I have a ton of things to say that all revolve around the suggestions Im going to present here and I hope that this is recieved well as I really hate the K.O.S. thing and hope to see a dayz where people wont kill you without a really good reason. I thought about this a bit and couldnt put a finger on exactly why I kill people other than there being nothing else to do. I think we could balance this game and add a great deal of realism with the following suggestions:   1) Less food / drink.   Realistically, in a harsh post-apocalyptic environment, there wouldnt be cans of spaghetti and tactical bacon just laying around for you to indulge yourself endlessly. Realistically soda is NOT going to hydrate you nor will fake beer (Kvass). That would actually do the opposite. You couldn't just drink water straight out of a pond. Thats crazy. If you do that in real life you are going to get sick as a dog. In a post-apocalyptic and harsh environment where you are forced to scrape for food and water in whatever way you could you might get so sick from drinking lake water that you would die twice. I like how DayZ is more or less calorie based. You will get thirsty faster if you are running non-stop through the boons with a gun in your hand than you would if you were just sitting around a fireplace. Lets face it though, its way too easy. You have been able to spam drink out of ponds and wells on and off throughout the updates process more often than not and this is a solution. Get rid of the wells or make them contain only a certain amount of water before they are completely dry. Get rid of sodas and fake beers or make it realistic because those things would dehydrate you. With water in ponds (and perhaps even some of the wells) you should have to boil it before being able to safely drinking it. Thats how you would have to do it in real life. Water becomes a commodity. Get rid of or make it too rare to rely on canned foods. You will never see somebody desperate at an apple tree picking for dear life in the current state of DayZ. Couple cans of peaches and a can of spaghetti and you can run clear across the map before you need to worry about it again. You dont see people growing plants in gardens or picking berries or any of that because all the towns might as well be grocery stores. The food that is laying around should be more realistic as well because regular food would be the first thing to go. I dont think people would, in some disaster like this, just be leaving a trail of spaghetti and bacon from where it began to where they died. I dont know how to make sense of that in any way not to mention that if your primary diet were canned spaghetti and peaches you would probably have an insufferable case of the squirts. I could see a partial bag of dog food laying around instead of a bag of rice though. A can of cat food every here n there. I dont think it should be such a dream come true to eat a can of bacon though. How long would you last on this stuff in real life? You wouldnt enjoy it even if you could and you surely wouldnt feel energized all day after eating a can or two of spaghetti.   2) Additional Primative Technologies.                 2a) Clay and Clay pottery.               Typcially near water you can, even with a stone knife, easily dig up clay. You can clean the rocks and crap out of it and fashion pots and containers of all sizes and harden it by simply placing it in a fire. Thats real life stuff. I think that should definitely be part of DayZ (especially assuming the previous suggestions were implemented). You could then use clay pots to boil water to safely drink. You could store items in them. Possibilities.        2b) Stone Axe/Hatchet              You could, in much the same way you can make a stone knife, make a stone hatchet or axe. I wouldn't imagine you could easily make a large axe without due diligence but it is definitely possible to create a hatchet with rock and chop a tree down with it. You would need a small rock and a large rock to do that in real life and I could see that working out just fine in DayZ as well.        2c) Sling.              Again this one seems easy. Maybe in DayZ you could craft this with 2 ropes and small stones could be used as ammo. Slings are awesome. What more is there to say about slings? Pretty sure that needs to be a thing.        2d) Shelters / Mud huts               I dont expect this one to happen any time soon but this could be an alternative to tents. There are all sorts of primative shelters that could be implemented in DayZ. I would expect that if it were implemented it wouldn't be something you could just set up in 5 minutes though. Might require some research.   