let's get straight to the point: It is time. DayZ is going to leave Early Access with a PC 1.0 update on December 13th, after almost exactly 5 years in open development!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KsipmJinTo
Everyone on our team has been working hard and will continue for this remaining week to deliver the best launch version we can. With the BETA last month, we've seen the return of the first vehicle and item stashes, as well as the premiere of DayZ base building, the release of server files and the beginning of Modding Support. The most recent Experimental Update has returned horticulture to the game, making survival within your base more autonomous, and allowing the return of the full hermit play style.
Backed by the underlying engine changes introduced with the BETA, the 1.0 launch should feel like a fresh new start for anyone who has not played DayZ for some time - so let your friends know that they have a game to play on December 13.
Keep following us for more events and information over the course of the next two weeks!
See you in Chernarus!
Status Report - 20 November 2018
Today's Status Report focuses on the current work of the team to fix the remaining issues in the PC BETA, while we are getting closer to our release in December. Eugen gives an overview of the most pressing issues, and the team leads give a brief recap of their work during the past two weeks. Let's get into it!
Dev Update/Eugen
Dear Survivors! Today, I'm gonna talk about the pressing issues that you are experiencing in-game now, about our update schedule, as well as touching on the subject of things breaking apart as we get fixes in. But before I do all that, I just want to celebrate another milestone in the history of DayZ! To this day, the game has attracted more than 4 million people and I cannot state how grateful we are for all the support you gave us over the years. It's amazing that this genre has grown so much. All that makes me excited to continue, and I'm glad I could be a part of this team and the community for a better part of the last five years.
As we march towards the 1.0 release, we will break things as we apply systematic changes to frameworks that hold the gameplay together. While it may seem as counterproductive from outside perspective with only couple weeks left before the release, there is usually (usually, but not always - truth be told, we make mistakes) a good reason behind it. I'm going to try and break it down for you.
When we see an issue somewhere, we have to consider many factors. Our implementation needs to be consistent across the board in the underlying systems. Not only this is good for modding in the long run, it is also very important for us to lower the amount of new issues brought in with every update. In reality, that may mean that while a feature or action might be working right now, we have to break it temporarily, and apply fixes to make sure its implementation is, in the end, consistent with everything else in-game.
Having said that, we are not happy about it and understand that it is hurting the player experience. While we have closed numerous bugs with recent patches, and improved many systems from a technical point of view, we introduced new ones that need our attention. Things will stabilise in the coming weeks and post 1.0, and our goal is to benefit from this stabilisation in the long run.
Another thing I wanted to touch on was the update schedule. Since the initial switch over to Stable, we have made some mistakes and learned from them. We had a streak of hot-fixes in a very short time period and while we will keep reacting to most pressing issues as quick as we can, we want to stabilise our update schedule to the Wednesday maintenance window. The use of the Experimental branch will be less frequented, but still possible if required. We will try to be consistent, but flexible when needed. We want to get better.
Update on pressing issues from the last Status Report
We've made some progress on the pressing issues we listed the last time, let's take a look:
HIT REGISTRATION We have tracked and fixed a number of hit registration issues over the last couple weeks. To be specific, I'm talking about the inventory manipulation of magazines through double click, which wasn't properly synchronised and caused ghost bullets. Another issue was with zeroing and a reload initiated during scoping/iron sights in a specific way. The most common issue was caused by problems in packet priority and networking. Overall, you shouldn't be seeing hit registration issues pop up too much any more, and I highly recommend you to contact us through the Feedback Tracker if you experience weapons not dealing damage at all.
While there are certainly some issues with damage itself left, it is tied to a balance pass and things will get ironed out. I'll also be talking about one specific damage issue that has popped up on our channels recently.
CHANGING KEYBINDS The next update should contain the keybinding UI and while still work in progress, it should be a large improvement over what was possible before, and it will also finally be consistent with other UI elements in-game.
LIGHTING ISSUES Lighting and exposure settings are being debugged right now and you should see changes coming in over the next weeks, making sure that both day and night lighting problems, tone-mapping, luminosity, light sources and what the community describes as excessive bloom are improved. The issues we are tracking right now require more input from the Engine Team and are planned after the next Stable update.
FPS DROPS With the investigation into FPS issues reported, we haven't gathered enough evidence yet. I would like to ask all of you experiencing a decrease over the last few patches to send us information about the server you play on (possible modification causing some drops, even economy changes causing more items to be placed on map), their configuration and drivers to help us iron out exactly what happened and how. Internally, we haven't been able to reproduce it on any range of systems we have available, but we may be missing a crucial piece of information.
Current issues
As I already mentioned, while fixing some things, we also manage to break them. Let's see what's broken. To make things short for the Status Report, I'm just going to list them as bullet points of current most pressing issues, and you can read the full context and our response in the related forums thread.
Again, please make sure you read the related forums thread to see our replies on the issues you reported.
Many of the reported issues can be improved by value adjustments on our end. I want to emphasise how important this balance pass is for DayZ and its functionality. While all sorts of interesting features are in, they require us to review their current state. We need to get dirty to properly configure them. Gun-play, damage values, diseases, economy, persistence, and so on - bugfixing definitely comes first with high priority issues, but a balance pass is what makes the game fun in the first place. We will announce as things get rolled out over the following updates before we reach 1.0. The first thing you should be seeing is recoil and its behaviour tweaks.
- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer
Dev Update/Martin
Hi everyone! While on the PC side of things, we're in full bug fixing mode, our Xbox Survivors are still waiting for the big update to drop. As we detailed in our Xbox Development Briefing, if things go well, we'd like to release the Basebuilding & Vehicles game update on Xbox this Thursday. This is still with a disclaimer as we'll be going through the final stage of testing tomorrow, but even if we discover some specific issues, this update will still be the biggest Xbox update of DayZ since we launched in Game Preview.
We're also right in the middle of the Xbox Black Friday sale, and this will probably be one of the very few chances to get DayZ on Xbox One for an advantageous price (currently 15% OFF at $33,99 / £26,99 / 33,99€). So, If you were considering getting DayZ on Xbox, or convincing your friends to give it a try, right now is probably a good time to go for it. The game will only get better and more polished from here, so while I'm of course strongly biased, I'd say the current price is a pretty decent deal.
- Martin Čulák / Brand Manager
Dev Update/Peter
Over the past week, we've been collecting your feedback on gameplay mechanics in the first installment of the Focused Feedback Round on our forums. Below, you can find links to the individual topics. You've sent us countless ideas and suggestions for every single one of them.
As we are pretty busy with the preparation of the December release, we will take this week to evaluate your feedback before starting round two. We are going to talk about gun mechanics, melee, infected and the damage system, so gather your thoughts for when we open the next Feedback Round.
- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer
Dev Update/Mirek
Hello Survivors! As we're all very busy with our tasks, I just wanted to provide a quick bullet point overview of what we have done, what we are working on and what we have planned for the upcoming weeks. Let's go:
Done
In progress
Plans for next weeks
- Miroslav Maněna / Lead Programmer
Dev Update/Viktor
Greetings from the animation team Survivors! We've been very focused on bug fixing and improvements to existing animations and systems in these past two weeks. We have finished a pass on hundreds of in-game items, mostly updating their holding poses to make the animations look more natural, and also to reduce various clipping issues. There are still some problematic items which will be up next.
Other than that, we've also worked on bug fixes in the animation graph and animation polish for player character animations. One of the specific improvements is the addition of animations related to various sickness states. Player characters will be able to show signs of being sick by coughing or sneezing, and also to show signs of being too warm/too cold.
- Viktor Kostik / Lead Animator
Dev Update/Filip
Hi all! In the audio team, we've been working on introducing additional variety to the sounds of player movement. That includes three different sounds for movement with a backpack, three new sets of sounds for various types of clothes (represented by the Patrol Jacket, Raincoat, and Quilted Jacket) and noises for movement with the ghillie suit. By now, you have also probably discovered that the leaves are now rustling when players are moving through bushes and small trees. Finally, our infected received new voices, now totaling at four male and two female infected voice variations.
- Filip Čenžák / Sound Designer
Community Spotlight
Hello everyone, I am leaving to my two-week long holiday today, but I prepared a Community Spotlight for you before I take off. While it's quite some time since the Halloween, I have not had the chance to feature all the spooky screenshots and videos that you've sent me, so this is why I dedicated a large part of my yesterday's community spotlight to those!There ares also photos of our own real-life infected at the Prague Zombie Run, and a many community mods for you to try! Check out the Community Spotlight HERE!
Hello again, Survivors. Another Community Spotlight is here!
Halloween is already gone, but I didn't tell you how much I liked your screenshots with the pumpkin heads. They've been in the game only for a week but you've had a lot of fun with them. Thanks for sharing! Let's check out your horror-themed content.
Just for your interest, in case you didn't know, DayZ is a game developed by company based in the Czech Republic (Inter alia) and we don't celebrate Halloween. We have a special day called "Dušičky" (Souls in the English language). People visit cemeteries and light candles for the dead, we don't have pumpkins and costumes here (even though I love the Halloween costumes!).
]And one more thing! One of our infected joined the zombie-themed night race called Zombie Run here in Prague. The race was 5km long and it was fun to watch people dressed as zombies running around. This was our infected, he didn't win but he didn't eat anyone at least:
Who is Negan? A creepy creature. When you hear whistling, run for your life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYURWwRc8f4
DayZ can be scary. Belzelga proved it really well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EGqZRTxJ94
Another creepy little video (Mr. White is back), but with nice singing! Cool story, Foxy Pote!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi72aHWcp-A
And one more horror-themed video by Gekofish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZT2fIjLwuo
This is a school project inspired byMr. Midnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6m_arjdQsI
Let's calm down. Berrett5Bumpas made a really relaxing video. Check it out:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/335312959
And if this still isn't enough for you, Asmondian made a base building Infographic:
Let's check out your modded content!
Kuroakita is trying to mode his first vehicle and it looks cool already!
When we are talking about cars, Repa24 is making one too. Nice work.
If you are a role-play lover, you probably could appreciate a trader mod. Follow the mod's Twitter for more info.
But this is a cool mode made by DannyDog. Let me introduce you to his street lights. They are not on the workshop right now but we hope they will be in the future.
