Kirov (DayZ)

I have more questions if you're still around (or anyone else who knows the answers); 1) What is the devs' endgame stance toward disclosing game mechanics? I mean stuff like car damage mechanics or the number of deer spawns - something which we can't discover on our own. I have this impression that entire new features have been added without explicitly mentioning it (it was only by chance that I discovered the 'bury ashes' option). Do the devs wait for the final release or do they want to leave such analyses to us? 2) Will the midget POV in 1PP ever get fixed? Yeah I read somewhere here how the character height is ok because something something, but it's clearly and obviously not. Driving a truck feels like driving a go-kart. Will we ever get to see more than 1.5m of the road ahead? 3) Will the beta have any performance-related improvements? I have GTX 1060 and stuttering 30 FPS in Vishnoye, while MSI Afterburner says I'm using some 33% of both my GPU and CPU. I'm afraid much work is still to be done despite 0.61. Is this aspect getting any love at the moment?

Interesting. Are you sure, vaguely recalling or just guessing? And why do you think that is so? I know next to nothing about programming, but can't think of a reason preventing such a change by the very game creators.

First I have a question - can someone with programming experience tell me what the Debug Plains really are, in essence? I mean, why not a force field, which is equally arbitrary? What's the purpose here? And I know that there's no persistence or loot on the Debug, but what happens when you get caught there on the restart? Are there any special rules for our toons? I noticed recently that it actually rains (when it rains) on the Debug Plains and I wondered why bother. And coming back to the topic: I see three problems with this idea: 1) The 'jungle' with zeds and predators like the one you mention is just going to make the map smaller, and I'm afraid it's a big no-no for me. Besides there's no reason to do that (i.e. it's just a waste of content already in game). 2) The way you implement barriers is very important. The increased infected spawn will not only be irrelevant (due to the aircraft simply flying over) but actually counterproductive. I mean, introduce that feature and literally the first thing I'm gonna do is try to penetrate that line with grenades and big guns. What you described is a challenge/quest, not an obstacle of any kind. And many other kinds of barriers could be considered 'unrealistic' and actually kill immersion (come on, nobody's that stupid as to actually try and wall off a country or its part oh wait). Yeah, I understand that the Debug Plains are 'unrealistic', but they may be actually easier to swallow than a fence which pretends to be a man-made quarantine, in the same sense that I'd rather talk with C3PO that a 'human-like' robot. At least the devs are honest and blunt here: "The game ends here, go back. Oh yes, you can go farther, but it's pointless and potentially risky, so WTF would you?'. 3) But first and foremost - you're trying to solve a problem which I believe is not there in the first place. Are you really so lonely in Novy Sobor because everyone else hangs out in Stary Yar? For I have a hard time believing that people tend to flock there in any considerable extent. Yeah, people like to set up their camps at the borders, but it's hardly an issue. The Western strip is as welcoming to campers as it is to camp-robbers. As to the North/North-East, your camps may be safer there, but also much harder to reach, and don't forget the spawn points in Berezhki and around. But really, people just don't go there, or maybe they check out the car spawns. For faraway lands, there is always a trade-off between security and accessibility, and few people bother. At best, they drop their mil tents and go back. Obviously there's more traffic around Tisy, Myshkino and Kamensk. But all in all, I believe the edges serve the purpose intended by the designers.

I'm so sick and tired of the self-proclaimers 'programmers' who tell me how easy it is to make a game that I appreciate any input from any person who was actually close to the development process of any game, and triple that for folks close to the DayZ dev team. SRs are full of lines like "so we did water and some animations recently", which doesn't give me any context as to how time-consuming it was, how much of that they already have, what else they could be going if not that, etc. OTOH, Raptor's Q&A above, while quite succint, helped me imagine some issues and processes in the development. Maybe even a separate work position just for that wouldn't be a bad idea?

Maybe it doesn't take my sleep away, but I'd still really appreciate if you could get some info for us. I try to follow SRs, but nothing beats a team member actually popping by to have a talk. Especially in the current impatiently-waiting-for-BETA moods. So again, thanks! I'm asking about the medical system also because I want the team always to remember that there is a large share of players who go 'meh' on new weaponry info but instead are eager to scroll down for environment-related features. Looking forward to these in .63! I'm sure the team will deliver.

