Penny Sue

Because they are evil people who eat babies and want to shove your grandma over a cliff, obviously! =P He left out Democrats: Rainbow On purpose I'm sure... =^.^=

Hey maybe not everyone wants it to be CounterStrike: Zombies FTW ? Having more threats is a good idea! Right now the game is actually kinda easy. There is no risk running around outside of town. Once you get the essentials you could just hide in the woods forever with no threat. I don't care if it's wolves, bears, or zombie hamsters... more risk please!

I've been hit a bunch times by zombies and this has never happened to me. Never had the 'one shot broken leg' either. I'm not saying it doesn't happen I'm just saying it's pretty rare.

The only time I can game is really early or really late... 4 AM to 8 AM and 10 PM till 1 AM. So basically you're forcing me to always play in the dark. I just won't play it if that's what it comes to. I do play at night sometimes and it's kinda fun but no where near as fun as playing in the day light. The zombies are freak'n retarded at night. Your ONLY concern at night are other players and specifically those with equipment to see in the dark. During the day the playing field is more level because that night vision crap isn't as much of an advantage. Also zombies are more of a threat during the day because their aggro range is much wider.

The trick is to drink the Dew! The curse comes upon thee for hoarding them... I found a Dew in Cherno the other day. Ran to a "safe" spot and drank it. No adverse effects befell unto me. No curse here I tell you! Drink the Dew... don't "save" it or hoard them!

People usually ask me if I'm friendly. I say Yes, Friendly! Nobody has ever asked me to lower weapon, salute, or anything else. I try not to do anything aggressive like point my weapon directly at them. 9 times out of 10 I've ran into genuinely friendly people. Maybe it's because I'm usually unarmed or MAYBE have a crappy handgun or shotgun so they assume I'm a newb and no threat? I've been betrayed a couple of times. We ran around together and then they killed me. It does happen... I don't get too upset over it. I still seek out people and try to interact because otherwise I might as well play single player =P Just today some guy invited me for a chopper ride! It was actually a lot of fun. I feel as though I'd miss out on fun stuff like this if I just avoided everyone or tried to kill them right away.

Idea: Would love to see more emote animations with acompanying descriptive text and sounds over direct comm channel! Purpose: Emotes are a great tool used in sandbox gaming. They help imerse players into the game world and build imersion for other players they are interacting with. There are LOTS more I'd love to see but I think these are the essentials. Emote Suggestions: Custom Emote: Basically use custom text associated with a pre-defined emote animation. For example you would type /fistpump pumps fist into the air and farts! Which would make your character do the fist pump animation but your custom text of "pumps fist into the air and farts!" would be displayed instead of the default text. Rudge Gesture Animation: Make some sort of rudge geusture like flip'n the bird or turning, bending over, and slapping your ass. Text: <name> makes a rudge guesture at you! Sound: None Yawn Animation: Raise one hand upto their mouth and kinda stretch their back. Text: <name> yawns deeply. Sound: Yawning sound. Laugh Animation: Head tilts back and bobs slithly with mouth open. Maybe they grab their belly? Text: <name> laughs out loud! Sound: Male / Female laughter based on player's gender. Stand at Ease Animation: Lowers whatever is in hand. Leans more on one leg. Maybe a hand on one hip. Text: <name> relaxes and stands at ease. Sound: None or maybe a soft sigh. Clap Animation: Claps their hands together a few times. Text: <name> claps gleefuly. Sound: Well.. a clapping sound... =) Crazy Animation: Raise arm, points at head, and makes circles. You know when you say someone is crazy and you do that? Text: <name> thinks that's crazy. Sound: None. Maybe whistle like a coocoo clock? Fist Pump Animation: Thrust arm into the air with hand in a fist. Text: <name> enthusiastically pumps their fist into the air! Sound: None Cough Animation: Puts hand upto mouth and bends forward a couple of times Text: <name> coughs. Sound: Coughing noise. Cry Animation: Puts both hands upto face, head tilts forward, and maybe slight movements. Text: <name> cries. Sound: Male / Female crying based on gender. Cut Throat Animation: Points to one side of their neck and moves horizontal to the other side Text: <name> slides their finger over their neck in a threatening maner! Sound: Groan Animation: Hangs their head forward and makbe shakes it slightly. Text: <name> groans in dissatisfaction. Sound: A groan or maon. Raise Hand Animation: Stretch one arm up into the air with hand open. Text: <name> raises their hand. Sound: None Shiver Animation: Knees bend, arms wrap around crosed, and body shivvers. Text: <name> shivers. Sound: None. Shrug Animation: Arms half raised, elbows bent, hands open pointing out away from them. Text: <name> shrugs. Sound: None or maybe say "Meh..." Tap Foot Animation: Folds arms, leans on one leg, and taps foot of the other leg. Text: <name> taps their foot impatiently. Sound: Tapping noise. Dance Animation: Breaks out in the electric slide! Or... whatever... Text: <name> breaks out dancing! Sound: None. Sit Animation: Would be awesome if you could sit down in chairs and stuff. Otherwise just have them sit on the ground. Text: <name> sits down. Sound: None. Bow Animation: Self explanitory. Text: <name> bows. Sound: None Fruastrated Animation: Makes a fruastrating guesture. For example raises both fists and shakes them in the air. Text: <name> expresses their fruastration. Sound: Maybe an "Ugh!" or "Arrgh!" sound. Agony / Pain Animation: Stumbles forward with one hand on their chest and the other out front as if trying to reach for something. Text: <name> is in agonizing pain! Sound: A scream or cry out in pain. Nod Head Animation: Raise head up and down a couple of times. Text: <name> nods in agreement. Sound: None Shake Head Animation: Move head left to right a couple of times. Text: <name> shakes their head in disagreement. Sound: None Taunt Animation: Head titls back with chin up, stretches out one arm, open handed, then folds hand up and level a couple of times; motioning them to come at them. Text: <name> taunts you! Sound: Gender specific voice saying "Come at me BRO!" =) Thanks Animation: Head nods once. Text: <name> thanks you. Sound: Gender specific voice saying "Thanks!" Belch Animation: Head tilts back with mouth open. Text: <name> belches loud enough to wake the dead! Sound: Belch sound. Prferably the one from the movie Elf where he drinks that whole 2litre of Coke and lets out this mega belch. =) Chicken Animation: Squat down, fold arms like wings, and flap them. Text: <name> mocks you! Sound: Gender specific voice making chicken noises or saying something like "Chikeeeeeen! BAWK BAWK!"

