My first night... (Tales from a Newbie)

[Gamewiz 12]

Well, it's official. This game turned me into a zombie in real life. Loaded this game around 7pm PST, didn't get off until 2:30am this morning and got a whopping 3 hours of sleep before I had to head to work. Damn you DayZ, damn you.

Figured I'd post some feedback here regarding this mod and perhaps my little feedback, both regarding gameplay and just my overall experiences within the game my first night, will give some helpful insight to other new players about what they should and should not expect. And perhaps my lack of experience in this game might give a few laughs for those veteran players out there reading this.

So, let's start from the beginning! Stumbled across this mod in another game forum and it immediately peaked my interest. I've always wondered why someone hadn't made a true sandbox-style MMO survival zombie apocalypse game. I mean, who wouldn't want to live in post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies and little hope for survival? So after reading up a little on this mod, understanding that it was still in Alpha and that I would have to drop $30 for the core game I'll probably never play, I started the download process as I continued my research about how to play the game.

I posted a thread here: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29706-the-game-of-my-dreams/ just to get whatever tips I could while I continued my own research. Besides, it was going to take a couple hours for me to download this game on Steam, so I had time to kill.

Once I had gotten ArmA II installed, I installed Six Launcher and started looking over all of the servers. Choosing one that was fairly full with minimal ping, I jumped right into the thick of it thinking I knew plenty enough about the game (due to my research during the download process) to be just fine. Boy, was I wrong.

First off, I think the game decided to toy with me. Only later did I realize this but it had spawned me right on the Electro docks surrounded by about a dozen zombies. At first I didn't realize this because as soon as it loaded I opened up my preferences to adjust video settings, look over the controls, etc. When I suddenly heard a groaning noise I closed out the preferences windows and saw a zombie stumbling right in front of me. I freaked out and immediately stood up (bad move) and took off, only to realize that in doing so I attracted every single zombie on that dock. Naturally, after running around the area having no idea where I was, where I should go, or how I could shake the walkers, I eventually succumbed to the inevitable. Round 1: Gamewiz = 0, Zombies = 1.

Second spawn was much kinder to me. I still have no idea where I was (at the time I decided to refuse to look at any outside map like http://dayzdb.com/map#4.101.134) and I had thought I remembered reading somewhere that the clouds always traveled east, so I THINK I was somewhere on the eastern side of the map. Checking my bag to see what I started with (and gasping with unbelief that I didn't start with any sort of weapon... could I at least punch a zombie in the face??) I took off in a sprint to get to the cover of the woods. Once there, I began a slow and steady trek, looking for any signs of a town, road, deer stand, outhouse, anything.

After around 15 minutes of wandering I crested a hill and spotted what looked to be an open barn down in a valley, with a couple smaller buildings nearby. Being overly cautious a crouched my way down the hill until I got close enough to the barn to see a couple walkers and hoppers (my names for the types of zombies based upon how they move). I moved to a crawl and got inside of the barn to discover a plethora of goodies. A couple bandages, a Pepsi, Macaroni, hatchet, and... shotgun!! I first picked up the axe and, after struggling with the painful interface, got it to equip so that I was holding it. When I went to pick up the shotgun it dropped my axe... wtf? I couldn't figure out how in the world to keep both items on me and swap between them interchangeably. Finally I figured maybe I could place the gun into my backpack since I could put it into my inventory... bad move. Apparently (learning this on the forums after the fact) guns take up 10 slots, with the starting bag only 8 slots. So instead of the game telling me I couldn't fit the shotgun into my bag, instead I somehow disintegrated it and it no longer existed.

After that heartbreaking experienced, I crawled my way out of the barn and began my hunt for the next stash. Somehow, after awhile of aimless wandering I came across another barn. Inside was the same stuff, plus a couple canteens of water and another shotgun. This time, I made sure to equip the shotgun and just figured I wouldn't use the axe and leave it on my belt. After loading two shots into the double barrel, with a final shot in reserve, I began to make my way out of the barn when a walker turned the corner right in front of me. He immediately spotted me so I stood up to take aim with my new weapon. Fired the first shot and somehow this zombie moved like a ninja on crack. You know that blinking effect ghosts use in horror movies to cover short distances? Ya, that's how this guy advanced towards me. First shot... missed. Second shot... missed. Suddenly he was right up on me beating me down as I reloaded my last shot. I pulled the trigger and blew his chest out. Bleeding from every orifice I tried to bandage myself up with one of the bandages I had on my pack. Unfortunately, in spending the time to do so I had already attracted all the other zombies in the area. Let's just cut this short and say they made short work of me. Round 2: Gamewiz = 0, Zombies = 2.

