Tales of a Wandering Soul [Tips, Tricks, & Thoughts]

[metapaus 31]

Long time no see, fellow survivors! I'm back with the all-new "Logbook 2" A.K.A. Tales of a Wandering Soul, bigger and better than ever! For all the newbies finding this thread, let me say congratulations. Congratulations because you, and all the rest of the DayZ community have been chosen to accompany me on my adventures across Chernarus. Pleasure to have you aboard.

If you want to read the original Logbook, you can go here!:http://dayzmod.com/f...-tips-thoughts/

If you want a summary on what this post is about,

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The Logbook 2- Welcome to my thread. Here, I only wish to give to the community the ability to learn from my mistakes, follow in my achievements, and entertain with some quality form of media. Here is where I track my victories, defeats, accomplishments, ventures- my logbook....

9/3/12- A New Beginning

After being gone off of DayZ for a while, coming back was a welcome experience, complete with the unintelligible garb of zombies trying to tell me to "enjoy my stay" and awkwardly attempting to remove my cap. Even so, it's nice to be back on the forums. Now, to share with you... my adventures.

Part One- Contact!

As I'm sure all the veteran readers are aware, in my old logbook, not once did I come across another player in-game without forming an organized group outside of it. I'll just say that this time, my player experience did not disappoint.

It was cold. The dark, damp water bled through my player's clothes, and the sea breeze chilled him down to his bones. Still, he and I carried on. Soon, I had found a few hostiles roaming about, limping and moaning. I'll be the first to say that no matter when or where you play DayZ, you have to remember stealth. Unfortunately, this thought escaped my mind.

The next five minutes were spent playing duck-duck-goose with the Zeds. After I had won, I ran into Elektro and lost all of the guys chasing me.

I looted some buildings, in which I found a double-barrel shotgun, a crowbar, and a few of this-and-that; useless nick-knacks.

As I wandered through the town, I was a bit shocked when out of the corner of my eye I see a black man. Now, I know what you're thinking, but in this I remember that there are no "colored" zombie meshes. This was getting interesting.

My heart starts pounding. He comes into view again, and I can see some sort of pistol in his hands. Before I have time to blink, he's up right in front of me. For a moment, I was thinking, it's okay, he's friendly, everything will be alright. As I turned to look at him he got spooked and shot me in the leg, fracturing my bone and sending pain shooting through my character's body.

I would not stand for this.

I took my double barrel and opened fire.

Well, let's just say the battle ended with my running to higher ground, bandaging myself with no ammo left in my gun, watching him run away.

I jumped off a building to finish me off.

My first player experience; marvelous! If you can't tell that was sarcasm....

Though this was not the ONLY player experience I had the first day. I'll tell you my next adventure was much more entertaining, and fruitful. But that will have to wait... for Part 2, tomorrow.

Part 2- Hitchhiking-

I heard the roar. I looked over my shoulder, to see a transport truck through the trees.

With nothing on my back, I ran toward the road. I saw the truck, so close, and I yelled out on my microphone in hopes they would see or hear me and stop. The truck didn't look like it was slowing, and neither did I.

By then, the truck had gone, and I was standing in the middle of the road, among the settling dust.

Even though the truck had gone, I moved forward down the road, all I could hope was that I could catch them when they stop.

I came to a group of houses on a 3-way street, and turned right down and kept running, uncaring of whether the zombies could see me. I could hear the engine, so I knew I was close.

I was surprised when I saw the 3-ton truck barreling down the road at me! I got out of the way, and thankfully enough they stopped and let me get in the back. I had found a group of guardians.

Of course, on the ride they asked me if I had a weapon, or if I was friendly. One answer was yes, and one was no.

So they took me to the airfield to get a weapon. Unfortunately, the artifacting prevented me from going any more than 5 feet into the complex, even after trying numerous ways attempting to fix the bug.

Instead, I guarded the truck to make sure no players decided to take it. I informed my group I was heading into a barn to keep myself busy. I made it back just in-time before they left.

We rode out a bit, and I logged off to get some sleep. Little did I know that as I slept, tragedy had befallen....

9/4/12- Shopping

I can remember going to the stores, finding what you need, waiting in the checkout lines, then going home to enjoy your hotpockets that lead to eventual cancer, while watching TV and destroying valuable brain cells. Such is the American life. Unfortunately, in DayZ life and death isn't as predictable, and you don't always find what you need.

Part One- Famine-

Food. Water. Shelter. The basic needs for survival. As I walked on, my stomach growling, the urge to find food becomes great as the food icon turns from a yellow to a deep shade of orange. I was running out of time.

I go through 3 towns until getting but 2 cans of food, the rest in carbonated beverages and water bottles. Finally, I come to a supermarket. As I desperately needed a backpack, this was a good thing.

Although, I had heard a gunshot earlier. I wasn't sure how close it was, but I was on my toes. As I entered the supermarket, I found many supplies, some of which I needed, and some not.

Oh yeah, and the guy who fired off the gun was hiding behind the counter. But I soon learned that it was my friend from yesterday, as I could hear him in game and in the call as well. I was relieved at this, but also realized I was being reckless, and that my lack of player experience is a real weakness. Before I even knew anyone was there, I had been looting. Only the sound of his voice alerted me to his presence.

He soon told me that they had lost the truck when, soon after I had gone to bed, they were shot and killed while in the truck; most likely by hackers teleporting around the map. Saddened by this, we did all we could and continued on.

So then we looted the Supermarket. It seems that there's always some strange quirk attached to my character. As my old profile, I seemed to have a knack for finding groups of dead players in a close proximity. This time, though, I seemed to be finding an extensive amount of watches. There must have been 10 times I had found a watch in a loot pile in that day alone.

Though I did not find a pack either, but my friend was kind enough to lend me his, and I found a map in the back. With my new found gear, I dreamt of all the danger that would come the following day in the comfort of my bed.

9/5/12- The HAX!

Some of you might have read in my old logbook, my long, tryrannic rant about hackers and what they do to the community and players. Now, it is time for a new rant to be created:

Hackers. They're the American Government of the internet. Wow, that was a bad analogy. But let me explain. Same as the government uses technology that isn't released to the public until better technology is made and mass-produced within the government, hackers can be described as doing the same thing, except using overly-powerful wizardry in which you will never come close to ever matching. So they actually aren't like the American Government, in the sense that the people's ability to do things in game never gets higher than it already is. Just because the hackers jump 3 stories does not mean the developers will let players jump 2. The real defense is in anti-hacking programs like Battle Eye. Unfortunately, both of these two sides are constantly progressing in quality, spawning new software, and trying to apprehend or get around eachother, so the battle continues.

