DayZ, for all of its incompleteness and bugs, proved something very important over the holidays - that players matter. As a game, DayZ is flat out broken and the developers warned as such to the community. It’s not optimized, it’s ugly in many respects and it’s not a very good shooter. But that hasn’t mattered too much in terms of the title reaching success.
Even at a hefty $30 price for an alpha build, the standalone DayZ (based on the beloved ARMA 2 mod) outsold everything on Steam - even the far cheaper, complete, critically acclaimed games during the fall sales period. Why? Because it does something that other games don’t do - it’s a human experiment of sorts in a post-apocalyptic open-world where the occasional zombie can be found.
The idea of not knowing where you are, having to use your wit and survival skills to explore and find resources, is one thing. Coming across other players who can help you, kill you, kidnap you is what makes DayZ so unique and interesting. It offers a type of gameplay that’s going to change the industry much in the way Minecraft did a few years back.
Game-breaking errors, server crashes and character wipes aside, the following fun flow chart accurately (and hilariously) explains the life cycle of a player in DayZ:
As for the game itself, updates are continuing to roll out. Last week’s update added to test servers from game creator Dean Hall is releasing for players this week and Hall took to the forums to list the known issues and updates coming in the latest patch. The full list of patch notes can be seen on page 2 but the update will hit the main servers this week.
The highlights include quite a few new animations and crafting options, clapping and pointing gestures, more helmet and backpack options, more loot spawn locations (i.e. in police stations) and tougher zombies (the army ones).
Page 2: DayZ Patch Notes
The DayZ early access alpha is currently available on PC with a beta release expected in late 2014/early 2015.
Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Sources: Dean Hall, Tk
Branch: Experimental
Spawns: Loot is not spawning in military tents Spawns: Some structures in Svetlo currently do not spawn loot Server: Servers under load can delay actions from the client Graphics: Only 4 dynamic light sources will be rendered at one time currently Crafting: Attachments dependent on other attachments (e.g. flashlight on M4) may be lost when painting weapons (will appear on ground, eventually)
Actions: chambering SKS round from pile, loading 10 rounds from pile Actions: You can uncuff other players with the hacksaw Actions: Cannot use an item (e.g. drink/eat) if it is “Ruined” Actions: Interactions with items reworked. Drinking/Eating/etc… more robust and user-friendly Actions: Restrained players cannot use inventory or action menu Animations: Player now can take and hide rifle in crouched run Animations: SKS reload animations Animations: firing weapon when sprinting will transition player into the aimed run(with some temporary limitations) Crafting: FNX45 pistol can be chambered with single round Crafting: Opening cans with combat knife added Crafting: Opening cans with machete added Crafting: Painting Motorbike Helmets to Black and Green Crafting: Waterbottles and canteens now allow pouring water between them Effects: Magnum revolver ejecting shells when reloading Effects: Magnum revolver sounds - gunshots, reloading Effects: Mosin ejecting shells when cycling Effects: New Mosin sounds - gunshots, cycling, reloading Gear: Improvised courier backpack added Gear: Machete added Gear: Hard hats added in various colors Gear: Motorcycle Helmets have black visor variants Gear: Small, uncomfortable, and silly (but cute) children’s school backpack Gestures: Clapping Gesture added, default F5 key Gestures: Pointing Gesture added, default F6 key Login: Player queuing system introduced. Penalty waiting time added for switching server or disconnecting a server quickly Login: Players receive a login timeout when disconnect, increased if disconnect within 30 minutes of joining (max 5 minutes) Login: When players logout, their avatar sits on ground for 30 seconds. Players must make sure they logout somewhere safe Server: Player spawns now cached by engine directly, increasing performance Spawns: Added Bubble goose jackets into the loot spawns Spawns: Added SKS rifle, speedloader, ammunition piles and boxes and SKS bayonet into the loot spawns Spawns: Healthcare Center now spawns loot Spawns: Police stations now spawn loot Systems: Hunger and Thirst slightly modified. Systems: Notifications added to UI for hydration and high energy Systems: Fractures can now occur due to melee and shot damage, not just environmental Systems: Fractures (arms/legs) now saved and loaded correctly from database Translations: Added strings for all consumable items (Gas canisters, Batteries etc) and container items (First aid kit etc) for English, with some Spanish and Russian Zombies: Different types of Military zombies now have tougher attack values and improved durability Zombies: Engine dynamic obstacle checking (zombie, another player) Zombies: Svetlojarsk zombie spawns added
