Solutions to 1.5.7 gripes.

[MR DELICIOUS 297]

I've been playing the new patch for a while as a lone player.

A few things I've noticed are that the sheer zombie to ammunition count for many of the encounters was incredibly precarious. I don't mean "exciting" precarious, I mean "if I had not been carrying 10 clips of Winchester scatter shot ammo and aiming at heads to take down five zombies at a time, I would be dead" precarious. The big problem I also had, was that after one encounter, I would literally be out of ammo for the next encounter. The problem with this is that it entirely removes incentive to actually enter a town. When towns become a place where all your ammo is wasted (for ammo expense of getting and staying there alive), it forces many people into the areas between towns, and into PvP battles and deer stand showdowns. I don't mind this myself, but I found it a bit much having fought my way through Zelenogorsk to not actually take anything away from it. I came out with much less ammo than I went in with to the point that diminishing returns forces you to wander around defenseless for the most part and making the next barn/town/hut even more hard to get into and live, until it becomes impossible (on account of not having any bullets).

Now, I'm not proposing to lower the zombie count universally, because I love the new atmosphere and the danger of cities and towns. However, this is what I'd like to see change:

1. Halve the zombie count on barns and very small settlements. In one barn alone I was killing upwards of fifteen to twenty zombies. If I find more than one mag of Winchester ammo, it's been worthwhile, but finding no mags means essentially the trip was worse than a waste of time. Also, unless it was farmhand "bring a friend to work day," it's a bit immersion killing having Farmer Bob and his twenty five cousins all just chilling in the barn.

2. Please increase the respawn time to something akin to fifteen minutes. The amount of times I'd kill fifty zombies (not understatement) in the supermarket, only to go to extract the way I came and find fifty new zombies there within three minutes was really baffling, and drained all of my ammo to the point where I had nothing.

3. Please - and this is the main one - introduce the realistic stopping power to the AK and NATO class weapons. The downside to the hunting weapons should be their small calibre. I should have to fire all of that winnie and enfield ammo that I have, but it greatly frustrates me that my AK doesn't travel through more than one zombie. The problem here is not the that I can't kill the zombies, it's that I waste crucial time having to wait for a dead one to fall down before I can fire again. Introducing a greater stopping power to the better guns would encourage smarter, more tactical play, and give a much greater value to the relatively sparse ammunition count available for these weapons. Similarly, being able to kill two or three zombies all coming in a line would be greatly satisfying and add to the realism and power of the better guns. Similarly, you could give greater stopping power to the G17, revolver and m1911 to give them an extra punch.

4. Please retain the zombie numbers around the deer stands. They contain powerful loot and should be this challenging to clear.

5. Lastly, variety is the spice of life. By having fewer zombies at smaller locations and smaller hamlets, you give a nice, natural wave of tension to the playing experience. If it's always "fifty zombies gonna kill you", then the points of truly blood pumping tension come at the speed and regularity of explosions in a Michael Bay film.

Also, please note that I'm no new player. I have a huge amount of zombie kills and have survived for a fair while. I know how to channel the zombies and kill them as I run, but the base problem was simply that I did not have enough ammunition to kill all of them, and with no other means of killing them (or even distracting them as I'd used all my smoke nades) I simply had to D/C.

[Shimmler 4]

Amen to what Malcolm McDowell said.

*It is him on your avatar, right?

[Tummynator 1]

Enfield is a much higher caliber weapon than an AK or m4 ... and im pretty sure a buckshot to the chest is gunna drop a person or infected in this case

[MR DELICIOUS 297]

Enfield is a much higher caliber weapon than an AK or m4 ... and im pretty sure a buckshot to the chest is gunna drop a person or infected in this case

Just to clarify, I'm not saying to nerf either of those guns (enfield/winnie), I'm simply saying give the AK and NATO class weapons a boost to bring them closer to reality and make ammo conservation easier in light of how scarce it is.

[tkgwheeler 3]

As opposed to increasing the stopping power of AK etc. they could introduce more lower calibre weapons such as .22 rifles. Someone mentioned this idea somewhere and it really caught my attention as an effective alternative to increasing the power of existing weapons.

Both the enfield and CZ are pretty heavy duty calibre weapons so reduce their numbers in favour of small rifles used by farmers hunting small game animals.

100% agree with deer stands and your point made about variety and reducing spawn rates/numbers around barns etc.

