pilgrimunstuck

[pilgrimunstuck]

Kid Icarus: Uprising!  I like it a lot.  My wrist kind of hates it.

[pilgrimunstuck]

Something very profound has changed in me regarding my playstyle in DayZ. DayZ’s creator Dean Hall was recently interviewed by IGN and said “I believe players play style reflect their subconscious”. This isn’t the first I have come to terms with the inhumanity I have performed in DayZ. More...

[pilgrimunstuck]

On Trading AGonz...

I don't like it. It's bullshit, really. But I suppose I understand it. There is NO chance the Red Sox dump Beckett and Crawford without giving up someone like Gonzalez. Not without eating a much larger chunk of those salaries, anyway. I just hope it's worth it. This season is a wash but hopefully this new found maneuverability in salary space turns into a better 2013 team.

[pilgrimunstuck]

Oh, nostalgia …

[pilgrimunstuck]

Rule Number One: CARDIO

[pilgrimunstuck]

Came across this a couple of days ago.  Creepy!

[pilgrimunstuck]

Day 6.  I've kept my survivor alive for a week!  Well, almost. Logging out, and then back into the airfield isn't never a wise idea.  I was overrun with zombies at one of the barracks about 30 minutes later.

[pilgrimunstuck]

DayZ at night.  No, your monitor isn't malfunctioning.  That's a feature.

[pilgrimunstuck]

This game is tense enough in daylight.  I wanted to check out that firehouse but someone light it up with a flare or chem light.  I also kept seeing a flashlight go on and off.  I moved along.

[pilgrimunstuck]

Just downloaded this and I'm about to fire it up.  Something else to play (and write about) besides DayZ.

[pilgrimunstuck]

Back into the Wilderness

Alice Pack: Check

Lee Enfield:  Check

Tons of Ammo:  Check

Plenty of soda and full water bottle: Check.

Cans and cans O' beans: Check.

Bandages: Check

Blood bags: Check

Morphine: Check.

Antibiotics: Check

Tools needed to hunt and cook meat: Check.

I still need a map and compass but I think I'm equipped enough to say goodbye to Cherno, Elektro and the whole damned southern coast in general. 

Heading north into the wilderness.  Hopefully I can pick up the few remaining items I need along the way.  Maybe a decent sidearm as well.

[pilgrimunstuck]

DayZ lesson learned: Always Carry Morphine

Successful run of Elektro tonight.  Brian and I are armed, stocked with food and water and a ton of medical supplies.  Except Morphine. The hospital was fresh out. 

We take off northeast through the wilderness and hit up a place called Rog.  It's an old stone castle.  We've never been here and are curious as to what awaits inside.

Only bad luck awaited us. Brian fell off the staircase and broke his legs.

So I decide to run back to Elektro and hope some Morphine has magically appeared. Not having a compass or a map, I get slightly lost.  How lost?  Brian has a compass but can't walk and he crawls back to Elektro before me.  Sad.

I finally meet up with Brian on a hill just northeast of the city.  He hides in the trees, I make a run for the hospital.  I aggro some zombies as I rush towards the city.  I lose them easily by running through a building.  I make it to the hospital and lucky me the first box I check has a morphine auto injector!  Score!

I'm crouch running back the way I came into the city, back to brian to give him the morphine when I hear brian over Vent cursing.  A moment later the corner of my screen gives me the bad news:  Brian was killed.  A sniper spotted him.  Bad bad luck.  I was within a minute or two of fixing his legs.  I hid in an apartment building for a few minutes to see if the sniper was coming after me.  

Nothing.

Brian had had enough of DayZ for one night and so had I.  Tomorrow We'll run the city again. 

Lesson learned: Always carry Morphine.

[pilgrimunstuck]

My one complaint about DayZ...

Where are all the good guys?  

I've read stories of them existing, but everyone I've encountered in game has been hostile.  What's the deal?  I'm sooooo friendly, you guys.  I'll even share my beans with you!

[pilgrimunstuck]

Getting Out of Cherno Ain't Easy

Made three attempts on doing a looting run in Cherno.

The first end badly.  I successfully made it to Cherno and even got (kind of) out of the city.  I loaded up on food and drink at the general store and found a Remington shotgun and a M1911 in the firehouse.  After a tense moment when there was VERY close gunfire, I snuck out the back door of the firehouse and escaped the city!  Success!  Oh, wait.  There's a zombie following me.  And he's hit me once and now my legs are broke.

What the hell is that!?  One swipe from a zombie and my legs shatter!  Was my survivor low on calcium?  Terrible.  

