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side chat/global communications have been planned to be removed for a while now. if you're feeling lonely or bored because it's gone, then rocket has achieved his objective of making you feel emotions. if you don't want to feel lonely or bored, then it's on you to solve this problem. that is what this game was designed for guys, if you were unaware of it before hand i'm sorry this realization is happening now, have a browse through rocket's posts and interviews to find out what else is in store for the game and why, and if you disagree with his philosophy you will likely be better served in other games. "For me, this is art. My intention was to generate real human emotions: high on the list was frustration, being pissed off, and a general distaste for some elements of society and what happens when the shit really goes down." - http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=125&pid=6296#pid6296 "You are the inhabitants of the world. I am the architect. You guys are going to decide how this world plays out. Don't compare this to other games and look for different balancing mechanics. This is an attempt at something different, it is an experiment. There is no balance, other than the balance you will put in. I will put in the features required for you to either destroy this world into mindless PVP, or create something else. Don't look to me for that balance, because I will not give you it. We started this in a particular way, we're going to finish in that way." - http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3693&pid=34112#pid34112 "Are people so used to games shoving rules, tasks, stories down their throats that they can't handle it when something doesn't? Or would you like a world where the players actually get to do this? Not a structured and controlled environment that is "dressed up" as post-apocalyptic?" - http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=588&pid=7100#pid7100

credit to howichrgelazer: Regular Defaults Armor: On 3rd Person: On Auto Aim: Off Tracers: On Nameplates: On Crosshairs: On Death Messages: On Veteran Defaults Armor: On 3rd Person: On Auto Aim: Off Tracers: Off Nameplates: Off Crosshairs: Off Death Messages: On Mercenary Defaults (aka Expert) Armor: Off 3rd Person: Off Auto Aim: Off Tracers: Off Nameplates: Off Crosshairs: Off Death Messages: Off info found here: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=18203

thanks! tried to do the whole situation the justice i felt it deserved... i probably failed though, shit was intense.

this happened earlier on in my day z journeys, probably 10 lives ago or so. i'm a little ways inland, lone wolfing it in some small town. at the time i believe i was cycling between grocery stores on the eastern side of the map trying to get tools before i headed north to pobeda dam to see if that would be a viable location to survive for extended periods. i'm using a winchester primarily, with a makarov as my side arm. i'm well stocked on food and water, but dangerously low on ammo. i believe i had made a bit of noise dispatching some zombies. i'm prone, crawling towards one of those long farm buildings in the hopes of finding precious ammo. there's three or four zombies shambling around me groaning. suddenly i hear a shot, think it was an enfield. my breath stops, my heartbeat picks up, i hear the whizzing noise and impact of a bullet hitting nearby, zombies start moving out of my field of view. i hesitate for half a second, and start to get up, another shot hits nearby, then another and another and i'm booking it straight into farm building in front of me, more zombies aggro. i get inside and a zombie shambles inside. i check a nearby loot pile, nothing useful. i put down the zombie in the building, and make my way out the back, planning to try to flank the cowardly bastard who just failed miserably to end me. i switch to my makarov as i'm out of ammo for my winchester at this point and then i run out the opposite side of the building and up to the hill i was certain he was firing on me from. i search the woods on the hill, there's at least five zombies after me. the shooter is nowhere to be found. i had noticed someone had disconnected between me entering the barn and exiting it... fucker must have disconnected to avoid zeds and retribution. i put down three to four of the zombies on the hill and i'm dry. there's still two on me... i remember a building in a little gully by the road about two minutes run from here. last time i was at it, there was at least two zombies there. it's a long shot, but it's likely my only hope. i decide to stick it out and book it for the building. when i get there, it's impossible for me to not get another zombies attention before i hit the building's interior... inside i find an enfield and ammo. that feeling of joy/triumph/relief was amazing. don't think my heart's pounded quite as hard as it did while i was prone and taking fire near that building though.

pay attention to the visibility and audibility indicators, learn what their levels are when prone/crouched/standing, running and walking. be conscious of their increases based on the surfaces you are walking on. zombie sight is direction and based on the direction their body is facing (could be wrong, but i thought i saw something about this). be patient, be patient, be patient, and plan out your approaches. if you aggro zeds, try to trip them up around corners, break los and be stealthy. use the fact that they slow down in buildings to your advantage. if in the woods, zig-zag up hills to maintain running speed, zombies will move up the hill slowly. you can also run down hills, and they will often fall three feet and die as a result.

will happen, but not a priority yet afaik. see below. http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=844&pid=9468#pid9468

