dreman04

That's the spirit. I am frustrated at this game lately as well. I've had a few similar stories to yours. I can't count the amount of times I've died due to bugs. The amount of times I've ​ legitimately died to zombies and bandits are much much fewer than bugs, hackers, exploits. I'm trying my hardest to do my part in testing the alpha build of this mod, but I can't full test the features if I keep losing items, respawning in debug forest, exploding when logging in, having zombies walk through walls/floors, etc etc. I hope bug fixes are prioritized over anything else at this point truthfully. Edit: Fuck it, we'll do it live

It has to be a bug. It HAS to be. I just spent an hour being all sneaky just to have a zombie spawn on top of me, aggro, me pull a huge train of 6-8 of them trying to find a building I can go into. Once I finally find a building they start walking through walls and floors, knock me out at around 8k blood and I die before I can do anything. I respawn. I am frustrated to dying once again to bugs. I have nothing to lose at this point so I just start running, I didn't care what happened. I literally run passed zombies in arms reach to find that none of them aggro me. One eventually did and I thought to myself FINALLY, just kill me already so I can go to sleep. I stand there and what do you know... he swings once, misses, and walks away. I know this is alpha. I know there will be bugs. I ALSO know that part of play testing an alpha is to give feedback. So here is my feedback. Please fix the zombies. I can't thoroughly test the other aspects of the game with such buggy zombies. It's making me want to go play other games. And I probably will for a couple of nights.

I'm not sure what you mean at all. SupaFly1983 was talking about global chat, not "disabling the multiplayer." Unless you mean that turning global chat on somehow turns off PvP or something. Explain yourself good sir. Yeah that's what some other people said too earlier in the thread. That's why I like the suggestion a few people have made in a radio item. Those that want it could use it, those that don't can simply turn it off. It would also add a new level to the Bandit v Survivor situation in that one could infiltrate the other. I personally think radios are the way to go.

I don't get butthurt at all. I love the PvP. My argument is that there is a lack in the types of player-player interactions that occur - mainly, there is only 1, that of shoot-on-sight You're allowed to play however you want, but are you seriously going to tell me that after 2.5 million years of evolution if something as serious as a zombie apocalypse happened humanity would come down to a "may the best man win" mentality? No offense, but gtfo haha. I refuse to believe our survival is down to a deathmatch between other humans. No empathy? Ever? You're saying the only human emotion we're capable of after disaster is paranoia and fear. I think as a whole, we're better than that. Earlier today I re-watched the trailer on the front page of dayzmod.com. In the "Paranoia" section, there is what looks to be a Mexican stand-off. Those 5 players involved at some point had to trust each other but then due to some reason, the paranoia kicked in. Right now the game involves me playing with my buddies, completely and always trusting them and completely and always killing (or being killed by) others. I would just like to have those different kinds of player-player interactions besides "oh, a guy 100-600m out. I'm going to kill him." The game play is stagnant and predictable when it comes to running into another player. Kill or be killed. I just want more variation. So to recap, I'm not butthurt at PvP, I'm butthurt over the lack of alternative outcomes.

I feel like this is a tricky situation. While I wound never take away any of the PvP aspects of this game, I would like to somehow minimize the shoot-on-sight policy everyone has adopted. Originally I wanted a password locked server but people pointed out how retarded I was and how open to abuse that is by people who would have their safe haven server and simply server hop around killing survivors. I just wanted a place where I could invite my IRL family and friends as well as online gaming buddies to form more of a structured, roleplaying experience instead of a shoot-on-sight policy 100% of the time. As it is, that's not really possible though so I forfeit that idea. My new idea is to push for more open communications between players so that maybe I can actually meet someone in-game that's not part of my regular crew. Not only meet them ONCE but play with them again some time. That way we could maybe start getting people settled into servers and promote a "local" community and less server hoping or something. I think a fragmented as hell community is the problem not PvP. To answer your question then, PvP is absolutely required. I don't think PvP is the problem. I think the fact that it's PvE 80% of the time, and ALWAYS shoot-on-sight PvP the other 20% that's the problem. I would enjoy some variation in my player-player interaction. I watched the trailer on the front page of dayzmod.com again today - I encourage you to do the same. Did you know that there is a Mexican stand off in the "Paranoia" section of that trailer? That would simply NEVER happen in the game we play now. It just wouldn't. Paranoia levels are simply too high these days for that to even begin to develop. It would end before you even got into a group of 3 strangers. I would love it if it did though. tl;dr PvP isn't the problem, it's the fact that player-player interactions in this game translates into shoot-on-sight 100% of the time.

