Frustrated with difficulty curve and comments about simulation aspect

[liamecrow 0]

Hello,

I am trying to get some joy out of this game.

What I have read in the forums suggests that much of the learning curve of the game is familiarizing yourself with which houses have doors and contain loot, which seems to be a bit too meta-game for such a well thought out simulator game.

With that critique, I am tempted to give the game another shot, but could I get some advice on what I am doing wrong?

Here are my questions:

How to I sneak around zombies? Many of the tutorials indicate crawling to be a useful stealth mechanic, but I have yet to be able to avoid zombies long enough find anything of any value.

Say I do find a weapon. I thought I understood how to equip items, but if you're being chased until you find, say a hatchet, how can you quickly (can you?) equip it so you can actually dispatch the zombies? For sake of simulation, shouldn't your first weapon just immediately equip itself? I mean it's not like you have to first load the hatchet to wreck a zombie face.

If you guys have useful youtube videos that explain some of this stuff in detail, or could just give me some quick advice, I'd give this game another shot, but so far my experience has been:

Spawn, try to find things, try to sneak, run from zombies, fail to evade zombies, give up and let them kill me.

Or another variation, spawn, try to sneak, run from zombies, find actual useful item, middle mouse click on it, realize I don't actually know how to swing a melee weapon, die

I'm fine with unforgiving but after 3 fruitless hours I am finding that my lack of Arma 2 knowledge plus lack of accurate, up to date "first time player" walkthroughs to be a bit too frustrating for me to continue without trying to get some forum assistance

Thanks,

-Miles

[magus_taliesin@hotmail.com 0]

First bit of advice, don't go into towns. Go into the hills, look for unoccupied barns and tree stands. Find loot, practice, stay alive. Spawning and heading into towns is the biggest reason that people get frustrated with this game, but they keep doing it despite all the advice to the contrary.

[Blackout1050 0]

First bit of advice' date=' don't go into towns. Go into the hills, look for unoccupied barns and tree stands. Find loot, practice, stay alive. Spawning and heading into towns is the biggest reason that people get frustrated with this game, but they keep doing it despite all the advice to the contrary.

[/quote']

This is exactly what i've been doing.

Only trouble is, every single barn/house/shed/whatever is guarded by at least one zombie. Sure, i can get past the zombie without any real problems, its just that there was a zombie behind that wall that somehow managed to hear me crouching around, and because those zombies chase you for 15+ minutes by the time i get away, i'm thristy and hungry without any food or water (Thats if the zombie doesn't manage to hit me, breaking my leg or causing me to bleed).

I really just want a melee weapon to begin with, so that if you do manage to piss off one or two rogue zombies, you can kill them without any real problems. Or at least some food and water so you can head inland without needing to search for food straight away.

Everything else i'm fine with, just being able to choose where you spawn (Seems to really only be 5-6 spawn locations i get), would make meeting up with friends really easy.

On a Side Note:

Why is it that i only ever find empty tin cans and shotgun shells whenever i do manage to find unguarded loot? Its pretty much the only thing i ever find, that or some chemlights and flares. Never any guns/ammo i could actually use and i'm extremely lucky if i do find an axe.

[TheSexyGoat 5]

Guess you're unlucky then, just be careful and if you have anything to suggest, do it! You need to know where to search for stuff.

[Blackout1050 0]

Guess you're unlucky then' date=' just be careful and if you have anything to suggest, do it! You need to know where to search for stuff.

[/quote']

I'm assuming knowing which buildings you can enter and have loot is pretty important.

Can you tell us which ones are enterable/usually have loot? I'm walking into a lot of random buildings guarded by zombies and they have no loot (Inland).

[chrispow 3]

Barns are usually very good. I read in your previous comment that you hadn't found anything good, but the more barns you look in, the better.

["Easy" Pete 0]

The best way to survive honestly is ALWAYS have a building you can enter in sight. Even if you alert all the zombies in the town you can make them slow as hell in the building. And the best part is, with the new update. The zombies lose sight of you in the building while u ditch to another one. That's how I survive in cities anyway.

The Anti-Bandits Steam Group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TAB-DayZ

[magus_taliesin@hotmail.com 0]

yup, patience, barns you can look at and see if zombies are there. Tree stands hardly ever have zombies present. All I see is "I want option A, forget your option B, C, D, E, if I can't have option A then this game is broken and I'm pissed" This is a firkin survival sandbox, stop thinking in straight lines.

