DayZ Development

Heads up Survivors - The latest DayZ development information can be found over at devhub.dayz.com and on the official twitter twitter.com/dayzdevteam. This Tumblr account is not actively maintained as a development information source.

Status Report - 08 Apr 15

Greetings Survivors, As most of you may know, last week saw 0.55 pushed to stable branch. This build featured the initial implementation of several key systems to DayZ, and in turn their behavior is as expected very early prototype. As the Early Access of DayZ continues, more of the core systems that comprise it will be merged into the main stable branch. It goes without saying that iteration will both be required, and occur as these are merged in. For 0.55 lets take a look at what systems had their initial implementation, and how their behavior is as of this status report:

Moving past the 0.55 build new system implementations we hit a rather hot button topic as of late, and one I promised to speak on earlier this week. Just how hard is DayZ supposed to be? What is the targeted experience here? How valuable should items, and thus what I carry be to me as a player? I like to think we're pretty up front about exactly what DayZ is and is supposed to be, and as we move closer to 1.0 more and more of this will begin to take shape.  Once, when asked how valuable tools and resources should be to a player - on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is finding everything you need without issue, and 10 is elation over finding a can of beans (I'm paraphrasing here) Dean was quoted saying an emphatic "10". Some folks have expressed concern that the increasing difficulty in surviving and combating the environment would hurt player interaction. To which I say.. Sure, it will hurt player interaction if by player interaction you mean folks wandering up and down the coast, wearing pink dresses and chasing each other with fire extinguishers. However I firmly believe it will -drive- and foster a different type of player interaction. Interaction between players making their way across Chernarus, scavenging to survive. Players who enter a village and have to make a hard decision - do I use what little ammunition I have to kill and steal from the survivors already in this town? Do I instead avoid the risk of death from attacking another player, only to potentially risk death by starvation or infected as I make my way around the town? Is the cost of expending my resources in either choice too great? Make no mistake, DayZ is and always has been intended to be an unforgiving, brutal fight for survival in a harsh post apocalyptic landscape. Obviously we still have a long ways to go to get to that point, but as we move forward more and more systems will be introduced that support that experience. Balancing and adjustment will have to occur, as the intended experience is not to ensure starvation on the coast, but instead foster the ability to spawn, gather the basic supplies required to move inland, and thus begin the real DayZ experience - your story, your struggle for survival. And the beauty of it all? If this is not the experience you're exactly looking to have with DayZ - then another core pillar of DayZ's design will bring you exactly what you seek. Our full support for modding via the Steam Workshop. It is going to be an exciting year survivors, and I look forward to experiencing it with all of you. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer  

Status Report - 17 Mar 15

Greetings Survivors!

Work is chugging along on 0.55 update for stable branch, and the department leads have been sharing information and images over on the Dev Hub. If you haven't had a look - head over and you'll see some awesome work in progress stuff - like the SVD Sniper Rifle, V3S Animations, and new zombie models.

Peter, our Lead Designer will be discussing below in more detail zombies and diseases. This week I'd like to talk about a few in progress updates that I'm looking forward to.

First off, we have the mentioned full randomization of weapon spawn configurations. This ranges from attachment configuration, quantity, type, and condition. When functional, each weapon you find should be as unique as possible per that item type. Be it the chance to spawn with a magazine, potential attachment, overall weapon condition, and so on. This expands upon the uniqueness of each persons kit in-game, and ensures that very few two firearms are exactly the same. Who knows, you might get lucky and find that M1911 Engraved you always wanted, -with- a clip!

  Moving on to more advanced weapon customization, we've done a good deal of discussion on allowing more specific customization per weapon. Adding in rail systems, shoe horn mount scopes, barrel swaps, and so on. Controlling when and where this is done is critical to the flow of gameplay across the map. Creating hot spots, and high traffic areas for players looking to gear up, and create their favorite weapon. At this point, we're looking at adding in advanced crafting tables into this existing (soon to be enter-able) maintenance structure scattered throughout Chernarus.   

Heading into April, we'll be discussing the tasks and accomplishments of Q1 2015, what the road ahead looks like and the status of long term engine tasks. From the new renderer, to the new player controller, server side performance, and so much more. Keep an eye on the Dev Hub, and the official DayZ forums for the latest news and information on DayZ Early Access. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer "It is clear that former, by purpose simplified infected AI wasn't a hit by any means and it was frustrating to play and look at. When I was talking about the new infected in the Status Report two weeks ago I had a feeling that it would stir things up a bit. A few days after that I made short video with a horde running after a player and recently we released experimental update with the first implementation of infected AI. There were so many positive reactions on the direction that the new infected are heading, that the entire team was pleased. However there were also some which were calling for changing the DayZ lore and turning the infected into slowly moving beings.  

I appreciate different opinions but I can't see any reason why we should make infected as stationary as possible, it will just simplify the game too much in such case. It is important to understand that the infected in DayZ are not the undead, and to be honest I don't want to see DayZ to become a frenzied 'run and grab all you can' simulator. I would like to remind you that DayZ isn't supposed to be easy and straightforward, it's meant to be hard and unforgiving.  While they are pretty fast right now it is just the perception in comparison with current character movement speed, which is planned to be lowered in general as it was increased intentionally when we had decided to do a complete overhaul on how the engine handles vehicles, and thus they would be absent for some time. As well I'm looking forward to the implementation of a proper stamina system for characters which alone will cut off the constant sprinting across the map and thorough the structures which is just ridiculous. With the agile infected that are able to catch up with you while you are escaping the scene you will think twice about your approach and also the load you are carry as it especially determines how far you will be able to sprint to loose them. To balance things out, the infected have their own stamina and are slowing down during the chase and with the combination of the possibility that they can stumble upon it gives you a some chance to flee if you run into such situations. The infected AI will be continuously worked on, in terms of expanding it further and also balancing it close to the perfection. 

I would like to mention that we are bringing to life the long awaited disease system which in fact was hibernating under the hood for some time, but was never finished due the other needs. Diseases are described by their virulence parameters like transferability, invasivity and toxicity and to determine the potential influence on character, which can vary from carrier to heavy impact, they are compared against his or her current state counting in the levels of health, blood, diet and exposure. Diseases can be transferred in both directions, which means it's not wise to eat from the same meal after your companion, if you suspect that he may be ill. Physical and chemical resistance parameters of disease determines how it can be treated or their effects eased by medicinal drugs and after the disease passed you are resistant to catch it again for some time. System also have the possibility to be expanded with the use of gloves, niosh masks or other wearables which can obstruct transferring of the diseases by specific actions, like crafting. 

