The Life of Four

[1Macready 6]

I'm a relatively new player, influenced by Evan's PC Gamer coverage and videos from the likes of DevilDogGamer to pick up a copy of Arma 2 so that I could try out this mod. While online during the early morning of Monday 6/25, I lost my first moderately successful character (my third - the first two were short-lived affairs during the zed terror of 1.7.1.4). It occurred to me as I stared at the death screen that it would be nice to have a detailed record of his actions and movements over the span of his life. This journal shall aim to accomplish that for my next go round. I'll publish successive installments as I write them, until the character is killed.

If you're curious, I can at least recount the highlights of my recently deceased character's life: he started on an island and lost his pack swimming to the mainland, and never did find a replacement. During two successive bouts with starvation/thirst, he deliberately engaged zeds and managed to find canned food/drink on their corpses, but was wounded both times. He finally scored a pack of matches to go with his hatchet and knife, and although severely wounded and close to starving once more, managed to regain full health through hunting. At that point he enjoyed a period of relative quiet and success during which he stocked up on ammo for his Makarov and found a Winchester and slugs. A team of two players got the drop on him outside of Novy Sobor, but turned out to be friendly and just looking to exchange information. He met his end (or the beginning of his end) at a factory east of Malinovka, where he tried to clear the spawn in the outbuildings by shooting from the second floor of the main building. Having cleared 20+ zeds, he then attempted to loot the site, and caught his own respawn (which came almost instantaneously). This second engagement did not go as smoothly as the first. After having dispatched a combined total of 43 zeds, he was at 3.5k blood, had a broken leg, and was down to his last 4 Winchester rounds. He crawled to Dolina, stopping along the way to bag a lamb and heal up to 6.5k. Ultimately, he was discovered and killed by zeds within Dolina when he was unable to crawl over a doorstep into a house. He'd made it to the fourth day of survival in-game.

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 72/0/0. Rest in peace.

Tuesday 6/26:

I spawned survivor number four ("Four") that same Monday morning, just to see where he'd be starting. Four popped into existence on the western edge of Chernogorsk. Ordinarily I wouldn't be caught dead in such a PVP hotzone. But since Four had little to lose and was a stone's throw from the market, I figured that I'd wait until early the next morning and go foraging on a low player count server. At 5AM on Tuesday morning, I found a server that was in daylight and had only 7 players. I logged in and snuck Four past the zeds into the market without too much trouble. Fortunately, there was not a player in sight. Four made a very decent haul there: a Lee Enfield with three mags (I'm not sure that I'd ever discharge such a loud weapon, but it's always nice to have something stronger than harsh language on hand), a map, a watch, a pack of matches, a bandage, flares, four cans of food and two cans of soda. Since Four suddenly DID have something to lose, and was now equipped quite nicely for a trip inland, I moved him out as fast as possible. It was good that I'd waited until there were no zeds around before moving him outside, because while trying to crawl down the market steps, he stood up. I quickly crouched him, walked him down the steps, and hit the deck, luckily drawing no zeds.

After that it was easy to sneak out of town to the west. Once Four had cleared the zeds, I pivoted him north until hitting the treeline, and then set off in a northwesterly direction with the idea of heading for Pustoshka and Vybor, where I'd heard that I could find other marketplaces unlikely to be hit by players very often. If Four spotted anything interesting on the way, he'd check it out. The start of the trip progressed without incident, and I logged off to go to work once I had used powerlines and roads to pinpoint Four's location as being just southeast of Kozlovka.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: acquire a hunting knife, a hatchet, a handgun plus ammo, a larger pack, a quieter main weapon plus ammo, a compass, and binoculars.

Tuesday 6/26, part 2:

I had a couple of hours available to play in the evening (usually I only get to play for an hour in the morning), and I nabbed the last slot on a 25 person server. I noticed after logging in that the server settings were on "easy" - I had a crosshair, could see myself on the map, etc. I prefer no map help, no nametags over other players, and no crosshairs (but I do like third person view). I almost switched servers, but decided to stay because I wanted the lower player count. Remember this for later.

My goal was to have Four loot the market in Pustoshka, while investigating anything of interest on the way. Shortly after moving him out, I spotted one of those barns with stairs on each side (I'll call these "tall barns"), closed in, and went prone for the final approach. Once Four was very close to the door, I heard multiple zeds, dead ahead. I'm pretty sure that there were two inside. Because Four's only weapon was the ultra-loud Lee Enfield, I wanted to avoid any need for him to fire it. So, I tried using flares to pull them out. Four threw the first one to the side of the barn, but that only attracted a zed that was already outside. He threw the next one into the barn, and I saw one zed move toward it and fall to his death - one down! But even after trying a couple more flares, Four couldn't seem to draw out the second one, so I ultimately gave up and moved him on.

Back on track to Pustoshka, I next noticed a very tempting target in the distance: a long one story barn with a sideroom (I'll refer to these as "long barns"), right next to another tall barn. Two excellent prospects! I moved Four in, went prone, and approached the long barn first. Again I was fairly certain I heard a zed inside. Four tried throwing a flare right into the center of the barn, but there was no reaction. Maybe that zed I was hearing was along the side wall somewhere. So, I moved Four in. He was almost at the door when I heard shots ring out from the tall barn next door.

Another player already? I certainly wasn't expecting that at a barn in the middle of nowhere near Sosnovka - not on a 25 player server, anyway. And I just advertised my presence with that damn flare! He'd see it as soon as he moved into the long barn. I quickly backed Four off to a low stone wall to the north, keeping my eyes on the long barn. Before too long I saw a survivor ("RoooSH") emerge, but I lost track of him in the grass fairly quickly. It looked like he'd been heading west out of the long barn, and I really didn't want any part of another player right now, so I crawled Four northward to the treeline and then resumed my trek north toward Pustoshka.

After Four emerged from the treeline and was a ways into the field beyond, I spotted another player to his southeast, also moving north. Based on his position and heading when I spotted him, I didn't think he was specifically following Four - just moving in the same direction (although who knows). I immediately threw Four into the prone position, and I noticed that the other player did the same, and then didn't appear to move at all. Using the nametag feature enabled on this server, I swiveled Four's Enfield around until I got a nametag popup - RoooSH again.

The word on the forums is that just about everyone you meet these days shoots first and asks questions later. Although that wasn't Three's experience (see the Preface), I thought the odds were probably against a repeat performance here. Even so, I offered a "Friendly" over direct comm (typing). He responded with "me too" (also typing). I asked him where he was headed, and after not saying anything for a moment, he began to move forward.

I realized that this had put me into a bad position. I'm sympathetic to the "shoot first" line of thinking when it comes to strangers, as I think it's the most prudent way to go, but now that I'd announced myself as a friendly, I'd feel like an ass if I opened fire. In the future I think I'll say something more noncommittal like "I see you back there," and start shooting if I don't get an immediate "friendly" comm from the other player. That still leaves me vulnerable to players who lie about being friendlies, but then, I imagine that there's a special circle of hell reserved for people who get their kills that way. Karma will sort things out in the end.

Fortunately, after RoooSH had approached, he stood up, saluted, and then crawled away to the north, exposing his back to me. Here was a player as good as his word - I'm sure as hell glad I didn't give in to the temptation to blast him as he approached me. I offered up a "good luck" while he was still within comm range, and he thanked me and moved off to the north. It's now that I began to consider the effect of this server's survivor nametag feature - I'm left with the impression that it facilitated a friendly outcome. It helped me confirm that a player was indeed prone behind me, which caused me to initiate communications, which in turn may have been the difference between him talking and him shooting.

