Such Frustration & Some Feedback

[Tolil 0]

Never in my life have I played a game that has caused me to feel this frustrated. Better still is that this frustration is built into the game as a major mechanic. I'm not going to judge whether that's right or wrong - that's not up to me. But here is how the last 2 days of Dayz have gone for me since 1.7.1.5:

Most times, spawn - try to find supplies, aggro a zombie, die.

My latest life though was quite different. i decided this time to hit the outskirts of Electro - not something I do normally. I was rewarded with a bigger bag, loads of food, painkillers, bandages and an axe. Aswell as a few close scrapes and some blood loss.

I left Electro with nothing to drink and I was getting desperate. I managed to keep myself going by finding the odd can of soda. This turned into my major goal - find a drink. It was my only reason to enter a town.

It was while I was searching yet another seemingly dry town that my luck turned. It must have been at least the 10th town I had searched and like all the previous ones it didn't have any water bottles and maybe 1 can of pop to keep me going. This one though was bone dry and I was heading to the last building on the road praying it had a drink or I would probably end up dead.

I opened the door to the small shed and saw it contained 3 things - a can of Pepsi, a zombie and and a fully functional motorcycle...

1 zombie and can of Pepsi downed I checked out the bike; it was nearly out of gas but ran. I made tracks down the road and came across a large town, hid the bike and started searching for drink.. and gas.

This town was the jackpot. 2 full water bottles, a well, a sidearm to go with my axe, a watch and more meds. No fuel for the bike though. No biggie, my main task was complete - I was almost self sufficient.

I went back to my bike and bimbled around for a bit until I came across a barn - you know the type that nearly always have a jerrycan in... it also had zombies inside.

I snuck in killed a couple of the Zeds with my trusty axe and spied a jerrycan up the steps.

This is were it all goes wrong. I knew there was a zombie behind some crates in the barn, I could hear the thing breathing. I was slowing creaping around the boxes intending to smash it over the head with my axe and end it so I could loot the barn in peace. The zombie had other ideas. He ran through the crates directly at me, hit me once and broke my leg. I hit him with the axe and killed it but now I had a problem. In all my scavenging I had not come across any morphine and I couldn't walk. I couldn't even crawl up the steps to the can of gas and get back to my bike and the effort of trying attracted another zombie who quickly knocked me out and started eating me.

That's when it hit me - all the effort of going from town to town searching for a can of drink, all the time I spent gathering supplies, all the risks I had taken and everything I had gained was now wasted effort. I was going to die in this barn.

So, there's a few things that I noticed during that playthrough -

Foremost is the apparent shortage of drinks. I don't know if I just got unlucky, but I found it very difficult to keep myself in fluids. It was while I was running between towns after another fruitless search that it occured to me - in that enviroment there should be no way a person can die from lack of fluids. Water is everwhere and it rains nearly all the time. We need some sort of mechanism that allows us to drink directly from lakes or collect rain water.

The axe is a mighty PvE weapon. But you do run a greater risk of getting injured when you use it. I think it's perfectly balanced.

The only thing rarer than drink is morphine... and pistols. During my travels I saw a scoped sniper rifle, countless Winchesters and LeeEnfields. But only 1 Makarov.

Same with meds; too many bandages to count, enough painkillers to get by but not a single morphine injector. I can understand that survival should be tough, but when a broken leg for a lone surviver means almost certain death there needs to be a atleast some hope for them that if they crawl around the town then they have some chance of being able to fix themselves.

But I guess the biggest killer for me was how after all the effort and some luck, I had managed to get myself into good shape and survival was definately on the cards. This was all wiped out in an instant when that zombie suddenly decided that he could bend the laws of physics and run through those crate to break my leg. I know, it's an alpha and I'm certain other people have similar stories to tell.

[Sticker704 121]

Hope you don't mind the fact that I skipped the soppy story. If I wanted to hear it, then I'd check the sticky thread. However.

Foremost is the apparent shortage of drinks. I don't know if I just got unlucky, but I found it very difficult to keep myself in fluids. It was while I was running between towns after another fruitless search that it occured to me - in that enviroment there should be no way a person can die from lack of fluids. Water is everwhere and it rains nearly all the time. We need some sort of mechanism that allows us to drink directly from lakes or collect rain water.

There is. Legs, meet lake. Gear, meet empty water bottle. Right click, meet fill water.

The only thing rarer than drink is morphine... and pistols. During my travels I saw a scoped sniper rifle, countless Winchesters and LeeEnfields. But only 1 Makarov.

Dayz is meant to be a brutal experience. I know this is in Mother Russia and all that, but weapons are rare. That's the point. Same with morphine.

Same with meds; too many bandages to count, enough painkillers to get by but not a single morphine injector. I can understand that survival should be tough, but when a broken leg for a lone surviver means almost certain death there needs to be a atleast some hope for them that if they crawl around the town then they have some chance of being able to fix themselves.

Agree about the abundance of bandages. Again, dayz is meant to be unforgiving. Painkillers and the such are rare.

But I guess the biggest killer for me was how after all the effort and some luck, I had managed to get myself into good shape and survival was definately on the cards. This was all wiped out in an instant when that zombie suddenly decided that he could bend the laws of physics and run through those crate to break my leg. I know, it's an alpha and I'm certain other people have similar stories to tell.

It is an alpha.

So yeah, at the end of the day Dayz is like that because it is MEANT to be like that. It is MEANT to be brutal. It is MEANT to be unforgiving and it is MEANT to have the disappointment of loss. Have fun :)

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

I have to ask, if a desperate struggle to survive that usually ends in your death is so frustrating to you, when do you think you're ever going to have fun with DayZ?

No matter how well-equipped you get, you're always going to need food, water, morphine, ammunition, etc. It doesn't get more common the longer you play or something. The barns up north have the same spawn rates as the barns down south, etc. The game will always challenge you to find the next source of sustenance.

Sometimes it can even get harder later - as you acquire rare weapons, finding ammunition becomes more difficult and then you find yourself faced with the choice of using your last precious FN FAL rounds just because you need a can of beans from the grocery store and you leave yourself without a primary weapon, etc. It's always risky to hit a hospital, no matter how long you've been playing or what weapons you have.

Long story short, this is DayZ. This is what it's all about. If all those "spawn, aggro zombie, die" experiences weren't interesting to you - and if you didn't learn anything from them about what NOT to do the next time around - then I don't know how you will ever enjoy DayZ whether it's your first day on the beach or 30th day in the woods.