herrjon

Well I'm glad your having fun. Yes the learning curve is quite steep, but the difficult needs to be there so the game isn't a bore for people who have played for a week. The game could maybe have an in-game tutorial specifically for Day Z, as far as looting and zombie stuff goes, but again this is in alpha, the primary concern is getting the game to work properly and be enjoyable over, for the lack of a better term, babying newbies. For ARMA II mechanics, not much Rocket can do to make hard changes to the engine. There is talks of a standalone game at some point, but for now just learn the feel of the mouse wheel and the loot system, you'll be flying through Cherno like a maniac in no time. Here's the logic of running through bushes and sneaking away rather than continue running. I'll be talking in "real life" terms here, as real as zombies can get anyways. Unless you're very unlucky, you've had a chance to observe and experience zombie behavior for at least a little bit, whether it be watching a town from the treeline, or crawling through town avoiding them. Zombies are mindless animalistic people, drawn to loud and fast things that that they somehow know isn't another zombie. They will chase something they see or hear relentlessly, and have enough basic memory to remember where their target last was. If you can make them think you're one place and are able to move somewhere else without making noise, you can lose them. This would at least be the logical conclusion I would come to when dealing with this breed of zombie. Yes there are bugs and pathing issues to iron out, but the principle is still there. For actual execution in game, it's better to find two bushes or pine trees close to each other. Run through the first and crouch walk or go prone as soon as you hit the second. They'll run though the first because that's where they think you are, then they won't see you and stop running, and being wandering around looking for you again. Typically if you stop in the first they'll bump into you or just see you, but with two you're a good 10-20m away to crawl away from the scene. There's a reason why Cherno and Airfields are hotspots for player activity, good resources. Cherno has 4 hospitals, high value residential and some medium value military. Airfields, especially NW, have medium to high value military spawns, meaning better guns. If you want the good stuff, you have to put yourself more at risk, otherwise you get by with just an axe and some lucky barn and deerstand finds. It's not the games fault, you're just choosing to not take the risk, which is perfectly reasonable. The forum can be a been mean to people who complain, but you have to realize how many of these threads pop-up, it gets a bit old. Anyways, best of luck!

It's random in groups. You wouldn't expect to see a lot of military grade rifles in a supermarket would you? How about blood bags in a Pub? Hatchets and crowbars are melee last time I checked. The controls are a bit wonky at first, but they'll feel natural to you fairly quickly. So you expect zombies to be hunting geniuses? Personally I think it's amazing they'd be able to see and hear at all after being brought back from the dead, rage virus, what have you. And they don't just go "well, he's gone, time to head back.", no, they go into search mode and walk around near your last know direction, and vision and sound detection are heightened. Everything else, 3 year old game, and Alpha phase mod my friend, alpha phase.

Just walking through the woods today and what do I find? A fully stocked what I can assume clan camp. They had them all in a circle, and after some careful scouting I moved in to loot. I went from a Winchester and a Makarov, to a M4A1 CCO SD and a M9 SD with a DMR in the pack, with plenty of rounds for each. I assume these were the best guns they had at the camp going off what I could remember, but I don't know yet. Also got coyote back pack, NV goggles, rangefinder, gillie suit, and all the other toolbelt items. I plan I going to Devi's Castle now, but then what? Head back south for hardcore PvP? What else is there to do once you have "everything"? And to those complaining I stole from people, there was 8 tents in the circle, and more scattered around outside. They clearly have plenty of guns and men to recover a single set for one guy. It's their fault for not spreading their tents more, it was a large area of forest after all.

Honestly, it's a first person non-shooter, as in shooting is going to get you killed. My stomach drops every time I pull the trigger cause I know everyone in town, zed and player, will be coming for me, and they won't be friendly.

Also, is there a trick to swap your gun in your bag without having to drop something on the ground? I don't want to lose either gun, but I don't want to get stuck in a close firefight with just my sniper rifle.

They spawn in residential spawns and supermarkets, but only 1% chance in super market, and .28% chance. As a good place to hide them, in the forest and away from anything, and if you can not directly in between cities. I found this one in forest between Bor, Kozlovka, and Drozhino, 200m from a deerstand, bad placement on their part.

The only solution I see to your problem for 1 is do a group spawn, but still have it random. That way you start with friends, but people don't crowd Cherno and the airstrip. But really, there's maps availible, and even if you don't use that, you can figure out if you're on the south coast or east coast, then run east if on south or south if on east, meet up at some point.

Honestly, if all you have is an Enfield, just die and start over. It's not worth 3+ hours of running back for a tier 1 rifle that you can find in any barn.

You can also get a bearing off the clouds, they move west to east, so head south and look for power lines or roads. If your screen is too blurry to read the starting text, you probably have to change your 3D settings to match your normal settings. That or you just took a crap ton of damage, in which case I would just call it quits for this character.

