FlimFlamm

There have been more than a few content additions but no major game-play content has been added since wolves. Personally I've been lurking and patiently waiting for some kind of aircraft or base-building to be implemented, and if I had to guess I'd say it's still going to be at least a few months before we get them. I do expect Beta on EXP in a month or less though, although it likely will not have aircraft or base-building in it to begin with.

The game is still missing critical components that will place it on par with what the mod achieved. The answer is quite simply that we need long term persistent base building (and in my opinion: aircraft) in order to give players something to do over the long term rather than just run and gun night after night. Modding will be truly great and in the end it could be bigger than we all ever imagined, but the core DayZ player needs persistent base-building in order to bring the game-play up to where the mod was at.

My father has very rudimentary experience with technology. I expect setting up VR for him would have a similar effect to the first time an audience was shown a 3D projection of a train rushing toward them.

Hey, this is probably obvious to you, but you ought to invest in the biggest and highest definition monitor you can get your hands on. My dad has poor eyesight and the only thing that ever excited him was just -bigger screens-.

I want access to aircraft so badly...

Being able to hold one-handed objects in either hand allows the second hand to hold other things, perform other actions, or even be damaged/unusable. Under such a mechanic, two handed objects like picks and rifles could be held in one hand, but in order to be "wielded" would require the use of both hand slots. I realize this is a massive ask from a programming and animation perspective, but the long term benefits to such a system are endless. Right now the way we interact with everything is cumbersome and telepathic. We need to put our gun onto our backs in order to eat an apple, and when we are carrying large objects with both hands, doors and world objects telepathically obey our commands without the need to actually interact with them. If we had a dual hand slot system, players could eat apples while aiming and firing a pistol. In order to interact with world objects they would need to free up one of both hands depending on the nature of the action (example: temporarily "un-wield" your M4 to a one hand carry in order to free the other hand to open a door). Crafting and item combination could primarily entail holding both parts at the same time in order to combine them. Holding two objects which both have some combined utility, like a torch and a one-handed meele weapon, would be easily achievable. Performing certain actions like applying a saline bag to a friend could require holding the saline bag in one hand and the needle end with the other in order to actually apply it. In some ways interacting with objects and the world is made more complex, but general object use and management would become much more pleasurable because you could hold important items (like weapons and lights) in one hand while freely using and manipulating items and world objects with the other hand. Right now taking items in and out of the single hand slot makes you vulnerable and the constant switching back and forth can feel annoying at times, which would be handily remedied if we had a second hand slot to work with. This kind of dual slot mechanic would require the ability to switch between the "active hand slot" so that when a player left clicks the game knows which hand slot to carry out the attack on (note: certain combinations like two pistols or two brass knuckles, or two empty fists could cause an automatic switch between active hand slots when an attack is triggered, so that they can be effectively dual wielded). This also opens the door to arm-specific injuries. If one arm is broken then players would only be able to carry out one-handed actions and use one-handed objects, and possibly be unable to carry objects like barrels which require two hands. If both arms are broken then the player would be unable to do anything at all except transfer items in and out of their inventory and a basic set of world interactions like opening doors. (This might seem cruel, but it's not. If you get your arms shot up in a firefight, then you will pose basically zero threat to your enemy, which means they might not actually execute you on the spot in order to feel safe. You can go convalesce behind a tree somewhere or beg a fellow survivor for some medical attention). The "raised hands" mechanic might need to be modified to apply to individual arms separately, and the main programming hurtle would be re-doing and mirroring a crap ton of one-handed animations, including things like pistol aiming. Switching between hand slots when not simply wielding double handed objects would become a constant and integral part of playing the game. Interacting with the world with two pliable hands is overall much more realistic than the modified gun-rack that is our current "hand slot". Even for a military simulator (which is the bread and butter of ARMA) having two individually simulated arms and hand slots opens the door much more realistic and dynamic in-game possibilities, like individual arm-injury simulation and generally more pleasurable and realistic interaction with objects going in and out of hand slots (as opposed to eating an apple forcing you to put your gun completely away). Again, I do realize that this might be a massive ask from a development perspective, but I think the difference it would make in the long run is beyond measurement. Thoughts?

