Katana67

Ended up going from naked... to having a green raincoat, M4 (w/ ACOG, Suppressor, MOE handguard, CTR stock), three 60 round mags, UK vest, TTskO (or whatever) pants and boonie, Combat Boots, food/water, FNX w/ one mag and a RDS, and an Amphibia S w/ one mag... within a few hours. Challenge completed.

So, yeah, there's a lot of dumb folks out there. But anywho, yeah, the spawns are a bit much (and are prototypical/temporary). Zombies spawn around you WITH AGGRO, even if they weren't spawned when you drew aggro in the first place. Makes no sense. I'm all for making zombies a threat, I've been advocating for it for two years. But the morons saying "deal with it" or "learn to adapt" or "zombies are now a threat and people still complain" aren't taking the whole picture into account. They need to revamp how one draws aggro. Zombies currently do not respect any changes in silhouette, speed, or distance. They aggro you from a mile off, regardless of whether you're slow-crawling through a bush or sprinting in an open field. This temporary spawn mechanic underscores the problem in how zombies draw and maintain aggro. Plus, I want my zombies to be persistent, rather than spawning near players (a la DayZ mod). The poster above me raises a good point. You either fight or run away. There's no middle option, stealth. Which creates the tension that DayZ was built upon. This stealth is nowhere to be found in the current Alpha. It needs to be addressed further on down the line.

I spawned right where I left my character a few hours ago, near Pustoshka. But with no gear. The exact opposite of what happened to you haha. Found an ACOG though! That's a first...

Or they could just have an M16A4 available. /shrug All of the attachments are there to make it an SPR (i.e. LRS, Bipod, 10-20 round magazines). But, assuming that they wouldn't do that, all it would really take would be an 18 inch barrel and rail assembly, and you'd pretty much be there.

All they left me with was the ghost outline of my kitted-out M4 and M1911 in the hotbar to taunt me. Savor that cowboy hat. Savor it.

I like the idea of an improvised ghillie suit, and there's been some discussion on it. However, rather than have it be an "action" that you just sort of throw leaves over yourself, I think it should be an item. You'd have to loot/craft some sort of netting to attach foliage (or burlap). Then, the player could select appropriate foliage based on the intended location. As an aside, the hatred of sniping/camping/banditry is absolutely laughable. Nothing wrong with any of them, whatever you personally consider them to be.

The chances of finding these parts in Chernarus are just as good as anywhere else, not to mention that Chernarus is fictional (with a fictional history as well, hence the presence of NATO weaponry and gear). One can order a UTG Mosin Rail and barrel-clamp bipod off of Amazon, so, it's not like they're hyper-rare in the real world (not that the real world should be used as an unquestionable ruler to measure plausibility anyway, as Chernarus is a fictional location). Even if they are placeholders, it doesn't necessarily mean that the weapon attachments are implausible. Point-being, the attachments that DO work in DayZ are (for the most part) plausible. The issue I have is that, in some cases (like the LRS and M4) there are attachments which SHOULD be able to be fitted to a certain weapon, but it's not possible for some reason. Could be balance, could be that they just forgot to do it. Who knows?

The M1911 mags are spawning all over, post-patch. But yes, I've only ever found two FNX mags. Personally, I think we should be finding more empty mags (with both rifles and pistols) than full ones. Or at least half full/empty magazines. As it stands now, I rarely if ever pick up a raw box of ammo or loose rounds. I've always been able to find clean and full magazines for the majority of my weapons.

I mean, rail systems (and certainly bipods) exist for the Mosin. It's not completely out of the question. The last I checked, even for mounting a PU scope on an SKS/Mosin, you pretty much need a gunsmith to install the mounting bracket properly. So it's not as modular as I think some might have conjured it up to be. If I remember correctly, you need to actually CUT the wood of the Mosin's stock to fit the PU mounting bracket. I mean, if you wanted to get really technical, you could include things like mounting brackets into the loot spawns. But I'm not sure I'd be in favor of that, seems a bit cumbersome for most weapons which aren't as modular as the AR platform (which is most of the weapons in DayZ). But the M4 is inherently modular, so it should be able to fit a LRS (whatever specific model is used in DayZ).

