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This is why finding a good "legit" server is so important and so very difficult. You have to be choosy and you have to be observant. But once you find it things are good. The problem is the server owners/admins that play favorites make it seem like all admins play favorites (which isn't the case). But perception is huge. Can you define this "too seriously" bit? What do you mean? I play this game because it's fun. But I also play to be successful. So if I use tactics that allow me get the better of you, does that mean I'm playing too seriously? Sounds like some of those bad admins that make all admins look bad. So, vehicles with thermal that are allowed in game (correct me if i'm wrong) took you out and others out not allowed to do that to players around missions? Or is that you saying that's bad form? I'm confused, because if they can buy that chopper from a vendor, then they can use that chopper how they want (without hacking). So you blew up a big clans tank and are surprised that they retaliated against you? I'm confused. If your striker was for "shits and giggles" then why did you spend 12 briefcases of gold for one? Seems like a gross waste of money. I will never play on hive servers again. Hacking and ghosting is ridiculous. Private servers allow admins to control/kick hackers, and you have no ghosting issues. Like I said in the beginning...you have to find the servers with good admins who have actual integrity and morals. Those are the servers you put in favorites.

Hey guys, hope you can help. I have my UI resolution set to 1920x1080 the native resolution of my screen. However, when I change my rendering resolution to 1920x1080(100%) I get ghosting terrain. It goes away at the next lowest rendering reso (88%). Is it important to have this at 100%? Am I losing graphic quality. I'm not getting any blurriness at the 88%. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance for any replies.

I'll tell you why. Reason #1. Continuance. You probably haven't played to become a high-humanity hero, otherwise you'd know what I mean. The satisfaction of saving a bambi from a pack of bandits, counter-sniping Elektro hill to keep the city safe, or rescuing a lone survivor calling out for help in the middle of Stary, used to be just priceless. For me DayZ is a lot about the humanity system, which only works if your long-term progress in the game is stored. That's what the hive did. Reason #2. Reliability. Your favorite server is currently offline? Not a problem, just connect to another one from the hive and continue playing. That's not possible with private servers, because, well, you'd have to start afresh, losing all your progress (see 1). I can't invest hours and hours of play into a server that is suddenly shut down, taking my humanity to its grave. Or one that is not up exactly when I have time to play. Reason #3. Diversification. From time to time I like to play first person only, or without side chat. Sometimes, I prefer to play with people with whom I can comfortably speak in my native language over voice chat, while other times I feel like hitting the international road on English servers. All that used to be easy to do with the hive: just change servers. Reason #4. New people. Randomly running into strangers is one of the best features in DayZ, IMHO. Not knowing what they'll do or how they'll react. Showing fresh players around, teaming up with random dudes who might back stab you the moment you look the other way. This used to work great on the public hive, and I'm afraid it won't on private servers where most of the players are regulars organized in groups/clans etc. Referring to your points: "No more ghosting, farming on empty servers, probably less hackers": Ghosting hasn't been a big problem lately, I believe. In fact, I don't think anyone has ever ghosted on me. If they did, they did a horrible job at it (or I just changed my position too quickly ;-) ). Farming wasn't a problem for me either. If anything, it just meant more loot after you took a farmer down. ;-) As regards hackers: This is even an argument in favor of the public hive over private servers, IMO. Found a hacker? Just switch servers. On private servers, you're bound to hoping that an admin is around when you're playing (e.g., at 3 am). "Easier to find friends": That's probably true, but finding friendship that lasts longer than a few hours is not what I'm looking for in DayZ. "Good admins/servers will stand and shitty ones fall": I strongly doubt that. If it worked like that, it would have happened a long time ago already. It's not like the private servers came online only recently. There are too many kids out there who like to cause a mess just for the sake of what seemed like fun at a certain age.

yup. My bet is it's like the M4 sound glitch where it would go brapbrapbrap but only fire one round and the other 2 anim/noises were just your gun ghosting the first shot. Haven't experienced yet, but +1 here.