For me the turning point was when they began to complete and install the engine/renderer, but technically we're still mid turn.... Until I get an aircraft to fly the game won't feel like the DayZ of old (epoch mod style).... Good thing my patience is nearly infinite ;)

What if anything can be done do the northern and western borders of Chernarus? Can Chernarus become an Island? Can it be blended into desert terrain?

As long as we get some aircraft and base-building, I'll have no anxiety!

Please provide video of some kind showing the effects you're referring to. It sounds like you're vastly over-blowing the amount of flickering you are actually getting. We all get some texture flickering, but for the most part the game is quite playable despite it. Turn your objects and textures settings down in DayZ graphics (or turn them up), and look into the texture settings of your graphics card user interface.

One thing that coulod possibly make better darkness really interesting is dynamic star/moonlight such that under trees, in dark houses, and under cloud cover could become more classically pitch black. When and where starlight and moonlight is available, vision comparable to what we have now would be possible. This would have a bonus of making forests scary at night, abandoned dark houses creepy, lights more valuable, and stormy nights overall more terrifying. Cheers!

Don't you worry your little land-locked head about it! You will be 100% free to toil in the mud and zombie muck throughout the endless spiral of drudgery that lay in store for all ye ant-like dirt-dwellers. You will be sorting your sweaty pre-owned zombie-underpants one day when you will hear an engine roaring in the distance. As it approaches you will look up and what you will see will make you realize that the majesty of flight and the angelic like grace of planes and helicopters far out stripes the ingloriousness of your soiled and solitary existence. "Wow, they look like ants from up here." "They are ants.... THEY ARE ANTS!!!!!!!"

I'm so desperately waiting aircraft. I'm hoping if ground vehicle physics and desync gets sorted this go around that there should be no reason for aircraft not to finally make an appearance! P.S has anyone heard anything about aircraft since the plane trello teasers?

Counter-intuitively, I would actually want fresh-spawns to have a shorter re-spawn timer. Here's why: If the re-spawn timer shrinks the longer I'm alive, then once I'm an old player death no longer has a large penalty in terms of re-spawn time. If I spawn in fresh, and then die quickly to campers or the environment, this would be very frustrating. So, once you have stayed alive for over an hour (let's say), then it becomes somewhat more tolerable to inflict a larger re-spawn timer upon them. Death is the great equalizer. I would rather not have longevity of life lessen the cost of death.

You misunderstand. The re-spawn timer would be server specific and would only exist on private hive servers. Brand new players who join a private hive server with an established community and a set death timer will have to suffer the consequences and play public hives while they're dead. This sort of thing isn't for everyone, especially new players, that's true. It's for hardcore players who want a hardcore experience. If I have a clan on such a server, with a base, regular enemies, the whole shebang, and i get killed, it means that I stay dead on that server until the re-spawn timer is up. Because all my friends and stuff would be there, it would force me to play extremely cautiously lest I get killed.

A part of the issue is the perception itself that KoSing is better for survival because it's that perception which motivates people to behave that way, not that actual truth of the matter.

