Revisiting DayZ

[Kryton]

I found myself wanting again for some paranoia, frustration and heart-thumping tense moments of player interaction as well as 'the road' style bleakness and long moments of painfully starving or freezing to deat in a harsh, grim Eastern European environment.
I'd not played this game (until now) for about 3 maybe 4 years and I'm happy to say a lot of the things that made it awkward have improved.

Years ago the inventory system was a buggy mess, so was trying to apply anything to the hotbar. All this has been fixed and it flows solidly now.
The lag/rubber banding seems to have been fixed - which is a blessed relief. That was my mine gripe. Nothing worse than running down the street, finding an item, trying to pick it up and then the server sends you 5 minutes back in time without said item.
Enemy Ai is very good now. Really scary. The infected respond and fight well and can clamber over fences after you.
Also there's wolves and bears that patrol areas of the map (although I've yet to encounter any).
Clipping - No longer do enemies bug through walls/floors.

So yeah tons of bug-fixes.

It also seems the map is full of interesting places (the map was already one of the stronger points - vast fields, forests and isolated villages and towns, grim shores and murky mountains) - but now we have a ski-resort, new military bases, fishing ponds etc. And it's all gorgeous.
Dynamic weather! Fog, mist, rain, storms, etc...

New items galore - plus base building.
Cars can be dismantled and rebuilt.

So yeah the last couple of days I've stuck to one server, playing blind - no maps open in my browser, no headphones for communication with anyone nearby.

The atmosphere is superb. The gusts of wind, the ominous rolling clouds. The distant gunshots of a fellow player in the woods somewhere nearby. The constant feeling of having to watch your back everywhere you go. The desperation of scavenging and the increased dangers of wandering through cities and military bases as you (and everyone else is looking for loot).

I spent a good half an hour just exploring a block of flats, desperately searching for food as the rain drenched everything around me. The mournful noises of the infected roaming around and the odd distant gunshot reminding me I'm not alone.

I'm also glad this game caters to numerous style of play - There's 'friendly' servers, RP servers,  PVP etc.... However the mechanics now fully allows you to embrace your John Rambo tactics of hiding in the woods, shooting and skinning deer and making fishing rods and leather bags from the kill, keeping out of sight, hiding in the deepest woods.
Or you can be a scavenger, piling your loot into a car and hiding somewhere, only emerging to find more food, clothes, ammo etc,
Or you can team up with mates and rush the airbases and hope for the chance of getting high power rifles.

Oh and servers can be MODDED - which adds all kinds of random shit to the game if that's your thing?

So yeah sorry for my rambling thoughts, but it's seriously improved from when I last played and even then I loved it. Really scary, bleak and terrifying without all the annoying bugs and glitches that haunted it on release.

[PlanktonSideburns]

sounds lovely. ive never time to play such a thing but like hearing people talking about their interactionsw

[Kryton]

sounds lovely. ive never time to play such a thing but like hearing people talking about their interactionsw

One of the things I'd always hoped from sandbox survival games like these is real dynamic player interaction (not just shoot/don't shoot). I know at the moment some of the bigger servers have had groups agree ceasefires and set up market places and grey zones, which is cool. I just hope now that everything is much smoother and easier to manage that we might see Eve Online style dynamics come into play. Probably not.

Another thing that amuses me is how how the lore has developed slightly. Green Mountain for example is considered cursed. Rumours of mysterious radio signals etc.
A few years ago a group did try and set up a neutral zone on Green Mountain as some kind of marketplace safe/haven but inevitably it went to shit. Some players swear the Green Market guys were true to their word, others say it was a long-con and lone travellers were being quietly murdered. Others speak of cannibalism. Others say it had good intentions but bandits or griefers deliberately sabotaged it.

Now the running meme is that 'nobody likes to talk about Green Mountain', which I find hilarious.

[Kryton]

It's still a fucking arse ache to find out which direction you're facing. If every server followed a unified season/time system then finding 'north' would be easier, just following the sun -but alas, smartly every server has different timestamps. So unless you know the map, you'll get lost.

I've not played in 3-4 years and I recognise various places, but have no idea where I am exactly. I know I'm by the coast (but that could easily be east, south-east, south or south-west) and I can see some brutalist looking flats appearing from the treeline and I vaguely remember them, I suspect I'm on the southern coast to the west, but fuck knows.

