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Shosho - Feb 2013 - Interview with Matt Lightfoot

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Q: How is clothing going to work in regards to Hero/Survivors/Bandits?

A: We haven't decided on a final implementation because obviously with the customizable clothing that could throw a spanner in the works as you are forcing someone to wear bandit clothing when they really want to wear a hoodie etc so it's how we implement that. One of the ideas we have thrown around is blood on the hands or clothing.

Q: Have you decided if Utes is going to be added and how big is Chernarus+?

A: No, there hasn't been a decision made on Utes yet. Chernarus+ is roughly the same size, all of the changes are done within the actual landscape of Chernarus (new areas, balancing existing towns and fixing problems with the existing buildings)

Q: Have you ever thought about taking things from Wasteland such as missions?

A: We want to have something for players to do as sort of an end game, the problem is how can we do that within server limitations. Wasteland has base building but because that is done above ground it means an ever increasing number of items are saved to the server which eventually starts to lag down the server. It's really how we achieve an end-game without affecting everything else. We have spoken about instanced underground base-building as an idea and that's something we are yet to decide on, so like on Skyrim you've got your main land and when you go into a dungeon there is a separate loading time for that, it's a separate world space which would eliminate the problem with items. That's one idea but it's not something we are going to be looking at until the second half of the year really.

Q: Engine optimization - Are you still going to lose a lot of FPS in cities/buildings?

A: I would say that the impact is going to be significantly decreased as all the zombies are going to be spawned in at the start now. That's something we have been trialing Which means rather then your client having to spawn them into cities it's done by the server.

Q: In the latest mod patch, driving through cities even spawns zombies. Is that something you have been thinking of doing or will all zombies be spawned when the server starts?

A: We have not tackled vehicles yet because we want to primarily launch with your character, guns and things so vehicles will probably be in one of the updates after we launch the initial alpha. They might be in for the initial release but that depends on when we do the initial release so it['s not set in stone. As for the lag Zombies in the mod currently use the same skeletons as players, meaning the animations can cause more lag. So we what we have done is redesigned the skeleton so it's more efficient so hopefully that will help with some of those problems.

Q: What are you doing to prevent scripters/hackers?

A: Currently the two main methods being employed are using VAC, which means they will have to create a new steam account to rebuy the game, the other method is our new client-server architecture which puts more onus on the server to check data rather then it being done by clients. Also, using steam We can also ensure people don't load unverifed files in at the same time. Inevitably though there will always be some hackers in DayZ.

Q: Diseases, what are you thinking, what can you catch, how do they transfer etc

A: Diseases will be done like they happen in real life to some extent. All diseases start of with what's called a latent reservoir which is where the disease is kept, for example they believe H5N1 (Bird Flu) started off with bats I think, bats/mice/rats/watersources etc. So we can start a virus on one server from one water source, say Cholera. Anyone who uses that water source will have a chance of being infected who can then pass it on to other water sources. They can also infect other players through bodily contact if the virus spreads that way. Even if that player uses medicine to cure it, someone else could go to that latent reservoir and still pick it up and spread it around as well.

Q: Are servers going to be connected on a single hive?

A: Our intention is to start off with just a public hive and all servers will connect to that and we will see how that goes.

Q: Is there no way to get alpha access for the standalone?

A: Not at the moment, the alpha codes aren't just alpha copies, they also give you a free copy of the game, they are exactly the same as the copies you will buy on steam so we are giving them to people who have helped out with the mod. Testing at the moment really isn't anything exciting anyway, it involves connect and then disconnecting from a server.

Q: You have mentioned the initial version of the game is an alpha and then over time will add more content, is that correct?

A: We will be adding regular updates to add or improve things in the game, more weapons, clothing, vehicles, lots of things like that. We will be able to settle down into fairly regular updates once the alpha is released.

Q: You have mentioned you are going to focus more on civilian weapons, are you going to spawn with anything or will it be similar to the mod?

A: I think the system will still spawn you with very little, as for military weaponry and rifles, there will still be hunting rifles. There may still be sniper rifles I'm not sure which military weapons we are directly keeping though at the moment. All the weapons will be redone so we can improve the sounds/models and things like that.

Q: Are heli crashites going to stay in the game, giving players a chance to find high-end military loot?

A: As mentioned we want to redo all of the weapons in the game. We have less weapons but with more customization, attachments etc. For example you can have an AK with a fixed stock, skeleton stock, folding stock, grenade launcher, torch, laser, kobra sight etc. So there are more variations for people to swap between rather then two versions of the AK and two versions of the M4.

