Solopopo

What I want most are dynamic events and AI of all kinds. I want NPC military personnel flying helicopters that can crash with good loot. I want military personnel patrolling some roads, especially military outposts. I want NPC bandits. I want singular roaming AI units with terrifying capabilities, like bears and super zombies. In The WarZ, before it's name changed, there was a swamp in the corner of the map where you could hear a creature screech at night. It was just a placeholder, but at the time I didn't know that, and the fear that I might get run down by some mysterious super monster in the night was intense. Similar to how we can hear wolves howl, we should be able to hear screeches in the distance from these super zombies, and they should be much faster, stronger, louder, and bigger than your average zombie. But in the case of bears I think it would be cool if we only heard the roar right before it's actually about to charge, to increase the surprise and fear factor. It would be pretty cool if these AI units dropped especially rare loot/resources as well. It would also be really cool if all of the AI units had the potential to interact in dynamic ways, even if there are no players present. They should engage zombie hordes that get within range. If a bear wanders into military territory, they may need to take it down. If a helicopter is shot down, military personnel should respond, and any eaves droppers should be able to hear their radio correspondence if they are within ear shot or if they are tuned in with a radio to the right frequency. If military personnel see a player, they should engage accordingly. If you are carrying a weapon at your hip, you should face apprehension. If you raise your weapon in their direction, they should open fire. You should be able to interact with them through the use of gestures, such as raising your hands when told. A DayZ server should be an interesting place even if there aren't any players around. DayZ's biggest problem at the moment is that a server with few players is a wasteland. Player interactivity is surely DayZ's most outstanding feature, but if it is all that it has to offer, and it is right now, that is not enough. We need DayZ to be a game, and not just an empty simulator. It can't be left entirely up to the players to bring the world to life, the world needs to already be alive to attract players and encourage them to take up the role of a survivor. I'd also like to see underground tunnels in DayZ.

Obviously I was wrong. Rub it in more why don't ya.

What did they do?

The calm before the storm, it's driving me crazy. This next status report is going to be huge.

edit: double post

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/199415/infinite-number-of-rationals-between-any-two-reals :P

Don't underestimate the power of the quarter circle cross hair. It is extremely effective if you know how to use it. In arma it is referred to as aim assist, because it actually makes shooting easier and some servers even turn it off for this reason. DayZ's crosshair indicates exactly where your bullet is going to land, regardless of how you are zeroed in. It automatically compensates everything for you. Many people are at first put off by this style of crosshair, but if you put your faith in it, you won't be let down.

That's not really how it works. Technically there are an infinite amount of numbers between any two other numbers, and they are used however developers see fit to represent their progression. Iterations represented by an increase of .01 are usually large or significant changes, but increases of .001 are minor patches. There are often many smaller iterations between the larger ones. Also, the choice of number is for the most part arbitrary, but they adhere to the convention that 1.0 is the finished product, and higher numbers are used to represent newer iterations. Normally 1.0 is referred to as the beta, and the beta is basically the finished product to be tested, but the DayZ devs don't seem to consider beta close enough to the finished product to refer to it as 1.0. They seem to be saving 1.0 for the absolutely finished product.

I never knew animal companions were on their initial roadmap. That's pretty exciting actually.

The only way to win players back is to make DayZ good. The devs, Eugene specifically, have actually said this themselves. Nothing else will bring players back, especially not some flashy marketing campaign with more promises. There is hardly a shred of hype for DayZ at the moment, and any attempts to build it prematurely could potentially be disastrous. The beta, and the later iterations, must be awesome. All other issues aren't just secondary, they are irrelevant.