I run into far more SKS and M4 spawns than I do Mosins. I never see Mosins. I've only seen two in some 100 hours (estimated) of play. Same could be said about 7.62x54R ammo, I rarely ever see it. I always chocked it up to being one of those items which is highly susceptible to clipping through floors, so I miss it a lot. There are a lot of items which I have yet to see, chief amongst which is the ACOG. Haven't ever found one. 5.56x45 still spawns absolutely everywhere, which is probably why I never see Mosins... because I usually look for the M4, due to always finding an abundance of 5.56x45. Yes, I'd agree that handgun ammo spawns are a little over the top. I walked into an unlooted grocery store earlier and it might as well have been a gun shop with all the neatly packed boxes of ammo adorning the shelves.

Went through Zeleno just now, didn't see any new buildings. Could've missed them. But, as to the discussion about server populations and loot spawns, I agree. However, we'll just have to wait and see. Loot balance hasn't really factored in much. Not to mention a TON of buildings aren't even spawning any loot whatsoever.

M1911 mags are spawning all over the place. FNX mags have always been rare for me, I've only ever found two. Have yet to see mags for any of the other new sidearms, but I haven't really been looking. THAT... and these types of small items are the prime types of items to be clipping through walls/floors/items. Which is a serious problem with the loot spawns in my opinion.

Rather than making a reach-around PSO optic for it, I'd rather they just give it a RIS attachment for the current (and future) crop of optics to use. Could serve to differentiate the AKM from the M4A1 by disallowing it from mounting optics as standard. But then, having the RIS system encompass both optics mounts and flashlight/bipod (and potential foregrip) mounts once installed. See this... http://www.fab-defense.com/en/category-rail-systems-and-mounting-solutions/id-180/ak-47-aluminum-rail-system.html I'm still on the fence about whether or not I want optics to be weapon-specific. It's kind of silly not being able to mount a LRS on an M4, or being stuck with the SKS and PU scope being readily available (and the arguably worse set-up of the M4 w/ ACOG being relatively rare).

I do think that a lot of people simply don't like playing at night, in any game. Night maps on BF, night time in DayZ. People just like the clarity of the daytime methinks. I love playing in both the day and nighttime. The crux of the issue isn't necessarily the gamma tweaks, although that is an issue. It's that, like I've said before, the majority of nights in DayZ are unplayable. Even the cloudless, moonlit, starry nights are entirely too dark. It's not that it's too dark in the traditional sense, it's that it's ONLY BLACK. It would be different if there were shades of grey, but my screen is just matte black at night in DayZ. If I didn't NEED to turn up my gamma to play at night, then I wouldn't do it. Even with a flashlight, I cannot navigate through a building because it's so unbelievably dark. I think they need to try and find a balance between the nights we've got now and a playable nighttime environment. I want the tension of nighttime to be there, but I also want it to be playable. That and I think it might be worthwhile to implement something requiring players to sleep (or just gain shelter) before logging off, which may explain/appease some folks who don't like to play at night.

Either way, I don't want zombies SPAWNING in close proximity to me. I'd rather them just be spawned in the world already, which was the entire point of revamping them from the mod in the first place. Now, with this temporary spawn system, it's almost the same as the client-side spawning that we had in the mod. But it's worse, given that the zombies spawn aggro'd already. Which is fine, as it's in-development. But, if they ever decide to keep a system like it... they'd have to artificially impose limits on spawns then, which I don't like. It'd be a case of this... - 5 zombies exist in this space already, 20 zombies can spawn around the player once he/she engages one zombie. OR - 25 zombies exist in this space already, if the player fires, the existing zombies may get aggro'd.

