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[The War Z] Alphas, Zombies, Stability oh my! (KEYS AVAILABLE)
GnomeTank
What the what?Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
What the what?Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UwpLOVTjLUWar Z? What's this crazyness!
War Z is a new zombie survival quasi-MMO that has been in development for about a year. Comparisons to DayZ will be very easy and quite apt, but War Z has some important differences which I think are in most cases good. The basic game play will seem very familiar to anyone who has played DayZ, but the level of polish even in the alpha is quite a bit higher. As some would say, it's considerably less "janky".
What do I mean when I say quasi-MMO? Well, it has some of the trappings of an MMO such as character storage and a global inventory, with more planned (friends, groups, etc). That said, you don't play on servers with thousands of other people. The server setup is much more like a first person shooter, where you will join one of many servers, all capped at 40 players. Players can also rent a "stronghold" server, which will eventually confer benefits for playing on your 'home' server.
While the game is currently in the alpha state, the developers are very receptive to player feedback and the pace of updates is brisk. Updates usually total two to three a week, and the developers are opening up the complete game map at a reasonable pace. It is currently around 60% open.
Okay, but if it's just DayZ whyfore I care?
Well, there are differences. Lets go over them:
Improvements over DayZ
- Much more stable, feels less alpha. No annoying graphics errors, little to no geometry glitches.
- Runs smoother, seems to have fewer memory leaks.
- Smaller map. This is actually a good thing. The Day Z map is too large relative to the number of players on most servers. The War Z map was crafted to be a zombie survival map, so the map funnels you in to more tense situations, even when not in cities. It's still quite large though, with room to roam.
- More enterable buildings. It's not 100% (yet), but in most places buildings are more likely to be open than not, and even non open buildings will tend to have external spawns.
- Safe zones. Areas where you can go where there is no PvP allowed. They are small, and there are only a couple, but they at least allow some trading, a place for players to gather and chat, and a place to access your global inventory.
- Global inventory. This essentially replaces tents from DayZ, but is actually stable and works. The space is limited, so you can't just stockpile forever, but it gives you a nice cache to build up.
- It's playable at night without night vision. Woo!
Things DayZ did better
- Alt-look. You will miss this if you played a lot of DayZ. I find myself trying to do it quite a bit. It's being discussed by the developers.
- Weapon physics. The shooting in DayZ is a lot better, but in some cases that's to be expected; It's based on one of the more realistic shooting models in gaming. The War Z shooting is still very passable, FPS gunplay, but it's lacking the depth of DayZ.
- Vehicles. Right now The War Z does not have them. It's less of an issue because of the small map, but I know some people love vehicle construction.
- Larger map. Wait, didn't I just say a smaller map was better? Well yes, but for some people the larger map is a big deal. There are some advantages to the larger map, and some people may just enjoy it more, so I'm giving it as a good mark for DayZ.
- Built in voicecomms. I believe this is coming, but it's not in yet. This was pretty useful in DayZ, especially the proximity voice.
In practice the two games have a very different feel, for all the surface similarities. DayZ is much more a simulation, while War Z plays out a bit more "game like". Which of the two you enjoy more is likely going to depend on whether you prefer the simulation side of your zombie survival feast, or the game and player conflict side.
Great. So where can I learn more?
Well, the best place is probably the website:
http://www.thewarz.com/
If you'd like to see the game being played by real people, live:
http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/The War Z
I wanna play. How?
There are two ways. Get a 48 hour buddy key from someone with some. Or buy in to the founders program. This works much like MechWarrior Online, and several other games that have done this. You are essentially buying in to the alpha, and at higher pay levels you get some extra things like buddy keys and credits for the in game marketplace.
You can look at those packages here:
https://account.thewarz.com/buy/buy.html
Using this method you'll have your key in about five minutes.
If you've gotten a key and can't find the client download, it's here:
http://www.thewarz.com/download/
Oddly there are no links (that I can find) directly to that page, so it's a bit obtuse, but there it is.
What is the final pricing model for the game?
The information so far has stated that the game will follow a model similar to Guild Wars, where a one time purchase gets you the game forever. From there the game will have micro transactions and the rented server system to generate income (and hopefully new content). We don't know much about the micro transactions right now, but there are two currencies: One in-game and one converted from real money. So far things can only be bought with one or the other, but these systems are still very early.
