DayZ, a zombie mod for ArmA2 - Now standalone on Steam Early Access

[bert]

IF YOU DONT LIKE FALLOUT 3 DONT BUY IT
IF YOU DONT LIKE XCOM DONT BUY IT
IF YOU DONT LIKE STARBOUND DONT BUY IT

that's not the same reasoning and you (hopefully) know that

You're right, but using that sort of reasoning is just letting the developer excuse themselves from having to work.

 

[Zewp]

I caved and bought it. Just one question. What the fuck have they been doing the past year and a half? Currently there is no reason to play this over the mod.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

They laughed their ass off so hard that they fell into a coma. It's a shame that they woke up eventually.

 

[Zewp]

I just don't get it. They had a year and the game is such an unfinished mess. Less features than the mod and basic things are broken. Zombie spawns don't work properly, meaning the map is almost devoid of zombies and loot doesn't respawn unless the server is restarted.

I know this is an alpha, but sweet jesus pull it together Rocket.

 

[CSM]

"WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS ALPHA. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME AND ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE WITH SERIOUS ISSUES AND POSSIBLE INTERRUPTIONS OF GAME FUNCTIONING."

 

[Zewp]

I know this is an alpha, but sweet jesus pull it together Rocket.

 

[CSM]

"I know this is an alpha, but why is it an alpha."

 

[Zewp]

You keep missing the point. Even for an alpha this is atrocious. Is this really all they could accomplish in a year? Basic things that are core to the mod aren't even working properly. You'd think they'd try and get the basics working properly before releasing an alpha to the public. Right now this might as well be Wasteland Standalone.

The game isn't even close to being on par with the mod, which is also in alpha.

 

[TripJack]

did you forget that the game is being made by BIS?? their games are horribly buggy & unfinished even when they are released, so of course their alpha versions are going to be atrocious

not saying it's alright for them to do business like that, but if you knew anything about BIS you shouldn't really be surprised...

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I don't give a shit about what any of you say! THE MASTER OF 4RM4 2 SHALL DECIDE THE SHITTYNESS OR NON-SHITTYNESS OF THIS GAME!

Release the SKYWAY!

 

[Zewp]

did you forget that the game is being made by BIS?? their games are horribly buggy & unfinished even when they are released, so of course their alpha versions are going to be atrocious

not saying it's alright for them to do business like that, but if you knew anything about BIS you shouldn't really be surprised...

Indeed, I did expect the game to be horribly buggy, but I at least expected basic things such as zombie and loot spawns to work properly, especially seeing as the dev team dragged ass for so long. Those two things are bugs that existed in the original alpha release of the mod. That they're still in the standalone is pretty atrocious, even by BIS' standards.

 

[Luzur]

 

[CSM]

You keep missing the point. Even for an alpha this is atrocious.

No, you keep missing the point. The developers have explicitly said the game is nowhere near completion and people shouldn't buy it. Yet you still buy it and then bitch and moan about it.

Is this really all they could accomplish in a year?

Since when is a year a long time in game development?

Basic things that are core to the mod aren't even working properly. You'd think they'd try and get the basics working properly before releasing an alpha to the public. Right now this might as well be Wasteland Standalone.

I'd expect them to concentrate on having their servers up and runnin the first few days. But I'm not a developer so what do I know?

 

[Infinitron]

RPS needs a quest compass: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/20/impressions-dayz/

This can be brutal, and DayZ makes no concessions towards new players – or even somewhat experienced ones. In part this is down to a desire for purity, so a character will be constantly telling you they’re thirsty but there’s no such thing as a ‘hydration meter’. Laudable as this is, it means that some of the game’s complexity is buried in a frustrating manner.

You might think that thirst can be solved, for example, by drinking a can of soda. In fact this will make a negligible contribution to your character’s dehydration, though it will increase their energy (a ‘hidden’ mechanic) – because soda’s full of calories. Nowhere does the game explain this, and the mod’s various useful meters have been replaced with frequent lines of text: ‘I need to drink’, or ‘My stomach grumbles violently’ and so on.

But the absence of visual guidance isn’t the problem – it’s the lack of any guidance. Want to quench that thirst by drinking water from a well? You better boil or purify it first, for which you need containers and equipment, otherwise illness could await. Oh and don’t just take one drink – you need multiple.

These survival elements are a massive leap in sophistication over the original mod and, to be crystal clear, I think this kind of depth is what makes DayZ fantastic. But things like the differences between drinking soda and drinking water are only clear through a bunch of trial-and-error or googling, and I don’t think giving players some basic guidance towards obvious and hidden mechanics would be a bad thing. The balance also seems a little askew at the moment, with your character constantly thirsty regardless of how well-hydrated you keep them, but this is the kind of parameter that can be easily tweaked.

