pilgrim*

I was born in Berezino. It's an interesting place - you may not notice at first that the whole town is surrounded by higher ground. Just high enough. With a decent sniper you can scope down on half the town from the south, and from the north you can scope the other half of the town.. not even mentioning the west.. At Berezino, people usually worry about the hospital roof but that's not the main threat... there's no way you can keep a watch on the far treeline and that overlooking ground, you won't see anything till you're hit. It's not a town for streetfighting. Just run up the beach right past Berezino to the docks, there you might stand a chance. Players in Berezino are like irishroy's photos above.. Just to say - take care - no hard feelings I hope. Now there's a town further North, Berezino is a crossroads for all kinds of people. Used to be a nice town too.. (spits tobacco wad) xx pilgrim

I think some wilderness has been cut off the North edge and the West edge of the map, to make the map smaller. I may be wrong but I've been all round the edges of the map, and there's less of it. Map smaller. And the North and NE has been built up (town, railway, roads) so there's really a LOT less wilderness. Also in the far North West are 2 lakes - big lakes - but both of them were empty last time I looked. No one put any water in them. And there are NO streams, puddles, standing water, NO WATER, anywhere in the whole NW quarter of the map - you'll have to take it with you or look for cans in the garages and farms they built up there. Most of the forest has gone from what is left of the wilderness, so you're in the open most of the time. Those big forests and secluded places from the mod are not there anymore. Go look, tell me I'm wrong (please). The big dam and its lake in the mod, that were NE of Devils Castle aren't there now - all the country, hills and forest to the North of the dam, and all the forest to the West of the dam, is not on the map now. Maybe 3000-5000 trees less than there were? In total at least 20% of the map has been cut off to make it smaller, and in the remaining 'wilderness' the trees are mainly gone. Cutting off the North and West edges puts NWAF right in the middle of the play area now, which it wasn't.. In the mod I spent days in the N and NW tracking down a camp, taking bearings on their heli flights, trying to figure which routs they followed. I didn't see them they didn't see me, for a week. I found the camp. So cutting down the map reduces gameplay too. If you go up there, take water with you. There isn't any. Note: I will be happy to be wrong about this. xx pilgrim

You know - everyone who has ever shot a gun, and before guns were invented anyone who ever loosed an arrow, and before bows anyone who ever threw a rock.. has wanted just exactly the same thing. "I just want it to go where I aim it" In the real world they have whole competitions where people try to get their bullets to go where they aim them. Designers spend years working on guns that will do that. Shooters spend years training to do that. Get to know your gun and find out what it will really do and what it won't do. That little dot in the middle of your screen doesn't have a lot to do with anything... hehe. If you can't land a headshot, aim for the top of the chest and shoot 3 times. That works. If I have an M4A1 I always set the sights down to 50. Most sudden contacts come well inside that range, and at a longer distance I'm better having the sights set a way I know, than changing them. This is an assault rifle: (for towns or forests, heavy mixed cover, fast action, interdiction) so to me 100+ is 'long range'. In a firefight I give a running player a short burst at 100+ (say 2 bursts of 2 or 3) I might hit him, but firstly I'm messing with his head, he's under fire, he zags, he changes his plan, he can't think straight. When you get a player who acts exactly as though he was expecting the fire, then you get that COLD feeling, because he's smart and there is going to be a real fight. Hey, I'm just wating for cooking fires and fishing rods to come back in the game, so I can go away to a quiet place, ya know? I'm mainly easy-going. This is just to say that 'shooting to hit' is only part of what you do with a weapon. Maybe that sounds crazy, but an assault rifle is not designed for 1 shot kill, it's designed for "assault" and "defense" Heheh - It's "psychological player interaction" is what it is. Also - EVERYBODY thinks they are a better shot than they really are, so don't worry about it. But don't have fantasies in the showdown. - Good work Gews - in a game there is also dispersion to think about, to imitate (with so many reasons for why does it happen?) and travel time to target. Slower speeds means more misses for a lot of players, maybe Bohemia made it a little easier on them? - Aussie Bogan, first 5 times I saw your video signature, I laughed more each time. That's how it is, bro! [and, oh yeah, bring BACK keyeboard only Sidechan, so everyone can see the psychology, and for contacts, medics, lols] xx pilgrim