Gert-Jan sounds like you have a lot of expectations about how the game SHOULD be but haven't really spent much time learning how the came ACTUALLY is. Take the time to read some guides, tips, the forums, the wiki, etc etc...

Here's my basic setup: AMD Phenom™ 9500 64-bit Quad Core processor @ 2.2 GHz 4 GB DDR2 RAM Radeon HD 7750 400 watt PSU for the GFX card + all my HDDs, optical drives, USB stuff, etc etc I run most settings at Normal Resolution @ 1600x900 which is optimal for my monitor Drawdistance 1600 This isn't a high-end machine. In fact a lot of people say it's "old" and "slow". What I'm getting at is you could spend a couple hundred dollars and get acceptable performance. I spent $120 on my gfx card and $40 on a PSU. I bought this computer used two years ago for $200. For less than DrunkPunk's gfx card I've got an entire machine that can play DayZ just fine. DrunkPunk isn't giving bad advice but it's not what you are looking for because you said you didn't want to empty your pockets. He's recommending a $450-$550+ gfx card, a $350 CPU, and many hundreds more on MB, RAM, PSU, case, cooling, etc. He's right... it will run circles around this game... but you gotta pay real money for that kind of performance. This webpage helped me really dial in settings and configurations. Game runs very smooth even in Elektro. http://www.dayzpvp.com/ultimate-dayz-graphics-settings-and-tweaks-guide/ For example using this guide I was able to put together command line parameters that help. -cpuCount=4 -maxMem=2047 -skipIntro -nosplash -noPause Also made many other tweaks that did yield more performance.

Cool story bro.

Yeah, it's a pretty stressful game. There's constantly some form of stress like finding food, drink, avoiding zeds, negotiating with other players...

I haven't ran into them on private servers using private hives with admins who actively police them. I have ran into them on random public servers on public hive where admins either don't give a damn, are ignorant to the problem, or are in on it. You can still enjoy the game by taking extra steps to limit exposure to hackers!

