galekast

There should be random chances of a gun spawning with a mag/attachment or just chambered or empty.. There should always be a slim possibility that the gun you find is fully modded and loaded but a lot more likely to have nothing extra on it and maybe have a half empty mag, a chambered round or just be completely empty..

Personally I would love to see Napf or Taviana ported across, especially with 100 person servers as those maps are a tad on the big side... Outside of currently existing maps, I would also love a London based map, although I am not sure what would happen to the frames when you hit Tottenham Court Road or some other such place!

No, you are correct it will not teach them how to interact and how to deal with players. It will allow them to learn the rest of the mechanics though.. To be honest, a lot of new players would benefit from this as a way to learn the crafting systems, how to survive and forage, cooking etc.. Then when they have learnt a little more and understand the systems, they can move to the MP servers and learn how to deal with players.. Being able to learn the basics solo and then learning more in MP is surely a good thing for most people.. Yeah most players who play already won't bother with it but for new players, this will be a valuable tool in developing their skills.

Kind of like the idea.. It will be a good starting place for new players to learn the mechanics in a safer environment.. They can learn about the crafting, foraging, looting and the such like, how to sneak past or deal with zombies (when there are more and they are more of a threat) and things like that.. Having bought Standalone on day one without ever playing the mod, the game was quite a lot to take in initially and I would have welcomed an opportunity to spend a few hours running around the map in relative safety, learning about the gameplay and various areas.. This can only be a good thing in my opinion and I welcome it. People can get a good idea of the various systems in the game, then when they feel ready they can start playing on the proper servers.. Think of it as one massively open training level.. Edit: And yes, I know the main danger tends to be other players, which of course you won't be able to experience in single player, however, learning how to spot and deal with other players will be a lot easier to start to do when you aren't still trying to figure out the rest of the mechanics of the game...

And I always assumed any "soft skills" wouldn't exactly be trainable as such.. They would just be a natural progression. For example, the longer your character is alive and healthy, his fitness should improve which would give you a bit more stamina and sprint time (if and when they limit the sprinting).. Or if you are constantly carrying a full back pack, initially it should slow you down a lot (again, if weights affecting your speed/stamina is implemented) but you would slowly toughen up and be able to stay a bit closer to your normal speed. Those sorts of things should be what they are looking at, not farming/axe handling etc.. Nothing should be able to be trained, it should all just be natural progression as your character survives longer and thrives..

Its not particularly restrictive, it would just give the 2 or more people working together a bit of a time advantage.. 1 guy picking apples alone, could take ages, 2-3-4 people shaking loose apples together could result in 5-6 tumbling to the ground.. Same as the dynamic events, the barricade one specifically.. A lone walk could theoretically bust in there, use some tools and prise open a barricade or a vehicle to pull a heavy item out of the way.. But two people working together could shift the item more easily and swiftly.. I personally think little things like this are a great idea. I really love the idea of stumbling over random barricaded buildings or little server generated survivor hordes stashed in house or hidden under bushes etc. Not very many at all, but a few on each restart randomly around the map as an acknowledgement of those who were surviving before you arrived.. And anything that facilitates a bit of team work every now and then is a positive if you ask me..

If you are still looking for people, check out the channel "Things We Play" on YouTube.. The dude on there who plays DayZ is just brilliant, his videos are generally very entertaining.. Not the most serious player in the world but he has a very chilled out, fun vibe to his stuff and makes me laugh a lot if nothing else.. Plus he can be a complete bastard at times too which is pretty damn funny! https://www.youtube.com/user/ThingsWePlay 45 video DayZ Standalone playlist on there :) Enjoy!

Regardless of what is easier, you shouldn't hop to get geared up.. That is not what the game is about quite simply.. If you do that, you take away so much from the DayZ experience that you might as well just go play Battlefield or COD or something along those lines. The idea of DayZ is for it to be a struggle, for you to have to survive and slowly build up your gear and items until you are at a point of sustainability and survival.. It should not all be given to you and to play the system to find more loot quickly is weak beyond belief.. I am of the opinion, if people want to go do deathmatch PVP then they should have to find the weapons and ammo to do so on that server, not hop about until they are fully geared then try their luck on a higher pop server.. Its pathetic, cheap and completely against everything the game should actually be.. Unfortunately, lazy, immature people for whom the survival aspect is "too hard" will do it until it is abolished.. Hopefully sooner rather than later.. For now, I am sticking to the private hives until they figure this out as I know a) all the loot is (probably) fairly acquired and b) I won't have to worry about a train of hoppers spawning in behind me everytime I go loot a military area!

