pilgrim*

the way I do it - which is just "the way I do it" and not expert advice .. on your SSD you want only: the core OS, the game itself, and NO swap file (Microsoft call it the "virtual memory" file) 1 ) - the OS (not including all the "program files ""my files", "users", etc and all the rest of the extras that MS wants to put in there. Move all those out to your HD (except the game data) - on the SSD just keep the core Windows OS that runs everything. Note : you DO need that OS on the SSD, not on the old hard disk. 2 ) - and you want the the game itself on the SSD, including the personal files for the game and battleye. Don't put anything else on the SSD. 3 ) - Make sure you have your "virtual memory" (the swap file) on some other disk ( = zero "virtual memory" file on the SSD - turn off the virtual memory option for the SSD Me, I put one single virtual memory file for all disks on it's own little primary HD by itself. But that's just me..depending on your setup, you may run better if you have 2 swap files on 2 disks, so windows can "choose" (lol?) - still make each of them bigger than the min recommended total. Set the minimum size of the virtual memory file to the same size as the maximum size, so it won't constantly fragment: Make it bigger than Windows recommends; you have the space, make it 50 or 100% bigger than windows suggests. Do NOT have 1 on every disk. Apart from that - a sad truth is that different priced SSDs have different performance. To simplify - if its cheap it will not run as fast. Check your BIOS is up to date. Check your bios settings for the SSD disk if it plugs directly into your motherboard. You maybe have it connected to a card, this will affect speed also. But mainly, the 1 - 2 - 3 suggested at the top. Look at all the web pages named eg "are SSDs really worth it?" and "how should I set up my SSD" "things to know about SSDs" "SSD test" "how to get the best out of my SSD" "what you should know about SSDs before you buy", all that stuff ... etc.. there are MANY pages about this. Some of them are complicated.. an SSD is not something you can just pug in and use to replace your HD, and everything will go incredibly wonderfully faster. Also SSD memory cells wear out one by one when used over time, so bit-by-bit your SSD gets smaller.. You need to find out what to do/not do to get better performance when you add an SSD. in fact there is quite a lot to do, if that's what lights you up. Moving non-essential Windows OS stuff off your SSD takes time (personally I wouldn't use it for day-to-day in/out data at all, or for any programs except the game) - just the important core of the Microsoft OS, and the game. that's what I bought it for. I guess other forum users will have good, or better, advice for you. My little fast SSD (small and fast because that's what I could afford that worked best) gives a big advantage. but you need to be disciplined and only have files on there that need to run fast, so it takes some constant vigilance to keep the other stuff out. Everyone.. from MS Office, Internet Explorer (etc) and Adobe and Corel and Totally everyone else.. (and You, yourself).. will pile everything in on top of the OS given half a chance = complete waste of an SSD. Have your main "Program Files" folder on another disk and make sure all new stuff installs there. ..etc.. xx pilgrim ps - the "windows Experience index" is a dead-easy first check to see if you have an obvious hardware bottleneck somewhere

100% paintball on survival island for very rich people - make a Reality TV show BUT Hey, there is a cheaper way. If you join the army - pretty much any modern army - you get a chance to be dropped in the middle of total nowhere, ruins, jungle (random spawn, right?) AND while you're starving and lost some instructor dude steals your boots while you're asleep, strings out tripwires and flashbangs, and fires a couple of short bursts into your campfire to check you're paying attention. AND you get paid for it ! Back at base you get exercise, you get to dig holes and fill them in, crawl through mud and barbed-wire really fast, and clean stuff totally spotless really a lot. AND those folk can spend their fully paid spare time playing online games, too! *** edit: no shit, this is kind of the same way I learned to ski REAL GOOD - I got a 7-day-week/12-hour-day job in a ski station, and each 24h slept 3-4 hours and skied 6-7 hours, every day of the season. I can ski down a black scull-and-crossbones off-piste exhausted with my eyes shut in a blizzard (dont make NO difference if you got your eyes open anyway). Cant really remember much about the job. [edit: you have to have no brain to do this, it's not for everybody]

