All Time Low Population

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

Before I start, I want to say that I've never once complained about development...not once. Actually, I've defended development about as hard as anybody else has. 

But I'm looking at Gametracker and Steam Charts for DayZ and there is about 7 fully populated servers in the top 20 during peak hours. According to Steam Charts DayZ is at its lowest peak player count since SA with the 2nd lowest player peak since November of last year. Its really looking like DayZ Mod circa July 2013.

I miss the days when you got a relative idea when the next build would come out, like even a ballpark but its ready when its ready thing is kind of a kick in the nuts right now. I get it, they're working hard and stuff...but .61 doesn't seem like a big build and we're going into our 4th month since .60 with no experimental build in sight.

I was thinking that hey, maybe we all have some senoritis, but the stats ^ point in the opposite direction.

There was a guy on Reddit that posted something interesting about devs possibly losing passion and pointed fingers at the Status Reports. I don't think the devs have lost passion, but I really do think the Status Repots are as the poster says they are. They seem thrown together and often times even lacking a proper screenshot with the date on them. Its the same report it seems.

We're not even getting proper Change Logs anymore. Why is that? I've asked this question a multitude of times and I never get a proper answer. Is it because the 14 year-olds complain so hardcore? If yes, make the population suffer so you won't get complaints...not cool! Last Change Log was in two parts and had over 6,000 entries in it. I get it, y'all did a shit ton of tweaks in that build but its like every tiny thing you did. It was a copy/paste and impossible to read. Why even post it?

I know we've been getting some extra video content with Nespesney and etc but I can't be the only one that found them impossible to watch. Nespesney, great guy for real and I hate to be critical towards him, but that video wasn't easy to watch and most of the questions felt like filler that didn't really go anywhere.

I would really like for it to go back to the way it was. Good Status Reports, lets talk about upcoming features (stashes, choppers, motor bikes, base building, advanced barricading, beards, anything interesting) throw out some dates even if you miss them...it gives us something to hope for and considering we're in the final stretch who cares if y'all miss some date marks. Keep the audience entertained because there is very little of that going on right now.

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by Weyland Yutani (DayZ)

[-Gews- 7443]

I had similar concerns looking at the sparse population on the server browser the other night, and I also took a look at the Steam Charts, which confirmed it. Even this forum is pretty dead.

I'm sure the population will spike a bit with 0.61, the issue is keeping those players.

[Whyherro123 2283]

This forum has been dead for a couple of weeks at least, more like several months.

The forum resets and the lack of new content probably drove away quite a few people.

I'll admit it; after playing 0.60 for a couple of days, I got bored and haven't played since. Day Z has done almost nothing to retain my interest for about a year now. 

[scriptfactory 620]

You guys remember when there were weapons everywhere and you could get geared up in 15 minutes and then have firefights on the coast? Yeah... that was fun. Like mod where there are delicious weapons everywhere and the promise of rare weapons in certain locations?

Now we have a zombie game with no zombies. A base-building game with no bases. A survival game without survival. A shooter with no shooting. Oh, well. Alpher, right guys? Guys?

Where the fuck is everyone?

Edited September 9, 2016 by scriptfactory

[sneakydude 480]

Playing many other games that just came out, or going to pre alpha - alpha too.

New survival games are on the move in, and stuff like this and also arma released apex which for some has a good sense of direction for awhile.

Dayz has been on the bottom of my list for the last couple of weeks. Without going to any more negative reviews of dayz, its best to let them be, and do the job we paid for.

I check in multi times a day for new information, or to help someone else out, but other then that its pretty dead even on the bug testing.

[sneakydude 480]

2 hours ago, scriptfactory said:

You guys remember when there were weapons everywhere and you could get geared up in 15 minutes and then have firefights on the coast? Yeah... that was fun. Like mod where there are delicious weapons everywhere and the promise of rare weapons in certain locations?

Now we have a zombie game with no zombies. A base-building game with no bases. A survival game without survival. A shooter with no shooting. Oh, well. Alpher, right guys? Guys?

Where the fuck is everyone?

From what i just read, no vehicles either.

[igor-vk 909]

This topic will be locked soon, as soon as Boneboys wakes up. 