The way I see it, there are many forms of hackers. There are illegal hackers, who want you information, money, life, dog, house, and your vibrating toilet-seat. There are the recreational hackers, who enjoy testing themselves and breaking down walls, but don't really do much when they get there.

Then you have the lowest on the totem pole. That's right, game hackers. First, we have the makers. I guess they either want someone to like what they do or they use the hacks themselves. If they are a user, then we break into a few more categories.

Number one is the losers. These are the minority who feel they cannot win, and use hacks to make themselves feel better. There are the similar losers/winners, who could definitely play the game and win fairly, but enjoy to feel higher and above everyone else.

There are also the group of hackers I like to call the "Greasers". This group are the ones who enjoy teleporting you in the air, not to ruin your fun, (though someone can belong to multiple classifications in the case I am representing them) but to get all your stuff. For some odd reason, they feel accomplished spawning, or unfairly killing players and taking their items, with no work one their part. What do they expect, a medal? The name "Greasers" is referring to the fact that they are probably so busy sorting your stuff that they don't have time to wash their hair and it becomes greasy. Or you know, the fact that they most likely take showers with all the cans of beans they steal on a daily basis, and everyone knows pintos don't get rid of dandruff. Either one is valid.

Then there are the abusers. This is the group that gets joy out of ruining others fun. They hack the game and wreak havoc, breaking code, destroying things, and generally ruining the player experience. Unfortunately these people are most likely lonely, and/or angry and are not able to pick on anyone because they are too weak, and/or depressed and want to make others feel pain, and/or giant jerks who honestly don't have much of a life. Oh, right, P.S. Just because you go to the gym, have a girlfriend, and go out regularly doesn't mean you have a life. If you find time during the day to hack and purposely ruin others' fun for your personal enjoyment, you don't have a life. Because if you did, that time would be spent with your girlfriend.

I can only say I feel sorry for these people, (the serious kind of sorry, not the ironic one) because for the life of me I cannot think why you would stoop so low to hack a video game and ruin that for people that you don't even know, and you don't gain any real-life profit from. You know, unless you bot and sell RuneScape accounts.

So to all the hackers that are currently residing in their defensive polished shell, just go away. Because it doesn't bother me. And if you read today's log, you'll know why.

Part One- Bungee Jumping

Through innovation and technique, I have finally developed a way to bungee jump within DayZ. Simply enter a server that is almost full, wait around for a while, maybe loot a supermarket and a church and continue innocently on your way, and eventually, you will get hoisted up in the the air, in which you can spend some time gleefully falling to your death, all your time spent wasted. You missed Grandma's funeral for nothing. This not only proves that bungee jumping is extremely dangerous, but it is done by hackers as well. Of course, in my first log, the words "To the moon, someday Alice!" popped up on my screen, but the hackers were not courteous enough to grace us with this experience that would have made it atleast a bit more pleasurable.

The next time this happens to you, don't swear or diss the hacker. That makes them happy because it had an effect on you. If anything, write "Oh well, nothing to do but start again." or something along those lines. This shows the hackers that no matter what they do to you, you'll carry on. Of course, they now have all your possessions, but you taking this initiative will most likely result in others following in your footsteps. When I was playing a few days ago, I very much wanted a bigger backpack, and couldn't carry any more gear until I got one. I had a basic coyote, and I went to 2 supermarkets only finding the usual for me, watches. So my friend gave me his... LARGE coyote. Then he said something that I took deep (for being in DayZ). He said "In DayZ, you can't get attatched to your stuff. You WILL lose it, whether to bugs, hackers, players, or some other thing. You just gotta keep playing." So to all you people who are devastated about losing your choppers, tents, cars and guns, make it a challenge! Make yourself do better than you did before. And..... don't let hackers ruin your evening.

Part 2- Follow the Railroad Home

After my hacking experience, I spawned in Balota on a new server, and having launched from Steam, wanted to take some beautiful pictures that I had the opportunity to take in my other plays. Also, I wanted to share them here. Unfortunately, most every key is hotkeyed in ArmA. No pictures. Though, as I was walking down the railroad trying to do this, I got shot in the chest by an unseen attacker. This was on a bandit server, so I assumed one of three things: He was a doucebag, he was part of the bandit clan that hosted the server and didn't want me to find their base, or he was part of the bandit clan that hosted the server and was a douchebag. Here's me walking down the railroad trying to take a pretty picture, no weapons at all, and I get shot in the chest. Go figure. Although from now on, whenever I feel safe I lower my weapon in case someone should see me. This increases my chances of not getting shot, and might help you, especially if you are both close together.

Part 3- Re-do....

So my last 2 lives weren't the best. I KNEW this one would be better.

I spawn in to see a zed running toward me like I'm a bucket of endless chicken from KFC. Questioning if KFC exists in Chernarus, I run over to a railway bridge and attempt to lose the zed. I ended up getting a fracture.

I was going to let the zed eat my brains. I saw him running. He got closer. He was a yard away. And then something inside myself told me not to give up. So I went on.

I made it into a large industrial town. I will just say that by the end of the night in less than 2 hours, I had a toolbox, winchester with lots of ammo, a G17, toolbox, map, compass, watch, hunting knife, and plenty of food and water.

From not giving up, I made some of the best loot that I had ever gotten. Advice: value your life, and don't give up just because you're frustrated of the circumstance. Keep on going, because you never know just what you'll find and just what you'll amount to be. Now, I start to work on one of my first DayZ aspirations to ever surface. Repair and drive a car. And I'm in the perfect place to do it.

9/6/12- Mistakes Were Made

You find that when you have nothing, you spend your time wishing for it. And when you have it, you spend all your time wanting more.

Part One- Get AWAY From Da Choppa!

I spawned back in where I learned was Chernarus. I was atop of a factory tower, on the top floor, overlooking the landscape. I make my way downstairs.

I got to the bottom. Pop! My blood froze. For a brief moment, I thought I had heard the sound of a gun. As I continue on, I cautiously look for signs of anyone near me.

