Arma 2: Combined Ops (ARMA 2 Base game now free!) (Zombie Mod!)

[CmdrSlack]

Yeah, based on that map, I'm likely going to be scrounging for tree stands to get any weapon at all before heading towards buildings. I didn't realize that there were quite a few near the beach.

[Mrbloodworth]

I personally avoid the major towns. Cherno and Electro ( as they are commonly called ) are the two major cities on the southern coast. They are also the most highly populated in terms of players, loot, and zombies.

I currently play with about 5-6 friends. Depending on the night. Would be fantastic to meet up up with some F13'ers,

[Mrbloodworth]

PRO TIP!

When you first log in, the second name on the right hand side is the city/area you are in!

You wont, or maybe you will, believe how long it took my group to realize this.

[Malakili]

PRO TIP!

When you first log in, the second name on the right hand side is the city/area you are in!

You wont, or maybe you will, believe how long it took my group to realize this.

Out of curiosity, does DayZ have localization?  I'd like to play it in Russian if possible given the setting.

[CmdrSlack]

PRO TIP!

When you first log in, the second name on the right hand side is the city/area you are in!

You wont, or maybe you will, believe how long it took my group to realize this.

I learned this from watching someone's newbie guide video on YouTube. I have been keeping a map open on my iPad so I can navigate (somewhat) based on my start location. It only sucks when the game dumps me in the wilderness. Now that you've linked a map with useful shit marked, I might actually find a gun before getting killed by zeds.

[NiX]

Yeah, based on that map, I'm likely going to be scrounging for tree stands to get any weapon at all before heading towards buildings. I didn't realize that there were quite a few near the beach.

Be very careful with these. People like to go prone in them to catch others off guard and some like to camp in a nearby bush waiting for someone to climb the ladder.

[Surlyboi]

PRO TIP!

When you first log in, the second name on the right hand side is the city/area you are in!

You wont, or maybe you will, believe how long it took my group to realize this.

Out of curiosity, does DayZ have localization?  I'd like to play it in Russian if possible given the setting.

The only thing that isn't in Russian is the chat and that's gone now. All the road signs, etc have always been in Russian

[Mrbloodworth]

And as a bonus, that map I linked has the Russian and English spelling of all locations. So, you can match street signs with it.

[Malakili]

One last question as I close in on buying this - if I am going to pay for ARMA 2 anyway I may as well give the actual game a go. Is it a pain to play with the DayZ mod installed, or can I switch between day Z and ARMA II without much issue?

[Kageru]

It just lets you play on the mod servers, the underlying game is still there (having accidentally logged into a proper arma-II server).

I had some thoughts (yeah, I know, mod makers must be sooo happy to get long spiels telling them what they should do) but eh, I like playing arm-chair game designer and reckon there's something missing. I'll spoiler it because it's long (and posted on the official forums here where I expect either it's too long or I get a bunch of PvP people telling me to "harden up").

[rk47]

I want a can of spray paint to paint messages on the wall.

[CmdrSlack]

It would appear that razor wire accomplishes that goal, so long as you want to say, "Fuck You."

[Muffled]

What else could I possibly want to say? 

[Kageru]

I've got enough gear to play hermit for a bit while I work things out. Cooked meat, snuck around / killed some zombies, found canteen's and water, worked out how to use the backpack and got an upgrade and at 8k blood with a decent stack of food that will heal it over time if I don't get hit to much. Had been enjoying hatcheting zombies but then one knocked me out (thankfully the same time I totaled him) which was a bit scary. Map and compass to help navigate.

While I'd like to find some more bits and pieces (mostly a tent and binoculars, plus meds would be nice) they seem pretty rare drops. So I guess my main goal now is explore / loot / learn the map and wait until I get randomly shot then start again. There's no real PvE end game other than looting and waiting for new patches to mess with. With all the PvP people focused on military base, cherno and electro because that's where the loot and action is. That said learning the map should keep me busy for a while... is big, and with no "you are here" market getting lost is surprisingly easy.

I do seem to have the shakes when I go into first person though. All my status icons look good, any ideas? I can't hear any coughing. I've also got no idea what to do with that exposure indicator... sitting in a hut sounds pretty dull.

