Status Report - Week of 24 Nov 14
posted on November 28, 2014
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.
- The V3S is not tied to the persistence system at this time, so when it restarts - it respawns.
- Yes, worry not vehicles will save, just not at this time.
- Much of the animations are in progress, we hope to greatly improve the visual immersion versus legacy animations when mounting and exiting
- The interior of the cabin is still in progress, what is there currently is placeholder.
- Instrumentation will eventually be the primary method for tracking speed, fuel, temperature, etc
- New sound effects for the V3S will be recorded, for now we are using legacy placeholder sfx
- At this time the bed / cargo / command sections of the V3S and its variants are disabled while we continue work on them
- This means the truck has no item storage capacity, and seats two survivors (at this time!)
- Very basic functionality is present for vehicle maintenance, this is limited to fuel consumption and refilling.
- Further functionality is being worked on - spark plugs, exhaust, radiator, etc
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)