wulfenrider@msn.com

Rather than removing NVG's, how about having them perform as in the real world? Apart from the sensible suggestion that has been put before about limited life batteries, there is another obvious but overlooked weakness in NVG's. Light Sources. If you are using NVG's and especially the earlier generation ones, it becomes an absolute pain in the arse to use them when there are strong light sources in your veiw. Having someone flash a white light source across your goggles leaves you blinded in quite an impressive way....maybe a new use for the in-game flares? Using them in a built up area where there could/should be sources of bright illumination ranging from vehicles, self powered lights ( emergency lighting ) actual fires from the disaster and maybe the occasional military base/aircraft launching flares would prove a bit of a challenge. This would mean the NVG user is going to be at an disadvantage on occasion if moving through an urban area, and a quick witted player could chuck a flare down if they think they are being stalked and maybe..just maybe make a run for it.

The best of luck to you in your endeavour Dr. Nats. I tried a similar approach, more as an experiment really a few months ago with somewhat predictable results. Do not let that put you off though, I may have just been unlucky in the extreme. If I am playing ( quite rarely now ) and I see you, I will assist you in any way I can. http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17929-a-week-playing-as-a-non-combatant-medic/ You might find some helpful bits in here.

Thanks for the info, I am actually shit enough at the game that getting killed by a hacker is somewhat overkill when i happily expire on a regular basis with no help.

N.W. Airfield. Night time. On approaching the airfield from the east, as soon as I was able to spot the shed and garage about 1km form the airfield, The graphics started playing up. Having to look at an angle to where i wanted to go, or the entire screen got the jagged shapes effect. Once I left the shed/garage and continued towards the airfield the graphics normalised. As soon as I discerned the airfield buildings the graphics again went tits up.....and completely collapsed once I was inside the perimeter wire. Throwing and using chemlights provided a tiny block of colour at their source but would not illuminate further. Made a blind run towards the control tower with the debris in front of its doors...unable to enter at all, even with the doors open. Toon just could not get inside and I died again. I will try to replicate the bug after I have spawned yet again.

Thank you for taking the time to write out and explain the theory.

Great writeup.....sticky for the new players?

Here is a little background for you military buffs out there. Many years ago I was working with a Irish Ranger sergeant who was one of the soldiers who did the trials on the new rifle being brought in to replace the British L1A1 and SMG. Amongst some of the very impressively performing rifles was a certain rifle that actually did very well. He said that the SA80's that they were trialling at the time were reliable, well made and bloody accurate...he was actually quite impressed. They were not the best ( in his opinion ) in the test, but did do quite well overall.The weapon was chosen( or more likely already decided before the trials ) and accepted into service. Several years later he recalled receiving the first SA80's in his unit and after using it on the ranges, just standing back and looking at it in a sort of horrorfied fascination. Apart from looking identical, he said the entire feel and quality of the weapon was totally different...he had several stoppages on the range even firing just a few magazines of rounds. Virtually every defect that they had brought up was still there, like the badly positioned magazine release catch,To his eyes it was like a cheap knockoff copy of a quality weapon. Zoom forward to the much reported H&K contract to have a good look at the SA80, and what you have is that H&K quite simply refurbished all the SA80's to the standard that they were supposed to have been built to in the first place ( to pass the Infantry tests on the initial trials )....before they rifles were built to the cheapest quality that could possibly got away with. BAE owned Enfield Royal Small arms factory producing the SA80 at the start of the contract...H&K was owned by BAE when they were contracted to refurbish the SA80 to an acceptable standard.....nice of BAE to be paid twice.

Voted. Infected need to be more of a challenge for well equpped characters. 1) Make them unpredictable, have them out hunting for food in hordes for example. 2) Tougher to take down and kill..headshot only, otherwise you just slow them.

I am with the Op on this thread. It is also good to see inbetween the usual arguments a few good ideas and concepts coming out, arguments for and against realism and all the others. A lot of opinion from us gamers will come from the books we read and the films we saw as we were growing up, and this can create a great friction in what we class as the correct and realistic way to steer this mod.Also your country of origin will without a doubt colour this...I am from England, we have bugger all in the way of firearms outside the Police/military and Farms.....which makes any survival/zombie film set in the UK especially exciting.....firearms are pretty alien to most Brits. Films and books that influence me....and yes they are not all zombie films. Mad Max Steel Dawn The Omega Man ( the original I am legend ) A boy and his Dog The day of the Triffids Book of Eli The Road 28 days later Deathlands ( Books ) Fallout....at the start of the game. The common aspect of these books and films that i love is the complete abscence or the rarity of firearms and ammunition....if a shot is taken, it is a conscious decision of using a rare resource against an unavoidable lethal threat....not just blapping off a few rounds and knowing you can pickup some later, anywhere. DayZ 1) Infected made a more lethal threat...maybe more in number...maybe headshot only...maybe they actively hunt all the time. 2) Ammo and firearms as rare as hens teeth ( damn rare ) 3) Shooting making anything that walks,runs,crawls or slithers in a large radius come looking. I hope you can see why I have the opinion to the way DayZ should be going.

