Every Tuesday, DayZ Diaries recounts Andy's adventures in post-apocalyptic survival sim DayZ, where beans and friends are frequently in short supply.

Last week I decided that, if I'm ever playing DayZ alone and I run into another player, I'll kill them on sight. Harsh, yes, but the only way to make sure I don't get punched in the head by a fresh spawn with nothing to lose. So there I am, running down the coast towards Kamyshovo, when I spot a survivor up ahead. Not taking any chances, I drop to my knees and shoot him with my Mosin. The way I see it, a bambi is just a bandit who hasn't found a gun yet.

Then I hear a thud. I turn around and there's an unarmed player in a t-shirt swinging his fists at me. Either he just spawned or he snuck up on me while I was busy with the other guy. I pull out my Magnum and fire at him, but he's moving too fast. One bullet grazes him and he starts to bleed, but the other five miss completely. Never fire from the hip. "Nice shot, homie." my assailant mocks, running in circles around me. "Ooh, so close!" I try to equip my axe, but the animation freezes my character in place and a fist connects with my head while I'm vulnerable. I'm knocked unconscious and I hear my gear being looted.



Maybe I deserved that. Not just karmically, but because I was sprinting around in the open like an idiot, rather than sticking sensibly to the treeline. The biggest mistake you can make in DayZ when you have a gun is feeling invincible and letting your guard down. So I spawn back at the beach once again - this time near Berezino - and start looting. After a careful hour of sneaking from house to house I have a backpack, an axe, and a nice haul of food and drink. I decide to head north to the wrecked cargo ship, then to the town of Svetlojarsk.

I'm on the outskirts of Berezino, near the lumber mill, when I hear the ping of a ricocheting bullet. Someone's shooting at me, but I don't know where from. I take a hit and start bleeding, but I manage to escape into a row of backyards before they can finish me off. Through an alley I see the gunman and his buddy on the main road. They're decked out in military gear and fully armed. "I think I got him." one of them says over voice chat. "Yeah, you did," I respond, knowing I'm safely hidden behind a wall. "But you're a terrible shot. Asshole."



Realising that I'm foolishly mocking a man who's carrying a big gun, I make a run for it. After a few minutes of nervously checking behind me I'm certain they haven't given chase. I can see the cargo ship in the distance perched on the edge of the eastern shore, so I keep pushing on. Then I spot another player on the road directly in front of me carrying a shotgun. I consider running away, but decide that it's probably smarter to let them know I'm not a threat. I approach, expecting a face full of buckshot. Instead, I get a cheery hello.

"Do you need any assistance?" the stranger asks. It's finally happened: I've met the only friendly armed player in DayZ. "No, I'm fine," I say, giving a wave. "Thanks!" We silently part ways and he continues towards Berezino. "Wait!" I call to him. "There are two guys up ahead with guns. They shot at me, but I survived. Be careful." "Oh, thanks. You too." Did I just save his life? It's entirely possible, and now I'm having a crisis of conscience. If I had a Mosin I would have shot him the instant I saw him in the distance. I would have murdered the nicest man in Chernarus in cold blood. I feel like the bad guy in the movie who has a moral awakening and turns good. I swear, from this day forth, I will never shoot on sight again.

Andy is documenting his every death in DayZ on dayzdeathdiary.tumblr.com, and recently devoted the latest entry in his Other Places video series to Chernarus. Here it is, rendered in the slightly plushier Arma 3 engine.

The experimental beta branch of DayZ is enjoying a new raft of features and fixes, a continuation of Bohemia's battle to wrestle DayZ from wonky-as-balls-but-still-great to just 'great'. The team are patching on two fronts, adding long-planned features and coming up with adaptive fixes to alter the way alpha players are currently exploiting the game. It means that as well as machetes and better sawed-off shotguns, there will soon be time penalties for swapping servers too quickly.

That ought to deter players who hop onto an empty server to raid the loot-heavy airfield, and then hop back to a populated server to use their gear on hapless bambis. That sort of thing makes our resident DayZ fan, Andy, very angry indeed. He may take solace from the fact we'll soon be able to paint our crash helmets different colours, point, and clap, though the full hokey-cokey emote is sadly yet to materialise. Full notes below.

For more on DayZ check out Andy's weekly adventures. As mentioned in the notes below, the final version of the patch is planned for release as early as Wednesday next week.

DAYZ PENDING UPDATE CHANGELOG
Branch: Experimental
ETA to Stable: 5-7 February 2014
Version: 0.33.114782

Known Issues:
- Spawns: Loot is not spawning in military tents
- Spawns: Some structures in Svetlo currently do not spawn loot
- Server: Servers under load can delay actions from the client
- Only 4 dynamic light sources will be rendered at one time currently

What are experimental/stable branches?
In your steam application settings, you can choose a "beta branch". This allows you to opt in to our experimental branch to try it out.

