DayZ Badlands | Dev Blog Recap (2)

Welcome to Dev Blog Recap 2 (Week 86), where we not only highlight what we’ve showcased so far but also provide new information on assets we’ve previously revealed! In short, these extra dev blogs aren’t just about spreading the word about DayZ Badlands. They also serve as another channel outside the main dev blogs to fill in the gaps, keep you up to date, answer your questions, and drop some cheeky footage you haven’t seen before.

Before we get into it, please make sure you’ve wishlisted DayZ Badlands. It really helps us understand how many of you are excited to see Nasdara.

Without further ado, here’s the recap!

Disclaimer
The information shared in our development blog reflects a work in progress. The details discussed are subject to change before release. We intend to share these progress updates to provide some insights into the development process and foster community trust. Thank you for joining us on the road to Nasdara!

Our art team went into greater detail about some of the military gear they’ve worked on. The most notable pieces are the short-sleeved police uniform, OBR uniform, and FNO uniform. The first two serve as more standard uniforms that are aesthetically aligned with the region’s identity. The latter is much more functional, as it features a night desert camouflage pattern that we’re sure will become a community favorite.

We can’t wait to hear the stories of the “Ghost of Nasdara,” a lone sniper hiding in the darkness. All this clothing should be visually distinct from what you’ll find in our existing terrains, tending to look more beige, sun-exposed, and dry. You’ll feel distinctly at home in Nasdara while still experiencing DayZ’s grounded and gritty style.

Our art team lead also went over the visual style of the new infected. In short, we’re staying true to our existing infected, who are ordinary people suffering from an infection—not run-of-the-mill Hollywood zombies. At times, the infected should look even more human, aside from visible bloodstains and bruises that you wouldn’t normally see on a survivor.

For the sake of consistency and cohesion, our art team followed strict visual guidelines for the infected. This keeps details such as skin treatment, dust, sweat, sun-exposure marks, clothing wear, and color grading consistent. Since the last dev blog, we’ve also significantly improved their visuals. You can see the new and improved infected below, alongside the previous versions.

Last but not least, we also went over some of the new melee weapons coming to DayZ Badlands. Read more here and check out the showcase video below.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3816030/DayZ_Badlands/

Our colleagues from the art and design teams went over both the potential struggles you might face and the solutions that may help you overcome them. These include the consequences of the heat and the clothing needed to withstand it.
Hydration will certainly be a challenge due to Nasdara’s water scarcity and oppressive heat, which will keep your hydration stat in the red. Still, you’ll find regional gear that can help you overcome these challenges. Much like the official uniforms, the style of this clothing is grounded in DayZ’s grit while reflecting the culture of the region.

Another challenge you might face is inventory management. Generally, heavier clothing with better insulation tends to have more inventory space, while lighter clothing tends to have less. Nasdara’s demand for lighter clothing will force you to make conscious decisions when managing your inventory. We’re excited to see how you react, but we’re sure you can overcome the challenges we throw your way.

This one was quite a treat, as we got hold of Adam, our creative lead. Many of you may already know him as Sumrak. He generously gave us some time out of his busy schedule to introduce our dev blog endeavors with a general overview of Nasdara. He went over the region’s history, the terrain’s geography, and some interesting points of interest that you may encounter in Nasdara.

As an additional treat, we’re bringing you a video of a player character driving across the Dar-e Ardis border crossing. Please enjoy!

DayZ Badlands is just around the corner, and for the past few months, the team has been hard at work optimizing the terrain. Nasdara is more than three times the size of Sakhal, which has presented us with new challenges.

During rigorous testing, we found that environmental complexity, particularly in dense urban areas, was significantly affecting performance and stability. For launch, we have therefore simplified some urban environments by removing select areas and performance-intensive assets, such as high-rise and tenement buildings, and replacing certain buildings with more optimized alternatives. We have also reduced general street clutter, furniture, and decorative items in rebuildable houses. As a result, some locations in the release version of DayZ Badlands will feature less environmental detail and scale than what was shown in earlier teasers and dev blogs. Our priority now is to ensure that the version available at release offers the best balance of scale, detail, performance, and stability we can deliver.

Even so, Nasdara remains the largest and most ambitious terrain we have ever created for DayZ. It is on track to offer a highly immersive experience that captures the character and atmosphere of its real-world inspirations. The terrain features many visually striking points of interest, landscapes, and settlements, each with stories for you to discover. All the landscape screenshots featured in this dev blog are up-to-date representations of the current version of Nasdara.

The very good news is that all core gameplay features planned for DayZ Badlands remain on track for the October 15 release, including:

• Sandstorms

• Rebuilding mechanics and rebuildable houses

• Motorcycles and their accompanying physics

• Radio gameplay, including Morse code signals that lead to underground shelters

• New regional firearms, clothing, and loot

• New regional wildlife

• Underground facilities and infrastructure powered by the new terrain-hole system, which will also be available for other maps and to the modding community

Needless to say, our work will not stop at release. We will continue to monitor performance, optimize the terrain, and improve DayZ Badlands after launch based on our data and your feedback.

Thank you all for reading. We previously said that we would cover infrastructure assets such as the hospital and highway, but we’ve had to adjust both the dev blog’s release date and some of its topics due to other priorities. Let’s just jump right into a more interesting topic next time. Stay tuned to learn more about the wildlife of Nasdara in a new dev blog dropping this week, on the 25th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3816030/DayZ_Badlands/Stay hydrated and stay safe!

Big love,
The DayZ Team