beeman

It's Day Zee, as noted in an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

I don't think you can compress just night. There /are/ a million and nine maps that feature fast-time. Some even feature options to set it specifically, like one second is one minute or ten seconds is one minute or so on. But fast-time is definitely possible. Looks weird if you do like a half hour day cycle, though. The sun ticks across the sky every second like crazy. Then the stars do as well at night. Also the clouds. I say allow servers to choose between two, four, six and twenty-four hour day cycles. Or maybe just two, six and twenty-four. That way some servers could have quicker cycles for a more dynamic and changing experience but then other servers can run the full cycle for all their roleplaying shenanigans. I personally would like a two or four hour cycle. I like the nights, but when they're several hours long, it's just annoying and not fun.

Those're just the villagers in regular ArmA. Probably a bug that one spawned in DayZ. Or maybe a zombie just didn't initialize as a zombie or something. I don't know, somethin' wacky.

Pretty sure they just spawn empty. They're there for you to pick up, though some of them are worse than the coyote backpack, which I don't quite understand.. Either way, if you grab a better bag(Czech, ALICE, Coyote Elite or whatever it's called) then life will be much easier in chernarus. Until you get killed and have to find another one, that is >_>

After spending a couple nights playing in the pitch dark, I find that it's more atmospheric. I like it. A lot. However, I don't like being in the situation you're talkin' about, where the only time of day you're able to play turns out to be night time on all the low-ping servers in your region. I believe setting the day/night cycle to a two, four or six hour rotation would be sufficient. When I play ArmA regularly, I usually play with a two hour cycle. That way nights are long for dramatic battles(the lighting in this game is so good T_T ) but not so long as to be painfully annoying.

I wonder if this mod will spark any interest in actual ArmA. Or even ACE mod. Either way, the popularity of this mod just showcases that publishers aren't necessarily good for gaming. They push developers to create games that're mediocre, rushed and derivative. What the world needs right now is something to make gamers think. Then the quality of games as a whole will start to increase and I"m all for that.

I like the dark nights but I find that whenever I"m able to actually connect...or when one of my friends is on(pretty much the only time i'm eager to play), it's almost always night time. What I'd prefer is instead of running a 24 hour day cycle, they'd run a four or six hour cycle. That way, nights would still be really long but not so long as to force us to endure them...or not play if we don't like them, for seven hours at a time ;P I much prefer playing ArmA that way. That way, you can still have nice, drawn-out night battles full of wild tactics, artillery flares and such...but the night's not long enough to be annoying. Also, people who think lighting in ArmA is insufficient has never played the actual game and seen a truck's headlights blinding you from a couple hundred meters away >_> Just shine a flashlight down the road or into some forestry next time you find one, you'll see what I mean.

This may or may not have been suggested before. Probably not with the detail or considerations I'm about to provide. Either way, I had to share my brainstormin' with the peoples. Apparently this is really long >__> People are complaining a lot about bandits. Bandits, devs, regular-old survivors also support these free-form shenanigans. Personally, I like the freedom but hate the number of people who kill people just for laughs or whatever. Those CoD knuckleheads, people cry about 24/7. Now, I"m not sayin' that I want PvP removed, nerfed, restricted. I don't want scripts that benefit survivors while punishing banditry. I'm not trying to remove all of that freedom that's in the game currenly. So, what do I want? Clans. Factions. Teams. Guilds. Whatever. Not player-made, no. Something like the stalker games, but obviously without the NPCs(hell, you could even add NPCs later, that'd be interesting). Basically, the way it would work is...the first time you join any official DayZ server(connect to the DayZ database thing that connects all servers), you're presented with an option. Something scripted but only so that it marks you. Maybe changes your outfit or something. I don't know. Anyways, say you've got groups like...bandits, duty, freedom, clear sky, monolith. Maybe less, maybe more. I don't care, that's beside the point. You join one. From then on, you will be tagged to that faction. When someone looks at you, it'll read "Bandit (Beeman)" or whatever. Obviously you'd be less inclined to kill fellow bandits, knowing where that the like to rouse chaos too. But then, some people just want to watch the world burn. Maybe a dude joins Freedom and when they offer to help him out, he kills them all at the meeting point. Sets up an ambush with some of his buddies. Well, from then on, they'd be very cross with him, I'd think. Perhaps to the point of hunting that person down in an organized way. Additionally, maybe Freedom hates Duty. So anytime you see those toked-up hippies running around, you blast their Freedom asses. Meanwhile, the stalkers swoop in and profiteer off of these battles while they can. Maybe you start as a loner and after so many hours, the game asks you which faction you wanna join. Maybe you're pestered to join the forums and have an admin put you into a group. Either way, I think this would benefit everyone forever. There's no rules forcing you to do anything, besides join a player-controlled group. People can't handle total freedom. That's why everyone's paranoid about so much as a single can of beans or a set of bandages. Giving people a label, even if it means practically nothing, will change their behavior immensely. Discussion begins now. Sorry for the long post, when I get talkin', sometimes I just can't stop.

