Status Report - 15 Oct 2015

[B4GEL 175]

Care to elaborate on what "hardcore" might mean in the future? In the past, it simply locked you into 1PP.

 

In a status report probably about a year ago Hicks talked about a server setting called 'Hardcore mode' which would allow server owners to change the respawn timer to anything up to a 12 hours wait before respawning after death, I assume that is what they are talking about here.

Edited October 19, 2015 by B4GEL

[The Riddler (DayZ) 410]

Q: The damage of different vehicle parts... AWESOME!!! But I hope if its implemented, a door of a V3S will take more than two or three shots with an AK before it falls apart. Am I right?

 

A: I hate to sound like a broken record, but just like the Status Report mentions - the behavior in the video is for demonstration and testing purposes. Obviously balancing on the "hit points" for each of these parts will have to occur.

 

 

 

Please tell me that small arms fire will not make a door fall off a vehicle by themselves. Please? I have shot hundreds and hundres of rounds over the years from my SKS into an old Buick we have at my Ranch (its part of our shooting range)  and the doors are still hanging on their hinges. Bullet holes would certainly be awesome to see over seeing the door looking like its aged 10 years just from small arms bullets. I fully understand its going to be tweaked as we get closer to 1.0 but bullets should not be able to take panels off a car by themselves unless we're talking about the VS3 Cargo's wooden panels..

 

An explosive device or brute force from the impact with an object should however be what damages those panels to the point where it falls off. Or for that matter, the impact causes the panel to be so damaged, some bullets in the right spot "could" take the panel off. 

Edited October 19, 2015 by The Riddler

[Ozarrk 4]

Mr. Hicks,

 

I apologize if this has been answered somewhere but I haven't seen it and I like to think I keep up with development pretty well.

 

Infected were (effectively) removed in 0.58 due to performance issues, but will return (hopefully) in strong numbers in 0.59.  You said, if I'm not mistaken, the AI and sensors are the same they've been for a while now.

 

So, I'm curious, what changed between them being removed and hopefully working in large quantities in 0.59?  It may end up being some techo-jargon I don't understand but I was just curious what made the difference in performance if they were still running the same code.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Ozarrk

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Mr. Hicks,

 

-snip- I was just curious what made the difference in performance if they were still running the same code.

 

What I happened to read a couple weeks ago told us a little about this....

 

They had alluded to some problems encountered between the infected and the map/physics being a overly large draw on server resources.

 

I imagine they probably streamlined things in other ways too, that I would also like to hear about.

[kubas246 4]

I have two questions:

- When we can expect a "fix" for optics zoom? I mean when they will have correct zoom?

- Do you plan to make optics as PiP or it will be whole screen zoom as it is now?

[BCBasher 2465]

*snip*

- Do you plan to make optics as PiP or it will be whole screen zoom as it is now?

 

You should see the neat side effect of the current implementation of the PU and Kashtan on a 3 screen setup like mine. Not only do I have over 2 full extra screens worth of zoomed FOV the farther you get from center the more it zooms because of spherical distortion. 

[kubas246 4]

@BCBasher

That's why I'm asking about PiP ;)

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

1) Infected Damage values is something that will be tweaked off an on throughout development. Of course, a proper balancing pass will most certainly be done prior to leaving Early Access.

2) Well, at a certain point the reality that this is a video game has to come into play. You rarely will have a crowd of angry screaming players chasing after you - but ideally you would with infected. They need to be -somewhat- manageable. That said, see the above answer.

3) On what scale? o_O 

I have been very clear about this - and I'm not a huge fan of repeating myself on it, but for the sake of clarity:

It does not matter how amazing or complex your Artifical Intelligence is. It will -NEVER- be as dangerous or unpredictable as being at the mercy of another -HUMAN-.

 

Honestly i'm not a big fan in the mentality of belittling infected and their role.

Personally speaking,when i first played the mod back in the day,i did it because it was a zombie survival game.

Yeah the adredaline enduced firefights were parts of the programm,but for me zombie survival was the feature that really got me in DayZ.

It has been sold for 2 years as an intended zombie game and many are very patiently waiting for substiantial improvement on that primary gameplay aspect.

If DayZ intents to be more of a survival deathmatch kind of game instead of a post apocalyptic zombie survival title it's good,i can accept that!

But please,make your intentions clear so we know what to expect.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Damnyourdeadman

[BCBasher 2465]

@BCBasher

That's why I'm asking about PiP ;)

 

That's why I mentioned it, even a black out around it like the hunting scope would be better.

 

One of my last sessions I was scoping out Myshinko tent city from the hill to the west with a Kashtan and all I had to do was sit behind a tree and pan maybe 15 degrees to see the area from debug to debug at at least the full zoom of the scope.

 

I paid good money for my displays and game mechanics are going to have to disable them in certain situations if you want me to not use them.    

[thepoey 193]

Honestly i'm not a big fan in the mentality of belittling infected and their role.

