Status Report - Week of 12 Jan 15

[SMoss 2101]

 

Greetings Survivors!

As we move forward with January's stable branch update (0.53) the focus of the gameplay programming and production teams has been primarily on security. As mentioned prior in the September 15 Status Report - only so much can be done in tandem with engine and gameplay changes coming with every update (and maintain a rapid update frequency to stable branch). That said, as the primary vulnerability on the security side for DayZ right now is less on engine and/or scripting and more on modifying/accessing the process memory we have several Q1 goals we are aiming to complete.

• Deployment of a new form of BattlEye
  • This has been delayed to allow testing/regression around any potential bugs and/or compatibility issues so as not to cause any major issues to those participating in Early Access
• Server side sanity checks and protection against certain currently exploited methods
• Closer work with Valve and the VAC team
  • This will initially be seen by allowing players to report in-game suspected cheaters and will expand from there to a program that best fits DayZ and how it operates
  • Expanded vigilance in reporting all known tools and methods currently used to access the DayZ process for less than honorable methods.

Beyond that, Q1 has a good deal of exciting work for DayZ. Be it work on the new infected AI, to implementation of the central economy or diseases - this should be an exciting few months.
On the note of work to come, I'd like to expand upon confusion around persistence - how it is intended to operate, and the role that weekly persistence wipes currently serve.

Persistence is a core pillar of DayZ and its design. Currently persistence functionality is tied to the incomplete economy functions. As we expand upon the systems surrounding the central economy - What is saved/How it is saved, Cleanup, Respawn, etc will be handled properly. In addition to that, the secondary cause of persistence wipes (issues with reading modifiers on saved items, improperly saved items, etc) can be addressed.
Once we have addressed these two issues, persistence can and will be moved from an "opt-in" feature, to a core function of DayZ - and something that is universal across all servers. Once this is complete, I personally look forward to truly seeing the "Camp/Base building" side of the title start to be more universally adopted. Be it vehicles, barricaded buildings, tents, containers, or even farms setup via horticulture.

In addition, if you have any questions surrounding this topic (or any others) - I encourage you to head over to the Developer Discussion subforums at the official DayZ forums. Eugen and myself both are accessible via the Service section.

I wish I could bundle a microphone with every copy of DayZ.
- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

[SmashT 10907]

Awesome

[tehosiris 3]

what happened to Q1 - new renderer

[plevel 14]

if we got rid of all the cheating kids we would be so happy :D

 

btw is it normal that any tents we put on servers with persistence disappear really fast (after few days.. once it was 5 once like 2 or 3 and both were used daily during that period)? it would be nice if we had something like we had on mod when you just had to open the tent once a week or so so it wont disappear

[narchy 63]

what happened to Q1 - new renderer

 

It's 19th January. Q1 means January / February / March.

They didn't mention lots of other features, doesn't mean they're not working on them.

[xtali700 17]

Closer work with Valve and the VAC team

This might be the best news as of late.

May their beans spill or better, make them choke on them before you ban them.

 

Btw are we gonna start seeing snippets of the new rendered or is it just gonna be an expolsion of content out of nowhere like we are used to?

Edited January 19, 2015 by xtali

[SmashT 10907]

what happened to Q1 - new renderer

 

Unless stated otherwise, it's still scheduled for Q1

[wartzilla 182]

• This will initially be seen by allowing players to report in-game suspected cheaters

I'm curious to see how this will work.

[radar1029 28]

I look forward to the persistence fixes.  I have held off from switching my server to persistence because you just can't survive when you can't locate food, or items.  Some consistency with loot on the persistent servers would go a long way in convincing me to switch my server over.

 

 

-Jarhead POG's

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Woot woot ! That's a beautiful screen shot ,.. It's either taken on a super computer or daddy's seeing a little bit Of new light particles or something ? Tech Geeks please discuss as daddy is just full of guesses .

[SmashT 10907]

Woot woot ! That's a beautiful screen shot ,.. It's either taken on a super computer or daddy's seeing a little bit Of new light particles or something ? Tech Geeks please discuss as daddy is just full of guesses .

 

The photo/screenshot is by a streamer/youtuber KD Wolf  I wouldn't read too much into this one.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

The photo/screenshot is by a streamer/youtuber KD Wolf I wouldn't read too much into this one.

Ahh damn , well standalone already looks nice so it's alright , thanks smasht for the quick response :) .

[GregzTheGreat 33]

So, with the announcement of the capability to report hackers, an updated security system in general, and 0.53 coming out soon, how's everyone feeling about DayZ at the moment? Personally I've always stuck by it, and recent news is certainly satisfying to hear. I can't help but feel that most of the complaining, cristisism and anger directed at the game is mostly speaking out of hurt, annoyance, and general over-exaggeration and immaturity. Of course, this game is hardly perfect, and constructive critisism goes a long way, but am I the only one that feels more faith than ever in this game? It is as if sensibility, patience and support was applied in the overall communicative mentality, this entire process would be a lot more positive.

