Keeping Up with DayZ Standalone
I’m not sure about you guys, but I’m craving some serious zombie killing and survival gaming in my life ever since I stopped playing DayZ. I’m sure everyone and their grandmother’s cat heard about and played the DayZ mod for Arma 2 last year and perhaps still do today. But the last time I played it was when Brandon and I spawned in Komarovo and Kamenka respectively and met up near the Balota air field after half an hour of running from zombies only to be teleported to a camp and shot execution style. Hackers are what ruined DayZ for me, although white listed servers take care of this problem. I miss patiently waiting in a bush while my heart beat rises and can’t wait for the standalone game.
I’ve been keeping up with their blog and videos on Dean Hall’s youtube channel and here are some of things you can expect in DayZ standalone that are different from the mod.
In a nutshell, they’ve made changes to,
Zombie spawning
All zombies will spawn on the server side now, which means there won’t be any zombies “popping” in front of a player. This also means that zombie presence and player presence will be unrelated. When zombie spawning is on the client side, experienced players deduce the presence of another player nearby. This is no longer the case, which makes it harder for you as the player because you have to be vigilant constantly. It also makes it harder for your doctor, because he can’t figure out why you have high blood pressure.
This also lets the devs control the movement of zombie groups, meaning there won’t be (as many) empty grasslands to run around and frolic in.
Inventory
We’ve seen some clothing they added in the first standalone video they showed off but the most important thing to note from this video is Dean mentioning how they plan to add a drag and drop system for player inventory (right before the 8 min mark). They’ve also added a Minecraft style hot key bar to quickly access items from your inventory instead of actually having to go into the awful inventory menu to apply bandages while zombies are chasing you. You can apparently use up to 9 hotkeys, as mentioned by one of the playtesters Dean is talking to. This is a huge improvement in user experience.
Pathfinding
A big problem in the mod is zombie paths when they’re chasing players. They typically move where players “used to be” instead of where they currently are and this caused them longer to get to you. So you could run around in circles and they would never catch you. They’ve implemented a “best path” mechanism to correct this and the end of the video demonstrates how well this works. Zombie pathfinding will also be processed on the server side, thereby improving some performance.
Miscellaneous
- They’ve redecorated interiors and the look of trees and grass. They’re working on making the grass look like Arma 3’s grass.
- Cars will have loot in them and you’ll be able to open and close the door to access its interior.
- They’re working on new skeletons for zombie and player models which will likely improve animations further.
- Helmets protect you from melee blows.
- Your trash may be used to track you with dogs. Yup.
So there you have it, DayZ standalone looks to be in decent shape especially with those UI improvements and certain functions being moved to server side. And now we wait for the game’s release, just like we wait in game to make our next move.
farez
FarezI started playing PC games as a young Mowgli impersonator on the mean streets of Mumbai. After moving to Vancouver in hopes of fulfilling my Canadian dream of running convenience stores in the forests of northern British Columbia, I realized I liked computer science. My diet consists of open world games, first person shooters and programming.
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