leeballington@tiscali.co.uk

"Who doesn't want me dead?" That's a good question, short answer......95% of players (In game ofc not in real life) Because DayZ isn't a game but a mod of a game it has no real start or end. We are stuck in the middle. I tried being the nice guy in the game but people will shoot you in the back so it's a bad way to go. If you play solo you have to shoot first and if you don't shoot first make sure you shoot last because otherwise you are dead anyway. There is zero PvE in this mod so the only people you can trust are people you already know. I do hope that when this game becomes a free standing game it changes a little in that regaurd, because you won't really meet people though this game as they shoot first ask questions later. Shouting "FRIENDLY" over chat means nothing, although they may not shoot if you don't have a weapon as you are no threat. A lot of people in this game are arseholes who will just kill you because you are there. The one major gripe I have with the game is I won't really meet people to play with, I have to play with friends I already know. My message to anybody starting out is soon as you find a gun, if you see someone kill them before they kill you, you're on your own, get used to it. I have been shot many a time when I could have taken a shot but shouted friendly, but they have a gun and they think "Fuck him!" Like I say people are arseholes. I don't get bitter about being killed off players, but I do get bitter about not being able to form alliances with players on the fly because of the "kill of be killed" attitude that's in the game. ATM, I have to follow that suite and just shoot on sight. I don't go out of my way to kill players but if they are in my way or are where I need to go I have to take them down. That could be a worthy ally, but there is no point in taking that risk. It's a huge shame if we have to form clans OUTSIDE of game to work with others, I'd rather meet people in game, in the world, in the hell we are both in, to work together, but at this moment there is no penalty to killing survivors and until there is it's just an "Everyman for himself" FPS, with zombies thrown in.

Love how my little chart there looks nothing like how I wrote it nevermind According you Dayz wiki the M1911 has been changed to 3 body shot kill but the revolver is still 1 body shot kill, I can't confirm this on the Revolver as I don't have one BUT!!! the m1911 now is 3 body shot kill, which I found out the hard way. TBH I don't mind the change about the M1911, it's a very common gun which probably as a little OP for a common weapon. They could go 2 ways on it either nerf it a little or make it a lower spawn, they went with the former. In the past it was one of the first weapons I would look for, but I really shouldn't be coming across a Glock17 and thinking that the M1911 is better.

The Revolver is probably the best common hand gun now in my opinion, still 1 shot kill to body or head and the same noise level as the M1911. The Makarov has moved up a place from 3rd to 2nd as it's quieter than the M1911, holds 1 more round in the mag, has better aiming, has a faster rate of fire and more ammo spawns. It might take 4 body shots to kill a Zed but there's still a chance it will be 3. The M1911 has now moved from 1st to 3rd with it being no longer a 1 shot kill to the body. Here's the break down:- REVOLVER MAKAROV PM M1911 mag size:- 6 8 7 shots to kill:- Head: 1 Head: 1 Head: 1 Body: 1 Body: 3 - 4 Body: 3 rate of fire:- Slow Fast Moderate recoil:- High Moderate Moderate noise:- Moderate Low/Moderate Moderate A hand gun is more of a close up weapon so I haven't put in effective range, although the revolver wins that as well, why the hell you would be trying to kill a zed from 100 meters with a hand gun is beyond me though.

