Is up north dead now?

[Sephka (DayZ) 51]

EDIT: I'd like to ask those who have "good servers" where they rarely get hacked and still meet people up north to tell me what kind of server they play on. I won't ask for names since I'm sure most people won't want to give them out, but are they low/med/high pop servers? Do you play early in the day or later in the evening? At night? Things like that. Much appreciated.

Before I start I'd like to get this out of the way now. This is not a hacker qq thread. I understand that Rocket is very limited in what he can do about it. I am already waiting patiently for DayZ to go standalone so that hopefully, these issues will be solved. I just wanted to ask you all a question, just to see what others had to say. All I want to know is, do you think it's dead up north?

Perhaps I've been rather unlucky. I prefer to think of it that way. Most nights when I play, every server, or near every server ends up with a hacker. Most kill everyone. Once was a thunderdome. Sometimes they have choppers. Most of the time though, it's either server wide nukes, or invisible/invincible people shooting everyone.

I haven't run into anyone up north in over a week. I can safely run in and out of Stary or NWAF without a care in the world it seems. No snipers, no survivors looking for better loot, nothing. It feels like everyone is staying in Cherno and Elektro because "Fuck it, I'm gonna die anyway, why waste my time up north?"

I understand this is just my personal experience and that this may not accurately reflect the state of the game. That's why I'm here, asking you, is it dead up north? When is the last time you've seen anyone up north? Have you even been up north lately? How often are you hacked? Do you feel people are just blowing the hacker problem out of proportion? I'd like to know what y'all think.

EDIT: I also apologize is this has been asked or if this is a repeat thread, I did some searching, perhaps not well enough, but I found nothing.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Sephka

[Yeni 53]

People found it pointless to waste their time travelling up north to collect better loot when once good loot is gathered, 5 minutes later, a hacker appears.

[A Friend 8]

I agree.

[seeeB1 1]

everyone is just looking for camps with duped stuff or is duping himself. the "hotspots" are empty...

[Mattz 1]

If I go there a billion polygons in various colors flicker over my screen blocking my view so I can't really play there..

[tuleg1t 50]

At the current state of the hacking in this game, i can't be bothered to loot up and trek up north at the moment. I spend my time trolling around the coast waiting for a BE update to thin out the hacks.

[norreka 45]

At nwaf i "meet" today 6 players :) they didnt like me. There are enough players but you dont meet them cause its a big map.

[KC607 0]

People found it pointless to waste their time travelling up north to collect better loot when once good loot is gathered, 5 minutes later, a hacker appears.

I tend to agree with this gentleman.

In the last 2 nights I have had 3 instances with hackers; 1 insta-death for the whole server, 1 finally arriving at NWAF just to be teleported back to Cherno along with every other play on the server, and another where one of our party members was randomly teleported away from our group, into a cirle of barbed wire to prevent escape and then sniped lol.

This kind of thing really makes it hard to justify spending the time it takes to gear-up and make it to the north of the map. All that effort just for any of the above to happen again? I can see why people are reluctant.

[Post Hoc 30]

Ive had a few encounters with people up north, specially at the airfields recently. They key is to find a good server with a really good admin.

[Sephka (DayZ) 51]

everyone is just looking for camps with duped stuff or is duping himself. the "hotspots" are empty...

This is something else I was thinking of bringing up but decided against it. This is actually a problem I'm having with my current group, and it's making me consider leaving and finding other people to play with. All they seem to want to spend their time doing is raiding other enemy camps that have never ending supplies so we can have our own camp with never ending supplies. We even have a guy in our group nicknamed "Super Duper." I had a lot of fun with them at first when everyone played legit but now I find it hard to even get on DayZ with them, since all it is now is "Let's snipe noobs in Elektro/Cherno. If we die run back to one of our never ending camps and get geared up to go back and snipe more noobs."

The thing is, I see massive amounts of people doing this as well. I feel like any server with over 20-25 players has a sniper on Dobryy hill, or sitting somewhere in Cherno, waiting to blow my head off with his duped AS50.

Ive had a few encounters with people up north, specially at the airfields recently. They key is to find a good server with a really good admin.

See, that's the problem though. I had a really great home server I liked to play on. The admin is active and always informs people when hackers are on the server. The problem is, it gets hacked all the time. Every day I played on that server since the influx of hackers, I've had something happen to me. More often than not it's just a server nuke. I am unable to find another server that's as nice as the one I was on, AND have it be hacker free. If anyone has some recommendations that would be great, but in my experience the only way to avoid it is to play on low pop servers which, as I said before, I find incredibly boring.

