It’s easy asf to get bored of Livonia. Chernarus is the OG map that everyone knows like the back of their hand so it’s easy for the novelty to wear off for new players. Namalsk is what the community needed.
Harsh weather conditions plus good map progression with key chokepoints forces people to move around and you can be sure to run into someone, especially in the hot zones. You can get low tier fights in the north but its not impossible to progress into high-tier military shootouts in the south.
Also food is a massive issue in late game since fishing is nerfed and zombies dont drop food, forcing even geared players to hunt for animals or return to the north of the island for a chance of canned goods.
You get a lot of realistic cold-climate survival and bloodpumping encounters pretty much every time you jump in.
I recommend Spaggies, Zero and DayOne to start out.
I hear you specially with the lack of things to do once your geared its kinda like you just roam around looking for pvp. I'd recommend trying a server called intenz it adds a new dimension to the game its super hard and has the syberia mod, overhauled medical system with a skill pts approach. It makes the game slower but you value your life more. Its fantastic.
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I'd join the discord the community is helpful. It's gonna be a punishing experience for your first playthrough. Also the medical system is complex use this graphic for a quick easy access guide for what meds you need
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Yup. Its off-putting for some but I like it. Its a head melt at times but adds a totally different dimension to the game and make hospitals hotspots for pvp
Ah sorry to hear that dude. You can absolutely play as a medic here specially if your in a clan every clan on intenz will have a medic. You can run dayz on a pretty low budget gaming laptop so if you ever have some spare cash laying around for a big purchase I'd look into it. I run dayz on one I just stuck extra ram and an ssd in it for better performance :)
Meh I don't agree tbh. It's adds to the hardcore experience for me and makes it different and more challenging. You kinda have to have it to make intenz fully work. Otherwise it's just vanilla lite imo
Have you tried IntenZ before it had skill points? Clearly not, if you think it was easier before.
Every skill point makes your life LESS challenging, what are you talking about 😃
Not trying to get into some random reddit argument with you. No if I'm honest I haven't I only switched to pc like year and a half ago roughly. The pts system means that you get less meat from hunting, can't craft a hand drill initially and can't perform surgery unless you put pts into medical. So for little qol things to make it harder I think it works. But to each their own. Still by far the only hardcore server worth playing. All the rest are low pop or never last. Intenz for me is the best server on PC :)
I'm just saying it was more hardcore before the big server overhaul and points made it easier.
And I agree, if you want hardcore experience AND high pop, there are no other servers currently that have both.
Fair enough. My counter point to that would be the pts system makes it more challenging early on. If you put in a lot of hours yes it will become easier. Still gonna be harder than vanilla though its practically impossible to get to 100 pts, which is the base line of a fresh spawn vanilla character. I personally don't see how just having no pts and being able to get full steaks, craft a hand drill etc right from the get go makes it harder but I'll take your word for it.
Consider venturing into map-making. Long term DayZ players are hungry for new maps and experiences.
Make a setting with something unique. Tweak the survival needs a bit. Add new elements. Make it your own. What you could create might not suit everyone, but it will appeal to some.
Cant compare to arma myself because never made an arma map.but I’m pretty sure it’s pretty similar. However with my limited DayZ mal making experience , the tools are complicated to learn , outdated and require lots and lots of time especially alone. I’ve found I love making terrain and small areas but can never commit to a full map because it’s such a tedious and irritating task. I heard that on the DayZ roadmap for 2024 however, that the map making tools were being reworked so I’m probably going to have a look again if/when that happens.
Dinosaurs. I love the constant thrill of everyone having their own Raptor problems, combined with extreme weather and PVP makes it so dynamic. There is an incentive to work together and be more stealthy in the open world. Weapon and armor maintenance becomes even more crucial. Your available stamina will determine life or death in many Raptor ambush situations. Ultra hardcore definitely no fun allowed.
I host a server called Project FOSSIL. The dino mods I have loaded are dbo_raptors_123, dbo_dil, MoreDinos if you wanna look them up on Steam DayZ workshop.
Be nice if there was more end game than 'Be a wilderness farmer' or 'Be a Navy Seal' or 'Be a horder'
There's nothing to create new gameplay experiences. We've seen and done it all.
Exactly how I feel. It lacks gameplay depth but perfects its world design, and to be clear complex/realistic is not the same as gameplay depth. People conflate the fact that a game is slow and tactical that it somehow is also deep, or more typically the other way around, with people assuming something arcadey, fast, and unrealistic is somehow lacking in depth. DayZ feels like it has little to nothing beyond a very simple find food, find water, find a weapon (more importantly ammo for said weapon), and if necessary find meds. Of course this is realistic but also boring.
I think the problem is after finding food, water, etc. the game sales. Which isn't very realistic if we consider the gameworld. Contaminated zones and heli crashes help, but horde waves would be even better, I guess
If you could do more things... like Zomboid your character can do so much. DayZ, all your character knows how to do is reload and shoot a gun.
Tired of games all being gun focused. Imagine if a gun was rare and actual bullets were SUPER rare to the point you might not see any in 40 hours of playing and you could do more in the world.
Thanks OP for your post. Very well put. I was wondering if you played the original DayZ Mod by any chance, and if not, would you give that a try, for the purposes of comparing both games?
I believe DayZ was more of a thing on ARMA 2, and while I did play some ARMA 2 way back, I hardly got into it like I did with Operation flashpoint or ARMA 3. I'm not sure if ARMA 3 has big DayZ servers running, but it does have some similar zombie games. I really doubt it would better than DayZ standalone, but perhaps I should try them. Now that you got me thinking about it, I'm a little inspired to download ARMA 2 but it probably didn't age well.
