DayZ - Persistent multiplayer zombie game

[McLuv]

If any of you are fans of zombie or survival games, or own Arma II Combined Operations and are looking for a good mod, check out DayZ - http://dayzmod.com/

The game is a persistent multiplayer survival thriller. You have to face both PvP and PvE scenarios, battling bandits, scavenging for resources, and trying to survive in a world filled with Zeds.

Set in Chernaurus, a huge 225 square km world in a fictional post-Soviet region. Some features include:

• 
  [li]Permadeath (you die and you lose everything, spawn again at the beginning)[/li]
  [li]Realistic weapon modeling (this is based on a Mil Sim, so zeroing, ballistics, sway, etc... all have to be considered)[/li]
  [li]Persistence (when you log off, you log back in the same position with the same resources. Like an MMORPG essentially)[/li]
  [li]Large servers (typically ~50 players and up)[/li]
  [li]24 hour day (if the moon\'s not out, you\'re going to have one scary night)[/li]
  

and plenty more that you\'ll have to find out for yourself.

http://youtu.be/A7Q8c8jnL3s

At the time of this post, the game currently has over 800,000 active users, typically peaking with over 30,000 players online at a time.

[Rascal Nag]

I have it, and while it\'s fun to an extent I feel that it does not (nor can it ever) reach its full potential due to limitations in the engine. It\'s better than having no open-world zombie survival, but with The War Z and The Dead Linger coming out, it seems as if DayZ will serve as a gateway for other zombie survival games instead of the pinnacle of the genre. It\'s inevitable that games with engines specifically designed for this type of zombie survival will excel far more than DayZ has.

[Steve5451]

I\'ve wanted to play this for like forever.

[mincespy]

I keep getting killed by zombies within five minutes whenever I play ._.

[Monkthespy]

Tips.

Tip 1: Never stay on the road, go beside it or along it somewhere.

Tip 2: Don\'t fire your gun unless you want to be a zombies dinner, what I mean by this is assault rifles, large caliber pistols, etc.

Tip 3: Grab a makarov. The ammo isn\'t too hard to find and it\'s quiet enough to use somewhere in a forest.

Tip 4: Find a god damn hatchet. And matches.

That\'s all for now.

[TNTGODZZ]

i want it, but dont want arma 2 :/

[Monkthespy]

i want it, but dont want arma 2 :/

um

Do you realize how much insane and hilarious fun ARMA II is? It\'s not even that serious. well, most servers anyway.

Off-Topic:

If you guys are playing ARMA II, I reccomend patrol ops on the BLB server. Tell me if you see Monkatraz on there.

[TNTGODZZ]

um

Do you realize how much insane and hilarious fun ARMA II is? It\'s not even that serious. well, most servers anyway.

Off-Topic:

If you guys are playing ARMA II, I reccomend patrol ops on the BLB server. Tell me if you see Monkatraz on there.

ill just get arma 3

[Tiberion]

Been playing quite a bit of DayZ lately, and have had 2 characters that lived a whole week by going survivialist.

Its going through a rough patch right now. I guess having 700,000 unique players join since April will do that to you. And Arma2 was build so 'openly' that they\'re having trouble closing all the holes that scripters use to cheat, so there\'s a lot of that happening.

Still, its awesome though, because there are basically no limits on what you can do, its truly free-for-all open-world chaos.

The game really shines if you play with a squad. I wish some of my friends were interested in it, but I usually end up solo :/

Check out some of these guys videos, some of them are quite entertaining: Oshi7 & Sacriel42

If there\'s any US players who might wanna play sometime, feel free to send me a PM.

[Steve5451]

Man, you guys are making me so jelly. I think I\'m going to stop being poor and save up to buy this.

[ddavis425]

I just bought Combined Operations 2 days ago during the Steam sale, and so far I don\'t really like what I see. The controls feel very clunky in my opinion, but I guess it probably would be for a military simulation game. I haven\'t got a chance to play DayZ yet, last time I tried the OA servers were down.

[togfox]

DayZ is good but I get tired of crawling around on my belly and playing solo. Sure you can team up but when someone dies, you get seperated and you\'re solo again.

[deadshot462]

Seems to be better as a team game because you can\'t really heal yourself

[4 IN 1]

The mod is built from ground up with 'Open world sand box style' gameplay in mind, if you only want linear gameplay or just don\'t like open world sand box you can just stop playing it, no point in telling Rocket what to do or how to do it.

The problem with DayZ is more due to the nature that this is still a mod for ARMA 2 which means it is still limited to the Arma 2 core mechanics unless it go stand alone so Rocket have better control. With that said, it is unfair to comments on the engine itself unless you actually working on/ worked on it.

