pillock

Slings and catapults are definitely weapons that should make it into the game somewhere along the line. They just make so much sense in DayZ's scenario.

Maybe if you could throw the .22 rounds, they might actually deal some damage?

It's a shame you can't throw stones.

cowsheds

The community is an early alpha version of the planned finished product community. It is riddled with game-breaking buggers right now, but the objective at this point is to add as many new members to the community as possible, then iron out the problem ones later in the development cycle.

there's a spider in your ear

That exact thing happened to me with broken legs under the scaffolding - but it was in Svetlo instead. You cannot escape - hopefully there will be a fix introduced in time to allow you to crawl over low-lying objects... I got myself killed by shouting into the direct comms and bashing the wall with a crowbar to make noise and attract attention. It took maybe quarter of an hour!

I'm not sure there's much to agree with in your post, I'm afraid. As I understand the development process - which I freely admit may not be correct! - there is no such thing as a "fix" at this early stage. The objective is not to provide a well-balanced, properly working "game" until much further down the line. Everything is a work in progress, and much of the content is incomplete or functioning poorly. (And the timer for swapping servers is not pointless, by the way.) The objective is just to develop the game - the order in which new features and technical adjustments are made does not necessarily make sense from the player's point of view, but I assume that it does make sense from a development point of view. The "game" as a playable experience has got worse with the latest patch - I agree - but the development process is still going on, and it will get better again. When the game is released, nobody will care that version 0.44 was a horrible mess. It just doesn't matter, as long as we get the end product. Yes, we've paid money, but we've paid less than we would have if we waited for the final version. I still think it's a good deal.

I found a pair in one of those long (usually empty) sheds - the ones that look like farm warehouse type structures. Then some fucker snuck up on me and shot me dead a little while later so I lost them, not to find another pair since. But anyway. I would suggest you look in every building, barn and shed, and not assume that they spawn in a particular type of building only.

The way I interpret it, the timer does not actually make any real technical difference to server performance in itself - it doesn't require 180 seconds or 300 seconds or 600 seconds in order to load your character and inventory. But user connections and disconnections do cause general strain on the servers, and the timer is there only as a disincentive for players to swap around. It's a punishment - a blunt, inaccurately-targeted punishment - so that you and I will be less likely to want to disconnect from our current server and then connect to a different one. It's supposed to be a pain in the arse - that's what it's there for. They can't stop people from disconnecting and reconnecting, obviously - all they can do at the moment is try to encourage players not to do it unless they really need to (like at the beginning of your play-session and at the end). I may have got that wrong, but that's how I read it.

Literally

turn your jog-mode on. use the side-step keys. dont try to escape them, or to fight them: just dodge the lunges, run circles around them. after a while, you'll realise that you don't really even need the jog-mode on. You just avoid them. after that, you'll be able to pretty much ignore them from now on. you can carry on looting with a group of 5 or 6 flailing uselessly about you. they can be a pain in the arse if you're in a gunfight, but a bit of random-direction sprinting usually gets rid of them, I find. the zombies are a fucking joke, an insult to the rest of the game. But they will get better - they must get better

I found a Sporter .22 yesterday! With a magazine and 18/30 rounds already in! And 3 loose rounds next to it! Someone obviously left it there for me to find out of the kindness of their heart (or maybe they got fucked off with it and just ditched it). Anyway, in trying to insert the spare bullets into the magazine, I had to detach it - and it disappeared through the fucking floor. I was so angry that I jumped to my death off the nearest bridge.

The zombies are not worth their place in the game right now. I find the best policy if you aggro a zombie is just to continue about your business. They don't hit you as long as you keep moving and aren't really careless. It's not worth fighting them while the melee damage values are so fucked up, and it's not worth wasting ammo on them, given the instant respawn. Looking forward to improvements! The sooner the better!

I think I might try this. I don't even like gum.

It's not worse than the .22, surely? That thing is slightly less dangerous than an air rifle.