Since you took the time to actually make a well spoken post, I'll try to do the same with my reply :) I agree with you on a lot of things. As far as infrastructure goes, I'm not in the know-how of how hive servers and whatnot work, but I will say that something feels off. I've thought about it for a while now and posted in a different thread that I don't feel like the world is as "persistent" as it should be. I had suggested making your character save on a server to server basis but people shot that idea down pretty fast. While I agreed with them that in DayZ's current state that would not work, I do think something needs to be done to COMPLETELY stop alt+f4 and server hoping. I don't know what the solution is to that problem but it needs to be addressed for standalone, dlc, whatever this mod turns into. I like the environment so far, and it's definitely headed in the right direction. I would love to see larger urban areas with higher risks and higher rewards. I think DayZ did it backwards. I think players should spawn in the wilderness THEN move to the larger, coastal cities. Not the other way around. I'd love to see all buildings being open with bigger more complex shapes designs. Like you said, I'd love to get lost in a city. I understand ArmA II engine is a limitation here, but that's where I'd like it to head. I do like the variation in environments too like woodlands, meadows, farms/field, cities, creeks, rivers, etc. so it's definitely doing that part right. I have never played EVE, but I would love for this game to stay strictly sandbox style. I used to love shadowbane with their user generated cities and GvG mindset. I would really like to see player made settlements where you'd either have to fend off bandits or raid depending on what side you're on - or perhaps even rivalries between surviving settlements. For any of this to happen though, we need to go back to infrastructure as I don't think we're anywhere near being able to do this. As you guessed, I'm not sure how I feel on character progression. While I understand your points were made simply to get the conversation started, I do not think increasing weapon or item skills is the answer. I'm thinking maybe either vanity items that stay with you even after death or unlocking items with which you could choose to spawn with for your next respawn. Example: say you are the master of survival and have been out in the wilderness surviving for weeks. There should be an achievement in there for something like that. Let's say you could change the color of your outfit or dog companion (I heard dogs were in the works). Or maybe you could sacrifice your starter bandage or flashlight for matches or hunting knife so you could get back into the woods quicker. I don't really know, I'm just throwing ideas out there but I agree with whoever posted that damage and/or accuracy shouldn't ever be increased. I also agree with you though in that something needs to carry over from death to death or else after so many deaths I'll probably be too unmotivated to start over. But maybe that's just me. I think combat and survival are good where they are. They just need some minor tweaks here and there to maybe limit the abundance of military grade weapons, but other than that I like where we're at for these. I bet server hoping has a lot to do with their abundance too though, so again, refer to fixing infrastructure. OMG, the user interface is absolutely terrible. I don't know if this is ArmA's fault or what, but I've never played a game where 90% of the learning curve involved looking at the controls menu. NOTHING is intuitive and almost nothing follows general control standards we've grown to learn from other games. Switching weapons/items in your bag and inventory is a nightmare. The bag and inventory aren't easy to navigate through at all, and it's all too easy to delete items (I know, it's alpha, chill out). But if these things aren't addressed, they will be absolutely game breaking. I would also like to see the "traditional" zombies instead of the 28 days later rage infected. Not sure if any of this is true, but I heard Rocket went with the rage type due to limitations of ArmA engine though. The number of slow/traditional zombies needed to actually be a threat is too much for ArmA to handle. If we stick with the rage infected guys, I would like it if they weren't 100x times faster than I am only to catch up, do nothing, catch up, do nothing, and repeat their stupid dance until I find a house or tree to break their line of sight. I would want them to run just as fast as I can, only I would have an endurance meter and not be able to run balls to the wall hours on end. They however never quit or slow. I've also commented on my opinion on realism vs fun in another thread somewhere, but to summarize I agree with you in that it's a very fine line to walk. I would only sacrifice a little bit of realism if it meant a lot more fun (and never the other way around). Like someone else mentioned, the morphine thing is kind of stupid. I don't think you need to be a doctor to know that morphine doesn't heal broken bones. Introduce a split please and make it easier to acquire but longer to heal. You can make a splint out of almost anything... including your hatchet or rifle. I would not like it to be so realistic though that a grenade going off near me made me permanently lose my hearing. It's a fine line to walk, and I really hope Rocket includes the community on any of those decisions. Like I said before, I have high hopes for DayZ, and I really look forward to seeing how it develops. I wonder if we'll be able to compare it to counter-strike and DOTA someday.

What does this even mean?! Word has gotten out, and I think people are wising up and simply staying away from the area. What do carebears have to do with this at all?

My buddies and I play as if we are the farmers of the land. We stick to basically only the winchester and lee enfield. We don't use side arms at all except a revolver here and there if we have to. We only eat cooked meat and we only drink water from canteens. Pretty tough but very fun and rewarding. My opinion anyways.

