How to eff yourself over or, my first day playing Epoch

[Disgraced 1123]

Thanks, Musty gaming for hosting some Epoch servers. I have been getting my feet wet with this version of Dayz and it reinvigorated a lot of aspects of the game for me.

That being said, all of the Musty gaming Epoch servers are over 100 ping for me, and the one US I considered playing on shows consistently in then 80-90 range. Not ideal, but I thought it would help to start out on servers with a bit of community.

Of course, as usual, I spawned at the coast. After rummaging around near the Elektro power station and Firehouse, I had a couple of weapons and was ready to see what Epoch offered past the vanilla Dayz experience which is all I had played up until that moment.

I ended up making a catastrophic series of errors and I find the story more than amusing. I don't know how many times I've died in just a few hours of play...

Running up the hill near the power station, I found an 'old motorbike' and hopped on, tearing off at speed, wind flying through my... blue cap... Hands held out in a semblance of an unmoving death grip on the gyrating handlebars. Now you might think that riding this motorbike would lead to my demise, but I did quite well. Using the stick on my G13 game pad thing, I could moderate my speed better than using the 'W' key, which usually resulted in top speed or 0 and nothing in between. I rode the bike north and found a succession of fun stuff, stopping at markets and so forth and filling up my (spawn provided) Alice backpack. Then something funny happened. I was heading toward the large settlement/trader town marked on my (spawn provided), map and as I crest a hill I find...

A nice looking soviet style heli. I have no idea which kind it was, but back in the day I would log hours in arma just to practice flying. Back then It paid off when I'd occasionally find someone's fixed up heli "hidden" in a clearing way up north. I'd tool around in it, enjoying the sense of flight and freedom, buzz some towns and hopefully return the chopper back where I found it. This time would be a little different...

Hopping from my trusty old motorbike steed, I jumped into the unlocked heli. The board was a mess of orange and yellow indicators. I can't remember what any of them mean from a long time ago, but Q works and we're lifting off. Yeah. One of those bad indicators was I think the tail rotor. I could see the tail rotor NOT turning in third person. I could fly but boy was it erratic. Taking off in that heli was a big mistake. Either because of my flying rustiness or something broken on the heli, it tended to spin and flying was a very inexact, stomach churning experience with a lot of uncontrolled rotation until flying fairly fast and leaning into it. Worrying about landing, I headed toward the settlement in mechanically unsound style.

The landing was heart-stopping but I was determined not to die from crashing. And I made it!! About 700 meters from my destination. I started hoofing it and a couple zeds dropped in on my trail. That was ok. I wanted to see what would happen if they followed me to the settlement.

Reaching the settlement, I spied some NPCs, the first I had seen in Dayz. There was also a player there, dressed in a ghillie suit. I ignored all that for the moment to see what the zeds would do as 'safe area- god mode enabled' appeared on my screen.

The zombies stopped at the periphery, impotently shrieking at me. I hate that noise, so a couple headshots later, I turned about. The ghillie suit guy seemed to be trying to get my attention, but I couldn't get a response on direct voice. Maybe it's me; I haven't had the opportunity to communicate with other players in weeks, save through intracranial bulletgrams.

We did the old Q-E things eventually (pressing F1 resulted in a too fast to read message about F1 being disabled on the server for some reason). The other guy had a shiny black SUV with a pop up roof turret. Car Wars, anyone? And he was obviously transacting goods from the car to the vendors. I checked out the vendors then heard a scary sound. Helicopter incoming.

Well, it thought, someone's found the heli I left. I wonder if they will crash it into this settlement and then god mode will be really tested? Turns out they either flew better than me, had a different heli or fixed the one I found. They somehow attached to the SUV and off it went. Alarmed, I thought they'd somehow hijacked my fellow shopper's pimped ride. Nope. Apparently these guys were working together. I bought a new 'old motobike' as I liked the aesthetic and headed out. And stopped fifty meters away. I'd somehow sold both of my maps and now had none. So I schlepped back to the vendors. I'd told the other guys on inquiry in side chat (typed) that it was my first day. They were very nice and when I returned, they gave me 7 gold!! (Thanks steelseries!, sorry I wasted it).

