specfreq

I couldn't find another post exactly like this, i apologize if it's been brought up before. What would be the harm in locking all the servers to the same time, but then make time move at 1.2x speed? I'm suggesting this because i see empty servers just because it's night. I have to confess I've been playing on daytime servers nearly exclusively, regardless of latency hit, just to play in larger/fuller servers. I've seen multiple 70-100 player servers empty out just after dusk. it's possible that this will reduce server hopping to the people that want to play with buddies and double looters. This is more for players that don't have any ties to a particular server e.g. boats, cars, tents, clan. Of course, I realize people do play at night.

I'll accept that this idea is bad only because it is a, hard to implement, new feature rather than fixing bugs and tweaking pvp and teamplay. I still think it's better than the endless "moar gun" posts. Thanks for the feedback.

I think that people should be forced into a night-time scenario because it causes people to step out of a comfort zone and can lead to unique situations you just can't get in the day. I believe that this goes in line with what the mod was intended for, a social experiment. You have some valid points i need to think about, i apologize for the cheap shot earlier. I can answer one now; i brought up carrying car engines around because it shows that the game isn't as authentic as i think you implied. I don't see how it is irrelevant when on the subject of authenticity. Why not one more less-than authentic mechanic?

Does anyone else see consistently full servers at night?

I've explained why - empty servers at night So you agree with me, or at least with a 1.5-2x(+) speed.

I've considered that, and that is exactly what i see as a problem. When the populated servers are almost always daytime what happens to the servers that are going into night? They are all dead. Yes, my idea will mean that once every 5 days it will be the same time as it is locally. I wasn't expecting loyalty to your own time zone to be a splitting point, and i guess this is were we disagree on what is and isn't awful. I think you just want to play in the day and are calling the entire idea horrible because of it. Doesn't a full 100 pop server at night interest you?

It's not that hard: You come home at 5:00pm on Monday, it's 5:00pm in game You come home at 5:00pm on Tuesday, it's ~10:00pm in game You come home at 5:00pm on Wednesday, it's ~3:00am in game ect... This time is for all the servers All i got out of that post is "I want to play only in the day.".

That's correct, if you were to play at the same time every day when you got home you would play ~exactly 50% in the day and 50% at night I do understand the difference between consistent and universal, you would consistently be playing on a universal time. I hope you understand why i am suggesting this.

I don't normally carry around car engines in my backpack, or find rifles and ammo laying around. I'm starting to think that you're so against this because you wouldn't personally go and scavenge at night if this were a real scenario. I'm aware of human sleeping patterns, and i'm also aware some people sleep in the day and work at night. Your argument is that going out at night in a zombie apocalypse isn't something many people would do. I agree it does take away some authenticity by reducing your choice when to go and scavenge, but i believe it is a trade off at least worth investigating, and not just for server population.

Read the original suggestion. Then explain why it's awful.

That one region's time is 19 hours per day, not 24.

It seems this would fit well with my suggestion. Is that the only reason you think this idea is bad?

No, they wouldn't. Please read the original suggestion.

I realize this, nothing is stopping you from changing -10 GMT to -8 GMT. please clarify if i'm misunderstanding this. I apologize if this looks like a personal attack on your opinions, i'm interpreting it to a simplified form that may or may not be skewed. Servers empty becuase kids and teenagers have to go to bed on time is not entirely true. Implying that mostly kids and teenagers play DayZ need to go to bed on time would also imply that these kids and teenagers play on servers local to them. But not all local servers share the same local time as these kids and teenagers. If i'm playing on a Seattle (local to me) server at 12:00 on a Saturday, but it's in game time is nearly nighttime, these local kids and teenagers do not need to go to bed. The server empties out because people like to play in the daytime. Why would i go against something people like? - far from a complete list Favorite servers aren't deserted 50% of the time forced to switch it up and potential for interesting scenarios I've given a few reason what this is to me, and it's not about going to a night server to get easy loot. However, this could actually reduce the amount of double looters as a side-effect but yes, it would limited your Freedom of choice to play on day servers only. Again, this is more about a fix to stop servers from having 5-20 people in them half of the time then 50-100 the other half

I think less guns and ammo would be better. ...and food ...and clean water ...and first aid If i wanted a variety of weapons i'd play Counterstrike. i want to see half used or empty mags and you'd have to find boxes of bullets to use them I want to see mix matched ammo and weapons, and misfiring, and weapon's breaking down or exploding/jamming.

Since we're both not experts in DayZ code neither of us really know if it would be hard or not to implement. I think you're slightly diminishing the weight of this by saying it's "just to stop people only playing on daytime servers". More to the point, I'm not sure if you're saying this is a good or bad suggestion.

Then why do i see local daytime servers in the middle of IRL night? There are no rules that state the server time must be local time. This is where you want to have the choice of picking a daytime servers whenever you want, and where i want to not see servers empty out because it's after dark. That is the whole point of shifting the time when servers restart. ~19 hour in-game days will affect the play of people that only play an hour or two in the evening just as much as people that have 5+ hours to play. My solution would be this: Servers restart. every 5 hours skip one then have time synced to all the servers when they restart. It wouldn't be perfect but if servers do restart a few times a day time would be "close enough" to a server that restarted only once a day. Would this still mess up loot spawning if time is handled by a central server?

If you played at 8:00pm real/local time on any server and it was 12:00pm in game, the next day at 8:00pm real/local time it would be around 5:00pm in game on all servers at 1.2x speed. I could see how gamma could be a problem for people that refuse to turn it on. I've seen other posts about night and i agree it can be unfair sometimes and should be fixed.

Apparently It is possible to change the time. http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?81967-skipTime-setDate-daytime-and-Multiplayer - see Tajin's post Or, with this script It could work if the servers regularly restarted (at least once a day). But you would need to enforce it. http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setDate http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1251-want-to-host-a-dayz-server-read-in-here/ I rather not let my idea be killed off by a lie. Is this a good or bad idea?

I've given two possible reasons in the suggestion.

At first it looked like you misunderstood my suggestion by telling me what the harm is in leaving it locked at a 1x speed for all servers. I think anyone could figure out the harm in leaving it at a 1x speed. I Honestly didn't know it was locked. But more importantly, what if a Dev could fix the time speed to 1.2x? Would this be possible for ArmA3?

Clearly you don't overclock much. I like this idea, but it won't solve shoot on sight. That should be left on the leader boards. Fun fact: Other players are walking loot factories, not people. The only time you might need someone's help is when you don't have a weapon or want to repair a car. That is just my opinion of what most people see right now, this idea of yours may cause some people to hesitate to shoot. My counter suggestion: You're definitively correct about people liking big numbers. If you could put those big numbers somewhere else in the game that you need a team that would be a step in the right direction. I honestly don't think it's a good idea because i don't believe DayZ is about numbers on leader boards. But it's a proven motivator in other MMOs.