Now that RoooSH was headed in the direction of my ultimate target (Pustoshka), I thought I'd backtrack to those two barns. I might just find something useful, and it would give RoooSH time to disappear into the north. I moved Four in and entered the long barn through the side room, where I found nothing useful. Upon peeking into the main room, I saw a zed at the other end (inside), so I moved Four back out the side door, and headed to the tall barn. No zeds inside - I think I have RoooSH to thank for that! Inside, I located a hatchet, another Lee Enfield mag, and replaced my partially used flares with a new stack of ten.

Back on track to Pustoshka, this time a little east of my original track when I saw RoooSH, I spotted one more long barn off to the east. I moved Four toward it and then went prone on approach. It seems to me that not only is a crawling approach safer, but it also gives the spawns time to occur. I normally don't see any zeds until I'm partway into my approach, which means the loot probably hadn't spawned until then either. At first I saw one zed spawn to the south of the barn, and then two more at the roofline to the north - both of which promptly fell to their deaths. Awesome. Perhaps they'd tripped over a door frame and broken their legs, and chose suicide over the prospect of crawling 100 miles to the nearest undead infirmary for morphine.

I moved Four into the main room and was happy to find no zeds inside. Sadly, though, there were only tin cans and a hatchet in there, so I ducked into the side room, where I found... three more hatchets, evenly spaced out on the floor. Honestly, it was a pretty comical sight. As I crawled away, I checked the corpses of the two dead zeds and lifted a can of sardines off of one of them. Four hatchets and some tin cans in a single barn that rains suicidal sardine-carrying zombies. This was definitely the most interesting place I'd yet visited in Chernarus.

Back on course again, Four was finally approaching Pustoshka. I should note that he did need a drink somewhere along the way, so I'm glad I hit Chernogorsk prior to setting out. I wasn't sure where I'd find the market, so I moved Four in toward the church, and hoped I'd spot the market nearby. The approach was a little hairy, but I managed to weave Four through half a dozen zeds and get into the town proper, which seemed to have far fewer hostiles than the field Four had negotiated to get there. As Four was passing the church, I spotted a hole in the wall surrounding it, and moved him in. But then I heard zed sounds that seemed like they were coming from inside the building, so I backtracked and continued into town.

After passing the church and coming to a road, I saw the market to the right, down the road and across the street. I crawled Four around the back of the building and entered from there. It was very quiet in there - no players, and hardly any zeds in that area at all. And there was plenty for the taking! A Czech pouch (really? the only bag alternative smaller than what I have already?) which I ignored, but I found a bunch of food and drinks, bandages, a hunting knife, a compass, binoculars, and a Winchester with SIX sets of slugs! After loading up, I retreated out of the back and moved Four away to the west with little trouble. Once he'd reached the safety of some trees, I decided to call it a night.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: acquire a larger pack, a handgun plus ammo, water bottle(s), and a toolbox. Also replace my canned food with higher quality cooked meat.

[spidey 7]

Do we need to read that?

[xAtomZx 48]

I understand how this is meant to be written.. but going back and forth from 1st and 3rd person perspective makes this hard to read.

[1Macready 6]

I understand how this is meant to be written.. but going back and forth from 1st and 3rd person perspective makes this hard to read.

A fair criticism. I'm too far along to switch now' date=' though. If I ever do another one of these I'll stick to the first person.

[hr']

Wednesday 6/27:

Upon logging back in, I decided my first order of business now that I had a full hunting kit should be to bag some game. It can be a real help to have a pack full of steaks if you get yourself in trouble (it always amuses me that gorging yourself on protein is the answer to gunshots and zombie wounds - eating could certainly use a cooldown timer to prevent using steaks to heal so fast).

I moved Four further west into the trees, and before too long I simultaneously spotted a boar within the trees, and a cow a little ways into a field alongside. The boar was obviously the safer target, but after looking through my gear I saw that I had seven tins of food to replace, so I decided I'd incur the risk to get the extra steaks from the cow. I moved Four to the edge of the treeline, scoped the field and saw nothing hostile, and then dropped the cow with one shot from the Winchester. After looking around again and seeing no reaction to the shot, I crawled Four out and gutted the corpse. Then Four quickly ate a can of food, stuck his remaining six tins inside the cow corpse, and took seven portions of raw meat. Once back within the safety of the trees, he made a fire and cooked the steaks.

My original intention was to hit Vybor next, but in reviewing the map, I noticed that it is uncomfortably close to the NW airfield. I felt like it was a likely place to run into players sporting serious military hardware who were looking for a nearby objective to hit next. So instead, I decided I'd backtrack to Pustoshka and check the market one more time. I will admit that it feels a bit lame to work the same target twice in a row, but there was no more or less risk to doing so than there had been the night before, so I figured, what the hell.

This approach ended up being an even more extreme example of what I had experienced the day before. The field leading into town was literally overrun with zombies. As I slithered Four between them, I felt sure he was going to be noticed. He definitely had some close calls. But he managed to slip through, and once again the market area was dead quiet. Inside, I hit paydirt again. For starters, an Alice pack! For all intents and purposes, this was my first real backpack. My first two characters didn't even live long enough to need a pack. My third spawned on an island and lost his swimming to shore, and never found a replacement. So this was going to be a treat.

Unfortunately, one aspect of getting your first backpack upgrade is not knowing how to take it properly. I greedily scrolled to the "take pack" option, and my existing pack promptly vanished from the universe, along with all of its contents. A brief inventory of my gear suggested that I'd lost three steaks, two Winchester mags, and two or three sodas. I wish I'd been less stupid, but I wasn't going to let it get me down. I had an Alice pack!

In inventorying the rest of the market, I found sodas to replace the lost ones, and then a full water bottle. Moving along, I then found an empty water bottle. Valuing that over a fourth soda, I elected to drink a can and grab the bottle. I selected the drink option - and nothing happened. Oh, crap. This had happened to me once before. It seems to be a sign of lag which can result in a lost conection, along with your character being rolled back in time a few minutes - which might mean that Four would lose his awesome new swag! But this time, no disconnect occurred, and after waiting a bit, the drinking animation finally played, and things seemed responsive once more.

Next I found a revolver, along with two sets of rounds to go with another Four had been toting around, so that was nice. But a bit further in, I found a Makarov with three clips. I already had one clip on me, and I'd seen two more elsewhere in the market. I know that the Makarov is not a popular weapon, but it suits my purposes very nicely. The ammo is plentiful. Plus, it's quiet. If Four pulls zed aggro on approach to a target, my response would be to run into the nearest building. In addition to the one that spotted him, he'd probably pick up a few more en route. In the close confines of the building, headshots are easy, and the quietness of the Mak means you generally only pick up one or two more zeds from the noise, if that. Done properly, you can often free youself of zed aggro at the cost of a single Mak clip. So, Four dropped the revolver and its rounds, picked up the Mak, and collected five clips (for a total of six) from around the market.

I headed out again, and although Four's departure path wasn't too far off from his approach, the zeds had thinned considerably. Four retreated to the treeline, and I disconnected.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: replace the steaks I lost in the backpack mixup. Get a bit more Winchester ammo, and perhaps hit industrial areas for a toolbox. Start actively seeking out deer stands. Some morphine would be nice so that Four has a "get out of jail free" card in case of broken leg crapulence, but I'm not sure that there's a hospital outside of PVP hotzones.

