hkurban

My favorite part is -- assuming these are player vehicles and not ai controlled entities -- that these hackers have no understanding of the game's flying controls and end up crashing their stupid hacked warmachines. Good on ya, hackers

OP, first off I will say I support a couple of your ideas. I like the idea of a faster "friendly" animation, but I don't feel it should be top priority right now. Likewise, an increase in the ratio of civilian weapons would probably make a huge impact on gameplay, but that's more of a "tweaking" of values rather than the radical changes being made at this stage. Still, I would not mind if DayZ did incorporate these two features. Some of the other ideas, I'm not too fond of, such as nametags. If you want someone to know your name, you'll tell them, or it'll show up in text chat if you use that feature. Still, my main reason for posting is to address your concern of the whole "unseen snipefest" issue. I play both solo and in groups, and I've yet to die from a sniper in my many hours racked up in game. While I won't go so far as to say you're playing "wrong", I thought I'd edificate you on my playstyle for solo survival, so that you can try it, and see if you don't last a few minutes longer. I should caveat that while I have yet to die by the hands of a hidden sniper, I've come under fire from snipers, I've been hit, and even sometimes mortally wounded by snipers, but I've never been added to a sniper's murder count. I have however, died plenty of times in close quarters and ranges not exceeding 100 meters, usually from poor decisions in the moments where you only have seconds to react. I've also been on the other end of the scope, providing overwatch for my friends going into towns and cities. A little bit of background also is that I am in the Military and apply the fundamental tactics to staying alive in this game. In any case, here is what I offer to you: When I move, I plan my route carefully. I try to avoid being out of cover/concealment for more than a few seconds at a time. If I have to cross a road, I'll do it at the point with as little open space on either side of the road as possible. If I'm entering a town, I'll try to come in on the side closest to the woods, or otherwise offering the best c&c. The real trick is, never assume you're safe. Always assume that a sniper is out there, and take steps to minimize his ability to get a shot on you. Minimize your signature, move from cover to cover quickly, avoid aggroing zombies and painting a tail on your back. If you do have to handle them, do it silently in the cover of a house and then don't come back out the way you came. Most of my deaths have occurred when I failed to remain hypervigilant (the same level of hypervigilance you need to identify IEDs while on patrol). Once I died because I thought I secured the Balota ATC, only to have a guy pop out from under the stairs on my way down. Another time I got complacent and strolled up to a deer stand, only to run smack into another player and get mowed down before I could get out my PvP gun (had a zombie slaying weapon out). There have been times where I spotted players on the move and they had no idea I even existed. Even on low pop servers, I have to assume this situation often reciprocates, and some bandit is eyeing me hungrily as I haplessly jog through the forests. As a result of this assumption, I'll often take a look over both shoulders while on the move, making sure I didn't mysteriously grow a tail while heading from town to town. The key to being safe again lies in assuming you are not safe, and taking steps to protect yourself under this assumption. I cannot stress this enough. Sometimes you just have to make judgement calls, and say, "yes, my character is hungry, but going into that town is just too risky at this point. Or maybe you feel a town is safe, and suddenly a shot rings out. What do you do? Do you keep on looting assuming some other players are getting into it? Do you bolt out of town like a bat out of hell, picking up a "Z-train" on the way? Or do you quickly plot a safe escape route with good cover and concealment, limiting your visibility if they didn't see you, and reducing the time they have to line up a shot on you if they did. A lot of times it will chalk up to luck though. Sometimes no matter what you do, someone will be in a well hidden OP overlooking the town you are looting. Or maybe, as you suggest, they'll come up on the town after you did, scope in to see what's inside, and spot you crouchwalking your way out of the supermarket. In these cases, assuming the sniper can't headshot you, what you do after being shot at will make the difference to your survival. Do you drop prone in the middle of an open area? Wrong. That just gives the sniper a stationary target. Dead. Do you duck behind a nearby bush? Maybe, if its a larger bush and you know where the shooter is. A bush is not cover though. It is only concealment. It will not protect you from bullets, and only make it harder for the sniper to line up a shot. Your best bet is to find the nearest solid thing to put between you and the sniper. If you know where he is, and you can put a wall between him and you, then great. If you don't know where he is, hit the nearest enterable building and stay away from windows. Once you've gotten cover between you and the sniper, bandaged your wounds, and dealt with any zombies you might have picked up on the way, it's time to plan your escape (and without hitting the Alt-F4 wormhole generator). The sniper at this point is probably pre-lining his shot on the door he thinks you'll come out of. He probably expects you to just peek out at first. Maybe not. You'll have to do some thinking here. Try to predict what the shooter will do. Whatever he thinks you'll do, do the opposite. Do something unexpected to mess up his pre-determined shot. Then move from cover to cover never giving the sniper more than a three seconds max with you exposed. Try reciting the mantra "I'm up, he sees me, I'm down". By the time you get to "I'm down", you should be back in cover. Also remember to vary your path of travel. Don't just make a B-line for the edge of town. Vary your path, serpentine a little bit without making it too pronounced, and do whatever it takes to keep him guessing and keep him from effectively leading you and walking you into his crosshairs. Hope this helps, OP. If not, I do hope you enjoy MineZ. Sounds like it would be a lot of fun. It's a shame you weren't around a while back when this game was younger. The first 3 strangers I encountered were all friendly AND armed.

