We ran a server that made things harder for absolutely ages and that saw a very select regular player base stick around, we had to make some drastic changes to draw people back in - changes I didnt want to make but by this point my enjoyment of the mod had gone, no point running an empty server.
With the bikes I made it so you had to find a toolbox, scrap metal and a wheel. I think you even needed a knife (to cut the tyre down of course!) and that didn't go down so well.. god forbid you get the sense of an actual zombie apocalypse. Like you dave we've made that easy mode, you need a toolbox and scrap.. you spawn with both now.
The new thing is Overpoch because people want more weapons to kill each other with, I can see why the game in general has gone the way it has.. after you've built at least four walls and a roof, what more is there to do other than kill rival tribes?
There is ZERO PvE content as the zombies are a joke, this is a game that needs dungeons (mil bases or abandoned mansions / castles what ever fits the genre, hershels farm?
) to raid with scripted events and raid bosses in my opinion, it can't last on open world player interaction as people get bored and turn it into CoD. It needs a way to FORCE players to work together for certain things... 6 man groups in a dungeon, loot everything.. then you can turn on your 'friends' and banditry happens if you want or you could find the friendlies you've been looking for - it also needs 5k+ server populations like most MMO servers have, so you never really see the same people again unless they are no lifers. 5k populations are spread across ingame continents which work as separate in server, servers.. not all in the same space as chernarus that'd be carnage LOL
The dungeons would need to be both instanced (only your group enters) and contested (open world, anyone can enter and mess you up) - it worked really well for EQ1 and EQ2 for the PvP servers for the rivalry and carnage of it, I could see it work well for DayZ in this sense.
I'm not keen on the levelling aspect though, I think it should be purely gear based and skill based. Its all very well getting an elephant style gun but being able to use it or adapt to the new dungeon you've entered is another thing. Dying should leave your corpse where it is and you should spawn with nothing and have to find your way around.
You just know that anything remotely challenging will be contested and watered down though, we can hope however.