I know Joaby has been playing it, he even wrote an article about it. Anyone else on here playing? Have any funny/awesome experiences to share?

Just started, having disagreements with the control system (tried playing arma2 before, it was mostly the controls that put me off - unnecessarily unintuitive). So far the game has robbed me of all my ammo for no reason twice, making things very difficult. Died 3 or 4 times now, can't seem to get the hang of getting past zombies without being seen/heard. Also when you have nothing to lose I have difficulty staying patient enough to take it slow.

I finished downloading it last night. I'm just waiting to get out of work to install the whole thing, thou I did try out Arma II this morning... And man... Phyaran is right! What a freaken joke! I spent 5 mins trying to swap to a pistol. And don't be in a hurry to get into a car! You'll spend a good 6 seconds staring at the door in horror before you finally manage to arrange the option system to climb in, get into the drivers side and drive off.

apperantly according to my friend it uses 2gb per hour so i cant play

I doubt that.

thats what he said. To host a server it uses 500gb per week

Sounds like the sort of game that needs 4 keyboards to play it properly.

The controls are super silly. It's a lot better if you've got someone with you who's well versed in it all, but you're definitely right.

Just walk past the Z's. One of the best tips I could give at the start of play is to simply avoid the Zombies all together. Every shot will attract more. That said, I've only been playing for a week. But I've found just avoiding them to be the best method to survival initially.

A lot of the population is new to the game though so almost everyone is hanging around the shore in the bigger cities (Cherno/Elektro) but the most fun I've had so far is heading inland. The Deer stands usually have some good weapons--MP5s and AKs.

The bigger cities on the shore are really only good for the hospitals, because once you're inland, there's nothing much in the way of medical supplies available.

I've heard the ded. servers use some sort of P2P type system that causes the massive usage.

Yeah and all servers have to connect to the backend server which holds all the character files to allow you to play persistently regardless of server. Add me on steam sligh, same name as here, and we'll get smashin' together.

Alright mate. I've been cruising around with some mates from work.

People generally get jumpy when they're outnumbered.

Very upset that they changed how you use gear in the game. Used to be mapped to your middle mouse/scroll wheel. When i jumped in today it changed to using your gear button and right clicking **** in your inventory, so when i spawned i was desperately dehydrated and starving, and while i was trying to work out how to drink some water some guy shot me. I shot him, and then while I continued to try to work out how to drink water, eat food and now bandage myself I died an awful, awful death.

The Makarov now seems even worse than it was too, which makes me losing all my stuff a much bigger bummer.

Last thing I did in my last life before being killed by a douchebag was find a super sweet AKS-74 with kobra. No ammo mind you.

How do you eat food, drink water and bandage yourself? Not taking the ****, looks like a good game but it sounds abit complicated in that you have to do at least three things to stay alive, and then you shoot at stuff.

Is this all multiplayer?

Yeah, MP. To do those things you just go to the inventory and right click on the item.

I actually quizzed them on the forums about the chance to create a single player version with AI "Bandits"... While you guys are great and all, the single worst thing about video games is bring forced to play them with other people. I deal with douche drinkers every day at work, the last thing I want is to come home and find some guy who doesn't even need anything I have is shooting me in the face during a 'survive if you can' style zombie senario.

Kids are much worse than drinkers when it comes to video games.
Drinkers cant shoot straight for a start.

Speaking of 'drinkers', be aware that if you plan to install and play Arma II for the purposes of DayZ... Which you SHOULD... You might want to turn off 'postprocessing' in the advanced video options.

As far as I can tell, someone working on the programming turned to their pals in the office and asked: "Should we make the whole game look like your character woke up 12 seconds ago from a night of popping LSD and following it up with a couple bottles of jacks before peeling back his eyeballs and pushing his face into a bucket of acid and donkey ****?" and the guy shot back a thumbs up, but added: "Make it optional".

post processing.....OFF

a mod? is it free or do you have to pay to play? hows that work?

It's a free mod, but you need Arma II and Operation Arrowhead, so, you gotta pay for those first.

you can actually use the free version of Arma 2, but you still gotta pay for Operation Arrowhead.

And if you want SP zombie survival squid there are actually a couple of mods out already for that.

Are they as awesome, with food and medical and such?

Currently holed up in Pavlovo, one house gave me an M1911 (with mags), a map *and* a compass so Pavlovo is officially my favourite town ever. Need to find water though because I don't know if I'll make it to the larger town to the north.

Make your way West, Phy. Head towards Bor(there's water there) then from there go North over the rigde. You'll have Droz and probably find a sweet weapon in the barn there, then move back east to Zel. There's a supermarket there and it's usually got some good swag.

I died trying to get out of Zel.

Well I had a run of rough deaths just then but I got back into the swing of things - found a CZ550 in a barn near Elektro, with ammo. Started making my way to Cherno to teach some guys who were broadcasting their position to everyone an important lesson about shutting the **** up - on the way ran face to face with two survivors. We all hit the deck, and then I leapt up and ran the other way - but I ran up and around and flanked up the mountain a little. Then I turned back and watched them trying to hunt me. So I shot them both, nice and easy. One of them had a 1911 on them, the other a nice shotgun, a better backpack, map, compass, watch, binoculars, blood packs, the whole lot. I left the shotgun, took the rest and went back to my mission. When i got to Cherno they both quit before I could murder them

This game sounds stupid. Killing your own team mates. Having to buy the game first before playing. Somehow fitting guns in a backpack.

Jesus this sounds intriguing. Like a game version of The Road. Is it as punishing as people make it out to be? Or as hard to learn the ropes?

buying a game before you can play oh noes!

