6raham

I didn't buy it, it's free. But I first read about it on the halflife.net forum, then i watched it on youtube, then I downloaded it, bought Arma2 OA on steam, then I played DayZ, then I played OA, then I played DayZ some more. For free. (btw, it's free)

Look, we all know you are the Greek Prime Minister. Srsly Antonis, shouldn't you be trying to dig your country out of bankruptcy instead of posting on these forums?

Hmmm... caps for each word... but no 'TM' at the end... could be some kinda code. HINAPSICTUWIDIUWTUAP12344OST. Nah, i'm not getting it. Unless... Wait a minute, are you Greek?

I completely agree this has been blown up out of all proportion. Personally I don't buy the story of how they just happened to be out there on holiday, but like I said, the punishment doesn't fit the crime and Greece are making too much of a trivial thing. However... we see miscarriages of justice around the world all the time, where heads of each country condemn actions by foreign governments; discounting multi million dollar ransoms and all out war, that is as high as you can go when it comes to swaying government decisions. Does it ever change anything? No. I can't believe any of you really, I mean really believe a few thousand pleas from upset gamers on tha internetz will have any influence whatsoever. Maybe i'm just too old and jaded to remember the infinite hope of youth, but i'm old enough to know that common sense will prevail eventually, regardless. The best I can do is wish them all the luck in the world. Not just because i'm a humane person, but because i'm a selfish person, and want those authentic military structures to make my Arma 3 experience that little bit better.

I seem to remember Matt Lightfoot saying Dayz would be using the Arma 3 engine in his brief interview outside Gamescom (or did I dream that?), but even then I was doubtful and just put it down to excitement in his high spirits... The guys had just secured the standalone, they would all be understandably high on it all so it's not really a stoning offence. Not that it makes any difference to me, if the game was identical to what it is now i'd buy it, minus the wrinkles of course. Roll on release day. Edit: Nope, I dreamed it - he did indeed say 2.5, my error, must've read it somewhere. Stone me instead. Jehovah.

Been watching Mad Max again, huh?

Fixed. Veteran IS normal, for a realistic immersive survival horror FPS. Handholding 'features' such as 3rd person or nameplates are just legacies of Arma2 and do not gel with the Dayz gametype. A simple YOU WERE KILLED BY *INSERT-NAME-HERE* would acheive the same thing, without compromising the more realistic gameplay option.

Absolutely yes. Anything that involves Zeds more in the game gets a thumbs up from me. I really like the idea of your body becoming a Zed after death, well done. Beans.

Isn't it likely to be an individual server issue then if other people have found tents to be saving fine..? All my tents on different servers are not only saving, but also NOT duping the items inside anymore, which is a major fix imo. I play on DE and UK servers, hive 0.7.4, latest Arma patch

I bought OA specifically for Dayz too. But only after watching countless entertaining youtubes on the mod (sacriel's for example), reading the wiki, and trawling through the forums, so I knew EXACTLY what to expect. People buy it based on a single website? who's fault is that? I do not feel let down or cheated one little bit. I love the mod and have easily played it enough to make up for the cost of OA, and will continue to do so, knowing it will only get better. Expectation can ruin the best of things.

I can't see the over zealously politically correct UK government accepting the shooting of children in a game, every headlining psycho killer in the news would blame dayz for diminishing their responsibilty, confirming that video games are indeed the root of all evil. But for me it would be a winner. I hate the little bastards.

My experiences of 1.7.2.6 after several days testing on several public servers: Graphic glitches back to pre-patch, ie. only rarely on wire. Tents save contents again as pre-patch, but are prone to disappear from time to time after server restarts. They seem to come back after next restart so not a major problem. Tents can now be placed anywhere, immediately, without having to dance around for 5 minutes. But best of all, for those who are still unsure: Tents are not duping as they were pre-patch. Even when saved, contents do not constantly revert back to the very first save state after server restart, as they did pre-patch. I found another players tent near my own on one server and raided it, leaving it empty. It was stuffed full of sniper rifles and ammo which I transferred to my own tent. I saved both tents, and now 3 days later, the other tent is still empty, and mine saves correctly without duping after I remove items from it. Nice job, Rocketman.

