- 4 ore fa
Dean Hall e compagni hanno rilasciato un nuovo videodiario per DayZ, in cui vengono affrontati gli elementi critici in lavorazione presso il team sulla versione stand alone del survival horror a mondo aperto.
In particolare, viene affrontato l'argomento dell'intelligenza artificiale degli zombie, di come questa sia stata rielaborata e sia al centro degli sforzi degli sviluppatori, al momento, ma che nonostante il grosso lavoro effettuato questo non comprometterà ulteriormente i tempi di uscita del gioco. In ogni caso, non ci sono ancora informazioni precise sul rilascio dell'alpha al pubblico.
In particolare, viene affrontato l'argomento dell'intelligenza artificiale degli zombie, di come questa sia stata rielaborata e sia al centro degli sforzi degli sviluppatori, al momento, ma che nonostante il grosso lavoro effettuato questo non comprometterà ulteriormente i tempi di uscita del gioco. In ogni caso, non ci sono ancora informazioni precise sul rilascio dell'alpha al pubblico.
Categoria
🎮️
VideogiochiTrascrizione
00:01Welcome to the Daisy Dev Blog for September. It's been quite an exciting month for us. We've had game shows,
00:08development, all sorts of things happening. So what we're going to do today is I'm just going to wrap up
00:13what some of the actions have been recently on that.
00:16Firstly I guess we've got the usability improvements. So we got a lot of good feedback from Gamescom and I'm
00:21going to go through those and detail them. You're going to see a few new items. We've got item degradation
00:27due to getting shot damage, ballistic armor protection, restraining of players and I'll also finish off with talking about a
00:36bit of time that we're spending on the network bubble, redoing the zombie AI from scratch as well as moving
00:42into our new offices which is what happens next week.
00:46So without further ado I suppose I will crack into it.
00:53Right, it's been a while since the last Dev Blog. This time I really wanted to make sure that I
00:59was getting a good clear message across and had good audio and everything else. So let's hope it goes well.
01:05What I really want to show is a large area of work that we've been doing based on usability from
01:12Gamescom which was a convention in Cologne, Germany recently where we had a lot of players, I don't know how
01:18many but we had like 20 computers, people playing through constantly.
01:21So there was a lot of usability stuff that came up and while we were working on the core network
01:26architecture and finishing that off, we thought it was a good chance to make it a lot easier to use.
01:32So I'm sure by now those who are familiar with the project will have seen the new inventory screen.
01:38So we did a lot of work making sure it was good before Gamescom but we learnt a lot.
01:46So one thing that people were often trying to do, it's easier if I use this one here, is a
01:51lot of this context related feedback to tell people what they want to do.
01:56So you can see here I can actually swap that item out with one that's on the ground like that
02:02and I can do the same thing on the weapon.
02:04So a lot of people were trying to do that and it wasn't working and they get real frustrated.
02:07So we think that's gone a long way, just simple little things like this to making it a lot more
02:12flexible.
02:14As well, you know, same thing with the buttstock, that's a two-spot item and yeah, so it works a
02:21lot better.
02:22And the same deal works with clothing as well which was something that people were trying to do.
02:27So they were trying to drag it on them or drag them in, you know, like directly onto the item
02:33or something like that.
02:34So let's say I didn't know how the slots work.
02:37I can just drag it onto the player there and you can see that it's actually swapping the items in
02:43and out.
02:43So I think that's going to go a long way to helping the player explore because when we're not providing
02:49feedback, players are getting really confused.
02:51We started looking at things like containers, a real yellow theme going on in today's dev blog.
02:56So at the moment you unfortunately can't put the containers into your hands.
03:03This is something that we want to do coming up in the future as the idea is you can actually
03:08put the container onto your hands and see it open.
03:11But for the moment it's in there.
03:12So the idea is to have these different containers that you can do different stuff with.
03:18So I've put it on here and I can actually open that up and then get those out.
03:24Notice how it takes up a lower space.
03:26We're going to be putting some restrictions around how different containers work and that kind of thing.
03:31But we think it's a pretty exciting area for development as well.
03:38So I think these usability improvements combined are going to go a long way to making things a lot more
03:48easier for the player to use and actually go around inside the environment.
03:54One of the things players might know as well is that we've now started to put a lot more of
04:00the transitions back in.
04:02As we've moved to this new skeleton rig the animators have been very busy trying to add lots of different
04:08animations.
04:10And we didn't have a lot of transitions from those.
04:13So you can see here with me running around essentially like an idiot.
04:17You can see that now there's a lot more of the transitions.
