BeefBacon

I don't think many people agree with me, but .55 was the most fun I've ever had in DayZ. It was so difficult, but so rewarding. I never starved to death, I just moved inland and searched the places other people hadn't bothered to check. I eventually got to the point where I was actually in pretty good condition. I might not have been energised and hydrated all the time, and I may not have had a fully kitted M4, but I was in good nick. I found myself actually picking up food whenever I found it, because I didn't know when I'd next see a can of peaches. In short, it was awesome. For anyone with any interest, I made a video showcasing my success. However, I can see why most people didn't like .55. I'm hoping we'll see diversity without too much division in the community. I'd love something really survival focused, but at the same time I'd love to see something like STALKER with mutants and radiation and so on, or something like one of those silly DayZ mods with tanks and things. I'm hoping DayZ, at its core, is more or less finished by the time modding becomes available. I can see 'vanilla' falling to the wayside very quickly indeed, especially if it's missing most of the features of the finished game. People would take it upon themselves to 'finish' it themselves, and I don't know if that'd be a good thing. It might seem premature, but I'm very interested to see how DayZ progresses past 1.0. Do map tools come under modding, or would people be allowed to create new maps for vanilla before modding tools (for new mechanics, weapons and so on) are made available? Are there any plans to release new official maps, post 1.0 perhaps?

@SirEpicTickles Some early access projects will deteriorate, for sure, but mostly in the case of smaller projects produced by unrenowned developers. BI cannot afford for DayZ to fizzle out because no one will buy a BI game again if that happens. Reputation is important in the games industry - in any industry really. Sometimes that reputation revolves around individuals (Peter Molyneux, John Romero for example) but it usually revolves around companies and teams. I think that a lot of developers, especially smaller ones, were overzealous in their adoption of early access. As time goes on, however, and developers learn when early access is appropriate, I think that issues related to early access will become less of a problem.

@SMoss I've mentioned before that while I understand that game development takes time, I am a little disappointed at .60's delay. Despite that, I'd rather you work on getting a solid .60 rather than releasing some buggy mess now to appease the whiners. I have other games I can play. When .60 I am going to play the shit out of DayZ for a week or two, and then I'll slink back into the shadows as I await .61 - I've done pretty much the same since I bought into DayZ, and see no reason to do any different. I can see why people are upset. A lot of the roadmap goals - probably most of them - haven't been met on time. People expect feature X by date Y and when they don't get it they throw a tantrum. Announcing what you're working on now and what you will be working on in the near future is the best way to go about it, so I'm glad that's what you're moving towards now. A lot of people are frustrated, probably not least of all you guys - especially when you get messages every day berating you for your perceived slow development. Even if development is particularly slow - and I'm not convinced it is - people whining about it doesn't achieve anything. Constructive criticism is quickly becoming a lost art, I think, as is patience. These people should just sit back and check for an update every week or so. No update? Do something else.

I'd like for there to be some sort of tag or icon or something that appears whenever a developer responds to a forum thread - especially if it's a suggestion thread... not that suggestion threads are often answered by devs, but still. What people in the community are saying and thinking of is nice and all, but my main interests lie in what the devs think. Being able to easily see what's attracted the attention of the devs and, more importantly, what they've said in response would be great. It could maybe even be an optional thing on the off-chance a dev didn't want to draw attention to a thread or for whatever reason.

I'd much prefer a sling. Very difficult to aim - not because it's particularly inaccurate but because, say, timing is a factor or there's some other mechanic that makes it a reasonably effective weapon if you know what you're doing, but utterly useless if you've not practiced. It should also have a fairly short effective range. It should be good for knocking players out with a headshot and for damaging limbs (breaking/fracturing arms and legs) rather than for outright killing people or zombies. Now, in real life a good shot with a sling can shatter a femur or turn your brain to paste... but videogames. A catapult like this would be fine, though. I can't imagine they'd be very common, however.

I've never met a hacker in all the time I've been playing DayZ. I hope this makes you feel better. But no, that does suck. Dying to bugs and hackers in any game isn't really acceptable but as others have said, this is early access. Expect bugs. Expect incomplete security features. Don't get attached to your gear, especially since .60, when it eventually hits, will wipe your character anyway.

