Time Glitch

I've already "paid 30 dollars for a mod" (I know I was paying for ARMA II), and I would gladly pay again for a stand-alone game. This is what I've been waiting for in a Zombie game, and I'm sure I'd be blown away if you had access to the source code, and your own IP. DayZ can be so much more than "just a cool mod", and I really hope you don't burn out on this because of the complainers. Go for the gold man. Make DayZ a full game. I think you'd be surprised at just how many people would buy it.

Alright, this is a crazy idea, but I think we need to start somewhere. There's simply too much killing going on, and not enough trust. This can't be helped by the nature of the game, but perhaps there's some way we can help ease the tension and learn to trust our fellow survivor a little bit more. Basically, this is a system I've devised to have survivors meet on neutral and non-hostile ground in the hopes that they can cooperate in the future. I'm of course willing to take suggestions, or you guys can come up with another sytem that's 20x better than mine. My point is, we survivors need a code of conduct for first contact that both parties can agree and be happy with. Okay, so here it goes: Preface: --------------------------- All of these steps must be agreed upon by both survivors, or the situation will be considered hostile. Breakage of any of these steps will result in the situation being considered hostile, and grounds for opening fire. --------------------------- You've made contact with a survivor, maybe exchanged "friendly"s. You don't know what to do next. You might not even know where this person is. ========================================== -Agree to meet indoors or in a sniper-blind spot. Indoors, behind a rock, etc. This reduces the risk of traps. -If both survivors have rifles, they must be lowered and pointed away. If you or the other survivor does not have a rifle, they must aim their pistol at the floor and use their Alt key to see where they're going. Double tapping Alt will lock your gun down and allow you to free look. -Following up with the previous point, both parties must enter the neutral ground walking sideways. -Both survivors must enter the meeting space standing upright and walking. This will allow for a quick escape if things go badly. -Once visual contact has been made, it must be maintained by both parties until the end of the exchange. Any attempt to break line of sight or getting behind the other player will be considered a hostile action. -Each movement or action will be dictated before performed. Not stating that you're going into your gear or switching weapons is considered a hostile action. -At this point, what you do is up to you. If you feel safe enough, you might want to consider dropping weapons and talking for a bit, or trading supplies/information. The point is, you've met on neutral ground and are able to open a dialog without fear of being shot. ========================================== Here's my logic behind the system: The indoors aspect is to deter the "baiting" tactic that some bandits like to use: Put a fresh spawn out there and then snipe whoever's trusting them. Meeting with guns down and to the side ensures that if someone has the intent of shooting you, they must both turn and raise their weapon to fire upon you, giving you a heads-up and a chance to run away or return fire. Standing is necessary because you can quickly move to sprint and get out of there if need-be. Dictating action is a good sign of trust, because you won't be surprised by any action the other player is making. Tensions will be high, and considering any breaking of the rules will be considered a hostile action, dictating your actions will be good for easing that tension. This is not something that can catch on overnight, but if you guys come up with a better system or would like to use this system, I suggest an opening phrase that lets other survivors know you're in on the know of the First Contact protocol. One of my favorite little details of the Halo universe was the secret phrase that every Spartan II used as an "all clear". The exchange would go as follows: Initiator: "Oly Oly Oxen Free!" Response: "All out in the free, We're all free." So if you ran across another survivor, you'd open with "[survivor name] Oly Oly Oxen Free!". If the other player knew the proper response, they would say "All out in the free, We're all free." A bit like an advanced Marco Polo. From that point, you'd initiate the first contact protocol. This might be a tad bit complicated, but I think it's better than the "Friendly" nonsense that's quickly becoming outdated. In all likelihood, the survivor you run across will not know the protocol, so you ask them if they're willing to meet on certain terms and explain it to them. At the very least, you might run in to at least one other person who understands the code. That alone might do wonders for your trust. What do you guys think? Good idea? Horrible idea? Give me some of your ideas, as I think a standardized First Contact protocol is very much needed in this game.

This sounds amazing! My friends and I are actively trying to get a Huey, though we're very far off and still don't know quite what to do to set up a base camp and then gather all the parts, let alone find one. If V18 is an inverse server, we'd love to share resources and maybe we could get a MediVac system going! Choppers are so quick, you could get anywhere really fast.

Yeah, I think this is all dependent on voice communication working. Did it break in an update or something? I saw Direct comms all the time on older DayZ videos.

I agree completely. Trust is fragile enough as it is, but people giving up entirely and deciding to always shoot on sight are just the biggest of quitters and whiners. At the very least, just TRY to avoid other people if you have no trust at all. Don't just start unloading on them. Personally, I'm not giving up on cooperation. I won't openly invite it, but if I run across another player or two I might try to open a dialog.

The crossbow would be an incredibly useful and effective weapon if the sights were just better! It'd be really nice to have even a simple bar that showed you right where the bolt was going to go. A full scope might not even be a bad idea. I have no idea if this is possible, but I'd love for it to happen.

I really like that idea. Forces their hands up, and they drop everything. Their pack is replaced with a basic patrol pack, and they are left with a couple of clips of Makarov. As long as the robber is holding them up, they can't move, so the robber gets to pick the loot pile for what they want.

I'm just going to echo the same sentiment, because it bears repeating: 1.5.7 Zed count. Longer respawn. Keep new detection AI. Thank you!