04:21Now this is based on some feedback that we had from players both at Gamescom and on the forums was
04:27that while armor can feel a little bit, for want of a better word, janky, what we're aiming for is
04:34I guess there's a balance between that.
04:36We want it to be usable but we also want your character to feel not so much inhabited but definitely,
04:43you know, that they're running around in a real environment.
04:46So this is, I must stress, this is definitely not final.
04:49It's basically the animators are now just starting to get the chance to actually start playing with some of these
04:55things.
04:56And the other weekend I actually, the other week, the other week I actually brought up the point that we're
05:01looking at for third person here actually bringing the camera right in.
05:07So that the camera will be, I can't demonstrate it here, but essentially the camera will be right in above
05:13the player's shoulder during certain movements.
05:15And I think that that's going to go a long, long way in actually improving how third person will be
05:23able to be used.
05:24You know, we certainly want to allow for people to turn third person off and that kind of thing.
05:29But I think that, yeah, that having a camera based solution will definitely be really useful in that regard.
05:42We took a lot of feedback with regard to how the reloading mechanism works.
05:47So originally in Gamescom you actually found little boxes or you could just find loose stacks like these rounds here.
05:54Then you unpack them and you could load them.
05:56Now, currently we don't have it that you can actually load it while it's on the weapon.
06:01And I realize some people think that this is going too far in terms of realism.
06:05But we really feel like magazines actually want to be a commodity.
06:13And we want to have lots of commodities in the game that you can find because it adds a real
06:18sense of economy and encourages trading and all those sorts of things that we really want to push with the
06:24standalone.
06:24So at the moment you actually have to take it off.
06:28But what we have been looking at doing is starting to play with this concept of putting things in your
06:32hands.
06:33And you can do that quite simply from the hot bar or you can do what I did there.
06:38And you can actually load the ammunition directly in your hands.
06:42We don't have an animation or much feedback at the moment but you can start to see the basic stuff
06:51formulating there.
06:52So I can actually, to give you an example, to swap the item in my hand and to reload it
06:58is a lot easier to do than previously.
07:02So here in front of my avatar here you can see three sets of boots, each with varying states.
07:10So the ones in front, right in front of me here, are actually in excellent condition.
07:15The ones to the right are damaged and the ones on the left are destroyed.
07:19So your item damage has a significant impact on how your player actually functions.
07:27And so we'll take a look at how that looks in the inventory now.
07:30So if I hover over these items I can see these are very poor, these are destroyed and these are
07:37in excellent condition.
07:39So if I run around in these destroyed boots now, I will actually start getting a foot injury.
07:46Now if you're walking around and you get shot in the legs or in the chest or something like that,
07:53the items actually get damaged based on where you're shot.
07:56So I'm actually wearing a ballistic vest.
07:58We've tried to add in some military stuff but you can see this one here is much more like you'd
08:05find from, you know,
08:08obviously a presser reporter or something like that.
08:10So if I got shot in the chest that's actually going to take some damage before the other items get
08:15damaged.
08:15But if I wasn't wearing that, anything inside my jacket will then get damaged.
08:22So these things I think are going to have a big impact on the kill on site mentality and things
08:28like that.
08:30And I think item degradation, not just with the boots but with all items and clothing, actually will come to
08:37have a very significant impact.
08:39Even on things like your weapon, opening cans of beans with can openers and things like that.
08:47So now what I'm going to demonstrate is something I talked a bit at Gamescom about which is what we've
08:53got for player restraining.
08:54So here I've got a player who's in a surrendered position.
09:00The player can get out of this, they can activate this themselves by pushing a gesture key or something like
09:05that.
09:05So what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to set up now my quick bar so that I
09:09can use it with a couple of items in my inventory.
09:12So if I now press 3, you can see down there that I actually have handcuffs in my hands and
09:19I can use that on the player here and actually handcuff them.
09:25So I'm going to select that and I've got it enabled now for all messages to come through.
09:28So in the bottom left there you'll see the message that the other player gets and the message that the
09:36player themselves get is the one that's in the yellow one there.
09:40Oh sorry, the yellow one's the one that I get.
09:42So you can see now that the player here has actually been subdued and they are now handcuffed and they
09:51cannot move around.
09:52If they try and move, what happens is that they're basically able to struggle.
09:59So you can see now that the player is starting to struggle to get out of their restraints.
10:05And if I left the player there, they will eventually get out of their restraints.
10:11And this is quite a unique mechanic I guess because I think people can see what's going on and they
10:16can tell you to stop.
10:17So basically you just hold down a key and you start struggling.
10:21But I'm going to put this player out of their misery and I'm actually going to unlock handcuffs here.
10:26So you see I reach forward, unlock the handcuffs and the player is now free to move around.
