Orravan

He's a hypocrite and/or an idiot, maybe even a troll, either way he cannot be reasoned with, and he very clearly don't want to anyway. Don't feed him, just let it go and leave him in his puddle, or it won't stop.

At some point, it's fruitless to try to keep arguing with someone who, very clearly, is either a hypocrite, downright stupid, or both of those at once. Just ignore him, for the sake of this thread and your own sanity. Let's focus on reporting out the problems. And don't go too hard on the devs, I'm as frustrated as many of you (and they probably are themselves), but I'm pretty certain the decision to release wasn't only their own to make -- something that is sadly very common in the game development industry. They managed to save DayZ from development hell and painfully reworked and streamlined a somewhat-working, outdated, clunky mess into something that, while obviously still lacking, they can now properly increment on and polish over the coming year. I wouldn't have minded another delay, but here we are: the game will release with a number of real issues. At this point, there's nothing we can do about it. So let's cut them some slack and see how it goes in the next months, without the pressure of the 1.0 deadline anymore. I'm confident they'll be hard at work to flesh it out.

Except that's absolutely not what he said. What he's actually pointing out is that the current mechanic allows even semi-competent players to stunlock their opponents in such a fashion that, from the first bullet and on, they cannot do anything anymore. Which is, mind you, both entirely unrealistic, and stupidly unenjoyable. Sure, among other things, gun shots applies blunt force, and as such they can make you stagger as your body absorb the kinetic energy carried from the bullet. But spaced shots, with most if not all bullet calibers found ingame, wouldn't and shouldn't make you stagger undefinitely like a one-legged, blindfolded drunkard standing on a guard rail. Yet, they occasionally do exactly this. Most importantly: they don't instantly stop your motion, forcing your character to stand immobile as the stagger animation unfolds. Yet, they systematically do exactly this, and it's the very source of the stunlock, which is both unrealistic and slightly game breaking when it happens. The staggering itself isn't the issue, it's supposed to happen, obviously. Just not this way. So he's absolutely right in pointing it out, as in its current state, the mechanic potentially turns gunfights into a stale turkey shoot fair. The devs themselves have acknowledged this problem.

I totally get what you mean though. On heavily populated servers, it can definitely be a struggle as a freshspawn to find a knife, matches, and enough rags, to be able to make yourself a torch. Not to mention finding a flashlight and a battery. The flare just doesn't last long enough for that. Still, I believe the right answer to this issue would be to play on servers without night time, or giving freshspawns a flashlight to begin with. Dumbing down darkness to be able to see without a lighting device would just make night time as a mechanic become irrelevant once again. It would just turn it into a gameplay nuisance, just as it was in .62 and earlier. Anyway, even if the current mechanic can totally be tweaked into something more balanced, I suggest you try out travelling at night and looting towns with a flashlight or a torch. It's a whole different experience, and you'll realize it's actually entirely playable (and exciting, considering the risks).

Yes, so is it for me. Still not a problem. Use flashlights and torches.

Night time darkness requiring tweaking is absolutely up to debate, but it certainly isn't "literally unplayable". I've had no problem playing at night, finding my way around, and looting towns and military bases alike with flashlights and torches. Yes, it comes with the tradeoff of being immensely visible. That's the point. If you don't need lighting devices to see at night, there's no point playing at night altogether, because people will always go with the safer choice. So use a flashlight or craft yourself a torch with a stick and rags. Turn it off/remove rags when you don't need light (running straight accross fields, being static, etc.) to lower your profile and save battery/rags. And be very wary of zombies. Fighting them alone at night is potentially deadly.