New Dev Blog Report: November 2012

[WargameKlok 166]

The short and simple truth is that there will be hackers. Period.

We are changing the architecture to reduce the impact of these hacks, and we have VAC that can act as something of a deterrent to the those hacking. More and more, I am convinced the best way forward is to provide the ability to run private servers, for private communities. This is the absolute best thing we can do to combat hacking, and the easiest. So we must remain vigilant and do what we can, and this base architecture change will drastically reduce the hacking options - but overall giving the power and ability for communities to manage themselves will be the most powerful thing we can do.

Thank you for that! I also found out a couple interesting things about VAC

Delayed bans, criticism & rationale

If a cheat is found the player's Steam account will be flagged as cheating immediately, but the player will not receive any indication of the detection. It is only after a delay of "days or even weeks"^[6] that the account is permanently banned from "VAC Secure" servers^[7] for that game, along with other games that use the same engine. (e.g. Valve's Source games, GoldSrc games, Unreal engine games). Valve never discloses which cheat was detected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Anti-Cheat

So a cheater getting caught by VAC can lose their entire Steam account(that includes all their games purchased through Steam), LOL. I can live with this :)

[rocket 16567]

Hmmmm... In some ways I'm glad that this is all being implemented this way, HOWEVER, I can't help to have fears that ballistics and weapon handling as Operation Flashpoint, ArmA and ArmA2 handled them have gone the way of the Dodo... I'm expecting something rather lame like BF3 (fake)ballistics. can someone official please confirm or deny this?

I personally am rather fond of having the weapons behave exactly like they did in the aforementioned games. Much more realistic.

On a side note: Your comments and postings are highly appreciated as it is rare to see developers connected to their community. So, a heartfelt thank you.

The person who made the engine, Ondrej Spanel, the lead programmer at BIS, is the person who is implementing these changes. I doubt he would be happy coming up with a solution that doesn't entirely reflect the feel of the game he had made before.

Actually, the server is already often doing these calculations for, say, AI soldiers. So all these functions can already be done by the server. We're simply moving all we can to the server, so that we restrict the problems associated with hacking at the client access level.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Hmmmm... In some ways I'm glad that this is all being implemented this way, HOWEVER, I can't help to have fears that ballistics and weapon handling as Operation Flashpoint, ArmA and ArmA2 handled them have gone the way of the Dodo... I'm expecting something rather lame like BF3 (fake)ballistics. can someone official please confirm or deny this?

I personally am rather fond of having the weapons behave exactly like they did in the aforementioned games. Much more realistic.

On a side note: Your comments and postings are highly appreciated as it is rare to see developers connected to their community. So, a heartfelt thank you.

It is still RV engine so why wouldn't ballistics be the same? It could take even more time to make different shitty ballistics rather than import Arma's :D

[rocket 16567]

Thank you for that! I also found out a couple interesting things about VAC

...(snip)

I am pleased we have VAC, but it is not a silver bullet. It will be a small part of what needs to be an ongoing and developing strategy.

[rossums 2190]

I am pleased we have VAC, but it is not a silver bullet. It will be a small part of what needs to be an ongoing and developing strategy.

I find VAC to be a much bigger deterrent compared to the likes of BattlEye.

The vast majority (I assume) of PC gamers will use/have used Steam and thus have various games on Steam - tying a game to Steam and being VAC banned means more than being banned from playing DayZ since it carries over to all the other games using VAC - the punishment is a lot more severe than a BE Global Ban which only means you need a new key.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Rossums

[griffinz 2816]

The threat of losing your steam account should be enough to deter some hackers

[woots 82]

I find VAC to be a much bigger deterrent compared to the likes of BattlEye.

The vast majority (I assume) of PC gamers will use/have used Steam and thus have various games on Steam - tying a game to Steam and being VAC banned means more than being banned from playing DayZ since it carries over to all the other games using VAC - the punishment is a lot more severe than a BE Global Ban which only means you need a new key.

That is not how it works. If someone gets banned for using hacks in DayZ. That ban is only for DayZ. It does not carry over to other games. Would be nice but it doesn't

Example: If someone gets VAC banned from MW2 they can still play on Valve VAC servers.

VAC is not a deterrent and will not slow the hacking down

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Why are people getting their knickers in a twist about using VAC. It's been clearly stated multiple times that this is just one of the measures being used, not the only thing protecting DayZ from hackers. Combine that with the fact that people could lose their Steam account if caught and the risks for hackers start adding up.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Fraggle

[sniperdoc 251]

I believe that some people's concern with Steam is the total and utter disregard of personal property by Valve. The issue I personally have with Steam/Origin/U-Play, is that their terms of service and "SUBSCRIBER Agreement" are so entirely one sided that you don't even own a LICENSE of the game.