The truth that CE3 so far failed to deliver their VBS2 counterpart shows that there is still a long way for other engine to do what RV already doing.

[ddavis425]

If I recall correctly Rocket plays KSP, I think he\'s the one who originally made the Component Space Shuttle mod.

[Foamy]

I used to play this a lot before I moved and lost internet at home. Worked with a big team and we had some amazing adventures. Now my gear is way too good for me to risk playing again until all of the nuking and game killing bugs are ironed out again.

[ddavis425]

I just got the chance to play DayZ, and I failed, badly. I spawned, immediately started running for zombies, and kept running for a good 15 minutes. I found a house near a railroad station that had an axe inside, but I didn\'t know how to equip the axe. Zombies started coming after me again and I ran for about 5 more minutes, pressing every key on my keyboard attempting to equip the axe. Eventually I just gave up and let them kill me.

[Tiberion]

Heh, you hit G to open inventory, and then right click on the axe in the toolbelt to equip it as a primary weapon (the rifle slot)

If you have a chance, you might wanna play through the Arma2 and Operation Arrowhead tutorials, it\'ll give you a handle on the basic game mechanics, and then its only an issue of discovering how to do the DayZ specific stuff.

Also: http://www.dayzwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Introduction_to_DayZ

and: http://www.dayzwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=A_Beginners_Guide (this one was super helpful, though DayZ is developing rapidly, so its a little out of date)

[Tim_Barrett]

In the end, is it worth buying Arma II for this game? Is it more fun to play with friends? Does it get boring?

[Tiberion]

It is definitely more enjoyable with at least a partner to survive with, and its much safer to have someone to watch your back or be a medic if you fall injured (there are blood packs in rare spawns that can heal you, but it requires another player be present to give you the injection, and they can also bandage wounds, give you morphine for a broken leg, or revive you if you pass out from shock)

Arma2: Combined Ops is a good game itself if you like military sims, and there are other fun mods or game modes out there for it (like Takistani Life, which is basically Grand Theft Auto set in the middle east)

But DayZ is going to be ported from being a free mod to a standalone project (and a \'2nd version) within a few months, so just buying Arma2 may not guarantee that you\'ll be able to play DayZ forever, so if the lack of polish is bugging you, you might want to wait.

[ddavis425]

Made another attempt at playing DayZ, ran along the beach for a while until I found 2 dead players by a broken down UAZ. All I could find on them were 2 shotgun shells, and the UAZ had the option 'Save UAZ'. I clicked that and the UAZ was fixed all of a sudden, but it still kept saying 'Save UAZ'. Walked along the beach for another 15 minutes before I found a city and started getting chased by zombies. It didn\'t end well.

[Tiberion]

Gotta be careful how you walk when around zombies.

You can hit X to crouch walk and Z to crawl. Hit Shift to go slow instead of running (or double-tap shift to toggle run/walk mode.) As you change those stances, notice how your site and hearing meters change - those determine how well zombies can detect you.

Now keep in mind that zombies aggro when they are looking at you, unless you are really close. So you plan your route and walk slowly between walls and such to avoid line of site.

If you do aggro one, you can lose them by moving around a wall or into a building to break line of site, then exiting out another door or going prone, and they should stop chasing you. With a little practice, zombies aren\'t too much of a danger and you can definitely move around enough to find a defensive weapon like an axe or a pistol.

[ddavis425]

It really is hard to find a building that doesn\'t have 2 or 3 zombies around it, I usually have to crawl past places so that I won\'t start a zombie train by accident =P

[McLuv]

Yeah it takes some getting used to. My first few lives were all short lived and mercilessly taken by zombies. Look for good loot spots to start out (the construction site in Cherno\'s great, and usually has at least a Hatched with which you can defend yourself). Know your escape routes before entering any where, and definitely try not to aggro anything when you\'re weaponless.

Deer stands often have pretty good military equipment. Once you\'ve got your basic tools, you\'ll be able to find some better weapons to defend yourself by.

Just know a few things about PvP though. Unfortunately, if you use game theory to try and predict a player\'s move, the only winning solution is to shoot the stranger if you have the chance and they don\'t have a ridiculous advantage. You get their loot and you don\'t risk them shooting you. Even playing survivalist, I\'ve heard many people simply shoot on sight if both players see each other at the same time.

That being said, if you play like me and you\'d rather team up than shoot down another player, you still have to watch your back, and you are definitely running more risk. Keep in mind that most other players will still pre-emptively shoot, or that they may call out as being friendly just to backstab you at the first chance they get. As long as you know this, then you should be able to figure out what the appropriate move is. I\'ve met a few friendlies who\'ve been great once you team up.