Your heart is in the right place, but there are a bunch of reasons why an artificial penalty for killing other players would be problematic. Reducing the prevalence of KoS to make room for more interesting interactions is really complex if we want to preserve player freedom in choosing what to do. The best way to do it is to give them other options to choose from rather than to penalize the choice to kill. Instead of interacting players would be incentivized to avoid other people at all costs just so they don't need to kill them, and people who kill out of necessity would still suffer as the result of overcoming the very behavior we want to see reduced. When the new medical system is done, getting shot in the arms or legs might actually debilitate you, which means your enemies won't be obligated to deliver a coup de grace in order to remain safe. Weapons like stun batons, tranq guns, tazers, and things like cuffs might also play a role in reducing KoS as an outcome in the future. Incentive to cooperate is probably the biggest thing that will change player habits toward something other than free-for-all-KoSing. Once base-owning groups emerge the landscape of who is out doing what, and where, will change drastically. Aside from having shit to do other than roving KoSing, when pecking orders and relationships between allied and opposing groups a natural order will be carved out of the present chaos. Territorial lines will emerge and conflict/conflict resolution will drive changes in player habits out of necessity. A random fresh spawn joining the server for the first time and traipsing randomly across land belonging to an established group will still likely be executed, but they might show the courtesy of telling you why before hand. It's a noble endeavor, but a sanity/bandit meter with hard penalties is too intrusive into the freedom that DayZ has always set out to offer.

Regarding pistols: The way you currently shoot pistols is with a double handed grip. If single handed pistol shooting was available then the amount of gun-sway and recoil could be increased in order to make it more difficult to fire accurately and consistently with only one arm. "Wielding" a pistol with both hands would result in the current two-handed and more accurate stance. Regarding rifles: With only one hand available, it could be made possible to hold and shoot a two handed gun (hip-shooting style?) but with much greater gunsway, an inability to look down weapon-sights (unless prone?), and massive recoil. --------------------------- It certainly would be a lot of work in order to implement such a system, but if it could be made a part of the default player control in the Enfusion engine then every future mod and game will benefit from it. In order to stay appealing and competitive in a world of improving game-quality, simulation engines need to push traditional boundaries, and I think this is one worth pushing.

This is an interesting idea but it would penalize players arbitrarily for killing other players. Unless the game could tell when someone is just psychotically murdering it would cause too many innocent players trouble. The more you die - the greater your respawn timer - could work though. Might be tricky to balance because if it's too harsh new and bad players will suffer too greatly.

A lot of people seem to really like the light + weapon combo (I mean, who wouldn't?) but think of all the other knock on effects that two hand slots would have... Accessing containers like med-kits and drybags would no longer be a pain in the ass because you could hold the container in one hand while removing and using items with the other, instead of having to flay objects across the open ground like some disorganized cretin. Pistol + free hand might actually be the best combo though, because you can go around performing all kinds of world actions (the one-handed actions) while also being ready to defend yourself. When more complex world interactions get added in, like body dragging/leading restrained players, two individual hand slots naturally simulates trade-offs: Dragging with one arm would be slow, but you could possibly stop dragging and aim a pistol in a moments notice (or even aim and shoot while dragging); using both hands to drag a body makes you vulnerable because your weapon is away but you could drag bodies much faster. Leading restrained players around by grabbing their cuffed hands from behind is a perfect mechanic which would be greatly enhanced by an ability to carry a weapon at the same time. "Grabbing" a cuffed player with one hand and holding a pistol in the other (or a knife) could enable hostage taking (and prisoner manipulation) by allowing you use them as a human shield and shoot over their shoulder, to hold a weapon to their back/head while moving them around as a threat/precaution in some situations, and allowing you to cinematically execute people via throat cut/gun shot. And of course, individual arm injuries could interfere with all of these mechanics, where having one arm working arm means you can only do a slow one arm pull, or lead someone around but with no weapon, are forced to use the ground for container management like a cretin, not be able to wield two handed objects, etc...

