DayZ

Jeevz told me about this mod, called DayZ, for ARMA2 OA which is currently still in Alpha but a lot better than most AAA games.

You have the whole island of Chernarus to wander around and up 50 human players to play with or against depending on how you want to play, and AI zombies that multiply as the real-time game progresses. It is highly realistic and has a full night/day cycle to match where the server is hosted. You have a certain amount of blood (your health really) and if you are attacked, shot, don't eat or drink you lose blood and must bandage, eat/drink to stay alive.

You start with a Makarov and 5 mags, a water bottle (fillable), a tin of beans, flares and your humanity....

Scavenge (or kill) for food, water, weapons, ammo, car/helo parts to stay alive. Just like in The Walking Dead, the zombies aren't the worst things in the game, your fellow players are. If you murder someone you lose humanity and become a bandit and wear different clothing and other players will shoot you on sight. You can kill a bandit without consequence though.

It really is a battle to survive and no matter what server you go on you have a saved player file and you will always start where you ended last time with all the equipment you had.

I am a bandit at the moment. I was trying to head north to get away from the bandit ridden cities in the south and had managed to scavenge a watch and an AKS-74 with a Kobra sight and 3 mags. Moving north I heard someone behind me, turned and there was a player stood looking at me, pistol outstretched, well I put 5 rounds into him just by shock of seeing him behind me and killed him. I became a bandit ( ) and looted his body. Found a backpack (bigger than my patrol pack), 6 AK mags, a 1911 and 5 mags, water, chem lights, a compass (best of all that was!), map, food, cans of drink and loads more stuff which fitted into my newly looted backpack

He was furious on the chat lol, but he did come up behind me and did feel like he was trailing me. Just a little glimpse into the great mod.

Thanks for the heads up Jeevz.

The zombies move too fast and there is no hand to hand combat that I can see so when you run out of ammo you are basically dead. Add to that the fact that going indoors is a study in frustrations (your gun prevents you from turning near a wall) and I have a really hard time enjoying the game.

Even if they could slow the zombies down a bit it would make it more playable.

As for the annoying movement indoors, there's a mod called STmovement that fixes that. I think it's part of ACE? They should add that to the mod. Maybe you can use the mod on the Dayz servers, I don't know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMsRa-7Zb0U

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3564331/Dayz.html#Post3564331

I will have to try that.

I've been playing this for the last few nights (that is when i can get onto a server) and its great, really creepy at night. The longest I lasted was 2 hrs until i entered Electro and was killed by a bandit with a sniper rifle. You'll find the larger towns and cities are crawling with Bandits.

It isn't necessarily a 100% rule that everyone will kill you if you're in bandit clothing, it really depends upon whether you announce your presence to a wary group or not. Quite a few folks garner bandit status after being shot at by another player, killing them in self-defense, and then garnering "bandit" status for awhile simply because the guy they shot was not yet a bandit himself (happened to me once). I actually love this setup though, because when I was in bandit clothing I was much more cautious about meeting other players lest they assume the worst and off me on sight, and it actually causes you to be even more trigger happy at the outset of a meeting (thereby causing you to lose even more humanity if you give in to your urge to just kill them). When you acquire a DMR semi-automatic sniper rifle and a Remington 870 with a flashlight attachment, you just don't become all that trusting of other folks.

The person I killed had a DMR and I tried to pick it up but it just disappeared! Have had that happen with backpacks too, with all my stuff in.

I'm still alive going north but the longest I survived before was almost 3 days until when I actually managed to get into the game I was losing blood dues to not having any food so had to go into Cherno at night, no zombies anywhere, found a dead body and looted him and he had food. Whilst moving away I saw a bandit move back into a shop. I moved backawards into a dark alley and moved around where he was but he had already run back up a grassy bank about 200 ft away and start sniping me with some suppressed rifle and must have had NV optics as I was moving in shadow. Killed me anyway.

I'm surprised they haven't implemented a melee mechanic, it's not impossible -- just feels a trace clunky. But then again, ArmA always feels nothing if not a trace clunky!

Well I tried to try this mod out today.... very unsuccessfully.... I spent about 3 hours just trying to get into a server.... when I did finally find one that wasn't full, the server would freeze or something and I would never actually get into the 3D world. I managed to get into the 3D world about 2 times during my 3 hours of trying, never saw another person or a zombie or even a building. I was in-game for maybe 5 minutes before the server timed out/crashed whatever it did. Finally I just got fed up with it and gave up. I'll try again later... hoping for better results.

Hey, Mace! Nice find! I'm going to try it...

I was able to try this out and get into a server, the level loading took a long time and I quit a couple of times before I waited and eventually got on.

Traveled for about 30mins without seeing anyone and being paranoid, had to quit for tonight but will continue again later.

Nice article on it here:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/10/thank-you-for-the-dayz-part-zero/

Well later on last night I did actually manage to get into a server and play for a little bit. I managed to get into the same server as a friend of mine and we even managed to find each other in the middle of the night with no maps, flashlight, nothing lol. We walked for a while, checked out some buildings, but didnt find any zombies or any other players. Looking forward to hopefully trying it out again today after work.

I've noticed since patch 1.5.6 that the zombies seem to be inside buildings and not wandering around as much. Also, I cleared out 5 from buildings and the nearby town was far enough away that any zombies there wouldn't hear but when I had looted the buildings and was moving to a nearby treeline I had 2 come after me. So has their hearing been tweaked?

I keep getting kicked due to my PMC content being unsigned - except PMC is the official ArmA2 OA DLC. Anyone else encountered this?

This game seems like it'd be fun to get a group on Teamspeak to play for a few hours some night.

@fatty - I was getting some connect errors until I finally connected with nothing but -mod=@dayz

Also I was reading last night that it seems there may be a bug where if the servers have been up for a long time, the zombies and items may stop spawning, so that may explain why I was exploring for about 30mins and didn't run into any zombies or anything... probably was just me and 50 human bandits.

Hopefully will try again later today.

Count me in for a teamspeak DayZ session, I'm too soft core and clueless for MM or TT but this sounds like fun.

Yes, I also had the same problem! I found that the reason was because I installed the DLCs (PMC and BAF) after updating the game with the latest patch. By doing this, the DLCs weren't updated to the latest version which is 1.01 for PMC and 1.02 for BAF.
So what you need to do (assuming that my problem was similar to yours) is to update the PMC and BAF (if you have it installed) DLCs to their latest version which is 1.01 for PMC and 1.02 for BAF.

Here is the link for the PMC update:
http://www.arma2.com/index.php?option=co...o-1&lang=en

And here's the link for the BAF update:
http://www.arma2.com/index.php?option=co...o-1&lang=en

After installing this updates you should have no problem (al least regarding the PMC signatures).


In the future I learned that if I have to reinstall ArmA2 again, first I will install the games (ArmA2 and ArmA2 OA) then install the DLCs (BAF and PMC) and then after having everything install is when I will update the game with the latest version/patch.

This mod is definitely the best thing I've played this year and probably in a few years, even though it's a buggy mess (mostly due to Arma 2 being a buggy mess) it's still the most intense game I've played in ages.

It even has Arma 2:CO back in the top sellers on steam.

This mod has me interested, though so far I've had no luck playing because of servers being full, or I just can't seem to find them. Can't wait to try it though.

First time I've heard of this. looks like fun.



I like the fact that they are 'fast zombies' a la '28 Days Later'.

This vid had me laughing...

There's a good article on RPS about it.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/10/thank-you-for-the-dayz-part-zero/

Haha those guys are hilarious.

For me it's not the zombies I fear... it's the other humans, they are so hard to trust and predict:



This game/mod really makes me think about how I would handle this situation in real life, probably become a paranoid hermit.

I lost all my stuff last night!!!!

I was NE of the NW airfield but at the last moment decide not to risk getting sniped so I headed east, being stealthy, stopping at treelines checking my map and compass often so I always knew where I was...then moving out from one treeline in the middle of nowhere - BANG! One shot and I am dead so must have been sniped....

My language would have made a sailor blush lol. So I started again at noob coast and immediately got shot at by someone with a Makarov, so a new starter too. He hit me once but I ran off and healed up but could hear him going after everyone like he was playing COD DM.

Managed to move to the military base a Balota and got an AKM, food and drink after being attacked twice more on the way by other new spawners!! This mod is getting more people in but I think they think it's another game.

I'm on my second complete steam download trying to get the mod working. First time I didn't do a complete re-install and ran into the "files have been deleted"-problem. Now it's just a hour left until I can attempt a third application of DayZ. The good thing is that I've probably used up all my pirate language. Arma is like owning a british sportscar, one hour of terrific driving followed by days of frustrating tinkering. Good thing both have active communities...

-C-

I watched all 5 videos last night. It was very interesting

I think the videos show well how the games mechanics change your game play.

They start off as a large co-op group - all bravado and running everywhere picking off the zombies as they come. So brave they run headlong into the first swarm and the bravado is replaced by squeels.

As their ammo depletes the seriousness comes in and the game changes to one of foraging. Their numbers decrease and as that happnes you see them changing again. running for their lives, getting split up, leaving the hapless behind (especially if that one person is being chased by 5 or more zombies).

Game then moves from foraging to survival as all but the last few rounds are gone and they are forced to find more but only finding zombies along the way. as the last few baracade themselves in a tower, they have no way to escape, only food and water.

Then it changes again as they are rescued by a former team mate who stumbles into the same area (i think it was an ingame 40 minute wait) and clears out the zombies beneath them. they join up, and discuss that the other group they were with are now hunting humans for food and ammo. you can see the distrust building and their play style changing to meet the need.

They are back to foraging but this time realising that stealth works very well and you can get quite close to zombies if you are quiet. then they start encountering more players. Previously they were happy to yell out to other players and introduce, now introductions are down behind the barrel of a gun, cautiosly with back up in a flanking position.

You can see meeting others is very risky indeed even to the point the group in the video stalk another group for quite some time to ensure a postive encouter (either by force or peace)

Looks like a marvelous game, and makes me wich i had Arma 2!!!

I enjoyed the videos so much, i am wanting more. !!

Anyone know if it's possible to have a second character? I have one where me and a buddy are trying to play together, but he doesn't have a ton of time to play, so I'd like to have a second character I can use to play on my own. I tried using a new in-game profile but I still spawned in-game with the same character... any ideas?

It isnt signed for the dayz mod so you can not use it.

I finally got to play for a while last night, and now I'm hooked. Do you guys want to meet up on TS some time and try and join up in game? Might increase our chance of survival.

Played for a bit. found some good stuff, then it just turns into a scavenger hunt for food and water...ie survival...ie a chore, not fun.

Bored with it. No point beyond the immediate, no real goals to go for long term.

Characters are linked to your CD key so unless you have a second copy of CO then no, no second char.

In a sandbox you have to learn how to make your own goals.

Erm, it's a survival game. The game is to stay alive but if you need missions and telling where to go all the time then it's not for you.

Looks interesting - maybe a candidate for a TS SimHQ game night? Circle the wagons!

I think it would be infinitely better to play in a group.

There are a few things you can do beyond survival, like collect parts to repair a car or helicopter for use in the world. It would be cool if they added more things along those lines eventually.

I can't see myself liking it much. Between the olympic sprinter zombies and other players just out to grief, I just don't see it. It's a shame because otherwise I'd definitely be interested.

I thought the same.... but then I found a group of 4 guys and then 12 hours went by... I am hooked. Great great great mod!

The fast running zombies are just like the ones in "28 days later" I suspect that may be the inspiration, I don't think they should slow them down otherwise the zombies wouldn't be nearly as dangerous.

After a couple of good recent experiences the last couple of sessions meeting up with friendly survivors, this last session I saw two dudes fighting some zombies in the dark by a road flare and I joined in to help them and once the zombies were dead one of the dudes snuck up behind me and executed me, good thing I didn't have much gear... back to being paranoid of douchebags, good reminder not to trust groups until I follow and observe them for a while to see how they handle it when they run into other survivors, then I can either join them or try to execute them as bandits.

For me the potentially good and bad human interaction is very interesting in itself, usually in MP games I know who is on my team or not and there is not this trust/distrust situation, very cool.

For me the main thing I dislike is the 1:1 time with the server localtime, being out here on the West Coast and where most of the servers with great ping are 3 hours ahead in ET, most of the time when I can play after dinner the servers are already heading into night time which lasts too long and is very hard to play, as can be seen by the number of people leaving the servers when dark night sets in. Hopefully at some point they will allow accelerated day/night cycles or not so dark when the moon isn't out.

