0.51 stable: Time to take stock

[Binnatics]

The latest versions that came to stable have brought us many things. Lots of things have been improved and there's plenty more to find and do. I myself hadn't played since 0.45 hit stable. Back then I was happy with the change of weaponry. Many more choices, but a lot harder to find the real powerful military assault riffles. The M4 would only spawn at random Helo crash sites, some sort of random event that would only happen on 3 places every time a sever restarts.
I liked the new balance in the hardware, but something else made me stop playing DayZ: The cheating. People were using some sort of interactive map to see where the players were, on a specific server. This way they could easily track down lone wanderers who were unaware of the nearing danger. Boom, gone, all your loot vanished, you could start over as a Bambi.

Al the new goodies in 0.50, including the promise of some anti-cheat features, made me try again. My first attempt was a complete failure. I found a zombie and tried to beat him down with my fists; but it wouldn't go down at all. Not a single time. It killed me in less than a minute, and I swore I would never play DayZ again. After the first disappointment was melted away, I decided to give it another shot. this time I survived the first half hour and found some fire power. So, I could go on and see what had changed in Chernarus.
Well; A lot!!!
The landscape has changed in some places, More mountainous, more rocks, even an entire stone mining terrain somewhere, entire new cities in the North. Apart from these major changes the rest of the landscape remained the same. That's also nice; at least you still know the land you are wandering around in ;)
There are also new weapons to be found. What to think of an MP5-K? And new goodies to loot. A sledge hammer or a range finder are just some examples. You can catch animals and breed tomatoes, you can build a camp fire and cut wood in the forests. But the biggest and most intriguing new phenomena is the persistent storage. New features make it possible to set up a tent, stash goodies away in it and leave it. Server restarts, sudden crashes or other things wouldn't influence the stash and you could still find it back when after a few days wandering you want to get something from your tent, or guard something else it in. This has to happen on a persistent server; apparently the server admins can choose whether or not they make persistence available. Some servers don't because it's known to be glitchy. Others say they do allow persistence, but it doesn't w@&k, but there are indeed servers on which your tent remains persistent and stable, over night, even a couple of days. So I am guessing it is slowly becoming a true phenomena which you can count on :-X
This new possibility give great new opportunities. You can keep more stuff, keep things safe in case you die, and have some reserve at hand when needed. Of course, you will have to make sure no one will find your tent, and loot or even steal it

In 0.51 there have been even more new things added to the game. What about cannibalism? You can now eat human flesh! You will start acting a bit weird though once you do...
Something else that will drastically change gameplay, is the introduction of the first drivable vehicle. It's the V3S truck. On top speed it will go 3 times faster as running on top speed, and it's pretty indestructible.  It will only hold fuel for 10 miles when you find it though, so you will have to refuel it every once in a while. 2 players can take place inside. I already took a ride and it really is something, to drive in a truck like that through Chernarus.  ;D
They also introduced military tents; huge tents that can be carried like a backpack and once pitched, can hold up to 252 slots of loot and weaponry of any kind. Nice if you travel with groups ;)

All the changes have really improved the game. I am happy to have moved back into Chernarus, and am heavily enjoying the game again. The cheaters seem to have gone. Weird kills haven't occurred to me not once, and I've already played another 70 hours or so.
A downside is the fact that the persistent storage isn't fully reliable yet. But I have to admit that is to be expected from a game in development. I have proven it works, and that makes a big difference already. Another downside is, that with all the new weapons, it is extremely hard to get a proper loadout together. If you just focus on the Mosin, you will be looking for all it's great attachments for days maybe, and in the end loose it due to death or an unfortunate server crash or something. Especially when you try to get an assault riffle fully operational, it takes a lot of searching before you're good to go. The weapons available are of high quality though, so once you're fully kitted out, you do feel bloody satisfaction ^-^
And now something else that's new; the rules of loot spawning have changed. How exactly isn't all too clear to me yet, but what I do know is that many servers (especially the ones that claim to be persistent) are very empty. There doesn't even spawn half the loot as I was accustomed to. With server restarts they tend to replace all the loot shattered over the land, but it's just less in numbers. Except for certain rare occasions where suddenly a huge amount of loot spawns in a more or less small area of the map. For example in the military base close to Vybor. I've seen it happen there 3 times already. Today I saw it happen for the first time in Zelenogorsk. That's when I found my first MP5. I had stopped believing in the truth of this weapon being available in the game, but it was there, in the police station :-X ^-^
When a thing like that takes place, it's relatively easy to get fully kitted out. If nobody has been there before you, you can easily find a good riffle with all the desired attachments and magazines for it.

All the new stuff is so great and adds so much to the game, that it really pays off playing it again. Of course there's the frustration of loosing good gear due to unfortunate instabilities or kills, but in the end you'll learn to deal with it and find your path back to where the good stuff appears. I miss the times that we were playing DayZ all together, and hope they will return soon. Most players are busy with all the other new games that recently came out, so I'm afraid I'll have to go on experimenting on my own for a couple more weeks, but I truly hope that all the guys rejoin the alpha game soon. The trucks, the persistent storage and the great variety of weapons make it even greater to enjoy this game together.
I won't start about all the good s#!t there's still to come. DayZ devs have announced great stuff and new features on all terrain; gameplay, AI mechanics, items and more. There's plenty to come and for details I refer to the roadmap for 2015 @ DayZTV.