I think the north and west edges of the map are a bit of an immersion killer. There is a stark right line at the edge of the map where Chenarus stops and the endless waste begins. In Arma 3, the main maps of the game are Islands, so the issue of the map ending isn't as much of a problem. But in Chenarus we are faced with a map that is partially boarded by land, and it needs to end at some point. I think that the line that divides Chenarus from the waste should be made less straight and abrupt. It should be more wavy and natural. It's fine that the map essentially ends there, but the waste itself could be made to look more immersive, while at the same time still being identifiable as edge of the map territory. The edge of the map should be defined by the end of the forest, not a hard right line of terrain texture. I think light foliage should spread across the waste, a different sort of foliage than what we experience in Chenarus, so that we can still distinguish where the map starts and stops, and so that it could be made less resource intensive. We should still be able to tell that we have made it to the edge of the map, but it should at least appear like it isn't really the end. I've developed a habit of using the edge of the map to identify where I am and where to go in certain situations, in particular making my way to Kamensk military base. If the end of the map appeared more like the end of a dense forest, it would be much more immersive traversing it's edge. I don't mean to say that this behavior should be encouraged, but that the game should still hold on to it's realism if a player does. At the moment, few people travel into the waste because they know nothing is out there. But I think the nothingness of the waste could be made to seem more intentional, and players lack of desire to travel into it could be reinforced by story elements that imply the waste is a sort of practically endless desert, perhaps quarantined, one we could walk out into if we wanted, but we would surely starve if we did. I think this would be cool because this is essentially what the waste already is, which could easily be harnessed as a feature instead of a limitation of the game. Even a minor effort to make the edge of the map territory more real would go a long way in making that part of the game more immersive, especially when we are able to fly over it in helicopters. Edit: I am aware that the north edge of the map is supposedly boarded by mountains. This could potentially be used as a way to definitely punctuate the northern waste, a mountain so high that little-bird helicopters can't even fly over it. There isn't a mountain on the west edge of the map though. I don't necessarily think the waste needs a definitive end, but I thought the idea of limiting the maps with mountains was worth mentioning.

Almost no legitimate work was done to DayZ up until the point Dean Hall left development. The decision to implement the Enfusion engine was Bohemia Interactive's first real initiative to make this game a reality. The truth is that this game should not have have been released as an alpha. A new group of people inherited other people's problems, and these people have done a tremendous amount of work to bring us the DayZ everyone wants. On the surface it looks bad, but to say they are lazy at this point is crazy. The reason the game is taking so long to release is because any legitimate attempt to make this game what it needs to be would take a long time, and that's precisely why Dean Hall left. He didn't want to develop DayZ later, he wanted to do it now. He knew it was going to be literally years until he could implement anything he wanted, so he bailed. Meanwhile BI has been doing a massive amount of work Hall wasn't willing to sit through. Either that or they forced him out so they could start getting real work done and fix his disaster piece. We'll probably never know, but we do know that real work is getting done, and a ton at that. Bohemia Interactive has fully embraced DayZ, even going so far as to develop Arma along side it with the same engine. DayZ is no longer just one of their side projects, it's an integral part of their future as a company. For that reason alone it would reasonable to expect DayZ to be what it should be in the near future.

Up until recently, if a player was double carrying with a weapon in hand and on his back, and both weapons were placed on the hotbar, using the hotbar to switch weapons would cause one of the weapons to be knocked off the hotbar. You could get one successful weapon switch without it knocking one off the hotbar, but after the second switch the original weapon that was in the players hands would be knocked off. What does this mean? When you are double carrying primary weapons you can put both in your hotbars now and switch between them without any fear you will drop one. If I'm not mistaken, this change came with .62. I only realized this recently in attempting to show my friend how you can accidentally drop your weapon without noticing and my demonstration didn't work. I just sat there switching my weapons looking like an idiot. Something else I've noticed is that magnums now properly show how many rounds they have chambered on the weapon model. You can tell if a magnum is loaded or not by looking at it's revolving chambers. This was a feature once before but they dumped it along the lines somewhere. I'm not entirely sure if this came with .62, but anyway, it's back now. They also seem to have delayed the death black screen a bit. Recently it seems as if I always see at least a little bit of my death animation before I get the black screen. Thrown items seem to bounce around in a more predictable and expected way now as well. It's still choppy, but I've seen thrown objects collide and bounce in surprisingly realistic ways this patch that I haven't seen before. Anyone else notice any minor changes?