If a Steam user decided that the ToS or SSA are so unfair and chooses not to sign the new terms (which they're able to push upon users due to the "we can do whatever the F*** we want" clause) then that user cannot access his/her games anymore. For some people this means over $3,000 in software licenses that become inaccessible.

This is where I'm confused about the development team's apparent reverence in Minecraft's ways, yet resorting to Steam instead of Good Old Games or StarDock, when Notch himself pretty much regards Steam as the devil incarnate. And I highly agree with him.

Services and ToS/SSA's like Steam/Origin/uPlay are entirely unconscionable and using their platform only shows that you support their paradigm which is "screw the consumer."

At least that's my opinion.

Edited November 29, 2012 by sniperdoc

[WargameKlok 166]

I believe that some people's concern with Steam is the total and utter disregard of personal property by Valve. The issue I personally have with Steam/Origin/U-Play, is that their terms of service and "SUBSCRIBER Agreement" are so entirely one sided that you don't even own a LICENSE of the game.

If a Steam user decided that the ToS or SSA are so unfair and chooses not to sign the new terms (which they're able to push upon users due to the "we can do whatever the F*** we want" clause) then that user cannot access his/her games anymore. For some people this means over $3,000 in software licenses that become inaccessible.

This is where I'm confused about the development team's apparent reverence in Minecraft's ways, yet resorting to Steam instead of Good Old Games or StarDock, when Notch himself pretty much regards Steam as the devil incarnate. And I highly agree with him.

Services and ToS/SSA's like Steam/Origin/uPlay are entirely unconscionable and using their platform only shows that you support their paradigm which is "screw the consumer."

At least that's my opinion.

Dafuq are you crying about? Didn't you read his post? What else would you suggest? That Rocket create his own version of Steam and then work on the game? Does that make any sense to you?

[rossums 2190]

That is not how it works. If someone gets banned for using hacks in DayZ. That ban is only for DayZ. It does not carry over to other games. Would be nice but it doesn't

Example: If someone gets VAC banned from MW2 they can still play on Valve VAC servers.

VAC is not a deterrent and will not slow the hacking down

Yeah - my bad.

I was thinking as if it was a source game for some reason.

Too much Counter Strike, I guess :P

[sniperdoc 251]

Dafuq are you crying about? Didn't you read his post? What else would you suggest? That Rocket create his own version of Steam and then work on the game? Does that make any sense to you?

I don't know who is crying here, but it sure as heck isn't me. Don't presume to put words in my mouth or try to take some snotty attitude. If you'd have bothered to actually COMPREHEND what I wrote you would see that I gave alternatives. Some people simply do not just agree with Steam's Terms of Service or the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

Steam is not the only content delivery system out there. Valve just can't be bothered to give two sh*ts about what consumers want.

Developer's concern about pushing patches and what not... that shouldn't be their concern. A reliable download location, a decent cheat prevention system, a way to authenticate that someone actually bought the product. Bam... done. Patches can be released and provided by the content delivery host for manual patching by users. It is ok to put SOME responsibility on the end-user. Design a decent patching API and you wouldn't have a problem anyways.

But, to put Minecraft and Steam in the same article... God, lets pray Notch never finds this thread... lol

Edited November 29, 2012 by sniperdoc

[Falcons84 9]

I personally love steam :)

[stephen@mycopyrightnow.com 3]

Rocket, I work in technology marketing and after reading your update I wish that many of the clients I work with had your project management and development philosophy.

[Takas 91]

Valve probably is the best company in the world. Look it up at what they do, how they treet their employees, their working scructure, company vacation, family treatment... and Steam is awesome too. Stop bitching, never-satisfied children.

[WargameKlok 166]

I don't know who is crying here, but it sure as heck isn't me. Don't presume to put words in my mouth or try to take some snotty attitude. If you'd have bothered to actually COMPREHEND what I wrote you would see that I gave alternatives. Some people simply do not just agree with Steam's Terms of Service or the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

Steam is not the only content delivery system out there. Valve just can't be bothered to give two sh*ts about what consumers want.

Developer's concern about pushing patches and what not... that shouldn't be their concern. A reliable download location, a decent cheat prevention system, a way to authenticate that someone actually bought the product. Bam... done. Patches can be released and provided by the content delivery host for manual patching by users. It is ok to put SOME responsibility on the end-user. Design a decent patching API and you wouldn't have a problem anyways.

But, to put Minecraft and Steam in the same article... God, lets pray Notch never finds this thread... lol

Those alternatives don't seem to have all the same services as Steam so I didn't see them as alternatives. However, at this stage, it's been decided to use Steam so it's a moot point. I'm interested though in if purchasing through Steam is a deal breaker for you.

[Maca (DayZ) 769]

Thanks Rocket & Devs for the information and all the hard work being put into this great game.

