The Day is here! Dayz the game is now made available! The game is still technically in beta so do not expect perfection but it is already the top selling game on Steams List. Check it out below, rest assured I will be diving into this very soon. I've updated the forums link as well.
Steam Store Page
http://store.steampowered.com/app/221100/
A couple of new survival games have recently came to my attention as well. I've added Eidolon to the games list, the information can now be found below or on the survival games page. This is apparently a survival game based on post-human Western Washington. The art style looks good and appears to offer a unique mix of graphics. Created by the company Ice Water Games.
Homepage: http://www.icewatergames.com/
Forums: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=36910.15 (apparently not their own forums but thread linked from their official site.)
Small write up about the game can be found at Rock,Papper,Shotgun
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/07/eidolon-is-a-survival-game-about-mystery-beauty-and-life/
Project RedField is another survival game (MMO) recently brought to my attention. The information for the game can be found below.
Project RedField
Homepage: http://projectredfield.com/
Forums: http://projectredfield.com/forums/index.php
Thanks everyone for your support! Keep surviving out there!
Showing posts with label Dayz Stand-Alone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dayz Stand-Alone. Show all posts
Monday, December 16, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Dayz Stand alone Developer's Blog Update from Rocket September 2013
Hello and well met! I thought I would make a quick post to show off some new Dayz Standalone information. Rocket has released a developer blog recently that explains what is going on and what they are up to and some of the new features. Check it out below.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Well it's E3 time again. Dayz standalone info is already coming down the pipeline.
Haven't had a Dayz post in a while so I figured it appropriate to let everyone see some of the information that is coming from Dayz standalone. E3 seems to be pretty awesome this year. The new consoles Playstation 4 and Xbox One are causing quite a stir though honestly I'm a PC gamer so I'm kinda just sitting back with popcorn enjoying the war. I've not posted about E3 info yet but I'll make a much larger post later after E3 is over and all the good info has been collected. Anyways Check out the Dayz standalone stuff below.
Dayz Standalone New features list. Found at DayzTV
http://www.dayztv.com/standalone/dayz-standalone-e3-gameplay-reveal/
Dayz Standalone New features list. Found at DayzTV
http://www.dayztv.com/standalone/dayz-standalone-e3-gameplay-reveal/
Dayz standalone new features
- 90% of buldings are enterable
- The amount of locations for loot to spawn will be very high, but the spawn-rate will be incredibly low.
- “Commit Suicide” will be possible. Right click on a weapon in the inventory, then “commit suicide”, “are you sure?”
- The humanity system is not in the Alpha
- F7… F8 to F12 is reserved for Facial Gestures
- There will be no “Random events” (Downed helicopters, Abandoned campsites)
- More immersion : No UI
- Messages at the bottom left corner : “You are recieve,” “Your foot is sore,” “You’re bleeding” + Sounds
- Over hundred new items
- Zombies spawn at the server Start. Cleaning a town will be possible
- Random hordes confirmed
- Targeting thounsands new weapons at the Standalone complete release
- Bullet penetration & kevlar vests, kevlar helmets
- North of Chernarus is now more attractive
- Central servers will manage loot spawn rate & general economy (to prevent loot farming)
- Server “Lock-out” to prevent server hoppers
- Melee weapon is way better now
- Vehicles disabled in the early alpha release
- You can shoot & break people weapons
- High-scope, military weapons will be in there, but they’ll be very rare spawns
- Global loot spawns, so there’ll only be a certain amount of them in the whole world
- Weight system *maybe*
- Crafting system is really deep. It’s one of the key new feature
- You could add poison to a canteen bottle, and then give someone the canteen bottle
- If someone shoots you and you’re wearing a shirt, then that shirt is going to get damaged
- The more you run around, the more damaged the shoes get, and you’ll need to find new shoes
- User-created maps (Sahrani, Namalsk, Taviana) can be ported to the Standalone
Friday, April 5, 2013
fpsguru.com covers Dayz Developer Panel from Pax East.
Dayz and Rocket was also at Pax 2013 and They did an awesome developer panel showcasing all the newest and latest features of Dayz Stand-alone. The website http://www.fpsguru.com/ covered their panel and put the video up on YouTube. It's almost an hour long and gives us a lot of information and is pretty cool to see. Check it out below.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Dayz Stand alone development blog update!
A new developers blog has came out recently from Dayz. This update has me really excited for the stand alone game as more and more information is released. We also get to see some new shiny screenshots! This game is looking really good and I really enjoyed hearing information about customizing our character and being able to change out different types of clothing. It appears from the blog that this game is going to be insanely realistic when it comes to survival aspects of living with the living dead. The Link can be found below to the development blog post with the new screenshots or you may read the copy and paste version here on watchsurvival.
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/41444643504/this-is-the-first-update-when-i-have-sat-down-and
--copy and paste--
This is the first update when I have sat down and thought “where do I start?” There has been so much going on with the development this month that it is hard to fit it all in a post here. Through the month we have steadily moved from working on our architectural changes, through to preparing for our first public test. The risks and gambles we took last year, are now beginning to pay serious dividends for us.
I’ll be covering the following in this update:
One of our Lead Artists, Mario Kurty, has been working with some of the ArmA3 artists to ensure that DayZ Standalone has the best visuals possible. The result is pretty striking when combined with some of the other improvements we have made in the engine. These improvements make the world really come to life, improving the visuals overall. A comparison screenshot is included and demonstrates the effect of this.
Volumetric Cloud system
This has now been fully configured for use within DayZ, used to great effect in Bohemia’s previous product Take on Helicopters (and coming in ArmA3 also). There are several pictures of this included in the screenshots for this blog update. Running around the world taking pictures, it was hard to resist really. It adds a real sense of realism when compared with the previous result.
New Server Architecture
Our lead programmer, Ondřej Španěl, continues his work on redeveloping our server architecture. Contrary to some who say DayZ will be releasing with no anti-hack mechanisms, one of the key things we are doing with development is entirely redeveloping how the engine works. I can’t stress enough just how fundamental this change is. DayZ’s game servers will function like servers in other MMO style games, that is the server will control the behavior and the sending of updates. No longer will your machine receive all the updates allowing their analysis by various cheats.
We are exploring spawning all zombies and loot at the start of server initialization, again a huge departure from the previous mechanism. This solves many design and technical issues with the spawning and respawning of equipment, such as being able to metagame by telling whether players are in a village by seeing zombie’s have spawned.
Clothing/Inventory status
This has now been completed to a basic level, you can put on and drop various items of clothing. These items can have diseases on them, and they have durability and other attributes. We need to make some models that represent the clothes when they are on the ground (currently they look as they are when on the ground!) Once this is done, we will be releasing some video outlining what it looks like to change your clothes.
Closed Test Status
We have begun our internal closed testing (yes!) and have been working with Valve to ensure our new server browser system is working (we utilize Steam for this purpose rather than Gamespy as for ArmA2). The Server/Client architecture needs to be fully implemented before we will begin our public testing.
We have not initiated our closed test that includes external people yet (such as streamers).
Art/World updates
A huge quantity of changes are flowing into the world. New areas, a mass of new objects (such as wrecked vehicles, buses, etc…) that are all designed with DayZ in mind - such as having good areas for loot to spawn. It is really impossible to list all the changes here, from bug fixing to redesigning of buildings such as the general store, and onto entirely new buildings and areas. One of our texture artists has been going through existing work and making them look more damaged and used.
Customizing your Character
The design has now really ramped up. This is really the entire focus of our efforts for the next few months, prior to starting on vehicle customization and finally on base building at the end of the year. The obvious starting point for us is to allow players to select the gender and race of their character. Beyond this, allowing ways for your character to become your own are key for us; from getting tattoo’s to finding unique clothing items, trying to deal with your own health aliments, etc…
This is an area of very active development, we’re exploring all sorts of ways to make your character change in the world as you play. When you first create your character, the options will be simple. As you go along in the world, your character will change as a result of their interactions with the environment and the decisions you make, through items such as clothing choices.
Social aspects are extremely important to us, and we’ve taken a number of idea’s and participated in the discussions on reddit and the forums about what we can do in this area. Expect more on these area’s in the next tumblr update. We want to support the organic development and operation of groups within the game, through the development of their own symbology in game (tattoo’s, markings on the world, on weapons, etc…). We feel that these redeveloped social experiences told through the game will be a compelling part of the standalone.
Customizing your weapon
Weapon attachments are a great bi-product of our entire redesign of every aspect of the inventory system. Nothing is available to show on this yet, currently the only attachment we have fully configured in the game is the magazine. You must load the magazine with ammunition and then it is considered an attachment to the weapon. The quantity and condition of your magazines will be particularly important in the standalone. Look after them!
When is it releasing?
We don’t know. We’re going to take our time. I feel fantastic about the situation, more than ever I feel like we’re doing something really interesting with this development. Now is not the time to rush things, but we do need to ensure our pace is kept up. Our development blog and getting players in and testing as soon as possible will be key in ensuring we succeed in making this a great game.
Concluding words
At no point in development, have I been as excited as I am right now. The risks we took with the direction have paid off. The engine and approach of the game is now entirely DayZ’s own, it is striking out into it’s own territory as a project. This is very exciting for all the team.
I do need to caution though, it is a bad idea to overhype the project. We know that there are many challenges that we will face from deciding to effectively write a new engine tailored to DayZ. But we are now entirely confident, that this decision will prove to have been the best decision we could make. Now we will be able to make the game that we’ve all always wanted.
