Dealing with the frustration

[themightylc 56]

2 minutes ago, St. Jimmy said:

DayZ didn't need crowd founding but it benefit from that. The game went in early access and because the game sold way more than expected, the scope of the game got expanded. That's what we've been told.

The more I think about it... if it wasn't connected to the shaping of the development at all, if the revenue would not be going into development, it would be absolutely counter-productive. Then EA is nothing more than selling an unfinished product, cashing in the profits and nullifying the "high-level" pressure to deliver a good product. I am NOT questioning the morale of the dev team - heck, I myself would feel all the more pressured to deliver - but B.I. could care less about how many "additional" copies will be sold once the game is released.

How is this an invalid thought process? Honestly. Tell me.

[SMoss 2101]

16 hours ago, Calvin Candie said:

I'm here because I like the game and want it to succeed.

Orlok, I understand you are on side of the DayZ Dev team. Therefore your 100% biased and unrelenting determination to defend every action or inaction of the Dev team is understandable. Here is your last pearl of wisdom - "No overshoot has happened as nothing was stated about exact release"

Orlok, instead you were " hoping" to release it end of February. Since hope became a big factor in this development, let's all put in a collective prayer. Who cares about 100 broken deadlines and set goals. From now on, we just hope.

How about you and the dev team stop putting out any dates, months or any rough estimates as missing them only makes you look childish. 

No hard facts. Only blablabla

 

 

 

What's with the childish business here?

When making an estimate, there is an unknown factor that we can't calculate for: Testing. While I'm sure the leads have a good idea of how long work tasks require, they would have no idea what QA can dig up during testing. Severe bugs quite easily increase dev time significantly which cause us to go beyond initial estimates. When these extra tasks have piled up, testers do not put down controllers/peripherals and lean back in their chairs. QA keeps on churning, and in that process even more severe bugs might turn up which increases dev time even more.

When we aim for a release at around a certain time, we don't take in hope as some kind of magical factor. We all know that those who live on hope alone will die starving. Pray if you must. We'll keep working instead.

[Noctoras 409]

1 minute ago, SMoss said:

What's with the childish business here?

When making an estimate, there is an unknown factor that we can't calculate for: Testing..

True - and I for my part appreciate a rough estimate over no communication at all. But in a November status report there was a goal postet, to get out an experimental 0.60 hopefully before Christmas. And while "hopefully" for sure is no deadline, it sounds a bit weird, if we are three months later at pretty much the same point, since it is the next upcoming update, not 0.76 people are talking about. The communication strategy probably should level somewhere inbetween, rather avoid all too hopeful statements (Christmas...), but simply not talking at all or a hypercool "hey mate, it's done when it's done, comprende?" will probably also not cut it for many users.
 

I am aware you ar NOT dependent on users liking the way communication is handled. People will have to accept that and they did buy into early access. However, it would be good if some frustration with the comunication strategy by some customers should also be accepted. Be and let be ...

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

ColdAtrophy and I really enjoyed Resident Evil 5 this past weekend. (6$ sale)

That's one way we have dealt with the frustration.

He had never played much of the series and this lull in DayZ gave him a chance to try 4&5 and gave me chance to play through 5 again, which has been fun.

I'm hoping the status report due this week offers some light at the end of the never ending .59 tunnel.

[moeb1us 91]

I am quite astounded to read Hicks' statement regarding the funding, and EA having no effect on it. In fact, I'm quite sure that it was stated earlier in a different way. IIRC it could be shown on multiple examples and I suppose Brian meant it a bit different than written here.

example: light going through structures, walls etc. Community complained it would break night play and immersion. Devs said something along the lines of 'we looked into it and it's impossible to fix, sorry.'  Fast forward and the scope changed, a complete rewrite of multitudes of engines is now on the table and it is worked on for many many months, in parallel to the rest of the development. Switch to dx11 and probably even dx12 down the line. With new effects, shaders, particle effects and lighting possibilities.

