November Round-up

[soapmak3r 677]

Who else here played the mod as a true survivor? Where killing and dying really felt like it meant something, ye know? How long did you manage to survive?

I survived something like 3 weeks, at one point my best friend and I were basically blind, navigating the country side, looking for a sheep to murder to get our blood back up a bit...And eventually finding a goat, killed, and cooked it and replenished our health a bit. He died shortly afterwards from infected and I lived on for another week or two...I was murdered by a complete bastard while I was fiddling in my inventory. lol

Which makes me wonder....Will there be a scar system in the game where veteran characters have bullet wounds, get scars, grow beards over time etc? Has this been brought up ever?

[zfleming12 395]

It can't be tonight...can it? o.O

[Mathos (DayZ) 41]

Will there be a scar system in the game where veteran characters have bullet wounds, get scars, grow beards over time etc?

 

I really goddamn hope so. That's be pretty cool.

 

Oh. Right. Lurking. Sorry.

[Mathos (DayZ) 41]

It can't be tonight...can it? o.O

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsCVEV6oXAA

 

Every night until it's the night.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Mathos

[TIC 1050]

It can't be tonight...can it? o.O

 

Any time is a possibility. Just don't get your hopes up. :)

[SalamanderAnder (DayZ) 1747]

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[m.w. vindicator 880]

Who else here played the mod as a true survivor? Where killing and dying really felt like it meant something, ye know? How long did you manage to survive?

I survived something like 3 weeks, at one point my best friend and I were basically blind, navigating the country side, looking for a sheep to murder to get our blood back up a bit...And eventually finding a goat, killed, and cooked it and replenished our health a bit. He died shortly afterwards from infected and I lived on for another week or two...I was murdered by a complete bastard while I was fiddling in my inventory. lol

Which makes me wonder....Will there be a scar system in the game where veteran characters have bullet wounds, get scars, grow beards over time etc? Has this been brought up ever?

 

 

Some of my characters survived for very long times.  Back on the main hive ages ago, my friends and I had a group of six or seven people.  We lacked organization and thus careened recklessly across the landscape trying to survive and get loot.  Things usually went well with some casualties but usually to zombies or bugs.  I can't remember many instances where our group ran into other large groups.  It was super fun playing in a squad using mostly in game chat and mumble.  We played for about a month or so before splitting up due to external factors.  I played with one guy a considerable time longer.

 

His name was Vexantionist.  Vin and Vex.  We played until he got tired of DayZ.  We may have played some Arma.  I think I played a lot of Stalker then too.  And Metro 2033.  We might have played some Minecraft but I can't remember.  He was a cool guy and he knew a lot about PCs and gaming.  Unfortunately,  he tended to get mad at some of the younger guys. 

 

My do remember one incident with that group where we were trying to meet up on the Electro hill (we were newish then)  I remember shooting at some guys by the fire station.  I think I hit and killed one.  That is one of my murders.  I don't think I have many murders in this game.  Partially because I don't kill people when I play alone (mostly :D), and partially, because I used to be pretty bad at Arma.  (FPS issues + newness to PC in general).  I remember I ran with this guy on Namalsk and we capture the Hospital on Namalsk and killed some people.  I remember one time on Namalsk, a large number of new spawns randomly met eachother and everyone decided to team up.  But then one guy went rouge.  I killed him and saved some of the new spawns.  I used a Makarov and he had a double barrel shotgun.  Namalsk is a great map.  I survived hard on that map.  Sometimes I wish it wasn't so PvP orientated.  

 

In general, good times surviving in the mod.  I liked the NorthEast.  I spent a lot of time around Berezino, the north eastern forest, NEAF, and Polina.  I spent a lot of time when I started playing around Bor.

 

 

My first life is burned into my memory.  

 

Spawned at the Electro Gas Station.  I knew Electro was trouble so I grabbed an ax in the gas station and followed the road to Pusta.  I found a revolver I think and a enfield.  I remember I almost lost the Enfield putting  it down in the grass NW of Pusta.  I found food and water, but no bandaids.  I found Mogilevka and looted a few buildings before taking the dirt road north.  I found the destroyed town.  I went through it.  I found the barn on the road to Novy and looted that area.  Then I went into Novy.  everything was well but right after leaving the church, a zombie smacked me.  I had no bandages and ran all over looking for one but there were none.  I found a deerstand north of Novy Sobor with an AKM.  I was so happy to find the awesome gun, but I was bleeding out.  I shot a goat in frustration then fired all my ammo into the sky and died.  

