Experimental Branch: 0.50 Discussion

[odin_lowe 3686]

I'm gonna share my experimental experience from the weekend.

 

For the TLDR part: Even with the unbalanced hunger and hydration, I had lots of fun.

 

I spawned on the east coast near the town of Solnichniy, hardcore 1PP server, and after checking around town and not finding much, I decided to bail in-land and try my luck there. Since I was already hungry, it didn't take long before starting to starve. Made my way towards Dolina, and found some basic important supplies on the way. A down jacket, a backpack, some ammo and some medical supplies. After looking around Dolina, things got worse as I hadn't found any food yet, and was loosing color (blood) from starvation.

 

At this point a lot of players would have just killed their character to respawn, but I didn't want to. I wanted to test my survival skills. Knowing I didn't have time to search bushes for berries or trees for apples, I headed to Polana. Upon arrival to the town, I removed important clothes (down jacket) and items and put them inside the backpack, dropping it in the middle of the road for another survivor to find if I was gonna die anyway.

 

But my luck turned in Polana. There were cans of food and some rice packs scattered around the houses of Polana, so I started to eat a bit and went to the well to get a drink too. While drinking at the well, a zombie came running straight at me. I tried to cancel the animation but it was too late. 1 hit, 2 hits, I fall to the ground, unconscious. I wake up again and pull out my garden hoe, just to fall to the ground again.

 

I didn't give up.

 

After only 1 or 2 seconds I woke up again, and this time had just enough time to hit the zombie and kill it.

 

Then I ate what I could, and kept a lot of spare food. I drank and fully hydrated my character. I was seeing black and white, but I was slowly healing up. I went back to get the backpack full of stuff I dropped at the entrance of town. I was back in business. I survived a very closed call and was pretty happy about it. Even though it was tough, I was having lots of fun.

 

I went towards Gorka and continued my adventure.

 

After looting Gorka, and heading north towards Severograd, I was healthy, and ready for some more!

 

 

I logged out near Severograd, and went to the regular servers to start again.

 

Most regular servers had only a few players in, so I choose a low ping, 5 player one, and spawned near Svetloyarsk. Didn't take long before I was hydrated and energized, and had good survival gear. I went towards Novo, stopping at the nearby villages on the way. As I arrived in Novo, I decided to check to the wooden log pubs to try and find fishing supplies. As I got to the middle southern one, near the train track bridge, I notice another player. He didn't seem hostile the way he was dressed, but you never know. I went towards the town center, and got on top of the town hall to get a better view. I had closed all doors on the ground level so I would hear if he came in. And what do you know, after a few minutes I heard the doors open. I positioned myself and waited for him to get to the floor I was. I asked him to put his hands up, and he complied.To my surprise, at this point there was only 2 players left in the server, him and me. He told me he didn't understand/talk much of english. I told him I wasn't gonna shoot him, lowered my gun, and went downstairs. I continued looting for a bit, keeping an eye on him.

 

We started looting the same buildings, and without speaking, just by using the "emotes", communicated very basically. After about 20 minutes, we stopped in the middle of the road, and he pointed to the ground, where he dropped 3 stacks or 15 shells for my shotgun. Seeing he had a blaze 95, I gave him some 7.62x51 ammo I had on me. Viking, if you ever read/see this, know that if you ever need help, I'll be there man! B)

 

Even with very basic communication, this was a great experience. I gotta say that I'm lucky, because I get a lot of non-hostile encounters. Don't get me wrong, I get killed and betrayed like everyone else, but I still try to talk my way out of situations and use VOIP first instead of firing on everyone I see, and it makes great play sessions. (at least for me :lol: )

 

On a last note, there's still the bug/glitch of loot spawning too much in certain areas. Some say loot isn't respawing, but I'm not sure. I think it needs balance more than anything. Too much loot isn't better...

 

Edited October 6, 2014 by Odin Lowe

[shinjuru 114]

Here's a great South Park quote that reminds me a lot of those posters that come in here trying to discourage those Experiemental players from contributing their own opinions about their Experimental experiences.

 

“If there are any questions, direct them to that brick wall over there.” — Network President

[anotherdeadhero 71]

Right, my point was that you never know if you're going to find anything with which to restock your supplies. THAT is the challenge -- strategizing your every move to maximize your time spent consuming resources in the process of acquiring more.

