Status Report - 30 Sept 2015

[SMoss 2101]

 

Evening Survivors,

 

In this week's Status Report, Lead Producer Brian Hicks will be addressing upcoming features such as contaminated terrain, aerial vehicles, and character lifespan. Also, he will be serving a quick recap on ongoing work for 0.59 experimental.

 

Contents This Week

• Development Board Spotlight
• Dev Update/Hicks
• Igromir Expo
• Community Video: Hard Work

 

Development Board Spotlight

 

 

 

Dev Update/Hicks

Greetings Survivors!

 

So last weekend we were fortunate enough to be invited onto the TwitchCon stage to talk about a few upcoming things to DayZ. For those that weren't able to catch the broadcast, we're going to recap what was covered in this week’s Status Report.

 

Before we do that - a quick recap on pending 0.59 experimental.

- Improvements on passenger perspective vehicle sync are still in progress

- Server/Client crash issues are being worked on

- Network Traffic Profiling tools will be pushed to certain Exp servers when the push goes out

- Infected Resource costs are still being worked on

- Bugfixing and iteration work is being done upon applying lifetime to items when they are created (initial item spawn)

 

Contaminated Terrain

When we looked at testing out the impact of terrain that requires specific equipment to safely navigate, naturally the opportunity presented itself with the upcoming Tisy Military Base, and the need to make acquiring the first Helicopter a high risk situation. Personally, I found the meeting rather exciting due to the fact that the art assets required can be added to the library used by the Environment Design team on their destruction passes aimed at making Chernarus look more post-disaster.

 

 

In the above concept art we have an example of the mass graves you would see in a last-stand military / relief hybrid camp. With the base, we're hoping to have new civilian agency hospital tents, barricades, and general signs of the last stand of the UN and CDF forces as they tried to hold off their pending death. The installation itself was originally a Surface to Air Missile & Radar base originally built by the occupying Soviets. The elevated platform you see within the frame of coursed originally used for mobile radar installations.

 

Entering and navigating the installation should (hopefully) require using protective gear, be it the gas masks or a future hazmat suit. Else you risk a potentially fatal illness, or spreading such illness to your friends and fellow survivors.

 

Obviously parts to support an operational helicopter will be completely separate from operational fluids and parts required to repair and maintain say.. a bus. So finding that helicopter up at Tisy definitely won't be a quick spot and grab!

 

Aerial Vehicles

 

Speaking of helicopters - we spoke briefly about the first aerial vehicle in DayZ at TwitchCon. The Littlebird is a model inherited from the Take On Helicopters team, and updated to meet DayZ's quality requirements. The below video is very - very rough implementation, purely keyboard controls (because I'm just that good). We'll be expanding the aerial vehicles past the Littlebird of course - current plans include expanding to fixed wing aircraft as well. (Stay tuned for that!)

 

 

For those curious, as I've mentioned several times prior - One of the mechanics we're just not satisfied with from DayZ Mod is the "Universal Parts" system. You could take a tire off of a bicycle and slap it on a URAL. The motor from a small fishing boat could be used in a tractor, and so on. With the introduction of new land vehicles into 0.59 we're expanding the operational parts past "Truck Battery" and "Glow Plug" - and Aerial Vehicles will see that expand as well. Specialized parts, and fuel will be required, and hopefully also see the importance of areas that naturally would contain those items be reintroduced.

 

Character Lifespan

 

Lastly, while at TwitchCon we had the opportunity to discuss some of the methods of character growth and progression we're working on. Specifically for TwitchCon we discussed methods of character aging, and the visual impact on the appearance of the character. Obviously females won't be growing beards, and we discussed briefly how this effect can expand past just facial hair and into scars, and dirty faces. The principle idea being allowing people to opt out of the system, and pose as someone freshly spawned. However - for those who want to go for the grizzled look, facial hair - blood, dirt, and grime can all give the appearance of a character who has seen it all.

 

 

Scars obviously however cannot just be "washed off" - and as we look to see how viable scars are, and if they fit within the scope of 1.0 we'll be discussing this in future status reports. Additionally, prototypes are currently being worked on for the previously described "soft skills" - keep your eye on future status reports for that ;)

 

- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

 

 

 

Igromir Expo

Российские Фанаты DayZ ! Старший дизайнер Чернаруси , Арсений "SenChi" Смирнов , будет присутствовать на геймшоу Игромир в Москве , в эти выходные!

