My Dayz Story (two years later)

[oompah 58]

I decided to hop on a see how Dayz is looking as it's been a LONG time since I last tried a run through Chernarus.

 

logged in and my graphics were screwed up; game looked worse than a commodore 64 game.  resolution was set to 600 x 480 and other settings were just randomly weird.  I hit "set video settings to high" and after it re-configured it was even worse somehow.

 

After playing around for 5 minutes and restarting the game twice I got things working and the game looked pretty good

 

spawned in Elektro, so I ran for the fire station.  I got there ok (I was a black woman for some reason)  but couldn't climb the steps; not sure what was wrong.

 

I ran down to the grocery store and found it empty; in fact the only thing I found in the first 15 minutes of playing were clothing items and lots of them, all colors and types of shirts, hats, shoes, pants - so much fun.

 

I heard some gun shots, which was kind of exciting, and followed the shooter.  I grabbed a hammer and was going to try to take a swing, but I lost him.  Just then I realized there are no zombies in the game. really... no zombies?

 

I met another friendly spawn and asked about the fire station bug but never got an answer.  I actually went back  and tried again but still had no luck climbing the stairs, no clue.

 

Ran into a third guy with an axe, who eventually killed the first friendly I met after we grouped up and ran through town - finding nothing but clothes.  The first friendly gave me some food, so the annoying "you feel hungry" notice finally stopped flashing for me.

 

 

In theory making all buildings enterable sounds cool, but in practice adding tons of new ways to find red shirts actually makes the game play more tedious.  In the mod you would just run for the handful of buildings and get valuable loot, now you crawl through miles of houses finding nothing and more nothing

 

after the axe guy killed my friend (I think being a woman saved me) I ran north and came across a deer stand and found a .308 hybrid break action pistol thingy, cool.  I also found a snap loader for a shotgun (umm ok) and several gun parts - butt stock, hand rail, etc...  

 

Two things struck me at this point.  I miss the creepy music the mod used to play in the background, to me when I first started playing it created a cool backdrop and tension, and two I don't find it fun/rewarding that there are thousands of combinations of gun parts and ammo.   You can seemingly search forever and fill your inventory up with nothing but disparate, non-compatible, gun items, ammo and attachments.  This time (and the last time I played) I ended up with 4 or 5 weapons 4 or 5 types of ammo and none matched.

 

In the mod when you found a gun you almost always found some matching ammo with it - which was awesome, now the whole thing it just feels laborious.

 

I didn't yet have a backpack, so I had to hold the .308 in my hand as I climbed down from the deer stand.  I climbed down and starting running north but realized the gun was no longer in my hand.  I went back and it was in the deer stand.  I tried again to get the gun and get out of the deer stand.  No luck, tried again, no luck.  Tried standing near the edge of the deer stand and dropping it, but it would always remain in the deer stand.

 

I really didn't want to give up my weapon, after a while I was able through trial and error to hold the gun in the action position and climb down, this allowed the gun to stay in my hand after I was finished climbing... good work dev team, can't wait to see what works after three years.

 

I ran north, stopped a few places over the next hour, found a little bit of food and water and a backpack and lots of clothing (clothing sim FTW).  I actually picked up three guns: an  AK, a shotgun, and the pistol - no ammo at all though.

 

Most buildings were empty, or had ... a hat maybe.  So to this point I have been walking through a lot of useless buildings praying to see some AK rounds or something.

 

I continued north not seeing any more players.  I did have a cool encounter with a herd of elk, one big bull with a giant rack with four females, so that was actually cool.  My pistol had a scope so I was able to watch them graze from a distance.  When I finally ran up on them they did get spooked and the females took off while the bull stood in place stuck in a running animation, derp.