Let's solve the location riddle - it was a place near Pik Kozlovka. Correct answers were sent by:
And the new one is pretty hard (greetings from Sumrak):
As always, if you know where the location is, send your answer to our Twitter accountwith the #DayZriddleTime hashtag.
Today is a very exciting day for all of us here at the DayZ team. Coming closer to five years of Early Access Alpha development, we are now moving the PC version of DayZ into BETA. What does that mean for the future of DayZ and how long do we intend to run the BETA? Watch our new Dev Log video to find out more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ZfK6a8T00
To recap, The DayZ BETA shifts our focus from introducing new features and content to bug fixing, stabilization and balancing. The goal is to create a stable and -most importantly- fun experience for our 1.0 release, scheduled for the end of 2018.
Worry not, this is not the end of DayZ development: we have more features and content planned after we stabilize the game, and they will come to you as part of free platform updates in the future.
The former 0.62 version running on our old technology has been moved to a legacy branch on Steam, and the default (Stable) branch on Steam now runs the new, 0.63 BETA update.
So what are some of the BETA highlights?
While mentioned as the last bullet point, the modding toolset is equally important to our effort of polishing the game, as it opens a whole new world of opportunities to experience DayZ in different ways. Read more about our modding toolset on our official forums.
Pricing plans, and post 1.0 plans
Despite our original announcements suggesting otherwise, the pricing will not change for DayZ with the BETA release, and we'd like to reach the final price for DayZ when we release the game out of Early Access. That means for now, DayZ is still available for 27,99 EUR / 34,99 USD.
For the rest of the year, we will be working on our post 1.0 development plans and evaluating where we take DayZ next in terms of additional features and content. As soon as we have a solid roadmap in place, we'll let you know through all the official channels. Until then - see you all in Chernarus, and please do report every issue and bug you find to our Feedback Tracker!
Status Report - 6 November 2018
Today was quite a busy day at our office with the Experimental BETA patch hitting the Experimental servers. So apologize this late Status Report, it is worth it.
Dev Update/Eugen
Dear Survivors,
we are listening. We know the last Status Report has started some heated discussion about DayZ. I'm gonna do my best and touch upon multiple subjects you guys have pointed out and make sure your questions don't go unanswered. But first, I also want to because today is the day that we updated the Experimental branch with what will become the first BETA update. The update itself contains multiple features and tons of content. Just to name the headliners: all new base building, a new implementation of vehicles, player restraining, leaning and more. I'm excited about this first step to a more polished gameplay experience with more endgame goals to achieve.
Farewell, 0.62 - 0.63 is fully taking the reigns
Not only have we hit Experimental today, but tomorrow, we want to open another floodgate. Since we're no longer working on old technology, the 0.62 version is now becoming a legacy to look back at and learn from. We believe we are past the point where 0.62 is a good first entry into the world of DayZ. So tomorrow, we will be going through a clean-up in our Steam back-end and shuffle things around a bit.
The current 0.63 will be moving to the default branch (what we call the Stable branch, as in the first thing that installs when you click on DayZ in Steam, and a version that most if not all community servers will run). 0.62, then, will be moved to its own "legacy branch" for future reference. This will make sure that players coming back in will get in touch with the new version of DayZ, and won't be facing a situation where they start up a game and can't join almost any server due to version difference. That way, we can focus on what the future of DayZ should be and we will deliver updates straight to you.
Experimental and Stress Test Branches should not see much use for the rest of the year, and will be deprecated until we get to a point they are once again needed. Our goal right now is to focus on addressing issues you guys have been reporting, and on making DayZ fun for our core player base.
With this change, we will release one more thing for you guys to play around with: DayZ modding tools. Yes it''s happening!
While they can definitely be considered Experimental, your early feedback on the tool set can help us shape the future of the DayZ platform and game alike. Tools will be available as a free download on Steam and will be also supported by our new DayZ Launcher to organize your DayZ experience. The launcher (familiar to those of you who tried Arma 3) will be useful not only to work with mods, but also for work with startup parameters, server and tools after the tools package stabilizes a bit. With the DayZ tools release, we will be opening the Steam Workshop for you guys to share your creations in an easier way, accessible in one central place.
TLDR; if nothing goes majorly wrong, 0.63 is moving to Stable tomorrow, and we begin our BETA development - the march towards a stable 1.0 release.
Plans for the upcoming weeks
With 0.63 on the Stable Branch, and community server owners updating their servers with all these new features we introduced, I wanted to touch on few more things that are about to happen in the upcoming weeks, as that's certainly something you'll be very curious about.
Server browser changes & update schedule
The server browser is getting an overhaul based around a new technology that we developedtogether with our Online Services team. The gain with this implementation is that you'll be better able to tell if a given server is running a modified version of DayZ, and at the same time, the new implementation will make the server browser feel more aligned with rest of our UI design (which is by no means polished yet, but at least a basic direction has been set).
Related to community servers, at least for the rest of the year, we're trying to go and have a fixed schedule of weekly updates so that server owners can be ready for any upcoming game updates.
