Gadget (DayZ)

I avoid them. I wouldnt want to cut your journey short, why should you cut mine short? If you fire at me, you go down - which has happened 4 times to me so far - people fired first, they all died and I lived. Next time you see a survivor - see them as yourself and just avoid them quietly. Let them go their way, watch them all the time and back away at your leisure.

Hi, i've only been playing for a few weeks now and after several deaths where I lasted only a few hours at most i've managed to last on my current character for 4 or 5 days so far. Firstly, this game although in Alpha is AWESOME!!!! Well done to the developers and Rocket, you've crafted what will be a master piece and potentially earnt your company massive (and I mean massive if you get it just right) income - don't go free to play, release it as a full standalone game. I don't know how your sales of this alpha compare to 'proper sales' of ARMA2 but I suspect they will be a lot more than sales you've had prior to DayZ - I realise its hard to tell, because people having been buying ARMA2 to play just this. ARMA is weak compared with other shooters like GRAW, BF3 etc, but that's just because its such a detailed game and despite me owning it prior to DayZ I just couldt get into it. What fits much better with the engine is DayZ - the engine was made for DayZ!!! Imo your company should postpone ARMA3 and focus purely on this - it will lead to more financial success. My suggestions so far are:- 1) Broken leg mechanic needs tweaking. New players just havent got a clue how to deal with this and its not very fair getting broken bones every hour or so resulting ultimately in repeated deaths until you find morphine etc. I think splints should be introduced that can be made from wood - perhaps they allow movement stood up at a reduced speed - anything is better than having to crawl for hours to try and find morphine. 2) Please please please allow us to have at LEAST 2 characters - perhaps both a male AND female, and allow selection when you login to a server. Having one character is all fine and well but the 'hardcore' style die and have nothing again really gets to some people - including me, to the point that I almost dont want to login anymore because I am doing so well. If I had another character it would help with the blow when I finally die (probably at the hands of other players and 99% have been hostile to me). 3) Please allow characer visual customizations - eg. face skin, body etc, and possible show player names over heads when you are very close to them. It's hard to know who's who - you just cannot tell and you cannot tell if you've suddenly got a 5th member to your 4 man team whos the intruder... 4) Please make some more of the buildings accessible - there are many many in the smaller towns and villages that you just cannot get into - it destroys the immersion of the game - it starts to feel like a game rather than the 'zombie surival sim' that it is. The very fact you can access buildings adds to the realism, even if all rooms cannot be accessed, but when you come across a building that you just cannot get into, you start thinking - I would just kick the door down or climb through a smashed window and at that point the immersion has gone. 5) Please stop zombies running through fences and walls etc - again it spoils the immersion. 6) Finally I wish there was an 'official' way to play locally or on a LAN or internet - that is isolated from the Hive so I can play solo or with friends without the distractions of player killers that have nothing better to do than go kill people. I am not going to go into bugs, I know this is still and Alpha so just keep doing your stuff and I am sure things will be fixed by the final release ;)

Oh dear, its the forum trolls police again... Sorry I didnt realise there were double yellow lines here officer... I wasnt trying to post a survival 'story' as such, I wanted to try and get the attention of people reading the general section itself incase either of the two players recognised the location and events etc - to get their side of the story. I just love the way people post on forums saying 'didnt you search for that first' or 'dont you know theres a thread for that' etc etc. Sorry but we don't all sit there reading every single thread in every single section... I stand educated now and will post survival story esque threads in the survival story section.

