So the sever hives are now separated and working for hardcore and normal servers. What this means, is that you have a persistent character per hive. I have one character that is persistent across all hardcore servers, and one character that is persistent across all normal servers.
My normal character is well geared currently with plenty of supplies and military equipment. I left him in the hills above Elektro waiting to meet a friend who has just recently purchased the game.
I tried the hardcore server hive in the meantime. Currently, the only difference between hardcore and normal is that you can only use first person view in hardcore servers. This prevents players from exploiting third person perspective in order to see around or over objects that their character cannot see around with their line of sight.
I began in Elektro, and quickly got some decent starter gear. I had some food, a screwdriver to open things, a canteen, and then a fire ax. A short while later, I had also found an old double barrel shotgun and some rounds for it.
I started playing on a server with around 20 people on it. I have played the game enough that zombies pose almost no threat once you find an ax, and there was little excitement gearing up another character with little risk. Well, the risk came into play as I searched a small villa in between Cherno and Elektro.
I was being as watchful as I could, moving from house to house. At some point, I hear a round ricochet near me, and I take off running back the way I came. As I run, more rounds are landing, I hear a shot and its to my left, north up the hill. I glance left as I run, but dont immediately see the threat. I take cover from the hill, and proceed to move while keeping concealment to another building, hoping the shooter has not been able to tell for certain where I am.
I move to the far east of the building and peek around the corner. I scan the hill for a few seconds, and spot the sniper about 250 meters away facing my direction. He is not shooting me now, so he either does not see me, or is waiting for a better shot. I cant tell.
There are fields in every direction. My options seem to be to sprint away from him and hope he continues to miss, or advance on him with my shotgun. I decide to try the later, and I begin to creep through cover closer to his position. However, on the way I notice movement coming down the hill. I check, and the sniper is still in his spot. Great. The sniper has a friend, and he is making his way towards me. I peek around a wall, and see him aiming a rifle at me from about 50 meters.
I turn, putting a concrete wall between me and the closer shooter. I spring back into a barn, but get shot in the back by the sniper on the way in. Severely injured, I bandage my wound and wait what feels like a long time with my shotgun pointed at the barn door. Eventually I try to creep towards the barn door to see if my assailants are outside, and as I do I am shot dead by the closer one. My vision was so bad that I couldnt see him anyways. They never said a word, and by the looks of them they couldnt possibly use any of my meager gear.
Guess they are just a couple of guys who enjoy hunting people. I will watch the hills more carefully next time.