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/41444643504/this-is-the-first-update-when-i-have-sat-down-and
--copy and paste--
This is the first update when I have sat down and thought “where do I start?” There has been so much going on with the development this month that it is hard to fit it all in a post here. Through the month we have steadily moved from working on our architectural changes, through to preparing for our first public test. The risks and gambles we took last year, are now beginning to pay serious dividends for us.
I’ll be covering the following in this update:
- Lighting and material improvements
- Volumetric Cloud system
- New Server Architecture
- Clothing/Inventory status
- Closed Test Status
- Art/World updates
- Customizing your character
- Customizing your weapon
One of our Lead Artists, Mario Kurty, has been working with some of the ArmA3 artists to ensure that DayZ Standalone has the best visuals possible. The result is pretty striking when combined with some of the other improvements we have made in the engine. These improvements make the world really come to life, improving the visuals overall. A comparison screenshot is included and demonstrates the effect of this.
Volumetric Cloud system
This has now been fully configured for use within DayZ, used to great effect in Bohemia’s previous product Take on Helicopters (and coming in ArmA3 also). There are several pictures of this included in the screenshots for this blog update. Running around the world taking pictures, it was hard to resist really. It adds a real sense of realism when compared with the previous result.
New Server Architecture
Our lead programmer, Ondřej Španěl, continues his work on redeveloping our server architecture. Contrary to some who say DayZ will be releasing with no anti-hack mechanisms, one of the key things we are doing with development is entirely redeveloping how the engine works. I can’t stress enough just how fundamental this change is. DayZ’s game servers will function like servers in other MMO style games, that is the server will control the behavior and the sending of updates. No longer will your machine receive all the updates allowing their analysis by various cheats.
We are exploring spawning all zombies and loot at the start of server initialization, again a huge departure from the previous mechanism. This solves many design and technical issues with the spawning and respawning of equipment, such as being able to metagame by telling whether players are in a village by seeing zombie’s have spawned.
Clothing/Inventory status
This has now been completed to a basic level, you can put on and drop various items of clothing. These items can have diseases on them, and they have durability and other attributes. We need to make some models that represent the clothes when they are on the ground (currently they look as they are when on the ground!) Once this is done, we will be releasing some video outlining what it looks like to change your clothes.
Closed Test Status
We have begun our internal closed testing (yes!) and have been working with Valve to ensure our new server browser system is working (we utilize Steam for this purpose rather than Gamespy as for ArmA2). The Server/Client architecture needs to be fully implemented before we will begin our public testing.
We have not initiated our closed test that includes external people yet (such as streamers).
Art/World updates
A huge quantity of changes are flowing into the world. New areas, a mass of new objects (such as wrecked vehicles, buses, etc…) that are all designed with DayZ in mind - such as having good areas for loot to spawn. It is really impossible to list all the changes here, from bug fixing to redesigning of buildings such as the general store, and onto entirely new buildings and areas. One of our texture artists has been going through existing work and making them look more damaged and used.
Customizing your Character
The design has now really ramped up. This is really the entire focus of our efforts for the next few months, prior to starting on vehicle customization and finally on base building at the end of the year. The obvious starting point for us is to allow players to select the gender and race of their character. Beyond this, allowing ways for your character to become your own are key for us; from getting tattoo’s to finding unique clothing items, trying to deal with your own health aliments, etc…
This is an area of very active development, we’re exploring all sorts of ways to make your character change in the world as you play. When you first create your character, the options will be simple. As you go along in the world, your character will change as a result of their interactions with the environment and the decisions you make, through items such as clothing choices.
Social aspects are extremely important to us, and we’ve taken a number of idea’s and participated in the discussions on reddit and the forums about what we can do in this area. Expect more on these area’s in the next tumblr update. We want to support the organic development and operation of groups within the game, through the development of their own symbology in game (tattoo’s, markings on the world, on weapons, etc…). We feel that these redeveloped social experiences told through the game will be a compelling part of the standalone.
Customizing your weapon
Weapon attachments are a great bi-product of our entire redesign of every aspect of the inventory system. Nothing is available to show on this yet, currently the only attachment we have fully configured in the game is the magazine. You must load the magazine with ammunition and then it is considered an attachment to the weapon. The quantity and condition of your magazines will be particularly important in the standalone. Look after them!
When is it releasing?
We don’t know. We’re going to take our time. I feel fantastic about the situation, more than ever I feel like we’re doing something really interesting with this development. Now is not the time to rush things, but we do need to ensure our pace is kept up. Our development blog and getting players in and testing as soon as possible will be key in ensuring we succeed in making this a great game.
Concluding words
At no point in development, have I been as excited as I am right now. The risks we took with the direction have paid off. The engine and approach of the game is now entirely DayZ’s own, it is striking out into it’s own territory as a project. This is very exciting for all the team.
I do need to caution though, it is a bad idea to overhype the project. We know that there are many challenges that we will face from deciding to effectively write a new engine tailored to DayZ. But we are now entirely confident, that this decision will prove to have been the best decision we could make. Now we will be able to make the game that we’ve all always wanted.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Dayz Where is Standalone release? Rocket Updates us.
I'm on a posting spree today!! Bwahaha. I just noticed Rocket has released some more information about the goings on for Dayz Stand-alone and I thought everyone who follows watchsurvival would be interested in it. It seems they are really dedicated to make sure Dayz Stand-alone is more then just a mod for the arma 3 engine. They are going to take their time with it. The official blog post (along with some cool screenshots) can be found at the link below or you may read the copy and paste here on watchsurvival.
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/39933141266/where-is-the-standalone-release-i-suppose-i
--copy and paste---
I suppose I should start with the question everyone wants to know… where is DayZ Standalone? Obviously, it’s not here. At Eurogamer I said that DayZ had to be out before the end of the year and that’s come and gone. I still stand by that comment, to achieve what we had originally wanted, we did have to be out by the end of the year - and we’ve failed to achieve that.
Put simply, DayZ Standalone isn’t here because we had the chance to go from making a game that was just the mod improved slightly, packaged simply, and sold - to actually redeveloping the engine and making the game the way we all dreamed it could be. This blew any initial plans we had dictated to pieces.
The plan going forward
The plan from here is straightforward. We will be releasing a closed test imminently, during which approximately 500-1000 people will assist in ensuring our architecture is correctly functioning. This closed test will be focused purely on architecture, not the game design. Once we have confirmed fixes for issues arising from the closed test, we will then reschedule an internal date for our public release.
What has been done?
One of the most profound and major architectural changes has had its initial implementation completed, this is the overhaul of the inventory system. In fact, the inventory and item management system was completely removed and rewritten from the ground by Jirka, one of the original engine programmers. The work that has been completed on this groundbreaking, and it going to fundamentally change the DayZ experience.
You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.
An additional area of change has been to make the inventory system more intuitive along with a key focus on providing visceral feedback on your progress through what inventory you have. The use of drag-and-drop, 3D models rather than 2D pictures, and being able to add items/clothing to your character in 3D in the inventory screen - have all come out of months of design work and research. I’m extremely pleased with the results of Jirka and Hladas, two of the programmers who have been working on implementing the design ideas. I believe the changes to this inventory system will fundamentally change the nature of the DayZ experience.
We are not at the point where we can release meaningful videos or screenshots of the system, but we have now confirmed the base architecture is working in game. Likely, the first that will come out about the inventory system will be during the closed test when people are actually using it.
UI Changes
ArmA community legend kju has been part of the DayZ development for some time, and is now one of your key development members. He has been working with our CEO (Marek) and me to develop the DayZ UI. We have been greatly inspired by Minecraft to make the UI simple and effective, rather than flashy and complex. All our art and code efforts are going into the game, the UI is being designed to be straightforward and functional just like in Minecraft.
Art Progress
A huge amount of work is being completed on art. I’m including some more additional pictures taken from around Chernarus. We have some massive plans now that all interiors have been completed, as rather than moving them on to other projects we are now giving them exciting new things to create.
One of the new artists on the team is a texture artist, and has been working on revising the textures for our new building interiors so they look more post-apocalyptic. Some of these changes can be seen in the work-in-progress pictures I have included.
Map Progress
The lead architect of the revised (and original) Chernarus map, Ivan Buchta, is still imprisoned in Greece on charges of espionage - and is a great loss to the team. Luckily, through letters, Ivan is able to provide some input and insight into the development of the map. Regardless, the continued imprisonment of him and Martin Pezlar has a significant impact on our ability to redevelop Chernarus.
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/39933141266/where-is-the-standalone-release-i-suppose-i
--copy and paste---
I suppose I should start with the question everyone wants to know… where is DayZ Standalone? Obviously, it’s not here. At Eurogamer I said that DayZ had to be out before the end of the year and that’s come and gone. I still stand by that comment, to achieve what we had originally wanted, we did have to be out by the end of the year - and we’ve failed to achieve that.
Put simply, DayZ Standalone isn’t here because we had the chance to go from making a game that was just the mod improved slightly, packaged simply, and sold - to actually redeveloping the engine and making the game the way we all dreamed it could be. This blew any initial plans we had dictated to pieces.
The plan going forward
The plan from here is straightforward. We will be releasing a closed test imminently, during which approximately 500-1000 people will assist in ensuring our architecture is correctly functioning. This closed test will be focused purely on architecture, not the game design. Once we have confirmed fixes for issues arising from the closed test, we will then reschedule an internal date for our public release.
