But really, why SHOULDN'T I shoot you?

[Crios 28]

So, I was recently in a camp up in a watch tower looting the hell out of the place. Had a hunting knife, a silenced pistol, which is apparently very rare, and a nice chunk of other nifty things. Seems great. I think I am about ready to head out, seeing as I have everything I need for the north.

Then three guys show up, two with primary automatics, one with a pistol out. Fuck. Fucking great...alright, what should I do? "Hey guys, I am friendly, are you?"

Reply: "Yeah we are friendly"

I asked if I could join their group, figuring they were collecting friendlies. I ask if they have skype, they say yes, and we swap info. I go down to talk to them and, YOU GUESSED IT, one of the three shoots me thrice with his automatic. I die, and am left wondering the question in the title. What possible reason do I have to do anything but kill everybody I see now.

Okay, I get it, if I see a dude running in the distance, I will turn my ass right around or work through him without him seeing me. Fine, that is a dandy solution...but at this point, literally every single encounter I have will have to end up in bloodshed for my own good.

I would just like to know if this seems EXTREMELY damaging to the game to anybody else but me? I am a relatively new player, have died many times, and understand the joy of playing such a hardcore game. I also realize, I think it would be amazing to be able to find somebody and group up, maybe adventure a bit with them. Talk...just talk to them. I mean literally, what the hell, there is ZERO social interaction in this game that isn't conversed with bullets.

If I have: A) No way to global chat

B) No ability to trust anybody

C) No way to communicate without being extremely close

Then how am I supposed to enjoy this game with somebody else? I just don't think that the system, as is set up now, is conducive to any kind of social interaction, which is, as many have pointed out, one of the most enjoyable things about the idea of this game. Unfortunately, I don't really see a way to get to that side of the game.

Also, no, shooting and pvp for NO REASON do NOT count as social interaction. That is exactly the same as AI killing me. Just instead of a brainless zombie, it is a 12 year old in New Jersey who's name pops up next to mine.

[WilkyWilks 44]

You could always apply to a clan.

I actually got brought into one after lone-wolfing it for a week or two, and then ended up killing a few of them. It was recommended that I apply. Granted this was when side chat was still available without some server customization.

[The_Hawk 0]

There are clans out there that are willing to take in new people, just go into one of the sub forums for this forum and post a topic with your timezone and that you are looking for people to play with.

[johan (DayZ) 21]

Never really found much use for trying to talk to groups, there's just so many of them that already have their team setup and they simply figure you're a good way to get some fast and easy loot.

Try the same with solo people and I've found that you're generally going to be successful, especially if you get them to talk on the mic. Don't know, just seems like hearing the other guy's voice is some kind of deterrence towards murdering people.

Joining a clan is also a great idea if you want a group of people, if nothing else try and contact solo people, maybe figure out who plays on what server and see if they have anything you can connect to them with, i.e. "oh you're that streamer, nice to meat you, how about we hang out, etc.".

Good lcuk with finding a group either way.

[Brudagon (DayZ) 64]

Those three guys you found playing together didn't seem to have a problem with it.

[yahhzoo 10]

Just join a clan. Whether it's a survivor or bandit clan. You will have people to play with and trust.

[ruecanonrails 24]

You asked why you shouldn't just shoot on site? I think your little rant answered that yourself.

Because you don't like to get shot plain and simple. Nobody wants to be shot. Aside from a handful of trolls and douches not everyone shoots on site. Shooting on site has become more and more common due to these trolls and trust disappearing and people being to lazy to look for gear.

With that said I do not shoot on site, because of that I have been shot many times, but way more often than not I make a temporary friends while our paths stay similar because they feel the same way they dont want to get shot and they dont want to shoot someone. Taking that extra second to hesitate on pulling the trigger is what makes this game enjoyable, contemplating consequence and action.

If more and more people stop shooting on site, either avoid conflict or try to communicate like you did (you just found assholes) The level of trust will build in the game and community.

