aaronlands

I think in Steam you have to be friends before you can message strangers in a game. Although I think there are ways around this, mass texting to all players in a room is prohibitively difficult AFAIK.

I would say the survival aspects are creeping back in. I don't believe you can eat raw meat without getting sick but raw meat doesn't go rotten. So the game I believe is at a point where it punishes careless players, and rewards cautious playing with respect to the ingestion of foods and liquids. They seem to want to be adding more survival aspects as the livonia open test demo'd thunderstorms and rain as well as bears. Still needs tweaking of course but looks promising. In general? I can't comment much on stability. You said the last time you played was months ago? Well in that case there might not be many perceivable differences with stability but from perspective things seem to be on a general upward trend although occasionally there are instances where there are setbacks.

This nitpicking is a bit much.

what i mean is i dont think there is a specific gas station spawn identity meaning that if you increase the spawn rate of maps perhaps it will increase their spawn rate across the entire world. I could be completely wrong as I have no idea about how this stuff actually works, just a guess.

I think maps should also have a higher chance of spawning at gas stations but I don't think that is its own spawn entity.

I'm going to copy @Tarkules' approach Map: I enjoyed how different the map felt from Chernarus. It certainly did not feel like a reskin. I also appreciate that changes were made to the map form the previous available versions of the map (less water fountains). In a way it is just a totally different experience because the spawn is so chaotic and vicious because there are less resources in the immediate vicinity. So you have to make your way south but not too far south. I think this map will really be cool on longer plays because you can setup in the southern forrest and keep returning to the middle or north towns to resupply. It makes for a fun kind of hermit playstyle should you want to play that way. Obviously, the thunderstorms are great. Had some great moments with friendly strangers where we holed up in an ruined house waiting for the rain to subside while our health returned after a zombie encounter. These moments are really important to cultivate in a game like this because it allows for organic bonding between players, which is truly something DayZ excels at when it happens. And I agree that there are too many items in the ruined houses. I really appreciate how you have improved the loot spawning because items are spawning in more areas which keeps me on my toes. Also I like how there is more bleedover from certain areas (like you will find medical stuff in surrounding buildings). I like that there are some items spawns are road blocks and other areas where you would expect to find something. Issues: I've found most if not all of the bugs I've encountered posted on the feedback tracker. Performance still seems to be the kicker. While the infected are spawning in a different way they seem more pervasive without feeling forced. However, there seems to be serious lag issues as the player count goes up. The sound of wet feet is very strange in my opinion. It always scares the crap out of me because to my ears it sounds like someone throwing a punch. Overall: Very interested to see how much this DLC will cost as that will be one of the determinative factors. There is a relationship between what I will pay and what I expect other people will want to play. The higher the price goes the more I will expect other people to not want to purchase the DLC. Therefore, I will expect that a lower player base will lead to non-adoption of the map and push the value of the dlc further down for myself. It's really hard to value things like this or predict how people will respond. The maps needs to have some more technical stability but ultimately I think it is a great experience and I am truly curious to see how players would hole up and dig into this map. The forrest is a truly terrifying area because you never know what or who is watching. At the same time, it allows you to get the initiative on other unsuspecting players if you play smart.

Okay, I'll bite. I still don't know which precise gun bug you are referring to. Did you mention it earlier in the thread?

Yeah I agree, @drgullen. There are occasional unexplained glitches with the guns that are usually resolved by putting the gun away and taking it out again. Perhaps the most damaging glitch has to do with the 'hold R to reload feature.' For internal magazine guns this system works flawlessly. For external magazine weapons, it appears to be broken when I use it as intended. Say I have an IJ-70 with three full clips but I don't want the clips taking up space in the hot bar. When my inserted clip runs out of ammo I can hold R to switch to one of the full clips. I find however, that the clips that are taken out become glitched and can no longer be accessed by clicking or dragging, rendering them useless. This can be fatal in a combat situation. The workaround is to keep reloading without using the R mechanic. In this case, I just have to adapt to an area of the game that needs work and has likely been acknowledged as a bug. I suppose for me finding workarounds tends to outweigh the deleterious effects of certain glitches or bugs. I do understand that for others such is not the case and that their threshold for glitches is next to zero. In that case, DayZ is probably not going to be a very enjoyable experience because there are still issues with the game in terms of glitches and such that still require work. There are few, if any, games without glitches or defects. The question is of course: what is your limit or threshold? In some cases bugs or glitches become part of the meta of games (e.g. smashbros wavedashing, bunnyhopping in half-life, etc.). In DayZ, because the stakes are often so high (that is, when you die if you are geared you lose everything including your location and have to start from scratch) the effect of glitches are magnified where a glitch that was permissible in another game (where a total loss situation could be rectified through loading a save or some other similar mechanic) becomes impermissible in DayZ. Therefore, the devs are held to higher standard by the community because those experiences where you die by a glitch are, for lack of a better word, traumatic!

I don't like the idea of having npc humans in the game in any way. That includes airdrops. I like that DayZ cultivates a sense that you are the only ones on the island.

I ain't an expert, but I believe online video games primarily use upload as opposed to download. You can do a speedtest through google to see how fast your connection is. but in terms of volume I think video games would be relatively minimal.

what's sprint for you guys? maybe that works. Sorry this is the second time i've posted this tip in the console board. By accident I swear

The real secret to driving on inclines is to hold shift. No joke! It acts as though you are giving full throttle. I had the chance to test this out in the Livonia update although I presume this has been in the game for quite some time.

To be fair, when you referred to him as an elitist you were singling him out and beginning a back a forth.

