janus0104

Uhm, haven't used it in a while, but iirc: - Fire up DayZ Commander and connect to a server running the map you want to edit. - Before it actually logs into that server, go back to main menu. It was just an easier way to start the game with a specific mod. - Hit ALT+E to open the map editor, the map you want to edit will be in the list, quite possibly with an icon or something like that next to the name. - Place a Center (dont change any values in the little window that opens up), a Group (dont change any values in the little window that opens up), and then a Unit (set 'Playable' to the Playable value, set the skin to survivor or s.th. if you want, doesn't really matter tho. Just the playable part matters) to the map anywhere. ArmA2 Map Editor doesn't let you save it otherwise. - Place objects via the Vehicle (most objects count as vehicles, just roll with it. Don't try to place actual vehicles like cars or helis this way. It doesn't end well!!) or Object Composition button, then save to a name. - Leave the editor, alt+tab out of the game. - Open your %USERS%/Documents/ArmA 2 Other Profiles/%profile name%/missions/ folder and you'll see a subdirectory named <the name you used when saving>.<name of the actual map>. In it is a .sqf and a .biedi file, drag&drop the .biedi file onto 3de_conv.exe (look for 3de on one of those arma2 mod sites, you'll find it), it creates an sqm file. - Open your %USERS%/Documents/ArmA 2 Other Profiles/%profile name%/MPMissions/ folder. Create two folders, one named original.<mapname> or s.th. like that and one named <whateveryouwant>.<mapname> - Put the .sqm file 3de just created into the whateveryouwant folder, grab the MP mission pbo for that map from your server, create a backup of it, open it up in PBO manager (you'll find it anywhere 3de is available too), and drag&drop the contained .sqm file to the original.<mapname> folder - Alt+tab back into the game. Go to multiplayer, chose the New button to create a server and hit ok to get to map selection, select the map you edited from the list at the bottom, then select <<New - Editor>> on the right side. It will open up the editor again. Click on load, the dropdown should show both the original and your version. Load the original. - Click on merge, select your custom version from the dropdown. Find the blue Unit thing you placed earlier. Select it and delete it, we can't have that there, we only needed it because of a restraint in the editor earlier. - Click on save, enter a new, third name of your liking, exit the editor and cancel starting up a server, leave the game altogether. - Open your %USERS%/Documents/ArmA 2 Other Profiles/%profile name%/MPMissions/ folder. There is a third folder now, <thirdnameyouused>.<mapname>, in it is a .sqm file. Open your pbo file from earlier - remember to keep a backup of that file somewhere - remove the sqm inside it and copy over the mission.sqm from that third MPMissions folder. Close the PBO and replace the one on your server with that new one. Done.

You CAN get your ammo back, just have to find it on the ground/etc. Why a torch though? Anywhoot, standalone will give us a quiver to stash bolts into. I'm hoping for a little more crossbow love, as in at least two varieties and possibly being able to make your own bolts. Also think they should be more rare, any idea what an export crossbow costs? More than any of the assault rifles in this game.

Yea, of course there's good and bad in it, it was off the top of my head ;) I didn't really mean instantly change weapons. I think I meant without stopping movement, currently if you switch weapons the character stops dead. If that cant be done animation-wise, make it instant but give the gun a waiting period before it's ready to be fired.

