Andy Red

So DayZ is turning from Run Forest Run Simulator to House Sitter Tycoon... What an advancement we have.

Nice story telling... But I just feel disrespect for you sitting in the corner of a house for hours on end just to get an easy kill or two. You sir are what ruins this game with instant KOS by hiding away from the real 'survival' and danger which the actual game offers and instead your just preying on the innocent. It's not fun, it's not clever, it's not hard, it's not realistic, it's not survival, it's not hard to do and your just ruining this for everyone else. You don't deserve anymore of my time on this post ... Goodbye.

I agree with Nex. If we have to spend hours building a plank of wood just to barricade one door of an existing building to try and make our own safe house (especially tough if your soloing) then it should at least last a decent amount of time otherwise there's no point. I'm not spending my time online making a barricade for it to be Brocken down in 30 seconds while I'm offline. Servers that have PvP and just PvE should determine how long the barricades last. Much longer for PvE servers. But still tough for PvP so it actually takes planning and preparation to go blow into someone else's house.

Sounds like a normal day in DayZ SA to me! Although, I really hope KOS starts cooling down soon, I'm sick of dieing everytime I meet another player just because I'm too nice and don't shoot first. What if I was part of the military looking for survivors to ship out to a safe zone? You wouldn't just kill on sight then. I've come to the conclusion that KOS'ers just want my body...

Most of the time as I'm playing for only a short couple of hours after work or at the weekend, I'm pretty stuck with playing LoneSheep style. I've recently joined a Clan and should be able to organise some weekends meeting up and playing together, but any other day apart from that I don't have enough time to commit to a group as once you both find your whereabouts and run to meet up you could of wasted 20-40 minutes already. And then if you have a busy household, your always getting disturbed and can't just AFK if your playing with someone else or a group in the middle of a city unless your going to loose them or make them wait for you each time.

I agree it shouldn't be instant but no more than 30 seconds otherwise players are just guna go AFK and look for another game to play on Steam instead. Also, move the carcass to your base or safe place??? If I was in the situation to kill an animal for food then it must be because I'm lost in a forest or dense wood with no base or safe place to go home to. 1) It would also be near enough impossible for one person to move a carcass that size of a cow or deer. Chickens and rabbits and squirrels on the other hand yes. 2) You would only be hunting in a quiet area anyway out the way of zeds and other players. Which would be in a forest or farm area out of a big city maybe miles away from 'base'. 3) You would quickly cut off what you need and move away from the carcass before the smell of flesh attracted zeds and other bigger animals.

Does it really matter if it's there or not? It's not like it's poking you in the face - you have to press a key for it to show up and that key is like 10-15cm's away from the rest of the main keys we use (by default) so it's a bit of a struggle to go all the way over to that side of my keyboard just to press P. So yeh... It may be unrealistic but It's the main way to see if friends are online, check your ping, see who's online in your in a clan and ofcourse check for nuisance player names. Yes it means we can judge how busy a certain area may be or what percentage we may run into another player but that doesn't give away anyone's position or likelihood of where everyone is.

The thing is, this is a game in progress with lots of features and items still to input. When do BI put a cap on what they believe is enough content for a 'completed' game for which we've already paid for. So for any extra features, items etc who's to say we haven't already paid in advance for them by buying the alpha? As far new clothing, weapons and items, either everyone gets them or no one does otherwise some people will be running around with invisible guns as the person who hasn't brought the DLC won't have the content installed for the new items so you won't see them and your game may not recognise them.

Sounds good, can't wait for this!