[wordplayuk@gmail.com 101]

I like this keep it going

[1Macready 6]

I like this keep it going

Thanks. I'd been planning to keep track of this character anyway' date=' but I went to the trouble of writing it out longhand thinking that others might like to read a game journal.

[b']Thursday 6/28:

As the work week wears on, I become progressively more tired. So I wanted to keep things relaxed and uneventful this morning. I planned to start by replacing the cooked meat Four had lost to my backpack slipup the day before. I think he'd taken all of ten steps when I spotted a boar in the trees some way off. While I understand the performance reasons driving the decision not to render grass far away from the player, it leads to the irony of distant objects being easier to spot. I'll need to remember that the next time I'm prone in high grass, feeling safe and hidden - the guy 600m away who has me sighted in his sniper rifle scope is probably laughing at what an easy target I am. Honestly, if you aren't moving, you aren't safe - although being in the trees does help.

Four made short work of converting the boar into four cooked steaks. I knew that there was a body of water somewhere between Pustoshka and Vybor, as well as some deer stands to the west. So, west of Pustoshka in the trees, I thought that I would move Four north and see which I could find first. Four had barely begun moving when I started getting warnings about not having received any packets from the server in 20, 25, 30, etc seconds. So, I disconnected, reset my router, and then connected to a different server (remember this for later). Upon logging back in, my inventory seemed intact, although I thought I'd had eight steaks and now I had seven. Whatever.

Having moved north through the trees for a while, a military zed became visible in the field east of the treeline. Deer stand it is, then. Upon moving Four in closer, it was apparent that there was a pretty good spread of hostiles. But it seems like they have a tendency to drift your way as you approach - so if you do so slowly, you can often draw them away from the target. That's how things went this time, with most of the zeds ending up on the approach side of the deer stand. Hoping to keep them there, Four threw a few flares into their midst a ways off... except for one whose angle I misjudged and planted right next to the deer stand. Sigh. After a while waiting for that one to go out, Four threw a couple more away from the stand. Once the close one was gone, the remaining flares did a nice job of keeping the zeds away. I'm hoping with practice I become better at using flares for a diversion - this approach took about twenty minutes, and I'd rather spend five or less. Anyway, the way was clear, so Four climbed up. He found a hunting knife and a few military weapon mags (an M9 mag, a STANAG, and something else). Four didn't keep any of it, as I didn't want to use pack space on ammo for weapons he might never get (and for which he has no real use - I'm not planning on assaulting anything).

Having located this deer stand, I had also pinpointed Four's location on the map, and knew there was another stand to the northwest. So, I moved Four in that direction. Once I'd found it (the zeds telegraph these things quite nicely), I spent a few minutes scouting the best approach. Moving in from the west offered almost total cover, but the trees were so thick that I worried about Four crawling into a zed. Approaching from the south along the edge of the tree line seemed a better compromise between cover and clarity of vision. At this point I looked at the clock and saw that I only had about ten minutes left to play. Remembering how slowly the last deer stand had gone, I decided to postpone the attempt until my next session.

It occurred to me that I hadn't given a lot of thought to what I'd do if I found a really nice firearm that I just had to have. I know I wouldn't get rid of the Winchester - a powerful, semi-quiet rifle with plentiful 15 round mags is perfect for Four's style. So I decided to use my final minutes to inventory my pack and think about what Four would dump if he needed to clear space in a hurry. I was deep in the midst of considering this when a sound began to intrude upon my awareness. At first it was so faint that I paid it no mind, distractedly thinking it was coming from somewhere outside the house in my neighborhood. But it began to get louder, and the unfamiliar nature of it suddenly brought it to the foregound of my mind - it was coming from in-game! Some sort of vehicle!

Four immediately hit the deck, and in that same instant I spotted a motorcycle crossing the field to the east, on a northwest heading toward the deer stand. I repositioned Four so that there was a tree between him and this new arrival. My first thought was that the player was planning to hit the deer stand, and since he was making no attempt to be stealthy, I waited for the sound of the engine to stop and shooting to start. But the sound of the engine never did stop, and it began to sound as if it was now north of me, inside the tree line. And although I had lost sight of the cyclist, I did see a military zed sprinting in the trees to my north, heading west.

There must be a player base around here! I can't say that I'm very surprised at the thought. When I surveyed the game map looking for good places to lone wolf it, it had occurred to me that those same places would be desirable for hiding tents, vehicles, and what have you. But I still wasn't expecting to actually stumble onto such a camp. Remember when lag pushed me to switch servers earlier? I wouldn't have had this encounter if that hadn't happened.

So - what to do? If this were all real, I'd probably clear out of the area, having been influenced by movies in which these ad hoc civilizations that spring up in apocalypse situations are filled with survivalist nutjobs who wind up seeming creepier than the damn zeds. But it is a game, and something about players banding together to hoard weapons and vehicles in remote corners of the map just seems a little goofy to me - like they're taking it all just a touch too seriously. Which, of course, begets the temptation to f*ck with them.

So I'll probably go looking for this camp. One of the questions you have to answer in Day Z is just what you plan to do with your time once you've become self sufficient, and Four is already there. This little adventure promises to be fun. But what would my goal be? Pillage tents? Maybe, but Four already has everything he really needs (NVGs and a GPS would be nice, but still... a tent to tent search takes time, and being greedy is a good way to get killed). Quickly in and quickly out should be the guiding principle here. A joy ride in one of their vehicles sounds like just the thing.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Mess with the survivalist nutjobs. Use the Arma tutorials first to make damn sure I know how to interact with vehicles. Then, if I find one without getting myself ganked, have a plan for what I'll do if chased, and if not, where I'll head. Aside from that, look for Winchester ammo, morphine, and a toolbox.

[stickninja1520 (DayZ) 1]

Im really enjoying these keep it up.

[Esoteric 2]

Players banding together is generally more fun than lone wolf'ing it in my opinion, although if I didn't have real life friends/real close friends to play with, I think I too would go lone wolf, trust issues..

Hell, may as well play a single player game if you wish to have no interaction with others though.

But good writing, enjoyed reading the journal.

[TheGoldElite 0]

If you want to team up, what I did was join the DayZ UK group on steam, then added members as friends. One of them was in a clan and I joined their teamspeak. Now I can team up with them if any are nearby. Give it a try, it's a whole different game with other players, though it is more gamey, it's still an interesting experience.

[1Macready 6]

Players banding together is generally more fun than lone wolf'ing it in my opinion' date=' although if I didn't have real life friends/real close friends to play with, I think I too would go lone wolf, trust issues..

Hell, may as well play a single player game if you wish to have no interaction with others though.

But good writing, enjoyed reading the journal.

[/quote']

Yours is very likely a more evolved approach to the game. Keep in mind that I'm new and still feeling my way around. Playing SP would not be the same, though. The threat posed by other players is a big part of the allure and challenge of the lone wolf style.

Thanks for the compliment on the journal.

If you want to team up' date=' what I did was join the DayZ UK group on steam, then added members as friends. One of them was in a clan and I joined their teamspeak. Now I can team up with them if any are nearby. Give it a try, it's a whole different game with other players, though it is more gamey, it's still an interesting experience.

