Standalone thoughts?

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

I have been out of the loop with Day Z and its Development for a few months now, just waiting patiently like a good boy. I must say that I'm disappointed in the lack of content from the Development crew.

Disclaimer: My opinions are my opinions, and I do not have fan boy status so if those opinions are against the development team, so be it.

All right, so there has been a flood of standalone leaks from people whom I'm assuming were able to get some copies of the build. Now I'm aware this is "alpha" and not the completed polished version, but I was expecting a lot more.

Breakdown; a ton of glitches, bad optimization even without zombies or weapons being used. Monotonous loot and gear. Seriously how many motorcycle helmets and hoodies can there be at every wreck? There may be limited content in these builds so I won't harp on that too much, but I seriously hope the initial release has a bundle of content to not get extremely dull quickly. Just from what I've read and heard about they are stripping most weapons and all vehicles from the game, leaving very few things so I am hoping they are in turn adding a lot more variety of items to interact with instead.

Zombies look really bad. I am reminded by War Z zombies when I look at them. Day Z Mod zombies were better at this point... and every time I see the zombie animations it's nearly always the same one (The one where Rocket was moCapping like he had a broomstick shoved up his...) yeah... I'm sure that the new skeleton hasn't been applied but even still I'm so far not impressed. They are also incredibly glitchy (falling through the ground, etc) and honestly I think being glitchy is just a part of Bohemia. There's a reason why it's patching 3+ years still after Arma II's release. I commend them for keeping up the support for their games where most companies toss support out the window as soon as the game launches, but there seriously needs to be some better quality assurance checks in gaming in general.

Delays and Public Relations seem to go hand in hand. While I'm not going to go into delays too much but it does seem that the development team does way too much PR. PAX? E3? When I think of E3 I think of trailers and some short polished demos of games. I don't even think this game deserves to be at such events if it wasn't for the fanbase and the popularity that brought the game. The game is still a slightly improved version of the mod. You can change a few internal aspects of the game but it's still more or less the mod and Arma II. My words to Rocket and Matt are to stop doing PR and instead use that time and resources to focus on the game. There will be plenty of time for travelling and getting praise from the gaming world once released. I felt really good about the development blogs and just keeping the fans, who made this game as popular as it is, in touch with the development but all this premature PR is simply not needed.

This looks, feels, and smells like... Arma II and as expected quite honestly. That's not necessarily a bad thing as long as cheating and scripting are basically a thing of the past, and of course tons of content. I know, I know... This isn't Arma II, it's... Arma II with Take on Helicopters with a Dash of Arma III... Except Take on Helicopters is pretty identical to Arma II anyway. I'd really like to see Day Z take its own approach. I'm tired of seeing the door open icon, or the loot/gear icon, and basically the same UI. Add something fresh and fluid.

Conclusion I'm willing to let those opinions go though, and not because "it's alpha" as many people will immediately use as their default excuse, but just because I hope that they will do better than this. I still do not see this game being released to the masses anytime soon. These are again, my thoughts, and you're welcome to agree or disagree but I am interested in what the community has to say in regards to the wave of leaked footage and progress of the game.

Only constructive feedback please I don't really want to hear the fanboys screaming that I'm impatient, whining, or excuses that this is only pre-alpha as pretty typical responses when you're not bowing in praise. If you disagree with something then you can make that known but again these are my opinions and I'm interested in yours.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Dreygar

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

The leaked footage is of a really old build. So that kind of renders your above arguments obsolete.

However, should anyone link any footage in this topic, I will ban them.

EDIT: What he said^

Edited June 4, 2013 by Steak and Potatoes

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

No one is posting videos of leaked footage, nor is this post completely about leaked footage. I know you're pretty regular here Steak but I am also pretty sure you can read. :)

Edited June 4, 2013 by Dreygar

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

No one is posting videos of leaked footage, nor is this post completely about leaked footage. I know you're pretty regular here Steak but I am also pretty sure you can read. :)

I know brother just giving a heads up as there will be follow ups from your post from others reading that will most likely start trying to link, quote, comment and feedback everything around its presence.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

I know brother just giving a heads up as there will be follow ups from your post from others reading that will most likely start trying to link, quote, comment and feedback everything around its presence.

In any case I changed the title. Thanks Steak.

[Nynuc 7]

I agree with everything you just said OP

Edited June 4, 2013 by Nynuc

[Inception. 9443]

The leaked footage is of a really old build. So that kind of renders your above arguments obsolete.

However, should anyone link any footage in this topic, I will ban them.

[Creep- 569]

standalone footage here

http://tinyurl.com/safootage

Edited June 4, 2013 by Creep-

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

More SA Footaget incoming

[Hetstaine 10852]

Fan boi alert

I like Deans ideas so i am in for the ride all the way to failure if that's where it goes. I have followed a few games (simulations ) where the devs have been nothing at all like Dean and Matt and the rest of their crew, he (and they) just comes across as a stand up guy (s), Warts and all. They have made plenty of mistakes and do not have a holier than thou attitude so they get my respect. I think they sometimes want to do things more than they can which leaves them hanging out to dry a bit. Devblogs on time etc.

