is it just me...?

[shaca 0]

well, i dont want to trash talk but, isnt the game turning a pve game instead of pvp?

tons of steroid powered zombies, lots of wolfs that atack 10 meters away from you...meh, its just my opinion, but i prefer more of a pvp game...

and when will the game engine be running like it should? i try to enter in a house and most of the time the toon seems stuck before enter, zombies dont hit me and i still get hit, wolfs run behind me 10 meters and hit me from that far...i know this is "work in progress", but isnt it time already? :/

[nl 986]

50 minutes ago, shaca said:

well, i dont want to trash talk but, isnt the game turning a pve game instead of pvp?

tons of steroid powered zombies, lots of wolfs that atack 10 meters away from you...meh, its just my opinion, but i prefer more of a pvp game...

and when will the game engine be running like it should? i try to enter in a house and most of the time the toon seems stuck before enter, zombies dont hit me and i still get hit, wolfs run behind me 10 meters and hit me from that far...i know this is "work in progress", but isnt it time already? :/

No it's not just you, there are many players like you who never understood what kind of game Dayz is and will be. It IS a PVE game where sometimes you need to resort to PVP because players are part of the environment. You should play something like CoD or BF1 if you are only interested in shooting other players.

For example, see below how BIS describes the game:

https://www.bistudio.com/games/dayz
 

Quote

 

Survive in a harsh post-apocalyptic multiplayer landscape

DayZ is a gritty, authentic, open-world survival horror hybrid-MMO game, in which you follow a single goal: to survive in the harsh post-apocalyptic landscape as long as they can. There are no superficial tips, waypoints, built in tutorials or help given to players. Every decision matters, there are no save games, no extra lives, every mistake can be lethal. If you fail, you lose everything and you need to play again from the beginning with nothing but your wits, and your two hands. Fight the hostile environment, where every other player can be friend or foe and nothing can be taken for granted. This is DayZ, this is your story.

 

 

 

[ShallowTech 196]

Yes it is primarily PvE or is supposed to be. The new mechanics are awesome and it is a lot of fun just trying to survive, makes the game world seem much more realistic. Of course, no everyone is friendly so there are times that you will have to kill other players but it is fun to work with others as well. Obviously, you can be a bandit and KOS but you are still exposed to the same environment and need to survive like every other player in the game. I agree with nl, if you are looking for a quick run and gun, you might want to consider a different FPS and not a survival based open world game like DayZ.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

2 hours ago, shaca said:

.meh, its just my opinion, but i prefer more of a pvp game...

 

Tell me more about it, I prefer more of a sci-fi-themed strategic turn-based game and where do I even start with dayz. 3 years of development and combat is still in real-time, lawl. No terraforming to speak of, no PSI technology, no alien races… The devs seems to be bent on their little “zombie-apoc survival” thing although I was very specific that I will have none of that. Get a grip, guys!

Edited December 22, 2016 by Kirov (DayZ)

[ShallowTech 196]

18 minutes ago, Kirov (DayZ) said:

Tell me more about it, I prefer more of a sci-fi-themed strategic turn-based game and where do I even start with dayz. 3 years of development and combat is still in real-time, lawl. No terraforming to speak of, no PSI technology, no alien races… The devs seems to be bent on their little “zombie-apoc survival” thing although I was very specific that I will have none of that. Get a grip, guys!

Do I sense sarcasm? :-)

[Just Caused 423]

2 hours ago, shaca said:

well, i dont want to trash talk but, isnt the game turning a pve game instead of pvp?

tons of steroid powered zombies, lots of wolfs that atack 10 meters away from you...meh, its just my opinion, but i prefer more of a pvp game...

and when will the game engine be running like it should? i try to enter in a house and most of the time the toon seems stuck before enter, zombies dont hit me and i still get hit, wolfs run behind me 10 meters and hit me from that far...i know this is "work in progress", but isnt it time already? :/

Go play Call of Duty if you want PvP. DayZ's enviroment is pretty easy, even with all of these wolves and stuff around the corner.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thank you for contribution to my survival horror game!