I'm torn between the good and the bad. I dislike the feel of movement in arma2, in my opinion the attempt to make getting prone or strafing realistic has made the controls clunky. This combined with warping highspeed zombies sometimes makes this mod frustrating. The possibility to exit the game and re-start where you were is fantastic though. I usually only have 45 minutes or so to play so if I had to re-spawn each time it would be a no-go.

At least I now have a tent, rifle and hunting knife so I can move on north. Being stuck in a city is really bad for the health.

-C-

The first time I saw a video of this mod I thought the speed of the zombies is freakin' hilarious too. But when I thought about it, I didn't really see how they could do it differently without having the zombies degenerated to a bunch of harmless NPCs.

I've found that the zombies aren't the real danger in this game anyway- the other players are! The only time I've got killed by a zombie was when I suicide into it. But I've been repeatedly shot by other players.

I have to say, I'm amazed by this mod. I wasn't very interested the first time I read about it. I never played and liked to play MP in ArmA II much. And I'm not really into zombie shooter/games. But this mod got me hooked. It's freakin' scary (so far I've only played at night). And the fact that the player has to be on the lookout all the time really adds to the immersion. As I've said, the zombies aren't the danger in this game. They are easy to spot and even more easy to hear. They sure add to the scary atmosphere of this game. But the fact that the other players can't be trusted really is what makes this mod so exciting for me.

I'm really looking forward to play the mod with a good team and players I can trust now! Having some form of voice communication really is a must, btw. Giving away ones position via in-game chat most likely gets one killed instead of finding a trustworthy team.

Actually it depends on the server; I was playing on one last night that allowed sound mods and shacktack movement mod. But with this kind of gameplay where you need to go into buildings regularly it should be implemented in the mod itself IMO; so that way it doesn't matter what server you join.

Can't even play this morning; everything is flooded and it takes a good 10 minutes to actually connect. This thing really blew up lol

This mod feels like it could have been set in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R universe. I would like to try and get a group together and work on setting up a base camp and eventually go around helping survivors and doing patrols for bandits. I've been jumpin on around 8:00 EDT if anyone else is interested. There is also a TS server for DayZ, which I frequent. It's nice to actually talk with people, you get a better understanding of who they are.

Hopefully they'll release it for Namalsk island; which has a more post-apocalyptic setting; and the actual STALKER mod uses. I wouldn't mind seeing OA islands either since there's a lot more enter-able buildings; although it would kind of ruin the setting

I finally got in and boy, I think this is worth the hype.

My first game, I wandered around a bit at the start until I spotted another survivor running alone in the woods. I stalked him for a bit until I asked him if we could travel together. "Where are you?" he asked. I told him to turn around - I had my Makarov at the base of his neck, LOL. I figure not killing him there earned me his trust, so we ran together for a little while.

Eventually we came upon a large village, where we became separated after a few minutes. Here I saw my first zombies, which I killed relatively easily with my pistol. Scavenged a bit but didn't find much of anything. I lost my friend, and eventually wandered off towards the coast.

After a few minutes, I heard some pistol shots back the way I came, so I doubled back to check it out. I found my friend, still alive, and another guy who he had picked up. They were doing well but both pretty low on ammo. Unfortunately, the shots had attracted more zombies, and we were getting overrun. All of us now completely out of ammo, we all took off in different directions, but most of the zombies seemed to follow me. So I ran flat out with five of them on my tail to lead them away from the group. Like a hero.

After running for a few minutes, I found a warehouse and managed to grab a few more pistol mags and a rifle. The zombies were still hot on my trail, but with the ammo I was able to take them out. They beat on me pretty good, and my vision was so blurry from blood loss that I could barely see. I've never been so relieved as when my friend showed up - my selfless sacrifice allowed him to escape and survive! We travelled together a bit more, but I was in such rough shape that we were pretty much wandering aimlessly. We encountered another pack of zombies deeper into the town, and became separated again as they ran after him. Wandering aimlessly a bit more, I met my end to the bullet of a bandit.

I think it really helps to have played ArmA2 a lot and to know Chernarus fairly well, since you don't even start with a watch or a compass, let alone a map. A lot of the players bought the game especially for Day Z, so they just kind of pick a direction and run without knowing where they're headed.

I'm moving up the east coast now which is pretty much free of players but plenty of zombies! Had my blood taken down on a few occasions but managed to gain a compass, map, binos, CZ 550 and ammo, matches, hunting knife and ALICE pack again. Was heading to a pump I'd spotted on the map when I heard gunshots pretty close and the zombie near me sprinted off north so I skirted around to the west to see who it was. Laying down looking through my scope I could see 2 survivors just crouched looking around but stationary, so I shot them both . Don't think the second even realised I'd shot the first until he was killed himself. I was already a bandit so thought I would add to my headcount.

I like stalking people, letting them clear out the zombies, killing them and then taking all the goodies hehe

Mace, you're just the worst kind of person

Hehe, I know

Some people are just asking for it though, stood around after shooting like that. I even waited ages before moving down to their bodies in case others were around. I'll get the same done to me soon enough though lol

Good to know.

* Note to myself: don't mix up with Mace *

If I was with people from here I wouldn't back-stab you, only murder people I don't know - I have morals you know

Yeah, that's what they always say...

Hehe MaceUK, sometimes it is very tempting to take the bandit route... especially when you are low on ammo and someone you are following and observing are just clueless.

So far though I have kept my human ethics, killing just bandits (I give them no chance) and new survivors I observe and see kill other survivors...

Running around the countryside surviving, being sneaky and dealing justice is a fun game in itself, especially lately as there are tons more PVP bandits who are coming over from COD with the popularity of DayZ on game sites.

Still hoping to run into some of you guys on a server sometime so we can jump on TS and team up.

Whenever I'm on, I'm also on TS if you guys ever want to meet up.

Cool I'll start joining TS too when I am on, I can always server hop if I see you guys on TS.

I'll make sure I'm on teamspeak from now on just in case.

Played as a loner today. My character is kind of a veteran now, I think he's been alive for about 15-16 hours of play time now. I've been living off the scraps that remain around Novy Sobor. It's lonely in the north, and dangerous because it's where the bandits usually are. Making sure I keep off the roads and using my bins to survey towns and views over dead ground.

Had a great day yesterday and met up with a guy from Ireland. I was using VOIP and he text. Had a good thing going, getting food, ammo and generally give the Zs a terrible time

Dang! Picked up a revolver but found no ammo. The Makarov is gone though. Now I'm stuck in a big fat caste in the middle of nowhere with no way to defend myself and I can hear a zombie lurking below somewhere.

Talk about immersion...

Might meet up with you later. I had played it in the past but had issues and removed it. Just dloaded again and will give it another whirl. Testing now and I hate the waiting for server response issue...blah!

You will have trouble all getting onto one server. There is only usually one spot available after trying for hours to get on.

I did see a server with 100 slots; but there was only about 30 people on

My ARMA2 is the non-Steam version and all of a sudden I am getting CTD continuously when I press OK after getting into a server. Checked on the DayZ forum and others have this happen too.

Was playing all afternoon with no problems and now all of sudden this is happening. Anyone else getting this?

I haven't had that problem. Maybe try the beta patch, I'm using that myself, works on all servers.

I solved it by downloading 2 of the files with version numbers 1.2.3 as they were different to mine.

how in blazes do you install and run this thing? I don't have the steam versions of arma2 or operation arrowhead, and most of the faq and guides I've seen have been for that version?


I placed all the files on the downloads section of the site into a @dayz > add ons folder like they instructed, but not sure how to proceed from there.

Nice AAR fatty. I gave DayZ a try today after reading it and I think it's one ingenious mod!

Who would’ve thought Chernarus would become the perfect testing ground for the human condition in a post apocalyptic, zombie ridden world?

All I can think of now is the entire Bohemia Interactive staff spinning in their office chairs wondering what to make of this DayZ explosion

Just had a friend run into this problem... to sum it up if you dont have the steam version you are screwed... the long answer is to download a mod loader program and run it through that.

read here about the non steam version and use their recommended mod loader.

http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2085

Anyone have experience running a DayZ server? We're checking into running it as a Friday evening event.

Mine ran just fine. You have extracted all the files into the addons file you created haven't you?. I couldn't get them to extract so i had to double click each zip file and copy and paste the files into the addons folder. Also make sure you added the addon text into the shortcut properties. Cant remember what you type, but i think its on the readme.

I'm running DayZ with Steam version using a start "Dayz.bat" batch file outside of steam here it is in case it helps (substitute your Steam path):


Just got done with a nice 4 hour session with the new 1.5.7 DayZ patch, the zombies seem to spawn much more frequently and they wander more I think.

After the last couple of nights of avoiding the servers with night time cycle I finally decided to stick it out and play the night time tonight.

I camped out during the darkest pitch black night (10pm-midnight) on a dock crane North of Elektro, I couldn't see anything except when lightning struck during a storm, which provided a half second clue of the surroundings every couple of minutes, but I didn't want to attract bandits with light flares and so I camped and observed as various people came by below lighting off flares in the pitch dark to explore the nearby buildings or when they came by being chased by Zombies I helped a few different people fight off Zombies from my safe perch except I accidentally fell off the crane once during a fight and thankfully had bandages and painpills to heal my bleeding and shakes and I was able to climb back up and wait.

Eventually the moon came out at midnight providing some welcome relative light, and I slowly explored into Elektro town and it was pretty scary sneaking around in the moonlight past all the zombies into the buildings to grab loot being very careful and walking slowly, every once in a while someone would light off a flare nearby in town or have a gunfight that attracted all the zombies to them making my sneaking easier, eventually when I was loaded down with loot I snuck back out past all the zombies who had unfortunately respawned by now, I had a tense time sneaking by but made it out and am now heading north with a new Alice pack, tent, 1911 pistol and shotgun... Hope to be away from town and the attention and bandits it attracts before the next daytime rolls in.

So glad I finally tried out the night time experience, it really feels much more scary and a different game than playing during daytime, the good is you don't have to worry as much about being sniped by bandits or COD players since they tend to log off when they see the dark but you really have to worry much more about stumbling into zombies so it becomes more of a zombie fight or sneaking game like Thief.

Really loving this mod, very cool that it has these different play modes, looking forward to seeing how they grow it.

@Guod: I think I saw a thread on the DayZ forum on how to setup a server, their forum is down right now, but here was the link from my cache:
http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1429

Thanks kludger. I'll check it out.

Easy. Just add -mod=@dayz to the ArmA II CO shortcut (right-click -> Properties -> Target) so that the target line reads something like this: "C:\arma2\arma2.exe" -nosplash -mod=@dayz. You might also find this video helpful. Even though it's for the Steam version of the game, adding the just mentioned line to the launcher is pretty much the same. You can see if the mod was loaded successfully when it is mentioned on the right side of the main menu after firing the game up.

In the game, set the filter to the keyword "dayz" in the server browser and you should be good to go- if you find a server that still has a free slot, that is. ;-)

Have fun!

I stumbled upon a guy in trouble last night. I rushed in and helped out by dropping a few of the zombies. The other guy had a long look at me and then set off running out of the vill along the tracks. I moved ahead into some of the houses now free of their undead inhabitants and found some crap. Thinking about my next move in a weedy backyard I suddenly get hit in the back. I turn around and see the guy I just helped coming out of the woods, gun in hand blasting away. I go prone and roll which causes the guy to lose sight of me. Obviously thinking he killed me, the guy runs up towards me at which point I drop him with a full mak clip. Now loosing blood quite quickly I bandage myself and hobble up to him. Looking at the guy lying there with blood spurting out of his chest I notice my humanity just dropped a lot. So right now I am inches away from becoming a bandit thanks to this guy being a turd. I finally ran out of ammo while stumbling around in blurry blood loss vision trying to find a blood bag ... the zombies took their sweet time killing me too.

-C-

It seems like the way to approach this game is just to shoot any other human player on sight. I've actually read some tips saying to do just that. From other forums around the web, I've seen a lot of player interest in just being bandits.

The more I read about this mod, the more it just sounds like a free-for-all PVP mod, where you also have to worry about food, water, and health items. Oh and apparently there's also zombies in it.

I tried to play it today, but it kept saying stuff about things in my PMC folder being unsigned or something. Ended up deleting everything ARMA and going to start fresh.

Not sure I'll like the mod, but I'm now kind of willing to try it out and see what the fuss is about.

You are definitely at risk hooking up with other "friendly" human players. If they have bad intentions, you aren't going to have much of a chance. I suppose that is part of what makes this mod so intriguing. The need to team up for mutual support, but not knowing who to trust. The solution is to join a server with your own team using voice comms, but that is easier said than done at the moment. The servers are slammed with players and it's not always easy to join one alone. A team of 4-6 would never get on a busy server together.

