Jamz

I'd drop it and go find a hatchet for the main slot. I'm a bit paranoid about putting items on the ground unless its really necessary but to be honest I'd rather start with nothing anyway, its more fun!

True, but it happens when you are a fresh spawn so you should have at least 5 slots. Its basically the same as putiing it on the ground, just use arrow keys to move it across, then straight back. If I have a gun as a fresh spawn I always try this first, it never seems to happen when the server gives me a M9SD though.

You can move the gun into your backpack and then back into your secondary slot, that will sort it.

They are infected, but 'Zombies' sells and is part of popular culture so people know what they are getting. The authenticity of 'infected' is pretty much as impossible as zombies in this sense, incidently, so we just go with it.

He is

Its not so difficult to survive once you know the area, the main problem is the blowouts as there's lots of open spaces to traverse with no cover. I also have found a white ghillie suit before, which I've heard protects you from the cold... never used it to go to the mountains though.

I logged off close to my UAZ yesterday. When I logged on today it was mysteriously on top of me. I died. lol

A word of advice, I'd turn your preconception of video games on its head before you play. DayZ doesn't exactly follow the accepted conventions...

If you're lone wolf your best bet is to avoid people, always stay in cover and never enter a high risk area without recon. Take your time. If you find yourself grouped (which can happen sometimes even if your not sure you want to) be wary of people who give you orders and always face you directly with their gun up. If you don't have RL friends who play or you know people off the boards, then you can either stealth it, KOS/Bandit or try and random group but I think they are all your options. I treat every other player as a risk and avoid grouping with them usually. There was a good vidoe posted up on here about what to look out for with players, I'll post it again:

I think that as there are presently no direct competitors that the SA will do very well, with a bit of advertising. I also think that a lot of players gave up playing as the original release date for the SA got near, but they will be back for the SA. I don't think that there have been any minor changes to the mod that have been at odds with its original vision either. Its all good.

While I disagree with this on many levels, I don't think DayZ has become an out and out PvP fest just yet. Perhaps on more populated servers but on lower populations ones I still find players who want to work together, even if sometimes they can't be trusted. I'm hoping the SA gives players more reason to work together and less reason to kill for gear, from what I've seen and heard so far I think some vital things to ensure this have been included (such as 'improved' zacks, the individual customisation of clothing, the availability of much more basic weaponry, etc). There will always be the uncertainty that the guy next to you with the main rotor assembly for the your chopper won't just double tap you once she's ready to fly, but that is DayZ, it must always be that way.

It can also use M9, M9SD, MP5 and MP5SD mags so very easy to find ammo for. Quite accurate and the only secondary with a full auto option makes this my favorite secondary too, even with the crap sights.

For me its the M4A3 CCO. Quiet enough to use in towns (especially with STANAG SD mags loaded) and useful mid/close range against players. Plentiful ammo, an excellent sight and even a torch built in. There is no better all-rounder rifle available. Most useful weapon would definitely be the hatchet though - silent, powerful, no ammo worries and essential for survival.

If they did make a DayZ for ARMA3 it would be cool if it was a bit different from the original ARMA2 version somehow, rather than just an updated version - maybe a WW2 setting with zombies, or even set at the beginning of the outbreak. Still, won't be for a long time so it doesn't really matter... and maybe it wouldn't be as successful anyway due to the SA if that continued to develop alongside.

Thoughts noted. DayZ is a specialist item, it's not for everyone. Thats why the vast majority of people are happy with CoD Black Ops 2, Just like the vast majority of people like to listen to Maroon 5. Let them, I'm fine with that, just let me play something different from the dreary trudge that the slopeheaded dronegurners feed off, something more... interesting. Thats my review/opinion, sorry about mentioning Maroon 5.

Day 108 on my main, but I've not played him in a little while so that could be why... He lives in the sticks

True, I always assume they're duped though (but still take them usually). Never found legit rangefinder from a loot spawn yet though...

I find ghillies/camo in the pub/cafe's quite a lot. Found my first legit NVG's in the barracks the other day as well, after six months of playing ffs

I am confident that the DayZ mod and the SA will be different enough from each other to warrant getting hold of both to be honest, especially as development of the mod will continue alongside the Stand Alone. I suspect they may even go in different directions after a while. Most private hives I've tried are good, but you run the risk of losing everything if anything happens to the server (so I have lots of them in my favorites list!). You might want to look into getting whitelisted at some point too if you want protected servers.

Running's important, thats a good start!

All the best zombie films don't even try and explain whats happening, and leave it up to the imagination. You're guy washes up on the beach and knows nothing about the situation he's arrived at, you can discover some interesting pieces of a puzzle (ie Green Mountain) but you can't solve it. DayZ is just a backdrop to the story you create as a survivor.

In my opinion only two small changes really need to be made to the zombies to increase their effectiveness, remove the noises they make when they sense you and the white blobs indicating their positions either side of the screen. Now you don't know whether you've aggro'd zombies (unless you see it), where they are or how many. The fear would be not knowing, you may still hear one or two outside the room you were scavenging in but you wouldn't know if they had detected you or not... Having a group creep up on you while you are scavenging would be a lot more frightening and it would be easy to become trapped in a house if you were not careful.

ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

I guess Rocket is learning as he goes along. He seems like a normal bloke to me and I don't know how much experience he has in the games industry (I'm guessing very little) so he probably didn't realise the implications of making statements of release dates so early in the SA's developement. I don't envy what he's taken on here and hope he goes on to do more games on subjects I like after he's done, but I really don't think there's anything to be gained from trying to predict or second guess this things progress. Just pretend there is no release date at all and enjoy the updates and maps to the mod, there will be a pleasant suprise along some time in the future!

I've only seen clips of WarZ but the most important difference seems to be of immersion. DayZ is essentially based on a military sim so in game its got a realistic feel ie noise and graphics are not cartoony like WarZ appeared to be. This is very important for atmosphere and the ARMA2 weapons/combat lends itself very well to the situation, I'm pretty sure the basics are similar so you might find it easier to start in DayZ if you've already played WarZ. My rig is marginally less powerful that yours and it runs very well.