What's the point?

[guntrigger 1]

I'm starting to wonder what the point of playing this game on public servers is. I LOVE it, I love the atmosphere, I love the scaredy feeling I get trying to sneak past a few zombies and moving from place to place with a group of buddies. It's a feeling you'll only get on a random server in my opinion and totally adds to the feel of the game.

However, the only time I ever seem to die lately, unless one of our group does something totally stupid or we get absolutely cornered, is due to hackers.

The last 3 humans players I've tried to defend myself from have been obviously invincible (multiple AS50 rounds, or a whole magazine of AK-74 rounds at point blank should be enough to do SOMETHING). I've been spawned with every other player in the server at the airfield for a battle royale and I've personally been singled out for being spawned next to one of these invincible hackers for his amusement so he could dance while my shots had no effect.

The most recent encounter (just now) was when me and a friend were looting the NW airfield at night (his first time there, my second time - really exciting stuff for us). Then a chopper flies over! Never seen one in action, it was brilliant for a time, he got caught in the spotlight and it came back for a run on him, so I hit it with 5 AS50 rounds and the engine turned off and I watched it going down, it was really cool.

Then the engine turned back on, it flew up and over to a dark spot on the runway to land. I used my rangefinder to see him in the dark and range my AS50 (I was laying on the control tower), my friend used his NV scoped FAL to fire at the guy as soon as he got out. My friend died being returned on with a DMR, just as my scoped vision was fading in in the moonlight. I missed him with the first couple of shots, certainly hit him with another couple, kept readjusting and firing and reloading in disbelief as he was being attacked by about 20 zombies and was still concious. Then he got on the helicopter gun and destroyed me.

Somehow I survived that attack (broken bone, no blood, in shock) and was just patching myself up as he was strafing the tower in the chopper. I shot at him some more, the chopper went down in a ball of flames and he bailed out safely. As he landed, he was standing up straight as I shot him with one of my last 3 .50cal bullets, then he shot me to death (while I could see 5 zombies mauling him). HE NEVER DIED.

I mean, it's given me an interesting story to tell, but it's ultimately tainted by this douchebag having nothing invested in the game whatsoever and us never having a chance against him. What the hell is the point of playing this game at all if you're just going to have god mode and infinite weapons?? It seems no-one except for vigilante server owners cares about hackers anymore. Surely this is going to turn people off the game (as with a number of my friends already) and probably steer them away from the standalone version - particularly if this is their first and only experience of it.

[Target Practice (DayZ) 1335]

Whitelisted servers, my friend. It's the only way, unfortunately.

[FlamingDefibs 421]

I recommend the Balota Buddies servers - a great community, lots of opportunities to make a name for yourself, and 99.9% hacker free.

[Feral (DayZ) 622]

i still play on public and private servers and i die a lot from hackers on the public hive.

I simply view hacking related deaths as unfortunate but inevitable events that signal the end of that particular characters life. I used to get pissed off but soon realised that feeling anger or rage or hate etc was only making me feel bad and fed the hackers weird need for a reaction. Now i just go make a cup of tea, take a piss and get busy restarting my new characters adventure.

The trick for me anyhow is to not mind and to accept that that hackers exist and are really only cheating themselves by pretending that they are winning at a computer game.

[Slugfoot 73]

i still play on public and private servers and i die a lot from hackers on the public hive.

I simply view hacking related deaths as unfortunate but inevitable events that signal the end of that particular characters life. I used to get pissed off but soon realised that feeling anger or rage or hate etc was only making me feel bad and fed the hackers weird need for a reaction. Now i just go make a cup of tea, take a piss and get busy restarting my new characters adventure.

The trick for me anyhow is to not mind and to accept that that hackers exist and are really only cheating themselves by pretending that they are winning at a computer game.

Wish I had that sort of patience. Hackers are the reason I'm waiting for the SA to come out as I know they'll just sour my experience and put me off the game otherwise.

I suspect that many people have been / will be put off the game due to these idiots, which is a great pity.

[Josh225 129]

I used the get pissed off whenever I was killed by blatant hacks. Until I realized that what makes this game fun isn't the gear or how long you can live. It's the epic moments.

[guntrigger 1]

Good replies all!

I've thought about whitelisted servers and am definitely going to check out private hives at some point, but at the same time I find part of the thrill to be not knowing who else is in the server and trying to avoid 40 potentially hostile players!

Also, I don't generally get too annoyed at hacker deaths, but it just spoils what could have been a great moment otherwise. Particularly the chopper story I mentioned in my first post, which started off being a great moment, but as soon as you realise the other player has nothing invested in surviving (or in this case having a fully working chopper) and/or they're absolutely unbeatable, the fun gets sapped from the situation very quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I love starting from scratch and having our group work their way back together (I also don't see the point of killing yourself at spawn - just get trekking its good fun), I just don't understand people's motivation for cheating.

[xwhitemousex 67]

Whitelisted servers, my friend. It's the only way, unfortunately.

This is absolutely true.

