Re: DayZ
basta cazzi!
moar Q&A
Some more questions answered on Reddit by Rocket, will add more as they come.
Q: How long is the closed technical test going to last?
A: As long as it takes to smooth out the architectural issues.
Q: Can we expect any new guns/gear upon foundation release?
A: Yes, lots.
Q: Have you made any improvements in terms of sound?
A: Sound isn't something we've played with a lot yet. It's something we can easily improve - we want the freedom now to innovate, which means not getting locked down because we created certain content. The pace of our innovation is insane at the moment and is entirely changing the landscape of the future content changes.
Q: Will the standalone bring an FPS improvement?
A: Yes, but I follow the usual pessimistic thought that whatever FPS increases we see will likely be taken up with new things added to DayZ. A staggering amount of code that was unused by DayZ has been removed, and is ongoing. This includes UI code and object related code, everything. This provides some benefits. There has been a huge amount of art asset optimization, again helping. Overall, I would say DayZ standalone will offer a smoother experience but not necessarily an FPS increase. I.e if you run it on High now, you won't be running it on Very High but you should get a much smoother experience.
Q: Any plans for Minecon-style DayZ events in the future?
A: Probably, no plans as yet. I would say by June we have a good picture on the success of DayZ as a whole and sometime around then we'll have a good think about the future.
Q: What are your plans for end game content?
A: Firstly, once we have DayZ stabilized into something reasonable - we will look at some advanced vehicle stuff. I.e. sort of vehicle construction, adding different parts to vehicles etc...
Then towards the end of the year, probably, looking at base construction as an entirely new game mode.
Q: What about vehicle customization?
A: Not initially, vehicles will remain very, very basic. But later we will add great depth to the parts mechanic something like a "vehicle construction" system. This will be our first foray into "endgame" type content, after we have stabilized the build.
Q: Has Marek Spanel (CEO at Bohemia Interactive Studio for those who don't know) played the mod/sa and given any feedback on it?
A: Marek has been extremely involved since very early in DayZ (since shortly after it's release really). He continues to be a key contributing member of the team both at a management/steering level and also with design.
Q: What about the price?
A: Cheap for a start, rising in price during development. I'm just going to come right out and say it, so that people start to stop with this whole "competition is good" thing. Competition can be good, under the right circumstances. Personally, the WarZ scandal and the price people have been paying has made me think, personally, that we've been undervaluing the project in terms of price. If one company releases a product, that doesn't perform well and is at a high price, and succeeds - what example does that set for other companies? People need to behave like rational consumers and not just instantly buy everything they see - otherwise all they will end up with is crap. The moment gamers start organizing and rewarding developers that meet what the consumers want - is the moment the publishers will be forced to value their developers more (and pay them more). Regardless, it's never going to be at a full retail price.
Q: How often will updates come out?
A: Daily/weekly. Pushed through steam as delta updates (<3 you steam!)
Q: Will there be some kind of report system in case of hackers?
A: TBC, likely something we will have to work on improving for the entire life of the product.
Q: To what extent will customization go, e.g clothing, character
A: Clothing, full range of selections: Head, eyes, torso, pants, feet, gloves, vest, backpack.
Q: What about player numbers, 60 seems low currently but obviously that will depend on the map design and new areas etc, what do you think is an ideal number?
A: This has been a key focus for redevelopment of Chernarus. I think about 150 is a good number, from our testing in terms of design.
Q: I've been quite impressed by Seattle map in TOH. Would it be possible to rework the map to make it playable in DayZ
A: It's very impressive map, but the issue is more it was designed for something specific (helicopters). DayZ needs interiors, they're really important. I think DayZ needs a new map, BI made, that features a western city... let's just say I have plans.
Q: Will there be other animals in the woods such as wolfs, bears, a horde of zombies? Will there be caves, etc?
A: One of the artists is working on a deer, and I believe a rat has been done. The main issue is animations, they have to be generated (often by hand, although once a horse was mocap'd here in the studio for another game!).
Q: Has a chainsaw been added yet?
A: Nope, not yet. We've only really started on item art asset development recently, as we just confirmed all our desired item architectural changes are possible.
Q: Are you aware of the issues with rendering vegetation, obscuring items, tents and players at close range while they remain visible at long range?
A: It is important, we're aware of it - but we haven't got it planned to be addressed yet. We're still on these major, sweeping, architectural changes.
Q: How do you deal with the stress of the game? When you get overloaded with Questions and the difficulties with the development etc. What's your method of keeping things together?
A: Bizzarely enough, aside from running or one of my hobbies like mountaineering or wakeboarding (which I can rarely do here) - the greatest stress relief comes from modding someone elses game.
I love KSP and love modding for it, and I am really in love with Space Station 13 at the moment, and loving making new maps and editing/modding it. There is something inherently beautiful about modding that I just love. I probably was having a slow-moving nervous breakdown towards the end of last year, really. But this year has been great, the progress has been outstanding and all the huge gambles we took architecturally last year have started paying off.
Q: How do you plan on making lone-wolfing more interesting as well as player interaction?
