purepassion

As a bonus, here is an album with the screenshots used, including a few more that were taken in the same session but did not end up in the video

Thanks for posting it here as well, SmasT! FYI, you can find even more models in their portfolio. In the album I filtered and selected those items that either have a direct relation to DayZ, or logically connect to the context of the game. There are more items which I wouldn't link to DayZ without hesitation, such as items that are from western origin and have english text on them. Oh and there's also some stuff that's most likely going to be used for Arma 3's upcoming secret expansion in there :P There you go! :)

Hey Dale, keep in mind that Chris is a developer assigned to a very specific part of the development and can't comment on design questions or other stuff he doesn't work on. Though to answer your first question, the Chernarus+ map is most likely to almost definitely not going to be expanded in size. Such changes at this late stage would bring a heap of problems with floating point precision etc. The work required to "fix" the results of such changes is not feasible. Though as currently evident, the map will continue to be improved and reworked. Regarding Chernarus not being in Russia, that should be common knowledge :p It is located in the fictional South Zagoria state of Chernarus and based on the real geographic data of the Usti nad Labem Region in the Czech Republic :)

The Bohemia Battle Bunker. An iconic figure of any major gaming convention. During Gamescom it can be found triumphing in hall 9, booth C32. This year, the release content of Arma 3 and of course the current pre-Alpha build of the DayZ standalone are playable for any men brave enough to battle the bohemian pixels. As for every battle, preparation is key; so I’ve collected questions from the community in the last few days, all written down in lovely handwriting and brought them with me. After a quick greeting with Matt, he recognized me, knew who I am and immediately offered to go outside to evade the hectic noise of the convention to have a talk. During Gamescom, the reworked version of Stary Sobor was the place to be. The game was held on a local area network with 14 machines connected. Players were all starting in one place, already packed with clothing, weapons, food and the new functional first aid kits. These first aid kits were actually not just a single item but a container for some of the new content of the sophisticated medical system, like bandages, a bloodbag kit and syringes. Looking at the survivors, the variety of characters was very pleasant to see. Nobody looked the same like in the mod but sported different rain coats, hoodies, hats, protective vests, ballistic vests, shirts, jeans and was a member of different sex and ethnics. Thanks to the extensive character customization, identification with your character will be much easier. It is also planned to have these vests functional, so they offer protection. The first thing you’ll notice when playing are the animations. They felt very smooth and usable, nothing like the impression I gained from E3. Underlying them is a completely new animation skeleton which is much more detailed and makes features like switching your weapon while moving possible. In hand with the new damage system, there are actually limping animations. At the moment, there’s only one but it is planned to have each leg represented accordingly. While you’re in that limping animation, you’re significantly slower and have your weapon lowered. In order to shoot, the player has to stop and raise the weapon. Coming from Arma 3, the control scheme was confusing at first but I think DayZ should have its own reasonable set of controls and it’s no problem to get used to it. There was however a familiar feature: the combat stance. When being in the combat stance, the player will move with a speed slightly faster than normal walking, with the weapon raised above the hip and ready to fire. Moving through buildings with it felt extremely nice. There were also no problems with getting stuck in doorways. Moving around, the place was hardly recognizable! Every backyard, passage and street was very detailed and the overall density of the vegetation made a very authentic impression. It was like walking through a new town with some elements of a subtle familiarity. Like the towns that were showcased already, every one on the map will be revisited and redone individually. Since the environment plays a key role in the immersion factor of DayZ and thanks to the nature of Arma (pun intended), it is a very important aspect of the game. For that topic I individually sat down with Ivan, who is together with SenChi, working on the new Chernarus which is going to be expanded with new terrain. Ivan told me it will be ~ 40km² in the north and ~25km² in the west. Though this new terrain won’t only consist of forests and fields but actually include whole new cities, small towns, farmland, mountain villages and other new locations to explore which are authentic to the real location Chernarus is based on. These extensions will bring back the element of exploring, even to the most seasoned players. Another specific element of the environment I am very fond of is the forest. The aim is to make the forests more “populated” in the sense of having more visual barriers instead of the barren line of trees in which you are easily visible from a distance in Arma 2. These visual barriers will be achieved through more shrubbery which make the forests more authentic and also provide essentials for more interesting combat in forests. The different weather and temperatures will have an impact on the player. One thing in the environment you’ll notice very quickly are the new simul weather volumetric clouds which add a great deal of depth and just pure beauty to the game. The new fog from Arma 3 is also being looked at. Speaking about sharing between the games in general, the dev teams are occasionally working together and if there are certain problems, help each other out. If applicable, specific technology and code is also going to be shared. Player interaction has a whole new importance and more importantly, necessity. I think the whole “kill on