I am Dean "Rocket" Hall, Creator of DayZ and submitter of Mount Everest, AMA!

Hi Dean,

1. When will the negative mouse accell in SA be removed?

2. When will you address server hopping and gearing up by simply standing in a good loot location and hopping servers for 5 minutes to max your gear?

3. Will you make zombies a legitimate threat to band against, so SA isn't pure PVP forever?

When will you address server hopping and gearing up by simply standing in a good loot location and hopping servers for 5 minutes to max your gear?

Being worked on today, we already committed the first changes for this. I expect it to be on the experimental branch early next week. Stable branch within a few weeks.

And the removal of mouse acceleration? Please? Just a confirmation that it's coming ever.

Mouse accel can't be removed without redesign. So we are going to redesign how it works, there's no target date on that.

Being a Kiwi have you ever played rugby? If so, What position?

I can run fast, but I could never catch very well. I played some touch rugby in the Army. If I could get the ball, I was really awesome. I played wing - but like I say,... the hard part was getting me the ball.

Would you say that your climb of Everest was a major turning point in your outlook on DayZ? I have been searching for my own Everest for a while to clear my head and find a more direct purpose in life for a while now.

I think Everest helped get me back on track. It was my survival experience in Singapore (and my whole time attached in singapore) that completely changed my life outlook. I got a bit lost with everything when DayZ took off, but Everest helped me get back to what mattered and what I wanted to do, to hell with everything else.

Hey Dean!

There have been some leaked pictures of 3d models for DayZ SA, are these legit? Can you confirm that?

Also, if they are legit are these things coming soon or will they be spread over time, since the shotgun is coming very soon. How far ahead are some of these models? weeks or months?

Probably. If it is the same untextured one I saw, yes. It was taken from the data files, not hard to do with dePBO. They will be in soon anyway :) Weeks, max

Hi Dean! In the distant future, when DayZ is "finished", what do you see yourself moving on to?

Setting up my own studio, working with really creative people, funding recent uni grads to make their own crazy games, trying to make the "ultimate" virtual world survival game.

As a person that doesn't speak Czech, how do you survive in ČR? What's your view on czech people?

I complain, A LOT.

I have huge respect for most of the Czech people I work with. I think the country itself is crippled though, but corrupt politicians and people who think the state should pay for everything. I think with the changes coming it will make people (like myself) leave and there will not be the people to pay for the social security etc... that everyone demands.

how long did you spend on the summit of Everest?

did you leave any memento on the summit?

About 20 minutes on the summit. I didn't leave anything up there, but as I was about to leave the Sherpa stopped me and gave me three small rocks to take down. I didn't really want to at the time, because they were heavy (they were tiny but when you're really tired...).

I'm glad he did. I have one on my desk right now.

How long untill you make Dayz SA "playable"? I mean, cars, base buildings, lots of weapons, etc. Today we are just testing a very small scratch, of what this game can be.

Sorry about my really bad english im brazilian.

about six months.

What's you gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your trunk?

I'ma get get get you drunk get you drunk.

silly rabbit.

Hello Dean.

Is there any reason why you wanna implement small details and what many people will see as unessesary details such as butterflies for an example? Unless they do have a purpose in game ofc.

Wont all these small details cause unessesary stress to servers and pc's that already will have to deal with alot of things?

Most unnecessary detail comes from the parent engine, and is actually nearly all done client-side with virtually no impact on client performance and zero on network/server performance.

I guess "unnecessary" can be a very subjective thing too. I think sometimes many unnecessary details grouped together actually have a very necessary effect on the game as a whole.

Butterflies are necessary, you shut your damn moth.

moth

was that deliberate, or a mistake? I really wish it was a mistake, although I know it was probably deliberate.

Hey Dean. How do you intend to keep DayZ ahead of competitors such as Rust, Project Zombie? I would say WarS, but I don't think that constitutes as a game anymore. On that note, too, what's your opinion of the WarZ dev playing your game and then openly criticising it negatively?

I don't see Rust, PZ, as competitors. I also think DayZ has already "won" anything it needed too. Now we just need to make it a good game. It doesn't need to sell any more units, it just needs to improve. Then that means we have a good reputation to make good future games.

I think DayZ needs to focus on authentic survival, camping, hunting, etc... and then it will be great

What kind of bread do you like?

I actually love most kinds of bread. It's one of my favorite foods, fuck atkins.

How is your style solo or co-op when it comes to dayz

bro'op. /v/ style.

Hey Dean! What kind of beans are your favorite?
If you had unlimited time and funds, what would you do? Or, what game would you make?
If you HAD to have sex with a fish/human crossover, which part would be fish? Top or bottom?

What kind of beans are your favorite?

Baked Beans with pork sausages. Although I don't like pork. Weird right?

If you had unlimited time and funds, what would you do?

Go to Mars and start a colony there.

If you HAD to have sex with a fish/human crossover, which part would be fish? Top or bottom?

Top part. Cause you're going to have to look at it. and the bottom parts kind of work on instinct anyway.

What motivated you to climb Everest?

When I was a teenager I was obsessed with mountaineering and Everest and I used to dream of climbing it. I abandoned the dreams as I grew into adulthood. Then it came back.

Hey Dean. Did you get any sort of revelation (not in a biblical way) from climbing Mount Everest?

I felt very "in touch" which who I was when I was a teenager. More than I ever had. I regularly found my memory wandering across life as a teenager. That meant a great deal to me. When I was a teenager I was obsessed with mountains, with Everest. I was also frustrated with life sometimes because it always felt like the "party was somewhere else" in my life. I wanted to be at the center of the world where cool things were happening.

Sounds weird, but it was really like I got the opportunity to go back to myself as a teenager and say "hey, it's okay. everything went really well. you got the chance to do the things you always wanted. enjoy it".

Hey, Dean, big fan of your work.

I was just wondering, what made you start your work on DayZ, and where do you find your motivation?

Also, when did you first start programming, and how did you learn to do it?

what made you start your work on DayZ

My survival training in Brunei was a key motivator.

where do you find your motivation?

I make the games that I want to play. Sometimes I want to play/make them so bad it hurts and I get restless.

when did you first start programming

Commodore 64, when I was like 10 or something

What do you plan on doing after DayZ?

If it is another game do you envision it to be as big as DayZ?

Setup a studio, hire great people. Also run a huge internship programme. Make awesome games. Make bad games. Make games!

What do you do in your free-time outside of DayZ?

I play a lot of video games, like Project Zomboid, Civ5, EU4, CK2, SS13, KSP, Prison Architect, Defcon.

I also watch tv shows and movies to relax late at night before sleep. I read quite a lot too, mainly hard science fiction.

When not very busy, I also like to go running and gym etc...