NavyCuda

My wife got me turned onto Left 4 Dead for a while, then L4D2. We actually play a few games together, the only one she has no real interest in playing with me is Supreme Commander 2. I guess the advantage is that we're both gamers, firearms enthusiasts and outdoor enthusiasts. It's really too bad that Red Alert 2 is so difficult to get to run properly over LAN on Windows 7, because that is a game we both enjoy tremendously. Even if I keep hearing "never existed" from her speakers and then wonder what happened to most of my war factories. I got really "mad" once because we were playing no combat for 30 minutes to build up our bases and forces and she snuck spys into my base and stole a bunch of my resources. "It wasn't combat" was her reply.

I didn't disagree with you, however I must point out that I did agree with you in my previous post perhaps you overlooked this: "The only difference is the amount of man hours it takes to conduct the search." I need to conduct the search at 60kph because I'm not a very good pilot, but I'm our only pilot in the group. If you gave me a week and the operations/flight manual I could get a helicopter to the point it was ready to take off, but I still would not be able to fly it safely. My previous post agreed with you on this point. The point you make in regards to the rendering distance is valid. It is your suggestion that removing the helicopter is a reasonable response to this issue that I do not agree with. I completely support finding some way to improve the forest and cover even at the cost of frame rate. I gain access to the UH-1H usually once every couple weeks and enjoy flying it around, picking up friends and generally terrorizing the server. My wife and I play a fair amount together and we already have a fairly large stockpile of gear in our camps, so searching out other camps is not our prioirty in DayZ. If the helicopter was removed, we would lose access to a significant tool of terror against other survivors. Edit: Forgot to add: You make other valid points in regards to the helicopter and maintenance however it would be exceedingly difficult to have a maintenance schedule in game. I also feel that for some of us, we don't have the helicopter long enough for maintenance to even be a concern. In my case, I either crash it or it gets stolen back from me. In my 386 hours of DayZ, I've flown for less than 4 of them. While the machines I work with in real life are not helicopters, they have a fair amount of sensitive gear, and the shortest maintenance interval is 10 hours. I doubt very much that each time a helicopter lands to refuel it needs to go back into the shop to get an oil change and have components replaced. To the best of my understanding most aircraft components are rated in the hundreds of hours of lifespan before needing to be replaced. Cunts are useful and fun, so call me a cunt all you want!

I prefer the G17, in my opinion it has the best iron sights of all the pistols, followed by the makarov. The M9SD frequently runs out of ammo and gets dropped in favour of a G17 or a makarov.

What is "numpty"? I don't care how you type, I was simply informing you and anyone else reading my post that you quoted, that your opinion will be considered more valuable when presented it in a manner consistent with someone who graduated from high school. This applies to everyone posting online and not just you. You are correct, a belief is something that usually has little more than circumstantial evidence to support it. This is why I said I have a belief and did not conclude that my observations were correct. Yes I did read your original post, as well as every post in this thread before I replied to each person that I felt I needed to reply to. I am doing my best to counter each point with the least amount of emotional content possible, however, without re-quoting a number of your posts, emotion is something that your posts are not lacking. Your arguments lack substantial evidence and thoughtful discourse. You rely on derogatory comments to drive others from the conversation, effectively ending the debate by being the only person left willing to comment. I do not disagree with certain aspects of your original post, however your conclusions in regards to the helicopter are flawed. I have spent the time to grid search the entire northern area of the map using vehicles and walking, the rendering of trees at distance still allows tents and vehicles to be easily spotted from the ground. The only difference is the amount of man hours it takes to conduct the search. In fact, my limited experience with multiple spotters in the helicopter you still must travel at less than 60 kph to have an effective search pattern. I have a hiding spot in the northern forest where the UAZ cannot be seen from the air, yet it is rather obvious from the ground. The problem is not with the helicopter, but with the rendering of objects at distance and this issue is not exclusive to being airborne as I pointed out in the previous paragraph. Having spent time introducing novices to the shooting sports, I would agree that it would be possible to teach someone the basics of operating a firearm in 10 minutes or less. I must point out however, that in only 10 minutes you could only cover the very basics of operation and maintenance and in no way would the student be proficient or effective with the firearm. How much of that 10 minute orientation would they actually retain? Using my wife as an example, she picked up the basics yet there were a number of areas where she was not proficient and needed to be reminded of the correct procedures. I would say that it took a total of two hours to train her to a reasonable level of proficiency and there are still things she doesn't retain, such as rapid magazine changes and clearing stoppages. A firearm is one of the simplest mechanical devices man has ever invented, so again you are correct, it isn't very likely someone with no experience in a helicopter is going to be able to get the turboshaft engine spun up never mind fly the thing in one hour. That said, how does this apply to the issue at hand, which is that the rendering of distant objects do not have the detail to effectively be used as cover for hiding places. I have read your responses and while you may not agree with me, I do not believe your responses were reasoned. I do not believe you put sufficient thought into your original post for it to be considered reasoned. I will not deny that you have made the occasional valid point, but you lack the social skills to effectively present them. I hope that you take the time to write an educated, thoughtful response so we can have a meaningful conversation.