I have an idea but I do not know if it is viable or achievable.. But if it worked it could stop the server hopping we currently see or at least diminish it to those with amazing amounts of time on their hands to do nothing but wait... Basically, if every item has its own id (I believe I read this was something that might happen to stop duplication? Though I could be wrong) then basically what I would propose is this. You run into a barracks, grab a shiny AK 101 and some mags etc.. Your typical server hopper then runs off a little way and logs out nearby to go do the same thing again.. What if, items had a timer as such.. So if you pick up an item, for 30 minutes that item is ticking down as such.. It is still usable, it is still lootable by others if you are killed. Everything about the item/weapon/clothing functions as normal. However, if you log off a server and onto another before that 30 minutes is up, you lose that item. It is deleted on joining the new server along with any others in your inventory that haven't been a part of it for 30 minutes.. (or however long really, could be any number).. Now this timer would be tied to a central clock that would track when you picked it up etc.. So the timer would still run even when you log out. Meaning, if someone grabbed some gear and wanted to log out for the evening, they could without fear of losing it as long as it was 30 minutes until they logged back in again on a different server... Obviously if you log back in on the same server then you the timer would be fine and you would still keep the item regardless of how long it had been (eg/ for server restart etc).. This would mean, anyone hopping would have a 30 minute "down period" between grabbing any items and changing server, meaning only those who want to literally wait 30 minutes between logins would ever be able to server hop if they want to keep anything they find each time... I know this wouldn't eradicate it as it would only punish those who actually pick up items and not those who quickly jump between barracks and leave when there's nothing they want.. However, it would stop people grabbing a gun and jumping straight to a high pop to pvp with their ill begotten gains. I don't know if its feasible, I don't know if it would work, but it could certainly help a little bit.. Or just KO for a set period anyone the game notices has jumped between servers more than 3 times in a set period of time, though this would be a risk most would take as I assume most of these hoppers will be jumping to low pop servers where they are unlikely to be found... Actually, better plan.. If someone jumps a set amount of times in a certain period of time, KO them for 10 minutes and automatically dump them into the highest pop public server that has player slots available :)

Soooo bored of this now.. It is a survival game.. Just because you can't have a backpack full of food, ammo and enough camo clothing to hide a small army, does not mean the game sucks.. You are supposed to have to work for it.. So go work for it, go hunting for that precious gear you need so badly and actually get a bit of a sense of achievement in your gameplay for a change.. As I said, it is a survival game, you need to forage, work for food and drink and survival items.. If all you want to do is go have gun fights in Elektro then go play Overpoch (not knocking it, its fun, just it's not what DayZ is meant to be!)... DayZ is meant to be a struggle, a challenge and above all else, is meant to give you a sense of achievement just for surviving for a decent amount of time, not how many kills you can rack up in a session.. If all you want to do is shoot people, there are sooooo many games out there or other variations of DayZ mod for you... If you want a survival game that is going to get tough and rewarding then hang about here and enjoy where the game goes! I know I will be! Loving the difficulty and I am loving the struggle to survive, makes such a nice change from spawning in and being fully geared in 5 mins... Guess all you "leetBanditClans" will have to work a bit harder now or just farm your "public" servers a bit more...

And dubstep, don't forget the dubstep...

Meh, while it is in alpha, let people bash each others heads in while dressed in bright pink dresses! Keeps them away from me, unless I am bored and running around in my favorite bright pink raincoat.. That is the colour of friendship I will have you know, never been attacked by someone in bright pink! If you are wearing bright clothing and not on the coast, then you have nothing to hide and we can best friends :) In all seriousness, just let people do what they want. I don't subscribe to running around the big cities pvping or any pvp in my case in general, but if people want to do that for a bit of fun and a laugh then let them do so.. It will change eventually I am sure.. And personally, I think the dresses are fantastic, personal favourite being the blue one, soo camo :)

If I can find the supplies to do it, I am going to do just that now...

