Early Access Important Information / Known Issues

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Everything you wanted to know about DayZ's Early Access

 

So we're finally here, and the Alpha is out on Steam Early Access, I'll try to cover off on some of the key stuff that will help you survive the process. The first most important thing:

 

Do not buy the game yet!

 

The release of our Alpha is about getting those who want to be involved from the ground up, up and into the process. What we do encourage you to do, is to read reviews, watch livestreams and lets play videos, and talk to your friends. The alpha is going out into large scale testing for the first time, this means many things (mostly bad) will happen such as nasty bugs, connection issues, lost loot, etc... Our aim right now is to present the bare-bone architecture and check that works, getting some feedback on the direction in the process.

 

Why not do a free alpha?

 

Not only does it make the project financially viable, but it means those participating in the alpha are those who have made a financial commitment. It also limits the numbers to those willing to part with their hard earned cash.

 

How will it be developed and updated from here?

 

We will be pushing builds to steam on a regular basis, be it monthly, weekly, or even daily as the need allows. Initially after release things will be quite chaotic, yet another reason to wait for a bit before purchasing to ensure the best experience. Updates will include not just bug fixes but also 

 

What is the pricing model?

 

The game will get more expensive as it moves through its development, starting out fairly cheap and rising in price as its matures and more features get added. When you buy it once, you will have access to the whole DayZ Game. No decision or information exists about DLC or anything like that, but we can confirm that DayZ will not feature in-game purchases.

 

How can I run my own server?

 

We want to allow private hosting, which includes passworded servers, but we are finalizing changes to our database that will allow us to run a little data instance just for that server. This gives the best of both having a database and having a private community, without those private communities affecting the main database.

 

Important bugs and issues

 

Zombies

* Zombies clipping through floors/walls

* Zombies hitting through upper floors from the ground floor

* Low zombie numbers

* No zombie respawning

Zombies are a work in progress they are a very active area of development, we consider the current implementation a base level to commence further testing. Their AI was completely redeveloped, which means we need to come up with new (more efficient) methods of their interaction with the world, such as collision, as the ArmA way is not designed for thousands of AI to operate at once on this scale. This will be one of our most active areas of development.

 

Audio issues

* Loud opening of cans of drink 

* Ambient animals making zombie noises

Due to the many changes to architecture, we have not been focused on audio. While some changes have been made we just hired a dedicated audio designer who will be teamed up with an audio programmer to completely revamp the way sounds work. We feel sound is very important for DayZ so we are really committed to this.

 

Map Issues

* Fences and objects clipping through buildings

* Loot sunk into the ground or floating

Pleased bug these up in the feedback tracker with accurate map locations and images. This be difficult without a map but posting images around the forums or other communities might bring others who recognize the location.

 

Loot Distribution

* Loot not spawning in every building

* Loot not well balanced

Balancing the whole world is very difficult. We also plan to centralize distribution of key items so there will be a global economy. For now, you have the basics and while this is not ideal it is enough for testing. We look forward to our exciting features with this!

 

Loot/Action Delays

* Loot taking long to take

* Splitting piles of loot not working properly

* Item out of sync in inventory

We heavily optimized the netcode but in some cases, we cut too deep. We will be isolating these as we go, but we already know this can occur (particularly obvious when first spawning in).

 

Game Exploits

* Combat logging protection not working

Currently many of our features such as queued loading, combat logging timeout, etc... have been disabled as there is the possibility that they will cause additional strain on the central server. Once we know that we can handle the load we will begin implementing these. We do expect this will be a long process, and we'll be working with the community to identify effective ways to deal with this. In the meantime, it is going to be