I'm Now a Deathmatch Player

[Zombie Jesus 723]

But that's just it isn't it? Everyone plays differently and even though Rocket has stated that only a small percentage of deaths are incurred by Bandits people seem to think it's some sort of huge problem. If anything there will only be more cooperation between strangers as the updates continue. Rocket wants to encourage more cooperative play, but punishing player killing or altering PvP in any way will ruin the tension created by player interaction. If you were reasonably sure that most players you came by would rather group up with you are leave you alone rather than kill you would that be any fun? If you could be nearly certain that other players wouldn't kill you would your heart race with every stranger you came across? I know mine wouldn't and this game would quickly lose the thrill it has given me. Only in the most special of circumstances in typical shooters does my heart rate spike to such a maddening pace when I see another player. If we swung the gameplay from where it is now in the completely opposite direction I know I'd be done playing and that's why I'm glad Rocket has an amazing concept and appears to have the will to stay the course.

Exactly could not have said it any better. I might get frustrated when I get shot for no reason, but it is that interaction that keeps me on my toes. The zombies are not the hard part in this game, it is the other survivors that you have to worry about. Otherwise you would have a bunch of terrible players living for weeks on end, where is the fun there?

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

I Dunc Said - "This is exactly what I didn't want to do when I first started playing. I would tell myself that I will not become a Deathmatch player. Unfortunately, everyone else is and it's impossible to survive in cities if you try to be friendly."

I never try to make friends or talk in a big city, everyone is far too tense because most are looting or are paranoid about being sniped. Just get what you need and get out. You can avoid the 3 main cities altogether. It might suit your play style more. I tend to stick to more secluded places unless I'm in the mood for a shoot-out. It's easier to get chatting away from the city but of course it's still risky.

If you really run out of patience then join a group, there's hundreds of them.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Fraggle

[robo (DayZ) 7]

Just keep trying to make contact. There's still plenty of non-SoS players. It's how you go about it that counts.

Don't get attached to your gear or your life.

Eventually there will be some system in place either by players or dev created to match people up for groups, survivors or bandits.

I too for a more mature approach to this game as opposed to the other crap out there.

[BL1P 252]

Lets just hope that with the amount of people requesting something be done about the fucked up deathmatch the "MOD" has become something gets done about it.

If not... oh well it was a fun mod while it lasted.

[rifter 17]

There's that word again. It doesn't mean what you seem to think it means.

[EquinoxBNB 0]

I'm the same way, I started this game with the intent to be sneaky, loot, survive, kill when I needed to. But now, I spawn, find a gun, and kill every person I can before I die, then repeat. People get mad at me all the time in chat, but I've been killed too many times that I just don't care anymore.

[Macenzie 79]

Nobody cares

[herd 69]

I think most people are just stupid. Why would you make contact within a persons vision? Doesn't it make a lot more sense to be careful when approaching a stranger you think you might want to team-up with? Stay out of their sight, use direct chat to see if they say they're friendly. Sure people will lie, but that's part of the game!

Okey say there is 10% the guy will be not friendly. I dont want to die on every tenth play through. I better kill him.

Whats even worse, its not the 10% bandits, but 90% right now. So thanks, no thanks. Will SOS till everyone isnt. But wait, its a devil's circle

[dierampe 0]

1. Just find someone to play with outside the game (Forums, Reallife etc)

2. Meet him on a VoiceServer (TeamSpeak etc)

3. Meet on DayZ Server

4. Kill all other players

5. ........

6. Profit

[Kageru 18]

Accept the game for what it is. A endless, persistent, objective-less, team-less Arma-II map with a complicated and time-consuming gearing up process. However once you are geared up it allows you a huge advantage over lesser geared players and the chance to send them back to start all over again making it a player-killer's wet dream (so they're not going to go to CoD).

Maybe it will be something more in a year or two.

[Red_Sky 140]

Accept the game for what it is. A endless, persistent, objective-less, team-less Arma-II map with a complicated and time-consuming gearing up process. However once you are geared up it allows you a huge advantage over lesser geared players and the chance to send them back to start all over again making it a player-killer's wet dream (so they're not going to go to CoD).

Maybe it will be something more in a year or two.

That is the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

Without suggestions, games wouldn't go anywhere. Why would I accept something if we believe that improvement is possible (even if you're likely to be completely wrong)

[RazakelApollyon 1]

To me, going the bandit is the easy way out. I understand why everyone goes bandit, everyone is afraid. Why wouldn't you be? I've gotten killed a few times, but I've also gotten a few transfusions from people I just met. Killing someone for their loot kind of feels cheap. It has nothing to do with honor, I could care less about that. I just feel like I worked for it when I find it myself.

