Status Report - 30 Oct 2015

[VVarhead 185]

  On 10/30/2015 at 9:29 PM, derLoko said:

@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.

 

 

 

Do not want!!!

 

I don't want a graphic display of the skills, every bit of more HUD, UI or anything totally ruins the game for me and a lot of friends.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

  On 10/31/2015 at 1:53 PM, klesh said:

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

You're definitely right on this one : but it's ok because those that are still KOSing after these changes will be the ones who will always be those adrenaline junky KOS bandits . So the KOS crowd will be rooted out to those that would truly choose this lifestyle over all others . So you're right , it won't really cut down on the TRUE bandits just because they don't wanna lose some soft skills , but that combined with scarcity of ammo like you said , will surely make game changing differences that will be great for all playstyles : we still get bandits but we get more sensible people who like to preserve their soft skills !

Honestly though I've thought the level of KOS was just right in the past six months of dayz , but then again my motto is "talk first and most likely die but have a better time than those who KOS", I'm considered a "hero" playstyle so im too positively biased , but like everyone agrees , anything that might take down the KOS populace is a good decision for dayz . Can't wait for .59 experimental patch , it Will finally make dayz become the game we've wanted it to become since day one of standalone !

[Coheed_IV 381]

  On 10/31/2015 at 8:19 AM, Grapefruit kush said:

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 ...

Have they said anything about durations of actions yet? and if Soft Skills will effect the duration?

 

When they implement new animation and player controller with variable actions that you can walk away from or stop at any time, it should give them options for longer actions.

 

Everything from eating beans to skinning animal should be longer because we can now stop the actions at any point. Eating beans for instance, you can walk around while eating, would make sense to extend the duration length. Very much looking forward to this part.

[joe_mcentire 2074]

i think a certain set of perks: let's just say one or two per "mastered" skill might make a nice difference. just a few rough and not very well thought through examples:

• medic: perk to recognize and loot a certain herb and make use of it to make a sanitizer
• mechanic: being able to utilize "scrap metal" and have a 20% chance to use it when repairing a vehicle instead of a minor missing part
• hunter: being able to loot horns or antlers from cattle/deer
• survivalist: can build a waterfilter out of dirt/stones/sand/plastic bottle

the idea is to enable regional monopolies and also the perception that ONE guy in a team could really make a difference especially in critical survival situations. I am not talking about a complete perk-tree per skill, but one or maybe two perks per mastered skill. think about you being the only one to repair that vehicle although you maybe lack all the proper parts. you being the only one able to gather a source for purified fresh water for your whole team without the need to scavenge through the dangerous cities. small perks that really shouldn't make a huge impact on gameplay overall, but enough for you to really go for it and to value your life. i think an absolute NO to perks is a bit of a missed chance. hopefully you all get the idea.

 

edit: regarding "monopolies" -  the idea here was that chars can loot these items (herb, antlers etc) while everyone else cannot thus creating monopolies. this would create a real scenario for supply and demand and also a better chance for merchants.

 

edit2: also if i were the devs i wouldn't talk about such an addition at all. i would love to see the astonishment from the playerbase finding out about these perks at different points. first only rumours...later the realization ;)

Edited October 31, 2015 by joe_mcentire

[gannon46 788]

  On 10/30/2015 at 9:55 PM, joe_mcentire said:

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

i agree if this game was like zomboid folks would just whine and cry all the damn time.

[gannon46 788]

  On 10/31/2015 at 3:36 PM, joe_mcentire said:

i think a certain set of perks: let's just say one or two per "mastered" skill might make a nice difference. just a few rough and not very well thought through examples:

• medic: perk to recognize and loot a certain herb and make use of it to make a sanitizer
• mechanic: being able to utilize "scrap metal" and have a 20% chance to use it when repairing a vehicle instead of a minor missing part
• hunter: being able to loot horns or antlers from cattle/deer
• survivalist: can build a waterfilter out of dirt/stones/sand/plastic bottle

the idea is to enable regional monopolies and also the perception that ONE guy in a team could really make a difference especially in critical survival situations. I am not talking about a complete perk-tree per skill, but one or maybe two perks per mastered skill. think about you being the only one to repair that vehicle although you maybe lack all the proper parts. you being the only one able to gather a source for purified fresh water for your whole team without the need to scavenge through the dangerous cities. small perks that really shouldn't make a huge impact on gameplay overall, but enough for you to really go for it and to value your life. i thinkan absolute NO to perks is a bit of a missed chance imo. hopefully you all get the idea.

