ColdAtrophy

I've always heard this argument and agreed with and to a point I still do. However, I was thinking about it one day and a particular thought struck me. It isn't really that people won't buy the DLCs. I bought the DLCs for Skyrim even though I also played a bunch of modded content. Happily, I paid the extra $40 for the two large expansions plus the whatever it was for the house plot stuff. Worth every penny to me, although YMMV. So what makes Battlefield, another series I play, not comfortable with doing modding? I think that the answer is fairly simple. Modding doesn't diminish the value of DLC inherently. It makes it so that you cannot take the easy way out and do something like Second Assault for BF4 which was just some maps they ported over from BF3. Maps we all (most of us anyway) technically already owned and played to death. It becomes much easier to shit out whatever is most convenient for the developer (whether that content is quality or not is almost secondary) when you disallow modding since that is literally the only fresh content the player base can possibly experience. Whatever you slap together, people will buy if they are really into the game because they almost have no choice in a sense. Bethesda made some top notch unique pieces of content that took effort, design work, art assets, and more. So their contributions to the "extra stuff" pile stood out as being noteworthy. Second Assault, just to continue this example, would have likely already been made, likely even with community influenced improvements, long before they had even been ready to announce it.

I kinda figured as much and I respect their right to do so. My question was out of pure curiousity. I haven't played too many games that even have solid modding support since I've only been on PC for gaming for about a year now. Really only Skyrim and Arma 3 truthfully. I still am learning new things about the culture of modding, rules or guidelines, and so on.

I wonder why they would care what maps we put in the game or what game they came from. If it were monetized, I do, of course, understand the issue there, but modders do what they do for free in all cases but that recent silly Steam paid mods debacle. What reasoning is there behind BI disallowing the Take On Helicopters and Arma combos as you mentioned? Is it related to not wanting to diminish the value of purchasing their other products or something like that?

I haven't found this to be the case though, largely because there really isn't too much in the civilian pool that could be considered top tier. It got to the point in the initial rollout of the CLE that I could almost literally pinpoint exact houses that would likely contain military loot based on how remote they were and how likely it was that players had often visited these houses historically. Everything was set to spawn based on how often players had been picking up items from that particular location in the past. Now military loot long since no longer spawns in civilian locations and we are left with really only a couple of rare and sought after civilian items that are dispersed randomly like the Winchester and the Hunting Backpack. There is once again no real incentive to go check, say, a house at the end of a dirt road on the edge of the map. It is no more or less likely to spawn worthwhile items than any other particular house of that kind on the map. If there is some kind of weighting to the loot spawning based on frequency of being visited by players historically, then the difference must be so slight as to be unnoticeable. I spent at least 100 hours running and driving all over the map during this patch first building two rather large camps and stocking them with supplies for 4 people and then doing it again after the desync at camps patch came out and all of our camps got wiped. I saw no evidence of the CLE putting better items in more neglected spawns and I often find entire towns that appear completely untouched, particularly in the far north.

Pure random is not likely to ever happen. However, I can't help but agree that more randomness to the loot system, more dynamic events, and random spawns (within reason as Rags pointed out) would do a ton of good. The thing I'm most afraid of with regard to DayZ is getting tired of and bored with Chernarus and the loot. Generating more dynamic loot spawns would certainly help to stave that off. It just needs to make some sense and I'm not sure that the OP's idea would really be the best implementation. I'd like to see things like a random dead soldier with a rifle at his side in some random spot out in the woods or a humvee wrecked into some trees, covered in blood with infected corpses and dead soldiers about. Perhaps a random cabin obviously barricaded by a survivor who failed to hold back the horde, stocked with some supplies and a surplus of ammunition in some out of the way spot. Also, in the initial implementation of the CLE, I could almost predict where I would find the best stuff by looking for lone houses off the beaten path. A house or two at a deadend not convenient for players to routinely visit often yielded high tier loot quite reliably. They had specifically configured the better loot to spawn in the often least visited locations. While they should perhaps not go quite to that extent again (after all - I did say it was nearly predictable), I'd welcome a real reason to go out of my way to check every nook and cranny of Chernarus over and over to find some really choice stuff. Some more effort spent on creating very valuable civilian items would certainly help. Much like the introduction of hunting scopes and the Winchester.

Something like this should have already existed. This game tells you nothing about really anything so new players can have a hard time figuring out what the hell is going on. For example, I think I played for the first month without any idea what public or private meant. I also eventually found a friend here on the forums and he explained to me how the healthy/energized/hydrated statuses work and how to keep them at top level. I had been running around and dying quite liberally for approximately two months without understanding the system. Anyway, nice job OP. Beans for you, since it isn't often that we see brand new players try to be so constructive right out of the gate. :D

Would you like me to point out all the reasons why I felt it was gibberish? Why it didn't actually apply and/or made no sense whatsoever? I can do that if you like, but I feel like it is sufficient to say that if you had understood what I was getting at, you wouldn't have followed up with statements that are not only untrue but make no sense in the context of the analogy like: "If you want to build a car, and you start to manufacture complex components like the motor yourself, you will never finish." Also, you said this: "There is a reason why designing new motors is not done in every garage around the corner, but by companies with a lot of experience.", which has nothing to do with what we are talking about. We aren't talking about Bohemia redesigning the way rendering is handled by an engine. We are talking about them building a newer version of something that their programmers already know how to do. Don't take my word for it though. Allow Hicks to break it down for you: https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/226553-status-report-30-jun-2015/ EDIt: I shouldn't have used the word "gibberish" initially. I was slightly annoyed and I realize that obviously you would take offense to that. I apologize for that.

