DayZ Devblog 25 Jan 2013

[white 44]

btw, forgot about something important, will there be proper melee animations and more melee weapons? dont recall reading about that. takedowns would be great for knifes.. but i guess they would only work if first person was locked and if there were a complete silent walk. (and to me i would like both)

Edited January 28, 2013 by white

[osallivan 74]

GTA IV? Think of "Bully: Scholarship Edition" by R*. This one almost got canceled from development cuz of some parents complaining.

[sav112g 114]

Great if Zombies spawn map wide to springing up when a player is around. Could create some interesting tactics and surprises. I always think (and I’ve only watched dayz) the Zombies have been an after thought for too long. Players treat them like a slight annoyance over a threat.

Make them more of a danger and you have to shot them giving away your position in a village. Players now cant instantly know one is there with the lack of Zeds. If the Zeds are walking about there could just be pockets of areas with unacceptable risk. I’d love a set number to spawn and if a player got killed it added one at that spot.

[Toxiclegend 36]

btw, forgot about something important, will there be proper melee animations and more melee weapons? dont recall reading about that. takedowns would be great for knifes.. but i guess they would only work if first person was locked and if there were a complete silent walk. (and to me i would like both)

I think they have been looking into this, maybe not at release maybe as an update, but I think they are going to be looking into non lethal ways to take players down aswell like maybe choke holds etc. Which would be pretty cool I'd love to sneak up on someone and put 'em to sleep :P

GTA IV? Think of "Bully: Scholarship Edition" by R*. This one almost got canceled from development cuz of some parents complaining.

This is my point, people read to much into these things, games shouldn't be cancelled or slated for having these sort of things in after all it's a game, parents don't complain when they watch a film where a kid gets beaten up or anything so why should games be different?

@Sav112 if you've been following the interviews and dev reports, this is all going to be made possible. Zombies no longer spawn in when players enter an area, they spawn in on a server based action but this wont mean that you can kill all the zombies because they'll spawn back in also no longer making it obvious to where the player is either. They are sorting out the pathfinding etc aswell so Zombies are a real threat to the game, they will be able to actually come inside now and I think their AI will become "smarter" so hopefully along with all the other additions they have been working on this will make the game in general alot harder not just making players a problem, but also zombies, ammo, food, water, diseases etc all of these will always become a problem now.

Like oh I need water but this water looks dirty and it's an hour walk to the next water supply now as a player do you take the risk and get some water retreat a bit and try and boil it to make it cleaner? Do you need water that badly that you are willing to risk your health to just drink it without boiling it? Or do you try and find another water supply all together?

[sav112g 114]

Been trying to follow everything I can so I knew this was being implemented. I take it when you say the Zed’s will re spawn they don’t in the same area hence you can clear an area now for a time as it should be.

Zeds spawn back in to that area when no players are present and some get killed on another part of the map?

Gives a very clear train of thought, is this village just empty of Zed’s or have they been cleared out and therefore players may be there.

I don’t like Hacking in any form, destroys the game but recently on a Stream someone spawned like thirty Zed's in a spot next to the squad playing and streaming. Instead of them just agreeing the server is compromised lets leave they played on. The result was great they had to run for their life’s, hide in barns while shooting what they could. Help out squad members needing it etc. I just sat back and thought how refreshing this team are wetting themselves in fear of the mass of zombie’s for a change. As apposed to the usual feel of the Zed’s being like cockroaches you brushed aside.

Be great if it got to the point players had to rest up at night in buildings, watching and keeping safe, thinking about exits and entrances while some of the squad had a fire going in a room cooking meat. As the threat form Zed’s was too great at night. Even if it lasted an unrealistic 30 minutes of night before dawn.

Edited January 28, 2013 by sav112

[Toxiclegend 36]

Yeah most things are going to be server side like that so Zombies will get killed and spawn in somewhere I don't know the full mechanics of it but I know that they've said they wont spawn in when a player gets close to a town etc. Some people know how to have a laugh and have some fun you know, hacking was brought up the other night on the interview he did with Shannon, and he said unless you can have the server then it's very unlikely to see stuff like there is now, but people always find ways to hack which I disagree with, but they are addressing that issue too which I am very pleased with. Well if your squad plays at night then I guess there is every chance we could see this happening, alot more team work etc due to the diseases and all the changes being made, I'd love to see that, maybe assigning 1 member of the team to be a "medic" and another a repair guy to help fix broken kit, it'll be really interesting to see what's done and how it all works. They idea though is the devs just create the platform and we use it to make cool things like assigned medics work :) I'm not to sure on the Day/Night system but not many people have asked about this, so I guess we'll have to wait for that :P

[Very Ape 748]

I dearly hope, with the damageable equipment, that more bandits will resort to holding people at gunpoint as opposed to killing them from afar.

