law1977

Just reading all the comments here and lots of interesting points. 1. I enjoyed this no frills dev blog, nice to see ppl playing the game showing how things work, like looting clothes etc.. 2. I to would have like to see buildings being searched, the town or mini city looked cool but if we cannot enter most of it then its just background. As soon as I saw the big apartment blocks I wondered how much will be able to enter. I am realistic I know the Devs cannot make every room enterable, because of the amount of work involved. Rocket said it is not finished let so I am interested to know how much in an average town would be enterable and if they have aim to increase this in updates. 3. Inventory screen was mentioned and I am really looking forward to seeing this, after wrestling and mainly losing to the old mod inv screen. Hot keys sound excellent and will allow customisation to your char. 4. The poor testers, "say something interesting about the game", I think they were not sure on what they can say, why they needed prompting from rocket. So I think it is a tad harsh to pick on the testers , where I feel it was a bit " rabbit in the head lights" for them. It was clearly a thrown together blog, so in the future I think with some more warning the testers can gather there thoughts and give some good feedback to us. 5. Release date, I have read lots of opinion about this and I do see there point, I also think rocket has explained his reasons and should be given the time to get "base engine" sorted. I can imagine the up roar if they release the game and it is poorly done lots of bugs and nothing works. You can hide behind the alpha title but I think rocket wants everything to work from the start to a high standard and then build on this. Then drip updates in expanding each part of the engine. Couple of questions I would lie to see addressed in future blogs, where they are with it. 1. Enterable buildings, especially the blocks of apartments, how much are they aiming for on release and where they are at currently. 2. A blog completely about there aims for crafting, the biggest thing about stand alone I feel and links to all end game content like cars, bases etc.. 3. Inventory system how it looks and the key features of it. I understand why rocket is so secretive but I feel a quick look will put a lot of people's mind at ease. A nice structured blog each week or couple of weeks with the subject of just one key feature would make fora very interesting blog, such as the animation blog. Cheers for reading and putting up with my bad grammar ;)

Had a quick look on suggestions could not see this being discussed so thought I would start a topic. Was discussing dayz with me mate and he suggested that zombies can get in the way of each other. As we know zombies should be pretty brainless they want to eat you that's it. So they should run after you (prob bit quicker then u can run), but you can weave in a house using objects to slow zombie progress. Maybe they can trip over stuff and if they are more than one you can have them run into each other stagger them slightly and use that time to disappear from view. Be able to frustrate them with good movement and then once you are out of line of sight for a bit they lose you and search last known location, again for a set amount of time. They should not weave at all and judging by today's blog they are more of them, so being overwhelmed maybe more of an issue, saving that ammo. Now if we were to get more clever, u could cripple a zombie and if they fall into another's path they trip up allowing for an easy head shot when on floor. With more corpses the zombies would slow down due to clambering over the bodies and allowing you to escape. Okay I am aware this would take rag doll type physics and alot of good animations but I cannot think of another game that has tried this. No doubt someone will prove me wrong, but it just struck me as an interesting game mechanic. Thoughts?

Yup talking SA, so dead island had something like that might have to check it out while we wait for SA. Yeah no rag doll and it looks like the team want it in but won't be there for realise. Shame but I understand you have to get a good base engine and then go from there. I just saw a tweet saying that they were working on AI of "zombies" rocket has called them zombies so that's the term I am sticking with. So thought I would bounce some ideas in here. I hope u can distract them with flares and objects chucked, that would help in searching towns. Also wondered how the zombies work, what sense they are using to track. Sight I would thought would main sense then sound, much like mod. Going to be interesting on the plans for the zombies damage and how they track. I sense an #askdayz might be used here ;)

