zhrike

I'd love to see some real world abandoned areas incorporated into the map, like some of these: http://distractify.com/culture/arts/the-most-spectacular-abandoned-places-in-the-world/ Pripyat exists in the original Stalker game, and the Częstochowa Train Depot looks a lot like another area from that game (but then, most abandoned train yards/depots/stations look somewhat familiar). Obviously many of the locations are similar, but it would be pretty cool to see some actual abandoned place show up in Chernarus. In any event, those images are very cool. Great ideas, OP.

My attempts to give away my gear has not gone so well. Met a guy in Elektro (I'm not going in helter skelter, but carefully), who didn't speak my language, so I just dropped two bags of rice. Found another bleeding on the edge of the water at Otmel, so talked to him, no answer. Went over and bandaged (you have bandaged "unknown entity"). So that went well. Next guy was in Kamyshovo getting attacked by three zeds right after a restart, so I went and bandaged him after killing the zombies, and he yelled something like "what the fuck?" I told him I killed the zombies and bandaged him, so settle down. He said "I'm trying to kill myself so if you want to help me kill me." Okay, so I did. So, some food given away, two wasted bandages, and a murder (or assisted suicide if you will). Not going according to plan. :-p

Also - they've redone the cities up north and added quite a few lootable areas. I've played on full pop servers and run across the north of the map west to east and back and saw no one. Well, except for the guy who killed me leaving NEAF. :-p Seriously, there is a lot of loot to be had, and NEAF is a good one to approach because of sight lines (I was being careless when I got whacked). Someone will likely be watching on higher pop servers, but if you use the advice above and go in with good team strategy ... fun times. Just make sure you don't run in a straight line - bob and weave, bob and weave. There are some good shots with mosins, but it'll be tough to hit a moving, bobbing and weaving target from any significant distance. Never sit still in a field where people might be lurking. That's everywhere, pretty much.

Office buildings. Top floor, open room, behind the door. Almost always spawns weapons. I've got or seen an M4, multiple mosins, and .357s there. There are office buildings all over the map.

I own his documentary and the book ... also the National Park Service released another compendium of his journals, much more extensive than either the documentary or the book (which cover his first year full time in the park), and I have that somewhere in PDF form. PM me if you want copy. It was free. I'll hunt it down and create a dropbox link. The links to the latter are still around, but the PDF seems to be gone.

