Stable Branch - 0.50 Discussion

[Tatanko 5591]

ROFL!   Banana Clip FTW!

Ha! I hadn't even noticed that. Strange coincidence or deliberate mischief? :p

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Found every door in the fire station in elektro closed.

 

Open door to find zombie trap!!

 

5 maybe more zombies aggro on me in short order.

 

I manage to Benny Hill around killing most of them but taking just enough damage to bleed a little.

 

That's when I realize I forgot to make more rags!

 

Running through more houses picking up a couple more zeds, I run into friendly who gives me rags and introduces me to another random friendly.

 

He said he was dying of thirst and I reminded him to catch rain.

 

Soon a forth player was spotted.

 

That's when I split.

 

Thanks for not being a KoS person, noof, and thanks for the rags!

 

Now I can continue to circumnavigate Chernarus.

[Killawife 599]

Is anyone else having issues trying to get around dead bodies in buildings? Pretty much got blocked out of a room by some dead zombies today.

 

This happens a lot. But you can always crawl through the dead bodies.

[Monument 2]

who cares if the games broken really its fun for a few and it was cheap I have no hope for it but still devote 15 minutes of fame !!!

[kermo50 31]

I am really struggling to find magazines for weapons, except for a couple of akm mags but I can't find a akm anywhere either..  :(  

Are magazines just extremely rare at the moment or am I just having bad luck? Having no trouble with ammo just mags... 

[sachad 1016]

There are other weapons besides the assault rifles. Try a Mosin, or an SKS, or the new Repeater. They're awesome and more abundant than the top tier guns. And just as effective in the right hands.

[kermo50 31]

There are other weapons besides the assault rifles. Try a Mosin, or an SKS, or the new Repeater. They're awesome and more abundant than the top tier guns. And just as effective in the right hands.

 

yeah I'm using an sks at the moment, I have a 75rnd mag and 2x30 rnd mag for an akm full of ammo so I'm hoping I can find one somewhere haha

[BaseLine^ 22]

Is anyone else having the problem to find a unlooted server? Doesent matter what time I join on a server, they are all totally looted.

[odin_lowe 3686]

I am really struggling to find magazines for weapons, except for a couple of akm mags but I can't find a akm anywhere either..  :(

Are magazines just extremely rare at the moment or am I just having bad luck? Having no trouble with ammo just mags... 

For AKM, AK101 and AK74 mags, or the guns themselves, you need to check barracks. So yes, they are rare, somehow. (Unless stumbling on infinite loot respawn on the server...)

[Gubbjeveln 18]

Hi

 

I did some playing last night for the first time for a while. 

 

I tried several servers and it seemed that the wells did not work. Is it only me or are others aware of this?

 

Other thing I noticed was that the game looked much better than last time, and the "flow" in movement has improved. Also, less lag.

 

In the night I, for the first time, saw my friends footprints in the pawement during a moonlighted walk through Novo, it was so magically realistic. GJ dev team.

 

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/536254120281978820/882A54842EC6B9B78C2298356C60081743204FE6/

 

This is really a good waist of time. ;)

[Rags! 1966]

So, I went to Berezino for the first time since the update. 

 

It was all like

 

[blackberrygoo 1416]

OK time for some fresh air. I didn't have a good chance to test things out after the last update, but I played the shit out of it this weekend.

Basic overall comments first....

Guys (Devs this is you), I understand that just about every variable at the moment is greatly exaggerated for the sake of seeing how it's going to handle.

Example:

-Loot Spawning (Holy shit lol really?)

-Heat/Cold transition and progression

-Boots breaking down

-Hydration/food

That said, I think things like these variables need to be hot-fixable or easily adjustable. They've more than made their point from a development standpoint, but now we have to put up with them until the next release (Probably in a month from now going by history from past large releases). I would suggest/think it would be better to do the "exaggeration" phase on experimental and to do a more stable "We think it should be around these levels" on the stable release.

