Status Report - 30 January 2018

[Baty Alquawen 3688]

We're keeping it short, but sweet this week - we've got some changes in the team, and so along with his regular dev update, Eugen is taking the time to thank some of his team members and to say goodbye. Since we're at saying good byes, Peter is finally done with having apple tree and stone texture spamming in the game, and hints at our new dynamic ambient loot spawning. Finishing off the dev part, we have Mirek teasing bits about the infected movement, and our Audio Designer Filip sharing his latest and greatest. As always, Baty adds your awesome community content, and the ever famous Status Report riddle! let's get to it, survivors.

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Contents This Week

• Dev Update/Eugen
• Dev Update/Peter
• Dev Update/Mirek
• Dev Update/Filip
• Community Spotlight
   

Dev Update/Eugen

When something ends, something else begins. As I mentioned in the Year in Review video, it's always hard losing team members, but it's a necessary part of the development cycle. Lots of people have joined the team over the last four years, growing from a strong core into a large, two-studio production with almost 80 developers full time. Some are moving on to new challenges, and I wanted to thank them for their contribution to what DayZ should be. A monumental undertaking that all these people were part of.

My thanks go specifically (but not exclusively) to Andrej Sinkević (who is moving back home to take care of his family) for overseeing the creation of new weapons sounds, environment sounds, and making sure we are expanding upon the options available.

My thanks also go to our Environment Designer Senchi for making Chernarus exciting again, for his passion, for thinking outside the box and for trying new things.

At the same time, I would like to introduce Filip Čenžák, who will be taking over the DayZ responsibilities in our Audio Department, and will be sharing what's coming here in Status Reports :). Good luck, Filip!

Even though we've said a couple of good-byes early this year, the work hasn't stopped and we have progressed significantly. So let me go over the updates that we have seen on our internal build - there are some exciting things we have been working on:

Prone Combat

We've had a prone review meeting last week in order to look over what's next for the feature, and we have started tweaking the turn animations and bugs with collisions in different parts of the prone animation.

Ladder climbing

Right now, we're working on a script implementation to make ladders available ingame, as most of the stuff is almost ready. We will definitively come back and check the data and overall ladder setup again once this part of the game becomes testable.

Melee Combat

Another iteration of melee combat is now available in-game, with new heavy and light attack modes, new evades, bug fixes for targeting, and animations for melee with ranged weapons - those are ready to get into the animation graph for quick tests.

Dynamic Spawning

We are trying to unify the spawning in-game to use one spawn function, and we're refactoring dynamic ambient spawning system for specific situations around the player. Peter shares more about this in his part.

Vehicles

Work has again started on vehicles, as the Enfusion Engine hierarchy for entities gets further in its development. Our focus is on the refactor with creation of locals pace, and real player character being in the vehicle rather than a dummy character. If you remember, there were issues like entering a vehicle and crashing, which would teleport you back to where you entered the vehicle, simply because the system didn't really allow for something being inside of a vehicle - it was all dummy characters and lot of improvised hacks.

Camera

The camera has progressed further through several bug fixes, and we are starting to go through ingame data and collisions to fix objects with wrong collisions, which of course benefits more features than the camera itself.

The Infected

We have finally started again the work on the infected, as the player character features are getting in better shape. Mirek has started a refactor on sensory mechanics, jumping, and combat, and we are going to have a longer discussion on our expectations tomorrow.

Besides the specifics above, the weapon team is getting through the expected list of weapons for experimental at a steady pace, implementing the new features for every weapon, adding all the animations and making sure everything works as intended. At the same time, we have people tackling issues of the last inventory implementation or looking into the server browser back-end.

And I'm going to shut up now and get back to work! ;)

- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer

 

Dev Update/Peter

Search for apples, now something of an iconic user action is gone forever. The same goes for every other search action present in the old DayZ!

As you know, search actions were added as a placeholder to broaden the possibilities of survivalism, and promoting the hermit playstyle in terms of gathering food and other useful nature resources - may it be rocks, sticks or feathers. Driven by a random number generator, which I’m really not a fan of, it was nearly impossible to balance the outcome of these actions. They were open to abuse by limitations of the old animation system, and they also didn’t make sense from a visual point of view.

Now, the part of Central Economy which deals with dynamic spawning is able to also spawn such ambient loot as apples, rocks or mushrooms. Dynamically spawned ambient resources are linked with static objects in the map, for example apples are linked with apple trees and rocks with stone paths or bigger rocks.

