Katana67

M4 is more modular, thus making it easy to implement/demonstrate the attachment system. AK's are more modular now, but are still limited (see fixed iron sights on older and more widespread variants). Either way, as I've said many times, Chernarus is a fictional country, with fictional circumstances placed upon it (zombie apocalypse), operating in a fictional universe/canon (which features the presence of Western military organizations and/or fictional weapon circulation circumstances). Western weapons will be present and/or relatively commonplace in Chernarus. That's not to say that more pervasive Russian/Soviet-bloc weapons will not be the norm as well, but creative license provides for a measure of weapon diversity.

Timers do not fix the problem, it merely makes it longer. I can still swap a pile of loot, it just takes me 5 minutes while I go make myself a sandwich. I can still spawn inside a player structure through swapping, it just takes me ten minutes while I wait for the occupying player(s) to log out. Tangibly relocating the player and/or adding risk to server swapping is what needs to happen. I'd much rather have the characters locked to the server, but that is problematic for several reasons.

I think the best compromise is to just allow folks to switch servers, but have them reset position to the coast every time they do. It makes server swapping an action with risk/consequence whilst not marginalizing people who enjoy the flexibility/convenience of being able to swap servers (which may not be active/updated/etc.)

They'd have to fix/complete zombies in the first place to make it reasonable for zombies to be triggered by opening noisy doors. That said, the range should be relatively short, as it would probably discourage people from looting certain structures/cars at all if they always made too much noise. Or with the more complex approach of having the player be able to throttle how fast he/she opens doors. Which would probably be very cumbersome given the current control scheme. But, from the player to player perspective, I wholeheartedly agree. Even from an immersion point of view, it's sort of silly to just press a button and have a silent door open/close.

I wasn't referring to Rocket's implementation of the logout timer, I'm aware that it's designed to deter combat logging. But many others use it as a one-size-fits-all solution to server hopping.

Don't like this solution. It still allows for easy loot farming if one can just select a different server (regardless of the server previous) every time. 1. Lock the characters down to the server. No more persistent characters. This is my personal favorite, as I feel it undermines many other mechanics (the entire loot system, construction, storage, vehicles, etc.) 2. Whenever you server swap, you respawn at the coast. With some of your gear missing or all of it remaining persistent, but your stats (kills, humanity, whatever) stay put. 3. Whenever you swap, you respawn at the coast. You have none of your gear but your stats are the same. 4. Log-out timer. I hate this solution. It's a caveman solution that doesn't actually fix the problem, it just makes it a longer process. The first three in my opinion, are the best. 2 and 3 remove the immediate tactical advantage of being able to server hop to gain the advantage in a firefight. Also, it removes the problem of being able to server hop to get inside player structures. Similarly, 3 removes the problem of loot farming outright while 2 makes it incredibly risky and/or tedious.

I think you raise a few good points. I'd like to see faster zombies still be commonplace, but have them do more damage per hit and be less of a laser-guided missile. Like it or not, having zombies as a blanket ambient system really shortchanges what they could be. They need to put in some form of AI to the zombies, which would differentiate the experience, rather than having them (as you say) be the same every time. I've spoken about this before, but I'd like to see them have a system akin to the police in GTA. If they get triggered by a noise, they investigate the general area. If the player has moved from their LOS, they will enter a "loiter" mode and actively search around for the player. If they do not find the player, they return to their inactive state. If a zombie detects someone via LOS, they'd rush the player so long as LOS is maintained. If LOS is broken, they'd search the place the player was seen last and the above cycle is repeated. As of now, the zombies have unfettered access to your EXACT location at all times. Which is silly and more provided for by the rudimentary zombie mechanic than anything. I don't like slow zombies at all, I'd rather them just behave in such a way that they can be evaded by a clever player rather than making them easy to evade by slowing them down. That and if they do that, it would justify them upping the damage of zombie hits.

Certain weapons are designed for certain things. Mosin-Nagant rifles are not designed to be easily moved around indoors. SBRs, SMGs, and pistols are. So why should a Mosin user have the same indoor mobility as someone with a weapon designed for CQC and not for long-range engagements as the Mosin is? That lack of discrepancy is what detracts from the game for me. Until that sort of "real-life movement" is simulated (which seems highly unlikely given the inflexibility of the engine), this is the in-game precedent we have to work with. Removing it outright detracts from the significance of each individual weapon. Adding more pros and cons to weapons makes all of the sense in the world to me, rather than having them all be the same in this regard. And, as others have said, said "real-life movement" could be simulated (rather crudely, but sufficiently) with the current system of pressing the space bar to lower ones weapon. Whereas this requirement would be lessened/unnecessary with shorter weapons to justify their advantage in CQC.

