The SA is in pretty rough shape, anyone who has good gear is either a hacker or knows one. The thing about DayZ is it's harsh death system. You could play for hours or days just to be one shotted by a kid with a rifle or in this case, a hacker. As it currently stands, there is no way to spawn closer to a friend or group up with them, you'll just have to find one another and start playing. It kinda sucks but it's how the game was designed, hopefully the devs change a few things.