Just my opinion but I think it would be hard as fuck with that many after you how they are now

That's how it should be, in my opinion (not including the glitches/bugs, of course). I want to be terrified of them - not distracted, not inconvenienced - terrified.

The fact is the zeds won. We show up afterwards. Think about that. They defeated everything the Russian's, the former Soviet state's, and NATO's military could throw at them. The assorted wreckage and remains of the fight are scattered all over Chernarus. They did not go down without a fight.

Now you might say "but the infection probably got most of them before anything could be done." You're right - but it didn't happen all at once. There is a good bit of evidence that the whole thing took only a few weeks from the start - the scattered newspapers on the ground mention something about some contamination coming from a banana shipment (probably the last issue of the newspaper), the most of the camps and military presence were there before to deal with the rebellion (covered in ArmA 2), but the destroyed armor columns (such as the one north of Krasnoe) and the NATO and Spetnaz helicopter crashes indicate various failed reinforcements/recon attempts, the piles of burned bodies and disposal ops (such as in the underground bunker east of Kamensk) indicate they were not all taken by surprise. The patterns of heli crashes and wrecks seem to indicate the surviving forces and civilians moved northward/westward from the coast, but the infection moved faster than they did.

The infection and the zeds were able to do what neither Hitler or Napoleon could - defeat them on their own ground. That means these zeds have to me a lot tougher and way more numerous.

Right now, 3-5 civilians with small arms, 100-year old rifles, axes and fire extinguishers could easily clear Chernarus of zeds in less than 8 hours with barely a scratch. Even if only a single platoon or a couple squads from the military survived and rallied, they could probably clear it in less 2-3 hours with minimal effort by splitting into teams.

So, to make the reality of the current situation jive with how things apparently went down, zeds have to be crazy tough and numerous enough to swarm and overwhelm most small forces. The ones we encounter are the ones that survived what the military threw at it - either by being strong enough to survive the fights, or not being in combat yet - that's why the varying levels of strength and speed makes total sense.

Surviving a solo looting trip to Cherno should feel like an insane idea and a foolish undertaking, and not a standard supply stop while gearing up or an easy PVP playground (don't get me wrong, PVP is cool by me, its just irritating when PVP is the only logical option).

I say bring it on - bring the hordes, the swarms, the door-bashing down zeds that know you're hiding in that building and will not stop for anything.

But I also can see such a crazy tough world being not for everybody, and that's OK. I'd love to see a third master hive set created once the zeds are worked out - a set of separate 1st/3rd hives with the zeds "cranked up to 11," alongside the 'standard' 1st/3rd hives, where zeds are still more numerous and stronger than now, but not as much as the insane, limit-pushing apocalypse of these new servers. Such a server set might be the answer to those seeking more than just PVP. This kind of tough situation would make finding another survivor a wonderful thing - together you just might live through the day, not to mention raising the stakes and tension when it comes to trust, betrayals and banditry.

This idea gives something for everyone, I think.