[bjarnidk 9]

Still haven't played since 1.7.1 and from what I'm reading this game is just getting more and more stupid by the minute.

rocket soon has to realize that these changes are not for the better.

[xenogias 0]

I actually prefer to go straight to a big city. Why? Because zombies are few and far between/easy to avoid. If a player wants to be a douchebag and kill you so be it. You dont have anything so no big deal you only lost a verry little bit of time. If you manage to get a weapon or two before a bandit desides to say hi then you at least have a fighting chance. Plus I really do not think morphine spawns outside of big cities. I honestly dont believe they spawn at all. All I'm dieing to anymore after 3 days of playing is players and "oops" I got hit and my leg is now broken. Or the random frollick through a field and the next thing I know my leg is broke. Morphine is such a pain in the ass to find. Dont give me the "go to the emergency room" bullshit either. I'm a new player and I dont WANT to use a wiki or guide. Whats the fucking point in that? Years after Zday are you going to google where the nearest gunshop is? No, no you arent.

Anyway sorry about the rant. My advice is hit the big cities to the left or right of where you spawn. You will either die in 5min due to some player being an ass or find yourself a packfull of food/water/ammo/guns and be good untill you break a leg. Then your fucked. But at least you can spend a couple hrs hitting up smaller towns and killin some Zeds or players to try to screw with you.

p.s If you want to be a bandit dont be stupid and try to axe someone in the back. It doesnt turn out well for you. If you know they have a gun anyway.

[liamecrow 0]

For every useful nugget on here there's five people spouting "Your critique is invalid! The problem is not a design choice, it's YOU! You damn casual gamer! Go back to your STALKER and your Mount and Blade!".

I really do just want some advice so I can give this another shot and experience some sort of feeling of progression.

So far there has been two pieces of useful advice to me:

1. Focus on more rural locations, such as barns and tree stands to get the initial weapons.

2. Kite zombies into buildings because it slows them way down and you can take advantage of the multiple exits.

Thank you for those.

Comments about spesific responses:

"Spawning and heading into towns is the biggest reason that people get frustrated with this game, but they keep doing it despite all the advice to the contrary."

I spent the first hour or so of the game looking for more rural locations and was not finding any equipment, or other objects of interaction. Then, I spent the next hour looking for any signs of habitation on the edges of wilderness, and found a derelict doorless building with a zombie out front, and another with an axe stuck in a stump, which was a decal.

"I want option A, forget your option B, C, D, E, if I can't have option A then this game is broken and I'm pissed" This is a firkin survival sandbox, stop thinking in straight lines."

This is a mod that is in the alpha stages, but this is the time to talk about what works for people and what doesn't, and there's no need to get defensive. You can't say a game is broken before it's a finished product, but you can give feedback about the difficulty curve.

I still would like an answer as to how to equip weapons that I find. Please just give me a step by step. And can I do it if I have agroed any zombies?

[paecmaker 0]

I still would like an answer as to how to equip weapons that I find. Please just give me a step by step. And can I do it if I have agroed any zombies?

If you dont have a weapon (primary or secondary) the weapons will turn up in the two active weapon slots(for either gun or rifle)

When you see a weapon you walk up to it and press G, when in the inventory screen you see on your right the amount of places you got left and to the left is all the things listed, both things in your inventory and on the ground.

If they are on the ground you can see an extra number dependable on how many of that kind are on hte ground. You then press on the right arrow on the object(in the list) to transfer the thing to your inventory. Unless its already used it will automatically show up in the weapons slot, otherwise you need to place it in a backpack.

I hope this answered your question.

[deepfried 95]

OK first its a mod, second its in alpha = that is the answer to 90% of the technical problems that exist with DayZ.

That said, you wont survive every spawn, sometimes a bandit will get you, sometimes you'll take a risk and zombies will get you. You just have to accept that sometimes you will die (and in fact you will die every time, its just a question of how long).

Now Tips: (this is just one way to play, not hard and fast rules)

To avoid bandits:

1) stay away from Cherno, Elektro, NWAF, Stary. And think twice about the other airfields and large towns.

2) Stay in cover, don't walk/run down roads or though open fields unless absolutely necessary. Try and stay in trees/brush.

3) Leave the coast ASAP, your chance of survival goes up dramatically once you're about 2-3km in land, as most bandits don't spend much or any time in the winderness or small villages (they don't have the patience).

4) before you go into a town or other spawn area, scout it from long range, if you can see zombies then there is another player there as zombies only spawn in a certain radius of a player.

