Hey, nice writeup. I usually play as a bushman of sorts but I'm more of a nomad so I haven't messed with the gardens or tested fireplace persistence recently. Haven't messed with farms in quite a long time because of the persistence issue. Did you make the basic fireplace or upgrade it into a stone ring or stone oven? I haven't tried myself, but perhaps only the latter two are intended to be persistent. As for animals, I'm with you in that they seem too uncommon. However, I recall seeing them more frequently before the more advanced stealth mechanics and animal AI were added, so perhaps I'm just scaring them off before I have a chance to notice them. Either way, they still seem a bit rare. I've only seen cows and chickens in the law few days. I think the bow is pretty sufficient for being improvised and is definitely much better than it used to be. Once added to the game, I imagine the recurve will be a bit better. Not sure what you meant about the bone arrows, but the regular improvised arrows (sharpened stick + feather) work quite well. I might be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that they have a better trajectory than the bone arrow anyway (but deal less damage/blood loss). I'd also suggest that you give fishing a try if you haven't already! Despite the current clunky implementation, it's quite a reliable source of food and you can just disassemble your bow temporarily if you're short on rope. Good luck!

Slow zombies are not a threat. I'd prefer zombies to be a threat.

It was only that dark so long as you didn't abuse your gamma and brightness settings, which pretty much everyone did. Those who didn't had a huge disadvantage and were pretty likely to me killed without ever being able to see their assailant. Now since nights are brighter, it's not so much of a disadvantage to leave your gamma/brightness settings alone. Definitely miss nights being darker though (although the pitch black was a bit over the top imo). Hopefully they're able to find some sort of fix for gamma abuse down the road. Not sure about thunder.

In my experience the 1PP population hasn't changed much in the US. Several months ago the most populated servers were DayZ Underground and the UN servers. The public servers were always fairly barren. Logged on the other night for the first time in a while to find DayZ Underground and UN #1 were both full and UN# 2 was at 30 players. Not too bad, but I can understand how these servers aren't the best options if you're in the EU. That being said, the lack of zombies definitely reduces my interest in playing.

Well whatever it does, it works for me. Before that I used to exit and re-enter the building which also worked most of the time but obviously takes longer.

Just vault to refresh your position to the server.

Same with the drybag. For me the drawback is too large to use either on 1PP.

Update Incoming 690.7 MB (From previous EXP)

Looted the Stary military tents earlier today. After searching the first four tents and finding nothing, I came upon more than enough loot in the last tent to fill all five. Didn't take a pic but it was definitely lootsplosiony. Mostly vests, ammo, and weapon parts but there were a few AKs too. A few of the old gun houses I ran into also had a massive amount of clothing.

There was a sound added to rolling some time ago, but it may have just been a first person sound. Not really sure.

I changed the second tweet but the first one was the same the whole time! :P

I was mostly referring to the first tweet in which Hicks said he ran someone over on an exp server, indicating he got a V3S working by installing said parts.

So it seems like V3S batteries might be spawning now...?

Not sure; haven't tried it myself. Found it on Reddit Edit: Ah here we go. "for those wanting to test, get a piece of paper, rag or book, craft a fireplace (which will be in your hands), look at the fire place and you'll have the option to place it. from there, light with matches."

Just to confirm the whole "cooking in in-home fireplaces" thing. http://imgur.com/a/4xWM0 Edit: Found on Reddit