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Everything posted by Knautscher
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did you ever play arma 2?
Knautscher replied to anton364@hotmail.nl's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Loved OFP, liked Arma, bought ArmaII for United Operations and most of all Project Reality. And then I stumbled upon (= got my face shoved into by hype) DayZ. -
A can of my finest beans to you good sir, great song! Inspired me to do one myself. However I lack both the talent to play the guitar or make a decent video, so: http://soundcloud.com/knautscher/bugs-gonna-cut-you-down-dayz
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Call the rescue force or the medics. Also might better get away from NEAF, before you ask for people to come help you.
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I also think the map is just fine, it just feels right. Wanna meet people? Go to the hot spots. Wanna avoid them? Plan your route through the woods. And meeting someone in the wild... yeah it's rare, but all the more thrilling imho.
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losing 3 blood per second? have tried everything.
Knautscher replied to gskillau's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Edit: Mephasto was faster :D Congratulations you have caught the INFECTION! And no it's not a cold, it's not a tapeworm, no it's the genuine cause of all those undead walkers you see everywhere! I had the same thing recently, here's what you gotta do: Go to a hospital and pray that you'll find antibiotics. Nothing else works. Spawn chance is 0.2% I think. Good luck. -
So Ladies and Gentlemen, regarding this:
Knautscher replied to DoshDosh's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Nice metaphor. ALL HANDS ON DECK! SET SAIL FOR THE NEW WORLD! -
You break your legs with no morphine. What do YOU do?
Knautscher replied to Zexis's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Crawl. Recently I got hit by a zombie and caught the infection, so my blood (~9k) was running out and on my way to the hospital I glitch-aggroed a zombie through a wall who hit me once to break my leg. I then crawled all the way to Berezino hospital and finally found meds and morphine at ~5k blood. After that I left for the wilderness, got me some boar meat and am currently up and running at 11k blood. Don't quit once you break your legs, things like this makes staying alive interesting. -
EDIT: What NoxZA said.
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We have to bitch deeper...
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No starter weapon removes survival instinct, and respect for zeds
Knautscher replied to breetai3's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
This probably has been suggested before: You could get your starting gear at random: some get a crowbar, some a makarov with one clip and some get nothing (maybe even more variety). People, of course, would immediately start exploiting this (killing themselves till they got the makarov), so the better items should have a smaller chance of being in your starting gear and every death should add a penalty on your respawn counter. This is done in Project Reality for example: if you fuck up and act against your team's effort (includes dying, suicide, breaking vehicles etc. as they all = ticket loss) you get 15 or 30 or 45 or sth seconds stacked up on your respawn counter (depending on your actions) up to a maximum of 2 full minutes. Since they can already track what life counts as a "life" for the counter on the homepage (2 mins or more), they could also track how long someone has lived before they kill themselves. If they suicide and respawn in the first 30 Minutes of a life (or more or less, just an example) they get 2 minutes respawn time. Because this would be tracked via the Hive and player acc and not via the server they play on, server hopping would not help to prevent this and thus: You'd have to make the best out of what you got this time. Got a Makarov? Holy shit protect that motherfucker! Got nothing? Deal with it. But wait, wait, wait: That's some "gamey" penalty system you're trying to introduce here, Knautscher, wtf? Well, schizophrenic me, in this case it affects nothing ingame, it just keeps people from exploiting and it does so with no bonus or harm done to others. Everyone has the same chance to get okay starting gear and if you get worse gear, yeah the game's gonna be a little harder, but if you don't want a challenge why play DayZ at all? So, since this only affects the player outside of the game (respawn time) I think a penalty for exploit suicide is okay. Don't be a quitter just cos you didn't get the biggest slice. What do you think? -
Oh no, what have you done?! Crouch walking will never be the same now...
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To the 2 fellows at either Rogovo or Pogorevka
Knautscher replied to Shuriken333's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Take Russian, it's awesome and not that hard to learn either. If you have basic knowledge of Latin it's gonna be even easier. -
Shame I don't speak Danish (yet), but your English appears to be fine. We're definitely in the same timezone, so I'll maybe add you on skype later and we can chat a bit, I'm looking for a group as well.