Ok, so there's New Re-spawn Points, New Craft-able Items, Hunting, Cooking and Fishing. All of these things are great and for newer players when fresh spawning are going to make the game a lot more interesting and a little less risky to play (especially when more Zombies get added) as you should be able to survive in the wild for a while before making it to a city. Today I've been playing and 3 times in a row Respawned in an area that was just rocks, mountains, hills and deserted roads. Now for a Social Gamer like me this is my worst nightmare, I couldn't find any Buildings at all after 30 minutes roaming, not even a sign post and I just end up dieing of starvation. I'm all for the 'Realism' mode but let's face it... this is not very Realistic. WTF am I doing in the middle of no where with just a Flashlight? If the Apocalypse has been going on for so long for that everyone in the Cities are dead/zombied and for there to be almost no supplies left in houses because they've already been scavenged to death then how I am still alive with only a Flashlight in hand? I'm not saying I want a Map, Gun, Ammo, Clothing, Decent Melee Weapon and loadsa Food. All I want is maybe a Knife, Half Drunk Flask of Water and a Half used Box of Matches. With this I can at least then forage for sticks, make some kind of Spear Stick and try and hunt. Then make a fireplace by finding dry sticks, maybe some dry moss for tinder and use a match to light it to cook up some dinner - all hopefully before I starve to death. Then make a Small Pouch or Clothing Item out of the Hide/Skin/Fur using some Vines from Trees. I think that part of the Server Settings should Include the option for New Re-Spawns to have options for Random Loot Spawns. So like: Normal: Light Basics - Worn Bloodstained KnifeHalf Filled DrinkHalf Box of Matches Normal: Medium Basics - Worn Bloodstained KnifeHalf Filled DrinkHalf Box of MatchesMedium Chance of a Machete/Axe/PickAxe etcMedium Chance of Extra Clothing ie a Jacket, Hat, Small Bag/Pouch. Normal: High Basics - Worn KnifeHalf Filled DrinkHalf Box of MatchesRandom MeleeRandom Clothing (Gloves, Hat, Jacket)Small Chance of Small Bag/PouchSmall Chance of Rope/Compass Hardcore: No Basics - Flashlight

"New Survivor Added to your Party - Mike Tyson" "New Pet Added to your Party - Mike Tyson's Tiger" "New Item Found in your Backpack - Rufies" Let's go have some fun ;-)

Ultra Hardcore Starting Player Stats - "You are Sick... the contents looks like Fast Food and Beer" "You feel Light Headed and your Vision is Blurred"

In the 'Normal' Sever, loot that gets put into Tents/Storages/Safes etc should stay there, although it can be looted by anyone unless it's Locked. In real life if you put something in a tent, and die, that item is still going to be in the Tent - it doesn't disappear. Yes, it breaks the realism of the game being able to go back to your Tent after respawning, but you would only bother going back if your actually close enough and then there's the risk and time involved going back to it, especially knowing someone else may have stumbled upon it and robbed it already. Respawning is NOT Realistic. Items/Food Respawning is NOT Realistic - but unfortunately, this is a game and it has to be fair and give everyone the chance to find items. In a Real Life Zombie situation, people would hide and squirrel supplies and that's what we should be able to do in game.

I'm all for Canned Goods becoming Rarer, as long as when I Respawn into one of the new Spawn Point areas that just has mountains and rocks around for miles and all I have is a Flashlight - that they at least start you off with some basic supplies. Heck WTF am I doing in the middle of no where with just a Flashlight?!? If the Apocalypse has been going on for that long for everyone in the Cities to be dead/zombied and for there to be almost no supplies left in houses because they've already been scavenged to death then how I am still alive with only a Flashlight in hand? I'm not saying I want a Map, Gun, Ammo, Clothing, Decent Melee Weapon and loadsa Food. All I want is maybe a Knife, Half Drunk Flask of Water and a Half used Box of Matches. With this I can at least then forage for sticks, make a spear stick and try and hunt. Then make a fireplace by finding dry sticks, maybe some dry moss for tinder and use a match to light it to cook up some dinner - all hopefully before I starve to death.

