Why is the life expectancy going up?

[jani.ehro@gmail.com 1]

I am surprised noone has asked this.

But we haven't the faintest idea. It is currently calculated across all characters (ignoring those who died within a few minutes).

Given the vast swathes of people who died earlier' date=' there must be a dramatic rise in survival times for it to be rising. Any budding statisticians have some thoughts?

[/quote']

There are few reasons for this:

- information

- people learning the map and game

- relative amount of noobs is decreasing

Information:

The internet is full of information and players share it with eachother. This causes people to skip the start areas sometimes completely. So Basically for many the game starts after a 20 minutes of run. That again causes the PVP partly to go away from start cities, which again increases the life expectancy. Same as friends running to reach each other (which btw is the most stupid feature of this game - to be able to play with friends u need to run every evening 15 to 30 minutes)

People learning the map and game

-when you know the map you dont need to seek so much for maps any more in start cities, but start go ahead towards north

-learning the game

Also people know how easy it is "exploit" the zombies... go in a house and pick them out one by one. Same goes for outdoor killing... run away and stop right after zombie stops - shoot... (easy killing)

The relative amount of noobs is decreasing:

Yeah the amount of players is still rising, but not as fast as be4 (i think). This means that there are people

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

Completely anecdotal, but my first ~20 survivors lived for 30m-90m on average, while my last 2 have been 6 days (~30 hours in game) and 14 days (~70 hours in game) respectively.

I'm just playing more cautiously and learning from every single death.

[tolk 7]

My point is' date=' that many proclaimed "doom" about the bandit skin remove. But the opposite has been seen. I doubt the change itself has caused an increase, but something has. And bandit change hasn't resulted in substantially more bandits, and through it all we've seen a statistically dramatic increase in survival time.

[/quote']

I reckon bandit skin removal has decreased player interaction as its now avoid or be shot. This in turn has stabalized bandit population population as fewer people becoming bandits in self defence. Not saying skin removal is a bad thing before people start flaming.

That combined with fixes for lethal bugs, fewer zees, and maybe increased hacker population skewing results.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

increased hacker population skewing results.

Pretty sure hackers killing people in droves (supposedly sometimes entire servers at once) would decrease, not increase expectancy.

[Publik 404]

Poll I had up before the server wipe. Somehow people are still submitting to it.

If you look at the amount of time most people have played (+3wks) and the amount of time people play per day (usually 2-4hrs), and the group size people usually play in (2-5 friends) and the number of "paranoid survivors" and "survival bandits" (which are essentially the same thing), it looks like most people are just in little roving bands of shoot-on-sight non-noobs. Most people (though I've seen it quite often) don't spam the respawn on the coast anymore.

[ThirdHorseman 18]

How the hell does a person only survive for 5 minutes? I am really surprised the life expectancy is only ~30 min. Do you really have hundreds and hundreds of players dying every day after only 5 minutes of running around? That smells like a bug to me...

[tolk 7]

increased hacker population skewing results.

Pretty sure hackers killing people in droves (supposedly sometimes entire servers at once) would decrease' date=' not increase expectancy.

[/quote']

The difference between the life time of someone killed by a hacker and the average normal life expectancy is probably fairly small. whereas the difference between a hackers life and the average is probably extremely large i.e an outlier. The mean average could be affected significantly depending on this difference and the no. Of hackers.

[worst2first 71]

90% or more of the players don't even attempt to link up with other survivors in game any more. That doesn't mean they are killing each other though - a lot of people either flee the area or disconnect when spotted.

[andb52 12]

Ah, yeah, perhaps an increase in disconnections is doing it now that everyone knows how easy it is to exploit.

[Tehdark 3]

I think you have to consider that as the game ages, and people learn how to play, what to expect from zombies, people and so forth, survival times will naturally rise. I mean, if you were to look at my survival times, it would be a steady curve upwards, leading to my 18 day survival.

I would assume it is the same is for most people?

[fire708 17]

People are learning to survive, avoid those you don't know, and where food is. The new zed mechanics should cause the numbers to drop for a while then they should naturally start climbing again.

[SilverWeed 0]

Are people who quit playing but are still alive counted towards life expectancy or is it only tracking at the moment people die? I know I stopped playing about a week ago with a character that was alive for maybe 6 hours, if that isn't being counted as dead at 6 hours until I log on again that might be part of the problem considering the jump in unique players recently?

