DadisAjax

Currently having player names visible is OP because it works through terrain/bushes/buildings. This makez it too easy to scan the area around you for hidden players, removing the tense worry that is such a core part of the game. But... When you are trying to interact with a player in a group of more than 2 it is VERY difficult to tell players apart without resorting to the "friendly wiggle dance" to identify yourself. If server admins were able to set the max range that names are displayed to something low, like 10 or 20m max, that would solve both problems. Also, could be fixed if it didn't work through objects. Either/both solutuon would be much appreciated. Thanks!

+ 1 for this idea. IMO the lighthouses sbould need fuel via jerry can and matches to light the lamp at the top.

Ammo bug in 1.7.1.5. Rocket, you probably already have your sights on this bug, but just wanted to update so you have all the info. Currently in 1.7.1.5 partially full magazines (ex. 1911 mags with 1-6 rounds) will be refilled to full when the player logs out and back in. This is pretty common info. BUT... Partially full MP5SD mags will just be deleted. I have had this happen twice. Not asking for mags, just want you to know that I've seen it happen more than once. First time I just thought I'd fired more rounds than I remembered. On a related point, can you please make other similar ammo types able to be converted like 1911/Revolver ammo can now. Need to add MP5SD/M9SD for example.

Ok... the axe should certainly be able to be held in a tool slot instead of being a massive 10-slot burden, that or separate "axe" (melee) and "hatchet" (firewood tool) into two separate items. BUT... (now that the "suggestion" part of this thread is done.) OMG! I had the most amazingly tense, scary, and satisfying player interaction last night because of it!!! At dusk with light low, I'm running from 2 or 3 Zs with just an axe and a starter backpack and ~7k blood. I've long since used my only bandage and painkiller, and threw that useless flashlight away. As I enter an industrial barn (the one with stairs leading up to cat walk) to make my last stand, I'm startled when I notice not only a Z standing near the bottom of the stairs inside, but 2 more up on the cat walk above me on the right, and one of them is holding an AXE!!! HOLY CRAP! Zs can USE an axe now?!?!? On second glance I realize that the 2nd Z is actually a player, and he's swinging at the other Z on the catwalk. At first I'm scared, players are by far the most dangerous thing in the game! But then I realize that he is wearing a starter backpack too and probably doesn't have a gun either. Also, he's up on the catwalk where he can't reach me with the axe, so I guess he isn't a threat?... What a wierd feeling. Never been there before in my DayZ life. There's no going back now, because my chasers will be entering soon, so I go over and start hacking at the Z near the stairs and he turns his attention to me. I knock him down and turn to meet those entering the door now. I string them out across the barn to try to engage them one at a time. As I do, the player finishes off the Z above and comes down the stairs, flanking the Zs who are intent on me. We catch them between the two of us and fell about 4 or 5 like a pair of lumberjacks. I take a couple blows, and am down to ~5k blood but not bleeding (did it stop on its own?). "Whew!" I say in Direct channel "That was close." The other player turns to the side and I see blood spurting out of his arm. "Hey, you're bleeding." I add. He kneels down to start bandaging himself and I move over to check some of the Zs for anything they may have been carrying. I need a bandage BAD and would have been racing to find one to save my life if I was bleeding out from the fight. I hide the body as I finish so I can tell which I've searched and which are left to be checked, and as I move to check the second corpse the player moves along side, facing me. OH NO YOU DON'T!!! I immediately move away from him in anticipation of him swinging his axe at my head, like every almost every other player that I didn't personally know has done ever since the Bandit Skin went away (which I like btw, but needs "something"). But, he didn't swing, he was looting too. So I check another corpse, but keep maneuvering to keep my unlikely partner ahead of me, in sight, and more than an axe handle distance away from me. When our search was done, the player turned without a word and headed out the opposite door that I entered and I never saw him again. What an AMAZING fight and interaction with another player! All without him having to say a single word. I LOVE IT!!! How do we get more of this in the game?

They already do. But you're still missing the point. I didn't say that PKers would "attract" more Zs, it's simply that in their "world" with less players around killing zombies there would be more Zs wandering around. In a cooperative player's world where they are working together killing Zs, there would be less Zs out and about. This allows both style of game player's world to coexist on the same server at the same time. "Spawning" is NOT the same as "attracting". "Spawning" is a necessary game mechanic that is required because NPCs that are not near a player don't need to be left in the world adding load to the server. "Attracting" is caused by whether or not a Z notices you due to how you are moving and which way they are facing. So an average player who cooperates with others approaches a town and he might expect there to be say 50 Zs scattered about. When another player who has been killing players left and right approaches the same town that he frequents, he might expect there to be 75 or 100 Zs in that town mostly because he has been killing the people who would have been thinning out the Z population when he wasn't around. It's not "punishing" PKers, it's simply making the world evolve to be the way they are actively making it. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Take out other players and the Zs will become stronger and more numerous as a result. It's that simple.

