DayZ - Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

[Cyrrex]

I really, really don't like this whole idea of pay-for-alpha that Steam is supporting so heavily.  On the other hand, I really, really like apocalyptic zombie game/shows/books.  So needless to say, it has been quite the internal struggle to decide whether or not to hop on to one of the current Alpha games to see what's what.  Obviously, I failed, hence this thread.  I considered trying RUST, which along with DayZ seems to be the more popular choices and the games with the most potential.  In the end, I don't really like crafting games a whole lot, so I landed on DayZ.  I wouldn't be surprised if I eventually also try RUST.

With that out of the way, I thought there might be others out there that are either playing this game, or are otherwise interested and wouldn't mind some first hand accounting of what this game looks like.  I will start with this post framing things a little bit, talking a little about the engine itself and the systems.  In subsequent posts I will begin to talk a little about actual game play experiences.

Game Engine:  I guess this is built on Arma 2 and the DayZ mod that was made.  I have no experience with any of that.  At any rate, the graphical engine seems to be fairly okay in terms of solidity.  No major issues, no serious pop-in or anything like that.  But it does look pretty Indie.  It is functional, but not attractive in any way.  Also, it seems pretty inefficient at this stage.  At highest quality, my framerate would drop a bit below 30.  I had to back it off to the next highest so that I could get 35+ FPS, which is about what I consider minimum acceptable.  This was at 1900x1080.  For reference, my system can handle Skyrim at max settings at 2560x1440 and get 50-60 fps.  Which all goes to say that I imagine some people might have problems unless they turn settings way down.  A quick look at performance on my gaming laptop (can handle Skyrim at middling settings for sure) confirms that I had to turn shit waaay down.  On the bright side, it doesn't seem to look much crappier. 

Server Shards/Persistence:  I was first turned off a bit when I saw how they are doing servers.  They have set up hundreds of shards with a cap of 40 concurrent players.  So you can take the "massive" word out of the equation.  Which may be just fine, honestly.  Anyway, I was worried that maybe this wasn't going to work how I imagined it would.  I guess I understood that death meant essentially starting from scratch again, and I accepted that.  But fuck me, do I need to create a different character on each server I play on?  The question was answered when I began to have an alpha-esque issue where my movement commands locked up.  I was forced to log off and find another shard, certain that I was going to start over again.  No biggie, hadn't made it anywhere yet.  Happily, that is not at all how it works...whatever you manage on one shard, you carry over to the new one.  I logged back into the new shard and was in the exact same place, with the exact same items in my inventory.  Much better.  I still cannot tell you what happens when you die, but I imagine I will just respawn out in the water like I initially did, with nothing to show for anything I've accomplished.

Inventory/Itemization:  The inventory system itself is a bit strange, but I won't spend much time talking about it, because ultimately you will get used to it.  What I do like about it is that the actual size of your inventory space is hugely variable.  I started off with a pair of pants, with just four tiny inventory slots (head slot, weapon slot and shirt slot are separate).  So I could carry jack and shit, and this was a considerable concern in the beginning.  Items are hard to find, and when you do find them you want to hoard them like one of those crazy bitches on the TLC channel.  I could literally only carry 4 small things.  You will have to make choices.  If you survive long enough, and are lucky, you will find new pants that carry a little more.  Maybe a hoodie that has a few slots, instead of your worthless t-shirt.  I found a little girl's school backpack, which I am proudly wearing around because it has something like 16 inventory spots, which is goddamn heaven.  As for the items themselves, you will eventually find quite a variety, some of which you aren't sure what you might use them for.  Cans of food.  Fruit, much of it rotten (beware...).  Can of spraypaint.  Canned and bottled water.  Gas cannister.  Gun cleaning kit.  Hatchet (thank God...I had no other way to open canned food).  Bandages.  Blood transfusion equipment?  Clothing.  Anyway, you get the idea.  But don't be thinking that you are going to find this shit everywhere, because it is few and far between.  Much of your time is spent scavenging, at least in the beginning.  Hell, all your time.  You will be constantly reminded that you need food and water.  I got lucky that I found my hatchet, or I am sure I would have starved to death.  This treasure hunting, while slow, is strangely appealing.  They have a lot of work to do, though.  Everything is on the ground, haphazardly strewn about.  There are no containers of any kind, so you won't be looting bookshelves, boxes or chests.  Seems like something they will want to address at some point.