I bounce between a private hive and the public one. Was playing on the public one last night. Fresh spawn and all I had managed to scavenge were a couple of canteens, one can of sardines, and some bandages. No map and I don't use online maps so I was just running ... and running.... and running... Eventually found a pond and refilled my canteens but now I was out of food and nothing to defend myself with. Out in the woods... no idea which way to go... so I just kept running into the woods. Seemed like I had ran forever and wasn't getting anywhere fast. Eventually the woods gave way to open grassland. I spotted a large tower... some big hangars... fencing.... must be some airfield? I heard they were risky but I had nothing to loose so I headed to it. Then I saw someone's tent right out in the open! Of course I ran to it and scoped out the area.... seems clear. There was a lot of stuff in there! I did not take it all... only what I needed... Some silenced rifle and ammo G17 pistol with no ammo Food Map Pop Painkillers EPI pen Ok I didn't NEED the EPI pen but I took it =) There was a lot of good stuff in there that I left. Sorry but thanks for saving my life! =^.^= Might want to hide that tent better. I spotted it from hundreds of meters away with out even looking for it! It's really out there in the open. Am I on the road to being a bandito?! O_o

You bring up some good points but your attitude is utter shit so nobody will take you seriously. Good Points: - What's the point?! I got food and water.... I am surviving thus I win! Well that was an interesting 10 minutes; now what? - Most people just KoS and it's become Counter Strike with zombies. - Cheaters / hackers / script kiddies / "skiddies" Yeah we all know they suck ass. Thank you Master of the Obvious

I don't mind it being so dark but the flashlight given to help isn't that useful. I would like to see them more useful or maybe better flashlights can be found? I can't run and use a flashlight? Really? That's pretty silly. You can sprint and hold a flashlight steady enough to make it useful IRL. Ask any police officer or military person how to do it. I totally agree it should bounce and be less effective than walking but to just render it completely useless unrealistic. Getting too close to a wall or object renders your flashlight useless. It's a real pain to open a door and navigate inside buildings. The diameter of the lighted area should stay large even when I come up to an object. The line between where the light ends and the darkness begins is very sharp. That's just not how lights work. It's a gradient effect where the center of the lighted area is brightest and it slowly fades as goes away from the center. Replicating this more effectively in game would help a lot. The gamma / brightness trick doesn't work for everyone. I tried it and it's still to dark to be of any use. Someone said it's the same as day? Not on my computer. All buildings, roads, people, zombies, and other objects are still completely black and there are no lines on them to separate the different objects so they all bleed together into one solid black mass. The sky and ocean turn silver and are easy to see but everything else is still completely black. Also I shouldn't have to exploit game engine mechanics like this.

Totally agree and these are the kinds of tools that should be in the sandbox. Some will look at them and say "wth? I don't care about this stupid thing..." Someone else will grab it and say "Awesome!" and run down the road tooting their new horn. Also consider how these items can be used and impact the game world. Keeping with the trumpet idea. You can use it as a trumpet and play a song. You could also use it as a diversion for not only zombies but other players. Perhaps it could also be used as an improvised weapon in a pinch? I think the hatchet is a good example something like this already in game. It's used to gather wood, kill zombies, and kill other players. The hunting knife is a bad example. I can ONLY use it for cleaning game. Items should not be restricted to a single use. I should be able to stab zombies with it or throw it or other uses.

You bring up some great points and I would love to see more tools to build with in the sandbox. There will always be a significant portion of the playerbase who's entire point to play is to kill other people. I've seen this in other games; especially UO. The have zero interest in ANY non-pvp mechanic or tool given to them. You can not convince them to use these tools and play the game in any other way. If you force them through rules and game mechanics they will just stop playing. A lot of these players are desirable! They make the game more exhilarating, unpredictable, and risky. They seek out PvP because it's the only "real" challenge. They hare here to compete with other players and derive no satisfaction from "out smarting" or "beating" some inanimate virtual object like a zombie. Then a sub-set of those players are griefers. Their entire reason for playing is not just to kill people but to make you rage IRL or preferably rage quit and punch your keyboard. Again they have absolutely no interest in non-pvp mechanics or tools unless they can be exploited to piss you off. If you force them to anything else other than PvP and grief they will stop playing. We do not want these players; their entire existence is to ruin other peoples gaming experience. Obviously these are broad generalizations and many people fall in between. I left out players who enjoy both PvP and PvE or just PvE. I think the game already caters to them fairly well. So how do we keep PvP centric people interested and engaged but discourage griefers? They share a lot of characteristics. For example if you make it absolutely necessary, if not required, to cooperate with other players in order to acquire equipment necessary to participate in PvP effectively you will drive away both player types. In fact you may even drive away most good-natured PvP'ers and be left with griefers because griefers don't necessarily have to kill you to grief you. They will use any means necessary to make you rage IRL.

