Status Report - Week of 27 Oct 14

[SMoss 2101]

 
Greetings Survivors,
 
Over the next few weeks you will hopefully begin to see some small (but effective) changes to how the Status Reports, Dev Streams, and DayZ website are laid out. In order to facilitate this, the traditional format of our dev streams will change and the Status Report will begin to focus more on the tech side of DayZ, as well as the existing discipline soap boxes, and stand up notes. The DayZ website will soon feature an "Early Access" calendar covering our intended experimental and stable branch updates, play sessions, dev talks, special events, and consumer show attendance.
 
That aside, this week hopefully sees the release of 0.50 to Stable Branch on steam. Paired with the recent support of private shards for consumer rented DayZ server instances and the ongoing drive for server performance enhancements we hope to finish off the first year of development on DayZ with a strong support for player communities. Persistent storage stability, as well as transportation, and A.I. redesign are goals we aim to be able to begin implementing into our steam branches before the Christmas holiday. As always, we will discuss the progress of these goals in our status reports and external communication moving forward. 
 
UPDATE: As mentioned via the DayZ Dev Twitter (@dayzdevteam) we are currently working to address issues encountered during pre release testing for 0.50 to stable branch. Current goals are aimed at a release during next weeks regularly scheduled maintenance, however we will keep you all updated as to the progress.

In the mean time, experimental branch is updated with the latest 0.50 build - for volume and stress testing prior to next weeks maintenance window.
 
Make sure to check the DayZ dev hub weekly, and keep an eye out for the changes to DayZ.com - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer
 
Peter / Lead Game Designer
 
"The end of the month is around the corner and that means only one thing: After the three experimental releases in a row it's a time to deliver the latest stable branch update to DayZ. The Last few days we were fixing the last few issues here and there and polishing current state of the internal dev branch version so it can be distributed to stable branch and shine there for another month. As well I can tell you that you will have plenty of stuff to try and do. Let me recap quickly the features and content added to the game this month for you. 
 
With proper tools you are able now to plow the soil in the greenhouses and plant the seeds which will grow into plants and produce crops which can be picked. For this initial iteration of horticulture we went with tomato plants and with the fixed placement, in the near future we will add more plants and planting spots will become arbitrary. After doors were re-implemented in the engine we were able to add opening/closing sound effects to them as well as locking/unlocking their locks with lock picks which is the very first basic iteration of barricading. Doors can be also unlocked with brute force so don't worry that someone will lock you up and leave you for dead. Taking care of your character was also extended with shoes degradation which is dependent on shoes durability, surface roughness they are used on, movement speed and distance walked.  Character exposure to weather, temperature and wetness was tweaked and with addition of heat packs even snipers must not fear they will freeze out during their camping. Also other features were expanded as well, repairing items and clothes with duct tape and leather sewing kit. You can also use sewing kits to stitch your wounds. New animals were added as well, you can meet new the goat and hen now in Chernarus. As far as new items goes I just mention some of them. From weapons there is a set of long awaited ones containing MP-133, R92, AK-74, AKS-74U and as a bonus the handy Derringer. For melee usage there is sledgehammer, and brass knuckles. Clothes were enriched with now complete firefighter uniform and other pieces. Backpacks have also some newcomers like SPOSN and waterproof backpacks. We fixed some ongoing annoying issues like struggling from restrains, seeing thru burlap sack when logged in with it on head, unconsciousness compatibility with both states, character drowning, fireplace and tent placing, container inception and many more. 
 
