Status Report - 30 Aug 2016

[SMoss 2101]

Contents This Week

• Dev Update/Hicks
• Dev Update/Mirek
• Community Spotlight

 

Dev Update/Hicks

Greetings Survivors,

Over the last two weeks the team has been hard at work tackling bugs and final missing functionality on intended .61 milestone goals. Not to mention a few additional improvements not listed on the milestone goals, such as dynamic shadows, network sync improvements, and expanded improvements in the audio technology side of Enfusion. The test / fix / regression process between when a build is feature ready for experimental and functionally ready for experimental can be a bit of a grind here in the office (especially when you consider the branching that occurs so that the stable candidate can be worked on, while the rest of the team continues work on .62 and forward), but as always I'm proud to say the team has been relentless. To give you an example, just over the last week the QA, Programming, and Design teams have squashed bugs such as:

• Client freeze on server connection
• Isolating remaining issues with new synchronization system
• Audio configuration issues w/ interior and exterior surfaces
• Infected hit detection issues
• Reload / Chambering not occurring when player initiates animation
• Chambered ammo not being depleted when firing (ooh boy that one is nasty!)
• Dynamic shadows not behaving properly with certain geometry within Chernarus
• Client side control failures under certain animation states (clients locked into one direction after jumping off of certain terrain)
• NavMesh problems with Infected (ignoring some structure geometry)
• Character gear loss under certain crafting, and connection scenarios
• Client crashes when using Exp Debug window
• Dynamic events not showing on client side
• Virtual Machine exception related to containers
• Infected being blocked by collision with corpses
• Server crash caused by animal behaviour
• Server delay registering clients after initial connection

This is just a brief look at some of the issues tackled over the last week - and does not include issues the team is still working on. Countless issues are tackled before the player even sees the next testable build - and I hope this gives you all at least a small example of the work that goes into getting a build to experimental. Unfortunately the reality of development is its never quite as easy as just making the desired functionality, and pushing it to the experimental branch.

Past that - Miroslav will be talking to you guys this week about exactly what he hopes to see from the upcoming improvements to network synchronization, and while I might have a bit more caution to my optimism I can safely say I am excited to see how it will behave under a larger testing pool. Keep in mind as well, he specifically calls out that there is a high chance the initial experimental builds for .61 won't be spawning vehicles - as he and his team are currently working on the synchronization improvements for them specifically.

Looking at the .61 milestone goals for this Status Report:

0.61 Milestone Goals:

• Server Login Queue
  • Ready for experimental branch testing - no current issues preventing this at this time.
• Merge of New Audio Technology from Arma 3 Eden Update.
  • Technology successfully merged into DayZ branch. Ready for further testing on experimental branch. 
• Update of Weapon Sounds for New Audio Technology.
  • All current firearms configured - Audio team is working on completing SFX for future firearms, as well as working with design and programming team to tackle configuration, and surface effect issues as they pop up in QA.
• Dynamic Spawning of Infected.
  • Programming team is currently working on plugging animal spawning into this system. Once this is functioning properly they will continue working on adding the additional functionality of per-player impact on the quantity inside a defined area. 
• Predators (Wolves)
  • We're cautiously optimistic here. While we're seeing improvements on our end, there is still a high chance this milestone goal will be pushed to a future build. Network synchronization improvements could make this viable for .61. Testing, and regression will give us a better idea.

Past the milestone goals for .61, as you all know we have several improvements we're aiming to also be present for that build. Including but not limited to:

• Experimental Branch Debug Monitor
• Network Synchronization Improvements
• Dynamic Shadows     

And for those who don't keep an eye on our development board - we've pushed a few updates there to give you an idea of what some of this can be expected to look like:

Uploaded via our Trello account: http://trello.com/c/pYtKJ7y9/123-experimental-branch-debug-monitor

Lastly, I completely understand the frustration many of you may feel in the lull between build publishes to experimental, and stable branch. There is a saying that goes around the community that after two months of a build being available, it starts to get long in the tooth and the community is eager for the next, and this is entirely true. However, it is not just the community - we (the developers) are just as eager as all of you out there playing, and participating in DayZ's development, as hard as that may seem to believe. As we move closer to beta, the builds we push out are less about initial prototyping and more about large changes to DayZ's engine. Enfusion is a massive change for us on so many levels, and it is because of that that these builds seem to take longer to push out. We're all massively grateful for those of you who continue to ride through the storm with us, and help to shape the final product that DayZ will become. I'm personally very excited to jump into .61 experimental when it goes live, and start a new series of adventures in Chernarus.

