Day Z, the post apocolyptic zombie survival game

[Kojiro]

I must be doing something wrong. I've spawned maybe 7 times now and zombies are on me literally within seconds. Having no weapons seems to translate to run until you get tired and die to the horde chasing you.

How am I supposed to get anywhere when there are zombies in sight when I appear?

[Blayne]

Nighttime works pretty well, they can't see you and have to be basically standing on top of you to hear you. Also you can just jump into the water and you'll eventually outrun them.

That though I never tried this yet but if you run into a forest and run around a bunch of trees they will eventually lose sight of you and leave you alone.

[Broken]

So I was running around the wilderness on a server with some forumites I know from another game when they discover we have a nest of hackers. How do we know, because even though the server is tweaked to produce lots of vehicles, they only respawn on server restart. And somehow this group has a functional helo's when we know for a fact we have already face-planted 4 of 5 of them since the last server restart. Maybe it was stolen, we don't know; but we are searching for the group.

I'm on TS with the others and both I and several others have reported sightings of the helo or just its sound, we haven't found them yet. Finally one of the others hears the chopper and sees it land. Then we get proof these guys are hackers. There are 3 flyable helo's in this field and all 3 of the guys we see are wearing ghille suits, something that this server has never spawned. Soon however, 3 of the guys on TS with me converge on them (I'm on the other side of the map with no vehicle unfortunately) and quickly find out that while the Arma II engine is easy to hack, apparently it sucks too much to make an aimbot for as all 3 of the hackers get wasted with no losses of our own.

While all this is going on, I'm on the far side of the map exploring. I am at full health basically, but have the shakes due to injuries and no more painkillers, so I start to head to the nearest supermarket while one of the other guys on TS heads my way to return the M16 with M203 grenade launcher he was holding for me. Since I was in town already, zombies were spawned and his truck attracted tons more of them. We hold them off well enough and I steal some painkillers out of his bag (with his knowledge, I told him on TS) and we decide to just get in the truck and go sort out inventory in the wild. Unfortunately, on the run back to the truck a zombie clipped my buddy and now he's in pain (shaking screen) with no painkillers. We decide to go to the nearest hospital to stock up on medical supplies. Due to the long play session and screen shaking, my friend ends up driving us into a piece of debris on the ground and the truck seems to explode. We both end up on the street, unconscious and bleeding. I bleed out while he logs before dying. It's time for me to make myself some dinner and so I log out after respawning to see where I was and the server hiccups.

But the story doesn't end there! When I log in a few hours later, my buddy who is on TS tells me to try and save him (he is nicely kitted out at this point) and being freshly spawned I have nothing to lose, so I head back towards Berezine where I died. Along the way, I plunder a farm yielding a can of coke and a hatchet. I then slowly make my way back to Berezine avoiding as many zombies as possible. When I get there, I am in for a shock; the truck did not explode, it is still there with a concrete barrier somehow between the front and rear wheels. My buddy logs in and I quickly bandage him; alas he has no epi on him or in the truck so he is still unconscious in the middle of Berezine with zombies all around us. Several zombie wander close enough to aggro and I defend our truck and my friend with only my hatchet. After the first wave is dead, I go to the truck and get a blood bag and transfuse my friend (errant axe swings could be bad for him), but before I could go back for a gun, more zombie arrive. I defend us for 6 or 7 minutes with nothing but a hatchet, killing 14 zombies with it, til my buddy wakes up and covers me while I ransack the truck for the bizon and ammo. We then slowly rock the truck off the barrier and hightail it out of the city. Much lols on TS for having survived and escaped. Not much else happens that evening, although we looted a number of crashed choppers, so he ends up with a DMR, NVG's, and a L85a2 while I now have a silenced M4 and M107. Well kitted out, I expect to die quickly and horribly next time I log in.

[tim31]

Good show!

I'm still yet to have any social fun like that.

[wautd]

Will this run on my laptop?

Aspire 5741G with Intel i3-330M processor (2.13 GHz), Geforce GT 320M, 4GB DDR3 ram

[2000AD]

So no one's mentioned the announcement finally confirming that Day Z is going to get it's own stand alone game yet.

Minecraft stlye pre-purchase and get alpha/beta access model.

[PeZook]

Small wonder, Bohemia got more sales of ArmaII in the last few months than in the entire time since the game came out

[Broken]

Rumor is that the stand alone DayZ will be based on the Arma III engine, giving some nice eye-candy improvements and the ability to enter EVERY building on the map. Anyone who has rushed a door to find a defensive position and realized the door is just painted on a wall will welcome this change.

