DayZ

[Luinbariel]

So, been playing the DayZ mod a lot lately, and it turns out it's super fucking awesome, especially with friends.

Who wants to play?

[FlyingMongoose]

I unfortunately got burnt out on it

[Goffin]

I have it and it was riddled with bugs.  I'm sure there has been significant changes since I last played but haven't played it in months.    Last I saw,  they were going to implement bikes , cars  transport

[FlyingMongoose]

They've had vehicles for some time now.  A lot of stuff has been fixed and "my first night in day z" stories are pretty cool. My personal one includes a helicopter crash and a Benny hill like situation.

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[Luinbariel]

Vehicles definitely work,  just don't park too close to a wall and then get out of the car. 

[Elder]

the typical dayZ experience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foNIQ0UlZsw#ws

[Luinbariel]

Wow.

I'd still play though that's actually pretty funny

[Evil Cheese]

Bumpin' cause some of us have been discussing giving the Day Z mod a try as a group in GroupMe and the Arma II complete pack is on sale on Steam right now for $7.99 USD.

[FlyingMongoose]

Running a DayZ Server is kind of a bitch. I got into it for a little bit a while back and had some entertaining stories... but it can definitely be fun.

[Luinbariel]

There are tons of servers out there. Just getting the game to run is a PITA

[FlyingMongoose]

Yes, that, you can jump into any server you want...

Servers are still a PITA as much as (if not more so) than the client to get set up.

But then there's also the assholes that exist in every open person versus person situation.

Here's my first night in Day Z:
The group I STARTED playing with had their own server and had already acquired significant equipment and even a helicopter.

Our "Leader" flew the helicopter in to pick us up to take us to his stronghold.

On the way and he was about to land our pilot (the leader) actually got a disconnect, we were low enough to the ground that we got EJECTED from the helicopter but it blew up and put us in a black-out situation, but SURVIVED (mostly blind by being almost dead)
He spawned back in (miraculously with absolutely no damage to him).
We were close enough for him to go to camp, get us first aid and we survived.

We stocked up on weaponry and ammunition at his stronghold (he had plenty), of course I decided to grab no silenced weaponry (stupid me) INCLUDING 50 caliber sniper rifle (again, stupid me). But we noticed there were no packs extra (plenty of camo and ghillie), and no water, so we decided to trek down to a known area to have packs and water near by (on foot).

Our "Leader" again being the most knowledgable had brought a silenced weapon and proceeded to take out the zombies (successfully) until the last one, to which I figured; "Eh, only one and I am this far out with a sniper rifle, why not?"... why not indeed... might as well have been a Bennie Hill episode with us newbies running in circles around the store we were to get our packs in until our 'Leader' took out the  zombies I had unwittingly summoned with my rather loud rifle.

So we survived that encounter, got our packs, and went back to camp.

Later we decided to go on a farther trek in order to replace the now exploded whirly-copter. The only vehicle we had that fit all of us was that van... that looked like a scooby doo van. Obviously this prompted me to make numerous scooby doo puns. Seeing as our "Leader" was driving I asked him why he wasn't wearing an ascot, this, of course was the last straw as this prompted him to stop the van with the sole purpose of shooting me in the leg, he gave me a bandage though.

We found a tail rotor and by this time it was 4:00 AM Local time (this all took place from 8:00 PM my time until 4:00 AM my time). I figured I'd go to sleep.

My first night in DayZ was my most entertaining night in DayZ.

[Luinbariel]

I kind of like there being assholes in the server to a degree. It's fun when you outsmart/outgun them and hear their unbridled rage.

I was looting a neighbourhood that had a big grocery store with another person in my group. He was off nearby and I was hitting the store by myself when we heard a vehicle pull up. So I hide in the store (my team mate had our vehicle) and waited for what I imagined would be my death.
I waited for a while, could hear them just talking outside about how they'd been following us, so I sort of crawled out the door and noticed they had their backs to me.

