Status Report - Week of 25 August 14

[DemonGroover 8836]

 
Over the last week the team has been working on finishing the final tasks for 0.49. Included in this work was an extensive code merge from the team in Bratislava, focused on navigation mesh, animal AI, horticulture, and animation system changes. Due to this merge, we've decided to push the 0.49 update out by one week (to allow for a strong QA pass before the update). 

 

0.49 represents a large amount of work that will not be immediately visible on the user side, but allows us to start tracking statistics on player data and item spawns, as well as the mentioned work on animal AI, horticulture, melee system redesigns, and the central loot economy.

Experimental branch will be updated this week as we look to expand testing on 0.49 before the stable branch update. Additionally, BattlEye will begin broadcasting a message every hour warning users of the upcoming stable hive reset that comes with the 0.49 update.

As 0.49 will bring persistent storage to all stable branch servers it is important that those who rent DayZ server instances make sure to check out the backup policies of their respective game server providers to ensure an easy recovery in the event of any unforseen issues with your instance.

Starting in September, several new initiatives to increase transparency and accessibility into the development process will be rolled out, including the dev team twitch stream schedule located on devhub.dayz.com. (twitch.tv/dayz)
 
Peter / Lead Designer
"As I mentioned last week, the initial implementation of horticulture is prepared but using placeholder assets and it will need some attention from the programming team. I personally feel this system can have a lasting change on how many people will approach Chernarus. Imagine being independent of inhabited places with your own grown crops, meat and clothing from hunted animals.
 
Expanding on that vision there was a lot of talk recently about craftable leather clothing across the dev team and it seems it will became large part of the fashion in DayZ. Possibilities will be broad from crafting plenty of unique items from different hides or to produce tanned leather for more generic looking clothes with optional dyeing them to different colors.
 
What recently got so much love and I'm very happy with the outcome of that effort is the melee system which was refactored from the base by our programmers. You will be pleased especially with cursor and swing hit detection which are so robust that there's no way to miss your target unless you are too far away or have something with eyes. We will do our best to plug in the swing detection back as soon as possible so you can finally enjoy melee as it should be. We hope to have this included in the 0.49 update next week.
 
Also worth mentioning is the advanced weather impact on player character which is very close to be released and has made some great progress on utilizing possibilities of our environment.
 
So don't forget to keep yourself warm and dry... see you in Chernarus folks!"
 
Mirek / Lead Gameplay Programmer
"Our core focus this week has been on server optimizations and improving melee combat hit detection. Both of these issues are currently in internal testing and if everything checks out, we will deploy it on experimental servers this week. We’re also continuing on our new doors system (interacting with doors in a way that makes sense, rather than proximity to the door) and new game controls, but it will take some time to complete both of these changes. I can safely say however that for example interaction with doors is definitely improved. It is now impossible to open doors from higher/lower floors, you now interact with doors by looking directly at them.             
A major update came in from the Bratislava team (thanks to Marek Zeman) for pathfinding, so a good amount of issues with zombies clipping through doors have been addressed."
 
Chris / Lead Artist
"The Lists of Lists:
 
Last week, Peter and I met many times to discuss some long-term plans related to many aspects of the game and what art assets would be needed.
 
I'm getting pretty excited now since we've planned out concepts for new zombies, settled on DayZ 1.0's weapon list (melee and firearms), created a preliminary list of assets needed as vehicle attachments and parts, and began to discuss with Chernarus legend, Ivan Buchta, how we might improve the visuals on the map.
 
We also had the pleasure of spending a couple of days at the studio's office in Brno where we met with members of our team in Bratislava to solidify plans for craftable clothing and defined the set input resources, crafting object, and crafting outputs which the art team will be required to make.
 
As well, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Take on Mars project lead, Martin Melicharek, who gave me a tour of the Enforce engine's graphics, particle FX, map tools, and art pipelines so that I can understand a bit better what to expect when we switch to the new renderer as well as give us the opportunity to request some improvements or additional features for Infusion. Its pretty fantastic for this old-school ArmA modder to see.
 
Character Art
The MASKA-1Sch helmet, balaclava, and firefighter uniform are now done and have been passed to the design team for configing into the game. I would expect they will end up in experimental next week. Work continues on a firefighter helmet and a SPOSN Tortilla-inspired backpack to complete the Eastern-block SPECOPS uniform.  It looks great with the SMERSH vest/backpack combo.
 
Environment
Work continues on the new civilian airport hangar and building models and we have begun to plan out with our map designers, which other types of new buildings and objects we should make a priority.
 