Game pretty much staled after .59 and new vehicles (that barely work after year and a half). New render is cool and all but this game needs new stuff to keep players interested. All this stuff we now have were in dayz mod back in 2012 when the whole concept was new and exiting. If you look around, there arent even new dayz clones around. Players went to "king of the hill" type of games. Devs really missed their chance to keep the game alive sometime in early 2015. I will probably be banned again for writing this but I dont care any more. Dayz iz present for 4 years in one shape or another and since changing from mod to standalone it really didnt give much new content. New weapons and new towns are cool, but nothing really changed the way people play this game (spawn-gear up-coastal PVP-repeat).

Im affraid BI wont sell more then 50.000 copies when game is finished, no one will be interested any more. 

[Lexman61 78]

Maybe it's about time they release DayZ on Xbox 1 and PS4 to get some fresh blood into this game.

A "watered down" version of the game due to the console's hardware limitation, could actually work better and have less problems than the PC counterpart.

If the game is successful with the console crowd it might regain some popularity also with PC players.

Just a thought.

[Arthur Dubrovka 376]

...and I thought, after implementing the core of enfusion, the development process will get faster but goddamn FOUR MONTHS no exp. build. That's really not what I expected! I don't know how they will be able to hit beta end of the year with this... I know they do their best and are working hard but it's just not what I expected. There is so many new content incoming and just so little time. Just another four months. After status report at the beginning of August, it looked like everything besides the wolves is ready and now more than one month later there is no exp. in sight. 

I don't loosing hope for this game, don't get me wrong. But it's hard to stay in touch with it. It's still my favorite and I just can't play it right now. That makes me...hhhnnnnnngggg!

 

Edit: I think it's just the fact that we all love this game and are afraid it dies before it gets born.

Edited September 9, 2016 by imunone

[Noctoras 409]

9 hours ago, Weyland Yutani (DayZ) said:

I miss the days when you got a relative idea when the next build would come out, like even a ballpark but its ready when its ready thing is kind of a kick in the nuts right now. I get it, they're working hard and stuff...but .61 doesn't seem like a big build and we're going into our 4th month since .60 with no experimental build in sight.

This is not correct, you have to calculate the time either from experimental to exp or from stable to stable.

 

Counting from the first Exp build of 0.60, we are more than 5 months in now. The last update was 6 months, so we might look at about the same timeframe. I for one am looking forward to different games right now, DayZ feels like beating a dead horse at the moment, so ..

Edited September 9, 2016 by Noctoras

[Tigermonk 140]

1 hour ago, igor-vk said:

This topic will be locked soon, as soon as Boneboys wakes up. 

Game pretty much staled after .59 and new vehicles (that barely work after year and a half). New render is cool and all but this game needs new stuff to keep players interested. All this stuff we now have were in dayz mod back in 2012 when the whole concept was new and exiting. If you look around, there arent even new dayz clones around. Players went to "king of the hill" type of games. Devs really missed their chance to keep the game alive sometime in early 2015. I will probably be banned again for writing this but I dont care any more. Dayz iz present for 4 years in one shape or another and since changing from mod to standalone it really didnt give much new content. New weapons and new towns are cool, but nothing really changed the way people play this game (spawn-gear up-coastal PVP-repeat).

Im affraid BI wont sell more then 50.000 copies when game is finished, no one will be interested any more. 

omg... igor... what have you just stated? the truth? DAMN SON! :P I've been saying that for several MONTHS if not longer... 
the devs have been slacking off and off and off.. delaying all of their progress to a grinding halt.. because 'PROMO'S!!' 

we've had the exact same thing like -gews-  said in the RP community... 

event is announced... 
event is held (25-30 people show up)
event is over (25 people leave)
average pop/day is around 6 atm
average pop/week is around 4-5 atm
average pop/month is around 10 atm

this is a 30 (was a 40) slot server... so yeah this game is SLOWLY but SURELY bleeding to death..
you can't make a game.. 700 promises and promo's 
climb mnt. everest every month and go to PAX east/south/gamescom etc. etc.

for about 2 years and expect people to still give a shit about your game..
there are so many games (H1Z1/rust) that MIGHT not look as good.. but they make a TON of progress in a short term

the devs work... sure.. but they'll never make that deadline hicks has said at gamescon 2016

