yessaul robinovich

It has been acknowledged that the melee system requires some kind of a comprehensive rework that could be best expressed through a struggle/grapple mechanic rather than getting into computation-heavy accuracy and blocking/parry stuff. It goes without saying that running around like headless chicken awkwardly repeating the same swing animation for your axe is not the best reflection of melee combat or how it could go down.. but some kind of a mechanic allowing you to run up to someone and get a knife around their throat/stab them in the back/tackle them with a melee weapon up close... this is something that would both provide more depth to using melee weapons as well as give some advantage to employing them in situations against those equipped with firearms. Basic reaction minigames on gun vs melee weapon in hand to hand struggle with different modifiers given to diff. melee weapons..etc Also things like riot shield that, when equipped in hands, prevent a melee-equipped character from grappling with someone protected this way. Also prevent possibility of being back-stabbed when stowed on the back.

fyi, not bows and spears but all sorts of improvised firearms as well. for example, flare gun. shoots flare rounds. useful for deploying flares at night. to light an area. metal scraps (basic resource) + rubber tubing (basic resource) = 'craft flaregun insert' option add 'flaregun insert' to flare gun as attachment = modified flare gun fires shotgun shells, occupies 4 spaces. even less accurate than sawed-off. takes some wear/damage with every shotgun shell shot. Nail Gun - used in construction, fires caseless nail ammo, large mag capacity. Can be used in construction for boarding-up structures or vehicles.Can be carried in Toolbelt/Box Nail ammo can be used as weapon. Super short-range and inaccurate. Use metal scraps (basic resource) on nail gun to modify it into Improvised Pistol, chambered to .22 (same as sks) Still quite inaccurate and short-range, but there you have a basic firearm with decent mag capacity that can use existing ammo Takes a small bit of damage with every shot fired on account of not being able to safely handle ammo type. Might post this in suggestion forum as well.

this is not exactly true. at 50m, the fnx has a good bit of dispersion when aimed. the magnum somewhat less so (or at least before speedloader was introduced) Though both have fast enough refire to spray, its unlikely that more than a shot or two will hit a fast-moving target. The shotgun's advantage is in being able to fire with similar accuracy (lower in fact, but you're firing buckshot) on the move. Firing either magnum or fnx from the hip will almost certainly miss, just about always. If there are situations where you need to frequently take cover and move around while being able to return some kind of fire at close range (assuming you're not pinned down by an M4 user..), sawed-off shotgun is a pretty valid option. One thing to get used to is the aim, and also the 10 slots it takes up may render it less of a viable choice to many people. Personally, i hope some kind of a chest/hip holster for a sawed-off is eventually doable. PS: if anyone would like to meet up with me for some in-game testing, i'd happily oblige.

the sawed-off variant of the shotgun has an application different from a pistol in a 50m/close quarters setting that nothing else in the game seems to. It allows you to have a weapon that you can fire from the hip while moving without losing accuracy, which is to say that some of the pellets will definitely hit the target and bleed them. Further, pellets hitting the head will severely injure and potentially kill the target immediately, without need for precise head-aiming. This is not meant to be used as a primary weapon, but pretty accurate for guarding a doorway or a staircase, and also for reliably hitting a fleeing person to make them bleed and slow them down. I do think that the damage model/muzzle velocity needs to be revised, which goes for all weapons currently in the game as they are placeholders. But just wanted to respond to the original argument. You can move quite fast with the sawed-off while firing and reloading without losing speed and having the most close-quarters accuracy with any weapon in the game (broad pellet spread with 00, not tested slugs..) has anyone done testing with slugs yet? cheers -Y

