Home is where the barrel is.

[wacktopia 57]

I've played this game on-and-off for a couple of years and fallen in and out of love with it along it's meandering path towards beta.  I've not played in a while but when I saw 0.59 hit I decided to role a few lives and see what the crack was in Chernaus.  

 

My previous encounters in DayZ have all followed a similar pattern.  I start as a feshie with the world at my feet and end up dying in a fire looking like a special forces unit.  

1. Start fresh - the world is new! Running to survive and not caring who I run into or what I pick up.  

2. Finding loot - the joy of finding beans when starving red, a backpack so I no longer have to decide between food and ammo, yay.

3. Swagging up - start to find clothes that sort of fit together and a gun-ammo combo that match. Lie to myself that I'm happy with simple loot.  

4. Find an AK-something and hunting clothes - start to imagine myself as vigilante 

5. Hit the NWAF - leave looking like a one-man army thirsting to spray lead around the place  

6. Get bored and go looking for trouble - start cautiously but end up bored and run around in the road goading people to fight

7. Squad engages me - fire fight.  Sometimes kill them... go to 7... sometimes...

8. You are dead.  

 

It's a fun life but followed a very similar pattern each time and at every step I tried to be different but always ended up with arm fulls of automatic weapons, grenades, knives, guns, and blasting anything that moves.  That has changed.  Now I have a place to hang my hat.  A place to call home.  A town on a server server to feel linked to.  Because of barrels and persistence - how wonderful they both are together. 

 

So much has opened up to me in the game because I can dump off some stuff and have a place I am in some way tied to.  I set myself goals and missions around the map - meet new players, find a particular item, repair a car, try and kill someone with an M4, etc etc.  And it's really great.   Yeah, I could have done all these things previously but the difference now is that I have a point of reference and a consistency that I did not before and a place to put things so I don't end up like a mobile storage unit. 

 

Yesterday I was at the military base near Vybor and saw another player -- he didn't see me.  I ran through my mantra (deep breath *check*, scan for other players *check*, decide what to do *check*, run with it).  Normally the decide-what-to-do part means kill them or try to talk to them.  But yesterday was different... I decided to see where this chap was headed.   If I run around the map bringing shiny stuff back to my carefully hidden stash of barrels then perhaps this dude is too.  So, I began what is probably one of the most exciting things to do in the game and followed him across the map trying to avoid being spotted.  We even passed near another player but they appeared not to see each other.  

 

In the end I followed him through several towns as he looted all the way towards Novo' up in the north.  It was about two hours down the line and I had lost my quarry on several occasions only to see him in the distance and pick up the trail again.  The light was fading and it was turning to dusk on the server - players were dropping off.  My quarry made their way out of Novo and I was really struggling to follow his movements through the forest.  Fearful I would lose the trail all together I move much closer - down to under 100m at least.  

 

It was cloudy and with the night closing in I could barely make out his movements in the dark but through the gloom of the pines I made out his actions chopping a tree, which he then turned into a raging fire.  We were far from the town now and over a hill so I assumed we would not be disturbed.  I bobbed down next to a tree and watched him throw hunks of meat onto the fire before eating them.  I considered reaching out to start conversation but I couldn't help feel that this place was somehow familiar to him and held back.  

 

Ten minutes passed and he appeared to be sitting still next to the fire as it died down.  The one golden glow that filled the forest was now fading and I at last saw him move again.   This time I tracked him a few hundred meters toward a collection of pines grouped together.  He doubled back a few times and turned on a head touch - at one point I swear he should have seen me and I began to duck behind a tree and pull the AK off my back but he seemed to be pre-occupied with a group of trees and rocks.  It was here he finally revealed his stash as I caught the slightest glimpse of cylindrical shapes pushed up underneath the branches of the tree.  

 

My heart began to race and I instinctively began lining up the back of his head in my PSO sights.  At this range the kill was inevitable.  The automatic fire would tear his body to shreds.  But right as my trigger finger readied itself to squeeze and end the story for this person I hesitated.  He doesn't know I'm here.   I almost said it out loud I surprised myself with the profoundness of my realisation. 

 

As he rummaged around in the barrels, unaware of his closeness to death, I marked the location on my map and slipped away back down to the edge of Novo and out to a quiet place to spend the night.  I would return in the morning from the opposite approach down a ravine and under cover to scope around and inspect the barrels.  My quarry appeared to be gone and I gently pried open the containers to inspect a cornucopia of treasures.  However, I did not touch the contents and made special care to replace the lids and leave all as I found it.  

 

Of course, I will return to these barrels and monitor his progress.  Unknowingly he is working for me, collecting my loot, filling my barrels until such time that I choose to take it.  

Edited January 5, 2016 by wacktopia

[Mad Vlad 43]

Great story hombre. I've been doing this myself, tracking observing, finding camps to mark the coordinates for monitoring.

It brings a whole new aspect for sure.

[darkrider400 76]

This was......invigorating......My plan was to always toy with my prey for a bit, shoot near them a few times, watch them freak out, and follow them around, such and such. You have opened my eyes to something much larger, survivor. I thank you with beans.

[Mookie (original) 799]

Great post - this is what the game should be about. That, and not being sure whether someone is following you....