Version 1.57 has upped the zombie count considerably. I think lone wolfs are going to have a tough go of it. Even some of the small villages are rumored to have 20+ zombies in them.

That would be awesome! If you do get one what time do you play?

Looks promising, but quite clunky and unpolished. Though that might be partly arma's fault. Awkward movements, no melee combat (which is definitely needed if ammo is scarce)...but still quite cool.

I swore I read that the game tracks when you are fired upon and gives you a two minute window for a self defense kill when fired upon. I haven't confirmed this though.

As a general rule, I'd say not to engage survivors (unless attacked of course), but engage bandits on sight. I believe killing bandits raises your humanity. If you are a bandit and want to clean up your image, start hunting other bandits.

Are they going to let you lock it or force you to run it a public server? I know the creators have concern about private servers being used to farm equipment for characters.

I'd say they should give it the full support of the development staff and/or support it officially. It's bringing in a legion of new players to arma who would have never considered touching it (for better or worse). The sandbox style, open-world model with huge islands that they've developed is useful for many ideas besides war simulation.

I would support a DayZ server!
I finally met up with someone last night and it makes a difference. It was nice having someone to watch my back, but at the same time I kept wondering if they were going to take the opportunity to pop me in the back. Though I do find that if you meet people on TS first, you get to know them better than just meeting people through chat.

Here is a link to the dev talking about hosting servers.

http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1429

I dont think he is too keen on private/clan servers.

It would probably be best to just all join a specific server and group up at a specific location.

I got my comeuppance last night.

At the NE airfield and across from the shelters I see 2 survivors with nice looking military rifles on their backs so I snipe one and as soon as that bullet left the barrel 4 more came around the corner, 4!!

I'm in deep now so may as well take as many as I can I think, so I get another as he tries to revive the first and then a hail of lead comes flying across the airstrip at me, most hitting me. I can't get out of my scoped view and I have broken legs, but manage to stop the bleeding but can't fix my breaks and crawl off into the bushes where I died, alone, a bandit wishing he'd been good....

Right, start again and I wonder what I can get from shooting that survivor ......

I'm curious as to how much modification went into prepping the Chernarus island for DayZ? I wonder if they have plans to port it to other islands like Takistan? or high quality islands like IceBreakr's? or even Sahrani? Most do not have the dreary post-apocalyptic feel though.

Just like a good sandbox, there's many ways to play, lots of peole coming from COD etc and so PvP is what they do, but you can play just fine without doing that... I have 20+ hours in and have only killed bandits or survivalists I witnessed killing other survivalists, if you get away from the coast you can avoid many of them.

DayZ is what you make of it... which is why I am enjoying it so much.

Exactly. This is why I couldn't imagine this mod in the Takistan environment. It wouldn't be the same. It would definitely not be as scary as it is right now.

I think the original OFP islands had that feeling. I doubt we would see those resurrected though.

Yep - there is something about the forests and the bleaker textures that always made the games feel a bit unsettling. Perfect for zeds!

For takistan/desert they should do a 'Tremors' mod, giant worms!

hmmm.. Looking through the preview for Iron Front, the wartorn looking maps look fairly conducive to DayZ. All enterable buildings as well. Wonder if we'll ever see a "DayZ for Iron Front". heh. I think I'm getting well ahead of everything. Those poor chaps have a ton of work to get it from alpha through to the finish line as it is.

Here is a thread talking about a private server. I would get behind simhq doing a private server for this game.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2135

Fridays might be a hard night to organize considering I have a RoF squad night but I might move that to Saturday if SimHQ gets a Dayz friday night server.

The only thing is I hear it is a PITA to run a DayZ server. You have to jump through loops to get it accepted by rocket, then it needs a windows remote desktop to launch and you have to restart it every 6 hours else the server bogs down.

I would be cool to see DayZ on the Arma3 on the huge Lemnos island, and with the player count above 100.



Ha, a Tremors mod would be awesome!

Took me over an hour but finally got onto a sever tonight, and the Zs are out in force in v1.5.7!

After the update your last location is lost. Checking my map (all your equipment remains from the old version) and looking at some local landmarks I determined that I was on the far south-west coast. I saw that there was a town close to me along the coast but didn't want to risk getting dispatched by a frightened new survivor. I decided to make my way through the woods to the North to a quaint little town called Pavlovo.

I easily gathered supplies for my journey, beans and pop (the fuel for a true survivor), and set my next goal. Zelenogorsk.

On the way I found a barn which was surrounded by about 15 Zs. Taking aim with my trusty Lee Enfield, I took my first shot at the closest of the undead, splitting his skull in half. I quickly reloaded and took out the next Zed who hadn't noticed his dead, now truly dead buddy, drop like a sack of spuds. Then the next dropped and the next, as the horde got closer and closer the final Zombie fell just a few yards from my feet. I looted the barn and gathered some more ammo for my revolver.

Moving onto the next set of buildings further North I found another group of Zs and used the same tactic as before but this time they came out of nowhere. I used all the rounds I had gathered for my Lee Enfield and resorted to my revolver. By the time I had dispatched the final zombie I had lost lots of blood and used all my pain killers. My hands were shaking and I could hardly aim at all.

Finally making it to Zelenogorsk I found a supermarket on the outskirts of town. This was it, the mother load! I couldn't use the same tactic as before. This called for a far ballsier, some would say crazy, some moronic, but I'd say heroic dash across the car park revolver in hand. I ran right up to the first zombie, putting a fair sized piece of lead into his face. I ran towards the supermarket, the moans and blood-curdling screams of the undead behind me.

I made it, I got through the doors of the supermarket and closed them soundly behind me.

But this wouldn't stop them.

The Zombies proceeded to smash and tear their way through the doors. I picked up a 12 gauge from the floor and started to knock them down, one by one. More Zs came, and more fell. I desperately tried to pick up ammo from around the store, trying to reload as quickly as possible. It was a massacre.




More zombies were on the way. I couldn't keep this up; my aim was off and I was in a bad state. Low on ammo and energy. I went out the back, grabbed some cans of food, shoved what I could into my mouth, and sneaked out the back doors. I wasn't noticed and managed to move further into town. I needed ammo. I needed ammo to survive. I saw a house to search, but while stepping through the door I was noticed by a flesh-hungry Zombie. I shot him with the 12 gauge.

He had friends, more friends then I had ammo. I shot them as they tore through the doorway clambering over each other to get to my bloodied face and torso. I ran out of shells and quickly grabed my revolver. Putting round after round into the Zeds as they came through the door. When the last one dropped I checked my ammo. None in my pockets. None in my rucksack. I had just three. Just three bullets.



I sneaked out of town, taking out two more Zombies that made a run for me but was otherwise unnoticed, making it to the nearest woods to the East to gather my thoughts. There were zombies everywhere.



How could I get to a building to find some much needed ammo without being torn to shreds? I thought of a distraction and from behind a tree I threw a road flare. It burned bright as it flew and landed a good 40 feet away from me. This distracted the Zombies long enough to check a barn.

A jerry can. What the @&*£ am I going to do with a jerry can?!

I stealthily made my way out the back doors and into the woods to re-assess my situation.

One round left in my revolver. One round, one round isn't going to be enough for zombies......for zombies. I checked my map. I could make it unnoticed to the bandit haven of the Northern airfield. I will wait, hidden, watching the ways out of the airfield for a lone bandit and put my last bullet in the back of his skull, taking his belongings...... To be continued.

Lol, 'Cleanup on aisle.....uhm, well every isle!'

Nice AAR Tigerwulf love the Z bodies piledd up, yeah the buffed up Zombies are now much more of a challenge especially if you are playing a lone survivor like me... my solution so far is to walk/sneak around them instead of taking them on, should be interesting to see if this changes the PvP play balance at all.

How do I confirm that my Arma2 and OA installs are current? I don't have the Steam version. I have 1.60.87580 in the lower right of my game screen after I launch Combined Operations.

I hope this is a lootable object because my map screen is blank.

yes. you need to find one, as well as a compass. The word is that there is 1 or 2 GPS's out in the gameworld as well


BTW, Combined Operations is now #2 on Steam's top sellers list. unbelievable!

I think there is a utility called 6Updater that could help you out.

I used 6updater to get and keep DayZ installed and updated. Works really well.

I launch with Arma2launcher, so I can pick which mods to run easily. I think you can do that with 6updater as well, but I am used to Arma2Launcher.

Ok im in, this looks like a good'un. Should i buy the games on disc (im old school and like having my discs) or finally bite the bullet and get them through steam ? My mate who is keen as has Arma2 and op arrowhead disc version, is that all he will require plus the mod? Is the mod through Steam ? Someone help a noob here ..baby steps please.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3572430/Re_DayZ.html#Post3572430

Here's a good collection of stuff to digest and chew (in that order) Ajay on getting started:

Install guide:
http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2085

Video Install guide, if you can't read (and in which case, your mom say's hi etc lol):
http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=408

For ARMA, a lot of DayZ is used on the Steam edition, but it works anyway you can get it. You need ARMAII Combined Ops, i.e. not just Operation Arrowhead or the base. If you have ARMAII base already then I've seen OA cheap, i.e. here

You can get ARMA direct from BIS via sprocket: https://store.bistudio.com/arma2-combined-operations or Steam etc.

The mod is downloadable from the main site, but it's pretty chaotic out there - loads of new players, very busy boards, servers collapsing, general chaos. Nice apocalyptic vibe actually

Another great DayZ AAR on RPS:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/14/surviving-in-day-z-part-two/

I'm still playing an ethical human loner survivor who only kills bad humans, I wonder how unusual that is compared to all the bandits. From the comments on that story I am not the only one. Also just saw the new stats on dayzmod.com 42k alive players, 5k bandits, so not as many bandits as it may seem.

PS glad to see DayZ is selling so many copies of Arma2 (topping Steam sales chart) hopefully that will result in a better Arma 3.

cheers guys ..i notice one of the requirements was Balls..i better let my mate down gently.

Given the nature of this mod, I’m thinking that strength in numbers is good but keeping the numbers down to a small unit of about 4 might be best.

IF SimHQ decides to host a DayZ server, I say we should split off into units and deal with whatever "politics" arise from that standpoint

That was a fantastic AAR. I love reading peoples stories, the game is the perfect setting for some real gritty human stories.

Good read indeed.

Me, I’m still torn between going lone wolf and teaming up with some other players. I think in a team players have a better chance to survive. But at the same time, the other players simply can’t be trusted (in this game).

Um... Looking at Steam, it appears that Combined Ops is now #1 on the top sellers list AHEAD of Diablo 3. Wasn't Diablo 3 just released a couple days ago?

insane.

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16786

"There's no doubt that the thrilling Day Z mod currently drives Arma 2 Combined Operations sales on Steam", he says with a touch of understatement. "Sales have increased almost fivefold from how they were before Day Z's Alpha release!"

"Bohemia Interactive has always tried to help community mod makers in many different ways and Day Z mod is no different", he says. "We're more than happy to assist DayZ in any suitable way and considering the mod's popularity we are committed to do some related work in the next Arma 2 update (1.61)."

"We are actively communicating about how we could best support the Arma 2 user community especially in multiplayer and Day Z players are right now a significant portion of people actively playing the game, so of course it's high on our priority list to support it the best we can. It's important to understand that DayZ was released just a few weeks ago as a tech demo/proof of concept and it's still at Alpha status so until we know where the project intends to go it's hard to commit to anything specifically."

BIS is the most community-friendly dev out there. I can't wait to see what they include into 1.61 to support this, since it's sure to be interesting.

I'm not much for 'zombies,' and I've already played EVE Online and that was enough of the player backstabbing action for a lifetime, but I guess I'll have to check this out.

The DayZ modders and BIS need to team up and release a stand alone retail version of DayZ using Arma III. Just like Iron Front or Take on Helicopters.

Well, I was watching a video of someones gameplay and the devs were on the chat in the corner and Rocket said to someone if they want it making into a standalone game then email BI saying that the devs should do just that.

Rocket is one of the developers at BIS. This was just a side project for him during his free time though.

OK, think I am all set up and running with DayZ. Thanks for the advice, folks.

I too would love a SimHQ server for this. My Arma name is [SHQ]Peppergomez.

Can folks list a few good servers that they play on? Maybe we can favor a few servers until a SimHQ one becomes available. I was on one last night but some of the guys on voice comms were pretty rude, so I'd much rather play with the fine folks here.

Type in "Hardcore" in the filter and play on one of those 5.


If you play on a standard server you run into an issue where you anyone with a map within sight of you can pinpoint your location on the map because the maps have map icons for players (since we are all on the same team.)

