After a few days of troubleshooting trying to get this mod to work - I finally got it working.

Here is what happened.

I spawn in and it is super dark. It's so dark I can't see anything until I look up and see the stars. I decide to just run blindly forward and I seem to be running up a hill because the stars disappear and I have to look straight up to see stars.

I'm thinking this is ridiculous just running around not being able to see a thing so I look in my pack and find a flare. Now I have a flare to see where the heck I'm going.

I pick a direction and just start running with this flare and I come to a road.



I run down this road until I come to this cabin. I heard stories about the zombies and I wasnt going to take any chances so I scoped out the surrounding area as much as I could using mostly my hearing for any type of noise. I didnt hear anything but the strange horror background music that plays throughout the game. I then approach the cabin and enter. I go to the dining room and there is something on the floor I go to investigate and all of a sudden my flare goes out.

I am back in pitch black again and this time I'm surrounded by walls I cannot see. I spin around I catch a glimpse of a few stars - it must be a window. I walk up to the window and slowly move to my left when a "close door" icon appears on my screen. I walk through and then I'm outside again - I can see the full night sky, but still when you turn your head to look forward you cannot see a thing (I hope they fix this so at least you can make out the ground or see by moon light.)

Just as I was about to look in my pack for another flare I hear a moaning sound. I hesitate (I shouldn't have.) Something in my head told me to start running. I started a full sprint the opposite direction of the moaning. As I was running the sound started getting louder and then it hit me. I couldn't run anymore - I was being chewed on. I swung around and started firing blindly. During the flashes of gun fire I could see the zombie ... finally I got a head shot and the thing fell to the ground. Just when I had time to catch my breath and open my pack to find some bandages I heard moaning again. I was hit again only this time I heard one crunch and that was the last thing I heard...

Nice AAR, yeah the periods between 10pm-midnight server time are pitch black especially if you are away from the coast, normally I avoid travelling during that time if anywhere near zombie areas.

After midnight the moon starts to come out and you will be able to start seeing a bit more each few minutes, the nice thing is the Zeds have even less eyesight than you so when it is night you can crouch+walk sneak past them pretty close (look at your eye icon and you will see you are not visible)

Hope you try it again outside that 10pm-12am time slot so you can see a bit more.

Rest in pieces Wedge

The moon does appear when the cloud cover goes but as it's dynamic weather there is no way to tell if this could happen. If you find some chemlights they last an hour.

Thanks for the advice. I will attempt another go at it tonight. Hopefully the servers will be up and running smoother - there were a lot of issues last night just trying to get in game due to some type of main server problem. Everyone was pretty upset about it.

yeah, everyone has a good reason to be upset about an alpha version having glitches

If you're having trouble seeing in the dark then adjust your brightness/gamma settings

I've heard that you can see better if you set your HDR to max for nighttime.

When I was playing, I actually preferred playing at night. I just turned the in-game gamma, brightness and HDR all the way up. It was still dark, but I could see well enough to play.

I logged back in last night...

2nd experience of DayZ:

I spawned in a forest - I guess this is where I left off from the previous night when I was trying to log in with all the server craziness.

Again, it was night, but I could see a little better than the night before - the moon was out and I could make out the horizon. I had no clue where I was so I started running towards the moon light. I ran up a hill then down a hill, up a hill and then down another hill. My water and food icons were starting to get red by this time so I stopped to eat and drink.

After the meal I continued on towards the moon light. After 20 minutes of running (starting to get bored) I came to a big open field - I still couldn't see much and it seemed to be getting darker so I pulled out a flare. I ran some more through this field (thinking about going to bed - this is getting monotonousness just running and running and more running) then at the edge of my sight from the red glow from my flare I see a white goat!

I think to myself is this a sign of civilization or is it just a wild goat out in this huge field? (I saw a youtube video yesterday of some dude killing a cow and harvesting the meat to eat later.) I figured I will kill this goat and do the same - harvest the meat.

The goat started to move so I did not hesitate, I dropped my flare, I did not move a step further - I pointed my pistol at the goat which was still a good 20 or so yards away and put a couple of rounds into it. It fell into the tall grass. I thought I kept a good eye on the goat noting where it died.

I ran to the area where I thought the goat was - I saw no goat. I ran all around looking for the dang goat. I went back to the flare and picked it up to get some better light - still no goat. After about 10min of searching I gave up and started walking. Then 10 yards from where I shot this goat I came upon a paved road!

As soon as I hit the road I started running and then just after about 1-2 minutes of running I see a huge red glow up ahead which is illuminating a couple of houses! I immediately extinguish my flare and approach cautiously. I get to the outer edge of the area just within the shadows and search the perimeter. There are a couple of flares within the group of houses which is providing light to the houses, road and yards - there is no one in sight, no movement, nothing.

I enter a small storage shed and find a full water bottle and some canned pasta! I needed water - what a find! Right after drinking the water the flares go out and now it is pitch black just like it was the night before. I see the "close door" icon from the shed I was in I walk towards it and see the stars in the sky. All of a sudden I hear bones cracking and I'm losing blood, my vision is blurry, and I can't move - my screen has a red tint to it now! What the ???? am I being attacked by a zombie? I dont hear any moaning? I have no idea what just happened. The cracking has stopped.

I am able to take some pain killers and use the bandages. I am able to move now and the bleeding has stopped. I eat the rest of my food to regain some blood now I am able to move a little faster and the screen has cleared up, but still not at 100%. I pull out another flare and look around there is nothing no movement nothing. I look around where I was and see nothing that could have caused this type of injury to me - was it a booby trap or just a bug in the game due to it being still in alpha stage? Anyway I move to the road and see a disabled Hummer.

I search the vehicle and there is nothing. I then move across the street and into a house I find a soda can and drink it - my screen clears up just a bit more. I then move to another room and find a magazine for my pistol and some bandages just then my flare goes out and I figure this is a good place to stop for the night and I log off.

Might this mod be a tad overrated? I've only played for about an hour, so I cannot say or sure. It it seems very very rough around the edges. And the Internet seems to be having a love affair with zombies, to the point that making anything zombie related tends to make the Internet obsessed with it. What's next, an arma 2 mod about bacon, Betty white, cats, unicorns, or chuck Norris?