Farmer Smiles

Last night I logged in starving and so I ate my last can of food. There was a motorbike at camp but on its side and I couldn't get an icon to appear from it. There was no-one online so I ran towards the north east airfield for something to do, hoping to maybe get a weapon upgrade and some excitement. Then the server reset half way there, but when I logged back on, I was in the same place but I was starving again. No problem, I'll just eat my can of... fuck. My hunger level had reverted but my inventory hadn't. I had no food and the nearby village had no loot I could find. So I'm out in the middle of the countryside, a bit lost, somewhere near the airfield with no compass. The airfield is my only hope at this point so I start running towards it. Then I saw a house in the distance and hey ho, what's this?


(it's a tractor you idiot)

It's all fueled up so I start ploughing (not literally) through the fields in this thing, which goes really fast. I cut through the woods and then the framerate stutters a bit causing me to smash the bastard into a big tree. All I see is an explosion and then black, with the unconcious timer ticking very, very slowly down, and my blood ticking very, very slowly down as well. My legs are of course annihalated. So the next five minutes is spent watching an egg timer versus countdown clock, if the egg timer wins I live, if the countdown wins I die.

The countdown wins. Fuck the world.

Boating

Log in. Priority 1 - must drink!

Found a hatchet in the building site. At least I had some protection now. I headed back into Cherno. I was so thirsty my death was imminent. I was desperate, this pub was my only hope...

Last chance saloon

Nothing downstairs... but then, upstairs, a pistol. Excellent. But I'd swap that for a drink right now... but then, on the floor - a can of Coke! Thank god! I gulped it down and looked around for something to eat. Score! A can of beans! From the verge of death, to a healthy, armed survivor! Now what? I wanted to hook up with team Rllmuk, who were online. One kind chap volunteered to collect me in the boat they'd found. I switched servers to theirs, in the pitch black of night, and headed for the coast, meeting my saviour on the outskirts of Elecktro.

Taxiiiiii!

We headed up the coast to team up with a Mukker who was trapped in a hospital, surrounded by the undead. The motor boat ripped along through the starlight and I admired the scenery.

Past the lighthouse

Rock Dodging

We eventually arrived at Borezhino and moored up. We ran through the darkness, continually losing each other in the pitch black, through fields and orchards, and finally creeping through the streets meters away from zombies to meet our friend in a supermarket.

Shops really shouldn't sell crossbows

The place was a treasure trove, full of equipment and ammo. I stocked up, grabbed a crossbow, binoculars, a map and hunting knife. We moved off towards the boat, following the eery red light of a carried maglight.

Just follow the glowing red man and everything will be fine...

When we lost each other, a quick flashlight wave would do the trick!

PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPON! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!

In the darkness we skirted too close to some of our undead chums so we pegged it to a nearby barn and gunned down about fifteen of them. We got off pretty lightly and even found more ammo inside.

We got to the boat without incident and sailed off to the latest Rllmuk camp, which has a few vehicles now. We bid each other good night after a pretty successful run.

Defenceless

Time to start again. A few botched survival attempts left me frustrated. In one, I painstakingly scoured a little town, finding nothing, accidently pressed the wrong key whilst leaving and as a result sprinted over the tarmac alerting a hungry zombie. Having no weapons, I sprinted for five minutes across the countryside with my zombie pal in toe, nipping at my heels. I reached another town and began weaving around buildings, through alleyways, over fences in an attempt to lose him, attracting perhaps a dozen zombie pals who took great glee in running around in our undead Benny Hill sketch. Incredibly I lost them by running around and around a big church, this seemed to confuse them after a while. I like to think as I ran off that they'll continue to circle that church for hours. Brilliantly minutes later I wasn't paying cautious enough and wandered round a corner right into another zombie who finished me off. At least I proved you can lose the horde if you try hard enough.

After another failed effort I spawned by Cherno, the biggest town in the game. The outskirts were deserted, the first noteworthy discovery being a dead survivor, filling me with confidence. He didn't have the grace to have died with anything useful aside from starting gear.

Last words were probably: "OMG Rocket why don't we spawn with a gun any more?!111!"

 Up ahead I spotted a survivor crawling through the grass. He didn't look armed so I sprinted past him into the barn he was heading for; if a weapon was inside I wanted it first. Sadly there was nothing of use inside. The survivor stormed in after me and raised a weapon, crap, I thought he was unarmed.

Freeze motherfucker!

Why wasn't I dead yet? On closer inspection, the gun was actually a torch. He didn't even have it on. I lay on the ground and spun around in circles in the international greeting known as Spinspinjoyjoy. He ran off.

I moved into Cherno, opening a nearby shed door, and to my horror a zombie was chilling out inside. The chase was on again. I ran around the suburbs collecting an ever-lengthening group of zombie fans who all wanted my autograph. Eventually I managed to lose them in the back alleys.

