BeefBacon

Yeah, the risk/reward isn't really there for me. I'd rather just have a hunting backpack and an SKS than some fancy military pack and an AK-101, especially if attaining the latter means entails a high risk of having my face blown off. There's been WIP images of generators and such for the basebuilding, as I recall. Lights will almost certainly be a factor. I doubt pre-existing bases will have working lights, but maybe we'll be able to fire up a generator and light the bases up or something. As for the images of other bases... eh. Not quite the same thing, and the angles make it very difficult to see the extent of the valley. On the second image the structures are on small mounds presumably overlooking the trees, and in the others there's a lot of open space surrounding the base. At Myshinko the trees go almost right up to the edge of the base, and the valley is so narrow as to offer an easy firing line right down into the base on both sides. It's not a good location. I could buy that it was hastily set up, or was designed to be effective against hordes of infected rather than soldiers, but I'd want to see more evidence of that - maybe lots of barbed wire, ditches, things that would slow down somebody who was sprinting towards you as fast as possible. Hell, the castle builders of Chernarus were smart enough to build on hills to defeat hordes of angry peasants, I'm sure modern commanders could figure out a similar deal.

Yeah Kamensk is okay. I started a new character last night, so I might make my way up to Tisy and see what's what.

Excellent idea. It'd be nice if characters' physical appearances reflected their food intake. That is to say, emaciated players look thin and gaunt, well-fed players look healthy and over-fed players look fat. Failing that, different animation sets for different weights would be really cool, or really any way to immediately determine how well fed a player is. I expect a gaunt figure would be more likely to kill me if he thinks I might have a can of beans on me. I'm worried the food system won't be particularly in-depth. I've not really heard about it - same with the medical system. Hopefully how (or if) the core mechanics like hunger and medicine will expand will be covered in an upcoming status report. Same with stamina. I think a lot of people have reservations about the soft skills. I'll adopt a 'wait and see' attitude.

I've not been to Tisy yet. I'm too scared. I got close, though... accidentally. I'm a big babby. I say 'military locations', I really mean the medium ones - or every one bar Tisy, NWAF, Myshinko and (usually) Stary tents (I avoid Stary unless I'm not well geared.) I used to love Zelenogorsk because I rarely saw people there - it was like nobody knew about it. Seems to draw the crowds these days, though. The loot distribution is definitely pretty weird, though. I'll go an hour without seeing a single gun, then I'll stumble into a house that has a dozen guns strewn about it. I sometimes find houses filled with balaclavas and nothing else. It obviously needs tweaking, but it's getting better. I might give Tisy a go, if only to say I've been. I'll be keen to see if I really do find good loot, because it's slim picking everywhere else. Having said that I see plenty of videos where people find incredible gear at all military locations, so I think I'm just unlucky. I've not been to NWAF in several patches, even though I've only ever died there once. Hell, I've gotten more kills at NWAF than deaths. I just never really found anything, and wide open spaces wig me out. Even the tent city has minimal cover. I've never visited Myshinko tents for the same reason. What kind of insane commander would put a camp in the middle of a valley flanked on all sides by forest? That is the literal opposite of where any fortification of any kind should ever be. DayZ stresses me out because I assume somebody is watching me at all times, and whoever is watching me is infinitely better equipped than I am. Odds are that if somebody is watching me all they have is a chambered Makarov. Hell, I'm more likely to be the watcher in any scenario. I love being a creeper and watching people through binoculars or a rifle scope. I don't necessarily have any intention to kill them (though if an easy shot presents itself I'll take it for shits and giggles) but I like watching people and seeing what they do. I don't really pursue PvP unless I have a distinct advantage (like it's obvious that they have no idea I'm there.) I run away from gunfire, though I'll often try and position myself so I have the greatest advantage should they happen to pass my way. I'm a big coward, basically. I fight dirty if I can, or I run away from the fights that I'm not forced into. I don't combat log, though, I just remain very, very patient and wait for them to check on my (presumed) corpse - at which point I have the drop on them. Fight dirty. Every time.

I'd like to see a mix. There could be some crash sites that spawn like they currently do - except these crash sites are a little older (a few days, weeks, years, whatever you like) so they don't produce any smoke. I'd like to see more crashes in the woods, in cities, so on. They shouldn't all be in open fields. You also have recent crashes which can be witnessed and heard. These should be much more rare, but spawn much better loot. They should be sort of like server events, with players in the vicinity seeing or hearing the crash and then going to investigate. The loot that active crashes produce shouldn't respawn.