Stay healthy... see you in Chernarus folks!" - Peter / Lead Designer  

Standup Notes for the week of 17 Mar 15

(Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Animation:

Design:

Programming:

Status Report - 10 Mar 15

Greetings Survivors,

As the 0.54 hotfix hit stable branch last Wednesday, work has continued on toward 0.55 and beyond. Over the last week with myself at GDC and PAX East, our Lead Designer - Peter Nespesny has shared some of the prototype functionality currently being worked on. From ongoing work with the infected A.I., to the many crafting options for your survivor base with the multipurpose barrel - the design team has had their plate filled with some pretty interesting stuff over the last week. Peter spoke briefly on the development board, and the official forums about the intended use of the multipurpose barrel.  Beyond what Peter spoke of, the potential usage for a multipurpose barrel for player bases is extensive. Ranging from lightly effective cover from incoming fire - to the storing of fluids such as fuel, and my personal favorite - catching rain to increase your water stores - I think when paired with functional persistence and global cleanup, the multipurpose barrel will be a must have for any decent sized player encampment. Even more exciting, pairing with work from the gameplay programming teams - the design team has been able to get their hands on the early implementation of the new infected A.I. - Peter showcased on the forums a brief video of basic grouping and horde mentality responding to a players gunshot. 

Again - this is very early implementation, however as work progresses into the next week the design team are working on sneaking and stealthy tactics when dealing with this new A.I. system. Moving into the next experimental branch window, we'll be looking at pushing the early implementation work out to this branch and testing with varied numbers across all servers. 

- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

Status Report - 24 Feb 15

Greetings Survivors,

As we move towards the 0.54 stable branch update, I’d like to cover a few points that you all should know. As with all updates during Early Access, this is a development build and thus has its own issues, bugs, and so on. If you encounter any of this, please open a ticket over at feedback.dayzgame.com.

More specifically, for those who may be experiencing issues seeing servers in the server browser – please make your way over to this thread on the Official DayZ forums for instructions from Community Manager SMoss, and BattlEye developer Bastian.

Part of the 0.54 is the tech required to support the redesign of our user interface. This is just the initial work required to support said changes, not the changes itself. Thus everything will –look- different, but not necessarily how we intend it to look by the time we hit 1.0. The user interface is just one part of the evolving technology coming in from the engine and gameplay programming teams, and will be iterated throughout Early Access. As well, with 0.54 comes the initial implementation of the new animal A.I., this system is still early on so odd behaviour will be encountered. However even with the system in this early state, this is a strong step in the direction of a more robust, lifelike animal behaviour system. I for one look forward to the hermit-hunter lifestyle the next time I log in on my public hive character.

In addition to a large amount of new content to explore, new enterable structures, villages, redesigned areas and more – 0.54 features continued security enhancements, bug fixes and more. Over the coming weeks SMoss will also be rolling out some new features over on the community side of DayZ.com, including a weekly Community Focus that showcases user created content, streams, art, and so much more. Head over to the Community hub at DayZ.com and take a look. As always, developers are on hand to take your suggestions and feedback on the Official DayZ forums at forums.dayzgame.com. Brian Hicks / Lead Producer "As we are getting closer to the release of the next stable branch update of DayZ with version number 0.54, we are focusing more on tidying up and fixing the most annoying bugs and issues instead of working on new features or expanding existing ones. For example we identified and fixed a long timer related to synchronizing the temperature of objects, which was consuming relatively large chunk of communication between server and client. Fortunately it didn't happened often or in large scale but it's really great to have it fixed now with upcoming refactored fireplace which will become more usable with more items thus used by survivors. There was also few issues which was fixed related to the independent liquid types we introduced in last version, one worthy to mention is the issue which completely breaks character stomach, energy and water statuses.     I already mentioned the fireplace which is undergoing a refactoring for some time now and it's getting seamlessly to the fixing and polishing stage. Now when there is the solid foundation of the system the next step is the cooking process in general. With plenty of the different food available in the game and three distinctive food processing types, to name them - boiling, baking and drying, things can get out of control really quickly. Well at least especially when we want to stretch the possibilities and interactions to the maximum and want to visualize the outcome of the process. What will happen when food is already baked and you start to boiling it? Do you need to pre-process the food before drying? What about moldy food? And plenty of other questions related to that topic which needs to be answered beforehand. After the intended cooking mechanics are in place and the central economy is working as it should, we can finally say good bye to the generous amount of spawned non-perishable food.    Most of you are probably waiting for the enrichment of the vehicles controls - manual transmission. We had some quality time already while trying it on our internal build, but it needs a little bit more time to be tweaked into the state which is safe for public release. Good thing is that with its implementation some of the issues with vehicles behavior were properly addressed so little bit of waiting doesn't hurt. As far as vehicles parts goes I owe you at least quick update, their functionality is dependent mostly on the new inventory system that is currently being implemented and of course on the support from the extended vehicle simulation itself.    Last but not least we are making steady progress on the new AI for infected which is getting along nicely and I hope you will be able to experience it and its benefits soon on experimental versions before it hits the stable release later on, however animal AI will be released beforehand.   Start preparing your nerves for some intense encounters... see you in Chernarus folks! " Peter / Lead Designer  

Standup Notes for the week of 24 Jan 15

(Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Animation:

Design:

Programming:

Status Report - 17 Feb 15

Greetings Survivors,

As some of you may be aware, we've been experimenting a bit with the format and release day of the Status Reports coming into 2015. With upcoming changes to DayZ.com as a centralized point of information on the development of DayZ, the Status Reports will be released on Tuesdays from now on. Additionally, we'll be making an effort to make the Status Reports more visual, for those who do not have the time to read what is new in the world of DayZ development.

Moving onto said development, you'll soon be seeing the spawning of a different variation on the V3S. This variant will allow for the transportation of larger groups of players. The spawn rate across the world will remain at fifteen vehicles for the time. Initially you will not be able to access the inventory of the vehicle, this will be supported shortly on stable branch. As well, finalized animations, and firing from passenger positions will be supported in later builds on stable branch. The initial intent of spawning vehicles supporting large groups of players is to gauge both the performance, and functionality of large player groups moving together at high speed across Chernarus. Any issues discovered should be reported to feedback.dayzgame.com whenever possible.

In addition, Chernarus should soon also begin to see the roll out of the new animal A.I. system that briefly made an appearance in 0.53 experimental branch. Animal behaviors should be significantly more complex, and add a great deal to the immersion and feel of hunting for your next meal, or resource. Initially this will roll out with the deer, and then progressively expand to support the full list of animals residing in the world of DayZ.

Lastly for me, we've been discussing the subject of blood regeneration, transfusion, and all the mechanics surrounding them for awhile. With blood regeneration at the rate it currently is, and the reduced amount of blood gained per blood bag, not many folks use or interact with these mechanics in the current stable build. Given that now is the time to experiment, and alter these mechanics to gauge viability through use on our steam branches we'll be reducing the blood regeneration rate, and increasing the amount of blood gained through proper blood transfusions. Personally I cannot wait to see how the survivors of Chernarus adapt to this change.

