New map is meh

[Power Sword]

Edit: played for around 30 hours and i changed my mind. Loving the map!
Not on a full server tho, 20-30 people is more my speed. Still get tons of encounters.

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I've played Namalsk, I've played Cherno, Livonia... I have 1100 hours in DayZ.
Namalsk is cold and hard, but you gear up quickly and have a bunch of pvp on a tiny map...

Sakhal though... starting up is slow and tedious, you stroll to tiny towns by the shore that are picked clean of loot, have to kill a ton of zombies for knives/food/ropes, etc., and then have uninteresting fistfights with hungry strangers that want your ♥♥♥♥.
If you died, you have to go through this tedium again. And it's not like you can run deep into the map and start gearing up right away from the start, because you'll die from cold and hunger.

So yeah, starting up after spawn is slow, tedious and uninteresting, it takes a lot of time and feels unrewarding.
This is my biggest issue with the map and to be honest I regret paying for it.
The new sounds and assets are very nice but they won't carry the map.
I'm not even sure there's a way to fix it and make it fun to play without breaking it.

So yeah, if you have never done a hard map you might like it from the start but come talk to me after you've played 20 hours and let's see how you like it then.
If you're a Namalsk vet you will probably agree with me.

EDIT: Some more observations:

The towns are pretty small so loot gets picked clean immediately. They should probably up the loot respawn rate by a lot so you can at least find a damn gun and have some actual fun.
Hell, I haven't even seen a single 2-handed melee weapon in the 2+ hours I played.

Also - I haven't seen a single piece of winter clothing both on the ground or on a person. Like... what?

And you have to keep making fires every 10 minutes or whatever which gets tedious fast. I don't mind needing to make fires often... but hey, maybe not that often?

All of this tedium extends the starting phase of the gameplay loop artificially without adding fun or value.

I mean I hopped on Chernarus an hour ago and in 1 hour I had 10 times more fun than in over 2 on the new map. I had an awesome fight where I faced a trio with only a crossbow, I had another 2 fights against 2 duos, I talked to some people... all of this on vanilla.

Thoughts?

[etwas]

Originally posted by ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ:

Originally posted by Power Sword:

starting up is slow and tedious, you stroll to tiny towns by the shore that are picked clean of loot, have to kill a ton of zombies for knives/food/ropes, etc., and then have uninteresting fistfights with hungry strangers that want your ♥♥♥♥.
If you died, you have to go through this tedium again. And it's not like you can run deep into the map and start gearing up right away from the start, because you'll die from cold and hunger.

So yeah, starting up after spawn is slow, tedious and uninteresting, it takes a lot of time

You mean "infected"? since they aren't real zombies? (confusing since the game's info on the store page mentions zombies but then you have people saying they are just infected... which one is it?)

"How long can you survive a post-apocalyptic world? A land overrun with an infected "zombie" population, where you compete with other survivors for limited resources. Will you team up with strangers and stay strong together? Or play as a lone wolf to avoid betrayal? This is DayZ – this is your story."
"zombie" is in quotation marks for a reason.

[Tomakaw]

Sakhal is a hard map, and that is what the devs have said. But i do agree that the map needs a few more towns and especially the islands need more stuff. atm they r pretty barren.

[Jethro]

Second impression: ran another 3 hours last night. I am finding it feels more empty than most other maps somehow. Not knowing where stuff is (having no izurvive etc map to check) awesome. Water springs don’t really seem to be anywhere deep inland, so lots of back tracking for fresh water.

The falling snow looks great. The patchy squares of snow/dirt look awful. Shot my first fox and right after a reindeer. Still feel like fish is the best food source.

Checked out the volcano ….. won’t spoil anything there…..my next goal is to get a boat and maybe check out some islands that are apparently all empty aside from shipping containers that supposedly have guns.

Oh and the big city on the west coast is huuuuuge. I haven’t even been there but my jaw just drops when looking at it on the map. Yeesh. I imagine it’s packed full of infected too, and I tend to avoid big towns and cities.

Digging it. But sort of let down in a way. Not sure why, or what I was expecting. I’ll give it a 6.5/10 so far.

[soulreava]

Originally posted by AzztErix:

Originally posted by beaverpeeper:

The food management on the new map is pretty bad. Ok you want to talk about a cold-warm system?! The food is not melting from body heat, from heatpack, or small fire. Totally not realistic! The game essentially not playable.

I have made 10-15 fires so far. Most of them only with sticks which I threw into a stove. (Both the small and the large stove)
I have been able to defrost my food every time. I was usually limited by the amount of food/drink I had in my inventory. Not the heat of the fire.
And i really doubt you will melt a frozen can of food with your body heat. -> Keep in mind that the temperature of your skin certainly does not correspond to the core temperature. And the temperature of the skin is generally low on Sakhal/outside in winter.

if you were to run around for a few miles with a pate in your shirt on Antarctica for sure some form of defrosting shall occur as body temp is 37.5 degrees not sub zero............

[larky2k]

Originally posted by Jethro:

Second impression: ran another 3 hours last night. I am finding it feels more empty than most other maps somehow. Not knowing where stuff is (having no izurvive etc map to check) awesome. Water springs don’t really seem to be anywhere deep inland, so lots of back tracking for fresh water.