 

edit: regarding "monopolies" -  the idea here was that chars can loot these items (herb, antlers etc) while everyone else cannot thus creating monopolies. this would create a real scenario for supply and demand and also a better chance for merchants.

i would go for that if you had it from spawn like it was your job before shit hit the fan. The perk could be based on that maybe you could have clothing on when you spawn based on the job you picked as well as you would spawn in that area as well like if your a mechanic you would spawn in a garage area or indy are in a town or city, doctor you can spawn in a hospital or clinic. only issue i would have with this is if you add a mil style its all anyone would pick how do i know this play any RP server there are like 20-30 special forces cats RP'n as that hmmmm how did the apocalypse happen with so many special forces....maybe they are a different special.

[IMT 3190]

  On 10/31/2015 at 3:52 PM, gannon46 said:

i would go for that if you had it from spawn like it was your job before shit hit the fan. The perk could be based on that maybe you could have clothing on when you spawn based on the job you picked as well as you would spawn in that area as well like if your a mechanic you would spawn in a garage area or indy are in a town or city, doctor you can spawn in a hospital or clinic. only issue i would have with this is if you add a mil style its all anyone would pick how do i know this play any RP server there are like 20-30 special forces cats RP'n as that hmmmm how did the apocalypse happen with so many special forces....maybe they are a different special.

No, this would make it a RPG instead of a survival game. I want to spawn in and choose my own way, I don't want to be forced to pick something.

Edit: Though, it is a very good idea for a roleplaying server. Would make a good mod for RPG servers. ;)

Edited October 31, 2015 by IMT

[PongoZ 127]

I think they have to make the more substantial. Make them environmentally valuable but not directly combat valuable.

The increased steak size is one thing I guess. But the only people eating steaks in the game are people who want to eat people. (I know it was just an example)

 

Hearing and tracking. Make skilled characters be able to see tracks from enemies for longer. 

Like I think was mentioned. Change the medic system into a skill test for bandaging, splinting. Cleaning wounds.

Make cooking matter allot. So eating cold beans is also worse then eating warm beans. Put a skill test on the preparation. that can burn the beans. Or spill them.

Put a skill role on every repair activity. You used your repair kit but actually moved your pants from worn to damaged. But you learned a bit from it.

 

Make people use weapons repair kits on weapons. Count it as cleaning if you like. Even cleaning should have a slight chance of learning about caring for a weapon

Changing anything on a fire arm (scope, forestock, camo paint) uses your weapons care skill. The weapon knows that its fore stock was kind of weakly mounted and is less accurate, it knows its scope was not well mounted and its less accurate) People will say this is a combat skill. But let the person keep trying to work on the rifle till its done right.  and you do not know a rifle scope is really really correct without firing it.

The weapon has to be disassembled to have any of these things done to it. 

Have weapons behave sub optimally when not clean. Cycle slower,  jam more what ever. Have axes hurt less when dull. 

[igor-vk 909]

Soft skills will only help people that play dayz as survival game. It won't help people that refuse to leave the coast. Us survivors will sometimes rather hunt animals instead of eating canned food. We will rather try to be stealthy around zombies instead of trying to punch them.

I saw lots of complaints that standalone is becoming too complicated compared to mod. It's true, and I like that. Devs just have to make distribution of different items around the map and "force" players to travel around map. Like: car parts on coastal cities, weapons on north west, building materials on north East, advanced medical supplies in Pavlovo base..

[Noctoras 409]

  On 10/31/2015 at 8:14 AM, DemonGroover said:

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.

 

nope, if that's what the skill system is there for, by all means invest your resources differently and leave it be. You can do a skill system, you can leave it, but introducing something that is almost pointless sounds more like a distraction from other important tasks.

[Noctoras 409]

  On 10/31/2015 at 8:19 AM, Grapefruit kush said:

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 ..

 

This is artificial. Noone in his right mind will speculate on 4 seconds with the lug wrench. People will search cover and fight it out and then get back to the truck.

