Tips for better situational awareness?

[or'dinii 28]

• Before moving out into fields, stay hidden in the treeline and scope the general area of signs of movement.

This is like an ECG test, it shows up fine at the doctor's office and then you die of a heartattack the minute you step out the door :D

It's good advice, just remember that the longer you spend scouting the closer any approaching person will be by the time you decide to exit cover.

 

Not sure if it has been suggested, didn't read the entire thread, but not having the volume too low is a potential life saver.

[Irish. 4886]

Hi guys, I started playing DayZ about 5 days ago. I lost my first two character while learning the basic survival of this game in the first couple of days. My RL friend gave me the basic gears on my current character and took me around the map to gather better equipment. He advised me that since I was new to the game, I should stick to low population servers (<10 players) when gearing up. I spent the last few days looting around Cherno, SW airstrip and the satellite cities surround it.

 

Now the problem is that everytime I encounter a player, I don't usually spot him/her until they're near. I've been incredibly lucky so far, as the three players that came close were friendly and didn't put a round in my head. While I did get ambushed and shot at a few times, I was fortunate enough to run away. However, I am well aware that I am running around like a blind noob and my luck will run out sooner or later. I seem to have trouble spotting other players until they are within 50 meters of me. When I was shot at, I had no idea which direction the bullets were from either.

 

Just want to ask you veterans out there about how to improve my situational awareness. While I know everybody eventually gets killed in the game, I just want to survive longer. Any quick tips will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

allow me to pass on some critical training I received in the military:

 

1. slow is fast

 

 

..that is all.

[deepfried 95]

Just want to ask you veterans out there about how to improve my situational awareness. While I know everybody eventually gets killed in the game, I just want to survive longer. Any quick tips will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Well to start with you will just get it wrong, not much to be done about that, it takes experience to know the best way to approach each particular hotspot.

 

That said, some general rules:

 

1) Stay in cover:  if you're going cross country then don't just run up the middle of a road, get in the trees or at least follow a hedge line.  If you're in a town stay off the main street, go between or behind buildings. And stay off the skyline: no standing on the top of a hill, or silhouetted against the sea.

2) Assess the area: Are there likely to be people around? where will they come from if they are travelling through? where would the be if they wanted overwatch of the area?

3) Detect: bodies, lack of zombies in a town, open doors.

4) Listen: get those headphones out, you need to catch the faint sound of distant gunfire, or of footsteps near by.  Hear them before they see you.

5) Look: map freelook to middle mouse or something easily reachable, and use it, look around you, always keep an eye behind you and on the skyline.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Continuity

[SpudGun (DayZ) 13]

Lowering object quality (scenecomplexity) also reduces chance of properly rendering players at ~300m and out. This is in most "DayZ performance" guides, which a lot of people have used to run the game at a "decent" framerate, not knowing the consequence.

[Irish. 4886]

Lowering object quality (scenecomplexity) also reduces chance of properly rendering players at ~300m and out. This is in most "DayZ performance" guides, which a lot of people have used to run the game at a "decent" framerate, not knowing the consequence.

 

Really? I dont question you, just never seen that at all or heard of it. Interesting... :/ Science must be applied! 

[iBane 381]

For me, the level of concern/effort I expend on situation awareness depends a lot on how far my character has progressed.  If I'm a fresh spawn, with nary a can o beans to my name, I'm not going to be overly cautious.  The caution level, tactical consideration, and effort put into threat detection goes up proportionally with the success of my scavenging.  

 

I'm just saying keep it in perspective.  Some situations require very little caution.  

[SpudGun (DayZ) 13]

Really? I dont question you, just never seen that at all or heard of it. Interesting... :/ Science must be applied! 

http://i.imgur.com/rJXIi0D.png

http://imgur.com/a/Gm9qR

http://feedback.dayzgame.com/view.php?id=28

[africanhungergames 192]

The biggest tip i have for you and i think it will be wise to take this on board is to use the field of view option in your settings.

 

If you are staying in one safe spot crank it up and it will zoom by times 5 giving a much better view of the area your looking at, it also brings windows which are out of range into range as well.

 

If your running through the streets raise your field of view a bit and this will give you a bigger picture of whats going on to your left and right and all around you.

 

Not a lot of people do this at the moment so if your learn to utilise it well it will give you a massive advantage against some people.

Edited February 22, 2014 by africanhungergames

[Monkfish (DayZ) 339]

That's very comprehensive monkfish, if it isn't posted somewhere as a guide already it should be.

I could post it. I've been thinking about posting a guide or something along those lines. I'm odd and I like writing about tactics 'n' stuff, almost as much as I enjoy watching it employed in vidoes. :D