Additional Buildings on private hive server

[guyver1 70]

Me and my buddy were playing on a private hive server yesterday (messing about trying things so as not to affect our official hive survivors)

We went to the NE Airfield (neither of us having been there before) and we found 4 hangers, control tower, medical building, 3 storey office building and 4 barracks.

GREAT we thought, this is why everyone comes here!

so we played there during the day for about 10 hours.

in the evening , we joined the public hive server we normally play on and spawn at the NW Airfield (this is identical on the public and private hives in terms of the amount of buildings) and we decide to make the 7.5km trek from NW to NE to see if we can get a few things we need and see what the loots like.

We make the trek and are shocked to find only 2 aircraft hangers and the control tower :(

I immediately think "oh, might be the wrong beta version, might have had an update"

So i find another global hive server that's bang up to date, same as the private hive server, again still the same, only the 3 buildings :(

massive disappointment :(

So, to my question:

Is this a mod? Is this some sort of server admin hack to increase building numbers?

Coming from an FPS background of some 14 years I've never seen a game where you can 'add' or 'remove' things from a map, the map is always a 'static' entity (UT, Q3, TF, CS, etc etc)

The server name didnt say anything about additional buildings, just 100+ vehicles.

[irl-calibre 744]

The private hive is running a modded version of Chernarus, funnily enough i'd a similar experience yesterday, first of all I was like, wtf a firehouse in Berezino then on hitting N.E.A.F. all the barricks were there between Inustrial and the main hanger too. I think there is also a forrest south of the N.E.A.F that isn't in the public HIVE. I suppose it just comes down to the modability of the games engine..

[guyver1 70]

That for me is bad news.

There is nothing worse than fragmenting the community :/

I can understand having 'different' maps such as Namalsk etc, but the maps NEED to be consistent across servers otherwise the player base will become fragmented and you'll end up with thousands of servers, all running different versions of the game leading to servers with barely anyone on them as people have suddenly become VERY choosy about 'how' they like their maps...

If anything I would hope that the standalone clamps down on this so that there is parity when moving between servers, like in traditional MMO's

Moddablity is great, but only up to a point. too much choice leads to fragmentation and that is never good.

[bigdogsco 143]

Its a private hive, the map can be modified anyway the server admins like. They don't have to run the vanilla dayz rules as specified by the dev team. Most of the community has migrated to private hives to escape hackers and ghosters anyway so i don't think worrying about the community fragmenting is a valid concern.

Just call it a bit of extra flavour to stop players congregating at the usual hotspots.

[irl-calibre 744]

exactly, its a private hive, if you don't like it find another server. simples.

[bigdogsco 143]

simples.

I heard that in a Russian accent with a squeek at the end. Bloody meerkats. The power of advertising!

[guyver1 70]

I don't think you're getting the point, or, you never played other FPS games.

A map is an environment. Examples of 2 classics:

Deck16][ from Unreal Tournament

TheCampGrounds from Quake3

Regardless of which UT or Q3 server you joined, when those maps loaded, you got exactly what you were expecting. The maps DONT change.

Thats consistency across servers

That doesnt stop map makers from changing those maps, but under 'best practices' for those 2 games, if you modified anything in a map, you had to rename it, for example, league/competitive versions of those maps were made and the name would change so that people knew what exactly they were playing (this was also a requirement due to the fact that in those 2 games your client map files had to match the files on the server, if there was a mismatch you wouldnt get on the server):

Deck16][-LE

TheCampGrounds-G1E

etc etc.

When I play on a Chernarus server, I would at least like to know that I'm 'actually' playing on Chernaus and not some hacked version with loads of stuff changed.

If server admins are changing the actual map by changing terrain, adding/removing buildings then at least adjust your server name in the browser so that people know its a modified map!

If server admins are changing things then its not really chernarus anymore, and should be displayed accordingly.

There are some of us who just want the 'vanilla' experience (esp with the standalone due soon)

[irl-calibre 744]

no, my friend it's you who isn't getting it, there is no guarantee that you're going to have a "vanilla" experience on a private hive. It can run whatever it wants, play on public hive servers for the vanilla experience as it will be uniform. At the end of the day its Skiddes that are breaking up the community, by and large people don't want to play with them or on the shit stained servers they pollute..

[kwairt 0]

Hackers can also spawn buildings and objects at will or change day and night in realtime like flicking a light switch. Not really much they can't do. However adding more buildings to say the Airfield is pretty weak to be honest. There is enough already up in the NW. Some other places might do ok with a makeover but you want to learn the game on the vanilla map which has more than enough to be honest. Some of the larger cities in vanilla are overdone and performance suffers because of density and scale.

[iegle 117]

That for me is bad news.

There is nothing worse than fragmenting the community :/

I can understand having 'different' maps such as Namalsk etc, but the maps NEED to be consistent across servers otherwise the player base will become fragmented and you'll end up with thousands of servers, all running different versions of the game leading to servers with barely anyone on them as people have suddenly become VERY choosy about 'how' they like their maps...

If anything I would hope that the standalone clamps down on this so that there is parity when moving between servers, like in traditional MMO's

Moddablity is great, but only up to a point. too much choice leads to fragmentation and that is never good.

You make an excellent point, and yes this is a significant failing in this MOD. There is a noticeable impact on the general character of the game based on the various changes implemented on each private server. There is no consensus on whether DayZ is a hardcore survival game, or a PvP in a zombie infested backdrop, or something in between. Every private server attempts to make the game into what they feel it is supposed to be. Some might attest that this is a strength, but from a big picture perspective I think this splintering of the community is not a good thing. I see fewer and fewer full servers and more and more servers with a handful of players on them,.

As this mod is based on Arma II, a game known for its modability, I believe that there is a reasonable hope that the issue will be addressed in the standalone.