SlamSlayer

Of COURSE, and even if this wasn't ArmA2 we're talking about, there will almost always be hacking. Just at all different levels. You never get rid of it completely. BUT a good watched server with a great community standing behind it go along way. People watch out for suspicious activity, report it to the admin, admin checks the logs (which he does anyway on a regular basis and is almost always available to contact in some form or another) and does what needs to be done. Does it catch everything? Probably not. Have I seen or been AFFECTED by a single hacker on my private hive of choice? NO, not for close to, if not over, a whole month of playing on a server at near packed capacity of /40 players. It has really REALLY lifted my spirits with this game and shown me its raw potential now that I've got actual friends on it to roam with and don't have to worry about a constant barrage of hacker attacks setting me back on progress of many hours in a completely unfair and unavoidable way. Just go to the private hive section of THESE forums right here, and browse through the threads. I'm not going to announce my choice specifically for the simple fact that if you end up with a private hive reaching into hundreds of players and booming popularity, it will probably slowly degenerate back into a similar state of the public servers at this point. BUT I will say that it has a nice group of regular players who play both sides (Bandit/Survivor), as well as plenty of other players who come and go with varying levels of "community interaction". The chat log on the lower left is ALWAYS bristling with banter, something that you rarely see on a public server. Also you get to recognize the regulars fast.

Why not just pick up a private Hive though? Yeah you could find a less popular server but, if its public, sooner or later SOMEONE is going to stumble upon it. A hacker I mean. I've been playing a private hive for over a month now and its really the only thing that saved me from giving up on the mod. I can finally play and get excited to see my near full server (which it usually is) of almost 40 players, instead of of "Oh that's just a big target for a hacker". Its private, has constant admin support AND uses a white list. Yeah a hacker could take the time to sign up for this particular waiting list to get on, get accepted, get the password (that's changed weekly or as needed), get on and do ANYTHING. But by the end of the day or sooner, when the admin goes over the log, he's gone. Permanent ban and black listed. Too much effort for too little pay back.

Private Hive servers are THE way to go right now. I've been playing on a wonderful one that's always near full (40 player cap) during its daylight hours and even has a few sneaking around at night. I have yet to come across a hacker in the weeks I've been on it and can now comfortably play with a large population of players without worrying about the server being a juicy target for a nuke. The players are all diverse and awesome. You have plenty of trust worthy guys and known bandits. As well as the guys who just play in the back without saying a word. Its filed nightly with regulars and new players. I would highly suggest finding yourself a private hive to call home.

This has been one of the best server experiences I've had on Dayz. Keep it up.

Oh I could have sworn every time I log on, no matter when, Its day lol. Nvm than. But I WOULD love to see name tags removed.

You guys should take off name plates at least. Otherwise great server. Also it would be great if you put the Day/Night cycle on. Some of the most tense moments I've had in the game came from a night server and it would be great if I finally had a good, hacker free(ish) server with a good community and full day/night cycle.

I can't find the server on Dayz Commander. Is it up?

Exactly. Take out the Day/Night penalty, which doesn't seem to be popular, and Its still completely viable. People want to reply to suggestions without elaborating on their views. There is no negative side effects. It helps deal with a lot of other problems indirectly.

Is that not the point? Expanding and adding? This is another layer to set the game apart. Why did you first play? The thrill of the idea of a real survival game. Not FFA death match. Balancing the formula until you get it right is the point of an alpha. Beyond this potential problem I see no need to add or subtract much of anything. You either add sleeping pills or take out the night/day penalty. Simple.

You're still getting the two hours from a day sleep. Also its no different from peopld logging out to find a day server when the sun sets.... You could add sleeping pills to the game. Take those before you log and get the 8 hours no matter what (doesnt save you from a cold though, but sleeping during the day with the sun out keeps you warm anyway. Unless the server could keep track of if it rained while you were out....). BUT if its still really "too hardcore" or too much, take the night/day penalty out of the equation. But you still need a full set up for the best nights sleep and it DOES balance out against campers as I said.

You already spawn with no map or weapon with a complicated buggy inventory system to deal with in a random spot and no direction. I dont see how explaining to them what sleeping is is going to scare them any more.