Ah so tent contents still revert back to the original loadout and thus dupe, but NOT if you manually save the tent after removing or adding items? that's one step closer at least, and like you say, having the server force tent saves regularly would be an answer. Beans.

This is sad news.

Confirmed here too. The sooner Debug monitor is gone, the better - it gives away too much info (zombie count) imo.

Does this mean tent duping is fixed? or just the broken saving..? *hopeful*

Suggestion: The humanity mechanic be applied to a percentage slider that morphs the player between a healthy Human and a Zed, offering many different pros, cons, and gameplay options depending on their level of infection. At one end of the scale, the player is Human and behaves like a Human. At the other end of the scale the player is a Zed and behaves like a Zed. Humanity is raised by behaving benevolently, and lowered by behaving malevolently. This mechanic would put the emphasis on the player to think more about their actions and the consequences of their actions, good or bad, and would create huge diversity of players and individual playing styles. It would make Zeds more relevant through meshing the 'zombie' scenario deeply into the game, and add infinite gameplay possibilities that would be controlled by player actions. Gameplay mechanics: Right now we have heroes and bandits which are effectively the same thing, each having neither penalties or benefits, making the morphing mechanism cosmetic only. I propose replacing Hero with Human, Bandit with Zed, and scaling the Humanity level between 100% and 0%. This is supposed to be a post viral scenario, so the risk of infection would still be a very real danger. In this scenario let's suppose that everyone is ALREADY infected. To stay Human, the player has to avoid the violent behaviour that aggravates the virus and causes negative symptoms (see: The Humanity Syndrome backstory below), eg. no killing of players that are more Human than their own level of infection, or stealing from backpacks and other camps. Positive actions like helping others with healing and giving items increases Humanity. Conversely, killing Humans or stealing from them would decrease Humanity and make Zed symptoms more pronounced, which would have their own set of benefits and drawbacks. The player could choose the right balance for their playing style and keep their Humanity level at that point through careful decision making, or simply go with the flow and fluctuate up and down the scale as they play, using the benefits of each. An endgame condition that dictates once at 0%, Humanity CANNOT be gained and the player lives (and eventually dies) as a fully infected Zed would give players more incentive to control their Humanity level through smart decision making and less indiscriminate killing. Note that ALL PLAY STYLES WOULD STILL BE AVAILABLE, you would just have to think more about the consequences, and how to balance your Humanity level at a point you are happy with - whether you like to camp and snipe, raid camps, or run around cherno as a medic, with this system YOU STILL COULD - as long as you are aware of the cost of your actions, and are aware that everyone else will also be considering the same. Human / Zed pros and cons: Depending on their Humanity percentage, in 10% increments (more or less), transitional morphing from one state to the next would show: Changing skin textures, changing clothing textures, difference in motor control, optical effects (thermal), NPC Zed tolerance changes, dropping of items, etc. An example morphing table showing pros and cons of the two extremes: The Humanity Syndrome: a backstory The Hauser Sherrington virus, commonly referred to as 'Zed' but also known as the 'Darwin line' virus, originated in South-East Asia as a naturally occurring but rare microbacterial organism found in the cerebrospinal fluid of the Rhesus Macaque. The organism, dormant and harmless to its host, mutated during space programme testing at The Sochi Institute of Medical Primatology in Russia and can now be transmitted to Humans. The virus is passed via direct contact and multiplies in the cerebrospinal fluid of Humans, usually aged between 11 and 60, where it reacts negatively to a particular synapse activity associated with instinctive, violent or animalistic behaviour. The virus attaches itself to the synapses, amplifying the same neurological processes that act as its catalyst, effectively increasing the affect of altering synapse and neuron function exponentially, resulting in a rapid degeneration of motor control and cognitive behaviour to a violent, almost zombie-like animal state. Hauser Sherrington has an incubation period of 10 hours where the infected subject typically becomes less human and more animalistic in behaviour. Major symptoms include: Lack of motor control Lack of cognitive thought Inability to use even simple tools Agitation increased by confrontation Very high pain threshold due to inhibited receptors Decreased temperature Increased physical strength Increased thermal sensory ability Uncontrollable twitches/shouts Exertion haemorrhaging A thesis by professor Hauser, American biologist and behavioural expert, suggests the virus "in its dormant state appears to be in many respects a kind of 'Darwin line', a synaptic governer between animal and Human behaviour - a chemical barrier between Us and Them". He goes on to suggest that "negative thoughts and actions actually promote the potency of the virus through electrical and chemical stimulation, the more the subject is exposed to negative activities such as anger and violence, the more violent they become, spiralling out of control until they no longer have any Humanistic abilities at all... their own behaviour is amplified a thousandfold and the divide breaks down, they become the animal inside themselves". According to a controversial claim by the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Church of England before his death, the virus is "the hand of God dividing the righteous from the ever increasing sinned of our time". He suggested that "the chaos and violence of today has reached such proportions that an intervention was inevitable", and that "His plague will count the Just from the dead". At this time there is no known antidote, though Professor Hauser and his team are researching the possibility of reversing the symptoms of the virus through positive cognitive and behavioural therapy. tl;dr Player morphing between Human and Zed depending on own actions, governed by Humanity percentage level. Apologies if it has been discussed before, also if I have repeated myself. And come on... who DOESN'T want to play as a Zed at some point? That is all.

