Oh hi and welcome to Chicago 1, your new server.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

After some frustration we have finally gotten Chicago 1 up and running nicely, after going through the person doing all the work on Arma on our server (me) going through the service subscriber (Owl) to the dev (rocket). Telephone is a fun game to play when working with Win Server 2008!

After a brief hiccup where RCon decided that connecting to the server meant crashing the server, we got it up and running nice and stable. If all goes well, we're considering setting more servers.

We're a couple of laid back guys, if you can't tell by the idiotic name of our server: Yevgeny's Unexpected Pregnancy. It's a nice box though, eight cores, eight gigs of RAM, and a good, solidly reliable connection. That said, if any of you guys encounter hiccups, persistent desync, anything like that, please, please send me a PM here on the forums -- we're going to fine tune this server until its running at the best possible performance for you.

We were able to welcome many new players to our servers tonight, with quite a few of you guys making your first character with us. Nice. Enjoy DayZ, guys. Soon it will be you griping about the desync as fifty people try to make new accounts after navigating the hazards of setting up Arma 2 Combined Ops.

We chose Chicago as a nice, central location for all players in North America, so that we can give an equitable play experience to the entire player base.

DONATIONS!

DONATIONS!

I'm surprised at actually making this section, but quite a few players expressed interest in offering us donations, which we truly do appreciate (it would also incentivize us to get a second central server up quicker). That said, Owl's the poor bugger that actually gets charged for this stuff, so I've cajoled the donation link out of him. Here it is:

Donations!

With that out of the way, let's go over a few of the rules that will get you removed:

1. Spamming VON, especially with music. I like Peter Gabriel as much as the next guy. What I don't like is trying to listen to Solsbury Hill over my grandmother's rotary phone while her bichon frise repeatedly runs into her record player, causing it to skip over and over. Other things I don't like hearing in the background: Your dog barking. Your wife or girlfriend asking if you're playing "that zombie thing" with "your little friends". Every cough or breath you take -- keep it up, asthma guy, and you won't be picked for DayZ any more than you're picked for kickball.

2a. Blatant racism/sexism/homophobia/other, more esoteric forms of discrimination. We do not pay server bills so we can act like your Kleagle uncle's basement. Please keep any fantasies involving nooses or dragging people behind pick-up trucks to your own warped little head.

2b. As a nice segue, pedestrian racism. Just because you're not trying to recruit for the KKK doesn't mean anybody wants to hear your random musings on how America could elect a black man. (There's only one thing

.)

3. Blatant cheating. Really, I shouldn't need to say this, but some tit is going to appeal a ban sooner or later saying "but I didn't know it was against the server rules to send spoofed key files to the server to inject malicious PBO controls into my game." But it is against the rules.

4. Gaming the system. Did you just disconnect from the server after getting attacked to try to reposition yourself? Guess what's going to happen when you try to reconnect to the server.

5. Acting 2kool4skool. Persistent whining and childish behaviour angers me. I'm old and curmudgeonly and my life is fading before my eyes as I cry myself to sleep every night in a pool of my own tears and failure. One thing I don't have time for, especially when trying to enjoy myself as some sort of marauding anti-hero of the apocalypse in a fantasy world I've wholly embraced to soothe my tattered dreams, is your shit. If you're going to act like you're at an age where you need a time-out, you're going to get a time-out. We all get frustrated. We all smack talk. More importantly, we all know when to stop.

6. Absurdly high pings over a long period of time. Latency spikes happen, and we know that. You'll be asked politely to make sure your network is relatively clear of 50 torrent files running in the background. Please take the time to actually ask your girlfriend if she really, really needs all the episodes with Vampire Bill talking in a rough, gravelly voice tonight, or if she can wait until you're done playing that zombie thing with your little friends.

If we can all agree that everybody much prefers playing on servers without rampant dehumanization of your fellow man, other players, etc., then you're welcome to join us. If you can't follow those rules, well, I feel sorry for you. Most of these are no brainers, and the ones that seem a little unfair -- like high pings or getting a little hot-blooded -- don't carry anywhere near the gravity of, say, making me reboot my server. That stuff's just to get your attention.

