How to get better at gun fights.

[WhileOnTarget 0]

So i have been playing Dayz for about five months. I have raided NW and stary many times, i have ran through electo with a horde behind me, and i have looted countless deer stand with stealth from the zombies of the apocalypse. Though while doing this i was on low pop. servers so i wouldn't die by a bandit right when i got my weapons. I eventually got board with the game as expected, put it down for a month (some because of finals) and now that i have had time over holiday break i realize that the player interaction of Dayz is what makes the game what it is. After rolling with some friends the other night i realized i cant preform effectively in gun battles. I never know where the guy is, i am always caught off guard, and when i finally know where a guy is i miss a 300M shot with a M16A2. My question is how did you bridge the gap from not knowing how to escape zombies to being able to kill bandits and steal their beans with efficiency.

[Marvel.Jane 113]

I would suggest playing Arma II to increase your skills, there is also an Armoury Mod that allows you to test alot of the weapons on a moving target (great to get to know how they respond). Watching videos of other players engaged in PvP never hurts and of course there is always practice :)

PS: Getting killed enough will make you unleash your inner monster...

[falcon2500 14]

^ what he said.

EDIT: what she said

Edited December 29, 2012 by falcon2500

[Marvel.Jane 113]

^ what he said.

heh hmmm.... It's she :)

[Nicklovn 2]

Remember that at a distance you're not hidden in bushes. You need to find a tree that has a lot of cover as well as trees around you and behind you. Always be next to the trunk, not in front.

The best cover, though, is a rock that can defend you from where you suspect the hostiles are (rocks saved my life many times in ArmA 2 regular coop).

As for finding targets, work with a squad. Get your binocs and scan. If you find a target report it to your team before you shoot unless the guy sees you.

BTW, does your rifle have zeroing? If it does you can adjust it. If you have range finders or a rifle with mil dots you can judge the distance.

And definitely practice in single player. Even go into editor and spawn some zombies and practice at 200-1000 meters.

Good luck :)

[bfisher 561]

Most of winning a gunfight is spotting the other guy first. You need to be constantly scanning around you,

[Dark Wolf (DayZ) 0]

Play ARMA 2 Wasteland mod, Armory mod and just watch some PVP videos on Youtube. Once you get the hang of it... The gun play is rather a pretty good system.

[bigdogsco 143]

The best tip I can give is to stay calm. I've bumped into people and they've panicked and unloaded but missed while I've stayed calm, aimed carefully and killed them. Also, get to know the weapons and their effects. Eg one shot from the m14 aim will knock somebody out pretty much every time so you won't need to go for a tricky headshot when the easy torso shot will do nicely.

[chris_uk 16]

go play wasteland

[bigdogsco 143]

^That will work too. Although in wasteland the death penalty is much lower so people tend to be a bit more gung ho!

[ninjan777 104]

Best tip = be calm, get to cover, have patience.

// Skill helps too ^^

Edited December 29, 2012 by ninjan777

[OrLoK 16182]

Hello there

Practice, practice and more practice.

A decent mouse helps (mine sucks :( ) as does an enormo monitor and high res.

But, the most important thing I may not have mentioned is practice!

Rgds

LoK

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

Practice on wasteland with a good set up, a lot of people die in game because their systems are terrible, unless you have a good set up your gonna be all over the place in a fight.

Plus what finger licking zombie woman said!

[Pegz 49]

Honestly practice is what will improve your skills. You can watch some youtube videos for strategy and such but really getting into firefights is the only real way to figure it out. Go on a high pop server and just go into a town with the intent of killing whoever you see, find a place and ambush some people. Hospital in electro starts off many good battles.

[Heiduk 265]

Next time you're about to engage a target from 300 m with an M16 you may want to think twice. It's not impossible to be effective from that range but it is definitely near the upper limit. You may have better tactical options available.

[Sutinen 635]

I'm pretty sure you're fucked if a bandit has opened fire on you from 300 meters and you start shooting him. Run and get cover is the best option at that point.

What I do is shoot when I know I'm not gonna miss. And always aim for the head in short ranged fights.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Sutinen

[socialcorpse 13]

A lot of times you wont have time to figure out where he is before he puts the final shot in your head and then you wake up on the coast. The only way to defeat that is to always always always be on gaurd.

