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Looking forward to 0.4 Milestone and suggestions


DirtySanchez

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So basically we need a mod that is the best parts of other mods. :P

The best parts of other mods = things that set the stage for players to interact. 

 

Just think about it. A storm hits the server and you have to pick up and move to 1 of 2 areas for 10 mins. Once there you could be spotted by a drone and marked on the map. You could get chased by some Mad Max like car. Some one could kill you, revive you and arrest you. Next thing you know you are being held and you need help. You only got a few mates in your group but they can link up with another group to help out for just this mission. Then...

 

That is not the game play in epoch right now. 

 

Right now game play =  Loot, build, then take on AI, camp spwans, camp other bases, waste C4 aka raid, and take on AI aimbots. 

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For our group (we hit 14 players - on most days as a group at least half strength).

Our play style went.

 

1. organise and clean up the 60+ shelves we had for group loot.
2. arm and gear everyone up from stock pile plus personel loot

3. choose which of 10 land vehicles and 3-4 choppers to use

4. fly to a AI mission. Set up forward obs team. send in fire team, clear mission, grab loot we need , leave what we dont.

5. Any stage other player observed , or signs there in ... encircle and engage.

 

Base raiding became pointless after .3 with cinder walls being indestructable. Unless some still used metal walls and wooden roofs. But even then.

 

Eventually we would just load up our Hemmetts with any gear below 7.62  and any spare (we always had spare) carryalls , charges , gold etc and advertise a convoy that other groups could attack.

 

Or like i did once .. set up an event to attack Our Base - sell charges for 200 kyrpto from central Max 4 per contractor .. and make up a server wide reward for the next server restart (4 hours long) - free custom load out plus satchels for each member of any group that succeeds in destroying the building the base was inside off.   same again for killing the actual base jammer.

That was madness almost non stop... muilitiple groups engaging each other and laying seige to the largest group on the server....

My point is as loop said ... we need an inmod function that can stimulate the same sort of player interaction.

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There are a lot of good thoughts in this post, and I hope that it is taken onboard by some of the devs to see where to set their sights while developing. 

 

There are a few things I do miss... like some of the building items. 1/2 walls always came in handy!  I miss safes. 

I can see the argument on the antagonist being more destructive and therefore less in number, but I did like the fact that you could use zeds to see if there were other players around (loved it when there were zeds agro-ing a bush..... silly snipers!). 

 

One thing I did notice is that there are alot of things that are in our power to accomplish. An early post talked about the cries of "admin, tp me to my body".... um,noooo. The server I put together has clearly in the rules that admin will not TP players. The other thing we do not have is "starter kits"

Too many times I've been on servers that gave you a ton of crap. No need to look for it, or even buy it! Just ask an admin for a starter kit!  These are things we need to controll. A basic load-out I can see (and use one myself) as there are armed patrols on my server, but it's basic. Some crappy clothes, a HAND gun with a mag....  get better stuff by finding it! (rant over)

 

I, myself, am going to look into how much my server charges for cinderblocks and probably raise  the tax on them to make it more difficult to build with them (BTW would love to be able to have a larger garage door, some vehicles are too wide for them.... and I do like my little tanks :) )

 

Looking forward to your DONKEYPUNCH GUI release soon! Would love to take a look at that.

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Thanks pops!

Yeah this thread does have a lot of good info, and 0.3 was the milestone that gave us more customization abilities without using e mod. So I'm also looking forward to the benefits of 0.4

Yeah I should a had that released yesterday but with a3 launcher adding @cup weapons, I scrambled to get my old data out and get it in. Then I decided day one to have an @cup server event which lasted 3 hours!well come check it out in the meantime and expect a release here soon, couple little things I need to work out

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I don't want to rain on the developers parade for Epoch but with options starting to creep up they may want to get their ducks in line and start executing them or pulling in additional resources to keep the interest peeked.

 

I'd hate to see all this hard work ending up going to a smaller population in the end.

 

 

I'm actually surprised that the developers are not reaching out to some of those power-coders working in the bigger communities like DP to see if they could provide some assistance as they seem to know very well what they are doing on their own servers. But what do I know.. maybe they have.

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I'm only going to agree with one part, that maybe get some stuff out there to keep the population interested.

however, little Ole me(which it is just me coding and configuring) couldn't possibly help the Epoch team. First I'm a player that 8 months ago got frisky with arma and started a server. Since then I have probably invested 1000 research hours and about half in testing hours plus 1000 wasted hours!!! I'm not some superman, I simply do a lot of reading and taking examples from bis, here there and everywhere. I take my ideas and make em work, maybe I'm a bit better at it then some, but 30+ years on a computer did that to me. However my drive of being interested in this hobby is what keeps DP fresh for those that enjoy it.

Thanks a lot for your kind compliments, I do offer my help when i can (several server owners out there will grin and nod :). But my lack of experience would be the last choice to try to get the coding side of this mod done.

I say let's see what's in store for us over the next week or two and go from there ;)

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May of been asked already...

 

But is there anymore ETA on 0.4.0 coming out ?

 

Been missing Epoch so much and really want to come back to it, Just as of now it seems pointless played the hell out of it all teh way through its updates, But as of now, As a team game there's just nothing to do, 

 

Some great ideas on this thread and really look forward to coming back ! 

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May of been asked already...

 

But is there anymore ETA on 0.4.0 coming out ?

 

Been missing Epoch so much and really want to come back to it, Just as of now it seems pointless played the hell out of it all teh way through its updates, But as of now, As a team game there's just nothing to do, 

 

Some great ideas on this thread and really look forward to coming back !