Hardcore disables that but also disable player names which makes it harder to communicate.

A few of the other servers like US6 hve the maps icons off as well but personally I dont care for the aiming reticle either. People should have to use iron sights since it makes it harder to hit.

I go on US servers at my real-time night and EU/UK servers if on during my real-time day but I just go for one that has a slot.

I've had good luck with US 2, but I jump around depending upon where the spaces are. A SimHQ server might be fun, especially if we can reserve some slots for our own group.

Looks like this is going to be integrated/attached to the upcoming patch 1.61.

I'm unable to join a game anymore. Seems like the main servers get hammered and are simply unable to handle the load. Even if I find a free spot on one of the game servers, I'm stuck at a black screen and the game "waiting for server response". And if the game finally manages to fire up, after about 10 to 20 minutes, chances are high that I'm stuck in a forest in the middle of nowhere without any gear whatsoever.

I pass for the moment and may come back when the situation improves again.

I've had "waiting for server response" a lot too on various Europe based servers. US4 and 3 always works for me though.

Finally got it running and gave it a try yesterday. You may have read my other posts here and know I was pretty reluctant and skeptical about it. Anyway here's my thoughts.

Good:
Atmosphere is fantastic. The feeling of danger is everywhere. This is the only zombie game I've ever played where I haven't just gone in guns blazing and slaying Zs. I treat any other human player as a threat unless I personally know them.

Decisions and immersion: You really kind of feel like "you're there" in a zombie situation. Do you risk shooting a couple of zombies on the offchance there's some supplies you need in that building? What if there's a bandit nearby? Is someone already watching you through the scope of a hunting rifle?

Survival aspects: I think the addition of having to find food/water and scarce ammo makes the game a lot more interesting. You can't just find a good weapon and then go on a killing spree for the rest of your time in game. No food or water = dead. No ammo = dead unless you're sneaky and a bit lucky.


Bad:
Very noob-unfriendly. There's nothing in game that explains anything. My first character is probably going to die of thirst because I still haven't figured out exactly how to refill my canteen. If you've never played ARMA 2 before, there's going to be a higher learning curve.

Potential for griefing and frustration is enormous.


All in all it's kind of strangely addictive. I must have spent nearly 2 hours sneaking around zombie infested towns yesterday. The only shots I ever fired were done right in the beginning when I hadn't learned to be stealthy. Still not entirely convinced I'll keep playing, but we'll see. So far so good.

Just tried to get on today, and had no luck. "Waiting for server response". Back to Diablo 3 I guess if THOSE servers are working... (sigh)

Just read this in a profile about dayz at knowngriefers.com:


"Anyone looking to play DayZ need only a copy of ArmA 2: Combined Ops (That is, both ArmA 2 and the expansion Operation: Arrowhead, but you would want the PMC DLC if you don't want all of the players to be low-resolution versions)."


Anyone confirm this,and if so, how much better does the game look?

HogDriver, you can refill your canteen by walking into the water of the coast or a pond. Click the middle mouse button and you should be able to select to refill your canteen. Just make sure to not walk too far into the water. It's said that the player loses his backpack when walking into deep water. Also, as per some player diaries, there ought to be water pumps around where the player is able to refill his canteen.

Another tip for those having trouble playing at night (personally, I somehow prefer it): turn brightness and gamma all the way up. You'll get what I'd like to call "cat-vision", which really helps spotting zombies and other players.

Also I found that even though some players might shoot you at sight, there are generally a lot of very helpful people around on the servers. So, simply ask when you have a question or need translation of a Cyrillic name sign of a place (beware though, this of course also gives away your position to bandits).

Last but not least, there's a "Newbie Survivor Guide" in the official forum that might be helpful.

When filling water bottles at ponds, you have to be deep into it though and actually swim before the 'Fill bottles' command appears so be careful as if you swim too long you lose all your equipment with that lovely ARMA bug

Sick of this f&king #%&*$# done it all and still cant find a f$#king game through ARMA2OA ive always deleted the files and downloaded them again and redone it 3 times just to make sure it wasn't missing a file how do i find a game

Press 'Missions' twice at the top of the browser screen then scroll down to 'D' and there will be loads of DayZ servers. If you mean they are all full then you just have to keep trying.

I've just had my first go tonight. It took a while to find a space on an Australian server.

Had a great time even though it was night.

After hearing about all the player killing I was very dubious about showing my face to the first two players I saw. They were wandering around a building holding glow sticks.

I needn't have worried as they were quite helpful and let me tag along with them.

I managed to get my first few zombie kills and eventually lost them after getting rushed by 7 or 8 zombies.

I must have played for a solid 2 hours before getting killed searching for a dead PC I could hear near by (flies). I threw a flare and got engulfed by Zombies standing only a few metres away in the dark.



The easiest way is to use the filter and type DayZ (or Day Z) in the missions bit

Yup filter for 'dayz' hide full servers hide password servers, that'll narrow it down a fair bit.

I tried this yesterday, and I would say, its really good.
My only problem is the real day/night cycle.
I only have free time to play after 10PM my local time, so all good ping servers are running at night already.
Being a newbie, its not the easiest thing to survive in complete darkness...
I assume using time compression would be better, but maybe I am alone with this problem and will get used to it...

Hey Smosh, if you haven't done this already I really suggest you to turn brightness and gamma up for playing at night (night in the game that is ;-)). Flares not only attract zombies but also other players that might not have all the best intentions... It's at least my experience with this mod that flares are more dangerous than they do any good. I stay clear of them.

I agree that playing at night is pretty rough. I think they should either use time compression to make the day/night cycles shorter, change the time of the mission so that nights are partially lit by the moon, or make flashlights more prevalent/part of the starting kit.

KlarSnow, Dead Meat, and I jumped on last night for a couple of hours. We actually managed to link up in Elektro in the middle of the night - I confess it was actually a little fun trying to find each other by signalling from rooftops with flares. This was on an underpopulated Russian server so bandits weren't too much of a concern. I found Dead Meat alone and out of ammo on the end of a pier, surrounded by swimming zombies. Once we killed them, we pushed into Elektro and searched a factory while we waited for Klar to catch up. With a map and compass in hand (and looking constantly over my shoulder at those ruthless miscreants Dead Meat and KlarSnow ) we set out north for the power station, but didn't make it too far before Dead Meat was eaten alive and I died falling down a ladder.

Unless BIS patched the game engine you cant time compress in Arma2. You only get 1:1 time afaik.

The main thing for combating night in dayz (and all arma2) is to turn your HDR Lighting Quality to the highest your computer can handle. That will give you more colors to work with. Then when you turn up your gamma you can see at night (well not in buildings or in a forest but still.

My guy has been alive for 3 days now. He has gone Civilian (killed 3 civis in self defense) into Bandit and then back into Civilian. I have almost 100 zombie kills. Right now my group of 4 has pushed north near the east coast headed up to the hospital in Berezino.

A simple skipTime loop with a short sleep in between would allow them to compress time without much work at all.

Well I think I'm done with this mod already. You can't even use your gun in self-defense. You fire one shot at a single zombie (or bandit) , and within 2 seconds you're surrounded by every Olympic sprinter zombie within 300 meters. It's absolutely ridiculous. Stealthily sneaking around for supplies gets boring quickly especially when you can't use that better weapon you just found. There's just no fun in this, I don't see how people are enjoying it so much. Maybe if you're running with a platoon of people who can help fend off the zombie hordes it might be better, but if you're alone I don't see the point.

If the zombies were slow, then the current number of them could work. You could probably even add more. The range at which they detect sounds would also work better with slow zombies. Kill 1-2 and then expect to have a mass of them shambling towards you. The tension would be in finding out if you have enough time to scavenge before you get swarmed. And from bandits obviously...

As it is, if you fire your weapon, you might as well be shooting yourself in the head.

Sorry, just needed to vent some frustration.

I agree HogDriver, slow or slower moving zombies would be better. But it's definately a preference by the mod designer as they definately fall into two different distinct camps when it comes to zombies, runners or walkers. I would hope the mod designer will consider making another variations on this mod and allow slow walkers or at least a selectable option.

But wasn't that a previous criticism ?

That the zombies were not much of a threat so it more of a PVP only game with a zombie distraction ?

I beleive they upped the numbers of zombies to deflect from that. Maybe it also forces people to try to group up more and that then increases the roulette of your encounter.

Horses for courses.

Hopefully in the future they'll make different types of Z's; like some that sprint and then some that aren't as fast. Then you get that initial "rush" and still have a chance to loot them and gtfo without the whole town rushing you.

Dunno if you guys caught it on their forums or not, but I guess the new high zombie count / presence is a glitch. You'll see them drop down to previous levels next patch. Which is good, because I'm starting to share HogDriver's frustration.

Don't forget that it's still in alpha. It's constantly being tweaked.

If you are not enjoying it for a specific reason that has something to do with a tweak, just skip that version and wait for the next.

Rocket has already said that the current number of zombies is a bug. There was a bug where no zombies were spawning. He fixed it and uppped the zombie count a bit which resulted in it going from 100 zombies on a map total to 3000 zombies on a map total.

So he left it as is and released the patch because he still needed to test the upper limits of the server's zombie population for stability. He has also stated that he is going to try to have a patch out by this weekend to fix it.



Personally I like this number of zombies. You can still sneak into town or take then out from range but if you get caught out doing something stupid and you are alone then you get swarmed which is how it should be. If everyone can survive the zombies and gather loot from town then the zombies are not powerful enough or have to few number. The whole point of a zombie game is numbers that swarm you. Without that it is just another arma2 pvp mod.

I have no problem surviving by myself or with 2-3 people. My biggest complaint ATM is that every time I log in I have to find my "group" as we all get spawned around the island instead of where we logged out. But it is an alpha so I can give them some slack on that for now.

Yup, I feel your pain, HogDriver. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who's getting kind of frustrated and bored with this mod already. I really thought there would be a rewarding feeling in playing this. But there isn't.

Yesterday, I've learned my lesson that the mod really is just a huge deathmatch game with zombies thrown in for some atmosphere and tension. Started anew again yesterday and spawned on the beach, which is now crawling with zombies. Teamed up with a guy who seemed friendly at first but then shot me point blank. Spawned again and got killed again. Not by zombies, but always by other players.

So after getting killed for two or three more times I decided to get away from the coast as fast as possible, which really is just bandit land. Second, I wasn't taking any chances anymore. Whenever I saw another player, I shot him. I made some progress into the land but had to realize that it is almost impossible to get some loot since every place with more than one house is crawling with zombies now. So I kind of got bored and shut the game down.

Today I fired it up again and after finally getting onto a server (I must have been starring at the freakin' “waiting for server response” as much as I've been playing this game now) continued to move inland. Finally found a raised hide where I found a rifle and some ammo. Moved on and found a small village, crawling with zombies. I decided to take some of them out and check out at least the closest houses. I shot some zombies- but new ones kept re-spawning right in front of me! Ridiculous!

So I simply moved on. Came across another survivor but kept on moving. Luckily, I wasn't shot this time.

I've been moving around the map for hours today and whenever I came across a house, hut or barn, there were more zombies around than I could shake a stick at. At one point I ran low on food and water. Found a single house and decided to take the zombies out to get what's inside. So, I killed the zombies moved forward to the house and found- nothing! I just wasted precious ammo for nothing! I was truly annoyed.

Kept on moving, lost the connection to the server a few times, had to re-rejoin and that really was what kept me going. Because every time I finally managed to get into the game, I was full on blood again with no hunger and no thirst.

I finally decided to go to the NW airfield as it sounded like a good place to get some serious hardware and other loot. Managed to get there eventually. Experienced zombies spawning in my back but managed to fight them off. Moved on to the runway. I watched the tower for a while and wondered, how the hell I could get to it through all the zombies.

I carefully sneaked forward, trying to avoid the zombies around the tower. Unfortunately, that was when my outfit changed from bandit to survivor and my character stood up straight in the middle of the undead horde. I ran to the tower, climbed to the top only to find- empty cans! W T F! Total frustration!

Climbed onto the roof and shot all the zombies climbing up until I was out of ammo.

I now have the feeling that I have done all that I could have done in this game and that I have seen everything that's to see. I really don't see the point in playing this any longer.

I know it's just an alpha version and I know I'm not very objectively here. But for the time being, I think I've had enough. I really wish there would be more emphasize on team play and that people would actually work together instead of killing each other.

There is an entire community here of Arma2 players. Surely you could find someone to coop with and use the simhq TS3 channel?

Or is it that you think random strangers in the game should coop more instead of shooting each other?

