Fonebook

There aren't any options for track them and see what they do. Your poll assumes I have decided how to handle players independent of the particular situation. It seems that you are trying to find logic in irrational behavior. People kill others for emotional reasons mostly, not because it makes any sense.

I believe that many players lack the creativity to keep finding new experiences in DayZ. Most kids get tired of the same Tonka truck in the same sandbox after a while; however, the creative ones never stop thinking of new games to play, even with old toys. It is no surprise that the average gamer moved on to something else after a year. Often I find multiplayer games get better with age because the not-so-serious players move on and leave behind only those who really love it. Let them go.

Had to stop and jump in here. Have to agree, private hives are bad as it is inevitable that the admins who pay will feel they deserve a better shot, because they paid. It's like if someone put up a basketball goal on their street and then claimed they could foul all day cause they bought the goal. Who wants to play ball with that guy? Server operators should rent the servers to provide a fair playing field or just not rent at all. There were lots of complaints in the beginning from admins who felt they didn't have enough power. I even heard these complaints from admins who would reset the server to get vehicles to spawn. What gives? I for one don't feel that private hives saved the mod. If anything they drew in more players who had no clue what this game was about. They kept the mod growing at a time when it was big enough already. Private hives may have had some benefit for the community, but in the long run it is far outweighed by the ultimate cost. I got hacked as much as the rest of you, but I kept coming back. And I would have continued to come back. I think there have always been more than enough people enamored with DayZ to ride out the wave of hackers. Instead the hackers were legitimized by private hives. Even if murder were legal, it would still be wrong to anyone with a moral compass. Private hives are a blight on DayZ and should be treated as such. Apologies to the minority of good private hives out there (been on a few), but you must understand you have been outnumbered by those proving the irresponsibility of the masses.

I still meet a bunch of friendly players in vanilla servers. Good 'ol DayZ is still there if you have the patience. Sure most players you meet are psychos... but take a walk in the real world and tell me who you meet. One of the coolest things about DayZ is it really is what you make it. If you get upset about being killed then in the long run it will weigh heavy on you what the state of the game is. If you just say oh well and keep looking for friendlies, you will find them. The trouble is figuring out what to do once you group up. Enjoying this game takes a large amount of creativity and patience. If you find that you are no longer enjoying it, ask yourself if you are patient and/or creative enough, and how you could improve in both areas. Meeting up with friendlies wouldn't be exciting if it was easy. I have come to like it how it is.

I also think death messages don't belong. However in my experience with this game the amount of players calling for a hardcore, realistic, survival simulator are far outnumbered by the people who want an arcade murder fest. Despite the obvious flaw that death messages represent, contemporary game players have been groomed to play for statistics to gain bragging rights. As a result many servers even show who killed who. Take one look at the types of servers being run for this game and you will see that the people who want DayZ to stick to it's original vision are outnumbered by those who want a cool game to murder people. :(

This feature is great. Played my first run of 1.8 on US 3480 and chose to spawn in Elektro. This choice was based on my desire to get the hero skin and knowledge that many people in that city need help. Maybe it was a fluke, but the first 7 people I encountered were survivors, and the 4 of them that were armed did NOT shoot me. The new difficulty of zeds in this patch seemed to make the survivors I encountered eager to team, or at least not bloodthirsty to kill me. Eventually I was gunned down by a bandit, but I was able to bloodbag one needy player before this and was happy. Next I went for Cherno, met another friendly guy, but was killed by some zeds. Then I went back to Elektro. Met a hero hunting bandits for the humanity, and we shared bloodbags. Not everyone who chooses the cities does so just to kill and murder. They are also a good place to meet people, if you aren't scared to die. Sure people run back to get their bodies, but you can hide them no? Choosing the spawn location is a big plus, and people will suicide less. Less bodies means less work for the hive, the server, and all of our clients. The KoS crowd will never change, learn to deal with them.

Well edited DayZ Intro/Trailer movie by a guy I have been playing with named "Death@pain." I enjoyed it greatly, what do ya'll think?

This sums up my frustration with the way DayZ has gone, in terms of server population. So many of the modifications to DayZ just take it closer to ArmA2. I wonder what percentage of DayZ players have never even tried ArmA2. I understand, it took a few months of DayZ myself before I tried. At least for me, the idea of having a game installed and never even playing it is kind of crazy.

