The Official War Z Info and Discussion Thread (Not Day Z)

**HellsJester** · 07-31-2012

Here’s a breakdown of features, taken verbatim from the press release:

Big open worlds to explore between 200 to 400 square kilometers (Around 125 - 250 Miles)
Two modes of play: Normal and Hardcore (Permadeath)
Combination of first-person and third-person perspectives
Meld of PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player)
Strong Role Playing Elements
Multiple playable characters with customizable features
Unique social elements, including bounties, help requests, trap setting, etc.
Safe settlements where players can purchase, sell and store items as well as post notes for other players
Dozens of unique skills that can be learned and improved
Up to 250 players per game server
New weapons and items become available as players explore the game world
Full developer support with regularly scheduled, free content updates
Dedicated public servers as well as private servers that can be completely self-managed in game client
Single purchase, downloadable client with ability to play full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions
It will be $30

Website and Beta registration - www.thewarz.com

Pics

Announcement Article

The War Z announced: zombie survival shooter-MMO with strong parallels to Day Z
Evan Lahti at 06:36pm July 19 2012

Well, that didn’t take long. Someone’s announced a persistent survival shooter-MMO set in a zombie apocalypse. It has permadeath (as an optional “Hardcore Mode”). It has PvP and PvZ folded into the same experience. It has a hunger mechanic. It has a dude in a baseball cap. The War Z is undeniably inspired by Day Z, one of the best things to happen on the PC this year. But before you load your cynicism guns with copycat bullets, I wonder: is that really a bad thing?

The War Z describes itself as a “Survival Horror MMO that immerses players in a zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic world in which a viral outbreak has decimated the human population leaving, in its wake, a nightmare of epic proportion.” It’ll be available unbelievably soon: Fall 2012 for $30 (coincidentally, the same price of Arma 2: Combined Operations),and it won’t carry a subscription fee.

The game’s being developed by Hammerpoint Interactive, a new developer. According to Sergey Titov, Executive Producer, they began development last fall. “The major difference is that DayZ is a fantastic mod for a hardcore military simulation game,” Hammerpoint Interactive Senior Game Designer Eric Nordin says in an interview with IGN about the game. “We are creating a standalone game, with the entire world designed around a zombie apocalypse, so that players feel completely immersed in that environment.

Here’s a breakdown of features, taken verbatim from the press release:

Big open worlds to explore between 200 to 400 square kilometers
Two modes of play: Normal and Hardcore
Combination of first-person and third-person perspectives
Meld of PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player)
Strong Role Playing Elements
Multiple playable characters with customizable features
Unique social elements, including bounties, help requests, trap setting, etc.
Safe settlements where players can purchase, sell and store items as well as post notes for other players
Dozens of unique skills that can be learned and improved
Up to 250 players per game server
New weapons and items become available as players explore the game world
Full developer support with regularly scheduled, free content updates
Dedicated public servers as well as private servers that can be completely self-managed in game client
Single purchase, downloadable client with ability to play full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions

From this, I think it’s fair to speculate that The War Z won’t share Day Z’s emphasis on realism and experimentation. Some of its systems seem more in-line with what we’d expect from conventional RPGs or MMOs: a skill system, customizable characters, item selling, and bounty-setting, which I actually love the idea of (my death to Pokerguy33 in Day Z still goes unavenged). Promising larger player capacity than Day Z (although this is something the mod’s creator, Dean “Rocket” Hall, continues to pursue) is also something of a surprise, especially if The War Z will be able to accommodate all of those players in a single instance.
What’s totally unclear is what kind of shooter The War Z could be. The release makes no mention of real-life ballistics modeling or what form its combat mechanics will take, leaving me to imagine it might strive for accessibility.

Anyway, I know it’s natural to express cynicism about developers pinching ideas—or whole concepts—from one another. And I’m in no way defending the breathtaking absence of originality put forth here, but I’m also not sure if copycatting is some inherent sin that we should condemn. To some extent, this is how genres are formed, and variations on Day Z’s wildly-successful concept were inevitable. We’re not living in an imaginary dimension where only one version of a thing can exist. The War Z will have a lot to live up to — Arma carries a lot of inherent traits that lend itself to survival simulation, and not all of them are easily reproducible.
Source - http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/19/th...lels-to-day-z/

IGN Interview

The War Z -- A New Zombie Survival Experience
First details and interview about this hardcore zombie survival title.
by Anthony Gallegos July 19, 2012

Zombies are everywhere, you’re low on supplies and you’re traveling with people even more destitute than you. You stumble upon another group of survivors who have tons of food but no weapons. Do you use your scarce pistol ammo to kill them and take what you need, or does your moral compass remain strong in a world where the dead now rule?

This is the world of the upcoming zombie survival MMO, The War Z. Developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by Arktos Entertainment Group, this is another take on hardcore survival for PC players. To get more information on it, how it differs itself from the already popular ArmA II mod DayZ, and when we can expect to play it, we conducted an email interview with Arktos Executive Producer Sergey Titov and Hammerpoint Interactive Senior Game Designer Eric Nordin.

IGN: OK, so let's just get this out of the way right off the bat: How much was this game a reaction to the success of DayZ? Was this in development before the Alpha's release in April?