Also, when I give someone a chance to cease fire and they end up on the ground bleeding to death begging for their lives it feels completely justified. Don't start it if you cant finish it.

[Kageru 18]

That is the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

Without suggestions, games wouldn't go anywhere. Why would I accept something if we believe that improvement is possible (even if you're likely to be completely wrong)

It's not suggestions or possibilities they are short of, it's the fact that implementing any content that didn't come as part of Arma-II takes time.

The latest patch seems to be pretty good proof of that.

[trudles3@gmail.com 1]

I don't KoS. Player interaction makes this game great, PvP and all. When I see another player I drop into a completely different mentality. It makes it so that becoming complacent means death, and besides, the last person who tried to KoS me couldn't shoot worth a damn, and I ended up getting some decent loot.

[grrinc 7]

The other night, a dude bought his zombie train up into the tower is hiding out in. All he had was a hatchet and I had an AK. He hesitated when he saw me, but he soon saw that I was covering his ass. I took care of the zombies and scrounged around for medical supplies. He could of hatcheted me from behind, but he didnt. He gave me morphine, I gave him water. We went on our separate ways.

This is a typical game for me - I avoid conflict, but help where I can. Only occasionaly do I mistrust others enough to open fire first.

Sometime I wonder what servers you guys use that have such wanton murder.

[xwhitemousex 67]

I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but here is the problem with DayZ as far as deathmatch goes.

There is no benefit, only risk and extra hassle, to stay friendly with random players.

1. Using ingame voice is a poor solution since everyone in vicinity can hear you while you try to communicate with your newfound friend.

2. There is no option to Group up and thus have a Group-only communication with people you meet.

3. There is no friend lists so you can keep in touch with the people you meet, meaning you probably won't meet them again after you log out for the day.

4. The added risk of being shot in the back outweighs the usefulness of having another player around.

Shooting someone and taking their loot is safer, easier, less hassle, has no consequences and generally just leaves you with more/improved loot, and consequently find yourself in a better position to survive.

That is where the game is today.

So what needs to change ? Do we need to limit the PvP? Add penalties?

First thing they need to do is remove the kill score. It has a purpose in a deathmatch game, but no purpose in a survival game. Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 learned as well that making the #1 player the one that had highest SCORE and not K/D was the one worthy of placing at top of the list. DayZ need to do the same. Put player with longest gametime on current character at the top of the list, and not the SniperGER sitting in a bush 17 hours a day shooting unarmed newbies on the outskirts of Cherno.

However, I believe the game needs more incentives that encourage teaming up rather than penalizing PvP.

The only reason to team up right now is if you have the intention of creating a base camp and try to fix up vehicles and other things that require a team effort. Doing that usually means you are part of a premade team which is coordinating through mumble/TS3/Vent.

So lets come up with some sensible ideas of what would make you decide NOT to shoot another player.

First off, a proper ingame friend list, grouping and group-communication feature must be added. Without this in place then teaming with random players will never work.

Here are some ideas (and yes, some of these would require further itemization):

Each player spawns as a random profession. E.g. you might spawn as a doctor, which means you can heal someone's broken leg so they are able to walk (not run) without needing Morphine. Or a doctor could stop bleeding using trash items such as cloth, handkerchiefs and so on. Or you could spawn as an electrician, being able to repair stuff like flashlights, electrical heating elements and other stuff. Or mechanics that are able to fix certain things on vehicles without the need to have a toolbox, or scrap metals. Or a therapist/psychiatrist being able to reduce or remove shock and shaking from players, or reduce the black/white screen when low on health as a result of encouragement and whatnot.

Pretty sure there are loads of other type professions people could randomely spawns as that would provide a benefit to a group or team.

Large tents that can hold several players and provide shelter like houses do, but requires more than 1 player in order to set them up (in same way bloodbags work).

Team-owned items, i.e. when someone deploys a tent they can decide to deploy it for themselves (so noone else can take it) or deploy it for team (provided a grouping feature is added) and everyone who is part of the team can take or move the tent (and other team-flagged items).

In general, for people to bother teaming up there needs to be items, features and benefits that are worth the risk of having a random person tagging along. The whole reason the game is so deathmatch oriented is because there is EVERY advantage in shooting someone and just taking their loot and ZERO advantage (besides bloodbags and vehicle repair) in teaming up.

[Mourek 40]

I've been killed far too many times trying to be friendly. Countless times have I yelled "Friendly! Don't shoot!" only to be shot in the head. A guy being chased by a zombie literally stopped running to aim at my head and kill me. The only people that I've come across that won't kill you immediately are unarmed players. Even players with hatchets sneak up behind me to kill me, and not even loot my body.

