Mutonizer

Just a couple of remarks concerning long range scoped weapons. 1) Survival/Apocalypse "mood" is meant to be gritty, poor/lacking equipment and in your face. This can be found in any literature on the subject. There is tension between two people with shotguns or guns 20m apart, roaming between buildings and the like, because both can potentially be hurt very easily. There is no tension when you snipe/get sniped 360°, anytime, anywhere a mile away. 2) ARMA2 makes sniping someone running at 700m something even my cat could do by accident. The engine also removes grass on the ground on scoped zoom, meaning apart from walls/rocks/trees, you are actually easier to see and hit from a distance than at close range. Scoped rifles exacerbate this engine issue. 3) Everyone and their dog can get a scoped rifle within 1 hour of spawn or so. Some actually just camp switch servers to grab these goodies, then go hunting people. These rifles need to become ULTRA rare (meaning so rare nobody would be stupid enough to actually try and actively find one) and have their spawn randomized in locations between various places. 4) Scoped rifles are THE weapon of choice for anyone wanting to hunt one thing: players. For any other purpose (apart from pure binocular use), people would rather have guns or shotguns/unscoped. While weapons like this are crucial in a pure military simulation/TDM game, in a zombie survival mod it isn't logical to have so many, used for a single purpose, with the context you're trying to set up for your players. As a note, this also applies to NVGs. I have problems understanding designing an entire mod around the tension of insanely dark nights, flares and chemlights, then have a way for people to just spawn camp NVGs before going off hunting players. These things need to become ULTRA rare and randomized in spawns, work for a very limited amount of times, etc. to sum up: - Make scoped rifles and NVGs very rare (0.000x%), limited in numbers overall, and able to spawn all over the place. - Make NVGs work on short life batteries, rechargeable or not. Have them be limited to when you REALLY need it, not as a perma daylight. Just my 2cts, after seeing dayz become more and more of a BF3 mod than a zombie apocalypse mod last week. New patch solves the issue somewhat, but it can be pushed further.

You do realize that mankind's pretty much fucked with people (sorry, players!) like you right? Going like this, there will come a time, maybe after a month, a year, maybe 10 years, when you'll start reflecting on your own life, get all philosophical and shit, all alone in the woods, surviving... Then you'll realize that nothing matters anymore because you'll die either of some stupid mistake one morning that will get infected, or simply of old age, and leave nothing behind. Personal survival is only the first phase in these situations I think, then it's time to rebuild something, or surviving loses it's meaning and with nobody around to tell you you're still alive, you wouldn't know the difference :) Bad example, anyone with half a brain would instantly kill these dudes in that situation. There's a difference between murdering random people, and killing assholes :)

Wouldn't shoot, that's be silly, but I'd study him a bit if possible. If he proves to be clueless and a liability, I'd leave him to his fate, good or bad. If he proves his care in his movements and will to survive, I'd help out, carefully, trusting my gut more than anything else.

Quite agree. Hardcore and good players are not full blown bandits with minus thousands humanity and counting, these guys are just easy mode players, point and shoot whatever moves. My shit would be a lot easier if I just shot everyone I meet, no question asked. But I don't because that's boring and to me removes 75% of the game: human interaction with people you meet up on the road. Funnily enough that's also why I'm glad Rocket's removing bandit skin since to me, that was back to easy mode: bandit, point and shoot...*yawn*

With respect to the mod's dev (celery was it?), this mod, to me, was boring within the first 5 minutes like every single FPS out there. I tried to push through a bit, see what it had to offer, I just couldn't. Tried ep1, boring. Tried ep2...boring. Didn't even bother to check ep3. Heck, I even played left 4 dead longer than that and I hated it. (ps:never listen to your friends telling you that this or that game isn't just a FPS game...). I'm sure some people do this mod justice, but that's not my kind of game. You see, that's the beauty of Dayz to me, it's NOT a FPS game. How do I know? I fucking LOATHE FPS games, always have, always will...and yet I've clocked insane hours into dayz :) To each his own I suppose.

+1 though I do see a value in commenting my experiences, especially since it's Alpha. I've already put more hours into dayz than in most "hour eaters" such as skyrim, fallout and the like and for some reason, I just keep going, putting more hours every day. So, kudos Rocket, don't get burned :)

Upping your gamma is akin to cheating somewhat since you artificially push the gamma settings. It's a bit like a wall hack, etc. Not that big of a deal really, but still. It's like playing a RPG game for the story and exploration, and reading a guide and spoilers...contradictory. HDR is just basic setting for nights to work as intended in ARMA2, otherwise you do not get the proper night visuals, with moonlight reflecting off other textures on the ground (as they do in reality). As someone who do camp in the wild quite often, DAYZ is really the first 3D game to truly, in my view, reflect what darkness is outside of civilization "light bubble". Out there, when there's not moon or it's very cloudy, you often cannot see you hands 10cm from your face and it gets your mind racing through all kinds of shits, just like it does for me in Dayz. I love it but of course, I don't go and do crazy shit when it's night :)

Biggest game changer on the horizon for me really.