What has been done?
One of the most profound and major architectural changes has had its initial implementation completed, this is the overhaul of the inventory system. In fact, the inventory and item management system was completely removed and rewritten from the ground by Jirka, one of the original engine programmers. The work that has been completed on this groundbreaking, and it going to fundamentally change the DayZ experience.
You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.
An additional area of change has been to make the inventory system more intuitive along with a key focus on providing visceral feedback on your progress through what inventory you have. The use of drag-and-drop, 3D models rather than 2D pictures, and being able to add items/clothing to your character in 3D in the inventory screen - have all come out of months of design work and research. I’m extremely pleased with the results of Jirka and Hladas, two of the programmers who have been working on implementing the design ideas. I believe the changes to this inventory system will fundamentally change the nature of the DayZ experience.
We are not at the point where we can release meaningful videos or screenshots of the system, but we have now confirmed the base architecture is working in game. Likely, the first that will come out about the inventory system will be during the closed test when people are actually using it.
UI Changes
ArmA community legend kju has been part of the DayZ development for some time, and is now one of your key development members. He has been working with our CEO (Marek) and me to develop the DayZ UI. We have been greatly inspired by Minecraft to make the UI simple and effective, rather than flashy and complex. All our art and code efforts are going into the game, the UI is being designed to be straightforward and functional just like in Minecraft.
Art Progress
A huge amount of work is being completed on art. I’m including some more additional pictures taken from around Chernarus. We have some massive plans now that all interiors have been completed, as rather than moving them on to other projects we are now giving them exciting new things to create.
One of the new artists on the team is a texture artist, and has been working on revising the textures for our new building interiors so they look more post-apocalyptic. Some of these changes can be seen in the work-in-progress pictures I have included.
Map Progress
The lead architect of the revised (and original) Chernarus map, Ivan Buchta, is still imprisoned in Greece on charges of espionage - and is a great loss to the team. Luckily, through letters, Ivan is able to provide some input and insight into the development of the map. Regardless, the continued imprisonment of him and Martin Pezlar has a significant impact on our ability to redevelop Chernarus.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Dayz Stand-alone Update
Hey everyone just noticed there was some new information about Dayz posted. This info talks about how the structure of Dayz is based on MMO technology. This is great news I believe because if most information is going to be ran server side this should reduce the potential hacks dupes and exploits caused by a client side ran game. The official post can be seen here on the Dayz developer Tumblr.
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/34430567933/whatever-you-say-it-is-it-isnt
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/34430567933/whatever-you-say-it-is-it-isnt
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Dayz standalone Screenshots
Rocket has been keeping busy working on the Dayz standalone project. He has updated us with a few screenshots from interiors showing off some of the work they have been doing on Dayz. Things are looking pretty good. The textures are great and have some good detail from what I can see considering they are on medium settings apprantly. The pictures can be found at the link below on rocket's tumblr. I'm sure revamping Chernarus isn't the most easy of tasks.
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Rocket Update about Dayz Stand-alone
Hello everyone! Rocket just posted some new information about the State of Dayz the stand-alone game and gave us a little information about what's been going on about it. You can read it from the development blog here
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/31347010829/the-integration-begins
or you can read the copy and paste below
---copy and paste-----
It has been a long time since we announced the standalone project, and much has happened. In many ways, DayZ is an “accidental project”, which brings about great opportunities for it but also with some real challenges. Most of the planning has to be done as it goes, with much of the project simply reacting to things that have happened. This is not a good way to start a development project.
Much of the effort has been spent establishing the project, getting the right people setup, a new build process, art pipeline working, contracts and agreements made, legal stuff sorted - all the stuff that is necessary to enable the project to work. During this time I completed a very heavy and protracted public relations tour - I could almost make a fulltime job simply out of doing interviews.
Now for a SCRUM style update:
Art has been very, very busy. Chernarus has been revamped, with bug-fixing and a great deal more buildings have been made enter-able with a very high standard of work involved.
For design I have spent much time listening, reading through the posts on the forums and the suggestion thread on Reddit. Some outstanding ideas have been gleamed from there.
Our programmers have been reviewing the way forward on the critical issues, such as bugfixing, hacking, and security. These areas are proving straightforward areas for significant development as a standalone, and as a basis in the next few weeks we will have DayZ fully integrated, with all its required data, secured, and packaged. From here we can then test and begin the more exiting things.
Art is continuing with reviewing all the buildings, making them enter-able, and tidying up the interiors to make them look nicer. Once we have this done, they will look at making the environment much more authentic to the scenario (but first we aim for the functionality!). We are now commencing work on the redevelopment of the infected people (zombie) models themselves. This will be an exciting area of work for our artist who is dedicated to this task. Initially we will be producing male and female, I would like to look at the possibility of children infected - but there are technical (required new skeleton and baked animations), possible legal (rating issues), and even moral (shooting children) issues that need to be faced.
Beyond that, I simply need to push forward with the integration. Once that is done, I will post some content through on the tumblr so that people can see how the development is progressing.
----end copy paste-----
http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/31347010829/the-integration-begins
or you can read the copy and paste below
---copy and paste-----
The integration begins
Much of the effort has been spent establishing the project, getting the right people setup, a new build process, art pipeline working, contracts and agreements made, legal stuff sorted - all the stuff that is necessary to enable the project to work. During this time I completed a very heavy and protracted public relations tour - I could almost make a fulltime job simply out of doing interviews.
Now for a SCRUM style update:
What has happened
We have setup all the required pipelines to best push the project forward. The standalone engine we are using is a branch of Take on Helicopters, which itself is a branch of ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead. We chose this because of its stability, ease of development, very achievable optimization, and the fact that our programmers are the architects of the engine - the very people who built it from the ground up over ten years.Art has been very, very busy. Chernarus has been revamped, with bug-fixing and a great deal more buildings have been made enter-able with a very high standard of work involved.
For design I have spent much time listening, reading through the posts on the forums and the suggestion thread on Reddit. Some outstanding ideas have been gleamed from there.
What is happening now
Now the fun stuff begins, all the data from Bohemia projects is up for grabs - so I am going through and collecting the best assets from the projects and mashing the data together to get it loading into DayZ standalone. With this complete, the mod itself will be ported over and integrated. This then gives us a very solid basis for further development.Our programmers have been reviewing the way forward on the critical issues, such as bugfixing, hacking, and security. These areas are proving straightforward areas for significant development as a standalone, and as a basis in the next few weeks we will have DayZ fully integrated, with all its required data, secured, and packaged. From here we can then test and begin the more exiting things.
Art is continuing with reviewing all the buildings, making them enter-able, and tidying up the interiors to make them look nicer. Once we have this done, they will look at making the environment much more authentic to the scenario (but first we aim for the functionality!). We are now commencing work on the redevelopment of the infected people (zombie) models themselves. This will be an exciting area of work for our artist who is dedicated to this task. Initially we will be producing male and female, I would like to look at the possibility of children infected - but there are technical (required new skeleton and baked animations), possible legal (rating issues), and even moral (shooting children) issues that need to be faced.
What is blocking us
Probably the biggest stumbling block, is me (rocket). I need to stop doing interviews and focus on making the game. Really, there is very little left to say - now it is up to me and the team to deliver this. Really, in many ways, this is our project to lose. We have great support from the community, developers, and the industry as a whole - it is up to us to deliver for that promise. I think we will, but the next month is going to be really telling for our project.Beyond that, I simply need to push forward with the integration. Once that is done, I will post some content through on the tumblr so that people can see how the development is progressing.
----end copy paste-----
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Dayz (Rocket shout out to everyone to help free two friends in Greece Prison)
Just found out about this. Apparently two of rockets close friends and fellow game developers themselves have been Imprisoned in Greece. He is shouting out to fans and friends to perhaps help them get released. This link will take you to Rocket's tumblr which will give you more information. Pretty crazy stuff. I hope everything gets worked out.
http://rocketkiwi.tumblr.com/post/31744919816/my-friends-are-in-prison
http://rocketkiwi.tumblr.com/post/31744919816/my-friends-are-in-prison
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Dayz News from Gamescon
Hey guys, A lot of good information about Dayz has came out of Gamescon. Here's most the info.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/17/day-z-standalone/
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/08/15/dayz-on-consoles-could-happen
http://www.pcgames.de/Day-Z-Software-255532/News/DayZ-Gamescom-2012-Videointerview-mit-Dean-Hall-1018436/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-21-dayzs-dean-hall-rocket-man-rising
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/21/interview-the-standalone-future-of-dayz-and-what-it-means-for-players/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/22/day-z-arma-3-interview-on-left-4-dead-skyrim-player-emotion-and-in-game-disease/
Video Interview
There ya go, whew. That should keep everyone busy for a while. I'm really excited for the Stand-alone version of Dayz. Rocket is a great Developer and I think what Dayz will end up becoming will be simply awesome and very intense.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/17/day-z-standalone/
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/08/15/dayz-on-consoles-could-happen
http://www.pcgames.de/Day-Z-Software-255532/News/DayZ-Gamescom-2012-Videointerview-mit-Dean-Hall-1018436/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-21-dayzs-dean-hall-rocket-man-rising
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/21/interview-the-standalone-future-of-dayz-and-what-it-means-for-players/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/22/day-z-arma-3-interview-on-left-4-dead-skyrim-player-emotion-and-in-game-disease/
Video Interview
There ya go, whew. That should keep everyone busy for a while. I'm really excited for the Stand-alone version of Dayz. Rocket is a great Developer and I think what Dayz will end up becoming will be simply awesome and very intense.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Dayz QandA with Rocket from Reddit
Max Planck on the official Dayz Forums posted this huge Q and A from rocket from the Reddit site. Thanks Max for compiling this for everyone in the community. Some really great info inside here and I'm really looking forward to all this neat stuff Rocket is talking about for the game. Below is the Link to the original post, but I copy and pasted it over on WatchSurvival for the lazy. :D
http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/72533-the-reddit-questions-answers/
Q: Any word on a quiver sort of thing for crossbow bolts? It's a pain when each bolt takes up a whole space in your inventory/backpack.