I would suggest for when things on stable move to a more stable varable, that there be a complete character and loot reset across the board (Oh I know this will piss off some people)... But currently it's causing a load of crazy loot hoarding. I've seen people with dozens upon dozens of backpacks and tents deployed full of random junk. There's no way that can be good for server performance. (And not surprisingly enough, when I found these crazy stashes, those servers also happened to be the least stable of them all, crashing regularly with 5 people on server... Coincidence?)

I've said it before, and I'll echo it again, I wish the devs were a little more open with what they are expecting/looking to see from exaggerated variables like these. Let us know what variables will most likely change, and what you're testing for. People are receptive to this most of the time, compared to being in the dark and wondering what's going on. (I'm only assuming the variables are horribly exaggerated for testing, if these are your preliminary ideas for good numbers, I'm outa here.)

I like a lot of the new additions (Wish there were more greenhouses! You should be able to find these more commonly in complete rural areas and towns, not cities. It's kinda backwards no?) That or the ability to place them anywhere. Again this will probably change as things progress, but I'd like the ability to plant things anywhere I have dirt (Everywhere).

The heat/cold is really nice, but swings quite drastically at times. You're fighting horribly to get it to go in one direction, then suddenly it goes to the far end of the spectrum and you are fighting to bring it back again. My only comment on this, is when it comes to building fires, there needs to be easier ways to cut/find wood etc. Right now only an axe can do that (With the current loot it's not a problem) but with normal looting, it's hard to find axes, and worse is they self destruct after cutting down a couple trees (Not realistic). To compound the matter, houses all have piles of wood, and heaters/furnaces sitting right there. Please make them useful or get rid of them. (That's a future request, I know)

I discovered with trying to cool off, I jumped in a lake, POOF all my gear is gone. No it didn't come back when I got out, no matter how much pissing around. It was just gone. Very nasty surprise. Please fix that one before pushing temp related stuff too much.

At the moment it's fun, but because of the loot bonanza it's pretty much crippled the gamplay. KOS/banditry is insane at the moment because nobody has to worry about survival now. I'm big on the survival/wilderness aspect of the game at the moment, and it's pretty dead for a few reasons now.

-Persistance. You need this for proper survival stuff. But because it crashes the shit out of the servers, you can't transition from day to night any more before the servers crash. So if you want any kind of night action, you need a night only server, and now you're committed ONLY to that server.

-Fire. Again at the moment it's fine because of the loot, but once things go back to normal, this is gonna be hard to accomplish on a normal basis because you will need a backpack of axes. (Hacksaws should also be able to cut wood). As would be burning just sticks, even though they don't last as long, it should still be possible. Same for indoor furnaces and wood piles (Both indoor and outdoor).

-Stoves are still broken. They instaburn everything. (Before anyone says they work, they don't. Try it yourself and check the bug tracker, it's been known for a while).

-Hunting does weird stuff. Kill a deer, it teleports 200 feet away and lands on the ground. wtf? Kill another deer, it TPs to fuck-knows-where. Damn where's my supper!

-Wells are broken. (Yeah we know)

All in all it's a nice update, but because of the variables being so exaggerated, and some smaller bugs, it's hard to actually use a lot of the new stuff that was introduced. Why bother hunt/cook when there are bean cans everywhere. Why be stealthy and careful when I have an AK74, loaded Mosin, Longhorn, and Magnum.... Full army gear... etc.

I had my fun. But will probably wind up taking another break for a month until things settle down and little bugs get addressed.

You can make fires with just sticks/paper , go try it :) also I don't think the deer disappearing is a know bug , it seems like Desync on a hill or something , but you should probably bug tracker it anyways ... And being able to plant gardens anywhere Is definitely coming as it was talked about by one of the devs briefly , but you can literally find one in every town , not just cities .

[BeaverProductions 441]

....and yet another person that is blindly defending criticism of a terrible, backwards development process that isn't going anywhere good (in the most predictable way imaginable).