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Yup, everyone's an asshole in this game. Because nothing they do has actual consequences for them and collecting uber-gear and racking up kills is more important to most players than just exploring and surviving against Zeds and Bugs. I'd say it's natural that this leads to a reaction like this I've been annoyed by this Kleinkindverhalten (lacking a better word) from the day I started playing, but since you can't change other people it's not worth bothering. It's sad really, but you just have to avoid every player you see from a distance, because they will kill you, just to get a +1 on their "score" or to tell themselves that they are in fact incredibly skilled badasses. The only thing you can do right now, is to stay out of the contested areas and stay the fuck away from other players, just do your own thing. Everyone's a greedy bastard with no remorse. There'll always be those that say "it's a game hurr durr, I can't shoot people IRL, I HAVE to kill them ingame! Be a dick like us or you're a pussy!" and you can never get rid of them. Don't waste energy on that. I also think that PvP should be one playstyle and one aspect of this game, but not the dominating one, that right now it is. I hope in later version there'll be Zeds everywhere, even in the woods, and firing a gun will always attract a horde. That way, people might think twice whether they "need" that kill. However, right now I think these are all the options you have: Avoid them, join them or leave. You obviously care enough to write a reply. :D
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Yup experienced something similar. Was on my way into Polana, to the supermarket. Out of nowhere 7 zeds came running at me as I got in sight of the town. Wtf...
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German Interview with Dean Hall about DayZ and its future (Translated into english)
Knautscher replied to Bitey's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Don't worry, the guys at pcgames.de seem to have problems with english as well. They translated: "There are no objectives." into "Es gibt keine Objekte." (There are no objects.) :D EDIT: Your title is too long for auto-reply, shorten it a little, maybe "PCgames.de Interview with Dean Hall (translated into english)" EDIT2: Thanks for your effort, but the article says that it's just a shortened German version of the interview that eurogamer did. I think that has already been posted here somewhere. -
I literally laughed out loud' date=' just wanted to say thanks [/quote'] So did I, best answer! Thanks!
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PVP is Out of Control.
Knautscher replied to omgwtfbbq (DayZ)'s topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
There have been countless (and equally pointless) discussions about this' date=' one of which I even initiated myself! Silly me. :rolleyes: The thing is, that there will never be any game mechanical "punishments". Rocket stated that he won't implement these kinds of things, because every feedback that is given to the player should be passive and therefore more authentic. You have to adjust to what the game world gives you, including the players. That is the point. Make the best out of a mess. The uncertainty of player interaction is part of that, although you can almost be certain that anyone will kill you out of panic, for your loot or just for fun. So you can choose, be the 1% good guys, avoid others or choose the easy and fast path of being a bandit. You don't have to approve of that. I certainly don't (at least the last point), but you either have to deal with it or stop playing, because it's not going away. In your reply you wrote "I won't change" and that is alright, it's your decision. If for some reason however you want to stay alive and don't like people shooting at you, you should/i] change your ways: stay away from the locations that have already been named e.g. hospitals, military installations, coastline, open fields. Sneak. A lot. All the time. Avoid other players until you can deal with them. Only make contact if you are at a clear advantage. Scouting and sneaking slows you down and takes it's time, but it keeps you alive a lot longer than running around shouting "friendly!". Keep to the woods and smaller towns, gather your gear and try surviving (while still avoiding players). After you managed to do that it will automatically become less fun, because it is too easy. Next step is to help out noobies or actively seek confrontation with other players, by looting higher frequented areas. But it is all up to you, do whatever you want, but don't expect everything to be easy or even to work out at all. You got your values and that is fine, but you can not expect others to appereciate or share them. Don't be mad, you'll be killed lots of times by hacks, hacks (hatchet this time), snipers, zombies and bugs. You only lose if you stop trying. tl;dr: Abandon ship or sink like the rest of us. -
The thrill of the kill? Transporting psychological aspects into game mechanics
Knautscher posted a topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Hi. This text wall is not supposed to join the many fine "whines" we have here on the forums, it is meant as a constructive and hopefully comprehensive slice of cheese, an explanation of certain aspects, that I think should be considered in game, as they weigh in in real life as well. And yes it deals with the so called "PvP problem" that I however do not consider as such. English is not my first language, so you are welcome to point out any typos or odd phrases you come across to me for correction, but please don’t go all “grammar nahtzee” on me. Thank you. And now to our main feature presentation: Playerbase divided – carebears vs. natural born killers Unfortunately the DayZ playerbase is divided into three factions: the extremely PvE loving “carebears”, the extremely ignorant “natural born killers” (or maybe rather decepticons? to stay with the cartoon theme...) and, caught in between, the