Clearing this up: DayZ is NOT years afterwards

[bobotype3334 160]

So I see many people holding the mistaken notion that DayZ is set "years" or "several years" after the outbreak of zombies and collapse of society.

No. The game is set in a period of days after the outbreak, that's why it's called Day Z, right? If you don't believe my say-so, here's the in-game evidence:

• Unrotten, fresh fruit in house pantries, unless we're going to say there are Fruit Fairies that place fresh fruit in houses. http://www.ehow.com/info_8373099_fast-apples-rot.html
• Cereal, which definitely wouldn't last "at least several years" http://www.eatbydate...xpiration-date/
• Usable petrol, which decays hugely in the period of 1-3 years http://www.pistonhea...47664&r=8242567
• Clothing in open air buildings in a wet climate which hasn't gone mouldy or rotten. This goes for paper too, decays in about 5 weeks in damp.
• Potplant in town IIRC, which isn't dead, someone's been watering it in the last week or so.

If anyone wants to bring up the run down buildings as evidence of years of decay, just remember Chernarus is basically Afghanistan: Everyone is poor, and there's been civil war for months. The buildings are crapholes because nobody was taking care of them even before they were zombified.
Days is long enough for looters to clear the supermarkets and only leave scraps, but short enough for fruit in people's houses to still be edible.

 

So remember when you make feedback, DayZ occurs at maximum 2 or so weeks after the zombie outbreak. NOT YEARS.
 

[Johnny Depth 167]

Thank for clearing this up 

[doctorbadsign 645]

Personally I don't think they have given much thought to the consistency as far as the time setting of the game goes. Parts of it indicate that the game occurs very soon after the initial events, other parts indicate that it is some time after... I think they go with an aesthetic that looks good, and add items that seem cool. Doesn't seem like anyone goes "does this fit with a recent event or a while after?"...

[SkrooLoose (DayZ) 143]

- fruit was waxed / irradiated

- petrol had fuel saver additive added

- cereal has preservatives

- clothes are poly - paper had time to dry in between getting wet

- pixies and fairies were watering the plants

[Whyherro123 2283]

So I see many people holding the mistaken notion that DayZ is set "years" or "several years" after the outbreak of zombies and collapse of society.

No. The game is set in a period of days after the outbreak, that's why it's called Day Z, right? If you don't believe my say-so, here's the in-game evidence:

• Unrotten, fresh fruit in house pantries, unless we're going to say there are Fruit Fairies that place fresh fruit in houses. http://www.ehow.com/info_8373099_fast-apples-rot.html
• Cereal, which definitely wouldn't last "at least several years" http://www.eatbydate...xpiration-date/
• Usable petrol, which decays hugely in the period of 1-3 years http://www.pistonhea...47664&r=8242567
• Clothing in open air buildings in a wet climate which hasn't gone mouldy or rotten. This goes for paper too, decays in about 5 weeks in damp.
• Potplant in town IIRC, which isn't dead, someone's been watering it in the last week or so.

If anyone wants to bring up the run down buildings as evidence of years of decay, just remember Chernarus is basically Afghanistan: Everyone is poor, and there's been civil war for months. The buildings are crapholes because nobody was taking care of them even before they were zombified.

Days is long enough for looters to clear the supermarkets and only leave scraps, but short enough for fruit in people's houses to still be edible.

 

So remember when you make feedback, DayZ occurs at maximum 2 or so weeks after the zombie outbreak. NOT YEARS.

 

I agree, but for different reasons.

 

1) TOTALLY agree about the fruit thing. Bannanas, kiwi, and oranges are tropical/semitropical fruits, and would not grow in Chernarus. Therefore, there has been international trade within the last week, 2 weeks at most.

2)Same about cereal

3) Same about gasoline

4 + 5) ditto

 

6) look at crops in fields. Wheat is still coiled up in fields, and pumpkins and other garden crops remain unpicked at pretty much optimum ripeness. If it has been months, much less years, those plants would have rotted away by now.

 

7) Roads. Chernarus (basing it upon the Czech Republic, which is the base for the physical geography of Chernarus), is on roughly the same latitude as my home of New England, as well as being of similar oceanic conditions, topography, vegetation, climate, etc. Therefore, I am directly comparing Chernarus to New England. In late Autumn and Winter, we get these things called "frost heaves", where water makes its way under tarmac and freezes, cracking the tarmac apart and causing it to lift up. As far as I can tell, there aren't any of these in Chernarus. 

