Suggestions to fix the deathmatch *and* make the game better!

[*Regulator* Curt 93]

Note: If any people who don't have much time to spare read this post, simply read the underlined sentences, they're the suggestions, in between each one is the explanation if you're interested.

Hello all, we all realize that the game has become kill on sight as of late. Some like it, most I'd wager do not. It is my personal belief, that this behavior (kill on sight) comes from a few things:

-Lack of end game content, too easy to get decked out.

-Worried everyone will shoot you.

-Getting zombies after you isn't that bad, they're easy to lose or kill.

-Supplies are abundant, you can keep a lot of ammo with relative ease.

What if I told you, that I had a few fairly simple suggestions to help address *all* of these problems? Without eliminating banditry, or punishing it directly, but instead punishing gameplay that ignores zombies? Indeed, I believe the solution lies not with punishing bandits, but instead by making zombies a very real, very serious threat. In fact, one of my suggestions will give a new tool to the bandits to allow them to be bandits more effectively, without the frustration.

1. Boost the noise (both the stat that zombies hear, and the actual noise) that guns make by a significant amount (especially sniper rifles).

This change will make it so zombies are drawn from further away when you shoot, making a firefight in the middle of the city nothing short of stupid. You'll draw bandits, curious survivors, and zombies.

2. Boost zombie speed (quite a bit), boost their damage per hit (1,000 - 2,000 blood) and make bleeding a certainty (though it can be low, just make bandages necessary).

What if you didn't know you could always fairly easily escape from zombies? I know that, when I'm looting a town, I know all I have to do is run for a little ways and get to the nearest building... but what if there's a serious chance I won't get to that building/dock/hill? I'll be a lot more careful in and around town, especially considering they're more lethal.

3. To compensate, making sure the game doesn't become ridiculously difficult, lower the amount of zombies that spawn by a small number of people bya good amount *except* for the military spawns (airfields, Stary tents) but not fire stations. However, make sure that a large group of people will still spawn a large amount of zombies -- to keep group play interesting.

This will make it so solo is still very possible, however, being reckless will punish you severely. Not to mention, making military spawns harder to deal with will only prolong the life of the game for everyone.

4. Add a hands on your head or get on the ground option (I don't know if these is even possible). What it will do is put you in a stance where you are froze, can't move, can't do anything except access your inventory. To exit this mode, takes like 3-4 seconds, you will be unable to fight back for 3-4 seconds.

The theory is, in light of the more dangerous game, survivors who fall to banditry for items, may spare you and instead hold you hostage, demanding that you activate this mode lest you be shot.

5. Make military ammunition spawns less common everywhere except for the airfields and starry (fire stations and deer stands included) making ammo more precious.

This will make it so people won't want to waste their ammo as much. They won't kill unarmed or lootless targets (in theory).

All of the above changes, I believe, would make this game far better. You may say that I'm being a bit too severe, that banditry won't happen if these go through, but I beg to differ. I believe that this will mostly affect the shoot on sight players (who do so out of self defense, or for fun) with banditry being affected a little but not too much. Banditry will return to being about the loot, not murdering, and murderers will be a truly shocking sight again, it will be a novelty, and killing other players will be more of a novelty as well.

Even the murderers will have more fun, it'll be more exciting, more fresh, more dangerous, and ultimately less common. The bandits will have fun, because they'll have new (silent) ways of forcing people to give up their loot, not to mention they'll have more to play for with loot being harder to acquire. Survivors will have more fun, they won't need to feel they must shoot on sight, they'll not be getting shot every time they see another player, and they'll have more to play for because of top end loot being harder to acquire.

Finally, all parties everywhere will (I believe) have more fun because zombies will be something to fear. When you were first playing, zombies scared you, you didn't know that you could kill them or escape them. They were freaky fast, they seemed strong, they were very scary in look and sound. Now, they're nothing, they're a sideshow, sprinkles on the cake -- if you get caught you just run away for a while and you're safe. With zombies being stronger and faster, you'll be really scared again, you will be freaking out when you're chased, you will feel fear like you did when you first played. You won't run into the middle of town, shoot everyone up, then run into a building and be completely safe.

Thank you for reading, what do you guys think?

[Beanus 61]

1: I like.

4: already possible, its just unbinded.

