Gavalin

I have yet to try to Rp in DayZ. I am looking forward to it. I don't however change my play style outside finding it a bit much to carry more then two weapons, the primary and side arm. I stick to a role with in my own group. If I am the raider I take the M4SD if someone has it, back up M9SD and I'm the resident zombie slayer for them. Some times I and over watch with a SAW type weapon and if I hear sound that isn't us, bullets, for that whole area . Covering their backs when need be. Been a spotter for a sniper friend of mine. Sadly I've not been able to locate an RP group. My time is very limited through the week. What I'd like to do is find a group that wouldn't mind sitting around a camp fire, talk about made up stories of their characters families. I think it would be quite fun to sit down and RP as I played DayZ with a group. Outside that thats about it.

On a side not the mechanic for letting zombies spawn does count on heli's they won't spawn crew until you're with in 200 meters of it. You'll see 6 to 12 of them roam out of the crash site once you're close.

Yea the only things he was really trying to convey with the board game metaphor was really there is no difference between killing someone's chess piece and killing a player in DayZ, on a moral stand point. The object of the game is to survive, thus taking a player out in DayZ for food or ammo is no different then taking a game board piece out, hopping a checker, on a moral level. As per example from Zombo, getting 50'd from so far out you can't hear it brings the same emotional attachment or feeling as side swiping someone's expose queen with a bishop from across the chest board. I am personally aware that for the player that gets shot it sucks, much like a 2 hour chess game then run into a check mate. Same feeling. I'm pretty sure the idea is reguardless how you play, to find the bandit way immoral, he believes that to be insane for people to feel its immoral to shoot another player. As it is easier to explain his thoughts with a board game (As even my statement above ^ is confusing). I shall be corrected if I am wrong though.

I have wanted to post here for a while. Roaming around the map is fun. One day I was signing in and my squad mate that was on called me in skype. "Hey what's your cords" he asks. At the time I had no clue exactly where everything was. So when I rattled them off and gave my direction... "You need to turn around, now, weird shit happens in that place." I gave a quizzical look even though he couldn't see it. I've been playing survival horror games for a while. "Yea like what? You've got an AS 50 and I've got an AKM with more ammo then I know what to do with." Was my smart ass reply. "Weird shit like I'm not, we're not going there." He pauses and right before I go to protest he continues "I was roaming last night while you were offline, I ran through the place, first of all when I got to the door it was swamped in zombies but I hear the flies so I go looking for a body, I found one. I open its inventory and hit the jack pot he was carrying all the guns I was, ammo for them all." So I smirk again and ask. "Why is this such a problem?" "The corpse was mine....when I came out of the inventory and inspected it, the cause of death was just -....-". Now for a while I stayed away, lately I haven't, wanting my own little story of weird things. Outside the random back ground noise and the random huge zombie spawn as mentioned here I've not personally come across anything odd, at night or other. I did find some civilian zombies that just came busting through the woods at me once I was with in 200 meters of it as well...

