FlimFlamm

Bee-keeping would be epic. Wild bee nests would be pretty dope too, you could gather honey but you would get stung to shit without protection or smoke.

Some interesting ideas! I quite like the idea of a western or medieval themed DayZ, although I think we can come up with even more radical adaptations of the Enfusion engine. The kind of mod that I am most interested in seeing is in a way a microcosm of what DayZ already is : A round based murder/mystery role-playing game!!!!! For the purpose of describing what I have in mind I will detail a specific "setting" for the game to take place in, but keep in mind that the setting and many particulars of the game (objectives, mechanics, etc..) can be altered entirely. Imagine a very large military compound equipped with dorms/barracks, a mess-hall, social areas, weapons lockers, a brig/jail, sickbay, offices for commanding officers, radios networks, electrical systems and generators; the works. Now imagine that this compound is surrounded by noxious gas created by the masses of rotting corpses around the exterior of the compound, and the only thing keeping the air clean inside the large single structure compound is a series of large air-filters powered by fuel-burning generators. Everything inside the building like lights, fridges, electrical medical tools, security systems, communication consoles, (and more) also operate on electricity, which requires regular refueling and maintenance of a central generator. If the power supply to the air filtration system runs out, then, then the air inside the compound will steadily become poisonous and disease filled. It is possible to have a full hazmat suit and gas mask in order to endure a poisonous environment, but the gas mask will only last for a certain amount of time before it is ruined, and there aren't enough hazmat suits to go around. And so a round begins, and this map is loaded (with fresh but limited supplies) and populated with anywhere from 20-60 players (or more, or less, depending on the size of the map), and the players are assigned to fill the various staff positions that a military compound would actually have. There would be a ranking C-O (commanding officer) and their direct subordinates (chief medical officer, head of security, chief engineer, etc...) and under them would serve all manner of required positions. Engineers to keep the generators running and fix anything that breaks (the more that can break, the better), doctors to handle injuries, cooks to feed the constantly hungry staff, janitors to clean all the messes they create, security staff to police everyone,civilians who require constant supervision, and more. Each "round" which begins with everything fresh (the start of a shift, for role-play purposes) and the same tasks must be confronted by the crew. The engineers need to organize their electrical supplies and arrange fuel transportation/ generator management; the cooks need to figure out how to get the most out of what food supplies they have or how to scrounge more supplies (i.e, not burning things, possible nourishment value extending mechanics involving particular food combinations). The "soldier" class can be concerned with mounting excursion missions (requiring use of the hazmat/gas masks) in order to collect fuel, medical supplies and food crates (and more!) from the surrounding environment. If any department fails to accomplish their objectives then the entire compound will feel the potentially deadly consequences. If the medical department doesn't know how to make the cure for a certain disease that is being spread (by touch) then everyone might slowly die. If the air filtration system or generators are broken, un-fueled, or sabotaged then there simply aren't enough hazmat and gas masks to go around and people will slowly succumb to multiple diseases (no hazmat) or airborne poison (no gas-mask). If all the rations are destroyed, people who cannot scrounge will become malnourished. If the command makes poor decisions, the facility is put at risk. Aside from confronting the reality of maintaining a functional and safe compound until the "shift ends", randomly selected players will be given random insidious or antagonistic objectives to carry out against the compound or crew at large. You could be randomly given the role of "cook" but additionally you might be given a secret objective to assassinate a particular crew member, and to get away with it. You could ignore your duties as cook and instead steal weapons or disguises in order to kill your target with violence, or you could attempt to poison them when they inevitably come into the mess hall for some food. All manner of deception and death would be available, but the trick would be getting away with it. Alternatively you could be playing as a civilian, and your objective is simply to steal something specific, like "the captains spare ID card" for instance, and of course, to survive until the end of the shift. Even more insidious objectives could be randomly assigned, things like "Destroy the air filtration system and ensure maximum casualties" or "Forcefully convert followers for your mutiny with the neurological compound in your satchel, and eliminate the command staff at any cost". When the round begins players can also be set aside from the main population and put into special entities such as an organized and extremely well equipped strike force sent to raid/destroy the compound, or even mutant beasts inhabiting the external environment whose general objectives are to kill/feed upon the crew. The "shift" can conclude in many different ways. The most striking way would be the death of the entire staff, but alternatively the compound could send an emergency radio signal for evacuation, and the arrival (or departure) of some large APC could trigger the end of the round and a tabulation of the scores (who lived, who died, who accomplished what objectives, how many punches were thrown in the bar, etc...) Alternatively the round could or would end if all the antagonists are eliminated. At the beginning of the round, only the randomly selected antagonists know who they are, what they are, and what their objectives are. The non-antagonist staff at large are therefore very suspicious of everything and everyone, and their end goal will be to survive and optionally to thwart whatever antagonists inevitably emerge. The PvE aspect of these games involve things like staying healthy, fed, and alive, but they are also things like environment exploration/navigation, actual knowledge based mechanics like medical procedures or generator maintenance, and more. The PvP aspect of this game sometimes will come to outright combat, but mostly it's going to be about simply trying to cooperate, follow the chain of command, and get whatever task they've been assigned done. Command staff will have to contend with managing and delegating their subordinates, and for organizing any kind of formal response to anything that might go wrong. Subordinates will be subject to the wrath of their superiors usually in the form of sending a security team to subdue and arrest them, usually with great pleasure, and sentencing them to a stint in the prison wing. Antagonists will need to consider how best to carry out their objectives either to ensure success or to ensure that they do it covertly. A finger print system could be implemented (and more forensics mechanics) to allow a detective member of the security team to carry out physical investigations and gather actual evidence. If a courtroom was available players could organize impromptu trials followed by impromptu executions if they are convinced they have found some sort of traitor. I could keep going in describing how this kind of game could be played in this particular setting, but keep in mind that many kinds of settings could be easily used. I don't know of any 3D simulation games which currently are structured like this, but I do know a host of 2D games which do, chief among them "Space Station 13" (if you're looking for a comparison). Anyway, that's my dream mod!