The founders packages get you access to the game, plus some extra goodies for the two higher buy in levels. The cheaper founds package just gets you access to the game, but the access is early (aka now) and at a reduced price from the final product. The two more expensive packages get you early and reduced cost game access, plus some amount of the market currency, some buddy keys and rental time for a stronghold server when that system is put in to place.
Any screenshots?
Of course!
You can also find more here:
http://www.thewarz.com/media.html
Useful play resources
http://thewarzcartographer.com/ - Interactive map.
Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: BrainlingOh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
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I have one more, but I'm saving it just in case a RL friend of mine wants to try it. If it's still available in a couple of days, I'll offer it up.
http://www.thewarz.com/download/
You'll put your key once it's downloaded and you login.
I have Curse Premium because I've released WoW mods before (which gets you a complementary premium sub), so I'll see if I can get that key and give it out.
It's really quite enjoyable and I love a lot of stuff about it.
Steam
There are hackers/cheaters here and there but it's not rampant like it was a week ago. There were motherfuckers literally flying around the map and shooting you in the face with an aimbot at breakneck speeds. It was out of control for a little while there. The anti-cheat thing has cut that waaaaay down to the point where you really only see some speed hacks here and there.
For those who have never played Day Z, a couple of tips:
-Trust no one (or trust at your own risk). The more loot and gear you have, the more likely someone is going to shoot you in the face because they want what you have.
-If you fighting a zombie with a melee weapon, aim up while you swing for head shots. 3 good whacks about the head and neck of a zombie with a hammer should drop them.
-If it's night, put your damn flashlight away. It's like a friggin' beacon of light.
-If you're looking for some fun (or some action), a city is your best bet. Obviously everyone gravitates to a city for phat loots. 90% of the time you'll see others there. 90% of those times they will want to kill you.
This game is hardcore and nothing makes you more careful and untrusting then the fact that you could lose everything you scavenged for the last 5 hours in an instant if someone gets the jump on you, not to mention you can't use that particular character for an hour (24 hours in the retail version is planned). It is extremely tense when you're walking into a town like Clearview in the middle of the night. Last night, me and 2 friends of mine ran into about 3 other groups of bandits. Bullets were flying everywhere. All 3 of us were gunned down eventually as all hell broke loose at once. We lost a few shotguns, an M4, couple of pistols, some body armor, tons of food, water and bandages and about 4 or 5 hours of time we spent scavenging (and killing people). God dammit.... But to be fair, we were being straight up bandits. The only people we wouldn't kill were fresh spawners as they were very little threat and they wouldn't have anything we'd want anyways.
It's $25 bucks right now. Even if you play it for a week and then not care much for it, I would still say it's a bargin.
(It's also only 20 bucks right now for the starter package, not 25, just an FYI).
That's actually a good question to ask. I can't answer it, but the game has pretty decent graphics, so it may require a decent machine, I don't know.
As an update to what I posted before, here's the required specs if you're curious:
OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 (enhanced for 64-bit OS)
Processor: 2.4 GHz quad core or better
Memory: 4 GB system RAM, Hard Disk Space: 3 GB
Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible with 768 MB video RAM or better (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850)
Sound: Windows compatible sound card
e: It doesn't actually require a quad core either, my best friend plays it on an old E6600 dual core.
I thought this was going to be f2p?
It's actually kinda weird, because I spent a fair bit of time in DayZ and, while some of the stuff carries over, there's a fair bit of dissonance while playing. The game inevitably ends up looking like DayZ, but things in general already work so much better that it's obvious the game isn't DayZ. Namely, shit laying around on the ground? Yeah, you can just pick it up and drop other stuff without having to futz with inventory for a solid minute. No bizarre losing stuff you drop because the game places it beneath the ground or in a bush 30 feet away.
I believe it will be...but just like MWO and Dota 2, they are offering a founders buy in to play it now, rather than waiting for open beta.
Download the client and make an account. Once you login to the client with that account, it will say you have no game time and ask for a key.
To add to this, I run War Z in ultra at 1080p with VSync on, and it runs smooth as butter. I had to tweak the crap out of the ARMA graphics settings to get it to run just as well on my system.
For reference, I have an i5-2500k with 16GB of RAM and a GTX 670.
I did. I got a screen with Login and Register Account. Can't login 'cause I don't have an account, and register account takes to a screen asking for a serial code. It says "Validate" / "Get New Serial Code". Neither of which I can do.
-The bank/safe zones. The difference between the global bank and tents in dayz is that you are able to loot other people's tents. There's no risk involved in a bank or safe zone. Getting your friend to provide over watch while you trade with some one in DayZ is intense!
