How To Call For Help - The Three Shots Distress Call

[Timberwolf (DayZ) 118]

Global and side chats are almost gone now and will disappear in the future. Direct chat has a very limited radius. The map is big. All of this means that if you are in a bad situation with no friends on-line and you are somewhat inland you are most likely screwed.

Take my example: Yesterday, when I connected, for some reason I spawned a few meters in the air instead of spawning in the ground. I broke my legs and had no morphine with me. I was in the middle of a forest. No town close by (at least close enough to crawl there). There was nothing I could do and no one close enough to hear me in direct chat. "There must be a better way" I thought and actually there might be.

If you are familiar with hunting, camping or outdoors survival you might have heard of the "THREE SHOTS DISTRESS CALL". Basically, if you need assistance for whatever reason and you have a firearm with you (best done with a rifle such as the Enfield), you shoot three shots in the air with 5 seconds in between shots:

[align=center]Shoot in the air

*Wait 5 seconds*

Shoot in the air

*Wait 5 seconds*

Shoot in the air a final time[/align]

You can repeat this depending on how much ammo you have or are willing to waste to try to get someone's attention. However you should only repeat it again after at least one minute has passed since the last shot. Example:

[align=center]Shoot in the air

*Wait 5 seconds*

Shoot in the air

*Wait 5 seconds*

Shoot in the air a final time

Wait X amount of minutes (1, 2, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes)

Shoot in the air

*Wait 5 seconds*

Shoot in the air

*Wait 5 seconds*

Shoot in the air a final time

Repeat the previous actions

[/align]

I hope this becomes standard between survivors since I believe it's a great way to bound friendly survivors together and helping each other.

Bear in mind that this (as everything) can be exploited since it can be used to attract someone to an ambush and it may also give away your position but it should be used mostly as a last resort.

Hope this will help someone.

Timberwolf

[lvg 1690]

Not a bad idea but i can imagine if someone does that, they will attract the wrong type of "help"

[SLASH-7 27]

Sounds a lot better than respawning or crawling for an hour or so.

[DancingBear 168]

Ill be using that when there is no other way out, thankl you :D

[FieldMedic 7]

New feature: distress flares? :D

Anyway tis a good idea, just have to be careful not to attract zombies or bandits xD

["Easy" Pete 0]

Pretty smart idea. But if you hav that kind of ammo to spare where you just fire off rounds, chances are you'd have morphine wouldnt you?

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

[Merk1b2 0]

Pretty smart idea. But if you hav that kind of ammo to spare where you just fire off rounds' date=' chances are you'd have morphine wouldnt you?

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

[/quote']

I got over 70 rounds for the Winchester but no morphine...

[Twogainz 1]

On my last life I had 160 rounds for the DMR, had no morphine. Gave the gun to my friend and shortly died after that while looting the medical camp in chern haha good thing the rifle was saved haha.

[cureforyou@gmail.com 0]

This... is actually a pretty good idea. Don't know if I'm brave enough to try it, but I'll at least keep my ears open.

[jaginun 87]

I'm going to be doing this , and responding to these calls. Although I think there should be either a more unique set of shots , or to include something else to signal people. At the moment , 3 shots in a row with spaces of 5 seconds could be just someone fending of zombies.

[Timberwolf (DayZ) 118]

I'm going to be doing this ' date=' and responding to these calls. Although I think there should be either a more unique set of shots , or to include something else to signal people. At the moment , 3 shots in a row with spaces of 5 seconds could be just someone fending of zombies.

[/quote']

Repeat the shots in the same way again after one minute and it will be pretty noticeable that you are calling for help.

We need more people to start doing this and understanding what these shots mean.

[barnard401 0]

Although I agree that this is a great idea, I can't really see it working at the moment, as it would need to become and actually 'known' method of attracting attention. I have read suggestions about books and things that should be added in-game and I believe if there was some kind of hunting book which had all these kind of tips and things such as the one you have suggested, it would work :D

[thewinterbear 0]

I like the idea, and it might work, but it might be abused by bandits also

ie, go around a hill top, fire help shots, wait for people to come and render aid before sniping them from afar

[Timberwolf (DayZ) 118]

So, has anyone tried this in the field yet? Any luck?