Sergey Titov: We started thinking about doing a zombie game last year and began developing a quest-based MMO set in a large, zombie infested world. Players would be able to explore and “unlock” new areas on the map as they progress through quests assigned to them in-game. When DayZ was released to the public we were really excited to see another game that was akin to what we were working on – we were like “wow, that’s cool, we’re not the only ones making something like this." As we saw the popularity of DayZ grow, and how players and the community were reacting, we realized two things – first, there was validation that our idea of making a zombie MMO was actually right and that there is a market/player base for it, and second, we decided to abandon the idea of unlocking parts of the map as you progress – rather, the player will be able to freely roam the world and gather information and quests by exploring notes, diaries, etc left behind by both real players and NPCs.
So short answer – while we began developing our game before DayZ, we've been encouraged by fact that DayZ has become so popular. And yes, of course some of our latest design decisions were influenced by the DayZ community forums.

IGN: What do you guys like about DayZ, but feel like you want to do differnetly with The War Z? What do you want to capture that's similar?

Eric Nordin: Most of our team members are fans of DayZ. We love the way DayZ was able to capture the primal feel of being alone in a big hostile environment, where your biggest enemies are not necessarily zombies, but other players. And these other players are no different from you – they’re scared humans who are trying to survive - this is the same feel we want to capture in WarZ.

The major difference is that DayZ is a fantastic mod for a hardcore military simulation game, so it is all set in that type of environment. We are creating a standalone game, with the entire world designed around a zombie apocalypse, so that players feel completely immersed in that environment. We want players to see the signs of struggle and destruction from humans fighting with zombies and have that sense of fear and anxiety when they are exploring the world. Additionally, aside from having different characters to play and some other mechanics that we think will really set WarZ apart, the other key difference is that, being a standalone game, it will be much more accessible in terms of being able to buy, download, install, log into a server and play.

IGN: So will there be multiple maps for people to play on or only one world?

Sergey Titov: We’ll launch with one world we call “Colorado," but we have more worlds designed, all of which are based on real world locales such as New York, Los Angeles, Paris, etc. We’ll be releasing new worlds/maps as we go and they’ll be available for free to all of our players.

IGN: What sorts of things can players expect to encounter in the world?

Eric Nordin: The game is set five years after a “zombie apocalypse," so most of the human population is either dead or turned into zombies. Cities are decaying, resources are scarce and scattered around the world. About a year prior to when the game begins, a special, mutated type of zombie is discovered. These zombies have stem cells can be extracted and used to create a vaccine that cures humans of the zombie virus. People around the world are hunting these “special” zombies, however they can only be found at night, and they are rare, so players will need to go to places where zombies gather in masses – namely – big cities, larger towns, etc. If you hunt these special zombies and extract the stem cells, you’ll be able to sell them to merchants at “safe settlements” for Gold Coins – the most valuable currency in the game.

While exploring the world, scavenging for supplies, weapons, ammo and gear, players will be able to find “notes” and “diaries” – text pieces left by other players or NPCs. For example, you can find a diary that tells the story of a family escaping their home and running from zombies - and dying one by one. If you read carefully you can find clues that will point you to a place where you can find better equipment. Another scenario would be finding a note from another real player – this note could either help you or lure you into a trap – you never know what other players intentions are.
There are dozens of towns, villages, even large cities scattered across the world that players will explore looking for rare artifacts. You will be able to team up with other players to raid cities at night in order to find special zombie breeds or higher value gear. Players will also be able to form alliances against other clans.

IGN: Will you start with a gun?

Sergey Titov: If you’re playing in hardcore mode, you’ll get some kind of basic gun. In normal Mode you’ll have to find one, but it will be relatively easy to do close to your initial spawn point.

IGN: How does zombie combat work? Are they hard to lose, do they move fast? Will we have to fight
hordes of them at a time, or are they a bit more scarce?

Eric Nordin: Our zombies are moving slightly slower than you - so with enough patience and enough stamina you can lose them, but it’s not easy to do. Still if you don’t have a gun or run out of ammo and there are zombies in pursuit, there’s a good chance you can lose them. Also, zombies can’t climb ladders or scale walls, open doors, etc – so you get inside a house and barricade the door and you should be safe.

Depending on location you’ll encounter between one and literally many dozens of zombies at a time. Choosing the right tactics, movement, camouflage (for example you can buy “zombie scent” spray that will save you from being detected in certain situations) or weapon type (silenced weapons are the way to go) you can either end up killing dozens of zombies without being detected or will end up being attacked by hordes attracted by loud sounds, smell, etc.

IGN: Are necessary supplies only found around towns, how do you lure players into situations where they'll encounter zombies?

Eric Nordin: Supplies can be found at places where you expect them to be. Ie – if you’re looking for guns, find a police station, military outpost, a gun store, or try to looks inside vehicles. Try to find npc’s diaries, read them and maybe they’ll point to some hidden stash. Same goes for other items you can find in a game. Obviously it’s much easier to get something from a single standing house, that may have a few zombies at best, then from a police station in a large city infested with hundreds and thousands of zombies.