255sqm...that's pretty decent already. Once we get more enterable buildings (which I believe is just a question of time and effort), I'm good. I'd love snow though, I love snow....

You don't even need to cook an egg. Multitool to make two little holes in them, it's quite delicious and energy boosting while on the trail as long as you don't abuse it :)

What? Why? Nooooo! I dont' want to know if the dude I'm seeing in the distance is a murderer or not, bandit skin is bad enough already. Why would you want to kill all the tension :) Also, bounty hunting cannot exist without a society to police it and there is no society left! Maybe later, once the tools and content are in, and people start building real camps and organize, but for now, ugh... In EVE it's logical because it's science fiction, technology works and they have databases, computers and shit. Here, who the fuck is managing all that? Is this hunger games or something? Nope.

What? No. I'm just saying that even with slugs everywhere, people die, often. Actually I believe it's now accurate, but was screwed up before because of a 0 not put in there proper. It also doesn't take into account any death within 2 minutes of spawning though I agree it should separate suicides and normal deaths. More weapon variety between guns and non scoped weapons would be nice though no? I'm sure it'll come in time :)

Sorry to burst your bubble mate... Dayz dev twitter quote' date=' mid april: [i']"We've been trying to work on a new PvP damage model and trying to discourage PvP however if players want to kill we can't stop them" PvP is a part of the game, but by far NOT the focus of it. Survival, zombies? remember? Of course PvP is huge now because there's very little content, but as Rocket said, the "meat" isn't even in the game yet... With that said, private servers do NOT go hand in hand with Dayz, at least not as it is right now. I rather deal with assholes all day than have a "planned environment" like the OP is proposing.

While I hate people spamming global/side channels, without a direct com that works 100% of the time for everyone, doesn't that just give a boost to people using teamspeak/mumble and completely ignoring the mod design? Also, newbie question, but does the term VOIP used here includes direct com chat or that's just global/side/etc? I really hope it doesn't include direct com because while realistic, that would effectively make team-speak tools mandatory.

Indeed and I now pay closer attention to the server I log into, making sure they are hardcore (no 3rd and no xhair). That said, skill can be gained in just a bit of training in boot camp. True, but the CZ is still a pretty good sniper rifle with the view distance limitations currently in place, making the real sniper rifle less...good, but making the CZ, a lot better than it should. Also, CZ is VERY common, let's not kid around. Also, with server hopping, a rare item can be just a matter of time hopping between servers for spawns, which some people are willing to do. Making the CZ less common, maybe through some more weapon variety, would help I believe. You could just give over watch with binoculars. Let's face it, once aggro sets in, nothing you can do with a CZ/Sniper against zombies better than what your buddies in a village can do with close range weapons. Also, I agree (and stated multiple times) that since 1.5.7, things have changed, for the better I think, and that there is now a heavy risk to shooting from what used to be a very safe, and far, distance. Now, if you miss the shot or just injure instead of kill, you not only have all players in the area aware of you, but you have a VERY limited time to finish the job before a shitload of zombies reach you. While I still believe that the CZ is taking too much loot space overall, the issue I mentioned at first are pretty much gone. I already, in reaction to a comment by another fellow player, agreed that I might have been affected by hacking on some of the servers I played, and that therefore my judgement on this was false. I did indeed checked the loot tables and discussed this with some friends who are really hungry on military gear and the NVG count has obviously now drasticly been reduced on the server I play on (hardcore and very carefully monitored). Since I moved out of easy servers onto veteran/hardcore, I've been killed once and another time just "hit" (not killed, leg shot) by snipers in more than 2 weeks of play now. The kill was I believe a superb shot from a good 400m, with me on a crouch run as I was moving from one cover to another. The hit was a retaliation when I was trying to clean out a bandit from a hilltop treeline. I'm the kind of player that spend a long ass time checking the area around a place before moving in, then use natural cover and lower ground to break sight lines on hillsides and treelines for approach as well as houses and the like once inside. However, my suggestion came from before 1.5.7, mainly studying what was happening in some of the main cities, with lone snipers/playerkillers executing everything that moved from a very long distance, and since zombies were almost nonexistent, without risk to themselves. This was reduced with 1.5.7 and completely disappeared once I moved onto hardcore, because you cannot abuse the 3RD view to check the area without being seen. DAYZ is not meant to be a military simulation but a survival simulation with semi realistic physics and the wide variety of controls allowed by ARMA2. While I agree that weapon variety is fun, there should be a care regarding weapons whose ONLY use would be against players (like scoped rifle). Just a quick quote from dayz dev team twitter from mid april: "We've been trying to work on a new PvP damage model and trying to discourage PvP however if players want to kill we can't stop them" It's a key element here I believe, try to discourage it, but not prevent it. And my suggestion was just proposing to help in that regard.

