[DGN] Johnny

So, after plugging a few hours into DayZ, I think everyone settles on the degree of cheese they are willing to use in DayZ. Maybe it started with using ventrillo, skype, or teamspeak instead of direction communication, then you learned how to gamma goggle, maybe some combat logging eventually (of the attempt to now adays), moved into gearing on low population servers and switching to high pop for PVP, maybe to get that netting you broke down and started server hopping, slowly fell into purposely ghosting in PVP, or after a few 100 hours moved towards owning a public server and kicking others to build your own personal palace in safety. Then there's the full darkside, the duplicators, transporters, aim bots, and input hackers. Sooner or later, we all decide our level of cheese. Many of these things we've either accepted like third party communication or gamma goggles, have moved to respectable private shards to limit certain other issues, or have just learned to deal with. The question I would like to raise, concerns directly with the Risk vs Reward imbalance between High Population Servers and Low Population Servers and ask the community what they think would solve it or if it's even really worth bothering with. So the general idea is that servers become more safe, the less players that are on. Even with a static increase of zombie spawns or dynamic threats, without player population being taken into account, the threat will always be less when less players are online in a server. This, for public servers, means the most intelligent time to play (and DayZ definitely rewards intelligent choices more often then not) is when players are not online. Which led to me question if this is really in the nature of "balance" or "spirit" of DayZ. So here comes the questions... Is "exploiting" low population servers for gear and switching to high population servers to PVP, a healthy DayZ mechanic? Would the game be improved by helping combat this? If it is an Issue, how would you fix it or help curve the risk vs reward?

Definitely agree on the Jerry can issue. Thankfully the hatchback has great gas mileage, and filling it with a canteen isn't too painful at a pump. I've honestly found the Jerry's more useful for water in remote locations. (Mmm that hint of fuel taste)

Very well said.

Very Cool.

Just out of curiosity, how do you figure?

l definitely agree that it makes sense enough, in regards to the nature of storage, that it's pretty easy to accept as "good enough". I'd love to be able to able to fill it while it's in a vehicle, but understand the protector case cheese gave that idea a bad name. I feel like it's doable, without allowing that exploit, simply by not allowing larger storage to open inside smaller storage. In which case the Barrel would act no different then a Med-Kit or Protector Case does now when placed inside vehicles. They don't generate extra squares of storage, but allow you access to ones otherwise "filled".

IMO, if they did expand Inventory space, it needs to come with a price. Yes the Weapon sizes are pretty aggressive right now, but think of the other things you can put in the hatchback (trunk?) that just, really seems unrealistic for such a tiny vehicle. -You can fit a full sized Oil Barrel plus some in Trunk of that Vehicle, AND then fill it with four passengers. Can't fill the barrel, which seems a little silly since it's a container that retains it's shape more like a protector case instead of a tent. -You can put a double Truck or Bus Wheel in the Trunk of that Vehicle, plus some AND still fit four passengers. So maybe some sort of re-scaling of weapon systems (which I feel was intentionally made large), or some manner to penalize "overloading" vehicles. Like losing gas mileage, increasing tire damage, or taking up passenger seats.

I can dig the extended cooldown periods. Make playing on a server a specific action, not an arbitrary "click and load". Also messed around with the idea of zombie's speed, aggro radius, and damage scaling with the server population. I would imagine the same concept would work with any predator. Raise the bar a little more on low pop servers. Personally, not a big fan of the Clan Server Cheese. Not really sure where IMO, privately owned servers fit in the public hive. Perhaps only connected to each other? Having them connected to general public hosted servers just has that pay-to-win feel.

Animals and Zombies are NPCS, but I understand what you're saying. The version of more classic humanoid NPCs that are "living" most likely wont make an appearance. I think it would be pretty interesting, and IMO, would make classic base building a bit more viable, along with outposts and all that jazz. Having a passive defense force tied to the server, with it's own demands and characteristics sinks more in line with the "humanity" and "realism" themes I often read players complaining about. It's all very unlikely... But still, fun to think about. ^.^

Whether Doors are open or closed is client side, not server side. Which translates to, the door may be closed on your screen, but could be open on the enemies screen. Also if you "lock" doors closed, other players may run into those same doors "locked" open.