Fixing, tweaking, and polishing
The upcoming bugfixes and tweaks will be focused on many of your complaints over the years. We read almost everything you guys post across social media, including (especially) those comprehensive lists for 1.0, and I just want say we know these things are important to you. While features are in, their functionality is often broken. We know that's what makes or breaks a game, and now is exactly the time to get that fixed. During this period of stabilization and iteration, you'll see the game change around the details that matter. A balance pass is ahead of us, and while it's certainly not the last, it will definitely be a first one that will fix a whole lot of the inconsistencies you guys experienced over the years.
Just as an example, I'm going to use the fix of misaligned guns that is already in Experimental (caused by either using a vehicle, being in prone, or using free-look).
We're also going to go over some of the issues that bother you a lot: like hit registration problems, or changing your key binds. Let's go.
Feature and content freeze for BETA/1.0
With today's Experimental update, we have released a huge amount of items that were not available in-game before, and while some of their functionality might be bugged, these specific cases will be tackled in the bugfixing, polishing, and balancing push. What's in the Experimental build now is the list of items we want to hit 1.0 with, and anything else we've talked about in the past will be a post 1.0 content released as free platform updates.
The same goes for features - features that we previously had planned to deliver and are not in-game right now and are postponed after 1.0 release. We will be working on our post 1.0 plans and communicate the exact details of our efforts through official channels. One thing I can already say - I'm really looking forward to working on a stable game platform. Something we have not seen a lot (or at all) for the past 5 years.
Addressing the current most pressing issues
There are some hot topic currently resonating in the community, and I wanted to touch upon some of those in more detail. As these would make the Status Report visually even longer, we're gonna put them into a separate forums post. These are the topics covered:
Now to an elephant in the room that has to be talked about in a proper manner. Previously, I have said that I want to write up my thoughts after talking to you guys on various channels and criticism that has ensued after the last Status Report. Here it is.
Why go for a 1.0 release this year?
There were two choices here, either we miss our 1.0 deadline, or we miss content parity. Both are bad no matter how we look at it. I seriously believe for the health of DayZ as a brand, as a game, we have to move in a direction of stable and reliable gameplay. The core DayZ features are already in the game now, and the devil is in the details. We have to make sure those core features work as they should first and foremost. Not only are you missing out on some really cool things in the game because the current implementation of features is simply broken - additionally, we also we have to deal with development on a game platform that is simply not stable enough for us to continue without loosing our minds.
Making a new weapon on a game that crashes or stops shooting bullets every day due to low level changes is not fun for us either. We know that this step is not only important for the game, but also for the team here. While we might have put on a version number 0.64 and just continue development as many of you have suggested, we have to start working with deadlines properly and be prepared to prioritize. We could have spent years polishing and adding to what DayZ is, but to do so, we need to start planning better and that requires a platform where estimations on complexity can be relied upon. That is not the case right now. While we agree that content variety is extremely important to DayZ, we can improve upon that that post 1.0. And the same comes with features like helicopters. We are not abandoning DayZ. We're taking a deep breath, we're taking a look back with the aim to properly plan out building on a platform that is fun to develop for.
Can you really have a polished, stable 1.0 version of DayZ by the end of the year? There's not much time left.
Yes, unless we believed that, we wouldn't have chosen the option to hit the deadline. There is about a month of real development left, and hopefully some you have noticed we have started fixing some really pressing issues in DayZ over the last week as we shuffled our priorities. And that is what deadlines do. They make you think twice about what is really important. While there are large numbers of issues left, only about 600 of them are crucial to make DayZ work as intended. We plan to do exactly that. Fix features, stabilize the game and make it enjoyable after being weighed down by bugs for a very long time.
Are you pressured from the Bohemia management to go for the release?
There is pressure of course, that's a natural part of game development. We've just spent five years in Early Access. That said, Bohemia Interactive is a privately owned company under no pressure from external investors. It is our decision to meet our deadline, and there are no business people standing behind our backs forcing us to do it. Bohemia is a family of like-minded people who want to make games without publishers calling the shots. It's also one of the core reasons why Bohemia still self-publishes its own games, and generally does things on its own. While we may not be perfect, our players, our community, our games are still very clearly different from the rest of the industry.
Why not just continue in BETA after stabilizing the game, and not avoid "slapping" a 1.0 on a game that's not "feature/content complete"?
Because if we were to do every single thing that was ever conceived/thought of/casually mentioned for DayZ, we would not be able to exit Early Access even next year. In development, especially if you work with new technology, there is no proper way to do estimates. You just do them based on your past experiences with different technologies. This a super complex topic and we were unable, and effectively failed to predict the amount of time some these things would take on the new engine. While the possibilities with our own technology are endless in theory, we just can't hit content/features that we wanted or wished for in the time we set for ourselves. That said, we know that the game is going to be tons of fun even when some of your favorite features and content are missing now.
Is there any team restructuring going on after the 1.0 release? Are DayZ developers going to be assigned to other teams at Bohemia?
No, we are keeping the same resources as we had this year for the year ahead. To be precise, it's 86 people working on DayZ right now.
What are your plans for development after BETA? When can we see the remaining features being implemented?