With the recent success of the new renderer, my frames are simply out of control. The devs should add a frame rate cap option in video config options. At times i'm getting over 100 frames, and while this is pretty damn epic and smooth, when FPS fluctuation occurs it can cause hiccups. By limiting our frames, our CPUs and GPUs would see some valuable resource savings when it comes to optimizing graphics settings. Furthermore, I have recently begun trying to optimize my twitch stream for DayZ and it would be really beneficial if I could limit the number of frames my computer tries to draw rather than using vsync and fullscreen or hardware frame-rate caps to try and limit them superficially.

What's not serious about a onesie? This is something that could exist underneath all other forms of clothing and provide an extra layer of thermal insulation for cold environments. This could also be a precursor to a wet-suit (i.e: how to not freez to death in water). People who live in cold environments take onesies VERY seriously. ;) Just because you will happen to see some random man-child rampaging about the coast in his flanel jammy-jams every now and then isn't THAT bad of a thing.

This is obviously a bad decision, but god damn, I would analyse the living shit out of that photo if we could get our hands on it. >:D As DayZ development slowly but steadily trudges on toward these upcoming landmarks, we seem to all be more ravenous than ever for any scrap of info we can get!

Regarding the 3pp/1pp debate, I also used to argue for 1pp only, but as it turns out there's really no issue with allowing servers to choose between forcing 1pp and enabling 3pp. There are plenty of like minded players who play on 1pp only servers, and these are the servers I tend to join.

Heh, that's so tantalizing!!!! I do completely understand why it's not possible for even the designers themselves to say what the actual in-game products will be (they themselves don't yet know what' they're going to be able to pull off code-wise), So here's hoping that they have nothing but luck and success!!

You might have missed the devs talking about this, but they have done so a few times. Right now "sprint" or "stamina" is unlimited, but when the new "player controller" (term for programming code related to character control) is complete they are going to add a bunch of mechanics that will accomplish what you're after. Stamina is going to be limited instead of unlimited, so if you try sprinting for too long your character will slow down and enter a very strong "winded" state. Stamina levels will probably be affected by nourishment and hydration levels so that well fed players will be able to sprint longer. The weight system is going to make it so that the more weight you are carrying, the slower you will move and sprinting will cost you even more stamina points. All this, and more, has already been confirmed!!!