I had put my backpack and some stuff on my motorbike, intending to buy a new pack but they were prohibitively expensive. I did, however, but a small pickup with a battered camper shell on the back. There were no previews of vehicle appearances on the vendors, but this vehicle, too, had a ramshackle post apocalyptic aesthetic that I liked. Driving out to my bike, I realized I should sell the bike back. Big Mistake #2. (Flying the heli was my first; I was lucky to get out of that one alive but it was very fun) sold the bike back, headed for the truck and stopped. Shit, my backpack was on that moto. It was now gone. Nothing but to move on.

I started roving the countryside in Dayz style. Driving on and off road in my little truck, checking barns and such for gear.

This is where things take the worst turn and my inability to play with any kind of brains comes out.

Pulling up to the gas station south of Berezino, I suddenly get a message on screen, and disconnected. Disconnected for ping over 1500. 1500?? I wasn't even redlinked!! Not even yellow!!

I'm a little panicked at this point. I had worked out how to lock and unlock the truck but now it's just sitting there... Maybe.... Past experience with vehicles made me believe that hive updates probably resulted in the truck being in one place and me in another. I'd have to retrace my steps to find it, just like the old days. Nope. Dead wrong.

I reconnected with an 88 ping and.... Crunch.... Snap.... I'm dead. Reappeared exactly where I disconnected! Yeah! Inside my truck! Yeah! Literally inside my truck... Like... Interwoven.... So I'm Dead..shit.

Respawned.... Way the hell down south. I start running towards my stuff, hoping to find another vehicle to help me out. That thought process was another dumb mistake. I ran past Otmel and it's obviously...different from what I remember. I notice a bridge of sorts and ruined stuff jumbled on the island. Maybe there's a boat? I should check It out. Big mistake. There are these little monument stones. I ignore them even though I damn well know what a radiation symbol looks like. Whoever designed that Otmel additional stuff was a diabolical genius or certified asshole. No loot but plenty of places to look. A couple zeds. No big deal there. Then I get the message '30 minutes to server restart'. I know. I KNOW that my truck will be there, but what about the corpse/loot with the keys?? Shit. Well, I run around the barrier to the back of the island and there's a smaller island with some tents and a masted radar trailer in the middling distance. Maybe.... Find a PBX. Find a PBX. That gas station is practically on shore! Ok the walkway is one of those narrow wooden affairs with the posts at intervals on either side. Very long. A tiny drop at the end. Weapon crates. Empty. Tents with bunks. Empty. Radar trailer. No gear. Shit. Nothing. Get outta here, Dis.

Yeah.

The walkway is set up in such a way that it cannot be used to get back. You can't vault up onto it. Stuck, I start "running" in thigh deep water alongside... Until the water gets too deep. The clock is ticking and I'm.... Swimming... In that realistically paced way that Dayz does it. But... But at least I didn't drop my meager gear. But the restart. Crap..

I hit the road running.. And cough. Cough. Yep, the radiation has made me sick. Duh. And all for naught. Check the debug monitor. Yep, dropping by threes but still over 11k. It's ok, I tell myself, you got this. Running running running. Skalisty island is marked on the map as a bandit haven. Running, coughing.

15 minutes to server restart.

I'm running north now, heedless, along the road. My thirst indicator is flashing, too, and there's a tail of how many zeds behind me? I'm beginning to worry how I will lose them fast enough to get my gear back in order and stuff when I get "server restart in 5 minutes. Disconnect now to save your gear". Well now it's just panic on the verge of giving up.

I manage to lose all but one of the zeds. I was hoping to lose him crossing the trestle bridge south of the gas station. Somehow the zeds don't walk on the bridge. They have to path along the sidewalk to a point and then they can walk onto it if, say you're standing in the centre. But if you run across and then try to break LOS with the bushes nearby... Sometimes.

I see my truck coming up. I might make it!!