Did you check how many ppl play on each server? I would assume that generally servers with fewer players are STILL "better balanced" for lack of a better word. The idea is that for every taken item a new one spawns as far as I know. Now if loot that spawns mysteriously vanishes (as I think) for whatever reason, might simply be inacessable in some spawn points, the current system will stay "acceptable" for longer. But of course the swe servers might be differently configured or might have recently been completely reset. I think it was Wednesday. Ok, there is loot in the west towns, but not as much as there was when the servers orignally spawned even in the east. Loot is getting less. And dupers (I guess) are active, in the Green Mountain prison and tower I found mountains of 1911s with pistol flashlights. Also found a Makarov and a mag there. As I wanted to try it before I am reset again, I shot a hopper zed, it took THREE shots, all hit (blood was visible). The two rags you have are kind of problematic, I got hit when I was picking apples and when I went up a hunters stand and a zed appeared. Such a thing is currently actually an understandable reason for ghosting: fleeing from them zeds, because you got no rags. Even rhymes :) With no rags I did not check towns any more and went through the woods, checked every building and only found things that ppl usually never pick up. I kept checking towns on the outskirts though. The first town I found loot in was Pogorevka. Green Mountain had a lot, but most was obviously duped. Zeleno had a lot loot, BUT as I said at the beginning, not as much as there was lying around on Wednesday after the patch. The amount of loot is shrinking. I dropped my pristine jeans on the floor just before a server restart, the restart duped them, had them in my inventory and on the floor. The jeans on the floor went from pristine to damaged with the server restart, so dropped items degrade. Oh, apples are great and all, but while you still try to get energized, berries are better, same amount of energy and take up less than a third or the volume in the stomach compared to an apple. You should be able to get directly to highly energized as a bambi before puking. They have very little water though. And I'm scared: I had a BIG number of pbo checksum or something missmatches when I tried to join after the restart, here's to not getting banned :)

i don't get it, what's the big deal of losing the hive? no more ghosting, farming on empty servers, probably less hackers and easier to find friends. good admins/servers will stand and shitty ones fall. what do we lose? the ability to transfer caracters between the 5 remaining servers? that would be positive for me... or do i miss something?

Using realism as an excuse for the black screen in a ZOMBIE video game is quite funny. Also, none of you people know what happens when you die. I believe that you lie there on the ground seeing and hearing everything and can possibly spawn in a bush 200 metres away with a mosin and long-range scope if someone closes in on your cooling corpse, I do not believe everything goes black and a sign says "you are dead" I don't really care about the realism of it, I'm just really annoyed at walking around minding my own business and then suddenly "you are dead", no gunshot, no reason for it, no explanations whatsoever. I don't want a killcam and I don't care about ghosting. I just wanna know what killed me and why. I do however agree that it is an iconic thing so removing it might be a bad idea. Also, I'm not a kid.

I absolutely hate the idea of removing the screen. As stated above, it would help ghosting. Also, for those "realism junkies" such as myself, you wouldn't be able to see anything when you die, so making everything black fits perfectly.

Well I bring up most of this cause in my exp in HC modes the gui is on of the main things being removed to aid in HC. 1. The point is u shouldn't be able to know who is online and if they are ghosting or not cause it takes away from immersion...sure people cheating does too but it shouldn't be reason to damage HC mode to try and account for exploiters and hackers.... 2.the devs could improve how we can see and interact with items. The fact of having a white dot however aids in combat quite a bit as well and can be a crutch. Remove it for HC to focus less on spray and pray and more on precision 3.I agree to an extent but many items should povide next to 0 ballistic protection for even the 22. Open for interpretation for sure. 4.agree I dont know how it will work but again in other fps hc mode u can sprint last then u can in non HC. The idea is to make it harder to run from battles. 5.I think irregardless HC should keep u on ur toes more about starving or dying of thirst more often. 6.because the current nights are way easy to see in and are a joke 7.u always have the option of changing servers. It is a survival game...can u call urself a survivor if u cant make it through the night ? 8. It is easy but the page up and page down thing is too easy. In a combat situation players should not be able to adjust the range as easy as u can in dayz. 9. Lets face it majority of plyers like 3rd person cause they like to we their character. No sense catering only to the niche 10. Many other games dont let u adjust FOV and people get by. Also the brightness and gamma increases give players an advantage over others. Esp at night. We shouldn't be entitled to make things easier to see all the tim in HC. In real life u cant just make ur eyes brighter.

1.) Being able to see the number of players online is very important. At this stage in development, ghosting and server hopping is common as hell. When a player joins a game their name goes to the bottom of the player list. If I see "uberhax420" is above me and then I shoot at someone and then see that "uberhax420" is below my name on the server list, there's a good bet that he's ghosted and is now behind me. Having information like this is valuable. I like knowing how many players are on a server, because then I know if it's worth playing or not. If I'm the only person on a server, what's the point in playing? 2.) The white dot provides a frame of reference for picking items up. Having no crosshair at all, especially in first person, can be mildly disorientating. 3.) Clothing such as leather jackets should provide protection against low-velocity projectiles and melee weapons. 4.) Without knowing how the stamina system will work it's pointless to make points like this. If in regular you can sprint for 5 seconds, does that mean in hardcore you should only be able to sprint for 2? Why are people less healthy in hardcore? 5.) Again, without knowing how food and water will be distributed (given that it's well known that resources are currently abundant since alpher) it's pointless to discuss the topic. However, if we're basing it on current levels, then yes, food should absolutely be rarer. 6.) Why? 7.) Why? Am I the only person who doesn't like the idea of spending an entire game session in pitch darkness? Accelerated time means I at least get to see dawn. 8.) I've not had much experience with guns, but as I recall adjusting range on a sight is pretty easy. It isn't necessary to do a little dance or recite the alphabet backwards every time you adjust a scope. Checking how far you're ranged in is an interesting idea, though. 9.) Make the game harder and more realistic, but make it so a drone is always hovering a few meters behind every player, and the player can see what the drone can see. Right. Well, provided there are still first person hardcore servers, why not. 10.) And force players to have an FOV that is either too wide or too narrow for them to play comfortably? Totalbiscuit would be ashamed. I crank my brightness to full because that's the only way I can see anything in broad freaking daylight. Gamma, however, I can agree with. Mostly.

