TrollZ

[semipr0 402]

Before anyone wants to chime in here and tell me this is an alpha, let me start off by saying I'm well aware its an alpha. But, if anyone thinks that under the current design vision for this game that the beta or standalone/release versions of this game can be any better than they currently are in regards to the exploits, script fuckery and metagaming, you are blowing fairy dust up your own ass.

I love this game and the ideas behind it. So don't get me entirely wrong here, I'm not saying Rocket is a dumbass, the obvious evidence shows that he isn't. But I am looking at the way things have been going in DayZ and the ever present downward spiral in regards to enjoyment versus frustration has grown more and more obvious as the weeks pass.

Simple facts are, DayZ has a great concept but its marred by several engine level design flaws that Rocket has no control over. Its also got several development vision design flaws which lead it down the path we are taking.

First of all, I'm not going to run down BattlEye, its no more or less effective than Punkbuster or VAC, to be honest the war of attrition with the 15 dollar a month hack suites out there has been in process for years now and will be in process for years to come. The hacks come first, the bans come later, the hacks come back.

But the problem with DayZ and hacks is unlike your standard FPS game where hacks simply inconvenience players. In DayZ they're literally detrimental. I mean seriously, I'd rather be dealing with aimbots than the maphacks and teleports and nukes and artillery strikes and all manner of other thing we deal with in DayZ, aimbots would be tame compared to these. And the reason these scripts are so detrimental is because the base development vision for DayZ is spelled out quite plainly right on the front of the website. Scavenge, Slay, Survive. And these scripts and script suites completely derail the third S of the development vision.

Well guess what, Survival is impossible when there is no where you could possibly attempt to survive in 225 SQUARE KILOMETERS because anyone who wants to drop 15 dollars and bet their GUID (or not bet their GUID since BE has been bypassed successfully quite commonly and somehow, hundreds of thousands of legit GUID's are up for grabs in zip files on torrent sites all over the internet and changing your GUID and license key is childs play) against the ability to completely crush everyone thats playing the game as intended, by playing the game in a manner that was not intended.

Rocket says he feels this is a healthy community. I would probably pose the question, if I had the opportunity, to Rocket, to see if he felt 4chan was a healthy community. Because thats really where we're heading.

Anonymity. Total lack of culpability for ones actions (except the handful of people that get a global ban every couple of weeks), a system ripe for exploitation of engine level insecurities that will never be fully addressed.....the entire point of this game gets thrown out of the window....why? Cause internet, thats why. Cause lulz. Cause no good intention ever goes unpunished. And no good idea avoids getting covered with shit from top to bottom because internet gamers, in general, have zero respect for anything but themselves and, in a fair amount of cases, not much respect for themselves either.

Simple facts are, you could cut the Chernarus map down to Chernogorosk, Pridigorky and Electrovodosk, and thats pretty much all the game has to offer....because the lack of respect internet gamers have for each other, for the games they play, and the exploits and hacks that are constantly ahead of the detection systems, and the 4th dimension metagaming where no matter what you do, some jackass can log onto your server right behind you and put a bullet in your head (Transdimensional wormholes....thats SOME REALISTIC SHIT RIGHT THERE), or some petty butthurt player can basically scout every camp location on your server and post a freaking google maps doc with full coordinates and details for each camp, turning your server into a ravened carcass where people were TRYING to play the game as intended, and pretty much had their every effort nullified by someone elses ability to see every player and vehicle on the map.

And to some, the "hacking" and trolling and meta-gaming has become...in their opinions, more fun than the game itself. So they'll keep on doing it. And they'll keep on getting away with it....and pretty soon all the positive talk in every interview in the world won't save you, Rocket, from the fact that all the websites that have been singing your praises are going to start reporting the real situation here. Which is your "alpha" is broken, the hackers don't just own your game, but they own the servers too because TCAdmin is about as secure as my mothers piece of crap Dell computer.

