The War Z

[HaemishM]

So both the game's critics and its developers are some incestuous cluster fuck cult of supernova douchebags then?

[Mrbloodworth]

Dude sure spends a great amount of time playing a game he thinks is a scam.

[UnSub]

It's still free though, correct?

[Falconeer]

Not at all. It's 25$.

[UnSub]

Not at all. It's 25$.

Thanks. If he's bought it, he may as well piss on it from a great height until they kick him out.

[Ginaz]

Ah, the joys of full loot open world pvp MMOs and the people drawn to them.   Not a chance in hell I'm touching this game with the devs looking like such high end douche bags.

[Kageru]

Agree... it's more fun to consider it a sociological experiment you'll observe from a distance.

[schpain]

First time I'm reading all the trolling back and forward - but from someone who's playing the game regularly its actually alot of fun.

Less atmospheric than DayZ but at the same less annoying re: bugs, general server problems.  My issue is the core of people are just playing like its COD and just attacking everything in sight.  I guess you're always going to have that issue though.

[Falconeer]

A 'decent' comparison video between War Z and Day Z.

[Fabnusen]

So, I've played both and can confirm its both fun and hugely frustrating at the same time.

Fun: crawling around, running from Zed, scavenging anything and everything. The suck: as many others have said, 12 year olds, and those who lack any social skills. I can't see sticking with this game. I have quite a bit of fun sneaking around, only to be PK'd.

Yes, yes, I know its that kind of game, but the PKs don't serve any function other than griefing. Those that are preyed upon are usually the weakest, and least equipped. It's not so much of a Zombie apocalypse as an apocalypse where everyone involved sees no merit in banding together to accomplish much of anything. Did I mention that when you're PK'd in either game you loose absolutely everything? Everything. Who the hell wants to scrape around for three hours, avoiding ZED, only to be sniped by some asshole 12 year old who does so he can take your flashlight and twinkie? There is a serious anti-social bent to both games. I don't mean "u sukors!!11!!!" in global chat anti-social. I mean the kind of anti-social where their (obvious) sole function in life is to grief others.

[Kageru]

And as such neither is in danger of having broad acceptance. They'll be popular for a while because zombies sell and "survival" sounds cool but it will end up with the dedicated PK'ers chasing the majority of the player base off. And then complaining to the company that their game sucks because there's not enough player activity.

[schpain]

I guess on some level I agree with you Kageru, but the War Z has a couple of mechanics which makes it a little less brutal than Day Z, by extension making it more acceptable to non-core pvp players

1. global inventory allows you to stockpile gear and each death doesn't feel as crushing.  when you can re-kit your menz and go out again it makes it less soul detroying for perma-death
2. locking down player-made dedicated servers doesn't let the hardcore pvpers horde gear on 'sanctuary' servers, essentially until the game goes live and people pay for the priviledge.  it essentially allows all players to stockpile gear, use off-peak times to loot low-pop servers and take their better gear home or into pvp as they prefer.

In the end someone may create a pve version of dayz/warz for the rpg zombie survivalists...

[Kageru]

Fortunately we can watch and see. I'm not convinced making death "less crushing" changes the argument substantially but I'll check out the mechanics and how it's playing out when it stabilises.

[Falconeer]

The Global Inventory is nothing but the Britannia Bank in pre-Trammel Ultima Online. In fact, the mechanics of surviving, killing, dying and everything are exactly the same, from 1998 with a vengeance. For good or bad, it will be interesting to see it because me and a few others always wondered how that game would have worked 15 years later. This is gonna be an answer to that question.

Also, true, rented servers can be easilyy made into PvE-only servers. That's comparable to having your own private UO shard, or your own Trammel if you want, where you don't allow PKing. It will certainly help retention, to a degree, without butchering the original soul of the game as Trammel did.

