Snipers

[Untalented 0]

I feel like anytime I'm in Cherno/Elektro there are snipers posted in and outside of the city. Most of my deaths are from snipers posted around these cities or one of the airfields. A group of three friend of mine and me were running out from Cherno last night and there were snipers posted along the tree line of the small town just north of Cherno. As we're coming out they picked one of us off and the rest of us were able to zig/zag into the trees.

Later the same night I got sniped coming out of the same area (my bad I guess). I started thinking to myself, do these sniper rifles which are able to shoot up to an effective 1000m out really have a place in a game like this? In a zombie apocalypse, how many people are really going to have these high powered rifles and be able to actually fire them effectively.

Maybe I'm completely out of line and just a bit frustrated, but curious what others think?

[JESUSARIUS REX (DayZ) 163]

I could go to my gun cabinet and get 2 hunting rifles.

[Baltimore 6]

The zombie apocalypse is set in the real world and there are snipers in the real world.. just deal with it. Why would they be taken out? Play the game.

[fundan@gmx.de 82]

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

[Delta-Dude 52]

Elektro #1 spot where cheaters, dupers, bug abusers and hackers sit down on the hills and snipe newbs with no loot just for fun. Yesterday killed about 20 snipers there, few of them were clearly cheating or bug abusing, since they respawned on the same spot with same loot right after I shot them, so I had to kill them few more times.

Weapons they had:

3x DMR - 2-3 hits in body

2x M24 - 2-3 hits in body

4x CZ550 - 2-3 hits in body

4x BAF AS50 - one hit, one kill

2x L85A2 CWS - multiple hits in body, but easy detection due to thermal scope

5x M107 - one hit, one kill

Edited July 16, 2012 by Delta-Dude

[Spoonikle 4]

most shots from snipers in dayz are less than 500m. and although that is an insane distance for an untrained shooter, without a spotter and done entirely on the fly, its not entirely unheard of.

Plus, in dayz you are a highly trained soldier, otherwise I doubt you could even see your irons and your target at the same time correctly without closing 1 eye, or jog for 4 hours straight while carrying over 80 pounds in food and weapons.

you are playing a well trained and honorable soldier, unfortunatly some people still think its ok to poop on the reputation of those who serve by virtually murdering people with a virtual representation of a soldier.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Spoonikle

[resident_leeonheart@yahoo.com 32]

Elektro #1 spot where cheaters, dupers, bug abusers and hackers sit down on the hills and snipe newbs with no loot just for fun. Yesterday killed about 20 snipers there, few of them were clearly cheating or bug abusing, since they respawned on the same spot with same loot right after I shot them, so I had to kill them few more times.

Need more people like you in the game. :)

[nacrom 82]

To all those who use the realism argument to support snipers/bandits killing for fun:

There may be a few people gone off the deep end during/after WWZ. People who have lost touch with reality would probably be sniping HUMANS just for "fun". However the proportion is highly exaggerated in Dayz. When faced with quite a real possibility of the extinction of the entire human race, humans would not act thus – contributing to the extinction rather than working to fight the real enemy - Zeds - and prevent it. It's just how we are wired.

If you like to snipe. Snipe away. Just don't use the argument.

Edited July 16, 2012 by nacrom

[PAiN512 10]

You must be new....

Pro tip for ya, avoid the major cities unless you are properly equipped and are prepared to encounter some kind of aggression.

There are players on just about every server that have teamed up and created a 'clan'.

The benefits of such are having snipers to overwatch your entry and exit while you scavenge.

Now you know :)

[schwifty 22]

Unless I'm rolling 4 deep with the guys or more we dont take any chances and shoot onsight. If we have a good crew together we will pick up stragglers, get them on TS and help them get geared up on our journeys. If I'm rolling solo and I see someone, they die.

This is because players in the game are at the point where they have all been killed by a bandit a time or 2, so even if they arent a bandit, they will shoot you on sight rather than trust you. So why give them the chance.

