Another post about weapons and loot.

[Iarfur 32]

Played on experimental for the first time yesterday, some 50 people on the server and it had probably been up for some time because lord allmighty, it was picked clean, I honestly thought I'd starve to death for the first time.

 

And I loved it.

 

I'd made a lucky find and gotten myself a fireaxe, other players I ran across tended to be as bad off as me or worse, had cannibalism been an option I'd probably tried taking down somebody who had a worse melee weapon than me. Because it was like a swarm of locusts had swept the island, every door open, every town looted, the NE airfield was totally empty, not even a scope in ruined condition. You cant imagine the pure joy of finding a house that had been overlooked, the bag or rice and two pieces of fruit nearly had me in tears, I grabbed it and quickly ran out into the woods, hid in a bush and greedily gulped it all down, my head constantly spinning, convinced that someone would come and take it from me.

 

Made it as far as Vybor before logging off, still everything looted, still hadn't found a gun, but atleast some more food and better clothes.

 

It was awesome, it's what I want DayZ to be.

 

I know that some people complain that it's too hard to find food, weapons, etc, but truth be told, once you get to know which places spawn what and which places to avoid, it's really too damn easy to gear up. I usually find myself decked out in everything I need/want within one-three hours of playing, after that I basicly head to elektro to find someone that will manage to take me down, or head to the coast to find some fresh spawn to bodyguard.

 

I keep hearing rumors of improvised weapons replacing the military ones, that in time we'll be killing each other with spears and bows rather than m4's and mosins, and I cant wait. I'd love to stalk someone armed with a sharpened stick, to hunt rabbits with a slingshot, to get excited when I find a shell for my shotgun.

 

In the current apocalypse everyone and their brothers are dressed in head to toe military gear, with enough ammo to start a war and all the food they can possibly need before they finally get shot. In -MY- apocalypse half starved, dirty lunatics fight in the street with sticks and broken bottles over half a can of beans. 

 

 

[Element47 2481]

this.

 

[stc105 14]

 

I know that some people complain that it's too hard to find food, weapons, etc, but truth be told, once you get to know which places spawn what and which places to avoid, it's really too damn easy to gear up.

 

Agreed.

 

 

 keep hearing rumors of improvised weapons replacing the military ones, that in time we'll be killing each other with spears and bows rather than m4's and mosins, and I cant wait.

 

Iarfur I am the opposite of you. I think the solution is not lower military gear, but make a wide variety of military gear so that you may have an M4, but no ammo for it. Like a STALKER scenario, where you have to mach up the ammo with the gun. In my apocalypse scenario, you will find an M4 and leave it knowing that the chances of finding the right parts and ammo are slim. 

 

Now I think military should be lowered a bit, but I dislike the idea of improvised weapons being the replacement. As far as I know, you will be bale to craft a bow and use it like you do in Skyrim. That is crazy, the skills it takes to make a bow (let alone master it), would be a kin to late game rather than early game.

 

What is going to happen is that server hopping kiddos are going to be fully geared while you an me are going to be walking around with a spear.

Edited February 17, 2014 by stc105

[Window Licker 504]

Not what I was expecting, bean's to you and your attitude, struggling to survive makes the game challenging, running from town to town hoping there is some more food so I can survive.  Personally I like having to work to get healthy, instead of it being a minor inconvenience before I run to find a good gun.

[Beck (DayZ) 1768]

Put a bow an arrow in the game (NOT A CROSSBOW PLEASE) and you can make the weapon spawns as rare as you want them. Give me a bow!

[stc105 14]

Oh I forgot to mention that once animals are added to the game (I read on the forums somewhere that they can do about 300 animals without causing server issues), starving will not be an issue.

 

The scenario will go like this: Collect water from stream, and kill animal for food. Then light a fire, and boil water and cook food. Thirst and hunger gone :)

 

I assume that the devs will lower food and drink spawns when the cooking and hunting systems are implemented.

[HunterJay 81]

Put a bow an arrow in the game (NOT A CROSSBOW PLEASE) and you can make the weapon spawns as rare as you want them. Give me a bow!

 

 I wonder if we'll be able to craft our own arrows.

[Iarfur 32]

Now I think military should be lowered a bit, but I dislike the idea of improvised weapons being the replacement. As far as I know, you will be bale to craft a bow and use it like you do in Skyrim. That is crazy, the skills it takes to make a bow (let alone master it), would be a kin to late game rather than early game.

 

What is going to happen is that server hopping kiddos are going to be fully geared while you an me are going to be walking around with a spear.

 

 

Gimme a bunch of branches, a shoelace and some ducttape and I'll make a bow in ten minutes, granted, I wont be able to kill anything beyond three legged rabbits with it, but still. As for the skill to use a bow properly, weeeeell, I'm sure lag and desync will sort that out, as it stands now I can empty a full 60 round mag into someone and hit nothing but scenery.