All up it is arma but branched off and i look forward to what they can do with what changes they have made. The leaked footage does not warrant much of a say i think except to that dreaded alpha word, Sorry :) but clearly that is what it was so it is neither here nor there. I have played so called finished simulators with more money and larger development crews behind them and over a much longer period of development that have been steaming buggy piles on release so i do have something to measure dayz against.

It;s a fledgling effort and i think they are finding their way and getting better as time goes on, it has been a hell of a year for them and i think they have done pretty damn well :)

[DemonGroover 8836]

In regards to loot - the large amount of loot is just for testing purposes. Rocket has said that in SA since loot can pretty much spawn anywhere it will be much rarer - it will be more spread out and not in nice little loot piles.

Zombies - these are not the final zombies - new animations (skeleton) are coming and remember the female zombie from an earlier dev blog?

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

I'll complain/praise when I get my hands on it.

I haven't really seen any leaked vids but if they are from an older build I doubt they'd be any point in basing my opinion on them. Who knows what they were testing then? Passing judgement on the zombies that don't even have the proper skeletons applied is a bit silly too. Meh, if it's as bad as you think Dreygar then I doubt they'd be foolish enough to showcase anything at these major conventions or release the alpha to be scrutinized.

Now.. you could probably have conveyed your thoughts in a more neutral way rather than lacing your entire post with potential flamewar inducing landmines. Any actual "fanboys" that came across it would have probably turned this thread into a snack for Orlok by now. Just a thought.

[=DiG= Zgraphz 84]

Weather you want a change in the stand alone or not, what ever happens, happens. You can wish in one hand and crap in the other, Which one do you think is gonna fill first?

Either way you look at it, dayz mod, is not gonna be much different than the standalone. It would be almost impossible to create another game but around that same style, Warz, State of Decay. All trying to get a piece of something that everyone is already playing. i hate to be the bearer of bad news, But dayz standalone will not be that much different. the only few directions standalone could go is towards dead island, Think of Dayz Mod as a huge Turd(poop) then look at Dayz Standalone (polished turd) where in that can you make such a change that would revamp everyone thought's about dayz. please, don't get me wrong. I love dayz, it's probably one of my favorites. But i just dont see how they can change everything and yet keep the same feel.

[_Anubis_ (DayZ) 139]

Well said. My fear is that the SA will be mostly a polished dayz (from freeware mod to payware game) but everything will remain "more or less" the same and in that case,I will simply stick to the old dayZ.

One simple example of "more or less"

dayZ; Z are not running inside and in dayz you need 5-6 seconds to switch trom the main weapon to the hatchet due to the horrible interface --> if you had in dayZ running Z inside a building you would be killed 10 times before being able to switch to the hatchet because

- the interface is a kludge, so you have to drop the main weapon, equip the hatchet, switch from the secondary weapon to the hatchet and finally have the hatchet ready (thanks God the kludge-in-the-kludge to reload the hatchet before using has been fixed)

- there is not collision check between Z so you can have 20 of them passing through that tiny door at the same time, you kill the first with the hatchet and are swamped by the rest

SA: Z will be running inside AND (surprise surprise) you will have a quick equip slot to have the hatchet ready in no time. Of course if there will be no collision check between Z you will still have 20 of them passing through the door and swamping you at the end

Now we can either see either as a brand new, wonderful design feature or simply a fix of something broken in the first place.

I have no doubt the fanboy horde will rage at it, portraying this as something new and revolutionary however - it is just a matter of opinions.

Anubis

[LegitOldSchool 261]

Personally I think Rocket and the development crew are taking way too much time to release the game. I have kind of given up on the release. We're about 5 moths after it was said that the game "should" come out before the end of 2012. I think the fad has passed quite a bit and many DayZ players will not even bother getting the standalone. The only thing that had me coming back to DayZ in the last 5 months are mods like Breaking Point that add fresh and new stuff to the game. For players like me who've been playing this mod for a long time, this will makes DayZ standalone seem pretty empty and bland, even with the modified map and all.

Edited June 4, 2013 by EchoZeero

[DemonGroover 8836]

Personally I think Rocket and the development crew are taking way too much time to release the game. I have kind of given up on the release. We're about 5 moths after it was said that the game "should" come out before the end of 2012. I think the fad has passed quite a bit and many DayZ players will not even bother getting the standalone. The only thing that had me coming back to DayZ in the last 5 months are mods like Breaking Point that add fresh and new stuff to the game. For players like me who've been playing this mod for a long time, this will makes DayZ standalone seem pretty empty and bland, even with the modified map and all.

I think you are quite wrong in the assumption that many DayZ players won't bother with Standalone. There is a huge core group of players who are waiting patiently.

Perhaps the best thing for players such as yourself is to wait for the Beta or release version to see if it is what you want out of a game.

[Creep- 569]

I think anyone saying they won't bother with the standalone is full of bs.