[Edward Yee]

I've heard that it's only to 80-90% of buildings that may be entered for ARMA 3 -- unless they're using a totally separate, DayZ-exclusive "island" for the standalone.

The BIGGER changes though are that the ARMA 3 engine has a revised inventory menu (plus oh hey, a modern attachment system* instead of separate weapon/accessory combinations as their own weapons), jog with the weapon raised (just like a conventional FPS) and different stance adjustments. 4:13 in particular is a great moment of "oh hey, snap shooting at close quarters is actually possible for the first time in ARMA!"

Here's what night combat can look like, with some stance action (ducking from crouch) at 10:14, plus some more night action (and what explosive first-person death may look like at 3:34 in that... with a rather amusing "background image" for the "you are dead" screen).

* Before you point out how much of ARMA 3's changes are catching up the rest of the industry -- their own creative directors seem to have been poking fun at the previous games over just that, and poking fun at forum members who see it as selling out.

[PeZook]

Heh...yeah, people who complain that you can actually fight the enemy instead of the interface are always amusing. Because we all know soldiers in real life have to shuffle awkwardly in order to clear a corner, right?

[tim31]

35 days and reset by a server glitch. Thank you very much.

[The Vortex Empire]

Just got this game, had a a chance to play some. First life, i managed to learn most of the controls, found some empty tin cans, then got chased down and murdered by zombies. Second life, managed to find a hatchet, survived for like 30 minutes, then got chased down and killed by zombies. Third life, spawned in what appeared to be a city, found a makorov and a bunch of medical supplies, got out of the city, found a barn, and while attempting to crawl to it got sniped by somebody before I could even try to escape.

I think playing with other people would make this a touch easier. Certainly help to learn where everything is and learn tips. I assume there's a group of players here who play together?

[Alyeska]

Just got this game, had a a chance to play some. First life, i managed to learn most of the controls, found some empty tin cans, then got chased down and murdered by zombies. Second life, managed to find a hatchet, survived for like 30 minutes, then got chased down and killed by zombies. Third life, spawned in what appeared to be a city, found a makorov and a bunch of medical supplies, got out of the city, found a barn, and while attempting to crawl to it got sniped by somebody before I could even try to escape.

I think playing with other people would make this a touch easier. Certainly help to learn where everything is and learn tips. I assume there's a group of players here who play together?

Several of uf from SB.com and SD.net have been running together as a group called SGL. We can show you the ropes and get you kitted out. I don't have the Teamspek info immediately on hand, but Shadow here is a member and has the details. Hillbilly over on SB.com also has details.

[The Vortex Empire]

Fantastic. Good timing too, just barely managed to escape Rog Castle after some asshole walked in the door and opened fire on me, and I currently have 250 blood left so I'm passing out every few minutes. Funny thing is, before reaching the castle I stumbled across the tents of 4 people all along the top of the hill leading to it. Chose to help myself to some supplies, as I've had no luck whatsoever trying to find stuff on my own. Currently have a DMR and 1911.

[tim31]

Get OUT. I've never seen a sniper rifle that wasn't the CZ 500. Having just spawned back in(oh well, fresh start) I've run inland from Kamenka, picked up a Winchester and plenty of ammo, two mags for a DMR(!) and plenty of canned food and drink from the supermarket in Zelenogorsk.

Miss my M4. Though I'm looking forward to inevitably finding an AKM again. Honest, hardworking rifle.

Anyone want to suggest a direction to head?

[Broken]

North is always a good direction to go; lots of folks just out to shoot random people for lols hang out on the coast, especially Cherno and Elecktro firestations targeted, with sniper rifles. Castles have decent basic supplies, military tents like the 4 near Berezino and the 8 near Stary Sobor are very useful and easily farmed, but Stary is often camped as well and Berezino can attract lots of zombies in daylight. When starting off, look for small towns with supermarkets; farm for hunting knife, map, canteen, matches, and compass. Find a barn or industrial for a hatchet. You can now live off the land and take your time. Remember almost everyone is a bastard and act accordingly.

Has anyone noticed a reduction in good loot at the NW airfield in particular. My group has farmed it a couple times now and not picked up anything that great. Chopper crashes still yield good stuff reliably but the barracks are not spawning the CCO SD's nearly as often. Most likely just RNG, but just wanted to check.