As mentioned these items are spawned dynamically around players, and they are capped from the side of a linked object, as well as by a total maximum amount available of that specific loot type (e.g. max 3 apples per tree, 100 apples total). Once a player leaves the area, ambient loot is despawned when its lifetime ends. Of course, as it’s part of Central Economy, it’s all properly synced, and all players will see the same ambient loot in any given area. Our solution is also friendly to server performance.

I’m really happy that we were able to finally add such feature as it puts emphasis on our physical approach to design, and provides a more authentic feel to the overall experience.

When you see it, you can take it... see you in Chernarus, folks!

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

 

Dev Update/Mirek

Hello survivors, not much has changed since the last Status Report. We're still dealing with pretty much the same tasks as last time, there's just one little change. We've started the work on improving the infected a little bit earlier. Currently, we're focused mostly on improving stealth mechanics, which means adding some new features for AI sensors and tweaking their parameters. Together with AI sensors, we're adding some new animations for movement. Here's a small teaser of three new movement variations. You can see that the movement is still not ideal, especially when the infected is making sharp turns, but rest assured, we will improve this - the animations are already prepared, we just need to spend time on the implementation.

- Miroslav Maněna / Lead Gameplay Programmer

 

Dev Update/Filip

Hi all, Filip here! As Eugen already mentioned, I'll be taking over most of the audio-related tasks from Andrej - and that includes writing the Status Reports for you!

The sound department is focused on character sounds now. We could finally implement footstep sounds with the animation system as we intended. That meant creating a new animation event for every footstep in all animations. It took a while, but now we can synchronize footstep sounds with animations with much better accuracy. There are still some technical issues that have to be solved, so we hope that the programmers will find some time for us in their busy schedule.

The second major feature we are working on now is attachment sounds. That means cloth rustle, backpack or weapon sounds when the character is moving. We have a working prototype, which will allow us to have different foley sounds for different types of clothes or other things you can wear. For example, it will allow us to have different cloth rustle sounds for shirt and leather jacket. In the final mix, the sonic differences will be small, but still noticeable and should create bigger immersion for players.

- Filip Čenžák / Sound Designer

 

Community Spotlight

Hello Survivors,

You are important to us and we are glad to see all your content. We don't want to keep it just for ourselves, so let's share it!

Do you know BIBIX? He is a streamer from France and a true DayZ fan. He decided to visit the real Chernarus this week and to come greet us in Prague on the way. He took a photo with Peter Nespesny and visited Stary Sobor. We hope you enjoyed your trip, BIBIX!

 

When I visited the DayZ Steam community, I have found this nice artwork by Mr. Boogie. Simple and beautiful.

Check out more of his work here.

 

Eiemoja is a loyal DayZ fan with more than 2900 hours in the game and is also an enthusiastic artworker. If you are interested in his work, here is his Steam collection.

 

This picture by M.J.D. shows the last moments in the life of the owner of a village pub from Chernarus. I like hidden stories like this one.

 

And when we are talking about stories, I fell in love with this one. It is romantic and sad at the same time. Good work!

"Close to retirement, an older couple, Archeologist and Chemist, traveled to Chernarus to look for out-of-place artifacts when they are hit with the outbreak. They stop at nothing to remain together through it all."

 

I know we had M1NDR here last time, but this is one really entertaining video! He met Jessica the medic. But he didn't know how much she loves blood…

 

We can see a lot of Snapchat filters on DayZ characters lately. There is a Reddit thread dedicated to it and people are adding their creations.

Snap face is really freaky ...

 

Let's solve the riddle.

The answer to the last question was "Kumyrna". It is an old, abandoned town on a mountain plateau directly south of Guglovo.

The wall of fame:

• Spaggie
• Bryce
• Johnny K
• CryDoXz
• Jake
• JoK3R
• Habu
• BigRig
• Johnny Bravo
• goof3y
• KalleK
• Tyler
• TheReverned

 

Question of this Status Report:

Near which town is this place located? Send me your answer to our official Twitter account!

 

Thank you for your amazing work everyone and see you in two weeks!

 

- Baty / Community Manager

 

[Gobbokirk 546]

Bye bye apple spam :D

[GaryWalnuts 1680]

19 minutes ago, Baty Alquawen said:

The second major feature we are working on now is attachment sounds. That means cloth rustle, backpack or weapon sounds when the character is moving. We have a working prototype, which will allow us to have different foley sounds for different types of clothes or other things you can wear. For example, it will allow us to have different cloth rustle sounds for shirt and leather jacket. In the final mix, the sonic differences will be small, but still noticeable and should create bigger immersion for players.