I think a lot of players are looking forward to play on a private shard in a closed (whitelisted) community. Maybe they enjoy the non-server hopping, non-ghosting experience. Maybe they like the roleplaying opportunities. Maybe they like the fact that your actions carry consequences on a closed server. I think private shards will be very popular once they are released.

Let's hope all the public servers turn into these private shards. Right away, server hopping and ghosting would be gone. combat logging would also be diminished.

Dean merely said he would like to encourage people to venture to other servers: that does not mean the exact problem we all have with server hopping will not get fixed, they've tried already with the spawn timer but I can certainly see in the long run trying other more effective methods. Not that this method in general would suit best, but as an example they can easily encourage changing servers to find loot while also making it so that when you enter another server; you end up back at a random spawn point (but naturally with all your gear) .. and when you choose to leave that server, to choose another one, you again end up at a random point with all your gear. In doing so, server hopping becomes a null factor and the only loot camping possible will be logging off in a high loot area and waiting however long for the loot to respawn or the server to reset, and logging back in and off again which there just isn't any tangible way I can imagine to stop that sort of behavior, but further secure it by making it so that jumping several times between servers doesn't net you a new spawn point each and every time.. and then server hopping won't do anyone any favors, no more ghosting either.. They may come up with another method, but nowhere has it been said they won't try to further discourage or make it pointless - to server hop that I am aware of.

Save spawn locations per server and not globally (per hive). p.s. This also fixes ghosting and server hopping, to a certain extent. Make people spawn around the whole map.

The only two problems I have with any base building idea is : How do you make it so someone just doesnt log on to another server on the hive, move 10 feet over, then log back into the original server and now be inside the base? How do you make it so people dont start just building around spawn points to block people in? As far as with spawn points. The only way they will be able to make this possible is if you can only build onto existing structures.. That doesnt really stop someone from server hopping though to get inside your fortification. The only way I can see them stop server hopping to get inside peoples bases(which would also stop ghosting) is to make it a penalty to server hop somewhat in that, when you switch from your original server to a different server, you wouldnt spawn in the same place you logged out.

Quote: "I think they must have a longer timer/more complicated system in place which is harder to abuse and makes me happy." That's the part I don't get - if they at some point want to actually make us server hop (Global loot spawn or whatever it's called), why even a timer? Or a timer longer than 30 seconds to prevent ghosting, that is. Sorry if that's off topic, that question just popped into my mind...

In fact they are still far to easy to kill. The real issue here is that melee targeting is bugged right now so if you try to attack them as before (melee while aiming at their head) you won't be able to hit them. If you manage to hit them - whch is still easy with guns - they die easily. They are about as fast as players without a weapon drawn. Which makes sense given they are humans without a weapon drawn. I would also like the to be as resilent as humans without a weapon drawn (see above)! No you didn't - you missed. They die from a single strike with the Fireaxe - but you have aim to the lower left to hit them. Also try guns - its really nice to have another use for them than killing other players. I think the technically retain the ghosting abilities. Its just their AI/pathing that now makes them go around obstacles. However desync might cause them to "glitch through". Feedback is a good thing be it negative or positive. I can only repeat that I like the changes as they make zombies more challenging but also less frustrating (if you work around the melee targeting bug) as they walk through wall less often. However I would rather like them being as resilent and 'hit-able' as survivors instead of being squishy but much harder to hit.

Not a very common situation to be honest in dayz but then as you seem to want to play clan wars then sure it can roll that way ( not sure why you pick dayz over arma to fight out clan battles but hey fair enough) the looting point you made is in the middle of being made redundant with whats going on in experiemental right now persistance and loot spawning it doesnt really make much sense to hop servers for loot and again you can hope into a really bad spot as easily as a good one in regards to a gun fight if your loot hoping. As for your clan battle fight theory again if they log out it will be 4 minutes before they can log in time enough in most situations to move place and if skilled defeat the guys who stayed behind to over watch but granted thats not an ideal situation. The biggest solution for your compaint and its not some CRAP log in sound its wait till the game is actually a game and not an early release alpha and thus there will be things called private hive servers WHERE THERE IS NO GHOSTING BECAUSE YOUR CHARACTER IS ONLY ON THAT SERVER. Till then id take ya clan battle elsewhere or get use to the idea of dealing with a public hive game simple as that. pissing and moaning wanting a gamey mechanic put in doesnt really help for the type of game dayz is actually ment to be but meh what do i know aye...

