Status Report - 6 November 2018

[Baty Alquawen 3688]

 

Today was quite a busy day at our office with the Experimental BETA patch hitting the Experimental servers. So apologize this late Status Report, it is worth it.

---

• Dev Update/Eugen

 

Dev Update/Eugen

Dear Survivors,

we are listening. We know the last Status Report has started some heated discussion about DayZ. I'm gonna do my best and touch upon multiple subjects you guys have pointed out and make sure your questions don't go unanswered. But first, I also want to  because today is the day that we updated the Experimental branch with what will become the first BETA update. The update itself contains multiple features and tons of content. Just to name the headliners: all new base building, a new implementation of vehicles, player restraining, leaning and more. I'm excited about this first step to a more polished gameplay experience with more endgame goals to achieve.

 

Farewell, 0.62 - 0.63 is fully taking the reigns

Not only have we hit Experimental today, but tomorrow, we want to open another floodgate. Since we're no longer working on old technology, the 0.62 version is now becoming a legacy to look back at and learn from. We believe we are past the point where 0.62 is a good first entry into the world of DayZ. So tomorrow, we will be going through a clean-up in our Steam back-end and shuffle things around a bit.

The current 0.63 will be moving to the default branch (what we call the Stable branch, as in the first thing that installs when you click on DayZ in Steam, and a version that most if not all community servers will run). 0.62, then, will be moved to its own "legacy branch" for future reference. This will make sure that players coming back in will get in touch with the new version of DayZ, and won't be facing a situation where they start up a game and can't join almost any server due to version difference. That way, we can focus on what the future of DayZ should be and we will deliver updates straight to you.

Experimental and Stress Test Branches should not see much use for the rest of the year, and will be deprecated until we get to a point they are once again needed. Our goal right now is to focus on addressing issues you guys have been reporting, and on making DayZ fun for our core player base.

With this change, we will release one more thing for you guys to play around with: DayZ modding tools. Yes it''s happening!

While they can definitely be considered Experimental, your early feedback on the tool set can help us shape the future of the DayZ platform and game alike. Tools will be available as a free download on Steam and will be also supported by our new DayZ Launcher to organize your DayZ experience. The launcher (familiar to those of you who tried Arma 3) will be useful not only to work with mods, but also for work with startup parameters, server and tools after the tools package stabilizes a bit. With the DayZ tools release, we will be opening the Steam Workshop for you guys to share your creations in an easier way, accessible in one central place.

TLDR; if nothing goes majorly wrong, 0.63 is moving to Stable tomorrow, and we begin our BETA development - the march towards a stable 1.0 release.

 

Plans for the upcoming weeks

With 0.63 on the Stable Branch, and community server owners updating their servers with all these new features we introduced, I wanted to touch on few more things that are about to happen in the upcoming weeks, as that's certainly something you'll be very curious about.

Server browser changes & update schedule

The server browser is getting an overhaul based around a new technology that we developed together with our Online Services team. The gain with this implementation is that you'll be better able to tell if a given server is running a modified version of DayZ, and at the same time, the new implementation will make the server browser feel more aligned with rest of our UI design (which is by no means polished yet, but at least a basic direction has been set). 

Related to community servers, at least for the rest of the year, we're trying to go and have a fixed schedule of weekly updates so that server owners can be ready for any upcoming game updates.

Fixing, tweaking, and polishing

The upcoming bugfixes and tweaks will be focused on many of your complaints over the years. We read almost everything you guys post across social media, including (especially) those comprehensive lists for 1.0, and I just want say we know these things are important to you. While features are in, their functionality is often broken. We know that's what makes or breaks a game, and now is exactly the time to get that fixed. During this period of stabilization and iteration, you'll see the game change around the details that matter. A balance pass is ahead of us, and while it's certainly not the last, it will definitely be a first one that will fix a whole lot of the inconsistencies you guys experienced over the years.

Just as an example, I'm going to use the fix of misaligned guns that is already in Experimental (caused by either using a vehicle, being in prone, or using free-look).

We're also going to go over some of the issues that bother you a lot: like hit registration problems, or changing your key binds. Let's go.

Feature and content freeze for BETA/1.0

With today's Experimental update, we have released a huge amount of items that were not available in-game before, and while some of their functionality might be bugged, these specific cases will be tackled in the bugfixing, polishing, and balancing push. What's in the Experimental build now is the list of items we want to hit 1.0 with, and anything else we've talked about in the past will be a post 1.0 content released as free platform updates.

