philbur

At this point I would imagine this is one of the last things the team are concerned about. If there are any devs still working on the game I am sure they have bigger fish to fry. You should try Hick's twitter account, as he doesn't follow the forums anymore.

You guys ever see those cheesy "undercover expose" videos? Someone should strap a GoPro onto their heads and just go on a DayZ Studio crash. Surely there is someone living nearby who could do a bit of investigating for us...right? Let's call it "PrayZ...The search for truth in the quest to build a classic" LOL !

ok...time to step away from the mescal brother! Maybe I'll avoid the rain...if it means seriously crazy shit like you encountered is going to happen. Hehehehee!

Now THAT"S funny! hahaha. Every story about our adventures in Chenarus should end with that.... Well said!

Random question here, guys... Anyone play on a server that had rain, lately? I assume they removed it from 0.59, as I have yet to see it on any public server. Anyway...just wanted to mess around in a good downpour so I can see the upgrade when 0.60 pushes. Thanks.

That's all I want. A simple shift in the way they communicate.... That would pretty much solve the abstract negativity. The game is progressing and if big brother comes along to pat us on the head occasionally we pretty much run out of reasons to bitch. The bugs and lack of functionality and features are perfectly ok, seeing as it is a work in progress. Like it or not the game is still in development so no one can complain too harshly about that. I have found myself shifting my impatience over to the management side of things because it is the easiest fault to pick out. Not once have I bitched about bugs and not once have I complained that they should roll back a build because I had more fun playing on a previous one. Two steps forward and one step back is, regrettably, still progress. Once we have better oversight it pretty much returns to just a game in early access...without all the frustrating missed goals and contradicting timelines/roadmaps.

"In my experience gunshots don't get louder or quieter with distance." .......huh? My man.... I hope this was a typo. Ask me how I know. A battle tank firing it's main gun 10 feet away from you could collapse your eardrums and suck out the air from your lungs. That same gun sounds like distant thunder from a few kilometers away. Any gunshot, whether subsonic pistol ammo or high powered rifle ammo will have varying degrees of reverberation, echo, and acoustic pressure which changes with direction and distance. This is severely under developed in DayZ SA so far but as far as I know the Audio Module is still very far from being a finished product.

Hi Buakaw. I don't think the team are nearly as fragile and sensitive as some think...or at least I hope not. These people are working in an industry and are getting paid as skilled employees. The crap that is out there on forums and reddits is going to happen regardless of how the game is progressing and it should not be used as an excuse for not meeting deliverables or as a reason why personal performance is sub par. When I make pointed comments about the game's development it is from the perspective of someone who just thinks there should always be an expectation to do things always a bit better. Without having high expectations it's easy to get used to the idea of delivering mediocrity. Developers have many reasons to feel stressed, but it is misguided to think that the BS posted online is responsible for an increased level of it. In ANY industry there is a requirement to hold employees accountable for their output. There is also a requirement to hold those companies accountable for the quality of their product, right? My own posts are an example of someone who just wants them to do better....I don't try to be malicious or hurtful...But if what I say has a negative impact on the DayZ Developers then I would say that they are in need of some serious self esteem counselling. Who am I to these guys? I really hope my opinions don't break any hearts or draw any tears from them, but let's be honest...unless you are 12 years old and a sheltered mommies' boy you should be tough enough not to care about idiots who post hate comments. Besides that, it's people like Brian Hicks that I am actually "talking about" as he seems to have the role of PR and marketing. He comes across as a person who is comfortable as the face of the project but that also means he is the guy who should be getting the brunt of the criticism when it is deserved. So when you choose to defend the dev team in regards to "haters" please consider that there are a great many other people who don't mean to be a**holes to the devs, they just expect better from them. When you always expect better you will BE better. My focus is on how bad the DayZ team has managed expectations, primarily. I still play the builds and I am looking forward to times where progress will exponentially increase but as long as I have something to say I won't hesitate to say it. When criticism stops being constructive and leans more to a dull roar of frustration I would suggest that this should serve as a warning sign to the company that their product is in danger. Ok...back to Rify, to mess with tourists.

