keyboard45

I was thinking just a social hub where people can happily RP and make friends without fear of getting shot.

Ah. PVM is same as PVE. We used to say PVM in my old game. The 'M' stands for Monster.

Any word from the devs on areas that will be PvM only? Maybe if it was just one city or a few villages where players could meet up for netflix n chill, trade, rp, even group up and plan how they are going to make it out of the area alive as they are faced by about 20 hidden snipers waiting for them to leave the area. It would bring a nice social element to the game. Every game needs a social hub.

damn i was wearing one of those gangster old boy flat caps >_<

someone sneaked up to me in a building whilst i was scouting around and punched me to death ;-;

So, as i was chuffed to find an AKM and begin scouting magazines for it, i see some smoke in the distance thinking it might be a player campfire, zoom in with binoculars and realize i have stumbled across my first heli site! To my amazement i find a Steyr Aug Automatic Rifle. It looks beautiful and the scope looks great. God help me if i will ever find any mags though. Should i keep the AKM or try my luck with the Steyr?

Thanks for all your beans and great tips! I like how @KenoSkir88 has mentioned that locked doors can actually attract attention. I might trial using a locked door as bait to pick of some PKers in the future ^^ Also i think you were right about the sandbag bunker. Ever since visiting there i haven't been so lucky with the loot but i will be stopping back there to see what others have dropped off :) As for CoDing around cherno, i will be trialling PvP on a private server that promotes PvP, and keep the friendly RPing across public servers. @jeffroland I'm hanging onto the canteens so i can have the option to camp out for a long period of time if i need to. Also i'm sure i will be close to death in the near future and they will come in handy then, we'll see. As for the using 3rd party maps. That's just the way i play. I wish i could be naive and lost in the world with just a kitchen knife to fend myself. But that mature gamer inside of me just wants to power through guided by wikis and what not, heh. Anyway, heres to hoping your all as friendly on the field as you are in the forum :p and thanks for the kind welcomes ^^