There may be a mod of DayZ you will prefer in the future.

For some of us this is the game we've been waiting for all of our lives and the least creative non-gamer shooter players have been the majority here for far too long.

Shooters ruined video games the way the matrix ruined movies.

I do not play shooters as they are repetitive, mind numbing, and a stagnant genre.

DayZ has given me a reason to carry a gun in a game and sometimes use it against other players.

The vast majority of DayZ "players" are woefully ignorant of what DayZ will be like when feature complete.

THIS IS ALPHA.

https://arma3.com/

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

5 hours ago, ShallowTech said:

Do I sense sarcasm? :-)

At it subtlest, buddy. ;)

[zin0 17]

It's not meant to be a PVP game. That's all people do because that's all there is to do. Personally i think that the hardcore PVP in Dayz is my favorite part of it though.

 

I hope they do fix these bugs before the next patch;  The players against buildings bouncing around, getting stuck inside doors. Zombies hitting you without swinging. The status bar gets stuck and now you stay energized and hydrated for way too long, .60 it was perfect.. there's still too much food in the game to be having it decline that slowly.

[Bororm 1156]

12 hours ago, nl said:

No it's not just you, there are many players like you who never understood what kind of game Dayz is and will be. It IS a PVE game where sometimes you need to resort to PVP because players are part of the environment. You should play something like CoD or BF1 if you are only interested in shooting other players.

For example, see below how BIS describes the game:

https://www.bistudio.com/games/dayz
 

 

 

Nothing in that quote you linked says its primarily a pve game.  The game should be a balance of pve and pvp, but pretending that pvp isn't what made the game popular to begin with and isn't the main appeal hurts it in every way.  The horrible stance a lot of people in dayz's community take of going "it's survival, go play cod" doesn't help anything.  It's why we end up with situations like .5x where no loot was spawning and a vocal minority said it's great, when in fact it was a bug.  Similarly we've now got a situation developing with shit map flow and people skipping entire towns to b-line to mil bases because it's not worth while.  Spamming apples and grabbing m4s isn't a good pve experience either.

Edited December 23, 2016 by Bororm

[gambla 118]

2 hours ago, Bororm said:

Nothing in that quote you linked says its primarily a pve game.  The game should be a balance of pve and pvp, but pretending that pvp isn't what made the game popular to begin with and isn't the main appeal hurts it in every way.  The horrible stance a lot of people in dayz's community take of going "it's survival, go play cod" doesn't help anything.  It's why we end up with situations like .5x where no loot was spawning and a vocal minority said it's great, when in fact it was a bug.  Similarly we've now got a situation developing with shit map flow and people skipping entire towns to b-line to mil bases because it's not worth while.  Spamming apples and grabbing m4s isn't a good pve experience either.

"open world survival" is as clear as it can get, and that the focus is on survival, there's no need to mention "PVE".  If players prefer a "balance of pve and pvp", there are many A3 pvp mods with pve elements. I believe the majority of players see pvp just as one single part of survival but not equally to pve, maybe an end-game if you've satisfied your basic needs. I don't see any "shit map flow" either. If they skip entire towns, they still have to find food and water anytime soon. I currently have the best pve/survival experience since the mod times and DayZ exactly feels like the "open survival horror" as advertised. This is absolutely the way I think it's meant to be played.

[SunshineBob 5]

How DayZ should be PvP only? Makes no sense to me. PvP is just one aspect of a survival game. And if you find wolves or zeds too hard roght now then well we pray for your soul cause it's easy right now. Way too easy. We still don't have all the survival mechanics implemented and the ones we have still ain't one of the major things. Like hunting, diseases, baricading. I would also love to have hordes of zombies roaming towns from time to time like in 7 days to die. The game should be about survival and not going straight to mil. base to "loot up" and camp in a bush. Food, warmth, meds and defense should be the main focus and not some gun play. Despite all this .61 is still by far the best experience in DayZ I've had so far. 