I think the phrase "TRUST NO-ONE!!" Has been echoed out though most of this mods life. "You're on your own, you have to survive, you need to find food water supplies and weapons to make survival possible." I used to be a nice guy, in many ways I wish I could be that guy again. I have found methods to survive the world we now all live in, but my trust in my fellow man has all but evaporated. The final straw happened a few weeks back now, just north west of Elektro. I was busy hunting cattle for some meat to cook, I wasn't in any great need of food, but if there's a cow wandering about, it's best to get it while you can rather than wait till you're running low with no animals in sight. It had been three days since I had found myself in this hell but I had some decent kit by this point. With an AKM on my back and my trusty M9 grasped between two hands, if the infected could think, they'd think twice about messing with me. Suddenly I see a group of zombies pursuing an unarmed survivor, he heads into a nearby barn, but there's nothing in there, I know, I have just been. three or four of the blood crazed monsters follow him inside, this guy needs help. I holster my side-arm, quickly grabbing my rifle from my back I head for the barn swiftly. Getting inside I make short work of the 2 on the stairs, before heading to the top of the barn where the terrified survivor is being beaten by another. I shoot it twice in the back, it goes down, but as I look at the zombies prey I see he's bleeding heavily. I bandage him up to stop his bleeding before dropping 2 pieces of cooked meat near him, telling him to eat. Two more of the bastards had wandered into the barn, BANG BANG, the hobbling undead don't do stairs well making them easy kills. I'm thanked for my help from what I though might be a new friend or at least an ally. We talk for a while, seeing he is unarmed I take an old Makarov from my backpack and drop it on the floor with two clips. He thanks me again, telling him I must be going I move towards the door, but as I get to the floor of the barn, a shot rings out hitting me in the back, I spin round firing my AKM wildly three of my barrage of bullets hit him. My new ally soon turned into a bandit. I'm hurt but not bad, I bandage up, replenish my health and move to his corpse... "WHY!!! Why did you do that you stupid boy???" I learnt that day that people don't want your help. They just want your stuff. Now I wander the wastelands surviving however I can and I trust only two people, I'm one of them, you're not the other.

I have noticed that some people are still having problems with Zeds agroing them while they think they are hidden, from what I have read in this thread in built up towns, where there are usually a good number of the blood thirsty buggers, seems to be the most common place that players are finding problematic. Let me tell you what I know and maybe spread a little light on the problems you maybe having. I will try and not to come across patronising, but some of the points might seem that way, as some of the tips are simplistic, but it's usually the simple things that people forget the quickest. (1) Zeds are inconsistent in patch (1.7.2.3) agro, speed, vision, hearing even how hard they seem to hit. By now you know this, I'm sure you've read enough about it, it gets enough hate posts about the problem. But if you know this, don't expect every Zed to be the same. LOOK, THINK and then ACT. Don't rush thinking "That Zed is miles away even though he's facing me so I'll just jog over this road." That will get you pulling agro very easily from something that could be avoiding with a little bit of patience and common sense. I have hit the prone button many a time after just seeing Zed looking in my direction whether he's 10 meters away or 50, I make sure I'm hidden for that moment they keep an eye on him for a few seconds just incase he did spot me and starts running, most of the time I'm fine but sometimes even from 50 meters away, he's seen me and I need to make a quick exit. Like I said Zeds are inconsistent. (2) Awareness in towns. Looting in towns and villages can be fruitful if done right. Personally, I'd rarely try and loot a town with a fresh spawn, weaponless character, as the chances of bumping into a Zed's agro is extremely high and even if you find a building to make a stand in, without a gun you might just be delaying the inevitable, try looting barns first to get at least a Double-Barreled Shotgun or if you're lucky a Winchester, for me one of the best guns in the game, low noise, decent range, 15 rounds and usually 1-shot kill. Check the perimeter of the Town/Village you're attempting to loot, some have very few enterable buildings, you're looking for 2-story square red brick buildings and dark grey 1 story wooden houses, these are the most common enterable buildings but there are some others like a yellow house but not all towns have them. Once you see a building you can enter, plan your route, move slowly and stay low but not always prone, Zeds have LoS so use the buildings and structure to your advantage, hugging the wall and peering around corners before moving will slow you down but it will keep you alive. Constantly stop, check your 360, then move on if it's clear. Stick to your route trying to avoid fences you need to vault over as this will put you in full standing posture making you easily visible. If you have got to the door of a building prone, move up to squat position before entering, some buildings while entering prone will make you auto-stand or worse you'll get the broken leg bug. Check 360 again before entering and walk don't run (Doors can be buggy if you run in). Once inside quickly get the loot inside, only what you need, don't start messing around with your bag in there, pick up the gear and get out, you want to get in and out quickly so that Zed position outside hasn't changed dramatically, this is very important with buildings with only one entrance, unagroed Zeds move slowly so if you're quick, not much would have changed outside. Walk out, done run and hit prone once clear from the door if unsure about Zed position. Check 360 again and move out. Don't get searching around if you are not sure what's ahead. There is little point putting your life at risk because they MIGHT me an enterable building ahead, if you can see it fine, if you're just curious back out and take another look from outside the town. (3) Prone not always the way to go. Being prone has some great benefits, you can move in open areas making virtually no sound and you're very well hidden on most terrain, but you're slow and if you play with 3rd person off visually impaired. Going prone is a necessity at times, but don't over rely on it. Zed's are inconsistent, I've said this enough and the major problem of being prone is when shit hits the fan and you need to run, your character will take longer to get up than it takes me to get out of bed in the morning. You want to be in most cases walking in the squat position, hugging walls, checking corners and regularly checking your surroundings. You make just as little amount of noise if you walk in squat as you do in prone, yes Zeds can see you if they are looking right at you but you should be checking your surrounding making this less of a problem. (4) Watch the white dots at the edge of the screen. These are either Zeds or animals. (Might be players too, not sure on that one). They look a little like lens flares, the bigger they are the closer it is to you. These are great when searching around towns as a lot of the time you can't see what's around the corner but these little dots can tell you if there is something there and how close it is. Use these to your advantage, Zed around the corner? I'll just sit tight for a few seconds till he moves away. (5) Random Zed spawn. You will get this if you have moved into an area quickly, I get this a lot in the Airstrip as you have to move fast due to snipers, yes it can be a pain but if you get them in an area where you are moving slowly, it's most likely because another player has entered the area you are in, so stay alert for PKers. This bug I don't like but I'm sure that this will be fixed soon as it's a clear bug not just a Zed agro annoyance. That's it hope I helped a little. If you slow down think about what you're doing a little more you'll be fine. I'm guessing most people are agroing Zeds because they are rushing too much to try and get loot quicker. Take your time, plan your route and be a bit more vigilant and you'll do fine. Good luck.