Certain individuals can kill without the mental punishment that the bulk of us would have to deal with afterwards, I know its always bandied about that humans are the worlds biggest predators etc etc.....but it is not normal to kill without remorse or effect to the majority of humans. I am not saying its abnormal to be as such, maybe those indivduals are exceptional and its the rest of us who are not up to standard. Either way, killing another does have effects...but these tend to really develop years if not decades after the conflict. I work with people who are of this mindset and in day to day life it does not maifest in a problematic way, If talking about an area of the world we worked in...I might be talking about an old story about getting shot at from some Bosnians on a convoy...they might chip in about actually shooting those same Bosnians/Coations/Serbians/Muslims. Its just an aspect of the job, and I have only met a couple of people who I would class as freaks and relish this kind of work. They were unpleasent to be around and seemed to be actively trying to be so.Quite simply they got off on their own " awesomness " to use an American expression and I quite easily imagine that this is the kind of unthinking viloence that people are alluding to in this mod. Such individuals were tolerated at best and stayed in their own " awesomness " little club while the rest of us effectively blanked them and got on with our own work to try and actually achieve something.

I go along with the OP on this.Knowing how to use and maintain every weapon system,vehicle and medical application as well as being an expert hunter/survivalist and marathon runner is a tad unrealistic. If you cannot elect to do a certain playstyle at character creation, have a way to do it during play. Medical Backpack I have proposed before that you could commit to playing a medic character at toon creation.You gain the ability after that to equip medical backpacks that are distinctive in apearence ( red for example ) and maybe a red cross armband etc...but be unable to equip ghille suits. You lose the rifle weapons slot ( can still equip melee ) but gain a larger sized ....medical iems only...inventory.

I voted Yes. I tried an experiment a few weeks ago " A week playing as a medic " thread to see how easy or hard it was for an individual player to role him/herself in a capacity other than what you started as.......which appears to be an indivdual who is competent in every weapon system developed, able to repair and operate all known vehicles and an accomplisshed survivalist and medical technician and combat engineer. It did not go well. I suggest that a player could commit to a choice on character creation and be unable to alter that choice. My area of interest in the game was as the volunteer medical support line,a choice that would actually hamper your ability to equip certain weapons. 1) You lose your main weapon slot, you can equip melee and tools but no rifles. 2) You can equip a distinctive backpack or uniform to show you are a medical character ( Red backpack or redcross armband ) 3) The backpack is only equippable by a medical character and has a slightly larger inventory for medical items only, and a small section that is unlootable....to possibly place high value medical items like antibiotics or blood transfusions for other players. This is class. This hampers your combat ability, while allowing a highly visiable ( no cammo ) equipment to be used.

Yep, same for me. The game was working fine until the other night, when I joined a server and ended up spawning in the middle of no-where, respawned....same thing again and again. Today I get to the part where it says Loading with a solid rectangle bar above it, I can hear active game sounds but am totally stuck.

Obviously the game mechanics are the Devs main focus at the moment. But one of the moments for me that break the DayZ spell is when you reach the edge of the map and look out unto endless....nothing! I would find it very impressive if the following type situation arose. ".......after several hours of creeping through the pitch black forest, occasionally freezing in position and hoping that twig breaking or strangled cry deep in the woods is nothing more than the harmless wildlife, you see a gradually increasing glow to the west...the direction you have been heading for all these days. You become aware as you climb higher up the hill and the forest starts to thin, that the light is now starting to become so bright, you are going to struggle to stay hidden for much longer....you have no choice, and decide salvation is so near, that you just have to to take the chance, besides.....you doubt the little food and water you have left leaves any choice anyway. You crawl to the the lip of the hill, unwilling to make yourself a target and check your map a final time, before you start to prepare for the dash for the border. You crest the hill and when confronted by the sight ahead of you, you stumble and eventually your knees give way as you crumple to the floor..ahead of you through tear blurred eyes you see....." What do you see? A blackened atomic battle ground as far as the eye can see? A minefield stretching to the horizon to the north and south, a massive impenetrable concrete wall hundreds of metres behind the minefield? A mist so thick that it almost feels like its alive....and there are without doubt " things "screaming and running everywhere in it? The statue of liberty with apes on horse back around it?

That is paranoia coming for you with a vengeance there TwoToes. When I use lumi-sticks or chemlights at work, a trick that we use is to completely cover one side of the stick with black bodge tape...think of ducting tape, but its black, military grade and make of kryptonite or something. The results are that you can illuminate what you intend to, without making yourself blind.