Vicco

Plans in DayZ should be kept simple. Here's a guy who SAID he had a plan. Go to the Cherno apartments and find a gun. Good enough plan. Personally I prefer barns. He then violates his own plan, and gets himself violated. Though I sympathize with his travails, and felt much the same when I first started playing, I have "true grit." So when my plans fail, I assess the plan. If it's a good one, I beat my head against the wall until the plan succeeds. No, it's NOT insanity. It's true grit. This guy doesn't have true grit. He made one more video, and was a KOS'er, then quit. Making vids at least. Didn't seem a good fit for the game. I'm hoping I can persuade my partner away from my pantywaist server and into official 1.7.7.1 servers with me. He usually says, "What, you think I'm insane?"

Two-man team, squad, etc. Banditry, heroism. Set a goal. Twenty anti-biotics in 10 different stashes. Just finding the sandbags is a challenge. Hunt down and steal a chopper. Play a different game.

Okay. I'm another who looked at Reddit. What is that, a BBS?

There are no rules in this game. NO RULES. For all you know this Ghillie guy spends his evening shooting unarmed spawns on the shore. You can listen to all the BS these guys are putting out. Or be your own man. Just remember, probably every one of them is a KOS'er. And they like it best when they have a DMR and you have your hatchet. There is no "community" in game except the one YOU make or YOU join. This "community" here means nothing when you're in game. It's all YOU. You kept your AB's. And your hatchet. That's what mattered to you. You did right. The first thing to learn about this game: NO RULES.

Hey, maybe it's time to lighten up.

Personally, from the vids I've seen of Rust, it looks really "unfinished." One of main reasons I like DayZ is the realistic exteriors/ambience. So however else Rust does, it's got a way to go to get there for me. Pretty barren and cartoonish. But some of what I've heard about the gameplay is neat. Waking up (spawning?) in your locked house and hearing other players trying to break in sounds "interesting." "Hey George, sorry to wake you up, but can you log in, then come on over to my house and shoot these bastards outside? I want to get out and play."

Yep. That's what I've been doing "since the infection." With just a couple other players on the server you don't need to worry about PvP and can just concentrate on avoiding infection. But damn if I didn't join a server with one other player and in Cherno heard gunfire. So to be absolutely safe join an empty server. When gearing up I set my limit at 4 others, but do empties first. Just tick all boxes on the left in Commander, set the drop down to "DayZ Only," then sort by players. I don't use Commander to launch the game, but type the server name in the game's Multiplay filter. Seems Commander will launch the game every time you double click a server, and it's a looong loading game. You'll find many of the servers displayed won't work for you, for various reasons. Some aren't official, despite Commander displaying them. Some are whitelist, despite the Commander "Hide Locked" being ticked. Some won't connect. Some are laggy as hell. Some will kick you for BE restrictions, even if you're all up to date. Sometimes a BE kick won't happen every time. What I do is make a list of go/nogo in notepad, because I don't want to waste time. There's plenty of vanilla "official servers" out there, so it's easy to find low-pop servers. Especially at certain times of day for certain servers.

On "official" servers you keep what gear you have on your body, including your backpack, across ALL "official" servers. Anything else, like hidden tents and contents, and vehicles, is stored ONLY on the server where you placed it. That's assuming you log off alive. If you die, you start from scratch with whatever loadout the server gives for carried gear. You won't lose your tents and stashes though. They'll still be on the server, as long as you access them occasionally. On "unofficial servers" everything is kept, but ONLY on that server. You go to another "unofficial" server you haven't been to before, you start from scratch with whatever loadout the server provides. DayZ Commander has a tick box to exclude "unofficial" servers. It's not perfect, but close enough.

There's all kinds of servers, playing different Dayz versions with different spawn locations. Your best bet for that sniper and a vehicle is trying to makes some friends on the server you're playing on. Hell, some admins will teleport to you and hand you a DMR. Some servers might give you one in your loadout for a "donation." So it's really hard to give good advice when you're not on an "official" server. But teaming up with people on that server with side chat is your best bet. You sound like a decent enough guy. So if somebody texts "Hey Roy, meet me at the Cherno grocery. Got a DMR for you," just head on over there. If he kills you, there's not much difference in what's happening now, right? But it'll be more fun.