I've only played a few days now. Ran into a couple cheaters. Always on public hive servers with 10 or 20 people playing. I'd suggest spending some time finding a private hive, private servers, ran by admins who give a damn. Had much better luck on them! One cheater was actually pretty cool. He pulled up in a mini-bus and I hopped in (didn't know at the time he was a cheater). We drove around and picked up a couple other guys. Then he asked if I needed a gun... sure! So we got out and he said it was in the van. I check the van and it's filled with badass stuff.... hmmm... suspect but whatever, I grab an awesome rifle and some ammo. We all get in and speed off. Eventually he drives off into the wilderness and stops.... we all get out. Magically some big box appears and it's filled with blood bags and all kinds of goodies. OK... I know he's cheating now =P Then somehow he attaches green and purple smoke grenades to the van and pops them. We all pile in again and drive off leaving a funny purple and green rainbow in our wake. It was pretty funny; he called it the hippie bus. Then it starts getting really crazy. He teleports us into the ocean and we plunge under water. Glass all starts busting. Then we teleport to an airfield. One guy gets out and starts shooting at the van. We all laugh and drive around. Eventually we all get out and it's just a mass-shoot-out. I die pretty quickly. It was somewhat comical. Didn't really care I died because all the stuff I had wasn't legit anyway. Then on another server I was running along the coast and POP some guy appears.... great. I say HI and then he disappears again. Hmm.. whatever... I keep running. I mention this occurrence over side chat and some other people start complaining about "hackers" too. An admin was on and was like "Oh we have anti-cheat code... no way he's cheating." Couple of minutes later I just drop dead... no people / zombies were around... no bullet noises... just dead. Neat. Restart and start running again. Didn't get very far and I drop dead again. This is where shitty admins are as bad as hackers. They should have done something about this guy. They knew he was on and a bunch of people were complaining about it. Heck you could even see the server spamming BattleEye messages about the same guy over and over again. Instead they just pretended it couldn't happen and ignored it. Something tells me they knew it was happening and were apathetic or they were in on it =P So again I say find a good private server & hive ran by people who actually police the server and weed out the asshats.

Sounds like an epic adventure! Made your getaway in a tractor? Well played sir... well played...

I downloaded ArmA 2 + Op. Arrow Head from Steam over night and it was done in the morning. Used DayZ commander to download ArmA 2 patch, DayZ mod, and all additional maps for DayZ at the same time before I went to work. When I got home that evening they were all done. I only have a 2 Mb connection. Your OS has very little to do with your download speed unless you're running like Windows 3.1 for Workgroups =P

One of the first things I noticed about this game as I played it a few hours.... I feel completely hopeless. I need water or something to drink. I get close to some buildings and see some zombies. I try to be sneeky but they always detect me. I run away because I have nothing to kill them with. I have nothing to kill them with because I can't loot anything in a building. I need water.... Don't get me wrong; I'm not mad nor do I hate the game or anything. I'm not making a judgement call on the game about this. This is just something I observed while stumbling my way through the game for the first time. It was actually very weird and interesting. Very rarely do games incite real emotions and physical responses for me. I honestly feelt dispair! By the time I was so messed up, could hardly see due to the bluriness, and about to bleed out I stopped running, turned, and faced my demise. Even if I managed to get away I could barely see anything and would just bleed to death anyway; just get it over with! =) Oh man did my heart race a several times! What a great game; really looking forward to playing it some more!

I'm glad you can appreciate my point of view on this and I hope you understand it's my personal view. I'm not passing judgement on you, or anyone else here. Certainly not going to get into some ethical pissing match that we've seen in this thread. I did point out that I totally understand why people do it and I'm often tempted to do it myself. It REALLY sucks running around for so long only to find junk... then keep running to find yet more junk. But to me it makes accomplishment so much more satisfying when I do finally find something good! Not sure I totally agree that camping loot spawns is more risky. I see what you mean and I've read other peoples argument about this. Maybe it's more of a risk when camping and cycling good spots like super markets, hospitals, etc. I've seen little to no risk camping places that are less desirable. I just rarely run into people at all let alone in some machine shed on a pier. Never seem to worry about zombies once I'm IN a building. Maybe I've just been lucky here. Again it may be much more risky in highly desirable buildings because people seek them out on purpose. I think it's more risky running from building to building. I've never been killed in a building. Always seem to get zerged by zeds or capped by other players when I'm running outside of buildings. You even note that you don't want to run across a zombie filled wasteland ... because it's risky and the loot isn't guaranteed. I've never found a heli crash site. However I'm rather principled and do try not to be a hypocrite. Like I mentioned before; forcing loot cycles takes away the sense of accomplishment for me... I just don't like it. It also cheapens the whole experience. By that I mean... if I can just force loot cycles and eventually get what I want... I really don't care if I loose anything... I'm really not worried about trying to survive... so the game becomes less meaningful and eventually boring. I've done it in other games and come to realize these things.