In b4 shoot-on-sight hahaha

I'll bite. I don't own a gun but I do have an ax, baseball bats, and some pretty sharp knives in the kitchen haha. I'd immediately break into walmart down the street and steal their hunting rifles, bows, camping/fishing gear. Then I'd take my truck and head to the Rockies :) I'd be so fucked if I stayed in Denver similar to Atlanta in The Walking Dead I'm guessing.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of everyone playing on "hardcore" characters. I agree with you in that not having the option to play in any sort of "softcore" mode is what makes this game intense and addicting. However, I don't agree with you though that private servers would be high-fives and laughter 24/7. You need to understand that my family and friends are bastards and would pull the trigger on me faster than a random encounter!! The only difference in having a more permanent player base on a per server basis is that later, we could laugh about it over a beer or curse each other out and start up an awesome rivalry. Just because I know the other person IRL or as an online gaming buddy, doesn't mean we are always working together. It just means we tend to communicate more - be it trash talk or cooperation. As "persistent" as this world is, it doesn't feel like it is as I never see the same player twice. Even if I did, I wouldn't know it as everyone looks the same and player-tags are (rightfully so!) off. You could argue though that that is by intention as I guess you wouldn't expect to ever see the guy you killed again. But this is a game and there is a fine line between realism and fun, and sometimes I'd rather sacrifice a little realism for a lot more fun. Fun is, after all, what makes me coming back. Not the realism. A lot of people seem to use that term: "core concept." I don't want to be a dick here or anything but what exactly is the core concept of an open world sandbox? I wasn't aware there were any goals or objectives besides what you and other around you make of it. Me and my buddies are having a blast at the moment playing how we want to, but that is not to say our play-style won't get stagnant and boring in time. I'd like more flexibility in how I'm allowed to play this game to extend my play times. It's not the devs fault when a player uses those kinds of exploits. That's just a shitty player. It's hard to account for those and they (both exploits and players who use said exploits) will always exist in every game, not just DayZ. Now that those exploits have been identified though, I would like to see counter measures for such behavior at stand-alone or dlc or whatever this mod turns into. That wouldn't be a problem though if the servers were hosted by BI or whoever decides to take on this mod. But again, that is outside of the scope of where this game is at this point. I just look forward to seeing how things play out, and I hope we can add DayZ on the list of successful mods like Counter-Strike and DOTA. I loved watching those two develop back in their respective days, and I would like to see the same for DayZ.

I'm just trying to think of a way to feel like there is more of a community out there instead of just nameless faces that I kill or get killed by. I have my 2 buddies I play with, but that's it. And no offense to my 2 buddies, but this game will get boring if it's only us all the time. Just trying to think of how I can build a stronger community but server hoping and people just generally not playing in the same one kind of ruins it for me. Anyways, I got to go for now, but I'll read everyone's responses when I get home at night. Later all.

Ok. You guys are right with that password thing. I didn't even consider that truthfully. Call me an old fart, but I was talking about people setting up family or roleplaying servers where they only wanted certain people they knew coming in. A more controlled environment. But like you guys pointed out, people will abuse that more controlled environment. My bad. Edit: My only fix to that is make everything of yours save to the actual server you join. So joining new server means starting fresh. But I have no idea how hives work or where saving all that data comes in, so for all I know that's impossible.

I've never played BF3, so I can't relate. I tried looking up these articles you're talking about too but have no idea what a "ticket for conquest" means. I also don't know how much allowing servers to have passwords or lowering the player count on a server here and there would take away from your experience. This isn't a team deathmatch game where there are obvious capture the flag or reach x kill count goals. So you're not really changing the rules to the game by allowing some players to slightly change their server rule set.

DayZ is sort of Nazi Germany when it comes to server rules. For whatever reason it hasn't been made clear that different people want different experiences with this game, and so it's bizarre that a single, rather strict, server rule set is enforced over all servers. I would actually love to see that be more flexible and have a server out there that caters to everyone's needs/wants. I believe alt+f4 and server hoping create an "unfair" environment far more than allowing servers to have different options ever would. I agree with you that it should be a server option, along with many other things, but we'll see if that ever happens.

I haven't read passed the first page but comments like this kind of irk me a little. While comments like "LOL I JUST SHOT A NOOB IN CHERNO LOLOLOL" do break some of the immersion, I am willing to bet my left nut (my favorite of the two) that you use some kind of VOIP to communicate with your "crew." I know you do. Everyone does. So please don't try to argue that being able to communicate regardless of where you are on the map or what items you have and/or using extremely detailed online maps that show every single loot point doesn't also break immersion. No offense but your argument is "I don't want to hear other people outside of my crew" It's not a breaking immersion argument and people like you need to come up with a better defense for it. Edit: He admitted to using TS on second page. I knew it!

