5 Things to Get You Excited For DayZ Standalone!

For those of you who have played the DayZ mod for Arma 2, I'm sure you'll have heard about the DayZ Standalone version currently being developed. The problem is, it was planned for release almost a year ago! Understandably so, Dean Hall (Developer of DayZ) stated that he didn't want to release it until the game was fairly playable, but a lot of us hardcore DayZ fans wanted a first look at the game and play it while it was being developed!

Rants aside, they are still working hard to get the game finished - which we'll definitely appreciate in the long run. I'd rather wait a few weeks/months longer and get a PROPER zombie survival game, not a terribly buggy, poorly optimized excuse of a game. My only worry with this whole extended development time is that the DayZ hype is slowly, but surely, dying. A lot of my fellow gamers have essentially given up on waiting for the game and are moving on to other zombie-style games. It's a bit sad to watch, since many of the up and coming features of the standalone are going to be absolutely jaw-droppingly amazing! Just to help you re-light your good old DayZ passion, here are some of the features planned for DayZ standalone:

• New inventory system! One of the main issues of Arma 2/DayZ mod was that the inventory system was completely counter-intuitive. People who played it regularly got used to it and were able to use it relatively easily, but for those new to the game it usually ended in getting a bullet through their head while trying to pick up a can of baked beans! Luckily for us, the DayZ dev team took this into consideration and re-designed the whole thing! It is now based around a drag-and-drop format (Similar to Arma 3), making picking up, moving and combining items a whole lot easier.

• Item and locational damage! One of the main aims of the dev team is to get the standalone to be as realistic as possible, so they came up with the idea for a player's items to be damaged when they were shot. This includes weapon deterioration and clothes/gear to run a high risk of being damaged. Realism wasn't their only aim when designing this however, as they also added it in an effort to prevent the shoot-on-sight mentality which we're all too familiar with. I think it's a great concept, because shooting someone for their gear would mean that the gear would most likely be damaged to a point where it's no longer worth picking up!

• Gradual gear deterioration! Linking back to the previous point, your gear will gradually get damaged one way or another. In this case however, some parts of your gear will naturally get damaged from wear and tear. Your shoes, for example, will now slowly wear away the more you walk/run. They will start to look more worn and scruffy as they deteriorate, to a point where they no longer serve any purpose. Once they are in this state, your feet will start taking the burden from constant moving around, causing the player to run slower or possibly even start limping about!

• Custom radio! If you watched some E3 gameplay, you'll have noticed that they're adding WORKING radios to the game! This means that you can tune in to your favourite custom internet radio station, and have some music accompanying you while you travel around Chernarus. Yes, you read correctly - people will be able to sign up and externally broadcast their own internet radio stations! Sounds quite exciting, huh? The only (obvious) downside is that zombies will want to join in on your dance party, possibly munching off a few faces while they're there y'know...

• Last - but certainly not least - a proper client-server architecture! They've re-designed the whole server architecture, finally! In Arma 2/DayZ mod it was a case of every single event on the map being broadcast to every single player, taking a MASSIVE toll on the servers (which is where all that desync comes from!) and enabling 2-year olds to be able to hack the game. They've now completely redone it, creating a MMO style client-server architecture. This, for one, will fix the desync issues but also (hopefully) prevent hackers from getting their greasy little fingers on their precious hacks. No more rainbow cars, fully automatic AS50s and most definitely no more being teleported around the map!

Anyway, I hope that's enough to get your interest in the standalone going again. I know it's been a long wait, and I know a lot of us are getting rather impatient, but when the game is finally released we'll look back at this and realize that it was all worth the wait! If there's any news about it, I'll make sure to keep you posted.

Happy gaming, as always!

Rip

Because of it's delayed release, I'm concerned about DayZ using the RV3 engine (or is Dean Hall updating it to the latest engine?) because Arma 3 seems to run pretty well in terms of performance and controls. Just wasn't a fan of the sluggish controls in Arma 2.

meh.. actually there are better *new* features in the mods.

DayZ mod

DayZ Overwatch

DayZRP

DayZero etc..

Base building, better and more extensive crafting.

Any stand out additons here will be added into the mods, which all those with the current mod can get for free?

I think they missed the window, those that still play the mod, are playing the new mods and helping to add new features all the time.

Hackers gonna hack? Yeah it still happens (not nearly as much as it used to), and if they think a stand alone will stop that? err I dont think so.

@mhofever:

They're using the Take On Helicopter engine, which is a branch of the RV engine. They did say that they're breaking it down to virtually nothing and re-designing it completely with some code from Arma 3, so hopefully they'll do a good job of that. The controls are definitely not going to be as complex as Arma 3 though - Dean said that he wants to create 'citizen-like' controls (which I assume would be quite similar to Arma 2, to an extent).

@godonholiday:

You have a point, the mods really have got a ton of awesome features on them. They have missed the window and given us a lot of deadlines not met, but when it comes out (provided they design it to be modded flexibly) I think they'll be able to do a good enough job to bring most people forward to the Standalone. If they miss out on the community modding aspect though then I agree with you, they've missed the window completely.

Of course there will always be hackers, it's part of any online environment. However, with the MMO architecture, the players aren't sent every single detail of every part of the map, making certain hacks such as maphacks a lot less common. It's not the standalone itself that stops hackers, it's the completely different client-server structure which will do the job.

@RipJaw101: Agreed, but I doubt it will be out this year. In the mean time, the Mods as I said, offer everything and more that the standalone does. If it is a 'closed' game.. then why would you buy it? The mods have new updates out weekly.

@godonholiday: You're right, the mods do currently offer a lot more than what we know of the standalone. They did say that when it is released they'll develop it in a similar way to Minecraft, with the progressive updates and development, but if they don't take modding into consideration then I'll be hugely disappointed, especially because of the long wait we've already had. I suppose we'll have to wait and hope that it'll be worth the extremely long time it's taking to develop - a new, cleaner engine is something that the mods unfortunately can't fix... If they could combine the two concepts it would be perfect.

Only thing is.. was/is the wait worth what we'll be getting. And we won't find out until it's released and who knows when that will be. I just don't like being left in the dark, even if they release some news update once in a while. Nothing is definitive with them and I don't like that. It's the main reason I've given up on Valve and any future HL games because there's no point in caring/waiting/giving a damn when there are so many games out there that deserve attention and our wallets. Don't get me wrong, I know you guys hang on to this hope that it will be great.. it will be great. I don't doubt that. It's just that way of thinking doesn't mean much. I am always disheartened when I see a game go into development limbo and we're kinda just hanging out in the dark. That's never good.

I can completely relate to start not really caring anymore. I'm no doubt getting this day-one, but they really can't afford to have people lose interest as the game is based on MP. The longer it takes the worse it'll get.

War Z FTW! haha. But seriously this game has been delayed for so long, I lost all interest.

Also lost interest. Maybe I'll care again in five years when it's actually finished.

It's been so long since i've played DayZ. I quit for two reason: Too buggy, I'll lose my most prized guns by it disappearing out of to no where when trying to put it into my pack. Too much hackers, pretty self explanatory.