scriptfactory

Many KoSers do not find the survival component to be fun. They enjoy KoSing and griefing. People enjoy KoS. They want to participate in the deathmatch. They don't care if their character dies. Once persistent loot is added they will have even less of an impetus, regardless of the loss of character advancement. If we take Nether as an example we can see that adding skills did absolutely nothing to reduce the KoS mentality in that game. Just another MMO? What survival MMO exists that is like DayZ? If you point me in the direction of a game that is exactly like DayZ except with a party system I will immediately stop playing this game. Here is a hint, though; none exist. I would say that a party system is the #1 way to reduce KoS. It is also opposed by people that love KoS since it will lead to bands of randoms forming groups and fighting back against the KoSers. Once team-based objectives are added (e.g. random helicopter crash sites) more and more players will want to form teams and factions to get the good loot. Random killings would still be possible and griefers would still exist but now randoms (without Teamspeak) would have the ability to fight back. It would also lead to interesting standoffs if they added a "hostage taking" mechanic as they could use other players as human shields.

Never.

I don't even like that idea. They were just ideas for an emotion-based system. Item persistence will already be possible. This will, in my opinion, lead to an increase in KoS as character life will be de-valued even further. More stuff to do in-game will not reduce KoS. There will still be a significant portion of the community that are dedicated to griefing. This will also not decrease KoS. In fact, it may increase it due to the increased sense of disappointment and sadness at losing character progress. Permadeath is both a blessing and a curse in this regard. Better PvE challenges may slightly decrease KoS but it will never lead to an extensive decrease in the griefing mentality of players or the inability for players to trust each other.In my opinion there are only two ways of reducing KoS to manageable levels: Add challenges that require a group to surmount (e.g. premium loot requires a team). Add the ability to trust other players (e.g. a party system.) Totally "unrealistic" but totally necessary to dissuade the "friendly, friendly, shoot" behavior.Adding both of these would be optimal. KoS would decrease but not disappear. Gameplay would become team oriented. Groups of randoms could team up to take on groups of clans. Instead of immediately shooting on sight people would determine if a random was possibly an asset or a hindrance.

We were provided with a basic development roadmap and, apart from the survival components (hunting, cooking, farming) being added, all signs point to the focus remaining on PvP. PvE will remain a distraction from the primary PvP component until modding support is added, in my opinion.

What leads you to believe this isn't already the case?

This will never work. KoS mentality will never done unless active game mechanics are created to increase teamplay or penalize KoS. Otherwise SA will end up just like Mod and the community will fragment leaving the vanilla servers empty. And that is OK with me. If Rocket can't create a true survival environment I have faith that the community can take over and fix his fundamentally flawed vision for DayZ. The vanilla PvP servers will die after modding support is introduced. PvP-only players will leave for "1000+ vehicle" servers and people sick of the KoS mentality will play on private "PvE-only" servers or whitelisted RP servers. It is a bit sad that we were promised a grand survival experience and provided with the slowest deathmatch experience ever but I do have faith in the community. After 1.7 million purchases I am sure that the current state of affairs is not what the majority wanted.

And this is why the KoS/griefing mentality of Mod will continue in SA. This is why the community will fragment into private hives as soon as modding support is added. Rocket has shown time and time again that he is heavily influenced by the vocal minority and ignores his own vision. Without mechanics being added to influence teamplay and trust his whole plans for cooking, hunting and farming should just be scrapped as they won't be used. But it's cool. As long as they add modding support and increase the max. server population to 150-250 people (like promised) the game will be saved.

How the hell are people able to create items from thin air? I thought item spawn was controlled by the server.

Based on my observations from playing on Experimental (were loot is much more rare) I think that this will do little to lessen KoS and would probably increase it. Fresh spawns would start camping Elektro in the hopes of killing players with their fists. I don't really like the idea of a humanity system as well. Those were only ideas for an emotion-based system. Ideally I would like to see teamplay mechanics strengthened by adding a very simply party system. Basically if a reward system that requires teamplay was added as well as the ability for players to team up without fear of being shot in the back KoS would probably decrease dramatically. They could do something like add random helicopter crash sites that were visible for kilometers. These sites could have powerful PvE enemies and also extremely rare loot. On top of that add an (admittedly, unrealistic) party system that removes the ability for teammates to shoot each other. Players would start forming parties immediately to loot these sites and fight off other groups of both player and non-player enemies. Right now we are playing DayZ deathmatch but what I really would like to experience is DayZ team deathmatch. In-game party and clan support would change the entire DayZ experience in, what I feel, would be a positive way. Edit: Regular mode parties couldn't shoot each other. Hardcore mode would, of course, allow party members to shoot each other offering a true hardcore experience for those elite 1PP players.