The way I see it tents, bases, stashes, and any other gear hoarding device which persists through death makes permadeath worthless. If players have a place to stash away gear, then the game becomes about collecting and hoarding gear. It reduces the risk loss from death. I am all for having these types of things, but having them persist through death goes against the entire idea behind permadeath. DayZ is about player interactions, intense situations, and the emotions that go with them. When you have a hidey-hole to put things in it softens the blow of death and encourages players not to have concern for their lives. If said hidey-hole was deleted upon death it would likely lead to people having a more realistic concern for their lives. Sure if the guys gear is damaged you might not want to shoot for the loot. The simple fact is that most people don't shoot for the loot, they do it for the thrill. If chasing that thrill put your entire pile of gear at risk, people might think twice. Or at least get their more cautious friends to hold onto things for them. What do you think?

The idea proposed in my original post was merely one idea. More than any specific way to address the issue, I was more hoping to see a discussion of how tents/bases kind of circumvent permadeath and what the implications of this are. It is important to me that when someone identifies a problem they are willing to offer some sort of solution. I didn't mean this was the best or only way to go, it was merely one idea I had been throwing around. I most definitely agree that it would be very unfortunate to stalk a player to his tent, shoot him once he bends over to look in it, only to have your spoils go "poof." I am just interested in how the rest of the community views the issue of permadeath vs. stockpiling and the resulting implications. Thanks to everyone who responded.

I would not be opposed to a moderate skill system, as long as it is reset upon death. I prefer the game to be about the skill you bring to the controls, not in game buffs. I miss the old days of Battlefield 1942 when every player was essentially the same soldier and your performance on the battlefield was more based on skill (and familiarity with the game and maps, truthfully) than any sort of artificial buff to your character. However in DayZ some sort of "I have lived for a long time" buff would actually be a good way to make players concerned about staying alive. So as much as I hate the idea of skill systems, if it makes players want to avoid death in a more realistic way I could put my qualms aside. They can make the game more difficult, they can implement gear damage, but unless they find a way to make players REALLY not want to die DayZ will continue to be a spruced up deathmatch. I need to make it clear that I support banditry and killing for pleasure, not necessarily my style but as it is now the game leans more towards encouraging banditry when in theory it should be more neutral. At least in my opinion. But what do I know?

There is no reason a player could not continue to hoard. I understand a tent limit might be "gamey." But is being able to remember where your stuff is after reincarnation not "gamey?" This is not an argument against a playstyle, I understand it would impact a playstyle. This is more an argument for players being concerned about dying.

StrangeOrange, I enjoy and respect your opinion. I like setting up tents and keeping stuff in them as well. My only fear is that it will expand into bases, which Rocket and other aficionados have mentioned. I can handle whatever decisions they lay on us, I just had to stop and make the point that having tents, bases, and as you pointed out even cars survive your death, runs counter to the idea of permadeath. I am NOT against the hoarding playstyle, I am worried about the incongruency of these things being passed from life to life and giving players a good reason to not fear their death. Hoarding should be limited to the length of your life, in my opinion. I have never been a fan of MMOs because they stack the deck towards the players who have the most time, not necessarily the most skill. Permadeath undoes this somewhat, though I feel having a stash of gear you can run back to takes DayZ a little closer to those other MMOs which I cannot stand. I think the key to having this game create the intense situations that makes it different than others is having players value their lives. The cheap price of death currently has lead the mod to all sorts of dark places, in my opinion.

Thanks for all the responses. I have had long discussions with a few of my fellow players about this, and it does seem it would be harsh to have someone's tent disappear the moment after death. I am honestly not sure what the best way to handle it is. In the current state of the mod, however, it seems there is a large emphasis on stockpiling gear, at least after you overcome the initial shock of learning to survive. Then again my experience has been that the moment you get a giant stash it is found. The tents are a small beef, but the idea of expanded base building capabilities really troubles me. I think the concept of permadeath, or at least severe in-game consequences for death, is one of the best things this mod has going for it. What would you think about having a tent limit?

Have seen a lot of discussions over the last year tossing this back and forth. The recent 3rd person view/1st person view discussion got me thinking about it again. The outcry about infection and zombie difficulty increases also made me ponder this. As well as all the heavily bastardized servers out there. When I came on board with DayZ a year ago I feel like it was billed as a hardcore survival simulator. Did I misunderstand what was presented to me? All the talk of realism had me intrigued, being built on top of a milsim was a huge draw for me. The bleeding, the breaking bones, the fear of other people. Though I have noticed that every major change that increases the difficulty of the game is met with outcry from the player base, even removal of the debug monitor which was obviously never intended to be in the game was contentious. Perhaps it has been me all along who had a false impression of this game, maybe I deluded myself into thinking it was something it was not? I remember there has always been this realism vs. fun compromise. After playing DayZ though I found the best part about it is the intense emotions it brings forth in me, both positive and negative. You have to ride the highs of the game carefully so not to become overconfident, you have to take the defeats with grace so you can pick yourself back up for the next encounter. In a nutshell it is a great experience for learning to deal with conflict outside of the game. Learning how to have successful encounters with random, nervous players has been a valuable life lesson in having respect for others, even strangers that may want to kill you. It has been a hell of a ride. For me as a player, it is the intense "realism" which has made this mod so much fun. Hopefully you can see where I stand from this posting, I feel it should be a hardcore survival simulator. Maybe it isn't though, and perhaps I have hope in a pipe dream. Maybe it is and the best is yet to come. I am currently confused as to what the ultimate direction of this game is. So my question for everyone is simple, and please elaborate if need be. Is DayZ mod a hardcore survival simulator? Will SA be a hardcore survival simulator?