I think it would be a good idea to find a way to reduce the number of times the word cool is used in your post. An in game notebook would be exceedingly handy though. If implemented it should reside on your tool belt and should be able to be looted from your corpse. Have "pen and notebook" you can take notes but you cannot delete them and have "pencil and notebook" with deletable notes. If you go swimming or are in the rain too long, the notebook should become waterlogged and effectively destroyed.

Not one person in my group thinks of DayZ as a game, even though we do label it a game. DayZ is the premier shit hit the fan simulator. Balance does not belong in something that is simulating a hypothetical apocalypse. Private hive servers do have the option to select if they want to have the Huey or multiple of them. In fact private hive servers offer the opportunity for the handout crowd to play the game however they want and I completely support that. What I don't support is that same mentality being applied to the public hive. I would argue that a good portion of the people who play DayZ have never handled a firearm, let alone fired or maintained one, therefore why should they be able to use a firearm in DayZ? The helicopter is an advantage, but it is not remotely unfair. The only unfair advantage that exists in DayZ is when people script in gear and vehicles. I don't have the link handy, or remember where to find it, but I do remember something that the list of items that could become available is huge. Most games when in alpha and beta stages rarely ever have the full compliment of items that will be available in the final version. You don't need 200 different firearms to be able to test that firearms work correctly in game, a small sample pool from each class is sufficient to validate the functionality. DayZ mod is still in alpha, so there is no reason for the entire inventory selection to be available. DayZ as it stands is no where near impossible for those willing to work for it. If DayZ is literally impossible, it would not have the following that it does. Some people may find DayZ more challenging than others. There are some real world skills can be applied to DayZ and if you have those skills it means that it will be less challenging, but certainly not less fun. Black Ops zombies is a perfect example of an impossible to win scenario, yet is still very entertaining. I've only ever made it to 37 legitimately on Kino (52 with inf.ammo before that cheat was disabled). Excellent example, thank you for posting that.

I've found that the UH-1H can be moved from any of its spawn points to a relatively safe fuelling point with a minimum of 3 Jerry cans and a maximum of 5. Now, fuelling the UH-1H by yourself takes a long time and I've never felt more exposed than going back and forth between a fuel tank and the Huey for close to 10 minutes. Getting the UH-1H operational on an empty server with no vehicles has taken my wife and I over 6 man hours(2 persons times 3 hours each). If I hear gunfire while I'm flying, especially if I hear the crack of the super-sonic projectile passing by I'm retreating to a safe distance until I can get some of my people on the ground then I distract with the UH-1H while my ground forces advance. As a rule of thumb, people will take you more seriously when you at least make an effort to correctly use the English language. "U" and "Ur" are not real words, please for the sake of the human race and out of respect for the language we speak, make an effort to be grammatically correct. I hate to have to be the person to say this, because I have horrible spelling and did poorly in English in school. I happen to be replying to you, but I'm generalizing to everyone who posts online. I respect your opinion, but I would mind if the UH-1H was removed. I'm actually very glad that it is the UH-1H, perhaps the most iconic helicopter of all time. At this time, to the best of my knowledge public hive servers only have one UH-1H. I have seen more than one on private hive servers though. Many other military helicopters many not belong in DayZ, but if any helicopter does, it's the Huey. Having control of the Huey represents an enormous time investment, never mind trying to keep it longer than one session. I have only once managed to keep the Huey more than one gaming session, but I still lost it within 24 hours from getting it operational. My previous home server, the admins parked the Huey off map and wouldn't restart the server until the Huey was moved somewhere safe and then the server would get restarted. I only had the Huey once on that server. I'm starting to believe that the people who do not support having the Huey in game are the people who do not have the real life time to allocate to DayZ to make the Huey a viable option for them, so their solution is to try and find ways to prevent other people from having it.

