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.

Nice idea.

Nice posting there Militant. Obviously a lot of suggestions are going to influence heavily from other games, purely because they managed to do it first....which is no bad thing, some games have this spot on. Atmosphere I would suggest a cracking example of creating that believable living game is for example all those little bits of hidden gems that the Fallout games had if you just went off exploring or took more notice of a initially nondescript area. The car buried under a landslide in the middle of nowhere with the teddy bear and children's books on the back seat next to the little skeletons. The barricaded room where a family tried to shelter from the atomic war. The little messages left in mail boxes and on old damaged computers, hinting at life before the conflict. The airplane crashed in the swamp where the pilot made his last stand. The shelter with scratches and corpse's by the locked airlock. Little scenarios all over the place if you only took the time to look, they made such a difference to the game and some were genuinely moving! They were not part of the story and were certainly not part of the action, but they did add so much to the game.

Welcome to DayZ. Have a browse through some of the threads for a while with a cup of coffee and you will discover a mine of useful information. 1) Things will go wrong in the game, bugs and glitches and obviously getting killed by players and infected....do not worry about it, it happens on a regular basis. 2) Treat every play through as a training experience for later on, as you play you start to see landmarks and relate to where you are without a map. Almost like orienteering . 3) Infected, can be hard to see or even hidden...your hearing is very important in this game, you can detect distance,direction and intention of those around you by it....especially at night.Turn off your game music. 4) Learn to travel the map like a soldier or a hunter would. Weigh up the route from your location to your destination and see if there is an approach that keeps you hidden from view. Avoid crossing open ground if at possible, follow treelines from several metres inside the woodland. 5) Lights are a double edged weapon, sometimes you will absolutely have to use a light source to see with......but everyone may well see you. Do not just play on daylight servers, as night time is a massive part of the game. 6) Sound, always move as stealthy as you can.....keep running reserved for deep woodland or when you are in the shit with nothing to lose. Sound attracts the living as well as the not quite living.

What a self-obsessed wanker. I actually started to lose the will to live after reading through all the utter drivel that the OP has been spouting, until I worked out that it was obviously a success as a wind-up to the genuine players....and he/she hit gold. Of all the massive selection of shooters on the market, be they free or a hugely popular franchise.....tens of thousands of people have gone out and purchased an obscure ( to the mainstream player ) old military simulation to play a Mod that has got the toughest learning curve on the market and is still in alpha. DayZ is a frustrating and bloody annoying experience on a bad day when the all too present bugs and faults conspire to do their worst to you.Your inventory just vanishes..you suddenly end up in the ocean...you die from climbing a ladder or opening a door .But still...people in the tens of thousands continue to play it and for the first time that I can remember actually forgive a game its faults and just accept them as is....in the belief that things will change and evolve! A new type of game that embraces idea's and concepts that would normally be limited to a few nerds playing an ultra hardcore sim, has managed to grip the imagination of a great many players who have been crying out for just this type of thing....and most likely not realising it. Then some individual starts importing the play style into DayZ that so many players are just so sick and bored of, and being the main reason we embraced this mod with such passion. The reason most of us came here was the utter boredom and mindless repetitive bollocks that passes as game play in almost every other game on the market. A player who sits in a bush and snipes at ( quite likely ) poorly new players in the same mindless violence that people left other games for, and attempts to offer us tips? There is an old expression " just because there is not a law to prevent you doing something, does not mean it is alright to do so " It means people have an innate sense of right and wrong and do not need to be told how to behave as a mature human in every instance. Bit like this game, it is free form, you can snipe new players with no threat to yourself.....but you know, and more importantly everyone else knows you are a wanker for doing so.

Having consumed my crispy bacon sandwich while reading this, I have to say I fully agree with your post.....of course as long as DayZ is set where it is. As other posters have stated, assuming this is a multi-national conflict, then you would have some foreign weapons hanging about in limited numbers.....and rare ammo of course. Two exceptions 1) The Sa80 is unique to the British Armed Forces, if they were not there.....then the weapons would not be neither. 2) God's Own Battle Rifle is missing from the list. ...L1A1....( you need no other reason to put it in the mod ) The L1A1 SLR......This is the British Variant of the FN FAL, the non automatic version. And without doubt the finest battle rifle ever made.Why is it not automatic ?...because we used to get taught how to shoot straight and hit what were aiming at is why, rather than randomly spraying rounds in the vague direction where the enemy might be. Notice I said " Battle Rifle " and not all this girly " assault rifle " malarkey. 7.62mm Nato...a mans round, a proper mans round, a proper man who drinks beer and doesn't do metrosexual grooming and learning what women want...not a girly mans round like the 5.56mm,where you carry your spare rounds in a handbag. This argument brings British Soldiers to a boil when discussed.

