El_Seed

Spawn on the beach near-ish to settlements numerous times, discover that most houses can't be entered, that zombies are almost telepathic, and I can't seem to figure out how to equip an axe. Get away from the beach, run through the hills like a madman and come to what appears to be the edge of the world. Menader inland and happen to spot a cluster of tents. I decide to play the nice guy and leave them alone (silly me, thinking there's predictable courtesy in this game). Eventually come to a settlement (find a field, follow the fences), but the un-enterable houses and telepathic zombies keep me from finding that water I'm lacking. Eventually die of thirst. Finally play at night, find out that with some care, one can indeed sneak past zombies. One can also lose them with some trickery (diving into shrubs is pretty reliable when the mythbusters zombie is behind you). Grab an axe again, figure out how to equip it. Pow - zombies go down with one hit and quietly at that. Hit up the hospital and find oodles of medical supplies. Good thing too because I inevitably start bleeding next zombie encounter. Dying of thirst and finally come across some soda and canned goods. Come across a revolver at some point - can now pop zeds at range ... so long as I clear the area. Snagging makarov mags like mad, but no guns. Find a commissary and jackpot - map, food, plenty of soda, water bottle, 1860, binoculars, bigger pack, and a nice reserve of ammo for the boomstick and the revolver ... and even more makarov mags (sure would be nice to find one since I hear they're quiet-ish). Starting to log out when the silhouette of a player comes into view. Server helpfully logs me back in so I can watch myself get shot in the face. M4 with ACOG if I recall. Thus it goes... Can't complain too badly about the game, although the "run" key gets confused at times.

Broken leg in Rog. No morphine. shit It's a wee bit too easy to fall off of ledges...

Made it to day 2 ... after a string of bad luck, I found myself hitting the fire station/power plant in Electro out of desperation (~3000 blood, arguably just waiting to become zed food or a one-hit kill for another player since vision is going in and out with almost no color) and stumble across some dead players with some raw meat, matches, and an AK-74U (farewell, Winchester). Watched some other player express-train zombies around the city from the roof of the power plant. I then manage to get into the woods and cook the meat and get up to ~5500 blood, but still can't focus into the distance, and fail to sneak into the docks area. I need a knife so I can try my luck hunting (and nurse myself back to health). Imagine that the AK-74 will bring down some game (like a cow - that would just about do it). Then I can try my luck in cities again and try to score a better backpack.

Steam can throw some wonkiness with the second title you execute after installation - some nonsense involving the serial number. I got around that with a system re-build I was going to do anyway and just executing operation arrowhead before loading up DayZ. No idea if ARMA II works or not, kind of don't care.

Equally likely someone shot at it with a .50 rifle when you got close since tractors are noisy, slow, zombie magnets. In fact, I gather that it's considered a public service to destroy tractors...

I'm still not confident with sneaking past zeds, although I've found that moving deliberately helps, as does knowing when to GTFO and try to evade them. They're going to spot you - It's just going to happen. Found some weird behavior with the axe the other day - a hopper had locked on to me and I decided to crouch before engaging ... 3 point-blank swings later it's still hitting me and I'm collapsing as it chows down on me. Had an encounter with someone who must have spawned not far and not long from me on the beach the other day ... they ran up on the road, used the local voice chat, then attracted and proceeded to remove a horde of zeds from the town I was sneaking up on. Thanks for drawing them away for me, and sorry that you ended up in their gut shortly thereafter. Also, while the Winchester may well be quiet for a long gun, its thunder seems to roll downhill across open fields invitingly - must have squandered 35+ rounds of ammo finishing off nearly every zed in the village that came racing some ~200+ meters and got little more than a bandage or two for my trouble and ~6000 blood loss. And the deer stand I was heading towards was all but empty. Note to self: headshots are not important with the winchester. Still can't find sidearms to save my life, but my corpse typically has 6+ makarov mags onhand every time.

I came across 2 revolver magazines and almost a dozen makarov magazines, which I suspect would put down more zeds in addition to being a little quieter. I hear the Lee-Enfield referred to as "the dinner bell" often enough to be leery of it. Winchesters, on the other hand, seem decent. Having read about and watched a good deal of gameplay, I expect to get bushwhacked with some regularity. Just seems to be the nature of the beast.

Yes, the learning curve will be steep. But I know better than to punch holes in my monitor. Probably got bushwhacked largely because I was too greedy - made two passes through the store and tried to optimize my haul. Should have prioritized then GTFO. Also shouldn't have tried to log there. Seems like respawning is going to be a matter of getting killed repeatedly until you can grab some useful tools and fight effectively. Sucks finding utterly useless main rotors, tires, auto glass, and the omnipresent empty cans, but gotta roll with the punches. Getting some weird graphics issues in industrial areas where there are catwalks - suppose there's another forum to read up on those.