Zascha-Geriko

So... I bought DayZ Standalone over the holidays. And, I must say... it's got some really great highs and some pretty bad lows. I know it's in Alpha and all, so my question here isn't really related to that. My question is... what's the point exactly to this game? I can't really figure out what I'm supposed to be doing or trying to do. I mean, even after a week of playing, I've pretty much figured out how to keep my character alive, make them healthy, find some guns and stuff, etc... I've died a few times along the way. I've gotten into some PvP exchanges. But... am I missing something? Maybe the thing I'm looking for just hasn't been implemented yet, seeing as it's an Alpha and all. But I'm really struggling to understand what the grand scheme is. Am I supposed to be trying to make it to some Heli-vac or am I supposed to find some buddies to rebuild civilization? I mean, what's the end goal going to be? I ask this, because the way these servers are set up really kind of boggles my mind. You've got this huge map, which is great, but then you have BF numbers in them. And they don't seem to be persistent. And even if they were, is 40 players really enough to make any sort of persistence within the server something to want to build in? I mean, I could move my entire clan into the game and take up all of that server space. This doesn't seem to be enough to give us that MadMax, Walking Dead, post apocalypse, zombie infestation sort of experience. There has to be more to this planned than just eating, drinking, dealing with bandits, and dodging zombies. Because the more I think about how awesome this game could be... the more I realize if that's all that is planned, then it appears to be a totally wasted opportunity. I'm already sort of bored with this rinse and repeat setup. I mean... if that's all there is... then I've technically beaten this game several times already.

I'm going to have to agree with Soulesseye on this one. This game doesn't really come off as a Sandbox right now, and nothing I have read in the "things to come" thread has lead me to believe it is a Sandbox either. It does kind of feel like Open World PvP Deathmatch, though. In fact, it feels like I'm playing Arma 2, except I gotta eat and stuff. Hopefully this will change at some point in time... but anyway. I think the reason I'm having trouble figuring out what the point is, is because just like in Deathmatch, there is no point.... except to kill the other guy. I think the reason why I can't find a solid point... is because I'm looking for there to be a point... when there is no point actually designed into the game. You guys are sort of mixing up what a video game Sandbox actually is. A Sandbox is not a game where you can have whatever objective you want. A Sandbox is a game that has many potential objectives that you can experience at different times and ways in whatever order you want, as opposed to a Themepark, that has a very directed on-rails experience. They are different in execution... but the thing they both have in common... is that they both have objectives in the first place. "Surviving" is not an objective to base your video game on. You do that by default in all games. You can't say, "The objective is to not see the Game Over screen." That would be dumb.... and pointless.... and its kind of lazy design if you ask me. You can't call a game a Sandbox just by saying you can do whatever you want in the game. I can do whatever I want in any game. But my decisions don't describe the game. This game isn't a Sandbox. At least not right now. Maybe the aim is for it to be one in the future, perhaps when it isn't in Alpha. But again - nothing I've read about the game or have experienced the game has lead me to believe it is anything but PvP Deathmatch with some eating and drinking. Which would be fine... I suppose. It's just I was kind of expecting this to be... more.

This seems to be what I run into a lot. Currently, I spend a few hours running around trying to find some gear and whatnot. And then... I've maxed my character out. So I catch up with some of my friends and we go to Balota to try and rescue new spawns from being ganked by campers. Sometimes I die, sometimes I don't. It just depends. And... that's it. It's weird too, because once I get to that point - the game suddenly doesn't feel like a zombie survival game. It just feels like Arma - a soldier wartime simulator with an easter egg hunt keeping you from the action. Hopefully this feeling will change once it starts moving into Beta and then a finished product.

I don't even use the compass. It's a pretty big waste of time if you ask me. I suppose that's evidence enough that it's over-designed. Frankly, I don't know how anyone can get lost in this game. If you're still getting lost after a week of playing - you're not paying attention to your surroundings. Start finding land marks. Use the North Star. Remember where the ocean is - it's always South or East if you're in that area. I can pretty much find my way around the coastal cities blind folded by now. I'm sure as I continue to move North, I'll be able to memorize the map pretty easily. I've already gotten the western roads down pat.

Well, while I am completely 100% in favor of doing something about Ghosting, I think all it's going to do is illustrate another really bad problem about the game. I'm not sure if you guys have noticed or not, but there are quite a few very frequently visited areas and buildings that only have one way in or one way out. So basically, it creates a choke point where the whole thing is just a stale mate. There's no way to exit without being killed, and there's no way to enter without being killed. Since there aren't things like grenades or flashbangs... there aren't many options. It boils down to poor level design. You should always have more than one entrance/exit. This is especially the case for Barracks and Prisons, but also for some of the houses, hospitals, firestations... pretty much everything. If there were other tactical options available, I would think that Ghosting wouldn't be as bad as it actually is now. Even still... people will exploit anything they can to gain an advantage. That being said - fix the Ghosting and similar issues. And after that - be prepared to do a pathing and level design on a large portion of the buildings.

Im sure you can find European weapons that are similar to the ones I mentioned. Also, the M4 weapon system was designed by Eugene Stoner. He was born and raised in Long Beach, and later joined the United States Marine Corps. Currently, aside from the Mosin, it's the only Primary Weapon option in the game. I'm pretty sure if this issue you're bringing up was such a big deal, the M4 wouldn't even be in the game. So get off your elitst high horse. The weapons I mentioned here aren't specifically the point. The point is to have available options in the game that cover many different things, and don't overlap. It doesn't have to be a 9mm Beretta. It can be a 9mm of any other brand. The point is to have a low caliber military pistol that can accept attachments. It should be low caliber, because then you have the option later to find a higher caliber military weapon that can also accept attachments - the .45. Both of these are supposed to be considered upgrades over the other non-military options. Arguing over minute details is preventing you from seeing the bigger concept.

