DayZ's combat logging is getting fixed, while game gets new weapons, emotes and more

DayZ’s charm comes from player interaction. Granted, there aren’t many zombies yet, and there’s not a lot to do in the game so far. Even so, DayZ manages to be extremely fun and addictive, mostly because of some hilarious and memorable player encounters. If there’s one undeniable quality of DayZ, that’s the fact that every single encounter with other players is memorable and gets stuck in your head. I still have vivid memories of some extremely funny (or painful) player interactions from playing the DayZ mod years ago, and the same quality transferred itself to the standalone version of the game.

But you know what ruins this aspect? Combat logging and ghosting. What’s the point of having the ability to handcuff someone or feed a helpless victim some disinfectant spray, when all they have to do to escape is ALT+F4? Pretty immersion breaking, for sure. Then there’s the issue of server hoppers stabbing you in the back, players you shoot disappearing after logging off or loot being unavailable due to server-hoppers picking everything clean. Well, these are soon to be a thing of the past, as the next DayZ update will pretty much fix combat logging and server hopping altogether.

You can’t build houses in DayZ yet, but this helmet should keep you safe from baseball bats!

We did some research on how this would work, and we’re giving you the sum of it! Up until now, you could log off instantly, in any and all circumstances. Once the new DayZ patch is deployed, a timer will be introduced, forcing you to stay online for a fixed amount of time (probably 30 seconds or so). What this means is that when you’re logging off, you’ll be pressing ESC, then selecting the log-off option, and then you will be forced to wait in-game for half a minute until you are safely away. Closing the game through brute force (command prompt or alt+f4) will still be possible, but your character will remain online for about 30 seconds. That means that even if you’re not in the game, your character is, and can be shot and looted. This also means that logging off in extremely populated areas is a bad idea. You’ll need to find a safe, remote spot whenever you’re trying to log off.

Anticipating vehicles? A black motorcycle helmet is the next best thing!

A log-in timer will be added upon changing DayZ serves as well, which means that you won’t be able to instantly move from one server to the other. This feature, along with the log-off timer, should prevent server-hopping in high-value areas, where this was an issue to begin with. In addition, the patch will introduce the SKS rifle, a semi-automatic rifle many DayZero players will recognize. Tweaks to weapons, bug fixes, spread reductions to the sawed-off shotgun and various gameplay changes are also coming with the next DayZ patch. The patch is now live on experimental servers, and will land on public DayZ servers sometime early next week.

The SKS in DayZ, in all its beauty!

Here’s a full list of upcoming changes:

New:

– Actions: chambering SKS round from pile, loading 10 rounds from pile

– Actions: You can uncuff other players with the hacksaw

– Actions: Cannot use an item (e.g. drink/eat) if it is “Ruined”

– Actions: Interactions with items reworked. Drinking/Eating/etc… more robust and user-friendly

– Actions: Restrained players cannot use inventory or action menu

– Animations: Player now can take and hide rifle in crouched run

– Animations: SKS reload animations

– Crafting: FNX45 pistol can be chambered with single round

– Crafting: Opening cans with combat knife added

– Crafting: Opening cans with machete added

– Crafting: Painting Motorbike Helmets to Black and Green

– Effects: Magnum revolver ejecting shells when reloading

– Effects: Magnum revolver sounds – gunshots, reloading

– Effects: Mosin ejecting shells when cycling

– Effects: New Mosin sounds – gunshots, cycling, reloading

– Gear: Improvised courier backpack added

– Gear: Machete added

– Gestures: Clapping Gesture added, default F5 key

– Gestures: Pointing Gesture added, default F6 key

– Login: Player queuing system introduced. Penalty waiting time added for switching server or disconnecting a server quickly.

– Server: Player spawns now cached by engine directly, increasing performance

– Spawns: Added Bubble goose jackets into the loot spawns

– Spawns: Added SKS rifle, speedloader, ammunition piles and boxes and SKS bayonet into the loot spawns

– Systems: Hunger and Thirst slightly modified.

– Systems: Notifications added to UI for hydration and high energy

– Zombies: Different types of Military zombies now have tougher attack values and improved durability

– Zombies: Engine dynamic obstacle checking (zombie, another player)

– Zombies: Svetlojarsk zombie spawns added

Fixed:

– Action: morphine injection can be used on other player effectively fixing his broken legs and item correctly positioned in hands

– Actions: Keys won’t disappear after uncuffing

– Actions: loading ammo works for sprayed Mosin variants

– Actions: Read/Writing notes with paper and pen now works again

– Actions: reviving with epinephrine or defibrillator works also if player blood is below 500 units of blood

– Animations: fixed an issue where reload in prone would leave some residue sound clutter at the end of the reload animation

– Animations: Weapon reloading for magazine was not working properly when no magazine fitted

– Animations: Rifle Aimed Walk Updated, diagonal animations fixed

– Animations: sidesteping through doorway with rifle while crouching should not cause the player to get stuck now

– Config: Berries have more nutrition now

– Crafting : You can no longer saw off sawed off shotgun

– Crafting: Can spraypaint M4 to green or black

– Crafting: Damage is now transferred when items are painted

– Crafting: Improved Backpack creation only possible when Courier Bag is empty (previously items accidentally deleted)

– Crafting: Weapon cleaning kit can’t be used when it’s “Ruined” and won’t reduce condition of a gun

– Effects: Dazed effect plays again when a player is hit/damaged/shot

– Effects: Some effects were not active locally when a player was restrained

– Fixed: Missing texture error dz\weapons\data\weapons_damage_metal_smdi.paa

– Fixed: Popping up texture error for beret models

– Gear: Spraycans won’t deplete after relogging

– Gear: Book, radio, pot, pan, gas canisters, matchbox, paper, firewood and stone can be placed in hands

– Gear: Headlamp beam raised slightly

– Gear: Painted items now retain their previous quantities (i.e. Magazine ammo won’t reset)

– Gear: Various item descriptions and notifications fixed for grammar, typos, more detail

– Gear: ZSh-3 Pilot helmet fixed and updated

– Gestures: Taunt defaults correctly to F4 key

– Graphics: “god rays” could cause overloaded post-processing and graphical corruption

– Graphics: fix of removing shining object from hand (switch off)

– Graphics: Roads have per pixel lights

– Graphics: Dynamic lights should be now defined with “radius” value which is maximum radius of light in meters

– Loot: Splint position in hand was wrong now corrected

– Spawns: Drastically lowered chance of backpacks spawning on the construction site

– Spawns: Loot spawn tweaks in some civilian structures

– Weapons: Mosin recoil increased

– Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun can be loaded with ammo (was broken due to changed inheritance)

– Weapons: Sawed-off shotgun: reduced size in inventory, reduced spread

– Zombies: Better filter/check of attack hits directly in engine

– Zombies: Military zombies made tougher

Hotfixed:

– Engine: Irregular crash of server in corpse garbage collector consequence of this is that the bodies will not disappear if other player is in vicinity

DayZ’s combat logging is getting fixed, while game gets new weapons, emotes and more