slyder73

That is not broken, that is the game starting to work as intended...finally!

Learn to play the game as it is, adapt. It will only get harder as they move the game towards it final version, a nightmarishly hard survival situation with wandering infected. Loot will be rare. There is plenty around now, just look in places other than the same old same old that you are checking. Toilets, by old railcars etc. Another post had some dev info that said there were approximately 1.7 million total places on the entire map where loot can spawn. I don't know if that is on one server or across all the servers, but it is a lot. It is there, just more spread out than ever. All this is good, makes the game harder and gets away from the PvP idiocy that has been going on the past year or so.

If that had been recorded to post, it could have been titled a Chuck Norris win. LOL He feared you! I hope you grabbed all his stuff from his body.

Bad luck for you, but that is life in DayZ. You said you were about a week and a half old, so no big deal. That means with your skills, a week and a half is the longest you should have to work to get your gear back, not forever as you so dramatically allude to. You should be able to gear up tonight in about two hours if you know what you are doing. Perhaps my buddy and I were the ones that shot you from about 50 meters away with a .22 round to the head? You would never have heard it. From your end, you just dropped dead. :) If this was us, I'm not sorry. We wanted your stuff. That is the way of the DayZ world. We don't trust you, so if we see you, we kill, you. All the better if you never see it coming. Even better, if we find a whine post on a forum after. lol. Since the first days of the DayZ mod for Arma2, the same has applied; never get attached to your gear. Never whine about losing your gear. You will always lose everything sooner or later and will have to survive again. The zombie apocalypse is a rough place to live.

You have no idea what DayZ is about then do you? It is a hardcore survival mod for Arma2 that did so well at it, Bohemia decided to hire the developer and build this stand alone game the same way. DayZ is not built around guns and fighting, if you want that, just play Arma2 or Arma3. DayZ is built around grueling, difficult survival against thirst, hunger, the elements and yes, other players. But it was never envisioned as a PvP game. But yes, I agree on your first sentence, the accuracy of reported player locations is not always accurate. Then again, as the game gets harder as it nears its final product, the last thing players will want to do is get into a gunfight with anyone so....

I've been able to survive just fine on both public and the private servers where loot is VERY VERY rare. It does take a LOT of persistence and thinking outside of the box that many players trap themselves into. Apples to get you going, then search in places you didn't before, not just buildings. I found a full bag of rice at a railcar yesterday. The most important gear right now is a hoe and pumpkin (or any other) seed plus a bit of water. You dont' even have to be able to drink the water. A bottle to fill from a dirty old lake will grow those pumpkins just fine and they both hydrate and energize you. Weapons and such are a luxury and can make one feel safer but not necessary. All you need is water, food and a way to avoid being killed by others for said pumpkins. Run away before they see you or try to fight them off with your hoe or gun if you have it. Last thing I want to do is fight another player right now. Too much time invested surviving that I ACTUALLY FEEL like it is a loss to die. What other game has ever done that for you?

It is a glitch. Private servers cannot turn off persistence. That is a core game feature that is no longer in private servers control.

It is just going to get harder with .56 and on. Those servers have loot. The players not finding loot are just looking in the same places over and over and not adapting and changing their play styles to match the game getting harder.

You don't need to fight zombies at all now. Just run, take everything out of your hands and run, they will follow. Get out of sight of where you want to be, they fall behind and stop. Circle back, easy. You can run through a small town and "collect" all the zombies, lead them out of town and come back to and empty area free of zombie threat. Though it is a lot harder, there is still loot to be found. Most important thing in game right now, a hoe and pumpkin seeds and a bottle of water. Grow a pumpkin and eat one. Can take you from starving to stuffed in one feeding. Never have to be hungry again.

No, they don't. If that is what you want, just play regular Arma 2 or 3. DayZ, since the mod has never been about firefights. They just happen a bit more often in this Alpha version because of mechanics being tested. .55 is the closest DayZ has come yet to the real game, where the last thing you want to end up in is a firefight and risk death and respawn after days of effort to get set up to survive.

Best way to keep very full, bordering on overstuffed is to quickly scratch out a garden plot and plant pumpkins. Go loot a bit and come back in 15 mins and you have ripe pumpkins. They take 9 slots in a backpack so best to eat them right off the vine. They are very large and one can fill you up to stuffed and hydrated. Pick the others and stash them, or carry one with you. If you can find pumpkin seeds you never have to get hungry again.