sight” behavior will change significantly. Player interaction will be a key element of DayZ and I think it’s also one of its strongest and most unique features. Shooting is no more the easy way to acquire equipment since everything can be damaged and thus made unusable. Instead, you’ll have to try to find ways without spraying bullets all around. Also the way blood is handled will be changed completely. Since blood goes bad quite quickly without the proper cooling etc, it’s no longer possible to just put 10 bloodpacks in your backpack and tackle any battle with confidence because you know if something goes wrong you can just patch each other up off of a fountain of health. Bloodtransfusions will be transfusions between humans. They can be voluntary or involuntary. Additionally, blood types will be simulated correctly. That means there’s A,B, AB and O with all the different antibodies and antigens as well. Receiving a transfusion of the wrong blood type is possible but it will harm and can, if left untreated, kill the player. If you wish to know your blood type, you’ll need to find a testing unit. Medical conditions and diseases will, just like in reality, play a major role in survival. If I remember correctly, there are about 10-15 different diseases at the moment, which all have their respective symptoms etc. The principle that real knowledge you posses can also help you in the game (like knowing how to read and orientate on a map, navigate with the stars or a watch) also applies to diseases so there might be some ways of treating them without having to use medication. There will also be a new way of communicating. Radios can be found and used with their different frequencies. However, direct VOIP is also still featured and represents regular talking or shouting. You can also type but over distance, random letters are actually going to go missing. Another new element of player interaction are the recently implemented restraining animations. Handcuffs with functioning keys can be used to arrest people. While it is possible to struggle out of these, it will show a visible animation and require some time. The technology behind the inventory system and the crafting works really great but I see and observed some practical problems with it. Currently, you need to rightclick and then again click on the small window that has been created in order to perform the action. Many times, it was very troublesome for people to hit that small window and not cancel everything. I think it would be much more usable if you could simply rightclick on the item to select it and then confirm the action with spacebar, the new action key. Combat. The weapon of choice for gamescom was the M4. It was a completely new model with very detailed textures and new sounds. There was also a tan version of it. As you probably already saw, the weapon customization goes into great detail. You can find and attach different parts of it like buttstocks, foregrips, scopes, handles, different magazines, silencers and even attach a knife to use it as a bayonet. At the moment the melee wasn’t properly finished yet but later you’ll be able to stab zombies or people with it. Even unarmed melee will be implemented. Generally speaking, the weapon selection will be focused more towards makeshift weapons or civilian hunting rifles etc. It will be more plausible to what would actually be available in such a region. Though that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any high-end military-grade weapons but they, and especially their ammunition, will be very rare. Reloading also contributes to the complexity attached to a rifle. Ammunition comes in boxes, which have to be opened and seperated. You’ll then need to remove the magazine from the receiver, add the bullets to the magazine (which even had its own sound) and then put it back into the rifle to reload it. This might sound like a very hideous task and the current implementation of the right-click crafting really isn't optimal but remember if you have multiple magazines, you can just load them in all at once and then reload normally. Nonetheless, I think the UI should be changed to limit the right-clicking. There are also new WIP muzzleflashes which are going to be individual for the weapons and the recoil has been reworked and made more realistic as well. Zombie AI has been basically unchanged so far, apart from some behavior and pathfinding adjustments. However, just a few days ago Dean finished a written proposal for the planned rework of the whole system so they are seen as a very important part of the game which needs to be worked on but it just wasn't possible yet. The way that zombies think and act will be changed significantly and they will even receive their own FSM. It is basically going to be less “planning out a route of how to reach the player which changes every time he moves”. The models for the zombies themselves look really good! They don’t look like bloody monsters with glowing eyes but rather like sick and dirty humans with strong facial expressions on their visage. I actually really, really like this more realistic approach since it adds this very interesting morbid element of realizing that those beings you're slashing were actually normal people just like you who just got infected. Overall, the game looked and felt very good and I already have all these different scenarios and new things to do rushing through my head. While there have been the occasional bugs like floating items, zombies just standing around and the weapon switching back when it’s being dragged into the hands through the inventory, a lot of the groundwork and experimental features have turned out great. The release is still following set milestones, with the network bubble (the way that the clients and server are interacting and who knows and has to process what) being the primary focus. At the moment it’s of course not known how long it’s going to take until current problems are resolved but it is Ondrej, a exceptionally intelligent and talented coder who created the RV engine, working on it and I can tell you the network bubble and MP structure is coming along nicely ;) Also, this. Yes, it’s Matt in his “Let’s kill every visitor in the booth in less than 2 minutes” outfit.

