Don't lose interest, and how to get better!

[theboat 35]

Intro:

Hey new players, presumably a lot of you bought ArmA II for DayZ alone and I'm just gonna make a little post on how you can improve yourself at DayZ/Arma in general, as well as not losing interest, which I'll point out some keys in the way you should look at your starting days.

How to prevent losing interest:

Now, I've had lots of friends buy ArmA for DayZ then lose interest after dying a few times, and haven't ever played again, and I realize that dying when you just start if frustrating. However, there's measures you can take to prevent these deaths and overall loss of interest. First thing's first. Learn where each spawn location is, and where you should head from them to find some mediocre loot while maintaining a relatively safe route for PvP. This will drastically decrease your amount of deaths, and will set you up for success later in these lives, as you'll have loot to set off for friends, or even solo with. You can find the name of your spawn here, and see which places offer the easiest, yet necessary loot. http://dayzdb.com/map. Now please note, this map does NOT show high PvP areas, but based off the loot/sizes of areas you can see which places are common for snipers/PvPers in general, I'll also include a list down below of each area where PvP generally happens, and the danger of it. Also, another thing you can do to avoid deaths is notice patterns, or behaviors you take that lead to your deaths, such as not being careful enough, getting too impatient, etc. The last thing to keep in mind to avoid losing interest is that there's not much in DayZ that gets interesting fast. Everything in DayZ, or in ArmA in general takes time, and if you're expecting to find the best loot, a helicopter and have a tent full of guns in 10 minutes only to die, you'll be disappointed.

Getting better:

Now for getting better at Day Z. One thing you could do is get a group of buddies to play with you, and have each of you communicating via TeamSpeak, Skype, etc. this will give you a lot of support, my only warning doing this is be prepared to fight over guns, and be the leader, and break up the fight before it turns into something ugly, and breaks the group apart. Next thing you could do is try to play some other ArmA gamemodes and practice in gunfights. ArmA is a really really realistic game, and if you wanna get really good at it, I'd suggest trying ACE mod. ACE is another gamemode in ArmA where you basically try and clear enemy presence across the map during player made missions, which is pretty cool, but it also allows you to have certain jobs within a squad so you can practice teamwork as well. Ex, medic, in ACE being a medic is very similar to DayZ in the sense you have to pack a lot and always be ready to throw yourself on the front to save somebody else, while still maintaining safety for the rest of your buddies. However, that's not all you can do in ACE, in ACE you could be a squad leader, which will help you, when making decisions for the team in DayZ. One great thing about ACE is that it gives you the feel of getting shot at and the reflexes on how to react to it. Because I can't even count how many times my buddies whom solely bought this game for DayZ have died because they think during a firefight it's appropriate to just prone and hope the other guy loses sight, which in some cases (Ghillie suit in a field of grass), it is an acceptable response but a majority of the time in cities etc, you have to revert to an all out firefight, and at times it's a 2v1 firefight at times its a 5v5 at times in really populated servers I've had a 10v12 firefight, but that's besides the point. The point is that you can lose interest in Day Z and ArmA as a whole solely on the fact that you're not well adapted to how the style of game should be played, and my suggestion would again be to play more of ArmAs offerings, and play in a group. Playing tactically is gonna make you win your gunfights a whole lot more, and survive a lot longer.

YouTube Tutorials:

One last thing before the PVP chart, do NOT I repeat do NOT follow a YouTube tutorial on how to play Day Z. Not that they're bad or anything but a majority of them are made a million times, which means every jackass troll in Day Z has seen them and makes tactics to counter them. You want to develop original routes, original tactics and learn from the best of ArmA. I can almost guarantee to you those trolls in DayZ with the AS50 (Not to say it's a troll gun it takes plenty of skill to use without rangefinders at distances about 500m) only came to ArmA for Day Z, so if you can practice up, get yourself built up in strategy, manpower, leadership, and firepower you'll be an unstoppable team.

Dying:

Dying is part of DayZ and yes, it sucks. However, although losing everything you just worked for is a real bummer and can sometimes be from the most absurd reasons, don't take dying as a chance to call it quits. Each death is a new learning experience, so take it that way, and just try again. This ties in with the whole losing interest topic, and really it's a part of Day Z that cannot be avoided because eventually you're gonna die, everybody is gonna die, and the only thing you can do to try to stop it is make it less frequent by following some of the tips here.

PVP Zones:

Please note that these notes based off of my experience in Day Z.

Northwest Airfield - The most common place for experienced, and well equipped players to camp for loot is here. Snipers are incredibly common here, and if you go in here recklessly you'll more than surely die. There's a lot of tension and firefights here, if you plan to loot it I'd recommend being quick, but quite. It's one of the highest PVP'ed areas in Day Z.

Stary Sobor - This city is just as normal to every other city, with the exception of the tents in the back of it which allow for some quick, semi good loot, to good loot if you're lucky. And that is what turns this place into a sniper haven, let alone looting these tents gives any sniper enough time to calculate your range, and carve your name into his next round. Be careful here, and try not to attract much attention.

Balota Airfield - It's a common place for newly spawned players to have conflicts with each other, and a fairly common place for mid-tier equipped players (Remington 870, guns in that category, maybe a M16 etc.) to look for ammo, etc. However, the tents closer to the shoreline have the best loot here in my experience, and are rarely ever watched because they're covered by trees on the northern side, and have no hiding places on the southern side. So they're commonly safe to loot.

