bfisher

It's getting on early evening and the sun is pretty low in the sky. That awkward time of day where the shadows play crazy tricks on your already crazy eyes, but not quite dark enough to break out the night vision. It's pretty crowded here and I'm hearing a lot of side-chatter about snipers in Cherno and "dead bodies in the firehouse" and "people getting gunned down on the airstrip". Not a great time to be staking out the woods along the highway between west Cherno and the airstrip, in sight of the firehouse. But I can't eat STANAG mags or drink smoke grenades, so I need to take a shopping trip to the market. I patrol around the woods for about 30 minutes and the coast looks cleart through the scope of my DMR. As clear as it can look in the glare of the setting sun, that is. I should wait until dark when my night vision goggles will afford me a distinct advantage over the assorted noobs and mooks and other idiots tossing glow sticks like they're at a late 90s rave or bobble-heading along with their flashlights. But my hunger won't wait. I swap out the DMR for the M4 and load an HE grenade into the noob-tube. Speed will be of the essence as I sprint across the no-mans land between the tree line and the coast. I've already scanned the firehouse and the grain elevators, but just to be safe I angle my approach so to put something between me and a potential sniper. Still, I want to get under cover ASAP. I'm about to enter the market when I spot something out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought it was a crawling zombie, until I realize it's moving with a purpose. Another survivor! He looks unarmed and he has the right idea of maintaining a low profile. He just doesn't realize that it doesn't provide him much concealment crawling across the middle of the road. Not really sure what to do yet, I sneak up behind him. He's oblivious to my presence... "Hellooooooo" I whisper seductively in his ear. "Hi!" he gleefully pipes back. No time for pleasantries though. The zombies are starting to get agitated and the last thing I need is to get walloped in the face by some poor sick mindless bastard with retard strength. I run into the market hoping to find some food, but it looks like my trip is wasted. Yeaaa! Chem-lights. That'll come in handy if Moby throws a concert in Berenzino. Market's starting to fill up with shoppers so time to high-tale it out the back door. The other survivor is no where to be found and I'm not much for babysitting anyway. I begin to exfiltrate myself along the shore when I run smack into some Shemagh wearing A-hole trailing a couple of zombies who, by the looks of them, must have followed all the way from the airbase at Balota. Probably the same A-hole "gunning down survivors at the airstrip". What transpires next is less of a gunfight as it is a shooting a bandit in the face contest. A couple more bursts from my rifle put down the military-grade hobo escorts. Doing good just feels right! I quickly loot the body, but like wearing your sister's hand-me-downs, his CZ550 rounds just don't fit. I do managed to grab a can of Coke and some beans, so the evening isn't a total loss. But by now I can't tell if a sniper's bullet just whizzed past my head or it's just the sound of my own weapon playing tricks on me in the evening light. Either way, it's time to get hidden. Jumping into a bush behind a house, I look up and see a set of discarded cammies. That is lucky. Ghillie suit would have been luckier, but it's still preferable to the LL Bean outfit I've been running around in. Anyhow, I think I'm going to just sit here quietly until it gets dark enough for me to slip out of town. I like to think that maybe that other survivor might also last another night (if the snipers don't get him) because there's one less KoS bandit roaming about. Maybe he'll even double back and be able to take the dead bandits rifle and gear. I just hope he also uses them for good. 'Cause I'll be watching if he doesn't.

I did kill a bandit who probably would have killed him, as well as anyone else he came across.

Guys, you're being too hard on him! I was playing the DayZ MegaInfinity mod and I did the same thing. Freakin bandit stole my Mech Warrior and there is no way I was going to let him get the man-portable minigun, Tony Stark power armor and laser power ax I spawned with.

