Mookie (original)

Binos are everywhere - barracks, deerstands, feedshacks. Seriously, if anything there are far too many spawnpoints for them.

Any luck on the M4 front Honey-B? :)

I think your argument is pretty convoluted, if not downright self-contradictory. I'm saying it's just luck unless you try, and that it takes effort to maximise the probabilities. You are not showing much evidence of understanding how to maximise those probabilities. Finding rare stuff, as pilgrim says, is (and should) difficult. This is the point of DayZ - there are as many potential playstyles as there are players. You can have a laugh, PvP in a dress with an AK. Or you can do things differently. But you shouldn't expect all elements of the game to conform to your playstyle.

If you acknowledge that most heli spawns are quite close to military locations, why in that case are you saying they should only spawn at military locations? Not only is this looking more and more like a whine, but not a very consistent one at that. It's obvious that crash site spawning is a game mechanic you don't like because it doesn't suit you. You'd like it to be easier. I get that. But this is not a game designed to be easy. Rare loot should be rare, and should take effort to find. Either put that effort in (as some of us do), or accept that it's a matter of luck. You can't have it both ways.

Other than the familiar point about servers, there is quite a lot wrong with your logic. There are three crashes per restart (not four). Your probability calculations look to me like they're based on finding one site of the potentials on offer. But if you want to hunt crash sites properly, if you think about maximising the probabilities, you can do well. I'd estimate for every two runs I do, I will find at least one site. Roughly half those sites will be unlooted. Maybe you just need to get better at it? Your points about a site spawning a weapon you "want" and mags for it sounds just a little bit whiny tbh. That's the case with many weapons in game. And if you only allow crash spawns at military sites, they will be even more of a magnet for every player on the map (and NWAF is bad enough as it is). If you want to PvP and enjoy the game that way, fine, go ahead. But many of us don't. Instead we like finding and having rare stuff, staying alive as long as possible and trading with others. More than one playstyle, see?

:huh:

Yes. Ironic, isn't it? Meanwhile, there is a playstyle (mine and others) that doesn't PvP unless we have to, that enjoys the sheer slog to find rare mil loot and trades it. Excepting patches waaaay back around 0.45/46 when crashes were taken out, and then around 0.54 when persistent servers didn't have them, there have always been three sites on the map btw.

This, I'm afraid. Despite splitting my stashes up, I've lost three of them in the past week to servers either disappearing, or failing to connect to the public hive (and two of them were 'official' servers...)

There are two fairly large ponds around Green Mountain - one to the north, and another to the west (near Zelenogorsk). There is a good chance of running into cows or deer there. Similarly, if you're further north, there are a series of smaller ponds to the west of Lopatino where I often see cows or deer. edit: 'reliably' not a word I'd apply to this though :D

Weather for me, and 'ambience' as a proxy for optimisation. On the first point, it's winter, but the seasons in Chernarus never seem to change. While it thunders occasionally, it certainly doesn't rain much, and I'm constantly overheating because I'm wearing a jacket and t-shirt in winter....can't be right. I know optimisation will come in Beta, etc, but the experience of much new content (and much of it far from perfect) while this seriously offputting fps issue goes on is not a very comfortable one.

Great post - this is what the game should be about. That, and not being sure whether someone is following you....

Always a pleasure, and owe you a favour (as usual...)

Have: VSS Vintorez (P. Scope is D but works perfectly) Seeking: Barrel/tent. Anything will do. Thanks

Apologies for wandering OT a little, but that is a really illuminating post pilgrim. In other words (and I think there's something fundamentally wrong about persistence here), an 'official' server can disappear or be reallocated, just as clan or other privately held public-hive servers can kick, disappear, etc. All things which fundamentally undermine the nature of persistence in the game. Just looking at my favourites list, they have pretty much all changed their names in the past two months, although the IPs are the same. I wonder if a 'reallocation' in this way automatically involves a wipe. I'd tend to assume it does. This is not a whine, incidentally. Perhaps what BI are doing is just good economics for them. I can't see it being very good for player motivation though.

Really? Up to about 15 metres maybe, but after that forget it.... Granted a lot of combat happens within that range because people bump into each other and panic shoot, but some does not. Some of the iron sights (Blaze especially, but also SKS and FAL) are pretty good IME. I hit a moving target last night at about 250m with my FAL (he would not stop following me), though that was mainly luck. The MP5 is very buggy at the moment - OP get a UMP, stat.

Thanks mate. 0.58 was a bit of a loss all round in more than one way. But this principle that Pilgrim and others are getting at - that the server architecture is wrong - seems to me like one of the more fundamental things to be tackled in Beta. I'm trying to thing of suggestions. Answers in ways that other games do things? Not IME. Eve, WoT, etc completely different games. The only comparator I have is Wolfenstein, and that was a long, long time ago.

In 0.58, four separate 'official' servers (and by that I mean the ones that GSPs host) went dark on me, or stopped connecting with the public hive, dumping stashes that represented many hours of (stupid, virtual) work by me and others. The whole server mechanics and incentives system is a mess tbh. Mildly ironic given that if there's one area of the game BI have really tried hard on, it's persistence.

All of Gary's points with one proviso. However well your camp is hidden, if the server it's on goes dark, it's gone. So I'd strongly suggest you split your stash between four or five servers. That helps in case someone find your things too. At least then they're not getting the whole lot...

Updating. Since my last round of trades, I've acquired another FN...: Have: FN FAL (P) FN FAL 20rnd mag (P, full) FN FAL standard stock (P) AKM (P, with P standard guard and stock) AK rail guard (P) Kashtan scope (P) 75rnd AKM mag (P) M65 jacket (P, tan) 60rnd STANAG 10rnd VSS mags x2 (P, full) Blackskull balaclava (P) Hicap vest (P, olive) Seeking: Tents (preferably a mil one) and/or barrels (preferably green) FNX mags Thanks.

Haven't seen any M4 furniture (other than the optics) in this patch Yaz :( . Wait...do you actually have an M4 that you need these for? :o Have: FN FAL (P) with standard stock (W) and a full magazine M65 jacket (P, tan) 60rnd STANAG NATO suppressor (P) VSS 10rnd mags x2 (P, full) AKM Seeking (in order of preference): FNX mags x2 .308 rounds Kashtan scope 75rnd drum mag Thanks.

I had one. I traded it for an SVD. First because the suppression thing is very screwy atm. Second because it's basically a mid-range sniping tool - a bit of a contradiction in terms.

I have a FAL but I'm keeping it as I like it (a lot). Whole other dispute going on about whether M4s are spawning. I certainly haven't seen any, and none have been traded in 0.59...

OP I think you are overthinking it. If you want to be a serious heli hunter (and I am, pretty serious), the following things apply: 1. You will run into others and get into fights if you play on high pops. A lot. 2. It takes real stamina and determination 3. You will probably get into trading (most serious traders are well into hunting crash sites) I think it's working pretty well in 0.59, apart from the fact that M4s are not spawning, and the occasional anti-immersive disappearance of a crashed helicopter in front of your eyes... More people are doing it now because they (thankfully) can't really farm the huts as they did in 0.58.

Pinching people's trades isn't nice, m'kay?

Have: 2x10rnd VSS mags (full, P) NATO suppressor (P) Blackskull balaclava (P) Eastern suppressor (W) Pistol suppressor (W) AKM, (P, with pristine stock and guard) AKM 30rnd mag (P, full) FNX (P, with W MRDS sights) Battery (W) Seeking: .308 rounds. Lots... Thanks