Katana67

Looks interesting! Getting a little too antsy with the Fall video game clusterfuck inbound to fully care about DayZ SA these days. Will be psyched when it's out, for sure, but exhausted all of my pre-release activity.

Great devblog. This is how they all should be... concise, well structured, and informative. Progress looks really awesome. Just hope nothing -else- ends up deemed as an alpha-blocker (i.e. server/client relationship, network bubble, etc.)

Again, to those who are worried about DayZ being "watered down" by the inclusion of a controller (and subsequent console version) I say this... I play DayZ with a 360 controller. There, I said it. The only capabilities that I really don't have (partially because I'm too lazy to deal with mapping software) is that I cannot access my inventory (which I'd map to a D-pad button or A), lean (which I'd map to two corresponding buttons, probably on the D-pad), or freelook (which I'd bind to one of the shoulder buttons as a hold feature) without a keyboard. Thus, I have a keyboard and controller, which actually isn't as cumbersome as you'd think once you're used to it. But the point is, the controller isn't limiting my gameplay. There are about five or six buttons that lay unused on my controller, and if I could map them, I would be 100%. The D-Pad isn't being utilized at all, and the shoulder buttons aren't either (one is, but it just pulls up the map). This doesn't even take into account the possibilities that could be implemented with "holding" certain buttons, which is a feature entirely ignored in Arma/DayZ (I actually think if you hold B, you go into prone rather than clicking which goes to kneel, I could be way off though as I'm recalling from memory). Flying is easy as pie, with even more buttons being unused. I'm pretty sure I only mess with the sticks and triggers, otherwise the rest is not used. Mind you, this is all with the current mod. I assume SA's control scheme will be much more streamlined. Point being, I think the "complexity" of Arma's interface is vastly overstated. Controllers, if properly mapped, can handle most if not all of the functionality regularly used in DayZ with very few sacrifices.

Solid piece! Restored a bit of my active desire for SA.

Well, as a critique to that premise, it's FAR more likely that someone would come across an AR with some form of handguard than not. So I'm not sure "barebones" AR's would be something they'd want to do, but that's just going on real-world likelihoods backed up by nothing more than my subjective experience. Nobody keeps an AR around without a handguard/rail system (unless you'd happen to be looting a gunsmith). The only thing that's plausible to be removed, and still have the weapon able to be operated regularly, is the stock. AR-15's can be fired without the stock, and some pistol variants actually come with no stock (to pass as "pistols" as per ATF regulations) and also feature truncated buffer tubes. However, if one holds the magwell instead of the barrel/handguard, it wouldn't burn you. But, that'd probably require a tweaked animation. For the purposes of the game, I would think a good way of doing this without giving people fully-repaired AR's at every turn AND to avoid the silliness of finding barebones AR's which would not be able to be used properly, would be to attach certain "condition/effectiveness" values to each component. So one could find an AR with a barrel at 5%, stock at 75%, and the BCG (bolt-carrier group) at 100%. This assumes things like stocks will have an in-game effect on accuracy. Because in real life, it's largely just operator preference. Certain stocks do give advantages, like Magpul PRS stocks for AR-15/10s in the realm of accuracy or certain other stocks (Magpul CTR) on ease of acquiring a target (which is still highly dependent on the operator). I've yet to hear any tangible benefits to relatively abstract attachments like stocks, rails, foregrips, etc in DayZ. We all know what the benefits of an ACOG/RDS will be, so that part is self-explanatory. Or, there's always the option of having to piece together your AR by looting individual components. I'd be open to that, would make it rarer and would actually be fun piecing together weapons. But, I'm not sure that's provided for in-engine or desired by anyone (including the devs).

To be fair the caption under the video (which was posted -after- the screenshots) does say "More to follow on the devblog over the weekend", which would imply that there is more to come.

Second post in your thread details how it's been brought up "many times" before.

Why don't we just kind of... not indulge... the people who are misinformed/stubborn? It's hard, I know. Mission to civilize.

Well, I guess the question is, (I haven't played SS13) but does the player return into the game restrained? I guess it doesn't matter if someone alt-f4's with restraints on, so long as if they return, they'll still be restrained and will have to break out of said restraints. This all assumes we don't have persistent characters in SA (something I'd prefer). Can you tell us how that all is gonna' work or is it still to early?

I think a zip-tied person should never be able to log out... ever. OR! They should have a 24 hour ghost of their character left on the server, giving time for captors to physically construct a prison cell around him/her.

I like how the rail system is a configurable attachment on the M4, so many games ignore this or put in different rail systems and call it an entirely different weapon. I never understood why there isn't a weapon customization mechanic that just... you know... does what can be done in reality. Why waste time concocting arbitrary rules for your attachment system when there's a perfectly good one to emulate... life.

I know haha, it's just less funny to quote "GNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH".

Brick where'd you get a hand-grenade? ... I don't know Oh come on, if you don't have every Anchorman line down by heart, there's something wrong here.

So if there's a new "animation tree" for injured people, can there (eventually) be new animation trees for (as per the current paradigm) heroes/bandits/long-term survivors? Would be great to eventually lose the "derp civilian I don't know what I'm doing" animations.

I get that we've discussed this quite a bit before, and rocket has assured us that it'll be improved... But, just as a critique (And yes realize this isn't final -at all-, I'm not expecting anything, nor does this ruin the game for me, so chill...) the zombie animations still look terrible to me. I just don't understand why they need to include the "massive 10ft jump attack" animation at all. To be honest, animation sync has never really been ARMA's strong suit, so I don't think going for the most flamboyant zombie attack animation was wise at this stage. That, and the pathing wasn't perfect, but I suspect it'll remain like this for the time being. That said, everything else looks great (reeeeeeally digging the new clothing options), except that FOV... jesus... Good thing it's on a slider.

Anyone catch the "(Fraggle): I like being the bitch"? I died.

Thanks man

DAT M4!

This just announced... Super high-end loot clan-based EVE style awesome instanced zombie bunker replaced with super high-end loot clan-based EVE style instanced space station. Given the boner rocket has for CCP, this is a likely outcome.

Yeah, I mean, I would never expect them to show everything. But the way Rocket sounded, in what someone repeated, from the livestream... sort of implied that they weren't interested in showing anything new. I wouldn't want them to spoil anything, but I'm just curious as to the "competitors" he's referencing. I mean, the stuff'll be out anyway, is there really that much espionage going on behind the scenes?

Rocket's reasoning for his -actual- miscommunications/missed timeframes has been sound and well communicated (repeatedly), I don't see any point in faulting him for it.

Ten forum dollars says the devblog will be thus... ("blah blah blahs" included for literal filler, not sarcasm) We apologize for the recent miscommunication... blah blah blah... the milestone meeting was good and we're on track to meet our next milestone... blah blah blah... we want to make the best game possible for you, so we're taking our time with the alpha... blah blah blah... here are some screenshots... blah blah blah... thank you for your continued support. If I am proven wrong, I will be pleasantly surprised. Don't mean this to deride Rocket's effort, just get a feeling this devblog will be more of the same and/or more PR-y than we're used to.

"Where have all the devblogs gone? Long time passing... Where have all the devblogs gone? Long time ago..." - Peter, Paul, and Mary

Had to reinstall Windows 7 the other day and haven't loaded ARMA (and subsequently DayZ) back on. It's a good thing, makes you stop caring about when the thing comes out. Thanks for the update Rocket, as sparse as they may be here on the forum.

Welcome to the forums! /obvioussarcasmthatshouldn'thavetobestatedblatantlyassuch