[Yoru]

I do seem to have the shakes when I go into first person though. All my status icons look good, any ideas? I can't hear any coughing. I've also got no idea what to do with that exposure indicator... sitting in a hut sounds pretty dull.

This happens sometimes when you take damage; the only cure is to take painkillers.

[Kageru]

Thank heavens for third person then... I still only have my starter pain-killers. Will skarf them down when I play next.

... which is late at night, when the server is less populated.

[Yoru]

Thank heaves for third person then... I still only have my starter pain-killers. Will skarf them down when I play next.

... which is late at night, when the server is less populated.

You won't see the shaking in third-person, but the shaking will still fuck up your aiming pretty badly. If you have a gun, that is.

[Mrbloodworth]

1. Somewhere on the map, ideally randomized, there's a camp or repurposed building which is a survivor camp, possibly more than one. It has a couple of NPC guards who will shoot zombies or bandits within their range. This gives a small zone of weak security and makes up for players not being persistent. This camp provides shelter, a place to gather and form hunting parties, a place to camp out of the game and log back in safely but not much more. Notes giving this location (if random) could even be a loot drop.

I just wanted to address this.

ArmA 2 - Warfare, base construction

EDIT: another: http://youtu.be/2bYZrpJZS6Y?hd=1&t=16m14s

As you can see, ArmA 2 Supports "Construction" of Forward bases. Its just disabled for this mod, and I would expect it to come back in some form.

[Sky]

Because that wouldn't be a spot to camp for bean carriers.

[Malakili]

Alright, got this up and running.  So far I've died a bunch learning the controls  but enjoyable nonetheless.   It is a little on the janky side, but I like what I'm seeing overall. 

[Mrbloodworth]

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16786

As most of you will have noticed by now DayZ by Rocket which is a persistent-world Zombie RPG for Arma 2: Combined Operations has introduced many new players to the community.
Arma 2 sales on Steam are going through the roof with Arma 2: Combined Operations being the best selling game of late! That is correct, right now Arma 2: Combined Operations lists number 1 on Steam.

So, I guess it was time for the devs to support another community project and Marek Španěl has stated himself Dayz will be included into Arma 2 with the next patch, being patch 1.61!
Asked wether it could be included in Arma 3 he said thats a whole different business, Arma 3 is very different compared to Arma 2 and to be able to add DayZ into Arma 3 would need at least another year of work after release.

To read it all for yourself, Luke Plunkett from kotaku.com sat down with Marek Španěl to chat about the current events with Arma 2 and a community project.

    Quote :
    "There's no doubt that the thrilling Day Z mod currently drives Arma 2 Combined Operations sales on Steam", he says with a touch of understatement. "Sales have increased almost fivefold from how they were before Day Z's Alpha release!"

    "Bohemia Interactive has always tried to help community mod makers in many different ways and Day Z mod is no different", he says. "We're more than happy to assist DayZ in any suitable way and considering the mod's popularity we are committed to do some related work in the next Arma 2 update (1.61)."

    "We are actively communicating about how we could best support the Arma 2 user community especially in multiplayer and Day Z players are right now a significant portion of people actively playing the game, so of course it's high on our priority list to support it the best we can. It's important to understand that DayZ was released just a few weeks ago as a tech demo/proof of concept and it's still at Alpha status so until we know where the project intends to go it's hard to commit to anything specifically."

    And the future? "I personally find the combination of realistic Arma style gameplay and settings with survival zombie apocalypse so addictive that I believe it can stand as a gaming experience on its own."

    "There are many aspects involved, for example the environment and different assets in Arma 3, new engine features etc. It's important to understand that there is still a long way to go even after Arma 3 is out until mods are properly configured, ported and matured onto the new platform.
    "So realistically we may be looking at one year or more from now until we can see something like Day Z based on Arma 3 technology."


Read the complete interview on kotaku.com.
And when you have not yet tried DayZ this definatly should give you the final push to see what all the talk is about.

