Help people learning how to play DayZ

[iNSANE' 0]

Hello guys,

first off I want to calm you down, this is not a post full of complaining I just wanted to write down my experience with the mod so far.

The first tries all ended the same way, didn't find any usefull stuff and died to zombies or was low on blood with almost no equipment and/or a broken bone. Was really frustrated about all the fake houses and the fact that i didn't find any weapons.

Then i looked up several posts in this forum and it helped me a ton, I learned that it isn't really profitable to loot the small villages where most of the houses can't even be entered.

I just searched for barns and some other buildings (read a bit about which buildings are profitable) and tryed to get some general supplies, most of the time I will then be making my way to Electro. There I just loot the Firestation, Church, School and Supermarket. I was amazed how much stuff you could actually get in such a small period of time, almost always I would get myself a weapon, a new backpack and quite a lot to eat and drink. So in fact now I know where to go and the Mod is just so much fun from this point on, but I would change some things for beginners.

Make more of the "fake houses" enterable so that you don't have to run all the way to Electro or Cherno to get at least general supplies (Pistol, Food, Water, Bandages, Painkillers). Maybe up the spawn rate for Makarov in those small towns with lots of fake houses. You could also make a little introduction screen that tells players that weapons spawn more often in barns or in the big cities. This would make it a lot easier for new players, the problem isn't the difficulty but the problem is that most noobs don't know where to look for a weapon...

Edit: Changed the title as it was a bit confusing as i don't think this game is too hard, i just think it could be easily made more fun for new players

[TheSexyGoat 5]

Well, making fake houses enterable is not up to the DayZ dev team AFAIK, that would be a suggestion for the Arma 2 dev team themselves. I agree with you, although after wasting a few days playing you're gonna recognize which building is enterable and which building is not, don't worry. And you're totally right about the places, it's not really worth looting small villages, you won't get as much stuff as you can get in the biggest towns.

The introduction screen suggestion, I don't know.. I don't wanna be rude, but I don't think that looking around the DayZ forums/Google/whatever wouldn't kill you know? I started playing the game on my own a month ago (?), I didn't knew what to do, I didn't knew the Arma 2 controls and I find everything out eventually, quite fast actually. Then pretty much all my friends started playing and everything just got a lot easier. I guess new players just need to play some tutorials before playing, make a small research about the mod and stuff. (Sorry if I sounded a bit rude, didn't mean to :P)

[Reliel 0]

By 'beginners' do you mean 'retarded ape babies with only one hand growing out of their chest'? Because even those ape babies are doing pretty well.

[Tabris07 159]

I don't think an introduction screen is necessary, but maybe if tips could be displayed every now and then (during loading screens and such) would be helpful.

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to be added now, but everyone learns something new from a tip sometimes.

[shadowtank754 0]

When arma 3 comes out the DayZ team already plan on porting it over which means new items, new weapons you can change clothes you can swim underwater and EVERY house will be enterable so that is what i am getting excited for

[iNSANE' 0]

I just think an introduction screen could prevent a lot of threads in the beginners section. Of course you can google it and if you want to stick with DayZ you can learn it pretty fast. I just think it would eliminate the frustration in the first couple of hours and it wouldn't be that much work to do it.

I see a lot of people complaining on the forums about the fact that they can't find a weapon and i can totally understand that point if you don't know where to look for a gun...

[Gea 0]

It's really disappointing to prone around a whole village, only to find out that nearly none of the houses are entereable and THEN get killed because a z saw you through a fence.

But a little note at the beginning of each spawn, like 'for help/advice and tutorials, visit the dayZ forums' would be a great addition actually. Not because I need it (ha) but because it makes clear for new players where to look for little guides/tutorials.

Or a note somewhere 'it's advised to play the tutorial of arma2 to learn the basic controls', which is what I did before actually starting the mod (especially after watching a few let's plays where the player seemed to despair over a fence).

I'm not asking for anything big, just little hints here and there.

[iNSANE' 0]

It's really disappointing to prone around a whole village' date=' only to find out that nearly none of the houses are entereable and THEN get killed because a z saw you through a fence.

But a little note at the beginning of each spawn, like 'for help/advice and tutorials, visit the dayZ forums' would be a great addition actually. Not because I need it (ha) but because it makes clear for new players where to look for little guides/tutorials.

Or a note somewhere 'it's advised to play the tutorial of arma2 to learn the basic controls', which is what I did before actually starting the mod (especially after watching a few let's plays where the player seemed to despair over a fence).

I'm not asking for anything big, just little hints here and there.

[/quote']

That would also be a good thing, it doesn't need to be a introduction screen you could also make it this way. Maybe there could be a collection of tutorials linked on the dayz site, so that people can find the way to basic tutorials.

I think I'm not asking for anything big here but it could very well reduce the threads whining about the game...

[fire708 17]

My first spawn I lived all of 60 seconds. I didn't know what to do, I had not clue where to go. That was the best part of dayz. Something new. No guide book saying go here do this, find this. I had to learn by trial and error.

I would be all for a splash screen that is a simple warning for new players. Maybe something like

"this is not a FPS, you will die. You will loose your gear. DEAL WITH IT."

