Thurman Merman

Back on the old UN Clan servers around .55 or so, I had 18 barrels hidden in the woods near Tulga. No one ever found them. Hiding barrels used to be great when you could put them in trees. Everyone is gambling: some that people won't take the time to break in, some that people won't stand in just the right spot. I like your odds better.

Ah, still releasing game breaking updates into stable. Crack work, knuckleheads.

I hadn't played much since the "1.0" bs left a real bad tatse in my mouth. But, I recently jumped back in and am certainly having fun. As other have mentioned, many good mods out there - but I'm a vanilla guy at heart. The biggest problems on vanilla for me are related to base building and the inability to fortify a base in any meaningful way (so if you just want to hide a camo'd tent and barrel in the woods, that shouldn't be an issue). Cars are still junk in many ways. Stamina and weight are still a bit too punitive. The survival aspects need to be dialed up a notch, but over all, it is showing me promise for the first time in a long time.

Every time I think about reinstalling this game, that I once loved, I check here and see it is a total cluster.

Does any of the old group still play, other than you and Art? I uninstalled it, again. Makes me sad.

Apparently adding stuff that doesn't work is easier than fixing things that are already broken.

I was being pissy and sarcastic. Ballistics, like much of current DayZ, has been ruined.

Why should ballistics be any different than the rest of the game features?

I have thousands of hours in DayZ. That browser is easily the most infuriating thing I've encountered in DayZ. It's the first thing a player sees and it barely works. It takes 3-5 minutes to populate; and trying to click any button while it's populating is nearly impossible - thus my need to CTRL-ALT-DEL. It's garbage; and Bohemia should know better than to have a barely functioning feature as the fist thing one sees on 1.0. I've been an evangelist for DayZ for a long time, but this 1.0 nonsense, and especially this garbage browser, have eliminated any remaining faith I had in BI.

I guess I'm the only one who thinks fixing the sever browser is priority #1. Every time I fire the game up to give it a look, I do a hard shut down at the browser because I'm so disappointed.

