Wolfe(^..^)

It's weird that you mentioned this, because this happened to me for the first time yesterday. My status bars were bright green hydrated/energized/healthy, but I was fighting a group of two zombies and was dead immediately after taking the first hit. I had definitely taken a lot of hits from zombies a few hours earlier as a fresh spawn, but my status bars were telling me that I was totally recovered.

I have much hope in the devs to eventually implement realistic weapon degradation. I also dream of wearing a weapon holster underneath my officer's greatcoat that will not be visible but will allow me to pull out my glock with lightning speed. ^_^

After watching some talks given by Dean Hall about his vision of Day Z in the future, as well as reading up on the general ideas behind the central economy, I've come to realize that there are some potential problems that can arise from the way it is intended to be implemented, which I will summarize briefly, as well as to offer some suggestions on how the regulation of the economy can be done in a more fluid way that avoids a lot of these problems. The main issue that arises from having a central economy in which there is a limited number of items spread across multiple servers, is that there will always be people who gear up their character then stop playing, effectively removing those items permanently from the economy. Trying to determine which items fall under this "limbo" status then becomes a huge headache, because it becomes impossible to regulate it in a way that doesn't either steal items from characters who have been idle for long periods, accidentally create unwanted duplicates, or effectively make it impossible for new players to acquire rare items later on in the game's lifetime. This problem is only compounded by the other known abuses such as server hopping, which create more scarcity than is desired. One potential solution to this problem that I've seen proposed recently is to implement a one server, one character rule, then force all characters to remain in game even when a player is logged out. The problem with this solution is that it requires a certain style of gameplay that doesn't suit many of the players who enjoy the game in its current state, so it's less than ideal for everyone involved. I propose instead to implement a system in which scarcity is achieved not by limiting the total number of items on a global scale, but instead by ensuring that all items remain tied to resources that are expendable and/or integrally tied to parts that inevitably degrade, then limiting the rate or frequency that those items spawn in game. The reason that this is a better way of managing the in-game economy is because it crates scarcity while still ensuring that there is a circulated supply of items, without caring about what has happened to the items that spawned at some earlier state of the game. For example, let's take my favourite item in Day Z, the mp5. One of the most obvious way to create scarcity in this case would be to reduce the drop rate of 9mm ammo to a level where using the gun is not feasible on a regular basis. This immediately creates the situation where the player might have the gun but will not be able to use it without expending a resource that is in scarce supply. In addition to limiting the ammo supply, one could also implement weapon degradation as a function of bullet fire, then significantly reduce the drop rate of weapon cleaning kits across all servers. The nice thing about doing things this way is that it doesn't require too many tweaks to the already existing system. Clothes and containers already function this way, for example, because it is very easy for them to get ruined if you are not careful when fighting the zeds. If systems were implemented to limit ammo and degrade weapons over time, you would be able to create a similar type of scarcity without running into a lot of the potential problems that could arise by capping the total number of rare items across all servers to some set limit. As another example, let's take the helicopter. Instead of forcing one clan to join another clan's server in order to steal a helicopter part because there is only one part across all servers, a better thing would be to make the parts degrade over time, then limit the drop rate of fuel and parts to something low enough that invading another clan's base to steal their fuel or parts becomes very, very tempting. Instead of forcing character interaction, and in the process introducing a huge list of potential problems, instead encourage player interaction by managing the economy in a way that makes players decide that such interaction is to their advantage.

It's been suggested in other posts, but like I said, I don't think it's a viable solution because it forces a particular style of game play. As far as the ammo drop rates are concerned, keep in mind that the example I gave was just an example. If you wanted to create scarcity specific to one gun, you could always reduce the drop rate on that gun in particular, while increasing the rate at which the weapon degrades due to firing it, for example. When reading my examples, keep in mind that I'm just using them to explain how such a thing would be implemented, and I'm not strictly saying that "this or that needs to more more/less common". The main point is to suggest a method to create scarcity that does not introduce the headaches involved with setting strict limits to the number of items in game.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed to 1 server 1 character. In fact, the ideas I've suggested for managing the economy would work in that case. I have however seen a lot of people against the idea of forcing your character to remain in game after logging though. And unfortunately, you cannot have a strict limit on items without implementing this. The ideas I've suggested would solve the problem in a way that doesn't force a particular play style. It would leave the options open to the servers, instead of forcing them to adhere to something that many players would not like.

Normally I'd side toward realism, but whatever. Glock 18 with 33 round mag ftw. :D

I think it's worth it, personally. You'll definitely have to turn your settings all the way down, but it's not so bad.

This same situation happened to me just a few days ago. I climbed down the ladder and magically was not hit by any of them. Fortunately I had a firefighter's axe and was able to take the horde down quickly after that.

I support the idea of guns spawning quite often with empty mags in them, because to me, it seems realistic to find a weapon either with an empty mag in it, or with a loaded mag (or mags) nearby. A common scenario in my mind is that its previous owner ran out of bullets and turned into a zombie after getting infected, leaving the gun and mag behind. Of course, finding one with no mags should still happen, but I think it should be less common than finding one with an empty mag.

Server hopping is lame in the same way that hacking is lame. If you know how to hack the game, you can get all the items way more easily than by going around searching for them. But if everyone did that, then it wouldn't be a game anymore. It would just be a program that people can use to dress up their character in different ways.

Day z is worth buying and playing as long as you come into it with the understanding that you are going to experience bugs and glitches that can result in your character being wiped or killed at any time. You'll probably have a lot more fun with it if you have a group of friends to play with, or if you're going into it for the social experience. It can be fun solo too though, just don't get too attached to your equipment.

I like this suggestion. There are plenty of towns on the map that don't have fire stations or police stations, that are closer to wilderness areas, where putting in one of these would make sense. If you make the loot table reasonable and keep the spawns scarce, it won't be the main target of server hoppers because it will be away from all of their main targets. I'm really hoping that a permanent solution to server hopping is eventually put in place though, so that ideas like this don't always have to be weighed against the possibility of exploitation via server hopping.

They definitely need to fix the exploit with inventory space. It is kind of ridiculous how much loot you can store up just by putting a pair of pants in a box, filling the pants and the rest of the box, then putting the box in a vest with another box with pants in it, etc etc etc etc. I think a good thing to do would be to have the protective case take up a 4x3 space in your inventory and have it fit a 4x3 amount of stuff (yep, I'm thinking about the mp5). That way, you can only carry one or two of them, and you can't fit them in a pair of pants, which is more realistic anyways. The case should be about protection, and not about being able to hold a million items. Also, make pants expand in size based off what they are holding. 1 item = 2 slot, 2-3 items = 4 slots, 4-5 items - 6 slots, 6 items = 8 slots

I agree. As another poster said, the bullets should be more rare than the guns. This is how it would be in real life. They are an expendable resource, and should be absolutely precious in a world where you don't have factories making new supply every year. As it stands now, I find so much ammo that after a while, I just leave it on the ground because I don't have anywhere to put it. Maybe somewhere down the line they could even have bullet crafting, which could allow bullet spawn rates to fall even more. Also, with 0.49, the gun rarity IMHO is perfect, but realistically, empty mags should be found with the guns almost always. I know this was mentioned before, but srsly. It seems more realistic to me to find a gun with an empty mag in it than to find one with no mag whatsoever.