[Deuzerre 64]

A higher survivability is not a proof of less murder on sight.

I believe it's the proof that players just meet less often. Shooting on sight still happens, but people that are no PK fans have learned not to approach others.

Basically: Long lives = less interactions (with non VOIP players).

[ABORT 5]

Was a good bean harvest this year that's why.

LMFAO!!!

[walrus2517 27]

The simplest answer is that players are learning both how to survive (zed AI loopholes, loot locations, etc.) and the Arma system (inventory use, keybindings, etc.).

Also, I think there is probably something to the suggestion from a few folks that the Deathmatch crowd is going back to other games better setup for that play style.

Finally, as someone else also mentioned, the first month or so most servers had 50 player caps and were almost always full. Now there are ample servers, many with a 25 player cap, and it really isn't hard to find a server with only 7-10 other players.

[Tassadarh 2]

At first I thought it was about people not playing the game.

I mean, I've seen TONS of annoying thread like "I'm leaving cuz they kill me" and "Imma leaving 'cause I can't jump (that was a very good one)" so the most logical conclusion in my opinion was "people aren't logging in and their char lifetime is calculated even offline".

But anyway, even if the lifetime is calculated only in "online time" I think the solution is not that far from what I said above. People who don't like this game leaves, leaving only people who play this game everyday. Skilled people will obviously have a longer life expectancy

[exnihilo 0]

- (E3) 1 week of no change allowing people to acclimate to the flow of the game?

- The spread of "Kill on Sight" accusations, the so-called "exaggerated" response, resulting in the rise in "clan" formations"?

- Spread of "head north" messages diffusing the populace across the map; less contact?

- The abuse of "alt+f4" use, corrupting others to follow suite; extends lifespan?

- The spread of loot information, sniping locations, vehicle locations, tent placing locations from external sources; results in less guess work, more safe coordinated activity?

- Portion of griefers/spawn campers/hackers have expended enough effort into their "performances" to desensitize themselves from the "enjoyment" achieved from their mischief?

- Coincidence that a portion of players are lost in the middle of no where?

- Increase in servers; spreads out population; less contact?

[Sarcasmo 2]

People are:

a. more cautious of other players now

b. mastering the game mechanics

c. finding more server options to choose from (ie lower population ones)

[kyriel 45]

I've lived for 7 days now. I just mind my own business, riding my bicycle through the woods, raiding people's tents and murdering animals. It's lonely, but I survive.

[zorg_dk 30]

I'm playing less now, thus not adding to number of people who die quickly..

[i wub pugs 16]

I haven't played in over a week maybe even two because the mod got really boring and repetitive.

So I'm sure my 2 weeks of life all while offline are skewing the figures.

[Delta Smoke 01 765]

Il tell you exactly why its going up. Its going up because the people that joined to the tune of "trust no one" and "shoot on sight" are finally realizing that isnt the only choice they have. On my home home server and others that i play on when my server is dark, people are now cooperating more. This is due to myself, my clan and those we help in turn helping others. I recall someone saying if you want your servers to be safer, do something about it as a collective. We have, and it works :D ofc the pvp and bandits are a big part of DayZ but the point is, now were ready ready for them.

[JPalmer 3]

I haven't played in over a week maybe even two because the mod got really boring and repetitive.

So I'm sure my 2 weeks of life all while offline are skewing the figures.

Life time is only when playing. You not playing is not adding any minutes to the average. Only when you play do you add to the average. And if you are bored of the mod why are you on the forums. Go do something.

[chickenbandit 2]

I am surprised noone has asked this.

But we haven't the faintest idea. It is currently calculated across all characters (ignoring those who died within a few minutes).

Given the vast swathes of people who died earlier' date=' there must be a dramatic rise in survival times for it to be rising. Any budding statisticians have some thoughts?

[/quote']

Answer is easy: Vehicles enabled on all servers. People finally have something fun to work for.

EDIT: After looking over the past 10 pages, I'm surprised this has only been mentioned even in passing twice so far.

[i wub pugs 16]

I haven't played in over a week maybe even two because the mod got really boring and repetitive.

So I'm sure my 2 weeks of life all while offline are skewing the figures.

Life time is only when playing. You not playing is not adding any minutes to the average. Only when you play do you add to the average. And if you are bored of the mod why are you on the forums. Go do something.

I was bored of the previous build, forgive me for checking out development threads.

I'm at work too, so I guess I can still do whatever it is I want to do, but thanks dad!