SapioiT

By the way, is there any guide, accurate for 1.6.0.1, on how to get started to modding for this game? Btw, I know how to code...

The only thing all those maps are missing is a layer with the types of buildings...

Well, a part of that team DID come from the dayz and epoch modders, and that might have been one of the reasons. Add to that the endless hype, that does not bring anything very bad, aside endlessly delaying things, and you've got the recipe for the success of the standalone. I think the biggest problem of DayZ Standalone is the licensing for the Intelectual Property that is DayZ, and contracts with unfair/improper terms... At this point, it looks like developing another game altogether that would address the same base concept in a slightly different manner would be the best way to get the right type of players engaged.

I would, but I don't do models, I don't know how to get started to learn modding for A2, and I need to find a job first. So I did the only other thing I knew: Gave a few hints towards what should be done to secure a consistent stream of money towards this mod's development. Patreon for the money, the rest for advertising the mod and the patreon account. Because having one of the prizes for reaching a certain quota of monthly pay being having a whitelisted server where the latest changes can be checked while they're still not completely developed, is a good way to have people think they're being offered some value RIGHT NOW, for the price they're paying. I would do more, and I probably will, If life won't drag me in a different direction, but for now that's all I can do. I might be able to help you with other social media advices, if you want, of course, and maybe also a logo, but the rest is up to you, at least for now.

But the Epoch mod did not change by much. It did not add much content to keep the players engaged, but they tried the waters by releasing an update, for the sake of the old times, and in order to see if people still want it to be developed. They updated things, and made a new default package, for the modders to have everything together. What's missing? Nobody's adding Sugar Honey Iced Tea to the game, anymore. When was the last time a new map was converted to Epoch? When was the last time another mod was added to the suite? I think the most recent additions were the Sahrani or Jade Groove maps, and the militarized vehicles added to epoch... Actually, since I'm at it, you know what would be considered a good update for any dayz map? Having most, if not all, the buildings opened, and adding wooden vehicles. Add in a wooden bike, a wooden motorcycle, a wooden ATV and a wooden tractor with space for loot and 3 people, and maybe have it use wood (wood gas) instead of fossil fuel and maybe have a electricity generator that uses wood as fuel, and we've got enough content to keep the servers down to one trader city. Or even trader-less, if you add a way for the lock to be crafted by the players. Heck, want something else you can do, as a modder, to bring back those fun times? Add smelting, pottery and food preparing to the game. Let people grow plants and animals, let people cook foods that give them boosts (like more blood, or stop bleeding, or alternative to medicine), let them make clay pots, fire them, use a resin+dust for glue, and have the meals stay good for years, add smelting so people can make metal things out of the rocks we can now mine, and you've got a source of low-tech things, like locks and engines that can't go fast (perfect for the wooden vehicles). Players love updates, and they love even more seeing new things. So if you get this done, and have the mods showcased by some youtubers and livestreamers share this with the world, and your content is kinda good, it WILL take off, as soon as that content gets to the dayz players that enjoyed the mod back in the day. Add a kickstarter campaign + patreon + youtube + twitch +twitter + facebook +instagram for the cause, and even if you've got the same content on all those (except kickstarter where things should seem to be better than they are, because PR and advertising, and patreon where you should give beta testing in exchange for money), you've got a marketing campaign that's more solid than what most of the businesses are doing. Get that attention to your upgrade to the game, and you'll revive the community, and that leads to more usage of your mod, which leads to more shameless advertising for you. You only have to hang on until the critical point, after which everything will become easier. --- Funny thing about Wood Gas is that it was used on a small scale during one of the World Wars, in Germany, and stopped because of deforestation issues, the regained availability of the fossil fuel and the work required to change the vehicles from petroleum to wood gas.. -- Never thought I would give business and advertising advice on this forum...

Of what? Advertising? If so, I agree! I've seen full servers which were barely playable... but that might have been part of the fun...