I remember reading this, and after re-reading it I'm more pumped than ever! For any who missed it, here is the relevant text from the april 26 report: " Dev Update/Peter I would like to talk about base building in this issue of Status Report a bit as it didn't get much attention in SRs from me yet, thus the community was naturally left with many questions which needs to be answered. It's known that we are using base building as a common name for a broad set of activities that leads to creation of your very own base of your operations made from different facilities which can provide you or your team shelter, storage, food, water, fortification, outlook or even an electricity grid. Alongside pitching the stock tents which can be found or improvised ones made by crafting when needed and other features like barrels, fireplaces and such it's the sturdy made structures which turns a basic campsite into a base, may it be the barriers to secure perimeter of a base or watchtower to get better overview of surroundings. Structures are again divided into premade and crafted ones. Ready to go mesh containers which may be found at military bases are an easy and fast way to form desired barriers as they can be transported to site, placed and filled with soil and eventually empty them to reorganize the barrier or to take them to a different location. On the other hand you can made your own walls, sheds or watchtowers with proper tools, materials and a bit of dedication. Because I'm not a huge fan of premade whole objects when it comes to building mechanics in sandbox games I wanted to allow as much options as possible within the scope of our game to allow players to create varied results. Construction of non-portable structures starts with placing of their basic elements so as to form their foundation. Characters can interact with this foundation to extend it into a desired state. Walls have split lower and upper halves and it's up to you whether to mount wooden planks or metal sheets with connecting materials like nails to fill them or optionally leave one or both halves without any filling. To gather wooden planks or metal sheets you will have to look for pallets which will be spawned as a dynamic event similar as helicopters or police cars although with admittedly higher chances. After you run out of material for filling, don't worry that your construction urge will be halted as there is the possibility of crafting planks from chopped trees at several sawmills across Chernarus. However, it needs to be said that metal sheets give your walls more protection then wooden planks. I admit that plain walls could be quite bland after some time so you will be able to enhance them with some goodies like camo netting for added camouflage or light chains when you wish to achieve complete opposite, may it be a trading post, a trap or just to add some atmosphere in a harsh world. Tents can be also equipped with both of them. Anyway, there are more things to do to improve the functionality of any given wall. Improvised hinges turns a wall into a gate broad enough that even a V3S can pass through, or the addition of barbwire fence helps protect close proximity of the wall itself as, don't forget it, even a wall can be disassembled with proper tools like a crowbar. To step even further, barbwire can be plugged into an electricity grid maintained by a power generator turning it effectively into an electric fence so you will think twice before taking it down with pliers. I'm excited to see how players will use this feature to build all the variations of bases to mark their presence in the persistent environment of Chernarus. It must be said that even if we have working prototypes and final implementation in process of construction of non-portable structures and precise object placement (yes, it was postponed), it will not see public release until the arrival of the new character, which consist from new animation system, new rewritten scripts in Enforce, new controller, new damage system, new controls and other supportive components. Unleash your inner survivalist architect... see you in Chernarus folks! - Peter Nespesny/ Lead Designer" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A main concern posed by the OP of this thread is how easy it might be to raid bases. Given the modularity of base-building components, if someone makes a big enough base for a helicopter to land in then that's their own damn fault isn't it? It would be easy to erect obstacles, roofing, and even have a helipad which has it's own lockable door to prevent easy entry. Electricity is really starting to seem like it's going to be epic. Do you have any idea exactly how much control over electricity grids we are going to get? I did a small bit of research and it seems like a large enough base would require many generators linked together and to have some sort of power network controller/management device. Something like a "programmable logic controller" which could be programmed to turn generators on and off, manage the flows of electricity to certain parts of the electrical network (i.e turn the fridges off cause there's nothing inside them, or, send a signal over a specific radio signal to activate/deactivate the electrification of external defenses). If we can create larger grids and have good control over them then that would be supremely beneficial to the variability of what players can do with their base creations.

TBH I'm not sure if the devs are going to have the time for vehicle fortification for quite a long while, maybe even after 1.0. Maybe the modding community can swoop in though once beta comes out!

