Day Z alpha: How the zombie apocalypse should be

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imaheadcase

Diamond Member
May 9, 2005
3,850
7
76
Also one thing to note in this game...when its dark out..ITS DARK. You almost have to use flares or other lights.
You can find way around "ok" without by looking at sky you can see outlines of stuff.
But its very hard in a urban area with all the groaning of zombies and pkers

I get lots of graphic oddities on GTX 580 SLI. Nothing game breaking, just like flickering gun and grass.

Read the newbie guide on dayz forum helps a ton.
 

Wordplay

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2010
1,348
1
81
I downloaded ARMA2 + Expansion just for this after some friends said it was great.
Having never played ARMA2 the interface is pretty crazy. I learned the hard way how to loot after I thought I was taking all these goodies from a body but was giving them up... Went to pull up my gun and nothing.... couple hours of getting going gone in a few seconds.

Despite the learning curve (if you'r enot use to ARMA2), it is a ton of fun! The level of suspense is unlike anything else I've played.... like the title said, it is how it should be. Coming up to a survivor isn't just an easy thing to do, both of you are scared the other is going to kill you for goodies.

The other night I was playing and with 3 other guys, we were a little team and we found a random who needed blood and food badly... we said we would help but wanted his gun to make sure he was "safe".... he became our little scout/decoy until he proved trust worthy. A while later we found another random and did the same thing, but this guy got into a jam and had like 15+ zombies after him and came running back towards us.... one of our group memebers shot him in the leg so he was slower and the rest of us took up using him as bait.... it was just crazy.


It has a feel exactly like what I would expect out of a zombie apocalypse.... you want to help and work together with others, but it isn't always just that easy.

The voice system is pretty awesome too... it actually reflects how loud you speak, so at night its better to whisper so zombies don't hear you, but if someone is a long way away you have to yell (probably the same in ARMA2).

It was well worth the $30 for ARMA2 + Expansion
WOW, mod sounds bad ass. I am going to get this on Friday
 

Harrod

Golden Member
Apr 3, 2010
1,900
21
81
Downloading now,

question, do the zombies ever have any loot on them, or can you only find it on dead bandits and other players who have died?
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
Also one thing to note in this game...when its dark out..ITS DARK.

You're telling me. I was running along a forest road in the middle of the night and ran out of flares, this is seriously how dark it is.



I get lots of graphic oddities on GTX 580 SLI. Nothing game breaking, just like flickering gun and grass.

Don't worry, it's not your computer. The Arma II engine, while very complex and detailed, is also VERY flawed. Expect to see graphical glitches and oddities a lot.

question, do the zombies ever have any loot on them, or can you only find it on dead bandits and other players who have died?

A few of them do, but not many. If it's a zombie cop, rather than a regular zombie civilian, there's a good chance they'll have a gun on them or something useful.

WOW, mod sounds bad ass. I am going to get this on Friday

It's a game purely about emergent experiences. Play it for a a while, and you'll have more and more stories to tell.

RPS has an excellent series describing their experiences in Chernarus. Read on for more badassery.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
what kind of performane are you getting with your rig, LessThanDan ?

Can you play with any AA applied ?
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
what kind of performane are you getting with your rig, LessThanDan ?

Can you play with any AA applied ?

I play on Medium-High settings with AA turned off. I haven't benchmarked it, but if I had to guess, I'm probably getting ~45 FPS.

I have AA disabled because otherwise, it causes really weird glitches with grass and bushes randomly turning white (like I said... Arma II engine... not quite perfect).

It should be noted though that in Arma II, "higher settings" doesn't necessarily mean "better". Turning HDR on Ultra won't make it "ultra realistic"; rather, it will make everything overblown to hell and make the lighting 100x more dramatic than normal.

Similarly, turning post-processing to anything higher than "Normal" will make everything blurry as shit and generally just ugly.
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
It sounds like there will at least be alot of settings to get the best looks to fps ratio for a nice experience.
 

clok1966

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2004
1,395
13
76
If it wasnt the ARMA engine... nothing wrong with it, but i dont need hold shift and caps then press the U key to unlock a door... (exageration) complex is ok.. anally complex is no fun. ARMA took hyper real to levels beyond fun. Thouhg I must admit this game sound excellent. I am tempted.
 

CubicZirconia

Diamond Member
Nov 24, 2001
5,193
0
71
2. better UI for inventory. Not sure if possible because its a mod, but would be sweet to have a drag and drop or autoloot fuction.