Actions: morphine injection can be used on other player effectively fixing his broken legs and item correctly positioned in hands Actions: Keys won’t disappear after uncuffing Actions: loading ammo works for sprayed Mosin variants Actions: Read/Writing notes with paper and pen now works again Actions: reviving with epinephrine or defibrillator works also if player blood is below 500 units of blood Actions: Actions on another player no longer have an unlimited distance (max 2 meters) Art: Bug allowing players to clip through geometry of the police station building. Animations: fixed an issue where reload in prone would leave some residue sound clutter at the end of the reload animation Animations: Weapon reloading for magazine was not working properly when no magazine fitted Animations: Rifle Aimed Walk Updated, diagonal animations fixed Animations: Sidestepping through doorway with rifle while crouching should not cause the player to get stuck now Animations: knocking down player now possible in prone states, (possibly fixing the issue with frozen characters) Animations: changed animation for equipping the compass Animations: Proper animation played when taking pistol in run Animations: Changing stances is faster now both for armed and unarmed player Animations: Skinning problem with armored zombies that caused the model to warp during some animations Animations: Standing with aimed weapon now allows for higher angle of tilt/bend Config: Berries have more nutrition now Crafting: You can no longer saw off sawed off shotgun Crafting: Can spraypaint M4 to green or black Crafting: Damage is now transferred when items are painted Crafting: Improved Backpack creation only possible when Courier Bag is empty (previously items accidentally deleted) Crafting: Weapon cleaning kit can’t be used when it’s “Ruined” and won’t reduce condition of a gun Crafting: Spraypainting an M4 won’t delete your carry handle Effects: Dazed effect plays again when a player is hit/damaged/shot Effects: Some effects were not active locally when a player was restrained Fixed: Missing texture error dz\weapons\data\weapons_damage_metal_smdi.paa Fixed: Popping up texture error for beret models Gear: Spraycans won’t deplete after relogging Gear: Book, radio, pot, pan, gas canisters, matchbox, paper, firewood and stone can be placed in hands Gear: Headlamp beam raised slightly Gear: Painted items now retain their previous quantities (i.e. Magazine ammo won’t reset) Gear: Various item descriptions and notifications fixed for grammar, typos, more detail Gear: ZSh-3 Pilot helmet fixed and updated Gear: Hoxton and Dallas masks where displayed in center of character, now display on face Gear: Splint position in hand was wrong now corrected Gestures: Taunt defaults correctly to F4 key Graphics: “god rays” could cause overloaded post-processing and graphical corruption Graphics: fix of removing shining object from hand (switch off) Graphics: Roads have per pixel lights Graphics: Dynamic lights should be now defined with “radius” value which is maximum radius of light in meters Graphics: Tooltips are now not displayed for quickbar items, as it is a reference to type not specific item Login: Respawn button now works correctly Login: Various bugs fixed associated with connection errors that could cause a character to be deleted or killed by the server Spawns: Lowered chance of Taloon and Mountain backpacks spawning Spawns: Drastically lowered chance of backpacks spawning on the construction site Spawns: Loot spawn tweaks in some civilian structures Weapons: Mosin recoil increased Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun can be loaded with ammo (was broken due to changed inheritance) Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun: reduced size in inventory, reduced spread Weapons: It is no longer possible to attach longrange scope onto SKS Weapons: M4 carry handle can now be attached to painted variants of M4 Zombies: Better filter/check of attack hits directly in engine Zombies: Military zombies made tougher
Crash: Irregular crash of server in corpse garbage collector consequence of this is that the bodies will not disappear if other player is in vicinity Crash: Creating item using recipe system caused serious server crash when not enough space in inventory Crash: Client crash on exit, all systems 100% reproduction System: Previous build caused overzealous starvation to occur
