LeninTheRed

So I've been playing Day Z for a little over a month and I'm starting to get a pretty good feel for the game. A few weeks ago, I decided I'd start keeping track of what routes I used to get various places and how often I encountered a player along the way. I put this together with loot maps, the experiences of other players, lots of youtube footage, common knowledge, and a fair bit of guess work, and came up with a map to use as a general guideline for where I was most likely to encounter another person. I've always been a solo player. No clans will accept me because I can't use voice chat (My sons crib is right next to my desk and I can only play quite late at night), so its always been a necessity for me to figure out how to survive on my own. So far the best way I've found to do this is non-confrontation, and an emphasis on survival when contact does occur. Unless I think a player saw me, or I think I am likely to meet them at my next destination, I let them pass. To date, I have never been killed by a player. However I always pay careful attention to where they are going and where they were coming from, and most importantly by what route they went there. This has given me a unique opportunity to notice trends in player movement and anticipate where I'm most likely to run into trouble, thus, this map. Unsurprisingly, most people stick to the trees and take the shortest route between to points that has consistent tree cover. Keep in mind, this is still just my opinion. I'd love to see other people add to this, I think something like this could be a very useful resource (as long as its not put out by the devs, which is obviously unfair and ruins a whole dimension of meta-gaming for day Z) if it were contributed to by competent players and experienced groups. I'll take all the suggestions on this thread every week or 2 and update the map accordingly if anyone cares. That said if your contribution is to call me an idiot because my map sucks, please post somewhere else. I know it sucks, it was initially for personal use, and I decided to add a legend and share it here for people who might be interested. If you aren't interested, that is fine, but I really don't need to hear about it. Anyway here it is -------------------- Resources Here's a bunch of my favorite resources for day Z (Many i'm sure you know already) http://dayzmap.info/ - Interactive map with loot probablity tables, very nice & fast. http://dayzdb.com/map - A very polished and comprehensive map with loot tables & even vehicles. http://dayzwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page - The day Z wiki! http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/basic_rifleman.html - An enormous, comprehensive, and wonderful guide for the default game, ARMA II. It answers many questions you might have and offers a wide range of beautifully illustrated and well explained strategies that apply to Day Z. I recommend every Day Z player read this, excluding the parts which obviously don't apply to Day Z. ----------------- Tips, rules, and random observations. These are my rules for solo survival, take em or leave em. I added one every time I ran into trouble. The Rules: Rule #1 - NEVER RUN IN TOWN Rule 1A - Unless you've agro'd a zombie, then sprint for the nearest large building and attempt to shake/fight the zombies. Rule #2 - Engage any player who might be aware of your presence or location. In the event that this is not possible or is unsafe, make a stealthy retreat as soon as it is safe. Do not engage a player if it can be avoided. Do not approach the players body to loot if there is any doubt it can be safely recovered. Rule #3 - When combat with a group is inevitable, determine the existence/location of any possible overwatch/sniper element. If one exists, engage and destroy it with as few shots as possible, making a quick retreat out of the line of sight of the main group as soon as it is destroyed. Rule 3A - If close combat with a group is inevitable, IE in a town, attempt to sneak as close to the enemy as possible and intermingle with his ranks. They will often hesitate to fire to determine if you are friendly over team speak, giving you an advantage. This has saved my life more than once. Rule #4 - The hospital just isn't worth it man. Rule #5 - Cooked meat is King. Always have at least 4 cooked meat on you whenever possible. Replace canned foods with cooked meat as you build up your pantry. Rule #6 - Keep only one food & water in your main inventory, keep the rest in the bag. Rule #7 - Keep at least one pain pills in main inventory at all times. Rule #8 - Eat & drink before leaving any building which has food or drink that you cannot take with you. Rule #9 - Do not enter a building with a zombie in it. Just don't. Rule #10 - The further NorthWest you encounter a player, the more likely they are to be well equipped. Rule #11 - Small night time servers can be safe, but beware that these have a higher rate of players with Night vision goggles, which are obviously extremely dangerous. Rule 11A - Deploy FLARES to blind NVG users from very far away. Test showed good effect (quite good) up to 250m. For this reason flares take massive priority over chemlight (much less effect). Rule #12 - If you find a chopper location, take note of the server and the location. You can find out what server your on by holding the "I" key. Rule #13 - Examine any particularly thick or dense cluster of trees that cannot easily be seen through. You sometimes find tents and repaired vehicles in this area. This has been a very profitable practice. Rule #14 - Loot quality has an inverse relationship with player activity. The better