Now that Ivan Buchta’s back, DayZ‘s worldbuilding has gained a lot of momentum.
In the latest word from the Bohemia Interactive development team, Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall has been answering some questions about what fans can expect of the DayZ standalone. One of the most pressing questions has been whether or not the game will support private servers, and the answer is yes; but not private hive, or central, servers.
It all comes down to economy and ongoing development. If the team wants to be able to issue updates, as well as make sure that game balance – item spawn, basically – doesn’t break in the first five minutes, the developers have to retain control over the database. Things may change, but for now that’s how things stand. “I think it comes down to a question of timing, much like with the mod,” says Hall.
“The experience will be entirely new,” Hall went on to say. “There is virtually nothing that has been directly ported from the mod, everything has been redone.” That includes Chernarus, which – now that Ivan Buchta has returned from his extended stay in Greece – is being extensively redesigned.
There’s still no settled price for the standalone. “However, to put it in perspective, I want a higher price than nearly everyone else in the company,” says Hall. “So we’re not talking an expensive product.” Nor does Hall really like the idea of DLC, at least not the kind that the customer has to pay for. He’d much rather that sales were enough to keep the game going, without charging for DLC.
Hall doesn’t want to promise a next gen console release either, since – while he believes it would be technically possible – the dictates of the console manufacturers, some of which Hall finds “really annoying”, may preclude a console release.
And how often will DayZ update, after release? “Once released, expect new content every week,” says Hall. “We are planning hundreds and hundreds of clothing varieties!” Plus new hospitals, weapons, basic vehicle customization, and many more zombies; but as for when this might see the light of day, there’s no word yet.
Source: DayZ blog.