Both style compasses work fine. Just go to first person view, put it in your hand and "raise weapon", bringing compass up. If it is hard to see, bend your head down. It is set up now as you would use it in real life, not through a heads up display.

I have a story about why it sucks to encounter me. I survived a very long time (not sure exactly how many hours), gearing up during .53 and surviving all the way until the end of .54. I was fully geared, with a kitted out M4, some ammo, fire axe that still worked, pot, camp stove and not really a care in the world. I ran into a couple players while scouting the prison island for a possible exploration. As I was scoping the island and looking for any players nearby who may be a threat, along comes these two through the woods near me. They were quite well geared up as well, but did not have weapons in hand so I decided to try to contact them. The first guy came over a rise and I pointed my M4 at him and told him to stop, stay back and don't bring out a gun. I saw a scoped mosin on one and a shotgun on the other (or something like this, can't remember exactly now). We chatted for a bit as his buddy was trying to sneak around me. I could see this happening and after giving the buddy a little time to get into a position I could easily shoot him too, I called them on it. Fast forward 10 mins or so of this partial standoff while we felt each other out for trustworthiness. Eventually, I decided it was a good plan to group up with them while we headed North to the military camp a couple km away. I wanted to try for more ammo for my M4 but couldn't go in alone because of the zombie danger. We spent about 20 mins or so exploring other buildings on the way, chatting about game stuff and generally having a laugh. I was careful though, keeping myself beside or behind them and my gun in hand whenever we slowed or stopped. We approached the military camp carefully. One of my new partners suddenly called out that he saw someone in the camp. They spread side to side of me while I moved ahead, being the best armed. I couldn't see anyone, and the guy behind me said, "there, in the window", and suddenly POP POP POP POP, into my back and I am dead! Classic distraction, get me looking ahead after building up my trust and keep my eyes off him while he pulled out the pistol I never saw him carrying and shoot me in the back. I'm sure they enjoyed splitting up my gear. I actually enjoyed that death and wish they could have heard my, "well played sirs". But I learned a lesson. Trust nobody, ever, no matter what. If I don't know you in real life and we don't play together then I will kill you on site in game. If I have the upper hand I reverted back to my behavior pre-betrayal, get what I can from you while keeping the upper hand and backing away and getting the hell out of there or more preferably, kill you. I kill whoever I see if I can, because I can't trust anyone, neither can you, because everyone has a similar story. Everyone has learned or will learn the hard way that you will be killed by other players if you don't kill them first.

The problem is you are looking for endgame loot. You asked, "why would the game not reward continuous searching and exploring", and the answer is simple, it is about survival. The core of the game from the mod has been about survival in the harsh circumstances with infected around. The game does not owe any player anything, no matter how long or hard they search. This game should NEVER end up being a game that rewards players with better "stuff" the longer they play and look around. Time in means nothing and shouldn't. Survival in this game is supposed to be hard from the first 5 mins of each spawn to the set up players weeks into a group gathered and protected farm. There is no endgame loot, just staying alive longer. Loot doesn't do that and never should, other players make that happen. A good endgame for DayZ would be the infinitely complicated, ambiguous and often treacherous relationships one makes with other players while trying to stay alive.

From what you have said, the game is FINALLY getting near the difficulty level it should be. After two days of playing about 4 hours per night I have a lever action rifle with 14 rounds of ammunition. I've also just kept ahead of starvation and still border on black and white vision from multiple beatings early on by zombies before I figured out how easy they were to sneak past (like they used to be in the original mod). The game is actually progressing to be as hard as it is supposed to be and advertised. Most players at any given time should NOT have a gun, let alone a military gun. If you are searching 12 hours for a gun you are playing the game wrong. It is not about the gun, it is about surviving. Water first, food second, weapons are a luxury and not a need. Learn to play, don't whine.

I dont' see a food issue at all. It is HARD to survive and get enough food but it can be done. It takes a LOT of creative looking and scavenging through every side building and outhouse. On the brink of death and finding that damaged can of peaches can make one feel like clapping! That is the making of greatness in a game. Keep the food scarce, make it harder, players will adapt and learn or they leave. If they leave, who cares?