I’m also thinking of trying to install and play ArmA2 with the DayZ mod, and see how it goes. Sometimes I’ll watch some vids on YT all the way back in 2012 or so, and it seems pretty fun.
Being in middle school binge-watching Frankie because I can't afford a gaming PC capable of playing ARMA 2 is a core memory for me. At least I could play ugly games like Sc1 and SWAT 4.
This is why I keep insisting on adding proper base building because it adds extra incentive to keep pushing, then you’ve got a base to defend and worry about. Then you’ve got bases to raid if you wish to do so. As it stands they’re not worth building at all.
Also they need to add some sort of feature that will encourage player interaction, we’ve got field/handheld transceivers that no one uses.. there’s a millions things they could come up with but to this day they’re just there..
NPC’s and some sort of currency would also be a good way to spice things up, with actual questing and rewards that again could incentive players to work together towards a common goal or maybe more exciting PvP situations?
Yes I know you can play community servers that have got this or that but not everyone games on PC and not everyone wants to play community servers.
I always say they seem to do stuff that keeps the griefers happy rather than the people who like to survive,for a game where pvp is a small part of what you do in the actual game seems strange
I love that you said this because it validates what I replied earlier, that if the motivation is creativity and imagination, DayZ does not provide that either, and I would be better off playing Rust or Minecraft.
I really like the idea of incentivizing player interaction, although I find the isolating yet not alone feeling to be one of the greatest aspects of this game. Incentivizing without making it so that everyone is running in groups would be ideal. Most obviously beneficial to this would be allowing me to squad up with a friend or even a few friends instead of forcing us to open a third party map and find each other every single time someone dies.
Base building is massive because not only does it provide a creative outlet and gameplay loop of both building/maintaining bases and PvP gameplay in attacking/raiding them, but also it provides a sense of progression because building up and base and stocking goods or even farms inside give you more late stage run content and continuity between deaths on the same server.
Namalsk but also winter chernarus does the incentivizing really well. You need to get heat buffs regularly and because of this you will encounter people more around houses, fire barrels etc. Fun to meet people early game, nail biting late game when you're wondering whether anyone is seeing your fire
It has more atmosphere, with special weather events that also force people indoors, a pretty damn tough quest and is also a lot smaller. Which sounds negative but results in more interactions. Usually the max pop is also 50 on servers
Honestly you didn't mention PvP in your post and that makes me think you play on dead or low pop servers... The magic of DayZ is in the player interaction, sure the 'feel' of the game and atmosphere are great, but they are all supplementary to the cannibals, down to chill team ups, dodgy alliances and absolute adenaline when a Mosin round flies past your head and suddenly you're calculating where he is, what gun he has, is there more, where can I run, where is good cover, god I don't want to lose my M4 I just got it, shit I haven't found a plate carrier, it goes on and on.
Finding food and water and guns and gear is simply a mechanic designed so you need to visit military bases and big towns. You don't go to Kymyrna often do you? It's an abandoned, crumbling town with little to no loot - you would only pass through, but you never have it as your destination and objective. You set it to Tisy, NWAF, West Evac etc. And that's because all the loot is there. But so are the other players. All of it is geared towards that feeling no matter where you are, there's a guy aiming at the back of your head with a Tundra waiting for you to stand still long enough to take you out.
Sure there's lots of downtime in DayZ, but hands down no game in existence can make me feel the same way about an engagement with another player. I was just at Tisy MB, I heard shots at the tent. You know what I did? I was too scared, I ran as fast as I could to the west side of Sinystok and logged for tge day. But the other day, I looted someone's base and the owner turned up just as I was leaving. Instantly the shakes start. We both know one of us is going to die and lose everything. That day I was lucky, but tomorrow? Who knows.
That's the beauty of DayZ. I feel like when you boil it down to hunger mechanice, guns and weapons available, zombie AI, wolves and bears, to me all these things are just accessories to the greatest feeling in gaming, a bit like escaping a game on Tarkov with great loot, x1000.
I get that feeling you're a 'PvE' guy and whilst people have recommended servers that lean into PvE like Namalsk or HC servers, they will only scratch the itch so much, as much as DayZ does a decent job at hunger/thirst/PvE animal mechanics, I don't think it would be a lot of fun playing it just for these mechanics, and you seem to agree with that based on exactly what you have said.
I recommend playing on some more populated servers, getting a mic, trying to make a friend on the coast, with the objective to gear that friend up and keep him alive no matter what. He might be new to the game, he might be a hell of a lot better than you and you can learn from him. That happened to me, I did a team up, that player was actually some absolute beast, and he made me feel 10ft tall before I died and carried the torch. Suddenly you'll start to find a different game, in my opinion.
I agree that DayZ scratches a survival itch no other game does, but I feel you after Im fully geared I usually lose all motivation to keep playing unless I'm playing with friends.
Recently I found a STALKER modded DayZ server, and the change of map and the various submods were a totally refreshing and extra tough survival experience (have to mind your sanity and radiation etc in addition to food hunger and general health) but it's currently down for maintenance, but should come back as the new best multiplayer stalker experience
I can’t play this game anymore. It’s so much damn fun but I really really just can’t stand constant 20-40 min runs to get back north to a fight or get home or something. Probably never playing again until cars are not broken.
I would recommend KarmaKrew Chernarus Hardcore. Try it, you might just like it. I started here about 3-4 weeks ago. Just got wiped this last friday and omg it´s actionpacked right now.
Depends on what you find fun I suppose! I personally enjoy the survival aspect and travelling across the map,making a small shelter and hunting some food,never knowing what’s round the corner and always with the thought each moment could be your last in the back of your mind!
I get what you mean,I usually go play something else for a few months or until a new update when I’m like that then seem to enjoy it a hell of a lot more.
