from fun to pretty much unplayable

[Guy Smiley 534]

2 hours ago, maxhewitt said:

This thread is basically existing players boasting about their success in the game whilst insisting that anyone considering playing / returning after absence (me) needs to commit to hours of research and/or private tutoring.

 

I understand all games have a learning curve but this is putting off new players from joining and slowly putting previous players off from coming back.

 

FYI all the 'how to play' guides in the beginners section are about 3 years out of date. Until the developers invest in one universal regularly updated online game manual, they can wave goodbye to any significant increases in player numbers and a sizeable community.

 

The game currently consists of people learning how to play the game over great lengths of time (see Mookie's 5000 hours), before getting bored with the lack of progression.

 

The game relies on players dying after collecting enough stash, so that they have to repeat the process again.

It's got nothing to do about boasting about success in the game.  I didn't play for a year and a half and just recently got back into DayZ.  The difference is, I followed the development and kept up with what's going on.  If people are going to be too lazy about reading some devblogs don't get all butthurt when others tell you to go read up on it.

[Solopopo 330]

The game is better now than it's ever been before. I have full confidence in the direction the developers are trying to take Day Z. Whether or not they can get it there is another matter, but the development direction is not the problem. Zombies are the threat they were always meant to be now. You say you enjoyed running around avoiding other players and zombies, while just looting and exploring. From what you are saying it seems that you would prefer a completely empty Chenenarus all to yourself. That is the exact opposite of what I want, and I'm sure it's not what other players want, and thank god it's not what BI wants. The general feeling of emptiness is what I wanted taken out above all things, and they have delivered. Your criticisms are baseless, and frankly you need to pick up a weapon and learn how to swing it. 

[bfisher 561]

On 2/14/2017 at 11:06 PM, Solopopo said:

The game is better now than it's ever been before. I have full confidence in the direction the developers are trying to take Day Z. Whether or not they can get it there is another matter, but the development direction is not the problem. Zombies are the threat they were always meant to be now. You say you enjoyed running around avoiding other players and zombies, while just looting and exploring. From what you are saying it seems that you would prefer a completely empty Chenenarus all to yourself. That is the exact opposite of what I want, and I'm sure it's not what other players want, and thank god it's not what BI wants. The general feeling of emptiness is what I wanted taken out above all things, and they have delivered. Your criticisms are baseless, and frankly you need to pick up a weapon and learn how to swing it. 

 

Personally, I've always felt that DayZ is best represented by long dull stretches of tense lonely boredom, punctuated by short periods of terror, followed by either frustration or victorious elation. 

 

 

 

[Irish. 4886]

Everyone here is sharing opinions, and isn't that fun?! 

If you agree, sure. But if you disagree, inevitably you get all worked up over nothing and take your frustrations out on things that hold no weight on what actually is wrong. If you play DayZ, and comment on the forums, you do so because either its a passion of yours or you are bored in life. If you comment on the forums, but don't even play the game.. I suppose you're simply looking for a place to interact with like minded people. In the end we are here because of one person's dream, that turned into many peoples lively-hood. A video game, that is arguably revolutionary in its concept and design. Whether or not you feel that the game is heading in the right direction, or that it is fun to play is irrelevant. YOU ARE HERE. That is all that matters. 

So enjoy your visit. Respect others, and their views. And if you're just reading this, log in and go play. Forget about life's struggles and stresses for a brief moment. Get lost in Chernarus.. live, die, survive and fight. 

 

Have fun. 

[CardinalSins 11]

 Never did I imagine this would be a 3 page topic. 

So after reading the very helpful posts from the community I figured out what is going on and yup: the game is in fact better than before.  It is more challenging, but with a little bit of basic knowledge it is very playable.

What was I missing:

the rock knife!

Here is how the game goes for me now (yeah - I still die but usually in more fun and interesting ways)

1. spawn, find a rock, make an improvised knife.  

2. turn the rag in to an arm band to make room 

3. break the glow stick and throw it to make more room

4. find an apple tree and find apples.  Eat apples until full

5. start searching for gear

at the top of the list for my search is rope.  I want an improvised bow as soon as possible.  In fact I've taken to skipping firearms b/c the bow kills zombies nicely and doesnt attract more zombies in the process.  With practice I'm even able to stand off a little from the zombie and kill from a short distance.  But the bow sucks if you miss, way slow to reload.

next up is the machete.  I used to want the fire axe but the machete gets the job done b/c it pulls out faster than the axes and you get to make more strikes with the machete than the axe.  I find and axe still because they're great for making firewood.