Server hopping is a problem, I had a guy pinned down in a deer stand and ofc he logs out because he knows he's toast. That's a hard thing to stop. There needs to be some sort of (in combat) fail-safe to stop them logging out and if they just close the application their character stays there so I can pop the cheating bugger, similar to World of Warcraft or other MMOs where if you are in combat you can't log out. (FFS can't believe I brought up WoW, 3 years clean from that drug). The buggy running Zeds I can deal with, it's alpha and I'm sure they know about that problem and are looking for ways to combat it. I'll run, hide, break LoS, get into buildings, anything to stop from making too much noise in high populated areas. I have seen people with 300-400-500 Zed kills and to me, that means you're killing them for fun or you have been alive since the mod came out. Although I play solo so this also might be why my Zed Kill Count is only 100ish. One thing I have noticed is for a solo player, you will or can eventually get a little bored. The game/mod is about survival, not doing anything stupid, looting food, drink, medical supplies and basically staying safe. This is all fine at the start, you have goals. (1) I need to find water, (2) I need to find food (3) I need to find a weapon (4) I need to find equipment to hunt and cook my own food (5) I need to find a bigger bag (6) I need to find a secondary weapon or/and better primary weapon (7) erm........now what?? It got to the stage of either finding a sniper rifle and taking noobs out who like to run towards barracks in a straight line or go on suicide missions in Elektro and Cherno, running around like a knobhead. I felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger near the end of the movie Predator screaming:- "Come on do it, come on I'm here, kill me, I'm here, come on do it now!!Kill me I'm here!!!"

The Infected are a bit of a pain still, I wish they had a set agro range and stick to it but it does seem to change. This becomes less of a problem in the more advanced game as you will have the tools to deal with them efficiently, although I'm not a fan of letting people know where I am with gunshots echoing out. Usually when I hear gun fire, I get into cover, get the binoculars out and scan the area for some loud arse players to pop. One thing that did bug me a little was the infected running in the hangers at the Airstrip. That shit me up, had a few on my tail and you have to run around the airfields if you prone to get in undetected, you're a sitting duck for snipers. I ran to the back of the hanger to give me as much time as possible to pick my shot, only to see three of the buggers still running at me. With more luck that skill I managed to kill all 3 without them hitting me, but it was still brown trousers time. But I still think they are too easy to lose, you shouldn't be able to run past a tree then go prone for them not to see that. A Zed chasing you should be a scary experience not a annoying one. The fact that people including myself, although I'm disappointed I resorted to this technique, are just running through large towns and cities searching for a weapon ignoring zombie agro is as far from realistic as it can get. Yes they could get popped off a sniper but then they could easily do it on a low population server to lessen that threat. Maybe it would be better if you lose speed the longer you're running at full speed or/and if you run past a Zed they can cut you off and take a swing at you slowing you down. You want people to be fighting them so maybe making melee weapons more common place at the spawning points would be good, (I don't have a gun yet, but at least I have my stick) finding a metal bar on the coast could be implemented, not as effective as the hatchet but a weapon that might be able to knock a Zed down so you're able to make your escape in a more fun way than running into bushes to hide. Weapon clips are refilling when I log off too, not complaining but that's clearly something that needs fixing. The Wilderness spawn bug hasn't happened to me since patch 1.7.2.3 so I hope that is now a thing of the past. but only time will tell. With the patches on the whole I think it's moving in the right direction, there are just a few things that can make the game too easy where as before it was harder.