Me and four mates met up around the back of Cherno. Looted the Hospital, and the apartments around it but those morons were taking their sweet time and so we ended up having Z's all around us.

We bolted out the back and regrouped on a road and then like something out of Saving Private Ryan we heard the whip-crack of a sniper rifle firing at us. We hit the deck, then bolted for the tree line. We couldn't see where the sniper was though, so we kept moving north.

Great fun.

It is, I think. You've got to plan and make sure you've got the necessities before you head out.

At the same time though the server infrastructure and the way the ded. servers run and stuff are really hampering it.

Best fun I've had online in quite a long time though.

I spent a whole night, crawling on my belly along a road in the dark, alone, unable to see... Finally I found a hanger or boat yard, shut the doors, took some scrap metal that might be handy later, and bunkered down for the night, cold and hungry as I couldn't find any matches to light my fire wood.

Squid, sounds like the first night I spent in the game. Except it was raining, and the zombies numbered in the thousands on the server haha.

How many people fit on a server? Are the zombies AI?

Zombies are AI, and most servers are 50 people, thou some have 40 or 30. If you're getting home in the evening and trying to find a server to play on... I wish you the best of fortune, solider.

Sligh, it pretty much was! I tried and died three times in a row just learning the ropes. I figured out the basics like: "Zombies can hear you shooting" and "No matter how much distance you put bewteen yourself and a group of corpses, they never give up!" the hard way. Then, after some trail and error, I sat down and said: "Let's do this thing!" and that's how I ended up.

Frankly, I was pretty proud of myself when I logged on this morning with a backpack full of canned beans and soda, alive and well. I even found a friend... He asked if I was headed for the city, and I said I'd be glad to tag along. We found some salvage, but he jogged a little too fast and drew some attention to himself. I climbed a ladder to escape the zombies and took pop-shots at them to clear them off him...

However, it turns out, if you run and then try and shoot, your 'heavy breathing' makes the gun sway and wobble. End result:

Nasty Wet Smear
Zombies Killed: 5
Headshots: 3
Murders: 1

... Sorry, 'Hokis', buddy. If it makes you feel better, I ate your beans and franks!

Ahhh yes, the justification that comes with some people's first murder. "Sorry dude, I was trying to shoot the zombies! And you had a bug on your back that I was trying to shoot off!"

Now that there is no bandit skin and no survivor skin system - you can simply find camo as you wander around the map - it occurs to me that a wise person will trust nobody. ****, a wise person will shoot first and worry about the diminished repercussions later. Actually, the repercussions are now 'free ****'.

I'm also a bit sad because I had embraced my bandit skin, and looking like a survivor makes preying on my fellow players a little too easy.

It's going to cause absolute chaos, especially around Cherno and Elektro. I guess their intention is to encourage in game chat, but I reckon you're probably right Joaby. All it'll do is increase shots fired and murders.

I committed my first murder the other day when I was wandering down the road on my way to Cherno. A first timer opened fire on me and a buddy. I zig-zagged to flank him and shot him while he was prone.

Cold blooded, but I pleaded self defence.

I think I've lined up an interview with the mod creator at E3, so I'm gonna ask him about it then.

You could tell he was a first timer because he shot and missed. A real killer would either hail you and then shoot you or prone, wait for you to pass and then shoot you in the back.

I was in Cherno last night and I heard the report of a revolver - it was like a siren's call to me. I found the source of the sound and it was two dudes, both getting attacked by zombies. I ran around a wall to come in behind them, and then I popped one in the back of the head. The other one turned and got a shot off before he died I bled out metres from so much free stuff.

This game sounds awesome. just imangine the trolling one could do?
What game is it and where do i get it. We should all form a team. Call ourselves the Ateam. where the A would stand for ****. Seriously we should do it. No really. Cause i don't have any online friends.
No call ourselves the GA team. Where the G A would stand for GRAND/GIAGANTIC ****.

That's actually how the whole, nasty affair started. I logged out last night in the hangger with the doors closed, tucked up tightly in the corner. When I spawned this morning before work to check for food and ammo, there he was, facing the door, waiting for some zombies to pass... I spawned with my gun pointed square at the back of his head.

I sent a general message telling him not to turn around and that I was heading out the door, and if he twitched, I wasn't going to be held accountable for the crying and bullets and blood and running... Most of which would be done by me, seeing as I'd only been playing for a few hours.

However, he warned me against going outside, saying he'd come to wait out a shambling horde. Benifit of the doubt later, and I was accidently putting bullets in the back of the skull. I had noticed that running caused me to pant and heave, but I didn't realise it made the sights shakey until this morning. Live and learn, right?

We were trolled the other day by a fellow who'd helped us out of a tight situation, saving us from a horde and helping the group out of the city. He gained our trust and then when he was bringing up the back of the group, put winchester rounds into each of us at point blank out in the open where there was no one to save us.

Then, he just said "Suckers" over his mic.

Lesson learned.

It was probably squid.

Hahaha owned.

I keep telling you, it was the heavy breathing!!

*Rustles through the loot of murdered millions*

Wuf, you need Arma II and Operation Arrowhead. Then, just goggle DayZ and there's a little video with instructions on how to install it.

This game sounds awesome. How much is Arma 2 + Operation Arrowhead?

On steam it's $29.99 usd for combined operations, or you can pay $35.99 usd and get everything

They are both $20.00 on Steam, but Joaby hinted at a "Free" version... I'm SURE he didn't mean 'stolen, torrent' version. >.>

I didn't, I meant this

http://www.arma2.com/free

and then you need to buy OA.

hows the server lag - low pings?

Yeah, there's a bunch of Aussie servers. Like 8 I think. With 50 players a pop - toooooo easy.