Author: Zed

Our Livonia server, which will open to the public when DayZ 1.25 is released has been hand crafted to be an amazing experience for all DayZ players. Let’s see what is different about this server!

A customized zombie experience: Using the PVZ Spawn System and Customizable zombies mods, we’ve created zombies that only walk but they are stronger than vanilla zombies. Not only do they pack a punch, but they can take a punch too! Their increased health makes them a double threat. At night, these ungodly creatures become even stronger! During the day you can hide from them inside of a locked building (they can break open a door if it’s not locked!) but at night, forget it! Even a locked door won’t stop them from breaking down the door. Think you’re going to simply run away from them, but if you travel to any built up area, you’re going to find great numbers of zombies! They are everywhere! Think a church is a safe place? Think again! Zombie priests are compelled by the power of Christ himself! These guys are tough cookies! Best to take them out from a distance!

It wasn’t just the adults that succumbed to the virus when the apocalypse hit. Kids became zombies too and they’re particularly creepy, calling out for mommy and telling you they are scared… as they eat your flesh. There are zombie kids on the server too!

DayZ Expansion is on the server: We are not using all of the features of Expansion. A common feature of Expansion is the map. On our server, you can only open a map if you find a paper map. You can not place 3D markers and if you want to write on the map, you’re going to have to find a pen. Global chat is active and that is part of Expansion. Some of the Expansion custom items can also be found. There are no traders or safezones however.

Base Building is SUPERCHARGED! Build anywhere on the map with the Base Building Plus mod! Throw in the items from Boomlay’s Things mod, you can furnish a nice base! With the Perishable Foods mod, you’ll need a powered fridge (such as those from CJ187’s Fridges mod) to preserve your food! The Much Stuff Pack will help you further customize your humble abode. Worried about protecting all this cool stuff? Put a code lock on it but be warned: Raiding is active on the weekends! Your base is safe during the week days. If you want a dimly lit atmosphere, try out the candles from bl_candle_addon. This mod has candles and candle holders!

Survival is a focus for us, which is why we have some mods that let you craft items that you might need. Boomlay’s Craftables lets you create sewing kits, whetstones, improvised knives and more! Bone knives can be crafted with the Craftable Bone Knives mod. Another important part of survival is finding stuff to survive with. That’s why the Garbage Search plugin is included. Be careful searching garbage though. That stuff stinks and it might make you sick. Throw in the Search for Loot Improved mod and you’ve got TONS of places to try to find that precious loot!

The Improvised Weapons mod allows you to craft weapons such as this Improvised Pistol. There’s melee weapons like the variety of Baseball Bats, a shotgun and even a sub machine gun!

We’ve also got several mods that add new clothes, weapons and other items. These include Quadlock’s Pack, Windstride’s Clothing Pack, and Spurgles Bags.

Mods that add to the atmosphere are mods that change things up a little to make it either more realistic or more engaging. The Mag Obfuscation mod hides the number of rounds you have in a magazine or the weapon. It replaces it with a + to show ammo in the weapon or a – to show no ammo. Inventory Move Sounds creates sounds as you move items around in your inventory to simulate a player actually opening up their bag or taking things out. Weapon durability and ammo stacks are adjusted with the Expansion Weapon Durability + AmmoStacks mod. Gorez splatters blood when you kill a zombie.. or a fellow survior! Did you overturn your Lada while negotiating that hairpin turn? No problem! Equip a hydraulic jack or a wreck and flip it back over with the Flip Transport mod. Suppressors in DayZ just don’t last long enough and aren’t, well, suppressed enough. That’s not a problem with the Useful Suppressors mod. This mod decreases the amount of damage suppressors take by 90% and decreases the audible range of ammunition shot through a suppressor based on the size. Along the same lines as Useful Suppressors, the Durable Tools mod increases the durability of tools so they can be used longer. This ultimately helps you create your base by not destroying your axes and shovels super quick. If you’re the kind of player that likes to engage the players zeds from a distance, then you’ll enjoy the Advanced Weapons Scopes mod. This mod is designed as almost complete replacement for vanilla scopes for providing more smooth game experience. MRT’s Custom GUI replaces the default icons from DayZ with some much cooler icons. To make DayZ feel more alive (is that an oxymoron?), the Ambient Animals mod spawns rabbits, snakes and other creatures! You can even kill and eat them!