Energy drinks are just caffeine and sugars. read up on them. Soda in game already gives you hydration plus a food bonus. So it's an 'energy drink'. If you go this way you end up saying - but all people are different, they have different ages, different fitness... put that in the game. But then you will complain when you respawn as an overweight 45 year old no-exercise MacDo freak, totally out of condition, with fallen arches so you cant run. Then everyone wants to respawn as a 23 year old female freestyle rock climbing champion (small body, less food required, peak fitness, high strength to weight ratio, top stamina). Or Rambo or Jackie Chan. whatever. And what happens to your character if he eats too much meat and not enough vegetables? Bad news. How about we just get making fire, boiling water, crafting, sickness-control, hunting, vehicles, and plenty of bad mean zombies in the game first? And leave stuff like energy drinks, valium (for your stress), military amphetamines, and coffee, alcohol, ginseng, worry-beads, lucky rabbits feet, etc .. until much later (or never)? And you really should read up about 'energy drinks'. ps - a well known energy drink in the real world is offering bonus stuff for CoD, if you collect enough ringpulls ... hehehe. Please don't take this badly. xx pilgrim

If you don't like players helping spawners, then you should go down to the coast and wait till you see a well-equipped player trying to help a new spawn. Then you should get the drop on that player, hold him up and give HIM a can of beans, see how he likes that! Then, if the newspawn really is a noob bambi, he would know he is into a REALLY UNUSUAL game. And it would change his life forever. xx pilgrim

Hey, that's right - I never complain about people who complain either, I only complain about people who complain about people who complain, unless I disagree with them.

In the mod people stayed with one (or 2) servers because of vehicles and tents. So this server hopping will die down in a while. It won't be different to what it was it was in the mod. No one complained except about script cheats. 30 sec log would discourage ghosting, or make it a possible disadvantage to try to ghost in a fight, instead of only an unfair advantage. That's good. The 'no combat log' worked well in the mod for what it was designed to do, except it glitched sometimes. A 30 sec log out would be great if you could press "log out" and leave the game after 30 secs as long as you did not do anything. If you do an action to countermand the logout, you're back in the game - this gives you a chance to react if something happens, or at least you know why you died. So sitting down to log out is not a bad idea, you can still see what's happening but not do anything, and you have 30 seconds to change your mind about logging, till the timer runs out. pilgrim

Yeah, rocket, you can say that, but if you'd been in on the mod from the start, and seen how that came up, you'd know how good this is going to get, and why its worth being in on the first stages.; Oh.. you were? AH... you did? .. OK, ... so don't complain, just buy it.. (oops) Looking at the Upcoming I see how much WORK you guys are doing. I played the mod for more than a year. You can have my money just for that. Respect. pilgrim

'S funny - I was going to say don't play on british servers because the brits are BAD... (and I AM one) and try the Ex Soviet Union instead... THOSE guys are fun (and frightning) to play with, because they are sometimes utterly totally ruthless, and Good at it, or sometimes friendly and good at that too, but always 100%. The Brits are too predictable :)), and in the mod, the Brits were/are mostly on servers that had no sidechannel, and they were always teams, and loners were left out or shot.. Im NOT being nationalist or racist (this is just like talking about sports or the olympics, ok?).. you are right AmmokK it doesnt matter what country someone comes from, the country is the game... but there are maybe different styles of play, and you meet different people.. On the mod I met a guy (German) who played all through the mod for a year just being a doctor, he was on call and he saved people, that's all he did.. also found a Spanish (I think) heli medical team.. I played a lot on RO 1 (Romania) and met some great people, some Romanian, some Eastern European.. also there were French, Dutch, German, English, Ukranians, on that server, (I teamed up with a Ukranian bandit who wanted to reform - that was COOL) and there were Americans late at night - starting from 2 am-on Western Euro Time, when the USA got the ping to do it (around late evening in the USA ). Many countries/players can speak English better than you or I can speak their language - I played QA1 (Quait) and had good friends there too. On RO1 I started to learn some Romanian, enough to follow a lot of the sidechannel talk if it wasn't in english. And had some Russian phrases noted down for emergencies. Hmm.. I discovered that Romanian is a GREAT language.. never thought a game would get me to that.. (another ++ for DayZ) There is a BIG internet node in Holland (R-ix), so it is easy to do USA-Germany/Holland with a reasonable ping. The ping to different places changes as the time zones move around the world, So if you play early or late when there are less people on line in your part of the planet, you can reach servers further off. There are Dayz SA servers in HongKong and Singapore. Only Australia is always a bit 'far away' to play there (for me), which is a pity. I DONT think this is server hopping, right? I think this is going out from the place you live to meet different ideas and different folk. Bring back (keyboard only) Sidechannel pilgrim