I started slowly and methodically moving through the city, crouching, crawling and silently avoiding zombies. A supermarket, two pubs, four houses, the town hall and the fire station all yielded nothing but tin cans, empty bottles, useless flares and a few crossbow bolts. There was no sign of human life. I really needed a gun. A warehouse in the industrial area was open and I moved inside. A survivor was in there, sweeping around and he had a pistol. It was too late, he'd seen me. I ran outside and he followed. With his gun trained on me, he moved off and I ran around a corner. I'd been lucky. Seeing I had no weapon, he probably didn't want to waste his ammo and risk alerting the zombies.

"You wouldn't shoot an unarmed lady, would you?" (guy is just above my head)

I continued my sweep of the industrial area, finding nothing and having some very close run-ins with the zeds. On the outskirts of town I looked back and noticed some tents. Could it be a military camp? This was worth going back for.

Tents, just under those big windows.

 I sneaked into the tents. It seemed to be a field hospital. Lying around were blood bags, painkillers, morphine and bandages, a treasure trove for the wounded. But no weapons. I grabbed what I could carry.

Where's my arms? :*(

When leaving I got a shock, entering a shed and once again finding a zombie hanging out inside. I managed to lose him amongst the tents, he spun around searching for me as I crawled off into the grass.

"I just want to be friends... braaaaaainssss"

 Incredibly I'd found no weapons this whole time, either a bug in the loot system or just really unlucky. My last hope was the building site on the edge of town. I sneaked in past the wandering zombs.

There were zombies inside, too. I sneaked around very slowly, trying not to make any noise. I was getting very thirsty and hungry, if I didn't find drink soon, I was in trouble.

Sneaking past zombies, I found nothing but car windscreens (sadly inedible) and tin cans. This was dire. I decided to call it a night and logged out on the roof. The next session will be pure survival, I need drink, and fast, and I'm stuck on the top floor of a zombie-infested building site, surrounded by the wandering undead. That's Day-Z!

The Airfield

Somewhere in the woodlands far in the north I logged in and was happy to see the daylight, I'm used to slinking around at night.

I tried to meet with some of Team Muk, the guys I play with regularly from rllmuk forum. They'd just had a disaster, raiding the northern airfield but running into other survivors. In the ensuing combat most of my buddies had died, losing their good equipment. A few made it out with their jeep but one guy brilliantly bailed out of the door accidentally whilst it was moving, eating hard tarmac. The other had a run-in with zombies whilst looking for supplies. The only remaining member of Team Muk managed a solo mission to retrieve the jeep and drove to pick me up. But with no map or compass, and no landmarks to aid navigation, I couldn't find the correct road until he had to log out. I was on my own. I decided to head for the northern airfield for a better gun and the chance of some good gear.

The last time I had been to the airfield was when we had the helicopter, I had backup then. We had encountered other players. The airfield's notorious for being a death trap; it's one of the only places in the north that has high grade military gear to loot. It attracts groups of players who usually shoot on sight. But that's what adventure's all about, right? I set off, soon finding a cow which I blasted for some juicy steaks. Pity I didn't have any wood to cook them.

Trekking across fields and through woods, I came across a barn. A few zeds shambled around but it seemed clear of players.

I got closer and attracted the attention of the zombies. They can see much further now. I soon put a stop to that with some shotgun shells to the face.

The barn was a let-down, only containing a few more shotgun shells. I continued towards the airfield and discovered the town of Kabanino, which was swarming with zombies.

Skirting around the town, I got careless. I heard a yelp and turned around to see a zombie bearing down on me. This wasn't good, I was wide in the open. As soon as I fired, I drew in more. I was quickly floored as my legs were hurt and my vision was going fast.

Despite the situation I managed to kill the last zombies from the ground. I waited a minute to see if the gunfire had attracted any survivors, but all was clear. Phew. Luckily I had morphine which let me walk again, and a few bandages stopped the bleeding. I pressed onwards, taking a much wider berth around the town. These new zombies are no pushovers!

I rejoined the northern road past Kabanino and used the trees to cover my movements. This close to the airfield I was quite likely to run into other survivors. I soon reached the perimeter - watchtowers stood along the wall at regular intervals. I found a gap and sneaked through.

I couldn't see any buildings or even tarmac, so I moved inside the perimeter using some woodlands for cover. Suddenly I heard movement and to my surprise a mutated zombie came from behind a tree, hopping towards me. I didn't even know there were buildings nearby. The monkey (we call them that due to the way they move) was in hot pursuit as I sprinted back through the woods. Before I shot him I wanted to be away from any more zombies.

After ending his little monkey life I headed back to find a gatehouse just through the woods. That's why there was a zombie nearby. The unfortunate guards lay sprawled on the road in the long shadows - the sun was going down.

A little further on I found the hangars, zombies were everywhere.

I was pretty thirsty so popped a can of Coke, then got on my belly and crawled to edge out onto the asphalt, using my binoculars to scope out the main buildings for survivors. All I found were zombies.

Time to make a move. I crawled into the first hangar and found an AK-47. Score. It only had one clip but I knew I'd probably find more in the airfield. Although I had lots of ammo for the shotgun I didn't want to have to come back for the AK later, the less time spent here the better. Get in, get out.

The next hangar had nothing good and I was tired of crawling everywhere. I got up and jogged further in. This was a big mistake. In this update there is a bug where you make a lot of noise when moving. I heard a growl through the walls of the hangar, and seconds later a zombie charged through the hanger door. I shot it, but now more were coming. I gunned some down but then heard the click-click-click of impending doom. Out of ammo.

