Zompocaplypse - How long ago did it happen?

[Admiral_69 78]

Hi folks,

I couldn't find anywhere else this was discussed, so I am asking here.

In DayZ, how long ago do you think the zompocalypse occurred?

Personally, I think it happened within the last 1-2 years. 5 years would be the max based on the ingame shelf life statement for cans. I think the minimum is at least one year, given the level of rust on the cars and the absence of crops in the fields.

What are your thoughts?

[Korsbaek 1778]

DayZ was created early 2012, so I would think it started early 2012 :P

[klassent 28]

The "believable" timeline for the game really depends on what kind of server population we're looking at in the future as well. I agree that the setting and environment points to that 1-2 year minimum, the level of upkeep suggests no less than that (Rusted metal, broken windows, moderate overgrowth) but player density right now makes it feel like a little longer. From what I understand, the development roadmap plans to allow for higher capacity server technology, so my personal feeling is that bringing it up to 80 or so players will help bring that in line with the 1-2 year window. 

 

And the point's open to interpretation, obviously; perhaps Chernarus was sparsely populated to begin with, but it just feels like there would be more human interaction in the suggested window. That's really the only factor IMO that doesn't fit into the timeline, though there's obvious room for disagreement even on that one point. ;)

[janol 65]

I've always assumed it did not happen that long ago... Maybe a few a days earlier, or maybe just yesterday.

 

For it seems that it is typically thought that the characters start out of the blue in the situation, maybe because they were just then washed on shore or something like that. It is not very plausible that they were on the sea for years or even months without knowing about this z-calypse.

 

The time-line is bit muddy for many reasons. For example, as the "zombies" are presumably not undead or supernatural, but rather living "infected" humans with human physical capabilities, they should not ipso facto be able go on without eating and drinking for a very long time... actually they should propalby all be dead within couple of months at most. (Especially as it seems they aren't very keenly seeking water to drink...) And why is everything so worn and rusty? Maybe its just the Chernarus thing... not much bothering with crops, leaving cars to rust, never ever repairing a fence etc...

 

But anyways, I suppose it hasn't been that many days since z-apocalypse.

[PhillyT 554]

Couldn't be long. Bananas and oranges don't last long and there are fresh ones in the game.

[Window Licker 504]

^^

I'm pretty much with janol on this one, the fields aren't overgrown, the grass is long but not super long.  The infected have been able to feed tho thats why they want to be friends with us.  Keeping in mind that these things take a bit of time to happen, heavy residential area's might have been evacuated/abandoned while farms held out for a bit longer.  I know if some crazy virus started spreading through the americas I'd be getting the hell away from high population centres.

 

I'd be inclined to throw my guess at 1-2 months since everything went completely to shit, might be as much as 6-12 months from patient 0

[krackman 80]

I would say 1-2 years too. But the only thing we really know about the apocalypse is this. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVxXHyE1CJM
 

It's a radio transmission you could hear in the mod if you had a radio. 
The morse code translated:

"We are no longer alive STOP This message will play every hour if operators are no longer responsive STOPMESSAGE Unable to quarantine subject change STOPMESSAGE"

It supposedly comes from Green Mountain. And that place is in "ok" condition. So I would say 1-2 years too. 

[Admiral_69 78]

Yes, I agree that Bananas, Oranges, and Kiwis are really out of place in this game. Realistically, those have a very short unrefrigerated shelf life, and they are not locally grown.

I could see Apples and Pearsn as those are in season in autumn.

Plus, there are zero bodies, so I would think they rotted away.

[eleventhavenue 204]

Old DayZ mod used to have rotting mass graves and soldier corpses which hadn't even started rotting yet...

 

(Actually I think there are mass graves in SA too, by some bus wreck I remember seeing)

So surely, the apocalypse can't be that distant?

 

Also, as someone said, fruit.

[Punkrawks 136]

Ok fruit aside (because it's an anomaly) I'd say no more than a month.

