Skurkanas

I see lots of love for new weapons etc., but we are so far neglecting one of the prime elements of every zombie survival: Fortifications! Give us the ability to build makeshift bases to keep out the zombies, gather loot, tend to our wounds, contact & wait for friendly survivors, trade etc. etc. I'm not talking huge Wasteland style compounds (which however proves that basebuilding can be easily implemented), but there should be a way to fortify existing buildings. Here are a few easy ways to implement it with what we have now, plus optional improvements for the future - Make interior objects moveable. (Bookshelves, tables, random pieces of wood, you name it) - Give us a way to lock them in place - The easiest to implement but would already offer a lot of basebuilding possibilities depending on the variety of objects used (for instance tables could be shot over, while a bookshelve would block a whole door, or you could combine the two) -> Optional: Add fancy physics so they topple over or can be piled on each other, require a certain force to be pushed etc - Add basic building materials and tools (wooden planks, scrap metal, nails...) - They could be used to craft predefined types of Items (e.g. "Wooden window block", requires 3 planks of wood, a hammer and 1pile of nails") - Those would always look the same and be placed over an adjacent unblocked window or door. They would have fixed properties of Devs choice, ranging from simply blocking view to fending off attacks -> Optional: Give different items different properties (e.g. "can be broken by melee weapons & zombies yes/no", "can be penetrated by bullets yes/no" depending on the material) - Locks - Give us the ability to lock doors the usual way. And to pick those locks (that's an idea I've seen here already) - Following on that, there could be safes with valuable loot in them Those are from the top of my head, I'm sure there are more. It would add a wealth of depth to the game experience

I understand that on Namalsk, this is due to the environment being cold as crap, hence why there are no heat signatures safe for players. Same can't be said for Chernarus

DayZ is a Zombie Survival Game, Stalker is about fighting Mutants. Shouldn't mix the two I can see a Virus outbreak happening, I can see a nuclear catastrophe happen as well, but both at once (plus aliens) is just way over the top. There would have been many many ways to make zombies and survival in general harder, but making them invisible and adding an event that punishes you for travelling in the open simply feels gamey

I vote "endgame" for negative buzzword of 2005-2012. This game is about the journey, not the destination. Every game is, heck, life is. So why do people keep expecting a glorious mountain of fun at the very end of something.. Anyway, enough of the rant. If you havent even found a vehicle yet, there's still plenty to do. Explore the fringes of the map, looking for camps (that's where the vehicles are hidden). Alternatively, keep an overwatch over Airfields and high industrial zones (where Helis tend to come to refuel). You can also try Counter-Sniping in Cherno and Elektro, killing wanna be Pro-Snipers sitting there, waiting for freshly spawned players. Or you could try one of the half dozen different maps out there, offering fresh takes on the game (like Namalsk being about staying warm, while also having a lot more vehicles) Or you could just do some epic stuff that sounds fun to you, die in a glorious blast and experience the thrill of first-day survival all over again.

Sure, but it should require some effort. It's silly that they simply *poof* away on touch atm. Plus it would stop people from denying loot to others. Killing people to take their gear is one thing. But to magically delete it with the push of a button is an unrealistic dick move

I figured out how to fix them pre-patch (switching to windowed mode and back got rid of artifacts filling the entire screen, don't ask me why ;)) Post patch they are back and unfixable, although they don't fill out the whole screen anymore. Not sure wether this counts as better or worse than before ;) Seeing as I can't get rid of them anymore I'd say it's worse

Well, supposedly Lingor doesn't have quite as many bugs in 1.7.2.5 as does Chernarus. This is useful in telling us that some of the problems (e.g. spawning at the coast with no gear) are hive related Edit: Reverted back to 1.7.2.4 yesterday. Oddly enough I still spawned at the coast in 1 out of 2 tries, luckily with all my gear on me. It took some time for the gear to load up though ( My gun didn't appear for a while until I opened my backpack to see if it was still there) The fact that these bugs are creeping into 1.7.2.4 on 1.7.2.4 servers is further evidence that it might be a hive problem entirely. Did the whole hive got updated to 1.7.2.5, regardless of the server you play on?