  Mr. Black0ut picked up his Hardcore DayZ Series again, you should all take a look. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer  

Mirek / Lead Gameplay Programmer "I'd like to mention a few brief words about the new character/player controller. The physics part of this controller will be implemented using Bullet physics, so there will be a visible improvement in interactions between static and dynamic objects. e.g. there shouldn't any camera clipping issues, it will improve melee combat, movement on stairs, and it will be possible to get over dropped items and dead bodies. It will have also positive impact on performance. The animation side of this will be using Enfusion's new animation system and will allow us to have more animation layers on character, so it will be possible to play more animations at once. With this, we can achieve moving during shooting from the bow or adding injured animations. The character/player controller will be used for players and for AI units. We would like to introduce the physical part on character controller in 0.55 experimental. As for the animation part (which is already used for animals), there is a lot of work with exporting data to the new system and with complete rewriting of current system, but its in progress now and we hope, that we will introduce it in 0.56 (0.57 more likely) experimental build.."

  Peter / Lead Designer

"While the new vital parts of the Enfusion engine and the game itself like the renderer, particle effects, UI, animation system, inventory, AI, controls/interactions, vehicles, scripting language, central economy and others are being still worked on by dedicated programmers - we are getting closer to the point where we cannot push the game further in the direction in which we want to with the existing legacy systems. That means as the new technology is merged into the main branch, better, advanced mechanics and enriched gameplay begin to be possible. We still need to wait to start using these systems, which will allow us to do more without hassle.   However we can still push the current systems to their limits as we've prepared some prototypes of long planned features. I can mention at least some of them. Placing of objects which allows you to precisely visualize where the given object will be placed within the environment and if it's possible to place it there. This feature will be a great addition for base building in general, fireplaces, traps and similar objects and in the future we will maybe add this feature for placing every item as we understand it can enhance role playing and user generated content. Next we have a prototype ready for continuously usage of items which will be used in new controls/interactions, this means that you are continuously using item in hand by holding mouse button, when you release it use action is stopped. With the new animation system added to the mix it means that also eating and drinking during movement will be possible. The last prototype I would like to mention is the one which was done for the advanced crafting. It's flexible enough to be used as a field crafting and also table crafting. The point is that you need to put all your items from which you want to craft something new in front of you then equip right tool in your hand and directly interact with the item pool to produce the desired new crafted item. This solution is giving us few important possibilities like adding meaning to the plethora of tools we already have in game, crafting complex items without need of intermediate products which are most of the time useless. As well, turn some of the stationary tables with machinery in houses and industry structures to crafting tables where you will be able to produce crafted rails for scopes, modify weapons and do other advanced processes.   Apart from that we started configuring the V3S with a cargo bed as we know you need to carry more passengers around Chernarus. Don't expect entering/exiting the cargo bed animations nor shooting from it yet. But if everything goes fine we will introduce a different vehicle feature for you to play with - the manual transmission, so you will be able to test your driving skills. Manual transmission is done in style of sequential changing of gears, this means that you can go from lets say 1st gear to 3rd gear only directly through the 2nd gear, there is no way to skip the 2nd gear altogether. We added the proper weight value to all items. Total weight that character is carrying around will be used later to modify his stamina value. We are getting prepared for use of the new central economy system which will be hopefully be plugged in at least partially. Now every item and structure have tags assigned to them, this categorization combined with minimum and maximum amount of items spawned in the server we finally can start to balance loot amount and its distribution over the map. Later area based distribution will be added to currently tested type distribution which means the same house can spawn different items depending on its location in the world.   Crafting and usage of the fireplace is being polished to be more user friendly and straightforward. We decided to ditch the fireplace kit for now, improve the current functionality of it and add some new functionality too. Gas cooker is receiving some attention as well and cooking functionality of this too will be merged. Piece of lard and pile of bones are new items which are expanding resource gathering. As you can guess piece of lard can be used for cooking while pile of bones have wide range of use, we will start with arrows with bone tips. Modular plate carrier vest with attachable pouches and pistol holster is ready to go, same apply to FN Trombone which was waiting for proper reloading animations. Now we are configuring and preparing disposable suppressor crafted from PET bottle and we are looking at possibilities to damage firearms with bullets in bad condition.   I'm looking forward to brighter future... see you in Chernarus folks!"

Standup Notes for the week of 17 Feb 15 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Animation: • Trumpet reloading animation • Salute + Sitting Gestures • Zombie attack animations • Analysis of transition to new system for players / A.I. • MoCap Session

Design: • Manual transmission • Advanced crafting • Fireplace polishing • Gas cooker refactoring • Controls and interactions • Diseases transfer • New script language • Central economy • Configs and scripts for new items

Programming: • Inventory refactorization • Loot distribution per buildings • Zombie/Animal AI • Character controller (animations & physics) • Vehicles - Manual transmission and bugfixing • Crash fixes • Security Bugfixes

Greetings Survivors! As most of you may know by now, 0.53 released to stable branch with build 126384. After daily iterative updates to experimental branch we were able to resolve the branch update preventing bugs, we moved forward with work on the next stable branch update 0.54. 0.53 has some outstanding new content, but for me personally the focus of this months stable update was taking a more aggressive stance on exploiting, and cheating within the development period of DayZ. As I've mentioned before, security in competitive multiplayer gaming is an ongoing battle for the industry. Add into this the fact that DayZ is still early in its development, with extensive changes to the engine ongoing, as well as existing vulnerabilities in legacy portions of the technology, and we have an uphill battle to deal with. The positive side of this coin however is very clear. Being vigilant in monitoring, investigating, and preventing exploits and vulnerabilities during DayZ's development period will make for a stronger game at release. As our work with BattlEye on 0.53 continues to evolve, there are several fronts we can utilize to increase our awareness and speed at which we can identify and address vulnerabilities with each stable branch update.

Enough about cheating though, lets talk about a few key points that everyone wants to know about as 2015 kicks off. Infected/Animal AI: Like many systems that involve large changes to the engine, the development of this system occurs in its own branch, outside the main trunk of DayZ development. This is not just because of limited functionality, development of core systems like this can frequently cause stability issues in the base game as they are worked on. Once their functionality is present at a base level, they are merged into the main game and pushed to stable branch in that months stable update. For those that were able to get a glimpse of this system early on in 0.53 experimental, you saw some outstanding changes to the way the A.I. for animals functioned. Beyond the animal side of the A.I. changes, infected A.I. redesign is aimed at introducing proper stealth gameplay and evasion in order to survive against the infected, and especially within urban environments. 

Renderer: As with the A.I. redesign, work on this is done outside the main trunk of DayZ development. A large part of the core engine teams' work, detaching the renderer from the engine side simulation is and has been a massive task that takes a significant amount of man hours. As we begin to see the fruits of the work done on this portion of the tech merged over into the stable branch of DayZ in the coming months, this will allow the engine team to start work on bringing newer Direct X support into DayZ. 

Audio: Some of the most irritating and pesky issues affecting gameplay within development builds can be traced to the audio side of our base engine. Redesigning the existing technology into a more robust solution is a must. Work on this, much like the above systems is ongoing, and when ready for the merge into stable branch will allow the team to begin addressing and resolving issues such as global sounds, and the proper messaging of all interaction and engine based sound sources.