This is where I think a lot of the misunderstanding originates from with regard to "worse/better". You do a good job of detailing it. Zombies can do all the damage in the world, can sprint at me, or rush me in droves... I'm fine with that, and would love it if it were so... but the threat has to be able to be mitigated by the player. Right now, we've got two options. Engage or run away. You either shoot (announcing your position to the world), hack at the zombies and probably take some serious damage (due to the way zombies impart damage, not the level of damage), or run away. There's no middleground of stealthily moving past the zombies, as was in the mod (although it certainly had flaws of its own). I'm not talking about making them weaker folks. Like I said, you can have high damage zombies, sprinters, and a large quantity of zombies... but they have to behave in a way that has more than one dimension.

You're missing the point of what I'm saying. I want zombies to be a threat, and like that the numbers have increased. I've advocated for zombies being a threat for two years. However, such a change cannot be made in a vacuum. It has to be made after zombie behavior and aggro has been finalized, so that a few things can happen. One, it seems a better approach for troubleshooting. Rather than going back and re-tooling the zombies once they've increased the population, creating the potential for unseen issues. Two, the number of zombies is only ONE aspect of their overall threat. If they're made more "natural" in terms of their aggro generation, then we can actually have a tense stealth mechanic whereby the player has the option to either mow down a horde of zombies or tacitly sneak by.

For one, it aggros/spawns more zombies. Second, it is a high-profile activity likely to be seen by other players. Third, running is not always prudent when one has to loot to survive. Nevermind that a one-dimensional "solution" like running away isn't really in the tense spirit of DayZ, where previously, stealth was a factor in avoiding zombies.

Right, but this doesn't make sense... at all. You kill a zombie, another zombie spawns in within 100m already aggro'd to the player, a neverending cascade of aggro'd zombies respawns around you.

Of course! Obviously, this assumes a linear development scheme (which I doubt they're following). I just don't want the state of things to become accepted as normal (as was done in the mod) when we're working in a flawed system. I would rather they fix how zombies behave, before cranking up the numbers. I would assume that'd be a more wholesome approach to weed out potential issues than have to decrease the numbers later on if an issue was found. However, I suspect that this was more just a stop-gap fix or a test of their spawns (not overall zombie numbers).

Yes, I saw that. But, for example, there's no changelog that lists the Ruger, M1911, or Amphibia S as new items (as far as I can tell). Likewise, there's no changelog that lists any of the items above as "new" items.

Question - Why is none of this in the changelog? I've noticed that they tend to forget including things on the changelog, especially new items. Am I missing something? Do they just want us to find these things for ourselves rather than reveal them through a changelog?

I like the concept. However, I'd rather they just improve on their 3D optics than scrap the concept in favor of 2D. There's nothing inherent to 3D optics that is making them bad, it's just the way that they were executed in this particular instance. All of the "fixes" applied in the 2D mod could theoretically be applied to 3D optics.

I mean, saying the SPR (and whichever variety of 5.56 used, be it Sierra or Black Hills) would be "devastating" at 1000m isn't necessarily accurate. I have never heard of a confirmed kill at those ranges with an SPR, ever. But that's just me talking. But, bear in mind, the M4 ain't a SPR. So, it's sort of a moot comparison until they throw a SPR in the mix in DayZ. And saying that it's the "deadliest small arm in us forces hands" isn't accurate either. Mk 11/M110 is more plausible to be effective at 1000m. Relatively on-topic, however, I think that if an attachment can realistically fit on a weapon... then it should be able to. A LRS on an M4 probably wouldn't make sense for many scenarios, and would be wholly outclassed by even the most basic bolt-action and/or 7.62 sniper rifle. But, it should still be an option eventually.

Yeah, I've always used a controller playing DayZ. It has been an absolute joy. But I can't for the life of me figure out how to use Xpadder, so I haven't been able to map some of the more useful functions (leaning, freelook, inventory, etc.) to the five or six unused/redundant buttons on the controller. If I could do that, I'd be 100%. As of now, I commit the unforgivable sin of using a controller, mouse, and keyboard at the same time. Really should be put on my resume as evidence of multitasking. But I digress. Anyone who says that DayZ's control scheme is somehow too complicated for controllers, is talking out of their ass. Played the mod since April of 2012 and now the SA, with a controller, still going strong. @WrecklessMEDIC Ermergerd. I think you just changed my life forever with that video.