John Smedley : « En quoi H1Z1 se différencie-t-il de DayZ ? Pas de langue de bois, H1Z1 est un jeu d'apocalypse zombie, tout comme l'est DayZ. Ils ont réalisé un jeu brillant, ils ont une approche énorme et ils peuvent me compter, moi et nombre des membres de notre équipe, parmi leurs fans.
Ils font un jeu, nous faisons le nôtre. A long terme, nous prévoyons de réaliser un univers persistant avec des paysages gigantesques et des milliers de joueurs. Nous souhaiterions notamment nous orienter vers un gameplay dans lequel les joueurs érigeraient de petites enclaves ou des poches de territoire résistant à la menace zombie qui est présente partout ailleurs, alors que d'autres tentent plutôt leur chance en solo, sur les routes. Le fait d'ériger des structures, des fortifications, des villes est l'une des façons par laquelle les joueurs tentent de trouver une petite place dans un monde dangereux.

Nous voulons aussi nous assurer d'avoir un solide système économique, reposant très largement sur l'artisanat. Les joueurs pourront devenir des fabricants ou vendeurs de munitions, par exemple, ou de flèches. L'économie du jeu doit être totalement contrôlée par les joueurs.

C'est notre vision d'une apocalypse zombies avec de nombreux amis et, espérons-le, de nombreux ennemis d'envergure aussi morts que vivants [mais le jeu revendique une approche de Science Zombies et non de Supernatural Zombie -- sans magie, donc]. Nous sommes fiers de dire que nous adorons DayZ et le boulot qu'ils ont fait et nous espérons qu'ils apprécieront aussi ce que nous faisons.
Mais ceci dit, j'adore aussi 28 Jours et 28 Jours plus tard ; j'adore World War Z, j'adore la bluette Warm Bodies (avouez, vous aussi !), j'adore la nuit des morts-vivants et plein d'autres. Et j'adore The Walking Dead. Comme nombre d'entre vous, j'en suis sûr.

Nous faisons un autre jeu d'apocalypse zombie, appelons le genre par son nom. Mais notre objectif consiste à faire un jeu fun, accessible, hard core, et vraiment, vraiment profond. Avec le temps, nous espérons que notre vision de la fin du monde suite à une invasion de zombies sera amusante et que de nombreux joueurs voudront y participer. Vous aurez toutes les informations nécessaires quand nous lancerons l'accès anticipé pour 19,99 dollars [sans clause de confidentialité]. Vous pourrez regarder les autres joueurs streamer le jeu et vous pourrez alors décider de vous lancer ou d'attendre le lancement en free-to-play. Quoiqu'il en soit, nous partagerons notre feuille de route et vous pourrez voir si H1Z1 correspond à vos attentes. »

Some of our outcomes. Please note I'll do a comprehensive posting after we're done with this. We have another meeting Thursday to discuss.

   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.

6) Crates - You can find crates sometimes in game. They're filled with random cool stuff from the store. We're considering letting you see what's in them before you buy a key (ala Dota 2.). This idea isn't fully locked yet.

That Monetization thread has turned out to be a terrific source of ideas and it also is helping us steer clear of the stuff you just don't want to see.

More to come late this week.

Smed

    Today I'd like to announce H1Z1 will be the first game to implement our new Player Servers.

   In addition to the traditional servers that we set up and run (what you've come to expect in MMOs), we will allow the players to come together in any way they wish, and if they can get enough people together to vote for the server we will make it for them.

   At first this will be for specific pre-defined rulesets; later we will expand past rulesets into adding more features. For example, perhaps one community prefers to go more militaristic, so they add more military vehicles; we're truly letting you, our Players get exactly the kind of thing you're looking for.

   Mechanically this will allow players to buy "pledge tokens" in Station Cash to vote on a proposal; however, should the vote succeed we refund your money.

“So how many players per server? Who knows. As we add more land the number of people we can hold on a server goes way up. We’re excited. We have a ton of zombies for you to fight too. You’ll be seeing hordes… oh yes you will.”

I've seen a bunch of people asking questions about the Map size. Forgelight is built to handle arbitrarily sized worlds. Our plan is simple - we're building the core of "anywhere USA". When we first open it up to users the map will be huge, but nowhere near as big as it's going to be in short order. Our Map Editing system allows us to quickly add massive areas. We want to make sure we clearly understand how the players are playing the game before we do that. On Planetside 2 we made a mistake by making multiple continents before we had a strong enough idea of what worked and what didn't. This game is different. We're doing it smarter.
 

