pillock

Be honest: would you really ever pick Chef?

You know you can tear blank pages out of books, don't you? That's an easy source of note paper for your party invitations.

Novo is the place to be. Lots of buildings, lots of place to explore, lots of loot, lots of people. The constant crackle of gunfire, snipers, axe maniacs, random nutters. It's fucking cool, and fucking dangerous. Love it.

Tried what? Collecting rain in a canteen? I'll have you know this has been my main source of drinking water since I started playing again recently. Admittedly you get your clothes soaked through doing it, but that doesn't matter yet. I agree wilderness is getting sparser by the patch, but what will be will be - I assume there are already plans for the northern valley and urbanisation of the area is inevitable. Water will not be a problem in that area as time goes on, and it really isn't now anyway - wasn't that your point? [Edit: there will be lakes up there as well, eventually]

You aren't honestly complaining about airfields being too open and flat, are you?

Given how often it rains, you're never going to be short of water, wherever you are. It takes less than a minute to fill a canteen to 100% from 0% when it's raining. And anyway, it doesn't take long to jog to a water pump from any point in your designated area. On top of that, the NW area will probably not remain wilderness for long, given the road layouts up there strongly suggesting planned urban sprawl.

I'd recommend collecting the pieces of the in-game map and combining them. When you have the full set, it's better in my opinion than using the DayZ DB one, because you don't have to Alt+Tab out of the game. This is especially important at the moment, as DayZ seems to be more susceptible to crashing in the current build - but even ignoring that, it allows you to carry on moving while looking at the map, and also listening to the environment around you, so you can tell if some nasty is approaching. I have actually ditched my compass since I got used to using the map, because I find the map is all I need to navigate, even at night.

The sickness mechanics could do with a lot of refinement. There needs to be different types of illness with different causes, symptoms, effects and cures. I'm hoping that once the game gets nearer to its finished state, players being almost permanently in "Healthy" status will be a distant memory. Survivors will be lumbering about the map carrying a variety of illnesses and injuries with them that slow them down and restrict/dictate their choices. Illness and injury should be part and parcel of the experience, and the rare, short-lived periods when you are fit and healthy will be a boom time that you treasure, make the most of and do your damnedest to maintain as long as possible. Non-lethal illness and injury will make the game much more dynamic and interesting, giving variety to your gameplay experience over the course of your character's life, and also between different players.

Basically: how? I recently started playing DayZ again after a couple of months off, to try out some of the new survival features. I managed to dig up worms by equipping the shovel, looking at the ground and middle-mousing (tip: don't eat the worms!) but this technique doesn't appear to work with the pickaxe when I tried to break some stones off a big rock. Am I being thick? How do you get stones using the pickaxe?

Right! I've done it, finally. What I've concluded is this: It doesn't matter if you're in first-person view or not and you don't need your axe raised; you just need to be in the right place relative to your boulder, and this appears to be somewhat random. I tried several different rocks, and only found one that would cooperate out of about 5 - and even with that one, I could only get the middle-mouse action to appear on one particular side of the rock. Probably the system doesn't work properly yet; but it could be that they've deliberately designed it to be awkward for some unfathomable reason. Anyway, persistence pays off.

Thanks for the responses, but I still can't get the feckin thing to work. I've tried 1st person I've tried 3rd person I've tried raising the axe I've tried lowering the axe I've tried crouching I've tried standing I've tried being on top of the rock I've tried being next to the rock I've tried every combination of the above I've even tried using LMB and just bashing the rock repeatedly as if it were a no-panted fresh spawn in Berezino I am doing something wrong, but I'm buggered if I know what. Maybe it's the wrong type of rock?

On a side note (ha!), they should add a basic paint programme so we can draw as well as write on the scraps of paper.

For the record, I seem to have recovered from my worm sickness! I just carried on as normal, I ate and drank whenever I found something, I kept my Energised and Hydrated statuses up, and the sickness appears to have gone. Obviously I lost the Healthy status while I was sick, and I haven't got it back yet, but I am no longer getting the messages about feeling nauseous/unsteady/dizzy/faint. Maybe I'll try cooking the worms next time.

In the Rezzed show and tell thing, Rocket said that they were considering making everything persistent eventually. So there is hope.

We don't need more players per server now. Not this very minute. It's a bit pointless and shortsighted to look at the game as it is now, with the current server performance, limited spawn points, lack of things to do, over-abundance of weapons and ammo, badly balanced loot generally, unfinished towns, unfinished gameplay features, etc and say the game doesn't suit more players based on that. People aren't going to be hanging around Berezino forever. Further down the line, when the game is more complete, it'll absolutely need higher server capacities - it'll make the game far more interesting, in tandem with added features and performance - but there's no hurry to do it until those future additions have been made.

That's probably another reason why I have accumulated so many! I don't fire my gun very often.

I've got shitloads. Only ammo I ever seem to find these days. I find it in houses, cafes, constructions sites, bus depots, agricultural buildings... everywhere. Couldn't say about military bases, cos I tend to avoid those places.

I have eaten worms, and am feeling nauseous and unsteady. Will this kill me? I have been drinking and eating since. My vision is ok; the "sick" status is yellow. Not sure I need a paramedic (yet!) - just some advice. Cheers!

If you have rags, you can find sticks in the woods and craft a splint. If not, post on this thread and get help: http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/160262-need-medical-assistance-in-dayz-sa-find-your-medic-here/ [EDIT: You can also poison yourself to commit suicide (it takes a while, though). Drink disinfectant or alcohol tincture; eat rotten fruit or worms.]

I think I remember someone saying that 64-bit servers would allow them to double the number of players per server and treble the amount of loot. So I'd say it's coming. And I can't see how it's be anything other than a good thing. 100-150 players would be awesome, server performance allowing.

Friends are always more important than one-off personal triumphs, man. Regards to Machete Master.

It works in third person. I think you have to be crouched though. (It's only actually worked for me once, however. All the other times I've tried it, "I haven't found a thing".)

This should be the new advertising slogan for the RAC.

Game Over

Mine crashes when I exit the game - every time - but not otherwise, so far.