Things we don't care about and would sincerely appreciate you not caring about, or out least not caring about out loud, to us:

1. PvP/PK'ing. It's there, it's in the game, and it's a fundamental mechanic.

2. People swearing, using profanity, or using obscenities. You're playing a game based around shooting people in the face. Priorities!

3. That thing where the person ArmA 2 decides to designate as the group leader that causes him to repeatedly order others back into formation. The person doing it has no control over it, and it's a side effect of ArmA 2's grouping system. Please be aware of the fact that the player that appears to be issuing these orders has no more control over it than you, and we will not penalize other players for this.

Lastly, please take the time to be helpful towards your fellow players. For example, don't just spam STFU! in response to VON spam. Explain to them why it's happening, and what they can do to fix it. A player isn't a problem player until they know they're causing a problem and persist in doing it anyway. I'd much rather have the newbie that listens attentively to how he can make a small effort to make the other 49 people's play experience better, than ten pro-skillz players who act entitled without first considering how they can help solve the problem. It usually takes just as long to type out useful advice as it does to scream at a person. Only one of those will actually solve anything.

[oilman 72]

This sounds like my kind of server, but, in regard to absurdly high ping: How high is absurdly high? Us Ausbros are limited to joining the US Servers.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

This sounds like my kind of server' date=' but, in regard to absurdly high ping: How high is absurdly high? Us Ausbros are limited to joining the US Servers.

[/quote']

OFP/Arma/Arma2/OA have always been relatively forgiving for pings. When I say absurdly high, I mean absurdly high -- if it's taking you several seconds (as in a few thousand ms) in ping, that is absurdly high. If you're floating at around 250-300ms (and I ping lower than that to AUS/NZ servers, so I imagine you'll be fine), that's not really a big deal -- really, the only person you're hurting, in that case, is yourself. Being in that range isn't itself a crime, but if you stay there for several minutes, to the point that this might be hurting the play experience of others, you'll be asked politely to check on your connection, or to find a more local server.

[oilman 72]

Alright. I believe that I would probably hang around 230 - 280 ping. When I do play, if I get lads complaining about it, I'll find another server. :)

[litoralis.nMd 1]

I just want to give a thumbs up on the writing style.

I'll drop by some day soon.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

Alright. I believe that I would probably hang around 230 - 280 ping. When I do play' date=' if I get lads complaining about it, I'll find another server. :)

[/quote']

Just to be clear on something here. The word of "lads" means nothing. Unless it's coming from myself, Owl, or any other duly appointed admin, it doesn't mean anything. If other players complain to you about a ping in the 230-280 range with the occasional spike, do not feel obliged to listen.

Nobody orders anybody out of my house party but me. Or Owl. But that's only because he technically is the one paying the rent.

[LordFrost 3]

Yay for more servers!

Hopefully soon the enter-spam will be a habit of the past.

[Nekosan 20]

Hot tip OP: mouthbreathing has nothing to do with asthma, I had asthma for a good 15 years as a child and never once sounded like I was trying to talk with a dental retainer in my mouth.

Why is racism bad but you can make fun of randoms because they talk differently to you? Mouthbreathers didn't choose to be that way any more than I chose what colour my skin is.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

Hot tip OP: mouthbreathing has nothing to do with asthma' date=' I had asthma for a good 15 years as a child and never once sounded like I was trying to talk with a dental retainer in my mouth.[/quote']

Other things people can't help are things like paranoid schizophrenics elucidating at length about how MI5, in conjunction with the illegitimate government of Punjabistan and the anti-Christ, have wired moths with tiny listening devices to spy on them, explosive flatulence problems, or their neighbour's agoraphobic prize-winning pet Andalusian whinnying in utter terror from their eighth-storey balcony. Things I also don't care to hear in my ear at decibels seemingly to large to effectively describe with a logarithmic scale: All of those.

It's nothing personal. It's absolutely fine if you're a mouth-breather. Hell, it's allergy season for me, if I'm not breathing through my mouth, I'm not breathing at all. Just please do not hold your mic open and share that fact with us by way of example for several minutes.

[oilman 72]

Nobody orders anybody out of my house party but me. Or Owl. But that's only because he technically is the one paying the rent.