Enlighten me on how testing for a mod is different from testing for a game. Why is inhouse testing for huge problems and public testing for rare bugs possible in a game but not a mod? Really, please tell me. Again, they are both intertwined. Of course, It's a hell of a lot of work to reverse engineer all the terrible coding of Arma II, but it can be done, and it can be applied to the mod. What's happening at the moment, is that the mod is left boiling in a state that's unplayable for many. Unplayable means untestable, unless you consider "Can't log in" useful feedback. Now we can either keep saying "Lol Alpha!", or actually do something about it (e.g. revert back to a stable version and introduce the new features one by one, to single out the issue)

I'm getting a little tired of the "This is alpha so everything HAS to suck balls" argument. Sure, this game is in an early stage and no one can reasonable expect it to be bug free. There is always the chance to die of a glitch, hacker, or loose your stuff some other way. We've all come to accept that. BUT so far these issues have been popping up occasionaly. If they become commonplace for many people, something is wrong. EVEN in an alpha. At this point it is clear the bugs are too glaring for public testing, and need to be ironed out a little more inhouse. Once that's done, it can be handed back to us to find the rare bugs that a small team of testers will inevitably overlook. That's simply the sensible way to do it. It will get the most efficient feedback for the devs and avoid alienating large amounts of players who - like it or not - are just that: "players", rather than die hard testers.

You have to admit that the way this is tested is beyond unwise. A patch that is this unstable should only be released to a dedicated few, NOT made public to a million people and then left boiling for over a week. Equally, reverting back to a stable version for the time being is no trouble. I don't pretend to have any clue about IT, but we're just talking about replacing a bunch of files here. It can be done, and IS routinely done in other games. This mod needs a testing-subforum and a testing community, both to ensure USEFUL feedback, and to avoid alienating the playerbase

So is the 6launcher autopatch the same as the one in rockets initial post, and is either of them more/less glitchy than the other? I'd like to avoid the "spawning at the coast, loosing all gear" crap some people have been reporting here

So are you just assuming that Thermal is gone based on the joke hidden updates somebody posted on page one or is this legit? I really don't want my L85 become another "nighttime only" weapon like the godawful NV-FAL Edit: Nvm, you just assumed it. At least confirm something before raging please...

You know you're a bandit when you've killed ten times as many players as zombies :P

I've read a lot about War Z lately (or what little info there is), and they have been promising all kinds of supposedly shiny things, e.g.: - Safe zones - Trading (with real life money ofc because that's the latest MMO buzz - even after Diablo III) - Quests - Unique enemies (bosses) Now I say: To hell with that. By applying standard MMO features to a game like Day Z, you will ruin everything that makes it unique. What IS so fun about games like DayZ or Minecraft? They both started out fairly damn minimalistic. Just a basic gridwork of content, just enough to make it playable and allow for a basic set of actions. And here's what's important: Everything else is entirely up to you. Want to build and fly a helicopter? Go for it. Wanna find those NVG's? Hunt some Snipers. Just wanna survive? Best of luck mate! There are no NPC's telling you what quest to go on, there are no Traders spoon feeding you better equipment, and if you want a safe haven, you better damn build yourself one. Don't expect it to just be there guarded by arbitrarily unkillable NPC guards and fully automatic Turrets. You set your own goals entirely. THAT is what makes DayZ great. And I really hope that the Devs will capitalize on that, rather than get caught up in yet another standard MMO turf war about who can spit out the most "content" to grind through in the least amount of time. Give us more abilities to shape our own game (e.g. more stuff to build and collect, ways to fortificate cities and ways to raid and destroy said fortifications) but most importantly, stick to your guns. This lovably broken Alpha is popular for a reason, don't take that away because other's think that every damn MMO has to follow the same pathways

And I don't like being accused of lying ;) "As you explore the game world, you'll find two types of currency - Dollars and Gold Coins. Both can be used for barter between players if you want or to purchase certain consumables (food, medicine, ammo) at the General Store in one of the safe settlements and in the Marketplace in the frontend. Not all items that you find in the world will be purchasable, and by no means do you need to use the store at all - everything can be found in the game world." Taken straight out of their F.A.Q. dude. http://thewarz.com/faq.html It's the usual deal. You CAN get everything the hard way (so it's totally not Pay2Win right?!), but you can also just throw money at them. No thanks

Boy, I'm betting my beanz that you're all going to get murdered :D Still, I'd love to attend but I'll be busy as heck this weekend. Looking forward to the video!