the loot in an area, the more likely it is there is a player nearby. The worse/more sparse, the less likely you are to encounter someone. Rule #15 - Zombies can knock you out if you are below 9,000 blood. This is often fatal. Hunt for cooked meat to get above 9,000 blood before entering an area with zombies if it is at all possible. I'm sure there will be more rules to come, I'd love to see everyone else's rulebook :D. Tips: Here's some advice I offered to another forum I frequent, where many people including myself learned of DayZ and eventually decided to buy ARMA II for it. "Here are some quick tips: G opens your Gear (inventory). In your Gear list, the number to the Right of the item is the number of that item you have. The number on the LEFT of the item in your item list is how many are on the dead body/on the ground. That took me a long time to learn. When you are bleeding (indicated by the cross sign on your blood drop meter), open inventory with G, right click a bandage, and hit bandage myself. This takes a few seconds and fails when interrupted. You wont lose the bandage until you are successfully bandaged though. NEVER, EVER, EVER RUN IN TOWN! Z, X, and C are your stance buttons. Z is prone, X is crouch and C is stand. Always be in crouch or prone position when near anywhere that zombies spawn (like town). Press shift twice to switch your default movement from run to walk, then hold shift when you need to run. 95% of my deaths are traceable to having ran in town. If your screen is shaking badly, you are in pain. Take some painkillers and the shaking will stop. if you break a bone (broken bone icon on HUD) you'll need to take morphine (same as bandaging, right click in inventory) When starting you'll need a weapon. The following list is listed from Safest (at the bottom) to most profitable (at the top). These two things have an inverse relationship in Day Z, the more weapons and the better the weapons are in a place, the less safe it is due to player traffic. Barracks (very rare) Airfields Fire stations (have military grade loot for some reason) Chopper crashes (so rare to actually find one that there are almost never players around since almost no one knows where they are, i've only ever seen one) Deer stands (only one loot spot, not really worth checking usually since you can be seen from so far away while your in one/approaching one) Office buildings Barns (Best place to find weapons early on IMO, high rate of Winchesters/Enfields and unparalleled safety. The order of the day is to become 2 things: Self sustaining and deadly. To this end, you need a rifle, plenty of ammo, about 3-5 food items, 2 cans of drink and 2 refillable water bottles, 2 painkillers, 2 morphine, 4 bandages, night vision goggles, also preferably a map (GPS is so rare I wont even mention it), a hatchet, matches, and a knife. Once you have all of these things you can survive for extended periods in the woods, rarely having to go to town for anything. You can then hunt players who travel in the forests at night (Often in a dead sprint and paying no attention) for intermittent ammo, etc. You can refill your bottles at any lake or even the ocean, also at water pumps. You can hunt wild game for meat and chop wood for a fireplace with the ahtchet. The cooked meat refills a lovely 800 blood so you can use it to recover from a fight gone wrong. When you are being attacked by a zombie (If you see one approaching you with any kind of speed, its after you). Go into stand position and SPRINT AS FAST AS YOU CAN! NO matter how many other zombies you attract or how many players might see you. Run for the nearest semi-large building or building with only one entrance. Once inside take a knee and let the zombies come in. Zombies are forced to walk inside buildings and it is much easier to take them out in a bottleneck and walking than it is with them zig zag running around. NEVER EVER engage more than one zombie out in the open. If its only one zombie, sprint to where there are no other zombies, turn around and drop it very quickly. The goal with zombies is simple: Not one bite. One hit is enough to put you in a situation that could ultimately kill you." ----------------------------- I'll update my heatmap as I notice trends change and as other people offer advice or criticism on it. I'll update the rules as new ones come along or as other people post good ones. Of course that's assuming anyone cares (unlikely). -Lenny

A clever one can...

Lol nobody makes a living wage off of streaming/youtubing video games, regardless of what they told you on IRC. Many people make a living off of YouTube, that is a fact. By streaming video games? If anyone does they are few and far between and you can be pretty sure they aren't paying the rent and the car bill with internet money. Also it doesn't matter how much money they make, the makers of DayZ are not beholden to how your loser friend makes $5 a week because he can't hold down a real job.

Lol nobody makes a living wage off of streaming/youtubing video games, regardless of what they told you on IRC.

Most of the people i spotted on those routes were from a couple weeks ago before the big tent wipe.

Last bump to see if anyone is interested in adding something

Bump for tips/critique for map and other helpful info.

You trust people now? No certainly not, the rules clarify: "Rule #2 - Engage any player who might be aware of your presence or location. In the event that this is not possible or is unsafe, make a stealthy retreat as soon as it is safe. Do not engage a player if it can be avoided. Do not approach the players body to loot if there is any doubt it can be safely recovered."