DayZ is a free survival horror sandbox mod for tactical military simulator, ArmA 2. Utilizing the popular map Chernarus, players have embarked on countless journeys through its hostile terrains – scavenging, slaying, surviving. It was inevitable that players would eventually want to see DayZ running on some of ArmA 2′s other popular maps, and so some players set out to achieve just that. Several maps now support DayZ and are running on private servers.
Relevant article: DayZ Alpha First Impressions.
While not officially supported by the DayZ development team, now that the standalone has been secured – Rocket seems to be okay with these maps, and private hives in general, as long as they try to stick to the original vision. I recently sat down to try out the new maps that have begun popping up on private servers, the first map I tried was DayZ Utes - a PvP focused map. Today, I take a look at a more tropical location, DayZ Lingor Island.
This South-American inspired island, normally for ArmA II, provides a great alternative to Chernarus - while offering an experience that sticks true to the traditional experience. Offering a large 10x10 island, Lingor is just smaller than Chernarus - which is 14x10. Featuring a large amount of towns and locations of interest, Lingor Island's main perk is the high concentration of military spawns that are littered across the island.
Much like entering Chernarus for the first time, Lingor is big and confusing. It takes a while to gain your bearings and to figure out what part of the islands are worth visiting and which you should avoid. It's quite easy to get lost in the jungle, but just over most hills are well designed towns plentiful with loot spawns. There's no shortage of loot spawn types, everything is on Lingor Island - industrial, medical, military, vehicles and more.
The landscape of Lingor Island is a snipers dream, anyone lucky enough to find a ghillie suit in one of the many residential spawns will have a field day in the endless sea of green terrain. With plenty of green foliage and trees to hide in, on top of the many many hills, there are many places for a bandit to stalk prey. The environment alone, while very well crafted, offers the perfect sandbox for DayZ to thrive in the way it has with Chernarus.
One thing I noticed while playing is that the map seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Makarovs and M1911s - you can find the pistols or their ammo everywhere. The towns are filled with low-end and civilian weapons, with shotguns and lee enfields making regular appearances. For those looking for high-end gear, the military spawns located all over the map will generally offer something more powerful. The military spawns are frequent, but most just spawn with AKs, M4A1s, and other mid-level gear.
The true hotspot for Lingor Island is Calamar and Maruko, airfields located on the North East and South side of the island. These locations are generally filled with snipers and bandits, but offer a highly-concentrated amount of good loot spawns. Most areas of the map are rather quiet and it's quiet easy to hear, see, and avoid other survivors if you need to - but take extreme caution when visiting either of the airfields as there are generally always players on a populated server who are definitely not friendly.
For the base builders and hoarders there are plenty of cut-off and hidden locations perfect for stashing loot, with some more daring but convenient locations all over the island. With islands only accessible by boat or swimming, to middle-of-nowhere spots that are near impossible to see - there's plenty of places to secure your goods. For those more daring there are out-of-the-way locations on top of hills near towns that aren't as frequently visited yet have high-yield.
Overall, Lingor Island was a great map for ArmA II and still does an outstanding job with DayZ. Offering an experience extremely close to what Chernarus offers, those looking to play the DayZ they know but in a different locale will be exceptionally pleased with the job done here. To play DayZ Lingor Island, I recommend using DayZ Commander to keep the map up-to-date and to easily find servers to play on.
