theArk0s

That's my opinion/belief only...the only think "official" I can point you to is Rocket's post: http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/153994-early-access-important-information-known-issues/#entry1545068 Where he states: I don't know of anyone running their own servers at the moment, only professional/commercial ISPs with high capacity hosting arrangements. Not to say that it won't change at some point...like Rocket says, they "want" to allow private hosting...but that's not a guarantee in my mind, nor is there any definite timeframe for making it happen, even if it was. Sorry I don't have anything more definitive for you.

I know Chris Torchia (@ctorchia) the DayZ Art Manager tweeted a shot of the SKS a few days ago https://twitter.com/ctorchia/status/425731511661248513/photo/1 ...but that doesn't necessarily mean it made it into the patch. I certainly haven't found one yet...but it's a big, random world.

IMO - you should, in theory, be able to paint just about every "object" in the game. Black storage box? Sure. Black canteen? Why not. Turn your entire outfit+backpack black? Go for it. Maybe leave out the ability to paint medical supplies (unless you want to ruin them) - but beyond that, you could in theory use paint as a way to change the color of just about anything. Now...is a spray-painted T-shirt going to be as nice as a "dyed" T-shirt? No, but you could still technically do it, and in the coming zombie apocalypse and it's decided lack of J.Crew outlets, it would probably be just fine. I've gotten plenty of paint on my clothes before when working around the house and it hasn't hurt them...maybe just have it slightly increase their 'damage'/wear level (e.g. go from "pristine" to "worn" or whatever) if you apply paint to something brand new. After all - it's hard to call something that's been crudely spray painted "pristine" anymore. Tagging the world, well...that's a different matter. While it would be a cool feature - I agree it's pretty clear that it would devolve pretty quickly into tatas and dongs...plus I'm sure implementing a system for the server to track all those "tags" as objects on world assets would tax the database way too much. Probably not worth it at this time, despite how cool/immersive that could ultimately become. Now they just need face-paint so you can camo-up your entire body like a soldier to match your newly-painted inventory, and we'll all be blending into the forest like Rangers/Seals in no time.

I do miss the old "Hero"/"Bandit" system...even if it never really worked all that well. At least there was some attempt to reward/flag people based on their actions towards other characters - even if it was way to easy to game the system and never quite functioned properly. Hopefully they'll eventually get some kind of system back in that will have benefits, either explicit or passive, for assisting people again and help cut down on all the KoS out there. For now, though...I'll admit I go in guns blazing most of the time. Gotta protect my beans.

Per the other thread from Dean (http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/167343-servers-with-connection-issues-to-central-hive/)...the character resets *should* be mostly limited to the subset of servers that are having issues with the whitelist/db connect error. Now...real root cause of that - who knows? Sounds like it could be a while to sort out since there's a lot of back-and-forth right now. I think you're definitely correct in that your best bet is to find a single server that works for you and stick with it. Server hopping is lamesauce anyway.

Right now all DayZ Standalone hosting is limited to 3rd party/commercial approved hosting services only (Multiplay, Fragnet, Vilayer, Gamservers, etc.) - you can't host a server on your own. If you want to run/admin your own server, you need to rent one from an approved vendor, and even then the administrative control you have over the box is extremely limited (set hostname, MOTD, Regular/Hardcore, timezone offset, kick players). Supposedly the ability to set sub-private hives was enabled in the last patch as well...but no details on how to configure/enable that per-server has been documented or communicated yet, so there are really only 2 official public hives available right now - the public "Regular mode" hive/shard and the public "Hardcore mode" hive/shard. Beyond that, server tuning/parameters/etc. are pretty much locked down or controlled by the hosting companies and follow whatever Bohemia interactive require for the game. I would guess they're likely to stay that way for some time throughout the alpha, and maybe even beta, until if/when official word the potential availability of self-hosting servers is ever released (if that feature is even officially on the roadmap for release).

I wouldn't get your hopes up. I personally doubt server files will ever be released to the public for self-hosting. The devs obviously get the final word on this, but I would expect that server-side hosting of this game will most likely follow the "official" model of only going through approved vendors at this point. That's the only way they can enforce patch updates, server spec requirements, etc. I'd anticipate more and more configuration options for customizing gameplay to become available over time, and server prices to slowly (*very* slowly) drop...but if you're holding your breath for being able to spawn a local copy of a server and DIY - I just don't see it happening.

are there any other differences? or will there be? There *used* to be a lot of other differences (and the "Veteran" level, sort of as a stepping stone from Regular -> Veteran -> Hardcore), whereby things like nameplates would be on or off, crosshairs would be on or off, etc...so it's hard to say if the devs will play with re-differentiating the gametypes with options like that at any point in the future. For now, it's just the perspectives that are different. Personally...I think the fewer bells/whistles you can turn on and off the better, or the game will get out of hand with a million variants (nameplates, crosshairs, perspectives, zombie/lootspawns, aggro radius, damage-done, hunger/disease rates, friendly-fire?, etc.) ...but maybe that's ultimately what they want as well. Only Dean/Bohemia probably know at this point. I say keep it simple. I'd like to see them keep hunger/damage/decay/etc. "physical" rates and attributes 100% the same everywhere (as in, a human is a human no matter what mode), and maybe just differentiate in terms of scarcity of goods and/or number of zombies plus restrictions on perspective. Something like that...but not make it very tweakable.

Yeah...still no official word on how to actually "set" a server to Sub-Private. Regular/Hardcore dropdowns seem to be available from most of the hosting providers now, so that options is easy enough to config, but private hives remain a mystery. No official word yet on if they're in or how they work. Lots of fingers crossed, though.

That was my understanding of that line as well...but I don't have an update from my provider on this and no one in the forums seems to know. (Nor has the dev team responded with any info). I have a support ticket open with my provider to see if they can get an official answer and/or hopefully we'll get a response, but given that the patch just came out a few hours ago, I'm guessing it could be a while. Going to be really, REALLY disappointed if that line turns out to be the dev team's way of communicating how they split the public hive into two sub-shards (one for Regular, one for Hardcore).

Yeah...all I want is a private shard to stop server hopping/ghosting/looting. Beyond that, I really don't need much from an admin standpoint beyond what they currently have exposed...just frustrating that even those few toggles aren't in yet. Even if you set your server to "Hardcore" right now, from my understanding...that just sets your server to the other mass-public "Hardcore" shard with all the other "Hardcore" servers. I want an actual "private" shard, so people and their loot/gear only exist on my server and my server only. The Regular/Hardcore settings are fine, but I don't want people to be able to hop from my server to any others and vice-versa to grab loot or to ghost from one place to another. I'm fine if the rules are 100% the same - but you either play public, or you play on my shard, your call. Public right now is just too full of cheaters/looters (and to me, always will be) - my shard, at least I can police/control that.

I have the option to turn on Hardcore (aka, first-person only), but no luck yet in finding out how to set up a private hive. Still waiting on info for how that's accomplished and/or confirmation that it's actually available. Not actually enabling Hardcore yet, though...because it makes for lousy videos. ;) I should mention, we use Fragnet...so I know they at least have the option enabled for Regular/Hardcore in their hosting control panel.

This.

Where is this? Yeah - would be good to know how this is actually configured so we could set private/sub-hives and prevent server-hopping/loot-farming/ghosting/etc. ...