Sure, let players play Barbie doll with their character, as long as murderers get their head wrapped in a towel. Only reason I don't kill EVERYBODY on sight is because if they're not in a bandit skin, I might take a humanity hit, get myself a bandit skin, and become a target myself. But no bandit skins, and it's death match for me, because it's then an amoral game. No morality cues at all. Why take a chance? You could be wearing Ralph Lauren or dressed like a rapper. To me you're a bandit, and KOS. And I could live with that. An amoral game should be play amorally. That's how that works. You know, I was googling about this, and a year ago people were complaining and quitting the game when Rocket removed the bandit skins, because - they claim - KOS became the norm, instead of a large measure of cooperation. Supposedly Rocket removed the skins because some players thought they were "cool." I don't know why that bothered Rocket - or even if it's true - but he soon saw his mistake and put the skins back in. A year ago they were talking about the "good old days of Dayz." I think a lot of these perceptions about KOS being "new" are wrong readings of reality. There's always been KOS'ers in DayZ, from the very beginning. Just watch some old vids. What happened is the large number of "soft" players who played the game initially, dropped out one by one as they encountered KOS. Some probably became bandits by self-defense and didn't like that. That's the biggest flaw in the current humanity system, but is pretty easily overcome. Others got wary about interacting with other players and lone wolfed, some just became KOS'ers themselves because they want to keep playing. So there's just more KOS'ers left now by the process of elimination. But many people still cooperate and team up. No reason not to as long as bandits can be identified. Sure, it's a risk you take, but on "official" servers where humanity is kept real, lack of a bandit skin is a good enough reason not to KOS. But some non-bandit players will team up with bandits. Be careful with those. That "nice guy survivor" helping you loot may be on TS telling his bandit pal exactly where to approach from so he has a clean shot at your back. There is no way to remove that kind of tension from the game. Well, you could remove bandit skins and go pure death match. That would work. Private servers are another story. Anything goes, and it's usually a much different game than vanilla "official" servers.

How many spawns does that add up to? You've probably been lucky getting shot. Faster than infection. I suggest you stay well-hidden and learn to survive the zeds first. Otherwise, when you do find your sniper rifle, you won't live long enough to get comfy anyway.

Thoughtful post. I understand what you've said, and how this game can raise questions about human nature. We'll see how that all plays out when a REAL zombie apocalypse happens. I expect all people would team up in clans for self-protection, and clans might or might not fight one another. Depends mostly on resources. Groceries won't spawn in Cherno. Guns won't spawn at Balota, etc. But in a clan environment, bandits will be easily identified, and WILL be shot on sight. Lone-wolves MIGHT be tolerated. The game does this right already, with bandit skins doing the identification. "The one who disobeys morality first is instantly the winner, since that person gets to keep all the loot." That's purely your view. I don't see earning a bandit skin as "winning." And I don't care much about loot. There are many players who won't kill. Their "moral" or "gameplay" call. Respawning and recollecting survival gear is a HUGE part of what makes the game work. So is planning out stashes. Killing a bandit with absolutely no remorse is another. So a "hero" can satisfy some bloodlust too. I do agree that there's no use crying about KOS, and that element helps make the game what it is. They had just better adjust to it. At least stay on "official" servers where bandits are more readily identified. To me the biggest crybabies are those who don't want murder identified with a bandit skin. They have all kinds of excuses for it, but what they want is to murder with no price extracted. If they get their way and bandit skins are removed, I expect Dayz to become almost a pure deathmatch game. That's how I'd play it if NOBODY is pegged as a bandit. EVERYBODY must be assumed to be a bandit. Kill 'em all.

It's their only cure, and an act of mercy. So don't let it trouble your conscience.

Not impossible, but the game now takes too much patience for many people, and the "luck" element plays a much larger role. I've got almost 30 hours solo on vanilla servers since 1.7.7.1 - only because I'm patient and take up the challenge - and still haven't found an anti-biotic. And yes, I look everywhere. I've even done the night-time heli crashes as another player mentioned. Three heli crashes with med boxes/supplies on the ground around them. No AB's. Oh, I'll find them when my luck changes. I suspect many noobs will just walk away from the game. Marion Mic made an excellent suggestion - one AB with the loadout. That will encourage a noob to play on and fight the fight.

One only need hear PsiSyndicate speaking, determine his dialect, and wisely choose something else. Whatever it may be.