What they do after they rob their victims, I don't care.

[Toxiclegend 36]

Well again this is going to be down to the individual to make that choice, rob them or kill them. I am hoping that the fire fights are going to be less often but more worth while rather than having people shoot on sight like we do now, but when there is gun fire it should be a good battle between people or even clans

[codestargod 102]

here's an interesting feature.

depending on how seasoned a survivor you are, you may or may not suffer from the occasional panic attack... maybe after a serious confrontation or some such. This will invariably affect how well you nail your target (female or otherwise)

A cigarette can be used as one of the items necessary to reduce stress levels.

Edited January 28, 2013 by codestargod

[codestargod 102]

The only issue I see with adding infected children to a game like this is, the media's reaction to something like this. We all have our own views on it, yes it'll make spotting them harder and they could potentially be faster or whatever, but if the media backfires on the Dev team saying it's cruel then the game might loose some backing. It's like treading on thin ice really, it's possible but dangerous.

Yes. we have a problem gunning down children, but not adults?? My rebuttal would be that the media is prejudiced against adults. Adults need some love too...

eff the media! It's a bloody 1st person shooter in a zombie fantasy world. get over it and lets do the damn thang all the way.

Darkness!!! Let's go to the abyss nigga!!!! let's go to the abyss!!!

Edited January 28, 2013 by codestargod

[Toxiclegend 36]

Someones been playing MGS4 alot :P I don't think we are going to see stuff like that added in because he's stated there wont be stuff where skills level and your gear is end game basically, so how good you are is shown by your gear, so adding stuff like this wont really fit into this because you will have to have a leveling system for hours played or something

[Toxiclegend 36]

Yes. we have a problem gunning down children, but not adults?? My rebuttal would be that the media is prejudiced against adults. Adults need some love too...

eff the media! It's a bloody 1st person shooter in a zombie fantasy world. get over it and lets do the damn thang all the way.

Darkness!!! Let's go to the abyss nigga!!!! let's go to the abyss!!!

First off I don't know if it should be classed as a FPS game because it's more a sim game really, and I think that's how Rocket has stated it before don't quote me on that though, yes it has shooting aspects but so does GTA whichi you can play in 1st person too but that's not an FPS game. I think the point is that shooting adults over children is more accetable because children are seen as innocent and adults not so much.

[misterwit 118]

Do you think there will still be some kind of appearance-based reward for having high/low humanity? I would think that could be abused if you could spawn in hero clothes if you're short on fresh changes of britches.

[Toxiclegend 36]

Do you think there will still be some kind of appearance-based reward for having high/low humanity? I would think that could be abused if you could spawn in hero clothes if you're short on fresh changes of britches.

Well going on what has been said in recent interviews I think at this stage in the development humanity seems less important with the clothing options now being avalible, I'm sure they will expend the humanity system further but right now I don't think it's at the top of their list

[codestargod 102]

Someones been playing MGS4 alot :P I don't think we are going to see stuff like that added in because he's stated there wont be stuff where skills level and your gear is end game basically, so how good you are is shown by your gear, so adding stuff like this wont really fit into this because you will have to have a leveling system for hours played or something

hmmm... from a professional perspective, I see the decision to not have some form of non-invasive levelling mechanism as the Achillies heal to DayZ, as it will eventually erode back into a basic PvP senario once players have achieved a maximum favorable state of survival within their environment.

Listen up Rocket!!

By this, I mean that once a player is able to become self-sustaining, they will invariably seek to entertain themselves by targeting other humans for entertainment purposes, as it is in real life.

Consider it this way. To keep any human being active and engaged and doing what you want them to do for an extended period of ime, it is necessary to provide them with multiple changing targets of different types.

In the case of DayZ these targets should include:

1) actual zombies

2) other players

3) the struggle of staying alive

4) subtle levelling system as a means to increase the efficiency of surviving (more efficient builders, mechanics, medics, hunters/gatherers/foragers)

5) randomly generated non-invasive missions As an example, consider this possible setup:

"Player comes across a scratched out note in Chernarusian on an old bulletin board in a town about this kid who has lost their favorite toy, so they need to look for it and return it to a particular safe house/abandoned house. The reward being that the player might find a well stocked cupboard or gun cabinet... and by the way, because this is in Chernarus, the player will need to find an English-Chernarusian dictionary at the local gas station." AANNNND ACTION!

Based on what I am seeing so far, the only targets envisioned are 1, 2 and 3. The problem with those three is that they are tightly coupled to one another. Once a player has mastered target 3, they will quickly master target 1, and as a result, will only be left with target 2 to keep them occupied.

Now you may say that the game is being designed to make targets 1 as difficult as possible thereby making target 3 equally difficult, The idea being that since you only have a few targets to play with, you will have to make what targets you have got as difficult to achieve as possible.

