Help please

[wafflemanyay 0]

So I'm a very new player and I just need some advice on how to properly play?

I spawned in what is called "Otmel" in a server with 47 people and after browsing the forums, decided to follow the general advice of "avoid cities, go north."

And I did. I walked and walked. For 45 minutes. I taped down my "W" key. I don't know where the map is so I have no idea where I was properly, but I know I passed an airport and "Petrobka" (if my Russian sign reading is correct).

I recalled in another server, someone told me to fortify my position once I'm sure I'm isolated.

Thus I found a hatchet near "Petrobka" and harvested wood till I could not carry anymore. And for the life of me I tried to fortify my position with walls, fences, hell even a tiny kid-size fort would have been nice. But because I couldn't build anything (I'd really like someone to explain, as if to an idiot, how to do so) I just lay prone in what I'll assume is the center of the map (can someone tell me where Petrobka is?).

And I waited with my mere hatchet for what I timed to be 5 real hours. It got boring after 3 so I'd look around for I guess, the objective?

Nothing! Nothing happened! No friendly convoys, no zombie hordes, not even another lost soul such as myself passing through the area.

I developed a system of using both direct and group channel chats and voice broadcasts that I'd recorded onto my phone every 5 minutes, in case I happened to find another human.

Now don't get me wrong! This game is fantastic, never have I felt so immersed... however....

I spent 6 hours lost, confused, ALONE, fort-less (how do other people get those massive castles and citadels with weapons and ammo galore? Quite jealous.)

So, alas, I need help. Right now I believe I'm lying prone right outside Petrobka with 4 wood piles and NO wood forts. The nights are the worst, just staring at pitch black darkness.

What am I doing wrong? WHERE am I? How do I get my fortress and how do I befriend better armed people and enlist in their army?

Thanks!!

[Steins 86]

OH you troll you. This was a very well wasted 15 seconds on my part. Have at you sir, your fred-trollery is humorous.

[BobofTibia 11]

What is this even..

What? I hope this isn't a serious post.

[dcskill 117]

The fuck did I just read?

[Daps 1]

To think I was about to waste my first post on this trollery!

[Daps 1]

Aw shit I wasted my first post on this trollery

[BobofTibia 11]

I don't know, it was a funny read. I'd like to actually think there was someone willing enough to actually do all of this.

[Scene 36]

Some links that you can look at that will help a bit are

A good map with markers for places to get loot

http://teamfackin.com/moocow/dayz/map/

another map with crashed chopper locations (just shows where they can spawn)

http://southcoastbeanwars.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Crashed-Heli-Map-v7.jpg

Weapon damage chart

http://i.imgur.com/BuY29.jpg

the dayZ wiki

http://dayzwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

[wafflemanyay 0]

Look, if you think I wrote that much text to troll, I'm at a loss for words. I could add a TL;DR of "what in the holy hell do I do" if that makes it "believable..."

Sure, maybe it is pathetic, but for crying out loud don't just gang up on me for that, be constructive.

I haven't played Arma 2 before getting this mod, I was directed to this mod by a friend who also told me of this whole "fortifying" thing.

If I'm gonna be labeled a troll and not get a modicum of advice then I'll just delete this thread. I'm a gullible newbie, if people advise me to do things when I'm in the game, I'll listen. PLUS I don't even know what the actual objective is except survival. Is this not the "New Player Discussion"? I saw threads of people asking how to turn on flashlights/jump over things, so is a "jesus christ have I been doing it very very wrong" thread out of line?

EDIT: THANK YOU Scene, for not making me feel like an unwelcome moron.

DOUBLE Edit: dcskill you read me saying "I think I'm doing this wrong" but because I was advised (or at least thought i was advised) to do these things, I figured I'd go into detail so that the thread doesn't come across as "herp derp I'm trolling you by making it seem like i wasted all this time" but apparently even my efforts to PROVE my cluelessness and sincerity were in vain.