Let me just give this input here... I don't know if the zombies moving like lightning and blinking like a mage in WoW is a glitch or intended. If a glitch, then I know it'll hopefully be fixed in the future. If intended, please for the love of all that is good and decent change it immediately. That is not how a zombie should move. They are brain dead creatures, they don't have quick reflexes. They shouldn't be able to swim, or quickly climb ladders, or dodge a shotgun round at close range. They are mindless machines that just want to feed on your flesh. They have zero intelligence and only have basic instincts. Dodging bullets, swimming, climbing ladders... they are not instinctual behaviors.

Ok, moving on! My third and final round for the night (which it was now also night time on the server, so I decided to "cheat" and turned up the gamma so I could at least see the ground I was walking on), which proved to be the longest one. I spawned up at the lighthouse at Cap Golova between Electro and Cherno. By this time, I said screw not reading the map and decided to plan out how I was going to get my supplies so I was better prepared this time. Since you start with next to nothing, I knew heading to the major towns was a horrible idea. I instead decided to make my way North to Pusta. A medium yield farm, residential, plus water. Sounded like a good place to start. I arrived into Pusta from the south east, my first target the medium yield farm building. By now I had gotten pretty good at understanding how to more properly navigate around zombies, and was able to make my way inside without any of them spotting me. And at night it seemed much easier to stay hidden. Inside I found a hatchet, flares, a couple empty cans, a bandage and a shotgun with about 6 rounds.

Leaving the back of the building again I was going to sneak around and by some miracle cross the street despite a dozen or so zombies patrolling the area to get inside the residential house across the street that I knew probably held something useful for me. Crawling up to a bush that was next to the street and directly across from the house, I looked and saw nothing but zombies in every direction. No way could I get across without them all spotting me. That's when I noticed another player across the street and north of me, essentially north of the house in another bush. I don't think he had spotted me because I was laying in the bush for quite some time trying to find an opening.

Suddenly, this player decides to go into a crouch position and literally walks right out towards the street. I laughed with disbelief and a zombie charged at him and he fired off a round from his rifle. Sure enough, every zombie came running and he took off up the hill behind him trying to escape. Now was my chance! I darted across the street, barely avoiding the attention of a few straggler zombies and made my way into the house. I immediately found a 20 slot backpack, an enfield with 3 clips, matches, and a hunting knife.

Happy that I seem to have the bare essentials for survival, I start to wrap up my dealings in the house when a big red flash happens right outside the house and lights up the entire area. Apparently the other player didn't die... but why the heck did he just throw a flare right towards the house? To my dismay, it attracted the attention of a few zombies, two of which entered the house. I pulled out my hatchet to remain as quiet as possible, and jumped the two zombies, slaying one and losing about 1k blood to the other before I was able to turn and bring him down as well. I quickly bandaged myself to stop the bleeding and exited the rear of the house on the north side, where I faced a wall and a semi-open field with a few scattered trees. Not wanting to hang around too long, I crawled around the fence and saw the other player right in front of me, crawling right towards me! However, I quickly realized either he or I was lagging out as he was crawling in place. I went behind him to a nearby tree and waited there to see what happened, when suddenly he disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the tree right next to him. I must've startled him because he immediately turned and fired off a round right at me, somehow missing with his rifle. I crouched and ducked behind the tree, and he continued to fire off three more rounds before I could say or type anything to call out friendly to him. That's when I saw a horde of zombies running up behind him, so as soon as they were close enough I stood and darted away, only hearing shots fired repeatedly as I ran up the hill into the nearby woods.

One of the zombies gave chase to me, so I turned and was able to down him with a couple shots. I stopped a couple hundred paces up the hill away from the town when I figured I was safe enough. Turning, I zoomed in to survey the damage. A few zombie bodies lay on the ground near the tree and wall where the scuffle with the other player had taken place, and by some miracle I saw the player (who I now knew was named Jorge) crawling up next to the wall amidst the dead bodies. I didn't consider myself a murderer, but I wasn't done exploring the town yet and I knew this guy wasn't going to play nice. Getting into a nice prone position, I brought up my sites and zoomed in. Pop! One shot in the head and he went down. I felt both excited and depressed, because the system registered it as murder even though I knew it had to be done.

