rickyriot

Yeah. but you are right in your first post about them being a death trap! Not only when driving, but as a large moving target making lots of noise in an otherwise empty landscape makes you the anti "where's wally"* as every c'nt can see where you are! * before people start saying, `it's waldo, it's "where's waldo?"` the character was created by a Brit and called it Wally. Apparently American's weren't trusted enough to understand Wally is short for Wallace and changed it to Waldo for our cousins "across the pond".

Ah, the great debate about computer games. Of course the religious right would consider virtual and real life actions to be one and the same. That said, they also consider all sorts of nonsense to be valid. 😉 Saturday: Wednesday: Mate, no offence, but you are all over the place here. As for this.. I never said that, I never agreed with that and it should be pointed out I went out of my way to distance myself from such comments. Do not reply to me inferring that I supported that view. If you had actually taken the time to read my comments and put them into context I've not once questioned whether you felt humiliated with my only point being the emotion may be misplaced - not that the game shouldn't engender emotion more that where that emotion channelled. One serious concern within your comment is that you "expect respect", that is a stunningly naive attitude to have in a large online multiplayer game that contains violence. Violence you were very well aware of before you installed the game and if you did not then the fault is entirely yours. YOU failed to check out the content of the game and YOU failed to realise the effect on your delicate sensitivities. With that all said and done, there is a genuine debate to be had regarding whether people should be able to carry out what we could consider in the context of the game "war crimes". I don't want to play Mario though, and that's why I accept the actions within a game that has considerably adult themes will be.. well, adult. What we need to do though is get away from personalising or subjectivity and deal with the issue in an objective and neutral basis. This means any talk of personal humiliation needs to be dropped otherwise the debate ends up being whether the game is specifically tailored to you rather than whether the game should contain elements a, b or c.

I was talking more about the game engine debate. You're totally within your right to like or dislike the game. The only people I tend to argue outright with are those claiming that DayZ is noting but an elaborate scam. As for the game, I'm generally in the "happy clapper" group of people, but I'm not a fanboi. I honestly think they've missed the boat to an extent. The iron, when it was hot, was not struck to use another idiom. The console versions and the genuine improvement in the PC version over the last few months may bring people back but it's yesterday's game. It's obviously not intentional, but BI killed the golden goose. At SA launch DayZ was the zeitgeist, even today you can mention DayZ and a glint will appear in the eyes of some gamers but that glint is about those early experiences not the ones now. Mods will help and could possibly turn the game around if there was a mod for DayZ in the same way DayZ was a mod for Arma. For me, if BI can fit in enough survival elements as opposed to making it PvP heavy (although keeping PvP prominent) and there is enough of a community that continues to play it then I don't think I could ask for much more.

Got to agree with Kirov here. There is no place for toxic masculinity, or at least no point in it. Not that I want to come across as all SJW about it.

Thanks for the info about the crates. I actually thought you found them rather than crafting them. I just assumed I'd come across one at some point. And, yes, there is sort of farming, sort of.. 😉

Well it seems like you can't be convinced. I'll not try any further, I just think that if you ever find yourself at the "sharp end", as it were, you'd come to hold a different opinion. We both agree that content is needed. We've seen several content patches already since 1.0 and apparently 1.05 is predominantly content too. We'll just need to wait and see, but considering we didn't see a single significant update to the stable branch in almost a year, the idea we've had several patches over just a few months surely gives you some form of hope. I felt the push to demo large base building elements was the wrong choice too. It takes far too long, far too many tools, far too many resources and they are stupidly easy to break into so end up being pointless. Many of the gamers I know have echoed your "but what now..?" comment regarding gameplay. As there is no end game, is it just a case of endless spawning and PvP? The game needs retention beyond that. Some level of persistent storage that is simple would be a great start. I believe there was some chat about burying crates, but I've yet to see how or where that is meant to happen. Bringing back in fishing, farming and hunting would also help flesh out the gameplay. I have no problem with PvP, I just don't want it all the time! Clearly that is an issue with SCUM as well, as there is absolutely nothing to do in it. It's essentially a tech demo just now - and imo will stay one until at least late 2020.

What progress is this? Are you still comparing DayZ to SCUM or are you comparing the current DayZ to your ideal UE DayZ? If it's SCUM, then again it's down to project size. If it's the alternate future DayZ then well... that's something Schroedinger would be interested in. Could there have been more frequent and larger updates, both to the environments and content? Of course, we are actually in complete agreement there. The game engine debate, though? Perhaps just accept you're backing the wrong horse on this one.. 😉

To paraphrase the 80's comedy stylings of Gary Coleman... "just what the fuck are you talking about, Willis?

