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DayZ Wiki
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== Stable vs. Experimental == === What's the Difference? === There are two versions of the game available to most users at any given time, and the "normal" one intended for general consumption - is referred to as the ''Stable'' branch. It includes all public servers in addition to all [[Servers#Types_of_Servers|private hive]] and private shard servers. Though its name should make this obvious, this is the version that has been through more rigorous testing and been found to be playable for the majority of the userbase without any crippling issues. Most builds used for this version have been previously tested for quality assurance by an internal team at the development studio as well as normal users on the game's second public version. That second version is ''DayZ'' ''Experimental''. Users must manually download this version by searching in their Steam library. Steam will download another folder with any files that are necessary to play Experimental version. There is still both Official and Community servers, while stable version's community servers are running by DayZ Server application, experimental version need separate ''DayZ Experimental Server'' folder that is available by downloading via Steam library. Most of the time, users who have downloaded and running the Experimental version on Steam will be unable to play on Stable version servers because they will be using <u>incompatible</u> versions. However, occasionally the Experimental version is running the exact same build as Stable, and under those rare circumstances players are able to play on any server without having to switch between clients. However, Experimental servers are still on a separate hive, meaning character data does not carry over from the Stable version or vice versa. === The Purpose of Experimental === So what is the reason for Experimental? Creative Director Brian Hicks [https://forums.dayz.com/topic/210847-what-is-experimental/ defines it as the following] (edited for clarity and formatting): This branch is, by its own definition, "unstable". In the simplest terms, the purpose of [the] Experimental branch is for the development team to experiment with builds in a larger userbase than our internal QA. Sometimes that results in us finding issues we cannot catch internally, sometimes that means we can verify fixes on issues with very low [reproduction] rates. Sometimes the builds are very unstable.<br> The branch exists for load/volume/stress testing. Those who go through the process of manually opting into this branch (it's not super visible - by design) and dealing with whatever issues the current build on it may have, get to sometimes see content and systems not quite ready for prime time. However, that does not mean that [this] is the branch's purpose. As the nature of the Experimental branch is for the above mentioned testing methods, neither uptime, character data, nor stability is guaranteed. Over the time that DayZ Standalone has spent in Steam's Early Access program, Experimental has gained a reputation as the version where you play if you want to see new content/changes/fixes etc. before Stable release. Users may encounter potential issues and bugs while playing DayZ Experimental due to the nature of the pre-polish pre-test gameplay. === Special Servers === Official requests from the development team for players to concentrate on something specific will often come in the form of an open invitation (via DayZ Forums or official Twitter account) to play on some type of "special" server. In the past, that has taken the form of unique server configurations (extremely harsh weather), limited-time builds (0.58 camp hotfix), and stress tests (100 slot servers) just to give a few examples. The purpose of these uniquely designated testing spaces is to gather specific data related to whatever it is that makes that server special. In the examples above, that differentiation is obvious and tangible, however at times these special servers are just a particular configuration that better suits the collection of a particular kind of data that the development team needs in order to improve something or fix a problem.
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