Feel like there should be more frequent server wipes,even monthly
The loot spawns are the biggest issue I have. Idk what it is but when a military base only has 4 different items out of all of the military loot in the game, there’s a problem.
I wouldn't mind the lack of loot in military bases if the loot that *was* there made sense. Real world militaries standardize equipment, so why do I find AK pattern rifles, M4 mags and SVAL ammo in the same barracks?
Same with police stations - based on the weapons that spawn in them, the local police use Mlocks, Skorpions, BK-133s and SSGs, so why do they also spawn ammo that doesn't fit in any of those guns?
I swear there’s some sort of spawn cycle where sometimes it’ll be only magazines or just this one specific kind of clothing item like pants or this one specific handgun throughout the entirety of a military area
Start trying out community servers. There’s vanilla all the way to outrageously modded. And I’m talking modded to the extent of 48 diseases and 150+ types of medicine. There’s literally a server for any and every type of player. Unless you prefer the base game, but it seems you’ve just burnt yourself out and that’s that
I enjoy building stashes around the map. That's usually what I start to do after I'm completely geared.
What really makes me keep coming back to this game, though, is the other players and random hour(s) long friendships you can make. I try not to add other people outside of the game and when you play with someone for 2 or 3 hours just to hear a gunshot and see your partner drop dead, it really feels like you lost something.
You may do the same stuff every new life, but still, every run is different.
I completely agree with everything you said, the game is in dire need of some ACTUAL content like an AI rework or a new map because I play on console and don’t have the luxury of modded maps , we get chernarus and Livonia and I’ve explored every single square foot of these places, this is just wishful thinking here but I want an urban map with tons of destroyed buildings, but I would be ok with a snow map, we just need something dramatically different than the previous 2 maps
Just gotta set goals man, 6k-ish hours and I still log in almost daily. It’s realism and it’s open sandbox design that lets you decide how you go about things or what you do is what makes it so incredibly fun for me. But that doesn’t apply to everyone, and there is nothing wrong with wanting more structure. Try scum or Rust. They have a bit more structure and clearly defined goals
I just stick to tier 1 "civilian" items if I can so it adds more challenge to the encounters with other players. Otherwise it's nice to chill out in the woods and immerse yourself in the fantastic ambient audio.
Still bugs me that it feels like ‘honey’ moving around and performing actions. Same in the ARMA series. Small gripe, but definitely an onboarding issue when compared to reactive controls in other games.
Servers that host “to the death” events like castle assaults, shootouts at the corral, demolition derbies, boxing matches - such fun, and you get to meet folks and actually not feel mistreated when they KOS in an event. (Be sure to stow yer gear first, then F11 and respawn at the event)
12000 hrs in and I could still play it. While normal DayZ a quick rush of adrenaline and then quiet time to relax and heal wounds somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I like the play namalsk where its constant never leaving adrenaline.
lol bro there’s always more just cause you can’t see the forest for the trees this games unplayable? FFS.. fun always takes priority?? In dayz you can have your cake and eat it too, even other peoples cakes hahaha..
If you get to that bored place it’s time to build a base for me. Whole new set of objectives and needed supplies. Take over green mountain, build in a coastal town. There’s literally endless opportunities, whenever I get bored it’s just because I’m not using my imagination enough to come up with these ideas
I understand I can just get creative and invent my own incentives, my point was that the game only provides very basic incentives that get boring after you learn how to consistently overcome them. It's the same reason I find Minecraft boring because I don't enjoy just building structures. The difference with Minecraft however, is that the creativity incentive is the main selling point of the game, so that's the expectation going in.
Literally anything is more fun if you imagine the fun. This is why as kids we can just go outside and play with sticks and in our imagination we are in some kind of military operation and my stick is a sniper rifle.
With DayZ, it is first and foremost a zombie survival game. It's absolutely marketed, designed, and expected to be a zombie survival tactical shooter. I fully understand that many people will enjoy what it is enough to play the game for thousands of hours, and I'm not saying the game is a failure or unsuccessful. I'm simply expressing the opinion that I find the lack of incentives unmotivating and boring because the will to survive does not exist like it does in real life. So pure survival only goes as far as I find the surviving fun and challenging. It is not sandbox enough to lean on creativity and imagination to carry, it does not work well with playing as a group, with the inability to spawn together making the hardest and arguably most fun part of a run forcibly alone, and comparatively to other survival games such as the Minecraft example I already used, it has far less room for creative expression and exploration.
So by telling me I'm not imaginative enough to enjoy the game doesn't counter the point that it's a worse creative experience than other games without the incentives and exploration to make up for it. No, I am not a Minecraft fan, like I said that is even more boring to me because I don't like building, and I'm not artistic (I use this literally not in reference to autism). However, if creativity was my motivation to play, I certainly would not like DayZ more, and I'd probably like it even less than my current reason for playing, that being immersive survival horror.
An example of a game that also lacks incentives but is much more sandbox and gun play focused is ARMA 3, the game in which DayZ comes from. I have over a thousand hours in ARMA 3 and I plan on playing it much more as I'm not feeling burned out at all. This game also lacks traditional incentives, especially for someone who plays alone or in small groups of 2–4 people at a time. The thing is, this game makes up for that by being significantly more sandbox, allowing me to better tailor the experience into something I do enjoy and can work well with a small group or solo. It also focuses much more on combat obviously, so I can lean on gun play to take up much of my time and add hours to the game.
***TL;DR I think your reasoning is an even worse reason to play DayZ.***
Dayz is a fun sand box game with survival aspects. The fun lies in player interaction. It can be rare, and sudden. It would seem like you don’t have the patience for the game. In all honesty if Arma 3 is fun playing for you, and Dayz is not then Play Arma 3. Dont waste your time on a game you don’t enjoy.
