Status Report - 01 Mar 2016

[SMoss 2101]

 

Afternoon Survivors,

For this week, Brian Hicks (Lead Producer), Peter Nespesny (Lead Designer), and Miroslav Maněna (Lead Gameplay Programmer) will let us in on details regarding the CLE, the new engine + renderer, and upcoming plans and work for the damage system and Enforce script among other things.

Contents This Week

• Development Board Spotlight
• Dev Update/Hicks
• Dev Update/Peter
• Dev Update/Mirek
• Community Spotlight: NinjaYourself - One Life Series

 

Development Board Spotlight

 

Dev Update/Hicks

Greetings Survivors,

As mentioned as a high possibility, we ended up passing our internal goal for putting 0.60 in consumers hands. However, this was expected as a high chance. We are of course working hard on getting it ready, and on to experimental branch as soon as possible. Our work currently is focused on optimization of the performance inside major cities in Chernarus. New Chernogorsk has caused us some performance hickups we want to resolve to an acceptable playable frame rate. The engine team has a daunting task ahead of them, focusing on the last few hurdles to unlock the capabilities of the renderer while still combating and improving legacy engine scene management. With trouble areas in the DirectX 9 area dipping as low as the mid teens in some situations, we consider it critical to isolate those areas and ensure we can hold a stable 30fps (In Direct X 11) in them. Globally, frame rates on average can be in the 40 to 60 range on average - so obviously our focus right now is in those major cities. It is key to keep in mind as said many times before - this is just the first iteration. In addition to continuing bugfixes on into beta and the 1.0 release, the new renderer technology will open up many new particle effects to the design team, and we'll be working with GPU manufacturers for cross testing to isolate areas in which hardware specific optimizations can be made.

Tasks Completed:

- Implementation of all base renderer features
- Simulweather/True Sky Implementation

Current Focus:

- Optimization of major cities
- Dynamic Lights
- Finalization of New Renderer Settings UI/Options
- Implementation of New UI
- Bug Fix, Bug Fix, Bug Fix

I'm confident that a global increase in frame rate playability, as well as a huge upgrade in the visuals in DayZ are going to be well worth the work that has gone into the part of the Enfusion engine, and I can't wait to share it with you all. While .60 obviously focuses most heavily on implementing the engine's new renderer - .60 also has continued iteration on the Central Economy (something I think many people don't realize is VERY critical to the DayZ experience) with the audit mentioned in previous Status Reports complete, as well as changes to the tagging for weapons. Changes to vehicle spawn points, initial attachments, and finally - weapons are both spawning with random attachments AND a chance to spawn with magazines that have a random amount of ammo inside them.

Beyond .60 - the teams next major updates focus is primarily on the new animation system and player controller. For the end user, it is important to understand these large engine changes have been holding back fixes on a lot of legacy issues with the title, as well as much larger over all changes to how DayZ plays - including, but not limited to DayZ's new user actions - something that I feel paired with the renderer, and new UI complete a 3 part massive change to how DayZ *plays*. In addition, the gameplay programming team's work on the new damage system - which will be explained in a bit more detail below by Lead Gameplay Programmer Mirek. The members of the programming team focusing on the Central Economy also continue to work on the deployable version of the CLE & Database structure for use by both mod authors and private server operators alike - as well as functionality for DayZ's local offline mode. 

On the Early Access / Community side - our forum transition is complete, and DayZ.com forums are back online. As some of you may know the feedback tracker is offline while we transition to a new software option for it. This shouldn't be down too much longer, as it is critical to providing an outlet to those testing DayZ's development builds to communicate the issues they encounter while doing so.
We know that members of the community have wanted to see an increase or change in the format of our outbound communication, and that too has received some love this month. We've done some restructuring in the processes behind these, as well as the structure of responsibilities. We're hoping that over the coming month you'll all enjoy the changes in this area - and we'll be keeping an eye on your reactions.

- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

 

 

Dev Update/Peter

New user actions framework in Enforce Script has been completed and while all actions are being rewritten into it they rely on a connection to the new player and new animation system, we have also looked at crafting processes currently used in game and usage of activities available in DayZ such as preparing fireplace and cooking, creating electricity system, construction of non portable structures, vehicle maintenance, growing crops, placement of objects, weapons handling, interacting with objects in world, doors barricading and others.

With such wide spectrum of different activities which were continuously implemented through the development and honestly most of them ended in prototype, unfinished or experimental state is easy that their usage can become inconsistent especially when we were trying different approaches to it over time. Now during general rewrite of scripted game systems and mechanics to Enforce script and overall heading towards Beta release it's a great time to overhaul everything which makes sense to overhaul and can be reasonable achieved in tight timeframe. Our aim is to bring as much consistency as we can into very different behaviors to unify and simplify them thus they become much more clear and understandable to players. I'm very proud that vision of physicality, tangibility and strong visual feedback through the whole game and it's actions and activities is becoming the reality which is, to be honest, quite unique in games nowadays. For example you can look forward to reinforcing the rule of hands even in crafting which become really close to user actions, or stretching the functionality of quick slots beyond their usual behavior seen in games.

