xalienax

what the OP describes is a long standing issue with the Aram engine and it's netcode. It was in every iteration based on the engine to varying degrees. Altho the devs has supposedly re worked the server architecture considerably i would expect this to be a consistent nagging problem. Also i have seen it in arma III, however is is drasticly reduced compared to A2, OA, OFP, etc.

I think you completely glazed over the rest of my post where i agreed that what needs to happen is for night time to have atleast reasonable lighting levels based on weather- not be a perpetual black hole as it currently is. I think thats a reasonable solution. I'd rather just play 24/7 day then have accelerated tho.

Accelerated Day/night just looks goofy imho. Learn to deal. full 24hr cycles or nothing imho. Also yes the lighting in the SA makes is considerably harder to see at all in the night. again- ive been out camping and such at night IRL. its no where near as pitch-black as the game would have you believe. even the mod was to dark on a clear nigth imho, but the SA is unplayable without exploiting gamma.

Dont forget the days of everyone using xfire :P

I agree; however zombies are broken right now. go shoot one and you'll find that you trigger a 100% inescapable string of zombie spawns. the same one will respawn over and over and over within 100m of you and imediately re aggro no matter how many times you kill it. if theres more then one and you dont have zombie un-accesible place nearby to wait it out your just screwed if solo. they realy dont seem to spawn untill you start to pull aggro. also there needs to be support for group play in the form of construction (even if primative), storage, and atleast basic vehicles.

I do agree that screeching kids screaming cusswords at you si annoying, i also think that going into any of these "18+" titles and expecting to no hear vulgarity is kinda wishful thinking at best. I grew up in rual southern "murica" where making curde jokes about racial sterotypes is the norm. I often play video games while drinking- and i talk the same way online that i do in real life. Fortunately online you have an option to not hear my voice coms, use it if easily offended. I dont go out of my way to avoid offending IRL im sure as hell not going to try on a game.

Thats largely sorted by the rarity of items and fixing of storage systems. One of the main issues in mod was the ease of duping. rather or not YOUR clan did it or not, it meant that thousands of duped items like NVGs, AS50, etc all got into circulation making any balance attributed to rarity of the weapon or its ammo irrelevant- And this doesnt even account for crates with 50 of everything spawnd in cherno by hackers. In an essance, as long as they dont make the mistake that epcoh did and use some sort of ownership mechanic, it should be fine. completely inaccessible things like Safes should probably be avoided for obvious reasons, but linking storage divice to character is also bad. if you ahve a tent/cahce/weapon rack what ever they call it in a clan base and die, it should not despawn thus vaporizing everything everyone else put into it. That said its not realistic for it to be a complete indestructibel entity liek epoch's safes either. If you make it so that clans have to choose between either scattering and hiding thier cahces or putting it all "in one basket" where they can mount active defence its prone to riaidng by another group.

^ well put. KoS/Bandit is all too often considered the same thing around these parts anymore. There are KoSers who shoot anyone and everyone who dont care at ALL about the loot. There are also bandits who would rather avoid shooting (to avoid damaging the loot or for RP vlaue). As for clans? i think the harder they make the game the more clan-dominated it will become. so in a sence it will increase cooperative play, but as we see in every other DayZ vareint Calns ultimately are out for thier own for the most part. More clans. more clan feuds for bases and resources. Cooperation goes up but PvP/Killing continues. At the very least, fighting with and against organized squads is more fun the random Deathmatching with zombies on the coast :)

Awww. No approve of loot respawn. better bound to restart untill database system is implemented. :( then again considering the current selection of content it wont make much difference without a way to store things that persist beyond an individual character's existance. and the fact that theres nothing supremely OP in the game ATM, purely balanced by rarity either...

As far as i know its not supposed to respawn in SA except on server starts. i believe this is intended. Certainly hope it starys that way. one of the big issues with balancing "rare spawns" in DayZ mod was that no matter what you do if you have a clan willing to sit and farm an area you can eventually build up stupid stocks of powerful weapons/high end gear.

I wouldn't hardly call it an arena battle mate. Scarcity necessitates PvP. Simple as. You work hard to make sure you and your crew has all the best stuff, then use that stuff to make sure any other groups who may want to theaten your position in that server DONT have that stuff. (By stealin from thier bases, capturing/destroying vehicles, and kliing any of them who take a pop shot at you in the process.) the more time They spend re organizing, respawning, and re looting gear the less time they have to cause you any trouble- only bugger is almost ever competent PvP oriented dayZ clan also thinks this way :)

Lategame features encourage group play. they do not spare the lives of clueless randoms. Cooperation goes up, Pvp does not delcine however. See epoch. You go from cherno KOSers to clans and squads fighting over caches and bases and blowing up eachothers vehicles- which is good imho. i really like how that environment somehwat factionalizes servers without any clunky faction mechanics. people group up/clan up because thats how you loot airdrops/caches. thats how you end up with briefs full of gold and in turn, plenty of helos to pillage opposing clans with :)

The devs arent trying to stop banditry- they are however trying to incentivize emergent interactions other then just blowin' everyones head off on sight. Providing Options like handcuffs and having things hit by gunfire be damaged makes it more "vlauable" to hold someone up then simply snipe them. The BIG problem i have with the developement philosphy that i see is the idea that "if we make the game stupidly complicated and hard to survive people will stop fighting eachother". artifically inflating difficulty to try to steer playstiles to thier vision is the worst possible way to address it. all this stuff like multiple types of illness, random infections from dozens of sources, multiple blood types, etc. All interesting enough but they seem more intent on producing "field medic simulator" over providing content that Already worked in the mod. (see tents, vehicles, Balistics instead of gamey dispersion cones) Making it more obnoxious to survive for one more hour of play time wont make me more willing to help unknown randoms- if anythign i'd more more inclined to avoid them first, and kill if confronted rather then have to deal with the hastle of getting back to my curent position within the game.

