Reddit - Jan 2013 - Q&A with Rocket

[fletchernut 29]

On a forty player server, I still rarely run into anyone on the outlying cities. The heaviest player concentrations are along the coasts. Though I disagree, just because there's more players, won't keep people away from the big cities and the coasts. If you're a new spawn and have nothing, then you have nothing to lose. Of course, the second I grab a hatchet I'd be out of there. But if disease takes as much of a role that people are expecting, then this will change game play a lot. I imagine hanging around that giant pile of bodies in Green Mountain wouldn't be very healthy.

But there are problems with a disease system. If I were just wandering from town to town collecting up gear (which is what I do most of the time), then if I caught a disease my immediate goal would be to find a cure. Which would force the player to go to hospitals/military tents more. But with new locations, I assume hospitals would become a less locational than just three cities.

All in all, I'm mostly looking forward to any new survivalism aspects and their roles in interacting with other players. AKA, if you have malaria (which I assume won't be one of the diseases, but for example's sake) then if you carry a bunch of raw meat around in your bag and another player kills you and eats it, he can inherit the disease. I'd also like to see how they implement a way of telling the player of their diseases. If the player has to learn the symptoms, or if a giant message saying, "YOU HAVE MALARIA" will pop up in front of you. And whether or not there'd be specific cures, whether or not another player has to use those cures on you (like a blood bag).

[beastoverlord 574]

Are you seriously unaware of how easily a binary can be manipulated? I seriously fucking hope that Bohemia Interactive is not stupid and foolish enough to do anything OTHER than host ALL of the servers. Letting players with deep pockets host their own server community makes sense in a MOD, but if this is going to be a serious MMO, you can't even consider it.

I see you're back...

[gummy52 57]

I see you're back...

Yeah, how fucking dare I challenge their questionable decisions.

[Ramboness (DayZ) 15]

What's smooth fps is it a solid 60? because no game should run 30 fps in a fps game.

[HenryWing 1]

What's smooth fps is it a solid 60? because no game should run 30 fps in a fps game.

Thats where youre wrong, it depends what fps the game itsself is animated at. Games that are animated at 30 will feel smooth at 30 and up. Battlefield 3 as an example.

[WalkerDown (DayZ) 296]

Thats where youre wrong, it depends what fps the game itsself is animated at. Games that are animated at 30 will feel smooth at 30 and up. Battlefield 3 as an example.

I can tell you when a game runs at 30.. 60.. or 100+ fps from miles of distance from the monitor. Please don't confuse the console crap (and console users brain washing) with PC .. 30 fps in a modern shooter on a *PC* with a fair hardware is NOT acceptable.

Edited January 22, 2013 by WalkerDown

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

Thats where youre wrong, it depends what fps the game itsself is animated at. Games that are animated at 30 will feel smooth at 30 and up. Battlefield 3 as an example.

Some console games indeed are animated to run at a certain framerate. On pc however, given the variety of hardware, the games are not designed that way. If they were, the game would speed up at higher framerates, and slow down at lower framerates.

A recent example of that is a game like Dark souls, a console game in which when your framerate goes under 30 fps, the game just slows down.

PC games however are not designed that way. 30 fps is the bare minimum and you'll get some major input lag in fast fps such as quake or unreal tournament making those games unplayable. constant 45 fps is when a game begins to feel responsive and good. A constant 60 fps gives you the full experience and comfort. 120-200 fps is needed in fast fps if you play in competitions, the game looks perfect and there's no input lag which means your reaction time can be extremely sharp.

A game like DayZ sure is playable at 30 fps, because your reaction times are not that important, but it's far more comfortable to play at 45-60 fps.

(a simple example : at 30 fps you just can't instantly turn around at 180 degrees. There will be a noticeable screen lag, it won't be precise at all.)

[reuter 120]

Thats where youre wrong, it depends what fps the game itsself is animated at. Games that are animated at 30 will feel smooth at 30 and up. Battlefield 3 as an example.

BF3 feels terrible when the Framerate is dropping below ~50.

[SmashT 10907]

I've added a few more recent answers, taken from Rockets other posts on Reddit (not specifically from the Q&A thread) since it's easier if they are all in one place.

Edited January 22, 2013 by smasht_AU

[M_B 18]

I like that Zombie's spawn server side. No longer will you be able to view a town from a distance and know whether or not there is another player in it. Good change for a great change in game tension.

[joe_mcentire 2074]

would someone be so kind to pm me a link which explains this to me:

I like that Zombie's spawn server side. No longer will you be able to view a town from a distance and know whether or not there is another player in it. Good change for a great change in game tension.

? thanks in advance

[M_B 18]

From the first post

Q: How are zombie spawns going to work?

A: We're probably going to spawn all zombies + loot at the start of the mission on the server to decrease lagspikes and to remove the spawning issues we had. This also allows the potential for the whole "roving zombie" crap people keep harping on to me about (seriously, I get facebooked every day with this one request).