As mentioned previously, we want to properly plan out content and features for next year, and focus on timely delivery by having a stable platform that we can build upon. One of the top priorities will definitely be weapons and content variety. As for features implemented post 1.0, we will share more information once the whole team agrees on what exactly we can and will deliver. DayZ is our dream game and we want to make it the best possible experience for developers and players alike.
- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer
Header image by Uncuepa.
Status Report - 23 October 2018
Today is going to be quite an important Status Report as we are going to talk about the BETA update and our road towards the end of this year. Peter is explaining the current state of base building and Adam discusses the new in-game map which will support you on your travels. Let's get into it!
Dev Update/Martin
Dear Survivors. As promised, it's time to address the upcoming BETA update. This will be a longer text, so take a deep breath, we're going to get back all the way to the last year.
In the 2017 - Year In Review video published last December, we shared our goals to deliver the BETA and 1.0 updates of DayZ in 2018. Over the course of this year, we've made significant progress towards completing those goals (2 major experimental releases, and 50+ Stress Tests), and while there's less time left in 2018 than we'd all like to have (some 60 days left before the holiday season starts), we're still well on our way to releasing these important updates.
In this blog post, we'd like to better define the PC BETA update - what our goals with it are and what your expectations towards it should be.
What does reaching BETA mean for DayZ?
Before we dive into the specifics of the DayZ BETA update, let's set the terms straight first. In software or game development, BETA is widely regarded as a product that's feature complete. For the DayZ PC BETA, this is true in a sense that the BETA will have all the features required for its core gameplay loop to work, but within the overall scope of the DayZ project, it's certainly not what we would consider a totally feature complete game.
Then, the BETA stage of development is a point from which the focus of development shifts to bugfixing and polishing, instead of implementing new features and technology. This will be especially important for DayZ, as one of the the main goals of the BETA update is to start making the game into a stable platform that's ready for further development.
The other main goal of the update is to make the vanilla game an enjoyable experience - after years spent on core technology development, we finally have a game in our hands - not a game concept. The game has a given set of features and content, and that will allow us to make the necessary balancing and polishing together with our community.
Most of this will be happening throughout the rest of 2018, culminating in a 1.0 release where we leave Early Access - but even after this milestone is achieved (meaning we finally close the core development of the game), we're going to keep improving the platform before new things start making their way into the game again.
So to summarize, the PC BETA update is going to be a version of the game that has all the basic fun elements of DayZ available, and it's also the start of the journey towards a balanced, stable platform that's ready to support further development and modding.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at the particular features and content that will be available in the BETA update.
BETA Features and Content
In August, we've gone through a feature freeze - an important internal milestone where we've evaluated the overall state of the game and marked any item from our Feature & Content Goals that did not reach a certain level of implementation as post 1.0 development.
While we are ultimately the masters of our own development time, there is one universal truth in game development: you can always try to squeeze more stuff into a release, so eventually, a line needs to be drawn and goals need to be established in order to achieve results.
The goal we've set was clear: making sure that we proceed towards stabilizing the DayZ gameplay and platform in 2018, as this stabilization will be necessary for further development of the game, and will benefit DayZ in the long run. Additionally, after working on a project for 5 years, it also became apparent that the team needs to have a sense of an end goal in mind.
Making decisions like this is painful for every developer - nobody likes to see "their" feature being cut, or postponed to some future update - but having a balanced and polished core of basic gameplay is more important than having dozens of flavor, supporting and exotic features.
Everyone who was ever involved in the full development cycle of any game knows that at the finish line, there''s always less stuff than was originally planned. Since DayZ's development has been very open from day one, you get to experience this side of game development with us, first hand.
So, at the end, this is where we've arrived at for the DayZ BETA features and content - ultimately meaning that this will also be our 1.0 release after the polishing phase:
Please note: the overview is not extensive and does not cover every single small feature or item in the game - DayZ is a pretty complex game after all. This mostly describes things that the BETA has in addition to the 0.63 Experimental release. If you have a question about a specific feature, feel free to ask us about it in this forums thread!
Critical new BETA features (not available in legacy versions of DayZ)
Smaller new BETA features and improvements (not available in 0.62)
Features and improvements planned for BETA/1.0, or originally in 0.62, but moved post 1.0
In recap, there are no major feature cuts or postponements - anything that makes DayZ the game unique and original among the other survival games is still there. Some of the biggest trade-offs are probably bows, throwing, ragdolls, and some of the flavor features that you were already used to seeing in legacy versions of DayZ. These trade-offs are usually allowing us to spend more time on the core features, and that, again, is certainly more beneficial for the future of DayZ.
In addition to those features, we've had to done some trimmings to the content. Specifically, we're only going to have two types of vehicles available in BETA - the V3S truck and the Lada 4x4. As for weapons, compared to our original goals for BETA, we're not going to be able to implement the following content in time:
In general, we''ve done our best to have each firearm type from 0.62 represented in the game, and additional variety in firearms will be provided with content updates after 1.0, where we should have more animation resources available at hand.
Road to the 1.0 release
In general, polishing the package of content and features as described above will be our goal for 1.0, and for the weeks immediately after 1.0. This will include:
Just to assure everyone again, both the BETA and 1.0 releases will happen this year. All of that will be done together with our community, and we will be expecting to hear a lot of feedback on various things. When the BETA update gets released, we'll be providing more details on how we will be collecting and evaluating feedback.
