DayZ Project Lead Tomáš “Thales” Přibyl and his team at Bohemia Interactive have big ambitions for DayZ past its first decade of life. Last week, the studio announced DayZ Frostline, one of the first major expansions to the game in years. The response has been back and forth. Console players are thrilled, PC players are a little in-between, and still some are just happy to see new content or a bit disappointed it wasn’t something more. No matter where you fall on Frostline, the team appears to be listening to the feedback, striving to bring players what they want, and trying to avoid mistakes of the past as it plans DayZ’s future.

Bohemia Interactive was kind enough to allow me to take part in the DayZ United event in Czech Republic at the start of this May. There, I joined many other content creators from throughout the DayZ community in a wild, yet awesome survival camp that led up to the reveal of what Frostline was. Following the shenanigans, Thales and I sat down to talk in depth about Frostline and the future of DayZ.

Regardless of where you stand on Frostline, the DayZ team sees it as an early opportunity in a variety of things to come. Not only do players get the new volcanic winter map full of new wildlife, clothes, and gameplay features, such as blizzards to fend off, the prevention of frostbite, and the heating of frozen food, but there will be a free update for all of DayZ as well. This hefty update will bring upgrades to fishing, and where cold-weather content like clothes and animals might reasonably crossover, they can. Thales and the DayZ team wanted the community that cherishes playing in Chernarus and Livonia to truly feel like they were getting something for their dedication, whether they go in on the Frostline expansion or not. They want their longtime fans to feel as valued as newcomers.

Another important aspect of Frostline is avoiding mistakes of the past. When I asked Thales about this, he told me it was largely about avoiding overpromising and underdelivering. In fact, the team would rather reverse that and have a chance of overdelivering. There is still a lot we don’t know about Frostline. The team has teased that there will be new dynamic events, military bases to explore, and something about the “dangers of living near volcanic terrain,” but they have kept much of what that means mum so far. Clearly we don’t know everything that’s coming, and it leaves the DayZ team a chance to tease and dripfeed more fun into updates and news ahead of Frostline’s release.

Nonetheless, Thales says this can be considered the first steps of some major plans for DayZ. The team at Bohemia Interactive has been hiring up, sometimes right out of the community, and is preparing ideas and concepts to take DayZ well past the release of Frostline. As we wait to see the full extent of what Frostline and the major free DayZ update alongside it bring, stay tuned for more updates and news on DayZ right here at Shacknews.

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