Of course there will ALWAYS be those people who are just there to grief and ruin someone's day. For every one of those assholes, there are 10 nice players wanting to find a group with a common short term goal.

[Crios 28]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I will look into the clans, and I agree that solo people tend to be nicer, especially after communicating vocally, but I wonder if that is partially because they feel they have a chance at dying if they attack...haha...probably not, I'm pathetic. I really try not to kill people because it just does not fit my play style. It is really fine that other people do it, and I'm glad you all didn't take this as a bunch of qqing over dying again and again, cause it really isn't a big deal, but rather a look at the social aspect of the game.

I'll go to those forums right now in fact.

[renulan 9]

I play with the same three guys everyday.. We met in DayZ. and we shoot every single person we see unless we can't or have a better opportunity to not shoot. Dunno how it works, you'll find friends eventually. Start with making someone your bitch that doesn't have a weapon while you do. You can start some master/slave friendship. (protip: never let them travel behind you, always have the rear)

[r3db4ss 6]

what goes around, comes around :emptycan:

[Albatros (DayZ) 40]

I got killed and now I'm crying

QQ more.

You clearly got outplayed by those guys.

[Albatros (DayZ) 40]

Also, probably the best place to find players to play with it [i'd put spoiler tags here if this was] 4chan

.

There is always atleast one thread on /vg/, most times there's around 3.

/v/ is basically /b/2.0 now so I'd advise against going there for DayZ threads.

Met around 15 people on /vg/, squaded up quite a few times and looted, raided, pillaged, killed, drove.

Occasionally even a hackerbro comes on and does funny shit.

Always a laugh when CHEEKI BREEKI and other mad cunts are on teamspeak.

[philippschreier@web.de 4]

Just do it http://dayzmod.com/f...-for-the-flair/ and if you need to team up always go for ts or skype first after someone talked to you they probably wont shoot you.

at least I dont shoot ppl I talk to in TS

Edited July 20, 2012 by Black Eye

[Miragenz 71]

After the 10th time of being shot down whilst being completely unarmed, I, and probably everyone else, isnt willing to let anyone else live either

[perestain 33]

I agree completely with the OP. The current game forces you to play deathmatch.

Despite what most people advise in this situation, I would not advise to join a clan though.

Clans stink.

It is immersion breaking to cooperate with people ingame because of out of character allegiances. It basically removes doubt, paranoia, betrayal and trust. Because you don't ever need to trust someone when you're sure he will not betray you since you're in the same clan. Its also not believable in the slightest. Shooting all people on sight, except for some people you magically trust without any ingame motives or doubts is just bullshit and not immersive.

Then I'd rather be a lone wolf and be fully immersed in a world of zombies and homicidal psychopaths...

The game needs ingame motivations for CO-OP. Clans are not a solution, but the demise of the original CO-OP game experience.

Bandit skins were better, since they initiated CO-OP. If someone was not wearing a bandit skin, you were at least aware that you might shoot someone potentially innocent if you pulled the trigger, so killing someone involved a decision you had to make. This initiated a lot of interesting and intense player interactions.

Nowadays its just deathmatch and KOS without any form of decisionmaking, because there is no basis for any kind of player interaction. It is pretty obviously deathmatch, kill or be killed, there are no survivors, no bandits, no innocents and no murderers. Its just a tactics simulator, not a social experiment anymore. The game is still great though, despite losing one of its greatest assets.

The term banditry should not be used anymore however, it has no meaning in the context of the game, as the OP clearly stated.

Edited July 20, 2012 by perestain

[FoulMouth 26]

I always say "Don't shoot mother fucker, don't shoot, don't shoot." Then when they turn around I cap them.

[mrducky (DayZ) 33]

Yeah, are a few kind of interactions (other than shooting) to be found in the game:

A ) Join a clan for some fun looting and pillaging in a group.

- Note, that most are essentially bandit clans, even if the might not really consider themselves as such. Because most of them do shoot people if they are a "threat" to their group - which essentially means everyone having a gun or even a sharp stick. You won't really be playing friendly towards any random encouters in this mode.

