How active is the vanilla DayZ mod community?

[SixZoSeven 20]

Old time player here (from August 2012) of the DayZ mod.

 

The past year or so, I've been busy with the large amount of new mods, especially the popular ones like Epoch and Origins. I'll admit, they were fun, however it got to the point where if I died, I could just go back to base and gear up with anti-material rifles and such, only to drive around in my HMMV GPK. 

 

I miss the thrill of encountering another player, wondering if they are friendly or not. The adrenaline rush of knowing there is a chance of losing the gear you worked for. It made firefights intense.

 

What's the vanilla mod like now? If you'd think it would appeal to me, please write below. I'm wondering whether or not it's worth the re-download.

[kichilron 8550]

For it being free and only about 350 MB, it's always worth downloading. ;)

 

There aren't that many true vanilla servers anymore (especially not ones that are populated). The Vanilla Mod these days mostly is either modded to be more like pay2win or Epoch "getEverythingIn2Minutes".

 

There are plenty of good servers out there, they're mostly not populated, though.

[leefriendfield 438]

Player from 2012 here,

 

The mod has died almost completely out. All that stands are roughly 5 servers that are completely vanilla with some people. The community has dropped to the point that normal dayz servers hover around 250. The game is on its last leg at the moment but it still has some life left to it. If you are interested in some DayZ I have a list of some servers still running vanilla. 

[Ninja_Meh 115]

if you get good pings to uk servers i highly suggest UK410 im pretty sure it is totally vanilla, the guys in there are relatively sound (in terms of global chat not getting spammed to bad by a-holes) and there is a nice mix of friendly and banditry maggits to bump into as well. i  made some cool team mates in there after getting tired with standalone all the time. great server and totally vanilla. have had some great experiences on there.

 

only warning is that blood test kits on the server seem to be bugged because of something to do with the server version they are running so to find out what blood type you are, you actually need an empty blood bag, a transfusion kit, and well over 4000 blood so as to be able to fill your bag and find out what type you have. other than that, its great. hell i even have a small little camp there if you wanted to have a meet up some time and help me expand my base coverage. I tend to like having a number of small well hidden camps in the central map so as to make vehicle part scavenging easier and stuff instead of having to risk dumping parts in the invent of a vehicle you find, i tend to find vehicles, note the location, then scavenge all the needed parts into a central camp, then go out with low quality gear equipped and all the parts to fix the vehicles and bring them back to base :P

[BC_Hawke 276]

My group and I play on US 434 and US 1257 a lot, but as stated above true vanilla DayZ is dying off fast.  It's a goddamned shame because BI held off the 1.8.1 update for so long, and it's *the* update which has made the game so much more complete than it used to be.  It is literally dying now that it's a fantastic game.  I really wish something could be done about it but people seem much more interested in the instant gratification of Epoch/Overwatch or heavily modified private hives.

 

 

To be specific about what is new, the zombies are a real challenge now, the nutrition system is more complex and it's more difficult to keep your hunger and thirst at bay, which requires hunting, cooking, and boiling water to survive.  The medical system is more complex as well.  The crossbow has been revamped and is now the best zombie killer weapon in the game.  The group I play with is always trying to find more people that play vanilla DayZ.  You're welcome to join our TeamSpeak server: dayzknights.com to hang out with some people that play vanilla on a regular basis.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Bullet_Catcher

[thedogfoodyayho 295]

Its pretty sad as already stated.. Most of the servers have no more than 10 players, although on Sundays it's more like 20. 

Now i wish i had played official more... I started in Mid 2013 and have played pretty much every mod, but i haven't spent more than 50 hours on official. I'll still play it, afterall, the more people on a server, the more will join.

 

 If you are interested in some DayZ I have a list of some servers still running vanilla. 

Can i have that please?

it may bounce back.. after standalone it got this bad, but it got back to a reasonable number before overpoch. Only time will tell.

 

I did find one Vanilla Private hive - i think it was US 262 Dallas. All vehicle spawns are on, however. 

[rn_max 202]

The A2OA Steam and 1.63 transition has been a disaster from all sides, mostly owing to lack of information exchange.  BIS, this community and server hosts/admins alike ... all have a share in the blame whether they like it or not.

 

The public hive population has been all but wiped out, by the division between servers in Steam and those in no-man's land (formerly GameSpy).  Epoch and others transitioned their arses across to Steam 1.63 without imploding, so to be brutally honest there is really no excuse.

[r4z0r49 4761]

Wasn't really hard to update but for some reason alot of the servers had issues. Not a'lot you can do really you cant force ppl to update and change,

[kichilron 8550]

Wasn't really hard to update but for some reason alot of the servers had issues.

 

 

My oppinion still is that GemSpy should have shut down for good.

 

If it would have, DayZCommander would have been forced to upgrade, the servers would have been forced to update to the newest beta-patch supporting Steam-Servers, etc.

 

For now DZC doesn't support Steam-Servers and that is the reason Server-Admins aren't upgrading - > but DZC isn't upgrading, because servers aren't upgrading.

 

It would have taken initiative noone was willing to spare, meaning we were left in a vicious circle, really.

[thedogfoodyayho 295]

US 434 and US 1257 topped at about 30 players each yesterday. :)

[xalienax 621]

to the OP; Very few true vanilla servers left, and even less populated. last time i checked US3480 was still up and running but it's been a while.

For it being free and only about 350 MB, it's always worth downloading. ;)

 

There aren't that many true vanilla servers anymore (especially not ones that are populated). The Vanilla Mod these days mostly is either modded to be more like pay2win or Epoch "getEverythingIn2Minutes".