It is supposed to be very very hard to survive. The game is FINALLY getting at least near difficult to get started. It should take a couple evenings of struggling to get enough food and water while finding more than a kids backpack to hold items in before moving safely inland; striking out to cover enough distance that doing it too soon would result in starvation. If you have guns you will eventually die. If you spawn at the coast you have a days long struggle to survive ahead of you before you can get set up in a more isolated location. Perfect! Devs have absolutely and clearly thought this through. New patch advice; learn to navigate as always, learn to sneak around zombies (they are easy to avoid now and easier to outrun and lead away from towns), water is number 1 priority, food is number 2. Weapons are a luxury and are a want not a need.

There would be no problem is those servers had players that played ONLY on those servers they paid for. But that is not the case. Those servers are part of the public hive and players who farm those servers then come over to other servers and effect the gameplay over there. If I am paying for my own server and running it legit, I don't want idiots who have public(but kick everyone) players coming over and messing up my player base and game dynamics. It is a problem.

Welcome to the post-apocalypse. It is supposed to be hard to survive. Water and food are the biggest challenges, and should be the hardest things to keep up in game.

No, survival is the point of this game. The PvP aspect is just more prevalent right now during the Alpha phase. During the original mod days, especially when tents were available, it took some effort to keep healthy, fed and hydrated. The zombies were also dangerous. DayZ is a post apocalyptic zombie survival game. The PvP is just a result of trying to do this....or it will be once the game is fully completed. Remember folks, Alpha is alpha, the best features of the game, the real survival stuff and the dangerous zombies aren't even in the game yet. Everyone who bought the game just for PvP will be disappointed. There are many Arma2 and Arma3 mods for that type of gameplay.

The sun and starts are accurately represented in this game. So you should know based on time of day how to find North in either day or night. Use street signs, the ingame or 3rd party map and you are good to go. No need for GPS, just learn to read a map and use landmarks and elevations etc. Use your shadow as a guide when running longer distances so you stay on your bearing. In the morning in game, if you spawn on the cost, your shadow pretty much points straight North give or take a "half hour".

So learn to play at night.

It has been a long time since I started playing Arma2 and then later the original DayZ mod for it. I remember how hard it was to learn to navigate and recognize landmarks and direction, finding North based on the shadows and time of day etc., and I have experience doing this in real life. Keep helping your friend, it is a definite learning curve and once he gets some of the basics it gets much easier. Bottom line for the time being since most servers reset to dawn quite often, your shadow pretty much points straight North. If you know the time of day and the direction of your shadow you can navigate anywhere using the map in game or even the 3rd party maps. Learn to run to towns and check the streetsigns until you know the names of the towns/villages. Then get a bearing on your location by the signs, align to North and then pick a direction to move in and stick with it. Make sure to use a distant landmark...so if you are standing ready to turn and run West until you come across a well 10 minutes away and you need to go in a straight line, find a distant landmark along that line and head to that, don't assume you will run in a straight line (every tree or rock you dodge changes your line). If he can get that basic navigation the it's only a matter of time until it gets easier. THis is what makes the game fun, it takes time to learn how to play and there are no artificial game mechanics that make it easier for you. He has to learn like the rest of us.

No, I meant what I said. 7.62x54R is the round that the Mosin-Nagant shoots. The R stands for rimmed or often people say Russian. The 7.62x39 is the round that the SKS or AK variants use. *edit* Sorry, I think you were responding to a different post.

If DayZ moves in the direction Rocket has been talking about then the .22 rifles will become very important. Post apocalypse, the food will run out sooner or later but .22 rounds are laying about in the millions. The rifles are everywhere as well in the countryside. When canned beans are hard to find in the final release and hunting and cooking rabbits and pigs are what gets you by in the camp you set up, the .22 will be vital so as not to waste the very precious 5.56 magazine or two you may have and need to conserve because higher caliber rounds will be rare. All of the suggestions for larger and more varied "military style" rifles don't really go with the spirit of DayZ that Dean "Rocket" Hall has been talking about. Arma 2 and Arma 3 already has ALL of that, and Arma3 has the Wasteland mod which is exactly what some of you are suggesting. Go try that, it is not DayZ and Dayz should not be that.