aragos

--snip-- issue resolved.

thanks Van; issue addressed.

Possible server cheat by OMG, server owner. Raided camp, shot players there, when he was shot, shut down server.

--snip-- edited for stupidity ;)

Arma2 already has the stuff. Add them in; requires teamwork to fully function. 1) Light/Medium Mortars. 60mm and 81mm. Smoke, HE and WP rounds. Found only in large military camps or barracks. 2) 12.7mm and .50 H2 heavy machine guns. Very heavy, requires multiple parts to function. Vehicle mounted only on specific vehicle types (US M1025 series HMMWVs, etc.). 3) Weapon-carrying wheeled vehicles. US HMMWVs, V100/V300 Armored Cars, ASV (Armored Security Vehicles), Russian/East Europe equivalents. Light armored at best, but capable of carring heavy, medium and light machine guns. As always, would be rare, found in areas of heavy fighting and damaged to begin with. 4) Light/squad machine guns (US M60 series, etc.). Heavier than the M240 currently in game and much more available on the world market (and more likely on Chernu). Would include Soviet-era (even late WWII era) light and man-carried machine guns. Able to mount in most military-style vehicles and light pickup trucks.

Yeah, it really pisses me off in RL, when I get shot 4-5 times in mah head and then DIE! Aweful, aweful, awfelnezz! Alpha. Alpha. Alpha. Oh yeah, welcome to Arma, where you can die just like in RL with one bullet. /thread Yeah, I thought the same. Barracks = sniper.

Hackers. See the hacked threads. been happening a lot lately.

sounds like a server issue. Server reset, but kept some of your old stuff in the car inventory anyway. Personally, if I'm by my lonesome, the cars are great for robbin' ;)

Large numbers of zombies in an open area. Smoke, cover, to start fires (with WP). Then again, the way the mod is, the big enemy isn't Zed but human. Why would you use a M4? Or any other esoteric military weapon, instead of something easy like a civilian shotgun, .22 cal rifle, et al?

Not bad ideas. I'd reduce all military-grade weapons to a couple of places: --airfields (where the troops probably made their last stands to get out of the area, or attempted to get in). Lots and LOTS and LOTS of Zeds. Should be one of the most Zed heavy places on the map. --military barracks/tents. Reduce chances of high end/rare items (COO's, silenced weapons) to almost nil, but keep current % chance of common (AK74, M16) military weapons. No country arms its normal troops with silenced rifles. --a few random "last stand" areas near towns; the wrecked HMMWVs should have a chance for something. --Fire/Police stations--only civilian small arms (pistols), shotguns and the very, very rare sniper rifle. Again, heavy Zeds. --Farms, barns, etc. Only shotguns, the occasional low-caliber (.22 cal) hunting rifle, and the very rare CZ. --Deer stands. Occasional hunting gun (CZ or shotgun), mostly food and other necessities (matches, hatchets, hunting knives)

IMHO, it would be awesome to be able to keep a place cleaned out from spawing Zeds based on player actions. Example: NW Airfield. If players have looted the area, then it will NOT respawn Zeds or gear until humans are at least 1 Km away. Would stop gear farming. Now...what would be even cooler...if you could get the control tower functioning again, and para-dropped supplies started spawning instead. Whoever controls the tower could control resupply...

personally, I'd go the exact opposite route. Servers no bigger than 30 people. More Zeds, less humans.

Bottom line, trying to force game-play (e.g., all PvP or all survivor) will kill the entire concept of this game. I'd like to see more things that can only be done by groups--vehicle repairs, building repairs, et al--but I really, really don't care WHAT kind of group it is. A group of 'bandits' get a helo going? Cool. A group of 'survivors' get a hospital fixed? Neat. However you play the game--short of hacking or exploiting--is legit. I don't do the bandit thingy, but have never had a problem with those who do. They paid for their copy of Arma2 just like me; they have every right to enjoy it as they please. I just don't want to see it imbalanced toward one side or another. A good Survivor-based game would be single player, IMHO. A good PvP game...well, there are a lot more of those out there already, so it's a bit overdone. The hard part is mixing the two.

