DayZ (standalone)

[PZ]

Funny how some people just feel the compulsion to w@&k the system to gain an unfair advantage.  Not that I mind cheating - I do it all the time in my single player game - I would just never try to gain advantage over other gamers by such methods

[Binnatics]

Totally agreed!  :-X

[Art Blade]

Agree. However, right now it is the only wise thing to do to counter those actions -- if you don't play by those rules (gear up and then go to battle) you will end up dead, more likely sooner than later.

I read on the dev forum that they have been planning to populate the world with a LOT more zombies but so far have been working around it because so far, they can only handle a certain amount of spawning entities. They say that they could populate the world with 4,000 zombies if they didn't spawn any loot items. Obviously they decided against that for the time being.

I hope if they spawn that many zombies, that players will be forced to focus on fighting zombies and even be forced to team up to do so, rather than killing Bambies or other unaware players in order to rob their gear.

What really is disturbing in my opinion is the fact that some players brag with cruelty. I watched a vid on YouTube that showed how a harmless and unsuspecting player got involved in a chat with a guy in front of him while another player sneaked up from behind and handcuffed the poor soul. To top that off, they used a burlap bag on his head so he couldn't see anymore. Handcuffed, blind, and utterly helpless, that poor player was then beaten to death accompanied by the cruel laughter of those low-lives. To upload that on YT to brag about it is beyond my comprehension. I've seen server-side messages popping up on my screen stating, "no cruelty" and some such, so it is already a common thing to do for some players. What is extreme about it, the victim cannot escape. If he hits ESC and then joins a different server, he will spawn handcuffed and blindfolded. Nice.

I also watched a vid that had a second vid embedded which showed the player's real face recorded live with a webcam so the viewer can watch him and the game at the same time. That player apparently didn't care at all about his character, he just went in, managed to talk other Bambies into ganging up with him and then they'd randomly kill themselves and other players they encountered. Just because.. what, again?

That is the main reason why I don't want to meet other players, I'd much rather shoot first and ask questions later than getting mugged. So I prefer servers with very few people on just to minimise the risks.

Anyway, it is an adventure. Even the stuff mentioned above, it only adds to the horror and the will to survive, to avoid danger and all that. It is very intense. And when you think you're safe, a bloody zombie takes you out.  :-D

I just returned from a "game" which forced me to fight off three zombies at once with my bare fists. I even survived that. I was on my own which was dangerous, and after a few more encounters with zombies I had a broken arm and all the nice gear that I had collected ("legally") didn't quite help me because I lacked something to fix my fracture with. It ended with my death when I tried to find medicine and a single zombie with a single blow was all it needed.

[smg id=6766 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 006"]

And here we go again. I'm a Bambi running for supplies and away from zombies :)

What is nice, after all, is the fact that three of my friends have now acquired the game and two more already had it, so at least a gang of four is very likely. So far we have Abletile, Binnatics, me and another old friend of mine who just joined OWG (again), TheAceness. We already had a first meeting in one private voice chat room so everyone could talk with everyone and that alone was already so funny that I am really looking forward to playing with that complete crew. Maybe I get those other two guys to join up with us, too.  :-()

[Art Blade]

I survived my first encounter with a Russian player. He entered the house I was looting and I had my loaded rifle plus attached bayonet in my hands while he entered empty-handed although he did have a rifle on his back. He said in a rather high-pitched voice, "no shoot!" Well, I didn't raise my weapon and instead packed it away. I then had to go through loads of different signals, meaning those keys F1-F8 as far as I can see are bound to stuff like pointing, raising one hand, raising both hands, flipping the finger (which might come in very unhandy) as well as sitting down and whatnot. So I wanted to say, hi, and did all kinds of stuff instead. We didn't end up killing each other.

We somehow looted a few houses together when all of a sudden he disappeared without leaving the server. After a while a steam friend request popped up, which I declined. I much rather keep a few select and excellent friends than adding random people. I didn't feel safe after he disappeared so I decided to leave the area and of course I had to run into a zombie which I killed with one shot. I heard a second shot go off nearby and a bullet whiz past me. Only one, and it didn't hit me. Might have been a warning, a badly aimed shot at me or a bullet meant for the zombie, I will never know. I went down the road and into the woods.

And I'm still alive.  :-D
[smg id=6767 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 007"]

[Abletile]

Uhhh, what kind of display do you have, Able, that you try resolutions above HD quality? ???