Any news on fixing the "wilderness spawn, no gear bug"?? I mean I know it's alpha but it's a major pain in the ass to have to respawn and start again because of a huge huge flaw in the mod. you have fixed the zeds agro which wasn't a big deal but still if I log out for more than 4 hours then come back I have to start all over again Please sort that out.

There doesn't seem to be much point putting time into getting gear atm. I logged off last night in a nice position with gear, food, water 2 decent weapons and the ability to hunt and cook my own food. Logged on this morning and i'm in the wilderness with no gear, so I respawned, (It is alpha so shit happens) spent 2hrs this morning getting a few bits together, had no gun but had the ability to hunt and cook my own food again as well as water bottle so i still had 12000 blood and had enough medical supplies to keep he healthy. Logged off went for a few pints with friends. Came back logged on and my guy is back on the coast with no gear. What's going on?? I know it's Alpha and bugs will be common place but atm, I don't see the point of making a character and spending time improving him just to log back in and he's either in the wilderness, been back dated considerably or back at the starting point.

Yeh this bug has been there for a while, you can also auto stand when trying to enter some building when prone, which is bad when there are Zeds about, I have screamed at my monitor many a time "GET THE F**K DOWN KNOBHEAD!!" you just have to have a quick look about, move up to crouch make sure your walking not running, then enter the building and hopefully not get the silly door bug where it's difficult to get in with out strafing left and right for 10 seconds. The first time I got the broken leg bug while being prone entering a building, was the first time I'd got a large amount of decent kit. Alice Bag, AK47 with a decent amount of ammo, good amount of water and food which I had cooked so it was the good stuff and had a nice kill count of zeds and players. I was quite pleased with the stride I had made on this spawn. Then sneaked into a house and AGHHH broken leg. But it's Alpha so what do you do.....respawn and try again.

Since the patch, the infected are weird now. Yes they are a lot easier to agro, you can be assessing a situation while squatted, with Zeds miles away when you'll see one hauling it's arse at you. This isn't a major problem as they are a lot easier to lose now, running in and out of buildings, zigzaging through and behind trees before hitting the floor in prone just to see your pursuer with that "Where did he/she go?" look all over his face. The DayZ team have said not enough people were killing zombies so either players were really good at avoiding them or they weren't threatening enough, making the game a full PvP shootout, so they changed it. BUT, for me this has made it more a PvP shoot-out than before. In patch 1.7.5 zombies, although a problem, could be avoided with stealth tactics, especially key in early game with no weapon. Now when people spawn near a town, or what I do anyway, is just run in upright and at full speed, I'm going to pull zombies anyway even if I try stealth so there doesn't seem any point in wasting time getting half way in just to pull one and end up running anyway. Head for buildings I can get in to see if there is any loot then run out with my train of zombies following me like a Benny Hill show. I can lose them easily so it doesn't matter how many of the blood crazed nasties are nipping at my heels. In 10 mins of finding a built up area I can usually find a gun and some supplies with zombies now seeming more of a nuisance than a threat. Zeds were supposed to be more threatening, but in the latest patch they may as well not be there and we'll have a kind of Army MMO of people looking for guns before blasting away at other players. The Mod is still good but I prefer patch 1.7.5 where the Zeds were more relentless when chasing you and didn't agro as easily. Give me back the game when finding a can of pepsi was an accomplishment rather than getting kitted up in 30mins with a conga of Zeds behind me just for me to run through a large barn to lose them all in one move.