'We don't have an exact date... but I THINK... we'll nudge to beta in about 6-8 months (so this game coming out in 2016 is total BS) 
6-8 months means... this game will PROB. hit BETA around spring May 2017
that's BETA.. then everything gets 'fixed' (is that even possible) and very little else will be added.. so what he technically says: 

we're going to add all the last features in the coming 8 months

- more zeds
- base building
- more land vehicles
- soft skills
- more predators
- boats
- aircraft (helicopters)
- stamina system
- new UI/player controls
- weapons
- MORE survival aspects
- steam workshop (which they have to give the OK for to be in there!)
- improved weather systems?

then after all that has been pushed into place somehow (without breaking the game entirely)
they'll move into beta and start fixing all their 'bugs' (broken cars/mechanics etc. etc. etc.)


so prob. NOT going to happen that fast.. thus their going to lose even more of their audience sadly for them. 

[QUAZIMOFO 275]

The game is still being built. Not even beta yet. Read the disclaimer when you launch the game and quit being entitled spoiled brats.

[igor-vk 909]

8 months?? Optimistic, you are.

Now that we started beating the same dead horse, I started remembering how it used be in old days. Almost every day posts from devs with new items and stuff. Sneak peeks, pics from devs doing pranks in office...

Now, its miracle to see "server maintance" tweet once a week. Official forum threads are dead for months, tweeter accounts are dead (Hicks blocked me but Im sure not even he posts anything). Yes we have status reports but they are copy/paste. Feels like game is abandoned even by its devs.... Sad.

[igor-vk 909]

6 minutes ago, QUAZIMOFO said:

and quit being entitled spoiled brats.

That would be viable two years ago

[EdStaffordZombie 63]

I agree with all of you guys. I've been following the news regarding dayz SA since it came out (I was a dayz mod player), and right now I feel a bit afraid that we get very few anouncements about the progress being made.

Steam charts reflect this perfectly, the game needs new functionalities asap in order to keep us interested on it.

I also think that the statement said by Hicks regarding when the beta would be released is impossible to achieve, acording to the speed of the new functionalities being merged.

Hope to see new things soon, I am starting to loose my faith on the project.

[Whyherro123 2283]

55 minutes ago, QUAZIMOFO said:

The game is still being built. Not even beta yet. Read the disclaimer when you launch the game and quit being entitled spoiled brats.

Oh, you sweet, innocent summer child.

You realize that the first three posters on this topic have been around since practically the very beginning,  right? Since 2013 at least, and almost certainly earlier?

Telling me to "read the disclaimer" pffftttttttttttt

[Tigermonk 140]

1 hour ago, igor-vk said:

8 months?? Optimistic, you are.

Now that we started beating the same dead horse, I started remembering how it used be in old days. Almost every day posts from devs with new items and stuff. Sneak peeks, pics from devs doing pranks in office...

Now, its miracle to see "server maintance" tweet once a week. Official forum threads are dead for months, tweeter accounts are dead (Hicks blocked me but Im sure not even he posts anything). Yes we have status reports but they are copy/paste. Feels like game is abandoned even by its devs.... Sad.

'8 months?? Optimistic, you are.' 

I is not optimistic here... Brian Hicks is.. also... I'd like to add that he 'thinks' that'll be the case.. just look up that video on youtube.. should be a few to find.. scroll towards the last 2 min of the video..
where the reporter (female) asks hicks the soul question we all think about..

'when is the game finished?' Answer: as of right now.. there's no set date for the game to be done.. BUT i THINK.. with the current progress we'll hit beta in 6-8 months <- Brian Hicks at gamescom 2016 germany
 

^ this thing... from about 16:00 hicks goes all out brian on the reporter :D enjoy people :D

[Tigermonk 140]

54 minutes ago, Whyherro123 said:

Oh, you sweet, innocent summer child.

You realize that the first three posters on this topic have been around since practically the very beginning,  right? Since 2013 at least, and almost certainly earlier?

Telling me to "read the disclaimer" pffftttttttttttt

I don't often agree with you... but right there... yep... totally valid point in shutting that 'read the disclaimer, its alpha' noob up ;)

[pilgrim* 3514]

I take the arguments into account (a lot of sense spoken) - but i have to say - in my case I've been playing "DayZ" one form or another for 5 years.  And HOWEVER good or bad a game is. I can't spend my WHOLE life in the ONE same game.