[/quote']

At some point I'll probably begin to explore how I might team up with other people in an organized fashion. But for now I'm trying to develop my skill set so that I'm able to operate competently. And just have a little fun.

Friday 6/29:

I began today's session in Arma 2 boot camp, specifically in the vehicle tutorial. This was quick and painless, and confirmed that operating a land vehicle is just as easy as it looks in DevilDog's YouTube videos.

I logged in to the same server as yesterday, early enough that it was still night in-game (with very few players connected, none of whom sported the clan tags I'd seen on some players the day before). After a brief internal debate about whether I wanted to proceed in the dark, I elected to go ahead. Based on my obversations from the day before, I should be heading NW to find the camp, so I began crawling Four in that direction. He had barely even begun moving when I saw something up ahead. Moving a bit closer, I realized that I was seeing a bus, and some barbed wire beyond it. This was all so close to where I'd logged off that Four must have been practically in their camp when he was scouting the western approach to the second deer stand the day before. But I never suspected a thing until Joe Motorcross showed up.

I paused Four for a minute or two, looking and listening. Everything was quiet and dark - it felt deserted. The survivalists must all be sleeping. After weighing my options for a moment, I decided that I didn't care to spend time looking around - it was pitch dark, and I'd resolved the day before that Four wasn't really here to steal items anyway. He was here for a joy ride. I'd been imagining something along the lines of the motorcycle I'd seen the day before, but a bus would do just fine.

I'm not sure what the best approach style is when you're potentially dealing with other players. Probably a crouch-run. Regardless, Four closed the rest of the distance between himself and the bus while prone, and before I knew it, he was in the driver's seat. Plenty of fuel - awesome. Note to survivalist nutjobs: if you really fancy your vehicles, you should run out the tank before you abandon them to the night, and log off with full jerry cans in your inventory. That way you can refuel and go when you log back in, and random passersby like Four are powerless if they happen upon your wheels without carrying any gas.

Without turning on the lights, Four fired her up and started rolling. There were no sounds from behind to indicate that anyone was there to care about the theft. However, I did hear the sounds of alerted zeds almost immediately - Four must already have been encroaching upon the deer stand area. No problem, though - once clear of the trees, I punched the accelerator and quickly left them behind. Where was I headed? Wherever. I had decided that this wasn't going to be a goal oriented trip. It was a joy ride, and that means going whichever way feels good in the moment.

As a result, the rest of the play session was a bit of a blur. I elected to keep the vehicle lights off so as not to attract attention, because Four had no one to back him up. Worse still, it began raining torrentially shortly after he started moving. So it was very difficult to see. But I managed, and Four spent quite a bit of time cruising the western side of the map. This all would have felt more natural if I could have raided a convenience store for a sixpack beforehand, though.

Finally, running short on time and tiring of the bus's clunky handling, I decided I'd collected enough bugs on the windshield. Four pulled the bus off of the road and into a stand of trees. I could see a ruined industrial building to the north, so based on my general sense of where Four was (which, admittedly, could be dead off), I THINK he was now located S-SE of Lopatino, although it's hard to be sure. From there I killed the engine, exited the bus, and moved further east across a field into a denser patch of trees. After Four had lit a fire to warm up a bit and had eaten a can of sardines, I logged off.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: if Four is where I think he is, he's a bit too close to the NW airfield for my liking. I think I'll move him south toward Vybor, keeping an eye out for Winchester ammo, morphine, and a toolbox.

[1Macready 6]

Friday 6/29, part 2:

I managed to sneak in another hour right after work. Upon logging in and starting to move Four south, I was able to confirm that I'd guesstimated his location correctly. By my reckoning, if I moved Four almost directly south and just a touch west, he'd hit the body of water between Vybor and Pustoshka. But somehow he missed it, and before long I was staring down into Pustoshka, lying prone in some trees north of town. I was reaching for my map to decide where to head next when I heard rustling nearby - but no groaning. Uh oh - another player. After doing a couple of frantic 360s and seeing nobody, I decided to make a break for it. I charged Four northwest along the treeline, weaving him back and forth erratically and using free look to stare back over his shoulder. No sign of anyone. But I am positive that I didn't imagine that movement sound - it was loud and close by. There was someone there, all right.

Heading vaguely northwest in order to keep to the trees, Four eventually cut north to begin approaching Lopatino. As he was heading north across a field toward the outskirts, I heard a rifle shot. WTF? There weren't any good buildings anywhere close to me. If someone was shooting, I was probably the target! Four darted north into another treeline, and followed it to the northwest until reaching the edge, where I threw him into the dirt and looked carefully behind me. No sign of pursuit. This was almost as much player action in 10 minutes as I'd collectively had in all my other playing. And worse, I still had yet to SEE another player. You know that saying about what it means when you can't spot the sucker at the poker table? I was beginning to feel a little self-conscious, here.

In assessing Four's current location, it looked as if he crossed the field to the west he'd be a little ways north of the area in which he'd discovered the player camp yesterday. I was on another server now, so no camp to worry about... but I never did get a shot at that deer stand. I decided to move Four that way. About ten minutes later Four approached the stand from the north, within the treeline. There were zeds spawned, but none of them were close to the stand at all. I had Four throw a couple of flares into the field beyond for good measure, and then he climbed on up.

Eureka - a dose of morphine! Four's kit was developing nicely. Aside from that, there were some painkillers and a bandage, both of which he left behind, as he had plenty of both. Consulting the map, I saw that there was another deer stand to the south, on the other side of the forest. I moved Four in that direction without seeing any sign of anyone. Upon arriving, I noticed that there was some sort of building nearby, and all of the zeds were over in that area. Four could have done cartwheels around the deer stand and he wouldn't have attracted any notice. Four climbed up into the stand, where he found a M1911 handgun with one clip.

This seemed worth keeping as a backup, potentially as Four's one and only handgun if he located some more ammo for it. After eating a can of beans and drinking a soda, and then dropping two bandages, Four had cleared up six slots in his pack. In went the M1911 and the clip. His latest prize having been safely stowed, he withdrew from the stand back into the woods, and I logged off.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: obtain more Winchester ammo and a toolbox.

Friday 6/29, part 3:

I'm back for a third round in one day - gotta love the weekend. The deer stands are treating Four well, so after consulting the map, I saw that he could head SE to another one in the woods bisecting Pustoshka and Myshkino. The approach was easy enough, and this one contained a STANAG mag and an AK mag. Four had one slot open, so I figured that I'd have him grab the STANAG mag for now. It might be useful later.

Four has been lurking in the western reaches of the map for a while now, and I'd decided that it was time to relocate. There was good tree cover available to the south as far as Zelenogorsk, so I thought I'd use it to proceed halfway between Sosnovka and Zeleno, then cut east to the little pond for water, and finally into the woods surrounding Green Mountain. This proved to take a good bit of running, particularly with me stopping Four every so often to peer east out of the woods in an effort to spot landmarks. Finally I spotted the little spur of trees leading right to the pond, and so Four made a 135 degree turn NE to follow them.

I began to feel uncomfortable very quickly. Zeleno loomed large below me to the south, and although I saw nothing moving, I realized Four's current position made a very desirable sniper's nest. Further, the tree cover in reality was not nearly as thick as what I'd imagined in looking at the map. Then, the final approach to the pond left me really exposed. All this risk for a water refill when Four still had a few sodas in his pack? I should have painted a target on his back before starting this.