 

 

I am done talking now  :)

Edited November 13, 2013 by Vindicator

[Katana67 2907]

Who else here played the mod as a true survivor? Where killing and dying really felt like it meant something, ye know? How long did you manage to survive?

I survived something like 3 weeks, at one point my best friend and I were basically blind, navigating the country side, looking for a sheep to murder to get our blood back up a bit...And eventually finding a goat, killed, and cooked it and replenished our health a bit. He died shortly afterwards from infected and I lived on for another week or two...I was murdered by a complete bastard while I was fiddling in my inventory. lol

Which makes me wonder....Will there be a scar system in the game where veteran characters have bullet wounds, get scars, grow beards over time etc? Has this been brought up ever?

 

I've never really had a choice. My first playthrough, I went into Staroye and checked out the longhouse. Found my first CZ 550 and went outside only to find a bandit running at me across a field. He leveled his Winchester at me and I glassed him up from about 100m away and pulled the trigger. So began my life as a death dealing kill-on-sight loner.

 

If by survivor you mean just living off the land, that's all I do.

[Quanaril (DayZ) 114]

Which makes me wonder....Will there be a scar system in the game where veteran characters have bullet wounds, get scars, grow beards over time etc? Has this been brought up ever?

 

I don't know about the scars but I know that your character's hair (additionally beard and moustache for male characters) will grow the longer you survive. It has been confirmed by Dean Hall in one of the interviews/devblog or in a Q&A. I am not certain about where you can find but I assure you that Dean Hall confirmed this previously.

[HumanBeing25 299]

It can't be tonight...can it? o.O

Here's signs you should look for if you're curious whether it's Habbening™:

1. People will tell you it's not Habbening™

2. Rocket and his team will be silent

3. Fewer people are monitoring Steam for DayZ than people are doing it

4. Satan's angels will fall on Earth

5. The second coming of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior

6. War between evil and good on Earth

7. 3 dark nights (do not look out - you will be killed by God's angels)

8. Mass suicide as people fear God's final judgement

9 An un-link-able intense fear that something great is going to happen

[gesundheitk 420]

Here's signs you should look for if you're curious whether it's Habbening™:

1. People will tell you it's not Habbening™

2. Rocket and his team will be silent

3. Fewer people are monitoring Steam for DayZ than people are doing it

4. Satan's angels will fall on Earth

5. The second coming of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior

6. War between evil and good on Earth

7. 3 dark nights (do not look out - you will be killed by God's angels)

8. Mass suicide as people fear God's final judgement

9 An un-link-able intense fear that something great is going to happen

You forgot that the third anti-christ will appear before DayZ standalone is released, and because he died in Cherno, he will rage on by taking over the globe!!!

[m.w. vindicator 880]

Here's signs you should look for if you're curious whether it's Habbening™:

1. People will tell you it's not Habbening™

2. Rocket and his team will be silent

3. Fewer people are monitoring Steam for DayZ than people are doing it

4. Satan's angels will fall on Earth

5. The second coming of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior

6. War between evil and good on Earth

7. 3 dark nights (do not look out - you will be killed by God's angels)

8. Mass suicide as people fear God's final judgement

9 An un-link-able intense fear that something great is going to happen

 

 

Seems legit!  I keep my eyes pealed, except for number 7

[TIC 1050]

Confirmed Items and Questionnaires --- Steam Chat (Formatted/Organized: Finished)

 

This post has it's own topic in the Information section; http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/151837-dayz-sa-steam-community-chat-questionnaires/
 
Brian Hicks (Hicks_206; DayZ Producer)
 
(opening this will be a wall of text; be advised)

 

 Chat Context

 

MOD RELATED: Hicks has discussed during the mod days, how he became a hero and had his own video channel. You can watch here if you wish: http://www.twitch.tv/hicks_206
 
 
Hicks_206: DayZ makes DayZ Mod feel like the difference between watching a cartoon from the 80s, and then watching the live action series on bluray.
 
