smoq2

The config files for any of the scopes do not have accuracy modifiers, therefore the condition does not affect accuracy. All the condition does is add cracks to the attachment's texture, obscuring vision. If you hadn't noticed, the LRS works differently than other scopes, i.e. instead of simply increasing the RMB zoom capability, it renders the hands and weapon model transparent and adds a texture overlay to your screen with the scope crosshair. Since they didn't implement an overlay with cracks... The point is - you can use a badly damaged LRS just as good as a pristine one. Someone mentioned bullet deviation to the left. That was because the scope's crosshair wasn't properly aligned with the screen centre, which many blamed on the LRS's condition. They fixed it in one of recent patches.

One of the most frustrating issue with the engine. I hope that in time they will be able to do something about it.

Meanwhile, I suggest using knives and machetes. They are as easy to aim as fists, but do a bit more damage. They also have the same knockdown chance if you manage to hit the head. The machete kills a zed with 2-3 aimed headshots.

I completely share your view. From a personal standpoint, I'd hate that to happen as well. It doesn't mean that I don't fear of what I wrote earlier. In fact, I fear it more then other problems of DayZ, because appeasing the crowd seems like the best executive decision for the studio (while exactly the opposite for the hardcore fans). In the end it will all boil down to how much pressure the executives can put on Dean (or whomever will continue the vision) to shape the game towards casual crowd. I'm also not familiar with BI shot callers and they could be the type of people who put the vision above financial gain, and if that is the case, I apologize for assuming the stereotype of a suited up CEO. :)

I'm also for spreading spawns across the whole map, so you never know where you'll end up. This IMO would add to the diversity of each adventure. Right now I just feel to certain when visiting some remote village that nobody will be there, and there never is. I'm a big fan of randomization. :) Actually WarZ got this one right. There were of course unofficially designated DM zones, but you could always find a fresh/mildly-geared player anywhere on the map. In DayZ only already equipped players venture further west.

I never said the game is going to "die". This never crossed my mind. I only meant to imply, that executives don't segregate players to the extent other players do. To them we are all units with a cash attribute, and it's always better if they leave later than sooner. A portion of the player base leaving is going to mean cutting funding for additional content (and we're talking way after the game is released) sooner than later. In the end they might try to make DayZ something that will keep them for longer, as you said. Hopefully this will never happen.

Well, it is a bad thing to some extent. I'm sure most dire fans of DayZ, and maybe even the creators, see it the same way you do. However, I don't believe BI executives share the same enthusiasm of some of the player base leaving for a different game. Casual players consist of a big portion of the current player base. BI would be facing potential losses if this chunk started to recommend a competitive product to their like-minded friends instead of DayZ, which would have a negative impact on the ongoing development. Putting it simply - ditching the derping and complaining noobs is bad in the eyes of those who call the shots.

Experimental servers seem to be experiencing much more character resets than stable... Well, was to be expected. :)

What about the new net messages system? How does it perform? Lag/desync? Other players still going through walls when running? Weapons still holster by themselves?

Yes, I assume it was so. And I acknowledge that the actions taken against him were the only viable steps. Still, I cannot shake off that feeling of passing blame. Probably just my nature and some other personal factors. I just wanted to post something that would give those who manage the PR of DayZ some food for thought. That is all. :)

I agree, promoting pro-active stance in searching for information is unquestionably a good, even great, practice. It would be awesome if everyone was willing to take their time to do something as simple as look into the "next" page. However, the key principle of a good business is to address a potential client's need in the most convenient way for him/her. RustyBlade stated his need clearly (as quite a few others), although in a manner left to be desired. Not many customers do that, most just walk away. In return he was called, to put it bluntly, lazy. That's probably minus one tester who potentially could post valuable feedback, and some others who could be like-minded, but won't do so after reading the above. Now counting in the effect of scale, this probably is a setback equal to zero, still it leaves me with a feeling that the blame for inefficient information flow is attempted to be passed on the consumer, which is a negative practice.

I'm sorry to say, but this person has a point. There's a reason why so many members of the community are dissatisfied with the information flow regarding DayZ. Most businesses stick with one channel to submit valid information and only then use social media to get those news bigger coverage - this is what people are simply familiar with. Doing it the other way around - spreading bits of information through various media and then trying to put it together in one feed (DevTracker) - is not a common practice everyone is used to. Hence the concerns and treating BI (or DayZ team) as not reputable by some. I know that some would argue that it's better if they keep working on the game instead of getting distracted with the media, but that's a typical "developer's mistake" - our partner company wrote a book on the topic, it basically states how some developers (exceptionally programmers) perceive anything else than actual development as unproductive, which is wrong in the long run. Communication, management, marketing and development are all equally important. I'm not saying that DayZ team does not put effort into communication, I'm just trying to say that since it is equally important as everything else, they should do it right, which should be convenient for the end-users, who are actually testers now and this alone should require efficient communication.

Yeah, pretty nice manipulation techniques, although I believe they would fit better in real life rather than DayZ. I.e. they probably won't work if the person you're trying to manipulate has a predefined intent to kill you the minute he/she has the chance.

Most solid theory. The Tactical Vest is not removed from the game, just removed from spawn tables, i.e. it simply doesn't spawn. At least not until they fix the clipping issue it has.

