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H1Z1 Early Access |OT| You've got red on you.

Pachimari

Member
So the servers are down?

Right when I decided to start it up and try it out for the first time. I'm gonna go to sleep and play it tomorrow instead.
 

IMACOMPUTA

Member
This is pay2win with a twist. Guns are being payed for and a player in the world will benefit from it. No matter which way its spun, theres an element of pay2win. People are probably getting upset since from the reveal last year when this got alot of attention they were pretty clear and to the point it being only cosmetics. Alot of people would of put then put that to the back of their mind and just assume no MT's for guns, but at some point (in august?) when people were paying attention to other games, they slip in with the new info and nobody notices, until now.

I don't know where you guys get your definition of pay2win, but to me and everyone I know it's always been a situation where you can pay real money to get an advantage over others.

With the crate being up for grabs, you are not getting an advantage over anybody.
 
Free crates that drop are just as problematic in concept as pay to drop ones. Materials that are intended to be rare are made much less rare when they fall from the sky paid or not.

Crates in Rust absolutely destroyed much of the fun because suddenly you have gangs running around farming the crates and what was intended to be rare like C4 suddenly they have overflowing vaults of and they have it all since they travel in roving armies.

So trying to build a house? good luck here comes the C4 Army assholes.

C4, guns and ammo being craftable in rust was what killed it. No matter how hard it was to craft a dedicated group could make a ton of it in a few hours.

As far as this all goes I'm still on the fence about guns in crates. I want to see it playout with the new changes and on actual populated working servers before i say it doesn't work. Crates are a server event that can make things a lot of fun. But they also do have the ability unbalance the game in the favor of geared up gangs who won't be able to be contested regardless. I think calling this game p2w already is a bit overblown especially with SOE being honest about the tweaks they want to do and even offering refunds. If it breaks they game I think they would remove it because play to win does kill these games and they know that.

CssPs5G.png
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
Free crates that drop are just as problematic in concept as pay to drop ones. Materials that are intended to be rare are made much less rare when they fall from the sky paid or not.

Crates in Rust absolutely destroyed much of the fun because suddenly you have gangs running around farming the crates and what was intended to be rare like C4 suddenly they have overflowing vaults of and they have it all since they travel in roving armies.

So trying to build a house? good luck here comes the C4 Army assholes.

Farming definitely can make something less fun or mess with server economy in any game. These games have bare-bones content though. If you're not adding basic airdrops to give something to actually do, you're sure as hell not adding a bunch of npc's that give quests or world bosses.
 

Compsiox

Banned
I didn't care that I was paying to play a free2play game early but I really didn't think microtransactions would be implemented until release.
 

Mudcrab

Member
It is pretty obvious they want airdrops to be sources of conflict and player encounters. They are making changes specifically to increase the likelihood that a lot of players will converge on the airdrops.

Maybe it's the cynic in me, but this seems more like a consequence of a system that's trying to get someone to repeatedly spend money on airdrops. Clearly there will people who never open their wallets, but there are going to be tons of people who will just pay for airdrops over and over again until they get what they want. One way or the other H1N1 is going to maximize profits from monetization and I can see how this in particular comes across as exploitative, unless there's some kind of cooldown on these airdrops per person.
 
Even the Dev acknowledges it is p2w...

https://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/comme...s_asked_refund_policy/cnr4mwd?sort=confidence

I think that settles it. Hope they change it for the better! I really wanna play that game.

Is this not what we've been saying? Everyone here has acknowledged it's being tweaked to afford much less advantage to the player who requested the airdrop. We've even posted the proposed changes, in detail, multiple times.

Maybe it's the cynic in me, but this seems more like a consequence of a system that's trying to get someone to repeatedly spend money on airdrops. Clearly there will people who never open their wallets, but there are going to be tons of people who will just pay for airdrops over and over again until they get what they want. One way or the other H1N1 is going to maximize profits from monetization and I can see how this in particular comes across as exploitative, unless there's some kind of cooldown on these airdrops per person.

I hear you and I will absolutely be disappointed if these are the only sort of dynamic missions in the game. Relying on customers' wallets to create gameplay moments is...not good.

