DZ Restored - An apocalyptic, immsersive, and zombie-infested tribute to Arma 2 DayZ Mod

[unique jay]

DZ Restored has been a project worked on for 1500+ hours between my good friend Greasy and myself.

We have put in an incredible amount of effort to offer one of the most unique, immersive, and expansive "DayZ" style modes on Reforger.

Taking place in the Cold War era, DZ Restored has an astonishing amount of features that are unique, exciting, and will be loved by any fan of DayZ or zombie survival.

Quick rundown of our features, and what our mod has to offer:

• A fully custom EveronXArland map.
  *This isn't your average Reforger map. *
  On what we like to call "Evernarus" You will find exactly 0 functional street lamps, or other electricity-powered lights, sounds, etc. Evernarus is extremely broken down, with each building/town having a unique "apocalyptic and overgrown" feel. The streets are filled with garbage, vehicle wrecks, blood, and anything else the apocalypse left behind.
  There is not any part of this map that is not in some way more apocalyptic, unique, and horrific. From trash in the streets, to severely apocalyptic landscapes detailed with blood pools in the streets, rows of broken down vehicles, Evernarus feels like something truly horrific happened on the island.
• Our loot spawning system makes every single place on Evernarus worth looting. You never know what you will find.
• A fully dynamic vehicle spawning system, with all vehicles (helis included) being repairable via wrenches you find in industrial loot locations (sheds, hangars, anything industrial).
• Deployable bikes, should you find them while looting
• Dynamic helicopter crash sites
• A fully custom soundscape, reminiscent of the music from Arma 2's DayZ Mod
• A very expansive loot pool, from civilian to military, and much more.
• Fully functional, well-balanced, and awesome zombies.
• So, so much more - I will post in the thread replies.

And so much more.
Workshop link:
https://reforger.armaplatform.com/workshop/68DB5125D9B16A0B-DZRestoredBETA

• Deployable, persistent tents for you to hide off in the woods and stash your items, gear, and loot. (Make sure you hide them well.)
• Unique health system that feels similar to Arma 2 DayZ Mod, your screen will go grey as you lose blood progressibely from bleeding. Your screen will also have a "flash" effect when you take damage.
• Full metabolism system, with custom food and drink items. You'll need to eat and drink water, just be sure it's clean and safe, otherwise you'll discover the sickness system.
• Basic cooking. You can chop down trees with an axe, and use the firewood it drops to create a campfire - hold matches in your hand to light the fire, and cook meat on it.
• Custom melee weapons, hammers, axes, etc. that are effective at taking out zombies, or other players, if they let you get close enough.
• Plenty of custom, and extra lore friendly items. You won't find any "nonsense" items that do not fit the landscape, the mod, or the time-period. We're sorry if it breaks your heart, but there's no cat ears. :(
• Unique & custom vehicles to fit the time-period and apocalypse feel, with many being rusty, having faded paint, or generally just looking well-worn.
• Much more left to be discovered.

In short:
This is a DayZ style mod that seeks to fill the void that the absence of Arma 2 DayZ mod has left in so many's hearts. We hope it does an excellent job of doing so.

From two Arma 2 DayZ veterans - to all the other DayZ veterans, fans, and players in the community, we made this for you!

[neat stratus]

Sooooo, what you are telling me is you cooked hard in the kitche 0.o

This looks amazing! Congrats, and I can't wait to try it. I started on ArmA 2 specifically so I could play the DayZ mod back in the day 😄

[unique jay]

Yes sir! Yeah that's where I started as well. Not sure about Greasy, but I think it's the same for him too.

We absolutely cooked hard in the kitchen, and we still are 🫡 we hope you enjoy!

[lapis salmon]

Awesome work folks.
Just curious if all dependencies are an absolute requirement or is there a 'core' set that would allow the mod to run without errors.

[unique jay]

Thank you!

And to answer your question, I believe all dependencies are pulled from and used, so you almost certainly need all of them - although this would be a question definitely better answered by @glacial spire than myself so I'll let him answer that, lol

[slim herald]

Awesome has a lot of the necessary features in DayZ and sounds like it will be truer to the core of what DayZ is rather than previous iterations. Really excited to give this a try.

That's a LOT of dependencies though oh boy

[unique jay]

There is quite a few, but we promise they're worth it. We did our best to try to keep the dependencies as minimal as possible, but it's rough when even the dependencies we need have dependencies of their own.

