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DayZ, for all of its incompleteness and bugs, proved something very important over the holidays - that players matter. As a game, DayZ is flat out broken and the developers warned as such to the community. It's not optimized, it's ugly in many respects and it's not a very good shooter. But that hasn't mattered too much in terms of the title reaching success.

Even at a hefty $30 price for an alpha build, the standalone DayZ (based on the beloved ARMA 2 mod) outsold everything on Steam - even the far cheaper, complete, critically acclaimed games during the fall sales period. Why? Because it does something that other games don't do - it's a human experiment of sorts in a post-apocalyptic open-world where the occasional zombie can be found.

The idea of not knowing where you are, having to use your wit and survival skills to explore and find resources, is one thing. Coming across other players who can help you, kill you, kidnap you is what makes DayZ so unique and interesting. It offers a type of gameplay that's going to change the industry much in the way Minecraft did a few years back.

Game-breaking errors, server crashes and character wipes aside, the following fun flow chart accurately (and hilariously) explains the life cycle of a player in DayZ:

As for the game itself, updates are continuing to roll out. Last week's update added to test servers from game creator Dean Hall is releasing for players this week and Hall took to the forums to list the known issues and updates coming in the latest patch. The full list of patch notes can be seen on page 2 but the update will hit the main servers this week.

The highlights include quite a few new animations and crafting options, clapping and pointing gestures, more helmet and backpack options, more loot spawn locations (i.e. in police stations) and tougher zombies (the army ones).

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Page 2: DayZ Patch Notes

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The DayZ early access alpha is currently available on PC with a beta release expected in late 2014/early 2015.