The usual way I get killed now is blundering in to a group of zombies. Got to Tisy and started to explore, found the military tents and as I went in 4 zombies ambushed me.  After nearly 2 hours of play - oh well.  Now I don't mind.

 

Is there a way to reload the improvised bow faster?

I'll have to look in the sharpened stick.  I missed that from my earlier browsing.

Again: thanks for all the feed back.

Edited February 26, 2017 by CardinalSins

[green_mtn_grandbob 594]

1 hour ago, CardinalSins said:

 Never did I imagine this would be a 3 page topic. 

So after reading the very helpful posts from the community I figured out what is going on and yup: the game is in fact better than before.  It is more challenging, but with a little bit of basic knowledge it is very playable.

What was I missing:

the rock knife!

Here is how the game goes for me now (yeah - I still die but usually in more fun and interesting ways)

1. spawn, find a rock, make an improvised knife.  

2. turn the rag in to an arm band to make room 

3. break the glow stick and throw it to make more room

4. find an apple tree and find apples.  Eat apples until full

5. start searching for gear

at the top of the list for my search is rope.  I want an improvised bow as soon as possible.  In fact I've taken to skipping firearms b/c the bow kills zombies nicely and doesnt attract more zombies in the process.  With practice I'm even able to stand off a little from the zombie and kill from a short distance.  But the bow sucks if you miss, way slow to reload.

next up is the machete.  I used to want the fire axe but the machete gets the job done b/c it pulls out faster than the axes and you get to make more strikes with the machete than the axe.  I find and axe still because they're great for making firewood.

The usual way I get killed now is blundering in to a group of zombies. Got to Tisy and started to explore, found the military tents and as I went in 4 zombies ambushed me.  After nearly 2 hours of play - oh well.  Now I don't mind.

 

Is there a way to reload the improvised bow faster?

I'll have to look in the sharpened stick.  I missed that from my earlier browsing.

Again: thanks for all the feed back.

Put your arrows in the hotbar for reloading the bow, use two or three hotbar slots for arrows that way you have 15 arrows at your fingertips.

[Sqeezorz 839]

A good weapon against infected is the ice ax. The key to success is not to be seen and to surprise the infected. Best sneak and attack from behind. So you can get it from 10 infected at 1 get a hit. Alternative is a branch of a good melee weapon against infected. What needs to be considered is the infected you do not hit the back, danger of spinal damage. At the bow the arrows make with the springs, these are much more precise. Thus a shot of up to 100m is possible, but with extreme elevation (~ +30 degrees)

[Mookie (original) 799]

This is a difficult game, in early access. My 5000 hours notwithstanding, I found the beginning of .61 frustrating because the environment was that much harder, and I needed to rethink my approach to things. The rain and hypothermia was especially challenging, as were the wolves. I really don't like dying, but after five or six depressing ones, I'm now sitting pretty on top of a huge shared stash (well, more of a town really...) in the far north.

So I have some sympathy for the OP and at the risk of repeating some of the things others have pointed out:

1. If you're lightly geared, don't fight zombies unless you have to. Sneak around them.

2. Stone knife is absolutely essential, as is pointy stick (at least at first).

3. Always check hunting stands and green guard houses if you can.

4. Bear in mind that loot clothing often has food, ammo and other items inside it.

5. Make sure you pick up a raincoat if you see one.

6. It helps to have friends in game. I'm happy to help you if you'd like.

7. Oh, and get off the coast. Use one of the many maps or Chernarus online to navigate your way either westwards via Svet from the east coast, or northwards from the south. Avoid wolf areas if you can.

[maxhewitt 3]

On ‎15‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 3:43 AM, Guy Smiley said:

It's got nothing to do about boasting about success in the game.  I didn't play for a year and a half and just recently got back into DayZ.  The difference is, I followed the development and kept up with what's going on.  If people are going to be too lazy about reading some devblogs don't get all butthurt when others tell you to go read up on it.

I've read the devblogs too, but that shouldn't be a necessity to get into a game. If the dev want to make this game a commercial success - which I'm fairly sure they do - they can't be forcing any possible new players to read 3ish years worth of devblogs before they're up to speed!

 

I've no doubt they will continue to work on the game and make steady progress. My fear is that by the time the game is 'finished'  - if they ever realise a 'final' version - the playerbase won't be there, and the community will be too small to sustain itself.