-It seems a lot more "arcadey" or "gamey." DayZ is more of a simulator and less of a game, comparisons have been made by developers of UO that UO was also more of a simulator than a game in regards to other mmos like WoW and essentially every MMO since. I find that a lot more appealing personally. I can understand the appeal though, people want more action/"smoother" experiences.
-Along those lines I am actually a fan of the clunkiness (in most cases) of DayZ's interface/controls. I think it adds a lot more tension to the game when you can't just hit some hot bar keys to switch weapons/heal yourself etc. Having to stop and pull out your gun, or bandage yourself in the middle of a fight really plays on the emotions imo.
-I believe I read some where the game will feature quests, not sure if that's true or not (they weren't in when I tried it), but I really don't like the idea in comparison to DayZ. Go kill 5 zombies or go scavenge 10 cans of beans or whatever they have in mind just doesn't seem to fit this type of game.
-Overall DayZ just strikes a much better mood of tension imo. I like the giant map with few people because when you run into some one it's a big deal. I like fumbling through my inventory or taking a long time to loot things off the ground because you're vulnerable. I think War Z still can produce those tense moments, I had a few in the short time I was playing, but overall not on the same level of DayZ.
Some more technical/mechanical things I didn't care for:
-The environment seems very off to me. The trees seem huge and there didn't seem to be a whole lot of shrubbery or anything. Roads seemed super big/wide too. It felt like I was in DayZ but my character had been shrunken. "What is this? DayZ for ANTS?!" This just exasperated the "arcadey" feel to me.
-I found there to be LESS enterable houses than DayZ. I went into the city and found essentially 99.9% of the buildings to not be enterable. Maybe I was in the wrong place though.
-No alt look like was mentioned. I'm going to have a hard time explaining this clearly but I just feel DayZ's really does a whooolee lot of a better job of making the environment a huge part of the gameplay and it goes down to even something as simple as being able to free look. There's places to hide every where with the trees/shrubbery/buildings and you're always on edge. WarZ felt very empty to me in that regard.
-The overall shameless rip off of many things from DayZ I find to be pretty weak. I understand that due to the settings there's going to be over lap of course but I don't think anyone can say they didn't just straight up copy DayZ in tons of regards.
And not to be totally negative I did enjoy some aspects of it. I'm not sure I'd say the game is more polished overall, but I will say obviously the characters are a lot more detailed. Being able to choose some limited customization is nice too. I liked finding different helmets/masks etc that was cool. I didn't do it personally but I saw messages left by players and I like that. It was a relatively smooth gameplay experience. I like being able to just quickjoin into a server because finding a server on DayZ is a total bitch. So I don't think it's a bad game, I think it will have pretty good success. I feel like maybe they sort of dumbed down a lot of stuff (other people will call it streamlining no doubt) and missed the mark on what the main appeal of DayZ is. I think they missed that mark by less than I initially predicted they would. I guess in a way a good compliment to the game was that while I was playing it I was just thinking "why am I not playing DayZ instead?" That sounds like a weird compliment but what I mean is they are close but not quite there. The game will appeal to the more casual players which I think is what they're going for.
TL:DR: I think it will be a fairly good game but I don't think it does what DayZ does, but that seems to be the point.
Here's a screenshot of my register account thingy that I just took:
Yours doesn't have the Serial Number entry box?
Nevermind. I just must have typed it in wrong a bunch of times. Durrrh.
The model is like guild wars, single purchase gets you access to the game and you can play online for free and such. There will be micro transactions as well it seems, though its to early to see exactly what form that takes.
With that the founders packages are a little different, the base level just gives you access to the game with no other benefits but it does it at a reduced cost. The other 2 higher $ packages come with in-game currency, buddy keys, and whatever stronghold map server hosting is.
Your second list:
My enduring issue with DayZ will always remain that it's a mess. I was able to put up with it for a while, but it just got trying. Graphics errors if you went anywhere near a city, some of the worst hacking I'd ever seen, clunky UI that is no excuse to create 'tension' (this is the same kind of argument Brood War players used to talk down the SC2 UI, and it was just as odd to me then), map that was designed for open warfare, not a zombie survival game.
DayZ will always hold a special place in my heart for opening this genre to me, but I think War Z is going in a better direction over all for what I enjoy about it.
Thanks for the clarification. I am going to take this info and stick it in the OP somewhere.