It first came to me when i saw the chest holster - something ostensibly for keeping your sidearm stowed in a way that frees up inventory space at the expense (or with added benefit) of making your side-arm clearly visible. except it became readily apparent that any other type of vest item clearly supersedes this one with at least the 4 slots necessary to invisibly-stow the weapon therein, or with some other added benefit like conferred anti-stab protection if the slots are missing..And this didn't make too much sense, to have an item like that implemented as a purely-cosmetic, useless sort of thing... so the idea begins there. As we have it, things are straight up in favour of higher capacity, followed by camouflage with the more savvy players. The only exceptions with backpacks are ones that draw a big fat target on yourself. But whether you are holding something in your pocket, a dedicated holster or inside of an item of clothing or a protective case stuffed inside your backpack, it really doesn't matter. hitting a hotkey instantaneously brings up whatever item in question. The basic outline of what i'm proposing goes a little something like this. The time it takes to equip something is directly related to how that item is stowed in your inventory. The fastest way to draw a weapon is having it in a purpose holster or equipped from the shoulder. priority is given to purpose holsters - a pistol or sawed-off drawn from a chest or hip holster goes into your hands with a sped-up animation from the current, faster than currently possible.shouldered melee and primary weapons are equipped and re-stowed at normal speed. side-arms being equipped from clothing also equip and stow at regular speed.weapons of all sorts or all equipable items being drawn from the backpack involve a brief delay with a rummaging sound.items being drawn from sub-containers like protective cases, etc. have an additional delay/continued rummaging sound. The basics of this open up great possibilities down the line of having additional spec. containers that either offer more capacity or faster item retrieval. Multiple varieties of trauma kits/medical bags that vary in either how much they can stow or how quickly the items within can be accessed. The sort of thing provides an advantage to someone who manages their inventory and trades in the additional raw storage space for situational/tactical application - perhaps more holsters/visible weapons, allowing to carry more things without cluttering the pack. Additionally, a drawback to keeping weapons inside the pack for concealment purpose (longer retrieval..) This would tie in very well with item weight/stamina system .

lets think beyond the game about what gives people value.. i think this is an actually-interesting question the game manages to raise.. amongst some others. there are actually some obvious advantages to keeping people around, though there is always a perfectly natural distrust/fear of them. the truth of it, regardless of what people may say on here, lonewolfing is at a clear disadvantage to having a group, if only because the surprise head-shot from behind may come to someone else before it does to yourself.firing at every player you see may bring with it the rather undesired prospect of attracting the attention of a group. the only viable way of implementing skills involves complex game mechanics to do for other things what aim is to shooting. abstracted ways of applying real-life knowledge of things like medicine or botany or other things into the game combined with a staina system that makes a survivor attempting to pack all of the possible kit they may need solo. larger amount of items and fewer chance of a specific one spawning can very well foster trade.. etc it has been already said that he currently-low zombie counts are a matter of technical stability as opposed to a design decision. another thing that would make the game very different is attempting to play on a single server without jumping, as will soon be the case with private hive support. you'd be amazed how differently the game plays once you no longer have availability of limitless ammo, weapon spawns and gear in general.

i won't even say 'welcome to dayz'.. so much as 'welcome to life on earth' i guess this game is doing something right in that we're having this conversation.

there are no bandits, heros or bambis. only people. how you approach morality should not require a gamified incentive or penalty. the thing that perplexed me early on was some person here raging in indignation that without a cool skin and body armour he has no incentive to 'be a hero' - as if the definition of altruism is a badge you get to show off. or worse, to have a competitive advantage that you need to earn. how calvinist of you, sir! point being, if you mean well and aim to do kind by others, you will do so without necessarily seeking some kind of reward - much less stomping your foot in a hissy, entitled shit-fit DEMANDING one. what kind of a hero are you supposed to be? Game aside, the sort of people like you are whats wrong with the world.

thing is, though, everyone is a pvp'er under the right circumstances. (when their life is perceived to be in danger). no-one is a pvp'er under the wrong circumstances (when they're outmanned, unarmed..).. one can make all kinds of judgements in the moment to try and protect oneself - assuming anyone wearing camo is trying to kill them, assuming that anyone wearing a mask is hostile, assuming anyone using a mosin LR scope is a bambi-killing sniper dreaming of freshly spawned corpses..and so on..and so on.. none of these are effective ways of figuring out who a bandit is. but, you know, none of these were effective under the mod, where people routinely exploited the laughable morality system. and thats the thing about it.. if there are systems, they will be gamed. the only way to identify things you need is the way you currently reason. it won't be foolproof - you may kill someone who was not looking to kill you. alternately you may spare someone who will shoot you in the back. these are educational experiences that are as much a part of the idea of what dayz is as the titular zombies. attempting to design accounting for morality is folly for the same reason as gearing up on an empty server to go pvp when you're set - you're cheating yourself out of the experience of what this game is actually about, of what separates it from others. largely of what the imitators have been unable to replicate..