After I double checked it was not dayz: matt and rockets version of ken and Barbie, dressing each other up. It felt like we were snooping on the beginning of a sitcom, I noticed matt was all to happy to remove his clothes, things that happen in the dayz: SA offices eh. My views: 1. Loot looked cool and glad to see it wil take a while to clear each building. 2. Inventory sounds excellent ( big fan of original Xcom game), like how clothing has functional pockets. It will make a big difference to choosing items to keep and where. Does that mean u will ave to keep clips in you ammo belt or pockets so u can quickly access them. Much like the inventory currently but more structured and hopefully easier to use. 3. Buildings to enter, looks like lots of building to explore cant wait. 4. Island looked cool and I saw a post about a wreck that would be awesome as well, swamp was bit meh about didn't do much for me but will make a nice cosmetic change. Nice little teaser, read some comments about colour of underwear, font, menus etc.. Think it's bit to earlier for nit picking I have done programming and cosmetics are usually last to put in. Get it stable enough to test then break it and when happy change little things, in any case why do people care about the font as long as u can read it, good enough for me. I think they have bigger things to worry about than the colour and type of underwear. Unless of course this the start of rocket secret underwear the mind boggles....

Comedy right there!

My interest is growing everyday, I have been following SA closely and read all the comments here. Yes a new map would have been cool but that would require a lot of work to get right with the new design. So I am guessing from a developing stand point it was just easier to add a few more things, more buildings to explore, from a map they know and can quickly edit. Something tells me SA has more to offer than the mod and will be a good solid base with there new engine and map they can push on with new content. Also fixing the zombies, inventory, loot etc.. Well make SA a much nice cleaner game to play than it is currently, no doubt there will be bugs and glitches. Also my gut feeling says mr rocket has something up his sleeve which only the dev team know about and will make lots of people go oooohhh

I am right in the middle of this argument and can see both sides of the thing, when I first started playing Dayz, it was kind of epic to discuss with your mates where you are and try to find a location where you can all meet up. It was good fun (my map reading skills are actually not as good as I first thought!!). Anyways, after trying and dieing a couple of times you sometimes wish you could all group together and play with your mates, the game is quality on your own but with mates together its one of the best co-op games I have ever played. So from a pure gameplay, nothing to do with realism i think small groups of people can spawn near ish to each other say 1km between each other ish, you can then group up with mates and go your merry way for further adventures (after a bit of organising).Like someone said if you were in a boat and you all got shipwrecked you could use that as a way to say why you all end up roughly near each other and keep some realism still. GAH i cannot decide but I hate to sit on the fence so I would say a group spawn of the maximum of 4 people (sort of small boat size) with a good bit of random landings. When I played after first few deaths we just kept re spawning into we were nearish to each other (same side of the coast) anyways. So having this option would make it a bit easier for new people getting to grips with the game and play with there friends from the off. Clue all the realism people to call me names!! I am just saying from a gaming experience with mates I would find this feature handy, if its not in there when the game comes out its no great loss. MY gut feeling says it won`t be in SA, so back to 2 hours of looking for each other which I am sure will cause some interesting arguments over teamspeak/skype. As follows:- person 1: right i`m at the village person 2: me to i`m on the hill p1 : what hill p2 : the hill above the town !! p1 : the town is on top of the hill (spins around confused) p2 : no its in a valley p1 : *"!$ (consults map) p2 : you are in the wrong bloody place aren`t you!!!!!!! p1 : mmmaayyyybbbee (turns map right way up) P2 : tit p3 : hill, what about the radio tower p2: (sighs) p1 : meet at stary? p2 : thats the other side of the map p1 : not from where I am standing... p2 : &!"^ and you really are a £!£! p3 : seriously big tower!! p2 :(sobs quietly) this maybe based slightly on fact *hangs head in shame*

