Status Report - 30 Oct 2015

[igor-vk 909]

I hate when devs reveal great things but we have to wait ages for that to be in game...

[PongoZ 127]

will the new render engine make it so that inside structures are dark?

[xCAPx 349]

Nice Status Report and very good presentation @PAX AUS! :beans:


my questions @ Mr. Hicks:

- When will or how far away has a player to be to activate the infected, if they are in "sleeping mode"? Is this planned for animal AI too?

- How smart should the infected AI be? Flank/sneak us or just straight running at us as always? Same for animals, will they see, hear, smell us?

- Are layers for clothes planned? (e.g. t-shirt, sweater, jacket in winter; only the top layer will be rendered -> no clipping issues)?

- Will blocking be a part of meele combat? Or will it just be fast and heavy attacks?

- Will interacting with items in tents, barrels and so on refresh the persistence time in 0.59? Like it was originally planned?

- Peter said, that rolling items will be possible. Is this just the case with small items like granades or bottles (more a "throw-roll"), or will we be able to roll e.g. barrels full of loot or push cars with an empty tank down the road?


Thank you for your time, I really like what you said and I can't wait to see the new UI, advanced meele combat with firearms and all the other stuff :thumbsup:

Keep up the good work! Thx :)

[Noctoras 409]

regarding the skill system, what kind of counter/anti-grind mechanics are we going to see? are they planned as well? level-caps per day/hour, fair balancing between skills (better in A means worse in B ) or something similar?

 

whatfor? the skill system so far is by far not to be taken serious. Okay, you harvest somewhat more (as long as there is an abundance of stuff, this is pointless anyway), you might fix legs some seconds faster (also pretty pointless), so why should there be any compensation.

 

I hope DIFFERENT skills will be introduced, i.e. someone knows something another person doesn't - makes player interaction and teamwork a lot more significant. It's a chance for the game to get out of it's dull run-shoot-die-repeat mode. So I don't think there should be "compensation" anyway - skills are an icing on the cake, if done properly.

[barberousse 12]

blood on the hands fuck yes sry for the foul language but FUCK YES.

well..fuck yeah finally... some bloody hands ....more blood thats not enough...on the ground lake of blood ...horror games that s what it is!!!! thx yall!!;)

[derLoko 30]

@skill system talked about at PAX:

 

"Properly displaying these skills is dependent on the new UI"

-Hicks

 

Do people even want to see the skills/progress in the UI? Personally, I'm fine with not showing any of that. No need to, it could do more bad than good.

 

 

edit: Don't get me wrong tho - i love the idea of skills and if done right, that could add a lot to the game imo. But maybe a system that runs "silently" in the background is more immersive and less distracting.

Edited October 30, 2015 by derLoko

[joe_mcentire 2073]

whatfor? the skill system so far is by far not to be taken serious. Okay, you harvest somewhat more (as long as there is an abundance of stuff, this is pointless anyway), you might fix legs some seconds faster (also pretty pointless), so why should there be any compensation.

 

I hope DIFFERENT skills will be introduced, i.e. someone knows something another person doesn't - makes player interaction and teamwork a lot more significant. It's a chance for the game to get out of it's dull run-shoot-die-repeat mode. So I don't think there should be "compensation" anyway - skills are an icing on the cake, if done properly.

there WON'T be perks. skills will basically interfere with percentages and numbers exclusively.

[derLoko 30]

there WON'T be perks. skills will basically interfere with percentages and numbers exclusively.

 

although perks could imo add a lot to the game as well, Zomboid style... pick "shortsighted" perk and your character will need glasses to see properly. Sweet!

Edited October 30, 2015 by derLoko

[joe_mcentire 2073]

although perks could imo add a lot to the game as well, Zomboid style... pick "shortsighted" perk and your character will need glasses to see properly. Sweet!

however in a competitive mmo environment this would merely lead to insta-suicides

Edited October 30, 2015 by joe_mcentire

[igor-vk 909]

"Best of it all is that we removed so called aggressive stance which was mandatory to attack with melee or shoot from firearms and it felt forced as it was too static." 

FINALY!!!

[DemonGroover 8836]

Nice..have always wanted to roll a grenade into a building or down the ATC stairs.

[Killawife 599]

Character progression for female characters might be that as older they get, the more you hear a nagging sound when they are near. Just like in real life.

[Noctoras 409]

there WON'T be perks. skills will basically interfere with percentages and numbers exclusively.

 

yes, and if they stick to that, they waste yet another opportunity... no point in coding a skill system when the practical implication is that you cut wood 15% faster or get 15% more wood per tree. And having as much loot as currently on stable makes a useless element a joke. Yield more meat when there is a can of food around every corner... well ... 