During a firefirefight against 2 opponent teams, which both of them are obiviously on Team Speak (who's not nowadays), once they spot where do comes the shoots, one or more guys logg off and through another sever they move to another position, or inside the building where's the fight. I do make you an example: Berezino big buildings with more floors. if do you have to logg off where do you have to? Off course in the Broom Closet or the Bathroom, where for sure nobody is watching. But for who is logging in with 0 chace from a fresh starting game, you do clearly see the players texture through walls before loading the surrounding details. And then you realize which floor and how many they are. That's the problem of the firefight. Then second thing, about Loot: people do costantly respawn on NOT SAFE PLACES. for looting! Sometime, 4 out 10 times you are going to die because an idiot did spawned on your same buidling because he wanted to loot! Man, you did already clean up a building and watched outside if someone is about to come and...boom here's one that is spawning! That is from a realistic game? Off course not it's a bullshi.it! For else the other things are just unluck! But as a survival/realistic game, by prior you have to log out on a not important looting building or on the woods if you don't want to get shoot or ruin the fun of others that are worth to be rewarded of their efforts. Tell me, an example: I do see you that you are a guy with an Helmet and a Red shirt with 3 other guys. I'm camping with others on a building and you are about to get us... You do decide to server hopping in our buidlng where we are watching every enter and corners.... Then you kill some of us by ghosting. Does it has been fun? Where's the satisfaction on it? It was a effort that was worth to be done n a survival realistic game? Then i'm going to cheat then.....cheating or glitching is quite to be the same thing!

