You either die a noob, or live long enough to become a murdering nut job.
I wasn’t sure about getting on the standalone version of DayZ right away, as I didn’t know how buggy it would be, seeing as its in Alpha state. But after watching various YouTubers playing it, I decided that it looked to be working to a playable standard, and went ahead and got on it!
Things have changed slightly from the mod version. The most notable change from the offset, is the inventory system. It now works on a drag and drop basis instead of clicking items in and out of your pack, which I used to find a little confusing at times, and would often have items go missing as a result.
Now though, it seems a lot more straight forward. Items in the vicinity appear on the left hand side, and your inventory slots are on the right, you simply drag and drop from the vicinity to your inventory. If you want to equip an item you can put it on the quick access menu along the bottom which will assign it to numbers 1-10 on your keyboard. You can also right click on objects and a list of options will appear letting you know what you can do.
As for your character in the middle, you can drag any items of clothing you find on to them, and they will put them on.
It can be a little buggy at times, and some items don’t always appear in your inventory straight away. But on the whole, it works well, and I found it a lot easier to use.
I decided that my first life would mainly be about getting used to the new mechanics of the game, and if I happen to survive a long time, that would just be a bonus. So as I spawned I checked my inventory, 1 torch and 1 battery. It was time to go looking for supplies and a weapon.
I think I had spawned just west of Cherno. I started by searching nearby houses for supplies. Previously supplies would all appear in neat little piles in corners of rooms, now they are more scattered around, under tables and beds, on top of drawers etc.. So you have to search a little more, and keep an eye out for items trying to hide away.
You can now access loads more houses than before, and after going through a few, I had managed to find a backpack, and a few supplies. But still no weapon. I was therefore still cautiously keeping an eye out for zombies. There are considerably less around at the moment, and I think this is so that it doesn’t put too much of a strain on the game in its state, although I could be wrong. I had so far managed to avoid the attention of any zombies, until the next house. I opened the front door, only to be greeted by the zombie equivalent of this…
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/1417413/dramatic-cat-o.gif
Clearly I had interrupted something, and he wasn’t pleased to see me. As I had no weapon, my only option was to turn and peg it! It was at this moment, the game decided to lag a bit. Mr Zombie managed to get a hit on me, and I was bleeding. I was running full speed through the city trying to lose him, but all I seemed to be doing was attracting more zombies, this wasn’t going well… After a couple of minutes I lost my tail, but I was still bleeding, so needed to find some bandages. I searched a nearby apartment for some clothes. Clothes? Why clothes? Well now you can tear clothes, like t-shirts and hoodies in to rags to use as bandages. After finding some, I quickly bandaged myself, by right clicking on the bandages in my inventory and selecting ‘Bandage Self’. I had lost a lot of blood, my vision was blurry and very faded. I knew I couldn’t take any more hits. I needed a weapon, but now more importantly I needed blood, more precisely a blood transfusion.
It’s a little more complicated than just having a blood transfusion though. Firstly you need to know your blood type, which requires a blood testing kit, secondly you need blood, which means taking blood from someone who has the same blood type. Or you could be lucky enough to find some blood in a hospital, but again it needs to be your blood type. Thirdly you need to find someone to administer the transfusion, which means finding a friendly player, and having all the kit for a transfusion. No easy feat I tell you!
I gave up on the quest for blood and set about searching for a weapon as it was clear I needed one, stat! I managed to find a fire axe in a nearby house. Next on the list was some food to try and help replenish my blood, which it does over time.
I came across an open garage, and ventured inside to see if there was anything of interest. As I got to the back of the garage I heard the familiar Aurhggh of a zombie, and turned around to find that two had decided to join me with my looting. RUN! I ran as quickly as I could for the exit, but this meant running passed them, I took a swing of my axe to the nearest zombie, crack! I got him right in the head, he dropped like a stone, but this meant the first zombie had had time to close in, and with one swing of his gammy arm he hit me. It knocked me unconscious, it was game over for me.
That was my first, short life on DayZ. It only lasted a couple of hours. But it gave me enough time to decide that I loved it. Yes there are a few bugs here and there, but that’s to be expected, and in all honesty they’re hardly that noticeable. The changes that have been made make it a lot easier to get a grasp on the game, and I was quickly at ease with the new mechanics.
The game engine has also had a bit of spit and polish on it, and looks much better than the mod. Whilst I can’t crank it right up, as my laptop can’t quite handle it, I can easily see the difference.
It’s clear that I will be playing this a lot over the next few months, and with this in mind I am going to start a new life and carry on blogging about it, as a sort of DayZ diaries weekly update type thing. My aim is to carry it on for as long as my life is in the game, and only limit it to one life. So once I’m dead, that’s it.
So keep your eyes peeled for ‘The DayZ Diaries: Episode 1’!
-Will