Quite impressive. I would be happy to get the highest possible settings to w@&k smoothly in 1920 1080 config, that's all I desire.  ^-^

I have a Dell U2713HM (27") monitor capable of 2560 X 1440. It came with a certificate guaranteeing that the colours are a true representation (in other words some engineer calibrated it properly  ::)).

I love plenty of real estate on my screen  :-D

It only comes into it's own really when I'm using CS6 or suchlike. Films are more than watchable as well 

[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, so your player data is persistent and stored on a central server no matter what local server you log into? I can see all sorts of ways that can be exploited. Like, log into a server that currently has no other players, and wander around getting all the loot, logging out, then logging into a server with people and you're all kitted out easily without having to even see anyone. From the videos I've seen, fighting zombies is secondary and it actually looks like you have to seek them out and cause trouble before they even attack you. It's just the other jerk players you have to look out for.

I'm sorry, but the game seems it's just too much of a breeding ground for a-holes to make it fun for me, if I could even play it that is. If it is improved to where you actually have to fight zombies and team up to survive because someone on their own or even small groups would be too vulnerable, then it might be tolerable.

[Binnatics]

I think you have a point there, Dweller. In my first in-game experience I've been wandering around for 30 minutes or something without meeting a single soul, alive or undead. There were 11 other players in that game so I could have found one. I stumbled upon a real dead, but before I could loot the body (some interaction sign said it carried an assault with ammo) it disappeared. But walking around in that environment, so huge, so empty and frightening, has something cool to it. I hardly found stuff around, and the first tin can filled with peaches disappeared from my inventory, but I am looking forward to my next encounter, hopefully with friends around this time.

Wandering around in this game makes me think back to when I was 12 or 13 years old, and I went to the local park where I sneaked upon the rangers together with a friend. We had all sorts of fantasies about them being evil and whatnot, and had an entire war going on against them, without them knowing it at all :-D

Most of the games we play are in the mind. This game expresses that in a very weird kind of way ;D

[PZ]

What really is disturbing in my opinion is the fact that some players brag with cruelty. I watched a vid on YouTube that showed how a harmless and unsuspecting player got involved in a chat with a guy in front of him while another player sneaked up from behind and handcuffed the poor soul. To top that off, they used a burlap bag on his head so he couldn't see anymore. Handcuffed, blind, and utterly helpless, that poor player was then beaten to death accompanied by the cruel laughter of those low-lives. To upload that on YT to brag about it is beyond my comprehension. I've seen server-side messages popping up on my screen stating, "no cruelty" and some such, so it is already a common thing to do for some players. What is extreme about it, the victim cannot escape. If he hits ESC and then joins a different server, he will spawn handcuffed and blindfolded. Nice.

That is utterly ridiculous behavior just to ruin the fun of another gamer.

[Art Blade]

The current version 0.44 (with which I started) has upgraded zombies so most of the videos out there are not showing what is currently happening. They made them far more damage resistant and they trigger a lot faster than before from what I can see. One zombie put an early end to one of my Bambies: I was prone and crouched through grass towards a house in front of which I could see that zombie. He saw me too. The next pic is the last one I could take before I got killed by a zombie that spotted me seconds later.
[smg id=6768 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 008"]

Sometimes it's a bit of luck. I have no idea why I didn't die fighting off three zombies at a time, landing KO-punches on their faces all the time. Luck. And bloody intense :) And those zombies popped up in a forest so I reckon they must have spotted me on my way from the shore across road and railroad into the forest and followed me. That is something else, once they spot you, they will never give up unless they die or lose sight of you. They probably still try to find you which is why I guess I had so many unexpected encounters like getting into a house to check my gear or standing in a forest without seeing anything for some time so I decide to alt-tab out to check the map, making me stand still for some time and when I alt-tab back, suddenly there are two zombies attacking me.

As to disappearing gear and gear in general: sometimes the game glitches out when you drop something on the floor in a building, it's just not there any more. I lost a jacket stuffed with items like that. It has never disappeared from my inventory, though.