That's all cool with me. Though the devs will have their own preferences, pretty sure they want more than about 500 players who are addicted to tedium to be happy. They listen to everybody, and most of the concerns expressed about infection rate/antibiotics have been polite enough. I think you can expect changes. Personally, I'm still enjoying 1.7.7.1 on public servers. I've been camping Cherno grocery, jumping into low pop servers to gear up. Sometimes the loot is there when I spawn in, sometime I have to make a quick loop outside to get it to spawn. Just scored a 12-slot assault pack and a .45 on one server. Now that I can carry enough food/drink, I'll strike out for barns/sheds to find an axe and a Winchester. But I might server hop Cherno grocery another 10 times to try to score some anti-biotics. Of course I can tolerate that kind of tedium to some extent, because I'm "hard-core Dayz." Regardless of what the devs' intent was, that's how I use my "smarts" to "succeed." I use any game exploit available. In about 24 hours of play my partner and I only found 2 anti-biotics total, both in a grocery, so server-hopping Cherno grocery some more is probably a good move for me. My game-playing partner, who's a "hard-core" gamer, got fed up with the infections pretty quickly. He doesn't have the leisure time to repeatedly get killed by infection while hunting for anti-biotics, nor the almost infinite patience it takes to avoid infection. Just not his idea of fun after a hard day's work. Go figure. We've only played 1.7.7.1 Dayz together on my server, so I easily fixed his problem. We both spawn with a full 24-slot Coyote pack. Yep - 48 anti-biotics. So anti-biotics are no problemo. I still play public servers, but there is a limit to the tedium I can endure. I'll find out the limit when I hit it.

One of the original points made by the OP still stands. The "casual" gamer, hardcore or not, will walk away from this. Too time-consuming to collect basic survival gear. I've seen this in action with my partner, a fairly hard-core gamer, who works. He doesn't want to spend a week of his evening leisure time dying over and over again. And he doesn't want to spend a week of his evenings crawling around, carefully watching zed patterns, to "maybe" score a knife and matches. Too boring, and not what he wants after a hard day at work. Just doesn't want that, although he otherwise loves the game. No big deal, we play on my server, so we can play with whatever parameters we want. Of course most "casual" players have to make do with the servers out in the public arena. There are 1.7.6 servers running, and probably "unofficial" 1.7.7.1 servers with massive anti-biotic spawns. Everybody can find what they want. I'm pretty hard-core with this game, and since I'm retired have plenty of time. I've spent maybe 20 hours on "official" vanilla servers trying to gear up. Stayed alive for maybe 8 hours on the last go crawling around in low-pop "official" servers. No real worries about PvP. Since recovering my gear is part of my game-play strategy, I managed to get almost fully equipped to survive. But I never found an axe or anti-biotics. Luck. Then I went on an "official" server with zero players. Took a chance that got me killed with infection. Heli crash with 2 med boxes around it. Respawned and saw another "player" was on. Got about 100 yards on my trek to recover my gear, and got kicked from the "official" server. Couldn't get back on, so I was back to square one. Now since I'm "hard core" I'll keep trying, and be more careful with "official" server selection. "Official" is basically a joke except for the public hive. You can't really depend on getting back to your body. So the key to getting geared up is "Don't die. Ever." Takes a "special" mindset to do that. I can't imagine the typical "casual" player putting up with it. In fact, I don't know how much longer I will put up with it. So I agree with that point from the OP.

Toggle editing mode. Top left corner. Happened to me too. You might be encountering "invisible" AI. The latest SARGE AI has an issue with that. That happened to me too. You can walk right up to their puffs of gun barrel smoke and "see" it in action. These were survivor/hero AI. I put Sarge AI v1.1.0 on the server and they all became visible. Haven't been to where the solders spawn yet. They aren't bad, better than the run of the mill human playing a bandito on Dayz. Better mannered too. They keep their traps shut. As somebody said, lean out from cover, shoot, back in cover. 5-6 of them jumped me yesterday in the woods. I got 3 before one of them flanked and killed me. All I had was an AK. They had better guns. I think Sarge is working on getting the AI guns to go poof when the AI dies. But he's just one guy.