 

The crafting system is there, and being worked on, I love the improvised backpacks (I've been known to ditch hunter backpacks once I've got the needed materials for one), but there's -so- much more you could do with it. Stick and knife - spear, stick, knife and duct tape - awesome spear, stick, hatchet, rope - bow, steel pipe, chainsaw and piece of chain - flail of doom! The possibilities are endless.

 

I really dislike the fact that there's really only one option for a melee weapon - the fireaxe, with the splitting axe the poor mans fireaxe, all other melee weapons being a waste of an equipment slot. The fists of fury are too damn effective, and all melee weapons aside from the axes are too weak, untill this changes we wont see any variation in what people strap to their back.

I'm not saying remove guns, lord no, just make them hard to come by, and ammunition even more so, this is the apocalypse people, there shouldn't be fully loaded assult rifles just laying around waiting to be picked up.

As for the server hopping, weeeell, not sure about how theyre gonna sort that one out, I read that loot will be distributed in a diffrent way, that you cant be sure that you'll find that assult rifle you want when you hop to the airfield, maybe it spawned in a barn outside Pulkovo instead. If they just make the sweet loot stupidly rare and have it spawn in diffrent places, server hopping will net you nothing.

[Nicko2580 398]

Depending on how long it's been since the outbreak, lots of military gear makes sense. Society wouldn't devolve to sticks and rocks for many years after a real apocalypse... there'd be plenty of gear around for everyone. 

That being said, while I don't want any of the hardware to go away, I do want it to be much harder to find, much harder to maintain and much harder to find ammo for. So that eventually, while I might have an M4 or SKS and a handful of rounds, I'll mostly stick to my bow & arrow or crossbow until I really, really need to use the gun.

I see ammo becoming a Day Z currency. 

[Whyherro123 2283]

Gimme a bunch of branches, a shoelace and some ducttape and I'll make a bow in ten minutes, granted, I wont be able to kill anything beyond three legged rabbits with it, but still. As for the skill to use a bow properly, weeeeell, I'm sure lag and desync will sort that out, as it stands now I can empty a full 60 round mag into someone and hit nothing but scenery.

 

The crafting system is there, and being worked on, I love the improvised backpacks (I've been known to ditch hunter backpacks once I've got the needed materials for one), but there's -so- much more you could do with it. Stick and knife - spear, stick, knife and duct tape - awesome spear, stick, hatchet, rope - bow, steel pipe, chainsaw and piece of chain - flail of doom! The possibilities are endless.

 

I really dislike the fact that there's really only one option for a melee weapon - the fireaxe, with the splitting axe the poor mans fireaxe, all other melee weapons being a waste of an equipment slot. The fists of fury are too damn effective, and all melee weapons aside from the axes are too weak, untill this changes we wont see any variation in what people strap to their back.

I'm not saying remove guns, lord no, just make them hard to come by, and ammunition even more so, this is the apocalypse people, there shouldn't be fully loaded assult rifles just laying around waiting to be picked up.

As for the server hopping, weeeell, not sure about how theyre gonna sort that one out, I read that loot will be distributed in a diffrent way, that you cant be sure that you'll find that assult rifle you want when you hop to the airfield, maybe it spawned in a barn outside Pulkovo instead. If they just make the sweet loot stupidly rare and have it spawn in diffrent places, server hopping will net you nothing.

In real life, bows are really difficult to make. There was a reason medieval bowyers were such highly paid; making a bow requires a lot of skill and knowledge, not just in carpentry, but also in physics.

Case in point; I've made a self-bow out of willow. 22 inch draw length, with a hold weight of 50lbs. It took a year just for the wood to dry, then an additional month to make 3 arrows (find the proper wood, straighten them out, dry them out, nock them, and add a point and fletchings.

Also, archery isn't as easy as the movies make it out to be. English longbowmen had to train for their entire lives in order to reliably hit targets, and that wasn't even aiming at individual people, just at marching blocks of men.

 

You can make a field expedient bow in the field, just don't expect any sort of accuracy out of it, and if you were to hit anything, don't expect to kill it. Archery is an art. There is a reason people used crossbows, and eventually, firearms over other bows. Ease of use, of logistics, and reliability.

 

I do look forward to spear-making, though. Can't fuck up a spear.

[Iarfur 32]

In real life, bows are really difficult to make. There was a reason medieval bowyers were such highly paid; making a bow requires a lot of skill and knowledge, not just in carpentry, but also in physics.

 

I've played around with crafting bows as well, I've yet to manage crafting a proper, traditional bow (got some pieces of suitable wood drying myself), but I have made some allright ones out of skis, pvc pipe, copper tubing, strips of plywood and green wood, I wont claim that any of these had even close to the power or accuracy of the english longbows of old, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to get shot by either of them. 

 

As for the realism of it all, this is a game and it does seem every character spawns with an awfull lot of knowledge, your average civilian would have some problems handling an m4, hooking up a blood bag and soon enough - gutting an animal and getting the meat. We'll just have to assume that every survivor is Dave Canterbury.