My DayZ experience and issue.

[Im_Jay_Kay 0]

Scroll to the bottom for TL;DR/My main concern.

So recently a friend of mine convinced me to purchase the Combined Operations Arma 2 package. I was reluctant at first however the zombie mod he mentioned to me seemed intriguing. I caved in a matter of minutes and began installation of both games.

The first thing I did was run the two games, exit, then immediately begin installing the DayZ mod. I had the debug forest issue my first sign in, looked for solution and found one within a few hours. I had finally signed into DayZ for the first time!

My first goal, was to find my friend. Which...through a series of respawns/aborts, we managed to get close enough to eachother to hoof it. Everything was going well, I was getting a feel for the controls...learned the usefulness of ALT!

After numerous deaths to zombies and regrouping attempts I had finally really hit my groove...being able to navigate the map with stealth, searching buildings undetected and just plain having a damn good time.

After what was probably close to 4 hours of fooling around and learning the game my friend and I decided to set ourselves a goal...to get a bicycle! I searched possible spawn locations for the bicycles and before I knew it we were well on our way...scouring a few coastal locations with no luck and eventually moving inland hoping for more success.

Around Stary Sobor sadly I lost my friend...He had made the grave mistake of firing off his rifle in the supermarket while backed into a corner. He was trapped in a sectioned off portion of the building with only 1 entrance/exit. In seconds there was near 6-7 zombies in the room and in the doorway...I tried my best to kill them but he was already unconscious in the first few seconds. Im not proud...but I ran, I ran and ran and ran some more!

I was lost now, I had been running in the forest trying to lose the zombies that had turned their attention to me when my friend had died. I tried to climb to the highest peak and get a feel for the lay of the land, consult my map and hopefully find my bearings. I came to a clearing that I believed to be Old Fields and lying down there in the field I though about my next move, consulted my map some more and had an realization...I was near the Airfield! Which meant helicopters! Bicycles were no longer in my mind, my sole purpose in life was now to find and repair a helicopter.

After failing to recognize landmarks I was lost again for a short while and ended up in Kabanino. It wasn't a terrible mistake, I found a water pump to fill my canteen which was greatly in need. I started north up the road to what I was now 100% certain was the correct path to the Airfield. Pretty desolate area between Kabanino and the Airfield I must say, not a single life-form human or zombie.

In seconds however that changed. I was at the stone wall surrounding the Airfield, I kept close to it and made my way further north towards the distance gate. I came across a hole in the wall and decided to save some time and just make my entrance there...MISTAKE! A zombie was now on me and I though to myself "Great as soon as I get here, I up and die". I had learned a lot in my time on DayZ though knew that I should run to an area I already knew was vacant of zombies and deal with my little friend. After a few minutes of running I came to an open field, turned about and shot him dead. I laid prone in the field...scouted and saw that I had not alerted anything else. I start back north again towards to Airfield.

After sneaking past the zombies at the gate I came to what looked like a relay tower for communications with aircraft. Searched it and found some magazines for my AK-74. I navigated out of the building and down the runway, searching all the hangars for signs of a helicopter or possibly some repair parts.

After searching every single hangar in the Airfield and what seemed to be nearly every building there too I drew a conclusion: There was nothing here...I had not seen a soul in terms of living people. Some had either been there already and taken it or it didn't spawn in that location.

Frustrated I made my way to the north-east exit road going from the Airfield to Grishino. Came to an open field with some hay bales and saw 8 military zombies...Didn't make sense...8 zombies in a field of hay? I went to investigate the situation. Coming so close to the zombies to possible make them aggressive I see it...in the back of the field, it was unmistakeable...a helicopter! I was excited now and eager to move in. I searched my ammunition to find 4 full magazines courtesy of the Airfield. I shot them all once with my AK-74, crippling them. I zig-zgaged through all the crawling zombies scattered in the field and came upon the holy grail of DayZ vehicles.

It had crashed and looked pretty beaten up...I honestly didn't know how to go about repairing it or even how to investigate what parts I needed to do the repairs so I did what any uneducated game player would do...spammed the mouse wheel as I ran around the helicopter, looking for anything on my HUD. There was nothing...It was obviously just another burnt out vehicle like the many I had seen on the road.

I lost all hope...I didn't want to live anymore. I ran as fast as I could towards Grishino with the sole purpose of ending my life.

And I did...I fired off all 3 of my magazines as I ran through town. Now im not a religious man but the church seemed like a good enough place as any to die. I stood in the pews and awaited my death, it came swiftly...

That has been my grandest and most disappointing DayZ experience all in one and leads me to a question.

TL;DR

Vehicle spawns in the game...are either to rare or players are hoarding all of them. I've had many adventures since the Airfield escapades, all with the same result. I've search nearly every location the DayZ Wikipedia provides for vehicle spawns and never found a single repairable one.

Its my knowledge that vehicles respawn when the server restarts, is that correct? How do I know/find a server that has been recently reset?

Im really enjoying this game but with players possibly hoarding multiple vehicles off map...it significantly lowers my interest in the game.

If anyone knows of a server where vehicles remain unclaimed or is restarted frequently please let me know.

---

Didn't realize it was so long...haha.

Going to do some work outside and check back in a short while.

Thank you to anyone who has a response.

[Im_Jay_Kay 0]

Nearly 100 views, no replies?

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

I've found ~12 vehicles in the last 21 days. Keep looking. They're out there. Plenty of other threads on this topic with similar replies. The wiki's don't have a complete map. Nobody does. I know this because half the vehicles I found don't appear on any of the maps.

Vehicles do not spawn on server restart. They respawn on a "secret interval" which will not be revealed for obvious reasons (camping spawns).

[DemonGroover 8836]

Sounds like you are having fun, i wouldnt let the fact you havent found a vehicle change it for you.

I have seen a few vehicle spawns in my time but have never had the inclination to fix them and get fuel. Maybe if i find a motrorbike though...

Your best bet may be to rob one, but you have to find it first.

[Releak 0]

Text too long, but I read the end.. There are no servers where vehicles remains unclaimed, and most servers are restarted frequently to maintain performance. The European FR 2 is one example. Restarts every 230mins I think.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

There are no servers where vehicles remains unclaimed

What?

[Yeni 53]

I swear, every server I go to, and when I go to stary sobor on them, the same repairable car is there. It may be dangerous, but not as long as you are prepared to repair it.

[Im_Jay_Kay 0]

What's the best way to go about searching for vehicles? Logically I assumed the odds would be better farther inland due to the fact more players are on the coast = more likely vehicle has been claimed.

Should I stick to main roads?

Also, how do I identify a repairable vehicle? Will it have mouse wheel options? That's what I have been looking for.

Thanks for the feedback thus far and thanks to those of you who read the whole story. ;)

[redsh1rt 24]

I swear' date=' every server I go to, and when I go to stary sobor on them, the same repairable car is there. It may be dangerous, but not as long as you are prepared to repair it.

[/quote']

The white car next to the military base in Stary Sobor is not repairable. However I have seen a red car spawn next to it, as well as 2 crash helicopters west of it (150m or so) and in the field behind the trees overlooking the military base.

[Im_Jay_Kay 0]

Went to Stary Sobor and no vehicles. :(

[[email protected] 0]

What's the best way to go about searching for vehicles? Logically I assumed the odds would be better farther inland due to the fact more players are on the coast = more likely vehicle has been claimed.

Should I stick to main roads?

Also' date=' how do I identify a repairable vehicle? Will it have mouse wheel options? That's what I have been looking for.

Thanks for the feedback thus far and thanks to those of you who read the whole story. ;)

[/quote']

It's repairable if you can get in the car.