This. Inventory system is really, really terrible. Puzzling how bad and unintuitive it is. Despite this, the game is lot of fun as is and has huge potential.
 

Doppelganger01

Junior Member
Jan 3, 2012
10
0
0
Convenient to have in one place with an established service instead of the following:
Logs into Steam, nope, not here
Logs into Origin, nope, not here
Logs into GOG, nope, not here
Logs into Amazon, here it is.

Personally, I have Steam, Amazon and GOG. Steam is always running on my comp and I use the voice feature for ALL my games. Amazon, I shop there so damn much anyway and GOG just because I like them.

You guys do realize you can add non-steam games to your library right? You can launch it right from steam and get the overlay and everything.
Probably won't work for services you need to sign into though. i.e. Origin.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
You guys do realize you can add non-steam games to your library right? You can launch it right from steam and get the overlay and everything.

No, not "everything". I can't download the game through Steam, I can't patch the game through Steam, I can't verify file integrity through Steam, and I can't uninstall through Steam.

But as I said... personal preference.
 

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,438
5
81
You guys do realize you can add non-steam games to your library right? You can launch it right from steam and get the overlay and everything.
Probably won't work for services you need to sign into though. i.e. Origin.

Adding non-steam games to your library pretty much just lets your friends know what you're playing, doesn't have anything to do with the things LessThanDan covered. Convenient for what I use it for, which is to communicate among friends who happen to be playing games so we can coordinate and/or use voice.
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,806
46
91
damnit...i caved...

i keep reading all this cool shit and i want to play, lol. good thing amazon has Combined Ops for $15.
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,488
153
106
I really want to play too. The problem is that I have a 6 year old daughter that would be scared to death of such a game, and I don't really have any time to play after she goes to sleep. Maybe in the summer when she goes to her mothers house.
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
Well, I got the game downloaded and installed on steam and I have the Day Z mod installed, but I can not get in a game

It says my version is 1.60

Most games I saw were 158 I think it was

I get an error message when getting data to join
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
Well, I got the game downloaded and installed on steam and I have the Day Z mod installed, but I can not get in a game

It says my version is 1.60

Most games I saw were 158 I think it was

I get an error message when getting data to join

You're looking at numbers for two different things.

1.60 is the latest version of Arma II CO. (Which is good if that's what you're seeing for your copy of Arma; if you have it on Steam, it should automatically be updated to this version).

The latest version of Day Z, on the other hand, is 1.58. Or, 1.58.2, to be exact. Assuming you have the mod installed correctly, you should be able to join most servers that are listed as 1.58.2.

Not sure what to tell you about the error you're getting. Since Day Z 1.58 (which was literally just released today), joining servers has been substantially faster.

Here's a comprehensive guide on how to install the mod: http://dayzwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_install_DayZ
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
The mod shows up and the server list shows up, so I think I have everything installed ok.

Here is one thing I am getting

 

Gorthan

Member
Feb 11, 2010
45
0
0
I actually considered posting a DayZ thread on the weekend.... but I was way too busy playing. Literally haven't touched any other game for a week, all I play is DayZ currently.

Can't recommend this enough if you're a fan of survival horror or zombie games. The tension in DayZ is incredible compared to anything else out there. Crawling through a field of zombies at night, trying to get to the barn/building/whatever on the other side is nerve wracking. The zombies moan, gurgle and growl when nearby and it adds to the atmosphere immensely. Combine this with the fact that a bandit (PKer essentially) could be watching your progress across the field and is just waiting for you to get the loot and cap you on the way out makes it worse. It creates a great conundrum, if you use light at night, you let everyone around you know where you are. If you don't, you can't really see and risk bumping into a zombie and ending up in a world of pain.

Of course you can play in daylight, but it's not practical for a lot of people as servers run real time, so if you're like me and game at night, it will be night on the server also.

Running into other survivors can be epic as well, you're never sure if you can trust them (made worse by the new patch as you no longer change skins if you PK), so for me I usually avoid other people altogether unless I know who they are. If I can't avoid them, I make sure I'm the first with a gun on them and basically make it plain if you go your way, I'll go mine. Haven't had to murder anyone yet, but I have had a few fire fights with bandits. Won some and lost some.

