New Dev Blog Report: November 2012

[Axon0p62 11]

Yeah I understand..and btw I would absolutely hate using skill points for character progression. I just thought it'd be cool to have character progression or alteration in your case that would be transparent to the user. No points..I hate points.

I would love to see some skillpoints implanted, but not like in any other MMO where you got to train them. It should be like when you spawn a new char you choose some specific skills, like medicin(you can take and give medical supplies), weapon maintance(gives you the ability to clean weapons and keep them working, while others weapons will break after some time and they dont have the skill to fix it again), mechanics(you can repair vehicles) everybody should be able to play there style so all klasses can use all things that are out there, but you need specific roles to finish spezific goals, like fixing weapons, vehicles or injuries. That is just little what should be possible and would make the gameplay more teambased. So lonewolfs are able to survive alone but if someone got a specific need that he does not have the skill for he needs to get social, what should be much much harder when you are in a banditskin.

Women players should wear dresses, maybe give this option to male players, people can have erotic fantasies with zombies and dresses

Or maybe bandits can kidnap players and force them to wear dresses and run by elektro lol

WTF, Dude!?!

[Dr Klunk 11]

Hell gents.

On the tumblr site it is stated that " We will be assessing the results of our major architectural changes at the end of next week, and reporting the results to everyone when we have assessed that."

Is the assessment done and what does it say? :D

looking forward ...reeeeeeeeeealllly ... to the standalone

thanx

[The L!ne 31]

We use VAC, this costs us (read: you) nothing.

am i the only one who is sceptical about VAC because it failed so hard at COD:MW2? please make the game quite safe from cheats and hacks!

[nik21 287]

am i the only one who is sceptical about VAC because it failed so hard at COD:MW2? please make the game quite safe from cheats and hacks!

No, you're ont the only one. I mean, look at MW2/ 3, Homefront or CS (just the most popular examples). They use VAC, are absolutely plagued with cheaters and it's definately not an issue of the engine there.

Since the engine for DayZ is going to be locked down, which will eliminate the scripting issue with the major game-breaking hacks, but people will try to use glitches like duping etc., make use of Wallhacks, ESP, Aimbot, maybe stuff like speadhack and such, instead of scripting.

The banning policy of VAC is also problematic. IF it detects something, the bans are delayed by days, weeks or even months. PB or BE Bans are usually no longer delayed than 1 week (applying for private hacks - VAC even delays bans for simple public hacks 1+ week, not to mentoin private ones).

Also, VAC does not have any admin features. It's basicly ban or no ban. PB and BE come along with a lot of admin features inlcuded.

I highly doubt that VAC will effeciently keep cheaters out of the game. I have watched hacking forums for a pretty long time now and from what I can see, VAC seems to be rather ineffecient, especially when it comes to private cheats which will definately be present as this game will be almost as popular as an AAA+ Title.

In comparision, PB does detect most public cheats within a week and it busts Private Cheats from time to time (at least for the popular games they support, like BF3 for example).

BE detects most public cheats within 24-48 hours and is also detecting private hacks regulary (as for Arma 2/ DayZ, every private hack has been detected in the past and most private hacks are getting busted every week).

I have nothing against the idea of VAC being used as additional anti-cheat, as a basic protection of every game server. But it being the primary and only anti-cheat in a popular title like DayZ is a bad decision imo.

[tsandrey 379]

No, you're ont the only one. I mean, look at MW2/ 3, Homefront or CS (just the most popular examples). They use VAC, are absolutely plagued with cheaters and it's definately not an issue of the engine there.

Since the engine for DayZ is going to be locked down, which will eliminate the scripting issue with the major game-breaking hacks, but people will try to use glitches like duping etc., make use of Wallhacks, ESP, Aimbot, maybe stuff like speadhack and such, instead of scripting.

The banning policy of VAC is also problematic. IF it detects something, the bans are delayed by days, weeks or even months. PB or BE Bans are usually no longer delayed than 1 week (applying for private hacks - VAC even delays bans for simple public hacks 1+ week, not to mentoin private ones).

Also, VAC does not have any admin features. It's basicly ban or no ban. PB and BE come along with a lot of admin features inlcuded.

I highly doubt that VAC will effeciently keep cheaters out of the game. I have watched hacking forums for a pretty long time now and from what I can see, VAC seems to be rather ineffecient, especially when it comes to private cheats which will definately be present as this game will be almost as popular as an AAA+ Title.

In comparision, PB does detect most public cheats within a week and it busts Private Cheats from time to time (at least for the popular games they support, like BF3 for example).

