rossums

You REALLY want another warning point, don't you?

This is what I'm feeling too - if people are to go to another area, they have to WANT to go there. If there are multiple regions of the map the only way to encourage them to do so is provide items or an experience they can't get anywhere else on the map, 'locking' players into an area just wouldn't work for DayZ. With areas that have various requirements (Well, not requirements but items that will make the area a lot easier, e.g. warm clothing in the snow) the players have to make a conscious decision to travel to a far away area but they are still free to travel (somewhat) easily to wherever they want and trade items that are perhaps more useful in one area than another (heatpacks wouldn't be worth all that much if it was warm enough not to warrant them). Forcing players to do something (e.g. Move to area x and NEVER return) just doesn't work, people just find a way to game the system (Such as killing people as soon as they switch maps or staying in zone 2 and preventing people from advancing).

God, just reminds me of the endless shitty puns on Reddit, Anne Frankly I did not see that coming. HUEHUEHUEHUE (shootmenow) I bet you will turn it on and it will miraculously work all of a sudden even if you haven't touched it.

Well get your bitch ass uninstalling and re-installing then! Once you've installed ArmaII/OA try and run that without Epoch. Also, make sure Commander is pointing to the right place, if you have more than one drive it can get a bit finicky.

You forgot to do the dance and offer a sacrifice to the gods of DayZ. Until you have completed these tasks, DayZ you shall not play. (Does normal DayZ work fine?)

I don't mean actual 'zones' - I'm just not sure of a better way to put it without it sounding silly. Certain areas would naturally have better loot (Cities, bases) but are also naturally more likely to be a tougher area to go to due to population (and thus, zombies). Specific areas would also have more specific items to loot that are potentially more rare in other areas - encouraging players to these regions of the map if they want a better chance at a certain weapon or clothing piece. I think 'friendly' was a bad choice of words too, I meant more in a 'Okay, we are both in trouble of dying here either of us shoots, I need this, you need this, Put it on the floor and walk away or we're both going to end up dying' type of deal - nobody wants to engage and risk dying but nobody wants to potentially allow the other person to get the upper hand - basically an encounter that didn't involve them immediately shooting each other. There are numerous ways that could play out, one could kill the other, they could kill each other, they could trade and continue to survive, they could trade and turn on each other - many, many possibilities other than 'be nice' or 'be a dick'. More like a mutually beneficial 'trade' rather than friendliness - if players were thrown into situations like this in a remote area there is the chance that just making a deal would be better than you both hacking into each other with a machete and bleeding out. The only way to make someone fear the death of their character means they are going to lose something of value (be it their rare weapons or their time having to progress to a far-away area). The 'It is very important that once you left a map you are never able to going back.' I couldn't see working - the only way to get players to progress to a new zone is by offering them something in that zone that they otherwise couldn't get in an other zone. 'Locking' them out of an area is just artificially forcing players to progress rather than giving them the choice. Riskier areas that require more than just brute-force could hold higher-end weapons would entice players to visit these areas if they want to potentially gain an advantage. The amount of preparation it requires (In both items, food, clothing and defence) and the scarcity of items would definitely add value to a character for me - I wouldn't want to have to spend hours collecting various supplies to be shot before continuing on into a snowy, mountainous region. Locking a character into a zone just seems superfluous - if players have scavenged supplies and travelled into a very harsh environment it's in their best interest to remain undetected, especially if they have less means of defence since they had to swap it out for supplies necessary to survive in a harsh climate.

The name just made me think: 'Idiocracy: The Server' Can I ask what the server load is like compared to vanilla DayZ with a needless amount of vehicles? Does it run a lot slower?

