herbster

Basically the concerns (valid or not) regarding the new food and drinks cans raised a valid concern regarding communication between various parties within the DayZ community, i.e. the players, moderators, developers, rocket etc.

I'm honestly baffled why people (including moderators) are still harping on about cans. Anyone who think the issues were about cans has the mental depth of the shallow end of a kiddies pool.

Just typing the names of all the cans into the changelog probably delayed the update by 2 days......... EDIT: Being serious now, if you want to implement a bug fix update, the last thing you do is add new content as it'll take more testing time to ensure the new features don't introduce new bugs.

I actually think they did a great job with the latest update, but that's not the issue. My issues are around a lack of prioritisation and an unprofessional approach to communication with the playerbase. You'd have thought that many server admins rolling back to 1.7.4.4 (and many not even migrating to 1.7.5) would have been a dead giveaway that the initial 1.7.6 should be a bugfix and released asap (i.e. not delayed with new content). The development isn't bad, it's the project management/production that needs work.

You're totally right it's not about the cans but unfortunately it's a near pointless discussion to be honest as apparently if a developer works for free it means that they have a god given right to do anything they want according to quite a few posters and also as the mod is ALPHA it doesn't matter that important updates addressing issues are delayed due to new content and fluff being introduced.

I certainly wouldn't want to be drinking 'Seaman Soda'.......

What's the point of a forum if people can't make observations regarding different elements of the game. Since the game is still in 'alpha', the development of the game is a massive area up for discussion, especially so as you say it isn't following a traditional game development cycle. Which ironically makes it being labelled as 'alpha' rather strange.

Doh, do new features not involve actual work? Is it too hard to fathom that time spend fixing rather than time spent on new features that also might go wrong isn't good in the long run?

Thanks for your post, it was very informative. I think a problem lies in the fact that as far as the mod is concerned, it will never be developed into what might be envisioned by the developers/playerbase due to the (as you mentioned) limitations of the Arma II engine. The main issue being the zombie AI and movement which seemingly is either impossible or unfeasible to fix. As such, shouldn't it now be Beta or even release with the additions that it's 'as good as it can get' in certain areas? being labelled as 'Alpha' gives carte blanche to developers to not test updates enough IMO. There's no doubt that people play and have been playing DayZ like a proper 'Release' game for months, and really updates should respect that. Not just for the players, but also the server admins.

Hey, all I'm after is bugs getting fixed prior to new content being introduced. Don't think that's too much to ask TBH.

1) I highlighted something and you went off on a tangent about entitlement. All I said was that players have purchased the Arma II products. 2) OK, I'll rephrase it. The DayZ mod was and is (although nowhere near so much) being used as a testbed for gameplay features utilised in the standalone version. So much so that to a casual observer looking at the SA footage available, they actually look the same. 3) It's being developed by Bohemia Interactive. "DAYZ™ and Bohemia Interactive™ are trademarks of Bohemia Interactive." (Source - http://dayzgame.com/) "DayZ will be developed as a standalone game, with me as project lead, by Bohemia Interactive." (Source: http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/28904791570/the-end-of-the-beginning) 4) Again I highlighted something and you went off on one. Now, put those all together and you'll see that Bohemia Interactive have done very well out of both the mod and the playerbase, not only in sales of Arma II, but also in testing and adding input into the development of both the mod (helping sales of Arma II) and the standalone. Also, through mainly Matt Lightfoot, they also have a tremendous amount of input into what does and doesn't go into the mod. Strangely enough, Matt said that he and Rocket were the ones that suggested the cans go into the update, not the devs - "Right just to clear up none of the Mods had anything to do with the cans being implemented, ultimately not R4Z0R nor Derpy are to blame for their implementation. Everything has to be passed through myself and Rocket." (Source - http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/125687-176-cans-and-drinks/page__st__280#entry1206716) So how abouty YOU read, digest and learn.

It's very naive to say DayZ is just a 'mod'. Matt Lightfoot is an employee of Bohemia Interactive and has a MASSIVE influence on what is or isn't implemented in this 'mod'. I'm not saying this is bad at all, infact I think it's great, but what I do object to is all this talk about the devs getting no money when this mod has made loads of money for BI.

Why is it still an alpha release? Surely after 8 months or so it should have progressed to a beta release? Or will it stay as an alpha release now that the standalone won't be based on the mod?

Exactly. So if the mod is going to stay 'as is' it shouldn't be viewed as alpha as it's an excuse for shoddy testing.

This might be a free mod, but I'd like to highlight the following: Players purchased both Arma II and Arma II OA from Bohemia Interactive. The DayZ mod is an 'alpha' for the standalone version. The standalone version is being developed by Bohemia Interactive. The standalone version will earn MILLIONS of dollars/pounds/euros (whatever) for Bohemia Interactive. Without the players, Bohemia Interactive would never have received MILLIONS from the sale of Arma II and Arma II OA, let alone the future MILLIONS that the SA will earn them. So if the mod developers aren't receiving any money for their effort, blame Bohemia Interactive. The players are doing their bit in testing the gameplay etc for Bohemia Interactive.

You don't get it! The problem I was referring to wasn't the new cans per se, it's the new additions introduced to the patch over and above bug fixes to a previous dodgy patch.

Considering a health number of servers either didn't get updated to 1.7.5 or were and subsequently rolled back to 1.7.4.4. due to problems, don't you think speeding up the release of the update to purely focus bug fixes instead of delaying it to introduce new content as well would have been the wiser route to take?

Personally, I think the issue is that developers tend to prefer developing new content than bug fixing existing content. Considering the amount of flak from 1.7.5.1 I'd have thought this update should have been solely focused on fixing problems rather than introducing new content.

Simple, make it that as far as backpacks are concerned, only backpack types that don't spawn with a new character form part of loot tables. If in the **highly** unlikely event that a backpack isn't included in spawn loot, then all backpacks form part of the loot table. You could also refine it so only backpacks with number of slots >= freshspawn backpack actually form part of thw loot table too. That solves the current issue of useless backpacks spawning purely to cater for the miniscule chance that a server new spawn loadout doesn't include a backpack.

So you think it's valid that spawning an utterly useless item and therefore reducing the chance of something useful spawning is ok? Jeez, even cans have some use now, so a can > patrol pack as far as a spawn in concerned. Please for the love of god enlighten me as to why an item that: a] is given to a fresh character. b] occupies a single slot (i.e. a character cannot carry/wear multiples) should waste a slot on the loot table? About the only other item that I can think of that is similar is civilian clothing, but at least that serves a purpose in urban scenarios.

How can you 'clear' a site when Z's respawn so quickly?

Sorry, but you're talking crap. Most people aren't complaining about how hard the zombies are, far from it. They're complaining about new features introduced that are either buggy or badly thought out. As to working for free or not, personally I think there should be paid developers for DayZ, Bohemia have made a LOT of money with people purchasing Arma II and considering the mod is a test bed for the standalone (which they will make money from) they could at least invest something back into the mod.

Erm, the Czech backpack was changed to 24 slots, and therefore higher than the pre-nerf Alice pack. Maybe they should have kept the Alice Pack as was stat wise, but reduced the spawn rate. Then they wouldn't have had the quite valid complaints about people losing items out of their Alice Packs due to the update.

I think you'll find that's the RNG, not the update. There is a 0.19% chance of the Coyote or Czeck spawning within a deerstand (assuming spawn occurs) and a 0.11% chance in the barracks (again assuming a spawn occurs)

As far as I've seen 16+ slot backpacks only spawn in military buildings. I've only seen Czech and Alice packs (which both spawned in supermarkets) in military locations.