You're right that DayZ players will vote with their feet, and the servers offering the most desirable features and balances, like aircraft spawn numbers, will garner the most amount of traffic. What you're not realizing is that regardless of what vehicles and what weapons actually get added into the game, there is always going to be a subset of servers which caters to your exact sensibilities. Don't like choppers? Fear not, tons of people (30% of the player-base roughly) seem to not want aircraft of any kind, so in addition to a crap ton of servers jacking spawn numbers, there will be a bunch of servers (although admittedly not as many) which turn off aircraft altogether. Don't like military crap? Fear not, most of the player base does not want to see full blown militarization. The devs have said they aren't building military attack vehicles like tanks and armed choppers so really you should not be worried about over-,militarization. Even if militarization was a major concern, there will still be servers which turn these things off to cater directly to the 30% of players who vocally desire it. The most armored vehicle we are getting is an unarmored humvee. Having played extensively in a Chernarus where "there's only 1 chopper", I can very confidently tell you that unless you despise the existence of choppers altogether, 1 chopper is not enough choppers cause you'll likely never touch it (Oh but you will see it alright!). The precise number of helis that servers ought to spawn depends on their exact average population levels (higher pop, needs more choppas), and because server populations constantly fluctuate, it is pretty much guarenteed that there are always either too few or too many choppers on any given server at any given time. In order to play it safe, the devs are going to have the default spawn numbers be very low, so that there will always be either not enough (2 choppers on a filled sever) or just the right amount. This is seen by many to be superior (immersion and meta-game wise) to having choppers be too easy to get, and I tend to agree, as do many other players, but only for a time. When players get it into their heads that they want to fly, for whatever reason, in a chopper scarce environment, they realize that they might be spending several months on a fruitless endeavor. At this point they can either turn off DayZ and turn on an actual flight simulator (IL-2 Sturmovic FTFW), or they can join a heli-splosion server. Really the problem won't affect you much. Vanilla players wanting reasonable access to some sort of flight are going to be forced to migrate or petition their communities to make changes. Until that happens, the particular aching in my old DayZ bones is absolute sign that when aircraft do hit, you won't have to try hard to not find one. The fact that "herp-derp-fixed vehicle spawning numbers" give rise to this inherent stability problem of [aircraft numbers/server pop] combined with the reasonable and safe approach to have aircraft numbers on the limited side rather than the plentiful side means that the incoming implementations of Vanilla already will be catering directly to people who dislike the idea of aircraft. This is the "just a dash" approach. I will probably sound like some passionate wind-bag for saying this, but I feel that the Vanilla should at least try to cater to the desires of the majority when it comes to implementations of those features which are integral to how the game can be played. Too many aircraft creates negative cycles of interaction and is a destructive force, but not enough and an arbitrary limitation is placed on how players can choose to play the game. More choice; more diversity. More diversity; more interesting interactions. More diverse interactions; more entertainment. Remember that just because players flock to servers which inflate their aircraft numbers above the default doesn't mean that the game will be ruined for people who hate aircraft or even that they will have to compete for space on the few purist vanilla servers. Servers that are popular will see more servers like them get created to harvest the excess population, whether they are "aircraft off" servers or "free chopper day" servers. The scope of this issue is that around half or maybe even more than half of the player base are very quickly going to be playing on servers which use settings other than the default vanilla settings, which draws into question the efficacy of the default vanilla settings themselves. The balance/stability issues that are inherent in a static heli number environment whose demographics constantly change (who is on and how many are on) is the cause, and so any remedy to this setback would be fairly desirable for about half or maybe more than half of the player base. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I see that you did some googling on the Little Bird :D <3 +1 Thumbs up!!!! You're right that the little bird has a long ass flight range, and also requires a heck of a lot of fuel. did you know that it runs on aviation fuel!?!?!?! LIKE WTF!!!! It's Kerosene based but it's not quite kerosine. I don't know how to make the stuff but I'm sure they only store it around airports. In addition to that the devs are doing their best to make the most in-depth maintenance setup possible, which in my opinion is totally awesome and can only be a good thing toward reducing the problem this post describes. Look at the labels of these recently released DayZ assets closely ;) https://trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/55a549a222bb191211fb70bc/1097x819/8a7b55d58e26efe88064cd4f216a4e5f/air_oil1.jpg I totally agree with you that owning and operating a little bird is going to be an extreme chore; a task fit for ten of DayZ's finest men. But let me introduce you to an aircraft that was in the mod which might change your mind about utility and feasibility: DAS AUTO-GYRO!!! (It gyrates automatically!!!!!) Auto-gyros, this kind , can be built literally from scratch (in the real world) if metal and machining tools are available, and people have been building them in their garages for over 50 years. They run on very common and small single engines which function on diesel, not aviation fuel, and they don't really require much fuel overall either. They are able to taxi or be pushed along the ground with a very thin profile, meaning they can be stored/hidden just about anywhere. (the above video shows the gyro taxi'ing through a skinny forested path.) They can take off in extremely short distances, and also land in extremely short distances. They can glide silently for a very very long time, and are considered one of the safest kinds of aircraft because of it's ability to land, un-powered, with ease. They cannot travel at break-neck speeds (relative) to the Little Bird (100kmph compared to 270kmph) and they cannot climb very fast (3 meters per second compared with 10 meters per second), and they tend to not be able to carry a second passenger. On the mod, when I was in possession of an auto-gyro I felt like I was in complete control. I could perch it on a different mountain each night, or push it into a random forest, or inside a building. Do you not feel like having an auto-gyro (or a mozzie, or a fixed wing ultralight plane) would be advantageous?