 
Hicks_206: I look forward to getting my group back together, and forcing them to help me help fresh spawns
Hicks_206: (They hated it)
Hicks_206: They were all about the action, and viewed every fresh spawn as a potential risk.
Ridders!: even after release
Hicks_206: Now, with unarmed melee - that is DEFINITELY the case.
Hicks_206: Moreso than before, with the mod
 
 
Hicks_206: I leave(*Love) talking about unannounced features to Dean.
 
 
Rossums: Baseball bat. 
Rossums: Pfft.
Rossums: Glorious hatchet for all! 
Conductor of the Poop Train: Speaking of which... can I use random logs of firewood as melee weapons?
Hicks_206: Or, in Rossums case - an axe.
 
 
Hicks_206: My advice to everyone here - while the game is downloading, read the manual. You'll want to know the controls so you can survive.
 
 
Hicks_206: I'm insanely lucky to be able to have an impact on a franchise that I'd otherwise be playing on every free moment if I was still at my previous studio.
 
 
Hicks_206: Yeah, the hype train is a machine of its own.
Hicks_206: The discovery of the group after I uploaded a new header image is proof of that in itself.
Hicks_206: This group is like a year old, all I did was upload a new header.
Hicks_206: And the clincher is, its not even the final header - its place holder for now. Hah
 
 
 

 

Q&A's

 
Q: Hicks, speaking of melee weapons, something I've been wondering is how common melee weapons will be compared to guns?

• In short, I look forward to the hectic frenzy of trying to decide who is legitimately innocent, and who is not. It'll be like Ultima Online 1997 all over again. Well, think of how more common they would be in real life. 

Q: Go out in backyard, huge branch, melee weapon?

• Much easier to find a baseball bat, then a rifle.

Q: How many melee weapons are there?

• A wide array, with many more to come in the future. Melee is *definitely* a core pillar of the game now.

 

 

Q: You at the office with Rocket?

• No, I went home around 9 PM. Had a late night on Monday

Q: Is it releasing tonight?

 

• No, I would not be in bed if it was releasing.

 

 

Q: Will the server only be run by you guys at first and dedicated servers after?

• Only time will tell. There will be a large quantity of servers at launch. Hopefully, large enough ;)

 

 

✓Q: Did the controls drastically change compared to the mod?

• The game has its own unique controls like any other title, of course some controls carry between titles linked to Arma - but again, I highly recommend reading the manual beforehand.

 

 

✓Q: Can you customise facial features or is it done the same way ARMA 2/3 in that you just pick a present skin?

• As character creation is literally being finalized as we speak by Dean, I'd prefer not to comment, as it might change at any time. But the design is to allow a good array of customization to aid in a wide variety of survivor types, rather then the same white guy in a baseball cap 

 

 

Q: Personal Question: How proud are you of DayZ SA, on a scale of 1 - 10?

• Of the potential we have ahead of us, with the way the title is releasing and steam allows us to update? 10.

 

 

Q: Where did you work before?

• Microsoft Studios.

Q: Doing?

• First Party Publishing, a wonderful experience.

Q: How long have you worked there?

• Approximately 5 years.

Q: Do you prefer working there or with the BI?

• I am originally from the east side of Seattle, so we had all three of those companies, plus Nintendo, Bungie, Suckerpunch, etc all in the same city effectively. In the end, at Microsoft I found myself feeling the most alive when I was working with technology or projects on the bleeding edge, outside of the established process. DayZ is that and more, plus something I already obsess over - so, BI.

 

 

Q: How much did the development of the Standalone change your lives? Turned into night owls? Got you addicted to caffine? Etc?

• I moved to the other side of the world, left my family, friends, and a very well paying job to work on this project. I'd say it had a huge impact on myself. And *especially* Dean

 

 

Q: How is living in Czech Republic?

• Prague is beautiful, its definitely different from the States, but I like experiencing new things.

 

 

Q: How is launch night going to be? do you think you will have server problems like the big companies do?

• Listen, when it comes to launch - I expect issues. I've been #2 on the escalation chart for online only projects for other, very influental companies before and even -they- couldn't stop the inevitable. You can't ever truly prepare for what the users will do. The best you can do is prepare for the worst, and make sure you have a clear escalation chart, and a big red emergency phone to the data centers for when shit hits the fan. You can be certain, when the game launches - Dean will be staring at the feedback tracker with his eyes peeled back, and I'll be on a bridge call with the server host.

