philbur

You know....after watching the GamesCon footage about 100 times I am hoping for more out of BETA. I jumped into the Stable build for a couple hours and tried to imagine how the new UI and Inventory system would benefit me and it was really hard to say if it would be enough of an improvement.... I like the UI as long as it can be toggled in case you want to be more immersed, and I suppose it is not really fair to judge it based solely on what the GC footage gave us...but I still think the team should hold off on it until they are sure they can deliver on Eugen's smiling (or smirking) promise of "fully functional" Base Building and a full set of Server Files for Modders..... That was definitely a surprise to me, and I wonder if it was equally surprising to the rest of the Dev Team..heheh.

Alrighty then... Just as you don't want to rush the BETA onto Experimental, you should also not rush the weekly SRs. I appreciate the recap from the past week but it pretty much goes without saying that there is no progress on the game while the primary team members are away. I am disappointed about the BETA delay, but hardly surprised. And when Eugen mentioned Base Building I pretty much laughed out loud to my computer monitor.... Please remember the past few years of Status Updates that unfortunately left us Subscribers with very little confidence in the team because the promises and dates were just too optimistic. The loyal fans of this title really DO "understand" and I, as one of them, am eagerly awaiting BETA.... So I hope you catch up on your sleep! But again...be generous in your estimated release dates. A lot of Subscribers that stepped away from the game are now taking another look at it, and many new people are also curious about it... If you feel confident about a November 1st release date (FOR EXAMPLE) Then why not say November 15th? There will ALWAYS be reasons for delays...that's cool...that's life, in software/creative development.... But the game will stand on its' merits...and all of the major reasons people feel negative towards the SA are basically about mis-informed disappointment towards the release schedule and lack of core functionality that gets promised each time a new build hits Steam. Now that you have reached a point where you can work primarily on game-only development, and worry less about old tech getting in the way, it might be tempting to be overly optimistic about timelines and features but I trust you all have much better perspective on these things than I can imagine, seeing as you have had to deal with all the crap thrown at the team since the early builds. That being said...I look forwards to the next SR, when hopefully we will hear better details on what to expect from the BETA and when we can realistically see it hit EXP! Thanks again, Team...

Agreed about giving Hicks some space... His Twitter page is pretty empty of SA info and yes, I saw the comment about that dickhead....kind of makes me wonder if maybe "justifiable homicide" should be back in the law books again, eh? ........nuff said. Thanks for the replies, guys.

I just caught up on this new thread and was wanting to add a question here, guys... Where has Brian Hicks been through all this? Did I miss the memo? Or was he back in Texas, due to the Hurricane? (He hails from that state....right?) Sheesh! Time to get back on these forums!

Is it the same as trees, perhaps? I almost bit the farm last night from hypothermia because I forgot that I needed to use the "F" key to actually chop with my axe...as opposed to using the LMB, which just degrades your axe.

You know....I have never assumed there was an option to spray paint the ghillie...nice! Would like that same option for ANY fabric...but still...

That has to be one of the upcoming item tweaks...really. The idea that you can spot if a note has a message on it is just plain cool.

Hmm...Yeah, that would be pretty sweet... But then I think you would see a less formidable wilderness. Players would be less likely to get lost or turned around and let's face it....the KOS Campers out there would LOVE to have a designated trail to pick off explorers. For those reasons I would vote no on additional way finding in the forests. I do, though, really hope we will be able to use nails to post notes on trees! Players can remove them, of course...but it might kick-start the more widespread use of notes!

@Baty Alquawen Epic! You must be the Uber Girl I hoped you were.... Vincent Vega in your SR this week? I think I will go ahead and buy another DayZ SA License...just because you did that. Love It!

Yep. I understand your points. For the record I have no reason to doubt your intent and I do indeed see the method in your madness. Looking forward to meeting you with a can of food in my hand and an M4 in yours...I suppose. Oh well.

Did I just rate a JJ Face Palm? Cool! ...but why? This is not a flame war, dude (or dudette). Let's hear from all the folks who know how the loot distribution system "really" works and maybe I would think differently about hoarding. Again, for those that don't know, I am one of those guys that gather as much food as I can and I head back to the coast where it is most needed. 50% of the time it ends in energized new spawns heading inland...and I generally stay on the same server the entirety of that character's life span. That's how I roll...and that's probably NOT going to win me any friends within the Private Server Owners but that playstyle means I spend a lot of time just creeping around the map...taking my time...and generally not getting into any trouble. You could meet far worse in your ventures. As my rule of thumb goes, a public server should be an open experience and not one that has pre-determined rules of engagement whether it is supposedly for the greater good or not.