The same goes for features - features that we previously had planned to deliver and are not in-game right now and are postponed after 1.0 release. We will be working on our post 1.0 plans and communicate the exact details of our efforts through official channels. One thing I can already say - I'm really looking forward to working on a stable game platform. Something we have not seen a lot (or at all) for the past 5 years.

 

Addressing the current most pressing issues

There are some hot topic currently resonating in the community, and I wanted to touch upon some of those in more detail. As these would make the Status Report visually even longer, we're gonna put them into a separate forums post. These are the topics covered:

• Item renaming
• Hit registration
• Changing key binds 
• Bloom post process effect tweaking
• FPS drops

READ THE FORUM POST

 

Now to an elephant in the room that has to be talked about in a proper manner. Previously, I have said that I want to write up my thoughts after talking to you guys on various channels and criticism that has ensued after the last Status Report. Here it is.

Why go for a 1.0 release this year?

There were two choices here, either we miss our 1.0 deadline, or we miss content parity. Both are bad no matter how we look at it. I seriously believe for the health of DayZ as a brand, as a game, we have to move in a direction of stable and reliable gameplay. The core DayZ features are already in the game now, and the devil is in the details. We have to make sure those core features work as they should first and foremost. Not only are you missing out on some really cool things in the game because the current implementation of features is simply broken - additionally, we also we have to deal with development on a game platform that is simply not stable enough for us to continue without loosing our minds.

Making a new weapon on a game that crashes or stops shooting bullets every day due to low level changes is not fun for us either. We know that this step is not only important for the game, but also for the team here. While we might have put on a version number 0.64 and just continue development as many of you have suggested, we have to start working with deadlines properly and be prepared to prioritize. We could have spent years polishing and adding to what DayZ is, but to do so, we need to start planning better and that requires a platform where estimations on complexity can be relied upon. That is not the case right now. While we agree that content variety is extremely important to DayZ, we can improve upon that that post 1.0. And the same comes with features like helicopters. We are not abandoning DayZ. We're taking a deep breath, we're taking a look back with the aim to properly plan out building on a platform that is fun to develop for.

Can you really have a polished, stable 1.0 version of DayZ by the end of the year? There's not much time left.

Yes, unless we believed that, we wouldn't have chosen the option to hit the deadline. There is about a month of real development left, and hopefully some you have noticed we have started fixing some really pressing issues in DayZ over the last week as we shuffled our priorities. And that is what deadlines do. They make you think twice about what is really important. While there are large numbers of issues left, only about 600 of them are crucial to make DayZ work as intended. We plan to do exactly that. Fix features, stabilize the game and make it enjoyable after being weighed down by bugs for a very long time.

Are you pressured from the Bohemia management to go for the release?

There is pressure of course, that's a natural part of game development. We've just spent five years in Early Access. That said, Bohemia Interactive is a privately owned company under no pressure from external investors. It is our decision to meet our deadline, and there are no business people standing behind our backs forcing us to do it. Bohemia is a family of like-minded people who want to make games without publishers calling the shots. It's also one of the core reasons why Bohemia still self-publishes its own games, and generally does things on its own. While we may not be perfect, our players, our community, our games are still very clearly different from the rest of the industry.

Why not just continue in BETA after stabilizing the game, and not avoid "slapping" a 1.0 on a game that's not "feature/content complete"?

Because if we were to do every single thing that was ever conceived/thought of/casually mentioned for DayZ, we would not be able to exit Early Access even next year. In development, especially if you work with new technology, there is no proper way to do estimates. You just do them based on your past experiences with different technologies. This a super complex topic and we were unable, and effectively failed to predict the amount of time some these things would take on the new engine. While the possibilities with our own technology are endless in theory, we just can't hit content/features that we wanted or wished for in the time we set for ourselves. That said, we know that the game is going to be tons of fun even when some of your favorite features and content are missing now.

Is there any team restructuring going on after the 1.0 release? Are DayZ developers going to be assigned to other teams at Bohemia?

No, we are keeping the same resources as we had this year for the year ahead. To be precise, it's 86 people working on DayZ right now.

What are your plans for development after BETA? When can we see the remaining features being implemented?

As mentioned previously, we want to properly plan out content and features for next year, and focus on timely delivery by having a stable platform that we can build upon. One of the top priorities will definitely be weapons and content variety. As for features implemented post 1.0, we will share more information once the whole team agrees on what exactly we can and will deliver. DayZ is our dream game and we want to make it the best possible experience for developers and players alike.

- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer

Header image by Uncuepa.

[LordBlackwolf 656]

The link for the forum post is not working as it appears to be improperly formatted. For anyone interested, the proper link is 

 

Edited November 6, 2018 by LordBlackwolf

[Amerisun 2]

Small problem of course, but it would be great if you guys could fix the UI of the game to work more like Arma, I mean from the perspective of ultra wide monitors.  I have 5780x1080 and with Arma 3 and Arma 2 the UI fixed to the 1080 portion. It's great because it centers the UI on my main monitor making it easier to see everything and it's not stretched to hell.  The way it is now I have to run 1920x1979 only on the center monitor for it to be somewhat usable.

[Maxzymator 26]

I didn't get it - you said Experimental and Stress Test Branches should not see much use for the rest of the year, but today you hit experimental, and tomorrow you'll hit stable. Does it mean that it is going to be the same version of the game on experimental and on stable? And does it mean that all patches that are going to happen (if they are going to happen) until the rest of the year are going straight to stable?

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thanks devs, all!

I guess this issue is one of my favorite to champion...

I'm hoping that infected spawn and aggro is looked at closely.

Infected are spawning next to players after aggroing other infected.

Spawn points in the woods around towns and in random wooded areas (like wolves), would be a welcome change. Bringing in additional infected from wooded spawn points, requiring them to travel a small distance into town, would be less immersion breaking.

Edited November 7, 2018 by ☣BioHaze☣

[blackberrygoo 1416]

I really wanted to hate this status report ... but it was actually good . Sad to see barricading , advanced soft skills (medical , mechanic , pilot) , birds , and aerial vehicles won’t make it until post 1.0 ; those first two and the latter would truly make the game so much more robust . 

[amadieus 316]

3 hours ago, Maxzymator said:

I didn't get it - you said Experimental and Stress Test Branches should not see much use for the rest of the year, but today you hit experimental, and tomorrow you'll hit stable. Does it mean that it is going to be the same version of the game on experimental and on stable? And does it mean that all patches that are going to happen (if they are going to happen) until the rest of the year are going straight to stable?

I think that the latter is the case. Bug fixes go straight to stable 

[IMT 3190]

Really good Status Report! I also really appreciate that you guys touched on the biggest concerns which included my biggest concern as well, thank you for that. I know I had a lot of criticism about last Status Report and I think I let my emotions cloud my judgement. But seeing all the new items and updates since last Status Report, all these hard feelings have gone away. I also think that last Status Report looked more negative than things actually are right now. I got the impression it was a what you see is what you get and we wouldn't get all the new items for 1.0. That wasn't true apparently so it looked way more negative than it actually was, both our vision and our reaction.

Of course I'm still a bit bummed out that there are certain things which will be after 1.0, but so be it. As I always say, I have been waiting for so long, I can wait a bit longer. It's not that DayZ suddenly is going to disappear out of my Steam library, right? I hope everyone who's going to check out DayZ once this hits Stable and when DayZ releases thinks the same way. That was and still is a big concern for me with releasing 1.0 this year. But time will tell and let's hope it gets received as positive even though it lacks a bit here and there with old features or content.

I think you guys can do it, especially since you're now solely going to be focusing on squashing bugs (and I hope balancing/tweaking). Once this hits Stable I will try and get an extensive list of feedback, balancing issues, tweaks and bugs.

[daniel0056 24]

Good status report. Thank you for the transparency and I feel more comfortable now with owning a copy of the game. I'm looking forward for .63 to hit main!

[igor-vk 909]

OK, this really bothers me. Devs decided to cut the content to get stable game. I dont see much stability and we are knee deep in November. There are still so many game breaking bugs. Im afraid we wont get stability by the end of the year.

[Baty Alquawen 3688]

8 hours ago, Maxzymator said:

I didn't get it - you said Experimental and Stress Test Branches should not see much use for the rest of the year, but today you hit experimental, and tomorrow you'll hit stable. Does it mean that it is going to be the same version of the game on experimental and on stable? And does it mean that all patches that are going to happen (if they are going to happen) until the rest of the year are going straight to stable?

That is the plan. Updates straight to stable.

[SnowballNinja 0]

11 minutes ago, Baty Alquawen said:

That is the plan. Updates straight to stable.