You want realistic and fun changes? Here's a list, off the top of my head, keep in mind I did not consider what is impossible with the engine: Controls: - When holding shift, i.e. slow-walk mode, especially when crouched or prone, it shouldn't be possible to fall off a ledge/roof/similar. Pin the player to his current surface unless running. - Getting stuck in narrow doorways / between two objects, and similar obstructions (that apparently arent such for zombies). This is either poor implementation or poor map design, but the way movement feels should give a clear indication of whether something is traversable or not. - Add quick-assignments for weapons. When it's a weapon carried on the body (firearm / sidearm) change the weapon quickly, even when running, if it is in your backpack / the current firearm has to be switched out for a melee weapon, have the character stand still for a second. So many weapons / extra items are nigh useless because you can't get to them quickly enough when you'd need them. - Give us the ability to cancel actions that require time, such as applying first aid or taking in nutrient, if necessary (zombie approaching) - with a random chance of whether the item is "lost" depending on how far you got (harder to stash away that open dose of coke). Currently it's glitchy behavior, not a real feature. - The time it takes to do certain actions, like bandaging yourself, should be shorter when combat locked because of the adrenaline rush, but you pay for it, e.g. some blood lost because of your hectic bandaging. - Add a key so, while pressed, the character will not fire his weapon while pointing at another player. Add some risk to it by having auto/burst weapons ignore that past the first round, turning semi into "safe firing mode". This would also aid in helping others get out of a zombie's hold (see below for zombie's grab&hold ability). Interface: - When opening the backpack, show the same interface as when doing it with a vehicle's gear selected, actually show the slots. - Proper indication of how much will fit into a container (vehicle/tent/backpack/...) and stop the interaction rather than glitch all over the place. - When an item has a special key assigned to work, e.g. flashlight / nightvision goggles / maps, have the mouseover description show the key assigned for it. - When looking at a backpack you can switch out to, show the number of slots and whether it has more or less slots. - Move max 1 flare/chemlight to toolbelt, they're easily carried alongside. Vehicle: - Player-held weapon firing from non-driver seat. Yes, it should be nigh impossible to hit anything while the car is moving, but it should be an option. Especially for quads and such. - More realistic car damage. This isn't hollywood, driving into a wall may kill the engine, but it doesnt blow the entire car up. When damage CAN occur through risky maneuvering (running over a fence, making a jump), give it a random chance affected by what kind of car it is. A good pick-up can withstand a lot more bumps without requiring more than a car wash than what blows them up now. - Newly spawned vehicles should have a far lower chance of being damaged than having the tank be empty. Windows broken? Yes. Everything totally broken? Unlikely. - Give the option to salvage cars for parts / remaining fuel. Even a half-broken engine might have just the right parts to fix your other half-broken engine. - Categorize parts. A bus engine works for a quad? - If a spawned car IS entirely broken, spawn it in a place that makes sense, i.e. it was ran straight into a wall. - Why no randomly spawned police cars / ambulances / fire trucks? So many opportunities to provide an obvious reason as to why a group of items may be spawned inside it. - Motorhomes / Campers. - Using a hose to fill up a vehicle near a fuel tank, running to the tank and back 50 times with a jerrycan to fill up a helicopter is fine, but if you take away the safety net provided by rotor diameter, it's impossible. Items: - Give the option to take clothes off dead zombies / dead players and wear them. Instantly you have so many more clothing options. - New loot: Backpack attachment/toolbar item to carry 1 extra weapon "on you", carry your hatchet hanging off your belt etc, making it selectable without opening the inventory aswell (still takes the same inventory space, but it enables the quick-draw) - Have the option to carry an empty backpack in your backpack/inventory. If I can carry a helicopter's main rotor assembly, I can carry an empty, folded up backpack. - Performance enhancement drugs. Clearer aim / scoping with binoculars and such, resistent against exhaustion and sleep deprivation, but dehydrates faster and over-usage may incapacitate the character (give a message as to why he fell down and the timer comes up). - Weapon/Gear degradation: 1.) Weapons don't just stop working after firing 100 rounds. They jam, but they rarely just fall apart. Add repair/cleaning kits to fight degradation that dont just get used up, but the process of cleaning a weapon should take a certain time determined by the weapon, a sniper rifle takes more than a few seconds for an amateur to break up, clean properly and put together into a working piece again. Also, precision weapons such as the mentioned sniper rifles need to be tuned in after reassembly to fire accurately / match the scope again. 2.) Either do it right, or don't do it at all. Just giving any usable item a 10.000 uses meter like with hatchets is not a fun feature 3.) Any item with degradation needs to be spawned in random condition. 4.) Silencers DO turn useless after a while. - Ability to recycle emptied ammo magazines, allowing the use of ammo across a larger group of weapons, determined by caliber. Moving the bullets should take reasonable time. - Ability to merge non-full magazines into a combined one (or a full one and an almost empty one if going over the capacity of that weapon's ammo magazine) - (At a later point) Item attachments. What makes modern weapons great is the ability to add a multitude of attachments, from slings to silencers, muzzle flash suppressors, folding stocks, bipod / tripods, different scopes, bayonettes, under-barrel breaching shotguns and grenade launchers, even caliber conversion kits to have e.g. an AK-74 use STANAG magazines. - Sub-sonic ammunition should be a beneficial kind of ammo, not the exclusive ammo, for silencer-mounted firearms. - The crossbow. So many problems with the crossbow. A quiver is a nice addition, but so would be being able to easily get your bolts back. You have so many key combinations, add one where the character focuses on finding his bolts when stationary, and they light up for the player to see. Either move the bolts to a corpse's inventory or let us roll them over to get the bolt / have a mousewheel option to retrieve it when targetting the corpse. - Booby-traps for doors / vehicles / containers. - Claymores / mines / wiretraps. - Improvised weapons. Hit a zombie with a sturdy tree branch / metal pipe / the back of your gun. - Molotov cocktail. Turn that empty whiskey bottle + piece of cloth + fuel from a jerrycan = burn up those zombies. - Ability to carry a bag alongside your sidearm / stash even your sidearm to carry two bags for temporarily increased carrying capacity. Bags ranging from grocery bags over duffle bags to weapon cases. By carry I mean in the physical world, not in the inventory. Persistent world: - When logging out in a vehicle, whether deliberately or because the server went down / your internet connection broke off, spawn them in a sensible