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Sources: Dean HallTk

Branch: Experimental

ETA to Stable: 5-7 February 2014
Version: 0.33.114855
Known Issues:
  • Spawns: Loot is not spawning in military tents
  • Spawns: Some structures in Svetlo currently do not spawn loot
  • Server: Servers under load can delay actions from the client
  • Graphics: Only 4 dynamic light sources will be rendered at one time currently
  • Crafting: Attachments dependent on other attachments (e.g. flashlight on M4) may be lost when painting weapons (will appear on ground, eventually)
What are experimental/stable branches?
In your steam application settings, you can choose a "beta branch". This allows you to opt in to our experimental branch to try it out.
Does my saved character get affected in experimental branch?
No. It runs on a different database, so any changes will not affect your character on stable branch.
I can't find a slot while on experimental branch!
Only a small number of servers run this branch. You will need to change your game back to the stable branch and play on a normal server
Can I join a stable branch server wil experimental branch client?
No, you would need to change your client back to stable.
When will this be in stable?
We expect stable to be updated before the end of that week (by 7 February 2014).
Why has <insert any bug> not been fixed yet when there is new content coming in?
While priorities are very important when assigning work, there is a limit to how many people can work on a complex task without making it even more complex. Also, many of the team are focused purely on content/design so while the important stuff is being fixed, they continue to provide content and design updates.
Is mouse acceleration being fixed?
It is not fixed in this update, but we plan to make control changes. It is not as simple as turning it "off" as the speed your character turns is not dictated by the mouse itself, but your movements combined with the type of weapon you have, how tired you are, etc.
New:
  • Actions: chambering SKS round from pile, loading 10 rounds from pile
  • Actions: You can uncuff other players with the hacksaw
  • Actions: Cannot use an item (e.g. drink/eat) if it is "Ruined"
  • Actions: Interactions with items reworked. Drinking/Eating/etc... more robust and user-friendly
  • Actions: Restrained players cannot use inventory or action menu
  • Animations: Player now can take and hide rifle in crouched run
  • Animations: SKS reload animations
  • Animations: firing weapon when sprinting will transition player into the aimed run(with some temporary limitations)
  • Crafting: FNX45 pistol can be chambered with single round
  • Crafting: Opening cans with combat knife added
  • Crafting: Opening cans with machete added
  • Crafting: Painting Motorbike Helmets to Black and Green
  • Crafting: Waterbottles and canteens now allow pouring water between them
  • Effects: Magnum revolver ejecting shells when reloading
  • Effects: Magnum revolver sounds - gunshots, reloading
  • Effects: Mosin ejecting shells when cycling
  • Effects: New Mosin sounds - gunshots, cycling, reloading
  • Gear: Improvised courier backpack added
  • Gear: Machete added
  • Gear: Hard hats added in various colors
  • Gear: Motorcycle Helmets have black visor variants
  • Gear: Small, uncomfortable, and silly (but cute) children's school backpack
  • Gestures: Clapping Gesture added, default F5 key
  • Gestures: Pointing Gesture added, default F6 key
  • Login: Player queuing system introduced. Penalty waiting time added for switching server or disconnecting a server quickly
  • Login: Players receive a login timeout when disconnect, increased if disconnect within 30 minutes of joining (max 5 minutes)
  • Login: When players logout, their avatar sits on ground for 30 seconds. Players must make sure they logout somewhere safe
  • Server: Player spawns now cached by engine directly, increasing performance
  • Spawns: Added Bubble goose jackets into the loot spawns
  • Spawns: Added SKS rifle, speedloader, ammunition piles and boxes and SKS bayonet into the loot spawns
  • Spawns: Healthcare Center now spawns loot
  • Spawns: Police stations now spawn loot
  • Systems: Hunger and Thirst slightly modified.
  • Systems: Notifications added to UI for hydration and high energy
  • Systems: Fractures can now occur due to melee and shot damage, not just environmental
  • Systems: Fractures (arms/legs) now saved and loaded correctly from database
  • Translations: Added strings for all consumable items (Gas canisters, Batteries etc) and container items (First aid kit etc) for English, with some Spanish and Russian
  • Zombies: Different types of Military zombies now have tougher attack values and improved durability
  • Zombies: Engine dynamic obstacle checking (zombie, another player)
  • Zombies: Svetlojarsk zombie spawns added
Fixed:
  • Actions: morphine injection can be used on other player effectively fixing his broken legs and item correctly positioned in hands
  • Actions: Keys won't disappear after uncuffing
  • Actions: loading ammo works for sprayed Mosin variants
  • Actions: Read/Writing notes with paper and pen now works again
  • Actions: reviving with epinephrine or defibrillator works also if player blood is below 500 units of blood
  • Actions: Actions on another player no longer have an unlimited distance (max 2 meters)
  • Art: Bug allowing players to clip through geometry of the police station building.
  • Animations: fixed an issue where reload in prone would leave some residue sound clutter at the end of the reload animation
  • Animations: Weapon reloading for magazine was not working properly when no magazine fitted
  • Animations: Rifle Aimed Walk Updated, diagonal animations fixed
  • Animations: Sidestepping through doorway with rifle while crouching should not cause the player to get stuck now
  • Animations: knocking down player now possible in prone states, (possibly fixing the issue with frozen characters)
  • Animations: changed animation for equipping the compass
  • Animations: Proper animation played when taking pistol in run
  • Animations: Changing stances is faster now both for armed and unarmed player
  • Animations: Skinning problem with armored zombies that caused the model to warp during some animations
  • Animations: Standing with aimed weapon now allows for higher angle of tilt/bend
  • Config: Berries have more nutrition now
  • Crafting: You can no longer saw off sawed off shotgun
  • Crafting: Can spraypaint M4 to green or black
  • Crafting: Damage is now transferred when items are painted
  • Crafting: Improved Backpack creation only possible when Courier Bag is empty (previously items accidentally deleted)
  • Crafting: Weapon cleaning kit can't be used when it's "Ruined" and won't reduce condition of a gun
  • Crafting: Spraypainting an M4 won't delete your carry handle
  • Effects: Dazed effect plays again when a player is hit/damaged/shot
  • Effects: Some effects were not active locally when a player was restrained
  • Fixed: Missing texture error dz\weapons\data\weapons_damage_metal_smdi.paa
  • Fixed: Popping up texture error for beret models
  • Gear: Spraycans won't deplete after relogging
  • Gear: Book, radio, pot, pan, gas canisters, matchbox, paper, firewood and stone can be placed in hands
  • Gear: Headlamp beam raised slightly
  • Gear: Painted items now retain their previous quantities (i.e. Magazine ammo won't reset)
  • Gear: Various item descriptions and notifications fixed for grammar, typos, more detail
  • Gear: ZSh-3 Pilot helmet fixed and updated
  • Gear: Hoxton and Dallas masks where displayed in center of character, now display on face
  • Gear: Splint position in hand was wrong now corrected
  • Gestures: Taunt defaults correctly to F4 key
  • Graphics: "god rays" could cause overloaded post-processing and graphical corruption
  • Graphics: fix of removing shining object from hand (switch off)
  • Graphics: Roads have per pixel lights
  • Graphics: Dynamic lights should be now defined with "radius" value which is maximum radius of light in meters
  • Graphics: Tooltips are now not displayed for quickbar items, as it is a reference to type not specific item
  • Login: Respawn button now works correctly
  • Login: Various bugs fixed associated with connection errors that could cause a character to be deleted or killed by the server
  • Spawns: Lowered chance of Taloon and Mountain backpacks spawning
  • Spawns: Drastically lowered chance of backpacks spawning on the construction site
  • Spawns: Loot spawn tweaks in some civilian structures
  • Weapons: Mosin recoil increased
  • Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun can be loaded with ammo (was broken due to changed inheritance)
  • Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun: reduced size in inventory, reduced spread
  • Weapons: It is no longer possible to attach longrange scope onto SKS
  • Weapons: M4 carry handle can now be attached to painted variants of M4
  • Zombies: Better filter/check of attack hits directly in engine
  • Zombies: Military zombies made tougher
Hotfixed:
  • Crash: Irregular crash of server in corpse garbage collector consequence of this is that the bodies will not disappear if other player is in vicinity
  • Crash: Creating item using recipe system caused serious server crash when not enough space in inventory
  • Crash: Client crash on exit, all systems 100% reproduction
  • System: Previous build caused overzealous starvation to occur