Saethkept

If you add this to DayZ, please add either a lootable streamer or small flag with which a player can better gauge wind direction, as well as windsocks at the airfields.

Namalsk ... my favorite "horror" map. In the beginning of my DayZ adventures, I played Namalsk more than any other map. Suffered my first death there after crossing Tara Bridge and eventually wandering into A2, never aware it was PvP central. Now I've run the map on my server on and off, and can never get enough. I would live at Nitija Army Base if I could - I love the terrain there and it is a former Army Combat Engineer's perfect playground. Great guide; wish I had had it to follow when I was a noob.

If fast travel were ever implemented, I would use it to emigrate all maps post-haste from DayZ. On foot is more interesting. There's more to each map than Land_mil_barracks_i! Of course, finding a shot to all swiss cheese and back again vehicle, and repairing it is a very satisfying accomplishment AND you get to ride in it to other places. Remember those old Fallout games (no, the isometric view ones)? Remember how we could only dream of driving in real time around the map that ultra rare car fixed with ultra hard to develop skills and ultra hard to find parts? Well my friend, now you can ...in DayZ. Until then, take the shoe leather express!

I agree with this. There are most definitely two factions so to speak in most online games; DayZ absolutely being one of them. Essentially, you have what I would respectively call "Light Players" and "Deep Players". Light Players - of any maturity level really - may still truly love to play the game (without cheating) but essentially want to just hop in and gear up, and get on with their "end game". Nothing wrong with that; many DayZ players also have lives involving real world responsibilities. The Deep Players (I am one of these), want to be completely immersed in the games they play, meaning even though they know that beyond the border woods surrounding Chernarus lies the flat, ugly and barren "end" of the world, never go there. Deep Players will spend hours stalking an enemy; treat every zombie as a potential death experience, and climb around on the in game architecture just to absorb the post apocalyptic ambience. On topic: While I do not think use of TS/Mumble/C3 etc. is cheating, when I was a brand new DayZ player, I was somwhat intimidated by squads of other players on Skype, etc. What I did was "roleplay" them as roving bands of ex-military units or gangs, whatever, and proceeded accordingly.

Think of "killer" doors, walls, heli crash hatches and ural wrecks as haunted by violent spirits ... killer poltergeists. It works for me anyway - along with antimatter zombies that defy natural physics.

Well ... I usually look both ways first ... But that's life in the apocalypse I suppose. DayZ drivers rarely stop for pedestrians.

Other than running with a friend or two from time to time, I had been a Lone Wolf until I rented a server a couple of months ago, and invited in some old friends to help out - recruiting never before PC gamers to try DayZ. As a Lone Wolf, I practiced a two pronged tactic ... I still go off on my own when I can. First "prong" of my tactic was to get what I could on log in, and then go to ground, meaning lose myself in the wilds. In the woods I would constantly move, scavenge, respond to calls for aid and often provide extreme range overwatch for other players I did not know. At night, or in bad weather I would enter towns very cautiously and I very rarely pitched a tent. I found this style of play most rewarding. My loadout would normally consist of a long range rifle with optics, no sidearm, an MP5SD in my backpack, with which I used pistol ammo mags so as to save main inventory space and facilitate easy transfers of weapons in and out of the backpack. There was never a place or need for a vehicle in this tactic. The second "prong" of my Lone Wolf tactic was running taxi services either with skodas or helicopters or buses. I would fix up a vehicle in Stary, Msta, Myshkino, etc, and then advertise in chat that I was giving rides to anyone who needed it. I died a lot. I was betrayed, killed with vehicle and aircraft mounted weapons, and I had many fatal accidents on Chernarus' highways. Man was it fun. No friends to worry about, no affiliation .. just me, a new passenger every day and the open or closed road. I miss all of that

I hear you clearly, and agree ... mostly. However, the vanilla experience seems to be restricted to public servers to a degree. I had struggled and struggled (what DayZ is about essentially I suppose) for months to find what you seek as well. However, the hacker situation or the abusive admin situation, or the clan dominance on the server situation ... drove me to rent a private server. We (not a clan) have been tinkering with recreating a more immersive and challenging DayZ experience on our server, but it is not all that simple. Where we diverge in thought perhaps - regarding a more pure DayZ experience - is in a feature set. For instance, most recently I recommitted to running DayZ Taviana.eu due to the by headshot only death of zombies which really adds to the challenge and environmental threat. Also, we have tweaked the zombie speed, hit damage and skill. I do get where you are coming from though. On a vanilla Chernarus server I once spent five hours repairing a Skoda. Another time I practically lived in Msta by a tree stand trying to figure out how to get unstuck a Hilux pickup stuck between two wrecked vehicles. I miss those days.

091 - 042 ... the SUV spawn. Also, the plain tan HMMWVs that spawn on Taviana.com usually contain a satchel charge or two. I always mean to try them out, but end up storing them away and someone else does the demolition for me.