The only logical explanation would be that the funding influenced that decision, what else? Isn't this one of the major purposes besides very efficient bug hunting? 

What about Bratislava team? BI would have bought a hunting game specialist for ArmA franchise anyway, regardless of money earned? What about the art team in the east, where was it, Thailand? Vietnam? Surely BI wanted to have an outsourced art studio all the time.

Brian, what in seven hells?

(to give two statements like this in such a short time. second one being the 'barrels last eight days' one. sigh.rough holidays?)

[zrudie 10]

On 26. března 2016 at 3:41 PM, Hicks_206 (DayZ) said:

No - it is not in "early funding" - Bohemia Interactive did not go to Early Access to fund DayZ's development. Our budget is not reflected based upon sales, and the company did not need sales to fund it.

Early Access was, is, and will remain an opportunity for people to get access to the title while it is being developed - at a discounted price that slowly increases as we move towards the release game, and release price. 
That is it. Steam sales, and DayZ's budget are not married in any way.

Ehmmm.. SA changed scope of development in 2014 because of SA EA sales success. So I guess, budget has been married to EA Steam sales. I see no problem in it, big win for me as consumer. It was quite apparant that change of scope of whole development brought longer development cycle and expanded number of features and changes. I guess it was even mentioned in Status Reports.

[[Gen]Adzic 241]

DayZ does tend to bring out the kid in ya.. 

 

"are we there yet?" No!

"when will we get there?" Not yet!

"are we nearly there yet?" No, stop asking!

"how long until we get there?" When we get there!

"we're never gonna get there" Stop asking then!

"are we there... Awww, I need the toilet" OH.. For Fuck Sake, tough shit you little bastard!

 

Edited April 10, 2016 by [Gen]Adzic

[zemos (DayZ) 9]

9 hours ago, [Gen]Adzic said:

ayZ does tend to bring out the kid in ya.. 

 

"are we there yet?" No!

"when will we get there?" Not yet!

"are we nearly there yet?" No, stop asking!

"how long until we get there?" When we get there!

"we're never gonna get there" Stop asking then!

"are we there... Awww, I need the toilet" OH.. For Fuck Sake, tough shit you little bastard!

 

Haha yea, but waiting 4weeks for a mc donalds or just to stop at the highway so i can  pee is a bit harsh ;D

(Dont mind to wait, but i really want 060 2months ago. (gonna be awesome!))

Edited April 11, 2016 by zemos (DayZ)

[Yuval 221]

On 3/28/2016 at 4:08 PM, SMoss said:

What's with the childish business here?

When making an estimate, there is an unknown factor that we can't calculate for: Testing. While I'm sure the leads have a good idea of how long work tasks require, they would have no idea what QA can dig up during testing. Severe bugs quite easily increase dev time significantly which cause us to go beyond initial estimates. When these extra tasks have piled up, testers do not put down controllers/peripherals and lean back in their chairs. QA keeps on churning, and in that process even more severe bugs might turn up which increases dev time even more.

When we aim for a release at around a certain time, we don't take in hope as some kind of magical factor. We all know that those who live on hope alone will die starving. Pray if you must. We'll keep working instead.

Why don't you cut the crap and don't speak business wisely? DayZ had never been accurate by its "release estimation" of any version. Never! Roadmaps were never accomplished to the half of them and the .60 release had been delayed atleast 3 times in range of more than six months. It's soon to be 2017. Either stop "estimating" your releases or hire DECENT people who can get the work done. The "unknown factor" for testing isn't so unknown when your programming team knows what they're doing. I've been programming for years and it never occured to me that I couldn't catch a very complex bug that breaks a whole system if I had a friend to help me. Let alone a freaking TEAM OF SKILLED DEVELOPERS.