Started up DayZ. New Server Browser - great, maybe they've fixed the garbage old one. Nope. After ten minutes of spam clicking buttons, I still can't actually join a server - hell, I can barely manipulate filters. Do you guys think, maybe, that the first thing with which players have to interact in your game should work? I cannot imagine why a brand new player would spend the time necessary to actually get on a server. This should be completely unacceptable to anyone with a bit of pride in their work.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this (it's about .63, but just offline, not stress tests). Further, I have been out of the country for about 3 weeks, so apologies for any redundancies. I've been able to play offline for about 4 hours for each of the last 3 days, so I have covered a big piece of the map and done everything I could think to try. My first life spawned near Tulga; I hit Kamy, then went up through the woods to Staroye, Guglovo, and the Sabors before my game crashed. My second spawn was near Kamy, so I headed west along the coast: hit every town thereon and ended at the far SW roadblock. My last game spawned near Svet; I went along the northern road (but didn't check on much as I was in a hurry to get to NWAF) to NWAF, then out west (western roadblock), then down to Myshkino military. First, thoughts on the environment: The woods, water, and general visuals are both beautiful and densely displayed. Just really impressive overall. I suspect they're even better in the stress tests (I'm assuming things got dialed down on standalone since the client had to handle everything). Also, it looks as if it will be easier to hide barrels in trees/bushes again; I had issues with the sound. When I was along the coast, there seemed to be almost no ambient sounds (wind, waves, birds), just my footsteps and very soft raindrops. Yet, when I was on the northern half of the map (while sounds were still relatively quiet), I did get much more wind and wildlife noises. I hope the infected sounds still have some more work left, as they feel out of place (but maybe it's just my other problems with the sound causing that effect); Map changes: (didn't want to include any pics, as I am trying to limit spoilers) I loved the new Cherno, including the new police HQ; NWAF was huge and very complicated - that's gonna be fun to play on (only saw water in 2 spots: drainage basin on the east side and a creek on the west side, so like Tisy, bring your bottles/pots and water purification tabs) - and I was happy to see several brand new buildings; found lots of new developments out west, so no more endless forests. Very encouraging! Now, to general game play: First the obvious bugs/incompletions: I couldn't figure out anyway to reload a gun, even with mags, without tabbing open the inventory (I get that they want to slow some things down, but hopefully that is to be fixed); I could find no way to dive prone (had to crouch, then go prone); rolling seems to be currently out; much crafting resulted in both the crafted item and some of the original materials still being present (6 rags+6 rags= rope and 6 rags; courier bag+sticks=improved pack and courier bag; etc.); knives/can openers get ruined at an alarming rate (I didn't count, but probably less than 10 uses); tall apartment blocks are currently not enterable (at least I couldn't get past the last step); I couldn't figure out how to slide down ladders; and my guy couldn't run down the firehouse stairs without falling and being injured. Stamina/Injury: while stamina will need some tweaking, of course, I think they're very much on the right track. At first, I thought it was too severe, but then realized my guy, carrying about 24 kg of clothes and gear, could sprint for about 15-16 paces (so roughly 100m?). [See Edit 2] He then needed to jog about the same number of paces to fully recharge his bar. That seems a little too severe, but not far off the mark. (Side note: I found the bar very difficult to read. The total/available is obvious, but available/used is so similarly colored as to be very difficult to read.) Further, I was not wild about being able to jog/sprint up steep embankments/hills - seems very unrealistic. I rather liked the limping while recovering from injuries. I think that will add needed complexity to the PvP game. Gunplay: other than the obvious reloading issue, I really like the new controls. Seemed very natural to raise, look down the sights, and fire - then spin to find the approaching infected and repeat. Further, I feel fairly certain that infected no longer radar lock on to you. Several times , I fired, then moved; and the infected who hadn't seen me seemed to move towards the location where I made the sound. If that is a correct observation, that is great! Finally, friends have complained about excessive sway, but I thought it was rather mild. Am really encouraged by the new melee. I had expected the combo moves and different attacks to be kind of gimicky, but after playing with them for a bit, I was really starting to enjoy them. That coupled with the stamina effect should greatly improve melee (I mean, it would be hard not to improve from the prior system, but this looks like it might be really good). Wildlife: I killed some cows and got around 15-20 steaks (I forgot to count them). When I built a fire to cook them, I noticed that the new fire interface looks pretty cool (places for fuel, cookware, improvements, etc.). I also killed some wolves, but didn't harvest them. However, I think wolves are currently immune to melee. I hit the same wolf 12 times with a fireaxe (saw blood), but he did not go down. Further, I had to shoot 5 before the pack would disperse; and they came back shortly thereafter (1-2 minutes), forcing me to kill 2 more. Perhaps it was two packs on top of each other? Finally, the wolves were much easier to shoot, as they no longer surf on invisible waves. The HUD, while not fully functioning in standalone (don't think temp, wetness, or sickness are operating), was nonetheless, difficult to decipher. I think bleeding may be represented by a red, downward facing arrow under the cross, but wasn't sure. I do know that after the aforementioned wolf attack, I had to bandage several times to get rid of the downward arrows under the blood symbol - I'm assuming that meant I could now sustain multiple injuries at once, if so, that's a welcome addition. In any event, I would expect them to continue to refine the HUD, as a player shouldn't wonder so much about what would be obvious (to a person) physical conditions. Inventory UI: what a mess. Again, I know this is a first draft; and I know they want to make some of the prior, instantaneous actions more realistic, but, as an example, having to hit TAB, then drag a can to my hands, then drag a knife to the can, then close my inventory, then hold down my LMB for several seconds to eat a can of bacon is needlessly tedious. And while I don't mind the time it takes to eat, I can't be the only one to hate having to constantly hold the LMB down. In general, I feel like I spend way too much time dragging things around in my inventory screen, then closing it, then opening it again to finally finish what I was doing (e.g., open inventory, drag boxed ammo to hands, close inventory, open box by holding down LMB, open inventory, drag magazine to hand, drag ammo onto mag, close inventory, hit LMB before doing any other move to start loading the mag, finish, open inventory, drag mag to vest/pocket/etc. - that will get old real quickly). On the other hand, I did like the ability to scroll through some crafting options using the MMB, that, as well as the display thereof, seemed like a simple and elegant solution. Finally, I love that when you empty a mag, the ammo is automatically stacked onto any non-full stack of said ammo. So that's about all I can think of. I'll be glad to answer any question for those who don't have the several hours it takes to get up NW and see that part of the map. All in all, I am very optimistic about the future of this game after playing around with the first draft of .63. Can't wait until they start pushing EXP builds! ETA: As other have mentioned, please fix the doors. Many open the wrong way, they're always pushing your character around, just a mess. Edit 2: Obviously did my math wrong. Assuming a 1.8m tall man, I'd then assume a sprinting stride length (i.e., distance between right foot falls) of 1.25x, so 2.25m. That means my guy could sprint for less than 40m carrying 24kg (including clothes, and even then, most items would have been in my vest - which would be less taxing then running with a pack on). That sprinting ability should probably be increased by a factor of 2.5 (or I should be able to sprint about 100m, while only moderately loaded) IMO. Further, did a test this morning with 10kg of total gear, and I could only sprint about 60m. So, yes, I think the stamina capacity should be at least doubled. Having said all that, without a range finder to determine actual in-game distance, I may be full of crap here. :D Edit 3: see posts below for further testing and thoughts on stamina.

