My detailed DayZ standalone report from Gamescom 2013

[purepassion 383]

The Bohemia Battle Bunker.

An iconic figure of any major gaming convention. During Gamescom it can be found triumphing in hall 9, booth C32.

This year, the release content of Arma 3 and of course the current pre-Alpha build of the DayZ standalone are playable for any men brave enough to battle the bohemian pixels.

As for every battle, preparation is key; so I’ve collected questions from the community in the last few days, all written down in lovely handwriting and brought them with me.

After a quick greeting with Matt, he recognized me, knew who I am and immediately offered to go outside to evade the hectic noise of the convention to have a talk.

 

During Gamescom, the reworked version of Stary Sobor was the place to be.

The game was held on a local area network with 14 machines connected. Players were all starting in one place, already packed with clothing, weapons, food and the new functional first aid kits. These first aid kits were actually not just a single item but a container for some of the new content of the sophisticated medical system, like bandages, a bloodbag kit and syringes. Looking at the survivors, the variety of characters was very pleasant to see. Nobody looked the same like in the mod but sported different rain coats, hoodies, hats, protective vests, ballistic vests, shirts, jeans and was a member of different sex and ethnics. Thanks to the extensive character customization, identification with your character will be much easier. It is also planned to have these vests functional, so they offer protection.

 

The first thing you’ll notice when playing are the animations. They felt very smooth and usable, nothing like the impression I gained from E3.

Underlying them is a completely new animation skeleton which is much more detailed and makes features like switching your weapon while moving possible.

In hand with the new damage system, there are actually limping animations. At the moment, there’s only one but it is planned to have each leg represented accordingly. While you’re in that limping animation, you’re significantly slower and have your weapon lowered. In order to shoot, the player has to stop and raise the weapon.

 

Coming from Arma 3, the control scheme was confusing at first but I think DayZ should have its own reasonable set of controls and it’s no problem to get used to it. There was however a familiar feature: the combat stance. When being in the combat stance, the player will move with a speed slightly faster than normal walking, with the weapon raised above the hip and ready to fire. Moving through buildings with it felt extremely nice. There were also no problems with getting stuck in doorways.

 

Moving around, the place was hardly recognizable! Every backyard, passage and street was very detailed and the overall density of the vegetation made a very authentic impression. It was like walking through a new town with some elements of a subtle familiarity. Like the towns that were showcased already, every one on the map will be revisited and redone individually.

 

Since the environment plays a key role in the immersion factor of DayZ and thanks to the nature of Arma (pun intended), it is a very important aspect of the game.

For that topic I individually sat down with Ivan, who is together with SenChi, working on the new Chernarus which is going to be expanded with new terrain.

Ivan told me it will be ~ 40km² in the north and ~25km² in the west. Though this new terrain won’t only consist of forests and fields but actually include whole new cities, small towns, farmland, mountain villages and other new locations to explore which are authentic to the real location Chernarus is based on. These extensions will bring back the element of exploring, even to the most seasoned players.

 

Another specific element of the environment I am very fond of is the forest. The aim is to make the forests more “populated” in the sense of having more visual barriers instead of the barren line of trees in which you are easily visible from a distance in Arma 2. These visual barriers will be achieved through more shrubbery which make the forests more authentic and also provide essentials for more interesting combat in forests.

The different weather and temperatures will have an impact on the player.

One thing in the environment you’ll notice very quickly are the new simul weather volumetric clouds which add a great deal of depth and just pure beauty to the game. The new fog from Arma 3 is also being looked at.

Speaking about sharing between the games in general, the dev teams are occasionally working together and if there are certain problems, help each other out. If applicable, specific technology and code is also going to be shared.

 

Player interaction has a whole new importance and more importantly, necessity. I think the whole “kill on sight” behavior will change significantly.

Player interaction will be a key element of DayZ and I think it’s also one of its strongest and most unique features. Shooting is no more the easy way to acquire equipment since everything can be damaged and thus made unusable. Instead, you’ll have to try to find ways without spraying bullets all around.

 

Also the way blood is handled will be changed completely. Since blood goes bad quite quickly without the proper cooling etc, it’s no longer possible to just put 10 bloodpacks in your backpack and tackle any battle with confidence because you know if something goes wrong you can just patch each other up off of a fountain of health. Bloodtransfusions will be transfusions between humans.