I agree I like idea and if we are trying to keep to realism in the SA, then like DemonGroover said as soon as you start using concerte, steel rods etc.. as building materials you are looking at stuff which which is tough to do without zombies around and the right tools. The first two completely doable and I take your response about what rocket said about using hacking or something similar (i remember an interview which he talked about that). Feasible in my opinion, for base protection Combination locks :- easy find them in hardware stores standard lock :- i remember someone saying pick locks as loot item, this has been done many times in different games and would give this game an interesting thing. Do you shoot it off and risk a big "hello" to anyone round or do you take the time and pick your way in could create some tense game play. Electrified fence :- now as someone said using a car battery, how about connecting to a metal fence, in theory could work I suppose, need special gloves to touch it. (i admit in real life no idea if it would work) guard dogs :- well they are coming into the game it seems, so why the hell not eh!! trip wire :- wire, some sort of explosive, some good old fashioned tinkering an hey presto!! Just remember where it is!! pit:- filled with spikes or maybe a zombie, lure one in leave it alone and people will come across and hear a zombie an then they fall into trap, broken legs and one well fed zombie!! 3 locks :- one works other two booby trapped with explosives. I think most of the above is dooable and keeps within the game ethos, if you through in the ability to have a power generator as well which needs fuel, so only good for clans. You can have power to your bunker and stuff of that ilk just a thought,

I am more for realism, there are not many games which just that "games", not realistic and give the person lots of help. So remove the crosshair from the get go and see how it goes, if its turning into a problem and there are to many people saying i need a crosshair. Maybe use it as a server option, but I think you will get more satisfaction from killing without the aid

I would love some sort of base building and judging by rocket's comments he got ideas (mainly underground and use instances). I like the original idea but as lots of people have said how can you secure something, when not online, I liked very ape's post about visiting a trading post on a server follow there rules and it would work out fine for both parties. I am all for the realism of the game so i`ll be interested to see what rocket has planned depending on the success of SA, The idea of underground bases which i mentioned in my post in this forum other week, which lots of people have mentioned before me. It allows rocket to instance away from the server so it much less demand on the main server map and gives people freedom to create a base for them and mates an get some community built up. I cannot see how an actual shop would work on the main map, its just to open exploit unless you have the man power in your clan/guild whatever you call it to protect it. I also don`t want AI or safe zones, nothing should be safe everything has risk it makes the game what it is HARSH and totally like nothing I have played before!!