You could easily end up with organized 'bandit' gangs owning towns, etc., ala Mad Max. However...the real 'bandit' type character is more a lone-wolf type than anything. Murder/kill, take stuff, rinse and repeat. The difference would be if you were making this a persistent MMO sort of game; then it pays to do more than kill/steal. To some extent, IMHO, we are all testing the combat/movement portions of a partially visualized game. So right now, it is all about better weapons, etc. than long term play.

grog/Bullfrog-- Both make great points. However, in a game like this, there is no "electrical engineer class" or "combat infantryman" class. While a 'normal' person (e.g., white collar office worker or some such profession) would have little idea how to fix a major power plant, or fire an M4, the game abstracts that part. So, a 'survivor' has whatever skills the player brings in, etc. Having said that, it is also worth considering who would the actual 'survivor' be. On another thread--where a player wanted police-type uniform skins for 'good' survivors--I noted that most likely the people to survive are those in uniform. Military, police, EMT, etc., or blue-collar types (electrical linemen, etc.) with skills. Suzie from HR is a Zed, so is Ralph the day trader. It's Bill the cop, or Bob the soldier or Jim the guy in the power truck who most likely lives.

IMHO, should get rid of tents entirely and allow goodies to be buried, or have usable storage in buildings.

A couple of basic map reading hints, from an old Army guy :) 1) If you are lost, but have a Map: Find the highest point you can. The numbers on the map are the elevation numbers. If the point on the map says "385" and is surrounded by circles, it is a mountain top or the highest point in the area. 2) Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Face toward the sun, in the morning, and that means North is to your left, and South to your right. 3) Night. Best time for a new character. Spawn in, crouch, and run for the woods. Cities are killers w/o NVDs. Just get out of the spawn area and get inland. The open plains in the far West aren't bad for fast movement. Get to a wooded area and either wait for dawn or respawn in a day server. Night is, quite simply, the safest time to move. The problem is getting lost. Luckily, the game uses real world sky graphics as well; look for the Big Dipper, follow it down to the end--the North Star. Once you know North, you can figure out your direction and location. Keep in mind that it takes about 2-3 canteens to make it across the map. Consequently, if you are running and run out of water, you have moved appox. 1/3 of the map. Pace count (counting steps) doesn't seem to jive with the map, so that method is probably not the best for measuring distance. 4) Roads and landmarks. Best ones are intersections. Several online maps have translations of Cyrillic to English on the maps. That will help with roadsigns. If you are lucky and have a compass, you'll never get lost if you find a road. Understand there are different kinds--'hardball' (e.g., the Yellow Brick Roads) are the ones with dashed lines and asphalt. The second are improved dirt/gravel roads (lighter yellow on the map). The third are trails and unimproved dirt roads. They will be an outline of the road. 5) Great land marks for orientation. Powerlines: In DayZ the world makes a bit of sense--powerlines run to and from power stations. Power stations sometimes have Fire Houses, which have supplies. Not a bad way to get armed up quickly. Keep in mind, others have thought of this too. Water Towers: They look like Lollypops on the map. Only some villages/towns have them, but that makes them valuable to id a town from a distance. Ruins: Castles and ruins are easy to see, and are normally on the tops of mountains/hills. Very valuable for id'ing your location. Keep in mind that castles have loot, so they tend to draw people and usually have a contingent of Zeds. 6) When in doubt...--run in one direction only. You'll hit a road, trail or other landmark sooner or later. If you try to follow woodlines or ridgelines, you can easily end up running in a very, very large circle. Many of the villages,until you get used to them, look completely different from different angles--you may think you are at a new place but have really just spent the last 10 mins. running in the woods. Hope it helps!

All that basically is in Arma2 already; it just has to be added into DayZ. The limitating factors would be fuel and spare parts, as well as ammo. Even finding a crashed MEDIVAC would be awesome--doubtful Zed cleared out the blood packs first!

I think we are in violent agreement. TS really is only a substitute for a working local/direct chat system in game. It allows talking, at least to someone, in what would be a pretty boring PvP game. As to immersion, I agree completely. Ditto on the no-PK zones. Sort of defeats the entire purpose. Somewhat like having a 'no murder zone' in a modern real world city. The 'no murder' part comes in with police, armed citizens, et al--sort of dissuades that from happening. You want it in game, you make it happen by getting a big team together and enforcing your will, etc.

have them spawn at the coastal cities, from the ocean. Make sense on an island (a ship sinks, up comes Zed, or they are crossing in from the mainland). I think the PK deathmatch would stop pretty quickly when a wave of Zed comes out of the surf.