Chernarus is a beautiful map. I still have to explore Livonia more to develop an opinion. I was recklessly playing the other night and I found that many of my respawns felt like I was going through the same areas over and over again. With Chernarus, every life does feel pretty different. Not hating on the new map but I feel like it especially needs working cars to make it fun whereas Chernarus is somehow still interesting without vehicles.

I believe the devs are on record in July stating that there would not be full parity with features that were in older versions of the game. You will have to look at that particular status report for precise wordage. How I interpreted it: advanced medical systems might not be returning to the game but this does not necessarily preclude fractures from being implemented in the future.

I think the issue is with the indicator. Even when the indicator is full, you actually have a lot more water that you can consume in your reserve. I've found that consuming more water even with full helps to prolong your hydration.

@TAMW I gotta say I like most of your suggestions. I don't think that the dead body timer should be reduced only because I think it adds immersion to the game to come across dead bodies. Agreed on the survival points, it is much too easy to survive. The only issue I have with this suggestion is that it is difficult for me to see how other players who might already find the game difficult would view increased survival difficulty. While it is very easy for me to exclaim 'tough luck' to people who oppose more punishing survival elements I do have to consider that perhaps there is a good reason (from the developer's perspective) for the way it is currently balanced. At the same time, I think it has been shown that players are highly adaptable to game changes which affect the survival mechanics and seem to adjust without much protest. Case and point being the changes to the disease and food poisoning mechanic. While there was an initial growing pain I believe the new meta with respect to water and uncooked food has been adopted by most new players save for those lucky ones just firing up the game for the first time. One of my favourite memorable moments in DayZ actually occurred on the DayZ Underground server. My character was starving to death and only just managed to survive by shooting a deer with one bullet left and eating the carcass raw which gave me some time to find pills to cure my sickness as well. Although I should say, I don't want to portray DayZ Underground as the perfect setup of balance. In fact, I find it a little too barren almost to the point where it seems contrived and actually removes me from the game somehow. Really like your loot progression ideas. Indeed, there should be some uniqueness to towns that provides incentive to travel. This would actually help give the cities and villages different vibes. Could you explain how the blood mechanic worked in .62? Also I believed they just upped the blood regeneration levels after it went to an extreme low just after 1.05 was released. I actually enjoyed the lower regeneration but it was only there for a short period of time. At least it shows that they are still tinkering with fundamental mechanics. Absolutely agreed on the weather points. I think they have hinted that rain will play a big role in Livonia but I do not see why those mechanics would be restricted to the map so I say that there is more to come on that front. Generally I agree with the comments on basebuilding. What do you think about the nighttime. In particular, how do you feel about how the personal player light works and/or is currently implemented? Any ideas for changes with respect to vehicles?

@drgullen I really cannot think of a reason for why there is a hive system. Perhaps its rooted in something technical rather than in game design. The only thing I can think of at this point is that servers seem to get shuffled around at intervals (meaning some servers close). Getting rid of the hive system would mean that such measures would likely result in lost characters. At the same time, I can't see why there wouldn't be some sort of transfer mechanic in the case where a server was closing.

I agree with this position. While I was initially confused as to how the new mechanic would work, sending players back to the coast for server hopping has noticeably affected the amount of players who leave at night. Before the mechanic , servers would empty out at nighttime, now it seems as though the numbers only reduce a little bit. And yes, while there are a select few who will of course enjoy spawning back at the coast, I have only seldom encountered this. At the very least, the pros of deterring server hopping do outweigh the cons of this form of exploitation. The mechanic severely hinders the likelihood that people will randomly spawn back to the coast especially where they are in a group as they will all be scattered. And you are far more likely to succeed up northwest if you have a few players working in tandem so this strategy feeds right into the deterrence posed by the mechanic. Additionally, DayZ is not a game where those with AR are guaranteed victory against other weaponry. Someone blasting an AR on the coast is going to attract both zombies and other players hungry for the equipment. Should a freshie with a shotgun and a few bullets engage a geared player the risk is high but the reward is even higher. All this to say and I hate to admit it, but I think they developed an interesting mechanic to prevent server hopping that really considers the psychology and mechanics of DayZ. Now, the golden question is: would a mechanic that spawns a player within the 2-3 km radius be more effective? The interesting thing about this suggestion is it would, in my opinion, not be able to effectively be exploited as a flanking mechanic as spawning 2-3km away will require 20-30 minutes of running to get back to the combat zone where the situation would have likely changed rendering any advantage from the flank null. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it is not as punishing of a mechanic as the one currently implemented. I don't think this mechanic would deter people from switching to daytime servers because you are going to respawn pretty close by. Like mentioned above, the journey back to inland is very dangerous so the current method really punishes geared players. To me, this disadvantage is fatal to server hopping and creates the desired result of deterrence. I like that servers still stay populated during the nighttime because DayZ at night is a truly terrifying and interesting experience. I like to have to navigate using the north star and I also like that I can potentially get a huge initiative on players who walk around with light sources because they are afraid and/or unable to navigate in the darkness.

Oops didn't realize. It's the sprint bottom bound to the shift up button? Either I'm not even sure if this is true because it's been so long since I've even attempted to drive a car.

I mean the (shift) key.

Is it true that if you hold shift it gives the car more throttle to help with going up hills?

I've played on a few deathmatch servers and it seems that the guns spawn with their attachments but are not loaded. I have no idea how to do this only that part of what your are requesting does seem possible.

Can you tell me where I can find more info on this or can you share why it would bring up more problems? I'm sure others are curious as well.

Care to share your predictions? I'm certainly interested.