Today's Status Report focuses on the current work of the team to fix the remaining issues in the PC BETA, while we are getting closer to our release in December. Eugen gives an overview of the most pressing issues, and the team leads give a brief recap of their work during the past two weeks. Let's get into it!

 

• Dev Update/Eugen - General status report and overview of current issues
• Xbox One update/Martin - Basebuilding & Vehicles game update details; DayZ is 15% OFF on Xbox One now!
• Dev Update/Peter - Focused Feedback, Round 1
• Dev Update/Mirek - Car physics, hit registration, and other bullet point updates from the programming team
• Dev Update/Viktor - Animation polish pass on items + new sickness and character states animations
• Dev Update/Filip - new infected sounds, clothes/backpack sounds, and other improvements
• Community Spotlight/Baty - Community Spotlight on your Halloween content, mods, and more

 
Dear Survivors! Today, I'm gonna talk about the pressing issues that you are experiencing in-game now, about our update schedule, as well as touching on the subject of things breaking apart as we get fixes in. But before I do all that, I just want to celebrate another milestone in the history of DayZ! To this day, the game has attracted more than 4 million people and I cannot state how grateful we are for all the support you gave us over the years. It's amazing that this genre has grown so much. All that makes me excited to continue, and I'm glad I could be a part of this team and the community for a better part of the last five years.  

As we march towards the 1.0 release, we will break things as we apply systematic changes to frameworks that hold the gameplay together. While it may seem as counterproductive from outside perspective with only couple weeks left before the release, there is usually (usually, but not always - truth be told, we make mistakes) a good reason behind it. I'm going to try and break it down for you.

When we see an issue somewhere, we have to consider many factors. Our implementation needs to be consistent across the board in the underlying systems. Not only this is good for modding in the long run, it is also very important for us to lower the amount of new issues brought in with every update. In reality, that may mean that while a feature or action might be working right now, we have to break it temporarily, and apply fixes to make sure its implementation is, in the end, consistent with everything else in-game.

Having said that, we are not happy about it and understand that it is hurting the player experience. While we have closed numerous bugs with recent patches, and improved many systems from a technical point of view, we introduced new ones that need our attention. Things will stabilise in the coming weeks and post 1.0, and our goal is to benefit from this stabilisation in the long run. 

Another thing I wanted to touch on was the update schedule. Since the initial switch over to Stable, we have made some mistakes and learned from them. We had a streak of hot-fixes in a very short time period and while we will keep reacting to most pressing issues as quick as we can, we want to stabilise our update schedule to the Wednesday maintenance window. The use of the Experimental branch will be less frequented, but still possible if required. We will try to be consistent, but flexible when needed. We want to get better.

We've made some progress on the pressing issues we listed the last time, let's take a look:

HIT REGISTRATION
We have tracked and fixed a number of hit registration issues over the last couple weeks. To be specific, I'm talking about the inventory manipulation of magazines through double click, which wasn't properly synchronised and caused ghost bullets. Another issue was with zeroing and a reload initiated during scoping/iron sights in a specific way. The most common issue was caused by problems in packet priority and networking. Overall, you shouldn't be seeing hit registration issues pop up too much any more, and I highly recommend you to contact us through the Feedback Tracker if you experience weapons not dealing damage at all.

While there are certainly some issues with damage itself left, it is tied to a balance pass and things will get ironed out. I'll also be talking about one specific damage issue that has popped up on our channels recently.

CHANGING KEYBINDS
The next update should contain the keybinding UI and while still work in progress, it should be a large improvement over what was possible before, and it will also finally be consistent with other UI elements in-game.

LIGHTING ISSUES
Lighting and exposure settings are being debugged right now and you should see changes coming in over the next weeks, making sure that both day and night lighting problems, tone-mapping, luminosity, light sources and what the community describes as excessive bloom are improved. The issues we are tracking right now require more input from the Engine Team and are planned after the next Stable update.

FPS DROPS
With the investigation into FPS issues reported, we haven't gathered enough evidence yet. I would like to ask all of you experiencing a decrease over the last few patches to send us information about the server you play on (possible modification causing some drops, even economy changes causing more items to be placed on map), their configuration and drivers to help us iron out exactly what happened and how. Internally, we haven't been able to reproduce it on any range of systems we have available, but we may be missing a crucial piece of information.

As I already mentioned, while fixing some things, we also manage to break them. Let's see what's broken. To make things short for the Status Report, I'm just going to list them as bullet points of current most pressing issues, and you can read the full context and our response in the related forums thread.  