A: I really want to increase the amount of activity in the game, such as hunting and just general surviving/traveling. I hope this makes the lone-wolf play more interesting, which in turn will add more value to any human interaction.
Q: How does the whole humanity thing work?
A: My first thought was "not well". Then I realized I made it, and I just felt bad for myselfI think we can do better with the standalone with some good experimentation and innovation.
Q: Is the idea of making security systems for underground structures still in?
A: I'm playing a lot of Space Station 13 at the moment and it is giving me some tremendous inspiration for ideas for base construction. But expect this more towards the end of this year. We have much ground to cover first.
Q: Will the ragdoll system be initially available in the SA or will you implement it later?
A: No ragdoll currently, it is a significant amount of work and one we haven't done yet. We looked at it, even tried some, but it was just going to cause far too much delay.
Q: When ArmA 3 comes out, are you going to mod DayZ into it or let the community do it?
A: My real hope, is that the next "DayZ" comes out and get's it's big break in ArmA3. I made a space mod for ArmA2 that I never released, maybe I might make that for ArmA3! I guess someone will mod DayZ for ArmA3 and it will probably be great for it, that's the awesome thing about this community.
Q: Can we expect some unannounced surprises in the standalone release?
A: Absolutely. For the next 12 months at least, probably beyond that.
Q: Are you still looking for SA testers?
A: I am not handling the SA technology test tester list, Matt handles that. I'd probably implode with all the queries I'd get with it (my twitter/facebook/email is full now already).
Q: Will private hives on the SA allow for admin controlled starting gear?
A: Private Hives still haven't been thought out much. For a start, we're going to issue the architecture to some of the big hosters initially until we can secure it and lock it down more for general release. So initially, you'll either need to connect centrally to the main DayZ hive when running a server or you'll need to connect to one run by a commercial hoster. But we still haven't decided this fully yet.
Q: Are you still considering underground bases? It was mentioned early on but not so much since.
A: Once we have things really stable and solid, like a really good experience (I estimate loosely on my return from Everest in June), I think we will start with base construction. I've been playing A LOT of space station 13 and it has given me some great ideas.
Q: Will there still be a 'dot' system and will it potentially still allow ESP hacks (which are hard to detect)?
A: I want to remove the crosshair but I suspect we will have it configurable by servers. Same with 3rd person, but no firm decision is made yet we need to test everything out with you guys first. Hacking is something we will have to work on for the life of the product. I.e. forever. We just have to try this new architecture and continually innovate, adapt to the change of pace. That's just the reality of the world.
Q: Are we going to be able to hide from zombies in trees and bushes? *Here comes a swarm of zombies, I'll just sit in this bush until they give up.*
A: Yes. Although for a few months expect these new mechanics to spontaneously break and hilarity ensue
Q: Do you have anything in the works for more obtainable skins like the hero and bandit skins?
A: You can cloth yourself in custom items for each body part. So effectively, you create your own skin. We're still looking at options for humanity and we aren't tied down to a system yet.
Q: What's after DayZ? Can we expect a DayZ 2?
A: I've got two "ultimate game ideas" that I have wanted to make for many years, and I'm hoping this is my ticket to fund and develop them completely myself and make them the way I want, with no marketing department input. So I'd probably be more interested personally in pursuing these once DayZ is 1.0. But sequels are really just a numbers game. If the idea is still fresh, I hope the harsh approach of DayZ spawns a sequel, so long as that sequel tried something new and fresh (but with the same flavor) on, say, the PS4 and/or the Steambox. I mean, why not? But I'm not sure how involved I would be with that.
Q: Did you play The WarZ at all? Anything from that game that you liked/disliked?
A: Yes, both me and Matt did. It's rather hard to compare because it just wasn't the kind of game that I would want to play. I am not a good barometer for what is a good game or not (the games I played most last year were OpenTTD and KSP..., and this year it is SS13). My taste in games is very "out there". So to say it wasn't my kind of game is putting it in company with the new XCOM and many other well received games. Their out of game UI was very polished and overall gave a much better impression about the product from the word go compared to DayZ. The DayZ standalone, probably will not ever match that either mainly because I'd rather have that artist working on assets for the game rather than a menu or some out of game screen. But that level of polish was really good. Connecting was simple and straightforward, and quick. The melee was "better", although with some caveats. I mean, the bar is pretty low, the melee I mod'ed into ArmA2 is probably as basic as it gets. Continued...
Q: Any possible date or time frame for the closed technical test?
A: We're down to the last few things to fix before the first test servers pop online and we run the first full servers. Slowly we'll hand out the first keys and get a few servers running. Then we will reassess. It could go really well and we open up quickly, or it could go badly. Don't expect the tech test to be fun, or very pretty. It's a tech test, any game design that makes it into that will be a bonus.
Q: Do you think SA will come before April?
A: Yes I think so, but anything could happen and usually does. We'll know more when the results of the tech test are out. Any dates before then would be pure speculation, and my last speculation didn't work out so good.
Q: Any plans to implement a sewage/drainage system in the major cities?
A: I really want too. We'd need to do some magic though (or instancing... but only I am really happy with instancing as a solution at the moment! the programmers want to do it properly).
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Originally Posted by Torok