Controls:  The control scheme is weird and a bit clumsy.  Not sure why they didn't just copy the exact scheme of the million other games out there that work just fine.  Not a deal breaker, eventually you will get used to anything.  But it still annoys me that I have to (for example) hit one button to crouch and a different button to stand back up.  Same with prone.  Double tap a button to toggle run mode.  Whatever.

Day/Night:  I am not sure yet if there is an actual cycle, where on one shard you will experience day turning to night and vice-versa.  You do have servers that are strictly day, and others that are strictly night.  My first couple of attempts logged me into a night cycle, and let me tell you that that is no fun.  When you have nothing in your inventory and are so vulnerable, you don't want to be trying to find your way around, and search for items, at night.  NOT FUN.  I can imagine that once you are equipped well enough and are around other people, night time might be a lot more interesting.  In the meantime, fuck that.  Find a day server.

Zombies/People:  It is pretty clear that the coast upon which you spawn is pretty vacant.  In two plus hours of gameplay, I have seen exactly one other person, whom I avoided like a bitch.  Word is that the action is more inland, so that is where one should head.  Zombies are not that common out here either.  I have encountered maybe six in total, thought the frequency seems to be increasing as I move away from the water.  By the way, did I mention there is no map?  There is no map.  Or rather, you have to loot one, and good luck to you. 

I will leave it there for now.  I will come back later and talk a little bit more about the actual game experiences I have.  I am compelled enough at this point to want to go back to it.

[Falconeer]

I think this is one of the best games ever, so I am not gonna complain. But there are two threads on Day Z already, so maybe it didn't need a new one? Even more so being still a pretty featureless alpha.

[Cyrrex]

Are there?  My quick search didn't reveal one, but I presume you are talking about the actual Arma mod.

[Falconeer]

Yeah that one has been extensively used for info on the Standalone, and then the Radicalthon thread by Surlyboi. Anyway, as I said, nothing against it. I love the game and the more the better.

[Cyrrex]

Well, I figure in any event people might be interested in the state of the Alpha, so it can't hurt.

[Cyrrex]

Also, how well does Arma 2 with the DayZ mod actually run compared to this alpha?  I am considering also hopping onto the Arma version.

[Pennilenko]

Are there?  My quick search didn't reveal one, but I presume you are talking about the actual Arma mod.

I usually use Google and point the search string at f13 for much better searching results than using the forum search bar.

[Cyrrex]

Well, in this case I wasn't even searching for Arma, which was the real problem.

No harm done if this just gets moved the the Arma 2 thread.  There may not be enough interest in the standalone game anyway.

[Surlyboi]

Day Z, from ArmaII to III to standalone. Narrated by yours truly.

[Cyrrex]

Awesome, that's great reading man.  I caved in and bought Arma 2 with all the trimmings and got it and the DayZ mod up and running on my gaming desktop.  Actually a bit of a pain to get the mod going, but thankfully I am just smarter than the average bear.  DayZ Commander also helped.  A quick mess-around confirmed that the Arma version runs quite a bit better at this point than the standalone in terms of graphical performance.  Am going to install it on my laptop as well and see if it's playable.  I guess it shouldn't be terribly surprising that it the original version performs better at this stage, but it should still be a warning to anyone who wants to buy the standalone version:  make sure you have something beefy enough to run it!

[Falconeer]

The Injustice Engine - Cruelty and Murder in DayZ. An interesting article on the things that Day Z, also known as the Injustice Simulator, does to people.