I've been playing for what, 7 weeks now, and in all that time I've only killed one other player and he shot at me first. I'm a total survivor, friendly to those who are friendly and a rapidly moving target to those who aren't. It is *totally* possible to play this as a survivor. And it's not just me, I regularly meet others out in the hills and forest, (and even in the cities when things get desperate for me to go to them) who don't see others as walking loot chests. Sometimes it results in an uncomfortable, paranoid stand off with both of us backing off, and sometimes in a huddle, swapping loot and sharing news of the local area. I love it for this, these encounters are some of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had. In terms of Rocket's desire to have DayZ elicit emotional responses, he's hit the nail bang on the head with these kinds of things. You only need to read some of the stories that get posted here and elsewhere to know just how profound an experience a lot of players are having in the game. You simply don't get those kinds of responses in CoD or WoW or whatever. Sure, I sometimes get shot out of the blue but I reckon I've been killed by zombies more often than players, and that's usually after a process of attrition over days. Personally, I don't see the need for balancing the FPS side of things because I've balanced my own place in it. Which is usually very far from where it happens ;) And the fact that Rocket isn't designing with balance in mind, and instead seeing how the chips fall, is exactly where he's shaking things up. Most games start with a set of features and balances which have never been questioned. They've been with online RPGish games since the dawn of time. Nobody has ever set out to test those assumed truths and seen how a game would work. One thought that occurred to me while I was reading your post and replying to it, is that our experiences in DayZ probably stem from how we approach it. If you approach it like an FPS then it's gonna play that way and it's not going to play as well as a dedicated FPS. Me, I approach like the MMO I've been dying for since forever. Massive open world, deeply immersive, persistent, no abstract progression, no abstract systems, just a simulated world full of zombies and players who are going to do whatever they want. It's even got pushes (needing to eat and drink) as well as pulls (wanting better equipment), which is pretty much unique in the whole of gaming. I dunno, maybe I'm doing it all wrong. A lot of the stuff that's regularly said on these forums just doesn't match my experience in the game at all. to expound upon your characterization of the game, this quote seems relevant: "Let me reiterate a very key point I keep trying to make: You are the inhabitants of the world. I am the architect. You guys are going to decide how this world plays out. Don't compare this to other games and look for different balancing mechanics. This is an attempt at something different, it is an experiment. There is no balance, other than the balance you will put in. I will put in the features required for you to either destroy this world into mindless PVP, or create something else. Don't look to me for that balance, because I will not give you it. We started this in a particular way, we're going to finish in that way. Some of keep looking to me to provide you a structured experience, balanced. That's not what is happening here. I'm not looking at something realistic, that isn't possible. I'm aiming for authenticity to the extent possible, but I'm realistic about what can be achieved there. You guys keep saying I'm trying to encourage this or that with that mechanic, I'm not. I'm trying to model thought processes. The interactions are too complex to breakdown into simple mechanics so I have to focus on situations and thought processes I am trying to put into your head as you play. So I'm not doing this to support/remove PVP." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3693&pid=34112#pid34112 it is (or was) supposed to be about what we make the world into, and that stems from how you approach the game. i think you both have good points though. my ratio of hostile player encounters to friendlies is something like 2:1 right now in 111 hours of play time.

i believe your hunger and thirst do deplete more rapidly when running already.

umm... what? well i guess to respond to this post even though it does not address my question to you in the least... there used to be a "rocket said" thread that compiled a bunch of quotes by him, and if i recall correctly one of those quotes was him saying that he was eventually going to standardize the difficulty across all servers to get rid of the vet, expert, etc variations. my post was specifically addressing your accusation that someone making a free mod in their spare time would be stupid for developing it with an "I make this the way I enjoy it. Nobody is forcing you to play it." mentality and design goal. thanks for calling me a tool though, it adds a lot to any reasoned debate or discussion. and again, read the interviews, it's not being developed as a game so much as an experiment to invoke emotions in players. i dont know anything about rocket but hes wrong if he thinks that and will have to change that way of thinking unless he wants his mod to die choice = good your retard logic = bad i would just like to sincerely thank you for calling me a retard and a tool. you are an upstanding member of this community.