Yes. All they have to do is open up the .txt file where they have the code, type in "fix zombies" and "add vehicles", then release the code into the internet. Then we'll all be be playing a much better game. Why don't they just do that?

It won't be stagnant forever, but it does feel so right now. It seems like a long time since the last update, and this most recent one hasn't actually improved the gameplay experience - if anything, it's made it worse! Until we get hunting, cooking and - especially - persistent storage, I think the game will continue to feel stagnant because there won't be anything fundamentally different or new to actually do in the game from what there is now. At the moment, the only real appeal of the game is the urban tactical combat - in terms of apocalypse survival, there really isn't a game here at all, yet. -Killing zombies is not a satisfying mini-game, because of their glitchy behaviour, the crap melee mechanics and the instant respawning. This has to change, but it seems a long way off right now. -Exploration can be fun, but only for as long as it takes you to get to know the map (for many players, this appeal has long been out-lived by now). -Looting for looting's sake is not fun in itself - much of the kit you find is useless because the mechanics for their intended purpose aren't ready yet. Because of the tactical combat focus of current gameplay balance, player-to-player meetings are inevitably skewed towards hostility - and this exacerbates the frustration of people looking for a more survival/interaction-based experience. Being able to throw objects doesn't change anything - it's useless in itself as a gameplay feature (even when it works properly, which it doesn't currently). Being able to shoot bows and arrows and crossbows doesn't change anything - it's just another weapon to do the same things with as before. Being able to build fires for cooking won't change anything on its own, either - it provides a bit of variation and distraction, but doesn't change how you look after your character. Food is food, and it's plentiful already; cooking doesn't provide any benefits over and above eating stuff cold. I think the game will continue to feel a bit stagnant until we get the really juicy features like hunting, vehicles and persistent storage. Being able to set up "home" - and to defend it - will give you a reason for the PvP beyond "it's fun" and "there's nothing else to do". Building and maintaining a vehicle will give players a project to work on, as will barricading and base-building. Hunting - if done well - might prove to be a viable mini-game; zombie-killing might even evolve into that, too. Having deeper and more complex health/injury mechanics will force on players a change of focus in terms of what they can and can't do with regularity. The issue is not what the game is now: the issue is whether DayZ can keep pace - and therefore media coverage and player interest - with the emergent competitors. If it gets left behind in terms of player numbers DayZ will die, regardless of anyone's good intentions.

I haven't been arsed to read every whinge, slag-off, gripe, correction and insult on this thread, but I just wanted to say this: The current version on Stable branch now is probably the least fun to play that it's been since I first downloaded the Alpha in January. It's the controls, the zombie behaviour, some of the graphical effects, the frame-rates and the weapon damage values, I think. There may be other things, too. I won't say these features have been "broken" by recent updates - they were never "fixed" or "finished" in the first place - but I think their current state makes the overall gameplay experience less fun than it used to be. Does that matter at this early stage? I don't know. For me, personally: not really. I will probably continue to play the alpha and follow its progress. But I think there is a wider point here that has some validity: making the stable version worse - even temporarily - can have the effect of putting some people off playing. There is a general perception - right or wrong - that the alpha is not progressing very satisfactorily or quickly, and there are rival/copy-cat games taking over some of the hype. Does this maybe have a detrimental potential effect on DayZ's future? I think probably not, but I'm talking myself round in circles here, so I think I'll shut up...

I ticked all of them! And yet, I've never shot another player before. Only ever killed anyone with an axe or pick, and only then because they attacked me first. I always try to talk to people before being hostile... and this always leads to me being killed.

I just ignore them. As long as you keep moving, and you are not spectacularly careless about keeping an eye on where they are, there is very little chance of them hitting you, or disturbing a loot run. Why bother killing them, when it's more hassle than it's worth? Snipers, on the other hand, I can imagine would be inconvenienced...

sheds and barns, sir.

When have you seen a zombie?

It isn't fixed.

Walkie-talkies need to be more common! There's a lot of potential fun to had by using them, yet they seem to rarer than rocking-horse shit at the moment. (And they range ought to be extended.) sort it out, devs!