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Well DayZ, you've probably all heard of it by now, but wondering whether I should take the plunge like the other million odd people that have already. I've watched some fun videos of it, and it comes on recommendation from my mates, but well what do ya'll think? Worth spending the £25 for the base game to get (do people still even play Arma 2?), or wait it out till the end of the year (or whenever its meant to be released....) for the full game?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_dHs8KIVTU&feature=player_embedded

I have played it for a while now and it's good fun well unless you get shot by a bandit when you have very little.

But yeah with a couple of mates it's a fun experience and the great news is it's going to become a stand alone game ! But that will be a while away yet.

It is a good game but personally I would advise that you wait. The game has a lot of issues at the moment and it badly lacks some features (permanent bases and 'end game' content).

If you have the money to spare or ARMA2 goes on sale again then it is well worth playing but if not waiting will give you a better game.

I'd wait, unless you really want to play with 2-3 friends immediately.

Hackers are a big problem, bugs are everywhere. Its honestly not that fun unless you get really lucky with spawns solo.

Also, the interface is abysmal.

I find it to be one of the most enjoyable mods i have ever tried, but like others have said full of fething bugs.... Id say to wait on picking it up though since it is apparently going to be its own standalone game now (cant remember where i saw that but it is being made into its own separate game from the ARMA series)

edit: spelling

Getting my student loan soon, so bugger it. ^^

=/ The interface does need working on for a game where speed is required. Its too cumbersome for efficient looting (yes, it is meant to be realistic, but failings in the system aren't a way of implementing that...).

Edit:

Played four times, died four times. ...All within minutes of spawning. I mean shoot a guy who can pose a threat, ie has a rifle and is moving your way, not some new guy with a tin of beans... Twice to snipers (with really bad aims), another to a guy with an axe over a tin can spawn (who I was rather polite to the whole time he was looting my body), and the last randomly at a hatchet spawn from somwhere.

^^ If your going to kill someone, at least respond to the guy when he's berating you for killing him over some crappy loot.

It's a fun game but you may want to wait a little while for 'TheWarZ' to be released or the standalone DayZ

=/ I'm feeling a compulsion to play it now because of the cost. The level of player killing is silly (another six times killed for no reason...). I mean do people kill you for bandages or the hope that that unarmed player might have picked up some ammo, but no weapon? From the videos I've watched the veteran players don't carry much of either, so I'm only see the point of killing an unarmed player as something to do...

But again, the interface does feel cumbersome compared to say Fallout 3. That's in all things, for instance just generally moving about. Is it meant to be so difficult to go through doors or fall a few feet without breaking both my characters legs....? 0.o

While it can be fun, DayZ is essentially just a slow paced very large map deathmatch. A game where 90% of players will shoot you on sight simply because they can. Even if you're carrying nothing worthwhile and approach them cautiously with no weapon equipped, while talking calmly over your mic to them you still have a large chance of getting a bullet in the head.

its best to just shoot other people on sight as its so much easier than potentially dealing with them, ultimately though its this type of playstyle that has caused this game to become a FFA deathmatch.

Try to play with your friends for the best experience, having a group of people accompanying you will make you much less of a target to lone bandits. But if you're going to attempt to solo the game, first thing you should do is head inland away from the coastline. I haven't playing in a few months but unless they drastically altered the game most players tend to hang out around the coast.

Something else i did when i started playing was print out an ingame map i found on the internet that listed all the loot spots in the game, it helped me know if a town was useless so i could save ammo by not clearing the zombies. Also knowing where the deer stands are can help you secure a decent weapon early on with very little player interaction, although finding ammo for your new weapon might be a bitch.

Oh, and if you find an AKM in a deer stand, never fire it anywhere near a town... unless you want a 30 man zombie train chasing you.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
=/ I'm feeling a compulsion to play it now because of the cost. The level of player killing is silly (another six times killed for no reason...). I mean do people kill you for bandages or the hope that that unarmed player might have picked up some ammo, but no weapon? From the videos I've watched the veteran players don't carry much of either, so I'm only see the point of killing an unarmed player as something to do...

But again, the interface does feel cumbersome compared to say Fallout 3. That's in all things, for instance just generally moving about. Is it meant to be so difficult to go through doors or fall a few feet without breaking both my characters legs....? 0.o

As soon as you spawn head inland, the coastal cities are a huge deathtrap. They have reasonable loot but nothing that you can't get elsewhere (aside from blood packs, but you need a partner to use them anyway). Loot the small villages in the central eastern part of the map (around Polona) or the far west (around Bor) to gain experience and get some basic loot. A good map is essential http://dayzhq.com/map/ as its hard to find the in game map and its not very good anyway. The best places to loot at the start are barns as they have basic weapons and a little food, then move onto deer hides (they have mid tier weapons like AK variants) and supermarkets (for food, ammo and survival gear). Don't open doors while prone, that is what is breaking your legs.

