taodude

I experienced a similar thing today. I made it back to my body; just in time, too, since real life was calling. I loot all my stuff from my body, look around, go run to a tree, dive in, and log. After taking care of real life bizness, I log back in, same server. I was right there where I had logged out, but with none of the gear I had looted off my body. I was extremely sadface. Mk48, NVGs, GPS, all gone. Welp, I can't be too bummed, because this is an Alpha and what not, but there you go. Just sharing my experience. And off I go, to start a new life. :^)

I was on this server at the same time with a friend. The friend was able to log out mid-hack. When he logged back in, all the bodies were gone, as well. Oh well. To the coast!

To bring it back on topic, I guess I would say that realism should be kept in the discussion. Realism in terms of authenticity concerning a zombie apocalypse. And, I would argue against changes to the game that, like Rocket said in the video posted above, are only there to encourage or punish a certain style of gameplay. Other than that, no holds barred on game design, IMO. If Rocket wants to make it so the zombies leap like friggin wolf spiders on attack, I'm down. If he buckles to pressure and adds some design feature that makes bandits pop up on everybody's map just because they're bandits and evil, and wah wah, I would lament the horrible turn this mod had taken.

In DayZ, if you have a skill that is relevant, it *will* show in the game. In real life in the Army, I learned how to read topographical maps and move efficiently over varied terrain. In the game, I can look at the terrain around me, look at the map, and know where I am. I don't even use a compass to navigate; my *real life* skills at land nav translate in game so I can just glance at the map and run around, knowing exactly where I am going. There is no effective way to model someone's mechanical expertise, or animal butchering skill, so those skills obviously have to just be in the game, no questions asked. That being said, I am also down for a more "authentic" experience. I don't have fun in DayZ killing other players, blowing things up, or dieing to silly PKing in Cherno when I have no weapon in my hand (and obviously, no loot). However, I ENJOY THE SHIT out of the experience, overall. When you've made a long, serpentine trek across the map, gathering supplies and weapons along the way, and a survivor pops up in the draw ahead of you. Your heart instantly starts beating really hard, and you drop to the prone. "Shit, did he see me?" "Ffffu- he didn't see me... could I trust this guy if I contacted him?" "I could kill him, he has a rifle; maybe he has loot." "He's coming this way!" If you let yourself get into the moment, get into the game, you can have an experience UNPARALLELED in any modern game. It's about emotions, guys. That's why I like DayZ. It was fun to play games that you could meta-game, maybe build an optimal path to gearing up or whatever, but most of them boiled down to smashing your face on the keyboard/controller long enough that you are rewarded with a +2 stat upgrade, or what-have-you. There are some aspects of DayZ that can be improved upon; obviously, right? since it's an Alpha. But, I appreciate this mod for what it is and what it can be, while not trying to make it fit into any convention of modern "gaming." That's because I don't think it should be forced into the same design strategy as a normal game; Rocket himself has said as much. I would love for this to be more sandboxy; disagree if you must, but the more open-ended the world is, the more possibilities that exist within it. All *that* being said, I fear for when this gets turned into a standalone game. The pressures from inside a game development company might crush this project if it gets sucked into any semblance of a normal development cycle. Godspeed, Rocket. TL;DR, stfu and read the whole thing. No tl;dr for you.

I usually Abort>Disconnect to the Lobby if I am going to alt+tab for a few minutes. I have stopped doing that in the past week due to really long load times. But that's not where I'm going with this. Today, I went prone under a tree @038122 (actually, at 03841221). I alt+tabbed for a few minutes to placate the wife ("CHECK YOUR FACEBOOK OR I HATE YOU" "dammit"). I came back five minutes later and I see four zombies walking directly towards me... The closest zombie spawn is near the buildings at 040120. I have seen zombies wander around their spawn point for about 100m, maybe 150m. I was technically 240m from those buildings... and they were walking right for me. They hadn't seen me, or they would have been running at me. Instead, they were walking in my direction, investigating, like they do when you use VON, eat/drink, or throw a can. Heart rate immediately raised, I was easily able to crawl away. Also, as soon as I alt+tabbed back in and used alt to turn in their direction, they slowly, one by one, broke off and started walking back towards the houses. I have not tested it further; real life beckons (have to beat the wife). But, the circumstances around the zombies walking directly towards me, an idle player, and then peeling off and wandering away, leaves me suspicious. Can they "smell" now? Can they hear breathing? Or is there an "idle player" tag that zombies investigate now? Whatever the case, watch yourselves, alt+tabbed brothers and sisters. There is fuckery afoot.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-16-will-bohemia-help-dean-rocket-hall-build-a-standalone-dayz-game-or-not This article, 7 days after the OP's article says Rocket is sure it will become a standalone game, but just doesn't know when it would happen. Rocket said he was unsure if Bohemia would be the company to help him make it, but he would really like to make it with BI. The OP's article doesn't really mention any of the uncertainty and ambiguity that surrounds this idea of a standalone DayZ, instead saying, "It's coming." I'm not refuting the OP, just giving context.

I think there can be less heartache over a subject like this if you stop thinking of DayZ as just a game. Sure, it technically is a game; well, a mod. But, Rocket has said the way he approaches this mod is different compared to the way other developers approach other games. Rocket doesn't want to make a game with any sense of linearity, or have to "balance" things that aren't balanced in real life. He wants to set some rules, mainly physics and zombie AI, and let us have at it. Just like in real life if there were an actual apocalypse, many rules of human civilization would go out the window. It would literally be kill or be killed in most situations, especially over beans and matches, as those would become more precious than money, and would be in finite supply. Yes, there would be people who wouldn't shoot and would try to promote some semblance of the society pre-apocalypse, but they would run the risk of getting killed for their beans, just like anybody else. This is less a game and more a human morals simulator. And I enjoy the sh*t out of it.

The new beta patch, 94103 is up at http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php [94001] New: moonIntensity command The functionality of this command is my question. Will this allow the moon to give more light to the ground? If so, observing the cycles of the moon (full to new and what not), this could add much more realism to the night ground. I am of the opinion that the current night is way too dark. Having had to do land navigation, at night, in the Army in North Carolina, plenty far from civilization, I can personally attest to how even in a pitch black sky, you can still see some stuff. Sure, I ran face first into trees (or in NC, the face height spiderwebs that were everywhere; f*ck those things, still gives me nightmares) and it was reaaalllly tough to make out details, but you could still see. I terrain associated my way through the night more times than I can count. **The point is, if I could do it in real life, with a UTM military topographical map, a red-light, a compass, and the night sky (in various shades of illumination), I should be able to do it in this mod that desires to simulate real-life as accurately as possible. ** Just my two cents. Quick note, I haven't used a compass yet in this game. Terrain association to find your way around is far too easy. Except north of Cherno. I think the map's wrong for that area. :-\ Dammit, reading is fundamental, eh? http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?136406-ARMA-2-OA-beta-build-94103-%281-60-MP-compatible-build-post-1-60-release%29&p=2178545&viewfull=1#post2178545 1 is the maximum value for moonIntensity, but it is not configurable, and according to BI, you can only change the amount of light from the moon by changing the date. Still, it'd be nice to have a realistic amount of visibility at night.