 

There are plenty of good servers out there, they're mostly not populated, though.

In all fairness i have to defend Epoch just a little; The concept is solid. While its surely a divergence from the more "bare bones" of vanilla i do like the appeal of a more "factionalized" road-warrior style dayZ with epic clan bases and military style weapons and vehicles. its more of a 48hrs after **** hit the fan sort of scenario. Unfortunately, as you stated, so many servers are subject to admin abuse or P2W donor packs (one Epoch server offers spawn at NWAF with an apache helicopter for 35$ a month) and THIS is what gives mods like epoch a bad name.

 

In fact, the same can be said for the mod in general. very few GOOD servers vanilla or otherwise that don't offer redicuolous donator perks. the biggest killer for me when my old clan did run official mod (public hive) was that the hosting agreement provented us from being allowed to use any 3rd party anti-cheats, detection, or admin tool (Eg. Gotcha, BEC, etc). I realize there are badmins who abuse, but BE's "wave banning" is NOT nor ever will be an acceptable for a game like this. active admins needs tools to spot and detcect and then BAN based on thier own observations and discretions. not in a week or a month. right here, right now in real time. right before rolling back and un-dooing all that the hacker/cheater accomplished.

[vinyljunkie 165]

I don't think it's dead, the developers are developing for it again (thanks kichilron and R4Z0R49) and the mod is better than ever if you ask me.

However getting the same player numbers as earlier will require time and patience. Most of the players I get on my server are either new to the mod, old timers wanting vanilla and alot of players from SA that are tired of running and the lack of vehicles. I even get players that are getting tired of the easy mode mods like yourself remembering why they started playing DayZ in the first place, the chills and adrenaline rush when you know you can and are about to loose it all.

I think server owners have to start over when running vanilla DayZ Mod, as someone stated earlier the momentum was kinda lost before 1.8.1 finally came out.

Remember that all the server owners that offer 10000+ vehicles and so on are running a race they cant win since everyone else is offering the same thing, but a little better. So the players move there, And then to another server. And another. I dont think any server owner wants players like that anyway. I know I don't.

My server saw a boost in players when moving on to Steam and some nights I have 30+ players on.

Im happy with that because its good for a vanilla DayZ Server as for now. However in the future with new updates from the dev's this mod will hopefully be one of the most played again, I'm sure.

Cheers

/Vinyl

Edited July 18, 2014 by vinyljunkie

[r4z0r49 4761]

For now the link between the community devs and the BIS devs is a little off the beaten path we are working on this and hopefully soon be able to release much faster. But as you know alot of this is out of our control we do everything we can around work and other real live duties. 

[Borges (DayZ) 40]

Vanilla was pretty active with 1.8.0.3 however due to the broken-ness of 1.8.1 it died out quick. Hopefully it will revive itself when 1.8.2 is released and the game resumes to be properly playable.

[kichilron 8550]

Vanilla was pretty active with 1.8.0.3 however due to the broken-ness of 1.8.1 it died out quick. Hopefully it will revive itself when 1.8.2 is released and the game resumes to be properly playable.

 

 

How is 1.8.1 broken?

[BC_Hawke 276]

Vanilla was pretty active with 1.8.0.3 however due to the broken-ness of 1.8.1 it died out quick. Hopefully it will revive itself when 1.8.2 is released and the game resumes to be properly playable.

Wait, what?  1.8.1 is the best thing that's happened to DayZ mod.  It's very playable (my friends and I play it daily).  How is it broken?  The transition to the Steam version of A2OA has been really poor, but how is 1.8.1 broken?

[SixZoSeven 20]

My group and I play on US 434 and US 1257 a lot, but as stated above true vanilla DayZ is dying off fast.  It's a goddamned shame because BI held off the 1.8.1 update for so long, and it's *the* update which has made the game so much more complete than it used to be.  It is literally dying now that it's a fantastic game.  I really wish something could be done about it but people seem much more interested in the instant gratification of Epoch/Overwatch or heavily modified private hives.

 

 

To be specific about what is new, the zombies are a real challenge now, the nutrition system is more complex and it's more difficult to keep your hunger and thirst at bay, which requires hunting, cooking, and boiling water to survive.  The medical system is more complex as well.  The crossbow has been revamped and is now the best zombie killer weapon in the game.  The group I play with is always trying to find more people that play vanilla DayZ.  You're welcome to join our TeamSpeak server: dayzknights.com to hang out with some people that play vanilla on a regular basis.

 

 

Hmm. Sounds like the mod is finally moving away from a "PvP with zombies on the side" to "Both players, zombies, and the environment are a threat." Glad to see it ramping up the survival aspect. When I played epoch, it was really just ---> buy weapons ----> kill/be killed -----> repeat

Edited July 18, 2014 by SixZoSeven

[BC_Hawke 276]

Remember that Epoch is an entirely different game from DayZ mod.  It's kinda like comparing Counter-Strike to Half Life.  Epoch is a mod of DayZ mod.  That being said, several private hive DayZ mod servers do have ridiculous settings like 1,000+ vehicles 1,000+ helicopters 24/7 daytime, etc.  From the beginning, vanilla DayZ mod has been a game that focuses on survival and working hard to obtain gear, and while newcomers would find the zombies really challenging they became kinda easy to deal with once you realized you could just outrun them.  Also, nutrition wasn't much of a factor as long as you had 1 can of food and 1 soda with you.  While PvE and survival have always been an element in DayZ mod, they are now much more integral to the game.  You cannot just outrun zombies and you are required to hunt and cook food as well as find and boil water to maintain good health.  I love the new dynamics!