Devblog details on engine architecture for DayZ

[HIHBGaming 14]

Gimme the quote where he says he doesnt.

The point is, there's no mention of anything anywhere of what you're assuming. People need to read Rocket's posts; or any post for that matter; more carefully and comprehend them, not make assumptions on information that is non existent.

We all know what happens when people assume...

Edited October 28, 2012 by R.Neville

[dallas 5195]

Even the current Chernarus is huge, but lets be sincere about it - most of it are desolate woods or barren fields...

They need to add more interesting and compelling locations and, more importantly, decent stimuli for players to explore remote areas. If the server population is more evenly spread then it is right now, then current-sized Chernarus can easily harbor hundreds more players.

The question is how they can compel players to move out and explore inland and border areas.

I see several schools of thoughts dominating DayZ and maybe that's why it's so successful. Some groups congregate at the loot hubs, because their endgame is to get the endgame gear. Gear and death comes easy in these PvP epicenters. What you easily lose, you can easily recover. Others play to beat the average life expectancy, to survive as long as they possibly can, untill suicidal bordom forces them to throw caution in the wind. These players seek away from the most populated areas and have to make due with traveling much longer distance, loot spread out thin, but much less player encounters and deaths.

As player progression is tied to gear and inventory space, I don't see much change in the player demography of both the populated and desolated areas. When loot is easy to come by in the most dense player hubs, permadeath is somewhat negotiable. While cities might become disease ridden and unhealthy for players, these players might not even survive long enough in the cities to suffer the consequences. The challenge might increase for the lone wolves, however they might actually welcome another challenge, since living of the remote lands is easy, once you get the hang of it.

But since this broad appeal to PvP and PvE players alike, creates such different motivations and dynamics, it's very complex to make any radical gameplay changes. I'm pretty biased, I'm somewhat content, whenever I add another day to my survival and see the Chernarus sun set in the west, but if Rocket forced everyone to play as safely as I, DayZ would soon become boring, predictable and alot less dangerous.

I think it's wrong to force players out of the cities and into the wild. Some players prefere the south coast and other players, because the increased action, is worth the decreased life expectancy. Bandits aren't that concerned about tomorrow or their long term health, just look at the bad guys in Waterworld.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Dallas

[SqTH 260]

Naïve people, naïve people everywhere.

[griffinz 2816]

Naïve people, naïve people everywhere.

It's people like you that plant seeds of misinformation for the sake of being pessimistic, causing the false information to spread, and leading to a giant mess that we have to clean up.

Cut it out, or you get your lucky 3rd warning.

[Occy 7]

So, stuff will run smoother? I think that's what he said.

[soapmak3r 677]

Naïve people, naïve people everywhere.

When I see a post like this now...I automatically wonder "Is this a WarZ dev just trying to stir up more shit?"

I think that DayZ in-game paranoia has made me deeply cynical about humanity...

[JamesButlin 108]

awesome I have a question though??

Will all buildings be enterable rocket??

He's already stated somewhere that all buildings will either be enterable or have some form of visual indication that they can't (barricaded up doors etc)

Good news indeed! Cannot wait for standalone!

[rocket 16567]

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

[Steppwolf 97]

Gimme the quote where he says he doesnt.

The burden of proof lays upon the person claiming, young padwan.

[meshcarver 154]

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

...this guy is the best thing to happen to pc gaming in over a decade imo.

Not only has he shown that not all pc gamers want the same old levels, pointless points, baby step helpers and virtual (read: meaningless) medals etc, hes also just put minds at rest with three small sentences and shown his intention too.

We dont get enough of this kind of thing in the games industry.

[M_B 18]

It would be cool if someone could explain that in retard language for me :l

Thanks.

When you install a normal game, the game runs on your computer. Its your computer doing all the calculations, all the display, all the AI, everything. All your PC resources are split between these tasks.