Alright, but don't get angry if I break the TV.

[Viktor_Berg 0]

I've played on the Chicago server. It's really nice, but a bit unstable so far. Will definitely be checking it out once the mod becomes more stable.

[Mugen (DayZ) 72]

Is it running Vet or regular?

[Legacy (DayZ) 1091]

Oh cool, if I can ever get the expansion I'll make this server my home all the time. The rules are professional and fair to all, no children no whining just players.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

Is it running Vet or regular?

Right now we're operating on regular while we get everything ironed out. If we feel that certain options unbalance play to much or are too prone to being exploited by more experienced players used to Arma2's quirks to gain an advantage over the newer players DayZ is bringing in, we might change to a more custom setting.

Of course, feedback from the player base is always welcome in this regard. Just remember that we can't please everybody, so we're going to try to work on pleasing as many people as we can.

[jschaefer97@gmail.com 2]

Hey, liking the server so far. Although I have been kicked once without explanation, I assumed it was because my ping had gone up a bit, but I never received a warning or anything. I'm actually from IL and live about 4 hours south of Chicago but I don't have the fastest/most reliable internet connection simply because it is not offered where I live (out of town). Most the time I have a solid ping, but I get desinc'd pretty often it seems, even when my ping is low. This seems strange considering I live as close as I do and my ping is fine.

Other than that and seeing a few people complain about new people not knowing how to do anything rather than just telling them how to do it, Pretty good time so far, and great luck finding vehicles so far lol. See ya in there.

Also, Mojo you should check out the server teamspeak thread, I think by Soldier, there is a TS3 server that will give any server a channel for free, then whoever was playing in your server could get in the team speak server if they wanted to use voip.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

Hey' date=' liking the server so far. Although I have been kicked once without explanation, I assumed it was because my ping had gone up a bit, but I never received a warning or anything. I'm actually from IL and live about 4 hours south of Chicago but I don't have the fastest/most reliable internet connection simply because it is not offered where I live (out of town). Most the time I have a solid ping, but I get desinc'd pretty often it seems, even when my ping is low. This seems strange considering I live as close as I do and my ping is fine.[/quote']

It happens from time to time. I've seen people kicked at random for various things, who are typically able to reconnect just fine. If it happens without warning, assume that Arma2 freaked out. We haven't had to kick anybody yet, and only needed to warn one for persistent global VON abuse.

Also' date=' Mojo you should check out the server teamspeak thread, I think by Soldier, there is a TS3 server that will give any server a channel for free, then whoever was playing in your server could get in the team speak server if they wanted to use voip.

[/quote']

We're looking at our options for VoIP right now. I'll definitely take this into consideration, and thanks for letting me know. We want to get any problems with the server ironed out before we go full-tilt commitment. Debugging and troubleshooting is a major pain in the ass the more you have to dick with.

[Benzin (DayZ) 7]

You did good, Chicago.

[Freek314 32]

Have you ever thought about writing a blog, Mojo? Seriously loved the OP.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

Well thanks for bearing with us through the kinks. I've been babysitting this server all night, as some of you who (admittedly much-deservedly) killed my -40k humanity ass as I was RDP'd and as helpless as a baby bird found out.

It seems that for some reason, our lovely server executable keeps trying to access memory its not supposed to. Like, repeatedly. It has eight spacious gigs of address space to choose from, and keeps choosing somewhere in memory nowhereland. It's like that socially awkward friend who, instead of thanking your mother for having him over for dinner, tries to grab her breasts. Socially awkward Arma2OAServer.exe, always doing the wrong thing, always inviting himself to places he doesn't belong.

Of course, I can't blame this entirely on arma2oaserver.exe. Well, I can, and I am, but in reality it could be several things, so just to stave off my feelings of impotence, I reinstalled the executable. If that automagically fixes it, and results in hours long uptime stability, I'm a happy camper (and so, hopefully, will you be). If, on the other hand, the problem is one that actually makes sense, that will do jack. Absolute worst case scenario is me telling the provider "Hey, the OS install may have something whack with it. Please fix." Only, if I know me -- and I do -- it will involve much passive-aggressive swearing and miming of strangulation that they can't see. Thankfully these guys are fast, so even the take-off-and-nuke-it-from-orbit scenario should be as painless as nuking something from orbit can be.

