knew every time, who killed you and how, it would remove a vital part of the DayZ paranoia.

The Devs should know better than to add it.

[Erizid 56]

Yeah, as I think about it more and more, I've changed my mind. Too much of the immersion is lost with death messages. It is a complete break from the emotions when you look down at the chat box.

[dallas 5195]

With a little experience you can fairly easy tell a weapon by the sound, accuracy and rate of fire. If you get killed instantly by a headshot or something high caliber, you'll usually be dead before the sound catches up with the bullet. I think it's a feature more for arcade shooters.

[julio128@gmail.com 1]

I think this would be a bad thing for the standalone, but right now its an awesome tool to find the hackers.