Dont understand why sidechannel was taken out

[dsm1891 0]

hello,

I STILL don’t understand Rockets reasoning for removing side chat, I understand that it can be 'annoying' or 'unrealistic' but there ARE servers (a lot of servers) that had side chat off.

Rocket removed the starting weapon so people would band together, and create teamwork. that worked, kinda....

But then he removes side chat? that was the best and easiest tool of communicating with your team.... now knowing if somebody is a friendly, is damn near impossible! And teamwork, well, that’s just gone out the window.

Don’t moan at me for it not being realistic, you're over 255km away from me, and your typing to me ("hello").

Goodbye teamwork, i will miss you :'(

[Kuckeli 9]

I miss the side chat too, and running up to someone to say that you are a friendly, will most likely get you killed because you never know if they are friendly or not. If i see someone running towards me, i will most likely shoot them if they have a gun atleast.

[Shimmler 4]

direct channel

[pr0cess 3]

Same reason Zeds break bones in 1 hit and there is no morphine..

[SEM (DayZ) 5]

Who's shooting in Cherno? Friendly?

[dyno0919 0]

Lol^

I kinda miss it too. Most people either don't know how to use direct chat or it's not working. Countless times have I come up on someone and said something and they didn't respond. It's suspicious af and I try to get away from them as quickly as possible. Side chat is nice in that if you break your glass bones in one hit and are suffering from the lack of morphine, you can at least try to find someone to help. Without side chat, your only options are to crawl helplessly for hours on end to the nearest hospital, or respawn. Unfortunately, mostly everyone chooses the latter because the former is a ridiculous expectation.

But really what I'm complaining about there is the lack of morphine. I like sidechat gone, even though I miss it. It was fun to communicate with people and take a short break away from the game, but that's just it. This game is about realism and depth, and sidechat takes that away. Not to mention it tells bandits where everyone is.

[Oompa 25]

Correction:

1. The map is roughly 15 km by 15 km large... the maximum distance you can be away from someone (without leaving the game area) is 21km.

2. Sidechat is enabled. It does however seem to be server-specific, as some servers have it and others do not. The pending update does not seem to change this.

3. Teach the damn russians to stop using it to replace TS. It's annoying to mute every idiot that logs into a server. Telling them to "stop using the sidechat", to "shut up" or even to "shut the **** up or I'll shove a carrot up their ****" just encourages them to use it even more.

[WalkerDown (DayZ) 296]

You can CHAT (and speak) in the direct chat.. it works exactly like the side channel but with a much shorter range. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

[m2n2l2 0]

I'd imagine they took it out, because it was like having a radio in-game. Now it's shouting locally and making everyone around you know you're in town . . rather than enjoying the anonymity of the sidechannel.

E: maybe they should implemend radio to the game. Only having one would gain you access to the sidechannel.

[CREDiBLE 42]

You can CHAT (and speak) in the direct chat.. it works exactly like the side channel but with a much shorter range. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

You can't type in direct chat.

[Oompa 25]

You can CHAT (and speak) in the direct chat.. it works exactly like the side channel but with a much shorter range. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

You can't type in direct chat.

I'll make sure to inform my computer of that fact... it must be doing something wrong.

[ichor 0]

Side chat was removed to force people to use direct chat, and decrease the meta-gaming that naturally occurs in any game where there's a global chat room. I'm alright with crawling around with broken legs for hours till I reach a hospital (or dead survivor) with morphine. I'm more concerned with getting environmental clipping damage due to trying to open a gate, or go through a doorway whilst prone. Personally I like the idea of removing side channel, as you don't have to deal with those inconsiderate individuals who insist on using voip with it and ruining everything.

[dyno0919 0]

You can mute people in side chat. I agree with you, but annoying people who use their mics shouldn't be the reason it was taken away. And I was under the impression that you could type with direct chat. I have done it many times between friends.

[permaphrost 12]

Radios will most likely be added in a later patch which will allow you to communicate with other people from far distances if they have a radio

[Krid 0]

direct channel

is shit

[Gibbonici 9]

You can't rely on the game to help you figure out if someone is friendly or not, you've got learn how to do that yourself in close quarters. Or just run away before it comes to that if you don't want to take the chance. There's no dishonour in running away, not if you want to survive.