No it does not prove your point. It doesn't even remotely support it, what it does say is don't be stupid and keep your head down so you don't get shot.

Actually asking for the gear to be removed is the noob crutch, as you call it. Basically what I'm reading here is, that your tactics are not sound and as a result you present an easy target to those whose tactics are better than yours. The reality is, premium gear makes you a high value target. You cannot risk exposing yourself, or you will be shot. Collecting gear legitimately takes time and effort, but because you seem to prefer not to use the right tools for the job, you think everyone else should be lowered to your level. The rewards for my efforts is gear that gives me an edge over lesser equipped players, but I still have to be skilled enough to properly utilize that equipment. More times than I can count, I've made stupid mistakes that lead to my character dying, even with all my premium gear. I learn from those mistakes and improve my tactics. You can't teach someone to be good at chess, if you let them win. It is the challenge of overcoming extraordinary odds that provides the most satisfaction. My dad never once let me win at chess, but the time I finally did beat him was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Any "balancing" will ruin DayZ. In my mind it is not a game, but a fairly accurate simulation of what would actually happen if the shit hit the fan. There will be trading posts, because people need stuff to survive. There will be bandits, because they've made the choice to ignore civilized behaviour and do whatever it takes to survive. There will be survivors, but in reality those survivors will still bare much resemblance to bandits, because they will have survived by being ruthless and ensuring that their own are taken care of. There will be the dead bodies of the people looking for hand outs. The more fortunate of those looking for handouts, will end up as slaves. If the shit hit the fan, which would you be? DayZ shows that divide clearly, but since DayZ is a game, those looking for hand outs come here on the forum complaining about how unfair it is that someone shot them in the face for being stupid and exposing themselves. I can assure you, if the shit hit the fan, I would not share my water with you, I would not share my food with you, I would not share my firearms with you and if you didn't heed my warnings to stay away, I would shoot you. The only exceptions to that, are my close friends that I already trust my life with. Actually, it's not trolling, it's called target practice. If you're stupid enough to get into my line of sight, and you give me an opening to shoot you, your character deserves to die, fresh spawn or not. There have been a number of survivors that were fresh spawns, who used their heads and didn't expose themselves to me in a fashion where I believed that I had a shot. I won't take the shot unless I'm reasonably sure I can make the shot, because as soon as I open fire I've given away my position and I must relocate. It is important to me to kill my target, because I don't want them chasing me down pissed off that I shot at them. Use your brain, and stop suggesting that end-game gear makes it easy to kill. It's just as easy to kill with the hatchet, if you use that thing on your shoulders.

Why should DayZ be reduced to the lowest common denominator? Why should those of us who recoginze the potential of DayZ have to put up with people who refuse to help themselves?

I went back to where I saved "mine" but it wasn't there. Oh well, I'll find it again.

I was talking with a buddy of mine the other day about ghillie suits, he was telling me it was like wearing a snow suit and that he was sweating within minutes of putting it on. This is probably why the ghillie lights up so well through the thermal scope. What I would like to see is CADPAT instead of camo, and it's designed to reduce your thermal signature.

Define horded vehicles. If my group puts the time in to collect and maintain a fleet of vehicles and hunts other players, which is our standard MO, how long until we get kicked/banned? When I am not out of town working I average about 4 hours a day of DayZ time, my wife often plays along side me and a couple other buddies, which would equate to somewhere around 6-8 man hours a day of members of my group being on the server. How often are server restarts? Is there warning before the restart? Make no mistake, we are bandits and will ruin the day of anyone we can. We shoot first and don't ask questions. I personally will not use, or bring with me scripted weapons, but one of my guys has an AS-50 TWS that we collected from an admin camp on another server, which surprisingly shut down permanently the next day. I did however flatten all of their tents and save them empty before flattening... If we find a camp, we will take what we want from it, then destroy it. If we find a vehicle we don't want, we'll destroy it. We would be pleased to be your resident bandits, assuming your admins play fair and won't use server restarts as a weapon to reduce our groups combat effectiveness. An example being, seeing the UAZ driving by and restarting the server so that there is a number of bandits/survivors standing on the road when they log back in. We have talked about getting our own server, but our group isn't large enough to justify our own server, but we might be willing to support a good home even if the regulars hate us!

In the worlds of an immortal British sniper: "I love to camp" It's the thrill of the hunt, while fresh spawns are just target practice.