Interesting about gear: where you store it. Good example: I had a compass, bandages and a bayonet in the pockets of my jacket which means front pockets. After a fight with a zombie that did injure me, the compass was ruined (I indeed couldn't use it any more) so were the bandages and the bayonet. I decided to try the bayonet for opening a can of tactical bacon (lol) and it still worked for that but I guess it was ruined as a weapon. So, the gear in my backpack was still intact the way I put it in there. Apparently frontal zombie attacks can ruin stuff in your jacket but won't ruin stuff on your back. I saw in a video that someone shot dead was being salvaged and they commented about a "perfect shot to the neck" because all the stuff on him was still intact, including the helmet. So, if you get shot, it does ruin gear. That is why clever bandits won't spray you with bullets or massacre your body. Here you can see my current inventory and what the stuff is packed into. Note that loading a weapon requires you to drag and drop bullets from your inventory onto the weapon. Takes many seconds.
[smg id=6769 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 009"]

Anyway. It is a true adventure to be part of this raw world. They're still working on it. Maybe the final release will almost be boring compared to the horror that's present.  :-()

edit: tactical bacon, not beacon ;)

[PZ]

I'm enjoying your stories and pics +1  :-X

[Art Blade]

Thank you very much, PZ :)

It is the only game I recall having played that is that intense. Sometimes I am too frightened to even join a server so I just sit there musing about what might happen to me if I joined now because I had bad experiences like oh, yay, game time, let's play, join a server, walk a few steps, find a zombie and get killed. All the gear lost, everything lost, all the time spent on getting the little gear I had, lost. My orientation, lost.

You know, when you spawn as a Bambi, you don't know where you are. You need to find landmarks or road signs (which requires you to be able to read Cyrillic, luckily I can) and from there decide where to go and then find the basic stuff like food and water and a melee weapon of sorts.

It is funny when you find canned beans, you're hungry, but can't open that blasted can. You need a tool suitable for it. My very first meal was canned food that I opened with a damn axe. Since an axe is a bit of an overkill, you spill some of the canned food rendering the can less nutritious than it would have been using a can opener.  :-D So you really have to find a can opener or a bayonet or tools like that in order to eat canned food. It is crazy to think that you have a couple of cans but can't open them, starving with both hands grasping unopened cans. :-()

[Abletile]

I just came across this weird thing in Gorka! I was thinking for a minute that I had somehow shrank and this was someone's golf ball on a tee  [smg id=6770 type=preview align=center caption="Dayz, anyone for golf?"]

You may notice that there is a red 'broken chain link' symbol on my screen shot. This represents a warning that I am losing a connection with the server. Sometimes it just goes away and if it doesn't, I will get a message saying that the server hasn't received a message for "X" seconds (it counts up). After about 80 seconds you get booted off the server and end up back in the lobby.
The rifle I am carrying is the famous Mosin 9130  8). The best sniper rifle in the game especially if I can find the large scope! Very loud though so, if fired, it will attract the attention of any zombies in the near vicinity! You may also see in the top right of my screen shot, the number "100". This is the range that the rifle is zero'd in at. You can alter this using page up and page down keys. I like to keep it at 100  (default setting I think) in case I need to react quickly to a zombie that has surprised me  :-D

[Art Blade]

Hahaha, that lollipop there looks funny :) I'm currently on my way getting there.
[smg id=6771 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 010"]

For those of you interested, here's an interesting article on wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DayZ_%28video_game%29

[Art Blade]

Heh heh, got there. A good 5 km walk, then :)
[smg id=6772 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 011"]
[smg id=6773 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 012"]

Had to duke it out with couple of zombies on my way, one I spotted next to a petrol station. I preferred to take her out with a silenced pistol -- the bullet went right through the back of her skull (there are male and female zombies, even "ex" soldier zombies with helmets) and popped out of her supposedly already ugly face in a cloud of blood. I was tempted to shoot one of those gasoline tanks next to her but that bang might have called in all zombies from the countryside. :-() Before I got up and went for Gorka, the town Abletile is currently hanging out, the one with that lollipop, I had two zombies having a rage attack at me and I was freaking out and killed them with seven rather than two bullets. Bloody hell, if you don't stay calm as a coma, you go through your ammo like a hot axe through butter.  ??? By the way, my first advice to anyone new to the game is, "there are no crows in that game," if you hear something weird that sounds somewhat like crow on cough syrup, it's a zombie coming for you. But there are crowbars. So it's only fitting I reckon, I clobbered the next one to death with my crowbar. :-D

I found a Mosin, by the way, and a green colour spray can so I sprayed the Mosin green with it. Camouflage is everything and becoming one with the earth is all that counts. :-D I also found a badly damaged brown coat that I fixed up with a sewing set which I found in a shack (now the coat is "worn" rather than "badly damaged") and I still need cargo trousers a tad less bright than those I'm wearing. I carry the green-sprayed SKS in my hands because I can't stuff it in my backpack where the Mosin and a crowbar are residing. Can't swap them out, either. So, for the time being, I'm running around with an SKS assault rifle sporting a bayonet, a sniper rifle with tripod and muzzle modification, and a silenced pistol. And a crowbar.  :-()
[smg id=6774 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ 013"]

[Abletile]

Well after starting the game again and expecting to be spawning in Art's location, I searched!  :o

It turns out there are at least 2 'Golf Ball Towers',  :-D Art's sense of navigation was close, but not exact! (1.5 km away  :'(). So a short run and we finally met up again, Yey!!!