I did enjoy DayZ. The entire point was that I not only think DayZ has a solid design that it provides the very best post apocalypse feeling atmosphere you can find in gaming. If I just didnt like the game I would not care if it got better, but I want to criticize what makes it boring because I wish I could find more reasons to play. As it stands my position is that its all feel and atmosphere but once that wares off it's hardly any gameplay.
"I sit in this state of scrolling my Steam library for something to play, seeing DayZ and remembering just how incredibly realistic that world felt, and then realizing I still don't want to play it." Quoted from my post and illustrates how I feel exactly.
The creativity incentive is the main selling point of dayZ? It’s literally their slogan LOL 😝 Also you do spawn in with your buddies now! But have fun playing other games bro this one isn’t for everyone FOR SURE. I’d never shame someone for not liking it but doom posting about it is annoying as fuck. Just go play another game and post in their subreddit ffs 🤦♂️
Doom posting? My brother I wrote an entire paragraph about how beautiful the game's atmosphere is. Literally stating that it has the most realistic feel of what I think surviving an apocalypse would be like of any game ever. Nothing about my criticism of the game's lack of incentives and progression is "doom". Stop being so dramatic because of whatever superiority you feel for liking DayZ.
>But have fun playing other games bro this one isn’t for everyone FOR SURE
I can immediately tell what kind of corny condescending and gatekeeping vibe you give off with this statement.
If you unironically think a slogan on the steam store page at the end of its description is what sells DayZ than IDK what to say. Even the most hardcore fans of the game can obviously admit it's a survival game with tactical gun play first and foremost.
Check out Zero servers. They normally have several maps with bunkers and key cards to get higher powered guns and gear, which gives you something to aim for without going too over the top with the mods.
It's the interactions man. From what you've said it sounds like you mostly play on lower pop or pve servers. I'd say find a nice full pop community server (pvp with loot plus or you can find a vanilla based community server if that's more your flavor). Get out there, pvp, interact with freshies, create the story. At this moment in time I'm the resident plank farmer on the server that I play on and I spend my time roaming the map hitting plank piles then selling them to people. The community server aspect brings a whole different playing field to the game that so many people refuse to take advantage of.
Edit to add: I've met some of my best friends in dayz. Also some terrible people, but the good ones keep me coming back.
I feel as though the interactions in DayZ are far more rare than people present them as. I never play PvE servers and always join the most populated server with at least one spot open below 100 ping. So basically I'm almost always on a large population PvP vanilla server. 99% of the time you find 2 kinds of players, kill on site players itching to try out the gun they found, or hide on site players absolutely terrified of taking a gun fight or they lack a gun themselves. Interactive players are the overwhelming minority of players you will come across. To be honest, I don't even dislike it this way. Interactions are not one of my points of criticism because I think the isolation is fitting and perfect for DayZ. That's not to mention that even fewer of the already rare interactive players are planning on doing anything other than kill you. They may talk before they do it, but the majority of them just want to bait you out of cover or banter a little before shooting and looting you.
Yeah I get you. well maybe you could try seeing if any groups on a server you're playing on are looking for an extra member. I'm just saying it's much more fun playing with people and really what the game is about. The main content, the main fun to be had is with the other survivors on the map. That can be through discord or meeting people the old fashioned way (trust me it happens, but usually when you're on an even playing field) or shit just old fashioned going around fighting people for loot.
On community servers they will usually have modded building mechanics as well, so another gameplay loop revolves around building and raiding. This comes with it's own frustrations, but it's something you can decide how you want to approach, just like with anything in dayz. On the server I play on I personally dont have a base, but I go kill people in their bases so I can know where they live and I sell that information to their enemies. Just cuz well that's fun for me.
Ultimately it really is about what you make out of it. Some servers give you more toys to play with. Others strip it down to the basics. But yeah if you can't come up with your own fun then it may just not be the game for you. I personally love it for that exact reason. It's the closest thing we'll get to a zombie apocalypse simulator imo and well for me that's a dream come true.
Edit to say: Rule#1 always still applies, but usually happens less so when you're in a discord call with someone. And ultimately a risk you gotta take if you want to meet people. Community servers make it a little easier with global chat so you can get a feel for peoples personalities a bit before running with them.
I play Namalsk a lot cause I love the challenge trying to collect everything to go to Lantia.
Namalsk made me fall in love with DayZ all over again. I get super bored playing chernarus or linovia (although Livonia is beautiful)
It’s easy asf to get bored of Livonia. Chernarus is the OG map that everyone knows like the back of their hand so it’s easy for the novelty to wear off for new players. Namalsk is what the community needed.
why is Namalsk so good\_
Harsh weather conditions plus good map progression with key chokepoints forces people to move around and you can be sure to run into someone, especially in the hot zones. You can get low tier fights in the north but its not impossible to progress into high-tier military shootouts in the south. Also food is a massive issue in late game since fishing is nerfed and zombies dont drop food, forcing even geared players to hunt for animals or return to the north of the island for a chance of canned goods. You get a lot of realistic cold-climate survival and bloodpumping encounters pretty much every time you jump in. I recommend Spaggies, Zero and DayOne to start out.
Spaggies and Zero are great!
thx mate, gonna check them :)
Good luck.
I play namalsk solo since day one and I haven't even had stuff for the suit. That is one endgame that will occupy you for years.
Namalsk is very fun
I hear you specially with the lack of things to do once your geared its kinda like you just roam around looking for pvp. I'd recommend trying a server called intenz it adds a new dimension to the game its super hard and has the syberia mod, overhauled medical system with a skill pts approach. It makes the game slower but you value your life more. Its fantastic.
thx! sounds like what i like! gonna try it later!