[rpatto92@hotmail.com 26]

They are simpler and easily customized by the player, and can be changed on the fly. Think of Minecraft here, you can quickly change that "quick accces" toolbar to suit your task at hand, that is how we are changing DayZ.

Not entirely sure how you are going to approach this but personally; I think it would be useful and more immersive if the the "quick access" menu or hot-bar would fade in/out with use, perhaps when you use the scroll wheel or number keys (like minecraft) Or you could also invent an entirely new way of accessing it; perhaps by holding down "Alt" and turning the characters head to the top, bottom, left or right portions of the screen.

Also expanding on this idea of holding "Alt" to access various hot-bars you could even apply this to the deeper inventory menu's by holding "Alt" to look around at your characters body and then select an item to use or poach/pocket/bag to manage by using scroll wheel again to bring open various options, you'd normally manage via the "Gear" menu. If possible you could apply single animations to each object you might reach for and therefore have complete control over usage and accessibility; this would make a great aid for tuning an item for its precise purpose and make the game's "Gear" menu's. Much like shuffling through you're pockets trying to find the thing you want; something's may be easier to reach for like a gun, bullets or perhaps bandages stuffed in a font pocket within easy reach and others more difficult like; a concealed blade or torch batteries you might have hidden in you inner coat or back pockets.

Plus as a side note: besides all the other potentially interesting ways of managing/accessing inventory... just by holding down a key to access the "Gear" menu would be revolutionary; as nothing could get you back to the action quicker than simply letting go of a key to return in game. (no matter if it was "Alt" to look about or not) Not forgetting if you needed to do some major inventory management; you could access a deep menu or utilize the inbuilt Arma system and simply double tap to stay in the menu for some more intense shuffling.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Rpatto92

[TholaisGeren1 2]

Hey!does anyone else think there should be cleaning kits for weapons , since they are supposed to degrade in later dev?

[TholaisGeren1 2]

Not entirely sure how you are going to approach this but personally; I think it would be useful and more immersive if the the "quick access" menu or hot-bar would fade in/out with use, perhaps when you use the scroll wheel or number keys (like minecraft) Or you could also invent an entirely new way of accessing it; perhaps by holding down "Alt" and turning the characters head to the top, bottom, left or right portions of the screen.

Also expanding on this idea of holding "Alt" to access various hot-bars you could even apply this to the deeper inventory menu's by holding "Alt" to look around at your characters body and then select an item to use or poach/pocket/bag to manage by using scroll wheel again to bring open various options, you'd normally manage via the "Gear" menu. If possible you could apply single animations to each object you might reach for and therefore have complete control over usage and accessibility; this would make a great aid for tuning an item for its precise purpose and make the game's "Gear" menu's. Much like shuffling through you're pockets trying to find the thing you want; something's may be easier to reach for like a gun, bullets or perhaps bandages stuffed in a font pocket within easy reach and others more difficult like; a concealed blade or torch batteries you might have hidden in you inner coat or back pockets.

I agree with you, that sounds like a new kind of interface for inv management cool

[rpatto92@hotmail.com 26]

Hey!does anyone else think there should be cleaning kits for weapons , since they are supposed to degrade in later dev?

Simply answer YES

Complicated one Definitely

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

I hate steam, I was hoping you would release it with more choice including hard copies. I would have thought having steam control it will affect the price, please don't tell me it's going to be more that the $15 mark? Has the price been finalised?

Some players are loyal enough to wait for the SA, but they know they are going to be screwed over by their ISP when they go over net usage allowance by downloading it over steam! Have you given thought to that

[Zombie Jesus 723]

I was already fairly nerded out for this game but man now I just can not wait. Recently got back into DayZ after a month long break and it is like riding a bike (so I died when I hit a rock lol). Great news to hear a good foundation is being laid for countless hours of gaming fun.

[McTwitchy 6]

Hey!does anyone else think there should be cleaning kits for weapons , since they are supposed to degrade in later dev?

I think that's a great idea. It would allow you to repair/clean your weapon so that it would last longer. Granted some weapons like the AK47 for instance don't really need to be cleaned nearly as much as a M4 before you start getting stoppages, which would also add to the so called "value" of a weapon. You'd see individuals picking a AK instead of a M4. Sure, an m-4 with an acog is pretty, but in an austere environment when you aren't regularly cleaning it's going to stop on you(most likely the magazine causing stoppage though). While a rusty AK47 could be dropped in the mud and picked right back up to blast a zombie in the face.

[Timmymachine109 (DayZ) 235]

Rocket,

Not sure if you've already answered this but I couldn't see one. I was wondering if there will be a better jump function added to the stand alone? Something along the lines of "Press space to climb up/over object"? The vault key in ArmA 2 is horrible and usually just ends up getting you killed while being chased!!!

Other than this, thanks for the work on the mod and SA :)