H1Z1 - Zombie apocalypse sandbox from SOE

[Xordium]

That stream today didn't go quite as planned.. the server they were on had an issue and we had to restart it. That meant we didn't get time to show everything we wanted to.
Next week we will have a lot more to show including crafting, building and a lot more about the survival aspects of the game. All that stuff is in there. Not all of it's perfect but it's really getting fun. So we'll show it to you. Didn't mean to take the extended ride in the jeep.
Answers to common questions I saw:
1) We will have first and third person. Third person will not give you LOS over obstacles. We intend to make it more of a preference. I find myself switching to it occasionally but I love combat in first person. To those who say we can't serve two masters - play the game before you judge.
2) Vehicles will be in third person only. Could this change? Maybe but that's what we're putting in for now.
3) Why was there so much stuff around 15 years later - we wanted to show you how the mechanics worked. Simple as that. We intend to make surviving a lot about catching your food. Longer term about growing it and protecting it.
4) How is this different from Day Z? - saw this a lot. Not going to give some politically correct dodgy b.s. answer. It is a survival in a Zombie Apocalypse game. So is Day Z. They have made a brilliant game (first I might add). They have a great vision for it and can count myself and most of the people on our team as fans and contributors.
We're making the game we're making. Long term we plan on making this about a persistent world with a big landscape with thousands of players. The way we would like to see this roll out is much more like players building small enclaves or pockets of territory and hold out against a legitimate zombie threat that's ever present while others go it alone taking their chances.. These player built structures, forts and towns are one of the ways the players try to carve out some small space in a dangerous world.
We also want to make sure we have a deep in-game economy that is heavily dependent on crafting. Players will be able to become manufacturers.. sell bullets, arrows.. etc. The in-game economy will be entirely player driven.
So this is our take on the Zombie Apocalypse with a lot of friends and hopefully some great enemies both living and dead. We're proud to be up front and say we love Day Z and the job they've done and we hope they enjoy what we make too.
I can say this another way.
I love 28 Days and 28 Days Later I love World War Z I love Warm Bodies (oh come on you did too you) I love Night of the Living Dead.. and all the other ones. I love The Walking Dead.
And so do most of you. So sure. We're another Zombie Apocalypse game. Call it what it is. But our goal is to make ours fun, accessible, hard core and super, super deep. As time goes on we hope our take on the end of the world by zombie is fun and lots of people get to try it. You'll also have all the information you need when you start Early Access for $19.99. You can watch others stream it. You can decide to wait till we switch it to Free to Play. Either way you'll see our roadmap and you'll see if it's something that's for you.
Have a good one

Some interesting things in there. He sure talks a good game and I will be interested to see the things they couldn't show us because those are the parts I am really interested in.

Quote from: http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/comments/23c82f/answering_h1z1_questions_i_saw_including_why_is/

 

[Zefan]

My hype was nearly crushed by the void the stream left, but that post has successfully reinvigorated my hype train!

 

[Glaucus]

My hype was nearly crushed by the void the stream left, but that post has successfully reinvigorated my hype train!

Ditto, look forward to the stream.

 

[mlbtheshow]

Potential and I want to believe, but PS2 should have been more than it is.... but it isnt. Taken them ages to sort Amerish, Hosin still isnt released the last time I played... its just an FPS grind to 100, with vehicles that relies on the community to keep it interesting with inter-outfit grudges etc

idk - but if they get it right, they can have my wallet

 

[wnb]

like it in the twich vid he got around question about big citys lol

I skipped most of the twitch vid but one thing I was hoping for was a large town \ City. It seems that all survival zombie games are the same style generic American town. Its a shame, I would have hoped that a AAA title would do things differently.

 

[Zefan]

I believe they plan to add different environments as the game matures. I would expect a city to be incredibly resource heavy to develop, and counter productive to the player driven sandbox/territory/farming/hunting they want as their core.

It makes sense to develop that first, then add cities and other special points of interest for established communities to battle over at a later stage when things are perhaps becoming more settled (maybe stale).

 

[Xordium]

My hype was nearly crushed by the void the stream left, but that post has successfully reinvigorated my hype train!

Yep, hence why I posted it I was hoping this may alleviate the fears that may have presented themselves for the likes of you and Glaucus. Like I said I'll wait and see and give them some credit for doing a livesteam that could and did go wrong rather than some sanitised prepared stuff.

Will you guys be going for the alpha?