A: Quiver is planned
Q: If you had the ability to add one thing to the game, no limits, what would it be?
A: Underground construction using red-faction style damage mechanics for clearing out the subterranean world.
Q: How do you feel about the current situation with the hackers. And have BattlEye been co-operative with you? Can we see a step forward in stopping the hackers or is the release our real safety area.
A: hacking is an ongoing issue. ArmA2 was never designed for what DayZ is putting it through. With DayZ standalone we can address this issue without causing ArmA2 problems, so it can remain the product it is. It is something we
will always have to work on, you cannot completely stop hacking.
Q: What's your favorite gun in dayz?
A: makarov. Because it sounds awesome and its a desperate mans weapon.
Q: Do you plan on having the standalone game as a closed beta, with a prepurchase function where people will get access to the game? (Sortof like minecraft)
A: Alpha will be heavily discounted paid project. The project will never be a full retail priced title, and the alpha will be heavily discounted. No prepurchase. But there will be a premium type purchase that contains some extra collectors edition type stuff like concept art prints etc... for those who want to throw money at the project
Q: What is your best estimate for the standalone release date?
A: Before the end of the working year (2012)
Q: Are you going to make weather more of a big deal come the stand alone game? so far the ONLY TIME ive ever gotten to the point of being sick in dayz was when i spent 2 hours swimming.
A: Absolutely. Redesigning that from scratch.
Q: gasoline rare, but vehicles common??
A: I like it
Q: How customizable will player skins be in the standalone? Will they work like they do now (full-body replacements) or will you be able to find different shirts/hats/etc?
A: Different clothing is on my list of design priorities
Q: I know you had originally said you were skipping 1.7.2.5 and going straight to 1.7.3, what changed?
A: The attempts to fix artifacting were more important than the dog implementation, so I tried to fix that first.
Q: when will you fix female characters´skins? it is really anoying to not be able to wear ghillies and cammo. also, great job so far, rocket.
A: With the standalone release.
Q: Will the Stand-alone version run on the ARMA 2 or ARMA 3 engine?
A: It will run on its own branch of Real Virtuality
Q: which RV version is it closest to?
A: The most important element of DayZ will be its multiplayer code. The most tested multiplayer code is ArmA 1.62. We know this netcode, we know what we want to change. We will merge in what need from elsewhere but we won't be ambitious with the netcode. We will start with the current state as the base and work around that.
Q: Wildlife? such as bears, cougars, wolf packs, will they be added?
A: More wildlife absolutely. Horses would be cool too
Q: Any idea what price range the standalone version will be in?
A: I don't ever see DayZ costing more than 25 euro. Alpha will be heavily discounted from this.
Q: Would you ever consider a bounty hunting system?
A: I'd like to add methods that allow players to create their own systems for things, so if they wanted to create such a system they could
Q: Will hand combat be introduced?
A: Yes
Q: With the popularity of Lingor, somewhere down the road can we expect to see other maps officially supported aside from just Chernarus? If so, how would character selection work?
A: Absolutely. I think having the ability for the character to travel to other islands is my preferred one (e.g. by boat or air). If you character hasn't traveled then I would see it as creating a new one for that island.
Q: How many maximum players do you think/plan to have on a server for the standalone version of Day Z, do you think the game would benefit from a higher density of population? (I personally think it would but I'd like to hear your
opinion and know what the "netcode" could handle ect ect)
A: It is more design dependent than netcode dependent for the standalone. 100-200 is easily achievable. More would need a larger map.
Q: Can we expect improved performance for the standalone-game or should people with weaker computers who can barely play the mod start spending money on their pcs?
A: performance will be much better.
Q: Will the standalone game keep the realistic game mechanics of arma? and do you plan any changes to player & zombie movement? (This might be seen and two questions however game mechanics effect player movement so its kinda just one question)
A: Will keep the base mechanics, but change many things (such as UI and inventory completely replaced from scratch). Player animations likely to eventually (but not initially) have many changes).
Q: What exactly can we expect from "Dogs"? What functions will they perform and how is one supposed to interact with them.
A: Expect them to grow a lot from their initial implementation. Someone posted an excellent review on the code here on reddit, but i can't find the link. Basically expect them to track, to warn you of danger, and to follow you. And then get shot. And then you QQ.
Q: Is the Broken limb system working as desired right now? I find that sometimes getting hit one single time by a zombie while I'm at full health will break a limb. That seems a little excessive to me.
A: Not at all. It's barely acceptable now.
Q: Will dayz standalone support the oculus rift peripheral?
A: someone gave me a heads up about it, love it, I hope we could support that.
Q: Zeds walking indoors. whether this is a glitch or a feature, will it be kept for the beta/stand-alone?
A: Won't be kept. I can already effect this (changing a config value for each building). However, we will only make this change if pathing for zambies is fixed and their lifecycle is implemented.
Q: Will you be using a different map for the DayZ Stand alone, or will you keep the same Chernarus map?
A: We have been revising Chernarus for DayZ for some time now. The working name has been "Chernarus Plus". More will be announced about that on the tumblr. Eventually will will create entirely new maps and/or the community will
develop some.
Q: When the game reaches Stand-Alone point, and new maps and areas are available that are bound to happen, will there be more open buildings? Not necessarily lootable, but just there for covering areas? An example would be the
small schoolhouse like building next to the South Barracks at Northwest Airfield. Perfect covering a friend while he loots or something of the sort.
A: Absolutely. This was a key consideration in the development of Chernarus Plus (the map changes that come with DayZ standalone). More enter-able buildings, moving towards all buildings enter-able or visually being obvious that they cannot be entered.
Q: Will DayZ standalone allow mods?
A: Not initially.
Q: As you probably know, Lingor island has been very popular recently. Have you played it much if at all, and has it's design influenced your future plans for the standalone dayz release?
A: I havent played it (so crazy busy right now with all the wrong things), but I really want too. it looks fantastic. Something we will grow support for more with the mod over the coming weeks I think.
Q: How much freedom will you be given with the standalone release? (eg. Game mechanics, UI)
A: Absolute. Expect complete change. Change is good!
Q: What are the frustrating or negative aspects of having the mod popularised so quickly?
A: Development slows to a crawl, and it is easy to spend all your time doing interviews and no time developing and/or sleeping.
Q: With the standalone, you've said 100-200 players per server is a possibility. How are you going to tackle the density issue? Will the Chernarus in the stand-alone version be much bigger than the current iteration? Will we see a totally new map that's bigger?I'm just concerned about 200 players on one Chernarus-sized map. I feel that'd be more deathmatch than survival.
A: Make the maps bigger is the answer
Q: When standalone DayZ comes out, how much will it differ from DayZ current version?Lots of missing stuff or will there be added.
A: It will be a complete redevelopment of the same design, using mostly the same assets and some new, and some redesigned assets. Focus is on the engineering and architecture first.
Q: Will we be seeing different weapons/vehicles added into the mod?
A: Absolutely. We already have a few weapons in progress. Mainly to have more "find at home" style weapons. However content is largely secondary to getting the design right. Content is the easy part.
Q: Is any of the underground base idea going to be present in the standalone initially, or is this still ages off?
A: There will be "something" in the standalone, but it will only be the basic genesis of the idea. I need to ensure we have confidence in the direction of the project as a standalone before I can ask the mass commitment to such an ambitious feature.
Q: Will their be any major Hive updates coming out soon? At the moment stats and player location have been a bit of a mess...
A: Standalone will have an entirely new engine-sync'd system
Q: Any thoughts about combining DayZ and ACE? I've played it a while on lingor dayz and that was absoltely astonishing. It made me never ever want to play dayz without exhausting and wind systems.
A: It is hard enough getting DayZ and ArmA2 development in line, let alone introducing additional code dependencies onto other teams, such as ACE and ACRES. They are designed for specific objectives that may come into conflict with DayZ. They should be enjoyed for what they are. I think that DayZ could learn alot from many mods in ArmA2 and implement great stuff.
Q: What "Endgame" for lack of a better word do you plan to have for DayZ besides base building?
A: my plan is to have this developed in such a way so you make the plans
Q: Making all/most of the buildings enterable will cause the players to scatter around the map and reduce the chances of meeting other players, are you planning on making all buildings enterable? If yes how will you prevent the problem stated above?
A: yes, already done for the standalone.
Q: In the future, standalone perhaps, do you think that private-hive servers are better than going with the global one? Seeing it as people who alt+f4 would punish themselves by not being able to play for a while and "ghosting" (changing server to swap position in a firefight) would not be possible.