It's too bad we call it hacking, because it really isn't. It's more like, exploiting Arma2's honesty. Arma2 trusts that you're going to play honestly and as such has little controls to prevent someone from running scripts that Arma2 was designed for, but were not intended to be used as part of the DayZ experience. The standalone will most likely remove the ability for scripts to be executed but no gaming engine has ever stopped true hackers. True hackers are very skilled in their craft, and it is really too sad that their talents are wasted on breaking into a game engine to give themselves an unfair advantage. That said, someone who is that talented is going to find a way around any blockage, but people of that skill level are actually pretty rare.

That's what we have already, so can you clearly detail the "silly" The only difference is that there is a reduced availablilty of gear in DayZ. I'm not suggesting that you go to international airfield and there be an entire squadron of A-10s, but perhaps one or two that can be made operational. I'm not suggesting either that you go to the barracks and there be crates of all the different weapons. What am suggesting is that they should all be available on the loot table, even if the spawn rate is extremely rare. I don't believe for a second that gear makes a better player, I've killed ghillied out super snipers with the Lee Enfield because they relied too heavily on their gear and not their brain. I've been killed for relying too heavily on my gear instead of using my brain. I've been killed by weapons scripted into the game, but I don't complain about it, because my death was a result of my failing to be aware of my surroundings. I've been killed by hackers too, but as irritating as that is, I can recognize that those issues will be under better control in the stand alone. Demanding that more gear be removed from the game isn't using your brain, it's being lazy. Oh I totally agree with you, however if you have a large enough group of people it is feasible to maintain a rather large fleet of vehicles without resorting to parking off map or duplicating components to fix the vehicles. The UH-1H needs pretty substantial logistics behind it as well, however DayZ does a reasonable job of replicating the logistics needed to keep it operational. An A-10 is going to require more logistics to keep it operational, and the repair process should reflect that, should it ever be available as a legitimate vehicle. I totally agree on the tires and most of the vehicle parts spawned. I can tell you from my own experience, you're not going to pick up a cast iron engine block and toss it in your backpack and carry it all around hells half acre. The UH-1H uses a turbine engine, so how could parts from a reciprocating engine even be useful on the UH-1H? Certain realities are more difficult than others to model digitally and reproduce with authenticity, the vehicle repair model is one of those realities. You're right we don't need an explanation as to why every firearm isn't available. However due to the large military presence in Chernarus, it is likely there would be a fair amount of NVGs and premium grade military firearms, ripe for the picking. Where is all the logistics that supported the dead zombie soldiers? Where are all the weapons left over from the dead military zombies?

That's what we have already, so can you clearly detail the "silly" The only difference is that there is a reduced availablilty of gear in DayZ. I'm not suggesting that you go to international airfield and there be an entire squadron of A-10s, but perhaps one or two that can be made operational. I'm not suggesting either that you go to the barracks and there be crates of all the different weapons. What am suggesting is that they should all be available on the loot table, even if the spawn rate is extremely rare. I don't believe for a second that gear makes a better player, I've killed ghillied out super snipers with the Lee Enfield because they relied too heavily on their gear and not their brain. I've been killed for relying too heavily on my gear instead of using my brain. I've been killed by weapons scripted into the game, but I don't complain about it, because my death was a result of my failing to be aware of my surroundings. I've been killed by hackers too, but as irritating as that is, I can recognize that those issues will be under better control in the stand alone. Demanding that more gear be removed from the game isn't using your brain, it's being lazy. Oh I totally agree with you, however if you have a large enough group of people it is feasible to maintain a rather large fleet of vehicles without resorting to parking off map or duplicating components to fix the vehicles. The UH-1H needs pretty substantial logistics behind it as well, however DayZ does a reasonable job of replicating the logistics needed to keep it operational. An A-10 is going to require more logistics to keep it operational, and the repair process should reflect that, should it ever be available as a legitimate vehicle. I totally agree on the tires and most of the vehicle parts spawned. I can tell you from my own experience, you're not going to pick up a cast iron engine block and toss it in your backpack and carry it all around hells half acre. The UH-1H uses a turbine engine, so how could parts from a reciprocating engine even be useful on the UH-1H? Certain realities are more difficult than others to model digitally and reproduce with authenticity, the vehicle repair model is one of those realities. You're right we don't need an explanation as to why every firearm isn't available. However due to the large military presence in Chernarus, it is likely there would be a fair amount of NVGs and premium grade military firearms, ripe for the picking. Where is all the logistics that supported the dead zombie soldiers? Where are all the weapons left over from the dead military zombies?