Here's a neat way to make players value their life at any given point in time: increased respawn timer 60 seconds is nothing, 2 minutes is nothing, 5 minutes is annoying (even in terrible medical condition, with no gear, and on the fresh-spawn coast, your life becomes slightly more valuable if the wait for a new body is 5 minutes), 10 minutes and you have something worth pausing to consider: "Would I be able to get to a fresh-spawn like health-condition in under 10 minutes?", 20 minutes and we're on to something. If we had to wait 20 minutes to respawn each time we die, not only would death not be worth it in many situations where currently death is easier/quicker, but people would in many cases prefer to continue to play the life they currently have, even though they may be in a piss-poor state, because playing your way out of starvation and sickness/injury is more stimulating than a death timer even though the frustration and anxiety of playing under such pressures feels "bad" (arguably a part of DayZ). A huge chunk of all servers will almost certainly be private hive, and these servers will get to decide for themselves how long the death timer should be. As long as they are popular enough and people want to play there badly enough, they could raise their respawn timers even up to 60 minutes, at which point character value would be pretty much through the roof. People who have clans/bases/gear/revenge plans on a given private hive server will certainly be back despite a lengthy respawn timer On public hive servers I would set a respawn timer of 150 second (two and a half minutes) just because it's annoying but not egregiously so. This would in a way train players to be much more annoyed with death over the long run but would not be too hardcore for the average player. On private hives, I will be looking for a server with a rather large respawn timer, anywhere from 20 minutes to 60 minutes. I want to beg and plead with my captors to spare my life from a place of authentic emotion, and when I take the life of another player I want to actually feel real moral gravity from what I've done. Every time someone dies on such a server, via whatever means, it will be a harsh lesson that gives value directly to staying alive (character value). The more someone dies, the more they get the lesson. Interestingly, this would also eliminate the age old DayZ immersion breaking problem of the dude you just killed showing up a few minutes later for round 2 because he spawned close enough. Long respawn timers would make no sense if you needed to stay logged in and connected to a server for them to countdown (it would waste a server slot and people's time/computer) so timers longer than the standard should use time-stamps to avoid this problem.

I would say that players could be ambidextrous. For example, if I drag and drop an M4 onto my right hand slot then my right hand would hold it by the main trigger grip. Then if I "wield" it with both hands in order to use it, my left hand would grab the front of the gunstock. This would result in a right handed stance (butt stock against right shoulder). If instead the trigger grip is held by the left hand, then everything would be a mirror image. You would simply need to use your left hand as the main or primary gripping hand for objects

It's going to be a year or two before DayZ hits Xbox (or more). They cannot just magically whip up an xbox version, and even if they could the actual game is still unfinished; people would just buy it in order to complain that development isn't complete.

I imagine they do have left and right hand hit-boxes, but it's not like getting shot in either arm makes a difference because splinting will heal both arms simultaneously, and there's no actual debilitation effect that results (besides shaking while aiming?). --------------------- One of the more nuanced mechanics that individual hand slots would enable is to have individually broken/ non-usable arms. In a firefight, let's say I shoot the arm you're using to hold a pistol (with something stronger than a makarov)... Your pistol should (have a good chance to) fall out of your hand and onto the ground, and that arm should become temporarily/somewhat unusable. You can try to pick up the gun with your other arm, but by that time I would like to have shot you in your other arm, and maybe a leg, rendering you a completely null threat. This mechanic would lead to people staying alive instead of being executed in many many firefights simply because once you break someone's arm/arms and their ability to shoot back is either hampered or nullified, the victorious player will therefore not feel as much of a need to kill in order to remain safe. They can then opt to communicate or to apply restraints. This kind of mechanic would only be doable if we have two arms/handslots to work with because arm injuries with only one hand slot would debilitate players too easily and completely. Simulating individual arm damage (and legs too) I think is a necessary part of a health and damage system that doesn't feel like the classic HP-meter shoot-until-dead system that almost every other game with guns is based on. Simulating individual limb health in this way would be a bit of work, but if DayZ wants to simulate survival and world interaction more realistically, this would go a long way toward achieving that.

