mangozapp
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Posts posted by mangozapp
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Hey man, I hope I didn't give you the impression that I am emotional about this subject. I'm not. I was just stating my opinion. I like Frankie's videos - I think he does a really good job at what he does, but it's fiction. Again, my opinion. Now, to this:
I don't think that kid hackers are the real problem. I also don't think that they (hackers) will continue to be a huge problem as the SA is further developed. There will always be exploits, but the old, mod style of teleporting everyone a KM into the air, or insta-killing the whole server will be a thing of the past. If people want to cheat to get gear ... meh, whatever. There is always more gear.
One of the first hacking videos that I saw surface during the SA involved an adult. Most of them seem to be. Kids shouldn't be playing this game anyway. I know they do, but they shouldn't, so it's kind of a moot point. Kids exhibit all kinds of behaviors that aren't right for this game and its context.
I think the commune is a neat idea for a private hive for people who like that kind of idea, but that's it.
It's a thoughtful post on your behalf ... I was just disagreeing with portions of it.
So, in terms of the things that might drive players to hack ...
KoS is not a problem. It's part of the game. Banditry is not a problem. It, too, is part of the game. When content is added, the prevalence/frequency of KoS will change. When guns and ammo are more rare, and zombies are all over the place, when camping and hunting are in-game, bases and barricades, spawn-camping will be much more difficult ... It likely won't ever stop, but it will be lessened.
DayZ is a fascinating social experiment, and the more rules applied the worse it will get, IMO. I'm interested to see where it goes.
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. ;)
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'so old'
why the hell does that make any difference?
'doesnt change anything'
all the thousands of hackers that have been permabanned beg to differ.
honestly i don't believe that hackers could be made into nice people if they were hand held and breast fed through the game by an older group. first of all, if it's kids that you want to help, remember that they shouldnt even legally be playing this game. that's a parent's fault, not the community.
'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.
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No. In no respects do I agree. Hackers are a product of their own insecurity, immaturity, incompetence and/or cowardice.
One of those guys is a hacker ... and the other live streams. Frankie is a very talented producer of fictional videos with the help of post-production editing and hacks (though maybe not hacking anymore). Live streaming ... it's all out there. Sacriel is the real deal.
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.
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first of all, i'm not tired of people ridiculing and hating on hackers.
the fact that you think they deserve our sympathy i just find laughable. they know full well what they're doing. it's not our fault for creating this community. these people just want to have an edge over other players and lots of them get kicks from ruining other people's fun. you think that deserves sympathy? they deserve to be permabanned.
your solution only adresses the problem if it were actually what you thought it was. hackers aren't all 5 year old kids who were 'misguided' when they started gaming. hackers are all kinds of people, all assholes. anyone who goes out of their own way to ruin someone elses fun is not some misguided kid.
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?
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"As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy."
- Christopher Dawson
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)."
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This is a big post, I know. But I'm attempting to address what I feel is a big, complex, social problem so I hope you'll bare with me dudes... I'll try to make every word count. Thanks for reading... and for thinking.
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"HACKER!!! F*** YOU!!! Grow up and learn to play by the rules like us!!!"
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Tired of that? Yeah, me too. But 'Dev Team Daddy' and the BattleEye Army are sure to be victorious over those nasty hacking parasites! Yes! Lets prey our security forces make those ungrateful little boys go and play somewhere else. Grr! Go on! Shoo!
Hmm.
This is how the 'hacking conflict' looks to me right now: We are staking our hopes on Chernarus staying peaceful as a Police State - A Chernarus ruled by the iron hand of The Mighty BattleEye! Kneel before him you hacking scum!
Problem:
BattlEye ain't in the business of solving the hacking problem: on setting new players off on the right track. BattlEye is in the business of defending us against existing hackers - there is a world of difference. Yes indeed.
It isn't in BattlEye's power to halt the creation of new game-hackers. No. It surely ain't. Hacking is a social issue. I'd stake my (in-game) life on the fact that 9/10 players input their first hack as a direct response to other players leaving them feeling insignificant and ill-equiped to play and/or exact revenge.
I know I'm not the only one that noticed this over-riding character trait in hackers: hackers are vein and insecure kids, they are desperate to prove themselves, to be noticed...
"Well we all know that, your point is...?"
Many of them just wanted to be in our gang, they felt excluded. ...Aww, diddums. No. This means that any hackers who haven't migrated here from other games are, in part, a creation of our community.
"But we're just playing the game!"
True, but you're missing the point... If it's our fault then we can do something about it.
"But BattlEye is working O.K. right now... Isn't it?"
I don't know the statistics but I do know that if the root cause isn't addressed then the hacking counter-culture will remain to grief us. Yep. That kid the gaming community is going to fail to connect with, that kid who turns to hacks, that get's banned... That (actually highly inventive, creative) kid will be welcomed with open arms into the seriously f***ed up hacking community. Once he's there he's going to learn a whole lot of really nasty tricks to come back and blight us with. This isn't a dying counter-culture, it's alive and growing, learning and adapting. It's getting stronger.
The political term for this situation is an EPIC FAIL.
So are we agreed: in some respects game-hackers are a product of our own short-comings, oversights made by the gaming community...? O.K. Then we can try to find some solutions to the root cause. Of course, its a big problem with many contributors... Lonely kids, angry people, games companies who actively encourage elitist hierarchies... (there's always people at the bottom of a heirarchy who become angry). Whatever. The fact is dudes, that elitist stuff is unimaginative, boring crap. DayZ is different... Right? Right. In DayZ everyone is just a survivor - until they die...
'This is your story.'