 

I was getting close now to the NW air field, woo hoo, when I saw a vehicle.  I guess there are finally a few in the game now.  It was in the middle of an open field, hmmm.  I was able to get to it, there were no repair options, from what I could tell it looked fine (no damage visible), I couldn't see any reason why it wouldn't work, but it wouldn't.  I was able to enter it and had an option to "start engine" but nothing happened.  There was no feedback as to why- no mention of gas, damage, nothing, just no deal, so I ran on.

 

about 3 minutes later while running through a small glade I heard a groan and my character went prone.  After about a second the screen says "you have a fractured leg", at first I thought someone shot me maybe with a silenced weapon, but no, nothing I guess I just stepped on a rock or something?

 

I remember that you can fix a broken leg by making a splint with some sticks and some cloth.  I had cloth but no sticks.  If you have an axe you can chop down a small bush to get some sticks, however for the past 1-2 hours I have seen nary an axe, odd because from what I remember from before dayz seemed more like an axe simulator.  But now I had a sinking feeling that I was never going to find an axe.  Luckily though I was right near a bunch of barns, barns used to have a high probability of having an axe in the mod so woo hoo.  I crawl to the barns, three of them in a little outcrop on the edge of the town south of the airfield, no axes.  seriously game?

 

I crawl to at least 20 buildings, no axe, nothing.  The hell with it, I'll side roll to the airfield just for lols.  On my way there though another player decided to shoot me before I could complete my crawl for glory.

 

So my journey ended, a quick recap

 

1. no zombies

2. lots of bugs

3. vehicles, sort of

4. clothing simulator

5. axes removed

6. random broken leg

7. weapons and ammo is a frustrating game of hope and pray

 

two years later dayz SA is s till a giant step backwards from the mod 

[KenoSkir88 181]

1. The game isn't finished.

 

2. It was never meant to be a DayZ Mod clone.

 

3. There are bugs (see point 1) but in many ways that you've chosen to ignore Standalone is far in advance of the mod already.

 

4. Why would you sign up to TEST a game IN DEVELOPMENT and then write a long and butt-hurt forum post about how it isn't finished yet? We're ALL here to help the devs test these bugs not to pop in once a year to troll the forums and leave. I bet you actually raised 0 points on the bug tracker, and decided instead to come here to vent about something you're doing nothing to fix.

 

5. Call of Duty is "Thataway" if DayZ is too hard for ya, the rest of us actually find it a bit too easy currently.

[oompah 58]

easy soldier

 

game is three plus years into dev and I can't carry an item out of a deer stand and break a leg while walking, to me that's not complaining, rather that's pointing out some obvious lack of project road mapping, how were such fundamental things missed in the design document?

 

I supported this game and bought a copy for me and my son.  I have a right to post once a year to reflect my thoughts on the product and point out that simplistic core parts of the game are still broken or missing (zombies).

 

I am not calling for a boycott or asking for anyone to be fired, so you can rest easy.

[edwin3 74]

remains the fact that mostly anything you "refelect" (e.g. complain) about is well know and has been speaked bout in the status reports. basically your whole effort is redundant, as you are pointing out well known issues, which were explained, understood and are being worked on.

 

oh, and and by the way; in the mod, if you played half a day/year - you didnt achieve nothing but cruel death and would have been happy bout some clothing ;P

Edited November 9, 2015 by edwin3

[Bororm 1156]

While it would be nice to be able to climb ladders with stuff in your hands, it seems like a reasonable design decision to me that you can't.  It's a bug/glitch that you're some times able to with something in your hands.  You can throw items btw, and while it's sorta a bitch to throw items out of deerstands, and throwing is buggy in general, it is possible.

 

You can cut bushes with knives for sticks, you don't need an axe.  You can make a stone knife easily.  Axes are still pretty common though honestly.

 

The truck needed a battery/glowplug.  It doesn't tell you that, but why should it really.  If you try to start a car irl it doesn't tell you what's wrong.  A visual representation of the missing parts under the hood would be cool though, and I think that is maybe planned?

 

The game is about 2 years into development btw, not 3.