[Tummynator 1]

maybe slightly reducing zombie numbers .. and slightly increasing military ammo ... but remember, zombies are still 1 shot to the head so 1mag= 30 dead zombies

[MR DELICIOUS 297]

maybe slightly reducing zombie numbers .. and slightly increasing military ammo ... but remember' date=' zombies are still 1 shot to the head so 1mag= 30 dead zombies

[/quote']

In reality, I'd much prefer a raft of .22 hunting rifles as the hunting level of guns, and then shotguns functioning in the same capacity as winchesters, and so on. However, the increased stopping power on the more serious weapons seems to be an obvious fix to me.

The big problem is that on average, if I loot a town, the second I fire one AK round, 30-60 zombies aggro. With one bullet per zombie, that's two clips. A huge amount of ammo. That's not all that annoys me though. The second thing is that I don't get hurt because I can't shoot the zombie in the head, it's because the zombie behind one that's mid-dying animation can hit me while he's shielded by the two second death animation of his friend. It was fine for it to be this way when I was dealing with fifteen or twenty, but thirty to sixty means I literally cannot escape a building, or even shoot my way out with an AK. This is the problem of the animation and dead zombie shielding the guy behind him, while the guy behind him hits me...

Similarly, an AK or NATO round on human flesh at point blank range would travel through three-five bodies.

It's also really intuitive that a gun like an AK would be this powerful, and it seems bizarre to exclude this option. It's an obvious point of attraction to a more powerful weapon.

[Mutonizer 78]

I agree with the more varied or/and randomized spawn numbers, spawn timers, and other factors so that we don't ALWAYS know there's gonna be tons of them.

Also agree with deer stands. They are a great idea, but some people just download a map and zip through them around the clock for easy gear so it'd be nice to tweak them somehow and since I don't think their locations can be randomized directly, then it's down to gear and enemies.

Fully agree for piercing power/stopping power though not sure if it's doable. Making zombies "go through" at the same time as their "I'm deader now" animation, might help.

For the rest however: http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2225

Spawns are majorly bugged so I'll save for after it's fixed to really formulate an opinion and comments on that.

However, until then: "ZOMBIES EVERWHERE!!! ITS FRIKKIN AWESOME!!!"

[GenesisDju 0]

I'm sooo agree with you! 7.62 and other same type of ammunitions need to have more stopping power. An AK is not a bb gun.

[geoffrthoma@gmail.com 0]

I'd prefer realistic power and penetration based on caliber personally. But I agree with the zombie numbers issue. Cities SHOULD be a very risky endeavor, but to balance keep those farm houses down to a reasonable number of zombies.

[alex.vague@gmail.com 0]

Just a point for realism - the Enfield fires a .303 round which is larger than the 5.56x45 fired by NATO weapons like the M4/M16.

This photo here: http://mygreenhell.typepad.com/photos/odds_and_ends/nov8_016.html shows the difference between rounds - note the size of the 7.62x39 (fired by the AKM/AK47) and the .223 (aka 5.56mm) to the .303 British.

[Finch (DayZ) 0]

I've been soloing for awhile now and I think if your wasting all your ammo in every town, then your doing it wrong. I've gotten into, and out of many decent sized towns without firing a shot because I crawl around and sneak. Sure it takes more time, but it works really really well. At this point I actually have too much ammo for both my revolver and winchester.

Here's what I do.

•Sneak everywhere, they are really blind and as long as you don't make much noise your fine, just wait for them to move away or throw bottles to distract them.

•If you aggro a zombie, run for it. NEVER shoot it in town. Run straight out of town as fast as you can into a field and shoot it there. You'll probably attract a few more in your mad dash out of town but 5 or 6 zombies is better than firing an AK in town and getting a whole town's worth.

Also, 2-3 zombies around a deer stand isn't even worth expending ammo for, just crawl up there and climb the ladder once they wander away or aren't looking your direction. I've never had to shoot a zombie in order to get into a deer stand.

[wolfsburg62 66]

First off, the G17 is a 9mm weapon, and lets face it. 9mm weapons have a kill rate of only about 30%. So think the 9mm in this mod are quite accommodating. Also, I dont think an AK or anything for that matter besides a .50 is going to travel through a zed. So if you ask me the game is actually less realistic allowing you to drop a zed with 2 shots of a makarov. Im not nitpicking or talking shit, this is just what i think. BUT what I would LOVE to see in a .22 rifle, a .22 will most def puncture a human skull, but will not have enough velocity exit so the round will just bounce around inside the skull creating mush of human brain :), to be honest its my go to weapon for a zombie apocalypse. 1 headshot kill. I would like to see .22s, you could carry shit tons more ammo also.

