DayZ 1.7.1 Discussion - Others will be locked/deleted!

[Opitz 0]

Sorry to report this, but Zeds are still able to get into room through wall... Happened to me in Cherno, in house close to Hospital...

[NextLevelCast 0]

I've waited to give my two cents so I could try a few different things out and can now comment with an educated response. It seems to me the new mod has not increased friendliness' date=' granted, this could just be the servers I'm playing on.

The problem isn't really zombies anymore either - if you happen to get swarmed, just run for a hill and then get them to run down it behind you, I've literally cleared about 20 Zed's by doing this.

The main issue is the lack of survival gear you have directly at the start of the game now. The average life for myself has gone down from a good few hours to a day, right down to probably in the hour region, if that. It really does come down to spawning locations these days and I'm on the fence each time i spawn to try for a better location I know well and can get a gun from quickly. This typically is no fun. Changing something simple like starting with less ammo or something similar would resolve this problem greatly or even implementing a way to de-aggro zeds or even go hand to hand would help.

[/quote']

You can deaggro zeds by breaking LOS.

Just need a canteen and matches tbh. Weapons are so easy to find but food and drink just does not spawn. I've seen more cows than beans.

[robin-hood 0]

I died yesterday, I never checked the change logs or forums or anything for this patch so I wasn't expecting the zombies to actually be challenging.

Got back to beach, took me 2 respawns (in about 20 mins) to work out what I needed to do. Within 2 hours I'm stocked up with an M16, Alice Pack, near full set of accessories (map, compass, watch, hatchet blah blah) big stack of cooked meat and canteens, a bunch of ammo and headed off to restart my adventure.

Is it seriously brutal now? Oh absolutely yes. But it IS the zombie apocalypse, you can't expect it to be a walk in the park. Anyway people need to stop whining and rage quitting and just think for a moment. People seriously under estimate how useful things like tin cans and smoke grenades to distract zombies are now.

Anyway keep playing like a beanie, keep rage quitting and crying. When the amount of armed players halves in a day it just makes it easier for the smart people.

[larsofdoom 0]

I love the latest patch. I died a couple of hours after I started playing it, and I honestly had no trouble being without a gun. I avoided other players and zombies in the search for a gun and supplies. I pulled a few Z's at some point but ran into a building, hid on the floor and crawled out through the back and I was safe again. After 10-15 minutes I was hooked up with a malkov and 5-6 magazines, food, water and a few hunting supplies. An hour later both me and my newly spawned friend had winchesters and murdered a guy packing an AK and a alice pack + medical supplies. The murder wasn't exactly planned though but anyway, it happened.

The thing about this is that I had to actually try and survive and scavenge supplies compared to what my behavior used to look like when I was newly spawned before the patch.

Something like this:

*newly spawned* *pulls out gun* *runs to electro or chern* *shots the first person I see in the face* *loots his stuff*

*Asking myself* "Am I satisfied with what I got from this guy? Do I want to survive to keep this stuff?" If the answer is no, repeat two last steps until I answer truthfully "yes".

You got to admit that getting rid of the above behavior of newly spawned players is to prefer :P Also its easier for people to group up and make friends if they meet up early when both are unarmed. Way more likely than before imo.

[Scorcho 1]

I love everything' date=' the only thing i just hate is that when u hide from zombies inside a building that only haves 1 exit, the zombie will be in the exit forever, until you DC or die (if you have no weapons, that sux, just that). Other things are great

[/quote']

Agreed on this. Hopefully in future patches they will wander away at some point.

[larsofdoom 0]

My suggestion on this part: Split up the database in two: Hardcore and Regular. If you create an account on a hardcore server' date=' it would not save across regular servers and vice versa. This way, people have the choice to play the game as realistic as possible, with hardcore tactics and real challenges. Those, who prefer regular fun, will be able to play on regular servers. Win-Win[/color']

Splitting the playerbase into two is the worst idea ever. I've seen it ruin so many games.

