Recently, a discussion has arisen regarding how graphic the survival MMO H1Z1 might become. A designer has now spoken out.
The majority of the discussion about the survival MMO H1Z1 takes place in a specific subforum on reddit. The H1Z1 homepage explicitly links to the English-language forum. The community there is said to play a key role in the development of the zombie MMO H1Z1.
Can H1Z1 be a proper zombie game without zombies missing a leg?
A side comment during a stream seems to have caused quite a stir. Suddenly, there was the suggestion that H1Z1 could somehow become too tame. There is no blood, no “gore” (that’s what they call bloody effects, like protruding intestines or similar), and no severed limbs.
And all these elements are urgently requested by parts of the community for a proper zombie game. The discussion became heated and eventually called upon a developer from SOE, the Technical Lead Tom Schenck. He was able to provide answers and engaged in a detailed discussion with the fans. However, it wasn’t about morals, age ratings, or similar topics, but about bits and bytes. After all, Schenck is the Technical Lead and is concerned with what is feasible.
For H1Z1, it’s not a matter of morals, but of resources
Regarding blood, according to Schenck, it is merely a graphical effect that is not too complicated to program. Just cosmetics. If players are currently missing it, it’s only because they haven’t started to implement this design and the effects into the game yet.
With gore, it is a bit more difficult. These often involve animated objects that consume more resources during development. They might be gradually implemented into the game later, but these effects could also lead to performance issues, so caution is required.
With severed limbs or amputations, there are many factors to consider, which is why no work is being done on that at the moment. It requires complex animations. It’s a multifaceted problem: What do you do with amputated animals or zombies or people who remain alive (or undead) despite losing limbs? Animations and movements would have to change for the different models when limbs are missing – that would be extremely labor-intensive to program.
Schenck stated that it currently makes more sense to focus on a stable game for early access and only introduce features that can be guaranteed to work. Especially such complex and relatively minor aspects, like amputations, require significant work from the team; at the moment, there are more important systems that need attention.
Anyone who wants to follow the discussion, which became more technical and detailed afterwards, can find a link to it in the sources. Schenck posts on reddit as “CyclesMcHurtz.”
More about the survival MMO H1Z1 can be found on our theme page. An early access date is not yet known.