Weapons
The Rossi R92 is being animated and should be out soon and I received word that the MP133 is also ready to be passed down the assembly line of anims, sounds, and cfg. I realize that the release of new guns is perceived to be quite slow but this is because we generally assign them lower priority compared to other, more important tasks being performed by the multi-disciplinary team required to finalize one.
 
We've also created a few more melee weapons as well as the first art assets related to non-lethal weaponry given to the designers to play with. "
 
Standup notes for the week of 25 August 2014

Programming
Reintroduce network optimizations
New melee combat mechanics and fixes
Door reimplementation
New game controls
Central economy
64bit server optimizations
Navmesh update
Code cleaning and optimizations
New basic zombie behavior
Better sound over network
 
Design
Advanced weather impact on player character
Plugging in new implementation of melee system
Config and scripts for new items/gear
Config and scripts for new animals
Craftable clothing design
Central economy setup
General bug fix
 
Animation
Throwing animations
Zombie run variations
Player restrained animation extension
Zombie AI/combat/animation design
Digging animations
 
Art
Balaclava mask
MASKA Helmet
Firefighter Uniform
MP133
Rossi R92
Crafted Clothing art design proposals
Vehicle parts/attachments models
Non-lethal weapons
New Zombie concepts
Firefighter Helmet
SPOSN Backpack
 
Source.
http://dayz.com/blog/status-report-week-of-25-august-14

[seifeler 52]

Thanks for the update. It's always great to read those status updates.
May I ask if there is any update on private shards (release date, pricing, server options)? 

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Great update dev team , I just wish barricades could be mentioned soon , I'm fearing that they've been forgotten about but its one of the things I'm

Looking forward to most :/ ... I mean how are we gonna protect our stash of crops if we can't barricade ourselves into our farms ? ;) .

[mrmutant 13]

Good work devs! Looking forward to this update. Is the RAk going to be in game now?

[Guest]

I totally don't understand when will any update be released then. There's talk about 0.49, then experimental, and then some other stuff. I'm super confused.

[konstpan 2]

Please no more guns, there are enough already. Horses and/or bikes would be better alternative to vehicles, and in anyway gas should be scarce to gather. Keep making the game more challenging to survive.

[heradon89 21]

This is great! Looking forward to see some of the new features.

[hoik 415]

There is so much going on! But I think this part should be highlighted for those that might have skimmed it - "0.49 represents a large amount of work that will not be immediately visible on the user side" - Just to keep those expectations in check :) .

[hoik 415]

I totally don't understand when will any update be released then. There's talk about 0.49, then experimental, and then some other stuff. I'm super confused.

 

I defer to Ebrim :)

 

Edit: Quick question, when both experimental and stable branches are on the same version, is it safe to play on a stable server with an experimental build (and vice versa)?

Edited August 27, 2014 by Hoik

[irishroy 1347]

http://dayz.com/blog/status-report-week-of-25-august-14

 

 

 

Expanding on that vision there was a lot of talk recently about craftable leather clothing across the dev team and it seems it will became large part of the fashion in DayZ. Possibilities will be broad from crafting plenty of unique items from different hides or to produce tanned leather for more generic looking clothes with optional dyeing them to different colors.

 

 

 

The MASKA-1Sch helmet, balaclava, and firefighter uniform are now done and have been passed to the design team for configing into the game. I would expect they will end up in experimental next week. Work continues on a firefighter helmet and a SPOSN Tortilla-inspired backpack to complete the Eastern-block SPECOPS uniform.  It looks great with the SMERSH vest/backpack combo.

 

 

 persistence for all serverssss

 

 

As 0.49 will bring persistent storage to all stable branch servers

 

 

 Horticulture

 

 

As I mentioned last week, the initial implementation of horticulture is prepared but using placeholder assets and it will need some attention from the programming team. I personally feel this system can have a lasting change on how many people will approach Chernarus. Imagine being independent of inhabited places with your own grown crops, meat and clothing from hunted animals.

 

 

 no more Zeds clipping through closed dooors

 

 

A major update came in from the Bratislava team (thanks to Marek Zeman) for pathfinding, so a good amount of issues with zombies clipping through doors have been addressed."

 

 

and weather having an impact on players directly

 

 

also worth mentioning is the advanced weather impact on player character which is very close to be released and has made some great progress on utilizing possibilities of our environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rossi R92 is being animated and should be out soon and I received word that the MP133 is also ready to be passed down the assembly line of anims, sounds, and cfg. I realize that the release of new guns is perceived to be quite slow but this is because we generally assign them lower priority compared to other, more important tasks being performed by the multi-disciplinary team required to finalize one.