 

 

Q: What would you classify as "shit hitting the fan"?

• Well, an example would be a multi million dollar title releasing, skyrocketing concurrent active users faster in the first two hours than Call of Duty or Halo on XBL, and then seeing one of the backend dependencies hard crashing with no one picking up the phone on the other end ;) That morning even Phil Spencer was knocking on my door demanding to know what the hell was going on. Never a good feeling.

 

 

Q: Will zombies spawn in other areas now rather than the cities/towns? An example; in the woods.

• There is nothing preventing us from doing that, thats about all I can say ;)

Q: That reminds me. Dean once tweeted about using poop as chemical weaponry. Is that... a thing?

• The way DayZ is designed allows to maximum flexibility, and experimentation. So, its been discussed. I used to upload gameplay from DayZ to youtube. Mostly for my own amusement.

 

 

Q: Can you talk about the price of the Alpha release? If yes but nothing specific, what would you want it priced at?

• Can't speak to price. That discussion is still active.

 

 

Q: My favorite color is orange, can you confirm orange underwear in the SA?

• Underwear, at least for right now - is an offwhite-ish color.

 

 

Q: Who is usually last to leave the office? Dean?

• Usually me, about 5 minutes after Dean.

 

 

Q: Can we dream of a release this week?

• You are free to dream my friend.

 

 

Q: Speaking of which. Servers will be hosted en masse by you guys. Can we host our own stuff day 1?

• We're still addressing our approach to this, however at launch there will be large quanities of game servers.

 

 

Q: Can you talk about performance? I mean the average FPS you get in cities and plains?

• Client side? I've found the game to be genuinely much smoother experience, and lower demand than the mod.

 

 

Q: Do you guys think you will ever have steady 60 FPS?

• It's definitely a goal.

 

 

Q: Occulus Rift support?

• I know Dean(Rocket) is in love with this device.

 

 

Q: Didn't you get tied up during one of the tests?

• No, I did handcuff a tester that was AFK outside Vybor, I found him, handcuffed him -and then proceeded to dress him. He came back, and was fully kitted out. I was standing over him with a nagant - and I just said over direct. "I dressed you up purdy, boy"

 

 

Q: Dayz in general what is your usual loot run?

• I don't have real loot runs any more. Mostly because about 95 to 98% of the structures are enterable along with very few structures being non-enterable.

 

 

Q: I go to bed thinking about the Standalone every night and wake up with the SA being my first thought. Clinical or clinical? I am inclined to say clinical.

• Sometimes, I have nightmares that the game launched - and there are weird, obscure problems. I had a nightmare that the game launched, and for some reason twitch was attributing all the streamers. I think its because I played Worms before bed.

 

 

Q: Speaking of, will there be satchels in SA?

• Time will tell.

^{*Ending Questionnaire*} Hicks_206: Alright, its bed for me. Going to watch the post mortem for Maniac Mansion on Youtube and drift off. All good points, I think I'll leave the chat closed at the least until lunchtime tomorrow. Later.
 
Hicks_206 left chat.

 
Dean 'Rocket' Hall (Rocket2Guns; DayZ Project Lead)
 
(opening this will be a wall of text; be advised)

 

Chat Context

 

a SKOLLIE: ive been toying with the idea of some sort of stamina system for your weapons, the longer you keep your weapon raised the more tired you grow; which will force people to keep their weapons lowered until they expect some sort of gunfight.
Rocket2guns: we plan to redo the existing stamina system at some point, same time as we look at weight
 

 

 

Q&A's

 
Q: If someone were to produce a good quality model that includes all it's counter-parts, would you add it into the real game if permissions were given, or is there to much legality in doing so?

• Not much legality involved. its possible. but im super fussy

 

 

Q: Hows the onPlayerConnecting bug going?

• The optimizations got reverted and are in their own branch being fixed now. will be merged back once done

 

 

✓Q: If someone were to produce a good quality model that includes all it's counter-parts, would you add it?

• Rigged models would be hard to do, you need a very specific layout and mesgh.

 

 

Q: Will there be a way to track people? ie. footprints, opened cans, firepits, other means of tracking?

• We actually have only one artist doing most of the rigged stuff.

 

 

Q:  Have you ever considered giving us a bit more update on whats going on as often as possible as far as bugs / optimization goes. While I understand youre trying to keep quiet i think it would shut a lot of people up with just a bit of an update on how things are going.