Anyway,

You can't forget the fact that you can hide from zombies now, this in a way makes it easier than it was before IF you fucked up without any ammo left, because the Z's would never stop chasing you. This ment that if you end up in a firefight vs zombies or players in the start would result in no ammo left and put you in a way more dangerous situation than you'd find yourself in now if you pull Z's without any weapon.

[Moshcore 0]

The moral of the story is' date=' the "hardcore" are completely and utterly clueless, and though you'll see them swarming every thread attacking every little criticism, their opinions are not only worthless, they're hazardously dangerous to the development of the game.

[/quote']

Yupp, the talk about Hardcore and realism, then please do me a favor, put many fat characters into the game, people who cant handle weapons and so on... Actually this would also reflect the Hardcore Playerbase in this Game!

I don't see realism when you still play someone who can run for miles, can aim like a sharpshooter etc.

Going much more Hardcore will cost the game most of it's playerbase and more regular/casual gamers!

[torturedchunk 22]

I love the new update. The raised difficulty adds more to the experience. My first 2 deaths, I was just running into town to see and hear the new zombies. It was awesome. My 3rd life, I met a fellow survivor. We rolled around cherno for about 20 minutes when his friend showed up.

My "spidey sense" told me to break off on my own adventure. Wish I had listened to it. About 10 minutes later his buddy shot me in the head. I knew it was coming and wasn't really surprised.

I didn't have much on me anyhow. Now on my 4th life with 1.7.1.1, and have only 1 "complaint." Beans. I need beans. I see Rocket is aware of the never spawning food issue. So I'm not worried about it.

So far so good. Keep it up Rocket.

[larsofdoom 0]

The moral of the story is' date=' the "hardcore" are completely and utterly clueless, and though you'll see them swarming every thread attacking every little criticism, their opinions are not only worthless, they're hazardously dangerous to the development of the game.

[/quote']

Yupp, the talk about Hardcore and realism, then please do me a favor, put many fat characters into the game, people who cant handle weapons and so on... Actually this would also reflect the Hardcore Playerbase in this Game!

I don't see realism when you still play someone who can run for miles, can aim like a sharpshooter etc.

Going much more Hardcore will cost the game most of it's playerbase and more regular/casual gamers!

People claiming to be hardcore can sound insulting, and yes there are unrealistic things ingame that even the "hardcore" players don't mention. What these people (including me) are generally after is simply a challenging game that doesn't hold your hand, and that requires an either careful or deviously planned playstyle that rewards the player with a enormous sense of success when efficiently executed. I don't mind spending 1 hour accomplishing nothing but running from a zombie horde after snatching a can of beans. I've gotten out of the most incredibly insane situations only because I'm patient and don't give up, and the feeling is awesome.

I've actually been out in nowhere with low ammo, 1000-1200 blood and a broken leg without any meds or cooked food, and managed to survive though constantly fainting. How? Sure in a way it was pure luck, but I heard 2 players nearby talking about where they were going so I crawled down to intercept their path from a hill above, I managed to pop them with my revolver and they had morphine, painkillers and cooked food. Exactly what I needed. Sure I likely would have died otherwise, but I didn't and it felt awesome.

Why did it feel awesome? Because the game is challenging and punishing and I simply overcame it.

With the latest patch I feel the mod is reaching a fine line between realism, challenge and fun. Though they could decrease weapon spawns and make some spawns more appropriate, such as more food in the supermarkets and such.

[zantiago 119]

I find it hillarious that people are crying about zombies actually beeing a freaking threat now :D I will feed on your tears, and have no regrets of doing so!

All you are to me, is canon fodder and target practice!

I cleared out both supermarkets in Berezino, including the big apartment complexes there..

I pulled zombies left and right, but i simply went indoor, and took em down..

Nearly died to a player after killing them, but hey, it puts much needed tension to the game, as now the zombies are equally scare as any survivor mid town with a winny..

So please, just continue crying!

You are to few to get people to revert back to the old mod.

Don't like it? Fantastic, then leave the game and let the people who enjoy it, continue to do so. Don't force rocket to dumb it down so imbeciles can run through cherno/elektro without pulling a single zombie, and then getting geared, just to go on the shore and kill new spawned folks for bandages!