position on login. If it's a helicopter, it will crash down, spawn the player in the air with the parachute open. For vehicles... NEVER spawn a player inside one. So many unwarranted broken legs. - Sensible spawning. Simply having them spawn when you get near an interactive intangible, and respawn until the player moves away, is not a fun nor realistic approach. It works, but it could be so much better. Cities should be literally flooded with zombies whose pathing would be far easier if they always move in walking speed, even when aggroed, and their sheer number would be the hindrance to get to loot, not their speed. Smaller towns should have fewer numbers that move a bit faster. Military sites should have reasonable numbers, after all this is AFTER the outbreak, but run as quick as they currently do. The type of zombie, i.e. their appearance, should decide on how fast they can move. When a set amount of zombies are killed in a certain location, it should take a reasonable time, not seconds, for new ones to appear. How long it takes could be determined by whether players died there (attracting supposed roamers by smell) and how loud players went about killing the zombies (attracting supposed roamers by hearing). - Allow more resilient fortifications than tents and bundles of vehicles. Locked containers/vehicles that require a lockpick to get open. Gameplay behavior: - Exhaustion. Running straight for 4 hours isn't possible for the characters we currently play (jump off a container, always break your leg). Taking a short break from running to catch one's break would replenish it. - Sleep deprivation. Humans have to sleep at least 4 hours a day, or they start to deteriorate mentally and physically, to the point of simply falling asleep on the spot. Sleeping in a tent / shelter is beneficial to replenish it. - Active grouping with group members being shown on the map if both sides have a map or GPS and carry a radio. Group chat only when carrying a radio. Frequency scrambler so other people with a radio cant listen in on the frequency. Setting up traps that group members automatically avoid (the characters know it's there and refuse to open that door / automatically step over that wire). - Infection. Being bitten/hit by a zombie has a small chance of infecting even the living, with no immediate indicator. When symptoms start to show, there is only a small window of opportunity to apply antibiotics (giving them more value) before the player loses control over the character and he turns into a zombie with a running speed even greater than that of a normal zombie, adding the "kill group member before he turns into a zombie" factor into the turmoil that is social behavior in DayZ. - Differentiate between food/drink sources. Soda cans and such may fill up your drink meter, but it dehydrates far quicker afterwards. Only eating canned foods is unhealthy, there are plenty of vegetable gardens in the game and trees that could just be apple trees. Make them lootable, might even allow planting vegetables. - Disguise yourself as a zombie by killing one and smearing it's blood all over your clothes. It will stink, attract flies, your character walks as slow as unaggroed zombies do, but they wont aggro you until you start running again. - Every few minutes or so, if a player is close to a stationary vehicle or a tent, there's a chance for a zombie to spawn within a distance of 100-200m. There is no such thing as a safe place. - Give the character skills (that reset on death) with varying fields: medical, firearms, vehicle repair, gutting/cooking, ... Everytime you perform an action in that field with a result (no free medical points for munching painkillers when you dont need em) the skill increases, improving your performance and lowering the chance for a mishap. Spawn books on various topics that you can read to slowly improve your skill to a certain degree, but it takes reasonable time to read (like 1 skill point per minute reading). - Glasses / Contacts. When you spawn with a new character, there is a chance he is shortsighted and needs glasses or contact lenses to have proper vision on ranges of 100m+. They can get broken, then you have to find a new set. - Add a bolt-cutter tool with which fences can be cut to create an open just like the ones occassionally placed already - Add a fishing pole to go fishing. - GPS / Flashlight / NVG / Rangefinder are electronic tools, so they need batteries. Batteries spawn with varying charges, and in two versions: non-rechargeable and rechargeable. Rechargeable ones can be reloaded at a slow rate if you find a handheld solar panel (you can attach them to your wrist, those exist in real life, but you're as likely to run into one as a range finder). - The ghillie suit is just a wearable net, you have to attach trees and bushes to make it look good. Add 3 or so different models for the varying states. - Different camo clothes and camouflage makeup (wood/urban/desert) to be found mostly at barracks, also a few uniforms to be found there. - Civilian clothing variety - That other tent type. - Add a medic box, character can only carry either toolbox or medic box at one time. Medic box will hold up to 6 bandages, 6 out of morphine/pain killers/epi-pen/antibiotics and 2 blood bags (random example numbers) - Hallucination: PTSD, or shell-shock, can set in randomly after certain bad things have happened to a character (he has passed out once, lost blood, broken his leg, been within 100m of a survivor getting killed). When it hits, he may see zombies where none are, he may perceive other survivors as zombies. Haloperidol or such could be a remedy for this, albeit rare. Chance of getting hit with this is weighted by distance from the default humanity (heroes and bandits are less likely to get affected, as they have deviated from normal response to the point of being adapted to the new state of the world) NPCs: - Give a max amount of zombies a client will calc for the server as to AI/pathing, then keep track of that stack of zombies even when moving out of range (>500m), having them stroll around, into the woods and whatnot. When new zombies have to be spawned due to location change, drop the oldest ones unless they can be taken over by another client. - Slow down them zombies! Seriously, on times they run faster than player characters, they don't suffer any movement penalties. It's fine you don't want walkers because you'd need ridiculous amounts for them to be a serious danger, but the way pathing/ai glitches around, especially when another client handles the pathing, firearms turn into against-bandits-only items. See above for ideas on how to break it down, other than that, 50%-75% their current speed is enough. - Instead of having zombies run at survivors' speeds and stopping to hit the dead air, have them grab and hold back the character, who has to struggle free. This may take some engine changes, but it's a game changer, too. It makes zombies more dangerous without having to give them the super speed / strength they currently possess. - Have dead players rise as zombies after a random amount of time, with their appearance and gear (ghillie suit zombies!). - Add living NPCs, from the hobo survivor to the sole remaining military checkpoint. Have them respond differently to player survivors depending on whether he's a bandit / survivor / hero and whether he's armed / lowering his weapon / actively firing / trying to take their resources.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/121791-who-else-thinks-1751-pushes-annoyance-and-survival-too-far/page__st__60#entry1162826