Dont need left-handed weapons, we need left handed tunes. If you came late to the thread, please check out the very short vid, it's up the thread https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/212464-so-everyone-is-right-handed/page-2#entry2302711 Same weapon, just hold it in a different hand. But - hey ONE thing that would improve the game as it is right now, is better melee .. so think about this: Everyone complains melee is too simple - that's true, standard melee is like this: If you are swinging a spade (or whatever) at the other guy, and he is swinging back at you - both right handed, you move to your right to get away from his swing and to swing again - you want him in front and right of you. He wants the same, he does the same. So you both go round in circles anti-clockwise, meaning circling to your left - both of you going round the circle the same way. Sure - you can run in and out and zigzag etc, but the bottom line is: In melee you are circling each other, both in the same direction, you hit and you move right to avoid his hit, and to hit him again on his 'blindside' . So you're both going round in that circle. If there was one lefty in this fight, he would be swinging left handed and moving the opposite way round the circle.He wants to go clockwise - So a left guy and a right guy, can't just circle each other, They can both gig around all over etc... but the basic standard melee method does not work any more. So if you run in as usual ready to hit the dude, you get a strike to your head from a direction that is imossible ATM. You didn't expect THAT (heh) . Meaning - you have to check the other guy out first. And then figure how to deal with him, which way does he swing ?.. this is more dangerous If you could choose (at spawn) to be Left or right - Straight off that puts melee one whole grade better than it is now. In DayZ this LH-RH melee would make any situation more interesting, - in doorways, in corridors, on stairs, around corners, unexpected face-to-face... because suddenly how the other guy will hit you is NOT obvious any more - and you don't know even IF he can hit you, you just cant tell right off.. Thats all folks. **** EDIT: for historical fans: If you're interested in History, because melee has been a big historic thing for a LONG time, right? - Did you ever notice spiral staricases in castles? either real or in videos, whatever? Looking down from the top - they always circle LEFT as they go down.. Why? Because a right handed defender has his right arm free to strike down at enemies coming up that spiral, but a right hander coming up has his right hand stuck against the center support of the stair, so he can't swing his sword much at all. That's exactly what those spiral staircases are for, they always turn LEFT loooking down. EXCEPT ONE castle - famous place where the family owners were Left Handers, father to son .. Their spiral stairs turn RIGHT looking down, so the defender family-dude can strike down freely and not have his sword-hand trapped. I won't tell ya which castle (heh), it's historic and documented, you can check it out if you're into melee weapons or middle-ages fighting. And natch, if you're a Left-hander fighting melee-weapons UP a normal castle spiral stair against a defender, you have a big advantage over a right hand attacker, because YOU CAN swing ya sword. Dudes - this diffence in fighting stance and strike-direction is REAL and always makes a big diffence. So many times in history a really good right hander has walked into a left hander unexpectedly, and he has gone DOWN. pps - I'd tell yo how the Roman Legion front rank, pulled a sword-strike stunt to win battles, but it's long to explain. Each man just ignored the enemy in front of him, but he watched the enemy attacking his next buddy to the right, then stabbed him in the armpit when he lifted his sword arm. got it? Same principle - the hit comes from the wrong side and the dude goes down. Neat. xx

YES - thought more about your idea overnight Jexter - a radio that you held up to your face (like a compass) and then you could see and write text chat "on the radio itself (like an LCD display 5 or 6 lines high) - that could be a damn good neat idea. It WOULD add a new thing to gameplay - and you would never use it unless you were somewhere pretty safe = more gameplay goodness - and maybe then you wouldn't have to block players, etc.. everyone could talk as long as they didn't flood (that's standard) - so anyone watching their radio could overhear - so you'd see 'crosschannel talk' you could overhear info breaking in, and risk giving info away - like real radio comms in an action situation. Ya know I LIKE this idea. My only worry was how long that would take to program into the game ? But maybe not so long ? It's still the player typing chat as it was, just much better placed and better integrated in the game - you must use the object, like any other game gear, instead of having stuff scrolling in the corner all the time and typing when you like - and you'd have to be careful how you used it, even when you had one. Like map reading in the Mod, or reading a book - ya cant do it in the street, it's dangerous, you get shot or eaten. So - Hey, Good Idea

