jedra

Happy New Year to the DayZ team. I haven't really followed this discussion, but would just like to say that I hope the team don't let the development of this game ruin their health or their sanity. Standalone will be ready when it is ready and it will benefit from a solid alpha release even if it is not content or feature complete. The troubles of that 'other' game shows what happens when you try to rush something. Anyway, I wish health and happiness to all involved in the DayZ development and my very best wishes for 2013. You have my money whenever this is released and I look forward to the ride!

This has been happening forever in Arma - it's the AMD crossfire profile that needs to be fixed. In the past AMD have been pretty silent on the matter, but now there are millions of you using DayZ perhaps if you pester AMD they will make a new profile. I have an HD5970 OC and have been experiencing this in Arma 2 for a couple of years now. I can get it stop happening by reducing texture detail to normal - this drops the GPU workload to around 65% on each GPU on my system and then there's no flickering. As soon as GPU gets above 95% on each card then in certain lighting situations I get the flickering strobe!

I think you need to look at it from the point of view that during this Alpha stage you are donating your server to help out. Once the game becomes standalone, and it will, then hopefully these technical difficulties will be resolved. Yeah, it's a bummer when you can't get on your own server (I run an Arma, Iron Front and occasional ToH server) but in this instance you're just going to have to take it on the chin and be proud to be part of it all. You can withdraw your server, which would be a shame, but no-one can blame you for doing so. I understand that paying for a server you can't play on is a bit of drag - especially if you're taking donations from clan members. But maybe these aren't really appropriate servers to be offering up? Reserving slots has been a feature request for Arma for bloody ages - I am not even sure it's going to be there for Arma 3! However when DayZ go standalone they have the opportunity to add this in. Also hopefully they will figure out how to give out the server files without creating hacker mana from heaven. This should increase the number of servers out there and therefore reduce the load on individual servers. Also, you never know, those that helped out by providing servers during the Alpha might get something nice from the DayZ team when they go their own way...

The OP does have a point in a way. If you are new to the game then it seems hard - because it is hard. Anyway, some advice. Since the latest update it is possible to prone-crawl around most Infected as long as you don't get too close and stay out of line of sight (say 2 - 3 yards). Yes, it is slow and yes it can take a while to find a weapon if you are on your own - but it is possible. If you are very new, choose a server that has 3rd person enabled as it's much easier to navigate around when prone in 3rd person view. Once you get used to this, you will spend very little time running. Sometimes you will aggro an infected by mistake (usually by crawling right into one!) and then it's often better to run than use up ammo and/or risk aggroing the whole town/city. If you are being chased then run into a building (like a barn) as the infected cannot run indoors - if you have a weapon it makes it easier to pick them off. If you don't have a weapon, wait for them to walk a good way into the building and then leg it out (they have to walk out!) - you should be able to get enough of a distance to break line of sight. In the beginning you used to start with a gun, now I prefer that you are not armed. I would like to see them try with giving you a big stick or something that is good for a couple of strikes - just to help out those who are finding it tough in the beginning. It would be no good against other players but it may be just enough to get you by until you find another weapon.

Yeah - you can just delete the expansion/beta folder in your Arma folder structure. Then just re-download and run the patch you want to use. Here I am assuming you used the beta patch and NOT the release candidate - you can't roll back the RC.

Then there would be servers sitting there with no-one on them for 24 hours and no-one would be able to play!

Personally I quite like the way they are going about this. Sometimes they might break the game with a patch, and sometimes that 'silly thing' they added might revolutionize the game. The thing is that I am sure that the team are gauging opinion. I get the impression from the interviews that Dean himself does not know where this thing is going but I also get the impression he'll know when he gets there. This is kind of exciting and pretty revolutionary when it comes to games development. On the plus side it's going to allow for some pretty crazy ideas to be implemented which never would if this was a traditional design workflow. On the negative side it's going to allow for some pretty crazy ideas to be implemented which never would if..... My point is that it's going to result in some things that work, some things that don't work and some things that outright break the game along with a few things that may revolutionize gaming as we know it perhaps. So, I would say that it's OK to bitch and moan about something (as this will help gauge the mechanics), but you have to do it in the knowledge that most things are added to the game just to 'see what happens'! I am loving it really. As a developer myself it kind of reminds me of those rare occasions where you get to prototype something rather than follow a strict design. Sometimes stuff you try works and sometimes it doesn't - either way you generally learn something and it's a damn sight more fun! Looking forward to playing with the next beta release!

Anything that requires electricity needs batteries, so remote controls would need them. Also... 1. When you pick up a device with a battery, it may have already had quite a lot of use - who knows how much battery life is left. 2. Batteries leak charge even when not used. 3. Batteries corrode and may even damage the device they are in. I would like to see this modelled more accurately in game, this way, having the whizzy kit means you also have to make sure you have the means to power it.

I don't think they should get rid of stuff, but if in reality something needs batteries then it should need batteries in the game. Batteries will need replacing or re-charging. In the post apocalyptic world I would imagine that electricity would almost be as precious as water. If Dean and the team explore this side of things further then they will be on to a winner.

I think the OP makes a few good points. I have been playing DayZ since it first leaked out of New Zealand and have started to find it quite frustrating on first spawn... The infected are now a lot harder to avoid aggro-ing than they initially were which makes it's really difficult to get started. I think that they should go back to giving the player a weapon on spawn. Not a gun though - maybe a plank of wood, or a big stick that breaks after a few uses. This gives the player enough self defence to get started in finding a proper weapon and some basic food/drink. Yesterday after patching, I found it really hard to get going after a fresh spawn - it took several lives before I eventually managed to find a weapon (and this was only because I came across a player corpse). I spent most of the evening before that running and trying to lose aggro. If this was the first time I had played, I would probably have given up and not come back again. With regard to point 4 - I think this is just part of the game - you are going to come across lunatics every now and again!