BE detects most public cheats within 24-48 hours and is also detecting private hacks regulary (as for Arma 2/ DayZ, every private hack has been detected in the past and most private hacks are getting busted every week).

I have nothing against the idea of VAC being used as additional anti-cheat, as a basic protection of every game server. But it being the primary and only anti-cheat in a popular title like DayZ is a bad decision imo.

This post pretty much sums it all up. Nice job

Also it's worth noting, that VAC bans do NOT carry over to all VAC games! If you are banned in MW2, you will not be banned in MW3, DayZ, Serious Sam and etc. Only a few VAC games carry bans over!

So anyone saying how cheaters will stop because they are scared for their Steam account is wrong. Cheaters will make new accounts and keep buying keys all the time. Cheaters are willing to spend money! I've seen people willing to give over 30$ for DayZ bypasses!

Edited December 3, 2012 by TSAndrey

[avneet 3]

Awesome news!

[nik21 287]

So anyone saying how cheaters will stop because they are scared for their Steam account is wrong. Cheaters will make new accounts and keep buying keys all the time.

The smarter ones, yes, actually some noob cheaters are afraid of VAC because they think it makes them lose their whole steam account. :P

[The L!ne 31]

Also it's worth noting, that VAC bans do NOT carry over to all VAC games! If you are banned in MW2, you will not be banned in MW3, DayZ, Serious Sam and etc. Only a few VAC games carry bans over!

thats why I think, that VAC is the worst choice on anti-cheating (rumors said, that you are banned from games with the same engine... so all COD for example when you get caught cheating in one). There are although many false-positiv detections with VAC and they only reverted this once. usually your are banned when you got banned, even if it is a false-positiv

[Kazioo 15]

New engine architecture is 10x more important for cheating prevention than VAC.

Rocket described whole new idea of building a huge house with the focus on its foundation and all you people are arguing about are carpets and tiles... :P

[hulkingunicorn 20]

[...]Since the engine for DayZ is going to be locked down, which will eliminate the scripting issue with the major game-breaking hacks, but people will try to use glitches like duping etc., make use of Wallhacks, ESP, Aimbot, maybe stuff like speadhack and such, instead of scripting.

The banning policy of VAC is also problematic. IF it detects something, the bans are delayed by days, weeks or even months.[...]

Speedhacks sound unlikely with the chosen architecture. Isn't wallhack and ESP more or less the same thing? Seeing through obstacles and using aimbots sounds like prime examples of hacks with the new architecture, at least.

Someone else talked about the delayed bans of VAC in this thread; by delaying the bans of new hacks, they can ban more game keys (they won't be warned not to use already detected hacks).

We'll see BS deaths in the stand alone, but not like in the mod (in some ways a bad thing, seeing fireworks and exploding cows before being dropped from ten kilometers above the ground is more entertaining than being aimbot sniped through bushes a mile away).

[gesundheitk 420]

Just thought I would ask this question since it really has not popped up much, if at all.

Will DayZ Standalone have SteamPlay?

[Lights Out 141]

First off, the reason hacking is such a problem in the mod is apparent and has been talked about to death so I won't even mention it but it has nothing to do with the cheat system.

Second, in the standalone, it is said to have been completely improved upon and will continue to be improved to combat hacking. Hacking will never be stopped though, there's always a work around somewhere. Not to mention I don't remember playing a game where you don't run into people hacking or using glitches. It's just more apparent in a sandbox game with so many people to a server, it's a higher chance of runnig into a hacker. However, in every game, as long as you have active and dedicated server admins, it is always kept under control and minimized.

VAC is only one line of defense, and in my opinion, it's not even the most important.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Lights Out

[tsandrey 379]

Speedhacks sound unlikely with the chosen architecture. Isn't wallhack and ESP more or less the same thing? Seeing through obstacles and using aimbots sounds like prime examples of hacks with the new architecture, at least.

Someone else talked about the delayed bans of VAC in this thread; by delaying the bans of new hacks, they can ban more game keys (they won't be warned not to use already detected hacks).

We'll see BS deaths in the stand alone, but not like in the mod (in some ways a bad thing, seeing fireworks and exploding cows before being dropped from ten kilometers above the ground is more entertaining than being aimbot sniped through bushes a mile away).

