Serious question regarding mod vs standalone

[Kiriller 0]

Hey everyone, just a little background; i heard of this game very long ago, but not really looking too far in to the game, form simple screen shots it really deterred me to give it a try or look at any videos. A month or so back when the standalone was announced (or when i noticed it was announced) i started to look in to this whole dayz mod and started to love it (and love the idea of the game) and wanted to play right there and then but the thing that stopped me was the thought of standalone being released before January (about time when i was thinking of joining).

Now its pretty much march, i have still yet to buy the game in hopes of it being released with a new rough estimate "before april".

To the question, is it really worth it for me to buy Arma 2 just to play dayz despite of all the hackers glitches and other bs ? or should i wait for the standalone which hopefully is not toooooo far away? I just wish devs would give some kind of guesstimate when they think they could release it so perhaps people like me could make up our mind on joining the dayz mod or just waiting out and supporting the standalone.

Even if they release unpolished buggy glitchy barely playable version, id honestly still buy it, afterall we will be buying the beta version of the game..

Any thoughts, opinions and suggestions are welcome!

[willey.erd@oundleschool.org.uk 506]

If you want an excellent game (ArmA 2) as well as a whole host of mods like DayZ, I44, etc, then get it.

I would say ArmA 2 is worth it, even if DayZ didn't exist.

[Rage VG 4033]

There's reasons to go with each.

If you go with the mod:

It's free beyond the price of ARMA.

It's packed with players, so it'll never die. These players are also very good at contributing, allowing the game to continue to see updates beyond standalone's release.

The fact you need ARMA means you also gain access to every single other mod for ARMA. And there are LOADS.

ARMA itself is an awesome game. Very extensive.

You don't have to wait. You can get it right now.

And the standalone:

Extremely polished.

Is going to be the main focus of the DayZ Team, obviously.

Will likely have more players than the mod.

Will be cheaper than ARMA, since it's DayZ alone and no other games/mods.

Better optimized, I believe.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Rage VG

[herrjon 478]

Well in my opinion, Arma II and OA are both wonderful games and support a number of different mods beyond DayZ Mod. That in itself is worth the $25 it costs for the set on steam.

As far as mod vs. standalone, playing the mod will give you a feel for the game, and since the community devs have taken over, it's going a bit of a different direction, which isn't bad, I'm liking it so far (until they took out the new names for food/drink...) Also in standalone, there will only be the one map for a long while, where the mod has a plethora a community supported maps and game modes. In the end, it won't be quite as polished and extensive as the standalone, but the mod is good fun on its own.

[intensity 157]

ArmA 2 by itself is a really great game. I wouldn't get it just for DayZ, due to the fact there are plenty of really fun mods other than DayZ (as mentioned above). Even if the standalone is right around the corner, buying the game and playing the mod before it comes out will still be good of you're wanting to play. You'll be able to get some experience in, and be able to play the standalone with more knowledge than none at all.

[Whiskey_Tango (DayZ) 23]

Arma 3 is coming pretty soon as well. There's a curveball for your decision. Released March 5th I believe? Grants Alpha and Beta access.

[liquidmind 320]

As I have seen it so far. DayZ Mod is supposed to be the community-build, that includes all the changes the majority of the community wants.

The private mods, develop own ideas, paralell to that, that might later flow back into vanilla or standalone.

Once standalone will be released, I suppose a lot of the developers from Mod will try to switch to SA, modding there (as soon as possible).

This will probably lead in to a similar situation we have now, where a BI-SA-Build, a community-sa-build and several private builds might coexist next to each other.

I think every method of development, be it a professional company, an open community or a small private group, have their advantages and disadvantages. Spreading development over all those methods, will not only reduce the overall risks, but in the same time, increase the overall benefits.

As long as all participants try to coexist and people don't start to pull every idea out of the pool to use it for their own gain, that's what I would want for the future of dayZ.

[Kiriller 0]

Yep, just actually heard about the Arma 3 being released for 35$ or so, this has just given me another kick in the nads in terms of decision making..

I can appreciate the Arma 2 game, but as i gave it a try at my friends place as much as i wanted to like it - i couldnt. Perhaps arms 3 will change change my mind as im for sure planning on buying it at the bargain price and supporting great (and not greedy) game developers :)

[OrLoK 16187]

Hello there

try arma2free first to see if you like what a2 can offer you.

We are all biased :) in our own ways, so you have to choose for yourself.

Use you tube, look at the mod scene at Armaholic.com.

Feed yourself on Arma info then make your choice

Rgds

LoK

[herrjon 478]

Unfortunately Arma isn't something you can really get a feel for in one afternoon, so as orlok said maybe try the demo version and go from there, and look into the other mods. Wasteland is a very popular one for instance. But I think even if it's just for dayz, the other maps and modes are worth it. Hackers can be dealt with by going to a good whitelisted server, and SA will have just as many bugs starting out, if not more.

@liquidmind

I totally agree with you that community builds can help the main one as well, but for Standalone, the code is going to be a lot more locked down, at least for awhile, so I wouldn't expect private servers and community maps for awhile. This isn't the devs being mean or greedy about it, they're just as tired of hackers as the rest of us and don't want to be so open about it as Arma is so hackers can so easily pick apart the game and hack all over.