Fighting infected in Stress Test #6 confirmed my feelings on the above.

I believe door smashing is still in the works. Right now, they continue to mill around outside the window allowing you to pick them off one by one.

Maybe I misunderstand you, but Zeds are in the Standalone. I had 17 near where I spawned a few days ago. After I killed those, though, I didn't see more except at military spots.

This is similar to my complaints all along: good game, bad PR. I love DayZ. And after the first looks at the current .63 stress tests and offline, I'm very optimistic. But the Devs make a religion out of over-promising and under-delivering. I understand that development throws curveballs at you - that's exactly why you need to temper your pronouncements.

In addition to IMT's comment, I believe temp, wetness, and sickness may be turned off (I swam in a pond and didn't get wet or cold; I constantly drank pond water, but missed my opportunity to eat both raw and burnt steaks).

So, I played around with Stamina again this morning. While I still think it is far too severe, it's closer than my edit above guessed (just a quick opinion after a few tests). My guy was carrying this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1378509439 It weighed around 16 kg. I'd call him minimally-fully geared. In a normal game, I'd have a pot, a stove, some morphine, a bit of food, compass, etc. With that kit he could sprint to the gate in this pic (18 full strides): https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1378509356 While that doesn't look entirely unreasonable in game, I suspect it's less than 50 m. That certainly seems too low. Further, dropping all my gear, I could sprint to this fence (38 full strides) : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1378509270 Someone who is better at judging in game distance, please chime in, but I suspect that's less than 100 m. Way too low. Recognizing we're talking about a WIP, I would think it could be fixed (so that it's still an effective method to make you consider the costs of sprinting, yet not totally a pain in the ass making the game un-fun) by the following: 1. "Free" kg for the first 4-7? I.e., your stamina bar doesn't shrink until you exceed this. Then, with a minimal setup (pants, jacket,shoes, pistol, axe), you would have your full bar. It seems a bit ludicrous that my character putting on a shirt or shoes would limit his sprinting abilities. Especially considering he's a beast who jogs/sprints everywhere he goes. 2. Adjust some item weights. A Gorka weighs 2 kg (this hunting jacket barely weighs 1 kg: http://www.badlandspacks.com/gear/closeout/inferno-lightweight-jacket whereas in-game an empty M65 weighs 2 kg). That's nuts; those tops are too heavy. I have entire ski suits that weigh less than that. A can opener weighs 1 kg! That's at least 5x too high. I'm sure you could run through all items can come up with many adjustments. 3. Increase the sprinting ability by around 50% In other words, carrying nothing, it's not unreasonable to think my guy could sprint 150 m. Especially considering we're missing a "run" setting (i.e., we can walk, jog, or sprint). Loaded as in my first pic, I could probably sprint the same distance as shown in the third. Anyway, just spit-balling. Again, this morning, I was so happy with the way the game looks. Really nice job there. Edit: typos

@odin_lowe, I cannot believe I didn't figure that out. :dopey: Also, another nit: filling a bottle or a canteen from a stream or lake should be much faster than from a pump. Not game breaking but noticed it this morning while playing around with stamina and sprint distance and found it annoying.

"get back into the flow" - that's why I started again. Didn't want you to laugh at me the first time I get smoked by some kid with a repeater. :D Did have some good fights recently - but also some spectacularly bad failures.

I've actually been playing a little bit lately (after taking all of .62 off). Just making sure my skills (limited tho they may be) are not totally rusty. But, at least a couple of times a week I pop in here hoping for some news.

Updating now. See you mooks on the coast!! :D

Yep. Also, vehicles don't have brakes and begin to roll the minute the driver enters the vehicle. I killed Emu this way: jumped in a stationary bus; and before I turned it on, it rolled over him.

Just about the worst DayZ development news in a long, long time.