However you can divide this workload between computers. You can leave your computer (the Client) doing the display stuff and the reacting to what you do stuff but you can move all the other AI and game calculations stuff to another computer (the Server). The result is that your computer can concentrate on displaying the game and the other computer can concentrate on running the game.

As regards hacking - well to keep things simple. If the game is doing all the calculations on your computer then its easier to make it calculate things differently or do things differently because you can change things on your computer. If its on a different computer, then its a lot more difficult because you have to change things on that computer. However it cant be prevented completely because the server still sends data to the client and that data can be accessed. So for example, if the server is telling the client that there is another player hiding behind a wall infront of the player, then its possible to access that data with a cheat and tell the player (i.e. radar).

Hope that helps.

[Timberwolf (DayZ) 118]

Naïve people, naïve people everywhere.

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

Uh that's gotta hurt, I bet he's crying in a corner right now.

[justblah 1]

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

Thanks you for this, Rocket! <3

[AlcApwn (DayZ) 28]

So for example, if the server is telling the client that there is another player hiding behind a wall infront of the player, then its possible to access that data with a cheat and tell the player (i.e. radar).

you COULD prevent that by sending the data only if the other player is in your legit line of sight.

heroes of newerth does exactly this, but it is ofc more difficult in a FPS.

[postermoney@yandex.ru 1]

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

Rocket, you do something amazing. Beans for you :beans: !

[SqTH 260]

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

Ty

[SqTH 260]

It's people like you that plant seeds of misinformation for the sake of being pessimistic, causing the false information to spread, and leading to a giant mess that we have to clean up.

Cut it out, or you get your lucky 3rd warning.

Hi, I really dont give a sh+t about warnings on a forum.

And my misinformation that wasnt made reacted Rocket, that posted infos.

Your welcome

[Ander (DayZ) 530]

Rocket suggested that if everything they try to implement considering the game/server architecture goes smoothly, theoretically game would be able to operate even with thousands of players.

In such instance the map size becomes the major issue, and that is the point.

In my opinion what really matters is the number of locations on the map which really draw players. Cherno, Elektro, NWA, Stary became the major hubs and deathmatching places. That's where the action takes place. Nowhere else pretty much.

Dev team needs to find methods to pursue players to explore distant villages and other smaller locations somehow.

Even the current Chernarus is huge, but lets be sincere about it - most of it are desolate woods or barren fields...

They need to add more interesting and compelling locations and, more importantly, decent stimuli for players to explore remote areas. If the server population is more evenly spread then it is right now, then current-sized Chernarus can easily harbor hundreds more players.

The question is how they can compel players to move out and explore inland and border areas.

First humble ideas that come to my mind are pretty obvious:

- change the loot distribution, make even small villages satisfying lootwise (still it's a big puzzle how to implement it, as the big cities obviously should have pretty much everything survivor could crave for in terms of food and basic equipment at least.)

- make such major hubs that are abundant with stuff much, much more hazardous (zombie hordes, hiding and hard to spot zombies that swarm you on place and what not)

and there should be more forces obliging players to keep off the big cities and go explore into the wild...

The second thing which seems to be they are pretty much focused on right now is how to force player interaction. Current issue is, when two survivors meet, it in 95% of cases results in imminent shootout with death of less lucky one.

How could players be coerced into hugging each other and sharing stuff on meeting rather then murdering?

My guess is to make that happen the surrounding should be so dangerous and hazardous that only teamplay can promote survival. (Unless you are geared up like commando and have proper skills - only that could foster lone-wolf play, for a protracted but not-too-long time stretch)

I seriously think that the new wound system and illnesses we have heard of strongly suggests that lone-wolf survival for all the time is not a route for securing long life-stretch in Chernarus.

Anyway, looking for more stanalone news. Keep up the good work, Rocket!

We're looking at re-balancing the map focus.

Stay tuned.

[khalimerot 76]

There will be no microtransactions.

There will be no subscription payments.