Some of the annoying things that wearing body armour brings in real life are the following. Weight and bulk. Body armour weighs a lot, Osprey armour ( British Issue ) is getting on for about 35 lbs, that is a pain in the arse to wear especially with the weight of all the equipment and weapons that you carry...you are looking at about 120 lbs total.It restricts your breathing and you sweat a lot more in it and it hampers your agility to a certain degree. Protection It matters little in respect to what rounds your armour could protect against if you end up getting shot in any place that the plate does not cover! You are looking at a plate across the torso and the back, sides if you are happy with carrying even more lbs.....you will get shot in the face or the bollocks, which you might not have...if you were not so slow and knackered from wearing that heavy armour. Survival Before this became a free for all sniper war, the main aim was to survive...making hard decisions in a brutal world. Choices of what to scavenge and what to leave, the hard choice of leaving items behind in the gamble that you just might find them somewhere else or your new item will keep you alive for a little longer. Think how much 35 lb weighs. Think how much water, food, medicine or ammo you could carry in its place....and all for the gamble that you might get shot on a 8 inch by 10 inch plate and be lucky.

Nice idea. I would like to suggest though, as it is in the vein of being realistic...the melee aspect in terms of sporting equipment and tools if not outright weapons be kept in line with those you would expect to see within an Eastern European state? Non Eastern European Katana's,nightsticks,cricket bats,golf clubs and baseball bats would be in the " utterly as rare as rocking horse shit " category. Most Eastern European States are very heavily rural and farming area's which would provide a vast selection of farming implements and tools, any self sufficient local would have tools in his shed or house to repair or build what he requires. Tools, easily found. Sledge Hammers and Mallets Pickaxe Handle's Shovel or Spade Crowbar Wrecking bar ( crowbar on steroids ) Axe and Hatchets Golok ( curved type machete ) or similar item Police They use good old fashioned truncheons out here, not nightsticks.

One of the best set out post's I have seen on here....getting a bacon sandwhich and I am going to read this in depth.

From Monday I am going to play as a voluntary Non-combatant Medic, with a sidearm and hatchet for self defence against the infected and a sense of honour as defence against the survivors. Mission Statement To offer medical treatment for anyone in need of it without judgement or bias, not to provide military support unless its essential to protect life ( mine or the patients ). A white List for survivors who honour the pact of trust, a black list for those naughty people shooting medics. Reason Just for my own curiosity to see if this can actually be done and especially to see if it can be done in this present climate of " shoot first and don't even bother with the questions ". Call it a kind of experiment to see if we can role ourselves in the game beyond simple survivors. Benefits for those playing 1) Medical support if you can be reached in one piece. 2) Realistic to expect this kind of approach from skilled survivors in actual life. 3) A greater immersion for players. Technical Problems 1) How the heck do I show I am a Medic character 2) Complete reliance on other players to not shoot on sight. 3) No global Comms. 4) Will my sanity cope with being repeatably killed in game. 5) I am English, but I am not playing Euro Servers as they are just ridiculous kill fests, so will possibly play USA servers......meaning pretty much joining random servers during their nights ( on nightshift this week in the UK ) Results. I will post results a week later to give a rough idea how this worked out, no cookies or other prizes given out for guessing what the results will be.

Final Mission Update Servers...Numerous euro,Uk,USA. Time....most of the day ( night and day servers ) Character...mates account from his house. The original experiment was going to be for a full week....but after four and half days I believe its pretty obvious what the results are going to be, and to be honest it is really becoming a chore to try and play like this. Taking on board Sr69Mn suggestions to not be so open and maybe compromising my intended patients I tried a more stealthy approach. Sadly every single attempt to approach or offer aid to another player ended in a firefight or just being shot without warning, without comms....there was not a single way I could communicate my intentions and I quite simply looked like another player sneaking about and trying to get an edge on another player or coming in to finish off an opponent. Results Medical assistance attempts...............100 Actual Medical assists........................4 Deaths in game during period of test.....a bloody lot. More hours spent trying to locate gear than I ever want to do again. Downsides Even with the best of intentions and an inclination to always play these types of characters in game I found the process incredibly frustrating and pointless, and except for 4 instances totally unrewarding. There was no visual indication I could implement to show what i was trying to do, and even if there was...a sizeable number of players would most likely open fire anyway.The use of flares and chemsticks simply made me a perfect target or encouraged people to fire anyway rather than even question why a character was doing this. The lack of communications, while no doubt 100% realistic obviously did not help in the slightest. There is very little trust between players and often none at all if you are not within a group or chat linking, so highly challenging to work with. Upsides Actually playing a character loaded down with med supplies and a simple sidearm and the whole concept of it was quite exciting and gave a actual goal to logging in, in my eyes this was far better than logging into what is becoming a open-world version of sniper elite..with zombies.