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

8 hours ago, Bororm said:

pretending that pvp isn't what made the game popular to begin with and isn't the main appeal hurts it in every way.  

False.

Originally the popularity was from how harsh and unforgiving DayZ was, the ultimate ANTI-GAME.

Streamers and youtubers who lack creativity and are mindless CoD products overwhelmed popular media around DayZ and created a culture full of ignorant casual DayZ players who think DayZ is just their next shooter to play for 500 hours before declaring it broken and rage quitting and moving on to the next shooter of the month.

How many of those same people have I seen come and go in the last 4.5 years from this forum bringing NOTHING new to the experience for anyone???

Edited December 23, 2016 by ☣BioHaze☣

[sneakydude 480]

On 12/22/2016 at 10:52 AM, shaca said:

well, i dont want to trash talk but, isnt the game turning a pve game instead of pvp?

tons of steroid powered zombies, lots of wolfs that atack 10 meters away from you...meh, its just my opinion, but i prefer more of a pvp game...

and when will the game engine be running like it should? i try to enter in a house and most of the time the toon seems stuck before enter, zombies dont hit me and i still get hit, wolfs run behind me 10 meters and hit me from that far...i know this is "work in progress", but isnt it time already? :/

OH don't consider this not a pvp game by any means.. you still will have bandits (ME) stalkers (one video a guy followed another for 4 hrs)

Just because your seeing the "Raw" state it is now, doesn't mean we as a community will not mold the game into what we want it to be like.

Happens every single time. Just right now, they are working out on some key systems.

For now we need the PVE to work rather better then expected so we can survive in a harsh environment. Vanilla will be vanilla, and we will have most likely PVE, PVE+PVP, servers that people will model to their liking. Happened in arma, and will happen most likely in dayz.

Give it time.

[IMT 3190]

16 hours ago, zin0 said:

It's not meant to be a PVP game. That's all people do because that's all there is to do. Personally i think that the hardcore PVP in Dayz is my favorite part of it though.

 

I hope they do fix these bugs before the next patch;  The players against buildings bouncing around, getting stuck inside doors. Zombies hitting you without swinging. The status bar gets stuck and now you stay energized and hydrated for way too long, .60 it was perfect.. there's still too much food in the game to be having it decline that slowly.

Please rephrase it to "That's all people do because that's they think all there is to do". Even though I run with my fully kitted AKM with some other people we still rarely go somewhere to actually find 100 % PvP and instead go hunting deers, cows, wolves or do other stuff.

[sneakydude 480]

3 hours ago, ☣BioHaze☣ said:

False.

Originally the popularity was from how harsh and unforgiving DayZ was, the ultimate ANTI-GAME.

Streamers and youtubers who lack creativity and are mindless CoD products overwhelmed popular media around DayZ and created a culture full of ignorant casual DayZ players who think DayZ is just their next shooter to play for 500 hours before declaring it broken and rage quitting and moving on to the next shooter of the month.

How many of those same people have I seen come and go in the last 4.5 years from this forum bringing NOTHING new to the experience for anyone???

Bio has a very good point, this is why we need dayz to strengthen the PVE aspect of the game. Not bring it to a COD level.

Other note:

We have enough of those game, like if you want pvp arma style, i admit dayz feels much better in the character dept then arma you might want to play arma or Heroes and Generals for that pvp re spawn thing.

If your looking for clan vs clan, compound vs compound like The walking dead, you may find that here, end game thing. Or even smaller groups finding resources like the walking dead, you found the perfect game to be molded to.

but if its strictly KOS and nothing else, expect it to be rather filled with more pve players then pvp combat system because of the map size.

