CJFlint

After playing DayZ SA for a couple of weeks I noticed some things I really like about the SA UI and some things I think really need to be changed. I love that you can drag items to the number icons and access them and quickly pick up item that are close to you. It can be a little laggy but I like the concept and think it works well for the Stand Alone. The tool bar is nice for non combat items. Some things I really think need to get changed. -Quicker Access to weapons! Honestly this has gotten me shot a few times now in close quarters. I think it should go back to being like the AMRA 2 set up just when it come to weapons. Were secondary, primary and axe can accessed quickly and ready to use. I think weapons should be accessed different then the tool bar. There should be hot keys for primary, secondary or axe you can hit were it will stop any animation on the spot. Tool bar I only want to use for none weapon items. Unless I'm missing something. -The weapons down position should be something you can chose to do, like sitting down but NOT THE DEFAULT when you pull your weapon out. Why is it like that? It helps nothing and just costs you time. In the heat of battle I want to have the least amount of steps to get my weapon out and ready to fire. Right now, you have to press the hot key, then space bar then right click to aim in. That's 3 steps! And if you press the wrong key you could pull out a pop can, and drink it. In DayZ SA current state I dont really think the weapon's down position serves any use, no one cares weather you gun is down or up. Pretty much if you have any weapon in your hand its KOS. It should be just an option that you can do if you really want to. -If your in animation say eating, drinking or healing, if you need to get to your weapon it should instantly cancel your animation. In a nut shell I don't like fiddling around with a tool bar in the heat of battle, just to pull the wrong item and be stuck in an animation. Then to pull out the proper weapon and have it be in the downward position not aimed in. Its a good UI when there's no zombies around or bandits but its clunky in the heat of battle. Don't get me wrong, the animations are cool and having the weapons pointed down option is cool. But it needs to be adjusted. Honestly in the real world is its not tactical to create more steps for weapons use in a CQB. You want to get to your primary or secondary in a split second. Most CQB operators will say speed is key. In ARMA series, OFP series and Iron Front this was a none issue. These issues I noticed more an more over time with DayZ SA.

You have 3 slots not being used for the vary reason I'm talking about. It dosn't work all that good, and you know better then to put things in those slots. It's a good work around for the time being, but it still should be ironed out in a patch. The game is in alpha. So I'm simply started this thread in the hopes they in slim chance they might iron out the tool bar in the final release. Or at least have another second option hot key quick key to access your weapon weapons. Don't get me wrong either. I love having animations in any game. BUT they should be able to be canceled if needed. For realism sake maybe have it so you drop what ever item you were using if you have to cancel.

Did you ever play ARMA, Iron Front or OFP? There all like this. Social Experiment lol The gov has plenty of other ways of getting info on you then a zombie game lol I'm not sure what your saying about age either, kind of lost me there. Its more like hunger games with zombies.

Zor have you checked out Day Z TV yet? There's people on there who stream live, great videos for learning DayZ. The MAP is really useful too.

I saw frankies videos too and others on DayZ TV. I had no idea he was so popular among other players DayZ though til I really started playing. I just though he was some aussi guy who had allot of time on his hands and made videos about ARMA mods and DayZ SA. I honestly didn't see anything more special then anyone else who made videos about DayZ other then that down under accent. What I find interesting is how much buzz hes created among DayZ players, almost star status. Seems players have proped him up as some sort of DayZ legend. Maybe I need to start making videos of me playing games too lolol And whats with all these hacker roomers? Is this true?? Or is it BS? If there's serous prof of this then so be it of him doing it then show it. Otherwise lets stop with the roomers. If it is true. If your making videos about how good you are, and a specaily teaching videos. But really are a hacker. That makes you a complete Asshat narcissist. WTF why do that?? Why hack a video game anyways, that freak n lame.

Kind of funny, before I bought Day Z SA I wanted to see some game play videos. Most of them were his. Honestly I think hes a guy that really knows his way around DayZ and seems to have been playing a while in DayZ SA and Mod. Too me I don't see how hes cheating, he seems to know the game well. There are really good players ya know. Maybe just he just dosn't show the parts were he gets shot, who would lol. Regardless some of his videos are entertaining. So I'm not going to hate on the guy, but I have noticed people prop him up like a rock star. I never understood that. His voice sounds familiar from another game I played POTBS. We had allot of Ausi players on there.