^ ^ yo - scriptfactory, amigo Framework = zombies + chat It's true the Mod was a kind of one-off stroke of genius. I think that's what happens in very good Mods, but only very rarely. 1 ) the Zombies provided the "framework" scriptfactory talks about IMO.. you could die a thousand ways but there were ALWAYS zombies there if you showed the slightest weakness or made one bad move. <zombies and survival> were a single gameplay element, not 2 different things - I mean, you didn't have to <live in the trees and survive> - you had to <live around zombies and survive>. From fresh-spawn, you could play The Mod by yourself, always-always just trying to beat the zombies for 1 more can of beans Many times I crawled along the edge of a fence in some village, flies buzzing on a corpse in the street, watching the fat farmer zombie crossing the road, checking another one wandering down towards me (walking speed), hoping there ain't another one behind the house, sweating to time it right, maybe almost time to crawl into the door between them? - looking for food and gear and ready to run if one spots you, because there are at least 7 around here, and more will come if they hear you. Getting close to a helicrash could be a MAJOR event .. unless you were armed to the teeth you had to stealth through those Zombie Pilots - still feels strange now finding a helicrash and .. no damn zombies around ?? that's .... not right... fels like a trap.. not normal.. The zombies were always there, they were fun and crazy, and THEN also there were ALSO the other players TOO. That ALL could get hairy fast - constantly, any moment. Not complaining, but if you fought another player in a house, you knew there were zombies closing in on the sounds. from a flat roof you could see them wandering in your direction from half a mile away. So at last the designers had to put in a NEW RULE to have NOT MORE than a certain number turn up in the player's area at one time. You could still get swamped and go down fighting, specially if you were cornered. (never get cornered by zombs, even if you got plenty ammo, you learn to deal with them OK, but then you got no ammo left.. shoot shoot and RUN) I had a broken leg I was lying behind a shed and killed 30+ zombies with an axe (lying down) till they stopped coming - then there were so many bodies piled on me I couldn't move till they despawned. And I will REMEMBER that fight a LONG time.. for years. Not complaining (still not complaining) but with that kind of stuff going on AND other players doing everything they still do now, the stress level was held constant through the game. Going in a barracks you always had to look out for zombies as much as players, maybe more - zombies were always around - and they MOVED, any little village had several walking up and down the street from one end to the other, or changing and going off around the buildings, turning round changing their minds, passing each other.. hey - You should know - If you were lying in a bush and you spoke on your mike they HEARD you, dude.. 2 or 3 close-by zombies stopped walking when they heard One Word and they came running. 2 ) isn't that the "framework" scriptfactory ? And - Teams were always fighting in Cherno and Electro right in the middle of all that. With in-game text-chat those fights were always EASY to arrange. with strangers. Now they're not no text-chat = BIG, MAJOR, GAME-CHANGING difference from Mod. Some kind of text-only chat (turn it on or off and block players) plus zombies as plenty and "good" as they used to be, and this game would explode in F-MAJOR Yo! - not complaining xx [edit: sorry I write this long-long stuff, I'm still off work since 5 months with a smashed up collarbone.. really scuse me, and I always think slow anyway .. drone drone]

You mean old like 'Quasimodo' or 'Donkey-Kong' ? Or do you mean not as old as those those ... but before the high-pro Pokemon came out on the Gameboy Pocket (black and white), right ? Or do you more have 'Magic Carpet' or the original 'Descent' in mind ? or are we talking 'Little Big Adventure', or 'King's Quest 5' here ? please name one new and professional game (the opposite of old and amateurish) to compare, so I can get the wavelength Yo cmon Dude gimme the Name of the Cool Game xx [edit:] Magic Carpet is a video game released by Bullfrog in 1994. Its graphics and gameplay were consideredinnovative and technically impressive at the time Descent is a 3D person shooter from Parallax Software released by Interplay in Europe in 1994. The game features six degrees of freedom gameplay !!! Pokemon is a game about .. duh...Pokemons (ask grandma). I still have B/W GameBoy with just that ONE game Pokemon Yellow still plugged in it, hanging right behind the door, no shit. I have the original 8-bit Pokemon battle theme as the call sound on my phone right now... (na na nan ya boo shucks to ya, heh). A tune of pure genius, wow.

OK - if you hold the radio up to look at it - that makes getting it inserted into the game more complicated for the programmers .. the corner text chat is already "in place" its just turned off (far as I understand) but I hear what you're saying Jexter

To do it right: Boneboys with Steak and Potatoes and orlok should stand on the balcony of the Government Building on the main square at Svetjolarsk and give a State Of the Game Address to the DayZ nation. :) xx

I don't mind players using TS if they want - even though it's completely totally unrealistic, and also there's no way to stop them. So let them play that if they want to, not my problem. Jexter, is right about "irritating" Global text chat is only any good IF - you can turn it off - you can block any players you don't want to hear, then they can't hear you either. then for me it's cool. To make global text more "realistic" I suggested using the radio as the only way to get access to text chat... then - a lot less players will be able to use chat, - having a radio will be a real advantage, - loosing your radio will be a pisser, - and the "casual fun" people and the TS players just wont bother with it anyway .. So finding and owning a radio is like - it puts you up a grade in the experience and survival game stakes .. it's a "long term" thing for players, and its inside the "realistic" gameplay possibilities of DayZ - way more than TS (lol way-way-way more). Lots of non-TS players think TS is a rock-solid cheat, just a hack. Plenty of solo players hate those TS dudes, who (- totally in private, outside the game, just between them - ) know exactly where everyone is, set meet-up points, call up their friends even across servers, or call them in when there friends aren't even playing, or even from different damned games, to come and help nail you, or because they found a bunch of tents, or a good loot drop - all that kind of stuff. But let TS players do what they like, that's their game. One other point - if we want to be realistic and not be hassled by "knowing about other players" in-game - Then how come you can call up a LIST on your screen of the players logged on the server ? So you see exactly who they are and how many there are: When people complain "empty server" they usually mean "the list only had 3 players on it" - To be realistic you should have no idea how many players are on your server. Some servers don't even broadcast the number of players before you log in, but once you're in you know by looking. 100% unrealistic, right ? but - YEah Global text chat is only any good IF - you can turn it off - you can block any players you don't want to see their text, so they can't see yours either. xx

