Nicko2580

If and only if it was insanely difficult to both use and keep maintained. I think it should start absolutely trashed and you're required to put in a huge (I'm talking weeks) amount of work to get it functioning again. It would require a whole team of people, setting up a base nearby, staying on the same server etc. And even after that I think it should require constant maintenance.

It stands to reason that the more complex your character is (the more gear he's holding etc) the more chance you have of suffering a bug of some description.

Agreed.

I think just some of the stuff that's upcoming will do it for me: Lots of crafting options. I mean lots.Cooking/hunting.More and harder zombies that take headshots (or being blown right up) to be killed.

Well then... I have no idea lol. Try logging in on a really high ping server anyway. Also try changing what your default character is wearing on the title screen (make sure to click 'make default') and change your name. I've heard those things work as well.

Wait... what happens when you 'drown'? It doesn't say, 'You are unconscious' or 'You are dead'? You need to become unconscious or die somehow. If you wait long enough you'll starve to death, but it takes a while. After that the process I posted above should work.

I'm not. I'm on a decent quality gaming rig. Windows 7 3.6gh quad core AMD processor. GTX 770 2GB GPU 16GB Ram.

There might be hackers in this game, but I highly doubt they're hacking the staircases to kill you. That is already a well known bug.

Most of the stuff you mentioned, including vehicles, fires, woodchopping, hunting, cooking, walkie talkie etc have not been implemented or have been switched off currently. As for the flashlight - silly question but have you put a battery in it? Number 13: Yes, well known bug. Just report it. I died going down a ladder yesterday. Not sure about the rest.

It's not going to happen. Suck it up and move along. This is an Alpha. I died yesterday from going down a ladder. Shit happens. Move on.

Just cause you went up the stairs once and didn't die it doesn't mean a hack. It was a bug. Report it and get back to enjoying the Alpha.

Bahaha, what a loser. Seriously. If someone wants to play the game alone can't they just set the player count to 1? (I have no idea what rules are available for server admins).

I think having military vehicles makes sense. However I think they should start out very, very broken and require a lot of time and equipment to get up and running again. I'm talking days worth of work that would make it very hard to actually acquire one and keep it in working order without a few people working together. They should also be subject to ammo, so you'd need to find .30/.50 rounds.

I hear the gate sounds etc too. I just make sure that no matter what I am doing I am being cautious. When in doubt, sit and listen for a minute or two. If there's a player close by they'll make themselves known by footsteps or other noises. Something you can confirm. If there's no players around, then just proceed with care.

Right call. If I opened a door and there's someone laying on the floor pointing a rifle at me, I have to assume that he's camping and I'd have to drop him. I would probably have called out first though, to see if I got a response. If not, then yes, I would have shot him too.

I lost a protector case full of stuff and a DR95 by putting them down to rearrange my inventory to fit a sawn-off in my backpack as a holdout. :(

Click respawn and then log out. Log back into a different server which has a high ping (500ms+). After this you should be able to log into the regular servers you play on again without being dead. This has worked for me every time so far.

I'd assume (but I don't know for sure) that it represents how much data in kb that you're sending/receiving.

It's likely that bug fixing and content are two different areas (I could be wrong, but that's usually the case). No point holding up content just because bug fixes aren't ready as well.

Some assholes will, I agree but I think you'd be silly to do that. I'm not a bandit, but if I were and I saw someone cruising along on the horse I'd plug them, not the horse. The horse is likely where all the good loot is stashed and is an asset in itself (especially if it becomes a persistent container that you can stash somewhere as well as ride). I wouldn't want to risk hitting a saddle bag by accident and ruining anything good in there.

I disagree with this. In almost all half decent zombie fiction, zombies can only be killed by a headshot. I don't care about 'realistic' zombies based on real human biology. Zombies should be headshot kills only. That's the way they are and that's part of what makes even slow, shambling zombies an actual threat. If you can just mow down a horde with whatever automatic weapon you have by spraying it into them, that will be very lame indeed. Certainly you should be able to disable them by taking out their legs and making them crawl or blowing them to bits (when grenades are implemented) but emptying an M4 into a zombies torso should be pretty much ineffectual unless you hit it with far more ammo than it's worth using. It will encourage people to actually learn how to aim and shoot. Learn how to place their shots correctly for maximum effect and to conserve ammo. This is one of the reasons that I particularly like State of Decay. You have to learn to headshot if you want to use guns. For the most part I stick to melee in that game because it's easier, but when you have a horde coming at you headshots are the only thing that will save you. It adds tension and skill.