The second attempt ended with my survivor dying from a sniper's bullet as I fought off zombies in the firehouse.  Yeah, I know.  I don't have a lot of luck looting that firehouse.  But before that happened, I killed my first survivor.  I'm not proud of it but the poor bastard snuck up on me. I was there waiting for my friend Brian.  I just picked up a AKM for myself and had found a MP5A5 for Brian.  I knew Brian was at the church near by, so when this stranger popped his head up the staircase, I shot.  I felt bad but the last time I hesitated it cost me dearly.

The third and final attempt of the night ended in a shootout at the general store.  Brian and I met up again and looted the church and another building before loading up on supplies at the store.  We were about to leave when a bullet took out Brian. his legs are broke and he's bleeding out.  I duck for cover but I'm also hit.  I bandage myself up and make sure my m1911 is loaded.  I only have 7 rounds.  I'm not well equipped for this fight.  Brian administers some morphine and gets his bleeding to stop.  He's in bad shape.

My first instinct is to flee.  But Brian is close to death.  He can't see straight and he keeps passing out.  So it becomes a standoff.  5 minutes or 10 minutes pass and nothing happens.  I start having second thoughts about staying and check my inventory to see if I had a smoke grenade.  We could use if for cover while we ran for the wilderness.  No such luck.  Worse, as I'm closing my inventory, the gunman is standing there.  

He hesitates. Which gives me a chance to fire first.  I fire at him with the M1911 but only two shots hit him.  Not enough to kill him and unfortunately his aim is better.  As my survivor dies, Brian opens fire on him but also dies in the process. Silver lining?  We're pretty sure the gunman died too!  Pretty sure.

Getting out of Cherno alive isn't easy but it sure is a lot of fun trying.

[pilgrimunstuck]

Third Time's a Charm

I attempted a solo loot run on Cherno last night.  It took a couple of tries but I managed to loot a few buildings and get out of town with a decent stash.  Here's what happened:

Attempt number one:  It was over before it really began.  I spawned south of Cherno near the docks.  Immediately I hear gun fire and take cover in the nearby warehouse.  Weaponless and scared spitless, I decide to cower in fear and wait for the gunfire to stop.

Ten long minutes later, the gun fire has stopped for a full minute.  I make a break for it.  In my haste, I aggro a few zombies.  A few zombies become a bunch and then shortly after I become lunch.

First Lesson learned: Take caution around zombies, especially when there are a TON of them.  Prone crawling is your ally!

Attempt number two finds me spawning in the same location as the first.  This time there is no firefight and I manage reach the ocean and swim to Cherno without an issue.  God it takes forever to swim in this game...

After about a million minutes of swimming (OK, maybe 5 minutes), I reach the shore and make my way to the church.  I gain the attention of a couple of undead admirers but I manage to lose them fairly quickly.  I loot the church and the building next door to it before making my way to the fire station further down the block.

I reach the station and find a AKM and a silenced M9.  Score!  However, I soon find that I'm not alone.  Someone is coming up the stairs.  There's also gunfire from just outside the building I'm in. So this intruder may not be alone

I don't really want to kill anyone.  Not unless I have to. Before I can really think about it, a man in a ghillie suit armed with a .50 caliber rifle appears in the stairwell.  I hesitate a moment, giving him time to adjust himself and take his shot.  We fire simultaneously.  his .50 cal kills me instantly.  The rounds I fire off hit ghillie man, but my aim was a bit low.  I see him crumple to the floor as I die.  He passed out or perhaps I broke his legs but I'm certain I didn't kill him.

Second lesson learned:  Never hesitate.  I should have shot him the second his head popped out of the stairwell. I let my reluctance to kill another survivor compromise my character's survival.  I can't let that happen again. Avoidance is still my main strategy, but in these close encounters it can be kill or be killed.  I'd like to avoid the later.

My third, final, and most importantly successful attempt finds me on a new server and starting out at the factory just west of Cherno.  It nearly ends immediately.  A survivor with about 6 zombies chasing him runs right at me.  An attempt to get the zombies to chase me instead I assume.  Didn't bother to stick around and ask him.

I'm on my feet and sprinting full speed.  Stealth can take a backseat for a moment.  I need to get in doors so I can lose this mob.  I make it to the church and manage to shake this latest bunch of admirers. 

I loot the church, the building next door and make it to the fire station again.  My loot is different but still worth the trip.  I'm the proud owner of a MP5A5 and a glock 17.  Neat!  Now I need to get the hell out of this city.  Through the windows of the fire station I see a general store.

I loot the general store on my way back out of town.  It was on the way back towards the factory I started at so i didn't consider it much of an extra risk.  The trip back to the factory and then to the wilderness where I logged out was uneventful. Except for finding the corpse of the survivor I met earlier.

