pillock

When ragdoll physics are in, I'm hoping that any firearm shot will knock people (and zombies) down, whatever the injury or lack of. That way, if you get the first shot in but their equipment blocks it, they can't instantly shoot back because they'll be on the floor (maybe temporary vision-blur to simulate windedness). And even though the press vest can block shotgun pellets indefinitely, you could blast someone across a room and maybe injure them like that?

I think they could implement a system of collecting sticks from trees or bushes in a similar way to how you can already collect berries - you need an axe or machete to perform the action, then there's an animation of you hacking at the tree or bush, then sticks appear for you to pick up. For server issues, you presumably couldn't have millions of items called "wooden sticks" just lying about everywhere in the woods. But good luck using an axe to cut down branches when you've already got a broken leg - you wouldn't be able to get any purchase at all. EDIT: Plus, I don't really even like the way that morphine and splints are a insta-cure for broken limbs. I think the healing process should be much, much longer, and splints should just be a temporary patch-up to enable you to limp - but running should be impossible while you're healing, and limp-jogging/walking should significant slow the healing process down. As for morphine... well, there needs to be a separation made between injury and pain for the mechanics to feel believable.

I like the general idea, but the biggest problem with it I can think of is defining what the grappling hook can and can't attach to. Buildings and surfaces would need a whole new set of properties. But the new physics do open lots of possibilities - what about attaching a rope to an crafted grappling arrow, for example?

Since they increased loot spawns recently, I've found quite a few maps. You find pieces of it, then combine them to make the complete thing. I think it's good. But it should be more accessible, and not require a loading screen when exiting map view. I don't agree that an in-build HUD map is desirable. Things like that should be kept to an absolute minimum.

There are lots and lots (and lots) of UK servers, many, many German ones, quite a few French, and an assortment of others.

But think of all the fun you could have if you discovered someone in the log-out sleep! Fill their backpack and pockets with rotten fruit, badly damaged pliers and copies of The Mayor of Casterbridge; handcuff them, and leave them be. It'd be hilarious.

I think this level of bastardry is pretty rare. It is the nature of the beast, though. Perhaps it'd be good if there was a way to track players you come into contact with across servers - a bit like if you're Steam Friends, but working in-game only. So you can hunt down specific bandits, or make friends without actually exchanging personal/Steam information. It might also cut down on combat-logging, since you could be followed. Repeated griefing could be mitigated by having the track only work for the life-time of that specific character - when either of you dies, you lose the track. Could that be made to work?

I once lost two med-kits out of my backpack when switching servers. I didn't lose anything else, and I wasn't transported back to new spawn status. It was baffling.

I'd go further - if you've got one of those great big mountain backpacks full of stuff, you can't roll over at all - just lean. That's a great idea - it needs quite a change to the way inventory space works, but it would be a big improvement.

10 minutes? Call it an hour - or even longer. I'd love it if people really were prevented from re-joining a gunfight they'd been eliminated from, or new spawns making a bee-line to their old corpse to pick up the same gear. You're dead: you start again from scratch in a new server where you don't know the positions of specific loot or other players. That'd be much better, in my opinion.

Those shields might be useless against high-powered rifles, but pretty effective in for melee combat. It requires extra animations, and you couldn't use it with a two-handed weapon as effectively. But it'd be great if it's possible. As with many other things, it cries out for a mechanic to penalise movement speed and dexterity of players carrying lots of heavy or awkward-sized gear.

Actually, in an idea world, I'd prefer it that you couldn't respawn back into the same server after you've died - not for a good length of time, at least. It'd increase the perma-death effect and make it more realistic, so you couldn't re-gear off your own body; and it'd and penalise the shoot-em-up gamers who don't give a shit when they die. But as to the main point of your suggestion, dead players turning zombie (only if killed by a zombie, mind) would be a great addition, as long as the game engine could handle it - and I don't know how realistic a hope that is.

If you're in 3rd person view, you just press: [compass number-keybind] > [spacebar] > [Enter] in quick succession, and you're there - it's still faster than doing it in the real world. I agree that tool-belts and necklace pouches are a good idea, though. There does eventually need to be some sort of movement/dexterity penalty implemented for having lots of kit strapped to you, I think.