The first man I murdered probably deserved it. But not this guy. The only thing this guy had done wrong was wander into Berezino with some water, a compass and a rifle (without ammo). It was just his luck that we were there too, looking for baked beans amid the inexplicable piles of shoes which amass inside every townhouse of DayZ. We saw him go into one of the two apartment blocks that loom like huge, Gray tombstones over the city. I followed him inside, calling out: “Hello, anyone here? Friendly!”

[calapine]

After reading this I'd say it's the player doing this and not the game. I played UO two years without ever feeling the need to PK someone.

[calapine]

After reading this I'd say it's the player doing this and not the game. I played UO two years without ever feeling the need to PK someone.

[Ironwood]

I don't believe you.  Even when you've said it twice.

[Surlyboi]

It's still the player. I've put in a shitton of hours and I'm still not that kind of asshole.

[rk47]

After reading this I'd say it's the player doing this and not the game. I played UO two years without ever feeling the need to PK someone.

Players don't kill players. Vas Corps do.

[Falconeer]

A very cool documentary about Dean Hall and the origins of Day Z, the alpha test that sells 23,000 copies a day.

[Sir T]

Reading Surlyboi's radicalathlon has made me think that one of the draws to DayZ is the setting. Having played STALKER, there's something about Russia as a wasteland that is something very compelling, and I've never really been able to put my finger on why. I guess eastern Europe/Russia just more raw and brutal than anywhere else.

[Cyrrex]

Well, probably.  It feels like a desolate wasteland, even without the zombies.  Of course, that means they could have just as easily set the game in Buffalo or Atlanta for the same reasons   

I don't think this is ultimately why the game succeeds, however.  In fact, a more interactive city and rural setting would be a huge improvement, and so would a totally different graphical engine and interface.  Hell, there are a shitload of ways they could or should improve this game (but probably won't because they might not even need to). 

[Severian]

A very cool documentary about Dean Hall and the origins of Day Z, the alpha test that sells 23,000 copies a day.

The figure used in the documentary is 33,000/day for its first month of alpha release ($1M), and I think it's been on top every week since then, except for the one week of Rust's initial release. Thanks for the link, I knew pretty much everything in the video, but it was well made, if a bit hypey, and very much worth watching through to the very end. 

[Falconeer]

Apparently they passed 1.5M over the weekend. That means that 2 months after they started selling it, 64 days, the copies per day figure is still over 23k  

Also worth caluclating that 1.5M copies at 24€/29$ each is roughly... 43,000,000 $? About a year before official "launch".

 How much does Steam take out of that?

[HaemishM]

DayZ creator to step down this year

Ummmm, isn't this game still in the "not-finished" state? And he's talking about starting his own studio which won't be on DayZ?

That sounds really weird to me. What am I missing?

[Samwise]

Him being the creator doesn't necessarily mean he's the one who should be in charge of it forever.  From what I've heard the basic design is pretty solid but the game would benefit from a team doing the "boring" stuff like polishing out all the glitches.

[Falconeer]

He's been saying that he intended to leave Day Z for months now. He never said "when" but he kept saying that the whole project had a life of its own and that due to its unexpected success he finally earned the freedom to make all the crazy games he's been dreaming about for years. So, it is not a surprise that he's leaving, but it is a surprise that he's doing it so early.

What do I think will change? A lot. Rocket was the hardcore one, obsessed with survivalism and absolute absence of hand-holding, behind Day Z and he often mentioned how he had to go "executive" with lots of the decisions that so far have made Day Z into what it is because everyone else thought they were "just too much" and no one was going to like it that way. But then again, by the end of the year the game could be pretty much done, at least at a design level, so we'll see.

[Rasix]

Maybe he got a large sum of money to hasten his departure.

[Falconeer]

Here's the latest Dev blog from Dean Hall.

It's 17 minutes of info straight from the Lead Dev, so it's good stuff.

