The Sad Panda

Let's see > Rebuild game engine that's based on trusted clients which intends to use on-the-fly scripting as a primary feature OR > Since game is in Alpha, and will be moving to a more updated version of the engine in the standalone release, focus on adding core gameplay to a mod in it's current state is: Find food, Find Water, Find Morphine, Find Sniper, Camp Cherno / Starry. Option #2 please

To appease the angry spirits of ... that place, and lure more reckless explorers there to serve as sacrifices. That's the only logical explanation

Copy & Pasting this from the thread I wrote this in, felt it belonged here as well. That Mountain It is said that anyone who is so foolish as to speak of That Mountain by name should be immediately shot in the leg by his comrades, insuring that he/she will no longer be able to follow them. Such reckless defiance of the powers of That Mountain makes you a marked man (or woman) - you will die from it's curse, the only question is...when. I too was once so bold as to address that heaven forsaken mound of dirt by its proper name, had i known at the time what kind of demonic nightmare that it would bring upon myself and my travelling partner however, I would have immediately humbled myself and never dared to speak of...that mountain. I had just logged in after reading on these very forums about a strange and mysterious place where the inexplicable becomes the norm.... that mountain. Fortune seemed to be with me this night (or so I thought), upon logging in I was greeted by the well-lit nightscape of Chernarus - perfect travel conditions. I do a quick supply check before embarking on my ill-advised journey. I've got food and water to spare, a bloodbag, painkillers, but sadly I've run out of morphine (Apparently most of Chernarus's citizens were masters of karate before their infection, being able to snap my bones with a single strike...). I check my map to see which direction I needed to travel. Someone had been so kind as to place a marker exactly on top of my destination, reading "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". Naturally, this just fueled my desire for exploration. My lack of morphine was a pressing concern though, so i make a stop in Starry, hoping to raid the military tents for weapons and meds. I was lucky enough to replace my dinner bell (Lee Enfield) with an M4 CCO, and also acquired a G17 to replace my not-so-trusty revolver. On top of that, there was a Coyote Backpack in the final tent, the Gods were truly smiling on me this night I began to think. Little did I know however, that it was that mountain simply toying with me, setting me up for my inevitable fall. I had spoken its name and had to be punished, such is the way of the world. Just before I departed Starry's supermarket (still no morphine, sigh) one of my squad members logs in. I tell him of my grand plan to defy fate and set foot in forbidden territory. It just so happens that he (We'll call him "Hairy" to make the story-telling easier) was relatively close to me and decided to take part in this journey. After about 10 minutes of waiting we finally link up and set off towards our objective.The only solid piece of information we can find on the area is that upon arrival, a very large amount of military zombies will be guarding the complex. We've been travelling for quite some time when Hairy queues up on voice coms and asks, "Hey, is that it? Is it..." That Mountain. Little did he know, Hairy had just commited the same unforgivable sin that had already sealed my fate not even one hour ago. So there we stood, two marked men, fates now intertwined, staring at the top of that infernal tower. It stared back, taunting us to brave our way into the forest...into its domain. When we arrived, we were not disappointed by the information we had read on the zombie presence. Pouring out of the gate was a stream of 15-20 zombies, a pretty disproportionate amount considering the relatively small size of the complex.Luckily, we had come prepared. Using the last of my smoke grenades, i gathered up the the unit of military zombies - they were drawn to it like moths to a flame. The bait had been placed, the trap was set, and it was time for some fireworks. Using an M67 frag grenade that i had...borrowed from a dead survivor earlier in the day, I turned what was once a mosh-pit of shambling horrors, into a spectacular display of flying body parts. The explosion was so powerful that it knocked my character's sights upward. We triumphantly passed through the gates, remarking to eachother that "It's too late to go back now", unaware that our fates had been decided long ago. Since I was the one that began this ill-fated journey, I was the one to scale the tower while Hairy stood guard inside the base. Reaching the top of the ladder I'm greeted by a pair of zombies - strange that they're up on the tower, but whatever, I dispatch them with ease. I take a good long look around the external catwalk of the tower, but I fail to see anything mind-shattering. "Great, I've just been trolled" I thought as I was looking over the edge of the tower. A bit disappointed I start making my way back to the door to leave the tower. Then I hear something unexpected, a sort of moaning - but not the kind you hear from the shambling dead that you'd encounter below...in normal places. This sounded more like an injured survivor, you know, like the sounds that an incapacitated player occasionally makes. This concerns me, so i ask "Hairy, is everything alright down there? You haven't passed out or something have you?". He replies that he's perfectly fine, although a bit bored. I can still hear the moaning, but it sound like it's getting closer. I find myself switching my M4 to automatic just out of what I assume was a slight sense of fear. "Can't you hear this moaning dude? Do you have SFX off?". This time he sounds a bit irritated, replying "No, I honestly don't hear anything, can we please leave now? This was a bust" That was one thing we could agree on, other than this inexplicable moaning (Alpha is Alpha, it was probably an audio bug...right?) I make my way around the catwalk and enter the doorway....and stop dead in my tracks. Directly in front of me, between myself and the ladder, is a semi-transparent figure that's slowly walking in my direction. Pointing my sights at the figure returns a tag, "Unknown - " is all i get to read before the quiet moan erupts into the screams of agony (Like the ones you get when a player is being eaten alive by zombies). Two things happened in the next 2 seconds. 