Not to mention the Community takes posts like that on "credit", as if it's a bill that will paid with last months and this months debt on the next release. Which is most definitely not how it works. Unless a Team has completed the content, it's at best, a guess to when something will be completed. Even something incredibly simple and 98% done can drag projects past their projection date by multiples if a tiny unforeseen issue clogs up the works. And then comes the "it's vaporware", "this will never get done", and "Alpha is just an excuse" mafia to whine. =/

Every. Damn. Time.

This is the current version of "night-time". ATM you don't need flashlights, headlights, or any sort of light source. A trending cheese is to actually turn your gamma up to get "gamma goggles" which make you see even better then that at night. Keep in mind it's Alpha, and things have a way of drastically changing. I could see why they wouldn't want true night with still tinkering and refining the loot economy, as that could make a seriously questionable experience if sources of light where too difficult to find. That is, if development do in fact, plan to make true night.

Definitely agree on that point. There will always be players that whine about "Alpha isn't an excuse for bugs and imbalance". There will always be players convinced that it's vaporware. I suppose the only real target audience that evidence and interaction caters to, are those wanting to follow along which in turn defend the development process, creating that better community environment. I think the issue is, how much of a pain in the arse it is, to track down all the details we're all kinda stuck playing pin the tail on the donkey. IMO, of course.

I love the hell out of DayZ, I spend a lot of time and effort inside and outside of game helping build an experience that compliments the magic that these developers have created. All that said.. I do wish they marketed this game and it's development a little better. Three separate major areas for news and updates is bad business, IMO. Consolidate the efforts and the required moderation into a single forum or blatantly link the forums together. This not only boosts the perceived activity level of DayZ, but optimizes the moderation and viewing load. Second, do a weekly QNA. Again Star Citizen has done an amazing job with keeping the players informed on the development process. Once you have the basic format, it's incredibly simple to shoot a 20 minute video once a week answering some community questions. You could even go further and create a "subscriber" base, in which donations cover the cost. I know there are plenty of players that would love to see inside sneak peaks and hear from all levels of the development team, even if it's only a few minutes about what they are currently working on. Thirdly, the above two help create transparency. Which is extremely important for PR, which is important to sell more games, which is important to create a better game and reward those have invested so much time and effort in building that game. If you look on Steams reviews for DayZ, the top 100 or so reviews are just terrible. Absolutely terrible. And that's a trend, which boils back to the development model. Still, although I have some doubts in it's marketing, this game continues to have my full support, and I'm just happy to have the experience of watching it develop. ^.^

See? What a perfect video to get absolutely unqualified personnel like us playing with explosives again. Cause you know there is only way to test if it's going to go off....

I wonder how many people are going to die in the name of science because of this video. lol.

Trolling with Grenades in protector cases. Credit goes out to Zim for the find. ^.^

That.. is... hilarious.

I'm on the other side of the fence, I'd love to be able to destroy containers and contents within different containers without having to pack/move/dump for despawn.

When you start to accept in your soul that peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers give a craptastic amount of calories but pumpkin fills your stomach before you're double dark green.

When you turn a light on at night.

Pretty solid post, and I have to agree. If it's going to be anything more than an aesthetic for roleplayers, it has to give a real in-game effect that is valuable. I can understand the desire that bases are not untouchable, especially when players are not online, but there's another side of that fence. What incentive is there for players to invest that time sink, to create that larger footprint to have their stuff found. So far, I've seen and heard no reason why you wouldn't just bury all your crap like you could do with barrels in water, and call it a day. I could see some form of shelter being important, if rain becomes a serious heat consideration, but aside from a roof and maybe varied levels of fire vs flame exposure, I just don't see the value in it.... yet. Maybe it's a development thing, maybe there's some more aces up their sleeves. Time will tell I suppose. ^.^ (I do think dynamic hordes could change the wall/gate consideration. Question is, will we be saturated enough to make that a real concern)

I'd have no issue being able to boobytrap equipment, as long as there was some method to disarm or circumnavigate traps.