repzaj1234

Server owners will now be able to customize animal and infected spawns on the fly on the DayZ Server Exp\mpmissions\dayzOffline.chernarusplus\env folder. With that being said, I am releasing my completely revamped zombie_territories.xml file to the community. What was wrong with the default config: Spawn points in the middle of nowhere, remote places with only a couple houses spawning 7-13 zombies. (A huge waste of server resources) The different types of infected (InfectedIndustrial, InfectedPolice, InfectedMedic, InfectedReligious, InfectedFirefighter) all had copied and pasted spawn values. They all spawn the same amount of infected regardless of location. The hospital in Cherno spawns the same amount of InfectedMedics as a small clinic in a remote village. Cherno Police Station spawns the same amount of InfectedPolice as a tiny village police station. There was no thought given to it and again a LOT of server resources are getting wasted. A lot of spawn points were just straight up not in the right location. Their coordinates were off, or they were placed to the side (Explains why you see a lot of infected wandering in the fields instead of the actual villages/towns) Almost 80% of villages and small towns have no spawn variety and spawn the same number of infected (7-13). Again, regardless of location. The default config is spawning infected in a HUGE radius (100+ meter radius). This is why we don't see infected in dense numbers. They're always too far spread out with already little numbers spawning. What is different with my config: I have hand combed through EVERY spawn point and adjusted their values up/down corresponding to their location, adjusted their spawn radiuses, gave them better placement. Spawn points now have their location commented on them. You will see a reduction in the InfectedVillage, InfectedIndustrial, InfectedSolitude zombie types. Basically slightly less infected in villages, small towns, industrial areas and one-off hermit houses. These areas are low risk = low reward. The extra infected I have saved have been relocated to major cities, high traffic areas and end-game military camps. Cities appear more infested and military areas are actually dangerous and feel like end-game areas. You will have to sneak, distract or plain old wait for the infected to clear in some areas. If you fire a gun be prepared to fight incoming hordes or get the hell out. High risk = high reward. Slightly lowered spawn radiuses so zombie count would appear more dense. Tweaked almost every spawn point's coordinates for better placement. Added a higher variability to certain spawn points so that every trip to a location feels different. (ie, a spawn point will dynamically spawn anywhere from 3-12 infected). A location won't always be infested or empty. This was made with server stability in mind. There should be minimal impact to server performance as I merely optimized numbers that did not make sense and relocated the spawns. I did not blindly increase numbers and spam new spawn points. Added a few entirely new spawn points placed in once barren locations the devs never bothered with. For comparison, here is my config. And this is B.I.'s default config. I suggest opening it with Notepad++ And some photos of course. My main gripe with the game was how little zombies actually impacted the game or influenced your gameplay. This changes all of that and makes the game an actual zombie survival game. The devs have given us the tools to handle them in the last few patches, zombie dispersion upon losing visual, 1 hit sneak attacks, melee attacks using firearms and most recently, throwing to distract infected. Now go and actually utilize them! 🙂 Installation Any server owners that want to try it once EXP hits stable just copy and paste the contents of my config into zombie_territories.xml within DayZ Server Exp\mpmissions\dayzOffline.chernarusplus\env. If you don't like it, just paste back the default config and restart your server. Please let me know of any bugs, issues or performance impact this brings as I have only been able to test it on my LAN server. You might have to up "ZombieMaxCount" in globals.xml if you are not seeing spawns. I highly suggest following DUG's steps and nerfing zombie drop rate to discourage zed farming. Events.xml tweaks Refer to this guide (https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/9mr7fm/infected_spawn_research_server_files/) for what the parameters do. Under event name=InfectedCity, InfectedArmy, InfectedSolitude, InfectedIndustrial and InfectedVillage you will have to change <distanceradius> to 0.1. This allows spawn points to trigger close to each other. If anyone wants to customize it to their liking, it's very easy but it takes TIME. This took me hours of combing through every spawn point Legend: Minimum zombie spawn = smin + dmin Maximum zombie spawn = smax + dmax X and Z are the map coordinates. (You can paste them on IZurvive) R is the radius (in meters) of where they can spawn. Locations are commented on the side. smin/smax = static amount of zombies, they will always spawn even if a player isn't near. Better to keep these low. dmin/max = dynamic amount of zombies, these will spawn based on player proximity to the area, gunshots and other possible factors. Shoutout to Sumrak for making this happen! This was inspired by his Namalsk Status update showing off infected density

They should just take out the directional hit marker but keep the screen effects tbh. They need to massively improve the quality of screen effects though as they do not look good right now. They should implement screen effects + sound cues for a variety of different situations (Screen effects similar to this + gasping sound cue while in toxic zones without a gas mask, occasional screen effects when nearly dead from hunger/thirst, being shot, being hit by infected, being bit by a wolf/bear, being winded by emptying the stamina bar, while extremely cold/hot etc etc). The dev team should play around in Metro Exodus if they haven't already. That game has the most immersive screen and sound effects I've seen.