Bring back Sidechannel pilgrim

Logging in and finding out you're dead and respawned will cause some confusion, because you'll never know why. Combat logging and Server hopping are two different things. People try to mix them up. I like to sit in a bush and watch players log in at the control tower, run round 3 buildings, then log out, then the next one logs in logs out, then the next one logs in logs out, then the next one... Sometimes I shoot them. I sit in my bush and the rabbits talk to me. And the rabbits drink Rasputin beer too. I like the players who just stay in the control tower, check it out, and then log to another control tower, then another, then another without ever leaving the building (I dont know, maybe they do 20 or 30 control towers?)..You could have a game called 'control tower' - it would be a real small game with only 3 floors and a roof - then you wouldn't need all this big space with hills and trees and rabbits and rivers and stuff. But those guys don't get to talk to the rabbits. The ones who log in and out without leaving a building are harder to shoot. But if you hit your axe against a wall it sounds like a gunshot THEN they combat log. See? It's a different thing. NOW I can sit in my bush, and when they log out I can cut their heads off with my axe and they'll never know why they respawned. .. Ok, that's cool. xx pilgrim [bring back sidechannel]

If you find you're respawned for 'no reason' just zap out of that server (Alt/Escape/F4) and try another server. There's still some mess going on around the servers from the update. Sometimes I log in two different standard servers (not Hardcore) and both times get respawn, (I zap) then on the third I get my character back. AND one time I logged in a Vilayer server, had my full character, played the day and found some interesting stuff, logged in the next day, another server, and I was back where I started the day before. If you see it's peak play time, with 27/30 or 40/40 players on each server, then you see one or two Regular servers with low pings, Daytime, and zero or 1 player, (AND time set at 12:30, so there's no mistake its daylightlight) then dont bother going there. Just don't play when you respawn, ZAP NOW and try somewhere else. ALSO (off subject) a few listed "public" servers are working out ways to be 'private' - you get kicked when you login, you die suddenly with no explanation, or there are just threats (like "character wipe") in the server title - what's this about? these are private not public? but listed as public? and the Admins should not be capable (I mean technically) of pulling these stunts. Anyone know anything about that? DayzSA policy - early on - was that only big organizations could run servers (like, orgs that could field 50 servers??, and they had to run 1 public for every 2 private) and that Admins had power to turn their game on/off, to decide reset time, and that was about all. No 'personal' intervention... so whats with the listing <"public server" - "you cant play you'll get kicked"> hmmm? Pilgrim

Hey people Is'nt all this thread because at the moment there are 2 guns + 3 military locations, and NO survival or crafting or hunting - so the game comes down to a kind of capture the flag where you have to get the STANDARD LOOT before the other players get it, and everyone knows where it is... and THEN what have you got left to do?? ... unlike the mod, you can learn the whole SA (as it stands) in 2 days, do everything there is to do, then .. repeat... repeat... so AT the MOMENT its just like any 50 games - its CoD except you have to go and find your gun first... I got shot and looted (KoS naturally, is there anything else except 'run away'?), and by amazing chance respawned close and, what the hell, went back to my body in the time limit... the killer had taken ONLY ammo.. I had 3 sacks of rice and 3 water bottles in my pack and TO ME that's the key stuff, some good camo/green, pristine clothes with plenty of pockets, a handgun, boots.. to me the 3 sacks of rice and the three bottles were the most important... with those you can live for days and travel far. He left all that stuff, just took the ammo. Because once you have your gun and your cool shades, then what do you do next? You eat 1 whole can of beans, drink 2 colas (and that's your 'survival' sorted out for the evening) , then go shoot it up. There's little or no communication because theres no sidechannel - which should be keyboard only - so none of those "help me" messages, or 'noob lost in the forest', or other interesting stuff that added a dimension to the mod - including the possibility of talking enought to judge if you trusted someone (maybe you were wrong) and the chance to meet up with players, strangers, or make friends... that's not there now. AND if you WERE a survivalist on the mod, then there's plenty of stress when you hunt, someone might hear the shots, or see you making a fire, and you HAVE to go into town because you need antibiotics and bandages... and town may be full of team battles and/or ghosting snipers. So - in the SA at the moment, if you meet someone you expect them to shoot or run, never to talk. (The only people I've voice-spoken to 2 months have been holed up, frightened, and say "Go Away") .. so maybe they feel the same about communication.. they just dont risk it. I went on a <<NO PVP, Only PVE Cooperation>> server yesterday, to say hello - I said 'hello"' and was shot in the head. (lol) It's the different people with different game styles and attitudes that made the mod great - plus the crazy zombies changing at every update. At the moment we only have "get a gun, eat a can, go shoot" with teams on private teamspeak, very little chance of talking to THEM. So the game is workable at the base level for the bang-bang players. Its a good enough start. - it will get better - but SURE, if you get shot every time, or you have to shoot, the surprise wears off.. (its just another FPS standard game) The danger and the STRESS is in moving from tree to tree, guarding your back, crossing open country in dead ground, run zigzag - crawling past those zombies checking which way they turn, how close they come, and sneaking into town when you have NO bandages, realizing there's someone else in this forest, doing your run in to the supermarket when you know there's zombie agro nearby, maybe someone crouched behind that last shelf, checking the hospital roof for movement, trying to make sure you dont get trapped in the apartments with a BUNCH of zombies coming up (they keep coming) and you just heard a couple of bandits shooting on the top floor so now MORE zombs are running in. Oops.. bad scene.. maybe you can lie flat in a back room and let the bandits pull the agro? .that's all STRESS, which is what the game is about. I killed a guy on a staircase he couldnt turn his gun around to shoot straight (he came to get ME) and he was stuck on 2 dead zombs, me too, I kept hitting the wall with my axe, but I got him.. blood dripping to the floor below... then out in nowhere you hear the flies buzzing so you know there's a body (and maybe a live killer) around here (you ever run bleeding looking for a bandage cause you dont have one?).. STRESS... you find a player face down in the middle of the road.. you're starving and see 2 sheep standing next to a crash site with 8 zomb pilots.. So - you experienced people who dont feel that kick any more - this is why, because of the state of SA at the moment - and you people who already feel the stress as new players... wait till this game REALLY gets going.. it can be exciting, frightning, - so you can't even describe the sensation (wow) - even for long-time players who know their way around. But a lot of stuff has to be added yet, and I'm wondering how well the servers can deal with it. xx PILGRIM