Nobody's forcing you to do anything. You can still use long weapons indoors, they'll just be more cumbersome. Whereas if one uses a weapon designed for CQC, it will function as such. He's not assuming that in the real world people only hold their weapons horizontally. He's dealing with the in-game paradigm of our characters having a fixed "weapon ready" stance. Either way, as he's articulated, negotiating a CQ situation is far more cumbersome using a Mosin than a weapon explicitly designed for CQC. Such a differential isn't accurately represented in-game. Assigning appropriate levels of usefulness to weapons makes all of the sense in the world to me. Until "vertical positioning" is simulated (which would require a massive effort in animation, rendering the optics/irons, and overall development), as you say, we will have to deal with the current (and previous) system of weapon lengths dictating collision.

I have yet to see the rain in SA, though I haven't actually been playing as much as I'd like. But yes, hopefully, they'll be able to add more weather types (wind, thunderstorms, snow, etc.) I don't foresee this being something that's a high priority. But if they could do anything approaching The Division in terms of dynamic snow shaders, I'd drool. I'd love to see more gradual weather effects. Light rain/snow, followed by casual rain/snow showers, followed by heavy drizzle/snowfall, followed by a deluge/blizzard. I feel that, as with the day/night cycle, there are not any real transitions. Yesterday I was playing, and it was dusk for all of one minute before descending into almost complete darkness. It was quite jarring.

Again, the people crying "It's OP" and "I don't want bush wookiees everywhere" are a bit off-point here. If it's made suitably prohibitive to wear (i.e. limiting your choice of pack, vest, melee weapon, and/or overall carrying capacity) as well as prohibitive to craft/loot (i.e. rare ghillie webbing suit). Then I'm all for it. Making it semi-craftable is another layer of variation in that the user could apply (ostensibly different colors of burlap) to the ghillie suit in order to better suit the background environment. Likewise, this could allow for a bit of "player skill/knowhow" if one inadvertently makes a bad pattern on their ghillie.

To be honest, this was the only reason why I felt they (anti-materiel rifles) weren't appropriate in the mod. You didn't have to sacrifice anything (as you would in real-life) to use them. No maintenance, rarity of repair parts, sacrificing of space over other things, etc. Running around with an M107 was the same as running around with an M4A1 in terms of how much you were hindered by your choice of weapon. Which was a bad way to do it. If it's made sufficiently difficult to operate/maintain/modify/arm, then I'm all for anti-materiel weapons being included.

Yeah, that's the first thing I did in SA. It looked great, but unfinished for sure as Rocket has stated. I do miss the "Wilderness" though. Hopefully the map isn't at its limits yet and they can add some frontier/forested/sparsely populated areas.

I think there should be some variable magnification scopes, but the majority (of the already rare optic category) should be fixed magnification. It's a pretty big advantage to have that kind of capability for your sniper rifle, and said capability has to be justified by an appropriate level of rarity. Sniper rifles, contrary to what BF and CoD assert, have really no place inside of 100m. They are long-range tools and must be treated as such. Not only for "realism"/"authenticity", but for weighing out the significant advantages of using a sniper rifle at range.

Most things are subjective. And yes, they can dictate what is plausible, it's their product to mold. It doesn't mean that their decisions will always be well reasoned, but I haven't seen anything that is unreasonable in the Alpha. And yes, providing a backstory (i.e. an explanation) for something to make it believable/reasonable is plausible, definition of. I'm not ruling anything out. But I think we'll have to agree to disagree, as this discussion isn't really going anywhere.

It doesn't happen on steep inclines only though. It happens on very slight inclines as well, which is what's irritating. That and you're either sprinting or walking around taking in the sights. There's no middle-ground "jogging" or anything of the sort. Until they implement a "stamina" system or a "thirst/hunger depletes faster if you sprint constantly" type of mechanic, the player needs to be able to negotiate hills.