Nothing is hardcoded in a new game ;) We're talking about the Day Z standalone here. Besides, players giving quests could - theoretically - be accomplished without any coding at all. They would just reach an agreement via voicechat. Still I believe that the most fulfilling "quests" are the one that you give yourself, or goals that you make together with a group of people. There won't be a guide on how to accomplish your own goals, and the reward will be unknown, but that's what makes it so interesting

It has been said a thousand times but SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY (again)

Sums up DayZ ;) My advice would be to be reckless. At the start of the game, you have no means to see people with Scopes, NightVision, Heat Sight, Binos and whatnot before they see you. So you might as well go in like a madman. Zig zag your way into the Balota Airfield, Cherno or Elektro, grab all the necessary supplies and a decent gun, then get the hell outta there. Carefully close in on better loot spots, (NW Airfield, Stary Sobor) never approach them head on but follow the cover of nearby woods (and check for other players doing the same)

You can't just make houses "enterable". This would require entire new models, which is a huge piece of work. I don't think the Devs have time for that, amidst all the coding and bugfixing that needs to be done

Talk to you in 5mins.. That fix does nothing but reset your video memory. The bug will be back in no time. What puzzles me is why they don't just hotfix this. Removing the static bodies from the game altogether can't be that hard. They can put them back in once the issue is resolved

Actually, what's wrong with that? DayZ madmax style would be amazing. THUNDERDOME anyone? :D

It's funny how people assume that it's "human nature" to band together. Ever read some serious literature on the topic? Because it's most definitely not. Humans stick together with family members, e.g. people they know and trust. Strangers they KOS, just like it is here. This is a known observation with tribal people all around the world. The only thing separating us from them is an elaborated set of moral and judical laws, that punish this sort of behaviour. Take it away with a zombie apocalypse, and it's dog eat dog again. It is for this reason that people only team up with people they know, e.g. real life friends, and it is for this reason that the OP's ideas only work in theory. You can't enforce teamplay and you can't enforce trust, especially not if you make people even more desperate. As the second reason for our current, mostly non violent behaviour towards each other besides laws, is abundancy. Take that away and the common enemy (zombies) is overruled by competition for food. The OPs idea will simply turn this into a team-deathmatch, rather than a simple deathmatch. Once I have my established group, I have no reason to be friendly towards strangers. Either I can take their stuff, or I can make sure they are incapable of taking mine. Sure, there is the off chance they might be friendly, but it's an unecessary gamble to find out. That's just the reality of the situation, and it's pretty much how a (prolongued) apocalypse would turn out. But still, is there a way to turn this into a more rewarding experience for those of us who want to rebuild humanity? Probably. There need to be ways to guarantee for the two aforementioned pillars of society - laws and abundancy. 1. Laws For obvious reasons, those will have to be basic. E.g. "don't kill unarmed people" and fallible ("He killed me!" "No I didn't!") Still, if there were such basic laws agreed on by the majority and - most importantly - means to enforce them, going rogue could bite you in the ass for a LONG time. So how to enforce them? One way, would be characters bound to servers. If you kill someone and take his stuff, you can't just switch to "another world" and expect no consequences. He will hunt you down. And maybe the whole servers "society" will be on your tracks as well. This would be far more realistic and player driven than any arbitrary red glow for bandits. Of course it would require big and stable servers, so I don't see it happening before beta. An easier way to implement it might be more server bound stuff. People would still be able to switch servers, but they might not want to, because it would mean to leave a lot behind. Which leads us to point... 2. Abundancy Basically, the number of stuff you get should raise exponentially with the number of people you manage to unite. Give us means to establish permanent settlements or fortifications, thereby providing a drop off point for gathered loot. Foragers could go out hunting, snipers could protect the place, builders could reinforce it and all of that should be easier, the more people there are. Granted, the inhabitants of such a village will still be wary of outsiders, but an additional pair of hands will be useful to them. Similarly, the outsider could kill the inhabitants and run away, but he won't be able to carry all their stuff by himself, and - see point 1. - he will have a LOT of trouble on his heels Now I know that both points require rather big changes to gameplay, but I think they are the only way to implement lasting motivation and incentive to team up. And after all this is alpha, so if there's any time to make big changes, it is now ;) I hope some of you will take the time to read this wall of text and tell me what you think

Thanks for the first attempt to tackle this in depth. Wild speculation about causes and fixes doesn't help. I've been to Berezino and Stary Sobor today, and on both locations the so called fixes did nothing. At best, they slightly reduced the artifacts, but they didn't fix the problem. I can see why it would appear to be fixed when looking at a military spot from afar, but when sitting right at the camp in stary, nothing helps. I'd recommend cross-testing this with all graphic options and with dead bodies on/off. I can not confirm barbed wire being the issue. We went so far to place our own in the wilderness, and could look at it just fine. Every military spot we came across meant trouble tho. Using an ATI 6900, latest driver

Same problem at berezino. Ended up dying because I had to keep my eyes on the ground >.> Pretty annoying. Seems to be restricted to military spawns though, no problems further inland so far