I managed to direct them to me in the dark countryside by listening to where the sound of the rotors was coming from, quite cool! Then they came along and you could see the chopper from miles away with the searchlight, billowing out dust as it gets close to the ground. It's also a massive zombie magnet and you just see hordes belting towards it. So I got picked up and we flew up to the north airfield. Then we got the disconnection and Plums, the only one of us who can pilot a heli in Arma II, was reset back to the south. Thankfully during the server reset the other people at the airfield didn't spot the heli sitting in the darkness!
Then I had an entertaining time watching Strategos flying around over the airfield as he learned the controls, all the while followed by a rabid zombie horde sprinting behind him! Here he is practicing.
After I was safely on board we went south and picked up the others, who had made a landing zone very clear!
Here we are all loaded up. I had the pleasure of manning an awesome machine gun with tracer rounds. Sadly it doesn't have infinite ammo!
Navigating is quite hard in a chopper, we had to have one guy on a map directing the other. Because you move so fast over the landscape and because it was dark, it was very easy to lose your bearings. Big landmarks like the tower at green mountain help!
Searching for petrol stations
Here's where we had to ditch it, alongside the crashed helicopter. Brilliantly on my computer you can't even see the flames (compare to Cheekos screenshot). I struggle to run this game, pretty much all the graphics are on Very Low, and the performance is still crap, which makes life very difficult!
Three of us scouted a nearby town to find out where the hell we were. It is really hard to see anything at night and doubly hard on my PC, can you spot the two other players in this shot?
We found out where we were by reading the road signs, and went back to get empty jerry cans from the helicopter, to take to a town to the north. The 4 of us trekked across country in the dark, skirted round the town and sneaked into the petrol station. We couldn't find any petrol though in any of the tanks! We later discovered that only certain tank objects will give you fuel, wish we'd know that then! Whilst we were hunting around for a tank that worked, one one of us attracted a zombie and he shot it, which attracted about five more. I opened fire to help and that attracted even more... and once that many are alert the horde can easily descend! It was game over then but a great experience.
Later that night we had some more torrential rain - which in the dark makes the game almost unplayable. This is me trying to figure out where the zombies are hitting me from! You can just about make out the outline of a head in there!
I didn't do well last night, I kept making forays into towns and accidently alerting the hordes. I've learned a few lessons though, like how to walk, and never to run on concrete, the noise attracts zeds from miles around!
Today I fared a lot better, making an expedition into the heart of Chernogorsk; the biggest city and death trap on the map.
Entering the outskirts
I snuck through the streets, dodging shufflers and hearing nearby gunfire, the place attracts loads of players. I got some good equipment in some houses and headed for the church. Another survivor with a rifle suddenly came around the corner facing right at me and I froze. In that circumstance you have a split-second to decide whether to fire and as he had a bigger gun than me I thought I'd hope for the best and do nothing. He walked across the road with his gun trained on me, then his friend appeared around the corner too, also toting a huge gun. "Fuck" I thought, "I'm screwed now!". But they both carried on across the street keeping their guns trained on me, not saying a word. I pegged it around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief - at least not every player is a bastard bandit!
I met another new player at the church and we held off some zombies together there. He logged off and I continued to the center of the city in the hopes of finding a better gun. I raided pubs, houses and supermarkets with no success. I had a hairy moment where I could hear another player walking right next to me, on the other side of a wall and he must have been able to hear me too. He moved closer and I lay down and trained my gun on the hole in the wall where he'd appear. He got very close and then I heard him crawl off slowly - clearly he didn't think it was worth the risk. Moments like that are brilliant, you're so tense with your finger on the trigger, wondering if this is it...
I raided another pub and found a dead survivor upstairs with a rifle, which I gratefully took. I then got to the central square where the army must have had its last stand, there's sandbags, wrecked army vehicles and dead army personell lie motionless. A load of body bags fill the square by the momument.
I also found a flaming barrel to raise my temperature, which had fallen in my adventures. This new mechanic was only introduced yesterday. I moved away when I saw two survivors moving in, friendly or not I wasn't going to hang around to find out!
I made it to the outskirts after narrowly avoiding being shot by a noob, who kept his cool and accompanied me for a bit. I was almost out of the city when a message came over chat - "guy by pipe - friendly?". I was the guy by the pipe and could see noone nearby... "yes" I replied, wondering if my brains were about to be shot out. I then spotted him up on the top floor of a wrecked factory nearby. I ran off in case he changed his mind, being sure not to look like I was approaching his spot. I reached the traintracks and started to head north to the countryside, I was fully kitted out now with compass, map, matches, wood, flares, chemlights, guns, food, drink, rucksack, ammo, hunting knife... I was ready to head into the wild!
Just a short way along the train tracks, I saw a cow. "You can get 6 meat off a cow" advised Strategos. Great, I thought, some more supplies to take with me. I had to shoot it with my pistol. Just as I was standing over the body, I heard a bang and suddenly I hit the floor. My vision went grey and then black. I'd been sniped. Game over! I was gutted! I'd given away my position to someone in a vantage point by shooting the cow. I thought it might have been the chap from the factory but he asked who shot me... unless that was a ruse of course. A few hours life gone in an instant. Bandits like to camp up in the city and just kill people for fun.
By jigsawn at 2012-05-22
Later this evening I started again and made a trek inland through the countryside, raiding small villages, farms and barns. I didn't encounter any players, only hearing nearby gunfire. The zeds are still in full supply in the hamlets, but there are good supplies to be found. A stray zombie wandered into the barn I was looting and I had to shoot him, alerting pretty much the whole town. Fortunately barns are quite defendable and I had plenty of ammo! I stood at the top of the stairs and mowed down every last one of them... leaving this rather amusing sight:
By then it was dark and raining, and I thought, what better place to shack up for the night than a cosy barn? This life I will survive for longer!
A lonely zombie goes for a stroll
No comments:
Post a Comment