Chernarus is starting to look empty

[King Raptor 191]

So me and a friend went on a two-day looting rampage that took us across a lot of military bases and even an airfield and on about 2 to 4 different servers, filled to the brim (we always play on high population servers, if the server pop goes below 30 or so we'll bail ship) we ran into absolutely NO-ONE. Not a single gun shot, no suspicious sounds, no thrills. Nuffin'.

Not at Stary Sobor, not at Zelenagorsk, not at Balota, not at Novelsky, not at Chapaevsk, not at Dubky and not at Pusta (where we ended for today.)

We did find some opened doors at the southern airfield and the military base at zelenagorsk but that was the only sign of player activity.

 

(You can pretty much figure the route we took, we took a few stops inbetween to go sight-seeing and explore places we hadn't been to for a while)

My theory is that now with the spawning happening only in the north-east, people rarely bother coming down to these places except for a few dedicated looters.

 

I hope the limited number of spawn points are a bug/test phase because this is disheartening to say the least. And damn boring.

 

[freethink 984]

Out west I've only ever met players at nwaf, veresnik and green mountain. Veresnik is probably the most trafficked by area.

[Yaddie 44]

I think most people stick to the eastern part of the map, be it south or north. Sometimes you'll run into big crews in the west, but I don't find many lone wolves away from the coast.

[Killawife 599]

Go to Berezino, stand on a rooftop and wave. You're most likely to get a friendly hello quite quickly.

[synystr 118]

Its cause by the east coast spawn. No one makes it to any of the classic dayz cities. No one is fighting in Elektro, there aren't pesky geared snipers in Cherno any more, Kamenka would be a nice place to spawn now because of the market and the new military base. I really hope they switch the spawns back to how they used to be and leave the new northern sector for people who make it that far up.

[cartire 55]

I get what your saying op.

 

Me and my buddy have at least 24 hours on our current lives, and we have been hiking the whole map.  We have hit every town, base, minus berrezino to riffy.  We havent decided if we want to go risk ourselves there and for the most part feel we need to play it at least somewhat safe.  We also skipped NEAF for the same reasons. 

 

We played cautious and went through cherno and electro twice, seeing no one.  We hit Ballato, where we saw one person in the ATC.  My buddy looted the tents why I watched the guy, and we let him live realizing he was coming to the tents, he would be delayed and most likely find little.  Whoever you are, youre welcome. 

 

When we were in NovySober police station, the next and last person we would see, came running at my buddy with a fire ax.  He had a weapon on his back, and he was just swinging the ax at my friend with zombies chasing him.  So my friend shot him.  It was self defense at that point, the guy was clearly nuts.  We were hoping for a successful diplomatic encounter where we would tell a tale to someone else and wish them on there way, but this guy wasnt the guy.  The guy was alone.  I believe that might have been what drove him to madness.

 

Otherwise that, we have been moving along and meeting no one.  We are always on 30+ servers.  We occasionally see signs of people, but its rare.  I think its time for this game to open its spawns up.  24 hours with 2 encounters, one the other guy not even realizing he was being watched.  Its just kinda boring, and yet the adrenaline rush you get when something does happen, you keep logging hours on it. 

 

Its a disgusting habit. 

Edited August 8, 2014 by cartire

[SniperwolfMR 153]

The bottom line is that there needs to be more slots to each server. 

 

40 is not cutting it anymore. 

 

Think of the vast size of the map, then think of 40 people.

 

It should have 70 at the least. 

[frosti 2165]

The bottom line is that there needs to be more slots to each server. 

 

40 is not cutting it anymore. 

 

Think of the vast size of the map, then think of 40 people.

 

It should have 70 at the least. 

 

I've played on 75 players server in DayZ mod.

 

If I've stayed away from military zones, Airfields or Electro then I would not have meet any player for days.

 

That said, 70 players Standalone server will have 68 players in Berezino.