All in all, grow some balls and learn how to freaking adapt!

-Z

[Moshcore 0]

I find it hillarious that people are crying about zombies actually beeing a freaking threat now :D I will feed on your tears' date=' and have no regrets of doing so!

All you are to me, is canon fodder and target practice!

I cleared out both supermarkets in Berezino, including the big apartment complexes there..

I pulled zombies left and right, but i simply went indoor, and took em down..

Nearly died to a player after killing them, but hey, it puts much needed tension to the game, as now the zombies are equally scare as any survivor mid town with a winny..

So please, just continue crying!

You are to few to get people to revert back to the old mod.

Don't like it? Fantastic, then leave the game and let the people who enjoy it, continue to do so. Don't force rocket to dumb it down so imbeciles can run through cherno/elektro without pulling a single zombie, and then getting geared, just to go on the shore and kill new spawned folks for bandages!

All in all, grow some balls and learn how to freaking adapt!

-Z

[/quote']

And again, just some elitist stupid bashing!

Actually i'm pretty sure no one is interested how amazing you are ingame.

This is about giving feedback and i'm also very sure that currently most of the players aren't elitist kids, or people who love frustration, so they're adressing their ideas about this mod to make it better.

There cant be any development ingame and any useful feedback give if 50% of the posts are... "durumdurum, i'm the best, if you dont like, stop playing fags"...

[Balllzack 0]

the best tatci is to find an empty server at night , creep around chenro to your hearts content.

just ran in racked up a knife,hatchet, matches ,map, compass , binoculars, an M1a4 and an Alice pack .

a good tip is hug the coast between towns as there are more animals near the coasts. the only down side at the moment is the lack of water/ soda but i hear a hotfix is on the way. :)

[nyxe2k 12]

Been playing this game for a few week with a group of about 10 friends I convinced to buy the game, since the new patch and increased aggro, none of us play and are waiting for a "fix".

I really liked the new patch apart from the aggro changes. Instead of sneaking through towns we just run stood up and line of sight all the zombies in a building. it's not viable to sneak through towns its better to intentionally aggro them all into a barn, lose them, then freely loot everything.

Also not looked around but food is not spawning anywhere and I killed 4 people, none had food.

People are saying you need to "adapt", but they're not thinking straight... because you can't sneak past the zombies you have to expend ammo and doing so makes it not worth attacking a town in the first place... you'd be better off avoiding towns completely. I'm sure that's not the intention of the patch.

Before the patch good players only needed stuff from airfields, now that they cant get into any small towns easily there's no point at all in approaching them.

[DocFox 0]

I find it hillarious that people are crying about zombies actually beeing a freaking threat now :D I will feed on your tears' date=' and have no regrets of doing so!

All you are to me, is canon fodder and target practice!

I cleared out both supermarkets in Berezino, including the big apartment complexes there..

I pulled zombies left and right, but i simply went indoor, and took em down..

Nearly died to a player after killing them, but hey, it puts much needed tension to the game, as now the zombies are equally scare as any survivor mid town with a winny..

So please, just continue crying!

You are to few to get people to revert back to the old mod.

Don't like it? Fantastic, then leave the game and let the people who enjoy it, continue to do so. Don't force rocket to dumb it down so imbeciles can run through cherno/elektro without pulling a single zombie, and then getting geared, just to go on the shore and kill new spawned folks for bandages!

All in all, grow some balls and learn how to freaking adapt!

-Z

[/quote']

And again, just some elitist stupid bashing!

Actually i'm pretty sure no one is interested how amazing you are ingame.

This is about giving feedback and i'm also very sure that currently most of the players aren't elitist kids, or people who love frustration, so they're adressing their ideas about this mod to make it better.

There cant be any development ingame and any useful feedback give if 50% of the posts are... "durumdurum, i'm the best, if you dont like, stop playing fags"...

I am a Doctor, and I support this message. (And all others Moshcore posts)

[larsofdoom 0]

Been playing this game for a few week with a group of about 10 friends I convinced to buy the game' date=' since the new patch and increased aggro, none of us play and are waiting for a "fix".