The main problem you have at the moment isn't necessarily the difficulty, its the loot system. Survival should be the aim of this game without a doubt, but as others have said, with the loot the way it is, and the way hunger and thirst work it is very difficult to survive that first 15 minutes at the moment. I have no problem looting, avoiding zombies and trying to stay alive, that part of the game is my favourite aspect being as I pretty much avoid PVP if I can. The problem is the initial hunger impacting on survival probability. It is rare/improbable you will find any loot besides chemlights where you spawn. If you move further in land the initial houses and villages will have been picked clean also. So to have a chance of surviving you need to make it extremely far in land or up to some of the northern villages just to find some food. Because it will be impossible to cook or grow food until you get further in land as there will be no tools, cooking untensils or axes to make campfires and if you find some matches at the moment, guard them with your life! As others have said, yes the mod was unforgiving, but you could survive, you could find a tin of beans or a soda and keep yourself going. You didn't need weapons to survive initially other than from other players as you could stealth everywhere, grab a little food and head off across the map. The problem here is, the mechanics in place for survival (hunting, cooking, growing) are impossible to achieve early on (which is as it should be, it should take time to get everything you need for that) but that is not balanced out with being able to get an initial amount of items to get you going. I am not advocating axes and M4s for everyone on the coast, but even getting the materials to build a rudimentary bow to hunt with before you starve to death is nigh on impossible. And even if you do make one and do get some animal meat, you wont be able to cook it because you won't find a cooking pot or tripod until you head in land, which will require sustenance to make the run in land, and then we just circle back around again to the main issue. Yes survival should be the focal point of this game, without a doubt. Anything that takes the emphasis of the dumb deathmatch crap people love to do over and over again is a positive. What needs to be fixed is that initial period of starting out. You need a chance and with the loot as it is, there will be people who just starve to death over and over again and then wonder why they are bothering to play this game. Even just removing the initial hungry rating would be beneficial, it would give you a slightly bigger grace period and give you the opportunity to move away from the looted spawn areas and find a bit of starter gear to get yourself going. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of updates. As I have stated elsewhere, I love the update, it just needs a little tweaking and improvement to get it working how it should be in my opinion.. Oh and maybe not having zombies glitch hit me, but thats another discussion :)

I actually really like that idea. I know it probably wouldn't be accepted by the majority but it is a good idea to stop the ghosting and such like. Besides, logging off in a town is a terrible idea, best to go find a tree or something to hide in! But I definitely think the idea of spawning you outside of the military zones is a good one, yes its not perfect and yes it may only be 1km to run but its that 1km the server hopper will have to run and potentially be seen. And as the hoppers wont exactly be proficient in dealing with players seeing as they are clearly doing the easy option, hopefully they will get murdered and lose their precious gear!

I like the idea personally, especially after reading the dev thing where they said weapons will spawn with different attachments or magazines etc. That sounds like a fantastic idea and finding a partially modded AKM would be great. I think the weapon parts should still spawn though, mainly in the military areas but give them a small percentage chance to spawn in the deer stands, hunting huts, military vehicle wrecks and a very low potential chance everywhere else (like a 1% chance in a house for example to replicate the chance of a survivor having dropped it there)... Although I will miss the PSO scope as I have not seen one in weeks! But I think you are right, certain weapons should spawn with sights attached, like the SVD.. And the potential of finding an MK12 equivalent with a tricked out M4 would be fantastic, truly love that gun in Arma 2! Although I am yet to hold an M4 since the first month of the Standalone release!

Not true at all, my friend who I play DayZ and DayZ Mod with only ever has issues in first person. He has everything that could potentially cause motion sickness switched off but there is something about the movement that causes him issues in this game. And its only DayZ that does it, he can play other FPS quite happily.. *And on topic, that looks way too close to a Resident Evil 4 style view point, the first game of the series that I truly hated and didn't finish, mainly because of the view point and the fact that the aiming always felt off to me when viewed from that angle. Probably just me, but would there not be a way to have the 3rd person view we have now that would draw in close and limit the movement when close to a wall or something like that? Eg, something akin to Metal Gear Solid when you take cover and the view closes in on your character.. If you are pressed up against the wall the camera snaps behind you lower down to limit what you can see? Plus wasn't there already a script on the mod that put you in FPS if you went prone to prevent this sort of thing? I am sure I played on a server like that?

