DayZ Q&A: Design

[DHawks 15]

 

Hey folks, we're getting ready for our next Q&A vid with Lead Designer Peter. Ask your questions here or on Twitter in the forums. Hashtag your Twitter questions with #DesignZ

Also, for your own benefit, keep questions limited to the specific topic of design and general stuff like what its like working at Bohemia, working on DayZ, biggest challenges, favorite features, etc. There won't be any reveals in this Q&A (unless someone wants to know what Peter's favorite sandwich is), and asking about build arrival estimations is a nonstarter. Loooots of design questions out there. Let's hear 'em!

We'll let everyone know when the vid is ready to drop. 

Cheers, 

^DH

[HaseDesTodes 315]

i'm gonna go for the obvious one:

whats you favorite sandwich peter?

 

on a sidenote:

how is the team organized/structured? i mean, are there seperate sub-teams for specific tasks, like modeling?

 

how is the average process for creating content? do you start with a sketch on a piece of paper?

 

what are your tasks as a game designer for DayZ? (like thinking off mechanics or creating items/buildings?)

Edited April 20, 2016 by HaseDesTodes

[barelyinfected 144]

- As the Lead Designer of DayZ, how do you make sure the designs will keep an apocalyptic feel to it?

- How is it to build several models for every items? Look at the growing tomato plant for example. Or just a hoodie You guys are literally designing a cycle of life. 

 

[GaryWalnuts 1680]

I saw a spotlight vid a few months back where hicks said he had like 5000 game hours in!  

I imagine many of those hours were not playing for fun but more like "go find a can of sardines, open with stone knife, note result, repeat 100x, report back."

Who on the dev team has the most game hours in?  And where do I send this poor grinder a case of rasputin kvass?

Edited April 20, 2016 by GaryWalnuts

[FSHIR 7]

Here it goes:

- From "Arma2's Chernarus" as 0% to "DayZ SA Chernarus 1.0" as 100%, what is the approximate current percentage of the map we have currently?

- There are a lot of old assets from Arma2 still being used (foliage, old enterable buildings like Church, shop), in other words are designers going to replace the old assets with newer ones for 1.0 (please no "maybe" and "we would like to see")?

- What dev team have in works currently for the foliage extension of the environment (aka more plants, grass and trees)?

[zrudie 10]

Q1: What is your least favorite sandwich?

Q2: I love wolf pack attack video - I did not saw any other game to depict such attack so realistically (I did not play Long Dark yet, but i remember Wolf game from nineties - surviving as wolf in the nature was pretty cool actually). I am curious about some game mechanics regarding wolfs - such as, is wolf pack going to be get scared of gun shots? Fire? If you kill one or two in melee, will they run away? Will you be able to survive such attack only using melee? I guess current design principle is, no attack should deprive you of control over avatar - this is quite challange regarding long bites - are you thinking about another approach towards longer bites, struggle with animals (Far Cry like)? Is this wolf-pack idea from Dean's era or later? 

Q3: Has there been any thoughts about herding animals as game mechanic? Such as placing animals on top of the truck, making farm close to the water supply. I guess there is quite lot of challenges around - but one point is - wolfs eating your animals and rivals do not only pillaging your storages, but they also burning your fields, killing/stealing your animals. If you somehow game can make you feel more for the animals (not only as companion), more painful you would feel after their loss.

Q4: Over the years, what was the most fundamental reevaulation of Dean's ideas around surviving aspects. Ie. what was planned, but was changed thru technology limits or idea did not work in the end.

Q5: What will not be in the game, but you would love to see it in the game.

Q6: What are plans for stamina system. How long will I able  to sprint with let's say 50kg on back? 

I got tons of more, but I forget. Cheers!

[GuyRandomMan 54]

only one question

-What is your favorite melee weapon and, or gun?

Edited April 20, 2016 by GuyRandomMan

[Zenoxtale 0]

What are your thoughts and future plans regarding base building in/around ingame models? For example I thought It might be nice to go live in Cherno for a few weeks, border up the doors and call the pub my home. I am aware bordering up of windows/doors has been spoken of before, I just want abit of clarification as to whether ill be forced to live in the forest with a tent, or will a current building model converted into a home be equally or atleast similairly as functional.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thanks for putting this together HawkZ and for taking the time Peter!

Can you talk about any plans for changing 3PP?

Will we see any changes in how we action doors to open and close?

Besides Enfusion, what module or major design change are you looking forward to the most?

Can you touch on any upcoming changes to melee?

I would like to see a soft skill for the "infected hunter" play style where once you've killed a high number of infected (1,000 maybe) with melee only you would then gain a small bonus (10-20%) to damage versus infected with melee attacks. Would this be something that would fit the core concepts of the game?

Edited April 20, 2016 by ☣BioHaze☣

[exary 0]

What is your favourite place in Chernarus? Any cool rocks, lonely houses or just a town where you would have your cozy base at, can't wait to explore all of those in the next update.

Edited April 20, 2016 by exary

[blacktwin0 98]

Are there any games that you are using for inspiration? Current or older games.

What games, besides DayZ, do you enjoy or are currently playing?

Are there any design ideas that you know won't make it in but you are hoping for the mod community to create? Any suggestions for mods? 

It's been awhile since I've read about player tracking mechanics. Are blood trails, trash, foot prints, etc. possibilities? Can you provide detail on why or why not?

Has there been any internal discussion about collectors or vanity items being added? Examples being a zippo lighter, coffee mug, whiskey bottle, etc. Items that have no real purpose but to be collected.  