Well realism or no realism the game is pretty buggy currently. I get game crashes quite abit while playing in groups on packed servers. As far as the animations goes I think it needs ironing out. Same with the tool bar and how you access your weapons. I really don't think it adds to any realism, just buggyness and clunkyness. I have played combat sims for years and know the difference between realism and bad ui or animations.

Well the biggest issue I have with it is with the weapons hot keys and animations not canceling in an emergency. I could live with the weapons being in the downward position, when the weapon is 1st drawn. Its a simple space bar to aim in. One idea maybe having quicker draws with certain types of holsters or slings. Which would be realistic. Say if you have to draw your pistol from your backpack, the time should take longer then if you have it in a chest holster. Yesterday player ran in front of me and was turned to the side and I was facing toward them. I quickly pressed a button to pull out my pistol, but instead it did something else then at point I pressed 2 to get the pistol out. I did not panic. The person had already turned and shot me. What first was a encounter I could have had an easy prefect side shot, turned into me getting shot due to slow animation and slow game response. There was about 3 or 4 seconds that took place when I 1st saw the person and when I was shot. I left that encounter thinking, "WTF well that was really lame, were was my gun when I really needed it". There few when I was looting or fetching water and a zombie comes out, due to animations I was stuck taking several hits before the animations wore off. I'm not trying to be a poor sport, it just seems that the UI and animations is abit clunky for combat encounters. Seeing that in DayZ you start completely over again when you die. There already is enough stuff that can kill out side of clunky UI.

Emm, I agree with you on the keeping the realism part, but good realism. I respectfully dis-agree and think the current UI is clunky during battle. It just is. At the min I think that weapons should be its own hot key, and do not think it would harm realism. Also animations should cancel out when you draw a weapon. This dosn't add realism it just adds clunkyness. Purely hypothedical. If you were eating dinner and someone breaks into your house, would you drop everything and react or would you finish your meal? Then when you go for your gun, would instant your instant reaction be weapon pointed down at your side, taking second to get in the aimed position or would you be aimed in? I totally get what the developers are trying to do. They going for realism. I respect that. Don't get me wrong, there is much I like about DayZ so far. Its really is cool, and I have been enjoying it allot. But there are a few parts of it that needs to be ironed out some.

I have played ARMA and OFP moded and unmoded for quite along time, DayZ in many respects is different I'm finding out quickly. There's no clear sides and players can log in and out of the world and pick up were they left off. This created a whole new aspect to the tactics of dayz, I'm not sure if it was the developers intent or not but it does. Even if your super stealthy using cover ect, you can still be complelty caught off guard by a freshly logged in player. Currently the only way of knowing if someone new is on the server is by pressing P. Not only do you have to pay attention to the world around you, you also have to know when people are coming and going off the server. So now with my visual scans, I also press p to see if any one new is on as much as I scan. As far as me encountering players in game its KOS if their are armed and there is no response via prox period. Also if players have a weapon in hand I tend to shot 1st ask questions latter policy if I'm by my self, or I flee. Even if they say their friendly it takes more then that to earn my trust in the world of DayZ. Normally I let them pass and keep a close eye one them then leave the area. I have been set up before so I have a vary hard time trusting anyone I'm not on TS with. I don't see this banditry changing either it is developer intent I believe its like that. Its meant to be a crappy hellish world. So it is probably better to learn to deal with it. As far as % of friendly players go, I'm not really sure. I think it depends on the server an who is playing. Its more then 2%, I'm sure. Some severs have a Team Speak. Try down loading team speak and talk to people, you can meet people easier that way, and maybe get a free pass were would not without.

Guys here's the thing. DayZ 1st off uses the ARMA 2 engine, and ARMA/OFP series is a military simulator. ARMA and OFP are more sims then games in-fact and these engines have been around for over 10 years. Very unforgiving and probably the closest thing any civilian will see to combat. And get a small window into what it might be like. There are some military units around the world that have used OFP or ARMA to test tactics and for training. During the time ARMA/OFP they made it open source. So that's how DayZ MOD and later DayZ SE came about and it has become a phenomenom. ITS NOT MEANT TO BE EASY. Everyone dies in game. The key is to survive as long as you can. If you die try to learn from it and try again. One thing I've been learning with people randomly spawning anywhere when the log in it makes the game even less predictable. You can scan and scan not see any one the out of no were holly crap. That's something I didn't see in Iron Front, OFP, or ARMA. I had a really nasty encounter with someone who just spawned in game last night. As far as people being mean and KOSing, well what the hell do you expect. DayZ by design is meant to be pretty harsh. My best advice would be group up, if your new.