Combine the two methods together pve + pvp and you have the next perfect generation like arma 3 exile/epoch gave people. It happened, it worked and it gave BI sales...

 

[IMT 3190]

7 minutes ago, sneakydude said:

Bio has a very good point, this is why we need dayz to strengthen the PVE aspect of the game. Not bring it to a COD level.

Other note:

We have enough of those game, like if you want pvp arma style, i admit dayz feels much better in the character dept then arma you might want to play arma or Heroes and Generals for that pvp re spawn thing.

If your looking for clan vs clan, compound vs compound like The walking dead, you may find that here, end game thing. Or even smaller groups finding resources like the walking dead, you found the perfect game to be molded to.

but if its strictly KOS and nothing else, expect it to be rather filled with more pve players then pvp combat system because of the map size.

Combine the two methods together pve + pvp and you have the next perfect generation like arma 3 exile/epoch gave people. It happened, it worked and it gave BI sales...

 

And that's why I play Heroes & Generals. Well not entirely because I generally love World War 2 games and H&G is one of the best WW2 shooters at the moment which has come out and the best part of it: it's free!

Edited December 23, 2016 by IMT

[sneakydude 480]

9 minutes ago, IMT said:

And that's why I play Heroes & Generals. Well not entirely because I generally love World War 2 games and H&G is one of the best WW2 shooters at the moment which has come out and the best part of it: it's free!

Not to take this off topic but i must.

It has now turned to a P2w full model, they took the F2P out and made it so you had to grind to 500k to buy a lvl 0 recon.

Sadly it just happened, i didnt expect this and put another 50 hrs into the game just recently, until i read the real truth behind this "Gold" buying game.

Your fooked sorry to say, if your ok with the basics and like to stalk people by all means, but there is something else you must know... ppl are hacking it with aimbots and such... i was getting killed from across the map deep undercover in all areas around the map to try and scope out this guy in the buildings. He 1 HS me constantly, with a m3 grease gun. WTF at 300m?

I gave up, read the forums if it existed, then came about of the P2w system they just introduced, and i uninstalled the game.

 

I don't like to gamble like this, and putting in 100 dollars a month to sub to a game like that, i would rather put it into a server with dayz.

 

Now i do get 22-7 with the 2x scoped weapon, i am a sneaky bastard when it comes to pvp games. I can be your friend or your worst enemy but when i was getting HS from across the map, ground lvl to ground level at 300 m, where i could barely see the guy i gave up. It was on the Russian side, and from the forums attitudes it is happening. All this was happening with the default lvl 1 guy, with the grease gun at 300m 1 shot HS deal over and over, and i moved to the outskirts of the map too.

[IMT 3190]

34 minutes ago, sneakydude said:

Not to take this off topic but i must.

It has now turned to a P2w full model, they took the F2P out and made it so you had to grind to 500k to buy a lvl 0 recon.

Sadly it just happened, i didnt expect this and put another 50 hrs into the game just recently, until i read the real truth behind this "Gold" buying game.

Your fooked sorry to say, if your ok with the basics and like to stalk people by all means, but there is something else you must know... ppl are hacking it with aimbots and such... i was getting killed from across the map deep undercover in all areas around the map to try and scope out this guy in the buildings. He 1 HS me constantly, with a m3 grease gun. WTF at 300m?

I gave up, read the forums if it existed, then came about of the P2w system they just introduced, and i uninstalled the game.

 

I don't like to gamble like this, and putting in 100 dollars a month to sub to a game like that, i would rather put it into a server with dayz.

 

Now i do get 22-7 with the 2x scoped weapon, i am a sneaky bastard when it comes to pvp games. I can be your friend or your worst enemy but when i was getting HS from across the map, ground lvl to ground level at 300 m, where i could barely see the guy i gave up. It was on the Russian side, and from the forums attitudes it is happening. All this was happening with the default lvl 1 guy, with the grease gun at 300m 1 shot HS deal over and over, and i moved to the outskirts of the map too.