The factions wouldn't enforce anything. People would still be free to loot and pillage whatever, whenever, wherever they choose. It would only give people something to think about when pointing their crosshairs at another person in-game. Anyways, I know people are playing together. I play with two of my friends almost exclusively, we use TeamSpeak to talk to each other. But that's beside the point. If we were to see in our travels someone from the clan "Gorgutz' Krew!" or somesuch, we'd think "man, what a cool cool guy". Especially if we were part of the same faction. That person may then turn around and wipe us out. How unfortunate. But overall, it'd guide peoples' intentions in a way that complete openness can't. I only suggested this because soooo many people are complaining about banditry. I don't care about it either way, but figured I'd throw a suggestion out there that doesn't force anything on the player or regulate them in any way other than putting a little tag next to their name. I thought that would be reasonable enough ;P But it's obviously a horrible idea and I accept that. Continue on >_>

I'd only played BF3 for a couple hours. Every time I did, it made me turn around and play me some ACE mod >_> I don't know how the mod handles it, but in typical ArmA, you can't down a helicopter with small-arms fire. Unless you kill the pilot...which is extremely hard to do. Well, for most people. You technically can, but I've flown straight over hostile towns in Warefare, Domination and WarfareBE with dozens of soldiers firing at me. Only thing's been able to take me down was light armor or godly AI firing rockets at me >_> But yeah, forgot AA12 uses explosive rounds in ArmA. Sad day.

Borrow nothin', they developed those flight models FOR ArmA3. At least, that's what I recall someone saying in a developer interview XD Definitely just wait for ArmA 3. Then you'll be able to loot armor/clothes, more guns, maybe go diving for somethin' special. Who knows, but the most important thing is that ArmA3 /should/ be more optimized than ArmA2. At least, it very well better be XD

I use steam's in-game browser to access the avidblur map. Love it. I don't even have a need for in-game maps anymore, even if they show my location directly.

The problem is that nobody's making factions. Very few people, so far as I've seen, are bothering to organize in any meaningful way. That's why I suggested tagging people. Nothing's automated, nothing is forcing you to do anything, the only difference between what I've suggested and the way the game works currently is that you'd have a little notation next to your name. Instead of everyone being survivor or bandit, you'd have like survivor, bandit, dragon, comatose, whatever else. The Stalker likeness was just an example, I'm not saying this mod needs to be more like Stalker >_>

A friend of mine was talking about this mod recently. I thought he was talking about a different zombie mod for ArmA2 that I'd heard about a couple years ago so I didn't pay it much mind. However, a couple days later, it was featured on RPS and Kotaku. So me and a bunch of friends downloaded it to see if the gameplay was as good as we'd hoped. It is. Buggy as shit, but that's typical to ArmA, and doesn't ruin the fun...not really, anyways.

You don't really need more than one or two weapons. Two's a stretch 'cause they take up so much space...and you have to keep ammo for them which takes up additional space. This isn't Stalker. Pick a gun you like and cling to it like a needy monkey. For reference, the gun you like is Winchester 1866. Every other gun is obsolete, unless you're into sniping people. In which case, you're mean. So very mean >_>

I don't think anyone here is saying that the mod is bad...and I"m not comparing this game to any other retail products. I am, however, pointing out development philosophies used by people who've earned a lot of money and most importantly, renown for them. If you'll notice, I've suggested quite a few changes/additions just within the last couple hours...but I also try to keep my suggestions within the limitations of the development team and game engine....and the overall spirit of the mod. What's a good example of a game that's got too many features to be user-friendly? Hmm...Armed Assault, for starters. Ever heard of X3: Reunion? EVE Online? Perpetuum? Complexity is good. Complicated gameplay is not. That's what I interpreted from oilman's posts, whether or not that's what he meant. That's also what Egosoft realized with their X games. That's why X: Rebirth is going to be so different to the previous games. That's why CCP are making Dust514. That's why Bohemia...well, they're keepin' on keepin' on...and I'm perfectly okay with that >_> Actually, believe it or not, ArmA is a dumbed-down version of their Virtual BattleSpace product...which is used by some countries to help train soldiers...