How about this idea. Give players a limit they can switch servers per day. Like only 2 or 3 switches a day. People should be able to switch servers to meet up with there friend's or clans. Taking that away would kind of suck. But 10 or 15 times a day is pretty much means your sever hoping to looting.

And that's why they say, be careful were you log out lol

The concept of Day-Z has caused this issue and here is why. If you die or if your just starting with a new profile, you have nothing what so ever. In order to get the "gear" you have travel several miles to high risk areas sometimes just to get shot which puts you right back were you started. Or if your lucky find your body. So naturally players look for a loop hole. It can take hours to get geared up and is risky. If there's no real rules or mechanics put in place, in a game were its pretty hard to survive. People are going to do what ever they have too to survive or get what they need period. Honestly I tried "hopping". For me it didn't work as well as I thought. When I tried logging into low pop severs at say the big NW airport, many of the times someone else was doing the same thing. Which resulted in a stand off. A great deal of the time the other player that was there, was not the fairest of fighters either. If they hop they combat log too, and pull other crap. So what I found is hopping is not the best way anyways, using a map is. I think just looking at the DayZ TV map, and learning were items spawn that are in areas were most people don't look works better. If you can get over not having the Fancy M4 (Which lacks range anyways), then there's plenty of places else to look for weapons the NW airfeild and mil bases. I prefer the mosin anyways or SKS if I have too. They need to put the M16 a2 in game, sporting its 500 yard effective range, never been a huge fan of the m4. Its great for close end, but lacks the reach out and touch someone.

I tried a allot of different experiments, died allot early on in lives doing so. To figure out what works best for me. I tried looting and grazing the coastal loot towns for hours armed with an axe.......just to be shot. I tried side tracking or detours going around the major loot towns, which allot of times ends in starvation. That would work I think if you got allot of supplies but not as a fresh spawn. What I found works for me as a fresh spawn is book it to go to the nearest loot town on the coast. And collect just enough, just the bare minimal...maybe just one can of food. You dont even need water if you know were the wells are. Then get the F out. Just enough to make it to either, airfield, military base, police station or firehouse. And not waste any time. Just get the bare minimal and get to the good stuff. Haul ass! Zig Zag and use cover. I found your more likely to be shot by other player at key locations so just get that risk out of the way sooner then later. Screw looting for hours un armed. The way I look at it if all I have is my jeans, tee shirt and a can. Who the fuck cares if I get shot, if I do I might spawn in a better location anyways. Until there's like hunting or gathering living off the land added, that's really the best way for me if I'm on my own. That's just me. I alwasy seem to have worse luck spawning near Elektrozavodsk (bandits haven) and much better luck spawning near Berezino. Its really seems more drama happens at Elektroz, and people who prey on new spawns or new players in general. To me in dayZ if your not armed your prey for bandits.....or in some cases bait and nothing more. So I want to be armed as soon as possible. Once I'm armed and have decent gear that's when I start being more careful becuase now I have more to lose, but also feel more confident.

I would probably eat my kids too. LOL Merci, with all do respect not sure if this would be the place for it. BUT, there are mods similar to DayZ for ARMA 2 and 3 called "City Life" which is like a real life sim that maybe more what your looking for. http://www.cityliferpg.com/

I really love the post apocalyptic genre, and would love to see more of that style in game. Currently the default avatars female or male are clean cut looking males or females with hair in a neat bun. They also have a neat clean looking jeans, tea shirt and shoes. Still has a military Arma 2 feel to it. It works great for a military sim but not so much for this. I want my avatar to look like ass starting off. I think our avatars should have a more desperate, really un-kept look. I would like to modify my look too. Beards, scares, mohawks, dreadlocks and even war paint. While Idol I think the avatars should look paranoid quickly looking around, maybe even have idol animations change with health, hunger or thirst. Now I now DayZ takes place right after a zombie apoc but there needs to be more signs of that. I want to see it of a more dark drab and creepy. I want to see some random creepy stuff while going point a to b. To me currently it still reminds me to much of Arma 2. Sort of like that movie "The Road" which takes right after an apoc.