• Server crashes
• Vehicles issues
• Broken play button 
• Persistance issues
• Gun sounds missing
• Sounds stuck in a loop
• Basebuilding issues
• Shotgun damage issues
• Night time setup
• Hit reaction and stun lock
• VOIP issues

Again, please make sure you read the related forums thread to see our replies on the issues you reported.

Many of the reported issues can be improved by value adjustments on our end. I want to emphasise how important this balance pass is for DayZ and its functionality. While all sorts of interesting features are in, they require us to review their current state. We need to get dirty to properly configure them. Gun-play, damage values, diseases, economy, persistence, and so on - bugfixing definitely comes first with high priority issues, but a balance pass is what makes the game fun in the first place. We will announce as things get rolled out over the following updates before we reach 1.0. The first thing you should be seeing is recoil and its behaviour tweaks.

- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer

 
Hi everyone! While on the PC side of things, we're in full bug fixing mode, our Xbox Survivors are still waiting for the big update to drop. As we detailed in our Xbox Development Briefing, if things go well, we'd like to release the Basebuilding & Vehicles game update on Xbox this Thursday. This is still with a disclaimer as we'll be going through the final stage of testing tomorrow, but even if we discover some specific issues, this update will still be the biggest Xbox update of DayZ since we launched in Game Preview.

We're also right in the middle of the Xbox Black Friday sale, and this will probably be one of the very few chances to get DayZ on Xbox One for an advantageous price (currently 15% OFF at $33,99 / £26,99 / 33,99€). So, If you were considering getting DayZ on Xbox, or convincing your friends to give it a try, right now is probably a good time to go for it. The game will only get better and more polished from here, so while I'm of course strongly biased, I'd say the current price is a pretty decent deal.



- Martin Čulák / Brand Manager

 
Over the past week, we've been collecting your feedback on gameplay mechanics in the first installment of the Focused Feedback Round on our forums. Below, you can find links to the individual topics.  You've sent us countless ideas and suggestions for every single one of them.

• Status Indicators in the HUD
• Character Movement, Gestures and Actions
• New Actions & Crafting
• Stamina

As we are pretty busy with the preparation of the December release, we will take this week to evaluate your feedback before starting round two. We are going to talk about gun mechanics, melee, infected and the damage system, so gather your thoughts for when we open the next Feedback Round.
- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

 
Hello Survivors! As we're all very busy with our tasks, I just wanted to provide a quick bullet point overview of what we have done, what we are working on and what we have planned for the upcoming weeks. Let's go:

• Car physics update; We had to rework the car physics controller as the suspension system was very unstable at lower fps (both client/server side)
• Hit registration fixes; We've managed to fix one specific hit registration bug caused by packet ordering
• Support for hearing sounds outside the network bubble (this can be configured in a server config)
• View distances are now also configurable via server config
• Voice over Network fixes; We fixed specific issues with 5.1 & 7.1 headphones
• Aligning characters on sloped ladders
• Added script API for light sources; Our scripters (and modders) can now script the intensity, colour, and size of light sources and dynamically change them
• Support for additional character animations - e.g. sickness

• Overall stability improvements; Mostly crash fixes
• Modding support; Further script API extensions, filepatching & security bug fixes
• Further car physics tweaking
• Input system (allowing the ability to assign key binds)
• Fixes for applying damage texture to specific damage zones

• Continue with crash fixes
• Character physical controller fixes
• Infected AI fixes

- Miroslav Maněna / Lead Programmer

 
Greetings from the animation team Survivors! We've been very focused on bug fixing and improvements to existing animations and systems in these past two weeks. We have finished a pass on hundreds of in-game items, mostly updating their holding poses to make the animations look more natural, and also to reduce various clipping issues. There are still some problematic items which will be up next.

Other than that, we've also worked on bug fixes in the animation graph and animation polish for player character animations. One of the specific improvements is the addition of animations related to various sickness states. Player characters will be able to show signs of being sick by coughing or sneezing, and also to show signs of being too warm/too cold.

- Viktor Kostik / Lead Animator

 
Hi all! In the audio team, we've been working on introducing additional variety to the sounds of player movement. That includes three different sounds for movement with a backpack, three new sets of sounds for various types of clothes (represented by the Patrol Jacket, Raincoat, and Quilted Jacket) and noises for movement with the ghillie suit. By now, you have also probably discovered that the leaves are now rustling when players are moving through bushes and small trees. Finally, our infected received new voices, now totaling at four male and two female infected voice variations.