neurotic, paranoid “Survivors” of this struggle. As you probably have guessed already, the answer lies in between: neither overprotective hoarders, nor anti-social mass murderers are very realistic or entertaining, yet they all have a certain right to exist within the game world. Killing on sight is okay – it’s the apocalypse alright!? Well, no. I mean, yes it is the apocalypse, but killing on sight is neither “fun” nor “okay” for a majority of players, who want to enjoy the survival setting instead of having to fight their way through just another zombie shooter. I’ve often seen the argument that DayZ is the wrong game for these kind of players then, as it clearly emphasizes the use of weapons against other players as a major aspect of its design. While this is undoubtedly true, it is just one and not the only major aspect of DayZ. It’s supposed to be about survival. Defending your life against the wretched scum of humanity should be one aspect of this game, but not the defining one. On top of that, randomly killing strangers is by no means “natural”. If you think it’s normal to kill people once you won’t get sued for it, you’ve got a mental condition, it has nothing to do with any apocalypse. Some PKs like to argue, that only laws and the police force hold us back from tearing each other apart. The truth is, that laws and the police force have unanimously been implemented by the majority of people, to protect them from the very few individuals who are incapable (e.g. due to lack of empathy) to live in harmony with them. Despite all the raging conflicts and the nbks’ admiration for the sheer badassary of heartless killers, mankind is a highly cooperative, social construct and most people are unwilling to kill their own kind, unless they are forced to do so by harsh influences. But more on that later on. By now you may feel an urge arising to tell me that I should “quit whining” or “stop bitching”, as I am clearly not cut out to master this game. Don’t bother, I enjoy the game even now, I just think some aspects need improvement and want to share my ideas with the community. +++ Basic conditions +++ If the goal is creating a game world as close to reality as possible in this fictional scenario, we have to look at the basic conditions, so to speak: Who is the main actor? What exactly is the setting? What aspects of real life interactions have to be implemented to ensure an accurate model of post-apocalyptic humanity? What are we looking at, exactly? Let’s start with a general collection of concepts. 1 It’s the end of the world as we know it… In DayZ, life as we know it has been brought to an utter halt, as a new infection has decimated our race, driven us out of our homes and brought humanity to their knees. However, humanity has not completely fallen victim to the apocalypse, as there still is a certain number of healthy individuals that fight to survive outside the comfort of civilization on a daily basis. Some might have a faint hope that they can rebuild their old living conditions, renew their old concept of society others. There might be some who want to abuse the confusion and chaos that came with the disintegration of society, but for reasons I’ll explain later on, they would form a minority. The state humanity finds itself in is not that new either. There once was a time before society, before cities, cars, councils, laws and police. Thankfully however people did not kill each other “for the lulz” back then, nor did they to pad up their stats, or to brag about their sheer badassness. Instead, they formed groups. Families, communities, tribes and eventually societies and civilizations. This enabled mankind to soar ever higher, but it was eventually done to achieve the most basic (but also most important) goal: survival. By not bashing in each other’s head (unless it was perceived a necessary act to ensure survival of the tribe), mankind survived. Not killing each other out of sheer paranoia or brainless craving for blood and gore seems to be an important aspect of survival. 2 The Survivor To accurately depict the player’s character, the survivor, we have to think of him not as some anonymous avatar, but rather as a role we assume and act out. Why role play? Well, technically, we play a role in every game we play, that’s part of the fiction of every game and also a major source of joy. In most games we are clearly distanced from the role we assume, however to transport the despair and anxiety of the post apocalyptic world directly into the heart and mind of the player, being closer to the in game avatar is better for the experience. How can we achieve that? By thinking about the role: background, needs, logical behavior and an individual component that is filled out by the player. All survivors are in the same position at the start of the game. They are: - alone - not equipped to survive without help - and therefore in danger This is the fuel that gets the player going: find food, find water, find tools, find means to defend himself and finally: find others who may have survived. It can be assumed that the basic survivor has a basic education (learned to write, read, speak) and has a eastern European or western socialization (basic ethics, moral, maybe religion, social norms and general knowledge about socially expected and accepted behavior). Because of this the situation the character is in, should be all the more shocking: friends, family, society as a whole is gone. Former sites of safety and comfort have turned into perilous kill zones. All of this puts the survivor in a tight spot and under great mental and physically showing stress, which should be taken into account when designing the gameplay. 