It's nice that food is scarce now in Vanilla but what is up with the health drain rate being universal? It seems like the HP drain rate is the same across every negative status. If you're red thirst or red hunger orvery cold or very hot, the health drain rate feels very very similar. It should take longer to die of starvation than thirst. Keep the food resources scarce but the "desperation" time trying to look for food needs to be longer. I was playing this weekend with two of my cousins (First timers) and I saw them die again and again from hunger even if I told them not to sprint. The duration it takes to die from hunger just seems really fast right now. Longer hunger desperation time and scarcer food should make the game feel more natural. Albeit, this is during the free weekend so there's a lot more players fighting for supplies along the coast but I still feel the duration to die from hunger needs to be longer than what it is now. Nevermind, I just played again today after the free weekend. It's just the additional hunger/thirst penalty when your character is cold that feels like it drains you too fast. It can be nerfed a little bit since you're already at risk of getting a fever/cold when you're cold/wet and your health starts dropping if you've been cold for too long already. Fruits and vegetables needs some rebalancing too. I ate 6 slices of pumpkin and my hunger didn't even reach yellow coming from red (Not blinking red). Their stats need a little buff and to compensate, increase the time it takes for crops to grow to 30m-45m. Fat also needs a calorie stat reduction for balancing purposes as a single slab of fat can keep you fed til NWAF territories.

First off, congrats to Sumrak for the promotion. It puts me at ease knowing the lead of the project will truly turn this game more towards survival and is a passionate fan of the game. The dude loves survival games like The Long Dark which I know he'll use for inspiration to better PvE/Survival in this game. It is sad that the dev team has been cut to post-release support levels when this game clearly isn't on that phase yet. This reality is a kick in the gut for us that truly love DayZ, because this thing is my dream game. Knowing that it won't live up to its true potential is pretty disheartening. I won't bring up the obvious things missing here, but I'm pretty disappointed that there's no mention of improving infected in general. I'm not talking about simply crunking up their spawn values, but making them an actual threat in this game. This is what I've been waiting for, ever since the announcement for DayZ Standalone 7 years ago. Infected being an actual threat will change the feel of this game significantly compared to other survival features/polishing and with the team being this limited in numbers, we're looking for "bang for your buck" changes. What needs to be tweaked? Well, we need to take away the easy way outs against infected. 1. Jumping on top of low hanging objects gives you an instant safe space from infected. Infected should be able to follow you on top of car roofs, dumpsters, low walls, sand crates(?) etc. If improving their climbing AI is too much of a task, give them an upwards swinging attack. 2. Not every building should be an instant safe space from infected. If giving them the ability to break down doors is too much of a task, randomize doors or change certain structures so that some of them have busted doors that can't be opened/closed. 3. Make the initial scream when infected spot you attract other infected from a slightly larger distance. That initial scream is so loud but infected that are only a few feet away don't even bat an eye. The huge spawn radiuses set in the zombie territories file don't help either. The community already knows that hordes and more infected in general isn't a possibility with how server performance is, this will at least make them a threat even with the current low numbers coupled with the tweaks in this list. It will also put more emphasis into sneaky gameplay, utilize sneak 1 shot kills, throwing distractions etc. Makes for more tactical gameplay when dealing with zeds. All I want is for infected to become somewhat of a threat, right now they are just an annoyance. My main gripe with the game was how little zombies actually impacted the game or influenced your gameplay. The devs have given us the tools to handle them in the last few patches, zombie dispersion upon losing visual, 1 hit sneak attacks, melee attacks using firearms and throwing to distract infected. We can handle them being tough.

Nooo, why? Is this a planned feature that needs more work? We need ittt

There's usually a guy on reddit that combs through the server files for the changes that the devs don't include in the changelogs lol, I'd wait for that post. There's a lot of pleasant surprises not included in changelogs.

