Warped_Jack

I really didn't notice KOS frequency change at all before or after they were implemented, but maybe that's just me.

Beach party turned zombie apocalypse. (Yes I go to the beach in my army surplus gear.)

That's a throwback to the original Arma II engine, where you wouldn't be running from zombies. pun intended.

Here is one more thing with options to try. I don't recall using any in the end, as I did notice a sharp drop in visual quality for little performance boost, your experience may differ. http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/45835-ultimate-guideinformation-thread-to-increase-performance/

I would say start with everything at low or off, running at native resolution. If that runs okay (make sure to check by visiting a city!) then try upping some minor graphical bonuses. I doubt you'll be running with any AA or high shader settings, but anisotropic filtering and some higher texture detail might be fine. Though, if it doesn't run well enough, start decreasing the 3D resolution. I have to say, I do doubt it will run consistently fine except with everything on low. Personally I'd plump for having it run smoothly and look less pretty.

No, no no, it really isn't a terrible pc to run the game. It won't be good, or even necessarily okay all the time, but it will run. I run the game, albeit poorly and in tiny resolution on my old laptop with 2GB RAM, win XP, a dual core 2GHz CPU and only 256GB dedicated graphics memory. A PC with similar specs (Same CPU speed, same RAM amount) running Vista and with a 512GB dedicated gpu card runs things on low, but in a decent resolution. Yes there will be times of choppiness, but most of the time it's fine. That is, unless you've just been using a high end pc and then you'll notice every single minor judder. Though, in fairness firefights are... Interesting. Sometimes fine, but at night, in elektro, not so much. Edited for a billion typos

You'll need a dedicated graphics card, but depending on the make of your laptop, that might not even be possible. Upgrading laptops is annoying, and there is little scope to do so, compared to a pc.

Quite! Anyway... I'll admit right now I didn't read the entire opening post. However to first main points on player skills etc. 1) There already a limited version of this scenario in the game, right now. If you get your leg broken, and neither you, or your aggressor has morphine to fix yourself up, you have exactly the situation you are talking about, but with none of the extra effort to be implemented. Granted, morphine is (fairly) easy to get once you know where/how, so an added layer of complexity might be interesting. But it might also screw people a bit too often. I think your example of needing a medical trained member, a full outfit of proper medical supplies, and to first of all SURVIVE the gunfight in the first place, and then long enough to gather said supplies, could lead to lots of death. I generally like the realism angle, but perhaps there is a limit. (It would be interesting to see how far it can pushed, mind!) and 2) I can never decide about skills. If they're random at player spawn (eg. "You spawned as: The Mechanic! Get bonuses to vehicles!" or "The Medic: Get bonuses to healing" or "The Tramp! Get bonuses to finding food") then the moment you get a group together who find a chopper but don't have a pilot or someone to repair it, someone will suicide and keep doing so, until they get a pilot. (Or whatever they need at the time) If player skills are chosen before spawn, then a group would just make sure they have an even distribution of the "right" skills. The only way I think skills could/should work in this game (if at all) is a passive - subtle - increase. Or an idea I did like was the idea of manuals/books. Having a copy of Helicopter Weekly lets you fly that chopper right away! Find a copy of Top Gear magazine? Get better at fixing cars, making one line quips, and wearing jeans!

I still prefer when there were no bandit/hero skins. You shouldn't judge someone by their skin anyway, you can never know their story by just looking at someone immediately. But, that's a whole other debate so... What the last few posts already said. What you're suggesting is already in game, just a bit buggy at times.

Have my beans for being incredibly unlucky, but being a good sport about it. You inspire me to maybe, possibly, leave a spare tin of beans in a tent one of these days. Also, a mod - ie modification - is just a change/alteration of something already existing. A modified toaster, (Let's say I'll stick some blazing transfers on it, and neon lights on the timer) is still a toaster. Giving my car modified bodywork, still leaves it as a car. (Well, unless I give it good enough wings, then it might be a plane.) That one time I modified my PC, made it a paperweight. I mean uh, made it a better PC. And so - in case you haven't seen where this is going - modifying a game, will probably leave you with, another game. Of course it'd be possible to mod a game into a non-game. Lock out all player interaction except a play button, and it'd be a movie, or something. (But that's not happening in DayZ, so the point is moot, and just a single example of many modifications you could make, which would make it not a game) Point is, saying something is a "mod" is actually nonsense. It is either something new, or a modified version of something old. A modification itself is abstract, and applicable in many ways.

Was dubious, but read anyway. Completely lost interest at East side and West side. All this really does is add team colours, and encourages team deathmatch style gameplay. Which is fine, and already happens... But it isn't universal, and has evolved naturally between already existing clans and servers. Additionally, in the current form where you can't tell friendlies from foes easily, good teamwork and communication is heavily focused upon. Slapping team colours in will eliminate that somewhat. Not to mention it doesn't match the apocalypse setting in any way whatsoever So, no.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein had a cyanide pill option. Initially unbound in the controls, you could set it to any key, use it, and instantly die. I know of no remarks made on this. Granted, being a special agent in the second world war it almost had a reason being there just due to setting, but equivalently, in a zombie apocalypse setting Saving One Bullet is common notion, and wouldn't be odd to include. Anyone who does make a fuss of it would be laughed at by anyone who actually knows what they're talking about (which, let's face it, happens every other week now with video games) and rarely has any long lasting effect. Well, except for the free publicity.