I am not entirely certain, but I don't think open barrels despawn items any quicker than closed ones. All containers in the game have a set amount of time they will hold items without despawning them. I think that as of now, interacting with a container will refresh this time. I remember reading something a few patches back that they had finally implemented this refreshing feature, or that they were at least on the verge of implementing it. I haven't lost any of my stored items. I've had entire tents wiped, but I haven't noticed items vanishing from my containers. For the most part, if the container is still there you can be pretty certain the items are, assuming nothing was stolen from you. Just last night I stumbled upon a military tent I forgot I placed and it still had all my stuff from over a week ago. Just make sure you pick a server that doesn't reset it's persistence very often.

I think the new official servers were a wise move and I feel much more comfortable about the prospect of modding in the future, knowing that the vanilla servers will always be available. This has adressed a concern many veterans have had about the future of dayz for a long time. Great job guys.

Does anyone else feel more confident and excited about the future of DayZ than ever before? We know that .62 and .63 have been worked on by two separate teams, which have now converged to work on .63. If .62 is any indication of the quality of the changes we can expect in .63, I cannot wait to experience them. .62 has addressed a serious issue with DayZ and Arma games in general that has been bothering me since I first started playing, and it is one I never thought the devs would legitimately address. I don't know how many players are aware of this, but grass and foliage has been effectively broken ever since the original DayZ mod. It was possible to gain a pretty significant advantage in PvP by putting your graphics on low, causing the ground foliage to completely disappear, along with any cover it provided. So basically by making your game look like garbage you could gain an edge, which is just crap we can all agree. On Arma servers hosts have attempted to address this issue themselves by forcing at least high object detail on their servers, but it was completely up to them to do this. I have posted about this issue in the past, here and in the feedback tracker. I am overjoyed to see this issue finally taken care of, almost to the point of tears. If they have taken the time to address this issue, literally a year, just imagine the time they have put into everything else. They manually placed 1.7 million trees and who knows how many smaller foliage objects to accomplish this. Another thing I noticed about .62 is that it isn't just the foliage that stays put on low settings now, but the clouds do as well, meaning that everyone is equally hindered by fog and weather. It's not like Battlefield 1 where everyone is subjected to their own unique, and fake, whether. .62 has not only revitalized the visual aesthetics of the world, but has completely redefined how those pretty objects function as part of the game. We are all equally subjected to the elements. We experience the same wind, the same rain, the same fog, the same grass, the same everything. .62 has been a massive step towards making Chenaurus as real as it can be. I am down right flabbergasted by these changes. Please Bohemia Interactive keep doing what you are doing, and don't be deterred by the haters. You are truly treading new territory in game design, and preparing for a us a platform for gaming experiences unlike anything anyone has ever experienced.

Making it so that everyone is equally effected by the elements and the cover it provides is in no way "fluff." DayZ has always provided an advantage to players that reduce their object quality, and that is no longer the case now. They have effectively addressed a problem that has existed since the original mod, and without this change, the game would always be inherently broken. To say this is "fluff" is just absurd, because it is actually the complete opposite. The new trees and foliage have a function. They provide fair and even cover to everyone, no matter their settings, and the way they sway in the wind communicates to the player which way the wind is blowing, which is an important feature of the game, again, by no means "fluff." Aside from the fact that trees and forests are obviously better, the devs have addressed important subtitles in the world that will have a significant impact on how we will play the game, now and in the future. I say that this is the turning point because .62 and .63 are part of the same project. We know .63 is coming for a fact, we know it's beta for a fact, and we know we can expect it reasonably soon because again, .62 and .63 are part of the same project. The last push to beta is intended to be a two pronged approach, so to speak, and the first prong is already in place. This is the turning point because we have been given a glimpse of what beta is. .62 contains everything that was meant for beta that can be implemented as of now. .63 contains everything dependent on the new player controller, as well as some Enfusion powered goodness. Whatever any roadmap says, .63 is confirmed to be beta. 6 months sounds like a reasonable estimate to me, though I hope to be surprised every day. Personally, I am perfectly fine waiting that time with the certainty that it is beta. You should probably take a break. I came back from a long break only a little over a month ago. It rejuvenated me, but at this point I'm considering putting it back down again myself. It helps to make things feel more fresh. As odd as it may sound, appreciate this time now. These forums, and this game, will never be the same again in only a short while. Edit: I think it's kind of funny that no one, including myself, has brought up the new weapon sway, which is also a significant change, and likely emblematic of what the sway in .63 will be, again considering that .62 and .63 have been done together. The devs have spoken a lot about avoiding "doing things twice." Unless they made an exception for .62, being that it is the last patch before beta, it's not unreasonable to expect the sway in .62 to carry straight over to .63.

