rn_max

There is a reasonable explanation of the issues with 1.7.7 here: http://dayzmod.com/f...7/#entry1371585 Judging by the flood of beans, perhaps there is some validity to what I've posted.

There is a reasonable explanation of the issues with 1.7.7 here: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/139726-actual-constructive-feedback-for-177/#entry1371585 Judging by the flood of beans, perhaps there is some validity to what I've posted.

Why would people be considered stupid for boiling their own heads?

Up quiver size to 10 arrows Get rid of the need to remove arrows from the quiver Allow more than one quiver in the inventory The crossbow already has a limited effective range much lower than guns, awful sights and slow reload. That should be sufficient nerfing without any more meddling,

Why should helicopters be easy to blow out of the sky? Real ones are not, despite the childish expectations from certain games and what is shown in crappy blockbuster films. Who seriously thinks that a handful of single shot 12.7mm rounds will do the job? Not a hope, apart from freak lucky hits in the right spot. The favoured method is ... sustained fire with machine guns, no less, preferably multi-barrel cannon firing HE rounds. So yes, it would be expected to plink away at a heli with a small calibre belt fed MG for a long time.

I've relied most on the trusty hatchet, even dumping my primary in the jeep when scavenging. Rifles are only necessary to deal with asshat players otherwise I wouldn't waste the inventory space on one. Uh-oh, apologies, but I feel a crossbow grievance rant coming on ... [RANT] I would prefer the crossbow, but it has been repeatedly and progressively ruined, in a pointless and obvious attempt at balancing that isn't even necessary. The crossbow already only has a quoted 30m range, has terrible sights and is slow as molasses to reload anyway ... so is there really any need to have only six bolts in a quiver, removal of one round at a time to load it (wtf), only one quiver in the inventory at a time, 20% chance of arrow breakage when already arrows can't be recovered if the target falls on top of them. So why cripple the crossbow so badly? Just because it is silent? Utter nonsense. Crossbows are what they are, either have them in game without crippling them, or get rid of them. [/RANT] I don't quite get the whiskey bottle or steep hills vote option. Like other throwables, bottles are distractions, not weapons, not silent and not that effective either. Not like smoke grenades, which drive zeds crazy for some strange reason. Hills ... ??? Unless they induce cardiac arrest in zeds, I doubt they're much use for killing them either.