You are, of course, totally entitled to that opinion. What I would say is to me your sensibilities seem a bit unbalanced. If you had a genuine empathic connection to your virtual character you should be just as shocked, if not more, at the idea of getting a shotgun blast to the face as you are about being tied up. I'd also say that DayZ is in no way unique when it comes to abuse. I have a friend who is plays CoD on the XB and the community there is unbelievably toxic, like off the fucking scale toxic. He's had 8 year olds shouting homophobic abuse and death threats, claiming they will dox or swat him in real life. You think that's just jokes, well it's not: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46206616 So, yeah, as I say, you are entitled to that opinion and there is some merit in ensuring that the game doesn't become something akin to Skyrim's Lovers Lab (do not Google that, trust me! If you know what it is, you'll know the reference, if you don't then be happy you don't!) but in the grand scheme of things, DayZ is in no way a leader when it comes to abuse. Interestingly in all the hours I've played DayZ - and it runs into the thousands - I have never once been "captured". I believe you used to be able to break the bonds (whether rope or handcuffs) by wiggling your character. Not sure if that is still a thing since the new animation system has been introduced.

You keep throwing out this claim yet it's simply not true, unless you count long run as being 3-5 years rather than 6-12 months. I'd also question the comparison with SCUM, it's a pretty poor analogy considering the history and development cycle of both titles. SCUM has hit an absolute ton of problems, and this is while using the very engine you suggested BI shift to. Interestingly and relevant to our discussion, SCUM specifically chose UE4 rather than their own internal engine or the "Serious Engine" which is used by Croteam (them of Serious Sam fame) and who are supporting the SCUM devs. They chose UE because they felt the other two engines would need too many changes. Turns out what they want from the game is just as difficult to implement in UE4 as it would have been in either of the others. Don't get me wrong, SCUM looks like a decent addition, that's if you can get past the idea that you can shit out golden desert eagles. Can you imagine the uproar if that was introduced to DayZ? ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpW4zoPVIdk ** Possibly NSFW - not really but you know it's someone shitting out a gun, so what do you expect if you click on it! ** ). There are some things I'd like to see ported over from SCUM, and sadly those are the toilet duties. As much as scatological gameplay is nowhere near the top ten of "what I want in a game", it does bring a fair bit of realism to the title. Sadly that realism in lost in SCUM due to the very poor AI - still alpha of course. So, yeah, I see why you might have chosen SCUM as an example, but it's a really poor one if you look at it in detail. Hmm... so the improvements in graphics, sounds, animation, inventory management, ai, map locations, weapons and ui (just to name a few) is not enough for you? You are clearly a tough date! I'll finish on a compromise though, as it seems I've been beating down everything you've said and I really don't mean to! What I will say is I agree with you in regard to how BI could have expressed their vision to the community. I liked the updates (less so the community spotlights) and I honestly feel they have been dropped because either (a) people can't be bothered writing them or (b) there isn't enough resource time to produce them - both of those situations are "not good". I appreciate as a developer that a roadmap when put out and not kept to is a nightmare scenario for all around but in DayZ's case it seems like they have failed to give a roadmap because they themselves seem unsure in the direction. I think some of that is down to the integration of the console versions and what limitations that will bring. I hope I'm wrong on all of those but that's just how I see it.

Again, I just don't think you realise the size of job. Ultimately we all want more content and switching to a different engine will not bring you that content any quicker. Personally I quite like where DayZ is in regard to the graphics and audio, the audio especially is pretty damned immersive. I remember the days when I'd struggle round Cherno, with low res textures and poor lighting, getting 40fps at max. Now? Jinkies I can fire the thing up the max and wander around the most built up areas never dropping below 80. With that in mind, I just don't see either the clamour or the lure of moving to another engine. For me the problem is the same problem we've had for ages; resource. If BI were really determined they could throw the kitchen sink at this and get a lot of the problems removed. The title is now 6 years old, a lot of (most?) people bought the game on discount and the higher price now isn't exciting many due to DayZ's "semi finished" state. What might be the saviour is the console releases. A new audience, and a new audience with set price tarriff (as there is on XBand PS), could end up being the revenue stream that BI needs to throw at DayZ. Finally I have to say that I have no visibility on resources, finances or the way development is done at BI. So perhaps I'm wrong about the dev resources, but I've yet to find a game that's been made worse by having more money thrown at it!