When a mass panic occurs, people clear out houses and head out of town. Looting/rioting happens which could result in the broken windows. Military rolls through town and clears bus/cars out of the roadway leaving them in flaming wreckage on the side of the road. Give it a few weeks to settle and you get an environment just like Dayz. It doesn't take years to get to that state. Sure if we left it alone and pristine, wear and tear would make it that way in a couple years.. but with a mass exodus and panic, it would deteriorate much faster.

As for the plant life, it isn't terribly overgrown. Dirt roads are still dirt roads, cracks in roadways have not spawned 3 foot weeds. Grass next to runway isn't even knee high. That isn't a sign of years of unchecked growth.

I'd say less than a month, but could be two.

[YeBittenDog 106]

When I'm playing I imagine it has been several years, due to the lack of large hordes of zombies and player population. If they ever add basic NPCs inside walled towns or anything like that, it could be considered sooner.

[rybo 171]

I've always assumed it did not happen that long ago... Maybe a few a days earlier, or maybe just yesterday.

 

For it seems that it is typically thought that the characters start out of the blue in the situation, maybe because they were just then washed on shore or something like that. It is not very plausible that they were on the sea for years or even months without knowing about this z-calypse.

 

The time-line is bit muddy for many reasons. For example, as the "zombies" are presumably not undead or supernatural, but rather living "infected" humans with human physical capabilities, they should not ipso facto be able go on without eating and drinking for a very long time... actually they should propalby all be dead within couple of months at most. (Especially as it seems they aren't very keenly seeking water to drink...) And why is everything so worn and rusty? Maybe its just the Chernarus thing... not much bothering with crops, leaving cars to rust, never ever repairing a fence etc...

 

But anyways, I suppose it hasn't been that many days since z-apocalypse.

 

Bold your font. It's hard to read even with 28 year old eyes...

[rybo 171]

Old DayZ mod used to have rotting mass graves and soldier corpses which hadn't even started rotting yet...

 

(Actually I think there are mass graves in SA too, by some bus wreck I remember seeing)

So surely, the apocalypse can't be that distant?

 

Also, as someone said, fruit.

 

Yeah its along the coast. You will find it on the road outside of the big island on the coast. Thanks to being close to shore and being fully exposed to the elements I'd say less than a years worth of rot.

 

I live on the coast in RL and have found dead deer around the area and it takes less than a year to go from meat to bones..

 

If I took a guess based on the land scape I'd say 1-5 years. The mass graves are from Arma and are a copy/paste over so you really can't judge based on that.

Edited January 23, 2014 by RyBo

[Firstbornchicken 34]

 

I live on the coast in RL and have found dead deer around the area and it takes less than a year to go from meat to bones..

 

Depending on the wild life it can take a few days :)

 

But i don't think that is all that relevant regarding mass graves. So ignore me

Edited January 23, 2014 by Firstbornchicken

[louist 163]

Well, we have a lot of contradictory evidence. On the one hand, we have rusted out Vehicles, which take more than a year or two to really fall apart like that. Longer, if we look at all that missing upholstery and the absent wheels. That's years and years of exposure. Hell, my grandparents had an old junker sitting exposed and untouched for 5 or 6 years, and it wasn't nearly in the shape the DayZ vehicles are.

On the other hand, there is the overgrowth of fauna. Or rather, the lack of it. While the grass is pretty high in areas, overall there is a unusually low amount of overgrowth on dirt roads, as was mentioned, and in the smaller cities as well. We should see a lot more saplings along the coast, a lot more bushes and weeds everywhere, as those things really spread. Based on this lack, the outbreak could have happened within months.

There's also the building interiors, which generally still look to be in fairly good shape. Still clean, etc.

[janol 65]

Bold your font. It's hard to read even with 28 year old eyes...