I can see maybe the community devs getting access and producing their own thing in SA, but it won't be the explosion of content that happened after Lingor came out.

Edited February 27, 2013 by (TMW)HerrJon

[intensity 157]

Listen to orlok! He always has great words of wisdom!

[liquidmind 320]

@liquidmind

I totally agree with you that community builds can help the main one as well, but for Standalone, the code is going to be a lot more locked down, at least for awhile, so I wouldn't expect private servers and community maps for awhile. This isn't the devs being mean or greedy about it, they're just as tired of hackers as the rest of us and don't want to be so open about it as Arma is so hackers can so easily pick apart the game and hack all over.

I can see maybe the community devs getting access and producing their own thing in SA, but it won't be the explosion of content that happened after Lingor came out.

I don't even believe they keep the code back because of hackers. Rocket said that they plan on updating the server very often in the beginning. Giving the server-files to the public would require them to make a public build for every change they make, giving everyone the time to implement it.

Considering participation, I expect it to grow over time. Rocket said the first thing that's going to be finished is the character system, with just a limited amount of faces and clothes. I expect 3d-designers, making their own faces and clothes-models to be the first to jump onto standalone development. The more features are released, the more content the community will provide.

Advancing the core features of the game, will be the sole task for rocket and his team for at least the next year. I expectStandalone Modding in about 2-3 years, to really take off.

[Azziax 81]

Considering Arma 3 is coming out you can wait for that. Then on the other hand. If you wish to play DayZ you have to wait till its modded for A3.

On the StandAlone.... There is no release date. Could be months for it to come...

On DayZ as it is now! Brilliant. I started just 1,5 week ago and I find it money well spent. Realy awesome game.

But like Orlok said, you can try A2free first.

[rustledmyjimmies 361]

Dayz on arma 3 will take a very long time. In my opinion you should buy arma 2 since it's probably one of the most extensive and fun games that I have ever played, including all the great mods for such a low price compared to the 'bigger' titles.

[OrLoK 16187]

Listen to orlok! He always has great words of wisdom!

:) Not always... definitely not always.

Take my advice with a big pinch of salt, the best thing to do is inform oneself.

Umm looking at the above sentence I may have divided by zero.

L

[King Tubbs 224]

its VERY simple do you want to play arma as well??

yes = yes

no = no

done

[Rage VG 4033]

Listen to orlok! He always has great words of wisdom!

Why does nobody say that about me?

[OrLoK 16187]

Why does nobody say that about me?

Because I'm Amazing and taste like raisins.

[ZombieNation2012 6]

Hey everyone, just a little background; i heard of this game very long ago, but not really looking too far in to the game, form simple screen shots it really deterred me to give it a try or look at any videos. A month or so back when the standalone was announced (or when i noticed it was announced) i started to look in to this whole dayz mod and started to love it (and love the idea of the game) and wanted to play right there and then but the thing that stopped me was the thought of standalone being released before January (about time when i was thinking of joining).

Now its pretty much march, i have still yet to buy the game in hopes of it being released with a new rough estimate "before april".

To the question, is it really worth it for me to buy Arma 2 just to play dayz despite of all the hackers glitches and other bs ? or should i wait for the standalone which hopefully is not toooooo far away? I just wish devs would give some kind of guesstimate when they think they could release it so perhaps people like me could make up our mind on joining the dayz mod or just waiting out and supporting the standalone.

Even if they release unpolished buggy glitchy barely playable version, id honestly still buy it, afterall we will be buying the beta version of the game..

Any thoughts, opinions and suggestions are welcome!

The Arma 2 game is fun all by itself. I bought it JUST for the mod, but started playing the actual game on map maker mode, to figure out how to fly a chopper and see how many rounds it takes to make buses explode etc. So the game alone is worth it. The DayZ Mod just makes the game a hands down seal the deal winner. Id say go get the arma 2 so you can play the mod. and the game. But realize the actions of the zombies in the mod are not that of how thy will act in the stand alone. The arma 2 engine uses the coding or whatever it uses, on humans, to dodge when being shot at, so the zombies still act to some degree as humans, but still, creepy as hell and epic fun feeling for survival.

[Kiriller 0]

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback, and thank you for your time =)

i will give it a qiuck think today and ill decide,

PS there is a 15$ promotion for CO on amazon if anyone is interested, only downfall for it is that it cannot be installed on steam. maybe this will help someone out! :)

[herrjon 478]

You can still add it to your steam library to play from there. And for DayZ, I recommend playing through DayZ Commander which isn't really effected by if you're using steam or not.

[OnkelGunther 4]

So bottom line is: If you do not intend to play ARMA 2 or it's other mods you should not buy ARMA 2 for Day-Z at the moment?

PS1: Btw: I found this for the Americans. 15$ is the lowest price I found anywhere.

PS2: If anyone finds any good deals for continental Europe please let me know. From the content of this thread I concluded that I do not want to pay 20€ for the game at the moment. :)

PS3: When will the Public/Closed Alpha/Beta testing for the Day-Z SA begin? Joining that one would kinda liberate me from constant price checking of ARMA 2: CO :)

Edited February 28, 2013 by OnkelGunther