Can't wait to see it. Props to Derleth for bringing it up before, and thanks for actually listening devs.

Hell yes, I've been waiting for Notes for a very long time. I'm pumped.

"With 2020 around the corner, we are finishing our new roadmap, and we will share our goals, highlight the key updates, and talk a bit about this second year of post-release support, in January." - This announcement should be coming out next week yeah? Running out of days in January. Good news on that fix. Hopefully both the fix and announcement come sometime next week.

This is B.I.'s best selling game ever, that just got out of alpha literally a year ago after 6? years in development? It would be a damn shame if they abandon it now when it's so close. But eh, at the end of the day they already got their money. I'm just waiting for that roadmap to see if they're going to set the bar low and realistic or if they actually promise on some much awaited features.

Depending on where you're located, in my opinion DayzDownUnder is hands down the best one (That actually has a decent player count) and I've played on many. Hardcore survival/PvE is the most important thing for me in DayZ. They are located in Australia though, I'm on the US west coast and I get 150-170 ping there.

This might be a question for all you server owners/admins or the devs... just how much does radio broadcasting affect server performance? or does it even affect it at all? Will tripling the range of broadcast have more performance costs because it broadcasts to a wider area? I just find it baffling how extremely underutilized radios are in DayZ. I've had maybe 2 or 3 moments where I heard another soul on the radio in my 400ish hours. They should be more common in police and military areas (you could sneak them inside clothing) with the occasional spawn in residential buildings. Their battery consumption needs to be reduced by more than 50% as most people would opt to use batteries for more useful things. I would love to leave a radio that's on with an empty backpack (preferably with a piece of paper with a notes written inside the backpack).

I don't think they'd be a struggle 1v1 even with that 2 second window where you catch your breath after depleting all your stamina. Most infected can be 1 shotted with a precisely timed heavy attack (Which I think only consumes 1/4 of the stamina bar?) or 2-4 light attacks which shouldn't drain your stamina at all. But yeah, I feel like melee PvP would benefit from this more than infected melee combat but will definitely improve both. Tbh I've just kinda resigned with the idea of getting more infected spawns cause high population servers with multiple persistent objects and bases and cars just can't seem to handle it. I think the best way to make infected a threat is to take away all the shortcuts against them. Don't get me wrong, I wish we can just crank up the numbers. I tried. But being completely honest, I think they're going to up the max number of players before they increase infected population. Namalsk supposedly is going to be way smaller than Livonia and Chernarus but with the same amount of infected so I'm excited for that.

You hit the nail on the head about server performance limiting what the game can be. Hopefully the devs can improve performance somehow. Good points about infected. My main gripe with them too is melee combat against them is a spamfest and requires no skill (if you choose to do it that way). If you spam the light melee attack on ANY weapon, the infected can't even get an attack off. You get off scratch free as long as you do 1v1 and even though you completely deplete your stamina you can still spam it . If anyone's played Chivalry Medieval Warfare, on that game if you completely deplete your stamina spamming attacks there's a 2 second period where you struggle to catch your breath, your weapons lower and your vision narrows and you can't attack or block. Melee fights would be more drawn out and not complete spamfests. Overencumbered survivors will be at a disadvantage against someone who travels light. Attacks would have to be somewhat timed. Could be a step in the right direction to improving melee combat. Make it happen devs 🙂

3 Main threats in DayZ: 1. Other survivors - ✓ 2. Hunger and thirst - ✓ 3. Infected - nope. Last puzzle piece to the PvE dilemma.

All I'm waiting for is a melee combat rework and infected polishing. I hope those two are part of your early 2020 goals. Probably 90% of infected kills are done via melee combat. Improving both these aspects will make the game a hell of a lot smoother. - Introduce a blocking sound indicator so it actually feels like you're blocking attacks. - Infected somehow ending up behind you as you attack really needs to get taken care of. - Different melee weapons should have different properties (Sledgehammer having a higher chance of KOing somebody, sharp weapons bleed you out faster) - Infected climbing AI really needs to get improved. They should be able to hop on car hoods and follow you up there or at least have an upwards swinging attack so that jumping on top of low hanging objects isn't an instant safe space from infected anymore. - Give infected the ability to bash doors open after a reasonable amount of time OR if that's too complicated to implement, randomize the doors in buildings so that some buildings have broken doors that can't be interacted with. That way, not every building can be a safe space from infected. DayZ as a survival game is really coming along, hopefully these things are on the priority list for the dev team. Happy holidays!