Does my saved character get affected in experimental branch?
No. It runs on a different database, so any changes will not affect your character on stable branch.

I can't find a slot while on experimental branch!
Only a small number of servers run this branch. You will need to change your game back to the stable branch and play on a normal server

Can I join a stable branch server wil experimental branch client?
No, you would need to change your client back to stable.

When will this be in stable?
We expect stable to be updated before the end of that week (by 7 February 2014).

Why has <insert any bug> not been fixed yet when there is new content coming in?
While priorities are very important when assigning work, there is a limit to how many people can work on a complex task without making it even more complex. Also, many of the team are focused purely on content/design so while the important stuff is being fixed, they continue to provide content and design updates.

Is mouse acceleration being fixed?
It is not fixed in this update, but we plan to make control changes. It is not as simple as turning it "off" as the speed your character turns is not dictated by the mouse itself, but your movements combined with the type of weapon you have, how tired you are, etc.

New:
- Actions: chambering SKS round from pile, loading 10 rounds from pile
- Actions: You can uncuff other players with the hacksaw
- Actions: Cannot use an item (e.g. drink/eat) if it is "Ruined"
- Actions: Interactions with items reworked. Drinking/Eating/etc... more robust and user-friendly
- Actions: Restrained players cannot use inventory or action menu
- Animations: Player now can take and hide rifle in crouched run
- Animations: SKS reload animations
- Crafting: FNX45 pistol can be chambered with single round
- Crafting: Opening cans with combat knife added
- Crafting: Opening cans with machete added
- Crafting: Painting Motorbike Helmets to Black and Green
- Effects: Magnum revolver ejecting shells when reloading
- Effects: Magnum revolver sounds - gunshots, reloading
- Effects: Mosin ejecting shells when cycling
- Effects: New Mosin sounds - gunshots, cycling, reloading
- Gear: Improvised courier backpack added
- Gear: Machete added
- Gestures: Clapping Gesture added, default F5 key
- Gestures: Pointing Gesture added, default F6 key
- Login: Player queuing system introduced. Penalty waiting time added for switching server or disconnecting a server quickly.
- Server: Player spawns now cached by engine directly, increasing performance
- Spawns: Added Bubble goose jackets into the loot spawns
- Spawns: Added SKS rifle, speedloader, ammunition piles and boxes and SKS bayonet into the loot spawns
- Systems: Hunger and Thirst slightly modified.
- Systems: Notifications added to UI for hydration and high energy
- Zombies: Different types of Military zombies now have tougher attack values and improved durability
- Zombies: Engine dynamic obstacle checking (zombie, another player)
- Zombies: Svetlojarsk zombie spawns added

Fixed:
- Action: morphine injection can be used on other player effectively fixing his broken legs and item correctly positioned in hands
- Actions: Keys won't disappear after uncuffing
- Actions: loading ammo works for sprayed Mosin variants
- Actions: Read/Writing notes with paper and pen now works again
- Actions: reviving with epinephrine or defibrillator works also if player blood is below 500 units of blood
- Animations: fixed an issue where reload in prone would leave some residue sound clutter at the end of the reload animation
- Animations: Weapon reloading for magazine was not working properly when no magazine fitted
- Animations: Rifle Aimed Walk Updated, diagonal animations fixed
- Animations: sidesteping through doorway with rifle while crouching should not cause the player to get stuck now
- Config: Berries have more nutrition now
- Crafting : You can no longer saw off sawed off shotgun
- Crafting: Can spraypaint M4 to green or black
- Crafting: Damage is now transferred when items are painted
- Crafting: Improved Backpack creation only possible when Courier Bag is empty (previously items accidentally deleted)
- Crafting: Weapon cleaning kit can't be used when it's "Ruined" and won't reduce condition of a gun
- Effects: Dazed effect plays again when a player is hit/damaged/shot
- Effects: Some effects were not active locally when a player was restrained
- Fixed: Missing texture error dz\weapons\data\weapons_damage_metal_smdi.paa
- Fixed: Popping up texture error for beret models
- Gear: Spraycans won't deplete after relogging
- Gear: Book, radio, pot, pan, gas canisters, matchbox, paper, firewood and stone can be placed in hands
- Gear: Headlamp beam raised slightly
- Gear: Painted items now retain their previous quantities (i.e. Magazine ammo won't reset)
- Gear: Various item descriptions and notifications fixed for grammar, typos, more detail
- Gear: ZSh-3 Pilot helmet fixed and updated
- Gestures: Taunt defaults correctly to F4 key
- Graphics: "god rays" could cause overloaded post-processing and graphical corruption
- Graphics: fix of removing shining object from hand (switch off)
- Graphics: Roads have per pixel lights
- Graphics: Dynamic lights should be now defined with "radius" value which is maximum radius of light in meters
- Loot: Splint position in hand was wrong now corrected
- Spawns: Drastically lowered chance of backpacks spawning on the construction site
- Spawns: Loot spawn tweaks in some civilian structures
- Weapons: Mosin recoil increased
- Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun can be loaded with ammo (was broken due to changed inheritance)
- Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun: reduced size in inventory, reduced spread
- Zombies: Better filter/check of attack hits directly in engine
- Zombies: Military zombies made tougher