Recon costs 500 k now only since yesterday, before it was 208 k which is not that bad. I mostly play on the German side and I have 2 infantrymen, a tanker with all light tanks bought, a fighter pilot, a recon and a paratrooper and 95% of it is grinded. I do buy veteran membership each month, if I play that is. And that's because I like the game and want to give back to the developers. It isn't really pay 2 win in my eyes because sure, you can buy weapons faster or unlock things faster but this doesn't guarantee a win. It only gives you advantages over non-paying users.

Also, I rarely see hackers and I believe I haven't seen one yet.

But let's not go overboard here. If we want to discuss it further I guess we should continue it in our inbox. :P

Edited December 23, 2016 by IMT

[zin0 17]

3 hours ago, IMT said:

Please rephrase it to "That's all people do because that's they think all there is to do". Even though I run with my fully kitted AKM with some other people we still rarely go somewhere to actually find 100 % PvP and instead go hunting deers, cows, wolves or do other stuff.

Well, i've never met anyone or a group for that matter that just goes around hunting. That would be really boring after a while lol for each his own.

[Mr_Joe 38]

I think it needs  more PvE elements. Infected need to be harder and more of a threat, it's great how many are spawning now but more need to spawn, I wanna see hordes of atleast 50, with some (SOME, not most) infected being able to run faster than you.

If DayZ was primarily PVP it would be boring; player encounters would get repetitive, if you were suppose to get into a gunfight every second then it would lose it's charm, fights against other players are suppose to be special.

[Bororm 1156]

23 hours ago, gambla said:

"open world survival" is as clear as it can get, and that the focus is on survival, there's no need to mention "PVE".  If players prefer a "balance of pve and pvp", there are many A3 pvp mods with pve elements. I believe the majority of players see pvp just as one single part of survival but not equally to pve, maybe an end-game if you've satisfied your basic needs. I don't see any "shit map flow" either. If they skip entire towns, they still have to find food and water anytime soon. I currently have the best pve/survival experience since the mod times and DayZ exactly feels like the "open survival horror" as advertised. This is absolutely the way I think it's meant to be played.

Except survival is such a general term as to mean anything, pvp or pve.  Survival could be construed to mean the primary focus is survival from other players.  The devs themselves have always stated players are the biggest threat.  The game from inception has been pvp focused, whether intentional or not.  And yes, that was the appeal, even from the start of the mod.  It doesn't mean it was every player's focus, but anyone who pretends the threat of being killed by another player wasn't what created the atmosphere and tension of the game is insane.  To ignore that is absurd.  The elitist attitude of telling people to go play a different game because they enjoy the strongest aspect of this one is completely asinine.

If you don't see the problems with current map flow you're not paying enough attention.  Finding food and water is also completely trivial.  Survival in the sense that you're talking about is as easy as ever.

Edited December 24, 2016 by Bororm

[Lexman61 78]

As this post is similar to others regarding the "PVP vs survival simulator" debate, I can only reiterate my opinion on this matter. 

Although the developers and creators of a game have obviously an idea and a wish in how their game should be played once released, it's important to remember that it is ultimately up to each individual player deciding in what manner they want to play and enjoy the game.

This means that there is no "right or wrong" way to play DayZ. 

Lone wolfs, socially minded players, KOS enthusiasts, super stealthy resource gatherers, bandits and heroes are all part of the DayZ universe. This is what makes DayZ unique.

The idea that DayZ must and should only be played in a particular way, and that those who KOS or have a run-and-gun play style are not "doing it the right way", is simply patronizing. DayZ is not a game of chess with fixed and unquestionable rules to obey.

Naturally, there are more suitable games for those who prefer high kill counts and continuous fast paced action, but this is once again a personal choice. The area in which DayZ takes place is large enough to include all sorts of players and play styles. Yes it might be irritating and frustrating for some "survival diehards" spending time gearing up their character just to get KOS by some guy who thinks he's playing COD or Battlefield but, after all that is part of the risk and uncertainty which makes DayZ so special.