We've also created a few more melee weapons as well as the first art assets related to non-lethal weaponry given to the designers to play with.

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2014 by irishroy

[ebrim 998]

I totally don't understand when will any update be released then. There's talk about 0.49, then experimental, and then some other stuff. I'm super confused.

 

It's not so hard. Experimental patch will occur sometime this week. Stable 0.49 is getting pushed back a week and seeing as they said they had planned for August release, that says to me first week of September. Also, it looks like as we expected there will be server resets with 0.49 and that'll be broadcast every hour by BattlEye until the release to warn people.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Ebrim

[Beck (DayZ) 1768]

Yesplz

[hothtimeblues 128]

Wow, I'm impressed that they might have fixed zombies from going through closed doors so soon after the navmesh implementation. I must say, I'm impressed and happy about this progress.

I wish the notes were more specific though. Like, did they fix a few certain types of doors from allowing zombies to clip through them or did they fix the problem for all doors?

[Etherimp 1323]

Definitely hyped about this patch. :D Can't wait to start releasing some Hardcore vids with the new updates.

[chodeofwar 145]

Horticulture?

 

[Azzerrrr 52]

So I'm reading the new status update for DayZ and they said something about 64bit servers? What is a 64bit server? Is it a server that is capable of holding up to 64 players? Sorry about this kinda noobish question, just a little confused is all :).

[basinox 300]

I really want that rossi. I don't even know why. also Police brutality confirmed for dayz

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

I don't know guys....i have so many questions still.....

I mean sure,we get horticulture,but food is so abudant that i find it quite unnecesserary.

We have bear models in the game files is there any progress on aggressive animals?

Also what about non-leathal weapons?

Did they manage to fix the bug that makes you throw your weapon?

Is hacking beign adressed (security fix)?

Does the weather affect the survivor's temperature or his items only?

Edited August 27, 2014 by Damnyourdeadman

[basinox 300]

So I'm reading the new status update for DayZ and they said something about 64bit servers? What is a 64bit server? Is it a server that is capable of holding up to 64 players? Sorry about this kinda noobish question, just a little confused is all :).

It is a server with higher specs than the current servers. so yes it is a server capable of holding 64+ players

[boneboys 7988]

So I'm reading the new status update for DayZ and they said something about 64bit servers? What is a 64bit server? Is it a server that is capable of holding up to 64 players? Sorry about this kinda noobish question, just a little confused is all :).

No, nothing to do with 64 players, rather how the server handles data.

 

 

ohh great u hide my comment... thx for not talking about security fixes and backdoors...

 

Stay on Topic.

[SMoss 2101]

I defer to Ebrim :)

 

Edit: Quick question, when both experimental and stable branches are on the same version, is it safe to play on a stable server with an experimental build (and vice versa)?

 

The stable branch and experimental branch databases will always be seperate even if they share the same version number. For example, if both stable and experimental branches share version number 0.48, it should not have any effect whether or not you have opted into the experimental version; the Steam client will be the same either way and you will be able to enter both stable and experimental branch servers.

[Kronons 98]

So I'm reading the new status update for DayZ and they said something about 64bit servers? What is a 64bit server? Is it a server that is capable of holding up to 64 players? Sorry about this kinda noobish question, just a little confused is all :).

 

I explain it clearer. You have 32-bit and 64-bit computers/servers. Before they had 32-bit servers which limited there ram or memory capacity to around 3 GB. Now with the 64-bit servers they can have up to 16 Exabytes of ram. Of course they won't have that much, but they'll probably have around 64-128 GB of ram as of now. No what does that translate to?

 

- Capability to increase player per server to more than 40. Possibly the 150 Rocket talked about.

- Capability to increase AI on both Zombie and Animals.

- Capability to increase Zombie Spawns/Numbers.

- And the list goes on. Basically it lets the developers add more things to the game and at the same time the server will be able to keep up and stay optimize so you don't have lag/dsync. 

 

Hope this answers your question. :)

Edited August 27, 2014 by Kronons

[Avant-Garde 229]

"We will do our best to plug in the swing detection back as soon as possible so you can finally enjoy melee as it should be."

 

AW YUS, glorious move B.I!

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Sounds great!

[Deathlove 2280]

Wounder what this SPOSN backpack is going to look like?! :O