Moral of the story is you don't defend DayZ's inaccuracy by saying it's only ESTIMATION. If you can't ESTIMATE than simply don't!

btw calling it a childish business is arrogantly disrespectful for those who put their faith in you 3 years ago and you let them down. People are UPSET OF YOUR DEVELOPMENT PACE. It is no one's business to know HOW will you achieve your goal or what would be the problems that could pop up in your way. These are things the company itself needs to deal with. Bugs are the result of HUMAN ERROR and LACK OF UNDERSTANDING on how to program efficiently. I am not saying people are supposed to be PERFECT. But when the development phase is riddled with bugs, then perhaps there are internal problems with the PROGRAMMERS. Understandable enough?

But Bohemia's response would always be the same wouldn't it? "Bohemia doesn't owe you the completion of the game and you purchased the early access version to participate in the active development of the game. We don't owe you any pace, progression or a finished game". Think about it morally, I know Hicks likes using this term... it is "morally wrong" to keep us the customers who FUNDED BOHEMIA, I don't care whether you claim our purchases didn't fund the DayZ's budget. It FUNDED the company, you are part of that company. Part of the team that DELIVERS YOUR PART OF THE AGREEMENT. 

You know what, if you guys are serious about development - I wish someone who is directly part of BIS or the development team CONFIRMS here, and PROMISE for the first ever time that DayZ will be RELEASED ever! I want to know whether the development team can stand behind such statement: "We promise to DELIVER A RELEASED GAME somewhen in the future". If you confirm that, perhaps we can still have hope - only if you promise that.

 

This reply up here ^ is what I call dealing with frustration. I had been an active member of this community up until recently when I realized this game goes nowhere but to empty estimations.

Edited April 11, 2016 by yuval

[stinkenheim 249]

I'm sure that such a calm and reasoned response will achieve everything you intended it to...

 

BI have said that they will continue to support the game for (iirc) 5 years after it's full release, I think that's a fairly sound commitment to both releasing a finished game and continuing to perfect it.

The roadmap was designed as internal signposts rather than when those features would be available to the general public, they have also implemented or shown evidence of the vast majority of those features. I know everyone likes to hate on the dev team but actually the bones for many of the systems are already in the game.

Filling your post with shouting and insults is not any way to create a meaningful contribution to these forums.

[SirEpicTickles 19]

I love and hate DayZ in the same time. I used to be a hardcore dayz player and now I turned to a casual one. I don't have hope, nor expectations from whatever this will turn out to be and enjoy what it is. Dayz as well as day to day life convinced me not to support unfinished products in the future and not to invest in promises as long as these don't come up with a clear contract or terms which entitle me to withdraw my funding if deadlines are not respected. So for me, DayZ was/is a paid lesson and not a loss. I work in software industry myself and been through some projects that needed to go over the deadlines, but I am aware that if we would have treated those the way BI did with DayZ, we would have paid more back to the customer than we would have earned. I hope that the software industry and laws will advance and put heavy penalties on companies that allow early payment but don't deliver in time, otherwise the quality of games will degrade severely in time. It has to be fair both for gaming studios as well as for the customers that pay the money.

[SMoss 2101]

5 hours ago, yuval said:

Why don't you cut the crap and don't speak business wisely? DayZ had never been accurate by its "release estimation" of any version. Never! Roadmaps were never accomplished to the half of them and the .60 release had been delayed atleast 3 times in range of more than six months. It's soon to be 2017. Either stop "estimating" your releases or hire DECENT people who can get the work done. The "unknown factor" for testing isn't so unknown when your programming team knows what they're doing. I've been programming for years and it never occured to me that I couldn't catch a very complex bug that breaks a whole system if I had a friend to help me. Let alone a freaking TEAM OF SKILLED DEVELOPERS.

Moral of the story is you don't defend DayZ's inaccuracy by saying it's only ESTIMATION. If you can't ESTIMATE than simply don't!

btw calling it a childish business is arrogantly disrespectful for those who put their faith in you 3 years ago and you let them down. People are UPSET OF YOUR DEVELOPMENT PACE. It is no one's business to know HOW will you achieve your goal or what would be the problems that could pop up in your way. These are things the company itself needs to deal with. Bugs are the result of HUMAN ERROR and LACK OF UNDERSTANDING on how to program efficiently. I am not saying people are supposed to be PERFECT. But when the development phase is riddled with bugs, then perhaps there are internal problems with the PROGRAMMERS. Understandable enough?