Is this happening right now? I am trying to log in to the Experimental/Unstable servers but I get "Bad version, server rejected connection." Even though I have the most up-to-date experimental build...

[daniel0056 24]

51 minutes ago, SnowballNinja said:

Is this happening right now? I am trying to log in to the Experimental/Unstable servers but I get "Bad version, server rejected connection." Even though I have the most up-to-date experimental build...

It's still "tomorrow", they may not have pushed the beta to stable yet. And obviously all servers need to update too I guess.

Edited November 7, 2018 by daniel0056

[Private Evans 1303]

Well releasing the current build as a first beta version on stable and focusing on fixing and polishing the game as it is right now on one branch was a very good idea :)...really like that ! Also the amount of new added items and stuff seems to be a lot bigger than I expected after your last Status Report...nice surprise here as well. Last but not least for the good news, it is nice to hear that you will have a full team still working on Dayz in 2019.

Still I am no fan of relasing this version then as 1.0 without, at least for me personally, important features like jumping, climbing, vaulting, throwing items, helicopters and also some really missing iconic weapons ...in other words exactly the stuff that was promised for 1.0 in last November Beta report. 

You really can be proud of reaching the current beta status as an important mile stone and with a few more weeks of bugfixing and polishing to go, we will see for sure a very cool version of the game  at the end of this year but for me personally a beta that is and will be until the missing content has been added and all mechanics are polished and ballanced properly. I don' t expect this to be before Q3 / Q4 2019 though.

Stuff like bikes and planes and bows will for sure be added but later...good thing BI is famous for providing amazing longtime support :)

However I understand that you can not wait that long to leave early access for different reasons and I also know we all here can live with that somehow for some time... as long as you pump out content on a regular base during the next months .If it will again take ages for new content and patches to arrive...the shitstorm will even be bigger than after the last Status Report...that's for sure.

 

cheers and thx for your hard work :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[koffeekage 322]

Can we get stacking hesco barriers or is that something the modders have to do too.

[philbur 476]

21 hours ago, Amerisun said:

Small problem of course, but it would be great if you guys could fix the UI of the game to work more like Arma, I mean from the perspective of ultra wide monitors.  I have 5780x1080 and with Arma 3 and Arma 2 the UI fixed to the 1080 portion. It's great because it centers the UI on my main monitor making it easier to see everything and it's not stretched to hell.  The way it is now I have to run 1920x1979 only on the center monitor for it to be somewhat usable.

Yes!

I like to run on triple monitors and it just cant be done with the current UI.(well...actually I can...as long as I don't need to use my frickin inventory!)

Key Binding is still keeping me away from the test versions so definitely looking forward to FINALLY having full control of my experience. BUT WHY HAS THIS NOT BECOME A "MUST FIX" ITEM??

(It sort of sounds as if it is something they are "eventually" going to touch on, and it is going to need tweaking, I bet...which will probably delay an actual "fully working" key bind system deep in to next year!) Hope not, of course...But....

I have a sneaky feeling the console version is going to get a lot of their attention, though, over the next two months...especially as they mention "weapons" as being a top priority (sigh).

Overall, I was expecting a more definitive roadmap. (or rather, I was expecting different priorities, perhaps).

[philbur 476]

4 hours ago, koffeekage said:

Can we get stacking hesco barriers or is that something the modders have to do too.

If it happens...I would hope that it requires us to fill the damn things with a shovel! 

If we can just "craft" it and then place it (like the MOD stuff) then immersion just gets killed.

But having Hescos just as single-row structures would still be fine as long as they allow building on top of them....lots of possibilities there.

[MathTheRender 21]

Played yesterday in Night enviroment and it was pitch black. it was the first time i was forced to use the roadflare. I think this a good solution you found to fix the gamma hack. That was great creapy fun.

but i have some points to mention:

-Pet bottle fills up way to quickly, i think the sound is on the right path, but sounds too empty.

-had a can of food and could not open it with : hatchet, hacksaw and tongs. (witch i think i would manage in real life althoug they took me a different amount of time and and a bigger loss of ingreedience)

-the pumpkin seems to resist the same tools

-found some mushrooms in the woods. they lie on the ground and on stones like someone dropped them, which felt odd.

-spawned items somethimes have such a unnatural glow (in example the mushrooms). also my character glows sometimes oddly or seems to be much brighter than it should be possible in the enviroment. for me that seems to be an easy tweak to fix but would do so much allready for the game experience.