B ) Especially right after spawn / if you are new to the game... Try to find another poorly equipped solo player, possibly one with also no gun or just a hatchet. Assume most groups of players hostile, unless they are clearly new players.

- There is a risk that you'll just get killed on sight, or that the guy betrays you after a while when you find some good loot, but at least there is a chance of a temporary co-operation, and it may even end up so that both of you stay alive. Usually you should not assume that these temporary coop sessions with random people to last for long.

C ) Just keep playing solo, and once you got enough experience to know the game in and out. Go to the coast, and instead of sniping the unarmed players there, keep observing them from a distance. (Note, this will be extremely boring and requires patience. You can't just go to cherno/elektro where you'll surely find people - you know how that ends up).

- This monitoring tactic will probably give you a clue if the guy is a new player or a pro. Consider new players to be more likely to be friendly than the pro players. The pro players are likely to be just bandits who got just killed and respawned. If you see the unarmed/poorly armed guy have some encouter with another player, pay attention to what happens. If it turns into a shootout between the players, be prepared to take out the bad guy. Now you've just learned which one of the guys was the more friendly one. If he lived through the ordeal, your help will probably be appreaciated and that guy you saved knows he can probably trust you not to kill him.This won't guarantee that you can trust him, but it's a start. It helps when at least one of you isn't thinking if he should shoot the other asap.

Obviously if you opt for the C ) choice, you'll essentially be playing the game "through" as solo. And then after that you'll just be mostly helping out the new guys. You won't really gain anything yourself in the game anymore at that point. The new players are not really of any help to you - you would survive better alone - they just add your risks of getting exposed and shot by a bandit. You are doing it for the fun, not to survive.

Assuming the game mechanics don't change radically, once all of the new guys (who flocked in by the hype) eventually get experience in the game or just leave it, I doubt there will be much more left in the game than some established clans/groups fighting for the dominance of the loot spots. You can forget about any friendly random encounters at that point.

Edited July 20, 2012 by mrducky

[LastShenanigan 8]

Always approach a stranger holding a gun from cover. If you bumped into a guy in an alleyway and he was pointing a gun at you but said he is friendly would you run right up to him? It's a game but you need to treat them like real people, you can't throw caution to the wind just because someone holding a gun says "come out, I won't hurt you". A lot of the time it's luck of the draw. I tend to avoid groups as they usually are already established and are looking to suppy themselves, not make friends. If you're dead set on approaching groups you should probably hide your pack somewhere and approach them with a minor weapon. They may still kill you, but hopefully they never realize you had more stuff. I usually stay in cover and talk to people for a few minutes before trusting them, if I see them moving a lot it's either open fire or run like hell. A few times I've actually come across another survivor who has the same strategy, we both find cover, exchange words for awhile, and get along famously.

[NightRipper 284]

I would just like to know if this seems EXTREMELY damaging to the game to anybody else but me?

This isn't EXTREMELY damaging to the game, this IS the game. Stick around, it only gets better from here.

[Lokiz 4]

they should bring bandit skins back, i dont have problem with bandits in game, but fuck no to protecting them, if they want to be villan they should be show AS a villan, same as survivors should be shown as survivors with there skin

[perestain 33]

This isn't EXTREMELY damaging to the game, this IS the game. Stick around, it only gets better from here.

Nah, the game used to be a lot more than that.

BTW if you just wanna shoot people without decision making theres far better games, without laggy, glitchy and bugged aiming and movement mechanics. Some even can be played competitively.

Right now it is

- a deathmatch mod with some diablo-esque item pickup elements.

- tactical shooting without ingame player interaction.

- No elements of trust, doubt and betrayal whatsoever: People in your skype are friendly no matter what, even if there is no ingame incentive for it, all others are enemies no matter what even if it doesn't make any sense. Immersion breaking to the max.

