Don't add artificial advantages or disadvantages for any playstyle, ever.

[clever 12]

Sure, playing as a bandit is easier but in my opinion playing as a survivor is more rewarding. I can kill that nameless survivor and take his loot, or I can befriend him and he can possibly save my ass in the future.

[DudelyPowers 0]

Sure' date=' playing as a bandit is easier but in my opinion playing as a survivor is more rewarding. I can kill that nameless survivor and take his loot, or I can befriend him and he can possibly save my ass in the future.

[/quote']

I partially agree with this and have a story I think can add to that point.

I was playing around in Elektro the other day just poking around for loot and chatting with other players. There was this one guy who announced he was going into the church, and someone else started messing with him. He said things like "I can see you, I have NVGs, don't move or I'll shoot" and it was scaring the other guy. The guy who was in the church started getting noticably upset, trying to negotiate for his life, while the other person taunted him and was generally a dick.

I have been playing as a bandit for the last week and when I knew this guy was in town near me, I felt tempted to hunt him down. But seeing this exchange, this guy being so cruel for no reason... I went into bandit-hunter mode. I abandoned my safe hiding spot, sneaking around the area looking for this guy so I could kill him, and save the poor guy in the church. And I unfortunately didn't (it turns out he was just trolling and wasn't even around Elektro), but if I had, man that would have been awesome.

[SilverWeed 0]

Maybe it's a bigger problem on the Expert and Veteran servers where you often have to obtain resources from other players' date=' the server hopping keeps me away from those anyway since I assume those players gear up on Regular and camp key destinations before switching.

[/quote']

Hm? Looting isn't any harder on Expert/Veteran servers.

Must be coincidence, I only found junk when playing on Veteran in the past, and when I play on Regular there seem to be weapons in every building and beans aplenty. Guess I need to figure what the difference is then, if any.

[ezdaroth 1]

Sure' date=' playing as a bandit is easier but in my opinion playing as a survivor is more rewarding. I can kill that nameless survivor and take his loot, or I can befriend him and he can possibly save my ass in the future.

[/quote']

I don't think either role is any easier, at least for long-term survival. Both have various risks and rewards, which are pretty well balanced.

Shooting a player is always a risk. You have to be very careful to make sure you won't alert any zombies, the victim is alone and that you will take the victim down before he can return fire. In return you will get supplies and other gear. The gear is pre-filtered, nobody carries junk, so it will nearly always be useful for your survival.

Approaching a player as a friendly is a risk you can't help as much by being careful, but the potential reward is far greater. A friend who has your back is more valuable than any gear within the game. The more friends you have, the less likely bandits are going to risk shooting you and the less dangerous groups of zombies will be.

These are the the main reasons why there will always be players for both roles.

Many of the new players don't quite grasp the goal of long-term survival and instead play a pistol deathmatch at the beach, but it doesn't mean killing players should be punished by artificial disadvantages.

The deathmatch will slowly become less of an issue, as the players either realize it's not a very good mod for that and leave or adapt a more appropriate playstyle.

[eegore 23]

That guy shot me..penalize him. Except in an apocalyptic world there is no justice' date=' no one to punish that murderer for you.

[/quote']

...also in an apocalyptic world looting marauders get shot in sight by any armed forces - does that mean if we want to be realistic to have AI military patrols to shoot every marauder (which is 100% of DayZ players) in sight ?

Not AI military patrols, they are dead.

You could however build a militia and do it yourself. Which is the idea of this open world.

Trust me, I've been in post-govt. countries, most recently the Syrian border right after we picked up some USAID workers from Libya. You wont find "Armed Forces" doing any of what you described, but you will find locally run "rebel" groups attempting to regain order.

[Paularius 0]

Alot of people baught arma2 and downloaded this mod becouse they wanted to play a realistic zombie survival game.

Unfortunately lately the game has become more of a troll survival game instead.