Pop! This time I high-tailed it, making my way to get back on the stairs. And this is where something went horribly wrong. Never, never, never, never, NEVER in DayZ should you ever let yourself start panicking. As my heart pounded, I rounded a corner and ran straight into a zombie with camouflage pants. He slapped me. Understandable, but I wasn't about to stick around to apologize. I desperately tried to scramble up the stairs.

As I got up, the zombie was following me. This wasn't good. If the other player saw a zombie on the structure, he would know I was there. I took careful aim with my Winchester. Pew! I was startled by the zombie running toward me, but relieved to see that he fell only a few feet from where I shot him.

Unfortunately, that only attracted more. As a "monkey zombie" awkwardly pushed itself up the stairs, I got out my ever-plentiful G17 pistol to kill him with. As I fired, I didn't realize it was so loud. With each BANG, part of my sanity told me to stop pulling the trigger. 4 grueling times, until finally he fell. I hid the bodies and moved on.

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After looting some say 5 apartment buildings, finding an ALICE pack among other things, and blowing the hospital open with a M67 grenade, I hear the thing that players dread. Rotors.

I turn stone cold. After a second I hear thunder. I was sure I heard rotors. I go inside, only to hear them again. There was a helicopter nearby.

I carried on. I couldn't let a chopper heed my progress. I went to the supermarket, Church, and other buildings. And then I heard it again. Not only did I hear it again, but it was getting LOUDER.

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I saw it. I saw the helicopter in the sky. It was magnificent. It was also terrifying. Not knowing who the people are inside, who could be your saviors, or your bane.

But let me tell you something. When it comes down to it, we are all the same. We all want to survive. Whether a bandit, hero, or scavenger, this factor never changes. So you need to respect that space.

This helicopter, as I was watching it, I was sure it saw me. It got low, and I had been assuming it was going to land. All I wanted to do was talk to them. Ok, well that's a lie, I wanted to see who they were, and shoot them if they were coming near me. You take no chances in boom towns.

The helicopter continues to hover, and now I can only guess that from thinking afterward, they were hovering to try and take me out. I should have left, and they definitely gave me the chance.

Though, I had decided long before that I wanted a new weapon, so the fire station the helicopter was hovering by was just a place to loot for me. I did not think as I headed up the tower. One flight. Two flights. Braangbajingclang!!! The sound of the bullets did little but defean me as sparks flew next to my head.

I was flying. Down the stairs and out the door. What should have happened, is I should have gotten in the room next to the stairs and tried to talk to them, or quit the game. Instead, when bullets hit the floor next to the open garage door, I sprinted out into the open without a thought. I heard the sound of bullets. Among them, I heard another sound. A faint, blood-curdling scream. It was let out, and then silent. If only. If only they had known I wanted a weapon from that tower; not their lives. If only I had talked to them. If only I had not run outside. But you can't spend your life wishing something was different.

Here, I learned a few things. As I may have told you, you can never panic. When bullets are flying and your life is only a hit away from being extinguished, things can get intense. All you can do is take a deep breath, and think it over. But you have to act quickly. I also learned not to get greedy. Because I wanted that loot, I paid for it in blood. Although I didn't actually get it, so it wasn't worth it at all. The last lesson I learned, is that at the base, we are all the same. We all want to survive, whether a bandit, hero, or scavenger. When they feel threatened, they gain a hair trigger. So do yourself a favor. Keep your distance.

9/7/12- Skinny Pete

When you think about it, are all bandits really bandits? Or do you think, for just one second, that it could be self-defense? So maybe you didn't shoot at them. But think about it like this. If you see someone with a hero skin, you trust them. If you see someone with a civilian skin, you're unsure. If you see someone with a bandit skin, you shoot them. You shoot them, so is it so wrong for everyone with a bandit skin (regardless if they were ACTUALLY a bandit or just got into too many fights) to think that you will shoot them as well, without a thought? They don't have that margin. You might not like it that way, but there's nothing you can do.

Part One- The Hero Skin-

I spawned to the sound of gunfire. As I enter the town, I know I have to go in, or else I won't make it alive to the next town over. With the debug plains nearby and only the railroad to guide me besides going inland, this is how it has to be. Did you ever feel the tension? The one where you are crouching in the field out in the open, zombies limping all around, and you just hope they don't see you? The tension where they could see you at any moment?

2 klicks. 2 klicks of this tension, zombies swarming around me. Then one finally sees me. I bolt, no time to stick around, and no weapon to defend myself with. I have 2 options: lose them in a house, or find a weapon.

Trailing with multiple zombies, I go inside a small booth on the side of the road, to find an M1911. I quickly try to dispatch the zombie trying to eat my face. But now, the threat of zombies gone, I remember the player.

Grooowwll... What was that? I look out the window to see more zombies trying to flood into the building. I got out in enough time, and started to run for a large brick house. This is where I turn in my microphone. I'm trying to talk to this guy, if he's near, telling him I'm friendly and I don't have much to fight with.

I got out of the building scott-free. I start to walk toward the other side of town. I'm stunned when I see a shadow climbing the ladder to the hospital.

"Hey! You on the roof!" I call out.

"Hey, you down there!" he calls back.

Strange thing was, he wasn't mocking me. Still, we start to talk, and me, noticing he has a hero skin on, immediately trusts him. I climb the ladder after him and join him on the roof. We talk for a moment.

Every single second of this conversation, something in the back of my mind is saying "I could kill him. I could. It would be so simple." It wasn't the fact that I wanted to, it was the fact that I was able to. And it scared me.

I saw his name was Skinny Pete, and after giving him a blood transfusion, I asked to take a picture of him, just for you guys!

After we looted the building across the street, we meet another survivor who seemed unhappy that he could not kill us. He didn't have a weapon, and that was probably why. We met at the supermarket, in which I then had to go. I was disappointed. We were about to go to the factory.

Part Two- The Bandit Skin-

I spawned in. I see a body. I go over to it. I check his name. He wasn't one of my friends. I loot him. A zombie somehow sees me in the window. He comes in. The zombie bugs out. I eventually kill him. I use a bandage on myself, and pick up the zombie's soda can. Through the corner of my eye, I see movement.

I see a bandit. He looks at me straight in the eye. I have time to say "wh-" before he fires and kills me.