- Brian Hicks / Creative Director

 

Dev Update/Mirek

As we are moving closer to 0.61 experimental, we're mostly stabilizing the build (catching crashes, tweaking character selection from the main menu and new infected/animal spawner).
But there will also be one big thing we would like to enable in 0.61 experimental which Brian mentioned in the last status report a bit. We were reworking major parts of the network code and completely changed synchronization of player controlled entities, which should deal with position desynchronization. This means that there won't be any weird deaths (on stairs, near the edges of roofs, etc.), character won't be blocked somewhere else on the server side (infected or other players won't hit you from large distances and if the player is inside a building, he won't be blocked outside), the game should behave much better under stressful network conditions and it should deal with a lot of issues that were present in the game since EA release.
I have to admit that these changes aren't applied on vehicles yet, so vehicles won't probably spawn in the first iterations of experimental builds, but once we will enable them for vehicles, they should fix most issues like lagging and freezing, when a vehicle is in proximity of another vehicle.
Also, please don't expect everything will be amazing, we still have some animation issues and a couple of other bugs, especially related to ladder movement and it's very likely that more will appear after the experimental release. It's even possible that the network changes won't hit stable if a lot of issues appear and instead will be postponed to 0.62, because we don't want to block 0.61 stable release for too long.

- Miroslav Maněna / Lead Gameplay Programmer

 

Community Spotlight

Kind of like the last time around, we'll see if we can help players who are looking to join a community which is not necessarily english speaking.

We were approached by Dopeyferes who asked if we would have time to look at a couple of his videos as well as showcase his channel, and of course, we were more than happy to do so.

Outside of having really nice videos of DayZ on his channel, he is also part of a larger hispanic community that plays DayZ among other titles. So, if you are looking for a spanish speaking community, I'm quite sure that he'll be able to help you out if you contact him via his Facebook page, or if you for example join the Steam Group that he is a member of. Of course, Dopeyferes also has a Twitter account where you can follow his updates and he streams from his Twitch account as well.

We do have yet another community lined up for the next status report, but in case you are part of one that you would like to see highlighted, just send some info to support@dayz.com and we'll be happy to have a look.

- SMoss / Community Manager

[JBURNS489 165]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a big patch coming. Looking forward to it!

[Red_Ensign 990]

can't wait til someone comes home and finds a pack of wolves in their tent.  XD

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thanks for hard work devs/all!

These network improvements DO sound very promising!

Does this mean potentially more population for globally spawned infected?

[Redculture 0]

 

That feeling when zombies (infected, but who cares) suddenly jumps six-foot solid fence (he did not see me) behind you and knocks you while crawling on the courts ? (Vasily lyutuet). My question is if these people are sick, by which the power to instantly overcome a two-meter fence? Yes I can, but I have been training, and then the patient is a man, a former tractor jumped 1.5 seconds though silently as a cat. Yes, well done, but entered the animation bouncy zombies, but if, in reality, the average person will not do so, it will be a long and painful crawl on it, but here again, and he athlete.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Well looks like im sitting out .61... I hate how the vehicles are suddenly broken again , it just makes a terrible play experience for me as that is my first goal as my team is always driving around instead of walking (not enough time to walk everywhere when we only have a few hours to play together ).

 

heres to hoping they can fix the sync issues with vehicles for .61

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Good to see that debug in experimental. Really helpful. Maybe energy and hydration numbers/consumption rate should also be there?

[FunkInYourTrunk 354]

I understand your frustration but do you realize that all your post has done is waste another couple minutes of everyones time?  The game is amazing as is and is only getting better as things go along.  Maybe it will take another year maybe it will take 10.  You knew what you signed on for.  Doing status reports at all is more than we as players of the game are entitled to.  THEY OWE YOU NOTHING!  

Sorry if i seam rude but it really irks me to see all the posts about "this game sucks.... blah blah blah kos..... wahhhhhh....taking too long..... wahhhh...i want it now..."  dont get me wrong i am guilty of whining about lost camps and stuff but the game is progressing and in the mean time is more than playable.  If you cant handle the rate of progression maybe you should bow out of early access and just wait for the release.

[igor-vk 909]

7 minutes ago, FunkInYourTrunk said:

  You knew what you signed on for.  Doing status reports at all is more than we as players of the game are entitled to.  THEY OWE YOU NOTHING!  

 

We didnt sign for like one ot two update per year. Making devblogs is least devs could do. 

[FunkInYourTrunk 354]

I agree that it is nice that they do it but it is not owed to us.  We all purchased a game with no timeline promissed to us.  If they released an update a year or no udates at all untill release they still would have fulfilled any obligation they have to us.  

We are consumers who are being allowed to play the game early in order to provide feedback on game functionality.  We are not part of the dev team or stockholders/investors.  We purchased a product under the understanding that it was in development without any sort of timeline.  And though goals have been released and some reached and others far from they are still merely goals and not a promissed timeline.  

Like i said if you cant handle the rate of progression maybe you should just wait for release.

[Noctoras 409]

3 hours ago, FunkInYourTrunk said:

I understand your frustration but do you realize that all your post has done is waste another couple minutes of everyones time? 

Just as every "good work devs" post in here. Opinion is opinion. And opinion as such won't get you further, so consider the whole forum apart from the bug report area a waste of people's time ...

