fenrix

closing it seems like a bad decision. in light of your denial of doing your test earlier. it just looks like hiding developer abuse. leave it open and let it die naturally.

alot of other people have switched to the totally stable local database version of dayz as well. quite a few pworded servers are not connected to the central hive anyway. so even if you logged on you would not have your regular character. these are usually used for private games from what I can tell.

So effectively Dizzymagoo was playtesting a gameplay concept. which in a role as a developer for dayz I think is completely legit to do as the game is in alpha. I think it may have been smarter to get dev approval and use a dedicated group of playtesters rather than just throw it out at the public. but to be honest. as dizzy says. testing is best done in a real live environment rather than a sterile testing one. BUT usually you playtest it first then you take it public for a test if your going to do that kind of thing. I dont think dizzy should be punished for showing some initiative and trying to push development forwards by testing some ideas on his own server. I might suggest you guys set up a large number of playtesters on a different hive where you just test things in a semi live environment so glitches, tests cannot advantage players on the main one though. kind of like the eve beta client for eve online. uses its own database and stuff completely seperate so they can live test things at any time. that way your playtesters will know your testing stuff rather than sprinigng randomness on them causing admin abuse accusations. I mean most modding/dev teams have groups of playtesters and periodically have them all testing stuff. dayz is a big sandbox with a crapload of players but they are not really playtesters per say. I would suggest running a few "testing" servers officially where devs can try out things without repercussions back to the main database. it would allow developers to mini sandbox thier ideas with a reasonable number of players some of whom would probably only play on the test ones and develop thier characters there. I'd definatly help you guys playtest stuff :D this would also give different developers a way of testing and demonstrating ideas to the rest of the development team without messing with the main live servers.

theres always a way vipeax. you know that *sadface* why do the smart people use their powers for evil? id pay 25 one off for dayz but id never pay sub for it. i only sub for eve and id only pay if i could host local servers on a home database :< mainly so i can mess with the zombies and make them do stuff :D also a tip to see something cool I found in a server i played on... go to the little valley with the dam in it north of prigo near cherno. lead some zombies there. stand on the dam. profit. also. you will laugh your ass off. ;) found that on a private server but pretty sure its still a bug in regular dayz could be wrong with the raytracing but... i bet they still do it. enjoy your quest.

wouldnt it be relatively easy to put some kind of downtime protection in place and have servers revert to a local system if they couldnt get to the database instead of locking everyone out?

yeah I just want dayz to be a better game. as a modder. I see the best way this happening is to open it up and let me tinker with it without being shouted at and banned :P but Im bias. what with being a modder/developer myself. proof? http://steamcommunity.com/id/theoriginalfenrix/screenshot/594701250460137578/?tab=public shush I like zombies too! I know what I would do. I would introduce an independant version but have it set on a different island than chernarus and have the database as local. then you have your sandboxy open one and your closed main one. I bet in a very short period of time the majority of server owners and players would switch over. players thirst for new experiences over anything else. allowing users to modify thier experience guarantees the mod longevity. while it does open it up to all kinds of shenanigans. you can take steps to protect it if your willing to give it a shot. thats what alpha is all about. trying new things after all.

yeah it costs huge ammounts of money. if only you guys had a web store up and running ;) im sure I and the rest of us forum people could help you re-coup some losses. and from the reasonable pricing the hosters are giving I doubt they are making much more than breaking even themselves. but you got to admit. those people who were previously on the dev team would have a significant advantage sorting out server issues. as well as providing valuable input from server hosts to the developers. which is awesome and I hope they are doing their best to help you guys out. finding bugs and whatnot. you guys could always re-sell hosting yourselves you know. to help fund the mod... just saying. all official like :P *thats what I assumed was happening when you dropped thier dev status. to hide it from people. im a suspicious bastard :P* @bossfi actually it can. for several reasons. server location in relation to hive. number of players on affected server number of connections to affected server. the server and the hive are joined at the hip, connections, players, join, disconnect, all cause database activity, if it gets clogged from heavy traffick, it gets backed up, gets laggy, de-syncs and occasionally crashes. while yes. the server its self is partially to blame, the bottleneck is the hive its self. where all the information has be sent and recieved from. the main issue with this is of course its vulnerability to takedown. thats why we need multiple hives or a distributed model for the database. the recent ddos higlited that particular issue. I am a fan of local databases and server driven local systems because it offers far more flexibility and is more dynamic and allows the system to evolve and change instead of stagnate. any game with player driven development has a much greater lifespan than the developers expect. look at garry's mod for example. its basically a simple sandbox game built using LUA script. but people are building whole mods and game modes using the tools provided by the developers who are now... well lets say comfortably well compensated by the many many many game sales. closed games with no official modding options die much faster and are as a result less profitable. arma is its self an example of this. highly modifiyable. great toolset. but. years after release. a mod is created and completely re-invigorates sales of the original game. shutting out independant modders and server owners. only hurts in the long run. game modder/developer/animator/modeller myself so forgive my rant. its my passion to mod/make games :D

