The latest patch fixed the server response thing, the servers now aggressively clear their own cache.
Bandits now no-longer have an individual skin, its been removed (like real life) you can't always tell who the bad guys are. Trusting anyone you don't know is a bad idea, trusting Anna maybe even worse.
Zed's do a bit more damage but there's about 10 to 20% fewer in the new patch.
On my three week anniversary of playing A few things that I'd like to add:
When spawning for the first time you WILL look in the bottom right next to the status icons and watch as some data is imparted. This is the most important thing the game will ever tell you. On the second line is the general area in which you spawn. The first line is the map (Chernarus) the last your days alive. If you miss the second line there are ways to tell roughly where you are but you better get damn used to the coast line topography to do it.
How you wish to play this game can make a huge difference to the way you want to play what aim you have at the start can kind of be any, a mixture or all of these (nearly):
I Just wanna LIVE no more and no less
This is really my aim, and to do this I'd advise getting hold of three things after spawn, Matches, Wood, Hunting Knife. With these and your trusty water bottle you can survive indefinitely without going near a major town. Kill farm animals or the occasional wild boar cook the food. Filling the water at ponds, wells and water pumps will mean not needing to go to close to many towns and you can get ammo from barns. This is really a solo activity, it can be done in groups but most people are more interested in other things you know less isolated, more dangerous things.
Meat from animals:
Cow: 8
Sheep: 5
Boar: 3 (I may have sheep and boar the wrong way round but I don't think so)
Rabbit: 1*
Chicken: 1**
*Rabbits move fast and unless your desperate for blood or food (if you are you've been playing survivor wrong) then they aren't worth the ammo loss
**Chickens are about the stupidest kill in the game, they mostly spawn near chicken coops in densely populated areas, the kill gets you little meat and the attentions of the horde. DONT EVER DO IT
The ZOMBIES ate my wife I want them all DEAD
First off calm down all our wives are dead (see any women in chernarus?). If this is your aim, you'll need ammo, lots and powerful guns. Ammo is abundant for certain guns, obviously the Makarov and the Winchester are among the most prevalent. Second when you hit a town you'll wan't to get some attention, shoot a zed, now get inside. The zombie code of conduct and ethics states that when entering a building a zombie must move at its slowest speed, this gives you time to line your shots and take them out in a calm collected manor. You better expect to die a bit more doing this and get acquainted with the bandages, morphine and epipens. Bring some friends too because you guys are gonna need blood, lots. You might die more often too.
The BANDITS killed my only child and took away his toys
Damn those bandits. Let me tell you a story once upon a time, the bandits, they looked different from you or I, now they look the same. This makes hunting them and killing them harder than before, so I'll be giving up this for a while. However here's how I'd do this now: Travel as a pair or in a small group something not too noticeable. Take a position on the hills over looking the airports and wait for small
unannounced groups to start the looting, follow them out and kill them. If you get bandit kills HURRAH, welcome to the circle of bandit killers, put your feet up by the fire and regale us all with the tale. If it happens you get murders well there's no humanity anymore, but if its still being kept track of heal your friends and transfuse them some blood. A human act may make the difference at the next patch and make make you feel better.
The SURVIVORS they irritate me so much with their beans and living
So you wan't to kill. This is easy enough or should be, point and click. Sooner or later though murdering people will get harder, they'll have better weapons, some shoot on site. I've never played bandit and until now I've shot any cammo skin I've seen on site (unless its been impossible for me to do so and survive). If I was to play bandit here's how I would. I'd pair up, head to the southern end of the north west airfield and enter the barracks in the woods, people forget its there, and barracks contain the best loot. After getting tooled up head east, to Berezino NOT I repeat NOT to cherno or electro, savy players, players often with better loot more time and more experience got to berezino it has a hospital, apartments and stores as well as a small industrial complex. Now KILL. Simple.
This is all well and good but my ENGINEERING degree is going to waste
Chernarus is a small failing Russian island that looks like its been through a war. However Cars, Buses and Helicopters can be found fixed and used. Engine parts, window glass, scrap metal, wheels and other bits and pieces can be found in factories in farms out houses and other assorted places. The more of these you find the higher the likelihood of finding a vehicle is in a near by town, village or factory is. You'll need more than one, I'd recommend at least 4 people here's why. You'll need fuel, for that you need a jerry can and a pump (don't ask how the electric pumps work when the street lights don't, just fucking don't) I'd leave one guy to guard the stricken vehicle, one the pump and two to transport fuel and for protection. The two guards Idealy should have sniper rifles and take a vantage point watching the route, the guard point and access routes, kill anyone that approaches. Be warned though bandits use crashed choppers and repairable vehicles as bait, the stupid ones do anyway because only noobs run up to them without doing a full circle of the area first.
For everyone else, shooting the engine block of a working vehicle kills it.
Those TOYS where did he get those wonderful TOYS?
I've already stated that the Barracks are the place to be for things like silenced M4A1's and NVG's. But what if, like most of SpA i've played with (me too) this game scares the shit out of you and the thought of hitting the airfields with the Bandits and the Body-armoured military living dead scares the shit right out of you? WHAT then cardboard I hear you asking? Well then Look for deer stands. These bastions of the hunter were in the war that recently rocked Chernarus, used by the mitary and often have, grenades, guns, and the occasional M16 with Grenade launcher. I even saw a M107 in a deerstand once but that gun is designed to stop a tank and takes the backpack slot as well.
Recently A patch has added working temperature, a reduced temperature gives you a cold, you cough (attracting the undead) and loose some blood. You now need to keep warm, being out in the sun seems to do this (after another patch), rain and storms will lower the temperature. Matches and Wood are pretty much now ESSENTIAL to all of the above.
Some Tips:
Ladders are death, avoid them as much as possible unless you like the sound of legs breaking.
Learn by sight which building you can enter, this saves you life. Aggro a zombie in town, get inside. Low on ammo need loot? Knowing which house you can enter and spotting them fast means the difference between life and death. This
loot sheet should help with this (each building has a picture associated its a good place to start)
Binoculars, help you read road signs from a distance, white road signs tell you where you are. Get some. They can also help you plan a route through a town. Focus (right mouse button also helps with this).
Following on from that, learn as many as you can of the town names in Russian and their equivalents in English. Knowing the main ones in a circle route round the coast can help you find your way without ever slowing down. Beyond the coast these will help: Zelenogorsk, Vybor, Stary Sobor, Polana and Krasnostav (these are major towns on the map, most have a market, all are major way-points)
Map and Compass, you may not need them. I can find my way around now because I know where most of the towns are and by looking at tree lines and road intersections and comparing them to a browser map. However the in-game map is zoomable on some servers allows way points and will show your position and that of survivors and bandits within a certain radius. The compass is handy if you have no sense of direction at all and need to go somewhere not so random.
Roads, are dangerous stay of the coastal ones, stick to tree lines near roads as much as possible or off them entirely.
Powerlines they always go to somewhere and often by much less dangerous routes than the roads, electro to Berezino has a power line route that goes from (almost) the Hospital in one the the hospital in the other.
Docks, better than houses for confusing the Zed's, they wont set a foot on them. However you will have no cover and will be mightily exposed.
Here's a
map that took a lot of work (yes I contributed my map of deer stands) here's one that shows some known
water pumps/wells
If anyone in your party fires a Lee Enfield, kill them, in fact is they pick one up kill them.
Never trust me when I say "a few things"