• Again, I'd just be happy with it not crashing and good server FPS

 

 

Q: Progress on Ragdoll physics?

• Ragdoll is in active development, but no idea when it comes through into alpha

 

 

Q: When are you testing with 50+ persons on server?

• Once we get the optimization merged back in. We'll test with more players.

 

 

Q: Whats you're favorite part of Cheranus thats been changed so far?

• I probably like the swamps best. The new swamps are awesome

 

 

Q: Are you playing DayZ now or working with it?

• Working with it. Trying to get Character Creation to work properly.

 

 

Q: What are you doing exactly on the character screen?

• Besides making it work, review past characters, set a default one, that sort of thing. 

 

 

Q: How many characters will you be even be able to create, rocket?

• One character at a time, but you can see past ones.

 

 

Q: When does the Alpha release?

• Once performance is acceptable we'll release the alpha.

(END)

 

Note: I did not include off-topic chats (IE: a person in the chat asking what type of food he would be eating tonight.) This can be viewed on your free will on the chat source.
 
★DayZ Steam Community Group Chat

 
 
★ DayZ Steam Community Group Page(Currently unavailable to the public)

*as this page is official, the banner isn't final. This will change once that is in place.

Edited November 13, 2013 by TIC321

[gesundheitk 420]

From what I've read in the chat, Rocket stated once all the optimizations are merged back in, they will do the test of 50 players on the test server. That should be our "checkpoint" so to speak on when to know the standalone is being released.

 

Here is the pastebin, it's a ways down, but you should find it:

http://pastebin.com/8QSXTtPB

[soapmak3r 677]

I've never really had a choice. My first playthrough, I went into Staroye and checked out the longhouse. Found my first CZ 550 and went outside only to find a bandit running at me across a field. He leveled his Winchester at me and I glassed him up from about 100m away and pulled the trigger. So began my life as a death dealing kill-on-sight loner.

 

If by survivor you mean just living off the land, that's all I do.

Man, when I got my first CZ 550 and a macarov I thought that I was sorted. I decided to go deep into the map for the first time to explore, keeping to the tree line and out of sight of anyone or anything...

 

I came out somewhere inland at a big barn and approached it thinking it might have some good loot (they NEVER had any good loot!)...

Prone, narrowly avoiding all of the zombies in the area, a fucking military Humvee comes bailing out of the forest and plows through the zombies, narrowly missing me...It was fucking mental. :D

Edited November 13, 2013 by soapmak3r

[ZlobaRUS54 441]

After reading the entire chat log, no more doubts remain, they are putting final touches as we speak. These last hours are gonna be the hardest ones. 

[Katana67 2907]

Man, when I got my first CZ 550 and a macarov I thought that I was sorted. I decided to go deep into the map for the first time to explore, keeping to the tree line and out of sight of anyone or anything...

 

I came out somewhere inland at a big barn and approached it thinking it might have some good loot (they NEVER had any good loot!)...

Prone, narrowly avoiding all of the zombies in the area, a fucking military Humvee comes bailing out of the forest and plows through the zombies, narrowly missing me...It was fucking mental. :D

 

 

Solid, I like reminiscing about old DayZ. I started playing when there weren't vehicles (might've been one of those times where they were removed, which happened a lot back in the day). Though, there is a truck which spawns north of Myshkino which is mine... and noboby else's!

 

I miss the days when Deer Stands dropped military loot. Was just a low-risk, low-reward method of getting geared up rather than the high-risk high-reward acts of heading into Stary/NWAF.

 

Will be nice to just be a noob and explore all the new stuff they've got in store. But I hope they've got a pretty aggressive roadmap. I don't want to explore every corner of the new map (which is likely anyhow) before they actually start adding new systems/items. Which is why I have such a love/hate relationships with the new emphasis on alphas. Sure, they let you play early and test things... but when you finally get that 1.0 version, it's nothing new and you hardly notice it if you've followed the entire development.

[Leo Leonardo III 20]

I would like to get an invite to that group strictly because of the way questions are answered promptly.  Of course the perk of being able to talk to the leaders of such an astounding project is truly grand, it is even more so grand to be able to get insight on the concepts behind their product.