A: I think for the mod we open it up and see how it works. If people want to run private hives they can, but ideally we need a way to pool at least some statistics collectively.
Q: How does Rocket plan to look at alternatives to the current method of server hosting? Changing the way that the servers are organised (hive+server-side-map vs all server side) would change the game significantly, yet you cannot easily test this in alpha.
A: There is significant change planned to the "how" but the end result will feel much the same as it is now.
Q: on a scale from 1-10, what degree of customization in clothing of players will there be in the standalone game if it's currently rated at 3/10.
A: I would desire 10/10. Reality for the initial release is probably more like 5/10 and then it is something we work on.
Q: What do you think about modern megapolis map? And if "Yes", can we expect it in DayZ mod or in Standalone version?
A: I like the idea of exploring this, but I think there are performance issues and art timeline issues. It is something we could look at more for a new DayZ map, say next year.
Q: I believe you've recently introduced the first 'persistent' stat in the game between lives in terms of humanity. Does this represent a movement away from each life being its own separate entity?
A: yes, we want play style to be persistent across all characters to an extent. This adds some permanent consequence to player behavior.
Q: Zombies with rag doll physics?
A: I've got basic ragdoll high on the list.
Q: Are you guys planing adding more "story interactive environment" stuff? turning Green Mountain into a number station or adding a "ground zero" for the virus breakout?
A: Not story interactive stuff. But more narrative, such as virus background and the ability to interact and find out about the world.
Q: Any chance of putting in more vehicles? I have been playing for months now and so far i've found only 2 cars. One bus and one pickup. I really have started to dislike that the game is more of a running simulator than a survival game.
A: Yes, we are looking at how vehicles work for the standalone.
Q: Given that the Zeds quickly become fairly minor threats at present and are manageable even in large hordes are there any firm plans yet to make the zombies more lethal? Also, is there any plans for mechanics like weapon/gear degradation or breaking down/building up/customising weapons and gear from components?
A: You had me at weapon/gear degradation
Yes, yes, and more yes. But don't expect these with the initial
standalone, we need to get things working roughly as they are in a more
polished state first.
Q: If you are going the route of weapon degradation please for the love of the gods PLEASE don't make it break guns after 100 or so shots. I always hated in fallout how fast shit broke down. Modern weapons can take thousands of
rounds before showing any signs of slowing down unless inappropriate ammo or poor weapon maintenance is involved.
A: Agreed. Weapons should JAM not BREAK
Q: Any plans to make more buildings accessible in the near future?
A: Yes. On initial release of the standalone. Confirmed and already in the current standalone build.
Q: What are you planning on adding to encourage people to teamup? What sort of community features are you planning on adding to help and/or balance cooperation in the game?
A: Group/community features are a key design consideration that will be closesly linked with construction. I.e. you build a base and the better it is the better options you have, such as storage and respawn etc...
Q: Rocket, implementing the 'new' humanity is in my opinion something that will make me play different ( less like a douche). Will it be finetuned ? Like when you kill zeds etc. Because now it's really hard to get rid of the score you gathered while not knowing it would count.
A: We will play with this concept (humanity) a lot, so that it plays better. Changes will be experimented a little in the mod over the coming weeks.
Q: How much days after the first effected will the stand alone game be
A: This will be confirmed with my brother (he is a virologist) as part of the base narrative development.
Q: Any idea on when 1.7.3 will release? I'm so excited for dogs! Also I know your planning on doing a mine craft model for the pay system of the standalone, can we expect to see a smaller price than CO? Like $15-$20? I'm going to buy it either way! Keep up the awesome work and you're doing a great job of keeping everyone informed!
A: I would never see DayZ being a full retail title. It does not need to be. And the alpha will be heavily discounted. 1.7.3 will release after Gamescom.
Q: Will there be some kind of a crafting system? Like building parts for crashed cars from other parts? Or cooking meals which will give u more stamina or something.
A: Yes, we have some awesome ideas for "crafting" system but it won't be traditional. It will be something that fits with the authenticity (not crafting sniper rifles from tin cans).
Q: I would like to know if the Dayz mod will continue to be updated after the new standalone is released or in the process of beta.
A: Yes, the mod will be much more open than it is now - allowing more projects like Lingor and more freedom for server administrators. The game development will draw ideas off this pool and develop a more standardized experience.
Q: For the dogs, if they spawn with you as a fresh player. Can you order them to go home or stay away? I really don't think I could handle having my wee pup get shot by some bastard if I find myself getting attached! Would bring back too many bad memories of losing pets
A: You will have to find the dogs and feed them to earn their trust (sound familiar?!?). They will get more obedient the longer they are in game wth you.
Q: So I see you're talking about 100-200 Players/Server, did you give up the idea to try something like EVE's server structure or is it still planned for later on?
A: Absolutely not given up. More than ever committed to this. BUT, we must walk before we can run
Q: Are there any plans on making zombies more frightening/scarier than they are now? Not in damage but in looks/sounds. I'm thinking of zombies jumping at you from a dark bush,zombies with open guts,bloodied zombies,.. They really aren't all that scary at the moment.
A: Absolutely. I would rate us as 1/10 for scariness at the moment. I want to go up to at least 7/10
Q: Do you plan to add any more guns to the game for standalone?
A: Absolutely, mainly focused on the "what you would find at home" type weapons.
Q: I love the game. Can't play it enough. But, one of the things I really dislike is the inventory system. Can you give us any specifics on how this might be made more user-friendly in the stand alone?
A: Completely redesigned from the ground up. No news yet, will post on tumblr when we do.
Q: Will the standalone (or mod in future) have any features allowing customisation of appearance? I'd love to be able to find various hats/clothing/accessories in houses and supermarkets, and then change my appearance to be as bad-ass as possible
A: Customization yes, including colors and face, and also by picking up items in the world. And looking badass.
Q: Do you plan to keep weapon switching like it is (Stop, slowly take out other weapon) or do you want to speed it up a little? Are you willing to add native support for holding a weapon in your backpack? What about headlamps?
A: We are reviewing hw this will work (weapon switching). Headlamps are on the list.
Q: Aside from base building, do you have any other game mechanics planned to increase the variety of play for late game characters?
A: I think group and faction mechanics will help there. Combined with construction I think we have lots of potential. Making it easier for players to make good videos will also help too.
Q: Have you ever considered implementing a proper trade menu system between your friends/other survivors? Right now its very awkward moving stuff out of each others backpacks and can sometimes result in items disappearing
A: Considering it, but want to be very careful with any mechanic so it doesnt feel forced or contrived.
Q: Have you thought of NPC territories? (Think Metro 2033 hubs in the tunnels) Personally I'd love there to be a corner of the map where survivor NPCs of remaining society don't shoot people with hero skins, but shoot everyone else on sight (having much better sight overall). This would allow a more risk/reward of being a bandit and also allow for multiple bandits to raid said settlement.Will DayZ itself be available to change via community addons? (similar to minecraft
and bukkit) Lastly... How much bug-testing will be put into work on the standalone?
A: NPC is both a performance issue and also a design issue. I think I want the game to focus as much as possible on supporting player interactions. Bug testing will be conducted mostly by the community.
Q: The Port safe point. Will this be kept?
A: No safe points if it can be avoided, but requires some pathing changes.
Q: Is it possible to add an extra gangs/factions into the game which will be AI controlled and could crop up at random times (like crashed helis) with a base and can be infiltrated for some higher quality loot, just to add to the end game
so people don't always have to turn to killing each other.
A: Group play and faction support is a key design consideration
Q: Is there another system planned to allow messages to be given to other players that aren't on, such as notes left in tents or cars or things to communicate information to offline players when they come back?
A: Yes, we have been looking at the mostly unfinished diary system already in arma for some ideas.
Q: i'd like to know if he actually plays his own mod actively o.o
A: Not nearly as much as I like, should. Most time is spent testing little changes (for example I spent the last week playing with dogs!)
Q: Will there be a possibility of having character slots when the stand alone comes? using more than a single character sounds like a must, right now i'm up at the airfield and i have absolutely no way of helping my friends that just began to play the game because i'll take a long time to travel down and i might die and lose everything just trying to help. Also, will there be a "party" system so you can see where your friends are with some sort of indicator?
A: Group play is very important one of the key design priorities. But we need to explore how this mechanic will work and not disrupt the disorientation that occurs on death.
Q: Did you also think about fixing the vehicles? They disappear on restart and it really gets annoying
A: yes
Q: n a post someone put a bunch of features they hoped for. One of them was the idea of a large wandering horde (100+). Would this be possible?
A: I've look at it and I seeing what options I can do for it.
Q: Will you\dayz be at PAX and if so to what extent? What about BI?
A: I will be at PAX, attending a few panels and meeting people/discussing. Looking for a comic artist. BI won't be attending beyond my presence.
Q: Are there any plans to completely remove HUD from the game? I think it would definitely help set the atmosphere!
A: Absolutely agree. We will probably have something but it will be heavily cut down. most cues will be visual and audial.
Q: Did you also think of trading items or NPC Survivors?
A: No NPC survivors.
Q: Is it possible to implement a REAL melee system in ArmA 2 ? I mean, not a pistol reskinned as a hatchet/crowbar. It would be really cool to be able to charge and deal more damage, things like that.
A: Real as in a crowbar comes out of the screen and splits your head open? Probably not. Although that would solve a number of issues. But yes, we will look at improving the system beyond the crappy hack that is there now.