...only at 0% Humanity. It wouldn't be an instant change as you suggested. Almost. Only there would be no bandits / heros as I explained in my OP (that is just a playing choice), and at 0% you would not regain Humanity, whatever you did, it would be an endgame scenario. The point would be NOT to become fully infected. As for demoralizing, you wash up on a post apocalyptic shore with nothing but death to look forward to. The whole premise of the game is demoralizing, so nothing new there, just more challenge. Also, a 'kill 1 human / kill 1 zed' routine would be very difficult to maintain as you would only have visual / audio pointers as to who is infected and by how much, no big Humanity numbers in the UI to help you out. Shooting the right target and avoiding unwanted 'friendly fire' would rely on a great deal of observational skill, as it does in real life. Plenty of panic shooting and friendly fire scenarios (that happen a lot already) would negate any 1 point humanity grind, and hanging around the coast to farm humanity from new spawners would be difficult (if personal skins and clothing are implemented to differentiate everyone) and pointless, as all that would do is take you further down the scale towards being a Zed. Which clearly nobody would want to do as that would mean endgame. Yes there would be those who were curious about playing low down the scale or as a fully infected Zed, but on the coast they would just be another Zed of many, albeit with limited thermal vision and better AI for new spawners to try and survive. I could see the real benefit of intentionally playing as a Zed being in playing as a group of Zeds, as a coordinated pack of hunters. This could prove to be a real threat to survival in cherno and electro, which in my opinion would not be a bad thing. Though again being a Zed would be down to personal taste and whether you would want to sacrifice the weaponry to do it. Like the kick you get from hunting with only an axe, the reward would be prestige, and I imagine a whole lot of fun too. But hey, if it's not good to you, it's not good to you.

Are you actually reading what I write..? A very fair point of view, you have my beans. I believe you are right, once duping and hacking are stopped, so too will the deathmatch mentality... I'm sure there are countless ways to do it but that would indeed be the simplest. Rocket will work it out i'm sure.

