Welcome to Alpha! A message to the community.

[Legacy (DayZ) 1091]

Welcome to Alpha. For future reference any gear item you obtain in-game is replaceable and you can find it again, there is no need to whine, cry, complain, or make a thread about how you magically lost your gear due to whether an update or some other means. I am sure (But can not speak officially) the developers understand that not everything is perfect in this alpha mod that you are helping test, but things happen and the biggest reminder here is: Never get attached to your gear. You're going to lose it anyways.

As an Alpha tester you are given the privilege of testing this as an open Alpha. Remember that this is also an Alpha game and that not everything is final and that anything may change at any time until it is set in stone during whatever process.

Play cautious, report bugs, have fun. Don't let a bug or glitch get you down.

[Dotix 0]

[heathy87 1]

Great post, Here's to rocket, devs and all the mods that make this forum and DayZ a fun place to be! and here's to a long long long life for DayZ - your saga has only just begun.

Kudos guys. :D

now lets test the pants off this thing!

[Igor (DayZ) 96]

Progress is doing great. Everyday there is a new update. Losing equipment but it's fun restarting, honestly.

[Hetstaine 10852]

But that means i dont get to keep my tent city with all of the loot i am hoarding and all of my vehicles ! I dont want anyone else to have them ! sarcasm off

Loving the journey so far devs, kudos to you guys for the time you are putting in :cool:

[bryantjudoman 3]

Thanx for all the hard work and for allowing us to try this neat game out. This community is good and i think just a couple asshats doing most of the whining.

[Castle (DayZ) 23]

Being attached to your gear is what makes DayZ as fun as it is. If you're not attached to your gear then what are you attached to?

[ollo (DayZ) 5]

@Castle: Your mom. Trolololo

Seriously though. It's hard not to sort of get attached to the gear, but thats the great thing imo. You get attached and loose it, which invokes a feeling of loss and desire to regain what has been lost, and the regaining part/process is hella fun!

Report dem bugs peeps, thats what we're here for.

[Flip4Flap 8]

It's okay to loose your gear till you're not respawning-teleporting on those bloody beaches... :)

[aLmAnZo (DayZ) 21]

I am very attached to my gear, and it's also the reason I am so afraid of loosing it. At the same time, I understand that I am actually a Alpha tester and that I might actually loose my gear out of glitches and updates.

When it happens, I report it if the devs didn't expect it to happen. If they expected it, it's a known issue or intented necessety for further development. I will feel sad about it, but it won't change the fact that I love the game and will continue to contribute my bug reports and points of view.

It's ok to be attached to your gear, it's kind of what makes the game exciting. But it's not ok to act like an ass when you loose it, as if you have some kind of rights as a tester. You are a tester, not a costumer.

The fact that you bought ARMA to be able to contribute to test this, does not grant you rights to whine. DayZ is not ARMA, it's a mod.

However, if you encounter bugs or glitches that are related to the engine, and not the mod, aim your complaints towards Bohemia Interactive, and not DayZ.

And if so, I have a friendly tip. I've been a BI costumer for years, and I've had some complaints now and then. From my experience, BI is the one developer who actually cares for and lissen to their community, as long as you expain your problem rationally. They also pay alot of attention towards devheaven.

[Munkeyxis 0]

I have so much sympathy for Rocket, the other devs and the forum mods for the amount of verbal abuse and whining they have to deal with from some players. DayZ hass already been such a great experience for my friends and I, we're always pumped to hear about new updates and we totally understand the state of the game as an Alpha.

It pains me to see all the angry and hateful messages directed to rocket and the team. I'm at times ashamed to consider myself a gamer, when that is how gamers act.

Please keep up all the great work. This mod is just getting better and better. I can tell from the interviews and statements made from rocket that he is going into this with the proper mentality, the type of mentality and view towards gaming that might be usher in a new dawn for gaming! Save us from the scripted garbage that big companies are pumping out purely to milk money from the savages! We NEED games like DayZ!

Please excuse me, i have to clean this brown off my nose. (srsly I must sound like a suck-up, but I really do admire the ideology of this mod)

I'd be willing to donate to a kickstarter fund to make DayZ a standalone game. Get the team a dedicated engine to better handle the things that the arma2 engine currently struggles with.

[esaciar 1]

God bless alpha.

[Mephisto (DayZ) 0]

I accept DayZ for what it is, and have enjoyed being able to play it in alpha, butI don't have that much sympathy for the devs because I think some of the community-based issues they are having are self-inflicted.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who cames DayZ for the first time:

1. See some cool DayZ gameplay on Youtube. Think "Man, I gotta play me somma that!". Nobody in video mentions the word "Alpha".

2. Find some "how to install Dayz" instructions. eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjWFv1CUa6Y. See no mention of the word Alpha.

3. Buy Arma on Steam for $30 bucks.

4. Download DayZ from the link in the install instructions. Eg http://cdn.armafiles.info/latest/ See no mention of Alpha.

5. Get DayZ running - find lots of bugs, get frustrated by the game play. This happens especially if the mod is going through a period of rapid hotfixes and is particularly buggy.

At this point, the average person feels like they have paid $30 for a game called DayZ and are completely frustrated.