 

Questions such as:

"What compelled you to bring forth this project?" and,

"How has this project changed your life?"  both come to mind.

 

There is no doubt that these questions have been answered countless times before.

...

I wonder, if after release and the dust has settled (no doubt dean and hicks will be frantic),  that they'll sit back and relax, or move on to other pressing matters.

 

Personally, with all the work they've been putting in, i would just worry about any issues they'd have with launch, and as soon as those were ironed out, take an undisclosed amount of time off.

 

Cheers to Dean and and the rest of the devs for making such a project possible.  Without their perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds, this whole project would not have been possible.

 

Truly, On behalf of me, and the DayZ community,  I thank you guys.

[HumanBeing25 299]

After reading the entire chat log, no more doubts remain, they are putting final touches as we speak. These last hours are gonna be the hardest ones. 

I am downloading Planetside 2 as we speak. I repeat, I am downloading Planetside 2 as we speak.

Leave noone alive. Over.

[EightBitPixel 9]

Just curious, why can't we join the Official DayZ steam group?

[HumanBeing25 299]

Just curious, why can't we join the Official DayZ steam group?

Eight bits makes one byte.

 

That's because somebody has locked it temporarily.

[Avallanche 121]

Confirmed Items and Questionnaires in Spoilers (Finished)

 

 

Hicks_206

 

(opening this will be a wall of text; be advised)

 

Chat Context

 

Hicks_206: DayZ makes DayZ Mod feel like the difference between watching a cartoon from the 80s, and then watching the live action series on bluray.

 

 

Hicks_206: I look forward to getting my group back together, and forcing them to help me help fresh spawns

Hicks_206: (They hated it)

Hicks_206: They were all about the action, and viewed every fresh spawn as a potential risk.

Ridders!: even after release

Hicks_206: Now, with unarmed melee - that is DEFINITELY the case.

Hicks_206: Moreso than before, with the mod

 

 

Hicks_206: I leave(*Love) talking about unannounced features to Dean.

 

 

Rossums: Baseball bat. 

Rossums: Pfft.

Rossums: Glorious hatchet for all! 

Conductor of the Poop Train: Speaking of which... can I use random logs of firewood as melee weapons?

Hicks_206: Or, in Rossums case - an axe.

 

 

Hicks_206: My advice to everyone here - while the game is downloading, read the manual. You'll want to know the controls so you can survive.

 

 

Hicks_206: I'm insanely lucky to be able to have an impact on a franchise that I'd otherwise be playing on every free moment if I was still at my previous studio.

 

 

Hicks_206: Yeah, the hype train is a machine of its own.

Hicks_206: The discovery of the group after I uploaded a new header image is proof of that in itself.

Hicks_206: This group is like a year old, all I did was upload a new header.

Hicks_206: And the clincher is, its not even the final header - its place holder for now. Hah

 

 

 

 

Q&A's

 

Q: Hicks, speaking of melee weapons, something I've been wondering is how common melee weapons will be compared to guns?

 

• In short, I look forward to the hectic frenzy of trying to decide who is legitimately innocent, and who is not. It'll be like Ultima Online 1997 all over again. Well, think of how more common they would be in real life. 

 

Q: Go out in backyard, huge branch, melee weapon?

 

• Much easier to find a baseball bat, then a rifle.

 

Q: Is it releasing tonight?

• No, I would not be in bed if it was releasing.

 

Q: Hicks will the server only be run by you guys at first and dedicated servers after?

 

• Only time will tell. There will be a large quantity of servers at launch. Hopefully, large enough ;)

 

Q: How many melee weapons are there?

 

• A wide array, with many more to come in the future. Melee is *definitely* a core pillar of the game now.

 

Q: Can you customise facial features or is it done the same way ARMA 2/3 in that you just pick a present skin?

 

• The game has its own unique controls like any other title, of course some controls carry between titles linked to Arma - but again, I highly recommend reading the manual beforehand.

Q: Hicks are we going to be able to have clan groups or no?

 

• As character creation is literally being finalized as we speak by Dean, I'd prefer not to comment, as it might change at any time. But the design is to allow a good array of customization to aid in a wide variety of survivor types, rather then the same white guy in a baseball cap 

 

Q: Personal Question: How proud are you of DayZ SA, on a scale of 1 - 10?

