Killing me with kindness with Update thoughts

[loydmilligan 10]

Obviosuly this is just one life/one experience, but this is me testing the hypothesis - the "spawn without a weapon" mechanic will facilitate friendships between those with an extra gun lying around and those who just spawned who find themselves being chased by a bunch of zombies. Also my thoughts on the update in general -

In case you are too busy to watch the video but still want to join in the conversation below - here is the essence of what happens:

-I have a week old character who is kitted out pretty nice (dmr w/ 5 clips, revolver, map, compass, binoc, matches, axe, knife, watch, blood packs, cooked meat, etc.)

-I am getting a little bored just hiding out in the trees for almost a week.

-With the new spawn without a weapon game mechanic I decide I am going to try and help a newly spawned player who is being chased by zombies

-I direct him my way and kill all the zombies that are trailing him

-I tell him he can have the m1911 that I am carrying in my pack

-He promptly shoots me in my domeslice with the gun I just gave him

So the question is - assuming I am definitely going to try to befriend this chap...what could I have done differently to make success more likely. Some ideas I had are below.

[mrducky (DayZ) 33]

LOL. Surely you should have seen how that was gonna end up... :D

Nevertheless, I also find the idea interesting of going to the coast help some random poor bastards who have no guns. I might try it out myself too. I'm getting bored lurking in the bushes and looting the small towns for the bean cans. It might be time to get killed doing something more interesting.

Though I might leave the last part undone... The part where I would actually willingly give those dumbasses a gun. Since, well, they are still the same dumbasses that were trying to shoot you on sight earlier when they had a gun. Its not like they wouldn't act the very same once they have a gun again.

Actually, come to think of it... It might be more fair to just go and shoot them on sight instead. You know... To give them a little torment for the sins they've done in their previous lives. :P

[loydmilligan 10]

I totally agree and you can actually see at one point I ask him not to shoot me. I had an inkling...

The thing is, for me, this is almost the entire reason to play this game. The looting and the building of a character is definitely fun...but the PvP interactions are what really make this game intriguing to me. Someone on reddit asked - will this experience sour me on helping people? On the contrary, this has actually heightened my resolve, but next time I want to be smarter about it...thus -

I have been thinking what could I have done to make this interaction a success? I would actually like to hear some other people's thoughts on this. I want to attack this problem like I would any other game mechanic. For example if a new player is having trouble killing zombies they might try fighting zombies indoor because of the zombies must walk indoor mechanic) In the same way, I would like to develop some strategies for befriending random players successfully.

Some of the ideas I had for this specific case:

-Hide my powerful weapon (dmr) in my backpack

-Offer to let him have the DMR (I know its rare but i actually have less fun when I have a sniper like that because I am always in the trees...never in the action)

-give him the m1911 but dont give him any ammo

-offer to watch over him while he loots, but do not give him anything

-just keep my gun trained on him for a while

-test his honesty/loyalty in some way (for example tell him to take the m1911 from my pack but leave the ammo)

Anyone else got any ideas? Assuming you are going to try and make friends in game, what can one do to successfully pull this off?

[Arcadies 23]

Honestly, don't give him a gun. Why would you put a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone you barely know. You should have offered to take him with you, build rapport and trust with him, then help him to find his own weapon.

In this instance, the guys best survival chance is to take your stuff. And you gave him the means to do so, so he did.

[LastShenanigan 8]

I think the difficulty lies in trying to identify a new player from a respawned player. Might be something to look into. If you had done this for me however, we would be best friends for life.

[loydmilligan 10]

Honestly' date=' don't give him a gun. Why would you put a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone you barely know. You should have offered to take him with you, build rapport and trust with him, then help him to find his own weapon.

In this instance, the guys best survival chance is to take your stuff. And you gave him the means to do so, so he did.

[/quote']

the way i saw it - if i stick with him until he finds a gun or if i give him a gun...if he decides he wants to kill me in either case I am dead. I was hoping that the gift as well as my show of trust to him would be reciprocated. I was clearly wrong. Perhaps the build trust slowly approach that you suggest is the best way. I am thinking i may do a series where i try all these approaches several times and see what happens. thanks for the reply!