But more important – I think that most of the time it won’t be us luring players into the zombies nest J - it’ll be other players setting traps for you. After all – other humans are way more dangerous than zombies in the world of War Z.

IGN: What sorts of survival situations might players find themselves in? Do they have to worry about basic needs like food and water, is their a day / night cycle, how do you heal, what kind of medical problems can occur?

Eric Nordin: Players will need to worry about both food and water, they will need to find place to rest and restore stamina, and will have to use medical supplies to patch wounds and restore health. They will also need to worry about the zombie virus. Once a player has been bitten, their blood will become infected and they will need to find the zombie virus vaccine to cure themselves. If they don't do that, they slowly but surely will be transformed into a brain craving zombie.

While food and water are the most common resources in the world, players will have a harder time finding both medical supplies and vaccine. Vaccine is especially rare, available only either through the store in safe settlements or from other players.

There is a day/night cycle, each cycle is a few hours of real world time, so you’ll be able to play both daytime and night time.

IGN: Why include both first and third person perspectives for players to choose from?

Sergey Titov: In our experience with previous games we’ve funded (Online Warmongers published “War Inc Battle Zone”) we found that players like this, i.e.: there’s group of players that specifically want to play using third-person camera. So we decided, "why not to give them the option?" Plus first-person mode works better for combat situations, and third-person mode is better for exploring the world.

IGN: What do you think adding in the option for up to 250 players in a map adds to this type of game?

Sergey Titov: I think the world should feel real. It should be populated enough to create interesting encounter scenarios, it should allow for enough players to join to create interesting social interactions between different groups of players.

IGN: What sorts of party options do you plan on having? Can players form actual groups? Clans?

Eric Nordin: Players can form clans, clans can form alliances or fight each other. Players will be able to friend other players, join a game as groups, be able to communicate with their group members, friends, clan mates. It all will be managed from inside the game session as well as from the game frontend. There’ll be individual and clan leader boards as well.

IGN: What are safe settlements? Are these places where PVP simply isn't allowed? Doesn't that break the whole system of a land where your life is always in question?

Eric Nordin: Safe Settlements are settlements built to be safe from zombies in the day time and provide better protection at night. They are also the places where you can find Stores, Message Boards (allows you to post messages about looking for partners, groups or just announce a mission and reward for that mission completion, that can be picked up by other players) and what we refer to as the “post office” where you’ll be able to transfer items from your backpack to your “global inventory” that your other characters will be able to access from the front end menu.

Basically Safe Settlements are more social hubs for players.
PVP IS allowed in safe settlements, but by killing somebody you will not only receive an immediate bad reputation, but also will be attacked by NPC sentries guarding the settlement.

IGN: What sort of social elements will there be and how will they effect gameplay?

Eric Nordin: Outside standard things like chat, we’ll offer players the ability to leave “notes” – short messages that can be found by other players. Profanity aside, players will be able to write anything they want there – so for example you can tell players about danger ahead or you can set a trap for them by telling them that there are some cool items lying somewhere nearby and luring them into trap. You can also “call for help” – for example if you are low on health or your blood is contaminated with the zombie virus and you need immediate assistance – you can post this as a message available to all players on a server or just around your immediate area, and you can promise them a specific reward for helping you.

This alone can create some interesting scenarios – for example one time one of our engineers posted that he needed a zombie vaccine and he would give a very rare scope for an assault rifle in exchange. So he did this to test new code. The person who responded showed up and killed the poor bastard and looted his body. BUT, then he ended up being killed by another guy that came to help.
We also allow players to trade items, however they will need to think about how well they can trust the other person. For example, will he be honest with you? OR when you drop the item for trade will he kill you and take the item. We tested this part of the game and ran into some pretty interesting scenarios on for humans will behave in situations like this.

IGN: How do the RPG systems you want to include in The War Z work? What sorts of skills will you learn and how can they be applied?

Eric Nordin: Let’s start with survivors – your playable characters. At start you can create up to five survivors. When you create your survivor, you will select how you want to play the game – in Normal or Hardcore mode. Normal Mode means that once killed your survivor and his personal inventory (backpack) will be unavailable (i.e. locked out) for a certain period of time. Hardcore mode means permadeath -- all of your experience, score, inventory, etc will be lost.

As you progress through the game, exploring the world, discovering artifacts and rare items, killing zombies, or helping other players, you will be earning experience. You can use your experience points to learn skills from several skill trees. Each skill tree allows you to train in a certain field – gun handling, survival and medical skills, tracking, etc. For example you can learn how to heal small wounds more efficiently – which will restore more health when using bandages. Or you can increase your stamina, improve your low light adaptation, etc.

IGN: Why offer a Normal mode? Do you think there's an audience of players who want a DayZ-lite like experience? What sort of downtime will Normal players experience?

Sergey Titov: We don't really think of our "Normal" mode as “Dayz-lite." We think that there’s a significant number of players, who will want the experience of surviving the hostile environment and interacting with hostile players, but not necessarily want to lose hours and hours of time they invested in building their character and its inventory. We still haven’t locked downtime time but it’s safe to say it will be between 24 to 48 hours. The important thing for us is to provide options in order to make the game fun and have appeal for the most hardcore gamers and also those that want a slightly more "gentle" experience.