While I agree that there are not many good servers left, many people left BECAUSE there are no good servers that are easy to find. If you want to grab their attention, you've got a better chance than the other servers, but that doesn't means that you shouldn't advertise at all. There is more at work than just having the server good. People are more inclined to join servers with more players, and because of the nature of run-with-guns servers, those are the fullest (because people want more fast-paced action). But those servers need the least amount of advertising needed, and are one of the easiest ways for a multi-server group to have both a run-with-guns (easy to get top-tier content) server and use that to advertise the hardcore server. Another way to advertise a hardcore server would be to have an active youtube, twitch, facebook, snapchat, instagram and google plus accounts, where to publish in-game content, such as screenshots from the game, short videos with some action, and (on the sites that allow) longer videos, and even streaming of events, like filling a box with a few useful things and marking it on the map, then having an admin be shadowing players (not from start to finish, but switch from one to another, for variety and not letting everyone else know only one's location) to record/livestream some of the action. Every of those action should have mentioned somewhere (in the video/livestream or in the description, the details of the server, such as name -most importantly-, it being hardcore, it's ip, some of the mods enabled, and the other social media -including twitch and youtube- of the server. The content should be at least weekly for a 30+ minutes video, preferably daily for short around-30-seconds videos. No, that's just when the business model of those sites focused heavily on making money quick, instead of having a long-running business... which, pf course, led to the servers failing miserably, in the medium to long run... Edit: Oh, and since this forum doesn't have a Videos section for Arma 2 Epoch (anymore), I think one could use the Arma 3 Epoch Videos section, or the Arma 2 Epoch General Discussion section, for the same thing...

Is it a one-time thing, or one can get a vehicle after each respawn? Because I would rather not have it until the moment I have a few more people in my group... it would make more use if I manage to convince people to join me, than if I'd be playing solo... Suicider, is the name i usually use nowadays...

Even more so! I've stayed alive for about an hour... how do I get the vehicle?

I would play, but it's PVE. I forgot to mention that in the post, thanks for reminding me! I will check it out, but I'm not going to play on it for long, due to the small, but important, detail of it being PVE... It just takes the risk away from the game... Edit: You need more videos on youtube... and on twitch... Edit2: On PVP you can assault other people's bases, you can kill other people and you can have clan battles. On PVE, not much of that is left. There's another thing when people make genuine mistakes, and someone is able to profit from that. Also, that's what's mostly shared on youtube and twitch...