Hi there. I have been playing for about 3 days now and thought i would share some important information to all. May post edits/updates as i learn more. Choose the right server. Public/Private Private servers will require you to start a new character, however you can log into a public server to continue your current character. This scared me when i first logged into a private server, as i thought my player had died. So fear not! I recommend playing on a public sever to get used to the game. The advantages are you can log around servers to avoid bad weather and surviving at night time. However, later on in the game you may decide you want the game to be more challenging, then i would recommend a private server as you will have to face the nature of whatever the game throws at you. Also i figure that if you play in a private server, you will meet the same players often and beable to create allies and enemies. Number of players. Start in a world with a few players. The players here are likely to be less PvP orientated so you are less likely to be killed. And the world shouldn't be so heavily looted. Time of Day. This is something very important to a new player. Log into a world where the time is 7-9AM. The sun rises in the East and settles in the West. Now, if you know where you want to go, you have natures compass to guide you. If you have just started and it's raining, find a new server. Being cold and wet will kill you if you are not prepared. First Steps. Looting guide As you enter the game as a first timer, or a troubled survivor. Look around for some tall buildings which should locate a city, or just your nearest village. have a "stick left" or "stick right" policy, where you enter the first building on your left, then you stick left hitting every building on the left hand side until you loop round to where you began. Making sure every building is ransacked. As you enter a building, press tab to bring up your inventory and walk around the room. Any items in that room will display on the left hand side of your inventory. Water Since playing, i have only had to eat a couple times. Drinking is a different story. You will dehydrate quite often. Fortunately, water sources are plentiful. Hopefully you will be near a city, and i think every city and some villages will have water pumps, and also lakes rivers etc. Ideally you want to find a canteen to fill with water (however you can drink from these sources without one) I made the stupid mistake of throwing away my 2nd canteen thinking one would be enough, how naive of me, i very nearly died. Now i carry around 4 canteens. This way i can rehydrate myself whilst raiding areas that are far away from water supplies without having to pit stop to hydrate, and if i am close to death it should be enough water to begin healing. If you become thirsty, you can drink a couple of times to clear your thirst, you can then drink two more times to become 'hydrated' and then drink two more times until it displays 'i am really stuffed'. I highly recommend doing this if you are at a water supply. You can even drink more and become 'over stuffed' which looks problematic, but i actually had no side affects from this status. Once you have canteens filled and are filled with liquid, any extra beverages you find should just be drunk on the spot to keep up hydration. P.s. I have had no problems drinking straight from these pumps without using purification tablets, and no problems with 'damaged' cans/canteens. See Water Pump Locations map below for spoiler. Food Stuff your face until it displays that you are 'really stuffed'. It has been at least 6 hours since this status and it still hasn't said i am hungry. Then begin collecting canned goods that only take up one space. If you come across the carbohydrates that take up more than one slot, just eat it their on the spot (i.e. cereal). You will probably need a bladed instrument to eat the canned goods, you can also find a can opener which only takes up one spot! (and if you want the ultimate multi-tool blade) - http://www.primagames.com/games/dayz/tips/how-craft-improvised-stone-knife-dayz Heat Ideally you will log into a server where it is not raining. If however you want to stick it through the harsh weather life has thrown at you, follow these steps. You will need a bladed instrument that can cut bushes down. You will need a match. You will need either paper/rags/bandages (obtained from a book/ammo box/rip up shirts/hospitals) Now you can cut down a small bush (you will need 3 spaces) to collect some sticks. You can now combine the stick with a bandage or rag or paper to create a firepit on the ground where you are standing. You can load that firepit with more burnable stuff. Now light it with a match in a building. This will warm you up very fast. As a new player, being fed, hydrated and warm is a make or break situation. It really is a 'Sprint-around-every-building-praying-there-will-be-supplies' situation. Chances are, you might come close to death and you screen will turn black&white. What you have to do is stuff your face with food and water and your status should become 'healing'. Now wait 5 minutes or so, log in and out. And your screen should be back to normal. (You might not have to log in and out) I might also note, i do sprint everywhere. Some guides will tell you not too, but it's worked for me. Just know your water supplies. Now here might be some spoilers.... Maps (Player Made/3rd Party) Ideally, if your a hardcore player. You will navigate yourself only using what is in the game. If you are like me however and more of a power gamer (most likely as you are reading a guide...) These maps could save your life.. Also note, some maps you find online will be old and not feature the new cities etc. The 'where the hell am i' map. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/468671662627014298/C5392B7F638C16FD3D1D65FDEA3B90D4D0539782/ This map is great for one reason. It shows you where churches and gas stations are. If you can then pair the church you are standing next to with the road formations around it, combined with what direction you are facing adjacent to the sun (rise in the east/sets in the west). You should be able to find exactly where you are. Even better, it tells you the names of the areas in both languages. If you see a road sign and can't find it on the map, check out this list of all villages/cities/bases and their language counterparts. http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Towns_and_Cities Water pump locations (What it says on the tin) http://spartanwarfighters.net/2top/3forum/images/Arma_2/DayZ/standalone/WaterPumpWells_Map.png A fun map. http://i.imgur.com/8eWeckQ.jpg A map with more city/village names updated. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/580153246479432329/246500332D0894DE55A3CD1584BF8D30AA5380AE/ I have these 4 maps always available to hand, and also the in-game map binded to a numerical key so once i know where i am going i can just stay in-game. Now time for some quick pointers. So far i have discarded all the kind of 'crafting' materials. Nails/hammer/rope etc. I have 4 canteens filled with water and 6-8 canned foods and i am energized and hydrated. You want to look for some more essential items. Compass (you can bind this to a numerical slot for navigation) Binoculars (again bind it and use it to scout around, i believe it is similar zoom function of sniper scopes). Lockpick (you can lock doors behind you so bandits/PvPers don't gank you) Leather sewing kit (repair damaged gear) Some melee weapons you can carry on your back, the fire axe is best in game, splitting axe second, anything else will do if you can't find these. Ideally something that has a fast animation. Always use this instead of a small melee weapon, some small weapons don't even hit your opponent. If you haven't found a large ranged weapon such as a rifle, then a pistol will suffice in the mean time. But when you do find a rifle, discard the pistol until you can gear for it more efficiently (holster/ammo capacity) You want to head NW to the airstrip on the map. South of the air strip is a water pump, and north of the base is military barracks. You will find some basic weapons in the barracks, more weapons and stuff on the scouting towers, and there is also a stone bunker that has a huge amount of loot. Here is where i found military vests and a pistol holster so you can improve your inventory capacity and also camouflage yourself. A top tip is to find the IZH-43 Shotgun, and use a hacksaw on it and create a sawn of shotgun. It is supposedly one of the best weapons in game. I'm currently using the SKS semi automatic rifle. It is a handy newbie rifle as the ammo is plentiful (7.62x39) and you can load it into 10 chamber clips and reload just by pressing r. I was able to shoot someone at medium range from a window, weakening them so had an advantage. Now you can start exploring comfortably, meeting new players without feeling unarmed and survive easily enough. Servers will restart and this is the best time to find the best loot and even vehicles http://247gaming.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Vehicle-spawn-map.jpg Here are some more useful pages on what else to expect from DayZ http://www.primagames.com/games/dayz/tips/dayz-top-10-loot-buildings-chernarus http://www.primagames.com/games/dayz/tips/dayz-10-items-every-player-should-have http://www.primagames.com/games/dayz/tips/dayz-15-tips-will-save-your-life http://www.primagames.com/games/dayz/tips/dayz-standalone-best-places-find-gun I will consolidate and structure this guide better when i have the time, and please let me know if there is anything else you want me to cover or any questions to answer. Find me IG: Dom