forddefect

I fear that this will be the case, and I also fear that BI knowingly or not, are heading in this direction. Just follow the money, at least this time unlike the mod, BI gets to take a cut of all those gaming communities that generate income from providing their members perks for their donations. With that obvious link, then the more successful servers there are, the more monthly income BI receive from GSP. It is therefore in BI interests to make private shards a wholly customisable experience as so that communities continue to rent server from GSP. However BI are providing a public hive, which will give us access to an unaltered version of the product. And currently private shards are not looking attractive to anyone (very limited control ) I just highlighting an economic pressure that could cause private shards to become more customisable. Which is sad because modding can bring amazing things ( i.e this game ) but to prevent dayz from been watered down modding has to be severely limited or non existent.

I am stating that there is no sure thing and to just assume anyone caught by a BE ban is just a punk cheater is just as ridiculous to state that BE doesn't catch any cheats. Of course you TSAndrey quick to "bean" the Sable's initial comment about ban remaining in place. Fact is BattleEye software and developers who maintain it are not immune from mistakes. False positives have happened and will happen in the future. And Sure enough Grimey Rick has been found to a victim, by unknowingly entering a pirated server and wrongly flagged as cheating him and any number of other innocent players that happen to log in on that server till the exploit is patched. BattleEye detected cheating but missed the context, luckily Sable dug a bit deeper and realised player history could have exposed that account unwittingly and quite correctly removed the ban. This at least shows that ban can be contested which is good thing. As for the frequency of false positives, I suspect its quite low I have no idea what it actually is but if it was 1 in 1000 then you got to accept that on rare occasion someone is telling the truth. I wish people would just stop looking or expecting a panacea for cheating. The is no single solution, only a combination of preventive ( gamecode ) detective ( BE/VAC ) and strong community interaction in terms of administrating servers ( Server Tools Pls ) can be effective.

You know how foolish this makes you look? First sentence is immediately contradicted by the second. False positives do happen you be surprised at your chances of not having HIV after initially testing positive. So even the godly BE/VAC can have, and as you have stated has in the past falsely identified users of cheating. How many times has an AV detected a malicious file that actually benign? This whole bloody community is blinkered ( well the whole internet really ) reason giving way to opinions.

Maybe BIS are lowing graphical fidelity in preparation for the new rendering core? Though I joke about a conspiracy, it certainly would be against the trend in the games industry to show you super high quality graphics in promotional material and then not quite meet customer expectations on release. Also, graphics card vendors are always tweaking their driver setting for particular games to tout the best fps of their products. If that mean down sampling the shadow buffer, or not doing another aliasing pass to grab a bit more performance. You could very well see a slight degrading in graphics, and to be honest only the most observant persons may notice, and then even fewer might post about it.

Pride comes before a fall, granted these testimonies maybe false, but there more than one way to gut a cat. The pbo exploit shows that SA relies on client side hit detection, so lets say if you were able to reverse engineer the game engine and find where to interfere with results of the collision system, to say ignore certain models you could shoot though walls and not have to manipulate the pbos. If you had intimate knowledge you could even manipulate the bullet object, or raycast ( whatever is used in the engine for projectile physics ) to start close to your targets position so its like shooting them at point blank. Hell if you had access to the source code you could find numerous ways to subvert the game logic to your own needs. Good job nobody has the source code then.... I don't mean this to be negative but you statement was a bit to bold when there has been a security breach and rumors of missing source code. Also there are some very talented, motivated reverse engineers out there driven not just by financial gains but a challenge and that statement could be taken as one. Finally though, the hysteria of hackers just compound this problem that only goes to negatively affect the product. Your statement actually made me think briefly that BI don't care about their customers and even insinuate that they are lying. I know that's not your intent and I can understand how you and your colleagues can become stand offish due to the bombardment and attacks from players who deep down care about hackers but end up venting their frustrations on you the developers. Honestly, make cheating transparent, lets have some feedback, every rational person knows that its an arms race and every hole you close they open another. I'd like to know more about success stories, maybe weekly/monthly bans numbers or a we know about this cheat and we working on it. Maybe even allow your community to take part in policing the servers, they have done it for all your other previous products and with some success. Cheating can't be won with technology (though it has its place) but it can be kept in check by community, we all understand it can never be entirely stopped.