I'm not really about KoS for it's own sake or just sniping people to be a dick. But that said, I don't mind killing a bandit or ghillie suit from time to time if I see one. Or anyone if I think the situation might get sketchy. One thing I do like doing is just camping out near some high traffic area and just watching people do their thing. Sometimes I might intervene if I want to help someone or dish out some angry justice. But usually I just watch and observe. So a few days ago, I decided to head down to the coast. I'm pretty geared up with an M4 HOLO with M203 grenade launcher (no grenades) and a CZ550 I found in a deer stand. Not much ammo though. Pretty confident I can handle anything that comes my way. Since I need some STANAG mags bad, I decide to camp out Balota for a bit. I find a pretty good spot on a hill near the base, swap out the M4 for the long rifle ans zero to 400 meters. For the next several days, things are pretty dull. No traffic to speak of. But I'm not quite ready to run into the potential death trap that is the Balota ATC tower, but I am running low on food so I'll need to make a move soon. Log in today to a nearly full house. Only a few more hours of daylight left. Soon I hear the familiar cry of Lee Enfield calling his children to dinner. Quickly I scope the tower. Some poor slob is on the roof of the tower fighting off a dozen zombies all looking for a quick snack. Of course the more he rings that dinner bell, the more attention he attracts. Like a monkey trying to grab a banana in a trap, he's just making things worse. I do some quick calculations in my head. Possibly all the rest of my ammo with potentially the same end result, or one single round of sweet mercy? I make my decision. *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* (I never said I was any good with this thing...stupid metric system!) Feeling kind of bad as the drunken hobos disperse, I ponder whether it's worthwhile to go down and look. Clearly someone must have heard all that gunfire so it just wouldn't do to be where the gunfire was. I'm about to make my move when...helloooo...I spy some fine thing poking around inside the tower. My attraction is short lived however as she is quickly joined by a green Chewbacca-looking mother fucker with what is clearly a military sniper rifle. And I can quickly tell by the way they aren't fighting each other that they are probably together. Girls always seem to go for the jerks. Well that sniper just changed the equation and not in my favor. I start unloading rifle rounds into the tower and the two love birds take cover. It does them little good from my vantage point on the grassy knoll. Little Eponine jumps in the way of my shot and goes down first. I can almost hear them singing their goodbye duet as Green Chewie aims his rifle in my direction... *KaPOW*...Goodnight sweet prince. Given that I've just killed three people and not turned into a bandit, I can only assume it was all part of God's plan. But my day isn't over yet even though it's getting dark and common courtesy dictates that I need to go down their and collect my spoils. Otherwise I'm just some common douche sniper. I might as well start screaming on side chat if I want to be that sort of resident of Cherno. I make my way down to the control tower, keeping a watchful eye for stragglers and switching to the M4 for close encounters. Much to my surprise, I can't even lay claim to half the bodies. Body outside. Body in the doorway. Two more upstairs, not even counting my kills. The files are so deafening I can barely hear the zombie agro outside. But I do hear it. I do a quick search. Large packs. A DMR rifle and ammo. GPS! Night vision! Grenades for my M203! These were no noobspawned bambis. Clearly these guys (and girl) were into some heavy shit! Whatever went down, I clearly must have come across the victors as they were celebrating. Feeling exposed in that tower (for obvious reasons) I swap out the CZ550 for the DMR, load up on grenades and other goodies. The zombies become aware of me and the agro is deafening (even over the flies). Not wanting to end up like that unfortunate Lee Enfield I showed a bit of mercy on the roof, I switch to my pistol. No time for proper burials. The first zombie is on me and sooth him to sleep with some chin music from my M1911. Not even bothering with the second, I leap off the stairs. Again God shows me his plan by not breaking my legs. Clearing the fence, I break for the safety of the tree line. I get about half a click when I stop to inspect my gear. I open my ACU pack only to find that, like a slackjawed noob, I picked up the DMR ammo but not the rifle! ...guess I'm about to go back and find out how much God really loves me.