The server is whitelisted as of this post but it will be opened to the public once DayZ 1.25 is released! If you’re interested in joining the whitelist, see our Discord for details!

In the latest news release by Bohemia, they have announced when 1.25 is released, Livonia will be given to everyone that owns DayZ! Since our Namalsk server has not been doing well for a while, and because our revival of that server only extended the server’s life shortly, we have decided to switch to Livonia! When 1.25 is released, the server will be opened! Until then, the Namalsk server will continue to run.

Some of the key aspects of the server are listed below. Everything on this list is subject to change:

■ The server will be PVP: There will be no PVE zones. The risk of losing everything, and taking a chance with interacting with a stranger is what makes DayZ such a powerful game. This doesn’t mean we can’t be civil with each other though!
■ Slow/walking dead zombies: Don’t let their speed fool you! They are stronger than regular zombies and it takes more to kill them! At night they become more powerful!
■ The zombies are also more dangerous due to their sheer numbers!
■ Hiding inside is no longer safe! The zombies will break down unlocked doors to get at you. At night, their increased strength allows them to break down even locked doors!
■ Searchable containers and garbage piles: Check everything! You may be able to search it. Be careful at garbage piles though. The stench of the garbage can make you sick!
■ DayZ Expansion: We’re using DayZ Expansion but with less elements than Namalsk.
■ No traders or safezones: You won’t find any of these on Livonia.
■ Maps: You need a map in your inventory to open up the server’s map. There is no marker showing your position and there are no 3D markers.
■ If you want to mark a position on the map, you need to find a pen.
■ Spawn select: You have a limited number of places that you can select to spawn at.
■ Custom GUI: Not the default vanilla style markers.
■ Global chat is enabled: It’s important to help build a community.
■ Perishable food with CJ187’s fridges: Food can spoil if not prepared in certain ways. You can extend the life of the food by finding a fridge and powering it with a generator or battery. Learn more about the perishable food mod here.
■ Base Building Plus: Just like our Namalsk server, BBP is the way to build on the server!
■ Max parties of 4. Pretty self explanatory…
■ Extra items: Several mods that add new clothing, weapons, etc.

The priest zombies have the power of Christ… or maybe Satan? Don’t mess with them unless you are well armed. They will ruin your day.

We are currently testing the server and expect to go live when DayZ 1.25 is released. BI has indicated they will have a big announcement on May 20th, so we expect that 1.25 will be released shortly thereafter!

Remember, the server is a work in progress and configs may change. New things may be added! Keep an eye on Discord for the latest!

In January 2021, almost 3 years ago, I put my Rust server online. I designed it after a popular PVE community’s servers because I liked the way they had everything set up, but with the number of slots they ran and the presence of mega Amazon Fulfillment Centers that players built, their servers were always soooo laggy for me. Since I’ve been running game servers for many different games since 2004, I set out to host the best Rust server I could. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about running a Rust server. I’ve played with many configurations and plugins. I’ve made many changes. Some were welcomed, some were not. I will always keep in mind that the most verbal players are the ones that don’t like the changes while the majority, who support the changes, remain silent. Therefore I am prepared to receive criticism and predictions of the demise of the server when changes are made. 

Many of the configurations and plugins, especially in the beginning, were added without thought to how they would affect the overall vibe of the server. I never desired to have a “Build Server” type of server, but unfortunately, some aspects of our server have lent themselves more towards that style rather than true PVE. I’m always working to balance a more PVE style with the flexibility of allowing players to play how they wish, but since the intention of the server is to be PVE and not Build, some changes are necessary. With that said, the update follows….

Greetings all. Here we are, another wipe approaching and another update status, but this one has some significant changes!

Skill Tree

The first step in extending the playability of the wipe is to slow down skill progression. This will be achieved by reducing the number of skill points earned for each level to the default/vanilla rate of 1 point per level. Earlier this year we bumped it up to 2 points per level. The maximum number of skill points that can be spent is being lowered from 200 to 150, so you’ll need to be more selective in where you spend your skill points. The cost to respec skill points is being increased from 30 scrap per point to 50 scrap per point because honestly, if you’re respecing points, chances are you have a significant surplus of scrap. To balance out these changes, Skill Tree will only be wiped every 3 months. You’ll have plenty of time to earn points and to respec your skills. After tomorrow’s server wipe, the next XP wipe will come on March 21st. With the extra time to work on your Skill Tree, this will give you the opportunity to try different configurations of skills to better suit your game play.