It is a ALPHA. The number and speed of the Zeds is still being worked on. Earlier builds had less Zeds but they just "Benny Hill'ed" you they were so fast. (Key music chase music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5sQL7q_IOI )

Tons of SimHQ'ers and the SimHQ TS3 to get a team together. Look at other clan's. I saw one clan get the Huey's repaired and fly around.

You can tell every new build of the mod he is tweaking to see what works best. If the zombies were slow though when they chase you it would be too easy surely? I would like to see it in game though to see, huge hoards shambling along would be pretty scary.

Even with the higher Zed count you can still sneak into town around them, just crouch + walk and if you have to kill some, the farther away you do it from other zombies the better since often the Zeds won't notice the shot, or find a way to fight them in a choke point like indoors or at the top of a ladder where you can kill them one at a time.

I agree about the coast being very bandit and newbie COD player land, so just head inland and you won't run into as many bandits.

And as with any game, if you are getting more frustrated than having fun then stop playing, no sense in forcing yourself especially with an alpha that is still being play balance tweaked. And I read on RPS that the dev "Rocket" at this point is having to spend most of his time working to handle the server capacity problem due to the viral popularity of the mod.

Take a break and check it out in a few weeks.

Me I'm still having fun playing the loner survivor who sneaks around the zombies and avoids other humans when I see them, I'm inland and so far have been able to scavenge enough to survive from farmhouses and deer stands along with a trip into Elektro at night before I headed inland.

At night if you carefully crouch+walk and avoid the Zed patrol paths, you can pretty much sneak in and out with what you need.

I'm looking forward to them toning down the Zeds a bit, half of what we have now would be great, but I'm glad this game is hard and it's forcing us to be smart + tactical + sneaky to survive, it makes the anxiety feel real unlike most other Zombie games which are just a shooting gallery.

Hoping to hook up with SHQ'ers on TS one of these nights if I can get online earlier than my usual late West Coast time.

I was doing some reading on their forums, and it sounds like slower zombies are out of the question. First reason being that you would need too many zombies for the servers to handle, to actually make them threatening. Second reason being that Rocket just doesn't like slow zombies. Fair enough, if it's your game, you put in what you want.

I managed to play about 90 minutes on the previous version, 1.5.6 or whatever before having to update. That seemed like a good amount of zombies to have. My first time playing I nearly died, because I shot at a zombie in the way of me getting into a building. Ended up fighting 3 at once rather than just the one. Got hurt pretty bad, but I survived and killed them. See that to me was nearly perfect. I made the decision that this zombie needed to die , so I could get those supplies. Naturally I attracted a couple more, but not so many that I stood no chance whatsoever of winning. That's the problem with the latest update.

I was crawling prone in Kamenka after starting a new life, and sneaking past about 6 visible zombies. Managed to find a Lee Enfield and an Alice pack. As I was leaving, still prone, one of those zombies that crouches took me by surprise. Before I could shoot him dead, I was literally surrounded by so many zombies, I couldn't see anything BUT zombies in any direction I turned. In the end I MIGHT have managed to kill 3 before they got me. That's what bugs me about the game in its current state. I was completely swarmed almost instantly with no hope. If the zombies' speed was even just halfed, I may have stood a fighting chance or have been able to retreat.

Before this update, the zombies were dangerous, but manageable if you had to fight them. The real lethal threat was player killers. That pretty much fits my idea of the zombie genre. I'm all for the mod being hard, and fairly brutal and "realistic", but currently I find it too unreasonable.

I'm finding more and more with games now, that my own feelings about what makes a game fun, doesn't come anywhere close to what the majority of other people seem to enjoy. That huge disconnect is a source of frustration on its own.

I think maybe if the zombie numbers go back to the levels they were in 1.5.6, I might give it another try.

Hog:

It's not that your opinion of what's fun differs so much from everyone, but that your opinion of one element of what's fun does. And all too often that one element is crucial to your enjoyment or lack thereof.

There's so many elements that make up a game, it's damned hard to find one where all of them line up with you. So it's compromises of what you can live with to get what you want out of the rest.

In dayz's case, it has what to me are fatal flaws. Enough good there to want to try it, enough bad to be disappointed. It can be very enjoyable when you're playing with a group of people you know and are on voice comms with. Solo...it's just a pain in the ass.

The problem is that if he decreases the zombies then it because too easy for groups to clear towns. If he increases zombies it is too hard for solos to get gear.

So which do you pick? Favor the solo guys or the group of guys? To me he picked right and catered the game to the groups. If you have 2-4 guys you can clear most of the smaller towns with no problems. If you have 5-10 guys you can clear out the larger towns no problem.

You have to remember he is making this as a multiplayer coop game. He probably will never cater to players solo'ing the game. So if you have no interest in finding a buddy and surviving together then you are probably going to leave frustrated.

As a solo, while the game is much harder now, it is still possible to do well even in towns, but you just have to be sneaky and smart and not expect that guns blazing will win, doing the risky city stuff at night is key.

To tell you the truth, I actually think that is pretty realistic of what I would expect as a solo in a post-apocalypse scenario... I have a choice to find a way to team up with others to make it easier, or I can stay on my own and try to make a go by being sneaky, smart and good, something which even Stalker never made it so hard and rewarding to do, in a way it reminds me at times more of the Thief series from long ago.

I realize that may not be to everyone's tastes so I can understand the frustration, hopefully they will reduce the Zombies in the next patch, so it is not so hard for a solo who wants to gun the Zombies, and at least allow for that play style, which right now is suicide in busy areas.

It'll be nice if he can adjust the spawn locations, so that the major cities are inundated, and the outlying areas not so much. The cities should be deathtraps and need cooperation (think Atlanta in Walking Dead), but the brick poo-house out in the middle of the woods shouldn't have 5-10 zombies around it like it currently does... Maybe just one to represent the poor soul that had the runs when the outbreak hit......

I had a great old time playing last night. Thankfully one of the servers in Australia had its time offset so I was finally able to play in daylight!

I've managed to stay alive for 3 hours with 38 Zombie kills. The Winchester 1866 being my gun of choice.

I've stayed away from the big towns and ventured off into the middle of the island with absolutely no idea of where I am

I have yet to be player killed and haven't heard too much of it on the servers I am playing. In saying that I have only come across 4 other players in my travels, all of which have been very helpful.

A few of tips I'd pass on after only two days play is:

Don't fight Zombies in the open, they will swarm you.
Crouch walk to make your way through the Zombies.
Houses without see through windows are not enterable.
Only eat and drink when the icon is flashing. Doing it earlier is a waste unless you need to increase your blood levels.
Only shoot as a last resort. Gun fire attracts too much unwanted attention!
If being attacked try and enter a building as Zombies can't run inside. A barn is a great place as Zombies are very slow on stairs.
Lone survivor play is possible you just need to stay out of the open and away from large centers where possible.

ok what dose this mean:


selnet: "you cannot play/edit this mission; it is dependent on downloadable content that has been deleted.chernarus"

keeps popping up every time i get knocked back for a game

also get[u][/u] this on start up screen whats this mean:


No entry 'bin/config.bin/CfgVehicles/Citizen1.scope'.


thanks if anyone can help. i would really like to give this a go since i new to the world of PC gaming

You need to start the game via ARMAII Combo not Arrowhead

My character who survived for over a week and had about 200 zombie kills, and m16a2 and 10 clips along with just about every other piece of useful gear minus NVGs died last night trying to help out a pair of new players I stumbled upon. One of them aggroed a bunch of zombies and we got swarmed and then I took a shotgun to the chest at close range during a frantic battle.

With my dying breath I put a clip into the new player who aggroed the zombies and as I was bleeding out I watched him crumple to the ground and get swarmed by zombies.

Hope he learned a lesson lol I know I did! Kill everyone who isnt useful! (although I doubt I will be able to apply that lesson, I am too much of a nice guy.)

Wow sorry to hear that Master, hehe nowadays I tend to avoid players I run into, once I see that they didn't notice me or if they did that they are not pursuing, the game really is making me a paranoid hermit survivor which I find pretty interesting as a sign of what would happen if I was in this situation in real life.

BTW for anyone still trying to figure out how to get loot in towns despite the higher Zed count, the following vid shows pretty well how you can sneak around and walk in a town of the new Zeds as long as you try to avoid them and avoid shooting, fast forwarded to 7mins to show the part where he handles the town:

Bummer.

I had found an M4A3 CCO today at the NW airfield and had nothing but bad luck since finding it! I'm sure the zombies were angry I had it lol. Got attacked over and over trying to fight off wave after wave, down to 1K blood I managed to find food and get it back to 5k and went looking round the military camp at Stary Novoy but again the zombies knew where i was and got swarmed again. Fought them off and again down to 1K blood, passing out, black and white blurry vision ran east from the camp to get sniped and killed...

That M4 was cursed lol. Had 140 zed kills.

I have been looking for that m4a3 with the silencer the whole game lol. Sofar the best gun I have run into is the shotgun just because it is a 15rd .45 winchester that shoots 12ga shotgun shells and is almost silent... man they need to fix that gun asap lol.

That wasn't the suppressed one, it had a tac-light and a red dot.

Wonder if they could add something like the base-building functionality that Tao has in coin/invasion.

Time to start killing anyone and everyone

You cant trust them now!

The main reason for this I am sure is the strain on the server since it has to despawn your character model and spawn a new one which has in the past caused all kinds of problems.

Wow that will be a big change and I know lots of bandits will be glad for that, but really it won't change how I play, I think I got shot by more pre-bandits that hadn't earned the skin all the way yet than I have by true bandits.

Yay! Really glad they are doing this as I have a bandit skin and I was going straight this time but had some Makarov toting fool shooting at me so I killed him and I get a skin again and now every survivor who sees me opens fire on me because it's a kill without losing anything!

So now at least I can move around without being shot from every direction.

What makes you think you're not gonna be shot from every direction now?

It´s going to be awesome.
With this and the next-to-be killing of the global chat Role play is going to skyrocket.
That or pure Kill´em-all attitude

I´d love to have a SimHQ "company of brothers"...

Heheh yeah I hate that global chat, earlier today here I am sneaking out of a town past some walkers I hear a bunch of shooting close by, not sure if the shots were directed at me and some survivor runs right towards me, I drop prone in the grass and he runs not 5 feet from my head as I aim at his face waiting to see what he does, and then on the Global Channel some guy says really loud:
"CAN YOU SEE HIM BRIAN?"
scaring the crap out of me...

I'm not sure if it's him saying that or his friend nearby or if they were looking to kill me or what, so I wait and wait and then after a few minutes not hearing anything more I get up and sneak past out of town with my loot...

Thankfully everyone else told him to shut the hell up on global channel so I didn't have to, it will be much nicer when we know if we hear something on voice comms it is coming from close by, and that dude almost lost his life from my itchy trigger finger getting spooked by the comms.

BTW it looks like 1.5.8 patch will drop this weekend, maybe even tonight:
http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3709&pid=33626#pid33626

I liked the bandit skin system with humanity count. it will be a shame to see it go. It wasn't the perfect solution to discourage open murdering in the mod, but it was good enough. Do note that he has kept the humanity system though. Hopefully he is cooking up an even better way to discourage the flagrant murdering. Personally, I think the bandit skins were removed because of technical difficulties, not necessarily gameplay reasons.

Here's my suggestion:

So if...

Everyone surviving has within them the potential to be/retain thier humanity...or surrender thier humanity and become something...else. Like you know...a frigging zombie

As you lose humanity...there's an actual penalty for being a rat #%&*$#. You slowly lose effectiveness as a survivor because you can't eat/drink as well...you get the shakes and your aim is harder. It becomes harder to see and hear. You progress from a functional survivor to being one of the zombies. With the abilities and limitations of same.

It takes will to be human in the zombie apocalypse. Cuz zombie is a disease, and it's catching. Do bad things and lose humanity. Do good things and regain humanity...just the way it works now.

I'm *positive* the rat bastards out there will hate this idea. But it sure seems like the natural way to make killing others have consequences.

Once you're a zombie, mix in with the other zombies, gather a group of like-minded people...and go rampage to your heart's content until someone puts you down like a rabid dog.

Found it!! The ultimate Gucci gun in the game so far. I tend to shy away from other humans since finding it; Nothing says "kill me for my sweet gear!" like running around with a silenced M4A3 in your hands. It's great if you're seen by a zombie, as you can take him out without alerting the other 20 or so around him. Gotta conserve the ammo though, since it won't accept regular ammo, just the SD stuff.

So far I seem to stick with the Winchester since the ammo seems to be the most plentiful, it holds 15 rounds per mag and it seems to be one of the quieter guns, so you can actually take out some Zeds at the edge of towns without getting mobbed if you do it right, I've passed on the AK and other rifles when I have the Winchester since I'd rather have lots of ammo than an assault rifle with hard to find ammo.

