Dr. Goner

After having a twenty hour character destroyed by over zealous admins on a server I had been frequenting for quite some time, I decided to try a new server for the first time in over a month. The new server was great. I found a DMR at a heli crash ten minutes into my play through. I died and ran for half an hour back to the location of my body and heard only buzzing flies, so an admin helped me retrieve my gear after checking data logs. The admins seemed to let the game unfold naturally, help when legit bugs were found, and refrained from policing the action. It was going great! Though someone named Robert did type early on as I ran inland from the coast. "It is mostly friendly here, but don't let your guard down. Bandits sometimes play on this server." These words set the tone of my play through and I was edgy the entire night. I was running around farming the North East air field and trying to cobble a jeep together when I heard shots coming from Krasnostav. I ran to the tree line to scope the runway with my DMR (first time I've had a sniper rifle in game). I watched a player ride in on an ATV, other players started typing in side chat, they mentioned Balota, I'm new, I got confused and thought I was at Balota. I thought I saw another player. There was a little bird on the runway, two jeeps, tons of ammo, I had the airfield to myself man. Now these guys are gonna kill me or I can run and hide. The admins of the old server I played on killed anyone that got near the north east. I know north west is the most common hot spot but the north east is superior in a lot of ways. The player I was watching shot a cow in between the runways. I thought, "No way is he going to walk out there and gut it." Well he did. I put my cross hairs on him. He cut and gutted the animal. He was gathering the meat. I fired. . . He went down but wasn't dead. I fired again and missed. I carefully took aim at his head and fired one last time. DR GONZO HAS KILLED ROBERT. Whoa!! typed a player in side chat. The server was friendly until my actions filled everyone with fear. A player says, "I guess you're not friendly." I back peddled. "Oh shit man that was an accident." I lied. "I thought he was shooting at me." Horrible guilt filled me. I ran and hid in some trees and logged off. As I drifted off to sleep, the entire scenario ran through my head. It was only then that I realized my confusion about Balota and North East. It was only then that I realized I killed a possible friend. I have never experienced a feeling like this from playing a video game. I am a little freaked out honestly. I was just curious if anyone else had a "first innocent killed" experience to share. I'm not a bandit. My skin did not change. But something inside me definitely has.

Awesome man!! Great work. I meant No more as in, I can't believe there haven't been more stories posted here. I was hoping people would post more and you haven't disappointed.Thanks!

This is a great article describing Ludonarrative Dissonance in gaming. DayZ is briefly mentioned by the author as he explains that true immersion would be a huge pain in the ass. It's an intelligent assessment of "immersive" games being made today. How much realism do we really want? How mindlessly willing are we to accept completely unrealistic situations and scenarios by simply saying "this is more accurate than anything I've previously experienced"? The Conan videos are great at pointing this out. Anyway, if you need a lot of pictures and explosions with your readin' books, don't click the link. Those of you looking for a little intellectual stimulation... enjoy. http://www.platformnation.com/2013/04/22/when-familiarity-backfires/

I guess the question then becomes how real do we want it to be?

Ugh... I say immerse yourself in the gaming culture of the people who speak the languages you want to hear. I've heard plenty of foreign language speakers while playing online games. I think people generally gravitate towards groups or servers where people speak their language. Especially in DayZ, I've found myself on servers filled with people speaking Polish. What is the exact problem you have with that being part of the "realism"? Every big game that comes out now has at least four or five different languages to choose from.

True, you have my beans. I like the idea of something completely realistic other than social repercussions being removed (no going to prison or actual death ;) ). What would a game set in reality look like? How long before all of us are brutal criminals? How many would go to work and pay bills in the game of Reality? How many would cowboy up at the local precinct and create a warlord kingdom? I guess I see the ultimate game as very very realistic with some added threat (or not) and some slight elements of reality removed (social contracts).

While I understand what you're saying, your argument is a slippery slope. By your logic why would we have moved on from Pac-Man?

Well, it can also be environmental aspects of the game that break immersion or go against the narrative set by the game. For example in DayZ: Oh my god, I'm living in a Zombie apocalypse... oh, there's an AS50, wait, there's another one. Oh, hold on, if I take this one and come back in five minutes there'll be another one here and I think I'll hop in that chopper and go for a spin even though, there's not indication that I was a chopper pilot when I washed up on the beach.Before ya'll get mad, I love DayZ, I'm just pointing out examples of Ludonarrative Dissonance in the game.

How do you enforce this?

There's a military camp in Berenzino as well. Three Valleys is really close to the area you're talking about, so... there are spawns in the east.

You all really don't have any more first kill stories? I figured this would be a hot thread. EDIT: Reworded for clarity. Keep em' coming folks!!