Meh... I try to think in terms of actual "in-game" time I spend with DayZ...rather than where we are in relation to the roadmap. I would be bat-shit crazy to believe the timelines and promises at this point, that's all. To use the past build release timelines is a bit of a stretch because the closer they get the easier it gets (in theory). I was one of those that questioned Bohemia's role in development of SA, seeing as how they seem to keep a distance from anything related to it. Once again, though...in the absence of anything pointing to the contrary, one can only assume they are just as sceptical . As I have spent a lot of my available PC game time immersed in SA, I can say with confidence that as far as value-for-the-money goes, this title has indeed delivered it's share....but when I sit back and think about it I realize that it is a false metric because I am really only "playing" a work in progress and not a fully realized product. It then becomes more apparent to me just how ridiculous I must sound when I talk about DayZ SA as such a fantastic game and how I highly recommend people try it. That's why I post the odd rant about the developers...it's embarrassing to be a fan boy for this title when the dev team continuously makes me look like a fool to those same potential subscribers. Let me apologize to those same developers....as I think there are reasons I have not considered for the current state of affairs that the actual situation is most likely in a better state than I fear. But as I tried to explain, it's the poor way in which they have dealt with "us" that really disappoints me.

POW! This post has pretty much taken care of any of the things I have been trying to say for the last couple years. There is no better way to call it. If the Developers had done a better job of communication then this would be different, but it appears as if the subscriber-facing personnel for this project have been unable to manage the project in a way that sets expectations that are achievable, and made the news about ongoing dev team activities a consistent, interesting, and logical process. There are points in any process where a review and revision is REQUIRED, and performance evaluations are a key component. Currently, when I try to visualize the DayZ SA studio I am ultimately seeing a warehouse filled with random people doing random tasks at random times and occasionally getting together to have a random play session. I am sure that this is not the case, for the most part...but optics are the only driver that matter with such poor and inconsistent messaging. DayZ has such great potential, but with the current state of the development team and their amateurish approach to processes and milestones it is actually doing the game a greater disservice than any of the bugs or blockers could ever do. I can accept delays, bugs, and even failures.... Just don't lie to me. Peace Out, Devs...and get your PR "component" straight. ;-)

I am still on the fence about renting a server...but seeing as there are very few servers running on Eastern Standard Time (Eastern North America) I am probably going to do it. My question is this...Can an Admin (me, basically) just pop around in third person watching others play the game? I used to have Quake and Half-Life servers and No-Clipping around the maps was actually really entertaining for me. Thanks in advance.

You know...that's exactly what I think when I come across wildlife as well... In real life game trails and browsing meadows usually exist beyond the normal areas of human interaction, and yet the devs chose these areas to spawn game. The dev team "should" know this or they "should" have at least consulted someone who has experience tracking/studying wildlife. Spawn locations and pathfinding are easy to modify so I can only guess they did indeed choose the current patterns just so we can bump into game more easily and because of this we would be encouraged to test hunting/tracking skills

Great job on this, firstly...and I would suggest you build a large sample size of the individual sightings and then use it to determine not only patterns, but the Devs thinking behind how they intend to iterate future spawns and behaviors. The nav meshes for Infected and probably animals as well will no doubt be improved upon in the coming builds so you would be spending a lot of time tracking them without any certainty that your data will survive to 1.0. Keep it up, though...as this has reminded me there are other playstyles available to me other than the "coastie constable". I might start a character just for the sole purpose of tracking and killing game,, thanks!

As a potential server owner I have read the rules many times (sort of like reading the manual on a car you are contemplating buying) and while the OP might have a point "philosophically", it sounds to me like he intentionally decided to push the limits of this particular aspect of server ownership "because I can" and is now trolling the Forums in an effort to gain martyrdom. Sort of like those people who intentionally exploit loopholes just so they can pound their chest and dare the "Man" to do something about it. My man....I would ask that you look at it from the point of view of the Studio and think that maybe due to the relative infancy of this game, they would rather keep the server lists fairly straight forward and prevent the confusion among players who might be unfamiliar with the whole MMPOG thing. It's all about making newcomers feel welcome and when server names start to get "creative" it might be easy for those inexperienced gamers to become frustrated by what they might have originally been expecting. When I read your server name I personally chuckled, as I know it is just a funny name...but for the sake of political correctness it actually DOES mislead potential players. I doubt your name will be taken by anyone else in the future...so just change it for a while and go back to it when you are indeed able to modify the loot tables (Private Shard ownership does indeed have its' privileges). Don't let this get bigger than it needs to be...and be assured we ALL appreciate that you have dedicated your time and money to contribute to the growing server community.

And... I vote that 0.60 does NOT get released to Experimental until the Bug Tracker comes back. Without actually saying it, I would think (Hope, Interpret, Imagine, Guess) that Hicks is considering this as well. It's the common sense thing to do but this is an example of what I meant by there being too much opportunity for second guessing and conjecture without better communication.