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

 

game is three plus years into dev

 

Not quite two, but so close! DayZ SA released December 16, 2013. 

[Mullraugh 1151]

You haven't followed the development from the start. DayZ SA is making tons of progress, you just haven't been here to witness it

 or actively support it, might I add.

 

Progress isn't made from people whining and complaining. It's made from people who are proactive and supply constructive criticism.

 

Your first time playing this game shouldn't be rainbows and sunshine and firearms out the ass. If anything, it should be just as relentless, lonely and boring as you've described it.

 

 

Also, I like this little tidbit.

 

"...Ran into a third guy with an axe"

 

-snip-

 

"...5. axes removed"

Edited November 10, 2015 by mullraugh

[Walking Wounded 199]

Hi there. I recently re downloaded dayz and fired it back up to see how things were getting along. its been a year and a half or there abouts since I last played. hewre are my thoughts.

 

positives:

 

map is very full of new content in terms of areas, towns, features and overall chern is a much more vivid and richer environment

 

items and crafting seem to be pretty well fleshed out. theres a good array of clothing, items and weapons.

 

Animations are nice.. very nice. SKS especially. the game looks,feels and perfoms really well on my system.

 

negatives:

 

Not sure how the current loot spawn system works but spawn areas and many areas of the map are infested with hats, shirts and various other guff and not much else. northern areas seem richer its as though spawning of loot is not evenly distrubuted in relation to play activity.

 

infected.. none... animals only saw a group of deer once in about 9 hours play. I hear that animals and infected are removed and will be in the next patch( still pretty bad that theres literally nothing to do other than collect hats and shirts :P)

 

overall game feels polished yet very empty right now. perhaps I got unlucky with my timing coming back still if you look at SA from an outside perspective games have been made from scratch, flourished and died in the time that SA has had to develop.

 

I will no doubt faff about a bit for a couple of days then uninstall it and come back after christmas. fallout 4 is out now and i reckon falllout 5 will be out before SA is the finished article.

 

:rolleyes:

[trueffel 5]

Hm, but it´s quite a fact that DayZ has not really changed in two years. For me it feels like the same plus some extras. I think the new renderer throw them back and the lack of experience.

[oompah 58]

EA was released Dec 2013 - two years

 

prior to that game was worked on for a year +

 

3 years in Dev

[oompah 58]

my point was that before you add vehicles that need spark plugs, or herds of elk, crafting etc... you should probably

 

have zombies in the game (I can see their point though, if they can't get them right remove them)

allow steps to be climbed

be able to carry items seamlessly down a ladder

not break a leg while walking

have video options work and set sensibly when the game loads

 

 

any good programmers knows (and I write code for a living) that you create a design document and a construction roadmap to follow and get the basic, core, functionality working and through QA before adding in more complex, new features

 

those core things I mentioned above worked in the mod, not sure how the design team at Bohemia got so off track on this project.

[NewArk 39]

Be prepared to get flamed some more! ;)

 

As much as I can understand your critizism, if you're not able to set the video options right, maybe you're to much of a casual to play ea-games?

How come that every critic of this bloody game is programmer or game developer him/herself?

Coincidence? :D

 

 

 

 

[Kleiduif 1]

You could also read about all the surving possibilities and do some research.

This game is a SURVIVAL game, which should not be too easy, there are enough PVP games for the easy bloodlusting game experiences.

Just live the character as if your life depends on it and it will be a much better game, if you are into this. If not, just uninstall and play something else.

 

About the broken leg, true, it happens sometimes that it's broken or hurt, but these bugs will also be fixed someday ;)

 

Now, did you know, you can also FIND sticks? Just walk up to any tree and click "search for sticks" and VOILA you can craft yourself a little split and continue walking without any discomfort!

Nature provides you with everything you need to survive (apples, berries, fish, stones which u can turn into a little knife, etc...) 