I agree with SillySil on the fact that the game is just easier for bandits as you have no moral obligation to do a damn thing but put a bullet in a someone's dome piece and pook, profit. That was his original argument, that and finding the statements that any play style is -immoral-. I don't believe any play style is immoral, bandits would happen, they happen with out zombies and the end of the world. He was trying to get people to recognize that it needs to be equally (Profitable and skill wise) to be a bandit or hero. As he himself is only a bandit KOS person because its simply easier. Barring getting a few head doc's to come up with a complied list of the random things that happens to a person's psych when they mass murder or continuely risk themselves to save others (Say you see a child with zombies chasing it, as a hero that would cause a very similar mental affect as repeat murders from a bandit) if you didn't save it. At least I feel bad, very, if I try to save someone and can't. The risk that comes from me being in a ghillie, military rifle, hanging around the north parts, and still trying to cover people puts me at a danger for -nothing-. Well I -do- gain the small benefit that someone -might MIGHT- not shoot me but I get nothing for this but lose of my precious ammo. Causing me to hunt guns more because I go through them like crazy, I think I've used every weapon now...something crazy like that. Minus the snipers. Never used those. I don't wish to bash either side but to me it seems that the point of both conversations are missed. On a side note, since its more of a simulator and not a game the unbalance issues will be there, the simulator cant' take into account emotions as mentioned repeatedly. Things to point out as well, the loneliness factor. When you're don't shooting people on sight in DayZ you log off visit family or friends etc etc, so that is lost with most the rest of the emotions attached to something like this. So a need for -something-, anything to show this loss of immersion is what SillySil was getting at (Well to me they are.) Another reason to -try to balance- the mechanic is good people will be good, bad people be bad (Not calling bandits bad just a word to symbolize it) neutral people will go for easy, fast. Rephrase of that statement would be Heroes will be heroes because they want to, bandits will be bandits because they want to. Those who are on the fence either way, become bandits out of the increase gain of profit from doing so. Bandits are safer, simply because they deal with no one or no one outside their friends. They survive longer and get supplies faster. I believe this was one of the major points trying to be discussed and I tried to simplify it :)

Yea the math can never be perfect due to a couple save and timing issues on things but its close enough. I'd also encourage ya to take into account the "oh well no respawn" attempts and people that go kill themselves. I would imagine that is at LEAST 30% of them. I've been online on a server and seen a guy kill himself 15 times. I couldn't grasp the concept by that point he could have ran the map for gear. I'd like to see a stat of where -accounts- have deaths. So they are not all meshed together. Like I said I've had less then 5 deaths. I think *boggle* I've been hacker killed twice ( once the guy even gave our stuff back then suggested we leave the server) Once was, I tried crawling under the railings and couldn't from a top floor of an industrial complex, then laying down I went to lean and did a barrel roll under the railings belly flopping to my death. My other remembered death was a whole day of teleporting Mike Tyson zombies. Finally got knocked out and eating alive. The point is I'd like to see the ratio ofaccounts that have say less then 10 deaths vs ones with ....30-100 deaths then 100+ deaths.

Something of add, or to be looked into. I'm pretty sure "zombies" are a spawn chance on loot tables. I understand they go into buildings chasing players but I've seen zombies in ATC's. High yield things I marked as player chase. However I've seen them swaying inside the single room homes with one door. Now I'd like to find this more often personally, only seen it a handful of times but...signed into a server with a friend near Berenzino or what not. He was in one of the apartment complexes I was outside town with eyes on him (west of the military tents) Well I seen movement in the windows behind him. Now, I know he didn't spawn them but I had been running through the town like ten minutes prior to him logging in but it gave me a heart attack damn near to see movement behind him, a building he'd just exited. All that excitement turned out to be a zombie, it made me break into an all out run toward the complex to get into gun range or at least a better sight on the windows of the complex.

To be honest the only issue with wires are the glitches for those that have them. Oh noes my fire house door is blocked I can't get in. At best this is a time waste. If something is blocked off, really easy solution is to log into another server walk around it, go back. continue on. Once on the other side of them you can remove them. Tool box fairly easy for me to find. (Hell with finding matches though jesus...) All these things people are mentioning "they block off good spawns" well...to be honest if I found some IRL and seen an area that might have more supplies for me later, yes I would do that. The ghosting solution isn't a noble by any means resort but if someone wants to use the wire that way I'll take the five minutes to log into another server just to get to the "magic" spot on the wire. As far as scripting wire and traps every where ... well...I'd vacate the server as its obvious a skiddie is there often enough to do that. (Having encountered a time when the Northern Barracks was completely surrounded by tank traps and wire.) And as far as I know...I've never broken my legs vaulting wire. Nor started bleeding, so to me the only issue is the double stacked wires behind doors and such.