As the cherry on top, there's of course the planned modding toolset release - and we'll also get back to that later on, when the BETA update is in your hands. It deserves its own blog post, and after all, this has already been a very long wall of text anyway! :)
- Martin Čulák / Brand Manager
Dev Update/Peter
Even after some of you had the chance to try out the construction feature to some degree with the recent release of the Stress Test, base building is still considered to be a kind of a mysterious part of DayZ. To recap, the construction feature allows you to build two main elements (portable mesh barriers aside): fence and a watchtower.
The process of building these objects is identical and starts with a construction kit, which is placed to outline the position and layout of objects. From there, you are able to add building materials such as logs, planks, nails or metal sheets, and by using the proper tool and a user action, you turn them into actual parts of the fences or watchtowers. Similarly to the watchtower with its multiple floors, the fence includes an optional platform. Upgrades for both are available in terms of camouflage and passive defense.
Moreover, a fence can be turned into a gate as there has to be some way how to get in or out, The opening is wide enough for a truck as well. The gate can be kept closed from unwanted visitors by utilizing a multi-dial combination lock with easily shareable custom codes. Of course the code can be cracked by brute force and -as everything in DayZ- it can be broken with a proper tool, although you should consider the time needed for such actions. That goes for dismantling actions as well.
Currently we are in the process of solving unpleasant issues with the lifetime of constructed objects and intentional server hopping into the base. Especially the second one is tricky as I don’t want to introduce some unnecessary artificial counter measures or out of place actions which could potentially harm the unique DayZ experience.
Base building as a whole is a broad set of activities. Throw horticulture, food preparation, obtaining water, stationary crafting, storage, building a shelter, engineering an electricity grid and others into a mix and you get your very own base. All of that was designed to blend in well with the environment, and I have to say that I’m excited to see the wide variations of bases you will come up with, and how they will add to the persistent world of DayZ.
It’s hammer time... see you in Chernarus folks!
- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer
Dev Update/Adam
If you have played DayZ since the version 0.60, it is certainly possible that you never had an opportunity to see how the in-game item of Chernarus'' map looks and works. The revival of this feature was definitely one of the more important points for the upcoming BETA release and I am glad to announce that this was a success, and in addition to its re-introduction, we have been able to bring a number of improvements to it.
So, how does it work? You find the Chernarus map and take it into your hands. After that, you can open it with a user action. Your character will unpack the map and you will have an access to the map interface, where you can use pan and zoom in or out. A nice extra about this is, that anyone else in the world will actually see you having the map open too.
So what you can find on the map of Chernarus? While we would like to bring a number of different types of maps, we have decided that it would be best to start with a tourist map. This map features the whole in-game world in great detail (excluding the military areas of course). It shows all the pubs, stores, local offices (PAS panel), medical centres, police and fire departments. I should also not forget about the newly added tourist trails - you can see all the color tracks on the map too. Adding features like the trails is one of the improvements compared to the previous version of the map (versions 0.59 and older). It also allowed us to add all important lakes, streams, rivers and swamps. The location names on the map also received a necessary pass and we have got more types of them now. All the names are up-to-date with the map changes that happened for the past few years, and their names are in Cyrillic, so you can easily connect them with the names you see on tourist trails, settlement or traffic signs. The engine team has also looked at the performance of the map and has brought a number of improvements to it.
The map feature, at its core, works the same way as it did in Arma, which means any community map (that is packed using the upcoming DayZ tools) is also supported and only minor additions in the config and script have to be done. And to those wondering - yes, you will be able to add notes (markers) to individual map items. Peter will explain this in more detail in a future Status Report.
- Adam Franců / Map Designer
Dev Update/Filip
If you have played on the Stress Test branch over the last weekend, you might have heard a number of new and updated sounds. Our work in this area continues with:
- Filip Čenžák / Sound Designer
Community Spotlight
Hello guys,
The Community Spotlight is separated to its own page because I have more space for your creations. You can check it out HERE - there are some nice videos of basebuilding in action!
Hello everyone!
It is the day before our Status Report, and that means it's time for the Community Spotlight!
We released a Stress Test last week and you clearly had some fun with it over the weekend. We didn't announce officially that you can find the first iteration of base building on the servers, because we didn't think it is ready (and no, it isn'''t). But some of you discovered it really quickly and tried their first creations.
Had a great time with these guys before we were brutally attacked by a barbaric madman, they taught me a valuable lesson, that making friends is a lot more fun than attacking randoms with knives and eating them.
Don't forget, an empty stomach is not a good political adviser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuVRIjPHGY4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=126_cUst7kk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0CdGE-KN_c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4pwrZGOV1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUbkG5cjCKc
Let's talk about your modding and game modifications.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqEWxZ0rbhY
His latest song has a cool video clip, you should check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nQBfNRsHBA
Lets check out your answers to the last location riddle. Correct answers:
And the next one is really hard:
Send your answer to our Twitter account with the #DayZriddleTime hashtag and you can find your name here next time!
Thank you for your attention and see you in two weeks!