When we open up the Early Access there will be a massive map for players to enjoy. Over time (very quickly) they'll magically just be able to keep going further than they've gone before. It's a very unique way of doing it, but we actually think this is a better way to go.
 

So not to worry. Zombie Apocalypse isn't going to be any fun if it's like Disneyland on Spring Break and super crowded. We want remote.. haunting... being scared when you see someone. Your first instinct needs to be to hide. If there are 20 players in your view it's not a very convincing Apocalypse
 

So how many players per server? Who knows. As we add more land the number of people we can hold on a server goes way up. So we're excited. We have a ton of zombies for you to fight too. You'll be seeing hordes oh yes you will.

-Will combat be as fast as was shown during the live stream?
No, there are a few features coming online that will allow me to start tuning for slower combat. This includes things like 1:1 head movement but slower arm movement, ready states for melee (just right clicking), and weapon specific melee anim sets. Weapon/tool swap times will also be drastically slower than shown.

-Will zombies die from 1 headshot from a gun?
Right now, sure, but if you've got a .22 or .380 it may not.

-Will there be free-look/alt-look/head turning?
Yes.        

-Will there be military spec weaponry in the game?
We absolutely will be adding military weaponry and installations. I'm also not naive enough to assume people wouldn't have made their own modifications or stolen equipment during the collapse of society. ONCE AGAIN, all of the above will be very rare, some weapons/ammo even more than others. In homes you'll mostly find weapons that you could feasibly find in a civilians house. You'll find some nice AR-15s (semi-auto), shotguns, 1911s and the like, very rarely something like a modern M16 w/ fire-select that could have been stolen or found by the previous occupants. Updated this statement for clarification!

    Today I'd like to announce H1Z1 will be the first game to implement our new Player Servers.

   In addition to the traditional servers that we set up and run (what you've come to expect in MMOs), we will allow the players to come together in any way they wish, and if they can get enough people together to vote for the server we will make it for them.

   At first this will be for specific pre-defined rulesets; later we will expand past rulesets into adding more features. For example, perhaps one community prefers to go more militaristic, so they add more military vehicles; we're truly letting you, our Players get exactly the kind of thing you're looking for.

   Mechanically this will allow players to buy "pledge tokens" in Station Cash to vote on a proposal; however, should the vote succeed we refund your money.

I've seen a bunch of people asking questions about the Map size. Forgelight is built to handle arbitrarily sized worlds. Our plan is simple - we're building the core of "anywhere USA". When we first open it up to users the map will be huge, but nowhere near as big as it's going to be in short order. Our Map Editing system allows us to quickly add massive areas. We want to make sure we clearly understand how the players are playing the game before we do that. On Planetside 2 we made a mistake by making multiple continents before we had a strong enough idea of what worked and what didn't. This game is different. We're doing it smarter.

When we open up the Early Access there will be a massive map for players to enjoy. Over time (very quickly) they'll magically just be able to keep going further than they've gone before. It's a very unique way of doing it, but we actually think this is a better way to go.

So not to worry. Zombie Apocalypse isn't going to be any fun if it's like Disneyland on Spring Break and super crowded. We want remote.. haunting... being scared when you see someone. Your first instinct needs to be to hide. If there are 20 players in your view it's not a very convincing Apocalypse

So how many players per server? Who knows. As we add more land the number of people we can hold on a server goes way up. So we're excited. We have a ton of zombies for you to fight too. You'll be seeing hordes oh yes you will.

Smed

“So how many players per server? Who knows. As we add more land the number of people we can hold on a server goes way up. We’re excited. We have a ton of zombies for you to fight too. You’ll be seeing hordes… oh yes you will.”

-Will combat be as fast as was shown during the live stream?
No, there are a few features coming online that will allow me to start tuning for slower combat. This includes things like 1:1 head movement but slower arm movement, ready states for melee (just right clicking), and weapon specific melee anim sets. Weapon/tool swap times will also be drastically slower than shown.

-Will zombies die from 1 headshot from a gun?
Right now, sure, but if you've got a .22 or .380 it may not.

-Will there be free-look/alt-look/head turning?
Yes.        

-Will there be military spec weaponry in the game?
We absolutely will be adding military weaponry and installations. I'm also not naive enough to assume people wouldn't have made their own modifications or stolen equipment during the collapse of society. ONCE AGAIN, all of the above will be very rare, some weapons/ammo even more than others. In homes you'll mostly find weapons that you could feasibly find in a civilians house. You'll find some nice AR-15s (semi-auto), shotguns, 1911s and the like, very rarely something like a modern M16 w/ fire-select that could have been stolen or found by the previous occupants. Updated this statement for clarification!