You can shelter yourself from the rain, gather food and drink water to feed yourself, run from or kill zombies and wolves, cure wounds and infections but the ultimate and deadliest threat to your survival will always be the other PLAYERS. 

How boring, if this game could only be played as "survivor simulator" or only as a run-and-gun shooter. Play in whatever way suits your style best, there is room for everybody!

[gambla 118]

Sorry, that's not true , the term survival is not that general. Survival is generally about surviving in the wild, nature. To stay in the computer games world, check out other dedicated survival games like "the long dark", "stranded deep". If it's multiplayer, then other players just naturally become the most dangerous predator, as mankind is in real life too. 

That DayZ became pvp-focused is simply because there was too much food/water around and zombies, nature were no real threat at all. All that was left to do was pvp. It was just another shooter in a different scenario.

And no, it wasn't the appeal for a large player base and not for me. There are so many pvp focused A3 mods with different scenarios and pve elements as well as other pvp-games/shooters, nobody ever needed DayZ for that. It was the original, special, well made post-apocalyptic zombie survival horror what made DayZ special and created the atmosphere. Only an unfortunately high number of hostile KOS players were the biggest threat for a long time.

Don't get me wrong, I like pvp, and we need pvp as it adds a threat and high tension. But personally, until now, I never had a reason to kill any player. Now, with the lack of food and good equipment, some will kill to survive. 

Pvp was never meant to be and is not anymore the "strongest aspect", there were just no others. Now everybody has a choice how to survive. Of course you can still KOS and live of the dead player's food/water/gear/meds.

No, I don't see any issues with the map flow, and haven't seen reports from other players. But yes, we can be wrong. 

To say finding food/water is still trivial is again just not true. Right, having an unlimited source of apples is an issue, but this is reported and discussed. Apart of that we now finally have zeds in most towns "guarding" apple trees and wells, canned food is very rare. And we have the constant threat of wolves to counter living by deer, fishing and using ponds. 

 

 

[Bororm 1156]

1 hour ago, Lexman61 said:

As this post is similar to others regarding the "PVP vs survival simulator" debate, I can only reiterate my opinion on this matter. 

Although the developers and creators of a game have obviously an idea and a wish in how their game should be played once released, it's important to remember that it is ultimately up to each individual player deciding in what manner they want to play and enjoy the game.

This means that there is no "right or wrong" way to play DayZ. 

Lone wolfs, socially minded players, KOS enthusiasts, super stealthy resource gatherers, bandits and heroes are all part of the DayZ universe. This is what makes DayZ unique.

The idea that DayZ must and should only be played in a particular way, and that those who KOS or have a run-and-gun play style are not "doing it the right way", is simply patronizing. DayZ is not a game of chess with fixed and unquestionable rules to obey.

Naturally, there are more suitable games for those who prefer high kill counts and continuous fast paced action, but this is once again a personal choice. The area in which DayZ takes place is large enough to include all sorts of players and play styles. Yes it might be irritating and frustrating for some "survival diehards" spending time gearing up their character just to get KOS by some guy who thinks he's playing COD or Battlefield but, after all that is part of the risk and uncertainty which makes DayZ so special.

You can shelter yourself from the rain, gather food and drink water to feed yourself, run from or kill zombies and wolves, cure wounds and infections but the ultimate and deadliest threat to your survival will always be the other PLAYERS. 

How boring, if this game could only be played as "survivor simulator" or only as a run-and-gun shooter. Play in whatever way suits your style best, there is room for everybody!

Completely agree, which is why it irks me so much that people even have to defend their preferred playstyle.  It's like if people who preferred pvp always answered those who prefer pve's posts with "go play the long dark" or something similar.  DayZ is meant to be a sandbox.