Desperate, I spin around, and fire at the zombie and manage to drop him fairly quickly. Shit. Of course, my tombstone is UNDER the truck. It's unlocked. I hop in. How much time left??

Pull forward, engine off, get out. Grab the tombstone. Grab what I can, start with keys. I get my keys!!!

TRIUMP.....

Disconnected.

Wait. Wait. Server restart. Reconnect. No keys in inventory. Tombstone cleaned up in server restart. Truck now locked.... Forever, I guess. And I'm sick from the radiation. Super.

I head north and fall off a ladder. This is nice. Respawn as a zombie? Yep. I'm Jamie Hyneman complete with chapeau. I run around a bit. I have two options. 'Summon horde' and 'night vision' we'll summon horde just makes a shrieky groaning noise. I guess if other zeds hear it they come running. Sounds about right. Night vision.. Well it's daytime, so bad on me. Night vision turns the screen completely red win a couple of oddish washed out barely discernible shapes... And no way to turn it off. Disconnect. Reconnect as zombie. Well, this is not fun. I can't even swipe or attack or anything. Maybe it's a feature that's not complete. This IS Dayz. I run to a watertank and jump off.

Respawn way down on the west end of the coast, west of Cherno. I beeline to Balota and poke around there, finally finding... An M24 desert and 2 Gps! I could sell them... And.... And... Yes!!

I head to the nearest caravan and... Wrong vendors. Oh well. Then I see it.

Abandoned gold mine. Abandoned gold mine. Who wouldn't want to check THAT out. Now most of you are probably GOOD players. Alarm bells would be going off in your head. Maybe you've even read about some of the features in Epoch. Not of' Disgraced. I crouch-run up and see a few zombies... And a giant rock construction thing. I get it, I think. Can't really build underground. So it's above ground... Yep, here I go, taking a sniper rifle into a gold mine. Shouldn't that be some kind of expression for stupid behaviour?

Well this was stupid. With a SNIPER rifle, what's the best approach. I can tell you, it's NOT stealth in between the buildings. I'm avoiding the zombies and thoroughly enjoying this new area, wondering what I might find when..... Zipzipzipzip high velocity rounds. You are dead.

What the???

The only guy on is....the guy who gave me that gold yesterday... What the actual fuck?? He shot me!!! I guess it's "friendly at the settlement, bandits at the gold mine" well fine. Jerk. I try to raise him on the side chat via text but no response. Oh, ignoring me, eh.

Respawn. Not too far away. Maybe I can sneak in and get my pack... Riiiiiiight.... I do. I get pretty close... Like I SHOULD have done earlier. From a further away hillside. Not careful enough, as it turns out, but I've rationalized. That wasn't my old pal steelseries. Sorry for impugning your good name. It was a bandit bot. Of course. They have messages about bandits... And camps and stuff. Ok, distant approach. Damn, wish I had that M24 now. Well, the bot didn't wish. In addition to his high powered whatever speed shooting machine gun, he has his OWN sniper rifle. Crack. Crack. I'm down and I don't even see him. Broken bone indicator. Bleeding. I spot the bot running in the distance and he's.... Running away? I bandage and start crawling. If I can.... just.... get that gear. Get patched up. It will be slow. Maybe find morphine. Yeah, it's doable. Don't give up now!

Crawling. I make it to the backpack! Then I press gear and... Spotted by a fucking zed. Then more. Crawl into a pine tree but for what. Fuck it. I go down, pistol blazing.

I made it into the bandit camp on my next iteration and even killed one with my pistol after a lot of crawling. But I got radiation sickness again... And the second bandit got me.

So, here is your example of how not to play Dayz.

Damn, it was fun, though....

Tl;dr boring story, Disgraced is a crappy player

Edit: cleanup. I stink at typing, too. Damned autocorrect.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Disgraced

[Fern Baron 128]

 That wasn't my old pal steelseries. Sorry for impugning your good name. 

 

I wouldn't worry about that.

