Why bandits are needed in dayz...

[_Anubis_ (DayZ) 139]

Okay, first of all I am not a bandit, I play Lone Wolf, avoid PvP and tend to help people if I can. "Why this moron is posting here then?" - you may ask.

Because I have reached the conclusion bandits are a good thing in dayz. It is like an eco-system and predators are needed (Z are not a threat at all), but much more important, bandits add adrenaline.

Yesterday evening I was playing dayz: my avatar was running to NWAF armed with a Lee-Enfield, it was night but the moon was out, so visibility was acceptable.

I was almost there (SE corner) when 2 players get out of the trees, the first one has an M107, the second wears a Ghillie and has an assault rifle... They run sideways in front of me maybe 150 meters away, I drop to the ground but I am in the open. I highly doubt they are friendly.

The first one keeps running but the second stops. Shit. They move forward, then they split in opposite directions and start to look for me. I keep the ghillie man (closer) in view, heart pounding. F*uck I know I will die but who cares.

70m, 50 m, 20m, 5m ... The ghillie man passes by, he has missed me but he will soon turn back and there is still the sniper somewhere.

I decide to shoot: first miss, damn the slow L-E reload, fire again, the ghillie man goes down but he isn't dead. Fire again, now the sniper has finally spotted me and with an M107 one hit is enough.

Damn. So close. I chat a bit with the 2 guys:

"so at the end you saw me..."

"Not immediately.."

"Were you hostile? I started to shoot when I saw you coming towards me."

"Yes, we are bandits"

"Fair enough."

So it was fun, pure adrenaline for maybe 30 seconds. That's one of the reasons why I love dayz so much, even ifI will never be a bandit.

_Anubis_

[joinnkakashi@gmail.com 31]

Yes Bandit's do keep the game fresh and "somewhat" realistic, in an actual apocalypse, not everybody is going to be friendly, it'll be easier to kill you then help you. On the Server I play in I am part of a bandit group and we have locked down the entire north east of the map. Northwest Airfield is too big to defend, and well everyone goes there, but those who dare enter the NE are lucky to make it out alive.

Well basically put the high geared players are brave enough to enter, we take what we need and we will go on gear drops, or fresh spawn gifts.

Edited March 21, 2013 by A_Moss_Herder

[Talibambi 119]

My issue isnt with bandits really. Its with their reasons for being bandits. I hate being killed "because reasons". I have no problem with being killed as long as there is a "legitimate" reason for being killed. The game isnt harsh enough to force people to choose banditry for reasons that make some sense within the game world.

People kill for fun. Rather than because they need your beans. Its stupid. While its a game, its also meant to be some kind of simulator. But its just not brutal enough. Not nearly enough.

Edited March 21, 2013 by Talibambi

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

I'm no bandit but I <3 bandits

[ShokeR (DayZ) 29]

Bandits are essentials in this game, but the problem is most of the community are bandits.

I see players with bandit skin everyday but a player with hero skin I don't see a lot.

[rossums 2190]

Most of the community are not bandits, most of them are survivors.

The whole 'problem' behind it is that it significantly easier to become a bandit, becoming a hero takes hard work, determination and far too much trust.

Becoming a bandit just involve shooting players, people LIKE to shoot players because they can get items without having to put the effort into fetching it themselves.

What do you get for being a hero?

Nothing other than gratitude and the ability to stop low calibre rounds.

[GotBeanZ 45]

I almost never see an ethical bandit. A lot of people will KoS just for fun, but most of them do it because they know you're either a threat or a soon-to-be threat.

I'm no bandit but I <3 bandits

Luv u 2 steak! :P

[Xianyu 820]

I love bandits. They're fun. And I hunt them. Without bandits, I have no one to hunt. No fun to be had just avoiding zombies and nothing else.

That being said, greifers need to go the fuck away. People who shoot new spawns on the coast and justify it because they 'feel threatened' or 'hey might take my loot later on' need to just stop playing. At that point,they're just glorified greifers. And don't even get me started on the people who camp hills with AS50's. Ugh.

But bandits? They're fun.

[AshleyP 121]

much more important, bandits add adrenaline.

I agree, although I'd qualify it by adding that the game needs incompetent bandits. In your example the bandits were clowns - an effective bandit team would have just sniped you with the M107 long before you saw them. From your point of view the engagement would have been "run run run YOU ARE DEAD", which isn't very exciting. After the first week, that's how I have died, every time - a sudden burst of gunfire from nowhere and YOU ARE DEAD. Likewise, the only people I have killed died without knowing what happened. In my experience of playing Operation: Flashpoint and Arma and so forth, if the engagement lasts beyond the first volley of fire something has gone wrong.

The same goes with the hackers that teleport across the map and shoot players point-blank; it's impossible to feel menaced by them because there's nothing you can do about it. It's like worrying about the Earth spontaneously blowing up.

Incompetent bandits make the game entertaining. In this case they failed to spot you until they were in an iffy position, they continued to fail to spot you, and one of them ended up losing a tonne of blood and possibly dying in exchange for a Lee Enfield and (presumably) a few cans of beans. Against more heavily-armed opposition they would have both died somewhere near the beginning of your fifth paragraph.

[Tek (DayZ) 95]

I almost never see an ethical bandit. A lot of people will KoS just for fun, but most of them do it because they know you're either a threat or a soon-to-be threat.

Luv u 2 steak! :P

So then what is the difference between an ethical bandit and an unethical bandit?

[trunkz jr 61]

I don't mind bandits, I just hate the ones that have to lie just to get a kill.

[Auslovich 48]

When I kill another player, I USUALLY only kill them if they have something I need, or may have something I need. I generally never KOS and just try and find a good place to kill them.

[BigJames89 11]

bandits are the reason i spend hours a day looking for sniper rifles at heli crash sites.

[Rodom87 5]

I agree with rossums, most people are survivors, and most survivors shoot on sight. Actual BANDITS are the roleplay highway robbery types. People can refer to themselves as bandits by saying they kos often, but that makes them more in the raider category of the roleplay type.

[Tek (DayZ) 95]

And what if i'm not a role player? What if I just play the game however I want and if I shoot someone I shoot someone. If I don't, I don't. Why the F^ does it matter how I play the game? Because it might cause you to become a fresh spawn? If that bothers you then you might be better off NOT playing this game.

[Inception. 9443]

If people cannot tolerate death, they are not fit to play the game.

[Zero Cool 35]

So then what is the difference between an ethical bandit and an unethical bandit?

An ethical bandit lives by a code and will not shoot you in the back after you have helped them

[Col. Kurtz (DayZ) 91]

Ethics get you dead. Here is what Col. Kurtz said about it.

"We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember … I … I … I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized … like I was shot … like I was shot with a diamond … a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God … the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men … trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love … but they had the strength … the strength … to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral … and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling … without passion … without judgment … without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us."

[Captain Speirs 9]

No, not really.

[SteveLord 32]

The whole "ethical" bandit thing is crap. It's just the dead trying to justify their whining about bandits. You're still dead no matter what the reason is!

[Tek (DayZ) 95]

An ethical bandit lives by a code and will not shoot you in the back after you have helped them

That's just a person who has no ethics. But in the game, if I shoot someone that has no gun, does that make me unethical in the game? How is that any different than if I shoot someone that has a gun?

Why does one make the bandit a "scumbag" and the other just a survivor? Both kills eliminated a potential threat.