Luckily this ill-considered move didn't draw any unwanted attention, and Four successfully escaped to the treeline NE of the barn by the pond. Heading east through the woods, he approached the first of two deer stands in the Green Mountain area. Another easy approach, but the only item of interest was a smoke grenade. Four was a little hungry at this point, so he ate a can of beans to make room and then stowed it away in his pack.

I had taken to scoping out the stands through binoculars prior to approaching them, just in case a player might be hiding in them looking for an easy kill. Deer stands are easy to examine even from the prone position - because they are elevated, the grass doesn't block your view. As Four approached the second of the Green Mountain stands, he saw no player, but some sort of weapon was clearly visible in the stand. Upon approaching and climbing up, Four discovered a suppressed MP5 with one clip.

Wow - the quietest firearm in the game. This was a find, and one that suited Four's slinking style. Then too, a suppressed weapon made a much better tactical addition to Four's pack then did a backup handgun. So, out went the M1911, its clip, and a backup set of flares. Four then ate a can of food and drank a soda in order to clear a full ten slots in his pack. In went the MP5, and the clip went into general inventory in place of the STANAG mag, which he dropped.

I need to give some thought to whether the Winchester or the MP5 should be Four's default weapon. I have a single 30 round clip for the MP5 - which isn't much at all - and replacement clips will surely be rare (or non-existent). But then, we are all living on borrowed time in Day Z. "Saving" things for too long is more of a help to the guy who ends up looting your buzzing corpse than it is to you. So I'm leaning toward moving the Winchester into the pack, but took no action as of yet.

There are two deer stands on the treeline east of Pogorevka, and I thought I'd move Four into that area prior to retiring. However, it was all open field between there and his current location, so I had Four take the long way - SE through the Green Mountain woods, and then across the roads into the trees W-NW of Kustryk. From there, Four used the woods to trace a semicircle around the eastern side of Pulkovo, after which he was finally able to head NW in a straight line toward his destination. All of this was accomplished without incident. As my mind wandered while traveling, I laughed at the thought that two of my previous characters had broken legs crossing door thresholds at a crawl, but this one could sprint through the woods for hours with nary a twisted ankle.

Once the first of the two stands was visible in the distance, I crawled Four between two dense trees and logged off.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: either obtain more Winchester ammo, or find more MP5 ammo and ditch the Winchester entirely. Look for an industrial site so Four can get a toolbox.

[peliluola@gmail.com 28]

Future goal: kill something :)

[fml 29]

tl;rd

[1Macready 6]

Future goal: kill something :)

Heheh. My last char was actually quite a bit more violent. But I learned something from his death: killing zombies is for suckers. The respawn is unreasonably fast, so much so that it's really just a waste of time and ammo to engage them. It's a shame, really; "zombie hunter" would make a good profession for a character like this one. But the game as it stands now really doesn't support that in a meaningful way.

[hatscheputscher@googlemail.com 0]

Moaar, moaar.

I have to admit, i do play the game like you do. Lone wolf, beginning in the western parts, looting everything, hiding, always wanting better gear, stealing and using vehicles from time to time and looking for players/tents but hardly finding anyone. And definitely not sure what to do IF i may look into a players eye. Tho' i am sometimes wildly shooting Zeds on the deer stands ... and immediately getting killed by players close by. So watch out, do your flare-thingy, don't get your bones broken.....and don't stop writing :).

Was a good read, read it all. Now tired, nighttime.

[*=LP=*Cpt.Kawa 57]

Enjoyable reading. Next time you find a vehicle have a look in its inventory, you might find a lot of useful stuff there.

[1Macready 6]

Moaar' date=' moaar.

I have to admit, i do play the game like you do. Lone wolf, beginning in the western parts, looting everything, hiding, always wanting better gear, stealing and using vehicles from time to time and looking for players/tents but hardly finding anyone. And definitely not sure what to do IF i may look into a players eye. Tho' i am sometimes wildly shooting Zeds on the deer stands ... and immediately getting killed by players close by. So watch out, do your flare-thingy, don't get your bones broken.....and don't stop writing :).

Was a good read, read it all. Now tired, nighttime.

[/quote']

We do sound similar, especially the part concerning being conflicted about how to handle other players. The more time I spend with Four, the less hospitable and more suspicious I feel - too much time invested at risk! But I'd hate to shoot someone who'd have been friendly...

Enjoyable reading. Next time you find a vehicle have a look in its inventory' date=' you might find a lot of useful stuff there.

[/quote']

I actually tried but couldn't figure out how. Is it through the map menu? Or the scroll menu?

Thank you both for the compliments.

Saturday 6/30:

Four began the session today by moving the Winchester into the Alice pack and then equipping the suppressed MP5 as his primary weapon. From there he checked on the two deer stands he'd approached the day before. The first contained an AKM with one mag, which I opted to leave behind. Stealth over power, baby. The second one was empty.

With the goal of keeping to the woods as much as possible, I began moving Four SE toward the mountain housing Zub Castle. While en route I diverted him a bit more to the SE in order to hit the pond by the road north of Nadezhdino. Four obtained a drink and a refill there without incident, although the final approach down to the pond was steep! Once he'd continued on and arrived in the area of Zub, I had him skirt it to the north and then head toward the area east of the castle containing the water pump. As he approached the buildings, I was very much tempted to try out his new MP5 on one of the zeds patrolling the area, but decided that I did not yet have anough ammo to spare on such amusements. Once the way was clear, I had Four drink from one of his bottles and then fill up at the pump. There were two enterable buildings nearby, but the larger brick one sounded as if it had a zed inside, so I skipped it. Upon creeping Four into the wooden building next to it, I found one set of ACP ammo and a bandage, neither of which I took. I did decide right at that moment that I'd been foolish to leave behind the M1911 in favor of the Makarov. Let's face it, Four is not exactly a trigger happy sort of guy. He's fired all of two rounds in his life so far, once to kill a cow, and once to kill a boar. I could have afforded to keep the M1911 and slowly build his ammo. If I find another one, Four is dumping the Mak.

Leaving the Zub Castle area behind, I ran Four NE across the road into the woods, where I hooked back NW to the east of Vyshnoye in order to check on the deer stand in that direction. I rather liked that one. It was high up on a hilltop in a little stand of trees, and offered me a nice look at the surrounding countryside. Inside I found an unsuppressed M9 and one clip, which I passed on.

The map indicated another water pump a ways south of Novy Sobor, NE of Four's present location. Once I'd steered him there, Four again drank from his bottle and refilled it at the pump. I'm trying to save his last two soda cans for an emergency. As long as he was there already, I thought I'd go ahead and check out the tall barn standing nearby. Pickings were slim in there - just a double-barrelled shotgun with two rounds. Again, Four passed.

Things had definitely settled down loot-wise. After the one-two high of finding the morphine and the suppressed MP5, Four was not coming across much worth keeping, and had even taken a step in the wrong direction by foolishly ditching the M1911 instead of the Makarov. Ah, well - slow and steady wins the race. There's a GPS or a Ghillie suit with my name on it out there somewhere. I just need to hit the right place.