Beyond the above mentioned core technology changes, the coming months will have us begin to see changes that update or expand upon existing systems such as animation, loot spawning, persistence, and so much more. In addition to these, once vehicle inventory support makes its way to stable branch we will begin to be able to see multiple configurations of the V3S, and their potential cargo spawning across Chernarus. Pair these changes with the ever changing face of Chernarus and the experience that is DayZ, and I see 2015 being an exciting year that I cannot wait to share with you all. See you all in Chernarus, and be careful when visiting the prison.  - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer  

Status Report - Week of 19 Jan 15

Its been a busy week over here in the DayZ development offices. With work pushing forward on 0.53 the team is focused on the last few remaining major issues before the push. As we go into test/fix/regression with 0.53, there are several things every Early Access user should be aware of:

The 0.53 update has a good amount of security fixes, as well as content additions, support for adminlogs, and should roll out with the new BattlEye protection. Over the next few days you will see us roll out incremental updates to experimental branch as we iterate towards a good 0.53 candidate. For those who operate servers, remember - adminlogs will be accessible on both public, and private shard servers and contain the following info:

In addition to the changes and updates above - 0.53 will include, but is not limited to:

PAX South was at the end of the week, and DayZ had a strong presence at the show. Integrating with prolific DayZ Storytellers from both Youtube and Twitch, we partnered with Astro Gaming for developer/content creator meet and greets, as well as with Twitch to discuss 0.53, Security and Anti Cheat measures, Steam Workshop, and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVt387lsTHo As DayZ hits 3,000,000 units sold we look forward to all the possibility that 2015 holds for DayZ. With the project slowly able to reap the rewards of hard work put in by the engine and gameplay programmers over the months prior. I for one cannot wait to begin to roll these changes out to stable branch. Again, keep an eye on Experimental Branch daily as we iterate towards the 0.53 release. As always I encourage you to head over to the Developer Discussion subforums at the official DayZ forums. Department Leads are always available there to discuss the ongoing development of DayZ with you. I'm convinced the PAX Pox caused the Chernarusian Outbreak. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer Peter / Lead Game Designer

"You folks are amazing, DayZ would mean nothing without you - the diverse group of all types of different players who create such amazing stories that bring almost infinite unique experiences which could never be written in a traditional narrative form. DayZ just hit 3,000,000 sales and your continued interest in being involved in the development process of this game is clear signal and thus commitment for us to bring you the best possible platform to lay down your stories - and this is what we are doing on the daily basis with love and passion.

As we are developing an online multiplayer game it of course means there is and will be a influx of some new content in major updates. We are also working hard on fleshing out new and expanding current features which enriches how the game is played, defining possible interactions and overall experience - and I must say this is my most favorite part.

I would like to mention some new items which are ready and will be introduced in one of the upcoming updates. Melee weapons batch consist from mix of different items like bayonet for AK, broom, mace, paddle, hay hook, steak knife, lead pipe and hatchet. We didn't omit firearms too and you can await FN Trombone which can be disassembled into the parts to save your inventory space which makes it a perfect firearm for those who wants to carry second rifle directly in theirs inventory and then there is a flare gun which was waiting for some time to be configured as we didn't have possibility to attach the new light source to the projectiles till now which means that now you are free to lighten up surrounding environment or use it as a signal for others.

We also prepared prototype for the bear trap which is in fact far from desired implementation as there is currently not proper trigger available for us to use it with it and as zombie/animal AI is still in development only players will be caught by it for now - but hey you can hunt animals even without bear trap which can be skinned to get pelts already and now we added process to produce pieces of tanned leather (although a bit simplified for now as a placeholder). You probably can guess that tanned leather have some usability which is the sewing the set of leather clothes included shoes, pants, jacket, vest, hat and bag. In the future preparing the tanned leather and dying leather clothes will be connected to barrels which are currently being prepared by art team. As counterbalance to the recent addition of crafted clothes we have added also brand new quilted jacked and in the future is very possible that down jacket will be pulled down from loot tables as it have plenty of clipping issues due to its mass and will be replaced with quilted jacket. To please those of you who fell in love with cultivating plants we added new plant which yields one of your most loved vegetable - zucchini.

We are also busy with adding new spawn points to the mighty prison castle which was recently finished and sure it will become new attraction for survivors in no time. Also I would like to remind you about withdrawal of our very special Xmas tree and presents which were here just for holidays. But don't worry you will be able to find that cute teddy bear elsewhere.

We have finished first phase of cooking refactoring in general and things related to it like fireplaces and crafting recipes. The foundation is here now and it will be expanded and polished to desired result in short period of time. You are now able to make also upgraded fireplaces with stones, use tripod to hold pot or turn your fireplace to a stove which let you to cook your food without excess amount of light and smoke produced by normal fireplace. You will be able to put every item directly into fireplace or pot to heat it up so it may be used as an alternative to the heat packs. Eventually you can ruin items if they will be in the fire for some time which can be different for all items. Imagine throwing in some bullets or spray can when you noticed some unwanted visitors that are coming in direction to your fireplace to distract them or endanger them while they are searching thru your camp for possible loot.

Movement restriction of characters by restraining them was expanded to other generic items apart from handcuffs like wire, rope, duct tape and guts. Duration of struggling to break free differ from item to item and they have equivalent to handcuffs keys also like knives or pliers. Last but not least we implemented liquids which are independent now and are not based on specific container types which means you can pour gasoline into the PET bottle or store some fresh and clean water in the jerry can. This feature also brings such actions as emptying canisters for the purpose of filling it with different liquid as we didn't went down the road of mixing different liquids which can easily turn to the overkill. I'm sure independent liquids which are not tied to specific container will bring unexpected and interesting situations.

Well I almost forgot to mention new group identification which is naturally optional and can be used to form clans, teams or just to stand out from the masses - armbands. They are created thru crafting and comes in few different easily recognizable colors and they are fully visible directly on arm. I'm glad we are pushing customization of characters further down the road and I can assure you that we are not stopping here.

Thank you for your marvellous support so far... see you in Chernarus folks!"

Standup Notes for the week of 19 Jan 15 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)  

Design: • Manual Transmission • Advanced crafting • Cooking • Controls and interactions • Diseases • Armbands • Liquids independent of specific container types • Traps • New scripting language • Barrels • Bugfixing  

Programming: • Support for armbands • Inventory refactorization • Security vulnerability hotfixes • Vehicle persistency • Per building loot distribution w/ centralized economy • New Infected/Animal AI • New player controller prototype • Support for manual vehicle transmission • Crash fixes • New vehicle features • Research on flexible item type inventory support

Status Report - Week of 12 Jan 15

Greetings Survivors! As we move forward with January's stable branch update (0.53) the focus of the gameplay programming and production teams is primarily on security. As mentioned prior in the September 15 Status Report - only so much can be done in tandem with engine and gameplay changes coming with every update (and maintain a rapid update frequency to stable branch). That said, as the primary vulnerability on the security side for DayZ right now is less on engine and/or scripting and more on modifying/accessing the process memory we have several Q1 goals we are aiming to complete.