Hi, I don't want to mock you or anything, after all, you do have a server, and I don't, I just noticed something you might want to know. Do you remember the time when dayz mod was at it's prime? If you don't, go watch some videos. If you do, what do you think is missing now? Here's my opinion: TENSION. Let me explain that. First, there was a time when people were afraid of engaging, because they would lose days' worth of work. Then, there was the base aspect, with most bases breach-able, in a way or another. Then there was the constant need of supplies, in order to survive. Medical supplies weren't that common, and bases were often used to stash away resources, because dieing was easy, but getting your things back, not so much. So, to put it simply, if a server wishes to thrive, here's my to-do list for it to stay relevant for a long time: 0. Hard or hardcore. Make the server either of those. Hardcore = no weapon, no map, no backpack, maybe a bandage. Hard = 2x bandage, no map, weakest meele weapon (machete? or bat?), smallest backpack. Heroes should have +1 painkillers, bandits +1 smoke grenade (to trap players inside buildings filled with zombies). Oh, and NO PVE, since it takes away the risk of killing your teammates. Less risk = less fun = less awesome of a feeling when you do win. 1. Weapons. Have the map mostly spawn meele weapons, and rarely a pistol. I'll get back to the other weapons soon enough. This will make it a lot more difficult to kill somebody, and make the risk of being the one killed a lot higher. Making the fights more evened out, you effectively make it so people are thinking more about whether or not to engage in combat. 2. Bases. Let people build without a plot pole, but have things stay like only for 24 hours (so people ca maintain them, if playing daily). And only cinder and metal should be indestructible, but it shouldn't be cheap, in fact, it should be one of the most expensive things on the server, alongside tanks and rocket launchers. let people build wooden (camouflaged) bases, and let others be able to break into those. Also, locks should be buyable from the traders, so as to not make it impossible for people to have bases, but safes should only be on hard&hardcore missions, and lockboxes should be on medium, hard and hardcore missions, as well as drop from zombies. 3. Vehicles. Only spawn 5 vehicles on the map, (old) bikes (the most frequent one), (old) motorbikes, towing tractors (slow and leaving you exposed, but allowing you to tow other vehicles), traktor (slow and noisy, but also good for towing, and offroad), and a slow boat (for one player only). The rest should be bought, and get unlocked after the maintainance period (i.e. 14 days. on most servers nowadays). 4. Missions. There should be a broken vehicle for each mission, with the number of AIs be the number of seats those vehicles have. 4 difficulties, all with wicked AI: - easy: motorbike or atv, 2 people with pistols, a chance for one to have a crossbow (which can have a CCO attacked to it, for use against more difficult missions). One vehicle not working - medium: 1-3 vehicles, some things (like boxes, crates and walls) for AI to hide behind, AI with shotguns, and in one of the boxes&crates to be a chance for a CZ for the next mission difficulty. One vehicle working. - hard: at least one important vehicle (like the ural, SUV, helicopter or armored vehicles), a few small buildings and even more cover (walls, crates, boxes, buildings), AIs with CZs, and rarely a better sniper in the loot box. One vehicle working (not the important vehicle. This could be an old motorcycle that's working for every mission) - hardcore: same as hard, but with machine guns and rocket launcher, none on AI, a chance of either one in the loot. One vehicle working. Also, an armed vehicle that can't move, and will be empty (of ammo) when not used by AI. 5. Trading. Now, the catch here is to have trading routes, and the gains should not be big, but enable a lot more gameplay options. Aside from the trader cities (the buy-sell price ratio should be 4:1), with normal prices, and special loot (like weapon attachments). Each of that trader should be in a different location from the trader cities. You could have 3m safezone around them, and have them spawn in the middle of nowhere, in a building of their own. They should also be relatively close to roads, so that those roads can be camped/ambushed. The whole point of this is to enable a small profit for those doing trading routes. There should also be at least 5 of those on the map. 6. Map. The map should NOT be Chernarus, because everyone knows every bit of it. There's also the deal with the open buildings I would suggest either Lingor Island (still kind of fresh) or Panthera 2 (overused), with 4 trader cities (2 for everybody and 1 for hero and 1 for bandit), and none of them have all the traders inside (again, so that the people have to visit more than one trader city), and there should be more buildings on the map than by default, so as to make the map unique to the server. You could block some entrances and add other entrances to buildings, wall around things, add buildings, add unmarked cities, and so on, so long as they're not obviously laid down on the map. Also, have a day+night cycle, but not those bitch black nights. 7. Donations & Microtransactions. Those who pay for it, should be able to have a bit of advantage over the others, but not too much of it. Something like a VIP Hero with a desert camo (or snow, they're both good in a city) and VIP Bandit with a forest camo. Also, maybe let them buy bikes and motorbikes for two thirds the price (so 3:2 buy-sell ratio), from a VIP trader in each trader city. If you want new players to get something free, give them money for a lock, so they can have a locked house. And a lockbox to the VIPs... So, tell me, how will it help you to have your server (more or less) exactly the same as every other server? What makes YOUR server so special? Is it any fun? For anybody?

Hi, Can one still make profit by refilling fuel cans and barrels?

