Sean Cook

Alright already, I got my answer. No, I didn't search on google, you are right, I should have done so, but I have never heard anything about this anywhere so I didn't think I'd find anything. Really though, no need for this anger. Just let this die, get on with your day. I'm sure you all have better things to do. To Chris, I tend to join servers that have a ping in the 15-30 range, so I don't think it's that. Some servers seem to have it worse than others, I dunno, none of the other things you said seem to make a difference. Thanks though :)

The longer I'm playing, the weirder the game seems to get. Like, when I first connect, I go into a barn wherever and I can pick up and drop things instantly, no problem. I see a hatchet and I tell the game to pick it up, it does so. But sometimes if I try to do the same thing a few hours later, if I try to do something like this then it takes ages for it to pick something up after I tell the game to do so. I try to put some camo clothing I found lying around but I can't, nothing even happens, it just sits in my inventory. If I disconnect and reconnect, I still look the same, to me anyway but I have civilian clothing in my backpack instead. It gets to the point where I can get shot, have the game tell me I'm in shock and my legs are broken, and visibly see blood spurting out of me, but my blood isn't going down and I can run around no problem. Then if I get into cover, d/c and reconnect, then all I get for my trouble is to go unconcious and watch myself lose 9,000~ blood until I wake up. It's like I'm being penalised for trying to play fair. Like, if I got shot and even if my legs were broken, I probably coukd've just rolled behind the wall I was next to and then bandaged and morphined and been relatively fine, but instead I get put an inch from death. It's annoying as crap, the whole thing. My question is, does anyone else have this happen to them or is it just me?

Actually, I've been playing this on and off for a few weeks/months, I guess I just gained some ideals or something. After getting shot a few times, I want to believe in and fight for a world where a dude might be able to say hi to another dude without dying, is that so wrong? If I don't give it a try then that world will never exist. What I mean to say is, someone has to take the first step, someone has to reach out a proverbial hand or conversation and cooperation will never exist between two strangers. Someone's gotta stick his neck out, so it may as well be me.

