robertstuartmarshall

I really, really do not like the idea of dogs (dogz?) in this mod, be they trainable or feral packs. Super fast, zig zagging zombies are hard enough to deal with without also having to worry about fast moving packs of killer dogs. The only way I would even consider liking the inclusion of feral dogs is if they attack anything, zombies or survivors, and even then I just see them as too game breaking. Just imagine a full 60 player server where everyone also has a dog ... no, just no. Has this idea suddenly become so popular because of Fallout or something? The mod is bloody perfect as it is now, and I would rather have the bugs ironed and server code tightened rather than anything as massive as adding dogs which would just add to rocket's wprkload and strain the servers even more. What next? Robot butlers and PipBoys? PLEASE, rocket, don't include dogs, cats or parrots into this mod. I know it is people's opinions if they do want them, just like this is MY opinion. Dogs = facepalm.

- clown feet. Sick of my stupid, normal sized feet in game. - cartwheels. Sick of crawling through towns, I want to cartwheel past the zombies. - eye lasers. I don't need to explain this one, surely? - military blockades. Very random and very rare spawns of 2 humvees and 8-10 soldiers blocking off roads. They are here to kill anyone to stop the infection spreading and trying to take them out alone would be deadly, so a group assault is needed. Make it so that if they do get wiped out, the last soldier detonates explosives in the vehicles to stop survivors from using them to flee the infected are.

Yeah, every server is just timing out after giving me "Waiting for server response" for at least 5 mins. I hope nothing bad has happened to the servers, but they should just shut them down rather than having them on and be unable to connect to.

I was playing 1.5.7 and was on my 3rd or 4th day, doing well. I was right up in the north east of the map, not far from that wrecked ship on the rocks. I logged off safe and sound yummy. When I joined a server today I was right down on the south coast, near Kamenka with many a happy spawner firing off Makarovs nearby at anything that moved. This happened once, but I think that was down to the jump from 1.5.6 to 1.5.7. This latest one was saved in 1.5.7 and started again on 1.5.7. No biggy, but i did get killed by the train of zombies that were rushing about thanks to all the gunfire noise lol

I'm currently on my 4th day with this char and I have only killed 70 or so zombies so I see myself as a minor success story who should be held aloft by any who see me and spoon fed Franks'n'Beans. I await your noms.

lol I saw the thread title and was all ready to rush in here, anger blazing, and say "No, I love the game as it is with no damn quest markers or storyline to complete" .... then I read your post, and calmed down. I think the direction on the forums would definitely be a good thing, because as of right now the Suggestions section is making me cringe with just how specific and game changing some of them actually are. The game is amazing as it stands, and whereas it does need a few tweaks here and there to do with AI and glitchy stuff like tents disappearing, overall I think rocket has got this game and it's style down perfectly. Maybe if he did road map the next few months with some definite areas he is working on that would stop all the "I demand you put this in ..." crap.

If a few clans get their teeth into this mod, that would possibly be the way to handle this. A "safe" area policed and patrolled by a group of players, but at the same time always with the possibility of nastiness either breaking out inside or a bandit or 2 taking a pop at the guards, etc. The bar area in Stalker could be almost implemented where there is a large compound/town guarded and patrolled but also able to be attacked, and right in the centre a barn or similar where you have to holster your gun or be shot and killed, or similar. I mainly back this idea just because I ****** love Stalker.

What is it with these players who almost demand that everyone play the game the way they do or else it's an unfair advantage/ "No 3rd person, cheaters" "No crosshairs, use iron sights always, nubs." "No going into the game's options and adjusting it to how it suits you, unfair." What next? "How dare you customise your keys? you should play with them exactly as i do waaah." "Omg, he is using a 46" Tv when I say it should be played on a 20" monitor derp." I use third person. Why? To gain an unfair advantage in PvP? Nope. The game is just so much smoother, better looking and to me suits the open world style a lot more. I use crosshairs quite a bit. Because it's easy mode? Nope. In a PvP situation where i have time to choose my shot I do use the iron sights, but when getting ganked by a train of zeds I think the crosshair mixed with third personb sort of simulates the wild fire from the hip method I would use myself if panicked and cornered as it also allows smoother and faster movement. I adjust gamma and brightness when it is too dark. To gain an unfair advantage? Again, nope. I use it because for the last few weeks I have been stuck on nightshift and have found myself on pitch black servers where I cannot see a thing and 99% of the time I put a flare up, some bandit shoots me in the face. Great fun, I admit, but as I have so far only managed to get on one US server that had daylight time I now and then like to actually be able to see a little bit. Having the gamma up to 1.5 or so doesn't make the night time suddenly super light and I have struggled to actually make out a fair few things like zombies and players a lot of the time as they all blend into the black and whiteness of the world. As a 98% PvE player, I am sick to death of the uber l337s preaching at me that everything I do is because I want to cheat or gain an unfair advantage. **** off. I just want to play and enjoy the game, and if that makes you cry, go and play only on hardcore servers and leave the rest of us to try and have fun in our gaming. Thank you/.