the hype wave led a lot of people here who do not find enjoyment in the same qualities you seek. fortunately, dean has remained very much true to his vision of the game, and it is safe to assume that it is a good deal closer to yours than the people you describe in your post. thankfully the game is not a subscription-model mmo. those people bought into the alpha despite caveats and, should they leave dissatisfied, neither dean nor the company will be negatively affected. in the end, the resources acquired through the early release will be used in part to scale up the concept to something we'll enjoy contributing to the development of and playing for years to come, long after those who don't get the ideas of the game move on to something else or modify their own versions to reflect their vision as they did with the mod. my only real concern is that the flood of willful ignorant-types contributes to such signal-to-noise ratio, that this forum and most other dayz-related communication channels are no longer a viable way for dean to receive feedback from the community or interact with it directly. the very idea of a 'community' has for the most part ceased here, subsumed by..well, what you find in any other popular or controversial game at any point in its development: frothing internet shitlords threatening to throw their toys out of the pram if their infantile demands are not met posthaste. don't worry though. dean knew this would happen to some extent, at one point writing that he wished the hype would die down somewhat. hopefully the stress of dealing with 'the internet' won't drive him off the project and it will reach the full extent of what we'd like for it to be.

correct. it also offers great accuracy when fired from the hip at short range with pellets, even while moving. the damage per pellet is not much, but some may very well hit the head and death/unconsciousness will be instant the downside being that the target is rendered pretty much worthless to loot unless you aim high. currently using an LR scoped mosin for primary with a sawed-off as secondary/close quarters. again, the main advantage of the sawed off is that you will probably hit something if you fire in the general direction, from the hip, at 50m. not many other things capable of similar effect currently.

heilige tod!

One of the ideas really well-depicted in the photographs is, yes, a riot shield. Aside from the possibility of being worn 'in hands' to deflect melee and resist some small arms fire, it would be great to have the 'stowed' position of the shield take up the same place as either a shouldered weapon or backpack and offer continuous protection to the back of the wearer at the expense of carrying capacity and visibility or 'primary shouldered weapon' .. this kind of thing would tie very well into a stamina system that takes weight of your gear into account. here is some more civilian clothes and military gear mix from the eastern block and it would be pretty good to have a telogreyka/watnik (black or green) because its one of the items of military gear thats proliferated into civilian wear..as well as a VDV jump cap.

this game offers a fundamentally different experience in playing online, probably most comparable to Ultima Online at the time of its alpha/beta in 96/97. the first time i got goaded into playing the mod sometime in mid-2012 i got flashbacks of experiences/stories from back then. these games going mainstream/large investment perceived as requirement/player's experience being treated more as 'customer's experience' and demanded to always be positive, scripted, sanitsed, 100% consensual have kind of changed the promise that gaming online held back then from virtual worlds to ..eh, virtual disneylands. dayz brings some of that early feeling back, though i'm not sure if dean will be allowed to fully commit to it in the wake of the money coming in. some could assume that the money validates the approach. others would probably want to hold on to it and approach designer with more conservative leanings. anyway, i don't think 'viral' is the best word to use, being a bit of marketing buzz speak that really entails the spread of something despite itself. dayz deserves the attention it has received because the responses it evokes in those who play it are immediate and visceral. and if some steps are taken to commit to this core experience, it can be made to grow exponentially.

they showed the big alpha sign before you bought the game, as you bought the game and every god damned time you log into the game you stupid fucking nimrod. die in a fire. <snip>

solution is simple. make bohemia host hive characters linked to server IDs, for purposes of security and maintaining integrity of the game, the characters are still securely stored by bohemia. meanwhile, each individual server offers a unique experience. there would probably be fewer of them, and they would likely be packed with players who are choosing their server at any point in time for the benefits of latency or where their friends play, rather than where has restarted most recently or is furthest remote geographically to facilitate unimpeded gearing in an off-time. i don't know. i'm not one to tell people they are cheating themselves out of an experience that this game is all about, but something tells me just playing deathmatch on a really big map..p-prrrobably isn't the total extent of what dean had in mind. 'main hive' concept has officially failed. its benefits are marginal relative to the inability to create and balance even the most basic economy and an experience of ..well, ah, survival?