Weapon spread designed to emulate fatigue, weapon weight and shooter competence etc.. I think has a place. Furthermore if its calculated server side it can help mitigate some of the effects of aim-bots. As for player skill, having a dispersion system can still require player input. The expert player will know how to minimise these effects. Know at which distances with what weapons give you the greatest chance of killing your target, it also allow an easy way to tune balance issues like running around hip firing. Also isn't the whole point of the dayz experience? Dayz provides a sandbox in which many actions have an element of unknown certainty to them. The improper information the game provides, forces you as a player to make decisions. Its the weight of the these decision and the associated risk which makes this game engaging, I get the most satisfaction from making decision not to engage, or wait for the optimal time to do so far more pleasing. I think a lot of people play this game simply for the combat, they apt at quickly tooling up and getting into action. The request for helicopters to be common, weapons to be pure skill based, the abuse of servers to loot up. All point to people wanting it easier to actually fight each other. The thought of subsistence, healing, hunting etc. does even factor, as they never live long enough for it to truly matter. That's not the fault of the players, It's the fault of the designers, and when they want to shift the balance with various mechanics, they get a uprising of the players who style of game play it impacts the most. So they dammed if they do and they are dammed if they dont. Throw this EAG crap on top and you got a community that has a fair share of people who have made a financial contribution and feel they( and in some ways do ) have the right to be vocal and demanding. And developers who will feel in someway to be beholden to the community that is supporting them, which is probably far more fickle then any publisher.

Nobody is expert, I recently reevaluated my personal bias (in all aspect of life) one of which is to only notice evidence or facts that suit my personal beliefs. Really like any rational personal I should seek not only evidence for my own hypothesis but evidence that can support other competing hypothesis. Taking that into account, I noticed that BI other recent main game release ( Arma 3). Which followed a similar development schedule show evidence of continuous growth, and more so now that it ever did on its alpha release . http://steamcharts.com/app/107410#All Ok its not sales figures but number of players playing each day continues to grow some of which are probably new players, Notable peaks of players at each significant milestone ( March, June and release September ). Given that BI have this and more accurate sales data than we can ever hold, they my see a growth pattern that contradicts common sense. Another important fact to understand is this is an independent studio, they are not beholden to any publisher, they are not chasing the corporate dollar. Personally, as a flash game developer i don't do it for the money I do it for the challenge of making games and the thrill of creation, give BI credit and expect them to do the same. I am no fan, but I realised that I wasn't been fair either, BI have history of continuously supporting their products and have a track record of delivering using this development model. OK I have concerns over their games, I worried about network latency the most and possibly the overall direction of dayz. But I can be certain they never intend to rip us off, and that everyone working on the game wants it to be the best it can be.

I share Op sentiments, especially over network performance. Dayz is a high (relatively) stakes game its main appeal, is knowing that kill or be killed has a cost that is more than just 10 second respawn timer and a K/D. So when as a player I am cheated out of a life or a kill due to desync or a glitch you feel it more. Granted it is an alpha and you can expect this to happen more. However, with regards desync the number of occasions where I felt cheated due to desync ( that is not related to my own connection ) in Arma 2 (mod) and Wastelands on A3 its enough for me to have serious concerns regarding SA. Based on existing products based on the same or very similar technology I fearful that SA will continue to show the same issues. My biggest hope is that this team actually tightens up the networking code in SA and Arma 3 and new products are the better for it. Currently I'm sitting at 70:30 for SA not improving the desync significantly, I will revise that later in the year, hopefully better.

I want this to partake in drive-by shootings. I love google, you can pretty much image for anything.

Maybe you current character could learn the technique from a book or taught it by a fellow survivor. Obviously you forget it when dead.

Use a banana to hold people up.

Tbh I don't I haven't even been fpv server, I switch all the time between the two, I can live with or without it's not a problem as long as everyone subject to the same rules. All I did was point out (unoriginaly) the disconnect between the ideology and reality, which by the way only existed in mod due the game it was built on. However you got you knickers in a twist and only added to futility of the thread.

I hate multi player cheats for many reasons, but my number 1 biggest gripe is that it diverts money, resource and talent away from building and enhancing games and dumps it in a death march of maintaining the status quo. With every passing month of a game release the demand for anti hack is always present and forces developers into expending resource into maintenance with diminishing returns. I was never keen on the idea of 'Onlive' the streaming game service, but having clients so lightweight would stop all but the most determined cheats. ( video data can still be processed, i.e highlight players from that build autofires or aimbots).

A game that is fundamentally about the brutality of surviving in a post apocalyptic zombie world, is somewhat undermined by magical camera floating 2m behind your head.