.....Yeah.....very noble of you good sir. ;-) But OK...so are you saying that when you pick Kamyoshovo, Berezino, or the other coastal towns clean the water bottles, clothes, tents, food tins, drink cans, etc. all just reappear when the timer on that item trips? And it re-spawns within that general area of the map? (it's not on server restart anymore, right?.) If this is indeed so...then yes, I have been overlooking this mechanism. So if this is the case then all the items you guys hoard in tents and barrels are simply replaced with yet more of these same items? As in the mod....when the assigned number of loot items have all been "gathered for the greater good of our faithful" then the server is effectively "out" of these items to respawn and redistribute on that server? That is how I interpret the per-server CLE. Don't try to prove how wrong I am about something by using irrelevant quotes. Please explain instead. The cheeky Gimp reference was intended. Finally...remember that "behaving reasonably" on your terms simply means you want others to be like you. Hardly altruistic, if that's what you were going for.

Yeah... I am not a full-time camp raider but I always have a look when I come across a tent. If it is full of weapons and ammo I usually swap a few things and I try to leave something of value....but when I find a camp with tons of provisions and gear? I totally destroy it and dump everything.... These guys are the ones that need a lesson in sharing from their mommy. But I am primarily referencing just how fast you die when you are soaking wet. I have spawned in the open, with a good distance between me and shelter, and by the time I get under cover I am wet, cold/shaking, hungry, and thirsty. With no means of making a fire (unless we can light flare and cuddle with it) it ends up in player death within a few minutes. I am sure this will be adjusted but I don't see how it can be done in a manner that works on both types of server spawn events. When you start a new character you spawn in and for the most part you stand about a 75% chance of getting sorted out...but if the server is raining, and you spawn in the open, there is just no way you can make it to cover and wait it out before you starve...and if you run to apple trees or to the nearest town looking for food you end up dead from hypothermia... I personally like the fact that starting out is so hard, as it probably discourages some players from YOLO-ing it and carelessly being killed because they love their gear so much, and they lack the attention span to do it all over again...and I find that it also helps you to establish an emotional connection with your character (easy there guys...not THAT kind of connection) as your struggle to survive the first day in-game kind of sets the tone for your character's progression. (at least that is how I find my gameplay works. If it was easy to get fed and geared and now I'm maxed out after a few hours...then I am more likely to be generous and helpful....But if my initial spawn was a tough gruelling nightmare then I am more likely to be a desperate SOB that has less sympathy for others...kind of cool how my mind plays its own game, actually) What I worry about is how the Devs can maintain an acceptable level of difficulty with this experience over both types of weather. Hopefully the Server browser will have another couple of icons in the time of day column to indicate weather...this would probably help...but again...does this then also ruin the uncertainty for those who are already established in game and they just want to run around on sunny servers?...hmmmm... Glad the Dev team have the intelligence not to rush this kind of game design mechanic...something as simple as deciding how the weather will impact a Fresh Spawn....which leads to a ton of other dependencies and game altering nuances...but right now all I want is to not die on the coast in a rainstorm....yuk yuk.

If I find a guy dressed all in leather, cooking in my camp..... err...that is going to be an awkward conversation... "Nope...who said so?...well sorry dude...not gonna happen....that guy lied to you....what's that? Umm Nope....not hungry either so just finish up and be on your way!" Strangely relevant Pulp Fiction references anyone? "Who's Zed?"....."Zeds' dead, baby....Zeds' dead!"