IGN: What sort of regular updates do you plan on giving people who purchase The War Z?

Sergey Titov: Lets start with obvious fixes and updates like balancing changes, bug fixes, etc. Those will be released on a regular basis. We’ll be releasing new items, new weapons, new characters, etc. Last but not least we’ll be releasing large updates like new game worlds available to all players.
And of course expect some nice gifts from us for all major holidays.

IGN: What, ultimately, is the goal for someone playing The War Z? If there a max level? I mean i suppose if you're playing hardcore your goal is just to live for as long as you can, but on normal?

Sergey Titov: There is no max level in the game. And yes, the ultimate goal is to survive as long as you can. Normal and Hardcore players will have their own separate leaderboards, plus we’ll have special servers where only hardcore players will be allowed, those servers will contain some rare items, not found on mixed servers. Outside of that, for each world there’ll be set of “missions” that you need to complete in order to have the world “100% complete” – those missions range from simple things like “kill X number of zombies’ to more elaborate like “open safe on military base” or “ find this rare item."

As you explore the world you’ll find what we call “memories” or “echoes” – think of these as diaries left by people who died fighting zombies. Once you find them, you’ll be able to play those scenes as coop missions with your friends.

IGN: To go on a bit of a tangent...what does MMO mean to your studio? When people hear it they often think of more traditional experiences like WoW or EverQuest. Why do you call The War Z an MMO?

Eric Nordin: For us MMO means exactly what it says – massive multiplayer online gaming experience. When we allow a large group of people to interact with each other within a game world. Unlike WoW we do not restrict your play to certain servers or shards, we allow you to select any server and play with your friends.

IGN: So you guys want the game to be a one-time purchase, but you can also acquire in game cash and gold. Will there be micro-transaction options to acquire this as well? What sorts of things can you buy with this currency?

Sergey Titov: When we thought about how the game will operate, we first asked ourselves – what we as players want. We don’t want to pay a subscription, because what if I don’t have time to play the game regularly? We don’t want to be forced into buying every single upgrade, like new maps just in order to play the game with friends. We don’t want a “pay to win” model. So we said, "OK, we’ll go with a one time fee, that should be lower than $60." So we settled at a $29.99 price point, and we’ll offer a discount to those that pre-order the game.

As for in-game transactions, we looked at designing that around more of a "convenience" model. In other words, players will be able to make certain micro-transaction purchases in the game, but they will not be for improved weaponry or anything that will give you an unfair power advantage. Instead, players will be able to purchase things that will help save time, such as reviving their character in normal mode, buying slightly more effective food, hydration packs, medkits, etc. To get those things they will need to spend Gold Coins in the game, which can be obtained by hunting down the special, mutated zombies, extracting their stem cells and then selling them in safe settlements or by purchasing them in-game. So, essentially, players will be able to play the complete game without ever engaging in micro-transactions, but the option is there for convenience. Also, we will allow players to rent and manage their own server from inside the game without leaving the game UI.

IGN: When can we expect to play the beta?

Sergey Titov: We’re running an internal alpha test right now and expect that we’ll make closed beta available later this summer to selected players that sign up on our website now and to all users that pre-order the game.

Source - http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/...erience?page=1

What does Day Z's creator think of The War Z?

What does Day Z’s creator think of The War Z?
Evan Lahti at 8:33pm July 19 2012

Copycatting isn’t a crime. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Good artists copy, great artists steal. I did a bit of a double-take when I first heard about The War Z, a zombie survival MMO-shooter with deep similarities to Day Z, the almost 700,000-strong Arma 2 mod.

But how does the creator of Day Z feel about the sudden appearance of a game that talks and walks (hobbles?) like his Frankenstein of permadeath and open-world survival? I asked Dean “Rocket” Hall.

Hall shared this response via email when I asked what his reaction was to The War Z:

“I think competition is a healthy thing, and their list of features is ambitious. I’m have been hoping that the gamer response to Day Z has made a few developers, and even a few publishers, raise their eyebrows and question what we consider absolute truths in the industry. Maybe this is the start of that, in that case it is a great thing.”

“But if it is a list of promises, then it’s a bad thing. Because those things are hard to do, and Day Z is only possible because it rests on the shoulders of ten years of development in a fantastic engine. It is one thing to speculate for comment, but it’s something else to promise a feature that hasn’t been developed. Gamers react really badly to that, even when the end result is a good product. They remember and they are harsh critics.”

“In terms of Day Z’s future, I think the success of Day Z is less in the features and more in the approach. You could take the same features, plop them in any engine and a team with a different approach, and it wouldn’t work. DayZ has the great position of already being out there, and (as shown in the IGN interview) everyone will compare and contrast everything about it to this, sometimes quite unfairly. The same thing happened with World of Warcraft and the similar MMOs that came out afterwards. Certainly, the soldier in me relishes a bit of competition, a bit of edge. So I think it’s great news, gamers!”