We set off to the NW Airfield..............................
More to follow, stay tuned!

[smg id=6775 type=preview align=center caption="DayZ Lobby 2"]

[Art Blade]

  I took a shortcut so the direction was alright but who'd have guessed that there'd be two of them ??? :)

[Binnatics]

Good reads, Art en Able!!  :-X :)

I got a good second time in the game. I spawned in an area where not many weapons were available so I had to go and search for small villages, houses and other places that might hold weaponry. I also needed food and, most of all, a can opener. Suddenly I stumbled upon my first real zombie. He came running at me like a madman and I didn't know what to do. Luckily Art and Able where near, through the Steam group-chat, and they advised me to draw out my fists and punch the bugger until he got down and.... stayed down. When fighting a zombie with your bare hands you need to aim for his head. And when he goes down, he will most likely get up again a few times, so don't go hasty and think you already survived; he'll rip your back open before you know what happened ^-^
Lucky me I survived after a good brawl. Problem was I was bleeding. Again the voice chat came in handy. My friends told me how to apply bandages to the wound and heal myself. I thought I could loot the zombie, but the moment I tried his corpse disappeared; that is an impossibility that might have been different IMHO.
Later on I found more zombies and a small abandoned village. When I killed the zombies that spawned there, 2 or 3 I think, I could loot all the shacks and houses in the town. I found a lot of food, a backpack, a multi-purpose vest and a nicer helmet. And also some ammo. But still no can opener, weapon or even an axe. I decided to push through towards the south. I had discovered my position on the map availability online, and I tried to loot all the smaller areas, hoping not to run into a group of armed players that could of course instantly kill me.

Finally, I discovered an axe. It was on top of a huge tower, part of a ruin of an old medieval castle somewhere in the woods in the centre of the map.  Now I could first taste my canned peaches. I lost 44% of the contents due to opening it with an axe, but they sure as hell tasted good! I listened to the sound of my character eating them as if it was a bloody feast 8)

A few minutes after that delicious moment I got caught by another zombie. I tried to kill him with the axe, which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I had the 3rd person view equipped and that makes it hard to aim for the head. Next time I will change to first person view to be more accurate ;)

Now I will try to make my way to a larger village or military area, in order to find some fire arms. Hopefully I can find Art and Able by that time ;)

[Abletile]

Good reads, Art en Able!!  :-X :)

I got a good second time in the game. I spawned in an area where not many weapons were available so I had to go and search for small villages, houses and other places that might hold weaponry. I also needed food and, most of all, a can opener. Suddenly I stumbled upon my first real zombie. He came running at me like a madman and I didn't know what to do. Luckily Art and Able where near, through the Steam group-chat, and they advised me to draw out my fists and punch the bugger until he got down and.... stayed down. When fighting a zombie with your bare hands you need to aim for his head. And when he goes down, he will most likely get up again a few times, so don't go hasty and think you already survived; he'll rip your back open before you know what happened ^-^
Lucky me I survived after a good brawl. Problem was I was bleeding. Again the voice chat came in handy. My friends told me how to apply bandages to the wound and heal myself. I thought I could loot the zombie, but the moment I tried his corpse disappeared; that is an impossibility that might have been different IMHO.
Later on I found more zombies and a small abandoned village. When I killed the zombies that spawned there, 2 or 3 I think, I could loot all the shacks and houses in the town. I found a lot of food, a backpack, a multi-purpose vest and a nicer helmet. And also some ammo. But still no can opener, weapon or even an axe. I decided to push through towards the south. I had discovered my position on the map availability online, and I tried to loot all the smaller areas, hoping not to run into a group of armed players that could of course instantly kill me.

Finally, I discovered an axe. It was on top of a huge tower, part of a ruin of an old medieval castle somewhere in the woods in the centre of the map.  Now I could first taste my canned peaches. I lost 44% of the contents due to opening it with an axe, but they sure as hell tasted good! I listened to the sound of my character eating them as if it was a bloody feast 8)

A few minutes after that delicious moment I got caught by another zombie. I tried to kill him with the axe, which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I had the 3rd person view equipped and that makes it hard to aim for the head. Next time I will change to first person view to be more accurate ;)

Now I will try to make my way to a larger village or military area, in order to find some fire arms. Hopefully I can find Art and Able by that time ;)

I think you are in the 'Devils castle'. Art and I passed through there on our way to the big airport! We are now planning on meeting up with Aceness there  :-D
It would be good if we were all able to join up, 4 is safer than 2 or even 3  ;)

[PZ]

+1 for Able and Binn as well; excellent adventures, guys!