Sheesh! Jumped back over to Stable to once again provide food and water to the New Spawns on the coast....only to find four separate servers having major rain storms. Spawning in the open near the coast is an instant death sentence...and one that gets old fast. I know what the logic is here, guys...and I am absolutely all about immersion and "survivability"...but hypothermia from being soaking wet (even in the northern Baltic states) while the season is still lush is a bit much if you ask me. I have personally been pretty damn miserable in rain, on a cold coastline, and in-country and it takes a lot more than that to bring about the demise of even moderately fit people...regardless of their calorie intake. Hopefully this is just a matter of the game progression going in another development direction for the time being, and this New Spawn status will be tweaked to present a more realistic "feel" to your first hours on the beach. Starting the game on the beach in a rain storm even sounds like the best way to thrust players into the game experience in my opinion (albeit this would be impossible of course) but without even a remote chance of surviving it currently just wastes time. Maybe the debug screen could have given me a better understanding of why my death came so suddenly so many times, as maybe it was a combination of being wet, cold, hungry, and thirsty that ultimately leads me to death within the first 10 minutes of in-game time....but without the "blood" value being displayed I can only hazard a guess that there is still much balancing to be done towards character and environment. I try to play "honestly" (by avoiding meta-gaming and just being in-character regardless of the situation when I fresh spawn) but maybe there is a need for a bit more opportunity to survive the first hour and then maybe balancing that with a few more wolf packs or rotten orchards. Just a bit of venting here, guys..that's all.

Wow!. Now that I see the Russian version of fair play, I wonder just how useless BE is at detecting and thwarting hacks? This video makes me seriously reconsider my impression of BI's commitment to removing hackers in this game. I remember the hack sweeps of much earlier builds...and how Brian and the others were so earnest in their insistence on keeping this game as clean as possible.... That being said... I would hope this is just an extreme case of idiocy...but every time I have been victimized by hacking...(which is only twice)...it has been a Russian.... Is this just a case of a guy streaming his hacks to show others how the "real" a##holes do it? Is this some sort of dev wannabe showing how gameplay editors work? Who knows, other than those who can speak this stuff. The fact that this stream is done in such a casual manner, devoid of any perceived interest in actually playing the game, leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling of being led towards a final release that will have empty servers within weeks if this kind of crap is going to go through Battle (Blind) Eye. Say it ain't so, guys...

Interesting that you mention that...as just yesterday I was wandering around on the same server for a really long time...and I had just raided a camp and was busy "re-distributing" the hoarded loot when the red warning message appeared. This caused me to consider exactly what you experienced, but when I reconnected there was no sign at all of any duped items, weapons, or crafted objects. The second restart happened just after I had dropped my backpack full of gear (because I just found a pristine Coyote one) and I thought "well..there goes all my precious gear!" and once again NOPE.... nothing spectacular or unusual happened on reconnect. This would be tough to reproduce unless you had exact timing for the restart. So maybe I will try to remember when the indicated time will be and if I am in game close to that time I will try this. I could see this happening if the items are placed on the ground while the message is being displayed, perhaps, as this is usually time that is repeated upon restarts.

Heads UP, Man.... I would not be surprised if there will be a small price bump when Beta is released. I don't hold it against, BI... as it makes good business sense...but just remember the "game" is still under-priced for what it looks to be set to deliver. I would not be surprised if they even "accidently" let a rumor slip that there will be a 10 - 15 dollar price hike when the game goes gold.... Obviously this is just me, guessing....

Yup... I think most will agree....but... Secretly, in a weird kind of way... it is quite cathartic to read the useless rant-posts from these guys. You see...from my perspective... I personally have absolutely ZERO problems with DayZ SA. I lost any right to complain about "value" by the 100th hour of gameplay. I currently don't, and never have, had ANY business complaining about what and where my money was being used for after I originally clicked "I Understand". I have found myself frustrated and "disappointed" in some of the directions development has gone, but never have I taken that extra step towards pointless rage that invariably ends in a flame post followed by a brief absence....until the attention whore realizes most of his audience has failed to follow his lead over the cliff. So...let the people rage...and rage again...over the same things time after time... I don't mean to say we should be suffering fools...but rather it makes me appreciate the fact that I have developed a unique attachment to this game that has been my own adventure in itself. Like being attached to something as much for it's failings as for it's success. I say to all you haters out there...bring it on... I will ignore you... but it further proves I was right in my decision to endure... When someone chimes in with a common criticism I find that it causes me to consider if the point is valid...which is a valuable exercise in maintaining objectivity. I like to think that although my "opinions" are sometimes pretty extreme and sometimes unorthodox, I inevitably am open to counter arguments as a simple matter of quid pro quo and respect for other differing viewpoints. Most of the major "complaints" have been so utterly explained/explored that it is now just kind of amusing to me, because I was lucky enough to have been around for most of this process. Pretty soon...the solid player base in DayZ SA will be comprised of those of similar conviction and equal or greater enthusiasm...and all you rage-quit, instant gratification, low attention span, buzz-killers will be off doing what you love...but just doing it elsewhere....and there will be balance in the Force. I'll leave this as off-topic and sorry about that.... But I just went over the .44 build thread for giggles....quite interesting and amusing. This was my first build where I started out and reading those posts have reaffirmed what I said in the above paragraphs. Feeling discouraged? Check out the SRs from the pre-52 era and be thankful for what we now have.....despite all the depressing negative Nancy's.

