Dayzo

I've only got anecdotal evidence of this too (as opposed to quoting code), but I've always felt this as well. Not just the amount of loot, but the value of it. The most recent clear example was in v176, spending dozens of hours looking through residentials for a ghillie. I had just checked a yellow building (12 loot spots; 4 had spawned, but it was trash) and was just about to move on. Three other players suddenly ran right past the building into the village without seeing me behind the building. I went back into the building for cover - to watch them through a window - and a ghillie was sitting there. It actually pisses me off sometimes when I'm alone on the map spawning crap, and I can hear a group of guys in Teamspeak elsewhere on the map getting totally geared up.

I got that information from their website: Scripts used and Rules Dictionary says it means 'opposed to'. Thesaurus says the synonyms are: against, contrary to, counter to, in opposition to, opposed to, opposing If you are playing against the environment, in opposition to it, it means that the environment contains obstacles which make it difficult to achieve your goals. Therefore surviving against the environment is supposed to be challenging and threatening. There are a couple of dozen server owners, Ceasefire included, that obviously want to discourage players from killing each other on sight; they use the 'PvE' label in the hope that their player base will be 'survivalists' and they will: use the whole map; scavenge; set-up camps; repair vehicles; and co-operate with other players. Which is fine in itself, but then they tend to add scripts and configurations which make survival and scavenging easier than vanilla DayZ. It makes no sense to call that 'PvE'.

Grizzly Adams! That's who I play as. Still waiting for R4zor to put bears into the game.

The 'V' stands for 'versus'. As in 'challenge'. Being provided with tents full of gear and having 300 vehicles doesn't sound like any sort of challenge though. There's even a rule that you can't steal from other players! The AI patrols are the only tricky aspect, but only if they see you before you see them. As already said, PvE is not the same as non-PvP.

Blake, either you've misunderstood what the 'public hive' is or you're trolling. The 'public hive' is a database which contains the data for all the 'alive' characters - location, weapons and tools, backpack and contents, food and drink, blood level. There are probably 250,000 characters recorded in it, although only a few thousand of those are active players now. But that doesn't mean when you join a public-hive server that there are thousands of players who you can interact with. All it means is that whichever of the 300 public-hive servers you choose to play on, your location, gear and health will be loaded from the public-hive. This means you can always find a busy server, and start playing from where you left off. Well, almost - tents and vehicles are not 'transferred' from server to server. The difference with a private-hive server is that each one has it's own database. So once you've chosen a private server to play on, you can't 'transfer' that character to another server. The benefit though, is that private servers can have whitelists of players and can run extra anti-hacking tools. They can also modify DayZ to make it easier, more difficult, or more interesting than the 'vanilla' DayZ that's on the public servers. So why do servers only have a maximum of 60 player slots? Two reasons. Firstly, they don't have the processing power to handle more than 60 players. Secondly, the maps aren't big enough to cater for more than about 30-50 players. I know Chernarus feels huge when you first start playing, but actually after a few weeks you'll know it like the back of your hand. On a server with 35+ players, your tents and vehicles will always be found and raided within 48 hours, and the map will suddenly seem very small. Anyway, regardless, one way of differentiating between public and private hives is to use 'DayZ Commander' to look for servers, because it contains a filter to 'hide unofficial servers', so it will only list public-hive servers. But my advice is to find a good private hive server and stick to it.

I think most people were more worried about the possible circumstances of your absence than the server being down! Welcome back!

