Over the past few months, several new maps have been added: Namalsk, Panthera Island, Takistan, and Fallujah. There's now one more to add to the list: Taviana!

As part of working on the Taviana map, we've improved our behind the scenes tools for processing data to handle vehicles. Many of you have asked for vehicles on more maps than just Chernarus, and now we can give them to you! Vehicle locations are pulled directly from DayZ Bliss, one of the most used private hive packages. All maps got updated with this vehicle info, including Chernarus.

The next steps for DayZDB are pretty big ones: standalone DayZ is coming soon, and we're trying to get as much preparation done before the holidays as we can. Whenever it is released, we'll be working hard to get the quality data available that brought you here for the mod as soon as possible.

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We are looking for passionate gamers to take a survey about their gameplay preferences. Survey responses will be used to help us develop content for our awesome users. All you have to do is complete the survey by 11:59 PM PST on Monday, September 17 and you will be qualified for an Amazon.com gift card drawing!

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The survey is now closed.

Only one entry per person. All duplicate entries will be disqualified.

Prizes

Each participant has a chance to win one Amazon gift card. There are two $100 cards, two $50 cards, and four $25 gift cards up for grabs.

Lingor Island has arrived at DayZDB! After weeks of requests for it, I've finally finished building a map that lives up to my standards. Everything works just like it does on the Chernarus map we all know: click on markers to see what type of building it is, and what loot is available there, with full loot chance percentages.

You might notice a couple minor usability improvements too. The menus on the navigation bar now appear when you hover your mouse over them instead of needing to click to open them, making it easier to get to where you want to go. Second, the loot search on the map now lets you clear your search when you're done with it, resetting the map to show everything again without forcing you to toggle each type one by one.

As part of the updates to support Lingor Island, the map has been restructured to support multiple types of map images. In other words, look forward to two more maps for Chernarus that include the entire playable area! I don't have an ETA on that yet, but it's coming soon.

It's taken several weeks to get right, but the single most requested feature is finally ready to be revealed: custom markers! It's taken a lot of trial and error, but I think we've come up with something both easy to use and powerful - the default markers are just an automatically included custom set now, for example.

To help you get started, let's walk through an example of how it can be used. To get started, the first thing you need to do make sure you're logged in - otherwise, you can't create or edit any markers. Once you're logged in, open the Marker sets window from the Controls menu in the top right corner of the map.

In the Marker sets window, you can share, show, hide, or remove sets from you map. If you're allowed to, this is also where you edit them. It will also show you all of the sets you've created and let you easily add them to your map. What we're interested in right now is creating a set, though. To do that, just click the Create set header to expand that box, and it'll show you the form that will create the new set.

The create set form is super simple. The name field is just what the set will be called in the set list and in password prompts. The password is optional, and if it's left blank, it won't be required. If you do set a password, it'll ask people for it when they try to add it. If they're logged in, they won't have to enter it again unless it changes, but logged out users will have to enter it each time they try to load it. Finally, the access options let you specify whether other people can edit your map or not, or if they're prevented from seeing it at all.

Once the set is created, it'll show up in Current sets section, and you can click the edit button to start adding your markers. To add a marker, click the New marker button, and then click on the map where you want to create it. Once it's created, setting the name will change what text shows up when you mouse over the marker. The type determines which icon it shows. Finally, the building field sets what thumbnail image is shown when the marker is selected, as well as what loot information is shown, if any exists. Once you've finished making those changes to each marker, click the Save button. Then, when you're done with editing all of the markers, click Save markers. You can then click Finish editing to go back to the normal map.

With all of that done, you now have a map with your own markers on it! To share it with your friends, you can click the Share button in the Marker sets windows, and it'll give you a URL that will load the set for them when they go to it. If you set a password, make sure to give it to them too, because it will ask them for it when they click your Share link.

Hopefully all of this makes some sense to everyone, and more importantly, I hope you'll all enjoy finally being able to share your own maps with friends. There's more stuff planned for this soon; once finished, you'll be able to create paths as well. I've still got a long list of new features and improvements to work on, and I'm looking forward to rolling out more of these updates soon.

Our first giveaway ended a little more than an hour ago, and it's time to announce the winners! As a reminder, each of these winners gets a $20 Steam Wallet card.

Congratulations to all of you! If your name is listed here, you should have an email in your inbox from us that you'll need to reply to. If you didn't get it, send us an email from the address you used to create your account.

The winners are listed in the order they were chosen, so as you can see, the more entries you get, the better your chances are. We're very happy with the help all of you have given us, so this is something we definitely want to keep doing. Hopefully we'll have an announcement coming soon, so keep checking back!

ArmA2's latest patch was officially released yesterday after months of beta patches, and it unexpectedly brought with it a number of nerfs to weapons used in DayZ. The thing that the most people have noticed is that revolvers and M1911's can't one shot zombies anymore... but it gets worse.

All pistols and submachine guns have had their damage reduced. Shotgun slugs, the Lee Enfield, AK-74, AKS-74U, and AKS-74 Kobra had their damage reduced as well.

We've updated our Weapon Comparison chart with all of the new data. Here's the list of weapons that changed:

It's not all nerfs though! The Dinner Bell may be losing its name: the audible range on the Lee Enfield went down from 234m to 162m. It's now more in line with guns like the AKM or FN FAL. That's a nice usability improvement, and in my own opinion, a more reasonable amount of damage for the gun. I'm curious to see how all of these changes will affect the game in the coming days.

July 18 marked DayZDB's first full month open to the public, and that's something worth celebrating! Thanks to all of you, it's been a tremendously successful month, and we want to give back to the people that have made it possible. We're giving away 10 Steam Wallet codes worth $20 USD each! (What's Steam Wallet?)