1. I treaded the dangerous line between a clean pair of underwear, and completely shatting my pants 2. I emptied my M4 clip into (or more likely, around and all over the hallway) the strange figure My rounds have seemingly no effect on this mysterious apparition, it continues its advance towards me, A now frantic Hairy comes onto voice-chat asking "Dude wtf is going on up there? Did someone ghost up there and log on you????" All I'm able to muster up is "No, it's a real F#$%ing ghost!". I retreat out of the hall and back onto the cat-walk. I contemplate trying to jump and ending this experience right now, or waiting it out to fight round two with what I can only assume is an angry spirit. I spend the next ten seconds, an eternity at the time, staring at the doorway and waiting for my assailant to show himself. Hairy breaks the silence, "Cmon dude stop screwing with me, you're just mad that you dragged us both out here for nothing. Stop trying to pull a fast one on me and let's get out of here". I'm a little bit offended at this point, but still a great deal more scared so I reply with, "F$%^ you dude, I know what i saw, watch the ladder it could be headed for you". "Yea yea whatever, get down here and let's move on, I'm almost starving and I didn't bring food" is his response. Another eternity passes (5 seconds) and I decide against my better judgement to brave another look down the hall. Using third person (because I'm a pussy, deal with it) I take a look around the corner. I can clearly see bullet holes on the sides of the walls, no doubt left by my M4.... but no mysterious figure, I slowly creep down the hallway to the ladder, and notice that there's only bullet markings on the sides of the walls, but none at the end. Maybe I'm just a terrible shot, whatever. The moaning has stopped and that's good enough for me, I double time it down the ladder and we both leave the complex's walls. I still don't know what to think about what just happened, did I really see something, or did I just see what I WANTED to see? Hairy still doesn't believe me, but whatever, what matters is we escaped with our lives right?... CRACK My leg snaps, just like that, "Hairy, give me some morphine. I must have been running down the hill too fast". "You're the medic, not me genius, I'm still holding Sneaky's (another squad member's) 870, I didn't have room for meds" is all he says to me. Screw it, I just don't want to be here anymore - I start crawling, "Wait wait wait, I'll go back and check the military zombies and see if they dropped any, just sit tight. Despite my pleading to stay and continue down the mountain, he went back. I'm now all alone in the dark woods of that mountain, the radio tower is still visible through the trees...laughing at me. "Dude please just come back and I'll crawl down the mountain, I don't mind", another plea falls on deaf ears. There's not much I can really do at this point, so i walk over to the kitchen and make a Captain and Coke while I wait on Hairy. I return to the screen, greeted by an hourglass - I had passed out. I thought I had had a high enough blood level, but apparently not. Anyway Alpha is Alpha so I just go with it. This is a longer than normal hourglass though, it's taking quiet a while. Maybe I had de-sync'd and the server put me into the infamous five-minute alt-F4 coma. I patiently sit and sip my drink while I wait.Hairy reports that there's no morphine on any of the bodies and that he's headed back. The brightly lit night sky that greeted me on login was long gone, it's now 2:45 server time and almost pitch dark. "I'll pop a flare when I wake up so you can find me better Hairy". "Na, that's OK I think I see you" he replies. Shortly after that my body starts to be dragged, I assume hairy has found me and is bringing me down the mountain. "So it looks like you can drag people in DayZ like you can in base Arma II, huh?". No response. Whatever, I just enjoy the ride. After about two or three minutes of being dragged like a useless sack of potatoes, my hourglass has almost expired and we come to a stop. "So where are we at now? Maybe there's a town close by with some residential to raid for meds?" Still no reply. "Dude are you there?" Silence. Suddenly a bright green light ignites the night sky - an M203 flare round illuminates the surrounding area with an eerie green glow, like a cosmic candle descending from the heavens. I can now see a bit of my surroundings, there's a building with a few dead soldier bodies laying around. What is this place? How far did we travel? My hourglass is empty, I should be regaining control over my character in the next few seconds. All of a sudden a nameplate appears...Unknown. I hear the sound of footsteps, and the ohh-too-familiar sound of a downed survivor moaning. There's no color left in my hourglass, the time is now - I begin to move. The flare has almost hit the ground now, I've got to do something and I've got to do it now, I spin around and look for a tree-line to crawl into. Then I see it, and I'll never forget it either. It's the radio tower...not 10 meters away from me. I haven't been brought to safety at all... I've been brought right back to the summit of....that mountain. The sound of footsteps is getting closer, my heart is racing. The moaning is getting louder...louder...closer... I don't want to be here anymore. The moaning stops for a second, and is then replaced by a loud agonizing scream. This is it, I'm done for, I turn and fire a few shots in the direction of the sound, but nothing connects. Then the sound of a shotgun blast erupts next to me, my blood is reduced to 1,200. I turn and face my attacker.... It's the transparent figure, standing over my body and staring.I empty my clip of M4 into his chest, but it doesn't even phase him. Soon my attempts to fire my weapon are met with the tell-tale CLICK CLICK CLICK sound that every survivor should rightfully fear - I'm out of ammo. The figure just laughs at me, and then in a demonic and raspy voice shouts, "MY CHILDREN, FEAST!!!" Ohhshit.jpg A smoke grenade appears next to me, and the figure vanishes into thin air, the green flare is finally extinguished, and all I can hear is the sound of a horde of angry zombies headed right to me, Using my G17 I back myself up to a wall and attempt to fend off the slew of zombies that are now intent on ending my life. Zombies begin to fall before me, my shots are hitting their mark. I might just make it out of this one after all. CLICK CLICK CLICK The zombies proceed to slowly end my existence, the last thing I manage to see is a red flare pierce the night sky. This story doesn't end here though. As I'm staring at my death screen, over voice chat I hear "Sorry, I'm back, did I miss anything?" Hairy had been AFK the whole time. As calm as I possibly can, I tell him "Dude, I'm dead, PLEASE just leave and don't come back". "Alright, I'll meet you in Elektro then, I've still got to grab some food since I can't get any from you apparently... Wait, wtf is this? CRACK Hairy dies, broken and alone on the side of that mountain from starvation, because his leg was also inexplicably broken while he tried to escape his fate. This is why we don't go to that mountain, in fact I'm pretty sure just from telling this story I've put my new character's life in mortal danger. In that place, the unexplained becomes the normal, the unthinkable becomes a reality. We don't go to that mountain, we don't talk about that mountain, and if you dare speak the name of that mountain, may God have mercy on you and those unfortunate enough to call you a companion.