The side channel was taken out so people can't negotiate over safe distances. Every encounter with players you don't know is meant to be fraught and paranoid with the chance of losing everything. It requires players to act in a totally different way to the way they do in all other games - if they want to cooperate, that is. It's the only game in the world where it takes more balls to be a carebear than a PKer ;)

That said, it is difficult to form pick-up groups without a global chat channel, especially with the server limits. I'm not sure what the solution is for that (bar looking for groups on the forums), but I wouldn't want side channel back because it would take something truly unique away from the game.

Hopefully radios will implemented at some point, Rocket alluded to such a thing in the latest PC Gamer interview, so there will be a kind of side chat at that point once you've found one. I don't think it's a bad thing to start out totally on your own in DayZ, I think it's a good experience to set you up for the harsh, uncompromising world you're entering.

[MissBehave 37]

I miss sidechat. I would love to see a survivor radio and a bandit radio channel. Of course there would always be spying, but I think this would help bring people together, especially new players.

I have used direct chat ALL week. Know how many responses I have gotten? One and it was garbled Russian. Everytime I used direct chat all that happened was noone else talking and I ended up getting shot and killed.

Having a broader chat or radio channel would be great for enlisting help from other survivors, or bandits, to fight the otherside and work together. With all the different versions of the game right now, you have chat disabled but older versions running it. So now you have players that half can talk, and others can't.

[gizm0 96]

You can't rely on the game to help you figure out if someone is friendly or not' date=' you've got learn how to do that yourself in close quarters.

[/quote']

learn how to do what?! the only thing that is in game is shoot or don't shoot, weapon at the ready or low ready. so there is nothing to really learn as its really a crap shoot to see if they are friendly or not.

[WalkerDown (DayZ) 296]

You can CHAT (and speak) in the direct chat.. it works exactly like the side channel but with a much shorter range. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

You can't type in direct chat.

You wrong, i use it with my team (1.7.1.5) while i cannot use TS.

Last time i used it: around 1 hour ago.

[gizm0 96]

You can CHAT (and speak) in the direct chat.. it works exactly like the side channel but with a much shorter range. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

You can't type in direct chat.

You wrong' date=' i use it with my team (1.7.1.5) while i cannot use TS.

Last time i used it: around 1 hour ago.

[/quote']

you can use it up to 20m

[Toad772 1]

You can CHAT (and speak) in the direct chat.. it works exactly like the side channel but with a much shorter range. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.

You'd have to be retarded to not know what he is complaining about

[Jonson (DayZ) 31]

I'm glad about having no sidechannel. Reading "Whos shooting in Cherno? Friendly?" all day long kind of spoiles the immersion. Direct chat works just fine for me and the encounters during which I used it where the best I had so far (hiding in the bushes while someone passes by and yelling at him is really fun, you should try it). The range is pretty high, too.

I think people just need to get used to it and it will work better.

Other idea: introduce megaphones ;)

oh, and you CAN write in direct chat.

[ZekeDerevenko 0]

Reasons it was removed;

Person A *In cherno* shoots gun, Person B says in Side Channel: :Is that a friendly in cherno?"

Or,

Person A says: "Friendly!" in side chat when getting shot at

Person B believes him

Person A runs up to him and acts friendly

Person B gets shot in the fucking head

AND MOST OF ALL, It was spammed with people who asked for Bandit Groups/Other Survivors to group with, People complaining about how broken the game is, Or all together trolling....

Also, was not very realistic as the true intention of this game is to be REALISTIC as if it were a real apocalyptic situation, I mean if it were real you couldn't talk to your friend 196km away through a blue chat-box...

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

I will help you understand in as brief a manner as possible.

Communication in DayZ is an asset critical to your survival. Reaching out to other survivors and making connections is more important to long term survival than anything else you can do in the game. Communication is as important to survival as food, water and ammunition.

Therefore, giving away unlimited free communication (side chat) has the same effect on the scarcity of that resource as would giving away free water, food or unlimited ammunition would on those.

rocket has taken chat out of the realm of UI where all other designers leave it and taken it into the game. Now YOU are tasked with figuring it out in whatever way you can. There are many solutions be they "meta" (join a clan and use their teamspeak) or in-game mechanics (throw a white smoke grenade to indicate friendly intentions from far away). It's up to you now to decide what methods you will use to make contact with other survivors. It's a challenge now, not just a keyboard command.

Embrace it.

[m2n2l2 0]

Meh. Next they will make the game free for all and bring in the koreans to invent micropayments. Want sidechannel? Pay. Want weapons? Pay. Want morphine? Pay.