Really nothing to do as a team? I think you've just been at the wrong servers

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No i really dont think its the servers, Only so many AI missions you can do, Loot was to easy to get, The bases having limited design, So did not take long to make a perfect fortress, Most buildings being made indestructible, Or damage being set at a stupid amount,

 

We enjoyed the team play and mass killing, that we had on Dayz-Epoch ! 

 

All of which was lost, I do hope it is not long until 0.4.0, I do check back every so often ! 

 

And Sanchez would you mind giving more information on how your server has good team play aspects ?

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No i really dont think its the servers, Only so many AI missions you can do, Loot was to easy to get, The bases having limited design, So did not take long to make a perfect fortress, Most buildings being made indestructible, Or damage being set at a stupid amount,

 

We enjoyed the team play and mass killing, that we had on Dayz-Epoch ! 

 

All of which was lost, I do hope it is not long until 0.4.0, I do check back every so often ! 

 

And Sanchez would you mind giving more information on how your server has good team play aspects ?

Hey Reece, its in the servers really.

Just for starters, over the last few days I have thrown 2 CUP weapons based Events.

All the groups, clans, teams(whichever they would like to referred to as) got together and went for the Event.

Each event lasted about 3 hours and was heavily based on teamwork. You had AI and Players no matter what.

Also I put the Hunt in the donators hands for the last few weeks.

This allows them to start a PvP mission called SURVIVOR HUNT. It pops up a hint and a Marker on the map that updates once a minute.

They have already used to start a Clan Hunt, which is in the works for my Menu so that they don't have to side chat the info that more than 1 person is there.

Admin hunts are also in there.

There is also a random location capture the flag side mission that announces who is there and that has also been used to start a PvP group vs group match many times.

I have also incorporated a Donkey PvP rewards system that promotes PvP. It pays 25% of the distance of your kill in crypto.

This is based off the killer being a player and both of you not in the same group. :)

Yes of course there are AI missions but how else are ya gonna stock up on that custom random loot and now CUP weapons!

Hmmm I know there is more but theres so much on the darn server its hard to remember it all.

Oh yeah and some map edits that provide high loot areas.

feel free to comment :)

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Props to Dirty Sanchez.... It always depends on the server. I ran a few DAY Z Epoch servers and am running a ARMA3 EPOCH server now. My DAYZ Epoch servers ran very well and were well populated up to the point where server owners started putting in game-breaking scripts. By this I mean that you had some servers that kitted you out at spawn with enough gear to be your own one man army. You got boxes of building supplies and there was loot everywhere you turned, including vehicles of all types. I thought that took some of the edge off the game and wouldn't add it. My server went empty. When I started to play A3 Epoch, server owners were offering starter kits, the chat box was full of "Admin... TP me to my base/body" "my heli/car/truck blew up, can I have another"  "there's bits missing from my base, can I have another kit (and all the gear that they "lost").  I can see how quickly boring that can get !

 

So, I started up a server the way that I want. 

 

With the open spaces of ALTIS I had minimal AI and no armed vehicles. No starting loadout.  I've switched maps to Bornholm (I've had that map since it came out and was excited when it was supported by Epoch) and since it's such a nice big heavily wooded map with a lot of rolling hills and berms, I've put in more AI, armed vehicles, and a  basic loadout. The map supports this, and the loadout balances the AI. 

 

There is no admin TPs or handouts- there are a few bonuses like extra crafting menues, black market traders,  and some loot spawning boxes to fight for...nothing is indistructable. Anything that I may add has to have certain requirements, it has to be balanced- get something by earning it, an advantage comes with danger/hazard, cosmetic changes are fine, and anyone that plays on the server has the same opportunity as anyone else.

 

So, yea.... there is alot that is up to the server owners... more stuff isn't always better, easier is not alway more fun. Find a balance......

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People complain about carebear-servers, and I agree.

 

The thing is, two years ago I was pretty dogmatic at running first-person, hardcore loot tables, no help for those who got their codes hacked/replaced, grindy, leathal settings, few vehicles only on our A2E-epoch server, and while we managed for some time to keep a population of 25-30 players, everyone was complaining to the point where they simply left to other servers. We had requests for self-bloodbags, more sniper rifles, easier ways to find cinder/mortar, more vehicles, because that's what the players wanted. 

 

So I struggled for a long time with trying to tweak everything, even made a system that punished late-night lockpicking and all that jazz, but with the progressive changes toward making things easier, players left anyhow, now because the settings were changing too often.

 

Bottom line though, the servers that are populated do what the majority of players want: ie. lots of ways to find guns, indestructible bases, craftable vehicles, etc. etc. - I see some random people insist on "hardcore servers being needed" but these guys make more noise than action. 

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I don't follow some of the thinking here re "carebear-servers".

 

I have played Mels, Firecock, S7, CCG, Donkey Punch, and others. From my experience a lot less shit happened in "hardcore" servers and game play got old unless you like to grind loot. A shit load of stuff happens on  "carebear-servers". My group would mark a town as PVP only and we would talk a lot of crap to get ppl to come take us on. There was so much loot that you could just PVP for hours. The downside was that no one went past a few cities and any base was blown up within hours due to the crazy amount of C4.

 

Then there came what some ppl are calling Wasteland Epoch. Here loot is not hard to come by, you can spwn in more that just 3 places, there are easier ways to get around, the AI mission are worth doing, and there are player driven events like cap the flag. On this kind of server you can still build a base, pvp, and have something to do other than take on AI or sit in your base holding onto the only night stalker scope on the "hardcore" server. 

 

The truth is this: Epoch is missing mechanics that force players to interact and the AI filler is not all that interesting. 

 

What I hope for in 4.0 is this missing mechanic. "Surviving" as a core thing to do is dull. I can go onto an empty server and survive for long as time. What is the point? 

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