I think that's the vaguest possible answer you could give me, but I still accept that you can't say anything more specific at this moment. ;) I just wanted to point out that we've been reading about the upcoming stuff sometimes very long in advance (the Littlebird, which to many players runs contrary to the Dayz experience anyway, but also RPGs, mushrooms or bears), while we still have absolutely no idea how the medical system could possibly look like and i.e. if we get to have and stave off the common cold (which IMHO should be the standard every-day consideration for every player at least in colder months). This is the one topic which hasn't been mentioned by anyone for a long while, is what I'm saying. But anyways, I'm waiting patiently and in BETA I trust. Thanks for showing up to talk to us!

Many thanks for your reply, but this sentence gave me a pause. It's been a long time since I saw a syringe, but those brownish antibiotics vials still spawn. And I'm quite sure they do nothing yet. I'd like to use it as an excuse to ask about the medical system overhaul, as the fact that nobody mentions it makes me very concerned. As it currently is, the entirety of the medical system can be practically boiled down to 'wear 6 rags' -> 'apply when bleeding'. That's really that. Diseases are ridiculously easy to avoid and for seasoned players usually result from a misclick. Morphine was good for the ATC bug, now it's good for PvP situations only (otherwise you always have time for a splint). Epi and transfusion stuff is for group PvP only, obviously. At my beginnings of DayZ, I used to carry around a full first-aid kit, because, you know, a post-apocalyptic scenario. I imagine medicine would be something quite sought after, but now it's just 6 rags for me. I believe that this aspect seems to have gotten less love than literally any other element in the game which I can think of now. Why is that and can we expect something more interesting than blood bags for Tisy pew-pews? Something that, hopefully, could make you put 'an experienced medic' on your Dayz resume?

I have a question, and not a passive aggresive one to boot - what is the devs' stance towards human AI? Will we have any kind of NPC, either in scripted events (I think I could handle that) or traders/factions (please tell me it's not going to happen)?

Guys, I have a couple of figures which you haven’t asked for. First things first, how fireplaces work in general. It starts with the kindling, then the first stick burns longer, next sticks burn faster, then first wood goes longer, next woods burn faster, then the book (!) is consumed, then there’s a period when flames are on but without any fuel and you have time to add some. This is the followed by a super short period where the flame is out but you can add fuel and “blow air”. The simple fireplace burns through fuel the fastest, the 5-stone option takes considerably longer, and the 8-stone furnace gives you enough of free time to loot a town. I believe that the presence of firewood may affect the duration of both kindling and sticks. Bark burns longer than rags which burn longer than paper. You can stack rags as usual. @Mantasisg, you’re right – a 1 bark 1 stick campfire burns on for some 1:30 min (+11 sec for igniting). However, this should be enough to go from completely drenched to dry or slightly damp. And isn't it the basic purpose of campfires? Tree bark burns 20sec in simple fireplace to more than 30sec in furnace. Rags burn a bit shorter. Paper – 10sec in simple, up to 18 sec in furnace. Sticks – the first one goes from some 45s (simple) to 1:15 (furnace). Next ones go from 25s (simple) to 50s (furnace). Firewood – the first takes 2:05 (simple) to 4:05 (furnace). Next ones take from 1:40 (simple) to 3:15 (furnace). Book - I believe it can add some 1:15 min, but it’s bugged (didn’t disappear from the screen), so I’m not sure. Fun fact, it burns after the wood. I got very varied results, which may indicate either some randomness or various effects. Basically, I’ve discovered that the campfire mechanics seem much more complicated than it seems. I used to think that each attachment has a burn time and that’s that. However, it seems that if you tinker with your campfire by adding a small piece, you can greatly prolong the life of the next burning piece. For example, add 1 bark immediately after the 1 bark is gone, and the following stick lives for 40sec more. Similar things happened when I added single sticks when firewood was on. However, as we still can’t tell features from bugs, I guess it’s best we wait with more precise research. @Sqeezorz, remember to carry the ice-axe, the stones work fantastic! I’ve created a Behemoth of the furnaces (1 bark, 1 paper, 6 rags, 5 firewood, 8 stones) and it burnt for solid 30 minutes without any additional assistance. Even after the last piece is out, you still have 3:20 min to find more fuel and some 10sec to “blow air”. And it’s not even the biggest possible option as I didn’t know about books back then. The map can’t be used as kindling at the moment. I hear your question, guys – no, you can’t. You can’t pour gasoline on the fireplace. I haven’t checked the household hearths and barrel fires yet.

