pillock

Good grief...

Ere ya go:

It bothers my authenticity-o-meter somewhat that you can 'pack up' a used fireplace, stuff it inside a hoodie, then stuff that into the pockets of your jeans.

Chernarus has a history, within the Arma2 universe. It is written on the page linked by Ceallach earlier in this thread (quoted below). Here is a bit of it: So it's not in Europe at all, really. My history is a little hazy, but it sounds more like the Caucasus region to me. Takistan, presumably a Muslim country, lies to west of it, with Russia itself to the north. DayZ already diverges slightly from Arma2 in terms of Chernarus's layout (therefore contradicting some of the descriptions of the place's past), but I have read a few times that the developers do regard the two games as somewhat sharing the same fictional world and background.

I dislike using out-of-game resources like maps. Besides, the in-game map is more user-friendly. When you find a map piece that's spawned as loot, the view when you first look at it is always centred on that location, so you instantly know where you are. Similarly, a map in your inventory centres itself on your current location when you first log into a server. So once you have the in-game map, it's pretty difficult to get lost unless you do it on purpose. (I actually think using this method feels like a bit of a cheat, and should be removed at some point - maybe so it centres the view on some random location instead.) In combination with the compass, it's pretty easy to navigate, even if you don't recognise places through experience. If I don't have a compass, I'll use the sun - which is roughly in the south, I believe - or identify terrain features around me and compare them with the map. I remember it being an enjoyable challenge to figure out where I was and where I wanted to go using only in-game assets, before I'd played the game enough to recognise the towns by sight - using a combination of roadsigns, the map and the Russian Cheat Sheet book. I kind of miss the fact that I don't need them so much any more.

That's quite a cool video.

If DayZ does indeed follow Arma II's history, then Chernarus is in the Black Sea / Caspian Sea region. Because it says so itself.

For me it's the other way round. Doors prevent zombies getting in/out of buildings maybe 20-30% of the time. And I get hit through walls often enough for it not to be worth it. And I got attacked repeatedly over a large distance by an invisible zombie the other day.

I don't even agree that the forums are particularly negative in their overall tone, in terms of user feedback. I think in general the reaction has been positive.

That's fair comment. While I'd argue that the buildings don't look particularly badly decayed, and that ships often show a fair amount of rust and wear while still in use, that car really does look like it's been sitting there for a while - notably from the green mossy stuff growing on the wheels. I'd say months rather than years, though. The problem of the fresh fruit and veg remains, however. And the reclamation of man-made structures by nature should be much more pronounced in order to fit with those newly added game assets you mention - the game is very out-of-step with itself as is.

Yep. You should be able to light a twigs-and-paper fire, and it should probably be able to heat you up a little, though perhaps not cook food. Given that you can warm yourself very effectively with a tiny little gas burner, it doesn't seem right.

Sorry, but who, over the age of 6, calls it "pooping"?

"Now to Kill On Sight." Good message, man. Count me in.

I made a fire on the steps outside the church in Svetlo town square. Got shot.

I take your point about much of the graphics being left over from Arma 2. Perhaps they are just placeholders, and a more long-term post-apocalypse is in the making. Perhaps. I think it would be better that way, as I said before. But I maintain that judging by the environment we have now, the apocalypse appears to have been recent. Five years to decay a bale of straw? You must be off your head. And, as I also said originally, the game is called "DayZ", which carries implications, for me at least, of it being the first day of the new situation.

The cars are something of an anomaly - the rest of the environment is fairly intact. What about the fresh fruit and vegetables you find lying about? You try putting a tomato out on a table for a week, then come back and tell us if you'd describe it as "pristine". Also: What about the bales of freshly cut straw in the fields? What about low level of the grass and undergrowth in gardens and fields? What about the neat piles of logs stacked by the roadside? What about the state of the roads, trackways and general infrastructure like telegraph and electricity lines? What about the still-visible bloodstains inside houses? What about the partially buried, unrotted corpses? And anyway, the cars are all pretty old models - they were probably rusty before the outbreak (especially the ones in scrap yards, natch). And the totally destroyed ones could be explained by fire and accident damage from the panic of the infection. It's recent, I tell you.

Binocs in police stations - if you get there first. Protective cases in civilian buildings like cafes/pubs and some barns. But they are rocking-horse shit. (and a bit unnecessary now that we can exploit clothing space).

I used to have an anti-stab vest before the wipe. It was ruined, so didn't perform any function, but it disguised the fact that I was wearing a Biker's Jacket underneath (in combination with not carrying a backpack, this lead people to be more surprised when I pulled a sawn-off on them).

Sorry what? Stupid people go to the places where... you go?

We need to be able to drop them off of rooftops on to zombies' heads.

I've seen one chicken. Not seen a rabbit since they stopped being immortal. I have never, EVER seen a Press Vest in 320 hours of playing, but I do seem to be finding those Ninja Throwing Stars everywhere I go...

I don't see what all the hostility in this thread is about, to be honest. I don't play the game the way Macdeth does, and I probably never will, but people like him are the ones who provide the tension for me when I'm going into the more dangerous locations such as this "golden triangle". He enjoys his experience, and I enjoy mine. I'm always paranoid about snipers when I'm in that area, and that fear is what makes DayZ interesting. Snipers keep other players honest, and stop them becoming complacent (or at least they ought to have that effect on people). The only part of Macdeth's post I would take issue with is this: ... partly because it's fairly arrogant, and partly because it's complete bollocks: intelligent people play the game however they want, and that manifests itself in a variety of different ways.

Unlucky. What's your point?

I really dislike the fact that The Edge Of The Map is so close to new high traffic areas. To my mind, you want as few players as possible to see this place - for reasons of immersion and authenticity - and there should be a significant area of "nothing much" around the western and northern borders in order to minimize the likelihood of players witnessing the environment's limitations first hand.

Judging by the environment, the apocalypse didn't happen longer ago than a week - and that's hardly enough time for nature to start growing up through roads pavements and buildings. Sure, there'd be debris lying around from the panic stage of the outbreak - and more of that can be added later in development - but there's no way they should be adding major decay to structures and roads, unless they overhaul the entire setting for the game. "Day Z" means "The Day" of the disaster, as I see it, or perhaps the day after. Having said that, perhaps they should alter the scenario. Perhaps they should eliminate fresh fruit and vegetable spawns, and make the rest of the environment look more decomposed. After all, a player's character might be alive for months on end, and it doesn't square that they are permanently in a world where every day is the only a few days after the emergency that they didn't witness. By setting the game scenario further from the outbreak, it allows you to maintain the authenticity of a non-dynamic environment, because changes brought about by nature's reclamation of the human world become less noticeable day-to-day the longer it goes on.