DayZ gets a lot of bad press, which is a shame. I work with game developers, so I know that a game takes a very long time to develop - or if you're doing it right it does. Most people hear about a game a few months, maybe a year or two, before it's released. In the case of DayZ, we've been able to see it develop pretty much from the start, but people still expect it to be released after a few months. It probably doesn't help that a lot - most, probably - of DayZ's development is under the hood, so to speak. I suppose people aren't impressed by progress that they can't see, even if it lays the foundations for the game itself. I think it's best to avoid things like roadmaps and ETAs, because when you don't meet them that provides ammunition for naysayers. Shit happens that sets things back. I think that showing us what you're working on now, and giving us some idea of what you will be working on in the near future, is the best way to go about it. No deadlines or anything like that because, as you say, it's disappointing and frustrating for everyone when those goals aren't met. Hell, I'm the sort of person who only really plays DayZ when the big updates come about, and I get that development times can be long and all that sort of thing, but I'll admit that even I was disappointed when .60 wasn't released last month. I get it, and I'm glad that you're working on making sure .60 is fabulous - I'd much rather get .60 'late' than receive it as a buggy mess - but I did feel a little let down. Despite that, I'm unwavering in my looking-forward-to-ness of .60.

Oh God. Make DayZ into a military simulator. And then somebody would take that military mod and turn it into a zombie mod... ad infinitum... Yeah, that'd be kind of interesting to see. I'm keen to see what the community comes up with when modding is finally made available.

Right. Remember the game isn't finished yet. That's actually one of the points @Rags! made - this isn't a survival game yet. Currently, shooting people is one of the only things to do in the game. There are no other threats or concerns and ammunition is fairly easy to come by. If zombies were a major threat, weapons were hard to come by and food was scarce then yes, I expect people would probably make more of an effort to work together - which is where a lot of the tension comes in. "I need the help of this guy, and we've agreed to share the loot, but can I trust him?" sort of gets shat on when you can see a spooky aura around him that shows you how many people he's killed, because then you know not to trust him which gets rid of a lot of the tension that makes the game enjoyable.

I'm almost certain this is planned. In STALKER I think you just reload your weapon and it clears the jam which is a nice, elegant solution.

There's a kill counter? I thought that was just a concept, I wasn't aware it was actually being added in-game, or that other players would be able to see it. Can't say I'm in favour of it either.

1 - Not a bad idea, though it should be better as a defence/weapon against zombies than as a viable tool in most PvP situations. It could maybe be used as a shield against low-caliber weapons, like 9mm, .22, etc, but it shouldn't have a prayer against a rifle round. It should also be heavy and difficult to transport on foot. 2 - Gun shops and hunting shops would be nice - especially the latter. 3 - Improvised tent would be great. 4 - As an extremely rare novelty item I don't see why there shouldn't be flintlock pistols or muskets or whatever. Obviously they should be shit, but could be valued as a collector's item given their rarity. 5 - No. 6 - Shooting locks open would be neat. I'd like to see lockpicking and locking doors in general be expanded. I know there'll be barricading, but locking doors is slightly different. It'd also be nice if some doors spawned locked. 7 - I'd like to see grenade tossing completely changed. It's horrible. I expect something will change when the new player controller is a thing. 8 - I think the vast majority of magazines should spawn empty. Those that have ammo should only have a few rounds in them. I want magazines to become far, far less valuable and ammo to become far more valuable. I shouldn't have 100 rounds and no magazine, I should have 3 magazines and 8 rounds to go between them. 9 - Wells should be less common. They currently exist in almost every settlement. You should have to stock up on food and water, because you don't know when you'll next find a clean source. Currently you can just spam a pump, safe in the knowledge that you'll probably find another one in whatever village you wander into. Wells should be hotspots. If you want to avoid the risk, or are simply desperate, you can drink from a pond and suffer the possible consequences. 10 - Food and hydration is something I'd like to see addressed, but for now it's functional and there's nothing strictly wrong with it. Bear in mind that the survival element really isn't a thing in DayZ at this point. It's currently very easy. I suspect this will change.