 

You can criticize all you want.  I personally understand that this game is 11 months into a 3 year development cycle.  If you cant handle the terribly slow progress of game development, this isnt the place for you

Edited November 11, 2014 by Beav

[Mookie (original) 799]

 

 

I've said it before, and I'll echo it again, I wish the devs were a little more open with what they are expecting/looking to see from exaggerated variables like these. Let us know what variables will most likely change, and what you're testing for. People are receptive to this most of the time, compared to being in the dark and wondering what's going on. (I'm only assuming the variables are horribly exaggerated for testing, if these are your preliminary ideas for good numbers, I'm outa here.)

 

 

Excellent point. Might help with some of the usual rants about 'broken game', vs 'it's alpha, get over it' arguments.

[skoms 86]

You can criticize all you want.  I personally understand that this game is 11 months into a 3 year development cycle.  If you cant handle the terribly slow progress of game development, this isnt the place for you

 

You think they started the development the day they released it on early access?

 

The game has been in development for a lot longer then 11 months. To bad they started the development on a broken game engine. If they just made a new game engine, before they started to add items, loot and functionality we would see a lot faster development after the release on early access. If you think about the amount of money they have made so far, its almost criminal that they not speed up progress to finish the game engine, or just buy the rights for one that actually works. In current pace the game will need a lot more then three years.

[voxframe 31]

Excellent point. Might help with some of the usual rants about 'broken game', vs 'it's alpha, get over it' arguments.

 

It would. No question.

 

It would also possibly help if the devs mentioned things that they are stress testing for us to also stress test even more. I know this is mostly a thing for Experimental, but even on the initial stable deployments it would be nice. I still believe that the exaggerated variables should only be on experimental, and once moved to stable, they should be a "best guess".

 

Example:

"Ok so we noticed that the new heat/cold system is working well on experimental. People are drinking a lot more and watching their clothing and the rain. We're moving this to stable, and we think we have the rates/variables ironed out rather well. We would ask that people really mess around with this if they can. We are worried about how this affects people who run a lot, also snipers who stay still for long times. There is also a known issue where cooling off in water could lose all your items, please try and take your stuff off before going swimming."

 

Just little dev notes like this would be nice so we know what to look for, and we also know what issues to stress test as well.

Edited November 11, 2014 by voxframe

[Hicks_206 (DayZ) 4297]

Let's be realists here for a moment. In 1 and 1/2 years, this game will be lucky to even have an audience. The core audience of the mod just wanted a game that was the mod, but without the major bugs. All that I know (who adored the mod) have moved on (for myself Elite Dangerous scratches this itch).

 

The foundation of the game is broken. It should have been bare bones, but solid at the release of the early access, then they would have been in the position to start adding content, deeper survival mechanics etc. (again, look at Frontier Developments and how they have developed Elite Dangerous for an example of how make to what amounts to DayZ in space).

 

This was the plan (according to every interview with Dean), and that is why the core audience of the mod bought and supported the stand alone as soon as it launched. This hasn't happened.

 

To use an analogy, it is like a band with a terrible drummer that is playing out of time and hitting loads of bum notes. It doesn't matter what the other musicians play over it, or how good they are, it will always be terrible because the foundation of the music is broken.

 

....and yet another person that is blindly defending criticism of a terrible, backwards development process that isn't going anywhere good (in the most predictable way imaginable).

 

Despite what you may choose to believe, DayZ has been in principle development for a little over a year now. You may have wanted "the mod with some polish and security fixes" but this is not what we chose to put out, nor is it what we represent the title as on the Steam store.

It was decided that rather than produce a beefed up version of the mod that DayZ would instead start from the ground up with source access to the base engine, the time and manpower to take this and create a new and proper engine designed around what the vision and scope of DayZ should be, and expand greatly upon the systems and simulation powering that experience.

This has and will allow us to support and extend the world and gameplay of DayZ to the scope that the DayZ development team endeavored to do from the beginning, and lay a proper foundation for DayZ to support both the service (the hybrid MMO side of DayZ) and the platform (User generated content via mods/steamworks) past 1.0.

