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2015 We live in the future people. 2015 looks to be a pretty awesome year for DayZ, I'd like to kick off this months Status Reports by talking a bit about how the team has settled in during our first week back, as well as some awesome points of inspiration for us. First off, I was forwarded a link to Eternum Pictures DayZ fan film - which has some outstanding emotional points about friendship, and loss. The loss that the main character in this fan film experiences is something that resonates with me. I can recall how it felt to meet, befriend, and then lose a stranger in my early DayZ mod days. As the option to instantly respawn after death somewhat limits this experience, it brought to the discussion table some server options that we've had on the drawing board for awhile. Speaking of servers... Over the next few months we'll be rolling out some expanded server options to extend support for administrators, and introduce more customization options for private shards. - Admin Logs, covering: Connections/Disconnections, Chat, Player Deaths (Env & PvP) - Hardcore Mode: Initially we'll only support this on Private Shards, while we see how the mechanics impact gameplay - However the intent is to offer server operators the choice to restrict how long since a players last death they can respawn. Eg: A hardcore server could conceptually restrict players from respawning until 12 hours after their last death. We'll gauge how much impact this has on the design, and decide if it stays restricted to private shards, or we open this up to all public (consumer rented) hive servers. Now that the team have returned back to the office we've begun going over data compiled from stable branch since Christmas, and looking at what is left to do for the 0.53 release at the end of January. We've got some awesome stuff on the table for 0.53 and 0.54, and as always we'll be pushing to experimental to test things out as development on the update progresses. Speaking of the end of January, PAX South in San Antonio is coming up and we have some awesome things in store for the first Penny Arcade Expo in the great state of Texas. We'll be sending out information on that via our twitter and facebook channels next week. In addition, the finishing touches are being put on the DayZ website - as we look to centralize where you all get the latest news on DayZ development, and interact with the DayZ Dev team. Over on the Official DayZ forums the team leads have begun using their new sub forums to interact directly with you, the Survivors of Chernarus. Head over and take a peak, we'll start to use these more and more - giving you guys a direct line to the people that guide the vision that is DayZ. forums.dayzgame.com I look forward to increasing visibility into DayZ development in 2015, and evolving what it means to survive in Chernarus as we march forward to DayZ 1.0. Chocolate Milk Bath, do it. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer Peter / Lead Game Designer "Welcome to the first devblog of the 2015, I hope you enjoyed the holidays and spent some quality time with your families, friends and DayZ! I will keep it really short. We all know that this year will be very important for DayZ. With all these big ongoing and upcoming changes it will be quite tough but the outcome will be splendid. Currently we are focused mainly on new controls/interactions. We would like to use them before we start switching character to the new animation system so we can identify possible issues with the old one and address them. Apart from that we are looking forward to the new scripting language which should be ready as soon as possible so we can start rewriting currently used scripts with it, optimize and polish them which also bring some performance boost (server side, yay!). Design for manual transmission for vehicles is ready for the review and when we settle down on last little things after discuss it with programmers its implementation will begin. We are also making a prototype for non intrusive group identification so that you can easily identify your companions. Have an amazing new year and don't forget... see you in Chernarus folks!" Chris / Lead Artist "Character Art: We're still working on new character clothing and new zombie templates. This is ongoing, long term work that occurs during luls when the art team isn't needed to support new features being added by design. We've finished the quilted jacket and a new batch of zombie templates. An M65 Field Jacket is also WIP. Environment: Work has begun on a school building. Its giving me flashbacks to my days dodging balls in the gym. We're working on desks, chairs, bells, and gym equipment. This is a piece I'm personally excited about. Weapons: We're nearly done with a new pump-action .22LR rifle based on the FN Trombone. We've also recently completed a Winchester Model 70 and two new guns I think people will be excited about are currently WIP. In addition, over the last couple of weeks, we've churned out a series of new melee weapons for people to try out. Community: Some of you may have noticed that we've introduced a new area on the official forums where it is possible to interact with the team and I've been busy this week visiting and answering questions. I'd encourage you to drop by and check it out." Standup Notes for the week of 05 Jan 15 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week) Art: • M65 Field Jacket • FN Trombone • Vehicle design standup • School structure • Winchester Model 70 Animation: • Bugfixing • Hand poses for weapon attachments • Hand Poses Design: • Bugfixing • V3S Changes • Cooking • Diseases • Independant content of canisters • New scripting language • Traps Programming: • Security vulnerability fixes • Vehicle persistency • Loot distro per building for new system • Close range weapon sound fixes • Suicide fixes • Zombie/Animal AI • Vehicles - Manual transmission • Server side logging