However, in doing so, you run the risk of making the game un-enjoyable/un-playable if you amp this up too far, and even so, there will always be some uber-gamer who will be able to keep ahead of the challenge anyways, as a human player will invariably be able to surpass any computer algorithm given enough practice.

When this happens, you will see a fresh supply of playa killas and hackas all over again.

The solution? Give the lemmings more targets!!!

Rocket might as well recant on his previous decision, or he runs the risk of not having this game be all that it can be.

Edited January 28, 2013 by codestargod

[mattbrockman@ymail.com 8]

with all this talk about zombie pathing and the fact that they can now run through buildings (yes, finally!) there really hasn't been much said about whether or not they are going to be able to open doors. I cant think of a single zombie movie/show that they are able to operate door knobs.

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

5)randomly generated non-invasive missions (e.g. player come across a note about this kid who has lost their favorite toy, so they need to look for it and return it to a particular safe house/abandoned house. The reward being that the player might find a well stocked cupboard or gun cabinet)

Well one can dream, but it won't happen in DayZ, so you'd better go play dead island if you want yet another RPG with such features.

DayZ is all about using your imagination to find your own objectives in a free open world. The devs provides the rules and tools but eventually it belongs to the players to set their goals and play the way they want. Adding quests to this concept, no matter non invasive they are, would in no way make the game design better

EDIT : The same can be said about levelling. No matter how you put it, I don't see it work. And it's been made in so many games, we now have the occasion to try new stuff and experiment things, why always come up with the same features that we've seen in a thousand other games before??

Edited January 28, 2013 by Bat

[Toxiclegend 36]

No but they could smash through wooden doors :P Missions? Who's gonna stand around with a ? Above there head in the scenerio DayZ is set giving out "Missions" No one >.< The point of DayZ Is to Survive full stop, you have control over 1 thing and 1 thing only. You. The rest of the worlds players could be killing each other off or tampering with water supplies to make them disease ridden, in fact in Dayz all you need to do is keep you alive and there is nothing on your list that makes any sense, once a player is geared what happens then you walk round a corner bang you get shot you are no longer geared... You could do other things with clans / friends or you could go help new spawns or players, you could go fix a car a helicopter go secure a base there is a million and one things to do in the mod when you got gear and the SA is gonna make every single one of them things even harder to do.

[Steven89 22]

ive been playing dayz for such a long time now....and all the glitches/bugs and shit....yeah it pissed me off but some are funny as fuck :D

i still play the game and it just doesnt get boring i dont know why !

the progress u guys are doing is just amazing and the screenshots look awesome !!! i am happy that u guys take your time do bring out this beautiful game !!!

so i just want to say THANK YOU ROCKET and ALL THE OTHERS who work on this !!! keep up the good work !

[Max Planck 7174]

By this, I mean that once a player is able to become self-sustaining, they will invariably seek to entertain themselves by targeting other humans for entertainment purposes, as it is in real life.

???

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

with all this talk about zombie pathing and the fact that they can now run through buildings (yes, finally!) there really hasn't been much said about whether or not they are going to be able to open doors. I cant think of a single zombie movie/show that they are able to operate door knobs.

Id like to see zeds being able to break doors or even climb up windows to get to you.I'm not sure if it can be made it terms of performance given the large scale of the game, but I hope it is something rocket and the dev team are looking into.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Bat

[Toxiclegend 36]

???

My thought exactly, what does he think we do feed and cloth ourself then maybe arm ourself to go hunting for each other? >.<

Id like to see zeds being able to break doors or even climb up windows to get to you.I'm not sure if it can be made it terms of performance given the large scale of the game, but I hope it is something rocket and the dev team are looking into.

Right now I can see the doors happening but not the windows, as Rocket explain in the interview with Shannon the windows are not seperate objects at the moment so not even players can climb through them, although this would be pretty cool ;P It'd stop people camping door ways for sure. So maybe we'll see zombies smash through the doors sooner than windows

[codestargod 102]

My thought exactly, what does he think we do feed and cloth ourself then maybe arm ourself to go hunting for each other?

We'll see...

Then I'll get to say "I told you so" when you start complaining about PvP three months in. :)

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

Well one thing is sorted, I'm gonna run around with shit on a stick.

thats worse than an AXE.

[Toxiclegend 36]

I won't be the one complaining at all ;) you just said like in real life... I don't see how that happens in real life. Wake up get dressed eat and go kill some people, we don't all do that. Shit on a stick! Lets play Pooh Sticks! Rocket is really interested in seeing how the community in the servers deal with this disease system like how are we going to manage the waste will there be a set point where we go to "go" and how we manage it, to see if we can control disease or just let it spread like wild fire