Target Practice (DayZ)

You'll need to install the Arrowhead Beta. I generally run that one as well, but others have reported that the regular works fine for them. As for DayZ commander, I'm not at my gaming PC right now, so I can't remember exactly, but on the 'servers' tab, on the left hand side under filters, there's an option to 'hide unofficial' or something similar. Make sure that's selected.

Yeah, there's lots and lots of servers out there, and many will have stuff like extra vehicles, 24/7 daylight, different starting loadouts and so on - you don't really want to be doing any of that just yet, as you don't want to be getting used to stuff you won't have on the main hive (official servers).

It's up to you, really. Before you start playing online, I'd STRONGLY suggest running yourself through the ARMA II Boot Camp training mode. It'll get you used to moving around the game and familiarise you with the controls, which aren't all that intuitive. Once that's done, I'd suggest an official server (sorry, can't help you with exactly how you filter for that on SixLauncher, but I'm sure you can figure it out or someone can help with that bit) with somewhere around 20-25 people on it. You want a few people on so that if you have any burning questions you can ask someone, but too many and you'll find yourself struggling to survive on the hostile South coast. An official server means you're going to be starting DayZ the 'proper' way, and it's going to be hard as hell, but as long as you don't mind dying a couple of times while you figure things out, you'll be fine. :)

Yeah, you'll need both installed. As for which is better, it's down to individual preference. I had a few issues with installation on Six, so I use Commander, but both are perfectly fine.

Okay, have you downloaded either SixLauncher or DayZ Commander? Those are by FAR the easiest ways of finding servers and launching DayZ, and will make your life much, much easier.

Wait, but those third party maps don't have a GPS marker either? So if you know where you are on the regular map, why the hell are you even needing to alt-tab in the first place? Do you have access to some kind of magical external map that tells you where you are in-game? One of us seems to be drunk. The lack of singing seems to indicate that it's not me.

Elyuss, if you're interested, we have a few folks who play fairly regularly in the GMT timezone (or more or less whenever we're around and bored, really) - everyone's nice and laid back, there's no 'clan' crap going on, we just like playing DayZ and wandering round generally surviving. Swing me an add on Steam if you fancy it. We're all in that general age range, too - I'm 28, Hayley's 22 and.. I have no idea how old the others are, but they've definitely hit puberty if that helps. :P

That's a pretty solid point right there. It's a nice idea, and there have been far worse and less thought-out ideas suggested, but if anything, it would probably make the poor newb's life even harder for the reasons Chabowski gave.

This guy. He knows his stuff.

Oh man, that has some seriously unfortunate implications. :lol:

Hey guys, I'm a rubbish shot, but seeing as my guy can operate most guns, fly helicopters and cook a nice meal for two, could we also have the game do my aiming for me? I'd learn to aim myself, but I don't really want to waste my time doing something I'll never use in real life. Thanks.

Being able to headshot any Zombie you come across without being heard by others is a bit on the OP side. With the M9SD it's not so much of an issue, as ammo is rare enough that you still have to pick your targets. With the Makarov, that's not the case.

Oh definitely, don't get me wrong, I'd love to see caves - they'd be really interesting places to explore, and add a whole new dimension to the game - having an area where you NEED to get used to being in the dark if you want to explore it, therefore dragging players out of their comfort zones? Sounds great to me.

I'm just trying to be realistic. You can stick as many bells and whistles on your dad's old chevy as you like, you can tune it all you like, but it's still not going to fly, because that's not what it was designed to do. Who knows, the engine might be able to do them just fine and there's no problem whatsoever, but as we've not seen it yet, it's at least worth asking the question, surely?

One minor tweak to the OP's suggestion for Zombies. The LAST thing we need to be doing is giving players more reasons to not play at night, so a big zombie buff at night is just going to make things even worse.

I find a couple of bullets bouncing off the ground nearby is usually enough to make most players look for cover, and if you're up against a guy cool enough to stand his ground and take aim during that, he's almost certainly going to be smart enough to stand back and let you blow most of your ammo shooting at nothing much before waiting for his chance. For me, it'd only be useful in such hugely limited circumstances that I can't really see the point.

If I wanted to play poker, why wouldn't I just go on to one of the many poker sites out there? I don't see how this would fit in with the world of DayZ at all.

Interesting idea, and one that would fit in really nicely with the world of Chernarus as it is. The only possible question mark I'd have is whether the game engine can actually 'do' caves. Arma is a game that's been designed from the ground up as a 'wide open spaces' game, so rendering/creating big, natural-looking caves may be tricky. Still, if it's possible, it'd be awesome.

I've got a brand new, two-week old system with an i7-3770 @3.4ghz and a GTX 670, and I've only noticed very occasional stuttering and jumpiness, but it seems to be more or less at random rather than in specific locations. Strange, but I'd expect the SA to be much more stable, not to mention prettier.

If I see you anywhere near any chopper I'm piloting, I'm shooting on sight! :P

Yeah, I'd certainly like to see more variation in the weather - it could make for some very interesting changes in gameplay and tactics - for example, players moving in the snow are going to leave footprints.

TBH, I'm more pissed off that you just posted that entire thing in caps.

Have my beans, sir. The mental image of that just made me giggle out loud.

Huh. And just like that I learned something. Still, requires quite a few specialist tools, so less than ideal in the DayZ situation.

Ah, now it's my turn to clarify my intent - I certainly didn't mean to imply that Navigation doesn't matter - like yourself, I consider it to be one of the key components of the game and part of what makes DayZ so enjoyable, and I'd be utterly against anything that tried to stop that being the case. What I meant was that if I've hypothetically been lucky enough to find a GPS and I'm simply making my way from point A to point B in my own sweet time, it's simply less of a pain to glance at the green box than to have to hit a key to bring the GPS up so that I can follow the arrow that way. It just seems like adding a step for the sake of adding one - it's not like the outcome is any different. It's not something I care about that much that I'd be disappointed to lose it, it just seems like a sensible concession to make. As for GPS accuracy, I know for a fact that for Search and Rescue purposes, HM Coastguard assume a position accquired by GPS to be accurate to within 200m - that's the absolute uppermost limit of inaccuracy they can reasonably expect (not counting outside factors such as poor calibration/damage etc). Most (emphasis on 'not all') handheld GPS units aren't far behind that now, to be honest - I'd be fairly surprised if a halfway-decent model was consistently found to be more than 400m out. It's one of those myths that's kind of stuck around - when handheld GPS units first hit the market, they indeed were very unreliable due to the new technology. However, technology has moved forward since then, and they're now pretty damned reliable, but for some reason the stigma hasn't quite been shaken.