I'm currently judging how safe I am by the number of infected in the town. There's shitloads of infected and the houses all look closed, so I reckon I'm alright in regards to other players. I've broken my fire axe and I'm running out of food. I'm not sure if pressing into the woods is a good idea or not? It might be safer, but i have no idea where I'm going and I'll probably starve.

My best bet might be just house-hopping and trying to find food/drink and hoping I don't get sussed by the infected.
I've also just found a .22 rifle and some pellets which reload one at a time and are really fucking naff, but it's better than 'nowt.

[Leon-C]

One of my fondest gaming memories was playing the mod with my mates in the summer of 2012. Nothing I've played since has compared to when I first played it, being lost on that coast. Scared shitless of the zombies, far away gun shots and the occasional out of place sound of someone rattling a chain-link fence. Trying to read Cyrilic on the road signs so we could join up, go inland and get sniped by some fella hiding in a bush. Scattering like cockroaches into the scrub when we hear the sounds of a helicopter approaching.

We ended up disappointed by the standalone. Particularly how long it was taking to complete - what was it, six or seven years? I gave up on it well before it was even up to par with the mod. How would you say it compares right now? I do remember them having a lot of trouble with the zombies, even in comparison to the floor-clipping lads in the mod.

[Kryton]

One of my fondest gaming memories was playing the mod with my mates in the summer of 2012. Nothing I've played since has compared to when I first played it, being lost on that coast. Scared shitless of the zombies, far away gun shots and the occasional out of place sound of someone rattling a chain-link fence. Trying to read Cyrilic on the road signs so we could join up, go inland and get sniped by some fella hiding in a bush. Scattering like cockroaches into the scrub when we hear the sounds of a helicopter approaching.

We ended up disappointed by the standalone. Particularly how long it was taking to complete - what was it, six or seven years? I gave up on it well before it was even up to par with the mod. How would you say it compares right now? I do remember them having a lot of trouble with the zombies, even in comparison to the floor-clipping lads in the mod.

I've not played the mod.

But combat is infinitely better, it feels like a complete game now. No clipping. Also zombies/infected duck and jump and such, so makes it less formulaic. Guns seem balanced. Audio has been fixed. No rubber banding etc. Everything feels good and more reactive/fluid.

Not sure if there's helicopters in the SA though (EDIT:No just SA Mods, not vanilla)

[Leon-C]

I've not played the mod.

But combat is infinitely better, it feels like a complete game now. No clipping. Also zombies/infected duck and jump and such, so makes it less formulaic. Guns seem balanced. Audio has been fixed. No rubber banding etc. Everything feels good and more reactive/fluid.

Not sure if there's helicopters in the SA though (EDIT:No just SA Mods, not vanilla)

A shame about the helicopters. Hopefully they've got plans to add them. Was always a fun thing to do in endgame, getting all the parts together to fix a broken heli, then flying around the coast terrorising new spawns. All this before invariably slamming the helicopter into some trees and ending up right back at the start.

It's good to hear about the fixes they've made though. DayZ is probably one of the most unique and atmospheric games I've played, and when I last played a few years ago that atmosphere was too often punctured by some bug, or by the as-yet unfinished zombies. So much tension came from the balancing act of evading zombies and avoiding attracting the attention of other players, and it sounds like they've something that's back in the game of late. I might have to give it a go myself soon.

How's the basebuilding, if you've got to that point? That's something the mod never had, and it seems like it would add an interesting dimension to endgame.

[Kryton]

How's the basebuilding, if you've got to that point? That's something the mod never had, and it seems like it would add an interesting dimension to endgame.

Not got to that point yet - But judging by various discussions online, some are saying it's great and well-needed, whilst others are saying pointless - so I assume aim for somewhere in the middle.
As with any other game of this style, it seems you'll need LOTS of resources to effectively build somewhere decent - and with that comes a price of people noticing your base and trying to break in. So I imagine if done well, with a large clan it can work, or maybe if you're a solo player you'd be better off with a camo tent somewhere?

But there's also craftable crates and barrels and vehicles which can be positioned as stashes, but I have no idea of how the permanency works - I assume there's timers (like say, you don't relog and interact in say 30 days, it vanishes?).

