mithrawndo 166 Posted March 7, 2014 So the new experimental branch has some lovely features, and I'm sure we're all enjoying testing it out. What I'm not enjoying though is having to constantly switch between the two branches depending on the people I'm playing with and the time of day (there's no point playing experimental if none of the server have restarted in 4 hours!), as this is a huge waste of bandwidth. I know this isn't as big a deal as it once was, but there are still plenty of people out there with metered internet connections and to be frank (hello, frank!) it's just really inefficient to waste so much bandwidth. My suggestion therefore is quite simple, though possibly not achievable: Create a separate steam entry tied to the DayZ package for the experimental branch rather than using the steam betas function. This way we can waste hard drive space rather than bandwidth and keep both branches installed concurrently. Thank you for your time! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gsp167 95 Posted March 7, 2014 I doubt they'll ever do that. You chose to install the experimental version of the game, so you took the risk of having issues / no servers to play on and servers not being restarted. This is why I stick to the regular branch. :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slyguy65 499 Posted March 7, 2014 ya this is a thing i dont understand...tons of valve games have "betas" for games chivalrydota2TF2etc. Why dayz and hell ALL alpha games who wish to have don't have "betas" I don't get. But honestly I don't get why we need the separation FFS, we are playing ALPHA games, why do we need a beta for the alpha....it just... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KarmaCoin 72 Posted March 7, 2014 you might be able to use steam mover to somehow have both version installed at the same time. Haven't tried though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
xRann 126 Posted March 7, 2014 Not sure if it'd be as easy as that, but doing two installs one for each branch seems well within possible. I doubt they'll ever do that. You chose to install the experimental version of the game, so you took the risk of having issues / no servers to play on and servers not being restarted. This is why I stick to the regular branch. :)I think he's talking more about the size difference with the last exp patch and what we can all expect would be larger gap of file size between stable and exp as more features get implemented. And simply having two installs of the game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mithrawndo 166 Posted March 7, 2014 xRann is absolutely right, I'm not even slightly worried about stability - I would just like to be able to let steam handle keeping both stable and experimental branches up to date so that when I get home from work and ask my friends where they are, I don't have to switch and download hundreds of megs: I just click the appropriate shortcut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SmashT 10907 Posted March 7, 2014 I'm sure I read a post from Rocket or another Dev about this the other week, basically that they were talking to Steam about what their options were. For the life of me, I can't find it now though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quantum2k6 348 Posted March 8, 2014 (edited) ya this is a thing i dont understand...tons of valve games have "betas" for games chivalrydota2TF2etc. Why dayz and hell ALL alpha games who wish to have don't have "betas" I don't get. But honestly I don't get why we need the separation FFS, we are playing ALPHA games, why do we need a beta for the alpha....it just... So true... i dont get it too... there should be only experimental version servers imo. why hundrets of stables but only 20-25 exp.? whats better for dev progress? have 1,6 million of real alpha testers or make the kids happy?! but at least a second experimental only version for steam would be great! the switching sucks really... Edited March 8, 2014 by quantum2k6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mithrawndo 166 Posted March 8, 2014 As I understand it, the stable servers are run (under license) by the community, and only the hive is controlled by Bohemia. The Experimental servers are directly controlled by Bohemia (though I do presume they are hosted in much the same way). It would be prohibitively expensive for Bohemia to host enough servers to keep the player base happy, let alone administer them all. I'd rather they spent their money on keeping their staff incentivised, even if it does add a degree of inconvenience - particularly if there's a solution that means we might be able to have our cake and eat it too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
