DEVELOPER'S BLOG

Bohemia Recap – April 2024

April was full of sunshine and refreshing spring showers. It was also a month of important developments. Arma Reforger released its ACE Anvil mod, while Arma 3 dropped its new Mac Port update. Meanwhile, Ylands released brand new game packs, Silica’s new update added voice chat, Vigor announced it’s finally coming to PC, and DayZ revealed that the Livonia DLC will be merged with its base game. As you can see, there’s plenty to talk about, so let’s dive right into last month’s highlights.

DayZ

We started the month off by playing a light-hearted April Fool’s prank on the DayZ community. We released a statement claiming that all padlocks on players' bases were automatically set to the combination '0401'. While some caught on quickly, others attempted to use this information to raid bases, only to find themselves out of luck. It was all in good fun!

We also hosted an Easter competition, featuring a classic 'fill in the blanks' contest.

The end of April wouldn't be complete without the bonfires of Walpurgis! DayZ embraced the annual tradition by offering custom items and special points of interest in the form of bonfires. Players immersed themselves in the festivities by seeking out these spooky bonfires and uncovering a treasure trove of seasonal, witch-themed assets.


In other news, we rolled out update 1.25 to experimental branches on Steam and Xbox. The standout feature of the update is the ambient music, which was created in collaboration with Czech composer Filip Míšek. There are roughly 100 minutes of music, which is dynamically triggered based on your location and the time of day in the game. Update 1.25 is scheduled to drop on May 27th, along with map wipes across all official servers.

This update will also see the merging of the Livonia DLC into DayZ’s base game. in other words, the Livonia DLC will no longer be available for separate purchase once update 1.25 hits the stable branches. The move aims to streamline our portfolio and simplify offerings in anticipation of future developments. We’re also aiming to enrich the player experience by integrating Livonia more seamlessly and fostering a unified community across every platform. You can read all about it here.

Find the survivors

Here's a challenge for you. Can you spot all the survivors in these images? Let us know how many you found!



Arma Reforger

We kicked off April with an April Fool's prank that turned into an actual game mode! Tiny Wars, a game mode where you battle as toy soldiers in a 1980’s living room, was announced on April 1st. However, with no servers or publicly available mod, the community assumed we were trolling them. Little did they know that the game mode actually did exist, and we unleashed it into the wild the very next day. The official servers were up for a week, and the Tiny Wars mod will live on in the Arma Reforger Workshop forever!

A second announcement went out on April 1st, but the release of the ACE Anvil mod for Arma Reforger was no joke. ACE3 was one of the most popular realism mods for Arma 3, and their official launch of Arma Reforger products is a huge step forward for the community and game as a whole.

April was also a massive month for Arma Reforger's player count. With a fresh boatload of streamers hopping aboard, a brand new generation of soldiers has joined our ranks, primarily drawn to the Eastern European Conflict style servers. In addition, the launch of the King of the Hill (KOTH) game mode has breathed new life into one of the most popular game modes from Arma 3. If you haven't already, we'd highly recommend checking out the community servers hosting these types of gameplay.

And, finally, if you'd like to experience the past and present versions of the island of Everon, the Everon Pack is now available on Steam and offers both Arma: Cold War Assault and Arma Reforger at a 10% discount!

Arma 3

April was jam-packed with Arma 3 content! If you're looking for thrilling Arma 3 combat, Community Manager Justin LeClair hosted a live stream with members of the Rotators Collective playing the Cashpoint game mode from the new Reaction Forces CDLC. He also joined up with the 6th Airborne Division Realism Unit for a community event which you can watch here.

If you're new to the game and want to get into the vast universe of Arma 3 mods, our first installment of our Community Mods blog post series is a fantastic place to start. And if you'd like to see what's new in the thriving Arma 3 community, be sure to check out the latest Community Radar (COMRAD #44), which highlights a slew of exciting community content from the Reaction Forces CDLC, and more.

Last, but certainly not least: if you're a Mac user who's been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to check out Reaction Forces, the wait is over! With our new Mac Port 2.16 update you can finally join the action in our latest CDLC.

Vigor

April was huge for us as we finally announced that Vigor is coming to PC! Thank you to the Vigor team who made this all possible. The task was really challenging but we managed to make it work!

Our live version of the song ‘Malediction’ became available on April 3rd. You can listen to it on all streaming platforms.

April also saw us celebrate National Beer Day, while Outlanders enjoyed Double XP Days between April 8-9. The following day (April 10th), we started our Social Media Blackout: the teasing campaign for Vigor on PC. The week-long blackout focused on cryptic messages, with everything wrapped in yellow, which is significant for the PC platform. Finally, on April 16th, we released our PC Teaser and started a 24-hour looping stream. Both served as an invitation to the official announcement stream on April 17th, which you can watch here.

If you’d like to follow our journey from game preview to PC announcement, you should definitely check out our Dev Diary:

Rounding things up, there was a Booster Apocalypse for Shootout, we launched our Creator Program Vigor Partnership Program on Lurkit, and Outlanders got ready for the PC release with our brand new Vigor mousepad.

Finally, we held a special PC Gameplay Preview Stream on April 30th focused on players who want to try Vigor on PC for the first time. We looked into all game modes, options, a weapon overhaul, and more.

PC Early Access of Vigor is now available on Steam, get the game here!

Ylands

We are happy to announce the release of new game packs! The Starter Pack offers insanely great value to anyone who’s starting their Ylands adventure from the very beginning. Meanwhile, the Supporter Pack helps players appreciate the game even more by offering exclusive cosmetics that can't be earned any other way.


We released a brand new, up-to-date gameplay video on our YouTube channel:

We’re always listening to our players’ feedback and opinions. You can see the results of that in our latest Dev Diary.

Silica

We released a new update in the month of April that added voice chat to the game.

We also began offering our Strategy Pack, which features Silica and Original War at 20% off.

Bohemia Store

From May 21 to June 2, you can get DayZ and Arma 3 maps for 50% off at our Bohemia Store!


Become a Bohemian

We’re always looking for fun and creative people who are passionate about games. Check out the career board below and get in touch if you think you’re the right fit.


Don't see anything that speaks to you? Then head on over to our careers page to see all the positions that are currently open at Bohemia.

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Published on by Bohemia Interactive