Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 4: Where I get a gun! And fail to have a quick death…

He had a hatchet, I had a gun. We were ready for those zeds.

Sunday, an entire day I get to devote to DayZ. And it’s “day”, this has significance, because within DayZ, day and night time match the location of the server. Most of my playtime is a short time in the evening after I get home from work, so I’ve often resorted to playing on a US server so it’s usually daylight in the game. Probably not the best idea because of ‘ping’ reasons, but I’ve not found any big lag issues, and I’m too new to this game deal with night time yet. Though I heard that one can go into 'Options' and adjust brightness and gamma to make night time like day, I think I may try that some night.

The other reason I was playing on the US server was because I’m still new to the game, trying to just learn the ropes, I’d chose a low population server, as I didn’t feel ready to encounter other people in the game yet. Other various reasons are, I’d try for a server marked “Recruit”, because really, if I was to give a label to my skill level, that’s it. And it can be hard to get onto an AU/NZ server during peek times. This time because it's Sunday morning, I choose one of those AU/NZ servers.

So I start my session, bringing up a DayZ map in a browser, so I can tab/alt to it, so I can see if I can get an idea of location when I login, and spawn as a brand new helpless survivor.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary…

A new day, alone on the beach, nothing but that backpack, torch, bandages and painkillers, I could see the lighthouse not far off, it was starting to be a familiar sight, I checked the map. I think I was close to Kamenka. So at a quick jog I started to make my way to what I think was Kamenka, the closest town on the coast.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 3: Where desperation rules my choices... (part 2)

[Continied from Here: Day 3 - first life] 

Second Life

On the coast, daylight, not a clue to my location. Heard rumours that it was wise to head north, but I have an awful sense of direction, and don't know how to tell north from south. With my back to the coast, I wandered off to my left. Thinking again to stay away from any towns, I seemed to forget the part where I really need supplies. And that should be first on my to-do list. I followed some train tracks that were nearby, and then I saw it! It looked like a lighthouse, I bet it was the same lighthouse I came across on my first “Day” of this DayZ world. The one that I’d stumbled into on that dark night, and quite cleverly broken a leg when I climbed out of it.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 3: Where desperation rules my choices... (part 1)



I don't think that zed can see me... it would be running right?

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary...

First Life

I can’t remember the details of the start of last night’s first life, other than the obvious… spawn at coast, bla bla bla. Ok, some of it’s coming back to me. I was close to some town, I didn’t go in, thought this time I’d avoid civilization as much as I could, maybe I could wander into the wilderness and find smaller places to loot for survival supplies. There was a rundown service station right outside of town, while I was exploring the service station it started to rain, making it cold and damp. And my search of the service station proved to be a waste of time, nothing was found.

Wait… I did venture towards the town! Just on the edge, by the water, there was a barn. I made my way to it, carefully. There were zombies to avoid, saw two of them as I belly crawled around a fence. I stayed down low, still for half a minute, as I waited for a zombie to wander away from the barn I was planning to explore. And then I made it into the barn, I closed the doors, but there were wide open doors on the other side of the barn, and I’m pretty sure the other zombie was on that side. Unfortunately my explorations of the barn came up with nothing, there was no loot to be found. And to make matters worse, a zombie noticed me!

DayZ Quickie

Tonight's DayZ time not worth recording as a "Zombie Apocalypse Diary", as when I finally logged in after massive house work and some time spent in ArmA II Bootcamp to familiarize myself with some basic controls I realized it was way too late in the evening for it. So I thought, what the hell, I might as well suicide.

When I logged in this evening I had nothing saved from last nights adventures, I was back at start point anyway. So I had nothing to lose. 

There was one item of interest in my very brief DayZ session, when I was walking towards civilization I heard some gunshots, and saw a building in the distance go up in flames. I was quite curious about that, so I ran towards that direction, didn't find anything other than zombies, which chased me. I just kept running and running. No matter where I ran, I couldn't shake the zombies off... Eventually they just ran me down, and I died. Took awhile though, I was running around like a complete loon.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 2: Where I fail to pick up a gun...

