Is this how it is for new players? Or is it just me?

[killa_justin 2]

Is this normal or did I just pick a real shitty day to buy the game?

 

    First of all I have been playing online game since Half life death match. I am an avid gamer. Not a nood to gaming, just a nood to Dayz..I bought the game yesterday after spending the day at work watching youtube vids and reading guides. I figured I was all set to play. Bought the game, sat there and watched it download in anticipation. Actually this is the first game I have been really excited to play a game in a long time. I overheard a co-worker talking about it and after watching the vids and, I was really really excited to play. Even with the bugs and such the game looked to be great! I can fully understand the purpose of alpha, and am aware that  there will be bugs and issues. 

 

    Anyways, Time to learn the game and get familiarized. So I log in find a server with only 0 people in it, and a great ping of 14. I'm like hell ya. Great pings on the servers!  Get in and it's dark I cant see shit. I was like fuck this, i'll just find another server. Tried 3 or 4 servers with good ping and they are all dark. Finally figure out the time thing in the server list. Start looking for a server that has a daytime "time". none are under a 100 ping that are empty. Notice a 24/7 daytime tag on a server. HELL YA!!! WHOOT!   Join the server. Fuck me. It's dark to. Change the ping filter on the server list. Find one that has a ping of 126 and 10 players. Screw it . I connect. (I have read on the forums now the issues with the day/night. WTF I am in central time zone. All the servers in my area are dark when I can play. 5:50 till about 11pm on weekdays after work. Oh well. It's alpha right?)

  

     Ok so now I have a server I can see in to learn the game. Spawned on a beach. Beautiful looking. Graphics are nice. I have everything cranked up and game looks amazing in the daylight! Even with the high ping no lag. Ok this will work for me. Whoot.  So I play with controls  a little bit. WTF is up with the controls. There is more keys for this game than in a damn flight sim. Whatever. I got the basics. Esc back out to the game. Realize some dude is standing next to me. I say "Hi" in voice chat. Guy says hi back. I say " Hey bro, i'm new. got any pointers for a noob". Guy says, "ya, dont die" I'm like "cool ROFL ya i figure yadda yadda yadda". Next thing I know he starts punching me. "I'm like WTF bro". I cant figure out how to punch. Remember the bringing your hands up thing I watched in a nood guide vid. get a punch in before i get knocked out. Lol I think. that was fun. Whatever I didnt loose nothing. He taught me something about the game. Most people are dicks. I re-spawn. Come back to the same place. See the dude running in the distance. Ok whatever. Time to find some gear.

 

   So I figure I will just follow the coast. Looking at a map I found online the coast is riddled with a shit ton of places to loot. Start heading north. I start looking into every single building I come across. I see a player, and some zombies. I just avoid them/hide. fuck talking to people till I have something. it has been 30 min in real life. Still havent found a single thing in the game. Hey I'm thirsty. Ok that sucks. Look on map. spend 15 min finding a sign to figure out where I am at. Look back at map. Ok Cool. Water is just a couple of clicks west. Find the water spout. Drink it up. Zombie hits me while drinking Fuck i am bleeding. run away. Run into house, close door. Take my shirt off like I saw in the vid so I can make rags. Shirt disappears. Where the fuck did it go? Not on floor, not on me. Must be me being noob. Look for again, nope it's gone. OH SHIT. Zombie is in the house. WTF. It is the same one that attacked me outside. Since when could zombies open doors? Must be me being nood, must have been another door open. Run out door. Close door. HA HA HA Fuck you zombie. your stuck in the house. Zombie amazingly walks through door. Doesn't open it. Literately walks through the door. Fuck it. Time to haul ass. Get away. I'm still bleeding. My shirt is still gone. Shit is turning grey. Maybe I did something wrong. I fall out and go unconscious. Fuck it. respawn.

 

 

 

[Derpy_Hooves (DayZ) 4521]

Sounds like a normal day at the office in StandAlone..... 

[Gugolas 228]

I didn't think I would have written this..."alpha, man". Even if you already know it, you have to accept it.

The game is full of glitches and bugs, your logic isn't wrong...the game is complete only at 20%.

Welcome to early access! You are a tester, not a gamer...yet :)

Edited January 23, 2014 by Gugolas

[MysticL 71]

Yes dude, this is alpha  :D

and welcome to DayZ :)

[pugs2300 2]

HAHAHHAAHAHAHAHH....sounds about right to me man...

[knifeparty 109]

That sounds about right. Don't count out all new spawns right away. not all are jerks. The issue with zombies not pathing correctly is an issue, but that hasn't really changed since the mod. They have always managed to find a way in through closed doors, however in the standalone, they'll walk through just about anything.