9/8/12- Sticks & Stones

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but zombies kill me forever.

Part One- Douchebaggery-

I spawn in. I see a town. In this town, lies another player. I do not know this yet.

As I get close to this town, a zombie suddenly spots me (he was obviously using rangefinders), and I'm stuck running.

On my way in, I had seen a dead player with a hero skin. He had nothing on him. As I ran from the Zeds, I saw a sight that horrified me....

A mass grave, completely made of players. I begin to run.

As I weave around the houses, I spot the nearest chance of survival: a log cabin. I go inside, and start to loot the nearby gear. Now, I hear the sound of another player on the microphone.

I didn't have a weapon. It was either die without his help, die with his help, or get out with his help. With those 3 options, and seeing a zombie enter through the doorway where I was laying down behind a table, I remember all the dead bodies on the railroad I had seen. I shuddered, and gave him my position.

I wait, watching the zombie slowly prod forward. After he didn't turn and leave, I knew he saw me. I get up, and run toward the door, dodging his hits. Once I get there, I'm welcomed to see the other player run in the house, say "Oh shit!" Then run back out.

The other kitchen zombie had moved closer, and scared him. As I try to run out after him, the kitchen zombie and the zombie he left behind block the door. In no time flat I have 2 broken legs and a fracture. I crawl away from the zombies, bleeding profusely, disappointed.

I bandage myself, which I shouldn't have done. I take some painkillers, and in some time my fracture is gone. The zombies have now left me alone, with my self on just about no blood, seeing black and white. I tell him on the mic that he should come take my matches when I die. I hope he realized he was the reason I died. If he hadn't been so stupid and dumped those zombies on me, I would've had a chance.

I go out in the middle of the road, and I start to feel neglected. No zombies come to finish me off. Finally, two zombies come back, running toward me. I'm utterly in awe when they start to walk away.

So I lay down, to go catch up to them and try again, begging for mercy that they may end me quick, because I know I won't survive. The player I saw earlier hadn't come back yet, and I was getting frustrated. I lay back down to go move toward the zombies. Suddenly, as I lay, a Zed starts beating my face in. I rage a little in my mind. Just raging. I pass out, and watch the zombie eat me. As I wake, I decide to go back in the house so the player that killed me can get my corpse with no problem from zombies.

I go back into the room where he had sealed my fate, stood up, and immediately died. I had three options. Die with his help, die without his help, or get away. Turns out, there was a fourth. Die FROM his help.

The curtain fade to black, and the words pop up on the screen. "You Are Dead". "I know." I said and exited the game.

9/9/12- You Are Dead

Sometimes I wonder what drives us. Is it greed, the desire to always have the best and the most of it? Is it fear, scared of what will happen if given the option? Is it pride? Determination? What makes us pull the trigger?

Part One- What Fear Makes Us-

For me, it's will. The will to live. As I'm huddled in a house, double barrel with a full inventory of ammo and a revolver in hand, I shrink back to the corner and listen to the gunfire echoing throughout Chernogausk. Things are starting to heat up. I had heard gunshots a few minutes ago, and decided to go into a defendable building until I spotted the culprit. Two doorways, one man. Which would he come through, if any?

The suspense was madening. I occasionally looked out the window for a brief moment. I couldn't take it any longer. I needed to reach a more defendable place with only one entry point. I stepped out into the building's hallway. Click! The sound of my shoe on tile startled me. I crouched down and went out the door into the warm, arid air. My plan was to go through the supermarket, than figure something from there. So long as I could get away from the gunman.

An eerie silence slipped through the town like a snake, cutting between the streets and slithering between boots, until all was still, and not a zed was in sight for klicks around. I ran out into the street. The silence was pierced by 5 shots ringing in succession. I had been hit, and I had been waited for. It really was of no surprise to me. Earlier I had seen a dead player by a tent town of about 7. Behind the supermarket was another tent town of about 7 as well.

And as I lay there, my eyes drew forward, and I didn't see my killer. It makes me wonder if he was a bandit, or even a hero. Maybe he was just scared. Maybe he was trying to kill. Who knows? I came past that corner pretty quick, so I'd understand if he was scared. Then again, he killed me in less than 5 seconds and those shots hit true. You just have to keep going and hope the next time you'll be at the other end of the gun.

Part Two- The Old Bicycle-

I wanted a bike. I wanted one. I didn't want a car just yet, no. I wanted a mountain bike. It was silent fast, hard to drive but well worth it. Since there was no way to repair it, getting off and getting back on did the job just fine. I looked up online where to find one. I was nowhere near it.

As I was waiting in the field, looking at bike locations, a zombie sees me. I start to run. I run fast, and lose them through a building, and come out the other side. There, in front of me, I see and Old Bike.

I try to get on it, and am dumbfounded when my player doesn't seem to get on it. A stray zombie that had been following on all fours catches up and swipes at me. It just so happens that it makes me bleed. Coincidentally, after this happened my player finally decided to get on the bike, so I was stuck driving down near the peer before patching myself up. I had to go, so I saved the bike and hoped it would be on the server when I got back.

This, is the start of something great. You put a gun in my hands, you get a bunch of dead zombies and an eventual mistake that leads to my death. You put a bike at my feet... well... we'll see as time goes by.

9/10/12- Warning Signs

You go through the motions, you see the signs, you know the situation. Yet sometimes you ignore them. Sometimes you just let things happen, even if in the end you were right all along.

Part One- The Old Bicycle 2-

"Is anyone here? Look, I'm friendly, I'll gladly come out with my weapon drawn and we can be friendly, maybe exchange a few supplies."

Click, click click.

The sounds of boots on tile echoed throughout the hallway.

"This is your final chance, if you do not respond to me, I will assume you are trying to hurt me, and you will be shot.

Click, click, click.

"I can hear you. Come any closer and you WILL be shot."

Click, click, click. The noises slowly faded away, traveling out the building. Concerned, I look outside the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of whomever came to pay me a visit. Nothing.

Slowly, I inched myself out into the doorway, and out into the hall. Expecting to be shot at any moment, I am surprised to see that no one was waiting for me. Not sure whether I had encountered a player or a zombie following me inside for a brief moment, I continue to loot the building. I loot, and loot, and loot, constantly watching my back, waiting for the threat of the player to come back and kill me. It wasn't until I got to the fire station that things got intense.