6. Find the forums, clog up the forum with complaint thread.

7. Get blasted with responses calling you an idiot because "It's Alpha - you are the tester!".

Hell, even the "What is DayZ" page on the mod's site doesn't mention the word "Alpha". The only mention of alpha is the download button "Dayz (Alpha Test)". To the average punter who doesn't know what alpha testing is, that doesn't really explain what the expectations are. If you download it via a direct link, you don't even see that download button.

People post responses like "you should have researched the mod and found out it was alpha, idiot!" I mean, seriously? Unless you are OCD, do you really spend hours researching a game before you buy it? Is that the standard the average consumer has to meet?

It's called having your cake and eating it too - you don't want to turn off potential players by pointing out it's alpha before they play (because having a large player base "sends a message to the studios") - but then rely on it being alpha when someone complains about bugs. I think it is unintentional at this stage, but I'm not sure it's going to be a great strategy going forward.

[Robert Shannon 27]

People are always complaining, when this game isnt even in beta yet.

[Legacy (DayZ) 1091]

Since generally a lot of people do not understand what DayZ may or may not be it is interesting to note as Mephisto (Not sure if Diablo reference...) states: There is not much stating that DayZ is an alpha besides Alpha Test, however the media coverage does state it is an alpha on most coverage. It isn't too hard to see that it is an alpha, a Mod which is being developed by a team.

Things will be ironed out, exploits will be filled, and bugs will be fixed.

Report bugs, alpha test, and help the community as they would help you.

[greenfist (DayZ) 11]

At least there's a big red "alpha" banner on the mod's front page now.

I'm not saying it wasn't quite obvious from the beginning, 'cause it was. :cool:

But you all who realize you're testing an alpha mod to a actual commercial game and accept its shortcomings, you'll have to also accept the fact there are a lot of stupid and/or ignorant people around. They just saw some cool youtube video and article about the mod and read in the instructions that they'd first have to buy (with money) this thing called ArmaII and then download (with a free mouse click) the DayZ.

Now a bug ate their NVG and broke their leg, so they throw a shitfit. They'll come to forums and wave their arma receipt around demanding a compensation. "It's alpha! It's Arma! A test! For free! A mod! Play Arma in vanilla if you want something working [sic]!", you say but they won't have none of it. There's just no room for reason with these jerks. Accept it.

And Mephistos comment "you don't want to turn off potential players by pointing out it's alpha before they play (because having a large player base "sends a message to the studios")" is plain wrong. There were absolutely no expectation of large player base two months ago when the mod started. It's was just another arma alpha mod with potential of few hundred regular arma players. It's just went viral.

Ignore the pointless whining, they're still just a very small portion of the player base, just the most vocal one.

[sirhorse 0]

This mod is amazing. Here's the story of how I came to play it:

I am a Battlefield fan and have been playing that as my exclusive fps game for a while. I was reading some forums and many people mentioned ArmA. I had seen the name since it first came out but honestly thought it was just a low budget fps.

After seeing the praise given on the Battlefield forums I started reading more about it. I had no idea it was a milsim. The more I read the more I knew I had to get this game. I decided to buy ArmA II for the military aspect. It wasn't until after I made this decision that I read about Dayz. Pure bonus to me.

I'm still getting the hang of all of the ArmA controls but am absolutely loving it. It reminds me of the original Ghost Recon but much more in depth. I now have trouble deciding to play ArmA or Dayz.

As far as Dayz is concerned, I have no problem dealing with the bugs and glitches. None of those will stop me from playing. This is one of the most unique game experiences I've ever seen. I'll report any kind of blatant glitch but I really haven't see many personally. Wall glitches have happened but, to me, it just makes the whole experience more real. You're not safe anywhere. Stay alert. Patience is key. The goal is to survive. Don't complain about it taking forever to creep into a town. The longer you're creeping, the longer you're alive. That's the whole point of the mod. Stay alive as long as you can in anyway you can.

Sorry for the long post but it's nice to finally find a game that has more than point and shoot.

Horse

[adamtheheretic 106]

I'll just leave this here...

---

Loose /lo͞os/

Not firmly or tightly fixed in place; detached or able to be detached: "a loose tooth".

Lose /lo͞oz/

Be deprived of or cease to have or retain (something): "I've lost my appetite".

---

[Hurt-Much 1]

I love the fact that this game exists let alone being able to play it...though I do feel very naked without my gear....and scared, very very scared. Naked and scared. And when I find my gear again its like a crack head finding a fix. I am a naked and scared crack head without my gear. But when I have it..........

[icebluehusky@bigpond.com 27]

I actually have a moment of relief whenever I lose my gear. I have yet to be killed by a bug, but I don't think that I'll have any change of emotion at all compared to being killed by another player or my own stupidity (ie, dying by a zombie). Not having to worry about loosing a particular gun or piece of equipment is much better than my worry about having to re-attain said gear.. at least that's the way I feel before I spend 20 hours trying to find a box of matches! :P

In response to Mephisto, alpha or not, it is still a free mod of a game, and certainly this would have been evident when you purchased Arma 2 and Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead (or Combined Operations). I have played a few other Arma 2 mods and they are all buggy, no more so than DayZ to be perfectly honest. They download automatically when I join the server and give me a version number, and that's it.

I cannot view it due to being at work and YouTube is blocked, but is the video showing how to install DayZ produced from the developer directly? Were any of the other videos you saw of the game from the developer? You cannot blame the developer of the mod for not telling you something when information you have sourced has come from third parties. Even then, it is clearly mentioned on the main webpage of the mod website.. findable by a quick google search.