Status Report - Week of 01 September 14

[SMoss 2101]

 

As work progressed on dialing in the remaining critical issues with 0.49 (eg: Body temperature variations, duplication bugs, etc) the programming team has continued iterating upon our centralized loot architecture, as well as the major tasks such as ongoing work on replacing the renderer, replacing existing door mechanics, and the entire list covered in the stand up notes below.

Lets take a quick look at the distribution of ammunition, and the top 10 items that currently (as of 0.48 / Stable Branch) spawn. Please keep in mind this is very, very rough data. As we iterate upon the system, we will introduce more granular control over the quantity of each type of item that spawns, and what location in the world they are allowed to spawn in.
 


Looking at the above image, you can see that the highest quantity of spawning items is easily canned food goods. As we push more on the survival mechanics, and the centralized loot control - we’ll see these item quantities begin to drop, and hopefully the amount of base survival items such as fishing hooks, rope, burlap sacks, and tools increase.



It is interesting to see the high quantity of ammunition such as 357 Magnum, and Shotgun so prevalent currently. We expect this data to shift greatly as we focus on supporting the -chance- for magazines to spawn with weapons. (Note: Chance, not all the time - but given the randomness of every weapon spawning across Chernarus, at least a few should have magazines and or clips)

In addition to this, the production, design, and environment teams have discussed the issue of player spawn locations - and the lack of traffic through the classic DayZ cities such as Chernogorsk, and Elektrozavodsk. The initial push to restrict player spawning in these regions was tied to the design of the Chernogorsk area, specifically the new tenement structures and the Balota airfield. As we move towards fully implementing centralized control over the economy this will become less of an issue. With this in mind, the Balota airfield as been redesigned and a new, further inland military base was created.
As 0.49 hits stable, players will begin to spawn all along the coast from Chernogorsk, to Novod. The reaction to this will be monitored, and the spawns will be adjusted accordingly.

Finally, as mentioned on twitter, the team has identified a bug with the game server that we’ve noticed being exploited on stable branch. This bug is related to character/server initialization, and is a top priority issue for us. - Brian Hicks / Producer


Chris / Lead Artist

”Character Art
The firefighter helmet and SPOSN backpack are finished and are being tested currently in-game so they should be showing up  in experimental shortly.  We’ve begun working on the first new civilian zombie in quite some time and are looking into expanding the number of zombie heads for models so that they’re not quite so repetitive. We’re also working on some waterproof containers to keep player’s gear dry during the frequent rain experienced on Chernarus. Work has also begun on the craftable player gear and items related to that system.
 
Weapons
The Rossi R92 is finished being animated. We’re just waiting for sounds and then it’ll be good to go.  The animators also began work on the M133 earlier this week so it won’t be too far behind the repeater. Something a bit newer is an AKS74U which is a work in progress by one of our talented artists and I, in my spare time (of which I do not have much), have begun a labor of love – a Derringer pistol. I was also happy to hear that the cattle prod and stun baton are functioning. Finally players will have an alternative to using lethal weapons to temporarily incapacitate other players in unsafe situations, rather than simply kneecapping them.


 
Environment
Not a whole lot new here. We’re continuing work on the civilian airport structures to replace objects at the NEAF.  Mario, one of our senior artists began doing some planning for the long-abandoned prison complex which will be something worked on in between higher priority tasks and will take quite some time to finish.  We’ve also begun discussing ways to introduce some visual variability of the numerous small villages since they contain mainly the same, rather small, number of house models. “
Viktor / Lead Animator

"In the last couple of weeks we were busy with various bugfixes. Besides small gestures and bow related polishing we have fixed some major issues like players falling after drinking bottle, taking item in hand while handcuffed and other. One of new additions is the possibility to run up and down stairs. This was mainly a programmers task since it had to be changed in the engine.

After we added running while restrained we focused on crouch restrained player. Now there are two crouch restrained poses - one after someone forces you to restrain and one when you move. Yes that means we introduced restrained crouch walk, so you can take your captives with you anywhere now.

Another big area we started to improve by the end of august are zombies. First we are still in process of designing and preparing for the new advanced AI. We’ve discussed and designed the new zombie AI with programmers and designers but it will take some time until we see it in the game. Until then we have added a few small improvements. Now there are different zombie runs, walks, idles. That means if more zombies are chasing you, each will move different. We already have some more ideas that will significantly improve the experience.”