I'm done yelling friendly. From now on, everyone I see is a +1 to my Murder count.

Been there, done that....

It's no big deal really, dunno why everyone gets so fired up about player killing.

[Somepants 3]

I think people come to the game and get a little misled. Currently, the friendly feature is not implemented. It is strictly optimal gameplay to KoS. You lose nothing but a couple bullets, and gain potentially hours of loot. An argument could be made for unifying, but if you wanted to do that you'd join an out-of-game group for it. Wouldn't you? Even then, it's still optimal gameplay to KoS those outside the group.

Then again, I suppose this is less of a gameplay argument and more of a moral one.

[dallas 5195]

If you were reasonably sure that most players you came by would rather group up with you are leave you alone rather than kill you would that be any fun? If you could be nearly certain that other players wouldn't kill you would your heart race with every stranger you came across? I know mine wouldn't and this game would quickly lose the thrill it has given me. Only in the most special of circumstances in typical shooters does my heart rate spike to such a maddening pace when I see another player. If we swung the gameplay from where it is now in the completely opposite direction I know I'd be done playing and that's why I'm glad Rocket has an amazing concept and appears to have the will to stay the course.

As oppose to now were you're reasonably sure that most players you come by will rather kill you than group up with you or leave you alone. DayZ used to appeal to competative and coop players alike, but it there's no incriments to balance out the playstyles, we're simply left with nothing but deathmatch. I don't want to dictate how you should play the game, but the way the mechanics are right now, there's no disadvantage to deathmatching.

This is a survival mod, but when players can gear up within 15minutes, this character persistancy idea goes out the window. Even if players spanw unarmed, they can still spam respawn and rather quickly spawn in Elektro/Cherno and have an alice pack, rifle and sidearm almost instantly.

When I talk about imbalance, I think of a brand new character can be as well equipped as a character, who has been alive 10 days, in less than an hour. Bandit gameplay is reckless and dangerous, you seek out the most dangerous places and seek confrontation, if you survive you'll benefit greatly, but there's no disadvantage to dying.

I think it's a major problem that surviving is moot, in a survival mod.

[WalkerDown (DayZ) 296]

1. Just find someone to play with outside the game (Forums, Reallife etc)

2. Meet him on a VoiceServer (TeamSpeak etc)

3. Meet on DayZ Server

4. Kill all other players

5. ........

6. Profit

This is what every organized player is doing, including me: form a clan. But after a while (nor that it wasn't clear from the start) we stopped to think at it and we found that we were playing ARMA2 !! "Oh wait..." is the exact exclamation. So the zeds? The perma-world? The perma-death? Everything is GONE: zeds are joke (easy to kill/evade), dying is a joke (your clan is so huge or have so many stocked gears that the only pain is to respawn and reach them), most enemy are a joke too (disorganized alone players.. easy to take down while you're a tenth). So we're playing DayZ but in reality we're playing it exactly like we played Arma2 until 2 month ago.

And please don't tell me again there's the perma-death... dying and having back your whole gear so fast isn't "permantent" at all.

[Reubenj 1]

This is what every organized player is doing, including me: form a clan. But after a while (nor that it wasn't clear from the start) we stopped to think at it and we found that we were playing ARMA2 !! "Oh wait..." is the exact exclamation. So the zeds? The perma-world? The perma-death? Everything is GONE: zeds are joke (easy to kill/evade), dying is a joke (your clan is so huge or have so many stocked gears that the only pain is to respawn and reach them), most enemy are a joke too (disorganized alone players.. easy to take down while you're a tenth). So we're playing DayZ but in reality we're playing it exactly like we played Arma2 until 2 month ago.

And please don't tell me again there's the perma-death... dying and having back your whole gear so fast isn't "permantent" at all.

+1

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

DayZ used to appeal to competative and coop players alike, but it there's no incriments to balance out the playstyles, we're simply left with nothing but deathmatch. I don't want to dictate how you should play the game, but the way the mechanics are right now, there's no disadvantage to deathmatching.

Why do you post this every day, Dallas? When every day I point out the fact that you are wrong?

The disadvantage to "deathmatch" game play is death. If death is not a disadvantage in the game, then what is? What, if not death, is the measure of disadvantage? Death means loss of player location, potential loss of gear, wiping of kill stats, survival duration, being separated from friends/partners, etc.

Bandits are less than 20% of the players, but account for over 40% of the deaths.

That is a disadvantage. You cannot claim otherwise. Please stop trying.

This is a survival mod

Says who? You?

"What is DayZ?" tells me that one of the goals is to scavenge, one is to slay zombies and bandits (which implies the presence of bandit-like activities) and one is to survive.