- Filip Čenžák / Sound Designer

 
Hello everyone, I am leaving to my two-week long holiday today, but I prepared a Community Spotlight for you before I take off. While it's quite some time since the Halloween, I have not had the chance to feature all the spooky screenshots and videos that you've sent me, so this is why I dedicated a large part of my yesterday's community spotlight to those!There ares also photos of our own real-life infected at the Prague Zombie Run, and a many community mods for you to try! Check out the Community Spotlight HERE!



- Baty Alquawen / Community Manager

 

Header image by Sagerest.

Hello again, Survivors. Another Community Spotlight is here!

Halloween is already gone, but I didn't tell you how much I liked your screenshots with the pumpkin heads. They've been in the game only for a week but you've had a lot of fun with them. Thanks for sharing! Let's check out your horror-themed content.
 
Halloween squad shared by CryDoXz:


This one is beautiful! Thank you [/u]Ladelthia‏[/u]!


And love these too. Good job Juh_4u!


DayZCore server organized a Halloween event and it looks like they really had fun.


Sweetest_Kill and Jakon had fun with pumpkins too.



Just for your interest, in case you didn't know, DayZ is a game developed by company based in the Czech Republic (Inter alia) and we don't celebrate Halloween. We have a special day called "Dušičky" (Souls in the English language). People visit cemeteries and light candles for the dead, we don't have pumpkins and costumes here (even though I love the Halloween costumes!).

]And one more thing! One of our infected joined the zombie-themed night race called Zombie Run here in Prague. The race was 5km long and it was fun to watch people dressed as zombies running around. This was our infected[/u], he didn't win but he didn't eat anyone at least:





Who is Negan? A creepy creature. When you hear whistling, run for your life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYURWwRc8f4

DayZ can be scary. Belzelga proved it really well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EGqZRTxJ94

Another creepy little video (Mr. White is back), but with nice singing! Cool story, Foxy Pote!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi72aHWcp-A

And one more horror-themed video by Gekofish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZT2fIjLwuo
 
This is a school project inspired by Mr. Midnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6m_arjdQsI

Let's calm down. Berrett5Bumpas made a really relaxing video. Check it out:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/335312959

And if you are not into video, check out this visual basebuilding guide by RookieN:


And if this still isn't enough for you, Asmondian made a base building Infographic:


Let's check out your modded content!

Kuroakita is trying to mode his first vehicle and it looks cool already!


When we are talking about cars, Repa24 is making one too. Nice work.


If you are a role-play lover, you probably could appreciate a trader mod. Follow the mod's Twitter for more info.


But this is a cool mode made by DannyDog. Let me introduce you to his street lights. They are not on the workshop right now but we hope they will be in the future.

 

Let's solve the location riddle - it was a place near Pik Kozlovka. Correct answers were sent by:

• Lad
• Foxypote
• Chill Pilgrim
• Lijazos
• Asmodian
• DrDeSync

And the new one is pretty hard (greetings from Sumrak):


As always, if you know where the location is, send your answer to our Twitter account with the #DayZriddleTime hashtag. 

Enjoy the game and see you in two weeks!
- Baty Alquawen / Community Manager

Header picture by -Canis-Dirus-.

Dear Survivors!

Today is a very exciting day for all of us here at the DayZ team. Coming closer to five years of Early Access Alpha development, we are now moving the PC version of DayZ into BETA. What does that mean for the future of DayZ and how long do we intend to run the BETA? Watch our new Dev Log video to find out more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ZfK6a8T00
To recap, The DayZ BETA shifts our focus from introducing new features and content to bug fixing, stabilization and balancing. The goal is to create a stable and -most importantly- fun experience for our 1.0 release, scheduled for the end of 2018.
Worry not, this is not the end of DayZ development: we have more features and content planned after we stabilize the game, and they will come to you as part of free platform updates in the future.

The former 0.62 version running on our old technology has been moved to a legacy branch on Steam, and the default (Stable) branch on Steam now runs the new, 0.63 BETA update.

So what are some of the BETA highlights?

• Major engine changes
• Improvements to game and network performance
• Introduction of base building
• Massively improved implementation of vehicles
• More elaborate AI for infected and animals
• Major map rework to make Chernarus more beautiful and detailed
• Ability to run your own servers
• Modding Support

While mentioned as the last bullet point, the modding toolset is equally important to our effort of polishing the game, as it opens a whole new world of opportunities to experience DayZ in different ways. Read more about our modding toolset on our official forums.

Despite our original announcements suggesting otherwise, the pricing will not change for DayZ with the BETA release, and we'd like to reach the final price for DayZ when we release the game out of Early Access. That means for now, DayZ is still available for 27,99 EUR / 34,99 USD.

