New player with questions

[Shep1972 1]

I've had this mod for three days and I absolutely love it, now I have the customary couple questions. I'm not new to fps games, nor zombie themed games and mods; suffice to say I've been around the block quite a few times but I'm at a loss to explain 3 events that happened. First, a synopsis my DayZ playing style. Having never played ArmA or ArmA II I decided to learn the ropes and the layout on servers with relatively few players. I typically pick a server with 10 or fewer players. I've studied the map on dayzdb and usually have it open on a laptop while I play. I have no problem finding weapons, food or canteens but for some reason I have never found matches. I know the lay of the land around Chernogorsk and I currently feel confident enough to move from a "safer" experience and on to more populated servers. Now on to my questions.

I was on a night server sitting in the woods close to the barn in Vysota when my life went from 9500 to a sliver above 4k. This server had 3 people, me and 2 other players. At first I thought "sniper" but there was no follow-up kill shot nor did I see or hear anyone. Glitch?

Second, after losing that much life I decided to sneak to the hospital in Chernogorsk and see if I could find something to help increase my life, like a blood bag and a friendly survivor to help. Newb response to loosing so much life in a sim game, but off I went. While slowly crouch walking down the hill North of the city toward the hospital a flare suddenly lit up beside me and I instantly hit the deck and started crawling in a different direction. I looked everywhere but I didn't see anyone and so I thought it very odd. I eventually made it far away from the flare and waited for quite some time after it went out before trying to sneak back towards the hospital. Once in the city the will to last in this game got the best of me and so I decided to look for matches in the buildings around the hospital. Yes, I have never found matches and so I have never had the means of rapid health gain. Wary that I sprung a trap with the flare earlier I was ever vigilant while I made my way into the first building. I got to the second landing when I heard something behind me. I turned around quickly only to see the flash from an M16. I did manage to fire off a couple rounds from my pistol and it was my dying hope that I at least inflicted enough damage to seriously hurt this aggressor. So my question is this, I know there are bear traps as I found one. Are there tripwires or any other type of trap that will light up a flare?

Something similar happened to me last night. Fully decked out, had found a map, binoculars, watch, alice pack, M1911, plenty of clips for my AKM and M1911, plenty of canned food and 2 full canteens, knife, hatchet, bear trap, etc. Only thing I'm missing is matches! I'm in Nadezhdino, looking for matches at night. Very few zombies in the area, probably only from me as there are perhaps 7 people on the server. I search the entire town save the doghouse in the upper right area of town (on the map). I'm making my way to the doghouse to check for matches, cautious about being seen or heard by zombies. I make it to the area and stop to look around before proceeding over the fence. No one is visible and there are no zombies in the area. I climb over the fence but before I can crouch I hear a BANG and I get the You Are Dead screen. Disheartening but that is the draw of a survival game such as DayZ. My question is thus; What did I do wrong in this situation? Any tips that the vets could offer? I prefer to lone wolf it but I'm really considering joining a group if this is par for the course.

[Bulletproof Sandwich 57]

you can find a ton of matches in pubs and supermarkets

[Shep1972 1]

Thanks Bulletproof, That seemed to me to be the hardest item to find.

[Bulletproof Sandwich 57]

Thanks Bulletproof, That seemed to me to be the hardest item to find.

cherno itself has 1 area with 5 pubs its by the large building with a giant name on it that says International Hotel

[seemingepic 31]

team up with kids

[Dawn (DayZ) 27]

Go to Supermarket in Elektro or Cherno, also if you had flares in your inventory you might have pressed f.. which toggles Flares and youu may have accidently pressed left mouse button, which made you throw the flare on yourself and thinking it was someone else.

You asked for tips, ill give you some tips :D

1. Never trust another person unless you actually talk to them trough skype or some other program, and they have prooven to be your friend. But they can still backstab you, this happens often but the risk of someone you know backstabbing you is significantly less than someone you just met..

2. When you spawn, Always try to spawn close to Elektrozavodsk or Chernogorsk, these towns are usually lowly populated (according to my runs trough there) and have alot of high yield buildings very close. I prefer Elektrozavodsk because the supermarket, hospital, appartments, offices and orange brick residential is all within 100 metres from the supermarket, while in cherno its mostly spread out trough the town, but if youre going to cherno then hit up the supermarket first, then go to the military camp north east of supermarket, in the northmost corner of the town.

3. some things that have saved me alot of times is Good headphones with surround sound. Good internet, 120HZ Screen (Higher HZ screen shows you about 0.3 Seconds earlier than an 50-60HZ screen, this is good if someone is coming outside a corner and you can see them 0.3 seconds before they see you, which gives you more time to react. Good mouse with buttons on the mouse (incase you are using sniper rifle you can change the controls so that you have Zeroing UP and Zeroing DOWN located at your mouse, much better than Page up and Page down.)

4. Most people dont run trough open fields, i do this all the time without dying, just run zigzag, stop, do a 360 spin with your mouse, this will make it really hard for snipers to zero in correctly and get their crosshair at you and shoot where you will go, since the bullet have flight time.

5. Go north for good military stuff.

6. at start, if you find a Makavor and M1911, go for the m1911, because the ammo for m1911 is the same as the revolver (same goes with revolver and makarov :P you take the weapon with the most common ammo) Dont bother with double barreled shotguns, Winchester is a good shotgun but atm the only ammo for it is slugs :D Some people prefer Lee Enfield because its a 1 shot kill, but it makes alot of noise and the fire rate is not very good. I prefer the winnie because of its firerate and accuracy :)

And you said you wanted to find a group of people to play with. The difference between going solo and going with other people is the feelings you get from playing, The heartbeating you get when you're all alone and you found a player isnt so good when you're playing with other people, this is because you know that if you die, your friends will hold on to your stuff and kill the other man, so you dont really have anything to worry about, but when youre all alone you know that there is a risk of loosing all your stuff for good. But then again, going with other people is more funny. Ive had alot of fun playing solo, being terrified because i just saw a group of people walking past me, finding good loot and preparing for a long trip all by myself. But being with other people is great too, finding a vehicle is awesome when you have friends, and its not so lonesome either :)

Edited August 2, 2012 by Dawn

[Shep1972 1]

Thanks Dawn. I prefer to go alone for the thrill but I also remember the rush I'd get going out in 2 man sniper groups with my old clan mates on older games like BF: 1942, BF:Vietnam and AA. The experience was wonderful, as were the people, but I lost interest in clans a few years ago. Perhaps I can find a group of like minded casual players to game with.