DayZ: Lucky Find

   This weekend was mixed. Both DayZ and World of Warcraft was to be had. Let's start with DayZ. Last we left off, we were in the forest North of Cherno. We decided to log in and play with our group of guys. When I log in, some were in Cherno, others were heading toward. Darraxus and I just kept eyes on our guys in town. At one point one of our guys in there tells us he's logging out, he just met a player with an assault rifle that told him to disconnect or die, so he disconnected. Gotta say, that is more than most folks get.

DayZ: I feel cheated.

   OK. So Past couple days that I've been playing DayZ has been spent crawling around with a broken leg. Well, I can say that problem has been remedied. After a failed attempt to meet up with a buddy at Kamenka and another south of Stary Sobor, I finally managed to make my way into Cherno and get the Morphine needed.

   But Fettsbounty, how is it you feel cheated? Well, I didn't crawl all the way down to Cherno. I logged into a server and it appeared to be hacked. Once loaded in, It gave me the YOU ARE DEAD! screen. But then right after it loaded me into Stary Sobor anyways. Only it was night and I can hear a female character and male character breathing heavy and moaning....

DayZ: Never Give Up

   Not that I haven't thought about giving up in my current predicament in DayZ. But when times get tough you have two choices, take the easy route(kill yourself and start over) or push forward. Lets back step a bit and explain. I have been taking chances and hopping on to night games. Often bearing glorious fruit, but followed with disaster. Latest disaster occured when I hit the NW Airfield on a night server. I didn't die by players, but lag and zombies got me. The airfield was a bust, barracks and hangers already looted, so leaving the airfield I must of stepped on a bear trap or something because out of nowhere, I break my leg. That's cool, a bandage and morphine later i'm moving through a town. DISCONNECTED. Right in the middle of the  street. Log back in and i'm automatically running and zombies aggro then knock me unconscious and eat me. I AM DEAD. Which brings me to my latest adventure.

   Let's look at what I've done.

1. Spawned and tried something different, straight North run. Problem is I didn't properly figure out what was where and I ran West and when I hit the end of the map, turned north and tried to run a but North east. The whole time it is raining.
2. I've got a cold and am losing blood. On top of that I'm getting hungry and thirsty. Time to find civilization. Passing through Sosnovka and Zelonogorsk, I find myself some warmth, food and waters. I've still got a cold, but am doing okay at 7k health. I aggro some zombies and run for a barn picking up a Double Barrel Shotgun.
3. I'm on the bottom floor of the Barn checking behind some stuff when I see a train of zombies running up the stairs above me. I run out and see two players above me, before they can shoot me I decide to shoot them. Lag sets in, nothings happening, I shoot them again, zombies dissappear then finally their bodies fall dead. They were ALT+F4ing. Too bad for them I was there and wasn't taking any chances having been ghosted before. One was decked out with food, Raw Meat, an M4A1 which I pick up. The other, starter gear, obviously shadowing the first guy to get kitted up. After looting these guys.... I miss the stairs down and break my Leg. Crap. I ultimately decide to crawl south back to Kamenka where I know a buddy stationed there with Morphine. this was probably an 1.5-2.0 hour crawl. Constantly checking my six and occationally killing a pig for meat to get my blood up.
4. Several days later, buddy and I just don't get on and get my leg mended. I decide its time to risk it and look for Morphine, Heading to Chernogorsk, I check a deer stand on the way, almost killed a player except he got a free pass because he didn't see me or shoot at me and kept on moving and eventually getting frustrated that after such a long time crawling I only was about to hit Komorova, I contemplated killing myself and respawning. Probably would have been easier to do so and get kitted up exactly like I was faster. But instead I push forward.
5. I find a bike, at which point I say screw Cherno, lets's head North where I have other buddies that can patch me up. So I ride, stopping at Green Mountain only for heartache and pain. I love how with a broken leg I can't walk, but I can climb ladders and Ride a Bike. Not really gonna argue with it. I am moving fast and I like it.
6. Green Mountain was Heartache because there is nothing and in my crawling state I couldn't get into the tower to climb up. Pain, due to crappy buggy system, I, if i hadn't already had broken legs, would have broken legs again, but still caused some bleeding and through lag had a hell of a time patching it up. 
7. I hop back on bike and ride on, only to encounter a SERVER RESET, which made my new bike disappear. I'm thinking the bike belong to an Admin and when he saw it was gone  he manually reset the server hoping it'd go back. If that's the case, too bad for him, I saved it at the Green Mountain. So now I am crawling again. I find a cow, butcher it and replenish my cooked steaks. I see colors vibrantly again and eventually make my way to a nice spot somewhat near where my budies were last located.
   