Source - http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/19/wh...-of-the-war-z/

PC Gamer Interview

The War Z new screenshots, interview on weapons, game systems, ambition

Evan Lahti At 5:57pm July 27 2012

The War Z is giving me mood swings. I feel like I have a pair of contradictory spirits on my shoulders; Yes, I would like another open-world, PC-exclusive survival game, Shoulder Ghost #1. Duh. But the promises made by the game’s creators (who are so newly-established that they don’t have a website) invite arm-crossing and skepticism. Can these guys really execute the tremendous list of features they’ve laid-out? 250-player capacity, PvE/PvP, unrestrictive-but-accessible gameplay, multiple open worlds that will rival or exceed the size of Day Z's, free content updates, player-owned servers, and stuff like bounties and vaccination?

I got Executive Producer Sergey Titov talking about his studio’s lofty promises for The War Z, and poked him for hard details on its systems and what sort of shooter it’ll be.

PCG: The War Z seems an extraordinarily ambitious type of game to design so quickly. Is it accurate to say—from start to the planned release later this fall—The War Z will have taken about a year to make?

Sergey Titov, Executive Producer: Well, actually there is a little more to it. It’s true that The War Z specific features, characters, art, animations, etc. have come about over the past year, however the evolution of the game has really been in process for quite some time. We’ve actually been thinking about and drafting the design for a large, open world, zombie-survival game for the last couple of years. We also already had the technology, solutions and expertise that had been developed over the last few years with our game engine, licensing that engine, and developing/operating War Inc. Battle Zone. So we literally spent several years prepping ourselves for this production cycle.

Is The War Z more of a shooter or more of an MMO?

ST: The War Z is first and foremost a game of survival. Your goal is not necessarily to hunt zombies, or unlock achievements, or shoot anyone. Your goal is to explore the world and survive. It’s up to you if you want to work to rebuild society or destroy it and we really don’t set hardcore goals for you to achieve. As for the game controls and the game feel, it’s more of a shooter. You have a choice between first-person or third-person perspective and you’ll have very tight and direct control over your character and actions. The MMO aspect comes into play because the world will be persistent and populated with many other players besides you.

Will The War Z have traditional quests?

ST: There are no quests or missions in the traditional gaming industry sense of the word. We’re not building an objective based game, but instead building a sandbox with lots of tools that will allow players to create their own experiences. We took a basic theme that we love—the zombie apocalypse/survival genre—and asked ourselves what the world would look like in this scenario? What means of interacting with the world or other players would be available? What would the world economy look like? We built the game design around that. If you think about our feature set with that perspective it makes more sense. For example, we have what we call “safe settlements,” that are really not completely safe at all. They are built by people that survived the infestation and are working to rebuild civilization, so they are taking precautions to make sure that their home remains safe. If you obey the rules, there’s no danger for you, but it’s not a place that you can go anytime and expect you’ll be 100 percent invincible.

The same thing goes for currency. We’ve seen some comments that “gold coins” takes away from the realism. But, if you think about it—gold has been around for ages and, until very recently, it was the ultimate measure of wealth. In the game, Wall Street and other financial institutions have collapsed so we’ve reinstated gold’s value as a universal currency. That said, it is not the only currency in the world and, more importantly, we’re not forcing it on the players. We’re not saying “you either look for gold or you can’t buy anything.” Nothing prevents you from taking ammo for guns and using it as currency when bartering with other players. I don’t even actually remember using gold in the alpha version of the game. I think I used M16 ammo more often as a way to barter with other players for food.

One thing that’s unclear to me is how much of—and what sort of—shooter The War Z will be. What will your guns feel like?

ST: Think of Battlefield 3 and think of War Inc. Battle Zone. I think those two examples best depict what the shooting and gun handling experience will be.It’s taking the reloading realism of War Inc., for example, where if you drop a half emptied clip and put in a new one, you effectively just lost all the bullets that were left inside the old magazine. Firing will have similar ballistic characteristics as you see in Battlefield—that is, if you shoot at longer distances, you’ll have to take distance and bullet drop into account.
One thing that I think is quite different is weapons stats. In most games (including our own War Inc.), you have to compromise between reality and gameplay fun. That is, your guns should feel different and fun, even though it doesn’t make much sense in the real world—after all you don’t really expect that two guns built on the same platform and using the same bullets will do dramatically different damage. So this is what’s different between War Z and other shooters—weapons stats are much more in line with the real world. It’s more simulation than just a fun shooter.

That’s pretty ambitious. What weapons specifically are you putting in the game?

ST: All sorts of things you can expect to see in a real world. Starting with “classics” like baseball bats, knives and crossbows and going up to light machine guns and grenade launchers. Yet—gun availability will depend on how hard it is to obtain them in the real world. For example, you can’t expect just to go into any house nearby and find an M16 lying there. You may be lucky and get your hands on a shotgun or handgun there, but stuff that is military grade can only be found near military installations, police stations, military roadblocks, etc.

Same goes for gun attachments—grips, silencers, different types of options—there are dozens of real world modifications available for your gun. Some will be relatively easy to find (forward grip for M4 for example or flashlight), but some—like high quality military grade optics—will be really rare.

Also just to clear any doubts—unlike the War Inc. attachment system, we’re not going to modify weapons stats for “gamification” purposes (i.e., a scope won’t improve a gun’s spread or anything like that). Some attachments like silencers and grips will affect stats: a silencer will slow down your bullet, grip will help you control recoil. Like they do in real life.

