leviathanapsu

This. Dear god so much of this. I favor RP servers since endless battle royale is boring to me. Being a survival hobbyist in real life, there are so many things that frustrate me about this game. Sticks, strings, and/or rocks can get a lot of food for example, but all there was involved hunting down a wire. That got taken out. Farms everywhere, but no edible plants except the broken apple trees. Said trees have a glitch that actually makes them more realistic (though probably annoying on nonRP servers) in that one can easily gather a lot of apples from a single tree quickly. Berry picking is a waste of time. And of course you spawn in on a coast already starving and invariably every form of food has been looted into oblivion. Wildlife should be abundant, yet is painfully scarce. Heck, I rail against way more issues than this minor bug. Why do I need a barrel and lime to tan a skin? Brain-tanning isn't that complicated. Why do we have to get a tent just to stash things? Thankfully they're going to be adding to this. Just ignore it. They won't shut it off in this build and as I recall, they intend to 'fix' the glitch in the Beta. Postscript: Actually, the point about new players is very valid. The hardcore folks keep screaming it isn't hard enough, but honestly the learning curve is already pretty harsh for the new players. Makes it hard to bring new players into the game. Once modding is here, let the hardcore gamers go mod out a setting where the only food you can find is the military base in the north in a single building and they can hardcore themselves to their heart's content. Let average players just have fun.

Perhaps mentioned is too strong of a word. The image flashes while they are mentioning games with an over-abundance of a certain sort of player type. Not the most flattering thing for the game, but still thought it was pretty spot on since I had been thinking of DayZ at that very moment anyway. https://youtu.be/1drDuaQXm_U

I would personally love to see the ability to knock out a zombie (since they are infected humans and still should be able to suffer head trauma, etc) and then duct tape/rope them up so they are very limited on movement/threat. There's a lot of risk involved with trying to knock out a zombie instead of kill them, but I think this option would be amazingly useful for people who like to play on RP servers. We could have some random zombie end up being someone we knew and be unable to kill them emotionally, but also there is no way to currently not kill one other than run away and hope you are faster. Being able to knock them out and tie them up would be a great way to resolve that issue. Imagine someone who runs into their wife or something and then keeps them tied up and unable to harm others in the hopes of saving them somehow or maybe just weakness of conviction, etc. Some great RP could happen around having that sort of mechanic.

You can do something like this already. It is especially easy in firehouses. Just get a few of them chasing you and run inside. Run back out as they try to attack and shut the door. Every time you get more, just lead them back and repeat the process. Eventually you can get as many as ten of them sitting around inside waiting for someone to open the door.

I have 'knocked them out' but it is really more of knocking them down since as soon as they hit the ground, they are getting back up again every single time. Not sure I can count that for much, but you are correct. I was thinking of something more like what players can suffer. Variable periods of laying there before they can recover, giving you time to run or tie them up as you see fit.

KoS is something everyone struggles with (unless they just take the Kill-um-all mentality right away). Some people argue that it is how it is in the real world, but honestly it is a small portion of society that immediately turns to the insanity of killing everyone they see in such crisis'. DayZ seems plagued with people who all have the mentality of other FPS games. They grow bored with evading zombies and think that the only other thing to do is kill the people around them for the 'challenge' or even just to save themselves effort on finding gear. My advice is to give people some benefit of the doubt and accept that you are going to get shot for it sometimes. Judge people carefully. I only keep a few people around me for more than a few minutes and mostly only after they have proven themselves more than once when they had a chance to kill me without risk to themselves. The rest of the time I act fairly and am more or less friendly, but once our conversation and/or trading is done, I ask them to part ways and carefully monitor where they go. I myself move well away and watch my tail to see if they have decided to reverse and track me. In the end, it is up to you to decide how often you pull the trigger and how much of your humanity you give up in the game.