[glacial spire]

Currently yes they are all required, however most of them are tiny, and it's all a one-time download. Only a few are bigger like RHS status quo. That's the price to pay unless everything is created in-house which I don't have the time for nor could do a lot of it

[unique jay]

Read above ^

[slim herald]

A core mod without GB of equipment would be nice honestly so people can expand on this for the community

[glacial spire]

No derivative works are allowed at the moment while it's still so early in development. Will likely try to open it up later though so offshoot versions can be made

[trail wren]

Can we run servers for it or is it a server exclusive mod?

[unique jay]

Right now during development it’s server exclusive, limited to an official server - but in the future we plan on opening it up so players can host their own servers with it

[unique jay]

Patch notes from last night:

DZ Restored
1.2.4 Changelog:

**- Lowered mod download size by ~1.2gb **

• Removed passive leakage from jerrycans (yes that's a thing in base Reforger.... lol)
• Chopper crash spawns should be fixed and spawning normally
• Added 16 new variants of chopper crashes!
• Added 16 new military backpacks
• Added 7 new civilian backpacks
• Added emotes/gestures mod mainly for the surrender emote for robberies 🙂 ( tilde (~) key on PC or RB + Right stick click on controller)
• Improved some house and prop prefabs to look more decrepit and run-down
• Lowered broken bottle melee weapon spawns because players now spawn with them
• Potentially disabled zombies from opening doors (experimental)
• Tweaked zombie head hitbox to try to make headshots feel shots more consistent (experimental)
• Enabled clumsiness for zombies. They can now trip and stumble while chasing after you (experimental)
• Made zombies less buoyant so they should now sink and drown. No more shark zombies
• Tweaked vehicle spawning script to hopefully prevent duplicate vehicles spawning on the same spawn point
• Fixed LODs on storage tents
• Fixed a shipping container rigidbody bug
• Fixed a bug with military morphine animation
• Fixed a texture bug on the black leather shoulder bag
• Fixed small civ med tent overlapping bed bug

[unique jay]

New patch coming out a bit later

[unique jay]

1.2.7 Changelog:

• Swapped EO's Ambient Weather Fog mod for his main Atmospheric Weather mod (contains fog and more)
• Completely remade chopper crashes in hopes that they will now be fixed. Please note they will not spawn loot currently while testing to ensure they work. Once I know they work, I'll add loot ASAP.
• Added 20 more player spawn locations
• Added pile of bloody remains after butchering players/zombies
• Tweaked player persistence (hopefully will fix character wipe bug)
• Tweaked with gamemode settings to hopefully no longer display all players as Gamemasters (which should hopefully disable the killfeed)
• Lowered maximum walk speed slowdown from being injured (you will move a bit faster with broken legs)
• Increased crippled threshold for leg damage
• Lowered fall damage
• Slightly increased overall tool spawns (flashlights, maps, compasses, etc)
• Lowered M16 GL variant spawn rates
• Lowered M27 spawn rates
• Fixed display name on Red M5 Civilian backpack
• Added missing persistence component to the deployable bike boxes (they should now save in your inventory)
• Disabled radio on boats
• Hopefully fixed butcher action on zombies saying "Unknown" instead of the meat item name
  -Fixed naming issue with Rotten Meat
• Disabled shoulder tapping action
• Fixed military loot spawning in hospitals (should all be civ meds now)

Map changelog:

• Tweaked hospital building colors in-order to make them more distinguishable from other buildings of similar variety
• Added a hospital, a supermarket, and more civilian buildings to Regina - making it a more viable option to stop and loot off of spawn
• Re-did some building interiors to make them look more apocalyptic and torn up
• Added some unique "you are here" style maps around spawn locations that aren't near a major city to help new players figure out where they are until they find a map item
• Redid the Lancre, Anchor Peninsula, and Crag Point (spawn locations) areas to have more buildings and loot while maintaining a realistic feel. There should be more to loot/gather in these areas making them feel less pointless as spawnpoints
• Added a few of the tiny wall "medical cabinets" to certain buildings to have a more even spread of medical loot in areas
• Replaced a warehouse at St. Pierre docks for something more unique and "industrial"
• Made the land bridge from Everon to Arland less frustrating to cross in a vehicle
• Removed the buildings from Pennant's Pass
• Made civ med tents not destructable
• Various bug fixes

[sand viper]

Added clumsiness to zombies. They can now trip and stumble while chasing after you (experimental)

You mean enabled a feature from my mod? That aside, features like this are disabled for a reason. You are welcome to try them out but, of course, at your own risk.