Edited July 13, 2012 by wafflemanyay

[CraftZ49 18]

[Wüstenfuchs (DayZ) 105]

Guys, if you don't have anything helpful to post, please don't spam wafflemanyay's thread with useless posts. Thank you Scene for posting a helpful reply.

wafflemanyay, my advice to you is to look for small villages and farm buildings where you can find some equipment, food, drinks and weapons. You can't use wood to fortify a position (wood can be only used to set up a campfire where you can warm up / cook food). I recommend you to keep on exploring, look for land marks and try to find a map and compass which are helpful for navigating.

Most zombies are situated near towns and villages. Other survivors tend to be in these areas as well, because most of the loot is in buildings. Be careful when meeting other survivors, there are not many friendlies anymore, as most have adopted the "kill-on-sight" attitude after we lost the ability to recognize playerkillers.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Wüstenfuchs

[BobofTibia 11]

Look, if you think I wrote that much text to troll, I'm at a loss for words. I could add a TL;DR of "what in the holy hell do I do" if that makes it "believable..."

Sure, maybe it is pathetic, but for crying out loud don't just gang up on me for that, be constructive.

I haven't played Arma 2 before getting this mod, I was directed to this mod by a friend who also told me of this whole "fortifying" thing.

If I'm gonna be labeled a troll and not get a modicum of advice then I'll just delete this thread. I'm a gullible newbie, if people advise me to do things when I'm in the game, I'll listen. PLUS I don't even know what the actual objective is except survival. Is this not the "New Player Discussion"? I saw threads of people asking how to turn on flashlights/jump over things, so is a "jesus christ have I been doing it very very wrong" thread out of line?

EDIT: THANK YOU Scene, for not making me feel like an unwelcome moron.

DOUBLE Edit: dcskill you read me saying "I think I'm doing this wrong" but because I was advised (or at least thought i was advised) to do these things, I figured I'd go into detail so that the thread doesn't come across as "herp derp I'm trolling you by making it seem like i wasted all this time" but apparently even my efforts to PROVE my cluelessness and sincerity were in vain.

Well, you got to admit, its pretty hard to believe someone would wait in the dark, in the middle of the map, for 5 hours before attempting to think...Something must be wrong.

The reason everyone jumped at you for being a troll, it just seemed so outrageous.

I don't sit in any single spot in any game for over 30 minutes to an hour with no purpose, let alone 5 or more hours.

It seemed to further cement the case when you told us, you used your phone to repeatedly spam the group and direct chat channels.

On the internet, being told to do something doesn't mean people will believe it.

Infact it further makes us believe you were trolling, after all, its one of those, "If your friends would jump off a bridge" kind of things.

Edited July 13, 2012 by BobofTibia

[terraknight 11]

Well, since I have my copy-paste of doom, I don't mind giving you the advices from it. But yeah, I think by fortifications, your friend meant a tent base, where you hide your valuable stuff in while you go out to scavenge for more. Starting a base (pitching a tent) and getting a vehicle or 2 is a good goal to set for yourself. I would recommend that you hide it well tho, because there tend to be people out to find bases as well.

(taken from my other post)

Hmm, lets see, a few tips to get you started huh.... awright, lets see

1. You're either a Bandit or a Carebear. The Difference is that Bandits will shoot on sight WITHOUT some sissy warnings and crap. If you wish to get someone you can trust and play with, take em from some other game/irl where you KNOW they have your back, as trusting strangers in this game, even if they just started out = certain death. On the other hand, if you're a carebear, have fun being shot in the face by bandits who you think are your friends cause they gave you some food and let you hang with them until you found a weapon/usually other way around but yeh.