If we had sidechannel in game (keyboard only) it would be a lot easier to meet up with people, and do all that other fun sidechannel stuff from the mod "Help, I need blood, Im in the church, I'm not a bandit" and "I'm a beginner I'm lost how do I find the coast?" or just "Hey Ted Im waiting on the hospital roof across from the apartments, come up here, can you see me, that's me saluting, now Im jumping, Hey - someone just shot me!" That was all good. I just watched the sidechannel and picked up useful info, plus some fun stuff, and real goofs and lols. And made some friends. teamspeak and mumble closes the communication down to people you already know, more or less, you don't MEET many people on a days server if you want to live long (like - all day?). The only players Ive talked to in 2 months (that's quite a few) have been hiding somewhere, so paranoid about DEATH they just want you to GO AWAY. So BRING BACK keyboard-only sidechannel - to help the noobs if you want; to talk to bandits; beg for help, OR to tell the guys in the heli you're friendly and you only want to see if its true you can shoot off a tail rotor because you've never done it before. So can you fly North please? If the idea of a RADIO gets towards being implemented - could the radio give you access to sidechannel? (it would still have to be typed, or it would drive you mad). But.. that would not help the noobs a lot... Noobs NEED help sometimes. Anyway - I think it added fun and interest and +gameplay. Maybe it wouldnt be "realistic" survival, but in this game you have to take off your wooly hat or your helmet to put on a head torch... so we're not 100% realistic (because thats CRAZY)... AND the rabbits howl, groan, say "shit that hurts!" and drink beer right in the same bush as me... AND I think I hear them loading rounds too.. So maybe sidechannel not so bad? SIDECHANNEL, anyone ? xxPILGRIM