Nothing but I did not like the un-realistic costume change because you have shot a survivor. It's like the cliche of a robber wearing a mask and striped jumper.

And doesn't give the holier than thou survivors anything to be haughty about now.

I hope the bandit/survivor feature will be gone already in 1.58. Good move imo.

It'd be nice to see a single-player version of this

I think it would lose it's magic and become just another zombie apocalypse game. (JMO)

I would love to play this. I got the mod loaded fine, but I have such huge graphics issues with Arma2 that its unplayable. Ive tried everything I have been able to find to resolve the issues, but no go.. :-(

Well we will see how it progresses since it's only an alpha. My biggest problem with these types of mods trying to become a believable zombie/survival game is the premise that by just adding some dead looking AI bots it automatically becomes a bonafide zombie/survival game, lots of work to do before it reaches that level IMHO (but I am hoping this mod is different and breaks this cycle). But what I do like and think holds lots of promise is the size of the ARMA2's world, it's far better then anything I have seen to date in any zombie game/mod and something I have wished for in a zombie/survival game for a long long time. I really hope it matures into something outstanding.

Someone made a single player mission based on the server mission files and the content files of the mod.

You can find it on reddit I think. Im not going to play it since I think that is a bit of theft and a bit of ruining the magic of the experience but if you are into that sort of thing it is out there.

rocket said:



hmm..

1 hr ago via twitter.

This is what the Alpha is for, testing and seeing what does and doesn't work. All good

need a MMO of this BAD

Why would there be any consequences? It's the zombie apocalypse and all the rules are out the window.

I don't go around blasting people at random, but I don't see why you should penalized. The no rules environment and paranoia is what sets this mod apart from all the other zombie games where everyone is too nice and trusting all the time. I like it where it's really down to the player and their strategy, you just have to be careful, don't trust anyone you don't know, and if you have to, shoot before they do. A big chunk of the players seem pretty friendly, but have a few trigger happy guys mixed in keeps it interesting. The zombie part of gameplay is OK at this point, not great, but having all those other players out there planning how to murder you and having to stay one step ahead is really interesting and deep gameplay.

I could see humanity as a sort of reputation, if it actually worked well. Right now it's too easy to lose your humanity in self defense or other situations as it's hard to make rules that work. But then it'd be too easy to pick out the "bad guys". Not knowing is more interesting.

Why should there be consequences? Because otherwise it's just a deathmatch fps with zombie skins running around. He put humanity there for a reason. He just wasn't happy with the current implementation.

On internet games, it's too easy to be the guy who shoots first. When things get too hot, when people try to take you to task for being a murdering so and so...you just log off.

Remember...we're playing a game here. Games have rules, and games try to be fun for everyone playing.

hay i tryed loading it in combined operations but now the game wont load it just has a quik fast of and MSDOS screen in the top left corner then it dose nothing what do i have to do to get the game to work

Jarrod: I would look here to try and find a solution -
http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=10

The only reason survivors don't kill other survivors is because they don't want a bandit skin but are just as likely to murder anyone with a bandit skin to steal their stuff without thinking how they became a bandit. I try and get away so I don't have to fight them but always have to in the end. They will kill faster than a bandit will as that is deemed right.

I am glad the bandit skin is going as it's like a robber IRL breaking into someone's house and immediately getting a robber mask and stripey jumper!

End of the day I think most people who play this mod have a huge hero complex and see themselves as a goody 2 shoes and must help everyone out yet you would not do that most likely in a real situation like this. You would kill for food and water, to survive.

Sorry accidently deleted my OP.
While thats true (people killing for food and water) thats doesn't seem to be the issue of why players kill other players in this mod since those basic items are relativley easy to aquire. It's the high value items that get you PK'ed.

I've had endless discussions in-game about this with people. I must say that I don't think the kill everyone mentallity is correct at all. I think that this is just because of the game environment.

Sure you'd get some people killing people but it wouldn't be the norm. It's not about being a hero, it's about who we are, as humans. There is a reason we as a species has done so well. It's because of our intelligence and social structure, which creates team work.

In a zombie apocolypse, the itchy trigger finger gun totin morons would end up being very alone once they've killed everyone they've seen and would end up dying alone when they can't get themselves out of a situation.

Groups that would congregate and help each other would benefit from group intelligence, different knowledge and skill sets, many sets of eyes and safety in a group. Combined with more firepower and group tactics they would have a much better life then the idiot loner that kills everyone on sight and thinks that the human got it all wrong when it came to survival.

It's all a game created psyche, sure I've tried the bandit life in game, that wouldn't mean I would in real life. If all the people that say that's would they would do in real life, just shoot everyone on sight, I think that says alot about them if that's how they would act in that situation. Obviously laws a good deterent in the 'civilised world' for the potential nut jobs that are out there. But then again, I don't think there are that many, I think they are just kidding themselves. I don't think that 90% of the people saying they would shoot everyone they saw would. They are just saying that because in the game killing people at the moment can make them succed and get the big cool flashy gun, I wouldn't work in real life. There's a reason WE have done so well, and it's not by killing everyone you see.

Here is an interesting graph.

I was talking about this with my wife tonight. All the people saying that bandits are great, because they'd act like that in real life are full of crap. When societies break down, you don't have everyone running around slaying each other like a big free-for-all deathmatch. Armed robberies and the occasional murders, sure, but not the kind of shoot on sight attitude that a lot of players have on DayZ. ( I would do it simply because I refused to be taken by surprise by someone) Generally survivors would seek out other survivors and work together. (or mooch off the others) The people who are already living life like bandits would take advantage of it, but it wouldn't instantly turn the majority of people into them.

Look at New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Mass lootings were common, with sporadic rapes and shootings thrown in. (remember that New Orleans on a good day is one of the "Murder Capitols" of America) It was pretty rough, but it wasn't all out war between the survivors.

Gamers tend to operate in certain ways.
1. Role-players: These are the guys who will take the mod seriously, and actually play the game pretending it was really them in a real-life zompocalypse. (this can include the casual players too) They're the ones who will prefer to work together with other people to survive and scavenge better stuff. They generally only fight other players when forced to. Occasionally they will shoot on sight.

2. Power-gamers: These are the guys who will spawn in and immediately make a bee-line for the best weapon spawns, which they have memorized or mapped out. They'll kill you to acquire better weapons or food. Anything to increase their own power. I think a lot of clans would fit in this group, or possibly an even mix with the role-players.

3. Griefers/Player-killers: Pure-bred bandits. They're only playing to grief the people taking the game seriously, or just have more fun killing human players rather than zombies. These are the ones who will kill you on sight, or backstab you at the most opportune moment.


I downloaded that singleplayer version someone talked about earlier. I was messing with that while waiting to see what the real devs were going to change in the next patch or two. Basically just reading this thread now and then because the zombie genre interests me, and its interesting reading your posts.

Heh, Master - the irony (in the non-Morissette form) here is that looks like the stats of a viral spread of a Zombie plague

Yup and the vast majority of those crimes were probably people who were already scum. If I was in the same situation I wouldn't start killing and raping people.

I wouldn't rape anyone either but it would be me and my son against everyone else and I would do what I had to. I wouldn't just kill random people.

I think it would be much more like 'The Road' where food is very scarce, especially after time and people will kill for a tin of beans.

I'll agree that there probably are more players just shooting everything that moves than is likely realistic, but I haven't found that too be too much of an issue yet. Lots of teamwork and other stuff still happens, but you need to form groups you can trust. It just keeps things interesting (for me at least)and they're generally pretty predictable, hanging out in the same areas. Adding more zombies with better hearing would probably be the way to reduce random shootings a bit, not face masks and humanity points (which so far can't work with the complex self defense situations and take some of the fun out of finding out who's a trigger happy nut, while letting the survivors randomly murder what may be good or bad guys, just because they have the mask). Right now once you become a bandit, even if by self defense, you're pretty much forced to shoot everyone you encounter after that as everyone will be trying to kill you.

In my experience hardcore bandits are probably like 1/5th of the players, there are a lot of nice players and most players falling in some shade of grey. Just having that bit of uncertainty as to where they fall on the trigger happy nut spectrum keeps things tense.

Once you have a decent sized group and move away from the coast, bandit loners aren't that big of an issue as long as you keep away from obvious hang outs for them.

I'd also say New Orleans post-Katrina might not be the best comparison, it seems like it's been the zombie apocalypse for a while with a shortage of supplies and small numbers of equipped survivors. Maybe Somalia at it's worst or some other country that had been without government, food, and basic necessities for some time, but has lots of guns might be a closer example.

You know this is the only game/mod that people really torn over the moralistic aspects of it and has made to definite 'camps' of survivors and bandits.

Yeah for me that's one of the beauties of DayZ, and the lack of bandit skins won't change how I approach strangers anyhow, since right now "survivors" skinned people can still shoot a couple of innocents before they get the bandit skin anyhow, and often the tricky bastards use that to their advantage.

I will do the same thing I do now, watch and observe from a distance how they treat other they run into, if they are friendly to others then they are probably ok, if you see them kill others, then you know they are bandits whatever the skin.

One other thing I love about the mod is how it has made me explore and appreciate the scenery, it is nice that there are goods in every town, along with the Zeds, and I'm now getting to know each of the towns and areas which I've been playing on for a long time in Arma2 online MP, but never bothered to explore once the AO was cleared and I had to wait for transport to the next AO.

I would like it if we could choose what civilian clothes we wear before spawning. That way if you saw someone murder another player you would still be able to recognise them later on. At the moment they would just blend in with every other generic survivor.

did you get it from steam? have you tried starting up both arma2 and arma2 oa before installing the dayzmod?

maybe this will help:

1.5.8 is not out yet (hopefully tomorrow?) but he did post the change log sofar

*edit* nevermind,I give up

*edit2* Never give up

I had the Steam version of Arma 2 and the retail of OA.
The video of how to install DayZ would not work with my set-up but after a bit of fresh thinking I finally got it working.

Good to hear you got it working mate. Hope you enjoy it.

I think we all would be surprised by what we would, in fact, do to stay alive a few months into a survival situation. Few people are capable of imagining themselves in such a situation due to the fact that, frankly, how many of us have gone a week without food? How often has your life been put at jeopardy from sepsis in a simple cut on your finger, but you had no anti-biotics? More importantly, how many times have you been held at gunpoint by another "survivor" who promptly took your last box of spaghetti that you found in an abandoned house? Mace is getting a little closer to reality by admitting that he might have to take a few nasty steps, but you say you wouldn't "randomly" kill folks? I dare say that everyone here is not only capable of doing so, but would become fairly handy at accomplishing said deed. Maybe you wouldn't go out "hunting" folks, but if you saw an armed guy with a backpack full of something walking toward your hiding spot, and you'd been attacked/held at gunpoint several times, would you shoot him?

This is an element that I absolutely love about DayZ. I've found that I am about 70/30 split on what to do when I see another survivor. 30% of the time I am convinced enough that they're friendly to exchange bullets for food/water and to work together. 70% of the time I will kill them, because frankly you just never know. Anyone who claims that such a mentality isn't "role-playing" needs to garner a wider perspective on human nature, or wait for a single-player mod.

The greatest part of Dayz is the fear of losing your stuff. I have been going a full week with my character and have not fired a single shot. I stay well clear of all other players and stalk the ones I come across out of curiosity. I love the uncompromising approach and I hope no ubisoft buys the right to the concept and destroys it.
I have no doubt in my mind that in a real life crisis there would be lots of people killing without asking questions or even thinking twice about it. The world is jam packed with evil people justifying their own actions with any crazy idea they come up with. With me being such a nice guy I would be a goner the first week :-) My guess is that there would plenty of people succumbing to apathy the second hour after facebook access is lost...

-C-

Glad they fixed the panic noises (annoying after a while if you are camping over some Zeds) and especially glad they fixed the ladder climb with pistols bug, I think I died as many times from falling off ladders as from bandits :P

I think I would do real life similar to what I do now in DayZ... avoid human contact and just focus on surviving, the killing situation would mostly come up if I or my family would be in danger or being pushed to chose killing or protecting my family... one thing that makes DayZ simple compared to potential real life situations is not having to protect family and loved ones, the situations would be much more complicated if that was involved.

That could actually be a cool gameplay feature if like in Counterstrike and hostages, if there were situations where you had to go rescue innocents and lead them to safety past the zombies and bandits.

I thought the ladder-pistol bug was a problem within the arma engine itself? How is the mod team fixing it? I thought they could only do cosmetic work on the code?

