Advanced Role-Play Systems 

  • [GUIDE] How to Interact Safely

  • Guides for the beginner, intermediate, as well as advanced level player
Guides for the beginner, intermediate, as well as advanced level player
 #3947  by Weyland
 
TIP #1: KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

Best advice for positive interaction as well as surviving every single encounter is keeping your distance. A solid recipe for an encounter with someone who has a gun visibly on their back, stay 20 meters away. If they go for their gun, turn around and run in zig-zag formation. You should gain an extra 10 meters by the time they fully get their gun out, ADS, and finally shoot. 30 meters is the sweet spot for a hard target. If you want to engage a player that has their gun out, stay at least 30 meters away. If they raise their gun, GTF out of there. More importantly, encounters like this should be made from behind cover. If you out-think a player even on the smallest scale, they will treat you much differently because they are unsure of your level intelligence. If you run up to someone and start Q/E’ing…probability of survival at best is 50/50. And always, watch out for friends of theirs nearby and keep the conversation going so they don't have time to tell their friends in TS your location.

TIP #2: YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR

I never tell anybody HOW to play, so keep that in mind. It should be noted that people will treat you as you appear in-game. The honest truth is even in this day and age, people judge a book by its cover. With that said, if you're looking for positive interaction...don't dress in Mil attire, camo, black, ghillie, etc. Remember, you are what you where.

TIP #3: GUNS AWAY

If you don't want to get murdered w/o question, might be a good idea to run around with your gun away. It doesn't help you survive in combat situations as you need to catch your breath anyway and it slows you down. If I see someone running with their gun out, I'm very hesitant to make contact and if I do I keep it frosty. If you're looking for positive interaction, don't run around with your gun out!

TIP #4: OBSERVE AND ASSESS

When you meet someone for the first time there is often the danger of deception. Your new found friend might seem friendly, but maybe their friends are up ahead or they're waiting for you to lower your guard. If your new found friend gives you food or drink, be very cautious when eating/drinking as one of the oldest tricks in the book is to wait until your preoccupied and they'll draw down on you. Once you get past your first play session with a new friend, its probably meant to be. Meaning, nobody is going to set you up for 2-3 play sessions before they decide to kill you (unless you start telling them of your tent stash).

TIP #5: BEWARE THE BAMBI BAIT

One of the oldest tricks in the book is Bambi Bait. A freshy will approach an armed/geared individual in hopes to get you to lower your guard so their friends sitting in a bush get to plug a soft target. The goal here is the freshy gets you to lower your guard so their friends can kill you with freshy acquiring your gear with minimal work.

TIP #6: PERSISTENT HOT-ZONES

Rule of thumb is: High Reward = High Risk. All bets are usually off in these area's. That doesn't mean you should kill everything that breathes, just use precautionary measures. The locations below are persistent hot-zones so be on your toes whenever you're there.

NWAF
Stary Sobor
Pavlovo Base
Veresnik Base
Myshkino Base
Military Check Points

TIP #7: KEEP IT MOVING

When interacting outdoors, never stop moving. Sometimes snipers will send someone out to talk to you in hopes of getting you to stop. As soon as you stop, BAM...curtains. Keep moving around to make yourself a hard target. What I often do is I ask whoever I'm trying to interact with if they would mind talking indoors. If they ask why, tell them you're concerned about potential snipers. If there are no buildings, politely find suitable cover.

TIP #8: PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD

It’s taken me a while to tackle this tip as its very difficult to explain. So forgive me if the transmission isn’t as pristine as it should be. The key to controlling every single interaction is how you initiate. The first words out of your mouth will determine success or failure. If you come off as weak (and this could happen in a variety of ways), over-bearing, annoying, deceptive, controlling, or suspicious/shady, you’ll lose control and give away the edge. The best way I can describe gaining control is by entertaining your guests. If you entertain the other person in any way, shape, or form you have an extremely high probability of controlling the interaction and shaping how you want it to go.

Maybe its a new voice, the tone of your voice, a passive or neutral parlance, or maybe your so deep in your role-play you come off as harmless. Keeping the other party entertained is paramount. Definitely don’t say “are you friendly” or “hey man, hows it going?” When you ask if the other party is friendly, you’re now showing weakness. If you say you’re friendly, that can be interpreted as deception like why are you trying to force me to think you’re a certain way or not can make me think you have a sniper in the tree-line.

Maybe try something like “Howdy stranger, can you tell me where the nearest bus station is? I’m looking to get across town before rush hour.” Obviously there is no bus’ running as well as no rush hour because its an apocalypse. This type of interaction is role-play based and you come off as harmless. Try striking up a normal conversation like its just another civilized day. Create a baseline to non-aggressive/non-weak vocal coms. I’ll keep updating this tip as this is the most complex tip of the bunch.

TIP #9: STAY FROSTY

What makes DayZ so special is you can lose it all at anytime. Not staying up to date on your surroundings can produce negative results. Maybe its not such a good idea to run across that open field? If there’s no choice and no treeline to take cover in during your run, keep your head on a swivel. Should I run up to that wall, what if there’s someone on the other side peeking? It’s probably a better idea to approach from another route that has better cover?

Because I play with a controller, I use the number pad a lot (especially 1,3,4,6,7 and 9 for quick perimeter scans). Don’t run or loot with horse-blinders on. Unless your a mod player you don't really know how easy you have it by being able to run into towns for looting. Eventually you'll be in a position where you'll need to put eyes on a town to get visuals if its safe or not. This is good practice for improving your overall ability.

Often times new players think that just because we’re a role-play project that you get a free pass to loot because someone has to interact with you before they shoot you. That’s not role-play, that’s DayZRP’s no kos rule which somehow evolved into the definition of role-play.

Just remember, its good practice to constantly scan your surroundings and use cover whenever possible (just in case someone is in that treeline looking to send you back to the coast).