I really liked the new patch apart from the aggro changes. Instead of sneaking through towns we just run stood up and line of sight all the zombies in a building. it's not viable to sneak through towns its better to intentionally aggro them all into a barn, lose them, then freely loot everything.

Also not looked around but food is not spawning anywhere and I killed 4 people, none had food.

People are saying you need to "adapt", but they're not thinking straight... because you can't sneak past the zombies you have to expend ammo and doing so makes it not worth attacking a town in the first place... you'd be better off avoiding towns completely. I'm sure that's not the intention of the patch.

Before the patch good players only needed stuff from airfields, now that they cant get into any small towns easily there's no point at all in approaching them.

I think the new aggro could work if you made the crossbow work properly, since at the moment if you aggro 1 zombie in a town, you're forced to kill the whole town if you want to carry on.

[/quote']

I can't say I experienced the trouble you've had with zombie aggroing, sure you have to be way more careful now but thats what the prone position is for. It's understandable if you are 10 people trying to follow eachother around, but with that many people stealth should be out of the question in either case. Just shoot that shit up or send in 1-2 people to search the place in a stealthy manner. I've sneaked through plenty of towns including electro and chern.

Also it's understandable that big cities should be avoided at all costs since previously highpopulation placed = more Z's (if you look at it through a realistic point of view). Even the smaller towns would be avoided if possible since once you have hunting gear, you don't need to go into cities unless you're in need of ammo.

But as I said, in a big group like yours, send in 1-2 people with what they need to survive a short encounter. If things go south they can call on you and you come in guns blazin'.

Regarding food, I've found plenty of coke, pepsi and beans.

[Valaden 16]

Just wanted to share my feelings on the new patch.

As far as the zombie aggro range goes, I would probably put it somewhere between what it was and what it is now. As it currently stands, it is a *bit* absurd.

My main issue with this new patch is the amount of zombies that instantly respawn within visual(read: aggro) range of the PC. Best example I can give: If I go to a deer stand and clear all the zombies around it, THEY SHOULD STAY DEAD until I leave the area and come back, like loot does. As it stands, i'll kill them, climb up the deer stand and if im lucky, I wont have one spawn in my face and insta-aggro while im on my way out.

TL:DR Zombies spawning within aggro range of players is bad. Having a zombie pop in my face out of thin air or in an area I have just cleared in no way adds to realism. It actually detracts from it.

[Opitz 0]

I have no problem with increased aggro of zombies, but give the player a chance to hide or run away... I died like five times just because zombies did get into building or rooms via closed door or even walls... And what I hate the most is suddenly dashing zombies which just one sec ago slowly crawled around... Where they get so much energy to run like Usain Bolt?

Currently it is not so difficult to get a good gear, right from start, you get nice weapon, ALICE, whatever... Then you need food and drinks... nowhere to find... ok, lets hunt some cows or pigs... but no matches at all. So go back to town, maybe you find some can of food. you go prone, going like that for 20 minutes and suddenly zombies totally silently enters very close area via closed doors...

Just repair this bug - zombies can go through walls and closed doors once they spotted you. Give them some time to be aggressive (if they don't see and hear anything for 2 minutes, for example) and send slowly them back to their original position. just my thoughts... spend couple hours with latest patch.

[nyxe2k 12]

We don't usually play together all at once (:, usually 4 of us on at a time. I guess you're right about prone, but we're all used to crouch-running near towns and walking when near zombies. We'd prone as a last resort if zombies come within like 15m.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, none of us enjoy going prone like 200m before we reach a town, crawling through the whole town, aggroing once and being forced to pull the whole town.

If you played before the patch you know that if you press C, you pull every zombie in a 100m radius. Now i feel its the same if i press X. Which isn't fun for me and my friends atleast. Too slow and easy to be hit by snipers. Besides prone was stealth nerfed too, but that might be fixed now.

Perhaps a change could be that zombies walk towards gunshot locations instead of sprinting, like you see in walking dead sometimes. They are attracted by noise but i think that one gunshot at a distance shouldn't cause them to sprint to your location directly.