-i was lying on the ground in the woods, and tried to open a can. so i put the can on the floor, as i was in my invertory, to get a hatchet in my hands. then i couldn't find my can. so i searched the sourrounding forest floor and could not find it. as i stood up i saw that the can was hanging in the tree (fir).

+gameplay overall seemed much more fun

+not at least because i found more stuff and a whole lot of new items :D

so keep on going, its great to see it slowly getting all together.

greeting from Chenarus

[daniel0056 24]

3 hours ago, MathTheRender said:

Played yesterday in Night enviroment and it was pitch black.

Yeah I tried spawning in on the beach too, once my road flair went out i exited the game. It's impossible to see anything at night time.... "Beta" my ass. And all the day time servers were full.

 

I grabbed a screenshot too. It's a little hard to tell, but i'm standing with the ocean behind me looking up towards a road and then some woods, which i was able to tell because i tried running straight for a while and the sound from my steps changed.

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by daniel0056

[emuthreat 2837]

13 hours ago, daniel0056 said:

And all the day time servers were full.

This is what we in the business of laughing at difficulty complaints call a classic case of Git Guud Deficit Disorder.
They will probably balance lighting a bit more, but the darkness is just another challenge from now on.  Playing on daytime servers only? Well that's your choice to lose out on half the fun.  Personally, I get a much greater sense of accomplishment from mastering the difficult parts of this game, rather than avoiding them.

I can fully understand if you don't know the map very well yet, how it can be frustrating to find your way in the dark.  But it just means you will have to plan ahead and take things a bit more slowly at night.  Hey, it's safer in the dark too, so you can loot in peace.
Hell, I know the map like the back of my hand, but STILL got lost myself the other night.  It was overcast, and I only had one flare, and I waited too long to craft any torches.
MY MISTAKES.

Today, I managed to run from Svergino to Kamensk base with a single glowstick.
I kept it in my pants for the most part, because the stars were out.  I took it out to make sure I didn't miss the road; saw the guardrail straight away; saw the guard tower a while later, outlined among the trees.  Both of those things felt like an amazing accomplishment.
I looted the base carefully, concealing the light while traveling between tents and containers; dropping the light on the floor when I caught aggro, so I could back off and hit the zeds in the light when they crossed it.
I even managed to spot a landmine that someone had place in a barracks doorway.  Because I was careful...

@eugenharton @Baty Alquawen
Regarding land mines:  Are we supposed to be able to disarm them manually?
I got very close and tried to interact with one, and eventually ran over it and killed myself to make sure it was not bugged.  I can think of one other method to try neutralizing them, but it is kinda noisy.
 

[philbur 476]

14 hours ago, emuthreat said:

This is what we in the business of laughing at difficulty complaints call a classic case of Git Guud Deficit Disorder.

Remember the times where you were stuck in unknown terrain (because you did not know the map)...in the dark (because you preferred not to Gamma cheat)...and you hear a gunshot in the valley close by (because you still feared PVP)?

The "new" darkness is a welcome trip back to those moments...where you are NOT the master of your destiny.

I hid in the hills overlooking Novodmitrovsk and watched a group of Survivors messing around in the dark with flares and a couple fires and it was epic. I had an excellent time just spectating...full value!

[philbur 476]

On ‎2018‎-‎11‎-‎09 at 6:11 AM, daniel0056 said:

Yeah I tried spawning in on the beach too, once my road flair went out i exited the game. It's impossible to see anything at night time.... "Beta" my ass. And all the day time servers were full.

 

I grabbed a screenshot too. It's a little hard to tell, but i'm standing with the ocean behind me looking up towards a road and then some woods, which i was able to tell because i tried running straight for a while and the sound from my steps changed.

 

So?

By your comments am I to assume you were not interested in night time adventuring?

I know you might have looked forward to doing some real testing and exploring in the new build...but I hope you give the deep night an honest try, my man...(at least if you are a bit geared up).

[daniel0056 24]

On 11/10/2018 at 1:47 AM, emuthreat said:

1) This is what we in the business of laughing at difficulty complaints call a classic case of Git Guud Deficit Disorder.
2) Playing on daytime servers only?
3) I can fully understand if you don't know the map very well yet, how it can be frustrating to find your way in the dark.

1) Standard reply from a defensive person right there lol.