[Abletile]

The adventure continues................ 8)

I left Artblade near the Airport and went in search of Aceness and Binnatics. We were all due to meet up at Devils Castle.
[smg id=6776 type=preview align=center caption="Devils Castle Approach"]
What a cool place with cool views from the top!
[smg id=6777 type=preview align=center caption="Devils view 1"]
[smg id=6778 type=preview align=center caption="Devils view 2"]
[smg id=6779 type=preview align=center caption="Devils view 3"]

Well Binnatics wasn't where I thought he was (about 8km further away  ), so a long run down to his actual location was involved. I was about 2km away when the news came over my headset that the saddest of events had occurred. He died  :D RIP that character :(
So back up the map to find Art again ;) Finally we meet up..
[smg id=6780 type=preview align=center caption="Meeting up with Artblade"]

So now we decide to loot the airfield again.  Time to kill zombies again! First picture you can just see him in front of the building. Microscope needed, 
[smg id=6781 type=preview align=center caption="Zombie 1"]


Time to shoot, once, twice and this is the result.

[smg id=6783 type=preview align=center caption="Dead 2"]
[smg id=6784 type=preview align=center caption="Dead 3"]

More to follow...........  :-D

[Art Blade]

Looting the South-West Airstrip, Able and I got surprised by a few strange events which probably meant that we had bandits nearby so we left the server. When I rejoined, my character died, all I could see were messages of my broken and hurting leg(s) so I assume I respawned in mid-air rather than on a catwalk and fell down before I even knew what was going on. Well. Everything lost, due to a failed spawning. Just great. Now I'm a Bambi yet again and have to start over. To add insult to injury, steam collapsed, the voice chat stopped (which is how I noticed), couldn't rejoin steam.. Just great.

Taking a break now..

[PZ]

That one pic reminded me of the fort in Leboa  :-X

[Binnatics]

Sorry to hear about your fall Art, Able already told me what happened yesterday. I was able to stay alive because the moment Stema crashed, a zombie was trying to kill me. I was late in responding 'cause I was checking the map. I bailed out of the game before he could end me, and today, when I respawned, I only had to cure my blood loss.  ^-^
I found Able online too, and he was actually close to where I left the game yesterday, so we met and we raided the airfield again (first time for me though, lots of zombies around :o

I found a Magnum, and magazines and rounds for my sporter .22 which is great. Able finally found his desired M14, so he gave me his SKS rifle. I will preserve it in a good state so that once we meet up again I can hand it over to you ^-^ I guess it's wise to focus on just 2 fire arms in this game, and try to fully equip them with silencer, good magazines, fast-load-stuff and of course, loads of rounds >:D I'll see what I can find for the .22 rifle. Hope to find a suppressor and a scope for it, already found 2 magazines, one for 30 rounds and another for 10 rounds. That'll keep them busy heheh 8)

[Abletile]

Well I read an interesting statistic, apparently the average time for a character to last in DayZ is 1 hour and 5 mins!  :o
So I guess keeping mine alive for so long was above that  8)

How did I die then? Probably the most 'unfair' way to go  :'(

I had just met up with Binn and we had looted the big airfield. He had to have tea, so he exited the game in the woods close to the airfield. As there was not many humans on the server and as this airport hadn't been looted, I decided to keep looting (looking for a magazine for one of my pistols that I wanted to pimp out). My phone rang, I could see it was from the company that monitors my mother's alarm pendant. I answered the call to be told mum had fallen over again. I said I'm on my way over to her place to sort her out. Call lasted less than 30 seconds....... (you all know where this is going  :(). I hang up the call, look at my monitor and I see the dreaded words

You are dead

Gutted! I drive to my mother's, pick her up off of the bathroom floor etc. She's fine now btw.

I guess I'll start all over again now then............  :knockout

[Abletile]

Funny!

[smg id=6785 type=preview align=center caption="Pristine or Rotten?"]

How can a rotten Kiwi be in Pristine condition?

Anyways, the adventure continues........

I've managed to equip myself with the basics (backpack, food, drink and a crossbow + screwdriver to open tins!) after spawning in Orlovets.
Met up briefly with Aceness and now I plan on going to the airfield again.  8)