[Kryton]

Just had to log out as it was a stressful experience. Got tangled up with a load of infected, but managed to kill/escape and hide. Found a well and filled up my bottles and then also a shotgun with some non-lethal slugs. Then headed to what I assume is inland up and over a woodland hill down into a basin.

At some point I heard the ominous deep growls of an animal and no matter how far I ran it seemed the sounds were following me. Not sure if it was some bugged audio or what, but it really freaked me out.

Then I found a town to hide in near some electro-dam (beginning with a P I think, I need to google it). Ran towards a shed and saw a face poking out, I panicked and fired off a non-lethal slug before running further into town then uphill towards some barns. The growling sound kept following me.

Then, when I slammed the barn doors shut and logged out. It said I had one player kill. I assume the infected in the shed was a player or the zombie of a former player? As it's the only thing I've shot at. If so, not bad for a panicked fuck me moment. If not, then there's some bug.

But that was intense.

[Kryton]

Fucked it.

Had to swap servers as I kept getting kicked by the host, so I carried my character over to another server and found myself in a completely different location.
With little water and food and only a tiny bit of ammunition I find myself getting very hungry and the rain has broken, causing me to shiver.
I run through some woods and approach a village looming out of the mist. I stop to pick a mushroom, some berries and an apple, but it's not enough to satisfy my needs.

I say village, it's little more than several barns and a pair of houses, but it looked unlooted. Maybe I'd get lucky and find some well-needed food?

I turn a corner and wander slap-bang in the middle of a trio of zombies and I stupidly fire off my shotgun in panic (again) and miss them all. I fumble my reload and take several nasty blows from the undead and sprint towards a door, praying I can get inside and close it without them getting in.

Bingo, I slam the door shut and lock them out, quickly tend to my wounds as the noises outside get louder and nastier. I stem the bleeding and notice my hunger is in the red. Flashing red.
Fuck. I glance out a window and see I'm surrounded, there's lots of the buggers and I drew them all here with my shotgun. I'm fucking trapped mate.

With imminent starvation, I decide to blow my own head off with my last shotgun shell. Better than the slow agony of starvation or shivering to death and much more preferable than being torn apart by an undead mob.

[Ferris]

This sounds very stressful

[Kryton]

This sounds very stressful

It bloody is.

My second attempt has been much kinder to me. I spawn somewhere random, near some cliffs that I vaguely recognise. I head inland and find an axe in a shed. I equip it and find more empty buildings and a dead body. Someone has died here. I loot his backpack, a knife, some fruit and a few other bits and plunge onwards into the woods. This time taking care to gather some resources - mushrooms, berries, bark from the tree for fires, firewood etc.

I press onwards across a big hill and down through the woods into what looks like a flat valley emerging from the tree line. Several buildings. I come across several infected and kill them with my axe but take a wound. As I'm bandaging myself up, someone in a motorbike helmet looms out from a doorway. Fuuuuck.

Thankfully my first real player interaction went off really nicely. He asked over the mic if I wanted to join him, sadly I didn't have my mic plugged in, so I do a weird shaking thing with my head/camera and I think he understands. He wishes me good luck and doesn't shoot me.

I finish bandaging myself and glance back at the building, and notice he too is peering back at me (both of us being paranoid). I do a funny little dance and run off into the treeline. Faith in humanity restored.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Loving this.

[Kryton]

Thanks, I wasn't sure if I was boring people with my wacky adventures.

That previous character later died in the woods due to starvation.

So I've rerolled a new character that looks a bit like Nigel Farage. This should be fun. BREXIT adventures in the grim wilderness.

[Inspector Norse]

Been interested in trying this for a while but thought it was a buggy mess and forgot about it. Is it still on Game Pass? Might give it a go when I get home next week if so. No kids for a few days so I'm up for staying up late panicking in a dilapidated Soviet barn.

[Kryton]

I'll try and record my NIGEL FARAGE quest in an hour or so and upload it. Don't expect much from it besides some mute shivering in the woods, desperately scraping things from trees in a flatcap and possibly dying of hunger or being torn apart by the undead. Or shot by some remainer-snowflake in a motorbike helmet for my last tin of beans.

[Kryton]

No point I logged in and my hunger was fucked. Seems like you perhaps lose health when offline? Or it recalculates it. Fuck it.