[glacial spire]

Yes that's what I did? Code can't be added or altered from your mod, it is clear we are using your mod

[unique jay]

Seeing the downvotes here.

Just for clarification, I wasn't sure if you were taking issue with the wording there or with something else - or not taking issue at all. We never modified any code or added, from your mod or etc. respecting your license as it stands completely, nor do we have any desire to change any part of it or violate your license. We appropriately give credit where credit is due as we do with all mods we use as dependencies and regularly seek advice from creators on what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to using their mods as dependencies, yourself included, via Greasy. We're sorry about the wording if that was something you took issue with. We've updated it, and it obviously was not our intent to make it seem like it was something we developed, we just wanted to mention it in the patch notes. I'm the co-creator of this mod and I know for a fact I've seen Greasy interact with you in your server, specifically on the topic of using your zombies as a dependency for our mod and taking care to avoid violating your license or overstepping boundaries with your mod! I do not personally work on mod things, just map creation. That said, I know Greasy is cautious and works with you to avoid issues, per interactions between you two. Not sure if you were aware that he is the project head here and you guys have both discussed things relating to your mod prior. But again, I'm sorry about that, and the wording has been updated to appropriately reflect what I think you would prefer it to be.

[sand viper]

Wording is important. Modders in this community seem to have no problem releasing mods that use or even contain (not yours) other people's mods and then take credit for it without even mentioning modders that have made work they've used.

[unique jay]

We fully agree with you there, nobody likes to feel like their work is being used without credit or anything similar, but we do want you to understand that even with the slight wording confusion, we haven't ever done anything to infringe upon the license of your mod and have appropriately credited you every step of the way as you should expect - even to the extent of interacting with you yourself in your server to ensure that we follow the guidelines you've set for us with using your mod as a dependency. We've been super cautious, and also courteous every step of the way. We fully respect your work, and hope that you recognize that. This project would not be possible without your mod. As modders and developers ourselves who have put countless months, weeks, hours and days into our project, we share your concern completely.

That said, we understand, and will continue (as we have in the past) to meet your guidelines appropriately.

[hollow fox]

My downvote wasn't against you, everyone can see you use Bacon's zombies. My downvote was against how @sand viper worded it. There's a difference between asking for credit where it's due and being unnecessarily salty.

[sand viper]

When someone uses your work and tries to take credit for it (intentionally or not) I'm sure you will be super happy about it 🙂

[hollow fox]

Absolutely understandable, especially with your portfolio. But a credit "theft" is a whole different situation than a simple phrasing slip. A quick dm could also have resolved this just as effectively, without it coming across as a public call out

[distant coyote]

sound interesting. bored from current DayZ like mods with shops,safezones , always sunny days and 0 immesrions

but one thing make me sad is:
OG gray-dark icons look way more better than those colored one

[glacial spire]

These icons are inspired by Arma 2 DayZ, not DayZ SA if that's what you're referring to. A2 DayZ were coloured

[unique jay]

Arma 2 DayZ Icons were green, yeah

[glacial spire]

They went red too

Then they changed later to this

[unique jay]

On this note though, our DayZ Mod doesn't have any of those. It gets dark at night, is extremely immersive and you definitely won't find shops or safezones ❤️

[distant coyote]

yea, was referring to Stand alone, but still thinking that have many saturated colors on UI its kinda awful

[distant coyote]

nice. do you have any own server with hosting of that mod?

[unique jay]

We host our single DZ Restored official server based in the US, and we have 3 partner servers available, two of them in the EU, and one in AUS

[past bramble]

Oh boy, that's a lot of not needed dependencies, will you guys make a version without all of them? And when can we host our own servers with our own content?

