-Gews-

Instead of ringing, as a less irritating alternative which still reduces hearing some people have suggested a temporary lowering of in-game sound effects following close gunfire. Also: wear ear pro.

Do you expect folks to walk down and announce their intentions? One should always be aware of one's surroundings. That's how this game works. If I spot them first, they failed, and vice versa.

For me it is a PVP game, not survival. What is there to survive from, if not other players? Not hunger or thirst, just pick some apples and find a well. Not the infected, they are useless and easily dispatched with rocks, pointed sticks or even base hands, but only if you want to, since they can't catch you anyways. Not the weather, it's always been pretty mild and it is especially hard to freeze in this patch. Stairs, rocks, ladders and glitchy vehicles, I guess? There is the so-called "survival" which is not really about surviving, but about crafting all the homemade items like bows, fishing rods, stone fireplaces and leather clothing. All of this, of course, being completely unnecessary, and making it harder, not easier, to keep your character alive—although that's only due to the inefficacy of the crafted weapons against other players and the time spent sitting next to bright campfires. Which is fine, it can be a fun challenge or a peaceful activity, but it's not "survival". Anyways: my favorite PVP is when I come across people unexpectedly in remote areas. Unfortunately it doesn't happen that often. I prefer clean kills, which means ranged weapons and getting the drop without them noticing until it's too late. Melee is too hectic and not very satisfying. Why this game? Because the long gearing up process creates more excitement and fear of death on both sides.

I don't know if it's easier overall. It's definitely easier for the person who gets into their hidden position first, but the other guy, not so much. There is such a perception though. Many people say they feel "safer" in a 3rd person server (for me, the opposite). I don't understand why 3rd person is so much more popular, but I have some theories. Most everyone played the DayZ mod in 3rd person, most videos were 3rd person, and going to standalone many either stuck or started with that. When one is used to having the camera flying high above and behind their character's head, it can feel cramped and claustrophobic switching to 1st person. Also, 1st person camera can feel a bit jankier. For example, when running, the 1st person camera sways back and forth slightly (with head bob off). In 3rd person the camera remains motionless, it seems smoother. There are also the people who like to see their character model, for whatever reason.

Do you have any stats on the popularity of 3rd versus 1st person servers, public or private? When I checked last February I found the ratio was about 20-1 in favor of 3rd person:

My guess: probably nothing of consequence. Does that matter? I made some comments on this topic on r/dayz:

*yay*

They are fairly weak in outright damage, but they have a high shock value against the head. Combine with easy aim, fast repeat attacks and no blocking ability...

Middle of August? Are you sure of that? Hehe. But I don't think this theory holds water. Looking at Steam Charts, I don't see a noticeable drop or rise in population that can be associated with this season (highlighted period, beginning August to beginning September)

Modding—that is the big one right there. That will make or break it. Wolves? Bears? Helicopters? Even survivor bases? Haha, nope. Maybe for a patch or two until folks get bored. Ancient history says it's the mods that will draw the crowds... or not. Unfortunately, I never much cared for the mods of the mod, and I expect the same thing will apply to standalone. (the biggest problem I had with all those mods was the addition of countless ridiculous and inconsistent weapons packs, or worse, stupid changes to existing guns. I seethed at DayZero and quit playing that one in large part because they 'nerfed' the Lee-Enfield and other weapons for 'balance'. I'm picky about that stuff)

I don't follow the dev Twitters, but I do know that he's had that line for quite a while. Although his title was "Art Director" I believe he was also in charge of the weapon and ammo configurations and such. Either way, he was the one who replied about the various ammo types way back when (that old controversy about wrong and/or missing ammunition types). Hopefully whoever takes on his roles is also interested or capable of getting such things correct.

Those were the same thing, objects placed over the terrain.

I had similar concerns looking at the sparse population on the server browser the other night, and I also took a look at the Steam Charts, which confirmed it. Even this forum is pretty dead. I'm sure the population will spike a bit with 0.61, the issue is keeping those players.

Hicks said 6 to 8 months till beta at gamescom 2016: "[...] I don't think we're that far away from our beta, which is for us, beta is the switch from say, where we are right now which is like, 85% feature development, 15% bug fixing, and those numbers switch when we hit beta, and that's when I think you're really gonna start to see a lot of the major complaints, as DayZ players like myself will have with issues and bugs and such, not being taken care of, that's when we're really focusing on that, and I think we're probably, I'd say, what's this, the eighth month? So we're probably... I would say 6 to 8 months away from that." https://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/84091028?t=05h31m It sure seems like rushing to meet that goal would leave many features missing at beta, but what do I know?

That's a terrible example of dark, thanks to the perpetual full moon, which is there to appease visibility complaints. This is dark: Oh boy. Humans are not nocturnal animals. That's why we invented these:

From Rust devblog: Anti-Gamma Gamma cranking, a.k.a. the classic de-facto way to play Rust at night, shouldn’t be possible anymore. It does not matter what setting you crank, there just won’t be any details in deep shadows for your monitor to pick up.

Video could be cut down to <5 seconds.

The same applies to firearms. They all kill by some combination of blood loss, damage to the central nervous system and asphyxiation. A centrefire rifle just tends to do it faster and more emphatically than a bow. Handguns, not so much. So I would say firearms should also be hit, bleed, dead in many cases. Which they can be, but usually there is not enough "bleed" and it is far too easily stopped (a dirty rag, really?) You do need to remove an arrow, unlike a bullet, as the head is quite pointy and sharp, but you would not want to try to yank the arrow, not for fear of tearing tissues on the way out but because the shaft might separate leaving the arrowhead stuck somewhere in the body. According to the old-time surgeons it is better to push it right through, or to cut down, enlarging the wound to access the arrowhead, the method depending on the wound. Disagree on the leg-breaking. Arrow may not hit the bone or may pass clean through the leg, and even if it does hit bone the improvised bow isn't very powerful. Of course, we don't have this and probably never will, shots to any place on a torso will result in the same damage. A bit of RNG variation might be nice here.

