pillock

Maybe it's the difference between the European and US servers? Still, if you want to avoid the KoS bastards, it's very possible. Wouldn't call myself a hermit: hermits stay in the same place and avoid all company at all costs. I travel the map. I do meet other players from time to time, but mostly I'm on my own. I've had 3 PvP deaths so far; my player kill count is zero; I've had scores of friendly player interactions. I maintain that it is possible to avoid KoS if you want to. EDIT: when I say "friendly" player interactions, maybe I should qualify that: I'm talking about player interactions that don't result in either party being killed or maimed. I've participated in a few robberies (from either perspective), and I guess they're not exactly "friendly" - but they needn't be fatal.

I'm incredibly disappointed at the lack of cricket bats in DayZ. Rocket's a flippin Kiwi, after all. Now there's a sport. I shall be spamming the suggestions forum until my demands are met.

About 100 hours so far. I always play on the fullest server available. I admit, I'm shit at gunfighting - and that's why I don't get into those situations very often. Running up and down the coast will probably get you shot at, yes - but it is a bloody silly thing to do, and I don't do that, either. I do venture into the big cities to get loot, and I do get shot at sometimes when I'm there, but I keep my head down and I generally get in and out with a decent haul. I don't go to military areas as a general rule - I don't want the military clothing, and I can find guns and ammo elsewhere. If you gear up to military levels and go looking for trouble in populated hostile areas, you will get into fights. If you don't behave or make yourself look threatening, you can have more friendly interactions with players you meet. That's just fucking obvious, I'd have thought?

I blundered into 2 fully armed-up commando-types in Elektro yesterday, not long after I'd spawned (died of falling off a building up north in my previous DayZ session). One of them held me up and relieved me of some ammo before letting me go; the other one gave me some food. I blundered into the 1st one again a little while later: he said, "Oh, it's you again," and then pointed me out a sniper he'd just killed, and said he'd cover me if I wanted to go and loot the body. To be honest, I just don't recognise the descriptions of people on this forum who talk about KoS epidemics and such. It's not my experience at all.

There is quite a big lake. But it doesn't have any water in it (yet?).

Thanks, but I don't think this discovery is going to enhance my gameplay experience very much.

No.

Keep going. Round up as many zombies as you can and get them all to chase you. Then jump off the harbour. Zombies can't swim.

Perhaps he just didn't anticipate just how popular the game would turn out to be, especially at this early stage. They must have grossed $40m plus. There does need to be a decision somewhere along the line about this - the system that's in place now is not fit for purpose for a fully fledged standalone title - this is not some indie mod any more.

Yeah, I agree. I don't know if it'd be possible, but what if player-server allocation was automated? So, you keep the many different individual servers, but the player doesn't choose which one he joins? You choose Hardcore or Regular, and then the game enters you into a server that is as close to full capacity as possible. If you want to play with friends, there could be a team-formation tool in the game menu that allows you to buddy-up before entering, and then the server-allocation system puts you all into the same server. Could that work? It would cut out the practice of people hopping between empty servers to gear up quickly, at least.

I'm not a naturalist (or a naturist), but in a map the size of Chernarus, it strikes me that there wouldn't be enough room for more than about 2 or 3 bears and maybe 1 (or 2 absolute maximum) packs of wolves, given the territorial ranges of those animals. I like the idea of predator animals to give the players who hide in the woods away from the zombies and other players something else to worry about, but I don't think you'd be constantly fighting them off everywhere you go. The inclusion of horses and tame dogs is not something I'm particularly excited about - I don't think it's necessary or terribly realistic. But if they do include them, I'd doubt that they'll be very common. I shouldn't think it'll be the case that every man and his dog has a horse, for example. In any case, I don't think it's confirmed that companion animals will definitely make it into the game, and if they do it'll be a long way off after many many other features have changed the balance of the gameplay a great deal from what we have now. I certainly don't think it's something to be getting overly worried about at this point.

Given that Facebook turns people into zombies anyway, perhaps this was the cause of the apocalypse in the first place.

Tee hee. Reminds me of when I used to watch the Scottish Premier League.

Can you tie people up with rope? Haven't had the chance to test it yet.

All we need is bigger server capacities. Then there'll be some proper danger. It's ok at the moment if you;re on a near-full server - Berezino, Elektro, Cherno are fun places to try and infiltrate. But a lot of other towns are mostly empty, which is a shame. I really like the fact that the big towns are full of nutters who kill anything that moves for fun. I don't join in with the PvP combat, particularly, but it makes it a real challenge to try and loot those areas. If they were just empty, it'd be boring. When you spawn on the coast and there's gunfire all around you, it immediately puts you on edge. You have to duck and crawl, keep out of sight and try to get away to safety, wherever you judge that to be. It;s great! Just go with it, try to survive the hostile environment, and enjoy the challenge. I have never once killed another player, (coming up to 100 hours) but I enjoy the danger created by the people who do.

Yeah, it is. But that's, you know, bad. Don't do that.

Before they make you carry them in your hands if you don't have a strap or rope, I'd want to be able to use my two hands independently for carrying. I can carry a rifle in one hand, and an axe in the other while I'm walking around - I only need to use both hands if I'm actually using the gun or axe.

The man Rocket has got to see this.

There are birds in the game already. I'm assuming they're cosmetic in DayZ, but is it not possible to shoot birds in the ArmA games? That'd make a lot of sense within the hunting mechanics - and you could use the feathers for making arrows (or tickling people with).

If the health system really moves forward, and being cold and tired has a big effect on your character's ability to function, maybe matches will become valuable? I mean, bullets aren't a very stable currency, in all honesty: one big gunfight and you've caused an economic crash.

I think tame dogs and horses are a bit far-fetched, personally. To me, it seems more likely that there'd be packs of feral dogs that attack you - a bit like wolves, but in more urban areas - rather than strays that you can buddy up with. And horses... they'd be extremely difficult to catch, for a start. And then you'd have to break it in and teach it carry things, to tolerate a rider, to respond to your commands. And you'd have to learn how to ride, yourself - it's not some innate human behavioural trait. I just don't think it's believable in DayZ's setting. Maybe if you spent a long, long time working on it - weeks or months - but there's no way you should just be able to run up to a horse that's standing about, and just jump on and ride away.

Bears and wolves: to give you another thing to worry about if you're spending your time in the wilderness away from the zombies. Dogs and horses: because... alright, I kind of agree this idea is a bit mad... but I guess just because it's plausible to the scenario?

New wind effects are pretty strong?

I doubt farming's got much relevance to DayZ. You'd have to wait so long for anything to grow that it wouldn't be worth it. But animals are coming, like it or not. The dangerous ones and the food-source ones for sure (and possibly quite soon); the tameable ones not definitely confirmed.

I'm looking forward to wearing an entire bearskin, and running around the woods near the coast shouting, "RRRAAAARRRRGGGHHH" at new spawns