A brief follow up. I've been lurking around between Balota and Zelenowhatever. Good area to do some people watching without running into too many snipers or bandits. So after seeing some terrible shit go down in the Zelenowherever market, I found my way back down by Balota. It's pitch black, but since I have those NVGs, it's not a problem. The darkness is also not a problem because some idiot is standing on top of the ATC tower tossing road flares every which way. In spite of the perfect 400 m head shot this guy had lined up for me, I couldn't bare to shoot him. So I just played him some chin music with my DMR and watched him scramble around wondering WTF.

Following roads and power lines is not a terrible idea as they do eventually lead somewhere. However walking right down the middle of the road might not be the greatest idea as there are a lot of players who will just kill you on sight for your supplies or simply just because. Of course the places those roads and power lines lead are also filled with players who will kill you on sight for your supplies or just because,

Having played for months, I know the way you are supposed to lose zombie agro is to run through trees or around corners to break the zombies LOS. At that point they go from 28 Days Later "apeshit" mode to Night of the Living Dead "duh" mode. And of course there is also hiding in a bush or running through a building and out the other side so they slow down. But my question is how does one lose zombie agro in the standalone? Better pathfinding, not losing speed in buildings and being able to open doors sounds like they can pretty much chase you until you pass out from thirst or hunger? So is the expectation that you can eventually outrun a zombie because they are "fucked up", they can eventually outrun you because they have "retard strength", we all run at the same exact speed or it varies?

I actually used to enjoy the now defunct "Zust" servers. Tons of vehicles with weapons scattered all over the place. Dirt bikes at the more isolated spawn locations. There was also a fortified "checkpoint" with supplies, halfway between Electro and Cherno, under those big cliffs. Kind of had a GTA: Chernarus feel to it. I liked it because: a) a bit more fast paced with all the vehicles on the road b) night time became a lot more interesting with all the car headlights illuminating the coast road. c) you aren't guaranteed a weapon. Vehicles had anything from a Makarov to non-standard guns like M60s or anti-material rifles. But they could just as easily be gone or blow'd up by the time you get to them. d) ability to drive up and down the road in a Ural smashing though everything in sight (except small rocks or pieces of debris in the road).

Call me old fashioned, but I am a firm believer in the time-honored tradition of washing up on the beach somewhere between Kamenka and Solnywherever with no idea where you are or how you got there. Like all the other noobspawns, you hug the coast rather than get hopelessly lost in the wilderness until you maybe pick up a weapon in Balota or wander into the Twin Cities of Death (Cherno and Electro). Once you have actually survived long enough to find enough gear to actually navigate, defend yourself and not starve to death, then you earn the right to make your way up north to places like NWAF, Stary, Bernezino and all the various points of interest in between.

When was DayZ not about shooting other people? I've been playing for about a year and have just gone back to vanilla servers. As far as I'm concerned, the "DayZ experience" has always included getting randomly sniped or killed by a gang of bandits. If you're lucky, maybe you meet someone who doesn't instantly kill you for your supplies or weapon. And I still do meet people willing to trade or at least not just shoot it out. I think maybe more people know what they are doing now. So maybe you have fewer bambis running around with no gear and no idea where they are or where to go.

"Blisters" are a "foot injury". If you get blisters or a bit of glass in your foot while living in a zombie infested post apocalyptic post Soviet wasteland, you're going to have real problems IRL. I actually think it's pretty freakin cool. Sure the system isn't perfect yet, but I like the idea that you constantly need to scavenge to repair or replace your stuff. After a couple of hours running around the woods getting chased by zombies and bandits, your character should look like a of hobo refugee with worn out shoes and clothes falling off him. He shouldn't look like he just raided the local REI sporting goods store. I don't think it's going to stop KoS that much. Some people just like killing other players for the heck of it. But it might give people something else to do besides just gearing up and going on shooting rampages. I, for one, am looking forward to flex-cuffing someone in the middle of a field of zombies and throwing a smoke grenade on top of them.