Yes, but what if he spends it all on blackjack and hookers? Think about the children.

Yes, it is against the rules and there is no excuse for doing it. This game is about survival and trying to last as long as possible with the one character. Getting chased by a pack of zeds is part of the game if you have either alerted them, shot at them or had them set on you. D/C'ing to "cheat death" is very heavily frowned upon and for good reason. It is just a game, you will die at some point. Why get so upset at how you die? I have been chomped n by zeds once or twice and not once did it cross my mind to dc. I just facepalmed and restarted - oh, and laughed.

@rinaun: strange, I have sent YouTube vids of this mod to 3 friends and had 4 others play it in turns with me at my house, and every single one of them were both madly in love with and aware it was alpha - amazed was the reaction of one. To those of us who don't just want yet another L4D or CoD - both great games in their own right, but not to my own personal liking - this game is a Godsend and I am so happy playing it that I would happily buy it now in it's current state. Yes, it has problems, but compared to hundreds of other big name Alpha and Beta tests I have been involved in, Day Z stands out as being simply staggering for what such a small group have managed to put in. The simple rule is: if you don't like the alpha as it stands, leave feedback in the relevant section of the forum and then leave to play another game that you love.

This is a question I am curious about, especially when it comes to the zombies who give chase to me from a town and end up catching me miles away in the forest/countryside. I have only been killed twice in that way when I have alerted the zombies and then had that hilarious Benny Hill chase through the beautiful countryside to end up as a zombie platter when I either try to turn and face them or they catch me after I stuck on a bush. Do they stay in that area where my corpse now is or do they shuffle back to where I initially had them spot me? Or do they just disappear? I have never seen the after events because both times I have ran in such a random pattern that there is simply no way I could ever locate the corpse ever again, not even with a map and compass. Just curious.

Why the dirty swine .. eat me? EAT ME? by jingo, I will have none of that.

One thing that really stands out about this thread ... a huge proportion of the people who want to keep the new massive numbers of zombies hurl around a lot of insults in their posts, be they veiled or obvious. Stuff like "faggots", "learn to play, nubs", etc or condescendingly giving out basic advice that they could actually see a lot of people tried if they actually read other people's posts. I think that says a lot, to be honest, I really do. I am no care bear complainer, and in some ways I like the new zombie count, but the Arma AI and engine is just not crisp enough to make it awesome. I proned all the way through a village, made no noise, got by at least 10 zombies and made it into a house where even when proned, a zombie suddenly saw me through a wall and actually attacked me through a wall. Please tell me, oh leet Arma 2 god players, how would you and your skills get that not to happen, eh? I then had the whole village worth of zombies assault me. I enjoyed it, but it made me think that as long as they are super fast and can see/attack through walls it is no longer a survival game, it's more like CoD Zombie edition.

Aha, that's what happens. Thank you for the swift responses, helps stifle my curious mind :)

... but they do run around and hurt you?

I myself think that a lot of the problems we are facing with the new zombie spawns are more to do with the Arma 2 engine not being able to let us deal with the new hordes properly, and not really anything to do with how rocket has implemented it. When I first played on 1.5.7 I was initially horrified by the amount of zombies in the small towns, as their "patrol" routes were very heavy and over crowded, but ever since I started playing this game a few weeks ago I have been a very cautious player. I only run upright when I am being chased tbh, crouch rushing everywhere in the countryside and prone creeping in towns with the occasional crouch when I feel it is safe. So I did what I always do, and observed for a good few minutes the best way to get to the building I wanted and made sure I could get there with minimum encounters, or even better none. I proned and slow crawled through the zombie patterns and after a very tense few minutes got to the doorway of the building. Arma engine problem number 1 - prone and doorways do NOT go hand in hand. I got stuck lol so I got into crouch position and held shift to slow crouch in. This also took a fair few attempts to actually get through the door, but luckily for me I had timed my entry correctly as no zombies were close enough to see my jittering toon wibble his way through the door. YES! I was in. Arma engine problem number 2 - getting items from stashes is bloody hard in prone and again I had to spend an age shuffling about so that I could even get my G button to recognise there was indeed loot nearby, but I did get there eventually and reaped the rewards for my careful approach work. I was now planning my exit route when up reared ... Arma engine problem number 3 - zombies see and attack through walls! EEK!! I was proned in the entrance hallway, scanning the outside for zombies when I heard the distinctive zombie noise for "I SEE BRAIIIINNNNSSSEEESSSSS!!" and wondered where I had been spotted from. Turns out it was from behind the wall to my rear where there was no window or doorway, just a solid wall. A little panicked I tried to back up and got slapped by a zombie who was now in the process of trying to ghost walk through the solid wall. I managed to get through the second doorway into the larger dining room area of the house and got ready to defend my position from the alerted zombie. Having no silenced weapons I had to make do with my Winchester and thought if this one zombie comes in I may even try to get him in the dining room and then use the table to trap him whilst I made a relatively quiet exit. Nope, not happening. He came running in and glitched himself right in the dining room doorway but worst of all he was swinging his arms and hitting me from an impossible distance. I had no choice but to shoot ... and that is when Mr. Madness showed his head and I got bum rushed by every zombie that had ever existed throughout every zombie movie and game. It was a tight affair, and I managed to survive. Had great fun, too, but then realised that the Arma 2 engine is going to be a massive problem when trying to deal with these new spawns. I have no idea how rocket is going to get this to work, as it just seems that this is how Arma 2 handles it's civilian AI - ie weirdly. A lot of zombies in towns is a great idea on paper, but like a few canny posters have mentioned, the Arma engine is not really designed for Splinter Cell super ninja approaches. I hope this can be resolved as I really like the idea of having to watch the zombies to pick my optimal survival route as that is how I play the mod. Hell, it may even be one of the better ways to enforce good teamplay and cut down on the new influx of troll bandits who just happily shoot any passer by without any interaction or forethought, rather just to see the attacked player get angry in chat. Great work so far, rocket, happy birthday etc ... let's see how this pans out and let's hope you can find a workaround to deal with the engine's issues. The Arma 2 engine is a thing of beauty, it really is, but I feel the scope and vision you have for this mod may get a bit hamstrung by the engine in the long run.

