DayZ Frostline Dev Blog Week 30

[lynn.zaw 241]

⚠️Disclaimer⚠️
Please be aware: Information shared in our development blog represents a work in progress, not the final product. Contents and features discussed are subject to change before release. We aim to provide insight and foster community engagement, but details may evolve as development continues. Thank you for joining us on this journey, with the understanding that what you see here is a glimpse into the process.

Survivors!

Welcome to our Dev Blog, where we give a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the DayZ Frostline Expansion. This blog is all about sharing our challenges and successes with you, the community.
Your continuous support has been essential for the game's success, and consider this a way for us to showcase our appreciation by taking you on our creative journey.

Let us look into the New Environment Hazards.

Heavy Metal Poisoning 

In our ongoing effort to enhance the survival experience within DayZ Frostline, we're excited to introduce a new challenge that will test even the most seasoned survivors: Heavy Metal Poisoning. This feature aims to deepen the player's engagement with the hostile environment and introduce a new layer of complexity.

Heavy Metal Poisoning is contracted when a player consumes water or snow that has been contaminated by volcanic ash—a scenario all too possible in the snowy wasteland of Sakhal. 

The disease has multiple stages, each marked by increasingly severe symptoms and penalties. We won't spoil the "fun" of finding out about the stages and symptoms. The most important part to remember is that the fallen snow on Sakhal is consumable but with harsh risks if consumed without proper filtration.
Here's a comparison of what safe consumption and unsafe consumption of snow looks like:

Here's a little taste of what might happen if the effects of Heavy Metal Poisoning take over:

Tackling the Threat

Fortunately, not all is lost for those afflicted. It can be treated through careful management and avoidance of further contaminated intake. Specific treatments have been developed to combat this insidious threat:

- Chelating Drugs: These powerful drugs can stop the disease's growth and reverse its effects. They can also be used to purify water.

Spoiler

- Filtering Bottle: This device ensures snow can be safely consumed, providing a lifeline in the snow-clad regions of the game.

Spoiler

It's important to note that recovering from Heavy Metal Poisoning grants no immunity, emphasizing the importance of mindful decision-making.

Heat Comfort 

As DayZ Frostline continues to evolve, so does its survival element. With the introduction of the Sakhal map, players find themselves battling an eternal winter, pushing the boundaries of survival to new heights. Understanding and mastering the upgraded heat comfort system becomes key to enduring the harsh conditions prevalent in the Frostline expansion. 

A New Layer to Survival: Heat Comfort

The Heat Comfort system is a sophisticated feature designed to simulate authentic effects of temperature, gear, and environment on the player's body temperature. Whether you're exploring the snowy expanses of Sakhal or navigating the familiar landscapes of Chernarus or Livonia, knowing how to maintain your comfort will be crucial.

Critical Factors Affecting Heat Comfort

Several variables play a significant role in determining your character's heat comfort level. These include:

- Environmental Conditions: Air temperature, altitude, and weather phenomena like snow and rain dramatically impact your comfort.
- Player Actions and Conditions: Movement speed, wetness level, and the presence of heat sources (like fireplaces) or cold sources near the character come into play.
- Gear and Clothing: The insulation value of your clothing, their condition, and whether they're wet or dry, affects your thermal comfort.
- Food Consumption: The temperature of the food you consume will also impact your heat comfort. Hot food will damage your health, while warm food will provide a bonus to your heat comfort. Food in a normal state will be neutral, chilly and cold food will lower your temperature, and frozen food is not consumable.We have also tweaked the UI of items in inventory menu to reflect these changes.

Spoiler

The Impact of Discomfort

Failing to manage your heat comfort leads to various penalties, affecting your water and energy consumption, health, and even your ability to handle weapons steadily.

Navigating the Changes

The heat comfort system introduces specific gameplay mechanics and strategies for players to adapt:

- Clothing Matters: Pay attention to the state of your clothes. Pristine items offer full heat insulation, while wet or damaged gear could reduce your thermal comfort.
- Environment Navigation: Seeking shelter can mitigate the penalties of bad weather, and finding indoor spaces or covered areas can offer a reprieve from the cold.
- Utilizing Heat Sources: Proximity to heat sources like fireplaces not only provides immediate warmth but also helps to fill a heat buffer, protecting you from dropping into discomfort.

