DayZ weekly update: smarter zombies, smoother frame rates, and revealing player stats

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On June 25, DayZ hit 300,000 unique players. "Not bad for a mod with almost no budget from an ex-soldier!" says creator Dean 'Rocket' Hall. Since our last weekly update , three additional hotfixes have ironed out some pretty major bugs, but the next proper update – version 1.7. 2 – is still in the works. It was due for release yesterday, but Rocket ran into some problems. "Not releasing tonight guys, sorry - I learned my lesson after the 1.7.1 debacle," he says. "Balancing is all over the place. So tomorrow I need to spend some time adjusting it, then we need to go through some serious closed testing."

Latest game updates

The most recent batch of hotfixes (1.7.1.3 to 1.7.1.5) were released in quick succession, and fixed an impressive number of bugs, and even added some new gameplay features.

– Players with helicopters were running into a bug where a leaking fuel tank couldn't be repaired. This was fixed, and the leak will stop once the chopper is 95% repaired.

– Once you escape from infected and lose their line of sight, they'll investigate the area where they last saw you and try and find you. They're getting smarter.

– Audibility has been rebalanced, and infected no longer have super hearing. This makes it easier to sneak past them, but they're still a lot tougher than before.

– General FPS improvements. A lot of server-side issues would severely hit players' frame rates, regardless of their system specs, but this has been dealt with.

– Flashlights (the new starting 'weapon') can now be placed on the player's toolbelt, meaning you won't have to get rid of it if you pick up a pistol.

In the community

The DayZ team have been revealing some of the games stats in this thread on the game's official forums. According to Rocket, the most frequently destroyed vehicle is the Ikarus (the bus), closely followed by the tractor, and the bicycle. Another team member, Ander, says the places where most players die are the coast, the main cities (especially Stary), and the NW airfield. Ander also reveals that 2.6% of all current survivors have NVGs, and 30,000 players have either a Coke or Pepsi in their packs.

On the DayZ subreddit , people have been discussing what 'realistic' features they DON'T want the game to include in future updates. "Pooping." says Botono. "Satisfying libido," says Centagon, worryingly. "Maybe female players would be in short supply? How about those sheep?" Qbopper says: "Anything added for the sake of being realistic, and ignoring if it's fun or not."

Reports of mass killings on servers at the hands of hackers are becoming more frequent. Cheaters are able to wipe the entire server, destroying peoples' precious characters in the process. If you witness this, or anything similar, note the server and any relevant player names and post it to the official cheat reporting forum . It's also worth taking a look at what weapons are in DayZ . If you find a hacker's weapon and use it, YOU can get banned, so if a gun seems to good to be true, it probably is.

The week's best videos

YouTube user Shaymus22 channels Jacques Cousteau.

A superb cinematic fan trailer by Tim van Kan .

Normal Difficulty finds a vehicle, and an army of zombies.

A masterclass in freaking people out by YouTuber greigm81 .

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If it’s set in space, Andy will probably write about it. He loves sci-fi, adventure games, taking screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.