Status Report - Week of 13 Oct 14

[SMoss 2101]

This week we'll talk about infected AI, and our plans for the next few months regarding these systems. Looking forward towards our October stable branch update (0.50) and on-wards to the November update we plan on slowly implementing the next iteration of A.I. for the infected into our experimental and later stable branches. The intent with this iteration is focused on several key points for gameplay:

• Stealth as a viable method of tactics vs infected A.I.
• Vastly reduced range-of-vision
• Smaller corner to corner cone of vision
• Infected hearing ability refactored to compliment stealth as viable gameplay method

The impact of the intended new behavior extends past the obvious gameplay areas and into server performance and navmesh compliance. As the gameplay programming team begins the process of implementing this new system into DayZ, so will begin the process of removing the legacy A.I. system used prior. Starting fresh with this new system should reduce the load on the DayZ server process and allow us to begin experimenting with new methods of distributing the infected, as well as increasing the amount of infected spawned per server instance.

As well, the changes in A.I. navigation in complex scenarios should have a strong positive impact on the positioning of infected A.I. when players attempt to trap/ditch/elude them in and around structures and terrain features.
 
On the service side, the architecture has been completed to support and rent private shards of the central hive. We have updated our DayZ server rules for the public hive to reflect the differences between public hive and private shard servers - both of these rule sets can be viewed here:
 
Public Hive - Server Rules
Private Shard - Server Rules

Once our partner game server providers have completed the final touches on supporting the rental of these new server types in each of their systems, you will begin to see private shard servers show up in the in game server browser. - Brian Hicks / Producer
 
 
Chris / Lead Artist

Tech:
To follow on from last time, I received word that the bug preventing shadows from being cast onto our prototype bushrag was fixed so we will begin polishing it and generating any other assets needed for its crafting.
 
Weapons:
Work continues on the AKS-74U and AK-74. I decided with Peter that we will keep the AK101 in the game for now and visually distinguish it by the black furniture and dark-plum magazine.  By contrast, the AK74 will be given wood furniture and a brown magazine. The AUG needs a bit more time but I can tell you we have pretty big plans for it. We're exploring the idea of converting your AUG from carbine with the AUG built-in optic to an HBAR with an ACOG if you find the right parts. We'll keep you appraised of the latest developments.
 
Character:
Work continues on women's clothing and new zombie types - in particular, a farmer zombie. He's a little pudgy but can still pack a punch.
 
 
Peter / Lead Designer
"We’ve got a lot of things in the pipe right now. We’ve taken a look at some of the remaining issues with struggling from restrains and burlap sack. We’ve fixed them and they look good to go. No more simple holding of the key to set you free from your restrains. No more reconnecting with burlap sack on head with ability to see through it. We will also add the possibility to restrain survivors with rope, duct tape and even wire, which was added recently for use with snare trap. We are also looking at how to implement muting of the player when he will be wearing duct tape over his mouth. As well duct tape will have some usage for repairing stuff, unfortunately it's not visualized but we will research what we can do to deliver also some visual feedback to patched items. Apart from that we fixed plenty of smaller issues down the road and added some touches like proper animations for some actions. 
A good amount of new feature work is in progress - first working iterations of horticulture and barricading are ready and will be in the game in upcoming experimental version available for you to try out and meanwhile we will iterate and build upon them further. Right now there is tomato plant that may be cultivated and harvested for its crop, and lock pick which can be used to locking and unlocking doors of structures. 
Interesting things are happening right now. The gameplay programming team has started work on several key issues for their area - new controls and new inventory. Both of them will take a longer time to implement but it will be worth the time and effort invested to their implementation. Both features are very vital for the game and make it a lot more fluent. I will talk about them in little more detail next time. For now we have managed to make first prototype of controls working which allowed us such things like charged melee attacks and also possibility to use melee attacks with firearms. Also we are working on new sensors for AI, so prepare yourself for proper AI of zombies and animals in the future. We all know that stealth approach was one of the most crucial mechanic in the mod and personally I really missing it and I'm looking forward to some tension and raised heartbeat while I will sneak behind their backs trying to be as quiet as possible."
 
 
Standup Notes for the week of 13 Oct 14
(Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)
Art:

• Multiple crafted leather items
• Women's shorts, sweater.
• Polishing bush rag and 3D camo for weapons
• Double pistol grip MP133
• Prison Uniform
• Steyr AUG
• Zombie skeleton tweaks
• New Signage for buildings

Animation:

• Player Unarmed Sprint polishing
• Player animation graph bugfixing
• Zombie hits processing
• Wring clothes animation in progress
• Restrained struggle animation changes

Design:

• Bugfixing
• Configs and scripts for new items (small stone, seeds, wire, radio)
• Patching items with duct tape
• Doors damage
• Locking doors
• Temperature and wetness tweaks
• Added loot to new structures
• Drinking from both wells behave the same
• Cannot use object/surface actions while throwing
• Advanced melee
• Horticulture
• Barricading
• Animal and zombie AI
• Construction
• Controls
• Inventory

Programming:

• Critical inventory fixes
• Unintenional weapon switching
• New game controls
• Server performance issues
• Gameplay statistics
• Loot distribution improvements
• Door states persistency

[Max Planck 7174]

new zombie types - in particular, a farmer zombie. He's a little pudgy but can still pack a punch."

 

If he can catch me, it's all about cardio you know.

 

I'm looking forwards to those private shards. No more wizards popping up behind me!

[d.walker43 196]

Sounds great, zombies finally getting some attention...however, why is the status report so short? wheres the standup notes? wheres everything else?

