This right here. DayZ is about survival. To survive, you have to think and behave the way a survivor would have to in a world like post apocalyptic Chernerus. Everything is at a premium, and if you want it you have to take the risk and be prepared to lose for it. You will definately go into seemingly safe and simple situations and come out nigh dead with naught but a can of sardines and a pepsi for your efforts, but thats how it is and that's how it would really be... It's 'Who Dares, Wins' out there... Breathe it in deep and savour the moments.

Go to Lingor. Most servers have a side chat you can type in. Be friendly and entertaining (but don't dominate the feed) and people will eventually be willing to let you roll with them, or at the least not kill you when you run into them. Some bandits are even helpful.

Zombie Virus is 100% fatal. Re-animates corpse, that it may attack and infect others so that the virus lives on... Survival of the deadest... Defy me no more, for I have spoken!

Waffles > Crumpets... I'm willing to fisticuffs over this one... Never been shot, myself, but I understand that it tends to leave a hole in you... Seeing as the human body doesn't really have any 'empty spaces', then getting shot anywhere by any firearm would damage something important and leave you in pretty bad shape. All gunshot wounds are considered medical emergencies.... So I reckon ALL guns need a good buffing... This buffing shouldn't affect zombies, though... they're already dead and dont feel pain...

Moar Zombeeees pleeeese. Not sure what I think of zombies with occupational skills, though... That would require thought & problem solving skills on their part... I prefer them just to be relentless and and only properly killable through massive head trauma... In regards to inventory space; You would be surprised how much water and equipment one person can carry. Perhaps certain items should take up more inventory slots... like tyres... (6 slots) Things like this you need a hand for, which meant in order to use a rifle, or similar two handed weapon you'd need to drop the tyre...

Unless you lost these skills when you died... Would mean folk would focus on the skills that appeal to them, knowing they could die at any moment. No one would grind to improve all their skills knowing they're only good 'til the next respawn.

I'm of the general opinion above. Most of my comments regarding suggestions on how to improve DayZ heavily favour focusing on the realism and atmosphere of the world. Adding children would definately make the world more realistic and their small size (and often better fitness and physical condition) could present other challenges and variables to consider when tackling a Z heavy situation. It will DEFINATELY attract attention from the usual anti-gaming parties. Common sense based arguments are usually pointless against such groups. All in all, I'm for it. I'm for female zombies aswell... I believe in equal rights.

Definately get a kick out of lying in the treeline watching a town or village, identifying the buildings worth checking out, where snipers might be observing said building from and the order i'll be approaching each building in. Zs always provide the one variable I cant accurately predict and base sound plans on. Usually they're the reason things go sour, but they're in no way as difficult to manage as they were when I first logged in and saw them patrolling the horizon at dusk... Many fond memories... The atmosphere is what keeps me playing. When I was still green I found myself unarmed, hungry, crouched in the corner of a warehouse, listening to the Zs outside in the rain and too afraid to turn on the flashlight incase they saw it and came in to investigate. But as previously stated, the Zs are more of an annoyance now than a threat. DayZ, in my opinion, is best played in a night-time server with no NVG and only flares and torches for light.

... I'm not going to be able to play the game the same way, anymore...

A little off the point, but this reminded me of it. Was out in the bush IRL for work, miles away from anywhere and about a kilometre from the road the other day when I encountered an almost pristine (Though empty) can of dew... All the tests I did i the area FAILED!!! Now, to the topic... One of my Lingor survivors has two, but the only server I was able to use said survivor has vanished *ka-poof*.... dont remember what it was called, but I'm sure it was a US one... Will try different servers and see if i cant get that survivor back.

I get where you're coming from. It's unlikely that civilization would have completely crashed after Z Day, and there would be many agencies still capable of remote area re-supply via "dropmasters", but they'd really only service their own agents. It's unlikely that some random survivor who washed up in Chernorus and found a radio would be able to get in contact with one of these agencies, let alone be deemed important enough to send out a supply drop. Best you could hope for is directions to the nearest outpost...

*Hollas at Eazy-Makaveli... Zombies come... Regrets Holla-ing* Perhaps a radio could increase direct chat range to others with a radio...

I shot first today... But this guy was weird, man... Weird... Didn't kill him, though...