I keep hearing about DeadZ hackers, what is it what they actually do? I mean how can you guys recognize them while playing? And again, I know as well as nothing about game development, and really wouldn't like to turn out some "wiseguy", but wouldn't it be good for the developers to set certain PRIORITIES, and add, fix, or improve game elements and issues in a planned row, instead of working on so many things at the same time? (as You mentioned) For example, shouldn't they focus/concentrate to zombie AI 1st, and leave less important features. like fixing small, actually almost insignificant bugs in graphics, adding more new weapons, items, equipment, NPCs, events, locations, buildings, vehicles to drive, and similar stuff for later? I am asking this since I keep reading about improvements in each new dayZ version, where mostly only such less important changes are listed.......its as if one would start furnishing his new house before even its roof is finished, or painting his new car before even its engine is installed. 1st the basics, then the decorations I mean......

Summary: The longer your character stays alive and exercises their body in various ways, the stronger, faster, and more effective your body becomes. Purpose: Incentive to keep your character alive, psychological investment in your char's progression, limiting sprinting exploit (making vehicles more useful), create interesting survival trade-offs. This feature has a lot of different attributes which inter-relate. I'm going to give it a start, and leave the rest to the imagination of readers and devs. I'm a programmer myself, so I threw out a little bit of pseudo-code, because honestly, that's how I conceive of things :) Detailed Synopsis There are three main fitness types: -aerobic (jogging) -anaerobic (sprinting) -muscular (carrying/lifting) Every character has unique base attributes which cannot change (configurable when designing your char at startup?): -baseAerobicFitness -baseAnaerobicFitness -baseMuscularFitness As you move around in the world, you're constantly getting better at that type of movement. Specifically, you increase that fitness type's modifier, which in turn, effects that fitness type's attributes Aerobic Fitness -improves your aerobicModifier, which: -increases your jogStamina -increases your jogSpeed -increases your jogRecoveryRate -increases your walkSpeed -reduces the amount of calories burned by general movement of all types -recoveryFoodType: fats Anaerobic Fitness -improves your anaerobicModifier, which: -increases your sprintStamina (how long you can sprint) -increases your sprintSpeed (how fast you sprint) -increases your sprintRecoveryRate (how fast you recover sprintStamina) -increases your crawlSpeed -increases your crouchSpeed -recoveryFoodType: carbohydrates Muscular Fitness -improves your muscularModifier, which: -increases meleeAttackDamage -increases maxCarryWeight -increases maxWeightWithNoSpeedReduction (carry more stuff without being slowed down at all) -reduces tooMuchWeightModifier (not slowed down as much when above maxWeightWithNoSpeedReduction) -things that improve muscular fitness: --carrying items --climbing --crouching --crawling -recoveryFoodType: protein (meats, eggs?, protein bar?) Mechanics: Sprinting -depletes your "anaerobic stamina" bar (sprintStamina) -the more you sprint, the more you increase sprintModifier, which makes you better at sprinting -When you run out of sprintStamina, you are now "recovering" -all movement speeds are penalized while recovering by a recoveryModifier. if you're jogging, it would be (jogSpeed * recoveryModifier) -Anaerobic output burns primarily carbohydrates (replaced by beans, rice, sugary stuff, etc) -You can also improve how quickly your sprint bar recovers (sprintRecoveryRate) Jogging -Jogging depletes your "aerobic stamina" bar (jogStamina) -The more you jog, the more you increase aerobicModifier, which makes you better at aerobic activities -The better your aerobic fitness, the less calories you burn while moving -Aerobic output burns fats (replaced by fatty meats, cheese, butter, lard, etc) Muscular/Carrying/Lifting -The more stuff you carry, the more you increase muscularModifier, which makes you stronger and less encumbered by carrying items Resources: There are certain global restrictors. Also, each of the three movement types have their own sub-resource system, based on nutrient type. Once you are in deficit of a nutrient type, you reduce the corresponding fitness type modifier until you eat food of that type. -tired - all systems reduced until you stop moving or walk for a while -needElectrolytes - all systems reduces until you eat fruit or foods rich in potassium, calcium, sodium, or take electrolyte pills, or gatorade-like sports drink. -needProtein - muscularModifier reduced until you eat protein -needCarbohydrates - anaerobicModifier reduced until you eat carbs -needFat - aerobicModifier reduced You can incorporate weight-based concepts (penalties for carrying a lot of items): -baseWeight: how much your character weighs with no clothes or gear on -baseCarryWeight: the combined weight of all your items, etc. -effectiveCarryWeight: (baseCarryWeight * muscularModifier) -the higher your effectiveCarryWeight, the faster your maximum movement speeds are There is also the concept of bodyFat, and metabolicRate: -high fitness means low bodyFat and high metabolism -the more fit you are, the faster you get hungry (high metabolicRate) -the more fit you are, the faster you get cold (not as much fat to keep you warm)