[eagle2674 3]

Thanks, Musty gaming for hosting some Epoch servers. I have been getting my feet wet with this version of Dayz and it reinvigorated a lot of aspects of the game for me.

That being said, all of the Musty gaming Epoch servers are over 100 ping for me, and the one US I considered playing on shows consistently in then 80-90 range. Not ideal, but I thought it would help to start out on servers with a bit of community.

Of course, as usual, I spawned at the coast. After rummaging around near the Elektro power station and Firehouse, I had a couple of weapons and was ready to see what Epoch offered past the vanilla Dayz experience which is all I had played up until that moment.

I ended up making a catastrophic series of errors and I find the story more than amusing. I don't know how many times I've died in just a few hours of play...

Running up the hill near the power station, I found an 'old motorbike' and hopped on, tearing off at speed, wind flying through my... blue cap... Hands held out in a semblance of an unmoving death grip on the gyrating handlebars. Now you might think that riding this motorbike would lead to my demise, but I did quite well. Using the stick on my G13 game pad thing, I could moderate my speed better than using the 'W' key, which usually resulted in top speed or 0 and nothing in between. I rode the bike north and found a succession of fun stuff, stopping at markets and so forth and filling up my (spawn provided) Alice backpack. Then something funny happened. I was heading toward the large settlement/trader town marked on my (spawn provided), map and as I crest a hill I find...

A nice looking soviet style heli. I have no idea which kind it was, but back in the day I would log hours in arma just to practice flying. Back then It paid off when I'd occasionally find someone's fixed up heli "hidden" in a clearing way up north. I'd tool around in it, enjoying the sense of flight and freedom, buzz some towns and hopefully return the chopper back where I found it. This time would be a little different...

Hopping from my trusty old motorbike steed, I jumped into the unlocked heli. The board was a mess of orange and yellow indicators. I can't remember what any of them mean from a long time ago, but Q works and we're lifting off. Yeah. One of those bad indicators was I think the tail rotor. I could see the tail rotor NOT turning in third person. I could fly but boy was it erratic. Taking off in that heli was a big mistake. Either because of my flying rustiness or something broken on the heli, it tended to spin and flying was a very inexact, stomach churning experience with a lot of uncontrolled rotation until flying fairly fast and leaning into it. Worrying about landing, I headed toward the settlement in mechanically unsound style.

The landing was heart-stopping but I was determined not to die from crashing. And I made it!! About 700 meters from my destination. I started hoofing it and a couple zeds dropped in on my trail. That was ok. I wanted to see what would happen if they followed me to the settlement.

Reaching the settlement, I spied some NPCs, the first I had seen in Dayz. There was also a player there, dressed in a ghillie suit. I ignored all that for the moment to see what the zeds would do as 'safe area- god mode enabled' appeared on my screen.

The zombies stopped at the periphery, impotently shrieking at me. I hate that noise, so a couple headshots later, I turned about. The ghillie suit guy seemed to be trying to get my attention, but I couldn't get a response on direct voice. Maybe it's me; I haven't had the opportunity to communicate with other players in weeks, save through intracranial bulletgrams.

We did the old Q-E things eventually (pressing F1 resulted in a too fast to read message about F1 being disabled on the server for some reason). The other guy had a shiny black SUV with a pop up roof turret. Car Wars, anyone? And he was obviously transacting goods from the car to the vendors. I checked out the vendors then heard a scary sound. Helicopter incoming.

Well, it thought, someone's found the heli I left. I wonder if they will crash it into this settlement and then god mode will be really tested? Turns out they either flew better than me, had a different heli or fixed the one I found. They somehow attached to the SUV and off it went. Alarmed, I thought they'd somehow hijacked my fellow shopper's pimped ride. Nope. Apparently these guys were working together. I bought a new 'old motobike' as I liked the aesthetic and headed out. And stopped fifty meters away. I'd somehow sold both of my maps and now had none. So I schlepped back to the vendors. I'd told the other guys on inquiry in side chat (typed) that it was my first day. They were very nice and when I returned, they gave me 7 gold!! (Thanks steelseries!, sorry I wasted it).