DayZ is basically a big deathmatch, its a poor representation of a 'real' zombie apocalypse, with the result that most people shoot on sight simply because they can. This is most obvious in the coastal cities, the airfields and Stary but it can and does happen everywhere. Hopefully though this is something that will change over time as the game started out with a much more friendly atmosphere.

The guys that made the let's play videos seem to have done it during the early days of the mod. I mean they were walking up to and getting chummy with everyone (if there was a brief stand off period at the start). Now nobody's got guns to start with (so anyone with one's an immediate target), and everyone shoots on sight (one guy who I seen was unarmed, as was I, turned around and came back a minute later with an axe to kill me with...). I've been wary of people, tried to be nice to a guy with an axe as I hold a revolver in my hand (he must have though me as an idiot, so he came charging at me.... ¬¬), but people just don't treat this roleplaying style game as anything other than a shoot-em-up. I want to be able to find an ally (ie in the videos you have new guys stumbling over each other at night and teeming up for safety. Now it would be them stumbling over each other and them all ending up dead), but that's just not going to happen unless I bring my own. =/

I know its probably looked down on (despite it probably being more realistic), but I prefer the lower population servers. I mean there's a lot less chance of some random person shooting you on them. People are either so paranoid, or just see it as the primary game mode (its not zombie survival, its a scavenger hunt death-match). Player killing's alright, but it should be seen as an option only taken when necessary. What I mean by this is for instance take The Road. The main character spends the book with two bullets as I recall (one of them being wooden), they aren't fired until a loved one is taken hostage. Not when he's got men chasing him through the woods, not when he sees lights in the distance. In a zombie survival game it should the case where yeah, you can mug someone for their stuff (if they obviously have stuff), or they're clearly posing a threat, but otherwise you should bide your time. Paranoia tells us that others are out to get us in the setting (and from what I've played they are), but if everyone wasn't going about toting clips of ammunition, maybe it'd make people weigh up shooting the random guy who's doing his best to run away from you... Its always nice to feel safe (though killing someone does give away that your there...), but what's the point in killing someone that's unarmed in an area without any weapon spawns....?

A guy with a revolver should be king, but that's only until he's fired off the half dozen rounds that he's got left. I'm not saying go back to the stone age, just not make it the case that as soon as you get a rifle you want to go out and blow everyone's brains out (damn, at least mug them, don't waste a bullet killing them). I guess its a game where the concept's been taken out of hand by the players and first time developer's falling over some stumbling blocks. I just hope that the stand alone game has a reason for people to not treat this as a game (or at least not a death-match one), but a feasible survival game. =P

Find yourself an out of game group, its a waste of time looking for people in game as you will almost always end up dead. I don't play anymore but when I did I grouped up with a load of guys from another forum and thats when the game really started to shine; at one stage half of a 50 man server was forum members,all of us working together with no (intentional) friendly fire. We even managed to amass a huge hoard of vehicles and equipment.

if you are part of a larger community, or at least one which is focused towards PC gaming, you should find that at least some people are willing to play co-operatively. Failing that you could try here or on the DayZ forums, teamspeak/mumble/etc is a must though.

^^ I've been meaning to get a new mic for a while, but summer's sapped my cash from me. I'll be getting my student loan soon though if anyone has any suggestions for a mic though?

The game was suggested to me by a friend's boyfriend, but yeah, It'd probably be easier to play with forum members. Hey when the full game comes out and (it being decent that is) if people are interested then maybe we could start something here? At the moment though its fairly diabolic playing it on my own (I've a feeling there's a hell of a lot of CoD players on the servers...). =)

There's cod players in every game mate, they just don't stay in cod! I have been meaning to get the ARMA pack on steam so I can play, I just didn't want to play on my own because co-op is so much better.
My headset is the Tritton AX120, I like it a lot. It's not the best but not the worst. I got it for fifty euro if that is in your price range or above. I would get a headset that can fit all consoles though if you are getting one, my set only works on PC and XBox...

 Wyrmalla wrote:
At the moment though its fairly diabolic playing it on my own (I've a feeling there's a hell of a lot of CoD players on the servers...). =)

Soloing in high population areas is not recommended, you really need to head for the hills. If you are feeling brave head for Balota airfield, Zug or Rog castles on your way out as both areas have good loot (but are heavily camped but at least you won't lose much if you get killed there).

Once you get some good equipment then you can start venturing onto the coast again but its not really worth it.