Are you using your own engine technology?

ST: Yes, the game is using our own online game engine called Eclipse. It’s been in development for a while and has been tested by millions of players worldwide, so we’re pretty happy with what we have.

About the skill system: will it feature any active abilities? In the IGN interview, you described them as enhancements—unlocks that boost your stamina or the health restored by bandages.

ST: Haha. I’ve actually been criticized over last few days for calling our system a “Skill Tree.” Turns out it resonates well with traditional WoW style MMO players, but everybody else is thinking—okay this must be an MMO with quests, raids, level ups, grinding and a skill tree that will mold you into one of the “professions” available in the game.
This is as far from the truth as The War Z is far from being a traditional MMO RPG game. What we have in the game is a set of “training skills” available and as you progress through the game, you will decide what you want to train. Do you want to spend more on physical training to be able to carry slightly more weight, sprint for a longer time, etc. Or do you want to do more gun training, allowing you to aim better, reload your gun faster, etc. The point is—this is something you would expect from people in this situation in a real world—that they would train themselves to improve certain skills. So in the game, you accumulate “experience points” that you can spend on learning those different skills.

How are you handling maps and navigation within the world?

ST: From the start you will have access to the world map and be able to mark waypoints to assist with navigating. Other than that—it’s up to you to find the best route to your destination wherever that may be

Will The War Z feature proximity-based voice chat?

ST: As of now, we don’t have solid plans for VOIP communication built into the game. This may change based on feedback we get from the closed beta test, but so far universal feedback we’re getting is “don’t worry, we’d love our teamspeak, we don’t need anything else.”

What do you see as The War Z’s endgame? This is arguably one of the shortcomings of DayZ currently: once you get gear, killing other players for sport is the natural thing to do.

ST: Ultimately we hope that there won’t be an endgame. Our DNA as a company is not to produce “packaged” games. What we’re making is a sandbox service for our players. We create the toolset and set the theme for players to use and build their own individual game experiences. We don’t have a goal like “okay unlock all achievements” or “find all guns.” We’re saying, here’s a world that just survived a viral outbreak that took the lives of most of the population and left a world full of brain-hungry zombies. This is also why we’re allowing players to rent their own servers and create their own private worlds with their own rules. Some will do just that—building their own virtual “strongholds” so to say and inviting other people to join as long as they are going to follow their rules. Some will band together into clans and will fight other clans—either on public or private servers.

So, with that focus on PvE, how are you going to promote something that doesn’t feel like a conventional FPS deathmatch in an open world? What are you doing to build opportunities for cover and concealment, for example?

ST: Find Ghillie suit. Hide in bushes. I think that two things will affect this most—your posture, how you move and lighting conditions. I don’t want to say we’ll be the first game that’s doing this right, but we’ve spent the last couple months perfecting our light adaptation system to mimic how the human eye works in real life. For example, unlike traditional “gaming” implementation of this feature (often called “HDR lighting”) we’re not just making things brighter or darker instantly based on how well the scene is lit. Depending on what’s happening, we simulate real human eye response. So for example if you get out of a dark space into sunny bright day, you’ll only be blinded for a second or so. Yet if you get into a really pitch black dark space—it’ll take up to 10-15 minutes for your eyes to adapt so you can see what’s going on around you. This can give you some advantage at night. Yet if somebody blinds you with a flashlight or flare—you’ll pretty much be a sitting duck…

Tell me more about the significance of the stem cell-carrying zombies mentioned in your first interview.

ST: Oh, they’re pretty special to me and we’re going to uncover more about them in the coming weeks, but let’s just say for now that they hold a key to what happened to the world. More importantly for the player, though, they hold the key to the cure for the virus that nearly destroyed civilization. Visually they’ll look very different from other infected, they’re much more aggressive, fast and agile. They’re rare, they hunt only at night, so the best place to find them will be larger cities at night time.
Gameplay-wise, you can hunt them down, kill them and extract their stem cells, which can then be used to create an antivirus for the zombie virus. This so called vaccine is used to heal you in case you are bitten during a zombie attack. This is why those cells are really worth a lot—and effectively your best, yet super dangerous way to get gold coins. It probably will require a team effort, so the whole thing alone will create lots of interesting interactions between players.
At the same time—finding these zombies will not be your primary goal. As I mentioned before—this is just one of the tools we give you to build your own game experience. Players will decide if they want to go this route or not—it’s totally up to you.
How do you feel about Dean Hall’s comments about The War Z, specifically that you might be making a lot of promises about features that aren’t necessarily developed yet?

ST: Over the last week, since we announced the game, thousands of players have posted comments on various forums, blogs, and gaming websites as to why they think the game will be great or not. We love to read the comments, but in the end it really doesn’t affect our development in any way. When we announced certain features publicly, it was not a wish list that we thought would sound cool in a press release; it was an action list for us. These are things that we are working on and that are concrete enough today that we feel comfortable saying, “Yes this will be part of the game release.” Most of our team members come from very large projects and companies with very strict policies about the announcement of features—so that carries over into how we talk about features for The War Z.

Thanks for your time, Sergey.

Source - http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/27/th...tems-ambition/

**ToXiCNiGhTMaRe** · 07-31-2012

The game looks cool, I would want to know more about it though but I already signed up for the beta!