For greatestest experiences it's immersion that matters... See you in Chernarus folks!

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

 

 

Dev Update/Mirek

The legacy Arma damage system was designed only for ranged weapons, which means that every hit was an explosion. But when we've added close range weapons, we've found that this system isn't suitable and it's difficult to balance properly.

It was hard to set up how much damage will be applied to different parts of character's body, and how this damage will be modified when characters has different types of armor and so on. We’ve decided the best solution is to write a completely new system for this, which will allow us to have several different types of hits and wounds, which will allow us to add more game features and easily balance them.

Together with this, we're changing the process of damage synchronization between client and server, so this new damage system will be more efficient for server performance and network traffic, and be  secure against the possibility of cheating.

The new damage system is now pushed to our designers, who are creating the initial setup, at which point we will begin testing internally. The team is also working on performance and network optimizations and bug-fixing some major inventory issues.

- Miroslav Maněna / Lead Gameplay Programmer

 

 

Community Spotlight: NinjaYourself - One Life Series

How long can you keep a single character alive? Depending on playstyle, that might vary quite a bit. This week we'll have a look at NinjaYourself and a series of videos he's created, "One Life Series", in which he showcases the many encounters, both friendly and hostile, of one of his characters.

Part 3 @9:33 - That is one big bunch of team members!

Taking the amount of encounters into account, it is quite impressive that NinjaYourself managed to keep that character alive for that long. Well done sir!

As a content creator, there is of course a lot of material available on his Youtube account, and you can follow his Twitch account for updates and news in relation to new videos that he pumps out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ninjayourself
http://twitter.com/NinjaYourself

In case you also have a nice video containing DayZ footage you'd like to share, or if you have come across some DayZ footage from other content creators, just post it in the Gallery section of the DayZ forums and we'll be more than happy to have a look.

Header image credit: Lucy ☕ away

- Michael aka SMoss / Community Manager

 

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

All of these developments sound very promising!!

Thank you devs/all!

I have not played DayZ in quite some time in anticipation of .60 and I am anxious to get back into Chernarus.

It's great to hear that so much is going into reworking important game play features!

Save the frames!

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

 "For great experiences it's immersion that matters..." - Peter

You.....I like you. It's very reassuring to hear that directly from the lead designer. 

@Hicks_206 (DayZ) Any word on the infected and the dynamic spawning system? Did that have to take a backseat due to the other major things happening? 

[[DGN] Johnny 115]

Very cool, keep up the good work!

[The Riddler (DayZ) 410]

39 minutes ago, ☣BioHaze☣ said:

All of these developments sound very promising!!

Thank you devs/all!

I have not played DayZ in quite some time in anticipation of .60 and I am anxious to get back into Chernarus.

It's great to hear that so much is going into reworking important game play features!

Save the frames!

Indeed, save the frames!!! Very nice to see the hit box system is being completely re-worked. That really made me smile. 

[Coheed_IV 381]

3 hours ago, SMoss said:

For example you can look forward to reinforcing the rule of hands even in crafting which become really close to user actions, or stretching the functionality of quick slots beyond their usual behavior seen in games.

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

Is "hands" plural or singular?

I'm really interested to see where "actions and quick-slots" design goes. It all makes more sense in my mind with two hands, for two items. Regardless, thanks for the awesome update Peter!

Edited March 1, 2016 by placidpaul

[w1ked (DayZ) 0]

Now im noticing there is no expected date now, when originally it was supposed to be the end of february..

 

Does this mean .60 is pushed back indefinitely? With no expected date? Because after reading this, it seems that you are no where close to releasing .60 in any stage, whether experimental or stable...

This is a little concerning for me because it seems you are blowing smoke up our asses... (for lack of a better term, and i mean no disrespect)

 

 

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

4 hours ago, w1ked (DayZ) said:

Now im noticing there is no expected date now, when originally it was supposed to be the end of february..

-snip-

 

 

They said they hoped to get .60 out by the end of February.

That's a far cry from a promise.

Just relax and find something else to distract you from the excruciating wait.

We've still got a very long way to go.

Need I remind US all.

[Noctoras 409]

Weapon sway, weapons sounds, more guns, weapon attachments, random weapon load, damage system ... No, I cannot claim that I am impressed or happy with the priorities the game is setting currently. No new survival content, just some more weapon fetishism. Damage system would be somewhat interesting, if melee weapons were really used, buit with guns as abundant as food .... well.

Basically the report doesn't hold any news (renderer is nice, but we know that it's in the works) but the highest amount of community videos ever (I think youtube is sufficient, would not need this as part of the status report).

I know some people will disagree with me, but hey, after all the praise in previous posts in this thread, I feel okay adding my beef ;)

[ToySmokes 116]

1 hour ago, Noctoras said:

Weapon sway, weapons sounds, more guns, weapon attachments, random weapon load, damage system ... No, I cannot claim that I am impressed or happy with the priorities the game is setting currently. No new survival content, just some more weapon fetishism. Damage system would be somewhat interesting, if melee weapons were really used, buit with guns as abundant as food .... well.