I agree with most people here. The crashes are not too much. Any time you find like an AKM or somethingl ike that at a crash its most likely a discarded weapon from soneone who took the rare spawn. Another thing to take into account if the crash spawns even 5 AS 50's. At best it spawns a mag or two for each. A: It would take a huge group to carry them all to make use of them, the ammo for that gun is fairly limiting. Doubtful its adding much. On a side note I tend to find crashed like its my job, I don't actively go Heli hunting but my routes of travel are always along the fields that are known to spawn them. I find them 50% of the time not fully looted and split from empty to fresh with the other 25%. Best day ever came to NWAF from the west, two crashes one just on the outside of the southern wall (Could see the blades) and one on the inside near the woods. Was so pretty I cried. Of coarse they were picked clean but still was nice to see them at the NWAF anyway. Also found 3 L85's at one once, no ammo which I found odd.

The trick to be honest, is not rewarding all sides equally as human's we'll take the easier route, its easier to bandit plane and simple. To add balance to the game the rewards have to be spread out to make them work getting. As of now AS 50 + ghillie = best bandit set up. (Back up L85A2). If bandits =do get less recoil and such well then. That mechanic would be a bit much because that -does- help against people, and zombies if you get mushed in a corner and have to shoot. A reward system shouldn't give too much of a perk reguardless. Balancing them isn't easy. It would come down to what gives people the best bonus, playstyle be damned. I currently have 5k humanity or so, I run around with a few friends, each of them play differently as well. Having a reward based on what you do could be interesting but the bonus would have to be very very small to keep things balanced. As likely if a BPV is actually in affect on a hero, he takes less zombie damage -most- likely. Which to me is the biggest benefit -if- present at all. I've dove behinde people to pick up zombie aggro from them to run them around. +2 cents

I've noticed a few posts suggesting zombies should smell people or track them based on blood. As a concept its not bad but I wouldn't want it in the game. I for one hide from zombies a lot...break a corner and drop to the ground...I've been in the NWAF with 10-14 zombies shambling around my location. Was -thee- most intense situation as I was laying prone 3-4 hoppers around me rest standing. I was able to tap the movement key every like 5 seconds to try to get away. If they could smell...it wouldn't be possible. I agree something should be done about zombies but I still think it should be fairly easy to hide from them. I was watching a heli once too from beside it, friend was lagging behind. So i laid down beside it trying to hide my boots, ghillies FTW, anyway I was ignoring the zombies for the most part when I realized one was sitting on my legs. I about shat. I'd prefer to keep moments like this.

Something I didn't see looking through here is a suggestion for character generation, I was wondering (since its possible to think outside the ArmA II engine) if there was a way to say up load a picture or something to this nature to have it generate what your looks like. Or something similar to say Saints 3rd or Age of Conan where you can choose how big and dumb you look. So if I wanted to be max height and width and tote a SAW around with horribly scarred face. It could happen. I don't think it would be good to add in too short of a model as all the pvP and Min-max'ers would be short skinny folks with AS 50's and such and just be meh. Another thought would be the bigger a person wants to be perhaps the -heavier- the inventory could be. Slots are one thing...weight would be interesting. Perhaps a combination of both as well to keep things from being uber stacked. (As a medic some times I can imagine a bandages not weighting much so it would keep it in check so one person isn't always carrying 50 of them) These thoughts hit me when I thought about what I'd do if the game was real. Being a big son'va'bitch. Ok I can haul stuff around. Shoulder open doors. I'm not particularly fast but I could be if I was scared (As anyone could)I could carry a person over my shoulder fairly easy. Things such as this might be something to add different size characters as well. Draw backs are obvious it'd be little harder to hide. In a game where bandits are the biggest threat, decently big draw back. I'm no coder so I don't know how bad any of this would be to put into the game, I'm fairly certain cosmetic stuff wouldn't be much but the hit boxes of the players, etc etc probably not fun. Getting past all that I'd still rather have a way to make myself look how I want. I'd like to see the terrain to be interacted with again going along with custom characters. Downed trees being able to be dragged along. Combined actions say you satchel charge a group of trees and you only got one big guy in the squad all of them could drag it around. Just quarky little things like that. Ideas like dropping a tree down on a house that has a guy with a SAW in the back corner...things like this would make me un endingly happy. We have hatchets after all and yes I'd do this. Traps in such a manor would cause greifing yes. Some how I think though it would be expected, perhaps limit the amount of traps one character can create to keep it down. Hell I went on a babble spree, mostly I'd like to see massively customizable characters. I wanna put scars on. Tattoos. I used Age of Conan as an example because its been the most customizable character creator I've messed around with thus far. Forgot to add. I'm not a big fan of quests or missions unless they are done right however small random encounters much like the ones or something similar to the ones in say red dead redemption. Where you encounter something you get to make a choice on. As say survivor (NPC or PC is possible) is trapped inside a house. Do you ignore them save them shoot your way in etc etc. Things to just raise or lower your humanity by small amounts with a chance for ammo or something useful. Or a wild NPC bandit, or something simple like a guy willing to trade a pain killer for a bandage or this ammo for that. Yes players are suppose to do this kinda thing but...most are too scared. NPC's that look like players doing this kinda thing might lower the OMFG KOS and anti social folks. Seeing as we could pose as an encounter such as that just as easy. (could even make a fake player name show up on the player list if name tags are on)