In regards to a player using an air drop over and over to get what they want (please excuse these, I just whipped them up): here is an 8x8 (64sq km) grid with 50 players, which is the minimum required for an airdrop to come by, as of today:

jhTrl86.png


They have already stated they want to increase this airdrop requirement to at least 100 players, which would look like this:

orAmLKi.png


Of course, I'm sure the map size will increase, but the player count is supposed to increase as well.

Compare this to population density in DayZ (which has a max of 50 players on a 256sq km map):

w0hG63l.png


Obviously, these grids ignore hot spots where players gather and actual map topography. In H1Z1, it sounds like their goal is that a player can NEVER just hide in a corner and call in a ton of airdrops safely. Airdrops will ONLY be able to be used in high population servers, where there is a constant risk of loot stealing.
 
I didn't care that I was paying to play a free2play game early but I really didn't think microtransactions would be implemented until release.

Microstransactions have to be tested as well. They need to know what people are willing to pay for and what they won't. What they can tweak or what they can remove. It's all part of figuring out how to make this a balanced yet profitable f2p game eventually.


My only beef was of the 6 cases I opened two of them were duplicates. Unlike csgo i can't go on the market and sell these extra tshirt skins or trade them. This needs to be remedied cause if you are going to charge 2.50 per key having a chance that what you get is completely useless is not ok.
 

Chabbles

Member
I don't know where you guys get your definition of pay2win, but to me and everyone I know it's always been a situation where you can pay real money to get an advantage over others.

With the crate being up for grabs, you are not getting an advantage over anybody.

I said pay2win with a twist for a reason. You might end up paying for someone else to get the ingame advantage. Either way money is being exchanged for guns though. And honestly i haven't been ingame long enough to see one of these air drops go down, so i want to see how afew of them play out and how easily other people can get to and steal someones drop.
 
I said pay2win with a twist for a reason. You might end up paying for someone else to get the ingame advantage. Either way money is being exchanged for guns though. And honestly i haven't been ingame long enough to see one of these air drops go down, so i want to see how afew of them play out and how easily other people can get to and steal someones drop.

Currently, yeah, you're basically guaranteed a weapon from an airdrop, but they have stated that it will be changed to only give a chance at a weapon.

So, a paid airdrop =/= a weapon, once it's patched.

So how exactly are they handling the cosmetics right now? Do you keep the forever? Lose them if you die?

I think someone said that crates contain items that are permanently bound to your account.
 

Mudcrab

Member
Airdrops will ONLY be able to be used in high population servers, where there is a constant risk of loot stealing.

Exactly. One not getting the mystery box one payed for leads to one thinking about paying again for another shot at loot. Which is kind of thrilling in gambling sort of way because yes while it would suck to lose out again you just might murder someone trying to rob you which is even better than just getting the airdrop. Spending money for content is a crazy concept.

Btw those were impressive graphs for being done so quickly.
 

jpax

Member
Currently, yeah, you're basically guaranteed a weapon from an airdrop, but they have stated that it will be changed to only give a chance at a weapon.

So, a paid airdrop =/= a weapon, once it's patched.



I think someone said that crates contain items that are permanently bound to your account.

Sorry but it is dead simple... Do you manipulate the gameplay by spending real world money? If yes, this is questionable practice. Can you get an advantage with said manipulation? If yes, it is by definition p2w.
 

kcxiv

Member
Sorry but it is dead simple... Do you manipulate the gameplay by spending real world money? If yes, this is questionable practice. Can you get an advantage with said manipulation? If yes, it is by definition p2w.

so what about when someone gets to your air drop before you and they loot your weapon and kill you with the weapon, then isnt it a disadvantage?
 
Exactly. One not getting the mystery box one payed for leads to one thinking about paying again for another shot at loot. Which is kind of thrilling in gambling sort of way because yes while it would suck to lose out again you just might murder someone trying to rob you which is even better than just getting the airdrop. Spending money for content is a crazy concept.

Btw those were impressive graphs for being done so quickly.

Yeah, it will be very interesting. I can see players calling in airdrops just to ambush all the players who run to retrieve it.

Sorry but it is dead simple... Do you manipulate the gameplay by spending real world money? If yes, this is questionable practice. Can you get an advantage with said manipulation? If yes, it is by definition p2w.