I agree, it would be a more complete experience but unfortunately 99.9% of groups will be using VoIP, there is no possible way to prevent this (steamworks has it built in) and to avoid it is to choose to be at a serious disadvantage, just as much as third person mode (but that can be addressed). Even though its not in the spirit of the game it does have a direct impact on communications, and to argue you not playing the game right doesn't remedy the issues and was a rather bitter remark from an otherwise excellent post.

I'd be interested in stats but not names, especially steam names if only to prevent zealous retribution.

I generally don't reply, I hate been referred to as 'kid' or 'son' 9 times out of 10 all I get to listen is some macho internet bullshit anyways. But really why do I need to communicate? What reason is there to parlay with a stranger? Trade? Nope as nothing you have I can't acquire. Healing? Maybe if your leg was broke, but should I waste time and resource on something that is only going to increase my risk of survial, better to walk away or finish you off. You might help me in the future, but that would require playing same server and time as me oh and then recognising my voice. Maybe then to make friends? It's better to join clans and outfits or friends from other communities, I personally have not played sa or mod with ppl I meet in the game. All my friends come from other games or RL, they have a track record of trust. Currently in SA, there is to much anonymity, I have noway whatsoever to identify a player as a person, I cannot refer to previous encounters with said person, I cannot alter my behaviour accordingly. So defaults on, that avoid, don't communicate and engage if at an advantage. If your not on team speak, your As good as zombie to me. Don't get me wrong though I love to see that changed, how though is another issue

Wouldn't take much for this kind of thing to be whipped into OMG games are bad media storm on a slow news day. Just takes one youtube video to be done in poor taste and we have "OMG game lets players commit sex crimes against minorities". This isn't a judgement, all of us here know that everyone is consenting to that happening to them (they didn't have to comply ) but when has the truth got in the way of someone else agenda. I do think its worth at least looking at your own output and how that could affect the game and its community, especially how it might appear to people outside of it. So yes, lets encourage interactions, good and bad, but be wary of how they reflect upon us all.

In combat us clock face, in the mod that's what I do with my partners. It's agreed that our general direction of movement is 12.

What else you supposed to do? Avoid the zombies? Rebuild Civilization? Escape the infected zone? Find you missing family? Give me something else to do or to strive for and I'll put off killing folk for entertainment longer. As for the banditos who crack on about how they love making people rage with their KOS and noob shoot gallery. The only people who get upset are new players who don't realise it doesn't actually take much to become dangerous.

I Always felt that thought was perverse

I'm up for any system been more involved, as long as a player I am not at a disadvantage to players who circumvent or don't care about it. If there exist via meta gaming or alternative game mechanics a shortcut, then players will take it. Every player is in direct competition with each other and finding optimal strategies is bread and butter of survial. So an in depth, medical system would be a total waste if the average player is able avoid it, by say respawning and collecting their stuff. What I am getting at is not to consider systems in isolation. One way to make medicine more important is when you die your corpse becomes an AI zombie and wanders off, you know because this is zombie game. That zombie wanders of with your gear. Also randomising spawns, if I bandit near the coast I can get back to my body quicker as I will spawn near the coast and on average near where I passed away. If not I can kill myself quickly. Don't allow knowledge of spawn system dictate choices in the game. Basically, there is how you'd like to play the game, and how people will actually play it. To get what you want you have to consider both outcomes.

Having other characters for the purpose the OP states is something I would be interested in. But I can't see how you could do that without some people taking advantage. Maybe disallow different chars to connect to same servers. But that doesn't stop you giving a friend stuff have them change servers to your other character. Mind you for an extra £20 pounds I could do that anyways and in the grand scheme of things that's not much of a barrier if you really wanted a 2nd character.

I Have to agree with you Semipr0, it make more sense for a team to watch the corpse or carry the loot of a friend than to attempt to heal them. Been able to respawn then run back to your guarded corpse, or rendezvous with friends carrying your stuff is generally quicker than the alternative. Searching for required items, performing the crafting and then the actions on the injured player.Also if you don't already have everything to heal at the time you can't estimate how long it take to complete, however you can guess how long it take to get from spawn point to rendezvous. So healing as a means to encourage teamplay in its current form is undermined by 'not behaving in the spirit of the game' and it probably most valuable to people who are not currently working in a team. Ideally players need something about their characters that transcends loot and inconvenience. Something that other team member actually value too.