You can watch a few streams to get an idea, although most all are in third person. That all depends on what kind of PVP experience you want. Yep... surviving the attacks of other players.

Always? No specifics IIRC. Slower run speed, vague comments. Many people seem to have pinned their hopes on the "new player controller" fixing everything.

It's not possible to actually dig into the terrain. They would have to make a depression in the height map, then place a custom object over that. I doubt they will change it, not a priority. You can see examples of "underground" places in Chernarus+ but the best-known is on the Namalsk map.

Well... I suppose they wouldn't dare remove that gun, but... I mean... the weapon is now correctly chambered... but ammunition from early 20th century America is spawning all over the place for rifles dating from the mid-to-late 19th century, so... not sure if better. 1000? Wow, that was a nice shot... at 1000m the bullet would have just under 50% of damage remaining, about 2 seconds time of flight. You would have had your barrel pointed almost 40 feet above him. My furthest was 700 m... once. I used to play around in the editor trying to use math and the Lee-Enfield to snipe at NPCs 3,000 meters away (at first with explosive rounds and zoom, but later only modified to extend the time of flight, normally capped at 6 seconds). Would shoot a few rounds, then skip to a camera to see where they landed 15 seconds later. Not accurate and hard to hit so I had to rain down a magazine or two. Wouldn't kill with just one shot.

2-slot shirt takes up only 1 slot, hehe. This bad boy:

Magnum, one box of .357 and a 2-slot checkered shirt.

Subsonic ammunition can do similar damage to regular 9 mm. Less, but not enough to really notice. It's FMJ, it pokes 9 mm holes. Subsonic is usually heavier (147 vs 124 gr) so the energy is kept up. The MP5SD, however, is designed to use normal ammunition and reduces its velocity as it passes through the barrel. You might get only half the energy of a regular MP5... but still a 9 mm hole. It's easier if separate SD ammunition exists for now. .45 should have somewhat more damage than 9mm, but not by a large amount. The two cartridges have very similar energies, neither lacks penetration and they are both low-velocity FMJ rounds which cause (relatively) minimal damage. Either round in the same place would have a similar effect. The larger diameter of the .45 isn't a huge advantage here and won't make up for poor shot placement vs the 9 mm. I don't like to try to put an exact number on it. I would probably feel okay-ish with a damage advantage between 15-35%. I agree with the idea that players should be able to debate which is superior. Does the Winchester fire .44 Henry now? Or still using "1866 slugs"? Anyways, let's assume this gun is a replica, which are offered by a couple companies, because it makes no sense finding actual 19th century "Yellowboys". If it's a modern reproduction, it can come in various chamberings, including .44-40 (not the original .44 Henry). They also come in .38 Special, which is cheap, widely available, etc, and .38/.357 is easily the most popular chambering for carbines and revolvers in "cowboy action" shooting. They would look something like this... just an idea... .44-40 200 JSP (1866 rifle) initspeed = 363; airFriction = -0.002; .38 Special 158 LRN (1866 rifle) initSpeed = 290; airFriction = -0.00115; And the energy, 850 J and 430 J respectively (.45 ACP, 500 J, 9 mm NATO, 490 J, 9 mm Makarov, 295 J). Hit value, decide yourself. 12-gauge slug should have the highest damage of all mentioned rounds (assuming FMJ) and also the fastest loss of damage, apart from buckshot. Damage drop-off is based on remaining velocity and remaining velocity is based on the real-life ballistics. In these cases at 200 m it would be approx. 40% remaining for the slug and 70% for 9 mm (to nearest 10%). About handguns vs rifles—handguns usually have far lower energy and typically cause much less serious wounds. Therefore pistol cartridges should have less damage than rifle cartridges. 5.45 is 2722, 5.56 is 3555. Pistols and submachine guns should be lower than those values—or total redo of all the damages. Yes, damages are not correct on that site. It isn't being updated. I believe they have changed them again but I haven't kept up with mod changes. It says in 1.7.7 changelog "Makarov and 1911 dmg updated". I forget what they changed it to, I assume original wacky ARMA values. Changed since? Many damage values made little or no sense in ARMA 2, so they updated them based roughly on the weapons' muzzle energies. This was a nice change, in my opinion. However, DayZ mod survivors are a lot tougher than ARMA 2 NPCs, so the new damages didn't work so great in the mod. Original ARMA 2 damage values: 9 mm NATO (Glock): 1389 9 mm Makarov (PM): 1828 (?) 5.45×39 mm: 3555 5.56 NATO: 3555 .45 ACP: 4500 12-gauge slug: 6655 (?) 7.62 mm NATO: 8000 .303 British: 12500 Post-patch damage values: 9 mm Makarov (PM): 813 9 mm NATO (Glock): 889 .45 ACP: 1389 5.45×39 mm: 2722 5.56 mm NATO (STANAG): 3555 12-gauge slug: 4455 .303 British: 6722 7.62 mm NATO: 8000 Here's a chart comparing the damage to muzzle energy both pre- and post-patch. The new damages make more sense—however, BIS likes round numbers for hit value, so instead of, for example, 7.42, they might round down to 7. You can see some are lower, but better match with the energy curve in general. The biggest deviation is for the 12-gauge slug. Maybe BIS used values for a reduced recoil slug, in which case their number would be appropriate. However, although the numbers are more consistent, basing them only on muzzle energy doesn't always produce good damage values for varied rounds... Funny story about the why the Lee-Enfield was so powerful, too...