Why banditing?

[Gyallarhorn 0]

I rofl'd at how you essentially called yourself a sociopath just now. Please, if this is how you think, you need to leave multiplayer games and never come back.

That was just about "pranks"...

Edit: To avoid further misunderstanding: I do not play pranks on people I don't know.

Edited February 5, 2013 by Gyallarhorn

[yedrellow 0]

To be honest, most 'banditry' isn't really necessarily what you think. For the vast majority of the player deaths, it's all about self-preservation. I have played this game for nearly a year, and I have not once been killed by a zombie, every single time I've died, it's either been suicide, or by another player (or glitches etc.). So why the hell wouldn't I treat absolutely person I see as a threat?

I have attempted to trust people, make my presence known, make the fact that I could shoot them but have decided not to extremely obvious, but every single time I have, people start unloading their magazines.

Every single person I kill is a person I no longer have to worry about, if he's running away, and I lose sight of him, then he may start moving in another direction to flank me, or snipe me from a treeline. If he doesn't have a weapon, then he'll look for a weapon, or tell his buddies over whatever voip program he's using my exact position.

I shoot first, because I know that even if he would otherwise be passive, and not a bandit, then there's a good chance that he's thinking exactly the same way as me. There's no way out of this, every single player's a threat.

Sure there are bandits shooting people from 1000+ metres with sniper rifles that have near no threat to themselves, but the vast majority of killing is because of the above line of thinking. I don't even think of myself as a bandit, but I've 'murdered' far too many people to count. If this game's about survival, you have to do what you need to; my public hive character has been alive for 6 months because of this line of thinking.

Edited February 5, 2013 by yedrellow

[MrTombadil 7]

I don't shoot unarmed players on the coast, mostly because it leads to a common chain reaction, also known as "being a butthurt child"

The newbie gets shot, sometimes they dust it off and keep playing like a mature person, but sometimes they have a fit in side chat, rage quit, cry, or whatever.

It probably goes something like this:

"OHHH, I NEVER WIN!!' *rage quit, cries, googles: ***S."

And sometimes, if these people are competent enough to install a hack, you have another butthurt hacker nuking Cherno again, or /killall'ing everyone.

So yeah, stay away from the coast newbies, they're more dangerous than you think.

[misterwit 118]

I don't shoot unarmed players on the coast, mostly because it leads to a common chain reaction, also known as "being a butthurt child"

The newbie gets shot, sometimes they dust it off and keep playing like a mature person, but sometimes they have a fit in side chat, rage quit, cry, or whatever.

It probably goes something like this:

"OHHH, I NEVER WIN!!' *rage quit, cries, googles: ***S."

And sometimes, if these people are competent enough to install a hack, you have another butthurt hacker nuking Cherno again, or /killall'ing everyone.

So yeah, stay away from the coast newbies, they're more dangerous than you think.

If they kill me, that just puts me closer to the coast, not further away.

[Corac 9]

A bandit is NOT the freash spawn coastal killer. thats what we call a griefer. A bandit s a player that is NOT always kos but WILL kill you for either your gear, for security of them selves, or for fun. All of my friends are bandits. we WILL kill an unarmed person if they are going into an area we need to get into. We will NOT kill an unarmed person thats just running down the raod. Playing a survivor is NOT the only way to play the game. I like to gear up not from going into the building my self but from killing the people that go in and get it.

So you ask WHY i play this way? easy.....I am not your mate and i am not your friend, I am 1's and 0's on your screen and I want your beans and ammo to survive longer then you.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Corac

[misterwit 118]

A bandit is NOT the freash spawn coastal killer. thats what we call a griefer. A bandit s a player that is NOT always kos but WILL kill you for either your gear, for security of them selves, or for fun. All of my friends are bandits. we WILL kill an unarmed person if they are going into an area we need to get into. We will NOT kill an unarmed person thats just running down the raod. Playing a servivor is NOT the only way to play the game. I like to gear up not from going into the building my self but from killing the people that go in and get it.

So you ask WHY i play this way? easy.....I am not your mate and i am not your friend, I am 1's and 0's on your screen and I want your beans and ammo to servive longer then you.

He's also a bandit because he can't spell "survive" or "survivor".

[s4pphire 45]

Because the game is based around both PvE and PvP; removing either would render the game's purpose and enjoyment useless.