I'm getting a good handle on the ways of DayZ SE, and learning the ways of this post apoc virtual hell hole. Its all about survival and being armed to the teeth. My last life I had a pretty good CHR, I had really nice mosin scoped. Nice mil gear, scored a compass, 1st aid kits, water bottles ect ect. I survived for 4 nights. But I was attacked by zombies after the patch, and they caused be to bleed out. I should of just ran but did not want to expose my self to much. My screen turned grey. I bandaged. There was no issues listed when I pressed the tab key. Just grey. Is because of lack of blood? I ended up going unconscious. How do you resolve this? Is blood blag the only option? This bound to happen again, so its a need to know.

Its was a sad movie indeed, there's probably no better example of what it be like after a massive apocalyptic event though. Lets face it, it really would be a hellish sad world. The way the father looked in that movie really set the tone. Or maybe a mad max feel, more entertaining, less depressing. Fallout really did a good job on capturing a world like that, look and feel. I do believe both mad max and fallout are set a several years after an massive apocalyptic event, and show more how people adapted to it, where as DayZ is right after. Anyhow with the Arma Engine and really well designed post 3d rendered apocolyptic world, holy crap that would be cool. The only thing that should be ARMA like about DayZ is the engine it uses.

I found the more normal and calm I feel during any kind of pvp game, the better I do. Being emotional, rattled or nervous does not help me one bit in pvp. I don't care, I shot other players on a drop of a hat if needs be in a game, because I know its not really going to hurt the other person other then their pride. Or if I get shot I'm a good sport. Win or lose its just entertainment. Although in dayZ its not really win or lose its survival or what ever you want it to be. Its just a game that's ran on a vary good military sim engine. There no real loss always remember that, its just a game. Role play and have fun.

Thank's both of you for posting that. I now know bare minimal eating and drinking isn't good enough. And to eat and drink regularly. Good info TY!

Well in the vary short amount of time I have been playing I have learned that mil bases and airstrips are KOS areas. Your not out of luck though. I find that if your already armed before heading to an airstrip or mil base your much better off. If your unarmed when you go there, your chances of being killed or kidnapped or much higher. Being armed gives much more options, you can KOS, makes other people who are armed think twice and sometimes even gives you bargaining power. The last time I made it through airstrip I was armed, while inside a barrack I was prox com, "come out slow". I informed them they were not taking my stuff, and if they wanted it they would have to come in and at least one of them would die and it would turn out really bad for everyone. Or we could just team up or one of us could leave. I ended up teaming up with them lol I don't think any of us wanted a shoot out. I made some new friends, they turned out to be decent people. I was lucky that time. But be prepared to fight. Don't be afraid, but don't be careless. Its just a game, but it does suck to have to start all over. Be armed in those areas.

Ops ha ha Edit time

I have played Arma Series and OFP series for years, which I think helps. I have been playing for only Day Z for 2 weeks. Day Z is really hard for fresh spawns. What I learned is when you spawn gather just enough items to get to were you know weapons are. Fluids, food and some sort of weapon. Then head directly towards were you know weapons are hospitals, fire stations, airports or military bases. I have been going to places I know rifles spawn at that is outside airports and mil bases. Then proceed to the airfeild or mil base using cover as much as posible, and moving fast while out of cover zig zaging. Studying the Day Z map has helped me a great deal. I'm finding the airfields are tricky. I never feel alone there, and I have been shot a few times there. But it is better just to get that big risk out of the way sooner better then later. If successful it is well worth it, if not try again. It much better then just to roam around for hours un-armed just to then get shot. I have found milling around searching every building in the coastal spawn towns, can lead up to a huge waste of time. The longer you hang around in those new spawn loot towns, the more likely a bandit will get the drop on you. If bandits corner you, your best bet is to take the death root. Because most just want your loot or your blood, and will play with you until you die like a house cat with a mouse for there own amusement. I've seen the you tube videos, were bandits are on a power trip, capturing people, taking their blood and loot laughing the time. I will say I would rather re-spawn then take that crap.

Sweet! Like the pictures. Right now my fav weapon is the Mosin (not molson beer) with long range scope/bi pod and the firemen's axe for pesky zombies one hit and their gone! I prefer having the long reach of a sniper rifle then the M4 and just use a pistol when clearing rooms. I would love to see the M16 added, m4 is a shortened version the works great for close up fight but lacks range I desire. Mosin I can also find out side of the airstrips/bases which is a plus. So if I'm a fresh spawn I can arm my self, then go to the airstrip/mil base. Vs going un-armed which is not good lolol