E M P

Uh... no. It's definitely going to be a standalone game.

Ya... no. More like being pissed off that Barbie doesn't release a darker-skinned doll to appeal to a non-white audience when you have a darker-skinned child. More like, although it's still a stretch. It's easy to appeal to both sides with a game like this, as all it takes is a few quick changes that don't place financial risk on the game designer.

I'm a picky Aspie. 5m/s is 18km/hr. 5km in 15 minutes is 20km/hr. 5m/s is the absolute fastest a player can run in a straight line over level ground. There's no way you can make 5km in 15 minutes without a vehicle. If it was a straight line it would take 16.6 minutes. It's almost never a straight line, so I'd assume closer to 20-25 minutes, depending on the specific terrain you're running on/around. If you're running a full 10km to meet with a group, it can easily take an hour with a couple minor detours/other players around, and will obviously always take more than 30 minutes. Personally, I find this irritating. I like grouping with a friend of mine and one of his friends. It doesn't happen every night, but the game has enough glitches/random bugs that connecting with another player, especially if not using a map, gets extremely boring when it does happen. All it takes is a single griefer shooting you as you run by to put you 30 minutes away from any enjoyment... maybe it's just something I'll have to wait and see... if the game is changed to a way I like or if I'll have to change games.

If that is to be taken literally, then I doubt I'll be around for very long. Someone else is bound to come up with something similar and with more features. He's got the lead time and the market to actually go somewhere right now, but if he genuinely doesn't care about making something most people [i say that because I came to DayZ hoping for much more PvE i.e. 'survival/horror', and most people want fun in their games] will enjoy, then so be it. It's his baby to play with. People are playing now, but I've already gone from frustrated to just bored with the constant KOS. I don't think 'bored' is an emotional reaction that he was looking for, either. Counterstrike is much more frustrating for me, at times, and it's a far superior shooter (imo, but it helps that my comp can run CS with good FPS, too haha)

Anti-hero is one of the few uses of 'anti' that doesn't mean 'opposite.' Antichrist isn't the 'edgy' version of Jesus. If all you mean by 'anti-game' is that it's really hard, then it's a stupid word. Just use 'frustrating game.' Super Meat Boy is not an 'anti-game.' Anti-hero only has meaning because there's already a word for the opposite of a hero- a villain. There's no word for the opposite of a game.

Not really. Most smart companies cater to everyone they can make money catering to. If it takes a few hours to code in the options for PvE-only or PvP-restricted servers, and profits go up enough to justify the hours of coding, then a smart company would do it. Catering to the minority is very good business, when the minority wants something that doesn't take much time to add. In Counterstrike, you can block certain weapons on a server if you don't like them. You might be in the minority, but you can do it. It think our issue with the OP is that he seems to be saying that ALL servers need restricted PvP, which is silly. Restricted-PvP should be an option, however. It would keep people like myself playing and paying. The only reason not to do it is if the programmers are already busy doing things that will make even more money, and hiring more programmers is not economically sound.

I have met 1 player who did not shoot at me when he had the chance. Every other player, and there have been many, either opened fire immediately or claimed a friendly status and then shot at me shortly thereafter. There is no aspect of uncertainty when I play. I automatically assume every player is hostile and shoot them. There is no strong incentive to do otherwise.

Makes no sense. It's a game. The point of a game is to be fun. If this were really trying to not be fun, then hackers would not be considered an issue, and you would randomly die from time to time and lose all your stuff, or the 'anti-game' would be locked at 5 FPS, or you could only turn to the right. It's a game. It's got a different set of rules, and it bills itself as 'edgy,' but it's a game.