I think more pros/cons should be given for teaming up with/killing other players to balance out the differnt play styles.

Or have pvp as an option on server creation.

[feriluce 2]

The OP's point fall apart when we take into account that this is a game and that players doesn't act the same way in games that they do IRL. You can set up the most realistic evironment possible, but players are still not going to act realistically because they know it is a game.

That is why "gamey" mechanics needs to be implemented in order to encourage players to act realistically. Realistic behaviour > realistic setting.

[lev 39]

I can't think of anyway to respond without coming off as condescending. Too many players have recently bought A2 for the sake of playing this mod without understanding what A2 is or that DayZ is simply a mod for A2 and not a game in itself.

With that said, A2 will not simply deliver victory and success to you. This isn't a modern game that has been designed from ground up to allow players to win and proceed to the next stage. Failure is common and in any confrontation, there will be a victor and a loser (unless its a stalemate). Instead of trying to change the game to fit your play style and your personal preferences, learn how the game works and try to win instead of complaining about the perceived "unfairness" of the game. Everyone started with a makarov and some beans and no one has gotten good gear without venturing in-land and dealing with other PK-ers.

Here is a good resource to start learning how to play Arma 2 and maybe instead of whining about how you were killed again, you can start figuring out ways to be successful.

http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/

Note: this is for A2 in general but there's a lot of good stuff in there for any new player and even old players. One suggestion I'd make to override the guide is with regards to formations. When traveling long distances, it is probably better to not be in a formation and move with at least 30-50m distance between each player if you have to stay together. The preferred mode of travel should be to spread all your players out so you can cover a good 500m-1km distance as you advance and therefore get eyes on anyone in the vicinity. While moving try to stay in concealment like forests or dense shrubbery and consistently report in your own position as well as anything you spot so all team members are constantly aware of their surroundings.

[Jack Frehorn 0]

I feel as though people are looking at this mod the wrong way- they get mad when other players kill them because in their perfect world, those bandits are playing the game wrong.

I just think of the game as a survival-horror-fps-roguelike. Feels good enough to me. If you die, you die. You're not EXPECTED to survive forever. If players couldn't hurt each other, I can't imagine most people would die. Ever.

That said, I would like if zombies were more of a threat. They're more of a nuisance than anything at this point.

[feriluce 2]

I feel as though people are looking at this mod the wrong way- they get mad when other players kill them because in their perfect world' date=' those bandits are playing the game wrong.

I just think of the game as a survival-horror-fps-roguelike. Feels good enough to me. If you die, you die. You're not EXPECTED to survive forever. If players couldn't hurt each other, I can't imagine most people would die. Ever.

That said, I would like if zombies were more of a threat. They're more of a nuisance than anything at this point.

[/quote']

No people get annoyed when the game turns into a large deathmatch with a few zombies for flavor.

[Zoop 343]

No people get annoyed when the game turns into a large deathmatch with a few zombies for flavor.

And if players knew how to play properly, they wouldn't be affected by the deathmatch FFA.

[ezdaroth 1]

The OP's point fall apart when we take into account that this is a game and that players doesn't act the same way in games that they do IRL. You can set up the most realistic evironment possible' date=' but players are still not going to act realistically because they know it is a game.

That is why "gamey" mechanics needs to be implemented in order to encourage players to act realistically. Realistic behaviour > realistic setting.

[/quote']

I try to play the game like my own life is on the line and I think it's the best way to play. Being extremely careful and trying to survive no matter what it takes.

I think the only case where I take unrealistic amount of risk is when I approach other players to join them. I place myself in a huge danger, which I probably wouldn't do IRL unless I really had to, but I don't think this is a major issue for anyone.

I don't think adding "gamey" mechanics is a good solution for anything in this mod. If everybody would become a lone wolf bandit, which I don't see happening, you could simply increase the number of zombies and push basic basic supplies to more zombie-heavy areas, or do something else that increases the natural advantages for playing in a group.