mangozapp

That is properly interesting dude. And, yes, you're bang-on, I'm going from complete guess work, from a few brushes with hackers where I had very little chance to actually communicate with them. It's a whole lot better to actually hear about it from the horses mouth... Before writing the post I was thinking how little I really know about hackers, but I guess its information I'm not that keen to start browsing for, I don;t exactly trust hacker sites. I guess that's what frustrates me so much about the ban-hammer, its the fact that it's just 'end of discussion'... I don't mean it isn't needed, I don't mean I don't applaud it but part of me wants a minute to see if I can't find out why that dude just killed the server. So, I'd be interested to know, do you think there is sometimes an in-game issue that sends virgin hackers off to find scripts? I mean, in your experience, is the idea of a chip on someones shoulder causing them to 'turn' just bollocks... Is that not something you've seen at all...? I guess what I'm fishing for is whether you'd have any suggestions to keep players on-side somehow before the ban hammer comes. I'm curious. Well I never. Most unexpected.

...Ah. Then Sir, you are aging very well. In this case I might request you start a thread in the off-topic section to share a list of your hair products with DayZ players less fortunate than yourself... In the interests of the community ;)... No self respecting young hacker-to-be wants to be friends with a bald guy. Sob.. [sells his PC and goes to buy grey slacks and a lawn mower instead.]

That's cool dude, I'm with you on the fascinating social experiment, and completely with the less is more as far as 'rules' go. One thing that may stop a misunderstanding escalating... I'm 35. So, in all honesty, anyone under about 20 is a kid to me. No insult, it just happens that way as your hair starts falling out. ;)

'So old' as in there are so many example in history to prove that this policy does nothing but destabilize a country/community. Name one instance where a policy that relies on censorship and imprisonment/banning has succeeded in stabilising a situation... In bringing some kind of peace. BattlEye and the Hackers are in an arms race. What I'm trying to address is the fact that the Hackers are still gaining new recruits. Cut off that supply and you might get somewhere... Then they're a dying breed. ....Right... Hackers become hackers at some point in their gaming, nobody is born a hacker, it requires skills and a desire to f*** up the community... If we don't somehow welcome people then we are powerless, they are an invisible man in an anonymous world... For such a player there is no debt to the community, no moral obligation, he can fuck everything up and walk away with a clean conscience. Meet him, help him out and suddenly there's a debt. For some that will not be enough... btu maybe for other it might just make them decide to join a different clan and not bother with that bunch of griefers/hackers.Once someone's hacking and banned that's game over. They are then hidden away trying to come up with a way to take revenge.I have no interest or suggestions on how to reform existing hackers.This is OUR community. Whose fault anything is is really beside the point, the point is that if we stop simply pointing the finger then we might put a little thought into creating an environment that doesn't hand kids over to the hacking community so readily. A last point, I know all hackers are not kids - but I call them kids because they have an immature, insecure mentality. Now we can say 'well f*** 'em.' But the fact remains, they're here in Chernarus and some of them may become the thorn in our side if we don;t come up with a way to handle them that doesn't just wait until they actually start griefing or hacking.

Yup, I know Frankie hacked. I'm asking folks to pout themselves in the place of that insecure little kid. If we refuse to do that, if we refuse to compromise ourselves by actually thinking how they might feel... Then really there's no way of guessing how we might go about stopping those, yes, insecure kids from turning to hacking. I am not asking anyone to sympathise. What I am saying is that an irritating, insecure kid is... irritating. If that kid ends up doing a Dos Attack because we left him out in the cold... That's a serious problem that cost people money. Maybe it is therefore worth us actually trying to think of ways to bring this kid into our camp, set him straight before he hacks! So, you see, I'm not talking about hackers here at all really, I'm talking about kids that have the potential to become hackers... Kid's who, with a bit of attention, might stay just another player like the rest of us. And one thing. Dudes. I've raged a screamed and spat at many a hacker in my time. But lets just try to stay a bit cool, yes, it's an emotive subject. But we're the good guys... We've half a million minds working for DayZ... Surely we can come up with something a bit more creative than simply increasing security...? Man, that's so old... and it so doesn't change anything.

O.K. Where at any point did I say hackers deserve our sympathy? Nowhere. Would you then say that hackers are born hackers? Like certain psychologists postulate is the case with psychopaths.. (far from proved)..? Do you think that all players who turn to hacking or griefing would turn to this even if they were surrounded by a group of players that welcomed them, that set off with them to play the game together...? What do you think dude? Your permaban... If you don;t actually try to offer an alternative way of those kids gaining what they are somehow missing in our community then really, isn't your ban hammer just sending more and more fresh recruits off to HacksVille to learn new tricks?

