The dying letter of a Military Zed about pistols

[-=Grunt=- (DayZ) 0]

I have come across a dead military zombie sitting on a chair in a barracks at the north western airfield with a hole on it's back... A hole caused by, I assume a .45... The zombie, we shall call it Mr. Zed, had a letter in it's hand.

I will read Mr. Zed's letter now. *Clears throat*

"Dear DayZ dev team,

I have just watched my military zombie comrades get slaughtered by a rather appetizing survivor, forgive the saliva on the letter, carrying an American M1911 pistol. He just shot their chest and they died... They were only trying to eat! EVERYZOMBIE NEEDS TO EAT!

Anyways... Why do we even have military grade body armor on us if it can't protect us? Surely pistol rounds can't punch through military grade armor.

Forever hungry, Sergean-"

The letter ends there, I assume he got shot before he wrote his name. Poor zed... May it have many corpses to eat in the afterlife.

So, why not? This would make pistols such as the M1911 and the .45 revolver less useful when raiding military locations. And give 5.45 and 5.56 ARs (Which are less useful than .45 pistols other than killing other players with) more use when fighting zombies.

I have seen something like this in an ArmA 2 OA zombie mission set in the Proving Grounds map. Zombies that can only be killed by headshots.

I assume it's a script because there aren't any addons needed, and I also assume that it can be applied to the military zombies to make them stand out and become more of a threat.

If possible, only make their chest immune to certain bullets (Or magazines in ArmA 2's case, since the magazine determines the weapon's damage, etc).

Maybe this idea will only be implemented in ArmA 3 because of the body armor system. (Change-able body armor with different stats, etc)

[Bandit Hunter 29]

Soldier Zeds are already much tougher than regular Zeds, and carry better loot as a result. Your letter from that Zed is chilling, knowing these creatures only want to eat and live they're lives..

[-=Grunt=- (DayZ) 0]

Tougher... Nah, not at all. Military zeds still die from one .45 round to the chest. Or the same amount of any bullet used to kill a civilian zombie. (I understand the 1-shot-to-the-head though)

To me, they're just normal zombies with better loot at the moment.

[Bandit Hunter 29]

I had heard, and experienced, otherwise with Soldiers. Though, remember there is a military sim underneath DayZ, and the game interprets what a .45 round to the stomach would do to a human body. Hint, have EMT's standing by.

As you move up in firepower, there isn't a "health" meter that gets more damage points added, there is a "how does this bullet at this range, and this speed, effect flesh, organ and bone" meter.

[-=Grunt=- (DayZ) 0]

I don't think a zombie would mind a broken rib or three, or even a flesh wound. It would still charge at you angrily just like an angry animal would do. (Armor plate inserts for sure would stop a pistol bullet, most if not all military armor these days got plates in 'em)

Perhaps with ArmA 3's physics when it's released, we could have them falling down from the stopping power and getting back up. (I heard of a system like GTA IV where you get rammed by a vehicle and you go into "ragdoll mode") It would be so funny knocking a zombie down a hill or stairs then making it climb back up and knocking it down again until it dies.

But at the moment, military places need higher difficulty. They're just way too easy to loot... It just needs more challenge to get that precious military hardware.

I've been playing ArmA 2 for around 3 years now and it takes about the same amount of shots to kill a civilian and a soldier with a body armor. Like in that RP server... I killed 4 player 'cops' with U.S. Army soldier models with 1 shot from an M1911 to the chest as I try to steal cash from a convoy.