svenbreakfast

12 months of open alpha + full beta phase = rushed out the door

Patch is pretty lame, but this is just so beautiful.

Doors do need work. They should make noise. It would be nice if they were less of a chore to use too.

I died once from "...my leg hurts". Shot of morphine will take care of the problem.

There are servers in the mod distinguished as "no PvP". I checked one out and everybody was just in global helping each other and stuff. It seemed extremely boring, like what I imagine Second Life to be. Firing your weapon in a town needs to be a hard choice to make, and one that could easily put you in a fucked position. Just like in Walking Dead or any other zombie movie where they only fire when the shit hits the fan. A friend and I had a situation in the mod a few months back where for whatever reason there were like 100 zombies in Berezino, and we needed to get into the hospital because I had sepsis and was dying. Just getting to the building was very very tense. My buddy shot out the windows, aggro'd the whole town, and I slipped in to find meds. He ran off into the houses with an insane pack after him. He didn't make it far- they came at him from all directions. I would have been dead too, but the zeds wouldn't enter the building. In the end I found some antibiotics, but ended up having to satchel charge the hospital to get away from the horde. Numerous, dangerous zombies with good pathing are the urban solution, but in the wilderness, who knows? I don't usually run into people out in the woods, but I think if you're running through an open field near an area of interest you should expect a bullet to come your way. It's not hard to stay low pro in the woods.

Once they get ragdolls sorted out I'm sure we'll see the zombies hanging around on the ground longer.

The "arrow sticking" was specifically mentioned last week as a feature. Not sure if it will be implemented at the same time the weapon is added, but it is on their to-do list. Zombie bodies will not be instantly disappearing forever either. Dean has said that he wanted to draw from the feel of Skyrim hunting, which is cool by me. Hopefully I'll be better at using the crossbow in the SA than I was in the mod- Daryl, I was not.

I've had my shirt ruined a few times after relatively short melee combats, but never my vest or its contents.

I'd say just explore the map, if you don't want to go find Valhalla in the city or a military installation. Knowing your way around is important, and there are lots of interesting places you probably haven't found yet.

Loads of great stuff to say about your average alcoholic, though. I could see booze and cigarettes, but don't think weed fits the setting.

Don't get your reasoning. It will take no time at all, provided you have an axe/matches, to build a fire. When you're cold or hungry, the necessity for an axe or matches may drive you into a town, leading to a player contact or fight with zombies. Needing things is the engine that drives this game. People don't gather at the NW airfield because they are aviation enthusiasts. They go there because they have needs. If getting the right gear is a time sink, I think probably the entire game is a time sink. It's a survival/scavenging game with elements of bot monsters and other players who have needs. Of course all some people need is to hunt down other players, which could also be called a time sink. Personally my best fights have come because I needed something and shit got complicated when I tried to get it. Regardless, this feature has been part of DayZ since before the stand alone was even dreamed of.

Chernarus is beautiful. Endless forests, sweeping vistas, vast lush fields, quint villages- all that shit. Back in the mod all it took was that dark ambient score to turn this into an ideal location for a cycling vacation into a sinister if bucolic hellscape. I miss that option for travelling and such. If I was raiding an airfield I could turn it off, but it really added to the bleak atmosphere to log in and hear that score. There must be something to music, because they keep putting it in movies. For me the score always ratcheted up the immersion, rather than detracting from it. It set the vibe, which otherwise is very agricultural. If you're going to take the time to drop mass graves in places, I can't imagine the you have a blind spot when it comes to the entire aural dimension when it comes to setting the stage. Anyway- give us the option to turn on that good old DayZ music. I'm sick of having to have my music player in the background, and not being able to turn it off easily when shit starts going down. Also days survived. It adds intangible qualities to each life, and brings into focus the survival element, which I believe is the charter purpose of the game.

What other time sinks are there? Aside from the fact that the entire game could be called a time sink. Of course if you want to survive you'll need fire for warmth and cooking, and to do so you'll have to get the materials to build a fire.

The great thing about DayZ is that RP is baked into it. Everyone is potentially dangerous, though some people are actually cool, and worth talking to or even teaming up with. Unlike WoW or something, you do not have the option of simply ignoring another person. If you have the stones to not play KOS, and interact with people the things that are said out of practical necessity are the same as in "role playing". "Where you going?" "Who are you?" "Do you need help?" "I need ______." "Has this town been looted?" "See you later, and be careful." When running cross country with my crew we talk about whatever we want, and it feels like when I'm walking along with my friends talking shit in the contemporary world. We talk about what we need, where we're going, etc. Real talk. About the only real effort to make in RPing is to put on my UN hat and tell fools "FREEZE- U.N.!" just because I get a kick out of it. Weather you go full "I'm looking for my daughter and won't rest until I find her and kill my ex-wife who was from Chernarus and kidnapped her before the zombie apocalypse started" or just "I need morphine because I was shot in the leg"- you're role playing. Even shit talking squeaker kids are RPing in my way of seeing things.

Sounds like 90% of the development focus this year is on survival, so you're in luck. If you can secure a location, and are willing to spend the energy on security cameras, I don't see how that is not part of survival. Personally I'd go with claymore mines.

I'm a little bit more brutal in the SA than I was in the mod, too. I did let 3 noobs pass unharmed last night though, so I think my karma might be regenerating at this point.

Reckon it's become an alpha test. Wait.

I remember when I first logged on, and couldn't really put my finger on why shit felt so tense when it was just me and some railroad tracks. Looking back I think the music had a lot to do with that. I just really miss logging in, hearing the sound of the "days survived" ticking out, and then that minimalist ambient would roll in.

I don't kill new spawns or people with rifles shouldered. Raise your weapon on me and social time is over. I've had tons of great, hilarious interactions with people by not following a KOS rule. If I'm at an airfield or a military camp all bets are off. I'll probably kill you and find a nice place to spend 10 minutes waiting for your potential buddy. KOS is boring and easy, as has been noted hundreds of times.

Lay low, stay quiet, watch, apply violence where needed.

I'm glad DayZ isn't for everybody, and I'm glad that the simulator nature of the game drives off the "easily bored". I get more out of an hour doing nothing in DayZ than I do out of a night of L4D2.

Depends. My loadout, the range the shot sounded from, and the type of weapon that was fired will drastically affect my reaction. In the most general terms though, I'd sprint to cover and return fire if possible.

I dunno the ARMA engine is pretty amazing. You just have to be able to appreciate what it does that other engines could never aspire to. It's a simulator engine, not an FPS confection.

Testers "expect". You see, there's your problem. You don't get to "expect" anything as a tester in the first month of an alpha which you were warned not to buy. I believe it was The Rock who once said "Know your role, and shut your mouth".

The fuck does this even mean? The reason people say it's an alpha all the time is because sometimes people are so stupid it's just offensive. The game is under construction. Have you ever made a single thing in your life? It's like Bohemia are carpenters working on the framing and the forums are flooded with morons complaining about the bathroom fixtures. If you don't want to test don't test. "Even for an alpha". The fuck? The devs could not have possibly been more explicit in trying to remove people such as yourself from this testing process.