3 Humans are herd animals While this might lead people to believe that in their anxiety the generic survivor will kill anyone they meet, it is highly unlikely. Why is that? Well, other healthy, sane individuals such as the survivor himself would be viewed as a beacon of hope: I’m not alone! There are others! Maybe they can help me! Maybe they need my help! Paranoia is a sedative, it blocks your ability to make decisions and slows you down. Meeting another person in a living hell of walking dead would not encourage, but break this paranoia, because humans are used to living in communities. Hardwired to overcome obstacles and preserve their race as one, they need cooperation, conversation and social interaction not only to function properly, but to simply survive. Our collective memory, for example, is the only reason we have gotten this far in our evolution. The fact that we rather remember achievements of our species a as whole, rather than the one person who happened to stumble upon a certain realization first, hints at our genetically programmed need to form communities and live in social environments. Experiments have shown that prolonged isolation will not only make people miserable, insane or suicidal, but can actually kill them. Because of this, and a human’s basic and very strong urge to find company, acceptance and a position within a group, it is very unlikely that a survivor would willingly kill everyone he meets without checking their motives, needs and connections first. Therefore KOS and even more PK for “hunting” and “for fun” as currently practiced in DayZ are unrealistic. 4 Psychological effects of killing Studies have shown that the human brain likes to attribute backwards. What does that mean? It means that if we do something (e.g. raise our arms) we actually do not control that movement, we just assume we do. 90% of our actions “happen” automatically, we’re only in control of a fraction of our behavior. Yet we always talk about free will and our ability to do what we want, whenever we want. This is attributing backwards: we do something, and because we have done it, we "conclude" that we must have wanted to do it. Same goes for social interaction: if you hit a stranger in the face for no reason, you’ll feel antipathy towards that person. Because you hit him. Your brain tells you, that you’re sane and that you certainly wouldn’t have hit him, if he hadn’t deserved it. It also goes the other way around, so be nice to people and oddly enough you'll like them better. This way our brain tries to justify everything we do. It goes out of its way to make sense of the world. However, killing is – especially regarding evolution – highly illogical. It makes no sense to kill another human being (unless you’re cornered or urgently need supplies another person denies you). Therefore killing, acting against your natural behavior and your social needs, puts great stress on your attributive system. You can hardly justify your actions and this gap between your actions and the real world situation damages your self-concept. Post traumatic stress from killing innocent people isn’t just a cool setup for a complicated character in war story you’ve heard; it actually exists. Or to put it in layman’s terms: Killing fucks you up, man. Even soldiers and hardened spec ops, who train years on end to kill swiftly and without mercy, suffer from this. The human psyche is fragile, and while it can sustain a certain amount of cruelty, under certain conditions, it will eventually be damaged. And not in a cool “emotionless terminator” kind of way. Think more along the lines of losing your mind or losing your will to live on. As a bonus we have the in game situation of an apocalypse. Not only is the world an unfriendly hell of mindless predators that have taken over your home and killed your family and friends. There are also very few people left. They are the last chance for the survivor to EVER talk to another person again, feel another person’s touch, the last people to care for, the last people to receive care from, the last of your own kind. So: Why kill them for no reason? How could your tormented survivor brain ever make sense of that in a situation like this? It couldn’t. Unless you’re in a really tight spot you would avoid or approach other people, not kill them. +++ Game vs. Reality +++ How are all of these factors represented in the game world? Can everything even be implemented? Where are the limits of immersion, where do authenticity and gameplay collide? 5 The Game world In our wonderful giant sandbox the bullies currently roam free unpunished, and they have every right to do so, because nothing is stopping them. They have chosen, as humans do, the easiest and most “profitable” style of gameplay: grab the best gear and kill the worst equipped players. Or well, just any player really, what does it matter as long as I end a virtual life? The problem with this supposed badassary is, that it’s not very badass at all, illogical regarding the implications this kind of behavior would have IRL and it’s only rewarding for a very short moment, if at all. Some players might have idealized the lone-wolf-hunter stereotype, proudly explaining they view themselves as eastwood-esque lone riders, purgers of the “weaklings” or completely emotionally detached serial killers à la Dexter Morgan. Well... m( There are also no physical repercussions from firing weaponry you’ve never used in your life. Go out and try firing a .50 cal sniper rifle without proper training. You'll probably dislocate your shoulder from the recoil, or at least get bruises if you never learned how to use a gun like, that or lack the proper strength to safely operate it. While it can be assumed that certain survivors might have had a military or hunting career, the majority won’t have that bonus. The military was used to counter the zombies and got crushed (killed or infected) and the survivors wear civilian clothing, so it is not logical that any gear can be used by anyone. In addition weapons do not degrade ingame as they would in real life. I’m not saying guns are all high maintenance, but you have to clean them regularly and at some point change the barrel or other parts that wear out. 6 “Please! I don’t wanna die! ... Well actually… meh…” A major difference between game and reality is the complete lack of emotion, feeling pain and psychological effects within the game. Of course there are obvious reasons why they miss: they are