rickyriot

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Taking a nod to your signature... If you want a survival challenge, try driving across the map on a laggy server.

I am UK based, and play Spaggies servers. I am sure that they have dropped their capacity though, as I was certain it was 75 before. I wasn't having too much problem getting on when it was higher, but it's a Sunday evening and I guess it'll be swamped just now. If you can't get in, Spaggie has several other servers too, which are (looking at DZSA now) have slots free for Takistan, Namalsk and Dear Isle. The time, again shown on DZSA, is midday on the Chernarus servers, wait until it gets dark and I'm sure a few slots will open up.

Ha! You had me at the first line! The points you raise are also very fair, imo anyway. I have to say the servers I play on tend to be vanilla (or very lightly modded) community servers. So the abundance of loot and/or food is perhaps not as plentiful as other servers, but you are right to the extent that food isn't the issue it could (should?) be, as one cow not only gets you enough meat for days, but bones for fish hooks which will feed you for another couple of days. Thanks for the comments regarding the RP stuff, too, I'm really torn. I see some YT stuff and think, yup let's do that, then I read the "sign up" forms for the servers and it's like amateur dramatics night and I have to create a backstory and I'll be honest it turns me off.

I think it's only fair I answer these myself, and I'll put them here in a reply in order to separate my opinions from the questions themselves. 1) I have, and sort of. I liked the idea of it, but I am not sure if it did what was intended. 2) In general, yes, although I also think expanding survival/PvE elements that may offset the amount of PvP'ing. 3) It's really tough, like the example I gave, each exchange is open to many interpretations and I don't think anything other than hundreds of hours of player statistics and a lot of machine learning would bring us close to a properly working system.

This is sort of linked to my other thread and the actions of KoS'ers. From the outset, I do not wish to criticise people who KoS, it's part of the game. Over time though, several 'bandit systems' have been developed in order to mitigate blatant KoS'ing. For those who haven't encountered one of these (and I have to say I've not noticed many recently), it generally revolves around who shot whom, with the "offender" being punished in some way, usually with some sort of bounty on their heads. Perhaps access to certain traders is limited to those of "good standing". You get the idea. It is fraught with problems though, this example being an easy one: Someone raises their gun towards you, you fire and kill them. I think most people would accept that kill was fair, yet in these sorts of systems you are punished because the system simply can't know the context of that interchange. With all that said, the question(s) I have are... 1) Have you ever played a server with such a system, and if so did you like it? 2) Do you think such things, in general, would benefit the game? 3) How do you think such a thing could be specifically implemented in order to be "successful", or is it just too nebulous a problem to really get to grips with?

I honestly don't know when the last time I played official servers. I know that doesn't answer the question about the regions those servers sit in, so apologies for that but the reason I tend to got on community servers is they will often have discords with admins who are active. I find the official servers have people acting "odd". I'm not saying hacking, as I have no proof, but if you are an experienced player you tend to spot people acting "odd".

I think I've played Deer Isle in Arma, certainly something close to it. It's not a bad map, and.. obvs.. much better than I can do, but all the servers I go on are either empty or loaded with mods which nullifies any survival aspect. I think the thing is, and this is not in any way dismissing anything that has suggested, whether there is a niche of Dz that would suit my current play-style. Changing maps is one option but it's not really going to resolve my issue, simply kick the can down the road. Edit: just to add, there is no guarantee there is an answer, it might just be that I've drifted away from what the majority of others who play the game prefer.

This is the double edged sword of Chernarus... On one hand you want a very stable and solid map, Chernarus offers us that. On the other you want it to be dynamic. I guess the gas zones provide some of that, although I'd be keen to see much more, and i think of all the maps the gas "fits" it's definitely Chernarus.

I'd say it's more the server than the actual maps, although it's a fair comment that I should try a change of scenery. My experiences with the modern Namalsk is that KoS is even greater. With the limited resources and size of the map it's understandable. Takistan is almost impossible to be a survival type. Huge open tracks of land with little, if any, cover. That leaves Esseker and Dear Isle, both of these feel unfinished. I don't own Livonia, it's not a map that appeals to me. I've taken a break loads of times, especially that barren 0.6x no update year and the shambles of 1.0 and them saying "we won't fix shit because we can't but really we think you don't care" in one of the worst BI press release I've ever seen! Still, to their credit, they are pulling things round now - who knew that console money would be the 'silver bullet' to that? Forgive my cynicism here, while it's tongue in cheek, we all know that waiting for BI to patch/fix/update a very specific issue is futile.