2) No, as you can see with the screenshot it's impossible, even for hardcore DayZ gamers to see anything at all in that lighting. Especially if you're a new player having their first ever experience with the game. The darkness in that image is so overwhelming that it's impossible to know if this is a rendering bug (aka. bug is only rendering rain and hud, or if it's just so dark that you can't even see the sky or the ground.

3) Yeah it's going to be a real problem for new players to find their way. If this was my first time playing, I would have quit and refunded the game. However, I've been playing DayZ since the first mod released, and I've been playing Arma2 since it was released, so I'd like to think I know my way around cherno (even with the new chreno, as I've been playing every version obsessively). The image I attached is taken from a very obvious place, and I dare you to tell me where it is from. I only know where it is because I logged in yesterday again.

On 11/10/2018 at 4:25 PM, philbur said:

By your comments am I to assume you were not interested in night time adventuring?

Did you actually take a look at that screenshot?

 

[emuthreat 2837]

On 11/9/2018 at 3:11 AM, daniel0056 said:

And all the day time servers were full.

I took this to mean "I would if I could."
If you really have played every patch, you'd know that players preferring daytime is par for the course.  In every previous patch, on exp of official servers, you can join a hi-pop play until night falls, and then watch as you become one of only three people remaining on the server through night time

I can only think night time being so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face was exactly what they were going for.  I can still navigate with little difficulty if there are stars, but have serious troubles if overcast; haven't played with the full moon yet.

Regardless, I do think some balancing passes will come, after they've sorted out this malarkey with persistence.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

7 hours ago, emuthreat said:

I took this to mean "I would if I could."
If you really have played every patch, you'd know that players preferring daytime is par for the course.  In every previous patch, on exp of official servers, you can join a hi-pop play until night falls, and then watch as you become one of only three people remaining on the server through night time

I can only think night time being so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face was exactly what they were going for.  I can still navigate with little difficulty if there are stars, but have serious troubles if overcast; haven't played with the full moon yet.

Regardless, I do think some balancing passes will come, after they've sorted out this malarkey with persistence.

As much as I love the new changes, I strongly recommend going back to spawning with flashlights (what happened to that? was it really that OP?) or at least a glowstick or two. I joined several servers (although the game keeps kicking me) and had to quit some in frustration. The road flare goes out within 10 seconds in heavy rain, and to prepare yourself for darkness you need to either find/craft a knife (for a torch) or find both a battery and either a flashlight or headtorch (I imagine the gas lamp is out at the moment?). This is simply impossible to do in pitch-black darkness.

I don't shy away from the most difficult parts of the game and I'm happy to see a kind of darkness which makes it impossible to play without a light source. But throw me a bone here! My navigation and crafting skills won't matter when I see precisely zero on my screen.

I've always loved playing the night and most of the time I did it honestly, i.e. without gamma abuse (although light sources and light mechanics in the past were horrendous). I fondly remember one 'always night' server. The only problem for me was that people abuse gamma and I'm the only idiot running around with a light. One way or another, people should be forced to use lights at night because we are a diurnal species. But currently, this task can be too much even for veterans if they just spawn on the coast on a rainy night.

 

@daniel0056 I agree with the argument that a new player can quickly give up. This is precisely what I did with Doom 3, when I noticed that you can either see the zombies in the flashlight or switch to weapons and complete darkness. But the learning curve is of different importance in DayZ. If something is easy for a noob, it will quickly become boring/unsatisfying once they stop being one. This game should be demanding for veterans also outside of PVP (my 2 cents).

 

One more thing - I'm fine with the night being artificially darker than that in RL, in order to make up for all the actions you can do in-game but would never be able to do in the dark. Think about 'stitching yourself up' or crafting a ghillie - you really need to see what you're doing. Hell, you'd probably fumble with your socks if you had to change them in a pretty dark place. So either those actions should be unavailable without a proximity to a light source, or I'm OK to pitch-black night for those who insist on carrying mags instead of flashlights.

 

People need light at night in about the same way they need clothes outside - that is, they can go without it, but it's always a bad choice for several reasons. The previous states of affairs (when nights were gray/navy-blue and everyone abused gamma, anyway) were laughable and I'm happy that the devs are coming down on this problem, even if a bit too hard. An important part of what could make DayZ survival challenging was essentially non-existent. And all the Rambos out there (not a personal jab at daniel0056) need to understand that at night it's very hard to even safely pass through a forest, let alone enjoy heavy fire-fights at the Kamensk base.