[Red_Ensign 990]

lol someone left me a fal and ammo today at my camp.  I'm guessing that wasn't you.  XD

[treetop82 59]

I've played this game on-and-off for a couple of years and fallen in and out of love with it along it's meandering path towards beta.  I've not played in a while but when I saw 0.59 hit I decided to role a few lives and see what the crack was in Chernaus.  

 

My previous encounters in DayZ have all followed a similar pattern.  I start as a feshie with the world at my feet and end up dying in a fire looking like a special forces unit.  

1. Start fresh - the world is new! Running to survive and not caring who I run into or what I pick up.  

2. Finding loot - the joy of finding beans when starving red, a backpack so I no longer have to decide between food and ammo, yay.

3. Swagging up - start to find clothes that sort of fit together and a gun-ammo combo that match. Lie to myself that I'm happy with simple loot.  

4. Find an AK-something and hunting clothes - start to imagine myself as vigilante 

5. Hit the NWAF - leave looking like a one-man army thirsting to spray lead around the place  

6. Get bored and go looking for trouble - start cautiously but end up bored and run around in the road goading people to fight

7. Squad engages me - fire fight.  Sometimes kill them... go to 7... sometimes...

8. You are dead.  

 

It's a fun life but followed a very similar pattern each time and at every step I tried to be different but always ended up with arm fulls of automatic weapons, grenades, knives, guns, and blasting anything that moves.  That has changed.  Now I have a place to hang my hat.  A place to call home.  A town on a server server to feel linked to.  Because of barrels and persistence - how wonderful they both are together. 

 

So much has opened up to me in the game because I can dump off some stuff and have a place I am in some way tied to.  I set myself goals and missions around the map - meet new players, find a particular item, repair a car, try and kill someone with an M4, etc etc.  And it's really great.   Yeah, I could have done all these things previously but the difference now is that I have a point of reference and a consistency that I did not before and a place to put things so I don't end up like a mobile storage unit. 

 

Yesterday I was at the military base near Vybor and saw another player -- he didn't see me.  I ran through my mantra (deep breath *check*, scan for other players *check*, decide what to do *check*, run with it).  Normally the decide-what-to-do part means kill them or try to talk to them.  But yesterday was different... I decided to see where this chap was headed.   If I run around the map bringing shiny stuff back to my carefully hidden stash of barrels then perhaps this dude is too.  So, I began what is probably one of the most exciting things to do in the game and followed him across the map trying to avoid being spotted.  We even passed near another player but they appeared not to see each other.  

 

In the end I followed him through several towns as he looted all the way towards Novo' up in the north.  It was about two hours down the line and I had lost my quarry on several occasions only to see him in the distance and pick up the trail again.  The light was fading and it was turning to dusk on the server - players were dropping off.  My quarry made their way out of Novo and I was really struggling to follow his movements through the forest.  Fearful I would lose the trail all together I move much closer - down to under 100m at least.  

 

It was cloudy and with the night closing in I could barely make out his movements in the dark but through the gloom of the pines I made out his actions chopping a tree, which he then turned into a raging fire.  We were far from the town now and over a hill so I assumed we would not be disturbed.  I bobbed down next to a tree and watched him throw hunks of meat onto the fire before eating them.  I considered reaching out to start conversation but I couldn't help feel that this place was somehow familiar to him and held back.  

 

Ten minutes passed and he appeared to be sitting still next to the fire as it died down.  The one golden glow that filled the forest was now fading and I at last saw him move again.   This time I tracked him a few hundred meters toward a collection of pines grouped together.  He doubled back a few times and turned on a head touch - at one point I swear he should have seen me and I began to duck behind a tree and pull the AK off my back but he seemed to be pre-occupied with a group of trees and rocks.  It was here he finally revealed his stash as I caught the slightest glimpse of cylindrical shapes pushed up underneath the branches of the tree.  

 

My heart began to race and I instinctively began lining up the back of his head in my PSO sights.  At this range the kill was inevitable.  The automatic fire would tear his body to shreds.  But right as my trigger finger readied itself to squeeze and end the story for this person I hesitated.  He doesn't know I'm here.   I almost said it out loud I surprised myself with the profoundness of my realisation. 

 

As he rummaged around in the barrels, unaware of his closeness to death, I marked the location on my map and slipped away back down to the edge of Novo and out to a quiet place to spend the night.  I would return in the morning from the opposite approach down a ravine and under cover to scope around and inspect the barrels.  My quarry appeared to be gone and I gently pried open the containers to inspect a cornucopia of treasures.  However, I did not touch the contents and made special care to replace the lids and leave all as I found it.  

 

Of course, I will return to these barrels and monitor his progress.  Unknowingly he is working for me, collecting my loot, filling my barrels until such time that I choose to take it.  

 

This is what makes DayZ special. It is a sandbox and the developers are the ones adding sand. The players create the rest... I love stalking fools and not pulling the trigger. It takes skill and brains to stalk but not kill, and to follow an individual all the way to a camp w/o him discovering your presence. Well done.

[yazar8 584]

wacktopia, will you be updating this thread?

[wacktopia 57]

wacktopia, will you be updating this thread?

 

Certainly can do  :)  

[Guest]

Just reading this puts a smile on my face. KOS becomes all to familiar these days unfortunately, so reading how others play from time to time that do not do that, make the my next login something to look forward to.

[Jex 1104]

Love it OP great story!