Unfortunately it often seems necessary to start new topics when attempting reasonable discussion. Squabbling kids inevitably descend into a "who is more right" pissing contest and derail almost every topic in these forums at one time or another. I think that people are stumbling for the right concept when explaining features that don't fit into their game experience or derail it, with realism and perhaps authenticity not quite fitting the bill. The quality that most promotes immersion in a game is plausibility. With a reasonable mix of credibility, context and familiarity, just about anything is more likely to be accepted without question. The weather varies, there is a day/night cycle, the stars are navigable when visible, birds burst into flight when disturbed, the sound of the sea announces the coast, vehicle doors clunk on entry and exit ... and so on. When something suspends belief, it treads a fine line in terms of acceptance in a game. Immersion disturbance is a subtle but profound crime, one which players can struggle to explain and unfortunately DayZ 1.7.7 is a serial offender. The Infection - A certain death timer with a frustratingly elusive remedy, but for the wrong reasons and linked to the other immersion breakers. However, this offence is being addressed, so the jury is out until the attempted fix is also. The Infected - Yes, the zeds. There is no problem with smart, aggressive AI enemies, until they also disconnect from what is plausible. Our shambling cousins are guilty on multiple counts of immersion breaking implausibility. Spawning to within a few metres of players anywhere on the map, out of sight or in peripheral vision, and in numbers. Just how heavily populated was Chernarus, eh? Why wouldn't that zed have been there in that open area when I just looked at it from 20, no 30, no 50, no 100 metres away? Like many others, I suspect, I had no problem with the system of wilderness spawning in 1.7.6.1 This has gone too far. Why does zed player detection bear no relation to the audio and visual warning indicators any more? Why are players being detected and chased when they use stealth methods and tiptoe around on one bar? This is a terrible disconnect in environmental feedback and is not challenging, but an implausible immersion breaker. The difference? Challenge has a solution which bears reward. Sneaking by walking on soft materials and reducing visibility should be rewarded with passing undetected and the feedback should reflect the action. Zeds are walking through buildings. Great, no problem with that. They are detecting players through buildings and rampaging in after them. Not so great ... wait ... another Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment. Another jarring disconnect from plausibility. So, players actually manage to sneak around despite not knowing if they are stealthy (hallelujah), but are then sensed inside buildings and rampaged upon. No jumping out of windows in this game. Zeds uncannily zero in on players even when they don't detect them. Another clumsy and obvious game mechanic, which joins the queue to break immersion and unbalance the challenge and reward cycle. Evaded the zeds, but why bother? They've magically turned in just the right direction and are following en masse anyway. Quite a few zeds are appearing on loot spawns and not moving, though not in an "I'm loitering" fashion, but more of an "I'm a bit broken and have forgotten to move" kind of way. However, they will often and suddenly remember their purpose and aggro, but again in no relation to stealth indicators. The Loot - I would suspect there are many who have no problem with what the new loot spawn system is trying to achieve in preventing "farming" or "cycling". Who also have no problem with less loot less often. However, what kills the goose is bizarre randomness. Why oh why would a supermarket be full of ammunition, but not have medical supplies? Why on earth would heaps of medical supplies be in a barn outside a village? Who the hell stocks their workshops with knives, soda pop and toilet roll? Why would bloody great hangars be empty and small sheds full of gear? There is not enough logical expectation to target scavenging and it simply doesn't add up. I'm all for a challenge with scavenging, but not for some drawn out, random Easter egg hunt. The loot cycle itself may be intended to deter farming, which is a worthy goal, but it may well just encourage a longer farming cycle and increased server hopping by hard core players, especially after restarts. One thing it will do is pummel casual and time limited players who aren't first on the scene and don't have several hours to kill, trudging round in big lazy circles waiting for loot timers to reset. I would wager that quite a few of the 1,737,741 survivors have other priorities in their lives, than out-waiting everyone else to get a clean shot at the next loot cycle. What has gone wrong in so many ways is not that 1.7.7 is too hard, but that it is difficult and annoying for illogical reasons that players cannot overcome by reasonable action. These changes are implausible and break immersion, they suspend belief. Suddenly we can see the wires and the painted backdrops. It is ugly and it is not entertaining. Yes, that word "entertaining", sometimes related to fun, but not necessarily so and far more rewarding. This is what I suspect many are referring to when misguidedly using the word "fun". Create challenge, by all means, but go that extra mile to ensure it is not clumsy, obvious or unbelievable ... or all that effort is unravelled along with everything that came before it.

I'm a big fan of the finite blood damage and/or time idea for infection, rather than the inevitable fatality from a certain death timer and poorly manipulated loot tables. I have no problem with infection and think that the main problem with it in 1.7.6.1 was being unlikely to happen. Infection never needed to mean certain death, just carry a risk that if no action is taken to stall or treat it, aggregate blood loss will result in death. This at least gives players some glimmer of hope and incentive to play on, in the knowledge that if they put the effort in they may survive the ravages of sickness. There is still a definite penalty for getting infected, in that the player is in a weakened state for the duration, risk of death from injury is increased with less blood and there is the possibility of death if sufficient resources aren't scavenged. One of the primary feedback points I have from observing other players in 1.7.7 is that many simply give up when infected, rather than face, yet again, hunting the unbelievable randomness of loot spawns for antibiotics. I was lucky ... finding 2 packs of antibiotics ... in a barn near Gorka ... along with tons of pistol ammo. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. That however is another issue. which needs addressing. So hurrah for suspension of the death sentence for infected players, though some of them will still end up toes up and rightly so.

From what can be seen so far Pro's Enterable buildings Varied loot ... as long as it serves a purpose rather than tons of pickup trash Variable clothing with inventory space - as long as it isn't over emphasised ... and that t-shirt ends up with no slots Jumping - as long as it doesn't lead to bunny hopping and maybe "step over" stays in as an option Mentioned civilian weapon emphasis - it would be good to see more melee weapons and effective melee combat as well Mentioned customisable vehicles - siphoning fuel and looting parts would be good to see, as they work in the mod. Variety of infected and range of attacks - as long as they're improved quality wise Con's Infected seem to need a lot of work for a core part of the game ... their mod cousins seem better animated and behaved Infected hitting players from several metres away and when not even facing them ... are they using bastardised invisible guns to attack players? Infected glitching through buildings? - did I see that? Apparent inconsistency in loot size for some items - are they reflecting weight and/or importance by inventory size of items? Illogical loot capacity for clothing - six items in a t-shirt? I presume (and hope) it is a place holder for something with pockets like a jacket. Gear menu - needs some work by the looks of it, nobody wants to spend ages fumbling to pick up items and get beaten to death in the process. I'm looking forward to the SA, but the bar has been set by the mod and nobody will want to see features that aren't as good.