 

Try CTRL+mouse scroll, essential for us elderly

 

(And OK, no times new roman anymore)

[janol 65]

Ok, so fruits are fresh - i suppose they could stay that way for a week maybe (observing that most are rotten already). I don't think they are out of place, rather I suspect the time line is shorter than many seem assume.

 

Indeed, in the mod you had fresh bodies of soldiers in Gr**n Mountain etc. Likewise, in the mod the helicopter crash sites seemed to be only few hours old, still smoking etc. (It was quite obvious that these copters were evidence of the last remnants of government & military, their crews having been turned to zeds.)

 

I think the game was at least originally intended to take of right after the events, when dust has settled.

 

As for the rusty cars and car wrecks, I can't quite explain that. It never made any sense in the mod either. Why aren't there any cars that don't need repairing? Surely there should be pristine vehicles aplenty.

 

Best I could figure was that the z-disease's symptoms progressed in stages like this:

 

1) Slight headache

 

2) fever & nausea

 

2) Obsessive lust to destroy cars and machinery

 

3) Turned into flesh-eating zombie-like creature

[cptgriffiths@hotmail.com 21]

With the fresh fruit....it's possible survivors are just more common, maybe people come through the towns and cities from other places with the fruit on them and get into some trouble and have to make a quick escape, dropping the fruit? Possibility.

[Deity 54]

I would say it couldn't be more than a couple of years if that. Fresh fruit could be explained by other survivors coming from farms and stuff with the general idea of helping others/ trade fodder. Vehicles rusted over and missing a lot of interior/exterior cosmetics can be explained by fires, then weather elements rusted the remains. 

[frosti 2165]

My deduction tells me that we start about 2-3 days after happening.

[louist 163]

With the fresh fruit....it's possible survivors are just more common, maybe people come through the towns and cities from other places with the fruit on them and get into some trouble and have to make a quick escape, dropping the fruit? Possibility.

The problem I have with that is: how far away are these fruits grown? Somewhere in southeast Asia, perhaps, in the case of bananas and kiwis? That's a pretty far distance to ship without refrigeration. And refrigerated cargo trucks don't seem like the most convenient way for survivors to travel (though it would have some uses). So perhaps they were flown in?

Even if this is the case, who are these survivors that fly around and conveniently go around the outlying towns and routinely drop bananas all over the place?

I think bananas, kiwis, and oranges are somewhat hard to justify, unless the outbreak is extremely recent, that is, within days or a couple weeks. Replacing these fruits with apples, pears, and other temperate fruits would be a lot easier to explain.

[frosti 2165]

It can't be years.

 

It it was years then we would not find any loot in supermarkets or military bases. Military bases and supermarkets would be looted in hours after zombie outbreak. Same with hospitals.

 

It must be a matter of few days max.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Frosti

[PhillyT 554]

I was a produce manager.  Bananas last a week, two weeks tops after being packaged and shipper.  You can't refrigerate bananas without ruining them either.  Oranges, left in the open without refrigeration, last a few days at the most.

 

Apples, with or without refrigeration, will last weeks without obvious rot, though when you try to eat them, they will be mealy and sort of gross!

Edited January 23, 2014 by PhillyT

[frosti 2165]

Yeah, it's cool fantasy that "I will be fine during zombie apocalypse, I'll loot supermarket for food, hospital/pharmacy for med suplies and military base or police station for guns". But surprise, everyone else thinks exactly the same.

 

And those places becomes death traps, few days later only things that would left are pretty much this what we can see in game.

[Deity 54]

Yeah, it's cool fantasy that "I will be fine during zombie apocalypse, I'll loot supermarket for food, hospital/pharmacy for med suplies and military base or police station for guns". But surprise, everyone else thinks exactly the same.

 

And those places becomes death traps, few days later only things that would left are pretty much this what we can see in game.

This is why my plan would be to pack my back pack with supplies, grab my 30-30, 9mm and head further into the hills I already live in and camp it out for a while.