2015
We live in the future people.
2015 looks to be a pretty awesome year for DayZ, I'd like to kick off this months Status Reports by talking a bit about how the team has settled in during our first week back, as well as some awesome points of inspiration for us.
First off, I was forwarded a link to Eternum Pictures DayZ fan film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rJymZUtDUw - which has some outstanding emotional points about friendship, and loss. The loss that the main character in this fan film experiences is something that resonates with me. I can recall how it felt to meet, befriend, and then lose a stranger in my early DayZ mod days. As the option to instantly respawn after death somewhat limits this experience, it brought to the discussion table some server options that we've had on the drawing board for awhile. Speaking of servers...
Over the next few months we'll be rolling out some expanded server options to extend support for administrators, and introduce more customization options for private shards.
- Admin Logs, covering: Connections/Disconnections, Chat, Player Deaths (Env & PvP)
- Hardcore Mode: Initially we'll only support this on Private Shards, while we see how the mechanics impact gameplay - However the intent is to offer server operators the choice to restrict how long since a players last death they can respawn. Eg: A hardcore server could conceptually restrict players from respawning until 12 hours after their last death. We'll gauge how much impact this has on the design, and decide if it stays restricted to private shards, or we open this up to all public (consumer rented) hive servers.
Now that the team have returned back to the office we've begun going over data compiled from stable branch since Christmas, and looking at what is left to do for the 0.53 release at the end of January. We've got some awesome stuff on the table for 0.53 and 0.54, and as always we'll be pushing to experimental to test things out as development on the update progresses.
Speaking of the end of January, PAX South in San Antonio is coming up and we have some awesome things in store for the first Penny Arcade Expo in the great state of Texas. We'll be sending out information on that via our twitter and facebook channels next week. In addition, the finishing touches are being put on the DayZ website - as we look to centralize where you all get the latest news on DayZ development, and interact with the DayZ Dev team.
Over on the Official DayZ forums the team leads have begun using their new sub forums to interact directly with you, the Survivors of Chernarus. Head over and take a peak, we'll start to use these more and more - giving you guys a direct line to the people that guide the vision that is DayZ.
forums.dayzgame.com
I look forward to increasing visibility into DayZ development in 2014, and evolving what it means to survive in Chernarus as we march forward to DayZ 1.0.
Chocolate Milk Bath, do it.
- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer
Peter / Lead Game Designer
"Welcome to the first devblog of the 2015, I hope you enjoyed the holidays and spent some quality time with your families, friends and DayZ!
I will keep it really short. We all know that this year will be very important for DayZ. With all these big ongoing and upcoming changes it will be quite tough but the outcome will be splendid.
Currently we are focused mainly on new controls/interactions. We would like to use them before we start switching character to the new animation system so we can identify possible issues with the old one and address them. Apart from that we are looking forward to the new scripting language which should be ready as soon as possible so we can start rewriting currently used scripts with it, optimize and polish them which also bring some performance boost (server side, yay!). Design for manual transmission for vehicles is ready for the review and when we settle down on last little things after discuss it with programmers its implementation will begin. We are also making a prototype for non intrusive group identification so that you can easily identify your companions.
Have an amazing new year and don't forget... see you in Chernarus folks!"
Chris / Lead Artist
"Character Art:
We're still working on new character clothing and new zombie templates.
This is ongoing, long term work that occurs during luls when the art team isn't needed to support new features being added by design. We've finished the quilted jacket and a new batch of zombie templates. An M65 Field Jacket is also WIP.
Environment:
Work has begun on a school building. Its giving me flashbacks to my days dodging balls in the gym. We're working on desks, chairs, bells, and gym equipment. This is a piece I'm personally excited about.
Weapons:
We're nearly done with a new pump-action .22LR rifle based on the FN Trombone. We've also recently completed a Winchester Model 70 and two new guns I think people will be excited about are currently WIP. In addition, over the last couple of weeks, we've churned out a series of new melee weapons for people to try out.
Community:
Some of you may have noticed that we've introduced a new area on the official forums where it is possible to interact with the team and I've been busy this week visiting and answering questions. I'd encourage you to drop by and check it out."
Standup Notes for the week of 05 Jan 15
(Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)
Art:
• M65 Field Jacket
• FN Trombone
• Vehicle design standup
• School structure
• Winchester Model 70
Animation:
• Bugfixing
• Hand poses for weapon attachments
• Hand Poses
Design:
• Bugfixing
• V3S Changes
• Cooking
• Diseases
• Independant content of canisters
• New scripting language
• Traps
Programming:
• Security vulnerability fixes
• Vehicle persistency
• Loot distro per building for new system
• Close range weapon sound fixes
• Suicide fixes
• Zombie/Animal AI
• Vehicles - Manual transmission
• Server side logging