I'd never feel humiliated. I'd be laughing to be honest, because it's not real. So, let's play Devil's Advocate here. Is it fair for someone to show a degree of shock from treatment you "received"? Sure, of course. In the same way you'll get a thrill of exhilaration just after a close run gun fight. Emotion is important in gaming, so the fact that you felt anything is clearly right. Me, as I said, I'd find humour. It seems you didn't. If you are from a section of society that is regularly targeted for abuse; misogyny, racism, bigotry, etc.. then I can understand why such scenes may have a deeper psychological affect - and it's fair that game developers do keep an eye on such things. On the flip side, I presume you knew that it was possible within the game for this to happen? It's been fairly widely reported over the years so I'd be surprised if you weren't. What's more the game's adult rating should have at least hinted at it's darkness.

Which is very clear when you then go on to say... It is pretty much "super hard" every time, the caveat of "good engine" is a bit superfluous as it takes time to migrate anything whether that engine is "good" or "bad". The only solution to your suggestion would be to throw thousands of resource hours into a result that is in no way guaranteed to have resolved the problems you had migrated away from. As I say this isn't mean to be a beat down. You are entirely right to raise the issue of the engine, but the time for that was several years ago, not now.

While I appreciate it is slightly off topic I agree with the sentiment about the game moving a little too much towards PvP and the ideas I've put forward are tilted towards survival/realism. I felt the 1.0 release was targetted towards PvP players - whether that was intentional or not I can't say. That said, if there is a solid framework for modding, a "true survival" version of DayZ would appear as there are enough people who are drawn to that sort of gameplay.

This simply couldn't be further from the truth. I don't mean to be insulting but I just don't think you understand the magnitude of taking vanilla Unity (or Unreal, etc..) and creating a framework to support everything BI wants to achieve with DayZ and that's before you even begin to think about importing assets and all the associated logic. I'm not sure if you have done any development, but I get a shiver down the spine just thinking of the work involved in moving a project of this size from one engine to another. The idea the migration itself would be completed within a half a year, is utter madness, let alone nearing completion. Now, to be fair, is it a valid to argue they should have switched to Unity rather than the Enfusion engine when they had the chance? Yeah, sure, despite the reasons for using Enfusion it's still very fair to ask what the justification(s) were. It's really not viable to suggest they stop, migrate to unity, and everything will be neatly tied up by Christmas. The engine is not the issue, to an extent, it was but it's not now. Another change is in absolutely nobody's interests, not you, not BI and not the rest of the community.

I agree with that, but not necessarily the rest of it. I don't see any reason not to discuss how to improve the game, even if it just ends up as a mod rather than in vanilla. Not that I know how to write a mod, at best I'd guess it's a lua based scripting engine, although I don't believe it would take a lot to get it working. Tweaking it so it's a benefit rather than a huge pain in the ass is the art.

44 views but not a single comment?

I presume that is a guess on your behalf as I've yet to see any official documents showing what tiers of gear can be found at what location. I'll happily admit I've not seen what you would consider top tier gear but then at times I've hit the NWA and found absolutely nothing at all, let alone something I could grade into tiers. As for lucky? Meh... what is luck in DayZ? I go by the fact very few people hit Kamenka while absolutely tons head to the NWA. What's more, and I can't stress this enough, a fresh spawn is more likely to be closer to the island than it is the airfield.

I have yet to see anyone at the prison, I think people can't be bothered to swim out there, but considering you can spawn very close to it it's a "no-brainer" for a fresh spawn. In terms of loot, not sure what you are expecting but it's the same loot I find in the NWA. I mean, sure, if people don't want to bother with the island that's actually really great news for me.

So... just to get this right, people shooting you in the head is fine, people tying you up is not? We have already had this debate years ago when the media first heard you could tie people up so ran with a story that "girl gamers were being raped". That was roundly laughed off by everyone who knew gaming but was championed by idiots with an axe to grind. Bottom line is the game is 18 rated (certainly in the UK and I expect a similar level worldwide), life is far far harsher than this game, you really shouldn't be surprised by anyone's actions in game and to feel humiliated is taking this far far more personally than you should.

I wouldn't say "new" more that people are for heading to the NWA which is normally camped by top tiered weapons when they could head to the island, find next to nobody there and an stash of weapons. What's more there is a military camp a couple of km to the West. Idiots head for Vybor or Grishina, the clever cats head to Kamenka.