[Riggswolfe]

The Global Inventory is nothing but the Britannia Bank in pre-Trammel Ultima Online. In fact, the mechanics of surviving, killing, dying and everything are exactly the same, from 1998 with a vengeance. For good or bad, it will be interesting to see it because me and a few others always wondered how that game would have worked 15 years later. This is gonna be an answer to that question.

Also, true, rented servers can be easilyy made into PvE-only servers. That's comparable to having your own private UO shard, or your own Trammel if you want, where you don't allow PKing. It will certainly help retention, to a degree, without butchering the original soul of the game as Trammel did.

I learned my lesson 15 years ago. PKing isn't fun for me. It's aneurysm inducing. I suspect this game will attract the sharks and those who weren't around in UO and much like UO all the prey will quickly leave. I doubt this development team will try a Trammel style fix. They strike me as PKers themselves who want a game for that subset of players. More power to them but this game will likely be a niche of a niche because of it.

[Kageru]

It's also part of the hope that by being a PK game people won't notice the lack of game content. Same for Day-z.

[Shatter]

A 'decent' comparison video between War Z and Day Z.

All I got from that is both games currently look like shit

[Fabnusen]

I learned my lesson 15 years ago. PKing isn't fun for me. It's aneurysm inducing. I suspect this game will attract the sharks and those who weren't around in UO and much like UO all the prey will quickly leave. I doubt this development team will try a Trammel style fix. They strike me as PKers themselves who want a game for that subset of players. More power to them but this game will likely be a niche of a niche because of it.

Anecdotal evidence: yesterday within (literally) 5 seconds of spawning-in I was shot dead by another player. I logged out. I wont be back.

[Gets]

This game just keeps getting more dramatastic

EX-Forum Mod Devin here. Let me tell ya some stuff you can spout on for a new youtube video


My forum account was hacked, my fault, they deleted a lot of posts. I was de-modded and banned, got my computer secure, re-modded and unbanned and took care of business as usual. Except their company is full of dumb fucks and didn't backup the forums at all. No backups whatsoever.

Sergay then took it upon himself to tell Kewk to demote me for my fuckup that could have been reversed if they were not so fucking stupid.

I then made a post on the forums about how I knew this was coming; and I was sorry and would not long be supporting a company that did not support their unpaid volunteer Moderators that spent over 100+ hours answering THEIR CUSTOMERS questions and concerns as well as relaying them the ideas the community had for their bullshit game.

I was then banned for making a "Rage quit" thread permanent and here is the even funnier part my in-game account banned under the excuse I requested a refund

So, since I didn't sign any sort of NDA for those fuckfaces here are some interesting facts.

WarZ is a direct port over from War Inc. They literally took the game and added NPCs, made a large map, and changed around camera angles and gun settings while adding more functionality and switching over some things. ALL ART however was actually done in-house by their amazing ART team. (Those were the best guys to know, they were in touch more with the community than Kewk)


They randomly ban accounts that have a certain amount of time spent playing in-game, knowing they are hooked on the game so they re-buy the game.

Their anti-hack is actually functional but here's the kicker..wanna know WHY their bans are TEMPORARY the first time around? 0.8% hacking? Try an EXTREMELY LARGE PORTION of the player base is hacking. If they banned everyone they'd have a mass refund issue on their hands, and no one to play their piss poor of an excuse game.

they plan to HALT DEVELOPMENT AND ABANDON THE GAME in SIX months if revenue is not enough for them (I.E. People are not buying GC and spending the fuck out of it) -- take note, if they do not get ENOUGH revenue. They will have enough revenue to pay for the game development for over a year at this point in time already, but if they don't get enough to give themselves regular raises they will stop making the game and shut down the servers and website.

Here is a "Proof of ban" picture & a proof of me NOT requesting a refund.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g255/kiddingdragn12/proofofban.png

http://www.rhinocrunch.com/forum/general-discussion-of-things-and-such/82-hey-rhino-you-were-right-about-warz

[Falconeer]

War Z is the Game drama of the year. In the meantime, Steam joins the show.