Ha, I've got one. I'd spawned near Elektro, so I made my way to a barn to the north of it to see if I could find something to defend myself with before I made my way to the city itself. A risky venture, but what did I have to lose? On the way there, I walked by an ATV in the forest up the road a ways, but after some consideration I decided not to touch it because the owner(s) could be nearby, watching me, and might take exception. Nearing the barn door from the side, another survivor popped out, crouching with a crossbow aimed at me. "Hey," he said, "You friendly?" With fear in my voice I said that I was unarmed, but I wouldn't shoot him even if I did have a weapon, so I guess so. I don't remember eexactly what was said between us, I probably asked him if there was anything in the barn, and he said that there were a few corners he hadn't checked. So, I start making my way up one of the staircases, and him the other. He wouldn't stop pointing his crossbow at me, it was freaking me out. I said, warily, "Please don't shoot me, it'll make me sad. I won't shoot you." He probably said something about how he wouldn't. As I was heading towards the next staircase to get to the top level of the barn, I heard the familiar 'th-whipp' of a crossbow firing, and I knew that a second earlier he had been aiming it at me. I wasn't looking at him, so I'm not sure if he was firing at me, but I said "Son of a bitch!" and tried to run, I figured that if I went down the stairs I might mess up or get stuck on something and he'd shoot me, so instead I just ran off the edge towards the other door, which had some forest nearby. Unfortunately, when I landed I heard the crack of my legs breaking, and I passed out. I thought I was done for, the guy came down the stairs and was standing over me, saying something like 'Oh shit man, haha, are you okay?' Unable to respond, I was resigned to my fate when suddenly, out of nowhere, bullets ripped through him. I didn't hear the shots, I have no idea where they came from, but blood began spurting from him in multiple places, at least one in his chest and one in his foot. Either multiple snipers came to my rescue or an automatic weapon killed him, I have no idea. Maybe the owners of the ATV showed their appreciation, if it didn't belong to crossbow-man. I rolled to a corner of the barn and waited with bated breath, calling out to crossbow-man, wondering if he was alive. After some time, I reach the conclusion that if I was going to die, it was going to happen sooner or later, and at least I wouldn't have broken legs when I respawned. I checked the guy's body to see if I could do anything to help, but if the bullets hadn't killed him then the blood loss certainly had. I looted his body, finding some useful supplies, and also found an Enfield in a corner with some ammo. Wasn't my favorite weapon for my situation, but it was certainly better than nothing. With my goal, the Elektro hospital, in mind, I crawl to the city, popping a surrender and a salute or two as I left the barn. I'm crawling through the open, making a bee-line for the hospital, figuring that it would take all day if I tried to be sneaky and I'd probably get spotted by a sniper and shot anyway, also thinking that the less time I was around the less likely I was to die. I stop near some bushes and a small tree in the middle of the field north of Elektro and just watch for a few minutes, seeing if any other players are in the city. I looked around a little for snipers, but ultimately I knew I'd never see them. A few seconds later I see zombies chasing someone in a ghillie suit who eventually ran into the back of the supermarket. The first thought that came to me was that this was one of those asshole snipers who'd killed me a few times, and he was dangerous so I should wait, let him pass by, but the more I thought about it, It became firmly set in my mind that I was going to kill this man, not only to save other survivors like myself, but for retribution. I heard some gunshots, and after seeing no movement, started making my way into the supermarket. Shortly after I entered the store, I heard the buzzing of flies and saw the man's body a little ways inside the building. Instantly warning bells were going off inside my head: Possible bandit in the area! But then, I saw a man in normal clothes in a corner, also dead. I figured that the two had fired at each other and both died, or the victor had been overrun with zombies. The ghillie suit had a revolver and some other supplies while the other had, iirc, an M4. I ditched my Enfield for it in a heartbeat. This was the first weapon of its kind that I had ever held. Then, an unarmed survivor appears in the doorway. The man sees me and runs as I talk to him, telling him that I just found these dudes. The guy keeps running in and out of the building, seemingly trying to evade both me and the zombies after him. As I continue to loot the supermarket though, I get increasingly wary of him as he may be trying to sick zombies on me, but as a show of good faith I tell him that there's an Enfield on the body in the corner. He grabs it and I hear him firing it in the back of the store as I loot behind the counter and the front. Then, I see the top of his head crouch walking around the counter, towards me. He comes out from behind the counter, we aim at each other, I give him the benefit of the doubt and he fires, presumably hitting me in the shoulder. He goes back behind the shelves before I can fire at him, and the two of us jockey for position, me rolling around, trying to gain the upper hand. I see him heading towards the end of one of the shelves across the store, with me near the front door, and I aim at where I think he's going to pop out. He does, but unfortunately I have some mouse lag in this game, and when I pull my mouse onto his chest and pull the trigger, well, I fire, but my shots hit the wall next to him and his shot kills me. Maybe cross-bow man didn't fire at me, maybe the man in the ghillie suit wasn't a sniper out to kill random people with impunity, but I guess I'll never know. Well, unless they remember that day, read this, and reply, anyway.

