The number of players connected to a server should be an absolute secret (for increased paranoia)

[skjalg 3]

Hi.

This has probably been suggested before. But I think it's too easy to exploit less populated servers to loot in peace. I do it all the time, especially on night time servers, and it takes just a few hours before I'm set with some of the best gear there is in DayZ.

If the number of players online at any server was kept secret, there would allways be that uncertainty how safe you really are. In this case, less information would increase the paranoia. And I would love that.

This would probably only be possible in the standalone edition of the game. Unless the core ArmA 2 engine is changed to prevent revealing the player list upon connecting/entering.

If the server would only reveal the player list to clients with administrator rights, it could perhaps also help with security and hacking and all that.

Edited August 21, 2012 by skagen

[Psyl3nt 125]

This could be frustrating if your trying to have a game with friends, with no way of knowing how many slots are free it's harder to organise a server to play on.

[{ZENEX}Line 0]

player list can help reveal hackers so its useful right now. In a standalone a quick join button would be sick though

[Psyl3nt 125]

I would not be against a matching system where you could say invite your "friends" into the lobby and join a server from there all together, but I have found systems like this (MW2,MW3) tend to put people with aussie connections on american servers and that kind of thing, it would be ok if it could join servers with a maximum ping or something like that.

[skjalg 3]

This could be frustrating if your trying to have a game with friends, with no way of knowing how many slots are free it's harder to organise a server to play on.

Some solutions could be:

- Slot reservation which is valid for 5 minutes, and you reserve a slot from i.e Six Launcher before actually launching the game. If your friend can reserve slots aswell, you are good to go.

- The server gives you the option to invite friends if there are sufficient slots available

- The server list could only tell you if there is more or less than 5 or 10 free slots available, but no exact numbers of total slots available and how many are in use.

For instance, the only options to display any information about slot usage would be these:

- More than 10 slots open

- Less than 10 slots open

- Full

And no information about total slot capacity.

Edited August 21, 2012 by skagen

[Dalegor Dobrutro 22]

No it should not be secret. For some people this game is something more than stupid deadmatch and we like to have some normal survival gameplay on low crowd servers at least.

[Haplo (DayZ) 44]

whilst this idea is good in theory, i don't want to waste time running around looking for people to kill in low populated servers

[Siberian (DayZ) 527]

whilst this idea is good in theory, i don't want to waste time running around looking for people to kill in low populated servers

hahaa.. good point.

basicly this idea doesnt really work for either group.

those looking for victims and fhose looking to not be someones victim.

no sale on the whole OPs idea

[Woman! Make me food 0]

Sick idea. I think the servers would have to be balanced by Day Z automatically, though; ie: you "Join game" and it decides on its own what server to put you in. Maybe you can add your friend as a buddy, and opt to join whichever server he is on.

Edited August 21, 2012 by unholycrap

[startrekern 88]

This is a terrible idea. It would never work properly within the scope of ArmA 2's netcode, and opens the door to playing on a totally empty server and never encountering anyone else. There needs to be *MORE* player interaction, not less, and that's what this would do. Taking away side chat was already bad enough.

[sixfeetgiantbunnyrabbit 40]

Well i like the idea. i behave very differently in the games hotspots when i know there are only 4 players on that server compared to a crowded server.

it not only adds to the suspense not knowing if you're propably going to be save in cherno it's also simply more realistic.

The most exciting things in this game were things that COULD happen to you not necessarily things that actually happened. And this idea adds to that immersion a lot.

Edited August 21, 2012 by sixfeetgiantbunnyrabbit

[doom4mr 135]

There is other suggestions about this, such as limiting loot spawns etc. which is better, in my opinion.

not knowing how much player playing on server will add too much problems.

[IIxSubmarinex 13]

Impossible to implement with the arma engine, but defenately a good idea for the stand alone! :D

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

Good idea, I support this +1 ...

Only thing that it should show is 'X free spaces' so you will know if you and your friends fit on there.

For all those opposed i can just say 'tough luck', i am sure you be able to figure out that if X >= 50 the server is likely on a low population and if X < 10 that the server must have quite some people on there, especially since there is a minimum amount of slots required to run a server!

Obviously the stand alone might not give any info at all, hopefully they make some sort of MMORPG kind of big world where you would just log on and hope for the best...

Edited August 21, 2012 by L0G!N

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Bad idea.

Do you have any clue how hard it is to try build a vehicle when you are by yourself?

Now imagine I am competing with a large clan for spawns and repair loot...

Nearly impossible.

I enjoy the survival horror in this game and not the PvP personally. Part of that is surviving the murderous bandit bastards, but that shouldn't be the sole purpose of the game.

Basically, if i want to build a vehicle, and not just always have to search for camps to find one, i have to find a low pop server.

[Gustav Mahler 40]

There is a pretty strong correlation between server population and load time.

[freeman83 51]

theirs only one way to find out if these ideas will work... try it! . I love the trial and error method that Rocket is using, it is a sure way to filter through ideas to find the best one's for standalone.