Hi, In this topic I am trying to list a few minor changes I think would make a Epoch server on Arma 2 much better than the current servers. Also, this example would be on Lingor Island, due to the multitude of islands and existing bridges. First things first, fill the bridges with stuff so one can only use a bike, motorcycle or barely an ATV on a bridge. And make the bridges to the north-east only accessible by boat and helicopter. To go with this, all the tanks should be unlocked, but very expensive. Also, you could make the junk on the bridges to leave enough space for a tank with tracks (no wheels) to be able to make it to the other side. To go with that, there should be some bases on the map with only a castle tower and machine guns on top of it, to reduce the ammount of helicopters, hence forcing the players to either fly low (making them easy targets) or use boats/amphibious_tanks. And there should be missions with up to 2 AI with a motorcycle/ATV/offroad_truck without a wheel or without fuel, up to 4 with a used car or any cheap vehicle and prefferably be 10 minutes on the map after which they will dissapear (just enough for a player to maybe get a vehicle). Static machine guns AI should spawn around every major road, as a one-ai mission which needs to be cleared. But the pvp would become unpleasant, so I think the zombies should be buffed. They should be able to hear you walking from 100 meters away, walking with shift from 10 meters away and crawling from 4 meters away. And their numbers should be lower the more people are in a place. Let's say you have 20 zombies for a player in a 500x500 m area. for every other player you would have with 5 zombies less than the previous level. So it would go like this: [players => zombies_added] 1 => 20; 2 => 15; 3 => 10; 4+ => 5. That would translate to [players:zombies_around] 1:20, 2:35, 3:45. 4:50, 5:55. 6:60, 7:65, 8:70, etc. This way not only will be easier to deal with the zombies (because you can have eachother's back), but also have less zombies per player to deal with. [players => zombes_per_player] 1 => 20; 2 => 17.5; 3 => 15; 4 => 12.5; 5 => 11; 6 => 10; 7 => 9.28; 8 => 8.75; 9 => 8.3; 10 => 8; 11 => 7.72; 12 => 7.5; 13 => 7.3; Alright, now that we have the main points out of the way, how should the traders be placed? Well, for start, there should be 4 trader cities: Vila mara - 005:052 060:016 (maybe add some tents?) 011:026 (at the end of the road) Peuente Malargo - 081:067 - Black Market Trader included. Besides those traders, there should be 2 of each trader scattered on the map, in the form of 2 to 3 traders in a house/tent. Their location should have a safe zone covering only the building in cause. Every trader should have empty boxes where rich players could throw items they don't want/need and those in need could take from. Not once was I in need of only one silver and there was nothing around to sell, so I ended up having to make a 20 minutes trip to the nearest town, using a bike. Now that the easy part is done, here is something for the Epoch devs to do: Craftable vehicles (which can't be set on fire; in exchange, they drop Lumber, Plywood, the engine and the items inside them). Well, before that, we will need something for it: Door without a wall. Also, We should be able to create a key upgrade for the vehicle with a Combination Lock, allowing us to lock/unlock vehicles like we would a door. Seats / Item / Weapon / Backpack / On-Road / Off-Road / Fuel Capacity (Cans, 1 Can = 20L, 1 Fuel Barrel = 200L) Recipe Wooden Bike Wheel: 2 Plywood Packs Recipe Wooden Car Wheel: 2 Wooden Bike Wheels Small Vehicle Frame: 2 Lumber Packs, 1 Plywood Pack Medium Vehicle Frame: 5 Lumber Packs, 3 Plywood Packs Large Vehicle Frame: 10 Lumber Packs, 6 Plywood Packs Small Fuel Tank: 2 Cans Medium Fuel Tank: [ 5 Cans / 1 Fuel Barrel (makes two) ] Large Fuel Tank: [ 10 Cans / 1 Fuel Barrel ] Manual Boat Engine: [ 1 Canvas / 1 Scrap Metal / 1 Lumber Pack ], 2 Lumber, 2 Plywood Packs _________________________________ * Land Vehicles Wooden bike any 1 hit to disable recipe: 2 Wooden Bike Wheels, 1 Small Vehicle Frame repair: 1 plywood pack + 1 lumber 1/2/0/0/50/30/- Wooden Motorcycle 3 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 2 Wooden Car Wheels, 1 Small Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Can 2/5/1/0/70/35/1 Wooden ATV 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 4 Wooden Car Wheels, 1 Small Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Small Fuel Tank, 1 crate/box 2/20/3/1/90/55/2 Wooden Car 10 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 2 Wooden Car Wheels, 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Medium Fuel Tank, 2 crates/boxes 4/40/5/2/90/55/5 Wooden Offroad 10 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 4 Wooden Car Wheels, 2 Medium Vehicle Frames, 1 Engine, 2 Medium Fuel Tank, 2 crates/boxes 2/40/10/2/110/75/5 Wooden Ambulance 10 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 4 Wooden Car Wheels, 2 Medium Vehicle Frames, 1 Engine, 3 Medium Fuel Tank, 3 crates/boxes 6/60/15/3/90/55/5 Wooden V3S 20 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 8 Wooden Car Wheels, 1 Large Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Large Fuel Tank, 5 crates/boxes 2/100/30/5/90/55/10 _________________________________ * Air Vehicles Wooden Mozzie 4 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 10 plywood packs or 5 scrap metal (for the propellers), 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Large Fuel Tank, 1 crates/boxes 1/5/3/1/60/60/10 Wooden LittleBird 10 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 20 plywood packs or 10 scrap metal (for the propellers), 2 Medium Vehicle Frames, 1 Engine, 2 Large Fuel Tanks, 3 crates/boxes 4/30/10/2/80/80/20 _________________________________ * Water Vehicles Wooden Floater 3 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Half Floor, 1 Manual Boat Engine 2/5/1/0/40/40/- Wooden Small Storage Floater 3 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Half Floor, 1 Manual Boat Engine, 1 crate/box 2/20/3/1/40/40/- Wooden Large Storage Floater 3 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Floor, 1 Manual Boat Engine, 2 crates/boxes 2/30/10/3/40/40/- Wooden Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Half Floor, 1 Small Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Small Fuel Tank 2/5/1/0/60/60/2 Wooden Small Storage Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Half Floor, 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Small Fuel Tank, 1 crate/box 2/20/3/1/60/60/2 Wooden Large Storage Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Half Floor, 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Small Fuel Tank, 2 crates/boxes 2/30/10/3/60/60/2 Wooden Small Fishing Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Floor, 2 Lumber Packs, 4 Plywood Packs, 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Medium Fuel Tank 4/5/1/0/60/60/5 Wooden Medium Fishing Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Floor, 2 Lumber Packs, 4 Plywood Packs, 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Medium Fuel Tank, 1 crate/box 4/20/3/1/60/60/5 Wooden Large Fishing Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 1 Floor, 2 Lumber Packs, 4 Plywood Packs, 1 Medium Vehicle Frame, 1 Engine, 1 Medium Fuel Tank, 2 crates/boxes 4/30/10/3/60/60/5 Wooden Small Transport Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 2 Half Floors, 2 Medium Vehicle Frames, 1 Engine, 1 Medium Fuel Tank, 1 crate/box 6/20/3/1/60/60/5 Wooden Large Transport Boat 6 pistol bullets / meele hits to disable recipe: 2 Half Floors, 2 Medium Vehicle Frames, 1 Engine, 1 Large Fuel Tank, 2 crates/boxes 6/30/10/3/60/60/10 And allow Machine Guns updates for every vehicle with a medium or higher Fuel Tank or large Vehicle Frame and you've got a lot more action. Have this done and the game would yet again be in the top10 viewed games on Twitch/Hitbox (currently on the 33th place) and a lot of players who tried their luck with the standalone would come back to the game.

