Courier (DayZ)

Something like a month and a half was my lifespan, documented here: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/8275-the-gray-area/ I haven't played since I lost my first character. Waiting for something new or the standalone.

I’ve killed to make it this far. My lesson in survival was meeting a man who destroyed my body with a Makarov pistol and left me for dead in another empty town; my bones were broken and I bled until I passed out. In the black of night I crawled until I found salvation: morphine. And while my wounds healed over time, the scars will never fade. That man taught me what this world is really like. The roads aren’t safe. Bandits stalk the highways to forgotten cities looking for their next opportunity; survivors stir in their own paranoia. On the darkest days, flares burn in abandoned villages with messages I can never trust. Most of what I own belonged to someone else. My backpack has supplies traded in death. The DMR I hold in my hands has a long history – most of it wasn’t written by me. I’ve done a fair amount of trading, and I often think about the fate of the person standing across from me. What's going to happen to them? What's going to happen to you? In reality, this is a game for me: unlike so many others I don’t see it as a “social experiment” and the element of “realism” is immediately lost at the mentioning of a zombie apocalypse. Then again, I sit in front of this burning fire in a digital world, thinking about my safety and what tomorrow is going to bring. Survival is harsh, and every thought that runs through my head comes to one single inevitable conclusion: Eventually I’m going to get mine. Just by living in this world I have it coming. Maybe I won’t even hear it – maybe it will be another hail of gunfire from a Makarov held by a shooter who this time will finish me off. The next gang of bandits I let pass through my scope could meet me further down the road. I’ve killed to make it this far. And so has everyone else. Why is this in the survivor forum? Because to me everything is a gray area. The same fate lies at the end of every road. Perhaps I will use this thread to document my adventure until my upcoming demise. (Don't panic if you see me. I'm one of the good guys.)

A lot of memories here. Still haven't played since: currently waiting for further development to spark my interest again.

It’s night. I hear gunfire in the distance. Familiar sounds within city limits: each shot tears through whatever hope I had left. There’s nothing, now. Been this way for a while. A chemlight is at my feet as I dig through my supplies. This has been a long time coming – I should’ve known it was going to come to this. I put my mind at ease when I realize I won’t have to wonder anymore, won’t have to think about it coming. Maybe I was wrong about it all along. We can control our destiny. That’s my last hope. I finish off a steak, drink. Discarding my backpack to the earth, I remove my DMR next. I think about the people I’ve shot with it. The history I’ve etched into it will go unknown and the next hands it falls into will continue to ink invisible pages no one can ever discover; another unsolved mystery left behind by a lost survivor. It’s dropped next to my backpack. My .45 is next. I look one last time at the equipment at my feet. Items I worked so hard to keep; tools of my survival. Murder weapons. Perhaps they’ll never be found. I pick up the chemlight and walk on. The beach is where it all began: that’s where I migrate next, carelessly gliding through the darkness just outside a dead city that is partially lit by flares, their colors reflecting off building walls and glimmering in the night. The shots I hear standing at the ocean are disconcerting as I move towards the city. Nothing I haven’t heard before. I can’t see much of the beach at this hour but I give it one last look – the same way I did when I started here, wondering where to go. I’ve known for a while now: from here it’s Chernogorsk. I light a flare and hold onto it as I travel into the city. The road is desolate; but I know I’m being watched. I can’t see in front of me: but I don’t need to. With that I’m gone – touring Chernogorsk one last final time writing the end of my story. Nothing is fair, I think, until you make it so. Hopefully, all the good I’ve done – and the bad – was for the better. The thought of someone benefiting from my actions… the idea of achieving selflessness, at some stage… that’s the gift of this, I think. That makes this worth it. When it finally comes to me, I hear it. No hourglass, no color: just darkness. And like that, it’s over.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Realistic as in modifications I think the game engine can actually support. I'm 100% sure all of these have already been mentioned but I'd like to see them documented in my own topic which I can follow. Sickness Already in the game, will most likely be refined, but I think it's a little... wrongly executed? How about you lose more blood when you're attacked? Bleeding and broken bones take more than one bandage or morphine injector? What about if your vision was slightly obscured and darkened - what if the lower your temperature the louder your character COUGHS and alerts enemies? Possible vomiting could be scripted in the same way as random bouts of falling unconscious when you're low on blood and this could lead to dehydration. Melee weapons Yeah, yeah. This again. I don't even think it's possible, but couldn't you script a "weapon" that fires a projectile at a max range of 3 meters? And the skin and animation for that weapon wouldn't be a gun firing - it could be an arm swinging an axe. Is this possible? Drugs Yes: probably the most sought after feature in the game. Enhanced abilities with the drawback of withdrawal that in this case would tie into my sickness idea. Cannibalism Attributed to dead players only. A nice human rump roast can effectively cure as much blood as regular grilled animal meat (or maybe more because of the rarity) but with some kind of drawback, also. Sickness again? Hey, maybe if the person you eat has a cold you'd catch that, too! In real life (I don't want to be another guy who rants about "realism" in this game when it's about a mother fucking zombie apocalypse) I remember reading you can't actually survive off of human flesh - maybe that could play a part in this. Title updated to reveal my genius. Behold.