Getting back to 0.59 discussion... Who has ever tried to secure Riffy as a base, and what do you think will happen to those who try? I came across a few guys in the ship who seemed pretty happy to be there...without realizing that they were sitting ducks should they try to leave the ship for supplies. This would have been the case...were it not for the good old Server Hoppers... I was having a great time pissing them off from the hill and knew it was just a matter of time before they started to run out of ammo and patience. (they were all clearly a band of PVP buggers). One guy falls from the ship and dies....and when he respawns back into the server he is behind me and fully geared and looking to end the standoff. I got away...but this really pissed me off. I GOTTA find a Private server! I am looking to add my own additional Private Slave to a good one to add variety as well (like that kid that no one wants on their team because he sucks...except for the fact he has the cool Hockey nets). The day we get another Map to add to a second server on the same private shard....that is the day this game becomes a monster! (Well past 1.0 release, obviously...but just remembering the Mod where two maps could exist as separate areas to the same whitelist....that was pretty damn cool!.

Yup...Agreed...and you are probably right about why they are so "cautious" but my global assessment of the DayZ SA early access program is what I'm referring to. I play the Stable build now and only go over to experimental when the build is fresh. My Forum presence is primarily to be informed of activities by the dev team and what is being done toward the next builds.... If I have nothing to learn then I have no use for it. If the devs, or their designated spokesperson in these Forums seem to think there is a tendency to misinterpret or take comments out of context I believe it is due to their inability to maintain an effective and efficient format for said activities. They are a result of not having predictable information releases and are largely responsible for our cynicism. Since there "seems" to be a difference of opinion on just how spread out the updates are (Reddit, Twit, DayZ.com, DayZ.com Forums) there will continue to be a great many fans of this project who (due to lack of patience or just plain don't have time to surf endlessly) become frustrated in the lack of clarity for the timelines and direction of the content. Now please don't tell me that if, I have no use for it, then maybe I should leave for a while and come back when it is further along....because we are talking about a process that is more or less a core ingredient for any company that has a user base that consolidates their focus in an online entity such as this forum. I am not "one of those guys" that is going anywhere anytime soon. Rather, I am someone who just cannot stand by and watch something that is broken and not want to help fix it. If all I can do is offer an opinion or lend my perspective to it, then that is what I will do. I care too much about seeing DayZ SA become a success to NOT do it. And Hicks should just STOP offering "hopeful" "possible" or even "maybe" guess-timates on builds...I agree that this is just opening the team up for criticism and unhealthy speculation on the actual final release. So, Yes...we can't control how folk want to interpret dev information.... But...the devs can. ;-) BTW. To lend a bit of insight as to why I post these comments... I am a person that considers integrity, honesty, and generosity above all else. Pretty righteous, but I try. I will help others at the cost of my own personal benefit and I hold others accountable for their promises.

Re-reading the last SR and I am keen to point out this blurb from Brian... "We know that members of the community have wanted to see an increase or change in the format of our outbound communication, and that too has received some love this month. We've done some restructuring in the processes behind these, as well as the structure of responsibilities. We're hoping that over the coming month you'll all enjoy the changes in this area - and we'll be keeping an eye on your reactions." I interpret this as "We hear you and we are doing something to change it for the better" When he mentions "structure of responsibilities" it reminds me of my time in the IT industry where you had to be so politically correct in your activities that most of the time being clear and concise simply got you fired. What he probably means to convey to us is that the person/s responsible for babysitting the Alpha user base is new and has a greater role. Or put simply, "you sucked at it...so you are being replaced" What I also glean from this is that "they" will be paying attention to our response to this change. Today is March 6th and this SR went out 5 days ago. Without deliberately doing it, they have given themselves another benchmark for us to measure them against. If the new person responsible for delivering content news to the community is indeed worthy of the task we should start seeing results of this shortly. I honestly hope that Brian has an appreciation for just how valuable to their overall reputation this pending increase in transparency is and I do trust that he will measure its success against our input.

Well. Thanks for taking a shot at this, Lok... but let's face it...you gotta admit the Dev team are not doing us any favors. (some would say they don't HAVE to do us any favors, of course). The Dev team are only "damned" if they "don't". Any reasonable person who is likely to be a long-term player of DayZ SA will outlast the ADHD mood swings. "Hours of Hicks interviews" can hardly count as the same as what we get from a short but Directed to the Forum Community video or SR. His interviews were for those who either have never played SA or who are no where NEAR as involved as the average multi-year Alpher. The last SR was a feeble effort that gave us only false hope that 0.60 would arrive.It SHOULD have been a proper "Welcome to 2016 Survivors!" post. The various platforms for Devs to communicate only serve to disperse the information instead of consolidating it. Yes...you guys do try to make sense of the information and provide us with it whenever possible, but why should you have to...when they can do it and thereby give us a sense of being better involved and respected. You guys should not have to be their messengers. I am guilty of thinking the new forum would resume where the old one left off, I suppose, and yes I will be patient. This latest disappearing act (amid rumors of a possible major build release) is just an opportunity to focus our "impatience" and until the Dev team makes an effort (we're talking maybe a 5-minute blurb to shut us up!) then rave on, we will. Sincerely, Me.

