maxhewitt

I've read the devblogs too, but that shouldn't be a necessity to get into a game. If the dev want to make this game a commercial success - which I'm fairly sure they do - they can't be forcing any possible new players to read 3ish years worth of devblogs before they're up to speed! I've no doubt they will continue to work on the game and make steady progress. My fear is that by the time the game is 'finished' - if they ever realise a 'final' version - the playerbase won't be there, and the community will be too small to sustain itself.

This thread is basically existing players boasting about their success in the game whilst insisting that anyone considering playing / returning after absence (me) needs to commit to hours of research and/or private tutoring. I understand all games have a learning curve but this is putting off new players from joining and slowly putting previous players off from coming back. FYI all the 'how to play' guides in the beginners section are about 3 years out of date. Until the developers invest in one universal regularly updated online game manual, they can wave goodbye to any significant increases in player numbers and a sizeable community. The game currently consists of people learning how to play the game over great lengths of time (see Mookie's 5000 hours), before getting bored with the lack of progression. The game relies on players dying after collecting enough stash, so that they have to repeat the process again.

Hi all, I logged in for the first time in about a year today. I paid £20 for this game almost four years ago, and it's just not worth it. DayZ represents everything wrong with early-access games and open-world survival. Games are fun because of game mechanics. The physics puzzles in half-life, the twitch shooting in COD, the levelling in Fallout - all are examples of great gameplay mechanics that hook the player in and work well. DayZ is the opposite. It has a huge world and an awesome setting. The graphics and sounds are amazing (although you need at high-powered gaming computer to enjoy them fully, immediately shutting out potential players). But the game mechanics are unclear and never explained to the player. How do I craft? Where can I find items? How does health work? None of these questions are answered in game. The developers assume that the community will help itself - the blind leading the blind. They say that they are using player data from the Alpha to improve the game. But most players playing the alpha aren't told how to play the game. They learn everything about the game from the community, which immediately shapes the way they play the game - am I the only one who finds that ridiculous? Currently, the gameplay requires existing knowledge of the game - it is impossible to pick up and play. It consists of running around the map finding enough items to stay alive, whilst avoiding/killing buggy zombies using buggy combat and unclear stealth mechanics. The player must use an invisible crafting system to make unknown items to help them find / create further unknown items to help combat unknown status effects / ailments. Once the player has got bored of this, they will seek out other players. When they find them, they will either kill them, or team up and find other players to kill. They accumulate more and more gear until they get bored, are killed by another player doing the same, or die due to bugs. Just read that through. That is not a healthy set of gameplay mechanics.

Hi, Ping is not an issue at all, it's the time difference I'm afraid. Are you all on the east coast? Might make it manageable.

Are you Uk based?

Hey, are you guys UK based and do you have Uk chapters?

Is this clan UK based? Or do you have UK chapters?

Well seeing as we're all after the same thing, are either of you guys based in the UK?

Hi there, are you a UK-based clan? Inquiring for time difference and communications, cheers.

Yeah I'll get on the server hosts about a whitelist and see what I can do, obviously we don't get any hackers atm because it's not a big server. To be honest it's more for new players but it's a great training ground for oldies too :)

Hi all, the server that me and my friends play on is looking a bit empty at the moment - we only have about 10 regular members and a few people coming and going. As you can imagine, this doesn't make for a thrilling game! Basically, we'd love for anyone and everyone to come join us next time you want to play Day Z. Here's our server name: DayZChernarus (v1.7.4.4/100296)[Vehicles Added Daily] [RECRUIT] [3DP:ON/CH:ON] [Always Day] - hosted by SynergyGaming / DayZ.ST Here are the stats: Chernarus Map Recruit Difficulty 3DP ON Chat ON Always Day Here's our current IP: 199.195.198.140:3204 It's hosted by Synergy Gaming, and they seem like a really nice bunch: http://synergygaming.co/ So, hope you all come on over and give our server a go! Thanks for reading, and remember... SURVIVE!

I think he's just making the point that the game is brutally unforgiving to new players and that if the developers ever want to release it stand-alone, they need to make it user-friendly or at least explain these mechanics in-game.

Of course, I forgot that all new players have night vision...

What do you think blood clotting is? If I wound is small enough the blood coming out of a wound will congeal and form a scab - unless you're a haemophiliac. I agree, I'd love to blood regen in the game, but only when out of combat, resting, and neither hungry, thirsty, cold or in shock.

Well for one thing, almost every piece of zombie fiction ever created supports the view that humans are just as dangerous as zombies - you know where you stand with a zombie but you're immediately faced with moral dilemmas when dealing with humans. Also I don't think you should use the phrase 'authentically dangerous' - authentic to what? At the end of the day there are no hard and fast rules for zombies. We can't declare that they should be able to run faster, or bite, or punch, or smell blood...it's all speculation because zombies aren't real! The fact that there's a grey area between 'infected' and 'zombie' doesn't help. The developers haven't established whether or not they are re-animated corpses or living humans infected with a disease. Until the developers make their minds up and stick to their guns, all these debates on 'zombie' behaviour are fruitless. Interesting, but fruitless.