Whats changed? Items/Places We got some new guns Some new food New clothing items New towns in the north Rudimentary vehicles Mechanics: Hunting Cooking(Which is bullshit btw) Temperature effects (We've now reached the mod in mechanics, a year after release) Zombies seem to have disappeared from all but the large cities, even then they're fewer than when the SA launched Loot seems less plentiful IMO, unless you find a bugged barracks full of loot

Yet I still think fennek is not a good choice and does not fit DayZ at all, why add a german/dutch vehicle to the game and imply that their forces were there? Army vehicles that should be ingame should be of a czech or at least eastern european orgin or vehicles that the czech army uses to fit the style instead adding arma 3 vehicles. There are better options then the fennek czech army uses armored iveco trucks etc. If one day there would be a dayz map that take place in germany a fennek would be a great option.

ok so i've been trying to get Hicks,Eugen to push a dev version since the 14th of January with no luck. It's now gotten to the point they wont even responded to any communication at all.So sorry to say we are on a waiting game again before we can release 1.8.4 patch. Soon as i know more so will you. I'm going to keep doing a few little items here and there maybe get a few more vehicles/weapons ready but really nothing big until i know some more on release info.

Don't worry man, your server silence will begin again when all of the people get disinterested in the ridiculous KOS fest that is the dayz mod ( I mean they are most likely just annoyed by some bugs in standalone which is why they take temporary breaks, which is good in the long run) ... I feel so ridiculously disinterested whenever I load up dayz mod, it's so plain and boring in terms of immersion and actually being a survival game ... Ugh you could not pay me to stop playing standalone to play this mess of pvp again , in my opinion in about 6 months the dayz mod will be close to abandoned , seeing how much potential the standalone has and how the dayz mod is only hanging on by a thread of nostalgia (let's face it , all the GOOD dayz mods are DEAD , how could anyone whos interested in playing a survival game have ANY FUN in a mod like over watch or overpoch , it's unrealistic , not immersive one bit and the only thing It has is many vehicles and base building). To each his own though , but for me , dayz mod is in the past , the future is with dayz standalone and it's great to see people still living in the past but most of us need something new to breathe life into this genre (seeing as dayz mod made it , but definitely didn't perfect it , dayz sa truly feels like a survival game , the mod does NOT) and dayz standalone does just that , sometimes standalone is ust so frustrating (seeing as it's in Alpha) that many of us desperately flock to what once made us happy... But after a good three hours of playing a still buggy , very underdeveloped (in terms of survival , immersion and potential) dayz mod , most of us realize that the mod is in the past for a reason , and that our expectations have been raised by standalone so for a huge majority of us we can't stay on dayz mod for long as the negatives out weigh the nostalgic positives .