[Skgoa]

You mean hangars, tower and firestation? They aren't worth the risk IMHO. The good loot spawns in the two baracks. They are deathtrapes, though, so be careful that no one is around when you approach them. They can be sneaked into rather easily from the perimeter fence and the southern barack even has a well to fill up canteens IIRC.

[tim31]

Last time I was at NW airfield it was early evening and I crept into the barracks helping myself. There had been shufflers outside but that was it. I clear it room by room, and then I got to the last dorm... Bam. Zed. It aggrod, I dropped it with a headshot. Then the sound of snarls and running. Bottlenecked that shit and had thirty bodies in the doorway before I was able to exfil.

Couldn't get on last night, as all AU servers appear to be out of date.

[tim31]

Alright so as I said, server glitch killed me the other night and I spawned at Kamenka. 20 mins later I was armed and had food and water, having headed inland to Zelenogorsk.

Logged in this afternoon and groaned as I heard the ocean. Apparently got reset again. Spawned in at Kamarovo... With my M4 CCO. What? And all my old kit. WHAT? Huh! Quickly headed to Balota for a sticky beak, and profited. Coyote Backpack. Maximum inventory. Yes. Despite misgiving, I decided to make a run on the FOB down by the beach. It's been wired shut and there's zeds everywhere but I don't give a toss, with an M4 and a .45 auto and five mags for each. As I'm playing pixel hunt to take down the wire a survivor appears next to me. I think 'oh shit, this is it' but call friendly anyway, because I ain't a murderer. He tells me he's just spawned and has nothing. I tell him to sit tight while I open the gates and he can get some loot. I plan to do a quick sweep while he's gearing up and get the fuck out before he decides he wants my backpack. I'm just in the third stand - south west corner of the camp - when a second voice asks the following.

"Are you friendly? Are you going to shoot?"

"Absolutely." I answer to the first part of his question, as I ran towards the deer stand he was in. I can't blame him for what he did, really. I wonder if he realised after the fact.

So I didn't respawn, took a break to go watch Turtleman. Went back in an hour ago and respawned east of Cherno... With full kit again, including the Coyote pack! This is too good to be true. Currently in a barn north of town and wondering if my luck on this will hold.

[Alyeska]

Someone parked four vehicles at 0x0. Took the Ural (it had been stolen from us already). While driving around Elektro to pick up two friends I got shot at by a DMR and MK48. That got entertaining. They mostly missed. We certainly got their attention, and the gunfire and tracers got our attention. At some point they managed to connect with one of our wheels and severely damaged it. Didn't destroy the wheel thankfully. Two of us in the Ural got out of town and repaired it. The third was on foot and used the confusion to get out of town undetected and we picked him up.

Later that night we found a survivor running along the beach with his flashlight. I honked the horn at him and he ignored us. I drove near the guy and our chopper started to buzz him. He got scared and ran out into the water. We let him know we were friendly and gave him a lift. Dropped him off at Elektro (it was empty, so it was safe) and wished him good hunting. He thanked us for the ride.

[Ubiquitous]

I've not even played this game and probably never will, but I love watching videos on youtube about it. I'm looking forward to a console version in the future.

[tim31]

Respawned near Kamyshovo last night. Raided the nearest deer stand and then Rog Castle where I grabbed a Czech Backpack before leading a few shufflers on a merry chase down the road toward Elektro. The server was full so I was counting on people being there, but recce had no one at or watching the fire station, so I waltzed in and picked up an AK74 and three mags. Made my way to the supermarket and... A tent! Tried to pick it up but nothing happened(had enough slots). Tried again, and a third time. Got up to walk away and suddenly the action to pick up the tent occured, three times, and in the process broke my leg. I had morphine so it was okay... But then the leg broke again. Fucking game. I used all my bandages but kept bleeding... And as I fell below half blood, I could hear shooting out front. I knew that I was glitched badly and could not salvage it, so crawled outside and screamed 'COME GET IT FUCKERS' and dropped one guy with the AK before someone else got me.

What really interested me was that someone had blown up the school and the apartment building opposite the the supermarket. Satchel charges? Who knows?

[Broken]

IIRC, smoke grenades (lol alpha build) can actually damage buildings. No idea if satchel charges or the rocket launcher can also.

[tim31]

They certainly can

[Alyeska]

Yahtzee reviewed DayZ.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... /6276-DayZ