Yeah, and use up to 5 slots, depending on it's capacity... with one slot for the ones which can hold less than two pistols (which would equal a weapon).

Hi, Just in case the Epoch mod gets updated for the last version (which would be awesome), please, for the love of god, make so we can equip the tools (hatchet, etc.) in the pistol slot! And it would be awesome if we could have different resources from different tools, like have a craftable farm (requiring seeds for the specific crop and double them) and need a hoe to make it grow to stage 1, than water for stage 2, which would also take something like 5 minutes), hammer for destroying certain items (respawning after restart) which would give bricks, shovel/etool to dig dirt (maybe could only dig in the water) and combine it with something to get tar (or whatever you need to craft the brick wall; I haven't played in a while). The machete could be used for getting wood much slower, or for cutting plants, which could give off fiber, useful for crafting walls in a different way. And if one could craft a (new, wooden) bike with wood and fiber (and one-hit to make it unusable, and require some wood and fiber to be fixed), that would be awesome, and even more awesome if it could be crafted like a "bike pack", and then be deployed as it's needed! Also, some doors without the wall around would be extremly useful in making your own hidden base in an existing building. As well as a smaller plot pole, for like 5m or so, with a tirth the price of the curent plotpole. That would allow the new guys to have their own tiny home/base/homebase. But from all that, all I would really want in a possible update, is having the toolbelt items deployable to the pistol slot, and the pistol(s) to the toolbelt (if you have a pistol equiped and try to equip a hatchet, you would swap them). Have a good one!