Yeah, the monitor settings can bump up the gamma of the content video signal...but they can't add content that is not present in the signal to begin with. I see your point about those that genuinely need the extra gamma to play the game and I did not appreciate that in my earlier considerations. What I would be hoping for is a deliberate reduction in LOD and draw distance when the lighting conditions warrant it. So even if you crank gamma and brightness you still won't "see" anything more, really. As it stands now, the amount of detail when it is pitch black out, is still fully rendered...right? I wonder if there is a difference in this EXP build...as I have not tried a night adventure yet. Time to pay attention to any differences. I am hopeful that the design team are aware of this potential immersion killing cheat / feature and can elaborate on their plans to either address it, or on why it needs to stay. I tried searching for that video I remember seeing in the forums (by Brian or Eugen) that shows some definite advancements earlier on in the builds (maybe back in the pre- .52 era) towards degrading the visuals at night so it was less advantageous to exploit the gamma slider...but can't find it now. As far as a GPU goes...you are in luck as AMD are finally releasing a challenger to NVidia's 1080 monster....which in turn should spark another drop in general card prices down the line. As it stands now I am getting fantastic value out of my 290X cards in single and in Crossfire mode, with average frames being easily playable on high to very high settings in both Stable and Exp. Everyone's experience is different and subjective...of course...but if DayZ is your game of choice I would suggest you hold out until it is determined which of the two (AMD or NVidia) have the best tech for this title at the price point you are comfortable with. Cheers!

Is this on .62 EXP? I have similar lock-ups / freezes that are totally random...but have not had one since I came back to experimental. It was quite frequent on Stable.

Hehehe.... I will remember that if I run into you in-game. You should add that to your name-in-game so guys like us (who would rather not shoot you) can be forewarned.

Yeah...This should be happening eventually. I seem to remember Eugen talking about the difficulty in creating a barrier to those that want to crank their Gamma/Brightness up. The devs can't do anything about machine-side video driver settings but hopefully they can code in display card calls to render scenes at night almost too low-res/pixelated to play. There has been an improvement since the renderer but I am positive much more can be done to scale back graphic detail so even if you crank up the gamma all you will see is a grayscale minecraft experience. Oncer again...this has been touched on before, but given their priorities I have not gone down that speculative path for a while now. I was playing on a Chicago server a few weeks ago and had someone come up to me and start talking to me LONG before I could make out where the voice was coming from. The guy was genuinely surprised that "I didn't know how to brighten up the gameplay".... I humored him for a bit as he watched me run around with a snap light but I figured I would not comment about his idiotic decision to skip one of the coolest experiences in SA. The only thing more depressing than getting shot is getting shot by someone you can't see! Maybe @Hicks_206 (DayZ) is trolling this thread and can lend some insight into the plans for addressing the night cheaters?

Damn, Guys...Stop it with the Bro-fists! You an Noc have provided some top-tier flame-fests for us to follow in the past! Don't start the grab-assing now...just when it's time the community ramps up again with a major build! Your passion shows in your posts...Glad you guys are here, making a difference, and adding some perspective to this journey.

"Realism" can be a pretty broad stroke to paint this game with. Hopefully it will happen on its' own...when the final game goes live. If I can not find a Private Server that has the levels of realism settings/adjustments/Rules/Mods that I enjoy I will just rent one myself and tailor it to how I feel the game best appeals to me. Most of the main suggestions are all things that can be set down in the initial planning stages of getting a Private Shard Server up and running. As long as we have a reasonable server management console. I honestly don't think it will be hard to find a server you don't like. And I don't think you will have a hard time finding many others that share your same tastes (or close enough). If the Devs are being truthful on their plans to make this game Mod-Friendly then we have nothing to worry about!