10:33And I have the handcuffs and the keys back here as well.
10:40Okay, so now I've given us a player that we can interact with here.
10:44And notice that she's wearing one of those ballistic vests that I had on before.
10:49So what I'm actually going to do is make sure that I have some ammunition.
10:55And then I'm actually going to shoot that character.
11:01And we're going to see the degradation that it actually applies and put the wrong magazine off.
11:06You can see I'm switching the magazines here simply by pushing my hotkey button.
11:10And it's actually alternating between those magazine types.
11:15So now if I shoot this lovely lady in the chest, you can see that at the moment nothing happens
11:24except the press vest has got a little bit damaged.
11:28So this is something that's really really really useful for various player mechanics.
11:35Okay, so the player got a little bit hurt there.
11:37And you can see that the vest itself is now starting to get completely and utterly destroyed.
11:44Now if I bypass the vest and shoot directly in the arm, you can see now the player is also
11:48bleeding as well from the exact point that I shot at.
11:52And this is because the ballistic vest got damaged and there was some damage left over.
12:00So now I'm actually going to shoot the player and you can see the shirt there is really starting to
12:06get badly damaged.
12:08So if I get right up here and I can see in here the shirt is in destroyed condition.
12:13And not only that, but the items that were on the shirt are actually destroyed.
12:17And I think that this is a really really key aspect that we're actually adding.
12:23And the fact that we're able to do this is because we spent so much time redoing the inventory system
12:29to be this object oriented system.
12:31And it allows us to add all sorts of attributes to values.
12:36So I really do think that this combined with the restraint mechanic is going to allow us to at least
12:44make some inroads on that basic sort of shoot on site mentality.
12:48Because if you shoot a player, there's a real danger that you're actually going to destroy the items that they
12:56have on them.
12:59So now I want to, just so that nobody says that I'm sexist because I was shooting a female character
13:05before.
13:06Now I'm actually going to demonstrate on this guy who's kind of semi-militarified.
13:11So we're really spending a lot of time creating different clothing items and you can see some of the work
13:17that's been done here on this character.
13:20He's wearing quite military style stuff.
13:22So he's got our placeholder Kepler helmet.
13:24He's got an olive shirt on.
13:26He's got a military style vest that allows them to store items.
13:29And he's got the good old fashioned cargo pants on.
13:32So normally if you shoot a player in the head, naturally you would expect him to die.
13:37But if I do a glancing hit with this and hopefully a bit of work.
13:44So you'll see that he got hit.
13:46Ignore the blood splitters.
13:48We haven't tied that up yet.
13:49But you see he's actually still okay.
13:52And if I shoot him again, he's not liking that.
13:57And he's actually taken some damage.
13:59So we can wait and he'll stand back up.
14:02So he's actually bleeding from the head now.
14:04And what I want to do is kind of just make it go all over.
14:08So the bullet actually went through his head there.
14:10And has actually also damaged the tactical shirt, which is quite bad.
14:17And in fact, it's even damaged the destroyed camo there.
14:22Might be a little bit overpowered for this demonstration here at the moment.
14:25But you can see where we're going with that concept.
14:30And how hopefully it will go some way to changing the kill on sight mechanic.
14:36I guess not super overpowered.
14:38So the first hit, the first couple of hits actually destroyed the helmet.
14:42And it was the last hit went through the tactical shirt and the assault vest.
14:47So I need to play with the values quite a lot to get them working right.
14:51But you can see the basics of the concept now.
14:54So if I took those on and I actually put on his assault vest here.
14:59You can see that even though it's on my character, it's really, really, really badly damaged.
15:05And it's not going to be any good to anybody.
15:07And if there are any items inside that, that would also be reflected as well in that.
15:14So we haven't, another thing to note while I'm kind of here is that we haven't actually got the cursor
15:18system.
15:19Many of you saw dyslexia's great information based on how we can play with that.
15:25And we are committed to doing that.
15:27But it just hasn't happened at the moment.
15:29So if I, again, to labor back that point there before.
15:33If I put that tactical shirt on by swapping it out.
15:35You can see that now my shirt is actually destroyed.
15:40It looks kind of cool actually.
15:42Yeah.
15:44The material files we've got, you'll notice they're a little bit stretched.
15:47They're only placeholder at the moment.
15:49We just really wanted to make sure that, yeah, that we were really perfecting things with it.
15:55So I'm going to get my clothes back off this player here.
16:01Because I don't like it.
16:03Yeah.
16:03So I think players are going to have a lot of fun with these new systems that we've created.
16:09I know we've had a lot of fun making them.
