O_HellFire

After being involved in setting up and running servers, the biggest worry I have for the game is simply the human element, people are fickle! Though in saying that, the UK server "The Village" gave me some hope that there is chance for a DayZ utopia one day (couldn't play the server myself though unfortunately, due to high ping). It was more than random groups of people roaming or laying in wait for another random person or group to show up and then battling it out! There was a coordinated effort from many random people to try and build something (using the limited mechanics of the game available at the time) and to protect it and survive against all those who wished to destroy it... sounds like the vanilla DayZ experience to me... and it was hugely popular!!! Right up to when I last played I was always seeing and meeting new players, there's interest out there, keeping that interest is hard when you've got such a steep learning curve, and only got a partially complete game with bugs still. And as i said people are fickle, they'll show up or they wont... usually like sheep, they go where everyone else is and that's my biggest concern. Bohemia needs to get the beta patch done right, then build on that and really do some marketing to draw the people in again. Many enterprises were built on the theory that if you build it, then the people will come... we'll just have to wait and see. Know I'll be back for more after an extended break from DayZ.

Dude.. this just reeks of "I want casual easy game play on the coast" and i wont bother mentioning the obvious reasons the devs are working on the things they are right now.. I'm certain you've heard them already. But if you want meaningful interactions then find a server and join their TS or Discord.. if you can control your whinging you might just strike up a friendship with other regulars (I've met many people I'd call friends IRL, just by doing this, I even did this with the regulars here on the forums, its not that hard). Other people give you camaraderie, laughs, and a general purpose for playing.. fun times!!!... no one is going to say no to an extra set of eyes in the group as long as you fit in, it just takes a little trust building. I usually look for a zoned map with pvp and no kos areas.. it means the player base is interested in more than just shooting peeps, but don't let that fool you into thinking a lot of them don't like a gunfight though. Things are quiet at the moment.. many are waiting for .63, its been the norm between patches especially the drawn out ones and I'm doing the same, played a little epoch/overwatch while catching up on things IRL, but its become a little dull. More content doesn't guarantee any better game play... it's the people you're playing with that provide it from my experience.

I'm not sure about the other missing controls you mention, but the missing gestures have been like that a long time.. people usually add a salute or a new sitting posture into their controls using those keys. Could reset to default again if its messed up maybe.

Had these same thoughts.. a random zed that's armed with some kind of firearm. Could be military, police or a hunter but with poor aim unless your unlucky and bump right into them. Would possibly open the door for AI in mods even

Its all good Bio.. This reminds me of someone on reddit...would trash talk DayZ while talking up miscreated like anything. After a couple of months he suddenly became very positive about Dayz again.. when asked about this sudden change in attitude, the only explanation he could offer, was that he was back on his meds!!! ;)

A mix of both maybe.. There's been really challenging past iterations and some that were just too easy in my mind.. some preferred the former while others preferred the latter. The devs will have to balance both sides somehow until modding starts up I'm guessing. I've got a feeling that the final state of the vanilla standalone will be very harsh and simply surviving will be an achievement in itself, to really achieve anything more than that will probably require a group effort perhaps. We'll just have to wait and see.

It shouldn't have any great effect overall seeing as the product on show is beta, though in a limited form

After dealing with players as an admin, I'll just say whiners be whiners.. but we need to embrace them for the sake of the game, grievers feed on them as they cry the loudest!!!

Every major stable update will come with a full wipe of the servers Moose.. everyone starts from scratch again

Try squatting/crawling and rolling around the edges.. if that doesn't work work jam something in your keyboard to hold down the W key and face the outside of the house then pull your internet cable or turn off your modem and let yourself be disconnected.. when you relog you should be outside. Have never had to, but you can contact support and have a dev shift you i believe.. don't go back in there once your out!!!

The modders would be pulling their hair out because anything they do will be broken by development.. it should all fall into place once the foundations are there for it.

It's situational.. find a dupers base or a clan hoarding gear for resale on public servers, maybe even just a group or person you have some major beef with, then yeah.. feel free to toss everything. Do this to any random camps you come across on a server and you'll possibly put the owners of the camp off playing on that server again, which isn't good for the well being of the server.. so it's a dick move. Much better to pick a little from it perhaps and hope nobody will notice, when you hit tough times you might be able to use their gear as a backup, or my personal favorite.. use the intel from knowing where they are based to your advantage! Anyhow.. take this as an example of a dick move.. had some kiddie clan roll the two owners of the servers base and de-spawned it all, then boast they had done it to the admins base.. which they hadn't because the admins bases were perfectly safe still.. they only screwed over the people that pay for them to have a server to play on and undid all the work they put into the camp when they had a rare opportunity to actually play on their own server.. sounds like a dick move wouldn't you agree? But how far removed from that is what your doing.. tossing everything just for the sake of it?

I think its designed (even the buggy spawns like pistols everywhere in balota) to motivate players to go certain places and that creates possible interactions between players.. its a big map and if you find everything randomly in small section of it, then there's little reason to go anywhere else. They're mapping player movement and experimenting with it no doubt, but lets not forget that a lot still has to be added into the CLE so things will change. Being a fresh spawn on a high pop server isn't easy and sometimes its just luck that you find what you need quickly on your travels inland, not uncommon to reach the middle of the map with just bits and pieces on me, but once I've found a B95 and even just a handful of .308 I'm reasonably happy, and there's places I've found that will usually spawn them even if i have to search the same place twice. Usually finding a backpack (even a burlap for an improvised) is more of an issue, but i think that's become easier lately.

Once you get through the "I'm hungry" stage into the energized state, you don't need so much food intake (depends a little on how much physical activity your character is doing) These status indicators saying hydrated/energized will show up when you open your inventory.. try and balance your food/water intake so both indicators turn bright green (this is how you regenerate blood, which in turn gives you a healthy status when enough time has passed) Fill up on apples until your get the message "you feel stuffed" comes up if your struggling, use this method until you learn other ways to gather food.. apples will be nerfed at some point so learn not to rely on them. This advice is what you need to do for water, if you get desperate and need to travel while still having no water containers, a gas canister serves as a water vessel you can hold in your hands if need be.. you fill then empty it out two times to flush all the petrol out, be careful not to drink the whole thing (especially when opening doors) as its a lot of water and will make you throw up and then you'll lose whatever food and water is held in your stomach.

Does it take up more inventory space with the stock attached?.. i didn't think it did for some reason.. been a while since i bothered using the stock though! This kind of thing will get sorted out during beta hopefully, devs too busy working on getting to beta at this stage, going by the status reports.