Hicks says 'when it's done.' Good enough for me, I suppose, but it'd be nice if some sort of time frame could be provided. Having said that, they said a month ago it might be ready at the end of February which got a lot of peoples' hopes up. I suspect they want to avoid giving any kind of ETA, since issues sometimes take longer than expected to iron out. .60 is taking a while, sure, but I've no doubt it'll be the biggest update DayZ has ever had. I'd rather wait a few weeks for them to iron out the major issues than dive in to a .60 which is virtually unplayable.

Well that's no more realistic than zombies... though technically they're 'infected' rather than zombies. They're not the living dead. Think 28 Days Later with the rage/rabies virus. It would be nice to see zombies actually eating dead players, though. Maybe even dead zombies and animals. A small chance for them to be carrying a small tool or weapon of some sort could also be neat, but hardly necessary. Having them carrying guns, however, I'm against - that is with the exception of military zombies, where it'd be nice if you could occasionally loot a damaged pistol, ammo or other small military item from their bodies.

I meant no offence, I like the talks you give. Perhaps I could have chosen my words more carefully. I think that's where the new military base is going. Could have something to do with that. It is an internal build, after all, so they might have put some stuff up there. Certainly warrants exploration when .60 hits.

I don't think I've ever heard Hicks be enthusiastic about anything. I don't mean that as a slight, I think that's just how he speaks. I mean, given the choice between a slightly tired sounding Hicks and Pewdiepie, I'll pick Hicks any day. Cool video, though. I was a bit underwhelmed visually - the performance increase is nice but I was really hoping there'd be a noticeable difference between night times in DX9 and 11. Still, great work. I approve of the fog.

Yeah I can't wait to 360 quickscope with my leg holster and wooden bayonet.

That concept looks pretty good to me. It's certainly a lot better than the status messages - Christ they're awful. Icons are far less intrusive, and arguably more immersive as they represent abstract thought. If I'm hungry I don't think to myself "golly, I sure could go for a bite to eat. Oh, there's a bit of chicken in the fridge. Think we've got lettuce and mayonnaise as well, I could probably make a sandwich out of that, right? Oh, shit, do we have bread? I guess I could do a salad. Now I could put the bread on now and then I can have a sandwich in a couple of hours, or I could go out and get some shop bread. Ah, but it'd have to be really nice bread, though. What's that brand? W something. Ah, I'll recognise it on the shelf. Sure won't be getting basic or value or whatever it's called. Wait, what's Morrison's equivalent of value and basic? Doesn't matter, I'm going to Sainsbury's. I guess I could pick up some M&Ms as well, and some crisps. That'd be good." That'd be a hell of a status message. No, I just know I'm hungry, I don't have to articulate it to myself. Not sure I'm mega keen on the presence indicator, though. Surely you should be able to hear how loud you are and see how visible you are? Presumably it only affects zombies, but ideally that's information that you should get from actually playing the game. I certainly wouldn't want an Elder Scrolls/Fallout system where you know when you're detected. Magically. Somehow. Even a broken leg could be conveyed through a limping animation, though I'm not against an icon for that. What could be cool is if you have to check limbs for damage. I remember years ago when I broke my arm, I didn't know it was broken, it just hurt like hell. My dad looked at it and was immediately like "yup, it's broken." As such, it could be cool if you have to examine a hurting limb to determine if it's broken or just bruised or whatever. Now that wouldn't mean physically looking at it, you'd just perform an action after which your character makes a diagnosis. Something similar could happen with diseases, where you'll feel generic 'sick' without knowing what you have. Some sort of diagnosis (perhaps with some sort of medical kit, or medical book, even) could be performed, whereupon you can treat your illness with the relevant medication. Alternatively you can try treating it with some generic medication (antibiotics, for example) and hope it helps. Could also be cool if certain medications (maybe most) provided some severe debuff so you couldn't just neck all the medication you have and hope for the best, as that might kill you. Instead you need to try and diagnose what exactly you have for the best possible treatment. I'm getting off topic, though.