 

[CSM]

And RPS is right, it's silly that there are a bunch of games nowadays that refuse to offer any ingame information and constantly force you to go to user-made Wikis to find how you're actually supposed to play the game;

 

[SoupNazi]

Yeah, there's a huge difference between a quest compass giving you exact directions and a simple statement that (for example) "I have quenched my thirst" doesn't mean your virtual "thirst meter" is full - it only means that you're no longer dying of thirst. You need to drink a lot more (otherwise you'll be dehydrated in 2 minutes again). This is one of the things that was only resolved by someone on reddit posting a trial and error gained knowledge about it.

 

[Zewp]

snip

You should take your apologetics to the Steam forums. It would be welcomed with open arms there. After a year of development their zombie and loot spawn are completely broken, the two things that are core to the mod's functioning. You'd think that during the development these two things would get highest priority alongside ensuring the netcode works properly.

But I guess that's okay. It's more important that we're able to play dress up with our characters than that the core of the game actually works.

 

[CSM]

Not apologizing for anything, just pointing out that you're a dumbass for buying a broken alpha version. And again: where do you get this retarded idea that a year of development is a long time?

 

[Wilian]

Not apologizing for anything, just pointing out that you're a dumbass for buying a broken alpha version. And again: where do you get this retarded idea that a year of development is a long time?

It is quite when you have pretty much finished engine, map (As far as I know, it's still same area as in the mod, just tweaked) and only need to add features/some network code. Many of the mods based on DayZ have far more fleshed out feature-sets, not nearly as many bugs and haven't been in developement as long.

 

[cherry blossom]

Any game striving for realism and thus a reduction in UI needs to take into account our awareness of our bodies. Not down to a scientific meter but you will always have a more or less accurate idea about your state of your (de)hydration or if and how much you are thirsty or full, or sleepy or hungry etc. I guess it was a bit too specific in DayZ the mod but the way the standalone does away with them completely is just stupid.

And judging from the state of Alpha, they can't possibly have more then 4 people working on it. rockett himself working on the game systems, loot, zombies etc. or doing whatever it is he is doing, one level designer revising Cherno and adding the interiors, one programmer for reworking the engine and let's throw in one more person for extra measure, doing animations and whatnot. With any more than that, the game would have to be a in a far better state after such a long time.

Also the new run-and-jump-over-fences is a bit too consolishly popamole. There is no weight or momentum to it!

 

[DefJam101]

The DayZ mod was utterly destroyed by the presence of third person and if they don't fix that shit ASAP the exact same thing is going to happen in the standalone version.

Retards love third person because it makes them feel safe (even though it has the opposite effect) and normal people love to play on populated servers. The end result is a bunch of populated, third person servers full of people wondering why sitting in a treeline with a scoped rifle for hours on end is such a popular line of work

 

[CSM]

It is quite when you have pretty much finished engine, map (As far as I know, it's still same area as in the mod, just tweaked) and only need to add features/some network code.

Did you even play DayZ? The original engine is completely unsuitable for what they're trying to accomplish, and the big question is whether they have been able to properly redesign the Take On Helicopters branch to make it work.

Any game striving for realism and thus a reduction in UI needs to take into account our awareness of our bodies. Not down to a scientific meter but you will always have a more or less accurate idea about your state of your (de)hydration or if and how much you are thirsty or full, or sleepy or hungry etc. I guess it was a bit too specific in DayZ the mod but the way the standalone does away with them completely is just stupid.

And judging from the state of Alpha, they can't possibly have more then 4 people working on it. rockett himself working on the game systems, loot, zombies etc. or doing whatever it is he is doing, one level designer revising Cherno and adding the interiors, one programmer for reworking the engine and let's throw in one more person for extra measure, doing animations and whatnot. With any more than that, the game would have to be a in a far better state after such a long time.

Also the new run-and-jump-over-fences is a bit too consolishly popamole. There is no weight or momentum to it!

I think I read somewhere they were trying to emulate Space Station 13. Pretty silly since the original indicators worked just fine.

The DayZ mod was utterly destroyed by the presence of third person and if they don't fix that shit ASAP the exact same thing is going to happen in the standalone version.

Retards love third person because it makes them feel safe (even though it has the opposite effect) and normal people love to play on populated servers. The end result is a bunch of populated, third person servers full of people wondering why sitting in a treeline with a scoped rifle for hours on end is such a popular line of work

Or you could just join a server with third person disabled.

 

[thesoup]

The DayZ mod was utterly destroyed by the presence of third person and if they don't fix that shit ASAP the exact same thing is going to happen in the standalone version.

Retards love third person because it makes them feel safe (even though it has the opposite effect) and normal people love to play on populated servers. The end result is a bunch of populated, third person servers full of people wondering why sitting in a treeline with a scoped rifle for hours on end is such a popular line of work

Or you could just join a server with third person disabled.

They don't exist.

 

[codexian reject]

Any game striving for realism and thus a reduction in UI [...]

Only striving for Immershun™ leads to UI reduction. Realistic game requires clean and detailed UI, to present you all important info.

 

[cherry blossom]

Good point, though not all of it needs to pushed in your face all the time.