I know me that's all i'm saying. I also know that we didnt come this far as a species based upon that logic.

If I was starving to death, I would definitely kill a complete stranger for their food. Especially if the odds of that person sharing were slim. Last resort kind of thing obviously, but I'm not going to let myself die because "it isn't right" to murder someone. If it went wrong, and I ended up being killed, well, I was dying anyway... Why suffer?

In DayZ I still think I'd just shoot anyone I came across if I had the jump on them. Not because I'd enjoy player-killing or griefing, but because I don't trust gamers. And extra supplies never hurt...

Still waiting to see what else the devs do with the mod before jumping back in.

Yeah i would too Hog, but my original post if anyone read it i am the invisi poster aftet all, was the argument against idiots who say that that they run around killing people in game when they have loads of supplies etc because that's what they would do in real life. My argument was calling BS to that and that they wouldn't do that in real life. If something like this happened and you had loads of supplies and you juat started going out killing people for the sake of it then i'd call into question the mental health of those people in the first place. That's what i'm saying. Before it got to that stage people would band together. That's the aituation you start in the game with.

Yeah I agree Tigerwulf, one of the reasons I hope DayZ will get more detailed gameplay and become more of a persistent MMO is to see how the various factions would develop, right now it seems there are quite a few play styles and even factions which include some organized clans who treat it like open warfare on anyone who is not part of their group.

I suspect that if there were enough ways to organize and communicate safely, that there would also be some groups of survivors organizing to defend against that kind of predator clan situation, perhaps even establishing a well defended safe zone where animal domestication, farming and medical supplies manufacture could be done, so that survivors could live a somewhat peaceful life with just base defense as a violent activity.

There is so much cool potential for DayZ based on what it allows already and where it may go depending on what features the devs allow and the play balance.

PS. don't worry I think there are many of us who consider ourselves "thread killers" based on the number of threads where we end up the last poster for or the lack of reply... myself I know the reason is my tendency to be overly verbose but I can't help it.

I was thinking about depth the other day Kludger. Imagine if the only available.communication was direct and to communicate with anyone at distance was to find a radio, be it cb or walkie talkie etc.

To help gangs and groups establish there has to be some kind of perk that would take into account differing skills and knowledfe fron different members of the group which would combine to benefit the group more than individuals. i.e. survivors who were mechanics or electricians or were ex military etc.

Teamspeak3 FTW....

Isn't it interesting that we can have a moralistic discussion based on a video game, let alone a zombie shooter? I think the parallels are close enough to a potentially real apocalyptic crisis that you can role play through DayZ. Given that ArmA2 is a sandbox game, it makes the whole premise more immersive and believeable. What if? What would I do? These are the risks/rewards and these are the consequences.

It is guite unique and surprising I agree. I don't think any of us would be having these discussions after playing left 4 dead

It also seems to be striking up more discussion on the topic than say after watching the walking dead has too. Maybe it's because we are taking part in these events.

ACRE FTW.

Yeah I really like that idea of the survivor perks which could help or hurt in certain things especially when it comes to producing resources that help survival.

Also I think that idea about radios and things that could be tuned in to talk with various others on the same channel would be really cool and opens up a lot of possibilities (especially if you saw the movie 28 Days Later).

Indeed for me DayZ is the first game since Stalker that has made me really feel like role playing the survivor, and it's so much better in the fact that there's other unpredictable humans that are part of the situation. I really hope Rocket continues to develop it where survival can be rewarding and not just PvP resource and control is rewarded.

I'm also hopeful that when the VOIP is fixed, it will be much more easy to use direct communication to establish some sort of human contact that may lead to empathy or trust, right now just seeing some text saying "friendly?" makes it easy to disassociate that person as a human, but if we can actually hear each other's voice I hope there will be a bit more "human" interaction that can lead to more collaboration and aid. TS3 can help us do that as an organized team playing on one server but it doesn't help when you run into another stranger and are trying to establish friend or foe.

Be Nice if there were an option to disable HUD info too, or at least make it less cluttered, with just the health and status icons.

Survivor Perks:

I think some sort of barricaded (no Zombies within a certain radius) trade store (like in Stalker) would be good. Entry would only be allowed if your humanity was above a certain level so that would mean no bandits. Bandits would be "recognised" because I'd like to think that their name/description would be spread amongst the survivors as a killer. Inside the store you could barter with other survivors or the "owner" for other goods that you might need. Of course bandits would know about this place and possibly camp it but the good thing is you know they'd be there. All the better to go a hunting


This is obviously a small wishlist for future development.

Well, last night I had my first face-to-face encounter with bandits. I was near Drakon and losing light as the sun set, so I made my way westward towards Elektro. Arriving at the small town on the north-east edge of Elektro, I could see some flares burning and heard some high-powered weapons going off close to me. I called out over chat to see who was in the area - no response. Low-crawling through the town, I snuck passed half a dozen zombies and made my way through a multi-story building. As I emerged into the yard behind the building, I saw a figure stooped over a body, searching it for valuables. He was decked out in camo, with a wrap concealing his face. I had no idea who he was, but I was hungry, thirsty, cold, tired...

I didn't hesitate. I raised my Makarov to the back of his neck and plugged him there. I hastily searched his body and grabbed his AKS-74 with Kobra sight. I stood back up and peeked out the back gate into the road to see if I attracted any attention, only to be forced to the ground as a spray of bullets impacted the brick wall around me. He had a friend coming out of the grocery store across the corner. I returned fire blindly, and ducked back in. I saw him running left to try to flank me through a large opening in the wall. I crouched down and leveled my sights at the gap, filling the second bandit with lead as he came through.

Two bandits down. They both had AKs and some great loot, including matches, a map, a compass, a hunting knife, all the food and bandages I could carry, and plenty of ammo.

Has anyone noticed that the zombies move towards your position now since the patch? They always spawn when you head towards a building with something inside and also hang around the doors now, where before they used to mindlessly patrol around. I know the patch notes said the zombies would investigate dead player bodies so I wonder if this is to do with this, and bugging out?

I don't mind if you make a noise and they come over but all of them changing direction and coming to where i am when I'm crawling is making it almost impossible to move.

You are talking over global chat which now attracts zombies. Try going into town and not speaking at all and see if they still do it.

BRILLIANT!

Some great times to be had playing this hope to see some of you online (if I don't see you on the SimHQ TS3).

Yep, that's pretty much the only reason I still look into this thread. It's fun to see what other people have to say and offer some of my own thoughts. People seem pretty mature about it so far too, which is a plus. I don't know of any other place to have a similar discussion.

Firstly, I don't use chat in DayZ and secondly I'm not that gullible

I personally observed something a little bit like this during my infiltration of the town as I wrote above. I was low crawling in dark areas with my 'eye' and 'ear' at zero bars, and Zeds, though not alerted, seemed to shuffle towards me. Just when I was sure they would spot me and go aggressive, they stopped, turned around, and walked away. Whether it's just my own paranoid perception and fear of being caught, or whether there is actually some code at work there that causes them to drift towards the player's location, I'm not sure. But it definitely added to the intensity while sneaking around in an area infested with zombies and bandits!

Lol im not joking. Using any chat in game now draws zombies nearby.

I haven't had any noticeable cases of zombies actively changing direction to walk toward me, though it does seem like it at times. I've yet to try out this latest patch at night (only during the day so far), but I'm curious as to whether or not throwing a flare off in the distance will work to distract the zombies in the area?

Nice one fatty! you got them before they got you...

I had one very satisfying situation where I was shadowing a fresh spawned survivor waiting to observe by his behavior if he was good or bad, and watched him get killed by a bandit who had an ambush area going in a small town near the coast, I waited and killed the bandit as he was looting the body and by the amount of dead player bodies in the area he had gotten a few before we came along, nothing as satisfying as taking out predators IMHO, besides the fact that they are usually well supplied

I haven't had a chance to play the last couple of nights post patch, but hope to get a session in soon.

So,

Logged in for a bit at lunch, hadn't played for a while, mostly wanted to get it working with trackir (which I did, which is awesome for this mod, super paranoid looking everywhere now).

Anyway, first time I have played with the temperature, and it was raining.

My temp dropped down and after about 20 minutes I was coughing.

Other than the obvious (fire), is there a way to keep warm, or get your temp back up?

Cheers!

mojoflow.

I think going inside a building will warm you up. I've heard sprinting slowly raises the temp too but not sure.

FYI ALL - I read a little while ago that they'll be rolling out another hotfix update today, so keep an eye out. Its supposed to address the bad lag issues after the last patch

Do you mean type chat too? Or just talking?

both!

Whoa............

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kill zombies. And I'm all out of bubblegum.

Dang your fast with that Enfield Fatty! The Zed on the stairs didn't have time to fall yet when you took the screen shot.

I've collected 201 zed scalps. I've made a backpack out of them and wear their ears as a necklace....

Broke down and bought ARMA II CO, just for this. After seeing the game play videos on youtube, and how fun it seemed for these guys that were teaming up together.

Never played ARMA before thou. I tried my first game, but I somehow managed to run out of pistol ammo after 5 zombies??? how many shots does it usually take? I keep seeing videos where people are just shooting once...

Anyhow, I also found the TS3 SimHQ server, so if anyone wants to show me the ropes, or rather let me tag along! I am a n00b after all!

You show those zombies who's boss! The shot is also a good example of why we need Arma3 ragdoll physics.

You start with the Makarov pistol and it normally takes 2-3 shots to the body or one to the head. I think you have 5 mags too, just R to reload. It's worth doing the ARMA 2 tutorials if you are new to it though so you know what you are doing as it isn't intuitive to start with

People you have seen taking them down with one shot will be using either the M1911 or the revolver, both .45 cal.

I might just do that tuts then, but I wanna jump in and kill some zombies with some friends!

If you're pretty careful about only engaging one zed at a time and have good aim, you can take them down with a single shot to the head. I find this really important in the first hour or two when ammo is scarce and you're still scavenging for the basic essentials.

I'm finding the smoke grenades very useful to get out of places silently and saving ammo but are quite scarce. Found a frag last night though

BTW, if you want loads of loot and to never really come into contact with others then head up the east coast to Berezino. I'm there now and I have more than I can eat and shoot, just need to find a tent and I'm set up.

My copy of Arma2 C.O. arrived. Time to get up to speed.

Hope to kill some of you if I see you at the servers.

An in-game feature ? Or you just pulling our legs ?

lol that's actually Arma's "physics" (or lack-thereof). No ragdolls

I wonder how well the rag doll physics will work in ArmA3?

I've been getting into this for the past week now. Not sure where you're playing at on the map, but I've been able to load up on ammo pretty quickly after spawning it. Found its just easier to run through a small town, allowing the Zeds to chase me. Find a barn or house, park myself away from the walls and take them out with head shots as they try to come through the door. Loot the place and move on. Seems easier than sneaking.

If you're using a long rifle to kill hordes in the buildings, then switch to handgun as the hordes diminish. Lower noise keeps the whole viallge of new spawns from filling your building.

Will be fun now to try with a group of my friends Friday, though I'm sad to lose a life that I have marched all the way to Stary Sobor just so they can join up close to me on the beach

Thats where I usually head...there right now. Usually quiet of other players. Made the mistake of dropping my pack becuase i found a larger one there. For some reason I could not pick either back up. Read somewhere that you have to turn your back to it and hit the middle mouse button then turn back around and it will give you the option. Pretty stupid if you ask me. I hope its still there when i log back on. Dont have a pack atm.

Well, I was up there until I updated to the .4 patch and now I've warped down onto the south coast lol with all my health back too, which is a bonus

No, I'm only joking

So I just got back from plaing for about 30 minutes.

What I found while in Brezino (sp?)

-czech backpack (i think, had more slots than default)
-winchester and about 30 rds
-plenty of food, drinks, bandages, and picked up two canteens as there is a water pump there
-knife
-compass
-wood
-matches
-watch (not really needed, but doesnt take up anything
-lee enfield with plenty of ammo there, but opted for winchester
-flashlight....but dropped as it took up some space

And no players!!! best part! Had to kill 9 zombies as the house i was searching one came in unexpectedly and i attracted others....

Not many players like the N/NW...

Now i just need a map....but I use my nook for that when i dont, works just as well, especially since most servers dont show your location anyways.

Might venture up to the airfield next....

Just a quick question, I can't seem to bandage myself. The slightest contact and i bleed out over time.
How do i do this. No menu seems available. Learnt how to do first aid on someone else in the tutorials, but not myself.
Also anyone in Oz want to join up sometime?

It's all done in the inventory mode now (G) and then right click your bandage/food/drink/painkillers/morphine etc.

