Arma 2: Combined Ops (ARMA 2 Base game now free!) (Zombie Mod!)

[Slayerik]

Yeah, considering this started as a mod, I wouldn't be surprised if someone developed a new DayZ-like mod for Arma3 before Rocket finishes the Day Z standalone.

And yes, there is one called Zoombies or something

[Falconeer]

It's hard to explain why, but even in alpha stage and with so little features working, this blows all competition away. Got it yesterday and three hours later I felt I already got 24€ worth of fun back. And it's only the beginning.

[Kageru]

Appears to be holding the top-seller spot on steam, even though the steam sale is on and it's full price. But I assume it's still just a gank-fest with zombie decorations knowing Rocket.

[Surlyboi]

I just bought it, but I won't be playing 'til at least the weekend as I'm in high ping hell right now.

[Falconeer]

Oh it is a gank fest with zombie decoration. Plus the wonderfully depressive setting. That's why it is selling like crazy.

[Slayerik]

Inventory system is much improved, lots of bugs though in general. Not seeing shit for weapons besides M4 and axes. Zombies and respawning of items is currently not working so there is a shortage of both, which isn't all bad. Watch for the wall hacking zeds...fuckers almost took me down but my M4 handled it. You can handcuff people, though, which is awesome.

[Falconeer]

I found a baseball bat and a big huge wrench. Oh, and a fire extuinguisher which I had a few issues swinging though.

The thing that bothers me the most is cheating and hacking, teleport and all that. I thought they rewrote the thing from the ground, but apparently the same cheats that were in the mod are alive and well here, despite VAC too. This could kill the game for me as it did with the mod if they don't make a real effort to eradicate it.

[Malakili]

Shame to hear it's basically business as usual from the mod.  I was hoping the stand alone version might plug up some of the holes that prevented me from getting really engrossed in the mod even though it had some really great moments.  Back to project zomboid for me!

[Falconeer]

875k copies sold in the first three weeks, which adds up to about 17M earned in less than a month, despite the author saying everywhere on the net to not buy the game as there's no gameplay yet and to buy Project Zomboid (which he called "a huge inspiration") or Rust instead.

My recommendation would be to wait for about a month. January offers us a good chance to clear up the most critical bugs and begin our server optimization, this will round out the gameplay substantially for what is currently there.
However I think the 'real' fun will come when we start implementing the new items on our roadmap, such as vehicles, gardening, hunting, etc... and that comes after our work now.

What I would recommend is checking out Project Zomboid, also Rust which is quite a bit cheaper than Dayz and probably a bit more complete to its design than DayZ currently

Granted, 99% of those 875k are already on the Steam forums complaining about PKs, bandits, KOS, and asking for PvE servers, but seriously, 875k copies sold of the alpha test of one of harshest PvP games ever, with no advertising at all and the author telling people not to buy it? What is happening?

[Malakili]

What is happening?

Zombies are in vogue, and DayZ has the prettiest graphics which makes for screenshots that people get hyped for.  Project Zomboid is a better zombie survival game by a pretty wide margin, but most people see an isometric game that looks like it was from over a decade ago and aren't interested.

[Yegolev]

What is the griefing potential in Zomboid and Rust?  I have entertained the idea of getting Zomboid for a while but just haven't done it, and I haven't even looked at Rust.  Anway, if you can't teabag someone in those two, DayZ is probably the winner.

[Falconeer]

Griefing potential:

- Non-existent in Zomboid (it's a single player game).
- Immense in Rust. Even worse than Day Z considering your character stays in the game even when you log out, and the things you build with days and weeks of labour can be wiped out in a matter of minutes (even when you are logged out, yes). Rust is pretty much Shadowbane made into an FPS and minus the sb.exe. Only nastier.

[Yegolev]

Sign me up!

[Falconeer]

Day Z guide to being a Prick - Chapter 3.

 

[Malakili]

Day Z guide to being a Prick - Chapter 3.

 

I'm surprised they don't just log off.

[Falconeer]

The fact that they didn't log off makes me question the authenticity of this video. That said, I know I wouldn't have logged off as I am into these games for the weird, unique experiences I can get out of it, so there's a chance it's all real after all.

About "combat log" (which is alt+f4'ing before being killed) and server hopping, Rocket posted a lot in the past few days stating those things are gonna be taken care of. Let's not forget that while it is easy to make empty promises, they raised about 17M in less than a month so there's a chance they will take the development of this game very seriously since it's clearly a gold mine.

[Surlyboi]

That was fucking awesome and horrible at the same time. That said, if I was one of the yellow jacket guys, I would've buried the axe in one of the bandits. If I'm gonna die, they'll record one of their buddies eating it too.

[Falconeer]

Edit: Also...



It's not finished and had no marketing - yet DayZ wins Xmas sales race

The biggest game of Christmas was released on just one platform, had no marketing and it isn’t even finished yet.

While the official charts claim FIFA 14 and Cut The Rope 2 were the biggest games of Christmas, Dean Hall’s PC-only DayZ shifted nearly 1m units and made over £20m in revenue in just its first four weeks on sale.

It is a shining example that you don’t need big publishers and multi-million pound marketing budgets to make a smash hit in today’s games industry. You don’t even need a finished game – DayZ is still in Alpha.

“We’re on track to break one million unit sales within the month from release, which is completely outside the realm of what I thought a PC exclusive title, during a Steam sale, downloadable only via Steam, with a $0 marketing budget could do,” the game’s creator Hall told MCV.

“My expectations were that if we did 250k units within the quarter we released in, I would have considered us a success. We did consider that sales could be substantially more than that, but estimating that felt like complete guesswork so we didn't really try.”

Hall explained that an open dialogue with customers and giving them the chance to help with development is the secret to its incredible sales.

 “I think being very open with the release helped a great deal,” he said. “Our media strategy was simply to not have one. We spent no money on marketing, and we actively worked with Steam to reduce the marketing footprint.

“With a strong concept and an open, honest dialogue, direct with customers through social media – people got what they wanted and that resulted in successful sales.

“We chose to do what was right for the game, for the customer, first and foremost. Sometimes that meant delaying the release, changing the price, spending more on initial servers, etc... that resulted in a better product and people see that.”

[HaemishM]

Humble Bundle Weekly Sale is full of ArmA II.

For $6, you get Arma II and the Operation Arrowhead expansion, which allows you to play DayZ the mod, and you get the new Carrier Command game. Plus you get Alpha Prime, UFO: Afterlight and Arma Tactics as well as other stuff I've never heard of.

Any feedback on Carrier Command, Alpha Prime or UFO: Afterlight?

[apocrypha]

Any feedback on Carrier Command

It's terrible. I could get past the first 30 mins or so, it was clunky as anything. But hey, $6 for all that lot ain't bad, the Arma II stuff alone is worth it.

[Falconeer]

Coming soon:



"It reduces you hearing also."

[Falconeer]

Depending how much you care about about Day Z and the development of a crazy indie full loot PvP mod, you will find this Reddit AMA with Rocket Hall extremely interesting or utterly boring. I edited out all the stuff about climbing mt. Everest and tried to reduce repetitions to a minimum. Apologies for the redundant parts.

Some of the highlights n my opinion include: mentioning EVE as a source of inspiration, mentioning Skyrim's Frostfall mod as another source of inspiration, and basically saying that the industry is paying too much attention to fun and that's a lot of what is wrong with games these days. Also worth mentioning, zombies being his least favourite aspect of the whole game.

Have a look: