Day Z, the post apocolyptic zombie survival game

[Alyeska]

Found out about this game a week ago while surfing Ars Technica. Day Z is a mod for Arma 2. Its pretty much exactly what the Walking Dead should be like.

You have to eat. You have to drink. If you get injured you need medical supplies. Some medical procedures must be done by someone else.

You have to search for supplies. The best place to find supplies is also where the zombies are. Oh yeah, on other thing. Watch out for other survivors. They might just kill you instead of helping you.

Rock Paper Shotgun has a nice set of articles about the game.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05 ... part-zero/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05 ... -part-two/

The mod is so popular that servers are filling like crazy. Arma 2 shot to the top of the Steam sales charts. Bohemia, the company that never listens to reason, is officially supporting the mod with its next patch.

This mod is buggy. Its built on Arma 2 which is stupidly complex. Its in an Alpha stage and you are prone to losing gear. And its still fun.

Oh yeah, the game is persistent. When you log off, your location and gear are preserved. So the next server you log on to, you have your gear. But if you die, you start over from scratch. All gear you found is gone. Which makes survivors nervous when meeting each other. If you kill enough survivors the game turns you into a bandit with a new skin that says "shoot me, please", ie Camo.

Last night I teamed up with another survivor near one of the big towns. We made our way north while sticking near the coast. This kept us close to the spawns when new players or newly dead players respawned. We found a few survivors worth working with. Saw a bandit running from a horde of 40 zombies. My team mate took out his sniper rifle and killed the bandit out of mercy.

[Sarevok]

Sounds interesting !

I might just get Arma 2 for this.

It does work in purely offline single player right ?

[Alyeska]

Sounds interesting !

I might just get Arma 2 for this.

It does work in purely offline single player right ?

I don't know. Its intended as a multi player mod.

[Psawhn]

It doesn't work in offline single-player. The game has to synchronize with central servers (so when you log out, you can log back in with all your stuff at the same place you logged out). You need to join one of the global servers that are configured for it.

Rocket definitely seemed to stumble upon something that there's a huge demand for. I think one of the biggest draws is the very wide open sandbox aspect, which it gets from the Arma engine. It makes you feel small in a big world, both enhancing the cooperative feel when you find guys to team up with, and the paranoia when you see shapes moving in the distance.

[weemadando]

It's fucking fascinating. I've only done a few hours but love it. The whole dynamic of risk v reward is so well modeled - stuff only appears in buildings. Zombies only appear around buildings.

And the zombies are terrifying in this. I think it's the combination of you being sufficiently helpless, them being relentless and the map being so huge. I ran for about 15 minutes, using every trick of the terrain to try and lose a pack who I'd attracted (and I was out of ammo) and finally lost them when another new player started shooting and they went after him.

My game then turned into the best stealth game I've ever played as I stalked my way around the outskirts of Cherno and then into it's interior after sighting someone in there and them proclaiming to be friendly. Thankfully they were as I was in no position to fight them and they hooked me up with some items from their stash (ammo, map, compass, binos) before logging off.

It's entirely reliant on "emergent" gameplay so thank christ it does it so well.

[Alyeska]

Got killed again today. And I lost a lot of good loot. I had an Alice Backpack (2nd best in the game), good medical supplies, a shotgun, and most importantly a silenced M9 pistol. But I killed the fucker that got me too.

[weemadando]

I'm currently running with a M1014 w/flashlight and M9SD. Got both off bodies in Cherno. Want some better range for the primary, but if I'm creeping the city I might as well stick with it.

[weemadando]

Need to upgrade my pack though. I think that's my mission for tonight.

[Alyeska]

I'm currently running with a M1014 w/flashlight and M9SD. Got both off bodies in Cherno. Want some better range for the primary, but if I'm creeping the city I might as well stick with it.

I honestly think the Winchester is the best shotgun. 15 round magazines. Slug is instant death. Pellets can frequently kill multiple zombies. What I want to find is the MP5SD.

[Vyraeth]

I've been playing Day Z for a little over a week now, maybe longer, and it's been one of the most refreshing games I've played in a while. My current character was able to find a map, compass, matches, and a hunting knife all in Elektro. Now I live off the country side, killing wild animals and cooking the meat. Each time you consume the meat, you get 800 blood back - which is far superior to the 200 blood per can of beans.

I also enjoy the Winchester quite a bit - 15 rounds per slot of ammo means a ton with the limited inventory space available. If you guys want some good gear, you should check out the NW Airfield. Many experienced players hang out there, but there's good military gear. I haven't gone there yet, but I think that will be the next place I head to.

[Alyeska]

I've been playing Day Z for a little over a week now, maybe longer, and it's been one of the most refreshing games I've played in a while. My current character was able to find a map, compass, matches, and a hunting knife all in Elektro. Now I live off the country side, killing wild animals and cooking the meat. Each time you consume the meat, you get 800 blood back - which is far superior to the 200 blood per can of beans.

I also enjoy the Winchester quite a bit - 15 rounds per slot of ammo means a ton with the limited inventory space available. If you guys want some good gear, you should check out the NW Airfield. Many experienced players hang out there, but there's good military gear. I haven't gone there yet, but I think that will be the next place I head to.

NW Airfield is where I died. Its dangerous up there. It might actually be best to hit that one in the early AM on Saturday morning to avoid the pros that hunt people.

You can get blood transfusions to replace blood, but you need a friend for that.

Its funny. Once you get a compass, watch, knife, and matches. You really can live off the land. Map is great, but unnecessary with Google being able to find a map.

[Tolya]

I've been playing the mod for about a week now. It is as brilliant as it is bugged (alpha stage + normal Arma2 clunkiness). If you can handle that, you will like it. If you require a starkesque level of user friendliness, then you will not.

I heartily recommend going to DayZ website forums and reading through the player guides posted there.

Some basic things:

The most important thing is - TRUST NO ONE. The bandit/survivor distinction doesn't work in practice. I've became a bandit in self defence (I killed my attacker and the game counted it as murder). And I've seen survivors firing at everything that moves.

The second most important thing - you will die in this game. Do not get attached to your character or your gear. Most stuff are easily replacable within 30 minutes if you know where to look.

1) Big cities like Cherno or Electro are quite dangerous, but if you know what you are doing, they are a quick way to get outfitted with good guns and stuff. First of all, the best mode of transportation is crouched run. It is quick, quiet and relatively stealthy. In cities, walk as much as you can. If you are near some zombies, go prone. They won't see you. I've evaded zombies with 1 meter distance using prone. Oh, just don't go prone when they are already after you.

2) If zombies start running after you, you have 1/100 chance of losing them on an open field. Run through some buildings, although keep in mind that new ones can spawn after you left the building and continue you on their merry chase. If you have ammo to kill them, go up any stairs and pick them off while they try to go up. Also, they WILL find their way up the stairs and even up ladders, so don't count on losing them entirely. Once a crouched zed was following me for about a kilometer. he wasn't fast and I noticed him only after a few kilometers.

3) Also, remember that the game is laggy. But it does handle some entities client-side. If you are alone and are chased by zombies, they are hosted locally. They will still warp around a bit, but at least if you hit them they will die.

4) Mexican standoffs are a quick way to die in the game. Because of the bugs, if you shoot at someone pointing their gun at you they will still have a chance to shoot back before they die. So if you want to kill someone, wait for a good chance to do it. It is difficult to be a good PvP player in the game.

5) Loot can only be found indoors. Barns are excellent places to search for perhaps the best survivor gun in the game - winchester 1886, which has plentiful ammo and is very silent.

6) Oh, zombies react to gunfire like moths to the light. I once saw a guy firing his hunting rifle (probably the loudest gun in the game) and literally the entire town of zombos started chasing him. Funny as hell to watch from the side.

7) Night is a nightmare. Literally. You don't see anything and if you light a flare, there is a good chance that zombies will come to the light. If you need to illuminate an area and stay around, crawl.

Oh, and in DayZ, everything goes. Everything that is not cheating/hacking is allowed. So whining that someone killed your character gets you branded as a Call of Duty carebear.

[Stark]

It sounds like the game has some really simple aggro code. Path to player? :v

[weemadando]

Yeah, the zombies aren't exactly smart, but then again, they aren't the real threat. Unless you do something mind-bogglingly stupid.

The real threat is other players.

[PREDATOR490]

Got Arma 2 yesterday and downloading Day Z.

The original game... never heard of it until now but this mod clearly is causing a surprise windfall for the developers. Would be more interesting if it did more than just cater to people that want to kill each other or run from zombies. The ability to build bases would be a fairly interesting addition and the game seems to accomodate that kind of play. Kinda sad noone seems to have made an C&C / Battlezone 2 mod.

It will be an interesting distraction but without a greater objective or more to do the mod is going to fizzel out rather quickly.

[weemadando]

There is a whole construction and repair element in there.

You can build barricades, fences and other fortifications if you can find the bits and pieces.

You can also find parts to repair vehicles from motorbikes to helicopters.

[weemadando]

It's also a mod that's less than a month old after releasing it's first alpha. I think that we can forgive some missing/broken features.

The next build will apparently be removing the bandit skin systems as the idea is nice, but the execution is off. This may be replaced by being able to "find" skins which you can then wear.

I just wish they'd do something about night though. It's just about fucking impossible to play as the game is just that fucking dark. I don't expect to be able to see perfectly without a flare or other assistance, but I would like to be able to see *something* so I can try and avoid navigating by touch.

[Stark]

Yeah, the zombies aren't exactly smart, but then again, they aren't the real threat. Unless you do something mind-bogglingly stupid.

The real threat is other players.

I mean having mobs chase a guy for ages isn't interesting or new. Open PvP and permadeath are fine, but I'd hope they have at least thought about putting actual game elements in.

Y'know, while they're reinforcing terrible market trends and supporting a developer that should die.

[Psawhn]

I played on US3 and US4 (you need to use the beta patch) and they had it configured such that the moon was up during the night, which is a giant help. Zombies also aren't attracted to chemlights at all, so you can use those to at least see a few metres ahead of you. Other players also can't see the glow from a chemlight beyond a few metres, depending on which color you have. (Green is best, blue is worst).

I've also had surprising difficulty shooting the zombies sometimes, because of a few factors. One of which is just the general Arma 2 lagginess, another is that the devs sped up their animations so they run like they're in an old Charlie Chaplin film, and another factor is that the zombies never run straight at you but constantly zig-zag with pinpoint 90-degree turns.

Of course, the zombies need to stop to hit you, so if you run and never stop then you can run from one end of Chernarus to the other with a horde on your tail, never taking damage until you need to stop to eat. I've heard of players amassing huge hordes then running at some of the more obnoxious PKers in the big cities.

[weemadando]

Yeah, the zombies aren't exactly smart, but then again, they aren't the real threat. Unless you do something mind-bogglingly stupid.

The real threat is other players.

I mean having mobs chase a guy for ages isn't interesting or new. Open PvP and permadeath are fine, but I'd hope they have at least thought about putting actual game elements in.

Y'know, while they're reinforcing terrible market trends and supporting a developer that should die.

Yeah, it's a mod that is still under a month old in alpha.

Damn them for not having fully fleshed out game elements.

I'm enjoying playing it as a stealth game. Avoiding players wherever possible and treating the zombies like the dumb "guards" in other stealth games that are between me and things I need but can be easily avoided.

[Stark]

A stealth game that may be as complex as 'locate player, path to player'? Even someone as tribal and gonzo as you know that once you actually know how to play it won't be like this. People are already cheesing the primitive mechanics to grief, so it's reached that level of maturity already.

And yeah sorry I'm not judging something that exists in your enthusiastic mind, rather than what actually exists. If its only alpha (or whatever your excuse is) why do you knee jerk this way? Alphas suck by definition. I'm just looking for a reason to expect anything better in future.

[weemadando]

I think we're talking down two separate paths.

The other players and the "social stealth" aspects of bluffing, misdirection and enticement are what makes it interesting for me. None of this is "in game" except for the characterspoken voice chat and rudimentary gestures, it's head games that players use against each other to lure people into traps or throw them off their scent. All of this has been done before (Assassins Creed and Spy Party are two), but this already is much more interesting due to the scope of the game.

The zombies and their mechanics are still crude, but they serve to add menace to the environment for the incautious and additional consequences to engaging in the inevitably noisy PVP.

PVP is also made hilarious by the way event handling is done currently. Clientside handling of most events means that mutual kills are fairly common as both players have the chance to kill each other in their client before the server catches up and notes that one is already dead (usually fractions of a second, but it's enough to be notable after playing any fps). Moral of the story? Never put yourself in a situation where someone could shoot back.

[Tolya]

Even though the zed code is a simple aggro > path to player, and that once you get around a bit you know how to move around zeds and avoid them, it is still very easy to make a mistake that ends in you being eaten. I've been part of a group of 5 people, quite well armed, and after getting through some serious shit in a nearby city, we got complacent and walked into a small village without much caution. And we were fucking obliterated.

To me, this game is the most fun I've had this year, and probably including the year before that too. It's actually an online game where social interaction matters (and on the basic feral level) and there is none of the stupid shitty XP grinding nonsense which puts me off all mumorpugers that we see around.

Stark, have you actually played this game or are you bitching about gameplay elements that everyone agrees are shitty, but it doesn't stop the overall experience from being awesome? Stop beating a dead horse. Yes, zed are stupid, bugged, laggy, simple aggro codes, UI is clunky, animation cycling is the worst I've ever seen and Im off to play the game anyways. And I believe that judging a game by its potential is stupid and Im only reviewing the elements which are present at the time.

And I don't think Bohemia should be put down. They should be infused with an actual QA department that would force them to fix the damn game out of its permanent beta stage. Because clearly there is a sprawling niche market for games like that and they are the only people who are trying. That they were able to get funding for Arma 2 after boring bugfest of Arma 1 is quite a feat. That they are rolling out Arma 3 next summer is nothing short of a miracle. And yet it happened, no matter the amount of bitching from the people who think "oh noes it's not COD!"

[Tolya]

Another thing quite refreshing about DayZ is that it's surprisinly similar to SD.net on the level of social interaction. Eat or be eaten. And if you complain that somebody has treated you unfair just because you behaved like an idiot then you are branded a carebear.

[weemadando]

I've got an ALICE. Sadly, in the scramble in which I got it (coastal airfield with a heavily entrenched defence I named to avoid) I left behind some key medical supplies. Fuckity fuck fuck.

I'm shivering. Need meds. I think I overshot my intended inland destination by verging too far West. There may be a desperation raid of a town coming up.