For the rest of the year, we will be working on our post 1.0 development plans and evaluating where we take DayZ next in terms of additional features and content. As soon as we have a solid roadmap in place, we'll let you know through all the official channels. Until then - see you all in Chernarus, and please do report every issue and bug you find to our Feedback Tracker!

 

Dear Survivors,

we are listening. We know the last Status Report has started some heated discussion about DayZ. I'm gonna do my best and touch upon multiple subjects you guys have pointed out and make sure your questions don't go unanswered. But first, I also want to [/b] because today is the day that we updated the Experimental branch with what will become the first BETA update. The update itself contains multiple features and tons of content. Just to name the headliners: all new base building, a new implementation of vehicles, player restraining, leaning and more. I'm excited about this first step to a more polished gameplay experience with more endgame goals to achieve.

 
Not only have we hit Experimental today, but tomorrow, we want to open another floodgate. Since we're no longer working on old technology, the 0.62 version is now becoming a legacy to look back at and learn from. We believe we are past the point where 0.62 is a good first entry into the world of DayZ. So tomorrow, we will be going through a clean-up in our Steam back-end and shuffle things around a bit.

The current 0.63 will be moving to the default branch (what we call the Stable branch, as in the first thing that installs when you click on DayZ in Steam, and a version that most if not all community servers will run). 0.62, then, will be moved to its own "legacy branch" for future reference. This will make sure that players coming back in will get in touch with the new version of DayZ, and won't be facing a situation where they start up a game and can't join almost any server due to version difference. That way, we can focus on what the future of DayZ should be and we will deliver updates straight to you.

Experimental and Stress Test Branches should not see much use for the rest of the year, and will be deprecated until we get to a point they are once again needed. Our goal right now is to focus on addressing issues you guys have been reporting, and on making DayZ fun for our core player base.

With this change, we will release one more thing for you guys to play around with: DayZ modding tools. Yes it''s happening!

While they can definitely be considered Experimental, your early feedback on the tool set can help us shape the future of the DayZ platform and game alike. Tools will be available as a free download on Steam and will be also supported by our new DayZ Launcher to organize your DayZ experience. The launcher (familiar to those of you who tried Arma 3) will be useful not only to work with mods, but also for work with startup parameters, server and tools after the tools package stabilizes a bit. With the DayZ tools release, we will be opening the Steam Workshop for you guys to share your creations in an easier way, accessible in one central place.

TLDR; if nothing goes majorly wrong, 0.63 is moving to Stable tomorrow, and we begin our BETA development - the march towards a stable 1.0 release.
With 0.63 on the Stable Branch, and community server owners updating their servers with all these new features we introduced, I wanted to touch on few more things that are about to happen in the upcoming weeks, as that's certainly something you'll be very curious about.
The server browser is getting an overhaul based around a new technology that we developed together with our Online Services team. The gain with this implementation is that you'll be better able to tell if a given server is running a modified version of DayZ, and at the same time, the new implementation will make the server browser feel more aligned with rest of our UI design (which is by no means polished yet, but at least a basic direction has been set). 

Related to community servers, at least for the rest of the year, we're trying to go and have a fixed schedule of weekly updates so that server owners can be ready for any upcoming game updates.
The upcoming bugfixes and tweaks will be focused on many of your complaints over the years. We read almost everything you guys post across social media, including (especially) those comprehensive lists for 1.0, and I just want say we know these things are important to you. While features are in, their functionality is often broken. We know that's what makes or breaks a game, and now is exactly the time to get that fixed. During this period of stabilization and iteration, you'll see the game change around the details that matter. A balance pass is ahead of us, and while it's certainly not the last, it will definitely be a first one that will fix a whole lot of the inconsistencies you guys experienced over the years.

Just as an example, I'm going to use the fix of misaligned guns that is already in Experimental (caused by either using a vehicle, being in prone, or using free-look).

We're also going to go over some of the issues that bother you a lot: like hit registration problems, or changing your key binds. Let's go.
With today's Experimental update, we have released a huge amount of items that were not available in-game before, and while some of their functionality might be bugged, these specific cases will be tackled in the bugfixing, polishing, and balancing push. What's in the Experimental build now is the list of items we want to hit 1.0 with, and anything else we've talked about in the past will be a post 1.0 content released as free platform updates.

