DayZ has been out for almost two months now, and the game keeps selling like there’s no tomorrow. Almost 1.4 million survivors have joined Chernarus, and while still in alpha, there seems to be no limit to the potential of Rocket’s popular running simulator. Patches keep rolling out, and when they’re not breaking the game (like last week’s patch that pretty much rendered the game unplayable due to huge FPS drops), they’re adding content and fixing core features. Combat logging has already been addressed to some extent, and many issues are being tackled as Rocket and his team are trying to polish the diamond that DayZ will no doubt become.
Still, the game does have quite a few issues right now, and for many, it’s not as good as the DayZ mod managed to become over the years. Today, we’ll be taking a look at some of the negative aspects of the DayZ Standalone, and we will be underlining both the things that need to be resolved (and most likely will be in due time), and some issues that bother and worry us. Rocket has already pledged to fix many of the things I’m about to list, but some problems haven’t been addressed yet, and there’s no indication that they will be in the near future. Lastly, this list is aimed at highlighting some of the downsides of DayZ for those of you still on the fence about whether or not to buy the game. My advice? Go for it, it’s a really great game, but it’s my duty to highlight the cons, not just the pros. And, for those of you that want a general overview of the current state of the game, you can check out our DayZ Review. That being said, let’s get to it.
Zombies, assuming you find any, either don’t pose a threat, or do so through bugs and glitches.
Zombies
It’s only fitting to start with zombies, considering that they are central to the theme of the game. Right now, zombies appear all too rarely and in limited numbers, making them a lot smaller threat than other players. In fact, if a server hasn’t been recently restarted, you’ll be hard pressed to even find a zombie. Now, recent patches to the game have allowed for an increase in server performance, which means that more zombies will be coming in the near future. The problem is, they are not respawning yet, and even if Rocket is aware of the issue and aims to fix this, it will be a long time before hordes of zombies are a part of the game.
In addition, zombies still suffer from pretty bad path-finding, and they still seem to be glitching through walls and obstacles. While I can see their numbers increasing, I really don’t see how Rocket will address the issue of how the zombie AI reacts, how zombies are animated and move, and how they will become a threat in themselves, instead of being a threat due to bugs (such as zombies hitting you through walls). The core of this problem comes from the revised Arma 2 engine on which DayZ is built upon, an engine that was never designed for this purpose. Even with the new zombie animations and their variety, the question remains – can zombies be improved to a point where they stop being a threat due to bugs and start being a threat due to their nature?
To further emphasize my point, I’ll compare the current zombies to the DayZ Mod zombies. In the mod, zombies constantly respawn and react rather well to gunshots, which means that shooting off anything that’s not silenced will draw a crowd of zombies that can still pose a threat. At the same time, the DayZ Standalone zombies don’t seem to be bothered too much by sound, and their aggro range is completely random. You can sometimes waltz past them without drawing any attention, while at other times, sneaking or crawling 300 meters away will still make them gun for you. It’s unpredictable and annoying, and I don’t see this changing any time soon, if at all.
It might look cool and fancy, but even a highly-modified M4A1 is extremely inaccurate and unreliable.
Weapon Inaccuracy
Rocket has never been an avid supporter of the “shoot-on-sight” mentality. In his vision, DayZ was supposed to be a rough survival game where people had to form uneasy alliances in order to survive. Let’s face it, this is not the case. Bandits will put a bullet in you just for sport, and shooting others on sight will quickly become a necessity, unless you want to keep respawning on the beach. To address this, and encourage people to stop shooting on sight, the DayZ weapons have been imbued with increase spread and inaccuracy.
The problem with this is that it’s not a bug to be fixed. Weapon accuracy is actually dependent on a value in the game’s configuration files. While spread at certain ranges for certain weapons is natural, the inaccuracy of the M4 rifle at the moment is anything but. The M4A1 cannot be accurately shot at more than 300-400 meters. Keep in mind, we’re not talking about the recoil on the follow-up shot, this is strictly referring to the first bullet fired. Of course, the game is centered around finding better attachments, which would explain (to some extent) why a stock M4A1 would be less accurate than one modified with the best MAGPUL attachments. My problem with this is the fact that the weapons in the DayZ mod were extremely well balanced (except for the DMR and M14), and that a working attachment system was introduced into DayZero, without compromising accuracy.
I would have no problem with a badly-damaged M4 shooting poorly. But when a mint-condition stock weapon sprays like a shotgun, I’m not exactly thrilled. Rocket should address this issue by making inaccuracy dependent on weapon/attachment condition, and not on the attachments themselves. Attachments instead could alter the weapon’s recoil, reload speed and so on. This inaccuracy isn’t limited just to the M4A1 though (although it’s the most apparent), it also affects rifles like the Mosin, which shoots a bit to the left. When you’re sniping with a pristine Mosin, you’re not only forced to account for bullet drop and zeroing (which is great), you also have to aim slightly to the right in order to hit on the spot (which is terrible).