I will keep this brief where possible as its pretty long so far. I spawned on the beach with no idea which way to go. I searched nearby buildings and found a 1911 but not much more. I headed east as I had been told stories about a medical camp and airstrip somewhere along the coast. I ran for along the sea front for around 30 minutes until to my shock I came across another survivor running in my directions towards me. I dove for cover, reloaded my pistol (again!) and said 'FRIENDLY!!'. Instantly he spotted me and dove for cover. Seconds passed with no reply so I said 'FRIENDLY??'. After around 30 seconds he opened fire and bullets whizzed over my head. I rolled to the left and fired around 5 shots from the 1911, this was an unfair battle, he had an AK-47 and I had a pistol and 1 clip... I dont know how but by the 5th shot the firing stopped, I must have hit him? I fired another shot and he died... I was in shock from what had just happened, why did he attack me? I felt guilty that I had just killed another player - but he had opened fire first so I was trying to convince myself that it was OK. I approached cautiously incase there was more than one but I couldnt see anyone else. I looted his body, took an AK-47 and 3 clips, a map, and a few other bits and pieces. The shock of what happened hit me hard and made me play twice as cautiously as I had been doing - constantly looking in all directions for any threats... Further east I spotted the medical part of the airfield on the coast. I couldnt get into the medical part as there were just too many zombies but I needed food and ammo so I thought I would go to the airfield. As I approached the airfield someone else spotted me from a distance - bam bam bam, they opened fire without even asking questions. Again I dove to cover, returned fire and they retreated into the building next to the 2 hangars. I took this opportunity to crouch run towards and around to the right - around a wall. I moved behind his position and waited. He popped out facing where I was stood previously and I took him down with a couple of shots. 10 seconds later someone else pops out (there were 2 in there) and fires a me, again I return fire taking him down. After around 3 hours of playing this was now 3 people that had tried to kill me - no questions asked and by some minor miracle I had survived all 3 encounters. The impact this has on you, and how it affects your dealing with others in future is immense. I continued to gather equipment from along the coast line - I hit some sea front 3 story factory building or something there, found a hatchet and a bigger bag, compass and knife. Found 2 warehouses on the front clearly previously visited - barbed wire all around protecting a tent. I looted it 'sociably', taking much needed food and replacing the tent stock with bandages and morphine I had found earlier. I eventually came across the first main town and went into the church. Similar story here with regards to barbed wire everywhere - this was clearly an area of dispute as there was a lot of gunfire nearby. I quickly gathered a few bits of food, ran outside and lit the barrel to cook some meat I had harvested a few minutes previously from my first animal kill. Seconds later I started crawling in the church yard towards the corner to take stock of my inventory and I then heard a LOT of zombies coming my way.... I froze but was ready to fight or flight. A survivor ran straight past me in the shrubs with 10 zombies following. He ran into the church, I heard a few shots - that was enough for me, I let him go his way (I had him in my sights, I just let him be) and I was gone like a bullet to the east, trying to make as little noise as possible. I very cautiously moved to the east and north a little, raiding a hotel where I found a bigger backpack, and a few odds and ends. Once it had gone dark the fun started... Gun fire outside, from multiple directions. A torch light started flashing in my direction, I could hear footsteps coming my way, I raised my gun and hoped that whoever it was would just turn around and go away - they did before they go to me in the back room of the hotel... The next day I carefully explored what looked like a town hall or school and managed to grab supplies I would need for my trip towards the mountains. After leaving there I eventually ran into some medical tents to the east. There were 3 or 4 dead bodies there - this was a dangerous place to be, It took me almost 25 minutes to check the 5 or 6 tents because I had to move so very slowly and keep checking cover and corners. In there I found a LOT of morphine, blood bags, epi pens - why I was carrying this stuff I dont know as I was solo and couldnt use these on myself, I figured I might be able to trade or help someone... It started to get very dark and I move away from the tents ASAP to avoid whoever had killed the 3 or 4 survivors and I camped out in a nearby wood for the night (after filling my water containers in the nearby pond). The following day I moved north, climbed a few radio masts to the top, used binoculars to look for anything of interest etc, I was worried I might be a sniper target but there was no better way to survey the area to see what might be worth my valuable walking time. I explored every building on the way up north and west, eventually coming to the first castle I had found. I managed to gather food and drink from the castle but quickly moved on, to avoid other survivors (or bandits). At this point I spent a lot of time moving west and north through the villages, hills and woods there. I found a crashed chopper and managed to get more ammo for the AK, but barely got away from the nearby zombies - I had to run for litterally 20 minutes to get rid of them as there were no nearby buildings for cover. At some point in the north hills I found a tent, I hope it wasnt yours as I raided it for a few key supplies, but I left you a blood pack and an epi pen - I had loads of them with no one to assist ;) I only took an AK clip and some cola I think. As I started to run out of food and water I got a little disoriented at this point (even with compass) and ended up going around in some very long circles... Eventually I found a town somewhere in the west - I stood in the churchyard as I couldnt get into the church, camped in the corner to check my gear out. Suddenly I heard a vehicle!! I couldnt believe it, someone had managed to get one running!! It sounded like they were looking for survivors, I assumed they were hostile and hid in bushes as best as I could. The vehicle left after 30 seconds or so - my heart was racing. I headed north and mostly east, passed more villages, mountains, found another chopper, basically I was doing OK, but I had run out of food. I ran around a village looking for food with a dozen zombies following... I seriously underestimated how much ammo and food I needed and got beaten to the ground with a broken leg. I shot in all directions wasting almost two clips of AK ammo. I managed to fix the leg with morphine but my health was around 7000. I had not eaten in ages and started to feel the effects of starvation. My health started dropping 10 points ever few seconds, I put a few bandages on for good measure but it wasnt the leg it was starvation. I searched for ages until I had eventually only 3000 blood left, my vision was blurred so bad and so often that I could barely see anything at all. I felt like this was the end, the journey was over, I couldnt get out of this, it was too hard... I had one last burst of energy and decided to try and run around the village I had just found on the off chance that maybe one door was open and there might be a couple of cans of meat inside. I ran down a hill, through several gardens and could not believe what I had in front of me- a SUPERMARKET! I ran as fast as I could with the ensuing 10 or so zombies behind me, I was litterally seconds away from passing out and ultimately death. I ran into the door, found a can of meat, and a tin of cola and consumed these before turning to deal with the now dozen or so zombies entering the shop. I had survived all odds. After camping out that shop and making 2 or 3 trips to the airfield NW of there I managed to hunt cows and recover my health to 12000, pretty much fill my inventory with rare stuff from nearby chopper crashes and the airport. I decided this was an 'untouched' area, so I would camp here for a few days to explore anything nearby. I logged back in later today and found to my horror was faced with 2 dead players in that building - someone had been there minutes or seconds earlier and killed these two players. They were both as well kitted as me, infact they had milatary torches that I hadnt found but they had GPS, rare weapons etc, pretty much same as me minus the NVG. I could tell they had been around and had as many challenges as I had faced. I was gutted by this, who would kill people in cold blood - they had been shot from behind. I was so paranoid I left the building and the area ASAP, watching every direction incase I was being followed by their killer.