Q: Doesn't that mean all zombies will eventually be killed?

A: The zombies respawn, but it's done at a server level, not client like previously (which was a nightmare).

[joe_mcentire 2074]

yeah but i meant, what is the connection to this:

I like that Zombie's spawn server side. No longer will you be able to view a town from a distance and know whether or not there is another player in it. Good change for a great change in game tension.

?

[SmashT 10907]

In the mod, zombies spawn when a player is within 200m of a town, building etc, thus giving away the location of any players within that radius. If I am sitting on a hill 300m away from a town and suddenly zombies start spawning I know someone has just arrived even if I haven't spotted them.

Edited January 23, 2013 by smasht_AU

[i wub pugs 16]

Plenty of great changes, especially the zombies being server side. I hope the private hives die, this won't be a mod and BIS should exercise control over the servers with admins, etc. I'd even do a low monthly subscription to keep the servers up and running.

Really looking forward to this, I pretty much bolted along with my clan when the character pop got above 60,000. The mod seemed to spiral out of control and it got rather droll dealing with all the hacking, also content basically stopped progressing.

From what I can get out of the Q&A, the mod served its purpose, the standalone is building on what we learned and substantial progress is being made. I'm really exited for the 150 players, it should give my group of 20 or so a real purpose.

[auxsiren 1]

Regarding the amount of players, the map should be changed. It needs a BIG town in the middle so people have a reason to leave Cherno for something better and leave the coast. I mean a town that is twice the size of Cherno!

[joe_mcentire 2074]

In the mod, zombies spawn when a player is within 200m of a town, building etc, thus giving away the location of any players within that radius. If I am sitting on a hill 300m away from a town and suddenly zombies start spawning I know someone has just arrived even if I haven't spotted them.

well thank you very much...i wasn't aware of this fact.

[cyanyde 165]

I wish I had the remote from "Click"

I would totally wake up tomorrow and buy the SA. :P

[lol4ever.sw@web.de 10]

PC games however are not designed that way. 30 fps is the bare minimum and you'll get some major input lag in fast fps such as quake or unreal tournament making those games unplayable. constant 45 fps is when a game begins to feel responsive and good. A constant 60 fps gives you the full experience and comfort. 120-200 fps is needed in fast fps if you play in competitions, the game looks perfect and there's no input lag which means your reaction time can be extremely sharp.

Ok, i don't know about quake or UT, but playing CoD/WoT/BF3 feels totally smooth for me at 25-30 FPS. And anything above ~70 definately does not increase your performance at all, as the human eye only sees about 60-65 FPS. That's just placebo.

[codeine 3]

Turn Chernarus into an island, add Taviana and Lingor together. Make boats useful!!!!!!!!

[Nomadic Nut 70]

Please don't get rid of third person, as well as being quite useful it also gets rid of nausea from screen bobbing, Plus i prefer the over the shoulder look.

[Ragotag 29]

Q: Are you aware of the issues with rendering vegetation, obscuring items, tents and players at close range while they remain visible at long range?

A: It is important, we're aware of it - but we haven't got it planned to be addressed yet. We're still on these major, sweeping, architectural changes.

Wow... I would have considered the issue of rendering vegetation, or at least occluding things (players, etc.) hidden in vegetation at long distances to be a very "major" issue, one that likely does in fact require "sweeping, architectural changes" to correct. This one actually breaks immersion time and again.

[ImRight 0]

Please don't get rid of third person, as well as being quite useful it also gets rid of nausea from screen bobbing, Plus i prefer the over the shoulder look.

The fact you mention this worries me, surely they would not remove 3rd person entirely? i pretty much use this view 90% of the time when climbing ladders crawling ect.... it's fluid and for me actually helps the immersion by giving you the kind of fov you would have irl without hindering you by needing another button press or switch (due to auto down the sites toggle), the fact that you can see your own charcter model is a moot point and something that once again helps immersion, ....for me atleast.

Edited January 25, 2013 by ImRight

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

Wow... I would have considered the issue of rendering vegetation, or at least occluding things (players, etc.) hidden in vegetation at long distances to be a very "major" issue, one that likely does in fact require "sweeping, architectural changes" to correct. This one actually breaks immersion time and again.

Well totally, but there's already such a BIG list of things to change and improve, I really can see a dozen of other feature that should be higher on their priority list.

Also I'm not sure how they could really fix this problem. Vegetation kills your FPS in Arma, so having a 800m or more grass render would kill most low/mid-end computers.

Maybe some kind of script that would determine if an object is correctly "hidden" by vegetation around it, and if it is in fact hidden, apply a "camo" material to it that would fade out as you get closer?

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

Please don't get rid of third person, as well as being quite useful it also gets rid of nausea from screen bobbing, Plus i prefer the over the shoulder look.

Don't worry he won't get rid of it, but expect to see changes to 3rd person in standalone to prevent players from having unfair advantages on others.

My guess would be put the camera closer to the player a la RE 4, and disable it in certain conditions (for instance disable it when prone).