PvP has its place, but it gets pretty tiresome to have KOS as my only [realistic] option when interacting with strangers. Many people have said that players who want PvE should go play Left4Dead et al. These games are not much like DayZ. They do not have a gigantic world full of realistic terrain, with zombies roaming about and all kinds of fun loot to try to steal. They don't require the player eat and drink and assemble vehicle parts etc etc. Why should the devs make strong PvE options? Because if they don't, the competition will. If the competition offers more for the same price, who will want DayZ? Counterstrike has surfing servers, servers for huge numbers of players, and 5v5 tournaments [just using counterstrike because someone brought it up]. You don't get the 5v5ers complaining constantly that other players who just want to surf have that option... It's not asking much. Just promise [you don't even have to implement it immediately] that a goal of the devs is to build stronger PvE, and then get there as the alpha turns into beta turns into the final product. "The zombies are too easy to kill for PvE to be fun." Well duh... so ramp up the challenge of the zombies. Make them soak bullets and swarm in numbers. Limit our ability to run, the supplies of guns and ammo, and the amount of light indoors. There's plenty of room for improvement in the PvE area without compromising the fun of PvP. "It's supposed to be a realistic sim." That might be the claim, but it's not. It's a game. It's not even close to realistic, and it never will be. This is a good thing! Games have someone designing them; real life is just random and unfair and unfun. If you made a truly 'realistic' game, nobody would play it. You couldn't shoot accurately, and nothing would respawn, and you'd probably go insane from boredom because you couldn't log out to go take a shower. So piss off. There's no such thing as a 'realistic' sim in the sense you're using it. The only thing that's realistic here is the physics engine, and even that has issues. I happen to enjoy a fair bit of PvP, but I'd like it more if it was organised around clan fights, rather than negging [killing people who have just spawned], as the majority of PvP seems to be at present. Fighting over good items that don't respawn, or for pieces of valuable territory, like forts, is great. Sitting on a hillside 1km away from Cherno and shooting un- or lightly-armed people as they forage for food is just masturbation. "But you could just shoot back." Ya... I could be forced to play a certain way because someone else insists on being a dick to me... but I guess that's not really the 'play the way you want to play' mentality of a sandbox. And frankly, my system [gpu and cpu] isn't the best, so I have trouble running Arma2 at settings high enough for effective PvP combat. What I CAN do is sneak about. If I get the drop on someone, I can shoot them. Otherwise, not a chance. So I'd appreciate having more PvE that I could do with my friends, where the emphasis is on competent handling of a problem I KNOW how to solve, rather than the randomness of some douche logging in and shooting me from a spot I've already checked... I'm not angry, though. The only thing that has me annoyed is the hacking issues my home server has been experiencing lately. US914 has seen people hacking in items and vehicles, esp/aimbotting, and mass-teleport-followed-by-slaughtering. Otherwise, I'm just waiting to see what will come next. If another game [on a better engine?] comes along that offers what DayZ doesn't, I'll switch. If Rocket doesn't want my money, that's fine by me!

Used my first L85 today. The scope is powerful, but not overpowered. It has a narrow field of view, and sees little that is not already visible to a player with any other gun. The main difference the scope makes is that it illuminates targets against the background, which makes spotting targets much faster. Considering that this is only worthwhile if the player has a sniper working with them, I don't see a significant issue here. Anyone saying that because 'this is a mil sim' it's fine to have unbalanced weapons can piss off, though. Real life doesn't have spawn rates and random loot. It's a game, however much it wants to emulate realistic physics/combat, and the first rule of a game is that it must be fun. (Yes, yes, I know... 'antigame' is a meaningless phrase. Sorry, Rocket.) I could see a nerf to combat weapons in general, but it would have to be part of a comprehensive update including significant improvements in the PvE elements of the mod.

