Katana67

Refer to my signature. Torchia has plainly stated that Chernarus builds off of the history of ARMA II. Although I disagree with some of his reasoning behind making the statement (i.e. that lore is irrelevant compared to pragmatism), it nonetheless confirms what I have suspected for some time. Whether it's in the same timeline as ARMA III (thereby, the vanilla Armaverse) is up for debate. Albeit it's a bit academic at this point.

In Soviet Russia, land fictions you! All joking aside, I do understand and sympathize with the desire for more "Russian/Warsaw Pact" stuff. I agree, certain things should be more common as to fit their landscape. But one must recognize a few things... 1. Chernarus is fictional, whatever the developers decide fits into that fiction, is what fits into that fiction. In fairness, up until a few days ago, we had no confirmation of any kind of backstory in Chernarus. All we can discuss, is what we want, how we think it can be/should be implemented, and what it can offer the experience... all of which are subjective considerations beholden to the individual. 2. The real-world Eastern Bloc has a myriad of equipment/weapons/gear. We live in a globalized society, there are very few hard divides anymore. Especially with material goods. 3. The mere inclusion of something doesn't mean it's common, for fuck's sake, I've spent my entire post history combating this fallacy. Why rare items being rare is a threat to people, is beyond me. 4. There is already a robust pure post-Soviet fiction available (Metro and STALKER) for the player. Even then, these examples use fictional/western equipment. 5. Immersion is subjective. My immersion isn't the same as your immersion. Stop using it as an objective term. 6. The advocacy for "Western" equipment should not be confused with a hatred for "Russian/Warsaw Pact" gear. I love all weapons, I want them in-game. 7. Real-world circumstance can never be implicitly used as the sole determinant of what's plausible in fiction. Even Torchia has made this error, with regard to his dismissal of the AK-12. Chernarus is fictional, fiction makes plausible what is not in the real-world, by definition.

And yeah, this further villainizes sniping. I don't snipe all that much, but I don't feel a need to look down on folks who do. There's nothing wrong with it. And the fact that people focus on it, only tells me that they're only scratching the surface of what they find fault with. Do I think it should be more difficult? Maybe. Do I think it should be less common by virtue of loot rarity/weapon maintenance? Sure. Do I want more consequences/impediments to killing folks? Absolutely. Sniping is designed to be annoying, it's designed to be unfair. That's what it is. Somehow reading a character analysis into people that snipe is wholly irrelevant. And it is an activity that can be done without a ghillie suit. Having a ghillie suit in-game, whatever form it takes (be it a looted item like in the mod, or a puzzle-like crafted item), isn't going to change the landscape of sniping. It certainly didn't in the mod. Making folks a bit harder to see isn't going to have much affect, as it's already exponentially more difficult to spot folks in ARMA/DayZ than any other game I've ever played. There's nothing about sniping, in a video game, that screams "pussy" to me. Even if there was, again, reading a character analysis into an action is a silly distraction. I am not looking for a fair fight, ever, in DayZ. Or any game for that matter. I want to win/survive, if sniping helps me do that, then that's what I do. If it doesn't, then I do something else. I mean, it's not the 18th century, folks aren't lining up in fields to have at each other. Or slapping each other with leather gloves in a gentleman's duel. Sniping is unfair, pure and simple that's what it is. Moreover, I actually view sniping as another great way to work tension into the experience. In my two years of playing DayZ, mods and all, I can only cite one example of my having been definitively killed by a ".50 cal pussy." I really am skeptical of folks who claim the practice was widespread throughout Chernarus. Because in my experience (as one who rarely ventures into deathmatch cities) it just wasn't the case.

People have poisonous ideas about ghillie suits, and what they'll supposedly allow players to do... as if players couldn't snipe from 800m already or remain stealthy without it. Point being, all the "arguments" used against the ghillie suit... are already facets which are in the game regardless of it being included (i.e. long-range sniping, camouflage, military loot, etc.) No idea if it's shaped by hatred garnered by other games (I suppose it might be). But jesus, it's a freakin' wearable bush, why is this so threatening to your experience?

Well, I mean theoretically, anyone can download a hack. Or look through a wall in-game, or clip into a building. I certainly get what you're saying, for sure. But I'm just not sure it's as worth it getting caught up in "legitimate/illegitimate" as it is just discussing why X is beneficial/detrimental to gameplay. Anyhow, I'm sure there's something in the TOS dealing with it regardless.

For one, (as others seem to have said) I don't think I've ever been in... or seen... a sustained firefight in DayZ where hundreds and hundreds of rounds are being shelled out by just one man. So I'm not sure how significant it'd be on a day-to-day level without making the threshold artificially low. Second, I'd really only like to see this on weapons which are designed for sustained fire (like GPMGs and LMGs). Of course, barrels overheating is a problem on all weapons, but I feel that for gameplay's sake it might just be necessary to have it be a feature of GPMGs, LMGs, and HMGs once/if they're implemented. However, I do appreciate the approach which values "maintenance" of firearms in-general. And it has to, eventually, become a process more involved than - loot cleaning kit, click "use", weapon repaired. I am timid about suggesting a full-on minigame for cleaning your weapon, but I feel it's one of those manual processes which is actually deserving of a minigame. Likewise, I'm not sure as to how they can implement malfunctions (and therefore, clearing malfunctions) without getting too much into the "luck" realm. As it stands now, weapon condition (I don't think I've looted a weapon in not-pristine condition ever) would have to be assigned more frequently, and it would have to be significant in some regard.

