r/dayz

I recently made a post on the Rust subreddit asking for recommendations because I'm looking for a very specific kind of online game. I haven't actually played Rust. One person there told me that, based on what I was describing, I should forget about Rust and try DayZ instead. So I'm here to find out whether they were right.

What I'm looking for above everything else is emergent social interaction and emergent storytelling from the very beginning of the game.

I don't want a game where I have to level for dozens or hundreds of hours before the multiplayer aspect becomes meaningful. I want to be able to start the game, encounter other players early on, and have the circumstances of the game naturally create reasons to interact with them. The social aspect needs to be part of the experience from the beginning, not something I unlock at the endgame.

I don't really want another MMO where there are hundreds of players around me but they basically feel like NPCs. I've played games like FFXIV, ESO and Throne and Liberty, and while I enjoy different things about them, I don't get what I'm looking for socially. If I can simply choose to walk up to another player and talk to them, that's not really enough. I want the gameplay itself to create situations where interacting with other players becomes meaningful.

I'm actually coming to this after getting pretty disappointed with Fallout 76. I've been playing it for about four hours now, and honestly, it feels like a single-player game with other players somewhere in the background. I can run around, loot, explore and do things for hours without having a meaningful interaction with another human being. That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

Minecraft multiplayer is probably the best example of what I mean. You can encounter another player, decide whether to trust them, trade with them, cooperate, fight them, build near them, make friends or enemies, etc. The game doesn't need to tell you to socialize. The circumstances naturally create reasons to interact.

That's what made the description of DayZ catch my attention.

From what I've read, encountering another survivor can become an event in itself. You don't know whether they're going to shoot you, run away, ask for help, cooperate with you, betray you, or end up travelling with you for a while. The game systems create the circumstances, and the players create the actual story.

That is exactly what I'm looking for.

But I have two major concerns: how often does this actually happen, and does it happen from the beginning?

I've seen people say that DayZ can involve long periods of travelling and looting without seeing anyone. I've also seen people say that playing on populated servers and going to the right areas can lead to fairly frequent encounters.

I really don't want another Fallout 76 situation where I spend hours essentially playing by myself.

I'm completely fine with the game being lonely sometimes. In fact, I imagine that the isolation probably makes encountering another human being much more exciting. What I don't want is for those encounters to be so rare that the game effectively feels like a single-player survival game.

And I especially don't want to discover that I need to become highly geared, reach some particular area, or spend dozens of hours progressing before the interesting player interactions start happening.

I want the social gameplay to be there from hour one.

So, for experienced DayZ players:

How early in a new character's life can you realistically start having meaningful interactions with other players?

How often do you realistically encounter other players during a normal session?

And more importantly, how often do those encounters actually turn into social interactions rather than simply getting shot or running past each other?

I'm particularly interested in proximity voice chat. Is it common for people to actually talk to strangers, negotiate, cooperate, travel together, etc.? Or is most of the playerbase basically KOS?

Should I be looking for particular community servers if my priority is organic interaction and emergent stories from the beginning rather than hardcore PvP?

I'm also completely new to DayZ, so I'm not expecting to survive very long at first. I'm actually quite attracted to the fact that dying and losing your stuff has consequences.

Basically, I'm trying to work out whether DayZ really provides this:

"I just started playing, encountered another human being, and now I have no idea what is going to happen."

Because that's the game I'm looking for.

If it's mostly:

"I spent an hour running around alone and then got shot by someone I never saw."

then I'm probably going to have the same problem I'm having with Fallout 76.

So, honestly, does DayZ deliver the kind of emergent, player-driven social gameplay I'm imagining, starting from the very beginning rather than at some eventual endgame, and is it frequent enough to make the game feel genuinely multiplayer?

So my play style is to pick a low pop official server and if I can get a good start (a bag, some food, a decent melee), slowly make my way south. I'm definitely more pve than pvp, I'm not great at shooters and if I actually run into someone I'm liable to spaz out and get killed easily.

I've played the game since it first came out and early on I would try and meet people etc., but my current gaming situation is that I'm fully remote at work and play dayz covertly between meetings. I can't really openly communicate with other players. Early on I was into the pvp element but currently I find it relaxing to just roam Livonia, bopping zombies on the head and collecting loot, keeping myself fed and watered and trying to avoid catastrophe. Inevitably I'll fuck something up (I didn't get the memo wolf meat makes you sick) or get sloppy and get murdered by a scary man while I'm in my boxer briefs wringing out my pants. Sometimes this results in a week long break from the game, sometimes it is a year or so. Bottom line is I love looting games and dayz is the most addictive because the looting component is so harsh and then so rewarding. I like that the game has a pvp element and that I might run into someone who puts me down. But I'm not actively seeking out pvp.

Typically when I run into other players I get completely owned. I can count a few instances where I cheesed the system and was able to leave the server and sneak up on someone, but that doesn't feel great. 99 times out of 100 I'm rounding a corner and get gunned in the face by scary dude in full gear. I generally die before I do anything too advanced.

My most recent play through in Livonia I was having a really good run, I found a damaged crossbow early which is basically a zombie cheat code. I was cruising around the big industrial but somehow military area in the lower center of the map for several days and wound up with an AUR with a mag, and I had collected a shit ton of that ammo.

