mariuslv@gmail.com

Well, apparently there are several of you who are interested in teaming up. I've sent all of you PMs with my Skype username. I'm not looking to set myself up as the leader of some sort of clan here, for that I have neither the time nor the inclination, so feel free to communicate and make arrangements amongst yourself as well. The way I see it, we have quite a few people here who'd like to team up, and there's no need for everything to go through me. If you make arrangements to play with someone, feel free to inform the other participants in this thread so that they can join in if they wish. To make matters simple, though, I propose the following plan to start with: - I will try to get online tomorrow (Wed. 4/7) at around 12 noon and stay on for several hours. How long I stay on depends entirely on how much fun I end up having. I'll probably be playing on Norway 1. - I'll keep Skype open for anyone who would like to get in touch. -I realize those of you who have "normal" jobs probably won't have time to play in the middle of the day on a Wednesday, so we'll just keep this casual: I play with whoever shows up, those of you who can't make it will hopefully make it some other time. As long as we stay in touch, there will be plenty of other opportunities. I figure we can use this thread as well as Skype to arrange further sessions. What do you think? Anyone up for joining me tomorrow? EDIT: I would advice against posting Steam and Skype usernames in public posts. Use private messages for exchanging personal information. EDIT 2: Removed a line saying that some here are "a tad young". It was unneccessary, came off as somewhat condescending and seem to have given at least one person the wrong impression. I certainly didn't want to offend anyone and I'm fully aware that even teenagers can be mature despite their youth.

A few words about me: I'm a casual player, by wich I mean I have a full-time job and various other real-life obligations as well as other interests, but I'm still able to set aside time for prolonged DayZ sessions. I have a well developed, if somewhat quirky, sense of humor, but that doesn't prevent me from taking the game seriously when I play. I do not have a military background, nor am I a weapon fetishist. I do have a fairly decent head for strategy and like to play the game in a careful and deliberate way. In-game I play the role of a survivor. I do not kill other survivors unless I have good reason to think they are a direct threat (and, unlike some players, I do not claim that everyone I can spot through the scope of my rifle is a threat). I essentially play a "good guy", the sort of guy who would like to help even a stranger in need. Of course, I mostly do the smart thing and just stay away from other players. I'd prefer to play with people more or less my age, though the important thing here is a certain maturity of mind rather than chronological age. I don't care what nationality you are, though your physical location obviously matters with regards to ping. I'm located in Norway and play mostly on Norwegian or Swedish servers, but I can generally play any European server with very little lag. I speak English, Norwegian and some German. If you read all this and think I'm the sort of guy you'd enjoy occasionally teaming up with, or if you've already got a group that you think I'd make a fitting addition to, let me know. Thanks!

i think it WOULD be cool, but also at odds with the game. To me, the game shouldn't really allow the players to feel like they are in control. That goes beyond survival to me, which is the main focus. Right now, even at end game, you don't usually just walk into town shooting at anything that moves. You sneak in, loot, and get out. Perhaps it would be at odds with the spirit of the game. At any rate, I'm not saying that securing an entire large city ought to be a possibility. What I want is for zombies in DayZ to feel more REAL. To me, the current system of fixed zombie spawn areas pumping out zombies ad infinitum detracts from immersion both because it fails to account for the constant and sudden appearance of zombies and because it leaves you with the impression that killing zeds have almost no impact on the game world - not even in your immediate location and not even for a short time. I believe having zombies be more persistent and allowing them to migrate around the game world would do much to increase immersion.

Abstract: Server-managed migration of many hundred zombies could be feasible if zombies out of visual range of a player are handled as invisible "virtual" zombies with highly simplified pathfinding, no line of sight-calculations etc. Disclaimer: I must make clear that my understanding both of programming in general of the specific challenges of working with the ARMA 2 engine is rudimentary at best. I am likely to be fundamentally mistaken about things. I should also point out that this is NOT an original idea of mine, but is inspired by a similar solution the developers of Project Zomboid came up with to handle large numbers of migrating zombies in their own game. Details: As has been pointed out by many, DayZ would offer a more immersive and believable zombie experience if zombies could migrate freely around the map instead of simply spawning predictably and perpetually in the vicinity of certain buildings. The benefits of free-roaming zombies are many. Some of them are: - By dint of being persistent, zombies would seem more REAL (you know they are where they are because they came from somewhere, not because they recently spawned out of thin air - you also know that if you kill one, another won't simply spawn in its place) - Zeds would not be confined only to certain areas (free-roaming zeds or even entire hordes could theoretically show up anywhere at any time) - Areas of any size could be cleared of and protected from zombies (since they could only migrate into any area from the outside). The obvious problem with having zombies migrate is that it requires them to go about their business even when there are no players nearby. Because of the resource intensive nature of the task of handling zombie pathfinding, line of sight calculations, hearing and other behavior, having the game server manage many hundred zombies simultaneously is unfeasible. This is why zombies are currently spawned and controlled client side. But what if, rather than managing fully featured zombies, the server simply managed hundreds of invisible "virtual" zombies with extremely simplified A.I? These zombies would be blind and have only rudimentary pathfinding and hearing. When a player would come close enough, such a zombie would spawn as a "real" zombie, to be handled by the client as per today. It would again despawn to be replaced by a server-controlled "virtual" zombie when players leave the area. With this hybrid solution, the heavy lifting of calculating advanced zombie behavior would be done by the clients in the same way as now, but the server could still manage and direct map-wide zombie migration. I imagine "virtual" zombies migrating from the north or northwest towards areas with many players in them (large cities, airfields etc.), perhaps taking detours to investigate loud noises such as gunfire and explosions, and also gravitating somewhat towards each other to randomly form clusters or hordes. However, the details of what rules the migration of "virtual" zombies should follow is really for a different discussion. For now, I just wanted to see if the very concept of "virtual" zombies makes sense, and whether what I have outlined is feasible with regards to resource constraints or possible engine limitations. Thanks for reading :) EDIT 1: Removed allcaps subject line (sorry!)