entspeak

I don't think this can really be implemented until the bullet proximity portion of determining who is and isn't in combat gets worked out and put back into the game. Servers have issues and many people get kicked for changing into a ghillie suit. Server and computer issues happen and not everyone who ends up off the server is a combat logger. What really needs to happen is a reasonable means of determining who is in combat and who isn't. And, though in some cases it would seem unfair, when that timer goes off, the person can abort. "In combat" appears to be a relative term. The only time you are definitely, unequivocally in combat is when you are firing, or being fired upon (you are being hit, or bullets are flying near you.) My opinion is this: get the in combat system working in those cases where one is definitely, unequivocally in combat - I'd even be down for a longer period of being in combat... and if someone logs during that time, their character dies. This will undoubtedly impact those who happen to have an internet or computer issue during a firefight, but... nothing's perfect and the odds are slimmer that this will occur just when you happen to be under fire.

I can't make a recommendation... part of that depends on where you are. The only server available when I downloaded was shinkicker's - a server in Europe. Then a little bit later, Shacknews started up a server in the US - which is where I had the encounter, above. I know more servers have started up since then.

At about 4am EST, I logged on to US 3305 and, before I could even move, I was shot and killed. I'd spawned where I'd left off... in a bush in Mysta, so... it was odd that I'd be shot immediately because it's not a popular place to hang out. There were not a lot of people on the server at the time. I respawned, turned to my right and saw a huey taking off and then was immediately shot. Other people started being killed. I respawned again. At this point, there were only 4 people on the server - me, a guy from a clan with a strange name - shogui, or something, a guy named pokey and a guy named Captain... something. Well, at this point, the clan guy and myself were the only people dying. When I respawned this time, I ran around in circles waiting to see if someone would appear and, lo and behold, two guys in ghillies appeared and started trying to shoot me. After a little dance, they finally killed me again... and then the clan guy died again. So, 4 people on the server, 2 are teleporting and 2 are dying. Man, script kiddies are stupid. I respawned again with Fraps running hoping to catch it on video, but I think, with my constant respawning, they wised up. The Captain guy was gone and pokey left not long after. I tried to work my way back to my body in Mysta, hoping my stuff would still be there, but... no body. So, I worked my way down to Elektro. At about 4:40 am, I'd arrived and this is what I saw: The school house was in a similar state and there was another heli further up the hill among the trees. There were also cardboard medical boxes were strewn about with weapons and equipment in them - including an AS-50 TWS. I don't know when the above took place, but the TP'ing and killing started for me at about 4am when I logged into the server. Logic dictates that the two culprits were this Captain guy and pokey because there were only 4 people on the server, two people teleporting and killing and two people dying. I wish I'd had Fraps recording from the start, because my first death had a "killed by" message with Captains name on it, so I know he's one of them. If the group chat logs are checked: immediately after being killed the first time, I reported his having killed me, including his full screen name, and that he was hacking (there was no side chat available). I'm assuming the other guy was pokey by process of elimination - of the 4 people on the server, he wasn't being killed. I tried to contact the server admins directly, but I had to register and activate my forum account on their site via an email that never arrived - which means I couldn't post or even send a message to anyone there. I hope you and the server admins can investigate this and are able to ban the ones responsible.

Nah. Until the admins get this a bit more under control and make themselves easier to contact, I think I'm gonna stay away. I've found a couple of public servers that have this better handled. It's never going to be perfect... but, some public servers have better anti-hack. I'm currently enjoying US 845... I must admit, it makes me smile to see the Global and Admin ban messages show up when these retards try to log in.

Okay! I've played this the last couple of nights and I have to say I love it! spawned in Cherno with 15 players on the server and, since it was night time, I was able to gear up without being sniped. Actually looted the bodies in what was, apparently, a massacre in the streets - haha! And, finally, when someone tossed a grenade near the building I was in, I was able to duck out of town. Later, in Vybor, I heard car doors. So, I went to investigate. Caught a glimpse of a player in the moonlight. I ran a couple houses down and got in a bush near the road to see what I could. Then he comes running down the street, across the street and doesn't see me. I work my way back to where I heard the car noise and find a car with a broken wheel with some guns and ammo, which I steal. All that to say, the night time play is so much better! So tense! Have the brightness and gamma been locked so that everyone has to deal with the dark at night?