Injuries and Diseases

I am adding the Injuries and Diseases plugin. This will give you a chance to get a number of sicknesses including food poisoning (greater chance if you eat raw food), tape work, rabies (which is incurable on the Rust island), concussion, broken leg and (eventually) a virus from the zombies (This is still a work in progress). The illness from the zombies will be curable with the Health Injector, which can be found in medical loot. You can read about the plugin here: https://codefling.com/plugins/injuries-and-diseases

Injectors

The “Oregon Land of the Dead” map includes a custom plugin only available with that map. Since I own that map, I own the plugin too. This plugin introduces 4 injectors, which are reskinned medical syringes. When used, they boost scrap or resource collection, give you more strength when attacking or increase your maximum health and the one that increases your maximum health will be the one that will cure the disease you get from zombies. These items have a chance to be found in loot containers.

Food changes

The food loot has been edited so that the more hunger/thirst an item provides, the lower the chance of finding it. There are also new items that can be found in those food containers including rotten apples and rotten chicken, both of which have a good chance of making you sick but if not, they will increase your health. You may also find empty cans in the food containers. The amount of naturally growing food has been reduced so farming and hunting will be more important. Lastly, food that normally would need to be refrigerated, like berries, raw and cooked food, etc, will need to be put into a refrigerator. You will not be able to put them into regular boxes. Food such as canned items can still be placed in boxes. This will help make fridges more than just a decorative item.

Loot

Loot will be reduced to vanilla levels. No more 2X/4X. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be carefully looking over all loot containers to see if additional changes should be made to what spawns in them. I’m using Alpha Loot now, which is a very powerful loot editor. It allowed me to remove two plugins, Extra Loot and Magic Loot. I can now place custom items into Alpha Loot instead. I’m also working with the Spawn Control plugin to  further tweak loot spawns. This is an ongoing process.

Spawnable Vehicle changes

With the exception of minis/scrap helis, the ability to spawn vehicles/horses will be removed. This will also help us move away from the “Build Server” style by requiring players to grind for their transportation each wipe. If you had any spawnable vehicles besides the mini or scrap heli, please submit a support ticket and we’ll refund what you spent on those vehicles.

Zombie changes

The biome zombie spawns have been disabled. Zombies will only spawn at monuments. They will spawn in greater numbers, spread out over a larger area. They have increased health but can be killed with a headshot from certain weapons. The exception to this is zombies wearing head armor and the Frankenstein zombies. Those generally require several headshots. The zombies will move slightly slower.

The map for the next two weeks is Lapland, a Christmas themed map, as decided by your voting! Expect the server to go offline between 12pm and 1pm EST tomorrow, Thursday December 21st so that I may prepare the changes. The server will be available for all at 2pm EST. If you see it online before that and before I’ve posted that it’s open to all, it will be protected by a whitelist.

It’s a known fact that shorter domain names are preferred. It’s easier for users to remember and just looks better. A shorter community name allows for more information in a game server name, which, if you’ve been playing online games for any length of time, you know it’s an important place to highlight your server’s most desirable server features!

So, with that in mind, I have registered rustyog.net (Short for Rusty Old Gamers – Duh!). The new domain can be used immediately and rustyoldgamers.net will forward to rustyog.net The old domain will remain registered until it’s current period ends. All subdomains, such as link.rustyoldgamers.net or donate. rustyoldgamers.net should seamlessly forward to the new domain. Due to the way domain changes propagate through the internet, it IS possible some of you may have some temporary issues accessing the website. I wouldn’t expect that to last more than 2 days at the most. If you get any messages about out website being unsecure, you can safely ignore that. If you go to any rustyoldgamers.net URLs and it doesn’t display properly, just change it to rustyog.net.

The servers will have their names shortened to identify as “RustyOG” servers soon. Don’t worry. It’s the same old servers with a shorter name!