[iSelb 0]

People keep complaining about "fake houses". I kind of agree that it's annoying to go into a small town full of zombies and find one house and maybe a shed with nothing in it. It tends to be not worth the risk... But it's realistic, I like to imagine that the doors are "locked" or "bordered" because in a zombie out brake alot of people would do this. If you walk down your street now and try open every door... You'll probably only be able to gain access to one or two because most people lock their doors. Even though it's fustrating starting out new thinking any house could be enterable but it's just down to chance and then realising it's not down to chance at all... It's down to the building type, that's a bit of a let down. I feel the houses that are "locked" should be randomly generated. This will make it more challenging in a way but there's more chance of open buildings and you'd have to stake the house out abit before attempted to gain access.

[RaedwulfGamer 1]

It is not realistic. This game, and no game is close to realistic. Just because it has a steep learning curve and you die fast does not make a game real. It's anything but real..it's fun..but clunky..movement is clunky..in life everything you do is fluid because you do it every day..to me movement in a game like battlefield is more realistic because it's responsive in the way that you are in real life....

Don't give me the gear weighs a lot line...arma is not realistic. No game is even close to being realistic yet..so I wish people would stop forcing steep learning curves and saying derp realistic

edit: I'm a human, I move around..I know what it's like to move around <--had to say that in case someone tried to sell me on arma movement being realistic. It's all in your heads

[Benito 0]

People keep complaining about "fake houses". I kind of agree that it's annoying to go into a small town full of zombies and find one house and maybe a shed with nothing in it. It tends to be not worth the risk... But it's realistic' date=' I like to imagine that the doors are "locked" or "bordered" because in a zombie out brake alot of people would do this. If you walk down your street now and try open every door... You'll probably only be able to gain access to one or two because most people lock their doors. Even though it's fustrating starting out new thinking any house could be enterable but it's just down to chance and then realising it's not down to chance at all... It's down to the building type, that's a bit of a let down. I feel the houses that are "locked" should be randomly generated. This will make it more challenging in a way but there's more chance of open buildings and you'd have to stake the house out abit before attempted to gain access.

[/quote']

Huh that is a far better way to think about it, this has never crossed my mind and it's a perfect explanation :D

Although I'd still prefer to have all open houses and then have them locked... but hey ho that's not going to happen due to how the Arma engine is.

I think it'll make seeing a village full of "fake" houses less rage inducing when I'm starving to death tryign to find a tin of beans :P

[Master Cirroji 0]

People keep complaining about "fake houses". I kind of agree that it's annoying to go into a small town full of zombies and find one house and maybe a shed with nothing in it. It tends to be not worth the risk... But it's realistic' date=' I like to imagine that the doors are "locked" or "bordered" because in a zombie out brake alot of people would do this. If you walk down your street now and try open every door... You'll probably only be able to gain access to one or two because most people lock their doors. Even though it's fustrating starting out new thinking any house could be enterable but it's just down to chance and then realising it's not down to chance at all... It's down to the building type, that's a bit of a let down. I feel the houses that are "locked" should be randomly generated. This will make it more challenging in a way but there's more chance of open buildings and you'd have to stake the house out abit before attempted to gain access.

[/quote']

omg really? where do you live where in a zombie apocolypse that breaking a window or kicking a door in wouldnt prob be one of the first options

second, where do you live that there realistically be no items in houses? do you just not own anything?

ZOMBIE TIME means alot if not a large majority would die before they could even plan anything

I mean go sneak in an abandoned house thats been abandoned for a while. you will find homeless peoples garbage and stuff, sometimes animals and alot of time all sorts of crap.

[RaedwulfGamer 1]

Lets pretend the boarded up house theory is accurate.

Why are there so many zombies?

-> If 99% of all houses are boarded up, and there's 'no way in/out'. Why are there so many zombies? Where did they come from if everyone just died off inside their homes?

Makes no sense.

[enablerbr 0]

I as a new player. Watched a lot of youtube videos before I got Arma 2 :CO and DayZ. I even roam the map, which DayZ map is based off, in Arma 2:OA. To get my barings etc.

[Benito 0]

People evacuating an area in disaster zones will barricade their houses before leaving, to better protect the property while taking the majority of their stuff.

I assume a lot of the zombies come from people just starting to evacuate but failing to, as there would be more military camps set up if evacuation had gone well. Oh well it is just a video game and this is how the engine acts, whatever makes sense to you headcanon goes then.

[iSelb 0]

Haha, woah... Didn't expect that much rage. At least Benito liked the idea.

Firstly, RaedwulfGamer. Yes, well done... you pointed out the fact that games aren't real life and I can actually move my body outside the pc screen. Fluid movement is a flaw of all games... Even the best but that doesn't stop it from seeming alot more realistic than say games mario kart. This game is more realistic than any other I've ever played and that includes your pityful example, Battlefield. Although BF is realistic due to the high end graphics the fluid movement, etc... It doesn't take much thought process to survive but it would do in a real war zone.

Master Cirroji, have you ever tried kicking down a door in real life... It's not like the movies. Smashing a window and gaining access does sound realistic and I would love to see that implimented into the game... good idea. Yes a large majority of people would die quickly because they wouldn't be in a safe and secure place but what if you was... What if you were inside your house and the door was locked. You'd border up and chill till everything settles. Houses could be empty because people gather there supplies and jump in there car and get out of the city but before they could get to somewhere safe they were attacked.