pillock

I've only ever found food tins and hacksaws, maybe the odd hoodie or beanie hat. And even they were pretty few and far between.

Yes. Hopefully they'll introduce a 'limping' animation somewhere down the line. And then make it so broken legs take several game hours to heal. I'd also like to be able to make a crutch out of a shovel, or something like that.

While I agree there should be infinite sticks in the woods, splinting you leg probably shouldn't restore you to full sprint mode.

I want this:

Fine. I'm sure they will, eventually. Posting when you're angry is usually a bad idea, though, because you're guaranteed to receive a shitstorm of abuse in return!

Yeah, but if you know how the game works, why are you deliberately going into danger without anything to bandage yourself with? The injury mechanics need a LOT of work to bring them up to speed with the overall level of depth that's planned for this game... but until then, you have to use the mechanics as you know them to be now, and adjust your actions in a sensible way. Rage posting about it on the forum is bound to bring you in for flak. The game isn't retarded, the game is unfinished - as you well know.

I usually taunt people before they kill me.

They should make driving realistic - so you have to use the clutch and change gear manually and stuff. And if you put a wheel on the grass at speed, you spin or roll!

Then we are all agreed! What a happy place this is. Now I'm just off to run around Berezino firing my Shotgun in the air and shouting rude things into direct chat.

I used to live in Scotland, and the Munchy Box is one of the things I miss most about it since I left. Being the heart-attack capital of Europe is small price to pay for such innovative and tasty cooking!

All of it is useful - in no way would I dispute that. The only reason I felt compelled to reply to this thread in the first place was that I consider the overall theme of these 20 rules of thumb to be promoting a particular sort of playstyle, and some people were touting it as a definitive list for all new players to follow - and I don't agree with that in principle. I just wanted to point out that there are other ways to play the game that don't require following these suggestions at all.

As an admirer or Scottish cuisine, I just need to be able to deep fry everything in batter. Most especially: Mars bars, pizza, ready-meal lasagna.

I'm not dismissing any of the 20 rules of thumb as useless - I'm just saying that I don't follow very many of them and I haven't died to other players very much. I don't think they are all particularly necessary unless you are deliberately going looking for gunfight action in the populated towns and airfields - and that is only one of many ways to play DayZ. Things like "Don't stand still for long on top of a tall building" are obviously sound advice. Getting to know the map and where the hotspots are is sound advice. But the main thing I would emphasise from the whole post is this one single point: That is, you don't know what other players intentions are - they are strangers in a lawless scenario. You don't know what they are going to do, and you should never expect anyone to conform to any particular standard of behaviour, because there is no reason for them to. That doesn't mean I never trust anyone, but it does mean I'm on my guard if I'm particularly worried about dying (and, to be honest, dying is not much a set-back as the game stands currently). I've only died at the hands of another player twice in my ~110 hours. The first time I spawned in the middle of a gunfight and found myself standing next to a guy with a shotgun within about a minute. He told me he'd protect me, gave me some food, then inexplicably blasted me dead a few seconds later. The other time, I met a fellow fresh spawn on the coast, talked to him for a bit before he suddenly said, "I want your pants" and punched me unconscious before I could react - I chose to respawn rather than wait until I woke up. The whole of the rest of the time I've played DayZ, I've managed to avoid getting killed by other players, and I've barely followed 2 or 3 or Etherimp's 20 guidelines. I just wanted to point out that you don't need to play at being a commando in order to avoid being killed. You just need to be aware of your surroundings and not take for any situation for granted. Also: it's more difficult to hit a moving target. I honestly don't think it's any more complicated than that.

I don't want to sound too critical, because I know this is a well-intentioned thread, but I don't agree with or follow very many of your rules of thumb. I think they're only really relevant if you're playing as a gunfighter - and not everyone does. The great thing about DayZ is that you don't know what other players you meet are up to - you don't know their motivations or intentions. If everyone's following these bland guidelines - or any specific guidelines at all - , then it diminishes the potential variety. As I said, I don't want to criticise too much, as I'm sure these rules of thumb work well for your playstyle - I just wanted to point out that they are in no way necessary for everybody who plays the game, even if they are new to DayZ. EDIT: I do like this one, though:

I've tried doing this as well, but the server resets are too frequent at the moment. Leaving all your best kit amongst the trees when you go down into town to talk to someone is ok in theory, but once you lose it all to a server reset it becomes a lot less appealing to do it ever again.

... and it were possible for melee combat to not be shit.

1. Stilts 2. Unicycles 3. Bowling balls 4. Mummification 5. Kilts

If it becomes possible to repair ruined items, possibly linked to a skill-based system that was mooted, then it'd absolutely make sense for players to deliberately damage or ruin guns that they find. It'd also add depth to the game if most guns that spawn are damaged when you find them (and consequently less accurate). But until the repairing mechanics are in place, I don't think it should be possible to damage them. It'd wreck the game.

A good day's hunting!

Raft building!

Not sure when. Bit it will happen. In the mean time, just make allowances for the fact that zombies cheat.

Have you not tried doing this? Because you can! I agree, exchanging one for the other could be made easier, so you don't have to drop the hand-held one on the floor and faff about with the inventory; and it'd be nice if you could use the melee weapon 'slot' for a gun. But I would actually like to see us being able to craft slings and straps out of rope/tape/rags/whatever, and carry lots of things - it could be balanced by the weight-carrying slow-you-down mechanism (which I believe is in the works), and by disallowing you from carrying ANYTHING on your back unless you have constructed or found an appropriate attachment

I'm kind of hoping it'll be possible to import a very simple Paint-like programme into the game, so we can line-draw on notes.

Yes. Yes it is. Internet military historians are hilariously easy to provoke into righteous fury.

Stop it, please. I was only joking. On 'cowboy hats': Anyone who thinks they are only worn by American cowboys is an idiot. Anyone who thinks they don't exist in eastern Europe is an idiot. It would be great if your choice of hat actually hat effected your body heat - hopefully we'll eventually get mechanics for keeping warm or cool, depending on weather and time of day, and cowboy hats and sun glasses will become more than just a way to try and make your character look like 'The Man'.