Thermal Comfort UI

The game's interface gives you direct feedback on your heat comfort level through the HUD. Colors range from blue (cold discomfort) to red (heat discomfort), with white indicating a neutral, comfortable state. Pay attention to these cues to avoid unpleasant consequences. Visual Time Indicator: The Heat Buffer UI doesn't directly alter the target heat comfort beyond keeping it from going negative. Instead, it serves as a visual countdown, indicating the duration for which players can sustain their current level of warmth before the heat buffer depletes.

Final Thoughts

Updating the heat comfort system in DayZ was an important step to take in getting the Frostline gameplay where we want it. It was a challenging task as we also had to be mindful of the impact that these changes will have on our existing, much warmer maps.

Read More and Wishlist 

 

[DeathDeclined 0]

looks great

[Kuzyn. 33]

So heavy metal poisoning is just an alteration to cholera but for this winter volcanic setting? Or its present only in some special areas?

Good to see an update on heat buff timer.

Also a side note, there are mods that block people from drinking or eating while wearing masks/helmets. Wouldnt that be cool addition, especially for Sakhal? People would have another layer of survival: eat/drink now in the wild but risk low temp comfort due to taking off mask/helmet or find a better warmer place and consume without the risk. That would also increase roleplay/realism aspect of the game.

[0vbb 3]

Great that this is also implemented to Cherno! Looking forward to more additions 🙂

[JerseyD 13]

Emkavec flask looks amazing. The EDTA on the other hand is a bit "squary", enges can be seen. This is not so important, but maybe 40-60 extra polygons will do the trick

 

Edited July 26 by JerseyD

[JerseyD 13]

There won't be next devblog or you just forgot to mention its theme? Also, you said it yourself that you've learned from Livonia mistakes, so, hopefully, "below zero" locations will be right from the start (below zero altitude, not temperature).

[AbsolutelyFeral3913 4]

That EMKAVEC bottle is giving me Stanley cup vibes lol will there be a range of colours to collect? 😋

Edited July 26 by AbsolutelyFeral3913
typo

[Pyongo Bongo 235]

YES SNOW EATING MADNESS! DON'T EAT THE SNOW IT MAKES YOU CRAZY! 😄

[Judley 18]

Looks good. You mention volcanic ash..is there a volcano event or is does it just mean that all snow or water needs filtering as there is an (inactive) volcano on the island? 

[Girth Brooks 569]

Wow this is amazingly.... underwhelming

[DefectiveWater 533]

On 7/26/2024 at 12:10 PM, lynn.zaw said:

A New Layer to Survival: Heat Comfort

Quote

A New Layer to Survival: Layering clothes

If only...

Few more months to go.

[Presence- 32]

Great! Looking forward to see how the temperature rework is implemented along with the additions that come with it. I hope everything is done with.a slow-paced taste.

[Presence- 32]

The filtering bottle might just be too overpowered if all we need to do to drink safe water is to fill it with snow and drink straight after that safe and sound. Once the filtering bottle is found, dehydration problems have been resolved. If that's the case, i'll be good that this filtering bottle is extremely rare and that we still need to wait quite a while for the snow to melt (and the time to melt depends on the temperature and the storage condition as it might never melt and stay frozen) or if we want to accelerate the melting process, we should drop the bottle close to a fire or pour that water in a container that boils it as a faster and safer option. In addition to that, warm water will warm our body a little bit and give us a heat bonus for a little while. It's good to think in details and in slow-paced manners. Collecting snow in the filtering bottle should take time and effort to give us a descent quantity and it should be revolved around anticipation and not as a direct to instant resolve to counter dehydration issue and quick safe liquid ready to drink.
 

