iBane

Yeah, like UBER grinding. It is important to make high-level goals (acquiring rare loot, building a base, repairing a heli, etc.) challenging, but they must be realistically achievable. That little discussion sounded like the coolest stuff may be achievable only to large groups of aligned players or people with endless time on their hands. It could be a mistake to have top-tier rewards contingent on these two parameters. It's just speculation at this point, but that's what it sounded like.

Dean said at Rezzed in the Roadmap discussion, some parts/items may only spawn on certain branches of the hive...meaning you'd not only have to scavenge your regular server for the parts/items you want, but other servers as well. Not sure how this is supposed to add something to the experience or increase immersion, but that's what the man said. Opens the door for some epic bartering and epic banditry.

Make-shift/craft-able ghilliesuit and camo face paint? Sure. I'm all for options and variety. Low-priority at this moment, but sure.

All three are bandits. The first two are professional bandit-survivors. The last is something else...perhaps. I have no problem with the first two and when I take on the role of bandit I prefer to play that way myself and only shoot on site if the opponent has done something to deserve it (shooting at me for no reason, shooting at fresh spawns, etc.) However, if I get caught inside a building (essentially trapped) sometimes it's just best to shoot first and ask questions later. This is particularly tempting at high-traffic, high-KOS death zones like Balota and the NEAF. Even in this case I like to give a warning rather than just KOS, but that's me. Unfortunately, we don't know the circumstances which placed Mr. KOS Bandity-Guy in at the top of those steps. Maybe you caught him there and he felt trapped and decided to shoot first and ask questions later. Or, perhaps, he was just camping the those steps for nooby loot/kills. Could be either one really. I've met plenty of reasonable players and I've meet complete azzhatz who camp the spawn points on the East Coast Road just to take pot shots at fresh spawns. It takes all kinds I guess...

Personally I find it somewhat silly the maps work in-game now. Maps spawning in 1/8th fragments is pretty unrealistic. It would make more sense to spawn full maps in different states of decay, with a chance to find a pristine version. Maybe the less-than pristine versions would have sections missing or obscured detail, but it doesn't make sense to suppose someone cut up all the maps into 1/8 squares. Also why would a map take up the inventory space as a can of food? Maps take up basically zero physical space IRL. In addition to the plausibility problems, there are the practical problems; because they are absolutely useless in-game (much easier to just use dayzdb.com's map) and they occupy a precious inventory slot there is no reason to bother with them in-game. They are just a useless items occupying spawn points. The Arma dedicated map slot makes much more sense to fix the inventory problem and moving away from the fragmented map to a full map in different states of decay would fix the collection problem. This is of course a very minor issue that need not be bothered with atm.

Finally someone has figured out that variety of zombie clothing and face textures are a mission-critical aspect of this game's functionality and integrity. No greater priority could possible exist in early development...I just don't see why this is so hard for this community to understand

It is amazing to me the degree to which people cannot manage their expectations or honestly gauge what weight their opinions should carry. Worst zombies? No. Worst community? Very possibly.

How is this not a final judgment? When you said "it could have been so great" you made a definitive statement whether you meant to or not.

Yes I understand. I've not been on stable since the last patch. This is a bug if it's on Stable branch. They won't test stuff like this on Stable.

I also meant to ask if you are playing on the experimental branch?

Many servers are setup to avoid the night part of the time cycle. Time passes, but there are server restarts every few hours intentionally to rest time to day as well as force new loot to spawn.

Well, what I mean is that they are messing around with time cycle in-game so their testing/new code is likely the cause...may or may not be intentional This is probably also why in-game time cycle isn't matching-up with the timestamp on the server browser.

Delivering a final judgment on an prototype that is maybe 50% completed...brilliant...

Don't let the door hit you in the...I mean...BYE!

They are playing with the time cycle right now. I believe they are testing an accelerated time system as part of this. This may mean the server browser time stamp isn't correct.

No explanation given as far as I know. Just stated in the changelog.

The lag/desynch problems can absolutely result in invisible zombies and players

Frankie agree with you both. This should happen, but won't because people suck: TLDR: just watch the first 30 seconds of the vid where Frankie tells you why he posted this vid.

Hicks said earlier this week he thought he'd uncovered the cause of at least 50% of the broken loot-spawn points.

This^^^ Usually it's the right mouse button for me.

This I understand. In particular I'm asking about the OP's assertion that the energized message appears at energy level being 25% filled. I'm just looking for data/reference/substantiation on this.

Hey, great topic and I've been curious about this based on Merino's vids. Do you have a reference to substantiate your findings on energy stockpiling and when the messages appear?

This isn't how it's supposed to work? I heard on twitter that rags are the new handcuffs... And to the female zombie who jump/glitched into the ground...LMAO...perfect 10

You're post is fair (I'd have said excellent if you'd have ended it after the 2nd paragraph.) That being said I think you should take a break for a while and wait for more substantial content to be added. The addition of more in-game activities will help a lot (vehicles to repair/maintain, hunting, base building, crafting/cooking, etc.) as will more functional locations to find gear and do these things in (i.e. fixing broken loot spawns, adding a loot respawn mechanic, new locations, new buildings.) People will be busy doing stuff other than just trying to kill you and you'll have more locations at which to focus on PVE or survival. Yes, the hardcore PVP crowd can still fight it out at their favorite hot spots and more power to them. I just won't be there unless it's absolutely critical or I get bored again ;)