 

About gear, it would be so damn boring if you would just check 10 houses and are ready to kill random players (I have a slight feeling you are this kind of player).

I'd rather sneak up village to village, staying of main roads, hiding in the shadows and bushes, watching my back for people like you AND THEN when you find something amazing, you will feel far more rewarded! This is the reason why I bought this game and I hope it continues like this, it would be a shame if this turns into an average shooter game with all these silly complaints about how "difficult" it is. It's still too easy in my opinion. Searching for food and water in an Apocalypse can never be easy!

 

Be the survivor, live and survive!

[oompah 58]

it wasn't that I wasn't able to get my video settings set - it was that when the game launched it was defaulted to 600x480 and was so blurry I felt like Mr. McGoo.  Some draw distance setting was set to 75%, my UI ratio was set 1 to 1

 

i have a modern PC with a fairly high end vid card, why wouldn't my video default to my native windows resolution at a minimum, with my HUD a more natural 4:3 or 16:9 ratio?

 

Things like that after 3 years still don't work?

 

I might expect that after 6 months of dev time or prior to an EA release.  These are pretty simple oddly broken items that were visible as soon as I started to try to play.

 

I am a programmers, i write business software for a living.  I assume coding a game like Dayz is a massive undertaking, but the core process remains the same....get the basic things working and solidly passed through an extensive QA process (which I assume Bohemia can afford to do) before adding new things, and if those new things break the core things don't certify the build.

[oompah 58]

yea I mean to each his own on game play decisions like how rare should useful items be.  That's subjective.  I don't have a whole lot of free time to game in my life, so searching 4 hours to find a banana isn't that appealing to me, but I get it, DayZ SA probably isn't for me.

 

The bigger point I was making though is how could such visibly broken things pass the most simple QA process?  Things like the deer stand issue, the non climbable ladder is the fire station, the stuck elk animation, the wonky video settings, the broken leg from walking issue etc...

[NewArk 39]

I hear you. My time for gaming is also very limited, which is a pity.

Daisy in its momentary state can be frustrating at times, but the things you are mentioning are avoidable.

For the firestation stairs just press v to vault. The deerstand thingy: put the bloody item in your pocket/pack or throw it.

And c'mon, the video settings take 10 freaking seconds to set up. ;)

I don't want to defend all the design and development issues, really, i dont. But i like the bohemia guys. I played their games since operation flashpoint and was mostly pleased.

If you like the setting and the look of chernarus, and like roaming through the beautiful woods, give it some more time and you get used to the inconviniences.

Best is to play the game with some people. I allready had tons of fun with it! :thumbsup:

[oompah 58]

vaulting didn't work I tried it, nothing happened, I attempting vaulting away from the stairs and it worked, so vaulting was working in general just not at the steps.

 

Oh I understand there are work arounds; if I handed off a program to a customer and told them "I know it looks bad in your browser here are a list of work-arounds" I wouldn't have a job

 

It's a cardinal sin to have the first interaction with a product be a mess.  It's hard to understand why Bohemia wouldn't want to ensure the opening 5 minutes of gameplay are smooth and user friendly.  The issue with the video settings being completely screwed up has been a recurring theme for me.  I check back on dayz every 4-6 months and it seems more often that not the first thing I am greeted with is this  mess.

[NewArk 39]

Ok, maybe the current state is to unpolished for you. Give it some time is all I can say or play some other stuff.

For the video issues, what are your specs? Maybe you got a crappy rig or something is not configured properly?

Have you tried the mod allready, which is based on arma2?

 

Edit: There is a thread in the stickies which explains how to set up the video settings: https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/203970-resolution-problems-read-here-before-posting/

Edited November 10, 2015 by NewArk

[Merc. 37]

Read through the posts and seems most of your original notes have been addressed. Main thing seems to be the development road map to you, and the resolution settings thing. 