Horri1d: Why do money at all? Make certain tasks require large groups. Example: You find a broken down BMP-3. To fix it, you have two options. One player finds 1 part at a time (the parts take up 3-4 slots each, lets say). Over hours, you can rebuild it if you know where the stuff is. Otherwise, it is a lost cause--you'll never be able to cache the stuff (due to how the servers work). So it is not viable (possible, not viable) for one person to do it. How about a team? The team collects the parts, the team assembles them. The ownership of the vehicle is based on the team (e.g., a list of people who 'own' the vehicle, from #1 to #whatever, so that if #1 owner dies, it is not lost and can respawn with #2, and so on) Suddenly you have the effect you want to have--you've created a motivation for group activity, but did it without a gold coins/dollars/beercans-based economic system. If you bring money in, even if you just use it as a basic unit of measure and trade [ex: 1 empty can=1 quatloo, 1 soda can=5 quatloos], then you will end up with a game ultimately based on the collection of gold/money/etc. and not a survival game. Make sense?

Interesting ideas. Global Chat: Only available to people with radios. Large FM radios. The kind that take up as many slots as a tent (e.g, the old US Army backpack PRC-77 radio). Requires batteries that are heavy and run out, or a generator kit, which is even heavier. Direct/Local Chat: Good stuff. Latter represents "me talking to you" the other "me yelling in the neighborhood." TS, et al: Love me some TS3. As it is, the world is filled with mutes who have to write everything on notes. TS helps with immersion. +on more variety and items in the world (from medicial plants to varying water supplies) -psychological impact issues. First, everyone who was terminally traumatized by the Zed are probably Zeds at this point. They broke down, went to pieces and tried to make nice with Mommy, who promptly bit them. The survivors are people who adapted to that reality and thrived enough to get a pistol, a couple of cans of beans, and some bitchin sunglasses. The issues of group interaction, et al, happen in the mod itself; that is the real lab for human interaction, without any gamey overlay needed. Bandits kill, you don't know who to trust, etc. is counterbalanced by the Batman shooting down the bandit who is tracking you because he wants to, or the guy who gave you a water bottle when you needed it, or the team that forms to clear out a town or rebuild a bus. +Migrating Zed routes. Brilliant. Also, players who die have a % chance (based on how many hits they take from Zed) on being infected themselves and reanimating. Will cut back a lot on the "ah, kill me and I'll respawn and get my stuff" gamey play.

I dont think this is a good idea, at all. You'd have gold farming like in WoW overnight. What happens when (not IF) you die? You lose all the gold? Can you bury it, hide it, etc.? What does money really mean in a post-apoc world? Soft metal? Wouldn't a piece of cooked meat mean a lot more than a platinum necklace? Better, IMHO, to let people trade, etc. for what they want. If you set up an economic system of any sort, you'd have to go all out--from farming to manufacturing to exchange. Example: bean farms grow beans. You harvest beans, take them to People's Bean Cannery #28. Voila, canned beans. You sell them to buy ammo or more beans. And so on. Suddenly, RL Chinese students in Shanghai are working in Internet factories doing nothing but bean growing for a dollar a day.

I like the ideas. Especially like the idea that you only may have a min or two before the guy you just killed becomes a Zed. Sort of makes PK'ing a bit more hazardous. Not sure on the more detailed medical system. Yeah, what we have is gamey right now, but to add in a realistic level of detail...e.g., how many folks know how to remove a bullet? Secondary infections? And so on. Neat concept, I'm just not sure it would actually work in game very well. My suggestions. Military camps should have heavy weapons--M2 .50s, 60mm and 81mm mortars. They are very, very heavy, usually requiring a team to move them. Multiple parts to assemble,etc. Just think of the teamwork and logistics it would take to get Ma Deuce on the hill outside of Electro. But think about the fun. Or to rain down 81 mike-mike on a building full of Zeds. Would be cool. I'd like to see at least a few military ground vehicles. HWMMVs, BRDMs. Make finding the parts, very, very hard. But that would be fun. Nearly impossible to really abuse (I mean, you'd run out of MG ammo quickly...then what? You have a cool looking truck.).

^Travis: that is the Story. That is survival. Drama, impact, effects.