 

8) Buildings are not a good indicator of time. My house is in pretty shitty shape, and as far as I know, there hasn't been any TSC-level apocalypses recently.

[Whyherro123 2283]

- fruit was waxed / irradiated

- petrol had fuel saver additive added

- cereal has preservatives

- clothes are poly - paper had time to dry in between getting wet

- pixies and fairies were watering the plants

1) Even "waxed" (is that a European term? I've never heard it called that before) will rot eventually. In my house, apples go soft in about 5 days, and rot in 1 1/2 weeks.

 

2) That 1/3 year figure is with fuel saver added. Unleaded gasoline degrades pretty fast.

 

3) Still rots. 

 

4) Maybe, except the overwhelming majority of clothing in Day Z is explicitly named as a cotton blend : P. Does nobody read the loot descriptions?

 

5) har har har

[bobotype3334 160]

Personally I don't think they have given much thought to the consistency as far as the time setting of the game goes. Parts of it indicate that the game occurs very soon after the initial events, other parts indicate that it is some time after... I think they go with an aesthetic that looks good, and add items that seem cool. Doesn't seem like anyone goes "does this fit with a recent event or a while after?"...

To me it looks like most of it meshes with ArmA canon. You have normal items like motorbike gear and GPS, modern stuff a few people would be able to afford in a developing eastern European country. You have farm stuff which is right at home in a Second World farm country, you have SAS(?) military gear and CDF military gear, which references either foreign intervention in the civil war, or other countries helping contain the zombies.

There are no real indications the game takes place a long time afterwards at all. Of course, Tactical Bacon cans are a joke, and Hoxton masks were a shoutout to the Payday devs. Those are exceptions rather than the rule.

Edited December 2, 2014 by bobotype3334

[doctorbadsign 645]

To me it looks like most of it meshes with ArmA canon. You have normal items like motorbike gear and GPS, modern stuff a few people would be able to afford in a developing eastern European country. You have farm stuff which is right at home in a Second World farm country, you have SAS(?) military gear and CDF military gear, which references either foreign intervention in the civil war, or other countries helping contain the zombies.

There are no real indications the game takes place some time afterwards at all. Of course, Tactical Bacon cans are a joke, and Hoxton masks were a shoutout to the Payday devs. Those are exceptions rather than the rule.

 

I'd say heavily rusted vehicles all about the place gives some indication that a lot of time has passed, or at least could be used to argue that point. And the buildings seem to be going for that abandoned post apocalyptic look, because the designers seem to like that aesthetic---and that's fine. I just don't think they are particularly bound by making things entirely consistent which is precisely why people can use anything to argue their opinion of when the game is set.

[skoms 86]

 

If anyone wants to bring up the run down buildings as evidence of years of decay, just remember Chernarus is basically Afghanistan: Everyone is poor, and there's been civil war for months. T

 

 

Haha, no.

 

Chernarus is not basically Afghanistan. Its actually very different. Charnarus is based on Czech Republic, and that's a whole other country. In fact its not even on the same continent. People in Chech is not poor, some are of course, but in general they do ok.They sure as hell has nice buildings there.

 

I was in Brno two weeks ago, and i can promise i would have instantly known if something was wrong if i somehow ended up in Afghanistan.

Edited December 2, 2014 by skoms

[Twixxer 159]

What about the rusty cars? Don't say they could've been laying there for long time before outbreak, I'm talking about the ones crashed on side of roads and stuff. Some of them are completely rusted up. Surely it wasn't that rusty when it got crashed and left.

If it was set few days after the outbreak, the loot would be everywhere since there wouldn't be many people to take it (remember, only zombie-immune people are players, so there aren't magical invisible NPC survivors who could've taken the loot)

What about the airplane crashed into Chernogorsk Hotel? It's completely rusted up, it's clearly been laying there for at least a year. 

What about the huge, crashed ship? It clearly crashed due to the zombie outbreak, because if it didn't the containers and stuff wouldn't be laying around. And that ship is all broken and rusted up. Must've been sitting there for years.


You should judge the time the developers are going for by looking at their new additions since the standalone came out, at those that weren't in the mod (such as the rusty cars, planes, ships etc). Just because there are a few unrealistic details such as fruit and veggies don't mean it's set few days after. Fruit and vegetables can be farmed even after outbreak.


 

[NinjaTurkey 255]

I always thought it was a few days to a couple of weeks after. There is alot of evidence to suggest it as has been pointed out.