[Day 1 of DayZ Diary Here]

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary…

A new day, and new life in the world of DayZ, thankfully it was daylight when I found myself on the coast. I dropped down to a prone position, and crawled in a random direction from there, still following the coast. It’s wise to keep low, and try to make as little sound as possible as I didn’t want to attract the attention of any zombies that might be nearby. On the right of the screen there are “eye” and “ear” icons, they indicate with bars how much sound you are making, and how visible you are to the surroundings.

Also under those icons on the right of your screen, is what I believe is a temperature icon, a drink bottle icon, a blood drop icon and a meal icon. When you have a need related to these icons, they change colour. I believe it is possible to starve to death in this game, if you don’t take sustenance. The icons indicate when you are thirsty, hungry, or losing mass amounts of blood.

Eventually I could see some buildings in the distance, what looked like a small town, and near the water some industrial buildings. Keeping closer to the water, I continued to crawl in the direction of the buildings. When I got closer, I could see a zombie ambling around a house. So I veered off in the direction of the industrial building, a warehouse I think, that was facing the ocean, suspecting there was less of a chance of zombies being there.

Dear Zombie Apocalypse Diary Day 1: Where I fail to survive more than 31 minutes…

According to the official DayZ website the average lifespan of survivors (players) is 31 minutes.

I found out about DayZ while I was watching the TV show Good Game, the host’s (Bajo and Hex) adventures in game looked like a combo of fun and scary that immediately captured my imagination, which made me keen to give it a go.

DayZ created by New Zealander Dean "Rocket" Hall, is a mod in its alpha stage, created for Arma II, a simulation FPS game. What it does is drop you in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, with nothing but bandages, painkillers and a torch. From there on, it’s up to you to try and survive. If you die, you are DEAD. It’s back to being dropped on some random place on the coast, with nothing but those bandages, painkillers and a torch. What follows below, is my so far brief adventures in DayZ…

Dear Zombie Apocalypse diary…

Bought Arma II Combined Operations on Steam on Saturday, looked like it was going to take overnight to download, while I was at it I also set SWTOR and Rift to update. I think I then went off and played some Halo: Reach and other random stuff. Some SWTOR time happened as well.

The next day I figured out how to add the DayZ mod to Arma II, wasn’t too hard. And then I dived into the game, and didn’t last long.

Was dropped in a random place on the coast and I couldn’t figure out how to use the controls. Had looked up the options menu, to have a peek at those controls, helped a little bit, but it was also a bit inadequate. In my first attempt at the game I’d come to a ladder I wanted climb, I knew it was possible because when I stood near it there was a little green arrow up that appeared on screen. There was no clue in the options/controls that indicated how to use a ladder.

Games Update - End of 2011

 It's been awhile since I last updated this blog, thought I should try and get back to it. Though I am a bit stuck for something really interesting to say at this time, thought a little update of my game status might suffice for now.

Early in the year I discovered Rift, as a result I abandoned my World of Warcraft account, never did get back. I might sometime in 2012, but right now I was and still am fully distracted by Rift (there was a 3-4 month gap in middle of year I wasn't playing any games, was about the time of Comic-Con, was catching up with all my favourite tv shows before the overseas trip to San Diego).

My main Rift warrior toon is now level 50 (Rift's level cap), still have not done many dungeons, and am on the low-geared side of level 50. Since I last blogged, Rift has come out with many awesome new things, including what pretty much amounts to a free expansion. Which is Ember Isle, a massive island with many new features. Spending a lot of time there, lots of things to explore, and love the 'Onslaught' quests, where an area is defended from an onslaught of invaders. Also, another new Rift feature introduced just 1-2 weeks ago was the Instant Adventures, now they are a lot of fun.. it's like ready set go! Right away. Doesn't matter if there are just a few, or a large group, it's just happens. Fast.

Been mucking around with some alts too, finding out best way to manage crafting and gathering. Figured out the hard way it's best to have one alt with weaponsmith, artificer, armorsmith, than spread between two different alts, otherwise you end up having to in-game mail same ingredients to two different toons... that's an extra pain in the ass.

As for other games I've tried out this year, and enjoyed. Terraria is pretty awesome, spent a bit of time on that one in middle of year. And have just started out with Oblivion and Fable - The Lost Chapters, I think I'm going to enjoy both.

Last night also tried out the Bastion Demo, I see the fun I can have there, though there may be some teething annoyances at first, as I'm not very coordinated with the movement controls, it's hard to keep my adventurer on the narrow paths. Which means he will often fall to his death.