The same goes for features - features that we previously had planned to deliver and are not in-game right now and are postponed after 1.0 release. We will be working on our post 1.0 plans and communicate the exact details of our efforts through official channels. One thing I can already say - I'm really looking forward to working on a stable game platform. Something we have not seen a lot (or at all) for the past 5 years.
There are some hot topic currently resonating in the community, and I wanted to touch upon some of those in more detail. As these would make the Status Report visually even longer, we're gonna put them into a separate forums post. These are the topics covered:

• Item renaming
• Hit registration
• Changing key binds 
• Bloom post process effect tweaking
• FPS drops

READ THE FORUM POST

 

Now to an elephant in the room that has to be talked about in a proper manner. Previously, I have said that I want to write up my thoughts after talking to you guys on various channels and criticism that has ensued after the last Status Report. Here it is.

There were two choices here, either we miss our 1.0 deadline, or we miss content parity. Both are bad no matter how we look at it. I seriously believe for the health of DayZ as a brand, as a game, we have to move in a direction of stable and reliable gameplay. The core DayZ features are already in the game now, and the devil is in the details. We have to make sure those core features work as they should first and foremost. Not only are you missing out on some really cool things in the game because the current implementation of features is simply broken - additionally, we also we have to deal with development on a game platform that is simply not stable enough for us to continue without loosing our minds.

Making a new weapon on a game that crashes or stops shooting bullets every day due to low level changes is not fun for us either. We know that this step is not only important for the game, but also for the team here. While we might have put on a version number 0.64 and just continue development as many of you have suggested, we have to start working with deadlines properly and be prepared to prioritize. We could have spent years polishing and adding to what DayZ is, but to do so, we need to start planning better and that requires a platform where estimations on complexity can be relied upon. That is not the case right now. While we agree that content variety is extremely important to DayZ, we can improve upon that that post 1.0. And the same comes with features like helicopters. We are not abandoning DayZ. We're taking a deep breath, we're taking a look back with the aim to properly plan out building on a platform that is fun to develop for.

Yes, unless we believed that, we wouldn't have chosen the option to hit the deadline. There is about a month of real development left, and hopefully some you have noticed we have started fixing some really pressing issues in DayZ over the last week as we shuffled our priorities. And that is what deadlines do. They make you think twice about what is really important. While there are large numbers of issues left, only about 600 of them are crucial to make DayZ work as intended. We plan to do exactly that. Fix features, stabilize the game and make it enjoyable after being weighed down by bugs for a very long time.

There is pressure of course, that's a natural part of game development. We've just spent five years in Early Access. That said, Bohemia Interactive is a privately owned company under no pressure from external investors. It is our decision to meet our deadline, and there are no business people standing behind our backs forcing us to do it. Bohemia is a family of like-minded people who want to make games without publishers calling the shots. It's also one of the core reasons why Bohemia still self-publishes its own games, and generally does things on its own. While we may not be perfect, our players, our community, our games are still very clearly different from the rest of the industry.

Because if we were to do every single thing that was ever conceived/thought of/casually mentioned for DayZ, we would not be able to exit Early Access even next year. In development, especially if you work with new technology, there is no proper way to do estimates. You just do them based on your past experiences with different technologies. This a super complex topic and we were unable, and effectively failed to predict the amount of time some these things would take on the new engine. While the possibilities with our own technology are endless in theory, we just can't hit content/features that we wanted or wished for in the time we set for ourselves. That said, we know that the game is going to be tons of fun even when some of your favorite features and content are missing now.

No, we are keeping the same resources as we had this year for the year ahead. To be precise, it's 86 people working on DayZ right now.

As mentioned previously, we want to properly plan out content and features for next year, and focus on timely delivery by having a stable platform that we can build upon. One of the top priorities will definitely be weapons and content variety. As for features implemented post 1.0, we will share more information once the whole team agrees on what exactly we can and will deliver. DayZ is our dream game and we want to make it the best possible experience for developers and players alike.

- Eugen Harton / Lead Producer

Header image by ​Uncuepa.

• Dev Update/Martin
• Dev Update/Peter
• Dev Update/Adam
• Dev Update/Filip
• <Community Spotlight

 
Dear Survivors. As promised, it's time to address the upcoming BETA update. This will be a longer text, so take a deep breath, we're going to get back all the way to the last year.

In the 2017 - Year In Review video published last December, we shared our goals to deliver the BETA and 1.0 updates of DayZ in 2018. Over the course of this year, we've made significant progress towards completing those goals (2 major experimental releases, and 50+ Stress Tests), and while there's less time left in 2018 than we'd all like to have (some 60 days left before the holiday season starts), we're still well on our way to releasing these important updates. 