1.7.7 servers may seem relatively full because of ... Novelty factor - The new patch has inevitably piqued interest and (see below) there are initially limited numbers of correctly updated servers. Apparent player numbers are irrelevant until the end of the novelty period and when stable server numbers settle. Slow implementation - The migration to new releases tends to be a dreadfully slow trickle, with servers adopting new patches at wildly varying pace, whilst the player base sits in limbo. Public hive servers will tend to update sooner, but private hives may lag most, owing not least to the extra work required to update their custom builds. My favourites are on different versions, so I am running two mod builds. However, many won't even know how, so they may well stick to updated servers after the impulsive jump to the new release. As for the features in 1.7.7 Once I get my sandbox server updated, I'll try some of the things I haven't encountered in routine play. Not having the opportunity to place any more tents yet, or try the stashes, that will be high on my list. From what I've read and heard, I don't like the idea of having tents forced into the open due to "safe placement". Perhaps a couple of prime candidates have been a missed from 1.7.7, that are widely utilised and seem popular in private hives, namely fuel siphoning and vehicle parts removal. No mention in the changelog and nothing in game so far regarding crafting of "home made" military weapon attachments ... and sincerely hope it never appears either. Finding genuine attachments separately, fair enough. Making high tech precision instruments from trash loot with McGuyver skills? Lollerskates.

All the muppets who shoot everyone they see would die in a survival scenario at the first inevitable instance they needed the assistance of others. However, the reality that is not sinking in, is that this is a video game starring firearms, not an apocalyptic group dependent survival scenario. Bored kids who can pretend to shoot others with no consequence will always do so. That is first person shooter video game culture. Just like fat, spotty middle class teenage boys enjoy the e-bravado of trolling forums without the risk of losing any teeth.

That's the trick of it all ... finding a good private hive. A reliable one with decent admins who don't abuse their position, or tools, or favour their buddies, that won't close down on a whim and leave you looking for another to start again on. I've been on too many that have done just that and disappeared, which is a total loss when you invest in a persistent game. Despite their problems, public hive servers are easy to wander between at least and provide a consistent standard game world.

A while ago I would have said no ... but now I'm not entirely sure. From repeated loss of vehicles and raided tents, I became highly suspicious of le hax on one of my regular public haunts. Turns out I was right after watching three guys in a row get busted for setpos (teleport) restrictions by Battleye (finally!) in one evening. One of them was a long term regular using his normal name, the other two were suspected to be regulars under changed names. One even tried to change his name again and come back, but Battleye announced his idiocy and unchanged GUID in chat. What a halfwit. Later on I found out from a friend of an admin, that a whole gang of hackers had been manually banned, following evidence of mass map hacking and teleporting. They got greedy, taking every vehicle on the server and raiding every tent. Pointless without doubt and childishly destructive, there are still plenty out there.

Somebody has to keep server-hopping loot farmers in check to keep content in context.

How about closing another massive exploit loophole and cripple loot farming of military weapons by server locking them, like vehicles and tents are locked to servers now? Heck, lock everything except tool items, food, drink and clothing. Changing servers should lose a player all but the basics. Then every high end item has to be scavenged as intended on the server it is used in. It is mainly server hopping and loot farming makes the high end gear seem more common than it should be, including those hand cannons that children cry over so much. Why should players be able to teleport from server to server, hoarding resources they shouldn't plausibly be able to access? Bottom line is that they shouldn't. I'm sure it wasn't the intended design outcome, which would make it an exploit like any other. One which could possibly be stopped. How many kit up in an empty server, go to a high-pop on a killing spree, bug out to a safe haven filled with hoarded loot when the going gets tough, then travel across empty servers safe and unseen? Too many, including so-called clans ... utter nonsense. It would all be rather different if everyone arrived unarmed and maybe ill equipped, a suitable penalty for moving servers perhaps. Only exploiters have any reason to complain.