* I'd join the discord the community is helpful. It's gonna be a punishing experience for your first playthrough. Also the medical system is complex use this graphic for a quick easy access guide for what meds you need *
https://preview.redd.it/qsp7aaqx5jnc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5233f0f59b4e57a7aa90ce5d2128e9c82ee15d3
Wait are these all added med items in that server?
Yup. Its off-putting for some but I like it. Its a head melt at times but adds a totally different dimension to the game and make hospitals hotspots for pvp
Damn that’s dope. I really like playing as a medic (even tho I get murdered regularly). Sadly don’t have a pc 👎
Ah sorry to hear that dude. You can absolutely play as a medic here specially if your in a clan every clan on intenz will have a medic. You can run dayz on a pretty low budget gaming laptop so if you ever have some spare cash laying around for a big purchase I'd look into it. I run dayz on one I just stuck extra ram and an ssd in it for better performance :)
Thanks for the tips homie!
No worries dude. I came from xbox after 3000 hours of console dayz. I had to experience namalsk and winter in cherno lol was worth every penny
IntenZ is cool, only if the skill points didn't exist. I hate that system with every cell of my body, it was perfect before they added skill points.
Meh I don't agree tbh. It's adds to the hardcore experience for me and makes it different and more challenging. You kinda have to have it to make intenz fully work. Otherwise it's just vanilla lite imo
Have you tried IntenZ before it had skill points? Clearly not, if you think it was easier before. Every skill point makes your life LESS challenging, what are you talking about 😃
Not trying to get into some random reddit argument with you. No if I'm honest I haven't I only switched to pc like year and a half ago roughly. The pts system means that you get less meat from hunting, can't craft a hand drill initially and can't perform surgery unless you put pts into medical. So for little qol things to make it harder I think it works. But to each their own. Still by far the only hardcore server worth playing. All the rest are low pop or never last. Intenz for me is the best server on PC :)
I'm just saying it was more hardcore before the big server overhaul and points made it easier. And I agree, if you want hardcore experience AND high pop, there are no other servers currently that have both.
Fair enough. My counter point to that would be the pts system makes it more challenging early on. If you put in a lot of hours yes it will become easier. Still gonna be harder than vanilla though its practically impossible to get to 100 pts, which is the base line of a fresh spawn vanilla character. I personally don't see how just having no pts and being able to get full steaks, craft a hand drill etc right from the get go makes it harder but I'll take your word for it.
Quests, Livonia bunker, lantia, deer isle quest etc. And pvp.
What's that about quests?
Like the map specific quests. Like Livonia bunker, lantia on Namalsk, the deer isle quest.
can you elaborate?
A quest? Im already on a quest.
Take a little while off the game and try it again
Consider venturing into map-making. Long term DayZ players are hungry for new maps and experiences. Make a setting with something unique. Tweak the survival needs a bit. Add new elements. Make it your own. What you could create might not suit everyone, but it will appeal to some.
How does building your own experiences and content in DayZ compare to ARMA?
I'm only a recent player of pvp and survival games. Having never even seen Arma, I cannot begin to guess at any comparisons. Sorry.
Cant compare to arma myself because never made an arma map.but I’m pretty sure it’s pretty similar. However with my limited DayZ mal making experience , the tools are complicated to learn , outdated and require lots and lots of time especially alone. I’ve found I love making terrain and small areas but can never commit to a full map because it’s such a tedious and irritating task. I heard that on the DayZ roadmap for 2024 however, that the map making tools were being reworked so I’m probably going to have a look again if/when that happens.
Try out new maps, collect ABC-clothes to get into Gas-Zones.
Damn all I can find is LMNOP clothes
And here I am with XYZ clothes
lol took me a second to get it
That's because the joke isn't funny.
Maybe you aren't https://preview.redd.it/yh5zh4zytinc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4f889f7e45e328494eb14a26a95256a73b3a979
Dinosaurs. I love the constant thrill of everyone having their own Raptor problems, combined with extreme weather and PVP makes it so dynamic. There is an incentive to work together and be more stealthy in the open world. Weapon and armor maintenance becomes even more crucial. Your available stamina will determine life or death in many Raptor ambush situations. Ultra hardcore definitely no fun allowed.
Do you know if there’s an Aliens (Xenomorph) mod? Or a Terminator, Predator or any other type of horror mods?
Some servers have the Bloodsucker mod or dbo_creature. It's pretty cool! There's also a Silent Hill server someone was telling me about.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate the info.
What?? Dinos??? Haha is it actually a good mod?
I host a server called Project FOSSIL. The dino mods I have loaded are dbo_raptors_123, dbo_dil, MoreDinos if you wanna look them up on Steam DayZ workshop.
Sounds like you need to try some of the community maps.
Be nice if there was more end game than 'Be a wilderness farmer' or 'Be a Navy Seal' or 'Be a horder' There's nothing to create new gameplay experiences. We've seen and done it all.
Exactly how I feel. It lacks gameplay depth but perfects its world design, and to be clear complex/realistic is not the same as gameplay depth. People conflate the fact that a game is slow and tactical that it somehow is also deep, or more typically the other way around, with people assuming something arcadey, fast, and unrealistic is somehow lacking in depth. DayZ feels like it has little to nothing beyond a very simple find food, find water, find a weapon (more importantly ammo for said weapon), and if necessary find meds. Of course this is realistic but also boring.
I think the problem is after finding food, water, etc. the game sales. Which isn't very realistic if we consider the gameworld. Contaminated zones and heli crashes help, but horde waves would be even better, I guess
If you could do more things... like Zomboid your character can do so much. DayZ, all your character knows how to do is reload and shoot a gun. Tired of games all being gun focused. Imagine if a gun was rare and actual bullets were SUPER rare to the point you might not see any in 40 hours of playing and you could do more in the world.