Oh, and we are using the iZurvive map app on the iPad to liase positions with other players. We have set up a group within the app called: -NO BULLSHIT- You can join the group and add your player position and see other players positions and meeting points, tents, vehicles etc etc. PM me for the password for the group if you would like to join. The map looks like this with player positions and meeting points added:

Personally, I don't understand the argument of not wanting military vehicles in the game. You can't argue for "REALISM" and then turn around and say "well...but not military vehicles, because I don't want them and they would unbalance gameplay blah blah" I mean I personally find it hilarious that this game has ZERO vehicles near driveable condition. (yes I am aware vehicles aren't really very far in development) It's like "OH LOOK! The apocalypse. All cars are now rusty, missing tires, and look like they have been fire bombed" Screw it. I'm all for adding some light armored vehicles into the game and making their parts incredibly difficult to come by. I really don't get what the push-back against military vehicles is all about.

[Fixed] - Login skin change. [Fixed] - Rating issue. Should stop vehicles being locked out to players with negative rating.

Military bases should have the best military loot. Period. But, they should also be death traps. The wrecked military vehicles we have now are a good way of distributing lower tier military gear around the map without making the military bases unnecessary.

This new Overpoch Server has a lot to offer: - all vehicles, skins and weapons from Overwatch - base building (indestructible cinder| snapping) - sector FNG | missions | care packages - extra loot | high mitilary loot - bike depoy | self bb - view distance changer - overwatch & skin trader - lift and tow | service points - and my favorite: bank robbery! Our comunity is growing fast... join now and experience a one of a kind gaming experience. The server has active admins (age 30+) and offers fun for heros, bandits, loot goblins and builders. Hope to see you soon on our own root server with 8Core/24GB RAM/SSD: IP: 85.25.91.144:2303 TS: 85.25.91.144 you need to install Epoch and Overwatch | add launch parameter: -mod=@DayzOverwatch DayZ Commander: Settings - Launch Parameters.Steam: Right Click "ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead" -General Tab -"Set Launch Options"

I fail to see how an RPG-7 and maybe some other disposable launcher (M72, RPG-18, etc.) would be unrealistic at all. Not that I believe we need any sort of lightly armored vehicles (though armor plating through vehicle customization should be possible), but having a few anti-tank weapons meant for taking out even basic military vehicles or technicals would be extremely useful.

I am getting really tired of this crap "argument". People suggest more depth in some areas and other just say no because of... reasons I guess? Why not have a complex melee system? It's not like adding more depth in area X does reduce gameplay to area X and not adding depth to area X "because it's only a small part" is the road to a far poorer and less enjoyable game that is reduced to other more developed areas. Even with a very complex and good melee system (which I would support) the game does not become "DayZ Knights" as survival and actually finding the equipment would play a much greater role. And even if you manage to do this there will be people with vehicles and guns laughing at your little outdated sword. If it was possible within the resources I would like a complex and authentic melee combat system as it would greatly increase the experience when fighting zombies or during the first part of the game.

I guess I wouldn't mind FOBs, however I would not want military vehicles in DayZ (ex. APCs, Tanks, Armed Helis).