They could add a system where the ghosts of the players you killed flashed in your vision. Or maybe the more players you kill the more zombies look like other players and only when you get close to them do you realize they are zombies. Maybe increase the random bullet-loading noises you already hear in-game. There are many ideas but the only way they would work is if emotions were persistent. Otherwise, once persistent items and bases are added, players would just suicide and gear up again instantly to be free of the effects of their psychotic proclivities.

I play on high-pop European servers. Maybe the problem is worse here than in the US.

You don't think the current visibility problems on night servers have anything to do with the popularity of 24/7 Daylight servers?

Hackers are running rampant currently. Over the last 2 weeks I have encountered several GROUPS of hackers as well as individuals. Out of my last ~10 deaths only one was legitimate. Everything from teleporting players to full-auto Mosins that shoot exploding ammo and break every bone in your body while killing you in one hit.

In your opinion what is DayZ about?

Emotion itself is primarily a physiological experience created by chemicals in your body. Hormones and other neurotransmitters are responsible for the majority of your mental state at any given time. If DayZ thinks it can simulate health in a sandbox environment then simulating mental health is just one step closer to the "realistic" game everyone goes on about. In real life you don't murder shitloads of people and just carry on like nothing is wrong.

I agree. But many DayZ players don't want to hear that. Hopefully there is actually a game designer at BI that will realize this and turn the current deathmatch shooter into an actual survival game. I love PvP but I also want to be able to experience survival at some point.

No, we get some false positives from our anti-cheat engine because it is so strict. Any process that manipulates the game memory in any way causes the client to exit.

Because they can. It is clear that DayZ doesn't have a clear vision from a game design perspective. You can't have it both ways. Either the dev team needs to wake up and say, "Ok. We are making a survival game and we need to introduce game mechanics that enable this experience to happen" or they need to continue on their current course and it will eventually devolve into 1000+ vehicle PvP deathmatches.

Permadeath and zombies.

Vanilla DayZ is pretty bad from a PvE aspect which is why people don't want to play it. Even when more game mechanics like hunting, fishing and farming are added it will stay a horrible PvE experience due to the rampant KoS and griefing. The fact that PvP servers are packed just illustrates the fact that the majority of DayZ players don't want a survival game, they want a slow deathmatch shooter.

Isn't "better" quite the subjective phrase? Many people want different things.

Have you ever heard of the concept of "cognitive dissonance"? It is definitely not d-sync and lag. -_-

In that case the devs should state that KoS is an intended feature and consequence of the game design and put the whole KoS debate to rest. All of my friends that have purchased this game and have played less than 10 hours due to the rampant KoS can move on to another multiplayer experience that offers the possibility to have some sort of social interaction apart from shooting guns at other people. p.s. DayZ is not a "true" sandbox game ala Minecraft or Garry's Mod. DayZ is a survival game based on a sandbox environment. The gameplay and game mechanics are tailored towards fulfilling a specific experience; in this case "survival". No matter what anyone says, the KoS mentality exhibited by the majority of the DayZ community is not conducive to a true survival experience. But maybe it is perfect for the survival experience that is DayZ...

The game isn't forcing anyone to KoS but it also doesn't hinder the practice. If people are given the opportunity to grief then they will. If the fact that an overwhelming majority of users kill-on-sight is an unwanted component of DayZ then game mechanics need to be added to combat this. The game IS to blame unless this is intended behavior.

I work on an UDK-based F2P FPS that is connected to Linux Java/C++-based game servers (believe it or not). We licensed a separate signature-based anti-cheat engine that is causing massive performance issues for some users but it is strict. Since we are trying to get into the competitive gaming scene we decided to say "fuck cheaters and possibly some valid users" to make sure that the game experience is good for the majority. We push out signature updates ASAP which has occasionally bit us in the ass. But we have managed to keep the cheater population relatively low (for a F2P game) and insta-ban hackers. If there are a bunch of hackers in our game the users will not blame the hackers, they will blame us. As they should. The rampant fanboyism in the DayZ community is detrimental to the eventual success of the game. We all have to look at the game as objectively as possible and give kudos when something good occurs and constructive criticism when the dev team is slacking. Just my opinion.