Just an example: I heard this today A relative of my girlfriend had an operation for throat cancer - doing OK but may never get his voice back - perhaps later, perhaps never. For next few months he forbidden even to try. He's recovering, he's playing online games mainly so for him, no teamspeak no headset no voice chat I know there must be MANY players for many reasons do not like to voice-talk online - or just can not - maybe don't want you to hear the age of their voice, or their 'unusual' voice, or hear their "strange accent", or they have a speech problem, or they stammer, or they don't want you to know they are male or female.. you can think of plenty of reasons. even some players are just mike-shy they get tongue tied, and plenty have real solid reasons. I think this is fair to remember about chat - So if there is going to be chat in DayZ this is another good reason it should be text only. xx Myself - I'm not keen on voice-talking direct online, and I'm a person who has no problem talking in the street at all.. I just don't like it, but typing is fine. I'm mainly solo - One reason I dont do TS3 (apart from gameplay) is because I don't want voices in my ears when I'm concentrating - not ever - if I have to join a TS channel to play a server, I leave. I want global text chat I can turn on or off. (so use the damn radio for global text-chat, that's a real in-game advantage) So are we deciding a guy at home who has to stay quiet at night can't join in DayZ ? A dude in hospital cant join in ? A girl or a guy with a "funny" voice cant join in ? Someone with a strong "foreign" or "racial" accent who doesn't want to be hassled or insulted for an outsider cant join in DayZ? So are we saying some good kid who wears a brace can't join in DayZ? That get's to be a lot of people we're pushing out of the game.. I guess I'm not the only one who likes text better, or have problems or "disabilities" with voice, we must be thousands.

If you have two pristine (or two damaged, whatever) canteens full of different stuff, the game might swap them around. Be warned. e.g. If you carry two LOADED sawed off shotguns in your backpack, (I have done this) and you take one out and fire it - then take out the other one (you can even look in your backpack and switch them without using the fast bar) - the 2nd sawnoff is now in your hand but it's unloaded, the "loaded one" is still in your backpack - AND if you try to load the one in your hand, the game says you can't, because "it's already loaded" (game can't tell the difference between the two gun locations, right?) The only way you can take out one gun and shoot, then take out the next and shoot, is to put the gun in your hand on the ground, before you take out the second one Then you can load or shoot normally..But you have to load the second gun and put it on the ground before you pick up the first gun and reload it - if you have it in your backpack, the load switches around. Also - If you have 2 icons on your bottom row - for the same type of object - the game uses them as one single icon. Same if you have 2 icons for two full canteens..The game decides which one comes into your hand, not you. That all sounds kind of crazy but you have to try it out.. it' just pointless carrying 2 sawed-offs, for SURE Now what's the difference between 2 guns with different stuff in them, and two bottles with different stuff in them ? Also - does gear NEVER move around in your backpack any more now, when you log back in ? So can you always tell where you put that BAD bottle ?? .. hmm No, ya CANT. Best thing would be - when you examine or use the container, instead of the game saying < canteen contains 55cl > it could easily say < canteen contains 55cl (water) > or < canteen contains 55cl (gas) > Because the game DOES know exactly what fluid is in each of those canteens, it's listed in the server exactly like how many rounds you have in a mag. But the game doesn't know that the left hand icon on the bar is water and the right hand icon is gas.. it just knows it's a canteen.. so it thinks you put the SAME one piece of equipment on the bar two or three times..it gives you ONE of them, but NOT the one you selected. - It decides for you. It would be nice if that was sorted out. xx hmm .. or even < canteen contains 55 cl (smells strange) >

game solutions If you have a container that is either full of gas or full of water - how can you tell what is in it ? If you have two jerrycans, one full of water and one full of diesel, and you want to fill the truck tank. What do you do ? xx