yeah that licencing fee thing i was like wahhahaha?! as for the rolling in cash thing, he may be referring to the fact that quite a few developers for dayz started hosting dayz servers. in fact several who previously had pink developer names have had thier developer status on teh forums removed but are now advertising and hosting servers for the mod. by hosting I of course mean running server rental schemes and sub renting to dayz players. in effect profiting off of the dayz playerbase by exploiting thier ability to easily access registration and setup information on getting the mod running as well as having direct contact with the developers. I mean theres something hinky going on there. you got to admit it. the fact that on several occasions developers have asked the server host companies to shut down a server for violating the rules without first going through the actual person paying for the server who is techinically the owner. its a little fishy. is all. juuust saying. mainly through a lack of transparancy about how these things are being treated by the devs/host providers. not that they are not offering cheap servers or anything but they are not proffesional hosters and are basically only hosting for dayz and are obviously close with the developers to the point of some of them previously having dev/mod status. I mean HFB is run by the guy who made the dayz website. and was set up specifically to run dayz servers. he even had mod or dev status at one point but now posts under a different name and has no dev colour on his name when posting on the forums. presumably to distance him from the fact that he is very close to the dev team and hide this so people do not assume the servers are in any way official. not knowing the relationships or much about the dev team, this just comes off as looking like profiteering and attempting to hide it. is all.

player appealed an illigitemate ban and provided proof admin admitted to locking the server for personal gain... admin admitted *by ban reversal* banning for illegitimate reasons admin made personal threats against a player. (player made counter threats like an idiot) sounds like black list material to me.

ghosting... banning for this you are on shakey ground at the best of times. reason for this? there are multiple reasons someone may log in on top of you and attack you. 1. person logged off and just happened to log in on your face 2. person saw you comming logged off and logged back in once you were closer to kill you 3. person had a spotter watching you and told them when to log in. 4. person logged off in another server and logged on in your one and just happened to log in on top of you. the problem with the above is... well lets face it. some are simply random chance. an admin is probably going to assume you ghosted if you land on him while logging in and kill him. simple as that. its an admins job to enforce rules so they will assume your breaking them if it happens to them. in this case. your best bet is to appeal directly to said admin and ask for them to review the logs. chances are if the admin cannot find proof they will unban you. if they do not pony up logs though... they need to unban you because that there is just bad adminnery. easy ways to spot ghosting would be to use logs to check logging times. if a player has not logged into your server before and lands on you and kills you? yeah. you cant ban em. if a player logged off 10-15 minutes ago. chances are they either toilet breaked or saw you comming, you can probably ban. if a player logged off some time ago and just logged in on top of you. chances are its random chance you cant ban em. someone really needs to post an accurate guideline for banning for hopping/ghosting.

I tend to side with the people with the most forum posts in these situations until proof is provided. its just like people caught red handed to jump on the forums and start crying about getting caught when they finally get whats comming to them. also ghosting is a counterstrike/fps term for spectating or using other game mechanics to observer the oponents without them being able to do anything about it. this can be using people on thier own team, people who are dead and spectating or in the case of dayz presumably some kind of server hopping to land on your enemies. which sounds about right. one guy watches to tell the group of 4 when to jump. 4 jump in and kill as many as possible. spotter comes in and mops up and steals what he can. looks like the OP told us everything we needed to know in the first post :P

think hes out of surgery now. looks like they might be cleaning up their act and bumping customers with a week of extra time. Good response. Vilayer sounds at least like they are willing to learn from their mistakes. I take back my earlier post. apologies.

Some do actually save now as a method has been discovered to allow you to run a local database given about 10 minutes to set it up ^.^ but they would not have battle eye so they can run thier cracked versions of arma on the server. = shitload of hackers. especially seeing as all the hackers got Gbanned from dayz so they will move like flies to a corpse to those servers.

actually disgraced, this could be considered a form of security testing, rocket probably would agree. if just anyone can strip and re-use the database by looking into the mod code.. its not very secure. same with hacks. anti cheat. glitching. cheating. ect. by subverting the game rules people are actually providing valuable data to rocket on how to combat future issues with the game as well as seeing a few different environments the game may be played under. also. if rocket actually checks some of these private servers he might see some interesting modifications that give him ideas to make dayz better. I saw a server the other day running a modified version of CEG lighting so it had streetlights at night. they were flickering and dull. it was quite awesome. and spooky as hell walking along a coastal road in the dark with only dull flickering pools of streetlight to guide the way. I was of course promptly snipered from some nearby trees but it was still awesome. these kind of things allow rocket to simply cherrypick things from unauthorized servers and use them in the main game if he likes them. means he can test ideas and not waste time coding and working on them himself. prettymuch how minecraft came up with alot of its patch updates. stomping on a young dayz mod scene might not be the smartest move. the first step to modding is getting a working dayz server going. after all. it might save rocket some work and help him get a much deeper level of community interaction and imput. but its his baby so its really up to rocket. imo, a healthy modding scene = a healthy popular game. bite modders hands at your own risk.

you could sort it by backpack sizes... would actually make backpack choice more of a tactical/survival decision than it is at the moment.