DayZ News

Dear Survivors! We've just released the PC Stable Update 1.01 on Steam (both game update and server files). This is the first in a series of Platform Updates that we will publish throughout the year, with the focus this time being on stability, fixes, server performance improvements, and the introduction of two new firearms.
https://youtu.be/caGOYM7eeYE
 

With each Platform Update, we're aiming to expand the variety of content available in the game. Our choice for 1.01 were two classic 7.62x39 rifles previously available in the legacy builds: the SK 59/66 and the CR-527, also supported by the re-introduction of the Hunting Scope!


A ten-shot semi-automatic rifle fed from an internal magazine. It is an older model, but still reliable, using 7.62x39mm rounds. Can be equipped with a PU scope and an improvised suppressor.



A bolt-action hunting rifle, fed from a detachable magazine. It's light-weight and accurate when used at intermediate ranges. Uses 7.62x39mm rounds. Can be equipped with a Hunting Scope and an improvised suppressor.

 

Undesirable persistence wipes were definitely among the most annoying issues reported in 1.0. With 1.01, we're introducing a system of Persistence Backups that aims meant to prevent problems with saving of the persistence data on the servers. 

This system will be available to both official and community owned server. We've seen some pretty good results on the Experimental branch so far. In any case, we will still be closely monitoring all incoming reports should any loot, bases, or other persistence data get deleted after server crashes/restarts.

 

Good server performance is critical to ensure an enjoyable DayZ gameplay experience. In 1.01, our programmers have made some solid progress on that front. Official vanilla servers running at full capacity with 60 concurrent players should no longer be witnessing flying cars and other shenanigans on a regular basis. 

As far as community/modded servers go, please understand that increased player counts may and other modifications to the server setup have a significant impact on the server performance, and problems may occur.

We will continue with further optimisations over the upcoming updates. The most curious of you can take a look at the report on this topic by our Lead Programmer, Mirek Maněna.

 

The voice chat in 1.01 is using a completely new codec that bumps the overall quality of the Voice over Network sound - especially with a high quality microphone. We've also added a mumbling sound filter for players who try to communicate when their speech is restrained with a rag.

 

As a first step towards balancing the health and damage systems, we've added new icon status indicators that better communicate bleeding damage and the effect of medication (for example, the vitamins will now boost your immune system). 

We've also made some adjustments to the player damage, with the most visible example being the reintroduction of a bleeding damage penalty when walking barefoot. Furthermore, we removed the chance variable for bleeding damage dealt by bullets. Now, every bullet scratch causes bleeding 100 percent of the time.

 

TrackIR is a head tracking input device that allows you to use freelook independently from your mouse controls, and 1.01 now fully supports this input method. Popular and proven in Arma, introducing this input method was pretty straightforward for us, so we made that option available already. If you own TrackIR, you'll definitely have some fun when driving around in your ADA!

 

In addition to the highlights, we've introduced over 50 other changes and tweaks that make DayZ a better game. Read the full changelog below!

Notes on the Update

• Please verify your game files before playing, including User Data
• Storage files from the Experimental branch of the game may not be compatible with the Stable branch
• We've done some changes to the VoN Codec, so as server owners, when moving your current Server Config to the new patch, be sure to change your vonCodecQuality = 20
• We recommend a persistence wipe for modded servers.
• In case of problems, please check the Bohemia Interactive support F.A.Q., DayZ F.A.Q., or BattlEye F.A.Q.

 
ADDED:

• Added: SK 59/66
• Added: CR-527
• Added: Hunting Scope
• Added: Recovery backups to deal with data corruption during crashes, and user-scheduled backups
• Added: New stream from Kozlovka to Balota
• Added: Over time self-closing of bleeding wounds
• Added: Expanded admin logs (player positions, deaths and received hits)
• Added: Script versioning to prevent future data incompatibilities
• Added: Support for TrackIR head-tracking device
• Added: Support for bullet shells dropping, and new sounds
• Added: New audio controller for positional sounds, allowing us procedural control number or sound sources on models (Used to reduce number of bird sounds on trees.)
• Added: Tree stem creak sounds
• Added: Sounds when dropping items
• Added: Implemented EQ filter for unconscious state
• Added: Sound position offset feature to config
• Added: New sounds for bullet shells dropping
• Added: Antibiotics can fight diseases
• Added: Vitamins can boost player's immune system
• Added: Long torch (made of a long stick and rags)
• Added: Various severities of bleeding
• Added: Bleeding from bare feet
• Added: Status indicators for bleeding and active medicament
• Added: Masks and headgear provide some level of biological protection
• Added: Close/open compass animations
• Added: Voice effects for mumbling when gagged
• Added: Ctrl + LMB will drop item from container (inventory)

