The New Starting Conditions - Too Hard?

[cannedpeaches 3]

I don't know if this is the kind of bitching that only noobs are inclined to do, but ever since the starting Makarov was removed and the AI visual range was boosted, I've found the game prohibitively hard to play. In fact, I've stopped playing. Now, I'm not saying this is true of everybody. I could just be really, really bad at the game. It wouldn't be the first time.

But, two thoughts before I exit stage right: firstly, if this was a tweak designed to curtail uncalled-for PvP, it's not working. Secondly, solo players or players who LIKE city life and spicy PvP action will have a harder time having fun in Day-Z, if not an impossible one.

Point 1, elaboration: It seems like this was supposed to embed the Day-Z experience more deeply in like, the actual sociological cohesion that might happen in a zombie takeover. As in, PvE is so hard that most people lack the energy for PvP. But in reality it seems PvP has become more common since the tweaks: I would surmise it's because killing another player is just an easier way to upgrade your loot now than looking is. And with the removal of starting Makarovs, newbies under fire don't even have the illusion of being able to defend themselves.

Point 2, elaboration: There's a lot of folks who derive a sick sort of pleasure from wandering into Cherno lightly armed and carving out a meagre and hardscrabble life. I'm one of them. Now, I can't go into Cherno or Elektro or Stary because if I happen to pick up some Zed groupies I can't outrun them, nor can I fight them. Couple that with the miserably low loot spawnrates I've experienced outside of the cities and it's looking anything but murder is a mug's game.

I think it boils down to a rock-paper-scissors kind of equation. Either you can get rid of the starting Makarov, you can turn up the visual range, or you can make the zombies the indefatigable runners they have always been, but having all three is setting the qualifications for initial survival just way, way, too high.

[Tallpoppy 19]

It took me 2 weeks before i restarted after they removed the starter gun. (and even then i went out to specificly die).

I feel it was ok. sometimes it seemed downright impossible. I died on average 3 times before i managed to sneak in to a building to loot a weapon. they have toned down the zeds a bit now?

so it should make it a bit easier on fresh spawns. no?

[ninami 37]

I've played Dayz a long time and I find it easy to raid cities. You have to start using the mechanics in-game. For example, zeds starts walking as soon as they enter a building.

When I start a new character, I just rush to either Cherno or Electro, aggro everything and then enter/exit a building. This way the zeds enter the building and start walking and after a while you lose aggro. And you just repeat until you got gear enough to continue north for either Deer Stands or Military stuff.

If cities are too hard for you, you could try barns outside cities, they spawn snipers and shotguns.

EDIT: Remember that the Axe is really really good against zeds, just enter a building and start chopping :)

Edited July 18, 2012 by Ninami

[giiwedin@live.com 32]

shit has gotten out of hand.

[giiwedin@live.com 32]

really easy to find a weapon tho right after respawn, very true tho going into town you have to worry about people and not zombies. And if your getting chased by zombies just run into a big building and the zombies will slow down enough for you to run threw out to the other side and get away.

[xDIx Revenge 51]

Adapt. You cannot die to zombies if you don't stop moving. Plan your approach into a town. In my fresh spawns, it took me a few times to get used to how to survive properly (i started playing this game when there was no weapon starter).

Tip is to go decently slow at first, slow crouch walk, crawl if necessary towards a goal building. A good example is the church in Cherno/Elektro, or maybe the Supermarkets. If you manage to get to it without aggroing Zed's, good job! Hope for some gear. If not carry on looting buildings you remember from past runs.

If you aggro any Zeds, simply keep moving. As long as you don't stop they can't hurt you. Get to buildings, and be smart. Use large barns/long-halls or whatever you call them to catch zeds in. Lead them in, and when they are in the middle of the building, get out and run as far away as possible to lose aggro.

In the cities its just about planning where you are heading, knowing what buildings have good spawns and are easy to run from zombies in (corner buildings are not a good example). Get in, get your stuff, get out. Don't hesitate, dont fluff around, and know how to loose your followers.

Thats all i can give to you, removing the weapon was a social experiment to see if it forced people to band together. Really now its just, if you find a weapon early, your lucky, and anyone that gets in your way will want your weapon, so you feel forced to kill. Rocket is looking into adjusting this.

[SixPackAbs 13]

I like the game more now, you feel more helpless and the sight of your first weapon is amazing. new folks aren't killing eachother for their water and beanz anymore. it makes the bean wars more interesting because everyone isn't just makarov spamming eachother.