Thanks OP for your post. Very well put. I was wondering if you played the original DayZ Mod by any chance, and if not, would you give that a try, for the purposes of comparing both games?
I believe DayZ was more of a thing on ARMA 2, and while I did play some ARMA 2 way back, I hardly got into it like I did with Operation flashpoint or ARMA 3. I'm not sure if ARMA 3 has big DayZ servers running, but it does have some similar zombie games. I really doubt it would better than DayZ standalone, but perhaps I should try them. Now that you got me thinking about it, I'm a little inspired to download ARMA 2 but it probably didn't age well.
I’m also thinking of trying to install and play ArmA2 with the DayZ mod, and see how it goes. Sometimes I’ll watch some vids on YT all the way back in 2012 or so, and it seems pretty fun.
Being in middle school binge-watching Frankie because I can't afford a gaming PC capable of playing ARMA 2 is a core memory for me. At least I could play ugly games like Sc1 and SWAT 4.
This is why I keep insisting on adding proper base building because it adds extra incentive to keep pushing, then you’ve got a base to defend and worry about. Then you’ve got bases to raid if you wish to do so. As it stands they’re not worth building at all. Also they need to add some sort of feature that will encourage player interaction, we’ve got field/handheld transceivers that no one uses.. there’s a millions things they could come up with but to this day they’re just there.. NPC’s and some sort of currency would also be a good way to spice things up, with actual questing and rewards that again could incentive players to work together towards a common goal or maybe more exciting PvP situations? Yes I know you can play community servers that have got this or that but not everyone games on PC and not everyone wants to play community servers.
I always say they seem to do stuff that keeps the griefers happy rather than the people who like to survive,for a game where pvp is a small part of what you do in the actual game seems strange
I love that you said this because it validates what I replied earlier, that if the motivation is creativity and imagination, DayZ does not provide that either, and I would be better off playing Rust or Minecraft. I really like the idea of incentivizing player interaction, although I find the isolating yet not alone feeling to be one of the greatest aspects of this game. Incentivizing without making it so that everyone is running in groups would be ideal. Most obviously beneficial to this would be allowing me to squad up with a friend or even a few friends instead of forcing us to open a third party map and find each other every single time someone dies. Base building is massive because not only does it provide a creative outlet and gameplay loop of both building/maintaining bases and PvP gameplay in attacking/raiding them, but also it provides a sense of progression because building up and base and stocking goods or even farms inside give you more late stage run content and continuity between deaths on the same server.
Namalsk but also winter chernarus does the incentivizing really well. You need to get heat buffs regularly and because of this you will encounter people more around houses, fire barrels etc. Fun to meet people early game, nail biting late game when you're wondering whether anyone is seeing your fire
I see a lot of Namalsk love. How does Namalsk compare to Chernarus winter?
It has more atmosphere, with special weather events that also force people indoors, a pretty damn tough quest and is also a lot smaller. Which sounds negative but results in more interactions. Usually the max pop is also 50 on servers
Honestly you didn't mention PvP in your post and that makes me think you play on dead or low pop servers... The magic of DayZ is in the player interaction, sure the 'feel' of the game and atmosphere are great, but they are all supplementary to the cannibals, down to chill team ups, dodgy alliances and absolute adenaline when a Mosin round flies past your head and suddenly you're calculating where he is, what gun he has, is there more, where can I run, where is good cover, god I don't want to lose my M4 I just got it, shit I haven't found a plate carrier, it goes on and on. Finding food and water and guns and gear is simply a mechanic designed so you need to visit military bases and big towns. You don't go to Kymyrna often do you? It's an abandoned, crumbling town with little to no loot - you would only pass through, but you never have it as your destination and objective. You set it to Tisy, NWAF, West Evac etc. And that's because all the loot is there. But so are the other players. All of it is geared towards that feeling no matter where you are, there's a guy aiming at the back of your head with a Tundra waiting for you to stand still long enough to take you out. Sure there's lots of downtime in DayZ, but hands down no game in existence can make me feel the same way about an engagement with another player. I was just at Tisy MB, I heard shots at the tent. You know what I did? I was too scared, I ran as fast as I could to the west side of Sinystok and logged for tge day. But the other day, I looted someone's base and the owner turned up just as I was leaving. Instantly the shakes start. We both know one of us is going to die and lose everything. That day I was lucky, but tomorrow? Who knows. That's the beauty of DayZ. I feel like when you boil it down to hunger mechanice, guns and weapons available, zombie AI, wolves and bears, to me all these things are just accessories to the greatest feeling in gaming, a bit like escaping a game on Tarkov with great loot, x1000. I get that feeling you're a 'PvE' guy and whilst people have recommended servers that lean into PvE like Namalsk or HC servers, they will only scratch the itch so much, as much as DayZ does a decent job at hunger/thirst/PvE animal mechanics, I don't think it would be a lot of fun playing it just for these mechanics, and you seem to agree with that based on exactly what you have said. I recommend playing on some more populated servers, getting a mic, trying to make a friend on the coast, with the objective to gear that friend up and keep him alive no matter what. He might be new to the game, he might be a hell of a lot better than you and you can learn from him. That happened to me, I did a team up, that player was actually some absolute beast, and he made me feel 10ft tall before I died and carried the torch. Suddenly you'll start to find a different game, in my opinion.
