Dean "Rocket" Hall is hard at work on the DayZ Standalone, and has since posted a brief update on reddit to discuss the current state of the popular Arma 2 mod. The final version, he says, is unfortunately still a ways off due to his insistence that the game requires more optimization and bug fixes before he's happy to release it.
"We need more performance," wrote Hall. "We think we need a minimum of 15 FPS [server-side with] 50 players, 2000 zombies, and 25000 loot items. Our latest tests have all shown some runaway systems in the code we have to tidy up."
Hall added that the engine powering Arma 2 wasn't originally built to handle thousands of zombies roaming through the fields so some custom work for the engine is necessary to get the game in a properly playable state.
Hall was reluctant to disclose when the game will be released, or even provide a timeframe for its release. "If I start saying 'oh it won't be out then' people start asking me about the day after, and the day after," he wrote. "So it just encourages people to keep asking me when it is, and the 'announced date' would be when I go 'yeah, it could be out then.'"
DayZ Standalone has been spotted on the Steam database and is expected to hit the platform as soon as Hall deems it ready for prime time.