WARNING! THIS WILL BE A LONG READ! HOWEVER, IF YOU CARE ABOUT THIS GAME, RECOGNIZE ITS POTENTIAL, AND/OR ARE CONCERNED WITH SOME CHOICES MADE THUS FAR, PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ! First, let me start off by saying that I love DayZ. Not just the SA, but the entire “franchise”. No other game, aside from EVE online (which I had to stop playing, because it takes over your life, and unlike DayZ, is not the kind of game you can just put down for a while and come back to with little to no repercussions) has EVER given me the experience of an adrenaline rush, fear, the rage and disappointment associated with failure, or the ecstasy of success. That being said, as development wears on, I have become increasingly concerned with the apparent direction development has been taking, as well as with some of the design decisions. This game has the potential to become historically legendary, and I for one, desperately want it to reach its potential. Now, before you shout the ancient and fearsome battle cry “AAALLLPHAAA!!!”, I am aware of the game’s current development state, and I know what it means. So, there will be some things I will NOT be addressing: IE. Anything that is currently not what it maybe SHOULD be, but is the way it is because it can be attributed to its alpha state. This includes (but is not limited to) things such as: Spawn locations (already established by Devs that the current system is for testing purposes)Private HivesContent that has not yet been added (vehicles, weapons, stamina, etc.)Game balancing (weapon damage, commonality/rareness of loot items)Hunting (we already know there is serious work being done on this)Zombie AI/numbers/pathingHackersThe game engine itselfETC.Please note that while these and other “issues” that can be attributed to the game’s development state are not the FOCUS of this post, they may be mentioned or brought up because of how they relate to other issues this post IS addressing (for example, stamina will be brought up in relation to inventory). Please also note that this post is NOT intended to discuss things such as playstyle (kos vs. non-kos), server hoping, ghosting, or any mechanic designed to counter such things. So, let me address the issues I AM referring to: IVENTORY SYSTEMBALLISTICSLOOT RARITY (as it relates to the game’s current testing phase)REALISM (what is too much VS. what is too little)GLOBAL LOOT SYSTEM (pros vs. cons) DEVELOPEMENTAL FOCUS ON CONTENT OVER CORE MECHANICS (not an independent section, but rather addressed throughout)COMMUNITY OUTREACH*Not necessarily in that order. So, without further ado: INVENTORY SYSTEM: I made, in the suggestions thread, a while back, a suggestion on some improvements that could be made to the inventory system, including several pictures I took of some equipment I had on hand to demonstrate some of my suggestions (to which I will provide a link if I can find it buried wherever it is), and I am going to reiterate it a bit here, because frankly, I find the current system, while VERY user friendly, arbitrary. I honestly don’t understand the choice to implement it as it is (from a developer standpoint). It seems it has been the decision to have it the way it is from the very beginning, and I can think of ways it could be VASTLY improved, and I don’t even do this for a living. As said, it IS a much more user friendly system than the old Arma 2 inventory system, being that a player can easily see all items in his inventory in an “at a glance” manner, and easily manipulate and organize those items. The old system was clunky, took a lot of getting used too, and featured tiny, barely visible icons alongside small, confusing jumbles of text. But that is its ONLY saving grace. SOUNDS great on paper, the way I just said it, but in practice, with a little thought applied, it could be SO much better. The old arma system, while confusing at first, COULD be mastered eventually, but the main thing it had going for it was REALISM. Items had realistic weight as well as volume, and so did the containers they were placed in. Would it be so difficult to merge the old arma system WITH the current, more visible and user friendly version, and thereby achieve a system that isn’t arbitrary? As it is, hypothetically, a player equipped with the largest possible inventory space (ttsko pants and shirt, expanded chest carrier, and mountain backpack), could conceivably carry a total of 59 pens. Those pens would all take up a single inventory slot each, and at 59, there would be no “room” for anything else. I realize that no player taking the game seriously would attempt this, but it is only for the sake of an example. What this means is that a player could be carrying what amounts to a jumbo pack of bic ballpoint pens, purchasable at your nearest store that sells basic office supplies, which, IRL, could easily fit into the front pocket of a baggy pair of carpenter style pants, is for some reason consuming the SAME amount of inventory space as 59 cans of beans. This is blatantly nonsensical. Some more comparisons: Four cans of beans takes up the same space as a single pistol. A single pistol, which IRL would easily fit INSIDE a 200 rnd 5.56mm ammo can, consumes the same 4 inventory slots as that same ammo can. A ballistic helmet is the same size and dimensions, in game, as a pistol or ammo can. I could go on and on. And not only is the current system arbitrary, but it also forces players to make gameplay decisions they shouldn’t have to. If a player wants to go fishing, for example, they need a rod, a shovel, an axe, fishing hook, bait, fire kit, room for the fish they intend to catch, and everything else they need to survive. That is a LOT of inventory taken up just to be able to catch, cook, and eat a single meal. Unless the player drops the items they no longer need after a certain stage in the process, in which case they will be unable to CONTINUE to fish until they find that item again. This leaves the player in an unnecessarily awkward position to choose to juggle certain items they need, and in some cases may force them outright to not carry something essential, such as a weapon or ammunition. This system, while user friendly, yes, is way too oversimplified. A game concerned with attempting to emulate realism (where appropriate), should not being doing this. I would suggest that all items be given, instead of an arbitrary and unrealistic dimension consisting of uniform squares, realistic weight AND dimensions. Give EVERY item in game capable of storing items, realistic volume (it makes no sense to me that a pair of pants can somehow hold an ammo can in them, and still squeeze in two cans of beans. When was the last time you shoved a 200 rnd. Ammo can in your front pocket?). KEEP the current system of squares and item icons to demark what is there, making each item distinct and highly visible, but these squares only “appear” when an item is there (also, items which IRL consist of multiple pockets, rather than one massed “bag” such as a pair of pants, should be represented as such in game): Say I have a hunting backpack. While empty, its dropdown menu shows NOTHING. Place an ammo can inside it, and THEN four squares appear, with the ammo can inside them, as before. UNLIKE before, however, these squares do NOT indicate how much space is still available. Instead, the backpack has a volume indicator, showing how much is possible over how much is available (random numbers as an example: 300cc/250cc). Likewise, all items, within their item description (having it there would reduce the clutter of too much tiny text on the screen at one time, one of the main problems with the old system), would have a set of numbers denoting the volume that item takes up, as well as its weight. But then you might be thinking; “That would be