EDIT: wanted to add this up top. I am not complaining about the state of the alpha, which I think I made clear below. This is intended simply as a musing conversation about what zombies were, are, and where they might go. END EDIT I've been bouncing back and forth from mod to SA to compare and contrast the mechanisms and the environment over the past few days. There have been a number of disparate threads on zombies, the request for more, the fact that they are too easy, that they clip through walls, etc., and we who have read rocket's message about the alpha know that zombies are a major point of development; optimization, path finding, being server-based vs. client, etc. This is about what they should be in the SA vs. the Mod. Or maybe it is about what they are in the SA vs the mod. Or maybe it's about me being bored at the moment. In any case ... The first and obvious point is that there are hardly any zombies. Anyone who has played both the mod and the SA knows this. For those players who have not played the mod ... just you wait. And, I'd suggest, strongly, that you try it out, if the Arma 2 collection isn't too expensive. I digress: I personally think that Arma 2 is awesome, and I bought it originally simply to play DayZ, and love the actual game (and wasteland - with Arma 3, too). End of digression. So back to SA point one: there are hardly any zombies. We know this, and we know why (server load). They are incredibly easy to deal with if you have a decent melee weapon, or fists (which we all have), or if you have any type of firearm because they are generally alone. Or remarkably harsh language. SA Point two: They are slow. SA Point three: They run in a straight line. SA Point four: They seem to notice players from Guam. In other words: from very far away. SA Point five: They are easy to lose (mostly due to point two). SA Point six: They are weak. SA Point seven: They are spawned at server start or restart (at this point). SA Point last: They have no sense of humor. Seriously, I told a few some of my best jokes and all they did was moan, scream, and stumble towards me. Pricks. Any more points? Mod zombies: MOD Point one: They are fast. Like bizarrely, horror-movie, methamphetamine-gobbling track star fast. They're 100M behind you, then they are in your back pocket, stealing your bennies. MOD Point two: They are legion. They are everywhere (as long as there is a structure nearby). MOD Point three: They run around as if they had a physical tourettes going on; and with their speed, that's disconcerting. MOD Point four: They seem to notice players appropriately. MOD Point five: They are easy to lose (just break line of hearing/sight or run into a pine tree). MOD Point six: They seem okay in terms of power, except for the fact that they can hit you from Guam. Or, from like 5 meters away. MOD Point seven: They are spawned by player proximity. MOD Point eight: They're humorless fucks. And buggy as hell. MOD Point last: Fuck them, hitting me through walls and floor motherfuckers. To address is point by point, compare and contrast style: Point one: We know more zombies will be added. We know that they are looking at roving zombie hordes (awesome). I'd like to see cities infested with zombies, much like the mod. I'd also like to see villages that have fewer, but also to have zombies roaming the countryside. In the mod, once you get into the wilderness, unless you are near some form of structure (deer stand, etc.) zombies are fairly rare. So changing that would be good, IMO. Make survival, even for lone wolf players like me, more challenging. Point two: Zombie speed. I think that the Mod zombie speed is ridiculous. We adjust, sure, but it is also immersion-breaking. I'd like to see them faster than they are currently, but not as fast as the player. It would also make sense that zombie speed would be variable - with different types of zombies being faster or slower than others. Point three: I think, at this point, that it makes sense that a zombie would run straight at you, being single-minded brain-addicted hunger monsters (pun intended), so I like that. I like that I can shoot them from far off as they move straight at me, sure, but I also thinks it works for immersion. Make them faster, with more of them, I am not sure that this presents a problem. Point four: I have no real evidence to back up my perception that the zombies in SA have greater player awareness than in the mod. It just seems that this is the prevailing opinion. I think that perception in the mod at this point (1.8) is good. I also haven't found reason to complain in the SA. Not sure if it needs tweaking, but once we go from dozens to hundreds, maybe so. Point five: Losing them should be possible much in the same ways it is possible now in SA. A pine tree should not afford protection, but being able to outrace and break line of sight should work, provided the zombies aren't Usain Bolt on meth. Point six: The zombies in standalone seem slightly underpowered to me. I think they need to do more damage. With the relative reduction in speed it would be appropriate that they'd do more damage than they do right now, provided they can't hit you through walls, or from more than five meters away. One of the major problems when I played the mod regularly (1.7.x) was that they were simply background noise. They would be ignored entirely. 1.8 definitely made them more powerful, which is one deterrent to mindless KOS. Not KOS, mind you, but mindless KOS. There is a difference. I also think that zombie power, much like speed, could be variable - at least in terms of different zombie types having more or less power than others. Point seven: Major issue with the Mod is that zombies having spawned immediately informs you of another player's presence, at least recently. Having server-side zombies is a huge improvement right off of the bat. Points eight and last: yeah, well. So that's my take at the moment on the zombie situation. I will add that movement, weapon and inventory management, and interface improvements from mod to SA are phenomenal.

I've never done that before. I am going to do that right now. Of course, I am NW of Lopatino, so it'll be quite a hike. I'll add a reply once done - I suspect that 1) I will be killed beforehand (though I will fight if on the way), or 2) I will be killed by the person to whom I give my gear. If 3) An actual noob who is grateful, I will be surprised.

It depends on what you find most fun. It's definitely more challenging to gear on a busier server, but you've done the gearing up solo bit now. Since there aren't any vehicles yet, no base building, maybe try to band with someone or a group and see how that goes? It will likely be disappointing, but in those rare instances when you find someone with the same approach, or even a couple of people, it's a lot of fun.

And, to add, I was using the Mod as the only other viable comparison that exists, and I was also simply musing about the direction of zombies while at the same time soliciting feedback and a conversation, knowing that the devs read this forum.

At this point, there isn't much left. You could go to the coast and try to help noobs and fresh spawns, and likely die. But then, you can gear up all over again. Player interaction is the best thing about this game. It's also the worst thing about this game. Try to find the former. You will probably die, but this is dayz. Everybody dies. And you do it all over again. Also, remember, you're likely to be wiped at any moment. The more experience you have in fire fights, the better you'll be. Not sure if you don't have much, but more is always better, unless we're talking marshmallows ... eventually, they're just disgusting.

Clipping. I didn't include that since, as I said in the beginning, we know that zombies are a main focus of the devs, and that these technical issues will be addressed ... and in the case of clipping, there are already fixes that simply haven't been implemented yet. My post was musing about the direction of zombies in the SA.