Totally agree dude, you wouldn't have to stop and type. You would bind a key to it. So you would bind a key (or key combo) to /rude and just hit that key.

I wasn't worried about someone hoarding resources and somehow making it more difficult for other players. As you point out people can just get resources elsewhere or on another server. What I meant was that by hoarding stuff the game becomes much more easy. You aren't worried about getting your next drink or meal or gun because you've hoarded plenty of extras.

Sprinting down the coast, pumping wind as hard as I can, I look over my right shoulder "Shit! It's still on me!" I hurdle over a bush and keep running. As I come over a rolling hill I can see some buildings and a pier jutting out off the coast... and more lame brains. Maybe I can lose them around the buildings? I can't go any further right or I'll run into more geeks. I hug the shore closely and try to aim for a big machine shed by a pier. As I approach at full speed the other geeks nearby spot the commotion, howl, and start sprinting toward me. Now I'm up a steep bank and on the landing of the pier between it and the huge shed. As I run across the concrete I check back over my shoulder to see my progress and to my great surprise the lame brains aren't giving chase anymore! I slow down to a jog and scan the area in front of me...all clear..then look back again. The geeks are still raged but are just shaking their fists, throwing monkey fits, and refuse to get up onto the pier. "What the fuck?" I say to myself and stop jogging. Again I scan the area around me...still clear...stop all together, bend down and rest with my hands on my thighs, gasping to catch my breath and look up across the pier where the lame brains were still throwing their little temper tantrum. "Guess they hate the water as much as I do" I thought as I looked around slowly and with more intent. Further up along the coast in the direction I was running I see a jetty with trees, more beach, and a solid wood fence. Beyond that are some big buildings and silos many stories tall. Off further to the right are even bigger buildings... "I must be on the outskirts of a city." Walking now and still trying to catch my breath I stay on the piers and head up toward the fence. Cautiously I round the left side of the fence and there's a shed, huge fuel reserve tank, a road, and more piers. I creep up on the shed but as I get close I hear feet shuffling inside and some muffled groans... "Of course..." I don't even bother with it and head over to the road and follow it left out onto the jetty and along the piers. Ahead is a huge building, some silos to the left of it, to the right a small sub-station, a very long pier that ends in a gulf of water, and an enormous crane. I decide to check out the big building. Slowly I make my way to it, still breathing heavy, but getting better. Off to the right by the sub-station and along the pier I see more geeks.. "Damn." So I go left around the building which is thankfully clear. As I case the building I carefully check the doors... All locked and reinforced; no way I'm breaking into these without some tools and a lot of noise. As I round the far side of the building I know the sub-station and walkers are right around the corner. I crouch and move as quite as possible. Peeking my head around the corner I'm startled by how close the geeks are and of course between me and the sub-station. Thankfully the don't see me and I wait patiently as they wander around down toward the coast. After several minutes they seem to have wandered off down the hill and out of sight. I'm apprehensive about going to the sub-station. "I NEED water" thinking to myself "and I can't just avoid every close encounter." I close my eyes and say a short prayer then creep out toward the sub-station. Having to go around a chain-link fence toward it's half open gate I can now see the front doors to the small building. The doors are ajar, it's open! Carefully and quietly I creep up on the doors. Now I can see further down that hill toward the coast... damn those lame brains are close! Managing to slip in it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dark room. "Oh thank God! There's some stuff here!" Trying to look through the junk carefully and quietly is hard as I'm so happy to just find SOMETHING and at any moment one of those geeks could wander back. Empty food cans... empty pop cans... wrappers... papers.. junk! "Damnit!" Turn toward another pile of refuse and begin parsing through it... junk... worthless... broken... AH-HAH a knife! "YES!" I slip it into my belt and keep looking... some flares... more junk. *rustle* *snarl* *rustle* "Oh fuck they are close!" Sounds like it's coming from the back or side still so I creep over to the front doors and peek out left then right. Continuing to quietly work my way toward the fence gates but as I come around the side of the building I'm RIGHT by one! "Gaahhh!" I scream out loud