I had like ten minutes to play before my wife got home with my kid and I decided to run around that area one time. I was out of ammo for my silenced handguns and I'm trying not to over use my crossbow because it's damaged and I can't find a gun cleaner to save my life. So I had my AUR in hand. I came around a corner and only realized this guy wasn't a zombie because he started shooting at me. I believe that he did what I usually do which is spaz out and start firing. I didn't catch a single bullet but I unloaded all 30 into him and his general direction. The worst part is I barely got to loot him before my wife got home and I had to log off. I couldn't get rid of my stuff and add his guns and bullets fast enough. This was exacerbated by our gunfire drawing like ten zombies to me which also caused me to use up a bunch more ammo just to get to his corpse.

I feel bad because buddy had a crazy good full kit, and based on his possessions was clearly on a mission to do something for a base he has somewhere. And I know how I feel when a pretty good load out gets killed.

In short, I play the game avoiding pvp interactions and just like roaming the world collecting and staying alive. How do you play the game?

But sorry, not sorry, you shot first bro and that's how the cookie crumbles.

Here’s a lovely encounter I had the other day, in hopes that it would inspire others…

To begin, I joined in on my main server with my friend, we’ll call Clover. We were heading inland, tired and in need of food. Our plan was to meet at the radio station and plan out our journey from there. Once we arrived, we were greeted by two others, Joe and Arco. Joe was a British man, and seemed very nice. Arco was from Spain and seemed a bit.. off, but friendly enough to invite them on our journey. We began our trek through the desert, in need of food and water. Out in the distance we saw a farm with a water tower, so we began to head in that direction. Now Arco had this way about him, saying things that made no sense but added humor to the situation. Unbeknownst to me and my friend, he was already on two strikes with Joe.. apparently he had used the N word twice. Anyway, we arrive at the tower, grab some water and recouped. Suddenly Joe started swinging on Arco! In our shock we asked what happened, and Joe replied, “He said it again! (N word) I told him to stop but this is the third time”. Arco was begging to be spared, but Joe was relentless in his swings. Joe then stopped, with Arco barely holding on by a thread, and asked what we should do. We decided on righteous judgment, and axed him to death. In our shock and very hungry mindsets, we decided to cut Arco up and eat him. He provided us with the energy and nutrients we needed to venture on, and he will always be remembered for his contribution 🙏🏻 The End

What do you think is like the hardest challenge of Dayz that really says you accomplished the challenge that is Dayz?

I don't know how to describe what I'm thinking, but I was trying to tell my friend what I think is like the hardest challenge you can accomplish in Dayz.

And I told him it's

Going to the Lantia in DayOne Namalsk servers.

This was years ago when DayOne was consistently always full of extremely skilled streamers playing on that server. So I said if you could get to Lantia and defend the areas around it for a while, to me that's like you accomplished the hardest challenge you can have in Dayz. You conquered the game.

I tell this to new players, and tell them the reaches you can get to if you just git gud, like the challenge of getting to the hardest place to get to in Dayz: Lantia.

I sorta consider Namalsk an official Dayz map because it was made by the current Creative Lead.

Anyways yeah!

What do you think is the hardest challenge to accomplish in Dayz? If excluding modded maps, its probably something about Sakhal and bunkers.

Best clothing set up in the game if you want to preserve stamina and stay warm, thank me later:

Helmet - tact helm
Face - ski mask
Eyes - tac goggles
Top- hiking jacket (green)
Pants - hunter pants (brown or autumn)
Gloves - padded gloves
Boots - hiking boots
Belt - tactical belt
Vest - ballistic vest (not optional)

So, I played the DayZ mods for Arma 2 about 14 years ago and had a really good time with both vanilla DayZ and even Epoch servers with traders and all that stuff.

I don't know why, but somehow DayZ Standalone started showing up in my YouTube feed again. And I thought, okay, let's give it a try.

I decided to start as a solo player. Since I was pretty rusty and didn't want to relearn all the mechanics while getting destroyed on a high-pop PvP Official server, I started playing on a PvE server with AI bandits. So there was still some kind of threat to deal with.

After figuring out how not to starve and slowly getting some decent gear, my next goal was to build a shelter.

While gathering all the sticks I needed, my hatchet and my knife both broke, so I had to go looking for new tools.

I ended up in a small village near Novy Lug and started searching for a new knife or axe while already carrying a pretty full inventory. At some point I picked up a tarp, which I could have used for my shelter, but I had to keep it in my hands because my inventory was basically full.

And then I ran into one of those priest-looking zombies. You know the ones – dressed all in black and noticeably taller than the regular infected.

Holy shit, those Guys are tough

I couldn't kill him with my bare fists, so I had no choice but to run.

The problem was that this fucker just kept chasing me through the woods.

I eventually tried to create some distance so I could drop the tarp and pull out my CZ550. I managed to get a shot off..

He tanked it.

At this point I was getting hit, started bleeding, and my adrenaline went through the fucking roof.

My heart was pounding so hard it genuinely felt like this was happening to me in real life.

And then I had this moment of:

Wait... this is just a fucking video game.

It's honestly insane how immersive DayZ can be.

In the end, I managed to run through the woods with my screen already going black and white, found a little wooden house, got inside and slammed the door behind me.

I made it to safety.

I was sitting in that house afterwards, waiting for my blood to regenerate, and my heart was still going crazy.

This game is crazy still

14 years later and DayZ still managed to give me that feeling again. Even just vs Z's

Hey, new player here, I have played a lot in the last 3 weeks, all on official servers, and most of the time with a friend. We usually do the spawn at the same time trick to be close to each other.

The other day after a hacker incident in an official server, we decided to go try KarmaKrew, but we realized that spawning at the same time doesn't get you close.

What's the best way to found a friend kinda quickly? Pressing F11 until you spawn near?