That's such a broad definition, though. That applies to basically every F2P game (there are exceptions, of course), "founder" bonuses for crowdfunded games, preorder bonuses, and DLC.
 

Compsiox

Banned
Microstransactions have to be tested as well. They need to know what people are willing to pay for and what they won't. What they can tweak or what they can remove. It's all part of figuring out how to make this a balanced yet profitable f2p game eventually.


My only beef was of the 6 cases I opened two of them were duplicates. Unlike csgo i can't go on the market and sell these extra tshirt skins or trade them. This needs to be remedied cause if you are going to charge 2.50 per key having a chance that what you get is completely useless is not ok.

I fully agree about the cases.

As for the micros isn't there a way to test them without charging?
 

kcxiv

Member
I fully agree about the cases.

As for the micros isn't there a way to test them without charging?
they have tested, but once it goes live and all kinds of people are playing, it changes.

IM sure when they put the servers to live, they werent expecting the NPC's to not move in some area's. Bugs happen.
 

HowZatOZ

Banned
You can be as snarky as you want, but money was spent for an advantage.

An advantage you are not guaranteed.

It has been stated multiple times before in this thread but the concept of airdrops is exactly like how Rust works, except you pay for them to activate. Your chance of getting the drop for yourself is not completely guaranteed and what drops in the chest is not guaranteed either. Currently it is broken, as you would expect from an early access title, and while yes we should be criticising any real money aspects the blowout on this through Reddit especially is just ridiculous.

I don't know if its a fault of Reddit and the toxic community of H1Z1's subreddit, but jesus people have forgotten what early access is. Yes you are paying real money but that doesn't again guarantee an advantage over the player, and that advantage once fixed will be lowered to a reasonable level.
 

HowZatOZ

Banned
Why would anyone want to buy a crate with a high probability that you won't even get the loot?

Why do people buy scratchies with a high chance of not winning anything?

Also in regards to cosmetics they are bound to the player's account, but if you kill someone with a costume you'll get a copy, but of lower quality. I don't believe guns are bound but could be wrong (most likely as that makes no sense).
 
In other news. They have to stress how early this game is. Player models aren't final. Most of the world including textures are place holders. A ton of transition animations aren't in yet. This game is alpha very very alpha.

Working on some equips today....
B7glKk4CYAAEwTx.jpg:large
 

Gaz_RB

Member
So for those that have played it: how are the zombies? Do they present an actual threat, and are they fun to fight? If they're anything like Day-Z zombies, I probably won't jump in. My dream game would combine Day-Z's concept with Left for Dead's zombies, though I imagine H1Z1 doesn't come close to that, based on the streams I've seen so far. Then again, it is alpha.

Why would anyone want to buy a crate with a high probability that you won't even get the loot?

Bored? Want to have a big battle with a high risk/high reward? As a trap? If you're the last man standing, you not only get the crate, but you get to scavenge the bodies of everyone who failed.

I can imagine bandit clans dominating servers and any airdrops that come in them. And I can also see a sort of rebellion forming against them, which would be awesome.
 
In other news. They have to stress how early this game is. Player models aren't final. Most of the world including textures are place holders. A ton of transition animations aren't in yet. This game is alpha very very alpha.

Too bad most people don't understand what that means. They think because it's out it's done.
 

jpax

Member
That's such a broad definition, though. That applies to basically every F2P game (there are exceptions, of course), "founder" bonuses for crowdfunded games, preorder bonuses, and DLC.

Well, you named nearly everything what is wrong with modern gaming culture. And yes there are exceptions but the vast majority is unquestionable p2w.
I actually have no answer for the dlc part. But yes if the dlc in an mp game gives you an advantage than it is also p2w.

I do know that the definition is broad and I wrote in an earlier post that there are grey areas.
I am in no way saying that this specific practice is the worst of all time, neither am I saying that it could not lead to exciting conflicts in the game world and so on. But I believe there are better ways to ensure the tension and competition then just paying more money.
 

Soi-Fong

Member
So for those that have played it: how are the zombies? Do they present an actual threat, and are they fun to fight? If they're anything like Day-Z zombies, I probably won't jump in. My dream game would combine Day-Z's concept with Left for Dead's zombies, though I imagine H1Z1 doesn't come close to that, based on the streams I've seen so far. Then again, it is alpha.

