Euryon

You are correct. Typing too fast without thinking. Beans for not being a dick about it.

I've considered discussing caloric intake as a mechanic in the game. I figured it was overly complicated, but here goes: So, the average person (ie, your standard DayZ avatar) requires about 2000 calories a day. I'm not sure if that equals what it takes to 'energize' yourself, but I'm sure it's fairly close. However, considering your character will no doubt *sprint* for about 50% of his daily play - anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 or 6 hours for some - that's a shit tonne of exercise and calories burning. I know stamina is going to be introduced, so I don't want to get into caloric replacement so much... But, yes, if your character is just eating TacBac and beef steaks, and generally sits on sniper-hill for 100% of his in-game day, I think it would be neat to see his/her ability to run decrease, perhaps have him/her grow some belly fat. A bizzare advantage might be an ability to withstand the cold a little better? Similarly, starving oneself might be an option to reduce ones visibility, but suffer lower lengths of energized status. However, eating a balanced diet, with exercise, would maximize stamina, raw power (for melee), etc. I dunno, just a thought :)

So one of the things I love to do in DayZ, especially when going solo, is to wander aimlessly in the Northern reaches, trying my best to live off the land. After I've energized and found a decent gun and ammo, I try to go craft my own backpack, keeping whatever greenish clothes I can find, and live purely from hunted and gathered food. I know gathering will improve over time, likely with squash, more fruit, vegetable gardens, etc. Animal hunting, however, whilst a nice rush when you finally spy that buck 2 fields away, is really quite random. Thus, to improve the process, I'd like to make some suggestions... 1) Animals leave spoor. By this I mean evidence of their movement. Animal droppings (each individual for each animal) would be great. They could be 'touched' or smelt, much like taking a pulse, and the warmth or texture could give a clue as to their age. Thus, a warm deer poop would indicate a deer within a mile or so. A cold, hard dollop would be next to useless... Unless there are several, possibly indicating... 2) Animal territories. Some (but not all) animals are territorial. Whilst in real life their habitat may include areas as large as Chenarus itself, for the sake of the game, a large buck might 'own' a solid square KM in the game, assuming it is not infracting on a town or high-traffic area. This would mean, if you happened to find a reasonably large quantity of deer poop, and there's water nearby, you may be close to a buck's grazing area, and can be alert with such information. Similarly, when bears and possibly wolves are introduced, we might get lucky enough to introduce a meta-game where driving the bears in a server to extinction (Assuming some persistence) allows bucks and pigs, etc., to increase their territory, and perhaps 'reproduce' more - effectively creating a form of in-game artificial selection. Perhaps this is too much though, just a thought. 3) Further animal spoor. Broken branches, hoof/paw prints, genuine localized sounds, blood trails, etc., could all be incorporated using existing game functions (IMO), and give tell tale sign of animals nearby. 4) Animal psychology. I like that cows tend to show up in herds of 3 or 4, whereas your average buck is by it's lonesome. This feels about right, considering the apocalypse is fairly recent, and other than hogs, most animals tend to retain their behavior when released into the wild (Cows will remain in herds, as an example). Similarly, I like that animals run from you, but I would like the ability to creep up on some animals a bit easier. If moving in an animals blind spot, at the slowest possible crouch-walk, I certainly should be able to sneak up on a cow or pig - a buck, perhaps not, they're wiley for sure. 5) Gun shots should scare animals away. Dramatically so. Sometimes if trying my luck with an unscoped Mosin from a couple hundred meters away, I will miss the headshot I try to go for (I'm still trying to figure out all what factors better meat carving - a buddy and I both carved 3 deer with pristine kitchen knives - he got an average of 80% quality, whilst I got 50% quality), but the deer won't budge an inch. If anything, deer and zombies should have their sound responses switched over - bucks bolt at most anything, whereas I can see the degenerated brain of a zombie/infected being slower to respond to specific noises. 6) Not insta-kill. Depending on the caliber and range of the shot, not all guns should instantly kill an animal. I've known bucks of similar maturity to those in the game (I forget, are they 8pts or 10pts?) to bolt after taking pretty large rounds to the gut. Hogs (boars in this, I guess) might need a whole damn clip, having heard stories from buddies who've hunted them. Either way, an extra level to 'the hunt' would be clipping an animal, and trying to mark where it goes to ground, and hunting it down, following blood trails, listening for struggling, etc. (Edited additions) 7) Animals fleeing. If a careless hunter, zombie or animal moves too quickly through a particular spot (by a tree, or through a bush, or whatever), a few birds could fly away screeching. This could give a cool audio addition to the paranoia-inducing environment, but also lend some further strategy. Chasing a *player* into the woods is often a bad idea, as the amount of cover it affords often allows them to escape. However, imagine chasing another armed player through the woods, and you hear birds screech 20m to your right, you quick-scope, but it's just a deer strolling through the woods... This could also work the same as how Zeds will occasionally aggro on animals, with bears etc., aggroing on other animals... ---- Ultimately, I know hunting isn't entirely what DayZ is about, but it IS A survival game, and living off the land should be a viable option for those of us who like to challenge the system in this way. I don't think these sorts of ideas will require a massive time/money investment from the team, and I fully accept they would be low priority when compared to fixing technical issues, and getting other more important features opened up. Nevertheless, we can discuss it here, and determine if it's something we, as a community, think is a good idea. IF not, no harm, no foul.

