DayZ has become a haven for the worst impulses in humanity - there are countless videos of psychopaths kidnapping/torturing random players, forming insane cults, and generallyfreaking the shit out of everyone. But, for once, we have an uplifting story.

Of course, it DOES begin with a player being kidnapped and tied up and held at gunpoint - but when the kidnappers tell the dude that all he needs to do to survive is sing them a song, the desperate dude rises to the occasion, with a beautiful rendition of the folk song "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" - an appropriate song for a person about to be executed.

Make sure to start the video at around 3:30 - and see how long you can go without smiling.

If the song sounds a little familiar, it's because it was recently featured prominently in the Coen Bros. film Inside Llewyn Davis. However, the song seems a little bit more powerful when it takes place in a zombie apocalypse, by a man held at gunpoint by a group of murderous scavengers.

Greetings Survivors!

As we move forward with January’s stable branch update (0.53) the focus of the gameplay programming and production teams is primarily on security. As mentioned prior in the September 15 Status Report - only so much can be done in tandem with engine and gameplay changes coming with every update (and maintain a rapid update frequency to stable branch). That said, as the primary vulnerability on the security side for DayZ right now is less on engine and/or scripting and more on modifying/accessing the process memory we have several Q1 goals we are aiming to complete.

• Deployment of a new form of BattlEye
  • This has been delayed to allow testing/regression around any potential bugs and/or compatibility issues so as not to cause any major issues to those participating in Early Access
• Server side sanity checks and protection against certain currently exploited methods
• Closer work with Valve and the VAC team
  • This will initially be seen by allowing players to report in-game suspected cheaters and will expand from there to a program that best fits DayZ and how it operates
  • Expanded vigilance in reporting all known tools and methods currently used to access the DayZ process for less than honorable methods.

Beyond that, Q1 has a good deal of exciting work for DayZ. Be it work on the new infected AI, to implementation of the central economy or diseases - this should be an exciting few months.
On the note of work to come, I’d like to expand upon confusion around persistence - how it is intended to operate, and the role that weekly persistence wipes currently serve.

Persistence is a core pillar of DayZ and its design. Currently persistence functionality is tied to the incomplete economy functions. As we expand upon the systems surrounding the central economy - What is saved/How it is saved, Cleanup, Respawn, etc will be handled properly. In addition to that, the secondary cause of persistence wipes (issues with reading modifiers on saved items, improperly saved items, etc) can be addressed.
Once we have addressed these two issues, persistence can and will be moved from an “opt-in” feature, to a core function of DayZ - and something that is universal across all servers. Once this is complete, I personally look forward to truly seeing the “camp/base building” side of the title start to be more universally adopted. Be it vehicles, barricaded buildings, tents, containers, or even farms setup via horticulture.

In addition, if you have any questions surrounding this topic (or any others) - I encourage you to head over to the Developer Discussion subforums at the official DayZ forums. Eugen and myself both are accessible via the Service section.

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Greetings Survivors,

As the 0.54 hotfix hit stable branch last Wednesday, work has continued on toward 0.55 and beyond. Over the last week with myself at GDC and PAX East, our Lead Designer - Peter Nespesny has shared some of the prototype functionality currently being worked on.

From ongoing work with the infected A.I., to the many crafting options for your survivor base with the multipurpose barrel - the design team has had their plate filled with some pretty interesting stuff over the last week.

Peter spoke briefly on the development board, and the official forums about the intended use of the multipurpose barrel.



Beyond what Peter spoke of, the potential usage for a multipurpose barrel for player bases is extensive. Ranging from lightly effective cover from incoming fire - to the storing of fluids such as fuel, and my personal favorite - catching rain to increase your water stores - I think when paired with functional persistence and global cleanup, the multipurpose barrel will be a must have for any decent sized player encampment.

Even more exciting, pairing with work from the gameplay programming teams - the design team has been able to get their hands on the early implementation of the new infected A.I. - Petershowcased on the forums a brief video of basic grouping and horde mentality responding to a players gunshot.

Again - this is very early implementation, however as work progresses into the next week the design team are working on sneaking and stealthy tactics when dealing with this new A.I. system. Moving into the next experimental branch window, we’ll be looking at pushing the early implementation work out to this branch and testing with varied numbers across all servers.