Personally speaking,when i first played the mod back in the day,i did it because it was a zombie survival game.

Yeah the adredaline enduced firefights were parts of the programm,but for me zombie survival was the feature that really got me in DayZ.

It has been sold for 2 years as an intended zombie game and many are very patiently waiting for substiantial improvement on that primary gameplay aspect.

If DayZ intents to be more of a survival deathmatch kind of game instead of a post apocalyptic zombie survival title it's good,i can accept that!

But please,make your intentions clear so we know what to expect.

 

I genuinely don't understand how you can interpret any of what he said as "belittling infected and their role." 

 

Understanding that a human player is ALWAYS going to be more unpredictable than any kind of AI, is not the same as nerfing zombies or making them easier.  They have made their intentions clear multiple times over the course of development.  Zombies will be a threat, they will be dangerous, but they won't be unstoppable, and they won't ever be a replacement for the unpredictability of a human player.  

 

[rickbobby 0]

Great Q&A so far, thank you. I have a few questions...

1. Will we ever be able to amputate limbs? Sure, it may not be high on the priority list, but has it been talked about? If the answer is no... any reason for why not?

2. What happened the radio that was supposed to come in during 0.58(?)?

3. Are/Is seasons coming into DayZ? Specifically, will we ever be able to experience a snow storm?

4. As mentioned in while back during a presentation on base building, generators and such will be coming to DayZ. Will we ever be able to turn on certain portions of cities with generators, such as street lamps or a city's siren system?

5. Favorite caffeinated drink? 

[Hicks_206 (DayZ) 4297]

Can we expect empty cans one day? Im patiently waiting for Can + Wp tablet + lake combo, maybe carve some pretty pictures to my makeshift cup, a guy can dream right?

 

We'll see :)

[BCBasher 2465]

*snip*

2. What happened the radio that was supposed to come in during 0.58(?)?

*snip* 

 

The radios were supposed to come in .59 afik.

 

They did sneak in the physical model of a big table top set replacing the random suitcases, look behind the "commissar's"  legs for example.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

3) On what scale? o_O 

I have been very clear about this - and I'm not a huge fan of repeating myself on it, but for the sake of clarity:

It does not matter how amazing or complex your Artifical Intelligence is. It will -NEVER- be as dangerous or unpredictable as being at the mercy of another -HUMAN-.

How strong the AI is depends only how strong you let the player to be. Let the AI be faster and able to catch the player. Let the AI knock out players if they hit a moving player. Make the player so slow and AI so fast that player can't circle around. Make the player strafe just like the AI gets strafed if hit. Don't let the AI lose LoS easily.

Early days DayZ mod zombies that you can't loose running through buildings and uphill or glitching in the pine tree. They will catch and beat you to death even if you've only your starting gear on you. I want to hear answer that is something like that. Player is the big threat in DayZ because it can use guns, we know that.

[smilingb 1]

1. With the new animation system and player controller, will we be able to move up hills more smoothly?

 

2. With the new animations for eating making it so you're not locked into it, will we eventually be able to walk or jog while performing such actions?  I seem to recall one of the devs (maybe Peter) saying that would be possible.  It would be nice to be able to not only cancel eating animations more intuitively, but also not be restricted to standing still.

 

3. Forest density being increased as a test was mentioned by Eugen on reddit, is there any progress on that?  Will we possibly see it tested on Experimental?

[Hicks_206 (DayZ) 4297]

Thank you so far Mr. Hicks. Really good Q&A :)  :beans: 

- Will more animals (or animal hordes) spawning in 0.59?

- Will we get an option to disable the HUD and crosshair in the future (clientside)?

- Can we expect that nights will be improved with the new renderer?

- You said some time ago, that you would implement stamina when more vehicles are in. Is it possible for 0.60 (or maybe 0.59)?

- There are so many soccer fields in Chernarus+, will we get a ball to play?

- Do you have some wishes to the community? How could we help more or give better feedback?

Thx :)

 

1) We'll have to see how things perform in exp.

2) Absolutely

3) I certainly hope so, but I prefer to under promise, over deliver, etc 

4) Maybe 0.60 - Im hoping. We'll see!

5) I don't see this happening within 1.0 ;)

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

I genuinely don't understand how you can interpret any of what he said as "belittling infected and their role." 

 

Understanding that a human player is ALWAYS going to be more unpredictable than any kind of AI, is not the same as nerfing zombies or making them easier.  They have made their intentions clear multiple times over the course of development.  Zombies will be a threat, they will be dangerous, but they won't be unstoppable, and they won't ever be a replacement for the unpredictability of a human player.  

 

 

A human will always prove a more unpredictable threat that's true,but it dosen't mean that the infected AI shouldn't prove a challenge.

Even before their subsequent removal,their purpose was mostly cosmetical.

And with all the respect,seeing infected treated as a side project in their own game,makes a man wonder.