Q: I have to ask: Will there be a single player option with Day Z standalone? If so, will there be roving NPCs that function on a need->get kind of mentality to prevent them from starving to death?
A: Probably. But I am unlikely to work on that. Later once this is successful we might get a team to do that or we will open it up to the community.
Q: First, let me tell you that your game is fantastic and that I wish you the best of luck with all of your future projects! Anyways, just curious, but:
-When did you start coding?
-What was your motive to begin coding mods/games?
-How do you feel about releasing a standalone game?
-Any ideas for future games?
A: I started coding DayZ properly in december. I first started coding when I was maybe 12 back when my parents bought me an Amiga. I started because I wanted to make games that I wanted to play. I wasn't getting what i wanted from the games I was plying. Releasing DayZ standalone will be a dream come true. I want to make some tycoon style games that allow you to go into first person and actually do tasks. More realistic focus, like ports of call. And more
Eve style MMO's.
Q: Will there be more group functionality? Group leader can leave points on map for group to see, maybe see where squad members are?
A: Group functionality is a priority but we need to be careful not to remove the disorientation on death and from trying to find people, that is part of the disaster disorientation and fear.
Q: I'd like to know if he has any plans for the hacks that's corrupting the game, or does he not care because its just an alpha
A: It is something that we can deal with in the standalone. You'll never stop hacking completely, but we just keep vigilant with it and don't ignore it.
Q: This may sound a tad rude, but many people agree: ARMA II was poorly optimized which causes many of us to get poor FPS. Has this been addressed in the new engine for the standalone?
A: I wouldn't agree ArmA2 is poorly optimized. But yes, it is not optimized for the purposes of something like DayZ, and that is easy enough to address as a standalone.
Q: Do we have to pay for the standalone if we paid for ArmA II and Combined Operations? Not that its a problem, DayZ is awesome!
A: Yes, you will. But it will be very cheap !
http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/72533-the-reddit-questions-answers/
Q: Any word on a quiver sort of thing for crossbow bolts? It's a pain when each bolt takes up a whole space in your inventory/backpack.
A: Quiver is planned
Q: If you had the ability to add one thing to the game, no limits, what would it be?
A: Underground construction using red-faction style damage mechanics for clearing out the subterranean world.
Q: How do you feel about the current situation with the hackers. And have BattlEye been co-operative with you? Can we see a step forward in stopping the hackers or is the release our real safety area.
A: hacking is an ongoing issue. ArmA2 was never designed for what DayZ is putting it through. With DayZ standalone we can address this issue without causing ArmA2 problems, so it can remain the product it is. It is something we
will always have to work on, you cannot completely stop hacking.
Q: What's your favorite gun in dayz?
A: makarov. Because it sounds awesome and its a desperate mans weapon.
Q: Do you plan on having the standalone game as a closed beta, with a prepurchase function where people will get access to the game? (Sortof like minecraft)
A: Alpha will be heavily discounted paid project. The project will never be a full retail priced title, and the alpha will be heavily discounted. No prepurchase. But there will be a premium type purchase that contains some extra collectors edition type stuff like concept art prints etc... for those who want to throw money at the project
Q: What is your best estimate for the standalone release date?
A: Before the end of the working year (2012)
Q: Are you going to make weather more of a big deal come the stand alone game? so far the ONLY TIME ive ever gotten to the point of being sick in dayz was when i spent 2 hours swimming.
A: Absolutely. Redesigning that from scratch.
Q: gasoline rare, but vehicles common??
A: I like it
Q: How customizable will player skins be in the standalone? Will they work like they do now (full-body replacements) or will you be able to find different shirts/hats/etc?
A: Different clothing is on my list of design priorities
Q: I know you had originally said you were skipping 1.7.2.5 and going straight to 1.7.3, what changed?
A: The attempts to fix artifacting were more important than the dog implementation, so I tried to fix that first.
Q: when will you fix female characters´skins? it is really anoying to not be able to wear ghillies and cammo. also, great job so far, rocket.
A: With the standalone release.
Q: Will the Stand-alone version run on the ARMA 2 or ARMA 3 engine?
A: It will run on its own branch of Real Virtuality
Q: which RV version is it closest to?
A: The most important element of DayZ will be its multiplayer code. The most tested multiplayer code is ArmA 1.62. We know this netcode, we know what we want to change. We will merge in what need from elsewhere but we won't be ambitious with the netcode. We will start with the current state as the base and work around that.
Q: Wildlife? such as bears, cougars, wolf packs, will they be added?
A: More wildlife absolutely. Horses would be cool too
Q: Any idea what price range the standalone version will be in?
A: I don't ever see DayZ costing more than 25 euro. Alpha will be heavily discounted from this.
Q: Would you ever consider a bounty hunting system?
A: I'd like to add methods that allow players to create their own systems for things, so if they wanted to create such a system they could
Q: Will hand combat be introduced?
A: Yes
Q: With the popularity of Lingor, somewhere down the road can we expect to see other maps officially supported aside from just Chernarus? If so, how would character selection work?
A: Absolutely. I think having the ability for the character to travel to other islands is my preferred one (e.g. by boat or air). If you character hasn't traveled then I would see it as creating a new one for that island.
Q: How many maximum players do you think/plan to have on a server for the standalone version of Day Z, do you think the game would benefit from a higher density of population? (I personally think it would but I'd like to hear your
opinion and know what the "netcode" could handle ect ect)
A: It is more design dependent than netcode dependent for the standalone. 100-200 is easily achievable. More would need a larger map.
Q: Can we expect improved performance for the standalone-game or should people with weaker computers who can barely play the mod start spending money on their pcs?
A: performance will be much better.
Q: Will the standalone game keep the realistic game mechanics of arma? and do you plan any changes to player & zombie movement? (This might be seen and two questions however game mechanics effect player movement so its kinda just one question)
A: Will keep the base mechanics, but change many things (such as UI and inventory completely replaced from scratch). Player animations likely to eventually (but not initially) have many changes).
Q: What exactly can we expect from "Dogs"? What functions will they perform and how is one supposed to interact with them.
A: Expect them to grow a lot from their initial implementation. Someone posted an excellent review on the code here on reddit, but i can't find the link. Basically expect them to track, to warn you of danger, and to follow you. And then get shot. And then you QQ.
Q: Is the Broken limb system working as desired right now? I find that sometimes getting hit one single time by a zombie while I'm at full health will break a limb. That seems a little excessive to me.
A: Not at all. It's barely acceptable now.
Q: Will dayz standalone support the oculus rift peripheral?
A: someone gave me a heads up about it, love it, I hope we could support that.
Q: Zeds walking indoors. whether this is a glitch or a feature, will it be kept for the beta/stand-alone?
A: Won't be kept. I can already effect this (changing a config value for each building). However, we will only make this change if pathing for zambies is fixed and their lifecycle is implemented.
Q: Will you be using a different map for the DayZ Stand alone, or will you keep the same Chernarus map?
A: We have been revising Chernarus for DayZ for some time now. The working name has been "Chernarus Plus". More will be announced about that on the tumblr. Eventually will will create entirely new maps and/or the community will
develop some.
Q: When the game reaches Stand-Alone point, and new maps and areas are available that are bound to happen, will there be more open buildings? Not necessarily lootable, but just there for covering areas? An example would be the
small schoolhouse like building next to the South Barracks at Northwest Airfield. Perfect covering a friend while he loots or something of the sort.
A: Absolutely. This was a key consideration in the development of Chernarus Plus (the map changes that come with DayZ standalone). More enter-able buildings, moving towards all buildings enter-able or visually being obvious that they cannot be entered.
Q: Will DayZ standalone allow mods?
A: Not initially.
Q: As you probably know, Lingor island has been very popular recently. Have you played it much if at all, and has it's design influenced your future plans for the standalone dayz release?
A: I havent played it (so crazy busy right now with all the wrong things), but I really want too. it looks fantastic. Something we will grow support for more with the mod over the coming weeks I think.
Q: How much freedom will you be given with the standalone release? (eg. Game mechanics, UI)
A: Absolute. Expect complete change. Change is good!
Q: What are the frustrating or negative aspects of having the mod popularised so quickly?
A: Development slows to a crawl, and it is easy to spend all your time doing interviews and no time developing and/or sleeping.
Q: With the standalone, you've said 100-200 players per server is a possibility. How are you going to tackle the density issue? Will the Chernarus in the stand-alone version be much bigger than the current iteration? Will we see a totally new map that's bigger?I'm just concerned about 200 players on one Chernarus-sized map. I feel that'd be more deathmatch than survival.
A: Make the maps bigger is the answer
Q: When standalone DayZ comes out, how much will it differ from DayZ current version?Lots of missing stuff or will there be added.
A: It will be a complete redevelopment of the same design, using mostly the same assets and some new, and some redesigned assets. Focus is on the engineering and architecture first.
Q: Will we be seeing different weapons/vehicles added into the mod?
A: Absolutely. We already have a few weapons in progress. Mainly to have more "find at home" style weapons. However content is largely secondary to getting the design right. Content is the easy part.
Q: Is any of the underground base idea going to be present in the standalone initially, or is this still ages off?
A: There will be "something" in the standalone, but it will only be the basic genesis of the idea. I need to ensure we have confidence in the direction of the project as a standalone before I can ask the mass commitment to such an ambitious feature.
Q: Will their be any major Hive updates coming out soon? At the moment stats and player location have been a bit of a mess...