Hello all! Let me tell you my little back story... I had come across DayZ when looking for a new game to play, I love Zombie and MMO games and came across DayZ, it seemed like the perfect game for me! I didn't get it straight away though, I found other Zombie MMO games and checked out reviews and comparisons about them all, I decided that DayZ was the better out them all and I was watching series after series of YouTube videos of footage, I easily watched a good 6 hours straight one night of a player starting out and exploring and everything, it looked amazing. Then when I next got paid I brought the Arma 2 Collection from Steam. I brought Arma 2 Combined Operations (with Operation Arrowhead and the other DLC content) 8 days ago purely to play DayZ, I let it download overnight and was very excited to get online and play it the morning after it had downloaded. Installing DayZ took a little while to figure out, I tried manual install (which I think I found out the files were out of date), DayZ Commander and PlayWithSix, eventually I got the game on somehow, then picked a vanilla server, waited for the game to load up and..... Seconds delay in looking around, Seconds delay in moving, really choppy and laggy game play I couldn't even hit a zombie before it got my Blood down low. I was gutted... But there started my Quest for getting DayZ to run smooth and flawlessly and with half decent graphics! FPS was between 10-15, however around every 5 seconds this would shoot down to 1-2 FPS. Just for reference, I'm playing on a laptop, now, before I get any "omg laptops aren't for gaming, get a desktop bro!!!" statements, my laptop is mid range and can play every other latest game I've ran on it fine. I need a laptop as I need it portable and have no room for a desktop. Here's my laptop stats: Intel Core i5 2.3Ghz Processor 8GB Ram NVIDIA GT555M 2GB Dedicated Graphics Not the best at all, but still should be good enough to play DayZ with. I turned every graphical setting in the game down but still had very bad lag! 7 Days Later... I've tried heaps of different setting changes, config files changes, graphic card settings, multiple software, ram disk software, even overclocking my GPU, and... Now I have a smooth, decent graphical game running at 35-45 FPS - I can actually enjoy the game for what it is and start my adventure killing Zeds and surviving in the wild. I hear that heaps of people are in or have been in the same position as me, so I'm sharing everything I've found that helped me increase my FPS from 15 up to 45, with a smooth lag free gaming experience. How to Set Up & What to Use to Play DayZ For me, the best way play DayZ was using DayZ Commander. Download It Here: http://www.dayzcommander.com/#download Install DayZ, and Open it Up, Then In "Settings" Ensure These Are Checked - Force Direct3D 9 Close DayZ Commander after Joining Server In Launch Parameters Add - -winxp -cpuCount=EDITHERE -exThreads=EDITHERE -noLogs -noPause -maxMem=2047 -maxVRAM=2047 -beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion Under CPU Count and Threads put in your systems Cores/Threads. To find out your processors CPU and Threads - 1) Go to Start. 2) Right Click My Computer. 3) It will show your Processor here i.e Intel Core i5 2410m. 4) Now you need to find out how many Cores/Threads your processor has. 5) For Intel Go To: http://ark.intel.com/ 6) Under the "Search Products" box type in your processor and it will tell you all the details including Core # and Thread #. 7) If you have an AMD Processor then check your processors details on AMD's website. 8) Then change these with the "Edit Here" sections in the parameters. 9) Leave the maxMem and maxVRAM as they are as they are the maximum values allowed anyway. 10) Click "Done" at the bottom to save. Install/Update on DayZ Commander Now you need to Install the actuall mod files for DayZ. 1) Go to the Install/Update section at the top of DayZ Commander. 2) Under "Arma 2" you want the version to be 103718 as this is the most stable version for DayZ. If you have already patched a higher version then it's very advisable to re-install Version 103718 from this menu. Just use the drop down box to the right, select 103718 and then Install. Stick with version 103718! 3) Next, is the Mods Section below. 4) You want to Install DayZ (the first on the list) with the Version number 1.8.0.3. 5) This is the main mod for DayZ that you need to play. 6) If your used to playing other Mods then by all means download the other mods that you like to play on. Note: Some Servers will only let you in if you have a certain mod installed. So always check what Mod a server is using and what Game Mode before entering. Use an SD Card for DayZ Files - Performance Boost To help speed up the game quite a bit, you will want to use an SD Memory Card in your laptop/desktop. Memory Cards can load files/objects/images a lot faster than most hard drives so this can improve your FPS heaps. If your going to use an SD card then this will only need to hold the files for the DayZ mod itself so depending on how many addons/mods you plan on 2GB should be enough. DayZ + DayZ+ + Epoch is around 1.5GB. A Class 4 or above Memory Card is preferred for better performance. To copy/paste the relevant files to your SD Card firstly download DayZ Commander and follow the Instructions on How to Set up DayZ Commander in this thread. 1) When your done setting up DayZ Commander with the Mods etc, go to your Arma2/Operation Arrowhead folder directory. 