 

1 hour ago, gambla said:

Sorry, that's not true , the term survival is not that general. Survival is generally about surviving in the wild, nature. To stay in the computer games world, check out other dedicated survival games like "the long dark", "stranded deep". If it's multiplayer, then other players just naturally become the most dangerous predator, as mankind is in real life too. 

That DayZ became pvp-focused is simply because there was too much food/water around and zombies, nature were no real threat at all. All that was left to do was pvp. It was just another shooter in a different scenario.

And no, it wasn't the appeal for a large player base and not for me. There are so many pvp focused A3 mods with different scenarios and pve elements as well as other pvp-games/shooters, nobody ever needed DayZ for that. It was the original, special, well made post-apocalyptic zombie survival horror what made DayZ special and created the atmosphere. Only an unfortunately high number of hostile KOS players were the biggest threat for a long time.

Don't get me wrong, I like pvp, and we need pvp as it adds a threat and high tension. But personally, until now, I never had a reason to kill any player. Now, with the lack of food and good equipment, some will kill to survive. 

Pvp was never meant to be and is not anymore the "strongest aspect", there were just no others. Now everybody has a choice how to survive. Of course you can still KOS and live of the dead player's food/water/gear/meds.

No, I don't see any issues with the map flow, and haven't seen reports from other players. But yes, we can be wrong. 

To say finding food/water is still trivial is again just not true. Right, having an unlimited source of apples is an issue, but this is reported and discussed. Apart of that we now finally have zeds in most towns "guarding" apple trees and wells, canned food is very rare. And we have the constant threat of wolves to counter living by deer, fishing and using ponds. 

 

 

No that is your false definition.  Survival isn't limited to eating worms in nature, especially not in this day and age.  Such a narrow definition is really limiting.  You could make a game entirely based in an urban setting collecting nothing but cans of food and it would be survival.  Again the devs have said players will always be the main threat, they acknowledge this fact.

Sorry but you seem rather inexperienced.  You can farm pumpkins in under 20 minutes, and you not only have more than enough food to feed multiple people, but the pumpkins are also persistent.  So are the farm plots, so are the seeds, so is the plant material, so you have enough food for your next respawn too.  Spamming apples is also easy without aggroing any zombies, since there's apple trees literally every where.  Rushing to a mil base rewards you with tons of food spawning in the abundant military gear.  Making a fishing pole is as easy as cutting up 2 dresses and killing a chicken.  Oh, speaking of chickens, they are every where too, and eating them only involves crafting a stone knife and making a quick fire.  Water is a joke of course.  This stuff isn't difficult at all, survival in that sense is easy.

As for traffic on the map, spend some time around altar/old fields this patch and tell me how many fresh spawns you see just B-lining straight from north/east berezino spawns to the NW.  Most barely have gear, because the most efficient thing to do this patch is run straight to either NWAF or Tisy.  It's an even narrower pathway than it was in previous patches, especially because they removed the furthest north spawns.

 

You can deny pvp was the appeal all you want but it's not true.  Why do you think all those pvp focused mods became more popular than the vanilla mod?  Why do you think nearly every server devolved into goofy 1000 vehicle spawn with weapons, buy bases/kits mods?  Don't be blind.  There's room for all playstyles but pretending DayZ isn't what it is because people like to shoot each other doesn't help anyone.  It doesn't need to be the main focus of the game, but it's always going to be a huge part of it.

To add one more point, people are always so closed minded about why people like the pvp in DayZ over games like battlefield or cod or whatever other asinine examples you wanna throw out.  The extra layers of investment into pvp are a huge draw, which again is why a pve side is necessary.  Gearing up and the risk involved in losing it, as well as the other obstacles to overcome are what make the pvp appealing to many people, and the knowledge that you're taking that away from others.  PvP has weight.  Hmmmmmm almost like it's part of the survival aspect.

Edited December 24, 2016 by Bororm