Greetings Survivors!

Work is chugging along on 0.55 update for stable branch, and the department leads have been sharing information and images over on the Dev Hub. If you haven’t had a look - head over and you’ll see some awesome work in progress stuff - like the SVD Sniper Rifle, V3S Animations, and new zombie models.

Peter, our Lead Designer will be discussing below in more detail zombies and diseases. This week I’d like to talk about a few in progress updates that I’m looking forward to.

First off, we have the mentioned full randomization of weapon spawn configurations. This ranges from attachment configuration, quantity, type, and condition. When functional, each weapon you find should be as unique as possible per that item type. Be it the chance to spawn with a magazine, potential attachment, overall weapon condition, and so on. This expands upon the uniqueness of each persons kit in-game, and ensures that very few two firearms are exactly the same. Who knows, you might get lucky and find that M1911 Engraved you always wanted, -with- a clip!

 

Moving on to more advanced weapon customization, we’ve done a good deal of discussion on allowing more specific customization per weapon. Adding in rail systems, shoe horn mount scopes, barrel swaps, and so on. Controlling when and where this is done is critical to the flow of gameplay across the map. Creating hot spots, and high traffic areas for players looking to gear up, and create their favorite weapon. At this point, we’re looking at adding in advanced crafting tables into this existing (soon to be enter-able) maintenance structure scattered throughout Chernarus.
 

Heading into April, we’ll be discussing the tasks and accomplishments of Q1 2015, what the road ahead looks like and the status of long term engine tasks. From the new renderer, to the new player controller, server side performance, and so much more. Keep an eye on the Dev Hub, and the official DayZ forums for the latest news and information on DayZ Early Access.

- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer


“It is clear that former, by purpose simplified infected AI wasn’t a hit by any means and it was frustrating to play and look at. When I was talking about the new infected in the Status Report two weeks ago I had a feeling that it would stir things up a bit. A few days after that I made short video with a horde running after a player and recently we released experimental update with the first implementation of infected AI. There were so many positive reactions on the direction that the new infected are heading, that the entire team was pleased. However there were also some which were calling for changing the DayZ lore and turning the infected into slowly moving beings.  

I appreciate different opinions but I can’t see any reason why we should make infected as stationary as possible, it will just simplify the game too much in such case. It is important to understand that the infected in DayZ are not the undead, and to be honest I don’t want to see DayZ to become a frenzied ‘run and grab all you can’ simulator. I would like to remind you that DayZ isn’t supposed to be easy and straightforward, it’s meant to be hard and unforgiving.  While they are pretty fast right now it is just the perception in comparison with current character movement speed, which is planned to be lowered in general as it was increased intentionally when we had decided to do a complete overhaul on how the engine handles vehicles, and thus they would be absent for some time. As well I’m looking forward to the implementation of a proper stamina system for characters which alone will cut off the constant sprinting across the map and thorough the structures which is just ridiculous. With the agile infected that are able to catch up with you while you are escaping the scene you will think twice about your approach and also the load you are carry as it especially determines how far you will be able to sprint to loose them. To balance things out, the infected have their own stamina and are slowing down during the chase and with the combination of the possibility that they can stumble upon it gives you a some chance to flee if you run into such situations. The infected AI will be continuously worked on, in terms of expanding it further and also balancing it close to the perfection. 

I would like to mention that we are bringing to life the long awaited disease system which in fact was hibernating under the hood for some time, but was never finished due the other needs. Diseases are described by their virulence parameters like transferability, invasivity and toxicity and to determine the potential influence on character, which can vary from carrier to heavy impact, they are compared against his or her current state counting in the levels of health, blood, diet and exposure. Diseases can be transferred in both directions, which means it’s not wise to eat from the same meal after your companion, if you suspect that he may be ill. Physical and chemical resistance parameters of disease determines how it can be treated or their effects eased by medicinal drugs and after the disease passed you are resistant to catch it again for some time. System also have the possibility to be expanded with the use of gloves, niosh masks or other wearables which can obstruct transferring of the diseases by specific actions, like crafting. 