I like to think DayZ gives everyone the opportunity to be judge, jury and executioner according to their own moral code. :D

I don't know. I've gotten in a lot of fights in the Zelen market. I think it's safer than Cherno and Electro and snipers tend not to camp it. But it's still a popular way station for people taking the NWAF route. And a lot of them aren't new spawns from Kamenka either. Getting in is easy. You just run across a huge field once you're sure the town is empty. Except you're so busy looting the market that by the time you see that UAZ coming over the hill, or hear some player agroing zombies out back, now your stuck there.

Why wouldn't you loot any body you come across (unless it's not safe to do so)? Are you people so wealthy you can't afford to pick up another bandage or can of beans?

All of a sudden, I heard the crack of a large caliber rifle. Then another. Is someone sho... The End :D

But he's NOT Judge Judy and executioner!!

I'll actually change out of a ghillie suit when I go into town. They don't offer that much concealment in urban areas anyway. I want to appear seasoned, but approachable. Not like a Delta Force sniper on a mission.

And I'll be looking back at you through the scope of my new blood soaked DMR. ;)

Groups can be both a blessing and a curse. Sure it's good to have the extra sets of eyes and guns and a bit of company while you scour the endless wastes between towns. But groups also attract attention, especially when they have a vehicle. Plus you can so get distracted running through town like a gaggle of schoolgirls, chit chatting about your favorite female adult alternative singer/songwriter, that you let some ghillie suited loner sneaks up behind you and blows your head off with his DMR.

Why should weapons be so rare? I mean it shouldn't take an hour to get outfitted like a Navy Seal so you can KOS, but it shouldn't be DayZ: The Game of Hiding in your Underwear in a Bush from Zombies until You Die From Infection.

When did DayZ become a OCD / high functioning autism simulator? Constantly disinfecting everything? Counting each individually wrapped bullet before meticulously loading it into my STANAG mag? I can't wait to spend hours in the forest stacking rocks in order of size from smallest to largest! :)

I'm kind of the same way about camps. I like being mobile and don't see the point in being tied to a particular region of the map, just so I can help passerby's stock up on stuff. I sometimes like operating out of a decent off-road vehicle. But again, you have to always keep an eye on the vehicle and that can get tiresome. Sometimes I just like sitting and watching people through some binocs or a scope. One time I must have spent an hour watching that factory outside of Kamenka (or Kamaorva) at night. Every few minutes, a flare would pop out of the darkness. Then another. Then I'd see some new spawn throw a few more into the factory. Then they would run in to loot it. Then a couple dozen zombies. Then "so and so has died". A few minutes after the last flare goes out, the process would start again.

I've gone back to the vanilla hives pretty recently. I'm partial to Dallas 264. It's usually pretty full with 30-40 people during peak times, has decent admins who keep the sidechat talk to a minimum and so far pretty hacker free. It has a decent enough community too (for DayZ). That is to say not everyone will KOS. I'm also kind of partial to the fact that the server is a couple time zones behind me so I can play after work. Prior to that, I was partial to a private hive of 400+ cars (which spawn with guns in the trunk) servers. I know a lot of purists don't like that style of play, but it think having all the cars gives it a sort of GTA: Chernarus style which is nice when you don't have a lot of time to spend 14 hours assembling an old ex-Soviet hatchback.

I think a couple of things will help deter the KOS mentality. At least more than where it is today where it's basically Call of Duty on a big map with drunken hobos: -Shooting people damages the stuff they're carrying -More civilian clothes. Being a mod of ArmA 2, I think the mod does create a bit of a "scavenging for old Soviet Spetsnaz weaponry" mentality. -More enterable buildings. Maybe there will be less KOS if you can't just camp the supermarket / firehouse / ATC tower waiting to ambush some noob looking for an AK. Overall, I think it's coming together. I'd still like to see more of the zombies though. Ultimately I think it's going to come down to are you trying to survive against hundreds of zombies or against other players with a few random zombies here and there.

What do you want? Those crazy 4-lens Zero Dark Thirty NVGs? I'm gonna put my money on "no".