 

Granted, I have heard loot will be more hard to find in the future (I believe it when I see it, since there would be much wining on the boards), yet it remains pretty pointless. Skills could add much depth to the game - the way it is implemented, it will be potential lost, plain and simple.

[DemonGroover 8836]

Skills are a very touchy subject.  Do we really want DayZ to turn into a Skyrim or Fallout?  I would prefer no skills at all but the soft skills in regards to hunting, medical and repair do seem to be a nice compromise.

 

I hope they don't carry on after death though.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

yes, and if they stick to that, they waste yet another opportunity... no point in coding a skill system when the practical implication is that you cut wood 15% faster or get 15% more wood per tree. And having as much loot as currently on stable makes a useless element a joke. Yield more meat when there is a can of food around every corner... well ...

Granted, I have heard loot will be more hard to find in the future (I believe it when I see it, since there would be much wining on the boards), yet it remains pretty pointless. Skills could add much depth to the game - the way it is implemented, it will be potential lost, plain and simple.

It's not just for harvesting , so I can't be inclined to agree with you . If you only have 30 minutes to repair a truck before a group of bandits catches up with you Id say its damn worthy of telling the group mechanic to start fixing the truck seeing as he's 30% faster at it ... These are the "soft skills" that will truly matter , the harvesting ones are just the easiest to give an example of , but I know for a fact (as this was talked about a lot when soft skills were first brought up) that it isn't going to stop At harvesting !

Edit : and of course they reset when you die , did everyone miss the first second and third talks about soft skills throughout alpha ? The purpose of soft skills is to make each life valueble, so of course they will reset at death ! Soft skills is a beautiful thing as it will finally limit KOS in a meaningful way !

Edited October 31, 2015 by Grapefruit kush

[moeb1us 91]

The soft skills are a feature that borders on the brink of usability IMHO. Balancing is very hard, it mustn't impact anything important really and then on the other side of the medal they are useless or unimportant and will be ignored for the most part. Like the blood system. Or the izh18.

[Roshi (DayZ) 396]

yes, and if they stick to that, they waste yet another opportunity... no point in coding a skill system when the practical implication is that you cut wood 15% faster or get 15% more wood per tree. And having as much loot as currently on stable makes a useless element a joke. Yield more meat when there is a can of food around every corner... well ...

Granted, I have heard loot will be more hard to find in the future (I believe it when I see it, since there would be much wining on the boards), yet it remains pretty pointless. Skills could add much depth to the game - the way it is implemented, it will be potential lost, plain and simple.

Yeah but what about changing a magazine 15% faster, or drawing your pistol 15% faster?

I'd like to see the occasional fumble mechanic - say when trying to reload, draw a weapon or get an item from your webbing, when lighting a fire with matches, or other meaningful tasks. That adds another non-trivial and non-intrusive way of implementing soft skills - then you have: increasing yield, increasing speed and decreasing fumbles.

[emuthreat 2837]

Question about this after listening to the PAX Presentation.

 

So lets say the global max spawn is x infected distributed across the map. But, only half are awake in player bubbles. To use the max number more efficiently, is the idea to spawn the remaining in player areas?

 

From player perspective how will the infected move or spawn into that area? (like from outside town and out of sight?) (or within town?)

How will the number get resolved to allow for other players moving elsewhere?

Are these additionally spawned infected still server side?

What are the infected goals that need to be meet for moving to beta?

These are all good questions.  So good in fact that they have raised a few more just in my trying to understand what your questions meant.

 

Will lower population servers run better because more infected are asleep, or will they tend to just gravitate more towards the active network bubbles and possibly make PVE difficulty inversely proportional to player population?

 

Can infected be herded to one area of the map, and then players ghost out of the area to safely loot or PVP in the areas no longer lousy with zombies?

[emuthreat 2837]

Yeah but what about changing a magazine 15% faster, or drawing your pistol 15% faster?

I'd like to see the occasional fumble mechanic - say when trying to reload, draw a weapon or get an item from your webbing, when lighting a fire with matches, or other meaningful tasks. That adds another non-trivial and non-intrusive way of implementing soft skills - then you have: increasing yield, increasing speed and decreasing fumbles.

Hicks already stated that it would be blasphemy to have any skills affect combat.  I am fairly confident in my understanding that this will NEVER happen as a part of the complete vanilla game.  Weapon sway is also, rightly, out of the question.  Pretty much anything that could directly affect combat would be an overwhelming advantage for people with the time or resources to grind out skilled characters, and would be heavily abused by people buying second accounts to boost combat skills before actually "playing" each life.