[unique jay]

1.2.90 Game Changelog:

• Huge update to loot spawn locations. Many new locations added. Many more hunting, rare military and rare civ loot spawnpoints added. Pay attention to the little details, lot's of hidden loot
• Added possible fruit spawn points around their respective trees/bushes (apples, plums, rowan berries)
• Added new loot spawn table for supermarket cooler bunks (MEAT)
• Added fire barrels all around the map (light them with matches!)
• Increased overall civ + hunting tool spawns (compass, map, flashlights, matches, etc)
• Increased civ long rifle + ammo spawn chance
• Increased overall military helmet spawns
• Increased spawn rate of GPS across all relevant loot tables
• Added rag bandages to industrial loot spawns
• Rebalanced all bandages apply speed
• Removed health recovery threshholds (now should be able to fully regen HP)
• Reduced player food/water consumption
• Updated health/blood/thirst/hunger UI to be more subtle and immersive (some of you may notice something special about it)
• Bug fixes (and specifically one relating to butchering)
• Fixed sunken med tent at St. Pierre hospital

Next update will also feature fixed food item textures, making sure they're oriented properly so you can see what it is on shelves, and also in your hand, without just staring at a nutrition facts label
And also a bit of an update to military loot locations, making them more consistent and worth looting overall.

[unique jay]

@hollow fox in response to your question in the discord server,

It gets populated occasionally, and it’s def active in here. The mod is still being developed so I think a lot of people are still awaiting updates tbh, but yeah there’s usually players on everyday, not usually a whole lot though

We’ve only been open about a month, slowly trying to populate better

The official server is usually most active during US hours in the afternoon/early night time, sometimes I see a decent player count in the middle of the night

[balmy echo]

Is this going to be updated

[pseudo temple]

👀

[unique jay]

Greasy recently lended the original mod files to me and I have taken over as head of development.

Anyone following this can expect the mod to be updated and playable within a couple weeks 😄

[unique jay]

Hey folks,

This mod has been updated and is now active & playable. I haven't exactly been keeping up with the changelogs in here, but there is plenty more to do in the mod now and it's much more polished as well as optimized. It's certainly not perfect, but it's definitely playable, atmospheric and fun.

I'm going to give a quick highlight changelog so I can cover the bases of what's new since we were last active that's most important.

DZ Restored, on top of everything in the past, now also features:

• Custom AI mission system that allows players to locate bandit camps via the handheld radio items, if there is one spawned.
• A fully fleshed out and realistic character temperature system. Clothing, movement, location, weather, most things you can think of involving the temperature system are factored in.
• The map has been modified & upgraded in some locations, mainly coastal locations such as Regina that have become coastal towns worth looting or spawning near.
• Items now spawn-in oriented correctly, laying down rather than floating vertically
• Weather has been changed to fit the OG DayZ mod "cloudy" feel, thanks to @lapis salmon and their permission to slightly tweak their ambient weather mod. 🍻
• Dead AI of all types throughout the map will now have a chance to spawn items within their containers, typically shirt/backpack if applicable
• The endgame Erquy poison island is partially implemented, you will not be able to visit the island without a gas mask unless you want to die. Gas mask filters are limited and will show via icon on the right side HUD when wearing one. The island is probably only about ~30% complete, the next update will finish this up and make it a proper high-risk high-reward endgame zone for players.
• Several server optimizations, still a W.I.P. but crashes have become much less frequent. Mod still hasn't been stress-tested with a higher player count.

Those of you who have stuck around throughout the last however many months that this mod wasn't playable since Kolguyev and the lack of updates before I acquired the files, just want to say thank you for sticking with us ❤️

[median torrent]

Is it possible to build bases and stuff like that?

[queen aurora]

Not yet but u can find a tent and store all ur loot u find

[unique jay]

DZ Restored Patch 2.3.16

• FIXED LOOT SPAWNS
  Sorry about that, they were super duper broken! Not finding any normal loot is abnormal for future reference lol I'm baffled nobody thought anything was amiss. 🤣

Wanted to hold off on this content for a bigger update but this hotfix had to happen so:

• Partially completed Erquy island. Still isn't completed, but some work has been done on it. This was intended to be a part of a larger update but the loot bug needed fixed immediately. This will still be a part of the next big update within the next couple of days.
• Increased gas mask spawn rate slightly & added to industrial loot & military.
• Slightly decreased overall food/drink spawn rate.
• A new, large-scale hospital building has been added to St. Pierre

[lapis salmon]

Hey folks, here's a link to the new BETA version....
https://reforger.armaplatform.com/workshop/68DB5125D9B16A0B-DZRestoredBETA

@unique jay Might be worth updating the OP, it still sends you to the original version. 🙂