The two knuckleheads arguing with each other need to calm down. Things do need to be modified/added/changed/removed. But the other guy, somethin' somethin' alex somethin' really needs to calm down. What oilman says is logical, relevent and completely intelligent. He's not contradicting himself, you just don't grasp what he's saying. Oh man, i'm about to get dragged into this >_> Okay nevermind what I just said, instead have a look at people like Gabe, Sid Meier, Will Wright and even the likes of Notch. What do they do? Make games they want to play. Then tweak them based on user feedback, strengthening features people love and cutting things that confuse people or are rarely used. Will Wright used to handle feature creep simply by making more games. his dream was to have all of his games be individual parts to one whole Sim experience >_> On the flip side of that coin, some dudes can't handle feature creep. Look at Peter Molyneux and his silly games. Not saying they're bad. Just silly. Disappointing and silly. BUT there's still balance. That's what makes Gabe, Sid and so on such good developers/producers. They know the balance between adding fun stuff and not overcomplicating their products.

I figured out how to ACE mod without knowing anything about arma. I first ran ACE in arma1 and let me tell you, that was a BAD idea for first experience >_> I traumatized a bunch of my friends against arma by trying to play ACE with them... That said, more people need to play regular ArmA/OA in addition to this outstanding mod.

Word. BUT, maybe the 870 could be slightly less frequent than, say, the sawn-off or double-barrel hunting shotgun...but still much more frequent than the M1014. On top of that, what about adding the AA12 as an extremely rare chance somewhere plagued by mean-spirited living corpses and junk? I only suggest that because AA12 is in Operation Arrowhead...and I love it >_>

Giving more as starting items is silly. Especially when you consider how difficult it's supposed to be to survive out there in a desolated country filled with zombies and CoD-lovin' bandits. I don't hate banditry, but I do like making fun of CoD >_>

ACE mod has trip flares and I think AP mines. Perhaps this mod could be merged with ACE...or pester them for "donations". Alms. Alms for the poor? It could work >_> Then again, I might cry if this were ace/acre compatible >_>

I think lots of things could be done to spice up the zombies a bit. Maybe make the hoppity zombies move faster in forestry 'cause they're like little lemurs. Maybe make the fast zombies run in varying patterns, straight, zig-zaggy or big, sweeping motions. Maybe make slower zombies that're quiet(as i've seen suggested somewheres) but do outrageous damage when they sneak up on you. Maybe give the army zombies invincible torso hitboxes. Headshots or leg shots only, people. They're trained zombie soldiers. I don't know, lots of things could be modified, but it all really boils down to what's possible. Or rather, what's possible within any reasonable amount of time by such a small development force ;P

It's true that rough, gritty gameplay is what's making the game so popular. The reason minecraft was so popular was because you could do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted...and you could do it multiplayer too. BUT adding features and tweaking things based on player feedback is a good thing. If ten thousand people play a game and eight thousand people believe x feature should be added/removed/tweaked, don't you think it's in the best interest of the game as a whole to make that change? The beauty of this is that it has no publisher. The dude(s) workin' on this can do whatever the butt they want. Publishers are what leads to bad decisions in game-making. Player input, though typically septic, isn't exactly going to kill the game ;P

I don't know how possible it would be to give them sound AI. I mean, it's probably possible, but it'd take ages to script and code. I mean, I'm down for NPCs that shake players up, but maybe mixing up the zombies a little more would be a better solution to that.

Maybe make the 870 and m1014 only obtainable through immensely rare drops in the scary military outposts. Add a crappy shotgun for all to enjoy, maybe somethin' like the hunting shotgun in Stalker Clear Sky. Double-barrel shotgun. Still a shotgun but that reload time man. It hurts.