Edited July 30 by Presence-

[Dormant23 0]

On 7/30/2024 at 7:34 PM, Presence- said:

The filtering bottle might just be too overpowered if all we need to do to drink safe water is to fill it with snow and drink straight after that safe and sound. Once the filtering bottle is found, dehydration problems have been resolved. If that's the case, i'll be good that this filtering bottle is extremely rare and that we still need to wait quite a while for the snow to melt (and the time to melt depends on the temperature and the storage condition as it might never melt and stay frozen) or if we want to accelerate the melting process, we should drop the bottle close to a fire or pour that water in a container that boils it as a faster and safer option. In addition to that, warm water will warm our body a little bit and give us a heat bonus for a little while. It's good to think in details and in slow-paced manners. Collecting snow in the filtering bottle should take time and effort to give us a descent quantity and it should be revolved around anticipation and not as a direct to instant resolve to counter dehydration issue and quick safe liquid ready to drink.
 

The water filter could probably degrade per use until it is ruined.

[anatolyshmell 3]

how about finishing the vanilla game? fix zombies, cars, other bugs? why do we need DLC with bugs that have not been fixed for many years? how about making an anti-cheat that works fine? why can't a large developer company finish the game for ten years?

Edited August 3 by anatolyshmell

[Sventu 81 0]

But...what about this server wipe and reset?you made a fantastic game but it's based on survival... like many others I'm not looking for pvp but I want to play the game the way you developed it... I've been surviving for 4 months and I don't understand why I have to lose everything because bored people like duplicate...they don't wear so much now, then they don't carry so much...1 month and lose everithing...

Edited August 6 by Sventu 81
I have more to say...

[Popa2caps 1]

I would have used resources to better the entire title, not by making a map, than hydration, heat outcome consequences. Water mechanics for dirty snow, like really? What's next, toxic water because a deer was upstream from the player?
 

Adding more outcomes for one system doesn't make it more interesting, just makes it plain lazy. Working out to stay fit? Diabetes if you eat too much sugar  and/ or carbohydrates?

Where is - Flying vehicles, middleware (engine) replacement, animations, ability to disable toggle aim, full controller support (PC), BIRDS (I hear them for some reason, but they all seem to be cloaked!), no pop-in textures!, anti-cheat that actually works?, Fake characters and/ or walls hidden in the map you can't see to block ESP?

Question, Why is everyone the same height?
 

DayZ as a survival title is ruined by the fact the game basically has no security. For a game that's heavily based around randomness, you sure do die from people that can see through walls a lot...
 

The majority of players will start on official servers, but move to modded once they get cheated (PC). It shouldn't be like this. Bohemia Interactive needs to fix the issues with the game first, before adding more of them.

I call on to hold this update, and fix security as a top priority. Let me run the game online (cloud based). I'll take the extra lag over anyday for being cheat free. Do something about cheaters.

Edited August 7 by Popa2caps
1

[JerseyD 13]

Popa2caps you should consider cheaters as a part of the game. Yes, that is a disease, and is very annoying when there's nothing you can do. And if you dare to go to Feedback tracker and talk about this problem too much they might ban your account (which has happened to me). But luckily, or sadly, dayz is too good. It is soo good that with all it's flaws it still would end up having more good points than bad points, it forgives cheaters, devs misstakes/misleadings for which any other company would suffer serious consequences, it forgives a lot. And lately devs been using that ability, but they also moving in the right way right now.  Report button with limited amount of options per week would be nice ofc, but even now you can learn some tricks to avoid cheaters. For example right after 1.26 experimental all of them were sitting on exp servers, so it was safer to play stable official. Cheaters are mostly dumb, so they will bite you with shots like there's vietnamo over there but if you decide to go and investigate you're a goner (as they already see you). Best way to catch a cheater is to sit in ambush and have a record on, when you don't move chances to be spotted are minimal, especially when you're in bushes with proper camo. So if you were magically countersniped out of nowhere, or easily spotted that raises a lot of questions. Anyway, you have to go through all stages with cheaters in dayz, and in the end you won't take them seriously. 'Cause who we are to judge them, if I had miro nano pipi I would probably cheat too, so... 😉