FIXED

• Fixed: A server crash when a character with a corrupt inventory tries to connect
• Fixed: A server crash when a server with a garden plot on it was restarted
• Fixed: A server crash related to script array manipulation crashes
• Fixed: A client crash related to script array manipulation
• Fixed: A client crash related to a light being removed while still in use
• Fixed: Multitude of environmental issues (missing collisions, sudden LOD changes, hit materials, models adjustments) - as reported in Ticket T136380
• Fixed: Typos in localization
• Fixed: Possibility to toggle headlights when both are missing or destructed
• Fixed: Some actions on target have incomplete action messages
• Fixed: Crafting improvised suppressor took only 1% from the duct tape
• Fixed: Landmine not detonating when it becomes ruined while it is armed
• Fixed: Various IK poses (Stone, Medium Tent, BK-18)
• Fixed: Chemlights glowing in cargo for 10 seconds
• Fixed: Animals have no collisions with vehicles
• Fixed: Shooting through a ruined suppressor did not emit muzzle flash
• Fixed: Fireplace does not upgrade to stone circle if smaller stacks of stone are used
• Fixed: Wolves attack animals rather then humans
• Fixed: Sound sources on trees move with entity during cut down tree action
• Fixed: SG5-K with compensator uses regular gun shots sounds (used sounds for silencer)
• Fixed: Sea chest can be put into another sea chest - T135962
• Fixed: When preforming suicide headgear does not get damaged
• Fixed: Player's ankles can disappear while wearing Orel police pants
• Fixed: Bullets are not registered after the weapon was raised close to the wall - as reported in Ticket T136559
• Fixed: AIs get stuck near obstacles (reduced chance of occurrence)
• Fixed: Motorbike helmet visually disappears after few steps
• Fixed: Player gear is teleported to exact place where he logged in after being skinned and quartered - as reported in Ticket T136367
• Fixed: icons representing ammo are small - as reported in Ticket T136555
• Fixed: Tactical googles have no texture - as reported in Ticket T135082
• Fixed: AI walking through ground pipes
• Fixed: Server crash - as reported in Ticket T134543 + T136323 + T135501
• Fixed: Server crash when HTTP request does  not return OK
• Fixed: Player might not be killed when shot with 12ga pellet
• Fixed: Wooden logs get duplicated when building base of Fence and WatchTower
• Fixed: ADA 4x4 won't stop after driver jumps out of it
• Fixed: Some clothes cannot be damaged on ground
• Fixed: Removing the rag from the mouth, make the rag slots smaller
• Fixed: Temperature measurement has a question mark in the result text
• Fixed: Players are able to access dismantle action on towers from the outside - as reported in Ticket T136666
• Fixed: Bullets do not interfere with the player's body when fired through sea water

TWEAKED:

• Tweaked: Inventory improvements in the visuals and performance of inventory code, including the
  • addition of hierarchical attachment visualisation,
  • hiding unused attachment categories (greatly uncluttered the Watchtower for example),
  • inclusion of dedicated icons for these categories and overall bugfixes.)
• Tweaked: Improvements to server performance (central economy, networking and AI)
• Tweaked: Weapon muzzle attachments now steam during rain while they are hot
• Tweaked: Weapons animations polishing (animations speed, clipping)
• Tweaked: Sounds for climbing ladders
• Tweaked: Sounds for take item in hand action
• Tweaked: Projectile speed and air friction
• Tweaked: Rebalanced projectile damage
• Tweaked: Rebalanced character damage system
• Tweaked: Rebalanced armor against projectiles
• Tweaked: Shock damage for projectiles (chance to fall into unconsciousness increased)
• Removed: Chances for bleeding wounds from projectiles hit
• Removed: Flickering effect (roadflare)
• Tweaked: Antibiotics and vitamins only support single use consume action
• Tweaked: Traps no longer function as melee weapons
• Tweaked: Hen spawn zone reworked to better fit environment (should not spawn inside industrial and other unnatural areas)
• Tweaked: Many improvements, tweaks and fixes for ChernarusPlus terrain
• Tweaked: Improvements to server performance (central economy, remote projectiles are not real)
• Tweaked: Damage to bare foot for non-roadway surfaces
• Tweaked: Infected damage system
• Tweaked: Recoil (KA-M, BK-18, M4-A1,Mosin 91/30 and VSD)
• Removed: Chance to spawn SG5-K with 15Rnd magazine
• Updated: Inventory icons (placeholder icons replaced)
• Tweaked: IK pose for long torch
• Tweaked: Rangefinder zoom set to 4x
• Updated: Credits

 KNOWN ISSUES

• It is currently not possible to drink from certain water sources.
• When using the in-game text chat, you will not see your own messages. Other players can.
• 2-handed rifles can only be dragged and dropped via a small piece of their "Equipment" tab icon.
• A jammed BK-18 cannot be fixed.
  
• Official servers may be listed as private or in the Community tab.
   

Dear DayZ Community,

We are three weeks into our quite intensive development planning that will shape DayZ this year. It means sorting through, and selecting features, content, and timeline of their delivery - in practice a lot of meetings, whiteboard scribbles, and digging through our backlogs trying to identify what we're able to deliver this year, and when. In the meantime, normal development continues, and we have deployed a first bug fixing patch, with more bug fixing ahead of us of course, as we also have a backlog there to go through.