Zombies are an actual threat especially early on. In groups of 3 or 4 they're deadly as ever. The wildlife presents challenges too since wolves and bears attack once you're seen.
 
So for those that have played it: how are the zombies? Do they present an actual threat, and are they fun to fight? If they're anything like Day-Z zombies, I probably won't jump in. My dream game would combine Day-Z's concept with Left for Dead's zombies, though I imagine H1Z1 doesn't come close to that, based on the streams I've seen so far. Then again, it is alpha.

Zombies have been broken since launch afaik. At least everytime I've played they just stood there and did nothing.
 

Compsiox

Banned
On a psychological level it's not the same if you don't have to pay real money.

I know before posting that I was trying to think of an example and I couldn't. Maybe an in-game job that actually takes a decent amount of work but is also fun? This would allow people to care for the "money" they earn and may result in the same effect. The only thing this would cost you is time.
 

vehn

Member
Hey guys, first I want to say thank you to all of you, even the ones that are very upset with us. We have received an overwhelming amount of support and feedback from everyone and the dev team is all working hard on all of the current issues and I appreciate your patience as we try to get H1Z1 up and running smoothly. We are a little over 24 hours in and it has been and absolute roller coaster.
2nd I wanted to address what I said in an earlier stream with NGTZombies prior to our release. I said you cannot buy a gun or ammo and it had to be found in the world. When you are on a stream, and you are talking about your game, you tend to talk a million miles an hour both to keep the information flowing and to keep it entertaining. But sometimes things get said without completely thinking about what you are saying 100% through. H1Z1 is a massive game with a lot of systems, some of which we were tuning every day and finishing last minute. When I said you can't buy any guns or ammo, I completely disregarded the possibility of airdrops and meant that you can't buy a gun or ammo and have it go into your starting loadout, or your loadout immediately like you were buying a gun from the gun store.
All that being said, I totally understand how what I said was at the time lying to you guys and I apologize. But please understand that's not what I was trying to do. For those of you that don't know me or understand me, know that I'm not trying to be this monster that is conniving and lying in hopes that you get tricked into buying the game. I am very passionate about making video games and I want more than anything in the world for people to love the games that I am a part of making.
The dev team loves airdrops, and in testing, every time we used one, they were highly contested where the person who actually called in the airdrop had to earn it through a gladiator style brawl. They usually weren't the one that ended up with the airdrop but no matter what, the person who called it in was satisfied with the event that they got to make happen. That event is the magic we are trying to capture with everyone. The last thing we want is it to be a boring item that someone can sneak around and quietly get to find gear without it being contested. In our opinion that is basically cheating and nobody should be able to do that.
Whether you agree with us or not, that is how we want airdrops to work. We are going to be tuning them throughout early access until we can get them to work that way, here are the first pass initial changes.
1) Make the plane move slowly (53% of current) This increases the ability for other players to react to the plane coming in. 2) Make the drop fall more slowly (80% of current) This increases the ability for other players to react to the plane coming in. 3) Less accurate maximum drop radius (was 250m now 700m, so with these settings it would drop up to 700m from the calling player) 4) New minimum distance of 250m for airdrops to appear from a player. This is a little less than ½ the player density of 700m distance with 120 players on a server. Therefore more players are likely to be near the airdrop when deployed. 5) Increase the minimum number of required players to 120 (a little higher after more discussion about player density being important to keeping airdrops contested)
H1Z1 Airdrop Events and drop percentages
65% chance to call in one of these airdrops
The Caveman * Bow 1x * Bundle of Arrows 2x * Torch 1x * Waist pack 1x * 7 Zombies
The Welder * Wrench 1x * Hammer 1x * Metal Sheets 4x * Metal Pipes 2x * Weapon Repair Kit 1x * 7 Zombies
The Medic * First Aid Kits 2x * Bandages 5x * Cloth 6x * Purified Water 2x * Saline 2x * 7 Zombies
The Demolition Man * IED 2x * Lighter 1x * Landmine 1x * Flares 2x * Smoke Flare 2x * Ethonol 1x * 7 Zombies
The Builder * Nails 20x * Furnace 1x * Logs 4x * Metal Bits 10x * Scrap Metal 10x * Wood Axe 1x * 7 Zombies
The Farmer * Tamper 10x * Corn Seeds 10x * Wheat Seeds 10x * Fertilizer 10x * Purified Water 5x * 7 Zombies
The Hiker * Motorcycle Helmet 1x * Military Backpack 1x * Goggles 1x * Binoculars 1x * Compass 1x * 7 Zombies
12.5 % chance to call in one of these airdrops
Life of the Party * IED 5x * Swizzle 20x * Moonshine 15x * Flare 30x * 7 Zombies
10.0% Chance to call in this airdrop
The Hobo * Shotgun 1x * Shells 12x * Moonshine 2x * Torch 1x * Twine 1x * Bear Sandwich 1x * 7 Zombies
The Lone Wolf * Pistol 1x * Ammo.45 14x * Logs 2x * Wolf Sandwich 1x * Animal Trap 1x * Deer Bladder 2x * 7 Zombies
Thank you guys for being patient with us!
-Arclegger