[non-orthodox 27]

It is just a matter of finding the right place to be. And that is pretty much Berezino or Svetlo/Novo. NEAF also has alot of movement.

 

The best thing about all of this is that fewer players get full military gear right in the first hour, it is alot more common to see players with taloon backpacks, a SKS or mosin and civilian clothes.

[escobert 112]

I always run west as soon as I spawn. No point in staying in the East unless you want to get shot at for a hat or can of soda. I seen signs of players and heard a  few shots. Ran into some dupers/hackers at NWAF shortly after the AKM came into stable. Shot both of them after they got me in the arm and grabbed their newly found ak parts. Guess they should have just let me run off into the woods like I had planned. But they shot and tried to flank me. Too bad I'm a good shot with a sks ;) Pretty sad that two guys with hacked 2000+ round stipper clips couldn't take down a lone wounded guy with 1 normal stripper clip that they had the jump on.

Edited August 8, 2014 by escobert

[Deathlove 2286]

The only way to get massive amounts of players on servers is to drastically cut down how many public servers are available forcing ppl to play on heavier populated ones.

 

Of coarse anyone with a brain normally wouldn't go on even half a full server. So you have some interesting dilemmas as to getting more ppl on servers per say. Forcing ppl to only a set number of servers will only make players angry though.

[serb 54]

I think most people stick to the eastern part of the map, be it south or north. Sometimes you'll run into big crews in the west, but I don't find many lone wolves away from the coast.

Dont say it twice, i made trips from balota, zelenogorsk, vybor to nwa and back 5 times a day and i am a lone wolf, hardcore servers! 

 

But about the topic, listen friend, Berezino is full of kids 10-15years old that dupe all day long their gear, they dont need to go NW, S, W ..

[hellcat420 212]

The bottom line is that there needs to be more slots to each server. 

 

40 is not cutting it anymore. 

 

Think of the vast size of the map, then think of 40 people.

 

It should have 70 at the least. 

the only thing that will change is that the chosen pvp city at that point in time will be more crowded, while the rest of the map will still be empty.

[Chaingunfighter 917]

The only way to get massive amounts of players on servers is to drastically cut down how many public servers are available forcing ppl to play on heavier populated ones.

 

Of coarse anyone with a brain normally wouldn't go on even half a full server. So you have some interesting dilemmas as to getting more ppl on servers per say. Forcing ppl to only a set number of servers will only make players angry though.

Well, the anger would be justified. People don't want to be told that they have to play on high population servers just because some people want more interaction.

 

The repercussions of actually forcing people to high count servers would be disastrous, though. Most of the servers people pay for with their own money, how would you be able to convince them that their server should be unlisted or they can't play on it because it doesn't meet a quota of players?

[ld-airgrafix 403]

I meet people and there are only 5 in server. Perhaps after you looted the barracks you dont immediately server hop, you will encounter someone. People have finally started playing this game properly, so they dont all hang around barracks so you and your friends can kill them either. Guns and ammo can be found all over chrnaurus, players have moved from coast

[c00lface 66]

the only thing that will change is that the chosen pvp city at that point in time will be more crowded, while the rest of the map will still be empty.

This.

The real problem is not the amount of player slots, its the lack of game changing features. 

Game right now is get a gun and then go KoS or get Kosed. Nothing much to do

No reason to team up or interact with other players, less reasons to explore the map. So peope get bored and go to the main pvp area

One would expect to get game features implemented during alpha stage, yet except for hunting everything we get is hot fixes and content that adds nothing to the game

[dallas 5195]

I seriously pray and hope, that Ivan Buchta is hidden in a secret underground lab, creating a new map for when DayZ is fully developed in a year's time. By that time, we've been playing DayZ/ArmA 2 in Chernarus for six years and the standalone for a year and a half. If DayZ aspires to stay alive after it's completion, they really need to breath life into it's playerbase by offering a new and unexplored environment.

