A Few Noob Questions

[leeish 3]

So I've played through a few deaths and I feel I'm starting to get the hang of things. I've died to my share of bandits, dick heads, elements, and zombies, but through it all I have a few questions that after investigating still remain unanswered.

 

1. Is there any "trick" to building up stuff. I feel like I'm full within 20 mins of spawn and have no real way to establish myself and build up materials. (I know is's alpha and I'll probably die/wipe anyway). I get persistent servers I think, and if I stick to them I only have to worry about their resets that happen occasionally, but what then. I can only hold so much.
2. Item damage seems very random. Is this an alpha thing? Sometimes I one hit zombies with prod, crowbard, etc, and other times it can take multiple hits, and sometimes, so many it seems pointless to fight.
3. Does quality of item affect damage or just longevity?
4. Is it realistic to "live" for multiple days? I see people with a ton of gear is that from just knowing where to go and playing for an hour or is that truly found and saved up stuff. If it's long, whats a trick to get established.
5. Sometimes I find stuff and when I try to pick it up it goes to my 1-0 inventory as white but stays on the ground. Then I mess with it a few times and finally it goes into my inventory. Is there a trick to picking up things. I feel like its simply a alpha issue. I've picked up like 6 stoves in one sitting this way.
6. Are there things you can't do in 3rd person view?
7. I happened on a server that I swear was like a loot farm. Didn't like it. Is this a thing?
8. Where the F can I get a water container.

[Scarcifer 102]

Day Z does not like to give-ith;It might give a taste then it does its notorious thing and take-ith's what you tasted.

 

The spawns are complete random.Some are just more then likely to spawn certain types of items at them.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Scarcifer

[leeish 3]

Day does not like to give-ith;It might give a taste then it does its notorious thing and take-ith's what you tasted.

 

The spawns are complete random.Some are just more then likely to spawn certain types of items at them.

what?

[tobias winfro 305]

1. The only trick is finding a good spot to stash it, when you find that spot be cautious and scope it out for a bit to see the traffic through that area. Make sure its off the beaten path

2. The battery goes dead on the cattle prod and stun baton easy, like maybe 4 or 5 hits

3. Not sure if item wear has much affect at this point, it more than likely will in the future

4. Yes it is realistic to live for days/weeks/months, the secret is being cautious. Some people need little to no reason to kill you,scope out the area before moving in. Don't play the game like its a run and gun fps until you get the hang of things. If you meet fellow survivors and you wish to exchange hostilities, by all means do so but don't cry hacker if you get beat. Learn from previous failures and grow from them.

5. Yes I assume its an alpha thing to as it happens to me as well

6. You can peak around corners and over walls, some feel this is cheating because you extend your field of view in an unatural manner. This is merely matter of choice issue

7. It was, I havent seen one in awhile though. Loot wasnt being spawned properly in some areas and you would find a loot farm, while some places like costal and spawn locations were completely deviod of loot

8. Do you mean a canteen or water bottle? They spawn in houses, fire stations, police stations, barracks, military tents, industrial buildings, sheds and vehicle spawns

[nexventor 429]

 

So I've played through a few deaths and I feel I'm starting to get the hang of things. I've died to my share of bandits, dick heads, elements, and zombies, but through it all I have a few questions that after investigating still remain unanswered.

 

Hey man welcome! Death is a part and parcel of the game. Never get attached to your gear!

 

• Is there any "trick" to building up stuff. I feel like I'm full within 20 mins of spawn and have no real way to establish myself and build up materials. (I know is's alpha and I'll probably die/wipe anyway). I get persistent servers I think, and if I stick to them I only have to worry about their resets that happen occasionally, but what then. I can only hold so much.

 

Inventory management can be a cruel mistress. Some people like to have the big huge mountain backpackers filled with all sorts of crap, others like myself try not to wear a backpack at all. The answers to these questions really comes down to what sort of play style and what you as a player find is important. For me it's an evolution, at the start I will be picking up the first bag I can find and pretty much every single piece of ammo till I have found a gun and hopefully the right ammo. From there I start ditching any ammo I won't need and only keep ammo for the current gun and my "end game" gun. All food at the start I'll eat straight away unless I can't open it but once I am fully kitted all I carry is a bag of rice, a can of peaches or powder milk, and 2-3 canteens of water, that's it. You will always need bandages but I prefer rags at the moment as you can use one to make a splint instead of using a whole bandage (4 uses). Everything else is really fluff, you don't need any camping gear, you don't need cooking gear unless that is your thing. If you wan't more help post up a screen shot of what you are carrying when you are full.

 

• Item damage seems very random. Is this an alpha thing? Sometimes I one hit zombies with prod, crowbard, etc, and other times it can take multiple hits, and sometimes, so many it seems pointless to fight.

 

Yes it is an alpha thing, beta is when they balance and bug fix. Get an axe ASAP, the fireaxe is OHK and the smaller axe (which I prefer as it doesn't stick out as much) is a 2HK but sometimes it does 1HK. All other melee weapons are only until you find an axe.

 

• Does quality of item affect damage or just longevity?

 

 Yes it does but not 100% sure if it works all the time, still a bit buggy

 

 

• Is it realistic to "live" for multiple days? I see people with a ton of gear is that from just knowing where to go and playing for an hour or is that truly found and saved up stuff. If it's long, whats a trick to get established.

 

Absolutely, I can't even remember the last time I was a fresho! The trick to getting established is simple but yet very few new players take note and do it. 