I have yet to see a group chopping trees when being aware of another group next to them. Maybe you're the hardcore woodcutter clan or the super lugwrench hero, I'm not and I'm sure that goes for most people ;)

 

You can drop tens of artificial situations you will most likely never see in 1,000 hours of playtime. It doesn't make it any more reasonable in my opinion. I'll leave you to your opinion, I'm cool with that, but to me implementing a skill system this way is a joke. Full stop. Better use your programming resources for other stuff then.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

  On 10/31/2015 at 7:28 PM, Noctoras said:

This is artificial. Noone in his right mind will speculate on 4 seconds with the lug wrench. People will search cover and fight it out and then get back to the truck.

I have yet to see a group chopping trees when being aware of another group next to them. Maybe you're the hardcore woodcutter clan or the super lugwrench hero, I'm not and I'm sure that goes for most people ;)

 

You can drop tens of artificial situations you will most likely never see in 1,000 hours of playtime. It doesn't make it any more reasonable in my opinion. I'll leave you to your opinion, I'm cool with that, but to me implementing a skill system this way is a joke. Full stop. Better use your programming resources for other stuff then.

 

I just think you're overlooking any useful situation to suit a frustration of already slow development, but these soft skills have been planned since day 1 by dean himself. Think about this, you find a broken helicopter and noone in your group knows how to fix it, except for you. Meanwhile , a group of bloodthirsty bandits holds your entire crew up and kills all those that dont have the skills to help them , they leave you and a medic alive while they still need you because you are useful...You then have enough time before they kill you (if they are going to) to get your friends to avenge themselves , or at the very least you've already had more fun then "You are dead" all across the board..Or how about this, you cant fly helicopters well enough right away to fly long disticance or take off quickly without crashing, and have to practice flying frequently to better piloting skills under stress, the pilot in the group could save everyone if you needed to get outta dodge on the fly and not crash B/c of a quick takeoff...

 

It may not be easy for many to see the devs undertaking such large and interesting tasks such as these when they are already behind schedule but like i said before it was planned from day one and IMO its a great way to see more realistic interaction between players (especially with groups Vs lonewolves, if a lonewolf has a skill you need its better you use him rather than kill him). Just my 2 cents and i cant wait for soft skills and all the other features planned!  

[Avant-Garde 229]

Goddamn finally some news about melee! That's great news tbh. I'm really curious about what I just read here, I didn't really understood how the charged attack will work.

 

Is it like, if I just click, I'll do a lower damage attack, and if I click and hold it will do a charged attack?

 

You know what would be great with this system you guys are doing, of real time animations that can be canceled? Did you guys ever played Exanima? Is a melee isometric game with revolutionary and amazing real time mechanics, kinda like dayz/chivalry.

 

In this game, if you hold LMB you will do a horizontal slash left-to-right then right-to-left. Double clicking lmb and holding it will make a overhead attack. If you release the button mid attack, its a feint. You use feints to cancel your attack and parry instead, so you don't get rekt against smaller and faster weapons if you have, say, a huge and slow Halberd.

 

Parry is made simply by not attacking, you gotta position yourself at the right range and aim at the general direction the attack is coming to execute a parry. You don't have to time the parry (making the lag problem WAY less of a problem), but you have to position yourself correctly aim and footwork wise. I know that DayZ at the moment has passive parrying (if you hit a attack on your opponent's weapon, the weapon will take damage not the person), so isn't it possible to you guys to add a control scheme similar to Exanima, where you hold LMB for attack, and if you release it you feint the attack to parry, and the parry is made mostly automatic IF you position yourself at the right range AND aim to the right direction the attack is coming.

 

All that is needed for the parry is a set of 3 different animations (one for horizontal attacks coming from the left, other for attacks coming from the right, and a last one to defend yourself from overheads) that will play automatically depending on what attack your opponent use. So for example, your opponent does a overhead, your avatar would lift his both arms kinda above his head to interrupt the incoming attack, and you would only have to step in or out (depending on the range of your opponent's weapon) + help connect the parry animation with the incoming attack by simply looking a bit up. All the parrying is made by the weapon model itself, so its quite realistic as well and give shields a really nice use.