And to throw a DayZ story in here for the fun of it. One of my more helpful moments in the game was when I was flanking around a city (Elektro if you're curious) through the forest, basically looking to detour round it. At one point I saw some poor survivor running down the road on the outskirts with about 10 zombies chasing him. He managed to get inside a small building and clearly ran out of ammo trying to drop the zombies. At this point I was ~500m away from his location, so wanting to try out my new sniper rifle I found (a CZ), I set up and began picking off the zombies (they tend to crowd around trying to get inside). A couple of missed shots later I was sighted in and dropping them. Unfortunately for me, other zombies heard my rather loud gunshots and began charging at me. I switched out to the trusty Makarov pistol and took them down, getting a little banged up in the process. Worried about the other survivor I quickly returned to taking out the remaining zombies. It was incredibly satisfying to see the other player slowly creep back out of the hut, wondering who the hell his guardian angel was, then take off looking for ammo. I then bandaged myself up and left on my way. Never said a word to him, found it more fun to give him a long range hand and move on. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

PS. I threw that sniper rifle away in favour of something quieter. Fire that thing in a town and you get a horde coming down on your head. For the newbies out there, never fire a Lee Enfield in town. Most people have died once to that.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
I will be trying this soon, few questions:

Can zombies open doors(or can you even close doors to keep them out?)
Is there melee weapons so you dont always have to use ammo?
can zombies climb ladders?
can you run faster than zombies?
 

Harrod

Golden Member
Apr 3, 2010
1,900
21
81
So I take it you have to also have vanilla Arma 2 installed as well to get this going, installing OA alone wouldn't let me launch.
 

Gorthan

Member
Feb 11, 2010
45
0
0
I will be trying this soon, few questions:

Can zombies open doors(or can you even close doors to keep them out?)
Is there melee weapons so you dont always have to use ammo?
can zombies climb ladders?
can you run faster than zombies?

1. Yes, have only ever see them doing it chasing you though. Closing them buys a little bit of time.
2. No melee weapons :'( (Doubt it's possible in the Arma 2 engine)
3. Yes, but it takes them a while to figure it out.
4. Not on flat ground, they seem to run slightly faster than you. However going uphill slows them down more than you, and if you run through a building they slow to a walk indoors. Hence why the best place to fight of zombies is indoors.

And Harrod, yes you need both installed. You actually need to install Arma 2, run it once, shut it down. Then launch Operation Arrowhead and select "Launch Combined Operations".
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
The mod shows up and the server list shows up, so I think I have everything installed ok.

Have you tried clicking "continue" and going into the server anyway? I've been getting little error messages like those since the last patch (something about missing lines in a config file), and they don't seem to mean anything. I can join servers fine. Try joining a variety of different servers as well.

I will be trying this soon, few questions:

Can zombies open doors(or can you even close doors to keep them out?)
Is there melee weapons so you dont always have to use ammo?
can zombies climb ladders?
can you run faster than zombies?

  1. Zombies can't open doors (I think), and yes, you can close doors in most buildings.
  2. Unfortunately there are no melee weapons right now.
  3. Weirdly enough, they can only climb some ladders, but not all. Depends on the ladder and the building it's attached to.
  4. Outrunning zombies is extremely difficult, if not impossible from my experience.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.

So I take it you have to also have vanilla Arma 2 installed as well to get this going, installing OA alone wouldn't let me launch.

Yup, you need Arma II and it's expansion Arma II: Operation Arrowhead. The two can be purchased together as Arma II: Combined Operations.

Here's a screen I took just a few minutes ago, before dying. I was in Mogilevka, helping myself to some awesome loot, and a zombie saw me inside a building. I freaked out, started running, and kited like 5 zombies behind me. I killed them with my winchester, but I was very wounded... and losing blood. Unfortunately I didn't have time to patch myself up, because my gunshots had attracted what must've been 20 more zombies. I managed to pick them off, bandage up, and lumber on for a few more minutes until I kited even more zombies. Out of ammo, dizzy from blood-loss, and tired from running, I eventually layed down and gave up.

It's amazing how one little fuck-up can cost you the entire game.

 

Rinaun

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2005
1,195
1
81
The game is slowly getting better but I still don't think people should drop the money on arma II just for this mod. It's realllly buggy.
 

imaheadcase

Diamond Member
May 9, 2005
3,850
7
76
The graphics is really the only thing holding back this game for me. I would say 5-10 times i play i have to quit game and log back on because graphics fubar. I mean literally its like tripping on acid everything goes flashing colors and can't move around. lol

I also found out today that zombies go through walls and doors. So no hiding in houses. Hope that is a bug because thats not cool
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
Ok...I think my problem was that I installed version 1.57 & there was an update yesterday to 1.582.

I am downloading new update now.
 
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