2) If you brought it through steam then it's: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead 3) You will see folders @DayZ and any other mods e.g @DayZ_Epoch 4) Select these folders, Right Click and Press Copy. 5) Then open up your SD Card folder, paste these DayZ folders inside. 6) Now we need to change the directory to load the DayZ files from your SD card rather than the normal directory. 7) Head back to DayZ Commander, then to Settings. 8) At the bottom you will see "DayZ Directory" Click "Override" next to it and change to YOUR-SD-DRIVE:\@DayZ NOTE THAT YOU WILL NEED TO FIND THE LETTER YOUR SD DRIVE IS ON, FOR ME ITS F DRIVE SO MINE LOOKS LIKE THIS F:\@DayZ The Drive letter/name can be seen by going to "My Computer" where all your hard drives etc are. In Game Graphics Settings These are the settings I suggest you have to start with while testing your FPS. You can gradually higher these as you go once your FPS is stable. Visibility - 1636 Interface Resolution - Same as your Desktops Resolution 3D Resolution - Same as Interface Resolution Textute Detail - Normal Video Memory - Default Anisotropic Filtering - Disabled Antialiasing - Disabled ATOC - Disabled Terrain Detail - Normal Objects Detail - Normal Shadow Detail - Disabled HDR Quality - Normal PPAA - Disabled Postprocess Effects - Disabled Interface Size - Normal Aspect Ratio - Normal Vsync - Off Once I got my game stable, I was able to Increase all the items that were on Normal up to High. I left all the Disabled stuff Disabled though. NVIDIA and ATI Graphics Control Settings My Graphics Card is NVIDIA, so in my NVIDIA Control Panel - 1) Under "Adjust Image Settings with Preview" I changed the slider to "Performance". 2) Then in "Manage 3D Settings" all I edited here was changing "Multi-Display/Mixed-GPU Acceleration" to Multiple Display Performance Mode. I only actually have one screen, but I found this tip from elsewhere (sorry I can't remember who to credit) and this does help me improve performance even more. 3) And then changing "Maximum pre-rendered frames" to 1. I suggest doing the similar if your on an ATI card, setting the overall settings to Performance instead of Quality and ensuring Vsync is off. If you manually set these, then for me I would Turn Antialising/Anisotropic Filtering Off as well. Updating you Graphics Card A very easy thing to do, but sometimes people miss getting updates for their graphics cards. If you know you have a Control Panel for your Graphics Card, especially an NVIDIA or AMD then there should be a Check for Updates option there. Otherwise, you'll have to go to your manufactures website to find the newest Drivers. Head over to their Support/Software section and search for the latest driver for your graphics card model. Then simply Download and Install! Graphics Card Over Clocking I'm playing with a laptop, its very bad to over clock a laptop due to heat issues and voltage to the graphics card which could easily make it burn out. However, I did overclock my graphics to increase my cards memory and speed by an extra 25% during my time trying to get DayZ to work smoothly on my sytem. However, this didn't actually give me any noticeable increase in FPS. I haven't tried Overclocking my GPU since my DayZ is now actually working nicely, and I don't think I need to or risk the temperature increase. But if you would still like to do it the go ahead but at least try the other improvements first before overclocking. Free & Trusted Over Clocking Software - EVGA (Free Account Required to Download) MSI Afterburner Both of these account for NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. NOTE: Just ensure you have enough heat movement and cooling in your system before you try and overclock anything! Heat / Fan / Cooling Issues Too Much Heat = Performance Loss Now, I left this theory till last in my adventures of getting DayZ to work nicely. I normally vacuum (from the outer casing) and use Compressed Air in a can to blow out my laptop every 3-6 months. But I'm actually ashamed to admit it, I thought that was enough to clean out the insides...but I was wrong! I opened the back panel of my laptop yesterday and look what I found - I would suggest anyone to do the same (as long as it doesn't void your warranty) to open up your laptop case or desktop tower and clean inside with some Q-Tips/Cotton Wool on a Stick things and a Non Static very lightly damp cloth. Now don't be scared of opening up the panel, it's very easy to do, although if its a laptop then your model may have a few little covered compartments on the back to open, mine has one big cover. You want to open the one where your fan is located. On a desktop it's normally the side of the case slides off, with maybe one or two screws at the back holding it on. Laptop Cooling Pads Well, I did buy a new cooling pad for my laptop this week, it was only £10 from eBay and it's called the T5 Cooling Pad. Before that I had a little crappy 3 small fan version, but for the price of the T5 Cooling pad it's great for laptop gamers, has 4 Normal Fans and 1 Big one and it's actually very comfortable and keeps your thighs warm so for guys you know the heat off your laptop wont do any damage to your tackle. I don't actually need it now, since clearing out the inside of my laptop fans from the dust but I use it anyway just to extend the lifespan of my system and keep everything running at optimal temperatures inside my system. Buying one could help with keeping your laptop