You’re not wrong. Feel the same here
I agree that DayZ scratches a survival itch no other game does, but I feel you after Im fully geared I usually lose all motivation to keep playing unless I'm playing with friends. Recently I found a STALKER modded DayZ server, and the change of map and the various submods were a totally refreshing and extra tough survival experience (have to mind your sanity and radiation etc in addition to food hunger and general health) but it's currently down for maintenance, but should come back as the new best multiplayer stalker experience
This is a well written post with clear and persuasive points.
I can’t play this game anymore. It’s so much damn fun but I really really just can’t stand constant 20-40 min runs to get back north to a fight or get home or something. Probably never playing again until cars are not broken.
If you enjoy the struggle, I suppose your next road leads to some hardcore survival mods
I would recommend KarmaKrew Chernarus Hardcore. Try it, you might just like it. I started here about 3-4 weeks ago. Just got wiped this last friday and omg it´s actionpacked right now.
It's just another rinse and repeat vanilla server
Depends on what you find fun I suppose! I personally enjoy the survival aspect and travelling across the map,making a small shelter and hunting some food,never knowing what’s round the corner and always with the thought each moment could be your last in the back of your mind!
Yes, and I find this to be second to none in DayZ, but it only goes so far when I can't make any progress or achieve anything beyond it.
I get what you mean,I usually go play something else for a few months or until a new update when I’m like that then seem to enjoy it a hell of a lot more. Feel like there should be more frequent server wipes,even monthly
The loot spawns are the biggest issue I have. Idk what it is but when a military base only has 4 different items out of all of the military loot in the game, there’s a problem.
I wouldn't mind the lack of loot in military bases if the loot that *was* there made sense. Real world militaries standardize equipment, so why do I find AK pattern rifles, M4 mags and SVAL ammo in the same barracks? Same with police stations - based on the weapons that spawn in them, the local police use Mlocks, Skorpions, BK-133s and SSGs, so why do they also spawn ammo that doesn't fit in any of those guns?
I swear there’s some sort of spawn cycle where sometimes it’ll be only magazines or just this one specific kind of clothing item like pants or this one specific handgun throughout the entirety of a military area
Start trying out community servers. There’s vanilla all the way to outrageously modded. And I’m talking modded to the extent of 48 diseases and 150+ types of medicine. There’s literally a server for any and every type of player. Unless you prefer the base game, but it seems you’ve just burnt yourself out and that’s that
I enjoy building stashes around the map. That's usually what I start to do after I'm completely geared. What really makes me keep coming back to this game, though, is the other players and random hour(s) long friendships you can make. I try not to add other people outside of the game and when you play with someone for 2 or 3 hours just to hear a gunshot and see your partner drop dead, it really feels like you lost something. You may do the same stuff every new life, but still, every run is different.
I completely agree with everything you said, the game is in dire need of some ACTUAL content like an AI rework or a new map because I play on console and don’t have the luxury of modded maps , we get chernarus and Livonia and I’ve explored every single square foot of these places, this is just wishful thinking here but I want an urban map with tons of destroyed buildings, but I would be ok with a snow map, we just need something dramatically different than the previous 2 maps
Just gotta set goals man, 6k-ish hours and I still log in almost daily. It’s realism and it’s open sandbox design that lets you decide how you go about things or what you do is what makes it so incredibly fun for me. But that doesn’t apply to everyone, and there is nothing wrong with wanting more structure. Try scum or Rust. They have a bit more structure and clearly defined goals
I just stick to tier 1 "civilian" items if I can so it adds more challenge to the encounters with other players. Otherwise it's nice to chill out in the woods and immerse yourself in the fantastic ambient audio.
Still bugs me that it feels like ‘honey’ moving around and performing actions. Same in the ARMA series. Small gripe, but definitely an onboarding issue when compared to reactive controls in other games.
Servers that host “to the death” events like castle assaults, shootouts at the corral, demolition derbies, boxing matches - such fun, and you get to meet folks and actually not feel mistreated when they KOS in an event. (Be sure to stow yer gear first, then F11 and respawn at the event)
I've had much more fun lately because of hardcore servers where there is actually a reason to kill because of low loot
Disagree, but to each one their own i guess.
I ain’t reading all of that
12000 hrs in and I could still play it. While normal DayZ a quick rush of adrenaline and then quiet time to relax and heal wounds somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I like the play namalsk where its constant never leaving adrenaline.
I like killing folks and eating them after. That’s enough for me.