Yea, it's a bit offensive that players who managed to get their gear on a PvP server, surviving firefights, sniper ambushes, satchel traps, and ofc backpack thieves, would be on the same gear level as someone who could just run at full tilt through NW airfield screaming HURR DURRRPPYYY DUURRRR at the top of their lungs while spraying the L85 AWS they found at a completely uncontested heli crash with no consequence whatsoever. The only remotely acceptable way to have a PvE server would be to eliminate food spawns completely (must hunt for food), and have the God-tier weapons be the winchester and enfield. After all you'd only be fighting zombies, what more could you need?

Mmmmm boy dat necro

I'm the biggest carebear, even in video games. I don't shoot unless shot at (except at NW airfield, I think most everyone agrees that's a free-fire zone, for obvious reasons), will share supplies with anyone who doesn't immediately shoot at me, and avoids PvP situations as best as possible to begin with. That being said, if the PvP aspect of the game were to be removed on even a few servers, I probably wouldn't log into the game anymore. The infected aren't what makes the game hard, they're more of an annoyance in their current state. It's the human factor that's truly dangerous. Every can of beans you take, every new weapon you can find without being shot is a PvP victory in a sense. Not only does it help you survive the Environment (and believe me, the Environment is out to get you), but just by FINDING these supplies and assets you're taking them away from other players. I can't tell you how many times I've been run out of a supermarket right after looting it by a crazed gunman. I hope he wasn't starving though, because there's no beans to be found in there. If PvP was completely removed and the fear of player killings was no longer present....really, what's the point? You can sprint through town like a madman, through open fields without a care in the world. Infected will die to one body shot from an Enfield, what's the point of hunting military grade weaponry? How about camo? that's out the window too, seeing as how zombies are computer controlled, you could look like a moving rock, but they'll still find you if you make too much noise. While we're on the subject though, you mentioned safe-zones, but I think we've got different definitions of that word. Do i want a sanctuary type city where no PvP is allowed or enemies will spawn (like in WoW) ... No.... Do I want to be able to use the barbed wire, sandbags, tank-traps, and tents that I find in order to construct a base out of? Yes. But as the game has proven, fortifications are useless in the eyes of ghosters, who think it's cute to server hop to another server, move into your base's location, and then relog behind the defenses. So in a sense, yes, i want a type of safe-zone. It's not actually safe, but it would be something to prevent ghosters from bypassing any player made defenses.

No, and I don't think there will be Rocket in interviews (I'm thinking specifically SideStafe's interview) has said that while he wants to expand on the group-play functions of the game, he ALSO wants people to have the option of playing as a lone-wolf. Raids =\= Lone Wolf That being said, that far from rules out more powerful varieties of zombies out in the open world, seeing as how stealth is still part of the game, lone wolfs can sneak around the more advanced zombies if need be

Not that I agree with the KoS mentality of most of DayZ's playerbase, I must point out something pretty obvious in the OP If you tell people you have all these rare items to give them, they can easily just shoot you and loot them the same as you giving the items to them. If you have to essentially bribe people into not shooting you, chances are they're not actually "friendly" to begin with. Most friendly players are just happy to have someone NOT trying to gun them down, loot is the last thing on their minds

That Mountain It is said that anyone who is so foolish as to speak of That Mountain by name should be immediately shot in the leg by his comrades, insuring that he/she will no longer be able to follow them. Such reckless defiance of the powers of That Mountain makes you a marked man (or woman) - you will die from it's curse, the only question is...when. I too was once so bold as to address that heaven forsaken mound of dirt by its proper name, had i known at the time what kind of demonic nightmare that it would bring upon myself and my travelling partner however, I would have immediately humbled myself and never dared to speak of...that mountain. I had just logged in after reading on these very forums about a strange and mysterious place where the inexplicable becomes the norm.... that mountain. Fortune seemed to be with me this night (or so I thought), upon logging in I was greeted by the well-lit nightscape of Chernarus - perfect travel conditions. I do a quick supply check before embarking on my ill-advised journey. I've got food and water to spare, a bloodbag, painkillers, but sadly I've run out of morphine (Apparently most of Chernarus's citizens were masters of karate before their infection, being able to snap my bones with a single strike...). I check my map to see which direction I needed to travel. Someone had been so kind as to place a marker exactly on top of my destination, reading "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". Naturally, this just fueled my desire for exploration. My lack of morphine was a pressing concern though, so i make a stop in Starry, hoping to raid the military tents for weapons and meds. I was lucky enough to replace my dinner bell (Lee Enfield) with an M4 CCO, and also acquired a G17 to replace my not-so-trusty revolver. On top of that, there was a Coyote Backpack in the final tent, the Gods were truly smiling on me this night I began to think. Little did I know however, that it was that mountain simply toying with me, setting me up for my inevitable fall. I had spoken its name and had to be punished, such is the way of the world. Just before I departed Starry's supermarket (still no morphine, sigh) one of my squad members logs in. I tell him of my grand plan to defy fate and set foot in forbidden territory. It just so happens that he (We'll call him "Hairy" to make the story-telling easier) was relatively close to me and decided to take part in this journey. After about 10 minutes of waiting we finally link up and set off towards our objective.The only solid piece of information we can find on the area is that upon arrival, a very large amount of military zombies will be guarding the complex. We've been travelling for quite some time when Hairy queues up on voice coms and asks, "Hey, is that it? Is it..." That Mountain. Little did he know, Hairy had just commited the same unforgivable sin that had already sealed my fate not even one hour