Jamz

I agree. I remember the mod as being truly groundbreaking when I started playing it, back in summer 2012 I guess and it got better as it progressed. The SA isn't really there in terms of content yet, which very much limits what experiences can be had in it compared with the mod. It's all planned though so I'll just hang about waiting :)

Will you post the location of this event on the day, for visitors, or will it be left secret to minimize disruption (baring in mind once it starts its location won't really be a secret anymore)? If I can find it I might turn up to trade. Also will it be on the hardcore or regular hive?

That might be quite cool if they added a Namalsk map with Object All. Even some crazy stuff around Green Mountain might be quite effective, make the player ask more questions!

I'm afraid I must continue to disagree. It is the environment which creates the immersive experience, not the viewpoint, and the environment in DayZ remains the same between viewpoints. It's the sounds, visuals/effects and events which provide the human brain with the raw materials to create its own perception of reality/hyperreality. Ignoring your comparison of two completely different games (one designed to immerse the player as much as possible using the most modern techniques, the other designed as away stave off boredom decades earlier) which is irrelevant here, trying to prove which view is the most effective tool for encouraging greater immersion is pointless. For instance, I find just as much immersion in the vulnerability of myself as seen from third person. If you and other players achieve more immersion from FPV than TPV then that's great, and I accept the exploit built into the view can be game breaking in some situations, but that view is really just the way you personally find it more effective to interpret the information that is presented to you. There is no particular advantage here between the views, it's all objective.

With no clothes on, surrounded by inside out cows?

Definitely more ambient noises, they're not bad at the moment but distant howling and gunshots perhaps. Even explosions, occasionally, very far away. They should only be occasional though otherwise they become too familiar. While we're at it, more static corpses - draped over tables in houses, in car wrecks etc. Signs of what happened.

I'd rather they'd enlarge the present map and completely randomise the spawn points tbh, although I'd love to see an SA version of Namalsk complete with strange voices and even bloodsuckers. When vehicles (even bikes) come in, Chernarus will get a lot smaller.

The question is, is thinking about something like this even necessary now with split hives? Implementing it could potentially take up development time and resources and the player base is hungry for the SA to move forwards in terms of content... I like the idea, but as said it would have to be improved a lot more before it would fit seamlessly into the game.

I think we could do with more of a range of player models, to increase personalization. Certainly height and hair colour at least. I'd like my character to reflect my age though, that would be good.

We'll see... They won't be a real challenge for a long time though, they weren't even in the mod. I have high hopes for the hordes though, until they arrive 'zombies' in their current state are pretty useless and would not be missed if they were removed. They are so far the single biggest disappointment of the SA for me.

I agree, they do need to be much more of a threat to players really, even at this stage. I think a few tweaks could make them a bit more of a nuisance, such as making them all wander around like I've seen some do and even perhaps headshots only, while the numbers are low. When the numbers increase then other changes could be made to balance them.

Almost every day since I joined for me, I tend to read threads but rarely post unless I find the subject interesting....

Please god never let DayZ become an app game.

I'd love for there to be the classic Romero zombies in this game but I voted against headshots. I think for the headshots only idea to work the zombies would have to be slow but in realistic numbers, which means many more on the server than there is now (10k+) and be less aware. It would be more a question of avoidance and making sure you can't be trapped somewhere, I think this would make for more of a thinking game but it wouldn't appeal to everyone. Perhaps one day both types of zombie could exist on different server types, as the environment wouldn't need to be changed.

I'm pretty sure there was not going to be zombies in the forests, the intention being that players had to consciously enter dangerous areas like towns to scavenge. That said, I hope the animals would sometimes be a threat and also wandering hordes of zombies could be found potentially anywhere. Maybe even animals fighting zombies...

Not really, your point in making that statement was to suggest that immersion is a measurable thing which of course it is not. The fact that FPV is closer to the viewpoint from which we see the world is irrelevant really... Watching a movie at the cinema in 3D doesnt necessarily give us a more intense experience than in normal 2D, it may for some but won't for others. Subjective :)

Objectively doesn't matter, only subjectively... whichever view immerses the player the most. I personally play both, always have. I find no difference in immersion between the two, they are just different experiences to me - both equally immersive.

Too many people believing that happy clappy depiction of a zombie apocalypse The Walking Dead? :) Realistically I would rate mine, and everybody else in the worlds chances of survival ultimately as 0. The way I imagine it to play out, everyone would be dead within a year or so...

Sounds like you have to talk to him and set out some rules to follow, ie 'we don't kill newspawns unless provoked', 'we kill bandit squads on sight' etc as some guidelines, so you have some purpose in the game. Just explain that letting newspawns go is the same as killing them, you have the power to decide what happens to them and they have to go along with what you decide. Always keep them covered though, even if they seem friendly and you let them go.

This has been an argument for as long as I've played DayZ and will continue for its lifespan, I imagine. Balancing the best weapons against their availability and also the threat level of the zombies would be very difficult, and at the moment not a consideration in the alpha phase. Eventually though, I would think that the military stuff would be very hard to come by as the military presence would take as much of its gear with it as possible when it extracted (I don't think they would have been completely overrun). The remaining items may have changed hands so often that they would likely be be lost or useless, the only useable equipment could be found in smaller abandoned or overrun bases. Civilian weapons may be more available but ammo would definitley be scarce in that area, a high zombie population would also limit the use of guns to a degree. This is the way I see it in the future, and it would make for a far more atmospheric game than an FPS zombie shooter. Time will tell.

Weapons can sometimes be hard to see in tight spaces (like the small top room in the schoolhouse), so a tip is to move close to the shelves there and open your inventory. Even if you can't actually see an item, it will sometimes be visible that way.

I've heard DayZ described as a social experiment before, but I don't really agree that it is. With no aim or controlled group of participants, the best you could ask is 'what would happen if you released a survival based game with guns and complete player vulnerability, how would players choose to act?' Obviously, the majority try to kill each other, that's natural with fps style video games, so it's a bit pointless in that respect. As for player ages, you would expect a very wide range as with all video games nowadays from Angry Birds to Outlast.

If DayZ has taught us anything it's that the best chance of survival would be to find a sniper rifle and camp the nearest beach waiting for people to wash up. Just kidding, we're all going to be zombies!

I think there should be a bit more variation in feel and effect, from knives which are effective against humans but less so against infected, up to sledgehammers which are difficult to swing but always knockdown the opponent when they connect. It's an area of the SA which could potentially be explored to a much greater depth in my opinion - given the situation melee should really be a primary defence against infected. I also understand that the ability to throw any object will be added in the future... food for thought.

They are not zombies, though, they are still human. 3-4 hits with a crowbar should at least be a knockdown as you'd likely knock them off balance or break something - to have fists more effective than a shovel is a bit silly. Perhaps melee weapons should have different swing speeds, as something to consider.