bad for balancing, because then a player could just carry a million rounds of 5.56, or some other ridiculous amount of something that doesn’t take up a lot of space, which would be game breaking.” Well, that is what the weight would be for. In arma 2, yeah, you could carry a TON 7.62 belts in your backpack. But good luck moving more than a few feet: your character will literally fall flat on his face the moment he took a single step if your weight was too high. If he COULD move without falling down, he would literally pass out from the exhaustion of carrying too much weight after running or even walking a few hundred feet. And this brings me to an issue I mentioned earlier: STAMINA. While I am not bringing stamina up as part of the bigger picture here, mainly because we know that such a thing will be introduced eventually, it’s important to mention here because having a stamina system would make such an inventory system function the way it should. Carry as much as you can fit into your volume-based inventory: sure. But be prepared to suffer the consequences if you carry too much. Even with the coming addition of persistent storage, I think this is a VITAL system this game desperately needs. Why something like it wasn’t implemented from the beginning confuses me. It is, to reiterate, arbitrarily oversimplified. Keeping the system the way it is would seem to imply that this is what the developers WANT for this game. And while I understand such things as keeping ammunition types simple instead of full blown realistic, to make EVERYTHING be this way isn’t the way to go. This is a perfect example of what concerns me with the design choices made thus far by the development team. Either make this game a full blown casual experience, or keep it hard core and realistic. As a side note, placed here because they are inventory items, and because the issue doesn’t justify an entire topic just for itself: As one who is experienced with land navigation using a map and compass; we reaaaally need to be able to use both in game, simultaneously. This was possible from the beginning with arma 2. Why not here? Problem with the “Take on Heli” engine? I don’t know. But please fix it at some point. You were probably going to anyway, but I thought it worth mentioning (this is yet another “core mechanic”, which personally, I feel should have been present LONG ago, and is more important than adding in a few new guns I never see due to loot rarity, which is my next point). LOOT RARITY (As it relates to the game’s current testing phase): A much easier and shorter topic to broach is the current implementation of rarity of certain items. Yes, I mentioned loot rarity/commonality earlier as one of the subjects this post was NOT about, but this is a different context. I am not bringing this up to say “FOOD NEEDS TO BE MORE COMMON I CANT FIND ANY”, or “THERE IS TOO MUCH FOOD, ITS TOO EASY TO FIND”. Rather, my point is to ask: “Why is ANY item currently in game “rare”?” Why bother with what is essentially a GAMEPLAY issue while the game is still essentially being built? Are we not PLAYTESTING the game, ie: testing the game by playing it? How am I supposed to test the efficacy/bugginess/practicality etc. of something like the ashwood bow, when I can’t find more than a single arrow for it after literally DAYS of searching? I absolutely understand item rarity being a vital aspect of the finished product. Guns and ammo and other highly advantageous items SHOULD be rare….in the beta stage. Are you testing the loot spawning system itself? That would make sense, except, then why aren’t other items that should be rare, easier to find? Why not, for example, release a new gun, such as the AK (which I spent days searching for and NEVER saw), and make it a common spawn, so that players are encouraged to find and test it, while making other guns, such as the FNx45 (of which I find EVERYWHERE), which has already been in game (and therefore extensively tested) for some time now, rare? The reason is because we ARENT testing the loot spawning system. Rather, it is a GAMEPLAY choice (unless I am sorely mistaken). Which means that the developers are currently more interested in “drawing in the crowd” with flashy, shiny new weapons (really? An engraved 1911?), getting players in game and running around looking for them, rather than on developing and fixing core mechanics. Are you building a game? Or are you building HYPE? Again, unless I am sorely mistaken, and I could very well be, that is how things APPEAR to me at the moment. Yet another reason I am concerned about the game’s future. Which brings me to the… GLOBAL LOOT SYSTEM: I don’t know much about this, so I will express a few concerns, and move on. I foresee this being, potentially, a great concept. But it must be carefully balanced. Having only, say, 20 night vision goggles anywhere in the game at any given time, across ALL servers, would essentially amount to having only 20 NVG’s WORLD WIDE. That makes no sense. I understand and even ENCOURAGE this item rarity concept, but I DO at some point want to experience all facets of gameplay this game has to offer. And I will never be able to do so if I have to rely on a level of luck that essentially amounts to me winning the $50 million jackpot lottery just to find an item I may not even really get to use before I am killed for it. Please, if you implement this system, do so carefully. And, as I mentioned with the loot rarity issue, would seem to be a gameplay issue. BUT I can also imagine it would have significant roots within the engine that must be developed before it is implemented. So, on this one, “stay the course”? I guess? But please do be careful that it doesn’t totally prevent me from experiencing all this game has to offer just because some twat found a pair of NVG’s, then got sick of the game and logged off, never to return. BALLISTICS: AAAAAAANNNND here it is: My FAVORITE issue. Many’s the time I’ve found myself here, arguing for the implementation of a realistic system to somehow emulate (note, EMULATE, not PERFECTLY IMMITATE) skillful shooting rather than an arbitrary system whose luck could win you the day (which would be wrong anyways), but more likely will screw you over again and again. Many’s the time I have taken a shot with my pistol, aiming for a zombie that is only 20 feet away (and rapidly approaching), only to see my round *ping off the wall behind my target; behind…and about 3 feet LEFT of center. Having a mechanic in which attachments somehow magically tighten the ballistic spread of my shot group as bullets leave the muzzle (instead of making the weapon easier to use, like having a bipod reduce weapon sway while prone and deployed, or a heavy barrel reduce muzzle climb, thereby rewarding the player for finding these rare items by making shots require less skill, instead of less LUCK!!!!!) is blatant oversimplification, is arbitrary (yep, I like that word. Seems to apply to a lot.), and is unrealistic. I am not going to get into the old argument about our players “not being military, so they don’t KNOW how to shoot” (which is an asinine argument and easily defeated with a modicum of intelligence, common sense, and wisdom). But I will say this: The current system is INSULTING and DISRESPECTFUL to BOTH parties; the hunter and the prey (assuming there even IS prey. This could easily apply to unfairness when hunting animals for food, or defense against zombies). If the Hunter is in an advantageous position, well rested, prone, with a properly zeroed weapon, exercising all available gameplay shooting mechanics with appropriate skill, and FINDS a target, and takes a skillful, well aimed shot, he should be REWARDED for his effort. And for the record, if “I” am the prey, I EXPECT my hunter to be rewarded, and ME to be punished for my failure. This gives my character’s life, choices, and risks some modicum of MEANING in a digital world that actually DOESN’T have real meaning. And if the roles are reversed, I expect, in that situation, to fire my shot and see my target drop like a sack of bricks while I scream in joy and ecstasy “HEADSHOOOOOOOTTTTTTT!!!!!!!”