Standup Notes for the week of 01 Sept 14
          Art:

• Firefighter Helmet
• New civilian zombie
• SPOSN Backpack
• NEAF civilian hangar
• New 55-gal drum
• Derringer
• AKS74U
• AK101 retexture
• M4 Drum Mag
• Pack of cigarettes
• Skate helmet
• Bottle of voka
• Dime bag
• Range Finder
• Leather wallet
• Radio Cassette player
• RGD2 smoke (white, black)
• Waterproof packable bag
• Waterproof backpack
  
  Animation:
   
• Bugfixing
• Grenade, chemlight, flare related animations
• Zombie variation animations done
• Bow animations polishings
• Repeater reload animation in progress
  
  Design:
•  
• General Bugfixing
• Script/Config work for additional weapon types
• Vehicle classification prototyping
• Vehicle component prototyping
• Horticulture design/bug fixing
  
  Programming:
   
• Sounds for melee weapons
• Melee combat tweaking
• Door reimplementation
• New gamecontrols
• Inventory bugfixes
• Throwing items fixes     
• Dead zombies disappearing fixes
• Code cleaning and optimizations
• Loot statistical data collecting
• Graphical representation of statistical data
• Type related loot cleanup

Read on Tumblr

[[TAW] GunRunner 53]

I was literally just thinking "where the hell is this weeks report?!?" Refreshed page aaaaannnndd WHAMMY!!!

[konstpan 2]

Just thinking its a pitty to waste time on any new weapons...there is allready enough variation...

[Ubernaut 297]

This is starting to sound more interesting all the time. Still a long, long ways to go, but... I applaud these efforts.

[ChainReactor 922]

 

As 0.49 hits stable, players will begin to spawn all along the coast from Chernogorsk, to Novod.

 

YES BABY.

[Trizzo 632]

"As we push more on the survival mechanics, and the centralized loot control - we’ll see these item quantities begin to drop, and hopefully the amount of base survival items such as fishing hooks, rope, burlap sacks, and tools increase" Yippie! Rope is not uncommon as it is. Need more chickens too!

And a whole host of good items to boot! Still no water proof pants though...WP backpacks welcome, curious about size and profile.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Trizzo

[JPWiser 251]

Omg you can find dime bags????

Can you smoke them?

[Cap'n (DayZ) 1827]

This is great to hear. Nice to see some insight on the development, and I'm real excited to see what is coming.

[Evil Minion 943]

Does this mean coast spawns are coming back? Yes please! I don't like the inland spawn points.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thanks for the update!

 

Thank for hard work and delicious pie (charts).

[Silence4all 35]

Good stuff! Thx for the update.

[tobias winfro 305]

Nice, its gonna be a tough adjustment for people who have no idea how to survive off of the land. I see a lot of butthurt and frustration because some were to busy to be bothered to learn what an ashwood tree looks like for a fishing pole or now you're going to have to make room in your inventory for tool like a hoe or a shovel and a knife for dressing the animal carcasses.

There will be an increase of banditry with this aspect as well because people will need stuff and its far easier to rob or kill you for your stuff than to learn how to get it. Just another curve ball the devs are throwing our way

Edited September 6, 2014 by Tobias Winfro

[WhiteZero 72]

test

Really living up to that "Live Test & Support Lead" title.  ;)

[NagsterTheGangster 388]

I noticed they're adding dime bags......perhaps they will soon add something to carry inside those same bags ;)

[St. Jimmy 1631]

I posted this on other topic also:

 

Well they're adding leather wallet in. Maybe that should be a basic thing that everyone has and it doesn't take inventory slot. There you can keep your ID if you want.

[basinox 300]

Omg you can find dime bags????

Can you smoke them?

420 confirmed

[irishroy 1347]

dayum...

range-finders....

:huh:

 

range-finders like the little small toys to make sniping in its current stats so easy even a 5 year old kid can do this...?

Edited September 6, 2014 by irishroy

[Legio23 82]

Its really starting to come along nicely now, more survival gear a couple of new weapons.....lovely, not to mention the prototyping of vehicles of some kind may be soon in our future.

[BugZ (DayZ) 49]

-Leather wallet

will we have money to put in ? If we will have money how we can spend money ,there is no shop to buy things ? İf there is no money what is wallet for ? Defineatly its not suitable for can of bean. Wallet for ID card ? I wıll carry wallet only for ID? This is not making sense.

[rag (DayZ) 3]

Really informative reports, thanks for sharing, looking very promising

[basinox 300]

-Leather walletwill we have money to put in ? If we will have money how we can spend money ,there is no shop to buy things ? İf there is no money what is wallet for ? Defineatly its not suitable for can of bean. Wallet for ID card ? I wıll carry wallet only for ID? This is not making sense.

Thats called useless loot, gives the world some dept without doing anything. Some players may also rob you for cash.

[Cpanther 221]

Vodka ?...cigarettes ?....Radio cassette player.. ?.... chemlights ?.........Lap dancers ?  :D

[Elle 562]

Thats called useless loot, gives the world some dept without doing anything. Some players may also rob you for cash.

maybe it can fit one slot paper items such as a map? however you are probably correct in that its useless ambient junk... something else to collect I guess ;)

[Cpanther 221]

maybe it can fit one slot paper items such as a map? however you are probably correct in that its useless ambient junk... something else to collect I guess ;)

Don't know about you... but i have a lot of crap in my wallet.. and is not always cash..... :blush:

[Elle 562]

Don't know about you... but i have a lot of crap in my wallet.. and is not always cash..... :blush:

hahah I carry a purse and yes it has a ton of crap in it ;) now if only I could find a nice Louis Vuitton to match those oh so fancy gorka paut revs.... can you say heaven?