Need some opinions here.

[Carl Weathers 3]

So I've found that most people that complain are one of two subjects. The first being a sniper in the distance that only objective is to get long shots on people without the fear of attack by zombies or the new players. The second is the excessive server hopping which happens quite a bit in the game. So I have two proposals which would make these very difficult to accomplish if implemented and want some feedback to see if they are a bit too crazy.

First, I like the idea of the sniper on the ridge constantly searching for his next victim. It adds that fear that forces you to check the treeline before you exit cover or travel across an open field. Without that it is just avoiding zeds which at the current moment it rather easy. I tend to move my character like he is constantly in someone's crosshair while I venture out for supplies. That being said, I think that the sniper should attract more attention from zeds. I feel comfortable shooting from 200m without expecting zombies from rushing you. A great balancing tool would be to triple the range of which zeds hear the shots from the rifle. Now before you complain about it being carebear tactic, realize this a military sim and Rocket expects realism. In real life do snipers act alone? No they operate in pairs because of the attention that garner, so it would only make sense that they would need extra protection in DayZ. Now I don't see this having a huge effect on groups that operate with a sniper as they will still be a valuable element to the group dynamic, but it would alleviate the grieving of new player to an extent.

Now to the topic of server hopping, this is one topic that bothers the hell out of me. I've crawled 500m to get to a military camp and as I'm searching the building someone spawns behind me and takes all of my hard earned gear without any of the work. So what do you do? A real easy fix would be to force people to log out in the wilderness. If they elect to log out in a building which is located in a pre-determined hot zone? Well they will spawn above the hot zone floating down in a parachute. It prevents people from log-out death prevention and server hopping. I mean there would not be a bigger target than someone floating down in an area that is populated with shooters.

Now the real meat of the discussion, what do the DayZ masses think about this? Do you have a better idea? Do you think this ideas are a steamy pile?

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

I would encourage you to check out my idea for a system to temporarily suppress players' ability to pick up loot if they log out of one server and quickly join another.

It's a little less elaborate than yours, but I think that's okay.

It would go a long way towards discouraging this type of behavior and improving tactical game play by reducing the number of "blink in blink out" encounters we have in the game.

Edited July 11, 2012 by ZedsDeadBaby

[Senrain 148]

I server hop all the time. On the hill with an axe. To give the snipes a little surprise. An axe to the back of the head. Surprise!

[Dingus (DayZ) 429]

First is a steamy pile. The second doesn't work. The disconnections are happening due to process terminations, not manually logging out. I could still avoid combat by simply killing the arma 2 process, loading it back up, and playing on another server. The only way to really stop combat avoidance d/c is to maintain a player's logging for a given amount of time after loss of connection. Regarding hopping for items, those players have to run 30+ meters away from the item spawns anyway; logging out inside a building is exactly what they don't want.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

Regarding hopping for items, those players have to run 30+ meters away from the item spawns anyway; logging out inside a building is exactly what they don't want.

That's only true if nobody else has been in the area recently. If someone has passed through, you can absolutely log in on top of loot piles. I have less-than-reputable friends who camp Stary Sobor all day and they never leave their tent. Just logout/login/loot. Same is true at the airfields. I know people who spend all day in one barracks.

Plus, 30m is 6.6 second run. Hardly prohibitive.

My suggestion requires a bit more effort than that. It would be an effective deterrent without overly burdening "legitimate" players.

Edited July 11, 2012 by ZedsDeadBaby

[Dingus (DayZ) 429]

camp Stary Sobor all day and they never leave their tent. Just logout/login/loot. Same is true at the airfields. I know people who spend all day in one barracks.

That just sounds so boring to do.

[Carl Weathers 3]

Zeds,

I like your idea, but it doesn't change anything for the people who server hop to get a better position on you during a fire fight in the most commonly traveled places. I feel like that is half of what server hoppers hope to accomplish. Stay in Mumble/Skype and get updates from friends. Spawn at door to building you're in and sneak up the steps without you ever being able to see them.