There are lots of threads over at the DayZ forum with players b*tching about being spawned back at the coast with all of their gear. The complaint is that this it not where they logged off previously. As you can imagine, players that have made the run from the coast to some location up north, log off/log on and find themselves back at the coast again aren't real happy. Bandits have caught on to this and they are camping the coast and killing players that spawn in. Rather than griefing new spawns with nothing, they are scoring equipment from fully guccied up players. It is easy to tell the difference with the scopes on their sniper rifles.

There is some speculation that rocket did this to discourage server hopping/metagaming. Players that frequent one server don't seem to have that problem. Unfortunately, it isn't always practical to play on one server and stay there. It may be offline for a day or two, lagging, full of players, etc. Players report that they log into a server where they last logged off and one of their group couldn't log in for some reason (loading .....). So they choose another server and WHAM. They spawn in at the beach all around the map.

I'm guessing that this is due to changes that Battleye has made to step up security. You have probably noticed the server messages regarding Battleye lately where they have banned thousands of players for cheating. Some justly, some not IMO.

Our operation runs across several servers. In doing that we don't "put all our eggs in one basket." Running from the coast isn't bad with all your gear intact. Dying from thirst or starvation isn't going to be a problem. Only running the sniper gauntlet from the coast on high pop. servers is.

Your thoughts?

I like the idea but not too sure about its inception. If this is the direction it is going to go I'd rather the respawns were even more random and spread around the map just to prevent the sniper camping.

Good point. Random respawn locations (other than just the coast) would mitigate the spawn camping. Still, it is a horrible idea for clans/friends/groups that are trying to play together. It may take an hour or more in a vehicle to pick up 6-7 players all over the map. A log out/log in timer would prevent most of the current exploits, but I doubt that would be a popular idea with most gamers. No matter what direction the dev team goes to curb the cheating, the changes also affect the legitimate players. It remains to be seen how much time and effort will be spent on the mod since the standalone game has been announced. Some of the issues are inherent to the ArmA2 engine and will probably never be fixed.

It appears to be related to server versions. If you jump to another server with a mismatched beta/DayZ mod then you are back at the coast. If you go between servers that have the same beta/DayZ patch then you're fine. I've noticed this with the 1.7.2.5 update. I've updated, gone to a server and been back at the coast. Moved inland and then SixLauncher downgrades me and back at the coast.

I go to a server that is 1.7.2.4 but doesn't have the ArmAII beta I'm at and back to the coast. However if I stick to servers with the same ArmAII beta and DayZ version I've been fine.

If this is a feature, it's a horrible game design choice. I was thinking that it was an alpha glitch and they'd fix it. A huge part of the appeal of having persistence is the expectation that you will have what you have when you left, and be where you were when you left; Across servers.

I don't like the "penalty" they are enforcing for it but I understand it.

Respawning on the coast may indeed be the unintended consequences of an alpha (DayZ) or beta (ArmA2) bug. This guy reverted back to the previous beta patch, quit and joined servers one after the other as fast as he could. He did not get stuck at the loading screen and not once was he teleported back to the coast. FWIW, I'm going to stay with the current versions and hope that they get it sorted soon.
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Possible Fix - Respawning on Coast

Posted Today, 09:34 PM

After spending most of my time tonight, trying to figure this issue out, I think I've narrowed it down to something wrong in the latest Arma 2 Patch (95883). More specifically, I believe the coast respawning bug was happening after the game was force closed. Either from Alt+F4'ing or getting stuck on the loading screen and having to end task on the game. My coast respawning came after getting stuck at the loading screen and having to end task on the game.

So basically, try reverting back to the prior Arma 2 Beta Patch (95819) located @ http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php/

Props to Chimaera for these instructions (Found them in a post he made back in July)
1.Download the (95819) patch from the site linked above

2.Now we need to Uninstall BattlEye (just in case, not sure if this step is really needed, but it's what I did)

3.Go to C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\BattlEye and run the uninstaller there. If no uninstaller there, you can try uninstalling it from the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs.

4.Delete the Beta folder located @ C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta

5.Delete the BEClient.dll in this folder @ C:\Users\Your Windows User Name\AppData\Local\ArmA 2 OA\BattlEye

6.Once you have done all that, extract the files from the (95819) beta patch, and run the .exe to install the patch. It will also reinstall BattlEye since we removed it in the previous steps.
Now after I reverted back to the (95819) patch, I fired up Dayz Commander and started joining and leaving servers. I was using the latest Dayz patch (1.7.2.5) and the previous (95819) Arma 2 patch. I joined 20 servers in a row, and not one did I get stuck on the loading screen. I had a few servers that took a little longer to get past the loading screen than others, but they all got past that part in less than 1 minute. Also to note, I joined these 20 servers in a row, as fast as I could, and not once was I teleported back to the coast, so I don't think there is some kind of server hopping fix that was implemented. The 20 servers I joined were all running the latest Dayz (1.7.2.5) and the latest Arma 2 Patch (95883).

So try this out and let me know if it helps you or not, it's not a guarenteed fix, but it's worth a shot. Also if you are using Six Launcher/Updater, I've read it will auto update you to the latest Arma 2 patch. If possible, try to turn that auto update feature off before you revert back to the (95819) patch. Or install Dayz Commander and give that a try.

EDIT: Forgot to mention in Step 5 above, the App Data folder is a hidden folder. Google it if you don't know how to show hidden folders in your Operating System.
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Source:
http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/70636-possible-fix-respawning-on-coast/

Thanks for the clarification.

Just by way of laying down a benchmark, how does one draw the line on what is or what is not 'server hopping' ?

I guess pretty much every DayZ member have exploited cross server dynamics for easy mobilization, logistics and resource management.

I suppose we all qualify as server hoppers in one way or another. Some of it is totally harmless and some of it isn't. It will be interesting to see how the dev team handles that going forward. Personally, I like the cross server persistence in DayZ. It simulates RL more so than other FPS where you click on a spawn point and enter the action. For those that don't want to waste time surviving, the latter game type is probably better for them.

Jumping from a night server to day is server hopping, so it'll be inresting how this plays out. (pun intended)