But Bohemia's response would always be the same wouldn't it? "Bohemia doesn't owe you the completion of the game and you purchased the early access version to participate in the active development of the game. We don't owe you any pace, progression or a finished game". Think about it morally, I know Hicks likes using this term... it is "morally wrong" to keep us the customers who FUNDED BOHEMIA, I don't care whether you claim our purchases didn't fund the DayZ's budget. It FUNDED the company, you are part of that company. Part of the team that DELIVERS YOUR PART OF THE AGREEMENT. 

You know what, if you guys are serious about development - I wish someone who is directly part of BIS or the development team CONFIRMS here, and PROMISE for the first ever time that DayZ will be RELEASED ever! I want to know whether the development team can stand behind such statement: "We promise to DELIVER A RELEASED GAME somewhen in the future". If you confirm that, perhaps we can still have hope - only if you promise that.

 

This reply up here ^ is what I call dealing with frustration. I had been an active member of this community up until recently when I realized this game goes nowhere but to empty estimations.

The childish comment was in response to the post I quoted.

You are free to disagree that information on estimations or release inaccuracies should be released, but that is the route we're taking:

Have deliveries been delayed? Yes. Are we happy about it? No. Will we keep working away on DayZ? Yes we will, no one has ever stated otherwise. In that regard, I think you'd be hard pressed to find any game in development where you would not find good amounts of severe bugs even beyond the alpha stage and that will most likely be the case with development of DayZ as well (either found by internal QA or players in the live environment). As always, the Early Access warning is as valid now as it was at release.

Aside from that, we do value the feedback from our playerbase, but use of caps, a patronizing tone (as in "... understandable enough?"), addressing the team in a demeaning manner, and the attempt of putting words in our mouth is not appreciated.

[S3V3N 1402]

22 minutes ago, SMoss said:

You are free to disagree that information on estimations or release inaccuracies should be released, but that is the route we're taking:

Interestingly enough, my reply to that thread seems to be the only one that got erased, as well as a slight adaptation to the tone of the original article was made. At first, this post made it sound like it's our fault for taking the goals and disclaimers too seriously. I complained about that stance, since from the onset the handling of news was with delay or simply unreliable. I complained about Hicks handling of the situation, posting every little internal goal, as if an actual milestone was reached; a lot of Dayz "newsposts" were internal achievements at best. Most of it should have never made a news release, unless it was about to be implemented.

I understand that the ice is getting thin. The new approach with goals might change some of that. In the worst case however, it will just be a glorified bug-tracker and nobody takes much of an interest. The thing is: even without a refined news system pretty much every fan knows what is wrong with the game. The renderer is not released yet - that's what's wrong. Nothing else can work, until that fix is in. And then we can all count-down the next ten things to happen, because we've been talking about them forever now, too (vehicles, predators, base-building, character controller, etc.). We really just need to know that something is happening, but I'm willing to let myself be surprised by the future level of detail of the monthly updates; I expect "monthly" is what it will come down to, after the renderer release.

The really bad idea with Dayz was to turn the game development into an engine development. What the team is doing is developing Dayz as a showcase for Bohemia's new engine. It's not there for its own sake any more. By definition of the importance, the engine comes first and then the games made on it follow. So we're really watching an engine development these days and not much of a game development at all. That's why there is never a word about balancing and improving existing features. Get the thing feature-complete, sell the Beta and make a quick and dirty release. Patch for a year afterwards. Welcome to Bohemia games!

Edited April 11, 2016 by S3V3N

[BeefBacon 1185]

@SMoss I've mentioned before that while I understand that game development takes time, I am a little disappointed at .60's delay. Despite that, I'd rather you work on getting a solid .60 rather than releasing some buggy mess now to appease the whiners.