Если вам интересно , следите за новостями нашего официального Твиттер аккаунта DayZ Dev Team там вы узнаете где вы сможете встретить разработчиков DayZ.  Мы с удовольствием обсудим со всеми вами DayZ , Чернарусь, и планы на будущее. Оставайтесь на связи !

 

Russian Survivors! Chernarus Designer Senchi will be at Igromir 2015 this weekend in Moscow! If you're attending, keep an eye on the official DayZ Dev Team Twitter account for times and locations to meet up. We'd love to talk DayZ, and all things Chernarus with you all.

 

 

 

Community Video: Hard Work

So, time to take a break from the massive amounts of PvP videos and show something different. In this video, our protagonist farmer prepares a small plot, plants his tomato seeds, waters them, and peacefully awaits the moment when he can reap the sweet benefits of his back breaking work.

 

 

Oh, come on!!! Just let the man keep his tomato patch!!! Poor guy...

 

Thanks for sharing haknslash. You did what you could.

 

Keep that content coming everyone! There's plenty of room over at the Gallery.

 

Header image credit: fairtae

 

- Michael aka SMoss / Community Manager

[igor-vk 909]

"Specialized parts, and fuel will be required, and hopefully also see the importance of areas that naturally would contain those items be reintroduced."

Cant wait.

[bingo_fuel 205]

Thank you for the status report! I like the BDU Pants with the woodland camo and the little bird also looks nice :thumbsup:

 

Will the flight model be like in Take on Helicopters or more Arma 2 easy mode style? I'm curious where you will add the jet fuel supply for the helicopters :D

 

Some time ago a region map was posted and the northern part was region 2 ( https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/225839-status-report-09-jun-2015/) and so the Tisy base would also be in region 2. I think it would be kind of strange if you only get the region 2 loot in a contaminated high risk military base. Maybe you can explain the region concept a bit more detailed or how the new base will fit in this concept!

[Ultimoses 110]

 

"(...) added to the library used by the Environment Design team on their destruction passes aimed at making Chernarus look more post-disaster."

 

 

 

Smells like a map-rework, doesn't it? Chernarus is too sterile, we need body bags and mass graves all over the map! I hope that quote refers to those, that would be awesome! Nice report!  :beans:  :thumbsup:

Edited September 30, 2015 by Ultimoose

[igor-vk 909]

Smells like a map-rework, doesn't it? Chernarus is too sterile, we need body bags and mass graves all over the map! I hope that quote refers to those, that would be awesome! Nice report!  :beans:  :thumbsup:

 

Try playing vanilla mod and you will se how much garbage and destruction is everywhere. Especialy on roads and Balota airfield.

[Tatanko 5591]

- Network Traffic Profiling tools will be pushed to certain Exp servers when the push goes out

Anyone from the team care to elaborate on this?

-What does it do?

-What will it mean for players?

-Why only some servers? Will you tell us which have it enabled? (just curious)

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

 

- Infected Resource costs are still being worked on

 

 

I guess this means no infected in 0.59 for sure?

 

I know it was said we will have to wait for 0.60 but a guy can dream!

 

Oh, and thank you!!  You guys are awesome!

Edited September 30, 2015 by BioHaze

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Will the flight model be like in Take on Helicopters or more Arma 2 easy mode style? I'm curious where you will add the jet fuel supply for the helicopters :D

They said they don't go full TOH but try something between Arma 2 and TOH.

[nl 986]

Some very nice developments! This is coming along nicely.

[FrigginTommyNoble 61]

Anyone from the team care to elaborate on this?

-What does it do?

-What will it mean for players?

-Why only some servers? Will you tell us which have it enabled? (just curious)

 

This means certain servers will have either native (OS-level) network monitoring tools, or (more likely) special DayZ server code instrumented with extra debugging and logging around the network modules. This will allow them to gather detailed data that will help reveal root cause of network/netcode issues, such as de-sync, disconnects, latency/lag, frame loss, etc. With that data, the devs can (hopefully) map those issues back to code that BI has control over, and can thus fix.

 

There are many reasons not to do this on every server, but two I can think of off the bat are:

1. they don't need every server to do detailed monitoring (it's a metric poop ton of data to parse through, process, and analyze).

2. extra debugging instrumentation often negatively affects performance, so they would only put it on beefcake servers that can handle it, or low-pop servers that won't have 50 players sending asstons of events per second. Whatever minimizes the performance hit to the end user.