Greetings Survivors,

As most of you may know, last week saw 0.55 pushed to stable branch. This build featured the initial implementation of several key systems to DayZ, and in turn their behavior is as expected very early prototype. As the Early Access of DayZ continues, more of the core systems that comprise it will be merged into the main stable branch. It goes without saying that iteration will both be required, and occur as these are merged in. For 0.55 lets take a look at what systems had their initial implementation, and how their behavior is as of this status report:

• Central Economy: The Central Economy functions as the core control over item type quantity, location, and region spawns. Moving away from the original placeholder system, and implementing this is the first step towards agile, rapid balancing of item spawns within DayZ.
  The initial implementation only defines the location of firearm spawns and types, further iteration will begin to define items past firearms - and later region control across the map.
• Infected & Animal A.I.: A well known fact for awhile now, the original prototype A.I. that was deployed with the DayZ Early Access was not robust enough to support the design of the title. A complete rewrite from scratch on how the title handled this was required. The most obvious change on stable branch is in the detection, and quantity of the infected. The new system, although clearly in need of iteration and expansion - supports proper stealth mechanics for both A.I., as well as more resource friendly sensors.
  The design and programming teams will continue to iterate, and balance the infected across the coming months as well as address core functionality issues such as positioning during pathfinding, and proper audio alerts.
• Per-Instance-Persistence: Part and parcel with the core design of DayZ is the global persistence of items (loot) in the game space. Be it long-life persistent objects such as those used in base building, or more short term such as items dropped on the ground and spawned by the central economy. 0.55 saw this roll out to Public Hive servers, with Private Shard support soon to follow. It is important to understand that this feature, just like all of the Early Access has no guarantee of bug-free behavior. Like anything within the development builds, bugs are both possible, and almost certainly will occur. Equally as important is that those who encounter issues file proper bug reports on the Feedback Tracker (feedback.dayzgame.com)
• Diseases & Disease Transfer: Another very early implementation that made it to stable branch with 0.55 was the global spread of cholera across Chernarus. Paired with the transfer between players and objects, and thus player to player disease transfer. As iteration upon this system continues you will begin to see a more diverse catalogue of diseases and corresponding symptoms.

Moving past the 0.55 build new system implementations we hit a rather hot button topic as of late, and one I promised to speak on earlier this week.

Just how hard is DayZ supposed to be? What is the targeted experience here? How valuable should items, and thus what I carry be to me as a player?
I like to think we’re pretty up front about exactly what DayZ is and is supposed to be, and as we move closer to 1.0 more and more of this will begin to take shape.
Once, when asked how valuable tools and resources should be to a player - on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is finding everything you need without issue, and 10 is elation over finding a can of beans (I’m paraphrasing here) Dean was quoted saying an emphatic “10”.

Some folks have expressed concern that the increasing difficulty in surviving and combating the environment would hurt player interaction. To which I say.. Sure, it will hurt player interaction if by player interaction you mean folks wandering up and down the coast, wearing pink dresses and chasing each other with fire extinguishers.
However I firmly believe it will -drive- and foster a different type of player interaction.



Interaction between players making their way across Chernarus, scavenging to survive. Players who enter a village and have to make a hard decision - do I use what little ammunition I have to kill and steal from the survivors already in this town? Do I instead avoid the risk of death from attacking another player, only to potentially risk death by starvation or infected as I make my way around the town? Is the cost of expending my resources in either choice too great?

Make no mistake, DayZ is and always has been intended to be an unforgiving, brutal fight for survival in a harsh post apocalyptic landscape. Obviously we still have a long ways to go to get to that point, but as we move forward more and more systems will be introduced that support that experience. Balancing and adjustment will have to occur, as the intended experience is not to ensure starvation on the coast, but instead foster the ability to spawn, gather the basic supplies required to move inland, and thus begin the real DayZ experience - your story, your struggle for survival.



And the beauty of it all? If this is not the experience you’re exactly looking to have with DayZ - then another core pillar of DayZ’s design will bring you exactly what you seek. Our full support for modding via the Steam Workshop.

It is going to be an exciting year survivors, and I look forward to experiencing it with all of you.