Recruit/Regular/Veteran/Expert difficulties

[RadikulRAM 6]

Can someone explain the differences between difficulties?

I normally join Regular, and I'm hesitant about joining Veteran but the majority of all servers are veteran difficulty.

What do these mean in DayZ?

[Lycake 33]

In recruit you'll have your peripheral dots everywhere on the screen and not only at the side of the screen. Veteran servers will more often have third-person or crosshairs disabled. Don't know what the differences between Reg, Vet and Exp is though. I'm interested, too :)

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

From what I've noticed, it's just the zombie highlights. I'm most likely wrong, though.

Recruit = Zombies are highlighted everywhere, including through walls.

Regular = Zombies are highlighted on the edges of your screen.

Veteran = No highlights.

Expert = Never played.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Dr621

[Lou_Drew 10]

There's also differences in the way nametags shows up, and past recruit you don't have your own "rangefinder"

On recruit servers your location on your personal map is also kept track of.

[Lycake 33]

Yeah it's not only Zombies but players, too. So if you play recruit other players will be able to see you through walls 200m (or more maybe, dunno) away.

[Lycake 33]

There's also differences in the way nametags shows up, and past recruit you don't have your own "rangefinder"

On recruit servers your location on your personal map is also kept track of.

This has nothing to do with recruit servers. You (the server admin) can turn these features on and off on every difficulty

Edited July 17, 2012 by Lycake

[Fishmitts 65]

The biggest difference is player tags. In regular they can be seen, in vet they cant. Being able to see tags makes it more easy for snipers, not being able to see them makes it more easy for team kills. Imo, anyway.

[YourStepDad 6]

Loot people. It's the loot.

Recruit is abundant with loot, whilst on regular there is three times as less loot. Even less on veteran, never tried expert though.

You also get hungry and thirsty faster depending on the difficulty.

[RadikulRAM 6]

Ok, got a lot of responses but I'm still confused because everyone is saying different stuff lol.

Has Rocket ever commented on this? Is there a way I can ask him personally/bring this thread to his attention?

[WraithTR1 0]

I know on DayZ Commander you can see what settings are enabled for each server you just have to move the cursor over the icons for a second to see what each icon stands for.

[thisisbleep 32]

Ok, got a lot of responses but I'm still confused because everyone is saying different stuff lol.

Has Rocket ever commented on this? Is there a way I can ask him personally/bring this thread to his attention?

The server difficulty has no influence, all of the settings can be modified by the admin.

The defaults:

http://wiki.zspecialunit.org/index.php?title=ArmA_2_Server_Difficulty_Settings

"DayZ Commander" is recommended because you can filter servers based on the most common settings, e.g. crosshairs and 3rd-person view.

[WingR 0]

are you guys sure? i was thinking that it is more about the spawn rate of items.

regulare servers = not that many items to find

veteran = you find a ton of items

and i'm very sure about that.

[thisisbleep 32]

are you guys sure? i was thinking that it is more about the spawn rate of items.

regulare servers = not that many items to find

veteran = you find a ton of items

and i'm very sure about that.

It does not influence the spawning of items. There is no evidence to suggest it and it would not be balanced because everyone would play on the Recruit/Regular servers to collect gear, before moving to Veteran servers.

[wrappa 0]

can anyone be totally sure that Loot Spawns and the regeneration of Loot Spawning is not dictated by difficulty at all?

the player Tag visibilty is correct, on a Recruit server the other day i could see other players from quite a distance away and the name stayed on even when one player synced out and left the game all together! glitched

[TheMedic 58]

I would definitely like to know if the amount of loot is dependant on the difficulty setting. Maybe rocket can put his 2 cents in here.

[internetTAB (DayZ) 76]

This has nothing to do with recruit servers. You (the server admin) can turn these features on and off on every difficulty

vision

quoted for truth. I play on a vet server, no free rangefinder, no GPS on the map, peripheral dots on, cross-hairs on, no 3rd person.

But I still the zeds make you bleed / break your bones easier on vet :) probably not true.. but eh

Edited July 25, 2012 by internetTAB

[daxius 2]

From what I've noticed, it's just the zombie highlights. I'm most likely wrong, though.

Recruit = Zombies are highlighted everywhere, including through walls.

Regular = Zombies are highlighted on the edges of your screen.

Veteran = No highlights.

Expert = Never played.

Expert = Zed's have players highlighted? :-) j/k

[eze01 0]

I am fairly sure that it has nothing to do with loot spawns, damage of zeds, number of zeds, or weather or not you get a rocket launcher when you spawn. Crosshairs, rangefind/names, and third person are set by default on different modes but as others have said admins can change these things without changing the difficulty.

[Boggs 2]

Maybe they're just tags to help sort out new players from advanced players.

[islandjack1 8]

I've encountered every variation on recruit regular and veteran. Try to play recruit mostly because the game is too hard.

[Gapi182 21]

dammit i always play on expert cause i thought it was easier than vet.

[shona 5]

From what I've noticed, it's just the zombie highlights. I'm most likely wrong, though.

Recruit = Zombies are highlighted everywhere, including through walls.

Regular = Zombies are highlighted on the edges of your screen.

Veteran = No highlights.

Expert = Never played.

