Private vs Public

[Kohlbar 270]

So I've been playing on public a lot recently. And after many times looting up, going PvPing, getting killed, and repeating, it made me think...

 

All the times I start out as a freshie on a high pop public server, I'm almost always getting shot at and the most friendly people I meet are other freshies. I, personally, try to uphold an anti-freshie-killing strategy, but last time that got me fucked when somebody was just posing as a freshie while his friends were in the bushes waiting to ambush me (clever ruse I must admit).

 

It got me thinking, is public just inherently for PvP mainly? I mean, there's this huge advantage you get when playing public because you can go on any server, collect all the loot from all the different servers, and kill all the people who got all the loot from all the different servers. Basically there's a lot of loot! 

 

Then there's private, where everyone shares the same server and its loot, as I recall they're usually much more diverse as to where you will find people, how friendly people are, and what kind of gear you will end up with.

 

These are all huge pluses for private servers in my opinion, but at the same time I just like playing public because it feels more official,,, and all my friends can play with me and have all of their gear on any server.

 

My main point is that I wish there was more diversity in public servers, More proper bandits, more friendlies, less full-geared squads killing freshies on sight, and more of meeting people in different situations and different locations.

[Etherious 907]

Honestly, I find people PVP in both hives just as equally. I certainly PVP in both hives like it's going out of style. There is no difference, and it will never change unless the players do. At the current moment, the majority have a mindset of killing others for fun, and the loot. I am certain it will change as DayZ comes along in it's development cycle. However, it is a a long, long road til it's completion. 

[Mad Vlad 43]

I predominately play on private hives, half the fun of the game is gearing up, love going from rags to richs.

All of your points are pretty much spot on in my experiences. Of course players will be players, you'll have the KoSers along with all other types, yet I feel like I get way more interactions on private hives while public tends to be shoot first ask questions to a dead guy later.

And with the lack of server hopping you'll find quite a wide variety of gear amongst players. I love it.

So I'll personally stick to my favorite private servers, but at the same time I've got no problems with public servers.

[stinkenheim 249]

I play public with my friend and private when on own. Of the 4 or 5 private servers I use there is a good split between pvp and interactions, I do know that going on some of those servers I am more likely to get pvp as opposed to an interaction so it's just a case of understanding the community (Grumpy Gamers and Gents of Novo ime are above average in interactions whilst ones like Blue Waffle have been far more likely to pvp.)

Play on them for a while and suss out the community until you find one you like.

[svisketyggeren 662]

Public servers are a joke, just like 3rd person is a joke for this game. Since there are options to both im not gonna complain to much.

 

Protip...find a private server and stick with it. Public servers where player can serverhop like the game was supposed to be some kind of scifi game with many alternative dimmensions (servers) is just full of stupid.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

Private servers are no Narnia, but it's great that they attract people with a slightly different attitude, or at the very least, discourage the people with the attitude you despise. Sure I was shot at many a time on private servers, but at least not by gangs who geared up on their "public" servers they kick everyone else from.

 

What I recommend is this: find a private server, 1pp, with day and night and don't change gamma at night. Just yesterday, after having reckless fun with vehicles on public, I did just that and found myself in a real semi-horror situation, crouching from a shed to shed in Svetlo, hiding from zeds and scavenging survival tools. If you add a special condition that you can't eat any pre-made food (only hunting/farming/fishing), then the shit suddenly gets real and you get a completely different game than what it usually is right now. And it gets you used to what this game will hopefully evolve into one day.