So, no more NVGs?

Then, I will love mine and pet mine and call him George. :)

Question, though... what happens to those who have one? Is it simply no longer in the loot table or is it banned?

What I ended up doing was duplicating my @DayZ folder and renaming them both @DayZ_pre and @DayZ_release and extracted the pre-release files to the _pre folder, placing the key file in the Arma 2 OA Keys folder. Because I wanted to use my high rez skins regardless of which version, I simply rename the version I want to play to @DayZ and DayZ Commander automagically filters for the right servers when I open it.

Having been playing 1.7.4.3 on the dev servers, it seems to me that street lights only serve to alert other players that someone is in that area. I for one was a bit nervous being one of three people on a server and the other two were in a helicopter flying over a town I'd just left. It's just a big "HERE I AM" for bandits. If all the street lights went on at night and they impacted whether or not you could be seen by the infected, that would be one thing. I must say, it does look cool, though. So, no more L85? Yeah... it's not a very accurate gun, but the thermal scope made it a great spotter weapon. It was somewhat balanced by the narrow FOV and at night by fact that when it was clear skies, you only saw black background with no detail, crosshairs and only the heat coming off bodies.

If I download this and install it, will I still be able to play on other 1.7.3 servers or will I be bound to the community test servers? I would love to participate, but if it's unplayable for me (due to ping or some such thing) will I be able to go back to 1.7.3?

Hi... Haven't been able to log in to US 1861 for two days... it seems nobody can. I sometimes see one or two people listed as being on in DC, but when I get to the lobby, they're gone. I can only imagine this is because they couldn't get in either. I know it hadn't been restarted for at least a week because I dropped an item outside my tent and I kept walking by it every day. But, now, I can't log in at all. Keep getting stuck at the "loading..." moment after the lobby. I enjoy playing on your server, so... could you please fix it? Maybe it needs a restart? Thanks.

Currently, the bandit/hero thing doesn't work because many bandits group together and blood each other up to survivor status again. I like the idea that you can identify bandits by the skin... yes, it's not realistic, but in terms of gameplay it's helpful. Of course, there needs to be bandit versions of most (if not all) the skins (bandit ghillie? I don't think it's possible). Currently, any skin other than the survivor one hides bandit status. The way I see it, two things can help the bandit skin problem. First, people shouldn't gain humanity by aiding bandits (bloodbags, epi-pens, etc...) Gaining humanity should only occur when helping survivors. It seems to me that this is an easy fix, since it's already possible not to lose humanity for killing bandits. This won't completely solve the problem, but should make it harder for bandits to juke the system. Second, as there is now a proximity sensor for combat, there should be a proximity sensor for self-defense (hopefully tied to the person who fired the shot). If you enter combat due to bullet proximity, killing the person who fired the shot should be considered self-defense. A benefit to fixing the bandit skin problems is that it may (though, with most kids, it won't make a difference) lead to less murdering by those with an imagination. More holdups and kidnappings - crimes that don't kill and result in a bandit skin. These are much more of a challenge to pull off... and, therefore, much more exciting. Of course, some view the bandit skin as a badge of honor or just something cool to wear. These people should welcome the target they have on their heads. When I see a bandit skin, I shoot first and ask questions later... that's how it should be in this game.

