_Broadside_

Is there any way you can see what sort of weather a server is having prior to joining? My character is shaking after a bout of coldness and I logged on to the last server I played, and it's experiencing very heavy rainfall. Needless to say, if I knew they would be the conditions I would not have logged on but gone to another server. It shows time of day, perhaps a column that says Rain, Overcast, Sunny etc. would be a good addition.

Yes, upon further reflection I have essentially convinced myself this guys intentions were sinister. I added the water pump noise snippet to show that I wasn't painting what might have otherwise been seen as a biased piece. I've heard that water pump noises might be one of the ambient sounds that play from time to time, so perhaps someone can confirm that. If it's the case then I'd bet the farm on the guy only wanting to do me harm. If not, then it raises some doubt once again. I'm not feeling maligned at all. I quite enjoy the provoking conversation. The best part about this game, and this encounter in particular is the ambiguity of it all.

I can see how you might draw that comparison, and it had dawned on me already. I know that terrible people are able to live with the acts they commit through a series of justifications. I do however see a couple very significant differences in the situations. In the first, he came into the house I was already looting, after I had openly run from house to house. It was some nameless tiny forgotten town. The chances that this was merely coincidence is astronomical considering there were seven other people in all of Chernarus. I also did not shoot him as soon as he entered, I waited unmoving on the second level for him to pass through. He also has his pistol up and ready. Only when he moved to look/come upstairs did I fire. I would challenge anyone to say they would have done differently in the circumstance. If he perceived the situation differently then I can accept that, but I feel that he'd likely seen me running around town and thought he'd go kill himself some noob. In the second, I was moving from tent to tent looking for good military loot. I knew it to be a dangerous location on the map. I had only dared venture there because no other players were present on the server. I was checking the players list every 30 seconds, so that if someone had logged in I could make a quick exit and avoid any conflict. I can also say with a high degree of certainty, that this guy had logged in and was present for less than 30 seconds ingame when he saw me from the snipers tower and decided to kill me. Knowing full well that I was unaware of his presence. As for the blood pumping, yes, it most certainly did. Quite a feat considering it's "just a game".

