RomanZ (DayZ)

I'm not a server operator, but I'd kill to see this happen. :)

I agree. While I acknowledge that it makes the game harder, which was introduced on purpose, I feel that this is one of the things in 1.8.1 that is just frustrating. The right balance between desirable difficulty and nuisance/frustration is certainly a very narrow path, and subject to individual perception. In this sense, however, my vote goes to equal speed for players and zeds, at least until the player gets out of breath after a while of being chased. Another thing that has been bothering me a bit in the new version is that canned food and drinks restore only so extremely little hunger/thirst. Again, I acknowledge that it makes the game harder, which is a good thing in general, and reducing it from full restoration to just partial restoration is great in my opinion. But ~15 sodas to quench my thirst?? Really?? Ten cans of pasta to fill my stomach? I don't think so. That's unrealistic to a degree that is frustrating for me. I've read the same thing countless times in the side chat btw, so it's not just me. :) Together with the reduced loot spawning, it's not well balanced. I feel like half restoration (while keeping the loot spawn as rare as it is now) would be about right for game balance and realism. Another point I'd like to criticize: Gaining humanity. Since the introduction of blood types, it has become almost impossible to become a hero. And I don't mean the 25/250 humanity bug. It's just waaay harder to administer a blood transfusion to strangers. You need to carry many blood bags now, transfusion kits, blood test kits, while at the same time, backpacks seem so much harder to find now, so carrying space is much more limited that before. Before 1.8.1, I felt like there is a strong bias towards becoming a bandit rather than a hero, because it was just a whole lot easier to kill people. Now, heroes are virtually out of play completely, which is a bit of a dealbreaker for me. We all know the discussions before the update, how everyone used to kill on sight, how nobody was trying to be friendly, how it's impossible to get rid of that "BANDIT" sign on your forehead after you killed five survivors. But if the humanity system wasn't broken before, then it is now for sure. I have yet to find my first hero in 1.8.1, which is just sad... :(

Please excuse my off-topic intervention, but this is so important to me that I can't resist. Why is there nothing you/we can do about it? Please explain, I don't understand. Who hosted the hive? Why is it gone? Who had access to it? Why not create a new one? These are such simple questions, but so far I have been unable to find somebody that is willing or able to answer them... :(

I'll tell you why. Reason #1. Continuance. You probably haven't played to become a high-humanity hero, otherwise you'd know what I mean. The satisfaction of saving a bambi from a pack of bandits, counter-sniping Elektro hill to keep the city safe, or rescuing a lone survivor calling out for help in the middle of Stary, used to be just priceless. For me DayZ is a lot about the humanity system, which only works if your long-term progress in the game is stored. That's what the hive did. Reason #2. Reliability. Your favorite server is currently offline? Not a problem, just connect to another one from the hive and continue playing. That's not possible with private servers, because, well, you'd have to start afresh, losing all your progress (see 1). I can't invest hours and hours of play into a server that is suddenly shut down, taking my humanity to its grave. Or one that is not up exactly when I have time to play. Reason #3. Diversification. From time to time I like to play first person only, or without side chat. Sometimes, I prefer to play with people with whom I can comfortably speak in my native language over voice chat, while other times I feel like hitting the international road on English servers. All that used to be easy to do with the hive: just change servers. Reason #4. New people. Randomly running into strangers is one of the best features in DayZ, IMHO. Not knowing what they'll do or how they'll react. Showing fresh players around, teaming up with random dudes who might back stab you the moment you look the other way. This used to work great on the public hive, and I'm afraid it won't on private servers where most of the players are regulars organized in groups/clans etc. Referring to your points: "No more ghosting, farming on empty servers, probably less hackers": Ghosting hasn't been a big problem lately, I believe. In fact, I don't think anyone has ever ghosted on me. If they did, they did a horrible job at it (or I just changed my position too quickly ;-) ). Farming wasn't a problem for me either. If anything, it just meant more loot after you took a farmer down. ;-) As regards hackers: This is even an argument in favor of the public hive over private servers, IMO. Found a hacker? Just switch servers. On private servers, you're bound to hoping that an admin is around when you're playing (e.g., at 3 am). "Easier to find friends": That's probably true, but finding friendship that lasts longer than a few hours is not what I'm looking for in DayZ. "Good admins/servers will stand and shitty ones fall": I strongly doubt that. If it worked like that, it would have happened a long time ago already. It's not like the private servers came online only recently. There are too many kids out there who like to cause a mess just for the sake of what seemed like fun at a certain age.

That's what I've read, too, but there doesn't seem to be an official statement as of yet. But even if that's the case, why doesn't anybody do anything bout it? I mean, it's not like that company created the mod and took it to their grave, leaving behind nobody with insight how it worked, right? AFAIK, they merely hosted the hive. I'm aghast at how, apparently, the "officials" just don't seem to care and let their creation die like that. What's the problem with setting up a new hive somewhere else?

Thank you guys for the nice words. I've tried a few private vanilla servers today. So far, they were all unplayable. Admins playing music over side, and hackers giving away insane weapons was pretty much all I've found. (I'll keep looking, though! The game was just too much fun to give up on.) It would be nice to hear a statement or comment about the whereabouts -- and perhaps the future -- of the public hive. Whoever set it up and maintained it must have something to say... (Rocket? R4Z0R49?)

I second this statement with all my heart. It's very much the same for me.