2. If you die, get yourself the basic starting gear: Hatchet (if nothing else, first weapon) hunting knife, box of matches (a biatch to find at times) compass (your holy grail on your quest further north/northwest) a map (you can always use online maps to figure out where you are by landmarks and compass, so its quite unnecessary) watch (you can get your bearings by using the shadows from trees with it, ofc, this is only if you don't have the patience to look for a compass. It also tells the time of the server =D)

3. weapons. For your secondary, I would suggest getting a makarov to start with unless you find better, then you should get an M1911 or Revolver, mostly because you can turn revolver rounds into M19 rounds and the other way around, tho I have to tell you, Never EVER pick up a G17, thats the next most useless gun in the game after Makarov, and you will still use makarov cause its easier to find ammo for it.

For your main, atleast what I've found the way I do it is: Hatchet > Lee Enflield > AK 74/M4A1 > ak/m4 with scope >different snipers or rarer weapons from barracks/heli crashes if you're lucky

Sure, you could get a shotgun as well, but as I see it, none of them really stands up to a ranged fight if you were to encounter an enemy player. Ofc, if you stay in towns alot, thats a different matter, but I would still recommend longer range even there

If you get a hatchet, remove it from your tool belt and equip it, this will serve damn good as your first weapon, cause if you get within close enuff range of Zeds, you will 1hit kill them without them noticing you (if you're lucky) btw, normal Zeds drop food/bandages, and military ones drop ammo. Ofc, this is just a few of them, again, if you're lucky.

You are free to choose whatever weapons you wish to have, but these are atleast my tips.

4. NEVER get too attached to gear, cause in one fast "swipp" it can all be gone and you'd have to start again. I've seen ALOT of people crying about starting again without ANY weapons and that they're defenceless babies etc. The only thing I agree with those people is that they're babies. This game is MEANT to be hard, its MEANT to simulate how you would behave if, lets say, your ship sunk out at sea thanks to the zombie infestation onboard, and all you could with you was stuff that wouldn't make you sink, like Bandage, painkillers and a flashlight (not so heavy) If you had the same situation, and had tried bringing a gun, you'd have sunk like a stone unless you were some kind of athlete.

5.should've been brought up as 4th, but conserve your ammo! This is not L4dead where a big pile of all ammo will be and your gun uses magicly refilling clips, and you can be sure, if you use your gun within a town, you are sure to bring attention to yourself both from Zeds and Bandits alike. Best thing to do is to avoid them all in all.If you somehow aggro, run into a building that you can run out on the other side of, and when I say run, I mean crouchsneak out of it so you don't further aggro Zeds. This brings us to

6. Learn ALL the buildings! learn how they look, and which ones that have 2 entrances/exits. This will be valuable info when the Zeds are running after you ready to buttrape you Ofc, you ought to take notice of all enterable buildings, and if there's sounds of flies coming from them if you're outside one, you ought to be careful, as there might be a player inside camping the building for unsuspecting pray.

7. If you get a tent, hide it WELL, and by that, I don't mean close to the road somewhere behind a random tree, nonono, hide it somewhere far in the woods where even YOU would need a compass to locate it, preferrably close to pinetrees, as they give the best cover.

8. Read the forums after a patch! more specificly, the bug section, cause you will find stuff happening with stuff that you might be looking at, or intending to use, like the Ghille suit, and boom, its gone with all your stuff! Thats atleast what've been happening since 1.7.2 and there's atleast 3 threads about it, and one had I think 4 pages with cries and rage about how they lost their stuff, this is why you read on the forums after a major patch, and wait to use stuff until its been fixed (feel bad for you guys out there who used yer ghille suit, but its yer own fault =D)

There we go. I think thats about it as far as I can think now. If I have any other tips, I'll edit them in. Think I'll save this for newbie threads like these, seems worthwhile

oh yeah, btw, these maps/sites are freaking awesome, you ought to use em:

http://dayzdb.com/map

http://dayzwiki.com/...title=Main_Page

http://southcoastbea...com/day-z-maps/

[species5021 28]

I agree it's a bit of a strange post, i think people are reacting to it like they are because we have not yet encountered its kind before.

Fascinating!

Anyway use a map like http://dayzmap.info/, when logging in and you get line of texts on the bottom right then check the second line for your location. Then orient yourself on the map and start walking!