[sheepdawg 278]

Help him humanely. Meaning offer food, water, heatlth, assistance. Never give him a gun. As far as im concerned a gun in the appocalypse is pretty useless. Sure u can kill people but they are all loud. Personally id be going machete or crossbow.

Think of the scenario playing out differently. You give him a M1911 and ammo. He doesnt kill you, but instead fires that puppy in the middle of Elektro or something. You're both screwed. You can help others survive, but to dull your own chances of survival is idiotic. Glad to see your helping.

Yesterday i went AFK in Baltoa airfield in a hangar. I was laying prone so hopefully any jerks would see me and maybe not investigate. Someone however did come in as i came back to my seat. I saw them coming but had no gun. I have a Czeck Backpack and a CZ. I stood up and saluted him, he too did the same and left. That was a great moment in DayZ to be honest. No bloodshed, no ill will. 2 people surviving respecting what little humanity is left in the world.

[Johnny Walker 0]

nice video Matt

I don't think there is much you can do there. Anyone you don't shoot might try to kill you, particularly when you arm them and then tell them you want to see what its like to start off without a weapon. I mean, you all but gave the guy permission to try to off you. However, it was a dick move on his part.

In the future, maybe just try to help people loot stuff, or hopefully find someone who knows to be grateful for help. If you ever save Johnny Walker, you can count on finding a friend :)

[mrducky (DayZ) 33]

Its pretty much a lost cause. That's what I think.

The choices of the outcome are:

1. He is part of some bandit clan.

- Thus, if you give him a weapon or help him find one, he's sure as hell gonna shoot you and take your fancy gear and then run off to his buddies to tell the tale of the easy and foolish prey he encountered.

2. He's actually an experienced player who's still playing as an all out good survivor.

- Oh c'mon... This is not gonna happen, so lets forget about this scenario. There are next to none of those saint survivors anymore, and the ones that still exist, are still alive and hiding in the northern bushes, or if they should die, they know how to sneak to a town and get some weaps without getting into any major trouble with the zeds.

3. The guy is some random bandit (or a survivor, but not a very nice one).

- He's just gonna shoot you and take your stuff, cos that gives him a nice start to the game. And he's also probably still pissed off for getting killed a moment earlier and thus feels the urge to shoot someone.

4. The guy just wants to do it for the lulz?

- After all, you're essentially giving him the comical choice (at least in their mind), of just shooting a guy who saved them / handed them the weapon.

5. The guy is a noob.

- Well now... If you can actually somehow verify that the guy is a true noob (rather than just pretending to be one), playing the game for the first few times, then you just might consider giving him the gun. There is the risk that if its his first gun ever, he feels tempted to try it out on you... But other than that, it'll probably be the first nice thing anyone has done in the game for that guy, so he'll probably be all happy and might want to team up. The problem is, that if he's a total noob, then teaming up with him will just get you killed too when he draws the attention of all the zeds and bandits.

Also notice, that the guy in the video did not appear to be a total noob - based on the remarks on the new zed changes. At that point, I would have considered him a non-noob (thus, likely a bandit) and just unloaded a clip to his head. :D

Essentially, you just don't give some random guy a weapon. Nor do you let him get anywhere near your backpack (especially if you keep an extra weapon there). If he seems to be going for your backback without your permission, just shoot him.

The only thing that might be worth considering, is that you offer to watch his back from further away if he wants to go find a weapon to some nearby town or such. (He might be ratting out your position to his clanmates while doing so on TS or such, but at least the moment you see the guy find a gun, you say adios and get the hell outta there before he shoots you.). But since the other players are essentially the enemy in this game, why bother help one?

TL;DR If the other guy seems to be a true noob, then he might still not yet be tainted by this game, you might choose to cautiously trust him and help him for a while and evaluate him for his noobness. Otherwise its an enemy combatant. Helping your enemy gets you killed. So, shoot, shoot, shoot! (There's no court marshall here, no-one will be around to judge you for shooting the unarmed). You can always say he was clearly going for the gun in your backpack. :angel:

[walrus2517 27]

After making contact, if you want to offer him the gun, find a landmark 100m or so away (can be simple like a bush or tree) and say that you are going to run over there and drop the gun and ammo. Tell him he has to stay in place or else you will not drop anything. Run to the spot and if he doesn't move, you can drop the goods and scurry away before he can run over, grab the loot, and start shooting.

