Five_Seven_Clown

I don't think teamspeak is bannable at the moment but you'll see most people trying to follow that guideline. It's obvious that coordinated attacks on the village are being carried out with the help of out of game voice so I can see why people get nervous if they detect a "telepath". Radios and spare batteries should be top of your loot list.

Of course, this is why DayZ the dressup simulator is so important, you have to work on your unique "look" for recognition, I see many villagers have opted for bright colours or mismatched outfits. I think it helps immensely in those large groups. I'm wary of anyone in full mil gear while I'm there. I've opted for biker jackets and ball caps. PS The video shows you are not using voice chat. As the server message says, try playing with just in-game voip.

It sounds like you expected organisation would occur organically and quickly found out it doesn't!. There is no rule of law. In my experience, it has been a craps shoot but totally organic emergent gameplay. Using only in-game chat really makes it authentic. The quickest way to die as a new arrival, is taking a gun out, using teamspeak, looking like you are using teamspeak or skulking, never skulk. You have to slowly gain their trust, and even then, watch your back. Use your skills of negotiation and deescalation. My first trip to the (old) village, I radioed ahead but actually arrived as it was under heavy attack, myself and two other new arrivals sheltered in the back of the log cabin. I was picked up by a small group of defenders and sent into action. Surviving the first round, I fell back to the medical hut and familiarised myself with those sheltering inside. Eventually after trading spare gear, I went out to fight together with those I first met. I didn't last long, being first into the breach was my mistake, I only hope those that were behind me gave justice. When I next visited the village, I bumped into someone I'd met while playing on another server. He was the closest thing I had to someone I could trust, despite him once shooting me in the guts in a non-consensual game of Russian roulette! Arriving at the village, reminded me of arriving at the dog park, everyone "Checking Pulses" of the new arrivals like dogs sniffing butts! It's been a great place to round up a group of strangers and go out on an adventure but equally it can be a great place to go to swiftly die. Last time I was there someone who had been there for a long time shot my friend for no reason as we prepared to leave, I killed the perpetrator and expected that I'd be quickly dispatched too. Instead I was hit over the back of the head with a shovel and tied up. When I awoke I was questioned and someone who I'd been out on a loot run vouched for me. I was untied and free to go. Still, it didn't save my gear, while I was out anything of any worth was pilfered from my reposed body. It's early days, people are learning who to trust and how to be trusted but the village is quickly evolving. Maybe a leader will emerge, I'm imagining an Aunty Entity (Tina Turner in Thunderdome). Maybe @Baroness you are our Aunty and @emuthreat is our Master Blaster! My last advice is, if something doesn't seem right, if your spidey senses tingle, get out, run, hide.

Svetloyarsk, home of the world's largest picnic table.

Crowbar, most useful post apocalyptic item.

1, too complicated to decide where you can or cannot hang a rope. 2, Dead bodies need to despawn so whats the point, if you are going to execute another player, use a bullet. Another one for the impractical suggestion bin.

I added some of my photos to the Gallery, but I'll stick them here too... Looking to trade, SIM007N's first visit, now recruited to the Whistleblowers. After a hard day base building, warming up by the fire. A group of survivors looking for trades being lead round the shops. Incoming fire, snipers often take pot shots at the base, all have been repelled.

Pictures from the UN Trade Centre

When traversing the wilds of Chernarus you see a landscape that catches your breath. As the sun set behind me, I continued onward Cold is the night What hides in the mist

Any deeper info on what a "Basic State Machine" is? Is it the code that describes how each firearm operates _and_ how it fits into the animation system? Edit: A diagram of the MP5 Basic State Machine could help, if there is one?

You can't Password a public server AFAIK. You'll have to go private

The great thing is that there are no artificial rules enforced and no obvious punishment. Trusting anyone is very difficult, but when it works out it is very rewarding. There was a scenario where the people you met may not have shot you. There was a moment in time that they had to make a decision. Maybe if your approach was different, maybe if you'd said something that could have influenced there decision, always open with a joke ;-) How you interact with other players is a complex decision where you are having to process a lot of information, that is one of the things that make DayZ so engaging. Because you are meeting different people there is no universal tactic that will always work, the "friendly wiggle" is a lie...

OMG you answered my question in part II, thank you. It sound's like it's not an easy task I'm sure at the moment programming effort is best used on .63. Thanks again, I can sleep at night now...