I wasn't entirely sure exactly what general direction Four would be heading in next, but I knew it would be east of the main road into Novy Sobor from the SE, so I decided to get him across that dangerously open area to the woods beyond prior to quitting. After scouting the edge of the woodline a bit, I found a decent crossing point, and hurried Four across the road and into the woods on the southern reaches of Lesnoy Khrebet, where I called it quits for this session. Once again, Four lives to see another day.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Find more MP5 ammo, and hopefully score another M1911 to replace the Makarov. Look for an industrial site so Four can get a toolbox.

[1Macready 6]

Saturday 6/30, part 2:

What is it about first logging in? My paranoia is always at a high when I'm first starting to play. Then I run around for a bit and realize that Chernarus is a big place, and I'm probably not ever going to meet another player loitering about under the random tree next to which I previously disconnected.

The initial issue I'd been considering before playing was whether to move Four north into the areas above Stary and Novy Sobor, or to head south instead. After giving the map a closer look, I realized that there's a whole lot of open area with no cover to speak of in the middle of the map - so south it is. There's a deer stand next to the road SE of Guglovo, so I moved Four that way. The approach went fine, although this stand wasn't quite as remote as the others. I felt a bit exposed in making my way toward it. But it would all be worth it in the end, for this stand contained... nothing at all.

Surveying the map again, I noted another deer stand in the area of Pustoy Khrebet, a good distance E-SE of Four's present location. So, he headed out in that direction, moving through the area of Pass Oreshka and crossing the road south of Shakhovka. From there he hugged the woods at the southern edge of Baranchik until he was able to move directly south toward the stand under the cover of the forest. While negotiating this route, I noticed cows in two separate locations, but both were standing well out into exposed fields. Four has long since eaten all of his canned food, and I've knocked off two or three steaks as well. So although I am keeping an eye out for game, I'm not quite so desperate yet as to have Four running about open fields firing off rifle shots.

Once I arrived at the stand, I had to climb a particularly steep bluff to reach it. It's hard to imagine the zeds would ever be able to get up there, so it felt pretty safe - although it was placed right next to a dirt road. Upon climbing up, Four found only a double-barrelled shotgun and some rounds for it. Another strikeout.

So, not much to report from this session. I did get Four repositioned nicely, though - I have my eye on a few targets for the next session.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Find more MP5 ammo, and hopefully score another M1911 to replace the Makarov. Look for an industrial site so Four can get a toolbox.

[1Macready 6]

Sunday 7/1:

Four had a short but eventful session this morning. Upon logging in (trying a new server this time - one of the Brazilian ones), I sent him back into the deer stand where I'd parked him the night before to check on it one more time. Two morphine injectors! So now he had three of them. He might actually find himself in the position of needing to discard some to make room for more valuable things sometime in the future. A nice problem to have.

I moved Four across the road to the SE a ways into the trees, and then dropped him prone to examine the map. There was another deer stand to the SE on the other side of Msta, and I needed to figure out how to approach it with the most cover. I'd only just started looking when a couple of shots rang out!

Yikes! There was no doubt about who those shots were meant for. But I couldn't see my attacker. No time to deal with that, though - a stationary target will soon be a dead one. I raised Four to a crouch run and charged away to the north, weaving erratically. Shortly after recrossing the road, a few more shots rang out. Again I tried to identify the source via free look while running, and I failed. Damn it! Thankfully this guy was a crappy shot.

I angled Four a bit west so that he was heading N-NW through the trees, still weaving erratically to make him a harder target. After running for a while, he crossed between two thick pines, at which point I threw him into the prone position. I was hoping to make it look like he was still running and to use the trees to mask the fact that I'd come to a halt. I proceeded to look and listen.

I started to wonder how this guy got the drop on me. Was he camping the deer stand? Possibly, but Four had gotten in and out unmolested, and was already across the road and into the trees before the first shot. Am I just oblivious? That's starting to look more likely, given that Four has only spotted the other player first once (and only because he telegraphed himself via shooting), but has been fired upon at least twice.

After sitting for a while between the two trees, hearing and seeing nothing, I began to worry that the attacker might be trying to flank Four. I got back up into a crouch run and weaved away in a new direction (NW), and then switched to due north after a bit. Once again I dropped Four to the prone position after crossing between two trees and put his ear to the ground.

At this point I felt like I'd lost my attacker. I'm sure he knew the general direction in which I'd fled, but I was confident that he no longer had eyes on, and was probably afraid to advance now that he'd lost the advantage. So, I thought that I'd take stock of my current location and figure out what to do next (there's nothing like charging wildly into woods and running in a panic for 10 minutes to make you rethink your plans). In consulting tha map, I discovered that Four was probably now in the vicinity of... Dolina.

Dolina. That's where Three had met his end. Fitting that a near-death experience should drive Four in this direction. There's a deer stand due north of the town, right on the way to the factory that had left Three near death and with a broken leg. I resolved to hit that stand and then take on that factory, hoping for a toolbox, and to atone for past mistakes.

Upon approaching the deer stand, I took it very slowly and cautiously. I really scrutinized the surrounding woods, looking for any sign that this area was being watched. But I saw nothing. So, Four moved into the stand, where he found a STANAG mag, a MP5 mag, and a frag grenade. My hopes leaped when I first saw the MP5 mag, but then I quickly realized that Four needed the silenced variety. So, that was useless. But, a frag grenade! My thought has been that Four's end game (if he makes it that far before running into a competent sniper) will involve player camp hunting in the fringes of the map. Having a frag grenade in his kit makes for an interesting addition in such a scenario.

At this point I figured I'd leave the factory for tomorrow. I approached it from the west and then hid Four in some scrub a little ways away, and logged off.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Take down that factory site and get a toolbox.

[Looter (DayZ) 22]

Interesting read.

I think I play much more risky (creeping around in PvP areas, larger towns, Zombie howl does not keep me from entering a building), but similar regarding avoiding PvP contact if possible.

I do not have an ingame- map yet. But together with Arma2, there was a Paper- map that shows me the landscape and towns. In that map I do not identify any deerstands. Does the ingame map show them or do you use a modified map found somewhere in www?

[1Macready 6]

Interesting read.

I think I play much more risky (creeping around in PvP areas' date=' larger towns, Zombie howl does not keep me from entering a building), but similar regarding avoiding PvP contact if possible.

I do not have an ingame- map yet. But together with Arma2, there was a Paper- map that shows me the landscape and towns. In that map I do not identify any deerstands. Does the ingame map show them or do you use a modified map found somewhere in www?

[/quote']

I use the ingame map and compass to navigate as I travel, but I've been using dayzmap.info to identify new objectives.

Monday 7/2:

On the menu for today: the factory east of Malinovka that proved to be my last character's undoing, in hopes of locating a toolbox. After first logging in, I once more checked the deer stand near where I'd logged off but found nothing noteworthy. So, I moved Four back down the ladder and toward the edge of the treeline which borders the field housing the factory.

After going prone and taking a good look around, there did not appear to be any signs of life apart from the zeds, so I began to advance Four at a crawl. There's a break in the wall on the south side of the complex, and it was there that Four pushed through. From there I crawled him along the interior west wall until he was across from an entrance to the main building, where he entered.

Sadly, there would be no toolbox for Four today. Aside from vehicle parts (tire, jerry can and a windshield), Four found a hatchet and many tin cans, and I think some shotgun slugs, but that's about it. He took nothing, and because I didn't want to engage the zeds in the outbuildings, retreated from the compound by the same route he'd come in.