It's not as clear cut as that though is it. You say the reason people hunt players is because zombies are too easy. I've got news for you, even if people start teaming up because they are harder, all we will see is solo players not able to play, and groups of bandits instead of a majority of solo bandits. As a player that likes to play solo 50% of the time, I wouldnt fancy my odds against groups of bandits, or the zombies... You go from deathmatch to team deathmatch effectively. Some good ideas there though - things like splint for broken bones, i've been saying that for a while now. Morphine should be used in order to regain walking (albeit with some vision blur and sound loss) but it shouldnt 'fix' bones. We are missing splints, maybe created using the hachet - 'Create Splint'? I would like to see player names or something, I know it takes away from the realism etc but half the time you dont know if the person youve just grouped with is the same person that shot you the day before...

I agree it needs tweaking. I spent around 20 hours up until today just trying to find a damn box of matches - then I found 2. I kept the second expecting the first to last 10 or 20 times etc, but it looks like it lasts forever....

It's an alpha lol. That means that they've not finished adding in core functionallity yet - ie. in alpha you dont always focus on bugs, you tend to leave most until the alpha phase is complete, prior to beta. There are a lot of people that seem to think the game is released already... We just have a rare opportunity to help the developers shape it whilst its in alpha form. So what people need to do (besides pointing out bugs) is suggest cool things that the majority of players would enjoy.

Six Updater solved my problems - it patched both Arma2 beta and dayz. Thanks.

I get the same problem. I've been having intermittant problems with the game for a week since i first started playing. I know it's an Alpha but the problem as far as I can see is there are numerous servers using different exe versions, different dayz code version, and different BattleEye versions. Yesterday I played all night fine, today ive been trying to connect to a server now for almost 2 hours... First it said it couldnt update BattleEye or that BattleEye wasnt responding. Several reboots and re-installs / manual copy of BattleEye files later and all I get now every time is the crash you are getting. it's almost like theres a hive problem or something to do with BattleEye.