Coming back on topic - I just checked that the flashlight works very fine on 1pp when you simply raise your hands. So basically the problem lies in the light sources which you constantly carry in your 1pp FOV, like gas lamps, torches, flares and chem lights. Although in RL you obviously do see what you carry, you tend to hold your torch or whatnot more to the side and above, at the level of your head. I worry that the devs are not coming up with a special animation for that. I hope we won't get stuck with blinding light sources, or at least they'll illuminate a bigger area. Thanks OrLoK

Yeah, I remember this image. Wasn't it a proof that the things are going in the right direction and the devs try to make the night something different than a less colourful day? Obviously, the gamma thing has to be fixed, otherwise this entire conversation is idle talk. But in my opinion, this needs to include two elements: 1) playing without light should be really painful (possibly even with some actions "light-sensitive", so e.g. you can't craft in the dark), 2) light sources should be improved so they provide more illumination and less blindness.

I would agree if not for the fact that making common constellations more conspicuous is actually a step towards realism. When I said that it takes me seconds to find Ursa Major, I wasn't gloating with my stargazing skills, it's just what anyone can do. In fact, most people don't even have to look for the constellation - sometimes it just sort of hangs there (when "below" the Polar Star) and people just notice it when driving or something. It's literally the third most recognizable object in the sky, after the Sun and the Moon, although I noticed people tend to think that it's Ursa Minor. The thing is, even in a light polluted place it's quite easy to find your way around the sky. I live in Warsaw, Poland (some 1.7 million people without agglomeration) and the following can be easily distinguished by any amateur from any city park: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor's Polar Star and the rear two stars (the "sickle" itself is not visible as the stars between are quite dim), Cassiopeia, Cygnus (the cross shape), Lyra, Aquila's Altair with its right-hand neighbour Tarazed, Boötes (with its main star Arcturus). The fall/winter is much less spectacular and comes with many dim stars, but you can still rely on: Orion, Auriga (the full ring), Taurus (the Pleiades and the Aldebaran triangle), Gemini's Kastor & Pollux. This is really Astronomy 101 available instantly to anyone taking a walk with a friend who happens to know a few of them. There are a few more important constellations like Hercules, Perseus, Corona Borealis, Andromeda & Pegasus, Leo, but with these I believe you need to know what you're looking for. Also, people tend to notice Sirius, but mistakenly think it's Venus. Which reminds me that Venus itself can be so bright that people think it's either a Boeing or a comet (seriously). Yeah, that lady is really missing on our DayZ sky. And let's not forget the Milky Way! Without the light pollution, it should be instantly visible to anyone who doesn't even care.

Yep, you said it, my bad. I like your story and I've quite a number of similar ones, too. I still fondly remember the first zed that appeared right in my headtorch... quite pant-shitting, especially that I had to alternate between a gas lamp and a weapon, like in Doom 3. I believe that playing at night can be a very exciting experience and different enough from the standard one that everyone could enjoy it every now and then. However, the main drawback is that you just know that most of the others increase the gamma, which makes many people do exactly the same. After all, nobody wants to be a clear target to someone they can't even see. This is why I'm looking forward to the gamma fix hinted some time ago and that it comes with 0.63. I imagine many people will be driven away by the fact that it's dark at night, but many others will start to enjoy it much more. And with the light sources "fixed", it could become a very important and strategic issue to use them or not. With all the pieces in (like strong zeds etc.), a solo experience at night can be potentially very intense and story-building (just like you remember your journey). Fingers crossed!