 

• Of the potential we have ahead of us, with the way the title is releasing and steam allows us to update? 10.

 

Q: Where did you work before?

 

• Microsoft Studios.

 

Q: Doing?

 

• First Party Publishing, a wonderful experience.

 

Q: How long have you worked there?

 

• Approximately 5 years.

 

Q: Do you prefer working there or with the BI?

 

• I am originally from the east side of Seattle, so we had all three of those companies, plus Nintendo, Bungie, Suckerpunch, etc all in the same city effectively. In the end, at Microsoft I found myself feeling the most alive when I was working with technology or projects on the bleeding edge, outside of the established process. DayZ is that and more, plus something I already obsess over - so, BI.

 

 

Q: How much did the development of the Standalone change your lives? Turned into night owls? Got you addicted to caffine? Etc?

 

• I moved to the other side of the world, left my family, friends, and a very well paying job to work on this project. I'd say it had a huge impact on myself. And *especially* Dean

 

Q: How is living in Czech Republic?

 

• Prague is beautiful, its definitely different from the States, but I like experiencing new things.

 

Q: How is launch night going to be? do you think you will have server problems like the big companies do?

 

• Listen, when it comes to launch - I expect issues. I've been #2 on the escalation chart for online only projects for other, very influental companies before and even -they- couldn't stop the inevitable. You can't ever truly prepare for what the users will do. The best you can do is prepare for the worst, and make sure you have a clear escalation chart, and a big red emergency phone to the data centers for when shit hits the fan. You can be certain, when the game launches - Dean will be staring at the feedback tracker with his eyes peeled back, and I'll be on a bridge call with the server host.

 

Q: What would you classify as "shit hitting the fan"?

 

• Well, an example would be a multi million dollar title releasing, skyrocketing concurrent active users faster in the first two hours than Call of Duty or Halo on XBL, and then seeing one of the backend dependencies hard crashing with no one picking up the phone on the other end ;) That morning even Phil Spencer was knocking on my door demanding to know what the hell was going on. Never a good feeling.

 

Q: Will zombies spawn in other areas now rather than the cities/towns? An example; in the woods.

 

• There is nothing preventing us from doing that, thats about all I can say ;)

 

Q: That reminds me. Dean once tweeted about using poop as chemical weaponry. Is that... a thing?

 

• The way DayZ is designed allows to maximum flexibility, and experimentation. So, its been discussed. I used to upload gameplay from DayZ to youtube. Mostly for my own amusement.

 

Q: Can you talk about the price of the Alpha release? If yes but nothing specific, what would you want it priced at?

 

• Can't speak to price. That discussion is still active.

 

Q: My favorite color is orange, can you confirm orange underwear in the SA?

 

• Underwear, at least for right now - is an offwhite-ish color.

 

Q: Who is usually last to leave the office? Dean?

 

• Usually me, about 5 minutes after Dean.

 

Q: Can we dream of a release this week?

 

• You are free to dream my friend.

 

Q: Speaking of which. Servers will be hosted en masse by you guys. Can we host our own stuff day 1?

 

• We're still addressing our approach to this, however at launch there will be large quanities of game servers.

 

Q: Can you talk about performance? I mean the average FPS you get in cities and plains?

 

• Client side? I've found the game to be genuinely much smoother experience, and lower demand than the mod.

 

Q: Do you guys think you will ever have steady 60 FPS?

 

• It's definitely a goal.

 

Q: Occulus Rift support?

 

• I know Dean(Rocket) is in love with this device.

 

Q: Didn't you get tied up during one of the tests?

 

• No, I did handcuff a tester that was AFK outside Vybor, I found him, handcuffed him -and then proceeded to dress him. He came back, and was fully kitted out. I was standing over him with a nagant - and I just said over direct. "I dressed you up purdy, boy"

 

Q: Dayz in general what is your usual loot run?

 

• I don't have real loot runs any more. Mostly because about 95 to 98% of the structures are enterable along with very few structures being non-enterable.

 

Q: I go to bed thinking about the Standalone every night and wake up with the SA being my first thought. Clinical or clinical? I am inclined to say clinical.

 

• Sometimes, I have nightmares that the game launched - and there are weird, obscure problems. I had a nightmare that the game launched, and for some reason twitch was attributing all the streamers. I think its because I played Worms before bed.

 

Q: Speaking of, will there be satchels in SA?

