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hrdrok

Dean Hall's AMA on Reddit

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I have notice people complaining or making suggestions about the game, that were answered by the man himself in an AMA about 2 weeks ago. So I will post the main answers here. It's gonna be ugly because of the formatting. Not gonna fix it as there is a lot of Q's and A's. Just decipher it. And I left out a ton of non game related stuff.

 

1 - Is there any feature you would really like to see in DayZ but is impossible to implement with the current technology? (For example a 15,000 player server on a 30,000 km2 map.)

Procedural terrain, limitless environment. I don't think its impossible with current technology but I don't think it's possible within the scope of the project.

2 - Were there some other title candidates or was DayZ the first to pop up?

There was some latin "city of the dead" that I used for a mod I started making for ArmA when it first came out. It was my first mod, ever. I never finished it but me and a few friends played it. I shelved it as too hard but the basic idea grew into DayZ much later.

 

Jay-Z's lawyers tried to get us to stop using DayZ and change it to ZDay, actually. We declined. But it did make me laugh.

 

Can you share some new milestones you and your team have put on your road map?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 134 points

16 days ago

hunting, camping, bow and arrow, vehicles

 

[–]Important_Opinion 441 points

16 days ago*

Hi Rocket, thanks for the AMA.

Have you considered putting something into the game that would take time teamwork and resources to achieve?

I was thinking of things such as getting a power station running, fortifying buildings, Clearing a disused mine shaft etc. I don't expect these would be the best examples of what I'm trying to suggest, just some examples to give an idea.

Keep up the great work.

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 657 points

16 days ago

Yes, this kind of endgame stuff is quite key to what we want to do. However, in order to do this we have to perfect the architecture which is what we are doing now. Certainly I think underground bases and advanced vehicles will allow some of this really exciting and "eve" style play.

 

[–]smithl2 102 points

16 days ago

how is the name pronounced? day-zee? day-zed? is it pronounced like the plant dasy? or as one syllable like Days?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 249 points

16 days ago

Day-Zee. I adopt NATO standards of naming, spelling, and pronunciation with nearly everything I do. It's just simpler that way.

 

[–]tagus 43 points

16 days ago

How did the DayZ snowball of popularity start?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 141 points

16 days ago

4chan. that's right. 4chan.

 

[–]-PA-Mikhail 534 points

16 days ago

Hi Dean.

Question: Is there a slightest possibility for you to read the Consolidated Suggestions Presentation from your beloved Klingon.. I mean, Russian Community.

We worked many noths and days to compile it. It received hundreds of votes up and will be a huge inspiration of interesting features for you.

Please, at lest say "Forget it. I don't need it" or "STFU Go away" :) Of course a hundred people who worked on it would be happy to hear some of your thoughts on the document.

Thanks in advance!

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 553 points

16 days ago

Yes, I've been reading it as we're preparing our roadmap for 2014.

 

[–]datMoka 149 points

16 days ago

Hey Dean, thanks for doing this!

I remember I heard that you wanted to improve upon the VOIP in DayZ. Would you care to elaborate on how you aim to improve the current system?

I'm also looking for a suggestion. I'm currently at University learning games programming and I'm wondering what would be your recommendation for the best technology/language to learn?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 192 points

16 days ago

Well kind of everything. The quality. Allowing more types (whisper etc...). How zombies react to it. And also particularly the animation and how it plays when your character opens his mouth to speak.

 

[–]Cultor 239 points

16 days ago*

Game engine question ! ARMA games are known for there 'not so great performance' on even high end pc's. The engine is very CPU intensive compared to other game engines which utilize GPUs better. Is your team going to improve the engine to utilize more of that pc master race GPU power ?

Thank you for your time!

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 354 points

16 days ago

Yes. It is easier for us to optimize DayZ in some ways, because dayz's focus is very narrow. ArmA is an incrediblegame and ArmA3 is no exception. It has massive scope and a huge demand on AI and many other things.

Many of these things can cause problems for MP gaming, and that's what I'm all about really.

We have reports from Intel, AMD/ATI, and Nvidia. These give us ideas for how to optimize the client. Let's just say there is huge room for improvement.

 

[–]Storm2you 96 points

16 days ago

Will you continue to add content even after the full release of DayZ?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 160 points

16 days ago

Yes. There will be content updates and such for DayZ for a long time, I believe. However that would be up to Bohemia for the most part. I'm not sure I would (not want to) be super involved with that.

 

[–]James246 323 points

16 days ago

How far away are we from the following;

1) Vehicles 2) Bases

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 383 points

16 days ago

Vehicles will be done based on the architecture we are doing for items/weapons now (i.e. attachments). So it's in progress really. We are replacing the physics system for items (throwing, etc...) and this new middleware will be used for vehicles also.

Bases will take longer. Barricades will happen first.

 

[–]xordyboy 44 points

16 days ago

Why do i keep on finding rotten kiwis in dayz ?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 152 points

16 days ago

Because our designers think it's hilarious to pick on me :(

 

[–]KimmoUK 74 points

16 days ago*

Can you tell us if there are any plans for aircraft in DayZ? If so, what do you have in mind?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 226 points

16 days ago

Yes. I think helicopters and small aircraft will be important. But they should be very complex to maintain.