A lot of problems about server hopping would be solved if players did not know what time a server restarts. They go from one to the next to find loot because they know EXACTLY the restart time. Say just before noon I'm on a server with 10 people - suddenly at 12:03 another 15 players turn up, solo or in groups of 3 or 5 or 8..they wipe out the military loot, then leave to loot another server... maybe they can do 5 servers from 12h to 12:25... And because there are (at the moment) only 3 military areas on the map, this is a whole herd of roving players jumping from one server to the next every 4 hours exactly. A lot of players want to be on line at 0800h, 1200h, 1600h, etc, and many players move from server to server fast as they can. Some servers advertize 2hour restarts... So you can see the problem. - The 10 minute body rule means guns and equipment are taken out of the game faster than they ever were. If you're killed, you have to get new guns ammo and kit - its not lying around after a PvP battle any more - you, or even your friends, can't recover it - so you have to go looking for new. If the servers reset at an "unknown" time, this would spread the effect a lot... Or, it is just as easy to run the server on a 23 hour or 25 hour reset cycle instead of 24, so it resets one hour earlier/later each day, to make it harder to predict across servers (but also, add on a few mins, dont reset on the hour). Alternatively, A slightly randomized reset, so that a server resets every 4h plus or minus 20 mins (for instance) is NOT difficult to script. Players hop servers, its part of the game.. there are many solo players who do not play at regular times, so they are not in a group - they don't have loyalty to one special server. I play on 3 servers regularly, and in the player list I see players I've known since the early mod (but its hard to meet up with them now). They come and go. Sometimes I go wandering to look at foreign servers, to see what's happening.. I DO this and I don't think its bad. OK so spread out server resets so they dont all happen at the same time on 100 servers, randomize slightly, make it more difficult to know when it will happen. - Also linking a player to 1 server will only encourage ghosting, that IS unfair playing. Moving from one server to another is NOT unfair. In SA, if you're not in a team, you play solo (there are plenty of solo players, good, experienced ones too).. AND there's no sidechannel now so you don't MEET MANY players... so I guess you can play where you like? The other people in this thread are right, there has been discussion about server hopping. But I don't think players have talked about so many of the reset times all being the SAME. xxPILGRIM

Some guys tested the helmet on Youtube, see: DayZ Standalone: Testing the Ballistic Helmet www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jg65gf68XE xxPILGRIM

Frodo's Salsbury said <<attacked by zombies who go through walls,>>etc Zombies coming through the walls when you're in a building is COOL. It's the only REALLY scary thing in the game at the moment. But.. yes I guess it ought to be fixed sooner or later (sigh)... Zombie Rehab: one day they will learn to use the door and climb ladders again like normal folk.. Also yes, there is specific good stuff and advanced (workable) ideas tried, tested and implemented in the mod that should/could be brought over to SA. And some to leave behind. I also (kinda) like the SA Zombie Radar. Because the other thing about our zombies is when you're in a bush on a hillside and you've got NO agro, then you scope out that little dot far off past the end of the airfield, you see its a zombie already running straight at you. It will take a few minutes for the zomb to get here, but wow he (she) has good eyesight! Sometimes they loose interest for no reason. I guess they just forget? But other times you can run as far as you like, 10 klicks, go behind hills, buildings, out of sight, over mountains and rivers, out the other end of town, through whole forests... and one day you've forgotten all about it, and you'll be counting your beans at the back end of nowhere and that Zombie will CATCH UP with you... Sometimes I don't see a zombie the WHOLE day (yes dev team I know why, no prob..).. But I guess it must be the same for them, they don't see any survivors (assuming they don't have their ipod on so you can walk past without them actually noticing - I dig that be-bop jive they do when they're on R&R, what are they listening to? [station ZMB] ). So when finally they DO spot a a survivor: even a survivor-dot on the horizon they decide they've got to GET THIS ONE (Zombie HUD say 'hungry'.. ''thirsty') . And you can run but you just can't hide. Oh, and that skinny lady zombie sure has a deep voice. xx PILGRIM

YEP, there's berets all over the place - they're like rats and mice and bats in any military places, you can't get AWAY from those bright blue, green, red useless parade berets (they are maybe useful if you want to show up from a distance, or pretend to be special services to impress strangers). Me, I find them because I'm looking for a new helmet since some (nice, sweet) guy shot me in the head from behind a bush, and the bullet bounced off. Heheheh! but my helmet went from pristine to ruined... so there's a plug for wearing a helmet. Now I want a NEW one 'cause I dont think anything is going to bounce off "ruined" any more. Hey - maybe folk don't know that a mil helmet can deflect or dampen down a killing headshot - well it can, it's cool! So wear your helmets kids. I shot half a mag back into that bush while I rushed it (I was pissed off) and the one-shot guy gave up.. he was GONE... He drew a nice bead on me from behind while I was crouching, not moving, and HE didn't know that a helmet can save your life. I didn't even bleed, zero injury. But I need a new helmet and all I can find are berets everywhere.. maybe less ammo (a little) less guns, less HELMETS, and a few of the new the strage 'Gun Cleaning Kits' and just .... argh ... more berets. But in the update script someone forgot to define 'beret' as an item, so I guess I dont know what happens if you change servers wearing one. xx PILGRIM