Basically the report doesn't hold any news (renderer is nice, but we know that it's in the works) but the highest amount of community videos ever (I think youtube is sufficient, would not need this as part of the status report).

I know some people will disagree with me, but hey, after all the praise in previous posts in this thread, I feel okay adding my beef ;)

I somewhat agree with you! While i read every status report in joy and I always get more or less hyped no matter what "news" they write about, I can't help but feel that they have left the survival aspect of the game a bit. Yes they are improving the Central Economy, which is VERY important for how this game is going play as they mentioned, but that seems to be pretty much it. Otherwise they are still expanding, it seems, on the concept of people running and gunning, don't caring about ammo amount or how much noise they are creating. I think it's a step in the wrong direction to add more guns and make them more enjoyable before they take a look at the other agressiv aspects of the game. What they should actually focus on is the hand and melee combat that would bring more depth to the actual apocalypse feel of the game in my opinion. If they won't try and focus less on the military aspect of the game instead of the "civilian" I feel like this game will never succeed in coming out of that period where nearly everyone run around in military gear and is shooting others just for fun constantly.

Edit: Otherwise I am really enjoying the work the devs seems to put into their work and I am really happy to see things happening with the visuals, whether it's graphical or animations! 

Sorry if you find weird sentences. English is not my first language!   

Edited March 3, 2016 by mrcatusman

[emuthreat 2837]

I would be interested to know which aspects of the CLE are to be changed for.60.
It would be great to see something resembling patchnotes for .60. (I believe DayZ calls them Standup Notes)

You know, like a bullet point list of things that have, or will have changed for the release of .60.  It would be nice to actually see a list of the new things to test again.  I remember when that was actually a thing; where the status reports would address the finite list of things actually going into the next patch with some degree of detail.  I miss that...
 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 4, 2016 by emuthreat

[voxframe 31]

15 hours ago, Noctoras said:

Weapon sway, weapons sounds, more guns, weapon attachments, random weapon load, damage system ... No, I cannot claim that I am impressed or happy with the priorities the game is setting currently. No new survival content, just some more weapon fetishism. Damage system would be somewhat interesting, if melee weapons were really used, buit with guns as abundant as food .... well.

Basically the report doesn't hold any news (renderer is nice, but we know that it's in the works) but the highest amount of community videos ever (I think youtube is sufficient, would not need this as part of the status report).

I know some people will disagree with me, but hey, after all the praise in previous posts in this thread, I feel okay adding my beef ;)

I have to agree with this as well.

The damage systems etc are nice... But whoever is creating content or steering that group needs to take a break from the guns, and even weapons in general. Survival and crafting are coming along quite well, but it would be much nicer to see more content and focus in that area than the damned guns all the time. I also have to agree that the damage system is somewhat wasteful if there isn't a break from the gun fetish. It's getting laughable when the updates look like "We have a stove, but it's still insta-burning! ... Oh but we have this rifle, that handgun, new scopes, mags, and are working on the ballistics system". In my mind, the guns are done. Stop wasting dev time on them for now. The inventory is more than adequate for testing/beta purposes, so please move away from the firearms until the game moves to beta at the very least.

Another +1 on the videos. Status reports are great, but also require more in depth info than just a pile of youtube videos. We have enough comic relief in here from other users, we don't really need shoutouts from the devs. A bullet list with actual dev tasks and issues would be worth far more than some fun videos.

I realize it's hard to post news when there really is no news. But followups are nice with some perhaps in depth info as to what's going on behind the scenes. It's nice that you're working on "X" system, but maybe outline some of the challenges involved. "X doesn't work right now because this counter isn't incrementing as it should due to a desync issue etc." (I must admit, you guys are doing this somewhat... but more would be great. We're not afraid of tech talk, otherwise we wouldn't be here in Alpha stage testing).

[bingo_fuel 205]

10 hours ago, emuthreat said:

I would be interested to know which aspects of the CLE are to be changed for.60.
It would be great to see something resembling patchnotes for .60. (I believe DayZ calls them Standup Notes)

You know, like a bullet point list of things that have, or will have changed for the release of .60.  It would be nice to actually see a list of the new things to test again.  I remember when that was actually a thing; where the status reports would address the finite list of things actually going into the next patch with some degree of detail.  I miss that...
 

 

Hidden Content

 

 

Maybe the changes are the audit that was explained in the last status report?

[SMoss 2101]

On 04/03/2016 at 3:12 PM, voxframe said:

Another +1 on the videos. Status reports are great, but also require more in depth info than just a pile of youtube videos. We have enough comic relief in here from other users, we don't really need shoutouts from the devs. A bullet list with actual dev tasks and issues would be worth far more than some fun videos.

I realize it's hard to post news when there really is no news. But followups are nice with some perhaps in depth info as to what's going on behind the scenes. It's nice that you're working on "X" system, but maybe outline some of the challenges involved. "X doesn't work right now because this counter isn't incrementing as it should due to a desync issue etc." (I must admit, you guys are doing this somewhat... but more would be great. We're not afraid of tech talk, otherwise we wouldn't be here in Alpha stage testing).

I hear you, and don't worry, info directly related to development of DayZ would never be replaced by such videos.