rocket

jesus it's like $10 or something on steam :) Costs about that to go see a crappy movie :P

Crap - I meant 1.4.24 (which is sitting on my HD) :) Range Finders have been in game. They're much rarer in 1.4.24. Release schedule 2 hours (once I finish work).

You need combined operations. It is a bundle of ArmA2 and ArmA2:OA. BAF/PMC are optional DLC's. If you do not purchase them, you will have low resolution models. ArmA X includes all of these, I believe, for one price.

Fixed in 1.4.24

Done in 1.2.24

Slow zombies would require many, many more before they were a threat. And then there is the problem of disposing of bodies. Even checking on the NUMBER of dead bodies takes a fair amount of CPU at present so cleanup is done rarely and carefully. That and personally, I don't really like the traditional concept of zombies - they reflect societal fears that we have outgrown somewhat. Modern "28 days later" zombies reflect the fear of infections, of things we can control and see, the loss of our humanity, the breakdown of order, nameless/borderless enemies. The modern zombie interest is really, imho, a social commentary on the fears of modern society. They capture nicely the things we fear. This implementation was chosen because the infected are threatening, but their number can be controlled and balanced so the servers can be up, living, and remain stable for 24 hours. I realise this is a disapointment to some, but if it comes down to something being cool but costing performance or not being workable - then its not included.

To kick the ball off, I put $10USD on

I'd like to put my support behind JonnerZ. He came to us at a time when we were still very small, he was kind and friendly and very helpful - very trusting and his server has taken the bulk of the load during the development. Host Altitude is the company he runs, and I really can't say how helpful him, Tonic, Profan, and the 6 other hosters have been to this project. Bandwidth costs alot, these guys are forking out BIG money for this, and getting very little in return. And they're doing it without demanding a thing from the dayz team and giving us root access to our boxes. Restores whatever faith in humanity I lost watching you all slaughter each other on the servers :D

I have been highly resistant from taking money. Money fucks things up. I don't want your money, because then we have to manage it. We don't manage anything, we don't promise anything, we don't argue - we just make stuff and you see it when its done. However, if people want to organize their own group, and collect donations to setup a server - thats great. Then we don't have to fuck around with finding the money, managing it, having someone embezzle it, getting a bad rep, etc... etc... People are greedy. This mod is about the ART. This mod is about the MOD. This mod is about YOUR STORY. If you bring money into a project like this, at least at this stage - that's what it becomes about. There is a time and a place for commercializing something, but that is not now. No studio could ever develop this because this project was a risky proposition. I have pitched it before and been told it would never work and people would never respond to it. Personally, I think games need to "grow up" with their audience. People want real emotion, real feelings - human emotions. These include anger and frustration, disappointment, despair. They don't want stories forced down their throats, when they can make their own. But like I said, commercial models can't take the kind of risks a project like this can. Nothing is more terrifying for a company, than this kind of project - which takes nothing, is successful with nothing and asking for nothing. That's the edge of development, and its the only place you can really, truly, experiment. I believe experimentation in a commercial studio game setting is largely dead, it's about production (as it perhaps should be).

The reason for its current implementation is three fold: 1. Engine Time is the server's frame of reference. the server needs a frame of reference by which it can measure its activities and when to do things. It uses time for this purpose because it is cheap (CPU cycles wise) and engine supported (always better than scripted). To speed this up, would require divorcing the engine from its own time cycle, and applying another layer. That layer means an additional code spawn, VERY dangerous on the server which is already running close to its limits. 2. Speeding up the time is bad code To speed up time, you need to "skipTime". This command has many effects, beyond simply changing the time. Simulation time is extremely important for, say, the chemlights which last 1 hour of game time. If you skip the game time, the chemlights will have to be altered. All weapons depend on the time, it is a critical component. The skipTime command was not intended to be used rapidly during quick succession. It was intended to be used once or twice to change the world to a new situation. I believe it causes a calculation on all units that affects their "knows about" in relation to targets, so you are forcing the client/server to perform alot of shit each time you invoke it. 3. Time is relative to the observer (to performance) Not really a reference to relativity. What i means is that time is not constantly sync'd, and game time runs at a separate rate depending on the FPS of what it is running on. When the server drops below 15 FPS time begins to slow down. This doesn't matter too much in our current configuration, because time gets sync'd whenever someone joins so the progression doesn't effect things. But if you introduce time skipping you will end up with the weirdness other mission designers have. The reason this has been successful is because I am ruthless with features. If they don't support the overall system, and can't be optimized -they are not included. Any systems I write that cannot be optimized are removed. A successful mod/game, imho, is far more about what you don't put in, than what you do. Hope that gives some background.

Its not the character saves (aka the HIVE data) that causes you're bandwidth. It's the updates between player -> server -> all other players that causes you the bandwidth. HIVE itself sends very tiny preprocessed strings between itself and the database. You're talking about 1k per transaction max, probably not even that. Yes we CAN limit to updating just on disconnect, thanks to the new model. Most users will now notice it loads you in exactly where/how you were when you logged off. This system was introduced to prevent the common exploits.

Are you guys using steam? If so, use verify game cache. If retail, reapply the 1.6 patch. If that doesn't work, reinstall. It probably means your install is corrupted. This can happen very easily.

There is no way to escape this unfortunately. The server itself is the conduit to all other players, it receives all the positional updates for: 50 players 500-1000 bodies 100's of loot items (dynamic in/out) 500-700 zombies (moving, positional updates, dynamic in/out) The system is already HEAVILY optimized beyond ArmA2's standard configuration, hence why it can actually run with that kind of load. Sending out that kind of information results in some heavy traffic. If anything bandwidth usage will increase. Only way to lower bandwidth is to lower player numbers.

Interesting concept.

Just to clarify, Zombies can see 30 degrees either side of the direction they are facing, the distance dependent on your pose, what terrain you are on, how fast you are moving, and how much light their is.

Its a bug, my fault. It will be fixed in today's patch, in preparation for the inevitable weekend insanity.

If you are at that screen, your character cannot create. Send your ArmA2OA RPT file to [email protected] so we can see why it is happening. Try going back to player selection screen, and then back in. 90% of the time it will resolve this issue.

I will look into this. To be honest it is probably the debug text, the good thing being that it will go. To test this I need to get you on the development server that does not have the debug text. Do you use skype or teamspeak?

1.4.18 is testing on NY1

NY1 is currently testing the new update. I am very, very close to a solution.

FOLKS - the Change log had a typo. -2000 humanity for killing a human. 1 human will take an hour to recover from. But if that human is a bandit, it is much less.

Now this should be fixed

Maximum number of groups reached in ArmA2 is the problem... mission update might fix it. will roll that out shortly. one by one on servers (no download needed)

1.4.10 is coming out shortly and will include a potential fix.