The average life expectancy is still 28 minutes despite all that and a lots of people won't even dare play on a night time server.

I believe Rocket specifically posted that he doesn't give much of a damn about balancing the game. Yep, there: http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3693&pid=34112&highlight=balance#pid34112 "There is no balance, other than the balance you will put in[..]" Also, my suggestion is more regarding loot rarity (as in, they are way, way too common) and mostly the fact that scoped rifles are not relevant game elements in the mod's concept, when taking into account other elements (such as zombies, direct com, night darkness, etc) and rather only serve as one purpose mechanics: kill players from a safe distance. That's really all I'm posting about, they don't fit with anything else within the mod so far. edit: oh, and again, that changed with 1.5.7 and I'm waiting for 1.5.8 to see how it stabilizes.

Here is a simple proposal, comments welcome but keep it civil and avoid all the "carebear VS pvp" arguments. Humanity level & impact: 6k & above: - Faster bandaging and blood transfer (trusting "aura") - Steadier aim after running(confident) - Less noise when moving (total confidence) 4k to 6k: - Faster bandaging and blood transfer (trusting "aura") - Steadier aim after running(confident) 2k to 4k: - Steadier aim after running(confident) -2k to 2k: - n/a -2k to -4k: - The shakes, random shakier aim and less steady after running (nervous) -4k to -8k: - The shakes, random shakier aim and less steady after running (nervous) - Slower bandaging, even self (paranoia) -8k to -12k: - The shakes, random shakier aim and even less steady after running (nervous) - Slower bandaging, even self (paranoia) - Random nervous laugh (maniacal) that can be heard by others and zombies. These will also, if other players are careful, serve to identify the very "deranged" in your group and thus make it harder for them to "fool" others -12k & below: - The shakes, random shakier aim most of the time and even less steady after running (VERY nervous) - Slower bandaging, even self (paranoia) - Random nervous laugh (maniacal) that can be heard by others and zombies. These will also, if other players are careful, serve to identify the very "deranged" in your group and thus make it harder for them to "fool" others - More noise when moving (unstable psyche) ps: for the nervous laugh, something like this (not these files of course, but as an idea). http://soundbible.com/839-Laugh-To-Self.html or http://soundbible.com/837-Evil-Laugh.html As you can see, the idea is to reward helping others, and slightly make it so that most people don't want to go too low in humanity without completely screwing up the hardcore that 100% wants to play the deranged murderers. With the "evil laugh" that the player doesn't control, it also allows for others, as said, to deal with the nasty ones among them so they can't be fooled too easily. The numbers are here for the example and they can vary of course. Comments are welcome :)

Wouldn't it be easier to just link the "can fill bottle" to the "you're walking in water" terrain detection? I mean, something clearly tells our client to play the "splosh, splosh" noise and to update the visibility and sound markers, so it knows if it's water or not just fine and that's already in the DAYZ code (since terrain makes the sound/visibility change and zombies react to it). Can't you plug the event detection there and be done with it? No calculation needed.

Totally agree and also don't want "balance", this is not what the mod is about I believe. The issue usually was not open fields and the like, it was towns/villages where players need to sneak about carefully for zombies. That sneaking, even if you're careful, will leave you very vulnerable to a long distance shooter with zero risk for him while another player hunter but without a scoped rifle, will have to follow you up in town, creating risk, which I'm fine with. But that changed with 1.5.7 as I said.

please no....geeesh. Just "normal" infected people, that's all I need :)

You kill zombies...with DMR. Wow, how's that working out for you in 1.5.7? I mean, you snipe one, then 30 rush you. Are you telling me you actually can snipe running zombies with a DMR? Geeesh, kudos man. And what about the ammo? You magically spawn them or just perma camp military bases? That's social interactions with people you already know and you're most likely using teamspeak/ventrilo/mumble/whatever, which has nothing to do with what I described. Sorry but drop the tools and start playing the mod by itself. You comment here but you're not even playing the same game. Sure, to each his own and you're free to play however you want, but that's like you're playing poker with people while using xray vision to see their cards, then start giving advice on how to play poker like a pro... edit: I could be wrong in the fact that you're playing with a group you know and communicate via external tools. If so, sorry and kudos, that's pretty smooth play. Otherwise, see comment above :)

:dodgy: Do you really want this game to be a TDM game or something? Hey, how about a leaderboard with who killed the most players, maybe he wins a copy of ARMA3 or something? Maybe we could also have a smaller map and only like 30 minutes per round or something? Then we just put some in blue, some in red, add some zombies and "yeeeeehhaa! let's kill, bitches!!!Lulzzzz!!" Please, no need to put anything to "reward" player killing. It's already happening and it already has it's own rewards. The idea of a dogtag is nice (though survivors arn't soldiers I think? could be wrong), to check the name of a player who died (in the check body system already I think no?), but collecting it is a useless mechanic.