To be fair I believe a number of these issues will be resolved in the stand alone, however I will never support removing any items from the game because someone has the opinion they are too powerful. There is only one weapon, in my mind that is not suitable for DayZ and that is nuclear weapons. I think there should be A-10s that you can get operational and bomb the hell out of Cherno or punch 30mm rounds through someone's off-road pickup while they're cruising down the coast road. Every weapon and vehicle can be countered by someone with a brain.

I prefer forums that include negative feedback. Usually you can tell the people who use their heads by how negatively they are rated. Those who cater to the lowest common denominator, or are in some position of power(moderator, developer, owner) usually have an excessively high positive rating.

I usually play on one server and rarely server hop, and if I do hop, it's usually to raid someones camp on another server and jump back and forth to my vehicle to offload the stolen gear. As a fresh spawn, I see no need to server hop because I can get everything I need with a lap around the map. It takes about 2, maybe 3 hours to go completely around the high value areas of the map and collect gear. I will concede that I don't always end up with Ghillie and NVG within the first 2 hours, but more often than not, I do. For me, the only gear I "need" is my DMR. With that rifle, I'm in control and those who have been on the recieving end of my DMR rethink their tactics when dealing with me, but again, that's due to playing on one server with regulars who get to know you and that I monitor and get to know. There is more to DayZ than just getting gear and killing people. If you don't server hop, and you stay on one server you need to learn the people that "live" there with you. Who works with who, who is a lone wolf, who shoots on sight(me!) who is friendly and gets shot on sight(by me!). If I don't have my combat load out, I stay away from heavily populated areas until I have gotten to the point where I can defend myself. My crowning achievement is losing to a AS-50 TWS sniper. I had him, but it was my own mistakes that cost me the kill. He fired off a number of magazines at me while I was evacuating electro, and missed. I circled around him and he was still sitting in his hiding spot, which was quite open actually. I didn't need to range him, but I errored on my hold over as he was ranging me. I opened fire, corrected, and got one or two hits, but due to the distance I wasn't doing much damage and he moved to cover. My critical mistake was not retreating to cover after my magazine ran dry and relocating. Instead, like a new player I sat through my reloading animation as he came back out from his cover and put one .50 into my face. It was great, I truly enjoyed it, even though I lost all my gear, because I saw the error I made, but up until that point I had him. This proved to me that my tactics were sound, but that there are areas where I still need improvement. DayZ isn't about the gear, its about how each person approaches the situations they are presented with. This thread is people whining about the situations they are presented with and trying to limit the number of different situations they have to learn how to handle.

Firearms, although they are mechanically simple, have measurements that are critical to ensure they are safe to operate and will do their job correctly. They are not toys, they are not lego building blocks you can just toss together. Some rifles operate at close to 60,000psi(perhaps more, this is just within the realm of my limited experience) of pressure to accelerate the projectile. If the headspace is wrong, or the bolt is not correctly locked up you will have a kaboom that could result in serious injury or even death. Many firearms require special tools to disassemble them further than a field strip. Most firearms users do not know how to properly field strip their firearm, never mind an armourers tear down. In a situation like presented in DayZ, it isn't even that likely the firearm will be correctly cleaned and lubricated. It is, in my opinion, unrealistic to build firearms in a game. However it would be realistic to modify them, or to experience issues stemming from extended use without maintenance. The kind of modifications I'm talking about, is switching optics or adding a suppressor or something along those lines.

The "hardcore" experience only lasts as long as someone is too afraid to go work for their loot. You can get the vast majority of endgame gear within 2 hours of play time, by just going north, you just have to work for it. This thread is about people who want a level playing field provided to them, instead of levelling the playing field themselves through superior tactics.

Every weapon and item available in ARMA2 should be available in DayZ. This is another one of those threads looking to balance DayZ. Fuck you. DayZ will fail if it is balanced. I am someone who appreciates the realism, because if someone has better hardware than me, I have to out smart them to be victorious. This "level" playing ground doesn't exist in real life and it shouldn't exist in DayZ. I personally hope that the cry babies give up on DayZ, and we're only left with the people who understand what DayZ is actually about. If you want to be victorious, use your brain. Asking to have gear removed from the game because you are incapable of using the available cover, is bullshit.

I think there are areas of British Columbia that would be ideal for DayZ. Especially one of the Golf islands, like Cortes Island.

You're totally right. In any case, tent duping is a small problem when compared against hackers.