Upon reaching the same treeline he'd started from, I decided to backtrack a bit to the pond south of the factory in order to have a drink and fill up the water bottles. Four had just finished these tasks when I heard shots ring out.

Here we go again! I'm not entirely sure whether they were fired at Four, but since he was pretty exposed by the pond, I raised him to a crouch run and charged for the safety of the trees. En route, I heard a few more shots, but if they were fired at Four, they missed. I ran Four past the deer stand he'd visited at a safe enough distance to avoid the zeds, through the small clearing beyond, and into the trees on the other side, where I dropped him into the prone position.

It was sitting there, hoping to catch a glimpse of a pursuer, that I resolved to change some things about the way I'm playing. It's safe to say (at least until the next patch comes out) that I've got the whole zed avoidance thing worked out. I'm starting to become bored with the way I'm playing. So from now on, I think I'm going to have Four engage zeds from tactically superior positions. I know that there's really no point to doing so - humanity doesn't "win" if you kill enough zeds - but raising my zed count without getting Four killed will add an extra element to my play, and will also give me a motivation not to skip past towns and barns, since I'll need to replenish ammo.

After waiting ten or so minutes for the person who may or may not have been shooting at Four and seeing nothing, I logged off for the day.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 0/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: repeat the factory, only this time I won't avoid the zeds. If fortune favors the foolish, there'll be a toolbox in it for me.

[1Macready 6]

Tuesday 7/3:

This session started just as the previous day's had, with a visit to the nearby deer stand. This time I was in luck, though: another M5SD mag! I happily took that, passing over a DMR mag and a M240 mag.

It was certainly good timing to find a second MP5 mag to begin the born again zed hunter phase of Four's life. And upon peeking out of the trees at the edge of the wood, I saw that a zed was surprisingly close by. Four started things off on the right foot by putting a couple of very silent rounds into it.

From there I aimed to move Four into the compound by the same route as the day before, but upon reaching the break in the wall, I found the way blocked by barbed wire (different server than yesterday). The irony of being blocked by barbed wire in my quest to find a toolbox! The front gate would have to do. I crawled Four around to the front, through the gate, and into the main building with no mishaps. There was a zed visible on the front porch of one of the outbuildings by the gate, but I elected to leave well enough alone until I'd reached the safety of the main factory building.

Again there would be no toolbox for Four, although the finds today were better. I happened upon a second frag grenade that I elected to keep in lieu of my smoke grenade, which Four discarded. There were also a couple of Mak clips scattered about, which I'd have a need for shortly.

After Four had explored the building, I brought him to the second floor, took out his Winchester, and fired upon a zed out by the pond. He dropped, but surprisingly, there was no reaction. So, I circled Four around to a different side of the building, targeted another in the field outside, and fired away.

That did it! The hue and cry of slavering zeds began in earnest, and as I watched from my second floor vantage point, they converged from all directions and scampered eagerly toward the building. I have to say that this is something that Day Z has really gotten right - the mayhem and bloodlust that ensues when a survivor is discovered is very well done indeed.

Four calmly waited for the zeds to make their way up the stairs to the second floor, which they did in short order, approaching from two separate staircases. As they popped into view, they each got a shot from the Winchester, which Four continued to use until its current magazine was fully expended. At that point Four reloaded it and switched to his Makarov, running through a clip and a half until the party was finally over. My zed count was now at 18.

At this point, as I began to move Four back through the building to look for one of the Mak clips I'd seen earlier, I heard footsteps. A walking sound, on a concrete surface like that of the building. Had I attracted a player? I quickly ducked Four into the stairwell and peered down, but there was no one to be seen. After remaining there quietly for a minute, a heard the sound of a zed very close by, but it sounded as if it was above me. One of the zeds responding to my shooting must have gotten confused on the way up. I quickly made my way down to the ground floor, found and retrieved the Mak clip I was looking for, and moved Four out the front of the building and into the prone position once more.

Four was able to retreat back through the front gate without incident. I noted with satisfaction that the zed who'd been stationed on the porch of the outbuilding was no longer there - one of the 18, no doubt. At some point as I moved Four across the road to the north and into the trees, I became aware that the red "lag chain" was visible, and before long it changed to yellow. It remained thusly all through the trip into the trees, and after I'd sat there for a bit, it still hadn't disappeared. I decided to log off and switch servers.

To make a long story short, I never was able to reconnect. Some combination of a denial of service attack and server maintenance prevented me from doing so. The concern, of course, is that when I finally do get back in, Four may be dead, missing items, still in the factory somewhere, located in the debug forest, or who knows what else. I'm sure it will be interesting.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 18/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: not to find myself dead, in danger, or off the map upon logging into my next session.

Tuesday 7/3, part 2:

I logged in to find my concerns about the server problems were largely unfounded. Four's inventory was intact, and he even still had his 18 zombie kills. The only thing slightly out of whack was that his departure through the front gates of the factory and climb into the hills to the north had not been saved. Instead, Four was lying prone in the middle of the compound's courtyard.

Clearly, the game was giving me a sign. "I know you want that toolbox," it was saying. "Come on back inside one last time and you can have one." Peering around, I noticed no zombies - a good sign. If there weren't any spawned yet, that meant no other players were around. So, I crawled Four back inside the main building for one last go round.

Treacherous game! Still no damn toolbox! The only useful items Four found were a can of sardines and a soda, which he promptly ate and drank, and a single Mak clip. The zombies at this place must pay for the lack of a toolbox.

Just like before, Four pulled with his Winchester, and emptied the mag into the first zombies to enter the building. And once again he then switched to the Makarov and dealt with the rest. When the smoke cleared, Four was at 44 zombie kills. His frustration over the lack of tools abated, he grabbed the Makarov clip and headed out the front gate.

I think I've sufficiently asserted my dominance over this factory, and avenged Three. So, I moved Four into the trees to the north and then followed them N-NW along the treeline, looking for a deer stand that was indicated on the map. Once he'd located it, Four moved in and found a Mak clip and a M1911 clip, both of which he took.

At this point I was just looking to reposition Four prior to calling it a day. There was good tree cover to the NW which would lead Four between Gorka and Dubrovka, where there was a deer stand SW of the latter. That was my intended destination. There is a road to be crossed about two-thirds of the way there, which would serve as a good indicator that Four was on track and getting close.

Four travelled through the woods without incident, heading mostly W-NW, and before I knew it, I could glimpse the road through the trees ahead. I angled Four so that he'd emerge onto the road from between two trees, keeping him hidden for as long as possible. What I hadn't really considered was that this would also cause me to be unable to see the road until the last second. So, let's just say that I was quite surprised when Four emerged from the trees and ran headlong into a parked motorcycle.

Uh oh. What the hell is this thing doing here? Without even thinking, I did a 180 degree turn and hit the deck in the trees from which I'd come. After waiting there for a minute, there were no signs that Four had been seen, or of anyone coming to claim the bike. So, I moved Four into the woods across the road a ways south of the bike, and then scouted a bit over there. Still no sign of anyone. I really hoped someone hadn't just parked that bike there as bait to lure in unsuspecting survivors. That seemed unlikely in this odd place, but you never know.

Cautiously, Four approached the bike. The body looked to be in great condition, and the tires looked ok too. Four hopped on. Half a tank of gas! Do fully functioning vehicles really just spawn in the road like this? Whatever. Four gunned the motor and headed off into the trees to the west.