I was quite frustrated myself due to all the hacking, not to mention excessive amounts of high quality military weapons due to duping and hacking them in. Not really fun to be shot at half the time because people have an overload of scoped weapons they can use.

Now I play on a whitelisted server, and sure, people may still shoot at me and my friends (after all, whitelisted doesn't necessarily mean no-PvP). But there is alot less military grade guns floating around, which means less sniper-whoring. When I meet other people they mostly carry Winchesters, Lee Enfields, Double-barrels and in some cases AK's. Very rarely I see people using M4 or sniper rifles such as CZ550, M24 and so on. I believe this is also largely because without duping/hacking the access to ammunition also restricts overusing these weapons.

I have personally found M24's with 2 clips and simple leave it behind because I know 2 clips won't get me far, and I had no space to pick it up. The ammo is pretty scarce and I don't plan to visit NWA daily to replenish ammo. That will only get me shot which means no more rifle anyways.

Put simple, the game became alot more interesting and fun to play once you are on a whitelist server. Quite happy with the one I am on since people by and large seem friendly and helpful (in the chat at least, they still shoot at you haha) and the admins are very active which is always a huge plus!

[OfficerRaymond 2064]

You're not the only one man, I have experienced possibly every script there is out there. I play 100% legit (I don't take gear or weapons I have the slightest feeling are hacked, no combat logging, no despawning, no recycling, no exploiting of any kind) the most I have ever done is die every once in awhile to get a better spawn if I'm in like BFE. Nothing sucks more than having someone replace my DMR, M107, or even M16A4 ACOG with a bunch of tempting gear that I am going to drop, and a Ghillie that I feel filthy wearing (lol). Or spawning on a bus 12,000m off the map, and being forced to jump out fully geared. Or my personal favorite, being spawned in the ocean/no-return island and having to watch your avatar helplessly float there and starve to death.

I recently just started playing on 'private hives', and feel disgusted doing so. I don't feel like I would if I was on a public server. What is worse, is that a lot of the admins of these hives are no better than the damned script kiddies. The most recent server I have been playing, I had just gotten fairly geared with a friend of mine (him: M249 SAW w/ 2 belts, British Pack, food and drink to make two map trips; me: M4A3 CCO w/ 2 1/2 mags, British Pack, Rangefinders, surplus food and drink) and we had found a UAZ, so we fixed it and took it. I had a Fishing boat parked between Cherno and Elektro that we were gonna grab and take to Skalisty to possibly find a chopper, but I decided to check out Rog first. We get up to Rog, and what do we find? Fully green UH-1H huey with a Bambi looting it. We ask him to join us, he doesn't respond, gets out, and proceeds to fire on us with an Enfield. Friend takes him out with a few shots to the body; no biggie. We take the Huey and start strafing fields to find Heli Crashes. We do that for a few hours, and then he decides to hang it up for the night. He parks the Heli WAYYYYYYYY up in a tiny clearing miles from any travelled route where we know nobody would go (by the edges of the map). He dropped me off back at the UAZ and I drove it back up there, parked it about 400m away from the heli to avoid losing it aswell, and hid it in three pine trees where it was COMPLETELY INVISIBLE, then wrote down the coords. on a sticky note and stuck them to my computer desk, and log off DayZ for the night. I log back on THIS MORNING, to check our stuff, and it is all gone. Huey, UAZ, and the two tents I had also set up. We know this wasn't a reset, because it wasn't due for a reset till tonight, and we know it wasn't a hacker. So, that leaves the admins. Which I can tell you for a fact, because they have been using their admin maps to build a 'base' with all the vehicles on the map, they were talking about it in side chat with each other, but I never got a screen of it. Kicker is, that one of the admins had been giving me and my buddy problems about esping, why? I do not know, but I'm thinking it is because we had found the UAZ in the middle of the woods, and he had done a shitty job of hiding it. So he blamed me and my friend for esping, and told us we were being put on watch, when me and my friend both know we have been plaiyng 110% legit.

Point I'm getting at with this short story, is that you really are never safe in DayZ from cheating until the standalone. Combat logging, Exploiting, Admin Abuse, and Script Sissies all make me sick, because like you, I love playing this game. I go to work, I go to school, I deal with my wife, and this is the shit I do to blow off steam for 2-3 hours before bed. Suprising how easily a 12 year old moron that thinks he's funny because he just came from CoD: BO2 or BF3 and can't play a combat sim for shit so takes it out by cheating, can ruin your day, and your 30 day survival streak.

[floogy (DayZ) 25]

I kind of avoid hackers by playing lower pop servers. They typically don't bother with those. I'm a lone wolf player and prefer to play where player encounters are rare. I like the feeling of being alone surviving and it makes the odd encounter more exciting.

[OfficerRaymond 2064]

I kind of avoid hackers by playing lower pop servers. They typically don't bother with those. I'm a lone wolf player and prefer to play where player encounters are rare. I like the feeling of being alone surviving and it makes the odd encounter more exciting.

The way you play is up to you, I just don't get people that play like this. The key component of dayz is playing with others.