But BioHaze - your multi-button mouse held under the left hand, I can NOT deal with - it's when I move the damn thing, and definitely when I'm excited, I press the buttons just with the movement, can't avoid it. You must be a highly evolved cool killer type. For me it's a standard mouse under the left hand. To make sure I know what's going to happen when war breaks out. xx

The USA and the Brit army are both keen to have everyone shoot Right Handed - but if you check the mil and firearm blogs there's discussion about this, Left Hand soldiers say they maybe have to shoot RH on the firing range (depends on the Sergeant - e.g; if they are high scorers he lets them do how they like, and just "doesn't notice" ) Some automatic weapons used by the USA mil, if they need it can be fitted with a deflector so you don't get hot casings in your face firing Left Handed. Reading those mil blogs, it seems that even if "official" is Right Hand - that sometimes even "official" turns a blind eye, and anyway, when you NEEd to you shoot the best way you can - NOBODY is going to complain did you see my post higher up with the link to the dude (masked) who explains in detail why AK 47 is even better for left-handers than right-handers? WORTH WATCHING - He goes through a whole series of points, like changing the mag when you are lying flat as possible - a real in-action hand advantage. One thing I'm not sure on, is which automatic weapon US military will fit a deflector to? I have read this can be done for a current infantry weapon USA Army "if requested" - but why, if they are keen that squaddies shoot right-handed ? Mainly it's not necessary IMO, [ed:] but if an automatic weapon design requires RH shooting, because the ejection is unavoidably BAD NEWS for Left Handers, then .. hmm - why not include that in DayZ too? So most guns can be fired either way, but one common assault rifle MUST only be fired RH (no option)? .. Or (if you have an option like the other weapons) you fire it left handed and loose accuracy, or take some health damagez ? * But my dad, from his 2nd War Africa days, told me he refused a Sten Gun (they had only 2 in his Signals unit and the officer wanted the other) because the Sten bolt spring is in an open slot on the side. So if you grip it wrong when your'e excited it will take your thumb off. It's not what you want in a sudden firefight. On the mil discussion threads (there are plenty) a number of folk DO complain about getting a face full of hot casings from a standard USA automatic weapon - so it happens, AND the guys complaining are obviously shooting left handed at the time.. I searched "left handed shooting" "automatic weapon left handed" etc... mainly the interesting stuff on this turns up in blogs, more than youtube (maybe serving and ex soldiers do less tube than civilian gun-fans?)

I noticed that Chivalry Medieval Warfare system apreviously.; I found someone boasting about it a while back and the demos looked pretty cool - much more interesting than I had expected. (ps - about the mouse - I'm Really Left Handed, not an Ambi ( I'm 100% in the closet ). Mouse on Left Hand. Using a multi-button right-hand mouse in either hand drives me nuts, I press buttons by mistake every time, Even using MS Word, I try to highlight a word and I loose the page, loose the text, switch focus, close the window.. crazy things happen, teh gdamm mouse does everything I don't expect it to. I can't even send e-mails.. So I use a standard 2 button + center wheel mouse always. And always under my left hand, and reprogram it to do special stuff if I want something particular for a game... In DayZ for instance you can put "look left"-"look right" on the roller, which can be cool.. etc .. but for me the number pad is the best solution unless I'm playing a game that really wants a multifunction Left Handed Joystick heh (then I'm happy. In space I'm always happy) The only prob with combat moves in DayZ is that the server takes priority. So: - The server is told that a guy wants to hit you with a hammer.. - the server "performs" the hit from his actual location and your actual location ON the server - and at the same time it sends a message to your server telling your PC to start the "hit him with hammer" animation. but the server does not wait for your PC to receive the instruction, or even for it to start the animation, the server just calculates the damage, records it, and then tells your PC about it. In the meantime your screen is getting round to showing you a guy doing a "strike" movement. So - for more complex melee - you must already tell the server you are doing a "parry" before you see any animation on screen of the other guy even starting to hit you. When he starts a swing, the server has already decided the hit and allocated the damage. This is why (folk complain) that zombies hit you after you have hit them, or when they are 'already dead'. Its just the server getting round to informing you that the zombie struck you a moment before ... if messages arriving at your end overlap, so your PC starts one animation, and then gets an instruction to start another, it will continue with the first and just dump the second animation for lack of time... Someone correct me if I'm wrong. So this makes for difficult melee - because it's what you see on screen that YOU count as melee.. but (extreme case) it's really the server showing you what already happened. So e.g. seeing a blow arrive and THEN blocking it quickly, is not possible with the current system. But having (slightly) pre-set decisions about which side to strike a blow, left-to-right or vertical, etc and THEN pressing the "shoot" key, could work - amazingly well - maybe. Your reference to Chivalry MW reminded me of that combat system, I'd forgotten it (never played) it looks convincingly good on screen... perhaps a "pre-decided" melee action could perk up DayZ close combat a lot.. Even in the worst case you only need to pre-select a strike position less than a half-second before you strike the blow, or set yourself to parry just before you expect the other guy to hit you, then change your preset (lets call it "stance") and continue.. In these forums you'd get plenty of the "a dead zombie hit me" complaints multiplied.. but mainly the action would look real-time... as realtime as it looks now in DayZ, And give a lot more opportunity to use moves - stances - to outwit and wrong-foot the opponent. I like it - but many would argue like F about the timing being wrong, unfair, off, backwards.. whatever. But on the other hand, they already do. So I say go for it. xx