I contend that as a survival game [mod], DayZ is, at present, weak, and that as a horror game it is weaker. Why do I feel this way, and why does it matter? First, the latter: It matters only if this game is meant to be a survival-horror mmo. If it is and fails to include strong survival and horror elements, then the false-billing may upset players (as I believe it already has) who come into with the expectation that it will feature such elements. As this is just an alpha mod at this time, their upset is not of great concern. When the full game emerges, however, it may well be important. If the game is not meant to be a survival-horror mmo, but rather the present fps mmo with scattered survival and horror elements, you may disregard the following, although I would encourage a rebilling of the game to emphasize the real core gameplay. Now, why do I feel the game to be weak in the areas it bills as core to its gameplay? Let's look first at survival: Our characters begin the game with next-to-nothing, must scavenge food and drink much more frequently than is realistic in order to avoid death by starvation/dehydration, do not regenerate blood without eating or transfusions, die permanently, require warmth, etc. For all that, though, survival elements only occupy a small amount of gameplay time. The newest of new characters is perfectly capable of running into a supermarket, looting enough food, drink, and medicine to survive for several real days of gameplay, and escaping to the woods in only a few minutes. They then need to little more than infrequently raid supermarkets/kill other players to sustain themselves, and it is in fact simple to survive indefinitely in the wild with a hatchet, matches, a canteen, and a hunting knife, without facing any danger at all besides zealous bandits. I feel, in short, that this is inadequate as a survival challenge. It's not good as a simulator or a game (in this respect). What mechanics are causing the issue? I think the chief problem is that we begin the game as special forces experts with extensive training in wilderness survival techniques, the use of firearms, and the use of field medicine, with ready access to seemingly-unlimited supplies of shelf-stable food and drink, ammunition, and wild game. If we were meant to begin the game as civilians, faced with the challenge of surviving a post-apocalyptic world, then the design has not been successfully implemented. No civilian without training is able to apply battle dress, hunt, and most importantly, fire a weapon, with the efficacy our characters display in this game. If a fresh character miraculously discovered a powerful sniper rifle at his spawn location, he would be able to make 600m+ headshots from a crouched position with ease. If a civilian found a sniper rifle upon landing at a beach in a strange location, he might be able to get the safety off and aim vaguely in the direction of a target, but he'd have no hope of hitting anything at 300m, let alone 600m+, and certainly not a target the size of a human head. [set aside the fact that nobody, including special forces personnel, could make such a shot while standing/crouching, and that there is never any wind in this mod.] I am a civilian. I cannot hunt. I have fired a couple weapons in my life, but I would not describe myself as more than a novice in the use of firearms. Without a manual I would not be able to disassemble a gun for storage or cleaning. I also don't know much about medicine. If I attempted to give someone a blood transfusion, I would likely do so improperly. There is a significant risk that I would give them an infection or complication during the procedure. As a civilian, I am also not able to run 10km with 25kg of equipment on my back. I'm not out of shape, but I do not work out much, either. On the other hand, I'm pretty good at hiding in a bush, and I could probably throw an empty bottle as a distraction. What am I getting at? If you want to focus on survival, make us suck at everything when we spawn. We can fire a gun, but our aim is terrible. We can butcher an animal, but we do a terrible job. We can apply a bandage, but it only slows the bleeding at first. Make us get better with the basics over time, and give us the opportunity to specialize slowly. It takes practice to fire accurately, to butcher well, or to treat an injury. I don't suggest an obtrusive levelling system. I think, instead, we need a smoothly curving level of skill that is not available for the player to check. The highest level of skill, occupying the steepest part of the curve, requires frequent use to maintain. Thus, everyone can be proficient in everything with some practice, but experts will need to specialize and practice their specialty more often to preserve it at the highest levels. We also need less access to shelf-stable food and clean water. After the zombies have flooded the world, food stores will dwindle. Canned food will be rare. Animals will be hunted to rarity. Crops will come in thinly. For our characters, this means a greater preciousness of food. Foragers will have food to trade for ammunition. Yes, a bandit group can kill those who are willing to trade, but when food is scarce enough, food hoarders will be able to starve those who do not trade amicably. Water from ponds and wells has been contaminated, and unless boiled is not safe to drink, and soda barely slakes our thirst (beyond being rare). Batteries, too, are in short supply, and batteries power some of our best equipment, along with our flashlights. (Flares and glowsticks are probably too common). Zombies tend to gather items together into their filthy nests... In general, survival means overcoming scarcity of supplies and starting without a great deal of skill. Next, what about horror? Zombies are a staple of horror games, films, and books, but the zombies of DayZ are not very frightening at present. Yes, they do run at the speed of the player, cause injury, make creepy sounds, and walk toward gunfire. They can be frightening in certain situations, especially when the player is in the confines of a city or building at nighttime. Mostly, they are either a nuisance, silly, or a tool for bandits. Nuisance, because they stand in the way of running into a lootable location undetected. Silly, because they have goofy animations and run in hilarious fashion. A tool, because they reveal the location of a possible target in several ways. In short, they aren't very horrifying outside some specific contexts. What mechanics are causing this issue? I think the biggest issue with zombies in this game is that they can't seem to decide what type of zombie they are. Mostly they wander around aimlessly like classic Romero zombies, but when a player is detected they turn into 28 Days Later rabid humans. Either way, a player can step inside a building to slow their pace, run out an alternate entrance, and enter prone position to lose the pursuer. If the player has a gun, they need only enter a building and shoot the zombies one at a time as they enter. Unless the player uses a very loud gun, it is unlikely that they will need to deal with more than 5-6 zombies at any one time, and even the largest horde is easily escaped by nothing more than running. Zombies don't spawn until the player draws close, which gives away players attempting to sneak about, but zombies have extremely poor detection abilities, and players may hide in their vicinity, enabling snipers to ignore nearby zombies until after they have fired. Further, zombies are nearly always encountered out in the open, where they are least threatening, and even the deepest recesses of a building are mere seconds from the out-of-doors, which makes the threat of being trapped nonexistent. What am I getting at? I think zombies, and the way players encounter or interact with them, need significant adjustments, if horror is to be a bigger part of this game. Fast zombies, with few exceptions, are terrible. Encountering zombies in the open is not particularly frightening, and makes escaping them too easy. Firstly, I suggest remaking all the walking zombies into classic 'Romeros.' This means they only walk, they are extremely resistant to physical damage (aside from damage to the head), and they are extremely hard to lose once they know you are there. Fast zombies may be preserved as rare zombie dogs, but by-and-large ought not to exist. Certain zombies may also be 'ranked,' possessing increased health and strength, wearing armor, and/or having special abilities or attacks. Secondly, I suggest increasing the number of zombies everywhere. Dozens of walking zombies are much scarier than 2-3 running zombies, especially when said zombies are virtually immune to non-headshot gunfire. Thirdly, I suggest increasing the size of interior spaces, and burying valuable loot in the furthest corner of the darkest room, surrounded by 'Zeds'. The best locations that come to mind are utility tunnels and basements of industrial buildings, neither of which have natural or artificial lighting aside from that which the player brings with them. The risk must be one of getting trapped in such a location by a horde of the undead, unable to shoot a way out. Finally, players ought not to be able to lose zombies without the use of an item designed specifically to escape. This might include audio distraction, but I think the more interesting option is for players to burst blood packs on walls or the floor. This would create a dilemma for the player seeking to escape; do I attempt to run or do I use this rare medicine? Incidentally, it would be nice if players who have developed enough medical skill could make blood packs at the cost of blood (to be replenished by food and drink). As an important corollary, tying in with my survival comments, players really ought not to be able to run nearly as much as they are able to run at present. Even special forces personnel need rest, and few civilians can run even unencumbered for 10 minutes at the speed with which our characters run in this game. Sprinting is tiring. The risk must be that the player runs from one group of zombies into another, and is so tired that they cannot escape the second... Final Thought: If this game is to be about surviving a horrifying zombie apocalypse, lots of mechanics need to be adjusted, introduced, and possibly some abandoned. Thankfully, it's still an alpha. If you choose not to make changes in this direction, I would suggest changing the billing of the game. I enjoy a large fps with some survival elements, but I think that I, like many others, was attracted to this game [mod] more on the premise that it would feature a stronger survival/horror theme, rather than feature a few PvE challenges amidst a primarily PvP shooter. Thank you for reading, and please comment whether you agree or disagree.

