DayZ creator Dean Hall talks humanity, barricades, damaged weapons, more

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Bohemia were at E3 this week with DayZ standalone, and creator Dean Hall was around to answer some special questions. VG247 sat him down in front of a camera and gave him a list of queries put together by fans in an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. The resulting 16 minutes offer a great insight into the progress Hall is making with DayZ, and some interesting new features that are on their way.  

The first question on Dean’s list asks about how the humanity system (a function that rates how ‘human’ you have managed to remain whilst trying to survive) will work in the standalone game. Hall explains that so far there’s nothing concrete, but he hopes that through the tiered release scheme he’ll be able to collaborate with players to make a truly great system: “I think we need to do something quite different. Like blood appears on your hands when you’re looting a body that’s recently dead, that your face grimaces, things like that. I think we need to work with the community and come up with something.”

Colonisation will be possible, enabling players to wipe out zombies from an area and make it their own base without zombies spawning in the area and ruining their work. In keeping with the realistic tone though, zombies will still be able to wander into the cleared areas and squat there.

So if you’ve colonised an area, how do you keep the zombies out? Another question helped provide the answer: Will there be barricades? “We’re developing a system, it’s not 100% confirmed yet,” explained Hall “But you can gather resources from areas like trees and rocks and stones. You can also pick up items in the world with your hands, walk around with those items and drop them down. So you’ll be able to use those items to make barricades.” He made it clear that the system isn’t complete yet, but it’s definitely something they hope will make it into the game. Unfortunately barricades don’t extend to boarding up windows and doors; Hall said the idea of it made his lead artist “cringe”.

It’s going to be a harsh place out there in DayZ, but one thing you can guarantee will be safe is your gun, surely? Think again. “Will shooting at and hitting another persons gun break their weapon/scope?” asks one Reddit user. “The answer’s yes.” said Hall. “We still need to do a bit of work on damage textures, but it uses Arma’s damage textures system from vehicles and stuff like that.” So if your aim is truly terrible, you can be safe in the knowledge that your pray-n-spray technique could cause a casualty other than your target. And without a gun, he/she isn’t exactly much of a threat.

There’s plenty more questions and answers in the video, so put your feet up for fifteen and give it a watch.