and games running better with out any stutter. It can actually help you increase the graphics a little higher without any performance loss which is an added bonus! Desktop Cooling I'll be honest, I have no idea on Desktop Cooling equipment, I know there's many to choose from but I wouldn't have a clue how to install one into a tower. This you will have to research on your own but would be good for you to have if your a keen gamer! Additional Software Boosters I've tried a good 10-15 different software's in my conquest to getting DayZ to work and Uninstalled them all apart from these two. GBoost - A Free windows game booster service that allows you to temporarily strip down your slowing PC to its bare essentials for gaming. This improves the overall speed of your game including frame rate drops and lag spikes as well as alt tabbing out of games faster and generally more responsive gaming. It's Free, Quick, VERY VERY One Button Simple to Use. Download here: http://www.gzero.com/gboost/home.html Setting Up GBoost - 1) Simply Download and Install. 2) If your using Wireless for the Internet on your System, Turn Wireless/Bluetooth in Advanced Settings to No, this will keep your connection active still. 3) I also turned "Gamer Utils" and "Virtual Drives" to Yes (so they get turned off as well) but if your using other Software, RAM Disk Software or Over Clocking Software then change it to No. CCleaner - Is the number-one tool for cleaning your Windows PC. It protects your privacy online and makes your computer faster and more secure. Easy to use and a small, fast download. CCleaner is a one stop software for Clearing out unneeded files on your system as well as Cookies and Temporary Data. It also comes with a Registry Cleaner which you should run at least twice, once before and once after tweaking your system with these tips. Download Here: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner Defragment Your Hard Drive One of the reasons your DayZ may be running slow, lagging or has low FPS may be due to the file structure on your hard drive being all over the place, so it takes longer to find and pull objects/images/textures/information for the game to load on your screen. To help reduce the negative effect by this you can Defragment your Hard Drive. Don't worry, there's no extra software to install, as long as you have Microsoft Windows then you can do this very easily. 1) Go to Start, Right Click My Computer, Right Click your Main hard Drive and go to Properties. 2) Go to the Tools tab at the top, then Defragmentation. 3) A list of all your drives will appear, select your main one (normally C Drive) then press Defragment Disk. 4) This could take anywhere from 15 minutes to over 3 hours depending how full or old your hard drive is. 5) So go do something productive or clean the house or bake a cake while you wait - your Mom/Girlfriend/Boyfriend/Friend/Pet will be so impressed! ;-) Arma 2 Profile Config Settings (Only If The Other Tweaks Don't Help!) Again, I would leave these Configuration edits to a last resort for extremely bad cases of stuttering and lag. But here they in case anyone needs them. Find these files in the Folder My Documents, ArmA 2. NOTE: IMPORTANT! Before you edit any files here, copy the file your going to edit and paste it to create a back up copy. Then you can always revert back to normal settings. These files can also change themselves back when you change the graphic settings in game. To prevent them from updating themselves, Right Click the file name, Go to Properties, then Tick "Read Only" the bottom, then click "Apply". In YOURNAME.arma2profile file Change the Following to - sceneComplexity=10; shadingQuality=0; shadowQuality=0; viewDistance=10; terrainGrid=50; volumeCD=6.5; volumeFX=6.5; volumeSpeech=6.5; volumeVoN=6.5; anisoFilter=0; TexQuality=0; TexMemory=0; In Arma2 file Change the Following to - shadingQuality=0; mouseSmoothing=1; AToC=0; PPAA=0; PPAA_Level=0; 3D_Performance=1; Resolution_Bpp=5; Resolution_W=YOUR SCREEN RESOLUTION; Resolution_H=YOUR SCREEN RESOLUTION; winX=16; winY=32; winW=800; winH=600; winDefW=800; winDefH=600; Render_W=YOUR SCREEN RESOLUTION; Render_H=YOUR SCREEN RESOLUTION; FSAA=0; FXAA=0; FXAASharp=0; postFX=0; GPU_MaxFramesAhead=1; GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=1; In YOURPROFILENAME file Change the following - sceneComplexity=NUMBER; By default it's set at 500000, The lower the number, the more performance but a lot less graphics! For really extreme cases take it down to 1000 if you need to. Maximum Performance Check List So, if you've been following this guide then you should now of done the following: Download and Install DayZCommander Set Up DayZCommander Settings and Launch Parameters Move the DayZ files to an SD Card Change the In Game Graphic Settings Update Your Graphics Card Edit your Graphics Card Settings Clean Your Fans in your Desktop/Laptop Add additional Cooling methods if needed (Cooling Pad/System) Install and Run CCleaner's Clean Up and Registry Cleaner Install and Run GBoost (every time before you launch the game) Defragment Your Hard Drive Last Resort: Edit your Arma 2 Config Files Conclusion Now, hopefully by doing the tweaks above and using the 2 pieces of software to help boost your system, you'll be able to play DayZ lag free, smoothly and with a much better FPS. Please do let me know if this helps you in anyway! I'll try to keep it updated with anything new and as the game versions progress. All the best! Andy.

