DayZ Badlands | Post-Release Dev Blog (Week 04) | Dog Behaviour

Hey Survivors,

Welcome to DayZ Badlands post-release dev blog 2! We will be talking about additional behaviors that we are adding to the dogs with Patch 2 of the 1.30 Update. Patch 2 is slated to arrive on the experimental branches next week. More details on this later. For now, let's talk more about dogs.

Additional Dog Behaviours

As we have said before, dogs were conceived to not fit the mold of either predator or prey, but to be more of a territorial animal. Currently, they do not have their final intended behavior, as they straight up aggro on you once you are in their territory.

These packs of dogs are intended to act as guards for specific locations, primarily military zones. Unlike wolves, they will not actively seek you out to attack you, so they can be less of a threat depending on how you approach them. Engaging with them should be completely optional for those who do not want to eliminate them.

With 1.30 Patch 2, you should see that their behavior follows clear steps of escalation, as opposed to attacking you on sight. But that does not make it any easier, since you will have to observe each stage and act accordingly rather than simply defend against a direct attack.

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  Calm stage: They are idle in the world in a neutral state.
  
  
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  Sensing stage: They will perform the “sniffing the air” animation, indicating that they sense someone suspicious has entered their territory. They remain stationary during this stage and will not seek you out.
  
  
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  Warning stage: When you are seen entering their territory, they will growl and bark at you. This serves as a warning, but it will also alert nearby players and infected to your presence. This is their signal for you to back off. If you do not leave, they will become more agitated by your presence, but they will still give you a short window to retreat.
  
  
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  Attack stage: They will attack if you refuse to leave or if you attack first. Keep in mind that these trained military K9s are conditioned to overcome their fear of loud noises. Warning shots will not work on them.
  

Find the showcae video below:

The result is a system that makes military zones feel more alive and adds another layer of danger. Their threat comes not only from their raw lethality, but also from the fact that the dogs essentially function as a living alarm system in PVP hotspots. Players who scout ahead before sneaking into military zones will now be rewarded for doing so. A pack of dogs blowing your cover may be the worst thing that can happen before you even find what you came for.


Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed this dev blog. As we have said before, we are keeping these dev blogs alive to communicate any changes and additions we are making, not just to DayZ Badlands, but to DayZ in general.

So stay tuned for more!
Stay safe and big love,
The DayZ Team

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