3) More realistic foods          I already touched on this a bit but only as concerns canned goods and random foods laying around. I would say, also on that topic, food shouldnt respawn. If its gone its just gone forever and only comes back when server restarts while still fairly rare especially inland. I dont think bananas should be laying around either. Pretty sure bananas arent indigenous to Russia now or ever. Same with any of the other fruits though- they dont last very long without the preservatives that are probably keeping the canned peaches safe to eat. Red Berries and Blue Berries? Thats kinda vague isnt it? I mean, not all blue berries are poison guys! The following is a small list of foods you would probably find on trees and plants in Russia:              3a) Almonds.                  Raw almonds can cause salmonella (as will raw chicken btw) so you would have to prepare them. Peel the husk and cook them in a fire would probably suffice (unless you want to run the risks of getting sick as crap).            3b) Bird Cherrys                  Edible, indigenous to Russia, and the bark from the tree is actually used to make tea which is medicinally used to treat sickness (colds and such). The possibilities here!            3c) European Barberry                  These are edible and this shrub has medicinal qualities as well. Apparently it is antibacterial and an antioxidant. Again you could make a tea from the plant that would do you good.            3d) Bearberry                  Again indigenous to Russia and edible both raw and cooked.            3e) European yew                  This is poisonous and will kill you if you eat it.            3f) Castor Beans                  Apparently just one bean has enough ricin in it to kill an adult human in just a few minutes. Its not a native russian plant but quoting wikipedia (with citation) it is "widespread throughout tropical regions (and widely grown elsewhere as an ornamental plant)." Could be fun to have in yards around houses n such.   I think also that you should get hungry faster. Maybe thirsty a tiny bit faster as well. I think implementing the stuff ive suggested up to this point would force people to collaborate instead of just rushing to the base n shooting on sight.   4) Zombies        I know there are plans to put more zombies in and there are new improved versions hot on their way but I think that filling those beautiful military bases to the top with zombies would be a great idea. I think they should get thicker and thicker as you get further inland. Its just way too wide open. Once you get to the next town over, inland, from the coast when you spawn you pretty much have a clean shot at where ever you might content going. You might get shot by somebody when you go to NWAF and try to get your hands on an SKS or something but if you dont you have another clear shot right back to the coast where you can shoot fresh spawns who are diving into the police station or whatever. I would really hate to be a new player in this game. I think the plan to throw in bears and wolves is great also. Thats really all I have to say about this.   5) Less guns on the coast (maybe less everywhere)       I spawned in Kamyshovo the other day and was bored with all the running around so I just sat at the police station. I found a barrel and put it out front with a fire going on either side of it. I went in the police station and piece by piece took all the loot from it and put it in the barrel and saw that things were respawning in the police station as I was doing this. Nobody showed up and I got bored and went to Elektro and ended up doing the same thing when I found a barrel there but the point is that I was fully geared and ready for anything when I left Kamyshovo and with little to no effort. I had a skorpion with 2 mags, a trumpet folded up in my mountain backpack with 50 .22 rounds, a RAK with a mag in it that I was double carrying, and a magnum with 30 rounds. I was loaded up and didnt even search everything in Kamyshovo. Thats too easy. I was just hoping to run into somebody else - anyone - but nobody ever showed up and killed me without speaking a word as I assumed would happen. I ended up armed to the teeth and bright green healthy, hydrated, and energized instead.     My suggestion probably wont be loved by all but I say end the respawn thing. I dont think guns should respawn and tactical gear shouldnt respawn either. The fact that everyone can get a high cap vest and TTsKO gear with a nice gas mask or gorka helmet or whatever they might fancy just makes the game all the less authentic and less reason to care if you survive or not. Its just that easy to go and get it all again. People will pass up that AK74-U in the name of getting the gun they like the best. If an identical scenario played out in real life you probably wouldnt pass up a dog turd that was shaped like a gun if it meant saving yourself. I just dont see how its good balance for all the guns to spawn so frequently. I really think all the K.O.S. stuff is just imbalance in the game. I hope you consider some of the stuff I suggested here (especially the clay and pottery stuff). I'm gonna go ahead and just leave it at this for now.   Thx 4 reading this at the very least. I'll keep an eye on the thread for replies.