For as long as I am involved in the project.

[meshcarver 154]

Really great news about re-balancing the map focus points and hopefully lots more players, but I hope its still in mind that one of the other aspects of this game thats a good draw is to also have vast areas of unpopulated wilderness.

So basically theres still a lot of areas that people can go for solitude or just to survive solo and unhindered, unless by bands of roving bandits.

Im sure you guys have your powder dry on that one though. :)

[elmendatfc@hotmail.com 18]

I hope the DayZ dev team reads this. I've been years expecting a zombie apocalypse simulator, a realistic zombie survival, and DayZ came out: I've played the game mod for more than 400 hours (according to Steam). DayZ is amazing, but it needs a lot of more difficulty. That's why people complain about what is the objective of the game, because it is so easy.

1) Zombies need to be a real enemy. In DayZmod, when a zombie sees and runs to attack the player, the player thinks: "Oh okay, a zombie, let's kill it". The player reaction should be "Holly fuck, a zombie saw me, RUN MOTHERFUCKER RUN". Zombies needs to kill players by hiting them only 4 or 5 times, not 30 times (it is ridiculous when a player wants to suicide in Kamenka, to be waiting 3 minutes for 7 or 8 zombies to kill the player). Also, zombies should run at the same speed as the player, but with the difference that the player get's tired and zombie don't, so no loger a solution for escaping from zombies is running for infinite time... player will eventually need to kill the zombies at some point so they don't catch the player. Also, zombies should be able to "grab" the player, so when a player is running and has contact with a zombie, it get's stopped or at least slowed down.

*ZOMBIES NEED TO BE ABUNDANT AND A PAIN IN THE ASS*

2) Loot needs to be so fucking hard. In DayZmod if you go to a big village you can get most of the items in the game easily, you get full equiped so fast. Getting a good gear should take more than 10 hours, not 1 hour. Also, food and drink should also be very hard to find, so players will actually fight to eat and drink: THAT IS SURVIVAL, and not having lots of food and drink in 5 minutes.

*PLAYERS WILL FIGHT TO EAT AND DRINK, THIS IS NOT CALL OF DUTY, THIS IS A SURVIVAL*

Sorry if my english is not perfect. Thanks for reading.

[esteldunedain 4]

As a part-time programmer, I can say that this is a HUGE thing. Leaving aside the improvement in security against hacking, this means that the zombies' behaviour will be calculated on the server side. Their individual positions will also be tracked on the server (with full AI when a player is near, maybe with a simplyified AI when they are alone).

Many times in this forum people suggested moving zombie hordes, lone zombies walking through the woods, etc. Maybe even things as dynamic zombie population (as in Game of Life). Implementing these behaviours is ULTRA painfull on the client side, but almost trivial when the server is doing the work! This change in architecture opens a lot of new posibilities for more complex zombie behaviour. It's really very exciting!!!!

[rekrul 91]

...this guy is the best thing to happen to pc gaming in over a decade imo.

Not only has he shown that not all pc gamers want the same old levels, pointless points, baby step helpers and virtual (read: meaningless) medals etc, hes also just put minds at rest with three small sentences and shown his intention too.

We dont get enough of this kind of thing in the games industry.

Hold on now! He hasn't said "no megatransactions" yet! Show me the quote where he says that! This means that underground bunkers will costs thousands of dollars! This is horrible! HOOORIBLE!

[meshcarver 154]

Hold on now! He hasn't said "no megatransactions" yet! Show me the quote where he says that! This means that underground bunkers will costs thousands of dollars! This is horrible! HOOORIBLE!

Lol... ;)

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

I really hope this helps against cheaters! But a decent anti-cheat will always be required! Please stick with BE, and don't use VAC

VAC is an anti cheat protection produced by valve, for valve

Why on earth would BI jump on a completely different, and presumably incompatible anticheat bandwaggon, when they have a proper and working anticheat solution at hand?