You do know the next patch is mostly a stability and security patch, which is more or less what you're asking for, right?

Alright, to preface, I've been playing this mod for a while. Not since the beginning, but long enough to have a feel for the way the game is played and how to be patient. This is kind of a rant, but personally something I feel could use some addressing. Today, after patiently stalking through the woods to a barn N of Topolka Dam, spending about 30-60 mins scanning the woodline and making sure there wasn't anyone around; scoping out the barn from both a-far and up close after carefully making my way there. Once inside (there were 2 Z's inside I carefully terminated), I began checking the loot, when a player spawns out of nowhere about 5 feet in front of me. I get into a shootout with him, and I don't even get the spoils of the firefight, as his body instantly sinks through the floor. Before I can get much farther in the barn, a second player has spawned in on the same loft where I and the other player came in at, and he shoots and kills me. I know we're not supposed to get attached to characters while this game is in Alpha, but I seriously feel cheated by how cheaply people can just spawn in on you in an area you spent so much precious time making dead certain was clear. It really killed the immersion I was feeling minutes ago carefully planning and making my way through the woods. You can plan for zombies. You can plan for sniping bandits. But you really can't plan for people popping up behind you out of thin air. When I disconnect, I always make sure I'm in the middle of nowhere in a defensible concealed position. I had assumed this was the case with most people. Or perhaps these two individuals were server hopping for loot and I just happened to be in their favorite looting spot. Maybe we could have some sort of audio cue for disconnecting/connecting players near by such as a yawn? This would also help mitigate the issue of players DCing during a firefight, as if you hear someone yawning in the middle of a firefight, you know you can run up on them while their body is still in game. I dunno. That's all I got. I hope I'm not alone in these sentiments.

Yeah that MI-8 HIP in the background is quite the WTF.

My guess is no less than 3 days and no more than a week after rezzed. Testing 1.7.2 outside of the dev team is surely going to drum up some bugs that Rocket and co. didn't previously notice (bugs that we would have encountered if he released to the general public today). These hypothetical bugs be minor annoyances or total game breakers, and I'm leaning towards the latter because of the "performance and security" focus of this latest patch. Either way, I feel rocket and the dev team are going to do their best to polish this latest build before it gets out to us so we don't have a repeat of the 1.7.1 hotfix fiasco.

The only time I've ever been sniped at distance was on my very first life in DayZ back in the 1.6 or 1.7 days. I foolishly decided to loot a dead player body sitting out in the open with blood pouring out of it. Stupidest mistake of my character's short life. As soon as I got to the looting screen I started taking body shots. I limped behind cover and bandaged myself at about 1800 blood. I stalked out of there, but proceeded to die at the hands of a zombie while unconscious. Any other player caused death I've had has either been in close quarters or by someone who I could see clearly. Why is that? Is it luck? Maybe, but I have a feeling it has more to do with how I move. I always try to move in trees or bushes. Anything that will make it hard to track me, get a bead on me, or otherwise develop a good sight picture. I avoid spending time in the open too long, usually staying low if I do. Never even come under sniper fire otherwise. I've been in the vicinity of snipers before, usually around Cherno and Electro if I have to go there, but I usually hear the sniper picking off some other poor soul and take the proper precautions. This game has 400,000 unique players, many of whom are on these forums. With so many people voicing their opinions, suggestions, etc. very few will ever have their ideas implemented. As a result, you can do little to change the world of DayZ. You have to make changes to yourself. You must adapt to DayZ and its mechanics to survive, not the other way around. Am I saying "don't contribute to the forums?" and "don't post new suggestions?" no. All I'm saying is be prepared for the high likelyhood that the game will not change the way you want it to.