The OP would never have started this thread...and many more would be less bummed...IF THE DEVS WOULD AT LEAST SAY "HI ALL" in the tracker! Last post was over a month ago with a photo of yet ANOTHER weapon concept (yippie whoopee doopie do!) and Hicks' last post was even longer.... SOMEWHERE in the DayZ SA fraternity there MUST exist someone who could assume the role of PR liaison for us? This would turn the majority of activity in this forum back towards the game and less towards speculation and impatient venting. IMHO.

I agree with your point on there being way too many places to stash info. As this is still an Alpha I would prefer to have just a few Topics and one exclusively for the Devs. As far as dev interaction frequency goes, I was very satisfied when Eugen used to chime in every once in a while and Brian always used to have the odd smack-down with a post or two...which was always fun to follow. Hate to say it...but I am still of the mind that a good, solid, and complete video for each build release would be enough for me. I am definitely NOT keen on how the devs post about something upcoming and they "best-case" it... THAT is really poor business. I also could do without the random post of something that is "in progress" until, at least, it is due in the next build. The feeding frenzy that follows a few pics of weapons or loot (that is no where NEAR ready to iterate) is getting old, fast.

Sheesh! Glad I'm not in the crosshairs on this one! But...I personally am going to get another copy of DayZ so people that come over to my place to hang out can jump on a second PC I have in my game room and share in the adventure. (I have sold a few copies this way already). It does not mean I want a loot farm, emu. Agreed on the PM route, though... I love hanging around the Forum, but it sucks when we get carried away with personal BS (been guilty of that too). I have a strong opinion of how base building should be implemented...but looks like I am way off track compared to the majority of other comments, so basically going to suck it up and try to figure out a way I can make it work to suit my playstyle. Ark and Rust just give me the wrong sense of immersion and I hope the Devs here go a route that is original and specific to the world of Chenarus, that's all.

Thanks guys. I have thought about it for a while now and yeah, I would definitely like to give it a go. "I Understand" that it is still very early as far as the server control featureset goes but what the hell... I spend more on smokes and junk food than it will cost to rent a server but I do hope I can piggy back off another Private Shard to keep the cost down. To be honest though, the way I see it, the ability to play on a predictable, local server that is admin "ass-hat" free is almost worth the fees alone.. It creeps me out a bit when I check out some of the more serious RP servers out there and I don't want to ever tell someone how they should play....so It's hard for me to decide on a direction I should try. Thanks again.

The FAL is essentially an updated version of the Canadian variant FN C1.... So, the breech block carrier has a "pig-tail" that extends back into the butt when fired and the return spring is located behind it to drive the carrier forward to load the next round. The Butt Stock is therefore a fixed part of the weapon and cannot be "folded" during use. I can see where the stock can be deployed prior to use, but you are right about there not being much point to it. (other than maybe making it more backpack friendly even though it has a barrel long enough to be a garden hoe ). Also...the recoil on this weapon is not your average gentle kick...it is significant. There is a grenade launcher attachment, but it needs blank 7.62 rounds to function (oh no! not ANOTHER ammo type!) and the fore stocks can be swapped out easy enough for composite units...but this weapon is specifically designed to be a stand-off battle rifle...not a close quarters assault rifle or a close defence weapon, that's the fun of having to choose which style of weapon best suits your needs. Sorry...probably old news to most of you, but I love the FN for what it is...and I really hope they don't pimp it out to please the CS-GO and BF4 players out there.

I honestly think BiStudio and Hosting companies for SA servers have so far been pretty disorganized and uncertain of how, exactly, to go about administering them. If you are expecting that SA will have an advanced server control panel at this point I would suggest that you are expecting too much at this time. I'm not saying that what you are asking them about is not reasonable...don't get me wrong...I agree that you SHOULD expect a response to this....but at this point in the game's development it would probably just be a temporary state of affairs until the client side of things gets polished off and the dedicated servers get some attention. Don't forget that the game, including the server side of things, is still a long way off from being finished so customizing access to servers and other 3rd-party add-ons are also still a long way off from being properly implemented. So...as an answer... the "Product" you are asking about basically still does not exist...if you get my meaning.