To manage Zed:

1) dont get their attention! This take some practice and the details change as the zombies are tweaked in new builds, but try not to be directly in front of a zombie, they can only see you if you are in front of them, never make more than one bar of sound if there are zombies in 50m. Try to keep your viability to 2 bars max and if you get close behind a zombie (you should try never to be in front) then crawl. Never get closer than 5m if you can help it and don't deliberately move into a 10m radius.

2) if you pull aggro you have 2 choices and you have to decide whats best on the fly: head for a building and make a stand, some buildings are much better than others you just have to learn. Also you can often loose zed by going into a building and then going prone, as your vis and audibility will go to nil. The second option which is much more viable in the current build is to sprint away from the town and try to loose the zombies, jink through buildings, turn corners, vault fences, jink through trees... you will be surprised how quick you loose them.

3) You can throw stuff to distract zed, smoke grenades and flares seem to work well but trash like cans and bottles also work. This is a bit hit and miss so I think it might be bugged, but its worth a go when you don't have a gun or no other option presents itself.

4) if you have to shoot a zed then preferably you should use a gun with low or moderate noise, there should be no other zed in 30m preferably more, try and do it in a building, i'm not sure if that muffles the sound but I seem to have better luck this way, and you can always go prone to loose the zed straight away.

5) Zed are attracted to your presence even when they don't know you are there they will err in your direction. So don't stay in one place for long. you can also use this to your advantage: go into one side of a town and sit there for 5 mins, you should pull most of the zed to that side, then back out and flank round to the other side... easy looting.

[Blackout1050 0]

Allright, i'm currently on my longest life ever (New Player).

I didn't bother to meet up with my friends (We agreed we'd solo then meet up later - easier that way). I spawned at Kamenka or Komahovo (Or something like that) and just moved inland. I stayed away from any zombies and just snuck into any barn i could find (Luckily after 2-3 barns, i got a hatchet (Axe). The Axe is probably the most usefull thing you can find early in the game. From there - you can actually deal with zombies very easily. Even in the open, zombies are still pretty easy to kill without being hit (At least too many times). I was lucky enough to find another large village, this one with a supermarket. I sprinted to the entrance and killed all the zombies who followed me in. Found loads of food, water, equipment and an M1911 with 1 Full Magazine. I still used the Axe from here, it was easier and made a lot less noise. The M1911 was just for defence against players.

From there on out i was fine, the map had some places marked and i just headed there. 1 Military heli had an AKM with 1 Mag, which i later found another Mag for, and then a Medical Heli which had an abundance of every medical equipment in the game (Morphine, Epi Pens, Blood Packs, Bandages etc.).

I'm currently still alive (With no ammo though, luckily found another hatchet) but every single survivor i've seen with a gun had tried shooting me. Just do your best to avoid other players, tree lines are your best friend. I've still yet to be hit by a gun, but have had around 3 magazines of various guns shoot at me.

Surviving at the early stages of the game is heavily dependant on when you find an axe. After that, its easy going, just head to your nearest supermarket and you're all set. Head inland, and do your best to avoid players (Unless you have a gun and they're nearby and haven't noticed you yet - just kill them and take whatever they have you're probably better off with it anyway).

[jenson 0]

The problem is that you can't break off a tree branch and use it as a melee weapon. Normal intelligent humans can make weapons out of any blunt object. This is where the game puts an ENORMOUS burden on new players. If you want to capture realism, DO IT. You can make a blunt weapon out of almost ANY object. Allow new players to grab a shovel, a stick, a broomstick, ANYTHING to hit zombies with.

Another issue is that crouch sneaking doesn't make that much noise imo.

The game in its current state is designed for WAY above average gamers. It will NEVER ever reach a casual audience.

[enablerbr 0]

As of the current version 1.7.5. If you crawl forward, you make 1 bar sound. Yet if you crawl forward and hold left or right, you make no sound bars.

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

What I have read in the forums suggests that much of the learning curve of the game is familiarizing yourself with which houses have doors and contain loot' date=' which seems to be a bit too meta-game for such a well thought out simulator game.[/quote']

most of the learning curve is getting to know where the hotspots are. where to go to get good stuff, where not to go to avoid certain death. you don't need to know every single house on the map, if you play for a while you will memorize the kinds of buildings you can enter, and spot them from afar. it's still a sim after all, so we have to deal with the boundaries the engine puts upon us. dayz can't do anything about it. arma3 will improve here.