It's alpha anyway, people will express my opinion better than I can, I'll be back next patch (:

But yea, all my friends were playing non stop the last week, now none of us are playing the game. We might just not be "hardcore" enough. But it's not worth crawling that far.

Side note (nerf broken legs):

I respawned my last character because I got hit through the tower wall on NE airfield and was forced to crawl looking for morphine, crawled for 1 hour before not finding any and respawning. I'm not going back to that life... it took me 1 hour to get from tower to devils castle.

Would be nice if your leg got better after like 30 minutes - 1 hour ingame, because I couldn't find any morphine anywhere and it's instant death if you aggro with a broken leg. (had 2 in my bag but gave them to my friend who got hit through the wall too). since when does morphine fix a broken bone anyway? In my opinion it would be better if the only cure was over time, but morphine makes it so you can endure the pain and walk on it for a while.

[masterjts 1]

1.7.1 is overall an improvement for the game but there are a few minor problems.

1) Flashlight: The flashlight needs to start in the player's hand. The first reason for this is that you can not pick up gear without the flashlight in your hand. The flashlight enables the aim reticule (even if it is hidden on a veteran server) which is used to highlight gear, doors and etc. The context menu wont come up without the aim reticule enabled and it wont be enabled without the flashlight in hand.

You said that you didnt want everyone drawing attention to themselves as noobs by running around with a flashlight in hand. Honestly, you are a noob if you DONT equip your flashlight immediately on spawn in since you cant even climb a ladder or open a door without it.

Personally I would rather you give everyone a pistol and one clip but if that is not going to happen at least move the flashlight to the player's hand. We had a few new players with us last night and after ragging them about poor timing (yesterday would have gotten to 10x the starting gear lol) we proceeded to explain the inventory. The first thing we learned was that a new player has no clue you can even open the backpack. Most thought the backpack slots were to the right of the backpack so they figured their backpack was empty. Secondly they had trouble figuring out how to use the backpack and get the gear out into their hand. Then once they finally caught on they all commented, "Why not just start the flashlight in my hand, this is overly complicated."

The current way the flashlight is stored is anti-new player. I have played arma since the original Operation flashpoint game was released and it took me about 10 minutes to figure out that I was never going to pick up gear with my flashlight in my backpack. If I had that much trouble just imagine how a new player feels as he cant even ask over the global channel anymore. He just wanders around the map in the dark and when he finds gear he cant figure out how to pick it up and then he dies to zombies and never plays again.

2) Bandages: You need to give at least 2 of these. This is a very common item in game and in real life as you can just tear strips of clean cotton cloth to make them. By only giving one of these you are limiting player's abilities to HELP each other and cooperate. If you are in a group and someone is hurt and he does not have a bandage you let him die because you only have one and it is for your personal use. Not only is that unrealistic it is against the cooperative nature of what the patch was supposed to produce.

Personally I would give them 3 bandages each and call it a day. I hope this gets rebalanced in the next hotfix since this is a pretty major problem. You should never think it is a good idea to kill someone because they have one bandage and you have none... just because you have the only gun. Although it is funny to do so.

If you can, you should think about rewriting the bleed mechanic. You should not bleed to death in 5 minutes from a paper cut just because you dont have a bandage. Obviously that will take more work so just give us a few more bandages on spawn.

3) Spawn locations: The current spawn locations no longer work. They were initially placed with the idea of a starting weapon in mind. Since that is no longer the case you can no longer start players within aggro distance of a zombie.

I died about 10 times last night before I made it off the coast. 6 of those times I started within aggro distance of a zombie, 3 of those times I spawned in to a zombie already attacking me and the only time I escaped was the one time I spawned in and there were no zombies around. (they were probably off chasing the guy who spawned in right before me.)

This is a HUGE problem in my opinion. If you have no weapon on spawn you need to adjust the spawn locations to be further from zombie spawns. This is another must fix for the next hotfix in my opinion.

4) Food/Water: I am fine with not spawning with food but you should allow people to spawn with water or at least a means to get water. The water bar seems to go down faster than food for some reason. (or maybe it just seems that way?)