It is indeed, a complete circle jerk. One person KoS, then the dead person will go on and KoS another "to even it out". Ultimately this hits at the root of the "Dean Hall conundrum", that has plagued (for the lack of a better word) SA from launch, which is... "just what is Dz? A survival game? A PvP?" It's not been answered and for the last 8 years or so BI have firmly sat on the fence, sometimes leaning one way, sometime the other. I totally don't blame BI here, I am sure they are just keen to not kill the golden goose, after all, those golden eggs are tasty! This then leaves me the question, do I care enough about Dz to continue being frustrated by it, or do I accept that it's not the game I want it to be (primarily down to what the players playing want it to be - and again, I am very careful not to "blame" anyone for the way it's played). Hence the RP mention, but I've already said what my concerns about that would be. You know what I'd be ideal for? If the old "medics on call" thing came back.

I appreciate the answer, but It's nothing I don't do already, and have been doing pretty much since SA launched. I am a solo player and spend almost all my time away from main areas. I loot useful shit, like nails, saws, fishing hook and the like. I raid small towns for essentials like rope, cloth, sharpening stones etc. I very very rarely go near military bases and if I do it's in order to get suitable clothing/backpack not for the guns/ammo. I'll grab something to defend myself and I'll grab a rifle for killing animals but I very rarely look geared. Just the other day I was hugging the Western edge of the map, and found a garage along with a couple of buildings that I could make a simple base from. I grabbed a couple of logs and with the shovel in my hand and clearly in the animation of making a fence, some guy appeared out of nowhere and "spray and pray'ed" me. I guess they were a novice player and keen for the kill as an experienced one would have handled it differently (they had a huge advantage and I was unarmed - or at least I was in the middle of building a fence) but no KoS seems to be the answer for some. Again, I have no issue with PvP, or the people wanting to play PvP, and if this was a game that simply relied solely on PvP (such as CoD or Battlefield) then I'd hold my hands up and say "ok, this isn't the game for me". this is why I am at an impasse, I like the game, but feel RP would dull that experience. I don't want it sanitised, but then I don't want to spend every minute in the game constantly on high alert.

Just for clarity, I have 1000s of hours in Dz, and I started on the mod before moving to SA. The title itself should give you a clue. To be clear, I am not complaining about people KoS'ing, although I have to say it seems even more endemic than it's ever been. I am not a PvP'er. I was, many years ago, and I was a good one too, but time (..and the odd bit of weed!) has dulled my reactions. I could, could, go around the map, engaging with everyone but I find that boring. Dz is touted as much as a survival as it is a PvP title, and I have to admit I much prefer the survival these days. The problem is you can't have survival on the server because people KoS all the time. Again, I am not complaining about people doing that, but it really fucks over those who are not interested in such shenanigans. I am tempted to move to RP, but I have considerable reservations about it. I certainly don't want to be "a character actor" playing the game, I just want to enjoy the survival aspect without constantly needing to look over my shoulder. So that's where I am, an experienced Dz player who has gotten tired of constant KoS'ing but the solution of RP feels like it would take away some of the game. What to do?

For background I've been playing the game for years, since the mod days. I know DayZ has always had bugs, and I stopped playing it about 6 months ago because I constantly picked up bugged weapons - to the point it was game breaking for me. I keep on dropping in and out occasionally to see if this, and other things, have been resolved. Normally it hasn't. This time we have a bug in picking up items and it happens in both vanilla and modded servers. I encountered this bug about a month ago - thought I'd let it slip and try again later. This is that later. Essentially I cannot pick up anything other than transferring it to my empty hand via the UI then moving it across to my inventory. As you can imagine this is dreadful - and certainly not intended behaviour as there is a "take" option. Here is a link to a video: https://streamable.com/73ob8 It's things like this that have ruined DayZ for me, from being someone who spent hundreds of hours per month to someone who barely even remembers DayZ is still installed. I can take the higher level bugs, things that are so complex that it's easy for them to be introduced but the bottom line is upon spawning within the first few seconds you shouldn't encounter a bug that almost instantly ruins any playthrough. It is incredible to me that this could be considered a stable release if the very act of picking up items, something we all agree is fundamental to the game, is inherently flawed. The cynic in me would suggest BI fix their fucking game before releasing paid DLC, but maybe that's my frustration coming out. I'm just annoyed that I've been stopped playing this game for what seems like 6-8 months now whether it be the "glitched gun" bug or this one.

It may be less frequent, but the problem is that it's still happening. You know the situation, when you pull out a weapon you should be able to rely on it. OK, add in RNG for gun jam but it must be very small chance (obviously based on condition).