I also still have high hope for the standalone. I will be disappointed if there are a lot of compromises to make the game "more accessible." The hardcore game I thought this was shooting to be is something I have been dreaming of for years. I am going to buy and play it regardless, the mod so far has been an amazing experience. It deserves a try. The push by the general population for base building scares me though, as well as the dev teams support of it in some form or another. Bases and even tents circumvent the punishment of permadeath. I have always been against MMOs because your character never really dies, you keep all your levels and lots of items etc. Excess vehicles, what the inception mods have done to the game... I find it all scary because I know the general population would rather have a shoot-em up than a survival sim where death means something. Despite my current fear and confusion I am excited to see where it all goes, one way or the other.

The elephant in the room is that most players do not want to play DayZ as designed. So, as I have seen mentioned by others, does this now mean there will also be 1000 cars in the SA? Are we going to be able to self bloodbag in the SA? The debug monitor seems popular and tons of people complained when it left, is it coming back in the SA? Are we going to have a world spilling over with military weaponry? Will the infection be a meaningless non-issue with antibiotics everywhere? Are there going to be care packages raining from the sky? Are you going to be able to smelt tank traps into shipping containers? The original concept of DayZ, and the way the vanilla plays, is something most players cannot stomach. Just look at the server populations. It will be very sad if a silent majority comes in and muscles the "anti" right out of this game. I have said before I would still play if TPV is not removed, but I exploit it like everybody else because the FPV servers are all empty. More important than having the view restricted is having others to play with. However, the realization that, through this discussion, there is official support for gamey use of TPV is quite disheartening. The real question is, if TPV is left in just to appease the player base, what other crucial aspects of the game are going to have to be compromised to keep the masses happy?

Glad to hear Rockets input on this one, sad it had to come second hand. This really is his baby and at the end of the day I have great respect for his decision making thus far. If he feels it should stay in some capacity or another, then so be it. I respectfully disagree with his perspective on this issue, and I think this is an unnecessary compromise. TPV has a cool factor which I cannot deny, but it is too prone to being exploited and I think the amount of work it will take to make a compromise will ultimately not be worth it as the end result will most likely also be susceptible to gamey exploitation. The removal of first person is simple and can be accomplished almost instantly. Any compromise is going to suck energy and resources which could be expended elsewhere. There are other ways to indicate to a player which direction a connecting shot has come from that don't give omnipotent views. True first person games have the advantage that if the enemy can see you, you can shoot him. If there is any way for players to observe me without putting themselves at risk, I will consider it cheap. I can see the advantage of TPV for making game films and such and it would be sad if these guys could not access it. I think if a server that has TPV enabled it should have the word EASY all over it. Not "Veteran." In the end a true survival simulator will never be as popular as a run and gun blast fest. Most servers are bastardizing the original vision anyhow, so I don't think they should even fit into this equation. Although I disagree with it, and think leaving it in is a mistake, I can move forward remembering how hardcore this game could have been. That is likely to happen no matter what though, and I applaud rocket and the dev team for taking all of this input into account and participating in the discussion. It just means that all of us hardcore players are going to have to band together and form a community simply for the purpose of getting a hardcore server populated. It won't be the end of the game if it is left in, just an unfortunate compromise that for all I know may be utterly necessary. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to discuss this so heavily. Can someone talk Dslyecxi into making a video about how useless death messages are so we can get a big thread going about that?

Let me get this straight... So you don't like the direction of the game, we get that. As you have pointed out, you are entitled to your opinions, we get that. How about utilizing the suggestion forum? How about arguing your points when the discussion happens? How about actively contributing to the community? I fail to see the purpose in these "the game is completely ruined" threads. I knew what I was getting into when I clicked on your thread, the title tells it all. These threads that are full of negativity are very counter productive. You have only managed to further alienate yourself and your views by being focused on "I" as was pointed out, posting in anger, and generally complaining instead of being constructive. They are completely redesigning the client-server relationship on SA, it is a HUGE project, and I am frankly tired of people moaning and groaning that not enough has been done because they can't SEE it. If you would take some time to learn about the complexities involved in these types of projects, you might appreciate the hard work that has been done. Just an aside: I played DayZ for months before I even found a car close enough to working to fix. Moving on foot is more the norm than driving around, we can wait till they spruce up the cars before they are put back in, whats the problem? EDIT: Grammar. I have fired my typist.