I was getting chased by a zombie, and ran, trampling through the grass. I had gone to most every building except the firestation who's tower loomed before me. All the while I was looting I was sure that the player was holed up here, if there was another player. I ran into the fire station hot, only to see what made my blood run cold and my heartbeat quicken.

It was the bike. The same bike I had been looking for when I spawned back in without it. It was in the lowest floor of the fire station. The player was here.

With zombies on the down floor and heading in fast, I had no choice but to ascend. With each staircase I climb, I become more sure that the player is here, and that he's heard me.

As I round to the next staircase, the last staircase, I take a deep breath. I can't say I was ready for what I saw next. A player was there, on the platform above the staircase entrance. He had an automatic weapon. There was a half-second pause. It felt like 3. I fired. He fired. We fired at the same time. It seemed like he had emptied a whole mag into me before anyone reacted. I had accepted death from the time I got up there. I was in third person firing a revolver using hipfire at his chest. Though I am sure I shot him atleast 3 times or not at all. At the end though, as I fell over, I saw the other player do the same. I presumed this was intentional, and I saw him move a little before this, which I assume was lag. So he might, or might not be dead. All I know is I gave him a chance, he refused, and atleast one of us wound up dead. I was aware of the signs. I ignored them. It was all or nothing, and for all I know, both sides got nothing.

Even though I knew he was there, I went on. Even though I saw the signs, I continued on. This time, I want to try to survive. Listen to the signs. Heed to them. But I don't know. Maybe I'm attracted to action. Maybe I'm meant to engage. If so, then I need to get good at it.

9/11/12- Assumptions

After the dust settles, and you come upon the scene, you start to wonder what happened that you weren't there to witness. And though you may come to a reasonable and logical solution, it may not always be correct. Unfortunately with no one to tell you, all you can do is let sleeping dogs lie.

Part One- Detective Work-

There were bodies. Everywhere.

3 to be exact, scattered upon the ground. I was behind the supermarket, about to go inside. Though what I saw startled me, I wasn't about to leave anytime soon. I was confident in my Winchester. 2 of the bodies were hero skins, and one of them was a civilian skin. The bodies were a few yards away from eachother, and none of them had a gun. They all had hatchets, but it didn't seem to be in their tool belts. This meant that they had to be a party, and were all killed, but not by eachother.

I entered the supermarket to find another man lying on the ground between the window and the shelf. There were no bullet holes in the window, showing that he had not been shot outside the store. Further inspection of his gear prompted that since he had a weapon, he had most likely been the one to kill the players lying outside. The fact that he still had food and water said that he was either swarmed by zombies, or died of blood loss. I shivered, and was wondering how far off I was to be one of those guys lying outside in the sun as well.

The least this meant was that I was safe unless there was another killer around. Grabbing supplies, I left the supermarket and continued on. As I near the hospital, I start to hear flies. I assume there is a dead player either inside or on the roof. Breaking the glass with my crowbar, I grab medical supplies, and do not find a body. I then proceeded to the back of the hospital, where the sound was louder, and climbed on to the roof. There was suspense in the atmosphere, but alas, there was no body. As I planted my feet on the ground and turned around, I see the body, wedged in between a fence and a brick column.

Seeing his supplies, it seems safe to say he had been looted, so I needed to watch out. As I went across the street to the school, I start to hear more flies. Room after room I check, popping on the microphone to ask if anyone is there, trying to sound calm. On the second floor the sound grows louder. I imagined the body would be on this floor or the roof. Nothing on both. This was a warning sign. Since there was nothing on the third floor either, that means a player hid the body, which means that he's well equipped and didn't need any more of the loot, and his camp is nearby and he didn't want anyone to notice the body. Or he was a passerby that didn't want to leave a trail. Which assumption do you think is safer? My heart starts pounding. I could be getting stalked.

As I explore the town, I find no evidence of any camp. Finally, I go to the powerplant. I walked in the garage door, and see two tents next to eachother. For a second, I froze.

I hear flies nearby. Unwanting to repeat the same mistake, I call on the microphone asking whether anyone is there. I tell him I'll leave if he asks, and that I'm friendly. Since he doesn't answer, I start to ascend. I had checked the tower beforehand with binoculars and by climbing to the roof and looking. Everything seemed clear.

When I got to the second-to-top floor, I see a body. It's floating.

All I could assume was that someone tried to hide it, whether it be the camp owner or a killer of the camp owner. Since the body was "hidden" and I couldn't loot it, that's all I could assume.

Remembering the account in "The Old Bicycle 2" I start to wonder if this could have been my old body.

I went to a barn to hole-up until tomorrow, a bit shaken up from today's events.

9/12/12-Psyche Trip

You know it's a good game when.... you're more afraid of walking down some stairs than fighting hordes of zombies.

Part One- Paranoia

The sound of gunshots rang through the town. You could bet everyone was listening. The bandits were moving in; the scavengers hiding. They were fired in quick succession. I looked from the top of my tower out onto the landscape below, trying to identify the shooter. In my ghille suit, I didn't think it would be much of a camouflage against the beige cement.

All I could guess was that his guy or gal was running from zeds, and stopped to hold off, and desperately sprayed them. I couldn't tell just what the weapon was from the sound, but it could kill me easily, all the same. I didn't see any death messages or hear shots from a different gun, so I assumed my theory was correct.

A few minutes later, I was still perched at the top of the tower, adamant to move from the hotspot I was in until I could locate the threat. More gunshots sounded off, this time closer. Whatever zombies this guy was killing, sure needed a lot of double tap. A few moments after hearing these, I hear a scraping noise downstairs. It was faint, like the toe of a boot hitting the ground. I heard it ever so often.

The next few minutes, I remained, petrified, trying to contact the elusive gunman. He would not answer. I tried mostly text, talking in both channels, and prompting him for answers, then waiting. He would not answer. I start to worry. He's trapped me up here. Maybe waiting for his friends to show up. I needed to get out.

After 10 minutes, I finally budge. I know, I have great patience, but I told him I was coming down on both channels. Instead of doing what I said, though, I took the other route. Going one floor down from the top, I went next to the window at the base of the stairs, and turned on my mousewheel menu. I climbed on the ladder outside while being inside. I dismounted the ladder, climbed down the other, and snuck around to the front of the firestation. I slowly peeked inside. Nothing. That couldn't be right. I shut ran around the place double time, searching for a player. Nothing. I walked inside, and went over to the room with the first flight of stairs. What I saw shocked me. Nothing.