Joined a mid-pop server (20ish) as I was on the outskirts of Bere, a few months ago. Scoped the cop-shop out, and looked as clear as it was gonna look, so headed in. Unlooted (wtf right?). Got what I needed, and as I closed a door behind me... "Get out of my police station.... ...NOW!" So I scanned outside the windows, couldn't see him. Bolted out the side door, and through houses onto that low hill to the west of the northern road. Then there's shots at me. Lots of shots. Take cover, slowly start to flank through the trees. Hear footsteps. Hide in a bush for 10 minutes. Footsteps again. STILL no visual. Then someone blew the gas station. Shit myself. Combat logged. Too much adrenalin. Fuck that.

Inventotris?

As far as poop goes, it'd be nice for animal spore. You could see how warm it is, get to know which animals poop looks like what, figure out if you're near a regular animal haunt, etc. Ways other than randomly seeing 5 zombies chasing a cow, and the occasional unicorn-pig and stag would be nice, to track animals. There should be some little skill involved in hunting, past random luck of the spawn, IMO.

Wow, you learn something new everyday! I wondered why Maniac and BlackOut always had an M4 in their videos, lol. Thanks guys, now I can keep my two favorite guns :D

Benefits: With foresight, you can choose the method of an engagement. As it is the Mosin and M4/AKM/AK101 which is the most preferable combo, you have the opportunity to provide overwatch, or lend a hand in CQC. You feel pretty badass. Negatives: You will lose one of the guns when you log off. You can never run at full speed. It can take some time to pull out the required weapon if you need to change on the fly. I prefer to run with a Mosin and MP5/Sawn-off/fully decked FNX. The MP5 is only worth having if you have 2 30rd clips. The 15's are too unpredictable in whether you'll take an opponent down. The sawn-off is satisfying, but you'll want plenty of cover (like inside a house) so you can duck out and reload constantly, as it's tough to be close enough to get a OHK (with double barrel fire). The FNX will at least give you a chance in a firefight, and is the best all round sidearm, IMO. This way you have range (Mosin), CQC (with your other weapon), and can still sprint, won't lose your second weapon, and have them all on hotkeys.

Spend two weeks looking for enough ammo and clips to make it a worthwhile firearm in a gunfight. Probably be KoS'd before it happens.

A totally rare set of plate armor that can be looted at one of the castles. 100% armor against zombies. 50% buff against other melee damage types. Some protection against small caliber firearms (.22's, mostly). But you can only walk with it.

March them up to a high rooftop at gun point and order them to jump... Get a few zombies aggro'd, then lure them to a broken legged victim... Tell them to run along the runways at NWAF with an unloaded SKS (have a mosin on them at all times), if they do 2 laps, they get to live...

Also include the school (or whatever it is) that has the 3rd floor room with an almost 100% chance of a gun... The hospital and small clinic for medical supplies... Railway station for backpacks and occasionally Press vests...

Would be great if you could tag which essentials have a medium to high chance of spawning in these buildings... For instance, the Piano House is a pretty good chance of a firearms (from a sporter to the mosin)... The small restaurant has a decent chance of backpacks... The red-brick house always has some sort of food (sometimes rotten though)... The red-brick house with an archway often has a firearm... Firestations are good for axes, yellow containers, kitchen knives, ammo, compasses, handcuffs and low-end military clothing... Etc...

Whilst I bow to your knowledge of bow-making, I have to disagree to a point. Time should be a relatively minor factor, as this is still a game. No-one wants to sit looking at their guy animate carving a bow for several hours. Perhaps a compromise? 1) You can spend up to an hour 'carving' a bow. If you spend the full hour, you get it pristine. 45 mins = worn, 30 = damaged, etc. You can split this time up and do 10 mins today, 10 mins tomorrow, etc. 2) The improvised bow might just be the only crafted bow, and others - composites, longbows, etc. - might be fully built items later on in development. I do like the arrows idea - certainly the ability to carve a basic wooden arrow and harden it over fire. Not sure about attaching glass or metal though. I'd like proper arrows to be lootable, and in-a-fix arrows craftable myself. Finally, I'm a big fan of the first line of your signature. First time I heard that was in a weird alternative history novel, some years ago. ;)

Found one in the upstairs of an unlooted piano house. Kept my mosin though.