Thanks for the info. My buddies and I have a tactic where we drive from town to town clearing everything we find. In some towns we actually find nothing, but reading your explanation, it actually sounds like we just weren't waiting long enough for the loot to spawn. We would sometimes be in and out before many zombies spawned. We will try waiting a little bit longer now though :)

I feel your pain. Something less musical happened to me and my buddies 2 nights ago. I wish I had screen shots or a video, but sadly everything happened so fast I wasn't even thinking straight when this happened. We were driving through Dolina when our trucks wheels broke. We were stranded in Dolina with waves of Zeds coming at us. It was actually really fun and gut wrenching. We were having a blast protecting the truck while looking through the town for a wheel as quickly as we could. We get to this red brick building, the one you can actually go inside, when all the sudden the entire town blows up. Every building turns into rubble then we get literally 15-20 "[Name] was killed" messages appear and finally the "You were killed screen" comes up. Apparently a hacker killed just about everyone on the server by calling airstrikes to every city or something - I don't even know truthfully. We managed to get back to Dolina but at this point our truck was beyond broken and we just grabbed what we could from it and left it there since we had no items to fix every single part. Sad day in Dolina indeed. After all of our adventures, it's sad to go down like that. Seems like you guys had a pretty sweet camp going on too. Sorry for your loss.

Yeah, I think I agree in that it feels very much like small groups of people hunting other small groups of people with zombies in the background as hurdles. That's how me and my buddies started playing and we're doing magnitudes better. I heard from a previous post in this thread that ArmA was in fact very team based. It's interesting because every other zombie game I can think of extremely promotes co-op play by any number of game mechanics or features. This chaotic PvP sandbox we have going on now is probably what makes this game so different and addicting. I just wonder how long I'll play for, given I feel 0 empathy or emotion for anyone out there outside my 3 man group. If all 3 of us aren't playing, none of us are playing because it's too hard to meet up afterwards. Long-term play-ability for this game is low for me I think. Once the "new game smell" fades away, I'll be playing something else if nothing changes. I have high hopes and heard things that suggest they will though, so I am excited to see those develop. When I first started playing, I also played lone-wolf style simply because I didn't know how to find my friends. Truthfully, the biggest part of the learning curve for me were the god awful controls of this game. I have never played a game with such convoluted control schemes. This is not counting any bugs with the bags or inventory (I forgive those on the count of this being alpha after all). Accidentally deleting your rifle or a full jerry can is frustrating and absolutely game breaking if this were a "real" game as Rocket puts it. Those two items could quite literally be difference between life and death. But anyways, like I was saying, I didn't know where I was or how to get things. Watching some youtube videos and googling some maps not only told me where everything is found, but did so in excruciating detail. The in-game map is essentially useless at this point as online ones give you tons more information. It's unfortunate that VOIP and online maps are a necessity for meeting up with your friends when you spawn. That is one of my bigger complaints. Right from the get go it's impossible to meet up if you spawn in Kamenka and your buddy spawns in Three Valleys. Might as well have one of you commit suicide. In fact, that's what we do and hope that we get Electro and Three Valleys or something like that. Edit: Revisiting the pains of re-spawning. I think players should spawn INSIDE houses. Like you just woke up and BAM zombies. The event of me spawning just to be immediately aggro'd without even having a chance to move is all too often if you spawn too close to a city.

I don't think a class system or FORCING cooperation is the answer for this game. There just needs to be something that promotes it more or at the very least promotes communication more. I would not like to have something as limiting as classes or completely removing the "lone wolf" play-style.

Isn't global channel supposed to be off as per the server rules set by the DayZ devs? I thought all servers that didn't obey their no password, at least 40 player slots, no global chat, etc. rule-set will be blacklisted. But I will definitely give it a try though. Thanks! It might make the game feel more alive and full of players.

I remember watching an interview with Rocket where he mentioned underground player communities. I think that would be awesome and definitely a step in the right direction for getting players to call a server their "home." Getting people invested more into the environment and actually shaping the world I think is where long term play-ability will come from. I love games like shadowbane with user created content. I can't wait to see how this game develops.

hahaha I enjoyed that diagram. Thanks That actually sounds pretty awesome. Interesting to think that there was that much of an outcry against global chat and bandit skins. Wish I had jumped on this bandwagon sooner so I knew what that time was like and had a solid opinion on it.

I would like to play a DayZ where it was as well. Besides the bandit skin, did the humanity points affect anything else?

Thank you for the bandit skin explanation there Dallas. I think I would have liked to have been around for that era of DayZ. The social side of surviving a zombie apocalypse is completely gone at the moment for me. It's something I hope is restored to the game at some point. I agree with you that it is definitely something Rocket will have to decide, and it'll probably be the make it or break it moment in this game for me.