ago. So there we stood, two marked men, fates now intertwined, staring at the top of that infernal tower. It stared back, taunting us to brave our way into the forest...into its domain. When we arrived, we were not disappointed by the information we had read on the zombie presence. Pouring out of the gate was a stream of 15-20 zombies, a pretty disproportionate amount considering the relatively small size of the complex.Luckily, we had come prepared. Using the last of my smoke grenades, i gathered up the the unit of military zombies - they were drawn to it like moths to a flame. The bait had been placed, the trap was set, and it was time for some fireworks. Using an M67 frag grenade that i had...borrowed from a dead survivor earlier in the day, I turned what was once a mosh-pit of shambling horrors, into a spectacular display of flying body parts. The explosion was so powerful that it knocked my character's sights upward. We triumphantly passed through the gates, remarking to eachother that "It's too late to go back now", unaware that our fates had been decided long ago. Since I was the one that began this ill-fated journey, I was the one to scale the tower while Hairy stood guard inside the base. Reaching the top of the ladder I'm greeted by a pair of zombies - strange that they're up on the tower, but whatever, I dispatch them with ease. I take a good long look around the external catwalk of the tower, but I fail to see anything mind-shattering. "Great, I've just been trolled" I thought as I was looking over the edge of the tower. A bit disappointed I start making my way back to the door to leave the tower. Then I hear something unexpected, a sort of moaning - but not the kind you hear from the shambling dead that you'd encounter below...in normal places. This sounded more like an injured survivor, you know, like the sounds that an incapacitated player occasionally makes. This concerns me, so i ask "Hairy, is everything alright down there? You haven't passed out or something have you?". He replies that he's perfectly fine, although a bit bored. I can still hear the moaning, but it sound like it's getting closer. I find myself switching my M4 to automatic just out of what I assume was a slight sense of fear. "Can't you hear this moaning dude? Do you have SFX off?". This time he sounds a bit irritated, replying "No, I honestly don't hear anything, can we please leave now? This was a bust" That was one thing we could agree on, other than this inexplicable moaning (Alpha is Alpha, it was probably an audio bug...right?) I make my way around the catwalk and enter the doorway....and stop dead in my tracks. Directly in front of me, between myself and the ladder, is a semi-transparent figure that's slowly walking in my direction. Pointing my sights at the figure returns a tag, "Unknown - " is all i get to read before the quiet moan erupts into the screams of agony (Like the ones you get when a player is being eaten alive by zombies). Two things happened in the next 2 seconds. 1. I treaded the dangerous line between a clean pair of underwear, and completely shatting my pants 2. I emptied my M4 clip into (or more likely, around and all over the hallway) the strange figure My rounds have seemingly no effect on this mysterious apparition, it continues its advance towards me, A now frantic Hairy comes onto voice-chat asking "Dude wtf is going on up there? Did someone ghost up there and log on you????" All I'm able to muster up is "No, it's a real F#$%ing ghost!". I retreat out of the hall and back onto the cat-walk. I contemplate trying to jump and ending this experience right now, or waiting it out to fight round two with what I can only assume is an angry spirit. I spend the next ten seconds, an eternity at the time, staring at the doorway and waiting for my assailant to show himself. Hairy breaks the silence, "Cmon dude stop screwing with me, you're just mad that you dragged us both out here for nothing. Stop trying to pull a fast one on me and let's get out of here". I'm a little bit offended at this point, but still a great deal more scared so I reply with, "F$%^ you dude, I know what i saw, watch the ladder it could be headed for you". "Yea yea whatever, get down here and let's move on, I'm almost starving and I didn't bring food" is his response. Another eternity passes (5 seconds) and I decide against my better judgement to brave another look down the hall. Using third person (because I'm a pussy, deal with it) I take a look around the corner. I can clearly see bullet holes on the sides of the walls, no doubt left by my M4.... but no mysterious figure, I slowly creep down the hallway to the ladder, and notice that there's only bullet markings on the sides of the walls, but none at the end. Maybe I'm just a terrible shot, whatever. The moaning has stopped and that's good enough for me, I double time it down the ladder and we both leave the complex's walls. I still don't know what to think about what just happened, did I really see something, or did I just see what I WANTED to see? Hairy still doesn't believe me, but whatever, what matters is we escaped with our lives right?... CRACK My leg snaps, just like that, "Hairy, give me some morphine. I must have been running down the hill too fast". "You're the medic, not me genius, I'm still holding Sneaky's (another squad member's) 870, I didn't have room for meds" is all he says to me. Screw it, I just don't want to be here anymore - I start crawling, "Wait wait wait, I'll go back and check the military zombies and see if they dropped any, just sit tight. Despite my pleading to stay and continue down the mountain, he went back. I'm now all alone in the dark woods of that mountain, the radio tower is still visible through the trees...laughing at me. "Dude please just come back and I'll crawl down the mountain, I don't mind", another plea falls on deaf ears. There's not much I can really do at this point, so i walk over to the kitchen and make a Captain and Coke while I wait on Hairy. I return to the screen, greeted by an hourglass - I had passed out. I thought I had had a high enough blood level, but apparently not. Anyway Alpha is Alpha so I just go with it. This is a longer than normal hourglass though, it's taking quiet a while. Maybe I had de-sync'd and the server put me into the infamous five-minute alt-F4 coma. I patiently sit and sip my drink while I wait.Hairy reports that there's no morphine on any of the bodies and that he's headed back. The brightly lit night sky that greeted me on login was long gone, it's now 2:45 server time and almost pitch dark. "I'll pop a flare when I wake up so you can find me better Hairy". "Na, that's OK I think I see you" he replies. Shortly after that my body starts to be dragged, I assume hairy has found me and is bringing me down the mountain. "So it looks like you can drag people in DayZ like you can in base Arma