like a little fuck'n kid! My body just instantly reacts and breaks into a full sprint. "HOWWWL!" *snarl* In my panic trying to get around the gate I slam into the fence and stumble. Regaining my footing I break for the pier. As I get out on to it I glance back... "Hah!" they are stopped near the edge of the pier! Oh this is TOO good! Slowing to a walk I make my way along the pier back the way I had originally come. The geeks are hissing and snarling while tracking me along the road yet keeping a safe distance as I stay on the pier. An interesting puzzle now... I can't stay on the pier forever... they won't leave... how do I get free? An old fashion standoff; they got me cornered and they know it. My only hope is that their brain is all but grey pudding which gives me the advantage: abstract thinking. I take the opportunity of relative safety to walk along the entire pier. There are more massive cranes here. A road runs along the piers with intersecting roads that go out into the city. Buildings of all sizes and shapes fill in between the roads. By now I've got quite the fan club cheering for me on the road. Stumbling over one another for a front row seat just to drool over little ole' me. If it wasn't such a horror show I might be flattered. As I despair over the situation a thought pops in my mind "The cranes!" I climb up one of these hulking machines. *jiggle the handle* Damn, the cab is locked. I cup my hands around my face and lean against the glass to look in... "I never gave these machine operators enough credit... even if I got in I'd never know how to run it." I turn and lean up against the cab and sloooowwwly slide down to a sitting position with a *sigh* "God I'm thirsty...so... F'n... thirsty." I lick my lips with my dry tongue but it's no help. I lean over and look down at my eagerly awaiting fans... Hmm... they are losing interest quite rapidly. Patiently I wait and watch. One or two at a time peel away from the group and wander off back into the city; "Nice!" As the last few wander off I quietly climb down. Once on the ground I use the bulky structure of the crane as cover and observe the area. "There's a loading dock there... the rolling door is open..." I scan the dirty, smudged, windows... I don't see anyone inside... no movement. Quietly I creep across the road, constantly scanning left to right, and sneak up the loading dock into the building. "LOOOT!" Desperately I try to contain my exuberance and walk over to a pile of miscellaneous stuff. Carefully I sift through it; constantly looking around for trouble. There's a few bullets laying around which quickly pocket. I open a tattered canvas satchel and my eyes shoot open as wide as possible: "Oh fuck a pistol!!!" I roll it around in my hand admiring it as if it were the most amazing thing I'd ever found in my entire life. "Stay cool! Hurry and get out!" I say to myself. I quickly scoop up what looks like a bottle of acetaminophen, a package of hand warmers, and more bullets. One more scan of the area and I creep back out the loading dock, peek around the corner, "Clear!", and sneak back behind the crane. Kneeling down I inspect the area then go back to admiring my new gun! I'd never bothered much with guns before... Sure I've shot the occasional shot gun or rifle with grand'pa or my brothers. They would take me now and then to go hunt small game but they were the 'sportsmen'... not me. Never had I shout a hand gun before... I don't even know what the hell I'm doing ... but I know this thing could mean I live another day. I knew enough from TV that it was a revolver and somehow it swung open to reload. Fiddling with it while I look around checking for trouble I eventually find the latch and the cylinder swings out. Five chambers are full. I slide it back up and it clicks back into place. Reaching in my pocket I pull out the bullets... 1...2, 3, 4... 5...6... "That's 11 shots total." A part of me couldn't help but think "Wish I had more" but it's 11 more than I had this morning. As I sat there behind that crane I kept occasionally looking out for any signs of trouble but still admiring that pistol. I practiced holding my arm out straight and looking down the sights. It wasn't very big but it felt heavy... I must be getting weak... Then it struck me "I still hadn't found anything to drink... or eat." The sun is hanging low in the sky now. Couple hours it will be below the horizon... and it will be dark... black as midnight... black as pitch. I climbed up to the top of the crane again and sat watching the sun set. My heart sank with the sun as it slipped below the horizon. I curled up into the fetal position on that narrow deck. Using my pack as a pillow... pulling my sleeves over my hands for warmth... eventually I doze off to the now typical sounds of the night... crickets and moans... the rustling of those who never sleep... wolves in the far distance yip and howl... and the waves rolling in to the shore. "God I'm so thirsty..."