Q: Will you be able to find these attachments?

A: Yeh, we haven't decided on the spawn rates yet though, I imagine it would be fairly rare to find scopes but when you find those your weapon becomes more personalised. So there is more likely going to be less 50 calibre rifles and more bolt action, semi automatic rifles and handguns etc. As we said all the magazines now store information on then, so you could find an magazine with 2 bullets in it or you can empty bullets out of one. As to how far we go with that is something that we hasn't been finally decided. I'd like to see you be able to take every bullet out of a magazine except for one so someone can see the magazine, picks it up and then finds out there is only one bullet. We want to be fairly intuitive with that for example you can share 9mm bullets between guns that use the same calibre.

Q: Will zombies be a real threat so you can't just hide in a bush and they disappear?

A: It depends on what improvements we can make to the AI and how many zombies we can spawn in on the server so I'd say it's best to wait and see for that one.

Edited by smasht_AU
  • Like 20

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ArrgHh... 23 minutes of video and I can't watch it from here!

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ArrgHh... 23 minutes of video and I can't watch it from here!

Dont worry, vid is from the mod :).

Edited by Fraggle

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Dont worry, vid is from the mod :).

But... I can't listen either...

How about a quick breakdown of news? Anyone?

Little help?

Edited by Max Planck

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Are you trying to get me in trouble Mr. Contraception?

I think that may be the case, Mr Plank

  • Like 2

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all this video does is show how little matt actually plays the game...

Can't think of an example for another weapon that uses 9mm rounds? AHhhhh C'mon !!!

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Honestly Mr Planck, there's not much new news here if you've been following the devblog and other stuff.

@ Charb - He's an awesome player (in Arma too - great heli pilot) - He's probably tired and or been spending too much time doing other DayZ related stuff. He also has to be very careful about what he says which is why there's always a considered delay before committing to saying anything.

I've played the mod to death and if you asked me any question 2 months ago about any weapon, ammo, exploit, bug or anything else I could have answered it in a split second but haven't touched it for a while now, so I'd struggle to remember lot's of the finer details.

Edited by Fraggle

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He said something about taking away most sniper rifles in the game...Why? dont do that lol.

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I guess the user removed the video from youtube?

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I'm getting that now too, I added/paraphrased the questions in the op

Edited by smasht_AU
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I'm getting that now too, I added/paraphrased the questions/answers in the op

You dear, dear man.

Not like some. Hmmf.

  • Like 1

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Interesting, While I believe Rocket, Matt & the team will put together an awesome product I really hope they don't overdo it and bog the project down, I think the term is "feature creep" ????

Anyways I'm not too concerned about release date as I get plenty of entertainment from the Mod ( I haven't even checked if they announced a date!), my biggest fear is they get a bit too ambitious.

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Good to hear about the customization, I certainly believe that weapons make the marksman. Hopefully I can have a red dot sight on my crossbow!

The chat is also going to be funny because we will have "noob-tubers" in Dayz!!!!!

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Video has been updated

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The chat is also going to be funny because we will have "noob-tubers" in Dayz!!!!!

Hopefully there won't be added a 'chat' to the standalone. That would suck.

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what is evident, i fear, that ppl are expecting way too much implementations and things to see in the very first public release...

there is still so much to do (at least to meet ppls expectations).

maybe this still should be communicated more often....

Edited by joe_mcentire

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what is evident, i fear, that ppl are expecting way too much implementations and things to see in the very first public release...

there is still so much to do (at least to meet ppls expectations).

maybe this still should be communicated more often....

I think after the WarZ Steam fiasco the devs will need to go out of their way to make it very clear what it is people are buying into and that many of the features discussed will be in development. They do mention that in almost every interview but I fear that's not enough and an official announcement or similar will need to be made.

I think upon release it's going to be a mixed bag. I honestly think many will be amazed at how much they've achieved in such a short time frame while others will be expecting all of the content included instantly.

Having had a run around the map I can honestly say that even small things like the new textures and enterable buildings will make it a much more enjoyable experience than the mod.

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I didn't hear anything about the costs! I'm not poor if there will be a "DayZ Pro Survival Ultimate Bandit Killer Hero H4Xx0R1337 XXL Of The Max Edition" I'll buy it

Edited by BaconTrooper

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