not necessary for the core game (Arma2) and are rather difficult to implement and accurately resemble their real life counterparts in a game. However they are a major aspect of survival and should be implemented. You’re never out of breath, feel pain, or contemplate a fellow survivors fate. You won’t miss any anonymous guy you killed for fun and you don’t care about being all alone within the game – because you’re not alone in real life. You have friends, family, work, enough social contexts to suit your needs. This makes a fellow player’s life very cheap, when it should not be. Same goes for your own, virtual life. Because for the character you play, the survivor, killing would be a major decision, especially under these conditions. Therefore the effects of loneliness and longing for conversation and social interaction should be part of the game. It’s about survival after all, not just about racking up kills. 7 How can these aspects, all of which you whine about so passionately, be translated into game play? Huh, tough question. I’m against classic “penalties” for players who kill other players, like flagging/marking them as a bandit or making them attract more zombies. That would be illogical, unrealistic, the opposite of what I think is tried to be achieved here. Of course you might recognize a homocidal maniac from his facial expressions and overall behavior in real life, it's not the same as "flag" telling you with a 100% certainty that this one guy is a ruthless killer. Then again, there are effects in reality that you could perceive as some sort of penalty, for example increased anxiety and nervousness. In fact it is some sort of penalty as we are designed to keep our race alive and prosper, so acting against that inner goal puts great stress on our self-concept; the brain stops us from acting against our own race. Without the hold of a rational world (and a zombie invasion can be assumed to pretty much shatter your world view) many people revert to a state of superstition and permanent anxiety. As I said before: people always try to make sense of their world. And where the solution is not visible, people tend to insert their imagination. This led to the creation of gods and demons as well as the myth of some world immanent “justice”. It would be wrong to ignore how powerful this effect can be on humans though, so feeling paranoid, because you killed without any reason might lead to more nervousness and anxiety, represented by less stamina (as your body is on edge constantly) and a shaky vision/aim. This won’t stop people from PKing. Because nothing should stop people from PKing. It’s part of the game, a vital element even. However the decision to actually kill another player in game should not be an easy one. Nothing should be easy, that is what makes it fun. A tough challenge, consequences for yourself whatever you do. Currently there is a simple, easy path that a large number of players take. I suggest that path be closed to make it hard for everyone, not just the nice people. 8 Any last words? I hope you can understand the points I’ve made and maybe even appreciate some aspects. If you didn’t understand something, feel free to ask. If you’ve seen that I’ve posted a wrong information, please point it out to me for discussion and correction. And finally if you feel the need to flame, to bitch and moan mindlessly against my remarks, please go ahead. This is DayZ after all and no one should post here, thinking they would not attract a brainless mob that’ll tear them apart. : ) Best regards, Knautscher Tl;dr - Guns in game might be realistic, player behavior is not. If realism is to be achieved, something has to be done to address social-psychological aspects. -
I really like the Winchester. Oh and the hatchet.
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PVP is Out of Control.
Knautscher replied to omgwtfbbq (DayZ)'s topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
EDIT: Zipper was faster, but yeah, exactly that. You had 7 cooked meat. This means you had enough gear to survive. Why didn't you stay the hell out of the deathtraps that are Cherno, Elektro, NWAF and Berezino and just hunt some more till you got healthy enough again? A few days ago I was down to 3k or 4k blood (because of my own stupidity of course). I carefully went scavenging in the villages, finally found the hunting knive and started hunting animals. Found a boar, a rabbit, a chicken... Try that next time. -
PVP is Out of Control.
Knautscher replied to omgwtfbbq (DayZ)'s topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
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Luckiest loot you've discovered?
Knautscher replied to Mays (DayZ)'s topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
I once found a hunting knive and it saved my life. Definitely my luckiest loot! :D -
Me, My bike and the tents you own.
Knautscher replied to twoinches's topic in DayZ Mod General Discussion
Survival of course. Like killing noobs with a .50 cal anti material rifle. It's all about survival... :rolleyes: -
Well I for one avoid all your high-class locations. All you need are supermarkets and barns, and there's plenty of them in those other towns. Why would anyone who wants to survive, get himself killed by wandering through your four locations that are "worth looting"? Why does every town need to be the scene of standoff between bandits? I think it's good that there's areas in Chernarus that aren't constantly contested, but simply "ghost towns". Also, imho sneaking is not a waste of time, if you want to avoid zombies, which as a noobie from the beach you HAVE to. And thank god you have ways to lose those zombies, what else would an unarmed noob do? But your point about the endless sprinting is good, that should indeed be changed, but only if the zombies lose interest after some time as well. Also: increasing their numbers would help increasing their potential as well I think. I prefer to wander from village to village. Takes longer to get your gear together, but travelling makes it all more interesting, imo.