I feel that the only way to increase (friendly) player interaction is by forcing player to work together to fight a common foe - the zombies and the environment. The different zones wouldn't really increase the difficulty of the game overall, but focus on different areas of survival - this would also allow a certain feeling of progression without artificially implementing 'levels'. The difficulty for certain areas though definitely needs tweaked - cities for example: Everything you need is right on your doorstep, houses, supermarkets, pubs, hospitals but a laughable amount of zombies to 'defend' the area - increase the level of zombies in areas like these would strike a finer balance between risk and reward compared to now, it would also give players a reason to loot the 'low-level' houses rather than running straight through Elektro or Chernarus with no ill-effects. The reason most people fight at the moment is due to the difficulty of the game overall and the triviality of avoiding certain mechanics - there is nothing really to do when you have a weapon or two and a little food - survival is almost guaranteed and food/drink plays no real role other than you have to do it every half-hour or so to make sure you don't die. If there is a lot of higher-level or rarer loot found out-with the Chernarus area, e.g. in a Namalsk-like zone - players are going to have to travel an extreme distance from southern Chernarus as well as have to find the required items to ensure their survival before they can progress to the next zone (With a decent chance of survival - obviously you could risk going into a blizzard wearing underpants and a motorbike helmet but you're going to drop in temperature FAST). If weapons and ammo are the most valuable things to players now, changing that for certain regions will force players to adapt and either kill/team-up to survive - different area dynamics will mean that certain things are more immediately valuable than others. Most players at the moment don't give a shit about dying, they will spawn cycle to get one near a city, run through and pretty much be guaranteed an AK-74 or a Lee Enfield then head to the airfield (Which a lot of people HATE for being so far), by opening the map further north and west it will dramatically increase the distance players have to travel and put a lot more emphasis on more basic survival techniques rather than stockpiling guns and ammo to fight with. Might need to keep an extra pair of shoes, boots for the snow, a heavy jacket, heatpacks, food, materials to create a fire in a pinch - it's not harder per se - it just requires focus in a different direction compared to the current state of DayZ - the terrain may be harsher, forcing you to think differently than on Chernarus where temperature is not an issue but the different rewards may be an incentive for a lot of players to make the journey.

I've still to watch it, my internet has been pretty shitty the past night or two and I refuse to watch it in 480p. REFUSE. I have no doubt it will be good like usual though.. it better be.. I've gotten my hopes up and everything - was fine this morning so I'll try give it a bash tonight.

I used to do the opposite. There were normally 2 or 3 clans that would play on the server I frequented, a friend and I would ambush them when they went for a NEAF run and then play stupid when they cried about it in chat. Drop hints about the other clan heading towards that area earlier and while they are fighting each other we raid camps and steal lootsies.

I don't think you even need to go this far in depth, there are a lot simpler methods to increase difficulty. If each 'map' had different terrain, it could be used to set the 'difficulty', for example - north of Chernarus could be a Namalsk style map. Adding in a HEAVY focus in staying warm would already make the game significantly harder (And require heatpacks or warm clothing before moving into the area to reduce chances of hypothermia and death). If there is a warmer type of map there could be a significant focus on keeping hydrated as well as wearing lighter clothing so you don't overheat. As you move away from Chernarus the zombies could become greater in number also, thus increasing difficulty more. I'm not sure if there would have to be a particular reduction of loot if there is a lot of emphasis on certain mechanics (Heat, hydration) in these area as it would naturally make certain items more valuable and certain ones pretty useless (Finding shorts in a snowy area doesn't prove to be immediately useful). You can freely travel between the areas but you will have to keep track about which clothing will benefit you in which area as well as what supplies you are going to need - it will put more emphasis on stockpiling certain items (Heatpacks, water) rather than ammo, weapons and vehicle parts which is a trade-off you have to make if you want it to be easier. Edit: Bit more to add. By requiring certain gear in certain areas to be optimal it will definitely give a sense of progression (You will most definitely need to get warm clothing and heatpacks before heading to snowy area) but the progression isn't articially implemented with specific 'levels' you need to get to to advance. It will feel a lot more natural and allow the developers to put more mechanics which require certain clothing or items to work properly and thus force players to choose between a Warm Wool Coat which keeps you warm but doesn't provide much defence or Ballistic Vest which will provide a little protection to low-calibre rounds but won't provide much in the way of heating. It makes the end-game more.. varied.. for which area you are in, there won't be a single 'Best Set' over the entire map, certain items provide certain benefits and a certain trade-off for those benefits (weight, warmth, protection etc.).

The most important thing is just to be aware of your surroundings. Use zombies to check if a player is in an area - if they are, scout before you enter the area. Use cover to keep yourself hidden and use binoculars if you have them (B key) so you can scout an area from a distance. Once you learn to stay hidden you can then avoid people or get the jump on them if you have to kill them.

Stole all their vehicles (Including 2 choppers). They stole it all back after I logged out and someone else got the blame for it - still managed to get some weaponry out of it. There were 3 of us taking vehicles and only 2 of them so it took them a bit longer to move it all. A minor inconvenience. Muhaha.

But it's a sandbox.. you don't 'beat' a sandbox. The aim of the game is to survive - not being dead is winning.

A better example would be that you just bought a new house next to a bank which is undergoing renovations. While you are moving stuff around in your new house you find a large hole in the wall of the basement that they forgot to cover up - it leads right into the bank vault full of money. Yes, it is the fault of the bank for not correctly ensuring that the repairs were properly completed but it's certainly not acceptable for you to take the money and is quite clearly wrong both ethically and legally. In-game it is without a doubt unethical to abuse a bug for your own advantage and using the exploit to circumnavigate obvious mechanics is against the rules - it is pretty clear that the duplicated items are an unintended consequence, that's pretty clear. It's something that you would report to the bank (So it could be repaired) and not take advantage of the quite clearly wrong situation.

Wow. A sensible suggestion for once without people trolling in the first couple of posts. I think it's a brilliant idea - it would also provide enough of a different experience (between each of the cells) which would reduce the need for third-party/private servers. The sheer distance would be a brilliant deterrent to all the spawn-cycling and it would be very nice to see a sort of progression as you move outwards from Chernarus to the more distant areas. I think another good addition would be something that KoS suggested in regards to the health system, it should be more in-depth and require a lot more attention than 'Eat food when your food reaches the bottom' - it could perhaps relate to your exhaustion in travelling long distances. The crafting system WILL have to be a lot more in-depth than is currently anticipated but I think DayZ will be able to hold it's own against the various other games and their crafting systems that offer a similar experience. A lot could be done with this idea though - great write-up!

It should be decent for a last-ditch effort to survive but come with an increased chance of contracting a disease (As well as contracting any diseases that the deceased player had). That would mean if you REALLY had to you could have some orlok steaks but you might get the sniffles if he hadn't washed in a while.

I'd probably listen to Inception. - some of the mods are pretty antsy at the moment and you don't want any shiny warning points. :) Just vent through PM or somewhere else or you will no doubt get a ban for it. Admin abuse is still a problem on a lot of servers though (Including the Public Hive) you really just have to research a server before you play, bit of a PITA but it's better than wasting time on a server and finding out afterwards.

Don't worry, people will be needed to play the zombies - perhaps a bush?

Just play somewhere else. Some people are just unable to properly administrate or moderate people - pretty sad really.

I think this would be a good addition for player spawning. It makes sense that if you are waking up on the beach, in the cold you're not going to be feeling 100% and it will also give players something to do as soon as they start (Food, get yourself warm, drink) Not sure about all the different food groups (protein, carbs, etc) since I feel it will over-complicate things, especially for newer players. Once you are healthy it's easier to maintain your health but the beginning is more of a mission to get yourself healthy in the first place. The only downside I could see to this is that it makes new-spawns a lot more vulnerable so I'm not sure how it would play out (It would probably work if the spawns were a bit more random than currently though).

This one seems to be pretty unanimous for once: Fortification :beans: CoD Style Zombies :emptycan:

It's all down to what you want from the game. I prefer versions that follow the same formula and carry the spirit of the original game (Vanilla/DayZero) but some people just prefer to mindlessly shoot each other and drive vehicles around - something they could be doing in multiple other games that provide a better experience. There is also Epoch (which is very hit and miss) which provides base-building if you're a Minecraft fanboy - it tends to be full of crappy pay2win and bazillion vehicle servers which really defeats the purpose of the whole currency system since you find cars everywhere. Whatever floats your boat, really.

I don't see what value it would bring to the table. If it was enough of a bother I'd just imagine people would kill themselves and respawn with or without giving their friends their gear (or hiding it). On the other hand if it didn't really give the player a handicap it would be a little.. pointless. People kill themselves over and over to get rid of infections, get a better spawn etc. and I don't really see why this would be any different, the same sort of mechanics (hand injury) could be implemented into the whole new damage/hitpoint system.

Yep, safe way to play - choppers are a major pain in the ass when you're on the receiving end so I don't blame you. I tend to be a bit more cruel and just trash the chopper so it's unflyable but force them to destroy their own chopper or waste a lot of time repairing and refueling it. The apocalypse made me a cruel, cruel man.