Hotfixed:
- Engine: Irregular crash of server in corpse garbage collector consequence of this is that the bodies will not disappear if other player is in vicinity

Every Tuesday, DayZ Diaries recounts Andy's adventures in post-apocalyptic survival sim DayZ, where beans and friends are frequently in short supply.

In last week's diary I spoke with some relish about my first foray into the thrilling world of cold-hearted banditry. But then the update happened and my character was reset. So here I am, back on the beach in a t-shirt, thirsty, unarmed, and helpless. But I don't mind, because some of the best stories in DayZ emerge when you're at the bottom of the food chain.

I'm in Berezino. The town has already been emptied and all I manage to scavenge is an axe, a backpack, and a few cans of beans. As I'm looting the supermarket, I run into another player. He's a fresh spawn too and sounds friendly enough over voice chat. "Do you want to go to the north-east airfield and get some better loot?" he asks. I agree, and we head inland.

We make small talk on the way, exchanging names. I don't have a compass, but it feels like we're going in the right direction. We poke our heads in a few buildings along the way, but they've been picked clean too. The server is full, so I'm not surprised. We hike for about five minutes until we hit a dirt road, when a figure suddenly emerges from a bush.



"Put your hands up." I comply. I don't have much choice with an M4 pointed at my head. The bandit handcuffs me and orders me to drop to my knees. I'm wondering why he isn't bothering with my new friend, who's been lying prone this whole time. Then I realise what's happening. They're working together. "That'll teach you to trust people!" the betrayer laughs, stealing my axe and backpack. I'm angry, but also impressed. I'm angpressed.

They uncuff me, but rather than suffer the indignity of trekking back to Berezino in my underpants, I ask them to kill me. My former friend refuses, saying they're 'nice bandits', but his friend approaches, silently loads his pistol, and pulls the trigger. Now I understand why so many people kill on sight in DayZ, even when confronted by a seemingly harmless bambi. There are more back-stabbing bastards in Chernarus than Westeros and Deadwood combined.

My pride is hurt, and I'm more paranoid than ever, but I'm still not willing to kill on sight. Interacting with other survivors is half the fun of DayZ for me. I start a new character, and after a successful raid on the north-west airfield with a friend, I'm geared up again. I have a Mosin, a long range scope, a case of ammo, and one of those neat-looking military berets added in the update. My friend logs off, so I go for a wander along the south coast.



As I'm running along the highway connecting Solnichny and Kamyshovo, I end up with three fresh spawns tailing me. They ask to tag along and I agree, not for a second considering them a threat. I have a gun after all. We run into a zombie and I take it down with my axe, but it gets a hit in before it falls. "Dude, you've been hit!" says one of the bambis. "You better bandage up!" Foolishly, I do, and as I'm locked in the animation, he starts punching me in the head.

I pull out my axe. "Sorry! I just wanted your loot!" I swing at him, but he's running in circles, still punching. Then another bambi joins in. In the confusion I kill all three of them, including the one who wasn't attacking me. "Nice try, idiot." I curse over voice chat. I'm still bleeding, and the colour is draining from my screen. I bandage up and continue heading west, this time with my rifle loaded and primed. As Roger Daltrey once sang, I won't get fooled again.

This is the turning point for me. After 75 hours of Dayz - of near-constant treachery, deception, and duplicitous dickery - I've decided that enough is enough. From now on, when I'm playing solo, I'm killing anyone I see. Even if you're a bambi in a t-shirt, you're going down without hesitation. Chernarus has ruined me. I'm Christopher Walken at the end of The Deer Hunter: a dazed, dead-eyed shadow of my former self, numbed by the horrors I've seen.

Andy is keeping track of his every bitter demise in DayZ, you can follow those at DayZdeathdiary.tumblr.com.