I have been rolling the concept of KoS over in my mind. For many of those who prefer an interactive experience as opposed to a deathmatch, KoS can be infuriating. Now, I am not going to go into the debate over KoS vs RP debate again. I already did that once a while back. What I am focusing on here instead is a way for those more interested in the idea of a plot arc to feel like they aren't kicked out of immersion by some random person who shoots at everything that moves killing them without so much as a 'freeze' spoken. Obviously, if you are the sort who loves to KoS, you can hit the back button now. Sure, you might like to see it and can stay, but this isn't directed at you. It isn't even an indictment of your actions. So, to the rest of you who find KoS frustrating, here are my thoughts. As the title says, KoS is part of the zombie infection. Look at what we know about the zombies and compare that to what we know about the KoSers. 1) Zombies are highly aggressive and attack any moving thing they come across. KoSers are extremely aggressive and attack anyone they come across. 2) Zombies may be found alone or in groups. KoSers sometimes travel alone, but often roam in groups of close friends. 3) Zombies do not attack other zombies who are around them. KoSers won't attack the others of their group. So we have a pattern of similar behavior. What differs is that the zombies no longer have functional minds. They just stand there or roam around in a neat pattern until something passes in front of them. The humans who are KoSing still have functional minds. They move around the map, gather supplies and act in a (sometimes semi) tactical manner. What I draw from this is that there are multiple variations on the zombie infection. The first and most obvious is the one where your mind gets broken down very quickly and all that is left is aggression without thoughts or focus. The second is a slower breakdown. In both cases, your still recognize the people you are most familiar with (IE: other zombies you have been associating with or other KoSers), but anyone new introduced into your presence is not seen as anything more than a moving target. Where the traditional zombies have lost all that makes them human, the KoSers are clinging to some aspects of their humanity. They are aggressive killers, but convince themselves it is their own choice. The slow infection makes them quick to embrace the worst parts of their humanity and kill those who they see regardless of circumstances. Bambi shooting, attacking anyone they see without hesitation or even trying to cry friendly to get someone to come closer are all symptoms. Obviously this isn't the case in the real world, but it works well as a rational for when it happens in the game. Some of those you meet just happen to be the worst aspects of humanity, but some are infected and don't even realize they are already dead men walking. So what do you think? Solid narrative for explaining what is happening when some KoSer snipes fresh spawns for fun or when some guy you were trying to give food to decides to axe you for kicks?

I remember one guy very early on when I first started playing. At the time NEAF was still full of military gear and I came up just as someone else server hopped and came running out of a hangar. He comes running at me yelling friendly and shooting at me at the same time. It was probably the worst attempt at deception I have ever seen in my life. My five year old could do better. Who would fall for someone yelling friendly /WHILE/ they shot at you?

I actually spent a long time in the game without even realizing the gamma setting was there. It would infuriate me that I would log onto a night server, see a bright full moon in the sky and yet everything would be pitch black. That didn't stop me from doing things at night, but it did frustrate me to no end. Moonless sky = really dark. Moon filled sky=gray scale. Maybe it is just that my night vision in the real world is better than average, but it never made sense to me that it was eternal darkness regardless of moon phase. It wasn't until I had almost 200 hours in that someone mentioned there was a gamma setting and I could finally adjust the screen to match the moon phases. For me, I love immersion, so being able to adjust gamma to suit the level of ambient light has been a real pleasure. Of course, I figure most people just crank it up full blast and don't worry about it at all, so I do understand your point. It's worth noting though, that anyone who says 'everyone does x and anyone who says otherwise is lying' are generally incapable of accepting that the rest of the world may not always think exactly as they do. Seems to be a lot of that thinking on this forum. "everyone KoSs", "Everyone raises gamma", "Everyone steals from babies", or whatever other thing it is they feel is a perpetual problem that they themselves also do. Want to change the world? Start being the change. Turn your gamma off and deal with it. "Oh, but they have theirs up and it isn't fair!". Yep. Welcome to life. That guy who gets promoted because he fucked the bosses daughter isn't fair either, but it's going to happen. Be the better person and learn to improve your own skills by working at fighting the uphill battle. Stop trying to regulate other people on how they are doing their own game. Also, for the record, If it is daylight RL and night on the game, low gamma settings could almost make the game unplayable regardless. God knows I have to turn settings like that up on my TV when playing a dark game in the daylight.

I have read postings every so often where someone talks about something being suddenly rare. Often, they are talking about an item I have run across frequently. I suspect the law of averages is being cruel to us. Some of the infrequent ones for me lately have been rope and hacksaws, that I used to find constantly. Some things, however, I have never once seen anywhere. The two that come to mind are both animals. Hundreds of hours into the game and I haven't come across a single chicken or rabbit. Someone said rabbits generate from our side, so only you see the rabbit you are aiming at and others don't until you hit it. Not sure if that is true, but I often wonder why I haven't run across these yet. Then again, I have seen several goats where others thought they were a myth. I am also fairly certain I saw a bull, but failed to get a screenshot since my mind was on other things. Thought it was just another cow at first until the lack of others and extra equipment were noticed. I didn't have ammo at the time, so just went on my way. Looking at the DayZ wiki, I don't see anything about them being put into the game yet. Anyway, what sort of things do you hear about constantly, but have never seen? What have you run across frequently that everyone else thinks are rare?

