Junos

A few days ago my squad was leaving Cherno after a hunt for medical supplies when I heard from a friend new to DayZ that she was down to 3,000 blood in Komarovo. My squad set up camp north of Cherno and I set off to rescue my friend. I arrived at the edge of town and she told me what buildings she was near. I couldn't see her anywhere. Suddenly I heard a motor. A motorbike zoomed down the highway drawing a trail of zombies. He circled around, so I fired some shots to chase him off. Then I saw his friend on a bicycle. They rode off to the west. Whew. Then her brother arrived from Cherno. He found me before I found him. Glad he wasn't a bad guy. We looked for his sister, but finally we discovered that she was on 232 instead of 323. Oops. After getting some beta patches switched around, we all got on the same server, and I was able to give her a transfusion. Then I led them north, away from the nasty coast. We hit a few deer stands on the way to town. We were quite tired when we arrived, but it felt good to have executed a successful rescue mission. The next day I decided to "make the rounds" to the nearby barns and deer stands from my squad's tent. I've done it before. No big deal. I climbed up into the deer stand, and went prone to hide while I looked in my gear. But my character thought he could fly: rather than going prone, he decided to leap from the deer stand and then go prone. "Crack!" No morphine left. A very long crawl back to the tent followed. I decided to check a barn that was on the way. I tossed a chemlight inside so I could see to kill the zombie I heard inside. Then another one came out of nowhere. I rapidly pulled the trigger on my AK-74 over and over again, and nothing happened. Then I realized that my character was throwing chemlight after chemlight, while I was losing pints of blood to hit after hit from the zombie. Finally I got him to shoot the rifle again and took down the zombie. Now I had broken legs and about 50% blood. So I crawled back toward the tent again. Thankfully a buddy was on his way to the tent from Cherno, and he had morphine. He met me at the tent, and our last auto-injector was used to restore my legs to full capacity. Another buddy arrived later and gave me a transfusion. Later I met another buddy who's new to DayZ in the barn nearby. We made a little milk run to the nearby supermarket, which is never as easy as it sounds--it's so hard to get to it without drawing attention from zombies. But we did find another tent, which was good, since the last one we had disappeared due to an inventory bug. We made it back safely after a successful mission. We put our new tent on a new server, since our other tent was on a server that was out-of-date. I transferred all of our gear successfully. I was careful to count how many rifles I put in the tent. Then I made a "water run" to a nearby town to fill up some water bottles. I found another tent! It disappeared from my gear while I was trying to retrieve some ammo from my backpack. Sigh. I returned to our tent. The AS50 I had transferred to our new tent had disappeared. Sigh. DayZ is like a rollercoaster. :)

All Gamebooster does is close other programs before starting the game; you can do that yourself without running yet another magic program. Good grief, all these incantations used when running Windows is like black magic. I hope we get a Linux version someday. Background processes is not the issue here. The issue is one in the ARMA engine on the server and client of letting world objects persist and build to an excess. For some reason that slows the client down as well.

Using DayZ Commander, I can still access recent or favorite servers. Another reason to use DayZ Commander.

Last night my squad moved its tent to US 381. I played on that server for several hours. Performance was great. Tonight I connected to the same server. My framerate was literally 2-3 fps. When I first spawned in and saw the text in in the lower right corner, it appeared and disappeared at about 2-3 characters per second. I'm not kidding. I disconnected and connected to US 500. Performance was fine again. Framerate was smooth. The text popped in and out rapidly. I disconnected and reconnected to US 381. Performance was horrible again. What in the world is going on?

Last night my squad moved its tent to US 381. I played on that server for several hours. Performance was great. Tonight I connected to the same server. My framerate is literally 2-3 fps. When I first spawn in and see the text pop in in the lower right corner, it happens at about 2-3 characters per second. I'm not kidding. I disconnected and connected to US 500. Performance was fine again. Framerate was smooth. The text popped in and out rapidly. I disconnected and reconnected to US 381. Performance was horrible again. What in the world is going on?

At least it costs them real money. Eventually their parents will cut them off. (Or they are grown children who will keep throwing their money away...)

1. Crouch. 2. Scan surroundings. 3. Find nearby deer stands and barns on the map away from the coast. Kamenka is a great spawn point. 4. Go to them. I don't understand why so many people head straight into cities. If you just want to goof off, ok, but if you want to play DayZ and try to survive...

Rocket is aware of the issues. Give him a little credit. Be patient. Don't you trust him?

My proposal is that we all trust Rocket and be patient. He clearly knows what he's doing. If he didn't, we wouldn't even be here. Let's not second guess every baby step he takes. Let's enjoy the ride.

Kill more zombies! My first life I was sniped on my way out of Cherno. My second life I just headed north. I got a hatchet fairly soon. I didn't find any food anywhere, but around the 59th zombie I chopped down, he had a can of food on him.

Instructions for the Steam overlay are on the DayZ wiki. Or you can use DayZ Commander. Both of these may be found through Google.