II, huh?". No response. Whatever, I just enjoy the ride. After about two or three minutes of being dragged like a useless sack of potatoes, my hourglass has almost expired and we come to a stop. "So where are we at now? Maybe there's a town close by with some residential to raid for meds?" Still no reply. "Dude are you there?" Silence. Suddenly a bright green light ignites the night sky - an M203 flare round illuminates the surrounding area with an eerie green glow, like a cosmic candle descending from the heavens. I can now see a bit of my surroundings, there's a building with a few dead soldier bodies laying around. What is this place? How far did we travel? My hourglass is empty, I should be regaining control over my character in the next few seconds. All of a sudden a nameplate appears...Unknown. I hear the sound of footsteps, and the ohh-too-familiar sound of a downed survivor moaning. There's no color left in my hourglass, the time is now - I begin to move. The flare has almost hit the ground now, I've got to do something and I've got to do it now, I spin around and look for a tree-line to crawl into. Then I see it, and I'll never forget it either. It's the radio tower...not 10 meters away from me. I haven't been brought to safety at all... I've been brought right back to the summit of....that mountain. The sound of footsteps is getting closer, my heart is racing. The moaning is getting louder...louder...closer... I don't want to be here anymore. The moaning stops for a second, and is then replaced by a loud agonizing scream. This is it, I'm done for, I turn and fire a few shots in the direction of the sound, but nothing connects. Then the sound of a shotgun blast erupts next to me, my blood is reduced to 1,200. I turn and face my attacker.... It's the transparent figure, standing over my body and staring.I empty my clip of M4 into his chest, but it doesn't even phase him. Soon my attempts to fire my weapon are met with the tell-tale CLICK CLICK CLICK sound that every survivor should rightfully fear - I'm out of ammo. The figure just laughs at me, and then in a demonic and raspy voice shouts, "MY CHILDREN, FEAST!!!" Ohhshit.jpg A smoke grenade appears next to me, and the figure vanishes into thin air, the green flare is finally extinguished, and all I can hear is the sound of a horde of angry zombies headed right to me, Using my G17 I back myself up to a wall and attempt to fend off the slew of zombies that are now intent on ending my life. Zombies begin to fall before me, my shots are hitting their mark. I might just make it out of this one after all. CLICK CLICK CLICK The zombies proceed to slowly end my existence, the last thing I manage to see is a red flare pierce the night sky. This story doesn't end here though. As I'm staring at my death screen, over voice chat I hear "Sorry, I'm back, did I miss anything?" Hairy had been AFK the whole time. As calm as I possibly can, I tell him "Dude, I'm dead, PLEASE just leave and don't come back". "Alright, I'll meet you in Elektro then, I've still got to grab some food since I can't get any from you apparently... Wait, wtf is this? CRACK Hairy dies, broken and alone on the side of that mountain from starvation, because his leg was also inexplicably broken while he tried to escape his fate. This is why we don't go to that mountain, in fact I'm pretty sure just from telling this story I've put my new character's life in mortal danger. In that place, the unexplained becomes the normal, the unthinkable becomes a reality. We don't go to that mountain, we don't talk about that mountain, and if you dare speak the name of that mountain, may God have mercy on you and those unfortunate enough to call you a companion.

Usually if I log in close enough to the source of the artifacts (same town or so) they won't appear, otherwise it takes a flush command + complete game restart to access any of the areas.As far as I know though, the artifacts are still causing problems in the game. I was close to the International (NW) Airfield earlier today, but was greeted with a giant wall of green. Decided that a high probability of getting sniped in the face wasn't worth the client restart >.>

Three days Was driving our new off-road pickup truck back to base when the server admin spotted me, decided he wanted my truck, kicked me and shot me when I loaded back in. Good times?

As annoying and frustrating as sniper rifles can be, there is absolutely no reason for a Dev to make a completely knee-jerk reaction and nerf / remove sniper gameplay. Let me clear something up also, I've never held a sniper rifle in any of my character's hands or backpacks, the closest I've ever had would be the M14 AIM. As the OP mentioned, Duping / scripting has placed vastly more of these items into circulation than is intended. Our small group of four has only encountered ONE M107 rifle as a legitimate drop since we started playing. That's 400 individual man-hours with ONE .50 cal drop. In that time we've never seen a DMR, CZ550, SVD camo, Rangefinder, or a (legitimate, non hacked) pair of NVGs. With this in mind (and accounting for what could even be a MASSIVE amount of bad luck on our part), it still doesn't make sense that the tree lines of high-pop servers are infested with Ghillie suit wearing, anti-material rifle toting "Marksmen" who sport what seems to be a never ending supply of what is supposed to be a rare ammo. Does it suck getting dropped from out of nowhere? Yes Does it seem fair that hours of hard work can be undone in an instant? No Knowing that this is an Alpha-stage TEST of a mod, does it make sense to take action against a class of weapons that has been VASTLY over inflated past it's intended levels of "normal" gameplay? No, No, No, No, and NO again. Look, i feel your pain, I'm by no means sitting up on cloud nine completely immune to the victimization that not only snipers, but also hackers and admin abuse breeds in this game. However, you MUST understand that (and I already know that this will fall on deaf ears) this is not a representation of a finished project. In fact, in the gaming industry only a few titles have a public BETA (not a game demo labeled as a beta, which is being increasingly common), a public alpha like this is pretty rare to begin with, and being on a scale this large, it could even be unprecedented. Whether or not you went out and bought Arma II: CO for the sole purpose of playing DayZ (I did, I'm not ashamed of it), you are still TESTING a product. Luxuries such as game "balance", stability, and complete functionality are just that - luxuries. We're not here because the game is ready to ship as a stand-alone product, if it were you would have bought "DayZ" instead of "Arma II" from your retailer. No-one is being forced to play-test this mod, if you find something to be game breaking or just generally un-enjoyable, please, by all means - take a break.