[Binnatics]

Some more pictures to accompany all the text :-D

A Truck, spotted at the massive stone mine in the North:
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2 zombies chasing a cow :-()
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The MP5-K, still without any attachment:
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The stuff that I got stashed away in my tent, which remains stable for over 4 days now:
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My little rincón ^-^
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[PZ]

Nice pics and report, Binn!  :-X +1

[Art Blade]

agree :) +1 :-X

[JRD]

If I get this whole DayZ thing... this is basically a survival/zombie game  that runs on ArmAII engine? Same Chernarus region?

This game (ArmaII) had such potential, and yet such a big let down to me.  :-\\

It was incredibly bugged but amazingly open world. A couple weird features like the invisible shooter instead of the invisible wall in one level but overall with good game design.

I like the idea of having an alpha game released when using that engine. Hopefully developers can make something really nice out of that engine!

[Binnatics]

Well, JRD, I didn't play ArmA II and didn't know it's the same map. I think I read that they made some improvements to the world appearance, adding the quality that ArmA III is supposed to deliver. Buggy it is though. But that is to be expected from an Alpha. They are also working on, or have introduced, new engine. So it might get better. As for now, it's still quite cheap. Here it only costs €25,- and prices will raise next year. I think the target price when fully operational, is something around €35,- or €40,-.

What I like so much about this game, is indeed its open world potential. I think I haven't played a game where open world is so evident. Freedom of choice is everywhere. You really have to set your own goals, play your own game, and do it your own style. The zombies and other players around will make it a challenge surviving, and once fully kitted out new goals spring to mind.
And it's so great to look forward to new items and features to come in the next release; test stuff out, knowing that it's far from complete. There's a very user friendly site where participants can spam the problems they encounter, and the devs are really working based on what people comment on their experiences. That makes it even more acceptable to deal with the alpha bugs ;)

[PZ]

I was disappointed in ArmA II as well.  In fact, I hardly played a few missions before I gave up and tried my hand at modding the game, which to me, was where most of the fun was to be had.  I remember bringing in WWII Tiger tanks, and even creating an assault truck manned with guys like in FC2.

ArmA II was truly an open world sandbox, even though the speech in the game was atrocious

[Binnatics]

A deer:
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Heheheh... they cannot find you if the doors are closed. They won't give up though:
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Nice sunset:
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[Binnatics]

After loosing my MP5 I found a new one, and this time I didn't want to stuff it away in my tent, I decided to use it. Man I love that gun!!! Its 9mm parabellum rounds do pack a punch. Usually 1 or 2 shots and a zombie is dead. With the ACOG scope attached I found out it is actually quite accurate. At a distance of 85 meters I could easily hiy a zombie, exactly it the place I wanted to. You can change the range of the weapon up to, I think, 300 meters, but that distance may get difficult, since it's hard to hold the gun steady. The fire rate is extremely high, so in close encounters it's devastating. And I love the sound. A dry, rough bang. Not silenced at all, but very thrilling 8)

I just found a second 15 rnd mag, which is extremely handy, because those 15 rounds are gone before you know it.  >:D
It's not hard finding ammo for it; Chernarus is full of these yellow/green cardboard boxes of 9mm rounds ;)

[PZ]

 :-X

[Art Blade]

 :-X :)

[Binnatics]

Yesterday I decided to have a look around in the North-Western corner of the world, see if I could find some tents left by other gamers who had the same idea of a safe spot for stashing their beloved gear >:D

I did not find any. On my way I took this screeny:

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When I was advancing towards the North I reached the area which looks like an abandoned military terrain on the map; big concrete slaps with roads leading along them. It turned out to be still abandoned, and I guess in development. When you see the roads in a distance, they look like tarmac roads, but when you close in, you see it's just plants with a different colour and the surface below them grayed out. So it gives me the idea of a rough design for a future base. The woods surrounding the area are completely empty, so it's  not really a great place to stay. I even came across an empty lake. On the map, it looks like a normal lake, average size, but when you approach it you see it's empty. It has all the normal aspects a lake should have; borders, typical trees along side, moisty terrain etc. But there's just no water. This was kind of a tragic surprise since I was heavily dehydrating at that moment. My field bottle was empty and I hadn't found a drink for over an hour, so the game was prompting me that I was extremely thirsty, and a short while later that I was dying of dehydration. I ran back South, and luckily made it to one of the new towns there, where I finally found a tin with canned spaghetti; a life saver ^-^ :-X

When I was back in shape it was getting late already. Returning to my safe spot I was surprised by the nightfall:

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[Art Blade]

 :-X so you had something to open that spaghetti tin with  :-()

[PZ]

Nice pics, Binn!  :-X

[Binnatics]

Thanx guys!
Yes, Art, I had a tin can opener and everything else a DayZ wanderer could want, except food and beverages. The game really changed the need of water (liquid) that your character will need in order to survive. On a long trip to nomansland I now tend to bring 2 filled water bottles instead of just one ;)

[Art Blade]

 ??? :)