Yeah, it does feel like itās a crazy jump from stone to iron, doesnāt it? Like⦠Where did the bronze age go? x)
I wouldnāt mind running around with a bronze gladius.
Dude, the Forest is awesome. DayZ even more so. I played DayZ 1.0 and half the content is missing, but even so the map is incredibly huge and beautiful. Spent 2 days trying to get a car, and once I did, it was quite a road-trip all over the map to get the rest of the cars spare parts settled lol.
Couldnāt find a jerry can, so I used my canteens to fill the car up with water and gasoline⦠just enough to get it to the closest oil station.
Felt like Mad-Max but in a beautiful european landscape.
Placed a large tent kit and spare supplies into the car, in search for the next military base to set up camp at. On a mission to find a power generator after I found a car battery charger kit 
DayZ has sooooo so so so many nuances. Itās like a RL simulator.
When you open a can of food with a knife, you spill 30% of the contents and damage the knifeā¦
But if you find a can opener, OMG. Never has a can opener felt so valuable before.
That being said, I host my own server on the PC, then play on that (singleplayer) because I want to build a base and maintain a car without worry of any of that getting destroyed.
When driving a car you need to do manual transmission (i.e. swtich to lower gear before a hard turn),and a car crash can be fatal, so it feels so immersive. So⦠diegetic! Cuz you have to open the cars hub to swap parts, repair, and maintain (i.e. filling water into the radiator now and then)
Swap tires and doors, parts with newer ones found on wrecks etc⦠I think DayZ reallly picks up when u got a car⦠itās a better road-trip simulator than a zombie survival simulator TBH xD
And you donāt have an in-game map. You will get lost without a compass in-game and a map on the second PC monitor.
p.s. I also highly recommend āThe Long Darkā - Canadian wilderness survival in winter.
That game is so nuanced, you can tell from which direction a blizzard is coming by the direction the crows are flying in great haste. If caught in a blizzard, you wonāt see jack⦠only the footprints you leave in the snow, slowly fading away, are your life-line to safety.
p.s.s. The Long Dark is on sale right now on steam 66% off x)
tries to hide a gaze from the moderators*
Do try Conan Unconquered though. Itās great fun too!
smiles gingerly *