To sum it up, the team behind DayZ needs to consider refining weapon accuracy. Simply adding new weapons is not enough. Arma 2 and the DayZ mod are well-known in the FPS genre for trying to achieve hyper-realism in terms of shooting and arsenal, and I feel that this area has taken a step back in the DayZ standalone.
The limitations imposed on where players spawn do nothing constructive, and isolate players from some of the map’s great locations.
Spawn locations
A limitation that wasn’t present at launch, the modification to the areas in which players can spawn cause some concerns. As of now, players are limited to spawning between the eastern edges of Elektrozavodsk and the southern edges of Berezino, which accounts for about one-third of the entire coastline. This decision was done in order to prevent people from camping spots like the Balota Airfield all day long. What resulted instead is a concentration of players in Elektro and Berezino, with snipers shooting anyone moving along the coast towards Chernogorsk.
My main issue with this major change is that most of the map becomes desolate. Without vehicles in the game, it literally takes over an hour to move from the eastern coast to some more central towns, and players starve well before reaching civilization. Areas like Kamenka become obsolete, practically limiting the potential of an otherwise great map. The camping-fest has not been averted, it has just been moved to different areas. I’ve literally found myself running around the central and western parts of the map for hours, without ever seeing a single player.
Again, this is not a bug, it’s an intended change, one that the community doesn’t seem to agree with, and for good reason. Of course, things could change with the addition of vehicles (something that is indeed planned for the not-so-distant future), but it’s unlikely they will, given that any and all vehicles spawning on the eastern coast will quickly disappear.
The lack of respawning loot sometimes makes server-hopping a necessity.
Respawning loot
Let’s face it, adding a timer to change servers won’t solve the major issue that server-hopping has become. I honestly can’t even blame server-hoppers (players that switch servers with the goal of obtaining loot in high-value buildings), given the fact that there’s not much to find through regular means, unless you’re lucky enough to log in right after a server restart. Loot has to dynamically respawn, and while this is a planned feature for the future, I honestly think it should get precedence over cowboy hats and leather jackets.
Playing a lot on the experimental branch, where there are a limited number of servers, each running on individual hives, it has become evident that without loot respawning, players are pretty much forced to change servers. I found myself starving to death after trying desperately to find a single can of food for over an hour. The server architecture has changed, and loot is no longer being generated by the player’s client, but in this regard, the DayZ mod did much better. Until this issue is properly addressed (it’s probably going to be solved at the same time the zombie respawn will be addressed), the game will continue to encourage unfair tactics to surviving, and it’s a shame.
There’s no real incentive to play on night-time servers, and those that do resort to gamma settings to counter the darkness.
Brightness levels and lighting in night-time
The most fun I’ve had in the DayZ Standalone was during the first days after the release, when every server seemed to have a night-time. The eerie feeling from running around with a flashlight, trying desperately to avoid bumping into a zombie or a hostile player was priceless. Of course, I wasn’t new to DayZ at the time, and knew that a few clicks of my mouse in the video settings menu would quickly give me an edge. I decided to go with the flow though and stick to the darkness for the fun of it. That is, until I got a bullet to the head.
Here’s the thing! DayZ’s night-time atmosphere is exceptionally good, but to enjoy it, you need to immerse yourself fully, and other players won’t do the same. Boosting gamma and brightness settings to maximum will allow you to see perfectly during the night, making the flashlight obsolete. These settings also make the game completely black and white, which is anything but realistic. The reason I’ve included this problem to this list is because it’s one that really bothers me, and it’s also the least-likely part of the game to ever be fixed.
The game engine most likely doesn’t allow changes to how brightness and gamma levels react with the light-effects!While Rocket’s effort to improve the flashlight and the dynamic lights in general is commendable, it’s also a futile attempt that does nothing for the game. Players will either move to day-time servers, or will simply play during the night on less-populated servers, with brightness turned up to maximum, hoping to have access to more and better loot.
And it’s such a pity, truly. If there’s one thing that’s beautiful in DayZ, it’s the sense of helplessness that you get when you’re a fresh-spawn, lurking in the darkness, and running past a pristine weapon that could have saved your life, but that you could not see because of the pitch-black night.
What parts of DayZ do you consider to be game-breaking or problematic? Don’t hesitate to let me know, either via the comment section below, or by hopping over to our forums.