Strategy: Day Four

Strategy, strategy, strategy!  Before I begin day 4 of my survivalist nightmare, I'm going to try to concoct something of a strategy that I can execute.  I think I have the basic tactics mastered: staying low and off the horizon line, crawling or playing dead near zombies, sticking to wooded areas and away from roads and paths, etc.  But the more times I'm killed, the more I realise how ill-prepared I was.

So here's a list of the basics I need to at least survive a day:

• Water canteen (or other receptacle, perhaps?)
• Canned food
• Water source
• Shelter of some kind

Now that I understand how to operate a water pump, the latter two on the list shouldn't be hard to obtain.  The canteen and food might prove trickier.  I've only ever come across each item once during my three days (about 4-5 hours total play time).  Maybe my map can help me pinpoint likely spawn points for these items.

After establishing the basics, I'll need the following:

• Hatchet (for fire wood)
• Matches (for lighting a fire)
• Hunting knife (for skinning - and maybe killing? - game)
• Ranged weapon (for hunting)

With these additional provisions, I should be able to sustain myself indefinitely, so long as I can find animals to hunt and ammo to hunt with.  Since Kamenka seems to be my spiritual home, I'm basing all of the following on the probability that that's where I'll spawn.

Kamenka has 18 residential buildings and 6 industrial.  My map actually shows more buildings than this, but doesn't list their types, so presumably these are the ones I can enter or that spawn items nearby.  My chance of finding loot at a residential building is 40%, but there's a 70% chance that look will be "generic" or "trash", and likely useless.  Industrial buildings have a 30% loot chance, with a greater chance of the loot being something useful like a hatchet or hunting knife.

Each of the buildings in Kamenka has a 30-40% chance of zombies, numbering between 0 and 2, meaning there could be a total of 48 zombies in and around the town at any time.  

In theory, there are enough buildings in Kamenka to supply at least one of my essential items, but much of the town would likely have to be searched, risking much zombie wrath.  I think it would be wiser to relocate to somewhere less populous to start with.  There will be a smaller chance of zombie attacks, but also a smaller chance of loot.  However, Kamenka has various sites within a few minutes' distance that could provide good loot, and at least one water source that isn't heavily populated.  If I have the chance, though, I should loot any clear or more remote buildings on the edges of Kamenka, just in case.

Within about a kilometre (I'm guessing that's the scale of the grid lines) of Kamenka are 3 deer hides (circled in red).  Deer hides have a 50% loot chance, and the loot is almost 50% certain to be "military", which might mean a projectile weapon of some kind but could also be ammunition, binoculars, a hunting knife, etc.  East of these is the barn I visited yesterday, with a water pump (circled blue) and apparently a bicycle.  Half a click south is another bike, should I need it (circled yellow).  North-east of the barn are another three hides, with more chances of finding a weapon.  Between the two sets of hides are two buildings, residential and industrial, which can be looted en route.  Further north-east is the town Bor, where I ended up yesterday.  By the time I reach it, there's a fair chance I'll have some kind of weapon with which to pick off the odd zombie and perhaps find some food and water.  Then I could return to Kamenka better prepared to loot the town.  Alternatively, there are further hides and remote buildings that might offer up some goodies north of Pavlovo.  

Something to bear in mind is not to get overly ambitious or greedy.  I discovered that yesterday when on a bit of a high.  I'd evaded detection for quite a while whilst running around town and before I knew it, I'd been busted big time.  The key is to get in, get something and get out.  I think I'll be content if I manage to build a fire and cook something, then survive a night.  I'm not sure how weather and temperature affects you when you're logged off, but I'll assume the worst and try to find safe shelter.  I'm also unsure as to how zombie spawning is handled: can I kill an entire town and then safely roam that town forevermore or will they start to respawn there after a time?  It's something I'll have to find out in time and be wary of in the meantime, like much else in this game.

So far I'm really enjoying finding out how everything works and how difficult it is just to stay alive in Chernarus.  I feel I've learned enough now to at least stand a chance of living for an entire session and logging off safely.  What do you think?