Looting Stary or NWAF without the threat of PvP would make something thrilling, very boring, and pointless, considering you don't need more than a hatchet to deal with PvE so why bother with military loot anyway?

As for killing players, I can't think of any other game that is as intelligent and skillful as DayZ, and killing another player always comes with a risk. A risk that you take with every decision in the game, meaning the key is to know which risks are worth taking and when to walk away. I can honestly say that the only deaths I have ever had that were not caused by cheats/bugs/suicides, were the result of a bad decision or poor play on my part.

Even if you get killed by an AS50 in Elektro, it is your own damn fault for allowing it to happen, if you had the patience/dedication/skill/experience to prevent it, you could, and that, is the beauty of this game.

[hogscraper 328]

Even if you get killed by an AS50 in Elektro, it is your own damn fault for allowing it to happen, if you had the patience/dedication/skill/experience to prevent it, you could, and that, is the beauty of this game.

I'm really only campaigning for the devs to actually put risk in the game for people wanting to be bandits. As it stands, there is little risk to smart snipers. Any idiot can get a kill form that hilltop north of Elektro with little to no risk to themselves unless they stay there for too long. With the new patch, zombies being a lot more aggressive than they were, being in any city is more dangerous. When the SA hits, and they can now run inside buildings as well, you have the two largest loot zones pointless for players to ever go into. IF you want to be a bandit, I think you should be facing the same types of risks as everyone else. Now maybe if there were zombies roaming those woods and respawning as well, I might not have a problem with it. As it stands now, they've just made it too easy to put all of the risk on people trying to loot and none on people lucky enough to pick up that as50. Players don't go to either of the bigger cities in the south unless they are new and don't know or just stupid. Again, that makes the existence of those cities pointless compared to the risk.

[Udak 104]

I'm really only campaigning for the devs to actually put risk in the game for people wanting to be bandits. As it stands, there is little risk to smart snipers. Any idiot can get a kill form that hilltop north of Elektro with little to no risk to themselves unless they stay there for too long. With the new patch, zombies being a lot more aggressive than they were, being in any city is more dangerous. When the SA hits, and they can now run inside buildings as well, you have the two largest loot zones pointless for players to ever go into. IF you want to be a bandit, I think you should be facing the same types of risks as everyone else. Now maybe if there were zombies roaming those woods and respawning as well, I might not have a problem with it. As it stands now, they've just made it too easy to put all of the risk on people trying to loot and none on people lucky enough to pick up that as50. Players don't go to either of the bigger cities in the south unless they are new and don't know or just stupid. Again, that makes the existence of those cities pointless compared to the risk.

Zeds won't run nearly as awkwardly or as fast in the SA, so 'running indoors' won't be nearly as big a problem. It's still worth it to enter the cities because you have nothing. If you have nothing, you have nothing to lose...meaning if you get killed, oh well, but if you gear up and are able to head north--awesome. I patently refuse to ever head into cherno or electro once I have a military-grade weapon. You're putting a target on your back for desperate newbs (LOOK HE HAS A AKM SURE I'LL WORK WITH YOU AXE-TO-BACK) and you can get much the same things from Stary/Berezino/Polana/NWAF/NEAF. Once you have things, stay away from the coast, durr. On a minor sidenote, if you're not a complete asshat you'll usually be able to get through the entire city (Cherno/Electro) without running afoul of bandits...assuming you're able to triangulate likely shooter positions from gunfire AND AVOID THEM. Most people running around in the cities are also receptive to friendly hails over direct comms.

And for the larger point about bandits:

To anyone that doesn't "get" Banditry--what's your end-game? What are you working towards?

Survival for the sake of surviving gets supremely boring around hour 20 (It's been a while since I started, so bear with me--it might have been as early as hour 5 for me). As someone pointed out to me way back when, if you just want to survive then hide in a forest, killing/gutting animals and filling water up from ponds. The main guiding point for people new-ish to the game is gearing up.

So get geared up. Play in low-pop servers, avoiding all human contact. Get your NVGs, your silenced weapons, your rangefinder and coyote backpack. Now what? You've got the best equipment in the game. Maybe you're missing a rangefinder or something equally obscure (entrenchment tool..por ejemplo), but the drop rates are so incredibly small that you'll be looting NWAF for a week just to get the item(s) you need.

