Q&A with Eugen Harton (Highlights)

[Tatanko 5591]

Really? It is not worth it? A survival game without visual weather effects?

We get hundreds of guns with many different calibers and an authentic ballistic model, but no weather system?

This must be a dream? Am I in the right forums?

Sorry for this words, but I can't believe it.

I dreamed of a Chernarus+ with leafless trees and bushes, in a white Winter Wonderland or a beautiful summer with green trees and fresh fruits all over the place.

:(

+1 for modtools  :)  but it's not the same.

I said, "Too much work to be worth it." I didn't mean to imply that it was something unimportant, and they themselves have stated that they wish it were easier to implement. It's just a lot more work than it appears on the surface and would significantly delay the development process if they dedicated resources to making it happen. That isn't to say that "snow" couldn't happen, you just won't see it in any form other than precipitation (as opposed to snow on the ground, snow on the trees, etc.).

[RaptorM60 391]

I said, "Too much work to be worth it." I didn't mean to imply that it was something unimportant, and they themselves have stated that they wish it were easier to implement. It's just a lot more work than it appears on the surface and would significantly delay the development process if they dedicated resources to making it happen. That isn't to say that "snow" couldn't happen, you just won't see it in any form other than precipitation (as opposed to snow on the ground, snow on the trees, etc.).

Pretty sure Chernarus snow setting will be one of the first community mods out there when modding is supported :). While I would personally love to see that setting too, I can totally imagine the dev team would need to pretty much double their art department to rework the entire map, not mentioning the challenge of getting the snow tech right etc. 

[Avant-Garde 229]

Oh guys if I knew this QA was going to happen... Makes me sad that we have no news about melee mechanics/improvements... Other then that this game is gonna be so amazing when its finished its not even funny, I can't wait, such an amazing job these devs are doing!

 

May I make some late questions prease?

 

What are some of the plans for melee? Will it have a parry/block/dodge/some defensive manuever? How about comboing and multidirectional attacks? Will it have some sort of negative acceleration during the attack animation to avoid people becoming helicopters while swinging? About attacks animations and the tracer system, can we expect that they will match better as development progress?
How deep do  you guys want melee combat to be? I mean, firefights are quite complex and I bet it will only get better right, will you guys show the same love for melee or there is something that makes all this not possible?

Edited April 22, 2015 by Avant-Garde

[RaptorM60 391]

May I make some late questions prease?

 

Posting them in them in the Developers Discussion & Status Reports section is the best idea sir, I'm not the right person to talk to regarding future DayZ features, I'll just casually drop in and add my bits and pieces to the discussion when I have comments (just like everybody else), but that's that :)

[Tatanko 5591]

What are some of the plans for melee? Will it have a parry/block/dodge/some defensive manuever? How about comboing and multidirectional attacks? Will it have some sort of negative acceleration during the attack animation to avoid people becoming helicopters while swinging? About attacks animations and the tracer system, can we expect that they will match better as development progress?

How deep do  you guys want melee combat to be? I mean, firefights are quite complex and I bet it will only get better right, will you guys show the same love for melee or there is something that makes all this not possible?

I'm only speculating here, but I imagine melee improvements are likely waiting on the new player controller. It's another one of those large, critical pieces of the game's development that many different things rely on (like the renderer, zombie/animal AI, etc.).

[agentneo 337]

was a really good Q And A session. To be honest, I was very dissapointed reading it through. I feel like we were waiting for the same things this time last year. Another 6 months probably for the renderer and any sign of a playable frame rate. Have a decent PC with a new 970 and the performance is just killing the game for me at this stage. Still, its one of my favourite games and hopefully it'll be playable one day.

 

In the mean time we have lots of other great games to play and this year is a good year for PC gaming. Its just stressful when you have alphas that you like and want to do well but the wait for content is so long and the dev's never want to actually just say when their going to do anything firmly., its always wishy-washy dont want to give us too much info etc

[Tatanko 5591]

Its just stressful when you have alphas that you like and want to do well but the wait for content is so long and the dev's never want to actually just say when their going to do anything firmly., its always wishy-washy dont want to give us too much info etc

It doesn't benefit anyone for them to be "firm" in their timeline for development. The developers don't benefit from the added stress of concrete deadlines, the game does not benefit from being rushed, and players don't benefit from half-baked implementations of new items and mechanics. To add to that, players tend to complain when superficial deadlines are not met; so rather than set a deadline they would prefer to give you a general timeframe and do their best.

 

The developers are as passionate about this game as their players and they would never hold back on something to spite the community. Every decision made is in the best interest of the development process and, ultimately, the final product. A balance has to be achieved between "wants" and a realistic schedule however, which is why some things end up cancelled or simplified.

[scriptfactory 620]

It doesn't benefit anyone for them to be "firm" in their timeline for development. The developers don't benefit from the added stress of concrete deadlines, the game does not benefit from being rushed, and players don't benefit from half-baked implementations of new items and mechanics.

A project plan is always necessary. If they aren't meeting their deadlines and milestones then their project scope/requirements probably aren't clearly defined. No company just lets its developers just do whatever they want. That's the quickest way to waste money and cause projects to fail.

[Tatanko 5591]

A project plan is always necessary. If they aren't meeting their deadlines and milestones then their project scope/requirements probably aren't clearly defined. No company just lets its developers just do whatever they want. That's the quickest way to waste money and cause projects to fail.

I'm absolutely, 100% positive they have internal deadlines and milestones set for themselves that they don't openly discuss with the community (because, again, there is no benefit to doing so).

[agentneo 337]

Fair points guys full agree that the community is hard to please whatever publications you release.

