Do You Have To Post Like That Because It's Really Annoying.

I have just spent hours waiting for the update (ISP totally blocks any kind of P2P traffic), to get it on playwithsix. It's only after hours of searching that I found that page on your website. I'm sorry but, that is not even slightly intuitive. It was in no way obvious that I'd have to click the ARMA II logo to change settings, rather than the settings button at the top. I know at least 6 other people on my friends list who I just told this to, and none of them had thought to click it. I've know doubt some people will say "LOL IT WASN'T OBVIOUS FOR YOU? U DUMB?" but honestly, that's not intuitive. I would honestly make it an extra tab at the top, or an extra tab within settings, because there are probably 10s of thousands of people in this position now, who have no idea how to update.

Before my death a couple of days ago, I had what I would say is pretty much the most powerful and capable combination that's possible. In my opinion at least. Primary was the L85 of course. In my Backpack, an AS50, and the Mk48 Machine gun. My Side arm was an M9 SD. I perfectly balanced out ammo so that I always had enough for whatever I would encounter, even carrying one M107 mag and one AS50 mag, so I could use the 10xM107 on players, and the 5xAS50 on vehicles. A couple of bottles, cooked meat, blood bag, morphine, epi pen and painkillers, and I'm set. Obviously, every tool in the game as well. Couple this with my Ghillie, Rangefinder and NVGs, I honestly don't think I could have a better setup. Until some guy with thermal sees me in a bush and puts AS 50 through my face. Little disappointing, but it's always going to happen at some point, you accept it. I could regain the kit in a couple of hours by just running around the West and North areas of the map and raiding tents, so I'm not too bothered. I've taken this opportunity to try that certain other map, and I'm enjoying that right now.

Hey guys. So I've been reading this forums since I started playing, but I never really took the time to register. I just wanted to share my thoughts regarding some aspects of the game that I've formed an opinion on. I want to state ahead of this, that I've read the threads on why Arma2 is the way it is regarding hackers and whatnot, and why a lot of things just can't be changed by Rocket. I accept that, and I know that some of the things I'll say can't possibly be fixed until the game goes standalone. I love DayZ, and this isn't one of those "omg im quitting game sucks" threads. I work on a development team for a relatively successful game modification (not Arma2 based) myself, so I know how mods run into these kinds of limitations. So this is really just a gathering of my thoughts. After playing for this last 2 months, I've played in a variety of ways. Most of it has been aimed at banditry, but the style of play has varied. I've trekked around the map on foot, avoiding players, surviving off what I can find. I moved on to living outside of towns and avoiding them, using helicopter crash sites and deer stands to sustain my weaponry needs, even though I barely used them. I later ended up with more players involved, and we formed camps, did battle with what was possibly a cheating clan, lost vehicles, regained vehicles, etc. But I haven't encountered any real hacking so I haven't felt that frustration personally. 1) Kit Inflation is really hurting the game. I saw a thread about this a few days ago and I don't think the majority of people agreed with it, but I thoroughly agree with the poster. End-game kit is way too common these days, and this isn't due to the amount of spawns. The natural cycle of kit being lost and found is completely out of whack due to the amount of duplication and script-spawning of weaponry. Back when I started, I must have been one of the first people to find an L85 AWS. It wasn't on the wiki, only a couple of threads mentioned it and virtually everyone thought it was hacked. Now, I find that nearly 50% of the people I kill have one. This is just a single example (I would argue that thermal probably shouldn't be in the game at all), but it goes for most top-end weapons. End-game kit is too easy to come across. You don't loot towns, or the airfield, or even players if you want to avoid the risk. Anyone spending 30-60 minutes to avoid doing that, but the problem is, why would anyone disadvantage themselves against all the other players who do this? Until a time in which duplication is no longer possible, I honestly wouldn't mind if there was a total reset every 4-6 weeks, to keep the vehicles and weaponry levels cycling properly. 2) Chernarus has too much wasted space. This leads from my last point. The 2km boundary around the map where people form bases is really bad for the game in general. It keeps players out of the main gameplay area and just stagnates things so much. It's just an area for high-level kit storage and vehicle hoarding. It's not really what DayZ is about. But the fact is, you can't blame people for it, the option is there, and you can't expect anyone to put themselves at a disadvantage. I know the map won't be changed because it's an Arma2 map, but if in the standalone game things can be changed, I would like to see an island map, or at least the wasted space made use of, with the map boundary being up close to points of interest, so that people can't hide there. 3) This is arguably my most controversial point, and one I feel people will disagree with the most. This might not be as much as a problem as I believe it to be, as it could very well be point #2 causing this, but I feel that the ability to hunt animals and fill up bottles from lakes doesn't really enhance the game, and the game could be improved with this removed. People should be encouraged to enter towns, to take the risk, to encounter players more, not to hide in the forest avoiding all human contact. You can argue that this is a survival simulator, but it is a game. With any game, if you give people a less-fun, but more "sensible" option, they'll take it. But if people had to go into towns, I feel like the game would flow a lot better. I had a character live for 6 weeks by avoiding this kind of thing. But did I have fun? Not really. I've had more fun cycling through my last 5 characters in a much shorter timeframe. ---------- EDIT: In later posts in this thread, I've tried to clarify that I've really put my point across poorly with regard to hunting. As stated in my later posts, there are ways around the problem, it's just that they aren't really possible with the current Arma 2 version of DayZ. Ideas such as your hatchet blunting over time so it has to be replaced, it taking 2-3 minutes to cook meat (added risk of being seen), requiring water purification tablets to drink pond/lake water, having limited matches or lighter fuel. The problem is that people can avoid entering towns entirely and sustain yourself, rather than a problem with the ability to hunt. If people had to visit towns for survival supplies every now and then, then the problem wouldn't be there. Apologies for putting it across poorly in my initial post. Please read my latter posts in this thread for further clarification. http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/60384-my-thoughts-after-2-months-of-play/#entry577133 http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/60384-my-thoughts-after-2-months-of-play/#entry577226 http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/60384-my-thoughts-after-2-months-of-play/#entry577344 ---------- I have a load more points, but I don't really want to overfill my first post, as it's already past the point of TL;DR for a lot of people. But just give me your thoughts on these matters, and I'll add more if people are up for discussing things.