<< Those issues actually sound like they could be serverside, especially the desync that is going on with you>> <<i have the exact same issue... out of 12 Servers ( europe, fr uk GB DE) i have desync issues in 11!>> Hey guys, You got to realise that a "dayz server" and a physical server" are not the same thing ('scuse me if you know it already). "Dayz" is software and a server is a machine, it is hardware, right? One physical server could be running 20 dayz games at the same time - at 40 players per game that's 800 people all using the same server at once. I say "20".. but it depends on the server and where you draw the limit on how you want to share the processing power of the server, and what else the server is doing... "dedicated" is a great word... hehe. A server can be about as powerful as what you're sitting in front of now, with maybe more disk space and more physical memory (we hope), AND a flash router, 'natch.. Just to run 20 examples (instances) of DayZ with one person playing on each of them takes some processing power. What happens if you have maybe 10 or 20 people logging on to each game and you're running 20 games? Mainly, server time/space is hired out are for a profit by a company. They have a piece of hardware, they sell some dude space and processing time on the hardware and set up the game for him. They do that 10 times, all the games run well... so they push the limits a bit, they sell another 10 guys another 10 examples of the game still all running on the same server. If 20 instances run ok, then 25 will run... nearly as ok... As a real example - without knocking any of the server providers - in Europe a while back the company Vilayer got a good community reputation for running the mod at a reasonable price, good quality (I mean good at the user end, players and hire-owners liked it, reliable, plus a reasonable limited interface to let the buyer access his Admin stuff). But that was the MOD, A lot of the software was running at home on your own machine, and the server was keeping tabs on the map and hiving the info... NOW a physical server has more work to do to run an example of DayZ SA. A lot of the development is targeted to cut the 'server time per player' which is "server time per instance of DayZ SA" Because a good server could run 1 instance of DayZ SA with any number of zombies, loot up to your neck, wild animals, rats and rabbits and fish jumping out of the sea. no problem (look at the MMORPGs) but how much do you charge for all that equipment hire? A real SERVER just for 1 example of the game? No one would buy in. And THEN suddenly in the middle of this optimization (and other stuff) a real HUGE LOT of people NOW want to buy themselves a little DayZ SA server game - So, the company isn't going to turn them away, and it sure doesn't want to invest in real big fast Cray supercooled mega-servers.. so now each server runs more examples of DayZ than it used to, and each of the SA takes a lot more processing than the old mod used to. And the companies are investing (maybe) to meet the increased demand. AND in some cases independent freaks (for profit or fun), and gaming clubs with available mystic nerd-power are going round the old computer repair shacks to see if they can find something second-hand that will meet the requirements, so they can do it themselves. Without insulting any service suppliers, some are better than others... but not consistently...this is where players are confused .. Maybe the Company has 10 Physical servers piled up to service one region ... the first 6 are full with 30 games running on each one, but the 4 others still only have 7 games running on each because they didnt sell any more yet... Man, the dayZ games on THOSE servers are going to run better than the ones that are full, even if memory allocation and processor usage is definded in the server D-SA software. When you run to capacity, things WILL always slow down. Also, maybe the physical servers here are an older model than over there, they didn't invest yet, or don't intend to. Or they have 5 new ones and still 8 old ones that need updating. AND ALSO different server machines with different architecture and different soft do some things better and some things worse. It doesnt take a big server to run a few dozens of online dayz. But there's a limit to how many you can run, specially at peak times... and you go from 100 users to 5000 in half an hour as soon as the fans get back from school, right? For myself - I notice that a LOT of Vilayer servers now with DayZ SA, but NOT all of them, start to have the same problem: I log on, I have good framerate.. there's only 2 other players, but then it takes me 5 Minutes to drink one can of soda- so looting and watching your back, you can forget it... There are other Vilayer servers that run fine, any time of day they still run fine... are they new servers with more processing power? are they only running a few examples of DayZ? .. I dunno... maybe they host other games too (either they are a pro multi-game service or maybe THEY themselves rent the server space/time off somewon else), then maybe it's just that no one is playing Minecraft tonight so I got all that quad core to myself. Cant blame those guys - the demand for DayZ SA "servers" went from zero to 100,000 in a month. They want to make a profit, so its a question of- "do our instances of DayZ run "well enough"... heheh. If you look at server distribution today you see how popularity has swung to other brands, people speak less good of Vilayer than a year ago. Perhaps Vilayer are now thinking about what hardware improvement they need to keep up with a new situation. There are 2 main names that people seem to want more than Vilayer now.. but one of them: Gameserves.com, is where I personally often have desync issues, unlike Vilayer - but on the other hand I can ALWAYS open a can of drink or pick up loot without waiting a year. I have [CRAP] ping some nights, at peak playing times, so I've been around a LOT of servers from France to UK to Indonesia at odd times of day. I know what to expect from each one of them.. I know which ones you can really actually play and fight with a ping of 170+ (if you're careful on the stairs) where the sync mechanism WORKS and which servers you just CANT. Look around and try out the servers that usually and consistently have 30+ daytime players.. they are on that DayZ instance because they know it works well for them. Then look at servers that nearly always have max 2-5 daytime players, you soon find out why. OK - that's the server side, it's the difference between a DayZ "server" and a physical SERVER. Explains a lot. Note that the update problems are a different problem - some server providers have already dealt with the update very pro - some haven't yet. tomorrow people will be talking abou the update glitches (the beret, hehe, why does the missing item beret make people want to kill themselves?...) and the new interactions and player reactions. AND that's all folks but don't forget that you can do stuff at home to improve your framerate, as long as your game server is sending it, and to improve ping too. But first try shopping around and check what other players are doing... people are moving to where it works, server side. Go look. thanks - im an ancient hardware freak so Im boring (did I get anything wrong?) - Have fun. The update problems will be sorted fast. Good game+ Good dev team. Help them and make comments, we've got 1 million people working on this now, so we can make this into something AMAZING. xx PILGRIM