 

Night time is a little unrealistically dark. I do hope they lighten it up a little bit. A person should be able to at least travel without the need of a flashlight. You can change your gamma settings to make it much easier, but it kind of ruins things for me, but again.. nothing that wasn't an issue in the mod.

 

As far as loot goes, finding loot on the coast will always be challenging. You are competing with all of the other people who spawn in new, and since the loot currently doesn't respawn, nothing new appears until a server reset. Moving inland helps to gain loot. 

 

Even with all these difficulties with the game in it's current state, I still find myself very successful.

 

My suggestion is this. Go to dayzdb.com look at the chernarus plus map and make note of the water pumps (noted by a water drop and spigot). Also, note all of the medical spawn locations. right now, all of the red pluses on that map are the pub-style buildings. They are great sources for backpacks, medical supplies, and fireaxes, which are a zombie necessity (go for fireaxe instead of splitting axe, they do more damage), . Then get familiar with the environment. You'll be a pro before you know it, and hopefully some of the more glaring issues will get worked out in good time.

 

Good luck.. yes it is still alpha. Things will be addressed in time I'm sure, but no reason we can't still help the guy out.

Edited January 23, 2014 by wolf-mind

[zifadel 48]

Well.

 

Night in DayZ is pitch black night. There are some adjustments you can make in the graphical settings that can make it easier to see, but some think it is cheating. You can reduce the cloud density, and increase your gamma to get a 'moon light' look to the game. Otherwise, use your flashlight at night. Remember there is no electricity, so there is no ambient light - makes sense from a realism perspective.

 

Zombies - these are bugged to hell right now. They are a major focus point for them. They are not clipping with the environment properly, and the AI and frequency of zombies is off. They are aware of this issue, and it is a major focus of their development.

 

Items/Spawning - right now there are no 'respawn' of items. Items spawn when the server resets. If you go through an area after someone else did, you won't find anything

 

Other players - looks like you learned this lesson already. People can't be trusted, it's part of the experience.

 

Also, alpha.

[fluxley 2228]

You did pick a bit of a bad time, after yesterdays update theres a few server issues, most seem to be stuck at gmt time so many players are struggling to find daytime servers when they play and theres some connection issues too between servers and the database, if you join a new server first thing you should do is relog, if it spawns you in a new area without you dying then that server is having issues so try another.

 

As far a loot is concerned, currently loot only spawns at the server restart usually every 2-4 hours, so the east coast where everyone spawns gets cleaned out pretty quick, best best is to head west, but dont waste time searching towns if the doors are all open, keep moving till you find an untouched area, food is your priority, you can drink from any pond or waterpump so thats not an issue.

 

And yeah, keep players at a safe distance, we're not all dicks but you never know.

 

Also, when ripping a shirt up for rags make sure you have space in your inventory and the rags should go straight there.

 

Welcome to DayZ

[-MadTommy 367]

Sounds like you were unlucky with the shirt disappearing.. that is not that common.  Apart from that, as other have said, welcome to Dayz Alpha.. its a blast!

[Window Licker 504]

If you where headed north alone the coast, that's the first problem, going inland will get you items as the northern most coastal town was added in the last patch people are stripping the east coat on the way up to check it out.

[Dr. Goner 661]

Ha! Yeah, that's pretty well spot on. Even after playing the mod for a year, you just explained nearly word for word my first standalone play through. Very shitty time to realize that it takes a minute for things to show up when you place them on the ground and that doing so while within a building isn't really safe because they may go through the floor.

 

Keep at it man, it's a blast once you learn the ropes. Stay off the coast for a while. Head inland to a water pump after spawing and you'll be fine. Also, avoid zombies like the plague until you have a fire axe. I'm serious they always fuck me up with anything less than a fire axe.

 

EDIT: Also, it was a little weird starting yesterday. There will be more daylight serves before long.

Edited January 23, 2014 by DrGonzo

[killa_justin 2]

Just to give you some background on me. I Have been playing online games since Half-life deathmatch. I was a avid CPL torny player in bf2 and bf3 back in my early 20's. I helped test "desert combat mod" ( pre-curser to bf2) I alpha tested BF2, BF3 and BF4 not the beta crap they started to give people with bf3 when they pre order the game. Acual Alpha tested) I'm on the email list. lol. Point being. I understand alpha. Never been in a open alpha, but anywyays. Not a noob when it comes to games.