It is a bug in the game that is related to persistence and is soon to be fixed. Stop blowing it out of proportion and being sad, you will only look stupid once it is fixed and you have come on here going on about how much of a challenge it is managing resources. 

 

Please for the love of god be quite.

[odin_lowe 3686]

The Experimental Servers suck. 

 

 

Survival should challenge you. It shouldn't punish you.

It needs some balancing that's for sure.

 

But the survival aspect still challenges me and I like that. Everyone has different tastes, and during development process, at this alpha stage, nothing is finished and risks staying like that forever. 

 

I see so many comments like this is a patch for a current finish game that "breaks" your gameplay experience. It's just experimental, opt out and play stable if you want. There's nothing broken right now, as there's nothing finished.

 

Even with something as incomplete as the current experimental build, I still have fun and can overcome anything. (see previous post http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/212191-experimental-branch-050-discussion/page-22#entry2130516 )

 

It sad that it sucks for you. Try avoiding experimental till next update I suppose.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Here's a great South Park quote that reminds me a lot of those posters that come in here trying to discourage those Experiemental players from contributing their own opinions about their Experimental experiences.

 

“If there are any questions, direct them to that brick wall over there.” — Network President

 

If this is in reference to my post above with a South Park quote, you missed the point entirely.

 

I welcome constructive, informed input from all players new and old.

 

Repetitive, self serving, ill informed/uninformed, "this game is broken", "fix my bug before everything else" posts, only clutter this board.

 

Maybe your tolerance for ignorance is higher than mine.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

I'm gonna share my experimental experience from the weekend.

 

For the TLDR part: Even with the unbalanced hunger and hydration, I had lots of fun.

Yep pretty much exactly the same happened me when I started experimental when the patch came out. I almost died for zombies and was even unconcious but then I woke up, bandaged, found and eat food and I'm doing fine since then.

[AnarchyBrownies 1383]

Just played .50 for the first time. I loved it. Went through two characters who starved to death before I had to get off but the game still felt a lot closer to where it needed to be. I found myself struggling to stay alive. I needed more inventory slots, which were rightly rare, I needed more food, I needed warmer clothes, and I needed tools for opening food. This is what the focus should be on. I shouldn't be able to spawn and run to NEAF or NWAF and loot up.

 

Obviously it needs a bit of balance. Either starvation needs to take a little longer or there needs to be a little more food. There DEFINITELY needs to be more ways to open canned food. It's ridiculous to die of starvation with a can of beans in your inventory, as I did. I had a pickaxe, I mean come on. Also, berries and apples should be a little more common. It shouldn't be a waste of my time to look for fruit because I get hungrier faster than I can find an apple.

 

The cold is only possibly out of balance. On my first character I managed to find a rain coat that started warming me up. There is a distinct lack of warm clothing though.

[fing24 36]

I was doing ok got close to south west airfield, Looted some of the towers got light green energy and dark green thirst. My health was not good and could I get healing started, Like fuck could I. left the flat with 3 zeds chasing me. Tried to lose them in the forest just north of the airfield. Lost sight of them then did a 90 degree turn ran down the hill for a bit still in the treas then stopped.  It was raining so decided to fill my canteen up. Did this twice when I hear the zeds coming.  What the fuck they are really really good at tracking now.  Haven't lost a zed yet when running away from them. Up shot I died as I could not take them out as the movement bug had hit me as well as lag.  I have a bleed wound so run to get some distance then bandage myself. Could I stand to run again, no lag gets me then the zed kills me. I would love to know what this exp version is trying to prove. Yet again they release something with a shed load of bugs and run away for the weekend.

[AlfalphaCat 66]

It needs some balancing that's for sure.

 

But the survival aspect still challenges me and I like that. Everyone has different tastes, and during development process, at this alpha stage, nothing is finished and risks staying like that forever. 

 

I see so many comments like this is a patch for a current finish game that "breaks" your gameplay experience. It's just experimental, opt out and play stable if you want. There's nothing broken right now, as there's nothing finished.