When a person is trying to focus on a distant object, the human squints the eye. This uses muscles to flex the eyeball so that the lens of the eye can see better at great distance. Perhaps it is not perfectly emulated, but the right click zoom is a lot like squinting. Also, when you squint it cuts down on peripheral vision, just as the game does when zooming in. 3rd person is definitely very far from realism, the RMB zoom... not so much, pretty good emulation of squinting to focus on a far away object. This is why binoculars are nice, no straining the eyeballs.

Arcade style games are strictly for having fun. Simulator style games are about recreating an experience in all possible aspects, including the struggle and un-fun elements. Sure there will always have to be a compromise, but 3rd person represents an unnecessary compromise which encourages people to hide behind things and never expose themselves. In the end there is no good reason to have it, other than to pander to gamers who really aren't interested in the style of game DayZ has been stated to be by Rocket himself. Furthermore there is no need to have it in vehicles, would be nice to have working mirrors, but this alone is not a good enough justification for super-human visual ability.

I think it is true, that if this really is the "Anti-Game," the steps will be taken to make it the most immersive and realistic experience possible. I once made a post about how having death messages was BS since you should have to go and check your kills instead of automatically feeling more comfortable once you see the "so-and-so was killed" message. Many people argued against it for various reasons. But in the end most gamers have become reliant on artificial cues to make them more useful in a situation than they would be and they will fight hard to preserve these gimmicky abilities. They depend on them. The game should be about the skill you bring to the controls, not about the gimmicks you become good at exploiting. The huge increase in ArmA2 sales has already paid for DayZ. That's why they can take their time, the development has already been profitable. I think the right thing for the devs, and specifically Rocket, to do is to create a game that best embodies the tension and fear of a zombie apocalypse. If they aren't willing to make the hard decisions, like removing 3rd person, not allowing 3rd party servers to bastardize the game, removing death messages, removing cross-hairs, etc., then there is nothing special about DayZ development at all. Pioneers in the video game industry are people who do more than repeat what has already been done before. They lead the industry somewhere. They don't feed us the same crap we have been feeding on for ages, they invent something new for us to digest. What we are asking for takes huge balls of steel, but that is the nature of being a pioneer, blazing a trail into the unknown. Lets do the right thing devs.

I just completely disagree with the FOV slider demand. If you double tap minus (-) you get quite a bit more of the world on the screen. Furthermore, with the free look mechanic in DayZ, if you look around you can be aware of a lot of things in a short amount of time. There is no FOV that could ever fully emulate human vision. We see more IRL than what can ever be represented on a rectangle. Besides, if you are arguing that the FOV needs to be larger for the purpose of realism, keep in mind that the human eye is really only good at detecting motion in peripheral vision. I think the FOV is just fine and people want the ability to look over walls and around corners, plain and simple. I also noticed that you see your character model in the current standalone gear menu. This takes care of the only worthwhile reason to have 3rd person. Maybe there could be a mirror as well for checking out your guy? For the vain among us... Unfortunately a large majority of players have become dependent on 3rd person and removing it would cause the largest uproar yet. We thought they were upset about the AS50s... I feel it should be removed from the game completely in the name of immersion, but sadly I don't think the devs would have the guts to do it. Time will tell.

Investment implies returns. That is not in the spirit of donations. What you should have said is "Welcome to the economy in the western world! Where we say one thing, but mean another!" Don't dump your capitalist derision upon us. Everybody knows the only free market is the black market anyways, and that is kind of what is going on with these DayZ servers, as I am sure many of the donation schemes are illegal but have yet to be challenged in court, because they wouldn't be asking for donations if they were worth taking to court in the first place. The economics of the situation are beside the point. All these donators are going to have expectations when standalone is released, will they poison our community? Donations should not give you perks! NONE at all. Knowing you support a good server should be enough. We recently learned from Dr. Cornel West that there are way too many servers... The mod is stuck and not evolving? Where have you been? R4ZOR and his team have been working hard for us, do you not keep up with mod development? Stuck in development for half a year? Your claims are outlandish as there are pages just a few clicks away from here that prove the opposite is true. People act like they are OWED this mod, which is a crap attitude in my opinion. EDIT: too many "anyways"

Thought of this today. Slide Down Ladder What could possibly go wrong? <crack>