Interesting, as I can't say it matches my experience. While I can't recall seeing my hand or not, what I do remember is that even after a long time in the woods (it may take more than an hour to fully accommodate) I could sometimes see only two kinds of black - the blackness of trees against the blackness of the sky, i.e. silhouttes of the canopies were the only thing that let me walk (ok, maybe I could make out brighter tree trunks nearby when with leaves, but no so much in the autumn). I'm afraid I've never tried to tend my wounds or reload a gun, but on numerous times I was in a situation where, for example, there was no such thing as "safe jogging", for holes, branches or tree stumps were completely invisible against the dark ground. In a dense enough forest, this could apply even on moonlit nights. Obviously I was never in completely dark urban areas, so I can't say how I'd navigate those. But in the forest, even if an action was possible (like pitching a tent), I believe it would still take much longer. I must say I haven't attempted many complex manual actions in the dark, mainly I just walked a lot, but man was it dark sometimes. Like, a lot. Thanks for the reference to other threads. I'm not sure if I want to dabble with thread necromancy, I just thought, since we have some time to kill anyways, to point out a problem which garners much less attention than the others. I just hope it's mentioned to the devs, that's all.

Spot on, as long as nothing is taken away, I think it would be great to have a complex anthill-like structure where a lot can happen. Exploring new structures is one of my favourite parts of DayZ and I hope that the devs haven't said their last word yet (although they rather overdid their deforestation in the NW). Overhauling the multi-floor Chernogorsk buildings seems like exactly the right idea!

Hi mate, been a while. I, for one, find your idea interesting but not really fitting the concept. Chernarus in my opinion should remain vast, even if there seem to be areas of "nothing" in-between. Not only it is often not nothing and in the seeming middle of nowhere you can find some interesting structures, both to marvel at and hide a barrel in, but the space itself serves a purpose. Can you imagine vehicles in a 1sqm area? Even if only one spawned, half the time you would hear some engine constantly droning in the distance. And what about hunting, what kind of animals could you successfully chase and hunt in such a small habitat? And personally, I just like having vast spaces all to myself. Until the final game mechanics arrive, I give a wide berth to all those "exciting interactions" because I find them actually somewhat boring and ridiculous. First of all, interactions can't possible give me anything, i.e. there is literally nothing I could use another player for (at the moment, unstucking vehicles is probably the only thing an experienced survivor could use a hand with). Therefore, the possible outcomes are limited to either "okay, we had a nice chat" or "one of us is dead or sent running". Strategically speaking, as far as surviving chances of my toon are concerned (and I really try to "be" my character), approaching another player is the most stupid thing we could do next to drinking gasoline. Perhaps if the game was much harder...? Secondly, DayZ combat "physics", under which everyone runs faster than bullets and punches harder than the Hulk, is... look, I just don't think there's a less authentic FPS on the market, unless we count the first Wolfenstein. 75% of videos I've seen, the only thing they miss is that Benny Hill soundtrack. But I firmly believe that the devs have something up their sleeve to actually make interactions worthwhile and interesting in more ways than "I'm bored with looting and thus ready to die". Until then, I'm just happy with focusing on making my toon thrive and explore, drive around and hunt.

Thanks, I will check it out.

Are you saying that official public servers have regular stash wipes? Because I'm too all for private (HC) servers as I hate hoppers (and hackers seems more prevalent on public servers as well), but after I lost some very good camps on private servers due to those servers being discontinued, I decided to stick to the public ones so that I don't lose my gear. And now you're saying it may be gone, too? If so, can you recommend an EU private HC server which is there to stay, i.e. you can expect its admins to continue paying for it? I even supported some servers with donations, but sooner or later they would go down the drain anyway. That's the biggest, and IMHO, the only drawback. Other than that: OP, I strongly recommend private servers, although I never bothered with whitelisted communities with strange rules. But to each their own, I guess. Let us know if you find something interesting.

OP, I have the same problem. Intel E3-1230 @3,30Ghz GTX 1060 6GB 16GB RAM Win 10 overclocked with MSI Afterburner (+110MHz on core/+550MHz on memory) and I still experience heavy stuttering in urban areas, even when the FPS shows 45-65 (I capped at 65 to get more stable FPS) and my CPU and GPU usage is at 30%ish (average-to-good details). Basically what happens is, as a friend of mine told me, the FPS is an average which doesn’t always show what you really need to see. 30 FPS often works not the way you’d like – 30 frames nicely spread over 1 second, but rather one frame consumes half a second and the rest is spread over the other half. Hence the stuttering despite otherwise good performance ratios. All other games work like a charm at highest details, so I believe that only the poor design of Dayz is to blame. The irony is, I bought my GPU solely for DayZ, not caring that much about other games apart from classic RPGs and TBS. *sigh* I hope the devs are well aware of this. In the long run, poor performance is a huge deal. I don't PVP much anyway, but it's not like I have a choice, as the stuttering I have won't let me.