I have other games I can play. When .60 I am going to play the shit out of DayZ for a week or two, and then I'll slink back into the shadows as I await .61 - I've done pretty much the same since I bought into DayZ, and see no reason to do any different.

I can see why people are upset. A lot of the roadmap goals - probably most of them - haven't been met on time. People expect feature X by date Y and when they don't get it they throw a tantrum. Announcing what you're working on now and what you will be working on in the near future is the best way to go about it, so I'm glad that's what you're moving towards now.

A lot of people are frustrated, probably not least of all you guys - especially when you get messages every day berating you for your perceived slow development. Even if development is particularly slow - and I'm not convinced it is - people whining about it doesn't achieve anything. Constructive criticism is quickly becoming a lost art, I think, as is patience. These people should just sit back and check for an update every week or so. No update? Do something else.

[SirEpicTickles 19]

@BeefBacon From my point of view, allowing "early access" projects in the gaming industry, will deteriorate games over a long period of time. That is why in real life, you have contracts for projects that you fund in advance or along the way and penalties for not respecting the deadlines. 

[sneakydude 480]

@BeefBacon

I dont care about testing anymore bugs and .60 will be full of them.

@SirEpicTickles

EA games are turning people off. Articles are being hashed up constantly on the subject. This steam release frustrated the hell out of dayz players. It would be best done by closed NDA alpha. Also since our money +interest wasn't really needed of the thousands of players out there then the steam release should have been held off until at least beta, because of the road map delays. < ---- lesson most likely not learned.

Is dayz going to be an engine like arma series will be? i dont know, but it seems like its being developed in that fashion.

 

But that's my 2 cents.

[BeefBacon 1185]

@SirEpicTickles Some early access projects will deteriorate, for sure, but mostly in the case of smaller projects produced by unrenowned developers. BI cannot afford for DayZ to fizzle out because no one will buy a BI game again if that happens. Reputation is important in the games industry - in any industry really. Sometimes that reputation revolves around individuals (Peter Molyneux, John Romero for example) but it usually revolves around companies and teams. I think that a lot of developers, especially smaller ones, were overzealous in their adoption of early access. As time goes on, however, and developers learn when early access is appropriate, I think that issues related to early access will become less of a problem. 

[Noctoras 409]

7 hours ago, SirEpicTickles said:

 I hope that the software industry and laws will advance and put heavy penalties on companies that allow early payment but don't deliver in time, otherwise the quality of games will degrade severely in time. It has to be fair both for gaming studios as well as for the customers that pay the money.

Hm, it shouldn't be the löawyers job to play nanny in my opinion. And that's what it is. I agree, after DayZ I am VERY reluctant with the early access principle now - but that's the point. We all draw our conclusions, learn our lessons, I don't see why the law should be invoked there. True, one could argue differently (with drugs for example the law wants to be your nanny), but personally I would not want a "law against fraudulent early access products" :)

[redmantab 19]

Smoss and team - Thank you for your participation on this forum.  I have been quite fond of and interested in DAYZ since early mod and would like to share.  I have never had interaction with you guys but have been following forums weekly for years and rarely have a moment to chime in.  I'd be thrilled to hear back on a friendly thought  -

As a 37 year old Dad in Newport Beach California that still does most of my multiplayer gaming with the same old childhood friend (38 with kids also) who grew up 3 doors down from me when we were kids, we can't wait for Dayz to be in a release state.  My old bud and I have played Dota2 together, Everquest 1, Starcraft 1 and 2, and a few others.  A few days a week we'll have moments free from our families and bust out the good ol Skype call to get some games in with whatever game the mood calls for.  I have a gaming theater room, projector, the Oculus Rift CV1, and love this hobby.  My wife and daughter do too.  I've played Dayz with my wife (sure tough to "meet up" though lol).  I'll game my entire life.