 

This can also be good to add multi directional attacks, hold lmb to horizontal slash right-to-left then left-to-right, and double click + hold to make a overhead animation. All of which can be feinted (release the attack button) in order to parry (not timing based so lag isn't that much of a problem). Bonus points if you guys manage to add a "sidestep" animation so if you, for example, double tap S you avatar will do a little dodge like movement backwards.

 

This would add a skill based mechanic that brings variety to the table and open MANY possibilities either in PvE (zombie hunters, one man goes with a shield parrying zombies covering a guy with a pitchfork, poking the head of them zeds, this opens the possibility to clear cities with melee weapons AND is a incentive to player band together) or PvP (would give players with fresh spawn gear more chances of surviving, IF he has sick melee skills, against other crazy ass fresh spawns instead of the luck/lag based melee combat of spam and pray).

 

What a wall of text tbh, but its for a good cause devs pls, improve melee mechanics in this game, it would be good for everyone. You guys would have one more differential compared to other survival games out there, players would also benefit from a more coherent melee mechanic, and your game would be at leas 50% more realistic then it is right now (I mean, just look at any melee fight at the moment, its ridiculous).

 

Here are some useful links

http://store.steampowered.com/app/362490/

http://www.baremettle.com/

Edited October 31, 2015 by Avant-Garde

[blacktwin0 98]

  On 10/31/2015 at 1:08 PM, IMT said:

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.

Good point about the hunting. For some reason I didn't see the very end when first watching it. Thanks for catching in my bs.  :)  :beans:

 

Although with the limited or rare hunting I would lean toward cannibal if I see someone with bloody hands.  

[IMT 3190]

  On 10/31/2015 at 11:13 PM, blacktwin said:

Good point about the hunting. For some reason I didn't see the very end when first watching it. Thanks for catching in my bs.  :)  :beans:

 

Although with the limited or rare hunting I would lean toward cannibal if I see someone with bloody hands.

Then you might kill people like me on sight. Because if I see wild life, it has to die, no questions asked. :lol:

[blacktwin0 98]

Don't worry I always ask questions.  :P  no need to ruin that meat. As long as there is enough for 2.  :emptycan:  :emptycan:  :rolleyes:

[emuthreat 2837]

  On 10/31/2015 at 3:52 PM, gannon46 said:

i would go for that if you had it from spawn like it was your job before shit hit the fan. The perk could be based on that maybe you could have clothing on when you spawn based on the job you picked as well as you would spawn in that area as well like if your a mechanic you would spawn in a garage area or indy are in a town or city, doctor you can spawn in a hospital or clinic. only issue i would have with this is if you add a mil style its all anyone would pick how do i know this play any RP server there are like 20-30 special forces cats RP'n as that hmmmm how did the apocalypse happen with so many special forces....maybe they are a different special.

I think the only way to make a "native" skill predisposition work, would be to make it extensively time consuming to see which types of skills each life/player is naturally predisposed to doing well.  If someone had to go and farm a half-dozen plots, bandage a dozen wounds, repair a few different vehicles, or craft numerous fireplaces and other survival elements before they could find out which one they naturally preform best, it would make the suicide inevitability a non-issue.  By the time they knew their player strengths for that life, they would already be sufficiently invested in that playthrough.

[Avant-Garde 229]

You know, melee could benefit from the skill progression as well. You see, imagine that when you start a new avatar, he/she only knows how to do basic horizontal swings, no parry, no dodge and no "riposte" at this early stage. As you progress killing zeds and players if necessary, your avatar "learns" how to do overhead swings, how to parry, how to dodge and so on. it would be amazing imo guys, this progression could also happen in how much damage you parry, so for example a fresh spawn would have trouble parrying a sledgehammer without getting hurt, while a melee focused player would rekt everyone left and right, having a edge especially against zombies, for example. This only adds to the teamplay element of this game as I see it.

[themightylc 56]

I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed by this status report - and the general progress altogether. I orbit forums and website almost every day and I still hope for this game to become that unique zombie-apocalypse-survivial-simulator, but I always feel like the promises and talk about stuff that cannot be shown yet get's me more excited that what is EVERY time.