Sure, but it's still debatable as to whether it's beneficial to gameplay. There are many things that aren't explicitly "exploits" which I believe are detriments (i.e. TS, sidechat/globalchat, etc.) And your use of legitimate is subjective, what defines legitimate in this case? One can make the argument (I'm not) that looking through walls is legitimate, as it's able to be done by everyone as well.

I'd imagine they'll be able to implement a solution once they've ripped out the renderer. ARMA III pretty much has solved it already. It doesn't make darker areas brighter in any regard. http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/139346-remove-gamma-and-brightness-settings/ Never mind that just tweaking the nights as to not be as black as this forum's background, would work wonders, so that people wouldn't NEED gamma tweaks just to play at night.

1. Grab some food and drink 2. Don't bother with any of the coastal cities 3. Bolt straight for Stary/Kabanino/NWAF/Vybor/Pustoshka/Zelenogorsk 4. ???? 5. Become the lord of your land Sort of a bummer.

Draw distance doesn't have much to do with the server, mostly to do with the client. There are solutions out there folks. Solutions that don't have hardcore downsides to performance.

I mean, why would having a whole team dedicated to making zombies better tell you that they WON'T be a factor eventually? They're clearly taking the aforementioned lack-of-threat seriously with regard to zombies. They've done everything short of building a billboard in Times Square saying "WE'RE IMPROVING THE ZOMBIES." And what does it matter what's occurred up until now? The game's in Alpha, it's not like they intend on having shitty zombies. This is the issue I have with early-access stuff. People (including myself at times) don't treat them like an Alpha. Have you invented time travel without telling us? Shame on you.

Yep, as others have said, plenty of Warsaw Pact stuff inbound. No word on the Makarov, or the CZ 550. But I suspect both, or analogs of both, will be included eventually.

We don't know what zombies are to DayZ, other than central to the genre it's situated in, because we haven't had anywhere near a final product. It's misleading, as DayZ (as a concept) has existed for two years. So we think we know what zombies are to DayZ's gameplay, but we don't. We can't. They aren't even close to finished. Saying the zombies are insignificant, before they're anywhere near completed, is remiss. I hate to use the tired "it's Alpha," but this is an instance in which it is directly relevant.

Right, but that's not what DayZ is. So perhaps this isn't the best place to put something like this, as zombies are central to DayZ. Regardless of one considering them less "immersive."

Well, what does it matter if it's in an MMO or not? All tropes in apocalyptic fiction are just that, tropes... hackneyed... overdone... unoriginal. Because the idea of the apocalypse has been around since man could write. Doesn't make them bad or gimmicky. I've yet to see a zombie survival MMO done well yet. DayZ certainly isn't there yet. H1Z1 will try. WarZ was a failure. Exanimus folded back in 2008. Rust is exactly where DayZ is. The Forest isn't exactly "post-apocalyptic." So if you're concerned about DayZ's supposed lack of uniqueness, being a zombie survival MMO, then I would consider the idea that we haven't really had one of these games done right. Honest to god, there hasn't been a full-on successful, complete, and well-done zombie apocalypse pseudo-MMO (using MMO on DayZ is a bit fanciful at best). If anything, DayZ is indeed a novel innovation. And either way, it's sort of a futile (albeit interesting) effort pondering about what DayZ "could have been." DayZ was always intended to include zombies. I mean, that's just what it is.

Agreed, ideally, I'd like to have the frantic-ness of 28 Days Later with the sort of... ebb and flow reflection... of I Am Legend. At least with the zombies. Not sure I'd want the hard dynamic of I Am Legend, meaning a day/night divide. But I think there should be some discrepancy there. Regardless of the vitriol, I think treating the outbreak in Chernarus in a "realistic" and "authentic" manner is essential, that's why I believe we need lore (and in-game aesthetics) to back it up. Oddly enough, my favorite part of zombie fiction is that initial phase, where nobody knows anything. That mystery, even if it only lasted for a few brief minutes in zombie movies, always intrigued me more than the blood n' guts or even the survival aspects of the genre.

No offense gibonez, but one thing that I've noticed in our discussions, is that you're good at making an argument... but tend to be a bit inflammatory with your OP's. You can just say "Here's a neat thread on Reddit, interesting thought exercise on post-apocalyptic X, perhaps this could be applied to DayZ". But instead you chose to insert vitriol surrounding the "gimmick" of zombies. While I appreciate the sentiment, it is just inflammatory as presented in the OP. There's nothing fresh about an apocalypse without zombies, it's a tale as old as time.

It's all one nacho.

There's also an interesting bit on the mid-range textures. http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=4635

Do I want them? Sure. Could I live without them? Absolutely. Unfortunately, I'm not really seeing anything with the physics I've seen so far in DayZ to suggest that throwing stuff will be any less of a chore than in ARMA. Their statement of "tossing magazines to one another" seems to be fanciful thinking at best. The physics aren't accurate (yet), the throwing is still a chore, and the pickup detection is inconsistent.

And they existed before CoD, and were in games before and after CoD... An M4 is built to kill random people, shall we remove it as well?

Then why did you reference CoD?

Solution outlined throughout the thread, via a nice thread on the BIS forums regarding ARMA III.

/facepalm