Does this mean we might start seeing more frequent updates, and updates that have a measurable effect on gameplay? Obviously .60 added the new renderer which improved playability massively, and .61 added wolves among other things, but it's been a while since we got a really juicy gameplay feature like, I don't know, in-depth diseases and a stamina system. So now that this milestone has been reached and you're not dancing between two completely different versions of DayZ, might we see more frequent updates that add more substantial elements to the game? I mean, I guess as we get closer to beta more gameplay features becomes inevitable, but I'm guessing that this optimises development somewhat?

I suppose I'll respond to the additions too. I should be working, but I'm very irresponsible. As far as I'm aware, the notifications will be replaced with a HUD using icons. Being able to customise those icons - being able to set how often they appear, their opacity, things like that - would be excellent. Large bags would be fine provided there are appropriate drawbacks (you mentioned a movement speed debuff.) I'd also say that larger bags should be louder when you move. Assuming the new stamina system will punish players for carrying too much, arbitrary debuffs might not even be necessary - if you carry too much you'll suffer for it anyway. Passenger trains is a great idea. They could contain residential loot and be connected to each other. They should be a good source of backpacks and clothing. Scope glare has been brought up before, and it was decided that it was unrealistic (the glare exists, but it's barely noticeable in real life) but I don't care. It'd be a cool feature, provided it's not too exaggerated. Love the safety stance idea. Oh, blood splatter. I am assuming that's an incoming feature. I want blood to spray on walls, and maybe even for blood to pool. I'd like to see bullet holes too. Gore, like dismemberment, I'm not too fussed about.

It'll never happen. I personally prefer 1pp and play it when I get the opportunity, though 3pp is fine. 3pp/1pp splits the community - I wish the devs had put their foot down from the very beginning; 3pp seems antithetical to a hardcore survival experience. If 3pp couldn't be exploited, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I particularly like the hold breath idea. I thought a while ago it'd be nice to be able to hold your breath for a few seconds, just to hear your surroundings. It's irritating when you're jogging along, breathing like a 300 pound man with asthma, and you think you hear a gunshot way in the distance. I want to be able to hold my breath, listen for a few seconds, and then move on. I'd say the length of time you can hold your breath should depend on your overall stamina, as well as your current tiredness. I wouldn't expect someone who's just run a marathon to be able to hold their breath for very long, same as I'd expect that someone who's being lying in a bush for 5 minutes would probably be able to hold their breath for a good while. Holding breath should also steady your aim. The other ideas are good too. A proper trading screen would be great, especially when swapping items with friends. I'll respond to Part 1 here as well. I don't really have many major quarrels with it, though some of them seem a little superfluous, but that's fine. I think a lot of people take issue with the back slots for a rifle and a melee weapon anyway, but certainly if that system is here to stay I'd like to see the bow be stored in the melee weapon slot. It'd definitely get more use that way. As for post-apocalyptic clothing, however... eh. they're cool, for sure, but hugely impractical. It's kind of a trope that when shit hits the fan, the first thing people do is put on the nearest gas mask and fashion armour out of kitchenware. I would like to see long coats, and I would like to see hoods - though the devs have said they're impossible to implement for whatever reason. Scarves would also be nice. Improvised gasmasks, though? Weird goggles? Rags? Not too keen on that. A general reduction in the availability of military-grade clothing and a reduction in item quality (to the point that pristine items are very rare and valuable) I can definitely get behind.

Personally, if there's going to be precise actions and rough actions, I would rather be able to improve in both of those skill groups, rather than having to choose between the two. Improving your bandaging while simultaneously reducing your ability to, say, gather wood makes no sense. I get why they've done it, but it seems like a weird way of going about it. Maybe I misinterpreted it. Perhaps rough and precise actions could be affiliated with specific skills. So say bandaging is a precise action - it should raise your precise action proficiency, but also your medical skill proficiency - so it raises all precise action skills slightly, but raises your medical skill just a little bit more. That way (provided we can improve both action types, rather than one or the other) precise and rough actions (which fundamentally make sense) stay in the game, but we also get to have characters that are more refined, without the weird rough/precise balance idea they've proposed. I'll keep an open mind. It could be good. I'm certain that if we make it clear that we don't like this system after playing with it, the devs will make some adjustments.

Yup. Take a break. I've got 300 hours in, and a lot of that is sitting in menus trying to join a server or it being alt-tabbed while I wait for a mate to load up the game. How you've managed to get 5000 hours into a single game is beyond me, but 5000 hours is enough to burn anybody out, even with a complete and fleshed-out game, which DayZ certainly is not. Come back at .63 or something - or even beta. I'm unlikely to play again until .62, but then that's what I always do. Wait for a patch, play a few hours, knock it on the head until the next one.

