Pants Vs Zombies: 20 Minutes Of DayZ Standalone
DayZ's latest dev log features a man ingesting and then allegedly defecating a tin can, at which point Dean "Rocket" Hall nonchalantly decides to bend over, pick it up, and save it for later. This has led me to the following earth-shatteringly profound revelation: videogames are weird, you guys. Really weird. I doubt anyone else noticed, but I'm being totally honest! Most of the time, people don't procure their cans that way in real life. Also, zombies don't exist. The latest batch of Rocket-narrated DayZ footage, however, has those too! What's next, I ask you? Men ignoring the iron-etched laws of common decency and discarding their trousers with reckless abandon? Like filthy, brief-flaunting savages?
...Oh. Oh god.
While the video covers things like the new inventory system, zombie pathfinding, and looting's newfound complexities, Rocket also went over a few other subjects in more detail in a new blog entry. Among other things, his explanation of the new zombie spawning system - which will hopefully go a long way toward stopping cheaters dead (except, you know, permanently) in their tracks - definitely stands out.
"Now all zombies are spawned directly on the server and their movement is governed directly on the server itself. This has allowed us to provide increased security and hack prevention mechanisms by disabling functionality at the client level. It also means that zombies no longer 'pop' in and out of the world, previously used as a mechanism to tell if someone was in the area. It also paves the way for us to allow migrating zombies and zombies traversing open areas in search for their next meal."
Also of note: Chernarus has apparently been significantly expanded, and the health system now tracks things like the quality of your diet. Oh, and those scrumptious, savory cans I mentioned earlier? Well, if you're a litterbug, other players can use your rusty refuse as a means of tracking your movements. So yes, inventory management just got a bit more interesting.
Still no word on when standalone DayZ will walk among the living, but these new systems seem quite intricate, so the added dev time is understandable. Are these added wrinkles enough to re-snag your interest, though? Or do you think Rocket and co are hungrily wailing up the wrong tree?