They can be voluntary or involuntary.

Additionally, blood types will be simulated correctly. That means there’s A,B, AB and O with all the different antibodies and antigens as well. Receiving a transfusion of the wrong blood type is possible but it will harm and can, if left untreated, kill the player. If you wish to know your blood type, you’ll need to find a testing unit.

Medical conditions and diseases will, just like in reality, play a major role in survival. If I remember correctly, there are about 10-15 different diseases at the moment, which all have their respective symptoms etc.

The principle that real knowledge you posses can also help you in the game (like knowing how to read and orientate on a map, navigate with the stars or a watch) also applies to diseases so there might be some ways of treating them without having to use medication.

 

There will also be a new way of communicating. Radios can be found and used with their different frequencies. However, direct VOIP is also still featured and represents regular talking or shouting. You can also type but over distance, random letters are actually going to go missing.

 

Another new element of player interaction are the recently implemented restraining animations. Handcuffs with functioning keys can be used to arrest people. While it is possible to struggle out of these, it will show a visible animation and require some time.

 

The technology behind the inventory system and the crafting works really great but I see and observed some practical problems with it. Currently, you need to rightclick and then again click on the small window that has been created in order to perform the action. Many times, it was very troublesome for people to hit that small window and not cancel everything. I think it would be much more usable if you could simply rightclick on the item to select it and then confirm the action with spacebar, the new action key.

 

Combat.

The weapon of choice for gamescom was the M4. It was a completely new model with very detailed textures and new sounds. There was also a tan version of it.

As you probably already saw, the weapon customization goes into great detail. You can find and attach different parts of it like buttstocks, foregrips, scopes, handles, different magazines, silencers and even attach a knife to use it as a bayonet. At the moment the melee wasn’t properly finished yet but later you’ll be able to stab zombies or people with it. Even unarmed melee will be implemented.

Generally speaking, the weapon selection will be focused more towards makeshift weapons or civilian hunting rifles etc. It will be more plausible to what would actually be available in such a region. Though that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any high-end military-grade weapons but they, and especially their ammunition, will be very rare.

Reloading also contributes to the complexity attached to a rifle. Ammunition comes in boxes, which have to be opened and seperated. You’ll then need to remove the magazine from the receiver, add the bullets to the magazine (which even had its own sound) and then put it back into the rifle to reload it.

This might sound like a very hideous task and the current implementation of the right-click crafting really isn't optimal but remember if you have multiple magazines, you can just load them in all at once and then reload normally. Nonetheless, I think the UI should be changed to limit the right-clicking.

There are also new WIP muzzleflashes which are going to be individual for the weapons and the recoil has been reworked and made more realistic as well.

 

Zombie AI has been basically unchanged so far, apart from some behavior and pathfinding adjustments. However, just a few days ago Dean finished a written proposal for the planned rework of the whole system so they are seen as a very important part of the game which needs to be worked on but it just wasn't possible yet. The way that zombies think and act will be changed significantly and they will even receive their own FSM.

It is basically going to be less “planning out a route of how to reach the player which changes every time he moves”.

The models for the zombies themselves look really good! They don’t look like bloody monsters with glowing eyes but rather like sick and dirty humans with strong facial expressions on their visage. I actually really, really like this more realistic approach since it adds this very interesting morbid element of realizing that those beings you're slashing were actually normal people just like you who just got infected.

 

Overall, the game looked and felt very good and I already have all these different scenarios and new things to do rushing through my head. While there have been the occasional bugs like floating items, zombies just standing around and the weapon switching back when it’s being dragged into the hands through the inventory, a lot of the groundwork and experimental features have turned out great.

 

The release is still following set milestones, with the network bubble (the way that the clients and server are interacting and who knows and has to process what) being the primary focus. At the moment it’s of course not known how long it’s going to take until current problems are resolved but it is Ondrej, a exceptionally intelligent and talented coder who created the RV engine, working on it and I can tell you the network bubble and MP structure is coming along nicely ;)

 

Also, this.

Yes, it’s Matt in his “Let’s kill every visitor in the booth in less than 2 minutes” outfit.

