OrganGrinder

Numbers always spike with releases. I think the more relevant numbers are the ones just before a release - it shows how many dedicated players there are... which has dropped dramatically since 0.57. I'm glad to see people coming back though - its a good sign what with all the toxicity in the player-base lately. Hope they/we (myself included) stick around.

Agreed Jonathan - these environmental pressures -- IF they are put in -- are what will make this game legendary in the end.

Got it. I don't see much in the video that is wildly beyond the capacities of the game. Zeds hear noises and look in the direction of them before deciding what to do. Animal AI already has alert-levels built in (relaxed, cautious, alert, fleeing) and animals already are in herds and move as herds, so pack movements shoudln't be a stretch. Sure, it was a carefully composed set of interactions in the vid but it is a far cry from something that "will never play that way" IMO. It will prolly take a while to get there though, I'll give you that.

So you think this video is more like those production-quality, fan-driven Minecraft vids? Seems to me it would more of a PITA to make one of those than to just wait until you had enough in development to show a sandboxed WIP (as stated). All the other WIP vids (i.e. new guns, vehicles, buildings, zombie AI) proved to be almost exactly what was eventually released. These are not PR videos.

My wife is a vet and had to cut one open yesterday because it chewed up a tuna can and swallowed the jagged pieces. Enough said.

Oh please, I hope so!! Zeds too. me too. I'm at work and it could have been very embarrassing had anyone witnessed it. ;)

I remember a vehicle I was in being chased by a pack of about 10 feral dogs on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. Chased us for more than half a mile. They had a sinister look in their eyes too. We had been walking around in the area for hours before too... one of those "I just escaped death" moments.

Whyherro -- all valid points regarding behavior. I'd be shocked if they fine tuned it enough for all the scenarios you mention as animal AI is not the focus of the game, but I bet they will make a yeoman's effort to put some of that in. The devs did state that they wanted to invest in animal AI... hopefully this was not them blowing the whole wad at once. I think wolves would be a prominent predator in this environment, and I think feral dogs would be present but in time would be taken out by wolves. Interbred possibly, but I don't know the rate of instance of this occurring. It does happen with Coyotes frequently (coy-dogs) but not sure Coyotes exist in this type of region (i.e. Ukraine). Look at Chernobyl as a case study - the wolves became the top predator there, and I'm sure there were all kinds of dogs left to fend for themselves during the evacuation. Can't recall if dogs are prominent a feature in current-day Chernobyl's biota... does anyone know the answer to that? And yes, DeathLove - I too suspect they will start out annoyingly simple-minded and too much in attack mode. Too bad we can't climb trees in game :P. Anyhow, looking forward to checking out the new release. I took a long, needed break from the game and wanted an excuse to get back.

(from Stable 0.58 thread: https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/228363-stable-branch-058-discussion/page-59#entry2305718) BEHOLD! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to3x7B14D1U Damn they're fast!

To stable... Pretty much, yes. Some significant changes are currently in experimental and should be here some time in the near future. BI has changed their release strategy to have changes spend more time in experimental in order to make stable... well, more stable. This is presumably behind the long pause on stable branch that nobody seems to be very content with. It gives the appearance that development has stopped and has driven away many previously dedicated players. Risky strategy IMO at this still-early point in development. Makes me wonder if people would just prefer the frequent changes & updates even if it comes with flagrant bugs. *sigh*

Ask Steam really nicely. Saying "Pretty Please?" might not hurt.

in 25 years I'm expecting a holodeck version of this "legacy" game... where my legs break on the fire station stairs or I'm trapped under the floor of a house. :P

That. And my son started playing just before the zombies were removed and zeds were integral to why was hooked (he is intimidated by PvP and is too young to appreciate PvE). He and I both won't play until they are back. Honestly I'm a bit peeved they took away our co-gaming experience - one of the few games our tastes overlapped. But that's my issue, not BI's. Well, that almost sounds like wisdom :thumbsup: , meaning I found myself immediately agreeing but had to think about it a few moments to really understand.

My sentiments exactly. Gotta say as I've broken off from DayZ to play other stuff it was impossible to keep my excitement level up -- one could say my "Zopamine" levels have dropped off ;) and things are back to status quo. Through Steam I can see dozens of ardent DayZ players now playing other games as a rule. These people (including myself) add up to at least 10,000 hours play time cumulatively and that can't be a good thing for the health of this game. I sincerely hope I will be pleasantly surprised.

Creating "a whole new engine" can mean a lot of things so I'm not going to pretend to understand its scope or impact. If it means totally replacing the Arma2 code good for them.