Gerbe1

It's so cool how many relevant but completely different stories have from this game.

That's a slight exaggeration.

tl;dr is at the bottom because I don't want to spoil the story for those who want to read it. This is gunna be long, because I can't believe how cool it was that everything worked this way. In terms of banditry, really I'm no bandit. I've had way too many encounters where my friends and I have later died because I handled the "negotiations" without firing a gun and let others get away. Later those same people usually kill us. I'm not about to change either, surprisingly I don't like shooting people in this game. This time was no different. Recently my small group of friends had finally acquired a helicopter. I have been playing this game since May and Evan Lahti from PC Gamer's livestream, and have never "owned" a helicopter (or NVG for very long for that matter), I had a ride in one once (in DayZ, I've played ARMA before). I am certain we stole this one, it appeared a bit lived in when we found it. As is always the case in DayZ, we managed to flip our little blue van on to its roof, leaving the helicopter as our only transport device. So when we logged back in after just a day to find it missing we were devestated (it was abright night in the server). Until we saw in side chat that someone had miraculously discovered and fixed a helicopter that same day, same type as well (a Huey). After some questioning we figured it might in fact be ours, though there was a possibility of a server reset or something, but we weren't thinking it at the time. My friend asked for a lift. To our surprise (as he was clearly suspicious) he agreed. We set the point and I was to pretend to be the passanger who had asked for a life (while my friend did all the speaking as if it was him). Discarding my rifle for the appearance of trust (at this point we really thought he had our helicopter and we wanted it back), I stood on the hill and waited. He arrived quite soon. He landed and I ran up behind the copter, I saw the UI offgering for me to switch out a tonne of stuff for engine parts, exactly what we had in our helicopter, which practically convinced us it was ours. This took less then a second, I was intending to delay to allow my friend a better shot. Before I could I heard shots that seemed to be at me. They weren't from the rifle of my friend, and at first I thought it was the helicopter shooting at me (though they weren't loud enough). Someone had (of course) been watching the side chat and marked the location and camped it out. No one died and I didn't manage to get into the helicopter before it took off again. Which turned out to be great, because if I had, I would be in trouble, they thought they were picking up my friend after all, not me. Then my friend really started the diplomacy. This was late at night and the pilot was feeling like he should go to sleep some time soon. Against all odds, the pilot picked up a friend of his (a slight setback, another person to get rid of) then agreed to do another extraction on a hilltop right next to the previous location. Keep in mind that we had questioned heavily this player as to where the helicopter was and how he found it before attempting to get it back. The pilot was clearly suspicious and still agreed to the first extraction. Then he was shot at whilst he was landing and still agreed to a second attempt. Even after he had said he planned to disconnect soon (it being night in game and IRL). All thanks to the fast talk of my friend. This time I had to go meet up with another player (I also had no night vision), so it was two other friends at the second landing point. One with a AS50 with 6 shots left and the other having to abandon his weapon again for the sake of "trust", both had night vision (two sets of night vision acquired over months of play between our group of about 6). The landing point was near the ocean on a hill, right near a cluster of trees where the sniper friend was hiding. There is a problem; the great thing about helicopters, is that they can hover. The great thing about hovering is that they can land facing anyway they want. How can you get them to land so the sniper doesn't have to move? Can the sniper get both the helicopters passengers in view? Will they see the sniper considering he is only about 50m away? I have never had a "plan" go right in its entirety in DayZ, that sort of stuff is for the movies. The chances at this point, as I listened over our VOIP of choice, seemed like slim to none. It only took a few words from our diplomatic team member and the pilot was facing "...the ocean to avoid bandits inland." That still isn't a garuntee of a good shot. The helicopter began to land perfectly aligned with our sniper. Hearing that over VOIP sounded like someone had just won a roullette bet on one number. I'm pretty sure you have probably guessed at least a bit of what happened next. Our sniper took a shot. Only one. Two players were killed. He had managed to shoot both players in a single shot (he was using an AS50 at super short range so maybe not that surprising?). If that wasn't jaw dropping enough, it was what came next. The other player who spoiled the first landing was waiting on the other side in some bushes. After the two helicopter entrepreneurs died, the guy shot and killed our passenger masquerador. Again, it only took one, totally reflex shot, from our team's sniper to kill him. The contents of the helicopter were as I had described, engine parts. But also, none of the stuff we had left there before. It wasn't ours. We aren't bandits, as I said, so discovering that we had murdered these people and stolen their hard earned helicopter was a bit depressing. So was imagining how upset the poor guy would be. Remember the guy hiding in the bushes? The pilot of the helicopter thought it was all him. Sure my friends couldn't take the credit of an awesome heist, but the pilot got the best scenario, he knew he had been bested fair and square (despite being understandably upset). He hadn't had the copter stolen from bugs or glitches or hackers. Someone bested him. He found a player to blame, who willingly accepted that blame as well. We got our helicopter back, or a helicopter. Through legitimate means as well. The three "enemies" of our team in this adventure had all the gear. So we had duplicates of three sets of range finders and NVG, survival stuff as well. Only one coyote backpack, alas. I... didn't expect to speak for this long? This is why I don't post in forums half the time. inb4 I've posted in the wrong place... This adventure was so epic that I don't see how something could top it. In such an imperfected game as DayZ, how could it go so perfectly?! I don't wanna write a tl;dr version. You can't make this stuff shorter. Thanks DayZ, everyone who made this mod. tl;dr (because I feel I have to, but I really don't want to, you can't make this stuff shorter) a couple of friends lost a helicopter, organised a hijacking, everything went perfectly. Got a helicopter back and escaped without blame. Don't want to play video games anymore because how do you get better than this?!

I think it is great. Every time I head to a location I think I know, the geography is different and I have to adapt to the change. But I can see the downside from being completely locked out from loot spawns everywhere.

I played this game with no prior knowledge of how ARMA II worked or anything of the sort. I purposely avoided using online maps and help. My first life I died because of blood loss because I didn't know how to use a bandage (yes I did admit that) --- It was the most fun I have had with a video game in a long, long time. Just the first life, lasting only half an hour. At the time it wasn't in the current state of course, I spawned with the makarov, but I have since died and respawned and started again successfully. Subsequent lives were marked not by the loot I found (I had found high powered weapons - even a heli crash sight with M107's - which I left behind, because they were useless for me, they were too loud) but by things I had achieved. Eg. I made it into and out of Cherno alive, people may not think that much of an achievement, but at the time it was, watching all the chatter from players who had "broken their bones" and listening to the shots when players went to help and chuckling, because I had realised what was going on without finding out from first hand experience. Of course, I chuckled later because at the time I was freaking out... in a game? A computer game that made me feel my heart beating in my chest? This game is not broken. It is brilliant. I think though, most of this has probably already been said, I just wanted to say that this is one person who came in with no experience and enjoyed every second and every glitch of it.