The rest of your post is gibberish and it doesn't come to bear on the topic at hand. You missed my point completely. You do infer that purchasing a new renderer would be worth the money. It is not since creating the new renderer is not the hard part. Licensing happens when the cost vs the time saved and level of difficulty avoided reveal a beneficial transaction for the company doing the licensing. You do not often see devs license something small and specific like a renderer in their own in-house engines for that reason. Even if they had licensed a new renderer, they would still have the same problems that they had now in that extracting the old renderer is and has been the problem that is causing the hold up. You can argue with me if you want, but you are objectively wrong. I'm sorry but that's a solid fact.

I've probably missed something along the way here, but can anyone confirm what the next update will bring? As far as I knew, all we are looking at seeing is: 1) Zombies back. 2) Three new vehicles. 3) Passenger desync fix for networking model. What have I forgotten or missed?

I didn't read every post in this thread so forgive me if someone else has already mentioned this, but I felt the need to set the record straight here. Creating a new renderer is not a particularly difficult or even time consuming thing to do. Even if they had licensed a piece of software to do what they wanted the new renderer to do, they would have been presented with exactly the same problems that were holding them back with this one. The thing that has been holding up the process is that the old renderer is/was a pain in the ass to remove. As I recall, the old renderer was linked with the physics system (which is also slowly being redone) and the simulation rate of the entire engine in such a way that it was not a simple swap and replace type of issue. I apologize for this, but I love analogies. Changing a tire on a car is not difficult. I'm certain that a 10 year old could be easily taught how to do it properly. But this isn't that simple. If it was, it would've been done months ago. Now instead imagine swapping out the motor on a brand new 2015 car for a motor that was never shipped from factory in that vehicle. So, like trying to swap, say, a Ford 302 in a Mustang out for a 6.0L Hemi. Oh, and you had to build the Hemi yourself starting with just a bare block. And then imagine that a few thousand people are asking you multiple times per day how long it's gonna take and you know from experience that every single time you try to accomplish the next step, something else comes up. Like the security system in the car is freaking out because it was not designed to work with an engine, sensors, and wiring harness from a totally different manufacturer. Or the engine mounts don't match up and you had to borrow someone else's cherry picker who desperately needs it back. And the guy you have helping you needs to eat and sleep. The prick. Oh, and then when it's all finally said and done, you have to make sure that this can process can be replicated in thousands of other unique vehicles without a problem because if someone else puts the Hemi you built into their vehicle and it doesn't work perfectly, they will go fucking ballistic to put it mildly. So you seem to think that putting in the new renderer could have been a simple swap, but the fact of the matter is that the issue was never creating the renderer. That was probably done 6 or 8 months ago. Perhaps longer even. The real problem is ripping out the old one and not only not losing quality but also gaining performance.

DayZ SA is the first and only zombie survival game I have ever played. I bought it in February or March of this year. I hit 1000 hours already. I don't understand the OP's statements about how overly complicated the SA is, but I have never played the mod. I am actually quite shocked to see someone have that kind of opinion. I want more medical items, more complexity, more mechanics and systems at play that I must learn and monitor. However, I can say this: I will never look at video games the same way again. DayZ has fundamentally and permanently altered me both as an aspiring designer and as an avid player.

Yeah. Me. :P I play 3pp with Schwabam, DaveB, and Eno, but 1pp will forevermore be home to me. Even if 1pp never picks up popularity in the community as a whole, I really don't give a fuck. I don't play DayZ for the player interaction, if one could even call the near constant KoS any kind of real interaction. I play DayZ to live the zombie apocalypse. I want to be afraid. I want to be surprised. The 3rd person camera stifles a lot of that, whether people realize it or not. I can't tell you how many times I've been genuinely surprised by a zombie in 1pp that I would've seen a block away in 3pp. In short, 3pp plays like a game, which I guess is what some people are really after. 1pp plays more like a simulation. I don't have to think about my camera perspective or what another person might be seeing from some asinine viewpoint with their drone cam. I can just get lost in the experience. Once .59 hits Experimental, we get zombies back and while I will still play 3pp with the aforementioned bros (salt of the earth kind of dudes, imo), 1pp will again be my primary mode. I can't wait to get back to cleansing Chernarus of the infected once again. (See profile pic)

This thread. It's like watching a chick go back to an abusive boyfriend or watching a dear friend backslide into heavy cocaine use. We all know how this story ends people. Grimey Rick shows up and at least 2 people get a one week ban. Then the topic gets locked and nothing was accomplished. Why must we go through this over and over?

