Bribase

But surely that's the trade off? We don't want temporary supressors to render SD weapons obsolete so make the use of plastic bottles and pistols limited in use and reduce accuracy and effective range. You can use a bottle for a shot or two if you desperately need but it just doesn't compare to a proper SD weapon.

I'm all for the motivation for a decent hand to hand combat system but I don't think this is the right implementation. Cinematic minigames and QTEs just don't seem like the kind of solution that works for DayZ, they are really only effective for single player games and games with this kind of combat at their core. I think that something closer to the block, break, attack system of melee like dishonored fits the game better. Melee should be selectable using the weapon select key you use for grenades, flares e.t.c. The same modifiers like fatigue, health, carry weight and the weapon you are holding should acts as modifiers for your ability to block and attack. Once an enemy is subdued (knocked to the floor) you have the option to knock them out with a single blow or to kill with repeated blows. This ensures that fights are as fluid as the gunplay and complex enough for players to need to get the hang of without spoiling immersion with QTEs and minigames.

I would love to see hunting build in complexity to the point where specialist players can spend a lot of their time stalking and killing animals for food, then trading it for weapons and equipment. Killing animals should be something that can still be done in passing like taking out the odd rabbit while playing but to make meat your primary source of food should take time and dedication. This should be improved by the ability to set snares along with the bear traps. The evasion behaviour of animals ought to be very simple to code since it doesn't require much beyond configuring their LOS properly and reversing the zombies' attraction to noise to repulsion from it. Some interesting ideas can be gleaned from The Hunter 2012 like the use of pheromones and animal calls to attract prey: It would be interesting to see players think of weapons like compound bows and modern sighted crossbows as more than stealthy ways to dispatch other players, they are essentially the key to start a business or to keep a squad fit and healthy. Being an accomplished hunter/trader could even make a player one of the most important individuals on a server, relied on by everyone to keep fed and possibly even above the violence and petty squabbles between competing squads. As for keeping meat from spoiling I guess that in a post apocalyptic scenario like this one we would go back to rubbing it with salt and hanging it until it dries. This could have it's own drawbacks like attracting feral dog packs, looking for an easy meal.

Yup. The idea of a permanent, static safe zone somewhere on the map is counter to what DayZ is about. That or it becomes a place for bandits to lay seige to or take pot shots at. The idea of groups of carebears trying to maintain law and order in a certain area is an intriguing one though. If there are to be "Safe zones" their safety must be maintained by players, not arbitrary game design and their safety must be fleeting and conditional. You want an area to be safe? Expect to fight off periodic attacks from roaming zombie hordes and attempts at coup by bandits.

Rocket spoke about "instanced" underground bunkers where players are essentially teleported to a different area of the map when they enter it. As for them collapsing I don't see why not. It kind of strains the imagination to think what survivors could build without proper digging equipment though. I imagine that building a sizable bunker that can take the weight of the earth on top of it is no easy task.

I think that neck snappery is a little unrealistic given that it needs strength and skill to do properly. The ability to knock them out with a "Rabbit punch" is more believable. The problem is implementing these without being able to do it to any player in close proximity regardless of whether they are aware of you or not, making hand to hand combat way overpowered. I don't think there is a way to implement it to work only when your opponent is unaware that you are creeping up on them. Perhaps some kind of activation timer for the last time they enter your field of view similar to the combat timer but "under the hood?".

I've no idea what kind of discount the steam sale will bring us but if you want the DRM free version of CO: http://www.gog.com/gamecard/arma_2_combined_operations

There doesn't necessarily need to be a specific use for these objects in my opinion. Just give us consumables like cigarettes and booze that have effects and let the players decide how best to use them.

1. SMK integration. A range of additional movements like rolling,blindfiring, urban proning and back to wall would enhance the gameplay considerably. As long as people can ignore it and play normally but advanced players can use the full range of movements. 2. Make everything harder from zombies being a genuine threat, making hunting an art in itself and making the healing/survival mechanics more complex. I want to weigh up my options continually, fighting exposure and infection as much as I fight bandits now. 3. A genuine sense of being able to leave your impression on the map/server. From building bases to leaving clues, securing areas to reaching places that are otherwise impassable without a skilled squad or special training.

I'm really torn about this. While Failbait's post is valid, anything that adds another layer of gameplay, anything that makes your character more precious and a greater loss to you if he dies the better. We have character progression in the form of loot and vehicles but the significance of it has diminished when well organised squads can come and pick you up and get you back in the battle with your equipment intact. Even lone wolves can hoof it to their camp to load up again. The significance of a persistant character is not what it used to be. The key to this is to give you character something like a memory/identity of some kind that is erased on death and grows as they play. While this will always be a little inorganic its a welcome trade off for making your character feel like an investment of time and a risk to lose.