As of the latest version, the HMMWV is in the game, albeit no mounted weaponry. You heard bunk about this new update having stuff. I'm no expert, but from what I picked up it goes like this: - Some buildings/scenery can be placed with the ingame map editor and uploaded on your own server as part of the mission file, a small file containing changes to the hard-drive stored default map sent to each player when logging in. If it's buildings that can be entered already, such as those warehouses with the two big doors (called hangars in the ingame editor) or the medical tents. Afaik, loot will spawn there as well as zombies in a normal fashion. Some objects the game will recognize as zombie spawners, some it won't. Experiment, plenty of tutorials for this on these forums or youtube. However, most of the actual houses in DayZ are not accessible through the ingame editor. - There obviously is a way to add custom buildings and stuff to the map, but the process is next to equal with making a new map. Your players would have to download a big file before they could even connect to your server, and you'd have to familiarize yourself with the ArmA II modding tools in general. There are tutorials etc for these, but afaik no simple "how to do this" for DayZ stuff, and asking the ArmA 2 modding community about DayZ stuff is apparently like running into the field, naked, during the final minute of the superbowl. Everyone will hate you, and it will hurt. Build notes have nothing to do with buildings, "building" is a term used in computer programming to describe the steps required to bundle a bunch of compiled code into the specific files needed to run the server/client. Build notes are a commentary on that, e.g. if a new file had to be added that is now mandatory for players or server admins, that'd be part of the build notes.

