DayZ - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Christopher Livingston)

Give me that old-time zombie religion.

Each Monday, Chris Livingston visits an early access game and reports back with stories about whatever he finds inside. This week, survival horror in DayZ’s experimental branch.>

While nearly two million players have paid to act as DayZ’s beta testers, there’s a much smaller subset of lighthouse customers acting as beta testers to those> beta testers. On a handful of DayZ experimental branch servers, changes are rolled out and played with weeks before being introduced to the early access game at large. This week I opted into the experimental branch, keen to inhale the future of DayZ before most players even get a whiff.

… [visit site to read more]

Apr 7, 2014
DayZ - rocket2guns
A very busy couple of weeks for the whole team has just ended. Everyone has been preparing for our next big update, scheduled for sometime this month.

In the development blog posted on Friday we outlined:
  • Guaranteed Updates (type of network messages to reduce lag)
  • Fireplaces / Cooking
  • Physics and Throwing
  • Player Mouse Control (removal of mouse acceleration)
  • Art team updates
Read the whole devblog post at the DayZ Development Tumblr
Apr 7, 2014
DayZ - rocket2guns
A very busy couple of weeks for the whole team has just ended. Everyone has been preparing for our next big update, scheduled for sometime this month.

In the development blog posted on Friday we outlined:
  • Guaranteed Updates (type of network messages to reduce lag)
  • Fireplaces / Cooking
  • Physics and Throwing
  • Player Mouse Control (removal of mouse acceleration)
  • Art team updates
Read the whole devblog post at the DayZ Development Tumblr
Project Zomboid - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Adam Smith)

Mid-way through Rezzed, I decided that somebody must have cloned Dean Hall. The DayZ creator was everywhere. One minute he was talking about the most frightening moment of his life – hanging off the side of Everest, I hear – and the next he was playing games on the showfloor. If he wasn’t admiring Maia with an excited twinkle in his eye, he was telling interested parties about how much he digs Project Zomboid. The man loves games and since he has so many interesting things to say about them, we should be thankful that he enjoys talking about them quite as much as he does. One panel involved The Indie Stone folk and Hall talking about zombies. They offer a defence of the oft-maligned enemy and it’s often compelling. Behold.

… [visit site to read more]

DayZ
dayz-standalone-opener


Update: Bohemia have been in touch to provide the following clarification: they have acquired Cauldron's facilities, technology and staff for their new Slovakian studio, but not the Cauldron brand itself.

It looks like the DayZ Standalone will be getting a few new helping hands. Creator Dean "Rocket" Hall has announced the purchase of Slovakian game developer Cauldron by Bohemia Interactive, with 25 of that studio's staff set to work on the zombie survival sim, according to a report at Eurogamer.

Hall announced the purchase during an appearance at EGX Rezzed 2014, where he also revealed the DayZ SA alpha had sold more than 1.7 million copies since its December launch. Cauldron is to be re-named Bohemia Interactive Slovakia, according to the Eurogamer story. The Bratislava-based studio has worked on a range of different titles over the years, including several in the Cabela's hunting series. The studio purchase is likely what Hall was referring to when he wrote in a blog update a month ago that the development team was "effectively doubling."

Other details revealed in Hall's presentation include some new in-game items and mechanics planned for the next update to the alpha. These include upgradable fireplaces and a crossbow which should be introduced when the update goes live sometime in April. The loot spawning system will also see some changes after the update, with doors resetting and gear reappearing in different areas of the game map at different times.

Even in its alpha state, DayZ still offers one of the most unique gaming experiences around. To get more people on the project, plus designers who have some experience recreating the great outdoors in gaming, sounds like a welcome development for the game's future. For a refresher on what DayZ is all about, be sure to check out the excellent DayZ Diaries.

 
DayZ - rocket2guns
We appreciate everyones patience in getting this patch released to stable, the bug in 0.42 that caused lag and desync was very hard to track down and fix.
  • Hotfix to address issues associated with severe lag and desync for many players.
  • Servers now support accelerated time as a configurable option. This results in faster day/night cycle.
  • New zombie animations in testing (they are considerably faster). We will be engaging with the community to decide if these new animations result in the zombies being too fast.
DayZ - rocket2guns
We appreciate everyones patience in getting this patch released to stable, the bug in 0.42 that caused lag and desync was very hard to track down and fix.
  • Hotfix to address issues associated with severe lag and desync for many players.
  • Servers now support accelerated time as a configurable option. This results in faster day/night cycle.
  • New zombie animations in testing (they are considerably faster). We will be engaging with the community to decide if these new animations result in the zombies being too fast.
DayZ - Hicks_206
Known Issues:
Physics: Item throwing physics is currently disabled
Melee: Cannot conduct melee attack from "lowered" melee stance (press space to chance stance to "raised")

New:
Actions: Vomiting have associated sound effects
Actions: Ballistic helmet variants can be painted to black and green color with spraycan
Actions: Can check pulse on unconscious players
Actions: Searching for berries will now add berries to your inventory
Actions: Eat All now supported for consumables
Actions: You can catch rain into canteen and water-bottle from inventory
Animations: New Ruger 10/22 reload animations
Animations: New Ruger MKII Reload animations.
Animations: Player now can sit with gun/weapon
Animations: Completely new two-handed melee animations. New right-handed poses, moves and attacks for axes, baseball bat, pipewrench, crowbar, fire extinguisher, shovel, farming hoe. "Low" and "Aim" stances introduced for stand, crouch and prone.
Crafting: SKS painting recipe
Crafting: You can paint firefighter axe black and green
Crafting: Blaze 95 painting recipe
Environment: New rock textures
Food: Sambucus berry item added
Food: Canina berry item added
Gear: added black and UN ballistic helmet variants
Gear: Sickle added into loot spawns
Gear: 1911 engraved version configure added to loot spawns
Gear: Can opener can be used as melee weapon
Gear: Box of 10 bucks shots added configured and added to loot spawns
Gear: Wool Coat red/black/brown/blue/green/grey/check variants added
Gear: Green and black variant of SKS
Gear: Green and black variant of firefighter axe added
Gear: Flat Cap red/black/brown/blue/green/grey/check variants added
Gear: Rabbit leg, boar steak and chicken breasts added
Gear: Fresh and rotten tomato configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Fresh and rotten potato configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Fresh and rotten Green Bell Pepper configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Canned Peaches configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Tactical bacon configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Hard headgear (ballistic, moto, construction and pilot helmets) cannot be wear together with masks
Gear: Sporter 22, CR75, Amphibia S, 1911 and respective magazines and ammo (22LR and 9mm) added to spawns
Gear: Wool Coats and Flat Caps added to spawns
Gear: Farming hoe configured and spawns
Gear: Long wooden ash stick
Gear: M4 attachment green variants added
Graphics: Adding lights to currently rendered scene changed
Graphics: Lighting from objects now is rendered during daytime also
Graphics: HDR improved and tweaked slightly to perform better with bright lights in scene (i.e. flashlights etc...)
Graphics: Engine supported point source light objects (e.g. Gaslamp) now working correctly
Map: Olsha has been updated
Map: Khelm has been updated
Map: New rock formations outside Svetlo have been created
Map: New Orthodox Chapel has been created
Map: Police Stations & Medical Centers have been placed across the map
Map: Village pub configured for spawning loot
Map: New villages surrounding Svetlo
Map: Chernaya Polana town + surroundings added
Map: Signs for "Chernaya Polana" added
Medical: Players can have a heart attack (declared as "irregular pulse" with pulse checking actions)
Weather: Rain, Clouds, Wind, calculated on server and distributed to clients
Weather: Rain now causes items and player to become wet
Zombies: Simple respawn mechanic implemented for zombies, pending more robust method

Fixed:
Actions: Added 'inUseItem' back to action on target function
Actions: Proper nutritional value will be added when eating near empty food
Actions: Berry picking script messages to player improved.
Actions: Removed duplicate option for crafting splint in action menu
Actions: Fixed force drink message for action with waterbottle
Actions: Eat all rice animation length modified
Actions: Force feeding action now depletes right amount of food/drinks
Actions: Water Bottle stays in hands after force drinking
Actions: Eating cereals won't leave you with 0% box in your inventory anymore
Actions: Fluids deplete properly after force drinking action
Actions: Removed force feed action for disinfectant and alcohol tincture
Actions: Crafting splint from bandages now uses whole disposable bandage and half of dressing bandage
Actions: Ruined rags/bandages and wooden sticks doesn't produce infinite splints
Actions: Clicking on Eat All action if amount of food is below 1/4 will result in playing only short eating animation
Actions: Edited player messages in force drink action and fixing broken limbs
Actions: Force feed/drink doesn't use whole quantity of some food/drink items also canteen is not destroyed after action
Actions: Player message for drinking from well
Animations: Bandage and eating pills animation glitch fixed.
Animations: Holding animations of various weapon magazines correctly linked
Animations: Player can now be properly knocked out while in water.
Animations: New M4A1 reload animations.
Animations: Various glitches when moving / changing stances fixed.
Animations: Rolling left/right while zoomed in sights makes player zoom out for the duration of the roll.
Animations: Evade animations in prone (Q and E) are faster now.
Audio: Subsonic projectiles no longer emit supersonic crack
Balance: Buffed damage of 762x39, 9mm, .22LR. Slightly nerfed shotgun pellets
Gear: Added color variants of ballistic helmets into loot spawns
Gear: Purification tablets package contains ten tablets now. Cholera removing functionality added.
Gear: Painted SKS chambering
Gear: Even lower chance of backpacks spawning on construction sites
Gear: Changed inventory view of pitchfork
Gear: Removed quantity value from burlap sack tooltip
Gear: Display name for t-shirts with stripes
Graphics: SSAO in options saved
Graphics: Rain effect settings changed
Graphics: Rain geometry optimized (28 bytes vs 12 bytes per vertex)
Graphics: Spot light culling fixed
Graphics: Fix of terrain intersections
Graphics: Fix of geometry trace for flares
Graphics: Rain now does not fall inside buildings for those on Lower/Disabled shadow settings
Login: Failure during new character creation could cause player to get stuck as unconscious
Map: Optimizations for Svetlo performance
Map: Forests surrounding Svetlo bugfixes
Medical: Would never actually die from zero health or blood due to medical conditions
Medical: Epi-pens will now wake anyone (briefly) from unconsciousness even if blood very low
Medical: Defibrillator used for restarting the heart of players who have a heart attack
Medical: Unconsciousness had irregular and unpredictable behavior (epi-pens will now always wake an unconscious player, unless they are having a heart attack)
Medical: Melee damage application system changed to better balance
Medical: Chance of bleeding from fists reduced significantly
Medical: Arm and leg ache messages fixed
Medical: Disconnected players avatars did not take shock or blood damage
Medical: Falling from height while sprinting did not kill player when it should have
Medical: Player could vault with broken legs
Network: Dropped items appeared only after a delay (now instant)
Network: Inventory items causing desync due to non-guaranteed update spam (hotfix currently until guaranteed message change is complete)
Network: Optimizations to network messaging updates should result in reduced bandwidth and some increases in FPS for clients/server
Structures: Changed inheritance of barrier structures (due to errors in logs)
Structures: Item disappearing when dropped from inventory on stairs or near walls
Weapons: Long-range scope reticle properly centered
Zombies: Zombies aims mostly for chest area now when attacking (stops the "helmet of armor" change)
DayZ - Hicks_206
Known Issues:
Physics: Item throwing physics is currently disabled
Melee: Cannot conduct melee attack from "lowered" melee stance (press space to chance stance to "raised")

New:
Actions: Vomiting have associated sound effects
Actions: Ballistic helmet variants can be painted to black and green color with spraycan
Actions: Can check pulse on unconscious players
Actions: Searching for berries will now add berries to your inventory
Actions: Eat All now supported for consumables
Actions: You can catch rain into canteen and water-bottle from inventory
Animations: New Ruger 10/22 reload animations
Animations: New Ruger MKII Reload animations.
Animations: Player now can sit with gun/weapon
Animations: Completely new two-handed melee animations. New right-handed poses, moves and attacks for axes, baseball bat, pipewrench, crowbar, fire extinguisher, shovel, farming hoe. "Low" and "Aim" stances introduced for stand, crouch and prone.
Crafting: SKS painting recipe
Crafting: You can paint firefighter axe black and green
Crafting: Blaze 95 painting recipe
Environment: New rock textures
Food: Sambucus berry item added
Food: Canina berry item added
Gear: added black and UN ballistic helmet variants
Gear: Sickle added into loot spawns
Gear: 1911 engraved version configure added to loot spawns
Gear: Can opener can be used as melee weapon
Gear: Box of 10 bucks shots added configured and added to loot spawns
Gear: Wool Coat red/black/brown/blue/green/grey/check variants added
Gear: Green and black variant of SKS
Gear: Green and black variant of firefighter axe added
Gear: Flat Cap red/black/brown/blue/green/grey/check variants added
Gear: Rabbit leg, boar steak and chicken breasts added
Gear: Fresh and rotten tomato configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Fresh and rotten potato configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Fresh and rotten Green Bell Pepper configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Canned Peaches configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Tactical bacon configured and spawning on the server
Gear: Hard headgear (ballistic, moto, construction and pilot helmets) cannot be wear together with masks
Gear: Sporter 22, CR75, Amphibia S, 1911 and respective magazines and ammo (22LR and 9mm) added to spawns
Gear: Wool Coats and Flat Caps added to spawns
Gear: Farming hoe configured and spawns
Gear: Long wooden ash stick
Gear: M4 attachment green variants added
Graphics: Adding lights to currently rendered scene changed
Graphics: Lighting from objects now is rendered during daytime also
Graphics: HDR improved and tweaked slightly to perform better with bright lights in scene (i.e. flashlights etc...)
Graphics: Engine supported point source light objects (e.g. Gaslamp) now working correctly
Map: Olsha has been updated
Map: Khelm has been updated
Map: New rock formations outside Svetlo have been created
Map: New Orthodox Chapel has been created
Map: Police Stations & Medical Centers have been placed across the map
Map: Village pub configured for spawning loot
Map: New villages surrounding Svetlo
Map: Chernaya Polana town + surroundings added
Map: Signs for "Chernaya Polana" added
Medical: Players can have a heart attack (declared as "irregular pulse" with pulse checking actions)
Weather: Rain, Clouds, Wind, calculated on server and distributed to clients
Weather: Rain now causes items and player to become wet
Zombies: Simple respawn mechanic implemented for zombies, pending more robust method

Fixed:
Actions: Added 'inUseItem' back to action on target function
Actions: Proper nutritional value will be added when eating near empty food
Actions: Berry picking script messages to player improved.
Actions: Removed duplicate option for crafting splint in action menu
Actions: Fixed force drink message for action with waterbottle
Actions: Eat all rice animation length modified
Actions: Force feeding action now depletes right amount of food/drinks
Actions: Water Bottle stays in hands after force drinking
Actions: Eating cereals won't leave you with 0% box in your inventory anymore
Actions: Fluids deplete properly after force drinking action
Actions: Removed force feed action for disinfectant and alcohol tincture
Actions: Crafting splint from bandages now uses whole disposable bandage and half of dressing bandage
Actions: Ruined rags/bandages and wooden sticks doesn't produce infinite splints
Actions: Clicking on Eat All action if amount of food is below 1/4 will result in playing only short eating animation
Actions: Edited player messages in force drink action and fixing broken limbs
Actions: Force feed/drink doesn't use whole quantity of some food/drink items also canteen is not destroyed after action
Actions: Player message for drinking from well
Animations: Bandage and eating pills animation glitch fixed.
Animations: Holding animations of various weapon magazines correctly linked
Animations: Player can now be properly knocked out while in water.
Animations: New M4A1 reload animations.
Animations: Various glitches when moving / changing stances fixed.
Animations: Rolling left/right while zoomed in sights makes player zoom out for the duration of the roll.
Animations: Evade animations in prone (Q and E) are faster now.
Audio: Subsonic projectiles no longer emit supersonic crack
Balance: Buffed damage of 762x39, 9mm, .22LR. Slightly nerfed shotgun pellets
Gear: Added color variants of ballistic helmets into loot spawns
Gear: Purification tablets package contains ten tablets now. Cholera removing functionality added.
Gear: Painted SKS chambering
Gear: Even lower chance of backpacks spawning on construction sites
Gear: Changed inventory view of pitchfork
Gear: Removed quantity value from burlap sack tooltip
Gear: Display name for t-shirts with stripes
Graphics: SSAO in options saved
Graphics: Rain effect settings changed
Graphics: Rain geometry optimized (28 bytes vs 12 bytes per vertex)
Graphics: Spot light culling fixed
Graphics: Fix of terrain intersections
Graphics: Fix of geometry trace for flares
Graphics: Rain now does not fall inside buildings for those on Lower/Disabled shadow settings
Login: Failure during new character creation could cause player to get stuck as unconscious
Map: Optimizations for Svetlo performance
Map: Forests surrounding Svetlo bugfixes
Medical: Would never actually die from zero health or blood due to medical conditions
Medical: Epi-pens will now wake anyone (briefly) from unconsciousness even if blood very low
Medical: Defibrillator used for restarting the heart of players who have a heart attack
Medical: Unconsciousness had irregular and unpredictable behavior (epi-pens will now always wake an unconscious player, unless they are having a heart attack)
Medical: Melee damage application system changed to better balance
Medical: Chance of bleeding from fists reduced significantly
Medical: Arm and leg ache messages fixed
Medical: Disconnected players avatars did not take shock or blood damage
Medical: Falling from height while sprinting did not kill player when it should have
Medical: Player could vault with broken legs
Network: Dropped items appeared only after a delay (now instant)
Network: Inventory items causing desync due to non-guaranteed update spam (hotfix currently until guaranteed message change is complete)
Network: Optimizations to network messaging updates should result in reduced bandwidth and some increases in FPS for clients/server
Structures: Changed inheritance of barrier structures (due to errors in logs)
Structures: Item disappearing when dropped from inventory on stairs or near walls
Weapons: Long-range scope reticle properly centered
Zombies: Zombies aims mostly for chest area now when attacking (stops the "helmet of armor" change)
DayZ
fireplace

A post from Dean Hall reveals that the next DayZ update will add new towns and other content. One example, the fireplace seen above, is mostly there to accommodate the cooking system, which will allow you to cook certain items, or create new ones, like soup. Sounds delicious, or at least a lot better than being forced fed a rotten banana. Good thing DayZ already balanced players stomach capacity.
The update may be a while, however. We are committed to not releasing builds onto stable to introduce new game breaking bugs. Hall says. Now that we ve fixed those bugs, we re internally verifying and fixing any new bugs that have been introduced. We will do an unscheduled update the moment we are confident we have a suitable build to release. The update, whenever it decides to sneak up on us, is also adding new towns, which are teased in these images:


New weapons, including a lovingly crafted AKM, are also in the works. As for the bow and arrow and throwing items, Hall says that progress on the physics engine means they re now functional at a basic level.
Earlier this month, we learned that the DayZ development team doubled in size. Hall s post reveals that at least some of these new members are working at different locations in Bratislava, and that they are working on animals, collisions, and zombie pathfinding.
If you re a DayZ fanatic, there are more details to mull over at the game s developer blog.
...