My only hope was to run for the shotgun in the other hangar. I sprinted there with about 6 zombies on my heels. Although I managed to pick it up, they were on top of me, clawing. I didn't have time to unholster it before they ripped me apart and feasted on my bloody corpse. Game Over.

One moment of impatience had cost me my life. Until the next fix comes through, you have to be very wary of making noise!

I wasn't quite done yet. I spawned near Belota, a village on the coast with an airfield.

Skirting around the town I somehow alerted a zombie. Now you don't spawn with a weapon I had no choice but to run for the airfield in the hopes of grabbing a gun. A goat and cow nonchalently grazed as I charged towards them screaming.

No luck in the hangars and now a host of undead had joined the chase. It all seemed somewhat familiar. I charged around the airfield looking desperately for anything to help. The body bags didn't fill me with confidence...

I reached the control tower and saw the entrance was shored up with barbed wire. Vaulting over it, I had bought some breathing space, this would slow the zombs down.

But a quick search and my heart sank. There were no weapons inside! I went onto the roof. There was no sign of the zombies but I could hear them below. Had they started to give up? Just then, I saw one walking on the balcony below me. Crap... I was trapped up here for now.

I was out of solutions. I would have to wait till the zombies gave up or they found me. I didn't have to wait for long though. I heard a tink, tink, tink and the head of a zombie appeared at the top of the ladder. As he climbed up I could see more behind him. I was trapped.

 No weapons. No hope. I wasn't going to let these bastards eat me alive. I ran to the railing at the roof edge and vaulted over. The crunch of my bones as I hit the ground was the last thing I heard.



I tried once more but it was late, and I was tired. It only took a minute for me to attract a zombie in my impatience before it was all over. I just lay down, ripped off my shirt and invited him to tuck in. My heart wasn't in it any more. The next game update should be today which will fix the super-hearing zombies, and maybe then I'll have more patience!

Bash bash bash

Melee weapons are being added in the latest update. To me it seems like a panicked reaction to all the moaners on the forums who can't bear to be without their weapons at the start of the game. Have the devs succummed to player pressure or did they really think it was no good with no weapons at the start? It'll be interesting to see how long you can last against zombies with melee attacks, hopefully you can take a few down, enough to get inside buildings - but not enough that you can charge around and take on the horde. I can't wait to see all the noobs clubbing each other on the beaches too!

New Game Changers Out Today

Exciting update for Day Z today. The biggest game changers are:

• Zombies can't magically see and attack you through walls (the bastards)
• Zombies have new line of sight
• You can hide from chasing zombies instead of them magically always knowing where you are
• You now start the game with only a torch, painkillers and bandages. No more gung ho beach combat.  People will need to seek out basic supplies straight away. This will be really interesting. Will it become Saving Private Ryan with bandits overlooking the beaches?
• You'll be able to tell by hovering your cursor over someone what their "humanity" rating is based on their heartbeat - if it beats fast you know they have killed lots of people. Take the time to scope someone out and you'll have a better idea whether to give them a chance or shoot on sight. This should reduce the player carnage that's been happening the past few weeks.

The Most Evil Bandits

Found this great story of evil on the Day Z official bandits forum, under the thread "The worst things you've done" http://dayzmod.com/f...ad.php?tid=4253

JamesGTAIV Wrote: 

Yesterday, 6 friends and I set up a small camp outside of Zelenogorsk. The camp consisted of a barn, 2 camp fires, a shed that we filled with cans of food and water that we collected for a while, and the whole camp was wired off with a bunch of fencing.
We then proceeded to invite every player in the (full) server to our camp. We told them there was plenty of food, water, blood packs, etc. The first few people to show up were bandits but it was only 2 and we killed them fairly quick. Later, 2 players who said they had nothing to lose came to the camp. We gave them food, water and cooked meat since one of them was low on blood. They gave the all clear to the other players who were suspicious of us and before we knew it, we had a little over 10 PEOPLE inside our camp.
We let them all eat, traded a few stories, got along really well. We told them we were going to head NW to go get more food for everyone and they could stay back and chill, we would let them know if we needed help. The seven of us exited the camp, fenced it back off with everyone inside, we then surrounded the camp, and opened fire.
During the first few shots everyone was so confused they didn't know what was going on. Then they started seeing other players sitting around the camp falling over dead. After about 3 kills, the remaining 7 to 9 players began running around like chickens without heads looking for a way past the razor wire.
There was no escape.
Finally it was down to two "detainees" who hid in the upper level of the barn. They were in cover, ready to shoot at us if we entered. We didnt really know what to do from here as we couldn't get any closer. We ended up throwing every flare, glow stick, and smoke grenade into the barn. They both panicked and ran out of the barn through both exits where they were killed simultaneously.
These deaths were over pretty much nothing. These were all either new players or players that had just restarted after death. We weren't really looking for anything special to come from this. We didn't want loot or anything, it was just an experiment to see how easily people can be manipulated based on false hope.
And that is the worst thing I've ever done in any game.