I had heard it mentioned in one of DevilDog's YouTube videos that motorcycles in Day Z are very delicate. So, I took special care not to bang into any trees or rocks. I just buzzed my way through the trees until up ahead I thought I saw the field I'd need to cross just before the next deer stand. Not wanting to alert the zeds, I stopped the bike, killed the engine, and crawled Four forward to the treeline.

Sure enough, this was it. Just across the field was the stand, and there were a few zeds milling about. I'm glad I'd stopped the bike when I did. I crawled Four across the field and checked the stand. The only loot worth mentioning was two soda cans. Four drank the one he was carrying around and then took one of these to replace it.

My objectives for the day completed, I bid farewell to the mystery motorcycle, crawled Four between two trees, and disconnected.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 44/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Look for farms and deer stands as Four moves westward along the northern half of the map.

[1Macready 6]

Wednesday 7/4:

I had only a little window of time in which to play, and I decided before logging in that Four's next objective would be two deer stands to the NW, straddling the road north into Gvozdno. So, I moved him out in a generally NW direction, altering course to follow the contours of the tree cover as needed. Despite only having one landmark to use to orient myself - a road Four crossed early in the trip, I found the first of the two deer stands without any trouble. And inside, Four found... night vision goggles! Oh, wait. I'm daydreaming again. He actually found precisely nothing at all, except for the splintery boards of the deer stand.

At this point, given my new zombie euthanasia policy, I decided that I'd drop a few of the military zeds in the area of the stand to see if they carried anything interesting. And, generally speaking, they do not. Four headed out to try finding the next of the deer stands after raising his zed count to 48 killed.

Despite the fact that the next of the stands was only a short distance away on a W-NW heading, with the Gvozdno road as a landmark en route, I had a devil of a time locating it. Backtrack here, backtrack there, lie prone at the treeline sighting landmarks, etc, and still I just wasn't finding it. I had literally just resolved myself mentally to giving up and moving on when I finally spotted a military zed. I'd found my mark. Inside the stand, there was a DMR mag, a box of painkillers, and M1014 slugs, all of which Four ignored.

Well, I hadn't found much worth having, but I had succeeded in relocating Four into the wilds south of Gvozdno and E-SE of Devil's Castle. That left me with a number of options in terms of what to do next.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 48/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Look for farms and deer stands as Four moves westward along the northern half of the map.

Wednesday 7/4, part 2:

For this session, I thought that I would head Four south, swing by a deer stand north of Altar, and then pivot SW to one of the ponds NE of the Old Fields in order to replenish my water. I'd finish by heading N-NW to the deer stand along the road east of Grishino.

Finding the first stand offered a bit of difficulty and involved taking Four out into the open quite a bit more than I find comfortable. But today this area seemed completely free of other players, and the journey passed uneventfully. Upon arriving at the deer stand, there was no loot to be had except for some flares, which was disappointing. Four pocketed the flares and moved on.

Even though the pond I was heading for was located to the SW, I moved Four back into the trees north of the deer stand in order to take advantage of the cover they provided as I moved him west. Right at the point where two of the roads east of Grishino meet, there was a spur of trees which offered some cover as Four traversed a field to the SW in order to make his final approach to the pond. Once there, he drank the second of his two water bottles, and then filled them both.

After tracing the same spur of trees back to the NE, Four recrossed the road, and then followed along it toward Grishino within the cover of the treeline alongside it. As he ran along to the NW, scanning around as usual in order to keep an eye out for other survivors, he saw zombies in the field to his SW, well before reaching the area where the stand should be located. WTF? But then I spotted the answer: a helicopter crash site!

Ooh. The downed heli was right out in the open, but then, Four hadn't seen any trace of another player at any point today. Then too, he was sporting the perfect weapon for an assault on the chopper - the silenced MP5. This was an opportunity not to be passed up.

I dropped Four into a prone position and began moving him toward the chopper. There was a fairly large assortment of military zeds fanned out around it - ten at the very least. Today I'd be playing no games with slinking back and forth between them. As I advanced Four closer to the target, I took out every zed that crossed his path. One of them dropped a STANAG mag, which I left, and the rest had either nothing or just garbage.

Upon reaching the chopper and creeping around it, there seemed to be a couple of loot piles on the ground, although I couldn't actually see them. I could just tell from the inventory interaction icon popup. The first pile contained three bandages. The second contained a portion of cooked meat, a M1911 clip, and something else not particularly noteworthy. Cooked meat and bandages? It was seeming like I was sifting through the castoffs of another survivor who'd gotten here first. Four ate one of his own cooked steaks and grabbed this one as a replacement.

After circling the chopper twice, probing carefully for inventory hotspots and dropping any zeds who ventured too close, I couldn't find anything else. I did recall seeing a YouTube video of someone demonstrating one hard to find loot location within the body of the chopper, so I tried finding that. It didn't seem to be working - I kept getting a popup for the loot pile with the bandages. I activated the scroll menu... nothing. I swivelled my POV around... nothing. But then, suddenly, a different option flahsed briefly onto the screen, and then disappeared before I'd been able to read it. Slowly and carefully, I managed to relocate the hotspot, and entered the gear menu.

Ah, now here was something. It wasn't NVGs or a GPS or a Ghillie suit, all of which I fancied. But it WAS a suppressed Bizon SMG with three mags @ 64 rounds each, totalling a whopping 192 silenced rounds! Nice. Out went the flares, my Winchester, and my two remaining magazines for the Winchester. I put the Bizon SMG into my pack and its three mags into general inventory, and then moved out.

I had already burned through most of my current MP5 mag, so I decided to finish it off on my way out by taking out two last military zeds. Neither dropped anything. I reloaded the MP5 with my last mag and moved off into the safety of the trees.

From here it was a pretty easy task to locate the deer stand that was to mark the end of my current session. Upon climbing inside, I found an AKM with two magazines. No thanks! I'll stick with my Bizon, thank you very much. As a matter of fact, I should probably swap that into my primary weapon slot and stow the MP5 until I find more ammo for it. Next time. I crawled Four into the safety of some shrubs and disconnected.

Health: 12000

Zeds/Survivors/Bandits killed: 58/0/0

Future goals, in order of priority: Look for farms and deer stands as Four moves westward along the northern half of the map.

[benjaminvnelson@gmail.com 7]

Just stumbled upon this thread and I must say I enjoyed reading it. I have been playing dayz for a week now as a lone wolf and play in a very similar the same style as you.... Creeping through forests, setting objectives such as deer stands, hearing gunshots and running whilst not always being sure if they are aimed at me or not (and never seeing who fired them), occasionally going mad and killing a few zombies before going back to my safety first approach, and always debating with myself over what I will do if I actually do run into another player. It's nice to know there are others out there playing the same way. Thanks for sharing and good luck to Four!

[1Macready 6]

Just stumbled upon this thread and I must say I enjoyed reading it. I have been playing dayz for a week now as a lone wolf and play in a very similar the same style as you.... Creeping through forests' date=' setting objectives such as deer stands, hearing gunshots and running whilst not always being sure if they are aimed at me or not (and never seeing who fired them), occasionally going mad and killing a few zombies before going back to my safety first approach, and always debating with myself over what I will do if I actually do run into another player. It's nice to know there are others out there playing the same way. Thanks for sharing and good luck to Four!

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Ha! You've got a great handle for a game filled with so much death. :)

Thanks for the compliment. Good luck to you as well.