Be the change you want to see in the world. The more people that can be trusted, the more trusting will happen. It's not an issue of bandits. They aren't the problem. The problem is that more and more people are getting too paranoid, and will shoot anyone on sight. You might lose your beans, but the more trust that can go around, the better. Start trusting, even if it means you have to agree on meeting terms like lowering weapons and turning away from one another, or putting down weapons altogether. Someone has to start somewhere, or this community will get nowhere. Someone has to extend the olive branch.

Was anything actually fixed? 3 friends and I totally ran out of ammo in a barn because they wouldn't stop spawning and we couldn't kill them quick enough. The spawn rates were still VERY high for me tonight...Maybe even quicker than before.

=D!! I'd hug you if forums had arms.

So...Inverse servers are going away? ... =C That's the only way my friends and I can play on daylight servers... Edit: I don't mean perma-light servers. I'm talking about US based servers that simply have an inverse day/night cycle.

I was basically logging in for shits n' giggles to take stock of what I had. I logged in during the night, and for some reason I was back at the beach. I had all my stuff, so I threw a few flares and got to a good log-off spot. Then I accidentally dropped my Winchester. I popped a flare to try and find it, and I was not having any luck. I attracted a zombie, who attracted 3 more. I was a complete idiot and couldn't figure out how to switch back to my freakin' pistol so I kept accidentally throwing flares, then chemlights, and then they killed me... I choked bad. Never again.

How did you get it working? My friend has the amazon edition as well and he'll probably run into some problems.

Hey there! One of the only annoying things so far about surviving out in the wilderness is the frequency I run across water sources I can't fill up on. I spend 10 minutes sneaking towards a pool surrounded by zombies...Oop, sorry, can't fill that here even though it's a huge pond! I've only seen a few pools out in the wild where I can fill my canteen. Please expand this in 1.5.8! I prefer the solitary wilds when I have no buddies, and this is a huge issue for us lone wolfs. Thank you =)

Date/Time: 5/17/10:30PM PST What happened: Logged in to previously saved character, spawned at the beach despite logging out in the wilds. Where you were: Don't know. But I was back at the beach! What you were doing: Logging in. *Current installed version: 1.5.7 *Server(s) you were on: Ducksoup Gaming *Your system specs: Operating System MS Windows 7 64-bit CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 33 °C Deneb 45nm Technology RAM 8.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz 9-9-9-24 Motherboard Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA790GPT-UD3H (Socket M2) Graphics SyncMaster @ 2048x1152 AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series *Timeline of events before/after error: -Logged out a few nights ago. -Logged in tonight, was on the beach.

3 things. 1. If night stays like it is, we need to start with another set of flares. 2. Your eyes will adjust to starlight, even on a pitch black night. I've had this happen to me before camping. It's pretty incredible how human "night vision" can kick in. We're not asking for moonlight, but I agree it shouldn't be pitch black. 3. Any tips for surviving as a total newb at night? 10 flares ain't that much to go on!

I just wanted to share my love of this game. The last 3 hours have been some of the best gaming hours I've had in a very long time. I started out not even knowing the controls or the map, but I survived. I went through my first ammo and food pretty quick due to inexperience, but I lucked upon a ton of Winchester ammo, and lo and behold a pair of binoculars! It was only 10 minutes in, max. Those things are my prize possessions. I was really running low on food and water, and while I had a lot of canteens, the only water I found was glitched and didn't let me fill up. I had to make my way to the coast, and that's where I spent most of my time. I ran to a concrete island off the shore, and there was nothing there but zombies. I learned that the hard way, looking through all the buildings and finding nothing but scrap. Oh, did I mention that I broke my legs, and nearly bled out with zombies on top of me? I don't know how I survived, but painkillers and morphine somehow repaired my bones and I was good to go again, but I lost a lot of blood. Things were looking incredibly grim. I was at zero hunger and needed food. I sucked it up and entered a zombie-infested town. I found a lot of ammo, and even a new backpack, but no food. As I was about to give up hope, I looked in my pack and...Newb mistake coming in here...I had a can of sardines in it the whole time! Fed enough, I then needed to sneak out of the city again and refill my water. I was checking a shed when I hear shots ring out. I hit the deck and type out "Friendly?"...More shooting. Zombies in my area unfortunately do not take notice. I assume whoever it was died, because the shots stopped and I heard no footsteps or zombie yells. After that scary moment, I managed to sneak all the way out of town and back towards where I killed a goat earlier, hoping it'd still be there for some chow. It wasn't, but I had enough food, so I decided to head back out to the wilderness to log out. Just as I'm 100 yards or so away...More shots. I hit the deck again and scope it out with my binoculars. A group of 4 players, madly firing into zombies. I couldn't tell if they were bandits or not, as I still had lost blood and everything was sepia tone. Plus, they were across a bridge. I began to crawl away, as I was in a totally open field. I got behind some cover, and I never found out what happened to them. The zeds around there seemed to calm down, so I assume they all died. Cautiously, I made my way to the wilderness...And here I am. Rocket, you and your team have something special here. I don't even know what to say other than thank you. I can see myself wasting too many hours in this game... Just...OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME!!! =D

Fairly simple. I looked at the newbie guides, and I couldn't find out how to do this. I don't know where to gather the supplies to build a fire, or even what those supplies are. Little help?