We are all waiting for it, we are all going to buy it.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

I think you are quite wrong in the assumption that many DayZ players won't bother with Standalone. There is a huge core group of players who are waiting patiently.

Perhaps the best thing for players such as yourself is to wait for the Beta or release version to see if it is what you want out of a game.

Lets not try to make any group of players better than any other group. There is huge anticipation for this game from all groups of players. Not just the hardcore or extremely devoted Rocket-followers.

Now.. you could probably have conveyed your thoughts in a more neutral way rather than lacing your entire post with potential flamewar inducing landmines. Any actual "fanboys" that came across it would have probably turned this thread into a snack for Orlok by now. Just a thought.

Fanboys can attack all they want, but all they are doing is being sheep. We have pretty good evidence on the current progress of the game. Whether you want to believe that evidence is old or not, that's up to you. I'm pretty confident that they are infact not using old builds as it's the same updated inventory UI and everything we've seen from Official footage.

The popularity of Day Z means that even in its unfinished, horrible shape that they can bring it to PAX and E3 and show it off. Telling everyone that it's not finished, pre-alpha and so many things are going to be changed and this is just a rough sketch, and people eat it up regardless and we've seen that during the PAX videos.

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

Same ol' Dreygar. Ok.

[Death_Dealer 3155]

It does just look like a new engine with a dash of ArmA 3 to be honest.

We will have to see.

[SmashT 10907]

Please don't discuss the leaked footage on these forums, the game will be playable at E3 in a weeks time so I expect a lot of footage will be shown then (on the latest build). I do agree with a lot of your points though, I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed initially. Regardless, if people use this thread to discuss or post leaked footage, those posts will be removed.

[joe_mcentire 2073]

Personally I think Rocket and the development crew are taking way too much time to release the game. I have kind of given up on the release. We're about 5 moths after it was said that the game "should" come out before the end of 2012. I think the fad has passed quite a bit and many DayZ players will not even bother getting the standalone. The only thing that had me coming back to DayZ in the last 5 months are mods like Breaking Point that add fresh and new stuff to the game. For players like me who've been playing this mod for a long time, this will makes DayZ standalone seem pretty empty and bland, even with the modified map and all.

you can't compare. dayz which should have been released in nov/dec 2012 is simply not the same as it is now. they threw over their plans trying to make exactly more than just a "polished mod" (the fear the most of us seem still to have). goals have changed, and imho for the far better. think about that for a moment.

Edited June 4, 2013 by joe_mcentire

[dgeesio 1034]

The leaked footage is of a really old build. So that kind of renders your above arguments obsolete.

However, should anyone link any footage in this topic, I will ban them.

tbh why ?

it maybe a old build but people can get a feel of what it maybe about. some things did worry me in the video and some made me laugh so hard at how bad they were.

some people dont like videos early shown cause one it isnt how the game has progressed or the game is just crap. im hoping its because it has moved on and solved the many stupid things that were in that video.

but.... a few things that i know would not be removed is the arma 3 type movements and animations which quite franklly are worse than arma 2 and whoever animated that stuff needs to have a word with themselves.

for eg i dl arma 3 played it sat there stunned how console type in movements and how feel about it. i dont want to login to a brand new standalone and get that arma 3 feel. cause it instantly hits home that its bad really does. some people may like arma 3 i dont. i guess well see soon as there is no way in hell they arnt going to release the public version of this starting in june.

it will be this month and we will see in 7 days if that video leaked was true and if dayz standalone does indeed suck ass or is good. role on e3. june 11th.

[Quartermaine 34]

...Conclusion I'm willing to let those opinions go though, and not because "it's alpha" as many people will immediately use as their default excuse, but just because I hope that they will do better than this. I still do not see this game being released to the masses anytime soon. These are again, my thoughts, and you're welcome to agree or disagree but I am interested in what the community has to say in regards to the wave of leaked footage and progress of the game.

...If you disagree with something then you can make that known but again these are my opinions and I'm interested in yours.

What other arguement do you expect?

Once upon a time the general public never had access to Alphas. From the general chatter that goes on in these forums and reddit I can see why Alpha access isnt made available to the public. Hell, you even had to be invited to a beta!

All of your QC points will be addressed as the Alpha develops into a beta and then into a retail product (with steam patches).

As for the PR, There has been a phenominal amount of two-way communication from the devs. I agree, that it was wrong of them to promise a Dec 2012 release, but show me a publisher that has never gone past a scheduled release date.

I also agree that things like PAX and (possibly)E3 are premature, but necessary, DayZ SA is a highly anticipated game. You are correct in the release date, it will not be released before E3, and probably not until after Arma 3 retail is released. My guess is a Christmas '13 release or possible Q1 '14 release (to avoid competing with Xbox One and PS4 launch titles). A lot of people are forgetting that BI is a business.

BI Should blast disclaimers all over the alpha and post a link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha (OP, I suggest you read that link also).

This looks, feels, and smells like...Arma II

Funny that. What are you trying to say here?

[Death_Dealer 3155]

I hope the leaked footage is from a really old build too because it looked... horrendous.