Cheers for taking the time to read this post, quick background about me, by the by I have not checked to see if these ideas have come up before so if they have been mentioned I am not fussed I am just putting my own views based on my experience of game and what I have read about SA. Started played dayz when it was just started to get really popular, saw a review on website and thought it sound interesting. Didn`t own arma 2, (was a huge fan of flashpoint thou back in the day) so I read a few reviews about the game itself and then checked out this site and read all I could about the mod. Then decided to buy it with some friends of mine, a total different playing experience of any game, the tension and the guilt you had for killing your first person (i still remember it). For a game and a mod at that, months later to remember certain funny and pure tension bits makes the game very special. Sadly after a while got frustrated, my main problems were :- Lack of buildings to explore. Unless you found the right server, cheating was quite common. (it did provide some amusing moments when tanks came trundling over a hill into town thou, scared the hell out of me). Constant bugs, my friend never let us forget about the door breaking his leg and then it happening again. Inventory system, was just rubbish and frustrating. Loading and getting into the game. So I stopped as well as my friends playing the game, I became a classic lurker on these forums never posting reading all the comments about the mod and seeing what happened when Rocket gave the hive to other servers to use as there own. While I waited for standalone news, I thought I would try Warz, suffice to say it didn`t have the same atmosphere as dayz and decided to give up very earlier on in its development (first week). Then it all hit the fan with steam and general changes to the game so I never went back, wish I didn`t spend the cash now it was just a gut reaction. Right then views on standalone and things that have got me excited about playing it. The time its taken for rocket and team to get the stage they are at. Now me personally I hoped that the SA team would not rush it and quickly realise dayz SA and come out with a complete proper game (i.e. there xmas release date I thought that was a bit quick). I know they already had the engine but I wanted something more than the mod, the game I think Rocket wanted to make. So when I read the post about moving it to more server dedicated, this is the thing I hoped and even thou we have only seen screenshots I think its the right move for the game to develop into something special. So time was never the issue for me, I have read quite a lot of people on this forum frustrated about the promises made. Where I see there point I hoped that the SA team could address as many issues as they could and build on a more stable game. Which by the sounds of they are doing so happy days indeed!! More people on a server (150 aimed at judging by QA's on reddit) I am all for this if its possible, with a map with more buildings enter-able. Each village you reach will need much more time to explore, instead of going straight for the buildings you know you can enter. The best part of Dayz mod was the player interactions do you attack, watch and wait an see what happens. I have had some bizarre encounters with people in the game so the more player interaction the better for me. I want to immerse myself into the world and feel like a proper survivor so when you have these random encounters you have to make the choice weather to engage or sneak around them. More buildings to explore and new loot mechanics. This is one of the main reasons I stopped, I got so annoyed going into a village and finding a barn and one house to explore then leave, 5 mins done. Now obvious being a mod I understand why this was like this so i`m glad its being addressed in SA. When I was playing with friends I loved being the lookout, watching there backs on a hill as they explored a shop and kept an eye out for players and zombies. This made you feel like part of a team and again immersed you in the world, the tension you get from trying to get that extra bit of loot or have you pushed your luck to far. Now when you arrive at a village you have got much more scope buildings wise to explore and loot, which will MAKE the game into what it could be. How long should you explore a village for do you set a 2 min explore per a building to keep moving. This is defo one of things i`m most excited about, than I believe it was Matt Lightfoot said that you have to explore the shelves of each room and under beds. Loot is everything in the game, you are your loot so the more actually searching you have to do the more personal the loot is to you. With the new improved inventory, which I am very eager to see after Rocket said its like XCOM (one of my fav games of all time). This should make the entire experience of loot and searching for it something that will make the game stand out. Military grade weapons. I have read a bit about this and apparently there are more of your standard weapons (i presume shotguns, melee weapons, hunting rifles and handguns), while the more powerful weapons will hopefully be more difficult to find. Now with the mod, you knew there were only a few places where these weapons appear so it was a haven for sniping fights etc.. I would like more places for these to spawn such as military style road blocks, more crash sites, police cars in roads with police grade weapons, APC turned over. How about secret weapon caches which have been created in basements but were overrun by the zombie attacks. Also if you see military/police corpse they could have a chance of having ammo or a weapon on them. I also read you have to maintain your weapon an interesting part of the game, I wonder if you will swim for bit and if you have weapon in your hand you have to dry it out to prevent rust. Going for that perfect kill shot and your gun jams, I can imagine the bitching at your weapon now. As long as they are more random places as well as the standard military sites I think that would cut down on camping and increase the amount of people spread over the map. It will be interesting to see how this appears in SA, making sure loot is around and the extra special loot makes you feel very lucky to find it and makes you very nervous of going into a town for supplies. Hunting and such like There was a strange sense of pride when you cook your first meal after a bit of hunting, having your backpack full of cooked meat and knowing you can live off the land. I hope they develop this so you can do more, like Far cry 3 you could make holsters and such items from things your find. This encouraged you to go hunting and could be expanded on, such has bonus for eating well to stop you getting disease or even uncooked meat could have diseases on from animals. I remember reading that bow and arrows, crossbows will be in the game I like the idea of taking down people stealthy with your bow and arrow. Maybe you can make your own arrows or do a rambo and create exploring arrows with grenades (i have no idea if its possible sounds good thou). Living off the land, from what I have read, is something Rocket is very keen on from his own experiences so I hope he will develop this into something you can realistically do in the game and maybe not even need to go into towns live off the land. CO/op, PVE and PVP I have seen some people say they would live this done by server, I could not disagree more, this is about survival you make your choices not the server. IF you want to kill people, go ahead your life, want to help people fair enough or want to just roam around, do that. It should be a completely open world, you play your game if you get sniped that is part of the game you help someone and they turn on you annoying yes, part of the game sadly yup. Bans from server should only come from cheating/abuse, other than that you can do what you like. This makes the mod what it is and what the SA hopefully will be. Levelingish Now this is a tough un, I like the idea if you can do something in real life (read stars for example), you can do it in the game. Thats fine but I know if I was in such a predicament I would be