A: Standalone will have an entirely new engine-sync'd system
Q: Any thoughts about combining DayZ and ACE? I've played it a while on lingor dayz and that was absoltely astonishing. It made me never ever want to play dayz without exhausting and wind systems.
A: It is hard enough getting DayZ and ArmA2 development in line, let alone introducing additional code dependencies onto other teams, such as ACE and ACRES. They are designed for specific objectives that may come into conflict with DayZ. They should be enjoyed for what they are. I think that DayZ could learn alot from many mods in ArmA2 and implement great stuff.
Q: What "Endgame" for lack of a better word do you plan to have for DayZ besides base building?
A: my plan is to have this developed in such a way so you make the plans
Q: Making all/most of the buildings enterable will cause the players to scatter around the map and reduce the chances of meeting other players, are you planning on making all buildings enterable? If yes how will you prevent the problem stated above?
A: yes, already done for the standalone.
Q: In the future, standalone perhaps, do you think that private-hive servers are better than going with the global one? Seeing it as people who alt+f4 would punish themselves by not being able to play for a while and "ghosting" (changing server to swap position in a firefight) would not be possible.
A: I think for the mod we open it up and see how it works. If people want to run private hives they can, but ideally we need a way to pool at least some statistics collectively.
Q: How does Rocket plan to look at alternatives to the current method of server hosting? Changing the way that the servers are organised (hive+server-side-map vs all server side) would change the game significantly, yet you cannot easily test this in alpha.
A: There is significant change planned to the "how" but the end result will feel much the same as it is now.
Q: on a scale from 1-10, what degree of customization in clothing of players will there be in the standalone game if it's currently rated at 3/10.
A: I would desire 10/10. Reality for the initial release is probably more like 5/10 and then it is something we work on.
Q: What do you think about modern megapolis map? And if "Yes", can we expect it in DayZ mod or in Standalone version?
A: I like the idea of exploring this, but I think there are performance issues and art timeline issues. It is something we could look at more for a new DayZ map, say next year.
Q: I believe you've recently introduced the first 'persistent' stat in the game between lives in terms of humanity. Does this represent a movement away from each life being its own separate entity?
A: yes, we want play style to be persistent across all characters to an extent. This adds some permanent consequence to player behavior.
Q: Zombies with rag doll physics?
A: I've got basic ragdoll high on the list.
Q: Are you guys planing adding more "story interactive environment" stuff? turning Green Mountain into a number station or adding a "ground zero" for the virus breakout?
A: Not story interactive stuff. But more narrative, such as virus background and the ability to interact and find out about the world.
Q: Any chance of putting in more vehicles? I have been playing for months now and so far i've found only 2 cars. One bus and one pickup. I really have started to dislike that the game is more of a running simulator than a survival game.
A: Yes, we are looking at how vehicles work for the standalone.
Q: Given that the Zeds quickly become fairly minor threats at present and are manageable even in large hordes are there any firm plans yet to make the zombies more lethal? Also, is there any plans for mechanics like weapon/gear degradation or breaking down/building up/customising weapons and gear from components?
A: You had me at weapon/gear degradation
Yes, yes, and more yes. But don't expect these with the initial
standalone, we need to get things working roughly as they are in a more
polished state first.Q: If you are going the route of weapon degradation please for the love of the gods PLEASE don't make it break guns after 100 or so shots. I always hated in fallout how fast shit broke down. Modern weapons can take thousands of
rounds before showing any signs of slowing down unless inappropriate ammo or poor weapon maintenance is involved.
A: Agreed. Weapons should JAM not BREAK
Q: Any plans to make more buildings accessible in the near future?
A: Yes. On initial release of the standalone. Confirmed and already in the current standalone build.
Q: What are you planning on adding to encourage people to teamup? What sort of community features are you planning on adding to help and/or balance cooperation in the game?
A: Group/community features are a key design consideration that will be closesly linked with construction. I.e. you build a base and the better it is the better options you have, such as storage and respawn etc...
Q: Rocket, implementing the 'new' humanity is in my opinion something that will make me play different ( less like a douche). Will it be finetuned ? Like when you kill zeds etc. Because now it's really hard to get rid of the score you gathered while not knowing it would count.
A: We will play with this concept (humanity) a lot, so that it plays better. Changes will be experimented a little in the mod over the coming weeks.
Q: How much days after the first effected will the stand alone game be
A: This will be confirmed with my brother (he is a virologist) as part of the base narrative development.
Q: Any idea on when 1.7.3 will release? I'm so excited for dogs! Also I know your planning on doing a mine craft model for the pay system of the standalone, can we expect to see a smaller price than CO? Like $15-$20? I'm going to buy it either way! Keep up the awesome work and you're doing a great job of keeping everyone informed!
A: I would never see DayZ being a full retail title. It does not need to be. And the alpha will be heavily discounted. 1.7.3 will release after Gamescom.
Q: Will there be some kind of a crafting system? Like building parts for crashed cars from other parts? Or cooking meals which will give u more stamina or something.
A: Yes, we have some awesome ideas for "crafting" system but it won't be traditional. It will be something that fits with the authenticity (not crafting sniper rifles from tin cans).
Q: I would like to know if the Dayz mod will continue to be updated after the new standalone is released or in the process of beta.
A: Yes, the mod will be much more open than it is now - allowing more projects like Lingor and more freedom for server administrators. The game development will draw ideas off this pool and develop a more standardized experience.
Q: For the dogs, if they spawn with you as a fresh player. Can you order them to go home or stay away? I really don't think I could handle having my wee pup get shot by some bastard if I find myself getting attached! Would bring back too many bad memories of losing pets
A: You will have to find the dogs and feed them to earn their trust (sound familiar?!?). They will get more obedient the longer they are in game wth you.
Q: So I see you're talking about 100-200 Players/Server, did you give up the idea to try something like EVE's server structure or is it still planned for later on?
A: Absolutely not given up. More than ever committed to this. BUT, we must walk before we can run
Q: Are there any plans on making zombies more frightening/scarier than they are now? Not in damage but in looks/sounds. I'm thinking of zombies jumping at you from a dark bush,zombies with open guts,bloodied zombies,.. They really aren't all that scary at the moment.
A: Absolutely. I would rate us as 1/10 for scariness at the moment. I want to go up to at least 7/10
Q: Do you plan to add any more guns to the game for standalone?
A: Absolutely, mainly focused on the "what you would find at home" type weapons.
Q: I love the game. Can't play it enough. But, one of the things I really dislike is the inventory system. Can you give us any specifics on how this might be made more user-friendly in the stand alone?
A: Completely redesigned from the ground up. No news yet, will post on tumblr when we do.
Q: Will the standalone (or mod in future) have any features allowing customisation of appearance? I'd love to be able to find various hats/clothing/accessories in houses and supermarkets, and then change my appearance to be as bad-ass as possible
A: Customization yes, including colors and face, and also by picking up items in the world. And looking badass.
Q: Do you plan to keep weapon switching like it is (Stop, slowly take out other weapon) or do you want to speed it up a little? Are you willing to add native support for holding a weapon in your backpack? What about headlamps?
A: We are reviewing hw this will work (weapon switching). Headlamps are on the list.
Q: Aside from base building, do you have any other game mechanics planned to increase the variety of play for late game characters?
A: I think group and faction mechanics will help there. Combined with construction I think we have lots of potential. Making it easier for players to make good videos will also help too.
Q: Have you ever considered implementing a proper trade menu system between your friends/other survivors? Right now its very awkward moving stuff out of each others backpacks and can sometimes result in items disappearing
A: Considering it, but want to be very careful with any mechanic so it doesnt feel forced or contrived.
Q: Have you thought of NPC territories? (Think Metro 2033 hubs in the tunnels) Personally I'd love there to be a corner of the map where survivor NPCs of remaining society don't shoot people with hero skins, but shoot everyone else on sight (having much better sight overall). This would allow a more risk/reward of being a bandit and also allow for multiple bandits to raid said settlement.Will DayZ itself be available to change via community addons? (similar to minecraft
and bukkit) Lastly... How much bug-testing will be put into work on the standalone?
A: NPC is both a performance issue and also a design issue. I think I want the game to focus as much as possible on supporting player interactions. Bug testing will be conducted mostly by the community.
Q: The Port safe point. Will this be kept?
A: No safe points if it can be avoided, but requires some pathing changes.
Q: Is it possible to add an extra gangs/factions into the game which will be AI controlled and could crop up at random times (like crashed helis) with a base and can be infiltrated for some higher quality loot, just to add to the end game
so people don't always have to turn to killing each other.
A: Group play and faction support is a key design consideration
Q: Is there another system planned to allow messages to be given to other players that aren't on, such as notes left in tents or cars or things to communicate information to offline players when they come back?
A: Yes, we have been looking at the mostly unfinished diary system already in arma for some ideas.
Q: i'd like to know if he actually plays his own mod actively o.o
A: Not nearly as much as I like, should. Most time is spent testing little changes (for example I spent the last week playing with dogs!)
Q: Will there be a possibility of having character slots when the stand alone comes? using more than a single character sounds like a must, right now i'm up at the airfield and i have absolutely no way of helping my friends that just began to play the game because i'll take a long time to travel down and i might die and lose everything just trying to help. Also, will there be a "party" system so you can see where your friends are with some sort of indicator?