I have wondered on this sadist element myself. I'm not trying to be clever with you but read this quote you posted again... "As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil..." This is the bit that I'm talking about. I'm suggesting that, as things stand, an Evil is far too easy to find for a new player arriving in Chernarus. Without there being any active welcome on the part of the community into our ranks then we're basically giving a budding Sadist his Evil on a plate. "Nobody met me, nobody helped me, all they did was shoot me and then ban me when I eventually fought back in the only way I could - a damage hack." - After an experience like this the kid can move without interruption or debate to "the evil that they set out to destroy (by any means necessary)."

I have moved this post to DayZ Suggestions. (I didn't notice I was posting under DayZ Mod suggestions. :blush:)

Fair enough and thanks for the tip... I've been playing DayZ since the mod came out and I've never thought of using the forums or Steam to find other players to roll with. Using forums in that way just ain't in my sphere. This pointer would be a good thing for you to impart to a new player. How do you stand on actively bringing new players into the community - in-game? (Because the fact is they're buying a game, not a forum membership.)

Yep. The camping issue is a big one. In DayZ Epoch the trading cities were developed to combat this problem. They needed some fine tuning but I played for long periods on some servers where they were pretty trouble free... Camping was not an issue in fact, it was back-pack stealing that caused problems. That's not an issue anymore. One of the major new challenges in this area is the lack of global chat. Without this there's no way to report a hacker or griefer to admins. In 'wider' chernarus I so though see the lack of global chat as a good thing as it used to break the immersion. I wonder about putting a kind of limited global chat into something like this commune. Also, because not everyone is cool, a means to tag any players camping the site. Such campers would lose their anonymity and be tagged for server admins to deal with as they saw fit. Another simple solution might be to make players in the locality of the commune easily visible to other players so that they can then avoid or report abuse. Yes, all compromises for the purists but 'nothing comes of nothing.'

