MasterZ

That source isn't official, isn't it? It is best to only look at official sources such as the new website, twitter, their blog or look at recorded interviews.

Source: http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/28904791570/the-end-of-the-beginning They are using what they call the 'minecraft' model. Now I've been playing that game since the early alpha and if what they say is true one can safely assume that the standalone alpha will be released in the next month. It will be buggy and lacking in content but it will be getting updates every one or two weeks. If they also use the financial model, the alpha standalone will be cheaper than the full version, but you get all future updates for free.

That only means that it's a very popular idea that at least deserves attention from the devs.

I ran into Electro and was looting the town. I entered a building and went upstairs and bumped into a guy with an M4. I thoughts for sure I was dead but it seems he was afk or something. Being the good guy that I am, I left the guy alive and went on my way. (I'm still alive on this character too.)

It could be vital to make the zombies harder. Though if we are going to have something like stamina we will also need more vehicles on average per server. Just make it harder to repair and maintain them.

They are easy, but making them slower could easily make them a lot harder. - Make zombies move slower. - Let zombies have a shitload of blood, making headshots almost necessary. - Introduce stamina, you can only sprint for a few seconds and run for a minute. (Introduce more bikes and cheap cars.) - Let zombies grab you, once they hit you, you go to walk speed for a few seconds. That way we get a more fun game.

I wont pick sides in this thread because both sides have point but at least let me inform you that your computer specification have little to do with loading times. I have a very weak laptop, I can run the game on lowest settings and barely scrape 20 frames per second. Loading the game however takes anywhere between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. It's save to assume that your computer specs have nothing to do with loading and connecting and that you should instead look at your internet connection. (I have fiberglass + 30mbits speed, pretty standard where I live.) Second, there is nothing wrong with having a small piece of paper next to your computer where you write good servers on and what time the server is compared to yours.

I confirm the same for Cherno. 1.7.2.4 and latest beta files Lu180 server.

The real problem is timing. The longer Rocket waits before changing the engine or coding language, the more annoying the switch will be. I would like to hear Rocket about his plans. If anything I think it would be best if he would switch to developing DayZ on a different engine tomorrow. I'd gladly wait a few months without getting updates, only to get the game on a new engine where content can be added afterwards. This would also be a means to make sure that none of the bugs we have now will be in the new engine. Consider it a couple o months break to fix all bugs. More than reasonable from my point of view.

Random events would make the world feel more alive and that is something I endorse. I like the idea of boxes dropped by a plane that never got picked up, not a big fan of military personal that shoots everything on sight. Not to forget that I assume only hardened veterans would survive among these conditions. Their priorities would be elsewhere and not about wandering aimlessly and killing survivors that might be a valuable asset. ;) Maybe flesh out your suggestion with more ideas?

While short it does show some issues with your suggestion. What is the advantage? Why would anyone want to construct/fix a vehicle that only works on train-tracks? Looking at the map, the train-tracks only go along the coast and go through the major cities of the map. It will attract a lot of attention, making you a very easy target for other survivors. Zombies are far less of a concern in this case but even if you have the luck of not finding survivors. Isn't it faster to simply go to one of the big cities, stealthy loot it and go north for better loot? I'm all for more options but the pros and cons need to be balanced but right now the cons far outweigh the pros. (High risk, low reward.)

I've been playing this game a lot and I thought we could give more depth to our friendly neighborhood zombie buddies. Most zombies we can encounter in Day Z are simple zombies with no special attributes except for being either a civilian or a military zombie. Thus I thought it would be nice to give special attributes to certain zombies that spawn at certain places. Here are some ideas by me and my friends: (Please be gentle with me.) Construction Worker Zombies - These zombies spawn near industrial buildings and will often wear thick construction helmets with special headphones. They prevent sound so these zombies don't hear you at all but at the same time it prevents headshots from low caliber guns unless shot directly in the face. Soldier Zombies - These zombies spawn near military sites as they do already. They often wear helmets that prevent headshots from low caliber weapons and often wear bullet proof vests that prevent or reduce damage from most guns. They are much harder to deal with yet they will wear better loot on them. Walkman Zombies - These zombies spawn just like regular civilians but are exclusive to big cities. They wear still functioning walkmans that produce sound. They are not special on their own but because of the working walkman they spawn with anywhere from 5 to 15 follower civilian zombies that function like a mob. Startle one of them and they all rush towards you, better look out! Survivor Zombies - Making the game harder isn't everything, adding rewards in trade for risk is also part of a good package. Survivor zombies will be survivors that were not immune. They rarely spawn near cities and wear smaller backpacks with various items, sometimes even guns. You can kill them for loot but try to get a headshot. It would be a shame if you accidentally shot the items he was holding to bits and pieces. Infected Zombies - These zombies spawn near hospitals and wear the traditional hospital robe of shame. They have a bigger chance to give (stronger) infections to survivors when they attack but as a result these zombies have only about 1000 blood. Dogs - There is no doubt in my head that these have been suggested before but I'll put them here anyway. They spawn just like civilian zombies but rely twice as much on hearing and twice as less on sight. They are also faster and do more damage than regular civilian zombies. They spawn alone and in case smell is ever implanted as a sense, dogs will smell four times as good as regular zombies. (With hearing being twice as much I mean that 4 sound bars means 8 sound bars for them.) Wolves - The reason I included dogs. Survivors should never be truly save so why not make the forests a bit more dangerous? Wolves will spawn as a pack of 4-8 wolves and will attack survivors. Like dogs they rely more on sound and less on sight, they would also rely on smell if ever implanted. They will avoid populated areas and open fields and their habitat will be exclusive to the more inland forests. (Do you want to run into a field and risk sniping or run through the forest and risk wolves?) I'm sure this community can think of more special zombies that might be a good idea to include in future version or in the distant future stand alone version of this mod. ;)