Hello all, I'm a very sad panda and I would like to share with the community our (my group) adventures and misfortunes we've encountered in our journey through DayZ. Our average time logged as a group is around 80 hours for reference. Before I begin, I would like to state that though some things greatly irritate me, my intent of this post is not to Bawwwwww about wanting nerfs / changes to the gameplay of the mod. By nature this is a harsh game where harsh things can happen, and we've more than accepted that. Alpha is Alpha and we understand that, which is why we keep playing through all the technical mishaps that we encounter in the story below. And yes, before anyone asks - we do regularly use the save function on tents and vehicles I would also like to take this time and thank Rocket and anyone else on the DayZ development team for creating something so unique and innovative in an otherwise stagnant industry. Keep up the good work guys. I'd also like to pose a few quick questions for anyone who may know. 1. Is there a way to rent a dedicated DayZ server? (Not host one on a local machine, my personal server can't handle any more load) 2. If question 1 is possible, how much would renting a 20-30 slot server cost per month? I'll begin this tale shortly after we all began playing as a group, 4-5 friends connected to eachother through real life in one way or another. Fair warning, this will be TL:DR, so if you're not looking to read a story, I'd suggest you stop reading now - I won't be sparing many details. Shortly after our adventures together begin, our group splits into two man teams in order to search the coastal city of Cherno for supplies, weapons, and ammunition. As we're finishing up in the city, I decide to wait near the coast of the city for my partner, who is still in the city finishing up his search in the city's coastal church. While waiting for my partner, I decide to pop a flare about 50m away from my position to help my partner find me in what is now the pitch black landscape of DayZ. Little did I know, however, that a single flare would be the start of a long and interesting journey through DayZ. You see, this flare not only lit up the night landscape, but also revealed a PBX boat sitting just off the shore. This boat would open up many opportunities for our small band of brothers in the days to come. Anyway back to the present, my teammate, let's call him "Hairy", is the more....umm...Stealthily challenged member of the group, and over voice coms I hear a plea for help. It turns out that Hairy has attracted an excessive amount of zombies, and is now bleeding and running to the coast. Using my newly acquired PBX I made a daring close-coast pickup of my wounded comrade. We managed to pull farther up the coast, get Hairy patched up, and pick up our two other team-members which we'll call "Drangon" and "Sneaky". With our new found mode of transportation we set off down the coast with a generous haul we obtained from Cherno. At this point we can access any coastal area we please. Personally, I'd been curious about the large island to the southeast of the map, and as the driver I made an...erm...executive decision (Yea, let's call it that) to take the group and explore the island. After arriving we did a quick check of the island, tried to investigate the small town on the island, but was met with a disproportionate amount of zombies in the village - we were quickly driven back into our boat and out of the bay. We didn't give up on the island however, and we were rewarded for it - on a large tree covered hill we discovered something beyond our wildest expectations... a functional helicopter. Well, actually, functional is the wrong word for it. The chopper has a critical amount of fuel, 7+ broken windows, broken engine, and broken rotor, but beggers can't be choosers. We decide to set up camp on the island in an area not visible from the mainland. Over the course of a few days we built the camp up from two measly tents, to a settlement of six tents with a fully functional and fueled helicopter. Not too bad for playing for about two days, right? Let me tell you guys, we had a blast while we had that helicopter (about 2 hours of functional flying time, including the initial fueling trip). While we had it, we looted THREE downed helicopter sites, and got more military equipment that we had seen since we started playing. Unfortunately, and I'm not proud of this - during our last helicopter crash site, we lost a man due to....friendly fire. Naturally, anyone who sits in the gunner seat of the chopper is itching to put that M240 to work, am I right? Well on this site we had the chance - we had all made it back to the chopper except our forward guard, Sneaky. The Z's at the chopper site had just respawned and had Sneaky in their sight. Due to a miss-communication (That's my story and I'm sticking to it), instead of Sneaky breaking right and boarding the chopper there, he returns to my line of fire while the M240 was raining hell on the zombie train behind him, and quickly put Sneaky down. After many sincere apologies, we set the chopper back down on our island, unloaded our treasure, and set off down the coast towards elektro to pick Sneaky's new spawn up. This time the pickup goes off without a hitch, we get him aboard and set a roundabout course home (Because even WE weren't newb enough to fly directly to and from our island). On the way back, we begin chatting to pass the time. Drangon, who actually plays the base ARMA game (us other three only play DayZ) brings up the fact that it's possible to do para-drops via the helicopter. Naturally this news excites everyone on the helicopter and we decide to try it once we get close to the island. Well, a small detail was left out that parachute can indeed become tangled in ARMA - a fact myself and Sneaky were not aware of. We both jump at the same time, and are both greeted with a pretty instant death message. We laugh about it a little and once again begin our trip down the coast to a convenient pickup point for our pilot to rescue us from. Our laughter and light banter is interrupted on the way back however, as a shot rings out on the island and Hairy's body drops like a sack of rocks. This of course is met with a swift "WTF" from Hairy, and a "Holy #$%^" There's someone in the tree-line!!" from Drangon. The channel gets silent, but is then quickly filled again with the sound of gunfire and Drangon stating that he is under fire and headed for cover. This is a very intense moment for our squad, not only had two of our members just died in a silly parachuting accident, but now our remaining team has lost a member to hostile fire, with only our pilot remaining on the island. All goes quite for a short time, when finally the silence is broken once again by Drangon informing us that the hostile player has started the helicopter's engine and is preparing to take off. After putting a few rounds through the windshield of the chopper, the hostile pilot is able to clumsily lift the chopper off the ground and slowly gain altitude. Thinking quickly, Drangon sprints to our weapons cache tent and grabs our M107 Anti-Material Rifle, and puts two clips into the bottom hull of the chopper before it manages to wobble itself out of range. We still don't know what became of that helicopter after that night, perhaps the enemy pilot managed to land it in a field and repair the extensive damage the chopper must have taken - or maybe he just ditched it in the ocean and logged out. Regardless of what actually happened, I doubt we'll ever know. So after an extended silence we all express our feelings of sadness, regret, and depression over the loss of the chopper that we had taken so long to repair, but only got to use for a short time. But that's part of the game isn't it? The fact that you are never truely safe is one of the main reasons DayZ is almost