Delayed bans are only good for private cheats, but should NOT be used in when detecting public cheats. Public cheats needs to be busted as fast as possible to prevent hackers flooding servers

[032125 (DayZ) 91]

You are absolutely right. In this case everyone would have blisters and be unable to walk after about 20h of game play. This would mean every survivor would have a finite number of miles to walk until their character 'gave up'. This would, in my opinion destroy character progression. For a character to do the things you stated above would destroy replayability and enforce you to take a second look at your workout/suvivor method. IF I am rucking around, hunting, sleeping in a tent, scavanging and doing well.....I think I would have a respect for a 50lbs ruck to a degree that it wouldn't phase me as much as the layperson. I respect your strive for realism but adding blisters, swollen fingers(some know what I'm talking about), hunger, shakes, sleep depravation, missing your GF at home, needing a fix of BF3, and missing your favorite show of two and ahalf men would affect your character..then it kind of left the realm of a game hasn't it? This game is about immersion..lets pretend you are a deployed soldier that is physically fit and able to run more than a few miles with a bit of weight on his back. I wouldn't disagree to adding sports injuries to the mix at all, I think that would make things very interesting. "Sorry boss, can't go on to get fuel for our camp...got shin splints.." That in my mind would be 'effin awesome.

My thoughts were simply...I'm a dude...in the middle of the woods..I ruck around all day eating food and whatnot..eh, I'm better at rucking today then I was a month ago.

I don't think there is (or should be) "character progression" in this anti-game. Progression comes internally, in the form of learning. When I started it took me hours and multiple attempts to get food and hydration because I was fixated on grabbing a gun. Nowadays I pretty much ignore guns until all of my other needs are met and I'm well inland. That's progression.

My point earlier wasn't so much that arbitrary body decay or foot travel limits should be part of the game; only that excercize makes one fit only if certain conditions are met

A. The individual doesn't get injured, or has recovery support when injuries occur

B. Caloric intake accounts for caloric output

Neither of these criteria are likely in this setting, but once undeground bunkers/colonies become available, that seems much more viable.

Actually I think it would be interesting to have some random genetic differences at start that affect load capacity, endurance, foot speed, resistance to disease, how well you see in th dark, etc. Not huge differences, but we all play with the hand we are dealt at birth.

Wouldn't it be interesting to spawn on the beach as a ruck beast with good footspeed but bad aim one time, and then as a weakling with perfect aim in the next life? Maybe your ruck beast can carry 80 extra lbs, but is always getting sick... or your weakling only eats once a day.

[Axon0p62 11]

I don't think there is (or should be) "character progression" in this anti-game. Progression comes internally, in the form of learning. When I started it took me hours and multiple attempts to get food and hydration because I was fixated on grabbing a gun. Nowadays I pretty much ignore guns until all of my other needs are met and I'm well inland. That's progression.

My point earlier wasn't so much that arbitrary body decay or foot travel limits should be part of the game; only that excercize makes one fit only if certain conditions are met

A. The individual doesn't get injured, or has recovery support when injuries occur

B. Caloric intake accounts for caloric output

Neither of these criteria are likely in this setting, but once undeground bunkers/colonies become available, that seems much more viable.

Actually I think it would be interesting to have some random genetic differences at start that affect load capacity, endurance, foot speed, resistance to disease, how well you see in th dark, etc. Not huge differences, but we all play with the hand we are dealt at birth.

Wouldn't it be interesting to spawn on the beach as a ruck beast with good footspeed but bad aim one time, and then as a weakling with perfect aim in the next life? Maybe your ruck beast can carry 80 extra lbs, but is always getting sick... or your weakling only eats once a day.

Nice idea!

Mine is following: You should have a stamminabar that only regenerates when you are sitting, Stamina regenaration should be filled up again in 2 to 4 minutes of resting. Stamina should run out after 2000 to 3000 meters, so that you have to plan your trails, where you got to go, where to take a break(Slow upright walking should not use any stamina at all). You should be able to keep on running eaven when you had run out of stamina for the cost of blood, means you can kill yourself by keeping running.

P.S.: Combine this with a klass/skillsystem (something like the one I mentions earlyer in the Thread) an more vehicles in big citys(just a few lowtier vehicles so that you can get around the map without taking 20 breaks on the way to the northern Airfield.).

[Ipurgepeople 106]

I read through a great deal of the posts here, skimmed most of the rest, and skipped a bunch of the bickering.

However, the most important two questions I have regarding the standalone are the following:

1. I know that the DevTeam has expressed that they are interested in making the game accessible without major handicaps to people with disabilities such as colorblindness (currently, the only easy way to track your health/food/etc is by a subtly color-changing icon that color blind people won't be able to detect very well if at all providing a huge disadvantage to those people) and hearing problems (Ways of fiding out whether or not you're being shot when you can, say, only hear from one ear as a poster in another thread mentioned) and so on. My question here is whether or not this is priority for initial/shortly following release or if it is one of those things that will be done down the road 6 months from now? This is a major selling point to my community as we have plenty of disabled people willing and wanting to play the game but discouraged by the unfriendliness towards their handicaps.