That's what makes DayZ so special. But as things stand right now we're inviting trouble. We're leaving everything to chance, leaving 14yr old Davey378 to find his way through to the gold at the end of the DayZ rainbow completely unassisted... That's a big risk.
The Transition:
You're a half-starved, panicking man in his underpants. You want to play like Frankie, like Sacriel. You get shot in the head every time you see someone.
Some players don't know where to start with a complex hardcore simulation like DayZ. Some don't have the patience and Google-skills to teach themselves to stand a chance. Some kids just can't take trying and dying alone - repeatedly.
"Well DayZ isn't for them."
Yeah, whatever. The truth is that quite a few servers are populated almost exclusively by hardcore, piss-taking bandits. Yes, that's DayZ. However, for a new player excited to have eventually got this awesome game that he's been watching on the streams - To arrive and have the piss taken out of him straight away - that's not a good introduction into the DayZ community. If we leave certain players alone in that situation they're going to get seriously pissed off. Certain players left in that situation will become so pissed off that they turn to hacks. There needs to be an alternative available to the new player... These guys want to learn, they want to learn from other players in-game.
...And let's face it, hunting a guy who's running down the middle of the road with a bright red bike helmet on -
- "Whoa! That's DayZ!"
It is right now, yes :huh:. But I'm not alone in feeling that this side of DayZ is pretty tedious and only really amusing for griefers. Besides, after an hour's guidance new players will still be easy prey for experienced bandits. They'll have a lot to learn and a lot to fear, however, they might at least start off feeling they've been given a chance by the DayZ community. So this is just about setting new players off thinking in the right direction and, more importantly, giving us a way to welcome new players into our community...
Introducing: 'The Commune'
(Any alternative twists, ideas or solutions to the issues I've tried to address with this idea are, obviously, very welcome... The main thing is we think about the root cause to these social issues and ways to address them.)
New Players are given the option of entering 'The Commune'.
'The Commune' might be a permanent compound on the map that server admins can choose to turn on or off. It may be located on servers tailored to receive new players. It could, eventually, be on an island... There's plenty of options.
The Commune would be manned by existing players/community members choosing to participate as guides. I am not suggesting some formulaic training program. The game is simply providing a location set aside for players to exchange their knowledge. The experienced player is available to answer questions and lead a loot run... Or whatever they like, basically any 'training' received will only be as useful as the guide makes it. A new player might meet a hard-nosed Sergeant or a cuddly medevac dude... It'll be open.
A system would likely need to be put in place whereby the guides can be voted :thumbsup: up or down by the players they are helping. This way, a griefer will only waste one group's time. So (if we insist on ranking) this system promotes active community members who are working to welcome and inform new players on what DayZ is all about.
Brand new players might be spawned directly into The Commune. Existing players wishing to get a few tips might seek this safe place out - although the second option is more in keeping with DayZ's theme it leaves a lot to chance for a new player, the new player will likely get lost and may be killed by bandits on route - repeatedly. That would miss the point: meeting new players before they get irritated and are drawn into the KOS mentality or, worse, turn to hacks to survive.
Through entering the commune and their first loot run with a guide new players can be taken through the basics by an experienced player:
While inside The Commune:
· Forming a team (this is the most important thing of all)
· Using Teamspeak or Skype to stay in touch with your team members
· A few pointers on where to find more info and where to post ideas/bug reports.
· A few pointers on an initial game plan
On the loot run:
· Sustaining yourself - food, drink etc.
· Medical
· Basic navigation
· The do's and don'ts of travelling - remaining hidden etc.
· An overview of what to expect when meeting other players.
A system of this kind may also be of real interest to existing players, aside from the pleasure of being a guide it might double as a way for any player to find and form a group. This seems to be a dead zone right now. It was hard to find players to team up with in the Mod, now with the exclusion of Global chat in the Standalone it is near impossible. The fact is that there are many players out there who do not have an existing team of friends to play with, not everyone has a bunch of mates who also play DayZ.
That's more than enough to (hopefully) get this discussion started.... What's the feeling out there dudes...? :)
P.S. I made a mistake and posted this originally under Mod Suggestions... I can'd see a way to delete that post so it'll have to be doubled up. :blush:
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safezones are a ridiculous idea in any form for sure .... between the forum and steam finding a group of people to roll with is easier than ever, just a matter of finding a group you fit in with.
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.)
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This borders another idea of safe areas and I think as long as this commune place is on an island or several off the map then it might work. Problem is people will camp these areas very hard because people are dicks and like killing unarmed bambis.
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.'
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I have moved this post to DayZ Suggestions.
(I didn't notice I was posting under DayZ Mod suggestions. :blush:)
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Hello, it's FatKangaroo! I've read many pages on a wiki, watched several videos, and play for about 24 hours now. Although, I still have a few question that would help me out. I'm sure the info is out there somewhere and I may have missed it, but your help would be greatly appreciated! :D
I know there are day/night servers, but...
1) Are the times within the server fixed or do they progress. And if so, at what rate?
I've gotten a long range scope before but the wiki says there are no snipers but I have heard of the M107 before...
2) Is the Mosin 9130 only gun that can be turned into a long ranged weapon, as if it were a sniper?
I'd like to be up to date with the game...
3) Where can I go to be well and frequently informed about the game's patches/updates?
I feel like learning the world map is going to take a very long time...
4) Are there any tips to help me out? (I am using maps too, but it's still tough)
My biggest goal is to help out others and be a hero...
5) What are ways in letting them know I wish to do so? (I do have a mic btw)
Any other tips that you've learned along the way to help out a somewhat new player?
Thank you very much for your time!
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:
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Please try out the M4 before accusing me of a bad player.
My point exactly.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Meeting the Hacker Within: A challenge to the Devs and the community.
in Suggestions
Posted
...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.]