Snipers around the starting cities though? they are there solely to be douche-bags IMO. If they have the big guns there is no point for them to be there unless they have friends in the city getting gear they are on overwatch for, better gear is farther north anyways. I have done this once but didn't have to shoot anyone. Just used the scope to spot other players to avoid and relay info. Fired once on a player, but it turned otu to be a clan mate who wasnt doing a very good job at status updates and it looked like he was about to shoot another team mate.

Take from that what you will, I guess my comment is really just one of "it is what it is".

[deepfried 95]

I don't like senseless pvp much either, but snipers aren't the problem and the sniper rifles aren't the problem either.

The problem is duping, exploiting, farming, hacking etc...

[yankee_1776@live.com 20]

Well the Lee Enfield gets 700m pretty well, although 850m is just out of my range (just as well, it's virtually impossible to see at that range.) Snipers around the city are normal, but by the airfield is just a dick move, it takes a good 3 hours at least to reach it and to be picked off in the final stretch is just terrible.

Always follow the three rules for entering any settlement:

1. Zombie spawn. Zombies don't spawn until a player comes near the area, as stay a good 500m away and look for zombies. If there are zombies get a good vantage point and just sit tight and watch for people. Not all people are bandits, but when you have a lot invested into a character people tend to be twitchy to shoot at anything they perceive as a possible threat.

2. Scout. always scout the perimeter around the big loot locations. Not only does this put you in an advantageous position should anything happen, but you may discover that the village has no indoor places for loot and thus save you the trouble of going down.Always check out the hills around town, ask yourself where a good sniping position would be for a bandit who wants to get a shot off at someone and stay covered against possible return fire.

3. Never use the roads. The roads are the primary location bandits will watch. Always come from an area that isn't expected, such as a Vally or hill. Approach places from the flank and for Gods sake assume you will be in a firefight at all times. Stay away from silhouetted areas and move from cover to cover, but prioritise constant concealment. Use treelines to get as close as you can before the last stretch.

There are only a few really dangerous locations that are constant, high loot areas, particularly the coast. People already spawn there so it allows bandits to have a higher density of targets to shoot at and death is not very consequential given the short period it takes to get back to the city. The airfield is another hazard zone, but given the distance it's not nearly as constant as the coastal cities. Remember to never let your guard down, avoid traveling on roads but keeping them in sight will help prevent you from getting lost. I travel on the hills around the roads and avoid open ground.

Assume hostility from everyone, but that doesn't mean they are. Avoid fights if you can, you don't need to be a bandit, but it's far safer to just let someone else be than try to contact them.

[Robert Shannon 27]

My friend was ambushed by 4 guys that were frakin syncronized. Two guys were posted on both sides of the road laying prone and they jumped out with MP5's and yelled get one the ground. He did because he just spawned. They checked through all his gear, one of the guys said he's clean. they took him up the hill, there were two Snipers posted up there that were watching the whole thing, they made him loot he hospital in cherno come back and give it all to them, they gave him an MP5, then told him to leave and not try to track them ot they would kill him. I was just making my way into cherno when they shot me.

[shoognite 0]

If you want goods from the big cities, it's best not to go into the cities. Just run a hundred yards deep back from the tree lines and take out all the snipers with your pistol. Every server it seems I can go and run the treeline and find some dumbass sniper laying there looking out over the city. I just kill him and take his loot. It's really that simple. I never have to set foot inside the city limits

[Bad Science 23]

If you want goods from the big cities, it's best not to go into the cities. Just run a hundred yards deep back from the tree lines and take out all the snipers with your pistol. Every server it seems I can go and run the treeline and find some dumbass sniper laying there looking out over the city. I just kill him and take his loot. It's really that simple. I never have to set foot inside the city limits

This works really well actually. Its not always THAT easy to find one (unless maybe your server hopping or something) but bandit snipers will typically have all the best goodies and you know about where you can find them. Sometimes they will be out of range of the pistol where you have to have a rifle to get them however (factory roof, hospital roof etc.). Another problem is that many of them are also hackers and will just respawn with full gear or ignore your gunfire and destroy you. If you can get the kill its always monster loot.

[mrducky (DayZ) 33]

Yesterday killed about 20 snipers there, few of them were clearly cheating or bug abusing, since they respawned on the same spot with same loot right after I shot them, so I had to kill them few more times.