 

Main thing for me and indeed majority of my friends that want to play Day Z is the frame rate and performance. The dev response to the frame rate questions seemed a bit un sure whether they'll even ever be able to get it to run at 60

 

p.s. really good to see the devs chatting on the forums and utilising communication here at last :)

Edited April 22, 2015 by AgentNe0

[Tatanko 5591]

Main thing for me and indeed majority of my friends that want to play Day Z is the frame rate and performance. The dev response to the frame rate questions seemed a bit un sure whether they'll even ever be able to get it to run at 60

Check out today's Status Report:

 

 

My personal holy grail throughout the development of DayZ has, and will remain the server side performance. Much of what folks attribute to "lag" or "desync" can be traced back to poor server side performance. 85% of which comes from the performance heavy usage of SQF engine script for many gameplay systems. Mentioned in prior status reports, EnScript (the name for Enfusion's engine scripting language) is leaps and bounds ahead of the legacy SQF in terms of performance. This, the portion of the performance budget currently consumed by SQF usage is the largest roadblock between 50 player servers, and 100+ player servers. Moving the title completely away from legacy engine scripting tech, and onto the new engine scripting language for Enfusion is by no means a small task, and will be an ongoing goal for the team (and in my opinion 100% required for DayZ to reach 1.0)

 

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/224323-status-report-22-apr-15/

 

 

Not directly related to graphical performance on the client side, but I thought it might be worth sharing :)

Edited April 22, 2015 by Tatanko

[Coheed_IV 381]

Oh guys if I knew this QA was going to happen...

May I make some late questions please?

Great idea, I have no time for Twitter. Someone who does could still ask. I've got many questions...

Most of mine are design related. I'm really interested in how we will be interacting with the objects in our hands.

From what I understand we will hold object (open can) and then engage animation by holding down button, outcome is dependent on how long we are engaging. How deep is this going?? Will a axe have the same variable engaging??

When will a decision be made on two handed object interaction?? This makes miles of sense for console version. Left hand screwDriver right hand beans, hold left to open, hold right to eat, switch left to handgun, walk while eating.

What will happen to scroll wheel as old addAction is eliminated?? Itembar scrolling??

Edited April 22, 2015 by Coheed_IV

[Avant-Garde 229]

Posting them in them in the Developers Discussion & Status Reports section is the best idea sir, I'm not the right person to talk to regarding future DayZ features, I'll just casually drop in and add my bits and pieces to the discussion when I have comments (just like everybody else), but that's that :)

Thanks a lot for the answer mate!

Do you think this melee subject goes better in what department of that sector of the forum? There is no thread about melee, or these kind of game mechanics! Who deals with this part of the game, animations or desingn? I actually think my questions goes better on Desingn due the fact its a more about the future and scope of a game mechanic, but I really don't know man.

 

I'm only speculating here, but I imagine melee improvements are likely waiting on the new player controller. It's another one of those large, critical pieces of the game's development that many different things rely on (like the renderer, zombie/animal AI, etc.).

 

Yeah thats true, I'm kind worried that we haven't had for a long time any news/improvements on melee, and people seems to forgot about this subject very easily. I understand as very few games actually have decent melee combat, most of them its just there for the sake of it. My bigest fear is that this happens to DayZ, that is a game that, in my opinion, have a GREAT oportunity to make good use of melee combat.

 

Also, for the sake of realism... People cries for the most little and absurd things over realism, but somehow melee is forgotten and its one of the parts of this game that really, REALLY lacks realism. I mean its all so simplistic, you get the highest DPS weapon and spam, end of melee in DayZ. There is almost zero depth, weapons makes little to none difference (you see how many people likes Fists) AND at the same time, the base they have, the tracer system, allows great and quite realistic stuff, and at the moment is good for nothing, totally not relevant and could be replaced by the classic hitscan, almost no one would even notice the difference (as already happened in older builds).

 

I mean, tracer system should be one of the things that differentiate this game from every other copy of it, and the devs and the players do not talk about it. I really fail to understand it man. Really, tracer system is what makes melee combat in FPS games nice, it was something REALLY innovative that believe me, we will see a lot of games using it from now on. DayZ have this, and seems like no one cares! Not even the devs! If I had a game with said mechanic I would tell everyone in really big letters about it.

 

Thats why I wanted to talk to a dev about melee man.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Avant-Garde

[Tatanko 5591]

Great idea, I have no time for Twitter. Someone who does could still ask. I've got many questions...

I used to bash Twitter a lot, and I still don't *like* using it, but I've learned to speak the language (so to speak) and interact with the devs and the rest of the community. I didn't even have an account a few months ago, and yet here we are ;) Either way, glad I could be of help in relaying this information. If you're really itching to get your questions to the team, I recommend biting the bullet, making an account, interacting with them directly via Twitter.

[RaptorM60 391]

Thanks a lot for the answer mate!

Do you think this melee subject goes better in what department of that sector of the forum? There is no thread about melee, or these kind of game mechanics! Who deals with this part of the game, animations or desingn? I actually think my questions goes better on Desingn due the fact its a more about the future and scope of a game mechanic, but I really don't know man.

 

 

You got me there, it's both of them of course. I'd go for the Design section.

 

p.s. really good to see the devs chatting on the forums and utilising communication here at last :)

 

Actually (and that's what I was trying to say in a previous post), I am not directly with the DayZ team, rather in publishing, so probably a good idea to just speak for myself without the fancy yellow badge to avoid confusion :)

 

Edited April 23, 2015 by RaptorM60

[Tatanko 5591]

Actually (and that's what I was trying to say in a previous post), I am not directly with the DayZ team, rather in publishing, so probably a good idea to just speak for myself without the fancy yellow badge to avoid confusion :)

Just make something up. No one will know the difference, right? ;)