Been playing for a week, trying to understand the game and how to survive. Decide on a pretty full 1PP private server, spawn near Nizhnoye (maybe?? I don't recall exactly), locate myself after studying youtube videos and online maps and am so pleased. So begins a week long trek around the east and north east with a cowboy hat, mosin and child's red backpack/target on my back and no ammo. I've decided to try and avoid people (I think in Frankie's DayZ video he says KoS only works if you're seen, so I aim to not be seen). I raid small villages after watching from the trees. Sometimes I see another looter and I wait till they leave. After several hours in game I have a longhorn too but still no usable ammo. Maybe I have to go to more dangerous places? I follow the compass north and pick up some binoculars in a deer stand. This changes my game completely now. Whereas before I was just squinting my eyes, now the ground under every tree within sight is laid bare. I travel much more slowly and approach every place from high on a hill. In Krasnostav I find mosin and longhorn ammo, I run down the airfield runway and back down towards Berezino. I get a burlap sack and make a backpack and run through the industrial parts of Berezino hearing some gunfire but don't encounter any trouble. I shoot a zombie in the docks and squat under a bush near the sea, near where I started. I loved this solo trek, and feel I succeeded in getting basic gear and surviving, but I'm curious as to how cautious other people play. Watching youtube or streams it seems many people charge about like rampant elephants and tool up ASAP. How risky is that technique? I assume there is an inherent randomness to encounters that no amount of precaution can eliminate, but is it crazy to try and minimise that chance?