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say here. Your main point seems to be that because players can have caches of items, their death won't result in the loss of everything, which makes player life meaningless. Oh, but with base-building, death CAN result in the loss of everything... And more... The "revolving door of gear up, hoard gear, go kill and get killed" is ever-present in any game with looting and killing; it currently dominates DayZ SA game-play without any help from base-building whatsoever. If base-building could accelerate game-play trends toward a basic PvP end game, it wouldn't matter because we have arrived there already. Secondly, having a base with stored loot doesn't mean the loot on your body has no value or is meaningless. The time it takes to get back to your base and eventually replenish gear stores makes it almost as irritating to die as it is right now. Thirdly, bases can have loot stores hundreds of times more valuable than the loot a single person can carry. The "life of your base" can therefore become drastically more valuable than an individual life ever could. Getting killed in defense of your base and subsequently losing everything is many degrees more painful than just losing a single corpse worth of loot... I'm guessing that you want players to take their lives more seriously so that they opt to play more cooperatively instead of being greedy KoS'ing dicks. "Soft skills" of various kinds could be great for making the specific life of any given character more valuable, but in the end, boredom will always lead to risk taking, and hence eventual stress relieving chaos... This is where base-building can come in and give people other options, and in doing so change the way people play in more interesting ways than soft or even hard skills ever could... In order to erect, maintain, and defend high value bases, players will be forced into long term cooperation with friends an allies. Raising a base effectively requires logistical organization and planning which represents the first of many new end-games that base-building will allow to emerge. Instead of looking for PvP gear, players will go looking for complete tool sets; farming, food storage, and cooking supplies; electrical equipment like generators, lights and cable; clothing and medicine of all kinds; raw materials for construction and entrenchment; vehicles and vehicle parts for long term use and storage; and every other random knick-knack that can be hoarded. Once the base is built and established, the game of maintaining, defending, and expanding it begins. This will involve PvP, but it will be PvP for purposes connected to the series of objectives that emerge naturally over the course of base ownership. Furthermore, "PvP" is not actually always the best way to maintain, defend, and expand: when two distinct groups, each with their own base, become aware of each-other's existence, PvP ensures the destruction of one or both bases, making it a questionable modus operandi for long term base survival. Killing every random survivor is guaranteed to piss people off, and in the long run that means many people out for revenge who are looking to discover who you are, who your group is, where your bases are, and how to harm them. On private hive servers reputation will be somewhat important in the communities and networks that develop within as players begin to worry about creating too many bitter enemies. Communication is more important when your enemy is more and more formidable and as you stand more and more to lose. Neutrality and territory agreements between two groups with established and known bases means they can co-exist without the cost of defending and reciprocating against attacks from one another. If more substantial cooperation between these groups means they can be more secure/dominant, then hierarchical networks will form between many groups operating bases who vie for position in the pecking order, using whichever strategy Darwin decides is best at the time. In this landscape, the average player isn't aimlessly wandering a zombie wasteland looking for humans to slaughter like some psychopathic jar-head. They're out trying to achieve a wide variety of specific goals that tie in to their specific long term objectives and the steps that they choose to take in order to achieve them. "Out looking for hex barriers" is inherently different than "out looking for M4's/kills". The latter means you go to/stake out military sites, the former means you travel to spots that might hold less or no interest to someone looking for PvP/PvP gear. If a player knows anything about the community of the server they're on, they might know what areas to avoid to not get randomly shot. If they belong to a group then they might enjoy the security of numbers and KoS immunity from other groups they're allied with, and the ability to reliably retaliate when attacked/killed. The "retaliatory raid" is an example what tended to emerge in the base-building mod days of old and makes DayZ much more rewarding to play for longer periods of time. Your base gets attacked, you and your mates take some losses and get pissed, and you go retaliate and scorch the earth with the blood and base of those who attacked you. This is the kind of interesting story that DayZ can produce: Personal for all involved; a painful moral lesson for the loser; sweet revenge for the victor; and a warning/example to all who hear of it. This emergent feature of DayZ is all but guaranteed when players have the ability to lay down firm roots in the form of bases, and it is only one aspect of the many interesting and unpredictable things that happen when DayZ is at it's finest. I have more to say on soft skills and character value overall, but I've run out of time tonight. Cheers!