I'm crouching beside one of the other survivors, spotting for a third that is reconning a barn that looks like it might have some food or other supplies.
A gentle breeze is blowing and birds are chirping away farther into the forest behind us.
Day Z is a mod for ArmA II, that requires both ArmA II and Operation: Arrowhead, that simulates how a real zombie apocalypse might play out. Survivors are placed on an island with a 24 hour day/night cycle and it is left up to them on how to survive.
You can go it alone and try to eek out survival, or team up with other survivors and try to forage for food, weapons and other supplies.
Conversely you can become a 'bandit', and prey on the weak and helpless. Set up traps at locations where supplies might be and wait for the clueless to wander into them.
Towns, cities, and military bases are where the best items are. But also where there are usually more people willing to kill you for what you have.
After calling out a few zombies to our scouting companion a shot rings out from behind us. My friend screams and falls over, quickly bleeding out from the chest wound.
I drop to prone and scramble quickly for cover, but I'm unable to make it back to him before he dies.
Not wanting to get shot by the unseen assailant ourselves my other compatriot and I leave his body and supplies behind and make a run for the woods on the hill opposite of where we were.
There are 5 main stats that are tracked by the game; Humanity, Body Temperature, Blood, Water, and Food.
Humanity is a measure of your 'karma'. Kill innocent people and your humanity decreases, heal someone and it will go up. Let it drop low enough and you will be labeled as a 'bandit' and you will become a free kill for anyone lucky enough to do so. (Removed in Patch 1.5.8.2)
Body Temperature measures how cold you are. If your body temperature drops low enough you will begin to shiver and may catch a cold. Colds will cause you to lose up to 2000 blood and may be passed to other players if you come in contact with them.
Blood is a measurement of your life, let it drop and your vision will desaturate, let it drop lower and your vision will pulse and you may black out randomly. Drop to zero and you're dead. Some wounds will bleed and must be bandaged before you bleed to death. Blood transfusions and food will restore lost blood.
Food and water decrease over time and must be replenished. Letting them drop dangerously low is hazardous to your health.
Canteens are refillable from lakes and wells and cans of soda may be found. Food usually comes in the form of cans, but meat may be harvested and cooked from some of the islands remaining animals. But the correct supplies (a knife and matches, and fire wood) must be found before it can be eaten.
We meet up with another survivor, he has lost a lot of blood from a confrontation with some zombies and has a tendency to pass out randomly. He says there is a grocery store in Guglovo, about 2-3 km from where we met him, where there should be supplies and food. We reach the outskirts of town after about 10 minutes of trekking only to find no grocery store. We decide to try and loot whatever might be in the town anyways.
Being an ArmA II mod the interface is clunky at best, looting, fighting and foraging are slowed by a menu system that takes a bit of time to get used to.
It is also very easy to get lost, you don't start with a map or compass and all signage is in Russian. Having a second monitor with the map open makes it much easier to navigate.
Bugs also abound; from the mundane disappearing items, graphical glitches and sometimes non functional chem-lights to the game breaking where you fall through a floor and die or have zombies attack you through walls.
As we crawl our way towards a mechanics garage that looks like it may contain some supplies our newfound friend passes out directly in the lumbering path of one of the undead.
I raise my Winchester lever-action rifle, and take the shot at the zombie just as it attacks him. We drag him into the garage and try to triage the wound, but it is too late.
We have a larger problem on our hands now. My shot has attracted the other zombies in the area. The horde are quickly closing in on our position in the garage, and they are hungry.
Overall the game is very intense, playing like a mix of STALKER and Fallout: NV in hardcore mode. Your position and gear and stats are stored on a master server, meaning if you log out of one server and into another you have everything you did before. For better or worse.
Your hunger and thirst meter continue to tick by as time passes, even if offline. You cannot die from simply being offline, however you will be very hungry and thirsty the next time you log in. So be prepared.
For anyone looking for an intense, realistic as possible zombie apocalypse simulator and don't mind putting up with some bugs Day Z is for you.
A note from the OP:
If anyone notices bad or out of date information in the OP please send me a PM. I'll be happy to correct it and I'll give you credit for pointing it out.
Information and Website Links
A link to the mod website.
http://www.dayzmod.com/
A downloadable map of Chernarus Island.
http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/images/chernarus_big_hq.jpg
Another map, with some building locations and Google Maps style controls.
http://teamfackin.com/moocow/dayz/map/
A high detail map of Chernarus with Google Map style controls. Linked by LessThanDan, Thanks!
http://avidblur.com/arma2/
This thread on the Steam Forum has an installer for the Day Z mod making it much easier for getting everything where it needs to be.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2705492
Imaheadcase posted this link to the Day Z forum that has an auto-updater for the mod. Thanks!
http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2434
For the newbs!
Links to guides and information for new players. Thanks to LessThanDan and Nemesis13!
http://www.elunah.com/2012/05/dayz-a-beginners-guide/
http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/trdzs/collection_of_dayz_tips_threads_for_your/
Something I noticed that wasn't in the guides; turn the in-game music off. Being able to hear your surroundings is extremely important. The in-game music isn't event triggered and is actually a detriment to your survival.
Going prone in the wrong place can break your legs. Fences, walls and stairs are the biggest offenders.
When navigating stairs, doors and inside of small buildings it is best to use crouch walk (x and then shift), you make the same amount of noise as being prone and are only a bit more visible to zombies.
I've noticed a few people stating they have been on servers where there are no zombies.