I'm not sure if this is really 'lucky,' but I found 4 double-barrel shotguns in the same barn the other day. The spawn rate is decent on the gun, but 4 is pretty unusual.

They are barely a threat. On my first spawn the other day I immediately aggro'd 4-5 zombies and simply ran in circles until they vanished. You can't be caught by zombies while running, and they don't corner well,

The stats are misleading. Many many people commit suicide if they spawn unfavorably. I suicided at least 5 times a couple nights ago, after dying to a bandit, in order to get closer to my friends. On some servers I have seen the same player commit suicide a dozen or more times.

I can't believe I made it so long before a troll posted! You so silly!

:P Well duh, of course it's an alpha. They are asking for my feedback. If they had said they weren't planning on making changes, then I'd love it 'warts and all,' but they are making changes and reading the forums, so I'm happy to comment! Thanks :)

Just as annecdotal evidence- only one of my deaths has come at the hands of another player. However, although I have died many times, the rest of my deaths were all intentional (suiciding to get a better spawn to get nearer to my friends). I'm not sure how the stats account for those deaths, but I personally attribute them to the player who killed me and forced me to suicide if I wanted to get near to my friends. That's really picky, but I thought I'd mention it because the server stats don't necessarily represent what has happened in the game, if that makes sense.

We are not merely trained soldiers- we are clearly special forces personnel with incredible training depth. This has made the game into a FPS with some PvE, rather than a survival simulator. If you would be bored by such a game, I can understand. I may be asking for a different game, which will be made in time by someone, if it was not the intention of this game [mod]. I don't think it needs to take a long time for a character to develop basic skills. Consider the 80/20 rule. 80% of the skill in 20% of the time, and the remaining 20% of the skill in 80% of the time. If nothing else, I wouldn't mind at least having the option of choosing to start unskilled, even if others don't wish to do so. There is TONS of potential for horror/tension/fear in this game. Lots already comes from the threat other players pose. I'd like to increase the threat from the environment, especially by forcing the player into confined, dark spaces when searching for the best gear.

To be frank, I don't mind the game as it is in that regard. There may be some balancing issues with regard to item sinks, the power of weapons, and so on, but I happen to like a large-scale FPS idea. I would just rather play a really good survival-horror, which this bills itself as, and which this can be with some tweaks. Hurray for alphas looking little like final games much of the time! If Rocket doesn't make the survival/horror I'm describing, someone else will. It's only a matter of time.

Regarding it being a horror game: I'm not under the illusion that it's just about horror. I do think that anyone choosing a realistic setting full of zombies is automatically dabbling in horror, though. I think that it's better to embrace the horror than to kill it with jerky running zombies that are easy to escape. And yes, I know lots of aspects remain to be added. The purpose of this post is to comment on what is there already only, since that's what they want with these forums! Thanks for the reply. :)