Oh ja. I remember ze SS. Heil Hit- ah, wait. I mean I remember that screen shot! Is what I meant! Obviously! Though I didn't play the Standalone very much way back then, so I never really got to play with the decked out Mosin - as such I don't really miss it. Hopefully bayonets will be useable soon.

We know the new animation system will affect player characters by making movement more fluid (among other things) but will this new system also affect the movement or behaviour of the AI in any way?

Bear in mind that travelling on foot will eventually be a lot slower - no more sprinting across the map. There'll be plenty of unused forested areas. I'm actually hoping that travelling on foot via a road will be faster than travelling through a forest or open field to simulate the difficult terrain of the countryside. Not much faster, mind, but it should be noticeable, especially on longer journeys.

I've actually advocated for something similar. Sort of. We should get benefits from having a varied diet. Eating tactical bacon for every meal probably won't do you much good. Living for several weeks eating only apples probably won't be very good either. Hell, I once lived off pasta and porridge for a couple of weeks (I ran out of money) and I swear I almost died.

That's a good attitude to have. Avoid cities if you can. Avoid the coast, really. Lots of zombies, low concentration of loot. You're better off heading inland almost straight away. It's worth having a quick butchers through a few houses if you spawn near them, but if you're consistently finding nothing of value, move on. If you're finding useful items, keep looting. Make a stone knife as soon as possible. Tear up any spare clothing you find. The best way to get yourself killed early on is bleeding to death because you ran out of bandages. Until you have a steady supply of bandages (at least 3, I'd say) avoid approaching or fighting zombies. If you can find a long wooden stick, that's actually a pretty decent weapon for dealing with lone zombies. If all else fails, just run away from zombies or lock yourself in a house. If they can't see you they lose interest, and then you can sneak away. Sneaking is easier at night, so if you happen to spawn in the dark then you might have an easier time avoiding zombies.

What's the point? If you lose all the skills you learned from books it'll be tedious having to learn them all again. If your skills are shared across all characters then before very long you'll have access to all the skills anyway. I could maybe get along with skill books that slightly increase your skills, like in Skyrim. You know, you find a book that has something to do with weaponry and your one-handed skill increases by 1. Maybe if you find a book about hunting, your ability to skin animals increases very slightly, or something like that. Actually learning new skills from books, though? No.

I've run into wolves twice now. Both by accident. First time I was looting in a secluded house in the woods when I hear them barking outside. Was able to pick them off by firing through the windows. Second time I was on the edge of a forest and I heard them howling some distance away. I could see them with binoculars, but decided to keep my distance. I could see they were coming in my general direction, but felt safe to assume they were far enough away. I was wrong. I entered a large open field and I could see they were running and howling now, with a couple of them coming straight for me. Knowing I couldn't outrun them I decided to stay put so my weapon sway would settle. I fought the pack off - I killed three or four of them, including the pack leader so the rest ran off. I used all of my ammunition - I actually killed the pack leader with my last round. I later died from blood loss and dehydration. My only issue with the wolves is that they are super bullet spongey. It does make them hard as nails to deal with out in the open on your own though, and that's a lot of fun. I wish I'd recorded it. Zombies are cool too. They're not a massive threat, but more than once I've been alerted to the presence of another player by zombie aggro. If you have to deal with several then you can end up taking a lot of damage, but they're pretty easy to get rid of by just shutting them inside a house. I'm looking forward to them being able to bash down doors - that'll change things up a bit. Guns sound excellent. I've not fired very many of them, but the ones I've had a chance to use all sound really nice. Gunfire in the distance sounds incredible, and you seem to be able to hear it from a pretty considerable distance. All in all I've had a lot of fun with .61. I'm hoping that .62 will come around a little bit faster since it is, I've heard, a cosmetic update. New models and textures and so on, denser forests. I can't see that requiring extensive bug fixing, though I can see experimental being an important gauge for how it impacts framerates.

I'm so sorry. jpg images I agree all the same

Not to be 'that guy' but I've not been hurting too badly for ammunition. Tons of .22 and 12 gauge, fair bit of 9mm and .380, a little bit of 7.62xwhatever SKS ammo, .357 and .308, no 7.62xwhatever Mosin ammo though (though I met a guy who was carrying like 60 rounds so it is spawning). As for magazines, I've only really found pistol mags, and not many I'll grant you. Think I found one or two Sporter and SMG mags, nothing else. The amount of ammo seems okay - slightly more would be nice - but its distribution is silly, it always has been. I can search every house in a village, and only one will spawn ammo, but it'll spawn like a full stack. I go from having no ammo to having plenty. I'd much rather see lots of tiny stacks than a few big ones. I'd also like to see a big increase in magazine spawns, but make it extremely unlikely that magazines will spawn with any ammo (so you can't just harvest ammo from them). Ammunition should be the main limiting factor, not magazines. It's frustrating having all the ammo in the world but having to just chamber your gun. I'd much rather have to conserve ammunition, but have relatively easy access to magazines.