The duration of the development cycle, and fair warning that gameplay and the experience will be rocky and problematic during the Early Access period is openly communicated, and in many situations aggressively branded (even to the point of discouraging purchasing of the title for those unwilling to deal with the potential gamebreaking issues during this phase).

I'm sorry you feel you are not getting the experience your purchase in the Steam store offered - but I am confident we communicate both the state of the development , and the type of product offered in the Steam store as well as our external communications.

[Hicks_206 (DayZ) 4297]

You think they started the development the day they released it on early access?

 

The game has been in development for a lot longer then 11 months. To bad they started the development on a broken game engine. If they just made a new game engine, before they started to add items, loot and functionality we would see a lot faster development after the release on early access. If you think about the amount of money they have made so far, its almost criminal that they not speed up progress to finish the game engine, or just buy the rights for one that actually works. In current pace the game will need a lot more then three years.

 

DayZ's engine is being developed - we could have chosen to not give consumers the option to take part in the design of the systems by withholding the Early Access but we chose instead to allow folks to participate (with heavy warnings on potential issues, etc in the Steam store). Just because you are given the choice to participate in the process earlier than would traditionally ever be allowed does not make the development process suddenly "super slow" - you've just never really been given access this early.

I'm confident this has allowed us to dynamically design the gameplay and mechanics of DayZ as well as engage the community for feedback and ideas far more than ever would have been possible prior to Early Access.

Additionally, there is nothing "criminal" here - and money in does not equal a suddenly rushed product. We will stick to our 2.5 to 3 year development cycle as planned - if you're not happy with that.. Well, you're entitled to that opinion I suppose, but it won't change anything. :)

[The Riddler (DayZ) 410]

Thanks for coming into this thread Hicks and clearing the air on the development of DayZ. The fact that you guys are participating in the discussions of a game that is still under development with the community helping to support the game is a breath of fresh air to me and I'm sure a lot of other survivors out there. I personally appreciate all the hard work that you guys are pouring into this game and its development.

 

For me as a server owner I really look forward to each update that comes out no matter what it throws at us. Sure things break/change that are not expected but that's part of the development cycle and it gives me and other admins on our server something to look forward to. Personally I really enjoy giving feedback and documenting things in the game that need attention and feel a sense of accomplishment when we report an issue the dev's didn't know about just yet. 

 

For those frustrated with the game, maybe take a step back and see what it is you can do to help contribute to the game which might help make your experience more enjoyable. If its so bad that you don't enjoy playing, then stop and come back at another time. You've purchased the game and can play it again when you feel like and with a game like this still in development, you might get surprised when you pick it back up again after taking a break. 

 

Just my .02 on the subject. Here's to discussing more about this update and ensuring we get feedback to the dev's that will help make the next update even better. 

[skoms 86]

DayZ's engine is being developed - we could have chosen to not give consumers the option to take part in the design of the systems by withholding the Early Access but we chose instead to allow folks to participate (with heavy warnings on potential issues, etc in the Steam store). Just because you are given the choice to participate in the process earlier than would traditionally ever be allowed does not make the development process suddenly "super slow" - you've just never really been given access this early.

I'm confident this has allowed us to dynamically design the gameplay and mechanics of DayZ as well as engage the community for feedback and ideas far more than ever would have been possible prior to Early Access.

Additionally, there is nothing "criminal" here - and money in does not equal a suddenly rushed product. We will stick to our 2.5 to 3 year development cycle as planned - if you're not happy with that.. Well, you're entitled to that opinion I suppose, but it won't change anything. :)

 

Hopefully the game engine starts to take shape soon. I really thought that the game egnine would be the first thing to develop, and then the content and functionalit  of the game. I bought in to early access believing that the platform to build the game upon was ready. I also think most people believed that, and that's why we see people like me complaining. Therefore i also think that its in everybody's best interest to get the game engine finish ASAP.

