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Latest DayZ devblog confirms private servers, bigger buildings and “basic radio system”

DayZ_Heads

Writing another update for the DayZ standalone development blog, project head Dean “Rocket” Hall has answered questions from fans about many of the game’s forthcoming features, including plans for private server functionality and a “basic radio system” for communication.

After showing off some environmental shots in his last DayZ blog update, he took the opportunity to include some new character models this time around. Rocket also explained that DayZ has expanded considerably in the last week, “both in scale and scope as well as with personnel. We’ve been getting more and more people involved, both locally and externally. Many of these people are from within the community. We hope that these people will be able to assist us in really pushing the game to its limits.”

After writing about how pleased he was to be working with Ivan Buchta again, one of the two DayZ developers imprisoned in Greece for 128 days, Rocket addressed a variety of topics in his roundup. He said that large-scale multiplayer testing was about to commence, with groups of up to 150 testers playing together, and that the team had made “outstanding” progress in creating a client-server model for the game, something which will make it much more difficult for hackers and cheaters to interfere.

He also confirmed that players will be able to run a DayZ private server if they wish, hosting a game for friends if they’d prefer not to play with the wider world. Private servers clusters, however, were another matter, an “open question” to which the current answer was no, as “we need to concentrate the [DayZ] database centrally so we can continue development and change it regularly.”

Character customisation also remains enormously important to the team, and as well as showing images of some of the new character heads that were available, Rocket emphasised that “Until initial release, the vast majority of our efforts will be with expanding options for developing and customizing your character.” This includes more work on the detailed inventory and weapon customisation systems that will be part of the game, and when it comes to varieties of clothing and gearplayers can expectnew additions every week.At the same time, the return of Buchta has allowed for more world development, and Rocket said that there will be many new kinds of building in the game, some larger than anything in the current version of DayZ, and also included a few screenshots to demonstrate. Bleak screenshots, too. Screenshots like this:

Responding to a question about how DayZ’s endgame will be developed, that part of the game where players are have gained a great deal of power over their environment and are mostly self-sufficient, he said this too was an open question, but something the team did want to address in time.

As for what can be expected from the new in-game radios, Rocket didn’t go into detail but did say that “if you’ve played Space Station 13, you’ll recognize this system.” That likely means you’ll have control over who you broadcast to, but that radios may have limited range and require boosters to reach further. Intriguing.

Oh, and there’ll be more zombies this time round.