Ok... will try that. Anyone know any other "DayZ Staff" profiles besides Rocket?

PLEASE give me the option to filter all posts on the forum to just those posted by DayZ staff. I really like to keep up to speed with what's going on and why, but important updates often have TENS of PAGES of responses in just one day. This one for example is on pace to have ONE THOUSAND responses in just 24 hours (http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=13996&highlight=DayZ+Staff) There is NO WAY to physically read through all of those posts and find actual Staff Answers amid the deluge of meaningless "yeah", "me too", "good job", and complaining whiner responses.

Travel is definately debilitating currently. Takes hours/days to work your way up north and have a reasonable chance of surviving when you get there. But... If you could spawn at your tent, it suggests that your are the same person coming back to re-equip at your tent. DayZ forces all players to spawn in the same areas on the beach with virtually nothing because the idea is that if you die... that character is DEAD. He's not coming back. You're then playing a NEW character. The fact that he has the same name is a distraction from that truth. You could I suppose suggest that spawning at your tent suggests that your "clan/faction" has recruited a new survivor member, but I still like the idea that "Dead means DEAD" better.

I agree that being able to play as a zombie would be a great way to... 1) Increase the apparent AI of the zombies as a whole. 2) Increase the paranoia from players about zombie encounters. 3) Give players who are solely entertained by killing players an in-game way to do it. I wouldn't give the player-zombies any kind of "special powers" though. Let them crouch or go prone to appear as a "hopper" or "crawler". And perhaps let them "groan" to alert nearby zombies to their target, but that would have to have some limits to it to keep people from "alerting" zombies to a target several city blocks away.

IMHO, that would be a very small price to pay for the benefit of not having players running around with hundreds of rounds of military ammo and every other rare loot in the game after only living for less than one day.

This seems easy to solve. Simply make all player items not save to their character until a set amount of time AFTER they are picked up. Ie. they save with a post-date-stamp when picked up so that if the player logs out before the item timestamp it won't appear with them the next time they log in. That way, there will be no benefit of jumping from server to server looking to stock up on rare loot as you'd have to stick around and survive for at least X minutes (maybe 15?) before you get to keep it after you log out. Or, make the time delay 5 minutes per log-in/out over the past 30 minutes. If you have to change servers because of a crash, lag, time of day, or because you crashed, no big deal, you only loose the last 5 minutes of items looted. But if you've server hopped 8 different places to find that uber gun you've been looking for, you now have to wait and survive 40 minutes before it's actually yours to keep. And if the server crashes in that 40 minutes... too bad. That's the risk you run for "cheating" the system in the first place. Also, ammo more than say 1 mag of each type shouldn't jump servers with you at all. That way military weapons users have to work to keep their ammo instead of jumping servers with hundreds of rounds expecting to get into firefights with no worries.

First, I 100% agree with the loss of the Bandit skin. There should be no easy way to tell a Bandit from a player and not having it makes all player interactions tense, as they should be. But... currently there is NO consequence to shooting Survivors for pure fun, that needs to change. Before the Bandit skin disappeared I was a Survivor, because I was worried about becoming a Bandit, which gave me an incentive to enter those tense player confrontation situations instead of just raining fire at everything that moves. So I suggest the following... Currently I think the number of zombies spawned in a given area are based on the number of players in the vicinity. If so... have the number of Zombies that spawn around an area be based on the player's Humanity score, with more zombies if players have a low score. That way, the game will adopt to the way a Bandit is playing with realistic in-game consequences without "penalizing" them outright. If players band together and work as a team to survive against the zombies, they will eventually either die or reduce the number of zombies in an area and things will be safer for them (unless Bandits enter the area), thus less zombies. If Bandits shoot players, then they will eventually reduce the number of humans in the area and zombies will be more numerous as a result. (Also, the human race as a whole will have less chance to survive, but that is a more long term consequence). By doing this, players in groups with others that they are not familiar with will be doubly paranoid because every zombie spawn in the area will lead them to accuse each other of being a Bandit. Also, ammo for high grade military guns should be more rare and/or not allowed to transfer from server to server (beyond perhaps 1 mag). That would make Bandits think twice about whether they think they can loot something useful off of a player they shoot, instead of just shooting everything that moves because they can. Last week I looted an M16 and almost 600 rounds of ammo (18 30-round clips) off of a Bandit that was shooting at my group. NO PLAYER should have access to that amount of ammo. It encourages them to go on pointless player killing sprees simply because they can. If that ammo was rare they would think twice about killing a player with it without the intention of looting something useful off of them as a result.