You can always check the recruitment area of the forum. Some groups only look at certain times, while others will recruit anyone who has interest as long as they can show they aren't a nitwit and prove not to turn on the others. The group I head is always open to new players interested, but because of our focused goals, it isn't for everyone. Walking up to random people is usually a huge risk and often only marginal gains. I've met three people so far that I kept as regular people to interact with from those I met at random. Most of the rest I have offered exchanges and then parted ways as safely as I could manage.

The backpacks show up rarely in a number of places, but the vest itself only has three potential spawn points on the entire map. The odds of spawning in any one of those is very low. I am going to agree that it is probably the single rarest item on the game to find a vest /and/ the backpack to attach to it.

I sometimes use test even when I do have a mic I can use and no one to wake up. The reason is that it doesn't give away your position. If I am out of their line of sight, but peak around a corner to know they are there, I can do text and observe. Also, using test displays the name. Most people pause and chat with someone listed as a trader instead of just shooting. They may still betray you, but at least most of them think about it a little before doing so. Sometimes they decide they are really pleased with the trades and make a point of watching out for you thereafter.

AKs and M5s are being run into all the time by myself and one of the Trade Guild's runners. I don't think anyone manages to find many Press Vests. I've only found 1 so far myself. Blood test kits seemed almost impossible to find for a very long while, but now I see them semi-regularly. If you never see a longhorn, you aren't missing much. The scope is nice enough and it has some power, but being stuck to a single shot and taking up that much space makes it something I would only keep if you don't have any other option or you just feel like you can afford the space.

I generally avoid playing when I can't use the mic. I got tired of getting attacked while typing.

Hey. You know who usually call the stealthy people cowards? Dead people.

As a new spawn on a persistent server, it is a real bear trying to get food initially. Once you are established, it isn't really very tough to stay fed. I've been to several servers where it took me almost to the point of dying before I found a single food item after newly spawning.

Unready the gun before you move to switch. It will take a moment for you to press the button to ready the new weapon and you are a little slower, but you can at least move while switching.

Code is a funny thing. I don't code anything this complex, but I do work with a much older form called Mushcode as a hobby. Knowing the system perfectly, it is still at times unpredictable how one mistake out of thousands of lines of code will affect the whole. If multiple aspects share the same core code set, tweeking to fix one problem often creates two more. That's kind of how I see things with this. They tweek the code to allow this or that. They adjust it to fix this problem over here. If it works, it may only work partially. Even if it does work all the way, it may suddenly break several other things connected to it. Add to this the complications of having different teams and it can be a real pain. In my own experiences, making something way beyond anything else out there usually involves doing a lot of backtracking and fixing that take way longer than the people around you. Sure, someone else could bust out something quickly by plugging in a few aspects to a pre-existing engine, but to do something really unique, everything is from the ground up. Some of the best games I have seen took extra time because they were doing something unique and had to get the system perfect before they were willing to move into beta stages.

Good information to have. Thanks!

Funny. I seem to be able to run into people every single time I go on a server even when there is only one other person on the whole thing. Doesn't seem to matter where I am, though obviously the East coast sees more on a populated server. I don't feel like I can let my guard down anywhere lately.

Between how few people have any use for a flashlight (useless at day and points to you like a neon arrow at night) and the common appearance of chemlights and flares anyway if you are intent on getting shot for being a glowing target, it seems to be a waste of effort. At most, I keep the battery now that there are some useful toys that use it. I'd rather start with 2 matches, an empty water bottle, or whatever other random minor thing. Not much value to those things either, but offer a bit of a starting interest and one step towards psychological comfort regarding survival.

I feel your pain Shrub. The people who do this crap annoy me worse than KoS folks. At least with KoS, they come out of the door firing and you are prepared (or should be). People who go out of their way to play friendly for a while and then shoot you in the back are just obnoxious. KoS may be a dick move, but at least it is an honest one. This is why I will interact with players, but rarely agree to stick around where they are after a deal is struck. Make a trade with my gun in hand and then back away until I am out of sight. I give everyone their chance, but I don't take more chances than I have to unless I have a good reason to trust that there isn't a double cross on the horizon.

Apartment buildings have them. One of our trade guild found one and I have heard others finding them there. They are really rare though. I went through apartments for hours the other night and never found a single one.

I have found only one server with actual persistence working, but it is very laggy. If the server you were on wasn't getting slow fps, it probably isn't true persistent.