Oof, this screams one of those "let's just turn this off to save server performance" tweaks. I'd like to join this petition cause this does not make sense at all. Sigh, at the end of the day, it's really server performance that holds back this game. Make a solution for the piled up bodies in the coast that commit suicide, maybe it'll free up performance.

I finally got a chance to play 1.06 this weekend. The feel of the game has really changed, more towards survival I'd say and it's awesome. The pace of the game has slowed down in the early game at the coast. The hunger drain is pretty manageable, although I think it drains too fast when you're cold. The penalty for sprinting is perfect imo. If you're planning on sprinting your way out of the coast, you better have supplies with you. The current balance is not perfect but I'd say they're in the right direction with making the game more survival focused. The inventory somehow got worse and server performance seems to be going to shit because of the 1 hour dead body timer. Trust me, I've wanted that timer to be increased for so long now but maybe all the suicides are bogging down the server? Maybe script it where if a player's total time alive is less than 15 minutes they despawn in 5 minutes or something. Couple of things, my ass was saved from starvation by chickens basically. With the food reduction, hunting has reached peak importance. Animal AI needs a huge detection radius buff. Hunting chickens in DayZ is literally jogging right up to a chicken, getting a punch in before their AI even reacts to you. If you're not stealthy enough and spook a chicken, you'll have to give chase.And depending on how many infected are nearby, might be a pretty bad idea. Also give us the ability to hold a dead chicken with our hands pls. I don't have enough experience hunting other wildlife but in general they feel like they are all 3 seconds behind with their reactions. Cows, sheep and goat need to be more cautious and flee IF you sprint up to them and spook em, walking slowly towards them would be the only way to not startle them which ofc can expose you to other survivors. The meat yield for animals other than the chicken could use a slight nerf (20-30% reduction in the amount of steaks). Idk, just things that would make hunting not so much a walk in the park and somewhat of a challenge if you fuck up. Another OP thing to avoid starvation is human fat. If cooked I believe is the same as having 4 meat steaks in one item and no chance for sickness(?). Take fat away from dead bodies, leave the human steaks that can give uncontrollable laughter. Infected seem more responsive. When they're in an aggressive state they emit more noise that attract other infected now, looks like their noise detection radius was increased. Disappointed to see their AI still can't figure out how to hit you even when you're just jogging slowly in a straight line. All in all, it's coming together very slowly. Hopefully 1.07 continues the survival focused trend. I'm thinking the survival polishing that Sumrak is doing with Namalsk also makes its way to the base game.

Does that thing where if the sound of a car aggros zombies, they just kind of clump up beside it and never lose aggro even if you're 3 meters away jogging back and forth? I've had that happen multiple times on 1.05 where they're like moths to a flame.

I saw a video on Reddit where zombies looked to "horde up" a lot more in 1.06. https://v.redd.it/nq9s5n403w241 Looks like a single infected got alerted, went into an aggroed state and I think they made infected in that aggroed state emit noise that other infected AI are attracted to. At least that's what I think is happening. I don't remember this behavior ever happening for previous builds. One of those nice little surprises not included in patch notes. Either way, good job on improving infected. Still a lot to polish and clean up but it's a start! Please improve their climbing AI/give them an upwards reaching attack for 1.07. And if possible, give some buildings shattered doors so not every building is an instant safe zone or yknow give them the ability to break down doors. Only then will infected be a legitimate threat in DayZ.

Comparing those screenshots are just night and day. I hope a better balance can be found by the devs. I think it'd really make a difference with the number of people that leave servers at night and the overall playability of night time. The main problem with nights right now is navigation/exploration is really off-putting, it gets you squinting at your damned screen all the damn time because all you can make out is the 5 meter radius around you that has the night light effect and players don't really use light sources anymore because everyone just puts up with using the night light even though it detracts from the whole night experience.

Those screenshots look beautiful. With the state of nights lately, the devs should just commit to something. Either go full casual and bring back nights like those screenshots (No one really uses light sources anymore in this build anyway, and switching to brighter nights like that might actually keep people playing at night) OR bring back pitch black nights. I wonder if it's even possible to somehow randomize how bright the nights are with the moon, that would be a middle ground compromise between casual and hardcore... but that might be too complex.

