Bohemia Recap – May 2024
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Bohemia Recap! Things heated up quickly in May, with Bohemians working harder than ever to reach some very important milestones. DayZ announced its forthcoming and chilly new expansion, while Vigor released a new season and entered Early Access on Steam. Then there was Ylands, who made the very exciting announcement that it was coming to the Nintendo Switch. Meanwhile, Silica dropped a new update, Arma Reforger released several experimental updates boasting new features and systems, and Arma 3 shared tons of information to help players navigate its endless selection of community mods.
As you can see, there’s plenty to get to, so enough with the preamble—let’s dive right in!
DayZ
Frostline Announcement
We are welcoming summer with the promise of winter. DayZ will embrace a snowy makeover at the end of the year with the upcoming expansion: “Frostline”. The centerpiece of Frostline will be the new terrain, Sakhal—an archipelago with ice in its veins and fire in its heart. Taking inspiration from the real-life Kamchatka region, the terrain spans approximately 80 km² that’s frozen in both climate and time.
Frostline will introduce new survival dynamics, challenging players to manage their warmth and resources while exploring innovative structures and landmarks teeming with secrets, and encountering new animals that have adapted to the cold. We’re certain the expansion will have plenty to offer, not only to new players, but to veterans of the game as well.
Frostline is set to release in Q4 of 2024. Check out the teaser below, and make sure you add it to your Wishlist here. Want to learn more? Here’s an interview our Project Lead on Frostline did with ShackNews.
DayZ Survival Camp
We did something truly special to announce Frostline and celebrate a monumental decade of DayZ. We invited 11 DayZ community leaders to the Czech Republic for a unique ‘survival camp’ where their DayZ gaming skills were put to the test in real life. Special shoutouts to @TheRunningManZ, @TopeREC, @joito696, @Marks12, @FreshSpawns, @LAXHAWTHORN007, @HappyBombs, @878SurvivorFM, @LadyAdventure, and @M1NDR. We hope you had an incredible adventure and that you made lifelong friends like you have in Chernarus. You can catch a glimpse of the event in the video below. Trust us, it was a blast! #onlyatbohemia
Update 1.25 is Live!
Update 1.25 is now live across all platforms. While it may not be the most content-heavy update we’ve done, it is still a very special one, as it introduces a much-requested feature: ambient music. We collaborated with Czech composer Dikolson to produce approximately 70 minutes of nuanced and subtle tracks for the game. The tracks will be played depending on the time and location of the player. For those of you who are survival immersion purists, you have the option to turn the music off.
Another special thing with update 1.25 is that DayZ and the Livonia DLC are now merged as a single product. Those who only owned the base game will be getting Livonia for free. This move streamlines our offerings and enhances the player experience by making Livonia more accessible. There is a modest price increase, but it is still more economical than the current DayZ Livonia Bundle. Read more about update 1.25 and check out the teaser below.
Community’s Community Spotlight
It's essentially an all-hands-on-deck moment for us. Therefore, we've officially hit pause on our long-running community spotlight to focus on urgent matters at hand. The decision is bittersweet, as the Spotlight has been a great place to connect with the community. The community stepped up, however, and embraced the spirit of the Spotlight with the community-made Community Spotlight. Here’s a shoutout to the Friendly? Podcast for being the legends that you are. The spotlight is now on its second issue, which you can read here.
DayZ Frostline Dev Blogs
Thanks to the community continuing the Spotlight, we’ve been able to explore new avenues. Instead of collecting community content, we've created a small corner on our forum to blog about our development process for Frostline. It will also serve as a resource for content creators to learn and share all the things the community can look forward to when Frostline arrives. We'll be releasing new content every two weeks. Learn more here.
Arma Reforger
The Arma Reforger team spent the month of May preparing for the next major update. We released a Dev Report going into some of the new systems and features, as well as several experimental updates. If you'd like to try the new features in the upcoming update, they're live on Arma Reforger Experimental now!
We sat down with some of our developers who have come from the Arma community to talk about their background and history with the Arma series, their role at BI, and to answer some hard-hitting questions from the community. Check out the latest Arma Reforger RFI:
We're always trying to help players up their game. Last month, community legend Ironbeard made a fantastic guide on navigation in Arma Reforger for our official YouTube channel! Learn how to navigate like a pro, and be sure to try the accompanying navigation scenario for yourself.
For those of you who would like to host your own servers from your PC or Xbox, we've made a step-by-step guide showing you how to do exactly that.
We released several modding updates to help modders get acquainted with changes to systems in the Arma Reforger Workbench:
And finally, for a selection of standout community content, be sure to check out the latest Arma Reforger COMRAD!
Arma 3
Over 10 years after its release, Arma 3 is still going strong, and we're helping new and veteran community members get more acquainted with the plethora of community mods available for the platform. In our Arma 3 Community Mods: Weapons blog post, you can find weapon mod packs to expand your arsenal and enhance your gameplay experience across the board. If you'd like to see some of the mods mentioned in action, check out our live stream featuring the entire Marketing Team and some established community icons playing Dynamic Recon Ops.
Community Manager Justin LeClair also streamed some intense Arma 3 gameplay as part of the SOG Prairie Fire Mike Force play session. Check out the iconic CDLC in action in this video.
Last but not least, May was yet another amazing month for community content, so be sure to check out some of the highlights in the latest Arma 3 COMRAD!
Vigor
May was a huge month for Vigor thanks to two major releases and many fun events. We started by wishing our Outlanders a happy Star Wars Day on May 4th, and we're glad the community enjoyed our take on the Star Wars visual.
We also released our brand new trailer for Season 19 - Vigor Chronicles: Deception.
Later in May, we revealed Vigor’s Early Access release date in a new trailer:
We released a number of streams focused on consoles, including our Dev Diary, PC Preview, and release stream. On May 15th, we dropped a new navy-inspired Season, which you can read about in our update blog. The big event came the following day, when Vigor entered Early Access on Steam. You can unlock Early Access by getting the Vigor Reinforcements Pack. Make sure to check Vigor out on Steam.
Truth be told, two releases in two weeks is a challenging thing to execute, and a few issues emerged as a result. We’d like to apologize to Xbox players who experienced problems with their purchases, as well as to those Outlanders on PC who were unable to progress through the game. We managed to successfully fix both issues and we want to extend a huge “Thank you!” to everyone in our community who helped us identify them.
And finally, there is a special Reinforcements Pack Bundle available at our store. If you want to get the digital product, along with some cool Vigor Merch, then this is definitely the bundle for you.
Ylands
We had some big news in May. After over a year’s worth of hard work, we are proud to present Ylands: Nintendo Switch™ Edition. This console version of Ylands is going to be a bit different than what you are used to. That’s because it’s a single-player, offline experience, which makes it the perfect traveling companion. If you’d like to learn more, check out the announcement stream we held on May 28th.
Ylands: Nintendo Switch™ Edition came out on June 20th. Check out the trailer and the game!
Want to learn more? Have a question for our devs? Then make sure you join our Discord!
Silica
May saw the release of update 0.8.49, which introduced the Alien Queen to the Strategy game mode. The update also features a variety of additions, changes, and fixes.
Bohemia Store
Head on over to our store and receive 25% off DayZ, Vigor, Silica, Arma 3, and Arma Reforger mousepads. Simply use the code MOUSE25 during checkout. Sale ends July 29th.
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.
What Else?
If you’d like to learn more about Bohemia Interactive, or want to stay updated on all the latest happenings, make sure to subscribe to our Newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Until next time, stay safe and game on!