The scraping I heard, either me or nothing. The person I had been trying to contact? Nonexistant. I definitely would have heard him on the stairs if he had gone up, even if I was on the other side of the building. He wasn't there. I climbed up onto the roof of a red factory building and laid there. That was where I would resume tomorrow.

9/13/12- When Luck Keeps Rolling... and Falls of the Roof

You just stop having fun sometimes. When that happens, we all deal with it different ways. Some people take a break, play a different game, or do some other activity. I just start over. I start over to do it again.

Part One- Fatality

I was sick of it. It seemed every single time that I came back in the game after getting a ghille, things went to complete crap. Zombies saw me from 20 meters away as a crawled across the road with 0 visibility and 0 hearing, I seemed to be able to get a bleeding wound more, and it just wasn't fun. Eventually, I had ran to the fire station and up the ladder.

I took a grenade and chucked it. All the zombies were still at the bottom of the ladder and wouldn't leave, so this was my best option. I fell off the side of the roof somehow. So then I patched myself up, ran out of town and let a zombie beat me to death on the beach.

Part Two- Metagaming-

Waking up, my player was saur and stiff. Still in the same clothes, I decided to take a nice life-threatening run on the coast. From Cap Glovia to the edge of Elektro. I found my old body and took the stuff. On my way inland zombies saw me and the server crashed as I was running from zombies.

The reason I killed myself is that I wasn't having fun, and that there was no way to get my blood back up without transfusion or animals, and by then it would not be worth it. So I found my body and was on full blood, like I should have been. Face it, if a zombie didn't randomly spot me from across the street while I was prone, I'd still be in that ghille. But....

....I am going to kill myself again. I just can't deal with what I did, even if I do deserve it. It just doesn't sit well with me.

9/14/12- Friendly

Even though you might be ready to give so much, others might not feel the same way, even if you don't mean any harm. Though, even in the dark place Chernarus is, there are some who give it all.

Part One- Ghille Guy

I did, kill myself. Then, I respawned. I'll tell you, I am keen at knowing when someone is stalking me. As I was in a log cabin, I was looting around and found a Makarov. Outside, I hear some zombies getting agro'd. No way I was doing it. I call out on the mic "I'm friendly in the cabin! If you're friendly, holler back!" I stepped outside and looked around to see if any of the zombies were coming at me. Looked to my right, nothing. Looked to me left, nothi- wait....I look again, and see a barrel of a gun. The barrel of a gun is connected to an arm, part of a whole survivor decked in a ghille suit. As soon as I notice him from the corner of my eye, he shoots me and kills me. Just before I go to the "You Are Dead" screen, I say in the microphone "Thanks for shooting me, douchebag, I didn't have anything except a makarov. Good luck, jacka$$."

Part Two- Land Ho!

I saw a boat. I was in Cap Kalova, and I saw a boat. The explorer in me wanted to go explore it. So I did. Swimming for 15 minutes, I finally make it over. I see a small part that I could get onto above water, so I attempt to squeeze through a gap, and in doing so, break my legs. I still made it through though! Luckily, I had been waiting to talk to someone from Trusted Medics, so I got two of their guys to come out and help. I squeeze through the gap on the other side, and am surprised when I can't swim, and end up crawling on the ocean floor all the way to the shore. About an hour and a half later, I'm given some morphine and I'm back on my feet. Since I was on the island now, I decided to explore it. I went on top of the radio tower to see if anything was there. Nothing. Looking out at the landscape, I can swear I see something... but that will have to wait... until tomorrow.

9/15/12- The Quarry

It can be tiring, always being on the move. It might be good to, once in a while, settle down and pool your resources, making way for new development. It's harder than it sounds. By far.

Part One- Flashlight- The flashlight in my hand did nothing to penetrate the thick veil of darkness that surrounded me. High above the trees, stranded in the radio tower, all I could see were the stars above me. Fumbling for some source of light, I start randomly pressing keys on my keyboard, watching the screen, waiting to see the beam. Nothing.

Eventually, in my haste, my finger stroked the "V" key. I waited, unable to see my character, but assuming that full well, at any moment I would hear- Snap! The sickening crack of breaking of bones seemed to echo through the night, as quiet and peaceful as it seemed. Bleeding, helpless, and lightless, I waited to die.

Part Two- Camp- A base. A home. An HQ. All of these things could describe what I had in mind for myself. I wanted a place to go back to. In Solinichiy*, there is a quarry. Seeing as barely and loot spawns there, I was determined to take the position above it on the ridge, overlooking the town, and hidden from view. Sporting my makarov, camo clothing, and various gear, I was passionate about it. All I needed was a supermarket to find a tent.

It wasn't that easy, though. I had spawned without a bandage. Going through town to try and find one, I am seen by some far off zombie who apparently had hawk's eyes transplanted into his skull. Running through the streets from the ghastardly beasts, I go into a log cabin. A zombie so graciously decides to join me for dinner, and sinking into the table, inflicts a bleeding wound on me.

There was a bandage I saw on the way in. I could get it, and heal myself. First, I had to get through ten-some zombies. It took nearly all my makarov ammo, but I came out on top.

As I debated whether to bandage myself or start again, I realized something about DayZ that I hadn't thought of before. I realized that it wasn't about the gear. It wasn't about getting the fanciest weapon, or amassing an army of vehicles. It was about survival. It was about being ready. And most of all, it was about that when the time came when you weren't ready, you pulled through it, and you recovered, no matter if you had to crawl 5 klicks to a hospital with broken legs. I stopped the bleeding.

I still needed blood. I knew that if I could find an animal and the ingredients for a fireplace, I could gorge myself until I felt better. An elementary tactic, but effective all the same.

It took a wide trip through the country and a bit of travel, but I finally was able to gain all the necessary ingredients for a fireplace. It was the start of my home. Looking out over the town, fire burning, I can almost swear I hear the sound of a car horn....

9/16/12- Road Trip!

Secluded in the woods. Secluded. It's a word that gives you a false sense of security. Hidden tents and smothered fires, away from the towns. No matter where you are in DayZ, you'll find you're never alone.