In short, what's coming:

- Improvement to lighting and HDR, to make playing at night more interesting.
- Physics are coming, meaning every single item will be throwable.
- Containers (like refrigerators)
- Bows and Crossbows
- Better melee animations
- New buildings and towns
- Improvement to weather effects and rain, and how it affects your character. Different clothes will have different "absorbency values".
- Hunting and cooking (Seriously. Aparently a whole team of developers with experience in hunting games is working on this aspect. "Quite a massive deal").
- Fixing desyncing
- More zombies, they will respawn (as they are supposed to) "sensibly". Meaning they won't just pop up in your face.
- Persistent objects, meaning simply that stuff will stay in the world through server restarts. That will include player containers, backpacks, tents.

Things that will come later, after all the above mentioned things:
 
- Vehicles will come after all the things mentioned above. Bicycle will be first. Vehicles will have "components", so they will have to be built by players by collecting the parts.
- Player built barricades.

[Sir T]

- Vehicles will come after all the things mentioned above. Bicycle will be first. Vehicles will have "components", so they will have to be built by players by collecting the parts.
- Player built barricades.

Fuckin' Carebear bullshit. 

[Falconeer]

New patch on Experimental branch.

Just one highlight:

Medical: Players can have a heart attack (declared as "irregular pulse" with pulse checking actions)

[Khaldun]

So, this is not my kind of thing mostly. But ok, I decided I should check it out.

Help me to see what I might be missing.

First off, man, I really hate this kind of multiplayer, where if I'm not TOTALLY INVESTED IN THE WEIRD CULTURE OF THIS GAME, I really don't know what the hell I'm looking at on the server list.

"CLAN SERVER FUCK OFF BUT WE LIST IT ANYWAY"
"FRIENDLY SERVER NO KOS"
"REGULAR/HARDCORE HEH HEH"
"NJ/MINNESOTA POSSE COMITATUS NAMBLA-FRIENDLY"
"SOMETIMES UP BUT PROBABLY NOT"

and so on.

So, eh, ok, you go in. Oh, fuck, why is it using my actual name? Oh, you change it by clicking on the name in the char screen? Ok. I guess.

Hey, pretty good mood, really does feel like the zombie apocalypse. 10/40 people on, lot of room, should be stuff.

Oh, I can't interact with most things? Can't open that box, that refrigerator, that door? It's Alpha! Right! My bad! It's the zombie apocalypse with a lot of moodiness only nothing like a genuinely immersive abandoned world. So, I guess, a lot of running around? Run around! Ah! Zombie! Punch it! That doesn't do shit! Bleed to death! Fun! Switch servers! Awesome, a player punches me instead of a zombie! Wow!

Please to explain what I'm missing.

[Surlyboi]

Pretty fucking much everything that was there in the Arma versions.

Seriously, if you're playing the Alpha and it's your first exposure to DayZ, you have no context and probably shouldn't be.

[Falconeer]

"CLAN SERVER FUCK OFF BUT WE LIST IT ANYWAY"
"FRIENDLY SERVER NO KOS"
"REGULAR/HARDCORE HEH HEH"
"NJ/MINNESOTA POSSE COMITATUS NAMBLA-FRIENDLY"
"SOMETIMES UP BUT PROBABLY NOT"

That genuinely made me snort my drink. 

[Khaldun]

Yeah, I didn't do Arma at all all, so I figured there was just a lot of something that I didn't know.

It does do a good job of making you feel like it's the zombie apocalypse when you start up. But I think otherwise this is a reminder not to do Alphas of something I haven't been following closely.

[Lantyssa]

"NAMBLA-friendly"?

[Khaldun]

Please imagine that everything in that part of my original comment was in green text.

[brellium]

Please imagine that everything in that part of my original comment was in green text.

That would involve actual sarcasm. Knowing the DayZ community, I would be very surprised to not find DayZ servers with those names or names eerily similar.