[c00lface 66]

I seriously pray and hope, that Ivan Buchta is hidden in a secret underground lab, creating a new map for when DayZ is fully developed in a year's time. By that time, we've been playing DayZ/ArmA 2 in Chernarus for six years and the standalone for a year and a half. If DayZ aspires to stay alive after it's completion, they really need to breath life into it's playerbase by offering a new and unexplored environment.

I'd hope so but with the problems they are having with the zombie navmesh I think creating new maps its going to be way too difficult and time demanding

[cartire 55]

I meet people and there are only 5 in server. Perhaps after you looted the barracks you dont immediately server hop, you will encounter someone. People have finally started playing this game properly, so they dont all hang around barracks so you and your friends can kill them either. Guns and ammo can be found all over chrnaurus, players have moved from coast

 

very weird response when the op, and most people in the thread have mentioned that they dont do that and stay on high populated servers while moving around. 

 

Im glad you found someone on the 5 person server not on the east coast.  To bad you have a stupid attitude and dont read a thread before commenting. 

[trev186 389]

if u wanrt to find players in the Northwest

 

join a server with 10 or less people....

 

i swear I have been on  man servers and ran into  people at NWAF on more than one occasion.

 

If I want to loot in safety i look for  man servers then go to NWAF....

 

Since i prefer to PVP at night I often play on low pop servers cause few players will try it at night. Even with only people online I can find someone in the western part of the map within an hour.

Edited August 9, 2014 by trev186

[ld-airgrafix 403]

very weird response when the op, and most people in the thread have mentioned that they dont do that and stay on high populated servers while moving around. 

 

Im glad you found someone on the 5 person server not on the east coast.  To bad you have a stupid attitude and dont read a thread before commenting.

Well moving around from barracks to barracks and server changing while complaining there are no players to kill, what exactly didnt i read? OP admitted they went on a looting rampage at military bases and airfields, im sure it wasnt for apple picking now was it? There is more to this game than just pvp and airfields.

[q.S Sachiel 470]

I seriously pray and hope, that Ivan Buchta is hidden in a secret underground lab, creating a new map for when DayZ is fully developed in a year's time. By that time, we've been playing DayZ/ArmA 2 in Chernarus for six years and the standalone for a year and a half. If DayZ aspires to stay alive after it's completion, they really need to breath life into it's playerbase by offering a new and unexplored environment.

 

This.

After namalsk and all the others on the arma2 mod (though some were just recast maps from the sp / arma) i see dynamic weather (seasons) and/or instanced points of travel to at least 4 new maps NSEW as being a seriously finished product. 

We can only hope

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

That's what happen when areas of interest are not rotated regularly.

[Dagwood 680]

If you want to find players in the west at the military bases, join low pop servers. If you want to loot them uncontested, do so on high pop servers. Not a perfect rule without exceptions, but definitely the trend. Full servers are concentrated near the spawn points. Allows squads to respawn and regroup quickly to get back into the fight.

Increased player count will help, but I think varying levels of difficulty from location to location will be what drives player movement around the map (small villages being easier and cities being more dangerous).

[King Raptor 191]

Well moving around from barracks to barracks and server changing while complaining there are no players to kill, what exactly didnt i read? OP admitted they went on a looting rampage at military bases and airfields, im sure it wasnt for apple picking now was it? There is more to this game than just pvp and airfields.

 

We stopped at towns inbetween and went sight seeing. I never mentioned looking for people to kill. This isn't down to our play style, it's down to people sticking to the east because that's where all the other people are.

You obviously only read what you wanted to read.

Anyhow, I am glad some people realise that DayZ currently has a problem. Adding more players to the server is not going to fix it, it is about spreading the spawnpoints out and creating incentive to go elsewhere.

The mod handled it way better for some reason. I'm guessing it was down to the coast being used in its entire as a spawnpoint.

 

Wonder if Bohemia realises this. Any developer input?