If you go to the izurvive map and filter all of the loot indicators except "Various Military" (These are the military tent loot spawns) at the bottom, you can see they are all pretty much in one place with exception to a few here and there. DayZRP lore is pretty interesting because according to it the zombie infection actually started in Myshkino and that tent base was erected as either a cause or an effect of the zombie plague, though it doesn't specific which I don't think. Regardless of where it started, I can imagine temporary bases, fortifications and tent cities being erected as the zombies spread throughout Chernarus overtaking the defenses there and forcing the military to move back to a new defensive position. As the war raged on and areas were lost some equipment and temporary bases would be left behind to be discovered by players after Chernarus was lost and the game as we know it begins. While actual military bases should of course have the lions share of military grade gear, it seems like it would spice up the game some to have sparse leftover military gear spread out in some of these places with maybe some small military tent areas area and some destroyed or functional military vehicles (when they add them). I've seen a bunch of threads on here and reddit about players complaining about the lack of AKM/SKS ammo almost everywhere but these tents, so they could be a valuable stash of certain weapon/ammo/gear types that aren't availible anywhere else, especially NATO gear in places where temporary nato bases might be. I could see NATO forces coming from a carrier somewhere in the black sea and setting up operating points around major ports or coastal airfields. You could also expect lots of badly damaged gear considering it was the scene of a battle against the zeds, maybe even some defensive or explosive equipment like mines and grenades that were used for the battle. Dead bodies and walking up onto the scene of a massacre would be cool, but I think I read somewhere that the devs didn't want to spawn already dead bodies for performance reasons. However, since these areas would contain valuable loot and were the scene of a battle its stands to reason that they would be occupied by a relatively large number of zeds then say a little town like Mcta or somewhere. Having a horde of zeds around the area would help offset the ability of the players to just stroll up and be well geared right off the bat without flying in the face of realism, and after players drop all the zeds it would look like a battlefield anyways. I like the idea of small temp bases being random too, seems like that would add a lot to "replayability", if thats the right word for this game. Maybe the temporary NATO bases could even be randomly spawned if they wanted to stick with the randomness of finding NATO gear like it is with heli crashes. Yet another idea for including more NATO loot spawns into the map could be docked NATO warships or relief ships of some kind to show that the world was desperately trying to stop the zombie plague from spreading, maybe some of them could even be keeled over or even fully capsized making it somewhat dangerous, or even impossible, for players to enter all the way into the ship. I don't know if that would be too much to ask from the graphics devs or not though.

While melee does need some work, I don't think making firearms rare would be any kind of a solution. I have a feeling that in the context of DayZ this would mean 50% of the server pop running along the coast looking to hit someone with a splitting axe until they got bored and just quit playing. You shouldn't get a gun when you walk into any old house, but it should be reasonable enough that once you take care of the basics and head to the right places nearby you would have a good chance of arming yourself, even if its one of the lesser effective firearms in the game. Obviously, higher forms of badassery (incl melee) should be harder to acquire, with exceptions being places where these things rightfully belong, such as military bases. Speaking of power progression and military bases, it would be interesting to see when they add more military weapons/vehicles to the game if they might add areas inside civilian areas where, say... battles were previously fought against the zombie uprising and there are combat vehicles and weapon spawns, as well as destroyed military equipment strewn about with the possibility of there being some, or none at all, working weapons/vehicles. If we think about what happened just as society collapsed in Chernarus and all the battles being fought, military tech would be spread around the country not only at military bases, but at chokepoints and civilian centers as well. I could imagine the stary/novy area might be one such chokepoint with its wide open and distant view as well as a sort of center for the civilian population, given the apocalypse was an infection you could also expect significant military presence near every major and even minor hospital, not only to handle zeds but for keeping an ever growing frantic civilian population at bay as well. Every major city and port could be expected to have some sort of military presence, even if its just remnants of a mobile unit; perhaps some of these would be NATO units called in to help as the disaster progressed, with the possibility of NATO loot spawning that currently only spawns on heli crashes, I mean if they are bringing in helicopters and armed teams they should have a base of ops at least somewhere in the country right? Currently the vast majority of high tier military equipment and presence seems to be at the military installations, as if the Chernarun government just didn't give a shit about anything when the zombies were rolling through their cities. They could even use highly contested areas like elektro and throw in some battered military equipment there from a battle lost to the zeds to spur on players to fight for these areas even more, or try to spread the points of interest out a little more to naturally spread out players and make a small amount of higher tier gear availible to players who go to these areas. Sorry I got a little off topic, but my brain started spontaneously working.