so you want to ban teamspeak, or do you only kill solo players ? If we had text radio - you turn your radio off you don't see any text and nobody sees yours. We use no voice radio, just text. Don't carry a radio, you won't ever see any text. So if you turn your radio on, you have a realistic advantage, you can see the text of other people using the radio - because those pocket radios can pick up text conversations from friend and enemy. If the dude you killed is on TS - and there's a good chance he is because 3 of 4 players are on a TS3 channel - he will tell his mates exactly how to move in and where to trap you, and you have NO WAY of knowing he's done that. He can even call them in from other servers, damn! So in DayZ immersion, in the DayZ story, TS is like a hard scrambled undetectable universal military radio link.... now where do you find those things lying around in Chernarus ? OK let those people on TS do their (unrealistic) military tech thing, I don't care. But let us quiet folk - who sometimes want to communicate with someone else in the game, using game equipment - let us do it just in text, when we have a radio to send and see the text with. It's a bit more realistic than TS isn't it ? If you have a radio and you're dead, you cant even talk. And you know TS players won't bother with radios anyway... they're not that interested in immersion, right ? xx

100% agree with all you say. Deserve +2 beans For the keyboard - I have the mouse under my left hand, easy to use, so I put all the important functions on the Number Pad, starting with movement direction, head movement, inventory toggle, lay down, run (I put a 1-key combo so "run forward" also does "stand up and run" and " stand from crouch and run", which is useful, , All that important action stuff is on the Number Pad - where the keys are set square, easy to use, Me and you (left hander) can have your thumb on the "0" bar, your forefinger on "4", third finger on "6" and all the other keys and combos fall naturally exactly where you can get a finger on them in a tenth of a second.. Just the boring ("slow") stuff I leave on the normal keyboard. The number pad was more or less invented for accountants, to do long accurate strings of simple input FAST, so you can guess how good it is for a left-handed player to get his good hand on that Great device... (heh) This works SO well (for me at least) that a right-hand friend who was having key trouble (searching the key, then pressing the wrong stuff when he was excited) - I tried to convince him to get a separate add-on numeric pad so he could use it on the left side of the keyboard, with his mouse on the right. But he didn't see the advantage. He is just not fluent at re-binding (stuck in the WASD-land). My way makes life very easy... First thing a lefty always does with a new game is work out the keys, then RE-BIND them in the arrangement you like... when you have 100% done this with every game you ever played, you have the advantage of habit too. You've always done that - so you can get it set up really nice, no problem. The ARMA + DAYZ series is pretty good for this. Never try to play with the defaults, you just hurt your opinion of yourself, get emotional, loose it, die.. For starters, most right handers are only playing with around 60-70% of the available keys, and they have to move their left hand around way too much, sometimes even take their right hand off the mouse (I've SEEN people do that, honest). It's a sad thing. Their end of the keyboard was designed for 2-hands-on typists (heh), great for text-only. ** Combat : IMO If we had Left AND Right handed combat in DayZ..- exactly the basic melee it is now, but you could pre-set your characters handedness as well as his looks,- I swear, after a week everyone would switch to "left" because against right hander's it gives you such an advantage. Suddenly, 90% of melee punch-axe-screwdriver-hockystick players would be left handers. Then the most cunning players would have to work on new combat technique, to deal with a population that has its crowbar in a different hand each time... hmmm xx

Cool, really No Problem I was helping you with what you said in your first post and your name for the thread I gave a FIRST-STEP, OBVIOUS, REALLY EASY way to CHECK if the compass is working or not. Read about direction-finding in other threads (if you want to) - but no one's forcing yo' to read any of it. If you are SURE the compass is not working, put in a BUG report. xx