I've read those previously' date=' and just re-read them again for clarification on certain issues. Thanks for the links, no sarcasm for once. :) That being said -- My chief concern with the quotes are... Well... I in no means say this with any ill regard towards Rocket; but I think he's a bit naive in what he's saying there. Or at least, he should update the statements now, in regards to BIS' interest in Dayz, and his subsequent appointment to Dayz as his project (was currently Arma3?). That means this may be, in thought, an experiment and an anti-game (which I don't actually disagree with, btw.), but it is in reality a venture by a video game company, into the viability of making this a commercial project. I stress the commercial part of the deal. If this becomes a commercial project in the future, the course for Dayz could change. And if you're not ready for it, it could change in a dramatic fashion. Because of that, what I am suggesting, and will continue suggest in the near-future, are ideas to help develop that in a more sound and unobtrusive manner for players of all inclinations. I would like to see a friendly and seamless transition from Dayz as a niche mod, to a niche commercially viable project. [/quote'] in the interest of fairness, he very well may have changed his philosophy. i'm slowly trying to recompile a list of quotes and links that was here before the forum rollback. there was a thread titled "rocket said" that had these, and it as well as the above quotes convinced me to buy the game knowing that it would be an exercise in frustration. anyways, as of right now, i am working through all his listed posts and trying to find relevant ones (that aren't about bugs that have been fixed, etc) and have many many more pages to go. it'll probably be a while before i'm done. i just posted these because there's been a lot of talk about if this a game or a simulator, if it's a game it should be fun not hard, etc. this was the initial philosophy that generated the explosion in interest with zero advertising or coverage by the gaming industry. as i said, if i have misrepresented rocket's current design vision and goals, i sincerely apologize, because it is likely to have changed as everything about the mod has expanded.

incoming barrage of rocket quotes with sources: "This kind of activity is not for everyone. It really is more of a social experiment than a game. There is no intention to change that, if you dislike the PVP, then I would recommend playing Dynamic Zombie Sandbox or Celery's excellent Chernaus Apocalypse - there is no point in these being recreated through this mod." "DayZ was designed to be impossibly cruel, dark, and brutal. It was not designed as a game it was more of an experiment, I prefer the term "anti-game" - in other words the mechanics are not designed to be balanced, or offer a way out for different situations. These are things game designers normally take care with." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=588&pid=4431#pid4431 "This system will always allow you to play and experiment what you would do in such a situation. That is going to result in some cruel, horrifically unbalanced situations which will probably result in some players deleting DayZ and never coming back. But in that process they experienced some real human emotions. If you don't like experiencing those kind of real human emotions, I suggest doing something else where you aren't confronted with them. Like watching Grey's Anatomy." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=588&pid=4468#pid4468 "This isn't really a game. Maybe a real game, from a studio, will come from the concept. For me, this is art. My intention was to generate real human emotions: high on the list was frustration, being pissed off, and a general distaste for some elements of society and what happens when the shit really goes down. If you're fed up, frustrated, maybe even angry then I've done my job. I don't want money, fame, power from it. I've achieved precisely the effect I wanted even if you never play the game again, and hopefully made people think about a few things along the way." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=125&pid=6296#pid6296 "My intention is not to run a simulation a Zombie Apocalypse, nor is it to train people to survive such an event. But my intention is to force players to make decisions and that the consequences of those decisions would spark off events that would create rich stories, generating real human emotions. Therefore many very small aspects or frustrations are deliberate decisions by me to force you to make compromises. Some of those are arguably realistic or not realistic - but what really mattered to me was the effect on behavior they make." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=125&pid=6280#pid6280 "Just as an aside, I prefer the term "authentic". It's more relevant to talk about what is authentic, than what is real. Because you end up in this crazy philosophical loop talking about what is real or not when playing a computer game. So perhaps, it might be best to consider replacing "realistic" with "authentic" whenever someone uses the term, because I think - generally speaking - that's what they mean. I.e. "I can't suspend my disbelief on this point because its not authentic enough." Everyone has a different tolerance for varying levels of authenticity." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=672&pid=7367#pid7367 "I hear what everyone is saying, and yes - its cruel and unsporting when you get killed 10 seconds into the game. But that's what this is, it is brutal, it is cruel. This is not fair. Maybe you will hate this game. Maybe you already do. It is an unforgiving environment with no structure. It is up to you to decide what to do next. I would rather let the project die (and maybe it will, I accept that) than take over the role of establishing rules and punishments and structure. Instead I am going to work on the world's framework. It is up to the inhabitants of that world, you guys, to decide what kind of world you want it to be." http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=588&pid=7100#pid7100 so a tl;dr version: not a game, art designed to invoke emotion, emphasis on frustration. not a simulator or simulation, an experience that feels authentic. masochistically brutal, unfair, unforgiving, and unbalanced. these things, to me, are exactly what set this mod apart and make it interesting, and are the aims of this mod as originally stated by him (unless rocket's changed his objectives). rocket if i have misrepresented your current opinions here or angered i sincerely apologize.