I can't really recall how long I've actually played. Must have been around half an hour. Though most of the time was spent talking with Matt, Ivan and the other devs and then going around the booth, explaining things to the visitors. I don't think there actually would have been any restrictions as to where to move to but I felt like the city was worth more attention than the fields surrounding it :)

The team working on Arma 3 consists of about 70 people and yes, a small number of them will be devoted to DayZ.

It is implemented/planned :)

From what I've read in your post, I think there's a misunderstanding about what game is actually what. To get it clear, it all started with DayZ, a modification of Arma 2. After DayZ became really successful, "The WarZ" appeared and promised it would fix all the problems the Arma 2 mod DayZ has. It quickly turned out that these were all just empty promises and the people behind were just after the money and wanted to cash in on the success DayZ has. After a IP dispute with the movie "World War Z" which didn't want any association with that horrible game and the massive and deserved PR shitstorm the game received, "The WarZ" was renamed to " Infestation: Survivor Stories". Though you are not really to blame for the confusion. This was exactly "The Warz"'s marketing strategy... In march 2013, the Arma 3 Alpha released. By now, Arma 3 is in Beta and will release on september, 12th. Thanks to the backwards compatibility the devs focused on, it is possible to use Arma 2 maps and units in the new Arma 3 engine with its outstanding technical advancements. A modding team then ported the original Arma 2 DayZ into the new engine and called it Zoombies which is now in a early version. Due to the new engine, Zoombies offers better animations, better graphics, better framerates, a better inventory system and new features like volumetric clouds or ragdoll for the zombies. Since it's in a early stage, not every feature of the original Arma 2 DayZ mod is functional and a lot of features are still quite buggy. However, the improvements and new features Arma 3 offers are just too great to be ignored and absolutely worth the buy. Additionally, it will include the absolute stunning and huge "Altis" island and a DayZ version on it will surely happen! Ideally, you should get both. There are more people playing the Arma 2 DayZ mod than Zoombies.

Thank you very much for the kind words lads, it's always a pleasure to help the community! :) Though really it's Ivan and Matt to thank! They took a significant amount of time to answer all the questions; and also thanks for the splendid beer :p As for the complexity, I believe that especially the different blood types are a very important mechanic of the game because it fixes a flaw from the mod. Bloodpacks which were instantly fully restoring your health are a serious problem! They encourage reckless behavior, are highly unrealistic and present a distorted picture. With these additions, there is a new set of decisions and a new depth. A depth I am very looking forward to since depth doesn't have to equal redundant complications. As with additions like the books, I see a lot of potential for compelling stories in it. Concerning the reloading mechanic, keep in mind that once you have filled all your available magazines and have them in your inventory, you can just reload them normally. Though as I said, I dislike the current "right-click and then click again on a small window" implementation which makes is a bit unnecessarily fiddly. The game mechanic itself is very nice.

If you're interested, I've written a very detailed report from the extensive talks on DayZ I've had with both Ivan and Matt covering many aspects of the game, including much new information :) Since it was too large for a post here, there's the thread.

Thank you very much! :)

Remote Execution http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Multiplayer_framework He's calling scripts from a custom init.sqf

The brand name is "DayZ" and thus the standalone will be called "DayZ", whereas the mod will be DayZ Mod. :) For now the attribute "standalone" is needed to make it apparent to the readers

Here's a livestream from a czech channel who interviewing Ivan about the DayZ standalone and Arma 3 right now :) http://www.twitch.tv/hrejtv Hop in if you got some questions Edit: It's finished now. Perhaps there will be a cahced version available on twitch

Here's a link for you that is working :) It contains all the ArmA sample models consisting of vehicles, weapons, environment and creatures/soldiers. You can use these models as a template for your work. This is the corresponding license agreement Kind regards!

If you don't have the possibility to properly create one yourself, you can actually get the real Chernarus papermap from here! :) It's a nice way of supporting BIS and while it is very handy ingame, it also makes for a very special addition to your gaming room. It looks really good on the wall B)

Squad.xml

Sup bro, it's quite dandy here isn't it?