 

Even with something as incomplete as the current experimental build, I still have fun and can overcome anything. (see previous post http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/212191-experimental-branch-050-discussion/page-22#entry2130516 )

 

It sad that it sucks for you. Try avoiding experimental till next update I suppose.

 

While I agree it should be challenging, it should also punish you severely if you slip up and fail the challenge.  Whether you survive after failing in some way, say not looking for food and other survival kit, is not the point. 

 

DayZ is at a turning point, where the game is going to change the way it is to be survived. It will be vastly different from the previous iterations of SA.  I think a lot of the new to DayZ crowd are just used to the, 'quick!! get a gun'  then you're set for life, style of gameplay.  Every time it gets harder where it needs to, they cry, because apparently this is not the game they are looking to play.

 

Bugs and balancing issues aside, DayZ looks like it is finally on the right track to become a great survival simulator. 

 

I, for one, am happy to see these changes. :) :) :)

Edited October 5, 2014 by AlfalphaCat

[xexdevelopers 0]

Has Anyone yet to find the vehicle that was post "To be added" the 8 guy big truck?? IN the experimental branch

[renigade 50]

Wow, an all caps rage-reply. Must be true.

 

On a more serious note, no. Ten, a hundred, a thousands times no. I've spawned in places obviously looted before my arrival and there was loot - sometimes interesting, sometimes not. But there was loot, even if some other noobspawn before me dropped his/her jeans, battery and/or torch on the ground. There is, on the other hand, a very big problem with loot tables and locations.

 

As previously noted by Boneboys some towns are literally full to the brim with supplies. I've found stacks of 10-15 empty first aid kits in a room outside Cherno. In every shack and/or barn I'm visiting there are tons of industrial loot (constuction helmets, cyalumes, ropes, pliers and such). Barns are full of lanterns and gas stoves. Two story houses spawn almost only books, and on several bus stops in front of houses between Solnichniy and Kamyshovo there are dozens of books. Rify, in at least three servers I've visited with different characters, is full of cloned items - groups of tree/four child briefcases are common, as bike helmets and, again, empty first aid kits. Rifles cover (literally!) the bridges of the ship, but no ammunition can be found on it.

 

There's some problem with loot, yes, but player-dropped items does not seem to influence loot spawn. I still don't understand if food spawn rate have been tampered with and lowered or if the circle of spawn-death by thirst/starvation-respawn is too quick and effectively prevent loot respawn creating "burned" zones where no food can be found around spawn zones. This, with the combined reduced stomach dimension/harsher calories consumption is killing characters extremely fast.

 

 

 

I don't agree with Boneboys however on a point: even if you're full green and healthy with lots of supplies you WILL die of starvation. And quickly. Way too quickly to be enjoyable. It's a game, dammit...seriously, this is the only answer to the "easy survival mode" of 0.49? There's no middle ground, either it's too easy or needlessty harsh.

biggest no shit Sherlock comment ive ever seen...

u just told us what we already knew? and as far as the loot tables go? there fine... lmfao..

 

THE REASON I CAPS AND ... WITH BIG GAPS BETWEEN SENTENCES IS SO IDIOTIC PEEPS CAN SIMPLY READ WITHOUT ISSUES... special folks need all the help they can get like bean king and his backwards forum replys, or until he rants about how his playstyle fits into this game and in a exp discussion...

 

your obviously ignorant to how persistence works... 2ndly.. I HAVE CONFIRMED THIS NOT ONLY IN REGULAR BUT HARDCORE.. can u read that << just cause I hit a key doesn't mean im yelling? I actually have a friend who has spent over 40 - 50+ hours in exp over the last week... who can still confirm persistence is PREVENTING LOOT FROM SPAWNING!

 

lol so all that smartass dribble from u and ya handicapped mate bean king.. was a waste of time and space and relevance to this topic..  /GOLFCLAP

 

appreciate u wasting my time and others ty..

[Sharplooter 98]

This is so strange... I didn't play 0.50 since the day it came out (1. October), but today I watched twitch and I even got game/motion sick while just watching (not only while playing) 0.50 exp!

 

I mean seriously? Plz tell me someone that he or she got sick too... can't believe that shit, because I never had problems with bohemia engines and I am still fine with 0.49. It's actually only 0.50 what makes me motion/game sick. Could it be possible that this build has micro-stutter even without sli/cf? I am stumped :(

Edited October 5, 2014 by Sharplooter

[odin_lowe 3686]

biggest no shit Sherlock comment ive ever seen...

u just told us what we already knew? and as far as the loot tables go? there fine... lmfao..

