scriptfactory

Is this being done for performance reasons?

Without the fog of war you would have access to all information about your opponents current status but not his plans. It reduces the amount of cheap strategies available to players and forces more focus on micro-management (effective unit control), resource management (more efficient priotization is possible) and defense (reducing waste). Reducing the fog of war for a single player is somewhat equivalent to the strategy of using invisible scouts. This is a real strategy in SC2 and you have to plan for this possibility in actual matches. You don't cry for the units to get removed or nerfed... well, I guess weak players do that.

I used to play a lot of SC2 (Gold at my highest). At the lower levels of play strategies such as the "Zerg Rush" and "Dark Templar Rush" are more utitlized. They are risky but since the level of opponent is so low it is easy to get away with risky shit. At higher levels of play you have learned to send out scouts to acquire information and react to certain cues that virtually render these strategies non-viable. Your opponent is required to play more defensively. It seems to me the same reasoning can be applied to DayZ. Knowing information about your opponent and guessing what information they know about you is present in both 1PP and 3PP. The difference to me seems to be the difference between scouting and not scouting. You could argue that this causes "bad gameplay" but you haven't, yet, presented a logical argument for your case.

Frostbite 2, UE 4 and VBS all support procedural foliage/trees/rocks/etc. To be honest, this could be built into virtually every single game engine with enough time/resources. I am not sure what this has to do with server-side performance. The way to balance multiple display settings is through a functional LOD system. I'm not sure what this has to do with undergrowth or additive/subtractive graphics.

The Witcher is built on a modern game engine. Sorry but I doubt SA will ever look like this.

Off-topic kinda' but: Have you read the book "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior"? They say it is normal to value items that you have already invested time or effort into much higher than their actual value. This is not necessarily a good thing. http://m.friendfeed-media.com/0291a25eb200c000199e9d00dc0a524ac1d843ed

Doesn't choosing the path of least effort make sense in most cases? I'm not sure why you would want to create extra effort without a specific purpose...

They could revert to a client-based style of loot spawn and it would provide the exact same effect (e.g. A3 Breaking Point mod.) The CLE is being implemented to control loot spawns across ALL servers, not one in particular and not for a single user. I feel like you are trying to make arguments for the CLE without realizing there are other ways of simulating exactly this type of system.

Couldn't the exact same effect be achieved by deactivating certain items in the older server-controlled loot spawn tables? They would just have to say something like, "We are adding crafted clothing so all other clothing will be disabled for this patch period."

I am a member of DUG. I play both 1pp and 3pp. This topic, however, is about making 1pp mandatory. I feel like I am missing something.

I have moments where I do present myself as being extremely positive or negative. IRL I'm mostly a funny, happy asshole guy. Due to the current state of this game I do make too many negative comments... I'm sorry for that. I will try to present my viewpoints in a more positive and motivating way. :) <-- see that smiley face The sole argument presented for the removal of 3PP mode is that there is a PvP advantage given to campers. Based on this information I concluded that this must be the main motivation behind the push to get rid of 3PP-mode. People are complaining that it isn't fair. If I am wrong please let me know.

No one plays 1PP. It is not popular for various reasons. 1PP players are sick of playing alone but have created a mental crutch for themselves that says if they play on 3PP servers the reason they are getting killed is because other people can peek. It's total bullshit, of course, but some people like to blame their deaths on anything but themselves. The best fix for all of this is to add the new 3PP camera view to 1PP servers. First-person servers might actually get played on if that happened.

I tested it briefly and got much higher performance in Berenzino (~30 fps) but there was also no loot and no zombies so maybe that is why.

1PP needs to go away because it is not popular and not used. Instead, add the restricted 3PP camera on 1PP servers and revert the name to "Hardcore" mode. Add extra features like restricted UI, limited loot and increased environmental threats so it is actually hardcore.

Sorry, I meant to link the 3 month view. what happened in the beginning of April? Pretty sure that is when Hicks was like, "I don't care if everyone quits."

I read that frustration is a dominant cause of aggression. The quickest way to start a riot is to give people hope and then let them down. He should have just written about the current progress on those two critical issues.

I don't think players are quitting because hunting, farming and fishing were added. I think people quit because they can't find food, a gun and bullets. The game has always been a clunky-ass desync-fest and yet it was still fun. Humans love extrinsic motivation. This is why most games have points and achievements for everything. This is why 99% of games have win conditions. DayZ SA has no progression. No win conditions. No achievementa. No leaderboard. The only extrinsic motivator in this game is loot. This game is, literally, men playing dress-up and sometimes murdering each other. If you take away the loot what is left? Farming is not fun.