How to I sneak around zombies? Many of the tutorials indicate crawling to be a useful stealth mechanic' date=' but I have yet to be able to avoid zombies long enough find anything of any value.[/quote']

pay attention to the aubility/visibility indicator. go prone, move behind their back so they cant see you. if possible, move at night or fog/rain. use obstacles as cover. throw tin cans and bottles to distract zombies. (yes, they have a purpose other then wasting loot spots).

Say I do find a weapon. I thought I understood how to equip items' date=' but if you're being chased until you find, say a hatchet, how can you quickly (can you?) equip it so you can actually dispatch the zombies? For sake of simulation, shouldn't your first weapon just immediately equip itself? I mean it's not like you have to first load the hatchet to wreck a zombie face.[/quote']

best thing you can do is, have a plan before shit hits the fan. know your surroundings and always be ready to react if you are being shot at, or spotted by a zombie.

if you pull a train of zombies, dont panic. run through a building with two opposite doors, the zombies will run in and stick inside because they can only walk in there. also, if you happen to loot smoke grenades, throw them in the opposite direction from where you are running, the zombies will abandon their chase and gather around the grenade.

at the very least you gain time to equip your weapons.

if there is no building near, just run down a hill, the zombies will run too fast and break their legs. i didn't know thats possible until it saved my life yesterday.

If you guys have useful youtube videos that explain some of this stuff in detail' date=' or could just give me some quick advice, I'd give this game another shot[/quote']

yt is full of helpful videos, most of my knowledge i gained from reading these forums and watching hours of dayz videos. just think of what you want to know and look it up, more then likely there is a video showing what you want to know. if not, well ask on server or here in forums, the community is quite friendly.

Spawn' date=' try to find things, try to sneak, run from zombies, fail to evade zombies, give up and let them kill me.

Or another variation, spawn, try to sneak, run from zombies, find actual useful item, middle mouse click on it, realize I don't actually know how to swing a melee weapon, die[/quote']

before trying something new: ask someone else for advice. in case of the melee weapons, you first need to remove from toolbelt and then recharge them. melee weapons also have virtual ammo, and if you pick up a new gun with amm you always have to reload before you can shoot. thats what i have been told, didn't try them myself yet.

a friend just died yesterday due to the same problem. the engine is incredibly unfriendly to deal with, but its all we get, so adapt to it.

I'm fine with unforgiving but after 3 fruitless hours I am finding that my lack of Arma 2 knowledge plus lack of accurate' date=' up to date "first time player" walkthroughs to be a bit too frustrating for me to continue without trying to get some forum assistance[/quote']

3 hours lol xD try 3 weeks and counting ;)

the game is frustrating, and it is meant to be, no exceptions. this is the core idea of dayz, and for all that is holy this shall never change.

whats most frustrating in dayz is loosing all your stuff due to silly mistakes. you will make tons of them ahead, but it pays off as you will learn not to do them again. oh all the mistakes i made, and all the gear i lost because of them.

most important: if you find something precious, don't get attached to it. you WILL loose it sooner then later, everyone does. just respawn, start over new, with the goal in mind to get even better gear this time.

well, thats it i guess.

[TylerDurden (DayZ) 0]

I too am pretty frustrated about with DayZ. Maybe I just had too high hopes for it. The start of the game without anyway to defend yourself is unrealistic, tedious, boring and just no fun.

Oh a single zombie has caught me again YAY

This mod has come from the mil sim community for the mil sim community. My guess is the game is only going to become more frustrating when you start with no clothes a broken leg and 30 seconds to crawl into a building with a zombie in hopes of finding what you need.

[Buzzo (DayZ) 1]

The game gets easier if you stick with it. The early part of the game is the toughest. Some people like to go inland and loot barns, some people like to stick around the cities. It's a matter of preference. Personally, I like to prioritize going to Cherno or Electro to get morphine because broken legs are death sentences without it. I'm looking for canteen, backpack, sidearm and as much food and water as I can carry. I want a rifle and sidearm. If I know I'm going to be solo, I won't worry about blood packs, etc.

Some things that have really helped me sneak:

1) Outflank packs of zombies. Instead of going straight through a town, circle around it, spotting out the buildings you want to hit from a distance. Sneak in and loot those buildings, then if you need to sneak back out to a treeline or other vantage point to scout out another building.