Yeah I did have all three kits by that time, only problem was all his stuff was ruined so it wouldn't let me repair it. When I re-logged the next day to play some more it was an empty server, so I thought I'd take full advantage whilst I could and ran straight down in to Novy and went through the Police Station, and then into Stary for all the buildings I thought would have good loot. It was when I was running down the main street of Stary that I heard it. A hideous ragged gasp. It was loud, and I thought it must be coming from right behind me, so I span around and nothing. I became extra vigilant. I start checking over both shoulders and started going around corners in a wide arc. I didn't want to be anywhere near whatever was making those spine shivering noises. Eventually I approached the Supermarket, and there she was. A petrified, disheleved and ungainly female zombie. It was like something off "Georgie Shore, the day after". Gave her a wide berth and used the back door to have a look inside. Not long after I back tracked to check out the industrial buildings. There were other zombies on the main roads, in back yards and down in ditches and streams. I was able to circumvent them easily enough and got to a monolithic industrial building. By it's sheer scale alone I figured there must have been some good stuff within. As I run in the closest doorway I can see a stairwell that goes up and another doorway that leads onto what I presume was the cavernous factory floor. I hear a zombie and it sounds far too close for my liking. I take the stairs. I don't know why but I figured zombies don't like stairs, maybe the path of least resistance and all that. I go up a flight, there's a room off the stairwell, I check it, nothing good. The zombie is still shrieking somewhere. I go up another flight, another room, and more junk gear. Zombie still sounding like a cat swinging from a ceiling fan. I go up a third flight and another room but also a new doorway that leads out onto the catwalk. I check the room first, nothing of value. So I head out onto the catwalk and look down into the factory floor area. I'm peering over trying to see where this zombie is when I catch a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye. A zombie that most closely resembled Britney Spears in her crazy period lunges at me, lashing with her arms like I'm holding a camera. The shrieking, oh my lord, the shrieking! I mash the keyboard frantically trying to remeber what brings my weapon up and up comes my PM73. I spray wildly and swing my mouse back and forth like I'm trying to dowse a fire. It's over in probably two seconds, but it felt like thirty. Now I'm standing on the wrong side of the cat walk railing hovering in mid air, a glitch of some sort no doubt, but I don't want to move in fear of falling to my death. Do I try to vault the rail back to safety or will the input fail and I'll plunge to my death. I decide to walk forward and see if the rail is a solid object, and thankfully it wasn't, I was back on the catwalk and back on relative safe ground. Now I know zombies don't mind stairs. I check the players list. Still the only person on this server. I decide to hump it double time over to the North West Airfield and secure some good stuff. Open ground the zombies are easy to avoid, but were players present it would be suicide. I get to the southern boundary fencing of the NWAF and I start to check the players list every 15 seconds. First I climb a couple sniper towers, after three empty one I guess they don't contain anything. Then I move around to the buildings on the south west side, not much in those I don't already have. I sprint across the airfields to the bottom hangar with the plan of working my way up to the top buildings. The tall metal structure with a long ladder has a Mosin, no good I already have one. Going through the 5 or so hangars I find a pristine set of Gorka top and bottoms. Swap those out as they're good camoflague, good capacity and perfect condition. I keep working my way up through the buildings, still checking the player list at least twice a minute. Finally I get to the tent city at the northern end of the airfield. I go in one or two tents and there's plentiful amounts of pristine gear. SKS rifles, Mosins, PM73's, MP5's and ammunition galore. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I decide to hold onto my Mosin because it's scoped, it's camoflagued and I now have a ton of pristine ammo for it. I keep my PM73 because I have a few full mags of pristine ammo as well. I pick up some extra bandages, gets some pristine canteens and I move from tent to tent, still checking the players list every 15 seconds or so. As I run into a tent I see puffs appear on the bottom of the back wall and some faint noises which I don't recognise. I immediately strafe to my left out of the view of the door way. Someone has spawned only seconds before and is taking shots at me from what I can only assume was a sniper tower on the northern boundary. The puffs being on the bottom of the wall tell me he's firing from an elevated position and the faint sound means there's a bit of distance, so he's not firing from the doorway of the tent opposite. I check the players list, and a new name is there. His name is "V". I don't know V, but I know I don't like him. He logged out sitting in the sniper tower overlooking the tent city, so when he logged back in he might find some unsuspecting (and ruggedly handsome) chump going from tent to tent and present an easy target. How he missed me with his first shots I'll never know. I swap back from my PM73 which I had in case of close quarter zombies, to my Mosin so I stand half a chance of fighting back. I sprint from the tent, as it's the only exit and I hoped his shooting was as poor as it was when I was going in. Then I dart and duck through tents and shipping containers trying to keep myself blocked to the sniper towers field of vision. A minute or two later I poke around and look up at the sniper tower, but no-ones in it. With his elevated view no longer a factor I decide to escape the airfield and avoid a possible shoot out. I prop in a bush just north of the airfield, after another two minutes of observation I still don't see the needle dick that is V. I decide to imprint the name into my memory, so that if I stumble across him in the future I won't let him jog on by unaware. I will shoot him. I'll give him the same leve of courtesy he extended towards me. P.S. V, if you happen to read this. You're a douchebag of the highest order.

So what is the importance of crafting and camping? A very broad question I know, but can't I just find the stuff I'm trying to craft, and can't I just play when it's daylight hours?

Ahh, I think the new server I logged into was listed private. Explains the fresh spawn. I didn't play it, I just cried a little and went to the whiskey cupboard for comfort. Really appreciate the help you guys are giving me.

7. Must I join a clan in order to survive or can someone playing solo still go the distance?

6. My connection to the server dropped out and I was sent back to the Menu's. I couldn't find that same server in the list so I assumed it went offline for whatever reason and I choose another local server. Joined the game and it had reset me to a fresh spawn. Is this a permanent mess up or when I can get back onto the original server, will my character, gear and location be the same as when it dropped out?