Beyond that, Q1 has a good deal of exciting work for DayZ. Be it work on the new infected AI, to implementation of the central economy or diseases - this should be an exciting few months. On the note of work to come, I'd like to expand upon confusion around persistence - how it is intended to operate, and the role that weekly persistence wipes currently serve. Persistence is a core pillar of DayZ and its design. Currently persistence functionality is tied to the incomplete economy functions. As we expand upon the systems surrounding the central economy - What is saved/How it is saved, Cleanup, Respawn, etc will be handled properly. In addition to that, the secondary cause of persistence wipes (issues with reading modifiers on saved items, improperly saved items, etc) can be addressed. Once we have addressed these two issues, persistence can and will be moved from an "opt-in" feature, to a core function of DayZ - and something that is universal across all servers. Once this is complete, I personally look forward to truly seeing the "camp/base building" side of the title start to be more universally adopted. Be it vehicles, barricaded buildings, tents, containers, or even farms setup via horticulture. In addition, if you have any questions surrounding this topic (or any others) - I encourage you to head over to the Developer Discussion subforums at the official DayZ forums. Eugen and myself both are accessible via the Service section. I wish I could bundle a microphone with every copy of DayZ. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer Photo credit: twitter.com/kdwolf77

Status Report - Week of 05 Jan 15

2015

We live in the future people.  2015 looks to be a pretty awesome year for DayZ, I'd like to kick off this months Status Reports by talking a bit about how the team has settled in during our first week back, as well as some awesome points of inspiration for us. First off, I was forwarded a link to Eternum Pictures DayZ fan film - which has some outstanding emotional points about friendship, and loss. The loss that the main character in this fan film experiences is something that resonates with me. I can recall how it felt to meet, befriend, and then lose a stranger in my early DayZ mod days. As the option to instantly respawn after death somewhat limits this experience, it brought to the discussion table some server options that we've had on the drawing board for awhile. Speaking of servers... Over the next few months we'll be rolling out some expanded server options to extend support for administrators, and introduce more customization options for private shards.

- Admin Logs, covering: Connections/Disconnections, Chat, Player Deaths (Env & PvP) - Hardcore Mode: Initially we'll only support this on Private Shards, while we see how the mechanics impact gameplay - However the intent is to offer server operators the choice to restrict how long since a players last death they can respawn. Eg: A hardcore server could conceptually restrict players from respawning until 12 hours after their last death. We'll gauge how much impact this has on the design, and decide if it stays restricted to private shards, or we open this up to all public (consumer rented) hive servers.  Now that the team have returned back to the office we've begun going over data compiled from stable branch since Christmas, and looking at what is left to do for the 0.53 release at the end of January. We've got some awesome stuff on the table for 0.53 and 0.54, and as always we'll be pushing to experimental to test things out as development on the update progresses. Speaking of the end of January, PAX South in San Antonio is coming up and we have some awesome things in store for the first Penny Arcade Expo in the great state of Texas. We'll be sending out information on that via our twitter and facebook channels next week. In addition, the finishing touches are being put on the DayZ website - as we look to centralize where you all get the latest news on DayZ development, and interact with the DayZ Dev team. Over on the Official DayZ forums the team leads have begun using their new sub forums to interact directly with you, the Survivors of Chernarus. Head over and take a peak, we'll start to use these more and more - giving you guys a direct line to the people that guide the vision that is DayZ. forums.dayzgame.com I look forward to increasing visibility into DayZ development in 2014, and evolving what it means to survive in Chernarus as we march forward to DayZ 1.0. Chocolate Milk Bath, do it. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer Peter / Lead Game Designer "Welcome to the first devblog of the 2015, I hope you enjoyed the holidays and spent some quality time with your families, friends and DayZ!

I will keep it really short. We all know that this year will be very important for DayZ. With all these big ongoing and upcoming changes it will be quite tough but the outcome will be splendid.

Currently we are focused mainly on new controls/interactions. We would like to use them before we start switching character to the new animation system so we can identify possible issues with the old one and address them. Apart from that we are looking forward to the new scripting language which should be ready as soon as possible so we can start rewriting currently used scripts with it, optimize and polish them which also bring some performance boost (server side, yay!). Design for manual transmission for vehicles is ready for the review and when we settle down on last little things after discuss it with programmers its implementation will begin. We are also making a prototype for non intrusive group identification so that you can easily identify your companions.

Have an amazing new year and don't forget... see you in Chernarus folks!" Chris / Lead Artist "Character Art:

We're still working on new character clothing and new zombie templates.

This is ongoing, long term work that occurs during luls when the art team isn't needed to support new features being added by design. We've finished the quilted jacket and a new batch of zombie templates. An M65 Field Jacket is also WIP.

Environment:

Work has begun on a school building. Its giving me flashbacks to my days dodging balls in the gym. We're working on desks, chairs, bells, and gym equipment. This is a piece I'm personally excited about.

Weapons:

We're nearly done with a new pump-action .22LR rifle based on the FN Trombone. We've also recently completed a Winchester Model 70 and two new guns I think people will be excited about are currently WIP. In addition, over the last couple of weeks, we've churned out a series of new melee weapons for people to try out.

Community:

Some of you may have noticed that we've introduced a new area on the official forums where it is possible to interact with the team and I've been busy this week visiting and answering questions. I'd encourage you to drop by and check it out."

  Standup Notes for the week of 05 Jan 15 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

  Art: • M65 Field Jacket • FN Trombone  • Vehicle design standup • School structure • Winchester Model 70

Animation: • Bugfixing • Hand poses for weapon attachments • Hand Poses Design: • Bugfixing • V3S Changes • Cooking • Diseases • Independant content of canisters • New scripting language • Traps

Programming: • Security vulnerability fixes • Vehicle persistency • Loot distro per building for new system • Close range weapon sound fixes • Suicide fixes • Zombie/Animal AI • Vehicles - Manual transmission • Server side logging

2014 - A Year in Review

Happy Holidays everyone! As some of you may know, DayZ just recently celebrated its first year in Steam's Early Access program. The Early Access experience has been both challenging and rewarding for everyone on the development team. With that in mind, we have put together a high level document looking at what we have accomplished together in 2014. Pairing that with our goals ahead for 2015, we all have a lot to look forward to. 2014 - A Year in Review With 0.52 hitting stable branch today, the holidays should see some interesting gameplay. I for one look forward to the expanded options for the roleplaying communities, as well as the outstanding changes to player versus player engagements I plan to have on first person only servers (when rescuing innocents from bandits, of course!). Suppressor support, hotfixes to address the majority of the gunshot audio issues, new animations, the first iteration of the chainsaw, and of course who could forget the seasonal festivities. I hope to see you all around the Christmas tree in Novod. I'll be looking for the bear that has my name on it.