That video is living proof of the wealth of entertainment to be had sniping in DayZ ... Lay on ground nowhere interesting, do diddly-squat for a long time, miss targets repeatedly, get beaten to death by zeds :lol:

* [NEW] - Servers date have been locked to give full moon nights. Is that [A] date locked to prevent avoidance of the full moon when it is supposed to happen? Or date locked to make all nights full moon? I sure hope it is option A. * [NEW] - New starting gear added. Guaranteed Start Items: ("ItemBandage") + 1 Random Start Item: ("ItemBandage","ItemPainkiller","HandRoadFlare"). So no backpack ... that's not too bad, if a little odd, given how common rucksacks are. No Makarov ... fair shout as well and hats off for the decision. But ... random chance of no illuminating device at all? ... or zombie magnet flares which are much rarer than domestic flashlights? Not fancying anyone's chances at night then. Oh unless its option B for the permanent full moon, in which case it won't even be night time. Unthinkable. Sorry, but I'm getting something of a change for the sake of change feeling ... but that being said, this is lab rat alpha land after all. However, some things really don't require 1.7 million lab rats to figure out their proposed effect. I would love to wall-of-text about the many good things in the changelog, but it only takes one or two fundamental clangers to render it all forgettable. I'm really not sure about the night time and starting gear ideas, so the 1.7.6.1 build is definitely backed up and ready for reversion.

Imperfection in level design perhaps, which can be quite common. A collision mesh is what makes an object solid and effectively causes the damage. If the texture of an object doesn't line up with its collision mesh, the player doesn't see anything wrong and thinks they are clear of an object or it is safe to move over. Damage is inflicted, but nothing is visible. It is the probable cause of my ATV flipping into the air higher than the crane and exploding whilst riding along Berezino docks ... and whilst riding across a flat open field near Pustoshka. All you have suffered is a flat tyre? I spit on your troubles! :P

I've only been subject to two hacking incidents. One where 40+ players were pinned to the ground and killed by huge explosions on UK 498 ... I saw it as reasonable to combat log and saved my hide. Another where I was followed by an invisible buffoon on DE 4713 (I think it was) from the supermarket at Vybor to the ATV spawn north of NWAF. Some script called you_dont_love_me_no_more or something like that, injected through the server mission file. On other occasions it has been the consequences I have seen, mainly destroying and despawning all vehicles and tents, because the culprit can't find what they want and can't spawn anything in. What bothers me much more than hacking and probably often uses hacking as a cover or excuse? Admin abuse. Ever seen the cheat's paradise admin tools like DayZ Server Control Centre? Who needs hacks with that? Individual starting loadout editor, addition of items to player inventories, vehicle spawning ... oh and the piece de resistance? A real time map showing the positions of players, vehicles, deployables and crash sites (when it works properly) ... WTF? why the hell is that a required admin tool?

@ Ken Bean: I considered it, but the jimmy is Too "Gordon Freeman" and not that common to be honest, which is why I suggested the wooden stick. On the subject of night time, there's little wrong with the game as it is. Some nights are brightly lit and others clouded over and really dark. Having that randomness helps build immersion. The moon even follows a lunar cycle, so there's light conditions for everyone at some point! Heck, ArmA 2 has the best environmental system of any game, period, so why mess with it? I saw a rainbow over Stary Sobor last week! ...is there a pot of beans at the end in DayZ?

I've rarely encountered any self-labelled "snipers" in game, in fact only one and he was a daft kid ... which is not unusual. Sniper rifle equals large magical penis to adolescents, who fuel pretty much all of these discussions. The affliction may be related to acne, bedroom dwelling and shouty metal music. Then perhaps I was afflicted with similar traits briefly in my youth. In game I've been missed by a handful of what I presume were premature long range shots and only ever been hit twice, by DMR's and then from not much more than 200m. Once I was killed when ambushed by an NVG wearing camper, who used all his ammo to finish me (the empty DMR was found on my corpse) and once I rode away on an ATV with a wound and minor vehicle damage at NEAF. Too much noise over too small a subject.

OK ... Makarov out, big stick in? ;) Just take the blade off a hatchet, lower the damage and disable wood chopping.

It takes a while to filter out the trash, but you can soon bookmark the vanillas, both public and private. I have 40 or so in my favourites and they're just the ones filtered by low ping.

The Makarov is weak, noisy and implausible as starting gear for an average joe on the street. The whole feeling of defencelessness is part of the thrill of a survival challenge. Melee systems also have a range of a metre or so and are available literally everywhere ... on every tree, furniture legs, fences ... you get the idea.

Makarov - small, weak and noisy dinner bell. Besides being junk that would be more useful gripped by the barrel and used as a bludgeon, the whole population of anywhere having a pistol is pretty implausible. Club / Bat - melee weapon which is easily added to the game, like a hatchet that inflicts less damage and can't chop wood. Ideal for bashing zed-heads without advertising fresh meat. Firearms should be earned, not handed out like sweeties. The whole point of a survival game is to feel that your very existence is under threat.