. But no. Instead I fire, it goes randomly high, low, left or right x amount of feet, and my target gets away clean, and I sigh, lean my head against my right fist, and stare at my keyboard with an irritated expression because I just spent DAYS kitting out (or hours, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Either way) for this, spent DAYS searching for an opponent (something legit, not just a bambi on the coast), finally found one, did everything right, and ALL OF IT IS WASTED because reasons….oh, and by the way, now I log out because now I KNOW that person is aware of me, and unfairly has been given a chance to run away (negating the purpose of my hunt) OR to flank, find, and kill me. Even though I had him dead to rights. NOTHING about this game disappoints me more! Needing to have a bipod attached, whose effect applies so long as the bipod is deployed, JUST deployed, ie you could be standing straight up, weapon in the air, not rested against anything, but as long as the damned thing is DEPLOYED, your bullets MAGICALLY tighten their spread, regardless of any other shooting mechanic? Ridiculous. This is another PERFECT example of a design choice that severely concerns me: Is this just a temporary place holder? IS there a better system coming? Or is this as it is because it is how it’s INTENDED to be??? If THAT is the case, then you developers are going way too far into the realm of casual gameplay. So anyway, moving on… REALISM; TOO MUCH VS. TOO LITTLE: Now, with all my talk about emulating realism, wanting a realistic inventory system and a realistic ballistics system, I feel it is necessary to point out, at least briefly, another issue: there IS such a thing as too much. It’s fine to want realism that enhances gameplay, but what, what, WHAT were you thinking??? Nudity??? SCAT AND PISS??? Now, to be fair, it would SEEM (although, due to a lack of community communication, another issue I will address, I can’t be entirely certain) that this idea was scraped due to negative reaction. But why was this even CONSIDERED? Yes, in the hands of mature players, this wouldn’t have been all THAT bad. But honestly, knowing the internet community in general as I am sure you do, what did YOU think was going to happen? I am not trying to sling accusations like the kids would have been slinging crap here, but were you TRYING to draw in a more immature, detrimental aspect to this community? Literally EVERY aspect of these things that could have been in ANY way beneficial to gameplay (such as poisoning water supplies) could have been done in a way that wasn’t offensive or ripe for abuse. This game still desperately needs to address core mechanics issues, and you were going to even CONSIDER adding in this kind of content? What are your priorities??? And lest this particular issue be too narrow, it applies to other, less offensive things as well. For example: the decision to simplify the different ammunition types, to open up more resources for other things is a SMART one! NOT having a very specific bullet type for every gun does not hamper gameplay in any way. While the avid shooter in me might PREFER, in a perfect world, to have all the bullets be correct, I can do without it if it means other aspects of the game will get the attention they need. And lastly: COMMUNITY OUTREACH: For the sake of example, I ask you, the community, as well as the developers, to turn your attention to the forum for another alpha game: Space Engineers. This minecraft spinoff (which is still very much its own game) is, like dayz, still in alpha, with the public able to buy and play the game, and take part in and influence development, much like DayZ. But what is different? Well, look at the section of the forums titled “Changelog”. Every Thursday is what we call “patchmas”. EVERY Thursday, new content is released (and nearly all of it bugged to hell) for us to play with and experiment with. There is a clear, concise rhythm, a schedule. The developers ACTIVELY keep in touch with the players on their own website’s forums, actively taking suggestions for new content seriously; actually finding inspiration from the players as they build complex, unwieldy, yet functional mechanisms like pistons (made from 3 separate arms and 3 rotors and a complicated “rail” system), then say “wow. What an awesome idea!!!”, which is then implemented later in the forum of actual, compact, simple (if still somewhat buggy, they just came out) pistons! They actively listen to the community, taking the great ideas and implementing them (as is evidenced by the many happy voices of approval after EVERY patch), yet taking a rigid stance on other things some players want, that the developers refuse to add (ie, it’s still THEIR game, and they still get the final say. They don’t just do whatever every little 12 year old with a keyboard says). Look at the bug reports section: There you are sure to find “Phand” a tireless worker who takes the time to respond to and work with nearly every player that bothers to take the time to make a bug report, often serving as a bridge between the programmers and the players, informing us when a bug is a feature, or, even “Yeah, good work! That’s definitely a bug the devs weren’t aware of. They know about it now and it’s on the list to get fixed!” or “Yes, this is a known bug, a fix is in the works/imminent/TBA.” She is LITERALLY a celebrated individual on that forum, getting constant feedback from the community, and NONE of it is negative. Are you paying attention, DayZ staff? RIGHT THERE is PROOF it can be done: Moderators do their job and delete the offensives and the trolls. They take a hard stance on issues that would send THEIR game in a direction they don’t want to go. They show the community they give a damn, and add that which makes sense to their vision! But here, on the official forums, you are nearly nonexistent. I DO understand using reddit, facebook, and twitter, etc. to reach a vast number of people. It’s a smart thing to do. But why should I have to go there for simple updates? I hear about tent implementation here first, but only because another user quoted a reddit post! Why are you not an active part of the discussion HERE, as well as there? Personally, I cant stand twitter, I HATE and distrust facebook, and IMO, reddit is a steaming pile of horrible quality Taco Bell meat seasoned EVER so lightly with a few sprinkles of intelligence, a dash of reason, a teaspoon of sanity, and a few gallons of “NECKBEARD” brand barbecue sauce, “Mouthbreather” flavor, just to add a little kick. Come HERE. Talk to US. WE are your true followers. Let the moderators do their jobs and filter out the crap for you, while you keep us informed, placated, happy, and INVOLVED. I am playtesting this game for you, FOR FREE! HELL, I even paid YOU for the opportunity! As a loyal customer, and a loyal gamer, I would appreciate the courtesy. END> PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT. AGREE, DISAGREE, IT’S ALL GOOD. I took time to make this monstrosity, typing in word to catch as much grammar and spelling errors as possible. I know some still made it through. I apologize, but this isn’t an English final I’m writing here. So please do me the courtesy of replying, at all times, in a respectful manner. I will AGRESSIVELY pursue trolls and flamers with reports. I made this topic for a reason, and I’ll be DAMNED if this one gets derailed by a childish asshat. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