I believe I spawned east of Elektro. It only showed two other players on the server so I felt pretty safe, still I skirted around it's top and went to the Fire Station, nothing of value in there. I also stumbled across a Police Station and got some good gear compared to what I had. Got some blue OREL jackets and pants, a PM73 RAK (already found the right clip), and I had a Sporter 22 with about 30 rounds. From there I started heading north and went through Staroye. Picked up a blue Mountain backpack, an Anti-Stab Vest and a blue Skater Helmet. Somewhere along the way I was using my hands but didn't have 4 open slots in my inventory, so I lost my PM73 like a fool. Ended up finding a Red 9 to replace it. My character looked like a million bucks but I was very aware that a blue guy running around in the green woods was not ideal. Logged out for the night and pretty happy with my first endeavour. Second day in and I started heading north west to go towards Stary Sobor. Server showed eight people online so I still felt safe but I was scouting a little bit before entering towns. Went through a few small towns along the way. Stopped in one of them and went house to house. No idea which town it was, it had maybe 6 buildings and a barn. I was in maybe the third house when I see another player flash past a window. This was the first interaction I've had with either a person or a zombie. I couldn't believe it. Middle of bloody nowhere and this guy is 5 metres away from me. I go into crouch and get upstairs as soon as I can. I hope he hasn't been trailing me, but I was pretty brazen the way I was moving about. I figure I'll sit in a corner and hope he just passes through. I hear the water pump next to the house get used, so I think that's a good sign, this guy wouldn't stop for a drink if he's hunting me down. Then I hear footsteps into the house. I'm peeking over the edge of the stairs and can see a portion of the living room. A guy with full green camo gear, with pistol out and raised comes into view but isn't looking up the stairs. I'm not a holy man but I was praying he'd keep on going. I tell myself that if he looks up or attempts to come up the stairs I'll have to shoot him. I really don't want to, I'm hoping he's just the wrong place at the wrong time, but I couldn't take the chance. I'm stuck on the second level, the building type where the stairs come into the middle of the second floor, there's a door on each side that won't open and no other exits. His character turns towards the stairs and starts looking up towards me. I let go with about 7-8 shots from my Sporter 22. Some hit him, some hit the stairs edge to no effect. The guy goes prone and half falls out of my field of vision, I can only see the legs from the knee down. I don't know if he's dead or prone but I figure I'm committed so I put a couple more into his legs. No movement. I muster the courage up, are crouch walk back downstairs. I have no idea if this guy was alone or working with friends, and I don't know how far the shots travel yet so could it have attracted the attention of others? The next paralysing decision is, do I get the hell out of there or do I take a chance and stay to loot the body quickly. My curiousity gets the better of me. I go through his gear. It's all better stuff than mine but in far worse condition. I swap out the clothing. I swap out the backpack, I swap my sporter for his scoped Mosin and I swap my red 9 for his 1911. The 1911 was in rough nick but he had a lot more ammo for it than I had for my pristine red 9. I end up transferring all my back pack contents into the Hunters backpack I took, minus a bit of food and then I run like hell out the back door and into some pine trees half way up the clearing. I look around the town and I can't see anything moving so I figure he was playing solo and I start to relax a bit. Then I decide to look at the Mosin and check out it's scope. Like a fool once again I didn't have enough room in my inventory to put the pistol so it drops. No big deal, I'll pick it up in a minute. The Mosin had a good clean scope so I'm pretty pleased. Go to pick the 1911 back up and it's floating in the middle of a few pine branches. No matter what angle I try and look at it from I can't get the option to pick up. I struggle in vain for 10 minutes until I make peace with the fact it's in a better place now and I move off into the woods and back onwards to Stary. A little while later I'm overlooking Novy Sobor and contemplating whether or not to approach when the game makes the deicison for me and I lose my connection. I take it as a sign that it's enough for the day. I need to process the decision I made killing that guy. Justify it to myself. Maybe he was friendly, maybe he was not. I'll never know.

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful info.

Hello, I'm brand spanking new to the game. So there are a few things that I've noticed and was hoping for some anwsers, which may make me look like a total twit but I'm prepared to wear that. 1. I've been playing for about 4 hours now and I'm yet to see a single zombie. Are they ratio'ed to server population or are they gone altogether? 2. I've found a map but when I look up the map using my assigned hotkey I see nothing but a black screen. Even if it's equipped in my hands. 3. I've come across a few building where it's not level with the ground, maybe 2-3 feet high and I can see loot through the doorway but have been unable to find a way to climb/jump into the place. 4. If I'm travelling long distances between cities, does sprinting use more hydration/energy than just normal jogging? And if so, is it worth sprinting to ease travel time and just expect to find enough supplies to refuel? 5. Is there any chance of good loot spawning in areas outside of military bases and police stations, or do you just have to bite the bullet and take the chance? I'm sure I'll have more questions as I progress but that's it for now.

Hello, Never played this type of game before, but I came across DayZ from some videos on Youtube and thought I'd check it out. Seems like a pretty cool game so far, but I've had some issues that are really frustrating. Not sure if they're bugs or if my inexperience just means I don't know any better. As Azazel above me, I'd like to play with others, hopefully to speed up the learning process. I'm located around Melbourne, Australia.