It's easy to enter: all you have to do is either upload a screenshot that gets approved, or make a useful edit to a database page. Each approved screenshot and accepted edit gives you another chance to win, so keep contributing to give yourself a better shot! The giveaway will end at 12PM PST on Monday, July 30, so get your entries in soon!

Submitting Screenshots

Submitting screenshots is very simple; all you need to do is log in, go to "Submit a screenshot" in the contribute section of the relevant database page, find your screenshot, and click upload! To increase your chances of having a screenshot accepted, try to resize or crop your screenshot to remove unimportant parts. The more screenshots a page has, the pickier we are about accepting new ones, so try to find pages that don't have any yet!

Editing Database Pages

Editing database pages is easy too: just click the edit button in the top right corner of the page. Be careful though, we're even pickier about our articles than with our screenshots! Any edits you make need to add something useful to the article.

For example, if all you do is fix a typo, that might not be enough. However, if you proofread it and make several corrections that improve the overall quality, that definitely counts. Best of all is adding new information that we're missing - but don't just copy and paste from somewhere else!

To make sure you know what we're looking for, we've put together a style guide to help you contribute to our articles. We've also added a way to see which edits have been accepted for a giveaway entry. On the edit page, there's a revisions tab that shows all of the changes that have been made. If your change has a ✓ by it, it counts! Be patient though, because we're reviewing all of these changes manually.

We've had a great first month, and even though we're a couple days late, help us make sure the coming months are even better!

What better way to start the week than with a fresh set of updates? In the launch announcement, I outlined a couple big features that I was going to be working on, and the first of them is already available. Here's a list of what's changed since launching the full site:

• Map marker tweaks to make them more distinct and easier to recognize, while keeping the prettier look.
• Loot search! One of the most requested features since the map went up is now available. Just start typing the item you want to find in the search box on the map sidebar, and it'll help you find what you're looking for.
• Linking your item searches. Just like you can copy the map URL to show friends where you're looking on the map, now you can copy it to show the item spawn you want too.
• Items in the map loot lists now link to their respective database pages. Just click a marker, and then the item you want to find more information about!
• Database pages have a link back to the map showing where that item can spawn. It's in the Quick Facts box!
• Database comments now sort by a weighted score. This just means that the higher rated a comment is, the closer to the top of the comments.

Adding your own content

Part of what makes a site like this shine is the ability for everyone to add their own little touches. You can do that by writing comments on database pages, rating other comments, and submitting screenshots. Rating comments is especially easy, and helps to make it easier for the rest of the community to find relevant and helpful information.

All you need is an account, and they're very easy to create. If you have a Wowhead or ZAM account, you can log in with that right away. Otherwise, you can create an account by either signing up with an email and password, or you can use your Google account and skip passwords entirely.

Stuff is missing!

If you're looking for 1.7.2 data, don't get too excited - there's not many changes that would be reflected here. In fact, the loot tables didn't change at all, which seems strange with the addition of bear traps. I'm looking into whether the way they worked changed, but for now, the data on the site is the most current I have.

There's a bunch of newly added articles that don't have anything in them. All of the equipment pages were added today so that the links from the map went to a real page. You can post comments and screenshots, and actual articles should be coming soon.

Still to come

The next big thing coming will be improved markers. This includes more accurate vehicle and fuel pump markers, adding in missing markers that some of you have sent in, as well as allowing you to make and share your own sets of markers. That last one's a big one, and something a ton of people have been asking for since the map went live. I can't wait to make it happen for all of you.

Welcome to DayZDB! Three weeks ago, I released a map that I had tried very hard to make the best. The feedback since then has been overwhelmingly positive, and the map has been a huge success.

Since that first release, there have been a few changes made.

• I added a first pass of vehicle and fuel pump data, and have gotten lots of feedback on both; more updates on that will be coming soon.
• The map was updated to use the in-game coordinates, helping you to find where you are and communicate that to other people more effectively.
• The sidebar was completely revamped to take up less space and look much cleaner. Additionally, a button to toggle the sidebar was added after several people requested that option.

What's new today

Today, the update dwarfs all of that. First off, DayZDB is starting to live up to its name. Right now, we have entries for every weapon currently in DayZ with some precise data for each of them. Want to see how much damage your gun does? How far away zombies can hear it? Which magazines it can use? That's all there.

Some of the database pages have more: articles with tips and more information about the weapons. Soon, every page will have an article, and we'll also have pages for other equipment and more assorted topics as well.

Every database page also lets you add your own comments and screenshots. So, if we're missing something, you can add it yourself for everyone else to see right away.

All you need is an account, and they're very easy to create. If you have a Wowhead or ZAM account, you can log in with that right away. Otherwise, you can create an account by either signing up with an email and password, or you can use your Google account and skip passwords entirely.

As part of adding the database, the whole site got a brand new design courtesy of Lilith over at Wowhead. She's also created a new set of icons for the map, making it all look much better.

Where we go from here

Now that we have both a fantastic map and a growing database, the obvious next step is to tie them together. I'll be adding ways to highlight various information on the map, as well as linking back to the database from the map, such as in the loot lists.

One of the most requested features has been the ability for you to make your own markers and share them with friends. That's going to be coming soon, too. I won't be forgetting that the map is what brought most of you here; there's still a long list of improvements I'll be making.

These first three weeks have been awesome, and I hope that you all enjoy this release as much as I've enjoyed working on it. There's a massive amount of potential to make a fantastic resource for the entire DayZ community here, and I invite you all to join in on making it better every day.