I had put my backpack and some stuff on my motorbike, intending to buy a new pack but they were prohibitively expensive. I did, however, but a small pickup with a battered camper shell on the back. There were no previews of vehicle appearances on the vendors, but this vehicle, too, had a ramshackle post apocalyptic aesthetic that I liked. Driving out to my bike, I realized I should sell the bike back. Big Mistake #2. (Flying the heli was my first; I was lucky to get out of that one alive but it was very fun) sold the bike back, headed for the truck and stopped. Shit, my backpack was on that moto. It was now gone. Nothing but to move on.

I started roving the countryside in Dayz style. Driving on and off road in my little truck, checking barns and such for gear.

This is where things take the worst turn and my inability to play with any kind of brains comes out.

Pulling up to the gas station south of Berezino, I suddenly get a message on screen, and disconnected. Disconnected for ping over 1500. 1500?? I wasn't even redlinked!! Not even yellow!!

I'm a little panicked at this point. I had worked out how to lock and unlock the truck but now it's just sitting there... Maybe.... Past experience with vehicles made me believe that hive updates probably resulted in the truck being in one place and me in another. I'd have to retrace my steps to find it, just like the old days. Nope. Dead wrong.

I reconnected with an 88 ping and.... Crunch.... Snap.... I'm dead. Reappeared exactly where I disconnected! Yeah! Inside my truck! Yeah! Literally inside my truck... Like... Interwoven.... So I'm Dead..shit.

Respawned.... Way the hell down south. I start running towards my stuff, hoping to find another vehicle to help me out. That thought process was another dumb mistake. I ran past Otmel and it's obviously...different from what I remember. I notice a bridge of sorts and ruined stuff jumbled on the island. Maybe there's a boat? I should check It out. Big mistake. There are these little monument stones. I ignore them even though I damn well know what a radiation symbol looks like. Whoever designed that Otmel additional stuff was a diabolical genius or certified asshole. No loot but plenty of places to look. A couple zeds. No big deal there. Then I get the message '30 minutes to server restart'. I know. I KNOW that my truck will be there, but what about the corpse/loot with the keys?? Shit. Well, I run around the barrier to the back of the island and there's a smaller island with some tents and a masted radar trailer in the middling distance. Maybe.... Find a PBX. Find a PBX. That gas station is practically on shore! Ok the walkway is one of those narrow wooden affairs with the posts at intervals on either side. Very long. A tiny drop at the end. Weapon crates. Empty. Tents with bunks. Empty. Radar trailer. No gear. Shit. Nothing. Get outta here, Dis.

Yeah.

The walkway is set up in such a way that it cannot be used to get back. You can't vault up onto it. Stuck, I start "running" in thigh deep water alongside... Until the water gets too deep. The clock is ticking and I'm.... Swimming... In that realistically paced way that Dayz does it. But... But at least I didn't drop my meager gear. But the restart. Crap..

I hit the road running.. And cough. Cough. Yep, the radiation has made me sick. Duh. And all for naught. Check the debug monitor. Yep, dropping by threes but still over 11k. It's ok, I tell myself, you got this. Running running running. Skalisty island is marked on the map as a bandit haven. Running, coughing.

15 minutes to server restart.

I'm running north now, heedless, along the road. My thirst indicator is flashing, too, and there's a tail of how many zeds behind me? I'm beginning to worry how I will lose them fast enough to get my gear back in order and stuff when I get "server restart in 5 minutes. Disconnect now to save your gear". Well now it's just panic on the verge of giving up.

I manage to lose all but one of the zeds. I was hoping to lose him crossing the trestle bridge south of the gas station. Somehow the zeds don't walk on the bridge. They have to path along the sidewalk to a point and then they can walk onto it if, say you're standing in the centre. But if you run across and then try to break LOS with the bushes nearby... Sometimes.

I see my truck coming up. I might make it!!

Desperate, I spin around, and fire at the zombie and manage to drop him fairly quickly. Shit. Of course, my tombstone is UNDER the truck. It's unlocked. I hop in. How much time left??