HYPE
 

Gaz_RB

Member
Zombies are an actual threat especially early on. In groups of 3 or 4 they're deadly as ever. The wildlife presents challenges too since wolves and bears attack once you're seen.

Yeah I was watching this one stream where this bear came out of nowhere and mauled the streamer, which is pretty awesome. Good to see the wildlife is already off to a good start. How big do the zombie groups tend to get?

Zombies have been broken since launch afaik. At least everytime I've played they just stood there and did nothing.

Sort of as expected for an alpha of a game as ambitious as H1Z1. I think I'm gonna keep an eye on it as it updates, but I don't think I'm going to jump in just yet. Thanks.
 
Another update about airdrops from arclegger.

Hey guys, first I want to say thank you to all of you, even the ones that are very upset with us. We have received an overwhelming amount of support and feedback from everyone and the dev team is all working hard on all of the current issues and I appreciate your patience as we try to get H1Z1 up and running smoothly. We are a little over 24 hours in and it has been and absolute roller coaster.
2nd I wanted to address what I said in an earlier stream with NGTZombies prior to our release. I said you cannot buy a gun or ammo and it had to be found in the world. When you are on a stream, and you are talking about your game, you tend to talk a million miles an hour both to keep the information flowing and to keep it entertaining. But sometimes things get said without completely thinking about what you are saying 100% through. H1Z1 is a massive game with a lot of systems, some of which we were tuning every day and finishing last minute. When I said you can't buy any guns or ammo, I completely disregarded the possibility of airdrops and meant that you can't buy a gun or ammo and have it go into your starting loadout, or your loadout immediately like you were buying a gun from the gun store.
All that being said, I totally understand how what I said was at the time lying to you guys and I apologize. But please understand that's not what I was trying to do. For those of you that don't know me or understand me, know that I'm not trying to be this monster that is conniving and lying in hopes that you get tricked into buying the game. I am very passionate about making video games and I want more than anything in the world for people to love the games that I am a part of making.
The dev team loves airdrops, and in testing, every time we used one, they were highly contested where the person who actually called in the airdrop had to earn it through a gladiator style brawl. They usually weren't the one that ended up with the airdrop but no matter what, the person who called it in was satisfied with the event that they got to make happen. That event is the magic we are trying to capture with everyone. The last thing we want is it to be a boring item that someone can sneak around and quietly get to find gear without it being contested. In our opinion that is basically cheating and nobody should be able to do that.
Whether you agree with us or not, that is how we want airdrops to work. We are going to be tuning them throughout early access until we can get them to work that way, here are the first pass initial changes.
1) Make the plane move slowly (53% of current) This increases the ability for other players to react to the plane coming in. 2) Make the drop fall more slowly (80% of current) This increases the ability for other players to react to the plane coming in. 3) Less accurate maximum drop radius (was 250m now 700m, so with these settings it would drop up to 700m from the calling player) 4) New minimum distance of 250m for airdrops to appear from a player. This is a little less than ½ the player density of 700m distance with 120 players on a server. Therefore more players are likely to be near the airdrop when deployed. 5) Increase the minimum number of required players to 120 (a little higher after more discussion about player density being important to keeping airdrops contested)
H1Z1 Airdrop Events and drop percentages
65% chance to call in one of these airdrops
The Caveman * Bow 1x * Bundle of Arrows 2x * Torch 1x * Waist pack 1x * 7 Zombies
The Welder * Wrench 1x * Hammer 1x * Metal Sheets 4x * Metal Pipes 2x * Weapon Repair Kit 1x * 7 Zombies
The Medic * First Aid Kits 2x * Bandages 5x * Cloth 6x * Purified Water 2x * Saline 2x * 7 Zombies
The Demolition Man * IED 2x * Lighter 1x * Landmine 1x * Flares 2x * Smoke Flare 2x * Ethonol 1x * 7 Zombies
The Builder * Nails 20x * Furnace 1x * Logs 4x * Metal Bits 10x * Scrap Metal 10x * Wood Axe 1x * 7 Zombies
The Farmer * Tamper 10x * Corn Seeds 10x * Wheat Seeds 10x * Fertilizer 10x * Purified Water 5x * 7 Zombies
The Hiker * Motorcycle Helmet 1x * Military Backpack 1x * Goggles 1x * Binoculars 1x * Compass 1x * 7 Zombies
12.5 % chance to call in one of these airdrops
Life of the Party * IED 5x * Swizzle 20x * Moonshine 15x * Flare 30x * 7 Zombies
10.0% Chance to call in this airdrop
The Hobo * Shotgun 1x * Shells 12x * Moonshine 2x * Torch 1x * Twine 1x * Bear Sandwich 1x * 7 Zombies
The Lone Wolf * Pistol 1x * Ammo.45 14x * Logs 2x * Wolf Sandwich 1x * Animal Trap 1x * Deer Bladder 2x * 7 Zombies
Thank you guys for being patient with us!
-Arclegger