I happened to be playing both immediately before and after the Steam patch. I noticed this change immediately afterward. Took some unexpected damage from it, because zombies often lurch forward after being shot, then die--but when they don't die anymore...

If it weren't for "that terrible game," we wouldn't be here. Why so negative?

Oblivious survivor is oblivious. I don't know why you're complaining. Sounds like you had a blast. How many other games can you have an adventure like that in? You can't have an adventure if you don't take risks. And aside from glitches, zombies aren't much of a risk. Without bandits, or just potentially threatening fellow survivors, this game would be L4D on a giant map. If you want to compete against bots alone, go play that. On the other hand, if you want to have a grand, memorable adventure, triumphing over the unknown, and sometimes being triumphed over, play DayZ.

Chiefmon, I wish you hadn't started a new thread. That really wasn't necessary. I don't think the problem is as big as you think it is. There are many different playstyles, different groups, different goals, etc. I do think life needs to be harder for bandits--it should especially be harder for them to operate in groups. But let's be realistic: the sky is not falling. This "anti-game" is growing faster than anyone could have imagined. Why don't you trust Rocket?! He knows what he's doing! If it weren't for him, we wouldn't even be here! This is all a fantastic experiment! It's a grand adventure! Stop worrying that things are going to change and that this is all going to go away. Be patient, sit back, enjoy the ride! We have a lot of wonderful changes to look forward to! Things are only going to get better from here!

Rocket, Allow me to say thank you. This "anti-game" is unlike anything yet created. In a couple of weeks I've already had many memorable adventures with new and old friends. I am mystified as to why people don't trust your judgment. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't even be here. I don't know of anyone else who "gets it" the way you do, and who has the abilities and opportunities you have. I am glad that you are in charge, and no one else. I know that we're in good hands. We have a lot to look forward too. Things will only get better from here. Don't worry so much, people! You're part of a grand adventure, starting at the grassroots level! Sit back and enjoy the ride! The pilot knows how to fly!

Preface: I dislike artificial consequences--I am wholly against bandit skins. I have no problem with bandits. It's part of the game. I would hate to see any separation of PvP/PvE. I do have a problem with pointless sniping of newly spawned players. This is tantamount to griefing. In a "real zombie apocalypse," survivors wouldn't waste ammo, reveal their position, and potentially attract zombies by shooting other survivors who are clearly no threat. But the real issue is the lack of psychological consequences. There are few true psychopaths who feel nothing after taking human lives. Shooting innocent, non-threatening people over and over again would take an enormous mental toll, especially in a hostile environment in which human contact was already rare. My idea is this: survivors who have committed a large number (to be determined) of murders begin to develop uneasiness and distrust of all other survivors. Being in close proximity to them (perhaps 50-100 meters) causes the survivor's heartrate to increase and his aim to become unsteady. This simulates anxiety and paranoia, simple psychological effects which would add up over time after so much senseless killing. The survivor could also sweat more, causing a slight reduction in body temperature. The end result would be that bandits would be pushed into loner roles and discouraged from operating in gangs. Bandits who grouped up would find it more difficult to "concentrate" on shooting their targets, because they'd be "paranoid and worried" about their fellow bandits shooting them in the back. On the other hand, non-bandits would find it helpful to cooperate, and find it easier to defend against bandit gangs. And since bandits would be encouraged to go solo, they would be less threatening, since lone bandits are more vulnerable than gangs.

How he what? /facepalm Grow up, people. *sigh*

Exactly. Alderous hit the nail on the head. If you and your mates place so little value on human life, why would you value each other's life any more? The more you and your mate kill innocent survivors, the more you realize that your mate doesn't value life, and the more likely he'd not bat an eyelash at taking yours. Every time you have a minor disagreement, you'll be that much more careful around him. You'll jump at any sudden moves he makes. You'll sleep with one eye open. You'll be very aware of where his gun is pointing. You won't like it when he's behind you. "Boy I wish I had a rifle like the one you took off that guy we shot." Gulp. "Hey, nice job taking out those oblivious 'survivors.' Why don't you go loot their corpses while I stay back here and 'provide overwatch.'" Um, ok... Remember, I'm not against banditry. But in real life you wouldn't know if you could trust the guy you've been massacring people with. In this game, you know your buddy in real life, and you know he wouldn't shoot you in the back. There aren't any consequences. There need to be.

You're jumping to illogical extremes. You know as well as I do that there aren't many true sociopaths among the population. There's a difference between people who hate their jobs and think "I wish my boss were dead" and people who would actually murder someone. In a real apocalyptic situation, where zombies outnumbered survivors, real human contact would be more valuable than food or water, because for most people, a life alone is hardly worth living. It would be stressful enough having to avoid thousands of mindless, bloodthirsty monsters and scrounge for the tinest scrap of food. Adding the mindless slaughter of real human beings would be more than most people could handle. You fail to understand the distinction between wartime combat and a survival apocalypse. Shooting a sworn, uniformed enemy who's out to kill you along with the rest of his army is completely different than murdering a "plain human being" who's simply trying to survive, just like you. Besides, you should go talk to a professional soldier sometime and ask him about PTSD. "War is hell." Killing other people is not something the human psyche takes lightly, unless the human is an utter psychopath. Do you really think killing people has no psychological impact? Like I said, I'm no fan of artificial consequences. But this is not real life, yet it tries to imitate a hypothetical situation in it. The lack of psychological consequences for players calls for some form of compensation in the game. Anxiety and paranoia and PTSD seem like reasonable consequences to emulate. A shaky hand when around other survivors, whom you no longer trust after so much senseless killing, seems reasonable to me. There may be better ways to emulate it. If you have ideas, please share.