I'm having a hard time gearing up. I'm not sure when the stats started, but it says I've been in game for 19 hours; I thought it was more like eight hours. Anyway, I've hardly seen any scoped weapons in that time, either at the barracks or Stary tents. The last six hours I've just been raiding just those two places, and all I've got to show for it is a Czech pack, DMR and an MP5A5 machine gun. My primary weapon is still the AK-74 that I found shortly after spawning. I saw an SA-58 CCO at the barracks, but it didn't have ammo, and I didn't have a large backpack at that point so I had to leave it. There was also a SAW there once, but the zombies made me evacuate before I could take it. Apart from that, these places are 80% empty and have crap weapons that are not worth taking. However, there are mechanics in place that may be making loot rarer for me than other players. 1) I haven't seen the code, but from experience it seems that if you're a lone player, you spawn less loot than if in a group. If a building has 9 loot spots, each with a 30% chance of spawning loot, then the first player 'rolls the dice', and maybe spawns loot in three spots. If you're alone, that's it - you have to wait fifteen minutes at a distance for another 'role of the dice'. However, the second player in a group 'rolls his dice' for the remaining spots, and could spawn loot on another two or three spots. A third player also gets to 'roll the dice' again, and can spawn loot on some of the remaining spots. So a group of three approaching that same building will likely fill most of the spots, compared to a lone player who fills just two or three. 2) I have seen the code for this - v1.7.7 has frame rate optimisation in it that penalises players with low frame rates. Players who have 14-20 FPS will spawn 50% less loot and less zombies than player with 60 FPS, in order to try to give them a handful of extra frames. This is misguided in my opinion. I'd much rather have full loot and zombies than five extra frames (which I don't even seem to get anyway). It means that I have to visit far more loot spots than someone with higher frame rate, which means much more wasted time travelling and waiting, and increased risk of being sniped while looting. If both the above are true, then that might account for our differing experiences. I'm enjoying it the server though. The zombies are really tough without being too annoying, and you have to shoot some of them while looting. That's new for me - I've never bothered shooting zombies before, and now I'm forced to. I don't mind if the loot is made slightly worse - it would still be better than vanilla v1.7.7.x. Anyway, there's 24 tents on the server now, so maybe I'll have better luck just stealing all your gear!

Yeah, the air-raids add a nice random factor to contend with. I was starting to drop blood from thirst, and went to Stary market quite confidently. I got there and found the market was already razed to the ground, and had to quickly improvise before my blood dropped further. Another time I made a long trip to a military spawn, which then got bombed just as I arrived. The zombies can only be made so difficult before they simply become impossible and annoying, so anything else that makes the game more difficult and dangerous is quite welcome. I like AI patrols for that reason. In the same vein, I've often wondered if someone could mod the dog that was in the game to roam around randomly in small packs and attack players from time to time.

Glad you found the post helpful, or at least thought it wasn't spam. I'm pretty confused about the rules regarding recommending a server. There doesn't seem to be any rules specifically against it and some people seem to do it freely. Yet I get warned about it whenever I try to promote the server I play on (I'm not even an owner or admin, just a player). As I said in my PM to Razor - what's the difference between one guy making six posts or six guys making one post each, as long as they're relevant posts? Anyway, I've got better things to do with my time than fight against inconsistent forum moderation. In B4 'Try Balota Buddies'!

I can see where you're coming from, but the OP was complaining about lack of antibiotics, infection rate, and being hacked on the public hive. So I offered one possible solution - an 'almost vanilla' private-hive, hacker-free server where the loot and antibiotics have been adjusted. His location may be a problem, but I'm 3500km away from the server in the middle of an ocean, and it's OK for me. Yes, most of my posts today have referred to the server, but none of them are off topic, and in my opinion they are helpful and contribute to the thread. Well, as much as anyone else's posts do, anyway! I don't think I'm spamming - if I'm breaking forum rules, maybe you can show me which posts break which rules, and I'll edit/delete them for you. PM sent.

I agree - personally I like the current zeds (they're easy to aggro but easy to lose), and don't have any problem with the infection rate. In fact the server I play on has been edited to make 95% of the zombies the viral type, to make it more difficult. It was the poor loot spawns which made it tedious for us, and especially the lack of antibiotics. Our players simply didn't want to scavenge through villages for two hours without the slightest reward. It got to the point where no-one could be bothered running to the next village, because they knew they wouldn't find what they needed. That has been fixed on our server by editing the current build (see sig), and we'll stick with that until the public release becomes balanced/fun again.

You could also try the server in my sig. Although we appreciate what the devs are trying to do, the latest build killed the fun for the players on our little vanilla server. So the admin modded v1.7.7.1 to try to re-balance it, and it's looking quite good. It's a UK server, so I'm not sure if ping/timezone is a problem if you're in NZ.