**Rapture** · 07-31-2012

Could we finally be getting the zombie game we've all wanted?

**HellsJester** · 07-31-2012

Originally Posted by Rapture

Could we finally be getting the zombie game we've all wanted?

Hopefully!
I will be honest and admit it does sound too good to be true. It really isnt hard making a better looting and inventory system than Day Z. I will admit im very skeptical right since beta is very soon and the game apparently releases this year and we havent seen a single gameplay trailer.

**MjW** · 07-31-2012

There is definitely a lot of room for a "walking dead" kind of MMO. I hope they get it right and get it fun.

**HellsJester** · 08-02-2012

New info from the official forums

What makes The War Z different to DayZ?

sergeytitov
I think that our biggest difference is that War Z is build around game world and concept that you HAVE to cooperate with other players to survive. If you go over list of features, most of them are not gameplay elem,ents - they're tools created for players to try different ways to interact with other players.
And this is why I think it's unfair to compare those two products. Day Z team spent 90% time trying to put zombies into world of hardcore military sim. We spent 90% of time designing new ways for players to interact with each other in a world, and okay - this world happend to be zombie infested post apoc world
Everything else - zombies, survival aspect, scavenging for food, etc - it's all there, but I don't think it'll matter if we won't deliver living breathing world and means for players to build their own game experiences.

So when can I pre-order The War Z?

sergeytitov
we won't start pre orders until we're sure that game is very stable and fun and until you guys saw gameplay video, so you can make informed decision on if you want to buy game or not.
Ie - we don't want to do "kickstarter" bs . We don't really need extra money to finish development, and we don't want to release product we're not proud of.

Will it be available on Steam?

sergeytitov
It should be available on both steam and directly from our website.
We have not yet definitive agreement with Steam, but given fact that our previous game is available on Steam, I don't see why with War Z it'll be any different.
Yet - yes Steam pricing will be probably different for US, EU, UK, etc users.

How does zombie combat work?

sergeytitov
You have to destroy their brain - by using either gun or hit their head with knife, baseball bat or any other melee weapon ( yes crowbars and hammers will be available ). If you shoot them in a body - you'll be able to slow them down and temporarily put them down.

Eric Nordin: Our zombies are moving slightly slower than you - so with enough patience and enough stamina you can lose them, but it’s not easy to do. Still if you don’t have a gun or run out of ammo and there are zombies in pursuit, there’s a good chance you can lose them. Also, zombies can’t climb ladders or scale walls, open doors, etc – so you get inside a house and barricade the door and you should be safe.

Will the Zombies movement be Fast or Slow?

sergeytitov
Both.
They limp walk, they trying to run, they crawl toward you.
Different zombies, different animations, bodies, styles, etc...

What kind of Chat System will there be in The War Z?

sergeytitov
Chat channels :

- Global Server
- Proximity chat ( people around you in around 100 meters radius )
- Friends
- Clan

We may add more.

What happens if you succumb to the Zombie Infection?

sergeytitov
You just die.

Will we be able to enter all the buildings?

sergeytitov
No, you'll be able to enter only some of the buildings. As game going, we'll be adding more and more interiors. And no, there won't be any loading screen or anything when you're entering building

Will we be able to build our own Fortifications?

sergeytitov
This is one of the things we're working on right now.

How will the in-game Marketplace and Currency (Dollars and Gold) work?

sergeytitov
We use both in game currencies to basically kinda show value of the items - to set some expectations on how rare and valuable certain items are.
And we expect players to use whatever they want as trade currency. Maybe you'll decide that twinkie bars will be your world currency. We don't really care.
You can get both types of currencies by playing, but more important - you can find any single item in a world. Ie - we're not planning on having items that you can only buy in a store and not be able to find somewhere.

sergeytitov
1) You can't buy weapons
2) You can't buy skills
3) you can't buy good protective gear

Everything in markletplace will be sold for either DOLLARS - money that you find in a gameworld, or GOLD - currency you receive for selling harvested zombie stem cells. You can also buy GOLD using real world currency.
70-80% of things in marketplace will be sold for DOLLARS, so uinless you play game alot, you won't be able to buy them anyway.
Everything that is sold in marketplace is available for free in a game - things like food, water, etc.
Reason for marketplace is simple - we just offering players more freedom - what they want to do in a game. Maybe they just want adventure, so they spend time killing zombies, hunting for bandits, etc. And they receive some in game currency for that, so they spend it to buy their food instead of spending time trying to find it in a world.

What kind of Weapons will there be in The War Z?

sergeytitov
Melee weapons - several different items. Pretty common
Crossbow - relatively common
handguns - relatively common
Shotguns - relatively common
Civilian assault rifles like AR-15, semi auto M4, etc - relatively rare
Civilian sniper rifles - relatively rare
Military grade assault rifles - rare
Military grade sub machine guns - rare
Machine guns - very rare
Military sniper rifles including .50 - extremely rare
Cool assault rifles and SMGs - extremely rare
grenade launchers, rocket launchers, grenades, mines - super extremely rare. I mean not just rare, but truly epic items.