make your own objectives and try to complete them. try to raid a town at night, attempt to navigate to a specific town without using out of game maps, try to exterminate as many zombies or players as possible, hook up with new players on the forums and show them the ropes. challenge yourself. make your own stories, it's part of what this mod was developed for.

if you choose to play that way it is on you op, not necessarily the developers. i feel the exact same way as i did with makarov as part of my starting kit, and play pretty much the same (minus my approaches to dealing with zombies while weaponless). i play to try to survive for as long as possible, every life. only exception is that i'm a lot more likely to approach random weaponless people near the start to group up with them. before i avoided anyone i didn't know like the plague. i'm not opposed to starting with a melee weapon though.

i am working on recompiling the "rocket said" thread that was here before the wipe. in regards to your post: "DayZ was designed to be impossibly cruel, dark, and brutal. It was not designed as a game it was more of an experiment, I prefer the term "anti-game" - in other words the mechanics are not designed to be balanced, or offer a way out for different situations. These are things game designers normally take care with." - rocket http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=588&pid=4431#pid4431 if that does not sound like something you want to experience, this mod might not be for you.

please don't rocket. i'm playing this game exactly because it's not a video game, but something difficult and challenging, that invokes emotional response and generates stories and experiences. this mod is something different from common games, and i want it to stay true to what you said you wanted it to be in interviews and forum posts.

unsure if this has been suggested before, but it popped into my head last night. i'm pretty sure we can agree the woods/wilderness are fairly boring and empty for the most part. i've seen suggestions of hostile/dangerous animals in the woods, and the idea is good, but most wild animals will avoid humans. i'm also not aware of what native species are in that area of the world and if there is any dangerous species. anyhow, there's a game called the hunter, that's a free to play hunting simulator that i checked out a while back. so i got thinking... why not implement something similar in day z to help flesh out the wilderness and make hunting a bit more challenging? perhaps add items like deer calls, deer scent, a means of tracking deer, etc. make deer spawn and linger in realistic areas with somewhat realistic behaviors and so on. it might also help this concept, if implemented, to remove some of the domesticated animals near towns, or have the infected prey on them to increase their scarcity or add some more flavor to the world. anyways, the basic idea here is to make hunting more challenging and rewarding, and to make the wilderness a bit more interesting. i myself am not a hunter so if any real hunters here have any suggestions to add that'd be great. i was also thinking about the possibility of adding some useful flora like berries to gather, but it seems to be fall in chernarus so that might not fit too well with the setting. if this has been posted before, i apologize for the redundancy.

before you buy arma 2 for day z, make sure you fully understand where the mod is planned to go and what the initial design concept/goal was. too many new players have been getting upset at updates that implement things that have been discussed in interviews four+ weeks ago. they also misunderstand the concepts behind the mod. having said that, the controls and gameplay are complex and do take some getting used to. you'll likely have to do a fair amount of research/reading, or ask questions. if you do have question feel free to pm me. this thread is also a handy resource for day z stuff (a bit outdated though, there's no more bandit skins): http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=7282

this is definitely true, there's often zeds lingering around in barns which ups the risk factor. it can be remedied if you have empty cans, whiskey bottles, or flares to draw them out though.

yeah you definitely gotta do your research before you purchase games, especially when they're hyped. the best course of action for any people thinking about buying arma 2 solely for day z is to read interviews with rocket imo. it gives you a very good idea of the philosophy behind the mod and its general direction. having said this, you bought arma 2 which is a great game in itself. perhaps you should check it out to try to redeem some of the value you feel cheated out of.

before the patch i'd always head to barns to look for guns, or deer stands, whichever was closer. i preferred barns though because the guns found there tended to have more abundant ammo. i pretty much do the same thing now, and have really only encountered guns in barns/farm buildings so far. haven't made it successfully to any deer stands yet, but only tried once.

allo allo! welcome to the forums and the apocalypse!

don't know if it's changed since last night, but i played on two US servers that had day/night cycle last night. the first one was night, the second one i went to the sun was setting.

I love simulators but you have to admit DayZ can never really be a pure simulator. How can you simulate something (a zombie apocalypse) that has never happened and will never happen? :P I don't think morphine instantly cures broken bones in real life either' date=' so much for the "simulator". You don't have to pick one or the other either. I enjoy Left4Dead2 and Battlefield3, but I also enjoy DayZ and IL-2 Sturmovik. They are just good in different ways. [/quote'] well the "zombie" apocalypse thing isn't too far fetched as rocket has said these are infected living people and consulted with his brother who's some sort of virologist or something in the new zealand government on modelling the infection. plus there's things like rabies already out there. but yeah, morphine curing fractures is pretty unrealistic.