kander

I don't know how accurately the ballistics are modelled, but is it likely to be a richochet?

Haha, I know, I mean right from the offset, before you encounter it for the first time. You kinda need to go inside to see the piano....

c'mon it's a pretty useful post. A lot of new folk see things like 'piano house' mentioned a lot but have no idea how to identify it.

Compeltely agree - loving your logic, sir

Definitely want to reduce sprint speed. It shouldn't matter how long it takes to get from Berezino to Elektro. The distance between them is the distance between them, and the effort becomes the reward (it's not like there's nothing to see/do in between). The map feels small enough on a crowded server, and fast (or at least prolonged) sprint only reduces it further. Exactly, in actual fact, the same logic as this (below). What's the point in having hte coolest gunzzzz when everyone else has them? The good stuff has to be rare as rocking horse shit, it's the only way to reward the dedicated, the true survivalists. I hope Bohemia don't pander to the FPS gamers used to lethal custom loadouts.

Haha imagine if that were the case in real life. "Sorry old chap, you did, y'know, have a bit of your elbow poking out. The police? What are they going to do? I don't make the rules" Nah, people play by whatever morality they want to have fun. Sadly, or otherwise. If this is your base morality stripped of any lasting repercussions or obligations to your fellow man then what's worrying is you are not even alone. There are a lot of genuinely scary people who play DayZ.

As someone who never bandits, who has hardly ever fired a shot in anger, I agree with the spirit, though admittedly not the letter of OP's comment. Most people die most of the time because they become armed and want, in whatever way, to have some form of exciting (read: risky) interaction. I know I do. I subconsciously put myself in risky scenarios so I can justify getting into a fight with bandits, or at the very least because I know I have a weapon and don't need to be so cautious. All this talk of survival of the fittest BS is, however, laughable. Genuinely, actually laughable. If by 'fittest' you guys mean 'most trigger-happy pimply nocturnal early-teenage nerd' then I'll grant you, I am mostly killed by the fittest. I mostly get killed by guys who, IRL, can't sprint more than 20 yards and who, if I were to give them my beans, wouldn't even be able to open the can (not that you'd know that to look at them, but their mums keep them well fed and watered). So, no, I don't object to being shot on sight, but I do object to any notion of the superiority of my killers. If I used their strategy I'd get a whole load more kills, but it would make me a weaker, not a stronger player.

Night is unrealistically dark. There's no way I'd find it so hard to see at night IRL, even on a moonless night with heavy clouds. At least give us a (entirely realistic) naturally improving night vision. I think it's supposed to take 25 mins for maximum night vision to kick in, reset, of course, by exposure to bright light at any point.

I guess some people need it, different hardware, different eyesight quality etc. It would be nice to have a more limited range though so it it could be a little more realistic, and force lamp/torch use at night. A brave move from the devs would be to force only one gamma change per 12 or 15 game hours, making daylight play really tough for those playing in full gamma ;)

Well, it would be just be called 'Day' for a start. Game changer.

It's true, when I'm a fresh spawn I don't care at all. I recently spawned in the (new?) village just north of NEAF. There was a revolver in the nearest house, I took it, sprinted into NEAF with zero gear except my revolver and killed the first guy I found and took his stuff. Zero risk strategy. In my defence, I was 80% sure he was the same guy who had killed me about 10 minutes previously in the same place so I didn't feel too bad. If I'd been better kitted out though I would have spent much longer approaching and been more cautious when I got there, so less dangerous. An important thing to remember is that 'fresh spawn' does not mean, like an MMO, low level or noob. Even the best players die occasionally. Some guys are handier with a .22 pistol than many are with full gear and protective clothing.

Maybe! I can't quite figure out whether it would make people more or less cautious, but only psychopaths would run around the real world shooting folk who are not perceived threat to them just for fun, but this happens a heck of a lot in-game -so it makes any data for the social experiment rather worthless.

Just a game. People don't behave anything like they would in the real world, mainly because dying is somewhat less 'final'.