[TheFarm 158]

Private shards and early access version of dev blog posts? Yusss

[HIHBGaming 14]

Mmmm Private Shards. *Pulls out banhammer*

[Chaingunfighter 917]

The AK-74 will spawn with wooden furniture? Awesome. The fact that we can keep the AK-101 is cool, too. Really excited for a modular AUG, though.

[escobert 112]

Can't wait for the Shards and AI changes :)

[igor-vk 909]

The AK-74 will spawn with wooden furniture? Awesome. The fact that we can keep the AK-101 is cool, too. Really excited for a modular AUG, though.

I think it should spawn with  orange magazines, and AK-101 should stay as it is now. Also, I hope we get skeleton stock

Edited October 15, 2014 by igor-vk

[h00t 3]

Anything regarding the constant crashing of the servers? A mention would be great for us renting servers and providing testing grounds for this project. Right now this is critical to fix. Vehicles, weapons or cosmetic is not important if we don't have a stable server to test the product on. Please adress this.

[ChainReactor 922]

 

 

first working iterations of horticulture and barricading are ready and will be in the game in upcoming experimental version available for you to try out

 

 

Awesome !

[GonzaNKetchup 10]

Sweet as always! 

[tobias winfro 305]

Can't wait to get home and fire up experimental, seems to be that I can get 1 or 2 dayz on those servers and then most go into the constant reboot glitch or just stop working.

I do hope they have some sort of nourishment available, the last few iterations of experimental have been devoid of food for the first day or two. Also hope the weather is under control, nothing silly like oh its the middle of December so you're gonna freeze in 10 seconds if you're outside. The rain is kinda depressing too but I can dean with that, just wish the it would settle down for more than 5 minutes

[TheFarm 158]

Anything regarding the constant crashing of the servers? A mention would be great for us renting servers and providing testing grounds for this project. Right now this is critical to fix. Vehicles, weapons or cosmetic is not important if we don't have a stable server to test the product on. Please adress this.

Some users are saying this only happens when persistence is switched on. Which setting does your server use?

[SmashT 10907]

Anything regarding the constant crashing of the servers? A mention would be great for us renting servers and providing testing grounds for this project. Right now this is critical to fix. Vehicles, weapons or cosmetic is not important if we don't have a stable server to test the product on. Please adress this.

 

Client crash still in there (new experimental). Server crashes should be a lot less common. Working on it. Next stable will be as stable as possible. Sorry for the issues. - Eugen

[Zboub le météor 250]

Hello !

 

Can't wait to get home and fire up experimental, seems to be that I can get 1 or 2 dayz on those servers and then most go into the constant reboot glitch or just stop working.

I do hope they have some sort of nourishment available, the last few iterations of experimental have been devoid of food for the first day or two. Also hope the weather is under control, nothing silly like oh its the middle of December so you're gonna freeze in 10 seconds if you're outside. The rain is kinda depressing too but I can dean with that, just wish the it would settle down for more than 5 minutes

same for me, 1h of work left and i'm on the new EXP !

 

i didn't have issues with food on the last 2 version of 0.50 exp, plenty of food/weapons if you go inland. pustoshka and myshkino were like a giant chrismas tree with weapons and food everywere. found something like 10-15 SKS on the new military base. i personnaly loved the december weather, it totally changed the gameplay. for the first time i had to struggle with hunger and finding pristine raincoats (even the "not so camo" yellow or orange were good deal), matchbox and had to stop a few time on my way to the airfield to warm up with a nice and hot fire. met a full stuff guy there, we congratulated each other for reaching this place alive. if the dev replace the ultra fast energy consumtion (witch lead to the weird hungy/thirsty/stuffed status) by making food hardest to find, i'll be really happy.

 

tonight : tomatos everywere !

 

ps : excuse me, english is not my native language.

[h00t 3]

Some users are saying this only happens when persistence is switched on. Which setting does your server use?

We have PE:off. With PE:on the buggery was to much. Hats on hats on hats on hats and other loot piles. With PE:off the loot spawn is working properly. But Constant freezing/crashing off the server is getting out of hand. And when the server reaches 40/40 its a crash within minutes. But now I see Eugen has replied to my post on reddit. "Client crash still in there (new experimental). Server crashes should be a lot less common. Working on it. Next stable will be as stable as possible. Sorry for the issues." This is good news. And thank you Eugen for giving me a straight answer. Lets hope for a speedy fix.

[Tolispro 7]

2 questions

-What's private shards servers

-What's AI

[Max Planck 7174]

-What's private shards servers

 

Servers that aren't connected to the main hive, but runs on a separate database.

Hosters are allowed to set rules for these, password them and run a whitelist.

 

 

-What's AI

 

Artificial Intelligence.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Max Planck

[Guest]

What does infected AI mean?

[Zboub le météor 250]

Zombie AI if you prefer

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Holy crap. I'm so excited to see duct tape used for something , and the best part is it's being used for two different uses we all wanted from the beginning : Muting annoying prisoners and restraining people with it . Also what is this "construction" listed under the Design section? And one more query : is the ability to break down doors already in game ?? If no one answers I will post in an hour and a half when I get home from work .., so excite .

[a_ruttle 199]

That image is such an idealisation of dayz, literally Nobody in game runs about in a 2 slot shirt and pair of jeans with a high end weapon. It's always the same mash up of green raincoat/ttsko/gorka and either an MTN backpack or hunting backpack, I'd love to see some sort of incentives to travelling light like the lad with the AK in the pic.

[doctorwhy 157]

We should be able to use knives to cut eye holes in the canvas bags to wear them on our heads if we want to. It's Hella Scary/Hilarious/Fun.

[hells high 676]

Really excited for a modular AUG, though.

 

I'm very excited to see what kind of things that could lead to for current and future weapons.

[xploD 12]

How about making silencers actually work and have them for more guns while you're at it  :)

Edited October 16, 2014 by xploD