Sinaz20

I like to think of it this way-- There's expectations of realism... And there's realistic expectations... There are those people who think they want a 1:1 scale USA in GTA, and that having to drive between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in realtime would be ultimate. (Realism) And those people who understand that driving for 4.5 hours is not something fun to simulate as a past time. (Realistic) Dealing with the consequences of broken bones, infection, setting up fires to cook meat, etc... that's all elements of realism... But they are modeled in a way that we can be realistically expected to put up with them and still consider them fun aspects of a challenging simulation/game. Basically, when realism can be a rewarding hurdle to your skills, they belong in the game. Bullet drop, stealth, lighting mechanics... When the realism inspires tedium, it ceases to be recreational-- that is, suddenly the player begins to think about things they'd rather be doing. Having to crawl huge distance to get to a destination unseen, being forced to face combative situations with no offensive means to GET offensive means, sitting down for 5 minutes to eat a can of beans. This kind of realism doesn't belong in a game. For every potential fail situation, there needs to be some mechanic to allow you to overcome it, and ideally, it should be balanced to keep the player engaged and interested in overcoming it.

Yes. A big difference, though, is that in real life, flashlights cast a good deal of diffuse lighting besides the spot cone... in the game, the light is very stark, so you don't get the benefit of a little reflected ambient lighting. Also, most people can stabilize a flashlight with their wrists while running...

I've learned a lot about flashlights by watching other new spawners run with them. When you run with them, you swing the flashlight everywhere like a spaz, essentially turning yourself into a flickering beacon. When you crouch-run with them, you aim the flashlight at your feet, which drastically reduces your visibility to players... When crawling, well, it's pretty much exactly as it looks in first person. You just whip it all over the place when you move. My biggest issue with having to swap between flash light and weapon is that it's almost impossible to get a reliable bead on a zombie if you have to-- you can either point your flash light, or point your gun-- when pointing the gun, you usually can't even see your sight picture against the background. However-- once you find chemlights/flares, this all changes. With them, you can actually pop a light source and you are back to regular local visibility. My biggest take away here is that I would prefer chemlights over the flashlight... and wouldn't say "no" to starting with both. But-- I can make do with the current configuration.

I feel the unpredictable lethality of attacks from zombies trains the player to fear the zombies. I understand that as one's patience wanes, constantly respawning and dashing into zombie ambushes can get frustrating... but ideally the whole thing teaches you to better value each respawn's life and play as though your personal investment is at stake. Not piles of rotten flesh-- infected human beings. Breaking a bone is not terribly difficult. It just takes a good solid hit-- even rolling on a joint with your own weight can snap and crack bones retained by connective tissue (as anyone who has broken their ankle can attest to.) I know I have personally been debilitated by a broken ankle, and all it took was a spill while running. I think games should be fun and not necessarily super realistic-- but this feature is probable. It's just the morphine insta-cure that I disagree with. Though I imagine I would loathe the disability afforded by actually modelling broken bones in that after you break one, you would be pretty much stuck at a hobbling limp. There's a solution: avoid activities that will break your bones and open your arteries. IE- don't agro zombies unless you have a good fighting position. Don't expose yourself to bullets, clawing hands, teeth, generally pissed off zeds. Finally, I would actually prefer the typical undead zombies-- I like the notion of shambling hordes. I'd like to weight my ammo supply against insurmountable odds of slower zombies and risk getting stuck in a building where every entrance is swarming with them. Mixing up the zombie types-- so there is sort of the 29 days later sprinters, walkers on par with The Walking Dead, and then just mobs of slow moving zombies would really spice up the dynamism.

Well, technically, a tool like an e-tool or hatchet would be in a canvas sling that attaches to your ruck sack or equipment harness via an ALICE clip or two. I personally like that some tools are kept on hand in the "tool belt." But ultimately, it's a game GUI-- I mean, think about it... you keep your binoculars on your head, and your watch on your belt. It's kinda goofy. I expect the complete range of equipment and weapons to be given proper inventory and equipping treatment when DayZ breaks free of the Arma 2 limitations. Right now, everything feels like a mod in alpha... ...see what I did there? :D

According to the leaderboards, the longest living player was alive for 252 hours... that's 10 and a half days. Bluedot.

