sktrooper@hotmail.com

I just want to say that Jeremy Clarkson is great at showmanship, but the demos and reviews he does are so biased and full of subjective rambling that they end up being absolutely pointless for anyone who actually cares about the quality of the product. If I was in Matt's shoes, I would have declined doing a demo for IGN at that moment and direct them to where they can schedule a demo, but I guess he figured he couldn't decline one of the biggest and most well-known gaming reporter in the world and did a demo anyway.

Bulletproof might have been a wrong term, but there are bugs (of course there are) that cause some sort of lagging effect where shots or hits don't register for half a minute or so, making it look as if a zed needs 20-30 hits to kill, while in truth you can actually shoot him in the head once, wait half a minute and then they'll drop. The problem with that, is that during that lag-out period, the zed is still hitting you and is causing real damage to you, and by doing so, potentially cause an infection. Maybe I shouldn't run into sheds or one-door buildings, but since antibiotics are so frigging rare, I tend to look through every potential lootspot to find them (and they're also really good spots to find camo/ghillie clothing or bigger backpacks). I don't want to game to accommodate my playstyle. I want the game to work properly so that I know when I make a mistake by being careless or having bad aim, I will be in trouble. But right now I'm in trouble because the game has constant AI-farts that make ingame life frustrating. And yay, the next patch will/might fix all of these issues, too bad Matt has been busy the past 3 months and hasn't done anything to get this patch live. PS: yesterday I was trying out DayZero. I broke a leg and was actually not bothered about it because it was my stupid mistake, the zeds behaved normally. And instead of just getting myself killed, I spent half an hour crawling to a hospital for medical supplies (and the hospital actually did have medical supplies there, shocker) to patch my leg up and get going again. If I get an infection in DayZ, the first thing I do is get myself killed, regardless of the amazing gear I may or may not have.

As a solo player myself, going to the general Stary-area results in certain sniper-inflicted death 9 out of 10 times. I much prefer hanging out near the coast and western side of the map so when/if I die, there's a better chance of me getting my gear back after a short corpse run. That + I still like to think that hospitals have the highest chance of yielding medical supplies, but apparently Chernorussian medical procedures involve lots of rusty tin cans and razors. Also, the infection isn't the kick in the balls. It's the way you get the infection: bugged out zeds that hit through walls, zeds that run through solid fences, invisible zeds that hit you from beneath the floor (I thought this was fixed?), zeds that appear to be many yards away from you but suddenly rubber-band right next to you, zeds that are bullet-proof while they are having a cat-scratch-party on your face. That is the real kick in the balls. Infection as it currently works (or doesn't work) would be fine if the zeds were working properly, but they aren't, so the infection now just causes an immense amount of frustration.

Not really. Very Rare Ammo: 1 bullet may result in you getting 2 off the corpse. Humans love to gamble. I think this would actually increase the KoS rate. Economy: same as above, shooting someone could potentially result in doubling your wealth. And why trade when you can access and take everything the guy has at the cost of one bullet? Value of Life: this might help a little. Having people learn certain skillsets over time, like making fires or applying more effective bandages etc, may help people to think twice before doing something stupid.. But then again, is shooting someone on sight a stupid thing to do? I'd say it isn't, because it increases your chances of survival, since that's one less potential source of death to think about. The only thing that will make people think twice about shooting on sight, is a consequence. Is the shot worth the potentially lethal situation that might follow or not?

There are already zeds roaming the wilds in the mod. With the improved performance of the SA I'm sure they could increase the number of roaming zeds, so that if someone is shooting from the bushes on a hill overlooking a town, he'd still get unwanted zed-attention. I really can only see one fix to prevent KoS, and that is to inflict danger on the one firing a gun. Put him in the same kind of danger as the one he's firing at. You can't rely on moral choices to minimize KoS, because behind the anonymity of the internet, everyone is a potential cunt.

If we go by what Dean said: pop a bullet in the dude's head and there's no reason for the antibiotics to be destroyed. Unless he held the box under his cap. Besides, if I was to ask him for help, who says he'll help me instead of killing me? I do have that sweet Lee Enfield on me while he only has a Makarov and he doesn't need my help right now anyway. You know when he won't kill me, or I won't kill him? When there's the prospect of getting swarmed by zeds before the looting can commence. Disclaimer: I'm not a cunt in any way, I actively try to avoid shooting people in DayZ at all costs unless there's no other choice (i.e. getting shot at or they're acting very suspicious).. I'm just a realist with little faith in mankind.