I teased you in the last status report that I'll write something about the upcoming new inventory. Current inventory is good and is doing fine but there are some little flaws. What I especially like is the micromanagement of items in given space which provide nice immersion - it's not just some text list and I also like easy usage of it with drag and drop functionality. We would like to expand on good sides and rectify not sufficient ones like virtual hands slot or some inconsistencies in manipulation with inventory in general. With new inventory system we will be able to do things like creating container on any object, locking it, dynamically change it's capacity,  dynamically change number of quick-bar slots according to given container and a lot more, maybe rotating items will be possible as well. Our senior designer Jan Tomasik is currently playing with GUI layout of inventory screen and here is what he has to say: 
 
"Horizontally oriented inventory uses better screen space of nowadays 16:9 monitors. This layout reduce necessity to scroll through inventory to minimum and doesn't obscure view on players character and its surroundings. Player has better overview of items he posses and time for all management of loot is significantly reduced. Inventory is fully modular so it fits even on 4:3 and offers future possibility to be even organizable by players themselves. All slot sizes are same through whole UI so player is always sure whether item fits in slot or not. Player can choose whether he wants to have avatar panel on left or right side of the screen and can also organize order of containers.".
 

 
You can see Jan's concept of horizontal layout in attached screenshot, of course the visuals are just temporary mockup.  

 

Enjoy the new stable release and in the meantime... see you in Chernarus folks! "
 

Viktor / Lead Animator
"The animation team has been busy bringing new animations to the game like reloading for derringer, wringing clothes, using grenades, flares and chemlights and other.

We have also slightly redesigned the sitting animations. The new pose greatly reduces amount of clippings when holding pistols, one handed and two handed items.

There is also progress with the new zombies as they are internally running around using new systems. The animation graph and AI now has to be improved so it can start using new animations.

Last weeks we had many discussions about some great stuff coming to the game. One I am most excited about is the injured player also known as limping animations already showed a while ago. It wasn't the right time to bring this to the game yet because it is very tied to many systems and most of the default animations have to be done and finalized first. We have agreed on how many injured stages there will be and also we would like to represent some illnesses with an animations like cough, sneeze, fever and more. To be clear this is something we won't get sooner then sometime next year. But I'm sure it's worth the wait."
 

Standup Notes for the week of 27 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)
 

Design:

• Bugfixing before stable release
• Configs and scripts for new items 
• Polishing current state of things 
• Loot tables maintenance  
• Loot distribution 
• Crafting 
• Controls 
• Inventory 
• Vehicles 
• Zombie AI 

Programming:

• Critical inventory fixes
• Vehicle controls
• New gamecontrols
• Door states persistency
• Loot distribution improvements
• Zombie/Animal AI

[claws4life 99]

Fuck yeah!

[ValentinBk (DayZ) 60]

Last weeks we had many discussions about some great stuff coming to the game. One I am most excited about is the injured player also known as limping animations already showed a while ago. It wasn't the right time to bring this to the game yet because it is very tied to many systems and most of the default animations have to be done and finalized first. We have agreed on how many injured stages there will be and also we would like to represent some illnesses with an animations like cough, sneeze, fever and more. To be clear this is something we won't get sooner then sometime next year. But I'm sure it's worth the wait."

 

This is probably the most exciting thing I saw in the status reports so far. Very much looking forward to this.

[Chaingunfighter 917]

This is probably the most exciting thing I saw in the status reports so far. Very much looking forward to this.

Yeah, they've made this far more extensive than I even believed we would awhile ago - which is great.

 

Hopefully illness ties in to many other factors - eating too little (or too much) food should increase your chance of risk, and if they want to go in depth, less nutritious food. Illness should affect your shaking when holding weapons/items in your hands, and determine the overall energy level of your character (someone who is 'sick' grows tired at a faster rate).

 

And, of course, people should eventually build up tolerances to diseases, giving you an incentive to keep on going (less likely to get sick.) Likewise, people who get sick too much or use medication too often should have a chance of developing an addiction to it, which can be problematic in of itself.

[Damonos 3]

the REAL question.... so am i going to stop playing the game because in experimental, no matter WHAT the terrain was. my shoes where wrecked in less that 3 kilometers of walking/running. no matter what i did. my shoes where gone and ruined in about 3 or less kilometers. that is really really annoying. i mean i understand wear and tear. but come on. less that 2 city blocks and im worried about breaking my legs in running in ruined shoes that where pristine?...

