Zombie strength, teamplay and newbie survivability

[-Atlas- 5]

A thing that pops up very frequently on the forums is whether or not zombies should be made stronger.

I hope to shine a little bit of light on the subject and give a suggestion as to how I think things should be to find a balance between challenge, teamplay and newb-friendliness.

First off, I DO think that zombies should be made a bigger threat. What I personally would like the most is if their smelling and hearing would be buffed significantly. When you attract a zombie right now, the sounds that the zombie will make won't attract others. This should change. Once you attract one zombie, you should attract a whole horde. If you fire a gun, every zombie in the area should atleast come to investigate.

Right now, it's just laughably easy to sneak past a zombie, and IF one would see you, all you do is chop him with your axe (the axe should definitely be nerfed too. 1hit kills+ bigger range than zombies just make it the perfect zombie-killing weapon. We want zombies to be a threat right?)

Stronger zombies, a bigger risk in alerting them and placing packs of zombies around places that have particularly interesting loot, should be a start to promoting more teamplay.

Now comes the next part of my suggestion:

Making zombies stronger and a bigger threat does ofcourse promote teamplay, but it also makes the newbies that just started out to be even more vulnerable than they already were. To balance this out, I think zombies should no longer be spread across an entire village, but instead they should roam in packs (not sure how easily this is from a technical perspective?). Right now, I think the main reason that people complain about zombies being too strong, is that in order to get your basic kit together, you HAVE to get close to zombies. You HAVE to take the big risk even just to start out. It's very easy to sneak past zombies, but sometimes it may bug, sometimes a zombie may spawn behind you, or sometimes one may come around a corner where you didn't expect it.

This is where I think the big issue lies. Beginners should atleast have the option to find some gear in places where the risk is lower. Now, I'm aware that the game is supposed to be hard, and that people shouldn't be asking for handouts, so obviously whatever you can find that isn't 'guarded' by zombies shouldn't be of high quality. Basic things like food and water, perhaps a handgun or two with an occasional 'rare' item like binoculars or something along those lines.

Not only do I think this will balance out the stronger zombies, but it will also encourage exploration of the map. I remember that the first thing I did when I spawned (at night, I might add) was go into the forest in the hopes to find some abandoned shack where I could pick up some survival gear. I kind of expected zombies to be mainly in the big village. They turned out to be -everywhere-. I think that should change.

In all honesty, I kinda wrote this down out of an impulse, so there may be some holes here and there. Feel free to comment and discuss.

[Sergeant Squatt 58]

I'm pretty sure they've uped the zombies seeing distance line in the past few patches....

Also They've already come to a ridiculous point where twice I was on 8k and 9k blood and one hit from a Mike Tyson zombie apparently made me pass out and die because the reviving was going 2mph.

[VaultDweller (DayZ) 58]

Now let me kindly reply to you.

Mod is in alpha,Rocket said himself he will be mainly focusing on the zombies.

There will be changes.

[Sergeant Squatt 58]

Your location is "Vault 13" where the hell is that lols...

[04512190412 9]

I've fired a gun at one zombie and all of a sudden half of the city's zombies were coming after me. I think the zombies sometimes aggro too far away, even if you are sneaking. I also think that the zombie groans and moans can be heard too far away. I play with effects volume to the max to hear footsteps better and other things but then also I hear the zombies yell even though they are still far away.

[VaultDweller (DayZ) 58]

Your location is "Vault 13" where the hell is that lols...

From the original Fallout.