vese_n

As others have said, digital out of game maps and printed out of game maps are a good solution, and are sometimes more helpful since they often show gear and vehicle spawns as well. I understand where you are coming from though... it feels more right to find it in game and remain immersed. My suggestions are to check high value civilian loot spawns. Supermarkets and apartement buildings have netted me quite a few maps. Make sure you check the green pouches, even though they look like makarov mags :)

Keep in mind that tents and vehicles save to the spesific server you are on when you save them at location. You can bring tents across servers if packed down in your intentory, but onces they are pitched and saved they stay on the server you put them up on. Vehicles are bound to server, naturally. So yeah, apart from tents and vehicles, your DayZ existence is tied to one central server, so that you can jump back and forth between game servers with the same character and the same gear.

I have numerous camps spread over three servers. All within the intended map. They have served me well the last two weeks; The only items I have lost are items I have added to a full tent as a result of not counting properly (make sure you know how many general items and weapons/tools you have in your tent at any given time). My last camp have been up on a 1.7.2.4 server the last 2 days, and is working beautifully. I experienced a few glitches in my first camp tied to packing down tents and then having the packed bag being eaten by the server, but in my case I have grown to trust my tents once they are pitched up and running. Just remember to save. So I would say it is safe, yes. Besides, the only alternatives you have are to either use vehicles (which are not as readily available) or to not store items at all. Tents are very practical, and it's also fun to scout out good camp locations, and to eastablish bases, homes.

Wait. Not sure if I follow you here :P Are you trying to tell me you where in the tractor/atv gang? Where does three and a half hours of joy come in in relation to my story, unless you are talking about vehicle joy pretading the tractor attack on me? :P Maybe i'm missing something here, hehe.