That is kind of a tough question and can go either way really. On one hand they could be starving and feral due to neglect which causes them to attack live humans because infected aren't edible. On the other hand they could be zombified as well, which raises questions such as: why aren't the bunnies and boars infected? Both can work, depending on how it's presented in the game. If you would ask me which one I favor, I would answer zombie dogs and starving wolves.

How about giving worse starting conditions in order to punish death? - Instead of entering the world with 12000 health, start with 8000. - Start without a backpack or the smallest 6 slot backpack instead of an 8 slot backpack. - Make loot more rare. - Increase the size of the world so that getting back to camp might take half a day or longer. There are a lot of methods that can be used to punish death. But the real question is, is it really necessary? I have a lot of time to play now, but in the near future I have less time. Getting killed might result in me losing days of work. Isn't that itself already a big penalty?

I believe that every play-style, even if they differ from the norm, should be accepted as long as whatever style is possible to do without changing how the game works. (Hackers) Making survival for other players harder is also part of surviving, as you have less competition to worry about. However I do think that the destroying of tents is somewhat low priority at this point. If you want to make survival harder you can just take their best items. Improving your chances and (maybe) decreasing theirs. Not to forget you can also do what the fine people above me said. In the end it's their own fault for either: A ) Putting their camp at a location that is easy to find. B ) Leading you to their camp.

Thanks for all the beans! I'm sure to survive for a long time now. :D Not sure about that, I think something like that will pull a lot of negative attention. Having zombie dogs (or dogs in general) being shot already gets plenty of negative attention by certain groups. :o Children might be pushing it too far, with how sensitive the media is nowadays and all. Yeah that sound pretty cool! Kind of like the survivor zombie but with different loot. I do kind of like the idea of zombies having different stages, some being more sluggish than others. We kind of already have that with hoppers and crawlers. Not sure about the forest idea though, I like how zombies stick to cities because that's where their prey (humans) can be found. I really respect DayZ and it keeping the infected/zombies more traditional and realistic as far as zombies can be realistic. I do like L4D but it's a completely different game and the special infect from that game hardly fit in DayZ, I agree with both of you with that. :)

How about instead players are able to construct walls, gates and deer stands / guard towers etc. That would allow for more customization. Maybe even make bigger tents with a storage box inside so you can't loot the contents unless you are inside the tent. There are a lot of possibilities with that. Build your own russian krepost!

A pharmacy would be a very nice addition to most small towns that still have a name. Though they should have regular medical supply spawns and not the boxes filled with loot that the hospitals have. A side addition might be sheriff offices (low military yield, inside most smaller towns) and police stations (mid military yield, Cherno, Electro, Berez and Stary ) as alternatives to military bases.

Starting with no bag at all is fine, if the smallest backpack in the game spawns a lot in the starter towns. Another possibility is just starting with the smallest backpack and removing it from the item spawn tables.

I like this suggestion except for: 'To use a Jerrycan it has to be equiped of course.' I already have a lot of trouble with the inventory being as complicated and buggy as it is. Switching it to my main equip slot will most likely result in me losing the weapon due to bugs and or error on my part. I'm fine with the Jerrycan just being part of the active inventory, taking up 6 slots instead of 10. (A tire is also 6 slots right? Kind of the same size.)

I kind of agree with the original post. Right now zombies aren't exactly nice to deal with. The zigzagging and extreme running speed, combined together with them seeing you from sometimes 300 meters away when crouching is hardly fun. Now I'm fine with the fast variant of zombie that did not lose all that much of their motor skills. Not all zombies need to be slow walking and faceplanting every 10 seconds. Making them run somewhat is fine, but sprinting as fast as a sprinting surviver is not the best in terms of gameplay. I would say that it's best if they run only as fast as a running crouched surviver. This way it's still possible to outrun them, while them still getting to you fast if you aren't paying attention. (As for the zigzagging I realize they need entirely new pathfinding so that can wait till standalone.) Now for the sight, I think it would be better if hearing was more important than seeing. Make their max aggro sight range only 25 meters but make sound a lot more problematic. At the same time, running should make a lot of sound but crouching or crawling should make almost no sound unless on asphalt and other terrain types that make sound. Now we have zombies that are easier to deal with in terms of running speed and sight, but hearing is a lot more important. This will make day more pleasant and nights more dangerous. (Seriously, at night I can go right up to a zombie and they wont notice me.) In the end, the amount of deaths by Zed should stay the same.