1. Get off the coast immediately, run inland
2. Check out a town from a far before running and looting
3. Find a weapon ASAP, should be first priority, Second is to get healthy status (eating and drinking) and third is everything else
4. Take the path less traveled. Go to the smaller out of the way towns.
5. Never interact with anyone unless you have the upper hand
6. Know the high PvP areas and stay away until you can effectively defend yourself
7. Find some people to play with, the game is so much more enjoyable

There are a lot more but this is a good start.

 

• Sometimes I find stuff and when I try to pick it up it goes to my 1-0 inventory as white but stays on the ground. Then I mess with it a few times and finally it goes into my inventory. Is there a trick to picking up things. I feel like its simply a alpha issue. I've picked up like 6 stoves in one sitting this way.

 

Yeah still a bit buggy, just have to deal with it. If you can't pick something up go into your inventory use the mouse to pick up the item and then throw it to the left of the vicinity box. It will reappear in the vicinity box and then you should be able to pick it up.

 

• Are there things you can't do in 3rd person view?

 

Do yourself a favour and play only on 1PP servers. The experience is far more thrilling!

 

• I happened on a server that I swear was like a loot farm. Didn't like it. Is this a thing?

 

This is an issue with persistent servers and hopefully will be addressed shortly. Don't play on persistent servers until it is fixed

 

• Where the F can I get a water container.

 

They are everywhere in house, cafes, sheds. 

 

HTH!

[leeish 3]

Thanks to the comments. A few more though. Occasionally I get a "You have not received a message in x seconds" counter. Is this the server restarting? Seems I usually have to log off that server and go in a different one or back in the same one and typically it spawns me a small distance from where I left.

 

How much can I "store" or setup a base? If I drop a bunch of crap in a single spot, how long will it stay. Should I look for one of these tents? If I get one will it stay. I've read different things.

 

I really want to get an axe and farming equipment and try to setup shop outside a decent town and farm, kill animals, store water in canteens/bottles etc. Is this possible or will my stuff keep disappearing. (I get it it's alpha) but is there supposed to be a way to have your stuff stick around? I've read different things about max item counts, persistence in some things but not others. I feel like without good persistence the alpha is a bit limiting, but will be so awesome once they get it figured out.

 

WTF do I use the pot for. Do I put water and vegetables in it or something? Does it improve food in anyway or sort of pointless.

 

Is there anyway to "craft" a knife of some sort for skinning animals or is that only found.

 

I'm having a real hard time getting around. I have no clue how to tell where I spawn. I'm fine just wandering around and roaming to different cities, but I'd love to know where I'm at.

 

And F you bandits who KoS. Last time I trust anyone.

[nillie 30]

Identifying where you are is verry important. Once you know where you are, you can use the official Standalone DayZ map (google it, its verry usefull) to find out what kind of items could be spawning close to you, where there is military loot, where you can find agricultural gear, where there are drinking wells or ponds etc etc.

 

Its real easy to find out where you are using this map. It requires some alt-tabbing so always make sure you are standing in a safe and secure place when checking out the map, and that here are absolutely no zombies or players in your area.

 

http://dayzdb.com/map/chernarusplus

All you have to do at first, is to find a road or railway. It doesnt really matter which direction you follow it, you will usually end up in a city either way. Near the edge of most cities or villages there are town name signs, spelling the name in russian. You can also find out the name of the city if there is a train station. It is spelled on the roof of the trainstation. Please note that names will be in russian. You can use the following list to figure out what is the english name of the town you are in :

 

http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Towns_and_Cities

 

Then click on it to see where it lies on the map. It will usually say North-East or something like that, so you know where to look on the map. Once you have figured out where you are, you can identify roads, buildings and landmarks. A pristine compass may help you to identify north and south, and than you should be able to navigate your way to other towns and cities in the area, building up a mental map along the way. After running around Chernarus for a while, using a the standalone map and compass, you will memorize a lot of areas. And in the end, you wont even need to use a map and a compass, and you can navigate using your instinct and the position of the sun...

 

Note that navigation is something that comes naturally to some, while others just cant seem to get the hang of it. This method is how i learned to navigate and it worked verry well for me. May not be good for you. Having played games like the ArmA series or operation flashpoint is also handy, so you know how to run with a character without slowly going off course, and end up in the wrong spot.

 

If you want to find out more about how tents work and how persistance works, click on my name and see my topics. A asked a similar question a while ago, and got some nice answers in my topic. Im sure it will help you as well.

 

You can craft a knife from stones :http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Improvised_Knife

But pristine machetes and kitchen knives are pretty common in residential areas, i usually prefer to just pick up a pristine kitchen knife.

 

Skinning and quartering animals, like some other actions, is currently bugged apparently. Some have no problems with it, but for me the action is always bugged so i cant farm meat at the moment, and thus  i cant coock it either. But if you can get meat, you should be able to add it to a fire with stones to coock it over the fire. The pot works with either a gas stove, or a coocking tripod over a fire, and both dont seem to work verry well at the moment, so i woudlnt drag one around for now. Just try and coock in fire. You can find guides for crafting, trapping, coocking etc. everywhere, just use google search !

 

And yes, everybody seems to Kill on Sight. And now you will do it yourself, and the circle is complete. I usually try to avoid getting into conflicts all together, so if i spot a lonely player without a firearm, i will just let him be and move off. If you are holding a gun and get too close, you are going down. The trick is to get a group of people you can trust. Bandits and lone wolfs are less likely to engage or be hostile against a group of people, and they will usually back off or try to just talk without shooting. Even if one of your group gets killed, the rest of the guys can help you start over again...

 

So ask some friends to join the game with you, and find some servers you like playing on.

Good luck, from a fellow new player.

Edited January 13, 2015 by nillie