16:12And we're really excited to see what impact it's going to have on the, yeah, the kill on site mentality
16:21and those things like that.
16:23I think there's going to be a lot more instances where players will actually hold up other players.
16:29We'll be restraining them and this kind of thing.
16:34Something else that we received feedback on.
16:36A lot of little bits and pieces of feedback around, well, just about everything based on the forums, on Reddit
16:44and things like that.
16:45Is making some of the items much more interchangeable and usable.
16:49So you can see now, if I drag the bayonet on here, I can actually open the can of baked
16:54beans with the bayonet.
16:55It hasn't affected the items condition straight away.
16:59But if I did that a lot, it will actually really start to affect it.
17:02And now you can see I can't eat those.
17:04I'm right clicking here.
17:05It doesn't work.
17:06But ones that are open, I can actually, I can actually eat some of them.
17:11So, yeah, this is, this is something that we've been working on a lot.
17:17And we're very pleased with about starting to slowly just increase the amount of interactions that are happening in the
17:22world.
17:23And making, making that much more interesting.
17:27So one area that I've talked about previously is the zombie AI.
17:33So as many people are aware, I've been working on this with some of our programmers for basically the last
17:40year, looking to see how we can get zombies to work better in day Z.
17:46Basically, the conclusion that I came to was I made a proposal to entirely replace the way that we'd approach
17:52zombie AI completely.
17:53So that's going to replace the work that I've been undertaking on that for basically the last year.
17:58But I think we've gone as far as we could with the existing system.
18:02And we need a custom system designed from the ground up.
18:06Now, just to note that this does not affect the alpha release.
18:10It will be the system we have at the moment is probably good enough to kind of meet what we
18:15need to for the alpha release.
18:16Or we could always just do the release without zombies.
18:18There's those two options if there's performance issues.
18:21But you never know, it might be in time for us to do our initial alpha.
18:27So the system, the proposal that came up was that zombies will chase players and avoid collision.
18:33It's very simple.
18:34The existing system is designed for armor, which is we have a soldier for running from point A to point
18:41B.
18:42And so the new system is actually very simple.
18:44The zombies will only pathfind for a short distance in front of them.
18:48And otherwise, they'll avoid collision.
18:50We are going to take some of the systems that are already in place and sort of repurpose them for
18:58what we need.
18:59This is currently tasked with one of the new senior programmers who's joined a team from another project.
19:04And there'll be more information about that later.
19:07And they're being overseen by the existing engineering programmers that we have who are the creators of the actual engine
19:13themselves.
19:13So yeah, I'm looking forward to talking about that more in a future devlog.
19:19The final thing I wanted to talk about was the famous network bubble.
19:24So essentially this, the idea of this is that at the moment in Armour, you receive all updates for everything
19:32that happens around you.
19:33So if someone opens a door in Kamenka and you're located over in Electra or something, you're going to receive
19:40all the updates.
19:41Now this wasn't so much of a problem with the mod, but it's a great problem when we have about
19:46100,000 items and say 5,000 zombies and 150 players on the map.
19:51So in order to make our alpha period worthwhile, we want to release with this network bubble.
19:57And it's the last task remaining before we do that.
20:00So this is in progress by Andre Spaniel.
20:03He's the co-founder and most senior programmer in the company.
20:06He's the guy with others who designed the engine, which has spawned Operation Flashpoint, all the Armours, Virtual Battlespace and
20:13now DayZ.
20:14So he's very pleased with the progress and I'll be regularly reporting on how the testing goes with that.
20:21But there's really not much to say at the moment.
20:23We haven't done any large-scale testing with it, but he's very happy with it and doesn't seem to think
20:30it's too big a task.
20:31So I'm looking forward to reporting on that soon.
20:36Well, that's all I've got for the devlog this week.
20:39Hopefully you've enjoyed the outline of the progress and the devlog was a bit more focused than previous ones.
20:46And hopefully the sound was a bit better than last time as well.
20:49We're really happy with how things are progressing.
20:51We move into our new offices in central Prague next week and a bunch of our new hires are all
20:58starting to turn up now.
20:59So it's very, very busy for us around here.
21:01There's still no set release date for the alpha.
21:03We're waiting on the confirmation of the multiplayer performance that we believe the network bubble will give us.
21:09I really can't stress how critical this is.
21:11There's no point in us releasing the alpha unless we know the multiplayer performance is at a point where we
21:18can test it with large amounts of players.
21:21And as soon as that's in, we'll push the big red button and lots of fun will happen.
21:25Thanks very much.
21:28I'm told by others.
21:28We're sidetracked.
21:29Thank you.
21:29Grazie a tutti