Red Water is not always a bad thing - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer  

First Quarter

Second Quarter

Third Quarter

Fourth Quarter

One Year of DayZ

Celebrating DayZ’s official release on 16th December last year, Bohemia Interactive has released a special anniversary video on DayZ's official YouTube channel. The video provides a unique insight into the some of the challenges DayZ faced throughout its development, and what DayZ means to various members of the development team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyZV3F6Vkho The standalone Alpha version of DayZ was officially released using Steam's Early Access program, on December 16th 2013 - very early on in its development cycle. Since then the DayZ development team has continued developing the game with a continuous flow of updates, including new weapons, new items, diseases, harvest-able resources, private shards, persistent objects, initial vehicle testing, and various platform improvements.

Over the next 12 months, the team will be looking to expand the options for basic ground transportation, aerial transport, expanding on basic survival features, such as animal predators and traps. On top of these the DayZ team is implementing an improved rendering engine, which will expand upon the graphical fidelity and depth in game.

Since the game was released into Early Access 12 months ago, the development team has grown significantly. David Durcak, the new Project Lead on DayZ, stated:

“Firstly, I'd like to thank Dean Hall for leading the team for the past two years, and I wish him the best with his new studio. The growth of the DayZ team over the past 12 months will be integral to the prolonged success of the game. With the additional team members, we hope that throughout the upcoming year we will be able to create more content and a deeper experience for the DayZ audience. Plus, it will also enable us to significantly improve the technology for the standalone, and polish the features that we have. All in all, it is our goal to create the best experience we can, in terms of frame rate, visual quality and the overall gameplay.”

In support of DayZ's first anniversary, the team has also released an updated development roadmap for 2015. The roadmap contains a list of the feature goals for 2015. Please note that the DayZ development roadmap is not a fixed document, and the schedule and content always remain subject to change:

First Quarter

Second Quarter

Third Quarter

Fourth Quarter

To join the survivors in Chernarus, people can purchase DayZ (Early Access) for 27.99 EUR/34,99 USD from Steam and Store.bistudio.com. The price of DayZ will increase as development progresses.

For more information, please visit http://www.dayz.com and/or follow DayZ on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Status Report - Week of 08 Dec 14

So here we are, last few weeks of December for the Christmas break. The 0.51 update to stable branch has had enough time to mature and reveal any critical bugfixes that need to be addressed for 0.52. With 0.52, the focus is on issuing bugfixes, incremental systems updates, and several new bits of content. One of the ongoing issues we've been focused on bugfixing with 0.52 is client and server crashes. Having spent a significant amount of time these last few weekends playing on stable branch servers I for one can attest to how frustrating these can be as a player. Especially the server crashes.

In addition, as work on the central economy continues - there have been extensive cases on public hive servers with users abusing bugs to duplicate items. In order to combat this, we'll be taking a two point initiative at the beginning of 2015. Firstly, at the start of the year we will look at performing a wipe of the hive. Next, we will work with our game server provider partners to deploy a system for server operators that continues to allow them access to restarting their servers in the event of unforseen issues, but logs and tracks abusers of this option.

Primary bug-fix focus for 0.52 is on the following issues:

Winners of the Private Shard contest should be receiving e-mails from Multiplay Game Servers shortly, please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] if you experience any issues.

On a more personal note: Now that the programming team has resolved the issues with servers properly pulling the local time from their servers for the in-game clock, I encourage all of you to spend some time surviving during the night time. Get off the coast, go hunting, set up a tent somewhere in the woods and really spend some time experimenting with the "hermit" playstyle. We have a long way to go, but I've personally found the experience very rewarding as of late.  Only a bandit on bandit day. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

Standup Notes for the week of 08 Dec 14 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Art: • Full length ghillie • Planting field 3x3 • Animal remains • High fidelity V3S instrument panel  • Winchester Model 70 • Crafted leather jacket • Hatchet Animation: • Support to new Zombies • Optics • Vehicle animations • Skeletal adjustments for some animals • Animal animations

Design: • V3S Praga Bugfixing • Horticulture extension work • Silencer configs • Chainsaw configs • Cooking script cleanup, bugwork

Programming: • Critical inventory fixes • Vehicle physical simulation tweaking • Silencer support • Loot distribution redesign/improvements • Server crash bugfixing • Vehicle simulation diagnostics / bugfix • Security vulnerability hotfixes

Status Report - Week of 01 Dec 14

Now that 0.51 has reached stable branch we've had the pleasure of watching how the survivors of Chernarus interact and experiment with its content and mechanics. Be it player to player interaction through the extension of the meat harvesting systems, or traveling together across the map in search of a V3S. For now the team is focused on critical bugfixes and server side performance optimization for 0.52 midway through December (due to the upcoming holiday season).

  For me, the first two quarters of 2015 hold a great deal of excitement.

The last year has had a large amount of work ongoing behind the scenes that effect gameplay, and playability for a significant part of the active Early Access userbase. As someone that has spent over three thousand hours in Chernarus this year I am genuinely excited for the possibilities.

Speaking of my time in Chernarus, as you all know the military tent (packable) was recently added into stable branch. This as I envision it is one among many possible "persistent objects" that survivors can find, and use to create their own base camp in Chernarus. Ranging from tents, to barriers, horticulture, containers, varied levels of fireplaces, and so much more - I see this feature expanding upon the initial pup tents of the mod into something that resembles a true improvised and -scalable- survivor camps.

 Speaking of survivor communities, our Private Shard contest has concluded and while I am happy to announce the winners - I have to say there were far more entries than I had expected, and the decisions were not at all easy.

There are a lot of fantastic DayZ communities out there, and at the very least I now have a whole list of servers I need to take time to visit.

The winners, in no specific order are: - FriendlyFlashMob - The Midnight Crew - TAW.net Congratulations to the winners, make sure to reach out to [email protected] to start the process of claiming your private shard server. For those who entered and did not win, don't be sad - Of all the tons of submissions, there was not one that was not outstanding. We'll be rolling out new support and options for private shards in January, so keep your eyes open for those. Still not a bandit. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer Chris / Lead Artist "Long time, no talk! Sorry about that - but it was for good reason. Lots of things are going on with the art team!

Character Art:

Current character work is focused around the upcoming changes to the zombie AI and animation systems. We are re skinning the old zombies and exporting the skeletons into a new proprietary format. This has not, however, this has not held us back from creating a new batch of zombie model templates with which we can quickly create loads of new zombie types of various shapes/sizes/and ages. This is particularly important since the latest news regarding testing of the new zombies suggests we may soon be able to significantly increase the number of zombies spawning. Work in this area will be ongoing and my still take some time to finish but it should pay dividends in the long run. Regarding survivor clothing, we finished a bomber jacket and will be also adding a new quilted jacket, which should have fewer model clipping issues than the current bubble jacket, which it is intended to eventually replace. 