I hope they'll also get around to different sounds for footwear too, wellies shouldn't be as stealthy as say sneakers.

Another great SR.  Thanks for keeping us updated!

oh and I do know where the nazca guy is but i dont tweet

[Blafirelli 39]

Nice, just one thing i dont get - will the harvestable apples grow on trees in the end, or are we going to be able to pick only those fallen?

[ImageCtrl 719]

You linked the wrong pic. xd

[ImageCtrl 719]

23 minutes ago, Blafirelli said:

Nice, just one thing i dont get - will the harvestable apples grow on trees in the end, or are we going to be able to pick only those fallen?

You can pick up only those fallen.

[kopo79 426]

is the fishing mechanic same as apples,sticks,feathers?how long it takes that apples grow on tree again?
and to the new sound guy....when we can have new sounds when you are inside buildings?....some times in game,i wanna escape that bird/ furious wind sound but its just a same inside the buildings.

[IReadTheAgreement 313]

33 minutes ago, Blafirelli said:

Nice, just one thing i dont get - will the harvestable apples grow on trees in the end, or are we going to be able to pick only those fallen?

I was wondering the exact same thing.  I know in the end it doesn't really matter but a clarifying post from Baty or a dev would be much appreciated.  My mind always seems to get stuck on these little things.

[gorvi 189]

1 hour ago, IReadTheAgreement said:

I was wondering the exact same thing.  I know in the end it doesn't really matter but a clarifying post from Baty or a dev would be much appreciated.  My mind always seems to get stuck on these little things.

We most likely will see something like this for any harvestable item.  Remember this is an early iteration of new tech devs feel confident enough to show off.

[Baker. 1484]

First I want to express how much I appreciate all your efforts and encorage you keep fighting the good fight, but.....

What a double edged sword these reports are. We wait and twiddle our thumbs for the big news, we lust for the game we thought we were inches away from getting when we first purchased the early access. We "OMG there is going to be so much meat in this next report! I bet they are so close." Yet there is very little here to be practically exicted about. People leaving, mechanics I assumed were well into development just being now worked on again. How depressing.

But oh Jesus the crying and screaming that would take place had they not released a status report. 

So here I am, just kinda bummed to find out we are farther behind than I thought we were. Heartbreak is probably too strong a word, but its on that spectrum. 

Now I know how it feels to be a fan of the Buffalo Bills.  

 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Baker.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thanks devs/all!

Special thanks to those leaving the team for the hard work they put in.

Similar to @Baker. the status reports seem to fall flat these days for me.

Can we possibly hope for Beta before the 2nd quarter of 2018? Full release before Summer 2019?

It's sad for me to think that those dates are optimistic.

I'll keep checking in, and hoping, and waiting....

 

[sneakydude 480]

May or june? expected to Experimental?

 

[idie 57]

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Well dayz is officially dead in the wAter . Can’t wait for some life to be sparked back into the damn corpse of this game . The zombie walk animations were cool , everything else was either expected for yeArs or just the same old “were still working on it”. I wasn’t expecting much , so i guess this will have to do .

[Baker. 1484]

20 minutes ago, blackberrygoo said:

Well dayz is officially dead in the wAter . Can’t wait for some life to be sparked back into the damn corpse of this game . The zombie walk animations were cool , everything else was either expected for yeArs or just the same old “were still working on it”. I wasn’t expecting much , so i guess this will have to do .

Yeah its such a shame. What a beautiful game, stunning really. Yet not much has been done that the end user can appreciate (outside of visuals) in a very long time. But hey maybe there is logic in a lot of this. If the development team has been allowed to continue and be funded by bohemia perhaps they have certain engine based metrics by which they measure the teams success. Metrics that take precedent over community concerns. We all have people we report to and I'm sure Eugen is no different. 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Baker.

[THEGordonFreeman 664]

@Baty Alquawen Listen not to the haters.  Tell the Devs to keep up the great work, these people will come back...they always do.  #INBETAWETRUST

Edited January 31, 2018 by THEGordonFreeman

[Baker. 1484]

19 minutes ago, THEGordonFreeman said:

 these people will come back...they always do.

I'm still here. My feedback is honest and genuine. Which parts do you disagree with? 

[Brandon Clinch 50]

On 2018-01-31 at 12:20 AM, Baker. said:

First I want to express how much I appreciate all your efforts and encorage you keep fighting the good fight, but.....