On the question of the OP : What of aircraft for base-finding? In the DayZ mod aircraft prevalence plus shitty rendering did make it so that a single individual could fly around the map looking for remote bases to raid. The rendering was such that tents were quite visible pretty much no-matter where you hid them. The bases themselves were not generally securable and so when people stashed crap in a tent, we all knew it was only a matter of time before it was found and looted. Even without aircraft players are random search engines which over time will naturally comb the entire map; every nook and cranny. Regardless of where you build a base, eventually it's going to get found, but helicopters greatly reduce the average length of time that your base will remain hidden for. So that is the gist of the problem as it existed in DayZ original, what will be different in the standalone? Well, firstly there's a good chance that the way trees render will be evaluated and greatly improved, making visibility in forests from above quite low. Secondly, the barricading system is set to be such that a great number of players are going to barricade existing buildings from the inside which would not necessarily be obvious to someone on the outside or flying above. Thirdly, the barricading system itself is set to be such that even if your base gets found, we are going to be able to make it somewhat secure by erecting physical barricades, possibly metal doors, traps such as mines, and more... Fourthly, there is already a mechanic for burying your loot on the way (think buried pirate booty) so even when your base gets broken into, you are going to be able to keep a shit ton of your most valuable loot safely hidden under the ground in loot stashes you keep nearby. Fifthly, maintaining helicopters (regardless of their spawning numbers) is going to be pretty difficult, and so doing high risk low altitude grid searches of the entire map is much more likely to result in a damaged aircraft which will be much more difficult to repair. Overall the cost/risk/reward ratio of aerial base-raiding is going to be much closer to 1:1 than it was in the mod. In a sentence: The increased difficulty of repairing/fueling/maintaining aircraft, combined with increased difficulty of finding bases, combined with the increased difficulty and risk of breaking into bases (i.e, lethal traps), combined with the increased difficulty to actually find loot that people want to hide (i.e, buried chests) creates a confluence of factors that is going to drastically impact the feasibility of getting rich from raids by flying a helicopter around at 4AM when nobody else is on. Just how much harder it will be to get returns out of operating a helicopter (in terms of just base raiding), it's not really possible to yet say.

Seeing a plane land on-top of a hill is not a common sight from the DayZ mod, but even if you saw it, your immersion should be left unscathed because hill landing and takeoff techniques come from the real world of piloting!!!! :D Some people will recall the existence of a very small island off the south coast which had sheer (very rocky) cliffs and a light house on it. I used to land my autogyro on that bad boy for fun every chance i got, and then challenge my friends to try and do the same only to watch them bounce off the island and ricochet into the ocean. Gosh those were good times... Even more good times are gonna come once we finally have aircraft in game. No auto-hover is gonna result in a hilarious amount of crashing/salty knaves. I can't wait!!!!

Not that I'm trying to derail this thread as technically the OP only asked a narrow question, but for now rather than making a new and overlapping thread, and because of the title of this thread which suggests broad discussion, here is the condensed analysis of what people want: Out of 71 respondents: 66% of voters want the little-bird and a plane equivalent (4-6 capacity) (47 out of 71 voters wanted this) 57% of voters want constructable ultralights (1-2 capacity) 55% of voters want ultralight helicopters (1-2 capacity) 51% of voters want to be able to shoot their guns from aircraft doors 47% of voters want ultralight planes (1-2 capacity) 35% of voters want full blown militarized helis with 50cal and m134 guns 32% of voters want large civilian helicopters (very high passenger capacity) 24% of voters want large civilian planes (very high passenger capacity) 14% of voters want full blown militarized planes with halo jumping and door/rear guns here is the thread containing the poll It should be noted that the way this poll is set up there are certain margins of error. The way these numbers are best interpreted is "at least this % of the player base wants X" due to the fact that some people only selected one option, such as "I want full blown military aircraft", without realizing that they should have also clicked every other option which they desire to see in the game, which deflates the values but establishes a minimum threshold.

So I have a couple ideas for some "minigame" events, but they all involve a modicum of stability. To seamlessly implement them you would require one massively powerful clan to run security and setup, if admins can facilitate this then that would work. Idea #1 The Race track: At some place like NEAF tents, barrels, torches, fires, tires, (whatever works) can be used to outline a race track. Vehicles can be provided or players must bring their own, and races can be held for various prizes and the benefit of spectators. Idea #2 Marksmanship contest: Similarily requiring security of some sort, a social event can be held with sniping contests, pistol contests, and bow/arrow contests for various prizes and the benefit of spectators. Idea #3 Stanford Island Prison Experiment Players wishing to participate come to an appropriate location, are blindfolded/head-bagged, stripped naked, and brought to the prison island (maybe they need to get there on their own). Once in captivity they are sorted into one of two groups, guards and prisoners, and are placed in cells/given appropriate clothes and placed in guard rooms with thew appropriate equipment and uniforms. The guards are directed to run an efficient prison. Their pension plan (their reward) will be reduced for expenses incurred to the prison, which includes loss of prisoner or guard life. The prisoners are not offered any award or given any direction beyond : you are a prisoner.

I used to do the silent fly by thing on the mod, except the only thing we could throw at them were grenades XD