 

THE REASON I CAPS AND ... WITH BIG GAPS BETWEEN SENTENCES IS SO IDIOTIC PEEPS CAN SIMPLY READ WITHOUT ISSUES... special folks need all the help they can get like bean king and his backwards forum replys, or until he rants about how his playstyle fits into this game and in a exp discussion...

 

your obviously ignorant to how persistence works... 2ndly.. I HAVE CONFIRMED THIS NOT ONLY IN REGULAR BUT HARDCORE.. can u read that << just cause I hit a key doesn't mean im yelling? I actually have a friend who has spent over 40 - 50+ hours in exp over the last week... who can still confirm persistence is PREVENTING LOOT FROM SPAWNING!

 

lol so all that smartass dribble from u and ya handicapped mate bean king.. was a waste of time and space and relevance to this topic..  /GOLFCLAP

 

appreciate u wasting my time and others ty..

Even with persistence on, loot can re-spawn endlessly just like before. Loot re-spawn isn't working right, but it's definitely "on" in experimental. The whole system is being build and need some major balancing/tweaking.

[xcalibur94 0]

And plz try to research the sudden death bug... i was in a huge building last week and suddenly died by an Axe (Apparently)

[Tatanko 5591]

It is a bug in the game that is related to persistence and is soon to be fixed. Stop blowing it out of proportion and being sad, you will only look stupid once it is fixed and you have come on here going on about how much of a challenge it is managing resources. 

 

Please for the love of god be quite.

Uhhh, dude... you're the one that needs to calm down. I'm not even complaining in my post. I've said, several times, very specifically, that I WELCOME the challenge. Maybe read all the related posts and consider context next time instead of taking my structured ponderance and turning it into something it isn't. There is too much hostility in this thread, and I refuse to be dragged into it. Leave me out of this.

 

Anyway, I spent a lot of time picking apples earlier as a last resort measure and had a lot of fun with taking this screenshot, so I had to share it:

 

Edited October 6, 2014 by Tatanko

[Dudester100 448]

Uhhh, dude... you're the one that needs to calm down. I'm not even complaining in my post. I've said, several times, very specifically, that I WELCOME the challenge. Maybe read all the related posts and consider context next time instead of taking my structured ponderance and turning it into something it isn't. There is too much hostility in this thread, and I refuse to be dragged into it. Leave me out of this.

 

Anyway, I spent a lot of time picking apples earlier as a last resort measure and had a lot of fun with taking this screenshot, so I had to share it:

 

Yeah everybody needs to calm the fuck down  :facepalm: nice apple skyscrapers tho btw lol

Edited October 6, 2014 by Dudester100

[Demonica 311]

That's one of the funniest pics I've seen in a long time and perfectly sums up what Apple picking does these days! Sire, my Beans are yours, may they keep you healthy and energized :D

[Tatanko 5591]

That's one of the funniest pics I've seen in a long time and perfectly sums up what Apple picking does these days! Sire, my Beans are yours, may they keep you healthy and energized :D

It's one of my favorite personal works. I call it: "The Struggle of 0.50" ;)

 

EDIT: On a positive note, I have had a character alive for ~8 straight hours of play time now. It has been a struggle every step of the way, but it has definitely been a fun challenge. I don't think I want it to be this hard all the time, but it's certainly making me a better player -- if nothing else, I'll come out stronger from this.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Tatanko

[ljlee256 0]

I find the whole "searching for apples" thing ridiculous.

In real life I never had to "search for apples" while standing in front of an apple tree. I have never "not found a thing", when standing in front of an apple tree that has apples on it, and tryiong to pick one. It makes absolutely no sense. Well... maybe if you are visually impaired.

I just look at a tree from a distance and I can see whether it has apples on it or not.

I can understand that game engine wise it is not doable to generate individual apples on each tree.