So much angst in here! People so worried that their favorite pasttime will be ruined! That it might change! That it might not stay just the way it is forever! I'm beginning to think we really don't have lives (myself included)! Thankfully, Rocket knows what he's doing--otherwise we wouldn't even be here. What's really sad is that people won't even listen to Rocket's pleas to treat others with decency in the forums. People take this (anti)game more seriously than real life. What's wrong with Kamenka? Three deer stands on the way north, on the way away from the evil, dangerous coast. DayZ is so much more than Cherno and Elektro. Famous last words, oh Perfect One. A vehicle? Really? I've never found a drivable, unoccupied vehicle. All I have done is travel by foot. I have learned so much about navigating terrain with only a map, not even a compass. Folks, this game is about adventure! Real adventure requires a strong element of the unknown. Real adventure requires giving up control over some things. Your friend gets killed? You get to mount a rescue mission! What a grand adventure to travel to the other side of the "world" to rescue your "new friend" from the dangers of Cherno! Who knows what will happen between here and there? Who knows whether you'll make it there alive, or make it back alive? You got killed? You get to start a new life! What a grand adventure to travel across the "world" and make "new friends"! Who knows what will happen? Who knows how long you'll survive? Yeah, it's frustrating. I've been killed by game bugs next to my squad. I've been killed by cheaters along with my squad. I've been killed by griefers before I even left the coast. So I took a break, and the next day I started over, and we rendezvoused, and hugged, and were happy. It wouldn't be an adventure if it were easy. If you want that kind of game, where you couldn't get lost if you wanted, DayZ is the wrong (anti)game for you. And that's fine--I enjoy both. But stop trying to make DayZ like other games. Again, I'm thankful that Rocket is in charge. He knows what he's doing.

It already knows when you died. The load caused by such a query would be miniscule. The central database isn't even at max capacity now. Besides, game servers could cache that data. You don't know what you're talking about. People should let developers raise technical objections. Everything about DayZ flies in the face of "that wouldn't work." I just don't understand the motivations of people who like to irrationally shoot down others' ideas.

Good grief, it's open source, it's on GitHub. Look at the source yourself.

Both the greatest strength and greatest weakness of DayZ is that it allows players complete freedom with no real repercussions. This allows the best and the worst of human nature to come to light. In real life one wouldn't shoot someone when you might need their help to survive, or when they might end up killing you first, because you only have one life. In this game, you get to respawn, so it's easier to take risks. The anonymity of the Internet also allows people to be jerks and shoot new spawns just because they can--just for the practice. That's the worst part, because in real life, people wouldn't snipe from a distance people who are unarmed and have nothing. This is just griefing over the Internet, which having anonymity and no repercussions facilitates. But without players to worry about, we'd have L4D on a huge map. AI gets boring. One of the great things about DayZ is the unknown. Try joining a random server, not using out-of-game maps or resources, and not ever looking at the player list. Try meeting a friend in a town without using out-of-game comms after you join the game. Bottom line: I have no problem with bandits. I do have a problem with people who snipe people just because they can, who don't even care about their gear, especially those who snipe new spawns. That's just griefing, and people like that should be ashamed. Shoot a player to take his better gear, or because he's a threat--not because he just spawned and has no idea you're there. But there's nothing that can be done about people like that either. It's just another challenging element of this brutal anti-game. The only thing I can think of that might possibly be a reasonable penalty for excessive "murders" in DayZ would be for it to affect the bandit's steadiness of aim when he's near other players. This would simulate being uneasy around other humans after having taken so many lives, perhaps being fearful of being killed in retaliation. It would make it difficult for bandits to team up, simulating anxiety and distrust. This would push bandits into loner roles and encourage non-bandit teamwork. Lone bandits would be more vulnerable, so this would slightly discourage banditry in general.

A problem is that people think it's their job to teach others what they consider to be an important lesson. It makes them precisely that. Antagonizing people for the sake of antagonizing people is practically the definition of "jerk." Exerting power over others for the sake of feeling powerful is another. And doing something irritating for the sake of seeing it publically discussed is just a low form of power-trip ego boosting, which is another definition. No one is supposed to be victimized by players, nor is anyone supposed to be helped. DayZ isn't designed to encourage people to shoot other people--if anything it's designed to encourage cooperation to survive. But DayZ is ultimately about freedom. That is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness, as it allows the worst of human nature to assert itself, anonymously, with no repercussions outside of respawning. This is actually true. Don't tell people what to do, okay?