Thought about it a second, then booked it into their car and stole it from them while they stood there before they could react to me. I've never laughed so hard, it was fucking hilarious to see them try and shoot me down, screaming about it in local chat, etc. I got away with their goddamned car, couldn't follow us after that.

[Luinbariel]

Okay, trying this again. Also I don't know why the font changed in the middle of this, sorry

Oh, by the way, I GOT IT WORKING. 

At least, I was able to get into Vanilla servers so far (other mods are still downloading).

Last try the DayZ site was just listing an option for a vanilla server browser, and I was pissed none of the other fun servers/mods were seemingly an option or even mentioned/discussed on the main site. 

I did a little poking around and apparently some of that may be due to a recent update for ARMA that hadn't cascaded to all the mods yet, so many servers were unplayable if you'd done any updates, or something to that effect. So vanilla was basically all that a lot of people could use. Even some Vanilla servers using the old launchers would have some cool changes to game play that the other crappy new launcher wouldn't allow for. So, I thought I'd try this. 

I decided to delete all the game files for ARMA and the expansions, re-install, and try again using DayZ Launcher.

What I did (I've edited this a few times so if it's atrocious contact me, I'll fix it/help you):

• Deleted local content on Steam for ARMA II, ARMA II Operation Arrowhead, and ARMA 2: DayZ Mod
  
• Deleted their respective folders from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common
  
• Re-installed ARMA II, then launched it and played a little single-player on some random mission (I just launched some of the single player mission and didn't even let it finish the tutorial, just let it run a bit)
  
• Re-installed ARMA II: Operation arrowhead
  
• Patched Operation Arrowhead. To do that: Download the patch from here (following the instructions I pulled from here but will outline below. Please note some of the other instructions at that link are now out of date, so don't follow them).
  

1. When installing, if you are met with a "Password screen" then choose the top version on page (Not in the green field). 
   
2. Go to the Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead directory (for example C:\Program Files (x86)\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead) and right-click -> edit on .cmd file "_runA2CO_beta.cmd" (remember to back it up first just in case). Search for ":run" near the end of the file. Add ";@dayz" without quotes to "-mod=%_ARMA2PATH%;EXPANSION;ca".
   

From this point on, to launch the game, you'll double-click  _runA2CO_beta.cmd  instead of launching it from anything else. Not even gonna run the game from the launcher. We're just using it to download the files.

BUT BEFORE YOU CAN PLAY you now install the Arma II: DayZ Mod on steam. 

Now, download the launcher from the link I posted above. 

In DayZ Launcher's settings, point the "Mods/Download Path" to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead\@DayZ. The folder SHOULD already be there. If it isn't, add it, and inside of it, make another folder called "Addons". But, still only point it to the above path.

Point the ARMA II and ARMA 2 OA settings to the right paths (should be easy enough to figure out).

Using the Launcher, click Mods, find DayZ (1.8.6.1) and install it.

Click Advanced. Find DayZ (1.8.6.1) in the Available column and click Add. DO NOT LAUNCH THE GAME FROM HERE.


Once this is installed, launch the game using _runA2CO_beta.cmd (one again, found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead).  
The loading screen should look different. It SHOULD have zombies and such and be different from the stock ARMA loading screens. It will also be slow as balls. You should probably see a DayZ splash screen.

Your menu will load. Click Multiplayer. 

You won't see any servers load here; this is where the launcher can still kinda come in handy. You can directly connect to games listed in the launcher using the IP address. Just find a server that matches the mods you have installed in the launcher's server list, and try connecting to that IP (you can even copy and paste into ARMA). It again may be slow as fuck but SHOULD work.


At this point, you should be able to play vanilla servers ONLY. I am still downloading other mods and testing them, so I will update if that works. It's possible the mod launcher may be needed to run some of the other mods; sometimes launching in a specific order/with a specific set of mods is needed, which is what that Advanced section might be about going forward. Who knows. I'll let you know what I find out.

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... turns out this may be unnecessarily complicated and it might work without the launcher all together.

I don't know, this is still retarded.