hopeless and would have to learn quick. I have never fired a real gun, I have no idea how to aim it other than what I have learned in games so i`m stuffed really. So my view is, the longer you survive the better you would become at things you do, examples You would improve at handgun/rifles/shotguns use, so maybe when you start your hand shakes a bit so its difficult to aim, but the more you do it the steadier your hand becomes. Sniping is a difficult skill and unless you char has military experience or your a gun nut you won`t have any idea what to do. So with that could you set your targets up like a bottle or a tree to practice on and your skill improves through that experience. (with obvious risk to people hearing you practice) Also when killing zombies this can improve your skills like getting headshots etc.. First aid, I have a base idea of what to do with a bandage, maybe you can find textbooks on how to do first aid with looting and you can learn it by reading. (making splints etc..) Skinning and making things, If it tried to skin anything I would make a right hash of it, so as you do more of it you get quicker and you save more hide as your skill grows. The longer you survive you get more used to going without food and water because your much harder character. AS long as you eat proper meat you develop more resistance to disease etc.. On the flip side if you don`t eat properly and live of beans you find it harder to run around and such like for longer periods. Repairing equipment, I know I can`t do anything with cars and obviously there are people are very good and fixing them. So maybe away to be able to get repair manuals to read so you can do these type of things. Naturally when you die these experiences would be lost to you, of course that would be an added frustration you would have to relearn these skills. Realistic yup, for a game very annoying but I believe it would create an even better connection your char and make them feel more like you in the game. Naturally when you die, you might throw a small hissy fit cause you were nails but heigh ho!! Expanding on this if you find manual's in the game such as basic first aid, when you logout you have the option to read the manual, learn it (may take a few reads) until you have the option to do it game, this could expand until other things like weapon cleaning manual, skinning manual etc.... Reading this back I thought maybe you could choose what type of char you are and have a basic skill set based on that, examples Survivor, You can skin animals, start off with a skinning knife,have bow and arrow skills. Explorer, have a map at the start, can read stars automatically to show north (shown on hud). Army, have the basics weapon skills abd start off with a pistol with 1 clip of ammo, but no other skills This would create a bit of an RPG element, might not be a decent way to go but I feel it gives you a playing style, which you don`t have to stick to but would give you an advantage in certain situations. RPG maybe bit strong a phrase but I want the experience you gather through your char to matter. End game content Apart from living I would like more to do when I have the basics of life, weapons, food, water, hunting gear etc. I like the vehicles thing and the idea of adding bits to it does sound cool and I think you could come up with some excellent mad max style cars. Saying that bases is where its at for me, now I know rocket is keen on underground bases and these sound cool, I am sure he has some ideas. Here is how I see it:- When I think these underground bases I like to think realistic goals, you are on your own you can only do limited base building. I am thinking in the style of Vietnam style bunker networks. These were made by hand and with basic tools. Perfect for SA, If you have seen Platoon you will know which ones I mean. So my vision would be when you log out you can instance to your bunker, so you find an empty space on the map and have some small thing which you can hide to represent your bunker. In the game you will need tools, like wood to support the tunnels, spades, supplies of food etc.. You can then find your hole on the map, click on it and it will give you options as long as you have food and water, you can dig out your bunker while you are away from the computer. So you can draw a rough version on the scrap bit of paper of square paper which you can find while looting and you can draw a basic tunnel which ends in a room. Each square takes x amount of days/hours to do, this would be done in real time and you will need supplies in backpack or in bunker to do work (more than usually cause its hard work digging). When a tunnel is dug out you have to support it with wooden beams which have to made again either in game or during logout sessions which you can set to do. Naturally you have to sleep so that has to be taken into account, if you have a friend click on the same base he can help you build the tunnels and cut down on days/hours of work time. Of course you will need more food and drink for each person who helps you. When a tunnel and room is complete, you have to scavenge supplies for your new home. Such has storage, sleeping bag, lighting (torchs/candles will do) etc. you can than expand on this with friends who can connect to your system and develop and underground community will all people sharing supplies etc and you have a clan base!!. I also think if you log out in your bunker you should get a bonus such as, health restored, food and drink icons back to full (as long as there is food/water in bunker), diseases can be easier to care for cause out of the elements. I think this would be easier than doing things in the game, digging I cannot believe can be made into an exciting game and you can personalise your bunker with things you can collect so its like an extension of your backpack. You can restock your ammo/food/drink etc.. from your bunker and go out into the world come back and store your goodies. In keeping with the game, this bunker can be raided by anyone. So you need to add some Vietnam type booby traps which you have to disable before entering your bunker and enable before you logout/ leave bunker. I like the idea of someone sneaking in, but have to negotiate traps you have put in, which can`t be seen by the naked eye unless you have a device for detecting them or knowledge of that type of trap. So if someone finds your bunker by accident (they should be very difficult to see), they have to risk there own lives to get your loot. I think this will develop the teamwork in the game and give you and your friends a proper sense of a base, without adding to much to the game and allow instancing naturally to work within the games design. These bases need to a realistically achievable by one or more people, as much as I would like massive underground bases I believe it would not be realistic and in the interest of the main bit of the game. Everything needs to be realistic and I admit I would not know where to start with building such a base, hence why you may need to find a manual on how to create a base or something like that. Of course if someone finds your base and gets past your traps, then they can loot it and take it as there own base, such is the way of the game. Expanding on traps, I choose this because of having a door or something similar you have to break in to get access the bunker is not totally realistic for one person to create a door with lock on (combo or key one). Maybe you could like I suggested for levelling you could read on how to create one, while traps are easier to create and also allows you a bit more personnel in your defence of your home. ------------------------- Right then, thank your for getting this far in my post I am sorry for any bad grammar, spelling etc.. I love to say English is not my first language but it is i`m just crap at it ;-), If you agree or want to expand on my own views feel free and post your thoughts. This is like my second ever post, so decided to get a lot of my chest about a mod which I have really enjoyed and can`t wait to see what the SA brings to the table. Just read it through using preview and if you have read my entire post, you deserve some beans, man I waffled on there!!!

