noobz thoughts

[friedbrainz 0]

So I've played 5 times now (died 4 times) and have some thoughts. First, it's an awesome mod! Great concept and execution for a mod. I bought arma2 just to play this mod. The first thing I would say is I think there needs to be a bit more of an "end goal" to the game. By my 3rd time through, I pretty much figured out how to simply survive. It then turned into a goals based bunch of mini missions that I made up. Stuff like, "hmm, maybe if I go here there will be something cool". After a while i got bored. It was just a drill. Locate a high interest building/town and loot to stay alive.

This leads to my second point, which is the hacking/script abuse. I think half the reason there seems to be so much script misuse is the boredom issue. During one of my recent sessions I was prone going to a military installation to try to score some weaponry when 2 bandits poped up out of nowhere. They proceeded to drop a box for me that had pretty much every weapon in it you would want. Pretty nice hackers! There's no way they saw me so they had to have used a script to know I was there. They saw I wasn't a threat and decided to help me out. That's pretty cool but it's still abusing the system. I got sniped in that session and I highly doubt the sniper actually just happened to be where he was. This makes it hard for an honest player to spend the time playing. I mean if I'm going to work hard to get everything I get only to be sniped by someone who is cheating then it's just a waste of time.

I don't know that I have any good ideas on what some better end goals would be, but for starters maybe a safe zone that is difficult to reach but provides supplies and other non PK'ing survivors. Sort of a home base for the non-bandit types to try to reach. It gets pretty boring pretty quick once you realize that the entire map is nothing but zombie overrun buildings. Another thing that annoys me is the zombie proliferation. For example deer stands on the edge of a clearing in the middle of nowhere have zombies spawning all over the place? Why? A little more realistic density distribution would be good. I know it's to make it more difficult but it's not really. Why must every shed, outhouse and shack in the map have a population of zombies? Even buildings you can't breach have a population which makes no sense.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I'm looking forward to the standalone version. I would just like to see a little more depth to the gameplay beyond "survive". Don't really know what that is or what it means really. Just stating my opinion.

Cheers...

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

All of this is being dealt with in the standalone. Have fun!

[herrjon 478]

First off, it's a sandbox game, by definition, it doesn't have any "end goal" other than what you choose. There's plenty you can do beyond banditry and forest survivorman, you just have to set your own goals and do it. For instance, I'm a medic, so I find hurt people or just people that need help and risk my life to save theirs.

You can set up camps open to the public, but as in the spirit of the game, it's still open to infiltration. Rocket has said he doesn't want any place to be safe, it's against the feel of the game. There have been talks of building fortresses and or underground bases in standalone, but even those will be venerable to bandit players.

Zeds spawning from buildings is just the current implementation. It makes some sense since that's where people would've been. The deerstands would've had a couple people posted there, and in-game it can only spawn 3. You may have gotten more to spawn after killing the first ones, but that's just keeping the area hostile instead of just simply killing 3 zeds and looting.

As for scripters, the first pair obviously was. If this happens again, or you just find a hacked weapon somewhere, I recommend you bury it in a zombie or dead player. Some servers will kick you for carrying weapons that were scripted in. Then the sniper was probably legitimate. Bandit players tend to camp high value areas and will kill on sight. And they can find you. Making noise, being outside a tree, agroing a zombie, among other things, can alert them of your location. There's even a thermal scope rifle that can find you so long as there isn't a wall between you and them.

You can even run into people in the middle of nowhere. I remember when I was newer, I was going to go loot a couple buildings in the middle of the map for some lunch, and as I'm scoping out the area, I see two players come in from the south, and a third come in from the west. They had their little firefight that I stayed out, but still, 4 people in the same 200 m radius. It was even on a server that only had 6 players, including me. You have to assume there is always someone nearby, they could've been tracking you for miles. There's a popular youtuber that has even started uploading a guide to player stalking.

Anyways, good luck out there. Find your own path, and stay safe.