My favorite DC so far was someone running down the road to Balota airfield. No weapon, no zombie trail, but in a full out sprint, and dead to rights in my enfield sights from about 100 meters away. I had no intention of killing him. I'm not a bandit and only kill when necessary to ensure my character's survival. Still, I wanted to have a little fun with this guy. The server had names on and global chat for some odd reason, so I typed in "Hi Nick". Moments later, he sprints into a nearby bush (still clearly within my line of sight). At first I think he's trying to scan the treeline for me and figure out where I'm at. 5 seconds later though, I see him poof into thin air as he DCs from the server in fear. I busted out laughing. Are players really at that point now? Are we so paranoid and afraid of interaction, pvp or otherwise, that we'd prefer not to even play the game? I've gotten into my fair share of firefights, but every unarmed player I encounter I let go unless they're doing something to threaten me (bringing the horde train, for example). Am I alone in this, are the majority of other players really just wasting ammo on unarmed fresh spawns, making this kid's choice to D/C a prudent one?

I've seen the fog level vary at random as with other weather patterns. I'll notice the sky get a few shades brighter and see that the fog has rolled in a bit.

This dude is like an insane DayZ combination of the Joker and the Riddler. I hope I never run into him, or if I do, I have the camera running.

Killed in Debug forest on Canada 2 Time was 7:18 PM Eastern Time Username in game was "The Urban Legend" Spawned in Debug plains on Seattle 84. Followed instructions on these forums to log in to Canada 2 and head east. Began to do so. Suddenly got mowed down by an AK type weapon (based on sound) firing full auto. The players in server said to report it here. Slightly miffed about losing some guns I was hoping to bring back to my friends after logging off in a safe place, but I guess those can always be replaced. Edit: Players Manu and Vilhelm were killed the very same way.

Disconnected yesterday with a Coyote Backpack full of military grade guns, medical supplies, and practically every piece of gear short of NVGs. Reconnect to find myself in debug plains today. Learn about the Canada 2 trick. Join in to the debug forest (much shorter hike than the plains). Get mowed down within a minute of spawning.

Not a stupid question, OP. It is entirely possible for different cultures to approach a game differently. Just to refute your hypothesis though, I've heard of some notorious Russian and German bandit groups who are a bit more creative than run of the mill PvPers and far more deadly.

It's clearly a hack. Arma 2 has a pushup animation to allow mission makers to make it look like troops are off duty. It is not currently intended for use in DayZ.

There are a few STALKER themed ARMA mods available including one with working Anomalies. Theoretically, with enough scripting experience and the consent of the various content owners (mod makers, GSC, Rocket if DayZ is heavily relied on for game mechanics, etc.), one could create an ARMA stalker multiplayer experience similar to what we have in dayZ. One of my planned possible projects as I learn scripting is to build a zone-ified Chernarus with anomalies and mutant spawn locations and such.

In Vanilla Arma 2 CO there are no female modeled soldier units or ghillie units. There is an addon someone made that adds female US soldiers and marines, so those could be used for the camo female survivor, but that's someone elses content Rocket would have to get approval to use.

Yes, but fine if spawned with melee weapon. Enjoy either sneaking into barns or mad dashing to nearest factory for a hatchet or crowbar.

Yet another rant of mine and yet another check to see if anyone else has encountered this. Was on a fairly low populated UK server this evening, looting the deer stands south of Balota AF with a friend providing sniper overwatch. Was doing pretty well handling the zombies inside, honing my axe skills to a sharpened point. I had just gotten down from one of the towers when a hail of automatic submachinegun fire sprays my position. Wounded, I duck in prone then book it for cover. Somehow, even though I had checked most of the camp and my buddy was watching approaches from the other side, another player had appeared within the camp. While it is totally possible this guy got the jump on us and snuck into the camp, it is highly unlikely, so either A) this dude was lying in wait in one of the tents, which seems unlikely given the amount of players on the server and the ammount of patience involved, OR B) this guy popped in out of thin air into the camp from a parallel world. (see my previous rant for more on this part of the tactic) I could have probably taken him. I had a barebone M4 which I had taken quite a few zombies out with, never players, but he seemed to have an SMG of some sort, likely a PDW. Instead, in my anger, I decide to fight fire with grenade, of course completely missing him because I threw it where he was, instead of where he was going to be. Oh well, my bad on that. With zombies on me and the player rushing over to me to finish the job, I quickly went down for the count. Even though I was dead at this point, based on my friend's account and watching the scoreboard as I respawned, things progressed like this: The shooter, now having zombies on him, quickly hopped the fence to get to my body as my teammate relocated to get a better angle. The player ransacked my body in record time, grabbing my weapons, my coyote rucksack (the big one) filled with loot, and hightailed it for the coast with zombies in pursuit. Once sufficiently far enough away, the player jumped in his TARDIS and teleported himself to another dimension with our stuff. The dimension he found himself in would be nearly identical to our own. He'd reemerge in the same area near Balota, but without any zombies in pursuit and without my friend and my newly respawned self to seek vengeance upon him and his extended family. Look, I'm all for a good banditry ploy. If you can get the jump on two well armed, cautious players, then more power to you. However, it's really really cheap to grab someone's gear, then, with a trollface grin, jump through the "Sliders" wormhole to one of several hundred possible parallel worlds. I did happen to catch your username on FRAPS as you left the server, so upon reviewing the tapes, I will keep a sharp look out for your name, and if I ever happen to see you in a server roster... well... I'll let Liam Neeson take it from here.