So at a certain point, you realize that you aren't your fucking khakis. Your gear doesn't mean anything. You've imposed a goal on yourself, and it's been reached. So now what? Stop playing? Try to find a vehicle and set up a base camp to store all your phat loot(only delaying the inevitable, as these are achievable goals)? Helping strangers is a great way to feel better about yourself, but you also risk losing all that cool stuff you've stacked on top of each other for the past 2-3 weeks. Going bandit keeps things interesting without making you as liable to losing all that gear.

Most (I'd actually wager "all", but I've no specific stats on this to back that up) people eventually come to a point where they decide to either help or hunt others. Gear hunting is a sisyphean task. You will never have superawesomeo gear that will make you impervious to dying (especially since they dropped the l85's thermal sights). The more you have, the shittier you feel when you inevitably die. So grab that AKM in the Cherno firehouse, and head to stary...and wait. Just wait. People will show up, sooner or later, and you'll soon be enriching yourself on the hard work of others...and the rush of energy you feel as you are looting your kill will prove the fallacy of morality in a post-apocalyptic world.

Of course, I'm not a bandit. I just happen to have friends that are.

[Beer_Grylls 9]

I'm a bandit for a simple reason - I like the hunt.

The thrill of stalking your target for (hours/days) at a time is priceless, and it provides an adrenaline rush that no FPS (or third person shooter, for that matter) has ever made me experience. I've racked up tons of playing hours on Day Z, and I can't say I've ever had a kill that was quite the same, it keeps me playing.

^^ This is why I love this game as well.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Beer_Grylls

[s4pphire 45]

I'm really only campaigning for the devs to actually put risk in the game for people wanting to be bandits. As it stands, there is little risk to smart snipers. Any idiot can get a kill form that hilltop north of Elektro with little to no risk to themselves unless they stay there for too long. With the new patch, zombies being a lot more aggressive than they were, being in any city is more dangerous. When the SA hits, and they can now run inside buildings as well, you have the two largest loot zones pointless for players to ever go into. IF you want to be a bandit, I think you should be facing the same types of risks as everyone else. Now maybe if there were zombies roaming those woods and respawning as well, I might not have a problem with it. As it stands now, they've just made it too easy to put all of the risk on people trying to loot and none on people lucky enough to pick up that as50. Players don't go to either of the bigger cities in the south unless they are new and don't know or just stupid. Again, that makes the existence of those cities pointless compared to the risk.

Even that's incorrect; sniping Elektro is one of the most risky things you can possibly do. And even if it weren't risky, you are still comparing the risk of losing a sniper rifle and other mid/high-tier equipment to the risk of dying as a fresh spawn. When I die, Elektro or Cherno is often the first place I go to depending on circumstance, as an experienced player it literally takes five minutes of running through it and leaving with a couple decent weapons and anything else you could possibly need.

I have spent countless of hours sniping Elektro and pretty much every other spot on the map, and Elektro is by FAR the riskiest out of all the options and has no potential reward either, which is fine. The truth is, with experience, you learn exactly which areas are open to certain snipe spots and you can very easily loot all of Elektro in complete safety.

As for adding additional risks for being a bandit, that is completely unnecessary, simply due to the fact that the risk is already in place. Do you think the bandit isn't at risk awaiting your arrival in Stary for example? Sitting in a tree for an hour waiting for someone to approach is probably just as risky, if not riskier, than going into the place and looting it.

In conclusion, if all you want to do is survive, there is zero risk playing this game. Stop pretending that it isn't the case, because sitting in the trees and looting some remote town once a day presents zero challenge or risk for that matter.

[I_aint_no_bandit 5]

Guys ... Do you realise that players are actually more scary than the zombies?

You act as if all you want to do is gather high powered rifles, run into the woods and eat beans whilst stopping every so often to fill up your canteen.

Admit it... Bandits make the game interesting, without bandits the game would be shit. Now I am not saying that shooting unarmed players is fun, but what I am trying to say is that bandits make survivors play smarter .

Lets be honest it isn't difficult to outsmart an Npc. But when you outsmart a bandit and take his belongings you feel like a real survivor.

Stop your whining and have some fun, if you can't enjoy the game with bandits I'm sure there is a private hive where you can sit with an as50 at Gorka shooting zombies.