So people are coughing now?! I feel as though my voice is heard.

If this ever truly gets going, and has a semi-successful trial run, I'll be glad to donate a few things to get you guys started. Usually - provided I'm in good health - I carry an abundant amount of meat I'd be willing to give away. That being said, my presence can only be justified if I feel safe. It'll take a lot for me to migrate out from under my rock and all the way back southwest (I'm literally on the other side of the map) and I'm not poking my head out of anywhere if I think it's getting blown off. And I'm not saying by you guys. I'm saying for the handful of bandits who will be coming at your territory every 20 minutes.

You know, I always avoided the torrent files here because I thought they'd be slow, but that just downloaded at 5.5mbps. ... nice.

Where are you specifically? PM me to keep it private if you'd like.

Clearly.

He's right. A stinger missile at worst will disable a helicopter - which might be what you're looking for, but as certain altitudes landing a disabled helicopter with minimal damage isn't tough. That aside, an AA projectile has a much better chance of knocking out a tail rotor or just inflicting repairable damage. Stinger missiles would be more desirable on cars. They won't ANNIHILATE them like a javelin, but they'll destroy the wheels and engine block. Probably won't kill the occupants but force them to flee.

Jeez, guys. Maybe it's because ARMA 2 is set in RUSSIA? Why did more people in Britain buy The Getaway more than anywhere else? The ARMA 2 server list has a huge presence where many of the domination games are geared towards Opfor vs. Blufor, not the other way around. They like PLAYING as Russians, too. Imagine that.

The buildings and narrow streets look picturesque for life but I can’t imagine it anymore. I can no longer see the sun kissed Chernarus of the past – I can’t hear ocean waves without thinking of the fog, I can’t imagine the flowing blades of grass without seeing the bodies in the soil. I’m never going back. None of us are. It gets worse when I want it to get better. Trust is a mutual thing; no one will give back if I don’t give. I can already feel my hope running out, my mind weak and my feet tired from the endless treks in circles. The things I find that are new – they’re no good. My own survival is turning against me. My equipment should be worn, spoiled with overuse. My DMR is no different from yours. They’re aesthetic clones; their fed the same ammunition and the ballistics are identical. But mine has a different history – I just don’t care about it anymore. My things I carry – my only company – serve one meaning: to kill. And that’s wearing thin. There was a man once at the airfield. I had an AK-47 and I shot him with it: I shot him over and over until he crawled away broken, frantically letting me know he was friendly as he crawled away into the barracks and died. Back then, I hadn’t come to terms with the world I put myself in. The regret wore down my shoulders. Now? I don’t care anymore. I’ll soon grow reckless. It’s who I used to be; we can’t lose all of ourselves out here. It’s the destructive side of me that wants to come out. The side that wants to lose. I don’t want to die. I need to. Is there anyone left out there?