Would be nice to be able to splint the leg, even if just for a temporary fix.

Lots of things live in fresh water. Bacteria, viruses, chemicals, algae, fungi, animal and fish excrement, all are present in open water sources regardless of climate. These are generally not things we as civilized human beings want in our system. Some we can handle in some amounts, some we can tolerate and only worry about the nasty taste, some will debilitate us on contact with our digestive system. Drinking unpurified water carries an extremely high risk of contracting a debilitating illness. You really do not want to have a fever, chills, and diahrea while dealing with zombies and bandits. Some societies living off of unpurified water sources in third world countries may have built up a tolerance to most of the local contaminants, but are still susceptible to strong contagions like Malaria and Polio. As a survivor living off the land (based on military and civil survival training and guides) it is a necessity to purify ground water before drinking. To build up a tolerance would take, months, years, possibly even lifetimes. Purification is usually done one of two ways: Iodine tablets (takes a while for the iodine to dissolve in the water enough to drink) Boiling (kills anything living in the water) Rainwater is a much cleaner drinking water source, but it is much harder to collect (a good use for the empty cans in game). Lastly, if no water can be found, an individual can create a solar still to collect atmospheric condensation, but this takes a very long time and has very little turnaround. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still

Or risk getting sick like you do when your temperature drops.

I've been playing for a while, but up until yesterday I had not been killed since the no weapon change took place. I gave it a shot, and respawned near a gas station. Despite proning it the whole way and doing my best to juke the patroling zombies, I was spotted within minutes and beaten to death after a long chase and no luck finding weapons. I was pissed and rage quitted. After a few hours away from the game, I came back and gave it another shot. Spawned on a beach near Komarovo and within minutes found another unarmed player. We decided to stick together for now. As we made our way east, we ran into two more unarmed players at the lighthouse and all sort of banded together unofficially. One of them agro'd a zombie and we all sprinted toward the factory in order to scavenge for weapons. At the factory we found two other survivors, one with a pistol and one with an axe, that helped hold the zombies at bay while we searched for weapons. I managed to find an axe, but by the time I got back to the group, most had scattered or been killed. I didn't find a pistol until hours later while raiding the Balota airfield with nothing more than my axe and a lucky frag I found in the military camp. The point being, the difficulty of no weapon spawning seems more intentional than a result of tweaking. During an outbreak, not every civilian would have on them a decent firearm or even be able to find an effective melee weapon. People will die within minutes of knowing they have to try to survive, no matter how mentally prepared or physically fit they are, but if you're lucky and a little resourceful, you can find a way to get through.

From my experience of the Zombie spawning behavior in game, Zombies will only spawn in at a populated area if a player is near by. The game checks at periodic intervals to see if the zombies should be spawned, so the period where you didn't have any zombies was between the period of you coming in range of the barn and the game checking to see if it should spawn zombies near you. At least that's my take on it. I could be wrong.

There's lots to explore in this simulated eastern european countryside. As far as the 5 hours wasted goes' date=' that seems a bit of a stretch. Most of the spawns have a factory, town, road or other signs of civilization within viewing distance. Even without a map, just running for 5-15 minutes in any one direction can easily get you to a town, farm or city. Unless you were purposefully avoiding the towns or proning it the whole way... Axes were just introduced into the game, and already I love them more than guns for zombie slaying. In a survival situation, you find what you can and take what you can get. This isn't supposed to be a shooter in the traditional sense. Regardless, if you know where to look (the wiki and interactive maps are your friends), you'll find a gun eventually. Just play it safe and stealthy with the axe until you do. First off, obligatory "this is an alpha" comment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_test#Alpha Second off, Arma 2 was designed as an outdoor combat simulator first, and not much time and effort was paid on AI interaction with buildings. The DayZ dev team is hard at work rectifying this little by little by each release, but this is first and foremost a limitation of the engine. Recently Rocket hilighted a great article about how to survive dayZ without a spawning weapon. http://t.co/juv4mEqT Key points is, take it slow and steady. If you don't have weapons, throw tin cans and road flares to distract zombies. Bottom line though, this is hard. Very hard. You will die multiple times. You will lose all of your stuff. Even the longest surviving player in DayZ has already been killed at least once. Sorry you feel that way. DayZ is a fun challenge. You might warm up to it if you give it a second chance with an open mind, or you might not. Its not for everyone. As others have suggested, try the main ARMA 2 campaign and multiplayer. They've been around much longer than DayZ, and while not bug-free, they aren't in Alpha.