Look, Dean "Rocket" Hall. We love DayZ. We appreciate the mod, and think it's pretty great. You really didn't have to go through all this trouble of making the standalone product so darn awesome. The fact that you've been completely remaking the zombie survival shooter from the ground up is completely unnecessary. Oh, you went ahead and did it anyway? Well, you're just the best.
In a post on the DayZ development blog, Hall details why his little project has been taking slightly longer than he had expected. Of course, it's because "there is virtually nothing that has been directly ported from the mod, everything has been redone." That includes a bunch of new areas, customization options for your characters, and even an MMO-style server system. Fear not, however, as you'll also be able to use your own private servers. He's thought of everything!
This all comes on the heels of developer Ivan Buchta's return from Greek prison, meaning that not only is he home (thank goodness), he's also able to help out the team with their much more ambitious project. Read all about the rest of the details right here. There are some pretty screenshots to look at, too.