I would suggest spawning new players with an empty canteen at the least. That gives them a goal right off the bat that they can expand on as they go. (IE, I need to find a way to fill this canteen before I die of thirst. You can justify this by thinking that the canteen represents an empty plastic water bottle. These are so common these days that just about everyone could find one in an emergency.

Speaking of food and water. You should think about lowering the damage you take from being hungry/thirsty. As it stand you die in about 5 minutes once you become either hungry or thirsty. Since new players dont start with anything they are going to die fast. You also wont be able to check the death stats to see deaths by food/water because at least 99% of those people are going to chance going into a town when they get critical and will die to zombies.

The real kicker will come when all those players who escaped the coast last night log in tonight to their food and water flashing red. Welcome back to the coast, did you miss me?

Like I said above, I suggest starting players with at least a drink or an empty canteen.

Overall this new patch is a huge improvement but it has become even less new-player friendly to the point where it is impossible for new players to join without vast amounts of help. Luckily I am there to help all my friends to get in game but I am sure there are tons of people who have no one to help them and no means to get help other than posting on the forum and these (and most other) forums are NOT friendly to new players.

[MidnightRave 8]

Well there is a HUGE problem in the community that apparently most people do not know how to do the beta patch even when Rocket posted some info about it. It seems like the majority do not read or are little children that are clueless.

Other than that, the update works great. Good job guys. :D

[XaviorMarxx 0]

I think the problem with the whiners is that they aren't willing to take a step back and look at this patch without bias. Bias towards the DayZ mod prior to this patch, that is. To any QQ'ers reading this, I ask you one simple question. Have you thought to yourselves, "What if patch 1.7.1 was how the DayZ mod functioned upon it's release?"

I use this kind of question in particular debates amongst friends. Usually I say "If humans domesticated cows instead of dogs, would we call the killing of dogs for meat animal cruelty?" (No need to respond, just elaborating the train of thought for the question above)

Anyway, I think this patch is FANTASTIC! I agree, the focus is now placed on the zed instead of the bandits. There's still the same threat of other players taking you out. Although, those that like to kill others must be cautious of the zombies when moving into position to murder you. The new mechanics are excellent tension builders!

As some others have noted, the new feature of shaking the zed off your tail is quite exciting! I, too, did some tests by aggro'ing as many zed as I could and then experimenting with different methods of breaking LoS. Now, more than ever, do I feel that thrill depicted in an epic chase scene from my favorite action flicks. I couldn't praise these new mechanics enough.

We all have to learn the quirks to this system together. You may have become comfortable with your methods of traveling and scavenging from before. However, don't forget that you had to die many times to learn those methods. The cycle is just going to repeat itself now. In a few weeks you'll discover a slew of new strategies that are just as effective as those used prior to patch 1.7.1.

Oh, just so I cover all bases, the newly designed spawn inventory is great! It's another way of adding more tension right from the get-go. Those first few minutes/hours are even more intense than before! Love everything you guys, the DayZ staff, are doing. Thank you for all your hard work and innovative gameplay choices.

Remember, gaming used to be a niche market. Gamers used to be described, or described themselves, by what genre of games they played. Don't fall into the trap that all the greedy companies out there have set. A video game shouldn't be made to appeal to the masses. A game should be what it was envisioned as, and those that enjoy that concept will love it. If anyone is kicking and screaming to make a change, because they're upset, they can go find the game that doesn't make them upset. I did a full week of research into this mod before I bought Arma II: CO. I'm supporting your work, and wouldn't dare think I'm entitled to dictate how the game progresses.

Thanks again.

PS - Love the actual Arma II campaigns as well! Honestly, the only thing that upsets me is that I didn't purchase an Arma game sooner.

[MrBloodworth 1]

I think the problem with the whiners is that they aren't willing to take a step back and look at this patch without bias. Bias towards the DayZ mod prior to this patch' date=' that is. To any QQ'ers reading this, I ask you one simple question. Have you thought to yourselves, "What if patch 1.7.1 was how the DayZ mod functioned upon it's release?"

[/quote']

It would not be on every game news site, and he would not be doing interviews. There would be 1/4 the servers.

