As the title says, if this game wants to be something truly special and stand out from the crowd, it needs to remove guns.   When I saw an article about this game, I was excited because it felt like it was something really new and special. And it was at first, when I had no weapons and was fleeing zombies, swimming to small islands to save my skin.   Then I got guns and other people got guns and I realized this was just a standard shooter in a very big map.   I would suggest instead of guns create a huge inventory of melee weapons (and of course improve melee combat). That way, you have to get closer to people and have more interactions with them. Survival needs be harder. Food and water would need to be more scarce. Zombies much harder. That would force people working together, but you could still get axed in the back which is okay since you would at least be able to judge if you trust someone or not and let them come close to you.   Seriously this game right now feels like COD only you see someone every 5 hours or so.