  Weapons:

We added the AUG in a somewhat unfinished state as it currently does not work with any attachments. However, we do hope to transform it into a highly modifiable platform and adding a RIS is the first step in that direction. The model is ready and soon, perhaps, I'll release a picture as a teaser.  We're also working on a Winchester Model 70 Alaskan which means I need to get off my butt and figure out a design for scope situation (i.e. one scope for many rifles). Also, its possible that I was told to make sure the suppressors are looking pretty so that they can be triumphantly re-added. Vehicles: Now that design is settling on some technical requirements as it relates to art for vehicles, we're formulating a vehicles roadmap to plan for the number and types of vehicles that design has requested. It will be exciting to see the vehicles feature expand in the coming weeks.  We also recently added a new helicopter crash site which looks quite a bit better than the old UH60s." Mirek / Lead Gameplay Programmer "This week we have pushed the current work on new Infected/Animals AI into internal testing. The core AI system was developed by the Bratislava team and is also using the new animation system, which will help us to have better navigation for AI units and more complex combat systems.

For the initial implementation, there is not many new things about the infected, but it should improve better server performance and navigation. It will also allow us to have more infected on the map and to implement stealth mechanics into the game.

Current testing is aimed for performance and if everything will go fine, we're planning to push it on to experimental servers (once we’re happy with how it performs). After that we're planning to tweak stealth and combat and we would like to push it on experimental servers with 0.53 version.

We're also continuing on tweaking vehicles, improving loot distribution and loot respawning systems and other long term tasks, such as new game control mechanics and a new inventory system. Stay tuned for more details to come." Peter / Lead Designer

"Long time no seen my dear survivors. I hope that surviving in Chernarus is a little bit more satisfying now with your new best friend - Praga V3S (by the way V3S is an abbreviation for the 3-ton military special). Indeed that rolled out version has rather stripped down functionality however you should enjoy the free ride while it lasts. We started to work on more complex mechanics for maintenance and repair. The battery will be most probably the next part that will be needed to get your vehicle functional so without it you can try to start the engine as many times as you want but it won’t get you anywhere, which also means that we are adding in the actual action for turning the engine over and off. If everything goes fine we will add animations for entering and exiting the vehicle as they were removed in last minute before release due some issues with action conditions that leads to undesirable results such as entering/exiting vehicle through closed doors. We are also working on setting up the inventory container for the V3S as with the current state of inventory implementation it is not trivial as it seems. New color variants of V3S are ready to go so you will be soon have the chance to drive also gray, orange and blue one. 

You may ask what else is being worked on not regarding the vehicles? I'm glad that I can tell you there is a bunch of upcoming stuff that was hinted a long time ago, specifically silencers, chainsaw and suicide. Recently a feature to use more shooting sounds per firearm was added thus we can now made the silencers useful and bring them back to loot spawns. It also opens possibility for crafted ones so you will be able to decide if you keep that PET bottle as a water container or made a silencer from it. The chainsaw was put on hold for few reasons that were connected to animation and melee systems but now we feel it is quite a good time to push it in the wild finally at least in some crude form. We decided to redo the way how suicide was supposed to work completely. We ended up with a fluent part of the gameplay which doesn't break up the immersion. Suicide starts with a gesture and while you are in this verbose pose you can still decide if you really want to pull the trigger and end your misery at once or leave it be and try harder to survive even with bad cards on your hand. Added value of this solution is that you can do such pose even with empty hand. 

Apart from all that we are still improving the horticulture with the possibility of making fertilizer while cooking is being refactored with some advanced functionality in mind for example you will be able to put your ammunition to fireplace and examine what it will do with them over time. We are also supporting the hermit way of play. In the near future you won't need to scavenge surroundings for loot and become self-sufficient if you wish and choose such a way to play. For now we will be adding new items and crafting possibilities including primitive stone blade and guts, next step will be to add bones, torch and alternative way to ignite the fire without matches.  

Don't forget to save some fuel for chainsaw... see you in Chernarus folks! "

  Standup Notes for the week of 01 Dec 14 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Art: • Full length ghillie • Quilted Jacket • Bomber Jacket • High fidelity V3S instrument panel  • Winchester Model 70 • Cleaver • Hatchet Animation: • Support to new Zombies • Optics • Vehicle animations • Chainsaw Animations • Sword animations

Design: • V3S Praga Bugfixing • Config and scripts for suicide • Silencer configs • Chainsaw configs • Loot defines for new centralized loot spawning

Programming: • Critical inventory fixes • Walkie/Talkie support/fixes • Sound System support • Loot distribution redesign/improvements • Audio/Global Messaging bugfixing • Vehicle simulation diagnostics / bugfix • Character connection issues (protecting players from attack while logging in/before being able to move)

Status Report - Week of 24 Nov 14

November and December are busy months for DayZ. Coming up next week we're aiming for the 0.51 update to stable branch, we have the conclusion of our Private Shard contest, and of course.. the initial implementation (at a very basic level) of wheeled vehicles into stable branch. It is important that when hunting for/fueling/driving these new base model V3S trucks across Chernarus you understand the limits, base functionality, and placeholder status of much associated at this time with the vehicle.

This first initial implementation of vehicles in DayZ is aimed at tracking the network impact, physical simulation performance, and gameplay impact of this feature on the title. Be warned, this is the first time stable branch will get its hands on these systems, and there will be bugs. As with all systems, we will be iterating and expanding upon this as we move forward with development of DayZ. Aside from the V3S, 0.51 contains a strong amount of new mechanics, expanded systems, security hotfixes, and as always content. Going into December, we will be observing the impact of this update on stable branch and work on a end of year update for December with 0.52 mid-month. On a more personal note, 0.51 - even with the title as early in development as it is has had a large impact on my playstyles within DayZ. I am very eager to see how survivors adapt and expand upon the world of Chernarus with these changes. In addition I hope to put a special status report up when 0.52 is published to stable branch (sort of a town hall style address) where myself, and the other leads recap the most impactful and persistent bugs in DayZ Early Access, and where we are / what the plans are for them moving into 2015. As always, not a bandit. - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

Standup Notes for the week of 24 Nov 14 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Art: • Prison Complex • High fidelity V3S instrument panel  • UH1Y Crashsite model  • Prison-themed zombies

Animation: • Steyr Aug reload animations • Player Suicide Animations in Progress • Vehicle animations • Rifle sitting animations update • Zombies with new AI Design: • V3S Praga Bugfixing • Config and scripts for prion disease balance • New content spawn points • Cooking extension • Loot defines for new centralized loot spawning

Programming: • Critical inventory fixes • Client/server performance • Client/server crash fixes • Loot distribution redesign/improvements • Player & Item duplication fixes • Vehicle simulation diagnostics / bugfix • Character connection issues (protecting players from attack while logging in/before being able to move)

Status Report - Week of 17 Nov 14

Player Interaction is arguably the cornerstone of what makes DayZ magical. Be it friendly or hostile, direct or at a distance - the interactions between players within Chernarus is what makes the world come alive without a structured narative or reason to be. The drive to stay alive, and survive in itself compels the player to create their own story by way of the journey. You see the stories told through pictures, forum posts, youtube videos, and twitch streams all over the internet. As we move towards our Christmas break, making those experiences be as fluid and enjoyable as possible on a development build is a personal goal for the team. Server performance, and security fixes rank just as high as the remaining content and feature additions on the board for November, and the weeks available in December outside the holidays.