If there are no zombies there is no loot. Just something to remember.
A gentle breeze is blowing and birds are chirping away farther into the forest behind us.
Day Z is a mod for ArmA II, that requires both ArmA II and Operation: Arrowhead, that simulates how a real zombie apocalypse might play out. Survivors are placed on an island with a 24 hour day/night cycle and it is left up to them on how to survive.
You can go it alone and try to eek out survival, or team up with other survivors and try to forage for food, weapons and other supplies.
Conversely you can become a 'bandit', and prey on the weak and helpless. Set up traps at locations where supplies might be and wait for the clueless to wander into them.
Towns, cities, and military bases are where the best items are. But also where there are usually more people willing to kill you for what you have.
After calling out a few zombies to our scouting companion a shot rings out from behind us. My friend screams and falls over, quickly bleeding out from the chest wound.
I drop to prone and scramble quickly for cover, but I'm unable to make it back to him before he dies.
Not wanting to get shot by the unseen assailant ourselves my other compatriot and I leave his body and supplies behind and make a run for the woods on the hill opposite of where we were.
There are 5 main stats that are tracked by the game; Humanity, Body Temperature, Blood, Water, and Food.
Humanity is a measure of your 'karma'. Kill innocent people and your humanity decreases, heal someone and it will go up. Let it drop low enough and you will be labeled as a 'bandit' and you will become a free kill for anyone lucky enough to do so. (Removed in Patch 1.5.8.2)
Body Temperature measures how cold you are. If your body temperature drops low enough you will begin to shiver and may catch a cold. Colds will cause you to lose up to 2000 blood and may be passed to other players if you come in contact with them.
Blood is a measurement of your life, let it drop and your vision will desaturate, let it drop lower and your vision will pulse and you may black out randomly. Drop to zero and you're dead. Some wounds will bleed and must be bandaged before you bleed to death. Blood transfusions and food will restore lost blood.
Food and water decrease over time and must be replenished. Letting them drop dangerously low is hazardous to your health.
Canteens are refillable from lakes and wells and cans of soda may be found. Food usually comes in the form of cans, but meat may be harvested and cooked from some of the islands remaining animals. But the correct supplies (a knife and matches, and fire wood) must be found before it can be eaten.
We meet up with another survivor, he has lost a lot of blood from a confrontation with some zombies and has a tendency to pass out randomly. He says there is a grocery store in Guglovo, about 2-3 km from where we met him, where there should be supplies and food. We reach the outskirts of town after about 10 minutes of trekking only to find no grocery store. We decide to try and loot whatever might be in the town anyways.
Being an ArmA II mod the interface is clunky at best, looting, fighting and foraging are slowed by a menu system that takes a bit of time to get used to.
It is also very easy to get lost, you don't start with a map or compass and all signage is in Russian. Having a second monitor with the map open makes it much easier to navigate.
Bugs also abound; from the mundane disappearing items, graphical glitches and sometimes non functional chem-lights to the game breaking where you fall through a floor and die or have zombies attack you through walls.
As we crawl our way towards a mechanics garage that looks like it may contain some supplies our newfound friend passes out directly in the lumbering path of one of the undead.
I raise my Winchester lever-action rifle, and take the shot at the zombie just as it attacks him. We drag him into the garage and try to triage the wound, but it is too late.
We have a larger problem on our hands now. My shot has attracted the other zombies in the area. The horde are quickly closing in on our position in the garage, and they are hungry.
Overall the game is very intense, playing like a mix of STALKER and Fallout: NV in hardcore mode. Your position and gear and stats are stored on a master server, meaning if you log out of one server and into another you have everything you did before. For better or worse.
Your hunger and thirst meter continue to tick by as time passes, even if offline. You cannot die from simply being offline, however you will be very hungry and thirsty the next time you log in. So be prepared.
For anyone looking for an intense, realistic as possible zombie apocalypse simulator and don't mind putting up with some bugs Day Z is for you.
A note from the OP:
If anyone notices bad or out of date information in the OP please send me a PM. I'll be happy to correct it and I'll give you credit for pointing it out.
Information and Website Links
A link to the mod website.
http://www.dayzmod.com/
A downloadable map of Chernarus Island.
http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/images/chernarus_big_hq.jpg
Another map, with some building locations and Google Maps style controls.
http://teamfackin.com/moocow/dayz/map/
A high detail map of Chernarus with Google Map style controls. Linked by LessThanDan, Thanks!
http://avidblur.com/arma2/
This thread on the Steam Forum has an installer for the Day Z mod making it much easier for getting everything where it needs to be.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2705492
Imaheadcase posted this link to the Day Z forum that has an auto-updater for the mod. Thanks!
http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2434
For the newbs!
Links to guides and information for new players. Thanks to LessThanDan and Nemesis13!
http://www.elunah.com/2012/05/dayz-a-beginners-guide/
http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/trdzs/collection_of_dayz_tips_threads_for_your/
Something I noticed that wasn't in the guides; turn the in-game music off. Being able to hear your surroundings is extremely important. The in-game music isn't event triggered and is actually a detriment to your survival.
Going prone in the wrong place can break your legs. Fences, walls and stairs are the biggest offenders.
When navigating stairs, doors and inside of small buildings it is best to use crouch walk (x and then shift), you make the same amount of noise as being prone and are only a bit more visible to zombies.
I've noticed a few people stating they have been on servers where there are no zombies.
If there are no zombies there is no loot. Just something to remember.
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