   
   This days crawl probably lasted 2-3 hours. If anything I've learned patience with this game andthough I have thought about giving up several times, I have persevered. Hopefully all this pays off and I get my legs mended soon. 

A Bulleted Zombie Update

Firstly, check out these detailed posts by my buddy Darraxus.

1. Scavenging to Survive 
2. To the End of the Road 
3. WoW and DayZ

 Now that y'all are caught up to these events. After everyone logged off I kept playing. finding a night server. I decided to hit up the Hangers and Military tents. At some point actually encountered a player who was actually friendly. We went off our seperate ways. Well folks, I have something for you.

Yeah, I died. I had no backup, and it was dark, but the spawns inside those military tents were being brutal and I got overwhelmed thanks to a unlucky throw of a flare when I was trying to throw a tin can. Also, it got very laggy for me so I couldn't shoot for shit. From here, let's enter bullet mode.

Thursday Night.

• Spawned near Cherno
• Regeared myself with an AKS-74 Kobra  and Revolver.
• Picked up ALICE pack and extra G17 for teammate without a pistol.
• Back to Balota Airfield and log off just outside in some trees.

Friday Night

• Logged in next to teammates, hooray for guessing their logoff positions correctly.
•  Encountered unarmed survivor that wouldn't leave us alone, even after telling him to go away.
• Shot unarmed survivor in leg to send a message.
• Snipers took 2 of us out while messing with Military Tents.
• Found they were Ghosting. Exploiting Douchebags. I spotted someone and as soon as they spot me his body goes limp as if dead then dissappears.
• Immediately get fired upon by survivor but bandaged up and lived.
• Sniper fire ceases, our two killed teammates make their way back and pick up their shit.
• Leaving Airfield we find a tent camp, likely their for respawning. We loot it all, thank you owners.
• Make our way north, time to move on and away fromt he coast. 
• Found a Zombie trap, a little building with a Zombie on a 10 second spawn timer. 
• I shot a teammate due to crossfire. Tis no problem, thanks to camp tent, plenty of blood bags.
• Rubberbanding issues and barn checks, it's time to call it a night.
• AFTER some experimentation with zeroing in on My AKM that I eventually picked up to replace the Kobra. Also replaced Revolver with M1911. I just like that gun.
• Then watched videos on YouTube.

All in all, we lived to fight another day regardless of the Douchebag Ghost exploiting Sniper Jackwagons.
Anyways, here's what I've been finding on YouTube.



Also, check out these channels.
Acebane21: He's got some interesting videos. Not just entertaining but informational. Like his Reviews of the various weapons. Especially the Sniper ones, they help a lot with what to expect when longshotting.
EireBornFenix: Also has informational videos with images of what too look for. And it's thanks to him that I finally find a good site for Chernarus Maps @ http://southcoastbeanwars.com/day-z-maps/. I had one before but it's a huge file and is so slow to load and zoom and scroll around.



I've literally kept replaying this one a couple dozen times. I love the sigh.

A New Genre: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Simulation

   It seems with the popularity of Walking Dead and DayZ that there is a new genre of videogames branching out of the normal Survival Horror. What genre you ask, Zombie Apocalypse Survival Simulation. Yeah yeah, but there are so many Zombie survival games, how is this a new genre? Simple, it's an actual representation to what a Zombie Apocalypse may be like that. It's not some arcade shoot everything with infinite ammo game.To get what Zombie Apocalypse just look at DayZ.

   DayZ is AWESOME. However, it is so difficult to get into a game. It's 50% server searching, 40% playing and 10% worrying about getting disconnected everytime you see that damn broken red chain link. It's "alpha" yeah, I understand. Personally I'm thinking it's an experiment while Bohemia finishes up Arma 3 and any final DayZ release will be on that engine. Hell, i've read Rocket was moving his things to the Bohemia offices so maybe he's working with them for a full on Arma 3 engine Day Z release.