one of a kind in the gaming world. You're either logged in with a vulnerable character, or logged out with your base unprotected. What we THINK happened, was someone was server hopping looking for the helicopter spawn (up the hill where we found it), and heard us on our approach back to the island. Either that, or in the time it took us to lift off and pick up Sneaky and return to the island, he swam the distance from the mainland to the island (We had all of the boat spawns either brought back to the island, or drove them out to sea and ran them out of fuel. None of our boats were missing and no new ones were on the shore). No matter how he had happened upon our secluded island base, we knew that one thing was certain - as long as that helicopter spawn is there, our operations on the island were at risk, and we had to move on, After studying the map for a while we agreed on a new spot to set up our camp, it was an area that was fairly out of the way of major map objectives, but at the same time allowed any ground vehicles decent access to the major road network. It's worth noting here that we had switched servers after the loss of our helicopter (due to our original server giving myself and Sneaky very bad FPS at certain times of the game-world's day). We had re-located to a server that was hosted by "Full Metal Slackers", US 1828 where we had during our trip inland, discovered a Ural truck spawn, which we had intended to fix up. After some debate on where we should spend the day scavenging for supplies, (Hairy wanted to visit the international airfield, us other three wanted to head to the southern coast's industrial cities to look for car parts). We decide that splitting into two groups is too dangerous with the server's current population, so we compromise and decide to head to the NW Airfield. Drangon and myself were to search the western edge of the field for industrial supplies in the northern buildings, while Hairy and Sneaky search the eastern side for weapons and ammunition. We take a very round-about route to the northern end of the airfield, which we had decided would be the best way to enter and exit the airfield (While allowing us to check the ATV spawn on top of the mountain). After splitting up, both teams slowly advance down our respective sides of the runway. After searching both large industrial garages at the northern end and coming up empty, Drangon (our pilot, who is also our sniper) decides that he will provide sniper cover from a tower while I spot for him with my binocs . This turned out to be a good decision, because shortly afterwards our eastern team makes contact with a hostile player. Using an L85 we had found on a downed helicopter outside of the airfield earlier in the day, Sneaky identifies the hostile target and attempts to spot his location for our sniper in the tower. Unfortunately, Sneaky didn't have one of the group's two compasses, and the nature of the thermal sight makes referencing buildings a challenge. Just before Sneaky is about to take a shot at the enemy player, we hear the sound of a motorcycle's engine roaring on the runway. Drangon is the first one to spot the vehicle - it's one man on the cycle wearing a gillie suit speeding towards the original hostile player. We made the split second decision to engage the enemy players who are now obviously working in a group, and therefore a threat to our own group. Drangon takes three shots with his M107, but the shots go high (later we discover because of a ping disconnect earlier, the zeroing of his rifle had reset to 300, instead of the 100 it had been set at for close ranged emergencies). The two hostile players quickly dip off the runway and leave their motorcycle in a clearing. We follow them with our optics as best we can, but they manage to slip into the tree-line. During the commotion, Hairy had managed to sprint across the runway (zombies were all following the motorcycle) and make it to the southwest barracks on our side of the runway. Sneaky, using his thermal vision keeps a low profile and scans for the enemy players on our (west) tree-line. A few minutes pass with not as much as a word in voice-com. Sneaky finally reports "One hostile entering your barracks Hairy". A second passes and then gunfire shatters the otherwise quiet calm of the airfield. The server reports two deaths - sadly, our teammate Hairy was the first to die, but shortly after another is reported and we couldn't believe who it was. We had killed the Admin of the server (we recognized his name from seeing the *admin* mark next to his ping on login). A minute passed and still no action, the three remaining members of our group were still hunting the admin's partner when all of a sudden (I bet you can guess it) Everyone is booted from the server. Not just our group, everyone except one other person who we assume was the admin's partner. We all reconnect (or attempt to, the admin is still kicking people). Sneaky is the first to re-enter the game world, and he puts a few warning shots in the direction of the motorcycle. This must have touched a nerve, because at that point the entire server went offline. We decide that enough is enough, and we want nothing to do with this Admin letting his team-mate move around the airfield freely while we are stuck connecting. We decide to hop to another server, get to a safe distance, and then observe the airfield on US 1828 after we were reasonably safe. When we returned, the motorcycle was gone from its hiding spot (go figure, right?) We assumed the admin's friend had made a clean getaway and that would be that. We make the trek back to our camp where we had set up a few tents near our Ural truck (which was a work in progress still, missing tires and an engine). We thought our view distance was bugged for a minute, but when we got right up on the camp there was no mistaking it - not only was the truck gone, but our tents with all our extra supplies were gone as well. We were devastated, The only thing we can think of is that the admin believed that the motorcycle was going to be stolen (by us) so he restarted the game session completely - wiping out all progress that had been made on the map. At this point our spirits are feeling a bit trampled, every time we make any progress we seem to be firmly and swiftly smacked back down. While that's part of the inherent nature of perma-death style games, it's the fact that it's the fault of a childish server admin, not a perma-death mechanic that set us back so far that really made it sting. But because we all love the game we kept going forward. This brings me to the final chapter (I know, FINALLY, right?) of our current story that spans the past two days. We were so angry with the administration of US 1828 that we left the server all together with only what we could carry on our backs. We relocated to ANOTHER server, US 1934 ran by a group called the 2nd Division. This server is fairly active with clan activity, but we decided that we would reserve our judgement of the group until we came across them at some point (and let me tell you, we did come across them.... but more on that at the end). Fortune had smiled brightly on us in this server, not only had we found the Ural again (and repaired it and moved it to our "secure" base) we had found the spawns for the old hatch-back, and the off-road pickup truck. This next part happened yesterday (saturday the 4th) and my recanting is only hear-say, because I was gone for most of the day. Anyway... When I left my group, I had actually been ran over by our parked truck (Disconnected while parking it, logged back in and was greated by -2000 blood, a broken leg, and then shortly by a death screen.) But that was whatever, it had happened inside the "safety" of our base so all my belongings were recovered More on that in a bit. Anyway after I returned home I was eager to play some more DayZ and