=) It's tough and from time to time I may say eff it and do it anyways. It's not really a big deal at all if anyone does either. As long as they aren't hopping, farming or cycling then they are OK with me....as long as they also aren't cheating, duping, ghosting, comlog'in, gamma n brightness changing, FOV changing and so on. =P

I like it, but dislike it. To combat clans ghosting/farming put on a timer, much like there is now. Say 30 minutes, if you join a different server within those 30 minutes, then you are randomly teleported. But people like me and King Raptor can log off with our friends, then come back together the next day. Tl;Cant Read: If u an clan join b4 30 minuts den u all go scatter. If u w8 lyke nermal ppl, u sta. Mkay? Mkay.

As I've mentioned in another, very suspiciously similar thread, if you imagine that each server is a parallel universe and your character has the magic power to change instantly between these worlds (by sitting on the ground for 30 seconds) then you will have far fewer issues with ghosting and the like.

you mean a randon log-in location only when you join a new sever - to defeat 'server hopping' for loot - to encourage players to stay with one server I understand your point, it is logical. For myself - I like moving from one server to another, I am a Wandering Player, not a "hopper" I'm not much of a murderer or a military looter. I might be a sheep-stealer ( but I deny it ) A random location the first time you arrive on a server, puts you in danger ( and who needs danger ? ) The anti-ghosting timer is already a sanction against rapid logging in/out, and therefore also against changing servers but still .. what you say makes sense, I just have a feeling players won't like it. The Clans that gear up on their "Join=Kick private" clan server to go PvP on other servers, especially will not like it. Any groups that raid "other people's" servers, won't like this idea at all. xx

That is not what I said so I will not answer your question but I will humour you with how I feel about it: Sometimes a server goes down and I want to continue my game or the server is not full enough to my liking and I want to run into more people. Why should I randomly spawn elsewhere, spending up to 30 minutes to get back where I was possibly getting killed doing something really boring, namely holding down W till I get to where I was? Then I have to wait on everyone I have been playing with to do the same and by the time we are all together again, it is time to log off. Next day, we might not be able to join the server because it is full or it might not be there for some reason and we get to do it all over again. So no. Random spawns are bad. ghosting should be fixed some other way and server hoppers will hopefully become less and less frequent with respawning loot