So I decided to write up my first solid game of DayZ as an actual diary entry with a bit of a roleplay element. I'm not sure about the rules for swearing on here, so I've censored the naughtiest words for delicate sensibilities. ;) :P This morning I woke up on a beach, wet, freezing cold and with a mouth that tasted like seawater and death. Bloody hell I was hungry, felt like I hadn't eaten for days. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember when I last ate. I still don't remember much at all, even my name or how I got here. I must have hit my head pretty hard at some point, there's still a sore lump on the back even now. All I had were the clothes on my back and a flashlight. It was still pretty dark, but I could see that dawn wasn't far off. About 4-5am by my reckoning. Looking around, I could see some buildings off to my right. It looked like the outskirts of a large town or small city. The stars provided enough light for me to see, so I moved off towards the town. Maybe someone over there can tell me what's going on. Maybe there's a hospital, they can give me something for my throbbing head. As I approached the town an anxious feeling developed in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong here. Where are the people? Where are the lights in the windows? Where are the cars? It's a largish town, there should be someone around, even at this hour. Where's the noise? I crept forward, keeping to the bushes and taking my time. It seemed like some sort of industrial area. A few apartment blocks, what looked like a hospital, cranes, warehouses. But something was definitely wrong here. I skirted around the first few buildings and headed back down towards the water, looking to the hospital. No lights, not even the light for Accident and Emergency. I crept forward, coming up to the side of the building and peered into a window - no good, pitch black inside. A ladder to my right lead up to the roof. I climbed it, hoping to get a better view of the town. Up on the roof I looked around the town for signs of life. Nothing. No one. Not a sound. The whole town creepily docile. Not even a dog barking. Slowly, I made my way inside, onto the top floor. The place was trashed. My flashlight picked out smashed furniture, overturned gurneys and - my heart almost stopped - blood. Blood everywhere. Splashed across the walls and floor. On one doorframe a perfect handprint, the dirty red colour of dried blood. I took a moment to compose myself. Okay, something very bad happened here. I began moving again. The beam of my light flashed across something orange. A heavy down jacket. It looked warm and in good condition so I grabbed it and put it on. It was better than the tattered green shirt I woke up in and provided some much needed warmth. I moved down to the next floor, creeping slowly and quietly in a crouch and checking every corner for signs of some unknown enemy. What the frack happened here? Why was there blood everywhere? I was about to find out. On the third floor I found a heavy plumbing wrench. It's weight in my hand was so reassuring, boosting my confidence a bit. Now I had a weapon. I took the stairs down to the second floor, my flashlight lighting my path. Suddenly, there was a blood curdling howl from my left. I panicked and ran back up the stairs. I stopped at the top and turned to see the most frightening thing in my life. A woman, her skin sallow and pale, blood caked across her face and hands. A rotten smell of corrupt flesh around her. She rushed at me teeth bared, whimpering, screaming, growling like an animal. In panic I swung the wrench and cracked her across the shoulder. She barely flinched and turned to snarl and claw at me, but I stepped back and crushed her skull with a solid blow from the wrench and she crumpled to the floor in a heap.What the frack!? What the actual frack was that!? Was that a fracking zombie!? How? What the flying frack is going on in this town? How the frack is there a godsdamned zombie here!? It took me what felt like a week to compose myself. I didn't dare touch the corpse... not even if she's got a million dollars in her pocket, I thought. My heart was thudding like a bongo drum being played by a coked up Cuban, but finally I worked up the courage to move again. I took the stairs down to the first floor, super cautious now. On the floor, by a smashed medical cabinet was a medkit packed full of bandages, a syringe, saline, an IV kit and water purification tablets. I grabbed it and I got the hell out of that hospital, moving very slowly and quietly, my flashlight off. I moved out onto the main streets. My heart still throbbing from my encounter in the hospital when I heard another sound. My blood froze in my veins - another low growl. Then a yowl, like an injured animal. I stop dead and look around and there he was. A man stood there, gibbering and groaning. He was clearly dead. The large chunk missing from his side and the loops of entrails hanging loose in the breeze told me that. He hadn't spotted me so I backed away very slowly and headed back around the hospital to the buildings on the other side. Okay. Zombies. I'm obviously delirious. I must have hit my head harder than I thought. I needed to find some gear and get the hell out of town. I started ransacking buildings, triple checking every corner before each move. A solid looking motorbike helmet in one. It wouldn't do much, but it would stop another blow to the head. Some hiking boots and gloves, both in good condition. A coil of rope and a can opener. Little did I know just how important that innocuous little can opener would be for me in the weeks to come. I checked the top floor in the last building on a row of apartment blocks, my flashlight beam playing across the mostly empty benches. I almost wept for joy as suddenly, the light reflected off the glistening black barrel of a Blaze 95 Double Rifle and a box of shells. No idea how I remembered that, or how I instinctively knew how to handle the gun but I grabbed it quickly and loaded it, hugging it to me like a long lost friend. There was also, finally, some food and water. I ate my fill and drank all I could, taking a couple of cans of beans and a bottle of water with me. So that's how I spent my first morning in the country of Chernarus (as I later found out it was called). I'm holed up on the roof of an industrial building just down the road from the apartment blocks now, with a good view out over most of the city. I still haven't seen any signs of life. A few zombies are wandering across the highway. What has happened here? The city looks like it's been abandoned for a while. I must have known about this before I hit my head, it couldn't have happened overnight. I'll rest here for a few hours and move on when it's light. I'm going to head inland, away from the coast. Maybe there are other people alive out there. Or maybe I'm the last person on Earth. It certainly feels like it. In any case it's not safe here and I need to find answers.

So after all the above, I log on today and walk over to the ladder to climb down from the roof. The 'climb down' icon appears, I press F and my guy starts getting on the ladder, bugs out, falls off and I die... I am crushed... :( Oh well, time to start again.

I wholeheartedly agree, which is why I was a bit disappointed when the OP beaned that guy in the head coming up the stairs and it did absolutely nothing to slow him down. Cowboy hat absorbed the blow apparently. :/

Okay so no one has ever really argued that in the hands of a highly skilled martial artist, a Katana would not be lethal. Assuming they can care for it correctly after the apocalypse, great. It's unlikely that they'll be able to, but great. In anyone else's hands, including I suspect the people arguing for it in this thread, they'd likely have their own arm off before killing a single zombie. In terms of general effectiveness - a hammer wins hands down. You don't need any training to use a hammer. You hit things with it and they die and thats the end of the game. They require no maintenance. They're useful for things other than killing. They don't get stuck inside dead things (unless it's a maul and you happen to use the pick side). They don't go blunt. The larger they get the more effective they become, but even a tiny one can impart lethal force on a human skull. There is just no contest.