TheCaptn (DayZ)

Well nuts. This was the best US server I've played on and it's gonna be hard to find a new home... I understand the reasoning though. The rampant hacking is a result of ArmA's sudden popularity, it's been almost unrestrained, and your YouTube channel in particular makes you a target. It's probably unfair to ask this; but if, in the future development of DayZ, you folks decide to try again could I get on a notification list or something? :)

Today was a bad day for hackers. :( That guy wearing Rocket's skin earlier in the day, and now (the last hour or so) another guy flying around in an A-10, then teleporting every player to him to be killed en-masse.

I noticed DevilDogGamer playing on the server today, which was pretty cool. I figure the more RP/community minded bandits we can accumulate, the better it'll be for everybody. :)

Sure, if every pack model had a ghille-style alternative with the same dimensions, they could be displayed instead and I'd be totally cool with that. It would be ideal in fact... The problem at the moment is that a very large, fully loaded backpack can be made to disappear entirely, not just covered over or changed in appearance, but invisible. I suggested it my way because that could presumably be achieved by code alone, it wouldn't require any new or edited models and textures. Same deal as above... Also if you can successfully wear a jacket over the top of a fully loaded hiking pack (even a nice big waterproof jacket), and then still have the freedom of movement to crawl around and manipulate a rifle (or boomstick handle will do), then youtube that. I'd very much like to see it. [edit] And by 'hiking' pack I mean something equivalent to the Czech, ALICE or Coyote backpacks, not those little day packs.

For what it's worth I see S6! names coming up as 'killed' an awful lot in-game (I imagine people are gunning for Acebane in particular, hoping to see themselves on YouTube)... Statistically speaking it's inevitable that those deaths are going to coincide from time to time with server crashes. I've been playing on the server for 5 days and seen 2 scheduled restarts and 2 crashes in that time. That's definitely nothing like the pattern of behaviour you see when admins abuse their power.

Anyone know who runs US 682 (formerly Seattle 61)? I'd love a contact email, since I have a few comments and suggestions... [Mainly that the server title says "Regular" while it's actually a Veteran server, but also other things]

Cheers for that Easymoney! :lol:

I'm guessing the Hive is getting DDoSed again, based only on the fact that the symptoms look the same as when that happened previously... I also filter for "seattle", and I've now been on three servers today that timed out and vanished without restarting. My regular server (#61) hasn't been up since I woke up this morning, around 6 hours ago. Meanwhile the list of available servers grows ever smaller.

Just out of interest, how do we suppose that a zombie can actually tell the difference between a human and one of its own kind at 120m? Assuming one is standing still or walking of course. I found the 1.7.2(?) long-range aggro to be immersion breaking for more or less this reason, that it's uncharacteristic behavior for zombies as we commonly see them depicted. So I still have some of the same concerns now. I know the zombies are pretty soft as things stand, but couldn't we try something more in-keeping with the pop culture traditions? Have zombies aggro on another zombie's rage cry for instance. That way we'd hopefully preserve those 'Shaun of the Dead' moments where you're in a town, surrounded by shambling zombies, but when it all goes tits-up you'd get hoard-like behaviour even when using suppressed weapons.

You could also use Y/N, which I think would be more intuitive for most people than 1/0. Giving you something like: [3DP=Y CH=N NT=N]

Rocket's a New Zealander, the New Zealand servers are all still up. Clearly it's a conspiracy. :D [edit] But yeah, not seeing a single Aussie server at the moment. Looks like we'll be playing on Dallas tonight, NZ's chock full already.

It doesn't make sense to me that a ghillie suit can magically hide the largest 24-slot backpack in the game. The ghillie should really be a tactical choice that an individual makes, sacrificing some carrying capacity in favor of greatly decreased visibility. But I'd like to show backpacks on the ghillies, not make them unwearable. The option to carry that 24-slot pack would still exist, it'd probably just be unwise if you're expecting to make contact. And there would be a few interesting options. Those czech vest pouches, useless at the moment, would be a low-profile solution that allows the ghillie suited player to carry a few extra supplies (6-slots I believe?). Even the Czech backpack might be considered, as the least visible of the larger packs. Incidentally, I know it's come up before but the Czech and ALICE packs should really have their capacities swapped; which would make this suggestion even less onerous.