Well this has gone better than I expected, like @Kirov (DayZ) I thought I was a lone voice in this. Pleasantly surprised that some have even gone as far as removing them from the server! Well done @Weyland Yutani (DayZ). Thing is, even those who would support their inclusion accept that they do affect the game balance significantly to the extent they'd be happy to see them applied with caveats. That alone underlines the need for change.

So here's the thing. I've been playing DayZ since the early days of the mod and the one thing that is massively OP is the NV (night vision). It always has been and it always will be. We have had a decent period of time where NV weren't included but now they are back. I appreciate that in the "real world" NV is a thing, and while DayZ certainly caters for realism there has to be balancing for it to be an enjoyable game to play. There is no other single item in the game that has such a detrimental affect on balancing. Not a gun, a vehicle or any other loot item. Let me explain: - In the daylight you both have the advantage of seeing each other. Even if you are a lowly spawn and you are facing a massively geared player, while you won't be able to kill them you will be able to evade them. It all comes down to skill and tactics. - In the night time however, whomever controls the NV controls the spice. It's as simple as that. When facing off against someone at night if you don't have NV and they do, then you have no opportunity for evasion as they will see everything you do, while you cannot see them. What is the point of BI spending all this time and effort to make the night cycle as relevant as the day one if they allow such an imbalance within it? I've raised this issue before, not necessarily here, but relating to the mod and SA and those opposing my view tend to give 3 main retorts, so allow me to address them to save people's time. 1) "git gud" - this isn't about ability, fighting someone at night without NV when you have them is shooting fish in a barrel, there is no sport or ability required. 2) "get your own goggles" - I mean, sure, but that's just an "arms race" mentality. If someone is OP suggesting everyone else is OP doesn't advance the game in the slightest. 3) "don't play night" - again, sure, but what is the point of the game if you set 50% of it's content (depending on day/night cycle of course) unavailable to your userbase? The new nigh time anti-gamma "overlay", for example, is utterly wasted. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. I understand why they are in the game, and I understand why people may wish to use them in the game, but ultimately they hugely imbalance almost "half" the game.

Yeah, this is what it all really comes down to. I don't think anyone would argue they don't belong in a game like this, I just feel the advantage they give tips the balance too much.

That would be my first thought, however we have seen that this simply doesn't balance the game out. People will simply move to another server within the group, grab the NV from there. Even if you physically restricted NV to just a few per server (so no hopping and brining in gear from elsewhere - not sure that is even possible) all you do is reduce the pool of people using them but you don't remove the actual problem and, if anything, you acerbate it. Now NV goggles have an even higher value both to own and to trade as they would be rare. Yet they would remain massively OP. Restricting them sounds like a good idea in theory but sadly, and as we have seen in both the mod and SA, it just doesn't work in practice. I'm sorry, I don't want to sound inflammatory but the the logic of that argument is flawed while it doesn't address the actual issue at hand. For a start having a car and not having a car is in no way comparable to being able to see and not being able to see. It's really odd that you even thought that was a similar case. Seeing is pretty much fundamental to the game and if one can and the other can't it's not even close to the idea that one person can walk and the other can drive - not least we start discussing how much effort it takes to get a vehicle moving to begin with. NV googles, you pick them up and put them on, that's it. Oh, and a battery, but still that's it. From that point on you are the one-eye'd king in the land of the blind. A car? Jinkies that's about an hour's work collecting all the pieces and when you do, you end up being a bigger target. There is nothing stealthy about a car, you hear it coming. NV goggles make no noise and require little effort. Same applies for guns. Sure the person with the AK at range clearly has an advantage over someone with a shotgun, but the difference here is that you will see that the person has an AK and that they are at a distance. You can work out the pros and cons regarding engagement. In the dark and without NV there is none of that. It's just blind luck (pun sort of intended!) whether you run into them, whereas they could track your every step while being able to see every exposed weapon you are carrying and/or if you are rocking a large enough backpack to stash other weapons. As for the real world military argument, it's just not relevant here. DayZ is a game, it's not real world. A game that requires balance. I could mention the US's massive military advantage in Korea or Vietnam, that didn't really help them and they ended up "losing" both wars which simply demonstrates that even if you apply the "my gun is bigger than yours" in real life engagement it's not certainty the chips fall where you want them to. Not that I wish to trigger any vets of those campaigns. The individual soldiers were not to blame for those failures. Just to clarify, I am not requesting the removal of other items. It's just the nature of the NV and the overwhelming advantage they provide over those who do not have them that is at the heart of the issue. In regard to other imbalances, such as not having enough weapons in comparison to your opposition, that is a choice you make. Engage or not. With the NV the choice isn't yours which makes them "unfair".