After hacking up one zombie that became interested in my position due to the gun fire, I made my way back to the dead Jorge to loot him. Picking up another 3 clips for my enfield, more bandages, and some canned food, I retreated from the town realizing I had no way to get water from the water source in the town as I had no canteen.

I retreated up the hill and made my way to the outskirts of Staroye, where I plan to hopefully recover a cantina somewhere and get myself some much needed water. That ended my play session for the evening, and I walked away feeling very satisfied despite the bugs in the game and the lightning quick zombies.

So any hints or tips for me? What locations will be good for me to investigate to get other items I may need?

[pwnage13371 147]

Nice story. That must have taken ages to type up.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

So any hints or tips for me?

• Close this forum.
  
• Close your web browser.
  
• Turn out the lights.
  
• Turn up the sounds.
  
• Just play the game for a week.
  

Just you and the zombies.

You will die, a lot, in a variety of horrible ways.

But at the end of that week you will be ready to come back and listen to my real hints and tips. ;)

[malachy 3]

you need a team pal find other peopleto play with , however not all people are nice

[Gamewiz 12]

Nice story. That must have taken ages to type up.

Lol! Yes it did... but I'm bored and tired at work so this got my brain working again.

[ingruo 5]

I was thoroughly enjoying your tale of you're adventures and misadventures until that one paragraph. The horrendous paragraph when you started saying how zombies "should" be, you can't justify anything about a zombie absolutely nothing!. There is no such thing as a zombie its a term from voodoo being the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural presence, usually for some evil purpose. the supernatural force itself. So there is nothing saying they are brainless creatures that fan fiction has made them out to be or you have made them out to be. They could be 10 foot tall, 1000 pound creatures for all we know because there really is no such thing. So before trying to put logic to something that doesn't exist stop before you start.

[Bianca 92]

Think that everyone out there wants to kill you, it's up to you to kill them first or just sneak by

[Gamewiz 12]

I was thoroughly enjoying your tale of you're adventures and misadventures until that one paragraph. The horrendous paragraph when you started saying how zombies "should" be, you can't justify anything about a zombie absolutely nothing!. There is no such thing as a zombie its a term from voodoo being the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural presence, usually for some evil purpose. the supernatural force itself. So there is nothing saying they are brainless creatures that fan fiction has made them out to be or you have made them out to be. They could be 10 foot tall, 1000 pound creatures for all we know because there really is no such thing. So before trying to put logic to something that doesn't exist stop before you start.

The general "idea" of a zombie is a human brought back to life with minimal brain activity whose only desire is to eat living flesh. Yes there are different versions of zombies throughout all the invented lore on them, but that can be considered the staple. And never has a zombie been able to blink around like a wizard on crack. I can't imagine that being an intended feature of this game. Sprinting I can deal with, but zig zagging around while blinking through the air just kills it a little for me.

[joshaurich@hotmail.com 0]

that was a murder. you could have went on your way, you didnt need to finish searching the town.

but, i enjoyed the story.

[cmc2112@gmail.com 0]

Thanks for the write-up. I'm about to jump into the game myself and learned a few things (backpack space for example).

[Pureevuls 4]

The zombies are not meant to move around like this, and the development team are working on getting the new animations into the game, but remember its alpha so some things will be weird at the start, its not a polished game and there are alot of bugs at the moment.

Rockets presentation at rezzed:

(talks about their use of motion capture technology for the new zombie animations)

But all in all this was a great read, reminds me of when I first started playing.

[Gamewiz 12]

Pureevuls, that is fantastic news! You made me very happy and I'm going to watch that link right now. :) I fully understand this game is in alpha and expected to encounter many many bugs during my play sessions! I was just really hoping these were glitches and not intended, so it's good to know my hopes were correct.

Glad you enjoyed the read!

[robrob (DayZ) 0]

My first run was last night too...but I am just Z bait...I have yet to figure out the trick...spent so much time prone and crawling only to get munched. Heck...getting whacked by a bandit would be a welcomed change at this stage. Aw well...obviously others have figured it out so keep crawling around until I figure out the method. Really wish I could fashion some sort of weapon, use a rock...fingernail clippers....spit on them....say mean things about their hygiene... something ...anyway, back at again soon I reckon. Cheers!