[SmashT 10907]

the REAL question.... so am i going to stop playing the game because in experimental, no matter WHAT the terrain was. my shoes where wrecked in less that 3 kilometers of walking/running. no matter what i did. my shoes where gone and ruined in about 3 or less kilometers. that is really really annoying. i mean i understand wear and tear. but come on. less that 2 city blocks and im worried about breaking my legs in running in ruined shoes that where pristine?...

 

Is this on the latest experimental patch, released yesterday? (I thought that was adjusted)

 

[Damonos 3]

Is this on the latest experimental patch, released yesterday (I thought that was adjusted)

dont know. had not played it since sunday when i went to  experimental. but i really did not like how fast the shoes degraded, it was just TOO fast. upset alot of my squad and my server mates that are renting a server and gave them a bad taste in their mouth for the game, which in turn, is making us all think about not keeping the server up if that wasnt looked into, but ill load up on it and see if it is any different.

[ChainReactor 922]

dont know. had not played it since sunday when i went to  experimental. but i really did not like how fast the shoes degraded, it was just TOO fast. upset alot of my squad and my server mates that are renting a server and gave them a bad taste in their mouth for the game, which in turn, is making us all think about not keeping the server up if that wasnt looked into, but ill load up on it and see if it is any different.

 

Thats totally normal for experimental. Whenever a new mechanic comes into the game, it's exaggerated to test if it works as intended ( like if it goes through all its stages correctly, causes any bugs etc ). The dev's can't wait 200 ingame hours for that data, thats why it's sped up. When the new hunger system was introduced, we all starved and when hypothermia came, we all froze to death. So yeah, it always was like that.

 

That being said, yes, shoe degradation is nerfed down to a more realistic pace now.

 

Please keep in mind exp is the testing branch for the devs, not for the players.

Edited October 30, 2014 by ChainReactor

[Damonos 3]

Thats totally normal for experimental. Whenever a new mechanic comes into the game, it's exaggerated to test if it works as intended ( like if it goes through all its stages correctly, causes any bugs etc ). The dev's can't wait 200 ingame hours for that data, thats why it's sped up. When the new hunger system was introduced, we all starved and when hypothermia came, we all froze to death. So yeah, it always was like that.

 

That being said, yes, shoe degradation is nerfed down to a more realistic pace now.

 

Please keep in mind exp is the testing branch for the devs, not for the players.

 Ahhhh I see, Thank you for letting me know that. only been playing about 3 months or so. and that was about the only time i had loaded exp up because i was wanting to see what the changes where. but now i know to keep that all in mind. Thank you again =)

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Hmm too bad the inventory is still slot based. Cool functions coming but the inventory isn't good enough make me dance in a joy. I would rather take Arma 3 style inventory and make it to work in DayZ. But seems like a bigger overhaul is too late.

Otherwise can't wait :)

[terrvik 2409]

So, two hands? Should I get excited?

[xCAPx 349]

Thats totally normal for experimental. Whenever a new mechanic comes into the game, it's exaggerated to test if it works as intended ( like if it goes through all its stages correctly, causes any bugs etc ). The dev's can't wait 200 ingame hours for that data, thats why it's sped up. When the new hunger system was introduced, we all starved and when hypothermia came, we all froze to death. So yeah, it always was like that.

 

That being said, yes, shoe degradation is nerfed down to a more realistic pace now.

 

Please keep in mind exp is the testing branch for the devs, not for the players.

 

haha how often did you wrote the same thing over and over again the last few days :D I hope you copy&paste the text...but it's nice that you try to explain it  :thumbsup: and I hope more people will think about the decisions in exp. because everybody can figure it out by thinking about it...its an understandable decision!

 

@topic: I'm exited of all these thing which are mentioned in this report - especially the "injured player"

THX devs - keep going! It will be great in the end :wub:

Edited October 30, 2014 by xCAPx

[yazar8 584]

Do I see a tactical vest at that picture!?

[Tolispro 7]

Will we be able to use the old inventory?I like it better :(

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Will we be able to use the old inventory?I like it better :(

I do too , I liked the old inventory and didn't mind scrolling through it ... well just have to see if their final build of the new inventory is better than that one they were presenting :0 !