As to the video - 1) When I first saw the warning message and with it being on screen for so long I thought he just uploaded it as a joke with no actual footage and just that warning lol - anyone else think the same? 2) OH MY GOD THAT SUN! It's bloody beautiful! 3) Seeing your breath and hands under the compass just makes it way more immersive. 4) Although not perfected, melee looks a lot more useable now rather whereas before I would just run the hell away. 5) Zombie girls!!! I'm really happy with the approach of zombies hit less but in higher numbers. It's going to make me want to actually fight small groups of zombies (before their pack gets too big) rather than just running away. How many people in the mod just can't be bothered with the mod zombies anymore and just run everywhere and brush them off in the forest when your finished looting an area.

Yes what Mods do you have? What's time day/night tune cycle? What's building maintenance time frames? This is what I have to know before joining an Epoch server please!

If they havn't said no to them yet then that's a good enough chance of them still being added lmao!

Where are these frying pans and how can I get one? I've seen Tangled, I know how these frying pans work.

Hiya, Is this day/night or always day cycle? I'm looking for a day only epoch.

Hiya, What's the building/maintenance times set at? Also is it day/night or just day?

Hiya is this a day/night or just day server? Thanks.

Hiya, Is this Day/Night or just Day? Thanks.

I'm using a laptop too :P What's your specs?

Great news! Was this FPS increase just from using an SD card or did you try any of the other tweaks with it?