A VTOL plane is absolutely out of the question hehe (in the devs eyes and in the eyes of the majority of forum poll respondents) :D. There's not really any feasibly maintainable VTOL planes in existence. The osprey (v22 IIRC) in the DayZ mod was fun as fuck to fly, don't get me wrong, but it was never "at home" on Chernarus and severely altered how the game was played at the top tier group levels. It enabled me to take off from my base in the far north, be on the southern coast picking up clan members within 2 minutes, back at the northern base within another 2 minutes (startup time, takeoff time, flight time, landing time included) gearing up, and so it was that I could re-deliver an assault squad to any location in roughly 6 minutes after they got completely wiped. The good news is that mods will certainly come out to expand available aircraft, so we are still going to be able to slake our sky-lust when necessary. I understand why VTOL is attractive though; you can land in more places and planes in general are fun to fly. But on the DayZ mod I actually relished the fact that hardly anybody was a competent pilot. It set the few dedicated to learning apart from the rest. People often forget but the original DayZ engine was a flight simulator, and as such it has a host of precision mechanics which attempt to simulate the real physics of actual flight. Even the basic shit like understanding flaps, ailerons, trim, and when to properly use them pretty much requires you either be taught first hand by someone who already knows, or that you spend time on google researching what is essentially real world piloting information. Once you get a grasp of actual basic flight mechanics (proper use of flaps for example), then you can begin doing perhaps even more extensive research into the specifications of the particular aircraft you want to master in game. With planes, minimum airspeed differences (the speed required to keep you aloft/not stalling) between flap positions are 100% crucial to proper landing and take-offs. Most pilots don't exactly understand that when your flaps are in the full or down position that your wings generate more lift, and therefore can support flight at lower air-speeds, but that additionally they create more drag, which makes it more difficult to gain/maintain speed. If you understand your exact minimum airspeed required for lift, then you can take-off with 100% efficiency by accelerating on the ground with flaps in the up or in-line position (to reduce drag during acceleration) and then as soon as the minimum full-flaps airspeed required for lift is reached, you can throw flaps into the down position and your plane can instantly and steadily begin gaining altitude. Each plane as a different minimum airspeed for the various flap positions, and the landing procedure involves a similar technique of attaining the correct minimum airspeed while lowering altitude before throttling down for a landing. Additionally different planes can have drastically different and unique features from one another. The CAMEL plane for instance (featured on the overpoch mod) has a back wheel that creates drag when trying to take-off by dragging on the ground. The result is that people seem to think it takes a full/full blown runway to get one airborne. In the real world, and in the game, the technique for countering this drag is, un-intuitively, to push your nose down during acceleration to lift up the ass end of the plane and bring it level (suspending the back wheel in the air), which allows acceleration at much greater rates. With the AN-2 cargo plane, my very favorite plane, I was to the point skill wise that basically there was nowhere I would not land except for dense forests. The an2 plane has massive wings and can tolerate very slow airspeeds and so it only took an extremely (unrealistically so) short distance to get one airborne and to come to a halt. The biggest trick which opens up practically every nook and cranny of Chernarus to plane take-offs and landings, once the above basics are all mastered, is the strategic use of hills for acceleration and deceleration. In order to land in an extremely small distance, or even at the top of a steep hill, you can fly towards an incline/hill and begin to climb it, feet from the ground, while throttling down, and gravity will pull your plane to a stop, but not before you turn and re-orient your plane so that it can take-off again reliably. If you are skilled and really know your angles and airspeeds, you can fly up steep grassy hills and come to a stop at the exact apex. To take off, you simply start throttling up and head down the hill, accelerated by gravity, which results in an extremely short distance required to achieve lift. This stuff might seem sophisticated when we think about aircraft in the game of DayZ, but in the real world of piloting this is entry level stuff. My experiences of researching flight mechanics online and applying them in DayZ was the most enjoyable and rewarding experience DayZ ever provided to me. I do want to see variety in aircraft though. Since scaling up would just be a replay of the venom/blackhawk dayz past (it was a bad scene man), and since DayZ is going for grit rather than military polish, what I would love to see are ultralights, specifically, my most favorite of all aircraft, autogyros (but also ultralight fixed wing planes and mozzies). Autogyros are really funny looking things that in the DayZ mods not many people knew how to fly, but it was actually simultaneously the most realistically maintainable aircraft in the game and had VTOL-like takeoff and landing abilities (extremely short distances), and could actually function as a glider and perform totally silent landings from a fully un-powered state. People always preferred the mozzie because it had actual VTOL and the ability to hover, but with skill the autogyro was almost as versatile in being able to perform landings. Being able to glide completely silently for many kilometers before silently landing at your hidden base was just too potent, in addition to being able to do silent fly-overs for scouting (the autogyro is small, so the odds of spotting one are purely down to chance when you are unable to hear it). Mozzies require aviation fuel as well, but auto-gyros work on diesel. Mozzies require perfectly fabricated parts to not fall apart/cause crashes, while auto-gyros have been constructed by aircraft hobbyists in garages for well over 50 years. The minimalist nature of autogyros is perfect for Chernarus. They can be taxi'd on the ground (or pushed) and can perform take-offs even inside sparse forests. Certainly variety cannot be a bad thing if we offer it on the low end of the "OPness" spectrum rather than the high end as was the case in the DayZ mod (a little bird was one of the crappiest helicotpers (less crappy than only the mozzie) but in DayZ vanilla I reckon it should be the best). Aside from the mozzie and the littlebird, I don't know what other helicopters players could possibly need. Toward this point, a year or more ago I made a thread with an in-depth poll asking people what kinds of aircraft they would like to see. I'll do an updated meta-analysis of it and post here with some simplified results!