So you're saying the Standalone is turning DayZ into DeathmatchZ? Hardly. I don't want zero zombies. But suppose I kill every zombie in a town it should take a few minutes for them to respawn, not seconds.

Lingor. It's an interpretation of the Jagged Alliance 2 map, nothing will ever come close to that game.

If that is what he meant, he completely missed the point I was raising. As I was saying, a video game can only go so far in terms of realism. You can't have 20.000 different items because it takes a lifetime or a fortune to have that much original art created. You can't have realistic pacing or it would take you a few hours of real time to fix a car engine. There will always be a layer of abstraction, and finding the sweet spot on how to abstract and what to abstract is key to setting the tone. By that I'm not saying realism is bad or realism is good, nor am I making any comment on zombies vs realism. It's a general statement about video games. It's just not possible to be 100% realistic. Medical needs of a character are abstracted down to 6 needs: overall health (blood), blunt trauma (broken legs), open wound (bleeding), having any kind of bacterial or viral infection (disease), mental state (painkillers) and consciousness (passing out). A simple 0-100 health meter would not be realistic enough. Requiring a medical dictionary/degree to know how to diagnose what's wrong with your character and treat it would be going too far. On all levels you have to find the sweet spot between realism and video game, there is no difference in that regard to any other kind of digital simulation or game, just weighted differently. The same is true for pseudo-realistic parts of the game, like zombie spawning behavior. Fully realistic simply isn't possible until standalone, but endless waves doesn't quite cut it either. That being said, I remain on my original position from page 4 of this thread, none of these changes that fidget with balancing between realism and abstraction make or break this game or solve anything until/unless the big problems I listed there are fixed. As to "People who play this game like its COD", I hope it is clear by my statements I do not consider myself such a person. Hell, I haven't even played any COD game. In fact, I despise it's name being used in a manner to categorize people. To put it into simple words, I'm too old for this shit. Still, criticism of changes should be taken at face value and not shrugged off as "PvP player QQ". At least in my case, it isn't meant to bitch and whine about the game but give the community devs some sort of feedback on how their players pick up on the changes. How else will they be able to gauge what works and what doesn't.

What?

Nah, number 2 is also a valid remark, but we all know that's not gonna get fixed in a satisfying manner pre-SA.

If it were a reality simulator, we wouldn't even spawn alive. Zombies have risen and the ENTIRE population has turned? How did the survivors survive thus far if they only have a bandage and a flashlight? It's an escapist fantasy, what would happen if you were teleported into a zombie world out of the blue, with nothing but your zombie movie experience to overcome the first shock of seeing them, and how would you go about meeting your daily needs such as food, drinks, shelter and the occassional medicine. It's an abstraction where e.g. a box of painkillers represents a whole range of medical supplies required to stay mentally fit, or a pack of morphine representing all the tools needed to treat a blunt trauma/injury, omitting realism to speed up the process and actually experience a full day's worth of action in a real-life situation in an hour of gaming. That being said, making a consistent abstraction from reality to videogame sets the atmosphere of the simulation. So while we break with reality in every single aspect of the game, taking a reality check is important to make sure each of those breaks have the same sorta distance between fact and fiction.