[eP Reject 2]

2: agreed

[ODoyleRulez 195]

Gota solve the duping issue first I think

1. Already done with this patch.. it was just zombies weren't hearing the shots (a bug).. now they come at you bro.

2. Speed no.. they are already faster than the player by a long shot. Damage, hell yes.

3.Maybe, Honestly I really like the idea of zombies that hit like a tank but are slower so you can still run.. unless you get backed into a corner. Also there being more of them. (which is what it sounds like Rocket is working towards)

4.What Beanus said.

5. Agreed, but gotta stop the duping first.

[Jean Jacques Serrault 37]

Note: If any people who don't have much time to spare read this post, simply read the underlined sentences, they're the suggestions, in between each one is the explanation if you're interested.

Hello all, we all realize that the game has become kill on sight as of late. Some like it, most I'd wager do not. It is my personal belief, that this behavior (kill on sight) comes from a few things:

-Lack of end game content, too easy to get decked out.

-Worried everyone will shoot you.

-Getting zombies after you isn't that bad, they're easy to lose or kill.

-Supplies are abundant, you can keep a lot of ammo with relative ease.

What if I told you, that I had a few fairly simple suggestions to help address *all* of these problems? Without eliminating banditry, or punishing it directly, but instead punishing gameplay that ignores zombies? Indeed, I believe the solution lies not with punishing bandits, but instead by making zombies a very real, very serious threat. In fact, one of my suggestions will give a new tool to the bandits to allow them to be bandits more effectively, without the frustration.

1. Boost the noise (both the stat that zombies hear, and the actual noise) that guns make by a significant amount (especially sniper rifles).

This change will make it so zombies are drawn from further away when you shoot, making a firefight in the middle of the city nothing short of stupid. You'll draw bandits, curious survivors, and zombies.

2. Boost zombie speed (quite a bit), boost their damage per hit (1,000 - 2,000 blood) and make bleeding a certainty (though it can be low, just make bandages necessary).

What if you didn't know you could always fairly easily escape from zombies? I know that, when I'm looting a town, I know all I have to do is run for a little ways and get to the nearest building... but what if there's a serious chance I won't get to that building/dock/hill? I'll be a lot more careful in and around town, especially considering they're more lethal.

3. To compensate, making sure the game doesn't become ridiculously difficult, lower the amount of zombies that spawn by a small number of people bya good amount *except* for the military spawns (airfields, Stary tents) but not fire stations. However, make sure that a large group of people will still spawn a large amount of zombies -- to keep group play interesting.

This will make it so solo is still very possible, however, being reckless will punish you severely. Not to mention, making military spawns harder to deal with will only prolong the life of the game for everyone.

4. Add a hands on your head or get on the ground option (I don't know if these is even possible). What it will do is put you in a stance where you are froze, can't move, can't do anything except access your inventory. To exit this mode, takes like 3-4 seconds, you will be unable to fight back for 3-4 seconds.

The theory is, in light of the more dangerous game, survivors who fall to banditry for items, may spare you and instead hold you hostage, demanding that you activate this mode lest you be shot.

5. Make military ammunition spawns less common everywhere except for the airfields and starry (fire stations and deer stands included) making ammo more precious.

This will make it so people won't want to waste their ammo as much. They won't kill unarmed or lootless targets (in theory).

All of the above changes, I believe, would make this game far better. You may say that I'm being a bit too severe, that banditry won't happen if these go through, but I beg to differ. I believe that this will mostly affect the shoot on sight players (who do so out of self defense, or for fun) with banditry being affected a little but not too much. Banditry will return to being about the loot, not murdering, and murderers will be a truly shocking sight again, it will be a novelty, and killing other players will be more of a novelty as well.

Even the murderers will have more fun, it'll be more exciting, more fresh, more dangerous, and ultimately less common. The bandits will have fun, because they'll have new (silent) ways of forcing people to give up their loot, not to mention they'll have more to play for with loot being harder to acquire. Survivors will have more fun, they won't need to feel they must shoot on sight, they'll not be getting shot every time they see another player, and they'll have more to play for because of top end loot being harder to acquire.

