DayZ Developer Blog 8th March

[mattlightfoot 2463]

Our latest Developers blog is now live yay

We’ve gone for a reasonably quick and dirty video blog this week, mainly because things have been very busy for us.

Inventory System

One of the biggest improvement areas has been the inventory system, now almost ready for a public display. This new inventory system supports crafting, interchangeable clothing, degradation, tracking, weapon customization, and much more. It’s really a revolutionary system for us and we’re extremely proud of the results that Jirka (our programmer assigned to this) has achieved.

Crafting

Not touched on in the video, but what we will be showing soon is the basics of how users can interact with items in the world - this is the next step in development of our inventory system beyond where it is now. This is not a traditional crafting system, but one that encourages layers to explore the ways in which items can be crafted.

Zombie pathfinding

In the video, towards the end, some before and after footage of work on the zombie AI pathfinding. Not only has this changed the role, threat, and speed of the zombies - but it has also yielded performance improvements. The increased accuracy of the zombies movement allows their movement to be slowed down to more sensible values, in line with those of the players themselves. We still have some other avenues to explore in this regard, but we’re very pleased with the results so far.

Mass zombie spawning server side

Now all zombies are spawned directly on the server and their movement is governed directly on the server itself. This has allowed us to provide increased security and hack prevention mechanisms by disabling functionality at the client level. It also means that zombies no longer “pop” in and out of the world, previously used as a mechanism to tell if someone was in the area. It also paves the way for us to allow migrating zombies and zombies traversing open areas in search for their next meal.

We still have some way to go in performance, the initial tests of 4000 zombies spawned reduced the server FPS to 4. After performance optimizations this increased up to 21. We’re now confident we can have the server FPS back up to 30+ with maximum numbers of zombies in the near future.

Expanding health system

Health is extending far beyond just blood, into a system that incorporates health, blood, and consciousness level. How these are all interrelating will be touched on in its own devblog in future. Some of the exciting developments coming include longterm play effects such as poor diet affecting your long term health levels. All this translates into the importance of a longterm plan for survival of your character, and we’re sure the role of medical specialists will become very important - hopefully emphasizing social interaction opportunities.

Chernarus Expansion

This continues at a huge pace. The two new villages in expand Cherno and provide it a true city feeling. Also expanding is the top (north) map area and the continued development of our large-scale features being added to the map. More to follow on this! (we can’t wait to show some more of this!)

Loot spawning

Finding loot now involves scavenging inside of vehicles, looking for items stuck between furniture, prying open car boots, or strewn in the wasteland itself. Consuming your bounty now results in rubbish, such as empty cans after consuming your beans. This is no mere gimick, because your trash can be used to track you.

Conclusion

There is a great deal more that can be covered, but we’re really deeply in the thick of development at the moment and we just wanted to get something quick and dirty to all those waiting for standalone. We know that you want it released, and we know you want to know when this will be - but we’re 100% committed to making this a great game, and that means we are making sure to do things properly. We’re happy and confident about the progress, so it’s one foot after another and soon we’ll be at the finish line.

[Max Planck 7174]

Yay!

Edited March 8, 2013 by Max Planck

[#Sleepy 572]

Fucking, Ninja'd. >.<

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/127519-dayz-devblog-8-march-2013/

Edited March 8, 2013 by #Sleepy

[drouz@netti.fi 57]

Dat Law&Order at the start :)

[SmashT 10907]

Love the intro

[Cheese Grinder 91]

Horah! 3 things that kind were "meh" in the blog. First the testers were... awkward and didn't really participate much in discussion, it felt like Rocket had to force them to speak. Wish they could have someone like dslexy on this. Second, the blur/motion was kind of making me sick, maybe it just one of the post options that can be turned off. 3rd, the head bobs a little bit too much, in real life I barely see any head bobbing in my vision, hope Rocket will fix that. All of that aside, great job!!!

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Hurragh! Lovin your work chaps.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Fraggle

[m3ik0 333]

Really good job. Can't wait for this.

[mick17 93]

Great news! I can not wait to see the inventory system. It sounds really amazing.

[Maxgor 2314]

Love the vaulting and I think its awesome that the zombies will be numbering in the thousands and on the servers at all times. Really great to see them work on the pathfinding and zombie behavior too.

[Henryllex~ 407]

AWW YEAH!

[burritoman259 593]

Hurragh! Lovin your work chaps.

I second this!

[philbottle 430]

Oh the humanity, extra sweet, nice one guys :D

[kingkrabbe.#bof 35]

I love the PR unprofessionalism! :P

Looks really great, that city is f***ing huge! And it looks pretty much playable!

So, what do you guys and girls think: will it be out in April?

[rassad 111]

oooo, Rocket mentioned Dogs, and that Items may record details about who used them.

So adding 1+1, Maybe you will be able to Get your dog, to sniff items recently used, and the dog may Track down (Sniff out) the player that used the item last.

Very Cool.

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

Wheres the one with DayZ Forum Mods? I wanna hear them playing!

Great work.

[djshauny1 222]

Release date timeframe would be nice.

The lack of it just seems that the standalone is a very long way off.

[griffinz 2816]

well...you cant accuse them of scripting their videos

[Mitunzz 90]

So exciting!

[-Leon- 20]

I still hope they do something about the lighting and color. It is way too dark an blueish ! Some people say it's just because of some clouds or the time, but in every video it looks the same.

Someone posted some screenshots how it should actually look ..

also the sun glare seems to be way too much, just like in the mod if we look at some old screenshots. Also the change of light / color in the current mod is just ridiculous. If you change your field of view the glare / lightning changes completely .. everything is colorfull if you look to the ground and if you look just a little bit more straight ahead / up it's getting darker. These changes are way too extrem and just unrealistic. especially as they also occur indoors ...

So please Dev-Team, do something about the colors / light / glare .... because in the game you experience these changes in lighting / glare very strongly but in realy life you don't even notice it that much. So it realy is just annoying.

Look how bright the desk and the lamp look / reflect the light:

Edited March 8, 2013 by -Leon-

[kingkrabbe.#bof 35]

Release date timeframe would be nice.

The lack of it just seems that the standalone is a very long way off.

I don't think it's that long because that gameplay footage seemed more or less ready for the masses. But what do I know.

Rocket is such a mystery-monger when it comes to the release date.... <_<

@-Leon- It seems to me (when I look at the pics you posted) that these problems can be fixed by adjusting the gamma and stuff like that?

Edited March 8, 2013 by kingkrabbe.#bof

[Zombie Jesus 723]

We know that you want it released, and we know you want to know when this will be - but we’re 100% committed to making this a great game, and that means we are making sure to do things properly. We’re happy and confident about the progress, so it’s one foot after another and soon we’ll be at the finish line.

What a tease

Edited March 8, 2013 by Zombie Jesus

[m.w. vindicator 880]

Good stuff! things are progressing nicely!

[xenomta 128]

I just creamed my trousers

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

Don't know where to look. Too much awesomness per seconds for my brains to compute.

Good job bohemia, DayZ is going to be the end of my social life, once again.