I'm all for extending the log-out character persistence to several minutes. Five is definitely not too long - maybe even 10. Logging out should be treated as your character going to sleep - you shouldn't need an actual bed (though perhaps a health bonus for making yourself comfortable and/or malus for sleeping on hard/wet ground would be good). But you wouldn't settle down for a kip in the middle of a gunfight, either, so you shouldn't be able to log out (safely) if there's action going on around you. Thirty seconds is too short for this. BUT: it can't happen until they fix the ESP X-ray telescope vision zombies.

I like the idea of a sound effect best. The louder the sound, the stronger the breeze - and it could intensify when you're facing into the wind while lessening when it's at your back to give you direction. I the real world, without using visual indicators you have to test wind for direction by stopping, concentrating, and facing in different directions to gauge the feeling on your skin and hair. It's not an instant subconscious thing unless the wind is particularly strong. I don't see why we should be able to instantly tell in-game without effort. (I also don't agree that using the compass is particularly cumbersome - you just bind it to a number key, then press spacebar. It's easy.)

I used to turn on this big, bright security light outside the garage in the evenings to try and attract all the moths and maybugs, and then just blatt them with a tennis racquet. I lacked your capacity for evil scheming, apparently - just got straight to the point.

You play with toy guns and toy cars, you build bases out in the woods, and you pretend to be "Bandits and Heroes". DayZ is basically a pre-pubescent boyhood simulator. But with more swearing. All it needs is the ability to torture small animals that we catch, and it's there.

Really? I've never tried, but I would expect it to be pretty difficult. An effective, deadly weapon to be used against large or fast moving animals or people? Using materials you've scavenged and gathered yourself? I'd expect there to be quite a lot of fairly shit prototypes before you manage to make something you could rely on. And then you've got to practice using it. The reason firearms replaced bows and arrows in warfare was that they were easier to manufacture and use, wasn't it?

I just hope that running about for a little while in the rain doesn't start giving you pneumonia within 10 minutes, then killing you within half an hour. That would be balls.

From what I gathered from that Rezzed show and tell, the goal is to make all objects persistent. So, eventually, you'll be able to just drop your spare supplies in odd bushes and they'll stay there, pretty well hidden, until you get back (as long as you can remember where it was, natch). It also depends a great deal on how much they up the server capacities for players and zombies/infected/whateverwe'recallingthems. Zombies are so thin on the ground - and unthreatening when they do show up in their ones and twos - that you don't need to be out in the wilderness to be safe from them; and player footfall in the smaller settlements away from the coast is so low as to be nearly non-existent. You can call an entire village your own for hours - if not days and weeks - on end.

I assume you're referring to blood bags? Thing is, I've never had cause to use one. Not even once. I've been carrying round a bag of my own blood for a couple of weeks now, and a couple of salines as well - never used any of it. Hoping hte medical mechanics get a bit more relevant in due time. Can't think of anything else you'd want to (mis)label, though. Maybe tupperware pots of rabbit stoo, or jars of jam you've made?

There is so much loot lying about now that the risk of dying and losing your gear is so negligible it's not even worth thinking about.

Right. I've just found two copies of Hamlet in the same room. That's got to be an omen. Who's up for rehearsing a performance? We could tour and everything, if we're any good. Could do with a few more copies, but two is better than one. Plus you can get away with actors playing multiple parts in Shakespeare - maybe a bit of hat-swapping to indicate a change of role? I know some people find Shakespeare a bit impenetrable, but Hamlet is an exception in my view. It's a truly, truly great thing - and I'm not much of a literary geek. I saw a Hamlet production a year or so ago having never read or seen it before in any form. After you get used to the language it was like watching a really good movie for the first time.

It isn't supposed to be the Czech Republic, no matter what the topography is based on. It's got to be close to a thousand miles between the Czech and Russian borders - you have to cross Slovakia and the whole of Ukraine, which is a big country (bit smaller these days). And then there's the ocean. The Czech Republic is a long way from any coastline. Chernarus is a very poor place in its feel - the infrastructure is basic, there are no big towns, the land is largely undeveloped. The Czech Republic does not fit the bill politically, economically, culturally or geographically for a comparison with the setting of either Arma 2 or DayZ, I don't think. It seems more like the eastern Black Sea or Caspian Sea region to me.

Second, it has a coast.