Part One- The Old Bike 3- There it was. It was staring me in the face, yet again. It had started in the shotgun house. Trying to find more bandages, I hear the sounds of zombies getting agro'd. It wasn't me.

10 minutes. 10 excruciating minutes spent in that house, paranoid, and remembering all the other times this had happened. It was make it or break it. I hoofed it out of the building. Right away, I went to a defendable position. Retreating to the quarry, I see what I had hoped I would not come to find. An old bike, sitting next to a rock.

One player in the server, and he was here. Remember survivors, no matter how secure you think you are, you are NEVER alone.

I hopped on the bike and took off down the road. Riding down, I saw another bike not too far off from where I was. It just made me pedal faster. When the road ended, I didn't go back. It was a whole hour of riding the bike through the Chernarus Wilderness, until I finally found a road near a dam. Filling up on water, I am soon hitting the towns up for what they've got. Eventually, the bike got lost during a server restart. After that, not much happened until I got to the airfield.

For the first time, no artifacting. As I ran to it, a zombie on my tail, I know if I leave it nipping at me all the others will come running. I turn and take a shot with my enfield. Miss. Another. Miss. It gets up close, and hits me. First hit breaks my leg, while I'm on full blood. I shot it in the face.

I called for medical assistance. They would be there within the hour. To keep myself busy, I had come to the decision to crawl into the barracks and control tower, looting what I could find. In the barracks, I found a M24. I crawled to the control tower, in which I found morphine and epi-pen. Using the morphine, I called off medical assistance, and proceeded onward. Still, I had business at the airfield. I had a contact coming in with some NVGs and a GPS, attempting to get rid of the extra gear. I didn't want to pass it up.

Roaming the fields, trying to kill cows and cook them, getting chased by zombies up to the control tower, basically the cycle just repeated itself. At one point, control tower loot respawned, and I ended up with an AKM. I took it because the M24 has super-rare ammo, unfortunately, and I needed a gun. Getting my GPS and NVGs, I was starting to believe that the project I was thinking of was possible. With many dreams swirling about in my head, I rested, only to continue the adventure tomorrow.

9/17/12- On The Coast... Again

Sometimes people you try to help can be so... people.

Part One- Black Lake- He was dying. Back in the trusted medic teamspeak, one of their guys needed food and water badly. Being near his position, and, having a plethora of goods, I made my way over.

When I got there, I soon discovered he was not there anymore, and had gone down to the beach. When I asked why he had done this I believe his response was, "I'm dying, why should I wait for you?" to which I rebuted, "Because by now, if you HAD waited, you'd be full."

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. The sound of my boots hitting ground was rythmic, as I sprinted past the trees, trying to get to my friend before he started to die of starvation. Arriving on the beach, I start a fire as he comes in with his boat. Once I give him some supplies and get him situated, we set out, heading to Cherno to get anitbiotics. Afterward, we would take a daring mission into the middle of the ocean in attempt to rescue a victim of hacker's whim. 20k out. We were going to get sick.

Before I had a chance to participate, real life obligations had taken me away from the game. Near the middle and on the coast of Chernarus, the next day is sure to be interesting.

9/18/12- Coastal Trip

Progression. It starts, scrounging for food and water and a weapon. Then it comes to food, water, and ammo. Then tools, better weapons, vehicles, even better weapons. The higher class you get, the more time you spend in danger zones, where people are more or just as equipped and capable to take you out. Just remember, only take what you need. Extras are purely collateral.

Part One- Elektrovadosk- Not much was going on. The town was quiet, seeming to respect the nighttime as a sort of repentance for all those who had fallen. Not even the zombies made much noise as they stumbled through the streets like drunken people after a night on the town. But through all the hush I could make out ever so faintly, the sound of a car horn. It came about every 60 seconds, and always from the same place. It seemed to be calling me to the other side of town, where all the factories were. I resisted. I did NOT need a vehicle. I'd already picked up a tent, and this town was not my primary goal. I planned to run the coast, heading to Chernogask next, then running until I could take a road up to the nearest airfield.

First, I went back to the fire stations. Each time I entered, I used direct chat and texted to see if there was a response. I seemed to be alone, just me and the cold concrete. Going up the tower, I made sure to stand up with my weapon lowered, just in case.

In one of them, I found an AK-47. Best hit of the night. Other than that, it was quiet. There seemed to be no prowlers and the masked men could not be found. Though at one point I did see a dead zombie near me that wasn't dead before. I started to wonder if I was being shadowed. True or not, it was time to leave. Perhaps the next day will provide something more exciting.

9/19/12- Pack Rat

You have to take your time. No matter how much material you're moving, or what job your doing for that matter, you'll only botch it up if you keep being careless.

Part One- A Small Army- Now that I had the resources, it was time to collect enough supplies for a small army. For 5 hours, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until I had 4 tents loaded with guns, ammo, food, water, and medical supplies. If I had to be guessing, I'd say I had about 9 primaries and 13 pistols, all loaded with more mags than you can fit in the secondary slot.

Things were going good. But as you all know, good things must come to an end. As I was in an apartment, 3 zombies followed me up the stairs, broke my legs, and knocked me out. Upon waking once more from one bad dream into another, I figured out my character was in such a position that I couldn't move either way with the wall on one side and the zombies on the other. I soon bled out. I told the guys I was getting the supplies for the location of the tents, and left them to it.

I didn't want them anymore. I died. It was over, and it wouldn't feel right metagaming like that. It wasn't how I wanted to play. So while they fed off my misfortune, 5 hours wasted, I promised myself that I wouldn't be so careless next time. If there was one.

9/20/12- Re-ArmA-ing

DayZ is like a ladder. At the bottom, you have a long way to climb to get to the top. Up higher, it's always fun when you get something or do something you haven't done before. Closer to the top, you realize there is no end to the ladder.

Part One- So I Died...- Yeah.... Death in DayZ. It kinda happens. With a steady heart, I took a deep breath, picked my head up, and continued on. I spawned in "airfield". That is correct. The word to pop up on my screen to tell me my location was "airfield". Helpful. Luckily, I was in the Teamspeak, so I asked around, and soon figured out that I was in the area between Cherno and Balota. Having nothing, I headed over to Cherno first.

