A new DayZ game concept, powered by volunteers and Creative Commons.
This is about survival in an apocalytic, evolving world. Collaboration is key: it's time to fight for life, and it's time to rebuild. It's time for an Alternate DayZ.
An unexpected series of events unfolded at the end of 1990s.
The Sun, always considered a source of life for humans, showed that it powers life, in fact, of any kind.
A massive solar flare erupted from the Sun's Chromosphere after months of unusually large sunspots. A similar event was never observed before: the solar flare was massive, much bigger than any flare thought possible. Unfortunately, the flare was directed towards Earth orbit, on a collision course. The strongly radioactive plasma took less than a day to hit Earth's atmosphere, and the planet's magnetic field could not deflect the larger particles traveling at tens of thousands Km/h.
This very event marked a turning point in human history.
On Earth, countries were immediately alerted after the solar flare was observed by astronomers at both NASA and Roscosmos. The scientists were aware of the potential effects of a massive flare: the magnetically charged plasma would generate a strong electromagnetic pulse once hitting Earth, like that of an extremely large H-bomb. The impact of that, however, was a land of speculation and hypotheses. The general agreement was that electronic and electric devices were likely to get fried and become unusable. This would mean cities without electricity, cars malfunctioning, telecommunications silence and no broadcast mediums.
Planet Earth, or at least a large part of it, was about to come back to the silence and darkness of the pre-electricity centuries.
Preparing for the event, countries acted uncoordinated and in a rush: most actions were directed to save data and communication systems in underground bunkers, to ensure a faster recovery after the electromagnetic blast.
Several countries dispatched an emergency plan to control that cities would not fall in chaos due to the unusually dark nights, and inability to coordinate law enforcement.
These interventions were however limited to small border controls, or to small extra forces dispatched in cities.
In fact, the general public was kept mostly unaware of the unfolding of the events, and almost the totality of Earth countries considered the low-profile intervention as the best course of action, to avoid wide-spread panic.
Life continued as usual everywhere, with people going about their lives like any other day.
What happened next was unexpected, unprecedented and astonishing.
The expected burnout of electronic and electric devices happened at once. Suddenly, nearly all electric devices stopped working, and the whole electric grids failed.
Lights went out everywhere, communications stopped.
Emergency generators were mostly gone too, with their alternators melted, leaving hospitals and other critical infrastructure completely unusable.
Emergencies were piling up one after the other, as the electricity-powered society started to collapse in a domino. At this point the situation was already out of control in most countries and cities.
Humans were suddenly back to a pre-electric world.
But that was NOT the biggest issue caused by the flare.
The events were still to unfold the magnificent mess that led to the current times. The electromagnetic blast was NOT the most dangerous radiation brought by the charged plasma.
The unexpected lack of electric power, the silence of any broadcast medium and the mounting emergencies triggered panic in most cities and residential areas. People started rushing towards food and supply shops, fearing extended periods of limited goods availability.
Shops, however, with owners afraid of raid actions, quickly barricaded their doors, leaving people out and fueling protests and violence coming from panic. The police forces, deployed in small numbers, failed in keeping order, becoming often overwhelmed and forced to retire to their stations.
In the small Chernarus, the situation was no different from other countries, but the small country size, the depressed economy and the rather poorly informed civilian population contributed to even worsen the already difficult situation. The country’s capital was an emblem of the worse getting worser. One of the planes in flight when the flare hit lost any maneuverability, and crashed on the tallest capital’s building, the International Hotel.
When the crash happened, the firefighters were alerted by the loud noise and explosion, and rushed through the city, on foot, carrying what they could to assist the crash survivors. What they found on the place was a daunting situation. The hotel building was open in half, with building parts and debrief all around. Death was everywhere, among people in the plane, in the building and in the surrounding areas. They had to act fast: with no light sources, most of the work would have been impossible during the night. They needed to take advantage of the day’s hour.
Was at that moment that the first case was witnessed. From the back of the plane two survivors managed to climb their way out. A few firefighters rushed to take them away from the plane’s tail, and provide them with any needed assistance. To the surprise of the firefighters, the survivors started running towards them too, after launching a laud scream.
From few meters away, the survivors started showing their teeth and protruding their arms with the fingers stretched, to then jump forward towards the firefighters in a move to grab and bite them.