A: Group play is very important one of the key design priorities. But we need to explore how this mechanic will work and not disrupt the disorientation that occurs on death.
Q: Did you also think about fixing the vehicles? They disappear on restart and it really gets annoying
A: yes
Q: n a post someone put a bunch of features they hoped for. One of them was the idea of a large wandering horde (100+). Would this be possible?
A: I've look at it and I seeing what options I can do for it.
Q: Will you\dayz be at PAX and if so to what extent? What about BI?
A: I will be at PAX, attending a few panels and meeting people/discussing. Looking for a comic artist. BI won't be attending beyond my presence.
Q: Are there any plans to completely remove HUD from the game? I think it would definitely help set the atmosphere!
A: Absolutely agree. We will probably have something but it will be heavily cut down. most cues will be visual and audial.
Q: Did you also think of trading items or NPC Survivors?
A: No NPC survivors.
Q: Is it possible to implement a REAL melee system in ArmA 2 ? I mean, not a pistol reskinned as a hatchet/crowbar. It would be really cool to be able to charge and deal more damage, things like that.
A: Real as in a crowbar comes out of the screen and splits your head open? Probably not. Although that would solve a number of issues. But yes, we will look at improving the system beyond the crappy hack that is there now.
Q: I have to ask: Will there be a single player option with Day Z standalone? If so, will there be roving NPCs that function on a need->get kind of mentality to prevent them from starving to death?
A: Probably. But I am unlikely to work on that. Later once this is successful we might get a team to do that or we will open it up to the community.
Q: First, let me tell you that your game is fantastic and that I wish you the best of luck with all of your future projects! Anyways, just curious, but:
-When did you start coding?
-What was your motive to begin coding mods/games?
-How do you feel about releasing a standalone game?
-Any ideas for future games?
A: I started coding DayZ properly in december. I first started coding when I was maybe 12 back when my parents bought me an Amiga. I started because I wanted to make games that I wanted to play. I wasn't getting what i wanted from the games I was plying. Releasing DayZ standalone will be a dream come true. I want to make some tycoon style games that allow you to go into first person and actually do tasks. More realistic focus, like ports of call. And more
Eve style MMO's.
Q: Will there be more group functionality? Group leader can leave points on map for group to see, maybe see where squad members are?
A: Group functionality is a priority but we need to be careful not to remove the disorientation on death and from trying to find people, that is part of the disaster disorientation and fear.
Q: I'd like to know if he has any plans for the hacks that's corrupting the game, or does he not care because its just an alpha
A: It is something that we can deal with in the standalone. You'll never stop hacking completely, but we just keep vigilant with it and don't ignore it.
Q: This may sound a tad rude, but many people agree: ARMA II was poorly optimized which causes many of us to get poor FPS. Has this been addressed in the new engine for the standalone?
A: I wouldn't agree ArmA2 is poorly optimized. But yes, it is not optimized for the purposes of something like DayZ, and that is easy enough to address as a standalone.
Q: Do we have to pay for the standalone if we paid for ArmA II and Combined Operations? Not that its a problem, DayZ is awesome!
A: Yes, you will. But it will be very cheap !
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Gamescon should open up some info for us
Just letting everyone know I'll be covering gamescon survival game info once it becomes available and published. I know Dayz is going to be there and have a booth setup with their most current patched version of the arma2 mod. Watching rocket talk to the crowd is always amusing. As I find more information I'll be sure to post it.
<edit> it seems news is already starting to come down the line. Joystiq has already posted some information for us.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/15/gamescom-2012-dayz-stand-alone-to-have-instanced-building/
If you have been following Dayz much you already knew about the plans to add underground bases, but it does give us a few more details and lets us know another piece of info about Dayz the Stand-alone game.
Dayz the game is going to be a revamped Chernarus! So it is going to be taking place in the same world that Dayz the mod takes place in, but it's going to have new areas added onto it and it is also going to make more of the buildings enter able. I actually really enjoy the Chernarus map so I think this will work just fine. It's just going to be fleshed out more and more areas added onto it. That piece of info was new to myself.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/15/dayz-lead-wants-game-on-consoles-having-meetings-about-it-at/
They also seem to be talking about bringing the game to consoles, but I honestly don't see how that will work without a control revamp because as it is currently Dayz has way to many buttons for a controller. Honestly doesn't pertain to me or WatchSurvival cause I'm about PC gaming but I figured some out there may wanted to know it is being considered.
<edit> it seems news is already starting to come down the line. Joystiq has already posted some information for us.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/15/gamescom-2012-dayz-stand-alone-to-have-instanced-building/
If you have been following Dayz much you already knew about the plans to add underground bases, but it does give us a few more details and lets us know another piece of info about Dayz the Stand-alone game.
Dayz the game is going to be a revamped Chernarus! So it is going to be taking place in the same world that Dayz the mod takes place in, but it's going to have new areas added onto it and it is also going to make more of the buildings enter able. I actually really enjoy the Chernarus map so I think this will work just fine. It's just going to be fleshed out more and more areas added onto it. That piece of info was new to myself.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/15/dayz-lead-wants-game-on-consoles-having-meetings-about-it-at/
They also seem to be talking about bringing the game to consoles, but I honestly don't see how that will work without a control revamp because as it is currently Dayz has way to many buttons for a controller. Honestly doesn't pertain to me or WatchSurvival cause I'm about PC gaming but I figured some out there may wanted to know it is being considered.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Dayz Officially Goes Stand-Alone
Hello and Good day!
For my first post I'd like to let everyone know that Dayz, the popular zombie survival mod by Dean "Rocket" Hall for Arma 2 has officially been announced as an upcoming stand-alone game. You can view the Official Site here.
http://dayzgame.com/
This is great news for fans of Dayz and survivalists fans. I really enjoy Rocket's personality and believe he's going to do nothing but good things for this genre. I feel I must give him credit for the very reason of making the genre popular and making top developers and publishers realize that there is a market to be had for survival gaming. I personally believe Dayz as a stand-alone game will be much better then being a simple mod for obvious reasons as a mod has severe limitations on Dayz's development.
My main concern for Dayz's future is that of duplicating and hacking. If any of you fellow readers have been following Dayz's progress you can easily see why this is a concern. As the popularity of the game reaches 1 Million users. That's right 1 million
http://dayzmod.com/ (new player counter on website)
Hackers and Duplicating seem to be getting worse and worse. I feel Rocket is not to blame for this because he is doing what he can to stop said problems. The main cause of the problem lies within Arma2's core engine and with issues of the anti-cheat system Battleye by Bohemia Interactive. (BI) Basically they didn't intend on their game blowing up to such huge numbers and the popularity while great for the genre is bound to attract a few bad eggs as well as good ones and their secuity against said measures are simply not cut out for this huge a crowd. Duplicating and hacking in a survival genre game is nothing but bad news and completely ruins the aspect and goal of the genre. The reason this is a concern of mine is because as the official website states rocket has chosen to continue working with BI for his stand-alone version of the game. Don't get me wrong I love how realistic BI's engine can be and think it fits great for a survival game, but their reputation for bugs and online cheats has to be a cause of some concern. I am really hoping they improve the security and improve their anti-hacking measures in the future of the game's interests. As duplicating and hacking can and has turned great games into bad games for legit gamers like myself that believe in playing the game as it is intended. I'm going to give BI the benefit of the doubt here because as I said they did not realize nor could they predict how hugely popular the mod would become. I just hope they think about these problems in the future for Dayz sake.
For my first post I'd like to let everyone know that Dayz, the popular zombie survival mod by Dean "Rocket" Hall for Arma 2 has officially been announced as an upcoming stand-alone game. You can view the Official Site here.
http://dayzgame.com/
This is great news for fans of Dayz and survivalists fans. I really enjoy Rocket's personality and believe he's going to do nothing but good things for this genre. I feel I must give him credit for the very reason of making the genre popular and making top developers and publishers realize that there is a market to be had for survival gaming. I personally believe Dayz as a stand-alone game will be much better then being a simple mod for obvious reasons as a mod has severe limitations on Dayz's development.
My main concern for Dayz's future is that of duplicating and hacking. If any of you fellow readers have been following Dayz's progress you can easily see why this is a concern. As the popularity of the game reaches 1 Million users. That's right 1 million
http://dayzmod.com/ (new player counter on website)
Hackers and Duplicating seem to be getting worse and worse. I feel Rocket is not to blame for this because he is doing what he can to stop said problems. The main cause of the problem lies within Arma2's core engine and with issues of the anti-cheat system Battleye by Bohemia Interactive. (BI) Basically they didn't intend on their game blowing up to such huge numbers and the popularity while great for the genre is bound to attract a few bad eggs as well as good ones and their secuity against said measures are simply not cut out for this huge a crowd. Duplicating and hacking in a survival genre game is nothing but bad news and completely ruins the aspect and goal of the genre. The reason this is a concern of mine is because as the official website states rocket has chosen to continue working with BI for his stand-alone version of the game. Don't get me wrong I love how realistic BI's engine can be and think it fits great for a survival game, but their reputation for bugs and online cheats has to be a cause of some concern. I am really hoping they improve the security and improve their anti-hacking measures in the future of the game's interests. As duplicating and hacking can and has turned great games into bad games for legit gamers like myself that believe in playing the game as it is intended. I'm going to give BI the benefit of the doubt here because as I said they did not realize nor could they predict how hugely popular the mod would become. I just hope they think about these problems in the future for Dayz sake.
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