The abusive emails is beyond excuse and need to be dealt with rather harshly, in my opinion. There is a forum right here for that sort of thing. The amount of threads that have appeared since 1.5.7 is astounding but I'd rather that than emails to Rocket and co. attacking them for their decision, implementations and problems. All I can suggest is that for each update you make, you either start a specific thread - "Update xxx feedback. Post it ALL here." - or a subforum where you delete all the threads and feedback from 4 versions or more ago to keep it clutter free. I am also getting damn fed up of BOTH sides of the spectrum, not just the over offensive complainers. The "huh we leet Arma 2 players, go back to CoD/BF/Halo (basically, whatever is the new hipster anti-game of choice), rocket RULES, game awesome" are as bad in my eyes as they too are offering nothing constructive and in effect are just fanning the flames. I think that you should maybe make an announcement thread where you say that even though you thought it was mere manners not to spam your personal email with vitriolic hate, as from now ANY email sent to you that you deem inappropriate will be dealt with by a temp ban, suspension on forum, name and shame or some other such punishment. It should have been taken as read already, but obviously some people need a prod or a good kick up the arse. Anyway, thanks for the great mod and I hope I can offer my feedback, but tbh after reading the forum and mods/your responses today, I am now a bit scared to actually leave any feedback on any new update as I feel I will get jumped upon by either the main team or your new legion of "YOU SO NOOB!" asshats.

Whereas I will never want rid of PvP and bandits, I think your EVE story is disgraceful. Yeah, he was trusted and maybe they shouldn't have trusted him, but for him to steal everything that a lot of players had built up is just wrong in my view. That one person had a great laugh and enjoyed the spoils, but what about the others? A lot may have been mature and just shrugged it off as a life lesson, others may have been really upset, some may have quit. This is gaming, about playing games. There is enough shit and horror every time I turn on the Tv or walk out of my door and I do not want that in my games. Be a bandit, and shoot people, that's part of the game. But to want to be able to insinuate yourself into a group and then really try to screw them over when you have gained their trust? No, just no. Go join your local parliament if you want to get kicks like that. One person should not be able to make a load of players want to stop playing the game.

I am not sure about the new amount of zeds ... I have spent the last few days creeping about, avoiding zeds when necessary and making dashes into towns when I have to and had racked up just 36 kills. Which I liked. I just logged in to a 1.5.7 server and was stunned at just how many zeds were around a 4 house town. I managed to sneak into a house and look for stuff, but then a zombie spotted me through a wall - I was crouched totally still - and suddenly a stream of zombies came running through the door. I rocketed to 61 kills from 36 in just that one encounter, and whilst it was sort of fun, it felt wrong. It felt like CoD but with plain zeds instead of Nazi ones, not a Deer Hunter of the future style survival game. I did nothing at all to attract their attention, so how is that avoidable then? I could be the best player in the world and if a zed wants to use his x-ray vision to see through walls there is not a thing I can do to avoid that encounter. I dunno, I just don't know ...... *shakes head*

The good and the bad. Great for Rocket, getting not just exposure but highly positive exposure as well. Totally deserved for this mod. Bad. More trolls, more people demanding change on the forums - "game 2 hard loloz", "Shorten day/night cycle derples", etc - and harder to get on servers.

+1 to offline food/water consumption -1 to changing day/night cycle ... I feel safer in the dark.

Is there some reason for this I do not understand, because at the moment, every page on this forum alone takes a really long time to load? from clicking on a thread or section to it actually opening can be anywhere from 15-50 seconds and I am wondering if there are known issues which I have missed. It's no great big deal, and in the long run, starvation in Africa is a much bigger problem, but I have to admit I am curious if there is an answer.

Yes, really improved since the other day. Much better.