2. You mentioned private servers for private communities going to be a major part of the standalone. This pleases me, but it raises an old question. Will there be Linux hosting support in the near future, or is that completely off the table for the conceivable future? My gaming community has a high-end Linux server that we use for other games, it would be ill advised for us to switch to windows to be able to host DayZ servers (Hence why we haven't already; coupled with the concerns in point #1). It would allow us to contribute to the community in a way we deem "safe" for our members.

I must follow up that I am quite pleased with what I'm seeing here. I don't like Steam's ball-breaking agreements any more than some people here do, but I've used it for a few years and I must say I am quite pleased by it generally.

I completely understand the issues of being able to handle massive traffic over a short period of time during popular launches. Most people here probably either didn't experience or don't remember World of Warcraft release, which was also a nightmare, albeit not quite to the scale of Diablo 3 (Which, iirc, was labelled as the most pre-ordered game of all time?) which I'm quite pleased to say I had no part in because I am against Activision's policies of being anti-consumer (Yes, even more so than Valve).

In short, I'm quite pleased with the decisions being made here in regards to Steam even if we do have to essentially pay money to hand Valve our copies of the game that we spent our own money for. As said, it allows for an expedient and smooth launch process which I am completely 100% for.

On another note:

[...]You should have a stamminabar that only regenerates when you are sitting, Stamina regenaration should be filled up again in 2 to 4 minutes of resting. Stamina should run out after 2000 to 3000 meters, so that you have to plan your trails, where you got to go, where to take a break(Slow upright walking should not use any stamina at all).[...]

I like this idea except for one thing. You should be able to regain while standing/crouching/proning, etc. as long as you're either standing still or crawling (proned). Kind of reminds me of Diablo 2 except that you can walk and regain stamina in that game.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Ipurgepeople

[Lights Out 141]

Nice idea!

Mine is following: You should have a stamminabar that only regenerates when you are sitting, Stamina regenaration should be filled up again in 2 to 4 minutes of resting. Stamina should run out after 2000 to 3000 meters, so that you have to plan your trails, where you got to go, where to take a break(Slow upright walking should not use any stamina at all). You should be able to keep on running eaven when you had run out of stamina for the cost of blood, means you can kill yourself by keeping running.

P.S.: Combine this with a klass/skillsystem (something like the one I mentions earlyer in the Thread) an more vehicles in big citys(just a few lowtier vehicles so that you can get around the map without taking 20 breaks on the way to the northern Airfield.).

I don't think you should be able to run at the cost of blood, blood is not a health bar so it shouldn't function as one. If you exhaust your body past a certain point you should pass out and possibly die depending on the condition of your body. Obviously this would have to be worked out correctly and a lot of thought would have to go into it.

As far as a skill system, it can't work like any other game. It would have to be a passive skill system that runs in the background. Noo trees, no skill points, no actively picking what you want to be. You would get better at something depending on how you play, that would decide your "class". Doing this won't break immersion and it would add more value to your character aside from what's in your backpack.

For an example, if you're the type of character that is always bandaging yourself/teammates, giving blood, and other medical assistance, you would become better at it. For an example you would be able to give medical attention quicker than others, you can give blood with minimal loss of blood from the blood bag, and/or you can easily stop bleeding with a bandage (others who aren't "skilled" in the medical aspect may need more than one bandage for bleeding or maybe it takes a few seconds to stop a bleed after they apply a bandage, take longer to give any medical attention, not be able to transfuse the entire bag of blood). This still allows everyone to do every action in the game, just those that chose to pursue a certain survival aspect will be better at that, sort of their "specialty". Maybe make a maximum amount of things you can "master"?

This will make dying more devastating as your losing more than a weapon now, you're losing time you put in to get your character better. You are also more valuable in a group setting which will passively encourage team play whilst leaving PvP untouched.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Lights Out

[SmashT 10907]

1. I know that the DevTeam has expressed that they are interested in making the game accessible without major handicaps to people with disabilities such as colorblindness (currently, the only easy way to track your health/food/etc is by a subtly color-changing icon that color blind people won't be able to detect very well if at all providing a huge disadvantage to those people) and hearing problems (Ways of fiding out whether or not you're being shot when you can, say, only hear from one ear as a poster in another thread mentioned) and so on. My question here is whether or not this is priority for initial/shortly following release or if it is one of those things that will be done down the road 6 months from now? This is a major selling point to my community as we have plenty of disabled people willing and wanting to play the game but discouraged by the unfriendliness towards their handicaps.