Survivors, has it been two weeks already? We had the first internal multiplayer play-test of vehicles, Eugen is going to tell you more about it. He also talks about the hit registration issue, which is one of our priorities right now. Adam wants to introduce some changes related to gamma abuse, and Boris shows you how to prolong the burning time of torches.
Dev Update/Eugen
Dear survivors. Let’s start with something that definitely needs addressing. While I’m happy we've released the PC server files, in regards to the both the PC and Xbox versions, there are some serious flaws that we need to look into.
Priority Issues
For one, hit registration has been quite a problem recently, and I want to talk about what we know so far. While for most you, it seems like your bullets are not registering when hitting players around you, there might be (and probably are) multiple causes to this behavior. From magazines spawning and having ghost bullets (server and client think there is a different amount), through network messages not being sent, to maybe the armor system working incorrectly on specific items and configurations.
We’re looking into different angles. So far, with the use of bots, we are able to reproduce the issue when there are multiple corpses around. It seems like a network issue, so we’re starting with this to eliminate the possible low level cause first. It is also the first course of action because if we can confirm some network messages are not being sent in certain cases, it probably causes much more than incorrect hit registration.
We’re still in the process of debugging when exactly it happens and how. But having a sure way to see it in game helps us a lot. So if by any chance you know how you get your character/weapon/magazine/bullets in desynchronized state, please do report that through the Feedback Tracker.
The second thing I want to mention today is the inventory implementation on Xbox. We know it needs to get our love and attention. We will soon be reaching out to you and we'll be interested in your feedback.
Other than that, we are preparing a patch for the PC Experimental branch, ideally containing the fixes to the hit registration issue, as well as other smaller changes based on your feedback. From log upgrades to the ability to set a Steam query port for ease of DDOS setup when hosting a server, and some more.
Progress towards Experimental BETA
We've recently had our first multiplayer playtest of vehicles on the new implementation and the first results are promising. Once we have more to share about the patch, we will do so, both here and other channels. But the current state leaves us with two major, risky features in terms of overall update stability: vehicles and base building. The rest are going through rounds of intense QA testing to make sure we’re not missing something game-breaking.
So let’s get back to work and see you in game once we''re ready for further Stress Test.
- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer
Dev Update/Adam
Nighttime in DayZ should be dark and terrifying. It should force you into using any light source you have available. Having an ability to light up your surroundings should be just as vital as having enough water and food. Shutting off your light should only be required in case of an emergency. Also, when night vision goggles make their way into the game (which is something we still want to do in the future, but not in BETA), they should be a rare, powerful thing that can turn their owners into potential predators, not a laughing stock for people avoiding night-time by turning the night into a day by cranking up a gamma slider (be it through drivers or display settings).
The removal of the in-game gamma slider was but a first step towards making the very frequent gamma abuse more complicated to do. In today's status report, I'm going to present another step towards making the night-time a en equal playing field for everyone (at least as much as we're actually able to do that).
A survivor scouting Myshkino military camp using flashlight mounted on his AKM, unaware of a danger hidden in a shadow.
Please keep in mind that this is still very much experimental feature and we will be tweaking it based on your feedback (once it hits public branches). We have also taken a look on the global light config again (adjusting some dusk and dawn values), boosted up brightness of all available light sources and we will be taking a closer look at the CE setup to make sure there is always enough light sources within the game world.
- Adam Franců / Map Designer
Dev Update/Boris
Greetings survivors! Lately, there has been some effort invested into improving night gameplay across multiple departments (Adam will share more on that as well). So I'd like to report on one of the contributions I did in this regards, which is a refactor of the craftable torch.
Firstly, the torch now contains an attachment slot for rags, which allows players to prolong its burning time by adding more than one rag on it. You can also refill its stock while it's burning, which means you don't have to craft a new torch after running out of fuel for the current one. The latest Experimental branch on Steam already contains this change so you can try this out for yourself.
Additionally, in BETA, refueling will be possible to do through a crafting user action without the need to open inventory. As usual, this will be done through a quick bar or an interaction with a relevant item on the ground.
Secondly, you'll be able to even further prolong the burning time by coating the torch with animal lard. Such upgrade is mainly useful for base builders, as it allows them to craft a long-lasting source of light that can be placed anywhere without the need of frequent refueling.
Using gasoline as fuel is being considered, but currently, it's not implemented yet.
Lastly, the amount of fuel on the torch will be represented by its quantity bar, so you will always know how much time you have left before it goes cold.
With these changes, this basic item is more interesting to use while giving it some connections to other activities like hunting, base building and collecting clothes or rags.
I am really happy that we've made the decision to separate the Community Spotlight into its own day - now we have more space for you creativity, and also more information from me!
We were shooting a Dev Log video last Thursday in our motion capture studio in Mníšek pod Brdy. It was a really long day but we are satisfied with the result. I can't promise you when this video will be out, but I have some behind the scenes pictures and a bunch of short Instagram stories on our Instagram account. I've added the stories to our archive, so you can watch them without any limits
A train station is now enter-able, you can see all details of the building HERE.
He also focused on the new R-105 Soviet military radio. If you don't know how it works - you can use it the same way as a regular walkie-talkie, but the voice transmission, so it's very useful for role-players and friendly survivors.