In this blog post, we'd like to better define the PC BETA update - what our goals with it are and what your expectations towards it should be.

 
Before we dive into the specifics of the DayZ BETA update, let's set the terms straight first. In software or game development, BETA is widely regarded as a product that's feature complete. For the DayZ PC BETA, this is true in a sense that the BETA will have all the features required for its core gameplay loop to work, but within the overall scope of the DayZ project, it's certainly not what we would consider a totally feature complete game. 

Then, the BETA stage of development is a point from which the focus of development shifts to bugfixing and polishing, instead of implementing new features and technology. This will be especially important for DayZ, as one of the the main goals of the BETA update is to start making the game into a stable platform that's ready for further development. 

The other main goal of the update is to make the vanilla game an enjoyable experience - after years spent on core technology development, we finally have a game in our hands - not a game concept. The game has a given set of features and content, and that will allow us to make the necessary balancing and polishing together with our community.

Most of this will be happening throughout the rest of 2018, culminating in a 1.0 release where we leave Early Access - but even after this milestone is achieved (meaning we finally close the core development of the game), we're going to keep improving the platform before new things start making their way into the game again.

So to summarize, the PC BETA update is going to be a version of the game that has all the basic fun elements of DayZ available, and it's also the start of the journey towards a balanced, stable platform that's ready to support further development and modding.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at the particular features and content that will be available in the BETA update.

 
In August, we've gone through a feature freeze - an important internal milestone where we've evaluated the overall state of the game and marked any item from our Feature & Content Goals that did not reach a certain level of implementation as post 1.0 development. 

While we are ultimately the masters of our own development time, there is one universal truth in game development: you can always try to squeeze more stuff into a release, so eventually, a line needs to be drawn and goals need to be established in order to achieve results.

The goal we've set was clear: making sure that we proceed towards stabilizing the DayZ gameplay and platform in 2018, as this stabilization will be necessary for further development of the game, and will benefit DayZ in the long run. Additionally, after working on a project for 5 years, it also became apparent that the team needs to have a sense of an end goal in mind. 

Making decisions like this is painful for every developer - nobody likes to see "their" feature being cut, or postponed to some future update - but having a balanced and polished core of basic gameplay is more important than having dozens of flavor, supporting and exotic features. 

Everyone who was ever involved in the full development cycle of any game knows that at the finish line, there''s always less stuff than was originally planned. Since DayZ's development has been very open from day one, you get to experience this side of game development with us, first hand.

So, at the end, this is where we've arrived at for the DayZ BETA features and content - ultimately meaning that this will also be our 1.0 release after the polishing phase:

Please note: the overview is not extensive and does not cover every single small feature or item in the game - DayZ is a pretty complex game after all. This mostly describes things that the BETA has in addition to the 0.63 Experimental release. If you have a question about a specific feature, feel free to ask us about it in this forums thread!

 

• Base building
  • related crafting, items, and their economy setup
  • precise placement of objects
  • electricity system
  • locking other players from accessing your base
• New implementation of vehicles
  • improved controls, physics, and network synchronization
  • improved damage system
  • improvements in vehicle interactions, management, and maintenance
• Modding support
  • implementation of the Steam Workshop
  • game launcher
  • specific modding tools
  • server files for hosting community servers
• New player character features
  • visualization of bleeding source
  • character lifespan (growing beards, learning soft skills)
  • character restrain
  • hit reactions

 

• major improvements of the sound design
• hidden loot stashes
• not losing your weapon double carry (when switching from hand slot to shoulders)
• improved in-game map implementation
• dynamic spawning of loot (fruits, stones, mushrooms and other items)
• specific animations for carrying/using most items
• melee attacks with guns
• server browser improvements
• central Economy improvements
• and more :)

 

• Helicopters
  • we've arrived at the decision that base building implementation will provide enough of an end goal for players, so helicopters can be added later on
• Climbing over obstacles
  • this feature required additional programming and animation support that we've decided to invest more effectively into other parts of the game 
• Throwing items
  • throwing requires a lot of additional specialist work on physics and network synchronization, and we'd rather invest that into vehicles and other features
  • this includes throwable weapons like grenades or smoke grenades
• Bows
  • the implementation of bows means an introduction of a completely new weapon type on 0.63 and was always a risky goal, in the end unfortunately not achievable in 2018; we've invested the programming time into gun play, melee combat, vehicles and other core features that were more important
• Character and infected ragdoll
  • unfortunately, there are many network synchronization cases that we need to resolve and implementing ragdolls in combination with death animations will require more time and resources
• Two-way doors
  • while a huge quality of life improvement, changing the doors to two way opening will require additional rework of some of the assets, and is not achievable in 2018
• Fishing and fish traps, decaying bodies, carrying characters, contaminated areas, item coloring etc.
  • these are considered flavor features and for now, work on core gameplay features was prioritized instead

In recap, there are no major feature cuts or postponements - anything that makes DayZ the game unique and original among the other survival games is still there. Some of the biggest trade-offs are probably bows, throwing, ragdolls, and some of the flavor features that you were already used to seeing in legacy versions of DayZ. These trade-offs are usually allowing us to spend more time on the core features, and that, again, is certainly more beneficial for the future of DayZ.