We found the same on the server I play on: hard to get loot + easy to lose loot = unbalanced gameplay So the admin modified v1.7.7.1 to try to balance it out to reflect our personal taste. This includes allowing tents to be clipped into rock/buildings again (simulating the fact that in real life you would camouflage your tent into its surroundings pretty well), and increasing the medium stash to 15 items + 5 weapons + 2 bags. I respect what the devs are trying to do, and in the end they might get a brilliant balance so we can go back to vanilla. But in the meantime...

Three of them spawn in at server start. Once you kill the first wave of zombies, get ready for a flood of new ones! I believe that these were introduced as part of the 'weapon crafting' feature, whereby you would have to make your own sights and attachments. The 'blueprint' for these attachments would only be found at these infected camps. However, the crafting idea wasn't really working well, so the devs shelved that, but left the camps in. The server in my signature (which uses a modded v1.7.7.1) has put them to good use - they now spawn high-grade military gear.

I can absolutely see where the devs are going and why they've made the choices that they made. However, on our little vanilla server we found that this build just wasn't as fun, as it was out of balance for our taste. So the admin slightly modded v1.7.7.1, and has been getting some good feedback from the players. If your behaviour is mature, and you think that player encounters should happen naturally as a result of scavenging, and you like to build camps that you can keep for a few weeks before they are discovered, then you might want to take a look at the server in my signature. Note that the whitelist is limited to 40 people, and players who subsequently don't put enough time on the server are culled every week. So only bother making an enquiry if you're seriously interested.

TLDR: Just because Teamspeak has friendly banter, it doesn't mean you need to trust everyone and play friendly. And also, don't be a douche! Just thought I'd post some advice for new players. Compared to other servers, we've got a very friendly Teamspeak (which all players are obliged to use). However, this can cause problems if it isn't used thoughtfully. One of the main problems is that people get too friendly and end up agreeing not to shoot each other or raid each other's camps. That's all very nice, but these informal alliances can actually make the game quite boring. The other problem is that some people run with each other temporarily, building a camp and repairing vehicles, but then they part ways and change groups. In that situation it is very hard not to betray your former comrade's stashes to your new friends. So I suggest the following to protect yourself: · Don't give your position in TS (or sidechat), unless you are actually looking for some PvP action. · If someone does unwittingly give their position, think before you run off and hunt them, whether it would be an satisfying, honourable kill. · Move to another channel if you need to discuss your tactics, plans, camps or vehicles with a comrade. · Never show people your vehicles or bases - even the nicest people cannot be trusted with a secret. If you do get shot by someone after saying your position or where you're heading, it's basically your own fault! Also, so you don't get a reputation for being a douche: · Only make promises and allegiances that you can honour. Think about your deals carefully, and how it will affect your gameplay. · If a person has shown you location in trust, then respect that as far as you can if you 'switch sides': Keep the information to yourself. · You don't need to rape & destroy every single camp you find. Sometimes it's better for overall gameplay to take just what you need and leave. · Never say that you're friendly on TS and then shoot a person when they come to meet you; lying is not a valid tactic, and may get you banned.

The 'official' single player mod and it's variants are only good for weapons training and for teleporting around the map to find good spots to place camps. They're not actually much fun to play; it gets far too lonely. As Saethkept suggests, using tools like the DayZdb map and the single player too early can spoil the DayZ immersive experience. Some servers have NPC patrols. I'd much rather play with a mix of live players and AI. Your time would be better spent finding a good private hive server.