You mean quit. Players quit the game. 7 Days to Die has more players currently... If this was the plan then it is totally working.

The new 3PP camera view should be implemented on first person-only servers. Then Bohemia can do A/B testing to see which view players enjoy more. To be honest, I feel 1PP-only mode needs to go away. It was a mistake to create a second (unpopular) game mode instead of fixing the 3PP camera when close to walls, IMO.

I would hate it. 1PP mode in DayZ SA is the worst implementation I have seen in a while due to 1) FoV problems (high fov = shitty view distance, low fov = instance sickness), 2) poor client performance (causing motion sickness for me, personally) and 3) the unfluid movements of the character controller/entity (feels like driving a fucking tank). After 1PP mode is fixed more people will start playing it.

On my current job we are, occasionally, asked to develop features that seem simple enough to a project owner but actually have a huge cost. In these cases we simply leave placeholder features in place and return focus to our minimum viable product. It seems to me that both the CLE and item persistence are two such time sinks. Do the benefits of a central loot economy and persistence of all items on a server really add that much to gameplay at the current stage of development? Aren't the estimates for these two features way over their development "time-box"? Would it make sense to: Implement the CLE at a later stage of development... ...and persist a more limited set of items (i.e. backpacks, tents, world storage) until the time can be found to create a version of item persistence that doesn't require a weekly wipe?... I would really like to see barricading and soft skills in Q3 and at the current rate of development it just doesn't seem feasible...

I thought this is what was meant by "soft skills" in the DayZ roadmap. If it isn't referring to passive skills I don't know what else.

Passive skills could be based on the idea that survival (e.g. time, health and gear) is the only progression in DayZ. All characters must be able to improve all skills.Characters should have one learned skill and a few innate skills. This would make certain characters valuable for their learned skillset.Current skill values should increase as characters age. Since skills are based on player age they are lost on death.The base skill values could be generated (perhaps using your GUID as a seed) and static (they never change).Since character values are static and progress automatically no in-game UI is necessary. Over time you will learn what your character is good at.Learned skill ideas (e.g. jobs)Medical: Greatly increased healing effect on self and others. Can craft medical kit at max age.Architect: Greatly reduced barricading and base construction times. Can build code locks at max age.Engineer: Greatly reduced lockpicking time. Can repair firearms, military gear and tools to "Pristine" at max age.Farmer: Greatly increased crop yield. Greatly reduced tilling and crop growing times. Can domesticate cows and horses for transportation or food (milk).Mechanic: Greatly reduced vehicle repair and construction times. Can build a Bicycle at max age.Woodsman: Increased wood, leather and meat (butchering) yields. Greatly reduced crop yield. Greatly increased crop growing times. Can craft recurve bow at max age.Fireman: Always have Strength innate skill. Can craft Fireaxe.Innate skill ideas (e.g. physical character properties)Running: Slightly increased stamina and run speed. Slightly decreased carrying capacity.Aiming: Slightly reduced weapon sway and increased breath holding times.Jumping: Slightly increased jump height and distance.Strength: Slightly increased carrying capacity and melee damage. Slightly decreased stamina.Resilience: Slightly increased resistance to disease, poison and hunger damage.

@Ebrim: In my experience "feature freeze" refers to the fact that no new features will be added and all features, hopefully, exist with at least placeholder functionality. "Feature complete" means that all features are implemented with their intended functionality even if there are bugs. Scope creep during an alpha is a recipe for disaster. Disclaimer: I am not a game developer but I am an experienced programmer for a F2P game publisher. I understand there is often a difference between typical software development and game development. For instance, alpha testers are normally given a requirement document so they can compare intended features to their current implementation. I just feel, personally, it is disingenuous to state that the DayZ dev cycle is normal. Also, I am a DayZ fan. I wasn't trying to insinuate that they are wrong BECAUSE they are fans. I just wanted to say that this is the first place I have heard this. The testing phase isn't where the primary implementation of features should take place. Edit: sorry for all of the typos. On my phone.

Alpha and beta typically are the last two testing phases of a project after core development has already been completed. Alpha is normally internal and beta is normally external but they fulfill the exact same requirements. Black box testing of an almost-finished software product. Why would I lose the "fan" terminology? I've only heard DayZ fans repeating this nonsense about adding features during an alpha and content during a beta. That is 100% bullshit in a typical dev. cycle.