Dang, the complete opposite answers we would've wanted. Animals really do need to get polished. Chicken awareness is like 5 seconds delayed, you're right up on them and they still haven't reacted to you and they're far too slow. And really, animals fleeing aren't really fleeing. I tried walking up to a sheep and clobbering it with my sledgehammer, I hit him and he fled for like 10 meters or so and just stopped like nothing happened so I hit him again and killed it. All the devs really need to do is take away the easy way outs from hunger and zombies and this'll start feeling like an actual survival game again, please consider these as actual priorities for 1.07 dev team.

I always play on private hive community servers but damn, official is straying farther and farther from what DayZ is supposed to be these days. Although, people have been rushing to military bases and running back to Cherno/Elektro to PvP and kill bambis since the mod days in 2012. The devs just made it easier for them cause now they don't even have to run back to the coast. What a damn shame. This can't be the "fix" for duping if it ruins the starting experience for DayZ. The coast experience / early game should be punishing survival/PvE wise. You spawn face down near the shore, the screen eye effect for regaining consciousness plays and you wake up. Nothing but rags and a glowstick in your pockets. You need something to drink soon but the coastal cities and towns are littered with infected that are deadly (Can climb more objects, can break down doors). A decent chunk of houses and some buildings can have doors that have been breached so not all buildings can provide safety from infected. Food should be extremely scarce starting off where being fully fed and having multiple food items stored away is a luxury not everyone can be lucky to have. It really just needs to be where people aren't just running around fully fed and hydrated, without a care and worry in the world. If all the necessities for survival are easy to come by, you don't need to rely on nobody. Right now, if you interact with another player on the coast it doesn't even come to you to ask if they can trade food/water/medical supplies/etc because everyone is either good, or not even thinking about it cause it's not something to worry about. Stumbling into another player when you're dying of hunger/thirst, disease or while getting overwhelmed by groups of infected tends to create more interesting first time interactions. Most of em' can turn into random impromptu adventures rather than those "Hello my friend" I'm actually just waiting for you to turn your back so I can kill you encounters. The thrill you get from PvP in DayZ has been unmatched since 2012. No other game can make my heart pound like DayZ during firefights. The challenge from PvE and survival just needs to catch up.

I recently tried the Exclusion Zone map, I had the itch to explore new places after Livonia's free weekend. One thing that stood out to me was that you can actually encounter wolves in the early game in this map. I stumbled upon a military camp with just a melee weapon with me, as I was headed out I got ambushed by a pack of wolves. They are not a joke when you only have a melee weapon. They are also hard to shake off if you run out of buildings to hide in. In Chernarus, wolves mostly spawn along the corners of the map or the very far north, by the time players reach these parts most are already decently geared with at least a viable gun/enough bullets to defend themselves with. With the addition of bears to Chernarus I think some wolf pack spawns can be relocated and spread out more... Some of them lingering on the outskirts of small remote towns. Lone wolf spawns placed in this early-mid game zone would make a huge difference imo. Even having one wolf stalk you when you only have a baseball bat or a chambered gun is pretty scary and challenging. Wolf steak drops will need a nerf. Honestly, meat yield on all animals except the chicken needs a nerf or at least buff the detection radius of animal AI. Hunting is a walk in the park right now, you can literally jog up to a chicken a just punch it for an easy meal. PvE in general just needs some love. When hunger, dehydration, zombies and predators actually pose a threat it'll really change the feel of this game towards survival and away from a drawn out battle royale. I mean think about your last playthrough, what's the percentage of your playtime that was spent engaging in PvP? Probably less than 10%. Majority of play time spent on DayZ is spent on PvE, show it some love devs. Take away the easy way outs against zombies, polish their climbing AI so players can't just hop on top of low objects to avoid them. Give them the ability to break down small doors OR have random houses have open doorways where the door was broken into. Buff their visual detection and buff the aggro scream they make so it attracts other infected further out. When they are in the "aggressive state" they need to generate more noise that can draw in other infected so players need to dispose of them quickly. From what I saw in Livonia and EXP, zombie spawns are getting cleaned up which is really appreciated. It just sucks cause this game is clearly being held back by server performance. Other survivors can already be pretty harsh, the game itself just needs to catch up.