stellarfirefly

It's actually kind of a silly viewpoint. So if someone sells Linux hosting services, they cannot advertise that they are providing Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, and Suse because then they would be branding themselves with names associated with free release software? Stating that "if you use us for hosting, then here's the maps that we can provide" sounds like fair use to me. What they should not have done is sign the map in such a way that the version downloaded through DZC is not playable on unsigned versions of the map. As mentioned, there is nothing illegal about doing so because no modifications were made to the content itself, but it still is a bad move because it hurts the community. The idea behind it was sound, but the implementation was poor. If they are in fact coordinating with Ice to resolve the issue, then that sounds like a reasonable attempt at fixing things.

In investigating the steps to set up a private server, I set up a local instance and started messing around in it solo. And surprisingly enough, I've been having quite a bit of fun with it for some time now. DayZ makes for an excellent sandbox platform for just messing around. For the challenge, I've imposed some restrictions on myself: Set for your choice of difficulty. It's rather fun with no crosshairs, no range on HUD, etc. No using external maps on websites. In-game map only. No using waypoints, and self-location turned off. It has really taught me to both use a compass and to identify location based upon terrain features. If I know where a town's grocery or hospital is located, it's either because I remembered from online play, or I actually performed some recon. Getting from town to town is by following roads or power lines. And there's just no way that I have memorized every vehicle spawn point. Finding even an Old Bike is a joyous occasion. No increasing brightness/gamma. Nighttime is dark as pitch, and scary as hell. I regularly light up a good chunk of major cities by tossing flares all over and I still get jumped from the darkness. (Imagine that, using flares and chemlights for their intended purpose because they aren't "shoot me, I'm here" signs.) Lightning is actually your friend... until the thunder rolls around and makes you miss that nearby zombie's sound. One life. I'm not quite up to this yet, but in time I'm going to force this rule on myself. If I die, unless it's because of some bug or glitch, then I'm going to drop the database and start completely clean. People keep insisting that playing this way is no fun, but it's obvious that they are simply imposing their idea of fun upon others and assuming everybody is the same. I like sandbox games, and I'm actually having a blast. As for the concern that there is no objective or point, well, just like any other sandbox game you can always set some up for yourself. Mine are often: Long term: Collect at least one of every firearm in the game. And of course, enough storage space to keep them all. (Very challenging with only one life.) Long term: Collect at least one of every vehicle in the game, at least as much as possible since there's no guarantee that they all spawned. Fully repair them all. (As with all long-term goals, very challenging with one life.) Load up with a single LOUD weapon and as much ammo as possible, then unload on zombies at a major city. See how many you can take out before you either die or run out of ammo. Preferably the latter. Survey the entire map. Recon all cities and mark out significant locations such as groceries, hospitals, industrial complexes, military structures, etc. For a real challenge, find and mark as many deer stands as you can without using an online map. (Sadly, can't do marking with the in-game map yet. Markers seem to disappear with server restarts. Gotta print a map out and mark that.) Invite a friend or two into your game and mess around. The game is actually far easier when blood transfusions are available to you, though. Living off of hunted animals with limited pack space is a challenge. So if your friends also want a challenge, disallow the use of blood packs. ...Or just use the game for practice. Find and repair a helicopter and fly it. Get some sniping and zeroing practice when you find a good scoped weapon. Test the game mechanic limits for zombie hearing and sight. Explore the map and look for good infiltration, recon, and sniping points. The sky is pretty much the limit.

I understand, and it's what I meant by "need... other players", whether for PvP or cooperation. Pure headshots is certainly a goal one can set, though the current game is too glitchy to make it much fun; the zombies jerk around so fast that they can essentially dodge bullets. :) And I'd imagine most people will just keep playing on the first missed headshot anyway, instead of suiciding and starting over. I certainly like DayZ multiplayer with bandits as well, so I would never want that to go away. But I am certainly glad that a sandbox experience, whether solo or with friends, is also possible from time to time.

The very basics may be retrieved from https://github.com/ShadowDuke/Saintly-DayZ There are a few little caveats and gotchas but it is for the most part straightforward when following the instructions there. There are other packages available, but Saintly and Saintly-Lingor are the ones that I use.

Yah, sandbox games are not for everybody. Some people need either other players, or specific quests provided by the game itself.

I told my friends that I finally posted this, and so of course they want me to add all of the ideas an scenarios that they've come up with as well. :) Do the one-weapon mass zombie kill thing mentioned above, but at NIGHT. Obviously, no bright/gamma up. Rebuild any vehicle (motor vehicle, not an Old Bike) within N hours. The idea is that the area is about to be nuked in N hours, and there's no way you can run out in time if on foot. This one actually depends too much on luck in finding a vehicle in the first place, IMHO. Limit yourself to only 2 weapons for the entire game: One common weapon and one rare weapon. It is actually easiest if you choose a hatchet for your common weapon, or at least something for which you can find ample ammo like a Makarov. (She actually tried out a 1-weapon limit at first, but that sucked for high-end arms. Ever try to farm a DMR with nothing else?) Simply see how many zombies you can kill before you die. Personally, I haven't yet broken 350. I need practice. :( Build a Tent City. Just farm tents and create a giant refugee camp. I have some weird friends.

The game exactly as it is now but with no PvP would not be at all bad. More boring of course, but some people like that style of play. You know, zombie survival, not bandit FFA with high-tech military gear. I personally feel like I'm not dodging bandits, but instead I'm dodging US Special Forces who've decided to just go out and murder everyone. The bottom line is, if you don't like that style of play then don't play on that type of server. Easy solution is to allow sanctuary servers but obviously do not allow them on the Hive net. No other change, just keep developing the game as it is. (To hell with anti-theft, loot splitting, etc.)

The whole "there will be no friendlies on a PvP server" argument is pointless. You are assuming that there is only one person in the entire world who wishes to play as a friendly on a PvP server, and that one person is yourself. You will meet other friendlies who wish to be friendlies on a PvP server. You just won't meet people who complain about being griefed. There is really no reason to be against non-hive (or separate-hive) PvE servers. Some people simply wish to play a zombie survival game, instead of an FFA PvP game (which I agree, other games do much better). Rocket doesn't have to support these other servers, or spend any time away from making the game he wishes. He keeps developing the hardcore PvP game he envisioned, but he stops forcing people to not play the game they do not wish. The alternative is that he loses these players once someone else makes a good PvE-centric zombie survival game that they are wanting to play. You know, where zombies are a real threat and not just an obstacle in the way of your PvP.

It seems more and more often, hive servers just get overrun with hackers/cheaters. Having a central point for storing game state is a good idea on paper, but in the end if even one server is lax about dupes then anybody can just gear up there and then go elsewhere and use all their ill-begotten gear. We have people firing two dozen rounds just to try and kill a newly spawned player at long range. If someone has so much ammo that they can afford to waste 20+ rounds just to kill someone who doesn't even have a hatchet yet and thus poses no threat, and then move on to do the same to the next newb, then the game has lost its "DayZ" feel. It's not surviving against a zombie apocalypse anymore, it's just FFA PvP with duped gear. That's what sanctuary servers have to offer, is a strong method to combat that. The ones where the admins stay fair and also strictly enforce no cheating are the ones that get a great reputation and people start to migrate toward them.