Recently I have taken to spending more time on the newly supported private shards, exploring their communities and observing the playstyle differences between their player bases and the public hive. First person only camera perspective seems to be increasingly popular within the private shard market, and I've personally had some amazing player interaction in those worlds. For those still on the fence when it comes to trying first person only servers, I strongly encourage you to give them a chance. Restricting the perspective to what your character can actually see has a large impact on how people approach the game, and other players. As we approach the end of 2014 and look back at all the challenges, and accomplishments of the DayZ Early Access I can not help but get excited about the possibilities in the new year. A passionate and active community has allowed us to grow and adapt the design and functionality of the project so much more than the traditional development method does. Being able to deploy, test, and research how systems are utilized, and the impact that they have on the player base rather than the traditional closed method of development and hoping that when your titles hits shelves it has the effect and reception you had hoped, is amazing. I can't wait to share the work left in 2014 with you all, and hopefully spend my Christmas in Chernarus. (Not a bandit) 

- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

Standup Notes for the week of 17 Nov 14 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Art: • Prison Complex • High fidelity V3S instrument panel  • Military Tent & Ground Model • Prison-themed zombies

Animation: • Steyr Aug reload animations • Player Suicide Animations in Progress • Vehicle animations • Animation changes for new controls • Zombies with new AI Design: • Configs and scripts for V3S Praga  • Config and scripts for prion disease • Vehicles • Cooking • Configuration for Military Tent

Programming: • Critical inventory fixes • Vehicle settings for physical simulations • New gamecontrols • Loot distribution improvements • Gameplay & Player Statistics • Client/Server crash triage & bugfixing • Character connection issues (protecting players from attack while logging in/before being able to move)

Status Report - Week of 10 Nov 14

Now that 0.50 has rolled out to stable branch, the focus of the team shifts to the incremental roll out of 0.51 for November's monthly stable branch update. As with any monthly stable branch update, this comes with several new features, functional changes to existing systems, and its own unique collection of bugs and general game play issues. Those who encounter any frustrating blockers to their gameplay experience on either stable or experimental branch are encouraged to utilize the DayZ feedback tracker at feedback.dayzgame.com.

Looking towards the 0.51 update and the Christmas break, in addition to the obvious feature and functional goals - Server side performance is paramount. Addressing critical issues and blockers in releasing 0.50 on schedule has resulted in reduced server performance and with our end of year feature/functional goals coming up the programming team is focused on ensuring a smooth and solid server side frame rate. Experimental/Unstable servers will be used to profile and test 0.51's performance throughout the month, so if you are looking to participate in this stress testing - make sure to opt into Experimental branch!

On experimental branch this week we've pushed out several new security related hotfixes, as well as pushing BattlEye's upcoming changes. As always with security, working in tandem with our external partners (BattlEye and VAC) as well as observing exploits and behavior on experimental and stable branch servers allow us to iterate, and address via experimental > stable branch update paths.

It is important again to understand that during the Early Access Alpha period of DayZ's development vulnerabilities will be introduced as the engine and systems surrounding it are created. Addressing these vulnerabilities and iterating via the experimental > stable branch update path is a constant tug of war. Through utilizing the DayZ feedback tracker to properly report valid information and issues encountered surrounding these areas, we can more quickly "patch the holes"

This Friday (the 14th) we had the first of our "dev play sessions" on experimental branch and the footage captured during this stream will be edited and commentated over in next weeks "dev experimental branch discussion" video to be released in next weeks Status Report. It is our hopes that combining general developer experimental branch gameplay with a "directors style commentary" alternating weekly will allow both the light hearted side of seeing the team play and experiment with systems in development, and the more serious gameplay and design oriented development discussion that the dev experimental branch discussion videos will allow.

This paired with the upcoming restructuring of the Dev Hub, as well as moving the Status Reports to Fridays and rolling out "Update Notes" for Wednesday experimental branch releases (via the dev hub) will be the first step towards increasing community/developer interaction moving forward into 2015.

Don't forget about our private shard contest, announced during last weeks Status Report. Submissions are still being accepted!  - Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

Peter / Lead Game Designer   “Not much has changed since the last status report update on our front. Vehicle implementation is still flagged with the highest priority. There are of course some issues down the road which needs to be tackled to some extent so it can be considered ready to go for public testing. We advanced a bit as we were passed the vehicle physics parameters in configuration to set up car behavior correctly which is not an easy task and can take countless hours of tweaking and balancing to get the feeling right and believable. For example we already had iteration where our beloved "V3S" was acting like a boat or was falling on its sides while steering.

  At Thursday and Friday we had a visit from part of the Bratislava team here to talk about features and design. It was nice to have them there and discuss things in details - like animals, cooking and horticulture. In meantime we’ve added MP-133 with pistol grips and fixed walkie talkies. We also added one more way to gather meat. Apart from that there are some new issues with restraining and struggling which we are taking the care of now. We are also revisiting the way how the suicide was supposed to be working and if everything goes fine it will be seamlessly integrated into the gameplay at the end.

  Come get some... see you in Chernarus folks!”

Chris / Lead Artist

“This week, I've been working closely with Peter regarding design of the V3S and will be working on a high quality interior of the V3S with functional gauges. The initial implementation of the V3S will have some placeholder interior as the high quality version is being created.

We have also finished the prison uniform and are closing in on finishing the prison complex, which will be an interesting area to explore. We plan to also create prison-themed zombies which you will have to face if you want to explore the facility.

The Steyr AUG model is done and we will soon send it for animations, cfg, and sounds. I am optimistic that it can be in for next stable release but its worth saying that it will be the base version only. We are looking into swapping barrels to convert from the standard AUG to an HBAR version.

The military tent is also finished. I expect it will be found in next stable release.”

Standup Notes for the week of 10 Nov 14 (Note: Standup notes are not a change log - they are a quick high level look at tasks the teams worked on throughout this week)

Art: • Prison Complex • High fidelity V3S instrument panel • Steyr AUG • Prison-themed zombies

Animation: • Mp133 Pistol Grip Reload Animation done • Player Suicide Animations in Progress • Vehicle animations • Throwing in crouch and prone • Animation changes for new controls • Zombies with new AI • Vehicles

Design: • Configs and scripts for new items (V3S Praga, MP-133 with pistol grips) • Fixing restrain/struggling • Fixing walkie talkies • Fixing suicide • Vehicles • Horticulture • Cooking • Damage system Programming: • Critical inventory fixes • Vehicle settings for physical simulations • New gamecontrols • Loot distribution improvements • Zombie/Animal AI • Player connection issues (possibility of attacking players before they can play) • Character duplication fixes