My average gameplay experience in DayZ:
- Crouchrun for 4 hours
- Stop at a treeline with my group because somebody thinks they saw a guy somewhere
- Sit in treeline for half an hour
- Crouchrun for another hour and a half til I get sick
- Quit out of frustration

There are a few big issues with DayZ. For one, there isn't a big enough incentive to wrork together so few people do (the ones that do almost always know each other prior to playing) . Early on all he videos had a sort of narrative to follow, there was a point A to point B story, that was quickly replaced with "let's pwn shum noobz!" style videos. The other problem is the context in which you find items makes no sense. Hey look, I found a shotgun... surrounded by dmr and glock mags... ? The distribution of weaponry and gear rarely makes a lick of sense. I'm fine with the very limited carry capacity and overall scarcity of ammo but at least make it make sense. Hell, why are matches a rare item, like why can'y I use one of my 900 road flares to light a damn fire? The zombies are too damn fast, it's like they're all kenyan or something. Equiping an axe is beyond complicated and the fact that you can easily swtich to it when out of ammo is terrible.


If you like the idea of dayz but find a bit too frustrating I would reecomend a mod called wasteland, it's only on a couple servers but it's an excellent game. It's dayz with 3 teams, no zombies, base building and plenty of vehicles for all. Just type wasteland in the filter and you'll find both servers. One is run by the main designer taw_tonic, the other is a russian server with some slight tweaks.

Wyrmalla wrote:=/ I'm feeling a compulsion to play it now because of the cost. The level of player killing is silly (another six times killed for no reason...). I mean do people kill you for bandages or the hope that that unarmed player might have picked up some ammo, but no weapon? From the videos I've watched the veteran players don't carry much of either, so I'm only see the point of killing an unarmed player as something to do...

Yes the 'ladder deaths' are VERY annoying. On the second point, TBH the player-killing is a big part of it. I think part of the reason DZ has been so popular is because in many ways it reminds some players of the early days of MMOs - the likes of Ultima Online, where you could kill someone and take their stuff. Armies of murderers roamed the countryside, and staying alive and rich was a real difficulty - but at the same time the player experienced an ultimate thrill from managing to survive and persist in that world, something that I think the far more controlled and protected game that Ultima Online (and practically any other MMO you care to mention) became just could not convey. That being said..

Wyrmalla wrote:The guys that made the let's play videos seem to have done it during the early days of the mod. I mean they were walking up to and getting chummy with everyone (if there was a brief stand off period at the start). Now nobody's got guns to start with (so anyone with one's an immediate target), and everyone shoots on sight (one guy who I seen was unarmed, as was I, turned around and came back a minute later with an axe to kill me with...). I've been wary of people, tried to be nice to a guy with an axe as I hold a revolver in my hand (he must have though me as an idiot, so he came charging at me.... ¬¬), but people just don't treat this roleplaying style game as anything other than a shoot-em-up. I want to be able to find an ally (ie in the videos you have new guys stumbling over each other at night and teeming up for safety. Now it would be them stumbling over each other and them all ending up dead), but that's just not going to happen unless I bring my own. =/

And now you say this, there is a very important reason this is happening. Originally, the game altered your skin when you murdered someone - it was called a 'bandit skin' (looked a bit like some kind of hardcore paintballer uniform to me ) and then it was immediately obvious when someone was a 'baddie'. Now there is no incentive at all not to murder people, and in my experience (and in fact, the reason I stopped playing) there is a lot less grouping of players going on, a lot more cynicism, which has damaged the game experience. Most of the time if you have good gear it pays to shoot first, and the problem is that the other person is thinking the same thing, even if in all reality they are probably like you and not a ganking a-hole. It also meant there were some great 'team fights' going on, of perhaps a group of bandits getting too powerful, so that other groups of 'good' players would try and track them down and put an end to their antics. After the bandit skin was removed, it seemed far more chaotic, more of a free-for-all than before.

But, I think in the same way that Ultima Online had its 'red names' (above player's heads) to denote a murderer, DayZ would benefit from something similar. I can kind of understand the game coders reasons for removing it, in that I guess it makes the game more realistic*, but it has removed a big gameplay element. And ultimately, the game is far less fun IMO (which is what it comes down to I guess).

* You can make a lot of arguments against this...

 Wyrmalla wrote:
From the videos I've watched the veteran players don't carry much of either, so I'm only see the point of killing an unarmed player as something to do...

That's basically what it is. The biggest problem with DayZ is that once you have a decent weapon, the game becomes a running simulator. There's no real endgame objective like setting up a base, or escaping the island, so you're basically left to make your own fun; which generally means killing other players.

Try wasteland guys, you don't need to install anything or use a launcher, just join the server and the mission pbo will downloada automatically, its like 4mb. Unlike DayZ, there's none of the saving when you leave crap, the server refreshes every 12 hours so if you catch it near a refresh you'll see 3 teams working together to scavange and base build as well as raid and ambush eachother .