Hi, Beginning with the last question you asked, tips and tactics... Learning to observe and travel properly is the biggest thing that will effect you, its what took me the longest and changed my chance of success the most. If an experienced player spots you first you've practically no chance. If you spot someone and they don't see you: it doesn't matter whether they're a noob or Frankie himself, you're holding all the cards... Travelling (on a busy server): Scan everywhere before going anywhere. :rolleyes:Use free-look to scan your area as you move. (Don't constantly sweep the camera around, move it around you in steps so you can study each view before switching your attention elsewhere.'Check you six'.Turn 'View bobbing' to minimum in settings.Choose routes that give maximum visibility while providing cover between you and oncoming, unexplored areas. Try to arrive at new urban areas at a good viewpoint i.e. a hillside with a clear view over your destination. Wait. Players busy looting are only visible occasionally.You're most visible when silhouetted against the sky - on a hill top or roof... Stay back, out of view, and peek over with 3rd person view.Stand upright when moving out of cover, you move faster, you're harder to hit, you reach cover quicker. Unless you're ducking behind something you're no better hidden crouched.If you're out of cover in a high risk zone (i.e Cherno area) then use Q and E to run in a zig-zag. Don't stand still in the open. If you must pause then run 'in circles' (and free-look).You'll see that grass and small bushes disappear beyond 50-100m. Don't use that 'local' foliage to hide yourself. Use pine trees. (Many players choose to play with detail settings on low so they can spot players more easily.)Build an awareness of your line-of-sight, note blind spots, powerful sniper positions. Move through cover in respect of those 'question marks'.Keep your weapon raised while sweeping particularly high risk buildings/areas (military buildings).Look out of windows as you loot buildings and before exiting. The axe-man cometh while you're inside.You're most vulnerable when in-menu picking up loot.Oh **** it, just risk it and run in. 'You're dead.' ...Soooo many times. :blush:If you see somebody: Don't go prone and think you're suddenly invisible, you ain't. Prone people are nice slow moving targets to pop away at.Don't panic fire, you'll give them the advantage: they know you're there and where. You're also a bandit, now they're coming for you.Unless you were running out in the open they probably haven't seen you. Watch them.If there's cover between you and him, you're safe. However much you're ****ing your pants.Try not to get out of breath in a combat situation as you cannot aim well. You're safest waiting for them to break cover for this reason.Bare in mind many players play in pairs - If you haven't been spotted then chill, wait to see if they've a friend nearby - I'd be on the hill if my mate was in town, spotting for him.If you decide to take a shot then relocate quickly once you've fired... If they've half a brain they'll run for cover, that's your chance to sneak away and flank around.Fire and flank on round... Fire and move people!If you shot my mate while I was nearby I would probably wait and try to kill you when you stopped to loot his body. Its desperately demoralizing old chap, the tables turn so quickly, so terribly quickly. Find someone to play with, put them on watch while you loot or vice-versa, keep your distance from each other, maximise your combined observational ability. Use Skype or whatever to communicate your movements to each other while playing... Warn each other before firing on zeds, likewise if you change clothes. Keep looking, keep flanking. Many of these tips came to me via FrankieOnPC's DayZ Mod video's - http://www.youtube.com/user/FRANKIEonPCin1080p :thumbsup: (Don't take too much notice of his two covering the standalone, they're OK videos but it seems he hasn't read the change logs so he explains a lot of things incorrectly.) If you want to learn how to be a hero he's your man, a pro. He's playing the mod but you can learn loads of useful stuff from him for the standalone: watch how he observes and moves, how he uses cover etc. Your other questions... 1) Day/night cycle: Currently in-game time runs with server regions's time IRL - Dawn breaks on UK servers (my region) at around the same time as in reality (though it's not seasonal so it's not exact). If you wish to play in daylight at 12pm real time you may need to find yourself a server in a different timezone (and a higher ping). Server names often include a region prefix: i.e. 'DayZ - UK130'. 2) Ranged Weapons: There are currently only two rifles: M4a1 and Mosin. Mosin is as Mosin does. An M4A1 fitted with an ACOG scope has reasonable range. However, there is a bug (presumably) that makes the M4A1 terribly inaccurate at any range above, say, 50m - unless you find and fit it with some Magpul parts (military loot spawns). I currently have an M4A1 fitted with an ACOG scope, magpul stock and hand-guard - firing 30 rounds I guessed it effective to upto around 200m. As far as I am aware part condition does not currently change accuracy - but I might be wrong. Zeroing: DayZ has realistic projectiles - they do not fly in a straight line but fall through an arc as they fly. Your scope has zeroing (set with PageUp / PageDown) which will compensate for this 'bullet drop'. It works both ways though. If you have zeroing set at 300m and take a head shot at a...err... bandit sat 50m away, the bullet will fly way over his head. :huh: I generally travel with zeroing set close, 50-100m. If I come face to face with somebody at close range I don't want to be thinking about zeroing. With long range encounters, generally, one player is unaware of the other until the first shot is fired. If I spot them first then there's no rush, if I don't and someone's firing at me then cover is the priority. 3) Keeping up-to-date: If DayZ updates when you launch Steam then it has been updated, nothing changes without an update. When this happens check the Change-log which will be right there with other news on Steam under the 'PLAY' button. They are sometimes full of 'server security' stuff but are always worth reading through carefully as little changes often dramatically effect your survival options (as can bug fixes etc.). 4) Navigation: They seem to have added a yellow marker to the maps telling players where they are and which way they are facing. You shouldn't have any problems now. Something I've started doing recently is taking a compass reading of the sun or which way the shadows are pointing. That way you can keep to a bearing while avoiding messing with the compass every time you turn around (locking free-look on helps with this too). I think that's a real shame, if you have a map the beautiful compass is pointless and there's no orienteering skills - its sat-nav really. Players used to learn a lot while navigating Chernarus - That kept the running interesting. An integral game component gone... Truth is there ain't a great deal to do at the minute as it is... 5) Being a hero: Remember you're playing a very early Alpha version. As the game now stands, once you have your kit you're one side or the other of a man-hunt. So, I think this will be a frustrating area for you for some months. However, much is yet to come: radios, animals, hunting, cooking, crafting, much complex medical system, vehicles, persistent tents and bases... etc. etc. etc... Once this stuff comes into the picture there'll be a whole lot more to keep players occupied and on the defensive. That will hopefully mean a reduction in 'kill on sight' and, maybe, more need for heroes. A heads up: The Arma II DayZ mod has been a popular game for nearly 2 years (?) so there is loads of information on the web relating to that. Currently DayZ mod has far more content (items, crafting options etc.) than the Standalone, including M107 sniper rifles, helicopters and... eh? Satchel charge excreting cows suddenly appearing in front of you... what the...? Oh FFS. YOU'RE DEAD. Praise be and blessed be your looting. :beans:

My point exactly.