Wipe, new packages, new features roadmap, new antihack, Steam version !


Hey hey !

Things were quite busy here at Hammerpoint Interactive and today I just want to go over several topics that everybody keep asking about.

1. Wipe
As we're moving toward Foundation Release ( which most likely will be at same time we'll launch game on Steam ) we'll do a wipe - most likely this weekend. You'll get back all GC you bought as part of the packages, you'll also get some extra free GC as our thank you for being early players. Most likely you'll have all in game characters unlocked for - once again - our present to you guys! We also thinking about giving our some "zombie survival kits" - set of items necessary to start over surviving in a zombie world.

2. New way of buying game. New packages
As we've said before - we want our early adopters to feel special - so we decided that we'll stop selling Survivor, Pioneer packages ( Legend's sales are over for good now, with about 500 or so keys are still available at retail Gamestop locations around USA ). Instead we'll offer number of "unnamed" packages that doesn't offer any recognition ingame, or doesn't unlock any characters from the start, etc. Only difference between packages will be the amount of GC you get.

3. New Antihack
New antihack is coming. I think it'll happen around mid-end of December - new system is relying on analyzing players patterns and reacting upon them. It's pretty complex system running on separate server, and we hope it will let us to replace existing system - that still most of the time ( is wallhack or ESP is used ) rely on humans to ban cheaters - which can take day or two. Once again - we'll become slightly more secure in our never ending fight with hackers.

4. Steam release
Okay this one is simple - game will become available on Steam. We also exploring ways for existing users to link game to their Steam accounts - nothing to report there yet, but we're working on this.


5. GC Sale
Yes you'll be able to buy GC after wipe!


6. New features roadmap.
Okay this one will be more like "wishlist" - it's based on Hammerpoint's internal development plan, but as always something may come up - new hacks, other things that will slow us down. So please take this more like a guidelines, not hard promises:

Foundation Release ( December 2012 )
- Clans
- Friends
- Leaderboards
- Server rentals
- New set of building blocks ( aka barricades and USABLE objects like hydroponics systems )
- Call for help functionality
- Accessing your inventory from Safe Settlement without loging out of the game
- Accessing Store from Safe Settlement without loging out of the game
- .22 cal guns - rifles, pistols
- More cool melee weapons
- Better use of ballistic helmets, armor vests.
- Flare guns ( okay we had it for a while, but just didn't released it to you guys yet )
- Better weight system
- Option to turn on crosshairs in TPS


Still December 2012, but maybe moved to January '13
- "Safe" or "Locker" items - allows you to safely store items anywhere on the map ( think of DayZ's tents, but working properly ). Two types - one with 4-5 digits PIN lock, other with no lock at all
- Map adjustments - even more walkable places - mountains, hills, some tweaks on textures, more enterable buildings, more stuff, new types of trees, etc. Lighting tweaks.
- New characters
- New survival items ( energy tonics to replenish Stamina, meds, etc )
- Tear Gas ( yes this is why you'll want gas masks )
- More civilian weapons

January-February 2013
- 5-6 stronghold maps to be added to the game
- Driveable Vehicles
- Melee fist fights
- Player defined missions !


March 2013
- Better Medic system
- Potentially ( okay POTENTIALLY is a keyword ) - weapons crafting

June - August 2013
- New Map ! One that will be probably 4 times bigger than current Colorado map
- 5-6 more stronghold maps


Have fun and thank you for playing The War Z!!!



Sergey Titov
Executive Producer
The War Z

[schpain]

Wow, I hope that ex-moderator was exaggerating some of what he said - but being an economist I can understand the motivation of moneyhats.  Heck; if the people making the game don't make more money than they could drawing up an endless procession of LoL heroes they are obviously in the wrong job.

Is anyone playing Day Z at the moment and can comment on the last 2-3 months worth of updates and resulting gameplay?  I switched to War Z because Day Z didn't HAVE gameplay; moreso lobby surfing and watching your server crash multiple times in succession.  But there hasn't been an update for War Z in a month which i find odd, and amongst the backdrop of all the drama I'm starting to wonder if its already 'circling the drain'.