BUT they could change the system that is currently in place to something like:

1) I Walk up to a tree and from a distance of 5 meters or so I get the option to "look for apples"

2) After having done that I get one of 2 messages

A: There are apples on this tree

or

B: There aren't any apples on this tree

3) If B then I proceed to another tree

If A then I have the option "pick an apple", which can either turn out fresh or rotten (rotten because sometimes the halve of the apple that you can't see is rotten or 'gnawed' on by bugs or birds. But all in all you should get way more fresh apples than rotten apples.

This would make the system much more logical and also would apply to berries or whatever which stuff they will implement with horticulture.

To some extent I agree, although I think a simple /or visual state of an apple tree could be easily done, if there are apples present, show apples in the tree, if not, then don't, they don't have to show the exact number of apples present in the tree itself, just an -or- visual state. You are right, you should actually be able to see if there are apples in a tree.

In regards to the hunger system, I like the reduction of available food supply, I think that adds realism to the game, however, the fact that someone can go from "kinda hungry" to literally dying of starvation in 30 odd minutes is not overly realistic, hell it takes me longer to bleed out. Make food extremely scarce, but make death by starvation take a few hours I think. And/or make being "hungry" punishing (makes the character slower and weaker) but have the rate that your status deteriorates from hunger to starving take much longer. In reality a person may get hungry within a few hours of not eating, and within a few more hours start to degrade his ability to focus or perform physical tasks, but the time it would take an otherwise healthy person to actually die of starvation is weeks, if not months, not to mention, long before a person actually dies of starvation they will literally eat grass (I read it in a book, Russian children, they maybe ate every 3-4 days, and they would actually eat grass when they could find it).

[Judopunch 523]

Uhhh, dude... you're the one that needs to calm down. I'm not even complaining in my post. I've said, several times, very specifically, that I WELCOME the challenge. Maybe read all the related posts and consider context next time instead of taking my structured ponderance and turning it into something it isn't. There is too much hostility in this thread, and I refuse to be dragged into it. Leave me out of this.

 

Anyway, I spent a lot of time picking apples earlier as a last resort measure and had a lot of fun with taking this screenshot, so I had to share it:

 

I did the same thing. 

 

After that I did berry bushes, was much better.

[renigade 50]

lol loving the * IN REAL LIFE * talk..

 

.50 is a lil more realistic... lmao!

 

(above quote)

In reality a person may get hungry within a few hours of not eating, and within a few more hours start to degrade his ability to focus or perform physical tasks, but the time it would take an otherwise healthy person to actually die of starvation is weeks, if not months, not to mention, long before a person actually dies of starvation they will literally eat grass (I read it in a book, Russian children, they maybe ate every 3-4 days, and they would actually eat grass when they could find it).

^LMFAO!!

 

im pretty shaw people know how long it takes to get hungry? in real life! LOL!

 

game talk lol

now if I have an item... and I wave my magic cattle prod... POOOOOOOOOOOOOF another item appears...

a guy I know...

a tester of the experimental kind has found some methods of magic in the realm of chernarus.

I call him a wizard..

 

shame on u testers for crying about how unreal the game is and not actually testing it!

 

SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAME ON YOU!

 

im about to click           I UNDERSTAND            but really do I????????????

[LouisK 85]

I skipped the 6-7 pages discussion. Surviving is not that hard, but you tend to ragequit when you die out of nowhere when going upstairs or over something after being hours trying to find that goddamn can of food :(

[igor-vk 909]

With the new energy management system this build is discouraging repetitive loot-runs in the well know places this community loves. That's good: I was tired of seeing (and reading) of the copycat lootig sprees in the military bases and such. I'm not sure increasing calories consumption AND decreasing food spawn is a sensible choice, though. Igor-vk is right, the first minutes of each new characters are crucial: if you find decent or good loot around, you maybe live. If you don't it's an one-way ticket to death.

 

While I welcome an harsher approach to survival, I feel that there's something off with 0.50' solution to the "easy survival" problem in DayZ. I mean: you don't find a lot of canned goods, and that's ok. You can eat wild fruits/berries but, well, there are few and they give you few calories anyway. This, combined with the previous, is not good but still not a problem. You can still hunt, right? But in order to cook hunted animals you need:

 

* axe

* rags

* matches

* tree branch(es)

* tree log(s)

* knife to butcher animal

 

or

 

* gas stove

* gas canister

* kettle

* matches

* knife to butcher animal

 

If we consider the time (and energy) required to actually find those supplies, it's clear we need some sort of sustainment for a while. But canned foods and fruits/berries are rare...so we have a problem. Because once we find those items we need time (and energy) to find and kill the animal, and a little additional time in order to wait for meat to cook. Better avoid the topic of "fishing", because you need a tree branch, a rope, a super-rare fishing hook, a farming hoe to dig out earthworms, earthworms, a blade to gut/fillet the fish....yeah, you've got the picture. 