How many Weapons will we be able to Carry & Equip?

sergeytitov
You can have two weapons eqipped in "hot slots" - ie something you can switch on fly. One slot is for rifles, crossbow, etc, other for either handgun or melee.
You can cary as many as you like in your backpack as long as total weight is lower that max weight you can carry and there're free slots in backpack.

Will there be incentive for players to cooperative with each other? And will there be a Reputation/Humanity Sytem?

sergeytitov
Your reputation will affect how other players react on you. It will affect how security forces of safe settlments react on you.
So technically - YES you can kill everyone you can see, but then you may end up in situation that you'll be denied help by other players just because they don't like your reputation level. Once again - not because we said so, but because they just may decide that they don't want to help jerk.

Will we be able to Farm and Hunt Animals?

sergeytitov
You can't farm, hunt animals, etc in War Z. Not yet at least, not for release.

Will my PC be able to run The War Z?

sergeytitov
Here's simple test - go and try game War Inc. Battle Zone. It's F2P game so you won't need to pay anything. It uses same engine and have approximately same system requirements as War Z.

Source - http://forums.thewarz.com/showthread...Extended-F-A-Q

**HellsJester** · 08-02-2012

Developer Interview

Also over 100,000 people registered for the closed beta.

**ps3freak18** · 08-03-2012

This sounds amazing. If it is as good as it sounds could be one of the greatest games ever made.

**HellsJester** · 08-04-2012

More info from the official forums

Can Zombies climb Stairs?

sergeytitov
they can navigate stairs, but not ladders

Will there be a way to tell how much Sound I'm making and how Visible I am?

sergeytitov
Visibility, smell, sound are all part of the detection process and yes you'll have indicators that shows how visible or loud you're.

Will we be able to build communities?

sergeytitov
YES you'll be able to do that. You will be able to do that by taking over towns, settlements on the main map, or by owning specially designed server instanced "mini worlds", where you can do whatever you want and build your own fortress if you like.

How will the Health System work?

sergeytitov
Health bar and NO auto regeneration.

Will there be Player driven Plots?

sergeytitov
There's a backstory of what happened in a world, and this story will be told to you as you progress thru game world. But other than that - this is your world now, your to rebuild or destroy.

How rare will Ammo be?

sergeytitov
It'll be more rare than weapons itself. so I'll say it'll be pretty rare and valuable thing.

How will Character Creation work?

sergeytitov
Each character will come with selection of heads, upper body clothing, legs and boots.
Unfortunately it's not super flexible system, but this is start. As game will gain popularity, we'll be able to add more advanced customization system.

What are Safe Zones exactly?

sergeytitov
Safe zones will be like 3-4 per map. Ie - rare and far away from each other. They mostly serves as social hubs, for creating missions for other players, trade and transfer items from your backpacks to your "stash aka global inventory".
They're protected but not entirely safe - nobody prevents bandit to snipe people in safe zones from far away, nobody prevents group of bandits attack settlement and kill everyone.
Rest of the world, towns, villages, other settlements are for players to explore and claim their own.

Why will we initially spawn with a gun in Hardcore Mode?

sergeytitov
Why ? First of all we're not completely sure it'll be this way, but anyway you'll be able to find some sort of weapon ( even if it's just a knife ) close to your initial spawn.

Why will we be locked out of the game for 24-48 hours if killed in Normal Mode? And what about death in Hardcore Mode?

sergeytitov
Lockdown period is still not final. We'll be testing during beta test. But I'm not sure why you think it's ridiculous ? Ie - you have 5 character slots, creating character is free, so you basically have 5 survival attempts in NORMAL mode per day. And you have unlimited survival attempts in hardcore mode since once you die your character will be deleted.

Our point is to make character IMPORTANT and valuable to you. Make sure that you're not like "who f%&k cares, I don't have anything except my backpack anyway, no stats, no progression, no reputation, so I don't care if I'll be killed".

Will I be able to Switch from Third Person View to First Person View on the fly?

sergeytitov
Actually you can switch in realtime by just pressing key between TP and FP.

When I reload will I lose my Clip & Any Bullets in it?

sergeytitov
It's actually dropping to the floor, not dissapears.

So you can drop full or partially full magazine to the ground - by reloading your gun or just drop it from inventory and somebody else can pick it up.

Will there be Xbox 360 Controller Support?

sergeytitov
Xbox360 controller will be supported, yet it won't be super priority for us. So - it'll work from day one, but if it'll have some quirks, don't expect they'll be fixed overnight.

Source - http://forums.thewarz.com/showthread...Extended-F-A-Q

**kidd0218** · 08-05-2012

I tried DayZ and enjoyed it but I'm definitely be playing WarZ when it comes out.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

**Fenix** · 08-05-2012

$30? was kind of hoping it was F2P lol. If it gets good feedback I can see myself getting it.

**HellsJester** · 08-05-2012

Originally Posted by Fenix

$30? was kind of hoping it was F2P lol. If it gets good feedback I can see myself getting it.

It will most likely be on Steam so just wait for Steam sale if you dont feel like spending $30 on it. I think $30 is very reasonable for what sounds like a amazing game. Hopefully the gameplay trailer shows smooth animations and movement ,etc so i can pre-order it.