Thanks for this info. I literally see saline bags all over the place. I think I'll get my buddy to use one on me tonight.

I just think the game needs to give you more information for tracking your status. When you're full... okay. You get a notification. But there needs to be something between full and dehydration/starvation. For instance, I often times say to myself in real life, "I could eat. I'm not starving, but I could eat." As it stands, there's a huge gap of no indication as to how you're feeling. It might be worth doing a constant color code system. For instance, white is max status you're healing at maximum rate with perfect food and water. Blue is healing at minimum rate, you either need more food or more water to reach white status. No status indicates you are healing at normal rate and cannot take in more food or drink. Green indicates no healing, but you are not in critical condition, and would naturally be the longest lasting condition. Yellow is the beginning g stages of starvation and dehydration. Orange Is critical starvation and dehydration. Red I dictates you are dying and have minutes to live.

This is how it should work: Civilian weaponry: Can be found in civilian areas where appropriately themed. Most of these will not have tactical attachment options. 1. Pistols .38 snub nose, 6 rounds .45 1911 Colt, 7 round mag .357 magnum revolver, 6 rounds .44 magnum revolver, 6 rounds 2. Primary weapons .306 hunting rifle, 5 rounds, standard hunting scope available 12 Guage double barrel break action shotgun, 2 rounds Military weaponry: Can be found in military zones. 1. Pistols FNX .45, 15 round clip, attachments available 9mm beretta, 21 round clip, attachments available 2. Primary weapons Tactical pump action shotgun, 6 shells, attachments possible M4 assault rifle, clip size varies, attachments available Mosin nagat, 5 rounds, attachments available M14, 15 round mag, 21 round banana mag, attachments available Frankly, with a load out like this, you'll get enough variety in the game that covers every angle without overlap. I'd be happy with something like this.

I used the m4 for a long while because I couldn't find a mosin. Got one last night with a pristine Pu scope and a .45 with 2 clips as cqb weapon. I haven't really tested it yet but I'm excited to try it out. I dropped a fully speed m4 for it and let my friends fight over the good parts :p Because of how big the map is... having a long range weapon like the mosin is just a no brainer. However, without a .45 to back it up... I would just stick with the m4, personally. Having the side arm available is what makes the gun work as part of a functional personal arsenal.

Last night, my clan and I liberated the balota a by taking out this dude that was camping inside the prison on the wes side next to hangers. He was just murdering everyone who opened the door. We heard his gunfire, and all the dudes he killed were just helpless. Anyway, we take that dude out and start to regroup inside the same prison. Half of us were in the bottom back room, the other half in the top. Not 2 minutes go by when 2 dudes spawn right in front of us, one in each room. We simply weren't expecting it and were still feeling the rush from killing the camper. I mean those dudes spawned in right on top of us, immediately after killing the camper bandit. We wrecked them too. It was just too coincidental. We figured the dude we killed got his crannies to spawn in to kill us. We couldn't take any chances. Immediately after this, some guy comes to the outside of the prison claiming to be friendly in voip. He wants in and says he's friendly. Well... we just took out an entire squad of bandits, took two casualties of our own, and needed to regroup. We told the dude to flux off and come back later. Meanwhile, the dude we killed re spawned next to our teammate outside balota. Not knowing that he was telling the story to the very person that killed him, he allowed our clan mate to follow him and help him get vengeance as he put it. Our clan mate follows him for a while, befriending him u til he finds a screwdriver. And then he proceeds to shank the spawn camper again as a fresh spawn as he cries in voip, "WHY YOU KILLIN ME BRO?" To which our clan mate responds, "I was the one who killed you in the first place!" We don't take chances with people. And we make those who deserve it suffer :p

I'm sort of confused by this. Apparently a saline bag plus an iv kit will fix all blood loss. This is infinitely easier than doing the blood test, using blood bag and yadda yadda. Is there someone who can explain exactly how these procedures differ and how they work, because frankly, I don't see a point to dealing with the hassle of testing blood types and all that stuff if you can just use saline iv.

This game is infinitely more fun with friends. I've been rolling with my clan from another game and we've made it our quest to hunt bandits and spawn campers. I can't tell you how awesome it is to totally overwhelm these couches with superior firepower, resources, and numbers. We stop all players no matter what, but we always , et non hostiles go... though you can bet we watch our backs after. We totally rocked this boat a airbase camper and his buddies last night. The moral is to try to find at least one person to play with. We roll in a group of 5 or 6 and we take care of one another. Strength in numbers.

This has happened to me twice. I think it has something to do with how quickly you log out of a server and log back into the same server. Like, you tried logging into the game before your character ter has actually left the server. Just a theory, but it's pretty annoying.

People who run up to me with an axe drawn or whatever cause me to panic. I don't like to kos, but sometimes panic takes over and it happens. My question is that if they were really going to kos you, they would have done it before you got near them. Guns work like that. As it stands, you apparently got into melee with them without them knowing, which means you were going to kill them for their loot anyway. You snuck up on them with intent to loot kill and managed to take a few out by surprise. You're the bandit in this situation. You got what you deserved.

This is a non issue really. Balota AS just needs more Zombies protecting it. Also let's remember that more guns are coming, which means that all these M4s people are getting from this particular spawn will probably be replaced with something else. The AS is right next to a deserted military camp. It would not be unreasonable to find at least some military equipment. We need these guns in the game in alpha for testing. Everyone just needs to chill.