emuthreat

Much of that argument was describing the problems that could come from truly random spawns, as opposed to the system we have now, with designated spawn points, that are cycled through somewhat randomly. If you go back earlier in the thread, I described how player-placed spawn exclusion 'totems' could be strategically placed to narrow the placement of remaining viable spawns for a tactical advantage to those already in control of the server; essentially making a base exclusion mechanic a complete non-start. The only workable exception to this would be to have a player be able to craft a bedroll, but only that one bedroll to designate their 'home' camp. In some cases, they say, "less is more." Having to arbitrarily select a few dozen extra spawn points is markedly easier for development than to introduce new convoluted systems to solve a problem that never needed to be created in the first place. As long as the number of spawns doubles the number of players allowed on the server, there should be very little problem with having static spawns.

I just check the feedback tracker often, hoping that when it comes back, .60 will soon follow.

What I was trying to get at by pointing out the zonal loot spawn control system, is that it looks like they are investing a fair amount of energy into a situation dependent on players spawning in region 1, along the coast. So based on this knowledge, I am nearly certain that randomized spawns, as you described, are not going to be a goal for 1.0. If you still want to talk about the possible merits and pitfalls of a completely randomized spawn system, please share your ideas for how this can be done without causing the types of problems that were pointed out by Irishjake, Pilgrim, and myself. They are all very valid concerns. Pilgrim was concerned about new players being completely lost, Jake was concerned about players spawning into geometry and waiting to die, and I am concerned about players spawning into camps. If you have a solution that addresses all of those concerns, I would be interested to hear it. Also refer back to my point about zonal loot distribution; which I would think makes this discussion pretty pointless as far as the official 1.0 development cycle is concerned.

Fuck it. Just make everybody spawn at Krutoy Cap. It is easily recognizable, and close to resources, while still giving people a chance to go top the east, or south coast, as well as scoot up the hill to Tulga. It is too far from the hotspots and has good enough cover to prevent it being a real problem area for bami-sniping. The spawns are already randomized, as far as the selection of pre-existing spawn points goes; I think that was the basis of his logical assertion. I linked to the status report, earlier in this thread, in which Hicks detailed the different loot zones and alluded to the fact that this system only works as designed, when spawns are mostly coastal. Due diligence, bro, did you do it? Based on some of your posts in this thread, methinks not....

I'm still waiting for tactical underpants, so I can sew my name into the elastic. I'm tired of people killing me and then thinking that my name is Calvin Klein.

Good, I was starting to think that I was the only CLE heretic. It sure did make me feel better about not finding any FNXs for a month, when I later found a camp with half a dozen of them. On a side note, the camp looked eerily similar to one that I had believed despawned, right down to my love of gasmasks and cowboy hats, and ColdAtrophy's token gas lamp. No way to know for sure unless they make it so we can permanently engrave guns. (I'll carve RAMBO into all of mine, so people will be afraid to keep them)

I was poking fun at the coastal spawn status quo. Backstory is only relevant as far as your starting conditions and loadout are concerned; in most cases, on the beach in jeans and a t-shirt with a rag and a flare. As shown in .58, they can alter the starting gear fairly easily. I think they took away the flashlights as starting equipment because of the metagaming aspect of being able to hoard batteries by spawn-cycling and dumping the battery in a stash or with a friend. Or as I had once practiced, going to the coast and holding up fresh spawns for their batteries. Having unique, random spawn loadouts would help a bit with character development, especially if they ever decided to tie-in a soft skill predispostion. Like spawning with nothing but netting and a rag, wearing wellies a boonie hat, and short canvas pants; no shirt for you salty fisherman spawns.

Oh good, I was worried someone was going to ask difficult questions about my BS origin story. Like, "if they are cosmonauts coming back to an infected earth, why do you not spawn with a TP-82?" Or, "isn't that basically the same premise from Planet of the Apes?" As always, Pilgrim, thanks for taking it so seriously.

Could be that the tents were grandfathered in under the 45-day rule, where after 45 days of being set down and staying in the same place, the tent will despawn regardless of your interactions with it--short of emptying the thing out, picking it up and re-deploying it. I'm surprised that you wouldn't have mentioned this, @pilgrim*

I have a couple in storage, but I haven't touched them for quite some time. I'm starting to wonder if items housed in persistent storage containers actually do count against the CLE spawn targets. i have a couple fairly large camps still standing on a public server, and I have noticed that helicopter loot is not very good anymore. But like clockwork, whenever I lose a top-tier gun, it is almost immediately replaced by a new one spawning at the helicrashes.

I know y'all got Waschbär in Europe, brought to Germany in the 20th century, and they've been a scourge ever since. But I guess, in a pinch, a fox hat would have to do.

I thought the point of it was that the official development actively refuses to invent any canon for the game; hence the "this is your story" tagline. I never meant for it to get this contentious. I just got the impression that "Day Zero" was the day we all wake up on the beach. Day Zero meaning the first day that any vestiges of civilization have been so far removed as to warrant the abandonment of previous timekeeping measures. The power's been out for weeks at the very least, and anyone left alive has lost too many days and nights running from the sick ones to have any real concept of what day it is. Or with the shipwreck theory, you have drifted for many days into the coastal quarantine zone, effectively preventing any chance of rescue. If I had to take my pick of origin lore, I would have to go with the sci-fi multiverse theory.

I want to be able to proudly display my fox pelts draped over my back like a badass post-apocalyptic warlord king. Right now the pelts feel so useless. The best I can do now is carry them to Elektro or Cherno for PVP action, and hope that whoever loots my body will get a good smile from seeing the pelt taking up valuable ammo space...