I don't mind folk trying to kill me on sight. However, I'm getting really sick of people killing me after yelling 'friendly'. It happened for the latest (and final) time last night. I always used to roleplay that if someone declared themself friendly I would trust them, but it is increasinly tiresome, not to mention unspeakably low, to use this as a tool to steal a march on someone more honest than them. Last night I tested this to the extreme, just to see what would happen: I bumped into another survivor near a hangar and he ran round the corner shouting 'friendly, friendly!'. So I said 'friend' back, put away my gun, and stood in the open, exactly where we first met, just pressing 'wave' over and over again until he emerged. When he slunk out from where he had crawled off to hide, he looked at me for a second or two before taking aim at my head and killing me with one shot. (This is not to say it was a tough shot to make: our gallant hero was aiming at a stationary target about 15 yards away). It just makes you think, if someone is willing to do that when there is no room for error, no chance at all that he might have misunderstood, then the 'friendly' greeting is worse that usless. Worse, this character would almost certainly have complained if I had ignored his claim and shot him when I first saw him. I won't bother in future: if you're armed and heading towards me, or are likely to see me, I'm afraid I'm shooting. This isn't straight-up KoS, but my philosophy now is if you have a gun, you intend to use it, and it might be against me. Nice to meet you yesterday evening, guy at an otherwise deserted NEAF on whichever UK server. I hope you get given more chances to live than you gave me.

I basically agree, but see no harm in having some small way of incentivising people to keep their characters alive as long as possible, instead of rushing into deathmatches, dying, and regearing from private or clan stashes. Assuming your guy starts off as an average joe washed up on the beach, getting slightly better at things like environmental tolerance, strength and weapon proficiency (less sway etc) could easily make the game a richer experience, as well as adding a level of realism. The major difference would be that, unlike almost all MMOs, you would lose such bonuses when you die and have to start from scratch, which would happen a lot.

This is a great point. There need to be more features that make those in PvP mode more susceptible to environmental dangers. Running around waving a rife? The zombies will be able to outrun you.

I just mean endless waves of clan wars, where nothing matters, especially permadeath because your character doesn't need to fear dying because the clan will restock you and you're good to go again. I get that tribalism and protectionism would happen to some extent in an IRL post-apolcalyptic scenario, but it would be much cagier, much grittier. Remove the fear of dying (and you would be removing the fear of dying, almost completely) and the game becomes one big endless game of Battlefield for the lulz, and aren't there more appropriate games for playing like this? Edit: I really don't have a problem with people playing like this. It’s a sandbox game after all and for most folk, joining a clan, stockpiling loot and fighting other clans is their endgame. I just hope that there will still be plenty to play for the casual gamer. Most people don’t have the time or inclination to spend hours a day on clan membership, and can’t commit to being online at certain times for assaults etc. Lone wolves need to be able to have their own kind of endgame, even if it’s just a meaningful and effective way of messing with the clan gamers. FURTHER EDITED to remove 'pointless' from clan wars - it's all pointless really, innit ;)

Gawd, I hope SA doesn't just turn into one giant clan vs clan arena battle.

I really like this idea, and it adds a level of realism. It would have to be thought through really carefully though. Squad members would simly suicide until they spawned with the skills missing from the group. If the chances of being 'born' with a skill depended on the length of a previous life, up to a maximum % chance which is still very small, this might work as a mechanism, something like: <1 hr = 0% 1-2 hrs =2.5% 2-5 hrs = 5% 5-10 hrs = 7.5% >10 hrs = 10% Then you'd have 'talented' people who are useful without gear/guns/squad membership, and if such people could be put to use on a project it might make people think twice before they KoS. A bandit group could at least ask a potential victim if they have any skills (mechanic, carpenter, medic) before just killing them. This also would lead to the interesting roleplay where a potential victim could lie about their skills to save their skin, only to be caught out later if they fail to be able to use the abilities they claim to have.

I don't know why you're playing an alpha and expecting these things to work well. Alpha testing should make zombies more realistic and challenging by you playing through and testing them out. Hell, haven't you volunteered to get killed (repeatedly)? Think you have....

This morning, in a warehouse, drank a pipsi on the mezzanine.

Just drink a can of Mountain Dew backwards. It'll port you to Green Mountain.

Nice story! Glad you got a memorable experience out of it. BTW, your English is better (or reads better, certainly) than most English speakers on the Internet ;)

I actually set my character to always start in grey. I spend most of my early time in cities trying to gear up quick, not minding if I die when I don't have much, but giving me a little bit of an edge in the concrete jungle. As I acquire loot and weapons I gradually find and pick up green/brown clothing so by the time I'm ready to hit the cross-country trails I am pretty much forest camoed. There's not much point in starting off in green, IMO, with the game the way it is, with not much to find outside the major towns and cities. You may as well be urban camo, because that's where you're mostly going to be as a new spawn.

Alternatively known as 'never drop a log where you wouldn't drop a log'