Thank you for a reasoned response. Way over exaggerated (I have explained it in simple terms at the bottom). But with respect, why not? This is a game. Games have rules. A game without rules is either a sandbox or not a game. Consider Minecraft. It appears open and free of boundaries, yay you can build what you like, yet there are solid rules in place that must be followed: You have to mine to build. (unless you play the build only version, which isn't a game, it's a sandbox. Dayz is not a sandbox). Sorry but you're wrong, they are not zombies, they are infected people. They are not dead. And they run like fuck. Please explain where I suggested consequence makes a behaviour impossible, because I'm pretty sure you just suggested that with no help from me. Unless you mean my endgame suggestion? Yes, at 0% Humanity, it would be impossible to do anything but be a Zed (that's why it's called endgame) if that's what you mean. But look, i'm not talking 'Kill a survivor, lose all your weapons' here, humanity would go up and down 1% at a time. If you still don't get it, let me explain the concept in simpler terms: Max 100 points of Humanity Min 0 points Start with 50 Kill a survivor with 90 points, you lose 1 point Kill a survivor with 51 points, you lose 1 point Kill a survivor with 35 points, you gain 1 point Kill a survivor with 48 points, you gain 1 point See where this is going? At 100%, you could slaughter 50 survivors with humanity higher than your own before infection symptoms start to kick in at 50% and make life difficult. I am talking occasional twitches, cold sweats, coughing, occasional shakes, not full on shambling and drooling and dropping your sniper rifle as you seem to expect - that would come at a much much lower humanity level. And you would have to be pretty careless to let it drop that low to be honest. To get your humanity back up, kill players more infected than yourself, kill NPC Zeds (which would all effectively be at 0%), bandage / bloodbag your buddies, or give items away. There are more opportunities to raise Humanity than there are to lower it, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that becoming a Zed would be harder to do than staying Human. AND YOU COULD STILL BE A GODDAMN BANDIT!! Erm... yes it is. If you don't get it by now then you have my sympathies.

Please elaborate, I am interested in your reasoning. For those who still don't get it, I am trying to re-embed the whole concept of zombie/infected further into what has effectively become just another FP deathmatch, in which so many people seem so threatened by any deviation, and react so defensively to protect their precious DM gameplay. Why can't people see past this bandit/hero deathmatch thing that the mod is currently? That is just a legacy of Arma II. This is a 1st person zombie/infected survival horror game in progress, the first of its kind. If Dean envisioned the game to be just Arma II with a few zombies dotted around for shits and giggles, he wouldn't be expanding into a standalone now, would he. BESIDES which, as I have explained several times already, my concept DOES NOT PUNISH ANYONE, so please grow some imagination and calm the fuck down. I wrote this 'terrible idea' for the benefit of Rocket and the dev team. I'm sure the Zeds will be made more of a feature as the game progresses anyway, which I will be happy with - just thought i'd throw another idea into the mix, which is what was asked of us as testers. I'm not here to pander to the demands of anyone on this forum... and like it or not, neither are they. If the devs don't want to use it, that's their prerogitive, but it won't be because of some DM kiddies rage screaming, believe it.

lol. Just lol.

My concept punishes nobody, it merely enables each player to think about their own choices and the repercussions of those choices. Want to be a bandit and murder a thousand survivors for the hell of it because that is your play style? You can. Nothing stopping you. But there is a cost that must be considered. In this case, to balance your Humanity, help out your squad mates a little between killing sprees. Likewise, want to be a hero and rescue a thousand survivors from a horde of Zeds? You can do that too, but there is also a cost to THAT, as it makes you more of a target to those who are infected. It's all based around consequence. Life without rules is chaos, and a game without rules is as pointless as a game with too many... edit - Also, consider for a moment the possibilities of being a Bandit Zed... Thermal vision to hunt with, stalking players through the streets of cherno with a pack of other infected as your allies, ripping the guts out of every survivor with your bare hands after you chase them down, shrugging off makarov bullets like bb pellets. That's punishment? sounds great to me :)

You have my beans for suggesting what so many have been thinking for so long. However A wipe would only be of benefit when tent duping is fixed, and I have seen no indication anywhere by the dev team that this will be fixed in the next patch, so it's pointless to speculate and get hopes up. Apart from that, nothing is needed more than wiping all that dirty gear out there, so it will be a big fat AYE from me as soon as I see a duping fix in that changelog :P *if anyone else has, please point me in the right direction as I would love to know exactly what the official changelog is expected to be.

A little bemused as to why this thread hasn't been stickied or the announcement put somewhere more prominent, i've only just found it hidden down here. Still, all good to hear, looking forward to the next patch and of course the standalone. Keep up the great work.