..er ..NO..... did I say -< if you're trying to figure how a compass works, but you don't now how the sun works, you're starting at the wrong chapter > - yes I DID say that ... OK no problem KandyCid - I'm NOT dissing you - plenty of folk don't know this stuff, but once you DO know, then it makes living a whole lot easier, specially if you want to find your direction .. OK - we all know you can't see the sun at night (thanx wasnu). In real life and in DayZ it's the same, because the sun works the SAME in real life and in DayZ. At night in DayZ you CAN see the Pole Star Navigating by the North Star (the Pole Star) is maybe a bit "advanced technique" for beginners, but it works in DayZ just like it's works on Real Earth ever since anyone ever started navigating (it always worked since a million years before that but no one noticed). So we ALL know about the "no sun at night" problem , and we ALL know about the "sun hidden by clouds and rain" problem. ALL I'm saying is the game takes place in the Northern Hemisphere (the North half of the whole planet Earth); All of Eastern Europe is in the Northern Hemisphere and so is Chernarus. - Right - That's the only thing you need to know to survive and move in the direction you want. In the Northern Hemisphere the sun rises in the East and sets in the West BUT it does not go right directly over your head through the day, it goes round to the South. Between Dawn and Dusk the sun is always somewhere on the Southern side of that line between East and West. So in mid morning it's somewhere towards SE, in mid afternoon its somewhere towards SW, and at noon its just exactly South of ya. But all the time its on the southern side, its NEVER on the Northern side of that East to West line. This is how the Planet Earth works, dude, it's worth knowing. So if you have a compass you can tell if it's good or not just by checking with the sun (at any time of the DAY) And hey - if you know the in-gameTIME (like e.g. if you had a wristwatch in DayZ for instance, or you just know it or or you guess the in-game time close enough) - you can call direction fairly accurately from the sun WITHOUT a compass at all. OK - If its raining or so totally cloudy that even the trees don't cast a little itty-bit of shadow, then you DO what everyone has REALLY done for the last few hundred years.. you go look for a road, or a house or a village or a coast or a lake. then you try to figure what road it is... it's easier than it was in the old times because we have roadsigns .. See what you remember of the map in your head (you could even look at the map before you play, get an idea of places and connecting roads and hills around where you're going to be - like folk do in the army, yas?). if you have an in game map, try to locate on it your road or whatever map feature you found, and move to the next map object to check. If you're totally lost then do what you need to do to survive till the sun comes back (how long will that take ? has it rained a LOT recently in DayZ ? ) Don't let yourself die or have a crisis just because there are no shadows around ATM. OK - here's the quiz: 1 ) Am I making this up just to jazz you ? = (N0) 2 ) Where is the Pole Star, how do I find it, and what the frag IS it ? 3 ) Why is Chernarus in the Northern Hemisphere ? 4 ) What do Earth Hemispheres have to do with the SUN ? 5 ) Why am I such a pain in the ass ? if you know the answers, go to https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/202732-ban-the-person-above-you/page-49#entry2300095 xx

HOW TO CHECK Go out in the sun. Turn until your compass says you are facing East Now - Is your shadow somewhere on your left side or is it somewhere on your right side? So then you know 100% if your compass is working or not OK? xx - hey, if you're trying to figure how a compass works, but you don't now how the sun works, you're starting at the wrong chapter ========== [edit:] OK OK - now lissen up - if you are facing exactly EAST, then your shadow will always be somewhere on your LEFT side ALL DAY If the compass says you are facing East and your shadow is on the wrong side, then you can - throw it away - or always follow the WRONG END of the needle to get where you want If you look at a map and South is at the top of the map, then West is on the Right hand side - try it with a real map but hey, if you are holding the map the wrong way up, that don't make no difference to your compass (just like in the real army and the real boy-scouts) Check this stuff out with a real map and a real compass - have some fun in ya life, get it straight in your head. Then if you're sure something is wrong in the game, put in a BUG report xx

I think you ought to take the scope off first before you spray paint a gun - that's what granpappy always told me

????????? so back in the real world - I guess you aint left handed then want more ? check ..AK 47 for Southpaws [edited] xx

Say - Who is that tall olive-skinned strangely masked red-headed muscular woman in a ball-gown coming down the road riding a hobby-horse ?