 

  Ok so I overheard someone talking about the game at work at the water cooler. Started watching some youtude vids. Decided this game was great. I really liked what I saw in the vids. I was excited to play it. Watched some guides, walk-throughs ect. hell ya. this game kicks ass! I am excited. Cant wait to get home. Get home, go straight to the game room and buy on Steam. Wife looks in the door. She has seen this look before. She knows whats up. It's gonna be a gaming night.

 

I get game downloaded. Didnt take that long. Sweet. Installed now.  open the game. Crank up the settings. Lets see what this baby look like on my rig. Find server with 14 ping and 0 people. Hell ya, damn good pings. Empty server to learn what to do. coonnect. Loads fast. I spawn. I cant see shit. It's dark as hell. WTF. Get my battery in my flashlight. This doesnt help mutch. I go crank up the brightness. Still cant see shit. Crank up the gamma. Ok the game looks like trash. Screw this. i will just go to another server. find another server. 0 players, 26 ping. Join. It's dark to. WTF. 4 servers later I relize the time thing on the server list. LOL I think. Thats cool. I will just find a daytime server. Sort by time. WTF. No day time servers that are empty. 10 or so that show up all have a high ass ping. Ok. Screw it. I gotta learn anyways. Hey wait. That server says 24/7 daytime. Join server. it's dark. WTF. Find another server that says daytime only. Join. It's night. Fuck it. Change filter on ping to 150. Find a server that is at 9:00 and has 14 people. Ping is 126. Screw it. I cant learn how to play in the dark. Join serveer. HELL YA! Game looks great during the day. Beatiful! move around in a little circle. No lag. Look at the water ( I am on the beach) Looks amazing. Ok. I am excited. This looks like a good game so far graphics wise. 125 ping and no lag still. Ok maybe the ping thing is not that bad after all. 

 

Time to figure out all the controls. Dam there is more contol sets than in a flight sim. I get the basics down. go back to my guy. I relize there is a dude by me at the spawn. I say "Hi, i have never player before. Got any tips for a noob or care to show me around" Guy says nothing. Ok must be afk. I walk around him. Just to get a good look at the character. Man it looks good. I am impressed with the graphics. Guy moves. I repeat my last statement. Guy says " Ya, dont die dude. It sucks"  I say. " lol ok i figured that much" Guy runs up to me and says " here I got somthing to help you out" Hell ya. Friendy community I think. Guy starts punching me. WTF!!!!!! How do I punch. Remmeber the whole raise hands thing from a vid. Get hands up and try to punch. I miss. 2 seconds later I am knocked out. "Oh well i think. I didnt loose anything." I did learn a lesson tho. People are dicks in this game. 

 

So I respawn. I see the guy running off in the distance. Time to get the fuck away from spawn. i start moving north up the coast line. I found a map online. Looks like the coast is a good thing to follow. I am thirsty. Damn already? I havent even played for a whole 5 min. I guess you spawn thirsty. Whatever. Cant do anything about it. Start searching houses and every building I can find. Avoid all players I see and all zombies. I am getting more thirsty . I dont know how long I have been playing. Maybe like an hour or so. I cant find anything. No loot. Dang they made it seem easy in the vids. Look at map and relize there is a water source right to the west of where I am. Maybe there will be food to. my guy is bitchin about that to now. 

 

Get to the water sorce. I start drinking it up. Damn this dude drinks more than I do on a friday night at the bar. Hear a zombie. Oh shit zombie is attacking me. I haul ass. I am bleeding. Run into a building. shut the door behind me. Make sure the other entrence doors are closed. I open up invitory and take off my shirt like I saw in the vid. I drop it so I can turn it to rags. shirt diapperes. WTF. I look everywhere. It is gone. Red flash. WTF. Zombie is in the kitchen with me. How the hell? Zombies can open doors? I must have made a noob mistake and left a door open. Learning experiance I think. Haul ass out the house. Close door behind me. HA HA HA Fuck you zombie. your stuck in the house. Wrong. Zombie walks through door. Litterly walks through it. doesnt open it nothing. Like a ghost. FUCK!! I book it. Screen is going grey. I must be loosing alot of blood. Run far away. Stop to check invitory to see if my shirt happens to be in ther. Nope. It is gone for sure. I died. Damn blood loss. Oh well. almost 2 hours down the drain.