   But until then, we still have a flawed but awesome game to play. But it's not the only one anymore. Here comes, The War Z. Originally being designed as a Zombie Survival MMO with quests and unlocked areas. But after DayZ they made some design changes to reflect what is making DayZ so popular and design changes that seem to be on players wish lists. Either way it'll be interesting to see how it plays and maybe even get Rocket to make DayZ even better now that their will be competition.

    Check out this IGN article on The War Z.

A Punisher Fan Film

It's amazing what fans can do. Even with a limited budget. But what if someone famous is a fan and can put some money into their projects. To start there was this Concept video Mortal Kombat Rebirth that was made to pitch for a new Mortal Kombat movie. It was done with a realistic dark and gritty take. Likely taking a cue from Batman Begins and going over that dark line where Batman would not, because, well, it's Mortal Kombat

This is old news really, but nothing happened of it for a while until fans were loud enough and eventually heard, resulting in great series of web videos called Mortal Kombat Legacy. And now there is a possibility of a movie or at the very least another season of videos.

Which brings us to The Punisher. I've never seen War Zone. I didn't care much for the idea of it after having embraced Thomas Jane's portrayal. Yeah the movie had it's flaws, John Travolta and the core Origin story. But what it all boils down to is, Thomas Jane was flat out awesome as The Punisher. And he loves the character to a point... well... just check it out.

"I wanted to make a fan film for a character I've always loved and believed in - a love letter to Frank Castle & his fans. It was an incredible experience with everyone on the project throwing in their time just for the fun of it. It's been a blast to be a part of from start to finish -- we hope the friends of Frank enjoy watching it as much as we did making it." -- Thomas Jane

Here's hoping the studios see what this means to the fans and realize, that through its flaws, however few there were, there was greatness to be had with Thomas Jane's Punisher. I'm hoping for a revival. I guess in this day where reboots are such a huge thing, this may be one I'd be able to support fully without hesitation.

Also:


Also, also, if you have an hour:

Honestly, it's insane that Firefly only came back for a single movie and not revived completely.

My Transmog: Hunter

This one is gonna be a quick post. Not gonna bother with links for the moment. I'm tired and falling asleep as I type this, then I'll schedule it for the morning. Anyways, here is the Transmog set I've been working on. It's a brown color scheme going with leather hide looking outfits. Only problem there were'nt any shoulders that went well with this set. Until I saw the season 11 PvP shoulders. At which point I had to get geared up to run Twiligh dungeons. and here are the results.

 Unmasked. Thinking about possibly hiding helmet.

Actually kind of goes okay with our guild tabard's current color scheme thanks to the grey in the shoulders.

A Hunter's Weekend.

There was no DayZ fun to be had this weekend. That is on hold for the time being. So what did I do then? Well, for starters, I've started watching Burn Notice on Netflix. Another show that I sometimes enjoyed the few times I caught it, but yet, never allowed myself to make time to catch it every week. As far as shows that I absolutely will watch weekly, that method belongs to How I Met Your Mother. Everything else I can wait for Netflix/Hulu or DVDs.

  What about gaming? This is a gaming blog right, so what games did I play. Well, I played World of Warcraft of course. And as the title suggests, I mostly played my Hunter. Now, when I first made the decision to finally get my Hunter to 85, I had absolutely no intention of gearing him up. I just wanted to get him to a level where if I had encountered a rare tameable spawn, I'd be able to tame it.

   But late one friday night I finally found a possible Transmogrification set that I'd actually be happy with for him. Only one of the pieces belongs to the season 11 PvP set and since I don't PvP, my best bet is Valor to Conquest trade. So that's it folks. I've spent my weekend first gearing him up to the point he can run the Twilight Dungeons, skipping the horrific regular set of Heroics and maxing out my weekly Valor point collection. Now all I need is to wait for the reset then I'd be ready to share my Hunter's transmog look.

   Also, I manage to pick up a few rare spawns on Bradailann. My favorite being the Metal Panther from the Firelands whom I've renamed Ravage. Honestly the only truly suitable name for a metal cat.

A DayZ Fourth of July

After waking up after lunch I spent early afternoon watching DayZ videos. Afraid to play the game because we as a group decided to wait till we can all play together. So last we actually played was 4 maybe 5 days ago and I've been itching to play more and more after each video. Occasionally I would log on and check the construction building I am in for goodies. Well this time, after too much waiting I urged Kev to run through the Chernogorsk with me for a quick scavenge. We were doing alright, heading out with Hatchets, Kev found a Makarov. Then we made it to an apartment building where we found a fresh survivor. I made the call to let him live after failing to get a response in direct communication. I really do not want to be that guy that kills on sight. I have hopes for a game where players will help players. So we check the rooms and get to whatever goodies before he could. I never let him out of my sight though.