The last 5 contribs to the discussion all come down to "netcode" - and you are all agreeing on that one thing, in different ways. [netcode is the gamer term, not a technical programming term] which is why I suggested in the last line of my entry above = " Need to look at pc<->server bandwidth (different approaches), or more powerful servers, or some kind of hybrid solution (radical!). " I emphasise "different approaches" and "hybrid/radical" - because when all the game decisions are run on the server there is an upper limit to what you can do; It is an absolute limit set by the lag - synch - server power triad. Any game engine that does not deal with this bandwidth problem in some really NEW way, will have the same maximum performance as any other. Everybody who makes on-line games has been "improving" or usually "tweaking" their netcode for years. Has some NEW technique turned up since 1990 ? In SA you can not have any game decisions AT ALL made on the PC, they must be made on the server, that was the key change from DayZ Mod. So right there you have set the upper limit to how well the game can run. Use a faster more powerful server and you could have more stuff running, but just as badly as ATM. Generate some game decisions on the PC (eg, create and interact zombies on the PC), taking that priority away from the server, and you could have fifty zombies in one village, no problem. But then hackers could play their game at home with no zombies at all. So the difficulty is to find a different - new - way to deal with <lag - synch - server power> What you call "netcode " is about the bandwidth between the Server and the PC. This includes the tickrate, the lag, the synch, and the complexity of the world. It's been chewed over, the same old way, for years - since the first good new ideas made it possible. If you want more server power how about a cloud, dealing with one game ? Distributed decision-making that can't be subverted from any one PC? If you want faster response how about finding SOME decisions that can be initiated on the pc, and then passed to the server, of types that can not give hackers any advantage ? As the netcode situation stands (with ANY online game that runs 100% server-side), if you made the player's on-screen action really smooth, really fast, really complex - then you'd just get MORE rubberbanding, more freezes, more dead men shooting back.. etc etc.. The game experience would NOT improve. People have found radical solutions and done things by new methods, in the past, - the idea of synch at the server was a breakthrough (years ago) - and it was a hybrid solution IMO, which is why no "specialist" thought of it earlier? So you can't have "better" netcode (by the meaning of "netcode" as it stands) you can only have "optimized" netcode and that's already been done - Or you can have different 'netcode' (radically different ? different approach? different relation between the PC and the server ? ) a new bandwidth concept - and this is the only way to gain the higher bandwidth that is absolutely required for this game to get past the current <speed/complexity> limit. BI are perfectly capable of making a major breakthrough that will revolutionize on-line gaming for years. I can feel it. They have the Force with them, they have genius among them, and they can work bloody hard when they need to. [edited] xx

Well with no formal education in those things - you still say it better and clearer than the guy I was quoting. People often buy games and then decide its not a good game, so it stays on their shelf with the other games but they don't play it. I know plenty of folk with 20 or more games, if you ask them about one "Game X" they just say " nah, I dont play, it's crap " - but they don't get mad and write about it to the game forum for months. They bought it, they don't like it much, they don't play it, end of story. Or maybe they buy it and play for a couple of weeks and then drop it and move on, but that's normal and it stays on their shelf covered in dust but they don't write to sound off every week for a year or two. They'd be happy if they bought a 'finished game', decided it was crap, and threw it away. No problem - because a lot of games ARE crap. So my guess is - people think they are buying the development process as well as buying the game. Like - "if you pay the money you become an official Alpha Tester". Lots of normal gamers would like to test games (it's romantic and cool, right?) but to get in to a real standard limited alpha test you have to go through some hoops and be fairly serious. Here it seems as if you can be an Alpha Tester just by buying this cheap game - they think that on the box it says < Your tester status is included as a free bonus in the package ! > - even if that's not the way it works. So IMO - the discontent is about the player's status as a TESTER - when they say "I don't like this, it should be different" they expect the development team to jump. THAT'S where they think their money's gone. * ps - I hear what you're saying about the Mod. I think that was my expectation too = 'DayZ Mod without hackers' . So, moving all the software decisions from the home PC to the server stopped those hacks - but brought up the other new problem we know about (all about lag and synch and server processing capacity, right?). If the game today with all the additions was 'put back' to run from your PC instead of from the server, it would run just as good as the Mod (better in fact), and we could have all the old style zombies, BUT, we'd get the great swarm of game-destroying mega-hacks back again.For me the only real problem with DayZ SA is the bottleneck between the server and the player's screen. It's the ONE serious problem. How can you exchange the info from server->PC->server to deal with 50 zombies in one location in real time? If you can do that you can do everything else. Is there any other way this can be done, that a dedicated BI core team is working on ATM? I liked those old crazy zombies with crap tracking, that chased you around in zigzags, and might turn up 10 or 20 at a time. Remember shooting off a weapon in an apartment building and all the zombies in the area started coming in the ground floor and up the stairs ? eight or ten of them on the stairs and 10 more on the way - wow.. Need to look at pc<->server bandwidth (different approaches), or more powerful servers, or some kind of hybrid solution (radical!). xx