[solodude23 649]

Can't wait for injuries (limping) and sickness/sickness symptoms. Sounds great!

I do too , I liked the old inventory and didn't mind scrolling through it ... well just have to see if their final build of the new inventory is better than that one they were presenting :0 !

Since it's modular it sounds like you'll be able to set it up pretty much like before if you want.

[ChainReactor 922]

haha how often did you wrote the same thing over and over again the last few days :D

 

Been some times .. :)

[dacatttack 9]

Yeah, we get it...you f'ed up and you feel bad so you are going to pretend to change things, but really you are just changing formats. Shit still smells like shit, no matter how many times you step on it. You guys have rewritten the same info four different ways, and it still isn't stable. Can we get at least get mandatory RESET WARNINGS? You are punishing the people that don't server hop...we stay on the same server, but we get equipment and other stuff wiped with zero warning. 

[dacatttack 9]

YOU HAVE AWOKEN THE SLEEPING GIANT>>>GOOD LUCK!!!!

[BeefBacon 1185]

YOU HAVE AWOKEN THE SLEEPING GIANT>>>GOOD LUCK!!!!

 

That's right. Yamamoto wasn't concerned he had mobilised a continent-sized industrial military machine; he said it (supposedly) in reference to the DayZ devs delaying a release to stable.

 

You fucking pillock.

 

 

Cool stuff in this report. Do we know if the new inventory will be completely customisable - like dragging inventory boxes around the screen and placing them where we want - or will there just be a few presets?

Edited October 31, 2014 by BeefBacon

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Ooh if that's what modular inventory is then I'm all for it :) ...

[RedDogMT 41]

I am not liking the new inventory concept. One of the big advantages of the vertical inventory is that the flow is intuitive from the top to the bottom. The head is at the top, then the torso and so on until you come to the boots towards the bottom. If anything, the backpack is out of place in that it is towards the bottom.

 

I understand the idea of utilizing the horizontal space that widescreens give us, but the mock up that was provided just looks so convoluted. Also, I would think that the horizontal inventory would not work as well for smaller resolutions.

 

I also do not like that the contents of every container is displayed. One of the 'realistic' aspects of DayZs inventory is that when you have a lot of containers, you may not always remember where you put things. You have to take some effort to organize so that when you are in a crunch, you can find what you need.

 

If anything, what I would like to see is an option for both vertical and horizontal inventory...but again, make the players open containers to get at items.

 

On a side note, I would also like them to add a mechanic where you cannot just pull out an item that is buried in your inventory. It is goofy that you can place a pistol in a hoodie, then place the hoodie in your wool coat, and you can still draw that pistol out easily. It should take some effort to get that pistol out if it is buried that deep. Alternately, they could just not allow shirts and pants to be place in the inventory when they have items in them. Instead, they could add an option to roll up the shirt/hoodie/pants/backpacks/etc into a smaller bundle so it can be placed in a backpack.

[pillock 850]

Very promising new features - I'm especially excited for the animations for injured/sick characters.

 

On a side note, would it be possible to maybe get a native English speaker to proof-read the designers' progress reports and make corrections? Some parts of this and other recent Dev reports are a little bit difficult to read, and it's starting to get in the way of clarity. I'm not trying to be critical of people's level of English, especially since its their second (or third or fourth) language, and these guys are employed to be great programmers and artists, not PR copywriters, after all. I also appreciate that you're all very busy people, but I do think it would really help communication with the public if the reports that go out have been edited by someone who can write more clearly and accurately in English. Just a thought.

 

Keep up the good work!

[hells high 676]

Excellent stuff, loving the progress!

[snwh 24]

I love that the new UI is shaping up! I actually really like the Horizontal UI. Maybe its because I haven't played DayZ long enough to really get set in my ways? I think it looks a lot more intuitive and useful, especially since you can click and drag different containers into a different order.

 

 

 

Gah, I'm so looking forward to vehicles.