[Opitz 0]

OK, so tell me what is your strategy for situation when you prone to the building for equip and suddenly zed hits you without any warning cuz he respawned silently right behind your back?

[Cyberman128 0]

It would not be on every game news site' date=' and he would not be doing interviews. There would be 1/4 the servers.

[/quote']

You sure about that?

When I started there were "too many" zombies added in a patch.

While these forums were pretty mad about it, tons of people were playing, and all kinds of interviews were appearing each day.

I know this update's made it a little harder than that, but still.

I think it'd get popular even if it was nigh-on impossible, mainly due to the potential of a game that actually simulates a zombie apocalypse in a semi-realistic way, and with a huge emphasis on sandbox multiplayer.

Ontopic: I'm not sure about the update, although I haven't seen it since the hotfix, and when I played I didn't really go near towns. I applaud any attempt at making the zombies harder, however, as before that they were simply annoyances - ones who could be avoided pretty easily, but if you did slip up or if they spotted you generally weren't enough of a challenge unless they got lucky and knocked you unconscious.

I just don't know if making them really strong and have really good senses and constantly spawn was the right way to do it.

But when I did play I enjoyed hiding in forests and using cover to avoid zombies and creep up to deerstands etc.

[Brew78 27]

Having finally been able to play the new patch, I would agree with the post I read where the author mentioned the game having changed from a walking simulator into a crawling simulator. Its already a fairly slow-paced game. Making it even slower changes it from the excitement of danger to the boredom of tedium.

Spawning disarmed makes this even worse. You have to crawl *everywhere* or else get aggro from any random zombie that happens to face your direction. And you can't even defend yourself.

This causes only two viable strategies for survival.

1) Crawl everywhere, be hyper-aware of surroundings, spend hours trying to move from one building to the other without getting aggro. Die if a single zombie sees you.

2) Sprint recklessly though cities, try to lose zombies in buildings that have two doors, hope you can find a gun before getting eaten, get eaten if oops - that building has one entrance.

Strategy one is effective but staggeringly boring, and rage inducing when a single zombie sees you and you get eaten with no ability to defend yourself. Strategy two can be fun but is also fairly short-lived, especially given how you can break your leg on any staircase or even if a swinging door happens to push into you. Morphine isn't even included anymore.

I do like the idea of making the land more dangerous, but IMO it was taken a bit too far. I mean.. I got killed when a single zombie zig-zagged the insane way they do, got behind me, knocked me out with ONE PUNCH. I woke up just in time to die. What kind of crap is that? That's not "realistic" OR fun. Zombies are supposed to be decaying humans, not straight up superhuman in speed, strength, AND agility WITH the ability to open doors and climb ladders..

I see people discussing how much more cooperative people are now. I see the opposite. Two people spawn near each other, how can they possibly cooperate? Neither has any method of attack or defense, and there's now double the chance of pulling aggro. The only potential benefit is one guy becoming lunch and giving a brief distraction for the other to run away. Hopefully he can get behind cover before the other guy's been picked clean because those sprinters will fairly quickly be after him too.

At least add melee weapons (make it AoE like the zombies if you have to) and have the player spawn with a MAG-Light, at least you could crack some skulls if you had to. The totally-helpless-on-spawn idea is.. well, I respectfully disagree with its implementation and would recommend some manner of self-defense, even if the idea is to prevent initial offense.

Yes, you can technically "survive" if you play it careful enough. But in its current implementation, its just not fun.

I realize some think it is...

Oh, just so I cover all bases, the newly designed spawn inventory is great! It's another way of adding more tension right from the get-go. Those first few minutes/hours are even more intense than before!

... but I sure as heck don't. Spending three hours to crawl from the spawn location to the inside of a building only to get eaten by something that saw you from across the field because they happened to get line of sight isn't "intense" or fun to me. Its cheap and makes the game feel more like a gamble than anything relating to the skill of stealth and survival. You can do everything right and still die with no chance to even defend yourself. That's a time investment that has no payoff.

To each his own, I guess. I know this is an alpha so there's my opinion. Hopefully you'll find it useful.