2) Get good with the alt key. Always be looking around. Keep an idea of where the zombies are at all times. Sometimes you won't see them, but you almost always can hear them. If they sound close but you can't figure out where they are, back out and locate the them before going further.

3) Throw cans and bottles. It took me a week of play before I realized how effective this can be. If you throw a can or a bottle and it lands in the general vicinity of a zombie, they will go over to investigate. I use this all the time early in the game to clear out zombies that are guarding buildings.

[LastShenanigan 8]

-Like others have said, you have a fairly good chance of finding a gun in a barn. Scope it out first though, if its flooded with zombies and you're in no desperate need for gear just move on. The mod is requires long bouts of patience and planning followed by incredibly quick reactions once shit goes south.

-When sneaking keep track of the zombies around you, they currently have a much easier time detecting you if they're facing your direction. Using prone to get places takes time but it will save your life in populated areas.

-Don't bother with melee yet, it still feels extremely alpha. Also, even if you could punched a zombie how much damage would it do? 1% of their health? It's a angry killing machine. I've suggested before an option to tackle a single zombie. It'd be a lifesaver in a pinch and it'd leave you open if you're silly enough to try it near a crowd of them.

-While important to find, a gun has become less useful for killing zombies now that you can ditch them. Dayz is more about avoiding the zombies then shooting them. Popping one or two zombies you aggro'd with your shotgun will alert every other zombie in the area. Running into building with more then one entrance WILL lose them. Sometimes you may have go through more than once, but as long as you're running their chances of landing a hit on you is very low so long as you don't run right into one. They also can lose track of you over fences, up hills and around corners. Once you've got some distance between you and them they'll "search" for you. This is when you go back to crouching. Like everyone has said, that alt button will save you're life. You'll know when it is time to stop sneaking and time to get up and run for it. Also a lot of new peoples don't realize they can hightail it for a moment by tapping W twice.

-Once you find a gun, save it for when you're pinned in a building with only one exit that is flooded with zombies or you're being shot at. Though honestly if you're new and someone has opened fire on you, it might be in you're best interest to run. The gunfire from the other player will hopefully attract some zombies and the amount of damage you'll take from a gunfight even if you win isn't worth the trouble. That and people typically don't shoot at you in Dayz until they have a nice ambush set up. So if you hear bullets flying past you and you don't have the guy firing in your line of sight, your best bet is to run zig zagging into the woods/around buildings. Having an old fashioned shootout is something you'll encounter more if you run with a group.

-Leave the coast, follow a main road inland while staying in the treeline. You'll run into deer stands which have relatively few zombies guarding them and can spawn great weapons. If you spot one just wait awhile for the zombies near it to wander far enough away for you to sneak in and grab whatever is in there. You're holy grail up there will be convenience stores as they spawn pretty much all the starting gear you'll need, have several entrances, are easy to defend against zombies and are easy to spot. Front side of the store is all glass windows with a double sided glass door, backside is usually a few double sided steel doors. Following paved roads long enough and you'll eventually run into a town that has loot. Dirt roads tend to be safer to travel but the loot per zombie ratio along them isn't anything to get excited about. If you're lost without any sense of direction or way to navigate you can use the power lines to find your way back to a town. Learning the road signs can help you find towns with decent loot also. If you are desperate and have no idea where you are because there are no distinguishable landmarks, the sun rises in the east which will bring you to the large coastal towns.

[neves (DayZ) 0]

Get good with a map: http://dayzdb.com/map

[hamburgler666 3]

sounds like your not cut out for this game if you having problems

[Mort (DayZ) 260]

The game is barren and empty- The Zombie glitch and pass through walls, firing guns can be hit or miss - The area is green and lush with forests and ponds but we still die of thirst - Items are rare and theses now way of making make shift weapons from sticks or trash laying around,

Its in Alpha, its just a drawing on paper -

The game has massive potential -

Give it a 6/12 and if people are still playing and the mods still patching it will hopefully change for the better

[vulfy 55]

Knowing which houses are open is crucial to the enjoyment of this game.

Having a map is something that can be considered "cheating", but can greatly enhance the enjoyment and smooth out the learning curve quite a bit.

I printed out a simple map with just town names on it. Nothing else. So I know where I'm going, but along the way, I'm still discovering the area. No compass still forces me to orient myself within the game world, and not just blindly follow a cursor.

I can now loot basic equipment withing first few towns and be in good shape for the rest of the character's life.

[esoh 0]

firing guns can be hit or miss

yea dude, they really need to patch that missing shit