I disagree, the shacktac vault looks fine for the first few frames of the animation, but then it just freezes and arcs down. In the video you linked, every single character doing a jump there would have tripped and fell flat on their face. Completely unrealistic. Unfortunately, for a proper speed vault you need character-object interaction be possible with the engine. At an obstacle height of slightly above your kneecaps or lower, you'd place a foot on the obstacle to get across quickly, above that you'd place an arm on it and swing over the obstacle, anything above that would be next to impossible for an untrained civilian with the amount of equipment carried. Let's hope stand-alone engine implements that, it's not difficult or anything, but the engine and animation framework need to support it or it'll end up looking as bad as when you turn around while pitching a tent and such at the moment. So for the time being, that ninjadive is as good as anything else we're gonna get.

To be quite honest, I'd rather die from you and your reasoning than a zombie who glitched through the wall or a 12yr old whose parents wonder why his teachers think their kid has ADD. Gotta die one way, might aswell go to a proper bandit ;)

Damn, I should have added "run around without pants" under activities on my CV...

Not disagreeing with ya, just hadn't read too much about new disease/medical system yet.

As hunting/trapping grounds? Hang a few animal traps in those trees there, come back later to gather the meat. Swamps are full of life, just have to reach down and grab it. But yea, different diseases sound cool.

Tbh, I doubt they'll show the new zeds for a while, since those will sorta make or break the standalone. Anyone else went like "why is he standing in front of that house talking about loot? that one can't be entered" for a second until you realized they probably changed that?

Fair enough ;) What, what, what? What's that I hear about medicinal herbs? Can you grab me a link? I seem to have missed that.

The main complaints I hear from others are these three: - we only ever get stuff we must do, rarely stuff we can do - exception being that new combat roll i guess, whether one likes the animation or not. this has the downside of every new 'feature' only being a remedy to a new punishment that seems deliberate and just there so there can be a remedy for it - the main problems with the game aren't addressed, so you're just adding floors to a house built on sand and get surprised when people complain their house fell together. somewhat a moot point with the engine restrictions and standalone and whatnot, but objectively, it's a valid argument - many changes feel like someone missed what the original root cause was. they may improve or worsen a certain aspect of the game, but it's a long shot from being a fix. E.g. you want challenging zombies, they arent challenging because the AI lacks, you cant fix the AI - for whatever reasons - so you throw more zombies at the player, make them run faster than the player, give them a higher chance to deal status ailments, etc etc. all those cheap tricks video games used in the past to make an AI "hard" when it isn't. DayZ strives to be more than just "a videogame", so people expect more than just videogame corner cutting to address problems. Note that while they seem somewhat the same, the 2nd and 3rd are distinct problems, while the one are technical shortcomings and outright bugs, the 3rd are actual design decisions that come across as half-assed.

Somehow you and I played different games. I have my complaints about the recent changes, but I literally just proned all the way through Berezino, I even took out the hospital windows, and no zombie so much as blinked at me. It's still very much possible. A minute later my pal misfired (alt+tab) his rifle from outside town, see like 60 zombies chasing past me (still ignoring me). I'd say the aggro hasn't changed much, but when one does aggro, you get the full horde. I do like that it adds a little bit of the old challenge that was lost a bit recently, where experienced players just ran to where they know good stuff is, get geared in under 30 mins and then are left with little else other than either hoarding more loot, helping others or hunting others.