[This is merely a depiction of how random, exciting, amusing, engaging and enjoyable this game can be. How several seperate (but to a direct or indirect degree related) encounters with other players can play out on a decently populated server within the confines of only an hour, and lead to great justice and lol for all. You may sneak around a whole lot, looking for supplies, dodging zombies, and hiding whenever a gunshot is heard, but every once in a while the sky lights up, your heart pounds and a tractor comes at you with the intent to kill] The story begins with a lonely run through an open field at night. I have just raided a Helicopter Crash site right on the NW Airfield, and is making my escape from the area under cover of darkness. I am carrying a silenced Bizon submachine gun, and in my backpack the very rare FN FAL ANPV S4, as well as some basic supplies. I have a map and a compass on my toolbelt, which I have used to plot a course down south to Chernogorsk. My mission: Asset acquisition and redistribution (I picked that phrase up somewhere). Quite simply, my intentions are to put my FN FAL's NV scope to use against unsuspecting survivors in the bleak remains of this once thriving costal city, then make my escape with their possessions. Out of necessity sure, but also enjoyment. The post-apocalyptical existance is severly lacking in entertainement, so we grow cold, and we kill, and we rejoice in the death of others, and in hoarding their treasures in our hidden camps. But, I digress. My intended adventures in Cherogorsk are not to be, and have little to do with the tale I am here to tell. I am moments from death, rebirth and a new beginning on the shores of Cheranus. So, back to the field. The sun is rising, and I am way too visible on the open field, and I make the mistake of ignoring this, running at full speed southwards, like an idiot. As I run past a small farmhouse in the outskirts of the village of Stary Sobor a gunshot rings out from afar. The first one does not hit me, neither does the second, but I can see the bullets hitting close by. A sniper! Bastard will not have my guns! I curse myself for not wielding my FN FAL, instead tarding around on an open field with a fucking 9mm submachine gun. The third shot hits me, then a fourth shot rings out, a lot closer than the others (a second shooter on the nearby gnoll?). Bones break and I fall to the ground. I die, with a firm grip around my morphine auto-injector. [Mild rage-quit] A few curse words later I miraculously wake up along the shore near Kamarovo. I instantly know where I am, and make my way towards a military airstrip nearby, to resupply, and ultimatly take out my frustration on perfectly innocent survivors. As I run over the railway tracks between Kamarovo and Balota, I hear the recognizable sound of a hellicopter. I stop in my tracks and wach the sky, trying to get a visual on the source. As soon as I look up the hellicopter swoops past me at alltitude and dissapears beyond the treeline to the west. Being the first time I have seen a hellicopter with my own eyes in post-apocalyptical Cheranus, I think to myself "Awesome." and continue on my way towards the airstrip. On my way though, as often happens, something grabs my attention and stears me on a new path. Could it be? A truck painted in the most beautiful green, parked openly in a high traffic neighborhood, without supervision? Indeed, and fully operational as well, even fuled. "Ok, new plan". Carelessly ignoring that this may very well be a trap, I enter, start the enige and set of towards the cover of the countryside. I decide to find a temporary hidingplace for it until I have geared up some more. I plot a route up through the woods, around a hillside and down towards a small group of houses and industrial buildings north-west of the airstrip. I park the truck sort of in the open, but hidden behind a house, hoping I was not being followed, or that I at least managed to shake of any pursuers by dicking around in the woods for a short while. I exit the truck, check it for gear left over from previous owners (there was none) and decide to poke around the village for a while, hoping to get my hands on a sexy Lee Enfield, or at least a sidearm of some sort. Enter a douchebag in a tractor. As I cross the street between two houses I hear a strange noise. I look around and immediatly notice a guy driving straight towards me, in a tractor! This is amusing, so I decide not to hide, and to reveal to this fellow survivor that I am unarmed, and that my intentions are good (lol). He immediatly tries to run me over. At least I think that is what he is doing. Knowing very well that I for sure would have tried to run someone over if I was in control of a tractor, I try to get away. A second attempt at my life by use of tractor confirms my suspicions, so I run for the shed right next to me and enter. I am bleeding, either from the tractor, or from the zombie I just now notice is gnawing on me. Much to my happy, I find a Lee Enfield rifle right next to me on the floor. I pick it up and fire a bullet right into the zombie's head. It goes down instantly. I bandage my bleeding wounds fast, as the guy in the tractor continue to act agressivly, now actually having driven the tractor INTO the shed I am hiding in. So I line up my Lee Enfield and shot him in the face as well, or in the gut, or wherever, I can't remember. He dies at least, and fall out of the tractor. I jump into the vehicle and make my escape from town, a score of zombies close behind, attracted to the scene by the ruckus. I run over a few of them, but as far as I can tell they survive. I decide to get on the road and follow it north-east out of town for a few meters, then hide the tractor in the woods and assess the situation, but before I get off the road some sort of explosion sounds, seemingly at my 6. Panic sets in. I turn around, and behold, a dickbag on an ATV in hot pursuit. I do the only sensible thing I can think of. I stop the tractor, get out, line up my Lee Enfield and fire off a shot or two. The ATV stops dead, and the driver falls off, also dead. I try to get an overview of the situation, frantically looking about, trying to get a visual on the suspected third pursuer (assuming that the explosion moments earlier was a grenade, and that it could not have been fired or thrown by the driver of the ATV). I see noone, so I do the happy-dance and head over to the ATV driver to relieve his corpse of the AKS-74 Kobra he was brandishing. Just as I take a grip around my newly earned assault rifle though, I pass out and fucking bleed to death on the ground. I have no idea what caused it. Either a sniper from far away got me before the sound of the rifle reached me, or I didn't notice that I was bleeding from the explosion. As I lay there, I sort of hope it was the first. The end result is the same anyway.. I have died. [Mild frustration mixed with the joy of exitement] Back on the shore. [Kamyshovo. Fuck that. I want my tractor, and maybe the ATV as well. So I kill myself like 4 or 5 times until I spawn on the factory side of Chernogorsk] Back on the shore I immediatly start running north-west towards the area where I bled to death. As I run into the woods just slightly to the east of the Balota Airstrip I notice a guy running in front of me, in the very same direction. [Thinking it may be one of the two survivors I just killed], I try to hide behind the trees as I maintain my general heading at a faster pace. I want to get there first, at least to grab a weapon and camp the vehicles. As we both reach the airstrip, him head on and me slightly to the north he diverts from my heading though, and stears into the area near the industrial hangars. I quickly make my way across the fields north of the airstrip, and through the woods ahead, finally arriving at the road, almost running into my new tractor. Rejoice! I loot the body of the ATV driver [and my own body] and start looking for the ATV. It's nowhere to be found, so I jump into the tractor and drive out of there in a hurry. Then darkness. [Ok, so the fucking server restarts. As I enter again all the vehicles and the bodies are gone. I can't even find my truck. I may have forgotten to save it after I parked behind the house.] I come to my senses and find that, apparently, the world ate my tractor. So I head south towards the airstrip, thinking I can atleast kill whoever was running there moments earlier. I still have my AK. For some reason it's night again now [some sort of server restart bug I guess], which makes it very easy to find this particular survivor. I see the familiar beam of a flashlight (dancing like strobe at disco party) through the windows of the air traffic control tower. So I move closer, and hide in the bushes, waiting for the survivor to head out on the "balcony", and he does. He even decides to climb a ladder, which amuses me, and makes my AK excited indeed. So I unload half a mag into this poor guy and head up there to check what he was hauling around. A remington 870 with a flashlight attatched (Let's not make that mistake), a camping tent (I luves me some tents!), and he even had a bigger backpack then me, which makes me happy indeed. So I take my new tent into the woods and lay down for a well deserved rest, with a smile on my face and bright eyes. For behind my eyes are gunshots across open fields, hellicopters swooping overhead, joyrides in green trucks through abandones wastelands, fights to the death with tractors, bombs, ATVs, beautiful headshots, and night-time murder under a bright moon.