Wolves did about 4200 blood damage to me. I later died because I was dehydrated for 5 seconds. I looked so hard for a water pump or an apple tree or something to keep me alive. No such luck. I killed 3 or 4 of them and the rest ran off. Killed the 3rd or 4th with my last bullet. I knew they were nearby but they were so far away I could barely see them. I assumed they wouldn't chase me, and just happened to be wondering in my general direction. It was when they started running towards me across a large field that I realised I was wrong. I've encountered wolves before, but I was able to hide in a building. Getting caught by a pack of wolves out in an open field is very much a "well, I'm fucked" moment. Love it.

A handful of tents near the coast. DayZ is ruined. Yeah, as other people have pointed out the CLE should mean that high-end loot only spawns inland - even then I expect the way loot spawns isn't exactly finalised. Maybe wait and see what happens before jumping to conclusions. If it does turn DayZ into some coastal murder orgy I'm sure the devs will make changes. Nothing is set in stone here.

Rather than having a separate gamemode, I'd rather see players spawn in a worse condition. Ruined clothes, wet and at half health/blood are the most obvious candidates. First objective should be to find new clothes and to dry off. That would increase the early game challenge considerably. Being wet and cold should also increase the risk of disease - disease in general should be a greater threat. I got sick for the first time ever last night because I ate an uncooked fish fillet I found on a zombie. Almost died - was really good. Disease being a greater threat would naturally make medicine more valuable. Most diseases should be non-lethal for relatively healthy players, but still a big enough threat to make preventing or curing them a high priority.

Yeah I'm not a fan of losing items, but it's worth discussing still. The hard weight limit isn't something that isn't supposed to ever be actually reached. By the time you're half way there you'll be suffering severe penalties (speed, tiredness, even health as exwoll said) so actually hitting the hard cap wouldn't really be feasible. It was also a UI consideration, since weight is represented by a bar it made sense for that bar to have an end point. I guess I don't really need to think about the UI, but it's a bit of fun and it helps to more clearly explain the idea. But yes, I think that's a good idea. The original idea of an additional weight capacity stemmed from the fact that the taloon pack and the improvised backpack can carry the same number of items, but it didn't make sense that they could carry the same weight given that one is manufactured from modern materials and made for comfort and the other is made out of an old sack and some sticks. So yeah, with your idea the improvised backpack would just wear out more quickly, and have a lower threshold for what constitutes 'overweight.' Obviously this is a system that should apply to all clothing, to varying degrees. Given that clothing has a much lower volume capacity (and will therefore usually carry less weight) than backpacks, I don't expect that clothing would see the same wear and tear due to item weight that backpacks (and perhaps vests) would. Instead I expect that they (trousers and shoes especially) would be more affected by the environment. I'd like to see item maintenance be a major part of the survival aspect of DayZ. As a side note, albeit a relevant one, it should become very clear when a backpack is about to break off and when it has broken off. Audio cues, symbols/text appearing on the UI, whatever. It also needs to be clear how quickly an item is degrading. I think I might amend the original idea to include this new system. I won't do it right now, though. I might also do a new animation, make it a bit bigger and slightly redesign the UI to get rid of the hard cap. Player condition (health, soft skills) should also play a part. I'm not sure what, specifically. Perhaps lower speed/stamina penalties for being overweight. Keep the ideas coming. Maybe a dev can chime in? As I think I said in my original post I imagine that there are already plans to change the inventory system in some way, but any kind of developer response on the subject would be great.

I think it varies from person to person, but fair point. My emphasis is more on gameplay, though. Take for example the raincoat - you pretty much have to have one if you want to be in the rain for more than five seconds without getting drenched, which seems silly to me. It hugely devalues basically every other jacket. The fact that helmets are so important means that wearing a hat is almost always a liability. Helmets should be very effective, for sure, but I think that only a select few melee weapons should be capable of reliably knocking somebody out in one or two hits - not necessarily because that's realistic, but because it's better for gameplay. As a side note, it should be a similar deal for clothing and water resistance. Rain coats should be really good, but every other item shouldn't be completely useless for keeping you dry.