slyder73

You paid for Arma2. Play that, it's great. DayZ is a FREE mod for Arma2.

Its bogus to think they can't simply include the name of players who kill other players in the game, this is how many many games do things and would help identify hackers and exploiters. And you seem to be forgetting that explosives are part of legit DayZ play...only yesterday I fragged two players in a barn... No. It is not bogus. The post asked if anyone else saw a problem with his answer. One problem I pointed out is that with names displayed and the level of time/personal/emotional investment, it would lead to a LOT of complaint emails for every single death. Maybe people don't care that they die after a few days or their first 2 hours not understanding the game...I don't know. But, if the opportunity for them to write off a quick email and claim they were hacked was there....it will happen so often it would be a problem that takes away from identifying the "real" hackers. As for explosives. I never said explosives shouldn't be in the game or weren't. What I was suggesting is that the devs code the game in such a way that when one dies by weapons or explosives that ARE NOT ALLOWED, or BANNED from the game, those deaths dont' count. I am thinking of the script kiddies who login and drop the big aircraft bombs from the regular game all over the map and destroy a bunch of players. THose are clearly not in the Dayz mod,but in the game overall....shouldn't be hard to code for the mod to differentiate between legit weapons and illigit weapons. If one dies by illegal weapons then the death doesn't count. Yes, this does not deal with the hackers that spawn a multitude of weapons that ARE already available in the mod. But, it can at least deal with the smacktards that are in the servers and spawning all the major server killing weapons that kill everyone....weapons and large bombs that are in the regular game that some of us have been playing for years. In the regular game,the hackers have been a weekly experience on most popular servers. BIS does not deal with this and the hackers will not be going away. This is why I suggested this bandaid fix. At least it allows hack-killed players to respawn with their gear. Because the hackers will be on Dayz servers guaranteed.

I kill players because if I don't, they will kill me. I used to try to say hi, try to get someone to work with, but with one single exception, everyone I meet just shoots on sight. So I am forced to murder so as not to be murdered.

True, but the symptoms are all the Dayz team can work with. BIS has not, nor do they seem interested in fixing the hacking issues with Arma2. They are working on Arma3.

I"m not sure which of the issues I am experiencing. The buddy and I who usuall play have both been unable to login to most servers for a good week or so now, since the 1.7.1.5 update. The few we can get on we both spawn out in the wasteland. Haven't been able to play since. Is there any word or announcements besides these forums that anyone is aware of about when the next update will be coming out (1.7.2)? It is a week late and I'm wondering if it has been mentioned on any of the interviews or online stuff the devs have been doing?

The hack you are talking about has been around since Arma2 came out years ago. Peopel still come on the regular Arma2 servers, take over and bomb the places out of existence. It won't be going away for DayZ if they havn't figured it out in all these years. Best advice, try to play and make yourself a regular on a server that as well admin'ed, with admin present all the time. They can keep an eye out and notice if things are going crazy or people are using small cheats or even catch the big ones before they get out of hand. The hackers can be banned but they just come back or get a different game key or something. If you hear huge explosions or people start talking aboutit on the server you are on, get away from the towns for sure. Also, don't draw attention to the hackers, calling them out or insulting them...that just feeds their ego and they do it more. Let the admins get their id's and ban them.

I'm also still getting this issue. 3/4 of all servers are X out and I run via Steam. Steam autoupdates the Arma2 game so will wait for it to do that before installing any ad hoc beta patches that seem to constantly change. All this doesn't matter anyway becuase the few servers I CAN get on, I am 23km out in the wasteland with all my gear but the backpack and compass gone. Eagerly waiting 1.7.2 and hoping that solves this so I can play again.

There is Direct Chat. Is there a way that Direct chat can have it's range increased so it covers 50m or 100m? That way only close proximity players can read it. This works for the Direct Chat VOICE as well. I've used teh chats and direct chat for years in regular Arma2. It works great but the range is pretty short for the distances we come across and need to identify players in this mod.