And true, devs don't owe us ... but we don't owe devs either, so again, opinions are fair game, positive as well as negative.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Noctoras

[freschmeet 0]

On 8/31/2016 at 1:28 PM, blackberrygoo said:

Well looks like im sitting out .61... I hate how the vehicles are suddenly broken again , it just makes a terrible play experience for me as that is my first goal as my team is always driving around instead of walking (not enough time to walk everywhere when we only have a few hours to play together ).

 

heres to hoping they can fix the sync issues with vehicles for .61

Unfortunately, our team has had the same approach with the current build. I really enjoy vehicles, but am constantly telling myself "DON'T DO IT!"  

With DayZ's exciting and somewhat realistic combat (aside from the random exploiter swimming through Cherno streets...), I wish developers would focus on getting what's in game working properly rather than adding new functionality. Adding to the broken code will not miraculously repair what's already broken, but may compound the problems.

Hopefully things will pick up pace soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Valdenburg 200]

On 1.9.2016 at 6:30 PM, FunkInYourTrunk said:

I agree that it is nice that they do it but it is not owed to us.  We all purchased a game with no timeline promissed to us.  If they released an update a year or no udates at all untill release they still would have fulfilled any obligation they have to us.  

We are consumers who are being allowed to play the game early in order to provide feedback on game functionality.  We are not part of the dev team or stockholders/investors.  We purchased a product under the understanding that it was in development without any sort of timeline.  And though goals have been released and some reached and others far from they are still merely goals and not a promissed timeline.  

Like i said if you cant handle the rate of progression maybe you should just wait for release.

That is why the game industrie forms into a massive pile of shit, consumers that eat any pile and then feel entitled to tell those who demand to shut up.

Please don't tell me the game "is amazing as is" when there is constant character/car resets. Basically nothing is working like it really should. The mod is more playable.

 

I was with you fanboys all this time but now i have to step back and reflect what they achieved. For me that is not enough i have to say. If it's good enough for you that is your opinion, bro :D

[FunkInYourTrunk 354]

Upon further reflection i have to agree.  We are all entitled to our oppinions.  Mine however remains that dayz is an epic game and will only continue to grow in its awesomeness as time progresses no matter how long that time may be.

I paid around 30 bucks and got hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of it.  Payed almost twice as much when fallout 3 came out and got maybe a third of the hours out of it before i got bored.  Spent more than 3 times as much on diablo3 and expantion and am now bored to tears with it.  All in all i think i did pretty good with the purchase of dayz and am looking foreward to several hundred more hours of enjoyment while i watch it develop. 

Impatience breeds dissapointment

[blackberrygoo 1416]

28 minutes ago, Valdenburg said:

Many People stopped caring and i will now too, you see that in this very thread with a hanfull of replies by a game that was sold over 3 million times. I am just here to raise my voice so others will follow and accept this as a broken project.

DayZ is stagnating, RUST, ARK, Unturned, all doing better and can keep players. DayZ can't even get to 10k players anymore on steam.

No one has to accept your frustrated opinions as fact . Real fact of the matter is dayz isn't even released yet , and won't be for some time , when it IS fully released then maybe you can have a childish rant , like you did above to get a warning point .

Constructive criticism is allowed but all you did was say "this game  is crap , the project is shit , I know way better games than this with more players". No one in their right mind would allow you to spew shit like that on the forums without at least warning you that you're being disruptive and generally a dickhead .

Ark is arcadey as fuck and only retains young kids for a little while until Chinese people Infest their server and destroy everything they worked so hard for in under a minute . Rust is the same way but seems to be trying to balance the game , and Unturned ? I can't believe you just mentioned that game , it is in NO WAY near the scope of dayZ and never will be , mainly due to the ridiculous mine craft graphics and joke like ambiance of the game . All these games will die out in popularity when people realize games aren't just about spending months to tame a dinosaur or build a base just to get it rocketed down the next night .

 

The vision of those games are all wrong , dayz has one that will be fulfilled in time , and this will go further than any of these silly games that encourage 24/7 play to build a massive base which is the only point of those games . Give dayz time and take breaks , because it IS going slower , the devs even said it would during the "crunch time" right before beta .

We're about to see dayz change drastically with many new systems , so although it will be incredibly frustrating and bug ridden , those who wait it out will be rewarded with a greater game than we have now (and im sure a lot of us have logged thousands of hours in , im at 1,690 myself , and it's an early access game ! ). 

[Hicks_206 (DayZ) 4297]

Lets keep it on topic and constructive. 

Thanks guys and gals.

[FunkInYourTrunk 354]

Fair enough.  I really gotta stop gettin my panties in a bunch every time i see someone saying the game sucks or bein a wiener about timelines (no i dont actually wear panties. Not that i would judge any man who does).  

Gotta say i have noticed an increased dev presence in the forums and it is really a refreshing change.  It is definately appreciated.