I know the hearing impaired option won't be in the initial release, not sure about a colour blind mode. They are both a priority though.

We're wanting to do an entire hearing impaired option mode, where you click the button and the sound is disabled, and replaced with UI indicators. Unfortunately it is not something I can do straight away, as we need to develop the other mechanics first. But it's a personal priority of mine.

http://www.reddit.co...al_dots/c78j325

Edited December 4, 2012 by smasht_AU

[Zeppa 562]

Steam is easy and good service, when it was released it was sluggish and sometimes pain in the ass, same as origin was(now you dont even notice with bf3).

But I agree, the amount of shit you have to install on your computer besides the games comes more annoying year by year, few games and you have to have like 5 differend apps that you can play those..when you forget to deselect few options when installing you will get 10 differend searchbars, home pages and shit for you browser :D

Edited December 4, 2012 by Zeppa

[boneboys 7988]

If you knew Sprocket like I know Sprocket you would be pleased about the Steam decision.

Release day of BIS games through Sprocket is troublesome, the rest of the time it works well enough and I do like the fact that I can burn to disk.

One of the most important aspects of a Steam build as far as I'm concerned is that we will all be using the same version.

I expect there will be a DayZ Steam sub Forum also.

[sniperdoc 251]

I like this idea except for one thing. You should be able to regain while standing/crouching/proning, etc. as long as you're either standing still or crawling (proned). Kind of reminds me of Diablo 2 except that you can walk and regain stamina in that game.

Then you have never crawled in a prone position for extended periods of time. It can be exhausting and can destroy your intercostal muscles, pretty much incapacitating you the following day. Take it from someone that low crawled quite a bit, with a lot of Turkey peekin'... ;-D

[evoxtom 142]

All this Steam hate makes me remember how unforgiving people are. Steam is great now and I haven't had a problem. I use to be a hater but its vastly improved. It will help streamline this whole process. Whoever denies that huge advantage for the development of this game is just in denial or possibly ignorant, especially something that will be updated so regularly.

I'm done dealing with SIX or Commander. Steam is a much better solution. Get off your high horses.

[nik21 287]

New engine architecture is 10x more important for cheating prevention than VAC.

Rocket described whole new idea of building a huge house with the focus on its foundation and all you people are arguing about are carpets and tiles... :P

Of course the engine itself is more important since the major game-breaking hacks present in Arma 2 are going to be eliminated, but other types of cheats will still be present in the standalone, ESP, Aimbots, no recoil/ no spread hacks etc. like I described in my upper post.

BUT to eliminate those cheats that will be present in DayZ, VAC is definately not the best decision.

Someone else talked about the delayed bans of VAC in this thread; by delaying the bans of new hacks, they can ban more game keys (they won't be warned not to use already detected hacks).

"They can ban more game keys" O rly? Why should someone use multiple keys if he's not banned on his current one?

Also, the delaying of the bans itself is not the problem. PB/ BE use a delayed banning system as well, it's just that a VAC ban takes weeks or months to become active, even on public hacks. A lot of cheaters don't care if they have to re-buy the game every few weeks/ months (that's how fast VAC bans usually are), as long as they can use their cheats for this time.

In most forums of the hacking sites people are already celebrating that the standalone is gonna use VAC, lol.

[sniperdoc 251]

All this Steam hate makes me remember how unforgiving people are. Steam is great now and I haven't had a problem. I use to be a hater but its vastly improved. It will help streamline this whole process. Whoever denies that huge advantage for the development of this game is just in denial or possibly ignorant, especially something that will be updated so regularly.

I'm done dealing with SIX or Commander. Steam is a much better solution. Get off your high horses.

Or YOU could get off your high horse and stop invalidating people's issues with Steam. Their issues are no less relevant... that's like me saying DayZ Commander or Six is just fine and you need to quit whining about it/them. Maybe it'd help to actually read and understand what their issues are instead of grouping all Steam-"haters" into one definition... :-/

[Tenoch 0]

They will have their own Anti Cheat system working with VAC to ensure the most hack free environment and i'm glad they did ...

what concern me the most is that by making this

"The Server controls character actions, a player’s client sends its requests and the server decides if this is possible. Our lead programmer in the company, Ondrej Spanel, is working on this currently. I believe this is one of the most radical changes ever implemented in the engine since Operation Flashpoint was released, and turns DayZ from an FPS into a true MMO"

controlling vehicules will become a pain in the arse just like APB