BeefBacon

Might it be better to wait for the final version of Chernarus++ to roll out? I'm pretty sure the devs are still making changes, and it would suck to have to update your map every time they update theirs.

Put the ammunition on your hotbar. Pressing the corresponding number will reload that ammunition. I've not played in a little while, but I know that's how it works with weapons that need a magazine. I assume that a Mosin would work in the same way, though maybe you have to hold the number key down.

Was pottering about, forget where exactly, and I spot a town so I decide to check it out with my binoculars. Before long, I spot a dead player next to a police station, so I wait around to see if anybody comes to loot it. Nobody turns up, so I run to the town to loot the body. He was pretty geared, nice vest, MP5, things like that, but there wasn't really any clue as to how he might have died. I bury the body, and with my new-found loot I decide to check out the town. After a little while, I entered a building and found a very familiar body lying on the ground. It was lying in the exact same pose and was wearing the exact same gear, but I couldn't interact with it and it was very low-poly - like it was straight from an early PS2 game or something. I couldn't interact with it because it was technically buried, and I think it was low-poly because it was still somehow anchored to the original position where I'd buried it, so the game assumed I was further away from it than I actually was, but I cannot imagine why it was in that building. It's not an issue I've seen before or since, and I've never heard anyone else report it.

DayZ is set in like 2015 or something. Everything looks old because Chernarus is a post-Soviet backwater. Different maps would be nice, though. Namalsk is similar to Chernarus in that it's also got that post-Soviet vibe going, but it'd be interesting if they'd add a new map with a completely different setting like some rural region in the US or western Europe or something - or even further east towards China.

I think it needs a lot of work, sure, but I think it's an improvement. Most of the issues you've linked to are blatantly bugs or oversights. However, reducing the viability of hip shooting by, say, removing the aiming reticule would be nice.

DayZ does have Steam friends integration as evidenced by the server menu telling you if you have friends on a server. It would be nice if the game detected where your friends are and then had a preference for spawns that are closer to their position. People then get to play with their friends and there are no spawn menus or any silly things like that.

I hate the idea of infected types, but I love the idea of them being in different idle states. Some of them should just be sitting in the street, some wandering around aimlessly, others lying on the floor inside houses, stuff like that. I'm not a fan of them just being scattered randomly outside, just wandering about.

Since December 2013 (I think that's when I bought it) I've logged about 350 hours, pretty much for the exact reason stated above. I don't want to burn myself out. I've not played for many months now, and I'm very unlikely to play again until 0.63. Last I played DayZ Underground was still going strong. If you fancy a bit of DayZ, it couldn't hurt to play for a few hours - even if only to see the difference between 0.62 and 0.63 when it does finally release. Early Access is deeply flawed, but then DayZ was among the first EA games (not to be confused with EA Games.) There was a seminar they did a while back about what they've learned from Early Access. I think it's something that can be good, in theory, but becomes a bit of a mess in practice.

I believe the devs will be doing a "destruction pass" on the map at some point - generally making everything all run down. Assuming this isn't something I've made up in my head, it'll probably include a bit of overgrowth. I think that in the "lore" of DayZ, if such a term is even applicable, it's been a couple of years since the outbreak. As such, I don't think we'll get environments like The Last of Us (where it had been like 20 years or something), but it should still be an improvement.

That's actually a symptom of reality. As anyone who has dabbled in level design will probably know - real life locations feel tiny. I remember making my house using semi-precise measurements years ago, and when I booted it up in-game it felt like a house for spaghetti people. I could barely fit through doorways and corridors. Videogames have to make rooms bigger to make them feel normal. Now you could argue that the devs should be keeping that in mind, but DayZ is grounded in authenticity. And of course Chernarus is some post-Soviet backwater, so cramped houses makes sense. I'm from the UK where we're all forced to live in shoe boxes (houses in the UK are some of the smallest in the developed world, on average) so maybe that's why it doesn't bother me as much.

But you don't know how the DayZ dev team is composed. Claiming that their system is inefficient without actually knowing what their system is seems foolish to me. Were they to release a report on the details of their workflow, I'm sure your experience would provide valuable insight. It actually probably would have been an interesting read, but you're probably right that this isn't really the place for it.

Indeed. Perhaps you ought to wait and see before jumping to conclusions? What you've seen so far is early PC gameplay and console gameplay. It makes perfect sense that the console version would have different weapon handling. If weapon recoil really is too low, I'd much rather discuss the impact on gameplay than the impact on realism. If combat is more enjoyable, it works for me. As for muzzle flash, I'm not fussed. It is a bit much, but then it was just a showcase of the particle effects and the quality of muzzle flashes. I suspect that they might have cranked up the muzzle flashes to show them off alongside the other effects. If not, I don't think it's something worth getting too worked up over. And as for the application of their team members, I suspect that you know about as much about the composition of the DayZ dev team and the nuances of game design as I do - that is to say "jack shit." Throwing people at a problem doesn't necessarily fix it faster. You'll probably find that allocating team members to modules that are not immediately required will increase the overall development speed. Imagine you need 10 people to lift something heavy, and 50 people go to help. It's not going to get moved any faster, and there's a lot of other shit to carry that isn't getting moved, but everybody is pissing about trying to carry the same object. What showing off the "fluff" suggests is that said fluff won't be too long behind 0.63.

[*National Socialism intensifies*] Audio stuff is cool. I don't suppose radios will be able to pick up environment sounds? Gunshots and the like. I'm assuming it'll be restricted to player voices. Also, a bit nitpicky, but I'm not super keen on PA systems randomly being in houses. I've always thought it looked out of place in that orange building, and assumed it was just a placeholder. I feel like it either needs a dedicated building, or room decorations to make it look as though the building it's been placed in isn't just somebody's house. File cabinets and desks and things on the inside would go a long way towards making it look like it belongs, as though the building has been used as some sort of, i don't know, local council building or something. Having seen what you've done with the gunshot effects, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with bullet impacts and blood effects. Particle effects and decals have never been Arma's strong suit. Speaking of which, I assume we can expect blood sprays on walls, maybe blood pooling under bodies? Oooh and parallax bullet holes.

I... what? I agree it couldn't hurt to have a slightly different animation set for female characters... but sexy? What, do you want them to sway their hips while they jog down the streets and have them fully bend over when they pick something up off the ground? Reminds me of those Skyrim mods that make female characters strike ultra-feminine poses in their absurdly skimpy bikini plate armour.

I suspect they'd probably go the disease route rather than the toxic cloud route. Without proper protective gear the player is more likely to catch a debilitating disease, necessitating the procurement of the appropriate equipment if one wants to explore these contaminated zones. I would assume that a full NBC suit would cut the risk to 0% (provided no piece is ruined) and a partial suit, or just a gasmask, or a face mask and gloves, or whatever would yield varying amounts of protection.