[Jonahhobbes23 0]

On 1/13/2017 at 8:00 AM, emuthreat said:

Smashing stones randomly until one of them has a sharp-ish edge takes about two minutes. Don't forget to wear eye protection...

 

Haha really? Having been bought up in an area with lots of flint as a kid it's really not that easy to make a sharp edge that's going to work.

 

Also all those survival shows a few years back never had anyone knapping. 

Edited March 25, 2017 by Jonahhobbes23
replying to an idiot

[emuthreat 2837]

52 minutes ago, Jonahhobbes23 said:

 

Haha really? Having been bought up in an area with lots of flint as a kid it's really not that easy to make a sharp edge that's going to work.

 

Also all those survival shows a few years back never had anyone knapping. 

I managed to make a passable obsidian arrow point on the second try when i was 11; it's not that damn hard.  I had seen a lot of examples beforehand, and learned to pick the right piece and be careful. Used a palm-sized, tetrahedral chunk of obsidian to knap it on my jeans, with zero training.

If you really wanna turn it into a pissing contest, I can show you how easy it is to rip a greenstick off a fir tree with a random chunk of roughly fractured basalt. A crude knife is easily made, Hobbes. The game just needs better balancing to reflect the difference in quality.
At this point, I keep a stack of small stones on me to always guarantee a pristine knife, and thus 90%+ cuts of meat.

[sneakydude 480]

9 hours ago, emuthreat said:

I managed to make a passable obsidian arrow point on the second try when i was 11; it's not that damn hard.  I had seen a lot of examples beforehand, and learned to pick the right piece and be careful. Used a palm-sized, tetrahedral chunk of obsidian to knap it on my jeans, with zero training.

If you really wanna turn it into a pissing contest, I can show you how easy it is to rip a greenstick off a fir tree with a random chunk of roughly fractured basalt. A crude knife is easily made, Hobbes. The game just needs better balancing to reflect the difference in quality.
At this point, I keep a stack of small stones on me to always guarantee a pristine knife, and thus 90%+ cuts of meat.

LOL EMU, just don't pee in the wind :)

 

Best survival gift i can give you.

 

[emuthreat 2837]

2 hours ago, sneakydude said:

LOL EMU, just don't pee in the wind :)

 

Best survival gift i can give you.

 

But the challenge makes success all the more rewarding.

[Sistinas1973 50]

I had been playing the game frequently since around .48 and took a long break near .51. I recently just came back about 2 months ago and it has been a stark difference in game play and approach. However, all it took was a hour browsing the forums and I was able to catch up on just about all I needed to know. The most startling changes I was welcomed with were zombies being much more dangerous and frequent. Hypothermia was the second biggest hurdle. And the third, being wolf encounters. Outside of that, the game is still as playable as it was when I first started. Meaning, loot, encounters, survival techniques, haven't really changed. As mentioned about fresh spawning in...apple trees have become a staple in my game play now. I had never once used that approach before my most recent return. It's almost a requirement to survive the first hour of a fresh spawn. Loot spawning inside cloths is a very nice addition. One I thought always needed to be added. I'm glad they did this. 

[Irish. 4886]

This thread is still a thing? 

[WOLFGEIST 122]

Honestly sound fun to me. This is what I WANT from DayZ. If everything is easy then exploring quickly becomes boring and meaningless.

[Benavides 13]

Great to see the direction the game's headed right now, balancing the fear between dying from zombies and players at the same level is what I'd like to see. However, I've never had a problem with zombies myself due to my experience.

[ShallowTech 196]

On 1/7/2017 at 9:14 AM, CardinalSins said:

It's been fun watching DayZ grow but in my opinion this latest direction isn't for me.  Before the game was fun and provided a nice escape.  Now: might as well stay in the real world at least I can win here.

I'm basically starving to death or being killed by zombies inside the first 10 minutes of play.  Might as well go play COD or something else.

 

I'll check back in a month or two and see if things improve.

Yeah man, survival is part of the game. Actually it is really not that hard to stay alive. Eat, drink and don't run in guns blazing...

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Hey, pssst, hey you, yeah you.

How we all play the game currently is mostly irrelevant.

Have nice day.

[scriptfactory 620]

12 hours ago, ☣BioHaze☣ said:

How we all play the game currently is mostly irrelevant.

The same rhetoric over and over feels condescending at this point. Q2 2017, homie. Hopefully it becomes "relevant" soon.

[boneboys 7988]

same old, same old...

OP has thanked you all for the many hints and words of advice.

Have a nice DayZ.