Again you're misinterpreting a game that has heavy PvP for what YOU want, which seems like a PVE hug fest. Not happening, military vehicles or no. This isn't the Sims online or Altis life, Zombies edition. Except they do. This is a military war zone and zombie outbreak crisis zone in a world without law and order. The settings isn't "peaceful pacifist town", its "civil war,then zombies". Again, the current V3S is a military vehicle. Except that military vehicles don't require a degree to maintain and repair. In fact militaries in general don't adopt vehicles that can't be maintained at a high school level. Do you think the enlisted folk at the trans-motor section of a military garrison have two year degrees in engineering? Using IV bags and administering blood transfusions require higher technical training than maintaining light scout cars. All of which would be more frequent than a higher end vehicle. Can't fight an armored car? Don't pick a fight with one. Just like not picking a fight with someone equipped with a rifle when all you have is a flashlight and battery. You are also implying this thing or anything like it would win any encounter it comes across. Go into a town or city, people can slip into a multi story structure and you can't do anything about it. unless you send someone out to pursue them.

You're still completely ignoring the point. Dayz is meant to be a player VS environment game mostly when near completion, it is meant to get players to fight the zombie threat, not to be a militarized PVP warzone with a side dish of zombie annoyance. Military vehicles have no place in this setting, the vehicles should be common cars and trucks that can easily be repaired and maintained by the general populace, not ones that required an engineering degree to be taken care of. It's already been said that armored vehicles are going to be almost exclusively civilian vehicles that had extensive work done on them with metal plates and a makeshift armoring, maybe even wooden boards.

Melee combat needs to be improved. A lot. But ranged combat should be the main focus. Why, you ask? When the game is complete, the aim is to have zombies be the main threat. There's going to be hordes, etc. This makes close quarters combat obsolete. Run into a horde of zombies and, no matter how good you are at using your weapon of choice, you're going to die. Guns will be the only usable weapon - and that's what guns are going to be used for primarily. That's how they're going to increase players working together and decrease PvP. By making it so that you either co operate at least some of the time, or you die. Don't get me wrong. Player interaction and fighting is and always will be a massive part of DayZ. But Zombies are supposed to be, too. As for people claiming that guns or even ammunition should be rare, how does that reflect reality? At all? Guns aren't rare. Even military grade ones are common. The fact that Chernarus had a heavy military presence only amplifies this, but even here in the UK, where guns are virtually taboo, I know a fair few places I could get a gun in an apocalypse, entirely hypothetically, of course - I'm not much of a prepper (granted, many of these involve stealing them from people I know and dislike, but yeah - even here, they're not all that rare). It makes 0 sense for guns or ammunition to be rare. I also take issue with the rarity of clothing, backpacks, working vehicles and a lot more, but maybe that's just me. In the aftermath of civilization, with a massively reduced population, there's plenty of everything to go around. I don't believe that DayZ can focus on hardcore survivalism and be realistic as well as difficult. Its focus has to be player interaction and zombies if it wants to actually be realistic (though they've gone for 'authenticity', which I'm fine with).

All that would be nice I suppose if any of those things were readily available. I highly doubt lmgs, mines, and grenades will be. They will end up being a rare occurrence and thus not a viable defense against armored vehicles. Just sounds like something better left in arma.

When they introduce manual gears, it should be easier to get vehicles to do what you want when going up and down hills, I reckon

Some of them maybe, but they shouldn't be any of the wreck models we have now - most of them are clearly damaged beyond repair and the amount of work it would take to convert world models into working vehicles would be pretty large. Then again they could obviously just substitute it by making working versions of the wreck vehicle types and putting them in the spots where the wrecks are, but I don't think it'd be worth the time to make every possible fixable wreck on the map driveworthy.

Perhaps this would be a common weakness shared amongst military vehicles, having to frequently stop for fuel. And I suppose that even with those thick as hell tires bullets would still render the vehicle immobile if you were to shoot the wheels out with an AKM or other high powered rifle?

As far as fuel consumption I can conform military vehicles are gas whores from experience. I never encountered a vehicle in military use that didn't need to be refueled after spending 14 hours idling,let alone on missions.