So now I'm armed and questionably dangerous.  Plenty of food and soda pop to last me a while. Ammo is ok as are my supply of bandages and painkillers.  I could use some other medical supplies but I'm not sure if I'm up for another run into the hornet's nest just yet. 

It's a decision best left for another day.

[pilgrimunstuck]

Fun with Hatchets! These were better times. Shortly after this screencap was taken, my companion broke his legs in a scuffle with a zombie.  I set off to find him some morphine but before I could find any, I was teleported by a hacker into an open field and murdered. Grumble.

[pilgrimunstuck]

From Kamenka to Windy Mountain

I experienced my first death in DayZ at the hands of another survivor tonight.

I start off at Kamenka and quickly found a Czech backpack, a hatchet, some sardines, several cans of soda (alas no Mountain Dew), a water bottle and some ammo for weapons I do not possess.  Feeling that I've exhausted the hospitality of this small town's undead populace, I make my way into the wilderness.

Deer stands are my target.  Decent chance of getting a useful weapon.  Past experience guides me towards a few of them just north of Kamenka.  I find nothing that resembles a useful weapon.  I crouch walk away with a smoke grenade and a clip for a Makarov.  Moving on.

I head east and stumble upon a barn/farm.  My fortune improves.  I have my choice between a double barreled shotgun or a CZ 550. I hate both of these weapons.  The shotgun is too loud and has hardly any ammo.  The sniper rifle has a decent amount of ammo but isn't ideal for CQC or mid range combat. Sitting in the barn, I  contemplate leaving both guns behind and carrying on with my trust and oh so quiet hatchet.  But the temptation of having a firearm is too much so I pick up the CZ 550, eat my sardines, fill up, drink and refill my water bottle at a near by water pump and mosie along.

Armed and hydrated, I head northeast in the general direction of Bor.  I have a game plan now.  There's a supposedly a downed helicopter on the northside of the Windy Mountain and I plan to loot the shit out of it.  It's a dangerous plan.  Probably safe to say it's a terribly dumb plan.  I'm still very new to this game and helicopter crash sites are hot spots for seasoned bandits.  It's a recipe for a trip back to the beach.

Ignoring my better judgement, I keep moving towards Bor.  Along the way I loot a couple more deer stands and find a AKM.  A weapon much more suitable for my survival.  I only have a single clip for my new toy but honestly, I'm rubbish with the CZ 550 so it's a fair trade off.

I bypass Bor completely, deciding it's more important to get past Windy Mountain than to forage for supplies in this small town.  I'm in good shape health wise and I still have a Canteen, soda and plenty of bandages and even painkillers.  Why waste time when a pile of sweet, sweet riches await me on the other side  of this mountain?

At this point my buddy Brian logs on.  Excellent.  He's armed and relatively close by. I feel a lot better about approaching this helicopter with someone who has my back.  I give him my location (just north of Bor) over Vent and he's on his way.  I begin climbing Windy Mountain, heading towards my inevitable doom.

I reach the north end of the mountain about 10 minutes later.  There's a deer stand here with three zombies trapped underneath the scaffolding.  I'm very tempted to perforate their undead bodies and see what's up in that deer stand.  Cooler heads prevail.  I can't risk giving away my position so close to the helicopter crash site.  I have the sensation that these zombies are snickering at me, quietly calling me a coward amongst themselves.  I ignore them and hunker down in some bushes and wait for Brian to arrive.

Brian is a tad lost.  I don't know this yet.  I don't think he knows this either.  He's describing being in front of a large open field.  That's good news!  I'M in front of a large field.  He's also really close to a small town.  That's good ne...wait, what?

At this point we're not entirely sure where Brian is.  We both think he's at the field I'm looking at but on the far east side of it.  He tells me he thinks he knows where he is and that he's running over to me.  About a minute later I hear someone scuffling behind me.

Someone who's not Brian.

"Hey buddy are you currently running?  I think I hear you."

"Yeah, I'm running on the field."

Shit.  The footsteps are clearly coming from the trees behind me. It's Not Brian  I start to adjust myself to get a bead on where exactly "Not Brian" is.  I'm not quick enough.  "Not Brian" has spotted me before I could see him and opens fire.

He misses. I still can't pinpoint his location.  I look over at the zombies near the deer stand.  His gunfire should be aggroing them.  NOPE.  They must be bugged.   It's fight or flight time. Since I can't see the gunman, I decide to make a run for it.

I don't make it very far.  His second volley of gunfire hits the mark and I'm down for the count.  Unconcious.  I bleed out a few seconds later, having never fired my fancy new gun nor ever getting my hands on those sweet, sweet riches.

Brian also never made it to the helicopter.  He was eaten by zombies.  So it goes.