You don't have any choice. Bandages are loot. Work your way in the tree line to the hill north of Cherno hospital. Charge in fast and shoot out the windows. If loot hasn't spawned, run like hell up the hill about 100 yards and then back in again. Should find some bandages. But like everything else, you mostly find them when you don't need them. Get out and lose zed agro running up the hill, or however you want to do it so you can safely log out by the hospital. This is where public hives have an advantage, but I don't know if you're using them. Find another low pop public server and log in. You'll have the gear you collected, and a new hospital with its own spawn chances to try again. You're gonna die anyway, so the most important thing when you do is get back to your body and reclaim what gear you've accumulated. You don't want to lose that. Near Cherno hospital is a good place. The apartments there also provide loot, but you really want to prone out and watch zed movement in and out of the apartments before you crawl in. Get upstairs, and if you hear a zed coming in, wait crouched in a corner of the top floor balcony until he leaves. Without an axe or silenced weapon that's the name of that game. If one comes in and spots you, lead him around the rooms until the stair way is empty, then get the hell out. Shooting your shotgun there will be suicide unless you have a WHOLE lot of ammo.

I get myself to a location where I can find my body, and die. ZAP! Full health and starting gear. But you pay by running back to your body. Since I'm building survival gear, I stay on public servers, and only enter ones very low population. I can tell you it took me about 10 hours game play to get "a little comfortable" with my gear. About 4-5 deaths, none by a shooter. Still don't have an axe, knife, or matches. This game isn't meant for the "casual" player if he plays vanilla 1.7.7.1. Takes too much time. If you want it easier, try US 1720. It's not "official." The loadout has ALL your "survivor" gear, including map. Think it also has a 1911. I played it for a while, but will probably leave that character there, because I want my character and gear kept on the public hive. Gives you more options. Actually thought it was "official" because of the "US." Then I got to thinking about the loadout and checked it with Commander. "Official" loadout is one bandage and flares. That's why it's taken me 10 hours to get partially geared. Lots of proning around zeds, waiting for them to pass by, etc. Can't say how the players are there. The 2 others on were friendly, but they were never close enough to me to shoot me. The key to not getting shot is low pop servers. 1.7.7.1 is hard to gear up, so a noob should make it easy on himself getting his feet wet. But I'd stick with 1.7.7.1, because that's your future if you stick it out.

I've seen many players posting pro, con and "neutral" about KOS. Here's my observations, and you can agree or disagree. KOS ISN'T NEW. It was rampant at the very beginning, and the earliest Youtube vids of Dayz gameplay prove that. Why do players have memories of "friendliness" and "mutual cooperation" when Dayz was first released? Simply because there were more players who were looking for that aspect of the game in "the beginning." What happened to them? They quit playing, because they didn't like playing a game where they'd get KOS'ed or backstabbed. That's their right - to quit playing Dayz. Most of these players won't even try out the stand-alone if they're smart. There will be KOS and backstabbers. If this type player otherwise really likes the zombie/survival/environment aspects of Dayz, they can find private servers, or have their own server. Their choice. Remaining Dayz players on vanilla public servers are KOS'ers, or those who accept KOS and backstabbiing as part of the game. Simple as that. You can wish for what you want, but you get what you get. Humanity system. This is the only mechanic that keeps most non-KOS'ers in the vanilla game. There are some players who lone-wolf around, and kill a bandit now and then, and others who look for player interaction. The rest are bandits or bandits-to-be. Without the bandit skin mechanic most of the non-KOS players wouldn't join public servers. New players looking for player interaction would quickly drop the game. So without the humanity mechanic public server play will dry up even more than it has, and only be populated by "death match" players, and the occasional new non-KOS type player who stumbles in not knowing what to expect. He'll quit playing quickly enough. Now "challenge" me on anything I've said. I know there are those who don't like the humanity system, which is far from perfect. Some are genuine "self-defense" shooters. Others are just murderers who don't want their conduct identified with a skin. I have my own play style, and bias. But what I've said seems pretty evident to me. With no bandit skin to identify bandits, EVERYBODY must be assumed to be a bandit. "Vicious circle" in action. So KOS becomes an imperative, and the game is death match only. Player base dries up. It's one thing to take a chance on interacting with a survivor who hasn't "earned" a bandit skin. It's what provides much of the game's tension. But without bandit skins, it's just death match. Some players would like that, but they are in the minority. Anyway, that's my spiel. KOS doesn't bother me as long as KOSing earns a bandit skin. Backstabbing doesn't bother me as long as it earns a bandit skin. 2-4 murders seems about right. Blood-bag spamming to lose the bandit skin should be eliminated. Make 'em work to lose it. Or be a "real" bandit and just wear it "proudly." My main concern is that Dayz remains vital with a large player base, and doesn't go niche. It is quite the game, quite the game. That means the right balance to attract the largest "acceptable" player base on public servers. Of course the devs are always shooting for this. I really hope the humanity system for the stand-alone is given serious attention. Because I see that as the key to the above goal. Of course that's my bias. This forum provides a lot of feedback. Don't know that it is representative of the "general" public, but it's the most valuable source, maybe aside from sales trend lines. Hard to get a handle on how many posting here are playing on public servers. Private servers don't count much, as bandit skins are irrelevant. Anything goes on private servers.