I see a constant shift of focus towards PVP when the rest PVE players are left in the sidelines.

At least,knowing what exactly DayZ intents to be,would help keep my expactations in check.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Great Q&A so far, thank you. I have a few questions...

1. Will we ever be able to amputate limbs? Sure, it may not be high on the priority list, but has it been talked about? If the answer is no... any reason for why not?

2. What happened the radio that was supposed to come in during 0.58(?)?

3. Are/Is seasons coming into DayZ? Specifically, will we ever be able to experience a snow storm?

4. As mentioned in while back during a presentation on base building, generators and such will be coming to DayZ. Will we ever be able to turn on certain portions of cities with generators, such as street lamps or a city's siren system?

5. Favorite caffeinated drink? 

 

*I'm just trying to help out with some questions that are part of the general knowledge base, in the interest of possibly saving some time.

 

*I am in no way a last/definitive word and would of course differ to Hicks on corrections (or almost anyone else for that matter).

 

1. It's been said that the game engine does not allow for this.

2. We have walkies and AM/FM civilian radios. The radio broadcasting station shown on trello will need a generator to power it which is probably a ways off from being implemented.

3. Snow was confirmed recently (though I'm not sure that includes storms).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

4. Hicks answered a question regarding powering the cities to some degree earlier in this thread. Not sure if same question.

5. God I love good coffee.

[Hicks_206 (DayZ) 4297]

Hey Hicks

I have just a few questions, about the same subject of the future plans for persistance of dead bodies This is because some of my best memories from the DayZ Mod was finding dead survivors in the strangest of places and wondering what their stories were, how they died etc. I've tried to keep the questions as specific as possible to make them easier for you to answer, and to make it harder for you to dodge them <3 (Don't take that as a challenge!)

 

1. The suggestion has been mentioned several times, do you have any plans to have things like birds circling dead bodies, so that they can be seen from afar? (This would be cool especially since a question mentioned body bags... Maybe you'd have pack up bodies to avoid giving away their location?)

 

2. Will the fly sound or something equivalent ever return? It used to be bone-chilling to suddenly hear flies in the mod, because you knew something bad had happened there... Recently.

 

3. Any plans on increasing the time a survivor's corpse stays around for? It seems fairly short at the moment. (I know performance is an issue, but it's really a shame!)

 

4. Now that you've announced growing beards and other player characteristics changing over time, how about decomposition of dead players? I realise this is probably not high on the endless list of things you guys want to do, but I like this idea so much. I love the tracking aspect, and this would make it possible to get an idea of when the player you just found actually died and increase immersion.

4.5 what about players returning as zombies? (I know this has been asked before, but I honestly can't remember what your opinion on it was).

 

Thanks for your continued hard work on the game. Looking forward to the next update :)

 

1) Right at this moment, no.

2) Most definitely yes.

3) See answer number two.

4) We've considered it yes - how far we go down that path depends on time and resources.

5) Survivors are immune to the disease, not to mention the infected are not undead.

[philbur 476]

Hi Brian.

I did not notice if weather was tweaked for the upcoming EXP build.

 

Is there a greater risk to the player via rain and cold? (moot point, I guess, but this would push me towards opting in.)

[havvvy 2]

We will be able to paint M4 in black & green like mosin ?

Edited October 20, 2015 by Havvvy

[Tatanko 5591]

You should see the neat side effect of the current implementation of the PU and Kashtan on a 3 screen setup like mine. Not only do I have over 2 full extra screens worth of zoomed FOV the farther you get from center the more it zooms because of spherical distortion. 

That's pretty neat :p

[Coheed_IV 381]

1) Any word on if birds are still in?

 

2) What the heck are birds going to be? 3d models that jump out of the grass like theHunter?  or large 2d flocks that move from trees on gun shots? This was an awesome A2 mod, cant believe I've never seen it in any game before. Seeing this in the distance would be incredible with the way sound travels.

[IMT 3190]

I see a lot of players asking the same questions. Please read the thread people so that we don't bother Brian with double questions.

A human will always prove a more unpredictable threat that's true,but it dosen't mean that the infected AI shouldn't prove a challenge.

Even before their subsequent removal,their purpose was mostly cosmetical.

And with all the respect,seeing infected treated as a side project in their own game,makes a man wonder.

I see a constant shift of focus towards PVP when the rest PVE players are left in the sidelines.

At least,knowing what exactly DayZ intents to be,would help keep my expactations in check.

Not really though. Think about horticulture, hunting, improvements being made to AI, weather, diseases, temperature, the list goes on and on.

I once saw a stream of SepticFalcon where he was running from an horde of at least 30 infected at Balota airfield. He was literally scared that time. To top it all he was being shot by a player as well, double trouble. :P

[Avant-Garde 229]

Well I'm gonna try again, why not right?

Hicks mate, any news on melee mechanics? Can we expect more then the very basics that are at the moment in game? Can we expect at least better melee animations?