I've just edited this map to show you guys what I mean regarding size. It's not the most ideal looking map, but it's one of the only ones that can really show you the actual size of what we're playing on. Roughly speaking, this is what should be cut out to fix issue #2. EDIT: For some reason I don't seem to be able to actually have the image viewable in the thread, so you'll have to click the link.

It could be removed if there wasn't the Alt-F4 issue, but I honestly don't even bother trying to kill people these days unless I can kill them in one shot, otherwise I know I probably won't get the kill.

I was probably one of the first people to acquire this weapon. At the time, it wasn't listed on the wiki, or as a heli drop, and only a couple of threads even mentioned it. It was incredible because, given that no-one knew about it, no-one planned for it. It was ridiculous. The game worked but I had this god-like advantage of being able to see anyone. It was, realistically, an unfair advantage. Now everyone has it, it's even worse. The stealthy approach in this game is suffering so much right now, because virtually everyone I kill now, is carrying an L85. I myself carried an L85 as my primary, with an AS50 and Mk48 in my backpack, and an M9 SD as a sidearm. But it was pointless, because no matter what lengths I went to, trying to be stealthy, I still get shot. If one of my squad mates later got the guy, they always said he had an L85. Same went for at least 50% of the kills I got myself. The L85 made them. It's an average weapon in terms of damage an accuracy, though I have managed 500m kills with it, on fair players who didn't just Alt-F4. But it's all about that scope. And it should be removed. Even if the gun is rare, it's just not a fair way to acquire people. Stealth and patience should be rewarded in all circumstances, not penalised.It doesn't fit in with the way DayZ is, and I'd be glad to see it gone. And this is coming from someone who has used this weapon for 2 months, given I got it on my 3rd ever day of DayZ.