 

There are other games like H1Z1 who also has been in development for a year, or even longer, but have chosen to wait until their game engine is finish before releasing on early access. As i understand they will release soon and since they have a ready game engine i think we will see a lot faster implementation of items and functions for them. Meaning more happy costumers for them.  I fear they and other games will overtake you and get a big chunk of Day Z player base simply because they will deliver stuff that are noticeable for players much faster while you are working on the game engine. That is not good for either you as a developer or the DayZ community. 

 

With that said i am very happy with 0,50 and i really looking forward to 0,51-0,52, but with games like H1Z1 and others starting to be be even more developed then DayZ i think people need to see progress faster then before to stay interested. And i do not like that idea.

 

Btw: Thanks for answer. Its really nice to see developers taking their time to answer a random rant om the forum. I like that:)

Edited November 11, 2014 by skoms

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

*snip*

 

With that said i am very happy with 0,50 and i really looking forward to 0,51-0,52, but with games like H1Z1 and others starting to be be even more developed then DayZ i think we need to see more progress faster then before to stay interested. And i do not like that idea.

*snip*

 

The people who leave DayZ because they are impatient are welcome to do so.

 

Some of us still believe in good things coming to those who wait.

[Quijibo 6]

DayZ's engine is being developed - we could have chosen to not give consumers the option to take part in the design of the systems by withholding the Early Access but we chose instead to allow folks to participate (with heavy warnings on potential issues, etc in the Steam store). Just because you are given the choice to participate in the process earlier than would traditionally ever be allowed does not make the development process suddenly "super slow" - you've just never really been given access this early.

I'm confident this has allowed us to dynamically design the gameplay and mechanics of DayZ as well as engage the community for feedback and ideas far more than ever would have been possible prior to Early Access.

Additionally, there is nothing "criminal" here - and money in does not equal a suddenly rushed product. We will stick to our 2.5 to 3 year development cycle as planned - if you're not happy with that.. Well, you're entitled to that opinion I suppose, but it won't change anything. :)

I thnk it's really sad that you have to explain this over and over, but I understand why you do it. There are plenty of warnings and indications that this is not a complete game and that it won't be for some time. I really respect the work you guys are doing, and not just because I understand how the development process works. The problem is that every time you defend your position on the development cycle there are more people criticizing what you have to say. Maybe if people saw what this game started from in the first place they would understand how impressive the progress has been so far.

[skoms 86]

The people who leave DayZ because they are impatient are welcome to do so.

 

Some of us still believe in good things coming to those who wait.

 

That's a very simple answer. "If you wanna leave, just leave". That attitude will not solve anything and soon the DayZ community are just 50K people instead of 1M.

 

The problem is not that people are impatient. The problem is that other game developers who started their development after DayZ is starting to get games that are more developed. People starting to notice that and soon most of them have left DayZ.

 

I also believe in good things coming to those who wait. And i also believe in DayZ, but they really need to get their game engine finish soon or standalone will loose their players for other games.

[chrithu 59]

I am not overly active here. just wanted to chime in on this. I think with 0.50 content wise we're just one step (vehicles) away from having the functionality the vanilla mod had when standalone development started. Performance wise we are basically on the same (average to bad) level. As far as the map goes we have a lot more to explore already and they are still expanding upon it which is quite awesome.

 

I am pretty confident that the next year will become a great second stage of development. We should see the improved zombie AI then, which alongside even more emphasized survival gameplay (hunger/thirst/disease/barricading) will bring the game one step away from being such a huge PvP gankfest.

 

I also hope that the focus on server performance for the remainder of the year will bring a big boost in 0.51 or 0.52 and pave the way for more zombies with better AI and then finaly some much needed client polishing as well to improve performance on our end of the line as well.

[Tatanko 5591]

That attitude will not solve anything

Your attitude about the development process won't solve anything either. It's not your job to worry about how many people are participating in Early Access, and by all accounts people are not leaving in droves as you suggest. Either play it and enjoy it, or shut up and find something else to do. Whining doesn't help anyone, including yourself, so it's really rather pointless.