Pretty much everywhere I go, those are the words I see. Whenever someone makes a video on youtube geared for new players, that's the one piece of advice that's always in there. Everywhere I go, that's what I hear. But the thing is, when I play DayZ I'm a pretty nice guy. I'm not out to kill anyone. All I really want to do is hang out, survive, help others if I can. Generally for my trouble I just get filled full of bullets. AAround noon today, I spawned in. I have no idea where I was, all I know is that I'm pretty sure I wasn't near Cherno or Elektro. I was on the coast with a town in front of me, so I set about looting. I was really lucky, I found a hatchet, a water bottle, binoculars, a car wheel (I was going to give finding a truck a go, I figured if I needed the backpack space I'd drop it), and a makarov. This last one was awesome, because I generally have a lot of trouble finding sidearms. With that makarov I could use a crossbow without worrying as much about dying horribly if I missed. I was flipping escatic. So, I was going my merry way, looted some barns, and I came upon an industrial town. I skirted around the edges of it, not thinking I'd find anything good there, until I saw someone running with some zombies seeing him and giving chase soon after. Using my binoculars, I see him run into a building, so I start moving closer to see if I could lend a hand. I get close to the building, and call out of direct com something like 'Hey man, you need a hand? You alright?' There wasn't any response, but he was in a huge warehouse that he might not even be inside anymore, I'm not sure ho much range direct com has. I didn't hear anything until a few moments later when I heard some shots, presumably from a rifle. Five or six that were previously behind me heard the shots and started running towards me, luckily I was able to hide as they went past. I was going so far out of my way and risking my life to do this. (Maybe I could have been more helpful by killing the zombies, but I was in the open, I wanted to be inside if I had to fight them.) A few minutes later I see the guy running into another building, which I've gotten fairly close to by this point. There must be at least 40 zombies outside running after him, so I pull my makarov out and run in through the side door, which was closer to me, ready to defend him. I'm talking to him over direct com, like 'Hey, need a hand? Where'd you go?' Then I saw him coming down some sort of hallway, and I'm like 'Oh, hi.' Keeping my gun aimed to the side a bit, I look over my shoulder to the door I just ran through, there weren't any zombies following me. I turn back around, still using free look and with my gun aimed away from him. 'Man, there are a fuck ton of zombies out there.' Then I see him walking straight towards me towards me with his rifle raised, maybe 10-15 feet away. He starts firing, I say 'No dude-!' and try to whip my makarov up to land a good headshot, but I'm dead before I can pull the trigger. Now, I'm not, as some might say, 'butthurt' over this. I can understand why he would do that. Maybe he was a bandit after all, maybe he thought I was a threat to him- even if he has an automatic rifle, makarov bullets or a hatchet will still kill him or knock him out. Maybe if I'd had my hatchet out instead, I wouldn't have been seen as so much of a threat, and we both would have walked away, maybe even happy. Maybe he's been in a similar situation before, and that time he was betrayed. Maybe he was just a dude trying to survive. Maybe if he'd heard some shots from me before hand and known I was there, he wouldn't have been as surprised to see me. It just bugs me, you know? I didn't even do anything, I was trying to flipping -help- the guy and he shot me. I didn't have any good loot, unless he didn't have a sidearm or binoculars. I'm sure that he was far better off than I was. The point is, where's the fun if you don't trust anyone, not even a little bit? If this game was just a zombie survival thing, it would be boring as crap. I'm here, not only to evade zombies and find loot, but to interact with others. Whether this ends up with me being hunted, a tense situation, or whatever, I'm here for excitement. That wasn't any of those things. He could have demanded that I drop or lower my weapon, told me to leave, whatever, but he didn't even try to communicate, just shot me. As Garak would say, shooting someone in the back is the safest way, but I was on his bloody side. This makes me think of those snipers who sit around in the forests at Elektro with I think an AS50 and shoot random freshly spawned dudes. Maybe some of them are on overwatch trying to protect their friends, but most of the times I've been there I don't even have anything worth looting, and in order to loot my body they'd have to go all the way into the city to get it. Like, what the crap? They don't even care about that, they're just in it for 'sport.' Some people say that once you hit end game or whatever and have all the best shit that hunting others is the only thing to do. But that's not anything I'd call hunting, that's shooting fish in a bloody barrel. To me, something like that is only fun if the other has an oppurtunity to fight back. I mean, if I'm near someone who I think means me harm and they're facing away from me, I'm not going to miss on purpose to get their attention and then try to kill them, I'll put them down if I can. But that's really a hunt, the searching, the tension, trying to kill them quick before they have a chance to end you. A battle between men with rifles or whatever is far more exciting than shooting blind fish that don't even know you exist with impunity. Unless you're on overwatch, that might be exciting if your buddies start getting shot at. The point is that you might not be able to trust others, but you can trust -me-. I won't shoot you for your weapon or your beans. If nothing else I'd like to trade with you, there has to be something that both of us have that the other needs. Maybe we can roll together, have a cool conversation, just go seperate ways, whatever. You don't have to shoot me on sight, you don't have to snipe me from a mile away, you don't need to keep your weapon aimed at me, I'm on your side. We're all just trying to survive, why not survive together? The only time I'm not on your side is if you are a bandit, in which case I'll probably try to kill you to save whoever your next victim would be. The point is, if you see a man named Sean Cook, give him the benefit of the doubt, something awesome might happen.