If absolutely can't avoid the field, or road for that matter, just run, crouch run if chance of zeds. Scope out the treeline before you go, and keep your ears open for gunfire. If you hear a shot, zig-zag randomly, being sure to run through any brush and what not and change direction there. It's up to you if you want to engage them but I don't recommend it, since most snipers have an automatic in their packs. Now if you are caught under sniper fire while prone (say in a town or w/e), DO NOT STAND UP. The animation is more than enough time for them to line up an easy kill shot. Do roll a number of times in both directions until you can put cover between you and them, then stand up and zig-zag run and what not until you can leave the area.

How do you mean? Like showing people youtube videos on the forum? If you just put the url by itself, it auto-embeds it into the post. Like so...

I was more saying this is logical behavior IRL, since OP's intial reaction was "Bandits kill for no reason". In game however, sure your mates can be with you or nearby, but if you get killed, you still need to treck all the way back up to Stary, with no supplies. That's plenty of time for them to move or set up a trap.

Not that I've seen so far. The sneaking around just boils down to crouch walking and prone while using alt+look (turning head but not body) to know where zeds are. This however puts you in danger of other players as you are an easy sniper shot. You could use this as a realistic reason to run though a city, if you knew other people wanted to kill you and you didn't want to hang around. long. There may not be many tutorials of a 'stealthy' Cherno/Elektro run for the simple fact that it would be long and rather boring/tedious to watch. If you take anything away from DayZGuideZ loot runs, use the path that he took, to cut down on travel time and effectively scout for other players along the way.

So I just recently realized, I've only had to use painkillers once since I started playing. Now this may be very lucky, but it got me thinking, do we need them from spawn? From a gameplay standpoint, the shaking really only effects your aim, of a gun, something you don't have (and shouldn't have) when you start. It's not like your take damage and you bleed out, or break your leg and can't walk, you just can't aim a gun you don't have. From a realism standpoint, if there was a zombie apocalypse, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd grab a can of food or some water before I'd grab some Tylenol. Not whining about not having food or water at the start, just being logical. So consider this if you will an unofficial petition to remove painkillers from starting items, or just a discussion on painkillers. Thoughts?

You use scroll wheel to pick up and put down chemlights and flares. I don't know if he handed it too you, since I've only used them solo, but it won't show up in your inventory, just scroll and it should be an option.

In response to the 2nd character, no, not really. As far as your problem, assuming your using a map (in game or otherwise) you can decide on a "base" or general meetup point. When you go off solo, you just have to know how long you want to play and how long it takes to to go from place to place. General rule, when you get to a bit past 1/2 your time, start meandering back. You won't have to be right back at base, just a short jog away, so gauge as best you can.

I try not to kill. Heck, my last encounter I knocked a guy out in self defense, he didn't alt+f4, so I made sure to break his leg, then left a bandage next to his body and and morphine in the nearby street. I told him this and left. Will this policy get me killed someday? Probably. Do I care? No. I'd care more about ruining someone else's day.

Go to supermarkets if you're going to die of thirst soon. There's ones up north too, you don't have to be in just Cherno. I think you've just had bad luck so far tbh. It can be found everywhere, but residential spawns a have higher chance.

Sounds like someone needs to watch a tutorial video. I'll just address a few concerns of yours that isn't QQing. -Lose zeds easily by running through a building in town, or going uphill in a forest, worst case zig-zag in-between trees. You'll lose them in 10 sec once you get the hang of it. -Axe and flashlight are equipable buy selecting "remove from toolbelt". Then just hit R to be able swing the axe, and L to toggle flashlight. -Crouch run between areas to not get exausted, and crouch walk to avoid zeds that are 50m~ away. -Use an online map to find friends, and be sure to logout in the same spot. Not more than 15 min once you get a bearing. As far as no gun, that makes it more realistic and challenging, and also doesn't put a large bounty on your head when you spawn. Would you rather people just camp Cherno and Elektro, or camp your spawn point?

You usually have 2 choices when first spawning, either run through major cites ignoring the Zeds while you loot, or screw the coast and head into the forest and find Barns and Deer stands. Trying to loot a town with nothing is pretty tricky, and usually isn't worth the risk.

But bullets attract other zombies, axes don't.

Well there was at least 1 other guy there, but 15 idle doesn't sound so bad. Just use your axe to take out the ones you agroed and crawl away. Also, you need to see this.

Best way to do it is follow the Quickstart Cherno or Elektro from DayZ GuideZ on youtube, then head North. Gives you a good start if you don't die, and if you do, just respawn and try again. Once you are North, then you can be paranoid out of your mind like everyone else.

If you don't enjoy what you just described, this probably isn't a game for you. If you really want PvP action, make sure to go on high population servers and hang around cities, but at the end of the day it's still a lot of walking around and looting, and the tension that builds while doing so.

I wouldn't say it's that unrealistic. I've been out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, and yeah, there's basically nothing to see except the top of the treeline. Now, eyes do naturally adjust, and that could be the argument for the game settings, but I prefer to go as is. Just rock the blue chemlights and be careful.