[Fluf 0]

Now for me, I'm usually a bandit. However if I'm a fresh spawn I try to help others, but then things get out of control. For example, I've saved a fresh spawn's life before and he still tried to kill me. He was being chased around Cherno at night by a ghillie with an M4A1 and I killed the ghillie. I start to loot; asking the fresh spawn to please go away, but he keeps following me pointing his double barrel at me. I try to reason with him and give him some loot (I just saved the guys life!). Eventually he fires at me and I just put 4-5 rounds into him and he dies.

I try to help fresh spawns as much as possible when I'm on the coast but most of them try to kill me. Up north though, it's a free-for-all for the most part. Stary Sabor is the cuttoff point for the "Friendly?" banter.

Here's another thing that bothers me. People don't know how to Ctrlx2! Seriously if you lower your gun your being shot chance is drastically reduced. I can't even count how many times a player has let me live because I don't seem hostile due to my gun being lowered; even if I have the bandit scarf on.

[misterwit 118]

snip

To anyone that doesn't "get" Banditry--what's your end-game? What are you working towards?

/snip

Even that's incorrect; sniping Elektro is one of the most risky things you can possibly do.

*snip*

Stop your whining and have some fun, if you can't enjoy the game with bandits I'm sure there is a private hive where you can sit with an as50 at Gorka shooting zombies.

Now for me, I'm usually a bandit. However if I'm a fresh spawn I try to help others, but then things get out of control. For example, I've saved a fresh spawn's life before and he still tried to kill me. He was being chased around Cherno at night by a ghillie with an M4A1 and I killed the ghillie. I start to loot; asking the fresh spawn to please go away, but he keeps following me pointing his double barrel at me. I try to reason with him and give him some loot (I just saved the guys life!). Eventually he fires at me and I just put 4-5 rounds into him and he dies.

I try to help fresh spawns as much as possible when I'm on the coast but most of them try to kill me. Up north though, it's a free-for-all for the most part. Stary Sabor is the cuttoff point for the "Friendly?" banter.

Here's another thing that bothers me. People don't know how to Ctrlx2! Seriously if you lower your gun your being shot chance is drastically reduced. I can't even count how many times a player has let me live because I don't seem hostile due to my gun being lowered; even if I have the bandit scarf on.

Reinforcements have arrived. Inb4 bambis stop coming here to argue.

Edited February 7, 2013 by misterwit

[Smalltown 29]

I personally enjoy the challenge, my group versus another group, skill and tactics used against each other to fight it out, and take each others things. Makes you appreciate what you have so much more, and its tons more fun than making giant stash piles and hording up somewhere.

Of course, we operate by a set of standards, we dont hack, dupe, target fresh spawns, or gang up on a sole dude unless he's asking for it. The guys we fight are often bandits or ruthless dicks, and more often than not, well established enough that they can take a hit without it being total game over for them.

Sides, can't be letting my aim get rusty, main game is still on its way.

[NeuTronas 0]

I am a bandit. I know, everyone will hate me now. But why am I doing this? Because zombies are too easy. I have died from zombies last time like 150 hours of gameplay ago. When you get good gear you have nothing to do. Just to camp, look for vehicles or kill players.

[Spentmind 23]

Even if I was playing as Goodguy Spentmind and helping people and all that good friendly stuff, I would still want there to be Bandits, if there were no bandits this game would be boring as batshit for me, and in turn I wouldn't play at all.

[Smith Comma John 16]

The answer is more 'why not?' after considering the pros and cons of shooting other players on sight.

Cons

• ????
  

Pros

• I get their stuff. Maybe they don't have anything I need, but if that's the case I still haven't lost anything except a few bullets.
  
• I am not dead because they are.
  
• Players make more entertaining opponents than zombies, but there is a thrill in catching someone well geared totally off-guard----you get their shit and they don't have a chance to return fire.
  
• Some people take this game way too seriously (and are also ignorant of spawn locations and poor fighters/zombie managers, so it takes them longer to recover from a death) and their outraged reactions are entertaining.
  

Let me see if I can't show you my perspective a bit by telling you how I play through this game.

I start out by picking a fairly low pop server (fewer than 10) players. I kill myself until I spawn in either Balota, Electro, or Cherno. Once there, I run through the entire city and loot every major spawn. (Military/Store/Big Res Spawns) If I find a player before I have a weapon I run, if I find one after, I kill the player in the hopes that his gear can advance me along a bit so that I don't have to look elsewhere for say...a box of matches or a decent pack. After I loot a whole city in this fashion I usually end up with most of the tools I could use (toolbox/hunting knife/axe/BoM/map), at least one decent primary weapon and a secondary weapon.

