Confessions of a Server Jumper: How I learned to love scarcity

[gemellus 77]

I will admit that I am, or at least was, a server hopper. NWAF, NEAF, Zeleno's military base, Balota, SW military base....I would run from one end of the map to the other again and again for hours of gameplay on low-pop servers. I felt burned out, so today I decided that I was going to move to experimental, kill my character with ill gotten gains and start fresh.

 

I spawned in Svelto on a 100 man server and rushed to grab the basics: clothes, food, water, and a melee weapon. All sorts of bambies were looking for loot too and it was so cool competing for loot and dodging zombies that DIDN'T involve milsim dudes killing bambies. I then went to the heli crash site near Rify and to my delight I found an M4 and a box of 556 ammo. I leave where to my shock two server hoppers with guns spawn right next to the crash. Right here are two server hoppers who will probably KoS me (most of the time groups of players always KoS me or worse, make me surrender and then kill me). I gun them down with chambered rounds and I felt amazing! I couldn't spray and each round felt like the difference between life and death.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Wre6WWr.jpg

 

I walked for a bit and peacefully interacted with a few not-so-newspawns and gave food and a tip off to where the dead server hoppers lay. Later I went to a small town and found a player who was looting a pub. I held him up, grabbed the morphine next to him, told him "I needed my morphine fix" and ran away.

 

Now the thing is, I had more fun in those 20 minutes than I've had in the previous 2 MONTHS of gameplay. Why? I think it's because:

1) a lot more buildings have loot now 

2) double the amount of players means I don't have to play for days without seeing another player.

3) I had 20 rounds that had to be loaded individually. If I miss, I could be dead. The tension that creates is a lot cooler than having 150+ rounds in M4 mags like most server hoppers have.

4) I wasn't loaded to the gills in milsim gear. I still want more military stuff added, like CDF battle fatigues and old soviet helmets, but my current character is sporting an ushanka, a torn raincoat, brown hunter pants, black military boots and an M4 and I'm having a heck of a time struggling to survive.

 

So what would I like to see by beta (a lot of this has been tread on so many times but whatever...):

-dramatically reduced ammo spawns and slightly reduced gun spawns; make every bullet count; (think STALKER:SoC)

-make it so every house has something to loot that has SOME use

-work on server stability so that 100 man servers become the norm (I don't think 250 would be good for the game; this is the apocalypse after all)

 

 

So TL;DR: I played the game properly with scarce resources and I had a hell of a time.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Tibialis

[Mariooooo 5]

That sounds like a lot of fun. How do I find these experimental servers anyways?

[kichilron 8550]

That sounds like a lot of fun. How do I find these experimental servers anyways?

 

 

Here you go:

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/177199-experimental-branch-testing-how-to/

 

 

 

As for the topic:

 

the thing about not serverhopping is that you actually worked for your gear and find it far more enjoyable to keep it than simply jumping servers a few times and having everything you need. It's all the fun in the game gone, when you're just aquiring gear illegitimately.

Edited April 18, 2014 by kichilron

[Mariooooo 5]

Many thanks for the very fast and helpful response!

[tiadashi 262]

Did you find the m4 and ammo AT the crash site?

[gemellus 77]

Did you find the m4 and ammo AT the crash site?

Yes, the ammo was on the floor and the M4 was on the heli's bench.

[theevancat 94]

Yeah, I used to serverhop as well and I found that I could gear up easily. But now I don't (partially the server spawn timer puts me off) and I've been playing for two weeks on my current life. I'm geared up, but I've found it more enjoyable and I've even had to compete for a lot of it. It is truly a lot more satisfactory and enjoyable.

Edited April 18, 2014 by TheEvanCat

[hotcakes 348]

I don't go looting for the high-end stuff anymore. It's easily available by going to a hospot and killing someone for it,

[Facetentacles 92]

Yes, the ammo was on the floor and the M4 was on the heli's bench.

Man that's awesome. I still haven't found anything at that crash site even with loot spawns fixed. Guess I'll have to keep looking

[shaeg 136]

When I die... I run to high pop area and find a good melee weapon and a pistol or a sawed off... I bait a bandit... and take his gear.

 

Its the easiest way to gear up. And the most fun.