 

[Apem]

I think I spot a preCU SWG player.

Yes m8 I was and before that I was in EQ1 and soe killed that with their greed too

 

[Xordium]

Yes m8 I was and before that I was in EQ1 and soe killed that with their greed too

I feel the pain too - SWG was and still is in my top 3 games ever. I still play SWGEmu. But I will give this game the chance to show what it does. However, I am still keeping my SOE password as Smedley is a fat **** to remind to never forget what happened to my MRM/MDOC.

 

[Elixir]

Basically, everyone was hyped about DayZ and the development of that has been horrendously slow, so now the hype wagon has moved on to this game.

Building hype then releasing paid early-access is a huge money-spinner at the moment.

 

[mlbtheshow]

Basically, everyone was hyped about DayZ and the development of that has been horrendously slow, so now the hype wagon has moved on to this game.

Building hype then releasing paid early-access is a huge money-spinner at the moment.

Plus they forget, this is the PS2 team or some of... I know Smedley was or is the lead of that as well. That has been full of broken promises for a long time now, things not being delivered either on time or at all and that game generates cash.... a lot more that this will, given it has reason for subbing and then getting ingame currency as well.

I guarantee this game will bog down on some stupid release elements, that will be their focus, rather than any quick expansion to the game. Something like making zombies better....

DayZ might be slow, but its delivering with each patch and we are getting close to bigger things each time, ie physics this time / hunting / cooking etc

If DayZ wasnt anything to do with this Rocket lad, then I bet people would be more patient and willing to play it, problem is some have had their noses put out of joint as he made some cash.... leaves a bitter taste in their mouths. So they will chase any dream thats out there that could ruin his.

 

[Devlish]

I bought dayz release, but the magic had gone since i bought arma for the mod. Dunno why. This seems interesting, but like every sceptic, perfect answer is to wait for the free version. Then its try before you buy.

 

[dakaiez]

Likewise Devlish bought it on day one after many many hours put into the Mod.

It's been a big disappointment and with zombies still in a bad state and probably worse than the Mod and other problems i just can't bring myself round to playing it.

I'll probably pick this up in four weeks. I put quite a fair amount of time into PS2 so if i even get the same amount out of this for that early cost then it'll be worth it.

 

[Xordium]

TBH I thought the DayZ standalone was poor compared to the mod but I've just noticed on Steam I have put over 30 hrs into it. Now that is less than £1.00 per hour for entertainment which is pretty good value.

I am not holding up too much hope here but it would be nice if someone - anyone actually got one of these games to a "releasable" state ...

 

[m4rk84]

So the lead developer has been talking about this lots on the h1z1 subreddit and it actually has me pretty excited.

On the payment model:

Spoiler

1. We will be selling wearables. We felt like this will be a good, fair revenue generator. However - we recognize how important finding wearables in the world is so you'll be able to find and craft a lot of stuff. We agree that's something important. We've also come up with a pretty awesome idea to let players who kill other players loot stuff. So if a player has a black ski mask and gets killed by another player, that player can wear the ski mask for a few deaths (we have durability in the game. Station Cash wearables won't degrade at all but when you loot something.. it will degrade. Please note the original player always keeps their SC purchased wearables. This gives the great feeling of whacking some unsuspecting fool who decided to bring a knife to a gun fight.

2. We will NOT be selling Guns, Ammo, Food, Water... i.e. That's kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.

3. Nor will we sell boosts that will impact #2.

4. Emote Pack - of course we'll have the basics for free. But we felt like this is another good and fair revenue generator.

5. Character slots - feels reasonable.

On difficulty of Zombies:

Spoiler

First Smedley said this:

Zombies <> "yawn" in our game. they are deadly. Many times they come in number. They are not to bee trifled with.
We want to make a hard game. We think Dark Souls is for wimps.