Possibly, if you had a Ural or MTVR, parked it against the gas station island roof, you'd get a scrollable option to get in the helicopter as you exited the truck. I've done something similar, but on a lower structure. Also, I have run into this with players leaving helicopters on inaccessable castle tower rooves. Otherwise destroy the thing and it will hopefully respawn ... although the intentional destruction of vehicles ticks me off, sometimes it's necessary. Finally, as mentioned a good server admin would manage issues like this. Perhaps the admin of your server would help?

Been there on every server since I began playing. I usually forget to crouch to get over it when entering the barracks, and then get swarmed by zed, unless I am in a "metal gear" mood and crawled in to camp. It's great how resourceful DayZ players are. I am starting to think you guys can get out of any situation.

Actually, the SVD is chambered for the 7.62x54R whereas the M40 is chambered for 7.62x51mm - a cartridge that is a fully three millimeters shorter. In game I often carry an SVD backed up by an MP5SD or in the case of Celle, a machine pistol such as the Beretta 93R. I prefer the SVD, with camo or not, for the PSO optic, which is quite good in close quarters combat for reactive/reflex snap shots. In theory I also like the M24/M40, but it is a situation specific weapon, with a shorter range and much lower rate of fire. Of course, the SVD cannot be used with night vision, unless you add the SVD with night vision scope to your server loot table. On that note, that weapon (SVD/night scope) is amazing in its own right with night vision capability and open sights for day/point plank combat.

Sabina, capital of Taviana does indeed have subway tunnels and even a subway platform. I also think the underground setting fits perfectly into DayZ ... just not every map. And what about Object A2 in Namalsk? I get much faster performance in that underground bunker - with lighting, computers, and flowing waterways than above ground.

^^That's mighty interesting ... I argued for this for months over on the WarZ forums. For many common sense and genre fan based reasons. Suffice it to say that these days people seem to confuse 'Zombie Apocalypse' with 'The Roadwarrior', 'The Road', or 'The Day After'. Some like elements of both Romero and human cannibalism/monstrosity blended in their zombie genre fun. Not me. Romero ingeniously substituted the risen hungry dead for human evil and taboo of the day. Of course the humans in Romero's films sometimes betrayed one another, but such was more about intricate studies into darker reaches of human behavior, than gaming what horrors men might inflict upon one another in apocalyptic situations. Modern genre examples have hastily and shoddily confused this. A good example is 'The Walking Dead' where men and women far exceed the zombies in their dastardly behavior. Not for me really.

I do not. However, once I was in a small town in Chernarus - middle of the AM. I had just found and repaired a HMMWV and it was my first experience with it in DayZ. So I wanted to hold onto it. Anyway, a helicopter hovers overhead - and I have had some awful bad luck with death from above. So I run out of the market, take shelter under the overhang of a small porch. I ask in chat "friendly in the chopper?" No answer and I repeat this again. All I had was an MP5SD. So the chopper lands on the hill by the orchard where I had parked my HMMWV. I figure the guy is going to loot it, steal it or snipe me from above. So I run up the hill, flick the selector to burst, and down the hill comes running another player in a Ghillie Suit. Without a thought, I empty the 30 round mag into his chest, and he is dead. Unfortunately, the other survivor was unarmed and vowed to hunt me down lol. And that is the only time I have killed an unarmed player in DayZ.

Yes, this is good to know. Maintains faith in the "man with the plan". Look at what War Z pulled with safe zones and purchasable food, drink, ammo, optics, etc. Good to know indeed.

Lol, I followed the whole 'Sergey Thing' for months over there and I am glad you all are nothing like that fellow. That said, I would be a zombie/infected one. Got to see how the other half live or un-live. Chasing bandits hungrily, instead of being chased into paranoia by them would be a nice change.

I've suffered the same ... admin abuse, that is. I currently rent and administer a server - mostly for friends at the moment. But we hope to open to either whitelisted or players screened with a simple application at some point. What we have been trying to find, is the best visible medium for the admin role on our server, while trying to be as hands off as possible. It's not easy. I've been playing DayZ for months now, and sometimes I think running a server is less for gamers who actually like to play it, as the wanting to play can get in the way of good server administration. As for admin abuse, I am sure we have all suffered such often. Instances that stick out for me? Hmm. On one private hive Taviana server I liked I once found a Huey and flew it around until I ran low on fuel. So I landed on the large island, found a ground vehicle and drove it over to the airport on the smaller one. Found a fuel truck there, and drove it back to where I had parked my chopper. The admin logs in - just he and I on the server - and realizes he cannot fuel his C130 because the fuel truck was moved - by me - from that airport. He did not kick or ban me, but went nuts over my having moved the fuel truck. Another instance, right after the 1.7.5.1 update, some friends and I found a new Chernarus server that seemed great (our home server never updated). Almost right away, days after the admins realized we liked their server and were there to stay, they started to bug us for cash donations. On top of that, one night after I had found a HMMWV in Cherno, an admin logged in and demanded that I drive him around. I ended up leaving him in the boondocks when he got out to eat and drink, then crashed the Hummer and logged for good. At any rate, I had been waiting for Namalsk .741 to open our server to players in general, but that release has had some issues with Tara Bridge and Seraja AB. We then went to Taviana.eu which also has some serious bugs and slow development going on, and so now we are likely waiting for Taviana 3.0 at the end of this month. Here's to hoping we all administer our servers in a fair manner, and also find servers with good admins.