I feel like everything DayZ has to actually show off at this point - be it in game or "development videos" (sorry but I cannot help but put these in sarcastic quotation marks) - is borderline irrelevant at best. That weirdly low-res beard-texture video is as sad as it gets in that respect.

I mean 3 years ago this open huge map was a fantastic selling point in itself - I remeber a friend asking me the first time he played "are there other maps like towns or airports" and then I could with a big grin on my face tell him that we can just go to a town or an airport and it was blowing his mind.

A lot has happened since then and "showing off" the DayZ Map today is more of an embarrasing endeavor. Just Cause 3's map is 4 times as big and filled with so much detail that the comparision alone would not make sense (please don't bother making comments about me comparing JC to DayZ unless you really have too much spare time).

I hate dissing the dev team because I'm a delevoper myself but with the biggest updates being in areas that are either widely ignored or just removing zombies altogether... I mean c'mon this early-access game didn't sell 3m copies because people thought it'd be a good investment but because it was FUN AND PLAYABLE for my group and me when it went on sale. Now it's absolutely irrelevant. Why not keep a fun build around just for people to play instead of this nonsensical Exp/Stable Update scheme? I mean c'mon they talk about "blocking issues" for even a experimental push and then decide to remove the zombies in stable? Knowing how insanely long it takes them to cook up another update? That wasn't a blocking issue? 

 

Oh man, I'm tired writing this.

TL;DR: Blame it on my disappointed faint hope for a surprise Halloween Update. Fucking pumpkings with lights in it to bump up the mood in Chernarus might have been enough - but maybe they are actually unable to do even that.

[boneboys 7988]

  On 11/1/2015 at 7:09 AM, TheMightyLC said:

P.S. Now that I'm venting anyways, This son-of-a-bitch grey-on-black shit-colorscheme of a forum gives me morning sickness. 

If on PC then Change Theme...(bottom left).

If on Mobile Use Full Version...(bottom left).

Don't worry the morning sickness will pass !

Experiment.

[IMT 3190]

  On 11/1/2015 at 8:43 AM, Boneboys said:

If on PC then Change Theme...(bottom left).

If on Mobile Use Full Version...(bottom left).

Don't worry the morning sickness will pass !

Experiment.

I like the white one as well. :D Edited November 1, 2015 by IMT

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

  On 11/1/2015 at 7:06 AM, TheMightyLC said:

-snip- Fucking pumpkings with lights in it to bump up the mood in Chernarus might have been enough - but maybe they are actually unable to do even that.

 

 

You lack patience and perspective.

 

And you can keep your fucking pumpkins, leprechaun outfits, pilgrim hats, santa hats, and similar holiday easter egg garbage out of my game thank you.

 

There is nothing else like DayZ either on the market currently or historically.

 

You've been involved with DayZ for 3 years and brought nothing to the conversation here other than your tears and your short sighted and ignorant criticisms.

 

Give this game another 6 months and posts like yours will be empty pointless speech, long since forgotten.

[wasnu (DayZ) 392]

  On 11/1/2015 at 2:05 AM, Avant-Garde said:

You know, melee could benefit from the skill progression as well. You see, imagine that when you start a new avatar, he/she only knows how to do basic horizontal swings, no parry, no dodge and no "riposte" at this early stage. As you progress killing zeds and players if necessary, your avatar "learns" how to do overhead swings, how to parry, how to dodge and so on. it would be amazing imo guys, this progression could also happen in how much damage you parry, so for example a fresh spawn would have trouble parrying a sledgehammer without getting hurt, while a melee focused player would rekt everyone left and right, having a edge especially against zombies, for example. This only adds to the teamplay element of this game as I see it.

 

tbh this game is about fireguns. you will not live long enough to get a good melee fighter.

 

someone will find this "one" bullet which fits to his gun and your head.

[VahidkinG 192]

  On 11/1/2015 at 5:48 PM, wasnu said:

tbh this game is about fireguns. you will not live long enough to get a good melee fighter.

 

someone will find this "one" bullet which fits to his gun and your head.

 

I give you the beans.

 

melee fighting it's just not for this game at current state. it's for a very hardcore one with like 30 guns max at the server. i do think melee fighting needs enhancement, but not a priority.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

A melee soft skill should be tied to fighting infected only.

 

If I killed a 1,000 infected I might get better at it over time.