Shoot on sight: why I do it

[SteamTrout 18]

I played this mod since the time it was first revealed to public via RPS article. I played mostly as avoid confrontation is possible, be friend if not shot upon person. I play with a group of friends. I don't like CoD. Now that we got background out of the way let me explain to you why I will mostly shoot on sight.

My average life in DayZ consists of spawning, running through the outskirts of closest big city and emerging with almost all basic equipment (gun, hatchet, some medical supplies and food) in about 30 mins tops. In a day of playing I will most likely be sporting military hardware (M4/AK/M24 or similar) and more supplies than I need. And now here comes the problem: what shall I do next? Find a car? We've been looking for one for quite some time now, no luck. Find better guns? What for? So me and my group will try and seek some fun if possible. And currently there are two things which are trully fun in DayZ: firefights with other people and aggroing a town full of zombies/sneaking through a town full of zombies.

Zombies get stale after a while and their superpowers do become annoying. Plus they more or less lack variety. In other words PvE encounters the same problems as PvE in any other game - it lacks content.

PvP is self-generating content. Place two people into a room and give them guns and they'll keep each other entertained for as long as there are two people in a room with guns. PvP generates excitement, PvP has a real sense of danger. Outsmarting your opponent is actually rewarding. Dying to a good strategy is as fun as winning sometimes. One of my most memorable moments in a game was when me and a friend were cornered by 2 bandits at NW airfield. They threw a grenade to distract us and flanked for the kill. They got my friend, I got one bandit and the 2nd guy killed me after some time. We lost all gear but it was worth it because it was fun.

Regarding gear. The most fun moments I have in DayZ in PvE is when I'm vulnerable. I don't have a good gun (or no gun at all). I'm low on supplies. I'm genuinely scared for my life. This all goes away when I have enough bullets to murder a small town with full-auto fire.

In my opinion to reduce banditry, or more specifically to make me stop killing people mostly just because (we do loot them afterwards, no beans go unnoticed, don't worry) this game needs following changes:

1) No gun start is perfect but still easy-ish. We need less guns in the environment. Finding Lee 3 mins after spawning is bad. Finding Lee and 4 clips is awful.

2) Supplies must be scarce. Backpacks must be a HUGE rarity. Ideally you should start with Czech Pouch and pray for Coyote Patrol, not find ALICE in the 1st supermarket you visit

3) Finding good equipment must not be as easy as it is

4) There needs to be some sort of end game, some sort of goal to work forward to. Currently that goal is replaced by shooting people

P.S. I am strongly against shooting fresh spawns. It is pointless and is not enganing at all.

tl;dr I shoot people because I'm bored and there is nothing else to do, not because I am an evil bastard who wants your beanz.

[Lito (DayZ) 6]

In short you want all the good loot to be less and better loot to be more rare.

That won't change that when you get it eventually, you will go survivor hunting anyway...

[peke_kantsi@hotmail.com 36]

Making supplys rare would just increase banditry.

[omgwtfbbq (DayZ) 1069]

your suggestions are just to make the game harder, but making the game harder ISN'T the answer; it would make it less fun, or not fun at all if it's a pain in the ass the entire time you play. you have to be one sick motherf*cker to like this kind of torture. clearly you have a pain fetish. involving bondage.

[hazedaze 89]

well if you cant find a car someone / a group probably hoarded them. why dont you sweep the map and see if you can blow their hoarding spot?

I mean fun pretty much depends on how you approach it.

Edited July 16, 2012 by hazedaze

[DDaron 38]

Gearing up is definitely to easy. Other players are the only danger you have once you are armed properly.

[Momiji 46]

Depending on your shoot on sight tactics i can approve or disapprove.

Fire-fights are heart racing, exciting and you have no qualms about dying.

Sniping/Stealth Killing people before they know about you isn't the same, unless your a terrible shot and then the scramble begins.

I love fire-fights to death and take my death honorably if i get out played and out gunned but being shot without even knowing there is someone else isn't exciting in the least.

The point on the guns is the Enfield while relatively common isn't going to be useful in hot zones since it's a zombie magnet and the fire rate is poor at best, good for a first gun but not the greatest choice. Same as a lot of the primary guns that spawn commonly.

Backpacks are simply just to make trekking easier, i haven't been in a firefight yet where i actually got to use any of the stored medical supplies before dying and having two primaries one equipped and one in the pack is just common sense for looting places.

Cities need to spawn weapons and packs, it's a hell of a risk going in the the supermarkets and fire stations as everyone is going to them as well, half the time you won't even find anything if your seconds behind another player.

Answer to your endgame woes isn't making start game harder, set missions with your group to complete, hell have a war with your group members in a random back corner of the map if your bored. But let the fresh spawns have a chance to defend themselves finding the sub par weaponry and survival tools.

Long story short, loot spawns are fine as it is, just make your own fun in-game.

[nethstar 4]

Making general supplies rare probably would increase banditry...

but I'd love to see what happens when the ammo spawn rates are drastically lowered. This may stop people shooting on sight and thinking about how much ammo they have before taking the shot. It's often the case people are unloading whole clips without a worry, especially when taking on hordes of zed's ammo-capacity is the last thing on their minds.

[wish (DayZ) 9]

I'm in for spawning with an Czech Vest Pouch and tuning the spawn-% of the other Backpacks

why?

because if I find a Backpack, its mostly an ALICE -they spawn more often then Czechs, weird, isnt it?-, I never used an Assault pack (found two so far). Spawnrate of the Coyote Backpack is fine for me, had it only once.

[SteamTrout 18]

In short you want all the good loot to be less and better loot to be more rare.

That won't change that when you get it eventually, you will go survivor hunting anyway...

It may prolong it for a decent time. Plus banditry may have it's original purpose of gaining someone's beans brought back. IMO it's better if you were killing for beans, not fun.

because if I find a Backpack, its mostly an ALICE -they spawn more often then Czechs, weird, isnt it?-, I never used an Assault pack (found two so far). Spawnrate of the Coyote Backpack is fine for me, had it only once.

Ditto. I see less Czeck backpacks (and pouches) than ALICEs. Significantly less.

Making general supplies rare probably would increase banditry...

but I'd love to see what happens when the ammo spawn rates are drastically lowered. This may stop people shooting on sight and thinking about how much ammo they have before taking the shot. It's often the case people are unloading whole clips without a worry, especially when taking on hordes of zed's ammo-capacity is the last thing on their minds.

Both points are valid (especially the second one). I think making supplies rare would make you kill for beans, rather than fun which MAY bring back the morality of your actions into equasion like in early days of the mods where people genuinly felt bad for killing somebody.

your suggestions are just to make the game harder, but making the game harder ISN'T the answer; it would make it less fun, or not fun at all if it's a pain in the ass the entire time you play. you have to be one sick motherf*cker to like this kind of torture. clearly you have a pain fetish. involving bondage.

Just tentacles. I live near Chernobyl and I see a lot of them. And yes, I DO live near Chernobyl.

On a more serious note, yes, I like to have more challenge because challenge if fun.

well if you cant find a car someone / a group probably hoarded them. why dont you sweep the map and see if you can blow their hoarding spot?

I mean fun pretty much depends on how you approach it.

That would be our next step if we can't find a car today/tomorrow. However looking for camps all over the place is slow and not guaranteed to yield any results since there may not even be any.

tl;dr I want a game where survival is harsh. If I am to kill somebody I want that to be because of necessity, not boredom. Making supplies more rare and starting equipment even worse (just the backpack though, everything else is golden) would be one step in the right direction.