Hello, I've actually had this mod installed for a month or so now. I've played occasionally, which is less time than I would like to have spent with this mod. I love the idea and atmosphere - where things like enemy survivors and eerie quietness are each scary in their own rights. But I just can't survive. Life expectancy is 49 minutes, and I've only made it up to that once or twice out of 20-30 deaths. I was unfortunate enough to have not gotten the hang of the game while the Makarov - a crappy weapon, but at least it's SOMETHING - was still in the game. In fact, I started playing right after they took it out. So I have no way to defend myself if and when zombies see or hear me. I've looted and actually found a rifle once, a few hatchets, wire fencing...but I can't even get the hang of looting. It seems every time I try to crawl through a town, a zombie with ungodly hearing starts after me. The two times I've actually successfully looted a town (a coastal one, although I have ventured inland to no avail) I've either found nothing or a bandage and some soda. Yay. I was fortunate to start in Elektro today and even found a 1911. But, once the server timed out and I had to join a new one, my gun wouldn't fire against the zombie that spawned behind me as I left a house. I even had enough ammo and attempted to reload with gun in hand - I checked while I was getting sliced to bits, just for posterity's sake. I knew I was doomed from the get go. It's not that I'm particularly impatient, I just can't seem to simply loot things without drawing the attention of zombies. I crouch-walk in fields, prone on roads, and prone through towns...and still I die again and again in my best attempts to stay out of zombies' line of sight and earshot. When I'm successful, I find almost nothing. I go so far as to simply avoid towns and any populated areas with zombies (sad, but true) - 1 or 2 zombies is too much for me to handle because they will rip me to shreds the instant I prone my way into town in hopes of finding stuff! tl;dr I guess my question is...does anyone have any tips on how to get started as a solo new player such as myself? I just need to know the basics of looting really, so I'll have SOMETHING for once. I understand the mod is supposed to be harsh and realistic, but this is ridiculous. I'd enjoy playing some more of the mod, but every time I get into it I die for some silly reason or end up finding nothing and starving to death. Thank you!