Where did you get #4 from? Did we see different devblogs? As for clothing, I find their approach a dangerous path. If they're too unique properties-wise, eventually, no matter if there's 50 or 100 clothing parts, people will learn what "the best combinations" are and then everyone who has survived past a certain point will look the same. Here's praying they go for very narrow categorization so e.g. short shorts have less space than proper pants, but it doesnt make much difference between blue jeans or black cargo pants. But of course we haven't seen much yet, and I like what I saw :D Unless they want to make a gear interface where the charater model is the interface and you move items into pockets and stuff like that, a system that sounds cool on paper but is usually doomed by it's short-comings, I hope they take a look at Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13 (community modded version) LBE-Gear system and how it's implemented: - rudimentary inventory space on character + the usual weapon / armor slots - optional body vests in different shapes with different combinations of pockets, e.g. one with 4 AR-sized magazine pockets, 2 utility pockets and a misc pocket - optional leg-strapped pouches on both legs with different combinations of pockets, e.g. one with 2 grenade slots, 1 mag slot and 1 water bottle slot, or one with room for 1 MG belt mag + 1 canteen or grenade - optional carry-on bag with different combinations of, e.g. 3 items of any size be it weapons or generic items or 2 items of any size + 2 slots for normal sized items - optional backpacks of varying size / space allocation that cannot be worn when a carry-on bag is worn. you can't climb up ladders and extreme stuff like that with your backpack on. you have to unzip it to get stuff out, so it takes some time and requires being stationary - All of the bags have their own weight additional to the contents' weight, need to be found as seperate items, and total weight slows the character down and speeds up fatigue This may be a little bit too militaryesque for DayZ, but it's a good starting ground. In fact, I never get tired of repeating that DayZ can learn many a thing from Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13 in terms of how to make a great inventory/item/attachment/durability system. Also, I disagree on your order :P Besides the humor, clearly #1 is changing stuff to be handled by the server. This was inevitable, so it's good to see progress on it.

No. Zombies are not a threat now, for oh so many reasons. Glitches and bugs have always been the threat, and now they have been buffed. That is all that happened. No, running around is still a viable option, as is driving. Nothing has changed on a fundamental level, just the size of the zombie train behind them was increased. They'll still kill the new spawn, because they can. I don't know who you're talking about. I do have complaints about the new patch, but they go way beyond "I can't deathmatch anymore, QQ". In fact, I think I've only shot at 2 players in my endless amount of playtime. These changes don't ruin the game. This is NOT DayZ how it's meant to be. It's not a living hell. And the zombies aren't the real threats, because they are predictable, they don't spend... scratch that, waste 6 hours of their time laying in prone in a remote location for the one victim to come into their crosshair. There's still viable room for all playstyles. If there weren't, you'd be the first guy on the fences complaining about changes. You don't play the game against the zombies, you play the game against the environment. The zombies are just a portion of it. And to bleed equipment, using a weapon would have to be a reasonable option whatsoever. Endless waves of zombies respawning can't be killed, so it's only about getting rid of the closest ones to make the escaping easier. Doesn't bleed much equipment that. And for every kid thinking they have the reign on what is DayZ and what isn't DayZ, there will always be others to tell him: You're not special. Your speech wasn't special. Your thread and your post aren't special. You'll die in this game like everyone else, whether you consider your approach to playing it superior or not. Please, go ahead and be amused by people complaining, but everyone who has ever contributed anything worthwhile in human history started out with a complaint and the motivation to do something about it.

Like I said above already, apparently in this version you always have to wait 30 secs to log out. ALWAYS. Added to those 30 seconds waiting time in the menu is the actual combat meter thing, so e.g. you might be thinking "oh, let's log off and do something else", but then a zombie sees you. You run away, lose LOS, wait 30 seconds so the combat meter runs out. Then you hit ESC and watch the 30 seconds count down there aswell. Then you hit abort. I don't like it either.

Unless I have entirely failed to grasp it's concept, yes, the timer resets when you press ESC, since it has nothing to do with the combat lock (the gun-shaped icon above your temperature). Basically, there be 2 locks now, the combat lock that activates as soon as a zombie smells your socks 180m against the wind and the timer that expects you to stay in the ESC menu for 30 seconds before you can click on Abort and actually get a result. I guess the point being is that you can't catch all the combat logging with the combat lock, so when in doubt lock the player for 60seconds, otherwise lock him for 30seconds. I just close the game with task manager nowadays and consider logging off a 90% death chance. Wish they gave us a nice alternative, like "crawl into your tent and you get to log out right away".