DayZ dev hopes survival emphasis will decrease bandits

DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall has said the increased emphasis on survival in the standalone release will bring down the number of bandits in-game.

"This is one of our big issues. So this is what we found, why so many people are bandits: I think it's because they're bored, and there's nothing to do," Hall told Kotaku at E3.

"So I think that the game, this new antagonist, we're hopeful that that will have an impact on players' playstyle because they'll be forced to interact.

"Now, notice I didn't say forced to cooperate. Because I think that's a key difference. They'll be forced to interact, maybe on a neutral footing, so there'll be sort of these very high-tension trades occurring between groups of people."

Hall made the comment as part of a lengthy Q&A composed of Reddit-submitted questions. There are loads of nitty-gritty details in there, like the fact that weapons and vehicles take damage; why the UI has been stripped back; how zombie and loot spawns work; and much, much more. If you're a fan, do click through.

DayZ is expected on PC sometime this year; a console port is almost guaranteed to follow. The new version has a rebuilt client-sever architecture and players must contend with temperature, starvation and disease. We have some brand new and very tasty footage from a pre-alpha build.