Before I start, lemme just say that I couldn't care less about base building as I'm a loner in this game and I probably won't go far beyond improvised tents, green barrels and buried stash. But: Real life has nothing to do with anything here, as the troops in Afghanistan don't get to log out in order to deal with RL stuff. If Dayz was "real life", I would be inside my base, I would tend it and I'd wake up when it's under attack. This game being a game, you simply want to punish casual gamers, those who can't take turns on their 24/7 overwatch. For me this is unacceptable and I actively hate those games which expect me either to commit some serious time every day or be forever a push-over in their universe. This is why I don't even touch games like EVE. Our survivors would consider their base the most important thing in their pathetic and short lives. But our players shouldn't worry about their make-believe bases when spending quality time with their families. I'm not saying that bases should be invulnerable, but I'd welcome solutions which you may call "unrealistic". The most unrealistic thing about this entire thread is that your character vanishes from Chernarus when you don't play. Everything else just logically follows.

I agree.

I'm running of out beans to give. I am myself a steadfast anti-fascist and a member of a Polish anti-fascist NGO (NEVER AGAIN Association). While sometimes the Antifa guys can piss me off every now and then (I believe in the rule of law and the 'let's convince the public' approach, while they like to provoke the police over here in Europe and otherwise assume tactics which drive 'normal' people away), the notion that there's anything even approaching symmetry between us and the far-right is completely ridiculous. What they want to bring is nothing less than hell on earth (you know, speaking from the country with all those Nazi concentration camps in). The entire system in the civilized West is rigged against minorities and women, and the counterargument for that is 'look, not all of those constantly-fucked-in-the-ass people are saints'? Don't make me laugh. I wish those white people who preach symmetry so much could spend one day, one fucking day as a black guy or woman. I wonder how many would start shooting the first moment a cab doesn't want to pull over. I'm busy these days so can't write more, but keep it up, emu.

Do you have any more info as to upcoming zed features, apart from technical stuff like UI? I've seen the door-smashing animation for 0.63 and I wonder what else they might be cooking. As for the OP question: One feature I miss the most now (and it kinda hurts my immersion) is zeds being alerted/attracted by each other's shrieks and/or maybe by the sight of their fallen brethren. You need to make your melee fights quick and maybe even drag the body away. I use the bow these days so I rarely care about the shrieks but there are situations when I run head first into a zed and I believe that half the town should know then. Some other stuff I was thinking about: - children; sometimes gangs of children - different kinds of zeds; bulky guys with higher damage, agile guys climbing walls and smashing windows in (make them children for additional pant-shitting experience), 'screamers' who attract others, etc. - zeds reacting to light sources (with the gamma exploit fixed, obviously), bright colours, etc.; but it was always my intuitive impression that they should be really scared of fire - make zeds 'do' various things like feeding on animals/people (either players or spawned just for that), lying prone quietly (sleeping?) or going about other typical zed stuff (fighting over a meal, for instance) - using ladders is of course the next logical step I wait for - what about melee weapons? could some zeds 'remember' how to use these? Everyone has a different vision of how hard the zeds should be, although I believe we can all agree that they should be much harder. My approach is: 'make them hard enough to make teaming up with a random survivor a valid and solid option'. I have no doubt that the current zeds are just placeholders (or 'bugs' if you will) and the end game solution will bring much more for us than the overwhelming feeling of annoyance, not unlike killing mosquitos.

Does anyone know how getting cold via humidity works? You swim for some time and get the 'cooling off' messages. Then you crawl out of water, start sprinting and see the 'slowly warming up' info. And then you're shaking after a few minutes. What the deuce?

I'm probably doing something hilariously wrong, but I can't seem to find the comprehensive list of submitted bugs. Where do I click in the tracker?