You lose humanity by shooting a survivor or hero. Shooting bandits doesn't cost humanity. You can actually gain humanity for killing a bandit. I haven't checked the exact mechanics lately, pretty sure that if you are shot at and hit first, you don't lose humanity for killing whoever shot you. The biggest weakness right now is "self-defense" shooting. Somebody shoots at you, but misses. You return fire and kill him. Enough of these incidents, and you're a bandit. Take a look at this. Not overly complicated, but something you would test to get real numbers. http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Humanity

They missed my favorite. Uh, what is this thread about?

Not getting the logic of this at all. Punishing bandits and rewarding heroes is a natural part of "real" life. Why should this game not try to reflect those human qualities? Also don't understand why anybody above the age of 11-12 would let a bandit skin take over his personality. Do you really believe that? And why do you say players are "given" a bandit skin? Players EARN a bandit skin. How many times do you have to hear posters saying they like to murder in the game before you accept that? How many times do you have see players laughingly murder in YT vids? That's why the game has murderers. Because people like to murder in the game. The only defense against murderers if you want player interaction is identifying them. This popped right up. I would have shot the bandit on sight, or used trickery if necessary. Do you really think you can make that go away by removing skins? Do you really think this guy won't be doing the same thing in the SA? Why not? That's obviously how he gets his game kicks. And it's legit. Your view will only make it more common. If I were to play where NOBODY is identified as a murderer, I have to assume the EVERYBODY is a murderer, and just KOS, death match style. Of course I won't play a game meant for 11-year-olds. But the 11-year-olds, the guy above, and other murderers will. They're not going away. And I don't want them to go away. THEY are what makes the game work. It's not fucking around with zeds, gathering wood and Coca-Cola, or sitting by the campfire with pals that makes this game popular. They'll have a real field day with you, unless you hermit out in the woods. You'll never even see the guy above coming for you. That's the only thing removing skins will do. Make you an easy target.

You can find "no PvP" servers. Or a low population public server. Pick your play time when server population is low. If it's night on the server, turn your gamma/brightness full up and see if that will work for you. If not, log off and try a daytime server. You want to get yourself a start, otherwise you'll give up. Which is ok too. Run crouched straight for the woods after spawning. Stay crouched near the tree line until you find a barn. Look for high vantage points. Avoid zombies at all costs. Look at http://db.dayzwiki.com/map/chernarus#position=5,69.65,122.49 Best map I've seen. Figure out your position on the map. Not easy for a new player, but it can be done. There are plenty of pictures of different cities on the internet to help you. Stay prone under a tree/bush as you swap out to look at internet aides. Somebody doesn't like that, tell them to get fucked. It's your life and survival in Dayz, not theirs. Use every exploit available. Remember clouds always move west to east. Good enough compass until you find one. Best bet for starting weapons is barns. Axe is by far the best starting weapon in 1.7.7.1. Industrial buildings often have axes too, but they are generally more dangerous than barns. Don't bother with Lee Enfields and shotguns. Wait for a Winchester. While in barns, kill some zombies with your axe, and get some food/drink from them. Dead zeds are one of the best common loot sources in this new version. Here's your key tactic. If you are bleeding/infected, maybe panicking, and know you're going to die soon, get yourself prone under a tree and log out. That will give you time to collect your wits. When you log back in your plan will be - suicide for health. This is a new "feature" with the Dayz 1.7.7, 1.7.7.1 high and deadly infection rates, and rarity of anti-biotics. Suicide is quickly done by drawing a few zeds up to your tree-line hiding place, which you can re-locate by landmarks. Make sure you have the landmarks for your body down pat. If the server is giving good restart messages, make sure you don't die just before a restart. You'll lose your body. If you're real close to dying you don't need zeds. Just wait for your last breath. Presto! You respawn with no infection and full health. Decide if you're close enough to your body for a run there through the woods, or you want to suicide-by-zed until you get a closer spawn. This way - slowly or quickly - build up the necessities for survival. If you've found matches, you don't want to have to find them again if it's avoidable. Of course it might go all wrong. Which is the key feature of Dayz.