Today, my survivor turned 56 days old. To celebrate, i invited a buddy of mine to my base of operations, where we partied with beans, coke and morphine auto injectors. We decided to head to NWAF by way of Zelenogorsk and Green Mountain. The server we were on must have been glitchy or hacked as our indicators (Food, Drink, Temp, Audibility and Visibility) were all showing Solid green and no noise regardless of how hard we ran on the road. At first we thought it meant we didn't have to eat or drink, but when my buddy started to die for no reason we realised he was thirsty... The trip went well, we stopped at a barn to find a hatchet and a couple of deer stands for various odds and ends. Eventually we reached Zelenogorsk and after surveying the town we were confident it was bandit free, so we made our way in. By the time we reached the supermarket we'd gathered quite a horde, but we had plenty of ammo and it was easy to quell. Surprisingly, there was little of use there so we proceeded north to the police station. One Zombie spotted us. Without much thought, I fired upon it. It was an easy kill, however the thirty or so that followed were more of a problem. We hurried into the police station where i took up a position covering the entry while my buddy searched for loot. But they were in the walls, man... They were in the walls.... I was almost immediately over run and knocked unconcious for quite a while. Slowly bleeding out and without a bandage between us it seemed certain that, at the age of 56 days, I was done for. My buddy galliantly stood above me fending off the waves of walkers that came pouring in, but we were already planning what gear to save and what to leave with my corpse. There were too many and it seemed hopeless. Then, I awoke. Legs broke and on death's door i crawled into the next room and found a bandage. Hastily applying it and some morphine (Between blackouts) and getting to my feet. New plan. Operation: GTFO. I stood at the door and gazed out into the world. The forest was a dark gray blur in the distance. Everything was a dark gray blur, really... Immediately I sprint towards it. My buddy follows and calls out obstacles and zombies as I approach, because I cant see a thing, and my focus is on the beautiful dark gray blotch ahead. We make it there and with only two Z's in tow. My buddy quickly dispatches them and locates a boar. He kills it and then leads me to it, as he didn't have a hunting knife to gut it with. After a quick but insufficient feed, we proceed further and find a cow and a goat. My vision had regained some colour but the blur had remained. Still, I was able to hunt the cow and goat and build a fire. We had a good old aussie barbeque, cooked up two great beasts and divided up the meat. I was back at full health, but my vision was still a-blur, so we decided to call it a day. We checked where we were on the map and signed off. I wonder what my 57th day will bring...

There's a C130 wreck in the game (You can find it in the Arma 2 mission editor) that I'm surprised wasn't included in the mod. Not sure i'd use it as an epic weapons loot spawn, but maybe an epic tin food loot spawn, like it was on a supply run for a refugee camp somewhere. As for events to draw you into the game... Bethesda does this well with their fallout games. Little scenes that tell a story of a brief moment in time, like searching a house and finding a skeleton in a bathtub with a toaster or a hastily constructed barricade with dead Zs on one side and dead civillians with empty weapons on the other... Things like this that give the impression that the people tried to fight the hordes but were over run, as opposed to everyone woke up as a zombie one day and just went along with it... There have been a lot of suggestions on how to make the game better, most involving loot and hacking. Personally I'd like more focus put into the world and how you can interact with it, as well as how easily it can chew you up and spit you out...

Yeah, I want being detected by zombies to be a harrowing and desperate experience. Being able to gun them down by the crowd-load would just make the game...... is 'generic' the word?

so you want more 'last stand' type situations? That does sound fun... But probably a bit of a strain...

I was there last night. I found naught but lingering death and murdered destiny... Also, something glowed red but whenever I turned to look at it time and space warped and shrouded my view. I managed to escape with my life only by picking a direction and running... I also needed to shoot many a dead soldier.

Ima join the yes club... It's mostly useless and its buggy.

You throw an empty tin can onto the neighbor's front lawn whenever you leave the house to distract any walkers that may be lurking nearby.

I land on the beach at Lingor Island (on some Aussie server or other) with a military outpost handily at my 12 o'clock. I dash in alerting some Zombifizzled Cernorussian soldiers, -obviosly not content to leave their virus at home- and proceed to collect a rifle and coke. I make a quick sweep of some nearby houses and then proceed to an airstrip with a cow on it. lacking the tools to gut and cook it, i decided to leave it be and check out a hardened hangar, which turned out to be full of Undead Chernorussian police officers... Not wanting to be apprehended by the zombie law I promptly made for the jungle, which as far as I could tell, shot me dead.... And good kill to you, sir! I have decided that, whilst in Chernorus I may adopt the peaceful survivor persona, on Lingor island I am most definately going to be jumping on the PvP bandwagon...

You're alone at home when you hear a noise and shout "FRIENDLY!?"

You can't even open dialogue with alot of folk now. Soon as they hear words they quit. I don't generally kill on site, most folk I see are far away and oblivious to my presence. But if I hear someone sneaking around reloading weapons, drinking cola and generally not giving me any indication that they're good people Ima shoot them dead... Suddenly appearing in front of me will also earn folk some 7.62 HV.

Rules is rules. If they were displayed then it's up to folk to read em' and heed em'. If not then dismissal is perfectly valid. Learn a lesson from it and move on.

Have some Beans. Something I'd add to the survival aspect. There should be a chance of getting sick upon eating hunted meat which increases while the meat is kept in the inventory. Also, there really aught to be a 'hygene' and 'fatigue' metre... These two have as major an effect on ones ability to survive as hunger and thirst. And weapons... It would add to the difficulty and the value of ammunition if, instead of finding full magazines you found two or three bullets which need to be combined with a magazine before they can be used in a gun.