DayZ development has been pretty turbulent. It can't be easy providing content that is based on systems that aren't even implemented yet, so the devs have to compromise and add new clothes and guns, as they basically work, and the art team isn't reliant on programming. The result is that everybody bitches and moans "oh, another new gun? Another jacket?" Meanwhile, the real work is under the hood. They release new items in an effort to keep the sweating masses happy, because they know that if they add some fancy new mechanic it'll be rendered obsolete by the work they've been doing on the engine and the renderer and everything else that they've teased, but isn't yet ready. When the groundwork is finally in place, I expect we'll start seeing real, drastic improvements and changes to DayZ. For now it's new weapons and clothing.

Not the same, no, that'd be awful. But there'll be more of them, and presumably they'll be smarter and lethal beyond just doing a lot of damage per-hit. Point being that when zombies were a threat, I found myself using a gun. I didn't use a gun when they could be one-shot with a fireaxe and strafing around rendered them harmless.

Bear in mind that there will eventually be zombies. You won't be able to go through whole towns all by yourself, and you won't be able to take on groups of zombies with a melee weapon. If you pick at the edges of towns then you will eventually pick up plenty of ammo, but that would take a long time - and odds are that the edges of towns are where most people are going to be looting, so there'll be slim pickings. Players will also likely use what little ammo they have on zombies as well as players, so it's not as if players will just build up their ammo until they find a player. They'll be using it continuously. I remember back in .55/.54 - around then - when zombies made a brief comeback and were hard as nails. I ended up actually using my gun on them because it was the safest way to deal with them. That, to me, sounds a whole lot better than hitting some random house an accidentally finding 20 rounds, or scouring half the map and finding one bullet for a gun I've never seen.

Ahem, hm. Politics. I'm sure reloading a gun is very easy, but when you're cold, shaking and pumping with adrenaline I imagine its a bit harder if your training amounts to knowing which way to point the gun. I'd be in favour of reload times being dependent on a variety of factors. The size of the magazine, for example (a drum magazine might be a bit of a challenge) your general wellbeing (are you well fed, warm, uninjured?) and the location of the magazine (faster to have it in your vest or jacket than in your backpack). I think I'll say this in all tangentially related topics. The amount of ammunition spawning is okay, the problem is the distribution. Ammunition always spawns in full stacks (and even back when it didn't it spawned in piles of 10 or more). It'd be much better of the number of ammo spawns was increased dramatically, but if those rounds spawned in piles of 1-5 rounds (maybe 1-10 for 9mm, .380 and .22) then it'd be easy to find some ammo, a couple of rounds maybe, but it'd be very difficult to find a lot of ammo unless you completely scour a (hopefully) zombie-infested town.

I picked infected and weather effects. Generally speaking I avoid large towns, partly for performance reasons but also because I always seem to get shot at. As such I never, ever see zombies. I liked it back when at least a couple would spawn in every village - it livened things up a bit. I'd also like survival in general to be more of a challenge. As far as I'm aware servers can set the time of year, which affects temperature and such. As far as I'm concerned it should always be mid-late autumn. Chilly but not freezing, but a temperature that can make rain lethal. As it stands temperature is pretty much a non-issue. I'm more likely to get too hot than too cold. It means I can wear whatever I want as well. I don't have to take that bright orange puffy jacket because I won't get cold in my camo shirt. As a side note, overheating from sprinting or being next to a fire which then causes you to sweat would be really cool, as that might lead to hypothermia. Currently you just get hot, and then you can cool down. I'd also like all clothes to have some degree of water resistance, and for the rain coat (and gorka) to have water resistance reduced. In anything other than the rain coat or gorka you get soaked in seconds. With the rain coat or gorka you never get so much as damp. Not a fan. Improving performance goes without saying. There was that face occlusion thing that got posted the other day, which will hopefully make it in soon. That should help a lot. I hope.

That is hilarious. Yeah, a pop-up message saying "are you sure" could be nice, but then I guess that's what you clicking the mouse button is. But still. Incredible.