Was this really necessary? Have we not done this exact same poll like 15 times before?

For Mr. Hicks, if his is so inclined: 1) So sometimes, albeit rarely, I find myself behind an unaware player that is simply laying there and trying to snipe people for no real reason. I think to myself, how great would it be if I could go up behind this guy, pull this combat knife out of my boots, and slit this guy's throat without making much of a sound just in case he has friends around? When I think of this, I'm imagining an animation sequence wherein there could even be a skill based struggle of some kind. Seems pretty gritty, survival-y to me and like it would be right up DayZ's metaphorical aisle. What say you? 2) SInce it's not possible for us to have access to Enscript just yet, what would you recommend a prospective modder do to prepare in the mean time as far as scripting is concerned? Since, as you previously mentioned, Enscript is closer to C++ than to Real Virtuality's SQF, would it be most advisable to brush up on C++ while we wait?

I just threw up from pure joy.

Yep, Happened to me too. It sucks. https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/228576-character-reset/

My two cents: Gorka is the best balance of camouflage, carrying capacity, and protection from the elements. That's why everyone wears it. There should be civilian analogues of most military gear barring, of course, things that there aren't reasonable civilian counterparts for like grenades or AKM with a drum mag. Perks from military gear should come in the form of things like the Plate Carrier which offers an unbeatable combination of style and capacity but that comes together as a result of scrounging for the pieces. Surviving a military location once or twice is no big deal. Checking them constantly to finish a set requires patience and skill. Civilian top end gear can simply be controlled through rarity and can also require piecing together sets. After all, as someone who spends an obnoxious amount of time meticulously looting every nook and cranny of civilian areas, I can say without a doubt that items like the Winchester are desperately needed in the civilian loot pool. Moar "holy shit look what I found in this random shack in the middle of the woods!" plox. Either way, most of this is a symptom of alpha and I would advise patience in addition to discussions like this. EDIT: Also as a bit of an add-on that just popped into my head, military gear is made by the lowest bidder almost universally. Civilian gear can be as well made and fantastic as you can afford. I would much rather stumble across something like this (http://www.sosproducts.com/Two-Person-Emergency-Survival-Kit-Backpack-p/240.htm) in some random house in the woods than a SPOSN. And that's not even a great example of what I mean. There are some really nice (and pricey) civilian items that could rarely exist in a game like DayZ.

Hey OP. I did send you a private message so I could help you long before anyone posted in here. You never replied. Last time I tried to help someone with this, my topic was blocked and my post hidden because the forum admins don't differentiate between scripting to cheat and a script for gaming peripheral software.

I have a run toggle on my mouse. Trust me when I say it isn't an advantage in any competitive context. In fact, the first day I used it I jumped off the roof of a hospital accidentally. I plan to play games until the day I breathe my last. I will be pissed if I can't play DayZ XII in my virtual simulation room because of arthritis.

I can personally confirm that the game supports all the way up to 4K, but it will only show you the supported resolutions as reported by your system. That said, running DayZ higher than 1080p requires some serious hardware that the vast majority of us, even with better than average rigs, simply don't have. If it were me, I'd wait until the tail end of beta before I invested in any hardware purchases for this game. There are just too many unknowns at the moment.

IIRC, all clothing types of the same category currently offer the same levels of protection. For example, the Plate Carrier gives the same level of protection as an Assault Vest or, as in this case, the Anti-stab Vest. Although I don't think I am, I may be wrong. There could perhaps be a few exceptions floating around out there. That said, the devs have recently talked about a total rework of the damage system and if I understand correctly that would include reworking protection from gear. Perhaps the Anti-stab vest will one day provide protection from sharp melee weapons.

https://youtu.be/i28UEoLXVFQ

Once upon a time I was a console scrub. Then I built a shiny new PC. I asked my buddy, " What should I buy so we have something other than BF4 to play?" He sayeth unto me, "DayZ". After a small amount of research and my very first forum topic, (https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/221826-considering-purchasing-the-game/) I did purchase DayZ SA and my world was never the same again. Then there was this little gem, entitled "Noob on a Rescue Mission": https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/222069-noob-on-a-rescue-mission/ It almost brings a tear to my eye, seeing the problems I was struggling with, things I do now without even thinking about. I once drove a truck from Kamenka to Severograd (or something like that) after 9 or 10 shots of rum, so drunk I couldn't even see straight, to pick up Biohaze who had fallen off a roof and respawned and I didn't wreck once. Here I was, such a green little noob, worried about zombies in Krasnostav! LMAO! I was playing the new-er-ish Tomb Raider game that was on sale last week on Steam and there's a part where Lara stumbles across a bunch of wreckage and a makeshift camp. She walks away from two giant PET bottles of clean water! She throws away a perfectly good pack! In the very next scene, she's bitching about how she's hungry and thirsty. WTF dumbass. The whole time I was screaming at the cutscene. DayZ has changed the way I play games and the scope I use to examine games. I can't believe I already put 1000 hours into this game. I still feel like I have barely played it.

No, no. I know that. That's why I said "move on", as in get 0.59 locked up and ready for stable so we can move on to the next one.