scriptfactory

I, too, thought the game would evolve past Mod but I fear it is doomed to repeat the "failures" of its predecessor. The first open world "survival" game that progresses past the "slow deathmatch" stage to something that approximates survival in a post-apocalyptic setting will be incredibly successful.

Rocket has already announced faction/party identification. I simply want this on an individual level to encourage grouping among randoms. It is the one that that I really appreciate when playing Arma 3 missions like Breaking Point. KoS and PvP both exist but it is also much easier to find a random group of friendlies due to their faction system and "Add to group" feature.

The main reason Rocket wants this is to encourage cross-server hopping for rare items once there is a global loot table. It is a bit confusing that he thinks server-hopping is both good and bad for gameplay but he has mentioned this on a couple of occasions. I do think that at least player locations should be saved on to a specific server even if he wants a global loot table...

If player location was saved per server instead of per hive this would not be an issue. Log into a new server and get a random spawn location. Player locations should be reset upon death. This would also fix ghosting and server hopping for loot.

Your statement is only partially true. Generally you don't recognize your friends by their clothing and hair. Your brain makes an assumption that you know a person based on many factors and, even then, you are often wrong. This is why eyewitness accounts have been found to often be wrong, since to really know someone you need to have multiple indicators that the person you are talking to is truly who you think they are. If it were possible for DayZ to simulate height, weight, gait, facial features, hair color, skin color and clothing style you would still be missing out on indicators such as smell. It is impossible for a game to approximate this which is why even the most "immersive" games rely on in-game gimmicks to simulate friendly identification. Stupid magic indicators? Like the status messages telling you that "You are wet. You are not wet." or "Hungry. Healthy. Energized." DayZ already has many unrealistic interfaces in place and I have no doubt more will be added in the future. This is not a good enough reason to not put them in the game.I would really like Rocket to simply make it a server option. If he did, however, I am sure that virtually every Regular server owner would turn it on.

I agree with you! I just misunderstood your statement. I thought you implied that getting KoSed was adrenaline inducing. :)

No, but you would never mistake me for one of your friends if I just put on his clothes either... unless you had prosopagnosia. That isn't a valid argument.

Are you being serious? It is quite natural to feel disappointment after investing hours of playtime into a character and then being KoSed. It is also natural to feel slightly guilty after KoSing another player. I am not talking about getting into a firefight with other people. I am talking about killing other players without engaging them in some way (e.g. torture, banditry, a firefight, etc.)

I can only speak for myself but positive, non-violent encounters are rare for me in DayZ. After getting shot in the face on too many occasions I am more willing to err on the side of caution and put a bullet in the face of anyone that points a weapon at me. The reasoning for this is actually explained quite well through game theory. In an asymmetric game that places such a strong emphasis on staying alive and keeping gear (i.e. a random DayZ encounter) the rewards for KoSing greatly outweigh any benefits from a friendly encounter. Players, more often than not, the path of least resistance and greatest reward. There is nothing adrenaline pumping about running through the forest and then seeing a black screen saying "You are dead."

I don't particularly want to see my own statistics because I don't care but statistics don't magically turn a game into an arcade shooter.

Stop this. I am sick of hearing fanboys insinuate the DayZ devs had some kind of altruistic motive for releasing their game under Early Access. They needed funding. They sold a product. Full stop.

So a fully-loaded (Magpul) M4 is the second most accurate weapon?

PvP doesn't need to be balanced. It is fine as is. Once the NPC AI is finished there will be a bigger environmental threat but it still won't stop the Deathmatch mentality a lot of players have. Player's just need more in-game mechanics that encourage social interaction and groups will naturally form.

Even though H1Z1 is trying to be "hardcore" I have a feeling they are going for exactly this. Project Zomboid MMO. Have you seen the compounds/strongholds? It is an amazing idea. It seems players will be able to build a small stronghold and "upgrade" it by increasing the size and resources of their faction. The Day development team seems unwilling to center the game around groups/factions as they feel it would break immersion even though Rocket himself is a huge fan of Project Zomboid. I remember reading that this is exactly why he called DayZ a flawed concept, because DayZ is simply meant to be a sandbox and not much more. He seems ready to simply let the modding community implement these features instead of creating the game he actually wanted to make. I wish he would just say "fuck it" and make a great post-apocalyptic, social multiplayer experience that is only based on the Mod and not imprisoned by it.

Can the mods sticky a post in the suggestions forum so we don't have to read comments (from the same people) over and over again every 2-3 days?

I wish you would actually read my talking points. I am not talking about friendly identification as that will come. Rocket has already announced it. I am talking about personal identification.

The word "realistic" means "representing familiar things in a way that is accurate or true to life." How is realistic that we are unable to tell who your friends are? Lack of UI != realism...

We all have prosopagnosia in DayZ.

Stop using the realism argument since it is invalid. In real-life we have way of identifying other people that simply will NEVER be available in DayZ.

Don't be surprised. The Arma series is filled with vets. Also, many military vets are gamers since that is one of the only ways to keep from being bored when down-range/deployed. I was a "medical specialist", 91-B (later 91-W). I was stuck on an APC (M113). When I was stationed in Baumholder, Germany we paid one of the mechanics with ecstasy tabs to hook a generator up for us so we could play Dreamcast/XBox wherever we went. What happened AFTER I got out of the military is actually more interesting since I now work for a video game publisher in Germany as a developer. :D I still don't accept that but I have confidence that when modding support is adding someone will simply copy over the hexagonal 3D marker from A3. It is a shame that vanilla mod will probably only take care of this issue on a squad level, though... :(

People would just unplug their mics or utilize a sofware-based workaround. This probably wouldn't work. BattleEye could, theoretically, ban all 3rd party chat programs.

Don't you think that is kinda' lame? If this is all DayZ SA is going to become then I should have just stuck to the A2/A3 mods... as they are already working better than SA with methods to encourage social interaction.

I am a US Army veteran. I could identify (by sight) virtually every member from my brigade(s) simply from their height, weight, hair color, body stance, gait, etc. We would coordinate during field problems simply using hand gestures and the only reason that worked is because I recognized who I was trying to communicate with and could guide them accordingly. I love how DayZ has an extremely minimal UI but something really needs to be done for player identification even if it "breaks immersion" simply because the current way of identifying people is extremely unrealistic. Adding a few more character customization options isn't going to fix the problem. Eventually there has to be some method of realistic player identification added to DayZ. I am not sure what, though. p.s. DayZ has an extensive UI.

Dude. You aren't just helping Sable when you give BE links to hacks, you are helping all DayZ players. I Sable can be abrasive at times but I guess he has good intentions.

Doubt it. There is a reason why 3PP mode is so popular.