Ah thank you very much :) I will get round to reading them when I get a little bit of time. The loot distribution for the military areas how you described it sounds a lot better than the current system. I can imagine it wont exactly stop the hoppers but it may at least deter them a bit. I still think removing them from the area would be a good last resort idea if they cant find a better way. But if this helps it then so be it. But thank you for explaining it and I will have a proper look at those reports later on :)

Yeah actually, that is smart.. In fact, other than introducing a longer and longer timer, it is the only intelligent way to prevent server hopping in high loot areas that I have seen. Cleared out a barracks, checked the area is clear, go looting, killed by a guy spawning behind you... That is bullshit and you know it. So why not stop them being able to do that? If they had to make that run from 1km out from the barracks then they may well start playing properly rather than gearing up on low pop then running to their favourite PVP zone.. Oh and there is no need to be quite so rude or arrogant in your responses, if I was incorrect then fine, but don't start your post like you did when I was just throwing out an idea. What would you do to prevent the server hopper issue good sir? And finally, do you happen to have a rough idea when the dev report with the details about the loot would have been posted? I would like to read it in full. Edit: For some reason I typed "incorrect" as "in correct".. Changed it.

No, the answer to stop server hoppers would be to stop them logging off in high value loot areas.. For example, NWAF, any of the military bases etc.. If you try to log off there it shouldn't give you the option to abort.. If you CTRL+ALT+DELETE or whatever out of the game then it should teleport you 1km away in a random direction. Basically, if the game detects that you are logging in inside a military spawn area then it should move you 1km minimum away from that area.. Then all those server hoppers will at least have to run back in and risk getting spotted, and they won't do that because they don't want to be seen or get shot.. Obviously there will be the odd person who gets d/c and gets moved on reconnect but I would rather the odd person got punished unfairly than allow people to just server hop like they currently do to gear up... As for the random loot, totally agree, it should be randomized in all the houses and warehouses and stuff like that, but the military spawns should remain as they are, that is what they are there for.. It would make no sense to enter a barracks and find a load of childs briefcases or pink raincoats or whatever..

But you can not move items from private to public servers, so surely that makes any private server null and void with regards to the central loot economy?

As far as I understand it, and I may be wrong, any server on the public hive would be subject to the central loot economy.. Those on private hives would not as the loot obtained there could not be moved over to public servers and vice versa.. That sounds like it should be correct anyway..

Off of the main page "DAYZ is a gritty, AUTHENTIC, open-world, survival horror hybrid mmo game".. Strikes me that if the Devs want authentic then that would tie in with realism.. No you can not have 100% realism, there has to be game mechanics of course, but removing things that would realistically be in such an environment takes away from the experience for everyone! Hell I haven't held an M4 since the first months of the game when they were everywhere, but that doesn't mean I want them removed..

Someone said about the army just leaving guns behind.. No you are correct, those surviving soldiers would have grabbed as much gear as humanly possible and got out of there.. But what about all the not so lucky soldiers, those who killed by the infected and left behind or became infected themselves.. I can't see the army rushing around grabbing their bodies or gear when a horde of infected are rushing up.. So yes, a lot of stuff would have been left behind, its the simple fact that not everything would have been cleaned out in time.. The majority of the military areas on the map show signs of a struggle and destroyed vehicles, so whose to say those soldiers there didn't just hop on the first heli out of there and only grabbed what they could! Why would there not be full auto guns in those areas or at the subsequent heli crashes? In my opinion, for there NOT to be military grade weaponry in what was basically a warzone would be far less immersion breaking and unrealistic. If you don't particularly like full auto guns then don't use them and avoid them, I'm not a massive fan either and I tend to stick with the SKS or my trusty bow... But that is no reason to want to have them taken out of the game entirely. In fact, I would be shockingly disappointed if that was the case as the realism argument gets pushed out again and again for most things, but then some people want everyone fighting on the same level.. And to whoever said about the real world situation, no I have never been in that situation, but real armies and groups have been when they have had to get out of an area quickly, and you can be damn certain that while they would have grabbed what they could, a decent amount of stuff would end up being left behind in a rushed evacuation.

If you were banned for killing the owners, isn't that server abuse and shouldn't you officially report the server for such a thing?