My thoughts after 65 hours In game

[Dynamic_G 9]

First off I'd like to say I've had value for my money already.  After 65 hours the game has already paid for its self in terms of entertainment value compared to money spent.  Not bad for an Alpha!

 

My game style is Lone Wolf, Survivor.   I've been to 95% of the towns, and am pretty good at navigation now, the compass comes in pretty handy.  It helps having two screens so I can have the map open on one and play on the other.

 

I've killed a ton Z's and opened thousands of doors and still get nervous drinking and filling water bottles at the water pump.  I've yet to kill anyone myself and have only been killed once by other players.  I made the mistake of  hearing someone eating inside a house, and sneaking in, with only a bat,  seeing two fully geared players and dumbly saying hello before they saw me and expecting a warm reception. That was 43 game hours ago and I'm still with the same character.

 

Memorable  moments so far.  Going  22hrs on a populated server before seeing my first real person.  He sprinted past me down the road with two Zombies on his heels…  I never saw him again.  Finally getting geared up after 20 hours and falling off a stupid little ladder, breaking my arm and leg with no way to fix them.  I was dead 5 minutes later.  Travelling from the top of the map, down the West side to the coast, then through Balota and Cherno on a full 40 person server and seeing no one.  Realizing I had hardly fired a round after more than 30 hours playing and going on a Zombie rampage with my Mosin in Cherno.  Cam Painting my Mosin.  Finding the Green RNZIR Beret with Badge.  Finally finding a Mosin Compensator after 20 -30 hours of looking.  Seeing groups of geared players but not being seen.

 

Slight frustrations; ambient sounds like Zombie moans, the drinking sound and even the reload sound happening randomly when it shouldn't.

The laggy Hot button menu, or the Hot-buttons stops working, always at the wrong moment.  What’s the point of 2 hr server resets?  It’s a survivor game; resources should be scarce at certain points in the game and reward the diligent and resourceful.

 

Likes;  A nice change from FPS where you die 15 times in 20 min battles.  Knowing that if I lose the character,  I have to start from scratch and build up again, especially true playing as a Lone Wolf.  This is the number one reason the game is so great.  Spending hours free running  alone  and then getting excited from seeing geared up players and making decisions what to do next.

 

What’s next?  I'm not sure yet.  I've seen most of the Map now, I never played the Mod as you can guess.  I guess it’s Hero or Bandit and I haven't decided which yet.   I think I will keep playing for now and see where it goes from here.

Edited June 14, 2014 by Dynamic_G

[Yuval 221]

I adore experiences like this. Sadly whenever I played DayZ SA I either died by bandits or had to choose if I'll save a guy from other bandits or leave him be (or not be?).

Keep playing, you'll pick your own path at some point I guess. Some players like to be bandits, some players help others, and some simply play the way they want. You're the third kind and this kind is the best because not everyone get to be there. I would love to play dayz in a map I've never seen before. The whole exploring thing isn't part of my experience anymore and I wish the devs would expland chernarus or whatever.

 

Anyway if you'll ever decide to play the mod I'll be pleased to let you try! It gives you a unique look on dayz and maybe a vision on the future stages of the standalone.

 

DayZ is indeed a great game. It's amazing to meet other players and see how they play and behave (for me atleast). Being a lone wolf is boring sometimes, maybe one day you will find a group to play with!

 

I can tell you from my own experience that playing with other friends is a lot of fun and jokes. The things you will get to talk with them while running 3 km across the map can be funny :D.

[Dynamic_G 9]

Cheers Stanley.  I've been PC gaming for 20 years and to be honest most things FPS seem a bit Generic but I found this game a real breath of fresh air.  Its been awhile since I was so immersed in a game where I would play until 2-3am in the morning. I have to go back to Black Hawk Down days when I would get out of bed to play a Clan game, lol.  Played a lot of Urban Terror as well and that would be my second highest ranking game, simple graphics, hackers galore but amazing feeling when all the stars came into alignment and you could dominate a server for one night but mostly I was just a steady, strong player.

 

I agree that the Lone Wolf, survivor thing will get boring for me now as I feel that I have achieved everything I wanted to with my current character and its fine if I lose him soon.  Team play I'm sure would be a lot of fun, especially hunting bandits.  My other thought was perhaps play as a Bandit Lone Wolf Sniper and see how many kills I can get with one character, not fresh spawn, but geared targets.  That could prove to be a real challenge.

Edited June 14, 2014 by Dynamic_G

[haknslash 763]

I don't have two monitors. So printed out a D sized map and keep it by me when playing. In a weird way it adds to the immersion lol. Nice story about your journey so far. I have a similar play style where I lone wolf and play cautious rather than aggressive. It has kept me alive longer but the experiences of meeting cool people far outweigh the feeling when you die. Keep on keeping on ;)

[Dynamic_G 9]

You got a point about about meeting new players I think Haknslash.  I have played a very hard core survivor style and shunned any contact.  Last night I was going through a small town and a what appeared as a new spawn ran through the town's main street on open mic shouting out, " Hey, is any one here, talk to me".  I smelt a rat.  What a perfect honey trap. Lure me out so your geared up mates can ambush me. I kept silent and watched.  Call me cynical but I think I didn't survive 43 hours in game on my journey for nothing.  Saying that, I'm going to change up my game play now, in which direction I'm not sure but its likely to be more open.

[rickyriot 1009]

65? Pfft... newbie... ;)

[Dynamic_G 9]

haha Ricp...true dat

[TheWanderingMan 170]

Your opinions are as relevant as a jahova's witness at Christmas.

[Tatanko 5591]

Call me cynical but I think I didn't survive 43 hours in game on my journey for nothing.  Saying that, I'm going to change up my game play now, in which direction I'm not sure but its likely to be more open.

If there's one thing I've learned in my 250+ hours, it's that taking risks and interacting with other players is all we've got. As such, I don't grow too attached to characters because I value player interaction over gear that is quickly and easily replaced. The only reason you should ever choose to preserve your character above all else is when you don't have the time to regear should something happen.

 

That said, I am a cautious and skeptical player as well. Just don't take character preservation too seriously is all I'm saying -- characters are replaceable, but opportunities can be missed forever.

Edited June 14, 2014 by Tatanko

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

After 433 hours I have come to the conclusion that pvp works, hunger and thirst works and the infected are broken.  Now that we've established that after 6 months, it'd be nice if we could actually test surviving.  You know, diseases, infections, fatigue, freezing.  The meat to what would make DayZ an actual game.

[dricht1 28]

I've been toying with the idea of playing again, but it'd have to be with people. The lone wolf thing worked well and it's incredibly easy to survive that way, but once you've got your mosin and your press vest and more bullets than you'll ever fire, you kind of run out of things to do without making contact.

[conan the librarian 99]

Survival in this game is easy to the point of being obsolete. I can play 6-8 hours on 35+ servers without seeing anyone around elektro, cherno and kamishovo.

 

So if you like shooting glitchy zombies on your own in this huge, empty map, this is the game for you.