Edited September 30, 2015 by FrigginTommyNoble

[rassad 111]

I'm very worried from the video of the Little-bird flying...   I know you said you were flying with keyboard, but it looked like the control system was setup so when you hit a key, the chopper would bank 30*degrees and on key release it would self upright. Please Please don't dumb down flying Helios to that level, it would take all the fun out of flying.  The only reason I can see for dumbing down the flying system this much would be for consoles that do not have a mouse.

 

I would love to have the Chopper startup procedure from TOH

[Tatanko 5591]

This means certain servers will have either native (OS-level) network monitoring tools, or (more likely) special DayZ server code instrumented with extra debugging and logging around the network modules. This will allow them to gather detailed data that will help reveal root cause of network/netcode issues, such as de-sync, disconnects, latency/lag, frame loss, etc. With that data, the devs can (hopefully) map those issues back to code that BI has control over, and can thus fix.

 

There are many reasons not to do this on every server, but two I can think of off the bat are:

1. they don't need every server to do detailed monitoring (it's a metric poop ton of data to parse through, process, and analyze).

2. extra debugging instrumentation often negatively affects performance, so they would only put it on beefcake servers that can handle it, or low-pop servers that won't have 50 players sending asstons of events per second. Whatever minimizes the performance hit to the end user.

Thanks for the explanation. That all makes sense. Hopefully we get a heads-up about which servers it's on :)

[haknslash 763]

LOL what is going on??!! I made the status report lol!!

 

Can't wait for .59 :)

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

LOL what is going on??!! I made the status report lol!!

 

Can't wait for .59 :)

 

I just read a thread on the Steam forums complaining about how a nice guy like you can't even farm "off the beaten path".  I chuckled a bit.

[bingo_fuel 205]

I'm very worried from the video of the Little-bird flying...   I know you said you were flying with keyboard, but it looked like the control system was setup so when you hit a key, the chopper would bank 30*degrees and on key release it would self upright. Please Please don't dumb down flying Helios to that level, it would take all the fun out of flying.  The only reason I can see for dumbing down the flying system this much would be for consoles that do not have a mouse.

 

I would love to have the Chopper startup procedure from TOH

 

It says in the report that this video is just a very basic implementation so I don't think that the final flight model will be anything like that.

[smiley_ie 26]

Wow two years to import a model "Littlebird" and test it. Exciting stuff.

[SMoss 2101]

LOL what is going on??!! I made the status report lol!!

 

Can't wait for .59 :)

It was a nice screenshot, so I took the liberty of using it :D

 

 

"(...) added to the library used by the Environment Design team on their destruction passes aimed at making Chernarus look more post-disaster."

 

 

 

Smells like a map-rework, doesn't it? Chernarus is too sterile, we need body bags and mass graves all over the map! I hope that quote refers to those, that would be awesome! Nice report!  :beans:  :thumbsup:

 

Yep, the plan is to "dirty" Chernarus up a bit.

[SMoss 2101]

Wow two years to import a model "Littlebird" and test it. Exciting stuff.

Spot on! Game development takes time.

[haknslash 763]

It was a nice screenshot, so I took the liberty of using it :D

Yep, the plan is to "dirty" Chernarus up a bit.

 

 I'm the guy in the vid that was killed while farming :D

 

Love the idea of making Chernarus look more gritty. This excites me!!

Edited October 1, 2015 by haknslash

[SMoss 2101]

 I'm the guy in the vid that was killed while farming :D

 

Love the idea of making Chernarus look more gritty. This excites me!!

ah, got screenshot/video mixed up there, haha

[freethink 984]

Thank you for the status report! I like the BDU Pants with the woodland camo and the little bird also looks nice :thumbsup:

 

Will the flight model be like in Take on Helicopters or more Arma 2 easy mode style? I'm curious where you will add the jet fuel supply for the helicopters :D

 

Some time ago a region map was posted and the northern part was region 2 ( https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/225839-status-report-09-jun-2015/) and so the Tisy base would also be in region 2. I think it would be kind of strange if you only get the region 2 loot in a contaminated high risk military base. Maybe you can explain the region concept a bit more detailed or how the new base will fit in this concept!

 

 

regions aren't contiguous any more. for example, the nwaf is region 4 but so are the tents at myshkino - if I understand correctly.

[jakeman8888 31]

i feel like my grand children will enjoy the beta

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

It's almost as if it was incomplete.  Weird.  :rolleyes:

[klesh 2423]

Guys, could we maybe dial back on making even more camouflage clothing?

[shinjuru 114]

I'm not sure there will be a lot of players looking to stand out in the Chernarus scenery.   Just a wild guess, but bright colors are totally not in fashion for some time to come.