Hellvern

Hey guys. I managed to install DayZ today, and have been attempting to play it since installation. When I bought Arma2 yesterday I made sure to go through the majority of bootcamp missions that would be of use, and even played the game for a little to get a hang of how things worked. Unfortunately, I can honestly say, any such prep you do at all in the main game is almost utterly useless until you establish yourself in DayZ, and none of it really emphasises how you use items within your inventory such as bandages or the flashlight. Now I've been watching a number of DayZ vids, and it became quite clear that the removal of the Makarov, and the increased awareness of the A.I would make this game a pain, but I underestimated just how much of a pain it would be! Here is my problem or rather my experience thus far; First Attempt: I start on a beach with a village to my right. I avoid the village and go through the forests and happen upon a barn, I check for zombies, run around the outskirts of the barn keeping to the treeline, seeing none, i go inside the barn, and find a shotgun with two slugs. Almost IMMEDIATELY on picking up the gun, I notice four zombies just spawn at the entrance of the barn. I try and sneak around them via crouching, but it doesn't work, they chase me, and after about ten minutes of running through a vast pine forest, i start suffering blood loss from a hit, i keep going, but eventually pass out (still being chased btw) when I wake up, more Zombies have spawned and I'am torn to pieces. Second Attempt: I spawn on the outskirts of a City, and instantly a team of zombies come storming down from a mound beside me before I even get so much a chance to take my first step, I swim for it, but they swim after me, i lose connection, relog, and they're gone, swim onto a large concrete bay, fall of it into the water, go straight through the water, hit the sea floor like its all made out of thin air, break my legs and bleed to death, slowly, underwater. Third Attempt: Just like before, only next to a village, Zombies appear pretty much straight away, I have just enough time to crouch before they rip me a new one. My 'first impressions' thus far are bad and i'm hugely narked. I probably couldn't go and take a piss behind a tree without some slobbering mutant on the other side of the country locking on to me. I know its Alpha, sure, but the A.I awareness is a joke, the sudden and random spawning of zombies next to you is a joke (and its unfair/unrealistic anyway) and so is player spawning which certainly doesn't work with the A.I awareness. Never mind the fact that when they find you they don't seem to stop chasing you. Why would a survivor choose to be just sitting on a beach beside a zombie hive?? What was the gibbering moron doing before I took over?! Anyway, I hope something is done to make the first few steps manageable, I wouldn't be so annoyed if we could at least have a gun, at least that way I could try and defend myself. Otherwise, i'm not going to get anywhere with this.

Thanks very much guys for the information! Its all come a lot in handy, and on my latest go i've managed to survive for two days (and counting) I have a Hatchet, map, watch etc, and a M1911 as back up with six mags in case I run across any players (yet to come across face to face with any at the moment as I often circle a place and wait before hitting it, saw some guys carrying a lot of guns once and hid in a bush until they left). I think, although a lot of the other info is good, I'd agree 100% with this, a hatchet is the first thing I found, I experimented with a crossbow and a shotgun and they were not worth wasting my time over. The Hatchet is brilliant for what I have, its allowed me to take out zombies nice and quiet (i've cleared a small village by just creeping about with an axe now) there are loads lying around, and I prefer it over pretty much everything else. What you've said I think is absolutely spot on advice and i'll be sure to say the same to others should they ever ask me. I've also overcome the zombie chasing me obstacle, although now I can simply walk past them unnoticed, I figured what I was doing wrong before was I was previously in woods or areas that weren't as dense as say a Pine forest, or I wasn't running through bushes or up a hill (which works very well also) so the zombies maintained visual pretty much throughout. So many thanks to all those who said a few words of wisdom and some good links, its been very helpful and its allowed me to slip into the game pretty quickly and survive for a prolonged period.

Only thing I've sussed so far (being a noob myself) if you come across a settlement that looks empty, don't be decieved, bad stuff just tends to stumble out of the blue.

I haven't given up on it yet, that will take a while to wear me down to the point i get bored of it, but it cannot be argued otherwise that it is HUGELY annoying when you get the shit ripped out of you a few seconds into the game. I crouch and crawl most of the time, I only run when they're after me xD. I managed to stealth around a village on my first attempt, aside for the last two attempts when they are just there as soon as I start, or if they spawn beside me I don't have so much of a problem, though it'd be nice if the A.I awareness was cut down or maintained somewhat, seems they can locate you if they are on the other side of objects sometimes. Just as an overall comment, aside from a few comments, most replies made have been utter wank. If your incapable of actually helping to advise players in an mature fashion then your clearly not much use in the new player thread and shouldn't really be participating. Being obnoxious only makes yourself look like a jerk, no one else.

All well and good, but thats real hard to do if there are no buildings to run into (at least not without attracting more of them) or if your spawned in a large open plain. My first attempt I thought that running through the trees, and trying to restealth would help me out, but one of the infected was just all out relentless and was still after me, thats when i got hit and started to lose blood. That was a bit of a shock. But the next few times I was hugely unlucky with where I spawned and being attacked almost instantly didn't help either.