In addition to those features, we've had to done some trimmings to the content. Specifically, we're only going to have two types of vehicles available in BETA - the V3S truck and the Lada 4x4. As for weapons, compared to our original goals for BETA, we're not going to be able to implement the following content in time:

• Magnum
• Red 9
• IZH 43 shotgun
• SKS
• CR 527
• Winchester 70
• Any other firearm currently available in 0.62, but not on the 0.63 Stress Test branch

In general, we''ve done our best to have each firearm type from 0.62 represented in the game, and additional variety in firearms will be provided with content updates after 1.0, where we should have more animation resources available at hand. 
 
In general, polishing the package of content and features as described above will be our goal for 1.0, and for the weeks immediately after 1.0. This will include:

• general balancing of every part of the game (central economy, weapon damage...)
• a massive amount of bug fixing 
• polishing and improving the general feeling you as players have when playing DayZ

Just to assure everyone again, both the BETA and 1.0 releases will happen this year. All of that will be done together with our community, and we will be expecting to hear a lot of feedback on various things. When the BETA update gets released, we'll be providing more details on how we will be collecting and evaluating feedback. 

As the cherry on top, there's of course the planned modding toolset release - and we'll also get back to that later on, when the BETA update is in your hands. It deserves its own blog post, and after all, this has already been a very long wall of text anyway! :)

- Martin Čulák / Brand Manager


Even after some of you had the chance to try out the construction feature to some degree with the recent release of the Stress Test, base building is still considered to be a kind of a mysterious part of DayZ. To recap, the construction feature allows you to build two main elements (portable mesh barriers aside): fence and a watchtower.

The process of building these objects is identical and starts with a construction kit, which is placed to outline the position and layout of objects. From there, you are able to add building materials such as logs, planks, nails or metal sheets, and by using the proper tool and a user action, you turn them into actual parts of the fences or watchtowers. Similarly to the watchtower with its multiple floors, the fence includes an optional platform. Upgrades for both are available in terms of camouflage and passive defense.

Moreover, a fence can be turned into a gate as there has to be some way how to get in or out, The opening is wide enough for a truck as well. The gate can be kept closed from unwanted visitors by utilizing a multi-dial combination lock with easily shareable custom codes. Of course the code can be cracked by brute force and -as everything in DayZ- it can be broken with a proper tool, although you should consider the time needed for such actions. That goes for dismantling actions as well.



Currently we are in the process of solving unpleasant issues with the lifetime of constructed objects and intentional server hopping into the base. Especially the second one is tricky as I don’t want to introduce some unnecessary artificial counter measures or out of place actions which could potentially harm the unique DayZ experience.

Base building as a whole is a broad set of activities. Throw horticulture, food preparation, obtaining water, stationary crafting, storage, building a shelter, engineering an electricity grid and others into a mix and you get your very own base. All of that was designed to blend in well with the environment, and I have to say that I’m excited to see the wide variations of bases you will come up with, and how they will add to the persistent world of DayZ.

It’s hammer time... see you in Chernarus folks!

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer


If you have played DayZ since the version 0.60, it is certainly possible that you never had an opportunity to see how the in-game item of Chernarus'' map looks and works. The revival of this feature was definitely one of the more important points for the upcoming BETA release and I am glad to announce that this was a success, and in addition to its re-introduction, we have been able to bring a number of improvements to it.

So, how does it work? You find the Chernarus map and take it into your hands. After that, you can open it with a user action. Your character will unpack the map and you will have an access to the map interface, where you can use pan and zoom in or out. A nice extra about this is, that anyone else in the world will actually see you having the map open too.