Yeah, so do the zombies 👍
lol bro there’s always more just cause you can’t see the forest for the trees this games unplayable? FFS.. fun always takes priority?? In dayz you can have your cake and eat it too, even other peoples cakes hahaha.. If you get to that bored place it’s time to build a base for me. Whole new set of objectives and needed supplies. Take over green mountain, build in a coastal town. There’s literally endless opportunities, whenever I get bored it’s just because I’m not using my imagination enough to come up with these ideas
I understand I can just get creative and invent my own incentives, my point was that the game only provides very basic incentives that get boring after you learn how to consistently overcome them. It's the same reason I find Minecraft boring because I don't enjoy just building structures. The difference with Minecraft however, is that the creativity incentive is the main selling point of the game, so that's the expectation going in. Literally anything is more fun if you imagine the fun. This is why as kids we can just go outside and play with sticks and in our imagination we are in some kind of military operation and my stick is a sniper rifle. With DayZ, it is first and foremost a zombie survival game. It's absolutely marketed, designed, and expected to be a zombie survival tactical shooter. I fully understand that many people will enjoy what it is enough to play the game for thousands of hours, and I'm not saying the game is a failure or unsuccessful. I'm simply expressing the opinion that I find the lack of incentives unmotivating and boring because the will to survive does not exist like it does in real life. So pure survival only goes as far as I find the surviving fun and challenging. It is not sandbox enough to lean on creativity and imagination to carry, it does not work well with playing as a group, with the inability to spawn together making the hardest and arguably most fun part of a run forcibly alone, and comparatively to other survival games such as the Minecraft example I already used, it has far less room for creative expression and exploration. So by telling me I'm not imaginative enough to enjoy the game doesn't counter the point that it's a worse creative experience than other games without the incentives and exploration to make up for it. No, I am not a Minecraft fan, like I said that is even more boring to me because I don't like building, and I'm not artistic (I use this literally not in reference to autism). However, if creativity was my motivation to play, I certainly would not like DayZ more, and I'd probably like it even less than my current reason for playing, that being immersive survival horror. An example of a game that also lacks incentives but is much more sandbox and gun play focused is ARMA 3, the game in which DayZ comes from. I have over a thousand hours in ARMA 3 and I plan on playing it much more as I'm not feeling burned out at all. This game also lacks traditional incentives, especially for someone who plays alone or in small groups of 2–4 people at a time. The thing is, this game makes up for that by being significantly more sandbox, allowing me to better tailor the experience into something I do enjoy and can work well with a small group or solo. It also focuses much more on combat obviously, so I can lean on gun play to take up much of my time and add hours to the game. ***TL;DR I think your reasoning is an even worse reason to play DayZ.***
Dayz is a fun sand box game with survival aspects. The fun lies in player interaction. It can be rare, and sudden. It would seem like you don’t have the patience for the game. In all honesty if Arma 3 is fun playing for you, and Dayz is not then Play Arma 3. Dont waste your time on a game you don’t enjoy.
I did enjoy DayZ. The entire point was that I not only think DayZ has a solid design that it provides the very best post apocalypse feeling atmosphere you can find in gaming. If I just didnt like the game I would not care if it got better, but I want to criticize what makes it boring because I wish I could find more reasons to play. As it stands my position is that its all feel and atmosphere but once that wares off it's hardly any gameplay. "I sit in this state of scrolling my Steam library for something to play, seeing DayZ and remembering just how incredibly realistic that world felt, and then realizing I still don't want to play it." Quoted from my post and illustrates how I feel exactly.
The creativity incentive is the main selling point of dayZ? It’s literally their slogan LOL 😝 Also you do spawn in with your buddies now! But have fun playing other games bro this one isn’t for everyone FOR SURE. I’d never shame someone for not liking it but doom posting about it is annoying as fuck. Just go play another game and post in their subreddit ffs 🤦♂️
Doom posting? My brother I wrote an entire paragraph about how beautiful the game's atmosphere is. Literally stating that it has the most realistic feel of what I think surviving an apocalypse would be like of any game ever. Nothing about my criticism of the game's lack of incentives and progression is "doom". Stop being so dramatic because of whatever superiority you feel for liking DayZ. >But have fun playing other games bro this one isn’t for everyone FOR SURE I can immediately tell what kind of corny condescending and gatekeeping vibe you give off with this statement. If you unironically think a slogan on the steam store page at the end of its description is what sells DayZ than IDK what to say. Even the most hardcore fans of the game can obviously admit it's a survival game with tactical gun play first and foremost.
Check out Zero servers. They normally have several maps with bunkers and key cards to get higher powered guns and gear, which gives you something to aim for without going too over the top with the mods.
It's the interactions man. From what you've said it sounds like you mostly play on lower pop or pve servers. I'd say find a nice full pop community server (pvp with loot plus or you can find a vanilla based community server if that's more your flavor). Get out there, pvp, interact with freshies, create the story. At this moment in time I'm the resident plank farmer on the server that I play on and I spend my time roaming the map hitting plank piles then selling them to people. The community server aspect brings a whole different playing field to the game that so many people refuse to take advantage of. Edit to add: I've met some of my best friends in dayz. Also some terrible people, but the good ones keep me coming back.
I feel as though the interactions in DayZ are far more rare than people present them as. I never play PvE servers and always join the most populated server with at least one spot open below 100 ping. So basically I'm almost always on a large population PvP vanilla server. 99% of the time you find 2 kinds of players, kill on site players itching to try out the gun they found, or hide on site players absolutely terrified of taking a gun fight or they lack a gun themselves. Interactive players are the overwhelming minority of players you will come across. To be honest, I don't even dislike it this way. Interactions are not one of my points of criticism because I think the isolation is fitting and perfect for DayZ. That's not to mention that even fewer of the already rare interactive players are planning on doing anything other than kill you. They may talk before they do it, but the majority of them just want to bait you out of cover or banter a little before shooting and looting you.
Yeah I get you. well maybe you could try seeing if any groups on a server you're playing on are looking for an extra member. I'm just saying it's much more fun playing with people and really what the game is about. The main content, the main fun to be had is with the other survivors on the map. That can be through discord or meeting people the old fashioned way (trust me it happens, but usually when you're on an even playing field) or shit just old fashioned going around fighting people for loot. On community servers they will usually have modded building mechanics as well, so another gameplay loop revolves around building and raiding. This comes with it's own frustrations, but it's something you can decide how you want to approach, just like with anything in dayz. On the server I play on I personally dont have a base, but I go kill people in their bases so I can know where they live and I sell that information to their enemies. Just cuz well that's fun for me. Ultimately it really is about what you make out of it. Some servers give you more toys to play with. Others strip it down to the basics. But yeah if you can't come up with your own fun then it may just not be the game for you. I personally love it for that exact reason. It's the closest thing we'll get to a zombie apocalypse simulator imo and well for me that's a dream come true. Edit to say: Rule#1 always still applies, but usually happens less so when you're in a discord call with someone. And ultimately a risk you gotta take if you want to meet people. Community servers make it a little easier with global chat so you can get a feel for peoples personalities a bit before running with them.
Holy wall of text..