I have a disease and I see a player. I can ask him for help, or I can shoot him and see if he has some antibiotics on him. What will be my motivation to pick the former option over the latter?

Very utopian, but doubtful that will ever happen. 90% of the rest of his gear will still function, worth it in my book. Free loot without risking zeds (and thus avoiding infections and bleeding). Anyway, the server I play on has done some sort of odd update that increased the amount of spawned zeds, made them super-sensitive to noise and they seem to be less eager to leave a player alone when that player is hiding in a bush. It's actually broken and not intentional (at least I think it isn't), but it does prove my point. I was looting the firestation at the edge of Elektro when a bandit with a DMR shot at me from somewhere in the fields. He missed and what followed was just glorious: zeds came running in from as far as the hospital, there were easily 10-15 of them. They were hitting him despite of him sitting in a bush, after half a minute he just had to bolt it or else he would get absolutely stomped by the zeds. That's how it should be. He decided to fire a shot at me (I only had a crowbar and some food, so not like I was a real threat anyway), he didn't kill me and had to retreat without any loot or else he'd be dead. He never had the chance to fire a second round.

I still fail to see how an expanded medicine-, disease- or injury system will make people think twice before shooting other players? Unless Dean goes the bloodbag-route and enforce it so a broken foot or wound can only be treated by another player. But that would be a horrible system because this game is meant to be "be whatever you want to be" kind of game. If I want to be a lone wolf and not trust anyone at all, I should be allowed to be just that. There is no need to force me to go and find a rare friendly player to patch me up. So no, I don't think an expanded whatever-system will stop or reduce mindless killings on sight. Why or how would it? The only thing that will make people think twice about firing that gun of theirs on everything that moves, is an equally (or even more) dangerous risk of attracting a horde of zeds that can't be easily disposed of by hiding in a bush or pinetree or running through a building. You won't make people think based on moral dilemmas, you'll make them think by giving him the choice between 2 risky options: kill the player and risk getting swarmed, or leave the player and risk getting shot at.

I'd say that he'd be more inclined to KoS when people come near his camp or threaten to interrupt the project he's working on. That's what I would do in a hostile condition. KoS will be reduced significantly when you put the one pulling the trigger in as much danger as the one he's firing at. This can be done by making ammo rare (apparently, Chernorussians owned more ammo than food or drinks) and put a hefty price on firing a bullet, in the form of zed-attacks that can't simply be avoided by sitting in a bush or running through a small building. Lovely example of the level of fear the zeds should induce: Last of Us. If you fire a round when zombies are near, you're in deep deep brown secretion.

What will stop a guy from killing on sight just because he can build a base or board up a house? Being able to add silencers or scopes or rubber duckies to your guns won't stop him either. People simply kill on sight because it's the easiest thing to do in the game and there are no strings attached. If you try rolling as a hero, you end up being punished left and right (you get shot at, if you shoot back you lose humanity and risk losing the hero skin, etc). No new content feature will change that. What will, or can, potentially change that: have more lootable buildings (already in SA), have a bigger map (already in SA), make zeds a real threat that will cause a shitstorm when you cause a ruckus in a town (potentially already in SA?). Frankie has a point when he says that it used to be more fun when bandits would just rob people, but you won't enforce that by giving players more shit to do. You'll stimulate that behavior when you make sure that someone thinks twice about firing a bullet. Oh, and don't force all players to either Elektro, Cherno, NWA or Stary (that's where a bigger map and more lootable locations will help).