I agree that's the ideal, but my team no longer plays that way, and it doesn't sound like yours does either... After all, you apparently have more than enough kit that you could hunt animals and refill waterbottles in perfect safety indefinitely. And yet you don't, right? All the actual requirements for survival have long since been met, so now you'd be setting your own loot-based goals. Finding and repairing vehicles? Upgrading weapons? That sort of thing. Maybe, but it's not a prerequisite. Unaccomplished survivors can still stumble into a campsite full of gear. Even if that's still true, what do you do when you die? Restock at camp and try to replace the lost loot?... Meanwhile all your old stuff is still in play. In my experience this is a bell curve, and my whole goal here is to keep us at the top of that curve. At one end (respawn) you care nothing about death because you're no worse off, at the other end (fully loaded campsite) you also care nothing about death, because you can get picked up and restocked in a matter of minutes. The point where the stakes feel real, and you're truly afraid of dying is in between. Where you have some good equipment, but you can potentially still lose it all. Unless your team deliberately hunts newbies in the bean wars that's not true at all. The way you're geared up it sounds like you're probably up in the north, fighting people on a more or less equal basis, right? If that's the case, then your chances for potential rewards are only going up, regardless of which team wins a given encounter... This is because the winning side will tend to keep the best loot in play, it might change hands multiple times; meanwhile more copies of that same loot are constantly trickling in. See above. You keep equating loot with skill like it's some kind of simple distinction. It's not, it shouldn't be, and I'm a little confused by your claim... Are you seriously suggesting that one unskilled player with an M249 is no better off than another unskilled player with a Makarov? Clearly both skill and resources are factors in any combat. You've clearly missed my point here, since I'm not trying to take your M107 away from you, I'm looking for a way to keep it unique and valuable. A few weeks ago we passed the point where the CZ-550 and DMR were the standard long-range rifles, into the era of the M24 and SVD. Now we're already starting to retire those later rifles as more and more M107s become available... In a few more weeks you won't care about losing -that- M107 anymore, because you'll likely have backups in stock. Wait, didn't you just try to argue that loot can't compensate for survival skills? That would mean I'm not punishing you at all... Any misrepresenting of my actual argument notwithstanding. :) I'm still not sure you're getting my point. How is not being able to find an ultra-rare weapon in any way punitive?... Even with a theoretical malfunction mechanic that I already suggested wasn't ideal, it would be applied equally to all weapons, not targeted at the high-end ones. Anyway, when we eventually hit the ceiling and there are enough M107s, Mk 48s, M16A2 M203s and FN FALs littering the servers that basically anyone who's interested can find one fairly easily, I reserve the right to say "I told you so". :P What you're talking about here is a consumption mechanic, and you're right, it would be very possible to limit the proliferation of effective weapons by severely limiting the ammuntion available to them. The only reason I'm not a huge fan of that solution is that the numbers of weapons would still continue to rise, it's just that the vast majority of them would never have any ammo to fire.

Currently the economics of the game are completely ruined by the easy duplication of weapons and equipment, but I'm not addressing that here. ----- I've been thinking about the economic fundamentals of the in-game experience. I'm not an economist, but if someone around here is I'd really love to get more input. The problem, as I see it, is that better weapons, ammo and equipment are continually being filtered out from among the loot tables and being saved, stored, or otherwise kept in play. Since there's currently no mechanism to remove these things from play, other than their owner dying and -not- being looted, their numbers generally continue to increase without limit, and their actual value declines accordingly. Imagine a blank server, with a blank database, and 50 people join it. The only weapon type anywhere, at that point is Makarov's... Half an hour later a few people have Winchester's, some have better pistols and one guy has an AKM that he found in a deer stand. That AKM is arguably the highest value item in the game at that point. A day later AKM guy has died, and his killer now has that gun. An additional 6 or 7 people have also found AKMs, two others have found DMRs, and one lucky bastard has found a Suppressed M4 in addition to their AKM, so they store that AKM in a tent just in case they die. Fast forward another week and many more people have done the same. They've continued looting, stored their 2nd best weapons (and perhaps many more), and either improved their current equipment, or died. For those who died, their 'best' items are often kept in play by whoever killed them, and not removed from the economy. The dead player then respawns, gears up with their 2nd tier equipment, and picks up the loot filtering process not far from where they left off. Even in the most extreme case, where they die without any stockpile, and their equipment isn't looted, they still begin to contribute to the filtering process again immediately. At some point then the game economy will become saturated with high-end gear, and I'm already seeing that trend develop. Four or five weeks ago when I started playing an AKM was really worth holding on to, quite the rarity among a field of Winchesters, CZ-550s and Lee Enfields. When my group found a single M4 CCO we treated it like it was some kind of magical totem. Now AKMs are dirt, we're armed with Suppressed M4's, an MP5SD, Bizon SD, M-24s and a number of DMRs. We don't even look at AR-15 pattern rifles anymore unless they come with an ACOG or M203 launcher, and we have more than enough stuff that people can restock easily after a death (assuming we don't recover their original gear). Yet we still spend all our time looking for even better "stuff"; continuing the filtering process. I think some additional kind of mechanism is required to remove equipment from the game. A single standard rate of breakage or malfunction for instance... Items that spawn above that rate would tend to hang around, while items that spawn below the rate would be removed from play faster than they respawn, and thereby maintain their value. This doesn't mean you'd have to make rare weapons exceptionally fragile, just that their spawn rates would be managed to maintain limited numbers. People could still hoard them, or save them for special missions, and that would actually contribute to the campsite-hunting metagame that goes on. If anyone knows of other ways to regulate an over-abundant economy I'd very much like to hear it, because honestly I'm not entirely sold on my own solution... I just can't think of any practical alternative.

Pistol and a single magazine might be better, especially if the pistol type were randomised to some extent... The concerns people have about lacking -any- ability to defend themselves at spawn points are legitimate. Just on this subject, there are waaay too many guns and ammo boxes coming up in the loot lists. I want to cherish a single STANAG mag like it's gold, even if its only purpose ends up being as a trade item for something I can use, like 2 boxes of .45 ACP.* *Just as long as a solution is found for rechargable magazines first. :s