 

[–]bartjelol 117 points

16 days ago

Hey Dean,

What do you think of shelters, are you planning to insert different shelters then just tents?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 212 points

16 days ago

We have a plan for camping. Playing that mod for Skyrim (survival mod, forget its name) is GREAT inspiration and I hope we can do everything it has.

 

[–]HankHillWearingACape 13 points

16 days ago

Will we ever see ragdoll physics in game, or is that just a pipe dream?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 35 points

16 days ago

Ragdoll is confirmed. We already have it working in our internal version.

 

[–]mikejoneswho2 13 points

16 days ago

What are you most excited for regarding DayZ features? What makes you the most nervous regarding DayZ features?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 26 points

16 days ago

Ragdoll and bow/arrows :)

Most nervous about server performance. Always nervous about that, always will be.

 

[–]mjmax 41 points

16 days ago

And the removal of mouse acceleration? Please? Just a confirmation that it's coming ever.

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 97 points

16 days ago

Mouse accel can't be removed without redesign. So we are going to redesign how it works, there's no target date on that.

 

[–]SilverLlama 37 points

16 days ago

I've been playing the experimental build and can only say. The most important thing in the game right now is the need for loot to respawn. Any ETA/are you already working on this issue?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 77 points

16 days ago

Yes, this is a work in progress - tied with a central loot economy and persistent objects

 

[–]Mackaelroni 14 points

16 days ago

What feature are you most excited about and why?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 31 points

16 days ago

Bow and Arrow. Because I LOVED going around hunting in Skyrim.

 

[–]Assault_Shaker 13 points

16 days ago

How often do you just hop into a random public server to play with randoms?

Personally, which do you prefer: first person only servers or third person servers?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 41 points

16 days ago

Quite often. I prefer first person.

I was hosting a game of Europa Universalis over the weekend, and some randoms joined the game and asked "do you guys play DayZ?" That was pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool they played a game with me for about three hours and have no idea I was actually the person who made DayZ :)

 

[–]lets4dead 6 points

16 days ago

The deer is complete? I saw some pictures, and a video of it, they have better AI?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 11 points

16 days ago

Deer is complete but needs animations fixed.

 

[–]MaNoIN 31 points

16 days ago

How long untill you make Dayz SA "playable"? I mean, cars, base buildings, lots of weapons, etc. Today we are just testing a very small scratch, of what this game can be.

Sorry about my really bad english im brazilian.

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 92 points

16 days ago

about six months.

 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 16 points

16 days ago

Nathan, one of the senior artists at Sidhe Interactive in New Zealand where I worked, said I "looked like a glen" on my first day as an associate producer there, working on the speed racer game.

Eventually a guy called glen came back to work so instead of everyone calling me glen, they called me rocket glen. Then rocket 2 guns. The name stuck!

 
 

[–]Evil_This 7 points

16 days ago

kiwilogic

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 18 points

16 days ago

yeah nah

 
 

[–]Evil_This 13 points

15 days ago

Great. This is the shithole comment of mine you choose to respond to?

Now I feel like a fucking retard.

I CAN MAKE GOOD COMMENTS ROCKET. I SWEAR.

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 15 points

15 days ago

lol. i was doing a kiwi.

 

[–]TommyBozzer 3 points

16 days ago

Hi Dean, Any chance of a console release in the foreseeable future?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 7 points

16 days ago

Yes, quite likely. Although they're not as attractive as people think, small market compared to steam and lots of complications.

 

[–]XIIISlaughters 8 points

16 days ago

Hey Dean, probably a combined 2000 hours in Arma/DayZ Mod/Standalone over the past few years. Ive met friends, found entertainment (the streamers, 42nd represent), and even learned from the crazy experiences those games bring. I can't thank you enough for that, you're a bigger influence on me then I'm proud to admit to.

Less of a question, more of a reassurance: high tier military loot aren't going to be a thing right? At least without a severe balance. I might cry if I get killed by an AS50 at over 1000m again.

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 86 points

16 days ago

Once improvised weapons, bow and arrow, throwing items is in - we will dramatically turn down military style weapons spawn rate. They will be incredibly rare.

 

[–]TheDuckPortal 2 points

16 days ago

Is there going to be any craftable weapons in DayZ? Like Bows made from wood?

If so, how far into DayZ should we expect them?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 11 points

16 days ago

Yes. Crafting is a key current design focus and in each update I would expect you will see more and more. Bow and arrow is also a priority for us.

 

[–]Facetious_Otter 2 points

16 days ago

Hey Dean;

What are the goals of the Stand-alone that are different from the mod? i.e. what will be in the stand-alone that ISN'T in the mod?

 
 

[–]rocket2guns[S] 4 points

16 days ago

Gosh, I mean. A huge amount. See our roadmap we will release soon! Basically most of it would be impossible without the dramatic engine changes we made.

 

 

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