[godwine 2]

it's a bit immersion killing having Farmer Bob and his twenty five cousins all just chilling in the barn.

Vyshnoye, West Virginia.

I agree with everything you said.

[sorophx 25]

concerning the stopping power thing:

as you can see, 5.45 and 5.56 will not likely pierce a zombie right through with enough power to hit another one behind him

[MR DELICIOUS 297]

I've been soloing for awhile now and I think if your wasting all your ammo in every town' date=' then your doing it wrong. I've gotten into, and out of many decent sized towns without firing a shot because I crawl around and sneak. Sure it takes more time, but it works really really well. At this point I actually have too much ammo for both my revolver and winchester.

Here's what I do.

•Sneak everywhere, they are really blind and as long as you don't make much noise your fine, just wait for them to move away or throw bottles to distract them.

•If you aggro a zombie, run for it. NEVER shoot it in town. Run straight out of town as fast as you can into a field and shoot it there. You'll probably attract a few more in your mad dash out of town but 5 or 6 zombies is better than firing an AK in town and getting a whole town's worth.

Also, 2-3 zombies around a deer stand isn't even worth expending ammo for, just crawl up there and climb the ladder once they wander away or aren't looking your direction. I've never had to shoot a zombie in order to get into a deer stand.

[/quote']

I hate to be that guy, but I really prefer this game as a 28 Days Later kind of zombie survival fare instead of Splinter Cell zombie survival. Realistically I'd prefer 85% 28 Days and 15% Splinter Cell. At the moment it's sitting at about 90% Splinter Cell and 10% 28 Days.

It is bizarre to me how a "realistic" way of dealing with zombies is to crawl along at their feet. It looks insane in game (watching seven survivors crawl through a town in broad daylight) and totally breaks the fast sense of rhythm that differentiates zombie encounters from two hours of walking. These things can track and sprint as good as a leopard, but they can't see two feet in front of them?

I think that stealth should be an option, but the prime content of my frustration is that should I ever have to fire in the quest for finding ammunition (in supermarkets and red brick houses, barracks and so forth), there's something like a 75% chance I'm not going to recoup the ammunition I've expended. I've survived for a very long time in the game, and I'd consider myself a very able zombie killer. As such, I believe my reward for finding better weapons should be an increased ability to survive zombie encounters. Sure, a Makarov wielding new player can crawl into a town, as it would give a much greater sense of achievement when he actually gets a good gun. But as it stands now, I can either crawl and conserve all my ammo, or I can crawl and conserve all my ammo. Unless I want to save up for one big hurrah, then I'll be back to crawling and conserving all my ammo.

Similarly, to all the gun buffs, I'm not really fussed about which gun does what. In a perfect world I'd have the hunting class weapons be .22 in power, have shotguns be a more available police class of weapon and have the Mosin Nagant replace the Enfield, but such is life. All I think is that an elegant solution to dealing with the new zombie hordes would be to give greater penetrating power to the more powerful weapons. The zombies are physiologically composed of rotten or damage flesh so it would make sense to reflect that in ballistics.

Otherwise, simply make dead zombies immediately able to be shot through (as they are about five seconds after hitting the ground).

As I said earlier, the biggest problem I'm facing is that the dying animations are making it night impossible to kill the zombies at any realistic speed. I'm literally firing, waiting for the zombie to flop to the ground before I can fire again, while his friend behind him is able to attack me through his dead mate.

[LokiAlpha 1]

I disagree. The number of zed protects players from bandits, in a sense. Where as before, you could have a shooting spree in the middle of a small town, now you have to stay prone the entire time your in a town.

Proning and moving around WILL NOT ALERT ZED.

What, are you really complaining that you have to spend TIME to SAFELY loot a small town?

Or perhaps you didn't know you could just move around prone and they won't even notice?

Edit: After posting this, read the last post. This is a survival game, and it needs to be as realistic as possible. In a real zombie apocalypse, you aren't going to have five zombies roaming around a small city. You're going to have the entire city's population roaming around it.

[MR DELICIOUS 297]

I disagree. The number of zed protects players from bandits' date=' in a sense. Where as before, you could have a shooting spree in the middle of a small town, now you have to stay prone the entire time your in a town.

Proning and moving around WILL NOT ALERT ZED.

What, are you really complaining that you have to spend TIME to SAFELY loot a small town?

Or perhaps you didn't know you could just move around prone and they won't even notice?