Well there really are no birds, just bird sounds. I'm hoping to see actual birds flying around soon, but no, I don't think it's over the top, at least not everywhere. There are certain areas that are much louder than others. The area I am at currently is relatively quite.

I like the idea of being able to push yourself beyond your limits at a penalty. The devs have talked a lot about "soft skills," three skills the player improves at by doing them, including stamina, medical, and cooking. I think it would be cool if proper management of your stamina increased your stamina level. If you take care of yourself, you get rewarded. If you push yourself beyond your stamina limit, you begin to incur various penalties. I think players should be given a reason to sometimes walk instead of run, aside from stealth alone. If stamina management could be made into a game, it could break up the monotony of long journeys. A player with a higher stamina level could have a higher chance of waking up from being unconscious, and more time to run away before falling unconscious from injuries. I think players should be made more resilient by taking care of themselves. I'd also like to see separate levels of run speed, which could be attained from improved stamina and proper footwear. Damaged feet means hindered speed. I think it would be very cool if healthy and properly clothed players could run down less healthy and prepared players with less effort. I think it would be a very cool and scary experience to see a group of geared players and know they not only out gear you but are also faster and stronger than you. I think fresh spawns should have their run speed reduced, and I think the max player speed attainable should be less fast than the current run speed, meaning that despite the various levels of speed, no one can run as fast as players can now. Currently players run entirely too fast, to the point that it reduces the realism and quality of player vs. player combat.

Please refrain from posting erroneous information. There are numerous accounts and videos online of players in ghillies not being seen by people right in front of them. A simple google search brings up many such examples. I did not say that the previous ghillie was perfect, nor is this topic about that ghillie. I said players failed to spot it, and they did. Maybe you were good enough to spot every old ghillie you saw, but you cannot claim they weren't effective in open fields because that's objectively false. Regardless, they are only better now.

Somebody had to say it.

Yeah, a totally visible bush. Even before this patch people failed to pick out ghillies that weren't moving.

Regardless, this only applies to the foliage, not the new small natural objects that have been added, of which there are very many. It is relatively inconsequential that the foliage dosen't render at range now, because they have taken other measures to ensure players can cover themselves at range. I still wish that it would render further too, but server hosts will likely have the option to boost it up if they choose. The base game is more stable for more players this way, and all players will be able to use cover they see either way. It isn't perfect, but .62 is a massive leap in the right direction in regard to cover that's visible to the player providing equal advantage, and disadvantage, to everyone.

It does stop rendering at a certain distance, which I think is actually 200 meters. But the ground foliage was not the only change. This patch seems to have been focused on improving how well we can use natural objects as cover. It is no coincidence the patch came with a new ghillie suit to match the world, which was featured in the .62 showcase. Whereas foliage provides much better cover close up, trees provide much better cover at range. There are also many more small natural objects that do not dissappear until you are as far as your object distance is set, like trees. The new color changes and ambient sound also contribute to making stealth more feasible as well. As of .62, all of the nature in the game can effectively be used as cover at all ranges within reason. I have tested this for hours in multipe environments with enemy players present. Please do check for yourself.

I might get flamed for this but don't waste your time playing legitimately on public servers when there are players server hopping all over the place to take all that good loot you are running hours to get to. On private servers if you make the journey, you get the goods, generally speaking. Public servers tend to be more active in terms of player interaction and PvP encounters, but many of the players you encounter will be geared to the teeth from server hoping on other servers, and even exploiting on their own public servers they own (don't kill the messenger guys, I don't like it any more then you do.) On private servers people are generally much more stealthy, and it also seems like there is a lot more kos, because everyone you see ran pretty far to get where they are and they looted their stuff legitimately. It's not uncommmon to go without seeing a player for over an hour on private servers. Note: Official public servers were broken away from the rented public hive, meaning there is no exploiting on those servers, but they are not as popular as they should be right now because there isn't an effective way to filter for these servers yet. That is coming in the next update.