[DarkRaven123 602]

Whats the point of going north when you can find an Enfield, go to the sniper hill in Electro and get everything you need?

[denkart 198]

I always see people up north. I see at least one player every time I go to the NWAF. Been playing for awhile now and haven't once ran into a hacker. I guess I'm just lucky or maybe the server I use has good admins. Maybe the hackers just don't come to my server that often.

[Kar98 27]

If I go there a billion polygons in various colors flicker over my screen blocking my view so I can't really play there..

Pretty much this. I've got 2 mates refusing to play until the artefacting is fixed

[Post Hoc 30]

Pretty much this. I've got 2 mates refusing to play until the artefacting is fixed

^ this happens to my brother some times. if he puts the video settings on normal it usually fixes it.

[Sephka (DayZ) 51]

So it sounds like most people agree that there's little activity up north, but others are still finding some? I'm curious, if you don't want to give out server names that's fine, but could those of you who still have activity up north tell me what kind of servers you play on? Are they low/med/high pop? US? Do you play early in the day or later?

[Post Hoc 30]

For me, low pop servers means more activity in the north. Ive had most of my encounters in the north when on low to medium pop servers. i think the reason behind this is because the best loot is up north, and the safest time to travel and loot is when there is low pop.

[s0ulassassin 11]

I basically don't go North now since I'm solo most of the time. Since I have been solo I just pvp in cherno and elektro now and honestly have more fun than trying to survive for long periods of time.

[Tyrael75 (DayZ) 21]

The hack scripts are being executed and ran through the command console which is ignored completely by every anti-cheat out there. (PC CMD not in game)

[denkart 198]

So it sounds like most people agree that there's little activity up north, but others are still finding some? I'm curious, if you don't want to give out server names that's fine, but could those of you who still have activity up north tell me what kind of servers you play on? Are they low/med/high pop? US? Do you play early in the day or later?

I usually play in the evening until late at night. Usually med to high pop, but it can dip down pretty low on those pitch black nights. It's a server with 3rd person disabled, veteran difficulty, and no cross hairs. Yes, it is a US server.

[Tracker (DayZ) 7]

I only play at night (mommies of script kiddies force them to sleep while i wear my big boy pants.).

I don't see anyone...ever...Not a soul seen for six days now.

[Dimes123 60]

i dont know a single server thats like this

[alcatraz968 100]

I have not seen a hacker go full out in a month or so. Seen some background hackers (Teloport my friend who was fresh spawn to his body, then a chopper). Saw one try to wipe me and my friends gear, but we dropped. But the massive teloports and nukes i have not seen in awhile.

The north is not "dead". Most people up north know what there doing and they know how to hide. They don't usually cross open fields. They don't go into traps without checking out the area. They don't play alone.

Edit: I wont tell the names, but there's a few US servers people seems to avoid like the plague. 10 Or less population is fine with my friends. And at times (Even full day) my friends and i have been the only one's on.

If you want such a server, just look around and look for reverse Day/Night cycles as they stay low pop usually. (Tho i see more people on at night, then during the day in my home server.)

Edited August 5, 2012 by Alcatraz968

[teteiyusu 36]

I've ran into at least I assume two hackers so far that have killed me.

Other than that I have been pretty lucky.

Mind you I am often a lone wolf on a low pop night server.

It's a little dull.

Would be nice to have some people to run with that use ventrilo.

[Anton17 97]

You should also consider the amount of people that have been hording, duping and generally stashing away massive amounts of end-game gear at camp locations across the map. Now they have all of that there, there's not only no reason for them to keep going back into danger zones for more but its also out of boredom. As a generalisation players tend to do the same evolution steps in DayZ.

Begin playing, get killed a lot, start a forum thread, get killed a lot more, venture into the wilderness for days, get bored, meet up with people or join a clan, experience the boredom of having every item there in a tent or car, get bored of that (or continue along if you're weak of mind) then eventually head back down south to kill other players as either revenge or lack of alternatives in gameplay. This latter is generally what happens at some point after repeatedly attaining medium/high level gear.

Not only does that mean that northers are returning down south but you'll also likely get much better gear if you counter-snipe them or run across them in town, simply by killing them and taking their gear while they antagonise new players. You don't have to walk all the way up north if someone has been kind enough to walk all the way up and back down, carrying the profits with them.

Oh, and did someone mention the hackers? Yeah, hackers. Sort of makes you less inclined to do a 3-hour walk if it ends up being Groundhog Day.