PhilB

First, I want a PS4 for Christmas . . My pro tips: Run upstairs if aggroed zombie and no weapon (anything below an ax is not a weapon). Once you have an ax, you can almost sprint up to a zombie and kill it with no aggro, as long as you are directly behind it. Don't bother with Electro/Cherno unless you know for sure you are on a fresh server. That rule generally applies for all towns. It only takes a single player to remove all good loot from any sized town. Even though all buildings are enterable, it is similar to mod in the sense that only a percentage of buildings are truly worth investigating. Take note of which style of buildings are lootless, this will be the same all over the map. Finally, get quickly to a military area and loot it on a quiet server. I know this is cynical and anathema to all DayZ but really, it's a shit world out there in Chernarus and you gotta do what you gotta do, awesome.

I feel you, however it isn't that anyone thinks these questions are off limits for discussion. It's because we've been here awhile and argued all that shit ad nauseum. I don't wanna pull any cards like search function. God knows I've never found a damn useful thread using the search function. But I'm guessing op is not well read on the forums and simply doesn't realize we've all turned a critical eye many times towards Dean and the dev team, to the degree each issue deserved. But for most of us, I think we can proudly say we are fairly satisfied with the product so far and most things have gone in the direction we'd hoped.

It may be true there's a touch of waywardness, but they'll find their way and things are going well all things considered. They are probably still "living the moment", absolutely stunned at over one million units sold and all this hoopla. I don't think they expected that. Maybe because I work for a largish corporation, but to me I'm super impressed with what they've been able to accomplish, considering they're this cute little small business with this huge game idea. But I agree with the sentiment about taking this thing to the next level. Company/Customer relationships needs to become normalized, organized and like a AAA title, not like a business runs from some dude's garage (no offense, I'm the biggest fan there is). Finally, NO HACKING. Gotta give recognition for that. So far, cheating has been nil. (yeah, server hopping, that separate though). As a fan, I can forgive just about anything. But if I put my businessman hat on for a moment, I'd tell "Rocket" that he can call it an alpher all day but over one million people bought the title. He's well past alpha; like it or not DayZ is simply a game now, at least in the consumers' eyes. I think they should spend some of those sales dollars on increased community relations, etc. I think this is the OP's complaint, at heart. Not enough and too chaotic community relations management. In the long run, it doesn't matter because the core concept is so compelling. They could truly fuck this up and still have a hit. I sort of empathize with op's grievance. But considering all factors, I give DayZ a grade of A- right now. I say good job.

Sadly, this. But yeah I have faith they will figure this out. Really hoping the parallelizing core thing dramatically improves performance and frees resources. The mere fact that DayZ will be the first of its kind suggests the enormity of the project at hand. I don't think any of us are truly cognizant of how huge this is. How many things does DayZ want to be? A high-perf shooter? yes A social mmo? yes A hunting/survival sim? yes Open world pve? yes A crafting sim? yes This game is so ambitious. I think it will be a solid year before all the major pieces are in place. Not exactly sure why Dean threw out this generalized 6 month number. He should know by now that people tend to latch onto these to time frames like gospel. And also that it took an extra year to produce alpha because of the vagaries of fate. What do I know though? Maybe he thinks it'll be 3 months and that is why he said 6 months. I still think dedicating significant resources to a brand new map is the most efficient way to buy a large chunk of time to work on stuff while keeping the player base preoccupied. Heck, I know Chernarus better than my own region by a hundredfold and it still took me appx. 70 hours of game time to feel like I had sufficiently explored everywhere on the new map. I guess it took me about 300-500 hours to get "bored" with Chernarus the first go round in '12. This is an extremely loose prediction but I suspect we'll all feel some genuine boredom 3-4 months in and it could potentially suck from month 4-8 while we seem to wait endlessly for bigger updates for the big stuff i.e. vehicles, base building. But if we had a brand new map to keep us all busy and distracted? A new map could also help alleviate the rise and fall of concurrent user base between updates. The reason I'm so big on this new map thing (besides obvious awesomness) is from a business standpoint it seems like the one area one could simply throw money at a project and get good results. As I try to imagine the dev process from my place of ignorance, I can't imagine that hiring a glut of artists and programmers to work exclusively on a new map (considering the core part is there, one is simply using the existing tools used to create chernarus+) would require intensive oversight. There's nothing new to invent, just a bunch of new skins, textures and polygons, right?

Good point. I have often speculated on my own stat--bullets fired vs. bullets left on my dead corpse. I reckon I've only probably ever shot 10%max of all bullets I've ever carried in my dayz. Once I realized the folly of saving stuff for a future that bandits too easily take, I started to take a more proactive approach to my gameplay.

Werd to all this. I like free hand instead of free look, or both would be fine. Great to raise up book to read and lower to look around at surroundings. But yeah, while DayZ radio is an unknown I think something is needed for side entertainment specifically for squad play. There's so much downtime with squadplay, it'd be nice to chill and read a bit while waiting for my homies or whatnot.