GOGO TATANKO! <3

On the DayZ mod, aircraft were my thing, and as a result I have a pretty clear idea of how choppers in DayZ SA will impact gameplay... (and planes... everybody discounts the trusty plane) At first, there are going to be 2-4 aircraft per map. One plane and one chopper, maybe two of each if the devs so choose... Initially, aircraft will be so rare that seeing or hearing one in the sky will fill you with a sense of excitement. It was this way in the early days of the mod. They will quickly become owned and operated by only the largest and most powerful group(s) that exist on any given server, except for when they exist in the hands of random survivors, for short periods of time, when they get stolen/destroyed/respawned from the large groups who will monopolize them. When only a couple aircraft exist, actually owning, maintaining, and defending them becomes an extraordinarily laborious affair simply because the entire server is basically willing to sacrifice their lives for an outside chance to steal your helicopter from you (in many cases they aren't worth the effort of keeping them). If people see one, they follow it; if they find where you land it's only a matter of time before they destroy or steal it. When aircraft are extremely limited (2-4 only per map) they become the most valuable objects in the game due to their rarity and unique utility, and for this reason, 90% of all players simply will not give up on hunting for them after they exhaust the other gameplay focuses that DayZ offers. Paradoxically the rarity driven value of aircraft on a server where only two exist is so high that protecting them exceeds and interferes with their functional utility value; you're better off not wasting effort in trying to find or keep one and just use them opportunistically if you happen to find one. Given that aircraft themselves in this scenario become so incredibly valuable, flying them around and landing in random bases becomes far too risky, even landing in your own base has the risk of attracting players. The way helicopters will initially be used, as they were on the mod, will be mostly for picking up friends across Chernarus, especially fresh spawns, for transporting items over long distances, and scouting. I am extremely confident that the above assessment is precisely how aircraft will play out initially; their impact on game-play actually winds up being negligible because your odds of seeing one, interacting with one, or being exploited by one are very very slim due to their rarity and how greedily they will be hoarded. Which brings be to the next reality that played out on the mod which will absolutely play out on Vanilla SA too: you will be scrolling down the vanilla server list, when suddenly, "1000+ VEHICLE SERVER / TONS OF AIRCRAFT / CLAN PVP JOIN OR DIE!!!!!!!!!" Since aircraft were so highly prized, and since it sometimes took 3 months of playing the game to organically get your hands on one, essentially people got tired of not having a reliable means to enter "the end game" (aircraft ownership, at the time...) and so favored joining servers which severely cranked up the number of vehicle spawns. These servers became the most popular servers until the DayZ mod "mods" themselves arrived and brought with them supplementary forms of vehicle acquisition such as makeshift vehicle construction (bicycles and mozzies, etc...) and automated safe-zone NPC vendors (not that I want them). The real problem with cranking up the number of vehicle spawns is that it makes them very easy to acquire which cheapens their value and goes on to impact the game-play experience in multiple negative ways: It becomes to easy to project power at low levels with easy vehicle access, and they become cheap/disposable due to the fact that more will always spawn and they will be easy to find. Kamikaze'ing becomes attractive in this vehicle laden environment. So it was, so it is said, and so it shall be... The best solution to this, IMO, and the one I predict the modding community will provide upon beta, is to have some form of constructable vehicle system. It sounds like too much, but the alternative is to either have vehicles (especially aircraft) be too easy to get or not reliably getable whatsoever due to rarity. Constructable vehicles such as bicycles, go-kart like creations, ultralight planes and "mozzie" helicopters, could be difficult to create without requiring the extreme luck factor needed to stumble upon them if they are ultra-rare. It trades a hard upper limit on number of aircraft per server (defined by how many spawn in traditionally) for a soft upper limit determined by how much time people are available on a server, and are willing, to invest in the extensive resource requirements for vehicle construction. It might require many weeks worth of hard work for a lone survivor to gather, stash, and work the required materials into an actual working vehicle, but at least at the end of the weeks of work the chances of success become much higher (approaching 100% if you play carefully enough and don't get robbed during the process). Additionally makeshift vehicles are inherently weak things. Ko-karts can go fast and could tow a wagon if they have a good engine (relatively) but they have passenger and weight limitations. Ultralight aircraft would be good for transporting the pilot, scouting, and carrying compact and very light cargo, like blood bags, and that's about it. Makeshift vehicles don't make traditional vehicles obsolete, they just supplement vehicle access and lower level vehicle utility. Again, they sound like a bit much, but in reality what we're about to see is "a bit much" in the form of extreme aircraft rarity (i.e, spend three months trying to get an aircraft before just giving up) followed by "a bit more" in the form of extreme aircraft prevalence when every server and it's grandmother server jacks the spawn rates, until finally (or when) the beta gets released, at which point the entire community becomesa keenly aware of the "how many aircraft should each server spawn" dilemma and then it will be left either for the devs to address it (likely no because content wise it might prove to be too much extra work) or the modding community itself to address it, which it will, for better or for worse. My hope is that some great mod gets released which uses constructable vehicles to address the issues that are inherent in hard upper limits on vehicle numbers and then gets scooped up, refined, and incorporated into the release of 1.0. Vanilla is going to have all the same problems of the original DayZ mod if we don't learn from it's history. And to those who fear the imminent onset of full blown aircraft-syndrome, don't. DayZ players will in the end gravitate toward whichever kinds of servers do the best job, and so whatever becomes popular will be the best available version. Aircraft won't be the end of the end of the DayZ world, even if that means servers just disabling aircraft altogether. Not everyone was there in DayZ olden times, but many of us were, and those who were remember that in the end it was not super rare aircraft that was popular, nor super prevalent aircraft. Those were just pit stops on the way to new forms of the original DayZ mod which incorporated supplemental vehicle access in as many forms as the hard working modders could manage. The new mechanic of having to repair vehicles using an intricate and hard to satisfy system allows DayZ SA in it's current vanilla state to jack up the number of vehicle spawns without making it as easy to actually get vehicles as it was in the original DayZ mod, but the hard upper limit can still become an issue for high pop servers. The comments of SMoss (bless him <3) in this thread are in line with my predictions for the first stage of aircraft in DayZ... Mark my words!!!