If I was on the dev team I'd definitely not respond to this. You're basically saying (repeatedly) "You're probably going to act like complete pricks"... I and most other folks with half a grain of pride would respond to this assumption by acting in the way you expect. Imagine how many questions, suggestions and opinions there are out there from the 400'000 players for the devs to deal with, add the fact that they're all winding down after working their arses off for a year.... and the fact that it's Christmas eve... And the fact that most people don't start off with an insult. ...And here you are you're expecting a result by telling them they've done a shit job, making a joke out of it a second later and then going back repeatedly to say you think they'll act like complete pricks and ban you for stating your opinion. So... My advice, talk to people like they're cool and you'll get cool back, expect people to behave like negligent pricks and, surprise, surprise, you get negligent prick back... Strangers don't have time to go persuading other strangers that they're not pricks.

What an idiot I am... SCROLL DOWN THE MENU! Just realised after much difficulty with this issue... There are a few repairs to do on this ATV, so lot's of options in the side menu... refueling comes last on the list and the fact that I'm not seeing the whole list is indicated by a tiny weeny little white arrow at the bottom,.. which I didn't notice... and when you're looking for that sweet spot on the ATV where the option shows you forget about something obvious like that... ...And I find I'm dead when I go back after writing that anyway... bollocks.

As far as realism with vehicle parts goes - lifting a car engine or a chopper rotor assembly? Unless this guys Magnus Magnusson it isn't happening and he's not going to get more than a hundred yards with one even if he could lift it - he definitely ain't going to be sprinting with an engine tucked under his arm. Sudden thought: it would be pretty amusing and also realistic if you could push wheeled vehicles by hand, maybe requiring a minimum of two people to do it fro something bigger than an ATV - that would bring in a basic level of cooperation needed to get a badly damaged car repaired. Realism wise, from the state of the environment I always imagine that we're entering the game at least a six months after whatever catastrophe it was happened and in that scenario most vehicle batteries are likely to be flat. That means pushing cars to bump-start them. Think about it; your crack team of survivors desperately pushing their car out of Starry Sobor to get it running... how funny would that be - the panic of it, the ridiculousness of it - but actually far more realistic. Following that line through you might then bring in free-wheeling without the engine running, towing broken vehicles and the cooperation of two players to lift something really serious like an engine (and not being able to hold a gun at the same time). With those restraints/options in place there'd then be some strategic thought needed to decide how to go about repairing something like a broken engine - two of you creeping slowly through the woods with an engine between you, pushing the car/free-wheeling along a road to the place you've found your engine, or, risking involving another player to ask for a tow. All things which would greatly increase the risk of vehicle repair but, I think, also make the process a real challenge (past just tediously harvesting a warehouse for the right part) and, with the team aspect of it, pretty amusing. This is a slightly different topic but I think it's relevant to this line of thought: I'd take the one-shot kill sniper rifles out of the game altogether or make finding one one extremely unlikely. None of these slow-burn type developments are really going to be viable when one unseen guy a kilometer away can put a stop to everything in seconds. Personally, I think standing some chance to react to an enemy, rather than having a high possibility of instant death when entering an airfield (without even hearing a shot) would only increase the game's enjoyment, for the attacker also, it's stand-offs and real battles I remember, sniping or being sniped lacks any real satisfaction - and having a near certainty of finding a military sniper rifle after a few hours play seems to be a mile off the games hard-line concept.

Just been playing on a public Chernarus server v1.7.4.4 after reading this and it was complete darkness at 4:30am (dayZ time) with stars and just two-tone silhouettes with gamma right up. At about 6 vision began improving with sunrise (sky beginning to show blue) at 6:30 after which I had OK B&W vision with gamma right up, I could turn the gamma down to normal and see properly at about 6:45 (no night-vision goggles). So, I'd say without night-vision, you're going to be in trouble if you meet another player before 6:30 dayZ time. I checked all these times on my in-game watch because I'd just read this before logging in. I think daylight begins to fade at about 4:30pm with darkness around 6:30 so I reckon it's set to an equal 12hr day/night cycle.

Yup, I'm looking too. Things are too short lived... we need servers with some real longevity. The first (private) server I really put some time into building a player on - a woodland hermit type - that server's now gone down after two weeks survival. Another, with my brother - Panthera by MORTURIO - three nights play, bases carefully hidden all over the map, a chopper repaired and hidden... it was just getting really exciting - then the next night we found our server had changed the map to Lingor. Then there's unaccountable character resets, vehicle disappearances... All these issues stop me playing as I'd like, as I think DayZ was intended to be played - slowly building, sneaking, weighing up the risks and protecting what you've earned from being so cautious... with everything resting on each decision, each route you plan, whatever. Instead I end up playing it like any shooter I've already completed - entering into fights with other players, driving vehicles when it's obvious you're going to be shot at, risking a night's worth of loot to get 15minutes in a chopper... because there's a good chance everything will be gone the next day on account of some server issue - which takes all the tension and striving out of the game.