To get a live character back: All the Gameserver.com servers I tried ( a lot) gave me back a character from 2 days ago - NOT the character I had this morning - also most of the Vilayer servers did the same, in Europe and USA, CA, DAL, East Coast. The Indonesia server did the same. Even the dao-zai-quiang server gave me the same character (and I've sure not been there for a LONG time) But a number of other server providers spawned me on DIFFERENT beaches each time with strange messages - "you are thirsty" "you feel warm blood on your clothes", and the HUD says you are "Healing" ???? I think its how organised the server groups are, NOT where you played before (maybe Im wrong, but it worked for me). My 2 regular servers wiped me. So go round a few of the servers listed above, Gameserver.com 99-100%; Vilayer 75-80% will give you a character from an earlier time. Look for any servers that are nearly full now, they will work for you I guess, that's why everyone is gathered there. Go where the crowds are. Its night all round the world, if you noticed.. If you get a respawn, just zap it down and try another server, don't accept it. Go for the full servers. Make sure you have a character before you shut down the game at the end of your session. Maybe tomorrow dawn you'll be stuck with what you end with now? _ Go for it. I'll see you in the trees (before you see me) xx PILGRIM

<<. The ability to hide a handcuff key on your person. Shoving it up your bum was just a way to get you to read the post.. >> OK thanks for shoving the key up my bum, it was nice, but I read the post anyway. Handcuffing is not an alternative to KOS - The only use of handcuffs is so the bandit can chase you around and hit you with a spade and try out the bayonet stab, for a laugh and to see how long you take to die. ... "Dont turn around or I'll shoot" or "Sit down on the floor, and if you stand up I'll shoot" works OK sometimes - its cool, its useful and it often avoids KOS, it gives nervous strangers a chance to talk. Might work both ways, if you try it on me too. But "Dont move while I handcuff you".. ? .. Nah... I don't go for it. Nah, I'd rather just give the bandit the finger and die. No doubt about that. (I'll deal with him the next time round). If you're going to steal a players gear, why handcufff? - why even waste a slot to carry handcuffs? Someone who carries handcuffs with them is strange from the start. - THEY ought to be shot. If you're a bandit, you just steal the victim's gear and leave him back on the beach where he started. Steal before or after you kill, depends how twisted or desperate you are (I guess that's two different things, right?). It's bandit mentality. You can't have 3 categories - you can be Bandit or Hero but it's difficult to be Robin Hood the nice gentleman robber. People would tell you to go away. However, (to save yourself some physical stress or internal injury hiding your key) if you really want to hide a key somewhere - why not just duct-tape it to your armpit or your leg or your short hairs (who cares where - go ahead, I won't look). That's Crafting: maybe you could even extend the idea to other gear? instead of a key, how about antibiotics, or your rare pistol mag you searched for all week, or your pristine sniper scope? With duct-tape this would be like a hidden pocket that could not be looted, for one item only. If it we reach the stage that players one day will be crafting all kinds of survival items and backpacks or clothing, and making various repairs, then, a hidden stash of one small object is not such a different idea. Its a pocket only the owner can access (as you suggested, a prison purse). AND at least you'd have the satisfaction of knowing the bandit didn't get your bible or your GPS or your lucky can opener, after he'd handcuffed you up and beat you to death with his fishing pole, or his spare wooden leg, or bled you with his ruined kitchen knife or just run you flat with his truck. Because that's what he's most likely going to do. But for your other idea - as for setting fire to player's gear - you'd need fuel... and then it would be easier to set fire to the whole player, wouldn't it? Then it would not be a nice game any more. KOS is one thing, it's fun AND its fun avoiding it (I like the stress of watching my own back) , but Torture is kind of boring, I think. I said somewhere else in the forum, a lot of players who have been in this game longer than a year, are MORE worried about loosing their gear than loosing their life. So if a player was barred from recovering his own body, but it lay around for long enough so anyone else could find it, THEN maybe handcuffs could start to work, but I don't think the experienced players would worry for long, they'd find another work-around. Ban players from looting their own bodies, but leave the bodies on server for other players. Then see how it fits together, players will be afraid of dying again, like we used to be at the start, instead of afraid of loosing your special gear, and having to run up the beach in shorts to get it back. This would solve a lot of problems, AND it would be less perverted (and a lot less less difficult to script) than burning the victim's stuff or the victim.. but with the same effect. Stress and fear is a main root of the game, it's not CoD for everybody who plays (not all the time, but players who go that way are cool too). Hit the enemy where it hurts, at the moment that's his backpack not his life. So let's vote - am I 100% wrong, or only 98% wrong? And you just read a whole 10 paragraphs of text.. xx PILGRIM