Edit: After posting this, read the last post. This is a survival game, and it needs to be as realistic as possible. In a real zombie apocalypse, you aren't going to have five zombies roaming around a small city. You're going to have the entire city's population roaming around it.

[/quote']

I'm not suggesting to lower zombie numbers in cities (I love the current amount), I'm simply suggesting a change in stopping power, or the way the animation blocks the zombie behind from my bullets.

[sirfluffkillington 1]

I hear what you're saying (snapped a twig in town, 30+ dead zeds and no ammo later...) though quite frankly I don't know if ArmA can be twisted to make it happen. I wouldn't be surprised - we have this after all.

[seannybgoode 10]

Me and a friend went into loot a fairly small town earlier today. The town had about 15 houses. We killed about 30 -40 zeds (wasting a ton of ammo in the process), and went in to do the looting, within a matter of minutes there were another 20, so we killed them, and then more spawned and we were out of ammo.

Suffice to say, we died. Unless it was zed family reunion day in that town, the numbers and spawn rate were way too high for it to be realistic.

The new numbers turn going into a town from a calculated risk into outright suicide. And crawling around on the ground 2 feet in front of zombies is stupid. It should be to acceptable to slowly through towns and avoid zeds, but there should be a minimum distance where they'll see you regardless.

[Duckman404 37]

As demonstrated by the chart sorophx posted, 5.45 or 5.56 NATO rounds will not have sufficient energy to penetrate one body and kill another zombie behind it.

7.62x39, maybe: it has pretty damn good penetration, especially at point blank range, so being able to hit one zombie through another at close range would make sense.

.303 and 7.62x51 NATO is more powerful for a reason: the guns that fire them are very loud, and have higher recoil.

What could be fixed without messing around with bullet ballistics is to speed up how fast the zombie falls down dead: there's this thing called gravity, and it'd be nice if dead zombies obeyed its laws...

[MR DELICIOUS 297]

As demonstrated by the chart sorophx posted' date=' 5.45 or 5.56 NATO rounds will not have sufficient energy to penetrate one body and kill another zombie behind it.

7.62x39, maybe: it has pretty damn good penetration, especially at point blank range, so being able to hit one zombie through another at close range would make sense.

.303 and 7.62x51 NATO is more powerful for a reason: the guns that fire them are very loud, and have higher recoil.

What could be fixed without messing around with bullet ballistics is to speed up how fast the zombie falls down dead: there's this thing called gravity, and it'd be nice if dead zombies obeyed its laws...

[/quote']

I would be more than happy with this. Either this or making zombies able to be shot through as soon as they're dead.

[raptorak 2]

I think if there is anything we can all agree on, it is that the zombies need some major work. The rest of the game is actually pretty great, but the random directions and warpy movement of the zombies, not to mention their confusing death animations, really need to change.

My main problem with the zombies is the spawning, they seem to appear out of nowhere, usually very close to where you are, and respawn far too quickly. On top of that, they run all over the place and so are generally best dealt with by running backwards and shooting, whilst you wait for their melee animations to start.

Currently, especially with the broken spawn rates of weapons on the servers, the only use for weapons is on the other players since your only option is to Splinter Cell when on a looting run.

I understand there are some limitations with the engine - but they are limitations which will need to be overcome in future, otherwise the "alpha" moniker will be there until Arma III.

[IAmABanditForLife 0]

I agree whit TS.

Some things I would like to add is that zombies are some what slower, never liket the super fast zombies. They should jogg instead of running fast so we players have a chance to run away from them or at least hide from them.

Now when they are slower they should be stronger, like if you shoot them at there body that only slows them down and sometimes make them crawl depends on where you shoot them, only kill shoot will be at the head.

I dont want to get rid of the super zombies totaly, but they should be rare, if I see a group of 10 walkers atleast 2 of them should be super walkers.

Any one who likes this idea? Worth a try as this is only alpha.

[dut 21]

I had the opposite problem today, it was great. Crawling around NW airfield I accidentally alerted a horde and the only place I could run was into a hanger. 6 mags and many, many dead zombies later I was still in trouble, they were still coming, zig zagging over their fallen brothers and glitching through the wall behind me. I put my makarov to the side of my head and said my last words "Curse you Rocket!" I shut my eyes and pulled the trigger. The click of a firing pin on an empty chamber punctuated the silence that now crept over the airfield. I opened my eyes. The zombies had all disappeared, even the bodies. Best glitch ever.