What a double edged sword these reports are. We wait and twiddle our thumbs for the big news, we lust for the game we thought we were inches away from getting when we first purchased the early access. We "OMG there is going to be so much meat in this next report! I bet they are so close." Yet there is very little here to be practically exicted about. People leaving, mechanics I assumed were well into development just being now worked on again. How depressing.

But oh Jesus the crying and screaming that would take place had they not released a status report. 

So here I am, just kinda bummed to find out we are farther behind than I thought we were. Heartbreak is probably too strong a word, but its on that spectrum. 

Now I know how it feels to be a fan of the Buffalo Bills.  

I freaking love this game but time is now out, patience is out, faith in this crew is starting to decompose (no pun intended). Reports are such disappointments and things are being worked on over and over again to the point of madness and extremely slow too. We want to love this game so bad but they seem to keep messing things up over and over, even though they are a crew of 80 people. How is this even possible? I love Dayz more than any other game out there but as time progresses I'm left more and more with the feeling of sadness, emptiness and disappointment when thinking about Dayz.

 

Please Devs, get a grip and fix this, we love your game so so much!!

Edited January 31, 2018 by Brandon Clinch

[sneakydude 480]

7 hours ago, THEGordonFreeman said:

@Baty Alquawen Listen not to the haters.  Tell the Devs to keep up the great work, these people will come back...they always do.  #INBETAWETRUST

Me no hater, well not to some anyways :) hahha we will see you on the battlefield once more buddy.

[Sqeezorz 839]

No hate words have been said here in this thread so far. It is more the disappointment, as if you are running thirstily through the sandy desert and see again and again water. But if you come closer you realize that it was just a mirage ..... then you just go a little slower, because the hope for the water is getting smaller.

The status reports show us the current work, but they show no distance to the finish ... that's the hard thing.

[THEGordonFreeman 664]

Programming is not like building a building where you have blueprints to follow.  Generally, you start with a Design Document and it is by no means, a blueprint.  It is a general guideline used to explain what it is you are trying to build.  All the finer details are handled via SCRUM Sprints, whiteboarding, etc., basically boring meetings, but important boring meetings.  Believe me, they know what has to be accomplished to reach the final goal, but the process is iterative, meaning, you do, you build, you see if it''s good, if it needs to be better, did it break something else, did it fail, etc, rinse and repeat.  You cannot say this will be completed on March 3rd at 8: 03 AM EST.  It doesn't work that way.

They have told us repeatedly what the goals are, and NEWSFLASH! They haven't reached those goals.  When they do, we will begin seeing the fruits of all of this labor.

[green_mtn_grandbob 594]

What some don't get is that when they scrap what hasn't worked out, and they start all over , it takes time to get there,

[The Ghost of Hoik 92]

6 hours ago, THEGordonFreeman said:

Programming is not like building a building where you have blueprints to follow.  Generally, you start with a Design Document and it is by no means, a blueprint.  It is a general guideline used to explain what it is you are trying to build.  All the finer details are handled via SCRUM Sprints, whiteboarding, etc., basically boring meetings, but important boring meetings.  Believe me, they know what has to be accomplished to reach the final goal, but the process is iterative, meaning, you do, you build, you see if it''s good, if it needs to be better, did it break something else, did it fail, etc, rinse and repeat.  You cannot say this will be completed on March 3rd at 8: 03 AM EST.  It doesn't work that way.

They have told us repeatedly what the goals are, and NEWSFLASH! They haven't reached those goals.  When they do, we will begin seeing the fruits of all of this labor.

 

4 hours ago, green_mtn_grandbob said:

What some don't get is that when they scrap what hasn't worked out, and they start all over , it takes time to get there,

I think that for the most part, the people expressing 'disappointment' in this thread are well informed about the development of DayZ (if not the in's and out's of game development). I too have a slightly cynical reaction when I see there is a new status report when it used to be elation. As far as I can tell the team is at BI are genuine and hard working, just that the development has been very far from most cookie cutter AAA titles. I guess this can't be helped when you are actually developing a game rather than piecing one together from existing parts - I'll keep following the progress and sincerely hope they achieve everything they've planed! See you all at the next status report :P 

[gorvi 189]

2 hours ago, The Ghost of Hoik said:

just that the development has been very far from most cookie cutter AAA titles

Most of those other titles operate years behind closed doors so most users never see the trials and tribulations involved with creating a new title from an older, or even new platform.  As devs have stated before.  The data and feedback they have received from early access has been invaluable when it comes to both current development and future planning of design and features.

[INomadZ 211]

"The dogs bark, but the caravan keeps on moving."