You maybe don't know it, but we have new fruits on the Experimental branch. You can find plums and pears now. Here are detailed shots from ZomboCZ.
If you still have a problem to find a new fruit, I think this can help you a little. You can find pears under these trees:
It's a crazy time for us here at the office, with the release of the Xbox version and the PC server files behind us we're now moving for the PC BETA! Of course, this is not going to happen over night, Eugen will give you an introduction on this. We also have our Leads from the Gameplay Programming, Animation and Sound departments with us to bring you some more detailed information on what's going on behind the scenes of our road to BETA.
Dev Update/Eugen
Dear Survivors, the server files release is now behind us, and I would like to thank all the community members who have patiently waited all the way to this point. We are very happy to see old players coming back to try the new servers popping up. We are aware of the issues currently plaguing the administrators running community servers and your feedback is very much welcomed. We have already deployed a patch with fixes, and there's more coming.
We are looking specifically into issues with zombie spawns, logs, configuration and security. Once ready, you will see updates coming directly to the Experimental branch of the game.
Now that our Experimental content patch is out in the open, I wanted to talk about the next thing.
Some of it has been said previously mentioned in interviews from Gamescom, and I wholeheartedly recommend watching these, as the questions asked by both M1ndr and BarelyInfected have been straight to the point.
While there have been some serious delays with the delivery of the first content patch, the work on the internal version of the game has not stopped. This basically means one thing: the next patch arriving to the Stress Test branch will be considered an Experimental BETA and will contain new content and features, including vehicles and base building. We will offer a detailed list of the BETA package later on. The list for both features and content is not exactly short, so we'll need to make make sure everything works.
The process for the publishing of this patch will start with Stress Tests focusing on the new content. Currently, we are quite happy about the stability of the internal client and server, and most of the team is focusing on bugfixing. More information on the release will be shared through our official channels, I cant wait for you guys to drive around Chernarus with your friends.
Once this patch hits the Experimental branch of the game, it will again be made available with both server and client, and pushed to Xbox as fast as possible.
That brings me to our players on Xbox. While we may not seem that active now, we are listening to your feedback and concerns, and we're working on necessary changes and bugfixes plaguing the game. There was a smaller game update pushed earlier today, and whenever possible, we'd love to keep updating at least once a week. The current patch focuses on UI fixes (no major inventory changes yet), server messages and VOIP. This also includes any fixes done to the game on PC. More changes are coming alongside the mentioned BETA patch and features.
See you in Chernarus!
- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer
Dev Update/Mirek
I have a very brief overview of the features and bugs we are currently working on. Let's take a look:
LODs for the animation system
Currently, when playing any animations, the whole skeleton is evaluated (every single bone), no matter how far away from the camera the other entities are. Our new system will improve the client & server performance significantly - especially server-side. Instead of evaluating almost 200 bones, we now need only about 20 or even less to be evaluated on server-side. The evaluation of the entire skeleton currently takes about 75 percent the of AI's simulation time, so we believe this optimization will help to increase AI numbers significantly.
Vehicles - physics
The gearbox (clutch) simulation and tire friction still need some tweaking, because vehicles still have some issues with riding to hills.
Vehicles - animations / camera
We improved the 3rd person camera and added more character animations. This includes handling the clutch, brake & thrust pedals.
Vehicles - networking
We have reworked the networking logic for 4 wheeled vehicle synchronization (and the same logic will work for future vehicles), the next step is network traffic optimizations.
Input system
We had to rework the input system a bit, due to requirements to simply add new actions (something the modders among you will appreciate!). Currently, the new system is in testing, adding the key binding options will be the next step.
AI spawns on servers with offline DB
This is probably one of the last bugs we want to solve on the current Experimental branch. The rest will be fixed within the Experimental BETA update.
A lot of other bug fixes (bugs which we have already fixed on the internal branch) will also be included in the Experimental BETA. This includes fixes for the iron-sights/optics inaccuracy, damage system issues, attachments rendering in inventory and many, many more.
- Miroslav Maněna/ Lead Programmer
Dev Update/Viktor
Last week, we've had a small motion capture session. This was mainly dedicated to a capture of various missing animations for player character or minor fixes to existing animations. Meanwhile, we were also focusing on bugfixing and polishing of the player actions, vehicle related animations, and item poses. The vehicles now have many advanced animations like switching the lights off and on, using pedals, shifting gears and of course steering.
There are many new things and improvements done on the player animation graph side. One example to speak for all, just recently we have reworked aiming with the flashlight, torch and other items. This was always not very convenient to use because the light was not going in the right direction. From now on though, it works just great! The light beam now aims where you are looking, no matter if the character is standing or moving, so flashlight should be your best friend from now on in dark areas. We have also added a small detail in the form of an animation for switching the flashlight off/on.
- Viktor Kostík / Lead Animator
Dev Update/Filip
Hello everyone. The entire audio team is continuing the work on the overall audio appeal of DayZ, and we've created a range of new and updated game sounds. Let's have a look:
- Filip Čenžák / Sound Designer
Dev Update/Baty
Hey guys,
we separated the Community Spotlight and released it yesterday and I hope you liked it. If you have anything you want to share with the community, tweet it to me and I am going to check it! You can find the latest Community Spotlight here:
