Nothing warms my cold cynical heart like the creativity of the Doom modding community. We saw Donkey Kong Country recreated in the engine earlier this week, but now cast your eyes across this work-in-progress attempt to adapt DayZ's core gameplay into a 20-year old engine. DoomZ is the work of a modder disenchanted with the limitations of DayZ in its current, Enfusion-powered iteration. While Zdoom obviously has limitations of its own, it looks like the mod is making steady progress.

The mod currently boasts a day and night cycle, a rather charming UI (see the image above), wildlife, fires and cooking, water, weapons, food, limb damage and much, much more. The goal is to make the game as close to the DayZ gameplay model as possible, though given the engine's limitations there won't be vehicles. Creator Robert Prest writes that the mod could move over to GZdoom, allowing for more flexibility in map design.

As for the video below, Prest provides pretty good commentary on what the project is now and where it's headed. Alpha 11 can be downloaded right now. Cheers to Kotaku for the heads up.

Ah, DayZ. In many respects it's the architect for modern survival gaming, and, in many other respects, we still have no idea what its final form will even be. Neither the Arma 2 mod nor the standalone early access release are in a finished state, and that's led to some concern within its community. Brian Hicks, producer for DayZ, recently addressed these concerns in a forum thread titled, "has anyone else lost faith in DayZ?"

Here's what Hicks had to say:

"You are not playing DayZ, you are playing development builds. Early development builds.

"DayZ is 11 months into principle development, on what should be a 3 year standard development cycle. I can't force you to be a fan of DayZ, but I can call this out:

"Defining or judging what DayZ is by a build so early in its development is much a kin to judging a painting within the first few brush strokes. Hell, even Bob Ross's paintings didn't look great for the first few minutes (until you realized what it was he was making).

"I can promise you none of your favorite AAA games played, or even resembled the final product that early in their cycles. (Okay, maybe some of the larger titles that push small incremental updates out every 12 months - but we all know those are special snowflakes.)

"Take a break, and come back in beta or even the full release. The Early Access period of development will have many peaks and low, low valleys. This is the nature of software development. Yes, it is stressful as heck - for all of us, but you get to be part of shaping the DayZ experience."

Later in the thread, Hicks clarified his three-year standard development cycle comment.

"I'm always careful with what I say - 3 year standard development cycle, meaning in standard terms this would be a 3 year, closed development cycle. Early Access changes a lot of that, I don't need to tell you. We are still aiming for end of 2014 to hit our beta phase entry. You can be certain the weekly status reports will keep everyone updated on that.

"We're trying to effectively do a 3 year standard cycle in 2 to 2.5 years. It might be a lofty goal, but as long as I have something to say about it - you will all be kept updated as to what is going on."

I have to say, I broadly agree with Hicks's position. DayZ launched into Early Access with an all-caps warning that player's shouldn't purchase unless they were willing to deal with issues and interruptions along its development road-map. I have, I'd argue, already wrangled enough fun out of the game to justify that purchase, and, while I'm among the group now holding off for the beta release, I'm hopeful that it'll be worth the wait.

Development on DayZ may be undergoing an overhaul thanks to the confirmed PlayStation 4 edition, but Bohemia Interactive continues to roll out weekly updates to the Early Access edition. This week you may encounter two villages that weren't there before, as well as a new World War II monument in Severograd, which is pleasant.

There are also a series of new animations and crafting options. "You can craft a leather sack," the patch notes proudly declare. You can also make a mosin wrap from a burlap sack. You can now put grass in burlap sacks. Sack enthusiasts have no doubt barracked for these changes for many, many months. New animations include igniting fireplaces, restrained runs, fishing and cow animation. But in the end, the significance of any change depends on how you play DayZ, so for your convenience the full patch notes:

KNOWN ISSUES:

Player is unable to attack with any weapon under certain circumstances
Character freezes for a few seconds after throwing an item under certain angle
Players experience desync when engaged in melee combat while their network bubbles overlap
Random throwing of items
Ladders can't be used after hit by a grenade explosion
Player is stuck in building after reconnect
Player cannot respawn properly after drowning
When restrained while unconscious player stays restrained until he reconnects
Character goes prone after using drink all action on canteen
Random police car spawning doesn't work properly. Cars are not visible, loot is there though.

NEW:

Animations: Igniting fireplace
Animations: Restrained sprint (run)
Animations: Fishing (pull out, check, start)
Animations: Searching for berries, digging
Animations: Cow animation sets
Crafting: You can craft leather sack
Crafting: You can craft mosin wrap from burlap sack
Crafting: You can add grass to burlap wrap
Crafting: You can sharpen wooden sticks
Crafting: You can combine sharpened sticks and feather to create a primitive arrow
Crafting: Preparing chicken will now also give you some chicken feathers
Crafting: You can saw mosin-nagant 9130 off
Crafting: You can paint sawn-off mosin-nagant 9130
Crafting: You can tear bandana mask into rags
Crafting: You can attach and detach Smersh Backpack to Smersh Vest
Gear: Crafted leather sack
Gear: Smersh Vest
Gear: Smersh Backpack
Gear: Sharpened Stick
Gear: Chicken Feathers
Gear: Primitive Arrow
Gear: Added lifetime and persistence parameters
Gear: Bow can now use primitive arrows
Gear: Tank helmet
Loot: Randomized police cars spawns (works but cars are not always visible - see known issues)
Loot: Some guns spawn with ammo now
Weapons: Sawed-off variant of mosin-nagant 9130
World: Sinistok village is added.
World: Vavilovo village is added.
World: New WW2 monument has been added to Severograd town.
World: Oak tree was replaced by new model.

FIXED:

Animations: Slow and fast move with raised Bow in crouch
Animations: Silence gesture crouch and prone polished
Actions: Tearing bandana into rags produce only one rag now
Actions: Highly increased chance of finding an apple
Actions: Slightly increased chance of finding a berry
Character: Moved position of collision shapes for standing and crouching poses with two-handed weapon
Cooking: Highly reduced chance of getting food poisoning from burnt meat
Crafting: Tracksuit pants can be mended with sewing kit
Graphics: Textures for epinephrine and fire extinguisher improved
Engine: First iteration of wall clipping fix
Gear: Gorka pants takes four slots
Loot: Heli-crashsites fixed
Loot: Loot tables changed
Loot: Rotten fruit and vegetables removed from loot spawns
Weapons: Crossbow dispersion tweaked
Weapons: CR 527 magazine cannot be repainted
Weapons: Range for all melee weapons and fists tweaked
Weapons: All melee weapons are set to use cursor for hit now
Weapons: CR 527 magazine description edited
Weapons: MP5 30Rnd magazine takes up two vertical slots
Weapons: Shotguns damage
Weapons: Improvised bow dispersion tweaked

There were few PC-relevant announcements at Sony's Gamescom press conference last night, but one familiar face did appear for a surprise reveal. Dean Hall emerged on stage to announce a Playstation 4 version of DayZ. More than that, Hall took time to explain how the console port of the popular survival game would also enhance the existing PC version.

"When we were considering console versions, we were acutely aware of how important the PC version is to us," Hall said on-stage. "We didn't want to just port DayZ, but to develop the game to each platform's strengths. Commitment to the Playstation 4 version has given us cause to expand the parameters of the overall project, providing benefit to the existing PC early access."

Hall pointed to the provision of 64-bit servers as one such example of the increased scope of the project, and also announced a visual overhaul. "We're now committed to developing an entirely new cross-platform renderer to bring amazing new visuals to the game," he said. "Through an adaptable approach and development environment, this addition will allow not only Playstation 4 owners to get into DayZ, but it will improve all DayZ player experiences."

For all the Gamescom news, click the link that takes you to all the Gamescom news.

July 30th, I dub thee International Patch Notes Day. We've already basked in the size and rigour of Elite: Dangerous's beta update change list, and now we get to do the same with another early access game. DayZ, the popular purveyor of zombies and internet jerks, has received a new stable update, adding a variety of features, items and animations. The big change is the introduction of persistent item support... or, at least, the promise of persistent item support. Currently the feature is disabled pending a hotfix due next week.

0.47.124641 will be brought to stable branch during todays maint. Persistence pending a hotfix aimed at next week.— Brian Hicks (@Hicks_206) July 30, 2014

And so, dear reader, follow me as we open a fresh can of <li> tags on patch 0.47.124641.

Known issues:


Player can in rare circumstances enter a state in which they cannot attack and must relog
Character may temporarily enter a frozen state when throwing (resolved a few seconds)
Melee targeting is off in some situations
Players can in some circumstances experience slight desync with server
Dynamic server events are temporarily disabled
Backpacks rearrange after reconnection
Players restrained while unconscious remained restrained until reconnection (after awaking)
Persistent items & storage are disabled server side pending hot fix to stable branch


New:


Actions: cans can be opened with SKS bayonet and sickle
Actions: added playerDrinkCan action to config
Actions: added Melee class to SurvivorBase
Animations: New default aimed animations with rifle
Animations: Player now can walk while surrender
Animations: Transitions for surrender/restrained player
Animations: Crouched zombie animation set
Animations: Reload for CZ527
Animations: Hand poses added for matchbox, Injection Vial, Hacksaw
Animations: Drinking from can
Character: New female face models
Character: New male face models
Engine: Ragdoll support for Zombies & Players
Engine: Initial implementation of navmesh for zombie pathfinding
Items: Boonie hat fishing hook storage
Items: Chemlights
Items: AK101
Items: CR 527
Items: Makarov
Items PM 73 RAK
Items: Medium Civilian Tent
Items: Paramedic clothes (jacket and pants)
Items: Military Boots now store knives
Items: Red, Black, Polka dotted, Olive and Camo bandana added
Items: Untied Red, Black, Polka dotted, Olive and Camo bandana added
Recipes : Red, Black, Polka dotted, Olive and Camo as a bandage
Recipes: Red, Black, Polka dotted, Olive and Camo bandanas can be untied and tied to mask
Server: Persistent item support (disabled for this update)
Server: Simulation changes to support increased server performance
Server: Persistent storage support (disabled for this update)
Server: Dynamic loot respawning
World: Turovo village added


Fixed:


Actions: Player is not able to fill a ruined canteen from well.
Actions: When player opens ruined canned food there is low amount of food left.
Actions: Player is not able to pour water from a ruined canteen.
Actions: Player can no long empty magazine attached to a weapon
Actions: No access to catch rain action during ongoing action
Actions: Fishing actions displayed while using different items than rod
Actions: Added missing part to improvised bag/backpack crafting messages in action menu
Actions: Zucchini can be force fed
Actions: Added new drink from well animation to blue well
Actions: Unable to use actions while swimming or while on ladder
Actions: Player can take Makarov into hands straight from ground
Actions: Player can take PM73 RAK into hands straight from ground
Actions: Removing item on which consume action was called, not item which was swapped to hands during consume action
Animals: Visual improvement of cow, rabbit and wildboar
Animations: Gestures related bugs fixed (Facepalm, Cut throat, Silence)
Animations: Crouch moves with bow
Animations: Prone moves with pistol
Animations: Fixed multiple issues with vaulting
Animations: Zucchini handheld position
Animations: SoundEdge(footstep sounds) set correctly for kneel run with rifle
Animations: Face-palm doesn't make the player stand up from prone anymore
Animations: Sitting tweaked(changing weapons keeps player in kneel, instead of making them stand....)
Engine: Adjustment to Night time lighting levels
Items: Dimmed fireplace light so it not interfere with HDR
Items: Tweaked shotguns dispersions and recoils
Items: Tweaked pistols dispersions
Items: Tweaked rifles, carbines and SMGs dispersions
Items: Tweaked attachments (optics, buttstocks, handguards, compensators, bipod) dispersions
Items: Wooden sticks can be held in hands
Items: CR527 shadow glitch fixed
Items: Set chemlight to last 60 minutes
Items: Lowered light intensity for chemlights and flare
Items: Temoved buttstock as default spawned attachment for MP5
Item: Binoculars size reduced
Items: Added other chemlight color material variants
Modifiers: Removed vomit message from blinded modifier
Recipes: Player can paint CR 527 black, green and camo
Recipes: Player can't tear clothing into rags while there are things in it
Recipes: Ruined cans opening tweaked


DayZ patch 0.47.124641 is out right ruddy now, via the Steams.