Fixed.

I'm pretty sure that Rocket specifically addressed the clipping issue, and that there is a fix that just needs to be implemented that is dependent on structure geometry. I'm confident that the clipping issues that we've seen in the mod will be cleaned up relatively quickly. It's definitely disconcerting to have a zombie materialize through a wall while you're huddling in a house eating some beans. Mmmm beans.

I've not only killed every singular zombie I've engaged with with fists, I've not even taken a shot. Now, that said I've also taken on two at a time a couple of times, and both times I've been hit and bled. It definitely seems that first person is best, and definitely STAND UP! Crouching with fists or a weapon seems to fail (which makes sense). I've used a bat, a shovel, a wrench, a crowbar, and both axes. With the exception of the fireman's axe, I'd choose fists for any single zombie encounter. Even though the wrench (I think) and the woodsplitting axe were two hit kills, I still have taken damage a couple of times. I believe I read that the crowbar was supposed to be a two hit kill, but in my experience it wasn't. Or, I was too drunk to notice that I was missing. Of course, once this gets optimized a single zombie fight will be pretty much non-existent.

At this point we only have anecdotal evidence. That does look like a ballistic helmet, but yeah, too far to be entirely sure. Perhaps it grazed him, hence the dirt strike behind? I can tell you this: I came out of a building in NEAF in full gear with ballistic helmet and tactical armor and was lit up by someone with an M4, I ran back and forth trying to get a zero as he emptied what sounded like an entire clip at me and finally went unconscious. I was unconscious for a very long time before dying. I never log so I just watched. Very long time = 15 or more seconds. I didn't count, but it was a while. So, it appears that that stuff is fairly protective. That said, later I had two guys wearing ballistic helmets hit me from behind, one with fists (and I had no weapons) in Elektro fire station, and then another in a Balota hangar (after a character wipe) with an axe when I had an axe. I killed both of them and took, in the first case a pristine ballistic helmet, and in the second a worn. So, apparently not as good against melee.

In Chernarus+, clouds always move to the east. Run southeast, eventually you will hit either trees or the coast. If the coast, if it comes up on your left, head right (though this is highly unlikely). If it comes up in front of you or to your right, head left (east) to get to the edge of the playable map. If trees continue southeast until you hit the ocean and/or towns. If the latter, check the signs against the maps on dayzdb.com.

The original SA is just Chernarus for now, but hopefully that will be expanded.

Eating and drinking does work, it just takes time. You were probably fairly low on blood. Once you're full your blood will regenerate slowly over time. Eventually all color will be back and you will see a "healthy" status in your inventory screen.

I am having the same issue with equipping it, holding it, or using a quickbar and not being able to look at it while moving, but you can right-click on it in your inventory and choose "inspect" to get your bearings.

They're in the game. Found one in an office building post latest update (guns seem to spawn in the room on the top floor, on the shelf behind the door), and another in one of the buildings at NEAF, with another spotted while up there. They're there, just not as common (thankfully) as they were originally.

I think I'll have to wait until after the north is finished. I had a fantastic spot on the mod, that as far as I know, was never discovered, and it was not in the debug area. That spot is now gone with some of the map changes. Traffic patterns won't be established until the map is complete, and as we've seen up north there are many areas that look like future towns.

Novy is, and has been, a possible spawn location, though rare. I've never spawned there in a year of playing, with the mod or the SA. Hicks mentioned that Novy is still possible as a spawn location with the changes that were included in spawn balancing with today's patch.

It's frustrating yes, but ... it's an alpha; not only is it acceptable, it's expected. Don't expect to have your character from one day to the next, or even from one hour to the next at this stage. It's not just early access, it is its alpha stage. Gearing up is fun anyway. Now you get to run naked into town yelling "I feel like a drink, I feel like a drink, someone give me a fucking drink!"

Install Windows under boot camp and run it natively. That's what I do on Apple hardware. I've been playing the standalone on a macbook pro since it was released.

I've done it twice, so you'd think I'd know exactly how, but I can't remember for sure. I think you need to have either the rags or the sticks in your hands, and drag the other over it and you'll see the orange combining text with the option "combine rags and sticks into a wooden splint" or something like that. It seemed bugged too in the sense that there were three options, two the same for combining, and the "replace" option.