 

From what I have seen They are focusing on putting in all the features now in alpha, making playable somewhat with QA, and throwing it in. Once they get all the huge features in the game, the real bug fixing happens. Things that are broken in the game are things that being fixed too.

 

As far as your ladder problem goes, press/hold G to throw an item down. Why can't you carry it down? Because you need both of your hands to climb down a ladder. If you feel it should be different, suggest it in the suggestions forum instead of buried in your "My Dayz Story) thread in the general discussions section. 

 

Climbing stairs with a broken leg. That would be a great.... SUGGESTION. See instructions above.

[oompah 58]

my PC is a standard rig with some higher end stuff: i-7 cpu nvidia 770 card - 32 GB ram, win 7 pro, SSD HD

 

I have loads of games and apps, the only one I have ever seen wig out the graphics settings and so regularly is DayZ SA.  It's not a deal breaker for me because I enjoy the game.  My point has just been how can such glaring core issues still be so common 3 + years along the dev cycle.

[oompah 58]

I didn't have a broken leg when I couldn't climb the fire station steps.  I was full health just spawned in.

 

to your point about climbing a ladder with a gun in hand or as someone else mentioned using a knife to gather sticks... well come on now, if you want to get literal and treat this game as a real life sim you don't think in real life I could carry a pistol down an 8 foot ladder?  Or if magic sticks fixed a broken leg I couldn't just rip a branch off of a tree with my bare hands.

 

the point of post has also been a simple one: how can such fundamental things still be broken 3 + years into development

[Merc. 37]

My only guess is they are working on much larger features than fire station steps. Don't know why you had that problem, I didn't have that happen. 

 

For the ladder gun thing, like I said, suggest it in the suggestions forum. Personally, I think drawing the line at not being able to carry something while climbing a ladder is fine. Once you cross it, then the argument will become "why can't I shoot from the ladder with my gun?"

Edited November 10, 2015 by yocheco619

[oompah 58]

well I think the ladder issue isn't so much that I object to the game rule being "a player can not carry a gun in his hand while climbing down a ladder".  I believe the "game" tries to put the gun into an inventory slot and when one doesn't exist it puts it back in the deer stand, pretty derpy logic, but that's just my opinion.  To add on that the animation very elegantly shows the gun in my hand while climbing down the ladder, the animation actually looked good.  So the devs went to the effort of showing a smooth, good looking image of the gun in my hand but then magically removed it because i didn't have enough inventory slots to hold it after i climbed down.  This mismatch should have been found years ago, at least I think it's fair to think that.

 

I know Dayz is a big undertaking and that lots of complicated things do work, it just makes me scratch my head when i still see so many basic things not working.

[KenoSkir88 181]

my point was that before you add vehicles that need spark plugs, or herds of elk, crafting etc... you should probably

 

have zombies in the game (I can see their point though, if they can't get them right remove them)

allow steps to be climbed

be able to carry items seamlessly down a ladder

not break a leg while walking

have video options work and set sensibly when the game loads

 

 

any good programmers knows (and I write code for a living) that you create a design document and a construction roadmap to follow and get the basic, core, functionality working and through QA before adding in more complex, new features

 

those core things I mentioned above worked in the mod, not sure how the design team at Bohemia got so off track on this project.

 

The way you talk about technical issues and bugs makes me suspect you know quite little about professional software coding.

 

So does the fact you can't understand why graphics issues aren't fixed already in Alpha.

[oompah 58]

I know a good deal about software coding, my company is small but we serve globally.  I don't know anything about game design or working on larger teams.  I am sure it's a massive undertaking.  I still can't believe the level of low-sophistication level bugs that are into this game 3+ years later.  Take all other arguments aside.  I can see there are plenty of cool, complicated meta game components that are working, but after three years I still break a leg walking, can't climb stairs, load up to see a 1985-like graphic display.  I guess I am just talking out loud but how do those things get missed in the QA phase? 

 

From what I understand there are lots of other low-level bugs still floating around, it boggles my small mind...