DayZ Standalone Pushed Back To 2013?

Dean “Rocket” Hall has been really pushing to get the standalone of DayZ out before the end of 2012. It was a serious attempt by the design team to get the game out there before all those other zombie apocalypse clones came flooding onto the market. Well, unfortunately, DayZ as a standalone has a little too much on the plate to hit that 2012 deadline.

Co-Optimus spotted the tumblr post by Hall, as well as an outline for all the stuff that's being tweaked, re-worked and re-designed for the standalone...

'We are still working towards a target for an initial foundation before the end of the year, but we will slip this date if needed. We will not compromise the project for the short-term gain of meeting this date,'In many ways, once this phase is completed — one could effectively say that DayZ is running on a new version of the engine. While the graphics may look the same (for now), under the hood so much is being completely rewritten.

Graphics were never an issue, not for me anyway. The Arma II engine's environmental visuals are already borderline photorealistic depending on your graphics card. But it's not just standard under-the-hood mechanics that they're re-working for the standalone. Check out the checklist of changes inbound for DayZ below.

1). Server specific settings for graphics and gameplay.

2). Release thorough Steam and will contain many of Steam’s key online features

3). A smooth launch of the game, so don’t worry about the usual problems many online games face during release time.

4). Reworked controls will help players engage the environment more realistically.

5). Smoother character model animations that will give better and quicker feedback to players.

6). A wide variety of clothing options for your characters to choose from (hats, coats, pants, shoes, etc.)

7). Weapons and items will be highly customizable due to the new game engine mechanics.

8). Servers will be able to control character actions, according to player client requests.

9). Overall map design will be improved, all with new objects, buildings, areas to explore, and fixing game glitches.

10). UI with vastly improved functionality and simplicity.

Those are all great things. I can't wait to see how they work in the final version. But there is no way in a blue moon around Saturn that they're going to finish implementing all those features before December is out. Just saying. Still, an early 2013 release isn't bad and I'll definitely be one of the first in line to lay down some cash for the standalone of DayZ.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.