Here are the unique, game-changing features of this server that I am most excited about: Exclusive whitelist of 40 active players I look forward to playing with people who enjoy the server's ethos and who specifically want to be on it. All the great fixes and features of v1.7.7.1, but with increased loot (especially important: antibiotics) The ridiculously poor loot killed the game for many people recently and made it too laborious and boring. Mac's aim is to have the loot just good enough to balance risk and reward properly. Infinite ammo bug has been solved You cannot quickly refill your ammo by putting used mags in your bag and logging out/in. Now every shot counts, and you constantly worry about where you next mag is coming from, or whether you should swap your empty high-grade weapon for an inferior gun. Tent can be clipped again, and stashes can hold a useful amount if weapons, backpacks and items This encourages base-building and scavenging, and for players to use the whole map. No flyable choppers Choppers are great fun, but they are simply too over-powered. Only 10 ground vehicles on the server at any one time The default is 42 vehicles. It will be interesting to see how quartering it affects gameplay. I think without vehicles players may set-up tents/stashes nearer to hotspots. Vehicle spawns may be hotspots themselves. 95% of zombies are the new Viral type The zombie behaviour can't be changed, but using the aggressive, powerful, infected ones is a great idea. Military, supermarkets, hospitals, factories are hotspots again The tension created in going to one of these places, even with only ten or twenty people on the server, is undeniable. Nice selection of parameters and scripts - anti-combat logging - tents remain after death - full-moon nights - helicrash animation every hour - care packages every 20 mins - strip parts from vehicles - random air-raids (military trying to cleanse the infection?) Hopefully all this means the server will have: - A moderate number of dedicated players with a similar mindset (if that's at all possible). - An environment that is challenging in the right way, not just because there is no loot. - A balance between PvE and PvP - mostly scavenging and repairing, but with frequent player encounters. - A community that is aggressive enough to keep things interesting, but also good natured & entertaining. - Gameplay which is less like Arma/Wasteland and more like surviving in a collapsed society. I think that's what Mac meant when he chose the name 'Real DayZ'.

No idea about periphery dots - the servers I play on only had them for vehicles, and that was finally removed in v175. That's what I'm saying though - now that you cannot simulate 'camouflaging' a tent by clipping it right into a rock/building, you do now have to basically pitch them out in the open. So I'm suggesting that the skin be changed to transparent so that it merges into the environment better.

I haven't got time to play DayZ much these days - usually just in bursts for a couple of hours. This, along with the low amount of sporadic loot, means I'm having trouble working out how loot spawns in. Can anyone explain v1.7.7.x loot spawn mechanics in detail? For instance: 1) What distance to a building triggers the loot spawn? 2) If you stay between X metres and Y metres, how much time passes before additional loot spawns in to the spawn points which didn't have loot initially? 3) How long do you have to wait before going back to a village/building for it to have different loot? My own experimentation has been less than scientific, but here's what I think: For 1) the distance seems to be 250m. For 2) it seems like 15-20 minutes now, whereas before it was something like 5-10 minutes. For 3) It seems like loot lies on the ground for 60 minutes now (whereas before it would despawn a few minutes after the player left the area, and respawn the same loot when another player entered later). After 60 minutes, if there is no player nearby, the loot gets deleted. When a player approaches again, different loot will spawn whether or not the loot was moved from the spawn points by a player. Thanks.

The first time I spawned, I had zombies chasing me within a minute. I didn't know the keys or what to do, so I just ran around Benny Hill style until I bled out. I was giggling with fear the whole time, especially because I couldn't shake the zombie which makes that evil rabid dog noise; that sound still haunts me to this day.

Awesome news about the script; it was really starting to put me off playing.

I wish someone would redesign the tent graphic/skin so that 50% of the camo pattern was simply transparent. Then maybe there wouldn't be a need to clip tents into objects! The graphics for the new stashes could have been made a lot harder to find too, but instead they're really quite easy to spot. I took a run down the west of the map this morning looking to pitch a tent and, without even really looking, I found 4 separate camps because the tents and vehicles stood out so much. The server only has a total of 12 active players! I can't imagine why people would bother making camps on a full server with 200 regular players. Finding and losing loot needs to be in balance; if spawned loot is hard to find (as it is now) then it also needs to be difficult to lose your loot. If it's easier to find and raid camps than to scavenge, then not enough people will bother to scavenge!

I really hope you're wrong! That is NOT a good way to optimise frame rate. I appreciate the sentiment, trying to help those with slower rigs (I play at 10-14 FPS), but I'd rather have 10 FPS and 100% loot and zombies than 14 FPS and have to spend much more than double the time travelling from building to building to obtain the same amount of loot.

Isn't the green/red glow because you're playing on a 'recruit settings' server?