I appreciate the quick response! I'll give this a shot if nobody else has any input on the issue at hand.

Well I decided to start playing DayZ again, figuring I'd be able to pick up where I left off - nicely geared and ready to go. However upon logging in, I find myself on the coast with no gear (not even a pack) however my debug menu shows all my stats as they were when I stopped playing. Attached is a screenshot. Has this happened to anybody else, is there a solution or is my stuff gone for good?

The higher zombie count is definitely a good thing, and I agree that there should indeed be more - however there definitely needs to be some tuning along the way. A good example of what I mean: After travelling through the woods for about 15 minutes due north near the west end of Chernarus, my partner at the time and I come across a lone farm house in the middle of a vast field. There is no town in the immediate area from what we can see, and expect things to be fairly quiet at this house. After closer investigation though, we see that there are about 20 walkers all around it, forest to one side, vast open field all around. The house cannot even be entered. Conversely, there have been times where I come across a small town with absolutely 0 zombies in sight. There are no signs of recent zombie slaughter, however the town is completely empty. (I suspect this may be related to another issue though...) Point being, more zombies are great as long as they're tuned appropriately by location.

Every time I find myself on the "waiting for server response" I always get in eventually, sometimes it's 5 minutes, sometimes it's 15 - rarely longer. Have a little patience, simply waiting for longer than you may be used to will likely get you in.

I say Dayz (days) in my head since first reading it... To me "Day Zee" and "Day Zed" sound silly and cheapen the chilling vibe the game (and name) should carry!

Prone = Pretty much entirely invisible to zombies. I was a bit intimidated at first as I decided to do the whole "lone-wolf" thing for a while with the increased zombie count... But once you learn to sneak around a zombie infested town with prone, you gain a bit more confidence as it's actually rather easy. It's very easy to get trapped prone with zombies at all angles if you're not careful though, so always be very aware of your surroundings ;).

Neat idea, though it should probably have been posted in the suggestion section. I personally think having a variety of skins from the very beginning would be best. Or perhaps a system that starts everybody as a "wonderer" and can grow into either a survivor or bandit based on their actions. For example: Upon loading in as a new character, all players are in civilian clothing, very basic stuff. Depending on their actions and how they chose to survive, they can then either turn into a "survivor" or a "bandit" - each status boasting a variety of different skins randomly assigned upon the change. If someone spend their time sneaking through towns and scavenging rather than murdering to get by, they become a survivor - and vice versa. That said, I believe rocket has stated that the bandit skin alone has been a pain in the ass, not sure if we'll see more development on that front for a while.

Aha nice, shame there were no zombies around to mow down! Would be really cool if you could remove the gun, and attach it to say... a car. *ponders*

Well I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks this! If it is indeed an issue with the Arma 2 AI Pathfinding, hopefully it's one that can be fixed :).

I don't think scripted missions have any place in Day Z - most anything scripted would detract from the essence of the game and it's general appeal (outside of the base functionality of course). I do however agree that as things are currently, there is definitely a lack of longevity. I'm not very familiar with the Arma 2 engine or it's capabilities, though I'm going to assume it's fairly flexible in what can be done with it. What is currently lacking are means with which players can interact with the world, and for the world to interact with itself. The more this is expanded upon, the more possibilities for dynamically created, user driven "scenarios" exist. Allow me to demonstrate my meaning: "A group of 5 people find themselves travelling together, surviving together. Over time they grow trustworthy of one another and begin to work efficiently as a team. Growing weary of the relentless travel, they want to create a 'safe zone' for themselves - somewhere they can find at least some comfort in being. After clearing out an isolated farm house, they decide to fortify and collect resources. Collecting barbedwire and wood from a nearby town, they begin to build a fence around the property. Luckily they find a gas powered generator in the barn and had the state of mind to collect some gasoline in their travels. On their next trip out, they head to a military base, recovering a couple flood lights and more material for their fence. They setup the lights, powered by the generator so they can sweep the surrounding area for potential threats, etc..." Hopefully that random little blurb better conveys my meaning... not to say that's EXACTLY how things should be, but the level of interaction with the world is what makes a sandbox game truly awesome. You say "No Factions" - I agree completely that there should be no pre-determined factions. However with greater freedom to interact with the world and other players - player factions will be created naturally, and die out just the same.

To prevent any potential flaming of this suggestion, let me make it clear that my intent isn't to make things "easier" or more user friendly. My suggestion: Tune/Remove the zig-zagging of zombies as they run and scream towards you. My reasoning: I found this odd from the very beginning, and now with the increase zombie count (which I LOVE btw) it's really more of an annoyance than anything. When I think of the actions a zombie makes, they are primal and in no way calculated. If they were to think, it would be "KILL! EAT! BRAINS! BWARHG!" and would then proceed to the most direct route to achieving those thoughts - which would be directly towards me, the meal. I can't imagine a zombie trying to psych me out and dodge my bullets as it's only goal in... well not life... let's say existence... is to feast on the living. There are no thoughts of self preservation, blow off it's legs and the only thing it will do is try to crawl and maul. As I said before, with the higher zombie count - the zig-zagging is really more of an annoyance and immersion breaker than anything. When I have a hoard of zombies running circles around me, darting in and out taking one bite at a time, zig zagging everywhere the only thing going through my head is "Damn it Zombies, why aren't you acting like zombies!" ----- Am I the only one who feels this way? I understand that we all likely have different ideas of what a "zombie" really is and how they should act, but this just doesn't seem to fit the bill for me (not to mention the ladder climbing :P). Anyway, just a simple suggestion - would be great to hear other's thoughts on it though!

I believe this happened to a lot of people (if not everybody). Not sure what the cause was, but I spawned near the coast after having logged out in a tower at Elektro last night. From the server chat at the time, it seems the same thing happened to everybody else there.

Some good tips for stating a new char, I'll definitely keep that in mind when I die next :). I was lucky in finding out prone = your best survival tool early on, pretty much completely invisible to zombies!

I love the new sounds, definitely adds to the immersion of the game. I do however agree that the panic sound needs to be tuned a bit. I was in a fairly enclosed space with somebody I had met along the way and we were both looping that panic sound just a little out of sync... sounded very broken - and it just kept going on and on. Adding some variety to the mix, maybe something a bit more subtle, and/or limiting the frequency in which the sound can be triggered would solve any quarrel I have with it :).