This might sound like a silly suggestion but hear it out: Speakers!!!!!!!! Since there is going to be a rather sophisticated radio network, having as many means of output as possible will only further increase the modularity and diversity of utility of said radio network. I can think of some interesting possible uses for such a system: Base P.A/Alarm systems (amounts to a potent organizational tool for groups and their bases) Zombie lures (which has endless utility in a zed infested apocalypse) Player lures (whether an honest way to find others or simply a trap) Multiple speaker configurations so to where the more speakers you have the farther the sound travels Sound warfare to drive your enemies insane and maybe block the ease of their communication Capturing people and forcing to play "SAW" like games of survival. We know there is going to be electricity, and that it will be glorious, and we know there is going to be more sophisticated in game sound control options (like the incoming megaphone for instance), and we also know that we're getting a totally awesome sound engine from the good folks working on the Arma series. All the ingredients seem to be here for such a system to be implemented. Can you think of any other cool or useful ways to employ speakers?

I never take more than I need, partly out of sympathy and partly because I might come back for more later on. I think ruining a base for the sake of ruining it is bad form.

The obvious answer is popular servers. Ones that are hard to get into at times because so many people want to get on it. You could look for popular servers which promote role play and restrict killing on sight (usually to specific zones) so that when people see you they might want to introduce themselves. Which brings me to the final point. Take your time. Travel very stealthily. Constantly look around and be sure to move toward efficient vantage points. If somebody sees you before you see them, your chances of knowing they're there significantly drop. Be the first one to see them and not the other way around.

I've noticed fluctuations around areas with lots of loot spawns (generally big cities but also the flat spread out villages with enough structures). I'm betting this is some sort of persistence driven clutter issue that has yet to be tweaked properly. The fps fluctuations I'm experiencing are worsened by the fact that I've started toying with streaming, but even still on average I get much better fps than the old renderer used to provide. It could also be a slow and steady buildup of tents and such. But as ever it will be an ongoing uphill battle with slow steady gains and sudden losses as new content is added; a veritable Sisyphean task.

I'm not geared for DXtory, not really that educated about it but I'm willing to look into it. My main thing is that I like to use windowed mode and hardware frame rate caps and vsync doesn't actually limit frames when in windowed mode. Plus I suspect that frame limiting within the actual enfusion renderer itself probably is going to be a heck of a lot more efficient resource wise that limiting them after the fact.

Actually, 1km is not nearly enough of max altitude. Aircraft engines can often be heard for long distances, especially where there is little other noise pollution. The first main reason to go very high is to be practically undetectable to people on the ground by sight or by sound. Secondly, the sky is not always a friendly place. Having many options of altitude to choose from means you can avoid running into other aircraft whose occupants might want to shoot at you. At least 4km is required for this to be feasible IMO (experience coming from extensive use of aircraft of all kinds from the mod). That said, the skybox is basically unlimited, as is the debug zone and the ocean surrounding chernarus. You can basically just keep going out into it... For this reason the skybox in DayZ was actually always the defacto maximum altitude your aircraft could achieve.