 

 

I suggest a "simple" drop in the spawn rate of canned food, and a backtrack to the previous calories consumption system. Or keep the actual calories consumption, and return to 0.49 food spawn rate. Or maybe let people spawn with very sturdy multitool: something that does not start degrading after two or three uses. In this way you have at least a small blade (cut/fillet venison or fishes), a can opener (open canned foods) and at least another small implement (maybe a small saw to cut off ONLY kindling from trees?).

Corection: cooking with gas stove is still broken - insta-burned meat. Great change to game, very hardcore. I would add only one thing: spoiling non canned food, so caned food is even more valuable. On other side, loot is way too rare - it ruins the game. Three pairs of trousers in whole Cherno is stupid. Getting hungry too fast also ruins game. You cant run between two villages without starving to death. Temperature system looks a bit better than in .49. All this things need adjusting. Im all for rarity of weapons and military loot, as long as there arent 10 000 zombies on map. Survival items should spawn more, so game leads to surviving.

 

All in all, this build need few more updates to balance things to playable level.

[DocWolf 146]

I'm gonna share my experimental experience from the weekend.

 

For the TLDR part: Even with the unbalanced hunger and hydration, I had lots of fun.

I appreciate the story: it's good reading something positive about 0.50 for once...but, sadly, you were lucky. First-person-only servers have more loot in them simply because they have less players locked in an endless circle of dying and respawning in the same zones: loot respawn isn't overwhelmed by the sheer number of players. Besides that, I've spawned in the north too: Novo and Svetlo, mainly, and each time I found well balanced loot: useful things mixed with garbage lying in the usual places. If you spawn in certain places you enjoy 0.50 even if it's harsh: I managed to actually smile when I realized how much funny was balancing supplies in an expedtion from Svetlo to Karmanovka.

But for people spawning south, starting from Berezino and going downwards towards Cherno? It's often scorched earth, literally: house after house of nothing. And, very often, barns and wood shacks/garages full to the brim with industrial loot. My last character managed to starve because I walked from the three-house-and-a-barn spawn between Krutoy Cape and Solnichniy towards the city itself...I've found and ate a couple of canned goods shortly after spawn, found some fruits in the barn and several beers/cokes...and walking killed the character: he dropped unconscious just near Solnichniy's quarry. Calories consumption NEED to be reworked, especially if they intend to introduce a stamina system.

[odin_lowe 3686]

lol loving the * IN REAL LIFE * talk..

 

.50 is a lil more realistic... lmao!

 

(above quote)

In reality a person may get hungry within a few hours of not eating, and within a few more hours start to degrade his ability to focus or perform physical tasks, but the time it would take an otherwise healthy person to actually die of starvation is weeks, if not months, not to mention, long before a person actually dies of starvation they will literally eat grass (I read it in a book, Russian children, they maybe ate every 3-4 days, and they would actually eat grass when they could find it).

^LMFAO!!

 

im pretty shaw people know how long it takes to get hungry? in real life! LOL!

 

game talk lol

now if I have an item... and I wave my magic cattle prod... POOOOOOOOOOOOOF another item appears...

a guy I know...

a tester of the experimental kind has found some methods of magic in the realm of chernarus.

I call him a wizard..

 

shame on u testers for crying about how unreal the game is and not actually testing it!

 

SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAME ON YOU!

 

im about to click           I UNDERSTAND            but really do I????????????

I really hate when people compare DayZ to real life. Not matter the stage of development of the game, it's still a game will always feel "arcade" to me.

 

It's nothing close to an "authentic" survival experience either currently in experimental. I had fun, but I'm somewhat mad so that's just me, and my personal tastes. Current hunger system is very unbalanced and needs a lot of work that's for sure!