Then another guy said this:

I think, and am hoping, that most of us are vastly underestimating how rare firearms will be in the game. We don't know what SOE means when they say very rare, but what if it turns out that a thousand player server has 100 to 200 guns and ammo is even more scarce?
Melee and bows are the common weapons and suddenly zombie hordes are much more dangerous, people are more likely to need to group up. Not to mention that food may not be a scavenge item but needs to be hunted and farmed to survive.
How long do you want to carry an 8 lb rifle knowing it is useless because ammo is so scarce. How likely are you to want to use any ammo to KOS knowing it will attract zombies and groups of people with bows will be coming for you for killing their friend and you can't take them all out?
Want a car to travel? Even after you repair one now you need fuel, think they mentioned biofuel, a substitute for diesel. Having to be diesel limits the amount of cars that can even be used to repair. To make biodiesel you will have to grow a crop, then extract oil from it with items you have to craft. Say you are growing soy beans or peanuts, is it better to use as food or do you have enough to waste some making biodiesel? Do you want to waste farm space growing canola for oil or something you can eat?
I can easily see where they can make a game under these conditions where a lone wolf can survive, but it will take a community to thrive.

To which Smedley said:

that's what we're making alright.

Safe Zones?

Spoiler

Only if we want to allow the carebears to take up residence. That's my way of saying hell no

Best of the rest:

Spoiler

There will be temperature and clothes will contribute to warmth.

There will be player pets like dogs etc.

Players may also play as zombies (But with HUGE restrictions)

Player corpses will re-animate if infected and will still contain all the items the player died with!

There will be crate drops which will be massive focal points in the world for players to fight over.

There will be a bunch of lore in the world hinting at what happened.

The map size is said to be huuuuuuge and it can be dynamically added to forever aka you may log in one day and you can suddenly walk to a new city on the map.

The map will start off as rural buildings and as the world expands they will get bigger and bigger as they make more of the world (Sky scrapers, large towns, military bases, ect)

Living world ecosystem, wolves will be hunting rabbits and other wildlife meanwhile zombies will be chasing all forms of life the idea is for the world to feel alive.

Hunting will be very important.

I actually think this game sounds super cool, not been into DayZ at all, liked the idea hated how incomplete it sounded and how little the Zombies actually matter in that game.

 

[Garfo]

So the lead developer has been talking about this lots on the h1z1 subreddit and it actually has me pretty excited.

On the payment model:

Spoiler

We will be selling wearables. We felt like this will be a good, fair revenue generator. However - we recognize how important finding wearables in the world is so you'll be able to find and craft a lot of stuff. We agree that's something important. We've also come up with a pretty awesome idea to let players who kill other players loot stuff. So if a player has a black ski mask and gets killed by another player, that player can wear the ski mask for a few deaths (we have durability in the game. Station Cash wearables won't degrade at all but when you loot something.. it will degrade. Please note the original player always keeps their SC purchased wearables. This gives the great feeling of whacking some unsuspecting fool who decided to bring a knife to a gun fight.

We will NOT be selling Guns, Ammo, Food, Water... i.e. That's kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.

Nor will we sell boosts that will impact #2.
Emote Pack - of course we'll have the basics for free. But we felt like this is another good and fair revenue generator.

Character slots - feels reasonable.

On difficulty of Zombies:

Spoiler

First Smedley said this:


Then another guy said this:


To which Smedley said:

Safe Zones?

Spoiler

Only if we want to allow the carebears to take up residence. That's my way of saying hell no

Best of the rest:

Spoiler

There will be temperature and clothes will contribute to warmth.

There will be player pets like dogs etc.

Players may also play as zombies (But with HUGE restrictions)

Player corpses will re-animate if infected and will still contain all the items the player died with!

There will be crate drops which will be massive focal points in the world for players to fight over.

There will be a bunch of lore in the world hinting at what happened.

The map size is said to be huuuuuuge and it can be dynamically added to forever aka you may log in one day and you can suddenly walk to a new city on the map.

The map will start off as rural buildings and as the world expands they will get bigger and bigger as they make more of the world (Sky scrapers, large towns, military bases, ect)

I actually think this game sounds super cool, not been into DayZ at all, liked the idea hated how incomplete it sounded and how little the Zombies actually matter in that game.

sweeeet

 

[Krisali]

Hopefully this will tide me over until Star Citizen is released. Or at least a few months

 

[m4rk84]

I especially like that guns will be super duper rare. You maybe playing on a server with 2000 other players and there may only be 500 guns spawned in the world at any one time. Let's hope they get the melee weapons and bows right.

 

[Krisali]

Is there a global inventory in this? I like to hoard things

 

[m4rk84]

Is there a global inventory in this? I like to hoard things

They have specifically said no global inventory and that is a choice they have made. No hoarding anything, when you die all your gear is gone unless you can get back and recover it. Similar to current games.

There will be a locker that contains your bought clothing though which you will always have access too, this is the only exception for clothing you have purchased.