The whole problem with releasing an alpha stage game is that many/most (empirical data required to actually choose the right scale) will treat the game as "released" (read "gold"). It takes marketing psychology to decide what a "release" actually is - a date stated by the producer, or the moment the audience receives a product. No amount of "this is alpha" statements will prevent the negative reception which will produce a sort of stain on the product's reputation, and remain there for a very log time. Same goes for the loyalty of the audience - from my professional experience (marketing), I might guess that many "testers" will get bored with the product before the actual "release", and never make it to see the full product. From a financial standpoint, it doesn't matter - the product has been already bought. In the long term... I guess it's a slippery slope for the company. I was actually thinking about writing a short article about DayZ's marketing plan, since it's a masterpiece - "Make >1.5m people buy your product by telling them not to buy it." :) On a side note, telling to the public that something needs time will not help, as the public, PR and market only knows timing, and it can only be right or wrong.

When Dean Hall said that he is leaving BI around the period DayZ goes gold and called the game a "flawed concept". I still get the chills when I try to understand his actions. :)

I have seen this as well. Unfortunately I have no theories on why does this occur, other than that it would seem the neither the server nor the client dictates where a given player is rubber banded to. Something else is clearly wrong.

You're partially right, we won't be able to distinguish whether a given item already exists on a given hive, but I believe this will change the minute it is found - what if someone posts in here that they have the part, or all of said parts that can spawn? In other words, this person holds a monopoly on said part. Now the problem is I know that the part is virtually out of my reach. The very fact of this knowledge kills immersion. I will never find it, unless I go kill that player on another server. Now I wouldn't leave my server, against my "code of immersion" ;), but suddenly another server that is housing the guy with the parts becomes very popular. Do you understand my fears now? I'm afraid that the game will incorporate other media as part of the gameplay and suddenly people will start to make [enter server name here] raids instead of NWAF raids. That's not how I envisioned the game. Now if the majority finds this suiting, than I'll have to cope with the fact, that DayZ will not be the survival game I hoped to be.

Depends on how elaborate their final AI will be. If they will be able to swarm into the room and block your way out, than yeah, I would panic. However, if you will be able to just run past them back the way you came in, just like now, without them realising what's going on, then meh, I wouldn't care.

Ad.1 I didn't consider trading, so I can not say anything in this regard. I just hope people won't ditch ultra rare parts on logged out characters hoping to gain real buck from the game. Mixing real market economy with a game that does not have its own economy does not sound like a good idea. Ad.2 You mean people grouping up to attack another server? Yeah, real DayZ like... Sorry, unless a base pops up next to mine, in which case a "war" would be a part of necessity, raids to other universes does not count as real DayZ survival experience in my book. Ad.3 Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a hived item tracking system to see what's going on with item distribution. I'm just against the particular set of restrictions they will impose. I could be mistaken, and everything they are doing will hit the nail in the head, but I just think that any kind of incentive that encourages changing servers is just wrong in a game like DayZ. In truth, I thought the game will go in an exactly opposite direction - encouraging a player to stick to one server and face the world he is in.

On separate hives maybe - you won't be able to bring that gear to official servers. It will be restricted to your hive, or even just your server.

As much as I understand your point, my personal requirement for immersion cannot accept any form of changing servers as a requirement to get the full experience. I simply cannot do enough headcanon to explain myself how that tent up ended next to an area I "claimed", and my tent/base is gone, but hey! I can just go back to "my" server and everything is back to normal again - will be a common experience if you have to switch servers. I also can not bare the explanation that multiple servers can be perceived as a big map that consists of e.g. 5 identical landscapes. It makes me feel like I'm in crazyland or something. I see hive controlled loot spawns as a refined solution, but not an adequate one. As for server-hopping, I can't believe anyone thinks it will be gone. People will still hop, only in no hopes of finding an NVG. They will simply lower their expectations and do it to find an SKS and a backpack + ammo, while those who don't will be running around with a bow and a courier bag. Hopping will still be a valid solution to obtain medium-tier items, instead high-tier like we have now. I do hope I'm wrong, I really am, but I don't think this system will be worth the trade-off for immersion.

Immersionbreaking - The fact of knowing a given item is always available is as immersionbreaking as changing dimensions (that's how I perceive changing servers) as a process of trying to obtain said item. I would rather have a chance of 0.0005% of said item spawning in the game and be aware of the fact, that I might never find that item, but at least I would be searching for it by plausible means and not super-powers. I don't expect that players will hop 5-6 times to get a heli rotor. I expect situations like "Hey, twitter says that there's a working heli on server DE 0-9!" and 3 guys in front of me go "poof" to fight in a parallel universe. You're right. We don't have to do this, but this doesn't change the fact, that people will do it and they shouldn't. I can already see bulletin boards appearing on different services where people will post pics of a witnessed player with NVG, server name in the comment fields.

Same here. Hunting trip - ammo, assault vest, ballistic helmet, etc. goes to the stash. Trip to town (that gas lamp needs refilling) - bow and arrow, hunting pants, knives, etc. goes to the stash. And so on I basically want it to store items that I will likely not need at my current destination.

True, yet it's still harder than if you are able to do it yourself. True, but only IF every item is going to be persistent. Right now they are only vaguely exploring the idea of making every single item persistent. Let's work with facts for now. It allows for a literal life insurance policy - a backup in case of death (although a not very convenient one, but still). Believe me, the only thing this leads to is PVP and CoD type gameplay. Been there, seen it in another game. I for one don't think of a stash as means to "regear". I intend to use it for my pot, pan, surplus water and food and alike when I'll be on a hunting trip. Guess you're wrong with this one. "(..) running to the tent (or in the mod, going to pick up the guy who just died) is a pain in the ass (...)" - You can not be serious that running to a tent is hard enough. Well, by my standards, it's the easy way out when it comes to a game like DayZ. To much reward for to little effort. IMO, if you die, you should have a setback measured in days, not a couple of minutes.