Just remember

From twitter :) : So, prepare yourself for a devblog in about two weeks... :D

That does however not justify it to not release on consoles. The mod with all its twitchiness and hardcore elements has proven there is definitely a market for such focus on "realism" and people are okay to be confronted with challenges. Actually, I was very surprised how many actually liked the concept of Arma very much and sticked to it be it via Wasteland or the regular Coop scenarios. I want people on the consoles to have the same choice but at the same time, I am not confident wether the consoles will be ready for the challenges. Controls are not a major problem. In Arma they are but you can already customize DayZ to a gamepad and have most functions working fine. (I haven't tested it as I don't own a gamepad but had feedback about community members doing it via e.g. XPadder or the normal customization) However, the hardware might be an issue as current-gen consoles will most likely struggle with the demands of DayZ. If those problems can be overcome, I don't see any reason not to bring it to consoles. Consoles are not infected by casual gamers that will hurt your game. Many of them went through the same stuff you did in DayZ and they enjoyed it :) This is coming from a life-long PC-only gamer and is not personally adressed towards you :)

Hehe well it's a DayZ thing ;) If you got a Mountain Dew in your inventory, you should check out the 3 deer stands and vehicle spawn. If you don't, prepare yourself for the worst.

Run. Run as long as you can and as far as you can but don't you dare to come any inch closer to it. I have seen things I can't even describe to you there.

Accusations for a collective of people are never a good idea ;) Sure, there are people who get overly attached to the games they are playing and while it's a normal process concerning brands in general (brand loyalty etc), it shouldn't be normal to be ignorant or blind to faulty actions but even though I took a small break from the forums, I still think that the number of people here, the "community" consists of many people that are only residing to rational thoughts. I find this forum often to be a place where compassion rules and creativity can prosper for the good of everyone. People gift games to those not being able to afford it and problems are discussed throughoutly. As I said, it's not fair to generalize so that does of course not apply to everyone. Speaking about Bohemia Interactive, I can't really understand your criticism. Why do you think BIS would only be interested in money, in such a negatice connotation that is? Looking at the pure facts, I don't see any methods indicating greed or anything for that matter. BIS is independent. Ever since OFP and Arma, there has been full mod support. Some companies/publishers believe this is harmful to their own content-release roadmap. DLC's were released alongside free Lite versions that contain the playable content so you can play MP with your friends who bought them even when you did not pay anything. They did not simplify or dumbed down game mechanics only because that would mean more people would potentially able to succeed in the game faster/pay more. Arma 3 is getting sold for 24.99€. Dean is given complete freedom for development on the DayZ standalone. In conclusion, it looks like what they really care about, is good content. Ironically, this philosophy has turned out to be extremely succesfull and undertaking the above risks did pay out. What really surprised me is that there were people who were throughoutly convinced that the SA is being held back on purpose. Excuse my french but that's utter trash. Some were so even convinced that the standalone would be released after the steam Arma 2:CO sale... You only see a game that's needed for a mod being sold really well and an other game not being released yet. But you don't look far enough. You see, the mod had been released on the 18.04.2012. It was merely just a small proof of concept with some nice ideas but it was very restricted as the game it was built in was not meant to do many of the things DayZ did. (Melee etc) Just eight months ago, DayZ was announced to be developed as a standalone game. That's only eight months! Since the beginning, development has been very courageous with fundamental changes to a newly developed engine. It is not Arma 2 assets in the Arma 3 engine and anyone who did some reading on the matter can tell you why. We're talking about truly fundamental changes such as a completely new multiplayer structure etc. The initial release date was a result of the imminent concurrence of The WarZ which only consisted of promises back then. But those promises were a real concurrence and thus, a release had to happen asap. Fortunately, WarZ turned out to absolutely crash and thus, the imminent concurrence was gone. This gave the developers more freedom and the ability to be as courageous as I described it. The first release of the DayZ Alpha will be very crucial, perhaps more crucial than some suspect as it is the first look at the DayZ game even though the "real" DayZ isn't even finished yet. The devs are aware of that and consequently, it has to be as polished as possible. Though this process takes time. A lot of time and effort. Eight months is not a long time. You see, it's not about still letting people buy Arma 2:CO for the DayZ mod but simply about the development. There is no leading the" little DayZ cheerleaders to the bank" but there is a game in development that is just not quite done yet. It's not marketing talk when Marek says the potential of DayZ has priority. If it would, they would have released a polished mod and threw it right in the concurrence with The WarZ. But they did not and that's a very good sign :) I don't understand your kickstarter perks reference as there have been no talks about any kickstarter related to DayZ at all.

Dean made the DayZ mod to be used for about 500 people within the Arma community. The choice of character models was just a choice of authenticity and personal preference. And I think it's quite the opposite case since BIS is actually giving you the content of the DLC's for free so you can play online with those having it :) BIS has nothing to do with Dean's choice of character models for the free mod and as all the required content is there, I don't see any logic behind calling it a disgusting practice :)