Ok, in all seriousness. You trust who you know you can trust. On a regular basis, the people I team up with are 100% trust worthy and never shoot me in the back... because the people I team up with is one guy who I know personally. I am beginning to make other in-game friends to team up with by joining teamspeak servers and being a gracious and polite fellow, making friends in the channels, and working with people who make an effort to not be a douche over VOIP. Look for servers that offer a teamspeak server, and join up... if you can talk to people with ease and be a sport, you will rapidly find people to group with. I don't think there really needs to be a mechanic for teaming up (though, I have suggested the notion of handshakes to sort of penalize friendly fire severely-- but since been talked out of the idea.) But here's the thing-- don't assume all the survivors you meet are level headed adults as their digital avatar would appear to suggest. Most of them are just gamers locked in deathmatch mode.

Eventually I'll kit up and go bandit/griefer hunting around the cities... I've begun to take notice of common sniper perches and have managed to come across well kitted snipers while I lacked the gear to take them down... I got a lot of satisfaction, though, shooting my mak up at two ghillied guys on the Vystok radio tower... just wish at the time I had something high powered and accurate... nice thing is, I can aim up at it better then they can aim down from.

All food and drink are tea and finger sandwiches... Because you need two for tea. "I've got biscuits and Twinings, near Elektro!" "Let's group!" Look at that! Solved!

Clear indication: Did he shoot you? Yes: Bad No: Good

Huh. I will check out this feature, thanks.

I don't know if loot tables have been significantly adjusted with the latest drop, but I haven't been relying on loot spawns for food/water... zombies have been giving me all the cola and sardines I need. I'm stocked up... just been hunting zed.

+1 I posted a similar suggestion which was to give the flashlight a point light source on the magnitude of a dim yellowish chemlight in addition to the spotlight, to help simulate the general ambient lighting of diffused reflection from the flashlight. It would also help to alleviate the nauseating effect of your survivor running with the flashlight, whipping the beam all over the place.

It's not bugged as far as I know-- the bolts have their own interaction hotspot-- so there's a bit of a pixel hunt to retrieve them. If the zombie falls onto the bolt, it can be nearly impossible to retrieve it, though. I've read you can hide the body and the bolts will stay behind. Shrug.

Lol. So that's what that is-- I can't really see them when I play at home, because there's a bit of overscan on my DLP TV-- the "halos" if I am thinking of the same thing, are just under the bezel. I can sometimes see edges of some effect flicking around the sides of the screen-- I thought they were lens flares. :D

The other difficulty in something like this is that it is almost unenforceable. How do you keep snipers from shooting into the safe zone or bandits from tossing in grenades? Forcefield? How do you prevent bandits from camping the exits and just picking off people as they enter/exit? One could argue that people in the safe zone can shoot out of it, but how do you tell the difference between someone shooting out of a safezone when a friendly accidentally walks in front of your muzzle? Also, have you ever in your life played tag without the olly-olly-oxenfree rule? You get everyone standing on base, and "it" standing just outside of base with everyone yelling "no guarding!" Childhood experience, that is. ;)

Where did the QTE comment come from??

Yeah, not really. The thing that I always find chilling in zombie apocalypse movies is the empty (not destroyed) cities. It's a trope, for sure, but it's effective. I think a nice bit of ambiance to add to the game would be to incorporate a panicked yelling sound effect to survivors being mauled by zombies. Could you just imagine you're looting in the quiet, nothing but the ebb and flow of the wind. Then you hear echoing in the distance cries for help and panicked yelps. Hold that thought-- off to the suggestion forum :D

I've been hopping from thread to thread about this. Zombies. They have all the food and colas! Agro some Zombies, funnel them into a building, kill them, loot them. During the day, I can actually hunt zombies out in the open from a distance with something as crude as the Winchester. I usually only have to kill four to six of them to acquire beans and soda. With the hotfix, you can actually manage zombie hunting without getting swarmed so long as you're smart about it. Of course, this assumes you've managed your first priority: a weapon. Good luck!

So, I am unfortunate enough to be shot by a bandit who got the upper hand. I fall unconscious and am bleeding out. Death is certain. What do I do? Try to scarf all my beans, drink all my liquids, inject/swallow every drug I have. If I could set myself on fire or lay on a primed grenade-- I would.