It is just as valid to call this a banditry mod as it is to call it a survival mod.

Simply because you have some pre-conceived notion that this is a "survival game" and that PvP just happens to be one of the mechanics doesn't that you have the right of it and the rest of the players who might be playing it as a "bandit game" with survival elements have somehow got it wrong.

And based on rocket's statements here on the forums and in interviews, he wants people to make up their own minds about what the mod is about. He's not going to tell them and if he's not willing to make that call then you sure as hell shouldn't be trying to on his behalf.

there's no disadvantage to dying.

That's just absolutely silly.

Pure unadulterated silliness. And saying it makes you look silly.

I've listed the disadvantages above. The ONLY disadvantageous things in this game are a result of death.

And if death isn't a disadvantage, how can PvP POSSIBLY be a problem for anyone? Surely if death is irrelevant then it doesn't matter what anyone does?

And please don't tell me again there's the perma-death... dying and having back your whole gear so fast isn't "permantent" at all.

What percentage of players in this game do you think play as part of a group/clan that is organized enough to replace an entire suit of high-tier gear multiple times per day?

Ignoring the ones who are currently exploting tent and item duplication bugs to allow for such?

I play constantly with 5-6 players and we loot high value targets all the time. Like, hours a day. We still don't have NVGs for everyone, let alone replacements, we have NO range finders in the group, and the high value weapons we have are mostly 1-2 each, at most. 1 AS50, 1 M107, a couple SAWs.

If we die, we lose gear, our next guy isn't going to be kitted out in 3 minutes.

And I think that's true of almost everyone who plays this game.

You're greatly exaggerating the presence of these mega-corp clans who have unlimited gear and resources. And as I said, most of those that DO exist only get by by exploiting loopholes that will soon be closed.

And honestly if they do exist then you need to find their camp, raid their tents and vehicles, and prevent them re-gearing their new members so easily. Now that you cannot store vehicles and tents off-map, there should be no safe haven for these guys to store their unlimited wares.

Edited July 12, 2012 by ZedsDeadBaby

[Zombie Jesus 723]

Accept the game for what it is. A endless, persistent, objective-less, team-less Arma-II map with a complicated and time-consuming gearing up process. However once you are geared up it allows you a huge advantage over lesser geared players and the chance to send them back to start all over again making it a player-killer's wet dream (so they're not going to go to CoD).

Maybe it will be something more in a year or two.

It is an Alpha for fucks sake, you did not even pay for it. The game is still being tweaked with the intent of trying to encourage multiple play styles. Internet whiners not even understanding what they are bitching at. How do fix these "problems" professor? I almost hope they allow a couple of servers to dedicate to the stupid task of just gearing up and fighting zombies and disable players killing players. That way you little girls can stay in your servers holding hands and talking about how much better it has been since everyone can just sneak into towns and only worry about stupid zombies that are insanely easy to kill.

The difference between you and bandits is bandits have fun while you guys whine like little girls every time something does not go your way. If the game is not fun, do not play. Also for all the people saying they should go play COD, maybe you idiots should go play farmville where you will have zero chance of getting pked.

BTW, I am not a bandit. I have been alive for six days now and have almost 300 zombie kills and a total of 4 player kills. Three of those deserved it and attacked first, the fourth scared the shit out of me and was most likely just trying not to die after I finally spotted him running up on me because he did not yell friendly until I glanced at him running toward me through a field. Saw his friends and said if the guy was truly not trying to kill me I apologize and left all of his loot so they could rearm him once meeting up.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Megatron

[chhopsky 25]

In general, for people to bother teaming up there needs to be items, features and benefits that are worth the risk of having a random person tagging along. The whole reason the game is so deathmatch oriented is because there is EVERY advantage in shooting someone and just taking their loot and ZERO advantage (besides bloodbags and vehicle repair) in teaming up.

Are you serious? Have you ever tried raiding a hotly-contested area like NW or stary on your own? Suicide. In a group it's much safer, and you're way more likely to survive chance encounters. Teaming up is it's own reward.

[wok 25]

In general, for people to bother teaming up there needs to be items, features and benefits that are worth the risk of having a random person tagging along. The whole reason the game is so deathmatch oriented is because there is EVERY advantage in shooting someone and just taking their loot and ZERO advantage (besides bloodbags and vehicle repair) in teaming up.

We have been told by the creator that they working on team features, so there may be more advantages in teaming up in the future.

I think a lot of player don't really understand what Alpha means in software development, I don't blame them they don't have to. Software in alpha state don't ussually gets 100k daily users also, I think we just have to keep giving the developers suggestions, and wait for a final distribution release, things can change a lot until then.

Edited July 12, 2012 by sebastian.w