I would like to call them cheaters as well.. But then again.. I know that the game saving often just bugs like hell... And just totally screws up saving your death - Resurrecting you to the position where you were a few minutes before you died, with the same gear. (In case of a sniper just standing still, I'd guess that would be the exact same position they died at).

So, not necessarily a sign of a cheater.

That once even happened to me 3 times during a single day, which was starting to get kind of ridiculous. And I did nothing to intentionally provoke the bug. It just felt like bugging on its own that day. I can only guess the database server had massive load going on or something.

[mrducky (DayZ) 33]

Later the same night I got sniped coming out of the same area (my bad I guess). I started thinking to myself, do these sniper rifles which are able to shoot up to an effective 1000m out really have a place in a game like this?

Getting sniped is still somewhat easy to avoid if it is annoying you:

- Never run across open fields or roads

- Never climb up on the roofs

- Never play on the servers where the player nametags are on. You're a free lunch for the snipers with that.

- Always assume there is a sniper or few at the hills surrounding elektro/cherno.

- Always move running and in the cover of the buildings/walls in the cities (makes it hard for the snipers to hit you when you are visible only briefly between the covers, and a fast moving target at those times).

- If you are safe from any assumed sniper position, then you can move slower to prevent aggroing the zeds and thus prevent drawing unnecessary attention to your position. But when on open, better just run and aggro the zeds and handle them later on, than to get sniped because of the slow movement. Zeds are not your real enemy. The other players are.

- Assume that the snipers on the hills may be spotting you for their friends over comms (TS, etc.), and those guys might be on their way to your last location. Don't stay at one part of the city for too long. Loot fast, and get out.

- Scout any area from some good hill/treeline position before going to the area. Pay attention to the "misfeatures" of the game... Mainly, that zeds spawn around players. (This however, is now a bit harder to do since the zeds are sometimes totally broken in the 1.7.2.3). Also, the snipers at the hills/treelines are generally too far to trigger any zeds. Just assume the snipers are there even if no zeds.

- Night time is bad time if you don't have the NVGs. The guys hunting you will have them.

- If you move in groups, it might make sense to assign one as a spotter at the treelines or such to ensure you won't get surprised with your pants down. And at least you'll have a chance of fighting back should there prove out to be snipers that start shooting at you.

And more game misfeatures that can be used as minor cues of "more players nearby"...

- If your framerate goes down while in a city, it might indicate other players nearby. (causing more zed triggers and all that)

- The same thing can often be seen visually too.. Unusual amount of zeds seem to be crawling around you, specifically at some direction? Probably some other player is triggering more of them there in that case.

- Also any added lag when trying to pick up loot usually indicates another player is near (compared to being there solo, when there is usually no lag with the loot).

- If the loot pickup lag is really really bad, then the other guy may be desyncing really bad. (Best to get out of there, because you don't want that guy to suddenly just warp next to you and shoot you.)

The rest is pretty much up to your luck. Eventually some sniper is gonna get you, but at least you can signicantly reduce the risk of it by constantly playing in sensible manner to counter the snipers.

All that being said... I think the high end sniper rifles, like, say, the DMR, should be more rare. They should exist, but be rare. But just making their spawns more rare probably would not really help all that much. There would still be rampart exploiting and duping going on. And an eventual build-up of those weapons as more of them are spawning to the maps and thus to the hands of the players day by day.

So, what would making those spawns even more rare really do? Just make them next to impossible for the legit players to acquire (specifically survivors who don't kill people for loot), while the exploiters would still have them.

First should get rid of the exploits and dupes to make things legit. That would already reduce the high end sniper rifle counts a bit.

After that could start adjusting the spawn rates / make some kind of small sinks for the acquired loot (like randomly making them get destroyed when a player gets gunned down or such) to ensure that there won't be the eventual build-up of rare stuff in a system that only spawns more and more of that stuff but never removes them. (Luckily, currently, the game bugs somewhat prevent the excess build up by randomly losing stuff and killing players, etc. So the bugs are the current loot sink.) :P