This isn't ideal because obviously if you are going to be a nice guy and give someone such loot you'd like to make a friend out of the deal, but with things as they currently are your best bet is just to do what I described above then return to the shadows like some kind of guardian angel.

EDIT: I'll add the obvious note that you should only do this with the 1911 or another short range weapon. If you are going to give him the DMR I'd make that drop a bit further than 100m. ;)

[Alexey Zemanov 6]

I have been thinking what could I have done to make this interaction a success?

Bring friends. ... He might have killed you all with a frag grenade on another occasion though.

[loydmilligan 10]

Wow - lots of really good points and information. I want to state that in the video I most certainly considered that this guy might shoot me and as i typed in the video - I was wanting to try out the new spawn mechanic. It was still a surprise when it happened as he already had a chance or two to kill me and chose not to. And obviously this is not the way I normally play...giving a guy I just met a gun. I do like the whole only trust noob logic above.

So, up to this point here is what I thought - most people shoot on site and most people seem to have no issue with this. I always assumed that this was mostly due to the fact that you cannot trust people and therefore if you both have guns it is best to kill than be killed. In the video, the guy can clearly trust me as I had many chances to kill him and also I allowed myself to be VERY vulnerable.

I think this means that A) he saw my gear and figured he wanted it enough to be willing to kill me even though I showed him a kindness OR B) He kills people not because he cant trust them but because for whatever reason he just enjoys the player killing aspect of this game.

Now, if the answer is A) then I could have avoided this situation by not letting him know I had a DMR/other good gear or by simply giving him the dmr

if the answer is B) then honestly I am not sure how I could have lived through this ordeal. Somehow I have to do something that makes him value playing cooperatively more than the pleasure he gets from killing other players. This is a tough question and one i am actual going to try to figure out.

[walrus2517 27]

You can hide your DMR but if he has any knowledge at all he'll still see your nice backpack and assume you're well equipped (especially if you are offering him your extra weapons and ammo).

Again, I'd setup a point close by and drop the gear off there while he waits. If you are both standing on a road say "I'm going to walk 100m east and drop the gear. You stay here until I say so." Then by the time he goes over to grab the gear you can be out of there.

[loydmilligan 10]

You can hide your DMR but if he has any knowledge at all he'll still see your nice backpack and assume you're well equipped (especially if you are offering him your extra weapons and ammo).

Again' date=' I'd setup a point close by and drop the gear off there while he waits. If you are both standing on a road say "I'm going to walk 100m east and drop the gear. You stay here until I say so." Then by the time he goes over to grab the gear you can be out of there.

[/quote']

This is definitely safe, but like you said, if my goal is to meet a looting buddy...well, I guess there is no good way to do that. I think you are right...there is no way to hide your gear...to some people they just see you as another loot pile. Imagine playing the same game but being told that there are no other players...the other players you encounter are just AI. Seems to me that this is how some people view other players - as objects.

[mines_skyline 4]

it can go both ways. i found a random guy once who had nothing. i had 3 weapons. i helped him find another weapon and ammo. found other gear for him. at the end of the day we disconnected the server in peace.

so i think wat im trying to say is i got lucky, u didnt. for next time, from your point of view, what i wud have done differently is only group up with people you know.

for example, my clan and i have a teamspeak server. anyone in the DayZ channel is friendly, anyone who is not, is hostile. even if they are in ur clan, they are hostile. because you cant know its them because u cant communicate with them.

[loydmilligan 10]

it can go both ways. i found a random guy once who had nothing. i had 3 weapons. i helped him find another weapon and ammo. found other gear for him. at the end of the day we disconnected the server in peace.

so i think wat im trying to say is i got lucky' date=' u didnt. for next time, from your point of view, what i wud have done differently is only group up with people you know.

for example, my clan and i have a teamspeak server. anyone in the DayZ channel is friendly, anyone who is not, is hostile. even if they are in ur clan, they are hostile. because you cant know its them because u cant communicate with them.

[/quote']

I have played a fair amount with some friends and will continue to do so. I must say, though, that the idea of trying to meet someone "on the road" and team up with them sounds really cool to me. Perhaps this is currently just not the game for this.