I don't care if they're gone. Matt said they weren't interested in putting in anti-materiel rifles in at E3. I never used them and rarely got killed by them, I never felt them overpowered but won't miss them in the slightest. If they do, they should be significantly inhibited as to justify their use (i.e. hyper-rare, hyper-difficult to maintain/repair, rare ammo, rare optics, etc.) Sniper rifles are included already, see the Mosin. The Mosin as depicted in SA is actually an amalgam of the purpose-built sniper rifle variant and the regular old 91/30, see the turned down bolt-handle. There's what, five weapons now? We'll see more... I'd like to see more battle rifles and/or DMRs.

Yep, it's been discussed before but could use a bit more of it. I'm preparing a write-up for construction whenever they have a SA suggestion forum. Using the existing houses in DayZ seems a far more suitable solution than trying to shoehorn in instanced bunkers and/or crazy HESCO bastion bases. Rocket mentioned storage in the last stream I believe, so that'll probably be a good starting point.

Yes, and NATO forces are not unfamiliar with aftermarket weapon attachments/modifications. I'd direct you to the inclusion of FORECON and other SOF as features in ARMA II's Chernarus and Takistan. In-fact, aftermarket weapon modifications are ubiquitous in a modern fighting force. The USMC (which is in the canon of Chernarus) included. They use 30 round PMAGs. Anything else is just hyper-nitpicking. I could explain the inclusion of 10-20 round magazines (i.e. for SPR/SAM-R type weapons), but it doesn't matter. Not to mention the civilian contingency, in that cloned PMAGs are widely available in Europe. The subject was the unusual amount of Western weapons in SA insofar as the setting is concerned. The OP mentions nothing of aftermarket parts. The OP mentions Russia as a qualifier for why it's unreasonable to have NATO weaponry, which Chernarus is not. That is what I was originally taking issue with. You cannot apply "Russia" or "post-Soviet" as qualifiers to dismiss the presence of NATO weaponry in a work of fiction. Never mind how plausible it is in the fiction itself. I never discouraged you from making your opinion clear. However, I will justify whatever I feel has been problematized unnecessarily. And again, I never said anything was "realistic" or "authentic". I was saying, again, that by virtue of it being fiction it does not matter. They (the developers) get to dictate what is plausible, and that plausibility is demonstrated in the canon of Chernarus. PERSONAL OPINION - I feel that Russian weapons (and the "Eastern Europe" settings) are by far over-represented in recent survival-apocalypse video games. I have no idea why people fetishize them so much. I like AK's, SKS's, and Mosin's too, but I don't want them to be the only things represented in this game or even in the majority. I want even distribution of weapons and variety, which can be explained adequately in the fictional canon.

Gradually acquired proficiency, not skills. One can always apply a bandage. But doing it properly is only garnered through experience and practice. Unless there's some sort of "input" based system rather than just "click X and the character runs through a preset animation", acquired skills could accomplish what you're talking about. That and fixing the characters to the servers, rather than having them be persistent.

You missed the "fiction" qualifier, in my assessment of it being plausible. In the sense that, by virtue of it being fiction (and the developers having creative license), it is plausible to have western weapons in Chernarus. I was demonstrating the futility in applying real-world circumstance to a work of fiction. That and the backstory itself makes it plausible, that's what you're missing in your reliance on real-world circumstance. I don't feel the need to justify every item but when one such as yourself, feels the need to problematize every item, it sort of begs for justification. Regardless, NATO and Soviet-bloc weapons will be included. I'll be having my cake and eating it too enjoying my AR-15's and AK's without a drop of immersion lost.

Yeah, not much else needs to be said. DayZ mod has a "Suggestions" forum, which could be combined or added separately with a "Feedback" forum for the Standalone. Would be helpful in sorting out individual stories/accounts/rants from the more reasoned suggestions/feedback necessary for the Alpha. General Discussion forum ain't really cutting it.

It's about finding that balance between "difficult and rewarding" and "tedious and irritating", because it can be a fine line. The devs have always been pretty good about this, with a few exceptions (the availability of loot in the mod). That and the discourse on making the game difficult but not tedious is an active one, being discussed with the food/drink frequency. I think the rarity of food/drink is good, but the eating/drinking system is a bit tedious and annoying.

The devs have said they'd work on it. Not sure if they have yet, but they said they were trying to make the FPS view look better (as opposed to ARMA's which was limited by the skeleton IIRC). It is irritating, but probably fairly low on the list right now. We'll get there.

Debatable. Most AK rail systems are confined to the handguard, the one's that aren't hop over the irons. Similarly, the irons are built-in rather than being detachable on the M4A1.