I would say find food before weapons. You don't have to go into a town to find food ... or anything else. Industrial buildings on the outskirts of cities and towns and all by themselves sometimes, can contain pretty much everything you need. A hatchet can be the best silenced weapon; carry a handgun as backup. Not everyone is a bloodthirsty killer, but getting close enough to determine who is who will get you hurt or killed. When in doubt, "Charlie Out" (run like hell). Also, some DayZ players like to play headgames i.e. they will deceive you after acting like a buddy. Best to have a friend in game with you to cover your back if you doubt a person's honesty, or character. Most will tell you not to shoot zombies, or that you are not playing "right" if you do. Sooner or later you will have to shoot your way out. If you get trapped in a buidling by zombies - a barracks or apartments, etc. - just find the furthest back corner from the closest door and lay down. Often the zombies will come into the room a few feet and then do an about-face. Most important: develop your own play style; veteran tips are useful in the beginning of your DayZ life, but you'll have more fun doing it "your way".

I thought I had mastered the fine art of piloting helicopters. I had landed a group of friends and I on one of the apartment building rooves in Vorkuta (Namalsk), and was feeling quite smug in my demonstration of flight skills. Unfortunately, the KA-60 is a sometimes buggy old lass which in this instance decided to buck up and down as I turned off her engines ... just as my group were getting out onto the roof. Ever trying to be the hero, I fired her back up, hit 'Q' and thought, 'No, sweat I will lift back off and orbit while they climb down to street level and loot. Unfortunately again, I had landed with auto hover off. So instead of lifting skyward when I nosed her down and forward, I plummeted all the way over to the office buidling and slammed into the street like a comet. Somehow I crawled away with a broken leg, and although I took some jabs, I still think I impressed someone other than myself ... by surviving.

DayZ.ST also has a "group" hive within their company provided servers that save players' gear across them. However, do not confuse these with a fully private DayZ.ST server, as they are completely autonomous, and only save a player's gear on that one particular server. *Also, listening to ZZ Top never hurts ... only pehaps the youngins' ears.

One probably could look at this ... the DayZ available weapon list, from the perspective of just who you are meant to be when you begin a new game. If an apocalyptic disaster went down which also included the rise of an overwhelmingly outnumbering enemy force of homicidal entities, everything would depend on who you were and what profession you were or had held prior to the situation; and of course the training you had received and mastered. As a soldier, particularly an infantryman - one who had survived the initial chaos of the worldwide violence, you might have access to most of the arsenal available in DayZ. As a law enforcement officer, provided that you survived, you would have access to a variety of small arms, possibly. However, as joe public - even a combat veteran - and as a civilian survivor/scavenger, the likelihood of your finding by chance a .50 anti-materiel rifle in your travels, is very low. They are a specialist weapon, carried by few units, and I highly doubt they would be removed from domestic armories and deployed against "once human" soft targets. Getting into those armories? It's been awhile, but the armory doors I remember in Army barracks were pretty secure. Ammo was another matter, also well secured but located well away from weapon storage. National Guard or Army Reserver armories? Possibly, but how would you get into them. It also depends on how much time has passed i.e. how long the weapon you pried from a dead soldier's fingers has been exposed to the element. Of course if the .50 rifle functions, where would you get ammo? How long would it take you to figure out how to accurately deploy it? On and on. I can do without the hand held artillery. Assault and Designated Marksman rifles are more than enough.

Good stuff. Sounds like a fun time.

Actually, you ought to try Taviana.eu 1.5.1. The zombies can only die from headshots, and they are much faster than either 1.7.4.4 or 1.7.6.1 zombies. Try to backpedal and shoot them, and instead of duping them into swinging at you so you have a second to shoot, they actually advance forward again and hit you. Almost every time they hit you, you bleed and they communicate very effectively. I don't know what exactly the dazyland devs did to enhance the zombie behavior, but I really like it. Sadly, recent word from Hawaii Samurai over at dazyland was that he did not know if there would be further updates, and there are only about 55 servers left running Taviana.eu.

Prior to 1.7.5.1 I had played on a Chernarus server that forced the "full" debug monitor in the upper right hand corner of all players' in game screen. What I liked most about it was the zombies alive count. Now that I run a server, is there a way for me to enable the debug monitor so that all joining players also have it up on their HUD? Thanks