Post Return Observations - 9 hours played after 6 months away

[PhillyT 554]

Well, I have had a few hours in the newest build and have a chance to effectively compare and contrast how the game has changed over the last 6 months:

 

1.  Wet and cold are quite cool and really change how you play the game.  I suddenly found myself lugging a raincoat around in my pack and using a down jacket instead of my regular shirt approach.  Made for a much more interesting set of choices.

 

2.  Food is EVERYWHERE.  Food was never difficult to obtain, but now it is positively ridiculous.  Zuchini and tomatoes are everywhere.  Apples and berries can be obtained in a pinch.  You can get a pile of food of any passing animal.  I figure that this will be restricted later, but it is even easier to deal with hunger now than ever before.

 

3.  People are even more insane after the wipe.  I meet more KOS, no talk new spawns today than I can ever remember.  I think people getting their character wiped has made them desperate and angry.  Which is too bad because...

 

4.  Guns are insanely hard to find.  When I find a gun, I struggle to find any ammo for it.  I managed to find an SKS and a box of ammo, a long horn, and a double barrel, which is what I am using.  But the biggest one is a .357 and about 60 rounds I snagged in the trunk of a car in Polana.  Seems like a good amount, but that was in hours of searching along the East coast.  I found several other weapons, but no ammo or mags for them.

 

5.  Cars and trucks are now probably the BEST place to find good stuff.  Rifles, food, clothes.  The junk yard in Berezino and the cars in Polana will kit you pretty well pretty quickly.

 

6.  There are many new and entertaining things to do, but they aren't that useful yet.  Fishing and fires come to mind.  Other than pinpoint rescuing you from terrible cold, fires are just sort of interesting currently.  You don't NEED to cook anything.  There is so much food and any hand weapon will open cans now, that you are not required to kill or cook anything.  Heck, you can even eat the rice and drink away the dehydration to avoid cooking it.

 

I was killed twice, both times as a result of a bizarre lag that I can only assume was the after effect of the DDOS attack (though that doesn't make sense since the people killing me seemed to function fine).  Once, I met a player with a sledge hammer at the Berezino construction site.  I left him as he fought a zombie, but as I ran across the field, I suddenly heard the thumping sound of a hammer blow several times and I died.  I can only assume I wasn't really in the field and I was actually still in the construction site being murdered!  I did kill a player just  right before I logged and came here.  HE was an overly aggressive newer spawn with a fire axe who came flying at me outside of Stary.  I showed him that even after 6 months, a magnum will allow even a mediocre PVP player like myself to survive through sheer volume of fire!

 

All in all I am loving DayZ again after spending 6 months in the Mod.  It still has some way to go though, especially in the stability department.  Being killed and being reset repeatedly due to lag or dysnch is game killing.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Welcome back!

 

Be sure to read this for developments that will affect all of the above observations.

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/217141-one-year-of-dayz/

[LORDPrometheus 21]

wait people got wiped? i didnt...

[crazykage 1063]

LORDPrometheus, on 20 Dec 2014 - 9:53 PM, said:

wait people got wiped? i didnt...

actually, I think the proper term is "swiped".

 

Welcome back philly.

[BeaverProductions 441]

wait people got wiped? i didnt...

He hasnt played in 6 months so he did get wiped

[SoulAssassin808 13]

Funny, I came back after a few months and found absolutely nothing was fixed with the core gameplay.

1. Still only 50 players max in one server. I've played for 6 hours on full servers without meeting a single person.

2. Zombies, I've seen like 6, averaging 1 an hour, that being said their pathing is better now. Yet interacting with them (melee combat) is still absolute shit.

3. Game still runs like poop.

Is it too hard to ask the core gameplay to be fixed before they add more weapons and items? All I want is plenty of zombies, 100 players or more servers.

[McWendy 675]

Funny, I came back after a few months and found absolutely nothing was fixed with the core gameplay.koop

1. Still only 50 players max in one server. I've played for 6 hours on full servers without meeting a single person.

2. Zombies, I've seen like 6, averaging 1 an hour, that being said their pathing is better now. Yet interacting with them (melee combat) is still absolute shit.

3. Game still runs like poop.

Is it too hard to ask the core gameplay to be fixed before they add more weapons and items? All I want is plenty of zombies, 100 players or more servers.

1: ive played on 5/6 pop servers and met 3 people within 30 minutes so this is luck of the draw. Does not mean i do not want more players per server

2: serveral cities which contain multiple Zs but agree in the future we need more.

3; what do you define as "poop" because the game itself runs smooth on high on my mediocre machine.

Dont get me wrong the game is not there yet, but to say nothing changed in the few months you've been away is BS.

[ChainReactor 922]

1. Still only 50 players max in one server. I've played for 6 hours on full servers without meeting a single person.

2. Zombies, I've seen like 6, averaging 1 an hour, that being said their pathing is better now. Yet interacting with them (melee combat) is still absolute shit.

3. Game still runs like poop.

Is it too hard to ask the core gameplay to be fixed before they add more weapons and items? All I want is plenty of zombies, 100 players or more servers.

 

1 and 3 are actually connected to each others. The server performance isn't there yet to increase the player cap. More players = more poop.

Zombies are still the old system ( the new AI and animation system is in internal testing now ). If you have a hard time killing them ( or them turning invisible, or hit you from a big distance ... ) this is again tied to server performance.

 

And the art team that creates guns and items is not working on the engine, and thus does not influence the development of gameplay mechanics. I should get a dollar everytime i explain that.

 

What you want is actually what the dev's want, too. The thing that many players get wrong however is to think that this is either an easy thing to do or can be achieved in a short ammount of time like 2 or 3 months. Especially server performance is an ongoing WIP that will be on it's limit as long as the game is in alpha development.

Edited December 21, 2014 by ChainReactor

[PhillyT 554]

I had one of those nutty persistence experiences yesterday.  I arrived in Gorka and found about 10 guns in the barn on the outskirts.  I then found over a dozen weapons in the police station.

 

What is the story with finding backpacks full of gear?  Is it spawned that way or were they left by a player and remain due to the persistence?  I assume spawned since the mix of items is sometimes unusual.

[PhillyT 554]

actually, I think the proper term is "swiped".

 

Welcome back philly.

 

Thanks!

 

I actually played a week ago long enough to regear a little.

 

I got wiped by playing during the DDOS attack as far as I can tell.  He didn't come back afterwards!

[Cap'n (DayZ) 1827]

I think it's come pretty far since release, and the fact I've dumped just over 600 hours into it is a testament that the game is indeed playable. I will not deny that there are serious problems at hand, but these are being addressed by the developers. I hope you enjoy your time in DayZ, but don't burn it out. The only reason I've spilled so many hours is because I'm dead set on testing the game.

[anarky321 36]

i was off playing Breaking Point for 3 months and the game has indeed come very far in the last half a year

 

it has problems yes, but this is as good as it gets right now for open-world full-loot pvp survival

[PhillyT 554]

I am at around 266 hours.  I have really enjoyed it.  SA was my first DayZ experience.  While away I was doing Overpoch Chernarus and Lingor.  Obviously a completely different game but still awesome.  I REALLY think there needs to be an increase in transportation options.  Nothing on the level of the insane numbers seen in most Overpoch servers, but something to reduce the running a little more.  The trucks are a nice start.  Realistic bikes will be great (as in significantly slowed off roads and paths).