As far as I know, it's intentional that Zombies can't walk in buildings. I wouldn't care either way if this was changed, but given they can't run indoors, I don't believe the 2-door trick is any more of an exploit than hiding behind a tree to lose Line of Sight. As for the play-style, there isn't really a right or wrong way of playing DayZ, but there are certainly more enjoyable ways. I played like you OP, only I didn't even have to go into towns, given I could totally sustain myself outside of them. I had 6 weeks on that life. But, 6 weeks in, I saw 6 guys in a group. And I figured, you know what, I'll probably die, but I bet I have more fun in this next 30 seconds than I have done this past 6 weeks. And I did. The went into the castle, and given it's a no-nametag server, I casually just walk in amongst them, before pulling them into a firefight with eachother, managing to take down 3 before I went down myself. Absolutely glorious. And since then, I've never lived more than a week, because I've been playing in a much more enjoyable way, nipping through towns, stalking the airfield, and yes, hunting players. DayZ is not about survival. It is not about PVP, or PVE. It's about whatever you want it to be, which is the beauty of a sandbox game. There is no award for living the longest, or getting the most kills, or anything. It's just total freedom, which is what makes DayZ fantastic. People can only have opinions on this, there is no fact. My personal opinion is that DayZ shines in human interaction. Nothing comes close to the pure tension of encountering another player, whether or not he's hostile, friendly, medic, survivalist or whatever. That for ME personally, is what DayZ is about. If you wanted to survive without encountering people, there are plenty of single player games which can give you that. But totally unique human interaction in a simulated survival scenario? That's what makes DayZ for me. And anything that can bring more interaction, such as requiring people to go into towns more frequently, bringing the map borders in, reducing the amount of equipment available, would make the game better in every way for me.

I've added some clarification regarding the hunting aspect of my post into the first post. Apologies for putting the point across badly. It should be a bit clearer now with what I'm trying to get at.

I think this is one of the major issues though. If people have the choice, they will. Why risk their characters if they don't have to? People often KNOW that it isn't as fun as going into a town, but why take the risk if others don't have to. Sometimes, it's really liberating to have that choice removed, to know that you have to take that risk. It allows people to actually play the game, rather than just maintain their character.

I always liked the idea of a wandering herd, again, inspired by Walking Dead. And yeah, upon looking at the Arma3 map, it could be pretty ideal for the game. It's really just about making sure that most of the map is usable for actual gameplay, rather than a storage facility. As for survival gear, like I said, there can be ways around it. We have unlimited matches right now, and that could always be changed to limited, or a lighter that needs fuel. Your hatchet could get blunted and need replacement over time, and water purification tablets could be required for any water not coming out of a spring. Forcing meat to be cooked for a time period would mean you have the risk of a 2-3 minute fire, thus adding disadvantages to this style of play. There are really a wealth of solutions. I could have made this point better in my initial post, but my main point is that people should be encouraged to go into areas where they may meet other players, and the gathering of supplies which can't be found in woods/fields is essential to this. There is the other hand as well, where the localised microphone chat could have the distance increased, or volume settings, so you don't HAVE to fight in towns, you can contact people much easier, if you want to take that risk. Human interaction is the best aspect of DayZ, and we should only encourage more of that. We are however, getting into more ambitious ideas here, and a lot of the above just couldn't be done until DayZ became a standalone game, due to the fundamental engine changes it would require, none of which are possible sadly.

I'm not questioning the quality of Chernarus as an Arma 2 map. It's a great map, it's just that 2km wide rolling hill and forest area that goes around the North and West sides of the map that really pull people out of actually playing within the map itself. If all that got cut out, and the boundary pulled in, it'd make a world of difference. As for nomads, there are part-way solutions. If matches were limited, and you need say, water purification tablets to drink lake/pond water, then people can go into town less frequently if they wish, but at least they have to go in every now and then. The fact is, a player who avoids contact with any other players isn't really playing. Whether you work with people, hunt them, help them or just try and hide from them, then that's up to you, but human nature is to take the easy option in games. People often don't want to be given an easy choice that makes the game easier but less fun, but you simply can't expect people to put themselves at a disadvantage. If people can avoid towns and stay alive, then they will. But if they knew everyone had to go into towns at some point, then they would probably get a lot more enjoyment out of the game. But yeah, as the post above says, it may not be as much of an issue on an Island. I guess it would need to be played out first, to see if the problem is still there. I'd love to see this tried out. It's all very well have 225km of game area, but the fact is, a good chunk of that isn't contributing to the game at all.