Elektro - There's snipers who sit on the hill directly north of the power plant (The place with a firestation, and huge smokestack) here. They mainly watch the top of the schoolyard and hospital but they will be looking around occasionally, most of the players if not all the players you see in the city itself are gonna be newly spawned. Experienced players don't like to come here often because it's not a source of a lot of loot they'll be needing other than a hospital but even then it's probably already looted by all the newly spawned players since most of the games spawns are on the East side of the map.

Cherno - There's snipers who camp the silos and back of the city (near the hospital/apartments), but they're easily avoided if you're safe not to expose yourself for a long enough period of time. However, there's plenty of rogues in the city itself too, so be cautious when running through Cherno, especially on highly populated servers, and if in a group always be looking around for other players, and be careful going anywhere. A lot of the players here will be newly spawned, there is however a chance you could run into well equipped players looking for med supplies to restock their medical tent at their base, so always be on the lookout for them, and if you see them, it could either be some easy loot, a ticket to book the hell outta there, or a death, you decide.

Zeleno - This city is located almost in the middle of the far west side of the map. It's pretty large, and contains a lot of residential loot (Ghillies, food, water etc.), but I've rarely ever heard gunshots here, and have never actually killed anybody here. I've seen a few people walking into it in a team, but other than that, I'd call Zeleno pretty safe from my experience, but still despite what this guide tells you, be aware as it is a place for people to come looking for ghillie suits etc.

Berezino - Definitely the largest city on the game, as well as the least traveled. It holds 2 shopping centers, 4 military spawns plenty of gas stations/industrial spawns, but rarely any dead players. I've seen a collective of 3 dead players here, but unlike other major cities in Day Z there's not really many vantage points for snipers so most of your engagements will be close quarters. a lot of this is contributed to the fact there's almost no tall buildings and you're surrounded by large empty fields, which let it be known, can house a lot of helicopter crash sites (which contain some of the best loot in the game, including the AS50).

Northeast Airfield - This is one of the least traveled areas in the map, and to be honest I've got no idea why as it contains a helicopter spawn, which is probably the cause for most the gunfights that go on here, but besides that this airfield is relatively safe, but not really worth going to. I'd rather go into the city near it for industrial loot to try and fix up one of the vehicles that may spawn nearby.

That's it guys, I hope I helped.

Enjoy Day Z, and I wish you the best of luck. - boat

Edited August 2, 2012 by boat

[Karunashi 1]

A very useful guide/post. You have my like (Beans) and thanks! Will visit Zeleno since I seem to encounter people in same places you've indicated far too many times.

[butter_milch 66]

A good guide :)

One thing one has to consider: Don't play with idiots.

In order to succeed in DayZ you need a certain level of intelligence and understanding. And from what I've seen a lot of players simply don't have it. They're not dumb or anything it's just that their skills lie elsewhere (which isn't a bad thing considering DayZ is only a game ^^).

[derrida (DayZ) 18]

Well, being an idiot is also what makes the game fun -_-

[theboat 35]

Well, being an idiot is also what makes the game fun -_-

Meh. Getting a chopper with buddies is always fun too :).

[kander 80]

Beans for the effort, sir.

(I'm assuming you're a sir, though forms of transport are traditionally female)

[Teiwaz 45]

A very useful guide/post. You have my like (Beans) and thanks! Will visit Zeleno since I seem to encounter people in same places you've indicated far too many times.

From my experience Zeleno's often a bitch Z wise. Only thing that's really interesting (well, except for the occasional "might get lucky"-ghillie spawn) there is the supermarket, and maybe the bicycle spawn.

Other than that most of the time it's not worth the risk IMO.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Teiwaz

[Hinaru 96]

wow, really nice.

I think the new players will appreciate this thread. Well done, sir. (:

[Kowalski (DayZ) 19]

Nice post - you're gonna be farting like a trooper bud. Have some more beans.

[theboat 35]

Nice post - you're gonna be farting like a trooper bud. Have some more beans.

Hahaha. That was funny bud. Brightened my day after about 7 hours of work was just deleted in a power outage here (I was developing a map for Counter Strike).

[Rex Starborne 0]

+ Beans.

Been playing for a bit, but still learned some very useful information here. I'll be keeping my head down more from now on. =]

[TheGreatPerson1324 0]

Nice tut. I have been playing for a while, but this is great advice for new players!

[Boomstick (DayZ) 41]

Nice informative post,

You can haz my beans.

[Siberian (DayZ) 527]

that is some good tips..

maybe keep an eye on updating at as the game moves along in case places change in terms of action..

[theboat 35]

that is some good tips..

maybe keep an eye on updating at as the game moves along in case places change in terms of action..

Will try to do.

[Abruz 12]

I'm surprised you didn't include NW Airfield as one of the "PvP" zones. It's one of the most contested areas due to airfield and barracks loot!

[armakrush 0]

I'm surprised you didn't include NW Airfield as one of the "PvP" zones. It's one of the most contested areas due to airfield and barracks loot!

He did if you look in the PVP part before the individual places are listed

[DazTroyer 227]

Teaming up with a good group has to be the best way to keep things interesting, the social aspect of the game beats the loan wolf by far. Playing on one server so you get to know the good guys and bandits, taunting each other over side chat. This is what keeps it fresh for me and I'm playing nearly every day.

[Guest]

I really agree with the team mates, where you know them or make them it's soo much better