see what progress the guys had made in my absence. Logging into vent I was greated by sad sounding voices, and news that literally left me speechless. While transporting the Ural and Pickup truck back to base, the server had shut down without any warning. Whatever, stuff happens, right? The vehicles were missing, they had checked our base (where we had last saved the Ural), the truck spawn (where they had picked up the truck), and all around where they had been when the server went down - no vehicles. Worse news yet, the tents where we had accumulated a large food and medical supply, as well as where all my gear from my glitched death was being stored.....were gone.That means that the Night Vision Goggles from my body, as well as both my FALs, Sneaky's L85, and Drangon's M107 were completel wiped off the face of the planet. The tents hadn't been looted, they had just disappeared like back on 1828. At this point we just log off for the day, it's just too much for us to take hit after hit from technical issues. Today I log back in, at the industrial sector of Elektro where I had been gathering parts with my new spawn for the vehicles that we no longer had. We were still pretty bummed out but we had once again decided to soldier through and keep playing the game that we love. At first it was almost too good to believe, maybe even a mirage. On the port of Elektro, completely unguarded, fully repaired and fueled, is the offroad pickup truck that we had lost the night before. Having nothing more than an empty AKM, a Makarov with one clip, and some medical supplies I make a break for the truck. Success! I was able to get out of elektro without any resistance whatsoever. I had Hairy navigate for me with his map and lead me back to our "base" (or to be more exact, where our base was before the server wiped it out). I set up the two tents I had found in Elektro's supermarket with a renewed sense of hope for our progress on this server. Now Drangon had been making his way all the way back to the coast, to check if our trusty PBX was still unharmed in it's spot on our original server. After hearing the good news he takes the PBX (which was untouched) to our original base on the island. Our plan was originally to bring some of the supplies remaining on our base (we can't move the tents anymore, the characters who set them up originally are long dead).Meanwhile, I'm once again back in the truck heading to the coast to pick up as many supplies as we can, Hairy is back at the base navigating for me. But, by complete chance, I take a wrong turn and head further down the main road than I should have. I stumble across a broken bus, a working and fueled UAZ, and THREE ATVS. These vehicles are most likely hacked, seeing as how there are only 4 other people on the server online at the time, and none of them share the same tag. But we decide to take the UAZ for our own regardless. After picking Drangon up near the island, I take him back to the vehicle cache, and he gets in the UAZ and drives. Things really couldn't be going better for us at that time, we've got two pristine vehicles, some supplies, and a base. We're well armed and all of our basic needs are met, this is the best we've probably ever been in the game. But like every other success we've had in the game it will be short lived. As we were on the final stretch back to our base, I'm a good deal ahead of Drangon (good thing too), all of a sudden I see a figure in the middle of the field, I made the mistake of slowing down and asking "Hairy is that you?" because it was pretty close to our base. It was definitely NOT Hairy. I'm answered not by his voice, but by the sound of rifle shots pinging off my hull. I speed away as fast as I can, but as soon as I thought i was safe... "YOU HAVE BEEN KICKED" Turns out that the hostile player who had spotted me was either the admin himself, or the other 2nd divison player on the server with him. regardless, I was slowed down long enough for my nameplate to pop up and give them my name in order to kick me. At this point I've got nothing to lose, I re-enter the game and make a break for the woods. I come under immediate gunfire from two players, one sounded like a medium-high powered rifle, the other may have been something as small as an Enfield. On my way to the treeline I take one shot in the back which brings me to a little under 5000 blood. I"m now bleeding with a concussion, so when i spot the truck rolled off in the distance all I can do is make a break for it. I'm eventually put down after they put a good 50+ combined shots down range at me. The two hostiles take their ill-acquired vehicle and speed away. From the tree-line Drangon and Hairy are watching. The two enemies drive off towards the far tree-line, stop, get out, look directly at my two remaining squad members. and via direct-com.... they laugh at us. We were even able to confirm it was the admin from the name that appeared while he was speaking in direct chat. They knew exactly where my team was hiding the whole time. Other than the obvious disconnect on me to stop my escape from the truck, I would not be quick to accuse someone of cheating at a videogame. I'm not 12 and not a raging CoD style fan-boy. Sometimes people just have the upper-hand. But it's very very very suspicious to me that the admin of the server was able to direct chat across an open field to the location of my concealed team-mates. Drangon even has military camo, and is very hard to spot from a distance. I've been a PC player for years, and it almost sickens me me to see this kind of admin abuse. To me, the server admins are the ones you can always count on to keep law and order in the server, defending it from hackers and making sure the playerbase (randoms, not just their own members) have a good experience on the server. After all, keeping a fair and orderly server results in a higher player count and usually a better overall game atmosphere. This is why before restarting our settlement for yet another time, I would like to know if it's possible to rent a server from a reputable company to run DayZ, The admin abuse on the servers we've played on is terrible, and If there were an option to protect myself as well as my personal friends, and whatever random person that decides to make our server their home... I would take it in a heartbeat. Like I said above, we're not asking for gameplay changes, we're not asking for an official moderation of servers or anything of the sort. We're just looking for our options, and thought that we could share our DayZ adventure with the community. It's had it's ups and downs but overall it's a great game still. That being said, I'd like the communities input on this: Should we keep trying to make a home for ourselves, or is that simply not possible from everyone's experiences? Are we better off taking what we can carry, grabbing military grade weapons and camping a major city? because sometimes it seems like that's our only option, since fate seems to continually crush our dreams of creating a livable area in the world of Dayz.

When we switch servers, we all pick different ones and check the surrounding vehicle spawns that are marked on http://dayzdb.com/map#3.041.111 . and search for, basically a reason to stay on that server. With the in-game map not allowing for squad specific markers (It shows your markers to every player in the game, not just your friends), we find that the in-game map isn't safe to use, so we use that one. Since we can't use in-game markers, that map allows us to be like "I'm north about 150m of the high-value barn west of X-town" That's how we've found all of the broken down vehicles (except the bus near the hacked vehicle cache, and the helicopter on the island (which isn't even marked) were pure chance). The UAZ and ATV cache (which we still think was hacked) i just happened to see while passing along on a road