This coming weekend, I invite you to try to beat the hell out of the server so me and Owl can fumble through pointlessly obtuse log files and configs, trying to find the best setup for us so that you can go as long as possible between bouts of bitching at us that we made you lose your bus full of remaindered Kalashnikovs and beans.

[Pallidum 33]

Thanks for putting a server online, Mojo. Me and my friends have been playing on your server and have enjoyed it a lot.

One comment I have about the smacktalking though.

I died on the server (shit happens), respawned on the beach and spotted another survivor. As I wanted to get back into a bandit skin (better camo, for one thing) I decided to kill him. Done deal, we were both recently spawned with noob gear, and he was foolish enough to run to try to find me after having spotted me once.

He then proceeded to become angry at me, which happens. I decided to smacktalk him a bit, then he explained that he was deaf and was therefore at a disadvantage, essentially playing the victim. The inevitable end-result was that people either told him to STFU because they didn't care about him being deaf, or them trolling him because he got so upset about the whole situation.

I admit to having trolled him myself, not because he was deaf but because he got angry at being killed. He then ended up telling people how he knew the admin and would get us banned for discrimination, despite him bringing out the deafness argument himself.

Later on - I don't know the details as I wasn't paying attention - apparently one player did get banned, and an admin was telling people in global chat that inappropriate behaviour would get people banned, not only from that server but from DayZ as a whole.

I'm wondering where the line is drawn. I'm nature enough (37) to smacktalk and take smack. I won't troll someone for disabilities (unless I know them and they can take it) but I will troll someone for making a big deal about disabilities and playing a victim. I'm disabled myself, and I don't make a big deal about it. Heck, one of our group of players is hearing impaired as well.

I'm a PVPer and have been so for many years. I'm used to playing games where PVP has harsh consequences (EVE Online). Smacktalking is part of my gaming culture. DayZ is one of few games where deaths do have a harsh consequence, and I enjoy this a lot. This is a tough game where one single bad move can leave you dead, and as a hard sandbox game, I want to be able to not only play the game to its fullest extent, but also utilize the psychological arsenal at my disposal (yes, I'm friendly, I really won't shoot you).

Basically, I will kill people. I will smacktalk when appropriate, and sometimes when not appropriate. I do, however, know where to draw the line although I'll admit to sometimes stepping over the line - we're not perfect - and for that I apologize in advance. What I'd like to know though, is where you as an admin draw the line?

Will I be permitted to smacktalk players who get angry at being killed? Will I be permitted to smacktalk them when they threaten to have an admin ban me? Seeing as an admin came online last night and explicitly told people to behave or get banned, this is, I believe, a warranted question.

[oilman 72]

Pallidum, from my experience on Server Chicago, I seriously doubt you'll get banned, and I don't think it would be fair at all to ban you for what you do.

That doesn't stop you from being a colossal prick, though.

[Pallidum 33]

Apparently one player was banned though, and although I don't know what his offense was, the resulting chat suggested that there wasn't a universal approval of the admin's decision. This could be his group complaining, but I don't know exactly, which is why I'm asking.

[oilman 72]

Ah, okay, sorry, I misread your post and thought YOU got banned. Apologies.

I suppose if he really hammered into the deaf guy it might have been fair. But I do agree with you that some back-and-forth insults (Even if they're not my cup of tea) are A-Okay.

[Mojo (DayZ) 66]

Will I be permitted to smacktalk players who get angry at being killed? Will I be permitted to smacktalk them when they threaten to have an admin ban me? Seeing as an admin came online last night and explicitly told people to behave or get banned' date=' this is, I believe, a warranted question.

[/quote']

Of course! If you saw any "threat" like that, don't take it seriously; that's just me hamming it up. You'll know if you're being asked to cool your jets. It won't be jokey or funny or sarcastic. It will be a straight statement for the parties involved to calm down.

It's a matter of using your head. If the smacktalk has degenerated into a fifty-man server turning into a 48-man audience for two other men's tense psychosexual drama, it's gone too far.

[oilman 72]

"Psychosexual drama" would be a good name for a band.