Thoughts?

Edited January 19, 2015 by GregzTheGreat

[raptori 13]

I see priority should go for network performance and solve desynce , I hope there is a different team working on network issues now, cause I see network problems more than hackers:( so far none ).

[blazinone 72]

Sensibility? Patience? Support? Modern gamers crave not these things.

[ToySmokes 116]

I also have confidence in the devz and the game! Every time they submit a new status raport of what they have worked on in the past week , I always get very excited and can hardly wait for the update to roll out to stable. The people who are complaining that : " Yes it is an alpha but H1Z1 ... " blah blah, will be overwhelmed when the new renderer and engine in general, gets implemented to the game, and the devz don't have to limit themselves to much because of the Arma II engine. Have faith in DayZ's long alpha jungle people! Sorry , just had to say that ;) . So in short . I totally agree with you :D

[Ellen Ripley 71]

I see priority should go for network performance and solve desynce , I hope there is a different team working on network issues now, cause I see network problems more than hackers:( so far none ).

 

 

Awesome first post.

 

On Stable:

I can't say the same. I have less network problems then hacker problems.

You should probably check that on your end.

 

On experimental:

This has been announced and is not a problem, its intended.

 

Edit: I hope someone else will write your posts from now on...

[Death By Crowbar 1213]

This:

 

That said, as the primary vulnerability on the security side for DayZ right now is less on engine and/or scripting and more on modifying/accessing the process memory we have several Q1 goals we are aiming to complete.

• Deployment of a new form of BattlEye
  • This has been delayed to allow testing/regression around any potential bugs and/or compatibility issues so as not to cause any major issues to those participating in Early Access
• Server side sanity checks and protection against certain currently exploited methods
• Closer work with Valve and the VAC team
  • This will initially be seen by allowing players to report in-game suspected cheaters and will expand from there to a program that best fits DayZ and how it operates
  • Expanded vigilance in reporting all known tools and methods currently used to access the DayZ process for less than honorable methods.

[GregzTheGreat 33]

Sensibility? Patience? Support? Modern gamers crave not these things.

Meet me.

[GregzTheGreat 33]

This:

That's right.

[GregzTheGreat 33]

Woot woot ! That's a beautiful screen shot ,.. It's either taken on a super computer or daddy's seeing a little bit Of new light particles or something ? Tech Geeks please discuss as daddy is just full of guesses .

..."daddy"...?

[blazinone 72]

Meet me.

There are thousands of folks who have the patience and other qualities needed to invest in an early access game and provide positive feedback in hopes things turn out well. These forums are evidence of that - lots of positive thinkers who only want the project to succeed.

While the success of the mod resulted in such a huge influx of cash to the SA which is good, it also brought scores of "instant gratification" gamers who's voices are sometimes louder than the rest and that creates a lot of negative buzz which can be contagious.

It's an interesting paradox - you need numbers to buy time to create a good product but the more time it takes the more impatient people seem to get.

Personally I agree with you...things do seem to be moving in the right direction. I'm glad they(the devs) are taking security seriously and it makes me realize how much they care about making a great experience for us all.

[eno 1049]

Security and loot hording are probably two things that frustrate the games intentions moreso than any two other factors- People running the risk of putting time into the game just to get whacked by a hacker, or by a group of guys who rent their own server to gather their loot unmolested and take it to the beaches in other servers create a constant imbalance. 

 

I think the wipe and continued work on the persistence and overall "loot economy" will be a refreshing step in the right direction. Granted I stepped in around .51 somewhere so I've seen nowhere near the amount of development as some of the veterans around here, but I've read a lot in the forums and it sounds like it's abuses on those two things in particular that have encouraged abuse and discouraged the casual survival enthusiast.

 

There will always be both play styles but a balance needs to be established and I think in watching the community the devs will learn ways to adjust one side over the other until they reach what they deem is suitable given their intended model.  

[treetop82 59]

Being able to report hackers will be crucial, however we need a system to be able to identify people or have access to the kill/interaction logs. For example, if I die to a hacker and don't get his name through in-game methods, then I have no way of giving a legitimate report. But if I can look up somewhere that I was killed by Player X. Then I can report Player X for warping across the field to axe me in the face.

 

Given that one player faces 3 hack-u-sation charges in a short time span, he might get the ban, hopefully from DayZ and make him re-purchase the game.

[Mad Scientist 73]

Kill logs will be available to admins soon IIRC, this will lead to a lot of bans (as long as you have video evidence as well)