Pull forward, engine off, get out. Grab the tombstone. Grab what I can, start with keys. I get my keys!!!

TRIUMP.....

Disconnected.

Wait. Wait. Server restart. Reconnect. No keys in inventory. Tombstone cleaned up in server restart. Truck now locked.... Forever, I guess. And I'm sick from the radiation. Super.

I head north and fall off a ladder. This is nice. Respawn as a zombie? Yep. I'm Jamie Hyneman complete with chapeau. I run around a bit. I have two options. 'Summon horde' and 'night vision' we'll summon horde just makes a shrieky groaning noise. I guess if other zeds hear it they come running. Sounds about right. Night vision.. Well it's daytime, so bad on me. Night vision turns the screen completely red win a couple of oddish washed out barely discernible shapes... And no way to turn it off. Disconnect. Reconnect as zombie. Well, this is not fun. I can't even swipe or attack or anything. Maybe it's a feature that's not complete. This IS Dayz. I run to a watertank and jump off.

Respawn way down on the west end of the coast, west of Cherno. I beeline to Balota and poke around there, finally finding... An M24 desert and 2 Gps! I could sell them... And.... And... Yes!!

I head to the nearest caravan and... Wrong vendors. Oh well. Then I see it.

Abandoned gold mine. Abandoned gold mine. Who wouldn't want to check THAT out. Now most of you are probably GOOD players. Alarm bells would be going off in your head. Maybe you've even read about some of the features in Epoch. Not of' Disgraced. I crouch-run up and see a few zombies... And a giant rock construction thing. I get it, I think. Can't really build underground. So it's above ground... Yep, here I go, taking a sniper rifle into a gold mine. Shouldn't that be some kind of expression for stupid behaviour?

Well this was stupid. With a SNIPER rifle, what's the best approach. I can tell you, it's NOT stealth in between the buildings. I'm avoiding the zombies and thoroughly enjoying this new area, wondering what I might find when..... Zipzipzipzip high velocity rounds. You are dead.

What the???

The only guy on is....the guy who gave me that gold yesterday... What the actual fuck?? He shot me!!! I guess it's "friendly at the settlement, bandits at the gold mine" well fine. Jerk. I try to raise him on the side chat via text but no response. Oh, ignoring me, eh.

Respawn. Not too far away. Maybe I can sneak in and get my pack... Riiiiiiight.... I do. I get pretty close... Like I SHOULD have done earlier. From a further away hillside. Not careful enough, as it turns out, but I've rationalized. That wasn't my old pal steelseries. Sorry for impugning your good name. It was a bandit bot. Of course. They have messages about bandits... And camps and stuff. Ok, distant approach. Damn, wish I had that M24 now. Well, the bot didn't wish. In addition to his high powered whatever speed shooting machine gun, he has his OWN sniper rifle. Crack. Crack. I'm down and I don't even see him. Broken bone indicator. Bleeding. I spot the bot running in the distance and he's.... Running away? I bandage and start crawling. If I can.... just.... get that gear. Get patched up. It will be slow. Maybe find morphine. Yeah, it's doable. Don't give up now!

Crawling. I make it to the backpack! Then I press gear and... Spotted by a fucking zed. Then more. Crawl into a pine tree but for what. Fuck it. I go down, pistol blazing.

I made it into the bandit camp on my next iteration and even killed one with my pistol after a lot of crawling. But I got radiation sickness again... And the second bandit got me.

So, here is your example of how not to play Dayz.

Damn, it was fun, though....

Tl;dr boring story, Disgraced is a crappy player

Edit: cleanup. I stink at typing, too. Damned autocorrect.

I think we have been playing on the same server for the past couple of days I recognize your name.

Me and a couple of friends went to the gold mine also. Big Mistake!!!

We did manage to kill a few AI and even enter the mine.... But there are Russian soldiers in there that can not be killed.

Lost alot of good loot by trying to go back and get our equipment back.

If I see you on the server again I will say Hi.

 

Eagle