Maybe the best way to address this is to have a weight value for each item. This weight value reduces your speed. So you're welcome to cart use inventories around, but you'll just do so at snail pace.

This mechanic could also aid new spawns get away from bandits.

I play the game in 3rd person for a number of reasons. None of which are about unfair advantage versus other players. In fact I haven't killed one person in the standalone, and in the mod I only killed in self-defence.

Since vision is our only sense (I find sound non-directional and filled with irrelevant ambient noises) I simply don't have a decent perspective of what is going on around me. I use 3rd person to give me more awareness.

In such a huge map, with such detail, things get a little clunky. I find moving in 3rd person means less getting caught on door frames etc.

I like the aesthetic of seeing my character wearing all the gear I worked so hard to scavenge.

My computer renders 3rd person better than first person (the same with Arma 3).

As far as realism goes, it's a game about ZOMBIES for God's sake! We're running around an island where there are more weapon modifications than there are can openers; houses contain more hospital grade medical equipment than utensil; and I can run for kilometres where a motorcycle helmet without either breaking my neck or overheating.

I'm sure all of that can be rationalised away through some fiction, so why not just pretend that a side effect of the zombie virus is a mutation that allows people to see around corners.

I promise not to force you to play in 3rd person, just don't make me play in 1st person.