DayZ 2017 - Day 0

[entspeak 374]

After playing DayZ for a couple of weeks, I thought to myself, "This would be awesome if there were only shotguns, pistols and you had to deal with the night - no NVGs." My approach to playing DayZ would frustrate and bore many - I play to survive, not to kill unless it's necessary.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to play DayZ 2017 - I'd been looking forward to it since I first heard about it. I downloaded it pretty much as soon as it was available. It is an early stage of the DayZ variant mod and, as I understand it, the Devs have more ideas that they are going to implement. Currently, it is like a re-skinned DayZ with no military grade equipment, tougher zombies, 11 vehicles and much, much, much less loot - which is the state the devs said it would be in for this alpha release.

But on to the game play:

If you love playing DayZ as a survival horror game, DayZ 2017 may be the mod for you. If you're looking to go in and simply kill folks... you may get bored and frustrated real quick. That's not to say that there's no killing - oh, that's still in there, but you really are hoping to kill someone for their can of dog food or their box of matches (a seemingly rare item now.)

Here's an example of one encounter I had on my second life in the mod...

Having spawned in Komarovo, I made my way to Zelengorsk in the hopes of finding some hunting supplies and, maybe a better pack... thinking I'd loot the deer stands on the way. When I finally made it to Zelen, I still had no weapons, no food, one bandage (you start with none) and an extra water bottle. So, I go into the market and find a better backpack (the "College Pack") and a map... the rest is all garbage. So, I decide to take out the trash and come back in a little bit in the hopes of better luck with re-spawned loot - a time consuming and, therefore, very dangerous endeavor. I clear out most of the store, head out into the town a bit and come back. I find a box of matches and a hunting knife. Suddenly, I hear a gunshot nearby in the direction of Pavlovo. Being unarmed, I decide it's best for me to get out and hide until I can come back and loot the remainder of the market. I run out the back, find a spot and wait for about 5 minutes. Nobody seems to be coming and I haven't seen anyone go into the market. So, I head back.

On my way to the wall behind the market, someone fires at me with a Lee Enfield. They miss and I keep running. As I turn around a gap in the wall, he fires again and I'm hit. But he gets aggro'd zombies and seems to fall back. So, I'm behind a wall, bleeding with a broken leg.

I bandage myself and wait for a moment, deciding my best course of action. I don't hear him coming, so I crawl along the wall hoping to get away... Pausing occasionally in the grass to listen, look around and see if he's coming. I get to a corner where there is another gap in the wall and I hear crawling... I stop... is it a zombie? No, this guy is crawling about 5m in front of me in through this gap. I freeze, just looking at him thinking I'm going to be shot at any moment. But, he either doesn't see me or thinks I'm a rock or a dead zombie in my worn soldier outfit and pack of the same basic color scheme. I wait and he just crawls, he crawls right by me a couple meters to my left and then gets up, scanning the market area for me - not knowing that I'm right beside him and powerless to do anything. Needless to say, my heart is racing.

This is the point where most people say, "You had a broken leg, about half your blood, no morphine and no food. I'd just get myself killed so I can start over." But this is a survival game, so getting yourself killed is kind of counter to that... it's a cheap cop out. I mean, what's the point of the game if you just log out or suicide yourself when it gets hard. But then, I'm the guy who crawls through the woods and into the hospital in Cherno after breaking my leg on Pik Kozlova trying to get an ATV - only to be killed by a bandit in the apartments 5 minutes after getting fixed, but such is the game. I still had a chance to survive and I was going to take it - that made the game more intense for me.

So, he starts heading toward the market and when it becomes clear that he's not going to look back the way he came, I crawl out into the field and behind a couple of bushes... and I wait... and I wait. Thankfully, I really do just look like a pile of rocks in the bushes, so I just keep still and look around. After a few minutes, I hear him fire again... but not at me. Maybe he's killed someone else. So, I wait. It's getting dark... my hope is to wait for it to be a bit darker, crawl down to the industrial area - pray for a hatchet, crawl into the woods kill a pig or something and get my blood back up... then when it's completely dark, crawl back into the market and pray for morphine. But, I'm not going to just let my character die.

When the sun is setting, I crawl into the industrial area and look for a hatchet... suddenly, my right foot starts bleeding slowly - did I clip it on a rock or something? Do broken legs start bleeding if you don't take care of them? I have no more bandages. It seems a slow leak, so I'm hoping I can find a hatchet, kill the cow in the nearby field and cook it up before I bleed out. In the end... no luck. I'm just too low on blood and succumb to that wound not 10m from the last building in the industrial area by the small power station - which, with my luck, would've been the one with a hatchet in it.

Many will likely find the above an incredibly boring experience, but I enjoyed it. That's the game, to me. It's not just about shooting people or finding cars and the cool guns - though, I hope to get a vehicle at some point and I think I may have to kill someone eventually. It seems that this is what DayZ 2017 is aiming for - to make it hard to survive. And I like that.

The next hour of gameplay for me was ruined by a skiddie douchebag. But, once that got sorted, I played for another few hours and had a couple more harrowing run-ins with other players, but got away unscathed. After several hours, though I'd found a Lee Enfield, a revolver, a flashlight, a hatchet and a hunting knife... I still hadn't found another box of matches. Hopefully, I can find one before my luck with dog food runs out.

So, to the Devs... great work! I look forward to seeing how the mod evolves.

Edited December 16, 2012 by entspeak

[Willard1118 31]

great story!

I too am loving 2017 and all of the intense worry that comes from having raw meat but no matches :)

The night play is very fun, and so far I have been chased by a guy with an ax and a zombie train behind him.

The lack of guns and abundance of axes leads to some very interesting interactions lol

I think this is the best of DayZ yet.

[Piemonster 1]

Nice story! :o

I actually downloaded the mod earlier today but have yet to try it out...But, after reading this I'm definitely going to go try it right now.

Any server recommendations? :)

[entspeak 374]

I can't make a recommendation... part of that depends on where you are. The only server available when I downloaded was shinkicker's - a server in Europe. Then a little bit later, Shacknews started up a server in the US - which is where I had the encounter, above. I know more servers have started up since then.

[Bruin (DayZ) 5]

The mod is awesome if you're looking to get away from the spawn sniping boring shit in regular Day Z, I played for about 3 hours this morning and I've managed to get 5 bandages from the hospital on Elektro, a bear trap, some raw meat and literally as I was finding a place to log off I looted 1 last barn near Cherno and got myself a Winchester, saw about 4 people, 1 killed me with a hatchet after lying about being friendly, that was after the first hour playing, then I thought I'd gear up and hunt for him, didn't really get past gearing up though lol. Playing this is like when you first started playing Day Z, really enjoyable twist on the mod.

[willey.erd@oundleschool.org.uk 506]

I don't know how I got here, but I played this for the first time yesterday and am completely geared after one trip through Cherno (Lee, matches, hunting knife, bottles, ammo, map, etc). If anything, it's easier as there only is about one weapon to find.