Well shipwrecks along the shoreline is perfectly normal, but it is the timing that concerns me. What would ships full of people be doing along the shorelines of Chernarus weeks after the infection? Did they not hear about the shitstorm happening ashore? Is it an aid ship, and if so, why have they wrecked? That's my concern with the concept of being shipwrecked on the coast of an area that is most likely a quarantine zone, and had been that way for weeks. What the hell are they doing there?

I'm all for the different scenarios and different health, but I firmly believe that spawns need to be dispersed throughout more neutral areas, but also respect potential base building concerns. A good middle ground for me, would be to spawn people in the smaller interior towns such as Krasnostav, Olsha, Khelm, Orlovets, Dubrovka, Shakova, Dolina, Mysta, Polana, Guglovo, Orlovets, Kozlovka; you know, towns with just basic resources. As long as spawns are in populated areas, and open fields, it seems like a great way to mix up the player movement. But again, there is the zonal loot spawn aspect of the CLE being developed as we speak.

After reading the latest status report and this link, I am still confused as to the distinction between player controller and new UI; particularly regarding the new weapon chambering/reloading animations. Are these UI, or player controller functions, and how do the gun animations factor into the necessities of .60 functionality?

Those are all great ideas, but I'm not sure if it would fit the "loreless" style of the game that vanilla seems inevitable to become. I like the idea of your prop-based spawn flavoring, but too much dispersal of spawn points could create some persistent basebuilding-related issues. I would have severe reservations if a group of players on a private hive could abuse suicides to conduct a systematic sweep for player camps by means of randomized and dispersed spawn points. Without having to use any resources beyond the first fifteen minutes of sprint health, an organized group could scout and overpower half of a private server in a day. That should definitely not be made possible by any means in the vanilla 1.0 release.

So does this mean that the reload mechanics are part of the new UI, rather than a part of the player controller? Are they not considered user actions or part of the animation system? I guess I'm just a little confused as to how this all works; though I also understand the trouble that releasing a diagram of the engine components, and functions, could cause. Is it absolutely necessary that .60 have the new reloading animations included in it? Can the pairitized new UI be put out without having the new reload animations incorporated into it? I don't think many people, at this point, would hold it against you guys for putting out a slightly less feature-rich .60. It seems as if the plate is still somewhat overfull for this round of development. When I go to a buffet, sometimes I have to make the difficult decision to go back for another trip, rather than pile a can of spaghetti on top of my delicious plate of peaches and baked beans. : ) No worries, still patient, just wanting for a bit more understanding.

Careful now Careful now. lol

Why would the ships have wrecked on the coast of a quarantine zone, weeks after the majority of the population succumbed? It makes more sense to me that survivors have been in hiding for weeks, and used up all of their stored resources. Having traveled to the coast to find that there are no more healthy people or seaworthy ships, you are now stuck trying to survive the hostile world. For people on the other half of the globe, it may not seem like such a foreign place. It would make more sense then, if the coastal spawns were a result of someone trying to get back home to Chernarus, having been away for the outbreak.

It sure would be nice if there were some confirmation on this point from the Devs. I'm not sure when this change was made, but it still does not seem to be accurate to my experiences. I really hope this won't matter by tomorrow. As a sidenote, I do not agree with the 8 day interaction refresh system. It forces the survivor to have a much more narrow experience. If I have three hunting camps on the map, but can only get to one of them in a given week, I will have lost my (in-game) livelihood. This stinks. 28 days, would be much more appropriate.

I'm of the opinion that they did not do their due diligence in identifying the possible confounding factors in their test groups. Perhaps there are dietary similarities in their test group that they did not make the proper efforts to identify; like frequently consuming caffeinated beverages and having a diet consisting mainly of Doritos and Hot Pockets. Or perhaps the type of people drawn to playing violent video games already have those qualities. I see no concrete causal relationship. It rather makes more sense that people with such identified qualities would be more apt to play violent video games as a means of safely expressing their pre-existing aggressive thoughts. Nice try though. ; ) I noticed that too. Chalked it up to sperling dirfficurlties. Nice insight. We finally have a solid reason to back all of those complaints about the addition of all these new guns before getting the final working tech in place. Kinda like setting the table before you have chosen a tablecloth...

I'd like to see the spawns happen in a belt about 1 km across, offset 2 km on center from the coastline. It would also be important to me, that there be some kind of mechanism to prevent the game from spawning anybody within 500 meters from an existing camp. But as I was typing that, I thought about the possibility of strategically planting tents and barrels on a server to exclude much of the possible spawn zone, resulting in a server where everybody spawned in the same town; so now I'm not so sure. The one thing I do know, is that the coastal spawn points are one of my least favorite parts about the game. However, I don't think that will be changing in the vanilla version, as they have already invested time into distinguishing the different loot spawn regions. Perhaps the random starting load outs will be something we see more of in the future. Hicks seemed to like the idea of more diverse spawn conditions when it was discussed a bit last summer.

I have heard of people finding netting, but it takes a lot of footwork. I would recommend starting at Rify, and walking the coastline down to Three Valleys, then reverse. If you don't find any netting after three round trips, consult a shaman; the problem may be with your aura.

I'll have to wait until the middle of April to confirm it, but I'm pretty sure that I know of a few barrels that will despawn regardless of my history of interaction with them; because I refuse to move them in order to verify that they will in fact despawn after 45 days. Here's to hoping that I will have something better to do before then...