Yeah... stupid, I know... don't play a game like Dayz during a hurricane. I spent... oh, a day completely repairing a UAZ I found - everything was red and no fuel). That day cost me two lives (one... infection, the other... starvation), my GPS, my NV goggles (finally, finally, FINALLY found some on a corpse... and the server ate them when I was kicked). Well, tonight, I was doing some late night scouting through the cities by headlight and flashlight. On the way back... during a brief stop on the road to check something I'd seen... the internet went out. Yay! So... if you found a well stocked UAZ with the lights on, just idling away... the gods are with you. Sad for me, but c'est la vie. Oh, and by the by, infections suck. I thought they were supposed to stop leeching away blood at 6000?! Mine constantly threatened to bleed me out, slowly but surely. I had to suicide because there were NO BLOODY ANTIBIOTICS! Haha! they seriously need to fix that... I understand antibiotics being rare, and all, but when none of the hospitals in any of the cities on the server have them (yep, that's what this late night run was about), that's not rare, it's non-existent.

It's a mod of a what? A game. Which makes it a what? A GAME.. I don't expect things to be perfect. But, obviously temperature and illness are an important factor in the GAME and if it's not working right, there's a serious problem with the GAME. Now that's been covered, an update: Internet back on and yep... I logged back in and found myself in the middle of the street with no vehicle and no backpack. Since it's gone, here's the full story. Was doing a nighttime run of the hospitals in search of antibiotics (found none - surprise, surprise) and was on my way back to camp. On the coast road just north of Electro, I came across a tent by the side of the road. A nice idea, I thought... If you die, perhaps you can be lucky and find something in it. So, being a Good Samaritan, I thought to stock it up. I emptied my coyote pack and put it in the UAZ, grabbing the Czech pack I had stored and put a shotgun with ammo, a heatpack, some food and drink inside. I then stored all these, the weapon, ammo, food and pack in the tent. I then went back to the UAZ and was getting my coyote pack back out of the gear when the Internet went out. So, my pack, like my NV goggles and GPS the last time I lost a connection while gearing up, was likely sucked into the ether by the disconnect. But DayZ life goes on. Hoofing it back to camp. Honestly, it's not a horrible situation. Fortunately for me, the day I fiund and fixed the UAZ was a great day in that I saw two other abandoned vehicles that day - the bus and the Off-road pickup (which I came back for). So, when I get back to camp, I still have a vehicle. I'm out a vehicle, some wheels, window glass, fuel tank parts, a PDW, and the one that hurt the most - some M9SD ammo. But such is life. And I will never drive a vehicle when there's a strong likelihood my Internet will go out - like during a hurricane. Lesson learned - haha! On with the GAME!

If the rain didn't last so long or wasn't as frequent, that's help. But having to run 3k to find engine parts makes waiting out the rain a huge pain - especially when the rain sometimes lasts an hour. A couple of things would alleviate this... Put a way to know when I'm getting close to being susceptible to infection. I don't know about anyone else, but my temperature icon doesn't change and there is nothing to indicate when I'm cold. And, I don't know if it's a bug, but my bleeding from the infection (from extended time in the rain) did not stop at 6000... it kept going. That's not good for the game.

I have to agree that there should be no karma system beyond what already exists. I'd imagine in a zombie apocalypse, many would lose their sense of right and wrong - many would lose their minds. At least you can identify the murderers. There are ways to avoid being shot. I've died 5 or so times in the week I've been playing DayZ... only twice have I been killed by another player - the first two deaths when I had no idea what I was doing. One of my lives, I lasted for 4 days in game before succumbing to an infection (I never stopped bleeding - a glitch because I thought it stopped at 6000? - and, of course, I had no antibiotics, so suicide was the only answer). Because I know there are psychos out there who simply want to shoot me, I avoid the cities on more populated servers and play mostly night games - *GASP!*... with a flashlight... *GASP! GASP!!* That's real and, in a zombie apocalypse where zombies can't see you at night, it makes the most sense. I figure psychos are part of the simulation. Be smart, be quiet and be lucky. I have more server issues than issues with players. My point is that psychos will be psychos and the best way to deal with them is to account for them in your gameplay... you can't play thinking you aren't a target for the vast numbers of psychos. What I'd love to see is a refinement of the self-defense system - the aim being to reduce the number of bandits resulting from self-defense.