About a year and a half ago I called him up and said, "Dude, you know how much we love the Walking Dead and always talk about how neat it would be to live through that (neat in imaginary terms :)?" ...   Well there is this game, DAYZ, which is pretty much exactly that.  I gave him this huge pitch.  Shared how it is in early access Alpha, but told him that if he can understand that, I think we'd have a blast fighting for our survival in a multiplayer environment in DAYZ.  I have played the Forrest, Dayz mod, Into the Long Dark, Solus Project, Subnautica, and thoroughly enjoy survival and can handle early access.  

We logged in to Dayz 16 months ago give or take and, for the most part, had a good time.  He loved the mood, that you can enter so many buildings, the thrill of meeting other people who may be friend or foe etc.  He was understanding about the zombies jumping through us, walls, and the weapons that don't connect properly because the few features that were there are still so cool.  He said it felt clunky going up and down ladders and using inventory...I did what I could to defend why.  He told me he appreciated it but that he wanted me to only bring Dayz back up when it was ready for us to enjoy the right way...feature rich, closer to a working game.

I say the following with frustrated support of DAYZ.

 ---------

1.5 years later just last week we were playing Dota 2.  My friend says, "Hey, you still following Dayz?  Man that would be cool.  Is it ready?"  

I told him how it has come along and he reluctantly tried it.  This was his reaction paraphrased -

 

"DUDE, OH MY GOD.  This would be the best freaking game....how has it not progressed beyond this?  I still feel like I can't hit zombies I swing at.  Climbing ladders and grabbing items feels like an old Atari 800 game or something.  I mean dude, they are taking so long on this that others that have sprung up months later after this seem to already be working better.  Ark, man, that JUST came out and you at least feel like it runs smoothly, enemies get hit, stuff reacts faster, and ...awe man, they are taking so long on this by the time it is done they will have missed out on their moment.  Tom, aren't those other early access games you are playing moving along faster than this.  Star Citizen will be announced and released during this time frame.  Um, what!??!  How does the inventory work so awkwardly still.  Dude this doesn't even come into my inventory when I click on it man.  Why not?  What is hitting me?  I don't see anything. I don't care that this was a military sim first....my kids could make these zombies move better.  Zombies are already getting a bit old and, by 2018, yeah they'll have the semi decent population they have playing this...but it could have been HUGE.  I can't play this Tom.  I just can't.  It's still so behind."

I wanted him to be down to play so bad.  I told him about the long development of games and that this is the norm...or so the forums say.  

To us regular guys who game like crazy, have the cash to buy experiences, and just want a good time....we truly don't get the slow pace.  I support and want this, but by the time it is done and functioning well, I'll be into the 2nd phase of VR and playing experiences that are 10x more completed in 1/4 the time.  

Dev update March 2018 - Base building is in and things aren't clunky!

 

Hey Brian.  Remember that DAYZ game....um...no....no....wait....just listen.....do you think we can .....

 

[pilgrim* 3513]

2 hours ago, redmantab said:

   Star Citizen will be announced and released during this time frame.  Um, what!??!

No - and they already got 50% more cash for it.
Star Citizen just have an experienced Pro Public Relations Team working for them.

[S3V3N 1402]

7 hours ago, pilgrim* said:

No - and they already got 50% more cash for it.
Star Citizen just have an experienced Pro Public Relations Team working for them.

That's true, but partially that is, because SC is so successful in crowdfunding and social media. They are watched more closely, but they are also quite efficient with their updates. Star Citizen announces a ship, then you can see it in the hangar, then you can use its buttons and turrets, then you can fly it. Imho that's a way better development model than showing videos of something that still is under work a year later. Small, efficient steps are better than big words. 

I'm glad though Dayz didn't get hyped more than it already is. The game has problems enough with its development. And most of all, Bohemia is to blame here. Who said: develop a new engine for Dayz, make the map even bigger, etc. instead of going for solutions that are already possible? This ain'T Skunkworks! That whole engine development is taken priority over game features and for the past couple of months, perhaps for over half a year, I haven't seen concepts that will improve the gameplay and balance. It's all just one big blur when it comes to the renderer: the mystical wonderlands starts henceforth.

