solution to banditry and general griefing

[killroth 9]

Just make a timer before you can spawn in...

either

1) the more times you die the longer the wait before you can log in

2) the lower the humanity the longer you have to wait before you spawn in.

The main problem that this addresses is bandits just spawning with makarovs running in wild killing sprees griefing players and getting better equipment. I know you are trying to make the game realistic but with the ability to respawn it makes it too easy to be a bandit. Skin needs to be removed but there needs to be measures to keep people from just running in popping the first person they see and saving hours worth of work gathering shit.

[Publik 404]

Both suggestions punish specific players.

1) punishes players that die often, IE new players

2) punishes bandits

If there is going to be a spawn-timer, it needs to be the same for everyone. One exception I'd be willing to let go is if you die very quickly after spawning (<1hr), you have a reduced or no spawn time.

Additionally, the amount of gear you start with needs to be decreased. As it stands, you can use that gear to get anywhere in the map. Some guy and I killed each other at NW airfield and I respawned as a bandit in the middle of the night and ran back to NW on one set of gear. I even got lost a few times and was attacked by zeds. I've been suggesting a single Makarov and magazine, one empty bottle, and one can of beans. No pack, no nothing. No reason to kill new players because they can't hurt you and have nothing of value on them. There's also no grief you can inflict on them because with the spawn timer protection they have shorter spawns for the first hour.

Access to weapons needs to be greatly reduced with the exception of household weapons (Maks, 1911s, revolvers, the enfield?), with access to ammo slightly higher. Access to high grade ammo should be equally as common, so I can chose which type of ammo to stock up on and maybe not even have a weapon for it. Do I load up on STANAG and hope for an M#, or do I load up on AKM, or do I load up on food and water? Items also need to be spread out and not have specific spawns, with the exception of military ammunition and some weapons. Specialized weapons (with sights and grips and the like) would be slightly more common in military installations than in other locations. Military ammo would be the same. Maybe more of these rare spawns like the downed helos to carry the good weapons?

Disconnecting also needs to be penalized harshly. If you have any zombies aggro'd on you, there is a chance that if you disconnect you lose items. You "flee" from the zombies to another server, and your character ends up in the woods missing a few items. The more zombies after you, the more items you might lose. Maybe ensure that you always keep at least one weapon and magazine for it. An additional side is disconnecting from players. I'm thinking you do the same as above for pvp interactions if you take damage from another player recently or have fired recently. Running from a player who has dealt damage to you is worse than taking a potshot and running is worse than running from zombies.

The result? Dying is a real risk. Getting in a fight, even if you outnumber your target, is dangerous. I was attacked by 3 guys in a field. I managed to kill 2 of them before dying. They outnumbered me 3:1 and still took 66% casualties. Want to attack that guy with the AKM? Go ahead, but you better be damned sure you can kill him. Life in DayZ gets value, griefers can still grief (though it would be as equally risky as it would be rewarding), players can't run from their decisions, and players have more of an incentive to work together instead of kill each other on sight. Would you rather get in a firefight with some stranger and maybe die and have to wait for an hour, or work with him as a team?

Edit: I had a revelation. The problem is also in part to the fact that zombies (spoiler alert!)

are fucking blind as hell. You can prone-crawl at any speed to withing about 1m of any zombie and be fine. Zombies are also easy to get away from, since they have to stop before attacking you. If you run, you can dodge most of their attacks. Solutions?

1) Zombies don't need to stop to swipe at you. They can chase you and grab you and eat you. Don't piss em off, k? Additionally, add another slower zombie that hits harder. The sprinters under this would be far too hard, since they can always run faster than you. The only reason people can get away is that the sprinters have to stop before swiping. The slower zombies would replace the sprinters, with sprinters being as rare as crawlers.

2) Zombies have a sense of smell and great hearing. If they hear footsteps on a hard surface, even a faint one, they will amble over in that direction. Steps on grass are much quieter. Zombies can also smell fairly well, and if they smell a player will also amble towards the player. They will attack and be aggro'd if they hear a player/gunshot or run into a player. That way, you can prone-crawl around them, but they will start to converge on you.

3) Lower the spawn rate. It's been echoed before, but the current 3 (?) minute spawn rate is too high. You ought to be able to clear out some zombies and never have them pop in front of you. Maybe instead of spawning around a building, if there are players near the building they spawn in the woods away from it and path themselves toward the building? Spawn behind trees or something. That way, players can actually hold towns without fear of zombies spawning on top of them, and there's none of this immersion-breaking pop spawning. Zombies instead come towards the town from the forest if players are occupying the town. Some might rarely spawn in doorways to spice things up a bit, but not very often.

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

Just make a timer before you can spawn in...

either

1) the more times you die the longer the wait before you can log in

2) the lower the humanity the longer you have to wait before you spawn in.

The main problem that this addresses is bandits just spawning with makarovs running in wild killing sprees griefing players and getting better equipment. I know you are trying to make the game realistic but with the ability to respawn it makes it too easy to be a bandit. Skin needs to be removed but there needs to be measures to keep people from just running in popping the first person they see and saving hours worth of work gathering shit.

I don't think the definition of griefing you rely on applies to dayZ. The way dayZ work i don't think it's possible to have every players have an enjoyable time at the same time, and it's good, how will you get memorable stories otherwise?