Finally, all parties everywhere will (I believe) have more fun because zombies will be something to fear. When you were first playing, zombies scared you, you didn't know that you could kill them or escape them. They were freaky fast, they seemed strong, they were very scary in look and sound. Now, they're nothing, they're a sideshow, sprinkles on the cake -- if you get caught you just run away for a while and you're safe. With zombies being stronger and faster, you'll be really scared again, you will be freaking out when you're chased, you will feel fear like you did when you first played. You won't run into the middle of town, shoot everyone up, then run into a building and be completely safe.

Thank you for reading, what do you guys think?

1. It's already fixed in 1.7.2.4. Zombies will run to you when shoot even your tiniest gun.

2. They're already faster than any survivor alive (except hackers who can teleport). Boosting the zeds' damage to at least 1k per hit while they're faster then you and you only has 12k blood? LoL Ok, good luck with that then. Even 1 zombie can kill you with few hits when you're unconscious (including bleeding).

3. Current zombies amount with current damage and speed is fine imo. Actually, multiply their number and reducing their speed is much interesting tbh.

4. I agree with this "Hands up or I'll shoot!" addition. It gives more realistic feeling in the game.

5. A good idea. However, the military buildings should still have the same spawn chance as it is now cause it's already rare atm.

Just a thought.

[*Regulator* Curt 93]

Beanus,

Very cool, only an amateur Arma 2 player so I fail at knowing these kinds of things (I've only played the campaigns + a few user campaigns).

ODoyleRules,

1. I didn't notice, I only noticed the 1911/revolver suck (that's all I've been using) and since I read that they were nerfed by BI, I thought that was it.

2. They're faster, but they can't really catch a person running at full speed because they zig zag and they stop to hit but miss, making them fairly easy to keep away from. I want it to be so they can keep up and hit you while you're running.

3. I thought that would be cool too, unfortunately that makes them too easy to escape, making it so people can run around and kill without fear of repercussion. The point of these changes is to make it so murdering senselessly or acting stupid will get you killed, if zombies were slow they'd actually be easier to escape than they already are... which just makes me go "lol". Though I agree, it would be a bit more fun probably if they were slow.

Really, the thing about these rules is that all but 4/5 must be put in, or any one of them would really kill balance without helping the bandit problem much. 2 might make banditry (please note, I use banditry as synonymous with murder sometimes) a bit less common, but it won't combat some sniper sitting on a hill somewhere. Without 1., bandits will still be able to haunt Cherno/Electro with ease. Without 3, the game will be too insanely difficult for anyone to make it solo, so it's necessary if 2 is implemented.

Thanks for the comments guys.

[*Regulator* Curt 93]

1. It's already fixed in 1.7.2.4. Zombies will run to you when shoot even your tiniest gun.

Really? Very nice.

2. They're already faster than any survivor alive (except hackers who can teleport). Boosting the zeds' damage to at least 1k per hit while they're faster then you and you only has 12k blood? LoL Ok, good luck with that then. Even 1 zombie can kill you with few hits when you're unconscious (including bleeding).

But see, zombie speed is affected by a couple of variables. They stop to try to hit you, and they usually fail, which sets them behind you. They also zig zag kind of, which yet again slows them down. At the moment, I can literally run forever (if achieving forever was possible ^^) and literally never get hit once by a zombie. That's not including the fact that getting into a building is super easy and will save you like 95% of the time.

3. Current zombies amount with current damage and speed is fine imo. Actually, multiply their number and reducing their speed is much interesting tbh.

There are multiple problems with this though:

1. It taxes the servers more than they already are, while my suggestions reduce it.

2. More zombies with nothing to balance it out, will really hurt the ability for players to solo. That was something I was being careful about not doing, I'm keeping everything balanced, the only thing being discouraged is stupid gameplay or careless gameplay.

Some computers who already have a hard time on ARMA will have an even harder time.

5. A good idea. However, the military buildings should still have the same spawn chance as it is now cause it's already rare atm.

I have virtually no problem keeping any assault rifles or the DMR (only sniper I've ever had D:) stocked on ammunition. Additionally, the only places I would decrease are the fire stations and the deer stands (not set on the deer stands), making the airfields/stary where all the bandits/murderers/end gamers go, leaving the beaches free of super geared players. It's a way of separating the two populations, ensuring more enjoyable gameplay for both. It also makes it for people who want to play solo can easily avoid the hot spots, get themselves geared up without worry, then head off to the end game stuffz.

Thanks for your post, it was definitely a good read.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Brad_B