So what you can find on the map of Chernarus? While we would like to bring a number of different types of maps, we have decided that it would be best to start with a tourist map. This map features the whole in-game world in great detail (excluding the military areas of course). It shows all the pubs, stores, local offices (PAS panel), medical centres, police and fire departments. I should also not forget about the newly added tourist trails - you can see all the color tracks on the map too. Adding features like the trails is one of the improvements compared to the previous version of the map (versions 0.59 and older). It also allowed us to add all important lakes, streams, rivers and swamps. The location names on the map also received a necessary pass and we have got more types of them now. All the names are up-to-date with the map changes that happened for the past few years, and their names are in Cyrillic, so you can easily connect them with the names you see on tourist trails, settlement or traffic signs. The engine team has also looked at the performance of the map and has brought a number of improvements to it.









The map feature, at its core, works the same way as it did in Arma, which means any community map (that is packed using the upcoming DayZ tools) is also supported and only minor additions in the config and script have to be done. And to those wondering - yes, you will be able to add notes (markers) to individual map items. Peter will explain this in more detail in a future Status Report.

-  Adam Franců / Map Designer


If you have played on the Stress Test branch over the last weekend, you might have heard a number of new and updated sounds. Our work in this area continues with:

• sounds for evade prone animations
• updated animals footsteps sound
• dynamic attenuation of ambient and engine sounds, when character is inside vehicle. The sound changes according how many doors are open.
• sounds for rifle swap animation

- Filip Čenžák / Sound Designer


Hello guys,
The Community Spotlight is separated to its own page because I have more space for your creations. You can check it out HERE - there are some nice videos of basebuilding in action! 

- Baty Alquawen/Community Manager

 

Header image by HaroldPalmer.

Hello everyone!
It is the day before our Status Report, and that means it's time for the Community Spotlight!

We released a Stress Test last week and you clearly had some fun with it over the weekend. We didn't announce officially that you can find the first iteration of base building on the servers, because we didn't think it is ready (and no, it isn'''t). But some of you discovered it really quickly and tried their first creations.

• A small base concept in the offline editor by Lijazos:

 

• Another one by CryDoXz, including a time-lapse video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVWUYH-Dm_M

• And the last one made by JeckRush:

• It is really nice to see you had a fun on the Stress Test, even though it is very much WIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gGkyDaZ3zo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25uAsvQTnW0
 

• TheRealCDiggity has shared a deep truth with the community. He added a comment to this nice picture:

Had a great time with these guys before we were brutally attacked by a barbaric madman, they taught me a valuable lesson, that making friends is a lot more fun than attacking randoms with knives and eating them.

Don't forget, an empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

• What is better than calm evening on your farm? mov3ax is really enjoying the rest.

 

• And I don't want to force my opinion on you, but even in DayZ is the Earth round. mov3ax has a proof!

 

• We have another amazing screenshot-guy here. His nickname is DanceOfYesus and his pictures are breathtaking. Just sit down and enjoy the view. The whole gallery is here:

 

• winterfellwilliam and his friend Sparky organised a fight club in Kamyshovo. I have no idea who won, but all participants are on this photo.

• This video is really weird. It scares me a little bit. Who the hell is the Mr. White?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuVRIjPHGY4

• We've met members of the famous DayZ Underground community on Gamescom this year and they made a nice video from our meeting. Here is it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=126_cUst7kk
 

• TheRunningManZ met a very talkative player and it drove him crazy. Really funny story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0CdGE-KN_c

• I love this video. Cool song, dope video, good work HandZ!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4pwrZGOV1o
 

• A new episode of the DayZ community podcast named Compass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUbkG5cjCKc

Let's talk about your modding and game modifications.

• Server HeadhunterZ built a road to the Prison island, no more wet clothes and hypotermia.

 

• Dr. Zed is working on infested zones, looks cool, man!

 

• Vojtěch Matouš is working on a new weapons. Check out his work down below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqEWxZ0rbhY

• I was already talking about our music composer L_K_P1 and I want to talk about him more. He send us a message that DayZ is for him not just a game, but also inspiration, it helps to trick his brain to forgetting his pain, because he had a spinal chord problem and he needs to stay in bed for 22 hours per day.

His latest song has a cool video clip, you should check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nQBfNRsHBA

• Turambar44 is enjoying his peaches when exploring the real life Chernarus.

 

• DayZ in DayZ - is this a DayZception? Another interesting content made by NeuroticEUROtic on Reddit. 

Lets check out your answers to the last location riddle. Correct answers:

• S-BOY
• Tweedy
• Foxypote
   

And the next one is really hard:



Send your answer to our Twitter account with the #DayZriddleTime hashtag and you can find your name here next time!

Thank you for your attention and see you in two weeks!

- Baty Alquawen/Community Manager

 

Header image by imdenkos.