DayZ

[undercovergeek]

I really want to put my mod trousers on and make a swat/counter strike mod for arma

[Nefaro]

Nefaro, it does get old and frustrating. The fun part is surviving, finding loot and avoiding zombies. Victimizing others is a bonus. I never worked with people and instead get victimized a lot. Alliances are not coded in the game and you need to interact. problem is that most will just kill you on the spot. Alliances only work if you bring your real life buddy in the game and play at the same time.

I prefer Wasteland maps than DayZ maps in Arma because it is more structured. You join factions (forced cooperation)  and an abundance of vehicles and weapons.

I'll probably pick this up eventually but being in Alpha, there's a lot of risk that you get only unimplemented promises at this point.

I suppose those of us here could always team up as a group.  ;)

I wouldn't plan on messing with it until a full-on release though.

[Toonces]

At its core, the game is simply about surviving.  You have to scavenge food and water, while at the same time avoiding zombies (and other players).

Where the game really shines is the PvP aspect.  It's interesting.  You can team up with other players and cooperatively have a better chance of surviving.  Conversely, you can just kill anyone else on sight and steal their belongings.  Both are valid strategies.  So, when you run into another player, you never really know if you can trust them or not.  And while that's incredibly frustrating, it really is what makes the game so damn compelling. 

I remember this one thread on SimHQ, a really long time ago, where there was this guy who played as a medic.  His character was a survivor doctor and his whole goal during the game was to find other players in distress and help them with first aid.  A player could post what server he was on and where on the map and this guy would log on and try to find and help the guy.  That's the kind of goal-oriented stuff you can do in DayZ. 

One of the more memorable experiences I had playing it was this one night where a guy was trapped in this building or on this roof with zeds all around him.  He was out of food and water and couldn't escape to find stuff without getting killed.  A bunch of other players decided to try to mount a rescue mission to get him.  I was following the whole thing on chat.  I was on a roof a ways away from the action and watching the whole thing unfold over an hour or so over chat, and then hearing the gunfire and then the running commentary as they tried to escape the zed horde was just so damn tense...it's one of those gaming experiences that you just remember forever.

So, I suppose it's not a game for everybody, but I definitely see it as a Friday night beering game.  Turn down the lights, slip on the headphones and run around in zombie land for a few hours.  Good times.

[jomni]

Best part is you can play this on and off.
Life short, so you often end up starting over again from scratch with totally different circumstances (just like a rougelike).
You can quit a session and get back anytime with your loot intact.  This is if the loot saving works. I hear that there are some bugs in DayZ standalone alpha.

[Nefaro]

At its core, the game is simply about surviving.  You have to scavenge food and water, while at the same time avoiding zombies (and other players).

Where the game really shines is the PvP aspect.  It's interesting.  You can team up with other players and cooperatively have a better chance of surviving.  Conversely, you can just kill anyone else on sight and steal their belongings.  Both are valid strategies.  So, when you run into another player, you never really know if you can trust them or not.  And while that's incredibly frustrating, it really is what makes the game so damn compelling. 

I remember this one thread on SimHQ, a really long time ago, where there was this guy who played as a medic.  His character was a survivor doctor and his whole goal during the game was to find other players in distress and help them with first aid.  A player could post what server he was on and where on the map and this guy would log on and try to find and help the guy.  That's the kind of goal-oriented stuff you can do in DayZ. 

One of the more memorable experiences I had playing it was this one night where a guy was trapped in this building or on this roof with zeds all around him.  He was out of food and water and couldn't escape to find stuff without getting killed.  A bunch of other players decided to try to mount a rescue mission to get him.  I was following the whole thing on chat.  I was on a roof a ways away from the action and watching the whole thing unfold over an hour or so over chat, and then hearing the gunfire and then the running commentary as they tried to escape the zed horde was just so damn tense...it's one of those gaming experiences that you just remember forever.

So, I suppose it's not a game for everybody, but I definitely see it as a Friday night beering game.  Turn down the lights, slip on the headphones and run around in zombie land for a few hours.  Good times.

Wow.  That does sound fun.  Gotta love sandboxes.

Maybe I should finally load up the mod for ARMAII sometime..

[jomni]

Nefaro, there's some pain in getting the versions in sync (Arma, the Mod, and the servers).  So this standalone in Steam should really make sense.

[Staggerwing]

I always had trouble with the mod. it would crash out after 5 or 10 minutes and the game lobby/updating utility was a real PITA for me.

[Nefaro]

I always had trouble with the mod. it would crash out after 5 or 10 minutes and the game lobby/updating utility was a real PITA for me.

Ewww gad.   Little as frustrating as a big mod that regularly crashes.

Hopefully the same issues aren't present in the standalone.

[Toonces]

The mod wasn't intuitive to install (IMO) and whenever it patched it was a bit of a PIA to get set up again.  That's really the reason why I stopped playing it.

The standalone will completely eliminate this problem, especially being on Steam where it can auto update.

I understand that the standalone is still very much in Alpha and is somewhat buggy, so if anyone decides to take the plunge, just be aware of what you're getting.  I have faith that this project will come to fruition, similar to ARMA3, so buying in early at $30 is a no-brainer.  I'm just waiting until after Xmas so I can do it with a clean conscience!

[Steelgrave]

Is it possible at all to play this game solo, or is a group essential for survival?

[Toonces]

I actually don't know.  You don't need a group for survival, but I think the game is strictly online.  What I mean is that to play you have to log onto a server. 

I could be wrong.  I thought I had read something about solo being possible at one point but I don't know the status.  Having said that, playing without other people would be a bit unsatisfying IMO.  The social dynamic of playing online really is essential to getting the most from the game.

[Staggerwing]

IIRC the mod is server-based and you needed to log into a game instance or create one to play. Hopefully the standalone will do away with that or at least allow a hosted game to run with a single player since the Zeds are pretty challenging all by themselves and that would allow for at least learning the game mechanics before taking the MP plunge.

[Toonces]

I just read the description on the game store and browsed the forums a bit and I don't see anything about being able to play offline. 

However, they're over a year from beta still, so I suppose anything is possible.

[Steelgrave]

Oh, I don't mind playing online, I just dislike games where I'm forced to group in order to have any fun. I've played many MMO's and still play LotR, but there are many times where I may log on just to play for half an hour and don't care to get involved with a group. That and I'm pretty anti-social at times 8)

[Toonces]

I picked this up today and am installing now.  I'll post some impressions after I spend some time with it.