However can we realy talk about it fitting in with Arma canon? Because since Arma and the outbreak, a few rather large cities sprouted out of the ground. Pretty sure they wernt there before. Dayz standalone and Arma are similar but not realy part of the same universe.

[PongoZ 127]

lol

I have a 5 gallon gas can I have been using in my lawn mower for years now. Are you sure it degrades like you surmise...

 

Nature waters the pumpkin patches, the pumpkins grow without anyone watching...

 

The fruit in the houses is just dumb. 

 

The fields look like they were tended last week, 

The houses look like someone just walked out of them.

 

I agree with the OP, but not because of some consistent message of DAYZ Cannon from the devs that is clear in the design elements of the game, but because I think most of the stuff looks at most a month abandoned. And the stuff that looks more abandoned then that, I attribute to it being in eastern europe.

[Accolyte 1727]

Does any of this really matter though?  :|

[comikz 218]

lol

I have a 5 gallon gas can I have been using in my lawn mower for years now. Are you sure it degrades like you surmise...

 

Nature waters the pumpkin patches, the pumpkins grow without anyone watching...

 

The fruit in the houses is just dumb. 

 

The fields look like they were tended last week, 

The houses look like someone just walked out of them.

 

I agree with the OP, but not because of some consistent message of DAYZ Cannon from the devs that is clear in the design elements of the game, but because I think most of the stuff looks at most a month abandoned. And the stuff that looks more abandoned then that, I attribute to it being in eastern europe.

 

He meant the actual Gasoline breaks down, not what it is inside of...

[DMentMan 707]

its 17 years after, still.

[LegitOldSchool 261]

If this was years after the outbreak, roads would be in much poorer conditions, and vegetation would have at least partially overgrown some parts of the less traveled road system.

[yazar8 584]

I guess you're too concerned.

 

The epipen expiration date is April 2015 (visible on the epipen). If we can still use it, that means we are somewhere before April 2015.

 

 

 

The old epipen in the SA was from the mod. It had no expiration date that was readable and looked like this:

 

 

The new one with the exp date was added with .48 and look like this:

 

Now, I'm saying that the fact that epipens are still usable means it isn't 2015.  I have no idea what the effects of an expired epipen would be, but since they work fine in game I'll presume they are not past expiration. That should mean the game takes place up to 18 months, or 1.5 years before 2015; from July 2013 to December 2014

 

Edited December 2, 2014 by Yazar8

[calabam 55]

Who actually cares this much .. ITS A GAME !!

[pilgrim* 3514]

its 17 years after, still.

 

Can't be - sorry - tangles of grass and bushes, whole trees, would be growing everywhere in the city streets.

 

Look at photos of Pripyat, Chernobyl on the web (evacuated in 2 days in 1986)  or photos of the condition of the buildings and environment (e.g. car-parks) of the Sarajevo 1984 Olympics

- you'll find this real life photo-info with a 5 minute search.

 

But newly-added DayZ building interiors have a more abandoned and open to the weather look, I think. Interiors decay very fast if the windows are left broken in this climate. Perhaps the DayZ artists have included elements from those photos in their baseline ideas.. whatever, its cool as far as I'm concerned.

 

If you want to know what happened before Day Z, you"re on a looser. Check these forums for 2 years of arguments about it.

 

xx pilgrim

Edited December 2, 2014 by pilgrim

[pillock 850]

Does any of this really matter though?  :|

 

Obviously yes.

[Irish. 4886]

I awoke this morning so distraught..

 

Thank you for bringing clarity and peace into my troubled world OP.  :|

[pilgrim* 3514]

I awoke this morning so distraught..

 

Thank you for bringing clarity and peace into my troubled world OP.  :|

 

In fact Irish caused the apocalypse.

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

In fact Irish caused the apocalypse.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome?  :o

[pilgrim* 3514]

Irritable Bowel Syndrome?  :o

 

I heard he was a distraught on-loan specialist electrician - with irritable bowl syndrome - who cross-wired some buttons one day because he couldn't read the Cyrillic manual properly but didn't like to admit it. Many of us are about the same on that.

 

later, someone pressed the "Containment" button

 

.. just something I heard.. only a rumor..   he doesn't like to talk about it much, so I don't ask .. (I mean, about the IBS, natch - he's a cool guy)

  He used to hide behind buildings a lot, but now when he's feeling better he walks around disguised as a bush.  http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/216187-im-really-loving-the-new-ghillie-camo/#entry2172386

Edited December 2, 2014 by pilgrim

[blaf 63]

Does any of this really matter though?  :|

It does, its about the authenticity of the game world.