Repeating myself here, but on the topic of people being fine with the game being delayed for months because they want a lot of new features or else nobody will want to play SA: People want the SA because the mod, as it currently stands, is just rubbish to the point where a lot of the basic core mechanics are broken, buggy and/or unpredictable. As such, if the SA fixes those issues, people will play it. The only things that are needed for an alpha release: A game where zeds can see you only when they look at you, hear you only when you're audible to them, run in a non-frantic way towards the player and die when shot or hit enough to kill them.Proper optimized server and client tech to ensure smooth gameplayUpdated map with the new open buildings That is the purest foundation of an alpha release. It's pretty much a proper, working version of the mod. Once that has been established and tested, it's time to start working on new features such as Leaping zedsBunnyhoppingdegradation of weapons and clothingAttachmentsCraftingDisinfectingVarious types of woundsBasebuildingCar customization...Really, people are getting annoyed with the infinite delaying of the alpha because they just want to play DayZ without the frustration that the mod causes. Release the alpha now, and then work on a development roadmap for new features, but just get the basic game sorted without all these new features. My dear grandmother used to say "the more mechanics, the more breakanics".

Am I the only one who would already be very content with an SA that is pretty much a proper working version of the mod? Dean has always said he's a fan of the Minecraft method, but other than just having people pay a reduced price for the alpha, there appears to be -no- common ground between Minecraft Alpha and DayZ Alpha. When MC was released as pay-for-alpha, you could destroy blocks and craft basic tools. They didn't have horses back then, or breeding, or redstone, or pistons, or the nether, etc.. They had the basic version of the game out and they added content over time. But what Dean appears to be doing is trying to push the shelf-worthy game out as alpha and then just spend the alpha-period testing for server stability and bugs. DayZ SA Alpha release, for me at least, should just have the new server tech (the MMO thing they keep talking about), the basic expanded map with the new open buildings, proper zeds (pathing, detection, damage, etc) and the trimming of the mod's babyfat (bugs related to the limitations of modding the engine, removing unwanted entities and data traffic, etc...). Everything else can be added through monthly updates (or whatever schedule they think is acceptable). I think people just want a version of DayZ that is stable, smooth and doesn't cause frustration because of the multitude of bugs. Once that has been established, all the extra content can come (attachments, crafting, expanded medical system, and so on). And sure, I can understand that the game is not ready for alpha release just yet, but spend all your time and resources fixing just that, don't spend it on coding writable labels or making the left big toe bleed when hit.

I'm so very torn. This game is still rather addictive and fun to play.. But then there's the infection situation. I love the concept, I love the extra danger it brings to visiting towns. But it doesn't work well with the combination of horribly broken zeds and the extreme rarity of medical supplies (as a matter of fact, I've only found antibiotics 3-4 times in residential loot piles, never in hospitals or military loot piles). Onto the broken zeds. They spot you way too easily, even when you're at a distance and making barely any noise or have them facing their backs to you, they will spaz out and go straight for you (including the rallying of other nearby zeds). I've even had a couple of occasions where I was spotted by zed inside a house and it attacked me through the walls (this happens a lot with the log cabins). Just yesterday I was at Green Mountain when a zed managed to spot me from behind the camouflaged building. I ran off, took a dive and crawled under the concrete fences, only to have him run straight through the fence and beat me senseless. Things like this make it near impossible to avoid infection (lest you play by avoiding every location that has a chance of spawning zombies). Another issue with the zeds is that they sometimes appear to be immune to damage (or so it would seem), leading to situations where they're beating on you, causing you to bleed and get infected while you are emptying clip after clip on their head.. But they keep on going, only to drop dead after half a minute (so I guess it's a delayed reaction, but the damage they did remains). Same with melee. One moment I can handle them nicely with an axe (even the harder-to-kill infected ones), and another moment I am I can be going apeshit crazy on them and they don't even flinch. So in conclusion: the infection concept is great, the implementation of it is ridiculously bad. Either balance it by making antibiotics slightly more common, or offer alternative methods of battling the infection (like a slow process of keeping warm for a certain period of time (through heatpacks or hot meals)). Or simply make the infection something that makes you lose x-amount of blood over time, so that people with full blood have a better chance at surviving it (or keep their blood level up to outlast the infection). Infection right now, to me, is a game-over-type-of-deal. I'll either go find the nearest high point to jump off of, or go on a reckless quest to either get beat to death by zombies, or find a gun to shoot myself in the head with.

Totally off-topic, but I seriously can't be the only one that thought your avatar was Mortal Kombat's Sub Zero when seeing it scroll by when reading threads. Right?