I watched as he hit the market across the street at which point I pointed out there were hatchets over there and told Kev we need to keep an eye on him. But, he never picked one up, I saw him stop at a few other loot points, but not once did he stop at the hatchets. Then he ran off, I felt it was peculiar, but decided to let it go. Next thing I know I hear a shot fire. Kev shot at someone who came around with a gun. Then more shots were fired and Kev is down. I head down stairs and see the other guy is bleeding and he shoots me, I'm down but not out. Hourglass is draining and I'm watching this guy as he is looting Kev, but sadly when I came to I finally bit the bullet after a valiant effort to hatchet him in the face.

Several questions running through my head at this point. Was it the same guy? Did he find a gun and is that why he passed on the hatchets? Did he come back to shoot us? Would he have shot us if Kev didn't shoot first? Should I just blatantly murder people because it's possible they might come back and murder us as soon as they find a weapon?

Oh well, doesn't matter. Time to start anew. We start fresh and we both spawn just outside a big city, unsure of which ones though. I'm making my way on the outskirts and after recognizing a few buildings I recognize I'm at Elecktro...whatevers. I hear gunshots in the distance and stay vigilant. Then over vent Kev is muttering about being low on ammo and zombies are still coming. Apparantly he was lucky enough to already pick up a double-barrel shotgun. But he got tagged and lost a lot of blood and is holed up in a station building that has a tower that is basically a stairwell with an attached warehouse that recognize as a power station.

As he states there was another zombie, I hear another gunshot, so I ask him if that was him firing. The whole time I been hearing his gunshots. He and I spawned on opposites sides of Elektro. Sweet, so I make my way toward the power station on the outside only to find it empty and after talking to Kev found out that he was at another one inside. Before meeting up with him I loot a supermarket picking up an ALICE pack, an M1911, an extra makarov that i throw in the ALICE pack, a Map, compass and watch. I also have a Remingtion Pump action shotgun with no ammo, yay, only because I chose it over the crossbow with 1 bolt, minus the bolt since I couldn't find it to pick it back up after shooting a zombie in the head.

After looting the market I meet up with Kev, distribute some foods and we make our way to the hospital where I administer the much needed blood transfusion he needed and pick up extra supplies. Next to the hospital is another building and I see through the window another ALICE pack. So we hit that spot only to find it unable to be picked up. I don't remember what happened first but at this point I had to shoot a zombie but we also here a gunshot. When the gunshot was fired that wasn't from me, both Kev and I shout over vent, "was that you?", and we both respond "no, not I". At which point we decide it was not safe to stick around. We figured whoever it was heard ours and was possibly making their way toward us. So we bolt and make for some trees where we dealt with a few zombies but was able to get free and eventually watch the town for player movement.

After seeing a swarm of zombies go into one building we wait a bit then hit up the supermarket, this time together. Kev picked up an ALICE pack and a Lee Enfield that he tossed in the ALICE pack for Darraxus should we meet up with him. And at this point we considered ourselves well stocked and head to Chernogorsk so we can get that Construction building where we wait once again for all three of us to log on and continue our journey. Only this time we won't just have mere Hatchets.

EDIT: HOLY WALL'O TEXT BATMAN! Fixed, had it in HTML mode and not compose. So all the breaks it looked like I was putting in in reality was not being put in.

DayZ have your attention now?

It's awesome, I don't blame you. The stories that come out of the game are amazing. Forget the movies, forget the books, play the Zombie Apocalypse for yourself and see how you fare. But first, here are some helpful resources I've found very helpful.

Index of Helpful Threads and within this index, a must view thread is the Gear/Inventory thread that explains one of the most confusing parts of this game for beginners.


A Chernarus Map is a big thing to get familiar with. There is an in game map, but you need to find it first, something i've never done yet. Some of the maps are basic while there are a few with possible loots spots and their building types. Choose what fits you.


Now, here is something from sacriel42 I wish I had found a lot earlier. A very informative Basics video. Definitely a must watch for beginners. It's nice seeing what is being done as he explains it.
 


Now you're familiar with the basics. Where do you go? Where is the good stuff? Let sacriel42 once again show you.