http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/comments/2sopo9/update_about_airdrops_and_my_personal_apology/

I love the way the devs are handling this.

*edit beat
 

Chabbles

Member
How will you test what people would pay for if they don't have to pay for them?

Since we're paying to test a F2P game, while in testing phase they could have figured something out if they'd wanted to. Like give users credits/coins depending on how much time they spend ingame. Say 2 hours in game = enough coins for one airdrop, or the equivalent of one airdrop in credits to spend on whatever. Let users earn the credits by ingame time so they wouldnt spend them haphazardly. Then when the games finished testing and goes F2P, launch the MT's. Its doable, but then they wouldn't be making them sweet $$$.
 
Well, you named nearly everything what is wrong with modern gaming culture. And yes there are exceptions but the vast majority is unquestionable p2w.
I actually have no answer for the dlc part. But yes if the dlc in an mp game gives you an advantage than it is also p2w.

I do know that the definition is broad and I wrote in an earlier post that there are grey areas.
I am in no way saying that this specific practice is the worst of all time, neither am I saying that it could not lead to exciting conflicts in the game world and so on. But I believe there are better ways to ensure the tension and competition then just paying more money.

Fair enough.

To be clear, if these events were triggered by a player randomly finding an item (like an airdrop beacon or something), that would, of course, be a better implementation for the consumer.

What I'm hoping is that airdrops become pretty low on the totem pole in terms of "stuff to do" in-game. I would hate to rely on them for dynamic player encounters. I want random chopper crashes, random convoys, etc.
 

Soi-Fong

Member
Yeah I was watching this one stream where this bear came out of nowhere and mauled the streamer, which is pretty awesome. Good to see the wildlife is already off to a good start. How big do the zombie groups tend to get?



Sort of as expected for an alpha of a game as ambitious as H1Z1. I think I'm gonna keep an eye on it as it updates, but I don't think I'm going to jump in just yet. Thanks.

The zombies like to group around a house if they know you're there. I had a group of 7 or 8 chasing me yesterday. Got away since I had a car already.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
The zombies like to group around a house if they know you're there. I had a group of 7 or 8 chasing me yesterday. Got away since I had a car already.

Awesome. I was hoping they sort of operated by sound/activity. Project Zomboid was really good about how the zombies would detect you and group up to make your life hell.

Hopefully as the game gets updated we'll see massive herds of zombies roaming about following airdrops and gunfights.

edit: sorry for DP, meant to edit.
 
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