PCGamer: Day Z + Arma 3 interview

[daze23 549]

Good article' date=' look forward to the next installment of it. However in an interview I saw of Rocket on youtube at E3, he mentioned that when/if DayZ goes retail that he is not a fan of Free-2-Play.

Does this mean we can expect down the track DayZ will become an MMOFPS with a monthly fee? Early stages yet so I'm sure noone can give a straight answer. But if it does, it should be successful in the genre of Zombies and FPS alone with a minecraft sandbox ability? I'll say this now, multimillions Rocket.

I hope that because you originate from the oceanic region, that we will get onshore servers as well ;)

I know, I know, early days yet.

[/quote']

who knows what will happen. but I think a lot of people would be upset if it were sold as a stand-alone game, since they bought Arma 2 to play Day Z. I'm not saying that's a legitimate complaint, but it will happen. if anything I think it should be sold as DLC for Arma 2/3. I think that would be better for BIS because it would help sell Arma, like it already has. then maybe people would also try out Arma and find they like that

[underscore 12]

Great read' date=' can't wait for the next part, but what is "Create Agent"?

[/quote']

Yeah can someone explain "Create Agent" to us? Great story, cant wait for the second part. VOIP attracting zombies just makes me screaming with my hatchet better.

It's an unique unit type that can be created within ARMA. Honestly, I'm not sure myself on all the ways in which they differ from other regular ARMA units. I think the most significant difference is that they aren't assigned any AI routines. Both animals and zombies are agents, for instance. If zombies were created as actual unit entities then there'd a huge mess and CPU overhead as the ARMA engine tried to run the base soldier AI code on each zombie. IOW, the mod wouldn't be possible.

From the Biki: createAgent scripting command.

I think rocket was saying that from the standpoint of dayz it would be even better and more efficient if players were also not treated as regular units. Right now, ARMA does some funky, irritating stuff at times with player units just because it assumes that they are soldiers fighting in a war zone. Notice, how every player has to be assigned to the BLUFOR side at game start, for instance. Stuff like that is annoying and an uneccessary overhead from a design standpoint.

Edit: While I'm at it, has anybody posted Part Two of the Interview yet?

Mostly A3 related, but still some very exciting stuff talked about. This in particular made me squeal like a pre-pubescent fanboy:

Buchta: … we’d like to expand the Chernarus theme in the Arma 3 engine, partly because of Dean’s zombies, partly because it’s a good map and we know it. We can get the data real cheap and we already have a working basis, so there will be more realistic terrain and new vegetation. And I’m also trying to push all those environment-related things like underground structures, bridges, better handling of water, power lines, many things which were omitted.

[Banicks 55]

who knows what will happen. but I think a lot of people would be upset if it were sold as a stand-alone game' date=' since they bought Arma 2 to play Day Z. I'm not saying that's a legitimate complaint, but it will happen. if anything I think it should be sold as DLC for Arma 2/3. I think that would be better for BIS because it would help sell Arma, like it already has. then maybe people would also try out Arma and find they like that

[/quote']

He has already stated that whilst it is currently mod, he hopes to retail this stand alone based on the Arma 3 engine. Obvious developing more things into it that wouldn't have a place in Arma - eg: ability to build wooden fort, and other minecraft-eque features.

Naturally Bohemia will support this, developing and retailing DayZ seperately will open their target market up. As it stands it is a pain to install and keep updated. Dare I say you need quite an advanced understanding of computers to be able to play it, whether this be now for Arma 2 or 3, either way, Rocket has stated he wants a seemless install and the only successful way to do this is to release it's own installer and while their at it, retail it by itself.

This way people don't have to purchase Arma 3 which may hold zero interest to them.

Additionally, the upkeep costs of DayZ servers is staggering. AU$400+ per server to host 50 because the requirements of UL/DL can exceed 4TB. That is huge. Not to mention we don't even know what Arma 3 will require with this mod. So to counteract this using a monthly fee from DayZ they would host their own servers.

This also removes the issue of duping and hacking, because the loot server would be easily secured and ensure that all gameplay is on the same level. Basically think World of Warcraft setup for loot, which to my knowledge, noone can hack items out of WoW.

So from that standpoint, I can see an advantage to P2P. However Rocket only really stated not a fan of F2P - perhaps DayZ could be retail with DLC payable content. But my understanding is that it is F2P. I doubt they would make sufficient enough profit from retail + ongoing DLC to maintain servers for an indefinite period of time. Also I can't forsee how DLC would work in DayZ without giving players an ingame advantage item wise.

So in summary, P2P would ensure hosted stable and secure servers, and easy of installation and updating DayZ for all technological ability levels.

[thealgerian 2]

Part 2 is right here:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/23/day-z-arma-3-interview-optimization-map-design-radios-porting-day-z-into-arma-3/