 

• Time will tell.

 

^{*Ending Questionnaire*} Hicks_206: Alright, its bed for me. Going to watch the post mortem for Maniac Mansion on Youtube and drift off. All good points, I think I'll leave the chat closed at the least until lunchtime tomorrow. Later.

 

Hicks_206 left chat.

 

Dean 'Rocket' Hall

 

(opening this will be a wall of text; be advised)

 

Chat Context

 

a SKOLLIE: ive been toying with the idea of some sort of stamina system for your weapons, the longer you keep your weapon raised the more tired you grow; which will force people to keep their weapons lowered until they expect some sort of gunfight.

Rocket2guns: we plan to redo the existing stamina system at some point, same time as we look at weight

 

Q&A's

 

Q: If someone were to produce a good quality model that includes all it's counter-parts, would you add it into the real game if permissions were given, or is there to much legality in doing so?

 

• Not much legality involved. its possible. but im super fussy

 

Q: Hows the onPlayerConnecting bug going?

 

• The optimizations got reverted and are in their own branch being fixed now. will be merged back once done

 

Q: Are the DayZ servers going to support IPv6 natively?

 

• Rigged models would be hard to do, you need a very specific layout and mesgh.

 

Q: Will there be a way to track people? ie. footprints, opened cans, firepits, other means of tracking?

 

• We actually have only one artist doing most of the rigged stuff.

 

Q:  Have you ever considered giving us a bit more update on whats going on as often as possible as far as bugs / optimization goes. While I understand youre trying to keep quiet i think it would shut a lot of people up with just a bit of an update on how things are going.

 

• Again, I'd just be happy with it not crashing and good server FPS

 

Q: Progress on Ragdoll physics?

 

• Ragdoll is in active development, but no idea when it comes through into alpha

 

Q: When are you testing with 50+ persons on server?

 

• Once we get the optimization merged back in. We'll test with more players.

 

Q: Whats you're favorite part of Cheranus thats been changed so far?

 

• I probably like the swamps best. The new swamps are awesome

 

Q: Are you playing DayZ now or working with it?

 

• Working with it. Trying to get Character Creation to work properly.

 

Q: What are you doing exactly on the character screen?

 

• Besides making it work, review past characters, set a default one, that sort of thing. 

 

Q: How many characters will you be even be able to create, rocket?

 

• One character at a time, but you can see past ones.

 

Q: When does the Alpha release?

 

• Once performance is acceptable we'll release the alpha.

(END)

 

 

 

 

★YOU CAN FIND THE SOURCE HERE

 

 

★OFFICIAL DAYZ STEAM COMMUNITY GROUP (CURRENTLY CLOSED)

Thank you, dude! Awesome job!

[TIC 1050]

The chat log is done and organized for all to enjoy and read.

[Sensemann 145]

• I don't have real loot runs any more. Mostly because about 95 to 98% of the structures are enterable along with very few structures being non-enterable.

 

If that's the case, I am wondering if high buildings like the Cherno hotel can actually be entered. My dream has always been that players can create a base in each and every room of each and every building. Imagine how that would change the players behavior. The usual Cherno-Stary-NW airfield tours would be lessened, because then, eveery village and every single building within these villages could result in finding a gold mine.

[Private Evans 1303]

Solid, I like reminiscing about old DayZ. I started playing when there weren't vehicles (might've been one of those times where they were removed, which happened a lot back in the day). Though, there is a truck which spawns north of Myshkino which is mine... and noboby else's!

 

I miss the days when Deer Stands dropped military loot. Was just a low-risk, low-reward method of getting geared up rather than the high-risk high-reward acts of heading into Stary/NWAF.

 

Will be nice to just be a noob and explore all the new stuff they've got in store. But I hope they've got a pretty aggressive roadmap. I don't want to explore every corner of the new map (which is likely anyhow) before they actually start adding new systems/items. Which is why I have such a love/hate relationships with the new emphasis on alphas. Sure, they let you play early and test things... but when you finally get that 1.0 version, it's nothing new and you hardly notice it if you've followed the entire development.

 

 

Yap I am quite unsure if I should play the SA before they have  added all of the new areas (especially the north). At least the basic layout should be visible not speaking about every little detail. Maybe it would be the best to lock those parts of the map for the alpha...but that's just me