Surprised by the survivors’ reaction, the firefighters did not react with strength, and to the horror of all the witnesses, one of the survivors managed to bite away the protection of one of the firefighters, and bite through the neck. The attacked firefighter was now on the floor, blood quickly leaving his body to form a round shape around it.
Closer colleagues to the now dead firefighter managed to pin to the ground the biting survivor.
Meanwhile, the other survivor was already dead, with the head split in half by the axe of a second firefighter, who unlike his colleague reacted instinctively to protect himself.
The firefighters were still wrapping their head around what just happened, when a person that was helping with the rescue operations started shivering, and then went to the floor contracting and stretching his body in spasms, as if in deep pain.
Suddenly, the person became unconscious, like in a deep sleep, in lethargy.
A group of soldiers joined the firefighters and were informed about the weird encounter. The story matched another story coming from the North-West Airfield, where a military plane managed to perform an emergency landing.
In that plane, more than half of the crew were in the weird lethargy, at landing time. Other 4 went to lethargy few minutes after landing. But the most disturbing thing was one of the pilots, who was strapped to his seat screaming and trying to bite whoever would approach.
The other pilot told the soldiers that he had transitioned from being fully awake and conscious to a quick series of spasms, and then a deep sleep. When he woke up about 20 minutes later, he was in that aggressive state.
Soldiers were dispatched throughout Chernarus with a precise order: monitor the country for sleepers, if found, lock them in local facilities, and evacuate the rest of the population. It was unclear how many sleepers would appear, and after how long they would wake up. The priority was therefore to secure civilians, gather them where they could be monitored, and to deal with the leftover sleepers at a later stage. However, the lack of working vehicles, and the witness of the aggressiveness of awaken sleepers, required a special plan to make evacuation viable. Sleepers had to be detained in place, discretely, while keeping their relatives under control and giving all citizens a chance to evacuate cities on foot.
And so it started. Small groups of soldiers were dispatched to evacuate the houses and buildings of Chernarus. To their advantage, soldiers used a new fact: unlike the sleepers that emerged from plane crashes, those in cities and villages did not wake up after short time, and stayed asleep for much longer. In fact, in the beginning there was no known episode of sleepers coming back from their sleep. Therefore, the military would lie to civilians, ensuring that their sleeping relatives were going to be transferred by the army, while they would precede them on foot. Those that did not trust them, the least cooperative ones, were just locked in place with the sleepers, to quickly deal with protesters on the spot.
The population took what they could with them, guided to travel on foot towards the northern military establishments. Improvised wheeled cars and caravans, carried by cows or by civilians themselves, was all they could use.
The plan seemed to work, as cities and towns were emptied without incidents, leaving behind only workers needed by the army to build basic tools and supplies.
Also the sleepers where left behind, locked behind their homes’ doors.
At least this was the first hope.
While the population was moving north-west escorted by the army, it became evident that not all the sleepers would manifest themselves at the same time.
People started falling asleep while marching. Both army and civilians were affected, leading to a quick collapse of the apparent order of the evacuation so far.
There was a bit of sun that day. The air was cold, but the sun was still giving a mild sense of warmth. She woke up with that feeling in between cold and warm, as the light entered from a partly barred window. Memories were distant. She was packing, with her family. Her sister, the grandfather. She was packing food and clothes. But then pain, dark. And now she was awake again. But alone, in a barred room. Why was she locked down? She must have got this sickness from the sun, like the others sleeping suddenly in the city. But she was awake now, it was fine, no pain, and feeling well. It wasn’t a bad sickness, only a lost of the consciousness for a small while… but how long ago did that happened?
She looked around her in the empty room. She cleaned that room the morning of the flare. Then why was it covered with dust of weeks? Did they leave her behind? Did they abandon her in that city of sleepers?
Alternate DayZ brings a new way to play DayZ on consoles, with cooperation rooted in a hard survival experience.
Players in Alternate DayZ are called into a survival challenge as much as they are called into a society rebuilding challenge.
It's time to survive, and it's time to rebuild.
Alternate DayZ is also a cradle for players' stories, which evolve intertwined to the game lore. The game helps players with their storytelling, generating game session summaries and content automatically, ready to be refined and shared by players. The lore in itself is more than just a background story. Players can use it to understand the world they are part of, find out their options, and the threats that await them. Unlike regular DayZ, in Alternate DayZ the lore permeates the game world in each aspect, and players' actions have a direct influence on the evolution of the story.