Its pretty onedimensional compared to how it started out, but still addicting as hell (probably because of the item collecting part) and sometimes fun.

Edited July 20, 2012 by perestain

[andy_uk15@hotmail.com 70]

Survivors will never band together for long if they are comfortable in the environment. Rocket would do well to ramp up the difficulty in terms of the zeds that populate Day Z.

They definitely need more bullets to take down and the spawns for such items should be rarer. The more limited the ammo, the less inclined players are to waste it on other survivors - this is where banditry comes into play. When a player has only a single STANAG mag for their M4 - they would want to save it for the zeds as opposed to survivors. Even bandits would rather save ammo than kill and loot - holding survivors up and robbing them would be preferable to loosing rounds. Yeah sure, players will still kill - but at their own expense.

Ammo should be worth its own weight in gold. At the moment we are too spoiled.

I don't mind killing other players, or being killed by other players. I really don't - but as it stands, its too simple to accumulate ammo by myself. You simply need to know where to look. Where as if things such as this became a rarity - it would encourage trade between players. I have an AK74 - and pick up a round for a DMR hoping a survivor needing DMR rounds will have mags for my AK... Yes - I could get shot and looted... But that's the dice you roll.

Make DayZ a challenge. Make it so Zombies - not players are the main threat.

Zed kills are not what a player should be scored on in Day Z.... It should be Hours / Dayz survived. Although it would be nice to have stats tracked for us on this website. Nobody would like their stats to be reset to 0 after their death. Back to Day 1...

Simply making AMMO for weapons scarce would be enough to do it.

If the rarity of ammo in Metro 2033 made me choose discretion over valour, then it should do the same here.

Edited July 20, 2012 by ScramUK

[Worrun (DayZ) 108]

"But really, why shouldn't I shoot you?"

Because when you hit puberty you will realise that killing people just to annoy them (even if they don't see you or are harmless) isn't the most important thing for the game and the health of the community :)

[danielreid 84]

Groups spent hours just finding each other and getting geared - they're probably friends IRL and are not going to risk their time investment on a newcomer they don't know.

Lone-wolf players are not in a group - this is probably for for a reason.

I have found one or two guys in the world who it was safe to run around with, each time I had to make a choice to trust this person. You just have to accept that most of the time, they're going to betray you. At least you can respawn...

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

Nah, the game used to be a lot more than that.

No, it didn't. Stop fucking making these posts. Every time you post in these forums you spout this bullshit. From Day 1 people were shooting each other's face off. There were just less people so less faces got shot.

There was never a time in DayZ when trust was universal or even necessarily more common than it is today.

I have about a 15-20% success rate using direct comm to make friendly contact with people in the game. That's how it was when I started playing these long months ago, that's about where it's at today.

BTW if you just wanna shoot people without decision making theres far better games, without laggy, glitchy and bugged aiming and movement mechanics. Some even can be played competitively.

With a persistent character? With an open-world sandbox environment? With realistic military equipment and weapons? With zombies?

I want all of those things AND to shoot people occasionally. Can you suggest a better game than DayZ?

- a deathmatch mod with some diablo-esque item pickup elements.

16% of deaths from PvP. Not a deathmatch mod and you've clearly never played diablo.

- tactical shooting without ingame player interaction.

I interact with players every time I play. Every. Time. Why don't you? What game are you even playing?

- No elements of trust, doubt and betrayal whatsoever

Wow. Every one of your bullet points gets MORE full of shit than the last.

Literally 24 hours ago I was in Skype with a group (supposedly friendly "no matter what") that had been infiltrated. We were betrayed and lost 2 vehicles and 5 lives in the process.

I get the feeling you don't even really play the game anymore peretsain. You just show up in the forums once in awhile and make an asinine post and then go back to whatever othre game you're playing. Because it's not DayZ. Or you're making no attempt to actually accomplish the things in the game that you seem to find interesting or valuable.

You get out of DayZ what you put in. Stop expecting the game to do your work for you.