And your entire vision devolves into people who wanted to play the game the way you saw it, and people who have perverted your vision into something different entirely.

There are no easy answers to these problems. I'd love to be able to give you suggestions on what you can do. But currently the only thing I could suggest is a much stricter stance against metagaming, a complete revision of Hive character records which bound a character's data to the server they play on and could only transfer from server to server with legitimate cause (server has gone down and is not reporting heartbeat to Hive...that kind of thing), and to be honest, I don't think you, BattlEye, or anyone else can do anything against the script exploiters. Thats something BIS has to address and they don't seem to be in any hurry to release an arma2oaserver that rejects remote client script injection.

Simple facts are, none of us are going to survive. There won't be any factions because factions will be pointless cause being part of a faction is hardly going to protect you from a godmoding teleporter satchel charging your encampments and locating all vehicles on the server, teleporting them to one location and blowing them up.

All for the lulz. One great idea that could help refocus the mainstream industry on sandbox game play could falter and fall on its face, simply because the only control over the situation you and your "team" seem to want to have is control over the people that are providing the servers that give your player base somewhere to play.

TrollZ, hope its what you wanted, cause its what you have.

Edited August 6, 2012 by semipr0

[haviv[3rdid] 57]

I don't think the Hive model is sustainable and dayZ will probably have to go the private server route in order to survive.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Benjamin

[Jony_RocketInMyPocket 172]

OP, you don't wanna end up like this guy:

[[email protected] 156]

Interesting post, it's a shame most people will only skim through it and reply with some retarded one-liners.

I know where you're coming from, I remember you posting about how you were disappointed with DayZ when you first started playing and it seems you and I have had a similar love-hate relationship with the mod.

So it's not a surprise that I mostly agree with what you said here.

I wonder where DayZ will be one or two months from now.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Nucleqrwinter

[Thorne (DayZ) 10]

But the problem with DayZ and hacks is unlike your standard FPS game where hacks simply inconvenience players. In DayZ they're literally detrimental. I mean seriously, I'd rather be dealing with aimbots than the maphacks and teleports and nukes and artillery strikes and all manner of other thing we deal with in DayZ, aimbots would be tame compared to these. And the reason these scripts are so detrimental is because the base development vision for DayZ is spelled out quite plainly right on the front of the website. Scavenge, Slay, Survive. And these scripts and script suites completely derail the third S of the development vision.

The hackers can use artillery strikes? I haven't encountered that one... yet. Everything else, I've encountered though.

To some, the "hacking" and trolling and meta-gaming has become...in their opinions, more fun than the game itself.

Sad but true, as evidenced by the DayZ forums. I think many forum posters here are hackers themselves and they are intent on exploiting the current bugginess of the game.

Frankly, I haven't seen a player community this selfish, idiotic, and downright repugnant since Darkfall Online.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Thorne

[semipr0 402]

I know how to deal with it. But the issue is, it can't be dealt with.

Show me an FPS game that has no hacks and I'll show you an FPS game no one is playing.

The other issues though can be dealt with, and it requires a stronger approach towards making the survival side of the game less vulnerable to people using exploits.

Vehicles do not have to report back to scripts, player locations do not have to report back to scripts. All it takes is a stronger code package that removes these function calls from the DayZ base Arma 2 variant we all use.

[haviv[3rdid] 57]

Yes, DayZ has 1 million players now but remember once upon a time everyone used Netscape. Everyone used Wordperfect and everyone in the know had a Palm Pilot. It can easily go the other way once someone else figures out how to do this. It could even be another mod for ArmA2.

[semipr0 402]

Yes, DayZ has 1 million players now but remember once upon a time everyone used Netscape. Everyone used Wordperfect and everyone in the know had a Palm Pilot. It can easily go the other way once someone else figures out how to do this. It could even be another mod for ArmA2.

Dynamic Zombie Simulator

All the fun of DayZ, none of the problems.

LAN it up with friends and have fun....or, if you like, run a private server and admin it however you like.