I don't really know where the best place to put this kinda information but as the glitches seem to be a problem. Prior to the patch 1.7.2.5 I didn't even have them...now this past weekend I played on server US 893 Berezino, bodies, tore my screen apart. Flushing didn't help restarting didn't. However I sighed as I Desync'd (Server restart) joined server Seattle 2755 and voila no visiual problems at all. On 893 the glitches lessened as i dropped some of my settings. On 2755 I could put my settings on what ever and I smooth playing. I search servers by ArmA 96061 and play on 1.7.2.5 servers trying to keep testing the current patch. Both were running identical. All I can add to it is that the bodies were causing. I braved it to run to them plus it was low population. It seems shadows are also causing part of the problem as on 2755 turning the shadows off gave me a much clearer screen but couldn't clear it up. The other reason I think shadows are causing some of the issue is because when I've ran at the artifact I some times find the spot of origin to be clear no matter how long I wait for it to pop up. (if its a corpse it loads in and doesn't cause a visiual problem until I'm like 5 meters away from it. I can stare down on top of it just fine) Hope some of this helps. I just search for a server not giving me the glitches to play.

I'd rather wait for something damn near perfect then get some of the forced released games in the last couple...decades. Most games could have increased their game play with just a month or more of dev time. Do what cha need!

Hello, Gavalin here! I am generally a resident nice guy, pasted up a few chances to kill folks. Interestly enough my deaths in DayZ have been all due to hackers. (3) One glitch (An entire day of teleporting zombies Mike Tyson'ing my ass) Since this has all been cleared up I've managed an average life span of pretty damn high (My first about 20 hours) I've gotten a few of my friends into the game. We recently thought it fun to do the whole "build a base thing" US 1502 apparently someone didn't like it and leveled the whole factory, taking out the vehicles and such. Oh well live and let die I suppose. Personally I'm not a KoS person but if you have a military weapon and don't respond to me, you are. I've got one murder, one unarmed kill (Swore the guy was armed whoops CtlN1) a bandit kill (Was chasing a guy I just winged, left him life then she ran in after him with her AKM, one to the chest one to the dome piece) Normal night for me generally involves finding a 10-25 pop server avoiding full servers as they attract the boogey men! Then bringing 1-2 folks with me and doing what ever. Hope to see some folks and continue to save the ones that need it (I even helped folks in the NWAF by sniping Zombies off them!)

Aye very good to hear some news! I wish the team best of luck and offer my beans to all those who made this possible. Been gaming for a long time and this is by far, even in its current state, more fun to me then anything I've gone through on my computer. Can't wait for standalone!