The first quarter of this year is pretty much all about spring cleaning, and us getting on track to more scheduled Stable Platform Updates bringing new content and fixes. The first Platform Update is on its way to be released in February, and we will share more details once it's live on Experimental. We want to improve the game in many areas. We also hear you loud and clear and are aware of a vast amount of reported issues. They will get the attention they deserve when there's a right time for that, for now, let's look at some of the most critical and immediate ones.

 
Server Performance - server performance affects everything, from user actions taking too long, doors not opening, infected that stutter, to vehicle physics behaving in weird ways. Most of the gameplay can get affected when the server FPS dip below 20, and currently, that's happening on full or high population servers more often than acceptable. As such, this is our top priority to sort out. While the build out there right now has seen a noticeable FPS increase on low population servers, it still does not scale well enough when more players are active, and we are tracking possible causes of this server performance drop.
https://clips.twitch.tv/CarefulJoyousPhoneJonCarnage

Persistence - right now, we are preparing a safety net for persistence that will help the current shortcomings where entire areas get wiped when the server crashes during the writing process of the snapshot of the world state. In simpler terms, the persistence data does not save correctly because of a crash. The proposed solution is in testing and will land on Experimental once ready. When that happens, we will do our best to share useful information on the usage and functionality of the safety net solution. 

Picture by GallopingGepard

Server Browser - we know the new server browser still has its flaws, and performance issues which are getting in the way of the DayZ experience. We are looking into possible improvements on a more granular level; however, those might take time, so at first, we will dig into the issues that damage the experience the most. Once there is more information to share, we will provide an update.


Animation issues - we are tracking multiple issues that break characters/weapons and more, and these require engine level fixes that are in discussion right now. Once e details get sorted out, and fixes are confirmed, we will talk about these in greater detail. 


The issues above are our primary areas of interest as of now, but the list of reported issues goes on, from bullet damage to medical items not serving any real purpose, or item placing being very limited, and more. While the list above does represent some of the reported issues (arguably the ones that break the gameplay experience the most), it does not mean we're not considering, or working on the rest. 

 

We'll do justice to our company motto - Curiosity, Creativity, Community - by delivering significant modding improvements this year. Documentation, samples, and fixes that make new things possible are all in our pipeline. We will look at the topics of licenses and content usage, as well as making sure that with upcoming Platform Updates, we provide Experimental server branch to everybody so that both server owners and content creators can look at the game changes happening, and make necessary arrangements for their creations.

We're already seeing lots of cool creations in the Steam Workshop (some prime examples in the video below!), and it'll be exciting to see what's possible in the future. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pcfwt8RHsA

We have a massive weapons backlog to go through, and you can expect that we will not only look into current issues with firearms (both visual and functional), damage and unconsciousness values but most importantly into that big stash of weapons that haven't been implemented yet. Our weapons strike team has already managed to make steps toward having two new firearms implemented in the upcoming February Platform Update. We will share more details when they're ready.


Vehicles have a lot more polish coming to them this year in terms of stability and functionality. As already mentioned, we know and understand that server performance has a huge impact on the experience, especially when player counts go beyond the recommended 60 players on community servers. Server optimisation plays a huge part in our early spring cleaning, so bear with us. While this is, of course, important, we can't forget that we should expand the variety of vehicular transport; this year will bring more options to players. Once again, we will share more details on the upcoming vehicles once we're sure we're ready to deliver.


Recently, we've opened a round of Community Feedback targeted at our Xbox Survivors, and it proved to be a great source of useful information. Our console specialists in Bratislava are already looking into Xbox specific issues that were reported often and can be scheduled for a relatively easy fix, and there are of course the more complex issues like rendering and performance drops that are being investigated. DayZ launched with very decent frames in Xbox Game Preview, and we believe we can get rid of the current drops. It will take some time though.

We also know that we still have a large sleeper community on PlayStation 4 patiently waiting for a release. While we are currently not able to dedicate more resources to advancing with another platform, we're taking small steps towards a PS4 release later this year. 


With many internal changes in planning and how we approach update releases overall, we will also need to be rethinking how often and in what forms we're communicating with you. We still have a lot of brainstorming to do, but it's very likely that the frequency of development Status Reports will no longer follow the 2 week period. Instead, we'd like to think of ways how to more actively work with what's happening in the community, engage in the events organised by community server owners, and improve the direct communication across channels. 

Before the PC 1.0, we've made an attempt at Focused Feedback rounds with our game designers, and we'd like to get back to that idea when we know our developers can invest the time into carefully evaluating the feedback we receive on balancing, or specific game design topics. 

What we mentioned today is merely a fraction of things that are ahead of us this year; there's more to share down the road, but only when we're ready to talk about it. Once our internal roadmap is fleshed out, we will start our deep dive into how exactly DayZ will change this year.

Until then, see you all in Chernarus!


- Eugen Harton / Project Lead