Edited October 12, 2012 by HerrJon

[Casper86ed 6]

OK here is an end game for you. Repair and or steal and fly a UH1 chopper. Good luck!

[friedbrainz 0]

I do realize it's an alpha and I'm sure the standalone will have some very cool solutions to some issues. I'm still having fun with the game. I did have the heli as a goal, but then I realized that even if I could get to one and fly it there's really nowhere to go. It would be cool to fly around and take out zeds from the sky but after that then what? I need to come up with a role to play and stick with that I think.

[Sula 1205]

Or you could offer to run bambis up to the north west airfield without everyone dying. That would be a very hard challenge. :thumbsup: Or how about playing on a public and very busy server? You'll soon die and lose everything. :)

By the way, the zombies being gathered around the deer stands is very much intentional. It's to make it harder for you to get to the weapons.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Sula

[selmack 7]

So I've played 5 times now (died 4 times) and have some thoughts. First, it's an awesome mod! Great concept and execution for a mod. I bought arma2 just to play this mod. The first thing I would say is I think there needs to be a bit more of an "end goal" to the game. By my 3rd time through, I pretty much figured out how to simply survive. It then turned into a goals based bunch of mini missions that I made up. Stuff like, "hmm, maybe if I go here there will be something cool". After a while i got bored. It was just a drill. Locate a high interest building/town and loot to stay alive.

This leads to my second point, which is the hacking/script abuse. I think half the reason there seems to be so much script misuse is the boredom issue. During one of my recent sessions I was prone going to a military installation to try to score some weaponry when 2 bandits poped up out of nowhere. They proceeded to drop a box for me that had pretty much every weapon in it you would want. Pretty nice hackers! There's no way they saw me so they had to have used a script to know I was there. They saw I wasn't a threat and decided to help me out. That's pretty cool but it's still abusing the system. I got sniped in that session and I highly doubt the sniper actually just happened to be where he was. This makes it hard for an honest player to spend the time playing. I mean if I'm going to work hard to get everything I get only to be sniped by someone who is cheating then it's just a waste of time.

I don't know that I have any good ideas on what some better end goals would be, but for starters maybe a safe zone that is difficult to reach but provides supplies and other non PK'ing survivors. Sort of a home base for the non-bandit types to try to reach. It gets pretty boring pretty quick once you realize that the entire map is nothing but zombie overrun buildings. Another thing that annoys me is the zombie proliferation. For example deer stands on the edge of a clearing in the middle of nowhere have zombies spawning all over the place? Why? A little more realistic density distribution would be good. I know it's to make it more difficult but it's not really. Why must every shed, outhouse and shack in the map have a population of zombies? Even buildings you can't breach have a population which makes no sense.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I'm looking forward to the standalone version. I would just like to see a little more depth to the gameplay beyond "survive". Don't really know what that is or what it means really. Just stating my opinion.

Cheers...

If I understand your post, I believe I have to agree. All I have been doing is running basically. Completely lost usually as the servers it says I am compatable with seem to always have spawn snipers and if I stand for even a moment it is over. So I run and try to lose them and even then somehow they follow me.

If I understand, the stand alone version of game will stop this and the hacking? I would hope. Yesterday (first day) was a complete waste.

As far as a getting sniped near a camp of zombies. I appeared near one. As I was running to avoid them with absolutely nothing - game over - sniper.

How do they always know where I am? I turned around and saw one all decked out and run forever - stopped - game over. Just don't get it.

Even changing servers. The servers are all by the same provider so not sure if that matters but change or not games are short, boring, and so frustrating!!!

[Sula 1205]

It sounds like you need a lower population server. Ask Fraggle for info on some good servers where you won't get sniped every second you're in dayz. :thumbsup:

Edited October 14, 2012 by Sula

[selmack 7]

It sounds like you need a lower population server. Ask Fraggle for info on some good servers where you won't get sniped every second you're in dayz. :thumbsup:

Actually, that is what I have been trying to do now. I need to look closer at the info in DayzCommander. I actually made it to a larger town for the first time. I am going to post in a moment a question regarding where I am now.