The Black Veil

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Post this if you're proud to be one of the 5% who worked your ass off for a vehicle! [attachment=1974]

... How Are So Many People Dying? I've been lurking the DayZ forums for many weeks now; since a buddy of mine first mentioned this Promised Land of zombie-infested fun. There were, first, hours spent in awe of videos and screens, then a few days of pining for something I couldn't afford and, ultimately, a present from the aforementioned friend: Your Steam Account has received a Gift! ArmA2: CO has been gifted to your account. It was glorious. Almost as soon as I saw the alert I forgot anything about showering (I work in a restaurant and showering is pretty much an instinct after any shift, now) and went straight to installing and figuring out how to add on this mythical beast of Zombie-Player relations. After many hours of labor (read: stupidity on my own part) I finally just got SixUpdater and got shit working. I got into DayZ. And I died. By zombie. Again and again. In fact, I got into the game just after 1.7.1.5 released and, therefore, everything I'd seen up to that point showed off spawning with guns. When I didn't, I was remiss. How do the Gods expect us to survive when we don't even have weapons? I bemoaned the inhumanity, the difficulty, the unplayability -- but not on the forums that had become my home in the hours when I wasn't playing. When I was on the forums I read stories of deaths -- murders by bandits, murders by zombies, murders by accident (unintentional suicides?), murders by glitches, murders by starvation or dehydration, murders by bandits, did I mention zombies? Or bandits? I met a guy in a light house once. I climbed the ladder, turned right (my view was still panned down from the ladder) and saw feet. I was startled and panned up, only to be face to face with the business-end of an MP5, held in the hands of a guy in sleeveles cammies. This was my first encounter with a player. Fumbling for my CAPS key, I finally uttered, "Friendly, friendly!" He replied, "You wanna' be friends?" I said, "I mean... even if I didn't -- you've got the gun here, man, hahah." He didn't even chuckle. He told me to follow him. What ensued was my first romp, with another player, through terrible, zombie-infested towns, up and over hills, through glades and fields. And it ended with the guy giving me his MP5, his hatchet, and some extra bandages. Because he knew he'd die clearing the town for us to loot. Five minutes later, I activated three zombies, who chased me into the nearby hills, but I almost ditched them going up a small radio tower. They wouldn't move. I sat there for 20 minutes, they wouldn't move. Finally, since I realized the MP5 was mag-less, I jumped out of the tower, broke my legs, and got eaten. Next life. I said "Screw the coast," and ran inland. I had NO clue where I was going. Ultimately, I found a military stand (the ones that aren't made of wood, like deer stands). I was stoked. I climbed the ladder, got to the top... and I guess I'd held something down when I shouldn't have, because I then stepped backwards (not of my own will) and fell out of the stand, broke my leg, dislocated a joint, and lost about 1.5-2k of blood. I crawled my happy ass toward the town I saw in the distance. When I reached the road I had just about decided to just crawl myself into zombies so I could die and start over when I heard, "Wha- Oh! Hi, there. Do you have a broken bone or something?" Startled, again, I go spinning around, still prone, and finally see who's talking to me: an Enfield-toting survivor with a huge back pack. I tell him, yeah, my legs are broken, I have no guns, no medical supplies, I'm pretty much DOA. You know what he says?" "Let me go into that town just ahead, there's a C-Store there that normally has tons of supplies. Stay here, I'll be right back!" I'm floored. Niceness? The Hell? I zoom-watch him go into town, skirt a bunch of zombies... and then activate about fifteen of them. He disappears around a building, then re-surfaces what felt like tens of minutes later inside the nearest building, laying out zombies one after another. This same scene occurs two more times. The third session ends with him disappearing while I watch a zombie continually make the attack animation... My heart drops. I'm sure he's dead. I'd been watching the Kill Notifications for any sign of a name that wasn't the normal 5-10 that occur on every server from newbies or just plain bad players dying over and over. Ultimately, I crawl my busted ass into the C store, avoiding zombies galore, find his weapons (unsure, at the time, how dead players leave items) and assume he's dead. I'm terrified, I hear zombies all around me.. and then here he comes, My Savior Friend, toting an even beefier gun. We identify each other, he tells me to keep his gun, he found something better, and then he says he's gonna' check some houses for supplies. Again, he disappears, activates zombies, I hear gun shots, then I hear screaming... I'm sure he's done for, this time. I go crawling around the back of the C-Store, hoping to see him and use my newly acquired weapon to help... ...and I turn into the back room, and see an unfamiliar survivor. Not sure at the time how to lower my weapon, I point my cross-hairs to his feet, tab CAPS and say, "FRIENDLY!" and then get shot in the face. Turns out my Savior's friend was logging in, but didn't know he was in the middle of helping somebody. So, gut reaction, he shot me. Before the YOU ARE DEAD screen popped in, they both apologized. I was STILL floored. Had I identified myself sooner, I could've saved myself (broken, though I was). Every time I've died, it was due to my own stupidity. I read a post, recently, where a certain self-proclaimed player-killer posited that any competent player should never have to worry about death unless it's something wildly out of their hands (read: glitches, desyncs during combat and whathaveyou). I also continued to read story after story about the inhumanity of other players. By this time, I was awesome at the game. I'd survived for some eight or nine days, made my home in a forest near a town that seems almost stupidly ignored for how much it offers and the lack of players that seem to be willing to make the trip to it, and boasted some great gear (nothing like an ALICE pack or a .50 cal, but great enough to get by and get out of any situations I got myself into). I found a player AFK in the woods East of Pastushka (sp?). I wouldn't have spotted him if it weren't for the mint-condition White Off-Roader he was hiding in the trees in front of him. I asked him a number of times, over VON and Direct Chat, if he was there. Why was he AFK? Can he hear me? And then I did something terrible. I shot him. I took his gear (way better than some of the stuff I had), I took his vehicle (I'd once seen a bicycle!), and I booked it. I booked it hard. I felt torn between excitement and guilt. Then I logged in the next day, trying to find the server I was on I probably hopped around too much, and I got my self server-killed for jumping around servers too much. Lost everything. Once again, death by my own stupidity. Almost every interaction I've had with a player in this game (especially when I've been in a position of weakness) has been positive. I play on a lot of different servers -- everything from Seattle, across the states, to UK and German servers. And only once has a player killed me without saying a word. I don't know what anyone else is doing to have AWFUL experiences regarding other players, but maybe I'm just lucking out and hitting the other end of the spectrum. tl;dr = I've had only positive experiences where other players are concerned, regardless of server/region. How are so many forum-posters having such shit luck with player encounters?