To achieve our goal, we apply advanced computer science techniques to automatically process, understand and generate custom game configurations, which implement modding features that are generally unavailable for consoles (and often unheard of on PC too).
Living by yourself is going to be hard. You may survive, but you will achieve only little progress over time
Grouping and joining forces will be critical to progress in an unforgiving world, which dynamically adapts to reflect players actions
Hold on your items as long as possible, it is unlikely you'll find another similarly useful thing any time soon
The goal is beyond surving of the individual. The goal is the survival of civilization
You cannot find the equipment you need? Build makeshift guns, ammo and more
Food is scarce, but cattle, like cows, can give you milk... or meat if you are ready to give them up
The story is real and lives in the game. Know your options, where to look and what to look for
There are places that still have good loot. You won't be lonely there
What you do affects the world you live in. Expect zombies, animals and anything else to move reacting to your actions
Survive and rebuild, and check your achievements on that path as the game tracks them
Generate stories automatically from your game runs. Refine them. Share them
Your ideas can come alive, help us improve our game and our stories together
We use DayZ as a world simulator to create a new Game Concept. The standard game mechanics, like bullets physics, hunger and thirst are all there, but anything else about the game is new, and you'll have to re-learn it. Loot, zombies, animals, cars, dynamic events is all changed. On top of that, we are continuosly implementing additional mechanics, including crafing makeshift guns, bullets and farming cows! What follows is just a short list of changes and features, which we are continuosly adding.
Items have a new categorization, and they appear were they were likely to be used before the apocalypse. No more industrial tools in city's blocks! Food mostly in pubs and grocery shops, etc. Everything fitting the Alternate DayZ lore. Think about what happened in this world, and plan accordingly your next move to avoid starving or freezing to death
Good loot is rare, including good clothes: repairing and crafting will be vital to survive. Finding a piece of cloth of a discrete color is going to be hard. Finding a large backpack is almost impossible, and finding a gun is a more unique than rare event! Hold tight on what you find, and make sure you have the tools to repair your stuff
Some areas have more zombies then other ones, but there may be a chance to get some luck with better loot. Some places, like large shops, are particularly rewarding. But expect Zombies crowds around them! Find a strategy with your fellow survivors, draw the zombies away or kill them in group, to enjoy a richer (still short) life in Alternate DayZ
Watch out for the signs, sometimes you'll find new unexpected things, dynamically scripted in the game. Did you find the hideout of a soldier turned mad? Are those human corpses bringing to a crazy cannibal? Is it going to be a treasure or a death sentence? Things change over time, do not assume you know it all already
Gather tools, materials and recipes to craft your makeshift equipment. Alternate DayZ features a new crafting system to build guns, ammo and more. Collaborate with others to build a workshop, trade tools, materials and recipes, and build yourself what your team needs. The possibilities are endless, but be patient, it takes hours to craft your stuff
When food is scarce, cattle farming is a good option... provided you can find and capture the animals! Build fences to keep the cattle under control, "capture" animals and bring them in the fences. Then, support your survivors settlement with the milk your cows are producing, kill and eat them, when there is no alternative!
Zombies are a danger, but killing them may be rewarding. When they are up and walking, it means no one else still looted them. Sometimes, they have a good backpack, better clothes, or even guns and ammo. Look at them carefully. Are you looking for a black jacket? If they are wearing one, chances are that you can take it! It's time to find ways to hunt zombies
Never assume that Zombies are static and always in the same place. In Alternate DayZ Zombies react to players actions, like anything else in the game world. If you are spotted or hit, chances are that they will follow you. It's wise to take a longer path to your base... and there are hordes that form up and move following opportunities to eat!
Alternate DayZ is a survival game, so your main achievement is... surviving! The game will count the hours you manage to stay alive, the kilometers you run, the times you build and craft stuff. It will not help you in anyway while playing, but this way you can prove to your friends that your story was true. Just don't brag all the time!
Alternate DayZ is a project in the making. Some of the features, like crafting and cow farming, are in place, but others are work-in-progress. We need the help of anyone who may like this Game Concept to make it real. There is testing to do and, ultimately, moral support really matters.
This project is done entirely on a volunteer basis: join our Discord server to get the discussion going, to develop the lorw, to give feedback and to bring your ideas to life.