The changes the player action for 0.63 look interesting. It is definitely an area that needed some love. I've never really liked the crosshair method myself, have you prototyped an "interact mode" where a mouse pointer mimics the players hand? I'd be interested in what the issues would be.

The DH Kiwi is just an Easter egg. I would expect to find a walkie-talkie on an infected first responder before I found one in an old wooden house!

I've got it!, police and fireman zombies always carry a radio! If Dean Hall infected can always have a kiwi, then it should be trivial to implement. If anyone wants a radio, its a little work but not too much to get one.

It's a really difficult call to make. At first I was against starting radios, but I slept on it and now I think on balance it's a good idea. I think the main reason I don't like the idea, is that re-spawning with one could break the perma-death mechanic. Either when someone at the NWAF taunts you after killing you or you being pissed, call out that there is someone at the NWAF who killed you. However with radios, unlike sidechat there is no guarantee that anyone is listening which I like. I feel like it organically cuts down on the trolling crap that we found in global sidechat. I like that using a basic radio has the disadvantage of giving your position away to anyone nearby when you VOIP into it and chatter coming in can also be heard. Maybe we could find ear pieces and throat mics as upgrades... At the moment, battery life in radios are the main reason for not wanting to turn them on to listen. For me at least, I only turn the radio on (if I have one) once I'm healthy armed and sitting in a bush in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. The chance that someone else is doing the same thing at the same time is slim. Now if batteries lasted a long, long time for receive and only ran down while transmitting, I could spend much longer listening during my normal DayZ gameplay. Batteries are a useful resource, so deciding where and how to use them is yet another "survival" decision the player needs to make. We have to acknowledge that having to use your voice is a disadvantage that radios have over text chat. Not everyone has a mic, if they do they may be shy to use it, it gives away a lot of personal information about the player (gender, age, background noise, accent, first language etc). Although that can be a obstacle to transmitting, if people are at least listening, over time, that obstacle will diminish. Would fresh spawning with a radio but respawning upon death without one, be helpful? If you didn't have a radio, it was stolen or you sacrificed it for space, could fixed radio posts in fire and police stations, that little coastal hut and the bronze statue in the woods have a role in the early gameplay? Radios becoming a clothing item that you wear makes some sense but almost makes it too easy. Maybe the basic clip-on radio could be nerfed in some way? Do we need/already have a mute player option that works with radios and would that break the "not knowing how many players are on a server" mechanic? Edit: Also consider the use of channels, two players could decide to switch frequencies to converse, someone else could also be eavesdropping on them but they can only be listening to one channel at a time. Could a channel scanning radio upgrade be a thing?

I have a question that I've been trying to get an answer to for a long, long time. I see there are many "dry" stream/river beds that have been added to the map, they have rocks and reeds in them, they often link pools of still water. Will these river beds ever be given some running water textures and sounds? Thanks

To me the public hive part of DayZ has always seemed like a weak implementation of an important design goal. I can see why Dean put it in the mod, it's a survival game you'd want [the possibility] to keep yourself alive for months and if you are saved on a single server that may or may not be there next week, it would stop you from playing for the long game. It's also about having just one life at a time, not many saved games dotted all over the place allowing parallel play, I feel that disassociates you from your character. I think the current implementation is flawed in that, as Baty said, server hopping and loot farming breaks the game. Private hives are a sticking plaster rather than the cure. I don't think what you are proposing will fix the root issue either. Even though I only play private hive 1PP during Alpha, I would think for the vanilla game it should be exclusively public hive only!. (I'm sure that is not a popular opinion, and perhaps you should just give the people what they want) Perhaps a better option would be to have one "transferable" character but transfers are limited/restricted unless your last server was unavailable? Edit maybe a "play with friend transfer" but you have to be at the same location and your friend has to do an owl call before you can join...

It just goes to show, each games development path is different and there is no point in generalising or comparing any two.

Viktor, You said in the 7th Feb Status report : Could you go into some more detail, give us some examples of the limitations you are bound by? Thanks

Are you planning animations for each distinct action i.e. one for harvesting tomatoes and one for harvesting pumpkins? or are there general purpose animations for harvesting?

Could you give us some up to date stats/number on the player graph. How many "nodes" have you completed, how many more need to be done, how many are you planning on reworking?

Yes, maybe they could start off curled up in a fetal position. I would also like some spawning inside building as that presents a different challenge when looting.