[Moriarti 8]

I've played Dayz a long time and I find it easy to raid cities. You have to start using the mechanics in-game. For example, zeds starts walking as soon as they enter a building.

When I start a new character, I just rush to either Cherno or Electro, aggro everything and then enter/exit a building. This way the zeds enter the building and start walking and after a while you lose aggro. And you just repeat until you got gear enough to continue north for either Deer Stands or Military stuff.

If cities are too hard for you, you could try barns outside cities, they spawn snipers and shotguns.

EDIT: Remember that the Axe is really really good against zeds, just enter a building and start chopping :)

While yes, it is easy to use mechanics, but you are, for lack of a better term, abusing a bug. The fucked part of that is that you HAVE to abuse that bug to be effective. I agree with what the OP has to say.

There is no real risk/reward anymore. There is just risk. I can crawl through twenty buildings and come out with a hatchet and some pepsi. I CAN survive, it's just no longer enjoyable. I CAN find other players, but they'll put me down if I approach them, or I'll have to band together with a team of un-armed, hopeless others. A group doesn't get to function as such anymore, they're more or less a group of individuals who happen to move together.

A makarov in a city won't do much good, but 4 of them and some decent group work do. Running from super-speed, hyper-alert zeds will eventually get your ass out of dodge, but it sacrifices enjoyment.

Slower zed (and more of them) that aggroed to gunshots from further away would discourage random shootings.

Knowing that everyone has a gun (which, let's be fair, would happen if they'd survived at all) would create a more tense situation for bandits looking for a quick kill.

I can't speak for everyone, but I do believe the formula is a bit off right now. Sacrificing enjoyment for the sake of quelling pk'ing isn't right. Being pk'd isn't fun either, but it might be a necessary byproduct.

Thank god this thing is in Alpha, because it still has a long time to grow and get polished. 500,000 testers and active forums make a successful game that people will play.

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

Well i'm not entirely sure on the Zed's but i think i drew some that came out of totally unexpected places, aka. no clue how they saw me... so there may be something wrong there...

About the starter weapon, well i rather just have us all spawn with nothing tbqh.

[tiaitchsi 26]

Too hard?

It's waay to easy.

In five hours, I've aquired an M107, M4A3 CCO and an ALICE pack, all tools req. for navigating and scavenging what remains of Chernarus.

I have 7 respective 6 mags for my weapons, and I'm using a revolver as a secondary weapon.

The only thing missing is a pair of NVG's and a ghillie-suit.

Just stop messing around in cherno and elektro. Get your ass to gas stations, farms and high-value residential buildings.

Make a stop at Balota airstrip/Cherno millitary tents and you're good to make your way up to the north, either Berezino or Stary Sobor, lastly NWAF/Heli Crash sites.

???

Snipe people in Cherno, throw chemlights on their corpses, enjoy the show.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Tiaitchsi

[zipper 69]

Game is still to easy on start. We did just wash up from the ocean correct? Start our blood at 6000 and put our temperature at 27 C. Screen needs to be shaking and our character needs to be freaked the hell out when he first starts playing.

[tatortodd22 12]

Game is still to easy on start. We did just wash up from the ocean correct? Start our blood at 6000 and put our temperature at 27 C. Screen needs to be shaking and our character needs to be freaked the hell out when he first starts playing.

That could be terrible? But I like the sound of it :D

[cannedpeaches 3]

There is no real risk/reward anymore. There is just risk. I can crawl through twenty buildings and come out with a hatchet and some pepsi. I CAN survive, it's just no longer enjoyable. I CAN find other players, but they'll put me down if I approach them, or I'll have to band together with a team of un-armed, hopeless others. A group doesn't get to function as such anymore, they're more or less a group of individuals who happen to move together.

Thanks, of course, if you took your time to drop in and offer some advice on how to get through the game's opening salvo, but Moriarti seems to have the best gist of what I'm saying. It's not that I find the game impossible to PLAY, post-tweaks: it's that I find it impossible to ENJOY.

Just one man's opinion, but I think that Day-Z works best when it accepts and validates a variety of playstyles from banditry to solo stealth to armed groups. The most recent revision seems to reward only stealth - and mind, stealth ain't a mechanic that the current Arma II platform mixed with the improvised AI routines makes very satisfying. In fact, I've had to start server-hopping just to get decent kit because I can't stand to slink around on my belly for a half-hour to crawl into Kamenka for the distant hope of finding an M1911 in its sole "high-value residence."

I mean, open poll, how many of those who responded are having as much or more fun now as they were two or three weeks ago?

Edited July 18, 2012 by cannedpeaches