and this, my friends, is why open server migration is holding the game back.

once we have player housing, such as the ability to fortify buildings and have doors which can be reasonably locked, then yes, we can have sleeping people in game. until then, probably not.

y'all don't know me! y'all don't know me! what is this, ricky lake? point being, it doesn't matter whether you 'server hop' or not - if its an open server with migration, the other people may or, perhaps most likely, absolutely will. and this means that your survival on a server where resources are limited is at inherent disadvantage from people who will phase into existence to grab whatever loot in all the right places (after traveling there on some low-pop server during, say, some ungodly hour in the uk or germany or whatever) leaving you with nothing. as in, no food. or weapons. or ammo. or fanny. so how you're playing personally doesn't matter whatsoever in favour of a central hive architecture. because as long as players are able to freely migrate between servers, they will adhere to a model that gives them the most safety while 'gearing up' (by the way, this is the meat and potatoes of the game.. they're cheating themselves out of..basically what sets dayz apart from anything else) and then join a 40pop server full of clown-mask & TTSKO long-range scoping guys sitting REALLY STILL in buildings for hours hoping something crosses their path so they can go 'NINININININI FAGGET! GGCLOSE!' now, hey, you're right. i don't know you. i don't know if that is the kind of game you want to play. but if you're arguing for the 'all server migration you want, all the time' approach we have now, you're arguing in favour of all of that. what you appear to be incapable of understanding is that this game is trying really hard to be an actual MMO. and this means shit that might be real difficult to get through to ya, like economy. yanno? the amount of stuff you stuff into the game world relative to the amount of people likely to be inhabiting a server. how do you balance availability of resources vs the number of survivors over a period of time. stuff that is important for all sorts of things like creating more complex and varied loot tables, generally increasing the depth of the game and actually taking it where its striving to go. (hint: not deathmatch on a really big map after you've spent hours restarting your own 'DONT JOIN ERRRYBODY GETS KICKED' server)... getting past the hurtles this game has on its way to actually being an mmo is insurmountable via open migration. no one has said that 'private hives' need to store their character information on the servers themselves. if your concern is administrators and their abuse of power, or diluting the essence of what dayz is about via modifications to the basic premise of the game, i agree with you - they can very well be stored with bohemia proper. maybe there are even some migration options they can eventually offer. but that needs to be an exception to the rule, not the default way to play done every single time you log in. that can't be reconciled with the ideas dean is trying to tackle. and i'm sure he recognises that well enough. its about time you try to.

what killed the mod was hacking, not private hives private hives or even bohemia-hosted database of characters linked to individual server are the only way to really balance dayz economy. otherwise you will forever be unable to have/hold/secure bases/houses/some sense of 'property' in the world, forever be able to gear up on low-pop servers and then jump onto high population to play deathmatch, etc. if you think that private hives 'killed the mod', you are full-on retarded.

there is a way to permanently handcuff a player. while i'm not sure that having no way to break a pair of handcuffs is the sort of experience dean intended, breaking a pair of high tensile steel cuffs after less than a minute of struggle seems less than ideal. a friend and i forced another player into a berezino highrise at gunpoint. once cuffed, he mentioned having several armed friends in the area. we released him, telling him that his cuffs should break after some walking - we truly had no idea how permanent the cuffed state was. He slowly walked out onto the street in berezino and proceeded to walk away cuffed and helpless on a high-population server. his pleas for help grew quiet as he moved further away and we watched him through our long range scopes to see if anyone would come to assist or bother. Eventually some people did show up, presumably his friends. They did not know what hit them, but we spared the still-cuffed lonely figure in the motorcycle helmet as he trudged into the treeline and disappeared from view. If you're reading this, let me know how the rest of that adventure went. dayz is often described as a survival horror game. can't imagine a more horrifying way to survive than being perma-cuffed to a slow jog with all of your gear, on a server with almost 40 people while unable to log out under penalty of death.

classic example of a person who does not get what dayz is about. which is refraining from attempts to design morality or behaviour. when you create rigid systems to frame interaction, you diminish capacity for emergent gameplay.

sad thing is people don't really care about threads like this. they'd rather post 10 pages on 'WHY FRIENDLIES ARE A BUNCH OF LAMERS!!' etc hurr fucking durr.