I know *hangs head in shame*, I am an idea's type of person and putting them down in a readable form is not my strong point. I read that post three times and did not spot the stuff you said, "your" and "you're" is something I always mix up. Sorry for that I did my best, I need to hire a proof reader!!

Hoho yeah it was bit long, just went off on one and yup i realise everything I stated is around abouts on this forum but I still wanted to type it. I don`t think I wasted my time, i just wanted to put down my own thoughts in my own words about a game I have enjoyed and where its going. I agree with michael, they have improved and thats why I put about the time they have taken over the game, lets all hope the game will be a cracker. Keep comments coming in, TEA TIME now methinks

Version = 1.7.2 Beta Patch = 94876 Just thought I would write some feedback from what I found after playing for a few hours last night. Only 4 servers had the above beta patch so could only try them, think it was just realised when I started the update to the new version of dayz. I have played the game for a month or two on an off, here are my thoughts on latest patch :- 1. Noticeable smoother play then any other time I have played, especially when scoped or looking through binoculars. 2. Zombies seem to spawn on top of each other then spread out from there, seen this a few times dunno if this is by design, happened at big airport at the top and at stary sober. 3. Visual number in debug monitor seemed to work, to test out zombie agro went to a couple of barns with little problem. Also checked out a store, I shot a zombie from I would say 100 metres away is to test what would happen, a zombie turned around and started to walk to the place I killed the zombie. Waited for a bit (1 min ish) and that zombie turned around, crawled into store and checked it out. 4. Zombies defo see you when crouch running easier then previous versions, so have to be wary. 5. Damage from zombie not as bad as before, + that my bones did not break after a couple of seconds zombie hitting me. 6. Ammo clip filling up after logging and logging out (due to disconnection on high ping). 7. Made a bit of noise in a house and barn to see zombie aggroed outside they didn`t, so that 50% sound reduction seems to work. Verdict Overall happy with the update, zombies are more of a challenge but are manageable with bit more care. Much smoother gameplay and connection was quick on the server I tried, a few other bugs but have previously been mentioned.