Reclaiming your own body to get your gear back is NOT very good for the game. In the mod it made things too easy for experienced players. It confuses the beginners, and it's unfair to them. It's classic meta-gaming. For this reason 10 mins is OK. It's too bad for you (dead) buddy but it's a tough game. BUT - finding someone's body by chance is always a good part of the game. It's interesting and useful and adds a lot to the atmosphere - was the body shot, enemies still around? Did he die of something else? Does he have useful gear (even 1 bandage..?). Finding a body is great. Would it be too difficult to put a 10 minute bar on reclaiming your OWN body/gear, but leaving the body quite a while for anyone else to find? - or maybe you yourself just CANT get your own gear back at all from your own body - for you it's forbidden, you blew it, but it stays there for anyone else, for quite a while? Im saying, when you're dead you CANT get your own stuff back, but anyone else can have it, friend foe or stranger. Does that make good sense for the gameplay?

YES further down this thread people don't get jackwhitter's point on "standard practice" - if you're under fire and you change mags, your empty mag goes on the ground, you drop it (you don't know where it goes, man, you dont care), you DONT take time to put it in your pack. Later when the shooting stops you may have a chance to pick it up (if you're alive, and if you're in the same location). If you're running and you change mags you leave the empty mag behind, right? Unless you want to stop for it?... hmmm?... So now in DAYZ SA we reload mags, but we still change them out by magic, the empty mag jumps back into your gear like it knows the way. Do you place it in there with your 'spare hand' while you're firing, or while running with your gun up? Be real. Aim: don't waste ammo, dont waste magazines, pick up your empty mags off the ground if you can. Or just don't get into fights.

The lake at 047 020 has no water in it. It's a big lake - it's obviously a lake. Also there is no other water in the NW. This lake, you can see it on the map. You can run around in the bottom, it's quite deep. But you forgot to put water in it. Maybe you didn't get round to it yet - most of the North wilderness (as it was in the mod) is now covered in main roads all across open country, that turn around for no reason, and go nowhere, and also strange big areas of tarmac with nothing on them. There are no streams, no pools, no pumps, and the two deep lakes are empty. It's a pity there is now a lot less wilderness than there was in the mod - all along the top of the map and down the West side it has been cut off (is that right?) to leave the NWAF in the middle of the map? A lot of people liked these wilderness areas and used them. Maybe later you are going to do something with all the dead-end major roads and big parking areas in the North? But for the moment at LEAST put some water in the lakes, and maybe some dead water or bits of stream in some low ground somewhere, like on the rest of the map. There is no water of any kind in ALL the North West, unless you find a can of drink in a barn. This is not good for the survivalists. Need HUNTING, need fire, cooking (these will turn up) and we need some open space to move in, live in, that is not all town and city. But first some water in the lakes please? xx pilgrim

STEAM knows when I have my headset plugged in. I open the game (and STEAM) with the main speakers jacked in the board. If I unplug and put in my headset speakers and microphone (stil on jacks, same inputs) then I loose all sound. I have to close STEAM (not DAYZ) and start STEAM again with the headset and mike plugged in. Then I have sound. I dont know why that works - it works. My mo'board shouldnt be able to detect the difference, for sure, but it does. I blame Windows 7.