Sure enough, after the server restarted, there was wire fencing blocking the way to get into the fire station stairwell. I knew it wasn't a player, and that atleast gave me comfort. Still, staring me in the face, just beyond the barbed wire, was an AKM. With no side-arm and no primary, this got me a little irked.

The following hour was spent looking for a single toolbox among Cherno's vast industrial section, in which I found none. I've described the fear of knowing another player was near. Every sound making you jump, being on guard, unknowing of their intentions. Though this time, fear came to me, in an unexpected form. It was tall. Yep, the giant industrial tower loomed over all the buildings, and as I was still climbing, I got worried. Ladders are buggy in ArmA, and I knew there was a chance this one would prove to be somewhat of a grim reaper. Each rung going up I felt more and more worried. Though I have fallen from a radio tower and lived, I was not sure this would prove to yield the same outcome, especially since all that awaited me below was hard, course gravel and the pavement. Eventually, I had scaled and explored the building without trouble.

I went back to the fire station, in hopes that the wire would have been removed if it had been there for some unknown debug purpose. Going in, I find a Remmington on the wall farthest from the stairs. That was good enough for me.

Eventually, I find my way to Balota, where I go to the airfield, find a few miscellaneous things, and head out. Eventually, I'm trapped in a house with a broken leg, bleeding, and zombies feeding in around me. I was dying. Again. This time, I got up, shot all the zombies, and bandaged myself. My blood was on dark red. Close one.

As I called in for medical help, I started to feel like I was playing Black Ops. Zombies were stumbling through the door, one after another, and I sat behind a table, firing as they came through. By the time I was finished, the house was so filled with zombies, you couldn't see the floor. Low on ammo and low on blood, I headed over to the airfield, which I awaited rescue in the control tower. I joined the medic's server, and after giving me a quick transfusion, we set out in his car.

Part Two- Throughout the night we: met up with another guy, found a helicopter crash (which my friend got an AS50), raided the NW airfield (in which I got an M3A4 CCO (or something like that), and sped away fast, leaving in our wake a literal mass grave of fallen enemies lying in the runway.

It was a good night.

9/22/12- The Cycle Broken

We get into routine sometimes, acting almost as if we were an automaton. We do these things maybe daily, weekly, bi-weekly, annually, and so on. And it comes down to that when these things escape and we can no longer continue the ritual, things might feel a bit out of your element.

Of course this is a freaking video game. Boo hoo. I was fine.

Part One-

Downloading, Please Wait....

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Ok, thanks for waiting guys. Anyway, I hope you all know that every day, I try to play DayZ for atleast 30 minutes so I can write here. Yesterday though, I did not. My computer used to run on XP 32-bit. That's right, used to. You see, my computer was only recognizing 3.5 GB of RAM out of the 8GB we had inside of it. My motherboard is a DDR2 and if you don't know what that means, is that if you built and/or bought your computer within atleast 4 or so years ago, you have a DDR3 and you have a LOT more RAM than I do because DDR3 RAM is cheap. Basically this allows you to do things faster than I can, and the fact of the matter is graphics take RAM as well, so I've having to be running ArmA as low as it can go on the limbo stick, and still have my computer freeze.

Now the reason I only had half the RAM I should have is because of my OS. So we uninstalled XP 32, installed XP 64, then upgraded it to Windows 7. I've wanted this for a long time, but never had a reason to, so this was the perfect solution, since it fixed two. Still, after dinner when everything had finished installing, Steam was not on my computer, so by the time I go to bed, it won't of even downloaded the installer, lest ArmA is going to be installed tomorrow, and if everything goes well, I should run a faster, more beautiful game, and be able to sprinkle some adventure magic onto the thread, like crushed red pepper on pizza. Your welcome.

9/23/12- Waiting....

Some things are out of your control. Sometimes it's a car with no brakes barreling down a steep hill on a busy road, and sometimes it's the speed of your computer downloading something which is long overdue. Either way, all you can do is sit back, relax, and hope everything goes well......

Part One- 2M- Apparently I have a 2M cable internet connection. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think that means my download speed is pretty high up there. Still, ArmA and ArmA OA took ALL DAY to install. That's right, ALL DAY. Well, not even all day, but a day and a half. How do I know this? If you didn't notice, logs for the previous day are posted a day after it happened, hence "previous day". So basically ArmA and OA took since about 8:00 A.M. to 2:45 P.M the next day.

Still, I'm happy to be able to play again, with better connection and graphics! Let the games begin!

9/24/12- Scratch One

Second time's a charm.

Part One- Yay- So ArmA finished installing. I go pre-launch the game before installing DayZ only to find that the game has some errors and corrupted files, which implies, that I didn't install correctly. I need to install it again. Oh joy.

Dear readers,

I am sorry I have not posted in a few days, ArmA is having some issues and I haven't been able to play DayZ. I'm in the process of working it out, and it will be fixed. I am also in the process of recruiting some members for a special unit, http://dayzmod.com/f...ng/page__st__20 in which when we are set up and fully-functional, I will be continuing the log in another thread based on the group.

Thanks for the fun times,

metpaus

Hey, you. Yes, YOU! Thanks for reading! Leave me some beans, or better yet, reply to the thread. I love to hear from you!

Edited September 28, 2012 by metapaus

[randyg 1]

Still enjoying the read :) . I think perhaps new player discussion doesn't have enough viewers? If you do decide to quit, please make an ending to your adventure. I need closure!

Edited September 7, 2012 by randyg

[noblebrutus@live.co.uk 26]

I tried to make a log book once, I based it around screenshots I took in game when I ran it in windowed mode, however I couldn't find an option for windowed mode on six updater when I switched so I stopped.

Anyhow this is pretty good. I hope they add a writable diary in game.

[metapaus 31]

I tried to make a log book once, I based it around screenshots I took in game when I ran it in windowed mode, however I couldn't find an option for windowed mode on six updater when I switched so I stopped.

Anyhow this is pretty good. I hope they add a writable diary in game.

Unfortunately screenshots have been discontinued until I can run ArmA on Steam again. Since I had to re download it, hopefully it applied the newest beta-patch and I can play it through Steam once more.

I loved taking them, seeing as how it added a more 3-D feel to the log and so everyone could see I wasn't lying through my teeth about these things. It seems though, that when you're really into it, you kinda forget to take the pics when it really matters.