What if the attachments need various levels of repair? Say you find a scope, but it needs a machine screw or a few washers. You would also need the manual to figure out how to properly attach it. I guess I'm talking about "crafting" in a different way than what we've previously seen in games. Not you need A,B,C to create D but you need A,Z and knowledge level 1,2,and3 to master D. I like the idea of needing a "Chiltons" auto manual in order to perform certain repairs to vehicles. I think the idea of needing blue prints, manuals, and guides is a good thing. Cleaning and assembly instructions for firearms would be key for proper maintenance.

I'm not sure what we should be able to craft. If you want to maintain realism look to army survival guides, but then you would only be crafting traps, shelters, latrines, bunkers and such. I really can't think of anything logical that you could make besides the items I just listed. You could craft navigational devices with sticks and such. You could make a variety of melee weapons, mostly spears and blunt clubs. You could create a variety of booby traps. I think with a collection of proper tools you could craft certain parts for vehicles but honestly, it's unlikely that you would have the proper tools to do any real automotive repairs. Hmmm... just not sure what's realistic.

I love this idea!

You use whatever math you want. A 12 gauge has over 2000 is it a better gun? Depends on range. Just use this and look at the 357 vs the 44 at 50ft. There's honestly no comparison.Edit: Oops I forgot the link. http://billstclair.com/energy.html

I can't tell if you're being serious. Are you Russian? If so, I understand your statement as we all want to be patriotic. If you aren't I'm laughing my ass off because that statement is ridiculous. But obviusly we'll have to agree to disagree as we both seem to have sentimental attachments to these weapons.

It would be just a survival game if there weren't ZOMBIES everywhere. Also, why do you continue to post anti 1866 stuff when in the Op I stated that this thread was to celebrate the weapon. Get back under your bridge little troll.http://dorf-and-dorf.blogspot.com/2012/06/dayz-survival-horror-done-right.html

Exactly my point, such a small province wouldn't have three military bases. But also worth noting in the last devblog, Ivan stated that they took a field trip to the real Chernarus, which is fifty kilometers north of BIS headquarters. So, I'm not sure where it's really supposed to be because his statement places it in the Czech republic. It was nice hearing him talk about growing up in the forests and meadows of "Chernarus" though.This gun and its variants are all completely bad ass. Easy to maintain, light weight, no training required, great iron sites, easiest ammo to reload (besides shotgun), and amazingly beautiful. Also, the range is good, stopping power is good. There's an awesome video out there on youtube where a fella talks about the 30/30 repeater being the best home defense weapon due to stopping power and rate of fire. I love the 1866, but it would be awesome to replace it with the marlin 30/30. I also own a Henry survival rifle 22 cal, it breaks down into three pieces that all fit in a waterproof stock. It's currently issued to every american pilot in there ejection gear. It's a cool little gun. Anyway, thanks for the input.

OK, just to make it easy I'll copy it here. This gun would be in the area.These rifles were used in number by the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, where they made quite a name for themselves during the Siege of Plevna. The battle incidentally caused all the major powers to seriously consider adopting repeating rifles, considering the outnumbered Turks inflicted 4 times as many casualties as the Russians did with their single-shot Krnka and Berdan rifles.

Please read the original Wiki article on 1866 that I posted and see why it IS in fact prevalent in those areas. Also, I didn't realize that Chernarus was a country. I thought it was region or a state. If it was a country it would be the smallest country on earth... literally. The area is smaller than that of Rhode Island.Anyway, I didn't mean to offend. I just don't see DayZ as a military simulator. That's what ARMA is. DayZ is a survival horror game at its heart. There are military games ad nauseum out there. Let us have our survival horror. The best survival horror in history I might add, in part due to its realism.

I'm bumping this and adding a thought: What if these "achievements", or whatever we want to call them, are unlisted and never posted by the developers? It seems most players like the idea of showing their stripes in some way. Because I agree, achievements shouldn't be grinding, if you all remember my original post asked, what's the point of grinding for a compass every time you die. Example Reward: You move a little more quietly through the woods. How? Well, you don't realize it but DayZ has a built in reward for traveling over 1000 miles by foot in game. Does this make sense? Any thoughts?

I understand what you're getting at but this looks like a list of Fallout 3 achievements. Good try though!

Ha!

I really hope DayZ SA doesn't turn into a military simulator. I'm glad all signs point away from this. EDIT: I hope in the SA you can find something like this and there is no possibly of ever finding ammo for it. Now that would be awesome.

My favorite part is the fact that they've made the weapon situation far more realistic. This game should be about survival not COD with a slight zombie threat. You're not going to have time to worry about finding an AS50 anymore. You're going to be struggling for your life vs new TOUGH zeds. I'm so pumped for this update. It's going to be more like the game that dayz hinted at when I first started playing it.