Dan: http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9885 There's my story so far. Tell me about it. Keep your head down. Helps people forget about you.

Can't trust another player unless he's within driving distance IRL, huh? "Steal my shit and I'll go over there and beat you up!"

Might've been. Did you guys all get killed? Or (gasp) disconnect? If so, it could have been. No need to apologize either way - it wasn't me you shot or my problem.

I write. I'd like to see this. It'd take seconds to make a "Creative" sub forum.

Utes is way too small to cater to the survival concept DayZ has influenced on Chernarus but, for the people obsessed with shooting others, I really think it'd be a great place to open. With around 20 player slots, the map is just big enough to do some scavenging as well as always finding someone with reach to kill. Anyone have any discrepancies? It could be good practice if you're new or a fun place to visit when you're finding the slow pace of Chernarus stale. Because face it: even with 150 people on a server, Chernarus is still too big.

Y-Yeah... So like everyone else I have to ask: it's cool for someone else to have an anti-climatic ending but not you? Don't be silly. You're a sillysaurus.

I know how long I’ve been here but it doesn’t matter. The sixth day of a survivor is no different from my hundredth. We tell the same stories: war tales about cheating death, the lives we’ve taken and the bleak road to our future. We’ve all signed our own death certificates; the date has yet to be decided. There’s no longer such thing as a “bandit”. The gray area has engulfed everything and the only true survivors are the naïve: the unarmed who roam the abandoned cities looking for answers. Reality waits in the overgrowth, between buildings and in the flickering lights of flares. They understand it when it’s too late. I’m a murderer. Communication no longer exists; I’ve now done what would’ve happened to me. You have to be fast, you have to disregard thought. Out here, your heart is more valuable than your brain. I’m drowned in my own regret. Banished to the forest, I refuse to meet other people. I can’t trust myself. Finally: I’m truly alone. Just me and the trees… so close to Hell yet so far. I think it’s time for me to die. I did sign the death certificate on day one. Maybe now I can pen a date.

I think part of appeal of a post apocalyptic Chernarus is that it isn't something straight out of a horror movie - no overly foggy landscapes, no full moons at night time with wolves howling in the distance. That being said, the Eagle Wing DLC for ARMA 2 a while back contained some truly great and bleak weather patterns that immersed you into the world. One is a very blue and frosty morning that has a strong noir touch - at least in my opinion - but the other two are an aftermath of a nuclear strike that I think would go well with DayZ. Orange, polluted skies; dusty wind, sun hidden behind clouds. Does anyone else think the game could benefit from this kind of atmosphere?

It'd be great if fog wasn't essential to almost every server. Variation is important now. Everything is too regular.

After much deliberation, numerous bouts of troubleshooting and genuinely trying to appreciate the update for what it has accomplished, I have come to one conclusion: I don’t really like it. Spawning unarmed was a decent idea, gives a new player life a little bit of meaning. Since the beginning I’ve maintained the opinion that going from having very little on the coast to being fully armed can happen way too quickly, so this leaves a lot of people with one option: start little before you start big. Hiding from zombies isn’t bug proof, yet. It’s a really strange system – I purposely had myself ambushed behind a supermarket and found the zombies clustering together and… not chasing me. From ten feet away. At one point a few more went after me, so I darted for the hills in a straight line, but I lost them within seconds, all in plain view. I guess maybe their vision is being obscured? No clue how this modification is put together but it doesn’t work right. And on the topic of zombie sixth sense… Yeah, I always considered towns littered with hordes of the undead gave you two options: sneak through it carefully or go in guns blazing. It seems at this stage we no longer have the former option and it’s 100% impossible to go anywhere without having something chase you. It’s not as fun for me anymore.

I really don't have two many complaints about any of the updates (at least nothing I care to be vocal about) but this is clearly a problem if true: