It seems like the mod issues have carried over to the sa

[Shakakahn 23]

First off I haven't bought the sa yet.  I can only go by the videos I've watched on youtube.  But it seems like nothing has changed and that's why I haven't bought it.  All the old problems with the mod are present in the sa.  Zombies still clip through walls, walk through fences, zig zag about, sound exactly the same.  The ui is still clunky and unintuitive, the simple act of looking at loot and picking it up is a exercise in frustration since even though the cross hairs are on the item and you are close enough, the name of the item doesn't appear, animations and moving about are odd to say the least, etc.

 

I thought the main point of it becoming a stand alone game was to iron out these problems.  Instead we get clothes with pockets?  In the year and a half it's been in development the game doesn't seem like it's received any work other than adding enterable buildings, spec and bump maps, and pockets.

 

I know this is an alpha, you guys have posted that an infinite amount of times.  And I'm sure it will happen again.  But how long can it be called an alpha?  When it was a mod it was an alpha, and now that the sa (which came out a year late but just in time for christmas) is out it's still an alpha with the same problems.  It seems like there is no plan to take dayz out of alpha.

 

Dayz is the game I've been waiting for since I was a little kid.  When the mod came out it was amazing and I did buy arma specifically for dayz.  But dayz doesn't seem like it will ever be anything more than an awkward mod to a very good military sim.

[Max Planck 7174]

 But how long can it be called an alpha?

 

From the Steam store page:

 

 We estimate that reaching Beta version with all key features present will take more than one year from current stage.

 

There's your answer then, more than a year.

 

The sounds and animations are placeholders, by the way.

[thelonewarrior 886]

Then you've been misinformed

 

Zombies don't zig zag, they run straight at you now

 

you don't even need to see the name of the item, stand near it and press tab (inventory) and on the left side of the screen it shows any items nearby

 

Zombies do occasionally walk through walls, but I saw a zombie leap a fence today

[Mos1ey 6301]

As Max said - at this point everything is very much a work in progress.

 

I remember at one point during closed testing you could just walk around a room in the gear menu and things would pop up in the vacinity because the radius was too large. I guess they've gone too far in the other direction when trying to tweak it, but such is life in game development. They'll get everything right at the end.

 

If you don't want to experience bugs and the like then just don't buy the game. Take another look when we're into beta or even the final release and see what you think.

[Shakakahn 23]

From the Steam store page:

 

 We estimate that reaching Beta version with all key features present will take more than one year from current stage.

 

There's your answer then, more than a year.

 

The sounds and animations are placeholders, by the way.

And we all know how good the dayz team is at hitting their milestones.

 

I guess my reason for posting this was to find out if the vids I've seen are wrong.  What has changed in the year of development that would sway me to purchase the game even in it's unfinished state.  What is my contribution to the team going to get me in the long run?  I ask because once my money is spent there really is no incentive for you guys to change/finish anything.

[Persason 15]

You are absolutely right... The issues that were present in the mod are also present here, HOWEVER the standalone can develop far more than the mod could, so potentially by 6 months time this game will be fun to play. Yes a game can stay in alpha for a very long time, especially since rocket for some odd reason has a very small team working on this game. A big company should have developed this, then it would have gotten out a lot quicker. I bought it because I know it will be fun to play this game one day, but right now it is just a buggy mess as I expected :) I agree with you on the fact that development is going on very slowly with this game.... I am also not happy with the engine they use, the whole feel is like Arma 2 and that won't change, at least I doubt it is possible. This game will one day be good, but somehow I feel like it could have gotten so much better. 

[mercules 1290]

And we all know how good the dayz team is at hitting their milestones.

 

I guess my reason for posting this was to find out if the vids I've seen are wrong.  What has changed in the year of development that would sway me to purchase the game even in it's unfinished state.  What is my contribution to the team going to get me in the long run?  I ask because once my money is spent there really is no incentive for you guys to change/finish anything.

 

Don't buy it. Meanwhile I'll enjoy playing and you can continue wondering if you are missing anything. 

[NoobAnon 27]

It is good that you are not purchasing the game right now.  As you would more than likely not understand what has actually been developed over the last year.

 

Alot of what you are "seeing" is pulled from the mod, what you aren't seeing is all the work that has been put into place behind what you are seeing.

 

Think of it like this, you have an old crappy car...  You take the body off that car and put it on a brand new frame/engine and transmission.  Well, from the outside it looks the exact same.  But you're not looking at the engine, your looking at the body.  The cosmetics are easy to fix and change, the engine/frame/transmission are not.  

 

So, the big difference is what the SA can become, and what the Mod could be become.  The SA can go to the stars, while the Mod can only reach the top floor of a 5 story building.  So you'll see much faster changes and bug fixes over the next year of development.  At the end of development, the game will stand head and shoulders above the Mod "cosmetically", because it already stands head and shoulders above the mod in the engine.

 

If you are iffy, don't buy it yet.  You will like what you see when it is finished though.  Everything will be polished up and nice and pretty like any other *FINISHED* game.  Do remember, this is not even in the beta, this is the alpha,  You would have probably not liked any games alpha that you played that had a predecessor, cause you would think it was the same game.  It's not till it's finished that you will be able to truly see the massive differences.

 

As a note to the fellow mentioning this being developed by a small team versus a large team that truly makes no difference.  They had a core already developed, while most games start at the drawing board and story development requiring more people.  Also, they aren't all that slow.  Most games developed by large companies are in the works for several years, not a year, the exception being sequels.  The difference is, rocket kept people in the loop and released an alpha.  Most big time game companies DO NOT release alpha's, especially not flat out publicly.  If you were left with the mod and no one ever spoke of a standalone version, and this just popped up on steam, you wouldn't be complaining about development time.  It's only because Rocket told you about it, and kept you in the loop that you feel like it took too long.  Did you know that Duke Nukem Forever was in development for 10 years?  Not the best example, but no one felt like they were waiting on it because no one was saying they were going to be releasing an alpha and that it was coming.  Don't be upset that Rocket told you he would make a game and release and alpha and he did, just not in the time frame you expected.

Edited December 20, 2013 by NoobAnon

[thelonewarrior 886]

. Yes a game can stay in alpha for a very long time, especially since rocket for some odd reason has a very small team working on this game. A big company should have developed this, then it would have gotten out a lot quicker.

 

 

And if a big company had made this instead of rocket it would be WarZ all over again, or running around with 'badass' heavy machine guns and AS50s with 600 rounds in their backpack fighting off hordes of crappy animated zombies that take about 3 hours to kill you, but don't worry! Youll have 15 full health restore kits.

 

 

no

 

Rocket was the right one to make this

Edited December 20, 2013 by Regulator Lone Warrior

[Harba 3]

The more I read these forums the more I think they should just shut the forum down and let rocket do his thing and we just enjoy the ride. I think he has this figured out and those who doubt him should just check back in 3 to 6 months and see what has happened.

[Aeoneth 163]

OP no offense meant, but you cannot know what you are saying.

 

Having played the mod since early in it's release (I think  i missed like 1 or 2 client versions)  I can definitely say there are changes, but not ones you can perceive through videos.  IT's really hard to describe without having experienced it... but I'll try my best.

 

There are two major things that have changed in my mind, zombie spawns and loot.

Both changes have been made so that they are not procedurally generated but instead are spawned at server start and are left as such until the next reset.  Doesn't sound like much, but it is a HUGE change.  Since zombies no longer spawn within a 500 m radius (I don't recall what it was exactly in the mod) you cna no loner go on overwatch from a hill and scout a ctown to see if players are there.  This means that as you progress into the town you are LITERALLY flying blind. You never know if the next corner is going to hold a player, a zombie, or that precious precious can opener.  As a  result scavving towns has become a much larger source of tension.  RIght now there is a glitch where a pop tab pops at random.  And every time it happens to me I jump, because you never know if it was a player or not.

 

The other thing is loot.  You've probably heard about how hard it is to find food and drink.  Well that's no exaggeration, since everything is spawned at server start it's all effectively dwindling resources.  That means in the few hours before the restart players are the most desperate.  Especially when all the coastal towns are picked clean.  As a result I have seen a dramatic increase in the people I meet inland. (Admittedly that's only up 3 from 0 but still).  Starting as a fresh spawn at anything other than the restarting hours results in a very much of a panic starteing when you also take into account that hunger and thirst are not full.  So as you get closer to starving you can start making more panicked decisions. (Screw sneaking into that house I need food.  Full Sprint ahead).   Note I say can, some still stay cool and calm but there's always that nagging voice in the back of your head that says, you're gonna staarrrveee~.

 

Again these are not changes you can sense when watching videos as there is no sense of player agency (where the player is the character).

Edited December 21, 2013 by Aeoneth

[louist 163]

@Regular: the vicinity feature is very touchy in my experience. Some items won't come up unless I have them directly under the crosshairs, and even then, I sometimes have to shuffle around a bit before it works.

But sometimes it works great.

Given time these issues will be ironed out, though.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

But how long can it be called an alpha? 

 

Until it's not an Alpha anymore. Based on the current state of the game my guess would be sometime in 2015.

 

If you didn't want to play an Alpha, why did you buy DayZ?