A Server admin can change this settings so you can also have on all difficults the same settings

Here are a default profile with all difficulties and as you can see an admin can set the options to 0 (disabled) or 1 (enabled) ;)

The real difficult which i saw was the loot, you get more and fast better loot on recruit/regular then on veteran/expert =)

So if an admin like he can set recruit but disable all options^^

class Difficulties
{
class Recruit
{
  class Flags
  {
   3rdPersonView=1;
   armor=1;
   autoAim=0;
   autoGuideAT=1;
   autoSpot=1;
   cameraShake=0;
   clockIndicator=1;
   deathMessages=1;
   enemyTag=0;
   friendlyTag=1;
   hud=1;
   hudGroupInfo=1;
   hudPerm=1;
   hudWp=1;
   hudWpPerm=1;
   map=1;
   netStats=1;
   tracers=1;
   ultraAI=0;
   unlimitedSaves=1;
   vonID=1;
   weaponCursor=1;
  };
  skillFriendly=1;
  precisionFriendly=1;
  skillEnemy=0.55000001;
  precisionEnemy=0.30000001;
};
class Regular
{
  class Flags
  {
   3rdPersonView=1;
   armor=1;
   autoAim=0;
   autoGuideAT=1;
   autoSpot=1;
   cameraShake=1;
   clockIndicator=1;
   deathMessages=1;
   enemyTag=0;
   friendlyTag=1;
   hud=1;
   hudGroupInfo=1;
   hudPerm=1;
   hudWp=1;
   hudWpPerm=1;
   map=1;
   netStats=1;
   tracers=1;
   ultraAI=0;
   unlimitedSaves=1;
   vonID=1;
   weaponCursor=1;
  };
  skillFriendly=1;
  precisionFriendly=1;
  skillEnemy=0.69999999;
  precisionEnemy=0.5;
};
class Veteran
{
  class Flags
  {
   3rdPersonView=1;
   armor=0;
   autoAim=0;
   autoGuideAT=0;
   autoSpot=0;
   cameraShake=1;
   clockIndicator=0;
   deathMessages=0;
   enemyTag=0;
   friendlyTag=0;
   hud=1;
   hudGroupInfo=0;
   hudPerm=0;
   hudWp=1;
   hudWpPerm=0;
   map=0;
   netStats=1;
   tracers=0;
   ultraAI=0;
   unlimitedSaves=0;
   vonID=1;
   weaponCursor=1;
  };
  skillFriendly=1;
  precisionFriendly=1;
  skillEnemy=0.89999998;
  precisionEnemy=0.75;
};
class Mercenary
{
  class Flags
  {
   3rdPersonView=0;
   armor=0;
   autoAim=0;
   autoGuideAT=0;
   autoSpot=0;
   cameraShake=1;
   clockIndicator=0;
   deathMessages=0;
   enemyTag=0;
   friendlyTag=0;
   hud=0;
   hudGroupInfo=0;
   hudPerm=0;
   hudWp=0;
   hudWpPerm=0;
   map=0;
   netStats=0;
   tracers=0;
   ultraAI=0;
   unlimitedSaves=0;
   vonID=0;
   weaponCursor=0;
  };
  skillFriendly=1;
  precisionFriendly=1;
  skillEnemy=1;
  precisionEnemy=1;
};
};
shadingQuality=7;
shadowQuality=3;
singleVoice=0;
maxSamplesPlayed=32;
sceneComplexity=300000;
viewDistance=2000;
terrainGrid=25;
volumeCD=6.5;
volumeFX=8.5;
volumeSpeech=5.5;
volumeVoN=6.5;
vonRecThreshold=0.029999999;

[gslack 0]

Here's my 2 cents...

First you have to remember there are unofficial and official servers, and servers can use private hives. Unofficial servers can have pretty much any settings they wish at any difficulty level, meaning the recruit, normal, veteran, et al; settings mean nothing as far as features turned on or off. You can be on one Recruit server and have tags, a map to start, crosshairs, you name it. But on the next one you may find yourself spawn with nothing but a flashlight, no map, no tags, no crosshairs, nothing really. This can suck but on the plus side you could end up with a server configured to spawn at a higher rate, or with more vehicles, or even a modified loadout to start with.

On official, I would assume that they are more standardized and limited in things they can change, like most official servers in other games. Most likely official servers will have a more rigid spawn rate, or limit numbers and types of items to certain places, and so on. As well as only certain maps and mods allowed.

Generally speaking, servers marked veteran will be harder than those marked recruit in some noticeable way. Be it features turned on (crosshairs, map marker, 3rd person, tags) or spawn rates or items in a given loadout, or even spawn rate of zombies.

Also, in my experience I think marking a server difficulty level on an unofficial server is trying to attract the kind of players they want on that server. A new player will usually avoid servers marked veteran, until they get the idea of the game down at least. And more seasoned players will usually opt for veteran over recruit.

A good rule of thumb for me has been; if its unofficial the difficulty level claimed on the server list means what skill level of player they are trying to attract, and not necessarily the difficulty of the game they are running. On official it usually means the settings are going by some sort of official standard. Perhaps maybe the only thing they changed in the CFG settings (other than specifics for their system) is the setting for recruit, veteran, or normal.