 

Think more along the lines of crafting, filling water bottles, and maybe even stamina; though skill-based stamina could be seen as a very unbalanced mechanic in combat.

[Arthur Dubrovka 376]

Because of the "skin and quarter" thing. At the moment there a no leftovers after you quartered something. I know it´s WIP right now, but wouldnt it be great if some leftovers stay on the floor after someone ripped out flesh from a deer or a human being? 

 

 

edit:

 

 

-snip-

...or will they tend to just gravitate more towards the active network bubbles and possibly make PVE difficulty inversely proportional to player population?

-snip-

 

 

This would be a great sideeffect avoiding serverhopping I guess! If you hop on lowpop server on NWA and hundreds of infected waitin for ya :D

Edited October 31, 2015 by imun

[blacktwin0 98]

Can't wait for all the new updates Peter talked about. For the soft skills, will we be able to pick more than one apple after raising our gathering skill? Will the hand staining effect extend into other areas? Such as mechanics getting greasy/oily hands? Berry stains from picking berries? Or stains from dying clothes? This could be a lower visibility indicator for marking professions or play styles. Obviously bloody hands = cannibal. Will water wells work for cleaning hands? Can we ruined rags to clean hands? Will eating with stained hands cause chance for illness? Any plans for boxes of latex gloves as medical loot?

Hands,hands, hands!!!!

[DemonGroover 8836]

I agree - they need a "body after gutted and filleted" model

 

Imagine coming across some leftovers in a random building.

[pillock 850]

These are all good questions.  So good in fact that they have raised a few more just in my trying to understand what your questions meant.

 

Will lower population servers run better because more infected are asleep, or will they tend to just gravitate more towards the active network bubbles and possibly make PVE difficulty inversely proportional to player population?

 

Can infected be herded to one area of the map, and then players ghost out of the area to safely loot or PVP in the areas no longer lousy with zombies?

 

The way I read that bit was the 'sleep' system for infected (where they are evenly distributed throughout the map, but remain unspawned in areas without a player presence) is being replaced by a system that spawns most - if not all - of the server's available infected in the areas where players are present - thus giving the appearance of having more zombies on the server.

 

I hope this means that people who try to loot up on empty servers will have their day wrecked by having to deal with hundreds upon hundreds of infected all by themselves.

[IMT 3190]

Can't wait for all the new updates Peter talked about. For the soft skills, will we be able to pick more than one apple after raising our gathering skill? Will the hand staining effect extend into other areas? Such as mechanics getting greasy/oily hands? Berry stains from picking berries? Or stains from dying clothes? This could be a lower visibility indicator for marking professions or play styles. Obviously bloody hands = cannibal. Will water wells work for cleaning hands? Can we ruined rags to clean hands? Will eating with stained hands cause chance for illness? Any plans for boxes of latex gloves as medical loot?

Hands,hands, hands!!!!

Bloody hands = cannibal? So if you skin and gut a deer you're a cannibal?

And have you even watched the video (till the end)? You can clearly see that the demonstrator washes his hand at the well.

Edited October 31, 2015 by IMT

[klesh 2423]

Skills are a very touchy subject. Do we really want DayZ to turn into a Skyrim or Fallout? I would prefer no skills at all but the soft skills in regards to hunting, medical and repair do seem to be a nice compromise.

I hope they don't carry on after death though.

They wont carry on after death. Lest we forget, the soft skills are intended to give value to your character's life, such that people will value their +25 wood gathering skill accumulation to the point that they will second guess their desire to kill on sight, should they be killed and lose that skill accumulation. Their whole presence in the game is to add value to your currently alive character.

This puts the soft skills in a very tough place, balancewise. They have to be reasonably trivial enough to not be OP (getting +11% more meat per gutting isn't going to break gameplay) but at the same time be valuable enough to snap people out of their call of duty playstyle thats essentially ruining the gameplay for many players. "I could shoot at this guy, but that would be too risky as I don't want to lose my super-mechanic skills."

I'm not sure that would be enough for the adrenaline junkie type kos player to change their playstyle. Those people value their waterproof camo clothing, their super army gun with all the sexy attachments etc far more than their character's life. Those players might not even participate in the activities that give you soft skill increases; just a quick run to the gear up spots, and then pvp.

Beards wont do it either, because you aren't seeing them behind gasmasks, bandanas and balaclavas, the standard outfits of the kos people.

Perhaps the above in concert with super rarity of guns and ammunition... maybe there is some kind of combination that will be powerful enough to dissuade people from killing everything they see.

Edited October 31, 2015 by klesh