Funkmaster Rick

I suspect that food levels are currently artificially high so that the developers can actually get some useful data from player actions. "He spawned and Cherno and starved to death there an hour later without ever leaving," does not give them much actionable data. You have to actually survive long enough to get off the coast and test what I'll call some of the 'late-game' options, like military weapons, otherwise they've got no data to work with. Alas, this is exactly what you signed up for.

Might I ask what prompts you to say, specifically, that it's supposed to be a stepping stone? Is there some development announcement I didn't read? I'd hate to think you simply mistook your personal opinion for how the world is meant to be.

Might I ask why?

I paid attention to their development timelines and all that jazz from the start. They've been pretty good about sticking to their plans - clearly they had some decent management working on that plan, people who knew what to expect. And yet, there's still whining. No matter how loudly you shout things at some people, they will only hear what they want to hear.

The people.

Hm. Are console players going to be able to play on the same servers as PC players?

And another KoS deathmatcher joins the ranks.

If you want to optimize your DayZ performance, learn how to optimize performance and then apply those principles to your DayZ experience. You will find yourself a much wiser and more knowledgeable person at the end of your educational journey. So basically, Google it and search the forums. I WILL give you this advice, though: don't expect it to run great, even with all the useful optimizations you can find; Twitch streamers with monster truck PCs still get shit performance, even when playing on their own without recording software.

I never played on DayZRP. Last I heard, it's a giant shitshow with ass-backwards mods, lots of little cliques who like to whine to their mod friends, and all the regulars on there KoS anyway. Of course, it's possible the server has changed since the last dozen times I've heard people talk shit about it. I wouldn't bother.

Makes me worry sometimes that the devs support that playstyle. And though I'm all for multiple playstyles and player choice, it has to be noted that the preponderance of PvP-only kids effectively renders all other playstyles except the forest hermit null and void. If you're playing for the stories like me, you're basically fucked.

The logistics of carrying both a chainsaw and its necessary refueling partner, the jerry can, seriously hamper its pimp-factor.

It protects you from getting laid.

As someone whose house runs on a well and septic system to avoid the ridiculous charges cities sometimes level for access to the town system, let me tell you a few things about wells you might not know. Wells fill up with murderous bacteria all the time. Seriously. The current system I run on includes an electric pump to send the water into the house's tank and keep everything pressurized, and there's a UV-light system specifically to kill bacteria. The bulbs for the UV system need to be replaced at least yearly, though I suppose it's technically possible for them to last longer while still remaining effective if you don't use them too often. But this system is absolutely necessary. The septic system has a drainage that's basically aimed away from the well, to help reduce the amount of poop-water that filters in. But you'll never get everything, and there are plenty of ways E. Coli and other bacteria can filter in. Your well can be poisoned. Purely for reasons of sanitation, you should never bury a dead pet (much less a family member) anywhere near your property - contamination of the well will almost certainly result in a few years, if not sooner. Back before this kind of filtration and anti-germ technology, if a well was poisoned, you boarded it up and dug a new one. THAT is why all these wells have wood covering them up. They're bad wells. There are (or were) a bunch of mass-graves in DayZ, often on hills - dead bodies on a hill means as soon as it rains, some of that rot will not only seep into the ground but will follow the terrain to some degree. A dead body buried atop a hill means all nearby wells are eventually poisoned. Frankly, I wouldn't even trust the pumps. Too many unburied bodies and mass graves. Just pondering the terrain off the top of my head, I'd estimate that at least 20% of the pumps in DayZ are situated in places where they will eventually go bad. Combine that with the presumed five-year gap between outbreak and character spawn, and you just can't trust any water that's at a low elevation. The filters have probably gone bad. Boil everything.

OH GOD THE FEELS Seriously though, excellent idea. Six to midnight.

Do whatever you can to ensure that the weapon is not in your hands on logout, but in your inventory proper. When you log back in, do a full check before even moving - if your gun's missing, check the ground beneath your feet. If no, log out and back in. If still no, cry, then go find another one.

At this point, I think the lack of real weather is the primary killer of creep. Without clouds to darken city streets and turn forests into near-black stumble-fests, the atmosphere cannot return. And it really is primarily about the colour palette, I think; for all their shitty graphics, cities in the mod looking grimy, man. I think it'll come along eventually. And once that atmosphere returns, I imagine the days of epic storytelling and DayZ mythology will return again. Aww yiss.

Deadjuice has an excellent point there. DayZ is a particularly interesting game: nowhere else have I had a perfectly polite conversation with another person while we're both ducking in and out of cover for fear of the other being a bandit.

Ahahaha! They are! Too many people just can't seem to see that, can't string together the timeline of development, can't comprehend the whole Early Access and Alpha thing.

For the record, robberies often end in a murder in DayZ. There are exceptions, of course. But if someone tries to rob you, you should probably make a hail mary play and go for the head.

Freethink has a load of good points there. As for improving your fighting skills, I recommend playing similar games. ArmA 3 would probably be the place to go these days for good milsim experience. And don't kid yourself - that's what this game demands, if you're going to survive or win fights in DayZ SA. That being said, there are a few other viable options. CS:GO competitive is good for developing a decent twitch reflex and intuition for cover and positioning. Insurgency is even better. As much as it pains me to say this, CoD probably has a few things to offer - mostly in terms of running and navigation in various environments, in my humble opinion. Mostly though, if you want to survive in DayZ, or accomplish anything interesting, you've got to learn how to think like other people.

Increase the number of cow spawns. Cows>Cow Farts>CO2>Global Warming>Nature Defeated. My logic is infallible.

I'm so mad I'm going to have my grandmother call Bohemia Interactive and tell them to fix it. Nobody can withstand the power of little old ladies.

Personally, I'd like to see more story-oriented streaming with people who know how to roleplay. But that's probably just me. You'll likely find more success picking up a team of decent players and picking on freshspawns and travellers; that playstyle seems to attract a lot of viewers.

Argh. Apparently they're rolling out the upgrades in phases. The science will be delayed.

I'ma upgrade and try DayZ out on Win10, run around and hit some of the bigger cities. I'll report back with my findings - perhaps later today, perhaps in a few days.