I played DayZ one night a week ago and it was just as "stress" as it always was - and that is the main point of DayZ, AND why it was designed, What's in it for me =  STRESS..   But, hey, after FIVE years several times a week, how LONG can anyone play ONE game?

.. hell, I'm playing 'No Man's Sky' right now; I think might hold my interest for a month of casual evenings (a month, not 5 YEARS).. it has NO STRESS at all.. .. (for sure, but ATM I kind of like it a lot)

There are MANY new and upcoming INTERESTING games this summer, and there are also a lot of EASY games .. these all compete for different DayZ players. So BI seem in two minds if they should include features that are popular in "standard" games, or work to build up the unique (minority) originality of DayZ - which for me is the stress and the unexpectedness of every 10 minutes in the game. Standard best selling games usually tone that down quite a lot, they want it 'expectable'.  

But the bottom line is still - Hey guys I've been in this game for like 5 years.. ya know?  Maybe the average age of players has gone down, they don't seem so smart or cunning as they were (sorry people) ? Or maybe I got older (nah) ?   Probably with the long winter nights I'll be back to see what's happening. At the moment it's just "time for a change".. that's nothing to do with the game, really.. Many others must feel the same.

I KNOW I already got more VALUE for my money out of this game than any other I've played, including one or two of the Greats.

xx pilgrim

Edited September 9, 2016 by pilgrim*

[Salty seadog 125]

I agree with all of you pretty much.

I like this game, and will always have hope for it, but I cant understand the snails pace/seemingly grinding halt of development, especially after the new renderer has been out of the way for 4-5 months. I know you cant always compare development times between other studios, but at some point I gotta call a spade, a spade! Smaller, less experienced dev studios are passing this project by at blistering speeds. Things they implement seem to work for the most part, and community updates arent just kinda fluff that could be applied to any update. I dont know if the code this game runs on is particularly harder to write than other games, I can understand switching the renderer took considerable time etc.. But even tiny sub-sections of Star Citizen are churning out buckets of content bi-weekly, at an incredible rate, with real video logs from the devs, communtiy interaction, bug fixes etc.. 

Hope this game can pick up the pace soon and retain some players, I want to see it succeed.

[sai (DayZ) 137]

It's alpha guyzzzzz it's alpha.........

How does it feel?

 

It's alpha, you're stupid for complaining, it's alpha. Just wait ten more years. And don't complain. Cus you know it's alpha. 
 

Alpha. 

[Whyherro123 2283]

8 minutes ago, sai (DayZ) said:

It's alpha guyzzzzz it's alpha.........

How does it feel?

 

It's alpha, you're stupid for complaining, it's alpha. Just wait ten more years. And don't complain. Cus you know it's alpha. 
 

Alpha. 

There is a difference between complaining about bugs/glitches and not-yet-implemented content during the Alpha phase of development, and little/no content at all for 6+ months.

You know this, don't be a shitheel.

[sai (DayZ) 137]

3 minutes ago, Whyherro123 said:

There is a difference between complaining about bugs/glitches and not-yet-implemented content during the Alpha phase of development, and little/no content at all for 6+ months.

You know this, don't be a shitheel.

No difference. It's all development. Plenty of people have complained about the slow pace of development in general for years, and all been met with hate about how it's alpha. So in keeping with that stupid retort. And for all that have been met with that mindless reply in the past.

 

It's alpha, have patience. Stop complaining. It's alpha therefor all your concerns of opinions are rendered mute and the game tells you it's alpha before it even starts.

This game is Day A. For Alpha.

[sai (DayZ) 137]

By the time this game is finished the expansion of the universe will have ripped your cpu apart giving you pretty bad frame rate. 

[Raible 24]

What I remember is about 4 years ago Dean telling us he'd have us a $15 Alpha by Dec 2012.  He was just supposed to fix the net code and basically give us a hack-free version of the mod.  Fast forward 18 months to Dec '13 and we finally got a completely worthless $30 Early Access.  I logged 100's of hours onto the mod.  Between Dec '13 and 0.60 I think my Steam account said I had played 16 hours.  Until 0.60, this whole things had been a complete train wreck. 

Now, I will give credit where it's due.  0.60 is playable and made huge strides forward.  That said, however, I agree with most here. 

Edited September 9, 2016 by raible