[Prophet 6]

How did I get good at ARMA II firefights....

3 years of ARMA II...

600 hours of ARMA II Project Reality. That really, REALLY makes you think about ARMA II in a whole new way as if you don't think about what you're doing, your entire squad can be wiped out in 10 seconds by a man in a window with an AK-47.

However, most effective tactics require vast amounts of ammo to execute so it becomes more difficult in DayZ, but I can safely say that I tend to come out on top most of the time in DayZ.

Ammo, covering fire, ammo and flanking.

In ARMA II Project Reality to move without cover fire is basically suicide.

Going it alone... stealth, try to not be seen in the first place. Being the first to see your enemy counts for a lot when by yourself. Take a look around you before and after you do anything, that rule has saved me many times.

The other thing is, there is this mentality that you need to hit every shot you take, while this is true for close quarters battles, in open fields from my personal experience, weight of fire is far more effective and many bandits/carebares have fallen to my M4 because they didn't want to "waste" ammo.

This one time I caught 2 guys in the open and i clipped one of them with the first shot of my M4, but they both made it to cover behind a humvee in the road. First I threw 2 smoke grenades to cover what I was doing (I always make a note of wind direction when I spawn so I can throw them in good places), then I kept them pinned behind that car with 3 mags of M4 while I flanked them. Before they knew what had happened, they were both dead and they barely had a chance to peek their nose out from that car...

Much ammo was used, but they were both dead and I was alive, and that's what counts most in DayZ.

300m With an M16 is tough and probably not worth it. I would just run for it if I was being shot from that distance. They already know where you are, they already have you in their sights with a gun that can kill you. Standing/crouching still and shooting will probably get you killed. Another important thing is to know when to run away :), some fights can not be won unless you get very lucky.

Another great story is when I was chased roughly 5km through the forest by a fully armed squad that had a helicopter, AT NIGHT. That was tough to survive. In the end I managed to lose em and I managed to kill two of them with a double barreled shotty. A perfect example of just running for your life when you are outmatched.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Prophet

[chris_uk 16]

I want to try PR for arma2, how do i go about it?

[privatewolf 59]

Well, I got better at firefights and handling hostile contact situations from the past year of playing ArmA II at just some regular servers that play co-op missions. Capture The Island missions are horrible to hone your firefighting skills with, as a newbie; that is. So your best bet is probably just join some regular ArmA II co-op servers(co-op is when you team-up with human players, and battle hundreds of AI's, depending on the mission)

[privatewolf 59]

I want to try PR for arma2, how do i go about it?

PR for ArmA II? Not the best option. If you want to experience a more realistic but at the same time, FUN, ArmA II, I would suggest the ACE 2 Mod which is basically like PR, but more suitable for ArmA and it is the most famous mod of all time, waay before DayZ. Well, at least it was popular for us ArmA II veterans and not for the people who bought ArmA II for DayZ

[NoyZ (DayZ) 66]

Awesome posts in this thread!! I learned a thing or two. While you practice just be ready for the the butt hurt bambi hate that is sure to follow.

+ respect for wanting to learn to defend yourself rather than bitch.

All I could add is that when you do make a mistake, THOROUGHLY analyze ALL of them and how not to do them again.

OP'll be kicking all our asses pretty soon. ;)

Edited January 20, 2013 by NoyZ

[BTT` 15]

I am curious what kind rig the OP is playing on. I know I was not doing well in firefights and it was suggested to me to adjustp/lower my setting some to increase my FPS. I went from 10 to 15 FPS to 25 to 30 FPS and that helped me in firefights.

[-Guardian- 206]

My own two cents.

Playing the regular Arma is a great way, you may also want to check out some Deathmatch servers on DayZ.

I too was having some trouble getting comfortable in gunfights until i found this one Deathmatch server that would spawn you in the city of Elektro with an M4. I played that for about 2 weeks and watched my PvP skills improve dramatically.

[-Guardian- 206]

Id also like to mention having a good comp. helps.

someone pushing 30-40FPS in a firefight odds are will win over someone pushing 5-10FPS obviously.