The falling snow looks great. The patchy squares of snow/dirt look awful. Shot my first fox and right after a reindeer. Still feel like fish is the best food source.

Checked out the volcano ….. won’t spoil anything there…..my next goal is to get a boat and maybe check out some islands that are apparently all empty aside from shipping containers that supposedly have guns.

Oh and the big city on the west coast is huuuuuge. I haven’t even been there but my jaw just drops when looking at it on the map. Yeesh. I imagine it’s packed full of infected too, and I tend to avoid big towns and cities.

Digging it. But sort of let down in a way. Not sure why, or what I was expecting. I’ll give it a 6.5/10 so far.

you need to go Specsavers as I'm looking at a Izurvive map for Sakhal

[1337Dude]

Apparently I will get banned for saying otherwise, so I now approve of this map.

[Str3tchCassidyTV]

Originally posted by 1337Dude:

Apparently I will get banned for saying otherwise, so I now approve of this map.

yeah, looks like they are doing this, they did it to my ine and why the discussion is still only 3 pages long

[Deco]

I don't know how you have 1100 hrs on DayZ, because you just basically said you hate everything about DayZ.

[Echoz]

Originally posted by Deco:

I don't know how you have 1100 hrs on DayZ, because you just basically said you hate everything about DayZ.

mods can change the core gameplay loop entirely and even in vanilla there are some valid playstyles that don't work as well on sakhal

[BigCountry]

I am enjoying it but having to make a fire every 20 minutes just to explore the map is getting old. I feel like this is sort of a sloppy game mechanic just to slow things down. Hopefully when I can find better insulated clothing this gets better?

[etwas]

Originally posted by BigCountry:

I am enjoying it but having to make a fire every 20 minutes just to explore the map is getting old. I feel like this is sort of a sloppy game mechanic just to slow things down. Hopefully when I can find better insulated clothing this gets better?

the better insulation your overall clothing, the longer the heatbuff will stay.

[BigCountry]

Awesome. I have a good hat. That's about it :D

[Power Sword]

Originally posted by Echoz:

Originally posted by Deco:

I don't know how you have 1100 hrs on DayZ, because you just basically said you hate everything about DayZ.

mods can change the core gameplay loop entirely and even in vanilla there are some valid playstyles that don't work as well on sakhal

I play purely vanilla.

Originally posted by Deco:

I don't know how you have 1100 hrs on DayZ, because you just basically said you hate everything about DayZ.

Read above.

[Apocryphox]

I just can agree with you.

First of all, it's simply cruel what Bohemia has done with the temperature system. While I do appreciate that with the blatant copy of Namalsk's feature, food items now have a cold and heat system, and it's now officially integrated, the temperature system affecting the player character is problematic on many levels. The player is constantly freezing unless they have a warmth buff. You can wear clothing in every slot that is "very well insulated," and yet you still freeze to the point where you either take constant damage or suffer from a constant cold. This is even more tragic because, over time, a cold can develop into pneumonia, which can kill you. Players are essentially forced to warm up by a campfire every 10 minutes, quite literally. This is particularly noticeable because you find used campfire sites in almost every third house.

Many elements from Namalsk were copied, but Bohemia didn't think it was important to copy the resistance system, where the player could gradually develop cold resistance. Because of the low temperature, you're also forced to consume significantly more food, as more calories are burned. The system is nice in theory, but it has to work—and it currently doesn’t.

Moreover, it's noticeable that there are far fewer water wells, and they are supposed to be located on some rare paths. (I've been playing the DLC for several hours now and haven't found a single one.) So, unless you're already familiar with the map, you're forced to drink snow. But if you don't have chelation tablets, you'll get the new heavy metal poisoning directly after consuming it. It’s now much harder to obtain clean water. You can now place items (another blatant Namalsk copy that only half works) on a campfire to heat them, but you can’t disinfect or purify water with this system because... Bohemia. Also, you MUST use chelation tablets. Chlorine tablets don't work, and you still get sick.

Additionally, there are only TWO (!) military bases, both located far to the south on a separate island, which you can only reach by boat. So, if you want to gear up militarily, it’s going to be much more difficult. Why? Because Bohemia.

In the north, there's a COMPLETELY pointless crater that divides the main road and is hidden behind a ridge, making it a death trap for drivers. You could drive up the mountain to the right, but in DayZ, cars still can't handle a 45° incline in first gear without stalling, even in version 1.26. If you attempt it, you'll crash into the crater. It wouldn’t be as bad if the crater weren’t FULL of rocks and fallen trees. Once you're stuck, it takes 10-15 minutes to get out. Why does this unnecessary crater exist, which adds nothing to immersion or gameplay? Because... Bohemia?

Boats are a new feature on Sakhal. A cool, new vehicle, which is sorely needed. The problem is, the boats are completely useless because you get soaking wet while driving, which, given the already catastrophic temperature system, is fantastic, of course. Why do you get COMPLETELY drenched while sitting INSIDE the boat? Because Bohemia.

Unfortunately, the map offers absolutely no gameplay value otherwise. The "super awesome" event, which consists of a single, small bunker, is already familiar from Livonia. The boats don't work, the temperature system is utterly broken, and the whole thing feels like a desperate attempt to copy Namalsk, but they left out or poorly implemented the key features.

[interrupt]

I am really enjoying this map. Best of the 3 official maps IMHO.