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The delayed 1.7.2 update has finally been released, but there have been some problems. "Good news and bad news," reads the official DayZ development Twitter feed . "Bad: 1.7.2 can cause equipment loss and loading problems. Good: client/server performance and lag greately improved."

Meanwhile, the mod's popularity has gone nuclear, with over 420,000 people now playing it. "Currently we're running 22,000 concurrent at full peak, and 10,000 off peak, which is pretty huge numbers considering the original data structure and system was designed to handle 100 concurrents, and two servers," revealed Rocket at his Rezzed developer session . "We now have 1000 servers. We're getting 110,000 players in a 24 hour period at the moment."

Here are some of the most significant tweaks, fixes, and features in the 1.7.2 update. You can read the full, unabridged changelog here .

[FIXED] Infected hear perfectly through objects (noise reduced by 50% through an object)

[FIXED] Corrupted update data causes people to spawn in debug forest (now will not save corrupted position data)

[FIXED] Object cleanup causing significant (huge) performance issue on servers (reduced by up to 50%, means more players + zombies possible)

[NEW] Visibility now smoothly alters based on sun, moon, cloud, rain, and fog state

[NEW] Player Syncing system replaced (increased performance and ammo quantity tracking)

[NEW] Set Bear Traps that break player and infected legs, kills animals, when activated

[NEW] Aubility now dampened in rain and increased by fog

In the community

Rocket has revealed how he may one day like DayZ to become a standalone game. This would certainly make it much more accessible, especially if it used a free to play model. Not everyone is convinced, though. On Reddit , TelstarGlitch says: "This would be the wrong way to go. F2P games require some kind of grind or incentive to spend money to get 'perks'. DayZ will not thrive in this environment. Charge $100 if you want, but please don't put a subscription fee or F2P scheme into the game."

On the official forums, DayZ staff member Ander has revealed that, of all living players, the average number of zombies killed is 23. "People are bad at killing zombies," he jokes. "Or good at avoiding them." Speaking of stats, the average player lifespan is now 37 minutes. It's been rising steadily over the last few months. Over 100,000,000 zombies have been killed in total, and players have, between them, played the game for a staggering 440 years . Check the official stats thread for more updates.

Elsewhere on Reddit, a special subreddit has been set up called the Reddit Rescue Force . "Sometimes when you are trying to survive in Chernarus you need a helping hand." reads the description alongside posts from stranded or injured survivors: "TWO PEOPLE both with BROKEN LEGS in DOLINA WAREHOUSE!" , "Broken leg and low blood in the market of Zelenogorsk!" , "In need of morphine in Dolina!" It's always nice to be reminded that not everyone in DayZ is a ruthless bastard.

Videos of the week

The pilot episode of DayZ Mythbusters – by PsiSyndicate

A survivor puts his friend out of his misery – by dwootoon

A crazed axe murderer goes on a rampage – by TGxRyxxx

A motorbike repair goes wrong – by PapaLuigi121