What are your work computer specs? What are your personal gaming computer specs? 

[Irish. 4886]

My topic is basically to ask what its like working over there at BI.

Whats the biggest prank someone has played on a coworker at BI?

Have there been any ideas for DayZ that were just too crazy to even contemplate? 

Whats the morale like over at BI? Are you all happy and whistling while you work? 

Have there been any company trips, or excursions that you all have taken as a team? (like a picnic, paintball match, team bonding moments, etc..)

When DayZ is ... finished... what will most of the staff do next? 

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer all of my questions thoroughly and accurately. No, Im joking.. Im sure you'll have so many questions mine will get "lost in the sauce".

:D

[dutchhell 6]

I don’t know if I need to be asking this question to the map designer / Game designer.

But why isn’t the map an island? To the far west and north there is just nothing and noting saves at this places. Wouldn’t it be cooler if it’s just an island when the game add boat’s?

[r8gato 46]

1. Will the new player controller allow actions such as wall/window climbing/mantling in the vein of Bad Benson's Enhanced Movement.

2. Will the medical system see an increase in complexity in the vein of ACE3?

3. Will the radio system see an increase in complexity in the vein of TFAR?

4. Will the helicopter controls have an AFM option? (Hardcore mode?)

[JBURNS489 165]

Is DayZ the most challenging game you guys have ever worked on, and if not, what was?

How is the communication between the Arma team and Dayz team? Do some of you work for both, and do you guys exchange ideas and tips regularly? Or is DayZ more of a separate entity entirely and the communication between the two are uncommon on a professional level?

Would you/do you play DayZ currently or in the future? 

 

[igor-vk 909]

How detailed and "realistic" will base building be? Will we be forced to harvest one log at the time and carry it? Will we be able to find building materials at saw mills and construction sites?

Few years ago you you mentioned towing (trailers for cars), is that still in plans?

[tenmbits 2]

In regards to maximum visual feedback you've mentioned, will other players be able to observe the details of my inventory (e.g. If my mouse is interacting with the shirt, the hand moves to shirt. If I'm reloading from pants, the hand will move to pants.) as well as interaction with the vincinity tab? (something like hand reaches forward and stays that way).

[[TAW] GunRunner 53]

Do you consider DayZ (1.0) to be a survival game or a survival simulator, and how does that distinction (if you make one) affect the future plans for DayZ? How hard is it to balance realism, while still allowing people to enjoy the game?
 

[SFKXY 10]

Hey,

1. Can you give more details on what base building will involve (the mechanics, structures, etc..
2. Will the gamma issue at night ever be fully resolved, so that no one can increase gamma and basically have an advantage
3. Will trees and bushes rendering at distance be resolved so that people playing on low settings don't have an advantage
4. The aim is for people to head NW, but I am wondering what will entice people to head to Novo or Svetlo? Will there be special loot there? I feel if everyone is heading NW the various other cities will be under used. Any thoughts on this?
5. Any thoughts on vehicle hoarding and what can be done about this. As I hardly ever see vehicles due to people storing them away off map, or in the middle of no where. They just seem very very rare now
6. Love the idea of wolves and predators....will predators and zombies and food and weather, all combined make for a very challenging survival experience. I mean, without other players even being involved will survival be a challenging experience?
7. In future builds can we have the weather cold and canned food very scarce please? It just makes things more interesting :)

Thanks for your time!

[emuthreat 2837]

How far do you plan to go, with regards to vehicle parts and fluids?  Will we eventually have to collect 4 spark plugs, a full set of distributor wires, a radiator, and so forth?
Is there going to be any reliable way of recovering/towing vehicles?
 Are there any plans to better support kidnapping, such as putting people inside the trunk/boot of the sedan?  Perhaps we could tie a rope onto a prisoner's bound wrists, and drag them through the woods with a bag over their head?

[Gadget_97 28]

What difficulty to survive (pve) do you want into 1.0?

Edited April 21, 2016 by Gadget_97

[bingo_fuel 205]

First a really basic question: What's the difference between a game designer and an artist/programmer/map designer/...? 

• How do you manage to develop and follow an idea when everybody in the community has a pretty strong opinion how this game should actually be?
• Describe the amount of freedom you have in the process of designing DayZ: What are the "must have" features/mechanics defined by BI? 
• Can you tell us about an idea you really like but it had to be dropped?
• With early access you get a lot of feedback. How do you measure if a certain decision was a good decision that contributes to the goal?
• What's your personal goal for DayZ (what must happen that you consider the project as success)?

[philippj 103]

- How are you defining what modded servers are? ( Regarding server side plugins )

- What functions will be accessible via remote control?

- When are the server files going to be released?

[thefriendlydutchman 159]

not sure if this is the right place for it DH kinda just said ''forums''

1. Will the sporter ever see more attachments and or different variants in the future? #DesignZ

2.  is the hippievan still being worked on as a drivable vehicle? #DesignZ

3. Will the new renderer be benificial for laptops/notebooks and or old computers? #DesignZ

 

thats all if this isnt the place for questions please relocate my post

 

 

TheFriendlyDutchman

[c4p 30]

I think he meant the Q&A-design-tread :-)

your third question: Performance will be improved for old/less powerful hardware/laptops, but don't expect miracles though. DX9 will not be supported in the future, bad for people with very old hardware, but gamers should have DX11 gpus already and good for the game/tech.

Especially the cpu usage will be lowered and DayZ will have multicore support; this will be the biggest improvement beside DX11 (DX12 will be added later to Enfuison and highly likely ported to Arma3)