I like the idea, at the very least just for the idea that zombie spawns should be toned down as more zombies are killed in a given area. Right now it's impossible to approach any situation with a sweep and clear attitude. Even a lone barn in the woods, if you go in all guns blazing to mop up the few zombies present to begin with, more keep phantomly coming. It makes no sense! Clearing an area (to an extent) should be an option. However, I think long term settlements and decreased zombie spawn rates in said settlements would be a rare thing to see. Other than the ghosting and other problems you'd have currently, it's often just not interesting enough to settle down for a long period of time in one place, especially up North. ... Though, maybe when combined with the underground bunker idea though, that could change

Oh yeah of course, disregard my previous post. Makes much more sense now!

I'm pro the realistic stance, but that's pretty ridiculous. Considering a ghillie suit does nothing to prevent zombie aggro, and sidearms aren't exactly the best choice for pvp, it renders the ghillie suit's strongest appeal (concealment from players in pvp) slightly void. (And is useless against zombies, where sidearms are most useful) It would still be useful for remaining undetected when spotting, or running around the edge of a town, but on entry you stick out like a sore thumb again, only this time with only a pistol or PDW for protection.

^^ Think that guy hit the nail on the head.

Naturally people are going to talk about the best bits of the game when they try to sell the idea to their friends. That's because they like the game! However, you've clearly been living under a rock or with blinders on if you think that people only talk about the positive aspects. Most of the topics on this forum are complaints about faults with the game, and even personal conversations I have with friends are peppered with points on the faults. All you've really said to me here is that you bought the game, without following your own advice. You could have easily found that the loading times are huge, that most of the servers are in the US/EU and that it's frequently hacked to bits. None of your complaints are the fault of the community, 'bro,' just things you didn't pay attention to yourself.

Well, actually on topic, alpha is in no way over until it's stated as such. And that's up to the devs. So we all know the main current problems, but with whatever update comes next, comes more "alpha testing" so unless there's no more updates, at all, then yeah sure, it's sort of over if you want. But otherwise no, everyone stop going crazy.

Erm. How/why would it be easier to hoard vehicles exactly? Because you can't server hop between different woods to find player camps? If so, GOOD. That's just, eurgh. Horrible. And the fact that people who have more time to play find choppers more often, is already the case. I can't think of any circumstance in any game ever where playing less gets you less stuff than someone that plays more than you.

Private servers don't mess anything to do with your hive character at all. You can switch between as often as you like with no problems I've noticed. Also, every private server I've joined has been fine. Some have odd rules (including one where the admin bans for pvp in elektro. Not my cup of tea, but interesting to see how that works out) but are otherwise fairly vanilla. Usually the server name will give you a clue. If it's something like "HAX/EXPLOIT GALORE" then naturally, don't join. (You think I'm kidding, but you'd be surprised) Though one thing I had forgotten about is the max player limit. Sometimes it'll reach it, and you just have to wait if you want to join that server. BUT there's still nothing stopping you playing another character.

Don't worry, you misread what I typed, but this reply answers my question anyway. I agree with you. Heh. Yeah spawning on the coast after a server change would fix 99% of the issues. Might get a bit more hectic down south, but eh. And maybe. Right now that theory is really being put to the test by the rising number of private hives around. I've so far had few to no problems at all, with the worst being the server was down for a few hours longer than normal. Maybe more issues will come to light, time will tell.

Personally, because I agree with the idea of a free-mode (or rather, "dick about" mode) would be something nice to see included. While the mod as it is now is amazing, a consequence-free playaround bit would be nice as well, to chill out if you feel like it. It needn't have any effect on hive characters or other players. Not condoning it, but can see some reason behind it.

You don't need side chat to coop this game! It helps, but you don't need it. Nonetheless, there are inherent features designed for coop. Ever given yourself a blood pack? No? Thought not

You can still get admin abuse in the current system y'know. None of the current servers are maintained by BI in any way except guidelines, and a blacklist for reported servers. Reported by players, whom this has happened to. Just avoid them. Also, if by new server you mean "changing server at all" then I'm leaning towards quite liking your idea. It'd be annoying in many ways, but better than creating an outright new character on a new hive, while also stopping the ghosting problem. BUT also does screw immersion a bit. At least a new hive == new character, rather than your current character waking up on the coast, geared up, with no memory of how they got there. However if by new server you meant "one you haven't visited before" then wouldn't that allow people to ping between 2 servers they frequent, saving their location on each and progressively hopping the entire map? And I'm lost as to where this shit storm is. Erm. This also already happens. Some servers are running the Lingor Island map, on a private hive. First, the items are the same. Second, even if they were different, everyone on the server still has access to those items. There's no unfair advantage here, so what's the problem? At the moment, a map change also leads to a new database being used for characters anyway, so characters don't cross over between maps (as far as I'm aware).

Side channel is kind of nice, but is a bit immersion breaking. I wouldn't mind side chat (or something akin to side chat) being enabled once your character finds a radio or something, but being able to talk to your friends, or even your murderer right after you've been killed...? Nah.