Edited August 23, 2013 by PurePassion

[UbiquitousBadGuy 846]

Thread moved.

[purepassion 383]

Thread moved.

Thank you very much! :)

[phL (DayZ) 63]

thx for this, didn't know :)

 

b2t, too good to be true, did they pay you?^^

 

 

 

[fluxley 2228]

Nice work, probably the best bit of journalism i've read concerning the standalone.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Thanks for this very good and deep report and keep the Bohemia forums clean also in the future :) Some cool details in the report so I really recommend to check it.

[thomas-tk@live.dk 39]

Thank you for the report! Sounds great!

[Hosty 647]

Wow, nice and long detailed thread.

Beans given!

[Katana67 2907]

Solid piece! Restored a bit of my active desire for SA.

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

Nice info, cheers.

Roll on release date, my life is over!

[klesh 2423]

Also, this.

 

 

 

Dude sure does have alot of spare lanyards.

[Hetstaine 10852]

 Nice write up :) Hoping that fog gets implemented.

[Skat3rat 1633]

Really well written review.  Thank you.

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

Dude sure does have alot of spare lanyards.

 

 

He's not quite drowning in them yet but they've definitely reached the level of safety hazard.

[CornProducts 315]

Smashing report old sport. Good to see an honest and thorough report from from a common man to his fellow common men.

[Fortune_Finder 33]

Smashing report old sport. Good to see an honest and thorough report from from a common man to his fellow common men.

 

Been watching some Great Gatsby lately, have we now?

[Inception. 9443]

Nicely written.

[cautoad 216]

Time to read  :)

[wes.toastbrot@googlemail.com 30]

Great Review PurePassion!

But I have a little question..

Does Dayz not feel a bit to complicated? I mean, seeing 15 diseases in game, you need to find out whats your blood type before you can give someone blood, if you find the right person, you need to reload magazines as complicated as possible..

You know, after all we still want some fun in Dayz and not only crafting things all the time..

[purepassion 383]

Thank you very much for the kind words lads, it's always a pleasure to help the community! :)

Though really it's Ivan and Matt to thank! They took a significant amount of time to answer all the questions; and also thanks for the splendid beer :p

 

As for the complexity, I believe that especially the different blood types are a very important mechanic of the game because it fixes a flaw from the mod. Bloodpacks which were instantly fully restoring your health are a serious problem! They encourage reckless behavior, are highly unrealistic and present a distorted picture. With these additions, there is a new set of decisions and a new depth. A depth I am very looking forward to since depth doesn't have to equal redundant complications. As with additions like the books, I see a lot of potential for compelling stories in it.

 

Concerning the reloading mechanic, keep in mind that once you have filled all your available magazines and have them in your inventory, you can just reload them normally. Though as I said, I dislike the current "right-click and then click again on a small window" implementation which makes is a bit unnecessarily fiddly. The game mechanic itself is very nice.

[Owain1122 218]

Really nice, well written report!

[phL (DayZ) 63]

Great Review PurePassion!

But I have a little question..

Does Dayz not feel a bit to complicated? I mean, seeing 15 diseases in game, you need to find out whats your blood type before you can give someone blood, if you find the right person, you need to reload magazines as complicated as possible..

You know, after all we still want some fun in Dayz and not only crafting things all the time..

 

i like it. especially the blood type and taking blood from other players thing. it "forces" player interaction without beeing totally constructed.

 

also OP thx for the read, it restored part of my "i want to play the standalone" :)

[jaytmuk (DayZ) 621]

Playing Dayz today and some guy talking in chat saying he looking for hes body to get his gear back, and that got me thinking that maybe in the standalone your body should rot (maybe with an animation) and despawn within a minute, This would stop players re-gearing from their dead body and 1 minute would probably give the killer enough time to loot it before it rots.

 

It would also help with any potential lag from many dead bodies on the server.

 

Just an idea i think would benefit the game in standalone and even the mod.

 

Not sure if this post should go here, sorry if doesnt mods :)

[Owain1122 218]

This also beings up something interesting. Bandits could hold people up and take blood from their victims by force!

[-Leon- 20]

This also beings up something interesting. Bandits could hold people up and take blood from their victims by force!

 

and what would you do with that blood, not knowing if the person is sick or what blood type he has?