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.
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'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 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.
Before the PC 1.0, we've made an attempt at Focused Feedback rounds[forums.dayz.com] 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