Alternate caption for the earlier pic: I've had it with these !@#$%^&!ing zombies in this !@#$%^&!ing barn.



This mod is too much fun. Might try to jump on later tonight. I'm always on TS when playing.

DayZ IRL

Well, I figured that we were probably see one of these sooner or later:

Lol that's great and so true.

Awesome thanks for posting!

~S~

or.......

Loved both videos

Anyone noticed the Dayz trackir ad banner on these boards, made me chuckle. Heinz should come out with dayz special edition beans, with a free lee enfield mag and a bandage.

..keep your friends close..but keep your beans closer lol.

I jumped on over the weekend and had some fun. My dude had bigger legs than Arnie after about 3 hours of running on Saturday night and another 5 or 6 on Sunday. Never managed to fill a water bottle at all and only found one broken pump in some town that i had to leave to the zed horde.Hooked up with guy called Brish who took me under his wing for about 20 minutes and showed me some loot spots and i managed to get a good stash of gear for my chance at survival. Still looking to fill my three empty water bottles i ran into a guy called Hairy on chat who said he would help me get water if i tagged along to watch his back while he looted, cheerin i thought.Yeh right, i met him at the traintracks in Elektro just on dark , he promptly rolled out of cover and shot me in the face

Lesson learned.Never meet a man you dont know, in the dark, near the traintracks, in an apocalyptic world. I did not even get to eat my stashed pasta! Mongrel! Just before he shot me he said..'oh yeh, i have a bandit skin on'. When i died there was much lolz from the other players, apparently i was noobin' out. I noticed he was playing the same trick on new players entering the server after that too and telling them that he was sorry, he was trying to get a flare out and only accidentally blew their face sideways.

All in all it was pretty cool as i met and hung with a few different groups but three loners i approached, even after the 'hey you behind the barn/hayroll/tree im a friendly' , still ended up with me getting shot in the face when i broke cover with my gun down. Bit paranoid about meeting anyone in there now so i have been hanging in the treelines like a stalker type and just observing and not hitting the stores and stationhouses until i feel the area is empty of survivors.

Be good to see a simhq server

Games using the ARMA2 engine are endearing themselves to me this weekend.

First Iron Front runs like a 2 legged dog and looks as ugly and now I can't get on ANY DayZ servers!

Speaking of Arnie, have you seen this video? Big germanic guy that sounds suspiciously like Arnie.

OMG, that is hilarious!

I've been playing dayZ for a few days now. Started out pretty rough, I had no clue what the hell I was doing. YoKilla helped me one night and showed me the ropes. Played with Shadow, and Hitchhikingflatlander, and viper and Yokilla another night on the SimHQ TS, VERY FUN.

Tonight, I adventured alone, and explored Cherno, got some loot, and proceeded in a general direction to Berzino. However I am lost now, without a compass..LOL. I'll find my way. Hopefully...

Yeah, you find yourself doing a 'Blair Witch' and coming back to where you started without a compass , Then it's "Which side of the rock should the moss be?......" lol

Dude, I would pay money to play with that guy LOL

"We'll be killing zombies and sh1t so you might make it"

Gotta love that guy :-)

I killed for some beans the other day. Came across a guy who ambushed and killed another player. I was watching him looting him victim and snuck up and nailed him from 200 meters with a nice clean shot. I took all of their beans and made a swift escape up into the hills. Felt like a right Harry Brown all day :-)

Then I watched a guy assaulting a town with his makarov. Figured I'd better not waste any bullets saving him since he was doomed as soon as he fired that first shot. When I lost sight of him he was running, badly bleeding, with about twenty or so zombies chasing him. I am slowly turning into a not so nice guy ...

-C-

Yeah, but he will have respawned and done exactly the same thing as they never learn.

I'm up in the hills behind Elektro atm. I started off on the coast near Kamyshovo, just on sunrise, wandered onto the outskirts of town and could not see any zeds. The game kept freezing and i shot all of my ammo into the air in game rage, bad move because when i respawned i was empty Walked up to the bustop and i could hear flies so i looked around and found two dead guys.Looted and got some extra beans, an empty bottle and ammo..yes. Lucky.

One of those hopping zeds took interest in me so i backpedalled slowly and took him out, fat gut zed then came at me so i downed him, then blackshirt zed ran around the corner so i popped him. Man im outta here, i headed up into the hills (three valleys) my plan being to work my way up into Sobor as i have only ventured along the coast and a bit inland so far. I followed the road Northy up to Msta keeping on the edge of the forest line and just ducking into the barns to replenish my ammo.

The zeds seem more alert now too as they seem to be on to me easier than they were before, i ended up with a trail of four hopping freaks that would not go away even after putting more than a kilometre between them and me. I stumbled across a deer hut about 3/4's of the way to Msta in the forest and clambered up, took a swig of water , ate some beans and waited. Sure enough a minute or two later and they came grunting out of the forest.I capped them one by one and then headed on my journey again.

Now somewhere here i backtracked and got lost, the only map i have is the hires Dayz map i run on a second screen, but still i managed to end up lost and had no clue where i was.Sun was up now for about an hour so was loving the daylight. Headed into the forest and skirted a little bunch of huts, 6 zeds around so kept my distance, went back towards the forest, i heard grunting and scuffling really close and stopped, looked around but could not see jack..getting closer..WHERE THE HECK! closer..stuff this..i up and bolted flat biscuit down the side of the mountain, not looking back, noisy as Deliverance! and just as panicky. Reeeeeeeeee reeeeeee!

After 30 seconds i stopped and looked around, nothing.I calmed down and then straght in front of me..a small dam, sweet. Went down and filled my bottles and rewarded myself with some more beans.Yum.I love beans.Looking at my map i was guessing i was now Southwest of Msta and facing roughly Elektro. Giving up on my bush expedition i decided to head to Elektro and grab some hardware.

25-30 odd minutes of bushwalking and hill climbing and i was looking down on the outskirts of Elektro. I headed in from the eastern side , first hut and i scored a crossbow and some bolts.Heard a Mak going off and running outside, got ready for a confrontation but no-one appeared.Continueing in i made it to a three story building and grabbed a knife and some food, lovely.Outside again i moved to the shops and grabbed anothe empty water bottle a heatpack and some ammo for the shottie..hoping to find one soon. Ok time to check the church.

Gunshots.Effin shhotout at the OK Corral! Waited at the edge of the outside of the shops keeping an eye out.Approached by one survivor so i layed down and kept him sighted, he said he was friendly and i saluted, not taking my sights of him i watched him crouch of into the shops.As soon as he was inside i darted over the road and headed for the church, no plans on hooking up after my last few experiences.Few zeds around but none close, i walked into the church and saw my first ghillie suit dude, splayed out on the floor, winchester in hand.Thankyou! Mine. Looks like a right tool here in the city dressed like a mobile hedge. Checked his gear..Alice pack,tent,binocs,hatchet plus general items.Much better. Two more guys dead in church , this must have been the shootout, not hanging around as the Sniper dude has probably already respawned and would be heading back in.

I have enough supplies now to last a good day so i head to the Northern side of Elektro and fill up my 4 bottles at the small pond.Here i take out 3 or 4 more Zeds and grab some wood from a hut. Just as i head up into the forest i see a guy moving slowly too my left..i hit him up and ask if he is friendly..no reply.I am backing away, winnie trained on him , then i see another guy up on the forest line to my right moving slowly..damn, they are flanking me ! I turn and sprint for the forest keeping the flanker on my left and the other guy behind. Crack! A bullet goes close too me , bastids! I angle to my right and hit the forest at full tilt, run up the hill for about 30 seconds in a straight line then dart to my right keeping bushes behind me.Another 30 seconds and i drop under a big tree, turn and have my winnie up and ready. I lay prone here for about ten minutes just listening, not breaking cover. Hearing nothing i decide here is as good a spot as anywhere to leave my guy and continue the adventure later.

All up i was in for about 3 hours and have decided i am going loner.Have not killed anyone yet and do not intend to but i just do not trust anyone anymore. Next time i want to see if i can get some antibiotics and some matches and go get myself some live game.Im over these beans.

Server Dallas29.

Fascinating stuff..

Sounds like you're doing well, Ajax.

My DayZ story:

Filled my canteen. Ate some beans. Got shot. Died.

You dont sound very high spirited about the whole deal Pepper Sounds like my first couple of attempts. Trust nobody. Get beans.

I forgot this one:

Crawled on my belly in the dark, but still got ate.

Tried this one day then haven't played it since.Got boring quickly.

You could start writing haikus of your adventures Pepper

My DayZ story would go something like this...

Spawned on the beach, crept into town, killed 4 zombies, found some food and a shotgun then spent an hour running through the forest in the dark. Got bored then killed zombies until I died, or just quit from boredom.

Right, this is where I'm getting confused, you need CO for this to work. Now I downloaded OA the other night as I already have Arma II. I haven't had time to install it yet, but when I do does this mean I have CO and can run this mod? Or not?

Yes but you need to launch OA using the CO launch function so that it includes the PBO files from ArmaII. It should be in the OA game directory. If you have steam there is a special CO launch option.

Cylix and Yokilla good playing last night on the server what a trek that was from Cherno to Berezino to the airstrip. All the better since we have something to show for it.

You found something at the NE airstrip? I have been there many times and never found anything.

So yesterday after playing on and off for the last two-three weeks, I finally got into a firefight with another surviver, killed her (wearing a female skin) quite quickly after she took a pot shot at me and wounded me with her makarov, needless to say half a mag from my M16A2 showed her the error of her ways.
Been having a blast so far, sneaking in and out of towns, finding necessary supplies, being a ghost whenever other players are around, unless they are on the simhq TS sever of course, then I try and meet up with em.

Must be doing something right, haven't died yet in my two weeks of on and off play, although last night it came rather close with Thermos and me trying to sneak into a small town only for him to get killed by the zombies and me to run away severely wounded, with my vision so blurry I couldn't read my compass! This morning I finally found some matches though, and so was able to cook the cow I had slaughtered earlier. Having so much FUN!!!!

Thats awesome Klar, we ended up (Cylix, Yokilla) in Berezino after a long journey from Cherno involving Cylix and myself. We decided to check out the NE airstrip and found a lot of stuff along the way. I ended the night with an M4A1 with 6 mags, a silenced 9mm pistol and all the usual items necc. for survival. We had a great time and I was able to use my awesome compass and map reading skills (throwback to my Boyscout days, wow the knowledge really was useful)!

I think I'll avoid the coast at all costs now and stick to roughing it up north. If I have to (assuming my current character stays alive) I'll consider smash and grabs at any nearby major cities. I love the options available to players I do wish we had a better system for transportation than the current walk/run here or there but this is an alpha with new changes popping up all the time.

MACE: I found the silenced 9mm pistol there and one of us found a map. Other than that nothing fancy but lots of useful items there like food, soda/water, chemlights, etc.......... Just depends on the time of the loot spawning. FYI there is a chart floating around that lists the % of items that will spawn in any given area useful for telling you how unlikely you are to find NVGs lol.

Thanks Master, I'll look forward to trying this out at the weekend. Thanks to the Queen I've got four days off straight. Never thought I'd be grateful to the Queen for anything!
Boko.

I knew about locating the north star to find true north during the night for quite a while, but I just discovered this youtube video with a method to find true north during the day with only a watch. pretty cool.

Found this one intriguing. Helo suicide attack takes out Devil's castle plus entire clan. crazy stuff going on out there.

Wow, just had to post how crushed I feel! Ten day old character, combat shotty, M4 with flashlight, loads of ammo, everything but the kitchen sink etc etc, dove in a bush last night and got the dislocation? symbol in the right, logged off, logged in today 700 blood and dropping, wobbly vision got about 100 feet and died....killed by a bush haha, logged out in disgust never to play again etc etc, here I am 2hrs later loading up!

OMG that sucks.

Ah sorry to hear it Bong, just think of it as death by alpha mother nature, indeed one of the things about DayZ is no matter how frustrating or intense some of the situations are I always seem to come back for more... in this way along with the loot, it does remind me of a difficult roguelike game like Nethack.

PS. Love that helicopter kamikaze vid, just think of how long it took to collect the parts to get it flyable and to sacrifice it for such a powerful attack, awesome what some people are doing in DayZ...

Thanks chaps hehe, in hindsight its been quite liberating as before I was scared to venture anywhere for fear of death and loosing my swag! Been shot/eaten a few times since logging back in, loving it!

A pretty funny Dayz experience:

lol! now that was pretty funny..."Hey dude! Whyyyyy!???

Now people will probably band-up and just sit around camps playing instruments to pass the time haha