Also I don't want them to wipe accounts - that shit turned me off MWO faster than the bad matchmaking system...

[Falconeer]

I decided I am not gonna touch Day Z until the standalone, but according to the few info I got it's not gonna come out with any new content. War Z on the other hand has been talking about NPCs and missions since before alpha, but looks like that stuff isn't remotely close yet.

I think this is the biggest challenge for these games, being able to produce any kind of content that doesn't take away from the spectacular freedom given by the simple fact of having to survive from players and zombies. I feel that what made Day Z the great success it has been is at the same time what holds it back, and what, once changed (arguably, enriched) could ruin it.

So there has to be a way to make them more compelling and less repetitive, but so far it kind of seems to me like they both are at a point they don't really know where to go from.

[HaemishM]

What will ruin both DayZ AND WarZ is the same thing that ruins every other online game.

Other people.

[Fabricated]

Part of me is amused by the drama, part of me is annoyed that the incredibly douchey youtube game commentator was likely right.

[Fabnusen]

What will ruin both DayZ AND WarZ is the same thing that ruins every other online game.

Other people.

Agreed. It's also why we seek-out social groups (guilds, whatever): we "tune in" personalities that fit with ours and "tune out" the other 98% who are utter tools. Without any sort of normalizing social standards, PK games devolve into the worst behavior, digitally, possible.

PK'ing? Sure, it outta be possible in a zombie game. No issue with that. What I propose is an outlaw system where PK'ers, the more they PK, become easier and easier to be killed. I mean to the point where prolific PK'ers are highlighted on the map in real time, have reduced PvP hit points, do less damage, etc. In other words, add a price to the grief. The more PK'ing you do, the more stat penalties you incur. I'm not suggesting penalties against the environment, zombies or NPCs contained within it.

[Kageru]

Identification achieves a lot so you can see a career PK (removing it in day-Z was dumb) and then add the sort of benefits social play would give in game. For example a safe zone or two to start from and trading / banking items so there's actually a cost to being a lone psychopath in the wilderness.

But their market pretty much is the PK's, so I won't be waiting up for them to add things like this.

[Falconeer]

Zombies now can drop money or loot when killed. Let the PvE begin. But yeah, even closer to 1997 Ultima Online.

[Falconeer]

Train to zone!

[Scold]

WTF, I thought this was alpha? It's on Steam now and there's no mention of it being anything less than a complete product.

[Falconeer]

That's shitty. It's nowhere near a complete product, and since it has a box price that is not cool at all. Then again, I am sure these days it's conveniently harder to decide what is a complete product and what is not, so everyone is taking advantage of it. New rule seems to be: if it "runs", then it can be sold. 

Counterpoint would be that it's not any less ready than Day Z, but that one wasn't sold as a standalone dammit.

[Kageru]

Pretty much the same, the boost in Arma 2 sales was Day-z.

[schpain]

It also marketed itself as a free-to-play title some 3-4 months ago.  Complete lie Hammerpoint... 

I've posted in steam discussions, not that I have high hopes of anyone hearing but I don't think Steam should have the game on their platform in the current state.  Not if they have a working anti-cheat system that they don't use, the hacking is absolutely endemic.

[Falconeer]

Free to play? Not sure. Since the "Pioneer" initiative started, they always said it was going to be a one-time purchase game, like GW2.

EDIT to add: Also, Arma 2 sales went up for Day Z but at least, officially, you were not giving them about 20$ for a alpha-then-beta mod.

[Kageru]

Anyone who was interested in Arma-2 had it. To play the Day-Z alpha was 30$, War-Z looks cheap by comparison.

Lots of hackers? PK games seems to really encourage it.

I don't think Steam filters games to that extent though. As long as it actually is a playable game you are getting for your money everything else is caveat emptor.

[Gets]

This is lollerskates.