 

  I respawn. This time i go in country. There was nothing following the coast. I am thirsty. Havent even made it out of spawn. WTF. Anyways. Make it to my first town. check the whole town. nothing. Next town. Find some water but as far as loot Nothing. I am really hungrey. Third town, find a hoodie. Sweet. More pockets. I have nothing to put in them tho. looks cool tho. 4th town. I am starving now. Whoot. Found a can of spagattii. I have searched now at leat 50 houses/construction sites/campgrounds ect. No loot besides 1 hoodie, 1 can of spagatti i cant open. Apsolutly nothing else. 5th town. I find a hacksaw. Use it to open the can. eat the can. Still hungrey. WTF. Find some water. Drink. next group of buildings. Find a hat. Cool. Doesnt help me much tho. Zombie starts chasing me. I haul ass. I go at least a click away. Stop and alt tab to look at map. Alt tab back in. Same zombie is attacking me. Run some more. Stop and try the shirt thing again. it works this time. Bandage my wounds. 30 seconds later. I get shot. I'm dead. never saw it coming. never heard him. Oh well he didnt get shit from me. Time to respawn.

 

 

Respawn at the same place again. Decide to go the other way down the coast. Find a big town/city. Find soda can, and cargo pants. Sweet. more pockets. Run around for 2 more hours going from town to town. I have found in all this life cargo pants, bandana, 1 bannana, 1 coke. 1 rotton bannana. man i am starving. This game is really starting to suck. 5 hours in and I havent found jack squat really in any of my lives. Walk into building. EREKA!!!! I find a shovel. My first weapon. Play with it a little bit. Run to next town. I am really starving now I think. Zombie sneaks up on me. Fuck it. i am gonna kill it. hit it a few times with the shovel. It dies. Try to loot it. it disappers. WTf you cant loot zombies. I am bleeding. Take shirt to make bandages again. It disappers. OMG. This shit again. i die.

 

 

At this point i am like fuck this game. i just wasted 6 hours of my life and 30$ on somthing that is unplayable. There is no loot. There is no food, barley any water and sure as hell didnt find any of the cool gear i saw in the vids. I dont know if I was doing somthing noob, or if the game is really just that hard to play. I personally feel that if it is really just  that hard to play then it's not the game for me. I am cool with dieing and loosing your gear. I am ok with the hunger, the hydration, the blood loss ect. It looks to be great mechanics of the game. But I played for 6 hours and didnt find a damn thing. How the hell are you supposed to stay intrested? Am I doing somthing wrong? I even tried a diffrent server. Same shit. 

 

IS THIS HOW IT IS FOR EVERYONE ELSE?

Edited January 23, 2014 by killa_justin

[s1rGr1nG0 81]

Holy "War and Peace" Batman.

 

TL;DR

[meat pie 632]

(snip)

 

Holy shit!

 

Ya I really wish I could just hate this game,The fact that all the empty servers are night time are because all the night time servers are empty/

Night time is worth less 100% stupid and awfull.

 

I really wish i could just hate on this game,but then I relized I did not get SA to have fun,I got it because I wanted to show evreyone that I belive this game will leave alpha.l

I also want to belive that half life 3 will come out,

 

you should of known that at this time unless you are some youtuber that no one wants to kill and that evreyone wants to help,you will not have a great time.

 

I have heard of lots of people not getting loot spawns,and I the youtubers will just skip untill they have the loot.

 

 

But ya I dont know what to say,sorry you are not having fun ;(

 

PS if you want to play dayz because of youtube videos keep in mind thats the worst way of seeing the game ever.

[Window Licker 504]

Read it, Thanks for sharing.

 

In response:

 

Pretty much,

 

Your shirt likely didn't disappear but sometimes it can take a sec for it to come up best thing it to put down something you don't need move your shirt into your pants or a bag and turn it into rags from there, that way you won't have to wait for it to appear.  If you see a shirt on the ground look at it and scroll the mouse wheel you'll have the option to turn it into rags, in games where I have a hard time finding bandage's I'll do this until I have a stack of 6 (max stack size).

 

Finding gear can be a little more interesting, if you find that every house around your spawn location has been stripped take the next road inland, walk in the bush/trees next to it until you find a town, power poles can be used to find towns and the high voltage line's (or daddy power line) connect the major cities in the game as well.

 

there is a guide to surviving in my sig and a pvp/avoiding kos guide for you.

[Monkfish (DayZ) 339]

Welcome to DayZ. Some things you need to know;

 

1) It's brutal. Really fucking brutal.

2) The Zeds will fuck up your shit. Other players will fuck up your shit. Bugs will fuck up your shit.

3) You will die a lot.

4) To help mitigate 1) & 2), and reduce 3), I would suggest reading some guides. Try S.T.A.L.K.E.R Dust's Survival Guide and Merino's guide to the health system

5) It's an Alpha at present as is buggy as shit. Expect this to ruin many a game for quite some time.

6) It isn't for everyone.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Monkfish

[killa_justin 2]

So it is normal to run around for 6 hours and not find anything? I have read that the patch did that. Was it a goof? or is it the way they want it to be? Also when does the server re-spawn the stuff? 