The idea of a sleeping penalty during the day is to help counter act exactly the other point, night servers are almost always empty. People dont fear the night, they simply switch server. I would bet you thats not what Rocket had in mind. Otherwise, yeah, we wouldnt even need a cycle. Whats wrong with punishing a player in a survival game? What game are YOU playing? No food? Starve to death. No heat pack, catch a cold. No bandage? Bleed out. No one to help you with a blood bag? Shitty vision. This game even literally knocks you out for up to 10 minutes at a time where you can not do ANYTHING. Youre already always being punished. If anything the game needs to be harder. Not to mention a broken leg means crawling until someone fixes it. Not limping, crawling. On an island.... Those camping players still need to move to a literal camp when they decide to log or they wake up with a cold and cant aim over all the sneezing and coughing. Also, there goes their stealthy cover too. And I hope they didnt set up camp too close to their "spot" or its going to be raided real fast.

I dont know if you need longer log times. The idea of a log timer is to stop combat logging more than anything. If someone got sniped and survived to get to cover, the sniper probably wont move to go hunt them down. They would sit there for how ever long it takes for the person to move. So its not really changing that situation. But in the middle of combat, this makes it near impossible to run away from the server. Maybe 20 to 30 seconds, but I feel like that might be over kill. But I like the idea of a tent counter acting this otherwise. What is your problem with the day/night cycle otherwise?

Could you elaborate why not?

Sleeping. Seems like something essential to survival. But not exactly something to you can tackle with too much authenticity in a game world. I think I've figured out something, and it would hit two birds with one stone in a sense. Being that DayZ tends to run on a real time 24hour day/night cycle, we have a lot we can do with the idea of sleep. The way you look at it now, every time you log off, you kind of go to "sleep". So why not make it just that, logging=sleeping. Logging off would take 15 seconds and you would be immobile as a laying down to sleep animation played out. Alt F4ing or trying to force log before the game logs you could be penalized. Not right away of course. Because sometimes your computer or the game just locks up. But there would be a log, keeping track of it and any patterns if that is possible (like always logging out under fire, or injured/shot). Ultimately it could result in you being insta killed upon re log. Or a loss of your gear or something. Though I've personally never come across a combat logger, it seems to be a problem and this could be a fix. You would have a fatigue meter, just like the other meters. Where as 8 hours of sleep gives you 16 hours of activity. This would vary depending on what you're doing of course. So 8 hours for 16 hours is the best case. Doing some hunting, staying nourished through out your play time, not too much on foot traveling. But you WILL travel and you probably won't always be completely nourished. So that is going to skew that number a lot faster. That 16 hours worth of energy is going to get cut down in half, or more, if you spend a long time running from one end of the island to the other, being attacked, injured, malnourished and just generally an active "person". Being that this is a game and not real life, very few (possibly sick lol), if any players would actually live out a real 1:1 time schedule in game. But just like in real life, a lack of sleep can catch up with you. So if you wear yourself out and beyond, you're going to need more than 8 hours to recover (this could also lead into real time injury recovery). SO until you get that, you're going to be at different stages of fatigue. What happens when you're fatigued? Shakes, poor aim, higher chance of getting sick, slower movement speed and even a chance of getting knocked out at random (micro naps). How would you recover fatigue? Sleeping of course (Duh)! For a goods night sleep you would need the right conditions. Night time, a tent, a sleeping bag and a fire. Sleeping during the day would only count as a "nap". A nap would only give you back a max of 2 hours of rest time, less without at least a tent, 1 hour. Sleeping during the night without a tent would give you back 4hours max (to use it, right click on it and scroll to sleep. Still takes 15 seconds to log though). With a tent, 6. With a sleeping bag 8 hours and beyond. You need to stay warm too of course, otherwise you could wake up with a cold. Sleeping with NOTHING is almost guaranteed to wake up with a cold at a 75/25 chance. Sleeping in just a tent is a 50/50 shot of waking up with a cold. Add a sleeping bag and you jump down to a 25/75 chance of getting sick and adding the fire guarantees you'll wake up fine. But a fire burns for an hour after you log off. Meaning that warm feeling comes with a price of your camp being spotted and raided while you sleep. You shouldn't be able to die, you can't wake up to defend yourself like in real life, but you could wake up to everything gone. As all of your possessions you had on your person can be seen from the tents gear as well.