[Amarr HM]

I invented a mini-game yesterday, I basically spent a few hours trying to form up with some clanmates in their factory hideout in Cherno. First time I had a broken leg and crawled half across town avoiding sniper fire only to get nailed on the doorstep. Next time I made it through the door with a few scratches only to fall off one of the barrierless catwalks after popping up the top of a ladderhole, even I had to laugh at that one. So far my dead bodies have provided some good lootz for the team.

Earlier I managed to accumulate a Lee Enfield and a ton of ammo with an Alice Pack, knife, compass, watch and more assorted. But I only had 2k blood so I decided to make a break for the nearby hospital in Cherno but on the way I manage to trip on a water pipe break a leg and die from blood loss  

Luckily I spawned about a mile from my body and it was nighttime on a very quiet server so I was able to retrieve all my stuff very quickly. I then broke into the hospital and now I have an Alice pack full of bloodbags, morphine and a shitton of fire-power. If I don't make it to the hideout tonight then I'll admit the game in it's current state has me beaten.

EDIT: Won't stop me from playing though :)

[Mrbloodworth]

Yeah, the leg breaking needs to be toned down.

[Sky]

Maybe rocket had a bad experience with show folk.

[Surlyboi]

Because that wouldn't be a spot to camp for bean carriers.

Oh, holy shit, you may be wrong. More to come in the radicalthon.

[Kageru]

Because that wouldn't be a spot to camp for bean carriers.

That was mostly my thought. You effectively need some NPC presence to make up for the non-persistence of players. That and some identification for those who have chosen the PK lifestyle so the game can be somewhar self regulating. At the moment the PK's dream is hearing "Are you friendly?" as they line up their shot. And with the prevalence of scoped rifles you might not even to see it coming.

The game is ultimately very shallow as it is. The ambiance is amazing, the idea of a survival simulation is cool, but the foundation needs a lot of work.

Anyway, I was wandering around some where hopefully off the beaten track and realized someone camping a point of interest would be very difficult to spot or defend against a camper if there was one. Can you basically use the zombies as a perimeter alarm? How far do you have to be from a point not to spawn zombies yourself, and how long does it take for them to fade?

[Surlyboi]

With the right weapon, you can be over half a klick away and pop people. Zeds won't spawn to give you away if you're that far away.

[Kageru]

Yeah, I know. But there's absolutely nothing you can do about a determined sniper other than be lucky, not be spotted or hope he's a terrible shot. Which is part of the reason why sniper rifles are terrible in this game, they mean there's zero zombie threat from firing and no counter-measures. It's also part of the reason I'd never play Arma-II itself.

Also my suggestion for forward bases included watching some demo's and doing some of the tutorials and realising that a survivor base with NPC guards could use the capability already existing in Arma-II.

The mod forum pages seems to have evolved as all open-PvP games do, it's a pitched battle between "getting PK'd sucks" and the "cry more / l2p / your tears are delicious / we just represent a future without law" sides. It's a cess-pool and I can only imagine the designer gently weeping while looking at it. Minecraft had it a lot easier in that the scope was lower.

[Malakili]

[Kageru]

The joke continues after that with the idea of slowly crawling to one of the few places morphine might possibly spawn which are also almost certain to be camped by player killers.

[rk47]

...Not sure what I'm doing. Went in to a daylight server with an empty makarov, a can of beans and a pack of bandage plus ten flares...OK. Let's stay out of sight...for 3 minutes, then this zombie chased me for 5 minutes across hills and plains. How the fuck does anyone lose a zombie chase? I saw a huge power plant with the name TEC outside it...took my chance dashed in...there's a three door huge 'warehouse' of some sort with two doors blocked by barbed wire...somehow the zombie lost me on the chase..he's still outside and I'm inside. Decided to explore the 'warehouse' and climbed three stairs up. Found a remington with flash light. and 8 shells.  This is good. Except when I look out of the window there's more than 10 zombies about... 

[Mrbloodworth]

You can do it!

Use cans as a distraction, if you have any, or just book it out a back door.

[Surlyboi]

That looks like Elektro. I should be on on tonight, if you need help still, I'll head south.

[Malakili]

Do you guys frequently play on the same servers night after night, or just pick up on a random one every day?

[CmdrSlack]

I read something useful on the official forums today .... Loading up a SP game with the Chenarus map to learn the lay of the land.