But now we see that the renderer causes problems (which weren't mentioned to that extent before). It's not the magical solution to all Dayz troubles, but development must go on. I'm really at a loss, why it is impossible for the team to at least make weekly newsposts about the problems and delay. Why all these eleborate plans for wider information and feedback when all we need is honest info and info that is to the point. I don't want to read about what the Q+A people do. I don't care. I want to know why, week upon week the renderer is delayed, if all that was hindering its release since December last year are "a few blockers"; this is more and bigger than a few problems, or else we would have seen a release by now. If after Wednesday there still is no 0.60 update, we need a proper, reliable estimate on when it will happen. Having us hang here week after week is just indecent.  

Edited April 12, 2016 by S3V3N

[Kohlbar 268]

27 minutes ago, S3V3N said:

I want to know why, week upon week the renderer is delayed, if all that was hindering its release since December last year are "a few blockers"; this is more and bigger than a few problems, or else we would have seen a release by now. If after Wednesday there still is no 0.60 update, we need a proper, reliable estimate on when it will happen. Having us hang here week after week is just indecent.  

Well said.

[Jex 1104]

I've got so bored waiting I've almost forgotten I have it installed. I haven't played in months and if after all this time the devs don't deliver something fucking amazing, DayZ SA will go down in History as the biggest disappointment ever and an embarrassment to the original.

[S3V3N 1402]

1 minute ago, jex said:

I've got so bored waiting I've almost forgotten I have it installed. I haven't played in months and if after all this time the devs don't deliver something fucking amazing, DayZ SA will go down in History as the biggest disappointment ever and an embarrassment to the original.

I wouldn't go that far. I think the game is there, but they now need to pour a shitload of manhours into it to make it work. Until the renderer is in, there should be 24/7 shifts working on this. When Bratislava sleeps, the outsourced parts of the studio need to work. Relentlessly! Because what we have now is a joke, and I doubt that Bohemia wants to be on the other end of it. It's clearly the coding that's holding things back now. And the crazy thing is that all the plans for Dayz sound great. Netcode/Hitbox improvement, human IK with blended animation, new renderer. All of it sounds great. All of the big engines I can think of already use comparable systems, so if anything this is an ongoing upgrade. But it simply takes too long. Without proper information we will never know how long. And I know this is difficult to calculate, but any producer can give a decent estimate, how long things should take. I feel like in the past this was arbitrary information, based on hope more than fact. I want facts about the development. I know there are blockers for the renderer release: how many and where? what's the biggest problem? In the future updates, this kind of info should be included and if they get it done right, the new updates should be much more in-depth, or at least more accurate than before. But these updates need to come in regularly and faster than in the past half year. The last proper update was in November (I think) and that is too long a time without information on why there is a massive delay at all. "Technical Problems, please stand by"

Like I said - in huge parts the way this engine is prioritized over the actual game development is to blame. Can't make the game without the engine, but every new feature is a setback at first. It needs documentation and experimentation. Things that take patience and time in a development that is always trying to catch up to its goals and never manages. Tough development, but that can't be helped now. I just wish they knew how to resolve the problems on the coding side. And they should probably correct their ambitions for a Q2 release. 

[Noctoras 409]

7 hours ago, S3V3N said:

 I want to know why, week upon week the renderer is delayed, if all that was hindering its release since December last year are "a few blockers"; this is more and bigger than a few problems, or else we would have seen a release by now. If after Wednesday there still is no 0.60 update, we need a proper, reliable estimate on when it will happen. Having us hang here week after week is just indecent.  

Good post, I think this feeling is shared by the majority of players. The information need exceeds "there is some blockers" and "it's done when it's done" - I know, these quotes are polemic, but they illustrate what many people probably feel - left in the dark.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Noctoras