The most depressing Dev comment - Time for me to give DayZ a rest?

[rickyriot 1009]

Like most, I have struggled with FPS in the game, and like most I have done the best I can to mitigate that. The game offers an awful lot and so what if you just have to suck up some bad frame rates and reduce the rendering quality? Improvements have always been hinted at and with the new roadmap announced for the year ahead there was the faint glimmer of hope that the new render could resolve some of the client sluggishness.

However, head over to http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/219113-brian-hicks-on-twitter-fearmoho-nothing-of-any-lastingpermanent-measure-could-be-done-via-client-optimization-until-we-get-close-to-betarelea/ and see Hicks' reply regarding client optimisation.

I understand where he is coming from and I also appreciate the hard work the devs do in order to progress the game. This is not a hater thread and there is no point in telling me it's still just an Alpha product as I've been playing the game longer than most and have always accepted this.

However, the idea that the client will remain as unresponsive and to be told that this will be the case for the remainder of pretty much the rest of the year, well... it's a bit of a hard pill to swallow.

Many people will say, "Just don't play it if you aren't happy", and that is fair comment and that, I have to admit, is basically the point I am at. I'm not sure if I really want to continue investing my time in a game I feel I have a constant disadvantage in despite easily having a PC capable of running similar titles without issue. It's a shame as I really do like the game (and did the mod) but with this latest tweet I feel like the rug has been taken out from under me a little and that light, albeit faint, at the end of the tunnel has just been switched off.

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

I understand where your coming from and also have had my moments with the mod, SA and other titles in which I have dumped hours into.  I always find regardless that when I take a break, games like DayZ continue to evolve and improve during the time I am having a "breather." I get great satisfaction in this knowing that when I return things will have changed and I will find new aspects to basically fall head over heals for once again.  I'm not saying that optimization is not a priority for you, myself or others however playing Arma series games for a while I've learned to love and look past alot of issues that raise the hairs on ones neck.  I just enjoy the games far to much to stop completely.  I remember having an absolute shit fit over the "Galkin to ifrit" edit for Arma 3 I lost roughly 30 missions I was editing and seriously thought I would never return after such an upset of having to redo all the missions for them to work.  I gave it a few months and within that time a whole host of improvements and add ons were created for me to start fresh to work with, it was like a replaying the game for the first time all over.  I went back to making new missions and have not looked back for a few thousand hours. 

 

TL;DR There is always room for breaks, I encourage them in alot of ways with most games, especially if they are a WIP.  The best part is coming back to new things and falling in love with a game all over again.

 

Steak.

[Accolyte 1727]

However, the idea that the client will remain as unresponsive and to be told that this will be the case for the remainder of pretty much the rest of the year, well... it's a bit of a hard pill to swallow.

 

While I understand what you're saying and hate to say the following, this is pretty much how things work. In games development, devs will generally start worrying about FPS (optimisation) in the final stages of development, once most (all) functionalities have been nailed down and can be polished.

 

As I keep saying, you can't optimise code while it's still being actively iterated upon. If you did that, you'd get stuck in an endless loop of implement/break, fix, implement/break, fix and so on.

[CJFlint 357]

Day Z SA at its best is a challenging fun game, an adventure and a real thrill even more so for a newer player. At its worst its extremely unforgiving, buggy, at times down right not fun and annoying game. Lets face it we have all had really bad game play sessions. For me during from bugs or lucky for me the rare game wrecking hacker is the worst. What I have got in the habit of doing is researching what bugs are what and basically what can cause me to have a less enjoyable game play experience. Then well I do my vary best to avoid the issues period.

What I found is a number of issues that happen are server related. Not all but a great deal. If I'm playing public, I find the quicker I get off a glitchy high ping server the better. Most of my really bad experiences I have happened on bad servers, were I just kept playing on them.

I totally agree with steak were he said sometimes its really just a good idea to take a break for a while. Its a game. If your just having bad time playing its simply not worth it. Drama is another thing. Its just not worth or worthwhile. I'm a busy man in RL, and spend my free time playing games as a leisure activity. Why and the hell do I want to get stressed out even more about a game, just not worth it. I will admit there have been a bit worked up. But I walk away feeling really stupid and figuring its kind of not worth it. I will simply take break. Its so much better.

Edited January 18, 2015 by CJFlint

[St. Jimmy 1631]

I understand because I'm also bit afraid how much they can optimize. At least the new renderer is coming soon and hopefully that gives at least tiny boost by itself.

Seems like they really need to optimize the server and some other things first a lot.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

I took some months off this past summer but have really enjoyed the last few months of patches.

 

There's nothing wrong with taking a break, especially when you factor in the roadmap.

 

Taking breaks can/will breathe new life into DayZ for you too!

[solodude23 649]

I kind of figured that's how it would work prior to him ever commenting on it.

[hells high 676]

My suggestion would be to take a brea-

 

Many people will say, "Just don't play it if you aren't happy", and that is fair comment and that, I have to admit, is basically the point I am at.

 

Oh, okay. Well alright then.

 

There's nothing wrong with being unhappy with the performance or feature set of an in development product as an end user. Its the side of video games most gamers don't get to see, and there's a reason.

 

Besides, there are plenty of cool games out there right now to play. DayZ will be here when you get back, and in better shape as well. :)

 

 

Edit: Also I'd like to clarify what Brian is talking about. When he says nothing of lasting measure could be done until closer to release, he means optimization. Basically optimizing is where you go through and streamline all the rendering and coding to be as low impact as possible while still achieving the desired effect. This means that the content needs to be generally solidified and unlikely to change, as changing will generally require re-optimizing that portion. They could in theory optimize the game with each patch, but that would add HUGE amounts of time onto the development of each patch and stretch development potentially by years.

 

When they are constantly changing, adding, rewriting, and rebuilding parts of the game it would be an exercise in futility to spend countless hours to streamline those parts only to be redone or completely broken by a different system the next day. Software development is pretty ugly.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Hells High

[boneboys 7988]

Yes,you need to take a rest from the game and the Forums I suspect.

Your posting history proves that you have known for a long time that optimisation is one of the last phases before Vs 1.0.