Pretty sure epic storms are a given, just a matter of time. They're simply focused on other core issues right now. Mechanics probably already exist but simply aren't implemented yet for performance reasons. We see still that item management continues to be laggy. Def like to see comprehensive feedback loops with weather conditions-gun wear, caloric needs, etc. The first open world game to simulate dynamic weather systems? That's huge. No mod variations including vanilla seem to feature anymore the awesome storms one would typically experience in the early dayz. I remember some quite intense moments in Cherno during extreme thunderstorms, heart pounding stuff.

Read it, all good. I can relate to "seeing the light" about 1st person. SA 1st person is already better than the mod, imo. I would add head torch enabled free head movement, especially for using the compass. Anyone else notice that head torch and compass don't quite work together for night time play? Or similar to op's gun inspection idea it would be nice to be able to move and rotate the compass to get a better view of it.

Yeah, I found mine as well. More anecdotal evidence. Do you know which server hive you found you character?

Glad to get some info on this; I was freaked out for a bit there last night. I didn't check thoroughly but last night it sure seemed like it was exclusively the hardcore servers not connecting. Either way, that's probably a clue since it does appear the hardcore servers are mostly affected. Can we get confirmation that everyone's chars are indeed alive and reside solely on the "normal" db? I'm fairly sure this is the case.

From a realism and simulation standpoint I think this works. Most folks don't cavort around in the middle of the night even with the conveniences of modernity. Imagine our fear of the night in an apocalypse. Looting at night is dangerous. There are many unseen dangers such as falling off roofs or rockfaces/cliffs or simply getting lost in woods. I think it is a fair trade off that there aren't many other survivors present. We could imagine it as if they are sleeping. It appears playing DayZ at night will continue to be limited to only the most stout-hearted. I for one love it. I agree with OP that, although it can be nerve wracking at times, looting at night is very productive.

Thanks, the one spot I haven't checked out yet. Prolly not finished, but I think you know that. I like all the other "theories" though. Similar to the "golf course" up north. Looks like a thing on the sat map but when you get there and see it for yourself, it just looks like more open fields. I am super stoked for all the new real estate being developed up north. The coast is a place I only go when I'm feeling suicidal so I'm excited for more place to see/loot up north!

Get well, Fraggle, we miss you!

Happy Holidays fellow survivors. Chrismakwanza came early for us (SA release). But be thinking (and maybe doing something) for all those less fortunate than us.

With a view in mind that everything in life has its counter-- I always have a mini anxiety attack whenever, wherever I spawn. Even in the remotest of areas, there's that tiny chance another dude happens to be near. This is increased now that my character makes the gun reloading sound when I spawn in. I've been around that new military base south of Vybor/Kabanino. One can sit inside the "headquaters" building and wait in ambush for the server hoppers. Simply kneel your character with his back against a wall so that no one can spawn behind you. The other players so quickly lose their sense of caution they will walk right into your ironsights like AI. For all the benefit these hopper dipshits get for cruisin' for loot like that, what a stupid move! If anyone wants to combat server hopping and pick up a haul of easy loot, just hang around a good loot spot and kill server hoppers as they spawn in. If the server hoppers are gonna do what they do, then hang in the good spots and take 'em out as they come, it is so easy, you are in the defensive position, the advantage is yours. Post if you disagree. Or if you are already adopting this playstyle as I have. :)

Welcome, Watch out and be careful, trust no one. Don't get discouraged when dudes own your ass for a month. I promise, you'll get better. Most important: Patience!

It is boring and tedious. I lose patience rather quickly. I like roaming. I'm just saying if any players want to punish these dudes there is a really easy way, and you get good loot for it!

They pop in like . . . something. In fact, if one hangs at that military base near Stary/Vyvor/Kab you'll see server hoppers every ten minutes on average, NO EXAGGERATION! The server hoppers pop in like server hoppers. It is so common it redefines the meaning of frequency!

Kudoz to live in the pain of darkness. Fuck all to 24/7 daylight. Iz not mentality of DayZ. All that darkness gave opportunity to truly enjoy the daylight! Only real men with serious ballz play DayZ in the night time.

Ha, welcome and all that. Great post, however you are right. Just about everything you mentioned has been discussed ad nauseam. But it's all good cuz it is correct stuff and good to see you gotz your DayZ head on straight. The voice over hot key for players with no mic is a great idea. Can't say I've seen anyone else propose that yet. Not to dismiss the whole thing, cuz I am more stoked than anybody for all the imminent features, but what makes the project credible is Dean's commitment to providing adequate security. I think we can expect a substantial dry period in the next month with regard to new stuffz because security will become a key focus. You'll thank Dean "Dean Hall" Hall in the end.

Okay, don't know how or why, but I really enjoyed that one!

I suspect that for most of us the desire to kill ebbs and flows with our mood and recent events. I know that for me, if I get killed after a good run I'm pretty pissed off. I'll go looking to kill someone after I respawn to blow off steam (typically never do though). There's a lot of dicks in the world, so goes with DayZ. I take a lot of satisfaction in killing those guys. They deserve it and they're out to kill me too so it is self defense. Maybe OP doesn't mean self-defense killing? Not sure, cuz I wouldn't consider that murder but if you plan on surviving awhile it is inevitable you will be doing a lot of killing for self defense.

Is there any verifiable info on hacking levels. I got a sweet life going and if hacking is gonna be an issue, I'm inclined to wait it out.

Great song, btw. Who is that?

How you liking it so far, KoS?