[Ferris]

Watching Nigel farage eat some beans then get eaten to fuck by some zombies

Be a mega hit mate. I'd watch it, at minimum.

[PlanktonSideburns]

No point I logged in and my hunger was fucked. Seems like you perhaps lose health when offline? Or it recalculates it. Fuck it.

Gutted

Want to see this

[Kryton]

I did record it, but the video software I'd previously used had some massive watermark over it. And I only realised this was a thing after editing it.

Fuck it, I'll upload it - Ignore the MASSIVE watermark. I edited it down from 11 minutes to about 3 minutes and put some pro-Brexit audio ranting in there too.

If someone wants to direct me to some decent, not fiddly, not watermark video software, that would probably convince me to make a new video adventure starring our man Farage.

[Kryton]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoI3mXHfLSU&feature=youtu.be

This was much funnier in my head. I had to edit many minutes of just running around in the woods and empty houses. I think I can do a much better version.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I did record it, but the video software I'd previously used had some massive watermark over it. And I only realised this was a thing after editing it.

Fuck it, I'll upload it - Ignore the MASSIVE watermark. I edited it down from 11 minutes to about 3 minutes and put some pro-Brexit audio ranting in there too.

If someone wants to direct me to some decent, not fiddly, not watermark video software, that would probably convince me to make a new video adventure starring our man Farage.

You want OBS

Let me know if you need a hand with it

Am currently on hols, but will check this soon as

[Kryton]

You want OBS

Let me know if you need a hand with it

Am currently on hols, but will check this soon as

Ta, downloading

[Kryton]

Wait, OBS is just a recorder software right?
Not an editor?

[PlanktonSideburns]

Yes sorry

Wrong end of stick

A danm fine recorder tho

[Kryton]

My last three playthroughs have resulted in some nasty deaths.

Getting Cholera from drinking untreated water and vomiting up the contents of my stomach until death.

Mauled to death by zombies after shooting my shotgun by accident and attracting about seven of the bastards.

Catching Cholera again by drinking from a dirty bottle and getting really fucking annoyed, so I climbed a chimney and shot myself in the head.

---

I can imagine getting cholera from dirty water, but it's annoying that bottled water has a small chance of giving you the same. I KNOW you can boil the water or use water purification pills, but it's annoying when you can't find any pans, stoves or pills.

Ah well.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Chuckled at the idea of hooping up a chimney and killing yourself, like reverse emo santa

[Kryton]

I've had a few cool moments too.

I stumbled across a player's stash - A big blue tent hidden away in the middle of fuckknowswhere. I wasn't cruel enough to take all his stuff, so I left some potatoes and ammunition that I couldn't use and took some stuff that was useful to me (i.e better ammo, a tin opener and a rifle). But that sense of wonder stumbling across it was both exciting and terrifying as I kept imagining someone shooting me in the back when I was rummaging through.

Also found myself utterly lost and discovered a hiking trail. After a ten minute jog I found an abandoned car that had been smashed up, the engine still running and spewing out smoke. Completely useless but it meant someone was probably nearby. Put the shits up me.

[Kryton]

Right apparently it's pond water and bottles that cause fucking cholera not well water ffs. The bottles have a 50/50 chance apparently. But well water and boiled water is kosher.

Not been killed by a human yet, but just managed to hide behind a bin as some chap with an axe was cutting through the undead only for him to die of his wounds, so naturally I stole all his stuff and ran off like a coward. Not long after I heard repeated blasts and cracks of guns, that suggested two shooters, so I sprinted in their direction for a fight but found absolutely nothing. I was hoping for a bit of PVP but instead found a creepy empty town in the hills.

[Kryton]

After HOURS of searching I finally found a tent that I can use. So I spent aaaaages comparing DayZ heatmaps to see where the least likely place someone might stumble across it (based on player travel data) and decided to lug it all the way there (sacrificing some of my ill-gained equipment so I could cram it in my rucksack). After many, many kilometres I find the perfect spot and decide to set up base.

Only to discover it's a bright yellow and pink moth-eaten bastard of a tent. I thought it was a camouflage one, it's anything but.

I've decided not to use it any more, so I've just left an apple and a compass there for anyone who discovers it. I might check back on it in a day or so, but fuck me... What a waste of a journey.