Also cannot join any server that has a beta installed. (And the ones I can join have other issues now, outlined in other threads) I run Arma2:OA through Steam. I am hesitant to use the installer with Steam as my experience using a variety of addons and islands with Arma2 in the past has shown that Steam is a different animal alltogether. I will not use the updater because it will make it very difficult to move around my various islands that I use on other Arma2 servers with regular groups I play with. That being said, DayZ has worked fine until tonight. Played last 3 days ago. Tonight, d/l and install the newest updated files and versions as usual. Most servers are not inaccessible and use some version of a beta that I can't play. The others left that use 1.7.1.5 that I have as of tonight...MOSTLY don't work. I get the same "bad version" error that the OP says. The few that DO work are the same version with no beta....BUT I spawn continually in some debug landscape 21km away from the play area and have lost all my main inventory gear (kept pack and lower menu items: lost rifle, food, ammo, water etc). Running this from Steam. PC with Win7 64 bit, nVidiaGTX260 vid card, 6 gigs of RAM

Most of the servers I try now I cannot join. This is the error message that comes up. I also have Arma2: OA via Steam.

Also scanning for word on this fix. Played up until 3 days ago, had CZ pack, rifle, good gear, lots of food and water etc. Install all the updated files tonight and no longer have access to most servers. They all seem to have a red X. The few I could get on with 1.7.1.5 and no beta I would spawn in this empty field. I lost all my main gear menu stuff. My pack is still full with it's supplies and my compass, map etc are intact. I am 21km on all respawns and all servers from play area. I tried respawning. No effect. I lost ALL my gear on that server but when I logged otu to try another server, back in the debug field and with my original gear content, still 21km from anywhere.

Had this tonight. Respawn did not solve the issue. Resspawn and respawn and just keep respawning in the debug area. I think this is the debug area. It is a huge empty field at least 21 km from the main play area (I lost all my gear but kept what was IN my backpack and the compass, map etc on the lower gera menu).

Yup. I want to add to this that on 3 servers tonight both my buddy and I had this same issue. We both played 3 days ago and exited with Czech packs and full gear, lots of food, water, rifle, ammo. etc. Tonight, we add the addon packs, all that are new since we played 3 days ago. Version 1.7.1.5. Most servers we cannot join. All of those with some kind of beta we cannot join and most others as well. The 3 servers we DID get on tonight, we both spawned in this huge empty wilderness. I lost all my main inventory gear, gone, but kept my compass, map, watch etc and the gear that was inside my CZ pack. My friend kept ALL of his gear and rifle etc. I used the map to click a marker and I am at least 21km from the nearest edge of the playable area. I tried to switch slots in the server, no change. I tried to respawn and no change (in fact, after respawn my gear loadout disappeared ont hat server, but then we changed to another server and I was back at the original gear config for tonight). Ideas?

Sadly it will be a bit of a gamble for hacked servers. Arma2 has been out for 3 years now and if you've played on the regular Coop or actual PvP servers, they still get hacked all the time. The hacks are always one step ahead of BI in trying to figure it out (although BI doesn't do the best job in product support over time). Try to find a server that usually has a good set of admin on all the time. That gives more of a chance that the hackers will do something small and stupid first and get booted before they take out the whole server. That works well in regular Arma2, though I guess in DayZ with the persistent saving it can screw up a character someone has been working on for weeks.

Find a map or download a map and print it out. Then learn to navigate by landmarks etc. Find the ponds and bodies of water. You can fill your water bottles at the bodies of water or wells in some towns. Food you can find everywhere; cans of everything. If you can get it all together after a few days, the matches to light a fire, the hatchet to cut the wood, the hunting knife to gut the animals and take the meat....you can hunt, shoot animals, then take the meat, then light a fire and cookthe meat for high quality food. Then you only need to set up near a lake and hunt and you are good for food and water for weeks...well, forever.

I've had to server hop. Servers often crash, a couple times a night this happens. Servers get glitched, happens often as well. Arma2 also still has some desktop crashes that occur, including when playing DayZ, have to restart and ususally can't remember what server I started on. Loot disappears and does not spawn sometimes on servers, same as glitched above I guess. I also don't play at night. Too dark and just can't see anything. It's not any fun, at all. If I load and it's dark, I switch.

YES As long as it is only when looking directly at a person and not ambient in an area (like looking at character pops up nametags).

YES Not sure if it is possible, but to get around issues people have about being helpless at spawn, could unarmed players be able to run a lot faster. They could outrun bandits, zombies etc. As soon as they pick up a weapon they slow down to normal rates. (Picking up heavier stuff already slows a player down.)