Yup! Plenty of threads on this already but integration with SMK is something that Rocket has to look into.

An absolute no brainer. Thumbs up and beans to you. I would like to see a benefit of not having a bag at all though. Maybe a change in weapon handling? Being able to swing your weapon around more easily?

The problem with recording sound for weapons like the AS50 and M107 is that there is no easy way of capturing the kind of sound pressure that such a weapon produces. You need hearing protection if you are anywhere near it and nothing comes close to repoducing the sound/feeling of the shockwave as it hits you.

The beauty of the SMK mod is that you can pretty much ignore the new range of movement and play vanilla if you want. You have to keep in mind that other players will use the mod to their advantage though.

No Fucking Way.

While I find the aggro range playable I do think that the Zeds' behaviour should be changed a little. While I understand that coding the zeds to have human level eyesight their ability to detect friend from foe is superhuman. Why not code the zeds that spot you from long range to slowly investigate your position, mid ranged zeds to advance at intermediate speed and zeds that spot you close up to be fully aggroed? If anything this adds to the tension more if you ramp up the view distance but lower the range of actual aggro; instead of a binary level of aggroed/not aggroed, zeds could give up your location just by moving slowly to your position if you stay there for too long. Imagine trying to detect players on the lootless side of NWAF before you explore the area. You may have just arrived but the zeds around the hangars seem to be "flocking" to an area that should have nothing to attract them to it. The hiding player needs to withdraw and change position or shoot the zeds as they slowly advance, giving up his position.

I understand that but I think Jay still has a point. DayZ is about weighing up risks vs reward of certain actions. Do you kill and gut that goat or is exposing oneself in the middle of the field to risky? Should you open fire on a player or do you risk giving up your position to a counter-sniper? Do you investigate the vehicle or could it be a trap? I think adding a cost to looting bodies by increasing your detection distance is a fair payoff and a great way to deter (but not unreasonably punish) banditry. Killing and looting, while an integral part of DayZ is too high reward and in many situations low risk. Jay's idea works but I would like to add another suggestion to go with it; Corpses should attract zombies in general for a while. This means that the zombies' attraction to fresh blood is plausable and trying to detect other players by looking for spawned zombies is harder to do in high PvP areas.

I think this would be the way to go instead of actually setting up a farm of some kind. Farmhouses and other residential buildings could have a small allotment or greenhouse that regenerates over time (for the sake of gameplay around once a day). I would love to see hunting integrated into the game better. Instead of the walking barbecues we see around chernarus I would love to make deerstalking and rabbit hunting take a great deal of time and patience. It shouldn't be too difficult to code the behaviour of the animals in the woods: Give the deer or rabbit half of the visual range but a wider field of vision than a zombie and give it acute hearing. If it detects you make it bolt in the opposite direction. This would add another layer of gameplay to the survivor experience.

I just can't see a scenario where the Chernarus military decides to deploy fighter jets to curb the zombie horde. Helicopters? Sure, but why jets?

Aren't there much easier ways of implementing a recognition system? Why not just bind the nametag function that's already present in the game to a key, then only allow the function to activate only if you are pointing directly at the player first (no way of scanning to detect other players when they are hidden), then only allow nametags to activate within a certain range (I would say around 15m). A player's nametag corresponds to the player's identity, a stand in for those characteristics that simply can't be recreated in a game (their gait, the way they move, their facial expressions). The keybind is the equivalent of saying to yourself "hey, do I know this guy?", your recognition of their name is a stand in for yours and your avatar's own memory. Of course, a system like this works between individual survival attempts so a "handshake" mechanic is probably worth implementing. No handshake, no memory of the player, no nametag shows up.

In the same way that praying for forgiveness works IRL. You aren't really being forgiven; you are appealing to magic in order to find a way to forgive yourself. And just like IRL, your reputation for doing wrong and your debt to society is not payed because you asked baby Jesus to let you off. As in real life it should be in the game. Please, take a moment to pray after killing someone. Just don't expect it to do anything other than make you feel better about the harm you caused. http://militaryatheists.org

Great server so far. Needs bumping.

Get out of here! Stalker.

Check your mail, Mac! I've sent a request too.

I'll just comment on the river idea for now. Fuck yeah! But with an addendum. Most inland cities are established on the banks of rivers; they run through cities, not alongside them because of the access to trade routes normally only available to coastal cities and the ability to harness water power to drive water wheels. Starry and Vybor ought to have the river run right through them. This could make for an interesting tactical situation with only a small number of functional bridges allowing passage from South to North. These could serve as choke points for aggroed zed hordes and sniper central for players trying to get across one of the bridges on foot. Perhaps even a powerable Bascule bridge could be raised and lowered to allow vehicles to get from one side of the city to the other.