Simply adding "features" wont reduce KOSing as ultimately it is a game and aside from doing some really annoying thing like making you wait like 4 hours to respawn or something people will do what makes them happy. for some people, crashing other's fun makes them happy. Others enjoy raiding/fighting other clans, etc. I would say the more extensive content on the Mod (especially side mods like epoch) favor group/clan play so you do see more cooperation but the average random will still generally get capped if they have a nice gun or backpack. if you want cooperative play, i would look for a regular group to play with on comms thiers plenty that us TS/skype/mumble/etc outside of serious clans if you dont want to comit to a large group.

I have nothing wrong with insta-Kill anywhere snipers, M107 or AS50 only the TWS varient featuring the thermal optics. Infact given the location and it being the post-apocalypse i would argue that anything featuring such fancy optics would be darn near non-existant, and even if fround good luck finding the specilized bateries/power packs for such optics. if storage is done properly this time rarity of both weapon and ammo mount reasonable balances. One of the biggest issues with the most powerful things on DayZ mod was the sheer number of Dupe exploits rangign from tents, to back packs, to vehicles, to clans restarting servers after thier members moved a bunch of stuff and ALT-F4 with it, so with that in mind im not adverse to things like a lapua or .50 based sniper weapon, just Thermal/NV scopes.

Few general things ive learned but probably obvious; 1. New spawns are generally friendly (unless immature kiddies who want to run around pant-less punching people for "the lolz"). this changes once they no longer need your help. 2. The more someone has to loose by trusting you, the more likely they are to just hoze you before you get a chance to do anything threatening. 3. Where you meet makes all the difference. i wouldn't generally trust anyone who wants to go to well known death traps that offer easy sniping positions for his or her mates (See Airfields) 4. Betrayal and meta-Gaming is part of dayZ. accept it and move on. some have gone as far as to get people on TS/Steam/Skype and still betray them. nothing is 100% Use your common sence, and if in doubt observe for a bit before approaching someone.

Im all for harder zombies, but i feel that making them harder *before* finalizing map layout and sorting clipping is the wrong order. its a Game-breaking issue that should be prioritized ahead of a zombie damage/animation/speed re balance. Get the physics and core shit right at 100% THEN tweak values and fine tune balancing!

I just want my AKM back from mod in all its former glory. never liked the M4 :(

I understand and can get behind the reason, but its also a complete road-block and impass for anyone attempting to rectify a legitimate false positive. or case of Key theft, etc. if you genuinely did no wrong and one day find yourself banned all you can do is ponder the possible reasons and either give it up or buy a new game. there is NO alternative- and no real way to prove anything when you don't even know what caused the ban. Do I have malware that was used to steal my key? Do I have legitmate program/plugin that was detected as a hook (Ie recording software, TS/mumble overlays, etc) Was the offense resulting in my ban even from this IP? (may point to key theft if not)? without being able to know WHY you were banned your just flat screwed.

Heh im glad that they made loot only spawn on server restart. (at least that my understanding). While I still prefer the mod as the SA simply lacks the kind of content that makes dayZ fun for me right now it is refreshing having to re-learn things. After playing Mod since the days of spawning with pistols in official, you know all the loot spawns to memory and that if you cycle X building sooner or later you'll get this or that.

Not defending OP; but going to battleye is USELESS even if you are legit. even their own appeal policy basically says they wont tell you anything about why your banned. Its like being convicted of a crime and sentenced to life with no opportunity to see the charges against you.

I think perhaps you took "gameplay steering" the wrong way. What I mean is that its should be 100% true sandbox, emergent, player's choice. Not "game design" more ore less forcing you to go to A instead of B because that's the only place you can get something you vitally need to be effective. I agree they should make use of the whole map. More unique spawns in each town would be an interesting way to encourage travel. But also additional content to promote Long-term group play Vs. Let me gear up, kill someone, and die then repeat. (which is what the SA currently offers.) there is no real incentive to work together until you can start working towards things like bases, vehicles which are a nightmare to fix and maintain, etc. This stuff that many refer to as "end-game content" think the massive fortress bases made by 20-30 man clans on epoch- weeks of resource management and construction and crafting- All the while having to defend your base from other clans and lone PvPer's & and bandits this sort of content will see people using the map more strategically and playing in groups cooperatively will be the way to succeed. with that all out there, I must re-state my original opinion tho, that taking valuable tiems from an existing spawn to "push" people to go somewhere is not the way to make a good sandbox.

There's no reason to really travel. its a general lack of content issue. No storage, no base construction, no vehciles. Removing spawns from costal areas would only be a shoddy and aggravating way to "force" people to go to the new spawn locations. im 100% against gameplay steering like this. Once vehicles and some form of storage or construction are added traffic will expand as clans/squads will want to base up in more remote locations to minimize thru traffic around their bases.

I like open airing of everything. Name n shame rules should be revisited. open forum/public channel call outs are awesome. invite them to defend them selves in the open- or if not, provide entertainment for passers by.

all RP and joking aside something is seriously up with green mountain. every time ive ever been there I feel as tho im being followed. even long before I get to the compound. Every time I have going into the little compound up there I either die there or shortly after leaving (long before reaching another settlement). Place just wierds me out- Yet every time I see it up there in the distance im drawn to go see whats up there....