[creature 1189]

Welcome to Dayz! :D

[darthbane67 92]

TL;DR

 

Hopefully these guides can help you out and good luck out there.

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/159251-merinos-in-depth-video-guides-updated-jan-22nd-all-medical-items-to-keep-or-not-to-keep/

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/164295-stalkers-survival-guide-complete/

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/154725-index-of-all-the-helpful-threads-you-need-to-read/

[Sinphaltimus 262]

Patch certainly has a "much less loot" effect. Items respawn when the server restarts which is 4hr cycle standard. Some have a shorter time cycle. This is temporary. Loot spawning will change eventually and I think they may do away with server restarts when that happens.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Sinphaltimus

[Sooden 301]

 

 

IS THIS HOW IT IS FOR EVERYONE ELSE?

 

 

' I was a avid CPL torny player' no idea what that is

'  Ok so I overheard someone talking about the game at work at the water cooler'  snoop lol

' She has seen this look before. She knows whats up. It's gonna be a gaming night.' lol

' It's dark as hell. WTF. Get my battery in my flashlight' that took me 10 mins to work out and i played the mod

'People are dicks in this game. ' there are a few nice ones ,they will normally give help and items, then back off, giving you space.

' Zombie walks through door.' yup, zombies have no rules yet :P they cheat

' Try to loot it. it disappers.' zombie loot not implemented yet

' Take shirt to make bandages again. It disappers. ' inventory update bug. next time, move another item around in your inventory to make it update

 

The game atm is all messy and takes time to work around the current bugs (some that wont be fixed soon /zombie). rest and repeat. when you work it out, it can be intresting

[InflatedLyric 39]

I have not gotten to play since the newest patch, about to jump in today.  However, I know there was alot of clamor before the patch about very little loot.  I always found that loot on the coast has been gone through so many times that there really might be nothing left, but rarely ever do I run across a town inland that does not have something in it.  Even if it has been touched, the person that was there before cannot get everything that is of value to a new spawn.  It only got better the further inland I travelled.  Know or learn where you can find water pumps or even drink from ponds and you can make it a long way without a bite to eat.  It may not be comfortable knowing you need something to eat, but it can be done.

 

Everyone dies alot more when they first start, I ran away from the spawn point as a first time spawn (other players) and then I still had trouble with the infected so I died several times.  I have since got the hang of dealing with them (and controlling my survivor); I have only died once to the infected in the last month and that had more to do with me falling off a ladder and getting a broken leg.  I killed two with a broken leg, but it is more difficult to do without getting hit.  The third one knocked me unconcious in one hit. Game start over!

[killa_justin 2]

' I was a avid CPL torny player' no idea what that is

'  Ok so I overheard someone talking about the game at work at the water cooler'  snoop lol

' She has seen this look before. She knows whats up. It's gonna be a gaming night.' lol

' It's dark as hell. WTF. Get my battery in my flashlight' that took me 10 mins to work out and i played the mod

'People are dicks in this game. ' there are a few nice ones ,they will normally give help and items, then back off, giving you space.

' Zombie walks through door.' yup, zombies have no rules yet :P they cheat

' Try to loot it. it disappers.' zombie loot not implemented yet

' Take shirt to make bandages again. It disappers. ' inventory update bug. next time, move another item around in your inventory to make it update

 

The game atm is all messy and takes time to work around the current bugs (some that wont be fixed soon /zombie). rest and repeat. when you work it out, it can be intresting

 

 

Cpl-  Cyberathlete Professional League. It;s a pro gaming league for sponsered players

 

- Ya I'm a snoop. LOL

 

-I tried to get her to make me a sandwich. I got the finger

 

- I watched vids for 5 hours stright when I was supposed to be working. Thats the only reason I knew to do that

 

-Fackin hacker zombies.

 

 

 

 But anyways. I am fixing to give it a try again. I didnt know that the servers reset every 4 hours. I am off today so I will see what happens. I do like the game. It is a challange. But damn. 5 hours and I didnt find shit. lol

[Sooden 301]

But damn. 5 hours and I didnt find shit. lol

 

when you know where to look, it gets easier. when i tested an experimental server, hadn't been reset in days (4 Hours is normal) i still manage to find stuff people had missed, just took a lot longer.

At the start, first week i guess, i felt it was too hard to find anything. Now i find it easy

Edited January 23, 2014 by Sooden

[Cute Carl Grimes 84]

Did you seriously spend 5 hours on the coast? No surprise you did not find anything.

 

Go north-west, plenty of loot there.