Once I've got that shit I set a nav point to Starry and run there. Once again, any players I encounter I kill in the hopes that they will have some of the things I'm looking for. Later on, finding things like Rangefinders and NVGs is time consuming as all hell unless you get them from another player, which I do 95% of the time. I cautiously enter Starry (I'll usually lie in overwatch for a bit to make sure no one is there waiting) and go to the tents and then the supermarket. I loot those things, then I set a nav to the NWAF and go loot it. Several times along the way, if server pop goes up too much I'll find another low pop server to go on (looting the NWAF on a high pop server is just not worth the trouble) and if there are spawning issues on a server I join...I join another and loot the same building again.

Anyway, I want to end up with two rare or higher quality weapons (sniper rifle preferred for one of those), an ALICE pack or better, every tool I need to fix vehicles, feed myself, and navigate, and either a PDW or silenced M9 as a secondary weapon.

Once I have all of that, I meet up with my other friends who have been doing the same shit, we go onto a high pop server and try to find/steal vehicles and accumulate gear in a secluded camp (along with the vehicles) with the eventual goal of having a helicopter for the group, and several ground vehicles and several tents stocked with weapons/equip/food/repair parts/etc. and on a personal level having your favorite weapon combo (for me happens to be DMR/Mk 48/M9-silenced), NVGs, Rangefinder, GPS, Gillie Suit, and a Coyote Pack.

At that point we fly around playing vengeful gods of DayZ destroying everything we can because it's what we find entertaining.

Edited February 10, 2013 by Smith Comma John

[grimm89 1]

After being a good guy in the game and helping these two guys for three days, just for them to shoot me when they didn't need my help any more... That's when I turned and became a bandit.

Seriously, if people are just gonna throw things back in your face like that, what's the point in even battering an eyelid at a call for help. If I see freshspawns or low-geared players struggling or in need of help and I'm not busy, I'll lend them a quick hand, but aside from that... If I see someone with something I want, see someone facing towards me with a gun, someone running in my direction or someone who's too close for my comfort, I will open fire... In other words, I'll kill to survive.

You can talk to people all you like, and they may come across friendly... But the first rule of Day Z in my books? Trust -NO ONE-.

[obviousrprsnts 13]

Because I like the tactics you need to win a gunfight against other good groups \.

I dont do that fresh spawn or killing people on the coast with no guns , only when you have a m4 or better.

[Goggalor 191]

Day Z IS a shooter... don't be daft, please. You don't run around with an M14 AIM to kill zed.

Yes, yes I do. I stock up on DMR mags, wander in to town, kill some zed, help out new spawns, and leave.

[Smith Comma John 16]

Yes, yes I do. I stock up on DMR mags, wander in to town, kill some zed, help out new spawns, and leave.

Why use non-silenced weapons against zeds if you can acquire silenced ones? M14s are loud as fuck and just shitty zed poppers for that reason.

Frankly, if you don't play this game as majority bandit, you're 12 or retarded. DayZ isn't one of the more social MMOs, it is a sandbox where the only true entertainment is derived from getting sweet guns and killing other players with them. If you get your rocks off by helping other players in a video game, you should stop playing and volunteer for an actual cause.

Edited February 10, 2013 by Smith Comma John

[zOmnicyde 9]

Just about everyone in the game is a bandit. If I don't just kill someone they could just kill me. Even fresh spawns are dangerous in towns because there could be an enfield in almost any building.

[SteveLord 32]

Just about everyone in the game is a bandit. If I don't just kill someone they could just kill me. Even fresh spawns are dangerous in towns because there could be an enfield in almost any building.

Careful with that logic!

[gamerman001 182]

When I first got the mod, there was very little killing going on, then when the mod exploded and everyone bought it Killing / banditing was a norm.

I won't put blame on any particular group, but, when most games out there are FPS type of gameplay, you will inherit that mentality. Players will naturally bring that into DayZ.

No it was a massive migration of Console players who know nothing but CoD. They heard of dayz when zombies were (and still are) a really big pop culture fad. So now the mod is filled with total fagdouches who KoS for no reason.